This week’s Welcome to the Insta-hood I interviewed jacked_kirby

They are two awesome guys that run a podcast called: Jacked_Kirby. This is Tommy:

And this is Mike:

1. Tell me a little about yourself:

Tommy: ” I’m Tommy! I’m an artist and musician, and more recently a podcaster (who isn’t these days?) born and raised in Brooklyn, NY!
I’ve been a comic book reader since the mid/late ‘80s. A nerd! When I was in junior high school, I really wanted to draw comics, but then I started playing music while the comic book industry started to collapse in upon itself, so my attention went towards writing and performing original music. That engulfed my high school years and beyond.I also wanted to make movies at some point, and I went to film school for it, but never really got beyond the student film level. Now I work at a bar. Lots of good all those creative endeavors did me in life! Ha.”

Mike: ” My name is Mike DeVito. I am 41 years old and I am from Queens, NY. I am a junior high school SS teacher and have been for 15 years! I am an avid comic collector, tv/movie lover and general pop culture consumer.

I also am OBSESSED with sneakers… I have over 200 pairs.

I am an avid sports fan, there is no sport that I don’t watch. I would consider myself more of a Marvel fan then DC, my favorite genre of movies is definitely horror (giallo in particular), my favorite directors are Stanley Kubrick and Dario Argento, and my favorite sneaker ever is the Air Jordan 3. My dog is a 1 year old labradoodle and his name is KIRBY!”

2. Can you talk about your podcast?  How did you come up with the concept and/or theme for it. 

Tommy: “Mike D. and I slowly started to be obsessed with Jack Kirby starting around 2010 or so. We talked about doing a Kirby-centric podcast for a bit, at Mike’s suggestion, but we just never got around to it. (Our Instagram page had been around a few years and had a big following already.)
When Jack Kirby’s 100th birthday was in sight, we started organizing a celebratory Kirby art show (we had started curating pop-culture based group art shows in late 2014), featuring artists doing their versions of Kirby creations.

We decided to start a podcast that would coincide with Jack’s 100th birthday that summer AND the group art show. That was June of 2017. We’ve been doing it for three years now, and we have a lot of fun with it. It’s a labor of love for us, and it’s also a way for us to entertain as well as educate… while also learning ourselves! It’s been a fun journey. Unlike other comic book related podcasts, we keep ours real and raw! We bring a certain kind of New York humor to the show, a “not safe for work” brand of comedy, that I think really gives the show its personality. We could just as easily make a dick joke as tell you when the first appearance of Mangog was! I think the humor helps the education aspect of the show. While you’re laughing along, you learn something! “

Mike: “My current podcast that I am a part of is The Jacked Kirby Podcast, which is just over 3 years old and has 75 episodes in its catalog. I created a pop culture themed blog about 10 years ago called Cultural Compulsive Disorder as a place for me to share all the really cool pop culture goodies I would find surfing the net with my friends as well as strangers. I started the Jacked Kirby instagram page as a place to document cool Kirby images in DETAIl, because most of the time we found stuff online it had no information or publishing attributions so we never knew where to go find it. We wanted to explain what these images were from, and if someone liked them they could further investigate and learn more.  

Years ago we had the CCD podcast (which lasted over 100 episodes and was primarily hosted by my partner Rob Martin). I was on a lot of episodes but I wanted to do something that I really loved myself… so I decided to start a podcast about one of my favorite comic creators, Jack Kirby! It was like a live version of the Instagram page, in discussion form. I reached out to my buddy/co-host Tommy Lombardozzi because he also loves Kirby and was helping me curate the Instagram  page anyway… and the rest is history!
The reason for us doing the show is twofold. On one hand we are two fanboys who absolutely want to talk up one of our favorite comic creators as much as we can… mostly because we both love to talk and love comics! But on the other hand, I am a history teacher and I do feel that Jack kinda gets the hose when it comes to proper recognition for creating some of the most memorable comics in history (for both Marvel and DC). So I thought the show could be a perfect way for us to document many of Jack’s accomplishments and the historic significance of his work. We also wanted to add some sophomoric comedy and a modern pop culture spin to it so that it wouldn’t be completely academic (aka boring as hell), but at the same time could have merit.”

