The PopCulteer
August 15, 2025

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a month since the big Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo in Louisville. This summer has been a bit of a blur with near-constant travel punctuated by a few medical misadventures, and it’s taking me way too long to get stuff posted.

To make up for that, and since we’ve already covered the people, dioramas this year’s music video and the Bulletman tribute, this week I’m going to drop a ton of photos of toys…nothing but toys…any people captured in this pictures were purely coincidental.

And a lot of these are not going to have captions. for the most part, what you see will be obvious. I will point out a few things here and there, but I’m trying to get this posted ASAP.

Sunday night I’ll be posting the raw video footage we shot at Kentuckiana, with music replacing the audio because I don’t want to accidentally publish anybody’s private conversations.

Next week you can expect more toy content as The PopCult Toybox returns, and the week after that, this blog turns 20 years old and there will be special posts and new material to commemorate that.

But today we have a bunch of photos that, despite numbering over forty, just scratch the surface of this cool toy show, which has become one of the largest and best action figure shows in the country.

Now, let’s look at some toys, shall we?

The 12″ GI Joe

He’s my main interest in the hobby, and he was very well-represented at this show. We’re going to start with the original action figure…

How to wear crocs

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So, I gotta be honest with you. I didn’t really plan out much of a post for today.

I know that I promise you fresh content every day, and that we have regular features here in this blog and everything…but yesterday was my birthday.  I had a wonderful birthday. Mel took the day off and we just ran about and did fun stuff and overindulged in pizza and cake and ice cream. Over three hundred people sent me birthday wishes on social media. I felt loved, appreciated and grateful for my life.

And lazy…I also felt lazy. Aside from sharing links to yesterday’s post here in the blog, I didn’t do anything resembling work. I took the day off.

I’m old. I’m allowed to do that.

But I don’t want to cheat my readers, and I actually have more stuff planned for PopCult than I usually do. So you’re getting this post today.

You see, two weeks from today marks the 20th anniversary of PopCult.  To mark the occasion, the next two weeks will see the return of The PopCult Toybox and The PopCult Bookshelf, plus several photo essays from my recent travels. As we get closer to the big day you can also expect some retrospectives of past posts here, plus some tie-ins with our internet radio station, The AIR.

Tomorrow you can expect a huge photo essay of the toys for sale at The Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo, and Sunday we’ll bring you the raw footage that we shot, so you can see everything without the quick edits and jump cuts.

But for now, it’s past noon and I’m sitting here writing this post while drinking Zero Sugar Ale 8 and eating macadamia nuts.

And I figure you guys at least deserve some photos to let you know part of what you can expect in the next two weeks.

I still have more photos to share from WonderFest, over two months ago.

You can also expect a quick look at some of the new exhibits at The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum.

We finally visited The American Sign Museum in Cinncinnati. Look for photos the week after next.

While in Cincy, we encourntered a life-sized reproduction of part of the first Barbie Dream House.

That Barbie exhibit was downstairs at The Hall of Justice, seen here disguised as a mild-mannered Train Station/Museum

You can also expect photos from The Lucky Cat Museum

If you’re good, you might get to see more of the adventures of Traveling Squidward…something Mel and I do to amuse our friend, Pixie, in Liverpool.

That’s just a preview of what you can expect in PopCult.

So you can get all excited now while I start work on tomorrow’s PopCulteer.

I still can’t wrap my brain around the idea that, here in the middle of August, kids are going bakc to school. Even with that sad event, we still have cool stuff happening this week.  Summerfest returns in South Charleston, and you can read about it HERE. And there are all sorts of other mini-festivals and fairs and outdoor events all around the state. We also have other cool things happening, so let’s go for a quick tour of STUFF TO DO around the state and beyond, shall we?

As always, you should remember 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. Also, if you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future, contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky , Spoutible, Instagram or possibly Elon’s beast, if it should ever choose to forgive me.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote. Note that some links look like they shouldn’t work because they have lines through them, but that’s just a WordPress glitch, so click on them anyway. They should still work.

We are also very happy to remind you that Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

City Center Live at Slack Plaza in Charleston has announced their schedule for the summer.  You can find their schedule HERE.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.

Most Fridays and Saturdays you can find live music at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM. This weekend they have Josh Runyon  on Friday, and Ar Lewi on Saturday.

You can find live music every night at The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe. Mondays feature open mic night. The first Tuesday of every month sees the legendary Spurgie Hankins Band perform. There’s both Happy Hour music and local or touring bands on Thursday and Friday, and live bands Saturday nights.  On Sundays when there’s a new Mountain Stage, musicians from the legendary WV Public Radio show migrate to The Glass for the Post-Mountain Stage jam.

