Author: Rudy Panucci (Page 6 of 133)

Jay Ward’s Animated Cereal Capers
by Kevin Scott Collier
Cartoon Resarch Books
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1976576843
$8.95 Available from Amazon

Next up is a slim and wonderfully concise look at the classic cereal commercials created by Jay Ward, the man behind Rocky & Bullwinkle. This is the perfect gift for the fan of candylike breakfast cereals and fun pop culture from the 1960s on your shopping list.

Cartoon Research presents “Jay Ward’s Animated Cereal Capers.” The origins, history and adventures of Cap’n Crunch, Quisp and Quake, and King Vitaman, cartoon commercials produced by Jay Ward Productions from 1963 to 1983.

Included inside are original sketches, animation cell art work and complete episode title listing. It’s a fun book that’s guaranteed to stay crunchy even in milk.

The 56 pages (for a price cheap enough to be a stocking stuffer) are sweet enough to give you cavities, and reliable enough to be a valued reference guide for folks who spend an inordinate amount of time talking about breakfast cereal.

While you can find all the commercials mentioned in this book on YouTube, there is a DVD of dubious legality that could make a good, cheap companion gift. You can find it HERE. If you just want to see some classic Quisp vs. Quake commercials, go HERE.

Booji Boy Action Figure
by Super 7
Around $20 from online retailers like Amazon, Big Bad Toy Store, Entertainment Earth and Toy Wiz

Today’s first entry in The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide is the perfect gift for the devout DEVO fan in your life, this four-inch action figure of Booji Boy (pronounced “Boogie Boy”–the “J” has a hard “G” sound, like Google, Giggle or gif)  is so delightful that it might distract them from taking one look at US politics and yelling “DEVO WAS RIGHT!” all the time.

This is the fifth of Super 7’s ReAction figures based on Akron’s future-telling band, and it was a bit of a surprise. I was sort of expecting that they’d do Alan Myers, the former drummer and last of the original members of the band’s classic line-up, but he left the band nearly forty years ago, and subsequently passed away, so there may have been issues getting his likeness rights.

However, Booji Boy is a remarkable replacement. He was the band’s mascot, deputy and the embodiment of everthing DEVO warned us about. Let’s look at the product details:

The infantile spirit of Devolution, Booji Boy, in all his glory…delivering his important message from the edge of humanity’s decline.

This articulated, 3.75” scale ReAction Figure is inspired by Devo’s 1976 short film and features Booji Boy in a metallic silver jumpsuit, armed with microphone and synth device accessories.

He’s ready to make noise and stir things up, reminding us that Devolution is real!

Packaged on a full-color, blistered cardback that channels Devo’s early years, this figure is the perfect way to bring a little de-evolution into your display. Add Booji Boy to your ReAction lineup—before it’s too late for critical thought!

Booji Boy – who used to be the devil boy – has been reborn! And he’s coming out tonight, he’s here tonight, and he’s going to sing with Devo. Booji, whereever you are, come out here tonight!

This figure is 3.75” scale with five points of articulation, a silver jumpsuit and includes microphone and synth device accessories, and comes packed on a full color, blistered card back.

In case you aren’t familiar with Booji Boy, here he is in France, in 1978, performing the classic ballad, “The Words Get Stuck In My Throat” (from the classic film, War of the Gargantuas), backed by DEVO.

Your humble blogger is hard at work on The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide, so I’ve put together a partly-new Radio Free Charleston  that you can hear today 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.

It’s a free-format extravaganza as this week’s first hour is  mostly newly-released tunes by the likes of Frenchy & The Punk, Golden, Nervous Twich, J. Marinelli, The Paranoid Style, Julian Lennon, The Charlatans and Guided by Voices.   There was a ton of killer new tunes released in the past week, and we crammed ’em all into the first hour for you.

The reason for that is that, after that first hour, I go back into our double time machine and bring you a 2016 episode of RFC Volume 4, which presented two hours of RFC Volume 1 that originally aired on broadcast radio in March, 1990.

What you will get to hear is a little more than half of an original broadcast. I excised the non-entertaining commercials, and a couple of songs for time, but you will get the original Radio Free Charleston experience, complete with live guests in the studio (after 2 AM) and live call-ins, plus our spur-of-the-moment requests and a mix of alternative and punk music with the then-best of the local music scene. You will hear what it was like listening to RFC back in 1990, really late on a Saturday night, starting at 2 AM and running a bit past 4 AM. You will notice that the host runs out of steam a bit as the show progresses. This was all done live on the air.

