PopCult

Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

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The RFC Flashback: Episode Seventy-One

Radio Free Charleston number 71, “Golden age Batman Shirt” was originally posted in May, 2009. This episode of Charleston’s local music, film, animation and weirdness program included new music from WATT4, vintage music from Hitchock Circus, a Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie, and a special appearance from IWA East Coast‘s Mad Man Pondo and a friend.

We concluded “Mark Beckner Month” with two songs from his Nashville band, Hitchcock Circus. This was a homecoming for Mark, who was a regular on the original RFC radio show as a member of Go Van Gogh and The Tunesmiths.  Mark is still making excellent music with his band, Nixon Black.

WATT4 was recorded at The Blue Parrot.  We were very lucky to score an appearance in this episode by the late Dave Brockie, also known as “Oderus Urungus” of the band, GWAR. Dave was nice enough to have recorded a couple of spots for Radio Free Charleston, and you can see them, presented in character as Oderus, in this episode of RFC. We were lucky enough to meet Dave, and he was a nice, funny and humble man who just wanted to entertain people. Big thanks to Bo Vance and Mad Man Pondo for helping make these videos happen.

You can find the original production notes HERE.

Philadelphia International Records on MIRRORBALL!

The PopCulteer
March 8, 2024

Hooray, we have the playlist for today’s new episode of MIRRORBALL on The AIR, so let’s just jump into a radio-heavy end-of-the-week post, shall we?

The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear our shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

Friday at 2 PM on The AIR, Mel Larch devotes her hour of Disco to the legendary record label, Philadelphia International. Founded by the songwriting team, Gamble & Huff, and producer Thom Bell, this label was so influential that the string-laden style of classic Disco came to be known as “The Philadelphia Sound.”

With a roster than included MFSB, Patti Labelle, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, The Three Degrees, Teddy Pendergrass and many more, Philadelphia International ruled the charts for years in the 70s and early 80s.

Their sound was so sought after that Elton John imitated it on his single, “Philadelphia Freedom,” and David Bowie was so enamoured of their sound that he recorded much of his Young Americans album at Sigma Sound Studios, which was where most of the label’s Disco hits were created.

In this hour, Mel slows down the beats per minute and cranks up the sweet soul grooves of the classic Philadelphia International sound. Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 093

MFSB and The Three Degrees “T.S.O.P.”
The Intruders “I’ll Always Love My Mama”
Dexter Wanzel “Stargazer”
The Futures “Party Time Man”
The Jones Girls “Let’s Celebrate (Sittin’ on Top of the World)”
Teddy Pendergrass “If You Know Like I Know”
Dee Dee Sharp Gamble “Easy Money”
McFadden & Whitehead “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now”
Lou Rawls “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine”
Billy Paul “Your Song”
The O’Jays “Love Train”
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes Feat. Teddy Pendergrass “The Love I Lost”
The Three Degrees “Year Of Decision”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays throughout the following week Monday at 9 AM and Tuesday at 1 PM and a mini-marathon Saturday nights at 9 PM

At 3 PM we whip out an encore of the 2022 April Fool’s episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. That was the year that Sydney Fileen decided to throw us a curveball. On realizing that this episode of her show would debut on April Fool’s Day, she also decided to bend the rules and present two hours of the goofiest New Wave music ever, in a mixtape form. Sydney opens the show with Weird Al and Barnes & Barnes, and proceeds to present genuine New Wave novelties mixed with offbeat covers, and a few parodies, recreations and ringers in the mix.

It’s all in the spirit of fun, so check out this playlist…

BEC 088

Weird Al Yankovic “Dare To Be Stupid”
Barnes & Barnes “Fish Heads”
The Vandals “National Brotherhood Week”
The Units “Bugboy”
Captain Sensible “Wot”
Cyndi Lauper “He’s So Unusual”
DEVO “Speed Racer”
Divine “You Think You’re A Man”
Tim Finn “I See Red”
Big Daddy “Once In A Lifetime”
Julie Brown “Homecoming Queen’s Got A Gun”
Big Daddy “Safety Dance”
Weird Al “You Make Me”
Neil “Hole In My Shoe”
Hazel O’Connor “EE-I-ADDIO”
Martini Ranch “How Does The Laboring Man…”
Mystery Music
Wall of Voodoo “Exercise”
Violent Femmes/The Dickeies “Eep Op Ork Ah Ah”
Lene Lovich “I Think We’re Alone Now”
Laibach “Sympathy For The Devil”
Little Nell “Beauty Queen”
Neil “Lentil Nightmare”
Nina Hagen Band “TV Glotzer”
Robert Fripp “You Burn Me Up”
The Stranglers “Old Codger”
Celia & The Mutations “Mean To Me”
The Bad Shepards “White Riot”
Big Daddy “Whip It”
The Dickies “If Stuart Could Talk”
Oingo Boing “Goodbye Goodbye”

