The Incredible Lou: Cleveland Comic Con Brings The Hulk to Town

Maybe you wouldn't like him when he's angry, but who's crazy enough to upset Lou Ferrigno? The former bodybuilding champion and, of course, the no-CGI-necessary Incredible Hulk of the '70s TV show, has retained his massive, intimidating frame. With a smile as giant as his biceps and a concise quip for every question, Ferrigno, who is appearing at the inaugural Wizard World Cleveland Comic Con this weekend, evokes a real-life superhero. From Feb.20 to 22 at the Cleveland Convention Center, you will get your own chance to meet Ferrigno, along with dozens of other celebrities, including fan favorites William Shatner and Bruce Campbell. The Cleveland media got to see what he was about yesterday, as he stopped by Flannery's Pub for a special press event. Here's what he had to say.

Q: Looking at the weather outside, it's minus ten degrees and snowing. Why do you come out to a place like this for a comic con?

A: Tonight the cold weather is bringing the beast out of everyone, but inside it will be warmer. Ohio is my second home. I lived in Columbus in 1973-74. And Ohio has been a huge fan of my series, and also, I love the people in Ohio. I wanted to come because I know it means a lot to the people. And it means a lot to me.

Q: What are your thoughts on seeing the Hulk, who was so popular when you played him, re-emerge as everyone's favorite big green monster? 

A: The legacy is almost 40 years. At the time [The Incredible Hulk] came out, it was the first successful franchise. And now, when The Avengers came out, the Hulk was the star of the film and he saved the day. He's more popular than ever. I'm excited because they have a library of my voice and used it in The Avengers. It's nice to see it on the big screen, knowing that it's still connected with me as the Hulk.

Q: So they use what you've already said for the films. If you could record one new line for Avengers: Age of Ultron, what would it be?

A: "I love you, Betty."

Q: What's your favorite part about being a guest at comic conventions?

A: The instant gratification I get. The fans, the excitement. They take pictures of me  and take them home, knowing they saw the biggest superhero in person, not just the costume but because the way I'm built.

Q: You got a chance to do the voice of lead character Finn's hero on the popular animated show Adventure Time. What was that like?

A: It's great because a lot of the kids come up with the Adventure Time comic, and they tell their parents I played Billy. Sometimes I forget how popular I've become with the Adventure Time series. It's a great story and has a very positive message for children.

Q: This is the first major comic con in Cleveland, which has such a rich history, from Superman's creation to the Marvel movies filmed here. Have you seen a different excitement level here than in other cities?

A: Yeah, because this town has a superhero power. I know you have the blue-collar workers who love superheroes and that connection. And they are very family-oriented. They are excited about the comic con because it's a place they could escape and to be part of the fantasy.

Q: We have to ask you this, because we are in Superman's hometown. Who would win in a fight: Hulk or Superman?

 A: It'd be a close fight, but I'd have to say the Hulk, because I'm the Hulk. And I think if the Hulk would get him in a bear hug, he'd crush him. Superman's got the costume, but the Hulk has the real muscles. The Hulk would be victorious!

3 to Know: Legacies of the Gay Games

Panel from left to right: David C. Barnett, ideastream senior reporter and producer; John Grafton, board member, Gay Community Endowment Fund of the Akron Community Foundation; Phyllis Harris, Thomas Nobbe and Michelle Tomallo

As snow swirled outside and below zero temperatures enveloped the town, the City Club of Cleveland bell rang once again. Just more than six months after the closing ceremonies of Gay Games 9, a panel met Feb. 19 to discuss the lessons and legacies of the Gay Games. For our August 2014 cover story, we did the same, examining the impact and difficulties of the LGBT community on Cleveland, centered around the games. Economically, the Gay Games were estimated to have had a $52.1 million impact. Nearly 75 percent of games attendees came from outside of Cleveland.

Safety was a top priority, said Phyllis Harris, executive director of the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland. Her organization conducted 40 trainings at the Cleveland Police Department academy over 40 weeks before the games. Harris led some of the classes herself, teaching 40-50 police officers at a time. "It was scary and it was life changing," she said. "In a way I think it set the tone for much of the training that continued to happen throughout the year."

The community center is in the process of purchasing a new headquarters building with an anonymous $1.8 million donation, announced during the games. The center has been located in a Gordon Square storefront since 1999. The network established during the games was instrumental to their move, said Harris. "People listen if I call now," she said. "They want to collaborate now, they had a good experience."

Here's three things you need to know from the discussion:

1) The 2014 Gay Games were the most profitable in the history of the organization, finishing with a surplus of $150,000. "From the outset of planning the games, our board and staff were really determined to see that these games finished in the black," said 2014 Gay Games executive director Thomas Nobbe.

