Month: April 2019 (Page 3 of 4)

Mel Larch presents a salute to the compositional prowess of Andrew Lloyd Weber Wednesday afternoon on The AIR,  A new episode of Curtain Call is a special “mixtape” show featuring his music. You can listen at the website, or on this embedded radio player…

At 3 PM Mel Larch presents a new hour of great musical theater on Curtain Call.  This week Mel devotes the entire hour to the music of Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber. Weber is one of the most successful musical theater composers in history, but he is the composer, and not the lyricist. In this program, Mel shines the spotlight on the music, sans words. You will hear overtures, entracts and orchestral interludes from many of Weber’s most famous shows, and a few pieces from his lesser-known works.

Also included are two performances of his “Variations,” one featuring the progressive rock band, Colosseum. The hour is presented as a seamless collection of music, with no interruptions, save for the Curtain Call ID.

After the new hour of Curtain Call, stick around for two additional episodes from the Curtain Call archives. Curtain Call can be heard Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 7 AM and 8 PM and Saturday at 6 PM. An all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

The PopCulteer
April 10, 2019

I know it may seem odd for my regular readers to see The PopCulteer header on a Wednesday, but it’s a special day.

Ten years ago today, in what was originally just an attempt to inject some discipline into my writing habits, I began a new regular feature here in PopCult (which began in August, 2005, for those of you scoring at home).  Because I didn’t want to fall into the typical blogger rut of only posting one or fewer items each week,  Early on I started adding regular posts to my schedule. I didn’t want PopCult to whither and die with a whimper like so many other blogs have done.

Monday Morning Art was easy, and was the first regular feature, added on the first anniversary of PopCult. Later I added Sunday Evening Video, just to make sure there was something posted over the weekend. Radio Free Charleston video notes made regular appearances too. It wasn’t until I was free of my caregiver duties that I decided to try to post at least one item every day. I’ve been plucking away at that, with just a couple of missed days, since August, 2013.

Before that happened,  I started The PopCulteer. The name was a tribute to Charleston Gazette legend, Jim Dent, and his weekly “Gazetteer” column, which ran in the paper every Friday for about thirty years. The rules I laid down for myself were loose and simple: Each week I would post SOMETHING of some kind of substance. It could be a lengthy essay; a photo essay; lots of small items; news on what was happening in town; book, music or toy reviews; or even video. The idea was that every week there’d be something new for my loyal readers to take in. If you go back in the archives, there were some weeks where PopCult only had one or two posts. I didn’t like the way that looked, so this was an attempt to beef things up a bit.

The first edition of The PopCulteer kicked off with a lengthy, snarky essay about our state legislature, and their proclivity toward trading their votes for junk food. You can read it here. The shame of this story is that, not only did these folks not all get booted out of office, some of them have moved on to higher offices, and this incident was simply a harbinger for how West Virginia would operate under Koch Brother-funded rule. We’re still paying the price for having cheaply-bought politicians.

Beginning The PopCulteer certainly worked in terms of honing my writing skills. In ten years, I have only missed one column, and that was due to illness. Two other columns were taken down after an insane millionaire threatened to sue me and the Gazette for telling the truth about a fraudulent scheme of his that I exposed. We never retracted or apologized for telling the truth, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a battle over which it was worth losing my house to pay the legal fees, so we deleted two PopCulteers. I think those posts lived on at the Wayback Machine until a couple of months ago.

But aside from that, I’ve put together over five hundred PopCulteers.  If you are excrutiatingly bored you can scroll down to the archives and read them all. They usually show up on Fridays.

I’ll still be here, cranking out the PopCult, with fresh content every day. Thanks for reading!

Oh, in case anyone’s wondering, I still haven’t eaten at Tudor’s Biscuit World since before the first PopCulteer. While I’d like to credit that to my strong personal integrity, the fact that I think their food isn’t very good makes for an easy boycott.

It’s another new-show Tuesday on The AIR as we deliver new episodes of Radio Free Charleston and The Swing Shift to our loyal listeners. You can see what all cool kids are doing. Just tune in at the website, or on this embedded radio player…

It all kicks off at 10 AM (with a replay at 10 PM– all times EDT) with a brand-new edition of Radio Free Charleston. Now in its thirtieth year, RFC continues to bring you more local music than any other source.