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

That’s what’s new on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for our regular features every day.

Ten Years Ago In PopCult: Previewing JoeLanta

When your PopCulteer gets buried under outside deadlines and commitments, it’s handy to have nearly eighteen year’s worth of blog archives to plunder. Today is one of the days when I need to do that. We’re going back ten years, to a post that included a preview of the JoeLanta toy convention that Mel and I were heading to that year. It was only our second time there, but in the years since we’ve made it to most of them, and when JoeLanta became ToyLanta, we went to that when we could make our schedules work.

We’re missing ToyLanta this year, but it happens in just a couple of weeks, so if you can make it to Atlanta on the weekend of March 22, head on over for one of the biggest toy conventions in the country. You can find all the details at their website.

But now, go back in time ten years with me, as we relive edited highlights of a post from March 7, 2014…

The PopCulteer
March 7, 2014

Next week your PopCulteer is going on a big road trip, so this week we’re going to clear the decks and drop in a whole bunch of short, random items.

Joelanta

The main part of the aforementioned road trip sees us heading to Atlanta where for the second year in a row, I will be one of the many guests at the Joelanta convention, a gathering for fans of the original GI Joe, who turns fifty this year. I made a pretty big deal out of it last year, when I got to attend for the first time.  New for 2014 is the simultaneous Great Atlanta Toy Convention, which will be happening at the same time and location March 15 & 16 at Marriott Century City right off Interstate 85 in Atlanta.

I’m really looking forward to this since it’s my second trip to a big GI Joe convention and this year, if our technology holds up, we will be sort of live blogging from Atlanta.

That will also include telling you about “The Walking Dead” day trip that we’re taking to the city where they filmed the Woodbury sequences. If all goes as planned, we will at least have a photo essay of that in next week’s PopCulteer. And if everything goes perfectly, I will return from Atlanta with a Bulletman action figure. That’s him at the left.

You can expect an overload of coverage of our Atlanta trip in PopCult over the next two weeks. I have cobbled together a Frankensteined laptop that should give me full access to PopCult and social media while we’re down there.  If all goes well, we will be bringing you video of panels, photo essays, highlights of the dealer’s tables and dioramas and music from the band, Radio Cult.

 Radio Free Charleston

Don’t let all this toy talk give you the idea that we are neglecting Radio Free Charleston. We will deliver episode 197 on Monday and we have an epic lineup of musicians in store. The plan is to bring you Dina Hornbaker, recorded at Third Eye Cabaret, plus Project Biscotti and Jordan Searls, recorded at the rock and roll theater at Kanawha Players last week. We don’t want to jinx it, but if all goes well Friday night we will also be bringing you the return of two musical acts who haven’t been on Radio Free Charleston for more than five years.

Direct TV Diaries, Part 3

It’s been two months since I broke loose from the shackles of Suddenlink and switched to DirectTV. I am still paying seventy dollars less per month. I am still getting a much superior high-definition signal and many, many, many more channels.

However, I have to be honest. I have had two outages due to snow. Each one was resolved in five minutes after the snow was knocked off the satellite dish. Meanwhile, my friends who still have Suddenlink have reported multiple outages that lasted several hours.

I sort of hate that I’m sounding so much like a shill for DirectTV. To be honest, I’m sort of angry at myself for not making the switch years ago when Suddenlink started slipping in hefty price hikes at least twice a year. I now get every channel on every television. I don’t have to pay a huge amount of money for extra high definition receivers and I don’t have to see those godawful locally produced cable commercials.

This honeymoon shows no sign of ending. 

That’s it for this week’s PopCulteer. Check back over the weekend and all next week for all our regular features, plus a bunch of reports from the road.

