PopCult Rudy Panucci on Pop Culture

Radio Free Charleston Goes Out Like A Lion to End the Month of March on New Appalachian Radio

March 31, 2015 by Rudy Panucci
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RFCv3 #21

NAR log 201Our theme on Radio Free Charleston at New Appalachian Radio this week is ‘Out Like A Lion.” In our second hour we are going to give you an onslaught of hard-rock and heavy metal with enough f-bombs in the lyrics to sink a dozen low-powered FM stations.

You can hear this episode now in the Voices of Appalachia Archives HERE.

Part of our second hour is a five-song mini-theme-within-a-theme featuring local metal vocal legend (and RFC production assistant), Lee Harrah. We have five songs sung by Lee with five different bands.

You can listen to Radio Free Charleston’s streaming radio incarnation at 10 AM and 10 PM on Tuesdays (and again at midnight Thursday) at New Appalachian Radio, part of Voices of Appalachia. If you miss it, check our the archives for previously-aired shows. You can also listen to Radio Free Charleston Saturday at Midnight. Saturday, RFC airs for six hours, starting at The Witching Hour!

Before we get loud we start things off with a bluegrass classic, courtesy of the stars of this week’s RFC MINI SHOW, the Possum Kingdom Ramblers.

The Playlist

Possum Kingdom Ramblers “Land of the Lost”
Uncle Eddie and Robin “All Naked Women”
Stephen Beckner “Olive or Twist”
Pepper Fandango “Bad Scene”

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The RFC MINI SHOW starring The Possum Kingdom Ramblers

March 30, 2015 by Rudy Panucci
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Image2We are proud to feature The Possum Kingdom Ramblers this week on The RFC MINI SHOW. This group is possibly the second-most genuine Bluegrass band that we’ve had on Radio Free Charleston, and we were lucky enough to capture them on the dealer’s floor at JoeLanta, the way-cool GI Joe convention in Atlanta that we’ve been writing about in PopCult for weeks now.

This is a special presentation in honor of our mid-week holiday. The band tackles the old Bluegrass chestnut, “Seven Nation Army” and weaves many other traditional mountain music tunes in and out of it, creating a fairly epic twelve-minute masterpiece.

Also in honor of the midweek holiday, and as a fitting tribute for this performance, we made the trek to Anderson, South Carolina to shoot our host segment in front of one of the most culturally significant icons that the South has produced.

We hope you enjoy this particularly dignified episode of The RFC MINI SHOW.

Monday Morning Art: More Jasmine Rose

by Rudy Panucci
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Our artistic jump-start this week is a digital oil painting based on a photo from last week’s Old West session of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School. The model is Jasmine Rose and you may click the image to see it larger.

Later today check back in PopCult for The RFC MINI SHOW starring The Possum Kingdom Ramblers, with the most culturally significant host segment in the history of humankind.

Sunday Evening Video: The Walking Dead Museum at The Woodbury Shoppe

March 29, 2015 by Rudy Panucci
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Img_3378It’s a PopCult Travelogue as PopCult blogger Rudy Panucci and his wife, Melanie Larch, recently traveled to Senoia, Georgia, the town which has been used for many locations on the television show “The Walking Dead.” It’s also the location of The Woodbury Shoppe, the Official Walking Dead Store, which has a Walking Dead museum and The Waking Dead Cafe downstairs.

Img_3450Melanie shot and narrated this short travelogue, which looks at The Woodbury Shoppe and The Walking Dead Museum. Special thanks to Rhodena and Rebecca of The Woodbury Shoppe for the guided tour. At the end of the clip, you will see brief shots from other locations in Senoia including the “Pudding House” and the wall of “Alexandria.”

Directed by Melanie Larch, edited and produced by Rudy Panucci, shot on March 16, 2015.

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2015 JoeLanta Dioramas

March 28, 2015 by Rudy Panucci
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The PopCult Toybox

headline picHere is the long-promised PopCult JoeLanta Diorama and custom figure photo essay. Many, many thanks go to Dave “Tanker” Matteson who spearheaded the custom figure and diorama contest and got me the master list of all entries.

Keep in mind that these are photos of entries from all different age groups. We mixed in the work of kids with the work of professional model-builders. You might be surprised at who’s who.

I do have to point out one of my own failings. Some of my photos were too out-of-focus to use. I get so excited at being around so many cool toys that I occasionally vibrate without realizing it. If I missed getting a picture of one of the entries, or if you have better photos than mine that you’d like to share (or corrections if I messed something up) drop me an email at rudypan@suddenlink.net and we will revisit the JoeLanta dioramas in a week or two. I need to run pictures of the big dioramas too.

The video above is the raw footage that we shot, set to music by Punk Jazz because I’ve been in the mood to listen to Chuck Biel’s music a lot lately. And now, the photos…

Bryan Tatum built a cannon to help this year's exclusive figure, Col. Caliber, become airborne.
Bryan Tatum built a cannon to help this year’s exclusive figure, Col. Caliber, become airborne.

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JoeLanta Video Round-up, So Far

by Rudy Panucci
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As promised in yesterday’s PopCulteer, this morning we’re going to drop all of our JoeLanta videos so far in one place, so that you don’t have to move your finger a fraction of an inch and scroll down the page here in PopCult.

