Fifteen years and eight days ago I posted in this blog about a very handy thing I came up with to keep me from getting pestered while I’m writing.

See, I work primarily from home, but the world at large seems to think that means that I can drop whatever I’m doing at any time of the day to run and pay attention to them.  People will knock at your door with no regard for what you might be doing or care how much of an imposition they’re making on your time and personal space.

This was particularly bad back when I was working at home and also acting as the full-time caregiver for my ailing mother prior to her passing. When I was administering IV antibiotics was not when I wanted the local Baptist church to pound on my door asking me to come to a revival.

So, inspired by Mark Evanier, I devised a sign, which you see above, to warn people that I would not be receptive to most interruptions. (You can click it to see it bigger)

It worked really well for seventeen years until yesterday when, one minute out of the shower, I heard a knock at my door. I threw my clothes on quick to answer it, thinking it might be a package or something urgent or important, but it wasn’t.

It was a nice young lady with a clipboard, who asked for me by name, and I instantly realized what was happening and blurted out “Oh for Christ’s sake! You’re not going to ask me to call Senator Manchin are you?”

Let me explain, I support earnest political activism by proud American Democratic-leaning patriots. I really don’t want to discourage people from getting out and doing productive things to help reverse the horrible downward slide that this country has been on, especially from 2016 to early 2021.

But…I have a sign on my door. It doesn’t specifically tell folks pushing politics to leave me alone, but it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.

Also, I have followed the career of Joe Manchin for decades, and I know damn well that the man couldn’t care less about what his constituents want, or what’s best for them. He will show up for a photo op or a cash payment. The man is the worst kind of self-serving career politician, and no amount of phone calls left on his office answering machine is going to change that.

I don’t quite understand this sudden lust for phone callers to his office. For the last month my day has been interrupted three-to-six times by people calling to ask if I would hold the line so they could transfer me to Joe Manchin’s office so I could leave a message. I’m a freelance writer waiting for calls from clients most of the day. I can’t just not answer the phone.

After politely explaining to each caller that this was a complete waste of time (theirs and mine), and was very intrusive on my day for a couple of weeks, I started getting calls from robocallers offering to connect me to his office.

So I punched the buttons to patch me through to Manchin’s office and started leaving messages asking him to ban unsolicited political phone calls. A telemarketer is a telemarketer, regardless of what they’re selling.

I should also explain…I don’t text.  Due to Myasthenia Gravis, trying to use a touchscreen is a painful and time-consuming chore, so I installed software on my phone to block all notifications of texts. They pile up and I never respond to any of them…ever.  About once every two or three years I have to check my texts for some kind of security log-in thing, and that’s when I clean out the old texts, usually without reading them.

I had to do that last week, and was shocked to discover just over a hundred texts, all from different numbers, asking me to call Joe Manchin.

I took the time to block every number.

And then yesterday, I had that knock on the door. I was sympathetic and as polite as I could manage, but I also sternly explained that this was exactly the type of thing that turns people against your cause.

And then I made a second, more specific sign. I’m pretty sure this will come in handy.

There’s a lot of cool stuff happening in and around Charleston this weekend, and as usual, I am bringing you a selection of the coolest shows that have cool accompanying graphics. I’m doing this a day or two earlier than usual because three people asked nicely.

Remember that the stuff I’m telling you about are the cool shows by folks who are kind enough to make cool graphics and leave them scattered around social media so that I may easily find them. There’s all kinds of other cool things you can get into, if you know where to look.

You should know the drill by now. The pandemic is not over, and the Delta variant has been sighted loitering and exposing itself in Kanawha County. If you are fully vaccinated and ready to do your best to stay safe, you should go check this stuff out. Outdoor shows are okay for reasonable and vaccinated people to go maskless. Indoor shows leave you at the mercy of your fellow patrons, and be honest…you don’t know where they’ve been. So use your common sense and stay safe.

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Tuesday on The AIR  we deliver a mysterious sort of  brand-new episode of Radio Free Charleston. It’s three hours of  local music that you have to discover on your own. You simply have to move 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.

