Author: Rudy Panucci (Page 2 of 25)

You should know the drill by now.  There’s plenty of STUFF TO DO in Charleston and all over the Mountain State as folks indulge in the stereotypical drinking of the green this weekend, so let’s just soak in this partial list of suggestions.

A new short play by Dan Kehde runs this weekend at the Elk City Playhouse. It’s the first graphic below. Details are HERE.

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM. Friday it’s Jonathan Sartin. Saturday Matt Thomas entertains the crowd at Charleston’s beloved Bookstore/Coffee Shop/Art Gallery.

The Empty Glass has some great stuff through the week to tell you about.  Thursday from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM, Swingstein and Robin play fiddle and piano and sing swing and early jazz standards. Each week they donate their tips to a local nonprofit (as you’ll see below, this week it’s a really good cause).  Sunday the post-Mountain Stage Jam, hosted by The Carpenter Ants kicks off at 10 PM. Next week they’ll have an open mic Monday night, and Songwriter Showcase on Tuesday. Other shows that have graphics are listed among the images below.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet. In fact, it’s sort of surging again. 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 rest of this week, roughly in order.

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Your humble blogger is taking the week off from doing a new Radio Free Charleston, but we do have something really cool to tell you about today.

Thursday, March 16, Charleston’s ArtWalk returns from its long Winter hibernation. The Downtown Charleston ArtWalk is the Capital City’s premiere art event bringing you fine art, fashion, crafts, antiques, food and much more by downtown businesses and organizations and the Downtown Charleston Association.

As in previous years, it’s a free self-guided walking tour of Charleston’s shops, galleries and businesses featuring regional art and performances. Typically held the third Thursday of each month, participating shops and organizations extend their hours for browsing, shopping and mingling.

This month it’s happening the day before St. Patrick’s Day, so there will likely be some Celtic influences on this fun, free event.

Participating shops are located along Quarrier, Capitol, Lee, Summers and Hale streets in Downtown Charleston and feature a variety of art – from paintings and sculptures to photography and music. Attendees can stroll along at their own pace, dip in and out of stores and stop off along the way for a bite to eat at a downtown restaurant.

This well-loved family-friendly event takes place from 5 to 8 PM, Thursday, and attracts art aficionados as well as folks who just want to get out and try something new.

A new ArtWalk website is live now, and if all goes according to plan, it’ll be complete with a list of participating venues, and a map so you can find you way around.

This is a great way to get out, experience Charleston’s surprisingly robust arts environment and support the local scene.

(Note: One of the participating merchants is Oddbird Gifts on Hale Street, from whom I swiped the graphic you see above. Stop in and thank Naomi for me).

This week’s art is a small acrylic painting of a lovely girl’s face.  It’s not based on anyone real, but a few folks who have seen it guessed that it was.  I’ve never been great at drawing faces, so I wanted to try painting one from scratch without photo reference or a live model. I chose a limited pallete to work with, and tried a combination of very thin and very thick paint. I was going for an oil paint look, without the mess of actually using oil paints. I like the way it came out, but I’m not sure about my “lighting.”

I used a few traditional brushes but supplemented my arsenal with makeup sponges and dental brush picks, which I’ve been using a lot lately.  Those were great for the hair detail. To be honest, most of her hair detail was created by adapting Bob Ross’s “happy little trees” technique.

I tried scanning this, but it kept creating bizarre moiré patterns with the grain of the canvas, so I wound up photographing it and then color-balancing it to make it look closer to the original.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a recent episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM 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 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 part three of David Mitchell’s history of British comedy on an encore episode of Comedy Vault. Part four, the concluding chapter, will debut Wednesday night.

Tonight at 9 PM we kick off a thirty-six hour marathon of Radio Free Charleston.  Your humble blogger has not taken a week off from RFC in three months, and with a doctor’s appointment and magazine deadline looming, Something had to give. So to let folks play catch-up, in this marathon you’ll  hear every episode of RFC from 2023 (so far) plus a few from last December, tacked on because I counted wrong when I was adding things up.

