Author: Rudy Panucci (Page 6 of 139)

Beyond The Mark: Ashes of the Hero
by Kevin Gallant
Staten House
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8895875438
$14.99 at Amazon

Today’s first entry in The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide is for a book that has been highly recommended to me by several people, but is one that I haven’t been able to set aside enough time to read yet. So I’m flying a little blind here in recommending a book that will likely be a terrific gift for the fan of dark fantasy and high adventure on your holiday shopping list.

Let me share the publisher’s synopsis…

Flynn, a once-revered hero of his homeland, awakens after five years of forced slumber only to find himself branded as the infamous “Marked Wraith,” a fugitive accused of crimes he doesn’t remember committing. The world he left behind has changed dramatically, filled with new alliances, forbidden magic, and treacherous enemies who want him dead. Alone and hunted, Flynn must uncover the truth behind his lost years, confront those who betrayed him, and find a way to clear his name.

His path crosses with Orion, a mysterious mage looking for her next big score. Reluctantly drawn together, Flynn and Orion must learn to trust one another while facing both their inner demons and the physical dangers lurking in a world filled with deceit and hidden agendas. From blood-soaked battlefields to enigmatic manors harboring dark secrets, the duo must harness forbidden powers to stand a chance against Victor, the ruthless council leader whose ambitions threaten everything Flynn once stood for.

Filled with heart-pounding action, morally complex characters, and a dash of dark humor, Beyond The Mark is a tale of redemption, betrayal, and the fight for freedom in a world where loyalty is fleeting, and the truth can be as deadly as the lies.

Will Flynn reclaim his lost honor, or will the darkness within consume him? Find out in Beyond The Mark, a gripping debut that’s sure to leave you breathless!

Beyond The Mark: Ashes of the Hero is available from Amazon, and it’s a thick volume of top-notch adventure fantasy that is great for the fiction reader on your shopping list.

Today’s new Radio Free Charleston was not an episode of the show I enjoyed putting together. If you’ve been reading PopCult for the last few days, you know that Lee Harrah died on Thanksgiving night.

When one of your best friends dies, and said friend was not only a fixture of the local music scene, but also a trusted partner in radio and video hijinks, you pretty much have to do a tribute show.

I am interrupting the planned “Best of 2025” series of RFC shows to dedicate this show to Lee. This is Lee’s episode of 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.

This episode is a mix of Lee’s music with three bands, Stone Ka Tet, The Ghosts of Now and HARRAH, combined with some of his favorite artists, and three episodes of the show we did together, Word Association with Lee and Rudy. I hope that the many people who knew Lee will enjoy spending just a litle more time with him, and those who didn’t can get just a hint of what he was like.

There was nobody like Lee Harrah.

Also, throughout the week, you can hear, in the RFC Daily timeslot at 5 PM Eastern time Tuesday through Friday, instead of RFC, you will hear a mix of Harrah’s Hard & Heavy and Word Association with Lee & Rudy. These were the shows Lee did for The AIR back in 2016 and 2017, before life got in the way.  Sunday at 9 AM, and runing until 8 PM, you can hear a marathon of Lee’s shows, along with his episode of Six Degrees of Separation.

We don’t have links this week, but here’s the playlist…

RFC V5 250

The Ghosts of Now “Deathburn”
HARRAH “Nothing Me”
The Ramones “Rock n Roll High School”
Creedence Clearwater Revival “Green River”
Iron Maiden “Can I Play With Madness”
Type O Negative “Love You To Death”
Stone Ka Tet “Adam’s Song”
Word Association “The Hulk”
HARRAH “Blood Moon”
The Ghosts of Now “Alaska Looks Like Arizona”
Lemmy & Friends “Back In The U.S.S.R.”
Tina Turner “Get Back”
The Beatles “Now And Then”
Stone Ka Tet “River Low”
Word Association “George Romero”
HARRAH “Pay The Piper”
Stone Ka Tet “Patton’s Blues”
Ozzy Osbourne “Crazy Train”
Iron Maiden “Hallowed Be Thy Name”
Word Association “Great Albums”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. We bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM  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.

