The PopCulteer
September 6, 2019

You know what we haven’t done in a long time. We haven’t done a PopCulteer that was made up of random items, assembled hap-hazardly. How about we do that again?

It’s been a bit of a busy week for your PopCulteer, still catching up from the backlog of work that accumulated during his vacation, while working on other projects for the future, reconnecting with old friends and preparing to bring you more cool articles, video and radio.

There’s a lot of cool stuff coming up, so let’s dive in.

Metal Flooring

Well, sort of. I wanted to plug a Kickstarter campaign for Chris Ojeda, the frontman of local Metal Heroes, Byzantine. Chris is also a professional contractor, and has, along with his father, created and developed a tool to align wood flooring, so that the planks are straight and flush against one another.

There’s about a month left to go on this campaign, and it almost looks cool enough to make me want to  take up installing flooring as a hobby. The Floor Cam could be a real game-changer for the flooring industry.

Check out the video…

The Floor Cam can be ordered through the campaign, with an expected delivery date of late next year for the rust-free aluminum installation aid. Click this widget for more details on how you can get your hands on one.

Anticipating Sydney

The previously-announced second part of the special “New Wave In The 21st Century” episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat will run next week on The AIR instead of this Friday. Sydney requested an extra week to put the show together, and you just don’t turn down a request from the legendary Sydney Fileen. Instead, you can tune into The AIR at 3 PM to hear the episode of Big Electric Cat where Sydney turns out not to be a fan of the Royals. Listen at the website, or on this embedded player…

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, Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM and Thursday at Noon, exclusively on The AIR. Every Wednesday at 1 AM, we bring you three classic episodes of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, just so you can be all New Wave-y overnight.

The Gospel According To Danny and Mark

I’ve known about this for a while, but now it’s official and you can be sure that I’ll tell you more about it as the date grows nearer, but Mark Scarpelli  is turning Daniel Boyd’s cult movie, Invasion of The Space Preachers, into a musical, and they’re going to have a table read open to the public next month. Visit the Facebook page, like it, and stare at this graphic, what I done swiped from there…

A Very Plez-ant Time

Earlier this week, between doctor appointments, I met up with Douglas Imbrogno at Mea Cuppa on Charleston’s West Side. Doug was my editor for years at the Gazette and later The Gazz.com, where was responsible for the creation (and the naming of) this very blog. Doug has since struck out onto new adventures, including The Changing Climate Times Newsletter and podcast, and his personal writing depository, plus some great freelance assignments.

I’ve always been very fond of Doug, and when he said he wanted to meet up and gift me with some cool Pez dispensers, I was very happy to catch up and add more toys to what will soon be the revamped “Wall of Coolness” in Stately Radio Free Charleston Manor.

I took Doug some candy selections from our recent foray to the Boyer Candy Company, and accepted a very cool batch of Pez dispensers into the fold. We caught up on what each other has been up to lately. Doug told me about his life post-Gazette, and his upcoming projects and I filled him in on my recent travels and dealing with Myasthenia Gravis. What was a really cool surprise was that Doug had written a cool sendoff to his Pez buddies, which you can read HERE. I’ve swiped his photo of the Pez gang, but will post an update here once they are fully assimilated into the toy vault that is my home.

This weekend Doug will be at Culturefest at Pipestem, in Southern West Virginia. At the rate I’m working, he’ll probably be on stage minutes after I get this posted. You can find more details on that at their Facebook event page.

A Monster Of A Gathering

Also happening this weekend, up in Flatwoods, is the Flatwoods Monster Festival, which is just starting up. This could turn out to be a lot of fun, and I wish I found out about it sooner. Next year I’ll try to dig up more details in advance, but for now, you can visit their Facebook page.

“By God” By Liz

Liz McCormick, who as a teen was a huge help in front of and behind the camera on Radio Free Charleston’s video show, is now working for West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and turned in this report on the etymology of the phrase, “West ‘By God’ Virginia.”  It’s so cool seeing Liz doing such great work for WVPB.

Later today in PopCult.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a detailed review of a toy in this blog, so I’m going to shake off the rust and come back at you later today with a review of the new, budget-line Action Man figures, which have been available in the UK for about a year now.

That’s a sneak peek at right.

I finally got my hands on one, and will give you the lowdown on the good and bad (mostly bad) about this latest British incarnation of the original 12″ action figure.

The Great Fudge Whale

Finally, I need to share a short story and photo from the recent vacation that most of my readers are probably sick of hearing about. As you may recall, that trip was mostly to celebrate five years since Mel Larch and I got married on stage at The Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. At the time, since we sort of eloped, we did not have a wedding cake. On the way back to the hotel on the L, I proclaimed that, when we did finally have a wedding cake, it would be “Fudgie The M****r F*****g Whale!”

If you’re not familiar with Fudgie the Whale, read up on him HERE.

It took us five years to find a Carvel anywhere near anyplace we would be long enough to make the trek to get the elusive beast.

It turns out that Carvel is not as widespread as you might think, not all locations sell Fudgie, and even though you can get Carvel ice cream cakes at Kroger, the whale itself is exclusive to their own retail locations. Those, it turns out, are as scarce as hen’s teeth.

However, our recent trip took us to Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is about an hour away from Reading, Pennsylvania, which does indeed boast among its many fine dining establishments one fully-functional Carvel Ice Cream Emporium. We diverted our hotel-hopping anniversary trip to Reading, hit up the Carvel and snagged the last small Fudgie what they had in captivity, and escorted him to our hotel, as he serenaded us with his beautiful ice-cream whale songs.

Later that night, in the privacy of our room at Homewood Suites, we partook of the tail of our killer whale, and that is the tale of our quest. Here is the photographic evidence.

 

And with that, our PopCulteer is a wrap this week. Check back later today for our review of Action Man, and come back all weekend for our regular features.