This week we take you to March, 2012, where after more than two month’s off, we got back into the thick of things with Radio Free Charleston 151, “The Tom McGees Shirt.” It was our first all-new episode of 2012.
In this show, you will find music by Buddy Black, Johnny Compton with Prank Monkey and Karma To Burn We also get a preview of Danny Boyd’s graphic novel project, “Carbon.” Host segments were shot on a beautiful, windless, Sunday morning at Haddad Riverfront park.
Our first musical guest was Canadian punk rocker Buddy Black. Black was such a huge fan of the Danny Boyd‘s classic West Virginia Horror movie, Chillers, that he recorded a tribute EP devoted to film. He came to Charleston to film two music videos from the EP, and we were proud to bring you one in this episode. “Xipe,” directed by Curtis Baskerville, and filmed in Dunbar and Institute is a beautifully-crafted, catchy punk rock gem.
After a couple of plugs for then-happening events, this episode brings you an animated (sort of) video of an instrumental tune by Johnny Compton and Prank Monkey that featured digitally-assaulted graphics so that the video looks like an oil painting come to life. The tune is one that Johnny Compton plays to salute fallen friends and loved ones. This week we featured Johnny with Jamie Skeen and Mike Vandergriff performing “Until We Meet Again.”
This show closes with two numbers (literally) by the legendary Karma To Burn. Recorded the previous fall at Mission Coalition, you get to hear “19” and “36.” These was an incredible night and it’s cool to see that I used more footage from that show than I recalled.
You can read the full production notes for this episode HERE.
A week ago today, I went to Yankee Stadium to watch a baseball game.
That may not seem like a big deal to you. Millions of people do it every year. In my case, it was something that, for a long time, I never dreamed would happen.
I’ve been a fan of the New York Yankees my entire life. I inherited my favorite team from my father. I’m not obsessive about baseball, but I do enjoy watching the occasional game, and when my team is in the post season, I make it a point to cheer them on.
Before this, I had never set foot in a major league ballpark. Most of the reason for that was simply location. Charleston isn’t conveniently located less than a few hours drive from any MLB city, and although I’ve been going to Pittsburgh on a regular basis for over thirty years, I never really considered going to a Pirates game.
Apologies to fans of the Pirates, but I didn’t really want my first major league game to be in Pittsburgh. I love the Steelers, but I’ve never really been caught up in the Pirate’s mystique.
I really wanted to hold out for Yankee Stadium. My dad never got to visit Yankee Stadium. He traveled to closer cities to see his favorite team, and even got to see Joe DiMaggio in Washington, the day after the streak was broken. And he saw Mickey Mantle play in Watt Powell Park while rehabbing an injury. But Pop never made it to New York City.
I’ve mentioned before that I spent a long time as a caregiver. My father had a blood disorder that eventually developed into leukemia, and my mother suffered a major stroke in 1997 that left her bedridden. I took care of them at home from the early 1990s to 2006. During this time I couldn’t imagine being away from them long enough to go on any trips.
Within months after my mother passed away (Pop had died three years earlier), my aunt asked me to help take care of my uncle, and I was basically drafted into caregiver mode for another seven years.
When my uncle died in 2013 I was finally free to travel. I had actually started visiting other cities before he died, making my first trip to JoeLanta and a couple of trips to Washington D.C, but during those trips, even though we had plenty of other caregivers to watch over my uncle, members of his family made it a point to call every few minutes to ask me questions.
When the deck was cleared and I was no longer responsible for other people’s lives, I was finally free to live my own. Melanie and I got married in Chicago in 2014, and we make it a point to take several trips a year, just because we couldn’t for the longest time.
In fact, the reason that I finally took the plunge and went to Yankee Stadium was because Melanie is now a devoted fan…of the Chicago Cubs. She wants to go to a game at Wrigley Field (sooner than later, to be precise), and I could not have my first visit to a Major League ballpark be anywhere but Yankee Stadium.
If this sounds selfish…I’ll admit to that. The thing is, I’ve been a Yankees fan since birth, and Mel has been a Cubs fan for a bit over two years. I had to call senority on this one. Now that I’ve seen a game at Yankee Stadium, we can go where ever she wants.
The whole experience was a wide-eyed joy. In our previous trips to New York City, neither me nor Mel had ever ridden the subway. We took our first subway trip to Yankee Stadium one week ago. It smelled exactly like everybody said it would…like if giant robots had sweaty private parts. But it was still an adventure. I got to stand, pinned up against the wall (photo at right), for the entire 30-minute trip. But I was cool with that.