Our second entry today in The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide is for the Original Cast Album for BOOP! The Musical.

This is a wonderful gift for anybody who enjoys classic Broadway musicals, and for fans of Betty Boop. This will also be a great gift for anybody who appreciates incredible musical theatre talent, because it is the recording debut of Jasmine Amy Rogers, who is destined to be one of the all-time greats of the stage.

Melanie and I saw the original Chicago production of BOOP! in December, 2023, and this is what I wrote at the time:

…as it is, BOOP! is nearly perfect. The songs are catchy as hell. The story is fun. The stagecraft is amazing. And Jasmine Amy Rogers, who plays Betty Boop, will likely come out of this role as a major star. She really IS Betty Boop, come to life.

The show is about 90% perfect. I’m sure the producers will tinker with the pacing and I hear that the composer, David Foster, has two new songs ready to plug into the production. At this point, it seems that this show just needs minor tweaks to become a major hit.

So much of BOOP! is simply stellar. Bob Martin contributes a clever book that weaves romance, spectacle and interdimensional travel into a thrilling and delightful story. Susan Birkenhead’s lyrics and David Foster’s music manage the difficult feat of capturing the Golden Age Jazz sound of the original Betty Boop cartoons while still projecting a contemporary vibe.

Jerry Mitchell, who directed and choreographed this show has conducted a symphony of pop culture visuals and dance numbers that pay tribute to the original cartoons as well as remaining strikingly original.

Speaking of strikingly original, the scenic design by David Rockwell and the projection design by Finn Ross help immerse the audience in a world based on classic Fleischer animation in the beginning, and then a full-color astonishingly surreal New York City in the “real world.”

The show transferred to Broadway this year, and for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of the show, it did not last.

I was flabbergasted.

Part of the blame lies with the now-demoted New York Times critic who wrote a hatchet-job review that made little sense.  Part of it was likely due to the Broadway Wing’s Tony Committee continuing their annoying trend of overlooking shows that began with out-of-town tryouts. Part of it has to do with the strange trend of almost every musical that opened this year closing their doors early as audiences stayed away.

All I know is BOOP! The Musical is one of the best, most-entertaining musicals I’ve ever seen, and it’s a crime that it didn’t find more success.

Having said that, there are plans to take the show on a national tour next year. London’s West End may also beckon. And we have this killer Original Cast Album, available as a CD, or on deluxe colored vinyl.

And it would make a great gift, even if you just buy it for yourself.

Chitty Bang Bang Magical Car 1:45 Diecast Model
by Corgi
Around $50 from hobby retailers or Amazon

The first entry today, in this bonus week of The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide, is a pretty freaking incredible diecast model of a car from one of the most fondly-remembered children’s movies of the 1960s. It’s an amazing replica of the original toy, and this is basically the car that was sent to subscribers of The Corgi Model Club back in April, only in a newly-designed box.

This is a great gift for diecast collectors, fans of the original movie, fans of the movie’s star, Dick Van Dyke, who turns 100 next week, and fans of the author of the children’s book that’s it’s based on, Ian Fleming.

Yes, the original children’s book was the work of the creator of James Bond. Hell, the screenplay for the movie was written by Roald Dahl.

Corgi originally released the lovable magical car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a diecast model in November 1968. With this model you can fly through the nostalgia that was every child’s delight growing up by collecting this iconic 1:45 display model.

At nearly six inches long, the model is the perfect size as a desk or shelf ornament. And it makes a perfect gift for any person who loves Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!

This model comes in sturdy display box with clear window so that it can be kept as a collectible or taken out of the box to display or play.

Corgi is a premier line of highly detailed die cast products that has been arround for over 50 years and features aircraft, space crafts, tanks, trucks, emergency vehicles and buses. I wrote about them a couple of times this year, and I’m a huge fan of the Corgi Model Club.

