Author: Rudy Panucci (Page 14 of 581)

This week we have a quick and sloppy pastel-on-watercolor paper study for a potential high-detail large-scale canvas painting later. For now, I wanted to get the basic composition down. If I decide to blow this rough up into a bigger and more detailed work, it will look dramatically different from this rough color sketch.

I can see this being another homage to Chicago, once more details are added. It’s been twenty-six months since Mel and I have ventured to the site of our matrimony, and we really miss the place. Maybe soon we can hop on the Amtrak and go back to the promised land.

But basically, I just wanted to play with the Batman TV show camera angle here.

If you want to see this one a tiny bit bigger, just click on it.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a new episode of  Psychedelic Shack, followed at 3 PM by a 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 at the top of the right-hand column of this blog.

Nigel Pye has assembled a particular swell edition of Psychedelic Shack, which I cannot describe to you because I’m writing this before I receive it through the internets. Sometimes Easter with your love must come first. He promises me it’s going to be a good one.

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. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday at 9 AM as part of our Sunday Haversham Recording Institute collection.

Following that hour of mysterious Psychedelic joy, at 3 PM Herman Linte’s Prognosis will bring us two-hours of Tangerine Dream, performing live with special guest, Brian May (of Queen fame) at Magma Arte & Congresos Concert Hall on the island of Tenerife on the occasion of the Starmus Festival 2011. This is two full hours of epic sound textures and Herman secured permission to run it, only if he did so without interruption, so aside from his intro and the station ID at the top of the second hour, this one is pure music.

However, he has also been asked not to share the playlist, which to be honest, just means less work for me anyway.

You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM. You can hear two classic episodes of the show Sunday at 2 PM.

At 8 PM, we bring you an episode of The Comedy Vault filled with an hour of raunchy comedy from Redd Foxx.  Wednesday evening at 10 PM, we’ll have another new episodeof our comedy showcase, but I haven’t produced it yet, so I can’t tell you what’s in it.

Then, at 9 PM we bring you an overnight marathon of ska with NOISE BRIGADE and Ska Madness. We will probably be bidding farewell to NOISE BRIGADE soon, but you’ll still be able to hear Steven Allen Adams do his show for WTSQ on Saturday afternoons. Dexter Checkers is threatening to return with new editions of Ska Madness on a regular basis soon, so we’ll just have to see what happens.

Okay, since hardly anybody is going to read the blog today due to it being Easter, I’m just going to drop a fifty-plus-year-old Rankin-Bass stop-motion animated special here for you. This is actually the second year in a row that I’m doing this. See, really, traditionally Easter Sunday is the least-viewed day of this blog, and has been for a long time. It’s like people think they have more important things to do or something. So if you did come here today, thanks.

Enjoy, and Happy Easter!

From February 2010 comes Radio Free Charleston 94, “Star Wars Shirt.” This very special episode featured music from Byzantine, The Pistol Whippers and Adrian DeQuiros. There were also promotional announcements for The East End Pet Food Pantry and The Chemical Valley Rollergirls. Lastly we had animation by your humble PopCulteer.

Coincidentally, each of the musical performances on this show were shot with a single camera. I only mention this because it’s possible that you might not have noticed otherwise.

Normally we’ve done multiple-camera shoots on RFC, but this time we just happened to have three great one-camera clips.  We also skipped a week by mistake, so next week will see episode 93 as our Flashback. If you think that’s bad, you ought to see the screw up on my taxes. I knew something was fishy when it said I’d be getting $130,000 back from the state.

Nobody ever gets a refund from the state.

You can find the original production notes HERE.

The PopCulteer
April 15, 2022

You know what? Wednesday I missed a cool event to plug in STUFF TO DO.

When I put STUFF TO DO together, I try to find all the cool shows with cool graphics so I can just post them here without stringing together clumps of words or something. Once in a great while, if I think a show looks really cool, but there’s no graphics, I’ll slap one together myself, sometimes using the image of David Hasselfoff with his giant doppelganger.

Now, this show has nothing to do with the Hasselhoff photo, but Three’s Company Blues is having a CD Release party with Hurl Brickbat at The Shop in Dunbar Saturday night, and there’s a really cool graphic for it that you can see right here…

At some point soon, your PopCulteer is going to have to start making it out to local shows. Finding the balance between experiencing live music and not dying of COVID can be tricky. But, then,  I’m immuno-compromised.  If you’re properly vaccinated, you really ought to check out the local scene. And buy some merch and music.

AND while we’re at it, there’s another cool FREE event at The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame Saturday…

Go get yourself into the Easter spirit!