We are kicking things off with a freshly-made video. This clip takes the raw footage that we shot of E.J. White’s Lobby Swap and The JoeLanta Dealer’s rooms, and sets it to music by the Maestro, Chuck Biel’s Doctor Curmudgeon. After the jump, you’ll find everything else we’ve posted so far.

We must point out here that we aren’t done yet. Still-to-come in our never-ending coverage of JoeLanta/The Great Atlanta Toy Show are two more panels, a clip of raw footage of the diorama contest entries and a very special RFC MINI SHOW starring The Possum Kingdom Ramblers, with a very special host segment. In case that’s not enough, we also plan to bring you a video guide to The Woodbury Shoppe/Walking Dead Museum.

The Dealer’s Room Eye Candy Video…

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Catching Our Breath and Stuff To Do

March 27, 2015 by Rudy Panucci
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Img_3410The PopCulteer
March 27, 2015

It has been a long week for your PopCulteer, and that’s why today we’re just going to take it a bit easy. All week long we’ve been slaving away over a hot computer, making terrific JoeLanta videos for you. Just yesterday we posted our big video wrap-up.

We’re not done with JoeLanta yet. Tomorrow evening will see us post a massive photo essay devoted to the awesome dioramas that were on display at JoeLanta. We’re also going to post raw video of the dioramas and the dealers rooms, set to loud music. It’ll be pure eye candy for the die-hard fan. Plus we have a couple of panels that should surface next week.

Sunday will see our video of The Woodbury Shoppe and The Walking Dead Museum in Senoia Georgia. Our lead photo is just a taste of that.

We will be skipping The RFC Flashback in the morning, instead bringing you a round-up of all the JoeLanta videos that we’ve posted so far. For today, you’re going to get news of a cool Kickstarter project that’s almost reached its end, and a bunch of stuff you can get into this weekend.

Continue reading…

JoeLanta 2015 in Video!

March 26, 2015 by Rudy Panucci
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This is it, the big wrap-up show, with highlights of JoeLanta/The Great Atlanta Toy Show 2015, with The Parachute Drop, Dealer’s Room, Dioramas, Panels, music, films and more! You will see GI Joe, cosplayers, guest speakers, GI Joe, actors, parachuting action figures, GI Joe, short films, live music, dancing Kaiju and GI Joe. It’s 50 minutes of fond memories from just less than two weeks ago.

Recorded at JoeLanta/The Great Atlanta Toy Show 2015, at the Marriott Century Center in Atlanta Georgia, March 13-15 2015. This is not the last of JoeLanta that you will see here in PopCult. Saturday’s PopCult Toybox will be an epic photo essay of the diorama contest, and we still have two panels to edit. Plus we’re going to post the raw footage of the dealers rooms and the dioramas, set to music, for the die-hard fans who want to see all the eye candy.

This video is hosted by Rudy Panucci from The Walking Dead Museum at The Woodbury Shoppe in Senoia, Georgia.If all goes according to plan, you’ll get to see a video devoted to this cool place here in PopCult before the season finale of The Walking Dead this Sunday.

The PopCult Bookshelf will return next week. Your PopCulteer is juggling deadlines and all the JoeLanta video editing and didn’t have time to read anything this week.

A Taste of The JoeLanta Dioramas

March 25, 2015 by Rudy Panucci
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The PopCult Toybox

Img_3205The big PopCult video wrap-up of JoeLanta is in production, but will be delayed until tonight, or possibly tomorrow, due to some technical issues caused by intermittant power outages here at Stately Radio Free Charleston Manor.

To hold you over until it’s ready, here’s another mini-photo essay of the JoeLanta Diorama Contest. We’re not going to provide captions with this collection of pictures. A huge photo essay, complete with the names of all the creators, will be posted here on Saturday.

This is just a taste.

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Continue reading…

Talking About The Walking Dead

March 24, 2015 by Rudy Panucci
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Don, Teeming with Zombie goodness
Don, Teeming with Zombie goodness

It’s yet another panel from JoeLanta/The Great Atlanta Toy Show as Season Three and Four Walker, Don Teems, joins Mike Gardner and Melanie Larch for a discussion of the hit television show, The Walking Dead.

Don Teems is a DJ/Actor from Atlanta Ga. who appeared as a regular member of the undead on AMC’s The Walking Dead for two seasons and has also worked on The CW’s The Vampire Diaries among other various TV and movie projects. He can also be seen at Wild Bills in Duluth Ga playing everything that makes you move from all genres.

Mike Gardner is an Atlanta-based model-builder, master dioramist and expert on The Walking Dead, and you can see some of his custom toy work coming up in a day or two here in PopCult, along with his shredding guitar technique.

Melanie Larch is the wife of the author of this blog, and a co-producer of our video features. She is also an expert on The Walking Dead and the director/producer of a video guide to The Woodbury Shoppe that should premiere here in PopCult this weekend.

Recorded at JoeLanta/The Great Atlanta Toy Show March 15, 2015. Video and editing by Rudy Panucci.