Athenic

Finding the right mix of music and film to create something greater than either individual pieces has always fascinated me.

If I had to pinpoint it, the first time I recognized this was the convoy scene in Smokey and the Bandit set to “East Bound and Down”, but clearly that song was meant to go with that film. 

Taking two entirely different pieces from different artists from different times and creating a whole new experience—well that’s even more exciting, isn’t it?

It must’ve been over a decade ago when my friend Scott first showed me this video. At the time, I hadn’t seen Once Upon a Time in the West nor was I familiar with Arcade Fire, but this blend of two completely different works just seemed to come together like magic.

Last week I finally sat down to watch Once Upon a Time in the West. Not only did I find it mesmerizing and intriguing (and shame-inducing that I’d never seen it until now), but understanding the characters and plot made me go find this gem and watch it again. 

Long story short: kudos to JT Helms or whoever first conjured this.

If you haven’t seen this before or seen the film or heard the song, do all three.

The last time I recorded a podcast was almost seven years ago. I’ve been wanting to get back to it for a long time but also try something different for Patreon.

I started working on podcasts in 2005 with Podtacular ,which I’m sure must be the longest-running Halo podcast at this point. Through building their website and contributing to the podcast, I learned so much about online communities and met some of the best people I’ve ever had the pleasure of fragging trucks with.

In 2008, I co-hosted the PiQ podcast the best people I ever made a nerdy entertainment magazine with. We got four of those in the can before the whole affair was ripped out of our hands.

We managed to pull the energy back together on our own in 2010 with Sodapop Journal because there just weren’t enough podcasts with people talking about movies! I’m always down to talk about movies and filmmaking, but at the time, the struggle of trying to figure out what now amounts to a simple Zoom call and keeping a regular schedule led to it gradually coming to a quiet end in 2014. (I’m still surprised that Joe Rogan has unknowingly kept the name alive after all this time, but that’s for another time.)

Now in 2021, I’m starting the machine up again. I learned a lot from the past, and in a way, I’m using that to know where I don’t want things to go.

I don’t want it to be complicated.

I don’t want it to be a chore.

I don’t want it to be another job.

So I’m going to do what I do anyway: draw something and let it go.

Sketch. Release.

Check it out here or find it where you get podcasts.

Video feed is available on Patreon.

Here’s to new beginnings!

I started the year with scattered ideas and no solid direction, but world events found their way into my work in more ways than I realized at the time. While my approach to illustration definitely evolved and improved, my ideas also started to take shape. I decided to back away from posting to focus on that, so here’s how 2020 ended up.

I’d normally share these top nine with pride, but I think it might have been different if you saw what’s coming next.