Dear Reader,
My name is Bill Bodkin.
I am the editor-in-chief, co-founder and owner of The Pop Break.
I’m also the resident DJ, guy who posts a lot of the stories on the site, voice you hear too often on podcasts and the person responsible for all the wrestling content on Pop Break.
I’m writing to you today because today, September 29, makes the 13-year anniversary of this site.
It’s wild to reflect on the fact that 13 years ago I came back from a vacation in Las Vegas with my girlfriend … and I was kinda miserable. Oh Vegas was amazing (and is my girlfriend/now wife), but as I sat at my sweet Jersey Shore apartment (it wasn’t that great but I loved it) I felt completely and utterly bereft of a creative outlet. My full-time career at the time was at a nightlife and entertainment magazine, so you’d think my creativity would be satiated. Yet, shifts in regional economy forced editorial to be slashed to a bare minimum and what content there was, was a regurgitation of ad copy. It was the absolute worst. It was mind-numbing, uncreative nothingness.
So, I called a great friend of mine (Brent Johnson), who was a beat reporter for the Star-Ledger. He was a former collegiate colleague of mine and a fellow pop culture aficionado. Like me, he was frustrated he wasn’t writing about all the things he loved. So we met up at a pizzeria in New Brunswick (RIP to La Familia on Easton Avenue) and we hatched a plan to create a blog… called The B&B Entertainment Blog. What does B&B stand for? It stands for Bill and Brent. Yes, it was the “Bill and Brent Entertainment Blog” aka the worst name in the history of site names ever.
Thank everything in the world that we hold dear and sacred that Brent and I (along with our initial staff) decided we need needed to change the name. Luckily, we did not go with names such as HodgePop, Pop Treasury or RoboPop (although I still like that one) and we went with my ultimate dad joke — Pop Break — a play off of one of my all-time favorite movies, in a completely non-ironic way, Point Break.
Only in very wildest dreams did I ever think Pop Break would become what it is today. From a practical standpoint I figured that this could serve as a creative outlet for me and a handful of college friends. At best this site would be an online recreation of the old office we worked in during college, which was such an awesome experience.
Yet, here we all are, 13 years later — over 14,000 articles published, tens of thousands of photos taken, thousands of hours of podcasts recorded, and millions of views from around the world. It’s a staggering fact that I sometimes doesn’t even seem real to me.
Thank you to every single person that has ever read a post, looked at a photo of listened to a podcast. Without you, this site would not have been afforded the copious and almost unrealistic opportunities we’ve experienced over the past 13 years.
We’ve been able to cover the biggest pop culture events like New York and San Diego Comic-Con where we’ve spoken with Oscar-winning actors and actresses, iconic comic book creators, pop culture juggernauts and the casts of some of the biggest shows. We’ve covered the biggest film festivals in the country and our film editor, Marisa Carpico, is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic — a fact that I will never not be ecstatic about, not just because it’s super cool, but it’s absolutely deserved for such a talented writer.
We’ve had pull quotes in trailers for film and television as well as press releases, album liner notes and the back of books and comic books. Nothing will blow your mind more than USA quoting you in an ad that runs across the entire nation.
We’ve covered artists ranging from Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake to Robert Plant, Celine Dion, Cher and Bruce Springsteen to documenting Cardi’s B engagement and Lizzo when she was an opening act for Made in America. We’ve been in the pit in stadiums and the tightest clubs and have had our shutters snap in vaunted venues like Madison Square Garden and The Forum in Los Angeles. Hell, we were even able to produce concerts including our own headlining show at Convention Hall in Asbury Park — a venue that’s been headlined by Black Sabbath, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, The Doors, and of course, Bruce.
We’ve been able to go from “kicking the idea around” about doing a podcast to having a complete network of multiple weekly podcasts streaming across all major platforms. The fact one person — Alex Marcus — has been able to do this without having his brain break in half, but also producing a rich, diverse and wildly entertaining network featuring hosts from across the country is the stuff of an absolute legend.
I could type another thousand words on all the great things this site has done, that’s how unbelievably proud I am of this site, and most important every single person who has written a word, shot a photo or record/edited audio and video for us. It is the absolute talent of these people that has made this site what it is today. They are and will always be the lifeblood of this site.
I know I say it every single year, but it bears repeating because it is the absolute, undeniable truth. Over the past few years especially this group of editors, writers, photographers and podcasters have worked tirelessly through an absolutely overwhelming, sorrowful and anxiety-fueled time recent history. Yet, despite all this these wonderful people have delivered thoughtful, emotional, brilliant, hilarious and insightful content for this site. A site, whose goal has always been to provide a much-needed pop culture break in their day.
Yet, every single day new stories, new photos, new interviews, and new opportunities created by this incredible staff comes across my desk. This group of supremely talented people, many of whom I’ve seen grow as content creators in the most fantastical ways over the years, makes this site run. It makes this site an important journalistic outlet that rubs elbows in the press screenings, the photo pits, the conference calls and social media world with the biggest and most prestigious media outlets.
I’ve watched them all these creatives grow. Many have left over the past 13 years, but they’ll always be part of this team, part of this family. I’ve seen them go off and land remarkable jobs, garner major promotions, get married, have children. I cannot begin to tell you how rewarding this makes me. I may be the dad to one, amazing child but I feel like a proud dad every time I see one of my team go out and succeed.
I cannot begin to tell you how all of these people have helped me grow — whether they know it or not — as a writer, as an editor, as a photographer, as a podcaster, as a boss, and as a human being. I have made plenty of mistakes in the past 13 years, I have not always been the easiest to work at times, but everyday working with the people on this site have made me better in all aspects.
And at the end of the day, Pop Break has been with me through some of the best times of my life, and the absolute worst times.
During this 13 year run I got engaged, got married, got a dog, bought a home, had a daughter and during the same time I lost my dad, lost way too many jobs to count, nearly lost my mom, and plummeted to the lowest and darkest point of my mental health struggle. Now, I can firmly say after two years of therapy, medication, and finally kicking alcohol, I’m at a mental, emotional and (somewhat physical) level that I have not been since the infancy of this site. I truly hope this turnaround will allow me to achieve the ambitions I had for this year pre-pandemic (which’ll be pretty cool if it happens).
So, in closing, thank you. Everyone. Every single one of you. You took a wild idea I had 13 years ago and allowed it to become something beautiful, and something life-changing.
Sincerely,
Bill Bodkin
PS: I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to thank all the publicists, media agents, bookers, promoters, creatives, artists, musicians, writers, managers and the like who worked with us through these past 13 years.
