the State of All The Things, may 2020 {patron-only} (Patreon)

{patron only}

hi loves.

greetings from hastings, aotearoa / new zealand. this is a long read as usual, and i'm reading all comments as usual. talk to me. 

oof, people.  it’s been a fucking month. yep. 

one quick thing before i blather on, because i haven't said it in a while:

if you are a patron (and if you're reading this, you are), and you joined AFTER march....a reminder link: here is your patron-only free download code for my last big album "there will be no intermission":

https://www.patreon.com/posts/25037722. 

i am still so proud of this goddamn record....all the songs on it, the glorious production, and the tour i just did to support it...and if you never got around to buying it at a show, or listening to it in full...it's there for you. 

i daresay that some of the songs have taken on even deeper meaning in these COVID times, especially "the ride". it's yours, free, go take it.

i owe this record a lot. who knew. this record meant that i toured the globe, and touring the globe meant i wound up here in aotearoa, and that all means...something. what, i don’t know. 

check back in a year. or something.

...............

the main picture for this months Althing (i always try to pick something meaningful to scrawl upon) is the view out of our new air bnb backyard here at our strange waystation in aotearoa. 

it took me about 13 visits to this fence (i make a nightly trek out there if i can, with a glass of wine if i can, to see the sunset) to realize there was a gate that led directly...into the fence, with no escape. 

i'd been leaning against that gate for 13 nights without realizing it was a Gate to Nowhere. the gate once led to the adjacent farmer's field, but then the property was divided. 

now the gate leads directly into a fence that you cannot walk through.

now, every night, i look at this gate leading into this fuck-you-fence and the gorgeous sunset behind it, and i think: good evening, my life. 

someday i'll get to the other side of the fence that you cannot walk through.

fetch the boltcutters.

............

there is so much that i want to say about how it feels being here. i have so many feelings and so little time to sit and write, to describe them. i'm hoping to have more time to write about things. who knows. i’ve never felt more inspired to write with so little time. 

and in the words of my friend regina spektor: i hear in my mind, all these voices....i hear in my mind all these words....i hear in my mind, all of this music...

and it breaks my heart.

and it breaks my heart.

i am a particularly good songwriter when i am heartbroken. 

my head and heart wants to write music. my hands need to care for a child.

it's not so much that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

it's more like....the spirit is willing and it's ash's bath time. or time to go to school. or time to eat. or time to call home. or time to arrange a play date. or time to go to the store. 

so; i don't compose, i don't write, i don't do much of anything but try to deal with the everyday tasks, and i try to capture the song ideas, and even then, i often have my phone grabbed from me because SOMEONE wanders in mid-memo (and there's actually a beautiful recording of that from a few days ago that i'll have to share with you when the time comes). 

in short: i am mostly putting putting "work" and "art" aside, and i am putting my child first, more than i have since he was an infant. i remember doing that first six months of ash’s life...doing precious little else other than CHILDCHILDCHILD. it’s like that. except i’m less confused and i get more sleep. here’s the little terror. he’s been wonderful lately. thank you all for asking after him and caring so much. 

...................................

hayley and i have spent the last few weeks putting this typically epic post together, and below, you'll find all the usual business stuff and nitty-gritty, project updates, y'know, the usual.

and, i need to be honest with you (am i ever anything else?): it's been a very hard month for me, personally.

i am doing okay, all things considered, but things are pretty weird. 

i'm still waylaid in a foreign country where i had no community. i am slowly building a community - and this little town has been nothing but warm and welcoming - but it's not the same as being back home in the bosom of my old art-friends and beloved home routines. 

i have now been living out of a suitcase for 10 months. 

that being said: i watch in daily horror as my old idea of home in new york is not even the home i knew, and as america founders in the wake of a combination of forces and tragedies. 

black lives matter. trans lives matter. the way we've been running our country hasn't been working for fucking ever. the decks are completely stacked against the poor and the black of our country. abortion rights are losing footing. 

and yet our country seems so sleepy and so unwilling to wake up to some basic evolutions. 

everybody i know in america is somewhere on the spectrum of depression and/or exhaustion. meanwhile, things are pretty dandy here in hastings. life has returned to normal, basically, and even then post-lockdown jitters that seemed to be eating everybody for the first few weeks back to normal. 

what is normal, even? search me, loves. 

i know i'm going to work my ass off to get the vote out. what else can we do?

i have no plans to return home anytime soon, which is a hard and painful decision to have made, but ash, who's almost five, is finally adjusting to a kind of normal-for-now...he’s digging a livable life here after a lot of lockdown weirdness, then a full house move, and it's a joy to just see him settling into a comfy routine that he loves.

 and our life has become, well....small.

we walk to school. we go to the farmer's market (i actually BUSKED at the farmer's market the other day).....

