PopCult

Your PopCulteer is back from his anniversary trip, rested up and ready to bring you the first of several photo essays devoted to the cool stuff we saw and did on our trip. Today is all about Fiesta Tableware!

We’re doing these out of order, so don’t expect any strict continuity here.

Today we bring you more than a dozen photos from inside the museum that visitors get to see at the end of the Fiesta Factory Tour.  Sadly, we did not get to go on the tour as scheduled. Something happened that caused the production line to be shut down, so we were taken to a small room and took the video tour instead,  It was a minor disappointment, but it also gives us an excuse to make another visit sometime in the future.  When you schedule the tour, they warn you in advance that it might be replaced with a video tour, so we were prepared for the possibility.

Plus, the video was pretty intriguing. And we got to watch it in the small room that serves as the Homer Laughlin/Fiesta museum that we’d get to see at the end of the regular tour. This was a big part of the attraction for Mel, so the day was not a total loss.

In fact, that room was filled with so much cool stuff that Mel came away with several new grails to seek out for her collection, and I grabbed a ton of photos, from which I have fifteen for you to see today.

There is such a rich history of the former Homer Laughlin company, and they made lots of things in that factory that we were not previously aware of, so it was still a wonderful time.

Ironically, that room with museum is behind a door that we have obliviously walked right past every time we’ve been to the Fiesta Outlet Store before.

We do want to return for the physcial tour, but I understand that they shut the tour down in October, until January, so that they can start doing experimental runs of the next color that won’t be unveiled until the new year.

But here’s some highlights of that awesome collection in the museum…

The room is filled, floor-to-ceiling, with rare pieces from the history of Homer Laughlin/Fiesta.

Everywhere you look, you see examples of rare commemorative pieces and retired colors.

This amazing Art Deco vase was mind-blowing, and then we found out that, shockingly, it was a very limited production that was only made five years ago.

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STUFF TO DO is PopCult‘s weekly guide to just a few of the great events happening in Charleston, Huntington and a few other points here in West Virginia, and sometimes a little beyond our borders, in the coming days. We are back after a week off, cavorting around between Hershey, Akron, Newell and Pittsburgh, and we are going to shrink this feature again this week, since it’s working out pretty well to be more selective.

We’re not doing a featured event this week because this weekend is Labor Day, and there seems to be a dearth of big local shows to plug. So maybe get out and enjoy the unofficial end of summer with family and/or friends.

Each week I try to tell you about a few cool events all around the state that you might not know about.  If you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future you can still contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky, Spoutible, Instagram or Twitter.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote.

I do ask that you send a graphic that includes the date, time and location, of the event, as well as the cost to attend.  I can’t promise that I’ll run it here,  but chances are I will unless it’s something completely offensive or an event happening in South Carolina. If it looks original and charmingly weird, you have a better chance of seeing it here.

Keep in mind that I’ll need this several days in advance, so please don’t send me a graphic on the day of the event and expect it to show up in this feature.

For much more comprehensive guides to things you can get into in our region, check out these two wonderful resources:

Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

Mya Ross at Status Quo does a much better job of compiling a list of local events than I do, and you can find the WTSQ guide to events HERE. Toss ’em a donation while you’re over there.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing. Plus there are free concerts almost every weekend at Taylor Books.

You might also find cool musical events at Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illnesses are still a going concern and many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, please respect their weishes and don’t be a jerk about it.

Here’s a few select suggestions for STUFF TO DO in and around Charleston and Huntington this weekend…

Your humble blogger and radio host is back from a fun, but exhausting vacation, and that means that, once again, Tuesday is NEW RFC DAY on The AIR  and today is where we bring you a brand-new three-hour episode of Radio Free Charleston!  To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

This week is a wee bit unusual because I’m writing this post several hours before I will be recording my announcing bits for the show. I have it planned out, and it should follow the playlist below, but the joys of home ownership are preventing me from committing the time to record the show properly until late Monday evening.

However, we do have a killer show, loaded with tons of brand-new local and independent music, plus a few cool ringers and deep-album cuts for your amazement and amusement.

This week’s new tunes come from our show-opener, Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess, and also include new tracks from Erik Woods, Rocco DeLuca, The Feeders, Red Spot Rhythm Section, Julez and the Rollerz, Jim Lange, The Tirith, Duck City Music, and lots of recently-released cuts by Vinto Van Go, Thee Leviathans, Magic Sands, The Matt Berry Trio, Todd Burge & Larry Groce, Minor Swing, Hardy Mums, The Anchoress, Stitch Jones & his Bionic Marines, Stick Men and Snowy White. We also have new live tracks from The Specials, Sparks and Renaissance.

I think it’s a pretty rockin’ show, considering that I just got back in town less than 48 hours ago, and I have to wait for a plumber to fix a runaway terlet when I should be recording this show.