Updates for this post: JoeLanta became ToyLanta (which as mentioned above is just a couple of weeks away), but a couple of years ago, JoeLanta was spun off into a separate show, which will happen in October this year. Radio Cult still plays at both shows. Radio Free Charleston jumped back to radio on The AIR, and can be heard every Tuesday, with links right here in PopCult.  I am still with DirecTV, and am happy with the service, but may switch at some point if a less expensive option presents itself.  Suddenlink has become Optimum, but they show no signs of ever being a less expensive option. 

Marching Into STUFF TO DO

I‘m digging into the big infotainment pile early this week for a new batch of STUFF TO DO in and around the Charleston/Huntington WV area (and beyond) this weekend.

 As I have been copying and pasting of late, this a good time to remind you that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  Unfortunately, I’m writing this early and they’re posting who’s playing late, so you’ll just have to go find out for yourself who they got this week.

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this week  to tell you about. Nolan Collins will be playing every Wednesday in March at 9 PM. Thursday at 5:30 PM the Helping Hour with Swingstein & Robin makes the world a better place with music. Friday Tim Courts plays during happy hour.  Sunday at 10 PM it’s the always-hapnin’ Post Mountain Stage Jam, hosted by The Carpenter Ants.  You can check below for the graphics for other cool weekend shows at The Empty Glass.

Please remember that the pandemic is still not entirely over yet. It’s a going concern with the ‘rona surging again. And now there are seasonal allergies, the flu, previously-eradicated diseases coming back, lingering and rabid legislators, fearsome and sarcastic street bunnies and other damned good reasons to be careful. 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.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

If you’re up for going out, here are a few suggestions for the weekend, roughly in order…

Continue reading

New Music From Unmanned and Dinosaur Burps, Plus A Personal Playlist For Budget Tapes & Records

Tuesday always means cool new stuff on The AIR.  We have new episodes of  Radio Free Charleston and The Swing Shift.  To listen to The AIR, 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 found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with tons of replays throughout the week.

Our first hour is our usual collection of cool local, independent and brand-new music. We open with brand new music from Unmanned, from their latest album, “As The Beacon Stands Aflame,” which was just released a few days go.

The remainder of our first hour has new music from Dinosaur Burps, Disco Risque, Andy Prieboy, The Paranoid Style, James McCartney, Tucker Riggleman & The Cheap Dates and more cool tunes to which you may well groove.

Our second and third hours are also new, but they are also an extended tribute to Budget Tapes & Records, which just closed Sunday. These two hours consist entirely of music that I purchased at Budget over the years, beginning with a track from the very first album I bought there 51 years ago.  It’s my personal playlist of music I bought at Budget.

In between, I talk about the records, who sold them to me, and which location of Budget I went to to purchase them (a long time ago they had three stores). The problem is, as I went along with assembling the show, I realized that it’s going to take more than two hours, so I’m doing this again next week. This little exercise stirred up an awful lot of wonderful memories.

I also want to recommend my post from Friday, and a great entry by Douglas Imbrogno at WestVirginiaVille that collects Doug’s memories of Budget, along with those of Stephen Schmidt, of Astrodot fame. For the unintiated, this is a good way to catch up on the history of Budget. Also, hiding behind a paywall, is a great article by Jason “Roadblock” Robinson at Coal Valley News.

The links in the first hour of the playlist will take you to the pages where you can learn more about each artist and buy their music or find out where to see them (where available)…

RFC V5 166

Unmanned “Light The Beacons”
Dinosaur Burps “Driftwood”
Strawfyssh  “Beautiful”
Lords of Atlantis “Chariots of the Gods”
Disco Risque “Drawing Blood Pt. 2”
Andy Prieboy “Anyone But You”
Tucker Riggleman & The Cheap Dates “Virtue”
Tilting At Windmills “What You Do”
Slate Dump “Feral and Unobtainable”
The Paranoid Style “Are You Loathsome Tonight”
Novelty Island “Word Art”
IDKHOW  “Downside”
Strawfyssh  “New Frontiers”
Shirley Bassey “Slave To The Rhythm”
Weird Al Yankovic “My Bologna”

