Author: Rudy Panucci (Page 106 of 144)

We have another cool comic book Kickstarter campaign to tell you about, and the cool things about it are that it’s by a local creator and it’s already fully-funded, with two weeks left, so you can be sure you’ll get it.

The Red Ram: Toxic Suicide is the brainchild of Charlestonian Paul Rashid, MD, a board-certified Psychiatrist, and an old buddy of your humble blogger going back over thrity years, to the days of Comic World. He’s created this comic book both to indulge his life-long love of comics, but also as a bit of an outreach to help make people more aware of mental health issues and erase some of the stigma of mental illness.

The Red Ram: Toxic Suicide #1 is a 22-page comic book that follows Technology Titan RJ Ronaldson who, in his alter ego as The Red Ram, is at the end of his battle-damaged vigilante career. But before RJ can set down his mantle, he gets roped into one last war with his arch-nemesis.

Along the way, he is sidelined by a suicidal female and her psychiatrist. This leads the Red Ram down a winding tale involving alcoholism, opioid addiction, depression, anxiety, narcissism and even suicide.

Will order be restored or will these darker forces overtake and prevail in today’s rapidly advancing world?

In his quest to combine elements of dark action and a psychological thriller with the “relevant” comics by Rashid’s creative hero, Neal Adams, he came up with The Red Ram, a comic book adventure steeped in real-life issues and for mature readers.

As Rashid says on the campaign page, “If you’re a Batman fan, then you’re gonna love The Red Ram!”

Joining Rashid in telling this tale is artist, J.C. Grande, a veteran of Image Comics, IDW and other publishers, who brings a visceral, gritty style to the adventure. He is aided and abetted by colorist, Santosh Rath. Rounding out the creative team is award-winning editor, David Gallaher and Noelia Dixon, who assisted with character designs.

Check out this video for more background on the project…

You can kick in on Red Ram: Toxic Suicide #1 at THIS LINK.  Rewards include the basic comic book in print or .pdf form, along with print variant covers and retail bundles.

Opening officially on Broadway August 3, Back to the Future: The Musical is a musical adaptation of the beloved 1985 film of the same name, which was directed by Robert Zemeckis. The musical features music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard and a book by the film’s screenwriter, Bob Gale. BATF: The Musical sports a combination of original music, as well as songs featured in the film, such as “The Power of Love” and “Johnny B. Goode”.

Wednesday afternoon on The AIR,  at 3 PM Mel Larch devotes the entire hour of Curtain Call to highlights from Back to the Future: The Musical.  You can tune in at the website, or you can just stay here and listen to the convenient embedded radio player elswhere on this page.

Mel brings you highlights of the UK original cast album, to whet your appetite for time travel on the Great White Way. The musical received its world premiere at Manchester Opera House in February 2020, ahead of a 2021 West End transfer. It starred Olly Dobson as Marty McFly and Roger Bart as “Doc” Brown. The production received rave reviews in London and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 2022. The Broadway production retains Bart.

Let’s quote liberally from the Broadway hype:

Welcome to Hill Valley! When Marty McFly finds himself transported back to 1955 in a time machine built by the eccentric scientist Doc Brown, he accidentally changes the course of history. Now he’s in a race against time to fix the present, escape the past and send himself… back to the future.

Set your destination time, New York and get ready to make musical theater history.

Get your tickets yesterday!

Check out the show’s website for more info.

You may have seen a cool bit of news last week as cast members of the movie, including Michael J. Fox,  Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson, attended a preview performance. The show has already been seen by more than half a million people in the UK, which is really something when you consider that it opened during the pandemic.

The show’s composers are Alan Silvestri, a noted Hollywood film composer and long-time collaborator with Zemeckis, who counts the BTTF movies among his many other big hit movie scores, and Glen Ballard who wrote and produced songs for Michael Jackson, Alanis Morrisette, Aerosmith, Ringo Starr, Annie Lennox, Stevie Nicks and dozens of other major artists.