Check out this playlist, with links to the artist’s page where possible…

RFC V5 283

hour one
Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess “Love Me Not”
Erik Woods “Muse of the Loon” (Grimpyus)
Rocco DeLuca “Doctor’s Lament”
The Feeders “Permanent Blackout”
Thee Leviathans “The Lonely Esper”
Vinto Van Go “Ziggy Is An Alien”
Red Spot Rhythm Section “Fresh Air”
Julez and the Rollerz “Always Hard 4 U”
The Specials “Rat Race (live from the Cathedral)”
Sparks “All You Ever Think About Is Sex (Live On The Moon)”
Jim Lange “Velvet Memories Intro with Dialogue”
Magic Sands “Vaquero”
Matt Berry Trio “Everything’s Peachy Pt. 5”
The Tirith “Masters of Highways”

hour two
Best Dressed Ghost “Oyster City, Utah”
Todd Burge & Larry Groce “Corn Whiskey VS Hard Cider (Demo)”
Dr. John “Let ‘Em In”
Minor Swing “House of the Rising Sun”
Hardy Mums “The Almost Lovers”
The Anchoress “What You Did”
Stitch Jones and his Bionic Marines “Five Years”
Ghoulbox “Diggin’ You”
The Stranglers “Toiler On The Sea (live)”
Lene Lovich “Hold On To Love”
IDKHOW “Kiss Goodnight”
David Synn (featuring Across The Frostlands) “Duality”
Decomposing In Paris “Ambition”

hour three
Duck City Music ft. John Jigg$ prod. by Nam Nitty “Do It Again”
Superfetch “Funkytown (live)”
A Different Scene “Chocolate Milk Saturdays”
Nothing To Protect “and”
Stick Men “Komodo”
Renaissance “Things I Don’t Understand (live)”
Snowy White and The White Flames “The Finishing Touch”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM get ready for two classic episodes of The Swing Shift, featuring the best Swing Music from the last century!

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM,  Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursdays and Sundays.

Let’s pick up where we left off in our series of pastels based on a recent trip. It was during a slow meander through the South Side of Chicago, which is normally a brief part of the trip where Amtrak’s Cardinal rides on an elevated track, but for that particularly trip it took nearly an hour. .

Like the last two weeks, I used pastel crayons on texutred paper. This week we’re back in the railyard for a piece based on elements from several photos I took during this slow trip. It’s more of what I’ve been doing, combining scenes from this trip into compositions that I hope are somewhat artisitic.

Harkening back to my time spent studying the work of Hopper, I took advantage of the extreme early evening shadows and based this work on the crossing signal from one photo, the intermodal cars from another, the sky from a third, and the rest from a fourth.

It seems to have come out almost natural-looking.

If you want to see this image larger click HERE.

Meanwhile, over in radioland, Monday beginning at 2 PM on The AIR,  we bring you a classic episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM we do the same with an encore of a more recent episode of Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.

You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page. Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM. You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM.

Tonight at 8 PM, tune in for a classic edition of The Comedy Vault. That’s followed by two-hour blocks of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast at 9 PM and 11 PM, and then an overnight assortment of our Haversham Recording Institute programs at 1 AM.

All this week  have brought you marathons of The AIR‘s music specialty programming. Beginning at 7 AM today you will be able to immerse yourself in one last solid day, that’s twenty-four hours, of one particular program. To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

Beatles Blast is another show hosted by yours truly. I am a true Beatles fanatic, and putting together an hour of music by The Beatles, together and solo, along with cover tunes, songs by their relatives and music on which they guested is a complete labor of love for me.

Today’s marathon will bring you the best episodes from the last ten years of the show. You can hear Beatles Blast every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays throughout the following week and a mini-marathon Monday evening at 11 PM.

Because of the need to rest up after a long trip, Sunday Evening Video will take this week off.

If all goes according to plan, PopCult will return to normal Monday morning.

This week we go back to October, 2014, for our most recent “elaborate” Radio Free Charleston Halloween Special. I did another Halloween special the next year, but that one was exquisitely half-assed.

This is sort of appropriate now since Halloween Season seems to run from June to November now, so you can just slack off and enjoy it whenever.

For this show, which was shot at Mark Wolfe’s old house, I gathered some friends together and we did a framing skit with a Ouija board, and summoned up Mark also directed the host segments which featured me, Mark, Penny Maple, Kitty Killton and Mic Bradford. Our music is courtesy of The Jasons, Radio Cult, HARRAH and The Possum KIngdom Ramblers. Plus we have some quick and sloppy animation from yours truly.

You can read the detailed original production notes HERE,

All this week we have treated you to marathons of The AIR‘s music specialty programming.  Now we’re down to our last two, and we’re taking the weekend out with a bang! Beginning at 7 AM today you will be able to immerse yourself in a solid day, that’s twenty-four hours, of one particular program. To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page. 

