Category: Uncategorized (Page 61 of 757)

This week I decided to go back and created a small painting based on one of my digitally-assaulted photographs from many years ago in this feature. Orignally this was part of my “Stark Charleston” series of high-contrast, black and white photos of our fair city.

Fourteen years later I decided to reverse-engineer it, add the color back and paint it in acrylic on cheap canvas board.

I think it came out okay. It was basically an excercise to keep the fingers from atrophying.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Over in radioland, Monday afternoon on The AIR, we bring you new episodes of Nigel Pye’s Psychedelic Shack, and Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM Nigel Pye delivers his usual mix of psychelic music, including vintage nuggets and new trippy tunes. Here’s today’s playlist…

Psychedelic Shack 93

Goat Generator “Black Magic”
5 Gentlemen [France] “Dis-Nous Dylan”
Asida “Armada”
John Wooley & Just Born “Look And You Will Find”
Crystal Garden “Peach Fuzz Forest”
Cave Dwellers “Meditation”
Soultons “Ran Down Soul”
The Bruthers “Bad Way To Go”
Magic Mushrooms “I’m Gone”
The Ides of March “I’ll Keep Searching”
The Traits “High On A Cloud”
Merry Dragons “Universal Vagrant”
Sound Barrier “My Baby’s Gone”
The Lea Riders Group “Dom Kaller Oss Mods”
The Jefferson Handkerchief “I’m Allergic To Flowers”

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM.

At 3 PM, Herman Linte devotes his two hours to newly-released Prog Rock,  with new tracks from Jon Anderson, David Gilmour and more, plus newly-released live cuts from Jethro Tull, King Crimson and others.  Here’s the playlist…

Prognosis 120

Jon Anderson “Once Around A Dream”
David Gilmour with Richard Wright “Luck and Strange Barn Jam”
Gavin Harrison, Antoine Fafard “Spontaneous Plan”
Nightwish “An Ocean of Strange Islands”
Big Big Train “East Coast Racer (live in London)”
Tony Levin Band “Give The Cello Some”
King Crimson “The Sheltering Sky (live)”
Jethro Tull “Thick As A Brick (live)”
YES “Gates of Delirium (live)”
Pallas “Ratracing (live)”

You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM.

At 8 PM you can hear an hour of songs from the very funny, very nasty Rusty Warren on a classic episode of The Comedy Vault.

Tonight at 9 PM for the Monday Marathon we devote ten hours to the first five episodes of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. We will be alternating between Prognosis and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat for the next several weeks, because we’re going to be pulling the early episodes of those shows from the server soon to make room for newer programs. After they’ve been offline for a year or so, we’ll bring them back into rotation but for now, you can hear them Monday evening into Tuesday morning, and then those episode will go on hiatus.

JoeLanta, the huge GI Joe convention in Atlanta, Georgia, starts this Friday, and yours truly will be there.

But I’m not shooting any video this year. I want to experience going to this fun show as a civilian and not have to worry about lugging cameras around or making sure that video gets shot properly.  I’m also really looking forward to arriving home without a ton of video editing hanging over my head like a sword of Damacles. I’m not retiring from shooting video at toy shows by any means, but just this once…since there are so many other video creators slated to be at this show…I’m going to just go and enjoy it.

I will take a few photos to share here, but no video will be shot.

However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check out my previous videos (shot with invaluable assistance from my dear wife, Mel Larch). Up above you can see the raw footage I shot at last year’s JoeLanta, and below you can watch the epic, back-breaking travelogue I shot last year when I hit JoeLanta in Atlanta, and PowerCon in Columbus, Ohio on the same weekend, which also happened to be my birthday weekend.  That grueling slog played a large part in my decision to forego the video this year.

Fun shouldn’t be that much work.

For tons more of my JoeLanta coverage from the past decade-plus, check out this huge INDEX to previous PopCult coverage that traces the evolution of JoeLanta into ToyLanta and then into two separate shows.

This week we go back to June, 2010, for the one-hundred first episode of the Radio Free Charleston video program. “Viewmaster Shirt” includes music from Josh Buskirk, The Gypsy Nomads and The ButtonFlies, plus a sequel from MURFMEEF and a trailer for the film, “Toxic Soup.”

Our host segments were shot on a warm, windy Saturday afternoon in front of the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse on Virginia Street, for absolutely no reason other than the fact that we hadn’t shot there yet.