In the studio we had Gary Price, Tommy Medvick and John Radcliff, of The Swivels. This is pretty bittersweet, since Gary and Tommy are no longer with us, but it is wonderful to hear them at their peak of goofiness, having fun and cutting up with me playing the role of the exasperated host. This was also the show where we rebroadcast the song that we’d recorded live over the phone from Key West the previous Thursday. Kris Cormany and Brian Young called into the station from a pay phone on a streetcorner and serenaded us with the song “Broken Vase” live at 11:35 PM. On this show we replayed the tune and had a phone call from Brian to tell us what all happened that night after we went off the air.

This show also featured the debut of new RFC jingles by my buddy, Bridget, who you may know now as Bridget Lancaster, the newly-minted co-host of America’s Test Kitchen on PBS. Bridget came into the radio studio one night and sang several jingles and we goofed around and did some improv on a bunch of little comedy bits that you will hear sprinkled thoughout the broadcast. It’s a nice little bit of Charleston music and broadcasting history in our second and third hours. And it hasn’t been heard online in over nine years.

Check out the playlist. Links in the first hour will take you to pages for the artists…

RFC V4 247

hour one
Frenchy & The Punk “Not Under Your Spell”
Golden “Just A Ghost”
Nervous Twitch “Minor Characters”
J. Marinelli “Put Some Blood On It”
The Paranoid Style “It’s A Dog’s Breakfast”
John Radcliff“A Place To Grow”
Julian Lennon “I Hope”
Novelty Island “An Orange Goodbye”
The Charlatans “Now Everything”
Guided by Voices “A Glum Swoboda”
Brian Diller “The Finding”
Aliza Hava “When the Children Cry”
Massing “Stay Inside”
Payback’s A Bitch “Searching For Eden”

hour two
Rudy Panucci “The WVNS Disclaimer”
Charleston Playhouse Quartet “Radio Free Charleston Theme”
John Lennon “Cold Turkey”
Three Bodies “Broken Vase”
Lost Luggage “Anything You Like”
Beckner, Price and Panucci “Got Drunk, Got Married, Got Screwed”
Electronic Moog Orchestra “Cantina Band (from Star Wars)”
Wire “Mr. Suit”
Eugene Chadbourne with Camper Van Beethoven “Voodoo Vengence”
David Bowie “Fame 90”
Soul Asylum “Barstool Blues”
The Bounty “Silver and Gold”
The Swivels “Cinnamn Girl”

hour three
Three Bodies “Gardens of Hope”
Go Van Gogh “Shut Up, I Love You”
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band “Flash Gordon’s Ape”
Crack The Sky “Lost Boys”
Kate Bush “Be Kind To My Mistakes”
Sinead O’Conner “Mandinka”
Jane Siberry “Dog Song”
Brian Young on the phone.
David Bowie “Jene Genie”
The Clash “Lost In The Supermarket”
XTC “Toys”
The Replacements “Talent Show”
The B 52s “Planet Claire”

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  The Swing Shift is an encore of two recent episodes.

 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.

It’s Godzilla Day, along with being the first day of The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide, so today our second entry is a multi-item salute to Mr. Horatio P. Godzilly, himself. I will be focusing on the classic versions of The King of the Monsters, with a brief nod to Godzilla Minus One, but don’t expect me to plug the Godzilla vs. Kong stuff.

That’s not my Godzilla. I didn’t vote for him!

Having established that, we are going to recommend a few Godzilly-centric gift ideas for the Kaiju-lover on your Holiday shopping list.

Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954–1975 (The Criterion Collection)

GODZILLA: THE SHOWA-ERA FILMS, 1954–1975
by The Criterion Collection
$189.99 suggested price
Available wherever Blu Ray boxsets are sold

15 Kaiju classics now on Blu-ray. This is the classic Mr. Zilly, and we check the product blurb for details:

IN 1954, AN ENORMOUS BEAST CLAWED ITS WAY OUT OF THE SEA, destroying everything in its path—and changing movies forever. The arresting original Godzilla soon gave rise to an entire monstermovie genre (kaiju eiga), but the King of the Monsters continued to reign supreme: in fourteen fiercely entertaining sequels over the next two decades, Godzilla defended its throne against a host of other formidable creatures, transforming from a terrifying symbol of nuclear annihilation into a benevolent (if still belligerent) Earth protector. Collected here for the first time are all fifteen Godzilla films of Japan’s Showa era, in a landmark set showcasing the technical wizardry, fantastical storytelling, and indomitable international appeal that established the most iconic giant monster the cinema has ever seen.