This week we begin with a track from the brand-new album by Beggars Clan. Their self-titled debut album is available from all digital platforms.  We also have new music from Beneath and William Matheny, and we continue our deep dive into the RFC Archives with music from The Scrap Iron Pickers, Feast of Stephen and Rasta Rafiki.

Check out the playlist here:

RFCv4104

Beggars Clan “Beautiful World”
Poor Man’s Gravy “For The Hell Of It”
William Matheny “Moon Over Kenova (live)”
Mark Beckner “Sweet Addiction”
Beneath “The Shining Truth”
The Science Fair Explosion “The Plan”
The Company Stores “Optimistic”
The Scrap Iron Pickers “Junkyard Jesus”
Feast of Stephen “Mystery Hole”
Rasta Rafiki “Never Go Away Again”

Following the 10 AM debut of this episode, you can stick around and listen to three previously-aired shows, for a four-hour local music fix.

Radio Free Charleston can be heard Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM, with replays Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 8 PM, Saturday at 11 AM and Midnight and Sunday at 1 PM, exclusively on The AIR.

At 2 PM on Psychedelic Shack Nigel Pye presents an encore epkisode, but will return with a new show next week. He said something about needing his shaktra realigned.

Psychedelic Shack can be heard Tuesday’s at 2 PM, with replays Wednesday at 11 AM, Thursday at 5 PM and Saturday at 7 AM and the next Tuesday at 9 AM.

At 3 PM your PopCulteer returns to host yet another new hour of The Swing Shift as we continue to bring you the best Swing Music of the last century. This week we open up with The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and a another new tune from the new album by Jack’s Cats (which you can download HERE). In a voice-conserving move for yours truly, the last half of the show presents two legendary extended Swing compositions. Hit up the playlist…

The Swing Shift 067

The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra “Tee Pee Time”
Jack’s Cats “The Cricket”
Echoes of Swing “The Fiji Hula Bula”
Megan and her Goody Goodies “Buddy Bolden’s Blues”
Lester Young “King Porter’s Stomp”
Squirrel Nut Zippers “Use What Mama Gave You”
Benny Goodman Orchestra “Sing, Sing, Sing”
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra “Rhapsody In Blue”

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 7 AM, Thursday at 7 PM and Saturday at 9 AM, only on The AIR. You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursday and Sunday evenings.

Remember, you can tune in to The AIR at all hours of the day and night for a variety and quality of programming that you will not find anywhere else. Check PopCult regularly for details on our new episodes.

This week’s art is a digital Pop Art painting of the original design for Big Boy. Created by legendary animator, Ben Washam, in 1937, this was the look of the iconic restaurant chain until the mid 1950s, when the character was redesigned for franchisees nationwide. I saw a plastic figure of the original design last month at the Frisch’s Big Boy in London, Kentucky, and thought it looked cool enough to be the subject of a painting. If you agree, you may click the image to see it bigger.

Meanwhile, Monday on The AIR,  7 AM sees a mini-marathon of four recent eisodes of Radio Free Charleston International, hosted by yours truly, which comes at you for eight hours.  Then at 3 PM you can settle in for eight hours of great New Wave music with Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. At 11 PM you can spend you overnights with eight hours of the best Progressive Rock of the last half-century on Prognosis.  

You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on this embedded radio player…

Last year in The PopCult Gift Guide I told you about a wide array of gift ideas that came straight from Uranus.  Uranus Missouri, that is. See, down in Uranus, for some reason, the folks found themselves to be the butt of many a joke, and rather than feel sad and wallow in the crack of pity, they decided to pick themselves up. wipe themselves off  and put their money where Uranus is. They got in on the joke, and created a tourist attraction along the historic Route 66, and now you can take the joy of Uranus and spread it among all your friends.

Our video this evening is the latest promotional video extolling the virtues of their world-famous fudge, shipped directly out of the back door of The Uranus Fudge Factory. It’s a cute, short video that tries to see how many times they can say the word “fudge” in just under three minutes.

Eventually we’re going to have to make a PopCult road trip up Uranus way. This video shows off the fudge, but also some of the other souvenir items you can buy, and the mayor of Uranus, who appears to be channeling the ghost of Hunter S. Thompson.

This week we head back to January, 2013 for the fourth “Show Without Words” in the Radio Free Charleston video library.  This is also our only show with no host segments. By this point I’d run out of gimmicks.

