Author: Rudy Panucci (Page 33 of 124)

Today is Turkey Day, and that means…well…hardly anybody is reading this blog or The 2024 PopCult Gift Guide right now.

Once again to honor the holiday and also so we don’t squander any good gift suggestions, today we’re going to offer up our own style of Turkey–god-awfully goofy gifts that could be gag gifts, or white elephant gifts, or even gifts that might gag a white elephant.

These gifts are either amusing or disturbing, and you might want to think long and hard before actually wrapping any of these and putting them under the tree. Either make sure that the recipient has a great sense of humor, or is at least somebody you won’t mind antagonizing. Some are annoying. Some are disgusting. Some look edible but are still gross.

My descriptions will be short and brutally honest. Also, there are five picks today. I didn’t want to put enough time into this to whittle it down to three. Be glad I’m not in a dark mood. There were almost Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy gift ideas.

Under each headline there will also be a link to the website from which you can find these monstrosities.

Happy Turkey Day, everybody. Maybe be thankful that you don’t get any gifts like this.

Bootleg Coke-Bottle Transformer
$8.99 from Amazon

Our first awful gift idea is a knockoff Transformer, that converts from a robot samurai into a sort of Coca-Cola bottle. Not only is it a fake Transformer, it’s also a bootleg Coke item!

And how can you beat this official listing title?

2024 New Beverage Bottles Transformer Robot Toys, Soda Can Transforming Robot Toys for Kids Gift, Creative Soda Deformation Figures for Boys, Birthday Christmas Choice for Boyfriend (red)

We have to quote from the description, too:

❤️【2024 New Beverage Bottles Transformer Robot Toys】Unleash the imagination of your little ones with the Cyninesm 2024 New Beverage Bottles Transformer Robot Toys! These aren’t your ordinary robots; they’re disguised as everyday beverage bottles, ready to surprise and delight your child with their innovative transformation feature.
❤️【Versatile Design】Perfect for boys and robot enthusiasts of all ages, these transformer toys offer a unique play experience that combines the familiarity of a beverage bottle with the excitement of a robot transformation. With easy-to-follow steps, kids can transform their bottle into a robot and back again, encouraging fine motor skills and problem-solving abilities.
❤️【Beverage Bottles Transformer Robot】Looks like a soda can but turns into a cool robot toy with simple steps, sparking endless imagination and fun for kids.
❤️【Safety Comes First】This funny robot toy set is made with premium quality, highly durable ABS, a heavy-duty plastic which is 100% safe, non-toxic and guaranteed to withstand kids’ daily energetic handling.

You gotta love a bootleg toy, folks. Making it even cheesier, it might not arrive in time for Christmas, and the product photo has a giant baby looking on, so you know it’s cool.

Star Wars Darth Vader Popcorn Maker
$48.93 from Hot Topic

A little-known fact from Star Wars lore is that in the original script for the legendary space epic, Darth Vader would take a break oce in a while and use his head to make popcorn for the Stormtroopers.

This hot air popper is the perfect companion for a Star Wars viewing party. Pour in the kernels and watch through the clear top as hot air pops them for a healthy, delicious snack. Meticulous detailing with easy to clean, removable parts make this popper a little hero. Top cover doubles as a serving bowl; Just remove from the base and flip it over.

Wash the removable popping chute, cup and lid with soap and water and clean the outside of the machine with a damp cloth, if needed.

Turn to the dark side of air-popped corny tastiness by eating right out of the head of Darth Vader! You can pretend you’re eating his brains!

Salad Fingers Plush 11.81″
$7.49 from Walmart

This is a plush toy of dubious legality, but you can buy it through Walmart, so at least it has an air of respectability. If you know what Salad Fingers is, then you might be a little surprised that anybody made a plush toy.

There is the possiblity that this is a bootleg toy, so let’s see the description (complete with weird bullet points) to determine the level of legitimacy.