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 six-hour marathon of classic episodes can be heard Sunday evenings starting at 6 PM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

Tuesday afternoon happens again this week, and on The AIR that means it’s time for a new  Radio Free Charleston. 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 tons of replays throughout the week.  This week we have one all-new hour, and two hours of a 2019 episode of RFC International that hasn’t been heard since the week it originally aired.

Kicking off this cool edition of our show is a new song from Cassius At Best. I believe this is a harbinger of a forthcoming album, which will be quite a long-awaited treasure.

Elsewhere we have a first hour that contains brand-new music from Aristotle Jones, Buni Muni, Brian Diller, Jeff Ellis and The 3 Clubmen, which is Andy Partridge’s laest project.  We close out our first hour with a new single from Chicago musician/actor/playwright Matt Tiegler. His song “Dreams” will be released on all major streaming platforms on Friday, and it’s a teaser for his upcoming album, Hands Free Down Hill.

Our second and third hours bring back a Ska-centric episode of Radio Free Charleston International from 2019 that acted as both a tribute to the late Ranking Roger and a quick primer on cool Ska music. Roger’s on every tune in the second hour of this week’s RFC, and he also kicks off the third hour, which is a Ska-filled treat for the ears.

Check out the playlist below to see all the goodies we have in store. Where possible in the first hour, live links will take you to the artist’s pages so you can find out more about them, buy their music and find out where to see them perform live…

RFC V5 140

hour one
Cassius At Best “Kiddo”
Aristotle Jones “You”
Garland Jeffreys “Rough And Ready”
The Earl Slick Band “Games”
The Amazing Delores “Ship of Slaves”
Sheldon Vance “Same Old Story”
Brian Diller “Carnival”
Buni Muni “F-”
Toccata Nosferatu “Anubis”
Ann Magnuson “Whatever Happened to New York”
Novelty Island “Eureka, I Can See”
The 3 Clubmen “Aviatrix”
Jeff Ellis “Home 2”
Matt Tiegler “Dream”

hour two
The English Beat “Ranking Full Stop”
The Beat “A Good Day For Sunshine”
Ranking Roger “One Minute Closer (To Death)”
General Public “General Public”
The English Beat “Doors Of Your Heart”
Ranking Roger “Wingmaker Dub Pt 3)
The Beat “Long Call Short Talk”
The Beat “Skank Away”
Ranking Roger “They Know”
General Public” As A Matter Of Fact”
The English Beat “Spar Wid Me”
The English Beat “Stand Down Margeret/Whine & Grind”
The Beat “Public Confidential”

hour three
The English Beat (2018) “Redemption Time”
The Specials “A Message To You, Rudy”
Desmond Dekker “The Israelites”
The Skatalites “Lucky Seven”
Madness “Night Boat To Cairo”
The Toasters “Don’t Let The Bastards Grind You Down”
Bad Manners “Lip Up Fatty”
Save Ferris “Lies”
Operation Ivy “Take Warning”
Goldfinger “You Think It’s A Joke”
Reel Big Fish “It’s Not Easy”
No Doubt “Blue In the Face”
The Selecter “Big Badoof”
The Aquabats “Idiot Box”
The Science Fair Explosion “Before It Ends”
Gogo 13 “House Ape”

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,  and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic 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 last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM we offer up two classic episodes of The Swing Shift.  You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 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 Thursday and Sunday evenings.

Okay, this week I went full-tilt Hopper.

Inspired by sights seen on the L in Chicago, this is an acrylic painting on textured board.  The Washington/Wabash Station in the loop has this cool geometric canopy that makes great shadows. And Hopper was all about shadows and light. Here I added a figure, a preoccupied girl looking at her phone with a water bottle tucked under her arm, who was inspired by a figure snapped in a different photo in Chicago. I changed the hair and clothes, but she fit right in as an accent to the architectural nature of the rest of the painting.

This was done over the course of four or five days, which is short for me, dealing with MG this time of year. The finished piece was too big to be scanned in one piece, so I had to scan half at a time then composite them digitally. Although I did this as a larger piece, I still consider it a study for an even larger canvas piece somewhere down the road.

I’m really happy with this one, so much so that next week’s art will probably suck.

To see this one bigger try clicking HERE.

