Red White & Blind

The launch of Red White & Blind at Aqus Cafe was a peak experience of my life. It was so much more than I’d envisioned.

The rain was coming down in sheets outside, and it was a beautiful respite in the cozy confines of the cafe. I expected 20 people and then 60 showed up. The place was packed. It went silent as I shared my gratitude and read the passages I’d selected. That was wonderful. But it was the discussions that occurred after I read from the book that moved me most. Each question was deeper than the last.

It’s clear that many, many of us have felt stranded or abandoned by the dominant media narratives that purport to tell us what is happening in our world. Even more of us have lost connection with friends or family because of the polarized media landscape.

We talked about the problems, the narratives, and the lies. We talked about the possibilities too, the goals of Red White & Blind: media consciousness, a balanced media diet, and connecting with each other.

I’ve been trying to piece together photos and video to do the event justice and share it with you, but I don’t have the time or expertise to do it.

So I’m going to do something else. I’m going to do it again, this time online. As several of you suggested, I will host an Online Book Release and Conversation. I will share Red White & Blind with those of you who weren’t able to make it to Petaluma.

I would be delighted if you would participate. I would be honored if you might contribute your presence and thoughts to this book release.

Please join the conversation if you feel inspired.

Red White & Blind

Online Book Release
Tuesday, February 7th
Starts 5:30pm PST / 8:30pm EST
5:30pm – Celebratory toast & casual chat with the author
6:00pm – Book release
zoom meeting details >

Please reserve the time now in your personal calendar. I will be thrilled to see and hear from you as I release this book into the world.

Here is the Facebook event and the Zoom invitation.

I’ll see you there on the 7th.

Our news media here in America is as distorted as the Chinese news media that I wrote about in Double Happiness. The problem is most people here don’t realize it because American propaganda techniques are much more sophisticated, and because two relatively similar viewpoints are allowed to vociferously disagree.

After years of work and research, I’m delighted to announce my new book is now published.

RED WHITE & BLIND: The Truth About Disinformation and the Path to Media Consciousness

After being censored by Huffington Post in 2016, I realized something I’d long suspected. The “media narrative” in mainstream corporate American media is tightly controlled. Some people see it, some don’t, but the trend is that people are increasingly noticing this deception, this comprehensive bias, this set of blinders on the truth. The emerging trend is media consciousness, which is dissolving consensus reality, and this is both dangerous and scary — and preparing us for a better world.

Red White & Blind explores this and much more.

Stay tuned to the Red White & Blind media channel for more.

Tony’s Story

Tony Brasunas grew up on a commune in West Virginia. Before leaving for China, as a teenager at Amherst College, he studied Chinese, music, writing, and Computer Science, and meandered into a thoughtful and lonely social and political conservatism.

Directionless after college, perhaps expecting something more from the planet, Tony applied just after the deadline to Princeton in Asia, and he was swiftly bundled off to Guangzhou, China, to teach English. The ensuing journey broke him open. His body tasted death in hospitals and Tibetan monsoons, his heart opened up and slammed shut and opened again, and some unknown inner sage awoke and suggested he trust his intuition.

Double Happiness: One Man’s Tale of Love, Loss, and Wonder on the Long Roads of China (December 2013, Torchpost) masterfully retells that awakening against a backdrop of a modern, changing China.

Excerpts from the manuscript have appeared in the book China, an anthology of travel writing on China published by Travelers’ Tales Press, and in Travelmag, a British online travel magazine.

Writing ‘Double Happiness’

The second journey Tony undertook was writing it all down, editing it, and transforming the journey that changed his life into a story and a book. His third journey was launching a campaign on Kickstarter to gather the money and energy to publish it. And this is his fourth journey — sharing his story with the world.

In the years since China, Tony has slaked bouts of wanderlust by crisscrossing the Andes of Peru, backpacking through Germany and France during a World Cup, and sneaking illegally into Tibet.

Tony speaks passable Mandarin, Spanish, and English, and perhaps that’s why he was asked one fragrant spring evening in Kunming, China to play guitar on a radio station. The host on Kunming’s STAR 101.8 FM asked him why his songs were about a young woman. “Ta shi shei?” (Who is she?) inquired the host. Tony had met her at a nearby cafe, he replied, and she had become his tutor, his teacher of the Chinese that is spoken aloud, not just written in textbooks. “She’s on the roof right now with a radio,” Tony added with a smile. “She has a basket of strawberries and is hoping to hear me play guitar.”

Two weeks later, Tony was arrested and interrogated in Tibet.

The Timeline

Double Happiness was published internationally in trade paperback on December 12, 2013. Hardcover and e-book versions followed in January 2014. The audiobook, narrated by Brasunas, came out in January 2015.

In May 2014, at the Paris Book Festival, Double Happiness won best in Biography / Autobiography. Press release >

In July 2014, Double Happiness was named ForeWord Travel Book of the Year, Silver Winner. Press release >

In September 2014, the Living Now Book Awards (recognizing “Books For Better Living”) named Double Happiness best inspirational memoir.

