Author: Rudy Panucci (Page 1 of 164)

The PopCulteer
September 11, 2026

I know it’s an anniversary today, but it’s one I choose not to make a show of observing. Instead, we have radio notes for you.

We have all-new episodes of our music specialty shows this Friday afternoon, as our radio station brings you classic Disco and obscure New Wave Music on The AIR. Tune in as we serve up new episodes of MIRRORBALL and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat! The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

Every Saturday we play catch-up and bring you a marathon of the previous week’s music specialty programming.

MIRRORBALL

Friday at 2 PM on The AIR, Mel Larch devotes a full hour of her classic Disco program to massive Disco hits from about half a century ago. These are some of the quintessential Disco hits, and you probably know and either love or hate them (or pretend to hate them while you secretly love them).

Whatever works for you. We’re just here to make people dance.

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 128

Kool & The Gang “Celebration”
Candi Staton “Young Hearts Run Free”
Shalamar “A Night To Remember”
The Jackson 5 “Dancing Machine”
Van McCoy “The Hustle”
Dan Hartman “Relight My Fire”
The Isley Brothers “It’s a Disco Night (Rock Don’t Stop)”
McFadden & Whitehead “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now”
CHIC “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)”
Donna Summer “Love’s Unkind”
KC & The Sunshine Band “Get Down Tonight”
Heatwave “Boogie Nights”
The Hues Corporation “Rock The Boat”
Tavares “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel”
Earth Wind & fire “September”
Peaches & Herb “Shake Your Groove Thing”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays most weeks  Monday at 9 AM and Tuesday at 1 PM and a four-hour mini-marathon of classic episodes Friday nights at 8 PM.

Power Pops And Fizzles On Big Electric Cat

Friday at 3 PM, Sydney Fileen delivers another show devoted to “New Wave Bands You Never Heard Of Before” with two hours of delightfully obscure UK Power Pop.

Power Pop was the happier offshoot of New Wave and Punk that brought the raw energy of this new music to classic melodies and harmonies.  This episode of BEC is loaded with toe-tapping shoulda-been-hits, by bands who only put out a few singles or maybe an album before falling off the face of the Earth.

Buried among these overlooked gems are bands that include future members of The Alarm and The Truth, as well as future superstar producers Richard Mazda and Steve Lillywhite. These are bands that sprung up in the wake of hitmakers like The Buzzcocks and The Jam, but sadly, despite their energy and enthusiasm, these are groups that didn’t make any hits.

Unless you’re a massive music nerd (not that being one is a bad thing), it’s not likely that you’ve ever heard any of the forty bands Sydney brings you on this program. So consider it a bonus, because even though it’s vintage New Wave Power Pop…it’s probably all new to you!

Check out the playlist…

BEC 140

The Invaders “Best Thing I Ever Did”
The Boyfriends “I’m In Love Today”
The Distractions “It Doesn’t Bother Me”
The Last Stands “Just A Number”
Really 3rds “Everyday, Everyway”
Seventeen “Don’t Let Go”
The Donkeys “Don’t go”
Slowguns “TV Movie”
The Stowaways “I Wanna Be Me”
Tonight “Money That’s Your Problem”
The Tours “Tourist Information”
The Keys “I Don’t Wanna Cry”
The Kick “Let’s Get Back Together”
Heroes “Some Kind Of Women”
The Squares “No Fear”
The Gas “Ignore Me”
The Strangeways “Show Her You Care”
The Paranoics “Stupid Guy”
Leyton Buzzard “I’m Hanging Around”
Yeh-Yeh “You Will Pay”
The Quads “There Must Be Thousands”
The Resistance “Survival Kit”
The Telegents “Seen It Before”
The Smirks “O.K, U.K.”
The Gangsters “Best Friend”
The Stilettos “This Is The Way”
Distractions “Something For The Weekend”
The Vipers “I’ve Got You”
Speedometers “Disgrace”
The Moondogs “Who’s Gonna Tell Mary”
The Vandells “Ruby Toot”
Spies “Thinking About The Sun”
Protex “A Place In The Heart”
The Zeroes “Hungry”
The Dazzlers “Lovely Crash”
The Lookalikes “Can I Take You Home”
Banditz “J.C.B.”
The Negatives “Money Talk”
The Monitors “Telegram”
Spys “The Young Ones”

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. Classic episodes can be heard as part of the overnight Haversham Recording Institute marathon Tuesday mornings at 1 AM. .

