The Empty Glass is the cornerstone of Charleston’s music scene. Beloved by all (except for the occasional pyromaniacal internet crank), The Glass has been the site of many an amazing musical experience.  The video you see at the head of this post is a collection of clips from Radio Free Charleston that were recorded at The Empty Glass.

Below, you will find a widget for the Kickstarter page to help fund Empty Glass Records, a new record label which will capture some of these one-of-a-kind live performances and make them available for music lovers everywhere. The Glass is trying to raise enough cash to purchase some additional equipment that will allow them to upgrade the recording capabilities of the bar.

In the past, The Empty Glass has been the location for recordings by Unknown Hinson, Big Jack Johnson, Zach Deputy and more.  There are several cool incentives for donating, including free CDs, VIP cards and recording sessions.  This is not charity–you get a pretty good bang for your buck, if you love live music or frequent the Empty Glass.

After the jump, we have more videos from the Glass, including an entire episode of Radio Free Charleston devoted to the old days of The Empty Glass.

(more…)

The PopCulteer
August 13, 2010

Wednesday Rocks At The Empty Glass

The Nanker Phelge, who made their big debut on Radio Free Charleston 100 back in May, have been briinging their melodious and harmonious powerful pop to The Empty Glass every Wednesday in August. You have one more chance to catch Stephen and Mark Beckner, Casi Null and Dave Roberts, next Wednesday night, around 10:30 PM. At the right, you Stephen Beckner taking the photo you see below, and after the jump, you’ll see even more photos of the band, and of the Beckner Brother’s former Go Van Gogh cohort Johnny Rock, who joined the PopCulteer for last Wednesday’s show.  In addition, you’ll get to see video of the band from last Wednesday and then check out our big monthly ArtWalk photo essay and a message about Zombie Babies.

"Old Lions" Johnny Rock, Mark Beckner and your PopCulteer, photo by Stephen Beckner

(more…)

Today’s art is a digital painting over a heavily-manipulated photo of a nude model. I used basic oil painting techniques to take a mirrored and squashed image, and transform it into something different.  It’s an exercise in surrealism.

Click “Naked Face” to see a larger version.

In the embedded playlist of videos above, you will see six cool performances from Radio Free Charleston, including songs from Comparsa, Doctor Senator, Stephen Beckner, Captain Crash and The Beauty Queen, Lil’ Guy from SPE and The Hellblinki Sextet.

These are classic performances from Radio Free Charleston, presented for your enjoyment while we work on RFC 109.

The PopCulteer
August 13, 2010

If they outlaw dancin’, only outlaws will dance

I try to remain quiet on the whole Jesco White thing. I find it personally distasteful, but if other people like to watch the man and his family’s antics, who am I to complain?

But, Julien Nitzberg, the director of “The Wild Wonderful Whites,” yet another documentary bringing us the adventures of this pitiable family, has let loose with a defense of his film (which some people think is a horrible, horrible thing for our state) and I can’t really let this go without a comment.

In an opinion piece in The Charleston Daily Mail, Nitzberg asks, “But why shouldn’t poor people and outlaws have their stories told also? Are they not part of our country with lives worth considering?”

I would like to take a moment to point out that this argument and defense is total self-serving blather.  Nitzberg attempts to spin the opposition to his film as a class struggle. It isn’t.  By lumping in “poor people” with “outlaws,” Nitzberg betrays his own narrow view of life outside the comfortable middle class. (more…)

This week’s art is a piece I did a couple of weeks ago while listening to some Mose Allison. It’s an exercise in color composition and the illusion of movement, evoking the essence of music.

Yes, I painted about music. It’s not that much different than writing about theater.

The end result looked like it belonged on a 1950s-era jazz album LP cover, perhaps by Dave Brubeck or Oscar Peterson, or more realistically some fourth-rate imitator of those guys. It’s called “Jazz Crowd.”  Click the image to see it bigger.

…Movie Monsters, that is.  below this text you will find an assortment of cool clips of various monsters from movies and television.  Frankenstein and Dracula are in there, as are King Kong, Gamera, Mecha Barbara Streisand, The Ymir, Godzilla and various other beastly beasties.  They’ll all play in order once you start the first video, and if watch all the way through to the end, you’ll understand why monsters are cool.

The PopCulteer
August 6, 2010

Rudy, from the host segment shoot for RFC 109, the day before he got sick and lazy.

This has not been a great week for your PopCulteer. I was supposed to start filming a really cool project this week for a future episode of RFC, but last Sunday I woke up feeling like the chest-burster Alien from the movie of the same name had taken up residence in my torso, and he’d brought his mucus collection.

So, in addition to a week where we had our choice of two kinds of weather, hellishly hot or torrential downpour, I felt like roadkill that had been used for batting practice.

What that means for you is….a special Friday column filled with images instead of words. ‘Cause I really don’t feel like writing about anything but how crappy I feel, and nobody wants to read that (except maybe the ex). So, enjoy the random photos and images. I might even stick some of my artwork in there.

(more…)

Above you see the bright, shiny new episode of Radio Free Charleston.  This is our first “normal” show since before our big six-episode foray into the wonders of FestivAll.  This episode, “To The Batmobile Shirt,” features music from InFormation, Volt 9000 and The AK40 Sexuals.  We also have short films from K.D. Lett and Scott Elkins.

Rudy at the mall, not sweating.

Host segments were shot last Saturday at The Charleston Town Center because IT’S TOO FREAKING HOT TO SHOOT HOST SEGMENTS OUTSIDE! One segment had to be re-shot at Stately Radio Free Charleston manor just hours before the show was posted due to a technical glitch.  Check out the cool stuff behind me in the intro to the song by InFormation.

(more…)

We kick off this week with something I haven’t done for a long time–a space travel painting.  I was feeling a bit nostaglic for the olden days when we thought we’d get to travel in space, and that everything would look cool, instead of being boring and functional.  It’s a digital painting, incorporating a quick sketch based on a vintage toy rocket.  Click it to see a bigger version.