Waiheke Weekender story text + PATRON PARTY INFO FOR TOMORROW!! (Patreon)

HOLA COMRADES!!!

First off: thank you so much for the incredible feedback on the COUCH OF TRUTH which launched yesterday. It's so goddamn emotional and my heart is full from seeing the comments on the patreon and youtube. When I get some time next week I'kll post it to socials, but right now, having our whole community in discussion about the rezlities of depression and suicide is calming, un-lonely-ing, and good. And I love you.

AND

Here we go!!! PARTY ON WAIHEKE TOMORROW!!!!!!! WE PARADE!! this is taking place tomorrow, saturday, july 31.

First, a quick show update. Tonights Palm Beach and Sunday @ Rocky Bay are super-sold out, and Morra Hall 8pm is very close to sold out. There's ample tickets for Morra Hall 4pm...so if you're thinking of dragging a friend with you from the mainland, tell them to book in!!! ticket link: https://www.trybooking.com/nz/eventlist/smallhallssessions?embed=1

The weather is looking kind !!! 

Here's the SCHEDULE: 

If you're late, you can scout around to try to find us!!! We'll try to stick to this schedule...but, yknow....

11 am SHARP!!!: Meet at my Air BNB: 3 Karu St, Oneroa. We're looking at 50+ people at this point, but we'll all squeeze while we wait for troops to assemble.....and you can see the pretty hilltop Air BNB digs your hard-earned patreon dollars have been funding this whole time I've been stuck in yer country.

about 11:30: we will parade TO ONEROA BEACH!!! bring good walking shoes and carry-bags, picnic foods if you got em, and we will head down to the beach! it's a five minute walk from my place. IF YOU WANNA SWIM, god bless you. bring a towel. we'll hang there long enough  to soak in the beach vibe and get a great group photo....

about 12:15....: we will hike up the hill into TOWN! Another 5 minute walk.....we'll head to WHITTAKER'S PIANO MUSEUM (2 Korora Road), where I can currently rehearsing, and we'll have as tiny mini concert :) IT WILL BE VERY FUN. look....CHAIRS! PIANOS! OLD INSTRUMENTS!!!! the 80-year-old volunteer running the joint is going to be slightly ovewhelmed, BE NICE TO HER and donate to the museum. this is why bring dollars and change!!

then...

around 12:45 we will head over to my greatest friend angela's store Greatest Friend (112 Ocean View Road) and go WHOOOO HEY ANGELA in her face and maybe you can buy some pretty rags for the show....

and the around 1pm  we'll all head SOL CAFE across the street. (139 Ocean View Road).

they are expecting a crowd, it's a lovely hang, and there i will LEAVE YOU so i can head to soundcheck!!!

WHAT TO BRING:

-DRESS UP LIKE YOU MEAN IT!! DANDY HATS AT LEAST. IF NOT NOW.....WHEN????

-DON'T FORGET YOUR MASK FOR THE FERRY!!! they sell them on the ferry but yeah.

-good shoes to walk in!

-rain gear just in case things get rainy!

-small bills and change for donating to piano museum, etc

-SNACKS to share @ mine and on beach! I will have some drinks at my place!!

-LOVE AND LOVE AND LOVE. and a ukulele if you wanna!!! if we have time at the museum we'll hootenany!

-BRING KIDDOS!! ash will be hanging around and need playmates!!!

ABOUT ME: I am in show mode!! huge filming tomorrow....and my voice is already pretty ragged from rehearsing so if I'm seeming quiet and not wanting to chat chat chat and yell yell yell that's why. i'm so happy to meet you all and sign whatever and do a big group photos, but also, SAVOR THE DAMN MOMENT. if i spend the entire day taking solo pictures with everybody i can't hang! and i like to hang. so go ahead and grab me, but also try to just goddman enjoy yourself, and we'll definitely get a group picture or two for posterity - and i'll post those here so you won't miss it. feel free to take pictures of everything!!!!! THIS ISLAND IS BEAUTIFUL!!!! and if you need anything from me, you know the drill. ASK. 

and obviously: this is for patrons only. feel free to bring folks, but please talk up the patreon....that's the engine that keeps it all going.

SEE YOU ALL TOMORROW!!!!

...........

ALSO....I just posted this up to Instagram yesterday, but in case you missed it - I MADE THE FRONT PAGE OF THE WAIHEKE WEEKENDER. I mean...that's it. I can retire now. I mean, I've MADE IT. I HAVE ACHIEVED.

The jhournalist was great - Liza Hamilton - we did the interview over the phone when I was down in Glenorchy. And Yes....the poetry of the paper deciding to use Neil Gaiman book references all over the place is on the one hand maddening, and on the other, incredibly goddamn sweet.