The train spilled its passengers at Yankee Stadium, and we walked around to get our bearings. We had to go buy tickets first. The light rain that plagued us all day threatened the game, but as long as I got in and was able to take my seat, I was going to be happy. I really never thought that I’d get the chance to go to Yankee Stadium. This was hallowed ground, more important to me than the Vatican to the Pope.
It was Brett Gardner Bobblehead Day, and we didn’t really expect to get one. We got there hours early, but there were already massive lines. After we got our ticket, I had a hunch that we’d be closer to our seats if we walked around the stadium and entered through Gate 8.
It turned out that hardly anybody was using Gate 8. We got in without standing in line, and were both handed a Bobblehead of one of my favorite current players (seen left). We arrived so early that we had to wait to get to the section with our seats, but that gave us time to grab a bite to eat and enjoy the park.
We did not visit the museum or the stores or anything. This trip was about seeing a game, and we figured we’ll eventually go back and see all that stuff later. Plans are already afoot for 2019.
Come 5:30 we were able to get to our seats in section 211, and relax and watch stuff on the big screen, while not mentioning the rain that was still coming down at a mild pace. We sort of had the section to ourselves for a while because we’d gotten there so early, as you can see in the image at the right.
I should probably mention that most of the photos you see with this post were taken before the game. Once the game started, I put away the camera and phone and enjoyed it without infringing on any material owned by Major League Baseball, since I did not have expressed written consent or anything.
Then, right before the game started, the rain stopped. It became a cool and breezy 70 degrees. The weather was perfect, and the ground crew removed the tarp from the infield.
This being our first trip to a MLB ballpark, I wasn’t sure if it was standard practice to keep the infield cover before gametime, but it was rainly lightly, but steadily, so it was a bit nerve-wracking to see the field covered when we got there.
The Yankees were playing the Detroit Tigers. We’d picked this time to go because the tickets were less expensive, and (sorry Tigers fans) there was a better chance that the Yankees would win.
Before the game, while posting on Facebook, Jack Hall, a friend and fellow GI Joe collector, and a loyal Tigers fan, said he was rooting against the Yankees (whom he also likes). I made a reverse-bet with him. If the Yankees beat his team, I’d send him a box of Quisp cereal.
Jack should get his Quisp today or tomorrow. The Tigers took an early lead. Then, in the sixth inning, Brett Gardner, on the day of his holy Bobble-headening, hit a two-run homer to put the Yankees on the scoreboard for the first time. One Strikeout later, Aaron Hicks and Gleybor Torres hit back-to-back homers to give the Yankees the lead. Later Detroit re-took the lead, but in the 8th inning, Gardner scored the tying run, and the Yanks added two more for the win.
I was pretty lucky. At my first game in a major league ballpark, I got to see my team win, and hit three home runs in one inning, and the rain held off and it was a fantastic experience all around.
The really cool thing was that the crowd was united. There were no divisions over skin color, politics, religion or anything else. For a few hours we didn’t think about how awful the president is, or how things are probably going to get worse soon. We were spared the real world issues of the day, and over 41,000 of us got to sit back and enjoy an exciting ballgame. This was America at its finest…unless you were a Tigers fan.
I would like to mention that I have been to games at Power Park here in town, and I have an observation: When we went to local games, I noticed that they pumped in really, really loud music, non-stop, before the game and between every inning. It was so loud that you couldn’t possibly carry on a conversation. If they weren’t playing music they were making some really loud announcement or having a contest or something. I figured that at Yankee Stadium it would be much worse. I was wrong. While they do play music and have news and introductions and announcments, the audio level was never at the pain-inducing roar that our local minor-league team uses (or used–to be fair, I haven’t been to a Power Game in about seven years, largely due to the noise. They may have fixed it by now). Mel and I were able to talk to each other without yelling, and we got to meet some of our fellow fans. It was so much nicer than the audio onslaught that I’ve experienced here in town.
After the game, Mel and I were able to navigate the subway back to our hotel (which was just a block away from the station) and prepare for our last night’s slumber in the city that never sleeps. We even passed the stage door to SpongeBob Squarepants on the way. The next morning we were back on the train to Pittsburgh, and the day after that we meandered our way down I 79.
We’d made our anniversary trip to New York City. Mel got to see SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical. We got to eat Junior’s Cheesecake. I got to see the Yankees play at Yankee Stadium.
Mission accomplished.
