Dear Wall Street -- Last Friday the absolutely obvious occurred -- and you acted like you'd had a nighttime visit from the walking dead. Coca-Cola Co. announced a year-over-year decline in sales and profits in the third quarter and -- ahhhhhh!!! -FREAK-OUT!

Let's just say the future of TV is pretty well established by now. The news that HBO is untethering itself from exclusive cable distribution and CBS will offer a paid-streaming service for its broadcast offerings more or less cinches a future that some of us have been blathering about for a decade. That over-the-top future, which has since already largely materialized, is devoid of broadcast networks and cable juggernauts, but very rich in streaming content from Hollywood fare to Jenna Marbles to Jeffrey Hayzlett's C-Suite TV bizcasts to Morgan Spurlock's offerings on the Smartish channel to Funny or Die.com to …

I have known my share of rejection. I have felt the steady dull ache of Indifference. Oh yes, I have been remaindered. But nothing prepared me for this: Kickstarter. That's the crowdfunding site, where venture capital has been democratized and entrepreneurs can take their hopes and dreams directly to the people. To pitch on Kickstarter is to be evaluated not by some rich Silicon Valley kingmaker in a work shirt and chinos, but by your peers. Your peeps. Your very marketplace.