Month: November 2021 (Page 4 of 5)

Today we have different gift ideas for the fan of The Man of Steel on your holiday shopping list. These are all different interpretations of the last Kryptonian from over the years in comics, TV shows, animation and action figure form. If you have a Superman-loving collector on your list, you know what to do…

Smallville: Complete Series – 20th Anniversary Edition
$154.99 (discounted at many online retailers)

This is a big-ticket item, but if you know somebody who was a big fan of the Smallville TV show, this may very well be worth it.

Twenty years out from its debut, this box set collects all ten seasons of what remains one of the best live-action treatments of the Superman mythos. This fresh take on The Man of Steel focused on his life in Smallville, before he moved to the “big city” of Metropolis. In the comics, he was already operating as Superboy when he lived here, but this series shows him developing his powers and discovering his origin, and the shocker, if you didn’t already know it, is that he doesn’t don the blue suit and red cape until the last ten minutes of the final episode.

Tom Welling heads a stellar cast that includes Annette O’Toole, John Schnieder, Kristen Kruek, Michael Rosenbaum and loads of guest stars (including Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder).

This box includes all 217 episodes of Smallville, plus tons of extras and bonus features.

This is the story of what led Clark Kent to become the Man of Steel. While we don’t see Superman fully-formed, we do see Clark Kent go up against Lex Luthor, Brainiac, General Zod and other criminals from The Phantom Zone. Along the way Clark encounters Green Arrow and Aquaman, his cousin, who in the comics is Supergirl, The Justice Society of America and even prepared for the threat of Darkseid.

It’s a great, different take on Superman, in his early days, and rumor has it an animated revival may be in the works with many of the original actors and producers involved.

Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore
by Dennis O’Neil, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson
DC Comics
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1779507525
$29.99

From 50 years ago, this is the first attempt at a major revamp of Superman, and it’s by the classic creative team of writer, Dennis O’Neil and artists Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.  In this series of stories, Kryptonite was wiped off the face of the Earth, but as a result, Superman’s powers were also greatly reduced, and he had to deal with his newfound limitations.

Here’s how DC describes it…

Kryptonite. The very word has become synonymous with hidden vulnerability—a modern-day Achilles’ heel. The fragmentary remains of Superman’s doomed home planet, this glowing green mineral has bedeviled the World’s Greatest Hero since he first arrived on Earth.

But what would happen if this deadly threat was completely eradicated?

That was the question posed in 1971, when legendary comics editor Julius Schwartz took over the Superman family of titles at DC Comics. In response, an up-and-coming young writer named Dennis O’Neil joined with acclaimed artists Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson to deliver what would become a milestone in the history of American comics: the saga of “Kryptonite Nevermore”!

Over the course of nine issues in the monthly Superman series, this supercharged creative team turned decades of continuity on their head and transformed the Last Son of Krypton from an impossibly strong galaxy-faring adventurer into a more reasonable powered, relatable guardian of Earth. Now, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its original publication, DC Comics is proud to present an all-new hardcover edition collecting this historic story line in its entirety—featuring newly restored color on every page as well as insightful essays from O’Neil and former DC presiden and publisher Paul Levitz.

Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore is a tremendous collection of stories with fantastic art by the team many consider to be the definitive Superman illustrators. There have been many attempts to rebbot or revamp The Man of Steel since this, but none of them have been so consistently good.

Superman Action Figures by MEGO

Speaking of definitive, the idea of MEGO making a Superman action figure pretty much defined what kids were playing with in the mid-1970s.

Now with MEGO revived, and deals with DC Comics in place, you can Once again purchase Superman MEGO figures in the classic 8-inch, or the new 14-inch sizes.

And there are several different versions from which to choose. You can buy the classic 8″ Superman in his tradtional suit, the 14″ “New 52” Superman who runs around with no pants, or if you are lucky and/or patient, there’s a new 8″ Henry Cavill Superman reportedly turning up at Target stores, along with a new traditionally-suited 14″ Superman due in before Christmas.

You should know your Superman fan well enough to know which MEGO figures will best suit them. Prices range from fifteen to forty bucks, and there are several reliable MEGO dealers to be found on Facebook.

The Amazing World of Superman (Tabloid Edition)
edited by E. Nelson Bridwell and Sol Harrison
DC Comics
ISBN-13 : 978-1779509185
$19.99

In the early 1970s, the town of Metropolis, Illinois, attempted to boost their economy by building a huge “Superman Land” amusement park. This ill-fated venture stalled and crashed due to the financial realities of the time (they blamed the oil crisis, but they’d never lined up any serious funding).

When the project was still alive, DC Comics published a special and unusual tabloid-sized comic book that acted as a program for the town’s 1973 Superman Day. This annual event is still held every June (barring pandemics) and in 1973 they went all-out with the mayor dressed as Superman and potential investors coming to town to survey the crowds and this tie-in, which was pretty darned cool.

Produced by DC Comics (then National Periodical Publications) this 64-page The Amazing World of Superman giant was printed on different, whiter, paper than DC used for their comics and weighed in at a slightly larger size (and proportion) than DC’s then-new “Limited Collectors Edition” comics, plus it was printed in black-and-white instead of color.

This new hardback edition reprints the book, pretty much as it was in 1973, with no real “DVD extras.”

