The PopCulteer
May 7, 2021

So yesterday I recommended a couple of weekend shows here in Charleston. I am ready to start doing that again, but only one or two each week, and I’m going to badger you about getting vaccinated before you go to any live indoor shows. Get used to it. I’m still a little uneasy about it, but I also want to see the local music scene survive the pandemic. I’m still a few weeks away from being able to go out safely because I have to make sure my vaccinations work with the MG meds I have to take.

I do have another health note: Of late, I have been limiting my time spent on social media…primarily Facebook. This has been a mental-health preservation move on my part. I have a lot of friends across a wide political spectrum, and it’s not good for me to see proof that a large number of them, leaning a bit in one direction of that particular spectrum, are pretty freaking stupid.

I have been saying for years that we have a mental health crisis in this country, and the mass delusion of a large group of people, who are showing definite signs of cognitive dissonance and cult-like behavior, is distressing. So basically, I get on Facebook, share my links to this blog, and get off before another of my friends is foolish enough to think that it’s a good idea to tell me…a professional writer…that I do not know what a “fact” is because I call the former president and his horde “terrorists.”

See, I watched that terror attack perpetuated by cult followers devoted to the Big Lie live on TV on January 6, and no amount of amateur gaslighting by morons is going to convince me that I didn’t.

I will not hesitate to point out to any member of the military, be they active, retired, abled, disabled, decorated or running for office that they are betraying their sacred oath to defend Democracy if they support the former president and his red hat brownshirt mob. That is not an opinion. It’s a fact.

So it’s easier to stay off of Facebook because it’s polluted with crap like that, and also idiots who think that Biden is both weak and feeble, but somehow strong enough to storm their house and take away their surrogate penis guns. I’ll spend more time there when those folks take a Valium and calm the hell down.  Right now it’s like sticking your head in a woodchipper.

I’m spending more time on Twitter, where I only follow a couple hundred people, mostly from the worlds of art, wrestling and comics, and just block anyone if they piss me off. I’m also more active on Instagram, because it’s fun to look at purty pitchers. Feel free to look me up in those places, if you don’t want to talk politics.

In More Pleasant News, Welcome to 1981!

We’ve got a new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat Friday afternoon on  The AIR , PopCult’s sister radio station.  It’s part of our afternoon music specialty programs.You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player at the top right column of this blog.

At 3 PM, Sydney Fileen treats us to another mixtape look at a specific year of the New Wave era. This time it’s 1981. This was the year that saw debut albums by The Go Gos, Soft Cell, The Human League, Depeche Mode, Oingo Boingo, Men At Work and many others. 1981 also brought us memorable New Wave albums from Ultravox, The Stranglers, Souixsie and The Banshees,and more.

1981 was a big year for cool music. The birth of MTV didn’t hurt matters any either. Sydney has assembled a two-hour highlight reel of year New Wave burst onto the charts en masse.

Check out the playlist here…

BEC 071

Adam & The Ants “Stand And Deliver”
Ultravox “Rage In Eden”
Siouxsie and the Banshees “Spellbound”
Oingo Boingo “Imposter”
Men At Work “Who Can It Be Now”
DEVO “Beautiful World”
Bow Wow Wow “Golly! Golly! Go Buddy!”
Depeche Mode “Photographic”
Debbie Harry “The Jam Was Moving”
Bill Nelson “Living In My Limousine”
Lene Lovich “Cat’s Away”
Soft Cell “Memorabilia”
Heaven 17 “Penthouse and Pavement”
Human League “Don’t You Want Me Baby (extended mix)”
The Stranglers “Let Me Introduce You To The Family”
The Jam “Absolute Beginners”
The Selector “Bristol and Miami”
Madness “Shut Up”
The Beat “The Limits We Set”
The Specials “Ghost Town”
The Go Gos “Our Lips Are Sealed”
The Clash “This Is Radio Clash”
Tom Tom Club “Genius Of Love”
Split Enz “One Step Ahead”
Polyrock “Love Song”
Klaus Nomi “Nomi Song”
Echo & The Bunnymen “Show of Strength”
Toyah “Marionette”

As Sydney says in her intro, “1981 was the year that New Wave began to exert it’s commercial muscle, as a wave of new artists stormed the charts and captured the imagination of mainstream music fans.”

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. You can also hear select  classic episodes of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat as part of a mini-marathon Sundays at 10 AM.