PopCult Rudy Panucci on Pop Culture

RFC Flashback: Episode 49

rfc49lmontagethumbEpisode 49 of Radio Free Charleston, “The Concept Shirt” is our Flashback this week. This episode features eclectic music from Asheville, North Carolina’s The Hellblinki Sextet, and Charleston/Huntington’s The Button-Flies–both of these bands making their RFC debuts on the show–plus more relaxing animation from Frank Panucci and a preview of then-upcoming shows by The Ghosts Of Now, The Concept, and Under The Radar, three bands that are not currently playing together (much).

You can read the original production notes HERE.

Due to technical issues with Suddenlink’s high-speed internet, there may not be a PopCult Toybox tonight, but we will pick up our coverage of Toy Fair again as soon as possible.

Stymied: A Rant, Plus Stuff To Do This Weekend

2658750-7720332341-temp-The PopCulteer
March 6, 2015

This is not the column I intended to write today.

I had very ambitious plans for today and the remainder of the weekend that would have involved elaborate posts with lots of embedded video and cool photographs. But I can’t bring them to you because Suddenlink is experiencing some kind of slowdown of their service and my current internet speeds are slower that dial-up.

I understand that our area is in the midst of severe weather conditions and that those are most likely the cause of this unexplained internet slowdown. But it would be nice to have some kind of confirmation from Suddenlink that this is actually the case. Their website currently says that there are no outages in the area. Their online tools tell me that my modem is working perfectly. A phone message mentions some non-specific weather-related issues, without any hint of when they may be resolved.

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Please Stand By

Due to technical issues with Suddenlink High Speed Internet (which is currently running at less than 1/1000 of its advertised speed), today’s PopCulteer will be delayed, and possibly not make it online at all. We are hopeful that we will be able to bring you our regular features, but until this internet-speed issue can be resolved, we cannot upload photos or video. Two hours spent on hold waiting to speak to a Suddenlink customer support representative has thus far proven to be unproductive.

We will do our best to get PopCult back to normal as soon as possible. The PopCult Bookshelf post scheduled for yesterday will be seen next Thursday…we hope.

Stuff To Do March 5

Stay in. Watch TV. Surf the Internet. Read comic books. For God’s sake, don’t go out in this crap.

Diamond Select Toys at Toy Fair

The PopCult Toybox: Toy Fair 2015 Report

Img_2869Your PopCulteer and his lovely wife/assistant, Melanie Larch, attended the New York International Toy Fair week before last in New York City and we continue to bring you video, photos, and reports from this huge and overwhelming event.

Today we chronicle our visit to the Diamond Select Toys booth. Diamond Select Toys is the toy arm of Diamond Comic Distributors and they create action figures and other toys aimed at the collector’s market. You can find Diamond Select Toys in comic book and hobby shops across the nation, as well as at Toys R Us and national book chains.

Diamond Select Toys Director of Marketing, Zach Oat, gave us a personal tour of their jam-packed exhibit and you can follow along in the video below:

While it was great having our own personal guided tour to share with you via video, we know you want some closeups. So what follows is a photo essay combining pictures we took at the Diamond Select Toys booth with courtesy photos they provided for us. Needless to say, a lot of collectors are going to be hurting in the wallet in the coming year, thanks to the good folks at Diamond.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder Vinyl Bust Bank A Diamond Select Toys release! The next vinyl bank based on the hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series is here, and it’s gonna give the Turtles some trouble! Oroku Saki, a.k.a. The Shredder, makes his vinyl bank debut, standing approximately 8 inches tall with a coin slot in the back, an access door in the base, and the detailed sculpting of a collectable bust! Where the Shredder goes, can the Foot Clan be far behind? Packaged in a clear polybag.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder Vinyl Bust Bank
A Diamond Select Toys release! The next vinyl bank based on the hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series is here, and it’s gonna give the Turtles some trouble! Oroku Saki, a.k.a. The Shredder, makes his vinyl bank debut, standing approximately 8 inches tall with a coin slot in the back, an access door in the base, and the detailed sculpting of a collectable bust! Where the Shredder goes, can the Foot Clan be far behind? Packaged in a clear polybag.

