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Your host, at Capitol Market
This is the Radio Free Charleston Christmas show for 2014. Hosted from Capitol Market, where they still have plenty of fresh trees for you procrastinators. This week we’re bringing you holiday music sung by lovely female voices. You will hear Melanie Larch accompanied by Mark Scarpelli, Marium Bria, Lady D-Doris Fields and The Laser Beams, plus we have an epic cartoon about the war on Christmas by Jacob Fertig. But before we jump into the music we bring you some incomprehensible words from Santa Claus.
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…or the Krampus will get you! Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic holiday figure, popular in the Germanic regions of Europe. According to legend, Krampus punishes children during the Christmas season who had misbehaved, in contrast with Saint Nicholas, who rewards well-behaved ones with gifts. This horned demi-demon would beat the bad children with sticks.
This is a digital painting based on a photograph taken at the opening of “Fright Before Christmas,” a horror-themed Christmas art show held at Mike Winland Studios in Kanawha City. I figured it’d be a good start to this holiday week. Click to see him even bigger.
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It has become a beloved holiday classic, one that families gather ’round the computer to watch together. Warm up a hot toddy (or cool it down if it’s scalding) and enjoy this Christmas Special from one of Radio Free Charleston’s favorite bands, The Renfields. .
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Up at the top of this post you see Radio Free Charleston’s 116th episode, “Christmas With CYAC.” 2010 was almost a year without an RFC Christmas show. The only other time that had happened was in 2008 when I was shaken up by an early-December car accident. However, after a production schedule bedeviled by weather woes and other intrusions of life, I decided to call an audible.
The original plan was that this episode of the show would feature songs from two local favorites, plus a song or two from the 2010 Contemporary Youth Arts Company production of the original rock opera, “Mary.” with everything being tied together with host segments shot the Monday before Christmas while caroling with Dan and Penny Kehde and the gang from CYAC.
The taping for the other songs didn’t happen (through no fault of the artists) and I was left with the possibility of skipping the holiday show this year, when it occurred to me that I could record some of the Christmas carols, toss in some of the tunes from “Mary” and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. We took a scrawny little batch of videos, and with love and the spirit of Christmas, shaped it into a beautiful Christmas Treat. Just like on A Charlie Brown Christmas, only without the copyrighted music. The result is one of our most-watched Christmas shows.
This year, we have a killer Christmas show in the works that should be online Monday. Expect music by Melanie Larch with Mark Scarpelli, Lady D, Marium Bria and The Laser Beams, plus animation from Jake Fertig.
Oddly enough, after going to such great lengths to have a Christmas show in 2010, we didn’t do a full episode in 2011. Nobody seems to remember why. We did manage to present a “Christmas Treat” featuring Charleston’s jam-night institutions, Prank Monkey…
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The PopCulteer December 19, 2014
We are less than two weeks away from the end of the year, and you are reading the 500th post in PopCult in 2014. I’d set a few goals for myself with the blog this year, and this marks one of them (my next goal happens just after the new year begins). Today we’re going to look at some of the cool stuff to do in town (and a little beyond) this weekend, plus you’ll get a quick photo essay from the “Fright Before Christmas” art show at Mike Winland Studios and a few other notes and things.
The plan for next week is to bring you Christmas episodes of Radio Free Charleston, both video and audio, plus a Popcult Toybox review of the Lammily Doll and some surprise holiday treats. Next week’s PopCulteer will be the long-awaited detailed account of my trip to Chicago last August, from which I returned a married man.
Weekend Theater
There are four shows currently running in the area. Tonight is your last chance to see Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, produced by Kanawha Players, at The LaBelle Theater in South Charleston. Read more about it HERE. This weekend sees the final shows from Limelight Theater’s “An Old Fashioned Christmas and a Movie.” You can read more about it HERE. We produced promo clips for the other two shows.
Miracle on 34th Street: The Musical opens tonight at The Culture Center. Details on this show, presented by Charleston Light Opera Guild, are in the video…
At the Alban Theater in Saint Albans you can see a wonderful production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which winds up its run with three shows this weekend…
Pictures with Krampus
At the Mike Winland Studio in Kanawha City tomorrow you can get your picture taken with Krampus…
This is all part of The Fright Before Christmas, a horror-themed Christmas art show that is still running. Check out this quick photo essay from the opening night reception…
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The PopCult Bookshelf
This will be the last PopCult Bookshelf of 2014. We’re taking off next week because our normal day, Thursday, is Christmas Day and the following week is New Year’s. So for those of you scoring at home, the next PopCult Bookshelf will be posted January 8, 2015.