Our musical guests were Josh Buskirk, playing guitar and singing at Taylor Books; Frenchy & The Punk (new album coming soon), back when they were known as The Gypsy Nomads, recorded at The Empty Glass; and The Button Flies, also recorded at The Empty Glass. We also have a music video from Murfmeef, the title of which we will not type here.

The PopCulteer
September 20, 2024

Usually I do this feature earlier in the week, but things here at PopCult are going to be all up in the air for the next week or two as your humble blogger heads South next week to attend JoeLanta.

We’re going to run some of our previous videos of this cool GI Joe-based toy conventions on Sunday, but this year when we go to Atlanta for the show it’s going to be different.

I’m going as a civilian. In the fifteen years or so that I’ve been able to go to toy conventions, I’ve never been on the floor of one of these shows without a camera. I want to see what it’s like to do that.  Since it seems that half the guests at JoeLanta this year are “content creators” who have their own YouTube channels, my videos won’t be missed. The plan is to attend the Friday night early event without a camera, then return the show Saturday with my still camera to take a few photos for PopCult.

But I’m not shooting any video this time. There will be plenty of time for that the following weekend.

But enough stuff that I’m doing,  here’s STUFF TO DO in the Mountain State for the first weekend of Fall, and it looks like a lot of fun.

The Mothman Festival

It’s that time of year again when folks congregate in Point Pleasant to celebrate WV’s favorite cryptid, Mothman.  There will be Mothies in the street, guest speakers, live music, special tours of The Mothman Museum, Vendors, Ghostbusters, and all sorts of fun centered around the red-eyed winged man in black.

The music line-up for Saturday at The Point Pleasant Riverfront Park is:
12 PM — Highway 7
1:30 PM — Dog Days
​3 PM — Dragons Eye
4:30 PM – Scott James (Kentucky Lap Fiddler)
6 PM — Dalchord
7:30 PM — Nobody’s Fool

​
​Sunday  the music at the Park includes: ​
12 PM — PPHS Rock Ensemble
1:30 PM — Thoz Guyz
3 PM — Next Level

It’s going to be loads of fun and you can find more information HERE.

Other STUFF

The Dunbar Fall Festival is also happening this weekend, alas with no cryptids in sight. Check out the graphic…

Kenny’s Surprise Birthday Party happens Friday night. Details are HERE. Don’t tell Kenny.

Saturday sees Train Day in Saint Albans.  The Chesapeke & Ohio Historical Society had this to say on their Facebook Page…

Our largest event of the year in West Virginia is coming September 21: C&OHS at the St. Albans Depot for Train Day Festival!

Organized by the St. Albans Chamber, the brick street of the Saint Albans Train Depot Historic District will be alive with family-friendly fun and entertainment from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

With our O-scale layout running, model trains have successfully returned to the historic City of St. Albans, WV depot. Fueled by our generous C&OHS volunteers and local community support, the progress being made on the operating layout and new interpretive museum has put life back into the city’s one-of-a-kind depot. As trains rumble by, finer details are being added every week to enhance the layout’s scenery that represents St. Albans.

C&O Railway Depot in St. Albans
400 4th Ave, St Albans, WV 25177-2829

Your PopCulteer might be making his way down there if I can carve enough time out of my schedule.

Remember, if you are attending an outdoor event, stay hydrated and please don’t smoke or vape around any humans who might find the associated stank to be offensive. Be mindful of your health and of those near you. Look for and offer to aid people who might seem frail, look like they’re about to pass out, or have had their pagers suddenly explode.  With that bit of a caveat, let me tell you about plenty of STUFF TO DO in Charleston and the surrounding area as we stagger our way toward autumn.

As I have been copying and pasting for some time now, this a good time to remind you that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments. I won’t be offended if you volunteer to do the work I was too busy working ahead on the blog to do.

Live Music is on tap at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  This week we are back to not knowing who will be performing, but perform they will, by GOD!

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this week  to tell you about.  Friday Tim Courts holds down the forts for Happy Hour. Saturday at 10 PM The East End Ghouls return for their monthly Drag/Burlesque show. Check the graphics dump below for more weekend events at The Empty Glass.

