Author: rudy panucci (Page 20 of 34)

Animated Discussions
by Rudy Panucci and Melanie Larch

Last week Adult Swim held their “upfront” meetings with advertisers, and unveiled their plans for the coming year. Since splitting off from Cartoon Network for ratings purposes, Adult Swim has ranked number one in the key 18- to 34-year-old male demographic. At the upfront meeting, executives at the network were mum on rumors that Adult Swim would completely split off from Cartoon Network and either be launched as a new channel, or move from Cartoon Network to Time Warner sister channels Boomerang or TBS. While they bring in a lot of advertising dollars, Adult Swim’s “TV MA” programming is keeping Cartoon Network from being offered on the “family tiers” proposed by many cable and satellite systems. Given Adult Swim’s ratings base, the only move that would make sense would be for them to move to TBS, so that they wouldn’t lose a sizable chunk of their available viewers.

The real meaty news from the meeting was the announcement of five new shows that will start airing on Adult Swim later this year.

Death Clock Metalocalypse follows the adventures of an incredibly stupid Norwegian heavy metal band. It’s the creation of Brandon Small (Home Movies) and Tommy Blancha. Blancha is a former writer for Late Night with Conan O’Brien and the WWF. For the WWF, he scripted what may have been the greatest single moment in the history of television, where an 80-year old woman gave birth to rubber hand on live TV. Sounds like a winning formula! Metallica will make a guest appearance. This show debuts in August.

Frisky Dingo (right) is a new superhero adventure series from the creators of Sealab 2021. It follows the epic battle between the evil Killface and the hero, Awesome-X. It premieres in September.

Assy McGee debuts in December. It tells the gripping tale of a renegade police sniper who has no regard for criminals or the justice system. He also looks like a giant butt. This one’s from some of the writing crew for Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

Saul of the Mole Men is a low-budget puppet show about a government agent who accidentally destroys the civilization of the Mole Men. This experimental show will debut later this year.

Lucy, The Daughter of the Devil (left) actually debuted as a Halloween special last year. It’s been picked up as a series and will debut late this year. This CGI creation of Loren Bouchard (Home Movies) is a delightfully irreverent chronicle of the life of the college-aged daughter of Satan.

In addition to the new shows, Adult Swim has announced the start dates for new seasons of several returning series. Robot Chicken began a run of 10 new episodes last week. Ten more will start in September. Tom Goes To The Mayor returns June 4. Venture Brothers returns June 25. 12 Oz. Mouse and Squidbillies return in September.

New Seasons of Boondocks and Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law will be scheduled to start sometime in the fall.

The ultra-popular Aqua Teen Hunger Force (right) will see a short new season begin in September, but fans will also be treated to a feature-length movie which has already been finished. The movie explores the origins of the very strange team of fast-food-item detectives.

This week, our cool toy is not from a small, struggling company, but I picked it because it’s just way cool. Mega Bloks is a Canadian company that has successfully challenged LEGO for dominance in the construction toy world. They’ve done this by adapting to changes in the market, and have added elements of other types of toys to keep their construction sets fresh. Their latest toy line combines the fun of the old Marx playsets with the joy of model-building and the trendy genre of swashbuckling pirates.

“Pyrates,” thusly named so that they can trademark the word, is a great series of toys that you can find in almost any store that sells toys. They come with cool fully articulated 2-inch-tall action figures in a variety of styles. Prices range from four bucks for a set of three figures, to 50 bucks for the large “Skeleton Crew” ship. The Skull-shaped playsets that sell for about eight bucks come with a CD-ROM that has a terrific 15-minute animated film that uses the toys to tell the background story of the toys.

Maybe it was the three months that I had to wear an eyepatch last year, but lately I’ve become fascinated with all things piratical. They’re really cool. Assembling them is a nice peaceful diversion, and they look cool on the big corner table in the living room.

I’ve written more extensively about Mega Bloks Pyrates here. And you can check out their website here.

