Monday Morning Art: More Narin The Mermaid

We're going back to the Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School session from a couple of weeks ago to bring you two more takes on Narin The Mermaid. Above is a digital watercolor, while below is a digital Impasto. As always, click to enlarge. The next Dr. Sketchy's extravaganza will be a Steampunk spectacular in September.

The Shooting Incident In Colorado

The PopCulteer
July 27, 2012

This week's PopCulteer is going to be a little bit more serious than usual.  A week ago, tragedy struck in Aurora, Colorado as an armed maniac opened fire in a crowded theater at the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."  The immediate aftermath of that has been an online explosion of discussions, controversies, rants, and speculation that really hasn't done anything to add any major insight to what exactly happened.  There have been people trying to exploit this tragedy to further a political agenda and there have been people missing some rather obvious questions that were raised by this incident.

This week, we're going to try to sort a few things out and add our own layer of rants and speculation to the mix.  Throughout this piece, I do not intend to write the name of the shooter.  We don't know if he simply did this for the notoriety, but just in case, I don't feel comfortable adding to his fame any.  In this post, he will be known as "the shooter."  So let's dive in...

Legally Blonde And Mother Nang on RFC 164

[HTML1]

Up there is Radio Free Chaleston's 164h episode, "Fighting English Shirt," which features music from The Charleston Light Opera Guild production of "Legally Blonde" and a song from Mother Nang, along with a brief bit of strange uncredited animation.

[caption id="attachment_8688" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Cameron Vance and Micah Atkinson[/caption]

The CLOG production of "Legally Blonde" stars Micah Atkinson as Elle Woods, along with a large talented cast that includes Matthew Bryant, Allison Plants, Michael D. Gore, Cameron Vance, Toni Pilato, and Rudi Raynes-Kidder along with many others. The RFC cameras were allowed in for the first dress rehearsal, and we witnessed a show that is coming together quickly and looks like a lot of fun. We bring you two numbers from "Legally Blonde" this week, "Serious" and "What You Want."

Monday Morning Art: Sunset

After a fun weekend trip to Washington D.C., We drove back into West Virginia and were greeted by a lovely sunset. This is a digitally-assaulted photo. Click to see it larger.

Sunday Evening Video: Red Audio

[HTML1]

Tonight we re-present the Red Audio music video from RFC 163 because we took a weekend trip and are too lazy to do anything else. Plus it's really good.

RFC 164, with Mother Nang and music from the Charleston Light Opera Guild production of "Legally Blonde" should be online Tuesday evening.

A Two-Stop ArtWalk Photo Essay

The PopCulteer
July 20, 2012

This week, we're bringing you a shorter than usual PopCulteer.  Normally, this is the time of the month when you would get a huge ArtWalk photo essay.  However, this month we found ourselves pinched between sudden and dangerous thunderstorms and a pressing magazine deadline, so we could only make two stops on our normal ArtWalk trek.

We hit Taylor Books, where there was just tons and tons of cool stuff and we stopped by Romano Associates for the BODY: Interior/Exterior Art Exhibition, featuring work by Heidi Richardson Evans, Greg Oxley, and Megan Dailey.

At the two exhibits we visited, crowds were thick and exuberant, which was quite a happy surprise, considering the particularly nasty weather.  We're going to kick off with a look at BODY: Interior/Exterior Art Exhibition, which is one of the most striking exhibits of the year, and follow up with our visit to Taylor Books Annex Gallery.

Monday Morning Art: Narin The Mermaid

Last night's edition of Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School featured the debut of Narin the Mermaid. You can see her above and below, in two digital paintings by yours truly. As always, click to enlarge.

[caption id="attachment_8639" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption=""Narin and the Blue Pearl" digital watercolor"][/caption]

One of the regular parts of an evening at Dr.Sketchy's is the contests for artists who wish to participate. They might be asked to add a character or use a certain theme, or they may have to complete their drawing with one continuous line or use ther non-dominant hand.

A new addition to the Dr. Sketchy's contest mix sees the Dr. Sketchy Master of Ceremonies, Chase Henderson, pulling an idea from the card game, CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY.

To quote their PR, "Cards Against Humanity is a party game for horrible people. Unlike most of the party games you've played before, Cards Against Humanity is as despicable and awkward as you and your friends. The game is simple. Each round, one player asks a question from a Black Card, and everyone else answers with their funniest White Card."

[caption id="attachment_8642" align="alignright" width="300" caption="People realy do win at Dr. Sketchy's!"][/caption]

This is a fun game that you can buy outright by following the links at their website, or, if you are a truly horrible person, you can download a .pdf file and make your own set for free under the Creative Commons license.