🧸【Safe Material】Salad Fingers Plush is filled with high-quality plush, elastic PP cotton, soft and comfortable, delicate touch, excellent elasticity, and will not deform when compressed.
🧸【Design Inspiration】This Salad Fingers Plush is made based on the popular TV show. It mades minor changes but perfectly restores the style characteristics, which is cute and popular.
🧸【Size】Salad Fingers Plush measures 11.81 inches, just the right size for kids to carry and play with. You can take it anywhere and it will accompany you like a friend.
🧸【Unique Gift】The Salad Fingers Plush can give kids a warm hug and are the perfect gift for fans, as well as holiday party and cosplay gifts for you and your friends.
🧸【Widely Use】These TV plushies can be used as a soft pillow; can be decorative for living rooms, a bedtime buddy as well as a daytime friend. An ultrasoft hugging bed pillow or waist pillow for bedroom, family, office, home, car, and every place you like.

So, if you like the idea of a plush based on an exceptionally creepy YouTube series from over a decade ago…knock yourself out. It will make for an unforgettable gift, in a “WTF was that” sort of way.

Pizza Area Rug
Various sizes and prices, from Fresh House

Okay, this is goofy and cool. It’s an area rug printed with the image of pepperoni pizza. It can make you hungry just looking at it. Chances are that anybody who gets this as a gift will react with confusion, at the very least.

Aside from that, it’s a pretty mundane rug. Fresh House describes it thusly:

Great for any decor, adds texture to the floor and complements any decor.

Durable and resistant to soiling, stain, and fading. Without even mentioning the design, Fresh House describes it thusly:

Feels soft under your foot and vivid colors won’t fade over time. Your rug will instantly add fashion to any room’s decor. It features trendy colors as well as its design.

Beautiful, blended colors along with clean, easy-to-match designs make your rug perfect for any room, home or office.

The enhanced soft pile keeps dirt out and keeps your rug looking great for years. Easy to clean.

No mention that it looks like a giant pizza. You have to respect that.

Gifts From Uranus

Our last Turkey Gift suggestion is a repeat from six years ago, AND it’s also a place where you can find some really legitimately nice gifts.

But they all center around butt jokes. These are gifts pulled right out of Uranus.

Uranus Missouri, that is. See, down in Uranus, for some reason, the folks found themselves to be the butt of many a joke, and rather than feel sad and wallow in pity, they decided to pick themselves up, and put their money where their Uranus is. They got in on the joke, and created a tourist attraction along the historic Route 66, and now you can take the joy of Uranus and spread it among all your friends.

The gift giving potential is tremendous. You can find T Shirts, Mugs, Magnets, Tin signs, shot glasses, canned goods and more, all emblazoned with greetings from Uranus.

You can even treat yourself to fresh fudge, direct from the famous fudge factory in Uranus.

If you want to keep up with all the happenings so that you can stick your head right up Uranus and be informed, you can subscribe to the local newspaper, The Uranus Examiner. You can keep up with all the news about the world’s largest belt buckle and the Sideshow Museum, along with all poop on what’s happening at the fudge factory.

I’m sure you all have someone on your holiday shopping list who would get a swift kick out of gifts from Uranus. Get off your butt and visit the website for the bottom line on all the cool stuff going on in Uranus!

We are in the middle of Thanksgiving week and Wednesday afternoon on The AIR , we bring you a fresh new episode of Beatles Blast filled with…interesting…covers of Beatles tunes.  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 takes an hour to thrill you with another mixtape collection of a variety of artists offering their unique takes on songs written by John, Paul or George.  You’re going to get the music of the Fab Four filtered through the lens of Surf, Swing, alternative rock, punk, easy listening, Heavy Metal and more, as we push the boundaries just a bit with these covers of Beatles and solo Beatle songs. Heck, we even begin the show with George singing a Ringo tune…that was written for him by George.