You can find this great replica at many online diecast hobby stores, and also at Amazon.

I’m still reeling from the death of my friend, Lee Harrah last Thursday.

So late Saturday I sat down and pulled a piece of black canvas board that I’d bought for him, but never got to give him, and did a quick acrylic painting.

It’s based on a screen grab from video I shot of him performing at The Sound Factory in Charleston several years ago.

Lee was at home on the stage. While he was perhaps overly passionate in life, on stage he could be explosive, filled with rage, powerful and…also peaceful. Ultimately, it was where he was happiest. I chose to depict Lee in a rare moment of peace, between the power.

It was a brief moment of him in Dr. Banner mode, between smashing the stage as The Hulk.

I can hear him in my mind looking at this, tearing up, and saying, “Dammit, Rudy.”

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

Today at 5 PM on The AIR , in the RFC Daily timeslot, we will bring you an encore of Lee’s 2016 interview on Six Degrees of Separation. That will be followed by nearly an hour of Lee’s music. Tomorrow, the planned Radio Free Charleston “Best of 2025” show will be bumped to next week as I put together a tribute show to Lee with his music, his favorite music, and some episodes of Word Association with Lee and Rudy.

Later today we continue The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide.

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.

Thanksgiving is over and done with.  The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide is beginning its last week.  December begins tomorrow.

We are officially in the Christmas season.

To kick things off, we are going to bring you an encore of last year’s visit to one of the first-ever Spirit Christmas stores, which was located in Erie, Pennsylvania. Now, we actually went to another one this year, just South of Pittsburgh, and you’ll get a photo essay from that sometime after we wrap up The Gift Guide, but now we’re going to revisit our first visit to the first year of Spirit Christmas as we plopped our sizable footprint in the metaphorically virgin snow of specialized holiday mass-market retail.

Above you see a not-safe-for-work video travelogue, wherein you humble blogger wanders through the Spirit Christmas Store in Erie for about fifteen minutes, making snarky comments (many of them off-color) while shakily shooting video of the massive holiday retail overload.

I’m sure all my readers are familiar with Spirit Halloween stores, which move in like a hermit crab and occupy vacant storefronts for a few months each year to hawk their fine Halloween wares.

Last year they took baby steps toward bringing the concept of seasonal retail to Christmas. They only opened ten stores, nationwide. This year they opened over 30, and while the one in Pittsburgh was our target, we also happened across one in Canton, Ohio, on the way there (we didn’t go in because we were too tired at that point–PopCulting can be hard work).

What you see in the above video is lightly edited.  I sped up some of the dead spots but didn’t edit them out completely. I’m also uncensored, so maybe you don’t want to blast this loud at work. There’s one f-bomb, and a harshly-scatalogical reference to poo a couple of times. There are also some major-league obscenities displayed on the ugly sweaters and one reference to buttplugs.

In all fairness, we were pretty much caught up in the irreverent spirit of the store, which had more cynical, goofy, alcohol-fueled and profane celebrations of the holiday than wholesome or religious ones.

As we revisit this first volley of weaponized holiday cheer, please remember that it’s all meant in the spirit of good fun and if you are offended by any of it, after reading this, then I am so sorry you are offended by that.

Following a post-Gift Guide vacation while we run to Chicago for a few days, I will return with some fresh photo essays and video from a November trip that included Sir Troy’s Toy Kingdom, a different Spirit Christmas store and the majesty of Kraynak’s.

But even while I’m gone, there will be fresh content in PopCult every day, including five more days of The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide.

This week we go back to the warmth of July, 2012, for our sixth-anniversary episode of Radio Free Charleston. “Misfits of WV Shirt” collected some great music by Red Audio, Mother Blues and Tofujitsu, and combined it with some animation, plus location segments at a cool store that is sadly no longer with us.