hour two
Monty Python “Spam”
Frank Zappa “Cosmik Debris”
The Beatles “I Am The Walrus”
YES “Heart of the Sunrise”
DEVO “Jocko Homo”
Kate Bush “Wuthering Heights”
XTC “Generals and Majors”
Lene Lovich “Wonderful One”
Split Enz “Nobody Takes Me Seriously”
Elvis Costello “Five Gears In Reverse”
The Clash “Something About England”
Siouxsie And The Banshees “Dear Prudence”

hour three
The Who “Music Must Change”
Pete Townshend “Empty Glass”
Marianne Faithful “Why’d Ya Do It”
Cheap Trick “Dream Police”
Kansas “People of the South Wind”
John Lennon “Starting Over”
Paul McCartney “On The Way”
George Harrison “Not Guilty”
Ringo Starr “Attention”
Yoko Ono “No No No”
The Stranglers “Just Like Nothing On Earth”
Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive “Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid”
Mark Davis “Water Come To Me Eye”

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 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 classic 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 last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM we offer up another new mixtape episode of The Swing Shift.  This is the second of what has been expanded to become a four-week dive into Boogie Woogie and its essential contribution to the success of Swing Music.  The reason for the expansion to four episodes is also the reason this is another mixtape edition. Yours truly wore his voice out recording this week’s RFC, and therefore will be recording The Swing Shift 155 early Tuesday morning, after this column goes live.

(UPDATE: 3-4-2024  10:10 AM EST:  Here is the playlist for today’s new episode of The Swing Shift)

The Swing Shift 155

Lester Young “Boogie Woogie (I May Be Wrong)”
Hazel Scott Brown “Boogie Woogie”
The Rosenberg Trio “Guitar Boogie”
Steve Howe “Cactus Boogie”
Tyler Pedersen “T-Boneasuarus”
Jack’s Cats “Phil’s Boogie”
Louis Jordan “Choo Choo Ch-Boogie”
Quincy Jones “Boogie Stop Shuffle”
Earl “Fatha” Hines “Boogie Woogie On St. Louis Blues”
Count Basie & His Orchestra “One O’Clock Boogie”
Pete Ruggalo “Good Evening Friends Boogie”
Gene Krupa Orchestra “Boogie Blues”
Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra “Andy’s Boogie”
Woody Herman “Indian Boogie Woogie”
Nat King Cole “Windy City Boogie Woogie”
Sir Jay & His Orchestra “T-Bone Boogie”
Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Peter Muller, Dani Gugolz “Rhythm Boogie’
Harry James “Back Beat Boogie”
Mondo Exotica “Elephant Boogie”
National Radio Station “Plantation Boogie”
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy “The Boogie Jumper”
Cab Calloway “The Calloway Boogie”

Sadly, that means I don’t have a playlist to share, but rest assured, it’s going to Swing, not like the dickens, but more like the the Boogie Woogie Beat.

 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.

Monday Morning Art: Wostem

This week’s art is a watercolor/acrylic hybrid study, painted on paper for pens.

This piece, inspired by several photos I took on different platforms of Chicago’s “L” last December, is a baby step toward incorporating Edward Hopper-style light, shadow and composition into a painting with a more surreal theme and subtext. If I take this to canvas, I’ll probably make it even weirder. Hopefully a little less sloppy with the signage, too.

As it is, it’s a bit subtle in the mind-hurting weirdness, and maybe a little heavy on the Hopper.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Over in radioland, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you encores of a recent episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM 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. 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. All times listed are Eastern, so if you’re in another timezone, adjust accordingly.

At 8 PM you can hear an hour of stand up from Lewis Black, on a recent episode of The Comedy Vault.

Tonight at 9 PM the Monday Marathon and Sydney Fileen present ten hours of New Wave Extended Dance Mixes on Sydney’s Big Electric Cat.

Sunday Evening Video: Recalling A Recent Trip

This week I thought it might be fun to revisit the video of a crazy trip I made just about half a year ago.

The reason for the recycled video is two-fold: First, I keep running into people who I know would have enjoyed it, but who, for whatever reason, missed it. Second, I had other stuff pop up this weekend, and it was easier to do this than to find or make a new video.

So…IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…above you see the video of the epic road trip your humble blogger took over his birthday weekend last August. In just under half an hour I take you from Dunbar to Caryville, Tennesee, to Calhoun, Georgia, into Atlanta for JoeLanta, back up to Richmond, Kentucky and then on to Columbus, Ohio for PowerCon and MEGO Meet.