3. How did you come with your podcast name?

Tommy: “The Instagram page came first, and it was born out of the fact that we would always see other Instagram pages post images without corresponding information. So we would see something we liked, but have no idea where it came from, who the artist was, what era it was, etc. Frustrating. So the goal with our Instagram page was to inform people that were interested in the artwork of Jack Kirby. So any post we make is packed with information. Sometimes right down to a story’s plot twists. Since we were basically “stealing” (jacking!) Jack Kirby’s art to share, Mike named the page Jacked Kirby. It’s catchy and it fits.”

Mike: “The reason why I chose the name JACKED KIRBY for the Instagram page (and then the podcast later) was because all of our content was JACK KIRBY related… and we don’t own it! So we are kind of “jacking” it for our posts, metaphorically speaking of course. We thought it was a fun little name, but was also quite accurate in what we were doing. At the end of the day, we wanted the name to also be very clear as to whose work would be highlighted/discussed. Jacked Kirby just worked perfectly on all those levels.”

4.  What are your top 3 Jack Kirby heroes and why? 

Tommy: ” Ah, mine aren’t anything obscure:

Captain America
The Thing
Dr. Doom
I like the characters that are true to themselves and their ideals. Unwavering. Even an evil guy like Doom. They are who they are, and they stick to that. There’s an integrity there that is commendable. It shows strength and consistency.”

Mike: “Jack has 1000s of heroes/villains that he is responsible for, some of them being the actual CORNERSTONES on which Marvel and DC comics are built upon. So this is a very tough question. I’ll try to give you my three favorite and briefly explain why:

Hero 1: Mister Miracle – Mister Miracle to me is the epitome of visual perfection. His costume shouldn’t be appealing to a viewer in any way… eyt it is perfect at the same time. The red, yellow and green color scheme is extremely garish… but at the same time stands out in a unique way not often duplicated in other heroes. His powers are awesome and he is one of the most important pieces of the whole 4th World/New Gods saga.

Plus I am sucker for the full face mask and high neck cape! (I also vividly remember the Mister Miracle Super Powers toy from the mid 80’s that I always wanted as a child but never got. I own one now… YES!) 

Hero 2: The Demon – Etrigan the Demon is one of Jack’s most innovative creations, and he didn’t even WANT TO DO IT. DC came to him asking for a horror book to compete with Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula… so Jack cooked up The Demon to be just that. The title character, Etrigan, is an anomaly in the sense that he is grotesquely ugly and looks EVIL… yet he is a good guy! The tie tin to Arthurian Legends, Gothic horror, monsters, witches and the like also make it all the more fun. It is a horror masterpiece, and is my personal FAVORITE series that Jack is credited with writing/penciling.  

Hero 3: The Mighty Thor _ I am a history teacher and I LOVE MYTHOLOGY, and Thor is the Norse God of Thunder. Since bursting on the scene in Journey Into Mystery #83 his tales have been filled with mythological goodness across the spectrum. Jack loved Mythology and it is exuded in these books, as he milks every minor character and bizarre mythological connection that he can along the way. His iconic visual take on many of these ancient characters is still the standard used for most of them (50+ years later), like Loki’s horned helm or Hela’s crown from the Thor: Raganarok film! But Thor stands out as a triumphant design…. he is gorgeous, larger than life and a stand out among a universe of Marvel heroes.

Honorable Mention- Darkseid (he is DC’s biggest baddie for the last 40 years…. and they cancelled the 4th World books before Jack even got too tell his whole saga! Imagine that… they cancelled those series and then made Darkseid the MOST IMPORTANT VILLAIN IN THE DC UNIVERSE from that moment on!)”

