This week and next Monday Morning Art is going to dig back into our archives to bring you unused pieces from years ago sessions of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art Show. With your PopCulteer dealing with the dreaded deadline doom, this is as good a time as any to revisit some of the cool images captured and then set aside during the fun of the cool model-driven posing sessions.
This week we go back to April, 2016, for a never-before-seen digital oil painting of Lavender Menace, portraying Luna Lovegood, the first crush of one Mr. Harry Potter.This was painted over a composite image of a photograph from the session and a geometric abstract that I had laying around the hard drive. As always, click the image for a bigger version.
Over on The AIR, Marathon Monday brings you all twelve episodes of Prognosis that were hosted this year by yours truly. You get to hear me present the coolest prog-rock ever, filling in for Herman Linte, who has recently returned to the show following some health issues. You can tune in on The AIR website, or on this rather ingenious embedded transistor radio thingy…
And don’t forget to check PopCult later this afternoon for three Cyber Monday entries to kick off the last five days of The 2018 PopCult Gift Guide.
Our final BIG TICKET DAY pick in The 2018 PopCult Gift Guide is a rarity…it’s a gift suggestion that you won’t be able to wrap. I’m suggesting, as the perfect gift for the die-hard fan of DC Comics on your holiday shopping list, The DC Universe streaming service and web-channel. This is the new streaming home of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and their friends and enemies.
DC Universe is a video on demand service operated by DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Digital Networks. It was announced in the spring, and launched in beta in August, with the official kick-off on September 15. The service includes original television programming, access to select animated series and films from DC’s back catalogue, a rotating selection of comics from DC Comics, forum discussion space, and a merchandise store. A one-year subscription can be had for seventy-five bucks until the end of the year.
It’s a great deal if your giftee is a very loyal DC Comics fan. The original programming is doled out at a rate of one new episode each week for the time being, but that should increase as the channel gains steam. Currently they are releasing new episodes of the controversial adaptation of The New Teen Titans, called “Titans.”
It’s a fun show if you completely ingore all previous incarnations of Teen Titans, and consider it as a grim and girtty, “Elseworlds” version of the young super hero team.
Once Titans wraps up its run, DC Universe will roll out new episodes of the long-awaited third season of the animated Young Justice. By the time they get to the end of those episodes, viewers will be treated to new live-action versions of The Doom Patrol, Harley Quinn, Stargirl and Swamp Thing.
Some folks have griped about the way DC Universe is releasing these show, since they’re somewhat spoiled by Netflix dropping entire seasons of shows all at the same time, but this is a good hook to get people to come back and engage with DC Universe on a regular basis.
It’s not just new shows, though. DC Universe subscribers also have access to most of the DC Animated Universe, with Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and both incarnations of The Justice League. They also have the George Reeves Superman series from the 1950s, Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman, and the Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve. There are all sorts of great finds in the video library, including Super Friends, The 1990 Flash series and loads of animated movies.
There’s also DC Daily, which brings you news of DC Comics and the DC Universe channel every day, with interviews and panel discussions featuring people who weren’t born yet when I started reading comics.
And that’s just the video. If you are inclined to read comic books online (your PopCulteer is not), then you can access a pretty impressive selection of DC Comics in digital form. Ranging from Golden Age classics to Silver Age revivals and up to today’s stuff, you can read these comics on a tablet or phone or your computer, or just sit real close to the TV.
DC Universe also offers forums, just in case you don’t have enough places to argue about comic books online, and they have a webstore, which is not really much of a selling point.
Overall, I’ve found DC Universe to be a fun addition to my Roku. Despite cringing a bit at the excessive violence and language, I’ve found Titans to be enjoyable, and I am really looking forward to Young Justice, which begins in January. Having access to the DC Animated universe is almost worth the price by itself, and if I ever get around to buying a tablet, the comics may come in handy.
It’s a great gift for the DC Comics fan on your shopping list, and maybe you can print something out to wrap and stick under the tree. You can sign up for DC Universe HERE, and take a look at the trailer below to see if it looks like the right fit for your comic book fan (warning, not for Marvel Zombies).