Live at The Shop in Dunbar hosts local and touring bands on most weekends, and is a nice break away from the downtown bar scene.

Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, regularly brings in local bands on weekends.

In Huntington, local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club), brings in great touring and local acts three or four nights a week.

The Wandering Wind Meadery holds several events each week, from live piano karaoke to bands to comedy to burlesque.

The multitude of breweries and distilleries that have popped up in Charleston of late bring in live musical acts as well. I tend to miss a lot of these because, being a non-drinker, they fly under my radar.

Roger Rablais hosts Songwriter’s stage at different venues around the area, often at 813 Penn, next door to Fret ‘n’ Fiddle in Saint Albans and also at The Empty Glass many Tuesday evenings. You might also find cool musical events at Route 60 Music in Barboursville and Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side. Pumzi’s looks to be beefing up their offerings in the coming weeks and months, so be sure to check that link in case we miss something. This week they have Tucker Riggleman & The Cheap Dates and Sea Scout celebrating their first anniversary. See the graphic below…

You can also visit Coal River Coffee in Saint Albans for live music in an alcohol-free environment. This Friday at 7 PM  Coal River Coffee features Minor SwingI am looking to expand this list, so please contact me through the social media sites above if you know about more alcohol-free performance venues. The Huntington Music Collective has recently started hosting all ages shows at Event Horizon.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illlnesses are still a going concern and 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. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, don’t be a jerk about it.

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

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for local events that I was able to scrounge up online…

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Both of The AIR Music Specialty programs will be brand-new Tuesday, which is once again “New Show Day” on The AIR.  Things are a little different but we still have new episodes of  Radio Free Charleston and The Swing Shift for you. 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 boatloads of replays throughout the week.

This week Radio Free Charleston combines a mixtape of recent new tunes with a newly-exhumed episode of Radio Free Charleston International from 2017 and the result is three hours of musical excellenitude.

Allow me to explain something first.  Our first hour mixtape is…me being lazy. It’s my birthday tomorrow, and I wanted to celebrate Slack and The Church of The SubGenius by paying tribute to “Bob” Dobbs, himself, and half-assing the show this week.

Normally I produce shows that are completely-assed.

But this week, since I had to perform reconstructive surgery on The Swing Shift that was supposed to debut last week, and I am, as they say, “plumb tuckered out” after a pre-birthday trip to Cinncinnati (you’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for photos, but you’ll get a tease on Thursday),  I decided to just do a mixtape for the first hour, and revive an old RFCI for hours two and three, and further cementing my laziness, this week there are no links to the artists.

You can find links to their websites by searching this website for their names, and finding previous episodes of the show on which they appear.

The reason for this?  Most weeks, inserting the links into the playlists takes twice as long as writing the accompanying post, and I’d sorta like to get this done before dinner.

Like I said…Hail “Bob” and pass the slack.

Check out this impressive playlist what’s got no links in it…

RFC V5 236

hour one
Byzantine “Kobayashi Maru”
The Settlement “Days Go By”
The M.F.B. “Big Booty Judy”
June Swoon “Play Something I Know”
Chuck Biel “Ripstaver”
J. Marinelli “Hillbilly Effigy”
Vinto Van Go “Hot Pants Boots”
Novelty Island “Foam Animals”
Golden “Gotta Let It Go”
Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess “Sour”
Novo Combo “Don’t Throw Your Love Away”
Hello June “Sometimes”
Aliza Hava “Let It Roar”
Tucker Riggleman & The Cheap Dates “Bucket and the Boot”
Buni Muni “Last Call”

hour two
The Struts “My Machine”
Anderson/Ponty Band “Owner of a Lonely Heart”
Aphrodite’s Child “You Always Stand In My Way”
ELO “Mahattan Rumble”
Snakefinger “Trashing All The Loves of History”
Die Roten Rosen “Zwei Mдdchen Aus Germany”
Dweezil Zappa “Cosmik Debris”
The Beach Boys “Vega-Tables”
Shantih Shantih “Winter in September”
Forbidden Planet “Hands Around The Throat”
Gentle Giant “The River”
Neil “My White Bicycle”
Peter Gabriel “Down The Dolce Vita”
Kate Bush “Get Out Of My House”

hour three
Agent Orange “Tearing Me Apart”
Jellyfish “The Ghost at Number One”
Klaatu “Long Live Politzania”
Jean-Michael Jarre with John Carpenter “A Question of Blood”
John Foxx “Running Across Thin Ice”
Roger Daltrey “Bitter and Twisted”
Lemmy, Phil Campbell and Rocky George “The Trooper”
Killing Joke “Euphonia”
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins “Heart Attack and Vine”
Boomtown Rats “Rat Trap”
Tanita Tikarim “Gris Gris Tails”

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, Sunday at 8 PM 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 a new episode of The Swing Shift that was supposed to be here last week, but the project file got corrupted before it was rendered, so I had to rebuild it from scratch.

