Author: rudy panucci (Page 23 of 34)

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any new music here at PopCult. The reason is that it’s been a while since I had time to write anything new. Just last night (February 21, to be exact), I had a spare half-hour, so I pulled out the Midi program and knocked out this little tune, Late Winter Noodling.

Originally, it was a percussion track, but I started playing around with it to see how it would sound played with brass and strings. Now it sort of sounds like Philip Glass, with a head wound, trying to write background music for NFL Films.

Just click on the song title, or right click and hit “Save Target As”, so you can download it and treasure it forever.

NOTE: Click picture to enlarge it full-screen.

“The Back Of The Post Office”

Digitally Assaulted Photograph

January, 2006

News broke over the weekend that venerable electronics retailer, Radio Shack, would be closing between 400 and 700 stores after posting disastrous earnings last year. This came to light after their CEO, David Edmonson, became embroiled in a scandal over padding his credentials. He stepped down Monday. It’s clear that Radio Shack needs a drastic new direction if they want to stay in business.

I’ve got a suggestion: How about actually having stores filled with electronics and the parts needed to repair them, and hiring sales people who care about what they’re doing and have a clue about what they’re selling?

Thirty years ago, Radio Shack was one of the best stores in the country in terms of customer service. You could buy all sorts of tiny and obscure electrical components. The sales people knew what you were asking for without requiring a four-hour explanation. You could join the “Battery Of The Month” club and get a free battery every 30 days. Heck, even their advertisements were fun, with Lewis Kornfeld’s “Flyer Side Chat” and amusing asides in their catalogs.

About twenty years ago, that all began to change. The corporate culture creeped in and, in the name of boosting the bottom line, the informative flyers were cancelled; the Battery Of the Month Club was discontinued; the inventory carried by each store was slashed to a fraction of what it had been; the sales people were replaced with immobile doofi who don’t the difference between a capacitor and ham sandwich.

If you walk into a Radio Shack store now, one of two things will happen: You will either be ignored completely, or you will be harassed about buying a cell phone. Once you make it clear that you’re not there to buy a cell phone, then you will be ignored. If you manage to get the attention of one of their new sales people, and you ask them for something simple like a phono-plug adaptor, they’ll look at you like you just started speaking Chinese. All they seem to care about is pimping their cell phone plans and pushing their tiny little remote-control cars. I would wager that you can probably walk into more than a few Radio Shack stores, ask for a radio, and walk out empty-handed.

The only reason this bothers me is because I liked Radio Shack so much when I was a kid. I hate to see it wind up as just another carcass along the side of the highway that we call “progress.” Sure, you can get any tiny electrical part you need now on the Internet, but who wants to pay five bucks shipping for a transistor that costs a quarter? Maybe, just maybe, the board of directors at Radio Shack will gamble that a return to their roots will be the salvation of the company. Radio Shack should be the place for the electronics do-it-yourselfer. As it is now, they’re just a lame cell phone store with crappy service and lousy prices. They could be so much more. They could sell raw computer components, build-it-yourself DVD players, VCR repair kits. You can buy cell phones anywhere! I miss the old Radio Shack. It’s time for Radio Shack to get back to what made them cool….in a nerdy sort of way.

For over a century, board games have been the one toy that both children and adults can enjoy. While the board game market is dominated by Hasbro, which owns both Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers, there are several entrepreneurs who have created their own board games with hopes of leaving a lasting mark on America’s leisure time. Here are a couple worth exploring:

ROUNDABOUT

Not at all based on the song by YES, this board game, made by Otero Games of San Diego, California, is a basic strategy game, sort of like a cross between Chess, Chinese Checkers and Roller Derby. The object is to move your pieces one full rotation about the circular course. This goal is complicated by the fact that you, and your opponent, have pieces that move in both directions, and you can block each other’s path. Having completed one full rotation, you remove that piece. This continues until one player has no pieces left, and is declared the winner. It’s simple, yet challenging. It reminds me of Sudoku, in that respect. The rules are easy to understand, and their are all sorts of different ways to play. Two-to-four players can while away the time with this fun little diversion. While the game is rated for ages 10 and up, some younger children can probably grasp the mechanics of Roundabout.