Please remember that the pandemic is still not entirely over yet. It’s a going concern with the ‘rona still lurking about all robust and reinvigorated and now with Oxyclean™. Plus there are drought-fueled nasty seasonal allergies, Mothman imitators, cereal killers, Mr and Mrs BoJangles and all the little Jangles and other damned good reasons to be careful. Many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Here we go, roughly in order…

So that headline is why this post was delayed for one day.  September 19 is “Talk Like A Pirate Day,” and today I’m telling you about a fun Kickstarter campaign for two cool trading card sets, one of which is devoted to Pirates.

This is actually from RRParks Cards, and in previous years I’ve only been able to tell you a little about his annual Halloween campaign because I also write about his card sets in Non Sport Update and I’m not supposed to double-dip with my writing.  So I haven’t written extensively about them here in PopCult.

I’ve interviewed Richard Parks, the one-man show behind RRParks Cards several times, and I’m a big fan of his trading card sets. This year, I didn’t write about these sets (which are covered in depth as the cover feature for Non Sport Update this month), instead getting the assignment to cover Transformers trading cards, so this year I can tell you all about this cool campaign, to which I’ve already contributed.

In fact, this campaign crushed its meager goal in the first few hours, and is beyond 20 times that goal, just a couple of days in, with 23 days left to participate. Even cooler, Richard is promising that these will arrive before Halloween. Most of the cards are already manufactured and ready to go.

As I said, there are two sets…one is RR Parks annual Halloween card set, which is actually a collection of a whole bunch of mini-sets, and the other is the second series of his Pirates & Privateers cards.

Supporters can choose to support either set, or both, or just get a promo card or a smaller version of either set. It’s a very flexible campaign. There’s even a fully-authorized eight-card Halloween Ultraman set, to go along with Richards impressive Ultraman Trading Card series. Allow me to quote liberally from the Kickstarter page…

We’re wrapping up our ELEVENTH year as a trading card company as well as our ELEVENTH  Halloween as a publisher. Every October, I publish some fun spoOooOoOoky and creepy horror and monster card sets … and THIS is years’ Halloween is EXTREMELY, BIGLY HUGE IN SCOPE!  ELEVEN DIFFERENT TRADING CARD SETS with a ‘theme’ of HALLOWEEN ART plus a continuation of our PIRATES & PRIVATEERS card series! Your pledge on this project helps with production costs, and will make sure you get ALL the CARD SERIES as well as exclusives.

We are DETERMINED to get this years’ RRParksCARDS Halloween Trading Cards to you BY HALLOWEEN! We might not be able to go out trick or treating … might not be able to have a Halloween party … but, by golly, I want everyone to be able to enjoy the holiday and so the scar-r-r-r-ry LOGISTICS for getting these cards to everyone by Halloween was started over a YEAR ago in preparation and even production for some sets. This project is planned to ship in time for Halloween… THIS Halloween! October 31st 2024.

The Halloween sets are one of the most fun trading card sets on the market. Designed to warm the hearts of us “Monster Kids” and anyone who loves the October holidays, Among the fun sets-within-this-set are Halloween Art Cards; “Choke & Gag” cards filled with bad taste jokes made in good humor; A series based on William Castle’s 13 Ghosts; a set of classic Planet Comics covers; sets devoted to the art of Paul Maitland, John “Smitty” Smith and David Day; an off-size set of cards with vintage art of Baron Munchausen; a set of Kute Afflictions by Lindsey Greyling; the aforementioned Ultraman set; and a Hugo The Living Skull set of playset cards. Plus there are loads of extras that you can read about at the Kickstarter page. Most of the smaller sets come in their own wax packs.

But we need to get back to the Pirates for today’s big talking event, so I’ll go back to what Richard writes…

This Kickstarter is a ‘double feature’ … Collectors of our PIRATES & PRIVATEERS Series One will be happy to know that we’ve got the SECOND SERIES DONE, HERE and READY TO SHIP!  If you want pirates but aren’t into Halloween, you can get this SECOND SERIES of pirates all by itself as either a base set OR a master set (see pledge tiers for details or the options listed below.

Priates & Privateers Series II is a 48-card base set that reprints the ultra-rare Sea Raiders sets (both series) , plus there are tons of cool extras available at the Master Set level. There’s a sketch card, portrait cards, art cards featuring N.C. Wyeth,  and tons more special cards and features.

Indeed, with this set BUCKLES WILL BE SWASHED! This is no half-avast Pirate set, me buck-os. This is pretty epic.

You can find out more and get your Pirate activities for the day under your belt by going to the Kickstarter page.

