PopCult

Tuesday is always a great day to tune into The AIR  and today we prove it with a new episode of Radio Free Charleston AND a new edition of The Swing Shift, too!  Both of these shows were recorded very late Monday/Early Tuesday because the leaf blower fairy decided to grace my neighborhood with its presence. 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 we open with a full hour of the best local aind independent music that we can get our grubby little fingers on, and then we present the sixth episode of Radio Free Charleston Voume Four from just over a decade ago.

But back to that first hour…we open with brand-new music from Option 22.  These are the folks who created CultureFest and the Riff Raff Artist’s Collective in Princeton, West Virginia, making that area a hotbed of creativity in the state. I first recorded them for the video incarnation of RFC back during FestivALL in 2009, and it’s wonderful to have new music from these elcectic artists. The song you hear this week is the first of a trilogy of new releases.You’ll hear the second installment next week, and you can follow the link in the playlist below to learn more about this new work.

Our first hour is also packed with new music fom William Matheny, Squeeze, GRPPLNG, The Heavy Hitters and The Claypool Lennon Delirium, plus we have more local favorites and a tribute to Frank Zappa’s vocal/guitar sideman, Ike Willis, who passed away last week. Ike used to perform regularly at The Empty Glass and he was much loved by music fans in the area.

Our second and third hours bring you one of the early episodes of RFC Volume Four that hasn’t been recycled yet. It’s a nice way to keep the local music from a decade ago in circulation, while giving your humble blogger time to get ready for WonderFest this weekend.

Check out this playlist, with links to the artist’s page, in the first hour…

RFC V5 270

hour one
Option 22 “Calling In Awakenings”
William Matheny “Mercy Journeys”
Tunesmiths “Love Makes Me Feel This Way”
The Moon My Twin “Martyr”
Chvrches “Such Great Heights”
Squeeze “Hell on Earth”
GRPPLNG “Hellbound”
The Heavy Hitters “Voicemail (Classroom Concert)”
The Claypool Lennon Delirium “The Golden Egg of Empathy”
The MFB “Funky Bunz”
Frank Zappa with Ike Willis “Stairway To Heaven”
Jim Lange “Roger Zero G”

hour two
John Radcliff “Muse”
Todd Burge “Longer”
The Nanker Phelge “I’m Coming Home”
Kevin Scarbrough “Divorce”
The Company Stores “Rollin’ In”
Hellblinki “Row”
Bud Carroll “I’m No Stranger”
Mark Bates and the Vacancies “Spiral Down”
Astromoth “Paranoia Swing, Swing”
John Lancaster “Water Under A Burning Bridge”
Stone Ka Tet “Patton’s Blues”
Science of the Mind “Kaoss”
Stark Raven “Every Time You Say Goodbye”
John Palumbo “Walk On The Wild Side”
Scarlet Hill “Where is Your Heart Tonight”

hour three
Under Surveillance “More Than Words”
Sheldon Vance “Strength To Let It Go”
The Laser Beams “Everybody Knows”
QiET “The Indie Song”
John Palumbo “Dancing Back To Motown”
Dave Roberts “Dreaming In Drift”
From The Future “Cool Taco”
Neil Zaza “Take On Me”
Stephanie Deskins “When You Come Around”
Decomposing in Paris “He Loves Me”
Ouralias “Too Gone”
Jordan Andrew Jefferson “Borderline”
Jordan Andrew Jefferson “Goodbye Hello Goodnight”

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 a new edition of The Swing Shift. This episode is loaded with Swing, some of it found in unlikely places. Check out the playlist…

The Swing Shift 181

Lou Rawls “You’re The One”
Oliver Nelson “Hoe-Down”
Basilic Swing “Hora Nicusor”
Rod Stewart & Jools Holland “Good Rockin’ Tonight”
Benny Carter “Gin & Jive”
The Boswell Sisters “Was That the Human Thing To Do”
Joe Newman “Corner Pocket”
Tyler Pedersen “Been There Before”
The Sazerac Swingers “We Put The Jazz Back In Jazz”
Squirrel Nut Zippers “Where The Wild hings Go”
Paul Carrack “How Long”
The Dutch Swing College Band “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home”
June Christy “Stompin’ At The Savoy”
Nat King Cole “Hit That Jive Jack”
Claude Bolling Big Band “Ballet Of The Flyin’ Saucers”
The Mills Brothers “It Don’t Mean A Thing”

 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.