For our final column this year, we are going to look back at what I pick as the Top Five comic books of 2014r. In no particular order:
Multiversity
Written by Grant Morrison
drawn by Ivan Reis and various artists
DC Comics
Grant Morrison’s long delayed re-shuffling of the DC Comics multiverse finally turned up this year and I’m happy to report that so far, its been well worth the wait. Using his near encyclopedic knowledge of every obscure nook and cranny of all the various DC universes, Morrison has crafted a story that jumps from one alternate reality to the next, while employing different storytelling styles but maintaining a coherent plot.
It’s nice to see Morrison back at the top of his game because when he’s good, he’s among the best writers in comics. But when he stumbles, he’s nearly incomprehensible. Multiversity is a triumph.This book has been a welcome alternative to the mess that is DC’s “New 52.”
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Up above you see the latest RFC MINI SHOW starring Total Meltdown. Below you see promo clips for Miracle on 24th Street, which opens tomorrow and A Christmas Carol, which continues this weekend. At the bottom of this post you will find a graphic for tonight’s AFM party at The Blue Parrot, which is free and open to the public, and will feature the music of Charleston’s Beatles tribute band, Rubber Soul.
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One thing that the world always needs is more toys stores. PopCult is happy to welcome a new store to the area, Hillbilly Toy Chest, in Milton, has a store jam-packed with current and recent collectible toys and comics with a few impressive vintage items tossed into the mix.
Nathaniel and Emily opened their store in September, moving from a booth in the Milton Flea Market. They’re great folks and they’re filling a major void in the local collectibles market. Hillbilly Toy Chest is chock-full-of action figures, Hot Wheels, Funko collectibles, video games, comics and fashion dolls.
They already have one of the coolest collectible toy stores in the state, and if all goes according to plan, they’ll be expanding (at the same address) early next year. You can find Hillbily Toy Chest at 876 East Main Street, Milton. This week’s PopCult Toybox is a photo essay showing just a portion of the cool stuff you can find at this store.
It’s a great place for last-minute Christmas gifts.
The current front entrance to toy heaven in MiltonA full slate of Funko/Reaction figures
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In a special performance run at the West Virginia Culture Center at The State Capitol Complex, The Charleston Light Opera Guild presents a holiday treat for the entire family, Miracle on 34th Street: The Musical. This is a delightul musical version of the beloved holiday classic, presented live on stage.
See what happens when the world dares to regain some of its childhood innocence. Macy’s department store hires the perfect Santa, then has to deal with the fallout when it turns out that the man they hired for the job, one Kris Kringle, actually believes he is Santa Claus. The true spirit of Christmas comes to life as Mr. Kringle makes a convincing case and brings the real meaning of the holiday to the hearts of everyone and proves that miracles DO happen.
Performances are scheduled for December 19, 20, 26 and 27, 2014 at 7:00 PM and December 21 and 28, 2014 at 2:00 PM in the Culture Center Theater at the West Virginia State Capitol Complex
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Your host, at the time of the original RFC broadcasts
This week Radio Free Charleston on New Appalachian Radio offers up an hour of great local and regional music, and then dives deep back into the archives to bring you an hour of reconstructed Radio Free Charleston as broadcast over the air on WVNS Radio in the spring of 1990. It gets a little crazy. You’ll hear your PopCulteer play drums while, in another song, RFC Big Shot (and ace drummer), Brian Young, sings and plays guitar.
Update: You can listen to this show now in the Voices of Appalachia archive HERE.
I used parts of two shows so that new listeners of RFCv3 can get an idea of what the original Radio Free Charleston program was like. It was basically a free-format show with a heavy mix of alternative rock and local music, and it aired live at 2 AM late Saturday night/Sunday morning.
You can listen to Radio Free Charleston’s new audio incarnation streaming at 10 AM and 10 PM on Tuesdays (and again at midnight Thursday and 2 AM Saturday night) at New Appalachian Radio, part of Voices of Appalachia. If you miss it, check our the archives for previously-aired shows.
This week, our first hour playlist is as follows:
Ann Magnuson
“This Nothing Life”
Geronimo
“F.M.”
Red Audio
“Girl From Outer Space”
Super Heavy Duty
“On My Own”
Science of the Mind
“Toxic Waste”
A Place of Solace
“Prayers”
WATT 4
“Bad Situation”
John Lancaster
“A Burning Farewell To Us All”
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