You can order Roundabout directly from Otero Games. They’re still trying to build a network of retailers, and haven’t yet reached our area. For 15 bucks, it’s a great value.

POLITICS

No, not real politics. I’m talking about a board game. Employing a game concept not unlike Monopoly, Charles J. Smaltz, the game’s inventor and founder of Chum Chum Games (gotta love that name) have developed a board game for ages 8 and up that allows you to experience the highs and lows of a political career. From mayoral races to the president, the game of Politics lets you act on your delusional ambitions for power without actually doing any real damage. Think how much better off we’d be if some of our current leaders had gotten their political ya-yas out with this board game, instead of buying their way into office for real. This is a great way to pass an evening with friends, especially if they are of a different political persuasion than you, as the game allows you to needle them about it all night.

You can order POLITICS directly from Chum Chum Games on their website, or call 1- 888-542-5925. The game costs under $40, but you can also get a deluxe edition, autographed by the inventor, as well as T-shirts. One other nice feature of the game is that you can download additional scoresheets, rules and other paper items directly from the website, so you don’t wind up having to make your own scoresheets when you run out, like you do with Clue.

That wraps up Toy Week, where I tried to bring you some of the real “best toys” available, instead of the same paid endorsements that the rest of the mainstream media passes off. This year, if you saw any Toy Fair coverage, I’m sure you saw the same items: The Dancing Barbie, the inflatable Superman outfit, the robot horse and the radio controlled bug-car. Since the coverage of the toy industry has become so predictable, I’ve decided to do what I can to rectify that. Starting next week, I’ll bring you a new regular feature, “PopCult’s Cool Toy Of The Week,” spotlighting the smaller toy companies that can’t afford to pay for media coverage. Check back next Friday to see what I pick for the first installment.

Admittedly, the first few entries in PopCult’s Toy Week survey haven’t exactly been kid-friendly. The Cthulhu plush is great for babies to play with, but I don’t think many parents are reading Lovecraft to their kids at bedtime. The Warmachine action figure is really meant more for teens who play the game. Yesterday’s Bobbie Doll pretty much falls in the the realm of “adult novelty.”

So to make up for that, today we’re going to look at three toys for kids, from smaller toy manufacturers. Although these are kid’s toys, adults are allowed to play with them, if they ask nicely.

Puny Planes

Yep, the name cracked me up. On further investigation, the toy is pretty cool. Puny Planes are little foam airplanes that soar like gliders. Under 3 inches long, and made of soft foam, these are a great indoor toy. Puny Planes are made by Poof-Slinky, who also make Slinky, of course. They also make a lot of other cool toys, ranging from kid’s toys to neat reproductions for adult collectors. This year, Poof-Slinky is introducing the Puny Planes Aircraft Carrier Launcher. For under 12 bucks, you get three Puny Planes and a cool launcher, shaped like an aircraft carrier. Your kid can fire off these little aerodynamic bits of flying foam fury, and you don’t have to worry about anything getting broken. The Puny Planes Aircraft Carrier Launcher will be available from many major retailers, or you can order it directly from Poof-Slinky.

Sesame Street Action Figures

Palisades Toys is a small Maryland-based toy maker that burst on the scene a few years back making collectible action figures of independent comic book characters. Since then, they’ve established themselves as a top-notch toy company player with a series of major licenses like The Muppets, Pink Panther, Ren And Stimpy and Adult Swim. This year they’re introducing an action figure line based on classic Sesame Street characters. The first assortment will be hitting stores soon, and includes Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Guy Smiley and the Two-Headed Monster. Palisades has done a great job of bringing collectors toys with tremendous detail and loads of accessories, and their toys are also sturdy enough for kids. It’ll be interesting to see if these toys wind up in the hands of the current Sesame Street fans, or if the adults who grew up watching the show hoard them all. Look for these at major retailers sometime in the next few months.