That’s it for this week’s PopCulteer, check back for all our regular features, with fresh content, every day.

Okay, so it’s not exactly an Earth-shattering revelation, and most people who’ve been to IKEA already knew it, but last month when Mrs. PopCulteer and I were on our anniversary trip, we made our first-ever trip to the legendary Swedish furniture and decor store, and it was news to us that they sold so many plush toys.

I mean, I knew about Punch, the monkey and his longtime companion, Djungelskong, but I didn’t realize that IKEA had so much more in the way of a huggable menagerie than that.

The truth is, we were impressed by the entire store…but we went as civilians, not as representatives of PopCult. I could easily have filled my phone with pictures of the cool, cheap stuff they sell, but I only whipped out the camera when we were looking at the plush toys.

Since we got back from the trip, adulting and the joys of home ownership, along with paying work, have prevented me from promptly sharing other images and video from our anniversary journey. Those are coming your way. Hopefully we’ll have video from The Hershey Action Figure and Toy Show on Sunday, and we have loads more cool things to share in the coming weeks,  once things settle down.

But today, I’m only able to eke out a few photos of the plush at IKEA.

At some point in the future Mel and I will make a return visit, and I’ll have an extensive photo essay here for you. But for now, it’s plushie time…

We resisted the urge to bring Djungelskong home with us. The car was very full by this point in our trip, and to be honest, we’re really not monkey people.

They also had giant plush, like this bear, that was seventeen feet tall (that may be a slight exaggeration).

More jungle critters were available. We were tempted by the elephant.

They had a bin of much more reasonably-sized plush. I think Mel got one of these bundles. I’m not sure because we still haven’t had time to unpack the IKEA bag yet.

Again, space constraints kept us from bringing home this good-sized Octopus.

But he did get to visit with his relative, Traveling Squidward, for the amusement of our friend, Pixie.

That is today’s photo essay. Expect more of these as we finally catch our breath after the anniversary trip.

This week, since we have new episodes of our Wednesday Music Specialty Programs on The AIR, plus we have a bunch of STUFF TO DO this weekend, we’re smushing everything up into one post. Radio notes come first!

Wednesday afternoon, The AIR brings you new installments of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast, and they are both fine gems of expertly-crafted internet radio.  You can tune in at the website, or just stay right here and  listen to the convenient embedded radio player lurking elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM (EDT) Beatles Blast brings you a May, 1980 interview with Sir Paul McCartney, back in his pre-Sir days.  This week we dedicate our entire show to one of the most curious and unexpected LP releases of the Beatles solo canon.

The McCartney Interview is a spoken word album featuring an interview of Paul McCartney by Vic Garbarini, recorded for the magazine Musician in May 1980. Originally done to promote the release of McCartney II early in 1980, this interview, in just under an hour, covers Paul’s entire musical history, from his early days in Liverpool, to the heights of Beatlemania and his time with Wings. He even touches on the “clues” to his death, and the influence that Motown, Skiffle, Stax and even New Wave had on his music.

What was so bizarre about this release is that the interview was so well-received that McCartney’s record label at the time, CBS, decided to give it an official commercial release. In the US it came out on December 4, 1980, making it the last record released by any Beatle before the assassination of John Lennon, just days later.  It’s the last time Paul spoke about John publicly while John was still alive. The interview is a fascinating historical document.

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 11 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon. A two-hour mini-marathon of classic episodes runs every Monday evening, starting at 11 PM.

At 3 PM (EDT) on Curtain Call, Mel Larch celebrates  this year’s Tony Award Winner for Best Musical a she continues her tradition of bringing you highlights of the award-winning show, from the cast album for Schmigadoon!

Schmigadoon! is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Cinco Paul. You probably already know that it’s an adaptation of the first season of the musical television Apple TV series of the same name co-created by Paul and Ken Daurio.
The musical includes songs both from the TV series, as well as original songs written by Paul for the stage.

The plot follows two New York City doctors, Melissa Gimble and Josh Skinner, struggling with their romantic relationship, who find themselves trapped in the titular magical town similar to the setting of a Golden Age musical, populated by colorful people who frequently break into song. With sly, affectionate nods to classic musicals, Schmigadoon! quickly became a favorite of “theatre kids” of all ages, and a transition to the stage was inevitable.

