This week we continue our with spooky subject matter, which is a bit of a shame because I forgot I was doing that, and did a really nice watercolor landscape that will have to wait until November to see the light of day. Then when it hit me that I was supposed to do Halloweeny art, I grabbed some paper for pens and some grey-tone and reddish brush pens and knocked out this quick sketch of a tombstone in about forty minutes.

This is based on a tombstone design that I had in a folder sating back to when I did an animated music video for Under The Radar’s cover of “Eleanor Rigby” back in 2009.

I did this straight with markers, looking at the basic shape in the tiny jpg, and then rushed through with a simple background because I was running short on time and useable fingers. I’m fairly happy with the way it turned out. I did crop it a bit and tinkered a little with the color temperature after scanning it.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a recent episode of  Psychedelic Shack, followed at 3 PM by 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. 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.

Tonight at 8 PM you can hear an hour of stand-up from Robert Klein on The Comedy Vault. Wednesday evening at 10 PM, we’ll have another new episode of The Comedy Vault.

Then, at 9 PM we bring you an overnight marathon of Beatles Blast, with a focus on John Lennon the day after what would have been his 82nd birthday.

John Lennon would have turned 82 years old today.

Lennon, of course, was a Beatle, an author, an actor, a poet, an activist, and one of the most important figures in music and pop culture in the hsotry of the world.  In 1986  Yoko Ono and Oscar-winning animator and historian John Canemaker created a cartoon short John Lennon Sketchbook. Executive produced by Ono and designed, directed, and animated by Canemaker, it is a poignant peek into the fertile mind of a Beatle whose prodigious talents extended well past creating immortal music.

We’ve run this in PopCult before, but thought it’d make a good reminder of Lennon’s birthday.

This week we kick off a Halloween month of The RFC Flashback with Radio Free Charleston episode 29, “Pirate Outfit,” from October, 2007. This was our second Halloween special,

This classic RFC features appropriately scary music from legendary Charleston band Big Money (featuring Michael Lipton) and local rapper Lil Guy from South Park Enterprise. Plus, we have scenes from the Radio Free Charleston 2007 Halloween party at the late, lamented Capitol Roasters Cafe, where we hi-jacked a Whistlepunk show.

Our host segments were taped that night, which was chock full o’ costumed frivolity. On top of that, you’ll find our usual mind-hurting weirdness and animation, with a sinister holiday bent. The party was quite loud, and you can barely hear our host in some segments.

In this episode you will also hear a snippet of Whistlepunk during the end credits. We did hi-jack their show and turn it into the RFC Halloween party, so we couldn’t very well leave them off the show. You’ll hear them doing the song “Lost.”

There’s more than just music on the show. You’ll also get to see a commercial that loudly promises “Shrunken Heads for all occasions!” A lovely Geisha (Kitty Killton) and a Japanese robot (Sean Richardson) introduce our animation, which was created by mystery men.  Also, an evil puppet turns Rudy into Jared Leto.

Right at the beginning of the show Raymond Wallace nearly destroys Rudy and RFC camera-person Melanie Larch by delivering a two-word ad lib that we had to try desperately to ignore. A Gladiator and a Ghostbuster walk into a coffee shop.  Subtitles take on a life of their own. This episode was remastered in October, 2013. Original production notes can be found HERE.

The PopCulteer
October 7, 2022

So, today’s PopCulteer was supposed to be a long, personal essay, one that I’ve been writing in my head since July.  It’s going to be intense, quite a depature from what I usually write, and relevant and important and serious.

And I’m not up to writing it at the moment. It’s been a pretty grueling thought process, and this week has just been too hectic. So I’m punting.

Instead, below you will find several random images that I’ve pulled out of my hard drive, along with some amusing or informative copy.  Many of these images go back fifteen years ago, or more. There are a few images of yours truly, like the one from 2008 with Marvin The Wonder Pelt, seen above at right.

With luck, my big long essay will appear in this space next week.

Until then, enjoy the pitchers. I’m going to tempt fate and see how many I can cram in here without breaking the blog.  Each one is worth a thousand words, you know.

An old shot of the Kanawha River and its associated Boulevard, before they built the Stargate and canopy at Haddad Riverfront Park.

An unused version of a Monday Morning Art piece from 2007, I think.

What I got for Christmas, 1972.

My beloved Psychedelic Refrigerator gave up the ghost this week at the tender age of 45.

This photo by EVAN VUCCI/AP should win the Pulitzer.

Continue reading

This is the last batch of photos from your PopCulteer’s late-August trip to The Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex in Moundsville, West Virginia. The most prominent feature of Grave Creek is the gigantic conical burial mound constructed by the prehistoric Native American cultural group termed the Adena by archaeologists. To the right you see life-size representations of those Adena folks.

Along with the exhibits on West Virginia industries and prehistoric animals, a large portion of the Delf Norona Museum, located at The Complex, is devoted to the study of The Adena people, complete with artifacts, scale dioramas, videos and a full-size replica of an Adena Hut.

