As you read this your PopCulteer is probably stumbling around somewhere in Manhattan. However, there is a ton of cool stuff happening this weekend here in and around Charleston, West Virginia.
Saturday May 4 is Free Comic Book Day, and if there are any comic book stores left in the area, they’re bound to be joining in.
If, like your PopCulteer, you gave up on local comic book stores and order everything from Westfield Comics, then you’ll want to stay up until Midnight (Central Time), Friday, so you can order one each of all the 51 free comic books and have them sent directly to your home.
That’s what I’ll be doing from the City That Never Sleeps.
STUFF TO DO
Aside from Free Comic Book Day, there are a bunch of other things you can get into this weekend, where apparently they have some kind of horse races and then go get Mexican food food or something.
Friday
Saturday
That’s it for this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for fresh content every day, even if it was prepared a few days in advance.
One of the perks of writing a blog that’s loosely devoted to the concept of pop culture is that I get to write about almost anything…movies, music, comic books, toys…toys being one of the more fun things in my repertoire. Today PopCult brings you a quick video of me and my nephew, Seth, trying out a cool new thing that I wish I had when I was a kid.
Zuru has revolutionized balloons with their Bunch O’ Balloons concept, that uses one-way valves so that you can fill balloons with air (or water, or helium) several at a time, with no blowing or tying or aggravation. Originally released as a great way to stock a massive arsenal of water balloons, they’re just now releasing the Bunch O’ Balloons Party Pump, which can inflate up to 40 of these special balloons at a time in just forty seconds.
The balloons are connected together in bunches of eight, with long inflation tubes that double as a string. You simply inflate them, and peel apart the stems and you’re in business. The Party Pump can also be used to inflate other items, like air mattresses and pool floaties, so it’s a pretty handy thing to have around.
I got my hands on one of these just in time for my nephew’s birthday, and that’s where the video you see above originated. I have to say I was really impressed by how cool this whole Bunch O’ Balloons system is. The balloons can be re-inflated, and each pack of balloons includes an adapter so that they can be filled with helium.
The balloons are ridiculously sturdy, and can withstand the full force of an eight-year-old diving into them. My only regret is that I couldn’t use Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up” as the background music without getting into trouble with YouTube. The Party Pump itself is not a toy for the younger kids. It’s an electric device and should always be used with adult supervision, but parents of kids who love balloons will consider this a godsend. Event planners might also want to look into this for when they need decorations fast.
The Bunch O Balloons Party Pump comes with 16 balloons and is available now at Walmart –http://www.bobparty.shop/walmart. It’s a great way to come up with a lot of balloons in a short amount of time without destroying your lungs. For more information about ZURU visit www.zuru.com.
Last week Mel Larch presented a cavalcade of songs from shows that won Tony Awards for Best Musical. Wednesday afternoon on The AIR, you can hear samples of the nominees for this year’s Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Revival of a Musical. 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. It’s our third annual Tony Awards preview, with songs from each of the nominated musicals, presented just one day after they were announced.
In this show you will hear multiple songs from each of the nominees for Best Musical: Hadestown, The Myth, The Musical; Beetlejuice The Musical, The Musical, The Musical; Tootsie; Ain’t Too Proud To Beg: The Life and Times of The Temptations; and The Prom. We also have one song each from the revivals of Kiss Me Kate and Oklahoma.
It was a little tricky putting this show together because so many of the nominated musicals have cast albums that have not yet been released (or recorded, in one case), but we were able to pull together enough preview performances and demos of songs to bring you a full sampling of the best of this year’s Broadway offerings. We even give you a not-so-subtle hint about next week’s show along the way. The 2019 Tony Awards will be broadcast on CBS on June, 9, so you can tune in and see who won this year’s prize.
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 Saturday at 6 PM. An all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.
The PopCulteer
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