A sample from one of Johnny Bacardi's many pop culture outlets

In terms of pop culture insight, I wish I was as informed and diverse in my knowledge as Johnny Bacardi. Bacardi and I have similar tastes on several fronts, but his knowledge is amazing. How amazing? I had to interview him in hopes of learning a fraction of what he knows. You’ll note I did not link to his website in this introduction, but only because I could not pick one distinct site. We discuss many of his sites in the course of this email interview, so please follow the links there. And thanks to Bacardi for his time. Did I mention I’m amazed there was any such thing as cable in the 1960s (as he briefly mentions)?

Tim O’Shea: You have a diverse appreciation covering almost every aspect of pop culture, can you recall what your first form of media (TV, film, music, comics or what) that first caught your attention as a kid?

Johnny Bacardi: Hm. Probably a children’s book of some sort, most likely a Little Golden. I remember having an illustrated version of The Night Before Christmas, and another about Beany and Cecil, who were on TV when I was small. My folks subscribed to several magazines, as well as Reader’s Digest. Of course, not long after came comics and music and TV (our small town had cable very early on, in the early-mid 60s- 12 channels, but still!), all at sort of the same time, around 1963 or 64. You see, I could read before I started preschool, as early as age 3. Don’t ask me how, I have no recollection of actually “learning”. I blame comics, with the picture/word association thing going on. This led to a lot of heightened expectations for me, which, sorry to say, I spent most of my formative years failing to live up to.

Read the rest of this entry »