Meanwhile, the rest of today’s post is all about a new episode of MIRRORBALL on The AIR.

Luckily for you, it’s a great hour of Disco classics courtesy of my lovely wife, Mel Larch,  So please enjoy this bright, shiny new episode of MIRRORBALL which will be followed by a very cool recent edition of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat.  The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player at the top right column of this blog.

At 2 PM, Mel Larch uncorks a new MIRRORBALL with no set theme, but there is more than the usual hint of jazz grooving around these dancefloor beats.

It’s a big sparkly time capsule, shaped like a MIRRORBALL, for your boogery enjoyment (“boogery” is a word, right?).

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 049

Alicia Bridges “I Love The Nightlife”
Gonzales “I Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet”
The Village People “In The Navy”
Atlantic Starr “Circles”
Blondie “Heart of Glass”
Rhythm Heritage “Gonna Fly Now”
Donna Summer “Hot Stuff”
Qunicy Jones “Ai No Corrida”
Brick “Dazz”
Boney M “Daddy Cool”
The Trammps “Love Epidemic”
George Duke “I Love You More”
Esther Phillips “What A Difference A Day Makes

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays this Saturday at  9 PM (kicking off a mini-marathon), Sunday at 11 PM, Monday at 9 AM, and Tuesday at 1 PM  exclusively on The AIR.

At 3 PM, Sydney Fileen graces us with an encore episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat that  brings you music of DEVO. You can find the full playlist HERE.

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon, Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR.

That’s what’s on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back because we have a fresh post every day and next week I’m hoping to have some cool reviews and videos and stuff.

Above you see a quick video I made Wednesday afternoon wherein I unbox the Saturday Morning Madmania cereal box filled with all prizes that I told you about HERE.

This was a case of me grabbing the camera, the portable studio and the Madmania box and shooting a video in the five minutes of the afternoon where my neighborhood was not under an aural assault from airplanes, lawn mowers, dog walkers or the guy who blows the whistle on the Kanawha River Railroad, who must really love his job.

In my haste, I managed to completely forget the names of all the supporting characters on the cool stuff in the box. I also forgot to mention that this incredibly fun Kickstarter project was created by Christopher Irving of The Drawn Word. He’ll be launching a new Madman Lunchbox campaign next month, and I’ll tell you about it when it’s live.

And also, I do mention Mike Allred, the artist and writer and creator of Madman, but I’m doing it again here because I’ve been a fan for more than thirty years.

For the record, the five Duncan Yo Yos seen in the video feature drawings of Madman Noir, Dr. Boiffard, Joe Lombard, Dr. Flem (who to correct the video, is not The Puke) and a photo of Allred’s wife and colorist, Laura Allred. The whoopee cushion has a drawing of The Puke on it.  There are also three lobby cards and four pogs.  Plus I opted for the newest Madmania fanzine.

Basically,  I just knocked out this quick video so you could enjoy my excitment about this cool Kickstarter campaign.

Below we have a few photos with close-ups to make up for my shaky camera work in the video….

The group photo. All this came in that one box.

Zooming in and showing off the flip designs of the pogs and a Yo Yo.

A closer look at the box front and some Yo Yos.

The latest Madmania, plus a whoopee cushion with a little Puke on it in the background.

Finally we have the back of the box. Pretty…as they say…ginchy, no?

Your PopCulteer is happy to announce that the internet gremlins that were assaulting this blog seem to have been vanquished. To celebrate, and take another day before I jump back into the swing of things, it’s time for an Easter Week edition of STUFF TO DO.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet, and now only the stupidest of people are going without vaccinations. Many people are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out.

If you are inclined to tune in to The AIR Wednesday night at 11 PM we will offer up a new episode of The Comedy Vault, this time featuring an hour of the best of  Cheech and Chong.

In the meantime, if you’re up for going out, here are some suggestions from folks who were kind enough to provide graphics (except for the Static Fur/Red Audio show. I made that one)…

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

Tuesday on The AIR we deliver encore episodes of Radio Free Charleston and The Swing Shift. It’s all due to the annoying technical issues that have descended upon this blog over the last few days. It’s still great radio, though. You simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay on this page, and listen to the cool embedded player in the right column of the website.