2) The $150,000 surplus will be donated, with 80 percent going to form a new Gay Games legacy fund at the Cleveland Foundation, and 20 percent to the Gay Community Endowment Fund of the Akron Community Foundation.

3) Though the Gay Games were certainly a symbol of progress, both the panel and attendees were quick to emphasize that Ohio does not provide legal protections for same-sex couples. "We had all this grand success and there was all this celebration. It literally was palpable, all the energy, vibrancy and love," said Michelle Tomallo, president of the board of directors of Plexus, the LGBT chamber of commerce. "All of that happened in the context of a state where we don't have any protections for the exact people that we're celebrating."

R.A.K.E.: Spreading Love with Comedian Ricky Smith

Just like any day, the Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland volunteers were quietly working at their desk when comedian Ricky Smith came in carrying two bright pink boxes of treats. The volunteers paused to place him. Maybe he's with the Harlem Globetrotters? No, Smith says, but he offers another option: Fifty Shades of Grey.

"You're with Fifty Shades of Grey? Who were you?" asks the volunteer, playing along.

"I'm with Fifty Shades of Black, actually," Smith responds. "More like Fifty Shades of Brown to be exact. ... Today is Random Act of Kindness Everywhere Day, and I am here to strip."

He was actually there to deliver Colossal Cupcakes to the volunteer simply as an appreciation for their work. He also dropped off a full box of books for the patients and their families that stay at the house at low cost. And in case you didn't catch it, his comedy is part of his gift. 

Today is Ricky Smith's day. Mayor Frank Jackson proclaimed Feb. 17 to be "Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere" Day, also known as R.A.K.E., a growing movement started by Smith to help others. Every hour today, Smith is doing an act of kindness to put a smile on a stranger's face.

This hometown stop also marks the end of his tour of doing acts of kindness in 30 cities for 30 days. During his tour, he did acts of love from handing out socks, hats and gifts to people on the street in Washington, D.C., to singing songs with patients at the Children's Health Care Hospital in Atlanta. He has put on a senior prom at a retirement home in Las Vegas where seniors got to dress up, wear corsage, had a DJ and punch. He also dressed up as Spongebob Squarepants and wandered through downtown Nashville and gave high-fives to people. There, they met student football players trying to raise money and so he helped them raise quadruple the money they already had. 

Smith tells us in his own words how R.A.K.E. got started, why he does it and what spreading kindness means to him.

There was a woman a year ago in Lakewood I bought coffee for and broke down and cried because her mom and dad had died the day before, so everybody needs some type of kindness if you will.

I didn't really think it would take off this big, it started off me buying pizzas and posting it on Instagram and Twitter and people liking it and doing the same thing.

The biggest misconception is that once you help somebody ... when you give a homeless a guy a blanket, hat or shirt, you don't cut it off; you still think about that person.

I have a great ability to make people laugh and make people smile.

People tell you're a great person, but you sit there thinking I didn't do anything I need to do more.

I started R.A.K.E not to help people, but I started to motivate and inspire people to help other people.

Hear stories from the road on the #RAKE show on CLESound.com.

Get a Sneak Peek of Three Short Films Chosen for CIFF

A worldly young man, two mismatched would-be thieves and a pair of curious little sisters star in three shorts selected by Get Shorty attendees to screen at the Cleveland International Film Festival March 18-29.

Film fanatics packed the Capitol Theatre in the Gordon Square Arts District for the Film Feast last night to spend an evening as a CIFF programmer watching 10 shorts and ranking each. The winning  23-minute short, The Hyperglot, is a charming tale that follows a young man who has a unique verbal talent but struggles to communicate with the ladies. 

In second place, the 9-minute Sequestered zooms in on two would-be robbers who wear opposing presidential masks and debate policy matters and cross-the-isle issues. Stars Seamus Dever and Jon Huertas' funny on-screen chemistry will be familiar to fans of ABC's Castle — where they play partners enforcing the law instead of trying to break it.

The third pick is the French 6-minute Dad in Mum, about young sisters who hilariously try to figure out what that thumping noise coming from mommy and daddy's bedroom is. 

Some other standouts that I personally enjoyed were Yearbook, a poignant animated flick about an oh-so-average man charged with chronicling the history of humans, and the quirky French People of Mylonesse, Mourn Thy Queen Naphus about a bumbling actor who just wants to see his bit part through. 

So how do the CIFF staff program the mammoth cinematic fest? Each of the 2,065 feature films and 1,600-plus shorts submitted are rated by at least three viewers. To get an idea of how many make it into the Oscar-nominating festival, 10.9 percent of submitted features were programmed last year as well as 11.6 percent of the shorts.

