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The 2012 PopCult Gift Guide Day Three: Television Series

Betraying my age here, when I was growing up, the idea of owning a collection of TV shows was incomprehensible. There was no way for a consumer to purchase movies or TV shows because home video hadn't been invented yet. Even in the days of VHS, the limitations of the format pushed the practicality of selling an entire long-running television series just out of reach.

DVD and Blu Ray has changed that. Now, if you're a die-hard fan of a television series, you can buy each season as they become available, or wait until the series has ended and buy a boxed set of the entire run. Today's gift idea is five suggested boxed sets of complete runs of TV shows. The links will take you to Amazon (this blog, unlike others, does NOT get a cut of any purchase you make), but you may find better prices at other retailers such as Best Buy, Sam's club or Costco.

Smallville

This retelling of the pre-Metropolis days of Clark Kent, before he became Superman, wrapped up ten seasons on the air in 2011, and was highly regarded as one of the best live-action depictions of The Man of Steel. With Tom Welling as Clark, and a cast that included Annette O'Toole, John Schneider, Michael Rosenbaum,Allison Mack, Kristin Kreuk, with guest appearances by Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder and Michael McKean, Smallville turned out to be a first-class television series that brought a lot of DC Comics characters to a mainstream audience for the first time. You can relive those ten seasons with Smallville The Complete Series.

The 2012 PopCult Gift Guide Day Two: Bond...James Bond

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the quintessential spy, James Bond, on film. Theater-goers have reacted very favorably to the latest entry in the long-running franchise, "Skyfall," and new or lapsed fans can catch up instantly with the "Bond 50" box set, which collects every "official" entry in the James Bond film canon.

Starting with 1962's "Dr. No" and fizzling out with 2010's "Quantum of Solace," this set brings you all the highs and lows of the Bond franchise. "Never Say Never Again" is missing because, like the first "Casino Royale," it's not one of the EON Productions Bond movies.

Now, oddly enough, the Blu Ray version of this set, which contains an extra disc, is availalbe for much less than the DVD version. At least that's the way it is at Amazon, where the DVD version is nearly three hndred dollars, while the Blu Ray is a little more than half that. The bonus Blu Ray is an hour-long overview of the Bond Franchise.

If you don't want to dump that much money supporting a British secret agent's martini habit, you can actually go back to the source material with Ian Fleming's original James Bond novels, which can be found in nifty new editions for around fifteen bucks a pop. If your ordered them now from a local bookseller like Taylor's, you should have them in plenty of time for gifting.

And if you really want to go on the cheap, at most area Big Lots stores, you can find really good DVD editions of most of the James Bond movies for five bucks a pop. At that price, we're talking stocking stuffers.

 

The RFC 2012 Sampler Looks Back At A Great Year For Local Music

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Radio Free Charleston 175, "Dunbar Lanes Shirt," is a sampler of just a tiny amount of the great local music that we brought you in 2012. We'll revisit songs from Red Audio, In The Company of Wolves, Godmode Broadway, and The Charleston Light Opera Guild production of "The Color Purple."

Our title shirt this week comes to us from the newly reopened Dunbar Lanes, the area's coziest little bowling alley, tucked away in the heart of the hub of the Kanawha Valley, Dunbar. After the previous owners retired and left for Florida and the bowling alley lay dormant for a few months, the Dunbar landmark reopened last Friday and the new management promises to turn it into the hippest bowling alley in the state.

Host segments were shot at Joplin Park in South Charleston early Sunday morning before the gloomy clouds and rain blew through.

The 2012 PopCult Gift Guide Day One: The Beatles

We're kicking off our 8th Annual PopCult Gift Guide today and we're doing it with The Beatles. This year, there's one huge gift that the die-hard Beatle fan will definitely want. It's The Beatles complete box set of studio recordings on vinyl.

This is the vinyl debut of the digitally remastered versions of The Beatles albums which were released on CD and on iTunes just a couple of years ago. Even if you have the original vinyl, you should be able to detect subtle differences in these new pressings. All the albums are restored to their original packaging, which includes the inserts with the "Sgt. Pepper" album, the posters and photos with "The White Album," and the twenty-four page storybook that came with "Magical Mystery Tour."

Monday Morning Art: Balls

Today's art is a digital painting over a digitally-assaulted photograph of one of the bowling ball racks at the newly-reopened Dunbar Lanes. It doesn't look like that in real life. Click to enlarge.

Dunbar Lanes reopened under new management last Friday, and they also supplied the title shirt for RFC 175, "Dunbar Lanes Shirt," which will hit PopCult later tonight. Also later, The 2012 PopCult Gift Guide kicks off. So just keep hitting "refresh," okay?