Last night's winner of the Cards Against Humanity challenge was Cindy Keeney-Negley, who incorporated the phrase "All you can eat shrimp, $4.99" into a mermaid scene in a manner which we can not show you on a family website. Good show!

The next edition of Dr. Sketchy's will take place in September.

Sunday Evening Videos: The Holy Trinity

[HTML1]

[caption id="attachment_8632" align="alignright" width="180" caption="Frank Panucci Sr."][/caption]

Today would have been my Father's 90th birthday. So, for Pop, I'm presenting his version of the Holy Trinity, Siinatra, DiMaggio and Marciano.

Sinatra sings "I've Got You Under My Skin."  DiMaggion is seen in a retrospective from ESPN. And Marciano is shown kicking Cassius Clay's butt in a computer-simulated fight from 1969.  Enjoy!

And happy birthday, Pop!

[HTML2]

[HTML3]

Joe Vallina, Toy Scalpers, Domino Lady and More!

The PopCulteer
July 13, 2012

We have another week with tons of cool things to talk about, and we're not even going to try and cover Comic Con International in San Diego. There are plenty of on-site reporters on duty out there to bring you every detail.

We got our own stuff going on, see...

Joe Vallina

Our old pal Joe Vallina, of Feast of Stephen and Wiley Sonic fame, has released a great new album, "People Are Hanged...Pictures Are Hung," and it's a great little summer surprise. It's a seven-song collection, split between three "rockers" and three tunes from "HE SENSITIVE SIDE OF MR. VALLINA," with the 'Hit Single" "Year of the Wicked" thrown in for good measure.

RFC 163: Cool Music For Hot Times

[HTML1]

Above you should see "Misfits of WV Shirt," this is our low-key sixth anniversary show. After producing almost three hours of FestivAll coverage, we decided to just do a normal-length show for our anniversary. But it's still a special show! Host segments were shot at Dutch Streetwear on D Street in South Charleston. You may remember our friends The Salvage Yard from The Charleston Town Center, well, they have a new name, and a great new, larger location in South Charleston, within sight of the Mound. We also have great music from Red Audio, Tofujitsu and Mother Blues. Plus we have animation.

Monday Morning Art: Three More From Dr. Sketchy's

Even though we were only able to stay for part of last month's FestivAll edition of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, we were able to capture so many cool images that we can bring you our third consecutive week of Dr. Sketchy-inspired art. This week it's three semi-abstract high-contrast black-and-white takes on the faces of the models. Above you see Elle Xombeah. Below you will find Penny Maple and Afrodesiac. Click the images to see them larger.You can find my earlier takes on these three lovely models here and here.

The next ediiton of Dr. Sketchy's will be a Mermaid-themed special featuring Pixie De La Fiama. It will take place next Sunday at Kanawha Players Theater. Tickets are eight bucks in advance, ten at the door.

Honey West, The End of HDNet, Punk in St. Albans and Tons of Random News

The PopCulteer
July 6, 2012

After a week where most readers of PopCult didn't have any power, we're jumping back into the PopCulture stew with a review of a new Audiocomic, a eulogy for a cable channel, news on a punk show in St. Albans and a few other scattered items.

So let's plug in, power up and tear into it, shall we?

Audiocomcs presents Honey West in "Murder On Mars"
Adapted for audio by ELAINE LEE from the Moonstone
mini-series by ELAINE LEE and RONN SUTTON.

It's been almost two years since we reviewed Audiocomics' excellent audio adaptation of Elaine Lee and Michael Kaluta's graphic novel, "Starstruck," and we have a brand-new batch of really cool audio adaptations of comic book and graphic novels from this company. We'll be looking at these in the coming weeks, kicking off with this terrific take on G.G Fickling's female private detective.

Monday Morning Art: FestivAll Sketchy Revisited

This week we're going to go back to the last Sunday of FestivAll and revisit Afrodesiac, Elle Xombbeah and Penny Maple, from the FestivAll edition of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School. These are three digital paintings based on photographs I shot during the session that we bought you last week in this space Click to see them larger.

Sunday Evening Videos: Raqs Shakti

[HTML1]

You may have seen Raqs Shakti, the bellydance collective that includes Jenna Brooke Swanson, The Snake and The Pot (Amanda Jane Miller and Duane Swanson) Susan Angela Hughart and violinist Alasha Al Qudwah, among others,  on  the latest episode of Radio Free Charleston, but during their FestivAll performances, many other folks recorded them and they've posted a ton of clips on YouTube. Tonight we're brining you some of them. These videos are all posted by "GardiLiMo."

[HTML2]

See more videos after the jump...