This week’s art is a color study for a probable future painting based on several quick photos I grabbed while crossing the Silver Memorial Bridge a couple of weeks ago (as a passenger–I’m not some kind of madman, y’know). No Mothmen were seen in the area, so we felt pretty confident as we zoomed over the Mighty Ohio River.

This was done, very quickly, on a small piece of illustration board with acrylics. If it seems like I’ve been on a sky-painting kick lately, that’s probably because I’ve been on a sky-painting kick lately.

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 new episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM we do the same with 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.

At 2 PM, Nigel Pye brings us an hour of mind-expanding psychedelica, with a few epic-length tunes thrown into the mix. Check out the playlist…

Psychedelic Shack 111

Julian Cope “The Way Luv Is”
Fleetwood Mac “Albatross”
Pink Floyd “Atom Heart Mother”
The Merseys “Sorrow”
Sandy Denny “It Suits Me Well”
The Claypool Lennnon Delirium “It’s A Wrap”

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.

At 3 PM, Herman Linte brings you a two-hour mixtape of David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy, the albums, Low, Heroes and Lodger. He didn’t offer up a playlist, but he said that it’s vital that you listen to the entire program in a dark room,  preferably while smoking and drinking Absinthe.

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.

Next weekend is the weekend after Memorial Day, and that means that it’s time for WonderFest USA in Louisville. Mr. and Mrs PopCulteer are planning to attend for the third year in a row, and to get ready we’re going to re-share some videos from previous years. It’ll be fun to check out (and photograph) all the cool model kit builds, and it’ll be cool to see William Stout and Greg Nicotero again and we also have a book or two we want to buy from Anthony Taylor, just like last year.

We had talked about skipping this year’s show because they hadn’t announced that Greg Nicotero was going to be there yet, but before they did, I decided that I really wanted to go so I could talk to the folks at the various model companies about the upcoming repros of Monster Scenes and Prehistoric Scenes model kits, and check out some garage kits that are compatible with those series.

And then the day after Mel made our hotel reservations, it was announced that Nicotero was going to be there anyway, so…win-win for us! Of course I’ll be taking plenty of photos of the model contest and other cool stuff to share with you here in PopCult.

You can read  more about this year’s show HERE, and check out our videos above and below.

This week we go back to late July, 2013, for an edition of Radio Free Charleston that was intended to promote that year’s ShockaCon, which happened two months later. Radio Free Charleston 188, “NU-TRA Shirt,” welcomed back two old friends to the show, but also showcased them in two venues which hadn’t been on our show before. We also had the first of a new batch of Frank Panucci’s compilations of public domain footage. The main thrust of this episode was to raise awareness of ShockaCon, which was coming up in less than two months for its second-go round.

Among the bands who performed at ShockaCon that year were our musical guests, The Nanker Phelge and HarraH. We recorded The Nanker Phelge at the still-being-built performance space at Dunbar Lanes. We got a cool punk vibe capturing the band in a venue that was far from renovated, and it’s a real shame that Dunbar Lanes didn’t get a fair chance to continue, since the completed venue was such a great place to catch live music. We recorded HARRAH at the ECMC “Kick Cancer For Kids” benefit show at the Eagles Club on Charleston’s West Side.

And you might as well get used to see our dear friend, the late Lee Harrah, in this feature. He was all over the show at this time, in front of and behind the camera.

You can find the full production notes for this episode HERE.

The PopCulteer
May 22, 2026

The PopCult Comix Bookshelf

Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin
by Evan Dorkin
Dark Horse Books
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1506753058
$34.99

I have been a fan of cartoonist/writer, Evan Dorkin, for nearly forty years, which is amazing, considering that he doesn’t have the decency to be older than I am. Even more amazing…and something I consider a huge failing on my part, is that I have only mentioned him three times before this in the twenty-plus years of PopCult.

I mean, he checks off all the boxes: He’s a terrific cartoonist with a cult following; He brilliantly lampoons nerd culture; He’s written for Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Crayon Shin-Chan: On top of all that, when Adult Swim produced a pilot for a series based on his Eltingville Club stories, he got The Aquabats to do the opening and closting themes.

Now, I get the chance to make up for lost time by telling you about this fairly comprehensive collection of his solo works. Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin collects just about every bit of creator-owned work that he’s produced over the last four decades.

It’s almost 650 pages of biting satire, brilliant cartooning, snark, adventure, more snark, hilarity and a touch more snark.

In this thick collection you get nearly every issue of Milk and Cheese (Gone Bad), Dork and The Eltingville Club, along with several stray comic strips done for other magazines over the years.