This week we’re bringing you one of my favorite animated features from the dark ages of feature animation (between Disney’s Jungle Book and The Little Mermaid). Nelvana’s Rock & Rule was a bright spot from the innovative and creative Canadian animation studio when it was released in 1983, sadly, to little mainstream attention.

It was a classic case of an independently produced feature being acquired by a clueless Hollywood studio (in this case, MGM/UA) who then decided not to bother marketing the film.  If Night Flight hadn’t shown big chunks of it, I might have never heard of this fantastic rock and roll cartoon.

You would think that an animated feature with original music written and performed by Cheap Trick, Debbie Harry, Earth Wind and Fire, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop might’ve attracted more attention in 1983, but the truth is that aside from a promotional cassette there was never a soundtrack album released.

In fact, only some of the tracks from the movie were ever even released commercially, and then only after several years, or decades, had passed.

I have raved about the film in this blog and before I even had the blog for years. The version of Rock & Rule you see above is the version I’d seen.  But there is a different version. One of the things that MGM/UA insisted be changed before they took the film out in the backyard and buried it, was that Greg Salata’s voice for “Omar” be replaced by Paul LeMat’s, and in the process, most of the profantity the character spouted by santized.

What you see at first in the above player is the American version of the film, which is also about four minutes shorter than the original Canadian cut.  If you follow this link to to the Internet Archive, you can see the Canadian release, but for some reason, I can only embed the entire collection, so if you want to see the original cut and all the BluRay extras, you’ll have to skip ahead on the player above and restart it for each new video or go watch it at The Archive.

Or you can just zone out for almost four hours and get the full experience. Rock & Rule is a great post-apocalyptic musical science fantasy, and if you haven’t seen it, you’re in for a treat If you have seen it…chances are you havent seen the original version or all the extras.

The PopCulteer
March 10, 2023

It’s a day for internet radio notes about The AIR, so let’s dive right in.  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.

Friday at 2 PM, Mel Larch celebrates a new MIRRORBALL! The AIR’s showcase of classic Disco music presents a salute to Kool & The Gang, Disco stalwarts who were recently announced as headliners for July 2 at Charleston’s Sternwheel Regatta.

Straight out of Jersey City came this legendary band. Initially made up of brothers, Robert “Kool” Bell and Ronald Bell, with Dennis “Dee Tee” Thomas, Robert “Spike” Mickens, Charles Smith, George Brown, and Ricky West. They later added vocalist JT Taylor and worked with producer Eumir Deodato, and through that and many line-up changes they created an amazing catalog of R&B, Funk and Disco classics, and even had a few great ballads in the mix.

With the band coming to Charleston this summer, Mel thought it might be a good time to bring her listeners a solid hour of classic Kool & The Gang.

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 070

Kool & The Gang

“Let’s Go Dancing”
“Tonight”
“Steppin’ Out”
“Hollywood Swinging”
“Get Down On It”
“Jungle Boogie”
“She’s Fresh”
“Ladies Night”
“Too Hot”
“Take It To The Top”
“In The Heart”
“Misled”
“Celebration”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays Saturday at  9 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 we bring you an encore of an episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat from last July.  This was the show where Sydney Fileen celebrated six years of bringing you classic New Wave Music on The AIR by producing a new show that had every artist from her pilot episode, in the same exact order, only those artists were all represented by different songs. As I began writing this, I discovered that, for reasons unknown to me, this episode was missing from The AIR’s servers. So I’m re-uploading it and while I’m at it, I’ll just re-post the playlist here…