5. Do you have any exciting news or events that you would like to share? 

Tommy: “The COVIDS has put any kind of events on hold right now, and it’s also forced us to do the podcast remotely (we’ve always recorded at my place, in person). But the plus side of that is that we’ve been able to have some really cool guests ( comic legend Steve Rude, actor/comedian Jeff Garlin, comic artist Andy MacDonald). We just did our 75th episode, and we have some awesome guests planned for the weeks ahead (and some hopefuls that we’ve reached out to… cross fingers!) We’re looking to have an array of guests from different walks of life that can bring different perspectives to our conversations, with the common denominator being our love of The King and his works. Stay tuned!!!

I can be found on Instagram and Facebook. Just search for Tommy Lombardozzi. I’m an artist for hire, so check out my work and hit me up if you want some original art! I also have another podcast that I do with my friend Chris Laudando called The Hoof. We can be found wherever podcasts can be listened to, and we also have an Instagram page: @thehoof_podcast Come follow!”

Mike: “Quarantine has been good to us, allowing us to reach out to a lot of famous people both in and out of the comic industry virtually to interview. We have been blessed to interview comic legend Steve Rude, actor/comedian extraordinaire Jeff Garlin, award winning author George O’Connor in the last two months. We have a bunch of really cool interviews coming soon (I don’t want to jinx any until they are in the books and done!) with some FAMOUS people you may be surprised to find out LOVE Jack Kirby. Make sure you keep an eye on our feed…. you never know who is going to pop up next!!!! 
We are also going to try and record our 2nd audio play. For episode #28 (recorded in July of 2018) of the podcast we invited some of our closest friends to join Tommy and myself in an audio play version of Fantastic Four Issue #51, This Man This Monster! We had a GREAT time and it turned out funny as hell… So we want to get the gang back together and do it again. Hopefully we will get that one done soon! We also can’t wait to collaborate with the Jack Kirby Museum again (www.kirbymuseum.org) because we were honored to be able to work with them a few times before and it’s pretty cool to work alongside the official Kirby Museum in any capacity!”

If you like to learn more information about the podcast:

IG:

@jacked_kirby

Podcast:

Jacked Kirby

Thank you guys for the interview!

Hello everyone! I get in certain movie movie moods around holidays. So I decided to share some movies I watch during the 4th of July holiday.

Tootsie (1982) directed by Sydney Pollack. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange and Teri Garr. This is one of my favorite movies. It is so funny and entertaining from beginning to end. The first time I watched this movie was a Netflix recommendation over a decade ago. I was on a Fellini movie binge back then and didn’t want to break the movie pattern however I decide to give the movie a chance. I have no regrets in doing that!

Fun Movie Fact: Most of Billy Murray dialogue mostly made up on the spot by him!

Available to stream on Netflix

Nashville:

(1975) directed by Robert Altman and starring Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Shelly Duvall and many more! I am not a huge fan of Robert Altman however Nashville is one of my favorite movies of his. It follows the country and gospel music scene in the mid 1970’s and has a big cast in it. You would think it would be hard to follow the plot in the movie considering that there is over 20 plus main characters. However it seems to flow pretty well!

Fun fact about the movie:

Lily Tomlin and Ronee Blakley were both nominated for an Oscar for their performances in this movie.

Available to buy from the Criterion Collection:

https://www.criterion.com/films/28427-nashville

Do The Right Thing:

(1989) directed by Spike Lee. Starring Spike Lee, Ruby Dee, Danny Aiello and Ossie Davis. I remember watching this during a summer in elementary when my family just got cable. I think this was the first round of movies I watched on HBO. I was really impress with the whole vibe of the movie and only at a much later time did I realize Spike Lee’s reference in the movie to another favorite move of mine mention in the next selection.

Fun Movie fact: It only took Spike Lee two weeks to write the script.

Available to purchase from the Criterion Collection:

https://www.criterion.com/films/286-do-the-right-thing

The Night of the Hunter (1955) directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum and Shelly Winters. Robert Mitchum’s performance in this movie is amazing. He portrays a crazed religious person who kills for money. Which is kind of personality contradiction when you think about it. This movie was first a book by Davis Grubb. Grubb originally wanted to be a painter but he was colorblind which made him give up his dream of becoming a painter. So he picked writing instead and am eternally grateful that he did!