Much of the book was filled with some pretty great articles for the time, including a step-by-step look at how comics were made–from writing and drawing to printing–and a look back at the 1966 Superman Broadway Play. It’s great to have this stuff back in print.

There were also some features reprinted from comics, including a classic story drawn by Wayne Boring in 1955 that speculated about a Superman Land amusement park, and a few pages drawn by Bob Brown that show Superboy’s secret lab in Smallville, but the star attraction was a brand-new 15-page origin story for The Man of Steel, created especially for this publication.

“The Origin of Superman” was written by E. Nelson Bridwell and drawn by the then-top Superman art team of Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. DC’s then-publisher, Carmine Infantino is sometimes credited with the plot and layouts. It’s widely considered the definitive take on Superman’s origin story (at least pre-Crisis), and it’s cool to see it reprinted here in it’s original format and art size, with wash-toned black and white art.

At twenty bucks, this is a pretty nice package. It even includes the full-color “pull-out” poster map of Krypton (drawn by Sal Amendola) that came with the original book, although it’s inserted loose here, making life easier for everyone involved. It’d be a great gift for any fan that doesn’t have the original printing.

Superman: The Complete Animated Series
Remastered for Blu-Ray
$69.99 (discounted at Amazon)

Even better than Smallville for die-hard Superman fans, Superman: The Animated Series is beloved, and even if you know somebody who watches it every day with HBO Max, they’d probably love having this new Blu-Ray edition.  And we go to the blurb…

The creative team behind the Emmy Award-winning Batman: The Animated Series chronicles the adventures of Superman, the legendary Super Hero. As the planet Krypton is destroyed, its leader, Jor-El, secures his infant son, Kal-El, in a rocket that will transport him to Earth. There, a young Clark Kent (voiced by TIM DALY) discovers the truth about his interplanetary heritage. Upon reaching adulthood, he assumes the identity of Superman, the Man of Steel, in the city of Metropolis, battling the forces of villainy and continuing his quest for “Truth, Justice and the American way.” Fly with Superman in this complete collection of adventures.

There is some epic storytelling here, including late in the series, a very faithful take on The New Gods and Darkseid, that includes a touching tribute to Jack Kirby.

This is probably one of the top five animated adventure shows of all time, and it’s a great way to enjoy the story of Superman.

Tuesday on The AIR  your blogger and radio show host once again dives into the vast RFC Archives and comes up with a “new” patchwork edition of Radio Free Charleston. Real-life intrusions combined with  PopCult Gift Guide  to wipe out the time I’d set aside to record new shows this week.

This week I decided to go back to June, 2018, and stitch together three consecutive episodes of Radio Free Charleston Volume 4, which happen to be loaded with great music. To hear all this cool local music you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay on this page, and  listen to the cool embedded player over at the top of the right column.

At 10 AM and 10 PM you can hear this all-local compilation of RFC volume 4, episodes 80, 81 and 82.   These are killer shows, and as a special treat, the second and third hours are made up entirely of music recorded for the RFC video show, so nobody else has these songs in their archives.

These shows haven’t been heard in more than two years, so I thought it was a good idea to bring them back and plop them into the RFC V5 rotation. I do apologize for not having live links for the bands in the playlist this week. Time constraints prevented it.

Check out the playlist:

RFC V5 069

hour one
Three’s Company Blues “Burns Like Whiskey”
The Stars Revolt “Be Careful What You Wish For”
Adam Cox and Independent State “The City”
Anthony Thaxton “That Song”
Tom Rader “Castanets”
Speedsuit “Riddle”
Sheldon Vance “Keep On Talking”
Stonebeard/Deck of Fools “Full Moon Rose”
Poor Man’s Gravy “All For You”
In The Company of Wolves “Forgot To Wait”
Johnny Compton “Parasite”
Bobaflex “Long Time Coming”
Farnsworth “Now That You’re Gone”
John Radcliff “Muse”
Kerry Hughes “Loaded, Corroded, Scapegoated”

hour two
Mel Larch “Siren Song of the Catfish”
The Clementines “Soundscape #1”
InFormation “Angry All The Time”
Barrelhouse Bonnie and Ko “Memphis In May”
Doctor Senator “Awkward Social Situation”
Synergy Collective “Awry”
A Place Of Solace “Thirty Seconds”
The Coal Men “Outside Looking In”
Lonely Town “Lonely Town”
Marcie Bullock w/ Steve Himes “Just So You Know”
T.J. King “Bad Things, Good People”
The Button Flies “Butch Bottom”
Hellblinki “Bella Ciao”

hour three
Brain Trauma “Rock It”
Underdog Blues Revue “What You Say”
Lady D “Rockstone Blues”
Diablo Blues Band “The Price of a Broken Heart”
Mark Bates and The Vacancies “Michelle”
Dog Soldier “The Christmas Song”
Casi Null “Blue Haze”
Civil State “Three On A Third”
Jonathan Glen Wood “I Forget To Forget About You”
Quick and Dirty “Super Ninja” “Quick and Dirty Instrumental” “Wrong Again”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Thursday at 3 PM, Friday at 9 AM and 7 PM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight,  and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can hear a different episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of MIRRORBALL at 1 PM, and NOISE BRIGADE at 2 PM. At 3 PM we have two recent episodes of The Swing Shift.

The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide continues later on Tuesday.