The Grave Creek Mound is one of the largest Adena mounds and, of course is the namesake of Moundsville. A massive undertaking, the total effort required the movement of more than 57,000 tons of sand and earth. Construction of the mound took place from about 250-150 B.C. and included multiple burials at different levels within the structure.

The museum exhibits tell the full story of the construction of the mound and it’s excavations and efforts to preserve the history of the Adena people.

Exhibits interpreting the lifeways of the Adena people are displayed in the Delf Norona Museum. Named after an amateur archaeologist and founding member of the West Virginia Archeological Society who advocated preservation of the mound, the Delf Norona Museum opened in December of 1978. The museum was designed with a natural brick façade and gabled skylights as an architectural tribute to the prehistoric past.

These photos are all from the Upper Gallery Exhibit Area, and include that replica circular wooden structure along with loads of other examples of Adena life. Check out the photos…

First off, here’s another look at that gorgeous and impressive mound.

The replica Adena hut. It’s even more impressive because, as you enter this part of the museum, you see it from below and behind first.

A very informative presentation of West Virginia’s pre-history and history.

One of many well-lit cabinet displays of fossils and artifacts.

There are a few smaller, yet very impressive dioramas depicting Adena life.

Adena people preparing to FLIP THAT HUT!

Part of a very large mural depicting Adena life.

A massive scale diorama of the mound complex, as it was while the mound was being constructed

A closer look at some of the detail.

The top of the mound in close up (it appears an Adena shaman has fallen over.

We leave you with a closer look at the mound, as seen in the diorama.

The Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM. It’s closed Sundays and Mondays. Admission to the museum is free. You can find The Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex at 801 Jefferson Avenue in Moundsville, West Virginia, right across the street from the giant Medievel-looking former West Virginia State Penitentiary.

We have some suggestions for STUFF TO DO in Charleston, and points all over WV for the next few days.

This weekend we have the Rod Run Doo Wop car show that closes Kanawha Boulevard and tempts fate with the weather every year. This event begins today and runs through Sunday, and I would recommend you try to make it out Thursday before the rains come and mess with this fun show. They have a group page at Facebook, but not a dedicated event page.

Indoors, Tsubasacon happens at The Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center Friday through Sunday. It’s three days of Anime, Cosplay and more, this year with a Cryptid them. Details can be found at the Facebook Page.

On Thursday, Milton’s Pumpkin Festival returns for a billionth time.  There will be live music (see below) and all sorts of Pumpkin-related activities. Check out their Facebook Page for more details.

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM. Friday it’s Kevin Jarvis. Saturday sees Ginger Wixx at Charleston’s beloved Bookstore/coffeehouse/art gallery institution.

If you wanna hear something funny,  tune in to The AIR Wednesday night at 11 PM where we will offer up a new episode of The Comedy Vault, this time featuring an hour of Classic stand up material from Steven Wright.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet. 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.

If you’re up for going out, here are a few suggestions for the rest of this week, roughly in order.

It’s an interesting day, Tuesday, on The AIR  as we premere new episodes of The Swing Shift and Radio Free Charleston! 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 elsewhere on this page.

Appropriate for the Halloween season, we have another Frankensteined episode of Radio Free Charleston this week, and you can hear it at 10 AM and 10 PM Tuesday.  We open with a brand-new song from Tyler Childers, and then we revive an episode each of Radio Free Charleston and RFC International from 2019.

The first hour is all-local, and we kick it off with a track from the new Tyler Childers album, Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven. There are three versions of this album, “Hallelujah,” “Jubilee,” and “Joyful Noise” and we’ll be exploring the differences between them in the coming weeks.  After that we segue into a show from July, 2019, that’s loaded with great local music.

The second and third hours come from an episode of Radio Free Charleston International from a couple of weeks later, and during that week my voice was shot, so I found the longest songs I could in order to minimize my announcing time. RFC should be back at full strength next week. We’ve stitched these shows together with one new track and set them loose on the village. Please be careful with the torches and pitchforks.

Check out the playlist below to see all the goodies we have in store (no live links this week, sorry)…

RFC V5 105

hour one
Tyler Childers “Way of the Triune God (Hallelujah Version)”
Emmalea Deal “Queen”
Adam Cox “Free And Independent State”
Cannon Sodaro Band “Hard Times”
Todd Burge “The Cheerleader”
Cast of Paradise Park “Something For Nothing”
Jonathan Mason “Killing Me, Ohio”
William Matheny “Tonight and Every Night From Now On”
Farnsworth “Roll Me Up”
Geronimo “Once My Home”
Time And Distance “Cooperfield”
Kevin Scarbrough “Salamander Man”
Axis Everything “Timedog”
Blame The Day “Breathe”
Seven Minutes To Midnight “Hey John I Did Imagine”
Tim Truman “Ballad of Oscar Wilde”

hour two
The Aristocrats “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde”
Frank Zappa “The Adventures of Gregory Peccary”
Brian May “Blues Breaker”
YES “Perpetual Change (live)”

hour three
The Pornadoes “Trouble’s Gonna Find You”
ELP “Tarkus (live)”
Genesis “Supper’s Ready (live)”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight,  and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different 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.