Our music in this episode was provided by Doctor Curmudgeon and TriElement from Charleston and special guests, Grounded, from Asheville, North Carolina. Computer graphics throughout this episode are courtesy of Frank Panucci.  The show kicked off with the cartoon, Too Many Amps For Doctor Curmudgeon by Jason Myer.

Our first musical guest for this show was Doctor Curmudgeon, who cut loose with a largely improvised nine minute sonic epic. This incarnation of Doctor Curmudgeon saw maestro Chuck Biel back in the saddle on guitar, loops, and power tools, joined by the amazing Sean Sydnor on bass, and incredible C.W. Riley on drums.

From Doctor Curmudgeon, the show blends into a performance from Asheville, North Carolina’s Grounded. In this show we brought you an excerpt from “Its Everything Except What It Is! (Improv 01)” You can find the full performance posted as an edition of Sunday Evening Video.

From Grounded, we meld into TriElement. Kenneth Booth, Dave Roberts, and Joey Lafferty man this tightly run progressive metal trio. We wrap up our show this week with two numbers from TriElement.

The PopCulteer
April 5, 2019

There will be a bonus edition of The PopCulteer next Tuesday. I’ll tell you why when we get there. But for now, that means I’m going to slack off a little and just spend today’s column talking about the new shows on The AIR, and some cool stuff you can do this weekend.

You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on this embedded radio player…

Among the cool things you can do in town this week is Friday night’s show by The Velvet Brothers at The Empty Glass. The flyer is at the head of this post, and even bigger down below.

Today on The AIR we have new episodes of Radio Free Charleston International and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat.

At 1 PM RFC International presents two hours of ponderous, conceptual music from folks like Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Frank Zappa and XTC. Plus we mix in just a dash of Ska, since we’re still in the mood after last week’s show.  Check out the playlist here…

RFCI 065

The Beat “Maniac”
Claypool Lennon Delirium “Cricket Chronicles Revisted”
Gryphon “Sailor V”
David Bowie “Never Let Me Down (dub/accapella)”
Camel “Earthrise”
Pink Floyd “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”
10 CC “Rubber Bullets”
The Specials “BLM”
Peter Gabriel “Sledgehammer (live)”
YES featuring ARW “Make It Easy/Owner of a Lonely Heart”
The Cure “The Kiss”
Frank Zappa “The Complete Saga of Nanook”
Belle and Sebastian “Mornington Crescent”
XTC “Scissor Man”

Radio Free Charleston International is the show where I play whatever I want, and you can hear RFC International Friday at 1 PM, with replays Friday at  10 PM, Saturday afternoon, Sundat at 1 AM and 2 PM and Tuesday at 11 PM, exclusively on The AIR.

At 3 PM Sydney’s Big Electric Cat indulges in Four Play. That means that Sydney Fileen will play four songs in a row by the following New Wave artists: The stranglers; The Thompson Twins, The Cars, The Buggles, The B 52s; The Jam and XTC.  It’s a different approach than Sydney normally takes, but it still adds up to two full hours of crunchy New Wave Goodness.

Each week Sydney Fileen brings you two hours of the best music of the New Wave era. Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard on Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon, Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM and Thursday at 10AM, exclusively on The AIR.

Friday mornings now kick off with a 7 AM replay of the week’s new episode of Prognosis, followed by Word Association with Lee & Rudy at 9 AM and The BS Crazy Show at 9:30. This one-hour combo of Word Association and The BS Crazy Show will repeat at 9 PM, for those of you who don’t want to listen to these NSFW programs at work.

At 10 AM The AIR will broadcast The Best of The Real with Mark Wolfe. At 11 AM we’ll bring you two hours of The AIR Music Mix, featuring a great assortment of music by local artists.

Stuff To Do

Here are highlights of the cool things you can do, courtesy of the fine folks who were smart enough to make online graphics for their shows.

And with that, we are out of here. Check back for all our regular features, and get ready for a bonus PopCulteer next Tuesday. If I’m feeling up to it, I’ll be at the Velvet Brothers show tonight.