Today in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide we are going to recommend some prints, posters and other wall hangings which will make great gift ideas for the folks on your holiday shopping list. All of these are online only, and there will be a secondary link to their online store, just in case you want to see what else they have to offer.

New River Gorge by Glen Brogan

$40 plus shipping from Hero Complex Gallery

See more of Glen’s art at HCG

This cool travel-style poster of West Virginia’s New River Gorge (the newest of our National Parks) is perfect for any fan of Glen’s, and any fan of West Virginia’s natural beauty, who wants a cool souvenir of the gorge, done up in a wonderful style. The fine art Gliclee measures 16″ by 20″ and is limited to 255 copies, so you might want to hurry on over to order it.

Glen Brogan is the type of artist that makes his fellow artists want to give up and pack it in. Glen is a friend, and I’ve been recommending his art in The PopCult Gift Guide for years.

With a sleek style and a strong appreciation of the coolest elements of pop culture, Glen has made a name for himself with exhibits in New York and Los Angeles and work commissioned by Disney, King Features Syndicate, Marvel Comics and many more top companies.

BATFIGHT! by Mitch O’Connell

$50 plus shipping from Mitch’s Etsy Store.

See more of Mitch’s art in books, clothing, prints and more HERE.

This print grabbed my eye, and as soon as I can find a spare wall, I’m getting one for myself. It’s perfect for any fan of the 1966 Batman TV Show, old-school professional wrestling or just the amazing art of Mitch O’Connell.

Mitch is a legend in the world of pop culture illustration. He’s been pubished in Newsweek, Time, Rolling Stone, New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, GQ and Playboy. His newspaper work includes pieces done for The New York Times, Village Voice, Chicago Tribune and dozens more. He’s been featured in the world of rock ’n’ roll on album covers and posters for groups from The Ramones to Weezer to No Doubt to Moby. And I’m not even going to mention examples of his advertising campaigns, fine art works, tattoo designs and all the other cool stuf he does.

Here’s what Mitch says about this piece:

I put 70s wrestling, ’60s Batman and a Catfight in a blender, and this is what happened!

A hand signed 18 by 24″ hand pulled screenprint limited to an edition of only 50 using the brightest in DayGlo Water Based Fluorescent Paint. Photos are unable to capture the retina melting goodness!

Seriously casting Ric Flair as The Joker is a stroke of genius!

Gill Creep Mini Monster

$20 plus shipping from Retro A Go-Go

Find more cool gift ideas at Retro A Go-Go

I don’t often talk about it, but I’m a big fan of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, or as he is sometimes known, “The Gill Man.” Retro A Go-Go has released this cool “Mini Monster,” which features a vacu-formed Gill Creep head that bears a strong resemblance to the famed Creature of lore.

Along with the head, you get a jointed cardboard body. The head is about seven inches tall, and the body makes him over 18 inches tall, and it’s posable. So you can fit him into a tight space with his body, or just display the head.

Here’s the description:

Rising from the lagoon, crawling out of the sickening seaweed, is Gill Creep. Add life and color to any boring wall of your choice. The yellow & bright lime green will make such a horrid scene! He looks like he radiates and glows. How toxic was the black water we’ll just never know!

Each Mini Monster Box Contains:

• 7″ Tall Ready-to-Hang Vac-tastic Plastic Mini Wall Decor Mask

• 18″ Tall Ready-to-Hang Jointed Retro Figure. Each dressed in costume and ready to decorate any wall, window or door.

• As always comes packaged in an amazing Retro Window Box designed to display your monsters in or out of the box.

This is the perfect gift for any monster-loving fan (with empty wall space) on your holiday shopping list.

Nexus “Valley of the Living Rocks” Print by Steve Rude

$24.95 plus shipping from Steve Rude (who will sign it for an additional five bucks)

Check out Steve’s other prints, books, original art and more HERE.

Steve Rude is a master comic artist of whom I have been a fan for four decades. This print depicts his signature co-creation, Nexus, in a cool action pose, fighting giant rock monsters. Rude’s art manages to embody the influence of both Jack Kirby and Russ Manning, while remaining wholly original.

This particular oil painting was done for the badge art for 2008 Dragon Con. It’s printed 11″ by 17″ here, and can be signed and personalized for a small additional fee. It will be shipped rolled in a tube to prevent creasing.

This is the perfect gift for any fan of Rude or Nexus, or just anybody who thinks a superhero fighting giant rock monsters would be a cool thing to have hanging on their wall.

Pee Wee Herman’s 35th Anniversary Big Adventure Bundle

$65 from the Pee Wee Herman Store

Available separately from The Pee Wee Store HERE

A must-have item for any fan of Pee Wee Herman, this collects some cool commemorative items for Pee Wee’s big-screen debut, and two of those items are loverly things to hang upon your wall.

This bundle includes items produced for the Pee Wee’s Big Adventure 35th Anniversary Tour, which was cut short due to the pandemic.  These exclusive items were only available to a limited number of fans at each show, however, due to the tour cancellation, these are being offered only on the Official Pee-wee Store! Extremely limited run of these items is now available.

This package includes a very cool poster inspired by the movie, and an extremely cool pennant, plus a set of 14 postcards featuring stills from the movie that, if you wish, could also be hung on your walls.