This episode opens with Grafton native, Stephanie Adlington, whom you heard last week as half of A Tale of Two on Radio Free Charleston, and inspired by her tune, I devoted the entire show to the intersection of Blues and Swing Music.

You wouldn’t have Swing without The Blues, and this collection of songs proves it.

And it Swings, big time. Check out the playlist…

The Swing Shift 173

Stephanie Adlington “Bootlegger’s Blues”
Glenn Miller “St. Louis Blues March”
Bob Crosby “Honky Tonk Train Blues”
The Pasedena Swing Orchestra “Vo Do Deo Blues”
Squirrel Nut Zippers “St. Louis Cemetary Blues”
Royal Crown Revue “The Walkin’ Blues”
Stan Kenton ” Gotta Right to Sing the Blues”
Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchesta “Roll Out of This Hole”
Big Papa & The TCB “California Blues”
Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald “Learnin’ The Blues”
Swing Republic “Searchin’ The Desert For The Blues”
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy “Beggar’s Blues”
Lester Young “D.B. Blues”
Lady J And her Bada Bing Band “Believe Me When I Lie”

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 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 Thursdays and Sundays.

This week’s art was hastily scratched out on typing paper with markers and the judicious use of straight-edges and flexible curves. It’s not huge, possibly smaller than it’s displayed on a computer monitor, and it’s…

…well, it’s the interior of a building I’ll likely be telling you a lot about later. I’m pretty sure it will inspire some more thoughtfully-conceived pieces than this one in the future.

However, this piece was done in less than an hour just last night after I watched the season finale of The Gilded Age.

A hint: I was in Cinncinnati over the weekend.

If you want to see this image larger, click HERE.

Meanwhile, over in radioland, Monday beginning at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a classic episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM an also classic 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.

At 8 PM you can hear a classic episode of The Comedy Vault devoted to the twisted musical brilliance of Barnes & Barnes.

Tonight at 9 PM for the Monday Marathon we bring you ten hours of episodes of Psychedelic Shack. 

This week our Sunday Evening Video is a bit of a bonus shot of The RFC Flashback.  It’s not often that I get to drop one of our video features on the exact tenth anniversary of a really cool episode of the RFC video show, but that’s happened today. Exactly ten years ago today, I debuted an episode of Radio Free Charleston that is not slated to be re-presented in our chronological RFC Flashback order for over a year, so…since I needed something easy while I’m out of town, here we go. Let’s recap the original production notes, with a little annotation, shall we?

Radio Free Charleston‘s 210th episode, “Idaho Spud Shirt,” is a fun August treat, with a blend of different types of music and lots of our trademark mind-hurting weirdness. This week we have music from Time And Distance, Christopher Vincent from Qiet, American Murder and Chemical Lizards, plus we have animation and other stuff.

We open the show with Paul Calicoat and the crew from Route 60 Music performing a little jingle they wrote about their music shop, located in Barboursville. I would imagine that if area musicians shot video of themselves singing this jingle, and posting to the Route 60 Music Facebook page, it’d put a big smile on Paul’s face. Route 60 and Paul are still plugging away.

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This week we go back to November, 2011, for Radio Free Charleston 147, “Mighty Avengers Shirt.” This installment of our webshow featured music by Miniature Giant, Dual Core, Volt 9000 and Disturbing The Peace. We also have animation from Frank Panucci and other weirdness.

Host segments were shot at a random parking lot in Kanawha City along MacCorkle Avenue. The reason for this is lost to history.

First up in this show we had Miniature Giant, with the song “Piss and Vinegar.”  Then we went to a “Lax” meditation toon by Frank Panucci. Dual Core, the nerdcore rapper, performed “My Girlfriend’s a Hacker,” recorded at Hackercon 3.

Killink checked in from Istanbul. We then presented the music video for Volt 9000’s song “Trancers,” animated by Frank Panucci. On the way out we presented a performance from a show at The LaBelle Theater. It’s a cover of the Drowning Pool Song “Bodies” by Disturbing The Peace, joined by Bret Wood from Born of Conviction. You’ll also see Hugh Deskins from Remains Unnamed chiming in on vocals.

