New merger guidelines are coming to prevent further consolidation of the film/TV and publishing industry and similar monopolistic moves in other industries. Please read about them, share a public comment on the FTC's website by Sept. 18, and spread the word.

https://open.substack.com/pub/colehaddon/p/call-to-action-for-artists-ftc-proposes?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

#art #film #movies #cinema #TV #television #books #publishing #music #writingcommunity #culture #Capitalism

Tried my best to capture what it’s like in Los Angeles right now. #wgastrike #sagstrike #WGA #HotLaborSummer

https://mindystern.medium.com/strikepocalypse-the-hot-labor-summer-in-los-angeles-98a9b287bbcf

Coming out of the adoption fog—leaving behind fear, obligation, guilt—was a long, complicated, beautiful journey.

My story @medium

#adopteevoices #adoptee #adopteerights

https://mindystern.medium.com/coming-out-of-the-fog-bd6891506ba1

Remember the first rap song you heard? As the genre turns 50, the Associated Press asked some of your favorite rappers and DJs about the first ones they can recall and how the music influenced their lives. Their responses are like taking a trip down hip-hop memory lane. We want to know which rap song was the first one you heard: https://flip.it/xqs0qk
#Music #Rap #HipHop #Entertainment #Polls

Space launch over #losangeles

@alrs ahhhhh!!! I saw it and wondered what it was!!

RFKJr is what happens when the elites think they can bury, under their money, eons of generational trauma

#COVID19

🎶 WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE 🎶

If you need to be delighted by something this morning, I present the tree goats of Morocco.

I was driving near Essaouira the first time I saw this and literally slammed on my brakes because I thought I was suddenly hallucinating. But then you learn how common it is and after a day or two it's, oh, yeah, more goats in trees.

There are no sidelines for creatives in the WGA and now SAG-AFTRA strikes. If you write or perform for a living, whether it's books, websites, podcasts, TV, movies, or any other media, you are in this fight. I continue to stand with the unions, against any media conglomerate that thinks it can starve its talent into submission and replace us with machines of mediocrity.

#WGAStrike #WGAStrong #union #UnionStrong

Months into writing #Sneakerella for
#Disney after submitting countless free drafts, they demanded one more.

Seasoned writers told us we had to do it. That’s just how things work.

We said no. Not for free. They refused, did not extend our contract.

That same year, #BobIger earned $36M

#Hollywood runs on fear: of obsolescence, financial ruin, being labeled difficult (we were). Studios exploit that fear.

We’re fucking done being exploited. #wgastrong #solidarity #sagaftra

@davidaugust Fran Drescher’s speech was FIRE.

Internet Archive now has a menstruation information and history library, since we now live in a world with Florida bill 1069, which bans the mention of periods before sixth grade in Florida public schools.

Library is universally available:

https://archive.org/details/menstruation

Big news out of Ohio. Mobilizing young voters this year will pay off in spades in 2024, where the Senate majority hangs on Sherrod Brown's seat in the Buckeye State.

Human beings were never meant to be on a single social media platform for life. Archaeological evidence tells us our earliest ancestors hopped from platform to platform, following the migrations of the influencer herds, moving on when the soil was too depleted to grow new discourse

#Today in the US we are into that magical season where the game of "is it gunshots or fireworks" can be answered "most likely fireworks." Of course, some people do both. Stay safe!

Hunter Biden could snort lines of cocaine off the top of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server on Facebook Live using one of her printed-off emails as the straw and it still wouldn’t have shit to do with Trump’s crimes or the federal grand jury’s decision to indict him.

Montana's drag ban was applied to a transgender person doing public speaking. No music, no dance, just a trans person and a podium. This is what they want. They want us to be removed from public life. This is identical to what Hitler did with the Nuremberg Laws. Eventually the punishment for us simply existing in public spaces will be jail time. If that makes you uncomfortable, please speak up to whomever will listen. Fixing this requires cis support.

Nobody is trying to turn your kids gay or trans. We’re just trying to make sure they don’t turn out like you.

The special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election has subpoenaed members of the former president’s White House staff believed to be involved in the firing of the administration’s top election security expert. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-firing-election-security-expert-jack-smith-1234744474/