Then at 1 PM we have MIRRORBALL, followed at 2 PM by Curtain Call.

At 3 PM a new hour of The Swing Shift arrives with a mixtape show filled with the best of The Quincy Jones Big Band, ranging from the mid-1050s to the mid-1960s. Before he was producing Michael Jackson’s hits, Jones was a master arranger and bandleader in the Big Band Swing genre. This is a great way to hear the man swing. Check out the playlist…

The Swing Shift 133

The Quincy Jones Big Band
“The Birth of the Band”
“Syncopated Clock”
“Tuxedo Junction:
“Boogie Stoop Shuffle”
“Mack The Knife”
“Bilie’s Bounce”
“Robot Portrait”
“A Sleepin’ Bee”
“The Hucklebuck”
“Lester Leaps In”
“Quintessence”
“Caravan”
“Everybody’s Blues”
“Tickle Toe”
“Blues In The Night”

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.

I’m not doing Inktober this year. I did last year, but this year I sorta want to go in another direction. The next month will see spooky-ish offerings in this space.

Today’s first entry in our month-long Halloweenish art is an exercise in minimalism.  It’s painted with acrylic over white-out on an old piece of dark burlap I had laying around.  All told, it took me about ten minutes to do, total, with about an hour between five-minute sessions to let the white-out dry. I wanted to see if I could evoke a scary night scene with just two colors and a dark canvas.  It’s a tiny piece, too, so if you’re looking at it on a computer, it’s probably larger than life-size.

To see it even bigger try clicking HERE.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a recent episode of  Psychedelic Shack, followed at 3 PM by 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. 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.

Tonight at 8 PM you can hear an hour of The Firesign Theater on The Comedy Vault. Wednesday evening at 10 PM, we’ll have another new episode of The Comedy Vault.

Then, at 9 PM we bring you an overnight marathon of Curtain Call, Mel Larch’s showcase of Musical Theatre.

This is the first Sunday of October, and as such, it’s about time to start getting in the mood for Halloween. Of course, most retailers have had their Halloween stuff out since June, but for those of us who aren’t burned out on spooky stuff, it still feels right to at least wait until the month of All Hallow’s Eve to get festive.

Our video tonight is one created a few years ago by yours truly and his wife. Recorded May 30, 2015 at WonderFest USA in Louisville, Kentucky. The above video was shot by Melanie Larch and edited by your PopCulteer.

The PopCult and Radio Free Charleston crew stumbled onto this incredible collection of delightfully cheesy, vintage Ben Cooper Halloween Costumes, tucked away in a little room just off from the main hallway at WonderFest USA, the annual fantasy and SF modelers convention.

Presented by a die-hard collector named Jeff Stringer, this was a fun and surprising little diversion to find just as we were on the way out the door to come home. We didn’t get much information about Jeff’s collection, but it sure looks cool and has lots of very rare items. This incredible collection of delightfully cheesy, vintage Ben Cooper Halloween Costumes, was tucked away in a little room just off from the main hallway at WonderFest USA, the fantasy and SF modelers convention.  We were actually alerted to this treasure by our friends from JoeLanta, who were also at WonderFest, taking in all the coolness.

As for Ben Cooper Inc., the costume-maker struggled through a few bankruptcies and other setbacks before shutting down over thirty years ago. Last year the descendants of the original owners seemed to be staging a comeback, licensing their designs to folks like Retro-A-Go Go (who have just released a new series of Cooperesque masks and wall hangings), but the Cooper family social media is inactive and their website is down.

But we do have this video valentine to Halloween to get you in the holiday spirit. Plus we have a few newly-resized photos, if you want to take a closer look…

Jackie Kennedy and JFK. For some reason these didn’t sell too well after 1963.

What kids doesn’t want to dress up like an astronaut?

Okay, maybe the kid who wants to dress up like Mr. Potato Head doesn’t want to be an astronaut.

The Six Million Dollar Man, autographed, with an autographed Bionic Woman in the background.

Extremely rare Tron merchandising.

When Star Wars knockoffs are done up Ben Cooper-style, they really look way more like Star Wars stuff.

Radio Free Charleston‘s 28th video episode was “John Lennon Shirt,” our first attempt at a Beatles tribute, despite the fact that we could not then use cover songs on the show. It debuted on October 11, 2007 and hasn’t been widely available for a few years.

Our music included “Hey John, I Did Imagine,” by Seven Minutes Til Mdnight and “Requiem For Pepperland” by Go Van Gogh. We also have Sir Paul speaking about cannibus, and the end credit audio is an excerpt from the original Radio Free Charleston radio show, with Rudy Panucci talking Beatles with Clownhole’s John Estep and Go Van Gogh’s Johnny Rock.

“Requiem for Pepperland” is an animated video that yours truly cranked out in four days. I know, it looks like I spent a whole week on it, but I was just learning how to use the computer at this point, so I get points for trying.

You can read the original production notes HERE.