After a month of paying tribute to Edward Hopper by dabbling in realism, this weekend I decided to cut loose with a little abstract expressionism.

What you see above is an acrylic on cheap-ass canvas board study for a possible larger work later. I wanted to evoke the feeling of stormclouds gathering over a suburban area, only without resorting to any photographic reference.

Which is not to suggest that Expressionism is simply laziness, but in this particular case, that did play a small part in it. This one didn’t take any less time than the Hopperesque pieces, though, so it wasn’t quite the shortcut I’d imagined. Also, this one may seem a little fuzzier here than it should because this is not a scan of the painting, but a photo taken with my phone and a five-dollar ring light. The paint was still too wet to put it in the scanner and I didn’t want to smear it with an acetate cover.

I may go back and work on this more. The light colors photographed much lighter than they look to the naked eye, but that made me have second thoughts about the color composition.

If you want to see this painting larger, just click on it.

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 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 Monday Marathon, beginning at 8 PM, brings you eleven hours of one of our “on hiatus” Haversham Recording Institute shows, Ska Madness. Dexter Checkers is threatening to return to this show on a semi-regular basis, so we decided to drop a marathon here to encourage him.

Bob Marely would have turned 77 today, had cancer not taken his life in 1981. In his honor we are bringing you two full concerts featuring Bob Marley and The Wailers

Above you see the Reggae legned just two days after a political assassination attempt was made on his life – resulting in him getting shot along with his wife Rita & manager Don Taylor – he boldly continues on his musical mission to play at the Smile Jamaica Concert at National Heroes Park in Kingston, Jamaica on the 5th of December, 1976.

Below,  you’ll find Marly in concert in Santa Barbara, Califonia, in 1979.

From October 2009, this week’s flashback brings you a show loaded with great music from Shindig and Joseph Hale, some prehistoric animation and the big reveal of who won the Great Guitar Giveaway from Route 60 Music. Our host segments were shot at Route 60 Music in Barboursville, and those segments were shot by none other than Flare Baroshi, who you will see performing in next week’s flashback.

We recorded Shindig at the Labelle, in South Charleston, and the late Mr. Hale was recorded at Taylor Books in Charleston.

For the full story on this show, check out the newly-restored production notes HERE.

The PopCulteer
February 4, 2022

At the end of a very busy week, your PopCulteer has had his attention once again focused  on secret projects for the future, and as a result, today’s column is again devoid of a bright and shiny new essay or photo feature for you this week.

Coming to my rescue is a great new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat to share, courtesy of Sydney Fileen. As you probably now by now, The AIR is PopCult‘s sister internet station, and you can listen to it without even leaving the blog.

Following an encore of a recent MIRRORBALL at 2 PM, Friday brings a brand-new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat to The AIR. 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 if you’re reading on a desktop.

At 3 PM, Sydney Fileen graces us with a very special mixtape episode devoted the musical production genius of one Trevor Horn. Having helped define New Wave music as the lead singer/songwriter of The Buggles, and after a strange detour that saw The Buggles join the progressive rock band, YES, about forty years ago Horn stepped back from performing and turned his talents toward producing other artists.

Those artists included Frankie Goes To Hollywood, ABC, The Art of Noise, Propaganda and many others, and Horn’s distinctive production style set the tone for much of the next decade’s music. Sydney has assembled a mixtape of Trevor Horn’s greatest productions, with a few obscure tracks tossed into the mix, just to keep you on your toes.