The musical premiered at the Eisenhower Theater at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., directed and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, and opened on Broadway in April 2026.

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM, Saturday at 8 PM and Monday at 9 AM. A two-hour mini-marathon of classic episodes can be heard Monday evening starting at 9 PM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

Meanwhile, after you listen to these shows, take note that STUFF TO DO is PopCult‘s weekly guide to just a few of the great events happening in Charleston, Huntington and a few other points here in West Virginia, and sometimes a little beyond our borders, in the coming days.

One of our featured events for this weekend is the second HurriCon, just a little drive West on I-64 from Charleston. You can read about it HERE, and gawk at the graphics right here…

Our other featured event is CultureFest, a longer drive South down I-77 from Charleston, in Princeton.  Read about it HERE…

Each week I try to tell you about a few cool events all around the state that you might not know about.  If you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future you can still contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky, Spoutible, Instagram or Twitter.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote.

I do ask that you send a graphic that includes the date, time and location, of the event, as well as the cost to attend.  I can’t promise that I’ll run it here,  but chances are I will unless it’s something completely offensive or an event happening in South Carolina. If it looks original and charmingly weird, you have a better chance of seeing it here.

Keep in mind that I’ll need this several days in advance, so please don’t send me a graphic on the day of the event and expect it to show up in this feature.

For much more comprehensive guides to things you can get into in our region, check out these two wonderful resources:

Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

Mya Ross at Status Quo does a much better job of compiling a list of local events than I do, and you can find the WTSQ guide to events HERE. Toss ’em a donation while you’re over there.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing. Plus there are free concerts almost every weekend at Taylor Books.

You might also find cool musical events at Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illnesses are still a going concern and many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, please respect their weishes and don’t be a jerk about it.

Here’s a few select suggestions for STUFF TO DO in and around Charleston and Huntington this weekend…

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Radio Free Charleston is ALL-NEW as we welcome our first-ever guest programmer for hour three Tuesday on The AIR!  To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

This week we have a show where the first two hours are jam-packed with great new local and indie music, as well as a few surprises, and then for our third hour, I turn over the programming duties to Jon Raider, an old friend who many folks may know as the drummer for Strawfyssh back in the day, and also as the creator and curator of The Scene group at Facebook.

When Jon’s schedule opens up, we hope to welcome him to The AIR to host his own show, but for now he’s going to pop up every few weeks by programming our third hour. This week he’s given us a Rockabilly goldmine, and it’s an absolute treat for your ears.

Before we get there, we have another killer collection of RFC music. Our first hour opens with a new single from GRPPLNG, the power punk group also known as the acclaimed wrestling tag team, The Motor City Machine Guns.  We also have new tracks from David Synn, Stick Men, Jim Lange, Riffstone, The Surfrajettes, Erik Woods, Messer Chups, William Matheny, Matching Outfits, Red Spot Rhythm Section and more.

Two of the artists giving us new tracks have great new videos to go along with them: Stitch Jones and His Bionic Marines and Schells & Vine. Check those out.

The playlist Jon gave us for our third hour is cram-packed full of Rockabilly greatness. 22 songs by 20 artists that will stir your soul and make you want to move your feet and ass…possibly even in that order.  He’s given us classics from the 1950s to modern times and the artists range from legends like Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins to overlooked masters like Thumper Jones and Pat Capocci.

I don’t have links for the artists in the third hour because, let’s face it, not a lot of folks who recorded seven decades ago are all that web-savvy, but you folks who are curious do know how to use the Google, right?

Bringing in a guest programmer is an exciting new experiment for RFC, and if the first one is any indication, it’s a smash hit.