Sunday Evening Video: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Daleks

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This came up in a conversation this weekend...

750 Words About Dick

The PopCulteer
November 30, 2012 

This week we're devoting the PopCulteer to a review of a digital download. In April of this year, over four nights at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, Eric Idle staged his original play, "What About Dick?" with an all star cast of Brit expatriates performing a fairly undescribable but hilarious evening of conceptual comic theatre.

Rather than go for television or theatrical release, "What About Dick?" is a digital download that combines the best of those four performances. The plot is indecipherable. The best I can come up with to explain it is that "What About Dick?" combines elements of Monty Python with the stream of consciousness storytelling of The Firesign Theater into an hysterical hybrid where even the cast members have a hard time keeping a straight face.

Don't Forget "Mary"

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Up above you see a special video of the Trio that ends the first act of "Mary A Rock Opera."  You still have four more chances to see this Dan kehde-Mark Scarpelli homegrown Christmas classic, tonight through Staruday at 8 PM, and Saturday afternoon at 2 PM at the WVSU Capitol Center Theater.

The story of the nine months prior to the birth of Jesus Christ through the eyes of a young girl destined to be the most important woman in the Christian tradition, MARY has become a family friendly holiday tradition throughout the greater Charleston area, and continues to give audiences new insight to the days and months leading up to the first Christmas.  New to this Contemporary Youth Arts Company production this year is the introduction of a second cast of young performers who will take on the principle roles during the matinee.

The above video is a performance of the stirring "Trio" that ends the first act, with both sets of actresses portraying Elizabeth, The Archangel Gabriel and Mary combining to form a "Double Trio" of six wonderful voices. As Elizabeth we have Lo Mallory and Susanna Tucker. Singing the role of Gabriel are Maddy Gourevitch and Susanna Morris. In the tile role of Mary are Katie Shaver and Rowan Maher.

The piano is played by composer, Mark Scarpelli. Speical thanks to Lee Harrah for the camera assist.

The WVSU Capitol Center Theater is located at 123 Summers Street, Charleston. Tickets are available at the door prior to each performance: $10.00 for adults. $6.00 for students and seniors (65+). Call the WVSU Capitol Center Theater office at 342-6522 for advance ticket sales and group rates.

It's Time For The Tacular Of Joy!

Joey Stapp, the Magician, starts at 6:45 PM, so get there early!

Monday Morning Art: Stark Charleston Revisited

This week we kick off with a couple of pieces that harken back to my "Stark Charleston" series of surreal animated travelogues. Does this mean that a new installment is in the works?

Maybe.

Click to enlarge.

The Cheesy Knockoffs Return

The PopCulteer
November 23, 2012 

So it's Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, a day where hardly anybody's going to bother going on the Internet to read anything. Yet, the PopCulteer always comes on Friday and with the bonus of knowing that not too many people are going to bother reading this, I'm going to take this week for a self-indulgent visit to my own past as a nationally published columnist.

Back in the late 1990's, I was the action figure columnist for Toy Trader Magazine. Toy Trader was a competitor to Krause Publications' Toy Shop and thanks to having several pages of high quality articles each month, we were rapidly eating away at Toy Shop's readership. This came to a sudden end when Toy Trader's parent company was aquired by Toy Shop's parent company and our magazine was assimilated into theirs. Since Krause only paid one-tenth as much as we were getting from Toy Trader Magazine, none of the writers made the leap to the new publication. I continued covering action figures for MasterCollector.com for a few years, but then moved on to this here PopCult blog of which you should already be aware.

Qiet, "Mary," Farnsworth, DEVO Hats and breakfast cereal on RFC 174

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Up top you see RFC 174 "Mark Wolfe Design Shirt." This week's episode of Radio Free Charleston features music from Qiet and Farnsworth, plus a special performance from the Dan Khede/Mark Scarpelli rock opera, MARY. We also have some fresh DEVO hat animation and part of a complete breakfast. Host segments were shot on the river side of our beautiful State Capitol Building. Our titular shirt comes to us from our good friend, Mark Wolfe, and plugs Mark Wolfe Design, pretty much the hippest design firm in town.

We start the show with something childish and hysterical and we're not going to say anything more about it.

Monday Morning Art: Ragnarok

The theme for last night's edition of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School was Ragnaok, which is the term for the end of the world in Norse mythology. It was chosen as the theme because of the predictions of the end of the world thanks to the Mayan Calendar ending.

Because the Mayans and The Norse are just like two peas in a pod, or something. But it was a fun night, and prizes included John Hodgmen's new book, the "Cards Against Humanity" game and, yes, Twinkies.