(photo by camilla)

so yes.
we walk to school.
we walk home from school.
we go to the playground.
we cook and eat breakfast.
we go to the library.
we go to the aquarium.
we go to the bakery.
we go to the bookstore.
we cook and eat dinner.
we do bath time.
we go to bed. 

sometimes we go to the K-mart. 

we are in a small town...going to the local K-mart is fucking EXCITING.

i cannot believe it sometimes.

this is my life. i get excited about the K-mart. 

on the other hand, the walk to and from school is beautiful.

that we have a school that is open is beautiful.

who knew i'd ever appreciate that simple fact. 

who knew i‘d feel a quiet awe about the K-mart.

so it's....normal life. 

not normal for ME, mind you, after a life of international jetsetting, but maybe that's what the universe called for. 

a mundane humbling.

and ash misses his dad, and hid dad misses him, and we're hoping that his dad gets out of lockdown in the UK as soon as possible, so he can head back to this part of the world and we can get them back together. 

right now, his dad can't legally leave scotland, nor could i go there...not that i think heading to the UK right now would be particularly wise even if it were allowed. i think it would be about as unwise as returning to new york. 

it's all very hard and sad.

and yet, i know i'm not alone in this small, humble shitstorm. 

i know so many of you are going through really difficult times of your own, for so many different reasons. i've been reading your stories...here, on the socials, on the shadowbox forum.

i know i am not alone.

i know we are not alone.

and as the artist that you "patronize", that you support, that you give your hard-earned dough to so that i can just live, survive, and do my thing...well, it's more of a miracle than it ever has been.

it's funny.

when i started the patreon more than five years ago, and i was pregnant, one of the reasons that i didn't do a "monthly" subscription was because i wanted freedom to drop out and flee, if i had to. i kept saying to my staff: "WHAT IF I WANT TO GO TO INDIA IN FIVE YEARS AND LIVE ON AN ASHRAM FOR SIX MONTHS? THEN WHAT?" 

it wasn't really a joke...i imagined that by the time ash was about five, i might be ready to go to an ashram in india for six months. 

and then what would happen to my patreon, if everyone was still giving me money, while i meditated in the hills, "producing" nothing, or next to nothing? no no no, i said. allow me the freedom to ashram!!!

why is it funny?

because in a way, it's sort of happened. 

i'm not in india. i'm not in an actual ashram.

but i also sort of am. i am in the middle of sort-of nowhere, with my child, out of my element, being called upon to carry out what i consider the biggest zen-challenges of my adult life. 

chop wood, carry water. it hasn't left a whole lot of time for art-making. 

i am just doing the work of existence, and taking mental notes.

meanwhile, my team is going through their own hardships, as they navigate long-term lockdown life in new york. everything is at half-mast.

and yet...

and yet. 

this was the whole point. this was WHY i chose patronage over a commercial career. 

this is, i know, the moment where i stop trying to impress people, trying to make art every second of every day, and allow myself to do the hardest thing: trust my community to catch me. if not now, when?

this last month has been one of the hardest of my life. harder than lockdown. i am woefully behind, as far as "behind" and "caught up" used  to be classified in my own language..."behind" in my work, on my projects, in my correspondence, it's all just gone to shit as i take a deep breath and say fuck it and prioritize my kid. 

and? it's fine. 

i think that my priorities are correct. everyone here keeps encouraging me to do that, and to slow down and just...allow.. 

i think you'd all probably agree with my choices, and from the things i read from you all, you do. i think this is why you're all my patrons. 

and i think this is why, when i do interviews with the music press and i try to explain to the music industry that this isn't just about money and profit, it's about the long-term relationship, it's about the trust that my community and i, and my team, have in one another...this is what i'm talking about. it's hard to explain. it's not a market exchange of product and dough. it's a relationship about longer-term support and trust.