The first pick for our final BIG TICKET DAY during The 2018 PopCult Gift Guide, we have yet another deluxe box set celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of a remarkable album. 1968 must’ve been a hell of a year for music.
This one is the pefect gift for fans of over-the-top, theatrical, prototypical, psychedelic prog-rock, it’s a deluxe version of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
Back in summer 1968, THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN were on top of the world. Famously promoted by performances with Arthur Brown wearing a burning helmet, ”Fire!” was a massive worldwide hit, topping the charts in the UK and Canada and eventually reaching the Top 10 in America (No. 2), France, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands and Ireland.
The band’s second single on Track Records, co-produced by The Who’s Pete Townshend, it bridged the gap between London’s flourishing, colorful psychedelic underground and the mainstream pop scene. The resulting album, THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN, was a theatrical, ambitious concept album based around the elements (fire being just one of four, of course). Such was the huge impact of ”Fire” that the album sold in huge quantities, peaking at No. 2 in the UK and No. 7 in America. The Beatles were the only other British band to enjoy such unprecedented sales with such ambitious, psychedelic LPs.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this landmark record, Cherry Red Records presents this deluxe edition box set of THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN. Alongside the stereo album and numerous bonus tracks, the rare Mono mix appears on CD for the first time, as well as three additional, previously unissued BBC sessions and four other radio recordings, plus a handful of pre-Track recordings by Arthur Brown before he formed Crazy World.
Lavishly packaged within a 12” x 12” box set, and complete with a stereo vinyl replica of the original LP and a poster, THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN is augmented by a 12,000-word sleeve-note from Mojo magazine’s Mark Paytress (including fresh quotes from Arthur and others), alongside a wealth of illustrations and three previously unissued photos from the original front cover session.
This is your chance to finally learn the words to “Fire” past those first couple of lines, plus you’ll get to hear the drumming of an embryonic, pre-ELP, Carl Palmer.
You can probably order this from any record shop, or take the easy way out and find it at Amazon, where it’s currently around sixty-seven bucks. Get it now, before you fall too far behind.
Music From Big Pink – 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe
Today’s other BIG TICKET DAY pick for The 2018 PopCult Gift Guide is a super deluxe fiftieth anniversary reissue of the legendary album, Music From Big Pink by The Band. This is the perfect gift for any die-hard fan of The Band, or anyone who wants to hear how Americana music was invented.
On July 1, 1968, The Band’s landmark debut album, Music from Big Pink, seemed to spring from nowhere and everywhere. Drawing from the American roots music panoply of country, blues, R&B, gospel, soul, rockabilly, the honking tenor sax tradition, hymns, funeral dirges, brass band music, folk, and rock ‘n’ roll, The Band forged a timeless new style that forever changed the course of popular music. Fifty years later, the mythology surrounding Music from Big Pink lives on through the evocative storytelling of its songs including “The Weight,” “This Wheel’s On Fire,” “Tears of Rage,” and “To Kingdom Come,” its enigmatic cover art painted by Bob Dylan, the salmon-colored upstate New York house – ‘Big Pink’ – where The Band wrote the songs, and in myriad descendant legends carried forth since the album’s stunning arrival.
In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of The Band’s landmark debut album, Music From Big Pink we now have a Super Deluxe CD/Blu-ray/2LP/7-inch vinyl box set with a hardbound book.
The big attraction is a limited edition of two pink vinyl LPs that feature a new stereo mix of the album, produced by Bob Clearmountain from the original four-track analog master. This new mix achieves a striking clarity and incorporates some previously unreleased chatter from the studio sessions.
For the LP, Chris Bellman cut the vinyl lacquers for the album’s new stereo mix at 45rpm at Bernie Grundman Mastering, expanding the album’s vinyl footprint from one LP to two.The music is also included on a CD and a 5.1 digitial audio Blu Ray disc.