Is this a great gift idea or what? Only the most evil people on the planet don’t love Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, so you really can’t go wrong with this gift!

This week’s art is left over from yesterday. It’s a digital painting of the dancing robots of Boston Dynamics. I wanted to create a feature image for yesterday’s Sunday Evening Video, and I decided to do a screen-grab from one of the videos, and do a digital painting over it, in as close to the style of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec as was possible without taking the time to properly research his style.

Hey, it was a throw-away graphic for a post header. Toulouse-Lautrec painted dancing girls. I figured I’d cop his style a bit and apply it to dancing robots.

However, I did a second, totally-different painting, along the same lines, as a teaser for the post on Instagram, and I really liked it, so I decided to use it for today’s Monday Morning Art, since I hadn’t posted it here.

Waste-not, want not, and less work for me.

If you want to see it a bit bigger, just click on it.

Later today we will be back with Day Six of The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide, and I believe today we are recommending wall decor.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a recent episode of  Psychedelic Shack, followed at 3 PM by a recent edition of Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player at the top of the right-hand column of this blog.

We gave the Haversham folks another week off because they asked for it and it’s not like we’re paying them or anything. I think the shows from our British correspondents might be roughly bi-weekly for the remainder of the year.

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday at 9 AM as part of our Sunday Haversham Recording Institute collection.

You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM. You can hear two classic episodes of the show Sunday at 2 PM.

At 8 PM, we bring you eleven hours of The Comedy Vault, just for the heck of it.

These videos have all gone viral before, and you’ve probably seen them several times already, but they’re worth a second look, and in case you haven’t seen them, you need to. Tonight we present the dancing robots of Boston Dynamics…

Above you see an episode of The RFC MINI SHOW that I originally posted back in November, 2015. However, the footage was shot sometime in 1990, at The Empty Glass, back before one of their redesigns that saw the stage move around a few times before settling in its current location.

The band is FNG…I think. The last time I ran into Rick Stiles, he told me that it wasn’t FNG, but that it included four of the five members of FNG, so I remain cornfused.

I tell the story behind this episode of the show in the original production notes, but the short version is, I was not close friends with these guys back in the day, but became friendlier with them after the cancellation of the original broadcast version of Radio Free Charleston.  The night I recorded the band, it was made up of Rick Stiles on guitar, Kevin Lancaster on vocals, Anton Robertson on guitar and Joe McComas on drums, plus a bass player who remains unidentifed.

Kevin, Anton and Joe are no longer with us, so they couldn’t help identify the bass player. It’s all a bit tragic, because there is raw punk energy here, even in the low-fi standard def video.

Today we don’t have a theme for The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide. We just have five cool gift ideas for the folks on your holiday shopping list.

T Shirt In Disguise!

I’ve recommended books by my friend, Thomas Wheeler, in past PopCult Gift Guides, but now Thomas has turned his hand toward T-Shirt design, and I’ll be telling you about a few of them over the next couple of weeks.

First up we have a funny spin on the beloved Transformers franchise that cracked me up.

It’s Optometrist Prime, the eye doctor in disguise!

You can get this design on a variety of different quality T-Shirts from Small to 3X and it’s also available on a tank top, hoodie, mug, sticker and more.

Check it out at Thomas’s Threadless store, and keep watching for more of his designs in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide. This is the perfect gift for the toy-collector on your shopping list who has a healthy sense of humor.

Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic
by Eric Eyre
Scribner
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982105327
$17.99 (paperback) $28.00 (hardcover)

Eric is one of my former colleague’s at the Charleston Gazette whom I actually never got to meet in real life (such is the life of a freelancer). Always a top-notch reporter, Eric won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for his work covering the the Opioid epidemic in West Virginia. Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic details that story.

We go to the pubisher’s blurb:

Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic is an urgent, and heartbreaking account of the corporate greed that pumped millions of pain pills into small Appalachian towns, decimating communities.

In a pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, 12 million opioid pain pills were distributed in just three years to a town with a population of 382 people. One woman, after losing her brother to overdose, was desperate for justice. Debbie Preece’s fight for accountability for her brother’s death took her well beyond the Sav-Rite Pharmacy in coal country, ultimately leading to three of the biggest drug wholesalers in the country. She was joined by a crusading lawyer and by local journalist, Eric Eyre, who uncovered a massive opioid pill-dumping scandal that shook the foundation of America’s largest drug companies—and won him a Pulitzer Prize.

Part Erin Brockovich, part Spotlight, Death in Mud Lick details the clandestine meetings with whistleblowers; a court fight to unseal filings that the drug distributors tried to keep hidden, a push to secure the DEA pill-shipment data, and the fallout after Eyre’s local paper, the Gazette-Mail, the smallest newspaper ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, broke the story.

Eyre follows the opioid shipments into individual counties, pharmacies, and homes in West Virginia and explains how thousands of Appalachians got hooked on prescription drugs—resulting in the highest overdose rates in the country. But despite the tragedy, there is also hope as citizens banded together to create positive change—and won.

“A product of one reporter’s sustained outrage [and] a searing spotlight on the scope and human cost of corruption and negligence” (The Washington Post) Eric Eyre’s intimate portrayal of a national public health crisis illuminates the shocking pattern of corporate greed and its repercussions for the citizens of West Virginia—and the nation—to this day.