Our newest Music Specialty Program, and one of the most well-received, Mel Larch’s MIRRORBALL celebrates the classic era of Disco music from the mid 1970s into the early 1980s. If it seems like we’re going to dance to the end of the world, why not do it while you’re shaking your booty?

The irony here is that MIRRORBALL sprang out of conversations Mel and I had in the car during an anniversary trip across Pennsylvania back in 2019.  That trip ended in Hershey for the toy show. This time the trip began in Hershey, and we traversed the state in the opposite direction.  since the plan is for us to arrive back at our humble abode today, this marathon sort of brings it all full circle.

MIRRORBALL can be heard every Friday at 2 PM with replays throughout the following week. In addition there is a weekly mini-marathon which will be changing nights in the near future,  but for now can be heard Saturday nights at 9 PM.

The PopCulteer
August 28, 2026

I’ve basically been off all week. Wednesday was the 12th anniversary of the day Mel Larch and I became husband and wife…

…on the stage at Steppenwolf Theatre, in Chicago. You can read about that HERE. To celebrate this year, we decided to go on an epic road trip, which is still in progress, and you’ll see pictures from it below.

Coincidentally, today is the 21st anniversary of the very first post in PopCult, so this blog is now old enough to drink…but won’t.

This week the Grim Reaper seems to have gotten into the sugar-coated crack stash, and we lost iconic figures in pop culture, Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, Yayoi Kusama, Peter Cullen (the voice of Optimus Prime), and Jaye P. Morgan, all of whom deserve more elaborate write-ups than what I’m doing here. That’s on top of the passing two weeks ago of Len Brown, co-creator of Mars Attacks, The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and Wacky Packages, who I interviewed several times for Non Sport Update.

I’ll have to make up for lost time once I’m back at the office.

The rest of this column will bring you teaser images from some of the stops on our trips. Many of these stops will get entire photo essays of their own in the coming weeks.

We began our trip at The Hershey Action Figure and Toy Show in Hershey, PA. Expect photos and a video next week.

The next day, on the way to Akron, we stopped at Pottery City in East Liverpool, Ohio.

They had tons of FiestaWare.

While in Akron (my first visit) I bought DEVO records. I mean, I had to.

The hotel in Akron had fancy-ass toilet paper.

Tuesday’s trip to take the FiestaWare Factory Tour, sadly became a video tour, but we still had a great time, and now have an excuse to go back again.

After the video tour, a quick trip across the river, back to East Liverpool, took us to the Museum of Ceramics. Expect a photo essay. That place was epic.

Anniversary day, and matching zodiac bracelets. Awww.

Also anniversary day, aside from a trip to Ikea (see the feature image), we went to the Vinegar Syndrome store in Pittsburgh.

The next day we made our first trip to the Warhol Museum, thanks to my sister, Debbie, and nephew, Gino.

Here’s Debbie, Gino and Me, leaning into the Warhol. For copyright reasons, we can’t bring you a full photo essay from the Warhol, but I will be writing more about how cool it is.

Our trip is not over yet, but that’s just a taste of the fun we’ve had. It’s also this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for fresh content every day, plus all our regular features, and a couple more days of marathons on The AIR.

All this week we have brought you marathons of The AIR‘s music specialty programming. Beginning at 7 AM today you will be able to immerse yourself in a solid day, that’s twenty-four hours, of one particular program. To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.   

Legendary London DJ Sydney Fileen presents another program from the Haversham Recording Institute, Sydney’s Big Electric Cat.

This two hour weekly megadose of pure New Wave music will whisk you back to the days of neon, skinny ties, big hair, Swatch watches, and Farfisa organs.

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat can be heard every Friday at 3:00 PM, with repeats throughout the following week.

All this week we’ve been exposing you to marathons of The AIR‘s music specialty programming. Beginning at 7 AM today you will be able to immerse yourself in yet another solid day, that’s twenty-four hours, of one particular program. To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.   

Today our marathon is devoted The Swing Shift. After two very well-received episodes of Radio Free Charleston International devoted to Swing Music, I decided to go all-in and do an all-Swing program. This also tied in with some nice synergy involving our music license, and now The Swing Shift is among our most-listened-to programs.

Not a lot of folks knew that Swing Music, in addition to The Beatles, New Wave, Prog and Ska, is a passion of mine.

The Swing Shift is a weekly one-hour show that mixes together the best swing music from the last century into a concise, swinging, blast of jumpin’ music. We mix Swing hsitory with brand-new music and even some genre-bending experiments…but they all still Swing.

The Swing Shift can normally be heard Tuesdays at 3 PM, with replays throughout the week and overnight marathons Thursday and Sunday beginning at midnight.