This was a low-key show, considering that it was an anniversary episode, but we were a bit worn out after cranking out almost three hour’s worth of FestiVall coverage leading up to this, so we just took it easy. You can find the original production notes HERE.

The PopCulteer
November 28, 2025

Dammit, Lee.

That’s not your typical opening line for an obituary, but he would love it.

Lee Harrah, one of my and Melanie’s closest friends, passed away suddenly yesterday, after years of serious health issues. PopCult fans should remember Lee as the host of Harrah’s Hard & Heavy and my co-host on Word Association with Lee & Rudy on The AIR, as well as his many appearances in a several different bands on Radio Free Charleston, and his many cameos in some of our toy show photo essays.

He was part of our family.

Lee in his element, wearing a Hulk shirt at a toy show.

Lee was a powerful singer, an artist, an avid comic book and action figure fan and collector. He was also like a little brother to me. Mel and I loved the guy. He’s practically the only person we’ve ever taken with us on our travels. We’d dragged him along to Wheeling for toy shows many times and even took him on a road trip to JoeLanta once. It’s wrecking me that we never got to take him to New York City.

Oh, and aside from singing with some great bands, Lee was also a Ghostbuster. He touched so many lives, and despite a gruff exterior, he could be one of the most loving, caring, and at times infuriating people you’d ever want to meet.

Aside from being in front of the camera on RFC, Lee was a trusted production assistant, running camera on several segments and appearing on the show many times in non-singing roles. Lee and I even appeared in Eamon Hardiman’s horror movie, Porkchops, together.

Life had not treated Lee well for the last decade or so. To be honest, neither did Lee. He fell into a trap that I was all-too-familiar with of being a caregiver and not taking care of himself.

When his mother, Mikki, passed away, just about everything that could go wrong for Lee did. He lost his house, his job, people he trusted ripped him off, and his health deteriorated.

Impersonating Ozzy, with Kenny Booth

When he became homeless, his friend, Brian “Bearclaw” Woods gave him a place to stay, and tried to get Lee to take care of himself. Bearclaw’s incredible generosity and kindness, along with Lee’s beloved cat, Bobo, were all that kept him going at times.

Things had improved a little bit for Lee recently.  After several months of really being on the verge of death from congestive heart failure, he recuperated enough to join us on a trip to Wheeling for the ‘Berto Memorial Show in 2024 and then last summer we took him back for the first KrugerFest toy show.

Lee was a talented toy customizer, writer and artist, and I hate that we won’t see some of the projects he was working on fully realized.

Mostly I hate that I won’t get to see my friend again, and take him out to eat and then try to get a word in while he dominated the conversation with bizarre tirades about Conan, Popeye, M*A*S*H, Iron Maiden. zombie movies, the Ramones and of course, the Incredible Hulk.

If you knew Lee, you knew about his love of The Hulk.

Showing off custom toy creations by his friend, Tony DiTrapano at MEGO Meet

Lee and I had actually talked about this obituary back when our friend Johnny Rock died. I was hoping to never have to write it. He’d say to keep it short, but also to be sure and mention that Johnny Ramone was an asshole.

He had a much longer list than that, but I don’t have all weekend to write this. I’m trying to keep this light and funny, like Lee requested.

It’s not easy. He knew how much I hate writing obituaries for the people I care about.

I hope that, in whatever afterlife Lee made it to, he’s getting to hang out with Joey Ramone, Jack Kirby, George Romero, Lemmy, Ozzy, Peter Steele and his other heroes. Lee could be pretty heroic himself at times, and he was a good friend who would always have your back.

Mel and I are really going to miss him. We’d gone through a lot together over the last eighteen years. We had actually planned to get together today, but we did not get to do that.

Next month, the annual video episode of Radio Free Charleston will be devoted to Lee. Arrangements are still pending.

With his band, HARRAH, at The Sound Factory

Another Sound Factory show

Ad-libbing a host segment on Radio Free Charleston

That is this week’s PopCulteer. The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide will resume Monday. I’m not really in the mood to crank out any entries today.