Big Electric Cat 093

M “Neutron”
Bow Wow Wow “Mile High Club”
The Humans “Pipeline”
The Fixx “Stand Or Fall”
Adam Ant “Dog Eat Dog”
Kim Wilde “2-6-5-8-0”
The Buggles “I Love You Miss Robot”
The Human League “The Lebanon”
Romeo Void “A Girl In Trouble”
Split Enz “Shark Attack”
Yazoo “Situation”
Pete Shelley “Telephone Operator”
The Waitresses “Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful”
Elvis Costello “Secondary Modern”
Ultravox “The Ascent”
Depeche Mode “Wrong”
XTC “Meccanic Dancing”
Martha and the Muffins “This Is The Ice Age”
Missing Persons “Hello I Love You”
Trio “Hearts Are Trump”
Wall of Voodoo “Two Minutes To Lunch”
The Go Gos “We Got The Beat”
Animotion “Let Him Go”
Gary Numan “I Nearly Married A Human”
Orchestral Manuevers In The Dark “The Punishment of Luxury”
The Beat “Rough Rider”
ABC “4 Ever 2 Gether”
Heaven 17 “Who’ll Stop The Rain”
Thompson Twins “No Peace For The Wicked”

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. Two classic episodes can also be heard every Sunday, starting at 10 AM.

Friday at 9 PM we present an encore of the episode of The Comedy Vault, in memory of Artie Barnes, who passed away last week. That will be followed by an hour of Dr. Demento, and then Neil’s Heavy Concept Album.

And that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content, and all our regular features.

The Kanawha Valley Railroad Association holds their annual show this weekend at The Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. This will be their second show at the Coliseum, but since last year’s show was greeted by seven inches of snow the night before, for many people this will be the first chance to see a model train show at this great space.

Officially, the 17th annual KVRA Model Train and Craft Show happens March 11 and 12, and it should be a great time for fans of model railroading, and for people and kids who just love miniatures.

Several displays with working train layouts will be on display and there will be dozens of vendors selling model railroading supplies, toys, clothing and related cool train stuff.

Show hours will be 10 AM to 6 PM on Saturday and 10 AM until 4 PM on Sunday. Admission each day will be $5, with children 12 and younger admitted free.

For more information about the model train and craft show, contact Joe Horter at 304-539-6721 or jhorter@gmail, Richard Boyd at 615-319-9654 or email kvrailroad@gmail.com or visit their Facebook Page or visit their website.

The plan is to, at some point, is for yours truly to make it to the Kanawha Valley Railroad Association HQ in Coonskin Park, and shoot some video of the layout up there. That has been the plan for several years now, but I’m really going to have to make it happen soon.

PopCult last attended the KVRA Model Train and Craft Show three years ago when it was in Jefferson. Here’s a quick video I made at the time…

You should know the drill by now.  There’s plenty of STUFF TO DO in Charleston and all over The Mountain State this weekend, so let’s just soak in this partial list of suggestions.

Of special note is a show in Morgantown Wednesday night that will be our first graphic below.  Several artists that we play on Radio Free Charleston will be there.  Also, tomorrow I’ll be telling you about another cool event happening in Charleston this weekend, but today we’ll put the focus on music.

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM. Friday it’s The Parachute Brigade. Saturday Verdeant entertains the crowd at Charleston’s beloved Bookstore/Coffee Shop/Art Gallery.

The Empty Glass has some great stuff through the week to tell you about.  Thursday from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM, Swingstein and Robin play fiddle and piano and sing swing and early jazz standards. Each week they donate their tips to a local nonprofit (as you’ll see below, this week it’s a really good cause).  Thursday evening The 11:11 take the stage at the Glass from 10 PM to midnight. Friday from 6 PM to whenever it’s a night-long benefit for everybody’s buddy, Herb Gardner.  You’ll see a few graphics for it below Throughout the night you’ll be treated to performances by Timmy Courts and Friends, Jason Jobe, Andrew Pauley, Dale Blankenship, James Townsend, Chet Lowther, Tom Kirk and Di. In addition, at 10 PM this will be Hair Supply’s only Charleston club appearance of 2023.

Next week they’ll have an open mic Monday night, and Songwriter Showcase on Tuesday. Other shows that have graphics are listed among the images below.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet. In fact, it’s sort of surging again. 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 rest of this week, roughly in order.

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

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We bring you a free-format dive into our archives this week on The AIR  as we premiere three full hours of 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 elsewhere on this page.

Rather than revive some of our pre-2020 programming this week, we decided to just build a new three-hour show that you can hear at 10 AM and 10 PM Tuesday. We dug into the archives and bring you local music from the last forty years, we mix it with old and new indie and major-label artists.