and so, my emotional ability to let go and let good, and say: maybe it's okay to "do" less and still be supported for a few months, that possibility, that letting go is something that you've created in me. it's been a long time coming and growing.

and maybe this is the whole message everyone should and can be taking away from the covid situation. it's fucking hard to let go. it's hard to slow down. it's hard to stop. it’s hard to take help without flailing so hard in gratitude you exhaust yourself beyond whats necessary. 

and also, fuck it...you know...maybe i lose some patrons while this happens. and that's okay. i've been astounded that my patreon has held so steady for so long. and...i've been through this crowdfunding shit for a decade. it isn't about the immediate, it's about the long tail. the deeper relationship. it's always a cycle.

all that being said....i don't mean to sound like things are totally bleak. they're really not, and they're starting to turn around and look brighter. i am finally finding my own footing down here. 

in exciting news, i've managed to get a new piano into the house (care of a generous local and an available tuner), and if you want to see something adorable, here's ash climbing in, on, and around it last night (and ultimately deciding that it's his new bed that he wants to sleep in for "one hundred nights": 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CB2hd_glGzv/

.......

also in up-and-up news: i did manage to escape for about 36 hours to auckland, in order to do a vocal and piano track for a surprise patreon charity project (i made a little post about that the day before yesterday: https://www.patreon.com/posts/38554715) that we were hoping to get out on the 30th of june....but it looks like the production is going a little slower than we thought.

(what's new).

since it's late, we are going to do something i've only done once or twice before in my patreon history: we are going to THING the draft of the project, and release the finished project a few days in the new month (july) in order to stay on financial schedule. 

it is what it is. 

everything is so bonkers right now, i did not think you'd mind. 

here's another little studio picture from the recording session, that lucy lawless took:

it's something happening, and that feels like a lot right now.

slowly, work life is becoming a little more real.

slowly, slowly.

......................

i am so glad you are all here.

thank you for being here, for supporting me, and for being on a lifelong crazy-ass journey with an artist who knows she will never lose her way as long as she's in the arms of her art-family.

you make my whole life possible, you foot the bill for the piano tuner, you make it possible for me not to have to furlough my staff, you make....everything possible. i thank you. i thank you. i'm more grateful than i've been.

blather over. 

i fucking love you. 

...............

and now....back to the regularly scheduled Althing, and a few basics.

if you are a NEW PATRON. 

hi!! HELLO! KIA ORA!!! 

welcome! thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining this community. 

this is, if you are confused, my official monthly round-up blog, the “state of all things” (or “Althing”, for short). 

a few years ago, i asked the whole community if they were okay with me having a single paid blog/newsletter per month, just to keep everything running and financially covered (staff, office, life....) and pretty much everyone said YES. so this is how we do it. it also means that i never have to “rush” out a piece of art because we have a "blank" month. its nice. and it’s a chance for the whole crew and staff to muse directly at you about what they’re up to. we dig it.

these monthly Althings are also a good way of giving me, and the whole team, a chance to reflect and catch up on one another's lives, especially when we are far-flung in different directions, as we have been.....it means we all have to slow down for a second and look at what's happening. we read all the comments, so feel free to say hi, introduce yourself if you're new, and just wave at us. we're here, it's a hard moment right now, and we love you. 

since these can be long, and since a few people have requested it: here is a table of contents for what you'll find in this post!!!

• HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED - a round up on projects and events that have happened in the last month (the month of may, but some recent june stuff will be peppered in)
  
• WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE PIKE - this is a list of projects that are currently in production and updates on where they're at, these are some things to look forward to
  
• HOW THE GENERAL PATREON NUMBERS ARE DOING - this is the nitty gritty numbers on the Things (or paid posts) released in the previous month
  
• DISPATCHES FROM TEAM AFP - i gives space to my team for them to share with you what they're working on, or behind the scenes perspective. they are real people and this patreon not only funds my art, it also affords me the ability to have a staff helping me (and all of you) to make this art community wonderful
  
• OTHER ARTISTS TO SUPPORT - a place where i regularly share other patreons, crowdfunds, or other artists who are making work i think you should know about
  
• ART BEGETTING ART - there's so many beautiful pieces of fan art and art made inspired by me and my work, i like to include a little collection of some pieces to share with you each month...

....

okay.....let's get to it, shall we?

it was may.