The box set also includes an exclusive reproduction of The Band’s 1968 7-inch vinyl single for “The Weight” / “I Shall Be Released” in their new stereo mixes and a hardbound book with a new essay by noted music journalist David Fricke and classic photos by Elliott Landy.
Music From Big Pink – 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe box set can be ordered from any record shop that carries new releases, or you can find it at Amazon for just under ninety bucks.
Joe Kubert’s Tarzan of the Apes Artist’s Edition
by Joe Kubert
IDW Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1613774496
$125
Today is BIG TICKET DAY at The 2018 PopCult Gift Guide, and our pick is an incredible work of art, literature and storytelling.
Published in 2012 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ most enduring creation, Tarzan of the Apes, this Artist’s Edition book highlights Joe Kubert’s take on the character, which many people (including your PopCulteer) consider the definitive comics adaption of Tarzan.
Artist’s Edition is an award-winning line of hardcover reprint comic books published by IDW Publishing. Each page in an Artist’s Edition series book is printed the same size as the original art board and scanned in high resolution from the original art wherever possible. Additionally, while appearing to be in black and white, each page is scanned in color to show blue pencil and other corrections. These remarkable collections are as close as many people will ever get to seeing original comic book art pages. The books are huge. This edition is seventeen inches tall, and a foot wide. This is an impressive gift for any devout fan of Joe Kubert, Edgar Rice Burroughs or comic art in general.
Joe Kubert was one of the most acclaimed comic artists ever. His career in comics lasted nearly 70 years. Throughout all those years his hallmarks have been a mastery of sequential storytelling and exceptionally fine drawing. Highlights of his career include work on Hawkman, Enemy Ace, Tor, Sgt. Rock, and the Viking Prince. But of all these exceptional artistic achievements one stands out: his remarkable adaption of ERB’s Tarzan.
This incredible work can be ordered directly from IDW Publishing for $125. You may find better (or worse) prices at other online retailers by using your Google machine.
Today’s final suggestion in The 2018 PopCult Gift Guide is the perfect gift for the die-hard fan of Leave it to Beaver, or also a great gift for fans of early 1960s gross-out monsters like Rat Fink. It’s shirts (T Shirts or Sweatshirts–you pick) based on “Sweatshirt Monsters,” a 1962 episode of Leave it To Beaver.
In case you don’t remember this particular episode, here’s a synopsis from “Huggo” at IMDB…
Beaver, Richard, Whitey and Alan are all excited about the new sweatshirts they have each purchased, each one which has a different monster face on it. Although he is not the one who comes up with the idea and is the one least amenable to it, Beaver ultimately agrees with a group pact that they will each wear their sweatshirt to school the next day. They figure that if they all do, they won’t, in their terminology, get “clobbered” by the teachers.
Although they can’t force Beaver to return the sweatshirt which they detest, Ward and June can demand that Beaver not wear the sweatshirt to school, or so they believe. When Beaver leaves the house, he is wearing a regular shirt. But once outside, he takes off that shirt and has his monster sweatshirt underneath. When he arrives in class, he finds that the sweatshirt causes much commotion, especially as he is the only one of the four wearing it.
Not only does Beaver feel like he will get into much trouble, but he also feels betrayed by his friends for them not sticking to the pact. He ultimately learns that good judgment trumps promises made.
Now, even though I was not a huge fan of Leave It To Beaver, that episode stuck with me. I always wondered if there were ever any attempt to market these designs on real shirts (seriously, I was just talking about this with a friend a few months ago).
It always seemed like a golden marketing opportunity missed, but with the nascent state of pop culture licensing back then, and the fact that the attitude of the show being that designs like this were borderline evil, it never came to be.
Now my buddy from Chicago (who I haven’t seen in person for over thirty years), Mitch O’Connell, has done something about the situation. Here’s what Mitch says:
If you never saw the peewee version of ‘The Wild Ones’ on tv and are a little confused about what I’m yacking about, watch it for free.
