A Year's Worth of Self-Promotion

By way of wrapping up the year, I thought I’d look back at everything that would have been worth “promoting” over the course of 2023. Some of these I shared here; many of them I didn’t. If you happen to have any spare brain space for ol’ Ethan Warren during the last week of December, here are some opportunities to catch up with my professional travails.

Freelancing

I tried not to do too much of this in 2023–I did too much pitching in 2022, and my progress on my second book suffered. I did start the year with a few spillover assignments, and then tie on another in the summer:

• At Polygon, I worked with the great Zosha Millman on a piece looking at the standout third episode of All Creatures Great and Small’s third season.
• At LitHub, I worked with Eliza Smith on a piece that looked at the third season of All Creatures more generally.
• Back at Polygon, I worked with Tasha Robinson (a dream!) on a piece looking at Disney’s wartime shorts. They’re largely pretty racist!
• And then over the summer, back at LitHub, I worked with Eliza Smith again on a piece on my favorite author, children’s book writer/illustrator Robert McCloskey.

Bright Wall/Dark Room

After spending almost a year away from my beloved BW/DR, I managed to get a few pieces turned in during the back end of 2023:

• For the “Nostalgia” issue, I covered Joan Micklin Silver’s alt-rag masterpiece Between the Lines.
• For the “Westerns” issue, I covered the unassuming transcendence of Rio Bravo.
• In November, I finally took a run at Bluey, a show for toddlers that also happens to be such a towering work it took me years to approach it.
• And last week, we ran a new audio version of my 2019 Muppet Christmas Carol essay–almost definitely the most popular thing I’ll ever write–including an original soundtrack of Christmas classics by my bosom friend Ryan Pollie (who had quite a lot to say at this newsletter this year himself).

Podcasting

A busy year of ‘casting, both on my own projects and other people’s shows!

• This spring, I got to be part of my first One Heat Minute show, Pod Thomas Anderson, a mix of excerpts from my book and clips from conversations I had with friends and luminaries (I talked to the Joe Pera for this show!). Produced and edited by my bosom friend Blake Howard, the show was a total joy, but I found myself wishing I could write original narration for a show rather than reading prose meant for the page.
• So this fall, Blake and I collaborated again on The Great Henson Caper, what’s ending up being about a 10-hour audio documentary on Jim Henson’s life and work, again mixing my written portions with testimonials (I talked to Connor Ratliff for this show! And Elliott and Dan from The Flop House!). I’m really proud of how the show’s come out; the finale airs this week, so you still have time to catch up by searching “One Heat Minute” wherever you pod, or using this handy playlist a buddy made to catch the episodes.
• Towards the beginning of the year, I did three guest spots on Authorized Novelizations Podcast (a show that covers exactly what it sounds like), which led to my being invited on the show in a more regular capacity, joining what’s essentially a rotating panel of hosts alongside two stalwart anchors, the great Andrew Overbye and Hannah Blechman. Once I was on staff, I quickly started nominating friends as guests, which led to some of my favorite episodes (and evenings) of the year, notably the Blow Out episode with Travis Woods, the Labyrinth episode with Sydney Urbanek, and the Quadrophenia episode with Ryan Pollie.
• I also made a couple of my regular visits to my beloved We Love to Watch, covering Alita: Battle Angel (a movie I was shockingly pretty into) and Under the Silver Lake (a movie I’ve been into for years). Pete and Aaron are such good pals I’ll do their show any time, even if they don’t start recording until way past my bedtime (I was late logging on for UTSL because I was passed out on the couch).
• A couple more loose guest spots as they come to me (and if I forget your show, I’m sorry!)—I went on No Bad Ideas, basically an improv comedy show, where I pitched an adaptation of a Reddit post as a Tim Robinson movie; I went on Film & Whiskey, where I talked about one of the true Great Movies, The Best Years of Our Lives; and I recently went on Awards Watch’s Director Watch podcast to help kick off their Paul Thomas Anderson miniseries ahead of a murderer’s row of guests lined up for the remaining episodes.

Speaking of Paul Thomas Anderson…

I Published a Motherfucking Book

Yeah man, it’s still weird to think about, but I do have a book under my belt, and one published by a respected university press no less. So yes, obviously, you should buy The Cinema of Paul Thomas Anderson: American Apocrypha (and save 20% off with the offer code CUP20 why don’t you?) and then buy a couple as gifts, and one as a backup. Rate it 5 stars on Amazon and GoodReads, leave a review, tweet about it, do that cool stuff that helps authors out.

I didn’t get to do anything resembling a book tour, but I did get to do some fun online promo, including invitations from three good friends:

• Jen Johans, who had me on Watch With Jen to talk PTA and DDL.
• Sydney Urbanek, who interviewed me for Mononym Mythology on PTA’s music videos.
• Tom Knoblauch, who had me back on Riverside Chats for a friendly debate on whether PTA has any responsibility to make movies about the world as it is.
• I also talked to Dan Moran of the New Books Network which was lovely, though I’ve been told there’s a whiff of exhaustion in my voice on that one. Listen and sound off on whether I sound tired of talking about Paul Thomas Anderson!
• Finally, if you want to see my whole self in action rather than just hearing my voice, you can watch this video of a presentation I gave at my local library that basically distills the book down to 20 or so minutes (plus visual aids!)

Broad Sound

And last but not least, there’s Broad Sound, the journal of arts and culture I edited over the course of the year and distributed in September–more or less a nice, thick zine, available in paperback via Amazon or digitally here.

Hard to know what to say about Broad Sound. It was a labor of love, certainly, and something I’m really proud of bringing to fruition–I commissioned and edited seven essays and a poem solo (though I couldn’t, or at least wouldn’t, have done it without the copy-editing and fact-checking support of Sydney Urbanek). I commissioned art, laid it all out, and got it into people’s hands, and I did it all while struggling through an ugly psychiatric period. At times, I figured I’d never do another issue, but now I’m lining up pieces for Volume Two and it’s looking fierce. Broad Sound feels like something viable, and that’s exciting. If you or someone you know might want to be in that second volume, I’m taking pitches until Sunday.

And that’s it for Between Art and Life: 2023. I’ve done some of my favorite work over at this newsletter, and it seems like it actually gets read, which means a lot to me. Thanks for keeping a space in your inbox for me, and maybe even your heart. I can’t wait to see what’s worth writing about in 2024!