I’m really going to miss hanging out with my friend. My friend who made me promise to run this photo with that caption.

Today is Turkey Day, and that means…well…hardly anybody is reading this blog or The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide right now. Seriously, yesterday so many people across the country got half a day off that our readership plummetted right around noon.

So, as we have done in previous years, 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. To be honest, this year’s gift ideas are actually pretty cool, aside from being goofy.

My descriptions will be short and brutally honest. Also, there are five picks today. This is the only entry in The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide today. We will be back tomorrow with a PopCulteer devoted to Small Business Day, plus an entry that will recommend a couple of great local restaurants. If you’ve been scoring at home, note that this year I decided to extend the Gift Guide by four days, with our Master List hitting a week from tomorrow.

In each item there will also be a link to the website from which you can find these memorable and offbeat gift ideas. .

Happy Turkey Day, everybody. Maybe be thankful that you don’t get any gifts like this. Unless they look really cool to you. Then make sure to forward a link to this post to everybody you know.

The first pick in this year’s Turkey Day gift suggestions is, I have to admit, actually pretty cool. This would be a great gift for any die-hard fan of John Waters, but for people who are maybe not fans of his work, this could be the ultimate prank gift.

It’s the John Waters action figure!

It’s costs $29.99, plus shipping from Good Taste Toys (of course) and you can order it in two styles, one of which seems to come and go from the website. So stick with the pink suit version.

This was the inaugural product from Good Taste Toys, and here’s what they have to say abou it:

Good Taste Toys launches with a bang, and the most perfect subject to show what this line is all about – JOHN WATERS!

With his rightful star on the Hollywood walk of fame, the legendary purveyor of all things trashy on the silver screen has been “zapped” down to a “teensy” size for you to display.

Complete with packaging reminiscent of his classic film Pink Flamingos – but for those new to JSD figures, he can be taken out of and returned to the packaging.

Celebrate this filthy genius with your own JOHN WATERS, and thank you for getting on board with GOOD TASTE TOYS!

13.5cm tall soft vinyl figure with posable arms.

Be advised, these are shipping from Australia, so you want to order soon.

Next up is a gift for the opera fan, but they might find it a little corny.

Opera Corn, from Archie McPhee, is just that. It’s an ear of corn that sings opera!

This is a 6-1/4″ tall, plastic ear of corn (batteries included)that sings opera at the push of a button. It comes pre-shucked and has a voice that can fill a hall.

As the experts at Archie McPhee say:

THAT CORN SINGS OPERA

Opera Corn is the starch that can sing. In fact, it creams the competition! When it comes to an a-maize-ing aria, we’re all ears! This electronic Opera Corn sings when you press the button! Figaro! Figaro! It’s a hard vinyl ear of corn that is 6-1/4″ tall that produces one of five ear-resistable operatic sounds at the push of a button. It’s a regular Luciano Cobarotti. You wouldn’t expect such highbrow music from corn, but we went against the grain.

With such a beautiful voice, your giftee will think you spent weeks finding this lovely Aria of Corn, instead of just cobbling together a gift without a kernal of effort.

It’s $12.95 (plus shipping) at Archie McPhee.

Check out the video…

So the opera wasn’t fancy enough for you, huh? Well, if you want to give a gift that absolutely screams “CLASS,” you can’t go wrong by pulling something out of Uranus!

A longtime PopCult Favorite, Uranus, Missouri is world famous for their fudge factory, nuts, Putt-Pirate Mini Golf and other attractions, but this gift idea is for a piece of apparel that you can wear anywhere.

Seriously, your giftee can wear the Uranus Liquors shirt to university lectures, formal weddings, church and super-dignified White House functions. People will take one look at this shirt and know that the person wearing it is an ultra-sophisticated man (or woman) about town who can hobknob with ambassadors, senators, presidents and popes.

