It’s Christmas week, and we’re still in tree mode here at PopCult. What you see above is a digital pastel painting over a quick photo I took of our tree topper this year. After using a spire for the last 20 years or so, I thought it might be time to shake things up a bit, so when Mel picked out a realy cool and huge blown-glass peacock ornament in Chicago, I had the idea that, being so huge, it might make for a good tree topper.

So I took a photo Sunday afternoon, blacked out the background, and did a quick digital painting over it. I would’ve done a physical painting, but the Myasthenia Gravis is being a bit Naughty at the moment, and my fingers are not up to the task.

Later in the week I’ll bring you a photo essay of the whole tree, so you can see what this year’s model looks like.

If you want to see this digital painting bigger, click HERE.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a recent episode of  Psychedelic Shack, followed at 3 PM by the special Christmas episode 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 at the top of the right-hand column of this blog.

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. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday at 9 AM as part of our Sunday Haversham Recording Institute collection.

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. You can hear two classic episodes of the show Sunday at 2 PM.

Our AIR Holiday Programming begins today with Prognosis, and will fill up most of the schedule all week long. We’ll have a new AIR Christmas Special in place of RFC tomorrow.

At 9 PM, our holiday programming kicks off in earnestwith a special overnight marathon. All week long we’ll be dropping in holiday treats in The AIR.