As promised over on Instrgram, here's the full article for you folks.....thanks to Merch Queen turned Tech Queen Alex:

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

She’s a rock star and he’s a best selling author who has sold 50 million copies, and together Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman have made Waiheke home with their son Ash. Liza Hamilton finds out about their life in the time of Covid and what the next chapter holds.

‘Slow down, you’re here,’ it’s the Waiheke maxim most islanders abide by, and Amanda Palmer had heeded the big red sign that salutes all comers to the island.

The New Yorker, alongside superstar author husband Neil Gaiman and son Ash, have called the island home since moving here at Christmas, settling into a more local way of life.

For the feminist icon, rocker, author and queen of crowdfunding, the change of pace has been seismic.

Until now it’s been a dizzying round of writing, recording, interneting and international tours, circling the globe on repeat. And then Covid. Like a ball in a spun roulette wheel, Palmer bounced into New Zealand for lockdown and she’s been here ever since. One of the few countries on the planet spared by the ravages of the global pandemic; in Covid terms, it was like hitting the jackpot.

A source of fascination for many, Palmer has a cult following and she has cultivated a creative hustle like no other, pioneering art and commerce in our digital age with a punk, do-it-yourself ethic. Instead of selling out, she convinced people to buy in.

The 45-year-old is music’s best-known crowdfunding pioneer, since raising $1.2 million USD on Kickstarter for a solo album Theatre is Evil and its tour, back in 2012.

Now switched to Patreon, a membership platform where fans support artists she has built up almost 15,000 patrons over the past six years. Each patron chips in an average of $3 per month to pay Palmer’s salary. She still pays rent on an office and employs a small staff back in New York.

Having built up such momentum, it will come as no surprise that pulling the handbrake on her life and a world tour has caused a kind of existential whiplash.

“We decided to stay here instead of going and locking down in New York and I have no regrets about that decision,” Palmer told Weekender: “But moving forward things are a bit blurrier. The entire year of 2020 felt very binary. It was just a very obvious decision that taking a small child back to New York was not a wise choice.

“Now things are just unpredictably so it’s harder to make the decision. We are getting more and more comfortable in this country, we are starting to speak the language a little bit and we are figuring out where and how we could belong here.”

Gaiman, the 50 million selling author of books including The Sandman, Coraline and American Gods, is due to start work on Good Omens Season Two, a sequel for which he and the late Terry Pratchett previously sketched out a plot. Filming is due to start in the coming months back in Scotland, with David Tennant and Michael Sheen reprising their roles.

On his last trip back to Scotland, to his home on the Isle of Skye, Gaiman was pilloried by the tabloids for travelling 20,000km during lockdown.

It then took nine months for him to be reunited with his wife and son back in Aotearoa, due to travel restrictions.

Despite divorce rumours the couple are still together, but it’s been a personal and professional rollercoaster and Palmer says in the past year she hit rock bottom.

“Both Neil and I are living in the clutches of a complete mystery at the moment and I have never been less certain about where I am about to be and what I am about to do, but I have also never been more comfortable with it,” she says.

“A lot of that has to do with reprioritizing everything. My first loyalty is now my child and so I am more or less just taking instructions from him about where to be and how to live.”

She can be fierce and fun, but a big part of Palmer’s shtick or charm is her willingness to be vulnerable and raw. Sharing on multiple platforms, from Patreon to Instagram and her one million Twitter followers, Palmer has a knack for posting. She creates the kind of intimacy and honesty you would expect from a good friend.

“I’ve been an internet artist for 20 years,” she says. My artistry at the internet is just as important and valid sometimes as my artistry as a songwriter and a book writer.

“When you play them in perfect harmony you get a complete symphony.”

Palmer’s magical social skills are even better in person. She’s a highly social creature. Drop her anywhere from Siberia to Saint Kitts, and she’ll find her people. She could, she says, make friends with a paper bag. But this stay in Aotearoa is the first time in decades she has stuck around long enough to consider herself a local.

“This stretch of time that I have spent in New Zealand and even this stretch of time that I’ve spent on Waiheke, is by far, by a factor of 10, the longest time I’ve ever been a local anywhere as a grown up. Which is kind of astonishing,” she says.

“When you pull back the lens you realize I’ve never really been an American local. I can’t point to a town in American and say, yes, I’m a real local there, I know all the faces in the town centre, I know folks at the post office, the cafes, the grocery store, the people at the library.

“Even in the town where Neil and I own our house, I can’t claim that. I’ve always been off on tour. So, it’s been a real gift to learn how to stop and just live in a place.”

Palmer’s move to Waiheke followed a chance meeting and invite by beloved island storyteller Tanya Batt, who helped organize a secret gig for patrons at Awawaroa’s eco-village.

