Month: July 2016 (Page 2 of 4)

The PopCulteer
JuLY 22, 2016

It’s been a rough summer. The news has been depressing, if not disgusting. The upcoming presidential campaign looks to be one of the ugliest in history. Stakes are high and nerves are frayed. The weather has been brutal and society seems to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

Add to that my personal issues, dealing with my recent diagnosis of Myasthenia Gravis while re-launching an internet radio station and working on several personal projects, and I fear that I have neglected this blog. I do manage to post at least one item every day, but there is so much going on in the world of pop culture that I feel I’ve fallen behind on my coverage. Particularly, I have not kept up my duties delivering regular entries of The PopCult Toybox or The PopCult Bookshelf.

So today I’m going to try to play catch-up and bring you a whole bunch of pure pop-culture news items, all in one long post.

San Diego Comic Con International

It’s that time of the year when all the cool (and some not-so-cool) genre media producers flock to San Diego for a gigantic orgy of hype and promotion, and to be honest…it’s sort of useless for me to try and cover it from here in Charleston. There are dozens of websites actually on-site with teams of reporters who can cover all the details about what movie, comics, TV show, toys, games, consumer products and books will be heading your way in the future.

Even if I were out there, it’d take me weeks to sort through what I’d seen. I’m still sitting on tons of photos and video from Toy Fair in February and JoeLanta in March that I haven’t been able to edit yet. This is one event that I’m perfectly content to witness from the sidelines. One of my main sources is Comic Book Resources. Rather than attempt to re-report what I’m reading there, I’ll just suggest that you check them out.

The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl

The one Beatles album that never quite officially made it onto CD will finally be released in September to promote Ron Howard’s documentary on the Beatles’ live performances. A newly remixed and remastered version of The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl will arrive on September 9 and will include four songs that were omitted from the original vinyl release in 1977.

Remixed and remastered by Giles Martin (son of George Martin, and the man behind the remixed songs on The Beatles Love album), this project will use the original first-generation recordings (done on three tracks!) and combine the superior source recordings with the latest sound-isolation technology and Martin’s remixing expertise to give us what will likely be a bit of a sonic revelation in terms of audio fidelity.

More details, including a full breakdown of tracks and when they were recorded, can be found at Uncut.

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Today at 3 PM tune in to The AIR for four half-hour music specialty shows. Or you can just listen in on this swank little radio player…

Our afternoon music block today consists of Beatles Blast, Psychedelic Shack, Ska Madness and The Punk Club. Details are below…

BEATLES BLAST at 3 PM is hosted by your PopCulteer, and presents a half-hour of Beatles and Beatle-related music each week. This week we focus on “Angry Beatles” and our playlist is filled with Beatles and solo tunes that reflect the more cantankerous side of the Fab Four, plus a cover a song written by a miffed McCartney, as recorded by Bryan Ferry.

This week’s playlist:
The Beatles  “Helter Skelter”
Paul McCartney  “Angry”
John Lennon “How Do You Sleep”
George Harrison  “Brainwashed”
Ringo Starr  “Wrack My Brain”
Bryan Ferry  “You Won’t See Me”
The Beatles  “Taxman”

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As always, there is a ton of STUFF TO DO here in Charleston. There is indeed so much stuff that we had trouble fitting it all into our handy little audio guide, which you can hear on The AIR, or you can listen to right on this nifty little link thingy HERE. Your PopCulteer and Mel Larch tell you all about all kinds of stuff, and we sample the music of Kevin Scarbrough, TriElement and Ona, all of whom are playing in Charleston this weekend.

The big story this week is ArtWalk in Downtown Charleston, which happens Thursday from 5 PM to 8 PM. Mel and I tell you all about it and also give you the scoop on other goings-on around town.  You’ll find out more about these and other shows in the graphics below. Pay attention. Some of these came to our attention after we recorded this week’s show.

One major event that we didn’t learn about in time to include it in our audio show is the Restore HHHS Music Program Benefit Piano Concert. This happens Thursday, July 21 at the
John W. Davis Fine Arts Building on the campus of West Virginia State University in Institute,

This special program is to raise money and equipment donations for the Herbert Hoover High School Band and Choral music programs. You can donate dusty old instrument that you never play anymore or donate financially if able. Folks are also invited to come join in the fellowship of beautiful music in spirit with the Clendenin, WV community and Herbert Hoover High School.

Some needed items are instruments (sousaphone/marching and concert percussion especially), music stands, sheet music (band or choral), risers, amps, sound system, drum set, pledges for uniform sponsorship or financial donation, and anything else a high school music program would possibly need to function appropriately.

The program will include:
Beethoven “Tempest” Sonata op. 31, no. 2
Chopin “Octaves” Etude op. 25, no. 10
Debussy Prelude “La cathedrale engloutie”
Debussy Prelude in a minor (from “Pour le piano”)
Tchaikovsky Doumka
Rachmaninov Prelude in g minor op. 23, no. 5
and more from others.

For more information call (304) 881- 5071 or e-mail at kwmorrison@outlook.com.

Now let’s go to the graphics. Remember, this is just a sample. There’s always STUFFTO DO!