This is a very important work that should be required reading for every politician who thinks it’s a good idea to cut healthcare funding, let big business run wild and reduce Harm Reduction programs. It’s also a great gift for people who appreciate quality investigative journalism.

Available from any bookseller using the ISBN number, or from the evil empire at a considerable discount. Also available as an Audio CD.

Game of Thrones: The Complete Series
Available on DVD and Blu-Ray

One of the most talked-about TV shows of recent times, Game of Thrones has wrapped its run, but just in case you didn’t have HBO, or don’t have HBO Max, or if you just want a hard copy you can hold in your own hands, you can now get the complete series of Game of Thrones to watch over and over again.

As they say in the blurb:

Trouble is brewing in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. For the driven inhabitants of this visionary world, control of Westeros’ Iron Throne holds the lure of great power. But in a land where the seasons can last a lifetime, winter is coming…and beyond the Great Wall that protects them, an ancient evil has returned. Based on the bestselling book series ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ by George R.R. Martin comes this epic HBO drama series set in a fantastic realm where noble families engage in a deadly fight for control.

It’s a fairly epic boxed set, with 38 DVDs in a slipcover package for $169.99 (you can find it for under a hundred bucks), or 31 Blu Ray discs for $204.99 (again, usually marked down to around a hundred-twenty bucks). It’s also available in an even pricier 4K set, but the point is, if you want to give somebody a hard copy of the whole set, either because you know they’re a fan, or you think they’ll love it, here’s your chance.

This will make a great gift for any fan of the show who doesn’t already have all the episodes, and it’d also be great for fans of the book who somehow managed to avoid the show until now, or fans of epic fantasy of all kinds.

Available anywhere you might find boxed sets of DVDs or Blu-Ray discs, or at Amazon.

O, Mountaineers! Volume II: Noted (or Notorious) African-American West Virginians
by Danny Kuhn
Favoritetrainers.com
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1737295303
$16,95

This is the follow-up to O, Mountaineers, Danny Kuhn’s 2019 book that collected quick biographical sketches of notable West Virginians. O, Mountaineers! Volume II: Noted (or Notorious) African-American West Virginians, as the title proclaims, points its focus as Black West Virginians from history, entertainment, folklore and politics.

As with his first book, this is a lively read, and one that doesn’t need to be consumed in one sitting. In addition to pulling back the covers on the many contributions that West Virginia has made to the world, this book uncovers the often-overlooked stories among the overlooked, as Black folks don’t usually get their due in American culture, and West Virginia is no different.

As with the first volume, O, Mountaineers! Volume II: Noted (or Notorious) African-American West Virginians is a brisk and engaging treat for anyone with any interest in West Virginia. With our current political landscape it’s really easy to feel down and depressed about the state of our state. O, Mountaineers! Volume II: Noted (or Notorious) African-American West Virginians reminds us that greatness can spring forth from the most dire of circumstances, and that’s a message that we really need right now.

O, Mountaineers! Volume II: Noted (or Notorious) African-American West Virginians should be available to order from any bookseller, using the ISBN number above, or you can take the path of least resistance and get it from Amazon. This is a wonderful gift for anybody interested in West Virginia history, and anybody who wants to learn more about the contributions of Black people in our state and country.

Final Faction Action Figures

For the cheapskates among us, here’s a great gift idea for kids who love 4-inch sci-fi and supehero figures, or adult collectors who might have their minds blown when they find out where you got these.

Final Faction is a line of Science-Fiction, alien-fighting action figures in the popular 1/18 (roughly four-inches tall) scale. Most of the figures have five points of articulation. Most come with at least one accessory. The paint detail is above-average. There is a backstory and accompanying nine-minute CGI cartoon on YouTube, and most importantly…they only cost a dollar each! These are Dollar Tree exclusives.

For a mere buck, you get a hell of a lot. Quality-wise, the figures are just a notch below ReAction’s line of licensed five-point figures, but those sell for fifteen to twenty times as much. If you are a 1/18 scale hobbyist, these figures are great customizing fodder. At this price you can try all sorts of things–from total repaints to attempting to add joints.

The backing cards are printed in full color on both sides and include Power Ratings and a bio for each character, along with this intro to the series…

In the year 2050, a large asteroid collided with our moon. Among the debris, we discovered a hibernating alien mothership. Now, the Kharn are awake and they want to plunder our precious natural resources. So, we recruited teams of special operatives to defend Earth from their alien threat.

They are the…

FINAL FACTION!

There you go: A cool space-opera premise with well-sculpted figures that sport decent (if limited) paint detail, and a computer-animated short. And they cost a buck apiece. You can collect the entire first series of figures for eight bucks (fourteen dollars if you buy all six extra accessory packs). For less than the price of one ReAction figure, you can own the entire line (if you can find them–in some stores the first series has long been sold out). These are great stocking stuffers, for the toy collector on your shopping list.

You may not find these in stores now, but you can still order them online, and late news is that a second series, which includes vehicles for the good guys and the bad guys, is starting to hit stores, but hasn’t shown up online yet.

The PopCulteer
November 05, 2021

We take a brief break from The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide to tell you about what to expect on our sister internet station Friday afternoon.  We offer up shiny new episodes of MIRRORBALL and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, and we offer up a brand-new Life Speaks to Michele Zirkle special Friday evening! The AIR is PopCult’s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player at the top right column of this blog.