Just check out the playlist to see for yourself…

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The Buggles “Video Killed The Radio Star”
Frankie Goes To Hollywood “Relax”
Propaganda “Dr. Mabuse”
ABC “Poison Arrow”
Grace Jones “Slave To The Rhythm”
The Art of Noise “Beat Box”
Dollar “Mirror Mirror (Mon Amour)”
Frankie Goes To Hollywood “Wish (The Lads Were Here)”
The Pet Shop Boys “Left To My Own Devices”
The Buggles “Johnny On The Monorail”
ABC “Valentine’s Day”
The Art of Noise “Moment In Love”
Godley & Creme “Cry”
The Buggles “Adventures In Modern Recording”
Frankie Goes To Hollywood”
The Buggles “Adventures (Reprise)”
Propaganda “Femme Fatale (The Woman With The Orchid)”
Grace Jones “Jones The Rhythm”
Malcolm McLaren “Buffalo Gals”
The Buggles “I Am A Camera”
Frankie Goes To Hollywood “The Ballad of 32”
Dollar “Hand Held In Black and White”
The Art of Noise “Close To The Edit”
The Buggles “Fade Away”
ABC “The Look Of Love”
Dollar “Videoteque”
The Art of Noise “Snapshot/Battle”
Frankie Goes To Hollywood “Rage Hard”
The Buggles “Clean Clean”

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

That’s what’s on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer.   Check this blog for fresh content every single freakin’ day. I’m cool like that.

This Friday The Charleston Light Opera Guild will present Paradise Park The Musical at their Tennessee Avenue Theater. Based on the 1992 cult movie by Daniel Boyd, this musical features a book by Boyd and music and lyrics by West Virginia Music Hall of Famer, Larry Groce (who was in the original movie).

Theatre West Virginia premiered the musical in 2018 at Grandview State Park’s Cliffside Ampitheatre and repeated it in 2019. Now Charleston’s Light Opera Guild will tackle this show at their workshop theater, which is great for folks who can’t handle outdoor theater in the summer.

The story contains themes familiar to citizens of West Virginia: poverty, religion, hopes and dreams and centers on people caring for other people through hard times, through natural disasters and through everyday life. The musical tells the story of an elderly woman in a West Virginia trailer-park who dreams that God will come to their community and grant them all a wish.

The large cast is filled with a great assortment of West Virginia-based talent, like Mark Bates, John Inghram, Julie Miller, Phil Washington, Ted Brightwell, Clint Thomas, Jim Damron and many more. Direction and choreography are by CLOG mainstay, Nina Denton Pasinetti. The musical director is David Patrick, and Tom Pasinetti is the technical director. You can find the full cast list HERE.

The show runs February 4-6 & 11-13, 2022  at the Charleston Light Opera Guild Theatre at 411 Tennessee Ave. Tickets can be purchased online HERE.  For folks who are squeamish about attending a show during the pandemic, note that Masks are required at all times in the theatre regardless of vaccination status. Friday and Saturday shows begin at 7:30 PM, while Sunday shows are 2 PM matinees.

If you are comfortable attending a live show in person, Paradise Park The Musical is your chance to support the local scene and witness the work of many great local creative talents. See the cast below (photo credits: Brian Marrs).

The PopCult Toybox

For over a year I’ve been telling you about ZURU’s 5 Surprise Mini Brands and their spin-offs, Toy Mini Brands and Mini Fashions. They have exploded in popularity and become one of the hottest collectibles on the market. Kids are snapping them up just to collect, while adult hobbyists are grabbing them for dioramas for their Barbies and GI Joes.

It’s become a cool pop culture phenomenon that’s been featured everywhere from The New York Times to Slate to CBS News.

Now we have a new entry from ZURU, a collaboration with Disney. That means a whole new batch of minature collectibles featuring Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, Disney Princesses and of course Mickey & Friends will be coming your way in the 5 Surprise Mini Brands: Disney Store Edition.

{UPDATE: You can pre-order Disney Store Edition Mini Brands directly from Target now at THIS LINK}

There’s even a tiny Grogu (Baby Yoda), which is also available as a rare gold variant.