Check out this playlist, with links to the artist’s page for the first two hours of the show…

RFC V5 284

hour one
GRPPLNG “Sleep”
David Synn “Indulgence of the Flesh”
Stick Men “Thief of the Dice”
Jim Lange “AFI Clip 7”
Riffstone “Mariana”
Tautologic “That’s What I Hear”
Stitch Jones & His Bionic Marines “Greatest Day”
Schells & Vine “Free”
The Surfrajettes “Heart of Glass (live)”
best dressed ghost “Peach Melvin”
Guy Parker, Dirt Reynolds, Mark Shambles, Sea Monster, Steve Sleaze “Ace of Spades (live)”
Jerks “Riptide”
Samuel S.C. “Celestial”
Erik Woods “Winter’s Solstice Solace”
Trio “Out In The Streets”

hour two
Messer Chups “Mad Monster Party”
William Matheny “Fairmont Hair”
The Waterboys “The Man With The Wind At His Heels”
Corduroy Brown “Hold The Line (live at the West Edge Factory)”
Sasha Colette & The Magnolias “Sacred Place”
Rocco DeLuca “Nightingale”
Matching Outfits “Leave It”
Red Spot Rhythm Section “Win For Losing”
Feeders “Back To Indiana”
James McCartney “I’ll Say What I Want To”
Billy Strings “Burn The Other End”
The Holler Hounds “Take Your Shot”
June Swoon “Someone Else’s Dream”
Hello June “Faded Blue”

hour three
Guest-programmer: Jon Raider
“Westside At Midnight”
Buddy Holly “I’m Changing All Those Changes”
Roy Hall “Three Alley Cats”
Kim Lenz & Her Jaguars “Havin’ A Ball”
Gene Maltais “The Raging Sea”
Glen Glenn “Everybody’s Movin'”
Thumper Jones “Rock It”
Rockin’ Ryan and The Real Goners “Please Tease Louise”
Hal Harris “Sixteen Chicks”
Sonny Fisher “Rockin’ Daddy”
Lillian Briggs “I Want You To Be My Baby”
The Blasters “No Other Girl”
Sid King & The Five Strings “Sag Drag and Fall”
Eddie Bond “Flip Flop Mama”
Charlie Feathers & His Musical Warriors “The Wild Side of Life”
Jackie Lee Cochran “Ruby Pearl”
Rockin’ Ryan and The Real Goners “Caged Heat”
Rip Carson and the Twilight Trio “I’m Gonna Drink”
Pat Capocci “Slave For The Beat”
Wanda Jackson “Run Devil Run”
Flat Duo Jets “John Law/You Only Live Twice”
Carl Perkins “Jive After Five”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. 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 last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM get ready for two classic episodes of The Swing Shift, featuring the best Swing Music from the last century!

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM,  Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursdays and Sundays.

This time our art is a wee bit of a departure from the series of pieces I’ve posted here over the last several weeks based on photos taken from the very slow-moving Amtrak Cardinal as it was leaving Chicago last June.

This time, we are back to watercolor on textured paper, but we are still on the same train. However, we are considerably farther along in our journey. We are in Northern Indiana, and rather than go with the moody twilight in the original photo, I decided to see if I could change the view into an early morning scene.

This move injected some possibly-too-subtle-to-notice surrealism, but it made it more interesting for me to paint. I also went with a less-saturated look.

Some of this was because I’m running low on watercolors at the moment.

Anyway, the end result came out more Hopperesque than I’d intended, but that can’t be a bad thing, can it?

If you want to see this image larger click HERE.

Meanwhile, over in radioland, Monday beginning at 2 PM on The AIR,  we bring you a classic episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM we do the same with an encore of a more recent episode 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 elsewhere on this page. 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. 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.

Tonight at 8 PM, tune in for a classic edition of The Comedy Vault. That’s followed by two-hour blocks of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast at 9 PM and 11 PM, and then an overnight assortment of our Haversham Recording Institute programs at 1 AM.

I don’t like to repeat the videos I post here in Sunday Evening Video very often, but this one has become an annual tradition and hardly anybody reads the blog on Labor Day weekend anyway and I could really use a bit more slacking-off time after my anniversary trip, so here goes, for the seventh time.

If you are of a certain age, Labor Day seems synonymous with The Jerry Lewis Labor Day MDA Telethon, which the famed comedian hosted for almost sixty years.

The telethon is gone, as is Jerry, but MDA (the Muscular Dystrophy Association) maintains a YouTube page where they still post highlights from the vaults.

Above you see a playlist with over a hundred videos of musical legends like Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, B.B. King, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Toni Basil and many others. Best of all, you can watch these clips without sitting through four hours of corporate spokespeople droning on in a monotone about how much they care about the kids. I mean, no offense to the guy from 7 11, but I’m pretty sure they play those parts on an endless loop in hell. Above you see the good stuff, the cream of the crop.