At 2 PM, Mel Larch uncorks a new MIRRORBALL! The AIR’s showcase of classic Disco music presents a salute to the last major hitmaker of the Disco era, a Disco artist who helped usher in the coming of New Wave Music, while keeping a danceable beat, the MInneapolis band, Lipps Inc.  While many see them as a one-hit-wonder, after “Funkytown,” the band had several club hits, and also produced some very funky deep album cuts. You’ll hear a sampling of all that in this show. Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 036

Lipps Inc.

“Funkytown”
“All Night Dancing”
“Tight Pair”
“Addicted To The Night”
“Designer Music”
“The One…The One After”
“How Long”
“Hold Me Down”
“Rock It”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays this Saturday at  8 PM (kicking off a mini-marathon), Sunday at 11 PM, Monday at 9 AM, and Tuesday at 1 PM  exclusively on The AIR.

At 3 PM, Sydney Fileen graces us with a bombastic new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat with no theme whatsoever. It’s just two hours of fantastic New Wave Music, interspersed with Ms. Fileen’s insightful commentary and pithy comments.

Just check out this star-studded playlist to be amazed…

BEC 080

Echo and the Bunnymen “The Killing Moon”
Special AKA “Free Nelson Mandela”
Wang Chung “Dance Hall Days”
Bananarama “Cruel Summer”
General Public “General Public”
Thompson Twins “Hold Me Now”
Corey Hart “Sunglasses At Night”
Arcadia “Election Day”
Tears For Fears “Head Over Heels”
Altered Images “I Could Be So Happy”
Dream Academy “Live In A Northern Town”
Charlie Sexton “Beats So Lonely”
Strawberry Switchblade “Since Yesterday”
Katrina & The Waves “Walking On Sunshine”
Real Life “Send Me An Angel”
Dfx2 “Emotion”
Romantics “Talking In Your Sleep”
Red Rockers “China”
Pretenders “Brass In Pocket”
The Fixx “One Thing Leads To Another”
Psychedelic Furs “Love My Way”
ABC “Poison Arrow”
Belle Stars “Sign Of The Times”
The Beat “Save It For Later”
Missing Persons “Walking In L.A.”
Tin Tin “Kiss Me”
Translator Everywhere That I’m Not”

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon, Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR.

That’s what’s on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back because we have a fresh post every day and Friday afternoon will see our latest five-item entry in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide.

This may seem odd for a holiday gift guide, but today’s theme in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide is Christmas.

Especially after the mess of the last several years, it might be hard for some people to get into the Christmas spirit, so today we’re suggesting five gifts that can be given early to help provoke a more Christmas-y mood. In fact, so many people could use an extra holiday boost that we’re planning to revisit this theme next week with five more picks.

Holly Jolly: Celebrating Christmas Past in Pop Culture
by Mark Voger
TwoMorrows Publishing
ISBN-13 : 978-1605490977
$43.95

This is a book that was due out last year but was delayed by the pandemic until this spring. I reviewed it in March, and here’s why you should consider giving this as a gift to the person on your shopping list who needs a little prodding to get into the holiday spirit.

Mark Voger has written a series of wonderful books of pop culture nostalgia for TwoMorrows and Holly Jolly is no different. It’s basically a collection of short, entertaining essays, lavishly illustrated, that celebrate Christmas as a pop culture phenomenon. Sections of the book are dedicated to the history of the holiday, the toys of Christmas, the books, movies, decorations, television and music of Christmas and even holiday memories from celebrities.

Holly Jolly is a brisk, enjoyable survey of fond recollections that doesn’t have to be devoured in one sitting. This is going to punch the nostalgia buttons of readers of a certain age (like yours truly) more than others, but the experiences are universal enough that anyone who grew up enjoying Christmas can identify.

Voger touches on everything from Captain Action to Gumby to “I Love Lucy,” to classic animated Christmas specials to hit holiday songs to beloved movies.

Holly Jolly: Celebrating Christmas Past in Pop Culture is a nice blast of Christmas spirit, and it’s really too much fun to hold off and read only during the holiday season. You should be able to order it from any bookseller using the ISBN code, or get it directly from the publisher .

Christkindlmarket

This is a repeat from last year’s Gift Guide, but the mugs and scarves and other fine stuff have all been updated for the new year.

The Christkindlmarket Chicago was first conceptualized in 1995 when The German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest Inc. (GACC Midwest) was seeking alternative ways to promote bilateral trade between the USA and Germany.

The inaugural event took place on Pioneer Court in 1996 for the first time. By special invitation of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, the Christkindlmarket Chicago moved to Daley Plaza in 1997 and has become a staple event on the plaza ever since. Last year there was no in-person Christkindlmarket, but they did do a virtual online store, and that is back this year with all-new Christmas gear.

In addition to the collectible mugs, this year they’ve added the first-ever Christkindlmarket official Christmas ornament.

At the online store you can order mugs and scarves and ornaments and other cool stuff, plus they have several different sizes of gift boxes with select items from some of their favorite vendors. These boxes include things like Souvenir Mugs; Glühwein Spice Mix; Hermann the German’s roasted almonds; Bob’s Belguim Hot Chocolate Mix and many other traditional trappings of the holiday season.

Check out the Christkindlmarket online store and you’ll find a variety of gift ideas at a wide range of prices.