You’ll get to see your PopCulteer go through several wardrobe changes (the trip took five days), a few different hats and glasses, and astute viewers ought to be able to see where  my Myasthenia Gravis flared up and made me all squinty-eyed.

It was a fun trip, but we’ll never do another like it again. 1,200 miles on the road in five days is just too much. By the time we hit PowerCon we were basically DOA and only lasted a couple of hours. Cramming this much into one long weekend basically meant that everything was a blur and by the end, we weren’t sure what was real and what was hallucinated.

Although, hearing Television’s “Marquee Moon” playing in Buc-ee’s definitely did happen. I got it on video.

So if you have the time, watch as yours truly has fun with toys and gets into some interesting misadventures.

The RFC Flashback: Episode Seventy

As we mentioned last week, May, 2009, was “Mark Beckner Month” on Radio Free Charleston. This edition of your local music, film, animation and art webcast was jam-packed with music and other short bits of coolness. The first tune is from Barebones, the accapella group who debuted on RFC just a few weeks before this episode, plus we continued “Mark Beckner Month” with a couple of performances that feature Mark: one solo, and one supporting his brother Stephen while jamming on an old Go Van Gogh tune.

It’s a little bittersweet because,  in addition to Mark, and Alan and Brian Young, Kai Haynes, who we lost just a few weeks ago, plays bass on that end-credits song.

As if the music weren’t enough, we also had a 100-second art show, this time showcasing the work of Leia Bell, a promo clip for “Viva le Vaudeville,” and the debut of “A Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie.”

It was a magical show, and you can read the original production notes HERE.

Goodbye To Budget Tapes & Records

The PopCulteer
March 1, 2024

Melanie and I ran to Budget Tapes & Records yesterday after she got off work. We sort of had to.

Budget, a Charleston landmark and icon for 52 years suddenly announced the “retirement” of the store…and owners, Dave Pope and Priscella Pope, late Tuesday night. Most folks heard about it Wednesday morning, and while we couldn’t make it up that day, tons of folks showed up to bid farewell to one of the coolest retail establishments to ever exist in the Capitol City.

PopCult has mentioned Budget countless times. Seriously, if you go to the search window on this page and type in “Budget Tapes & Records” it’ll bring up seven pages worth of posts, dating back to our second month as a blog. I’d plug them for Record Store Day, recommend them in The PopCult Gift Guide, and back in 2012, we even recorded host segments and the band, Farnsworth, performing at their forthieth anniversary for an episode of the Radio FreeCharleston video show…

Hell, I even recorded a remarkably bizarre radio commercial for them back in 1989…

 

Budget has been a huge part of my life, Melanie’s too. Pretty much anybody who grew up or spent time in Charleston has fond memories of the place.

We popped in to discover a crammed parking lot, and a store that was jammed with more people than we’ve ever seen there, even on Record Store Day. Much of the inventory is already gone, but there were still some good deals to be found. And they’re getting in one last shipment today.

John Nelson, in his natural environment.

So we felt that we had to go back one last time. We got to see John Nelson, who’s worked at the store for 48 years, and who sold me my first DEVO, Kate Bush, Stranglers, Monty Python, Lene Lovich, Clash, Elvis Costello and YES albums. John was swamped, dealing with the massive line of customers who’d come for one last visit.

John has the uncanny ability to remember the musical tastes of every single person who ever walked into Budget. You could walk in after having been away five or ten years, and he’d greet you with “Hey, bro, have you heard the new (your favorite band) album?” I’m going to miss that. I may have to go bug him at home.

I felt a little sadness, but more than that, I felt a sense of gratitude that I had such a wonderful place in my life. There was something joyous about seeing the store so busy and thriving, at least for a few more days.

To be honest, I have been a little surprised that they lasted this long. We simply live in a different world now.

My first visit to Budget was 51 years ago. I was ten, and I wanted a Monty Python album that I’d seen advertised in National Lampoon (I was pretty hip for a ten-year-old). I’d been a rabid fan since they’d run the show on WMUL two years earlier (don’t believe the official timeline…Python aired in the US before 1973), and hadn’t been able to find the album at Hecks.