Herman Linte celebrates the band with one of the most confusing lineages of all, prog-rock legends YES on The AIR, Thursday with a new episode of Prognosis. You can listen at the website, or on this embedded radio player…

YES is considered the archetype of the progressive rock band. Their songs are complex, intelligent and a little spacey. The members of the band must be virtuoso musicians. They continue to evolve and grow as a band, so much so that, more than once, they have split into two separate bands, the way they are today.

Back in the late 1980s, while the line up of the band that created the hit 90125 and Big Generator albums was mired in a rut, trying to come up with a way to follow those two albums, Jon Anderson, one of the founders of the band and their most distinctive vocalist teamed with former YES members Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford, and formed ABWH, who released one great studio album and toured with a show they dubbed “An Evening of YES Music Plus.”

While there was no shortage of animosity between the two camps, eventually a detente was achieved, and it was decided that the band would go on a very lucrative tour. Unfortunately neither band had a new studio album ready to release, and the decision was made to give the scraps of what the official YES was working on, and the bare bones of what would have been the second ABWH album to an outside producer, Jonathan Elias, who would combine them into a complete album while the band rehearsed for the tour with thier new eight-piece line up that featured two guitarists, two keyboard players and two drummers.

The resulting studio album was a disaster. Rick Wakeman refers to “Union” as “Onion…because it brings tears to my eyes.” Elias, who was apparently oblivious to the fact that Howe and Wakeman are among the most respected musicians in the entire world, decided to wipe their contributions from the disc, replacing their work with generic session musicians, including members of Toto. It is universally considered to be the absolute worst album in the YES discography.

What’s been lost in the details though, is that the resulting tour was a triumph. Seeing the combined virtuosity of eight of the dozen or so musicians who had been in YES up to that point was a memorable high point of the band’s now fifty-plus year career. The line-up for this touring version of YES is the one that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year. That did not happen because of the studio album. They only managed one tour as an eight-piece. Reportedly Steve Howe and Trevor Rabin didn’t get along well, and the drummers struggled to find a way to merge their different styles. But when they were playing together it was incredible.

Thursday on Prognosis, Herman Linte presents YES, from the Union tour live, for the full two hours. Herman brings the band performing songs like “Roundabout,” “Heart of the Sunrise,” “Owner of A Lonely Heart” and more to his listeners, as fans of the band currently ponder what will happen as there are, once again, two bands made up of longtime members of the band touring the world and releasing new music.

Prognosis can be heard every Thursday at 3 PM, with replays Friday at 7 AM, Saturday at 10 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM and Wednesday at 10 PM, exclusively on The AIR. Also tune in Monday at 11 PM for a weekly eight-hour marathon of the best of Prognosis.

Okay, I’m going to try to wrap this up in one post. Again, I apologize for taking so long to get this photo essay finished. Between technical issues with the blog interface, medical issues with my eyes, and focus issues with my camera, I’m just now getting around to wrapping up my coverage of ToyLanta 2019, almost a month since it began.

Today we’re going to deliver the big finish with photos of the featured dioramas. These would be the World War Z poster recreation by Mike Gardner, Planet Rattus by Steve Bugg (with a contributions from Bryan Tatum and Scott Beckmann), plus Clay Sayre’s heads (you’ll see), and dioramas of Star Wars and The USS Flagg, by folks whose names I was too stupid to remember.

Since my photos were pretty fuzzy-looking, I have supplemented them with some pictures swiped from Scott Beckmann via The Trenches Forum on Facebook, and some frame-grabs from the ToyLanta Diorama Video, which I posted here, what seems like, a long time ago.

At the head of the post you see Mike Gardner with his diorama. We’ll start with some close-ups of Mike’s work, then work our way through the rest.

World War Z

Mike’s diorama included around 640 figures, plus a steel frame covered with styrofoam. He worked on the various elements for months, then spent more than a day constructing the finished diorama on site.

This was such a huge diorama that you had to walk around it to get it from different angles.

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The PopCult Toybox

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu is one of the most-anticipated movies of the year. This science fiction action comedy mystery takes the traditional Pokémon concept and turns it on its side. Based on the 2016 video game, Detective Pikachu, this movie, which is due out May 10, looks to be a sure bet to rule the box office. Instead of a simple battle of Pokémon , Pokémon: Detective Pikachu features a wild, Film Noir plot, an amnesiac Pikachu who also happens to be a master detective, and a missing person mystery coupled with some world-threatening criminal plots.