We open the show with a song by The Defectors.  Over the weekend Mel and I drove to Columbus for a memorial service for Greyson Estep, the son of one of my oldest and dearest friends, The Defectors’s guitarist John Estep. I had to see that my old buddy was going to be all right, and with that on my mind, I wanted to hear some of his music.

In the rest of our three-hour show we have new music from Jim Lange, The Anchoress, The Church, Rick Wakeman, Logical Fleadh and more. We also have classic local tracks from Feast of Stephen, Three Bodies, The Amazing Delores, Ann Magnuson, HARRAH, Jay Parade, Red Audio, Emmalea Deal and more. That’s mixed in with all sorts of other cool tracks from all over.

Because we can’t cram two links into the same word without it looking goofy, note that The Heydays are Douglas Imbrogno and Paul Calicoat.

Check out the playlist below to see all the goodies we have in store (we have selective links in the playlist this week)…

RFC V5 122

The Defectors “Johnny”
Scrap Iron Pickers “Swamp Thing”
The Struts “Pretty Vicious (acoustic)”
The Church “Succulent”
The Amazing Delores “Coal”
Renaissance “Love Lies, Love Dies”
Jim Lange “Winter Blue”
The Anchoress “Climbing Up The Walls” (Radiohead)
M and Chuck Biel “Super Powers = Common Sense”
Ann Magnuson “Hey There Little Miss Pussy Pants”
Frank Zappa “Carol, You Fool”
Total Meltdown “Wake Me Up When September Ends”
Three Bodies “The Trax”
Rick Wakeman “The Dinner Party”

hour two
Wolfgang Parker “Ain’t That A Kick In The Head”
Feast of Stephen “Needing Only Me”
Chris Cornell “Billie Jean”
HARRAH “Pay The Piper”
Science Of The Mind “Kaoss”
Bedowyn “Leave The Living For Dead”
Rain May Fall “Remember Everything”
The Heydays “Shady Grove”
The Wegmann Brothers “A Friend On The Highway”
Mojomatic “Crazy”
The MFB “Funkin’ Up The Neighborhood”
Eva Cassidy “Ain’t No Sunshine”
Depeche Mode “Ghosts Again (Radio Edit)”
Jay Parade “Hearts and Minds”

hour three
Lee Press-on “Powerhouse”
Matt Mullins and The Bringdowns “This Mountain”
O.W.L. “Midnight Carnival”
Emmalea Deal “Queen”
The Science Fair Explosion “Demon Burger”
Red Audio “Plasticland”
Gary Numan “The Joy Circuit”
Andy Prieboy “All For Your Love”
Logical Fleadh “Lark In The Morning/Gold Ring/The Slammer”
Frenchy And The Punk “Blood”
Laibach “Neptune, Oxytocin”

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 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.

Then at 1 PM we have MIRRORBALL, followed at 2 PM by Curtain Call. At 3 PM two great recent episodes of The Swing Shift arrive.

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM, Friday at 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.

The title pretty much says it all this week. Above you see a drawing of pin-up queen Bettie Page done using White-Out on black construction paper.  It was a bit of an exercise in the freehand application of negative space. Much of it was done using the little applicator brush, but I got the finer lines by using a dental brush pick.  Those were mostly the background squigglies.

This is based on one of her classic photos, but I was using a tiny reproduction I found on the web, so I regret that I can’t properly attribute it.

To be honest, I started out just trying to empty the bottle of White-Out so I could toss it, then as I progressed I lked what was happening enough to put some effort into it. Despite my shaky hands, this may be the closest I’ve gotten to capturing Ms. Page’s face in a physical drawing or painting.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a recent episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM 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 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 part two of David Mitchell’s history of British comedy on an encore episode of Comedy Vault. Part three will debut Wednesday night.

Tonight at 9 PM we bring you an overnight marathon of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, comprised of classic episodes from the first year of Sydney Fileen’s dedicated New Wave Music program, which recently passed its 100th episode.