Now we need to get ready for part two of the anniversary trip. Here’s a video with some random inages from our trip…
That’s the PopCulteer for this week. Check back for our regular features, and get ready for more book and toy reviews next week.
As promised, now I will tell you a bit about my anniversary trip to New York last week. Yesterday I posted my review of SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical, but today I’m going to tell you how we got to New York City in the first place.
I’ve mentioned before that Mel and I like to travel via Amtrak. It’s easier than driving, and cheaper than flying, with more room for luggage and way less TSA hassle. The cars are comfy, even traveling coach (seen right). However, until November, there’s a problem with taking our local train, The Cardinal, to New York.
It doesn’t go there, at least not at this time.
While they are taking forever to repair and replace tracks in the Northeastern Corridor, service on the Cardinal line beyond Washington D.C. has been suspended. This has been a major pain in the butt for us because the repairs coincide with two trips to the Big Apple that we took this year, and we had to find other means to get to our destination.
Rather than take the train to DC and deal with a long layover while we waited for another train to finish our journey, we decided to drive to Pittsburgh, stay with my sister overnight, and then ride The Pennsylvanian into New York. It’s a fun trip that takes us through the famous Horseshoe Curve in Blair County, Pennsylvania (see the video below) and also past the Boyer candy factory in Altoona, Amish Country and into Philadelphia (after which the trip is exactly like riding The Cardinal).
We arrived at Penn Station in Manhattan around 5 PM and hopped a taxi to our hotel, Double Tree Suites Times Square, which was strategically chosen because it was right next door to the Palace Theater, where we went to see SpongeBob Squarepants.
Staying in Times Square is a remarkable experience, and if you can ever afford to do it, I recommend it highly. We only stayed for two nights, and cashed in Hilton Honors points for one of those, so it wasn’t a back-breaking expense.
After freshening up a bit, we walked out of the hotel’s front entrance and were five feet away from the start of the line to pick up our “will call” tickets for the show. I wrote about the show HERE, so we’ll pick up the rest of the story after we got out of the show.
The coolest thing about where we stayed was how close we were to everything. After the show it was a block and a half walk to Junior’s Delicatessen, where we partook of giant sandwiches and brought their world famous greatest cheesecake in the world back to the hotel to eat for breakfast the next morning. That’s me and Mel, waiting for our gigantic portions of food, at the right.
Walking through Times Square after Midnight was a trip. It was still packed with people, bright and loud, and to be honest, we felt much safer than we do walking in downtown Charleston at 8 PM. With so many people around, you don’t feel threatened if you see someone who looks crazy. Chances are you’ll see someone who looks crazier five feet past them, and they’re not paying any attention to you because they’re trying to out-crazy the next guy, five feet past them.
It was a kick walking into our hotel room and seeing that there was more light coming in the windows at night than there was in daylight.
We slept a little later than normal the next day, recovering from the fantastic show, the insanely huge portions of food, and the fun and overwhelming Times Square experience, and then we had Junior’s cheesecake for breakfast, and started out on a couple of excursions around the neighborhood.
I should mention here that one impediment to our summer travels is that I have Myasthenia Gravis, and heat wears me out fast. It has been a brutally hot and humid summer on the East Coast, and New York City has not been spared the heat waves. It’s so hot that, if the Son of Sam killings were happening now, the Satan dog would tell David Berkowitz to wait until it cools down a bit before going out shooting.
So I had to pace myself, but luckily that didn’t get in our way of having fun. In the morning we walked through Shubert Alley and hit a couple of Theatre book stores, and just enjoyed the city. We also ventured down the subway to check out the maps and schedules for later in the day. Having stuffed ourselves with cheesecake, we didn’t really need to stop for lunch.
We did head back to the hotel to rest for a few minutes, then we went back out, walking in the opposite direction from where’d we gone earlier, and visited Hershey World, M&M World and a Christmas shop, all within a block of the Doubletree.
After that we stopped and sat on Father Duffy’s Steps in Times Square, which was right outside our hotel, and hit up Grand Slam, a gift shop where trinkets and Yankee’s stuff was purchased.By this point, it had become overcast, but also windy. The temperature dropped to a lovely and breezy 75 degrees, but the light rain made put our evening plans in a bit of jeopardy.
After soaking in Times Square, it was back to the hotel to rest up for our first-ever NYC Subway ride, to Yankee Stadium. I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow.
