TC Media Studio closing

[Greg]

It's not you. It's me.

[Drunk Monk]

right.

wasn't quite tracking that...

[Drunk Monk]

Jonny pushed back on the phone call until tomorrow so we can do it face-to-face. He's starting to hesitate on the announcement. Honestly, it's his tendency to hesitate that brought us to this point. 

[Greg]

Grrrr.

[cranefly]

Jonny pushed back on the phone call until tomorrow so we can do it face-to-face. He's starting to hesitate on the announcement. Honestly, it's his tendency to hesitate that brought us to this point. 

Well, at least he was always timely with his Claw Marks articles.

[Drunk Monk]

I'm struggling with not coming down on Jonny until this is all over. No one could've forseen the impact of covid and he's got to save the whole company. And I truly hope he can. 

I started contemplating Kubler Ross 5 grief stages: 
I'm not in denial - this has been coming for a long time.
I'm subject to bursts of anger but I haven't broken anything...yet. I only punched one cabinet lightly. 
I'm somewhat bargaining to keep my foot in the door with KFM. We've built a solid resource there - around a thousand free access articles, indexed and in a searchable database. No one else can really maintain that beast and it is a repository for 200+ articles of mine, plus I haven't counted the cover stories yet. I'd hate to see that disappear, just like I'd hate to see this forum disappear. 
I am very depressed. I have to force myself to get up, eat, and exercise. I didn't expect my reaction to be so physical. That's been really intense. 
I do accept the situation.

[Drunk Monk]

92 cover stories, 41 were co-authored, although usually that just meant I had someone translating. For instance, 34 were with Gigi, and she just translated for the most part.

[Drunk Monk]

Dammit. I was dozing off watching a vid, turned off my laptop, and was so ready to sleep and then my brain circus shot a human cannonball from ring 1 to ring 3, waking all the lions, clowns and elephants. Might as well watch another vid in hopes the melatonin will kick in.

[Drunk Monk]

What a miserable day. 

It started with Tara and her apartment mate getting their bikes stolen. They had left them on the porch of their place and someone nicked them.  Tara's was old but her friend had put a lot of time and work into her bike. 

Had a long talk with Jonny. He decided not to close TC Media after all, which he emailed me this morning, and that gave me a glimmer of hope. He offered me a retainer fee to be a social media proctor. It's not much but a bird in the hand, ya know? He's got the TC crew coming in for half days and they are struggling to pull themselves out. Saw Will, one of my better friends there - he had not heard about the layoffs. 

Patrick came in later to download more of his files. He's got so many graphic files... a lot of data. We chatted a bit.  

Around 4ish I dropped the announcement and then ran away - fled to my mom's. The street closure was done. My mom was all smiles - she's always happy to see me - I reminded her of what was happening and she was slightly concilatory. My grief has turned to anger. I asked her to give me some space tonight and she's obliging. 

I went to pick up some dinner for us and while waiting for my order to be filled, I checked my social media. So many condolences from all over the world - friends, strangers - it just broke my heart. 

I'm going to check out for a bit - watch some Brooklyn 99 or something - and then check back in on that later. 

I can't remember the last time I felt this broken.

[Drunk Monk]

My phone and messaging have been blowing up since 4. Some are really touching. So much grief. I can't really bear it. 

Then there was this feckin melt who had to point out a typo... 

I actually fucked up and posted the wrong image for facebook, twitter and linkedin. I just posted the correction. 

Thanks for sharing my job search.

[Greg]

I hate that guy. But better the knife from someone you know, right?

[Drunk Monk]

I hate that guy. 

We all do. 

I fucked up with a lot of my final posts. Posted the wrong image on some of my social media. Had that typo. I used to say that you can tell it's authentic Kung Fu when there's a misspelling. In the end, I don't really care. Still more to do. Moving on.

[Greg]

So, the website, the forum and youtube will continue with maybe you as the director?

[Drunk Monk]

Yes. It's a part time gig however. A side hustle. TC offered me a retainer fee. We're still sorting how it'll all work out, but it's something and it'll allow me the media access. 

I'm happy to do it. I have over 200 articles archived there, along with 90+ cover stories. Patrick is into it to for the same reasons. It was the two of us who built that site over the last 20 years. We've invested a lot into it. I hope to perpetuate it. It all depends if TC can weather the storm as obvs, the pandemic isn't done with us yet.

---

watching sitonmyfacebook play out has been poignent. it amuses me how many people think i should take it all over myself, as if my name is somehow more financially viable than kfm without any sponsorship. people don't seem to get that it failed. that's how we got here. and we tried everything with a full crew. social media is so dumb sometimes.

[Greg]

Tell them to pony up some investment money, that's what will keep the magazine going. Of course, it's probably akin to that old joke, how do you make a small fortune in the publishing business? Start with a big one.

It must be somewhat gratifying to see the outpouring of affection towards you and the magazine. In so many ways, you were the face for the magazine at a certain point.