Last Saturday night I got to trek out to the Labelle Theater in South Charleston for an evening of improv comedy from the No Pants Players. It was a great night. The group was really hitting on all cylinders that night, and the all-ages audience was totally into their performance. For this performance, the pantsless crew was made up of Joe Wallace, Brian Roller, Tony Slack, Jason Dunbar, Jamie Dunbar, Duncan Stokes and Kevin Pauley, and they played their parts to perfection.

Last weekend, the No Pants Players worked with the “game” format of improv, which is great for audience participation and made for a very fast-paced show. I am eager to see what this talented crew can do working in the sketch form. Maybe we’ll get to see that in a future show.

It’s great that we can now see this sort of improv locally. Improv is a great way for young talents to develop their acting chops, and it’ll be interesting to see if any big, giant, Hollywood stars come out of this group. Keep checking PopCult for news on the next performance by the No Pants Players. And don’t just take my word about how much fun they are to watch. My fellow Gazzblogger Karin Fuller was also at Saturday night’s show, and writes about it here.

Three Bodies laying down on the job

As promised here, this week’s Song Of The Week is “Shingles And Tar” by Three Bodies, one of the mainstays of Radio Free Charleston. From a batch of demos co-produced by Three Bodies, Spencer Elliott, and me, this one was my baby. I contributed ideas for the backing vocals, effects, and arranged the starts and stops near the end. Despite my contributions, the song was yet another mini-masterpiece by Kris Cormandy, Brian Lucas, and Brian Young. There is a story behind the lyrics, but it’s faded from my memory over the last 16 years.

The images are taken from flyers I did for the band back in 1990. Below, you see that I couldn’t resist the temptation to colorize one of them. The image at left shows that, before the days when I assaulted photographs digitally with my computer, my weapons of choice were Xerox machines and Sharpees.

More lost PopCult graphics. This time it’s an old flyer illo I did for Three Bodies, recolored sometime in 2006.

The Monday Morning Art this week is a sequel to the art that ran here. This is More Shadowplay, another digitally assaulted photograph of a fence near my house in the noonday sun. (click to enlarge)

Animated Discussions
by Rudy Panucci and Melanie Larch

This week’s animation news is all about Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. This is the first big-budget animated feature of the year, and expectations are high. The first Ice Age was a blockbuster, and this sequel will attempt to follow in its frozen footsteps.

There are a few changes this time: Chris Wedge, the co-director of the first Ice Age, as well as the voice of Skrat, is just executive producing this this go-around. Carlos Saldhana, his co-director on Ice Age, and Robots, flies solo for this sequel. Queen Latifah has joined the cast, as a female wooly mammoth named “Ellie.” Skrat, the sabre-toothed squirrel, who stole the first movie with his brief appearances, has much more screen time in Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, with a series of vignettes interspersed throughout the movie.

Advanced reviews are mixed, though generally favorable. Skrat is still a crowd-pleaser, and it seems that the chemistry between Ray Romano, Dennis Leary and John Leguizamo remains intact from the first movie. One criticism is that the film gets a bit preachy about global warming, but unless they have an unfrozen caveman Al Gore explaining it in great detail, we can’t see how it could detract from the rest of the movie. We hear the highlight of the movie is a Busby Berkley-styled production number with Vultures.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is currently playing, check the Gazz Movie Finder for theaters and times.

IWA East Coast returns to the South Charleston Community Center Wednesday April 5 with “Shoots And Ladders,” an evening of carnage and high-flying action.

The big match on a loaded card features a rematch, one year to the day, of the classic “drunken ladder match” between El Drunko, the inebriated luchadore, and Sandman, the beer-guzzling ECW legend. Last year these guys stole the show at “Happy Hour Hatred“, and their rematch promises to be an alcohol-fueled funny car ride to oblivion.

Another match on the card is garnering international attention. Japanese wrestling legend, and former member of Kai En Tai in the WWF, Dick Togo, challenges IWA East Coast’s champion, Chris Hero, in a ladder match with the championship belt at stake.

Fans will also be treated to a “3 Way Hell” match between Mad Man Pondo, Necrobutcher, and Mr. Insanity. Ruckus returns to take on Omega Aaron Draven in what promises to be an exhibition of acrobatic violence. Mickie Knuckles faces Japanese Women’s legend Sumie Sakai in a rematch from last fall. Hardcore legend, Ian Rotten, goes up against Bull Pain. The newly-formed team of WarPig and Razorback, known collectively as “Freaks Of Nature,”, take on Trik Nasty and JD Escalade.