These eight discs feature new HD transfers. Six of the films feature English-language dub tracks & all of them have new English subtitle translations, along with the original Japanese-language audio tracks. They also include new and archival interviews and programs on the special effects. also included in this set is the Japanese-release version of King Kong vs. Godzilla.

Included within this set, are what are many fans’ favorite trifecta of Godzilla movies (all with English dubs included): Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters and All Monsters Attack.

All of this is packaged in a lavishly illustrated deluxe hardcover book featuring an essay by cinema historian Steve Ryfle, notes on the films by cinema historian Ed Godziszewski, and new illustrations by Arthur Adams, Sophie Campbell, Becky Cloonan, Jorge Coelho, Geof Darrow, Simon Gane, Robert Goodin, Benjamin Marra, Monarobot, Takashi Okazaki, Angela Rizza, Yuko Shimizu, Bill Sienkiewicz, Katsuya Terada, Ronald Wimberly, and Chris Wisnia.

Godzilla: The Official Cookbook
by Kayce Baker
Titan Books
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1803368061
$34.95 (heavily discounted at Amazon)

The official cookbook inspired by the Toho Godzilla movies and creatures, featuring a wide variety of fun, kaiju-themed food and drink recipes to suit all tastes and skill levels.

Get ready to unleash the culinary power of monstrous flavors with Godzilla: The Official Cookbook! This officially licensed hardback cookbook features over 60 jaw-dropping recipes inspired by the iconic Godzilla and other kaiju creatures such as the scrumptious Guaczilla, the delicious Gigan’s Wings and the awesome Mechagodzilla Head cake! Embark on a gastronomic journey like never before, exploring a menu as vast as the Pacific Ocean. From fiery drinks that erupt with flavor to starters that capture the essence of destruction, every recipe is crafted to unleash your inner food monster. Whether you crave meaty creations or prefer vegetarian and vegan options that still pack a punch, this cookbook has something for every kaiju-loving palate—and stunning photography showcases the finished dishes in all their towering glory.

Each page will transport you to the heart of epic culinary battles that will leave you craving more, so put on your chef’s hat and prepare to embrace some unique creativity in the kitchen. Godzilla: The Official Cookbook is a must-have for fans of all ages, perfect for themed parties, family gatherings, or just indulging your monstrous cravings.

You truly haven’t lived until you’ve tasted Godzilla Loaf!

Jenga: Godzilla Extreme Edition
by USAopoly
Available where games are sold
$27.99 (or less)

Beyond belief… GODZILLA is on the rampage again! With JENGA: GODZILLA Extreme Edition, the titan of terror is trying to bring your tower down with a heat ray. Featuring custom game play, players remove and replace blocks according to the directives to keep it standing through every threatening roll of the die. Beware, GODZILLA marches toward the tower raising the threat of destruction with every step!

You can’t top the cleverness of this collectible Jenga edition featuring classic Kaiju monster Godzilla on a rampage to destroy the tower.

Godzilla moves with each roll of the die, so players must quickly build the Jenga tower with a steady hand, some strategy, and luck.

Great for any Godzilla fan and collector – show your love for the king of the monsters with this collectible game.

Includes 54 hardwood Jenga blocks, 1 die, game board, collectible Godzilla loading tray, and rules. 1+ Players | Ages 8+ | 5-15 Min Play Time, and losers are not allowed to go on a rampage and destroy the city.

Super 7 Godzilla ReAction Figures
by Super 7
$15 to $25 each

Okay, this is something I actually collect. While initially not a fan of Super 7’s ReAction figure line, I got hooked when I picked up my first Godzilla figure on a lark.

Now the damned things are all over the house. There are multiple incarnations of Godzilla himself, from different movie eras, along with mini-versions of The King of the Monsters based on earlier toys and model kits.

You can also collect Mr. Zilly’s cohorts, colleagues and rivals, like Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, MechaGodzilla, Minizilla, Megalon and more.