So I managed to talk my dad into taking me to Budget, and not only did I find the Python album, it was in the cutout bin, so it didn’t cost as much as I thought it would.

That is the first of many memories of Budget that are key to what made me who I am.

I discovered Undergound Comix at Budget, and until they stopped selling them, I picked up The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Zap, Yellow Dog and other titles that somehow managed to infuse a counter-culture sensibility into my brain without ever fostering within me the desire to drink or do drugs.

I bought my first rock album there (Frank Zappa’s Apostrophe), I bought The Rutles album there, and that led to me becoming a rabid Beatles fan. I started out as a comedy nerd, and got the Zappa album because of “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow,” but the music on The Rutles converted me into a music nerd, and that, as they say, is all she wrote.

At one point Budget had three locations, in Kanawha City, of course, but also in the Daniel Boone Hotel on Capitol Street, and in Cross Lanes. John was managing the Cross Lanes shop when I learned to drive, and he tracked down the debut albums by DEVO and Kate Bush for me there back in 1978.

I went to the Capitol Steet location so often that, once in the span of about two years, I ran into the band, Molly Hatchet, about six times when they were doing signings. They’d recognize me, and assumed I was a fan (which, I wasn’t. I was never into the whole Southern Rock thing), but to kill time we’d sit around and talk about the Frank Frazetta paintings they used as album covers and stuff like old EC comics. That might have been where I gained my immunity to being starstruck. They were just guys who played music and liked cool stuff.

One of my best friends, the late Johnny Rock, worked at Budget back in the 90s. In 2017, just days after Lee Harrah’s mother passed away, I’d arranged to take Lee out to lunch, just to see how he was doing. That morning Johnny, who had been in very poor health for sometime himself,  posted on Facebook that he wanted to go out and just do something. I messaged him immediately and asked if he wanted to join me and Lee for lunch.

The timing was perfect. I picked up Johnny and he was decked out head-to-toe in brand-new gear from his favorite football team, Chelsea. Johnny was a bigger anglophile than I am, to the point of watching soccer regularly. He was beaming. We were going out and he was going to help Lee. Lee was delighted to see Johnny, and helping Johnny made Lee feel better. After lunch at the China Buffet in Kanawha City we made a stop at Budget Tapes & Records. It was glorious. We all got to see our old friend John Nelson and everybody there treated Johnny like the rock star that he was born to be.

This was just a very special day, and Budget was a big part of that.

Like I said, the world has changed. Vinyl records and cassettes gave way to CDs, Budget diversified into clothing, smoking accessories and later, adult recreational items, and then the internet happened.

Before the recent and surprising resurgence of vinyl, I’m sure that Budget relied more on the non-music segments of the store to stay in business. While vinyl probably helped revive their music sales, folks going online to buy clothes, adult videos, various and sundry dildewy implements and smoking accessories cannot have been good for business.

Recent developments in Kanawha City, with cannabis dispenaries that sell smoking accessories opening every two or four blocks, and with the perpetual construction and deconstruction of MacCorkle Avenue making it vastly more difficult to patronize the businesses there, something had to give.

And sadly, it was Budget Tapes & Records.

It’s a shame that a business that managed to survive the Reagan-era headshop crackdown, the Clinton-era music censorship, a water crisis, digital music downloads and four years of Trump was finally done in by piss-poor city planning that saw MacCorkle trapped in what now appears to be a permanent cycle of “pave the road, dig up the road, repeat.”

I hope that, when the remainder of Budget gets auctioned off after they close their doors on Sunday, that somebody rescues that recently-restored sign and donates it to the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

It was fitting that, as we prepared to check out, John ran over and asked Mel, “Hey, have you heard the new Ann Wilson album? You can have the CD for five bucks!” It was vintage John Nelson, and of course, Mel wanted that CD.

Thank you John, and Dave and Priscella and Mike and everyone who was ever part of Budget Tapes & Records.

Here’s some photos…

One last time entering Budget.

There was something sort of uplifting seeing so many people show up to bid their farewells.

John Nelson, Elvis, and Dave Pope, behind the counter.

That bulletin board that was vital to the local music scene.

Here there be monster…ous dildos.

My mom thought these were ‘fancy coffepots.”

I don’t indulge,but this even impressed me.

If only it had been like this every day.

One last desturated glance back. Mr. Marley looks on. 