Check out the playlist…

Beatles Blast 116

George Harrison “Sunshine Life For Me”
The Ventures “Hey Jude”
Count Basie “Help”
Concrete Blonde “Beware of Darkness”
The Rainbeaux “She Loves You”
Regina Spektor “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
The Dickies “There’s A Place”
Garfunkel & Garfunkel Jr. “Blackbird”
The Carpenters “Ticket To Ride”
Guns & Roses “Live and Let Die”
Peter Gabriel “Strawberry Fields Forever”
The Midnight Callers “Jealous Guy”
Monsoon “Tomorrow Never Knows”
Dillard & Clark “Don’t Let Me Down”
Mina “My Love”
Heart “Band On The Run”
The Rolling Stones “I Wanna Be Your Man”

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 11 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon.

At 3 PM (EDT) on Curtain Call, Mel Larch serves up  a couple of recent encore episodes, just to keep you on your twinkle-toes.

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 marathon of classic episodes can be heard Sunday morning starting at 9 AM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

Also on The AIR, Wednesday at 11 PM,  The Comedy Vault might just bring you a new episode, if I can skip enough sleep to make that happen.

The Great Garloo Action Figure Blue Edition
by The Nacelle Company
$9.99 plus tax and shipping from Walmart, or in stores

The Great Garloo was one of the giant wired-remote control animatronic monster toys made by Marx in the1960s. I plugged a cool, small re-creation of him last year in The Gift Guide, but now, he’s available in blue, and at half the price, and I’ve seen him locally in Walmart, which is really cool because you don’t have to pay shipping. You can even get the sold-out green version from Walmart now, at the same low price. And if they don’t have either in the store near you, you can have them shipped to your local Walmart and pick them up and save on shipping that way.

Let me tell you about Garloo, in case you don’t know. First, he was a monster. That doesn’t make him a bad person.

So striking was his design that six decades after he graced toystore shelves, people still recognize him.

Nacelle has updated his design a bit, and after a successful run as a ReAction figure, they’ve unleashed a 3″ tall Garloo on the world, complete with packaging that replicates the original Marx toy.

As they say, “A 60’s Monster toy icon THE GREAT GARLOO is back and ready to reign over your toy collection, as a vibrant, original sculpted collectible.”

Not-so-big anymore, green or blue, and with a face only a mother or a Monster Kid could love, Garloo can’t wait to infiltrate your home and use it as his base to take over the world.

Collectors should be warned that Garloo does bear an uncanny resemblance to Pete Davidson. This is a nice item for Marx Toy Collectors, vintage toy and monster fans, or just anybody with an affinity for the Garlooesque.

Available directly from Walmart.

Today’s first pick in The 2024 PopCult Gift Guide is this year’s selection of cool mugs from the world of Tiki.

Perfect for fans of Mid-Century artificial multiculturalism that’s loads of fun and looks really cool. It’s exotic without worrying about being authentic, as Polynesian influences mingle with Caribbean, African, Chinese, beach and nautical ephemera to create a universe of stuff that just looks really cool.

Today it’s Tiki Mugs, from six different sources with a variety of price points. Links to order will be in the prices below the name of the mug.

We’ve been recommending Tiki Mugs for a few years, and I thought about maybe skipping them this year, but folks who email me about the Gift Guide keep asking me when I’m doing the Tiki Mugs this year, and there does seem to be a bumper crop of them, so here we go…

BARCONIC® TIKI DRINKWARE – COBRA 16 OUNCE
$9.95

Slither up some cocktails and keep your guest entertained with this fun Cobra Tiki Glass. This snake themed tiki is designed to look just like a king cobra snake. It features a highly detailed scaled design all down the back and front of the glass giving the feeling that you’re touching real snake skin.

The front of the glass features two yellow eyes and a yellow nose with fangs and a long split tongue. It stands 7″ tall and has a base diameter of 3.5″. The capacity of this glass is 16 ounces.

