Battlefield Chronicles #1

a personal journal from the throes of the Great Awakening

'Carnival is over, the year begins' - that is the saying around these South Atlantic waters. I couldn't disagree more. Having decided to kick things up a notch or two in 2023, I have already dished a ton of work as February fades.

I have published 11 posts or articles on my Substack, the War Blog. That's a nice going for less than 8 weeks.

Produced, recorded, edited and launched the pilot of my podcast to a respectable audience of 19k views, and have started recording episode 2 while pre-producing episode 3 in parallel.

Meanwhile, I was reinstated to Twitter, so I'm slowly learning to like it and read it and write in it again. It's a different ballgame.

I solidified my work on Truth Social, and got verified - which opens, now, the objective of having ALL my platforms be verified, too.

I published my first guest article on the Gateway Pundit, which is a step in the right direction in my goal to take my work to bigger vehicles as much as I can.

So, when some lazy Rio sloth comes to say 'finally, the year is starting', it takes a good deal of control to keep my peace.

Directing in the studio, circa 2010.

So, everything is going 'hunky-dory'. Everything but the monetization, that is. And I want to take a moment to talk about that, even as it remains an uncomfortable theme. Maybe because of it.

Since most of my work is predicated on storytelling and is mainly geared towards people on our side - rather than being in the melee, in the trenches, trying to win hearts and minds - I perhaps do not engage in as many unpleasant interactions as some other Anons of a more combative nature.

However, once I post about the monetization of my work, in come the nasty people giving me a hard time. What a bunch of assholes! The last two of this LONG line of trolls came with the very same take on it, almost like they rehearsed it: 'Why, if there's other millions of people doing the same work (as I) for free, should they entertain the idea of supporting me?'

The odd thing about this rationale is both these small accounts followed me, but only followed a couple of hundred people - so they are not enjoying the work of 'millions', after all.

Two decades in Television were enough - were they not?

Not all citizen journalists are the same. That is not meant to suggest that I'm better than other people. But I'm a professional journalist, a published writer and I have a filmography and a discography.

I'm also an OG 'anon', with half a decade under my belt, and I'm capable of a variety of things: from single post frenzy following the news cycle, to deep dive articles; from Twitter threads, to informed geopolitical commentary; from directing and editing and presenting videos, to writing, playing and producing music.

I brought my extensive toolbox and I'm using it ALL in the work. Please, go ahead and show me millions of people who can do that.

Other thing is: all contributions are voluntary. So while I ask the frenz to consider supporting my work, I am still offering it for free to everyone. There is no paywall.

The people who become paying subscribers don't get any extra content. What they get is a) the satisfaction of supporting someone whose work they like, and b) the privilege to be now shaping the information landscape. They are now the ones who choose who will work, who will report. They are not slaves to the Mockingbirds anymore.

My second book - first novel - written back on the days where the world was simpler, and I could devote myself to fiction.

As for the absolute majority of peeps who subscribe to my work for free, they are just as welcome, and just as important - we all are working to get information to circulate and bypass the MSM's censorship of all the important stories of our time.

What I can't accept is people who go out of their way to criticize and belittle my work. These people are the enemy. Can't or won't support me? That's perfectly alright. Want to disqualify me and my work? Go straight to the fourth circle of hell! - reserved for those afflicted with the sin of avarice (as per Dante Alighieri).

Naturally, the fact that I'm so behind my projections in the work of converting free subscribers into paid ones **cannot, in any way, be attributed to the haters**.

The shortcoming is all mine. There's a whole range of reasons-why for the poor financial performance, so far. But it's a waste of time to delve on them, since every reason has the same solution to it: I have to write more, write better, write smarter, write more compelling stories. Just keep upping the ante until the act of following my work becomes a natural thing to many in our political and cultural field.

On stage, ‘in the zone’.

'It's the waters of March, closing the summer/It's a promise of life in my heart.' (Tom Jobim/Waters of March)

It's raining cats and dogs in Rio. As we say here, 'chove canivetes' (it rains pocketknives). I guess the waters of March are a promise of life in our heart because no one can take the absurd heat for much longer. PLEASE, God, turn off the blowtorch.

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I have stage fright. Always have had. People ask me: but don't you like to play live? I always answer - I like to have played 15 minutes ago.

The same goes for recording video. I get nervous even in a zoom call where there is no one else. Also, this line of work stirs feelings that I thought I had put to rest, since I was convinced that my two decades of Television work were quite enough for me. I was sure I was done with it.

But then, I licensed an editing program, started cutting, and voila, I felt like 19 years old again, studying the 'montage theory' by Sergei Eisenstein, filled with cinematic dreams. It was a bit of a shock to realize that I love that art form much more than I was prepared to admit.

Recordings are a pain in the neck.

But the recording is still a pain. I always worked behind the camera: writing, producing, editing. I directed quite a bit, too - but it was not my main thing.

I have considerable stage experience, as well as some public speaking and teaching experience too, so I guess I can fake it. Just don't pay attention to the poor diction and the thick accent. Maybe if I play a little guitar they'll be distracted, and forget about that.

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Let's finish with a song: 'Veteran of the Psychic Wars', by Blue Oyster Cult.