Entertainment

Professional Female Wrestler Gabby Ortiz

May 10, 2021 Entertainment 38:15

Gabby Ortiz stands five feet tall. She grew up near 2nd & Somerset in Philly. She was raised in a household of wrestling fans and now she is a champion professional wrestler.

Gabby joins The Philly Blunt to talk about how her career began, life as a female in professional wrestling, and her future plans.

A random conversation at Philly’s Terror Behind the Walls led Gabby to an audition at the legendary Monster Factory wrestling school. That began a professional wrestling journey which took her to Japan and then to a female championship title.

We discuss her early days, the dark side of professional wrestling, the collaboration between wrestlers necessary to complete a successful match, and the body-image pressures female wrestlers deal with.

Gabby is a charming personality who gave us a rare glimpse into the world of female professional wrestling often glamorized in popular series such as GLOW. We think this is an interview you’ll find entertaining and informative.

Mega Ran – Nerdcore Rapper, Writer, Teacher, Hero

February 16, 2021 Authors, Entertainment, Music 37:04

He’s written over 130 songs about the video game Mega Man, which earned him a Guinness World Record, rapped a Comic-Con, taught middle-school kids, and recently wrote a memoir. He is Mega Ran and he’s our guest on this episode of The Philly Blunt.

Mega Ran grew up in West Oak Lane and graduated from Martin Luther King High School. As a kid, he was into video games as well as music. He decided to combine his two loves and started making songs about his favorite video game, Mega Man. Soon after, he became powerful force in the world of Nerdcore Hip-Hop playing conventions around the world.

We talk about how Mega Ran got started, what it’s like playing to a Comic-Con, and growing up in West Oak Lane. Mega Ran thinks that 6th, 7th, and 8th graders are the worst kids to teach. We ask him to expound about that. He also thinks nerds today have it much easier than being a nerd when he was growing up.

Mega Ran recently wrote a memoir about his life, the struggles of being a young Black kid with nerdy interests, and his successes. We spend some time talking about the new book, Dream Master, and then hit him with The Blunt Round.

LINKS:

Mega Ran: www/FB/Instagram/Twitter/Twitch/Book

WALLIS – The 15-year-old behind the Viral Holiday Song Lonely Christmas

December 18, 2020 Entertainment, Music 30:57

WALLIS, A 15-year-old from the Philly suburbs has released the perfect 2020 Christmas song called, Lonely Christmas. The song has gone viral with over 600K views in less than two weeks and on has garnered mentions on The Today Show’s website Ellen DeGeneres on social media and massive sharing. WALLIS joins us with her father on this episode of The Philly Blunt to discuss the song, the video, and handling her new found fame.

LINKS:
WALLIS: Instagram

Jeffrey McNeill – Merging the Worlds of Hip-Hop and Classical Music

November 30, 2020 Artist, Entertainment, Music 00:45:18

Jeffrey McNeill, or as he’s better known Thee Phantom, is a Philly native who is the leader of the Illharmonic Orchestra, where he combines the world of hip-hop and classical music.

McNeill started on his journey at the age of eight when he mashed up the Beastie Boys with Beethoven. McNeill has traveled the world introducing hip-hop fans to classical music and vice versa.

He played with a 50 person orchestra in Seattle. He sold out the Kimmel Center and  played Carnegie Hall.

McNeill joins the Blunt for this episode to talk out his early experimental days, how people in the classical world weren’t always receptive to playing hip-hop, his business acumen, and his plans for the Illharmonic Orchestra.

LINKS
Thee Phantom & The Illharmonic Orchestra: Facebook, www

Queer Eye’s Tyreek Wanamaker Talks Show and Life

November 17, 2020 Activist, Entertainment, TV/Radio 49:46

Season 5 Episode 4 of Queer Eye in Philadelphia featured Tyreek Wanamaker from Philadelphia. Queer Eye is a fun, inspiring show and the episode with Tyreek may be the most inspirational. Tyreek is our guest on this episode.

Tyreek overcame a variety of obstacles in his life including having a brother doing life in prison and being homeless much of his high school years. These days, Tyreek is active in his community. He is co-founder of the non-profit organization The Block Gives Back, which aims to “promote community involvement and engagement throughout Philadelphia by targeting issues within the community and devising a plan to recruit local volunteers, businesses, organizations and community leaders to help us in working toward a solution.” They do a weekly event called Feed the Block which creates food for those in need.

He also works at The Mighty Writers were he helps kids master the art of communicating effectively through the written word.

We caught up with Tyreek about his experiences on Queer Eye, how is life has changed since the show, the community work that he’s currently involved with, and his future plans, which may include running for a local office.

Tyreek on Instagram

Arnetta Johnson – The Jazz Disrupter

October 1, 2020 Activist, Entertainment, Music 43:51

Trumpeter Arnetta Johnson has performed on the world’s stage, she’s only 26 with a bright future, and she’s our guest on this episode of The Philly Blunt.

At 13, Arnetta Johnson decided to take up trumpet at Camden, New Jersey’s High School for the Creative & Performing Arts in an effort to get out of class. Four years later, she entered the prestigious Berklee College of Music on a scholarship. Soon after, she performed at the Super Bowl as a member of Beyonce’s backing band. These days, she’s leads her own band called SUNNY.

Arnetta discussed growing up in Camden, her journey to Berklee in Boston, and the culture shock of that move. It was the first time she encountered racial slurs and faced life without a corner store. She soon realized that her fellow students had far more personal training leading into their arrivals at Berklee. She locked herself away in the practice room for most of her freshman year to catch up, and catch up she did.

She made a couple of connections at a show in Philadelphia that followed her to Berklee and eventually led to a gig in Beyonce Knowles’ band for her Super Bowl performance.