I did see it as a youth, and immediately salivated over the surfin’ wild Rat Fink-like graphics, but sadly, they only existed in tv land. According to Tony ‘Wally’ Dow, a talented stagehand actually painted the iconic incredibly icky shirts that you see hanging in the window at Tildens. It took me 56 years to get around to doing my best to replicate those cool duds, and through Threadless, you can finally get all four Beaver horror heads printed on pretty much whatever your heart desires, including grey sweatshirts!
So if you go to Mitch’s Threadless store, you can purchase your favorite design (or all four) on an almost infinite variety of garments, in a rainbow of colors. You’ll also find a bunch of other cool designs by Mitch there. Best of all, you can pretend that they’re gifts, but actually keep them for yourself because they’re so cool.
Our next pick in The 2018 PopCult Gift Guide is something that I’ve been writing about all year. MEGO action figures returned to retail shelves this year after more than thirty-five years in limbo, and you can find a lot of great gift ideas among these figures, which are exclusive to Target stores (until December 31). Revived by the company’s founder, Marty Abrams, these MEGO figures maintain the look and feel of the classic MEGO figures of the 1970s, but bring that format to a whole new series of pop culture classics.
Much more recognizable than Funko Pops, these eight-inch tall action figures (DC comics heroes are fourteen inches tall) make great gifts for the fans of the respective shows, and it’s pretty easy to find the figures based on Happy Days, Cheers, The Facts of Life, Married with Children, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, Charmed, Charlie’s Angels and Full House.
Other cool figures, like those based on KISS, Star Trek and MEGO’s Monsters sell out very quick, but do occasionally pop up on the website. The only drawback to collecting the line is that, with sixty figures or sets of figures released in four months, many Target stores haven’t gotten the full assortment yet, and the most popular figures sell out very quickly on the website (but they do come back into stock, so if you want to check it obsessively, it can pay off).
However, if you have a casual fan of any of the TV shows I mentioned a couple of paragraphs above, you might just have the perfect, low-priced gift (eight inch figures are fifteen bucks, but have been on sale for under ten bucks at times).
The DC Comics Characters (some of which are a bit elusive) are great, big action figures that work as office decorations for adults, or great toys for kids. They sell for under twenty bucks each, with periodic sales kicking the price even lower.
MEGO figures are great gift ideas for the person who likes having little artifacts of their favorite pop culture personalities, but thinks that Funko Pops all pretty much look alike. Available only at Target stores and online. Note that Target is offering free shipping now, so you’ll save on that, too.
For much more detailed news and larger images, please visit MegoMuseum, where Brian Heiler has been doing a bang-up job posting the latest news on Marty Abrams presents MEGO for the last two days. He’s been updating the sight often, and is the major source for news on the return of this beloved brand.
Record Store Day, the national movement to get people into records shops by offering hundreds of exclusive releases on one day each year, has expanded to a second day in recent years with a smaller, but still impressive slate of exclusive limited edition vinyl releases on Black Friday.
Locally, Budget Tapes and Records (3708 MacCorkle Ave SE, in Kanawha City) and Sullivan’s Records (1588-A Washington Street East on Charleston’s Historic East End) are participating, with special vinyl reissues from Todd Rundgren, Madonna, Frank Zappa and the Mothers, YES and dozens of other great artists, and new and unreleased music from Harry Nilsson, Paul McCartney and more. You can find a full list of available records HERE.
And don’t forget that Budget also carries a huge range of other cool gift ideas, from clothing, to smoking accessories to adult novelties, and Sullivan’s now has a used bookstore in the back, so it you want one-stop-shopping, you can’t go wrong at either place (but hit both of them, and Elk City too).
Elk City Records (311 W Washington Street on Charleston’s West Side) won’t be carrying the new releases, but they will be running specials on their great stock of used vinyl, so you’ll want to hit them up, too. Plus they’re just around the corner from Kin Ship Goods and Base Camp Printing, and a short walk across the street from Void and Gonzoburger, so you can just make a whole West Side shopping day of it.