You can order the Uranus Liquors T Shirt directly from Uranus, Missouri.

Next up we have a cookbook. Now, everybody loves chicken, so this really shouldn’t be controversial at all.

100 Ways To Eat Cock
by Modern Classics
Independently Published
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8424797279
$9.99

Who wouldn’t love to have 100 pages of great poultry recipes?

Well…that’s not what your giftee will get. This is a blank book. It’s a journal.

However, it has a very memorable cover and title, and nobody says that you can’t fill it with your own recipes.

Or it can be filled with re-written lyrics to Paul Simon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.”

Just imagine walking into church, proudly wearing your Uranus Liquors shirt, and handing this to the Pastor as a gift.

People will shower you with admiration. Or they may pelt you with rocks and garbage. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
You can order this from Amazon. .

Finally we have another action figure. This time it’s the super fighting figure that every kid today wants to have.

I’m talking of course, about the Lenny Bruce action figure from Nacelle.

What could wouldn’t want to have the influential stand-up comedian from the 1960s offer up biting satirical comments that will shock their other action figures with their sharp edge and daring language?

Here’s the quick history, from Nacelle’s website:

Lenny Bruce’s open, free-style and critical form of comedy catapulted him into legendary status as a comedic pioneer that showcased satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity in his act. Lenny’s 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in New York State history, by then-Governor George Pataki in 2003. He paved the way for future outspoken counterculture-era comedians, and his trial for obscenity is seen as a landmark for freedom of speech in the United States. On February 3, 1961, in the midst of a severe blizzard, he gave a famous performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. It was recorded and later released as a three-disc set, titled The Carnegie Hall Concert.

Kids can have Lenny onstage, using words that society in general does not like, and then they can send Batman and Spider-man in to arrest him!

You can order the Lenny Bruce action figure directly from Nacelle, where it is currently on sale for a mere eighteen bucks. Or you can get a bundle that includes the figure plus a vinyl LP.

And those are our Turkey Day gift ideas.

Now go back to the kitchen. Your stove top stuffing is burning.

Both of our entries today in The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide are tied to today’s new music specialty programs that debut this afternoon on our sister internet radio station, The AIR. With The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide in mind, we managed to cook up new episodes that debut on Wednesday afternoon, as The AIR brings you new installments of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast, each of get right into the gift-giving spirit. 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.

Our second entry today in The 2025 PopCult Gift Guide is for two very different books about Stephen Sondheim and will likely be the perfect gift for the fan of Broadway musicals on your holiday shopping list.

Hirschfeld’s Sondheim: A Poster Book
by David Leopold (Author), Al Hirschfeld (Illustrator), Bernadette Peters (Introduction), Ben Brantley (Foreword)
Harry N. Abrams
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1419784156
$29.99 (discounted at Amazon)

The first of our two Sondheim books is a gorgeous art book. I already got a copy for Mel and she absolutely loves it. It’s a poster book and is just stunning to look at.

Let’s go to the publisher’s blurb for the details:

This handsome volume presents 25 favorite Al Hirschfeld portraits drawn from Stephen Sondheim’s musicals. The art prints in this oversize poster book can be easily removed and framed, making it an ideal gift for Sondheim fans.

This first volume in a series of deluxe Hirschfeld poster books contains art drawn from life before the opening night of each of Sondheim’s productions. On the reverse side are rare, ancillary images from the archives, as well as an introduction by Bernadette Peters, an essay by Ben Brantley, and text by David Leopold, Hirschfeld’s archivist and creative director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation.

Hirschfeld’s images capture the essence of the performances even better than the photographs of the shows. All of Sondheim’s best-known plays are included—West Side Story, Follies, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, and Sunday in the Park with George.

Al Hirschfeld drew his first Sondheim show in 1957—West Side Story. In his iconic, illustrative style, Hirschfeld captured almost all of Sondheim’s Broadway shows and several films featuring the composer’s songs and scripts.

