Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Month: January 2017 (Page 2 of 4)

New Music from The Company Stores and More on Radio Free Charleston

rfc-1-23It’s Tuesday and that means a new episode of Radio Free Charleston  on The AIR! Tune in at the website, or on this handy embedded radio player…

At 10 AM and 10 PM Radio Free Charleston brings the local music to you with a show that includes new music from The Company Stores, Ann Magnuson, Deni Bonet and Payback’s A Bitch, plus classic local tracks from Stark Raven, The Defectors, Qiet and The Amazing Delores.

There’s so much great local music in RFC this week that you might as well check out the playlist:

The Company Stores  “So Good”
Todd Burge  “Time To Waste Time”
The Defectors  “Hesitation”
Radarhill and Nick Weckman  “Hope-The Burning”
M with Chuck Biel  “Fools Line Up”
Farnsworth  “Roll Me Up”
Payback’s a Bitch  “I Walk The Line”
Superfetch  “Simple Mathematics”
Ann Magnuson  “Cobras In Love”
Deni Bonet  “Nuages”
Hybrid Soul Project “Just Friends”
Qiet “Mayfly Man”
Stark Raven  “Irrational People”
The Amazing Delores  “Love Magic”

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM, Thursday at 5 PM, Saturday at 10 AM and Midnight and Sunday at 9 PM, exclusively on The AIR.

Monday Morning Art: Misdirection

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We kick off this week with a piece of art devoted to the art of misdirection. Misdirection is, of course, the act of showing people one thing, but making them think that they’re seeing something else by using a diversionary technique or tactic.

For instance, there is well-done misdirection. Let’s say that a talented magician, either on stage or at a table, is able to show you cards and make you think that you are seeing them turn up in a way that should be impossible. Or maybe he’s pulling coins out of mid-air, or a rabbit out of a hat. When misdirection is well-done, it most definitely is an art.

There is also sloppy, poorly-done misdirection. Perhaps in the hands of an untalented magician, you can see the attempts at misdirection coming a mile away and they fail miserably. You also see this when a very teeny, ham-handed press secretary tries, hypothetically, to insist that the attendance at a hypothetical inauguration was “the biggest in history,” when it is easily demonstrable to all but the most willingly gullible spectator that said inauguration was the least-attended in modern history.

I’m hoping that my attempt at misdirection is more successful than that this week. I hope that you look at the image above (click to enlarge) and see a colorful, slightly geometric, abstract painting that employs a number of different painterly techniques. If I have failed, then it will be immediately obvious that what you’re looking at is actually the nasty underside of the rusted-out steel sink that I replaced last week.

sink-original

Sunday Evening Video: The Company Stores

atlantaAbove you see the new music video, “So Good” from the upcoming second album by one of Charleston’s most exciting and creative bands, The Company Stores. This is the lead track off of the “Little Lights” album, and your PopCulteer is embarrassed to note that, until today, he was unaware of a Kickstarter campaign that was underway to help finance the completion and promotion of this album.

That campaign ends Sunday evening,  just a few hours after this post goes live. They have already met their goal, but you can still get in on the action and score an advance copy of the CD, with other cool perks available, if you ACT NOW!

“So Good” was directed by Tyce Hoskins and produced by Austin Hein Productions. The video was filmed at the currently dormant Blossom Dairy, which was the perfect location for this particular shoot.  As I mentioned, The Company Stores are one of Charleston’s top musical acts, and any music lover or supporter of the local scene will want to get in on this action. Check the additoanl video and widget below for more information.

Ten Years of RFC Flashback: Episode 32

montage32small-e1417270991240Above you see “West Virginia Shirt,” our Christmas, 2007 episode. This show features Mountain Laurel Ensemble, 69 Fingers, The Android Family and animation by Brian Young and Rudy Panucci.  It’s hosted from Stately Radio Free Charleston Manor and it’s part of the Christmas that almost wasn’t. This show was remastered and returned to public view in 2014, after a six-year absence.

Your loyal host and blogger got really sick while editing this show, and never quite got around to writing any production notes. I shot the host segments myself while putting up my Christmas tree later than I ever had before. It was a ridiculously busy time and exhaustion and a sinus infection caught up with me. In fact, that year I was so sick over the holidays that I went eight days without posting to PopCult, my longest gap ever.

If I can recall correctly, I recorded Mountain Laurel Ensemble at St. Matthews Episcopal Church in South Hills. It was a solo shoot using tripods because they rehearsed in the daytime while camera two was at work. 69 Fingers was recorded the previous summer at the La Belle Theater in South Charleston.

This show also includes The Android Family Christmas Special, the magnum opus of our favorite family of psychotic robots. To date, this is the most recent installment of The Android Family, but I’m looking to change that when we bring Radio Free Charleston out of the video show mothballs. Our animation is a collaboration between yours truly and Brian Young, and depicts the life of Christmas trees.

