The PopCulteer
June 6, 2025

The reason this is not “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” is because I’m still doing it.

If you’ve been wondering where our regular features, like a new RFC or STUFF TO DO have been this week, well…I’m writing this in Chicago. Last Saturday we were in Louisville, for WonderFest. The original plan was to go to Lexington for shopping after WonderFest and then drive home Sunday.

However, Mel got invited to attend a tech rehearsal at Steppenwolf Theater the following Tuesday…in Chicago, so plans were changed. I cranked out ten days worth of PopCult posts and scheduled marathons on The AIR, and had them all done by May 29th.

Saturday we got to see Greg Nicotero and Joe Alves talk about a little project that Alves was in charge of fifty years ago…building Bruce The Shark, from JAWS,, and then we high-tailed it straight home Saturday night, hopped the Amtrak Cardinal to Chicago Sunday evening, and we are still enjoying the holy heck out of the City of Wind.

Tuesday night we got to see part of a very complicated tech rehearsal for a play called You Will Get Sick, starring one of Mel’s acting heroes, Amy Morton.

In fact, we were to go back to Steppenwolf Thursday night to see the first preview performance of You Will Get Sick, but it was postponed, so we will see it Friday night, and because I now have time to blog from the road, you fine folks are getting a PopCulteer this week.  The tech rehearsal was only for part of the show, so I only have a tiny idea of what to expect. I’m sure it’ll be incredible, and I’ll likely write a little abouut it next week, but since it’s a preview performance, I won’t be doing a full review.

I will be sharing some photo essays over the next week, in addition to our regular features (including a new Radio Free Charleston, loaded with new music).

And speaking of photos…how about we share a few of them from the trip so far?

Expect a bunch of photos of cool people and custom models from WonderFest

Dennis Prince, Greg Nicotero and Joe Alves, jawing about JAWS.

Meanwhile….in Chicago.

We finally made it back to Rotofugi, and you can expect a photo essay of the wonders of designer toy coolness.

We leave you with some of the booty I scored at Rotofugi and Laurie’s Planet of Sound. You could probably guess my age from this picture.

And that is this week’s PopCulteer. We’re back in town Sunday and back to normal Monday. Check back for all our regular features.