SpongeBob Squarepants The Broadway Musical may well be the quintessential Broadway experience. It has the perfect combination of music, cast, direction, art direction and story to make it stand head and shoulders above any of the classics of the stage. The only musical close to this in terms of over all quality is The Book of Mormon, and unlike that show, SpongeBob Squarepants is family-friendly.
Taking the familiar characters from the Nickledeon cartoon, and placing them in a compelling story about the potential end of the world works surprisingly well on stage, largely due to the efforts of the cast and the creative team.
The show is a spectacle in every sense of the word. The set design is brilliant, both figuratively and literally, and the costume design manages to perfectly capture the characters of the cartoon series without resorting to using mascot uniforms.
Much of the credit for that also goes to the cast, who manage to evoke the outlandish cartoon characters by using physical comedy, mime and puppeteering skills, exaggerated dance and mastery of the character voices. Ethan Slater, as SpongeBob, looks like a muscled-up Danny Elfman, but with the voice, stance and costume perfectly embodies the beloved cartoon character.
The entire cast is excellent, but special notice has to go to Gavin Lee (left), who plays Squidward. With a costume that includes gimmicked pants that include two extra legs, Lee brings Squidward to life in a way that would have been hard to imagine. He has the body language, voice and attitude down perfectly, and his big production number, “I’m Not A Loser” (written by They Might Be Giants), is one of the many highlights of this show.
The casting of this show is a perfect example of how to achieve diversity without calliing attention to it. Other shows would stop every five seconds to pat themselves on the back for having black, Asian, gay, Latino, and folks with different body types as cast members on stage, but in SpongeBob Squarepants they simply are, without it being a big deal. Each actor does their job, or jobs, and they all excel.
The music is incredible and hangs together very well, despite being written, for the most part, by rock musicians with no prior stage experience. In addition to They Might Be Giants, composers include David Bowie and Brian Eno, Jonathan Coulton, Cyndi Lauper, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Yolanda Adams, Sara Bareilles, John Legend and members of Lady Antebellum, The Flaming Lips, Panic at the Disco, The Plain White Ts and Paic At The Disco.
The orchestra does a remarkable job throughout, and the onstage sound effects/Foley/percusstionist Mike Dobson adds a whole new level to the use of sound in a stage musical.
Everything about this show is perfect. I can’t understand how this show was passed over for the Tony Award for best musical in favor of the dismal and mundane The Band’s Visit. I can only assume that it was misplaced resentment over all the stage musicals based on Disney cartoons. However, SpongeBob Squarepants The Musical is so much more than the Disney musicals are. It delivers everything that a Broadway musical should, and does it with originality, wit and style. Kudos to director/co-conceiver Tina Landau for creating the definitive Broadway musical.
SpongeBob Squarepants The Broadway Musical ends its run at the Palace Theater on September 16, but will shortly be going out on a national tour. I recommend you see it, if you get the chance. This is a show that you will never forget.
This show was half of the anniversary trip to New York taken last week by your PopCulteer and his wife. I will tell you about the rest of the trip later this week.
You can hear Mel Larch’s Curtain Call present the cast album of SpongeBob Squarepants on The AIR today at 3 PM, Thursday at 8 AM and 8 PM and Saturday at 6 PM. Listen at The AIR website or on this embedded radio player…
Here’s one look at how amazing just part of the set was. This is just one side of the stage, in a photo taken during intermission. It does not do justice to how impressive the set for this show is.
This week The AIR presents the best examples of our most popular programs. If you think that’s just a euphemistic way of saying that we’re bringing you reruns all week long…well, it’s hard to argue your logic. You can tune in all week to the website, or on the embedded player below for this week’s slate of familiar programs.
Your PopCulteer and his lovely wife took off for New York City last week for a late-anniversary trip, and while we had lots of fun, we did not have time to record new episodes of our programs for the week. Likewise, the crew at Haversham Recording Institute had the daunting task of undertaking a working vacation in the South of France, and were not able to provide us with their programs. So this week The AIR brings you the best of our recent shows.
Tuesday you will be treated to treasures from our archives for Radio Free Charleston, Psychedelic Shack and The Swing Shift. Wednesday it’s encores of Curtain Call, Beatles Blast and Life Speaks to Michele Zirkle. Thursday expect a classic edition of Prognosis, and Friday brings you hand-picked examples of the finest episodes of Radio Free Charleston International and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. You can keep track of the full schedule on the widget-thingy at the bottom of this post.
And you can also expect yours truly to share the details of our second surgical strike on The Big Apple, complete with photos, and possibly video. Stay tuned to PopCult this week for that.