Anyway, today we have some quick digital paintings of Vorel Sarkany as C'Thulu(above), Penny Maple as The whore of Babylon and Molly Tilly and Cornelius Dapperdu as John Hodgeman and Jonathan Coulton. As always, click to enlarge. And remember, tonight in PopCult, it's time for a new episode of Radio Free Charleston.

The End Of The World, Zombie Baby Boom and The Wayward Girls

The PopCulteer
November 16, 2012

We've got just a few short items for this week's PopCulteer and then we're going to wrap it up with a photo essay featuring the Wayward Girls School of Burlesque. It's a little weird not having an ArtWalk on the third Thursday of the month, but in November they always have it on Black Friday. Your PopCulteer is still trying to figure out a way to photograph the exhibits next week without setting foot in a retail establishment on Black Friday. Stay tuned to see how that works out.

Monday Morning Art: Hello Kitty

This week we kick off PopCult with a digital painting of our own Kitty Killton misusing a couch, based on a photo taken last week at a shoot for The Wayward Girls School of Burlesque. You will be seeing way more images from this photo shoot in the coming weeks. As always, click on it to see a bigger version.

Sunday Evening Video: Veteran's Day

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In honor of Veteran's Day, we re-present the three-part Radio Free Charleston special from the "Tribute To The Troops II" concert, held last August at the Amphitheater in St. Albans City Park.  Thanking veterans and active duty military for their service to our Democracy.

The Great Rock And Roll Swindle 2012

The PopCulteer
November 7, 2012

It's finally over. Months, and in some cases years of campaigning for control of the White House, came to an end Tuesday as voters, even despite successful attempts at voter suppression by Republican governors and legislators, chose to give Barack Obama four more years to dig us out of the hole that the previous administration had placed us in.

There has been a small amount of gloating and taunting, some of it richly deserved. And on the losing side, a laughable amount of despair and hysterical panic and doomsaying, but at least it's over. Now we can study the aftermath and assess the damage.

Punk Cabaret, Cool Jazz and Hot Rock on RFC 173

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Above you should see RFC 173 "Calvin The Spiffy Spaceman Shirt" This episode of Radio Free Charleston features music from Frenchy and the Punk, Amanda Brigette and The Nanker Phelge, plus a hilarious outtake from Felix Baumgardner's Space Dive and a look at the newest Olympic sport, Spumling.

[caption id="attachment_9589" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Frenchy and the Punk[/caption]

Frenchy and Punk are featured on the show in advance of their November 7, 2012 gig at The Empty Glass in Charleston, WV, where they will be appearing with Qiet. While the goth/cabaret duo are promoting their new CD, "Hey, Hey, Cabaret," we have them on the show this week with the song "The Magician and The Dancer" from their 2010 CD, "Happy Madness."

Monday Morning Art: The Wayward Girls

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to be one of the photographers for The Wayward Girls School of Burlesque. It was a fun evening, and I got a lot of great pictures of the ladies, but production of RFC 173 (coming tonight to PopCult) kept me from processing and editing the photos, so this week our art is just the first taste from the session, a digital painting of Elle Xombeah, Susie Sketchmann and Pepper Fandango are in the back row, with Lilli Lugosi, Penny Maple and Kitty Killlton in front. Stay tuned to PopCult for news of the Wayward Girls' next performance, and for more photos. Click to enlarge.

Sunday Evening Video: Frenchy and the Punk

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Our buddies from New York, Frenchy and the Punk, will be coming to The Empty Glass Wednesday to perform songs from their brand-new CD. Also on the bill is Huntington's Qiet, so it should make for a wild night of original music, and the RFC crew will be on hand. Our video tonight is RFC 143, which focused on Frenchy and the Punk during a summer, 2011 visit. Wednesday night could well be the show of the year, and you can get a taste of Frenchy and the Punk here.

You will get an andditonal taste of the band this week on Radio Free Charleston 173, where we will bring you an unseen performance from Frenchy and the Punk's last visit to The Empty Glass, along with new music from The Nanker Phelge and Amand Bridgette, plus a ilarious outtake from Felix Baumgartner's Space Dive. Look for RFC 173, "Calvin The Spiffy Spaceman Shirt," Monday night in PopCult.

November Randomosity

The PopCulteer
November 2, 2012

This week, your PopCulteer is all over the map. We're just gonna present short, random items about a variety of topics of which we are not certain as we write this introductory sentence. Part of it is because the weather has sort of scrambled our brains and upset our routines. Part of it is because there's just so darn much stuff to talk about this week. Most of it is because we put off writing this column until the last minute and had no idea what we're going to do.