Fun Movie fact: The director Charles Laughton describe his movie as “a nighmarish sort of Mother Goose tale.” (source: IMBD.com)

You can rent this movie from Vudu: https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/details/The-Night-of-the-Hunter/140508

Married to the Mob (1988):

Directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Modine. This is such a cute comedy! And it is one of the most 80’s movies in terms of the fashion and hair!

Fun Movie Fact: Dean Stockwell was nominated for an Oscar for this performance in the movie.

You can rent this from Amazon.

Until next time!!

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing @misterbnation

1.Tell me a little bit about your business.

” My business is designing and selling enamel pins inspired by John Waters’ movies and other cult characters and personalities.

I also sell designs on tshirts and accessories and those are created through Print On Demand in the States where 99% of my customer base is located (I’m in Canada). I have a parter in this business who deals with all the technical side of my store and who encourages me to be more ambitious with my plans.

2. How did you come up with your business name?

“My business name of Mister B Nation has a long history starting back in high school (1995) where I gained the nickname Blondie. This became Blondie Nation (the Nation coming from Patricia Quinn’s character in Shock Treatment) and online the name Blondie Nation looked like a Debbie Harry/Blondie fan site, so the Blondie became a B and Mister was added so people would know I was a person. People have assumed the name is a play on ‘masturbation’ but that is incorrect. I’ve been Blondie since I was around 12, so it feels like a very personal name to me. My name is actually David.”

3. What have been the more popular items in your store? And why do you think they are so popular?

” I still struggle to predict what people will respond to, I will have strong doubts that a design will be popular but then it’s an instant sell out item. I try to keep the designs around 75% John Waters related because that is what I want for my own collection. Rather than attempt to predict or target towards any particular group I just design for myself and hope that others will agree. I’ve made a few missteps along the way with that strategy such as when I wanted to try more mainstream horror pins with tributes to The Shining and the IT miniseries which didn’t strike the chord that I’d hoped. My most popular pin has been The Cocksucker pin based on a scene from Serial Mom but recently my Grace Jones inspired pins have proved to be far more popular than I had expected. “

4. What pop culture thing has been your recent reference in creating your new item(s)? 

” I’m still trying to keep a good schedule with pin releases so I’ve tried to plan ahead a lot of John Waters based designs but I still like to stay flexible about the 3rd pin, I have tried to keep that position in the release of the 3rd pin to be for women I have long loved and admired such as Catherine O’Hara and Michelle Pfeifer’s Catwoman. I don’t choose the 3rd pin until its time to order and I go with my gut always with the assumption that if I love her then my followers and customers might do too. I have Ideas on future icon women but it has a lot more to do with who has been on my mind that week. I then check if other people have made pins of the same person and what I like and don’t like about those designs to make sure mines is different and hopefully better. “

5. Do you have any exciting news or promotions that you would like to share?

” Going forward I will continue to do the once a month pin release, prior to the pandemic I was releasing a pin every 2 weeks and when the lock down started I made it once a month so I would just have to visit the post office once and ship it all together rather than my usual daily trips. So what started as a practical move to avoid interactions has turned into an unexpectedly successful move. The small quantities that I produce and the small window of time to sell them means the demand on that particular weekend spikes and I get sell outs in days rather than weeks. The instant results of those weekends allows me to quickly pay for the next months pins and keep the momentum.”

If you like more information:

Website: https://misterbnation.com/

Instagram: @misterbnation

Thank you for the interview!

Until next time!!!

This is a continuation of a previous blog post and there are going to be many ongoing parts to this section!:

To see the first part of this series the link is below:

https://ladycultblog.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/five-not-so-well-known-simpsons-characters/

FUNZO:

Funzo only appeared in one or two episodes in the Simpsons world. It was a toy created by Kid First Industries. Although Funzo looked cute and harmless:

The toy main intention was to knock out any other competing toys. When Lisa and Bart learn about Funzo alternate motivate they enlisted Homer and Gary Coleman to round up all of the Funzo toys that was given during the holiday season. Funzo was a parody of the popular Furby toy from 1998 that was made and produced by Tiger Toys.