And that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for all our regular features, with fresh content every day.

Green STUFF TO DO This Weekend

This week we need to bend the boilerplate a little for a new batch of STUFF TO DO in and around the Charleston/Huntington WV area (and beyond) this weekend, because before we get to the usual coolness, it’s time for a big annual event in Charleston.

Today we’re going to cover The Celtic Calling, which actually started yesterday. The 8th Celtic Calling Gathering is taking place downtown and around Charleston WV from last night until Sunday.

This celebration of all things Celtic has become an annual tradition here in Charleston.  If you can, come out to enjoy this immersion into Celtic culture.

Many of the events are free, and it’s a way better way to celebrate the home countries of many Appalachians than green beer and leprechauns.

Here’s The Schedule:

Thursday, February 29th
9 – 7.30pm: Children’s Craft and Story Book Activities – 4th Floor, Kanawha County Public Library, 123 Capitol Street – FREE.

Noon – 1pm: Celtic Poetry Sharing and Workshop with James Cochran – Kanawha County Public Library: 123 Capitol Street. – FREE.

*5.30-7.30pm: Celtic Open Mic/Jam: Celtic musicians can request a time slot in advance by contacting pepstein52@gmail.com or 304.343.5074 – All tips donated to Celtic Calling. The Empty Glass, 410 Elizabeth St. – FREE.

7.30pm: Film: ‘Let the Wrong One In’ – ‘Let The Wrong One In’, an Irish horror comedy. Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF, 230 Capitol Street — Admission – $10 Adults, $5 Students. Tickets in advance at: https://www.wviff.org/floraleeharkcohen/

Friday, March 1st
9 – 4pm: Children’s Craft and Story Book Activities – 4th Floor, Kanawha County Public Library, 123 Capitol Street – FREE.

5pm: Film – ‘Let The Wrong One In’, an Irish horror comedy. Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF, 230 Capitol Street — Admission – $10 Adults, $5 Students. Tickets in advance at: https://www.wviff.org/floraleeharkcohen/

6 – 10 pm: Beni Kedem Highlanders Tartan Ball 2023, Bedi Kedem Temple, 100 Quarrier St, Charleston, WV 25301. Admission – $50 Call Shrine for Tickets: Phone: (304) 343-9405

*7-10pm: 7-10pm: Celtic Ceilidh – Scottish Country Dancing – Music by St Albans Scottish Fiddle Orchestra. Kanawha United Presbyterian Church, Fellowship Hall, in rear of Church, 1009 Virginia Street East, or enter adjacent Parking from Kanawha Boulevard – Admission – $5-10; Children under 10 Free.

7 30- 9 30pm: Dave Haas and Friends – Taylor Books, 226 Capitol Street, Charleston, WV 25301 – FREE

Saturday March 2nd
9am: Celtic Calling 5K Kilt Run and 2K Walk
Spring Hill Cemetery, 1555 Farnsworth Drive –

Downtown Charleston Venues: All Events FREE unless indicated:

4pm: Celtic Calling Parade- Lee Street Triangle to Kanawha Blvd – 3 Pipe Bands, Dancers, Loch Ness Monster, St Patrick, Unicorns, and more.

*10am- 3 45pm: Celtic Calling Village – City Center at Slack Plaza, 169, Summers Street. including:
Clan Tents, Craft Vendors, Food Trucks Children’s Crafts and Games,
– Children’s Mini Highland Games (Age sections 5-8 and 9-12)
12:15pm – Toss the Sheaf – t-shirt prizes
1:15pm – Toss the Caber – t-shirt prizes
2:15pm – Tug O’ War – For all Children to participate in.

Music and Dance Stage
Times are approximate.
10 30am: Opening Music
10.45am: Lincoln County Cloggers
11 15am: Kinnfolk
12 15pm : Savanna Brown, Scottish Dance/Bagpipes, Kanawha Valley Pipes And Drums
1pm: Crowning of Chieftain, Queen and Court – Who will wear the crowns, and win a prize package of Gift Certificates, Celtic Calling T-shirts, Tickets to the FOOTMAD, ‘Daimh’ Concert. Wear your best Celtic Garb, sections for the young ones as well. Contest judged by Celtic Calling Board Trustees.
1 20pm: Lincoln County Cloggers
1 50pm: West Virginia Highlanders Pipe and Drum
2 15pm: Childrens Tug O’War in front of Stage.
2 30pm: Celtic Calling Dog Show – All breeds welcome. Awards for best Celtic Breeds, Fancy Dress (best Celtic garb), Red Head and more
3pm:Kinnfolk