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED.

xanthea and i moved house, from a hilltop air bnb to a much more sustainable one down the hill.

we took the 6 chickens with us. we will miss the hill...

and the piano we had on the hill...

and the drumset we had on the hill....(here's a picture i sent brian - the dummer of the dresden dolls, and he sent back an answer....):

BUT....

we are closer to the bookstore and can actually walk there in about 25 minutes from the house....

and the view is really not bad down here in the flatlands....

—

SHOWS COMING UP....? WHAT? 

i announced two TINY shows here locally in hawkes bay that will happen on july 3 & 4 and the tickets sold out in less than 3 hours! i hope to see many of you there. 

if you missed out on tickets - do not worry. i will be doing more local stuff here in HB. 

and many have asked....YES, i am going to reschedule my wellington show at St Peter's!! stay tuned for details. it'll be before the end of september, almost guaranteed. 

—-
BLACK LIVES MATTER.

this happened in june, not may, but it's important to share here.

if you have not yet read this patreon post, take a moment and read it here, black lives matter:

i planned to release my podcast at long last in the beginning of june, but with where we are at right now we thought it best to delay the launch and keep, and make space, for the conversations that are happening right now in real time. so be on the look out for more about the podcast in the next month or so....
—
Melz from The Free Black University took over my instagram, and we raised a bunch of money and hopefully, awareness...this also happened in june, but it's important. 

read the recap, here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/38164230

we are planning on doing more of these takeovers in the weeks and months to come, on instrgram and via patreon in general, using crowdcast. the team is working with me on setting up some great and compassionate guests.

.............

i also addressed something that’s been needing to be addressed for a long time, about language and my ongoing accountability as an artist, here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/38399445

(and a good discussion about this post continues in real-time on the forum, here: https://forum.theshadowbox.net/t/on-racism-words-art-time-and-progress/3913/32)

speaking of which...

THE SHADOWBOX is GROWING!

the organic growth of the new discussion and community forum that we worked so hard to build is MAKING ME SO HAPPY. because LIFE i haven’t been able to post constantly, but fuck me, i’m not as interesting as everyone else. if you haven’t noodled around there yet, go!!! it takes a little patience to get used to the platform, but it’s worth it. 

http://forum.theshadowbox.net

"capybara" still remains the top searched term. :)

some threads to check out:

Artists/Writers/Creative-folk: What are you working on right now?

BLACK LIVES MATTER - LOOKING FOR MUSIC

AMANDA & XANTHEA’S FUCK YES BREAKFAST BOWL

LUCY LAWLESS?! 

RESCUE REMEDY

get on there.

get off facebook.

go. go. go.

we made it for you. go.

..................

WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE PIKE...

here are some upcoming projects that are still in production, or are waiting some finishing touches to be shared with you over the next few months.....

and yes, this list is starting to look familiar for a reason.

i'm barely working right now, so everything his held the fuck up.

it's fine.

.................

THERE WILL BE NO INTERMISSION ARTBOOK PDF

it's coming.

i still need to write and format the new introduction.

....

MYSTERY CHARITY COVER PROJECT WITH JHEREK BISCHOFF AND A SURPRISE GUEST....

fresh off the presses, strings recorded live in LA, my vocal and piano recorded in auckland....mystery guest phoning in from Ireland....

 is coming in a few days.

i'll give you three guesses who the vocalist is, and it isn't lucy lawless.

....

THE "CONFESSIONAL" DOCUMENTARY WE SHOT IN TASMANIA....

we are working on it.

it's taking a long time because of ... me not having time to work on edits.

we'll get there.

....

LOOK MUMMY NO HANDS MUSIC VIDEO...

remember this one??

hahaha. it was supposed to come out over the summer.

michael pope, the director, and i hit a few snags and decided it would be best to do the cut in person when i got back to NY in april.

guess who didn't go back to NY in april.

so it's on hold.

...

A little DRESDEN DOLLS UPDATE....

as you may know, the dolls were supposed to be working on a new record right about now.

nope. not happening. will it?? yes. when?  i dunno.

meanwhile?? well...first: join the dolls' email list http://dresdendolls.com/emaillist.html

just because i'm in the band doesn't mean we won;'t have our own channels to annoucne things, we need to. so get ON THAT LIST.