Basically, your humble blogger/deejay was still on the phone with the finest IT people in Mumbai on Monday, trying to recover full control of how the graphics look in this blog. So I was not able to record new episodes of my shows this week. Today’s RFC is a wonderful episode from February, 2020. This show features our usual mix of fantastic local music and fantastic not-local music. Back when this episode first aired, I didn’t say much about it, opting instead to let the playlist do the talking, so here’s that playlist again…

RFCV5 007

hour one
Bon Air “Slide”
Farnsworth “Green Valley”
Linnfinity “Gingerbread Girl”
Kevin Scarbrough “O is for Operative”
Hellblinki “Rust”
Bad Keys Of The Mountain “Don’t Think Twice”
The Stranglers “Relentless”
Jay Parade “Three Cheers For A Goner”
Crazy Jane “Lemonade Song”
Ona “Lemon Sea”
Dubioza Kolectiv “Space Song”
Lou Reed “Dirty Boulevard”
Pepper Fandango “Scotch Whiskey”

hour two
4OHM MONO “Entertain Me”
Emmalea Deal “Everything I’m Not”
Mark Beckner “Fragile (C’est La Vie)”
Ann Manguson “What Is Pretty?”
Mika “Ice Cream”
Human Pyramids “The MIghty Atom”
The New Division “Modus”
Mother’s Nature “Stand Back”
Spurgy Hankins Band “Seagull”
Creek Don’t Rise “White Coat Man”
Van Morrison “In Search of Grace”
Nektar “The Light Beyond”
Rose Garden “Next Plane To London”

hour three
Red Audio “Moneytree”
Science of the MInd “Toxic Waste”
Mother Nang “Fade”
Mind Garage “Paint It Black”
M-Opus “Holy War”
Jeff Lynne’s ELO “From Out of Nowhere”
Barclay James Harvest “Sperratus”
Hurl Brickbat “World of Fire”
Out of Nowhere “You Know I’ve Tried”
Pale Nova “Never Get Enough”
The Who “Hero Ground Zero”
Church of the Cosmic Skull “Everybody’s Going To Die”
Godmode Broadway “Surfboards and Broadswords”

For those of you keeping track, this show includes 19 West Virginia artists, 4 ex-pat WV artists 3 artists who at least played in Charleston and 13 artists who are NOT local (including one guy who has since lost his freaking mind over the pandemic).

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM, Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, and Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand. If we can’t get things completely restored, this feature might have to go away. Cross your fingers that nothing that drastic happens.

After RFC, stick around for encores of MIRRORBALL at 1 PM, and NOISE BRIGADE at 2 PM. At three we have two classic episodes of The Swing Shift.

Today’s art is a small pastel painting over a printout of a digitally-altered photograph. It’s a quickie, because, as you may have noticed, PopCult is having a technical issue, and unfortunately, it’s with my graphics, which is a key part of this blog. I knocked this piece out in less than half an hour because I’m probably looking at two days of working intensely with IT people in another country to figure out how to regain the full use of the functionality in this blog.

If you want to see this painting/drawing larger, just lean into your computer. I don’t have the capability to make it bigger with just a click at the moment. You may have noticed that the header image, which usually runs over the headline, is missing in action. It’s very frustrating, and it apparently will take a lot of time to fix. {Update: Not so much time. I had it restored by noon and PopCult should be back to whatever passes for normal, completely, by Wednesday}

Because of the tedious process of figuring out what went wrong, Radio Free Charleston will be a repeat of a recent episode tomorrow. I hate to do this, but it is the first week I’ve missed (not counting the marathon) this year. I hope to have things back to normal by the middle of the week. As it is, I had to undertake Rube-Goldbergian measures just to get this post working.

Meanwhile,in the midst of all that mess, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a recent episode of Psychedelic Shack, followed at 3 PM by a recent edition of Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis. You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player in the right column of the website version of PopCult.

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. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday at 9 AM as part of our Sunday Haversham Recording Institute collection.

You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM. You can hear two classic episodes of the show Sunday at 2 PM.

Tonight at 8 PM you can hear an hour of stand-up from Jim Jeffries on The Comedy Vault. Wednesday evening at 10 PM, we’ll debut another new episode of The Comedy Vault.

Then, at 9 PM we bring you an overnight marathon of Prognosis, providing you with five YES-centric episodes of our Progressive Rock extravaganza, presented by Herman Linte, Rudy Panucci and The Haversham Recording Institute.

From January, 2010, this is “Oingo Boingo Shirt,” a video episode of Radio Free Charleston. Our music this time was by Joseph Hale, The Diablo Blues Band and the Blues Girls from the CYAC production of “The Blob.” We also have a Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie and a serious message from Ann Magnuson on behalf of Covenant House.

Host segments were shot in the parking lot at The Kanawha Mall. There was no particular reason for this,other than it was sunny and that’s where we ended up.

Original production notes can be found HERE.