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WV Writers Meeting

wvw illo 02A couple of months ago a new group devoted to West Virginia writers started up and I’m happy to be part of it. We meet monthly and it’s a fairly informal gathering where we have a presentation, followed by a workshop where ideas and critiques can be exchanged. Writers of all kinds are welcome. The first two meetings were held at DigiSo.

Next Wednesday night (rescheduled due to the weather) we have our third meeting, and the presentation will be about blogging. This presentation will be by your PopCulteer and Bill Gardner, and it should be a lot of fun because we’re winging it with no preperation. I can guarantee that our presentation will either be enlightening or a train wreck.

This month’s meeting happens March 11 at 5:30 PM in the community room at Black Sheep Burrito @ The Brewery (The former Capitol Roasters) 720 Quarrier Street. The presentation will be followed by a small group workshop, so if you want feedback on a piece please bring 4 hard copies.

NAR log 106RFCv3 #17

It is time once again for Radio Free Charleston, streaming at New Appalachian Radio. This week our two-hour audio extravaganza kicks off with solid hour of great local music as usual.

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

You can listen to Radio Free Charleston’s  fun and exciting 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!

Johnny and Tim Rock, 1989
Johnny and Tim Rock, 1989

Our second-hour theme this week is our first attempt at doing a “Rock Family Tree,” this time focusing on one of the hottest bands from the original RFC, Go Van Gogh. Stephen and Mark Bckner and Tim and Johnny Rock made up this four-piece, and you may have seen them in action a few weeks back on The RFC MINI SHOW.

Mark and Stephen Beckner, 1989
Mark and Stephen Beckner, 1989

In addition to bringing you some Go Van Gogh classics, we’re going to check out music from the pre-Go Van Gogh and post-Go Van Gogh bands that feature the brothers Beckner and Rock, and we’re going to catch up with solo material by The Beckners and tunes from their current band, The Nanker Phelge. That’s in hour two.

Hour One Playlist

Mad Scientist Club “Dr. Owsley”
Kevin Scarbrough “Jimmy Burned Bridges”
Jeff Ellis “Tina”
The Laser Beams “Red Shirt Blues (Demo)”

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Monday Morning Art: Stark New York

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I took the photo of The Herald Square Hotel that ran at the top of last Friday’s PopCulteer, uncropped it and ran it through my old “Stark Charleston” filter. The results you see up top as today’s art. Click to enlarge, and prepare yourself for more Toy Fair video later today.

Tonight we bring you footage of the McFarlane Toys Toy Fair booth, showcasing The Walking Dead action figures and building toys for 2015. This clip also includes footage of The Coop, a pet, children’s clothing, and accessory maker, who offer some Walking Dead merchandise. The video was shot by Melanie Larch. Still photos and editing by Rudy Panucci.

This video is meant to accompany our coverage of The Walking Dead at The New York International Toy Fair from February, 2015. In the coming week, expect more video from Toy Fair, as we have finally managed to sort out all our video so that we can edit it and get it out to you. In the coming days you can expect video from Diamond Select Toys, DC Collectibles, Funko, Colorforms and more, plus we will continue bringing you photo essays and articles from Toy Fair, right here in PopCult.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2015

The PopCult Toybox: Toy Fair 2015 Report

You're going to get a full report on The Turtles, too.

Last week your PopCulteer made the trek to New York City to cover The 2015 International Toy Fair, and in the coming days and weeks you can expect many special editions of The PopCult Toybox to cover all the cool things he saw.

One of the hottest action figures in toy stores now is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures and playsets. The folks at Playmates Toys gave us a quick tour of the Turtles booth, and we have all the details in print below the video, along with a ton of photos, to share this part of the Toy Fair experience with you.

Fresh off a wildly successful 2014 in which the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures were ranked the #1 selling toy to the NPD Group, Playmates Toys, the company behind the popular toy line, is thrilled to its all-new 2015 offerings during North American International Toy Fair.by season 4 of Nickelodeon’s hit TV series, Playmates Toys will introduce its biggest extension to date in the line called Mutations, extensions to the successful Half Shell Heroes preschool line and a new die-cast segment called T-Machines; in addition to new action figures, vehicles, role play and playsets.

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