Radio Control For Kids

Kid Galaxy has developed a line of R/C vehicles for the very young. This year they have two new entries in the “GoGo Auto” line of “My First R/C” cars: The GoGo Auto School Bus and the GoGo Auto Skid Loader. Both feature softer plastic construction, rounded edges and a sturdy, two-button radio controller. These are perfect for the car-obsessed toddler who isn’t quite old enough to play with the remote control cars that the big kids have. The GoGo Autos sell for under $25. Locally, I know that Kid Country carries Kid Galaxy products, so if they don’t have them, they can probably order them for you. There are two risks with R/C cars that any parent should be warned about: First, these things will eat batteries. Stock up, or get a recharger. Second, at some point after you get the toys up and running, you will have to let the kid play with it, no matter how much fun you’re having.

Tomorrow we wrap up Toy Week with Board Games!

When you gaze upon the vast expanse of politically-correct dolls across the toy industry landscape, you’ll find all sorts of special varieties so that little girls can have a doll with whom they can identify. You’ve got your ethnic dolls, handicapped dolls, dolls with learning disabilities, dolls that can’t see straight. There are dolls representing every religion (excepting those that forbid dolls), race, occupation, and most combinations that you can imagine. But until now, they didn’t make any lesbian dolls. Sure, we all had our suspicions about Midge, but there were never any openly gay female dolls until Bobbie came along.

Produced by Dykedolls, which is basically a one-woman venture started by S. Perdomo, Bobbie is a 13-inch tall fashion doll, with a decidedly different take on fashion. You can buy Bobbie dressed in your choice of three outfits: “Doc Holliday,” Western gear, now that the world has been made safe for gay cowboys; “Rockabilly,” with sleeveless white T-shirt and leather jacket; while “Diesel” sports a sleeveless denim shirt and trucker’s wallet. Some Bobbie dolls also come with what can best be described as “adult accessories,” so be warned, this is probably not a doll that you want to give your five-year-old, no matter what vibes you’re picking up. Bobbie is strictly an adult novelty. She might be a great gift for a teen struggling with their sexual identity, but it’d probably be inappropriate coming from anyone other than a loving parent.

And even then, the “accessories” might be a bit much. Still, it’s about time that lesbians had a doll that they could call their own. Gay men have Billy, and as far back as the 70’s, they had Gay Bob, who was sold in a box that looked like a little closet. Before that, they had Ken. So isn’t it time that inclusion hit the toybox, and everyone gets their own doll? Bobbie is available from select bookstores and gift shops, or you can order her here.

At between $40 and $50 a pop, you pretty much have to see Bobbie as a toy for adults. Tomorrow we look at toys that are actually intended for kids.

This week the International Toy Fair takes place in New York City. All the major and minor toy companies show off what they hope will be the hot toys that fly out of stores for the rest of the year. I’ve been writing about toys for over a decade, so this is a big deal for me, but there are a few things about Toy Fair that can very annoying.

The coverage by the mainstream media has never been particularly good, and has been getting worse every year. Rather than go to the convention center and actually investigate the toys — and give air time to the ones that they think are the best — most reporters just lazily report to the media desk. They are given a handler, who takes them around to the same group of toys by the same toy makers who have enough money to throw a few “product placement” dollars at the media handlers to make sure that the “right” toys get showcased.

Even after a major article in the New York Post exposed the fact that “Toy Consultant” Chris Byrne primarily consulted by taking payola from toy companies to steer reporters in the right direction, lazy reporters still use the guy and quote him liberally in their reports. They’ve allowed him to reposition himself as a parent’s advocate, even though he’s still working for the toy companies. The reporters don’t take the subject matter seriously enough to care.

That’s why, rather than seeing well-done reporting about real trends in the toy industry, we get the same giggling run-through with the same toys on every news program, and the same stock wire report where only the names are changed. How many years in a row are we going to have to read about how this is the year that toys go high-tech? How many more times are we going to get stories about Barbie’s love life, instead of reports about how the new Bratz figures have eaten away at Barbie’s market share? Why do the toys based on big-budget movies get so much air time on the major networks when the toys based on movies have largely been failures for years?