As soon as we get our hands on these, we’ll bring you an unboxing video here in PopCult, but for now, check out the press release with all the important details:

Exact Replica Miniature Collectibles from Marvel, Disney Princess, Pixar, Mickey & Friends, and Lucasfilm, To Debut in 5 Surprise Mini Brands: Disney Store Edition

LOS ANGELES – Award-winning toymaker ZURU has collaborated with Disney to miniaturize some of the most beloved Disney products, in 5 Surprise Mini Brands: Disney Store Edition. Perfect replicas of favorite toys from Marvel, Lucasfilm, Disney Princess, Mickey & Friends, and Pixar offered exclusively by Disney will debut in miniature form, down to the barcode, in the latest capsule collection of ZURU’s wildly popular, highly sought-after Mini Brands portfolio.

“The appeal of Mini Brands is truly a global phenomenon, with more than three billion views of surprise videos to date,” said Aneisha Vieira, Global Brand Director of ZURU. “There is no doubt the addition of rare Disney Store Exclusive Toys from Disney’s treasured portfolio of brands will take our collectible frenzy to new heights and make 5 Surprise Mini Brands: Disney Store Edition the ultimate collector’s item.”

With each 5 Surprise Mini Brands: Disney Store Edition, collectors, kids and Disney fans will experience the thrill of unwrapping, peeling and revealing five mini toys and toy store accessories, to recreate a tiny Disney Store of their own! The first Series features more than 70 minis, plus ultra-rare gold minis, including the likes of Marvel heroes Spider-Man Talking Action Figure (also available as a Super Rare Gold variant), Iron Man Action Figure, Marvel Toy Box and Captain America Shield, Star Wars C-3P0-inspired Die Cast Figure and R2-D2-inspired Talking Figure, and Pixar fan-favorites Woody Talking Action Figure, Buzz Lightyear Talking Action Figure (including a Super Rare Gold variant) and Lightning McQueen RC Car.

The line also includes Disney Princesses like the Disney Animators’ Edition Snow White and Belle Classic Doll as well as a selection from Mickey & Friends, and more.

Launching first to market at Target for the month of February 2022, 5 Surprise Mini Brands: Disney Store Edition are priced at $7.99 and designed for ages four and up.

It’s another double-shot of new shows Tuesday on The AIR  as we deliver a  new episode of Radio Free Charleston and a new edition of The Swing Shift. That’s two new programs totalling four hours of great musical enjoyment that might just take us into February with a swing.  You simply have to poke your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay on this page, and  listen to the cool embedded player over at the top of the right column (If you’re reading PopCult on a desktop, that is. Phone readers have to go to the website).

We have a  killer new Radio Free Charleston at 10 AM and 10 PM Tuesday.  This week we open with a track from a brand-new album from our old friend, Paul Calicoat, and offer up new local music from Minor Swing, Disarm The Fallen and The Mediogres, plus lots of other great local artists as well as the best independent music we can find from around the world, and a track or two from legends like Elvis Costello.

Paul actually opens up our first and our second hour, and Minor Swing manages to cross over into today’s new episode of The Swing Shift.

Our third hour is an encore of an episode of Radio Free Charleston Volume Four from four years ago this week. This one-hour show was a preview of the epic Rubber Soul Beatles marathon, which happened February 2, 2018. You’ll hear Rubber Soul with special guests Casey Litz, Erin Elizabeth and Mrs. PopCulteer, Mel Larch, plus we have other local bands offering their takes on Beatle classics.

Check out the playlist below to see all the cool tunes (live links will take you to the artist’s pages)…