Here’s the deal. I had a great post written and ready to go for today, but then I realized that it’s much, much better suited to run tomorrow, for reasons that will be obvious, tomorrow.  However, I have a doctor’s appointment and I don’t really have time to crank out a replacement post for today.

So, I’m going back seventeen years, to September, 18,  2007, for a rare “Tuesday Morning Art,” which ironically did not run on Monday that week because…I had a doctor’s appointment. The more things change, you know.  Also, because STUFF TO DO is being bumped to Friday, I’ve got one early event listed at the end of this post, so’s you don’t miss the first day.

Anyway, here, presented in a larger size than it was originally, is a photograph with digital tweaking, and a brief description of what it is…

Delayed by a day due to a doctor’s appointment (just a check-up, your loyal PopCulteer is in good health) here’s this week’s Monday Morning Art–on Tuesday.

It’s a shot taken last Saturday at Appalachian Power Park during the Oktoberfest fundraiser for the Clay Center.   I was using the “color accent” function on my new camera so that the only color that came through was blue.  Everything else is in black and white. You can get some really neat photos of the sky this way.  Like this one, in which you can see some of Whistlepunk playing at the bottom of the picture, but the star of the photo is the bright blue sky peeking under the canopy and over the buildings and mountains.

You can see this image bigger HERE.

(Update: A year later, that camera was stolen by a former friend who was a houseguest at the time. I replaced the camera, but the newer model did not have that much-missed feature)

And here is your preview of a big cool thing happening this weekend down Lewisburg way…

Somehow Tuesday has happened once again on The AIR.  As such, we have a new episode of  Radio Free Charleston for you. To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

Today we have three full hours of cool stuff for you. Our first two hours are our usual mix of local, independent and just plain cool music, while our third hour brings you the 2006 Caustic Eye Productions Sampler CD (minus the non-local tracks) which was a benefit CD for AdamFest.

Of late you may have noticed that I’ve been using special themes or gimmicks to fill up the third hour of the show. This is my way of mixing up the formula. I’m trying to cut down on using recylced episodes of previous incarnations of the show, but sometimes my schedule gets a little too heavy to do three full hours each week.

So I’m trying out “mixtape” themes for the third hour.  It’s less work for me since I don’t have to record back-announcing for that hour, and it keeps us from falling into a rut. In the coming weeks you’ll see us throw the RFC spotlight on different genres and special collections.  This week we celebrate a cool Charleston-based record label from the decade before last.

But before that, we open the show with brand-new music from Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess, and the rest of the show includes new music from Gardenn, Chvrches, David Synn, Mapped By A Forest, Bleachers and more.

For the second week in a row, we play a track from Tony Levin’s new album, Bringing It Down To The Bass, and coincidentally this week on WVPR’s Electopia, hosted by Jim Lange, the entire show is devoted to an interview with Mr. Levin, who you may know as the bass player for King Crimson, Peter Gabriel and on tons of recording sessions, like those for John Lennon’s Double Fantasy.

You can hear Electopia Friday & Saturday nights at 9 PM. He’ll talk about his new album, plus lots of insights, road stories and a bit of fun too. If you can’t pick it up on the old wireless, tune in on your computorial device HERE.

Hour two begins with some Pirate music from The Dread Crew of Oddwood, to get you in the mood for “Talk Like A Pirate Day” on September 19.

For our third hour, I’ve put together a mixtape of the first eleven tracks from Guilty By Association: Five Years of Caustic Eye. Released in 2006 as a benefit for AdamFest, this CD includes music from Byzantine, Jeff Ellis, Stone Ka-Tet and more. It’s a pretty nifty snapshot of the local music scene, roughly two decades ago. Caustic Eye was the brainchild of Rod Lanham, who’s done quite a bit to support the local scene.