We have a new Radio Free Charleston at 10 AM and 10 PM Tuesday.  This week we aren’t going to tell you exactly what’s on the show. What happened was, I found a bit of a gem on an old hard drive. Back in early 2015, when RFC was on Voices of Appalachia, the internet radio station that eventually became The AIR, I put together a four-hour block of local and regional music for the station to use in case of an emergency.

This programming block had everything from vintage RFC material dating back as far as 1989 to audio from our video years to unreleased demos and other cool surprises. As far as I know, this block of local music never aired.

I have never done a “mixtape” episode of Radio Free Charleston V 5 until now. I took the four hours, cut it down to three, and only announce at the top of the show. In fact, when I recorded the intro, I mistakenly thought that I only had a three-hour block of music. I had to do some trimming, so I may bring you the remaining hour or so next week.  In this show you will hear artists like Three Bodies, Under Social, Go Van Gogh, Pepper Fandango, John Radcliff and many, many others.

It’s a change of pace, and I thought the folks who tune into RFC for the local music might appreciate a full show of it. We’ll be back to our normal free-format approach next week.

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM, Thursday at 3 PM. Friday at 7 PM, plus Saturday afternoon, and again at Midnight, and then one more replay Monday at 11 AM.

As is now the norm, 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.

Late last week I wound up with a new guitar. It’s a nice hollowbody Gretsch with a Bigsby, and when I got it, my fingers went wonky due to MG (it’s summer, this happens a lot in hot weather).  I was able to tune it, but playing it and practicing with it will have to wait until my fingers want to cooperate.

However, I was able to hold a pencil long enough to do a rough doodle of it…except that my fingers got worse by the time I got to the neck, so I just cropped out the really sloppy part. Here’s a pencil drawing of my new toy. Maybe some day I’ll feel confident enough to inflict my playing on you. For now, just look at the drawing.

If you want to see it bigger, just click on the image.

Meanwhile, Monday at on The AIR, this week our Haversham Recording Institute friends are busy gearing up to provide translation services for The Olympics. We will be running encore plays of recent episodes of Prognosis, Psychedelic Shack and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat for the next few weeks. This afternoon you can hear Nigel Pye’s Psychedelic Shack at 2 PM and Herman Linte with Prognosis at 3 PM.

At 7 PM tune in for 12 hours of the best of Curtain Call, kicking off with an encore of last week’s 100th episode.

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.

This week we bring you eighteen minutes of surreal, not-safe-for-work animation by the late Susan Pitt. Finished in 1979, after four years of work, it debuted as part of an installation at The Whitney Museum of Modern Art, Asparagus, which took four years to make, was eventually paired with David Lynch’s Eraserhead on the midnight-movie circuit. It’s a smorgasboard of sexual imagery mixed into a dreamlike stream of psychedelic consciousness.

Don’t expect a traditional narrative.

Pitt went on to create several more animated shorts, as well as creating multimedia installations and contributing tanimated projections to many theatrical productions around the world. She also taught experimental animation techniques and Harvard and Cal Arts.

This is one of those experimental cartoons that you just have to stare at and soak in…unless you are easily offended by sexual imagery, in which case you should maybe skip this one.

Pitt died just over two years ago at the age of 75, from pancreatic cancer. I remember watching Asparagus one time in the early 1980s, when Danny Boyd was invited to the Dunbar Public Library to show a collection of short films. I don’t believe he was asked back.

This week, we coincidentally rolled upon our ninth anniversary episode of RFC in our Flashback, just six days after we premiered our fifteenth anniversary show.

On this show we had music videos by The Company Stores, Close The Hatch and Volt 9000. We also have live performances by Tape Age and Speedsuit and animation from Third Mind Incarnation. We kicked things off with a trailer for Ann Magnuson’s Dream Puppet Theater.

We played the music from this show on this week’s radio episode of Radio Free Charleston.

You can read the full production notes HERE.

And you can watch our latest episode, right here…

The PopCulteer
July 9, 2021

Welcome to “overly dramatic headline day, here at PopCult.