That was a pretty jam-packed episode of the show, when you look back at it. We had punk rock, rap, electronica, metal and lots of weird crap. And I didn’t even mention the Teaberry gum.

The PopCulteer
August 8, 2025

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m way behind with posting photos and video from last month’s Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo.

A surprise pre-birthday trip to Cinncinnati sprung up this weekend, and your humble blogger will be, by the time you read this, enjoying some cool museums in a city that we’ve never really visited much (except for a trip to the outskirts to visit a Barbie convention a few years ago).

I still have dozens of photos and loads of video to process from Kentuckiana, and I hope to have all that wrapped up by a week from Sunday, but today I’m going to bring you a dozen or so photos of some of the friends I got to see at the show. Some folks didn’t make the cut because yours truly has to deal with occasional shakiness from Myasthenia Gravis, and the photos were too blurry to use. In other cases, I had so much fun catching up with old friends that I forgot to whip the phone out to snap a picture.

Part of the reason for this photo essay is that, in the past, I have been guilty of focusing too much on the toys at the toy shows and didn’t remember to get enough pictures of humans.

For those of you who actually preferred things that way, expect a gigantic toy-only photo essay next week. There was several tons of rare, exotic and ultra-cool toys at Kentuckiana this year.

Our header image this week is a bunch of folks I don’t know, and that selfie shot of me at the top right is yet another example of better living through Temu.

But now…let us meet some Joe folks…

Spotted working security, mere weeks before his triumphant return to hardcore music in Dunbar, the man…Dana White!

Speaking “the man”…it’s the man behind Kentuckiana (and Adventure Command figures) Steve Stovall, hamming it up for the camera

Also hamming it up, as always, is Ace Allgood, who can be counted on to have the most astounding vintage items at the show.

Ace also had a very special limited edition custom figure set, and Mel just happened to catch him telling me about it right before I bought the last one he had at the show…

Brad Curry, of Bee Active Toys fame, a 3D-printing wonder!

The man behind  Mattsquatch Customs, Mat Stevenson

Legendary (and colorful) GI Joe dealer, Dean Morrison

The GI Joe Land Adventurer, Still Kung Fu Gripping after all these years

Our old Johnny West buddy, Dave Roth

Still hard at work repairing Talking GI Joes, and almost over the trauma of working on mine a few years ago, it’s Scott Wilde!

Tearle Ashby and Scott Ferguson with their incredible custom uniform sets for the show. You can catch up with their amazing work HERE.

Who’s got two thumbs, co-runs ToyLanta and has been seen playing guitar on the Radio Free Charleston video show? It’s Alex Massey!

Finally, it’s the arms and glasses of my lovely wife, the very camera-shy Mel Larch, snapping a photo of Plankton commandeering one of Greg Autore’s Ghost Tanks to send to our friend Pixie.

With that, we call a close to this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for fresh content every day here at PopCult, even when we are running so ridiculously behind schedule that we’ll probably still be sharing photos from Kentuckiana a month after the show ended.

Heck, I still have photos from June that I haven’t run here yet.

But we’ll also have all our regular features, even if I have to finish them on the road.

With your PopCulteer headed out of town for a pre-birthday trip while also being way behind schedule on bringing you images from last month’s Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo, today and tommorrow we’ll be presenting some short photo essays from that show.

Today we have the newest creation of Cindy Scott.  I first told you about Cindy a couple of years ago when we covered her diormas in depth, and this year she’s added a really impressive new display that we’ll look take a look at here.

Cindy Scott is a proud member of the Sixth Scale Collector’s Club of Ohio and she has built an amazing recreation of a WWII-era USO stage from one of Bob Hope’s legendary tours to raise the spirits of our fighting forces in the Pacific.

Hope, of course, extensively toured war zones with his USO tours, not just during World War II, but also in Korea and Vietnam.

The detail is amazing, even the things you can’t see.  Cindy built the stage herself using hobby wood, and it’s constructed exactly like a real stage of the era, with joists and braces underneath and tiny nails, pushed in rather than hammered, holding it all together.

We have a few close ups (like the newsreel cameraman seen above left) and some cool notes about the figures and accessories.

In the captions we’ll go over the details…

It’s a Pacific Theater USO stage from World War Two, with Bob Hope front and center, and loads of cool details.

Bob Hope’s USO efforts were celebrated with a Hasbro GI Joe back in 1998. The facial likeness is amazing, which I should have made more of an effort to catch on camera. The Barbie represents Frances Langford (If I remember correctly) and Hope’s manager and guitarist are historically accurate.

