The PopCulteer
March 28, 2025

Your humble blogger is currently residing in “best laid plans” land, as the great computer move has hit a bit of a snag.

Yours truly was under the impression that he had all the cables handy that he needed to network a new computer with the old one and hook them up to a KVM. I had forgotten that I’d repurposed or given away some of those cables, and others would not work with the new KVM unit.

I was further mistaken in that I thought I could just run out and find them locally. This proved to be a bit futile since the small, locally-owned businesses apparently aren’t open on weekends, and Best Buy has removed everything useful in their store and now only sells refrigerators and cell phones.

So I had to order them online and some of the cables are still in transit.

Meanwhile, I have a PopCulteer column to bring my readers, and luckily something really cool has popped up.

House In The Clouds Online

On the occasion of the final week of an exhibition of Robert Singleton’s large-format paintings at The Gradient Project Space in Thomas, WV, and in advance of a talk there by the artist, Robert Singleton himself, tomorrow at 4 PM, Douglas Imbrogno has uploaded the excellent documentary, HOUSE IN THE CLOUDS: The Artistic Life of Robert Singleton to YouTube so you can watch it free.

I’m not going to imbed it here because I don’t know if he’s leaving it up for free viewing permanently, but for now, at least, you can watch it HERE.

This wonderful film was created by Doug and Bobby Lee Messer, and when I got to see it back in September, 2023, I wrote the following:

Last Sunday I was privileged to be at the World Premiere of HOUSE IN THE CLOUDS: The Artistic Life of Robert Singleton at the Clay Center in Charleston. This AmpMediaProject documentary told the life story of noted artist, Robert Singleton, and it packs quite a punch.

Filmakers Douglas Imbrogno (an old friend who is responsible for me writing this blog) and Bobby Lee Messer have crafted a truly compelling work with this film.

While I knew the name, I was not familiar with Singleton’s work or story, and I was not expecting such an emotional roller-coaster to be packed into a brisk, 60-minute film. Based on interviews with Singleton, and using several effective techniques, HOUSE IN THE CLOUDS tells a life story that includes a violent and traumatic childhood, a closeted existence as a gay man in the intolerant 1950s, his stunning success as an artist, coming to grips with his own sexuality just as AIDS was devastating his social circle, and a spiritual awakening that saw him giving end-of-life care to many people who had been shunned by their families. Throw in a 20-year dry spell where he couldn’t paint and the fact that, at 85 he’s still with us and producing incredible art once again, and you have a record of an amazing human being.

It’s a powerful film about overcoming great adversity and living an epic life.

Imbrogno and Messer tell this story through narration, Singleton’s own words, archival photographs and the ethical and judicious use of computer animation to recreate moments from his youth. HOUSE IN THE CLOUDS is brilliantly done, and my only criticism is that I think they had enough material to make a longer film…and maybe that’s a goal for the future.

To keep up with more screenings as they are scheduled, you can subscribe to the free newsletter and Substack site HERE.

It took me a few days to digest this powerful and beautiful film before I could write about it, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Now you can watch the film for yourself, and if you are so inclined, make the drive to Thomas, WV Saturday to meet the artist and hear him tell his story in person.

That is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for our regular features as we manage to provide fresh content every day while staring out the window, ,waiting for the mailman.