Friday brings new episodes of MIRRORBALL and 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.

Today’s episodes of our AIR Music Specialty programs are musicologist’s delights. Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, for the second time in a row, presents 26 New Wave acts, each representing a letter of the alphabet. I’m informed by Ms. Fileen that she won’t be revisiting this gimmick again unless she can find more New Wave acts whose names start with “Q” or “Z.”

Before we get to New Wave, we have to ploy through Disco, and at 2 PM,  on a new episode of MIRRORBALL, Mel Larch introduces American Audiences to the German/Carribbean group, Boney M, who had a couple of minor hits in the US, but were a phenomenon overseas. This is some amazing music, as the band manages to pull off Disco covers of “No Woman, No Cry” and “In A Gadda Da Vida.” Check out this playlist…

MIRRORBALL 028

Boney M
“Let It All Be Music”
“Ma Baker”
“New York City”
“Ribbons of Blue”
“No Woman No Cry”
“Take The Heat Off Me”
“Sunny”
“Children of Paradies”
“Boonoonoonoos”
“I Feel Good”
“Gadda Da Vida”
“A Woman Can Change A Man”
“Gotta Go Home”
“Bahama Mama”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM,  with replays Sunday at 11 PM, Monday at 9 AM, Tuesday at 1 PM and Wednesday at 7 PM, exclusively on The AIR.

At 3 PM, Sydney Fileen graces us with a second consecutive special mixtape episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat based on what she calls a “silly idea” from Nigel Pye, the host of Psychedelic Shack.  In a two-hour mixtape show, Sydney presents 26 New Wave artists, each one with a name starting with a different letter of the alphabet, just like last time. Since she didn’t have room to back-announce every song, she has asked me to include the playlist here so you can see who’s playing what…

BEC 074

ABC “The Look of Love”
Bananarama “Robert DeNiro’s Waiting”
Concrete Blonde “Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man”
DEVO “The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprise”
Eurythmics “Here Comes The Rain Again”
Falco “Der Kommisar”
Graphic Shadows “Goodbye Libido”
Harlequin “Thinking of You”
Inspectors “Day After Day”
Joy Division “I Remember Nothing”
Klark Kent “Office Talk”
Lost Loved Ones “The Flag”
Moon Martin “Writng On The Wall”
Nena “99 Luftballoons”
Hazel O’Connor “Who Needs It”
Pretenders “Private Life”
Quarterflash “Williams Avenue”
Red Rider “Ships”
Simple Minds “New Gold Dreams (81-82-83-84)”
Tears For Fears “Shout”
The Ultraviolet “Kerry”
VHF “The Peril of Passion”
Wang Chung “Black-Blue-White”
X Ray Spex “Germfree Adolescents”
Yellow Magic Orchestra “Castalia”
Leydon Zar “I Want You Back”

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 back for fresh content every single freakin’ day.

Okay, we’re not really at “mid-summer” yet, but I needed a headline.

Now that we are almost out of the pandemic, cool things are happening all over town. Some of them are big and very well-publicized, like Live on the Levee, which begins Friday. Some of them are being put on by people who don’t bother to make usable graphics to plug their shows.

But the stuff I’m telling you about are the cool shows by folks who are kind enough to make cool graphics and leave them scattered around social media so that I may easily find them.

Remember, if you’re not vaccinated, don’t be an even bigger moron and go to an indoor show without a mask. Here’s some fun stuff happening in and around Charleston this weekend…

It’s Milestone Time Wednesday afternoon The AIR brings you a very special brand-new episode of  Curtain Call!  You can tune in at the website, or or you could just stay on this page, and  listen to the convenient embedded radio player lurking over in the right-hand column of this blog.

At 3 PM on Curtain Call, Mel Larch celebrtes both the fifth anniversary of Curtain Call on The AIR, as well as the 100th episode of her showcase of the best of musical theatre. To mark this special occasion, Mel is going to bring you a sampling of the best of each decade of the last century, with the 2000s getting a bonus song and an opening number that dates back to 1904!

