12523131_10205433019561454_4911306268818135534_nThe PopCulteer
March 18, 2016

Random Notes

It’s nose-to-the-grindstone time as your PopCulteer attempts to fling himself back into his routines after making two big trips in less than a month. Here we go…

Neil Zaza and Trielement at The Glass

Guitar wizard extraordanaire, Neil Zaza, returns to the Empty Glass Friday night with our own local prog-rock goliaths,Trielement providing support.

This will be one of Neil’s final US concerts before he heads out on a three month overseas tour starting in China.

Neil’s guitar playing has defined modern day instrumental guitar the world over. His melodic compositions have not only changed the way musicians play, but what audiences demand out of their guitar heroes. We have been very lucky to see Neil perform locally in the past, and it’s fantastic to have him back in town again.

nz-charlestonDr. Sketchy’s Returns

Image2This Sunday Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art Show returns after their long Winter hiatus and presents The Riveting Roses posing for life drawing and photography at WVSU EDC (AKA DigiSo) at 6 PM. It’s ten dollars to attend and have the lovely ladies strike poses for you to preserve for posterity in the artistic medium of your choice.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, Dr. Sketchy’s is a DIY figure drawing session that aims to bring the life-drawing experience to the masses.For the lowdown, let’s go to the PR: “Can you only draw stick figures? Are you a professional artist? Or are your skills somewhere in-between? Who cares?  If you like to draw, Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School doesn’t care what your skill level is! Grab your art supplies, and join us for a night of Dames, Drinking and Drawing with fun, contests and prizes. Our burlesque figure drawing is open to everyone 18 and over. BYOB to anyone 21+.“

Dr. Sketchy’s is the brainchild of New York artist Molly Crabapple and our local Charleston chapter is spearheaded by Chase Henderson and Gorillafoot Productions.

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Toybox Overload

Img_6802You may have noticed a lot of posts about toys here in PopCult of late. The reason for that is that we had two major toy events in a short period of time, and there’s a wealth of material originating from both the International Toy Fair in New York and JoeLanta and The Great Atlanta Toy Convention. It’s been tricky keeping PopCult updated with at least one post per day while undertaking two six-day toy-based trips in less than a month, but we’ve come through it in one piece.

The plan is to post all the panels, bonus footage clips and photo essays from JoeLanta in the next few days. Then we’ll try to have the big wrap-up show online by next Wednesday. After that we will dig back into our Toy Fair footage and start posting video reports that will hopefully all be posted by the end of April.

The Radio Free Charleston video show and RFC MINI SHOW will go back into production, and our radio programs are all slated to return with brand-new episodes next week. In fact, Word Association with Lee and Rudy has a brand=new episode tonight. We still have a dozen or so vintage episodes of RFC left to remaster, so the RFC Flashback will continue every Saturday morning. All of our regular features should be right where you expect them.

Your PopCulteer promises to keep at it and maintain PopCult as Charleston’s longest-running, most reliable and most-prolifc single-author blog.

Beer Overload

beer_2007261cDoes every event in this town have to be about beer? It seems lately like every single fundraiser or new gathering in Charleston has to revolve around beer somehow. I don’t have anything against beer. I don’t drink myself, but I’m hardly a prohibitionist. However it would be nice if this city could occasionally come up with something new that doesn’t seem like a desperate attempt to attract attention by enabling alcoholism.

Did anybody bother looking up the definition of “pub crawl” before we started having them every other week here in Charleston? I know that the term has become legitimzed, but it’s basically a moving drinking binge, shifting from one bar to the next until the participants have drunk themselves too sick to go any further.

I know that there is a strong consensus that craft beer is the one absolutely necessary ingredient to stimulate and revitalize our economy, but it’s a consensus that is mistaken. A vibrant craft beer industry is a symptom of a revitalized economy, not a cause.

I get that more than half the population drinks alcohol, and that the “money demographic” of young professionals does so at a higher rate and is more susceptible to the hipster trappings of the craft beer industry, but beer alone is not going to attract new industry to this state. Our problems are way more fundamental than that. A business that wants to locate here is not going to focus on beer when we have gaping basic needs in infrastructure. All the tasty hipster beer in the world will not make up for deteriorating roads and crappy broadband.

Craft beer, along with our beautiful natural woods, colorful murals and public art and amazing music and arts scene are wonderful spices that make life here better, but we have a long way to go if we want to prepare a main course that will attract new business. All the murals and beer in the world won’t make up for poor education, decaying roads, a lack of broadband and a legislature that seems hell-bent on dragging West Virginia back into the stone age.

AIRadio

air logo chromaJust last night, The Empty Glass interrupted regular programming on Appalachian Independent Radio to broadcast a live performance by The Davisson Brothers, a major band with a huge national following. The Davisson’s premiered several new songs that haven’t been recorded yet and led the crowd in a sing-along of “Country Roads.” If you missed it, I’m sure that it will be replayed in the next few days.

This is just one of the many cool things you can hear on AIRadio. I tell you all the time about the shows I produce, Radio Free Charleston, On The Road with Mel, Word Association with Lee and Rudy and Radio Free Charleston International, but there’s way more than that. The Empty Glass is not only doing live remotes of big-name musicians, but they also produce Six Degrees of Separation, a two-hour interview with a local artist, and they also have a playlist show where local musicians show off their influences.

Hit up the website, or listen in this handy widget…

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You can also tune in for local talk on a variety of issues, plus shows focused on all sorts of different genre of music. We also play the best independent music from all over the world. Check us out. You’ll be glad you did.

Stuff To Do

Friday

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Saturday

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Sunday

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That’s it for this week’s PopCulteer. Keep checking back for tons of coverage of the 2016 JoeLanta and The Great Atlanta Toy Convention.