These mature-readers comics mine the rich pop culture landfill for gut-busting takes on everything from Ska to Punk to Comic Book Stores, Sitcoms, Action Movies and anything else that has happened in the last sixty years or so.

In addition to the adventures of Milk and Cheese, we also get to read about the extremely nerdy adventures of The Eltingville Club, and sitcom antics of The Murder Family plus the arcane wisdom of The Invisible College of Secret Knowledge. Plus there are hundreds of one-page gag strips and other gems.

This is all done with top-flight cartooning and a skill for riffing on pop culture that rivals the best of the MST3K crew.

This book is filled with hilarious takes on things like the surprising fates of Goofy Grape and The Cruchberry Beast, and side references to how Del Shannon almost became a Traveling Wilbury. This is a book that will evoke howls of recognition with its rich tapestry of all things nerdy, along with some very dark humor, biting satire and pure silliness.

Let me quote the publisher’s blurb:

Collecting the Milk and Cheese, Eltingville Club, and Dork by Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz award-winning comics creator Evan Dorkin. Collected for the first time in an affordable omnibus edition.

The entire Eltingville Club saga. Every Milk and Cheese comic. All the fun strips, gag panels and stories from Dork.

The entire shebang is now available in one big-ass Omnibus edition, a staggering display of satire, silliness, and stupidity featuring all the Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz award-winning humor comics by semi-esteemed and somewhat-beloved cartoonist Evan Dorkin. It’s going to sell out and you will cry if you don’t get a copy, so get to it, kids (This message was approved by Evan’s therapist).

Nerd Inferno is an epic collection of Dorkin’s best solo works, and it belongs in every home, even those where the people inside won’t read it. It’s really thick and heavy and has many uses beyond simply containing hysterical comic strips.

I also need to mention the contributions of Sarah Dyer, Dorkin’s wife, colorist and sometime collaborator, and also a great cartoonist in her own right. Hopefully we get an omnibus of her work soon.

You can find Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin at particularly hip comic book stores and booksellers, or you can have any bookseller order it, using the ISBN code…or take the lazy way out and get it from Amazon, who don’t even have the humanity to have a discount on it as I write this.

That is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content and all our regular features.

Just before Memorial Day, 2016, I ran the following post here as an essay in The PopCulteer.  Ten years on, folks are still asking me to re-post it, so I figured today is a good day for that, with the holiday weekend looming again. This is mostly as it was originally written, with a few typos corrected and some info updated. 

 It’s a short PopCulteer this week as your loyal correspondent doesn’t really have much to say.

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and while there is a ton of stuff happening in and around Charleston, this is a holiday weekend that doesn’t really affect me that much. Let me explain.

When I was growing up, Memorial Day always meant traumatic and stressful running around for my family. My aunts and uncles and grandmother all had family buried all over the state. They were all hung up on going out each year and decorating the graves. it was a major family obligation. The graves absolutely had to have new (plastic) flowers every Memorial Day, even though we didn’t have a lot of military folks in the family. By the time I came along the holiday had evolved (devolved?) from its original intent to honor veterans and had turned in a generic “honor all dead folks” day, an economic stimulus for florists and Chinese plastic flower factories.

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The big things going on in Charleston this Memorial Day Weekend include the return of Live On The Levee, and the beginning of FestivALL.  but that’s not all of the cool STUFF TO DO all over and just beyond the borders of the state, to tell you about, noted as briefly as possible.  This weekend is cram-packed with stuff all over Charleston this weekend, so for ful details please follow the links provided.

FestivALL kicks off with the Pride Window displays on Wednesday, and ArtWalk plus a drum circle at Slack Plaza in Charleston on Thursday. This year FestivALL been restored to cover ten days over two full weekends. You can find the whole schedule HERE.

Also this weekend, at the WV State Capitol Grounds, we have The Vandalia Gathering.

And Live On The Levee is back with a full slate of shows this year, beginning Friday with Bruce Springsteen’s great, great grandaughter (not really…I have to throw jokes into these posts to keep myself amused).

Again, I’m just scratching the surface here. Please don’t think this is all we have to offer.

As always, you should remember that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.  Also, if you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future, even if your promotional graphic uses cruddy AI slop art, 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.

We are very happy to remind you that 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.

Most weekends you can find live music at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and Friday and Saturday shows start at 7:30 PM.  Many Sunday afternoons at 2 PM they also have live music. This weekend they have music from Emmy Davis on Friday and Sean Richardson, Brooke Brown and Sean Knisely on Saturday.