You will hear songs composed by George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Schwartz, Lin Manuel Miranda and more, and the singers include Ella Fitzgerald, Elaine Page, Bernadette Peters, Joel Grey, Nathan Lane and more.  Mel didn’t go with the Original Cast recordings for every track, opting for a mix of original performancs, revival casts and interpretations from the world’s greatest singers. Mel chose one song to represent each decade in which it debuted.

This is not supposed to be a definitive list of the absolute best, but rather a sampling of the cream of the crop of the many entertaining shows that have brought joy to millions over the last hundred years.

It was a challenge trying to cram over a hundred years of musical theatre into one hour, but Mel pulled it off. She does plan to go back and revisit each decade in future editions of Curtain Call. For now, check out this playlist:

 Curtain Call 100

“Give My Regards to Broadway” Al Jolson
1920’s: “Oh, Lady, Be Good” from Lady Be Good, 1924 (George and Ira Gershwin) Buck and Bubble
1930’s:”The Lady Is a Tramp” from Babes in Arms 1937 (Rodgers and Hart) Ella Fitzgerald
1940’s: “There’s No Business Like Show Business” from Annie Get Your Gun 1946 (Irving Berlin)  Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat
1950’s : “Getting To Know You” from The King and I  1957 (Rodgers and Hammerstein)Elaine Page
1960’s: “Hair” (Title song) 1967 (Gerome Ragni James Rado)
1970’s: “What I Did For Love” from A Chorus Line ( 1975 Marvin Hamlisch)
1980’s: “The Phantom of the Opera” (title song) 1986 (Andrew Lloyd Webber/Hart/Stilgoe)
1990’s: :La Vie Boheme” from RENT 1996 (Jonathan Larson)
2000s: “Where Did We Go Right?”  from The Producers (2001 Mel Brooks) Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick
“Wonderful” from Wicked 2003 (Stephen Scharwtz) Idina Menzel, Joel Grey
2010s: “My Shot” from Hamilton 2015 (Lin-Manuel Miranda)

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 8 AM and 9 PM, and Saturday at 8 PM. A six-hour marathon of classic episodes can be heard Sunday evening starting at 6 PM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

Tuesday on The AIR we deliver a brand-new episode of The Swing Shift.  In order to hear this new hour of Suh-Wing, you simply have to move your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay on this page, and  listen to that copascetic little embedded radio player at the top of the right column of this blog.

First off, at 1 PM we have a replay of the pride episode of  MIRRORBALL, wherein Mel Larch makes long to dance the inclusive Disco way for one full hour! Then at 2 PM an encore of Steven Allen Adams’ NOISE BRIGADE makes you want to jump in the mosh pit, the Ska/Punk way for the next hour.

At 3 PM a new hour of The Swing Shift drives home the dance theme by presenting a mixtape show where we shut up and dance…mostly. I do introduce the show, and Eddie Nichols sings one line at the end of the Royal Crown Revue tune, but otherwise the show is all instrumental. Check out this powerful playlist…

The Swing Shift 114

Benny Goodman “Let’s Dance”
Artie Shaw “The Grabtown Grapple”
Brian Setzer Orchestra “Mr. Jazzer Goes Surfin'”
Tyler Pedersen “The Dig”
Glenn Miller “Tuxedo Junction”
Django Reinhardt “Oh, Lady Be Good”
Paolo Tomelieri “Esquire Bounce”
Jack’s Cats “King of The Singapore Sling”
Hot Sugar Band “Swing 41”
Lester Young “Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid”
Quincy Jones “Boogie Stop Shuffle”
Royal Crown Revue “Be Bop For Boo”
Swing Rocket “Soul Station”
Charlie Barnett “Cherokee”
Gene Krupa/Roy Eldridge “Swing Is Here”
Teddy Wilson “Liza”
Tommy Dorsey “Opus One”
Jim Parrot, Don Stiernberg “I’ll Remember April”

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM and 6 PM, Thursday at 2 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.