I don’t usually get political here in PopCult, but today the election coverage has encroached on my turf and I’m a little miffed. I have to say that I’m disgusted at the tone of the mainstream media coverage of the West Virginia Democratic Primary race between Senators Clinton and Obama.

We hardly get any attention from the national media here in the Mountain State. Basically, unless there’s a coal mine disaster or a flood the media tends to think of the entire state as as suburb of Richmond. For the first time in a long time, West Virginia’s role in the primary process actually matters, and the media, as personified by the 24/7 cable news outlets, has decided to frame the election in this state in the following way: West Virginia voters are racist, because they will likely vote for Sen. Clinton over Sen. Obama.

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We kick off this rocky primary election week with something that many a young person’s mind turns to at this time of year….wieners!  Our art this week is “Burnt Weenies,” a digital painting of a close look at nascent hotdoggery a-roastin’ on whatever it is that they call those metal rotating thingies.  You can almost imagine pressing your nose against the glass before you realize that it’s scalding hot and you probably shouldn’t have done that. This edition of Monday Morning Art is dedicated to the late Frank Zappa, who once titled an album “Burnt Weenie Sandwich.”  Twenty years and a couple of months ago I had the privilege of seeing Mr. Zappa perform in Pittsburgh.  Later this month, Zappa’s former sideman, Ike Willis, will bring his Zappa Tribute to The Empty Glass. They should serve wieners that night, in honor of the event.  

 As is the norm, clickedy-click the image for a larger version.  The internet gods willing, you can cruise over to the Monday Morning Art Cafepress store and purchase this image on a variety of garments and fine trinketry.    Also, all of the artwork for Emily will be available from the PopCult Cafepress store at least through the end of summer. All proceeds will go to Emily.  I’m also working on hooking up with a local gallery to sell prints of this work, again with all the proceeds going to my friend Emily and her family. 

Word came over the weekend that Gene Colan, the artist most associated with the Howard The Duck comic book, is hospitalized, suffering from liver failure. This is just a couple of months after the death of Howard’s creator and writer, Steve Gerber (a major influence on your humble PopCult blogger).

While Colan made a huge mark with Howard, he had a long career in comics before and after. Most notably a lenghty run on Marvel Comic’s “Tomb Of Dracula” in the 1970s. Colan also served stints as the main artist on Daredevil, Iron Man, and Dr. Strange, among many other Marvel stalwarts. Jumping to DC Comics in the 1980s, Colan lent his talents to Batman and Wonder Woman. It was around this time that he crafted two creator-owned series with writer Don McGregor: Nathaniel Dusk, a Private Eye comic, and Ragamuffins, about a group of children. These series were reproduced directly from Colan’s pencilled pages, skipping the industry standard of employing other artists to “finish” the artwork in ink. Colan was legendary for the quality of his pencilled pages, which often were obliterated by less talented inkers.

For more information on Gene Colan and his current health crisis, check out Mark Evanier’s blog. He reports that a benefit project is in the works. PopCult sends best wishes to Gene and his family.

A day late, but that was due to internet gremlins on top of  a hectic, but wonderful, weekend.  Today’s attempt at art is called “Looking.”  I called it that because it’s gots eyes all up in it. There’s a deep metaphysical explanation about what it means, but if I told you, then hundreds of years from now nobody will write a book about it.  You know, “The Panucci Code,” which will explain that Barry Allen (The Flash) didn’t really die, but instead survived the Crisis On Infinite Earths and moved to France, where he raised a family while his neighbors looked on and said, ”Ze Americans, zey are always een such a rush!”

As you can tell, I’m very tired.  After the jump, I’ll tell you about the cool weekend music and events, but first, surf on over to the Cafepress Stores to buy this week’s art.  Below the virtual fold, you can also see some of the component pieces that went into this week’s artwork.

As is the norm, clickedy-click the image for a larger version.  The internet gods willing, you can cruise over to the Monday Morning Art Cafepress store and purchase this image on a variety of garments and fine trinketry.    Also, all of the artwork for Emily will be available from the PopCult Cafepress store at least through the end of summer. All proceeds will go to Emily.  I’m also working on hooking up with a local gallery to sell prints of this work, again with all the proceeds going to my friend Emily and her family. 

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Click the image above to watch “IWA East Coast Shirt,” the latest episode of Radio Free Charleston.   This music-packed show features A Place Of Solace, Holden Caulfield, and from Nashville, special guests The Coal Men. 

We also have an announcement from The Concept, and a short burst of animation from my brother Frank.  I host from Davis Park, using a real microphone this time, so that the giant Air Conditioner on Capitol Street doesn’t drown me out like it did back in episode four.

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Friends of PopCult and RFC are appearing all over town Friday and Saturday, so you’ll have to make some tough choices while gorging yourself at the entertainment buffet.   There’s music, comedy, and a benefit for the owner of one of the favorite watering holes of the denizens of TheGazz.com. 

First up, Andy Park, a member of The VooDoo Katz and future solo guest on RFC will be performing Friday night at Taylor Books at 7 PM.   Andy’s an impressive songwriter and it’s always a treat to hear him at his singer/songwriter best.   The next day, Andy will be at Bluegrass Kitchen at 6 PM, so you can grab a fine dinner along with the cool music.  There’s no cover for either night.