Sondheim was a Hirschfeld collector, acquiring drawings directly from the artist and through his friends and collaborators like Hal Prince. In his last interview just five days before his death on November 26, 2021, the New York Times ran a photo of Sondheim in his home with an image of Hirschfeld’s Putting it Together in the background.

All images for this book have been scanned from the archives of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, ensuring the highest possible quality.

That pretty much speaks for itself. This book is the work of a master cartoonist, one of the most acclaimed in the world, and his subject matter is the work of another master, acclaimed around the world.

It’s perfect for any fan of cartooning, musical theater, Hirschfeld or Sondheim. Hirschfeld’s Sondheim: A Poster Book can be ordered from any bookseller by using the ISBN code.

Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Puzzles and Games of the Broadway Legend
by Barry Joseph (Author)
Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1493085835
$35.00 (discounted at Amazon)

Coming from a completely different direction, this book looks at Sondheim, not so much as a brilliant songwriter and composer, but as a gifted creator of puzzles and games.

Again, I will let the publisher explain:

By near-universal consensus, Stephen Sondheim was the greatest musical theater composer of his generation-celebrated, among other things, for the wit, sophistication, and intricacy of shows from West Side Story to Sunday in the Park with George. But a less well-known avenue for his brilliance was his lifelong fascination with designing and constructing intricate puzzles and games, from treasure hunts to crosswords to parlor and board games.

Matching Minds with Sondheim is a journey into this rich but largely unmapped aspect of the composer’s creative life, illuminating how Sondheim’s playful designs delivered moments of clarity and connection for friends, colleagues, and anyone who’s ever been captivated by his genius. This book opens, for the first time, the door into what Sondheim called his “puzzler’s mind,” helping readers to better understand the man, his work, and-if they accept the challenge-themselves. Gaming expert Barry Joseph draws from over eighty years of Sondheim’s activities, including extremely rare and never-publicly-seen puzzles and game designs, scores of original interviews with the celebrity friends who played them, archival deep dives, and illuminating analysis from both puzzle designers and theater professionals from around the world. Packed with illustrations and insights, this book does more than describe Sondheim’s life in puzzles: It allows readers to match minds with the maestro by attempting to solve his puzzles and bring Sondheimian games into their own homes.

Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Puzzles and Games of the Broadway Legend is a great gift for the Sondheim fan who may have already devoured the other books devoted to the man who gave us Sweeny Tood, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and Into The Woods. It’s also a pretty swell gift idea for the gamer or cryptologist on your holiday shopping list.

Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Puzzles and Games of the Broadway Legend can be ordered from any bookseller by using the ISBN code.

Since it doesn’t take a lot to get Mel Larch to pay tribute to Sondheim, we had a pretty easy time putting together a new Curtain Call to tie into the above books.

At 3 PM (EDT) on Curtain Call, Mel had great time assembling a mixtape show dedicated to the late Broadway legend, who coincidentally passed away four years ago, today.

Drawing tracks from productions of “Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends,” Sunday In The Park with George, Sweeny Todd and other classic shows, Mel brings you a fitting salute.

Check out the playlist:

Curtain Call 162

“Old Friends” sung by Stephen Sondheim
“Losing My Mind” sung by Bernadette Peters
“I’m Still Here” sung by Petula Clark
“Everything’s Coming Up Roses” sung by Imelda Staunton
“The Worst Pies in London” sung by Michael Ball and Maria Friedman
“Comedy Tonight” sung by Rob Brydon
“You Gotta Get A Gimmick” sung by Anna Jane Casey
“Send In The Clowns” sung by Judi Dench
“Side by Side” sung by Jack Cassidy and Chita Rivera
“Putting It Together” sung by Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters and company
“Marry Me A Little” sung by Lauren Molina
“Bishop’s Song” sung by David Hyde Pierce”
“Sunday In The Park With George” sung by Bernadette Peters
“My Friends” sung by Michael Ball
“Old Friends” by the company of Old Friends

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