“No Step On Snek” is good advice, but drinking from one should be okay.

MONDO Jaws Tiki – Get Out of the Water Variant
$70

Just when you thought it was safe to close out your tab, the Jaws tiki returns in a bloody good new color variant. Bigger than ever, this new mug holds 26 ounces of chum (or rum, or whatever else you’d like fill him with).

With this giant mug, you can get plenty drunk in time for the 50th anniversary of JAWS in a year or two.

Tiki Farm DRUM OF THE FOREFATHERS – RAINFOREST GREEN
$35

Designed by Canadian born and raised, Tank Standing Buffalo, the Drum of the Forefathers mug is inspired by a vintage Edgar Leeteg painting entitled “The Tahitian Drummer”. This was one of Tank’s very first commission designs he did for Tiki Farm and they decided to do a second limited run of them in two colorways of 250 each.

The four (4) tikis featured on the mug are inspired by original Tiki imagery as it relates to Trader Vic, Don the Beachcomber, Thor Heyerdahl and Edgar Leeteg. Hence, the name, “Drum of the Forefathers”.

Glazed in a beautiful 2-tonal direction of rainforest green and rich tan, the hand glazed detailing of this mug makes it a very special mug indeed.I’m recommending the green one, but you may prefer Cinnamon Brown.  This Tiki mug measures 7 1/4″ in height and has a 23 ounce capacity.

Trader Vic’s SPOTTED PEACOCK-TAIL
$46

For this I will quote from Trader Vic’s Facebook page, “Meet our new Spotted Peacock-Tail Mug—perfect for your next Cock-tail party. It holds a generous 18 ounces of tropical refreshment Ready to make it yours? Fly by Trader Vic’s and get spotted with this stunning sipper!’

The sculpt is great on this one, but it’s the colors that really pop. This is a real eye-catching mug.

Munktiki Imports – Reverse Mermaid
$45

From designer Darik Maasen comes the Reverse Mermaid.;A Fish head with a human body! This is a wonderfully weird sculpt, with plenty of detail.

The Mermaid stands (or sits) about about 6 inches tall and holds 20oz. This mug is available with the strategically-placed starfish and shell done in two colors, red and gold. Even with a fish head, a lady needs to preserve her modesty.

Tikiland Trading Co Thor’s Parrots of the Caribbean Tiki Mug
$70

For this one, I’m going to quote the website:

AVAST! Thar be a piratey parody to hoist yer favorite libation to in port!

His colors mimic the warm antiquity of an old world treasure map….and you can’t but help wanting a share of the Hawaiian gold coins this swashbuckler has plundered and perched upon!

With his grin so cheeky and peg leg a Tiki…he’s sure to inspire some Yo Ho’s and sea shanties to your own home bar!

This mug is about 9.25 inches tall and holds about 16 oz. The sculpt and paint detail are amazing.

The second entry today in The 2024 PopCult Gift Guide is a 1/6 scale action figure of The Wolfman, the perfect gift for the horror movie fan/action figure collector on your holiday shopping list.

The Wolfman Figure Set is part of Cotswold Collectibles Elite Brigade line, and it’s an example of better living through flocking. This set includes an Elite Brigade Body w/Flocked Wolfman Head Sculpt & Flocked Hands, plus a a Gray Vintage Style Turtleneck Sweater, Denim Trousers and Short Black Boots. I’m not saying that he IS Larry Talbot…but he can be if you want him to be.

As longtime readers of PopCult probably know, Costwold Collectibles is a dedicated website where you can get just about everything you need to to recruit and outfight your Army of fighting forces in 1/6 Scale.

Full disclosure: I’m friends with the folks who work here. Who wouldn’t be? I buy tons of their GI Joe-compatible figures, toys and equipment every year. Cotswold Collectibles carries a great assortment of vintage GI Joe and Action Man items, ranging from the 1960s to the revival toys in the 1990s and beyond, and they also make their own Elite Brigade items that bring back the glory days of The Adventure Team and also veer into the military side of things. I mean, I’ve known the owner for over thirty years.

