The PopCulteer
July 14, 2023

It’s a bit hectic behind the scenes here at the moment, in fact, it’s after midnight, Friday morning, and your humble blogger is sitting in a fancy hotel in Chicago, updating this week’s column, which I wrote last week, to include a photo essay of my trip to the Windy City, so far.

Mrs. PopCulteer and I have been here since Monday. We’ve taken in a great new play at Steppenwolf and a killer take on The SpongeBob Musical at the Chopin (by Kokandy), and I’ll tell you about those shows when I get back home.  Later Friday the plan is to maybe go to a comic book signing by Svengoolie, and, weather permitting, maybe take in a Chicago Dogs game.

The weather permitting is a bit of a big deal, since Wednesday, right after we got back to the hotel from seeing a matinee performance of Another Marrriage at Steppenwolf, Chicago decided to treat us to a meteorological air show, with possibly as many as  eight tornadoes (Update: There were eleven)  hitting the Chicagoland area. We watched from the 23rd floor as Chicago became The Windy AF City.

Luckily it missed us, and while there was damage, no injuries were reported, but it made for an interesting early evening.

Here are just a few photos from the trip, so I can test out the concept of posting from the road…

A Batman angle of River North

Someday we will…eat at Joe’s.

That box thing being lowered rapidly by a crane from atop a tall building was about the size of a U Haul truck. It came down forty floors in about thirty seconds.

Tribune Towers, from back when we had newspapers.

Flags, all blowing in the same direction.

We finally found this place. Didn’t eat there yet, though.

Mrs. PopCulteer takes wing.

Yours truly tries the same thing. BTW, you’d be surprised how many people in Chicago recognize the Buc ees hat.

The building formerly known as Hancock Tower.

From inside the Tornado Warning that affected 3.7 million people Wednesday night.

Caution: Exploding Teardrops

Also this week all we have to tell you about a new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. The AIR is PopCult’s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player at the top right column of this blog.

At 2 PM, we bring you a encore of one of two Valentines Weekend episodes of MIRRORBALL from 2022.  If all goes according to plan, you’ll hear the second episode that debuted that day in two weeks. You can read all about both shows HERE.  

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays throughout the following week, Saturday at 9 PM, Sunday at 11 PM, Monday at 9 AM and Tuesday at 1 PM.

At 3 PM, Sydney Fileen graces us with special mixtape-style new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. This week Sydney delves deep into the history of the enigmatic New Wave/Psychedelic band, The Teardrop Explodes.

The Teardrop Explodes formed in Liverpool in 1978, taking their name from a caption in issue #77 of Daredevil, a Marvel comic book published earlier in the decade.

With vocals and lyrics by Julian Cope, who would go on to reach underground deity status following the break up of this band, The Teardrop Explodes also included David Balfe and Troy Tate, who would go on to become notable record producers.

In these two hours Sydney will play the hits, some deep album cuts and quite a few rarities and live tracks from the recently released The Teardrop Explodes boxed set, Culture Bunker.

Check out the playlist…

BEC 106
The Teardrop Explodes

“Reward”
“East of the Equater”
“Kilimanjaro”
“Sleeping Gas”
“Rachael Built A Steamboat”
“Brave Boys Keep Promises”
“The Culture Bunker”
“Tiny Children”
“Read It In The Books”
“Camera Camera”
“Bouncing Babies”
“Christ Vs. Warhol”
“Screaming secrets”
“Vox Clements In Deserto”
“You Disappear From View”
“Treason”
“Passionate Friend”
“Colours Fly Away”
“The Tunnel”
“Soft Enough For You”
“All I Am Is Loving You”
“Traison (C’est juste une histoire)”
“Suffocate”
“Count To Ten and Run For Cover”
“Terrorist”
“Pussyface”
“When I Dream”
“Strange House In The Snow”
“In-Psychlopaedia”
“World Shut Your Mouth (instrumental demo)”
“Ha Ha, I’m Drowning”

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon,  Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday morning at 10 AM.

That’s what’s new on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for our regular features every day. I’m taking in a minor-league ballgame in Chicago tonight, weather permitting.