Re-enacting her gatecrash of a Dresden Dolls gig in Auckland 10 years ago, film set artist Bianca Scarlett muscled into the gig. They became fast friends and in an act of kindness, she invited Palmer to stay in her home.

“I was actually quite blown away by her solo performance just with a ukulele and a group of people and how powerful her voice was and just the way she was with a crowd of people, it was pretty astounding,” said Bianca.

“But she also seemed pretty tired and a little bit lost. I thought about living in New Zealand and being in a foreign country and living in Hawke’s Bay, because I know how conservative those places can be.

“And she explained that, yeah, she felt like a total weirdo. People were kind to her, but she still stuck out like a sore thumb. I suggested that Waiheke might have an easier vibe for people who are a little bit left of centre.”

Bianca was heading off island, so gave Palmer the keys to her house.

“I just thought she might like to be at a home rather than an Airbnb, somewhere that actually has kids toys and feels like a real place, so she came to stay for a while when we were away, just to see what Waiheke was like and clearly liked it.

“After offering Amanda my house I had to do some googling to check she wasn’t going to smash up my kitchen as I knew her from her very punky Dresden Dolls days, but really did not know much of what she had been doing for the past 10 years… she didn’t smash the kitchen.”

Another island friend, Dr Hinemoa Elder met Palmer at the Auckland Writer’s Festival, where she was reading from her book Aroha. Palmer introduced herself after the talk and gave her a copy of her best-selling memoir The Art of Asking.

“It’s a fantastic read which I recommend to people, there are so many lessons in it,” says Hinemoa. “So, I was very grateful for that. She’s a lovely, lovely woman.

“From what she has expressed to me, Waiheke has been, as it is for many of us, a real sanctuary, a very loving environment, a lot of like-minded people, very nurturing people who are very welcoming and isn’t it wonderful to get that sort of feedback about our community that we still walk and talk manaatikanga. (note from Alex transcribing - manaatikanga is the Māori word for hospitality)

“So that’s how I think the island has been for her and her whānau.” (note from Alex transcribing - whanau is the Māori word for family)

When she was reunited with Gaiman, Palmer packed up her things in Havelock North and they moved to Waiheke, where they have been ever since. Ash was enrolled at Fossil Bay Kindergarten, and the first thing Palmer did was invest in an electric bike.

“It just looked like the perfect way to get around,” she says. “My routine has been really small, which has been the biggest attraction of the island.

“When you have got a little five-year-old and you are exhausted, living in a tiny village where you can get from the post office to the yoga studio, to the coffee shop, school and library within 15 minutes on bike, it’s really attractive.

“And that’s pretty much all I do every day.”

The international tour circuit has been swapped out for Surfdale Bowling Club’s Wednesday karaoke night, where Palmer has become something of a regular. Taking a plunge in the ocean has also become habit; she joined hundreds of other swimmers in the Iceberg Challenge with Gaiman and friend Sir Lenny Henry cheering her on from Oneroa Beach.

“It was so great,” she says. “I try to get in the water every single day, I’m a big fan of cold water swimming.

“My favourite place to swim is Palm Beach, but if I can’t get out there on any given day I dip in big O or little O. I just lean my bike against a tree, run in like a maniac.”

There haven’t bee many international visitors, for obvious reasons, Lenny Henry excepted.

“I imagine my experience and my life here would be incredibly different if I could host and I could show people the beautiful things that I have discovered and learned,” says Palmer.

“That’s been really frustrating. I can describe this place all I want to my friends, I can send pictures, but it’s hard to explain the beauty and the feeling of this place. It defies explanation.”

If she was hosting for the day, Palmer would start by taking her visitors to Arcadia and then Palm Beach for a swim.

“Then for a little trek through Whakanewha and then I would take them out for dinner at Fenice and try and sit by the fireplace. We would drink cocktails and then go walk along Oneroa Beach and look at the stars.

“I’m very food oriented,” she laughs, “start the day at Arcadia and end it at Fenice.”

For Palmer, this has been the season to slow down as much as possible and simply wait and listen, something she admits she is not traditionally adept at doing.

Invites to perform at festivals have been turned down and the next big project on the horizon was supposed to be a new Dresden Dolls album, but even that is hard to predict.

“If I’ve learned anything from the last year and a half, magical thinking and ambitious planning are not going to reap the greatest rewards,” she says.

“My usual M.O. is just to barrel in first and ask questions later, but this year has just really deeply changed me.”

After a lifetime and career spent trying to figure out how much she can cram in, it has taken some adjusting to her new situation.