Your PopCulteer has just returned from another whirlwind trip to New York City, and I will be telling you about those action-packed 42 hours in the next few days. In the month of September, the Big Apple will be the subject of Monday Morning Art, with each week presenting a piece of art inspired by New York City, but executed in drastically different styles. This week it’s my impressionistic take on Manhattan’s Theatre District, which we could see just by looking out of our hotel window. As always, click to enlarge the image.
Our Monday Marathon on The AIR, this week celebrates the 29th anniversary of Radio Free Charleston, which debuted on broadcast radio 29 years ago on the weekend of Labor Day, 1999. RFC has gone through many different incarnations, including the original broadcast run, our video show (currently on hiatus) and our current internet radio program which you can listen to at The AIR Website, or on the embedded player at the bottom of this post. Starting at 7 AM Monday, and running for 24 hours, you can listen to one-hour episodes of Radio Free Charleston filled with great local music alternating with two-hour episodes of Radio Free Charleston International, filled with great music of all kinds from all over the world. Between the two shows, you can recreate the feel of the original RFC, which combined alternative and progressive music with the best of local music from all over West Virginia.
Tonight we bring you a fan-shot video of legendary punk pioneers, The Dickies, shot just a few months ago in Portland, Oregon. Recorded at Dante’s, by Jason Miller , this hour-long set features really good audio and great camerawork. Normally I hate to post one-camera videos here, but Jason did a really great job.
The Dickies are the longest-lived Los Angeles punk band, having formed in 1977. They were the first LA punk band to appear on network television (in an episode of CPO Sharkey) and they also wrote and performed the theme song for the movie, Killer Klowns From Outer Space eleven years later. Often compared to The Ramones because of their strong sense of humor, The Dickies also made it a habit to tackle punk-rock covers of unexpected songs like “The Sounds of Silence,” “Nights In White Satin,” and the theme song from Gigantor.
They even survived a controversy last year over something horrid that Phillips said during The Warped Tour. People still don’t quite grasp the shock mentality of punk music or the whole point of The Dickies’ outrageous onstage act.
I’ve been a fan for more than a couple of decades, and it’s really cool to see the band still performing with their original singer and guitarist, Leonard Phillips and Stan Lee (a couple of dozen other musicians have passed through the band’s line-up over the years). It’s really remarkable when you consider that the original members must be well into their sixties by now, and that they just played a tour of the UK in June and July, and performed in Thousand Oaks, CA, just yesterday.
Get ready for some primo pop-punk fun, with The Dickies.
From March, 2012 we present episode 150 of Radio Free Charleston. “Black Shirt” was a celebration of LiveMix Studio, our first production partner without whom Radio Free Charleston would not exist. LiveMix is long gone now, but in this episode, we revisited some of the incredible performances and speak with some of the musicians who helped make our first 150 episodes so special.
RFC Big Shot Brian Young, one of the owners of LiveMix, speaks extensively about recording some of the bands, while we also have comments from performers Raymond Wallace, Dave Roberts, Lee Harrah, Melanie Larch, and in archival footage, Tom Medvic and Dan Jordan of Feast of Stephen.
LiveMix Studio was shut down in late 2010 when it became the property of Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral, who decided they wanted to be more selective in the ways in which they serve the community. The building sat empty for years, but the memories of LiveMix remain and they are some killer memories.
Raymond Wallace (right) appeared on our fourth episode after having bottomed out physically and financially. A severe health crisis left him homeless and he hadn’t touched his guitars in months when we had him come in up at LiveMix.
Once the cameras started rolling, Raymond sprang to life and treated us to the Civil War era song, “Champaigne Charlie,” which remains one of the classiest looking videos we’ve had on the show.
Raymond is doing a bit better these days and in this episode we spoke to him about his LiveMix experience. “Champaigne Charlie” was filmed by Brian Young and Rudy Panucci and edited by Frank Panucci.
RFC 100 was another milestone show and part of that was the debut of The Nanker Phelge (left), a sort of supergroup consisting of RFC favorites Stephen and Mark Beckner, Casi Null, and drummer Dave Roberts (Dave was also the drummer for Eva Elution on episode 100 and has since appeared with Trielement and is performing with Pepper Fandango.)
We were lucky enough to corner Dave in the alley behind the Empty Glass after a performance by Trielement and he spoke about what it was like to perform at LiveMix in The Nanker Phelge a band that made their public debut at LiveMix during FestivALL 2010, more than two months after we shot “I’m Coming Home,” RFC‘s first widescreen video.