This is pretty much the coolest action figure shopping site on the planet. It’s a clearing house for all things 1/6 scale, but they’ve also branched out into 1/12 scale and MEGO-sized figures and accesories, and they carry a wide variety of stuff to suit any budget. If the Wolfman is not your idea of a cool action figure (and if that’s the case, what’s wrong with you?), then you can find a full range of Military, Adventure and even Super Hero figures and accessories.

If you want to find high-quality photos of their most recent offerings, check out their website and their Facebook Page.

In recent years Cotswold Collectibles has also reached out to import terrific new 1/6 scale items from Spain, Brazil and France and they also offer a great selection of products from Dragon Models, Sideshow Toys, Hot Toys, Threezero and many other top 1/6 high-end companies. If you have a collector of the original 12-inch GI Joe action figure on your holiday shopping list, you need to shop at Cotswold Collectibles.

But really…get the Wolfman Figure Set. It’s really cool and it’s only like, forty-five bucks. Perfect for the large-scale action figure collector who likes werewolves on your shopping list. (A PopCult Note: Links that appear to be crossed out still work. It’s some kind of WordPress glitch that we haven’t figured out yet.)

Okay, this is a combo post. Tuesday is once again “New Show Day” on The AIR.  As such, we have new episodes of  Radio Free Charleston and The Swing Shift for you. 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.  

However, this post is also today’s first enty in The 2024 PopCult Gift Guide.  In fact, today’s episode of RFC is part of The Gift Guide.

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week. You can also hear it embedded below. This time, we will have links for every song in the playlist, but the idea is…you will follow those links to buy music to give to the person on your holiday shopping list who likes to support local and independent music.

Where possible, I will link to where you can buy physical media. But if this music is only available as a download, I suggest you buy it, download it, and either burn it to a CD, or compile a nifty USB drive filled with these musical treasures.

Also in this episode, the first set of tunes are all new this week, but the rest of this week’s show will present some of the best chunks of this year’s episodes of the show, so you can go back and experience some of the best local and independent music possible! That way I can be sure to point you to some of the coolest tunes possible.

The links in the playlist will take you to the pages for the artists in this week’s show…

RFC V5 203

hour one
William Matheny “Living Half To Death”
Living Room “Vicarious”
SPACE FREQ “Gypsy Sprockett”
The Heavy Hitters Band “Liquid Crunchy (live)”
Tucker Riggleman & The Cheap Dates “Shotgun”
The Surfrajettes “Priss and Vinegar”
Sierra Ferrell “Lighthouse (alternate version)”
Jim Lange “Everything’s Alright (The WV Water Crisis of 2014 Edition)”
Jared Rabin “Remind Myself to Breathe”
Hello June “No Easy Answer”
Sleater-Kinney “Don’t Feel Right”
Soul Trash “The Last Word”
Novelty Island “Johnny’s”
Astrodot “Can’t Hide It When You’re Fried”

hour two
Clownhole “Aqua”
Ginger Wixx “Super Mean”
Brett Ratner “Caribbean Street Fest”
John Bunkley “I’m Just A Fugitive”
Massing “Stay Inside (Rejuiced)”
Messer Chups “Dark Side of Paradise”
The Settlement “Be Yourself”
Sgt. Van and The Highway Dogs “Flies On Mars”
Brian Diller “Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find”
Matt Mullins and The Bringdowns “Rust”
Emmaline ‘Indiana Skies”
Corduroy Brown “Watercolors”
The Cure “Alone”
Maxx McGathey “The Veil Is Thinnest”

hour three
John Radcliff “We All Want to Shout”
Novo Combo “We Need Love”
Mediogres “Sleep Fizz Sleep”
Unmanned “Edge of Night/Light The Beacons”
The Dread Crew of Oddwood  “Lost Comrades”
Velez Manifesto “Heart of Steel”
Frenchy & The Punk“Lighting Up The Sky”
Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess “Kira”
Gardenn “Mt. Mama”
William Orbit “A Hazy Shade of Random”
Chvrches “Good Girls (John Carpenter Remix)”
David Synn “Hypomania”
The Residents “The Weatherman (Demo)”

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. 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 a new episode of The Swing Shift that concentrates on the first fifty years of “the best Swing Music from the last century.” Think of it as our way of paying tribute to the old masters.

