Odds and Ends

Lots of updates, corrections and brief snide comments today, so let's go:

Kanawha Players Briefs and Shorts "Twisted Halloween" program last night at the Charleston Ballet was loads of fun. The short, punchy plays were a real treat, and there were added Halloween fun and games. Great performances by all involved. Who knew Frankenstein could bust a move? I am officially intrigued by the Briefs and Shorts format, and expect to attend more in the future. If you're anywhere near the Theater in the Community in Hurricane tonight (Friday)at 8 p.m., you ought to check out this short burst of Halloween fun.

Speaking of Halloween fun...next week right here at PopCult we'll be bringing you NEW MUSIC EVERY DAY! Don't get too excited. It's all music that I wrote. See, since the vast majority of the music I write sounds like background music for a bad monster movie, I thought I'd embrace my inner rut, and pretend that I make my music sound that way on purpose. So each day next week PopCult will feature a different "Halloween Music Blog" that will present some of my brief snippets of eerie-sounding midi noodling. It's up to you to decide if it's a treat, or a trick.

Another highlight of the KP show last night was that I got to see my fellow Gazz blogger Charly "Jupiter" Hamilton for the first time since the Playhouse days about fifteen years ago. I've been enjoying his and Amy's LocalArt blog, and it's always cool to reconnect with an old friend from the Charleston Playhouse. When you get two or more Gazzbloggers together, it's almost like the Algonquin Round Table.......or maybe the Algonquin Card Table.

Last Week, in my post about watching my brother make animated home movies, I had two mistakes (which my brother Frank was quick to point out). First, Super 8 film is actually shot at 18 frames per second, not 24 (and I knew that). Second, I had remembered the prices for film and processing from the wrong era. Back when Frank was making his films, the cost of film and processing was only around five dollars for three minutes. I had flashed back to my college days, when it shot up past twenty dollars. Now it's more than fifty bucks, just for the processing. Video killed the film star.

Word has come that November 7th is the day that WHCP will debut their local newscast, with anchor Tom McGee. All eyes will be trained on them that night, to see if they produce a credible new entrant in the local TV news glut, or if it's a train wreck. A train wreck would be more entertaining, but I have a feeling that the new management is going to try hard to give us a good show. With any luck, WHCP will go back and apply some more duct tape to their transmitter. After a few weeks of broadcasting a decent signal, lately they've fallen back into their old ways of intermittently losing the signal on a regular basis. After the debut, I'll be blogging my reaction here.

A long time ago, Charleston's mayor portrayed Lil' Abner onstage at the Civic Center Little Theater. Apparently, that training has come in handy, as he's been acting like the Mayor of Dogpatch all week long. Maybe he just doesn't want to have to double the city's user fee when all the lawsuit dust is settled. Somehow, I don't think this is what Al Capp had in mind when he came up with the name,"Stupifyin' Jones."