Over in radioland, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a classic episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM a classic 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 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. You can hear two classic episodes of the show Sunday at 2 PM.

At 8 PM you can hear a compilation of The BS Crazy Show on last week’s episode of The Comedy Vault.

Tonight at 9 PM the Monday Marathon presents ten hours of Mel larch’s Disco Showcase, MIRRORBALL!

Above you see PopCult’s video of last weekend’s opening of Dr. Mercer’s “Joe Too Cool To Smoke” Peanuts memorablia collection at The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum.

Our video only captured a portion of the over 5,000 Peanuts items on display.

We also have snippets of the guided tour, conducted by Wheeling, West Virginia pediatric physician Dr. William Mercer, who accumulated this massive collection (and quite a few great experiences) over forty years of practicing pediatric medicine.

Dr. Mercer’s collection was largely assembled from patient’s gifts, beginning in 1987 after he designed a Snoopy-themed pediatric room at his practice.

Over the years Dr. Mercer began doing outreach programs in schools, telling kids to be “Too Cool To Smoke” (and later vape). The collection is permanent, but will rotate often because it’s so huge that only some of it can be shown at one time.

If you want to see Dr. Mercer’s Peanuts collection, check out The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum. for details, hours and directions.

And here’s a few more photos (sans captions) of the cool stuff in Dr. Mercer’s collection…

This week we are going back to March 2008 for “Fantastic Four Shirt,” episode 37 of Radio Free Charleston. This is a very special episode because it features two acts who were alumni of the original RFC radio program, but were just making their first appearance on the video version of the show.  Lady D is, of course, Doris Fields,a legend of the West Virginia music scene. Blue Million was also an RFC radio vet–Their front-man, Alan Griffith, appeared performing solo on one memorable night, backing up me and The Stunning Janice as we butchered Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone.”

Also on the this episode is an installment of “The Android Family,” and part four of Frank Panucci’s series of enlightening animation, this episode is called “Porky Bang.”  Host segments were shot at LiveMix Studio’s Quarrier Street home.

You can read the original production notes HERE, but remember, many of the links are deader than crap.

The PopCulteer
July 28, 2023

Today we have a photo essay of a very special place in the Windy City. On our recent trip back to Chicago we made it a point to stop at the highly-recommended Sideshow Gelato, which as the name implies, is a combination of a great Gelato place with an old school sideshow exhibition.

Gelato is Italian ice cream, which uses more milk and less cream, and no egg yolks, so it has a denser texture with less air, and richer flavor due to having less fat.

We were there on a weekday afternoon, so while we saw the stage and most of the attractions, we didn’t get to see any performers or films or anything. Still, the Gelato was fantastic, on par with Charleston’s own Caffe Romeo, and the decor and attractions were priceless.

I first heard about this place from Mitch O’Connell, who was lucky enough to attend a sneak preview right before they opened. Later, Mel saw where they were carrying Penn Jilette’s own Gelato creation. The fact that it’s just half a block from the heart of Lincoln Square, one of our favorite places to go in Chicago, meant that we were destined to try it out.

Lincoln Square is home to Quake Collectibles, Laurie’s Planet of Sound, Enjoy-an Urban General Store, Merz Apothocary and Giddings Plaza, which is where I filmed Tautologic for RFC 217.

Sideshow Gelato is literally just across the street and past the Walgreens from this Mecca of coolness in Chicago. It’s technically in Lincoln Square, but everything else I mentioned is along one really cool stretch.

Now, when I say “sideshow,” I mean the really cool, freaky stuff like two-headed babies, monkey-fish carcasses, life-sized photos of the world’s tallest man–classic carnival sideshow material. Plus the decor is terrific. The tables are decorated with vintage and new magic show posters. There are cool books and T-shirts and stuff for sale. I don’t want to give away all the secrets of Sideshow Gelato, so we’re a bit skimpy on the sideshow attractions. If you’re curious, you’ll just have to go there yourself.

Also, I didn’t get any photos of the Gelato itself. It was over 90 degrees that day, and once we had Gelato in our hands, eating it took priority over photographing it.

And did I mention the Gelato itself is great?