Check out the playlist…

The Swing Shift 165

Louis Prima & The Witnesses “Night Train”
Neal Hefti “One and Two O’Clock Jump”
Kay Kyser “Pushin Sand”
Jack Teagarden “Jazz Me Blues”
Harry James “Back Beat Boogie”
Jo Stafford “Ain’t Misbehavin'”
Jelly Roll Morton “Beale Street Blues”
Peggy Lee With Dave Barbour & His Orchestra “It Takes A Long Long Train With A Red Caboose (To Carry My Blues Away)”
Count Basie “Rent Party”
Benny Carter “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over”
Billy Eckstine “Lonesome Lover Blues”
Charlie Parker “Cherokee (live)”
Artie Shaw “St. James Infirmary Blues”
Benny Goodman “All The Cats Join In”
Fats Waller “I’ve Got Fingers Crossed”

 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.

Our second entry today in The 2024 PopCult Gift Guide is the perfect gift for the person on your holiday shopping list who loves cool graphic tees, and also doesn’t mind feeding poor folks.

Right now, all the designs in Mitch O’Connell’s Threadless shop are on sale, and all the proceeds from Mitch’s shop in November will go to the charity, Feeding America.

Mitch is an old friend that I haven’t seen in person for a long time, but we keep up via social media, and he’s got tons of great art items available. He’s also been a regular in The Gift Guide for years.

It’s hard to pigeon-hole Mitch O’Connell’s work. He’s run the gamut from low-brow to high-brow, and has been right at home no matter what he does. He is a man who straddles many brows. You’ve seen his work on covers for Newsweek, and illustrations for Rolling Stone, Playboy, The Village Voice and dozens of other magazines.

He’s done clip art that’s been used around the world. O’Connell has drawn CD covers for Supersuckers, Less Than Jake, the Malamondos and tons of other groups. Plus he’s done flyers for Burlesque Shows, movie festivals, bands, theatrical productions and roller derby.

Mitch’s Threadless Shop has dozens of cool pop culture designs, including his recreations of the monster shirts from a classic episode of Leave it To Beaver. You’ll find everything from Bowie and KISS to Plan 9 From Outer Space to Divine, Dolly Parton and Pee Wee Herman. With this current sale, all regular Tees are just $12.50 each.

And while you’re at it, follow him on Instagram too, so you can see his new projects and the cool stuff he finds at flea markets.

Woman & Man+
by Craig Yoe
Clover Press
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1951757090
$49.99

Today’s first entry in The 2024 PopCult Gift Guide is a bit hard to describe. It’s a great gift for anybody who can handle challenging art.

It’s a graphic novel, told without the use of dialogue, with a surreal narrative and execution.

And…it’s freaking brilliant.

Craig Yoe’s name should be familiar to PopCult readers because I’ve been enthusiastically telling you folks about his work as a comics historian and preservationist for years. However, he’s also a creative force of no small talent, with stints as a creative director for Jim Henson Productions, Disney, Nickelodeon, MTV and others. Heck, he even hired Steve Ditko to draw an issue of Big Boy Magazine once.

But before all that, Craig was a cartoonist. To be specific, he was a second-wave underground cartoonist, turning up in the very early 1970s with a style that combined elements of Bill Holman, Salvador Dali, George Herriman and Robert Crumb.