(note, this email list is SEPARATE from the current afp email list, so even if you think you were on the old dolls list, you'll need to sign up to the new one).

and meanwhile....brian viglione, the drummer of the dolls, is working hard on going through some of our OLD archival material, and finding some real gems.

WATCH OUT.

....

THE JENESSA JOFFE VIDEO PROJECT

i started this one last year on the first dates of the There Will Be No Intermission tour in march 2019. i held a series of interviews in toronto and asked people to open up. it was astounding. 

it's taken some time to complete, mostly on my part, and i don't want to leave jenessa and her team hanging on this one, now's the time to pick up the thread and get this ready for you to view. it's coming soon....we hope. everything is going so slowly. but it's coming.

.......................

THE ART OF ASKING EVERYTHING PODCAST

we were finally gonna launch this project, which has been a long time coming, in the beginning of june, but with what's happening in the world and current events, the team and i thought it was best to delay this release for a bit to keep space for the conversations that are happening around us and to share this podcast when the timing feels more right. so....it's coming....soon.

did i say everything's been going slow af?

everything's been going slow af.

.......................

AT LONG LAST, THE NEW AMANDAPALMER.NET WEBSITE!!!!

it's been in the works for YEARS, many years actually. and at long last, it will soon see the light of day. work is underway and if things go according to plan, it'll be ready by the end of august....we hope.

the image attached above is a preview of a work in progress design on the home page, to keep everything else a bit more of a surprise. things will be tweaky-tweaked and adjusted, but i want to show you a small peek at what's happening in the background....i cannot wait for this to be finished.

IT'S SO GOOD.

........

and now...NITTY GRITTY TIME.

HOW THE GENERAL PATREON NUMBERS ARE DOING....

as of this writing there are 15,392 patrons pledging $51,009 for the first Thing each month.

i go over this stuff every month, but if your'e new:

patreon charges you monthly & retroactively, meaning that you get billed on the 1st of the month for all the Things released the month prior (for example, you were charged for the Things released in may on june 1st). 

because people have their pledges capped (HAVE YOU NOT CAPPED YOUR PLEDGE? if you are on a budget, you should. here's the tutorial again), the first Thing raises the most money, and anything released thereafter raises less and less. I LIKE THIS. it means i never feel too guilty!!!!!. really. do it. cap cap cap your pledge if you are on a tight budget. 

the numbers below are gross. they are not net. meaning: it's the money raised before fees were deducted by patreon and is not the total deposited to me. patreon takes a 5% fee (which they use to build and sustain the platform, which is GOOD) and then there's a payment processing fee, which varies on a ton of factors and is usually between 5-9% of the total collected. 

also, none of this reflects the money i SPENT MAKING THE ART, running the business, paying the office rent, getting myself around, getting the team around and fed and slept,....all the collaborators and my actual staff payroll, etc. 

i don't share that level of nitty-detail-stuff with you because i assume it would bore you to fucking tears. but you can trust me: paying for a full-time staff, office, manager, accountant, and massive team of art-collaborators ain't cheap. sometimes we barely break even, especially when we do a lot of charity projects.

last year patreon changed their pricing and fee plan. however, all creators who've had accounts up until may 7, 2019 are considered "founding creators" and for the time being are locked into the original fee structure with the 5% patreon fee and the 5-9% credit card payment processing fee.

back in APRIL, i Thanged Three Things:

the Unclickable Heart  was the first Thing and it earned about $56,055 from 14,813 patrons

March 2020: State of All Things was the second Thing and it earned about $25,322 from 8,823 patrons

a new forum for love: The Shadowbox was the third and final Thing and it earned about $16,092 from 5,735 patrons

(we say "about" because patreon may be still trying to process some pledges that have yet to go through...we never know, you know.)

them's the numbers.

.....................

and now.....

DISPATCHES FROM TEAM AFP.

from hayley:

hi folks.

In lieu of a personal update, I'm going to write a very practical one to share a couple of things regarding Patreon that you should all be aware of. 

But before I get into the nuts and bolts, I want to use this platform that I have here to affirm that black lives matter - they matter and we have to do more, we have to do better, to show that they matter, to show that we care, to lift up the voices and the people who have long been stifled. 

We have to do the work and we have to educate ourselves to fully understand what work needs to be done and how to best do it, we need to look inward as we listen, and we need to be part of the solution.