Here’s how cool this place looks…

This is where the Gelato lives…until they give it to you to eat.

You may have noticed that I capitalized “Gelato” in this entire post. It’s so good that it demands the extra respect.

Behind the colorful counter and with just a glimpse of the cool ceiling.

Continue reading

This weekend your PopCulteer is headed to Louisville for the Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo.  I told you about that last Sunday, and I’ll tell you more about it next week when I get back. Meanwhile, here are a few suggestions of things worth venturing out in the heat for in and around Charleston and The Mountain State this weekend.

I want to make special note of The Blob, the musical by Mark Scarpelli and Dan Kehde, which is being revived at The Elk City Playhouse by CYAC.  It’s our first graphic below, but here’s more details from their PR:

A 1958 Horror Classic comes to life on the musical stage with music, dancing, romance, and DooWop fun, in one amazing evening of entertainment! Featuring performances by Nik Tidquist, Julia Carriger, Mattie Connelly, Austin Susman, Caroline Chamness and a supporting ensemble of singers, dancers and musicians.

The production includes twenty songs from Scarpelli and Kehde with such titles as “Duck and Cover”, “Midnight Monster Marathon”, ”A Boy To Hold Me”, “Too Young To Ever Fall In Love”, “Rocket Route Forty”, “Little Moon” and many more.

7 PM
Friday July 28, Saturday July 29
Friday August 4, Saturday August 5

And 2 PM July 30

Tickets $15.00 Adults, $10.00 Students/Seniors
Available online or at the door
Due to limited seating, reservations are suggested
The Elk City Playhouse
218 Washington St. W. Charleston, WV.

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  Friday it’s Minor Swing. Saturday Ronald & The Rayguns entertain the crowd at Charleston’s beloved Bookstore/Coffee Shop/Art Gallery.

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this weekend to tell you about. Thursday at 5:30 PM, Swingstein and Robin return with Swing for a good cause. Friday Tim Courts plays during happy hour.  Later on Friday The Kind Theives make their return to the Glass.  Saturday at 10 PM, Jakob Thmas and Friends with Patty and The Butchers come to The Empty Glass stage. Sunday, Los Angelenos Leather Duchess show up at The Glass at 10 PM. Next Monday it’s Open Mic Night at 9 PM and on Tuesday The legendary Spurgie Hankins Band does their monthly gig at The Glass.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet. It’s still a going concern with the ‘rona surging again. And now there are seasonal allergies, the flu, heatstroke, indcited co-conspirators, Ninja cicadas, soccer hooligans and other damned good reasons to be careful. 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.

If you’re up for going out, here are a few suggestions for the weekend, roughly in order…

Your PopCulteer is back from The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum, where I attended the official opening of a huge collection of Peanuts memorabilia. The display features part of a massive collection of Peanuts-related memorabilia accululated by Wheeling, West Virginia physician Dr. William Mercer over forty years of practicing pediatric medicine.

Dr. Mercer’s collection was largely assembled with patient’s gifts, beginning in 1987 after he designed a Snoopy-themed pediatric room at his practice. Over the years Dr. Mercer began doing outreach programs in schools, telling kids to be “Too Cool To Smoke” (and later vape).

Mel and I shot video, but it’s taking a bit longer than expected to edit, so today I’m going to bring you a collection of photos. The plan is to have the video ready and posted within the next week.

When we do have the video done, it’ll show off the collection, but also include highlights of Dr. Mercer’s tour of his collection.

The crew at Kruger Street put together an amazing exhibit, with over 5,000 Peanuts items perfectly arranged and displayed all over the lower level of the Museum.

Here’s our first look at Dr. Mercer’s Peanuts collection, at The Kruger Street Toy& Train Museum. The exhibit is open now and will be a permanent part of Kruger Street going forward…

For the opening, we were directed to the side door.

Dr. Mercer (in the orange shirt) begins the tour.

Counting the neckties hanging over head, there may be a thousand Peanuts items just in this photo.

It’s really a massive collection. I should’ve brought a wide-angle lens.

Displays focus on the different Peanuts characters, with much of the emphasis on Snoopy.

They don’t leave out Charlie Brown, though.