If you’re more in the mood to laugh your pants off, Friday is National No Pants Day, and The No Pants Players celebrate by opening a two-night stand at the La Belle Theater.   Six bucks gets you in the door for an evening of fun improv games with West Virginia’s Improv Troupe. 

On a more serious note, Kay Dillon, owner of O’Kays (formerly Blues BBQ) has had a family tragedy.  Her son was injured in an accident in Thailand, and a benefit is being held to raise money to send her over there to take care of him.  A $10 minimum donation is requested. There will be door prizes, food, beer specials and live music.   Buckstone, The Carpenter Ants, Joe Prichard and The Barkoloungers are on the bill, along with The Clementines, who you can see performing in the clip below.  

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/NRGLPYIXM1Q" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

And that’s just Friday.  Check back tomorrow for details on a full day of music on Saturday!

We kick off the week in PopCult (a few hours late) with yet another digital painting, this time an excercise in mucking with the geometric application of the negative image filter to what was a piece that I was less than happy with.  You can see the original on the other side of the jump, along with news on the next Radio Free Charleston and stuff coming up at PopCult this week.   Anyway, this here painting dates back to the batch of stuff I created for the Emily Haynes benefit.  It’s not part of that series, but proceeds from this will go to still go to Emily and her family, so go over to the Cafepress stores and max out your credit cards. It’s for a good cause.  As I write this, it’s looking like Cafepress is having technical issues, but go over there anyway and buy some stuff. This image will go up over there as soon as we can make it so.

As is the norm, clickedy-click the image for a larger version.  The internet gods willing, you can cruise over to the Monday Morning Art Cafepress store and purchase this image on a variety of garments and fine trinketry.    Also, all of the artwork for Emily will be available from the PopCult Cafepress store at least through the end of summer. All proceeds will go to Emily.  I’m also working on hooking up with a local gallery to sell prints of this work, again with all the proceeds going to my friend Emily and her family. 

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Okay, I held off on this one for an extra day so I could wallow in more nostalgia.  This week’s art is a flyer for the Earth Day 1990 concert that Radio Free Charleston sponsored, along with the group Project Earth on the campus of West Virginia State College (before it grew up and became a University).  This was a high-water mark for the radio incarnation of RFC.   I had to pull off promoting a concert on short notice with absolutely no support from the station management.  By this point, the acting general manager was openly hostile towards RFC, and the program director was more interested in sacrificing the show so he could wrest the GM’s job away than he was in helping the station actually make money.

But we pulled off a huge event.  Seven bands took the stage at the Davis Fine Arts building. In between we had speakers and low-level bottom-feeding politicians, some of whom brought their own hecklers (whatever happened to David Grubb, anyway?).  Campus security told me that, by their count, close to two thousand people drifted through the Davis building during the course of the eight-hour show.  I was interviewed by WCHS TV (by a very young Tim Irr, in fact, back in his cub reporter days).  Somehow we managed to provide free Gino’s Pizza and Pepsi products for the audience–who got in free. 

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This week we’re taking a look back at the last couple of month’s worth of Monday Morning Art.  We’ve been presenting seven pieces that I created for the March 2 benefit concert for Emily Gunter-Haynes, who is suffering from a variety of ailments.  Time constraints prevented us from getting this group of digital paintings ready in time for the show, so I decided to hijack Monday Morning Art, and the Monday Morning Art Cafepress store to try and raise a few extra bucks for the cause.

Since we had technical issues that prevented last week’s art, “Detail Work,” from getting uploaded until this weekend, I decided to take a week to look back.  Also, all of this artwork will be available from the PopCult Cafepress store at least through the end of summer. All proceeds will go to Emily.  I’m also working on hooking up with a local gallery to sell prints of this work, again with all the proceeds going to my friend Emily and her family. 

If any of this work strikes your fancy, please take the time to surf on over to the Cafepress store and pick up a shirt, poster, or card.  Stay tuned to PopCult as we bring you more information on ways to help out Emily during this trying time.

Follow the jump for a detailed look at each piece. 

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Several RFC regulars have cool stuff going on this weekend that you can rush out and enjoy!

Radio Free Charleston’s Resident Diva, Melanie Larch, along with No Pants Player Kevin Pauley, are both featured in the Kanawha Player’s production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”  This story of the Salem witch trials was a thinly-disguised analog to the “Red Scare” of the McCarthy era HUAC hearings, but today, you can see a whole new layer of relevance to paranoia of the current administration. 

“The Crucible” starts at the Civic Center Little Theater tonight at 8 PM. Tickets are sixteen dollars, with student discounts available.  

In Huntington tonight, RFC guests Holden Caulfield hold court at Club Echo with three other area bands. The cover is five bucks, and the show starts at 10 PM.

Tomorrow night, RFC’s adopted nephews The Concept invade the Boom Boom Room (formerly The Brickhouse) in St. Albans along with The Excitement and Pittsburgh band The Composure.  The all-ages show begins at 5:30, and I will be there.  Cover is eight meager dollars. 

Later Saturday, The Compusure and The Concept take the stage at the Blue Parrot with Meuwl and B. Rude.  That show kicks off at 10 PM, and the cover is five bucks, I think.