Amber Dempsey:

When Homer Simpson signs up Lisa for the “Miss Little Springfield” pageant sponsored by Laramie Tobacco. One of her rival contests is the unbeatable beauty queen Amber Dempsey:

She is known for her wink and fluttering eyelashes that she may or may have not gotten an eyelash implant operation in Paraguay. She only appeared in one episode. Although I would be interested if they expanded more on this character’s background in future episodes.

Menthol Moose:

In the same episode that Amber was in is the Menthol Moose. He is the mascot of the Laramie Tobacco company, He is a parody of the Joe Camel ads from Camel Cigarettes:

With a homage of Bullwinkle the Moose:

Mr. McGreg:

One of Dr. Nick Riveria’s patients he only shows up in one episode for less then 20 seconds. Dr. Nick tries to play off Mr. Mcgreg’s obvious malpractice lawsuit due to a huge error that happen while getting operated on.

Margarita and Avery Deveraux:

Margarita only shows up in one episode. Marge Simpson’s favorite guilty pleasure is watching a soap opera called “Search for the Sun.” But she justify that she usually does housework so she doesn’t really catch up with the current story line. Even though she is able to fill Lisa everything that was currently happening on the show to that point. We briefly watch the soap and we see Margarita for the first and only time along with another lesser known character Avery Devereaux. He is Margarita’s boss who strongly comes on to her. Then fires her and then it gets a bit passionate until their is a breaking news report.

Until next time!!!

Growing up I used to watch a LOT of TV. For a couple of years my TV viewing life revolved watching the Nickelodeon channel! That channel always was always a require daily channel to watch for me. I grew up in the era of neon Moon shoes ( Although I never got a pair but I did enjoy watching all of those cool 90’s toy commercials!):

And catchy jingles:

SNICK was my jam every Saturday night:

So I decided to share some of my go to shows during my golden era of the Nickelodeon channel:

Clarissa Explains it All:

Of course I adore this show! Anything that had my first name attached to it I was totally down in watching! I even begged my parents to have a ladder near my bedroom window so my friends can come through the window. ( They obliviously laughed in my face before saying a hard NO). Clarissa was always one of my idols growing up because she had the coolest fashion sense and the COOLEST ROOM!! And I always wanted that Clarissa Dr sign that was above her closet!

Are You Afraid of the Dark?:

So I never really found a lot of the episodes scary. However I immensely enjoyed the fact that a bunch of kids would meet in the middle of the woods in the darkness pitching the scariest stories they knew around a camp fire! I never really had a group of friends that wanted to do that so this was the alternative!

Salute Your Shorts:

I remember when I first started watching the show I thought it was a soap opera and not a teen show. I desperately wanted to go to summer camp after watching it because they seem to have sung there troubles always at nearly ever end of each episode:

Weinerville:

I remember watching this show solely based on the title of it. I remember there was lot of talking heads and tiny feet and the town that was the center of it was called Weinerville.

The Adventures of Pete and Pete:

This is one of my favorite theme songs! This show was truly the definition of the 90s and I tried to revisit this show every couple of years to satisfy my inner child.

I will definitely do a part two series of this entry! What shows did you grow up with ? Comment below!

Until next time!!!

Hello everyone! Every since I started staying at home more I have been revisiting or trying out new forms of working out! So instead of doing something old and boring I totally recommend these workouts for a change in your workout routine! Remember your personal limits in terms of working out and make sure you have a good pacing in exercising. Water breaks, proper stretching before any kind of intense workout and break when you need to when performing these or any kind of work outs.

Billy Blanks Tae Bo workouts:

So this was my go to workouts in high school. I would come home from school and pop in the DVD and start working out! This workout really focuses on a lot of punching, jumping jacks and kicking in intense short sequences.

Now if you do not want to go the DVD route for these work outs. Billy Blanks also have a YouTube channel that he frequently updates with new workouts.

