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The PopCulteer August 29, 2014
Your PopCulteer has had a busy week (just scroll down to our previous posts), but we still have our weekly Friday post to create, and we just passed our ninth anniversary yesterday. In the spirit of our nine years blogging here at The Charleston Gazette, and since lately it seems that there’s a lot of interest in what we’ve been doing in this blog (particularly from Charleston’s other newspaper), we’re going to give you…
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Not a lot of time for reading. The PopCult Bookshelf will return next week. Also, don’t expect the PopCulteer to be posted until tomorrow night, folks.
Also, today marks NINE YEARS since the beginning of this, The PopCult Blog. So you can probably guess what the PopCulteer will be about.
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Hey, y’know that top secret project I’ve been talking about all week?
Well, if all goes according to plan, by the time you read this, Melanie Larch and I will have become a married couple. And to think, it only took 24 years for us to tie the knot. With all our elder-care commitments fulfilled and no other obstacles in our path, we can finally be together.
The ceremony is to have taken place Tuesday morning on the Stage of the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. We wanted a quiet ceremony in a special place, and that fit the bill perfectly. Every PopCult post that has been published since last week was written on Wednesday, August 20. That’s why the tense is all wonky.
If you’re wondering why we decided to get married in Chicago, there are many reasons. First of all, I hate cermonies. I just can’t stand the pomp and circumstance and other related BS that fuels the Wedding Industrial Complex. I just want to be with the woman I love. I don’t want to go through the Spanish Inquisition.
On top of that, Melanie and I didn’t feel right getting married in a state that does not allow all of our friends the same right. I know it’s inevitable that marriage equality will come to the Mountain State, but we didn’t want to wait any longer.
Add to that the moronic law passed a couple of years ago that coerces people, even people who have been together more than two decades, into undergoing religious and/or psychological counseling before they can tie the knot, and it was clear that, as far as getting married goes, West Virginia is not open for our business.
We were planning to go to Chicago anyway, and Melanie holds Steppenwolf in very high regard, so I suggested she ask if we could get married there. She did. And they said yes. And we said “I Do.”
We’re hoping that none of our friends feel slighted that we did this out of town. In the event that anyone reading this really feels the need for us to have a huge reception with tons of guests, please, feel free to throw one for us. We’ll be there… as long as we don’t have to do any planning or pay for it.
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This week The RFC MINI SHOW presents the mighty Plaid Clash, bringing their Celtic magic to the Bluegrass Kitchen. This four-piece features Chris Higgins, Garrett Maner, Dan Carney and Vaughn Gold singing and playing a variety of instruments.
This dynamic combo has been playing around Charleston for a few months, and we finally caught up to them at the Bluegrass Kitchen just a couple of weeks ago. We will be catching up with them again in the future, as we didn’t bring the right recording equipment to capture the audio at this event in our usual high quality. Bluegrass Kitchen is one of the finest restaurants in town, and was packed, and our microphones picked up nearly every dinner conversation in the place instead of the music.
Even with the less-than perfect audio, we wanted to give you a taste of this great band. Rest assured that Plaid Clash will grace the RFC screen again in the near future, with audio that does their beautiful sound justice.
You can next hear Plaid Clash Sunday, September 7, as part of Culture Fest in Pipestem.
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We go back to last week’s edition of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School for more digital paintings of Luna L’Enfant as Leeloo, and Mudd Flapp as Korbin Dallas, from the film, The Fifth Element. Click to enlarge, and keep reading PopCult for the top secret surprise.
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Enjoy The Jam, Live At Bingley Hall, Birmingham, England from 1982. Go back 32 years, when The Jam were a hot young English band that sprung out of the punk/new wave movement and spearheaded a short-lived Mod revival. Paul Weller’s pre-Style Council band was one of those great musical entities that never quite managed to cross the Atlantic and find commercial success in the US. That doesn’t take away from the excellence of their R&B inflected, sharp British Pop-punk.
Also, remember to keep checking PopCult for all our regular features and possible top secret surprises this week.
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This week we’re departing from our normal Flashback efforts to revive missing shows so that we can bring you a couple of shows that featured Joseph Hale, who passed away last Monday. Above you see episode 6o of RFC with Joseph’s first appearance on the show, using the name Joseph Henry (he also turned up as Joseph Hellmouth for a time). You’ll see Joseph performing solo and with his good friend, John Radcliff.
Below you see RFC 77. The title shirt has taken on the air of a twisted, eerie joke, but it’s one that Joseph would have loved. His band, OVADA, which also included John Radcliff, are seen here performing their epic tune, “The Electric God.”
You can find Joseph and his other good friend Todd Burge performing twisted Christmas songs on RFC 89 HERE.
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The PopCulteer August 22, 2014
This week we are going to review a new CD by an old friend. Spencer Elliott is holding a CD release party for his solo acoustic guitar debut Saturday night at Bluegrass Kitchen, and I’ve got an advance copy to tell you about.
First of all, it’s disclaimer time: Spencer and I have been friends for twenty-five years. I first met him at The Charleston Playhouse, where I met many of my life-long friends and companions. We’ve known each other a long time. He consoled me when the Radio Free Charleston radio show was cancelled. I loaned him my Les Paul for an extended time. We co-produced demos for Three Bodies. I was there for the birth of Mother Nang, and Spencer, as a member of Whistlepunk, was the first musical guest on the video version of Radio Free Charleston.
So we go back quite a ways. Rather than giving me a bias, I have a unique perspective on Spencer’s solo debut.
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The PopCult Bookshelf
This week the PopCult Bookshelf looks at two recent releases by Los Bros Hernandez, the two genius storytellers who have brought us Love and Rockets since 1981. These books have been on the top of my “must-read” stack for months, so I must apologize for just getting around to these now.
Maria M., Book One
by Gilbert Hernandez
Fantagraphics Books
ISBN-13: 978-1606997192
$22.99
This is the fourth in Gilbrt Hernandez’ series of graphic novel “adaptations” of the fictional B-movies in which his character Rosabella “Fritz” Martinez stars in stories published in Love and Rockets. Maria M. Book One is a departure in that it’s the first of two parts and it’s an adaptation of a movie that, in Love and Rockets, was based on a “true” story that was presented in the classic Poison River storyline.
Maria M. is the story of the character who was the mother of Fritz, who then starred in the movie of her mother’s life, and that movie is adapted here.