Seriously, there are some gems in there like Duran Duran, MC Hammer and Charo. There’s lots of Charo. Lots of MC Hammer, too, now that I think about it.

Enjoy!

This week we go back to November, 2014 for a full-length episode of RFC loaded with a variety of music and animation. That would be music from Sasha Colette, Tyler Childers and Elephant in the Room, and animation from Third Mind Incarnation and Frank Panucci.

The music was recorded between 2010 and 2014 at LiveMix Studio, The Dunbar Lanes and The Empty Glass, and some of the animation dates back to 2007. This was an archive-diving episode of Radio Free Charleston, even though some of the music had just been recorded days before it went live.

You can read the original production notes HERE.

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.

Your PopCulteer is back from his anniversary trip, rested up and ready to bring you the first of several photo essays devoted to the cool stuff we saw and did on our trip. Today is all about Fiesta Tableware!

We’re doing these out of order, so don’t expect any strict continuity here.

Today we bring you more than a dozen photos from inside the museum that visitors get to see at the end of the Fiesta Factory Tour.  Sadly, we did not get to go on the tour as scheduled. Something happened that caused the production line to be shut down, so we were taken to a small room and took the video tour instead,  It was a minor disappointment, but it also gives us an excuse to make another visit sometime in the future.  When you schedule the tour, they warn you in advance that it might be replaced with a video tour, so we were prepared for the possibility.

Plus, the video was pretty intriguing. And we got to watch it in the small room that serves as the Homer Laughlin/Fiesta museum that we’d get to see at the end of the regular tour. This was a big part of the attraction for Mel, so the day was not a total loss.

In fact, that room was filled with so much cool stuff that Mel came away with several new grails to seek out for her collection, and I grabbed a ton of photos, from which I have fifteen for you to see today.

There is such a rich history of the former Homer Laughlin company, and they made lots of things in that factory that we were not previously aware of, so it was still a wonderful time.

Ironically, that room with museum is behind a door that we have obliviously walked right past every time we’ve been to the Fiesta Outlet Store before.

We do want to return for the physcial tour, but I understand that they shut the tour down in October, until January, so that they can start doing experimental runs of the next color that won’t be unveiled until the new year.

But here’s some highlights of that awesome collection in the museum…

The room is filled, floor-to-ceiling, with rare pieces from the history of Homer Laughlin/Fiesta.

Everywhere you look, you see examples of rare commemorative pieces and retired colors.

This amazing Art Deco vase was mind-blowing, and then we found out that, shockingly, it was a very limited production that was only made five years ago.

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STUFF TO DO is PopCult‘s weekly guide to just a few of the great events happening in Charleston, Huntington and a few other points here in West Virginia, and sometimes a little beyond our borders, in the coming days. We are back after a week off, cavorting around between Hershey, Akron, Newell and Pittsburgh, and we are going to shrink this feature again this week, since it’s working out pretty well to be more selective.

We’re not doing a featured event this week because this weekend is Labor Day, and there seems to be a dearth of big local shows to plug. So maybe get out and enjoy the unofficial end of summer with family and/or friends.

Each week I try to tell you about a few cool events all around the state that you might not know about.  If you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future you can still contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky, Spoutible, Instagram or Twitter.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote.

I do ask that you send a graphic that includes the date, time and location, of the event, as well as the cost to attend.  I can’t promise that I’ll run it here,  but chances are I will unless it’s something completely offensive or an event happening in South Carolina. If it looks original and charmingly weird, you have a better chance of seeing it here.

Keep in mind that I’ll need this several days in advance, so please don’t send me a graphic on the day of the event and expect it to show up in this feature.

For much more comprehensive guides to things you can get into in our region, check out these two wonderful resources:

Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

Mya Ross at Status Quo does a much better job of compiling a list of local events than I do, and you can find the WTSQ guide to events HERE. Toss ’em a donation while you’re over there.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing. Plus there are free concerts almost every weekend at Taylor Books.

You might also find cool musical events at Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illnesses are still a going concern and many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, please respect their weishes and don’t be a jerk about it.

Here’s a few select suggestions for STUFF TO DO in and around Charleston and Huntington this weekend…