Link is below to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMGIp3jifsoufZv_y8_c1Qg

Jane Fonda Workout Book and Workout:

This is one of my new ventures in working out. I believe that this was one of my most popular exercise workout video of the 80’s. Jane Fonda has different levels of her exercise workouts. A lot of them I have found through Youtube and I believe Night Flight has the original Jane Fonda work out.

Buns of Steel:

This has been the most difficult for me to finish! The workout mainly emphasis on the lower half of your body so there is a lot of legs in the air and holding it there while workout out. I haven’t yet to past the 20 minute mark of this one but I am determine to do one solid work out from this!

Link is below to start getting those buns of steel: https://youtu.be/0K8IXM5Ty1I

Richard Simmons Sweatin to the Oldies:

This is the workout I am currently doing. It is so much fun because you are just dancing to great music. Plus I have been known to lack coordination so this workout has really helped me on that. Richard Simmons has his own Youtube Channel and there are tons of workout options to choose from.

Link is below to start sweating to the oldies: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvRmQPoqYMx0GUzwdzoXcgQ

Until Next time!

For Father’s day I decided to write about some interesting fictional dads:

Homer Simpson:

Always the funny dad Homer Simpson always pulls through for his children whenever they are in need of advice or help. It may not be in a well polished manner but the important is that he cares.

Papa Smurf:

His first name is Papa and he is always the go to father figure in the village. Yes he has some anger issues when it comes to fixing everyone’s problems in the village however deep down inside he knows that it is his calling in life.

Clark Griswold:

Clark Griswold loves and does anything for his family. Even if it includes almost killing himself by driving cross country to Walley World:

Or accidentally locking himself in his own attic in the middle of winter:

Phil Banks (Uncle Phil):

Uncle Phil had a stern but good core value when it came to raising his children and nephew. And the kids always knew that he would be there whenever they were in a crisis.

Daniel Hillard ( aka Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire)

When Daniel Hillard was court ordered not to see his kids anymore he went above and beyond to see them. Which include totally transforming himself into the lovely Mrs. Doubtfire!

Honorable mentions:

Fred Flintstone

Danny Tanner from Full House

Marlin the Fish from “Finding Nemo”

Mufasa from the Lion King

Until Next time!!!

Today’s music video of the day is Prince’s Batdance (1989). Prince wrote this song for the Batman soundtrack (1989). Which was also Prince’s eleventh studio album which was release on June 20, 1989.

The song made it to the number one single chart in America and stayed there for a couple of weeks.

Prince originally was going to use another song called “Dance with the Devil.” But went with “Batdance” because he felt the other song was too brooding in feeling.

I find that Prince’s Batdance a unique blend of a couple of songs mixed into one. There different tones that might sound like they don’t mixed well together but then he added a dance beat to it which blends in well that you are able to dance to it. Also adding some actor’s lines from the movie like you are hear Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson voice from the movie in the song. I know the description sounds like a lot but you just have to listen to it and see how well it blends.

The music video was directed by Albert Magnoli who was Prince’s manager for a time. He is also a movie director who directed such films as :

and

The dancing in the video was choreographed by Barry Lather.

He also did the choreography for other music videos such as Janet Jackson’s Nasty (which is one of my favorite music videos!)

In the “Batdance” music video Prince is dressed as two of the main characters in a split form. Prince is refer to as “Gemini” in this video (it is also his horoscope sign) he has a good side as one part of his costume is Batman and the other is the evil side which is the Joker:

The dancers are in three groups: The Batmans:

The Jokers:

And the Vicki Vales:

There is also Prince the musician playing the instruments so there is a lot of characters going in one foggy cool underground cave rave!

You see each group being introduce in each break of the song. Throughout the whole video you see the groups dance it out with Prince being focal point while bringing all the other groups to mix in and dance together. At the end of the video Gemini (Prince) hits a button and an election chair explodes.

A fun fact about this music video: This music video earned a lot of nominations including a Soul Train Music Award, Best R&B/Soul Music and Best Video from the MTV awards.

Until next time!!!