Not to step on Brooke’s toes, but I had a dining experience Tuesday night that I felt was worth mentioning.  I had the worst meal I’ve ever paid for.  I’m not going to beat a dead horse, although the chicken I had tasted sort of like it may have been used to beat a dead horse, but let me go on record: I will never eat at The Power Alley Grill again, even for free.

Memo to the Power Alley Grill: Bruschetta and Salsa ARE NOT THE SAME FOOD! Bruschetta does NOT have taco sauce in it. Also, salads are supposed to arrive BEFORE the main course, not after. ”We were taking an extra twenty minutes to make sure that your chicken was burned so badly that you can’t tell whether or not it’s boneless” is not a good excuse for the meal taking so long to prepare.

That is all.

For the second week in a row, our Monday Morning Art features a musician who will appear on this week’s episode of Radio Free Charleston.  If you think that this is because producing a weekly webshow is eating into my art-making time, you may well be correct!Check out my digital painting of Mark Bates and The Vacancies. You can even hear a song by them right here.  That ought to get you all riled up for RFC 47, with Mark Bates and The Vacancies and The Diablo Blues Band.  Look for it Wednesday!

But there’s another reason for us to feature Mark Bates.  Starting tonight, Mark will be hosting the acoustic jam sessions at Heathen’s Bar in South Charleston (above Romeo’s, on Seventh Avenue near D Street).  So go chill out and listen to the acoustical wonders, or bring your own guitar and join in!

I have been slacking off big-time this summer when it comes to my Cafepress stores. However, you are now able to cruise over to the Monday Morning Art Cafepress store and purchase this image on a variety of garments and fine trinketry.   I’m also offering the images from the last two weeks in the store, as well.  All of the artwork that I created for Emily haynes last Spring will be available from the PopCult Cafepress store at least through the end of summer. All proceeds will go to Emily, as will proceeds from the Monday Morning Art store.  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. Follow the jump for a look at the previous two week’s worth of art, and be sure to click on the images for larger versions.

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This week’s video is a bit of instant journamalism courtesy of your loyal PopCult Blogger.  Friday night I attended the Randy Lee Walden Memorial Jam at The Blue Parrot.  Over six hundred dollars was raised for Randy’s son, Jack.  The entire night was memorable as all the bands came out to pay tribute to their fallen friend.  Johnny “Hurricane” Compton, a member of The Diablo Blues Band, who will appear on Radio Free Charleston this Wednesday, turned in one of the most emotional sets I’ve ever witnessed.  When he wrapped up with a cover of Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Simple Man,” there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Tonight’s video, presented in glorious low-fi, as shot on my digital still camera, is from earlier in the set, when Johnny covered Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors.”

We’ll have photos from Randy’s Memorial show, and the rest of the PopCult weekend late Monday afternoon.

Punk Jazz bassist Eli Namay literally knocked out the audience with his virtuosity at the Empty Glass last night.

There are so many cool things happening this weekend that we had to start early.  Last night at the Sound Factory, people came out to pay tribute to the late Derick Kirk, with music from Comparsa, The VooDoo Katz, Ryan Kennedy and others.  Across town at The Empty Glass, your loyal PopCulter and his Diva, Melanie, were in attendance at the final performance by Chuck Biel’s Punk Jazz, which is disbanding on the exit of virtuoso bassist Eli Namay, who’s winging off to Musical Super-Hero Academy in the fall. 

It was an evening of incredible music, the likes of which we simply do not get enough of here in town.  Chuck Biel was tearing off progressive riffs like a madman while Eli was channeling Jaco Pastorius and Casi Null filled the air with inventive chords.  Drummer Jimmy Holly kept the beat even though he was dealing with time signatures that looked like algebraic equations.  Chuck will be taking a year off from performing following his final gig with the Underdog Blues Revue next Saturday, and it’s going to be a long wait to see what he cooks up in his musical lab during his time away from prying public ears. 

And that was just Thursday! Full details on the rest of this busy weekend follow after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The 46th episode of Radio Free Charleston is online now! Rush on over to watch it.  This installment features full songs from Casi Null (singing about the infamous Blue Haze) and Dog Soldier (singing about the infamous Christmas).  We also have parts of songs from future RFC guests The Buttonflies (in the 120 Second Art Show) and The Diablo Blues Band (over the end credits). 

The host segments were shot in and around the Hansford Art House just last Friday, and I’ll tell you why my performance was so inept on the other side of the jump, along with photos and more details on the production of RFC 46, “Charleston The Opera Shirt.” 

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Our Monday Morning Art this week is a digital painting of Casi Null, who coincidentally is one of the guests on Radio Free Charleston 46, which you ought to be able to watch tomorrow.  In fact, that’s when I’ll have time to update the Monday Morning Art store, too, so get off my back about slacking off and not updating it for a month already. 

And watch the show.  It features Casi with her song “Blue Haze,” Dog Soldier and snippets of songs from The Buttonflies and The Diablo Blues Band.  Be sure to catch it. It’s a good ‘un.

Y’know, I had a stellar weekend. Friday night we shot host segments for Radio Free Charleston 46 at the Hansford Art House Exhibit, then we recorded Mark Bates and The Vacancies at The Blue Parrot and The Diablo Blues Band at The Empty Glass for RFC number 48.  Saturday saw Melanie and I sitting in the front yard at Stephen and Amee Beckner’s house in Elkview watching a barrage of cool clips that Stephen had compiled featuring gunplay, chases, fight scenes and sexual tension.  We capped the evening by watching an absolutely horrible Turkish Superman movie (my contribution, I’m afraid).

So in honor of my beautiful weekend, tonight’s video clip is DEVO’s classic, “Beautiful World.” 

Photos plus a recap of the PopCult weekend follow, after the jump.

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For more details read Bill Lynch’s article in The Gazz right here.

July 11, Mark Bates and his band, The Vacancies bring their Earthy Alternative sound to The Blue Parrot.  As a special preview, PopCult presents a preview song right here for your listening pleasure.  “Spiral Down,” is a wonderful mid-tempo ballad that sounds for all the world like a lost track from rock legends, The Band.  This tasty slice of Americana ought to be enough to entice you to come out Friday night.  The band starts playing at 10 PM. The cover is a mere five bucks, and if all goes according to plan, the RFC crew will be on hand to record a couple of numbers for upcoming shows.

Until then, listen to this great song,

“Spiral Down” by Mark Bates and The Vacancies

“Sprial Down” by Mark Bates and The Vacancies.

Above, Mark Bates (center) and The Vacancies.

We jump into the post-holiday-hangover week with “Urban Landing,” a digital painting over a digitally-assaulted photograph.  It’ll be later Monday before this post gets updated with the clickable links to larger images and the Cafepress stores, so in the meantime, be sure to scroll down and check the last several posts.   We had a huge Fourth of July announcement, which nobody has seen yet, because it was a holiday or something.  Plus there’s the second of our Sunday evening YouTube clips.  It’s a new feature I forgot to mention I was starting.  Go read the heck out of ‘em!