Radio Free Charleston’s forty-fifth episode, “Hot Wheels Shirt,” is online now. This show trumpets the upcoming weekend’s Derek Kirk Memorial Stage Show at Davis Park in Charleston.  We feature Doctor Senator, performing at said park, and we have a touching song by T.J. King, about his friend, the late Derick Kirk.  We even shot the host segments around the park this time. 

In addition to that, we have a movie trailer for a new indie film out of Huntington, “The Comic Book Lady,” which stars Kathleen Jackson and features cameos from Harvey Pekar, Genuine Nerd Toby Radloff, and Kitten Natividad.  Plus we have animation from my brother Frank.  It’s all wrapped up in a tight little 16-minute package, for your viewing enjoyment.

We captured Doctor Senator on tape last May during the “Rock In Love Tour” show put on by The Bridge.  Late word has reached us that a similar show will be held there on July 19.  You may remember Doctor Senator from their three previous appearances on RFC, in episodes 27, 31, and 42.  This time we have them doing their signature song, “The Good Doctor.”  It’s always a kick to hear this band, and we hope to see them playing around town more often during the summer.

T.J. King has been on RFC as a member of The Spurgie Hankins Band on episode 37, but this time around we have him flying solo on guitar.  Recorded in Production Studio Two at Electric 102, T.J. brings us his song about his friend, the late Derick Kirk, “Bad Things/Good People.”  You’ll get to see T.J. this weekend at Davis Park performing with Spurgie, and I’d venture a guess that they’ll make time for him to perform this song, too.  I’ll be posting a full schedule of the bands performing this weekend here in PopCult Thursday afternoon.

From Huntington comes the trailer for “The Comic Book Lady,” starring Kathleen Jackson, whom I’ve known longer than either of us would care to admit to.  The film also features cameos from Genuine Nerd Toby Radloff, legendary pin-up girl Kitten Natividad, and Harvey Pekar, the king of autobiographical comic books.  Filmmaker Shayne Barker would love to show this film in Charleston this fall as part of the West Virginia International Film Festival, so if you know somebody on the board, start bugging them now.

From my brother, Frank Panucci, we have “Turkey Wang.” That’s really about all that needs to be said about it.

Over the end credits, I swiped a bit of RFC Big Shot Melanie Larch’s “FestivAll 2007” report, which also features music and some footage recorded in Davis Park.  The music is by Comparsa, who finally have a MySpace page, and who are also performing this weekend. Again, I’ll post the full schedule Thursday afternoon. You can see Mel’s full report right here.

We’re also going to have a contest with this show.  This will take place in the comments section of the PopCult blog, so if you’re reading these notes on the MySpace page, jump on over there right now to join in.  Basically, I made a mistake in this episode.  It’s not an obvious one, but I didn’t catch it until it was too late to fix it.  The first person to post a comment here at PopCult that points out the mistake will win a prize.  I will offer two hints, which aren’t exactly hints, to help you out.

First, at one point during an intro you see the word “Oops!” on the screen.  That is not the mistake I’m talking about.  That was one that I caught and fixed.  Second, though I refer to Davis Park as “Davis Square” and “Davis Square Park” throughout the show, that isn’t the mistake either.  That one’s an in-joke.

But there is a mistake somewhere in the show, and the first person to catch it and comment on it in the PopCult blog will get a free Radio Free Charleston T-Shirt (XL–I only have one-size on hand). 

So get to inspectin’ the show, and be sure to tell all your friends to watch RFC.  Be all evangelical about it. Spread the word.  Episode 46 will go live on July 14 with Dog Soldier and God only knows what else.  Next week check back for an exciting announcement about the RFC Archives.  We will be returning our older episodes to the interwebs, just in time for our second anniversary.