Another angle of this cool diorama

Another cameraman, and seated on the end of the row, John F. Kennedy (Hasbro released a GI Joe figure of him as Captainh of the PT Boat). JFK was known to have attended one of Hope’s USO shows.

Cindy built the stage herself, using designs from the era.

Some detail elements were cleverly repurposed, like this Christmas ornament horn, which became a loudspeaker.

Cindy with her latest masterpiece.

We’ll also show you a couple of shots of Cindy’s other dioramas, on display again after debuting in previous years. This log cabin is remarkable.

The level of detail in Joe’s Garage is mind-blowing. I think she’s added to this since last year.

We leave you with another shot of the garage, complete with the tool rack. Tomorrow we’ll meet some more of the people at Kentuckiana.

The 2025 West Virginia State Fair happens this weekend, and aside from knowing that it’s the 100th such State Fair and that Kansas and 38 Special are performing there Friday, my knowledge of the State Fair is pretty much non-existent. I’m not much of a State Fair (or County Fair) guy. I think they have carnival rides and cows…possibly cow rides, or cows on carnival rides, but that’s really just a guess on my part. If you have an interest in such things, go HERE for the relevant details.

That is the big thing happening here in the mountainy state this weekend.

Outside of West Virginia, even though we can’t make it this year, Monsterama is happening in Atlanta. Like I said, we can’t make it down there this year, unfortunately, but eventually we’re going to return to Atlanta and enjoy this cool horror convention that Anthony Taylor and his crew assemble each year. This year they are celebrating the films of Jack Hill (Spider Baby, The Big Doll House, Coffy) and the 100th birthday of Rod Serling. We got to hang out a bit with Anthony at Kentuckiana and I really want to go to Monsterama eventually.

If you’re in the Atlanta area, or in decent driving distance, you should check it out.  You can find more details HERE. I seriously wish we could’ve fit it into our schedule this year. They had me at the program cover (top right).

Back to the goings-on besides the state fair here in West Virginia, let’s go for a quick tour of STUFF TO DO around the state, shall we?

As always, you should remember 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. Also, if you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future, contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky , Spoutible, Instagram or possibly Elon’s beast, if it should ever choose to forgive me.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote. Note that some links look like they shouldn’t work because they have lines through them, but that’s just a WordPress glitch, so click on them anyway. They should still work.

We are also very happy to remind you that Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

City Center Live at Slack Plaza in Charleston has announced their schedule for the summer.  Events resumed this week after wisely taking the entire month of July off.  You can find their schedule HERE.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.

Most Fridays and Saturdays you can find live music at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM. This weekend they have Steve Himes on Friday, and Pete Kosky on Saturday. Sunday at 2 PM they have music from Ray + Jon.

You can find live music every night at The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe. Mondays feature open mic night. The first Tuesday of every month sees the legendary Spurgie Hankins Band perform. There’s both Happy Hour music and local or touring bands on Thursday and Friday, and live bands Saturday nights.  On Sundays when there’s a new Mountain Stage, musicians from the legendary WV Public Radio show migrate to The Glass for the Post-Mountain Stage jam.

Live at The Shop in Dunbar hosts local and touring bands on most weekends, and is a nice break away from the downtown bar scene.

Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, regularly brings in local bands on weekends.

In Huntington, local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club), brings in great touring and local acts three or four nights a week.

The Wandering Wind Meadery holds several events each week, from live piano karaoke to bands to comedy to burlesque.

The multitude of breweries and distilleries that have popped up in Charleston of late bring in live musical acts as well. I tend to miss a lot of these because, being a non-drinker, they fly under my radar.

Roger Rablais hosts Songwriter’s stage at different venues around the area, often at 813 Penn, next door to Fret ‘n’ Fiddle in Saint Albans and also at The Empty Glass many Tuesday evenings. You might also find cool musical events at Route 60 Music in Barboursville and Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side. Pumzi’s looks to be beefing up their offerings in the coming weeks and months, so be sure to check that link in case we miss something.

You can also visit Coal River Coffee in Saint Albans for live music in an alcohol-free environment. This Friday at 7 PM  Coal River Coffee features Minor SwingI am looking to expand this list, so please contact me through the social media sites above if you know about more alcohol-free performance venues. The Huntington Music Collective has recently started hosting all ages shows at Event Horizon.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illlnesses are still a going concern and 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. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, don’t be a jerk about it.

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

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for local events that I was able to scrounge up online…

Continue reading