Camera work on this video was by Brian Young, Melanie Larch, and Rudy Panucci, with direction and editing by Rudy Panucci.
Episode 26 was our “Back To School” episode, which was hosted by Brian Young’s daughter, Cadence. In the clips we’ve included here, you can see how she got the job.
Also from that show, we bring you the song, “The Good,” by Whistlepunk 2.0 (seen right), which was Spencer Elliot, Dan Jordan, and Brian Young, with the addition of Karen Allen, of Crazy Jane and solo fame.
Whistlepunk was originally a three-piece, and was the first musical guest on RFC‘s very first episode. This powerful song was shot by Melanie Larch and Rudy Panucci, with the video directed and edited by Rudy.
The recording was engineered by Brian Young, with the audio produced by Spencer Elliot and Brian Young.
Radio Free Charleston has always tried to present a wide range of musical genres from the Charleston music scene. Episode 19 saw our first heavy metal band, Ghosts of Now (left), with their song “Deathburn”.
While Ghosts of Now went their separate ways after a couple of years, Lee Harrah, the lead singer has become a valued member of our production team and has appeared on the show with WATT4, as Ozzy Osborne, and in his current band, HARRAH, which also includes Ghosts of Now drummer Eric Seckman.
Roadblock, the bass player from Ghosts of Now, has also been a very good friend to the show, providing some incredible sound mixes and hooking me up with many new bands, as well as anchoring the bass position with Luna Park.
Camera on “Deathburn” was by Brian Young, Rudy Panucci, and at least one other person whose name cannot be recalled at the moment. The audio mix and video direction were by Rudy Panucci, with the audio recording and engineering being done by Brian Young.
“Ave Maria”, sung by Melanie Larch (right), is one of the LiveMix Studio classic memories.
Recorded on December 6, 2006, with camera by Brian Young and Rudy Panucci, Radio Free Charleston‘s Resident Diva Melanie Larch knocked it out of the park in one take with this beautiful rendition of Gounod’s classic musical prayer.
One of the happy accidents with this video was that being on the fifth floor of the fire escape at the back of LiveMix Studio provided us with an amazing natural reverb. Essentially seven stories of fire escape reverberations echoing in an alley gave us a sound more reverent than any cathederal in town.
This video was directed and edited by Rudy Panucci, with sound engineering by Brian Young and audio tweaking by Frank Panucci and Rudy Panucci to reduce wind noise.
The Feast of Stephen (left) had episode 23 of the show all to themselves and I included two songs from that show here. I did that not just because it was one of the most amazing nights in the history of the show, but also because it shows off so much of the character and awesomeness of LiveMix Studio.
The Feast of Stephen hadn’t performed in fourteen years and the band members had scattered to the winds, but they came back together for an amazing two night reunion (the first night was a rehearsal and was not filmed.) It was a magic night, bringing Bob Miller, John Radcliff, Joe Vallina, Dan Jordan and Tommy Medvick back together for the first time in way more than a decade.
Sound recording for the night was by Brian Young, with the production and mixing by Rudy Panucci. Camera work was by Jerry Fugate, Brian Young, and Rudy Panucci, with direction and editing by Rudy. This is particularly bittersweet to watch now. Since this show was originally compiled in 2012 we have lost both Tommy Medvick and Jerry Fugate.
You want to be sure to stick around after the end credits, because we have a special treat: a previously unseen performance from LiveMix Studio with Sasha Colette, performing “Wayfaring Stranger”, accompanied by John Lilly and Jonathan Wood (seen right).
Special thanks to Adam Harris for granting us access to this video, captured by Brian Young’s remote control camera and re-mastered and edited by Rudy Panucci.
Rather than just link to the original production notes, I basically copied and pasted them here, then went through and updated them. This was our first show after a nearly three-month hiatus, and it’s good to remember that Radio Free Charleston can take time off, and still return, as brilliantly obscure as always.
As I mentioned on Tuesday, this is a bit of an anniversary week for me and this blog. Last Sunday was my wedding anniversary. Tuesday was the thirteenth anniversary of the first post in PopCult, and I neglected to mention it, but this weekend marks 29 years since the very first broadcast of Radio Free Charleston, on WVNS, 96.1 FM, right here in Charleston. To mark that, Labor Day will see a 24-hour marathon of Radio Free Charleston and Radio Free Charleston International, alternating on The AIR.
