I obviously have a lot on my mind about my industry this week and I still would even if I hadn't spent years of my life working with one of the studios that's now lost. Even as things are finally improving for me personally after one of the worst work droughts I've ever had as a freelancer, I would be frankly lying to you if I wasn't looking at some of my projects and wondering which ones are gonna make it across the finish line. Is this month just a good flash in the pan before I go back to how it's been the rest of the year so far? What am I gonna do if the rug gets pulled out under from me again, as I just keep trying to make enough money every year in a foreign country so that years from now, I can get my permanent residency and no longer ever have to live in fear of moving back to a country that has been soul-crushing to me from the day I was born? That I know will do its utmost to kill my spirit for good and make my life feel like a dead-end again if I ever go back?
I've tried to write multiple versions of this post in the last day before I ended up scrapping each one. So all I'm gonna say is, these fuckers don't own this industry just because they hold money and employment over our heads. This industry has always belonged to those of us in the trenches building its shared culture and history and that'll never, ever change. Those craven vultures circling overhead can try to take our place at the table away to keep theirs, but damn it, I'm gonna persist and do everything I can to stick it out and survive for as long as I can muster. There is no other field I want to dedicate my life to more than what I'm in now and my best work is still ahead of me. And I'll be damned if some suits and bean counters who have never created anything from the heart a day in their life tells me when my time is up in this place before I say so.
Like it or not, assholes, I'm not going anywhere, you better get used to it, and I am not letting you take me and my work for granted for even a second.