Today’s post has been delayed a bit thanks to the thoughtful intervention of Appalachian Power.

On this day in PopCult, exactly twenty years ago…I didn’t have a post.

I wasn’t posting at least once a day back then. However, the first week of April, 2006 was pretty interesting, so we’re going to look back at it all today. Actually, April 2 and 5 were the only days that week without a fresh post.

We had two posts on April 1, and neither was an April Fool’s joke.

We offered up a preview of an IWA East Coast show, Shoots and Ladders, which was headlined by a battle between El Drunko and Sandman, and also featured Dick Togo, Chris Hero, Mad Man Pondo, Mickie Knuckles, Juggulator,  Bull Pain, and Trik Nasty, plus others. Amazingly enough, the Fight For Fattawn show, just a few weeks ago, also featured El Drunko and Trik Nasty.

As I recall, it was a supremely entertaining show, although there was a little bit of “card subject to change” in play.

On that same day, an Animated Discussions post co-written with my now wife, Mel Larch, offered up a preview of Ice Age 2. Mel and I had continued our animation column, which had run in The Charleston Gazette since 1991, as a weekly feature in PopCult for a while.

We still revive it once in a while these days.

It is somewhat mind-blowing to realize that every movie that we reviewed for The Charleston Gazette back in our animation columnist days is at least 21 years old, and some of them are more than 35 years old.

While we miss doing the column regularly, these are some depressing days in the animation industry, with media consolidation and AI combining to threaten the possibility of making a living as an animator.

On April 3, it was time for Monday Morning Art, and I brought you this digitally-assaulted photo:

This was about ten years before I’d been diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, but at that point the disease was already advanced enough that I was exclusively producing digital art because I didn’t have enough control over my fingers to work with physical art.

Happily, I’ve regained the ability to make physical art now that I’m getting treatment.

On April 4 I posted a Song From Three Bodies that I co-produced with Spencer Elliott back in the early 1990s. This one’s bittersweet because while that was a wonderful experience, we just lost Brian Young, who was the drummer for the band late last year. A tribute video episode of RFC is in the works.

Here’s what I wrote then…

 

Three Bodies laying down on the job

As promised here, this week’s Song Of The Week is “Shingles And Tar” by Three Bodies, one of the mainstays of Radio Free Charleston. From a batch of demos co-produced by Three Bodies, Spencer Elliott, and me, this one was my baby. I contributed ideas for the backing vocals, effects, and arranged the starts and stops near the end. Despite my contributions, the song was yet another mini-masterpiece by Kris Cormandy, Brian Lucas, and Brian Young. There is a story behind the lyrics, but it’s faded from my memory over the last 16 years.

The image is taken from flyers I did for the band back in 1991. The image at left shows that, before the days when I assaulted photographs digitally with my computer, my weapons of choice were Xerox machines and Sharpees.

April 6 saw a review of a show by The No Pants Players, West Virginia’s original Improv troupe. The spirit of The NPP lives on at The Alban Arts Center with Factory Reset, featuring many former No Pants Players.

Also on April 6, I posted a short review of the MEGA Bloks Pyrates line, which was a bit of an obession of mine for a few years. I think mine are all in the attic now.

We wrapped up the week with another installment of Animated Discussions, where Mel and I previewed five new shows that were coming o Adult Swim. Of note, those five shows were Metalocalypse, Frisky Dingo, Saul of the Moon Men, Lucy-Daughter of the Devil and Assy McGee.

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that those shows are all twenty years old.

That was our look back at 20 years ago in Pop Cult. I’m gonna crawl off and feel old now.