Since we’re looking back at things a bit. Today’s PopCulteer will link to some memorable firsts and important posts from the debut year of PopCult. The first month, especially, really set the tone.
2005
September 1 saw the first post about toys. It’s also the first really snarky thing I wrote in this blog.
On that same day, I posted a joke item that isn’t quite so funny anymore, now that this sort of thing happens in real life.
September 6 was the first time I really pissed off somebody by posting the truth.
September 7 was first mention of local wrestling fed, IWA East Coast. I still write about them. Soon I’ll tell you about the Woody Numbers Memorial Show they’re having in October.
September 8 was when I published my sketchy bio. Things have changed quite a bit since then.
September 9 saw the first mention of The Beatles and Jack Kirby in PopCult, and the first appearance of the “Scape” series of not-really-that-good digital art.
September 14 saw the first long post about one of my favorite childhood toys, in this case Captain Action and the elusive Dr. Evil.
October 2 saw me bitching about Marquee Cinema at Southridge. I have not been back since. On those rare occasions when I do go to see a movie in a theater these days, I do it at Great Escape, which is now owned by Regal.
October 4 marked the first mention of Kate Bush in PopCult.
For some unfathomable reason, October 6 found me complaining about TiVo. Somebody must’ve really been doing a hard sell on it, because I seemed really worked up.
October 18 had me indulging in TV criticism and looking back fondly at Radio Free Charleston. We all know where the latter eventually led.
October 21 was the day I first included multiple items in a single post, including a quick theater review, a promise of special Halloween music (which all disappeared from the servers during one of the moves) and an insult hurled at Charleston Mayor Danny Jones.
November 7 Mel Larch and I tried to revive our old Animated Discussions print column in this blog, but the animation glut and our schedules didn’t allow for this to happen often enough. We managed to keep it up on a weekly basis for a few months, but eventually it fell by the wayside.
On November 13 I wrote about falling and smashing my face. Nobody seems too upset that all the graphics that accompanied this post have vanished.
November 14 saw Mel and me writing about the premieres of Squidibillies and The Boondocks.
I was going to post a link to the first ever PopCult Gift Guide, but it seems to have disappeared from the archives. From December 7, here’s Day Three of the first year’s Gift Guide.
December 27 saw my first rant about local idiocy. Specifically, this was me stating my opposition to a plan to destroy Kanawha Boulevard so that all the imaginary people in Charleston who like to hang out on the riverfront can get there without having to dodge traffic. Of late the enemies of the Boulevard have succeeded in ruining the West end of this once-glorious parkway to install a multi-million dollar bike lane, which one year after its opening I still have yet to see a single bicyclist using. That bike lane has turned Kanawha Boulevard into a bottleneck that backs up from Patrick Street almost to Elk River every day during rush hour, and the people who stopped going that way have crowded the other ways out of town, causing everybody’s commutes to take way longer. See what happens when people don’t listen to me?
December 28 saw day two of Rant Week, wherein I explain why smoking in public should never be legal. Three years later the county health department agreed, and the quality of my life improved dramatically. Day three was a harsh criticism of the WHCP Newscast, which irritated the station manager in a delightful manner.
2006
January 24 saw me and Mel writing about the Disney takeover of Pixar. Little did we know that eventually Disney would also own Star Wars and Marvel.
The very next day saw the first prolonged mention of GI Joe in this blog.
On February 4, a bit irritated by a review that David Williams wrote of a West Virginia Symphony performance in which my now-wife, Mel Larch, was a guest soloist, I reviewed David’s review. I got a tiny lecture from my editor, who couldn’t quit laughing while admonishing me. Apparently all the musicians in the Symphony loved it. David seemed to get the humorous tone I was trying to strike with this post…sort of.
February 13 was the first time I covered the happenings at the International Toy Fair in New York. This was just habit. I’d been writing about Toy Fair for magazines for years. I still cover it here in PopCult, and even got to go there in person a couple of times.
February 21 saw PopCult gain national attention for the first time when super-blogger Mark Evanier linked to my piece about Radio Shack. More than twelve years later, people still ask “What was Radio Shack?”
On February 27, the WHCP Newscast failed, as I had predicted. Because their station manager had been a jerk to me in the comments, I rubbed salt in the wounds.
March 17 saw the first mention of The Aquabats in PopCult, although I had earlier reviewed their “Charge” album in the now-defunct “New Music” blog here at what was then the Gazz. I wish I had access to those archives. I think I lost some of my best writing when they pulled the plug on that. I’m still talking about The Aquabats, as recently as yesterday.
