Loads Of Cool Stuff

The PopCulteer
March 30, 2012

WVSU Alumni All Star Jam

If you watched the latest episode of Radio Free Charleston, then you already know about the 2nd Annual WVSU Alumni All Star Jam. But just in case you haven't heard, this show features just some of the talented musicians and vocalists that have passed through W.Va. State. Honoring all of West Virginia's great jazz and blues artists past, present and future.

The line-up includes: Tim Courts (Bob Thompson Unit), Jonathan Wesley (Inspirati...on), Mike "Nemo" Pleasant, Lady D, Melanie Larch (Radio Free Charleston's Resident Diva), Dugan Carter (Full Flavor), Dick Stockton and Bill Hambleton. Marshall Petty from the Charleston WV Blues Society and Jack Rice from the West Virginia Blues Society will be on hand as well as special guest, Hubert "Rabbit" Jones.

The show starts at 7:30 PM at The Davis Fine Arts Auditorium on the campus of West Virginia State University. Admission is $10.00 and will benefit the College Book Fund. Call 304.766.3188 for more information.

Here's a sample of what you'll hear...

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RFC at Facebook

Speaking of Radio Free Charleston, you can check out our new Facebook page, which was just upgraded to the new Timeline format. If you like the Timeline layout, go enjoy the bejesus out of it. If not, well..it wasn't our idea. They forced us.

But still, it's a great way to keep up with what's going on here at PopCult and with RFC. Sometimes fans of the RFC page even get early peeks at the show before we post it here.

Springtime Is The Time When Zombies Are In Bloom!

Once again, something really cool is happening on Charleston's East End.
April 21, from 9 PM to Midnight, Kanawha Players Presents ZOMBIE PROM! You thought your high school prom was dead? Wait 'til you see this party. It's going to be a corpse-friendly death-a-palooza.

There are still details to be worked out, but the Master of Ceremonies will be none other than Vincent Renfield, whose band, The Renfields, might just pop out of their graves for this special night.

There will be FREE Zombie Makeovers from 8PM-9PM, Dancing, Food, a Brain Eating Contest, Hearses from Cemetery Knights Hearse Club will be on hand, and there will be prizes for best costumes.Prom photo packages will be available for purchase from Mike Winland Studios.

When it's all over Zombies are welcome to lurch down the street to The Empty Glass and party with the girls from H.A.R.D Heart Of Appalachia Roller Derby. You must be 21 to enter bar, but Zombies will get a discount and only pay $5 for music from Hellbound Honky Tonk, Foz Rotten, Charlie Ant Eaterr, and The Tom McGees.

More info and tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/239249



Harvey Pekar Posthumously

The first posthumous work finished after the death of Cleveland's king of the autobiographical comic, Harvey Pekar, has just been released. I don't have my copy yet, but this one is worth going to the PR:

"A lifelong resident of Cleveland, Ohio, Harvey Pekar (1939-2010) pioneered autobiographical comics, mining the mundane for magic since 1976 in his critically acclaimed series American Splendor.

"Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland" is sadly one of his last, but happily one of his most definitive graphic novels. It presents key moments and characters from the city’s history, intertwined with Harvey’s own ups and downs, as relayed to us by Our Man and meticulously researched and rendered by artist Joseph Remnant. At once a history of Cleveland and a portrait of Harvey, it’s a tribute to the ordinary greatness of both.

“America’s poet-comic-laureate of curmudgeonhood is sorely missed, but thankfully, this posthumous book, like Hamlet’s father, is here to remind us of the great man, the great Pekar.” – Jonathan Ames, author and creator of HBO’s Bored to Death

With an introduction by Alan Moore!"

While Pekar's “Huntington, West Virginia On The Fly.” was published after his 2010 death, that book was mostly completed, and had in fact been scheduled for publication before his passing. Advance word is that this book is a major return to form after the disappointing "“Huntington, West Virginia On The Fly," which just seemed to...nice, for Harvey, anyway.

One More From Dr. Sketchy's March Session



Did South Park Confuse You This Week?

This should explain everything...

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Benefit at The Parrot

Friday night at The Blue Parrot, Dinosaur Burps, Talk Is Cheap and Foz Rotten with Charlie Ant Eaterr put on a benefit for the National Eating Disorder Association. Five bucks gets you in the door, and the show kicks off at 10 PM. Check the flyer below...