If you want to feed your appetite for films once more before opening night in March, get in on the Oscar conversation at the final Film Feast Feb. 19 at the Bop Stop with Plain Dealer film critic Clint O'Connor and Cleveland Cinemas marketing director Dave Huffman. 

Hackathon Makes Wearable Technology Stylish

We are so glued to technology these days that we might as well wear it on our faces, backs and feet.

The second Kent State University Fashion/Tech Hackathon asks about 250 students from 40 colleges to create wearable technology that is as functional as it is stylish. From Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, students can use tools, such as a body scanner and digital textile printers, to craft what might be the next Google Glass or Fitbit. The weekend features lectures and workshops from wearable technology experts in the projected $30 billion industry. Students will compete for a $4,000 prize.

So how do these creations work? We asked last year's second-place winner Madison Kalson and her group, who made the Glow Shirt, a flossy activewear piece for nighttime riders, to break down her  fashion-tech mashup.

Wheel Ways: The arty bicycles on the sleeves double as a reflector. "They are on your sleeves near the bicep part so if your hands are on the handle bars, people can see the bikes on your biceps," says Kalson.

Light Show: If the reflectors aren't enough to grab attention, the bright LED lights sewn to the back will catch the eye. "The blue light can be set to solid, slow blinking or fast blinking," says Kalson.

Color Theory: Most reflective activewear comes in obnoxious neons. So she chose a sleek, fitted black shirt with a calming blue light for a more fashion-forward look. "This isn't something a construction worker would wear," she says.

'My Expo Rose,' song of Cleveland's 1930s Great Lakes Exposition, lives again

The Streets of the World

In 1937, the Great Lakes Exposition filled Cleveland's lakefront with carnival barkers, art deco landmarks, a giant water-dance extravaganza, an international village of pagodas and Alpine architecture, sexy dancers, elephants and lions, trapeze artists and a first-class freak show.

In the second year of our almost-World's Fair, Cleveland set a standard for the energy and fun and wonder possible on our lakefront — an ideal we've been trying to reach ever since.

Dudley Blossom Sr.

Dudley Blossom Sr., a businessman, philanthropist and heir to an oil and real estate fortune, served as the fair's chairman. He wasn't content just to be the moneyed guy who kept the midway rides and the front gate turnstiles turning.  In 1937, he penned a song, "My Expo Rose," a sweet and sweeping tribute to the thrills and wonders of the exposition.

In 2006, when I wrote my history of the Great Lakes Expo, "Sex, Celebrity and Carnival Charm," I asked the Cleveland Institute of Music to record a version of "My Expo Rose" off the original sheet music. Soprano Andrea Bargabos and pianist Mark George obliged. We briefly included it on our website along with photos from the expo. But it appeared during a stormy hour in our website's history and was soon lost.

The Midway

Recently, I found the recording again and had it reposted online.

Its soaring melody lifts nostalgic, dreamy lyrics that evoke a long-ago time on Lake Erie. The lines paint a picture of the singer's carefree journey across the expo grounds: the midway, "toy balloons and big festoons," barkers in full cry, the Streets of the World's "peasant girls so fair to see," summertime skaters in "cold Winterland," and the Goodyear blimp hovering overhead. Blossom also name-drops Billy Rose, the famed Broadway showman who staged the Aquacade at the 1937 fair.

Blossom's song can take your imagination back to the Cleveland of 78 years ago.  Please visit my story's page on our website to listen to "My Expo Rose." 

Blimps above the Streets of the World.

Action: Direct a Short Film to Win Tickets to CIFF's Get Shorty

Shorts often get overlooked at the Cleveland International Film Festival. There’s always a hot Sundance flick to see or a film with a cameo from a favorite cult star or an ultra-quirky indie that’s too intriguing to pass up.

But thanks to the Get Shorty Film Feast at 7 p.m. Jan. 29 at the Capitol Theatre, film buffs feed their appetite for shorts. Guests watch shorts exclusively all night and vote on which ones they’d like to see at CIFF. The top scorers join the more than 350 films screened at CIFF March 18-29 at Tower City Cinemas and off-site venues including Playhouse Square, Cedar Lee Theatre and new location, the Cleveland Art Museum. Get Shorty attendees can satisfy actual hunger with food and beverages from Culinary Occasions. Tickets are $100 and can be purchased at clevelandfilm.org. 

But aspiring short filmmakers can win tickets from Cleveland Magazine by making a 15-second short film on Instagram. We’ll send the best filmmaker and a guest to Get Shorty. Need some reel creative inspiration? Watch our short. 

Submit your film via Instagram tagging @Clevelandmagazine and @CLEFilmFest. Or Tweet us the link @ClevelandMag and @CIFF. Use the hashtag #clesupershort. We’re accepting films until Jan. 23 at noon. Winners will be notified that day. Action!