Still Recovering From The Trip

The PopCulteer
September 4, 2026

We’re going to have a few short items or photos this week because, full disclosure here, your humble blogger is not quite recovered from his nine-day anniversary excursion up North, and is still struggling to get back into the groove of cranking out daily material for this blog.

We got back six days ago, but between a plumbing emergency (since resolved, thanks to the fine folks at Mullen), and the gas company spending the week loudly tearing up the street just outside my office window, your humble correspondent has found himself too pooped to PopCult.

I have a ton of stuff to bring you, including photos and video from The Hershey Action Figure and Toy Show, a photo essay of our visit to the Museum of Ceramics, a few non-copyright-infringey pictures from The Warhol Museum, and some other items from the trip, but I want to do those up correctly, and that means maybe getting a little rest first.

I’m at the age where, after a vacation, I need a brief staycation in order to recover.

But I do have a few things to share today, so here goes…

It’s BANDCAMP FRIDAY Again!

Bandcamp Friday is back this Friday, September 4.

On select Fridays throughout the year, Bandcamp waives their share of sales. This means fans can support artists more directly. It all goes back to that whole “by your music in an ethical manner” thing that I talk about every week on Radio Free Charleston.

It’s a great time to pick up that album you’ve had your eye on, explore something new, or revisit an old favorite. You can even download new music that’s just released today, like the new single from David Synn.

Bandcamp Friday lasts 24 hours, starting at midnight Pacific time, so that means that it’s going on now. You can find the playlists for every episode of RFC in our archives, and whenever possible, the artist’s names in those playlists will take you to a Bandcamp page so you can show your support.

Let me reuse a few paragraphs I wrote earlier this year:

On Bandcamp Friday, they waive their usual fees and the artists get to keep virtually ALL of the money spent on their music and merch that they sell through Bandcamp.

This is why I like to plug Bandcamp Friday. As I just explained, that’s the day when my favored streaming service, Bandcamp, foregoes their usual cut of the money and lets the artists keep all the money spent on their music and merch.

The artists get a much bigger cut of the proceeds.  If you scroll down and check out almost any post about an episode of Radio Free Charleston that has a playlist in this blog since 2023, you will find that the list of artists have links, many of which take you directly to that artist’s Bandcamp page.

I’m talking about the likes of The Settlement, Byzantine, Brian Diller,  Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess , Corduroy Brown,  Frenchy & The Punk, The M.F.B. , Saycouth , June Swoon, Samuel S.C, Custard Flux and many many others. Plus this is a good time to pick up older releases and merch from your favorite local and indie artists.

You know what to do to support the local scene and independent artists.

Remember, it’s not just digital downloads. You can order vinyl, CDs, Cassettes, T Shirts, hats and all kinds of other cool band merch.

Random Images From The Trip

I want to get this post up and running early so I can slack off the rest of the day, so here’s a few more random pics from the big trip. Expect full photo essays and a video starting next week.

Squidward and Plankton are big fans of my friend, Pixie. Here they are catching up on her Tik Tok after commandeering my laptop.

Somehow I managed to resist the urge to buy this 1/4 scale antique diving helmet at Pottery City in East Liverpool, Ohio. Maybe it was because, despite it looking really cool, it weighed a ton and I didn’t want to carry it around the store.

In Akron, fancy people shop at Dollar Tree.

It’s Halloween at IKEA.

We spotted some of the Lafufiest Lafufery in mall kiosks on this trip.

For the love of God, I hope somebody let him out of there.

And with that, this week’s PopCulteer is done. Check back for our regular features and fresh content every day, and with any luck we’ll be back to our normal posting capacity next week.