Kanawha County Public Library: 123 Capitol Street.
9 – 4.30pm: Children’s Craft and Story Book Activities. Making Irish Badges – 4th Floor
10- 11 30am: Ireland- A Travelogue and International Discussion- Andy Gallagher
Noon – Elementary Age Children Dance Workshop , with Appalachian Lads and Lassies, 4th Floor.
2-3 30pm: Celtic Container Gardening with Kanawha County Extension Master Gardener Program
3pm: Celtic Storytime: Read Along with Ricky the Red Bearded Dragon

Rock City Cake Company: 205 Capitol Street.
1130 – 12 30am: Aubrey Cale – Harp Performance, Q&A, ‘petting zoo’.
1- 2 30pm: Tim and Maggie share Different Tunes and Instruments in the Celtic Tradition
3pm : Almost Heaven Dulcimer Club
5pm: Appalachian Lads and Lassies, Scottish and Irish Dance Performance

Sam’s Uptown Cafe, 28 Capitol Street
11 30-2pm: Legendary Celtic Brunch

Short Story Brewing Charleston: 186 Summers St
12.30pm: George Daugherty Tall Tales Contest—Short Story Brewing
5.30pm: Father Son & Friends at Short Story Brewing Charleston
8.30pm: Father Son & Friends –

5-7pm: The Charleston Rogues – World’s Greatest Happy Hour at the The Blue Parrot, 14 ½ Capitol Street – $5

7 30pm: FOOTMAD presents: Dàimh from Scotland in Concert. Capitol Theater, Resurrection Church., Ticket information: FOOTMAD.org or Info: 304-729-4382

7:30-9:30pm: An evening with Tim and Maggie – Music – Taylor Books, 226 Capitol Street, Charleston, WV 25301 – FREE.

10 pm: Traditional Music Session hosted by Kinnfolk – Adelphia Sports Bar & Grille, 218 Capitol St. -FREE.

Sunday March 3rd
11am: Kirkin of the Tartans, Kanawha United Presbyterian Church, 1009 Virginia Street.

11 30-2pm.: Celtic Brunch – Sam’s Uptown Cafe, 28 Capitol Street

Noon – 4.30pm: Children’s Craft and Story Book Activities – 4th Floor, Kanawha County Public Library, 123 Capitol Street – FREE.

1-3pm: Celtic Calling Highlander at Rock City Cake Company March 3rd -‘Paint a Highlander’ by Alto Design Paint Party & Craft Classes, Rock City Cake Company: 205 Capitol Street. – $35

2 pm: Team Irish Road Bowling at KSF – Registration from 1 30pm- Kanawha State Forest – FREE.

2pm: Film – ‘Let The Wrong One In’, an Irish horror comedy. Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF, 230 Capitol Street — Admission – $10 Adults, $5 Students. Tickets in advance at: https://www.wviff.org/floraleeharkcohen/

4pm: Celtic Readers Theatre–5 plays , Stage Readings of 5 Top Playwright Competition Entries – Short Story Brewing: 186 Summers St

So go get all geared up and ready for when Saint Patrick’s Day in a couple of weeks.

As I have been copying and pasting of late, this a good time to remind you that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  Friday it’s Dave Haas and Friends, as part of a weekend tie-in with Celtic Calling. Saturday Tim & Maggie take the stage at the beloved bookstore/cafe/art gallery.

RFC faves, Golden, will be at Louie’s Loungeat Mardi Gras Casino Saturday at 8 PM.

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this week  to tell you about. Thursday at 5:30 PM the Helping Hour with Swingstein & Robin turns into a Celtic open mic. Friday Tim Courts plays during happy hour.   You can check below for the graphics for other cool weekend shows at The Empty Glass.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet. It’s still a going concern with the ‘rona surging again. And now there are seasonal allergies, the flu, turtles announcing their retirement, grumpy Leprachauns, tp-dancing street squids and other damned good reasons to be careful. 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.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

If you’re up for going out, here are a few suggestions for the weekend, roughly in order…

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