There is so much to delve into here.

A whole wall is devoted to the “Joe Too Cool To Smoke Campaign,” including this woodcut sign, made by a former Marx Toys design artist.

A permanent wall of Christmas Peanuts items.

More Snoopy items, in a side hall.

A small Peanuts train layout includes a bubble so that kids can pop up from under the table and see what it’s like inside.

Another look at that Great Pumpkin train set.

The event last weekend also included free T Shirts and sunglasses. A bonus we did not know about in advance.

We leave you with the Charlie Brown bowling ball (guaranteed to go in the gutter every time, maybe?).

Keep checking PopCult. In the next week or so we’ll have more photos and video of the opening weekend.

We’re nearly at the end of July, and once again we’re bringing you our regular Tuesday programming on The AIR that means it’s time for a new  Radio Free Charleston and a new edition of The Swing Shift. 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 tons of replays throughout the week. This week we have some great new music, but we also include a new interview with keyboard virtuoso David Synn that takes up the second hour of our show. A few weeks ago I replayed an interview with David from 2016, and we both thought it’d be a great idea to catch up with the major life and music changes he’s been through since that time.

We had a great chat, talked about some of his influences and we even play examples of those influences during the interview.  I sneak a few more musical footnotes into our third hour. We also talk about David’s future musical endeavors and his upcoming EP, Somber Poems of Sentience, due late this year.

One thing we both forgot to menton is that he has a new T-shirt out (see it above), for fans of his music to proudly wear all over the place. You can order one HERE.

We open the show with a very factual and important song from Matt Mullins & The Bringdowns, and also bring you brand-new tunes from Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, Brian Diller, The Dollyrots, Inception In Black, Jeff Ellis and more, plus the first hour has three great neo-surf tracks.

After our interview with David in our second hour, we jump into hour three with a newly-released song by the late leader of the Bonzo Dog Band, Viv Stanshall, who left us in 1995. After that I bring you a set of music by artists that we mentioned in the interview in the previous hour.

Check out the playlist below to see all the goodies we have in store. Live links will take you to the artist’s pages so you can find out more about them, and maybe even buy their music and find out where to see them perform live…

RFC V5 139

hour one
Matt Mullins and The Bringdowns “45”
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies “Lowdown Appreciator”
Brian Diller “Big Ground, Big Sky”
The Dollyrots “Hey Girl”
Galen and Paul “Hacia Arriba”
Rasta Rafiki“Young Ones (Yes Become)”
Inception In Black “Figure of Speech”
The Intoxicators “Phantom Mustang”
The Madeira “Journey To The Center of the Surf”
The Tentakills “Ghosts of Atlantis”
Jeff Ellis“If The Devil Has A Name”
The Anchoress“Bizarre Love Triangle”
The Wearing Hands “Home”

The master of the synths, David Synn

hour two
David Synn Interview 2023
Derek Sherinian “Day of the Dead”
Elvis Presley “Unchained Melody”
David Synn “Island of Gorgo”
Depeche Mode “Welcome To My World”

hour three
Viv Stanshall “Dog Howl In Tune”
Eddie Jobson “Turn It Over”
David Bowie“Fame”
Faith No More “Epic”
The Nice “One Of Those People”
Billy Joel “I’ve Seen The Lights Go Out on Broadway”
Hurtsmile “Rock & Roll Cliche”
Sean Richardson “Home”
Scarlet Revolt “One Like You”
Speedsuit “A Woman Who Knows Her Mind”
Buni Muni “Triple Double”
Novelty Island “I Hear A New World”
The Heavy Hitters Band “Come Dance With Me”

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 3 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight,  and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also 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 last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM we have a new episode of The Swing Shift that pays tribute to Tony Bennett. We lost the legendary crooner last week, but this week, on a show for which I didn’t have time to compile a playlist for publication, we devote the hour to Tony Bennett swinging to his heart’s content, solo, and in collaboration with artists like Lady Gaga, Bill Evans, James Taylor, The Dixie Chicks, Mel Torme and more. It’s our humble salute to one of the great singers of our time.

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 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 Thursday and Sunday evenings.