You can also find Godzilla on traditional blister cards, blind box assortments and collectible packaging that mimics things like the classic Aurora model kit box, or the Marusan tin toy box.

You can even get the glow-in-the dark version of the goofy celebratory dancing Godzilla, from Invasion of the Astro-Monsters. You can find every type of Godzilla from the 1954 original to Godzilla: Minus One.

These are fun, don’t take up too much room, and if they get loose, it’s highly unlikely that they will do much damage if they go on a rampage. They’re not quite four inches tall.

You can order these from Super 7, or find them at dozens of online and brick-and-mortar retailers.

And with Mr. Zilly thusly honored, we shall call it a day with The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide. Come back tomorrow for two more entries.

Maxx Action Bullseye’s Highway Hauler Playset – Target Truck with Lights, Sounds and Accessories: Metal Toy Trailer

Availabe at Target stores

$18 to $28, depending on sales, only at Target

The first entry in The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide, in place of the HESS Toy Truck, is a Target exclusive toy truck, with electronic lights and sounds a metal trailer, forklift and load, so kids can pretend they’re delivering cool toys to their local Target store! It is recommended for the toy truck loving child or adult on your holiday shopping list.

We go to the blurb:

Rev up the fun with Bullseye’s Highway Hauler by Maxx Action! Featuring the iconic Target logo and everyone’s favorite pup, Bullseye, this playset is ready to deliver non-stop excitement. With a working forklift and package to transport, kids can dive into creative play while building fine motor skills. Vibrant lights and realistic sound effects add a dynamic touch to every delivery, making playtime even more thrilling. Simply press one of the four buttons on the cab to set the action in motion, then watch the truck zoom across the floor with its easy-to-use friction motor. Perfectly sized for little hands, this durable truck ensures hours of imaginative fun. Whether it’s racing to deliver packages or hauling important cargo, Bullseye’s Highway Hauler is sure to spark creativity and provide endless entertainment!

Maxx Action vehicles are sturdy and designed for kids, but this one also has collectible elements. It’s more like the original HESS Truck than this year’s HESS offering, and it costs less than half as much. Batteries are included. The truck is friction-powered. The forklift and load are a great bonus and with the Target graphics, it just looks sharp.

This is usually a mere twenty-two bucks, but as I prepare this post, it’s on sale. I have no idea if that sale will still be in effect by the time this post goes live, but it’s worth watching for specials. You can find this in stores or order it online. Prices will vary.

When it camE to picking a new cool toy truck to open the Gift Guide this year, I think I really hit the Target.

Look for another entry later this morning.

This week’s art is a celebration of a special guy who’s celebrating his special day today…The King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla.

This is a quick ‘n’ sloppy ink wash based on an image I found online of the original, 1954 version of Godzilla. I basically did this because, as I mentioned yesterday, November 3 is Godzilla Day.

It’s a smallish ink wash on paper for pens.

If, for some reason, you want to see this image larger, click HERE.

Later today we kick off The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide, and the second of today’s two entries will also focus on Godzilla.

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 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 9 PM we bring you our newish Monday night line-up featuring two hours each of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast, plus six hours overnight with an assortment of our programming from Haversham Recording Institute: tonight is’s live concerts from Joe Jackson Peter Gabriel and the Cure on Sydney’s Big Electric Cat and Prognosis.

Normally, I don’t re-post videos in this space a mere few months after the first time I do so, but this week is special, so I’m repeating this post from just over six months ago. November 3 is Godzilla Day, one of the high holy days on the Kaiju Calendar, and we need to take a solemn moment to remember our history. Below is what I wrote last April when I orginally posted this video:

Educational standards in this country are shockingly disappointing. Hardly any kids are taught the history of Godzilla these days.

Test scores and intelligence levels have dropped since they took Godzilla out of our schools.

The above video should help remedy that, just a little. Please, gather up your children and make them watch this one-hour-plus condensed history of the King of the Kaiju, Godzilly, himself.

Do it, in the name of Godzilla!

Do it for…the children!

We resume our trek through the Radio Free Charleston archives with a stop in May, 2012, for the episode “Cap Seniors Shirt,” named after a high-school protest shirt that was a big deal at the time. Our music this week came from The Big Bad, In The Company of Wolves and Foz Rotten, plus we had animation from yours truly, and a trailer for Dennis Strom’s film, “One Soldier, One Grave.”