His new book, his first full-on cartooning job in decades, is his reaction to the dissolution of his marriage, and dealing with starting over again in his twilight years after relocating to Europe with his wife and young children.

This is not a weepy “poor me” tell-all book. It’s a primal scream of surrealism and searching. Less a narrative story than an explosion of surreal art, Woman & Man + is like somebody gave James Joyce a pen, kept him sleep-deprived for a week and told him to tell a story without using using words.

I can’t even write a comprehensive review because this book demands more than one reading. I can see people studying it for years. It’s equal parts touching, frightening, erotic, action-packed, confusing, confounding and comforting…all at the same time.

Let me go to the publisher’s blurb:

Woman & Man+ is a wildly surreal autobiographical telling of its artist, Yoe, losing his love, his country, and, some say, his sanity–and his struggle to reinvent himself. His passion for drawing comics was sidetracked for over a half a century by a career as a creative director for Jim Henson and the Muppets, Disney, Nickelodeon, and MTV. Coming back to his roots, he now dives deep into sex, horror, and drama, with a hint of humor and a whiff of hope. This highly anticipated loudly wordless graphic novel Woman & Man+ has a revolutionary approach that breaks all the rules of conventional comic storytelling. Steranko meets Hieronymus Bosch by way of R. Crumb and Dali. The unique art style has been deemed, “Yoe-Brow!”

Woman & Man + can be ordered from any bookseller using the ISBN code above. You can also find slipcover, signed edition and more from Clover Press. And if you want to be cheap about it, you can go to Amazon.

This is the perfect gift for the thinking fan of counter-culture comix.

As we enter the final week of The 2024 PopCult Gift Guide, your humble blogger actually managed to create a new piece of physical artwork.

Even more impressive, this is a mixed media painting (small-scale) based on photos I took last Friday during a return trip from a secret mission that you will learn about next week.

On thick illustration board, this painting was created using acrylic paint, watercolor, Winsor Newton ink, white-out, razor blades and X-acto knives, a variety of brushes and straight edges. This idyllic winter scene is based on a series of photos I took standing at the end of the outlet shopping center in Flatwoods, WV. To the immediate right of this peaceful scene is a Walmart.

Which is a good example how composition and framing are key to making art.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Over in radioland, Monday beginning at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a new episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM a new 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.

At 2PM, Nigel Pye brings you yet another hour of Psychedelic Rock from many eras. Check out the playlist…

Psychedelic Shack 095

Vanilla Fudge “Stra/You Keep Me Hanging On”
Astral Magic “It’s All In Your Mind”
Aphrodite’s Child “The Four Horsemen”
Rain “One Is All and All Is One”
The Gypsy Wizards Band “The Brightest Light”
Psychedelic Witchcraft “Slave of Grief”
The Turtles “It Ain’t Me, Babe”
Susanna Hoffs “Bell Bottom Girls”
Oingo Boingo “War Again”
Jimi Hendrix “All Along The Watchtower”
Led Zepplin “Dazed and Confused”

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.

At 3 PM Herman Linte pays tribute to iconic Prog-rock lyricist (and co-founder of King Crimson) Pete Sinfield, who passed away less than two weeks ago. Herman treats us to a mixtape show featuring some of the legendary Prog bands for whom Sinfield provided lyrics, along with a sampling of his sole solo album.

Check out the playlist:

Prognosis 122

Peter Sinfield “The Night People”
King Crimson “Moonchild”
Emerson Lake and Palmer “C’est La Vie”
PFM “Photos of Ghosts”
King Crimson “Formentera Lady”
Pete Sinfield “The Song of the Sea Ghost”
King Crimson “In The Wake of Poseidon”
PFM “Mr. 9 to 5”
Chris Squire and Alan White “Run With The Fox”
Emerson Lake and Palmer “Karn Evil 9 3rd Impression”
King Crimson “Cadence and Cascade”
Pete Sinfield “Still”
Emerson Lake and Palmer “Taste of My Love”
King Crimson “Indoor Games”
Emerson Lake and Palmer “Pirates”
King Crimson “Cirkus”
PFM “Promenade the Puzzle”
Emerson Lake and Palmer “Benny The Bouncer”

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.