IF YOU GO: Bell time is 7 p.m. April 5 at the South Charleston Community Center, 601 Jefferson Road. Tickets are $10 and $15. Visit IWA East Coast online for more details.

This week’s cool toy is the line of Knights and Dragons from German toymaker Schleich. These exquisitely detailed little figurines can now be found at Target, as well as independent toy stores, and they’re the kind of special toy that kids will remember for a lifetime.

They’re also a bit pricey. Most pieces cost around 15 dollars, though there are larger sets and accessories that can cost quite a bit more. However, they are well worth the price. They’re sturdy enough for kids to play with on a regular basis without destroying them, but they’re so well-sculpted and painted that they hold their appeal for adult collectors. This is the kind of toy that you give a kid as a gift for a special occasion. They’re just the right size for Easter baskets, ranging from 3 to 6 inches tall. With just the right combination of sturdiness, beautiful colors and high detail, these could very well become family heirlooms for future generations.

I’m delving into the Radio Free Charleston archives for this one, sort of. Actually, this song was recorded a few months after RFC was strangled in its crib, but it’s by Three Bodies, one of the most popular local bands that I played on my old radio show. Three Bodies consisted of Kris Cormandy on guitar, Brian Lucas on bass, and Brian Young on drums. All three were frequent guests on Radio Free Charleston, and good friends of mine. In June 1990, I was asked to lend my ears to the Bodies as they entered Pat Arnold’s recording studio above Gorby’s to cut four songs for a demo tape. Spencer Elliott was also on hand, as we co-produced the songs with the band.

My main contribution was on the day before, when the Bodies took over The Empty Glass to rehearse. It was a criminally hot June afternoon, and while I listened and offered suggestions, the guys repeatedly tore through the four songs they intended to record–for more than six hours. The songs were pretty much worked out by the end of the day. My only real suggestion that made it to tape was the song arrangement I’m going to post here next week. The song I’m posting today was Spencer’s baby. He came up with the piano intro and arranged the song on the spot. It was the standout of the four tunes.

I did the illustration above for a flyer advertising a performance by the band. I recall drawing it using duotone Craftint while sitting on the porch of Spencer’s bohemian hangout, across the street from Asbury United Methodist Church. I colorized it in the computer just a few minutes before writing this.

Three Bodies went their separate ways later in 1990. Spencer went on to form Mother Nang with Brian Young, before jetting off to become a world-class litigator. Lately, however, he and Brian have teamed up with Dan Jordan to form Whistlepunk, who you can check out here. It’s great that the old local scene from the RFC days isn’t totally dead.

So, here’s our song of the week, “Gardens Of Hope.” It’s a particularly relevant plea for peace these days. Click the song title to listen, or right click and save, to download. Next week I’ll post the song that I helped arrange.

On Friday and Saturday night, West Virginia’s premiere improv troupe, The No Pants Players, invades the Labelle Theater in South Charleston with a family-friendly evening of live, on-the-spot comedy. The fast-paced show shifts gears and covers a wide variety of topics in the classical improv manner.

The No Pants Players are all local performers who will be familiar from their work with The Kanawha Players, The Charleston Stage Company, and IWA East Coast.

This is going to be a bittersweet weekend, as the No Pants Players pay tribute to troupe member Maria Bukovinski, who recently passed away, just weeks after giving birth. In the best spirit of “the show must go on,” the remaining members vow to celebrate Maria’s life and love of performing by dedicating this weekend’s performances to her memory.

It promises to be a fun evening, and it’s happening at the Labelle, one of my favorite local venues. This would be a great low-priced family night out or a good place for a youth group to gather. What better way to break up the monotony of going to the movies or just hanging out, than an evening of live, local comedy?

IF YOU GO: There will be two performances of the show, appropriate for all ages, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Labelle Theater on D Street in South Charleston. Tickets $5. Call 744-9711 or visit http://www.geocities.com/scmuseum.