BILLY IDOL HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Dark Horse Records
In a variety of formats you can find HERE

It’s a nice day for a White Christmas!

What would Christmas be without a cool new remixed and remastered holiday album, and who better than Billy Idol, the New Wave/Punk icon, to deliver it.

Even if you find that you’re dancing with yourself underneath the mistletoe, your spirits will be brightened by hearing Mr. Idol’s take on 15 classic and original holiday songs.

TRACKLIST:

1. Frosty The Snowman
2. Silver Bells
3. Happy Holiday
4. White Christmas
5. Here Comes Santa Claus
6. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
7. Santa Claus Is Back In Town
8. Let It Snow
9. Winter Wonderland
10. Run Rudolph Run
11. Jingle Bell Rock
12. O Christmas Tree
13. Silent Night
14. Auld Lang Syne
15. On Christmas Day

Sure, it originally came out fifteen years ago, but this version adds a new song (and subtracts a couple), and you probably missed it when it first came out anyway.

You can order this album on CD, vinyl, or white vinyl, HERE, plus you’ll find a collection of other holiday-themed Billy Idol merch, too, including an ugly holiday sweater with an f-bomb on it. You can probably find it anywhere fine music is sold.

The Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories
by Walt Kelly, John Stanley and more
edited by Craig Yoe
IDW Books
ISBN-10: 1600107737
$34.99

This is a book I recommended several years ago, but it’s still in print, and you can still find it at Amazon, and I can’t think of a better way to jump-start your holiday spirit than in this reprint collection of classic comics.

Among the joyful and innocent work in this volume, you will find stories by Walt Kelly (“Pogo”), John Stanley (“Little Lulu”), and many others. If part of your Christmas tradition is cozying up with a big stack of holiday themed comics, this is the book for you. It’s 176 pages of holiday happiness. Just check the publisher’s blurb:

These wonderful Christmas comics from the Golden Age of Comics will warm the hearts of children of all ages! Top cartoonists like Walt (Pogo) Kelly, John (Little Lulu) Stanley, and Dan Noonan penned the humorous, heartwarming comics in this beautiful collection. You’ll meet elves, reindeer, talking snowmen, funny animals, and, of course, Santa Claus himself, in terrific stories that will provide a sense of wonder for the whole family.

You should be able to order this from any bookseller using the ISBN number.

Tim Burton’s The NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Available in a variety of formats, DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital

I have to admit a personal agenda here. I’ve noticed that a lot of folks consider The Nightmare Before Christmas to be a Halloween movie.

Those people are wrong. This movie is about Christmas. It even has “Christmas” in the title. Santa Claus is in it, for crap’s sake!

And the movie is all about appreciating the Christmas experience. This animated classic is the perfect way to get your hardcore Halloween-addicted friend or family member to grudgingly acknowledge that Christmas is cool too.

So I’m including it on this list. It’s available almost everywhere movies are sold or streamed. A new Blu-Ray release includes a sing-along version, which might put some folks off their lunch (the last thing I want to hear when I’m trying to watch a movie is somebody beside me singing their own version of it), but if that’s what floats your boat, go for it.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is way more of a Christmas movie than Die Hard, so you really ought to consider this as a holiday mood enhancer.

Today in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide we bring you the first of two Beatle-themed days (the second of these will happen next week). Today, due to the high-end nature of most of our picks, we are breaking the fifty-dollar barrier with four of the five entries. However, the boxed set remastered releases we recommend are all available in a variety of formats, with a wide range of lower prices. However, the book, which was just released yesterday, is pricey, but worth every penny. Obviously, all of today’s picks are recommended for Beatles fans, young and old, and anybody who loves the best music in the world.

Let It Be Super Deluxe Box Set, 5 CD
by The Beatles
Capitol Records
$139.99 (discounted at many retailers)
Available in less elaborate editions at lower prices

This is the long-awaited remixed and remastered version of what, to many Beatle fans, is their most disappointing album. Essentially the soundtrack to the film of the same name, Let It Be was recorded under unusual and stressful conditions, and coincided with a time when the band had just exhausted their stash of unrecorded songs the previous year with the White Album.

While the album contains major tunes like “Let It Be,” “Get Back” and “The Long and Winding Road,” it also has more than its fair share of filler, and a muddled production that shifted from unproduced to overproduced during the gestation of the album/movie project.

Yet, the new box set is a must-have for Beatles fans.  Newly mixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell in stereo, 5.1 surround DTS, and Dolby Atmos, the new stereo mix of the album was guided by the original “reproduced for disc” version by Phil Spector. The Super Deluxe Edition includes 27 unreleased session recordings, a 4-track Let It Be EP, the 1969 unreleased 14-track “Get Back” stereo mix by Glyn Johns, and a 100-page hardback book with an intro by Paul McCartney, track-by-track recording information, and many unseen photos, notes, and more.

The Let It Be Super Deluxe Box Set offers a fascinating peek inside the sausage factory for Beatles fans. The bonus tracks show several songs from Abbey Road and the band’s solo endeavors in their “work in progress” stage, and we get plenty of fun studio chatter, jam sessions and alternate versions of the songs that made the original album.

You have to remember that every Beatles album is somebody’s favorite, and if you know somebody who loves Let It Be, then they need to have this in their life. Of course, this was released to tie-in with the Peter Jackson Get Back film, which debuts on Disney+ later this month.