Arnetta is the self-proclaimed “Disrupter of Jazz” because she wants to disrupt everything you think of when you hear the word Jazz. NPR recently called Arnetta Johnson one of the Top 20 Artists to Watch.

Current events weigh heavily on Arnetta. She candidly discusses the importance of current events influencing the music she creates and how music has always been influenced by history.

We also talked about the pressures of being a band-leader at the young age of 26 years-old.

Arnetta’s story is an impressive and inspiring story.

LINKS:
Arnetta Johnson: www/Instagram/Facebook

Greg Seltzer – The Man Behind Philly Music Fest

September 15, 2020 Authors, Entertainment, Music, Writers 00:39:35

He’s a CPA, mergers & acquisitions attorney, author, and founder of the Philly Music Fest. He is Greg Seltzer and he’s our guest on this episode of The Philly Blunt.

By day, Greg Seltzer is a major player in the world of mergers and acquisition law. By night, he’s an author of two books The 1965 Project: The Intersection of History and Music in 1965 and The 1968 Project: The Intersection of History and Music in 1968 and the man behind the annual Philly Music Fest.

Philly Music Fest is unlike any other music festival in the country in that it is a multi-day multi-venue festival exclusively featuring bands with Philadelphia connections. Local food and drink companies provide all the beverages and food during the festival. All the proceeds from the event go to local music-education programs throughout the Philly area.

The 2020 version of the Philly Music Fest will be live performances live-streamed from the Ardmore Music Hall on September 24th and 25th.

Greg sits with us to discuss how the Philly Music Fest came to fruition, the difficulties of organizing a music festival during a pandemic, his work in negotiating a lease between the NHL and Citizens Bank Park for the Winter Classic hockey game, his discovery of jazz in State College, and how historical events shape the music released in the years following.

During the Blunt Round, Greg discloses the amount of Phish shows he’s attended and it’s a pretty ridiculous number, as well as some local bands and artists that we all should be listening to these days.

LINKS:
Philly Music Fest: www/Facebook/Instagram/Twitter

Inga Saffron – Pulitzer Prize-Winning Architecture Critic

September 15, 2020 Authors, Entertainment, Writers 00:39:04

Inga Saffron came to Philadelphia in 1985 to work as the Philadelphia Inquirer as a Suburban Reporter. She spent five years as the Inquirer’s Eastern European correspondent and eventually became their architecture critic in 1999. Since then, she’s been writing about Philadelphia’s changing skyline and neighborhoods. In 2014 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for her work at the Inquirer.

Inga sat with us just after the news broke of the 76ers submitting a development proposal for Penn’s Landing. She provides great insight on that proposal and what the future development of Penn’s Landing might and should look like. We discuss how the city can develop Penn’s Landing while keeping it a destination that the general public can continue to utilize.

Tax breaks are always in discussions when developers approach the city. Inga shares talks about the possibilities of tax breaks and whether or not the city still needs these tax breaks or abatements at this point.

She talks about the immediate and long-term effects that working from home has on center city life and businesses, her mellowing-out on the Philly Mural Arts Program, her hatred of large video screens around town, and whether or not streeteries and cafe dining is her to stay in the Philly.

Inga even shares with us her teenage crush and favorite city takeout joints during COVID-19 in the Blunt Round.

She has a new book out called Becoming Philadelphia that you can purchase HERE.

LINKS:
Twitter/Instagram/Inquirer

BAMM ROSE – Fighting for Sex-Workers’ Rights and More

August 23, 2020 Activist, Artist, Entertainment 00:32:28

BAMM ROSE, a retired stripper, is the founder and CEO of Stilettos, Inc, a non-profit that works for improved and safer working conditions for strippers and sex workers in the Philly area. She has also organizes the Philly Stripper Strike to bring awareness to the racism and colorism in gentlemen’s clubs and to the harassment that sex workers endure on a daily basis.

Rose also organizes “dog walks,” which are protests were women dog-walk consenting white people to signify an end to white supremacy and a future that is more inclusive of women and people of color. So far, the dog walks have taken place down South Street and in Rittenhouse Square.

Bamm joined us for this episode to  discuss her activist work, her experiences as a sex worker and what brought her to the place she is now, and how she is looking to improve the sex work industry and the world around her.

Shout out to our sponsors. Shibe Vintage Sports where you can score all your Philly team gear as well as shirts about Philly’s cultural history. Local owners. Local artists. Shibe Vintage Sports where every stitch tells a story.

And Jawnville.com for the rants, ramblings, and observations of a born-and-raised Philly bloke.

LINKS:
BAMM ROSE
Stilettos, Inc.

BUTCH CORDORA – Philly LGBTQ Media Star & Poker Shark

June 26, 2020 Authors, Entertainment, TV/Radio, Writers 54:44

Philadelphia LGBTQ media star and poker shark Butch Cordora joins The Philly Blunt for a Live Bluntcast via Facebook Live. Butch created and starred in the cable interview show In Bed with Butch. He produced a line of annual calendars posing naked alongside straight naked guys called Straight & Butch, and he recently released a poker book called “The Gay Guyde To Poker: Use Your Minority as a Weapon.”

Butch came to Philly in 1987 from the Wilkes-Barre area to live as an openly gay man. He broke television ground by being an openly gay television host on his local cable show called In Bed with Butch, where he interviewed members of the gay community in their pajamas in a bed. He even had members of the Village People in his bed. Butch also broke down barriers with his calendar called Straight & Butch where he posed naked with straight naked men.

Butch followed his love of poker becoming a regular poker shark, who runs local poker games at clubs in Philly and New York City and recently published a poker book called A Gay Guyde to Poker.

He’s good dude and lots of fun. We hope you enjoy this interview about Butch’s endeavors and where Philly has come regarding the gay community from when he first arrived on the scene in 1987.