Deluxe Beatles News

There are loads of deluxe packages of Beatles group and solo DVD and CDs coming our way in the next few weeks.

Martin Scorsese’s GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD, which premiered on HBO last October, makes its home video debut in North America. Universal Music Enterprises is pleased to announce that it will be releasing the film on May 1, 2012, in three editions: 2-DVD set, Blu-ray, and a Deluxe Edition box set that will include the DVD, Blu-ray, special packaging and a 96-page book of photography to accompany the film, plus the exclusive 10-track CD EARLY TAKES Volume 1, featuring previously unreleased music from George Harrison.

EARLY TAKES Volume 1 will also be released independent of the Deluxe Edition for the first time, on CD, digital and 180-gram vinyl formats. EARLY TAKES is a pivotal companion piece to this critically acclaimed documentary and features previously unreleased recordings from George. Included are rare, early takes of “I’d Have You Anytime” and “Awaiting On You All,” plus unheard demo versions of “Behind That Locked Door,” “All Things Must Pass,” “Run of the Mill” and “My Sweet Lord,” all later featured on Harrison’s 1970 chart-topping album All Things Must Pass. Other unreleased tracks include demos of “The Light That Has Lighted the World,” “Let It Be Me,” Bob Dylan’s “Mama You’ve Been on My Mind,” and an early take of “Woman Don’t You Cry For Me.”

The Beatles’ classic 1968 animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, has been digitally restored for DVD and Blu-ray release on May 28 (May 29 in North America). The film's songtrack album will be reissued on CD on the same date.

Currently out of print, the film has been restored in 4K digital resolution for the first time by Paul Rutan Jr. and his team of specialists at Triage Motion Picture Services and Eque Inc. Due to the delicate nature of the hand-drawn original artwork, no automated software was used in the digital clean-up of the film’s restored photochemical elements. This was all done by hand, frame by frame.

Bonus features for the Yellow Submarine DVD and Blu-ray include a short making-of documentary titled “Mod Odyssey” (TRT: 7:30), the film’s original theatrical trailer, audio commentary by producer John Coates and art director Heinz Edelmann, several brief interview clips with others involved with the film, storyboard sequences, 29 original pencil drawings and 30 behind-the-scenes photos. Both Digipak packages will include reproductions of animation cels from the film, collectible stickers, and a 16-page booklet with a new essay by Yellow Submarine aficionado John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios).

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On April 24, Candlewick Press will release a new, compact hardcover edition of the Yellow Submarine picture book, a read-aloud journey for the whole family. Featuring the lighthearted wit of the film's script alongside original artwork from the movie.

The Paul McCartney reissues rollout continues May 22 with Ram, the 1971 album he wrote and recorded with wife Linda that produced his first post-Beatles No. 1 single.

The remastered Apple LP will get the deluxe treatment in a number of formats, ranging from a single-disc package to vinyl to a box set with four CDs, a documentary DVD and a slew of extras. A two-CD digipak will feature B-sides and “Another Day,” McCartney’s debut solo single that was included in a 1993 reissue of Ram.

“This is an album from a long, long time ago, when the world was different,” McCartney says in the press notes. “It reminds me of my hippie days and the free attitude with which it was created. I hope you're going to like it, because I do!"

Highlights of the reissue include a CD and limited-run vinyl editions of the album’s mono edition, which featured alternate mixes that were only made available to radio stations at the time. The Ram box set will include a CD of the mono material — the first time it’s been available in the format -- along with a 112-page book; photo prints; handwritten lyrics and notes; "Thrillington," an orchestral interpretation of the record; and a DVD of Ramming, a new documentary narrated by Sir Paul about the making of the album.

Porkchopp 3D

Director Eamon Hardiman is seeking funds to help finish the third part of his Porkchop Trilogy, Porkchopp 3D, and you can help out by donating to his IndieGoGo page. Find out more in this interview with Eamon over at Daily Grindhouse.

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RFC 154

The next episode of Radio Free Charleston will debut over the weekend. Be prepared for a special look at a piece of West Virginia Film History once thought lost.