The links in the playlist will take you to the pages for the local and independent artists where possible…

RFC V5 194

hour one
Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess “Kira”
Gardenn “Mt. Mama”
William Orbit “A Hazy Shade of Random”
Chvrches “Good Girls (John Carpenter Remix)”
David Synn “Hypomania”
The Settlement “Midnight Train”
Mediogres “Drownin'”
The Residents “The Weatherman (Demo)”
Frenchy & The Punk “Sleepwalk Shuffle”
Mapped By A Forest “Big Fish”
Tony Levin “Espressoville”
John Bunkley “On The Basis of Something Superficial”
Joi “Seven In, Seven Out”
Mark Davis “Little Girl In The Ring”

hour two
The Dread Crew of Oddwood “Give Me Your Beer”
The Broken Relics “Crosswalk”
4 OHM MONO “Entertain Me”
Dhani Harrison “New Religion”
Bleachers “Ordinary Heaven”
M & Chuck Biel “Fools Line Up”
Hellblinki“Bella Ciao”
Milva “Uno Come Noi”
Kitten & The Tonics “Howlin'”
Hasil Adkins “Ha Ha Catwalk Baby”
Kevin Scarborough “Algorithm Rock”
Treasure Cat “Hurt Myself Being Stupid”
Crazy Jane “Silver”

hour three
The Caustic Eye Sampler, A Benefit for Adam Weaver
Against “My Bitter Half (DBD)”
Jeff Ellis  “Hatfield (Cover)”
Byzantine “Purity”
David White “Zwak”
Guinness Clarke’s Wine “In Pieces”
Stone Ka-Tet “A Song For Adam’
Jeff Ellis  “Tina”
David White “Intransit”
The Fringe “2 (Version)”
Guinness Clarke’s Wine “Last Days Of Summer”
David White “Aurora”
Jeff Ellis  “On Top Again”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM we give you an encore of two classic episodes of The Swing Shift.

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursday and Sunday evenings.

This week’s art is a small acrylic-on-illustration board study for a future larger canvas work. The plan is to make it another homage to Edward Hopper…hence the name.

This is based on a random photo of an apartment building I took from the L in Chicago. I don’t remember for sure where it was, but it was probably somewhere on the Brown line, North of the Loop.

I basically slapped this down to get the color and compostion, and paint out where the reflections from inside the train were.  The finished piece will have a completely different approach to the sky. I consider the sky a weak point of mine, and really need to work on that in the future.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Over in radioland, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you encores of a classic episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM a recent edition of Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page.

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM. You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM.

At 8 PM you can hear an hour of songs from The Simpsons on a classic episode of The Comedy Vault.

Tonight at 9 PM for the Monday Marathon we devote ten hours to the first five episodes of Prognosis. We will be alternating between Prognosis and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat for the next several weeks, because we’re going to be pulling the early episodes of those shows from the server soon to make room for newer programs. After they’ve been offline for a year or so, we’ll bring them back into rotation but for now, you can hear them Monday evening into Tuesday morning, and then those episode will go on hiatus.

With your humble blogger still working on a paying gig, this week we’re going minimalist with a 1982 Tokyo concert by The Clash. This shows the band at their peak, before they found superstardom, then quickly imploded.

Folks don’t remember how important this band seemed at the time. They combined several different styles of music into their Punk sound, and pioneered the crossovers between Rock and Hip Hop, with Reggae, Dance, Rap and Pop in the mix as well. In this video you will hear some of their most powerful songs: “Messages/Radio Intro,” “London Calling,” “Safe European Home,” ‘Train In Vain,” “Washington Bullets,” “The Leader,” “Spanish Bombs,” “The Magnificent Seven,” ” The Guns Of Brixton,” “(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais,” “Ivan Meets G.I. Joe,” “Brand New Cadillac,” “Charlie Don’t Surf,” “Koka Kola,” ” I Fought The Law,” “Somebody Got Murdered,” “Career Opportunities,” “Janie Jones,” “Clampdown,” “This Is Radio Clash,” “Clash City Rockers,” “Stay Free,” “Armagideon Time,” “Complete Control,” “Jimmy Jazz,” “Tommy Gun,” “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?,” “London’s Burning,” “Fujiyama Mama,” “Police On My Back,” “White Riot” and “Radio Outro.”

This week we flashback to a huge milestone, our one-hundredth episode, from May, 2010.  This edition of the show, titled “M.C.Escher Shirt,” was, at that time, our longest show, with the most bands. It featured the RFC debut of  The Nanker Phelge, the second appearance of Eva Elution,  local superstar Jeff Ellis, the return of Hellblinki Sextet and the kickoff to “Stark Charleston,” an animated travelogue project I’d started with music by David Synn.

My co-host for this show was my imaginary daughter, Kitty Killton.  We shot host segments at Top O Rock, which was in pretty derelict condition at the time, but at least it was still standing, which is no longer the case…dammit.

Who woulda thunk we’d still be doing Radio Free Charleston as a weekly radio show and annual video show fourteen years later?