That Sinking Feeling

sink-pc001The PopCulteer
January 20
, 2017

Regular PopCult readers probably remember that, about nine months ago, your humble correspondent was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, an auto-immune disorder that affects how my muscles respond to nerve signals. While this is usually a serious disorder, my case has been atypically mild. I don’t believe I’m in remission yet (I’ll be tested next month to see), but I’ve recovered enough of the use of my fingers to tackle a home improvement project, and that’s what we’re talking about today.

Last weekend, I replaced my bathroom sink.

I own the house I grew up in, and so I pretty much know the history of when repairs and remodelings were done. This particular bathroom sink, made of steel, was installed around 1975, and it really should have been replaced five years ago. It was a mess. The enamal was flaking off inside the bowl, but more importantly, rust had eaten away underneath, and it leaked badly.

It leaked so badly that I had to remove the floor of the vanity cabinet underneath, due to extreme water damage and the beginning of a mold problem. I’ll tell you more about that in a bit.

It had been years since I’d tackled a project like this because for years my hands didn’t work. I’d adapted my typing style to adjust to my hands being mostly paralyzed, but I wasn’t able to do that when it came to using tools. Now I can, once again, so there there was no excuse to put this much-needed home repair off any longer.

The sink was an under-mount, held in place by a series of clips. I shut off the water and disconnected the feed lines to the faucet. I planned on re-using the faucet, which was only about a dozen years old, because it was a rock-solid Delta and still worked perfectly.

I then went under the sink and unhooked the trap. I took a look at the drain coming out of the sink, and thought I’d have trouble removing it because it was large and rusted in place. The rust was a major issue. Every time I tapped the sink with a wrench while disconnecting the feed lines, a shower of rust came down. When I reached up to assess how difficult it was going to be to remove the drain…it came off in my hands. Apparently the sink had been held together with hair and rust for some time. All that was left to do was to remove the bowl and the first part of the job was complete.

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It’s All Relative on Radio Free Charleston International

rfci-1-19Radio Free Charleston International comes full circle this week on The AIR.

You can hear RFC International, the show where your PopCulteer, Rudy Panucci, gets to play whatever music he wants, Thursday at 3 PM at The AIR website, or right here, on the embedded player…

In a special show that took way too much time to program, your humble host and PopCulteer brings you two hours of music where every song has something to do with the song that comes after it. Your challenge is to figure out just exactly what that is. It might be that the two songs are written by the same person, or share a producer, or a member of one band produced the song by another. It might be a tenuous connection, like both musical artists appearing on the same television show, or it might be a rock-solid tie, like two groups that share members.

Some of the songs you’ll hear in Radio Free Charleston International this week are by cutting-edge underground artists, some of them are from ultra-hip cult artists, while other tunes are by high-profile artists and may have been major hit records. But every song has something in common with the next.

At the end of the show, you get to hear me come in and ad-lib a six-minute explanation, in one take, of how each song ties into the next.

If you want to get a head start on trying to figure it out first, here’s the playlist:

Nu Tra  “Superhuman”
The Aquabats  “The Controller”
Oingo Boingo  “Change”
Strawberry Alarm Clock  “Dear Joy”
Surf Punks  “Welcome To California”
Size 14  “Superbabe 2000”
Pink Floyd  “In The Flesh”
Paul McCartney  “On The Way”
The The  “This Is The Day”
Rip Rig and Panic  “Sunken Love”
Madness  “The Liberty of Norton Folgate”
Suggs  “I’m Only Sleeping”
Alice Cooper  “Eleanor Rigby”
Hollywood Vampires  “Come and Get It”
Badfinger “Baby Blue”
Todd Rundgren  “Terra Firma”
XTC  “Dear God”
Shriekback  “Nemesis”
The Veils “Lavina”
Julie Cruse  “Falling”
Sparks “I Predict”
FFS  “Johnny Delusional”
Franz Ferdniand  “Take Me Out”
The Cardigans and Tom Jones  “Burning Down The House”
The Firm  “Satisfaction Guaranteed”
DEVO “Communication Break Up”

You can hear Radio Free Charleston International Thursday at 3 PM, Friday at 7 AM and 10 PM, Saturday at 11 AM, Sunday at 1 AM and Tuesday at 11 PM. That’s plenty of chances for you to catch this week’s show, which would be nice, because I could have put together five shows in the amount of time it took me to do this one. .

It’s About Time On Life Speaks on The AIR

zirk-logo-1-11Today at 1:30 PM and 7 PM you can hear a new episode of Life Speaks with Michele Zirkle Marcum on The AIR website, or on this embedded radio player…

This week Michele talks about time and how we perceive it. She looks at fantasies of time travel and how best to manage our time in this world. It’s a good way to spend your time and contemplate your future. Find out how Life Speaks to you as time goes by.

Life Speaks with Michele Zirkle Marcum can be heard every Wednesday at 1:30 PM and 7 PM on The AIR, with replays Friday morning, Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon. You can also listen to archived episodes at her website.