As a result of this kind of reporting, the smaller companies don’t really get much of a chance to get any exposure. The homogenous coverage has also prevented the emergence of another “breakout” hit, like Tickle Me Elmo a decade ago. Now that the coverage is money-driven, the major toy companies put their marketing muscle (and payola) behind toys that they feel “need” the extra push. They do this instead of promoting what may be their best toy, in favor of the toy that they think will be more profitable.

The toy business is not as much fun as a person might think. And that’s a shame, because it should be all about fun, and not maximizing shareholder value.

This year, since I have the platform of the PopCult blog, I’m going to do what I can to fix this. Each day this week, I’m going to bring you details about a new toy from a small company. These will be toys that you won’t see on the major news programs or cable news channels. Being me, of course, the toys may seem a little strange. But at least they’ll be different!

WARMACHINE

It’s a wild concept: take sword and sorcery fantasy like Conan or Elric of Melnibone, and add elements of Steampunk, giant fighting machines and firearms. You wind up with the world of Iron Kingdoms, where Warlords do battle, not on horseback, but with sorcery and six-ton metal behemoths called “Warjacks”. Originally a role-playing game, this creation of the folks at Privateer Press quickly grew to include original fiction, miniature table-top gaming, and now, action figures.

The debut Warmachine action figure, Lord Commander Coleman Stryker, is one of the first action figures made by Southern Island, a young independent toy company from Arizona that has an exciting array of cool licenses in their portfolio. In the future, they’ll be releasing figures based on the hot Anime properties, Full Metal Alchemist, and Case Closed, as well as a line of action figures based on the cult comic book, Victoria’s Secret Service. As a bonus, all of their action figures will be in scale with one another (they’re roughly six inches tall), which makes for more fun display options.

Their first effort is rather impressive. In the Warmachine mythos, Lord Commander Coleman Stryker is the “greatest Warcaster serving the nation of Cygnar.” The detail and sculpting on this action figure is amazing. This figure, complete with a removable cape, Cygnar flag with base, and big honkin’ sword, has a huge inherent “cool” factor. He’d look great on your desk, or laying waste to those puny Star Wars action figures that the nerdy guy in your office has on his desk. You can order Lord Commander Coleman Stryker directly from Southern Island here. He can also be found at select comic book and hobby retailers.

We’re kicking off Toy Week with a double shot of twisted cuteness from Toy Vault, an independent toy company based in Corbin, Kentucky. Toy Vault has been around for the better part of the last decade. They had the license to produce action figures based on “The Lord Of The Rings” long before Peter Jackson’s movies were even in production, and they’ve always had a great sense of fun with the toys they produce. Lately, they’ve been turning their talents to the world of plush, but instead of just giving the world more imitation Beanie Babies, Toy Vault has brought the world of the weird to the plush toy section.

Cthulhu, Demon Lord Of The Cuddly

When you think of H.P. Lovecraft, you don’t normally think of plush toys. The folks at Toy Vault don’t think like most of us, and they’ve treated us to a delightful array of bizarre stuffed animals of Lovecraft’s “Great Old One”, the demonic world-eating monster, Cthulhu. You can get Cthulhu dressed as a superhero, Cthulhu the hand puppet, Cthulhu dressed as Elvis, and even Santa Cthulhu. This year Cthulhu becomes a love monster, as Toy Vault brings us, Valentino Cthulhu.

From the description tag: “Dressed in an sexy ensemble that shows off his feminine side, Cthulhu is dressed this spring in this evocative outfit from designer Toee Vouwt. Featuring a color palette derived from the exotic cinnamons of the Orient, and ebony from deepest Africa, Valentino, as he is known to his many admirers.” The Valentino Cthulhu is 15 inches tall, 13.5 inches around and 5 inches deep.

Toy Vault also has the license to produce plush toys based on Monty Python and Godzilla, so huggable Cthulhu is right up their alley. Valentino Cthulhu will be available in April through specialty and online retailers, but he’s going to be a limited edition.