Following Dennis’ trailer, we jump into the music with The Big Bad, who just performed last night at The Empty Glass’s Halloween Hootenanny.

Next up we have my animation, then music from In The Company of Wolves, performing their song “Holding On To You.”  Closing this week’s show was Foz Rotten.

You can read the full production notes and get the full story behind the show’s title shirt HERE.

The PopCulteer
October 31, 2025

We have a short column this week as yours truly is already hard at work on The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide, which will begin Monday in this blog to aide you with your holiday gift giving duties, with all recommendations having our usual pop culture slant.

Following the format we established last year, this year’s Gift Guide will have two entries every weekday, with the plan seeing them online by Noon, Eastern time. At least one item per day will be a single item, with a retail price of less than fifty bucks.

There will also be entries that include multiple items, and some of our suggestions will exceed that fifty dollar level.

Because of the quirks of this year’s calendar, the final day will fall on Black Friday, and will include the last two entries, and…with some luck…the Master List of everything I recommend.

As I mentioned last week, our tradition of opening the Gift Guide with The HESS Toy Truck will be broken this year. I just couldn’t bring myself to recommend what I feel is a very disappointing and overpriced entry in the long history of the HESS Toy Trucks.

I feel I have found a suitable and affordable alternative, which you will see on Monday.

The reaction to this year’s HESS Toy has been largely negative, and I don’t know if that spurred an open letter from John B. Hess announcing that the Hess family, which sold HESS Oil to Chevron earlier this year, will retain the HESS Toy Truck business, and has big plans for the future, with a special collectible planned for next year, but the timing was curious.

I’m hopeful that this indicates that this year’s disappointment was simply a rare miscue, and that next year will see a triumphant return to The PopCult Gift Guide for the HESS Toy Truck.

This year’s Gift Guide will be comprised of toys, physical media (LPs, CDs, DVD/Blu Rays, real books and other things you can hold in your hands), local, regional and online retailers, plus some electronics, clothing items, decor and various and sundry knick-knackery.

Thanksgiving will be “Turkey Gift Day,” once again, because really, who reads this blog on Thanksgiving Day?

I will try to shy away from recommending limited editions of anything. I want people to be able to find the gift ideas I suggest.

I’ve actually done some form of Gift Guide every year since I started this blog in 2005, so this is the 21st time I’ve come up with a list of gift suggestions for my readers. It really took off about fifteen years ago, and for the last few years I’ve been winding it up in November for two reasons: First, it gives people time to order gifts that can’t be purchased locally; Second, it allows your humble blogger to be done with this massive undertaking in time to make our yearly visit to Chicago for my lovely wife’s birthday.

We will be going again this year. No amount of dictatorial showmanship is going to stop us from going to a place where we feel safer than we do in Downtown Charleston.

Another quirk of the calendar this year sees me posting the preview for The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide on Halloween. I have not foresaken that holiday. We’re just observing it over on our sister internet radio station today. Beginning at 7 AM Friday (that’s today) you can find Halloween editions of our music and comedy specialty programs, plus a coffinload of special presentations on The AIR.   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.

That is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for fresh content every day, plus all our regular features and, starting Monday, The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide.

This week we are going to set the tone a bit for the next month. During The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide, I will be running a scaled down version of STUFF TO DO, without the lengthy boilerplate (you can find an example HERE), and with fewer than ten graphics, instead of the ever-ballooning number that has topped 20 at times in recent months. The reason for this is to make your humble blogger’s life a little easier during his busiest month.

Until we get back to normal in December, more than ever, you should remember that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.

We very happily remind you that 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.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look. I don’t have graphics, but Friday night, which is crammed full of events, The Carpenter Ants will be at Taylor Books, performing cover-free, from 7:30 PM to 9:30.

Because Kanawha County switched Trick or Treat night from Thursday to Friday at the last minute (sensibly due to the weather), a lot of adult partying plans have been disrupted. Keep that in mind, drive carefully and NOT DRUNK, and watch out for the little ones.

What’s left of the Charleston Town Center will be holding “MallOWeen,” a Trick or Treat night  on Friday, with most of their three remaining tenants participating.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute. At least one of this week’s shows, the Factory Reset improv show at The Alban Arts Center, moved their start time back half an hour, and I was able to adjust the graphic.

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for local events happening over the next few days that I was able to scrounge up online…

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