With any of today’s three suggestions, you can SHOP LOCAL, support our local merchants and give the gift of music.
A Charleston tradition is our next pick in the 2018 PopCult Gift Guide. Mark Scarpelli and Dan Kehde’s rock opera, MARY, opens the day after Thanksgiving, and you’ll have nine chances to see the 22nd production put on by Charleston Youth Arts Company. You can sample previous a production in the video at the bottom of this post. This year MARY moves to a new home, at the CYAC Theater at the Mall, Charleston Town Center, 2nd level. This is a smaller venue, so you might want to order your tickets online. Friday’s show is alread sold out.
Scarpelli and Kehde’s rock opera MARY follows the life of Mary, mother of Jesus, during the final 9 months before the birth of Christ. A driving score and vibrant young talent brings the story to life on the stage of the new CYAC theater at the Mall. Accompanied by a large orchestra and chorus, MARY has become a seasonal tradition in the greater Kanawha Valley.
This year the production is filled with fresh faces, as CYAC continues to discover and bring to the stage the brightest new talents the area has to offer. One of the great joys of seeing MARY every year is the glimpse into the future of Charleston’s theatre scene that it gives us.
It’s a testament to the depth of talent that can be found in this city that CYAC manages to mount such impressive productions of this show each year.
This is an experience, a wonderful gift of music and theater that is perfect for the person on your list who isn’t just interested in material things. Tickets are $8.00 Students and $15.00 Adults. Available at the door or by calling 342-6522 for reservations, or order online through Showclix.
You can see Scarpelli and Kehde’s MARY: A Rock Opera at 7 PM November 23, 24, 29 and 30 and 30 and December 1. And there are 2 PM matinee performances on November 24 and 25, and December 2.
This is the perfect gift for the local theater-going patron of the arts on your gift list. It’s a world-class show that really has to be seen in person to be appreciated. CYAC is hard at work making this 22nd production special and theater lovers, music lovers as well as followers of the Christian faith should make it a point to attend, and it’s such a special show that it makes a perfect gift.
Since Thanksgiving is a traditional day of feasting, our 2018 PopCult Gift Guide pick for today follows our tradition of inspiring you to get out and support locally-owned places of dining. Most of our suggested restaurants offer gift certificates or cards. Even if they don’t, you can still take your giftee out and treat them not only to a great meal, but also to the pleasure of your company. Food is a great gift, and you don’t usually have to wrap it.
Charleston is blessed with a wide variety of great, independent eateries. Take that into account when choosing one for the gift-giving experience. You have a lot of great options. Contact info can be found in the links with the names on our list.
Newcomers on the dining scene this year include: Gonzoburger, with their gourmet burgers in the old Chris’s Hot Dog location; Void, just across the street, is a new, hip coffee shop; Also on the coffee front, we have Mea Cuppa Coffee and Atlas Coffee in Charleston, Cafe Crema, now in Dunbar along Route 25, and Coal River Coffee Company on Old Main in Saint Albans. Plus there’s Rock City Cake Company, on Capitol Street, blending cakes and treats and live music.
We are happy to report that Caffe Romeo in South Hills, an authentic Italian-style place where you can get Gelato, Expresso, Sorbet and several other treats is stil as wonderful as we said it was last year.
The Olive Tree Cafe and Catering, is already a reliable favorite on the Charleston culinary scene. Their tasty Mediterrean fare is top-notch and the service is quick and friendly. They offer up great salads and sandwiches, and their shawarma is the stuff of legend. The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday from 11 AM to 7 PM. It’s a casual dining atmosphere and they have lots of other deli goodies for sale.
These are the stores that we know off the top of our heads offer gift certificates or cards. Your PopCulteer does not get around as much as he used to, due to health issues related to Myasthenia Gravis. You might want to ask around to see if your favorite local restaurant also offers gift certificates. If they do, please feel free to tell us about it in the comments section.
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