Also on Michele’s website, you’ll find information about her first novel, Rain No Evil, based on her real-life experiences with supernatural phenomena. Rain No Evil been described by Bram Stoker award winning author Michael Knost as, “Wickedly funny, yet profoundly sincere and thought provoking.”

Elsewhere on The AIR’s schedule today: At 1 PM Mel Larch talks about our National Parks on On The Road with Mel; Mark Wolfe talks to Chase Henderson on The Best of the Real with Mark Wolfe at 2 PM; at 3 PM Mel Larch is back with two hours of the best of musical theater on Curtain Call; At 5 PM our indie music showcase spends and hour with DEVO, followed by a hour of The Pixies; Word Association with Lee & Rudy looks at M*A*S*H at 7:30 PM; 8 PM sees two hours of Prognosis, progressive rock presented by Herman Linte; at 10 PM we get two hours of The Comedy Vault; finally, at midnight, we present a seven-hour marathon of Curtain Call, hosted by Mel Larch.

 

 

Deni Bonet, HARRAH, Embracer and More on Radio Free Charleston!

rfc-logo-01-17-17It’s Tuesday and that means a new episode of Radio Free Charleston  on The AIR! Tune in at the website, or on this handy embedded radio player…

At 10 AM and 10 PM Radio Free Charleston brings the local music to you with a show that includes new music from Deni Bonet, Embracer and HARRAH and fantastic music from the RFC Archives from Karma To Burn, The Defectors, Miniature Giant and more.

Don’t forget that you can listen to The AIR at 3 PM for two hours of hot Swing Music on The Swing Shift every Tuesday. Plus you can hear all kinds of unique music and special programming all day long.

The RFC Playlist for this week:

HARRAH  “Man Alive”
Deni Bonet  “Frankenstein”
Miniature Giant “Wendigo”
John Lancaster  “Phantom Moon”
Karma To Burn  “Waltz of the Playboy Pallbearers”
Embracer  “Below”
Mother Nang  “Ride”
The Defectors  “Easy Target”
David Synn  “Battle of Annihilation”
Foz Rotten  “Funklips”
South Park Enterprise  “Next Level”
Decomposing in Paris  “Personal Ad”
Sankebox  “Dead Planet”
Watt 4 “Bad Situation”

Monday Morning Art: Crime Scene Photo

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This week instead of a digital painting or a cool abstract, your PopCulteer has chosen to bring you a shocking crime-scene photo. I was in the right place at the right time and snapped this shot of the horrible random violence on my cell phone. I apologize for the brutality of it, but sometimes the truth is brutal and this is an ugly part of society that has to be exposed.

When, oh when, will we see an end to Plush-on-Plush violence?

I am saddened beyond belief. Click to see the image larger, if you have no soul.

Sunday Evening Videos: Music for Mikki

17396192_1484248749-3968The Charleston Music Scene lost a matriarch last week when Mikki Harrah passed away after nearly a month in intensive care following a stroke. Hundreds of people know Mikki as the mother Lee Harrah and JoeLene Harrah Weaver. She was a presence at her son’s shows, and at Adamfest, the series of benefit concerts staged to help raise funds for her grandson, Adam Weaver, who battled cancer beginning in his teens.

Anyone who knew Mikki knows that she loved early rock and roll, and today we’re paying tribute to this fallen lady with the music of some of her favorite artists. Above you see Buddy Holly. Below you’ll find a full concert by Rick Nelson and a collection of other performances by rock and roll greats.

Mikki was one-in-a-million, a woman who passionately loved her family, 1950’s rock and roll, dancing and her Chiricahua Apache – Irish heritage. Everyone who met Mikki was touched by her strong personality, her unique voice and style and they will carry her memory with them for the rest of their lives.

An Artist at heart, Mikki was a proud 1959 graduate of Stonewall High School, who touched many lives in her 20 years of service with the Charleston Parking System, and her work at Guardsmark Security.

Mikki is survived by her children whom she was dedicated to and very proud of, JoeLene Harrah Weaver, a dispatcher for Metro 911 and acclaimed photographer for local musicians, and Joseph Lee Harrah Jr., a prominent singer with Charleston bands HARRAH and Bad Blood, and radio personality on internet radio. Many PopCult readers know Lee, not only as a singer, but also as a production assistant on Radio Free Charleston and as my co-host of Word Association with Lee & Rudy and the solo host of Harrah’s Hard & Heavy on The AIR.

In addition to her daughter and son, Mikki is survived by her grandchildren, for whom she lived, Adam Timothy Weaver and wife, Mandy, and TaBetha JoeLe Awaldt, and husband, Ryan; as well as her pride and joy, her great-grandchildren, MyLee Joe Harrah, Cara Jalene Weaver and Tyler Wade Grindstaff; and her two brothers, Pat B. Tucker and David L. Tucker along with a wealth of nieces and nephews.

Family and friends may call at Bollinger’s Funeral Home, Lee St., W., Charleston, between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., Tuesday, January 17, 2017. Memorial service will begin at 7 p.m. Please join us in celebrating this amazing woman and her life.

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