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hour one
Paul Calicoat “Guns”
Joe Ely “Gallo Del Cielo (Live)”
Reptaliens “Like A Dog”
The January Lanterns “Flyover Country”
Yard Act “Tall Poppies”
Baked Shrimp “No2 4U”
Cassius At Best “Coral”
Minor Swing “Blue Drag”
Elvis Costello “Trick Out The Truth”

hour two
Paul Calicoat “In Spite of This”
Jordan Andrew Jefferson “Hide In Your Car”
Asking Alexandria “Never Gonna Learn”
The Dollyrots “Into The Glass”
Mediogres “Extra Dirt II”
Lickerish Quartet “Magic Number”
J Marinelli“Where’d They Have Us”
Baked Shrimp “Perry Mason Exoneration”
The Members “Sound of the Suburbs”
Red Audio “Moneytree”
The Dollyrots “High School Never Ends”
The Science Fair Explosion  “Kornchips”
Save Ferris “Golden Silence”
Disarm The Fallen “Last Breath”
Hate Your Face “Bleeding Me”

hour three
Rubber Soul with Mel Larch “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”
Rubber Soul with Casey Litz “The Devil In Her Heart”
“I’ll Cry Instead”
“Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby”
Rubber Soul with Erin Elizabeth “I Me Mine”
Rubber Soul in rehearsal 2011
“Back In The USSR”
“Dear Prudence”
“Yer Blues”
Go Van Gogh “I Am The Walrus”
Under The Radar “Eleanor Rigby”
Captain Crash and The Beauty Queen “Across The Universe”
Go Van Gogh “Requiem For Pepperland”
Rubber Soul in rehearsal 2009
“Help”
“All You Need Is Love”
Rubber Soul with Mel Larch “Cry Baby, Cry”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Thursday at 3 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.

After RFC, stick around for encores of MIRRORBALL at 1 PM, and NOISE BRIGADE at 2 PM.

At 3 PM we have a brand-new episode of The Swing Shift. This week the show is a mixtape tribute to Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli and The Quintette du Hot Club de France (which I manage to refer to as “The Hot Five” at least once during the show).  We open the show with Minor Swing, a Charleston based band that takes their name from one of Reinhardt and Grapelli’s classic tunes. Minor Swing is Ray Singleton – guitar, Alasha Al-Qudwah – violin, Jim Martin – bass and Andrew Winter – guitar, and you can hear them on today’s new RFC, too.

You’ll hear a wild mix of swinging guitar and gypsy violin, and a few surprises as well.

Check this playlist.

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Minor Swing “Minnie’s Manouche”
Django Reinhardt “Confessin'”
Pink Turtle “Money Money Money”
The Monkey Swingers “Swing 2”
Steve Howe “The Continental”
Stephane Grapelli “Tangerine”
Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grapelli “Crazy Rhythm”
Hot Sugar Band “Blue Drag”
Squirrel Nut Zippers “Little Mother In Law”
Vigilone, Creni, Gattone Gypsy Jazz Trio “Django Tiger”
The Quintette du Hot Club de France “I Got Rhythm”
Duke & Dukies “After You’ve Gone”
Minor Swing “Evil Woody”
Stephane Grapelli “Lover Come Back To Me”
Django Reinhardt “Minor Swing”

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesdays at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 7 AM, Friday at 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.

Because of the way the calendar falls, it’s our last day of Edward Hopper homage month here at PopCult We’re taking advantage of our superfluous fifth Monday to bring you one more of my small-scale acrylic studies wherein I try to mimic some of the composition, color and shadowplay of the late Mr. Hopper.

This one might get enlarged for a bigger canvas with more detail sometime when I have all the time in the world.

This one was done smaller than the others with acrylics on thick board (which I’m running out of) and it’s inspired by a series of photos I took of Hale Street (as it meets Lee Street) from 2006 to 2014. I think I might’ve gotten close to the shadowplay I wanted here. When I enlarge it, I’ll either change the season, or eliminate the trees completely. I didn’t like the way they looked after I scanned this into the computer.  I may “turn on” the streetlights, too and make it a dusk scene.

If you want to see this one a bit bigger, just click on it.

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

Nigel Pye dipped into his archives for another primo stash of amazing psychedelic rock, expanding your minds as he always does.