So with that, I urge you to stand up for injustice, to speak out when you see something wrong, and to lend your hand to your neighbors, whatever that means to you.

Now, on to the informative part of my update, regarding Patreon -

PATREON WILL BE COLLECTING TAX FOR SELECT TERRITORIES STARTING JULY 1st.

This may not affect many of you, and those of you that it does effect, you'll see a minimal difference - likely in the range of cents, rather than dollars, added to your patreon pledge.

Many of you may have received an email notification from patreon about this upcoming change, but just in case you missed it, here is some important details from that message:

Not all pledges are taxable
Whether or not sales tax will apply to your pledge depends on what benefits your creator(s) provide(s) and what’s considered taxable in your location. ‘Benefits’ are things creators provide in return for your pledge, like exclusive videos, extra podcast episodes, merch, etc. Not all pledges or benefits are taxable, and in many cases only a fraction of a pledge will be taxable.

How much sales tax might be charged?
Sales tax rates in the US range from 4% to 11%. On a $5 pledge, in the unlikely event that the full $5 is taxable, tax could range from 20 cents to 55 cents. But it could be as low as $0 if the benefits you receive are not taxable where you live, or your creator doesn’t provide benefits and you are simply providing support. Learn more about what benefits are taxable here.

To give you some perspective on what creators, like Amanda, had to do, I want to let you know that Amanda and I sat down together (virtually, across the world as she is in New Zealand and I am in New York) and we audited each of her reward tiers. 

Most of Amanda's Patreon tiers are meant exclusively as a place for you to provide "general support" - money given to Amanda to make art and show your support of her, her work and her collaborators. Depending the reward tier, there are other perks promised - like digital downloads, webchats, art in the mail etc. 

However, because Amanda uses this Patreon for a wide range of creative endeavors, there isn't always a "Thing" to be downloaded, a webchat to be watched, or art to be mailed. 

So to compensate for that, we had to list out the main perks of each tier and apply a percentage to each benefit. 

This part felt weird to do, but I can tell you that we factored General Support as the main benefit for each tier, with the highest percentage of value. We believe this reflects the main motivation behind your support of Amanda on Patreon, and reflects the frequency the other perks are offered (or in some cases, lack of frequency offered). 

Therefore, if you're in a territory that will have a new tax applied to your pledge, you should see a nominal change in the amount you are billed for the tax, as I believe the taxes are mostly interested in being applied to physical merch and reoccurring digital offerings, and less applicable to pledges of general support.

If you have questions or would like more information about this, head over to Patreon's help page where they've have a dedicated section with more info:
https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043054911

PATREON WILL SOON LET PATRONS PAY IN THEIR CURRENCY OF CHOICE

Another update I want to share is that hopefully by the end of this year (they're aiming for September) Patreon will let you pledge to a project in the currency of your choice between UK£ pound, EU€  euro or US$ dollar. 

This will be good news for folks who live outside the US, instead of pledging US$1 and having it convert to its equivalency in pounds or euros, for instance, you'll be able to pledge directly in your currency. 

While this is not happening site wide yet, we have opted into a beta test of this option right now. Here's what this means:
Any new patron of Amanda's will now see the reward tiers tiers priced in their preferred currency of $, € or £.

If you are an existing patron, nothing changes for you - unless you want it to. If you want to switch currencies you can do this by can editing your pledge in the Manage Memberships tab of your account dashboard. Here's the direct link to do that: https://www.patreon.com/pledges

Here's what this looks like, if you were pledging in the $5 tier, capping your pledge at 1 Thing per month, paying in USD. 

You can see in the right bottom corner the option to change currency, clicking that will open this menu box:

Okay, that will do for me this month. 

As always, feel free to leave questions in the comments, or reach out to me via email any time through patronhelp@amandapalmer.net

And because Amanda likes when we include pictures....here is a screen shot of my zoom screen, because I am frequently on team calls at a golden hour in the evening where the sun is starting to set and shines through to hit my webcam making my lighting look magical and dreamy. 

Keep your heads high,

Hayley

{hayley....thank you, as always, for everything you're doing, espeically from new york with the strange coals burning there. we all love you so much. thank you for your whole being....xxx afp}

....

from michael:

Hello Patrons,

May seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?  Even though quite a lot happened during the month of May, there are things that are more important to me right now than a monthly recap.  