At 8 PM you can hear an hour of conceptual random comedy a classic early episode of The Comedy Vault.

Tonight at 9 PM for the Monday Marathon we devote ten hours to five more early episodes of Prognosis.  For the time being we are back to alternating between Prognosis and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, because we’re going to be pulling the early episodes of those shows from the server soon to make room for newer programs. After they’ve been offline for a year or so, we’ll bring them back into rotation but for now, you can hear them Monday evening into Tuesday morning, and then those episode will go on hiatus.

The plan is to have all-new musical specialty programs this week,  during the last week of The 2024 PopCult Gift Guide, which, coincidentally, continues later today.

We’re at the beginning of Thanksgiving Week, and what better way to celebrate than by recycling old Radio Free Charleston content from the blog?

“Duh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh BATMAN Shirt,” henceforth known simply as “Batman Shirt,” was episode nine of Radio Free Charleston Volume Two and originally appeared November 14, 2006, and was our first and only Thanksgiving video show.

This is one of our most-watched and least-watched RFC video shows. Since being remastered and posted to YouTube over a decade ago, it has been viewed more than nine-thousand times. However, most viewers bail out after about ten seconds, probably disappointed that it isn’t the theme song sequence from the Batman TV show.

It is, however, a great local music showcase that features songs from Stephen Beckner and Mother Nang, a Pentagram Flowerbox cartoon, the short film, Hell for Turkeys and funny host segments from the pre-demolition food court at The Kanawha Mall. End credit music is by Greg Wegmann.

Still recovering from our first big Halloween shows, we took a low-key approach to this episode of RFC. Stephen Beckner returned with a second song recorded at the second-ever RFC recording session at LiveMix Studio, which also gave us his song for episode two. “Olive Or Twist” was on his “Apples” CD.

We also bring you archival footage of Mother Nang from 1992 performing “Knee Deep In Wine.” After this show was originally posted to The Charleston Gazette in 2006, Mother Nang reunited and appeared in more modern times on the show. Their frontman, Spencer Elliott, has gone on to become a big-shot amazing fingerstyle guitar recording artist for CandyRat Records.

There is an epic-length Pentagram Flowerbox Thanksgiving cartoon on hand, as Timmy and his grandma go hunting for a giant turkey and pay tribute to the late Iron Eyes Cody.

There’s much more in this edition of Radio Free Charleston: a glimpse of turkey hell, a brief visit by the Talking Adventure Team Commander, and end credit footage of The State Capitol Grounds, including the now-extinct fountain.

It’s hard to believe this was over eighteen years ago. Time flies when you’re having fun!

If you didn’t get enough RFC from the above show, here’s a “DVD extra,” the trailer I made to promote the show, back when we could only post trailers to YouTube because of their time constraints…

And on top of that, we have an audio bonus of sorts. At the bottom of this post you can hear a compliation special that combines the 2019 Radio Free Charleston International Thanksgiving Special, which is 90 minutes of yours truly and his lovely wife, Mel Larch, playing music and joking around…and then the rest of this show contains the 2019 Paul And Spike’s Too Grumpy Critics Thanksgiving Special, which is half an hour of holiday humor, and the final hour of this show is The Relax Radio Show, created and hosted by George Daughtery, the beloved and much-missed, Earl of Elkview.  This is a compilation from 2021 that ran in the regular RFC Volume 5 timeslot during the holiday week.

This is all to get you in the mood for what the French call, “Journée de la Dinde.”  The plan is to wrap up The 2024 PopCult Gift Guide, with the Master List being published Friday, and also bring you all-new music specialty programs on The AIR this week.