I just got off the phone with my good friend Johnee Bee. I first met Johnee in 1987 just months after I opened the door of my advertising agency PRISCOMM. My then partner ironically sported the nickname Johnny A and together we responded to a small classified ad that Johnee Bee ran in the local free business rag that circulated the Orange County John Wayne Airport business district. I still remember the ad copy:
“If you’ve got the Mac
I’ve got the knack”
Johnee Bee was a fledging computer artist illustrator. Johnny A greeted him with a huge smile, high energy and sincere excitement and yelled into my office, “Hey Allan! Johnee Bee good is here. Wearing stylish glasses, hip clothing and two different colored socks, he just turned to Johnny A and in a deadpan monotone voice said, “It’s just Johnee Bee!”
Nearly 20 years and countless designs and illustrations later we are still great friends and still have the opportunity to collaborate on creative projects. A year ago he married a beautiful woman, Cynthia who around the same time couldn’t turn down a terrific career opportunity in Minnesota. So the tow of them abandoned the sunshine of Southern California for the lakes and could winters of Minneapolois/St. Paul.
Johnee swears it isn’t that bad. For a guy who grew up in Southern California and never took to winter sports such as skiing, I do believe him. But I wonder when they’ll be back.
He is one of the best illustrators I’ve ever worked with and he keeps reinventing himself and now is one of the top Flash animators in the country. But that’s besides the point. While I’ve been galavanting around the world on my motorcycle, Johnee Bee has become the PodCast producer and host extraordinaire. Nearly a year ago when he traded in his sunglasses and sandals for wool blankets and a heating bill, he kept himself entertained and free from the brutal cold and wind-chill of the great white north by producing a wildly entertaining PodCast called Mostly Trivial.
Johnee describes the PodCast Show as “a fun, general and short trivia game.” But he is doing himself an understated injustice. The production quality is top notch, the subject matter varies from the sublime to the esoteric. Johnee has a knack for making his show interesting, funny and fun. He writes much of his own music, has a notorious knack for finding and researching intriguing material and makes Mostly Trivial infinitely entertaining complete with its own cast of characters.
—> Check out this show. You can subscribe to Mostly Trivial with your host Johnee Bee through iTunes here. <–
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Before I set out on my WorldRider journey, Johnee Bee and I brainstormed and even recorded a few sound-bytes for what we both thought would be the start of on ongoing PodCast show documenting the sights, sounds, characters, cultures and adventure of my journey. But as solo journeys go, time for experiencing sometimes conflicts with time for documenting and recording. I kept up to a point my video coverage, but soon that became a burden. Unfortunately the PodCasts never took off at WorldRider.com.
However, today we were reinvigorate and newly inspired to finally bring the long past-due PodCasts to life. So while I’m in physical therapy and building back my strength we will bring some of the stories of my first 7 months of riding around North, Central and South America to life in WorldRider PodCasts. What’s more, I will bring in interviews with other riders, adventurers and arm chair travelers to make the show interesting, stimulating and inspiring.
I’ve already recorded my first PodCast as an experimental and non-official first show: “Travels From The Sickbed“. This first show was recorded lying in bed using my PowerBook G4, an AKG microphone and GarageBand software. It’s a first stab. So check it out. But stay tuned here and to the WorldRider website for updates and continued. improvement.