THURSDAY

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It’s time for another Wednesday filled with great programming on The AIR. Listen at the website or on this swell little radio widget…

New programs today include a brand new edition of On The Road With Mel at 1 PM.  This week, it’s a two-topic show. In the first half, Mel Larch tells you all about how to pack for a trip. The second half is a handy guide to the best ways to get out of Charleston.

With thirty minutes packed full of great basic travel information, this week’s On The Road With Mel is a can’t miss proposition.

At 1:30 PM, it’s time for this week’s all new STUFF TO DO.  Your hosts Rudy Panucci and Mel Larch tell you all about the weekend’s activities including ArtWalk, the late night bar scene, outdoor shows, and more.  This week, you’ll also hear music from Kevin Scarbrough, TriElement, and Ona. STUFF TO DO repeats at 6:30 PM and will be posted in PopCult Thursday.

At 2 PM, The Best of The Real With Mark Wolfe brings you an hour of terrific conversation with Lynne Sandy, the lead singer for Charleston’s legendary New Wave band, The Defectors. A second new edition of The Best of The Real With Mark Wolfe airs at 8 PM and features Mark’s interview with cult radio personality Jerry Glavin.

At 3 PM, there’s a brand new episode of Curtain Call, hosted once again by Mel Larch.  This week, Mel brings you showtunes from The Visit, Big Fish, The Light Princess, Hair, and more.

Fans of British comedy will want to tune in at 6 PM for a classic edition of The Goon Show and at 11 PM for a special episode of The Comedy Vault dedicated entirely to the late Monty Python member, Graham Chapman.

Between these shows, stay tuned for terrific indy music and encores of our other regular programs. And Thanks to Mitch O’Connell for today’s graphic.

Our bold experiment in internet radio, The AIR, is experiencing a bit of a hiccup today and is not currently broadcasting. We hope to have things up and running as soon as possible. Please bear with us as we regain our footing as we venture forth to explore the brave new world of the future of radio.

UPDATE 9:20 AM: Just like that, we are up and running once again. However, most of our programming today will be replays of recent shows. We will be back with ALL NEW programming tomorrow. Until then, enjoy catching up with Radio Free Charleston, Radio Coolsville and our other great shows all day today in the little widget below…

Sometimes when making art you come up with a title for a piece that does all the explaining that you need. This digital painting would be an example of that. Click to enlarge.

Here’s a little something to get you in the mood for a mid-summer cookout.

This week we’re going way the heck back to August 2006, for our third episode, “Mother Nang Shirt,” which was named after a shirt featuring the then-disbanded, since-reunited legendary band. RFC 3 was restored and remastered back in 2012. This early edition of RFC features a solo performance by Eduardo Canelon, of Duo Divertido and Comparsa fame, plus a vintage video from Charleston legends, Three Bodies.

Also in this show, is the first installment of “Pentagram Flowerbox” by Third Mind Incarnation and the short film, “The Alien Threat” by Frank Panucci.

The third episode of Radio Free Charleston is a bit of a departure show for us. This is the only show where the host segments were shot against a green screen, It was our first to feature a pre-made music video, and this remastered edition includes the first chapter of “Pentagram Flowerbox,” once a recurring RFC cartoon by Third Mind Incarnation about Satan living in a trailer park that ran off-and-on in the first year of Radio Free Charleston.

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The PopCulteer
JuLY 15, 2016

This week finds your PopCulteer neck-deep in deadlines. Things are plugging along wonderfully with The AIR, the internet radio station I’m co-running, but I have a writing commitment that needs to be finished by the end of the day Friday and other paying gigs that need attention, so today, rather than leave my readers hanging–I’ve gone more than thousand days with at least one post here in PopCult, you know–I will present ten random images, culled quickly from my various hard drives, that have nothing really much to do with one another (well, some might).

You see, a picture is worth a thousand words, so basically, this is like me cranking out a ten-thousand-word PopCulteer. You are welcome.

After the photos I’ll tell you all about this weekend’s programming on The AIR.

Our first picture is the logo for Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, which has a new episode premiering at 3 PM Friday on The AIR. The Playlist for this week’s show appears at the bottom of this post, below the jump.

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We have a bunch of new shows starting today on The AIR, plus we have some notable encores and (with any luck) a live broadcast of Matthew Francis Anderson tonight from The Empty Glass. You can tune in at The AIR website, or just give a listen to this swell little embedded radio…

Today at 3 PM our afternoon block of music programming is completed with the premiere of four new half-hour programs.

At 3 PM it’s time for BEATLES BLAST.  For 30 minutes your loyal PopCulteer brings you music by, related to, and about the greatest rock band in the history of music. Licensing regulations that just went into effect earlier this year prevent us from playing more than a couple of Beatle songs each week, but we are able to bring you songs by the Beatles’ solo careers, along with covers of Beatle songs and in the coming weeks we’ll even bring you songs about the Fab Four.

This week we open with “Hello Goodbye” by the Beatles, and then launch into solo tracks by John, Paul, George and Ringo, and close out the show with Cheap Trick’s version of “Magical Mystery Tour” and the Beatles own version of “Within You, Without You.”

BEATLES BLAST can be heard every Thursday at 3 PM, with replays Friday morning at 8:30 and also other times the following week.

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