The movie stars Ryan Reynolds as the voice and facial motion capture of Detective Pikachu, with Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy in live-action roles. Co-written and directed by Rob Letterman, who has a background in animation and whacked-out comedy, this movie looks like a Deadpool for kids, without all the violence, sex and cursing.

Being for kids (and kids at heart) there are going to be a ton of toy tie-ins that should be hitting stores right now. Wicked Cool Toys has the license, and they’ve crafted an incredible line-up of goodies that I’m going to tell you about in this post.

Toy retailers everywhere are selling cool items based on POKÉMON Detective Pikachu. This Detective Pikachu product line includes an exclusive selection of special movie plush and features plush, 2” and 3” figures, and a fun role-play item for fans of all ages to tap into their imagination and solve mysteries just like Detective Pikachu.

8” Plush – With & Without Sound

Fans can cuddle with the crime-solving Detective Pikachu and his exclusive cast. Fans of all ages will assign themselves to the case and want to add this exclusive line-up to their collection. The special movie plush line features 4 great Pokémon figures including Ludicolo, Psyduck and Snubbull! Innovative sensor technology gives unique interactivity; the more you play with Ludicolo, Psyduck and Snubbull, the more varied their responses will become with 2-4 different sounds in each. The Detective Pikachu special movie plush is ready to search for clues as every fan’s favorite crime fighting partner. Ages 4+, SRP $14.99

10” POKÉMON Detective Pikachu Movie Feature Plush

Go on an adventure with the new Detective Pikachu feature plush. The Detective Pikachu movie feature plush features 2 voice modes; “Detective Pikachu” and “Pikachu” so you can interact with your favorite Pokémon, just like in the movie.

Press its chest button when you want you or your friends to hear Detective Pikachu speak and press it again when you only want to hear Pikachu’s voice! Detective Pikachu also features over 14 responses, motorized ears, a detectives’ hat and Special movie plush. Ages 6+, SRP: $34.99

12” Action Figure Plush

Fans will love the perfect, poseable and huggable cast. This toys combine the posability of action figures with the cuddliness of plush, and the result is loads of fun. Mr. Mime is not your traditional Pokémon character, and he looks pretty wildly eccentric.

This will be perfect for kids and adult collectors as well.

Bigger is better with the special movie action plush which features some of your favorite Pokémon, including Mr. Mime (seen left) with poseable arms and legs. Ages 4+, SRP: $24.99

16” Real Scale Detective Pikachu Plush

Super-sized and lovable! Fans of all ages will want to grab ahold of the largest Detective Pikachu special movie plush with its signature detective hat. This is the next best thing to having your own real-life Pikachu.

Make this soft and huggable Detective Pikachu plush a kid’s best friend, or save it for yourself because know you want one. Ages 4+, SRP: $29.99

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu Movie Figure Line

Explore and create dynamic adventurous poses! Take your Pokémon universe to a whole new level of awesomeness and excitement with the NEW POKÉMON Detective Pikachu movie figure line. Explore Ryme City with your 2” in-scale figures Detective Pikachu, Psyduck and Bulbasaur. Create dynamic poses with your 3” articulated figures including Ludicolo and Mr. Mime, and take them on an adventure you’ll never forget! Each figure is highly detailed and replicates the authentic look of the POKÉMON Detective Pikachu movie! Ages 4+, SRP: $6.99

Detective Pikachu Hat with Ears

If it’s not enough to hold Detective Pikachu, fans can get this special hat, wear it and become the adventurous and adorable Detective Pikachu. Fans can put on this one size fits most Detective Pikachu hat with ears and role play their favorite scenes just like their favorite private eye! Ages 6+, SRP: $14.99

Moving beyond the movie,  this fall Wicked Cool Toys is also offering a comphrensive POKÉMON line of electronic toys based on the POKÉMON universe. These won’t be out for a few months, check out these cool items…

4” Electronic Pikachu – “My Partner Pikachu”

My Partner Pikachu is electrifying and will touch the hearts of many. Kids and fans are going to love this adorable action-packed Electronic Pikachu featuring over 100 responses and mechanized arms and ears that are activated by touch sensors! You can also engage with My Partner Pikachu by touching its nose, forehead and belly to see it come to life as it talks and lights up. Ages 4+, SRP: $19.99

We’ll bring you more POKÉMON toy news on the other side of the jump…

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