Check out the playlist for all the trippy music man…

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Heavy Metal Kids “It’s The Same”
Jimi Hendrix “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”
Lost Legend “Love Flight”
Crystal Rain “Hey Ma Ma”
Hawkwind “Master of The Universe”
Deep Purple “Mandrake Root”
Funkadelic “Hit It and Quit It”
Bare Sole “Let’s Communicate”
Raw Meat “Stand By Girl”
Josefus “Hard Luck”
Sweet Crystal “Warlords”
Spiny Norman “Bell Park Loon”
Janis Joplin “Summertime”

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.

Following that hour of Psychedelic sweetmeats, Herman Linte’s Prognosis will bring us two hours of great progrossive rock, including three tracks off of the new Jethro Tull album, The Zealot Gene, plus newly released music by Big Big Train, Steve Vai and The Art of Noise, mixed in with recent reissues and classic prog-rock tracks.

Check out the playlist…

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Jethro Tull “The Zealot Gene”
Big Big Train “Welcome To The Planet”
Steve Vai “Greenish Blues”
Gavin Harrison “Dog Day”
The Art of Noise/David’s Daughters “Dreaming In Colour”
Roxy Music “Mother of Pearl”
Dream Theater “A Vision (demo)”
Diablo Swing Orchestra ‘Les Invulneable”
The Anchoress “All Farewells Should Be Sudden”
Jethro Tull “Mrs. Tibbets”
Tangerine Dream and Brian May “Bells of Accra”
The Far Meadow “Himalaya Flashmob”
Marillion “Script For A Jester’s Tear”
Dragon “Universal Radio”
King Crimson “Moonchild”
Jethro Tull “Where Did Saturday Go”

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.

At 8 PM, we bring you an overnight marathon of Radio Free Charleston, just for the heck of it.

On January 30, 1969, The Beatles famously staged their final live performance on the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters in London’s Savile Row. As a bit of a tribute last month, Norah Jones and her band recorded versions of two of the songs from the Let It Be album on the observation deck of New York’s Empire State Building (although the Beatles nerd in me must point out that the Fab Four did not perform “Let It Be” on the roof at Apple, but recorded it in the studio the next day).

It’s worth pointing out that The Empire State Building is considerably taller that the Apple Corps building in London.

Jones posted her two rooftop tribute performance videos of Beatles’ songs from the Let It Be album (“I’ve Got A Feeling” and “Let It Be”), last Friday to mark today’s anniversary of the actual rooftop concert, and we’re sharing those videos, above and below this text, for you to enjoy!

From September, 2009, we have the 83rd episode of Radio Free Charleston. In this episode you’ll find then-new music by Mother Nang as well as footage from a Tuesday Open Mic at Sam’s Uptown Cafe by James Vernon Brown, Sierra Ferrell and Patrick Stephens. We also have a Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie. This newly-restored episode has been offline for close to a decade.

This is one of the earliest videos that was posted featuring Chareston’s own Sierra Ferrell, who has gone on to great acclaim, signed to Rounder Records and touring all over the world. In fact, earlier this week she was onstage with Lana Del Rey, singing Del Rey’s newest song, in Austin, Texas.  Recently Sierra’s become the crown princess of traditional country music. It’s a kick, going back to this old video (even before Sierra’s stint with 600 lbs of Sin) to hear her and James doing a Citizen Cope tune.

This show also has a plug for our Great Guitar Giveaway, a contest (now long over with) that we did in conjunction with Route 60 Music. Coincidentally, new music from Paul Calicoat, one of the owners of Route 60 Music, will open next Tuesday’s new episode of Radio Free Charleston Volume 5 (our current internet radio incarnation).

Headlining the show is Mother Nang, old friends of mine, seen here in a psychedelic video for their song “The Painter.” We recorded this at the much-missed LiveMix Studio, where I got to direct using LiveMix’s Video Toaster. I handled the post-production and inserted the painterly psychedelica back here at Stately Radio Free Charleston Manor. I’ve gotten much better at doing that sort of thing over the last dozen years.

You can find the original production notes HERE.