The Publisher – Torchpost

All blogs, magazines, newspapers, and social media are welcome to request publicity materials, interviews, or review copies of Double Happiness.

Torchpost 415-647-8587 1612 Bay Street Alameda, CA 94501 info {at} torchpost {dot} com www.torchpost.com/books/Double-Happiness

Download Mini Media Kit

For a “white paper” description of the book, a normal-resolution book cover image, and a normal-resolution author photo, download the miniature media kit [ZIP].

Author Photos

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Download Book Cover Images

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Today is the day.

Red, White & Blind day.

After years of work, I can now announce with much pride, relief, humility, and excitement that my second book is out.

Today, the paperback. Tomorrow, on 1/11/23, the ebook for kindle will be available.

Launch Event!

To get your hands on the book today, please join me for the launch party. I have received tremendous interest and I sense it will be a literary celebration tonight at the fabulous Aqus Cafe in Petaluma, California. The place has a mild Euro vibe, a slightly subversive mood, and features great food, drink, and atmosphere. It has built a wonderful community of artists, writers, and musicians in Petaluma over the last decade, and I’m honored to launch my book there. Please come if you can! It would mean the world to me to see you there.

You’ll also get your book first, at a discount, and signed by yours truly.

Order the Book!

If you’re not able to get to Petaluma tonight, no worries. I’m sure that’s most of you, and I would LOVE for you to order the book right now from the comfort of your home. Not only will you get to embark sooner on what I hope is your great personal journey towards media consciousness, but it will also boost the book’s numbers in its first week so that more other people will organically discover it via online search and discovery.

Order the book today and have it in your hands in no time!

• Publisher. You can it most quickly and with the fewest middlemen at the marketplace of the publisher, BookBaby.
  www.RedWhiteAndBlind.com/buy >
• Barnes & Noble. If you prefer Barnes & Noble, they should ship it quickly too.
  www.RedWhiteAndBlind.com/bn >
• Amazon. And if you prefer Amazon, they have the book in stock too of course.
  www.RedWhiteAndBlind.com/amazon >

This is just the beginning

I’m excited and hopeful that what I’ve uncovered and spent three years putting into print will be of use to you and to many in your life. I’m humbled knowing how much I was able to write and yet how much more I was unable to cover, consider, or investigate. Finally, I’m thrilled to see where the book takes us in the unfolding conversation about the news media, social media, censorship, disinformation, and our longing to be informed about the world.

Book Release Party!

After three years of research and revisions, my book will be out in just two days — on January 10, 2023!

You can preorder the book now and also read a free excerpt at my new site www.RedWhiteAndBlind.com

Launch Event!

I’m honored to announce that the official launch of Red, White & Blind will be a literary celebration at the fabulous Aqus Cafe in Petaluma, California.

Speaking of RedWhiteAndBlind.com, there is a new page on that site with everything you need to know about the event. It even includes a link to the Facebook event for those of you who enjoy the FB thing.

As for Aqus Cafe, it has built a wonderful community of artists, writers, and musicians in Petaluma over the last decade, and I’m honored to launch my book there. It has a mild Euro vibe, a slightly subversive mood, and features great food, drink, and atmosphere. Please come if you can! It would mean the world to me to see you there.

Red, White & Blind @ Aqus Cafe

BOOK LAUNCH EVENT
Aqus Cafe
189 H Street, Petaluma

Tuesday, January 10, 2023
5:00pm – Dinner with the author 😀
6:00pm – Book launch!

Ok, that’s it for now. If you happen to live in the Bay Area, I would love to see you on January 10.

It’s been a blast appearing on podcasts and independent media shows in the weeks since I finished the manuscript. If you’d like to get a sneak peek into the revelations of Red, White & Blind before it’s published, listen today to one of my podcast appearances listed below.

I would love to hear your thoughts on how I did and your advice on how I could improve. I was nervous on the first podcast, probably too casual on the second, and failed to stand up for myself on the third. But since those first few, I believe I’ve improved at dropping in when touchy topics arise and proclaiming without fear the key points of the book.

As for the book itself, I can’t wait to get it into your hands. The publication date will be announced very soon. Consider these podcasts a teaser of what five years of research into the history of media distortion and propaganda have taught me. Our media system is deceptive, and it’s a huge problem as we live through elections, pandemics, and wars, but we’re also living in a time with a New Enlightenment dawning around us. We can know more of the truth about world events than any humans living before us—if we build the media consciousness to navigate the news and penetrate the censorship plaguing social media.

The diverse range of shows that have hosted me means you probably get to choose an interview hosted by someone with whom you agree (although I always recommend a Balanced Media Diet). I’ve been interviewed by left-leaning hosts (Tarabuster, Dig on America), right-leaning hosts (Deprogram, Grimerica), hosts seeking concealed truths (Unbridled Minds, Forbidden Knowledge News) and hosts just wanting to interview interesting people (Ripple Effect).

I’ve listed each show below with a snippet of its self-description and a brief summary of how I think it went, so you can choose your own adventure. I find each one listed here to be worthwhile, but if you want to listen to just one, I’d recommend Unbridled Minds or The Ripple Effect.