The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present
by Paul McCartney
Liveright
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1631492563
$100 (heavily discounted at some online retailers)

Perfect for any fan of Sir Paul McCartney, this book is a treasure. I just got my copy yesterday (the day of release) and it’ll be weeks before I have a chance to read it all.

The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present celebrates the creative life and the musical genius of Paul McCartney through 154 of his most meaningful songs.

From his early Liverpool days, through the historic decade of The Beatles, to Wings and his long solo career, The Lyrics pairs the definitive texts of 154 Paul McCartney songs with first-person commentaries on his life and music. Spanning two alphabetically arranged volumes, these commentaries reveal how the songs came to be and the people who inspired them: his devoted parents, Mary and Jim; his songwriting partner, John Lennon; his “Golden Earth Girl,” Linda Eastman; his wife, Nancy McCartney; and even Queen Elizabeth, among many others. Here are the origins of “Let It Be,” “Lovely Rita,” “Yesterday,” and “Mull of Kintyre,” as well as McCartney’s literary influences, including Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, and Alan Durband, his high-school English teacher.

With images from McCartney’s personal archives―handwritten texts, paintings, and photographs, hundreds previously unseen―The Lyrics, spanning sixty-four years, becomes the definitive literary and visual record of one of the greatest songwriters of all time.

This is 960 pages, spread across two slipcovered volumes, of pure McCartney gold. How can you go wrong? Available from any bookseller, but heavily discounted online.

All Things Must Pass Super Deluxe Box Set, 5 CD
by George Harrison
Capitol Records
$149.99 (heavily discounted at many retailers)
Available in less elaborate editions at lower prices

Recommended for any Beatles fan, but particularly for fans of George, this is Harrison’s first “real” solo album, released after the breakup of The Beatles. Filled largely with a backlog of songs that The Beatles never got around to recording, the original release of All Things Must Pass was a two-LP bumper crop of great songwriting, with a bonus LP of Harrison having fun jamming in the studio.

In celebration of its 50th anniversary (plus one year due to the pandemic), George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass has been commemorated with a suite of new releases. The Super Deluxe Edition collects 70 tracks across 5 CDs including 47 tracks (42 previously unreleased) of demos, outtakes, and studio jams.

Also in this set is a Blu-ray presenting the main album in hi-res stereo, 5.1 surround sound, and Dolby Atmos. Housed in a beautiful slipcase with a 56-page scrapbook by Olivia Harrison and a replica of the original album poster.

As with the Let It Be box set, All Things Must Pass benefits from a new mix that brings new clarity to the somewhat muddy original mix by the album’s producer. The fresh mix and the demos and outtakes are a real treat, even for fans who own the 40th Anniversary remastered edtition from eleven years ago.

All Things Must Pass was revelatory on its initial release for showing that George had song since come into his own as a songwriter, and was now a peer of Lennon and McCartney. The new mix makes that even more clear.

Plastic Ono Band Box Set, 6 CD
by John Lennon
Capitol Records
$135.84 (discounted at many retailers)
Available in less elaborate editions at lower prices

Plastic Ono Band was John Lennon’s first post-Beatles solo album, and it remains one of the most stark, stunning confessional works in rock and roll.

This version has been completely remixed from original multitracks, overseen by producer Yoko Ono Lennon, featuring Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston & Phil Spector.

Extras on this multi-disc set include: Ultimate Mixes, Outtakes, Elements, Raw Studio, Evolution, Demos, Jams & Yoko Live Sessions. These are found on 2 Blu-Ray Audio Discs and 6 CDs. Included in this set are 159 new mixes; 11+ hrs of audio; 132-page hardback book with rare photos, memorabilia & extensive notes; Poster & 2 postcards.

Since the original album took a minimalist approach, the new mixes don’t add a whole lot, but they do offer up some fresh clarity. The real meat is in the Ultimate and Evolution mixes, some of which allow you to hear John’s voice, un-processed, in all it’s glory.

As with the other box sets on today’s list, Plastic Ono Band is also available in less elaborate versions on CD and vinyl.

A must-have set for any fan of John.

Change The World – EP
by Ringo Starr
Universal Music
$11.98

This is our stocking-stuffer-priced pick for today, Ringo Starr, who at the age of 81 appears to have been aging in reverse for many years, has a new EP with some great new music for fans of The Beatles’ drummer.

Change The World is his second EP after his announcement that he was done recording full albums, and it’s an absolute treat.

Change The World, recorded at Ringo’s Roccabella West, includes: “Let’s Change The World” (written by Joseph Williams/Steve Lukather) a song that delivers a welcome dose of hope and optimism; the reggae-infused “Just That Way” (Ringo Starr/Bruce Sugar); the Country-esque “Coming Undone,” Starr’s first collaboration with Linda Perry who wrote and plays on the track (also with Trombone Shorty); and Ringo rocks his version of “Rock Around The Clock” revved up by the unmistakable Joe Walsh on guitar.

I’ve already played a couple of these tracks on Beatles Blast (which can be heard on The AIR every Wednesday at 2 PM) and the response has been terrific. Change The World sends a great message, and should put a smile on the face of any fan of the Fab Four.

Available almost anywhere that CDs are sold.