On March 20, I really hated the V For Vendetta movie.
On April 13 I wrote about a Blogger meeting. Two days later my mother passed away. I had been acting as her primary caregiver since 1997, and this was a major life-changing event for me.
May 1 saw the beginning of Monday Morning Art as a regular feature. Sadly, the first couple of month’s worth of these fell victim to the great blog-interface switch, and I cannot for the life of me remember what this one even looks like.
May 2 saw the first book review posted in PopCult as part of “Andy Prieboy Week.”
June 2 saw my first non-parental obituary, as Ian Copeland, Alex Toth and Desmond Dekker all passed away on the same day.
On June 23 I praised FestivALL for the first time, and also snuck in the announcement that Radio Free Charleston would be returning as part of The Gazz (and later PopCult).
On July 4, Radio Free Charleston officially debuted as a video program. Since we couldn’t embed video in the blog back then, you’ll have to go HERE to watch it.
August 28 saw me mark the first anniversary of PopCult by revisiting the previous December’s RANT WEEK.
And that’s enough navel-gazing for this week. It’s almost as if I just dashed-off a column full of links real quick on Tuesday so I could write it ahead of time and get out of town quick. I’ll tell you about the trip to NYC next week.
Sydney’s Big Electric Cat
Today we offer up yet another new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat to plug on The AIR. This is our two-hour, weekly New Wave Music showcase, presented from London by legendary pirate radio broadcaster, Sydney Fileen.
You can tune in today at 3 PM to hear Sydney’s Big Electric Cate at The AIR website, or just click on this cool little embedded player…
This week Sydney brings you another two-hour booster shot of the best music of the New Wave era. Check out this playlist:
BEC 037
Men At Work “Who Can It Be Now”
Men Without Hats “I Got The Message”
The Flirts “Passion (Special Maxi Version”
M “Moonlight and Muzak”
ABC “The Look of Love (Remix)”
Klaus Nomi “Wasting My Time”
Missing Persons “Destination Unknown”
New Musik “Misssing Persons”
Pretenders “The Wait”
Joe Jackson “Do The Instant Mash”
Joan Jett & The Blachearts “Cherry Bomb”
The Stanglers “Hey (Rise of the Robots)”
Klark Kent “Don’t Care”
Adam Ant “Dog Eat Dog”
Magazine “Parade”
Kate Bush “The Big Sky”
Wang chung “Don’t Let Go”
The Staff “Shut Up Tango”
Lost Loved Ones “Raise The Flag”
U2 “Out of Control”
Thomas Dolby “One of Our Submarines”
Vanity Fair “Lips Are Silent”
The The “This Is The Day”
Play “Red Movies”
Kissing The Pink “No One’s On The Same Side”
Thompson Twins “We Are Detective”
That is it for this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for all our regular features.
In recent weeks I’ve been telling you about The Aquabats and their quest to revive their Aquabats Super Show (HERE and HERE), and I’ve also posted the video chapters of their quest to reunite the band. Well, the Kickstarter campaign has been rebooted so that it can be extended to September 29. All previous pledges were cancelled and new pledges are being made.
The band has also adjusted the goals and rewards, so that you can get REAL OBJECTS™ at lower levels, and now they don’t have to raise a million dollars to make anything happen.
The previous campaign was in its last week, and had just topped $600,000. That was impressive, but they’d set their sights too high. In less than a day, the new campaign has already brought in nearly a quarter million, so this seems like a really wise move. They’ve already raised enough to record a new album and make six more mini-episodes of the show, just in the first eight hours (as your PopCulteer writes this).
Today I’m going to bring you the latest three (or four) installments of their reunion adventure, and you just saw the new Kickstarter widget above this to bring you up to date on how much money they’ve raised. Click the links in the first paragraph to see all the previous chapters of this gripping saga.
Watch MC Bat Commander skillfully reboot the campaign while cracking an in-joke about how much the previous one raised. See how the band tracks down Eaglebones and fights Powdered Milk Man, and then find Ricky selling fruit at the beach. Will they find Crash, and can he save the day? The Aquabats Super Show was the best show in the history of the world, so you should sell your house and car and send all your money to The Aquabats now!
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This week we take you to March, 2012, where after more than two month’s off, we got back into the thick of things with Radio Free Charleston 151, “The Tom McGees Shirt.” It was our first all-new episode of 2012.
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