Go Ahead, Step On These Spiders

Eight legs per comfy Spider Slipper, makes for interesting footprints in the snow to say the least. Toy Vault has expanded their line of inappropriately creepy footwear with Plush Spider Slippers. These furry and friendly slippers are sure to keep your feet warm and anyone with arachnophobia at bay.

The slippers are made for 1 size fits most (sizes 9-13) with a black and gray color scheme. They each have 8 legs, 2 mandelas for capturing prey and many eyes to see from multiple angles. The Plush Spider Slippers are 15 inches long, 13.5 inches around and 5 inches high. You can also find these tootsie warming terrors at specialty and online retailers beginning in April.

IWA East Coast once again invaded the South Charleston Community Center last Wednesday, and well over 300 fans were treated to a night of blood, guts and mayhem. “A Need To Bleed 2006” was the name of the event. Former WCW and WWE superstar Big Van Vader was the main attraction. As is always the case, the entire evening was an amazing example of the best of independent wrestling.

The tone for the evening was set with the first match. “Omega” Aaron Draven and M Dogg 20 made their IWA debuts, and let loose with an epic match that featured tons of thrilling high-flying moves. M Dogg won after delivering a Shooting Star Press (see right), and that was after he’d lost a contact lens during the match!

Next up we had a championship match, for the IWA Mid South Women’s title. Crowd favorite Mickie Knuckles proved what a trouper she is by working the match despite being very sick. Her persistence was rewarded, as she recaptured the IWA MS Women’s Championship from Cinncinnati’s Haily Hatred.

The evil genius, Dr. Max Graves, then sprung a surprise on the crowd. He hinted that he would join his pet monster, Warpig, in a tag match, but then unveiled Razorback, Warpig’s new tag-team partner in the aptly named “Freaks Of Nature.” These two 8-foot, thousand-pound behemoths crushed the team of JTL (Justin Time and Travis Lynn) into powder in record time. Who knows what the future holds for IWA East Coast with these two beasts on the prowl?

El Drunko, unfortunately, did not make the show. It seems he was detained due to a misunderstanding over a DUI. Crowza, wrestling under a mask as “El Drunko,” took his place, and proceeded to get destroyed by J.C. Bailey. Crowza and Woody Numbers would return, later in the show.

The IWA East Coast Championship was on the line as Chris Hero took on Tracy Smothers. Smothers has quickly become the favorite heel of the IWA regulars, and it was supremely entertaining to watch as he very nearly took the belt off of Chris Hero. There were a series of odd occurrences during the match–One of the security guards interfered on behalf of Smothers, and then Hero’s travel partners, Ian Rotten, Mickie Knuckles, and JTL, came to the ringside area. Hero did retain his title and afterwards there was a prolonged handshake between the two wrestlers.

Next up, we had the IWA East Coast debut of Big Van Vader, who took on the Juggulator, as well as Crowza. Even Woody Numbers got into the act, throwing water on the immense superstar during the match. The guys were no match for the power of Big Van Vader, and he easily dispatched them. Afterwards, he got on the microphone to compliment the area and say how much he liked it here. The big guy was a class act.

Necrobutcher and “Mr. Insanity” Toby Klein then treated the crowd to a wild deathmatch that went all over the arena. After the two found their way back into the ring, Necrobutcher was victorious. Both men were bloody messes. It was one of the highlights of the night.

Nothing could top the sick spectacle that is the “Barefoot Thumbtack Match.” Mad Man Pondo and Ian Rotten delivered an incredible match that was both compelling and cringe-inducing. The blood flowed freely as both men became walking corkboards. Pondo emerged as the winner after several minutes of sheer brutality.

“A Need To Bleed 2006” was another in a string of winning nights for IWA East Coast. The crowds continue to grow, and for fans of hardcore high-flying action, they can’t be beat. The next IWA East Coast show is April 5, featuring Chris Hero putting his title on the line against Japanese great, Dick Togo in a ladder match, and the stupefying return of El Drunko as he takes on former ECW and WWE star The Blue Meanie, in what’s sure to be a contest for the ages!

Area fans of Big Van Vader get a second chance to see the beast from Boulder Colorado tonight, as he appears with RCW, in Ashland. Check their website for more details.