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.

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. Friday at 6:30 PM you can attend and even perform at their popular Open Mic Night.

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.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for local events happening over the next several days that I was able to scrounge up online…

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

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After a rare two-week break, we return this week with a new episode of Radio Free Charleston on Tuesdays on The AIR.  Our reruns this past couple of weeks were both great episodes, and each one included an hour of cool surf music…and now that we’re back pressing our nose to the grindstone, I decided to give you TWO HOURS of Surf Music this week, as a super-special bonus for taking time off.  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.

We open our show with an hour of great new local, independent and cult-following music that includes almost exclusively-new or newly-released tunes. You get local  stuff from Blue Twisted Steel, David Synn, The Tunesmiths, Cricketman, The Apurna Project, The Moon My Twin and Ghoulbox.  Indie tracks come our way from Stratifaction Music and Sirius Blueray, The Anchoress, Chvrches, James McCartney, and more.

Our second and third hours are devoted to Surf Music. You’ll hear tons of new and innovative surf tracks as well as some of the seminal classics of the form.  It took a while to get back in the groove of doing a show this week, but I think the end result is pretty epic.

The links in the playlist will take you to the pages for the artists in this week’s show where possible…

RFC V5 269

hour one
Blue Twisted Steel “Eternal Fire”
Stratifaction Music, Sirius Blueray and David Synn “Inside The Tarot”
The Apurna Project “Treading Forward (demo)”
The Anchoress featuring Eaves Wilder “Damsels”
Chvrches “Addicted To Love”
Peter Frampton “Carry The Light”
Cricketman “Love Song”
James McCartney “I’ll Say what I Want To”
The Tunesmiths “Totally To You”
Linda Perry “Push Me In The River”
The Moon My Twin “Posession”
The Holler Hounds “I Am The Man”
Tori Amos “Gasoline Girls”
Ghoulbox “JuJu Bag”
David Synn featuring Across the Frostlands “Duality (The Choice)”

hour two
I. Jeziak and The Surfers “The Swell”
GOONS “Land Of A Thousand Crimes”
Shorty’s Swingin’ Coconuts “Theme From Star Trek”
The Ventures “Hawaii Five-O”
The Pornadoes “Rail Ripper (Surf Theme from Isle of the Forbidden)”
The Other Timelines “Deckard’s Dilemma”
GWAR “Surf of Syn”
Guitarmy of One “Zombie Detectives Lurk for Work”
The Surfrajettes “Lickity Split”
Thee Leviathans “Unholy Mackeral”
The Tikiyaki Orchestra “Hit It Shorty”
The Volcanics “Booby Trap”
Los Grainders “Buff”
The Tentakills “Escape From Bermuda”
Dark Entities “March of the Skulls”
Lords of Atlantis “Leading Edge”
The Madeira “Caravela”
Test Subject 17 “Patient Zero”
The Jagaloons “Disco Volante

hour three
The Routes “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
The Wipeouters “Wounded Surfer”
Messer Chups “Model”
Dick Dale “Lonesome Road”
The Surfaris “Wipe Out”
The Chantays “Pipeline”
The Sunrays “I Live For The Sun”
Disco Circus “Barbara Ann”
Jim And The Sea Dragons “Aqua Regia”
The 4D Man “Revenge of the Gamma People”
The Sentinals “Latin’ia”
The Shadows “Guitar Tango”
The Trashmen “Surfin’ Bird”
The Beach Boys “Boogie Woodie”
Wall of Voodoo “Don’t Spill My Courage”
The Rivieras “California Sun”
The Markett’s “Out of Limits”

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.

 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.

This week’s art is inspired by a series of photos I took with my phone while I was a passenger riding up Route 35 on our way to wonderful adventures last weekend.

Mel asked what I was taking pictures of, and I replied, “Nothing.” Then I thought for a moment, and said, “But it sure looks beautiful.”

I grabbed elements from several of those photos and used them as inspiration for this acrylic on illustration board painting.

It isn’t really anything, but it sure looks nice. It’s also a return to working in color with paint for the first time in a month or so.

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 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.

Above you see an episode of The Midnight Special from November, 1973.  This departure episode was hosted by David Bowie from London England with his 1980 Floor Show and special guest appearance by Carmen, Dooshenka, Marianne Faithfull and The Troggs.

I think this was the first time I ever saw Bowie on television. This is widely considered one of the most important post-Beatles TV appearances in Rock N Roll history.