Black Lives Matter

Trans Lives Matter

There are many other causes that are of course near and dear to my heart but for far far too long the death rate of Black people and people who are Trans/Gender Non-Conforming has been staggeringly too high.  

There is work to be done both internally and externally for all of us.  If you’re doing the work, keep going, practice self care so you don’t burn out, but keep going.  If you’re afraid to start because you don’t know how or where to start or you’re afraid that you’ll make a mistake, start anyway.  

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."

-Maya Angelou

I love you,

Michael

{dearest michael...it's been a rough ride there in new york. i'm feeling the distance. i miss and love you and it's okay for us all to slow the fuck down for a while. you too. i love you. hang in there. xxx afp}
....

from alex:

Hallo friends!

Life continues to be quiet in Merch Queen land over here in London. In an alternate universe, I would have been out on tour for the whole of May with Grace Petrie. Instead, I'm sitting in my house, making a couple of trips to the post office a week, and being routinely shocked and horrified by what's coming out of the world news right now.

Black lives matter. Trans lives matter. Fuck all of this absolute nonsense that says anything different.

I've spent the last few days doing a fair share of discussing, fact-checking, and correcting people sharing misleading and outright false information. The internet is exhausting right now, and that's me talking as a fairly privileged white guy. But it's a fight that we need to fight. So instead of blathering on about myself, instead this month I'd like to leave you with two youtube video recommendations.

The first - some excellent punk music in the form of Nova Twins, 2 black girls from south London, who I discovered last summer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-2XUOAufLQ

The second - the aforementioned Grace Petrie, butch lesbian singing about gender is nobody's fucking business except your own:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzU7aIk1dGI

I hope these videos can bring a few minutes of levity to your lives - and maybe you'll even investigate these artists further, fall in love, and we can celebrate joy and music and art, and raise up those voices that we need right now.

Solidarity for all of you <3

-Alex

xo

{alex, thank you for your merch queendom, as usual, and thank you for the music tips...everybody, i second our queen.....xxx afp}

......

OTHER ARTISTS TO SUPPORT:

PUSSY RIOT ARE NOW ON PATREON!!!! i just supported them.

if you don't know what this means and why it's amazing, it's ok. 

but if you just peed a little....you're welcome.

https://www.patreon.com/pussyriot

.....

the prison project, which i've been talking about for a while here, is an incredible album-project created by my pal zoe boekbinder (who's here on patreon) and prodcued by one of my heroes, ani difranco, who's also here on patreon.

the songs were written, crowd-style, in collaboration with incarcerated men.

it's astonishing work.

i sing on the fast and rompy track "midnight deal"...we recorded at ani's house in new orleans a few years ago.

please go listen and support:

http://www.zoeboekbinder.com/prisonmusicproject

....

Creativity Against Hate: Important Anti-Racism Resources from Patreon Creators

there is a great list of projects and creators on patreon in their latest blog that i urge you to go through and support:

https://blog.patreon.com/patreon-antiracism-resources

check it out.

........

SOME ART BEGETTING ART.....

from @6000deren on instagram

....


from @chloevallance  (who drew a photography taken by our own @hayleyfiasco in adelaide)

...

alicecaoillustration

.....

and with that....i bid you goodnight.

i love you all to death.

x

a

------THE NEVER-ENDING AS ALWAYS---------

IF YOU'RE IN THE USA.....DON'T FORGET TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN THE NOVEMBER 2020 ELECTION. you can register to vote, find your local voter registration deadlines, update your voter registration, check that your registration is still on the books, find your polling place and other important election information HERE at http://headcount.org

and

1. if you’re a patron, please click through to comment on this post. at the very least, if you’ve read it, indicate that by using the heart symbol.

2. see All the Things i've made so far on patreon: http://amandapalmer.net/patreon-things

3. JOIN THE SHADOWBOX COMMUNITY FORUM, find your people, and discuss everything: https://forum.theshadowbox.net/

4. new to my music and TOTALLY OVERWHELMED? TAKE A WALK THROUGH AMANDALANDA….we made a basic list of my greatest hits n stuff (at least up until a few years ago, this desperately needs updating) on this lovely page: http://amandalanda.amandapalmer.net/

5. general AFP/patreon-related questions? ask away, someone will answer: patronhelp@amandapalmer.net