“I’ve traditionally been a maximalist as opposed to a minimalist. How many more people can we fit on this stage? How many more tour dates can we squeeze in? How many more people can I email before collapsing in bed? You know, how much more crap can I stuff into this suitcase?”

In an older iteration of her life, Palmer was always working. It was a rare hour or day that she wasn’t somehow managing her career and her internet presence.

“Since having a child and then on top of that since lockdown, since coming to New Zealand, I have deeply reexamined my relationship with time and my relationship with productivity and leisure and my relationship with time on earth.”

As a result, Palmer has been deliberately disassembling little pieces of her business.

“So that I can spend more time walking around on mountains with my child and less time staring into a screen,” she says. “It’s an ongoing evolutionary conversation in my life as an artist. It would be really immature for me to stand at the top of a mountain one day and say “F*** the internet, I’m just not going to do that anymore.’ I know and understand the realities of life and of being a musician.

“Especially since the pandemic, I have been going inwards and paring things down, prioritizing myself, my health, my child, my weird little nuclear family above my career, my ambition, my desire to go start a songwriting webcast in the middle of the night.”

She has, she says, been able to listen to a quieter muse.

“That’s one of the nice things about being an older artist, your hunger and your ambition have been feed for enough years and you’re a little more satiated,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to back burner your desire to be known and seen, while you tend to a child, or a relationship, or a pandemic.”

The past year and a half has been something of a sabbatical, but the singer was keen to show her new Waiheke friends what she actually does for a living, so has organized the Small Hall Crawl of Waiheke Island for this weekend (30 July to 1 August).

“I’m just doing them because I really want to play music for my friends on Waiheke and I don’t want them to have to get on the ferry and go to Auckland,” she explains.

“These are going to be intimate shows in the old-school sense of the word. I am going to know 70 percent of the audience and those shows are always very different because I will be amongst friends.”

Friends Princess Chelsea and drag queen pal Constance Maraj (aka Koro Sciascia) will be special guests and Palmer promises a ‘very campfire feel’ to the events.

“I haven’t made the setlist just yet but it’s very different than when I am going and playing for 2000 people and I am just trying to strut my stuff and impress people.

“This is really more about going through the catalogue of songs that I have written over the last 30 years and pondering what I can share with my friends that will help them to understand me, what songs might service this strange little moment in time.”

Knowing which songs to play for the people right in front of you in a certain moment, is one of the most pleasurable parts of her job.

“You get to step out of the space of proving yourself and instead, use your art a little more practically, and medicinally. What is happening here, on earth, in this town, on this day?

“What are the songs that will speak to the pandemic, to the strange unpredictable of the future, to the exhausted protestors at Pūtiki bay, to my friend Susi who just had a heart operation? As I pick the songs, I think about the people I’ll see in the room. And sometimes it even inspires me to write new material, which is sometimes the hidden upside of scheduling a tiny show. Nothing motivates me to write new songs like a hard deadline.”

The gigs were originally planned as a farewell, but plans to return to the States have been put on ice.

“We have no clear roadmap,” Palmer told Weekender. “We have been living our lives in three-month decision chunks trying to assess the situation in the UK and back at home in New York, assess the work situation, assess the visa situation.”

It has been a kind of ‘slow torture’ being separated from family and friends, but the combination of news about the Delta variant and the rising improbability of their chances of getting back into New Zealand led them to press the pause button.

“It’s literally a developing story, Neil and I have a conversation every week about which way we are going to pivot if X, which way we are going to pivot if Y and Z and Q.”

And all the while they are watching their son Ash grow up Kiwi.

“Time is simply ticking away and as time ticks away he’s becoming more local, he’s learning how to say his karakia in te reo (note from Alex transcribing - karakia are Māori incantations, and te reo is the Māori language), he’s making friends with local children, he has an imaginary pet tuatara,” she chuckles. “He’s growing up here and the longer we delay our decision to go back to the States the stranger it becomes, because Ash hasn’t set foot in America since he was three years old. He’s gonna be six in September.

“And so, he is more familiar with Kiwi culture than he is with American culture and that is a mind-blowing blessing especially considering what American culture looks like right now with the pandemic, with the political upheaval, with the active shooter drills and on and on.

“Add to that the impending climate emergency, and it all just looks more uncertain. What would you do? Where would you take your own family, to keep them safe from harm, if you had to choose?”

Amanda Palmer’s Small Halls Sessions for Friday 30 July at Palm Beach Hall and Sunday 1 August at Rocky Bay Hall have both sold out but tickets - costing $35 - were still available at the time of going to press for the two Morra Hall performances at 4pm and 8pm on Saturday 31 July. To book go to try-booking.com/nz/eventlist/smallhallsessions?embed=1. First in best dressed.

....

XXX

AFP