Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Links, Ponders, & Wonders.... And More!

it is our scars that define our character. they are the map we share.

I am not going to fight it anymore.

I am what I am. I apologize if you think I write too much. I just think we have such a long way to go to get to the something better we deserve and are capable of.

I tried to stop with the links, but there are just too many things I want to make sure you do not miss. I tried to stop with them, but I just kept finding things I felt you deserved a second chance to see. I tried to limit myself to five per week, but again I found there were too many. And I tried to limit them to the weekend posting only, but I found I was pushing things back to far too late to keep them relevant.

This week I have a lot of posts for you. I hope you appreciate them, but if not, I hope you will forgive me. It is not every week I will post everyday. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I thought when I was in prep for a new movie my posting would go down. But I think it is the EOY rush. I need to free my mind, cleanse, and let it all go.

In my effort to continue to experiment with this platform, I am going to return to my original plan for Links, Ponders, & Wonders. The complete list are only for the Premium Subscribers — those that help to financially support the work I am trying to do here. But I will offer a taste to you all, because, well you deserve something for subscribing! Thank you.

And of course if you want everything, I am offering an End Of The Year discount on annual subscriptions until January 7th if you use this code & link below. The big win is that it is on 2024 rates. Prices will rise in 25.

https://tedhope.substack.com/2024YearEndSpecial

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Links, Ponders, & Wonders, 12.2.24 Edition

1

I have such a brilliant, committed, creative, and compassionate partner.

How was I so lucky to get to have Vanessa Hope enter my life? She knows what she’s talking about and she does it so well. And she is very passionate about it too. She has been so relentless in making sure the world knows about Taiwan and its 24 million people’s right to autonomy. Meanwhile there are those in this world that are willing to let its authoritarian neighbor invade it. There are things we can do now — ie. diplomacy — that can prevent another war, one that would in all likelihood lead us into a Third World War. She was on Channel 4 news in London this week. Give her three minutes and your mind will expand.

https://www.channel4.com/news/invisible-nation-inside-taiwans-fight-for-autonomy

She also did The Monocle’s “The Foreign Desk” radio show. She comes in at 19:40 but you should listen to the whole thing. They saved the best for last!

https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-foreign-desk/570/

These two shows alone makes me wonder what the heck is the matter with the American mainstream media. These two links above are major UK shows. We’ve got none of it in the States. Sure, we have a great publicist in London, but we’ve had two of the top publicists in the US too. This is a hot button topic, and our film is excellent, if I do have to say myself. Vanessa should be on every major news outlet in America right now. She should have been on them for the last six months.

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2

How Wall Street devours our culture

On LI,

Karin Chien

Chien tipped me to this free ebook, DERIVATIVE MEDIA, that helped guide her in her recent research. Here’s the description:

Sequels, reboots, franchises, and songs that remake old songs—does it feel like everything new in popular culture is just derivative of something old? Contrary to popular belief, the reason is not audiences or marketing, but Wall Street. In this book, Andrew deWaard shows how the financial sector is dismantling the creative capacity of cultural industries by upwardly redistributing wealth, consolidating corporate media, harming creative labor, and restricting our collective media culture. Moreover, financialization is transforming the very character of our mediascapes for branded transactions. Our media are increasingly shaped by the profit-extraction techniques of hedge funds, asset managers, venture capitalists, private equity firms, and derivatives traders. Illustrated with examples drawn from popular culture, Derivative Media offers readers the critical financial literacy necessary to understand the destructive financialization of film, television, and popular music—and provides a plan to reverse this dire threat to culture.

You can get the free ebook here: