The State of All Things - November 22nd, 2021 {Official Thing} (Patreon)

Hello, my loves.

I made a video to go along with this althing, within the NEW (yay) internal-patreon video system. No more vimeo links!!!! PLEASE, tell me in the comments if it is or isn't working for you and if not, what platform/device you're on. **I'm reading all comments here and responding to stuff until this sentence is deleted.**

First up, the Althing Table of Contents,

more or less.....:

• LIFE IN THE TIME OF NEW ZEALAND LOCKDOWN & WHAT I'M GENERALLY UP TO...
• PROJECTS RELEASED IN SEPTEMBER...
• WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE PIKE...
• DISPATCHES FROM THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLES OF TEAM AFP...
• HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING - this is where we break down the numbers & stats....
• OTHER ARTISTS TO SUPPORT...
• ART BEGETTING ART - a selection of gorgeous art from around the internets, inspired by my work....
• THE (NEW-ISH) PATRON COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD!! - news, arts, and crowdfunds from YOU, the members of this beautiful little patreon community....

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Welcome to this month's State of All Things, or "Althing" for short. For those of y'all who are new here, a brief explainer for you: once a month I put together these newsletter/round-up posts, to give you the highlights of the past month, let you know where I am in the physical world (that's been pretty boring for a while....), and generally keep you up to date on THE STATE OF ALL THINGS.

If you find that you can't keep up with all the emails I send on Patreon (I KNOW....THERE'S A LOT) then you can think of this as the monthly digest to catch you up.

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LIFE & TIMES....

Well....hi there.

I love you. Greetings from Waiheke Island, Aotearoa New Zealand. We've now been in lockdown for 93 days. It's easing...but slowly. Ash just went back to school and my shoulders are (again) dropping a little.

It's been a really hard, good, strange month since I last wrote to you all here.

Here I be, in the living room of the house for which my patreon has literally been paying rent over the last 10 months. Thanks for that, everybody.

And here's the new piano that a local Waiheke patron, Debra, loaned me -  for free (well, wine too).

I've been mostly alone in the house with Ash and have played it for, I am not kidding, less than a half hour since I got it about month ago.  But it's there. Waiting. Things will change. I know this now.

If you've been following along the posts in-between, I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record with repeating leitmotifs: I'm in lockdown, I'm solo parenting, it's really hard, I'm behind, I don't have any time to make art, blah blah blah.....but...also.

I'm happy.

I'm deeply happy. I'm resting, I'm mothering alone, yes, but it's manageable, and I have beautiful, caring souls around me, supporting Ash, supporting me. It all feels still, and slow, and beautiful.

My own joke has come true: for a few minutes a day, I work in our vegetable garden. I plant a seedling, I water, I pick some cabbage. It's maybe five minutes a day, but it heals me. Ash and I wrote this song for watering the tomatoes called "I AM THE RAIN". My songwriting is going....into other places. It feels necessary, and sweet.

I do the shopping. I do the dishes. So many dishes. Cafes and restaurants and all that are still closed here. I cook every meal.

I answer some email.

I miss most everything everyone sends me. I am weeks behind on even answering texts from good friends. It's okay.

I spend my time....with Ash. When I have spare moments, I try to talk on the phone with my loved ones.

For the first time in my life, I am barely trying to create anything.

And in many ways, I really am happier that I've ever been. I've ripped a page out of my own Art of Asking book and I'm allowing myself a real, true, goddamn breather - after 20 years of non-stop touring and working and art-ing and the flailing circus of chasing success....constant singing and signing and hugging and sweating and traveling and chasing my ambition and desire to be loved and clapped for and patted on the head every goddamn second (for my formidable, amazing, unique, talents!!! BECAUSE I AM AMAZING!!!! WHERE IS MY PRIZE??!!!!??).

It all feels very far away, now. It took me over a week to even find an hour to write this post.

I am allowing myself to stop. Not only to stop: but to mother, and while mothering, be supported, here......by you. By YOU. By the patreon. That's the harder part. But I suppose my whole life has prepared me for this leap. You all give me a lot of money. I try to provide what you are paying for. But I know, deep down, what you are paying for. For me to be okay, so that I can make art when and how it CAN happen.

And....as mundane as it sounds, I have been having a really goddamn hard time finding child care. Ash is now heading back to school, which is a huge blessing, but when he's not in school, it's currently just me. I had a few babysitters lined up, but they've moved on (or moved away).

So: I've been scrambling around asking everyone I know if they know a sitter on the island. For some reason: no. Nobody knows anybody. (Does anybody know anybody?)

And yet...a few of my parent-friends have offered to take Ash over after school....they've offered to take him to the playground, to merge him with their own families as they romp and hike and do their family lockdown lives. (Right now, you're allowed to bubble - outside only - with other people).

I kept saying no. I didn't want to impose. I felt that I couldn't reciprocate. I would even say this aloud to my parent friends, because I'm gabby and honest. And my friends would lightly argue with me, repeat their invitations, and then....leave it be.

I finally broke. I'm taking the donuts. I'm learning....from my own message.  From my own book, my own constantly-spouted philosophy. Which even I have a hard time following.

I never saw myself this way, not quite like this, in these roles: a raggedy-feeling mother alone in a house with a child all the time; a suspicious foreigner from a faraway country; a non-touring person.

Sometimes, around here, in hushed voices, I am an object of pity. Sometimes it even feels good to be an object of pity. Sometimes it's horrific.

And that makes me think of the beautiful monologue that Nick Cave gives in his documentary "One More Time With Feeling"  -and oh lord, if you haven't had a chance to watch it, please do. And boom, I was going to read you a poem, but I think I'll read you that in the video, too. And I'll paste the text at the bottom.

Anyway: I feel the change, I feel it in my bones.

I woke up this morning feeling a comfort deep within my bones and skin that I have never felt. A still, little bubbling spring in my heart. A still, small, gentle peace. A knowingness.

(I admit, I also discovered the joys of having a fucking mosquito net around your bed in the Waiheke summer, when the mozzies (as they call them here) get FIERCE. Why did nobody tell me last summer??)

In my little still small space.....I am finding and feeling a quieter, deeper relationship with songs, and music, with "writing"....in the few spare moments that I can carve out to consider it.

I'm recording a lot of sketches and ideas into my phone, into my phone notes, into my back  mind-chambers....into the dark, safely closeted art-shoeboxes of the soul.

There will come a time, I know.

For these songs, these ideas, these offerings, to emerge. Maybe as Dresden Dolls songs. The very idea of that thrills and fills me with joy. My old container, shined up, like a powerful sports art-car I've had covered with a drop-cloth in the garage. Ready. To drive. When. To everything, turn....turn....turn....

Parked. In the dark. For now.

I've never allowed this before, but the novelty of the feeling itself is intimately nourishing. The hunger.

Artistically, I'm in the darkest bowels of winter: hibernating, sun-vanished, not a leaf on a single tree, the sort of piercing dark cold out there where you dare not leave the safety of the house.

Stillness. My art-heart- like the small, pinhead-sized seed buried safely in the warmth of the black ground under feet of dirty snow.

But in that stillness: relief. A waiting.

And - all the while, another explosion. This taste of deep, nourishing  communion with Ash that never would have happened without this pandemic. Even within this Covid hell-realm, I know I could have made different choices: I could have scrambled to stay in the publicity game, to keep up with the indie rock joneses, to follow-through with projects come hell or high water, to put my desires for attention and praise above the call of parenthood.

I could have hired a live-in nanny from inside the country to be in my bubble. I could have afforded it. I could have kept right on working, working, working.

I could have, but I didn't.

A lot of why I didn't has to do with you - my patrons - and what I've felt from you.

It hasn't meant nothing, your constant encouragement and reminder to me over the last six years (since I began using patronage) that many of you really are in this for the long haul, and that you really so support me not just as a "content provider", an art seller, a hocker of wares, but as....a human being. A raggedy mother. A friend person. A lost woman. A real-life artist, going through phases, and telling the story....here. An artist who can sometimes work, and sometimes needs to hibernate in the art-garage.

And, at this moment: to hibernate....with her young.

So, I know I keep saying it, but I'm trying to say it in new ways that you can fully grasp: I am more thankful to this patreon than I ever have been.

I sit at the piano every now and again, banging out two or three chords....the way I wonder if the bears sometimes awaken for a single moment - blinking back deep sleep, looking at the far mouth of the cave through heavy-slitted bear lids - and thinking "yep, world, still there, yep, cave, still here, yep, me, still bear...." before falling back into another few months of sweet, comatose slumber.

I wait.

We wait.

The plan, right now, is to go home to the states in the US spring and recover from this circus. Then, in 2022, once Ash is settled and in school, to head slowly back into the arena. His happiness now means everything to me. He comes first, before all.

Speaking of which, here he is....

This is one of my favorite photos lately...it's Ash looking at a huge mound of kina (that's te reo for sea urchins) on the beach with our friend Rosie. A local guy has just fished them up...they're PESTS. he tries to round them up and he gives them to his aunties to fry up.

Nom. Ouch.

And here, with a pal, setting a trap using a stick and some flax...

And here, having lost his fourth tooth....

And here, the lockdown haircut....

My heart, pounding outside my body, cutting hair.....he is.

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In the bigger world, wider, on October 31st…my band, THE DRESDEN DOLLS, TURNED 21!!!!

EEEEEEEE.

Here we are, many moons ago in my house (the cloud club), in Boston....photographed by Kyle Cassidy:

And from Brian....a rare ol' photo find...

(an olde photo by Pixievision)

Yes, our little baby band is now legally an adult in the US. WE CAN DRINK!!!!!

We had loads of plans to tour, but...Covid. So we made some material art instead...in case you missed it, we released a bunch of merch to help celebrate.

We commissioned a brand new piece of artwork from the folks over at Malleus in Italy.....

The new design is on shirts, hoodies, mugs, posters...

AND we’ve reprinted some vintage designs from back in the day...and we made TEA TOWELS. And MUGS. Go see. You can still pick up all of this stuff on either the US store or the UK store

The Dolls are still trying to gear up for a new record.

It's a dance. This new life in which I put Ash at the center, the life I miss with my band at the center. Everything is about to come full circle as I balance them on one tightrope.

As I often plead with you...make sure you're on The Dolls mailing list even if you're on my solo mailing list. It'll be important at some point. Trust me.

http://dresdendolls.com/emaillist/

…….

KINSHIP.....

I  recorded a poem for my friend Maria Popova’s blog The Marginalian (formerly known as BrainPickings...I actually have a whole post about Maria queued up, re: the name change.)

Maria has written some beautiful posts over the years about life, nature, death, change and poetry on her ever-wonderful site…but this one is particularly YES…

You can read the full post, and hear the poem, here.

Maria, like many of my pals, is directly patron-funded. if you love her connect-all-the-dots-of-the-universe writing, consider giving her a little monthly salary to do her work.

It means something.

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Here's a little piece of press from the MASHUP.....

I'm so proud of this piece and how the journalist actually Got It (hooray), and so happy your responses convinced me to unleash it into the world. Thank you for that.

The clip is going strong and is well past 250k views on youtube. Keep it humming.

You can read the full article, including an in-depth Q&A with me, here.

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PROJECTS RELEASED IN OCTOBER....

The first Thing of the month was the State Of All Things, our usual round-up of the previous month.

(NOTE FROM ALEX: I am not sure how or why the 'noooo' was added to the title of last month's Althing post??? lol)

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The SECOND (and dare I say most exciting) Thing of the month was The Ballad of the New York Times.

The only song I've written this year. And probably the last, given its already November and release from the solo parenting lockdown schedule is not close at hand.

The release is a filmed live performance from my show at Morra Hall (on my new island, Waiheke) from late July, 2021. The old plan was to debut the song on stage and then go into a fancy recording studio and get a full studio recording to Thing...... but instead, Auckland ended up in a lockdown, so the live version was all we had. I daresay it's better than it would have been if I'd cleaned it up.

And don't forget if you're in the $3 tier, you also got a download of the mp3, over in this post here. 

For now, the song is patron-only. But I'll most likely be putting it out publicly soon....in some form. I need to discuss that with y'all, I have a problem. (Hi, Aimsel.)

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WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE PIKE

Waiheke Small Hall Crawl Show

If you've been keeping up, you'll know that The Ballad of the New York Times video is taken from a FULL SHOW recording during my Waiheke Small Hall Crawl in July (just before Auckland lockdown...)

We're still whipping the final version of the full show into shape, but hopefully it'll be coming out this month.

The Abortion Podcast

This one has been repeatedly pushed down the road too, simply because it takes *time*. Listening to a few hours of drafts, making notes, calling with the team... It's been too much to fit in during lockdown when I barely have time to answer my email and do the dishes.

But if all goes in the right direction with Auckland opening up, hopefully it'll be coming this month or next month. Cross your fingers...

The Look Mummy, No Hands video

Yep, you guessed it, the video we've been promising for 3 years now!! While I don't have 30 hours a week to whip the podcast into shape, I may well have the time to finally push this video out. It's been about 85% done for a couple of years now. It just needs a couple more looks over, so maybe its time is finally coming.

It's also a perfect video for the winter months, in my opinion, so maybe it's all as it should be.

Ask Amanda / Substack

In case you missed it, I posted a couple of weeks ago about an upcoming project...

I've been wanting to start an advice column for YEARS, and now finally its time is upon us.

It looks like I'll be launching it on Substack in the month of January (thank you all who voted in THE POLL about that)....where it goes from there, who knows? But it's looking like it should be coming up early next year, so keep your eyes peeled, I'll no doubt be fielding for questions soon...

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Discord

Another thing I've been threatening for months that's finally going to (hopefully) see the light very, very soon.

You may have noticed (especially at the $3/$5 tiers) that I've been wanting to talk more directly WITH YOU, read your comments, answer, share, connect. The comments on these posts make it really hard to do that, to actually CONVERSE. We have been struggling with that for years.

I've been lamenting the lack of community connection on Patreon for many fucking moons - we tried Facebook (boo, but it's the best we have in many ways right now....), and we tried the Shadowbox (better, but still lacked some of the features and instant connection I carved). But I've been watching other artist communities using Discord successfully for a while now, and I think it's what we need.

We'll give it a try, at least.

We're kicking it into final shape amongst the team right now, and hopefully we'll get it out the door in the next month.

We're looking for some volunteer mods to help us keep it all in shape - we've got a few names down, and will be talking to people in the next few days, but if you want to throw your name in the hat, go ahead and send us an email at patronhelp@amandapalmer.net and we'll be in touch.

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SOON: Puzzle for sale!!!!!!

And FINALLY in the upcoming AFP world....

The beautiful ALL THE THINGS puzzle that we sent out to Art In The Mail patrons a couple months back is going to be put up for sale to ALL patrons, hopefully in the next week or so...

here's a photo of the finished puzzle by one of my beloved long-term art in the mail patrons, Tom Steiger. HI TOM.

(and what IS with the extra piece? who knows? a cosmic mystery.)

:)

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DISPATCHES FROM THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLES OF TEAM AFP

From Michael, my NYC-based assistant:

Hello Patrons,

First of all, thank you for your kind words and well wishes regarding my hip surgery.  Healing is still going well, albeit slowly, and Physical Therapy is definitely helping.  I’m still hobbling around, but I’m down to using only one crutch and mostly dealing with soreness.  Progress is happening.

This past month has been. . . emotional for me to say the least.  For starters, I’m not accustomed to asking for help (regardless of who my boss happens to be), so relying on others to help me out, namely my partners EJ & Cricket has been an adjustment for sure.  In addition to dealing with the difficulties of needing help on a daily basis and dealing with the post surgical pain, the best damn bar in Brooklyn and my home away from home sadly had to shut their doors forever on Oct 30th.  The Second Chance Saloon (AKA “The Deuce”) has been such a huge part of my life for the past 6 years and losing it has left a hole in the shape of a headless rooster in my heart.

Second Chance wasn’t just the neighborhood dive bar, it was the hub of a very special and motley community.  In many ways it often reminded me of the community we have here on Patreon, or the lovely group of folks that keep the “Michael’s Neighborhood Pub” thread going over on the Shadowbox (I love you all dearly and I do read the posts even though I don’t comment much over there).  At The Deuce it didn’t matter who you were, what you wore, if you were there to simply watch Jeopardy (which was on every weeknight at 7pm), play pool, sit in the corner with a good book, sink your sorrows, or raise your joys.  As long as you weren’t a dick, you were always welcomed with open arms.  And if you kept coming back, you’d eventually be wrapped up into the ragtag bunch of regulars that I have come to call family.  Saying goodbye to such a place has been even harder than I imagined it would be.

I could go on and on and regale you with stories and exploits and all the reasons why I will miss it terribly, but it’s still a bit too fresh and I’m a bit too sad to do so.

On the work side of my life, things have been pretty steady and kind of uneventful, in a really nice way.  Mostly I’ve been talking with Amanda about long term plans, trying to keep the inboxes clean, filing things away for the future, and slowly poking a whole lot of projects along.  Many of said projects are somewhere between 60-90% finished and although it might take a little bit longer, I’m really excited about getting them all polished and out into the world.  There’s so much beauty and art and love coming down the pike, I can’t wait for you all to see them.

So in the meantime, I’ll keep chugging along and helping out as much as I can from my apartment in Brooklyn.  As always, I’m so grateful for this community and all of you who continue to show up and support Amanda and our own little ragtag team here.

Until we can all hug again, cheers from afar.

-Michael

Farewell, dear friend

{Michael....we love you. Well, I love you. Nah....WE LOVE YOU. Life is full of second chances. Badoom ching,  - AFP}

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From Alex, our UK Merch Queen / Patreon Elf:

Hallo, my friends.

I don't really have a *whole* lot to update with this month. I feel like I've spent the month catching up with being away on tour, buried in merch boxes while packing orders, setting up the new Dolls collection... WHEW.

I'm now sitting and staring at Discord, and the upcoming AFP Discord, and feeling very much like this:

I'd like to say hopefully things will slow down in the future, but... I have another week of tour shows coming up this week, and then I'll be home just in time for the new Dresden Dolls merch to arrive and begin packing that up, and that'll probably wrap up just in time for the puzzles to be put up for sale and begin shipping..... So maybe I'll get a rest around Christmas :)

Also pleased to report that we are now firmly in sweatshirt weather over here in the UK, aka my favourite season. I have grown to love a sweatshirt over the last few years. Here's me in my latest love.

Keep yourselves warm and safe until next month, my friends.

-Alex

xo

{We love you Merch Queen. Thank you for everything you've been doing to help us limp along, including helping with this post. And your attire is eggcelent. :) - AFP}

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HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING.....

As of this writing there are about 12,300 patrons pledging about $40,000 for the first Thing each month.

A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE FOR NEWCOMERS: you are welcome to (and encouraged to) CAP YOUR PLEDGE! PLEASE! I cannot stress this highly enough.

Your pledge on Patreon supports me per Thing that I release, but sometimes it's unpredictable how many Things will come out in a month (sometimes it's just 1, usually it's 2 or 3, we have been known to do 6 or 7).

We know this can create financial insecurity and uncertainty - so Patreon allows you to cap your pledge. This is, essentially, setting a MAXIMUM amount that you want to pay per month. YOU CAN BUDGET. Say for example, you're happy to pay $3 per Thing, but you don't want to pay more than $10 a month. In that's the case, you can "cap" your pledge at $10, and whether I release 4 Things or 40 Things, you won't be charged more than $10. But MOST IMPORTANTLY, you will still have access to ALL the things, even if you cap your pledge!!! It doesn't effect access.

You can read all about capping your pledge here.

I go over this stuff in every Althing, but if you're new to all this: Patreon charges you monthly & retroactively, meaning that you get billed on the 1st of the month for all the Things released the month prior.

Because people have their pledges capped (SEE ABOVE), the first "Thing" raises the most money by far, and anything released thereafter raises less and less. I LIKE THIS! THIS IS GOOD! It means I never feel guilty about releasing TOO MUCH!! So really. Please, cap your pledge if you are on a budget.

In September, I Thanged TWO Things:

The State of All Things: September 10th 2021, which earned about $45,486 from 12,215 patrons.

Blurred Lines + Rape Me Mashup video, which earned about $18,651 from 6,718 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 remember: these numbers are gross. 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.

These numbers also do not reflect the money I SPENT MAKING THE ART, paying my staff, paying the office rent, paying for crowdcast, 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.

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OTHER ARTISTS TO SUPPORT

Some of you will recognize Georgia Train from the band Bitter Ruin.... way back in 2010, at last-minute notice they stuck their hands up and joined us on the ill-fated Evelyn Evelyn UK/IRE tour, after half the touring party (including my twin sister Evelyn) could not make it to the UK thanks to the Icelandic volcano ashcloud..... It ended up being a pretty chaotic tour. Many of you were there.

ANYWAY.

She has now released a solo album, written about her experiences with miscarriage and IVF. It's got a beautiful soundtrack, and her voice is just gorgeous. Plus a certain Brian Viglione also contributed drums to the album too :)

Check the album out here. I know it'd mean a lot to her. And I think you'll thank me.

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Anil Seth, one of my TED friends, is a neuroscientist and author... He's just put out a new book called "Being You", about....THE SELF, and the nature of CONSCIOUSNESS. It's READABLE! I'm in the middle of reading it right now...it's sometimes dense, but mostly really followable and mind-expanding.

Go forth, check it out, expand your actual understanding of your actual minds.

Recommended. If you want the best sales pitch....watch Anil's TED talk HOW YOUR BRAIN INVENTS YOUR SELF: https://www.ted.com/talks/anil_seth_how_your_brain_invents_your_self?language=en

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There's also a new recording out by songwriting hero Edward Ka-Spel and Patrick Q. Wright of the Legendary Pink Dots, aka my teen idols. The album is called "The Scarlet Trail of Stinging Tears"

Their own description of the music...

The pandemic forced everyone into cyber cells over the last two years, but despite the darkness, beautiful creations manifest. This one was born in a tiny refuge in Italy and articulated in the suburbs of shut down London. It's the first salvo with new material of a collaboration that will run and run...

You can check it out here. I've just been putting it on when I do dishes and feeling hugged.

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ART BEGETTING ART....

This one is amazing: from @misterpurr.nz on Instagram (whose feed is a delightful mixture of oil paintings and....his cat). He's a local Maori artist, and also the brother of my new friend on the Island who is a mama, too, with a little daughter that Ash is bestie-pals with. She introduced us because he wanted a reference photo for a painting - he draws musicians in Aotearoa New Zealand - and I was so chuffed when he sent over this idea: this selfie from the no-audience webcast I did in Wellington right before New Zealand went into the first huge, hard lockdown. God. That day. I love how my life is actually finally to merge here. Things don't feel so separate when I see things like this.

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Some Dresden Dolls sexay-goodness from @adriennedanielle_arts on IG.....

And finally, yet another gorgeous piece by @j0ni_augustine (whose work is ALWAYS incredible....and we've shared a number of pieces, including the blue painting I had as my social media icon for about a year last year...)

Tired, tired, Amanda.

I relate to her.

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

Remember, if you make some art - or know anyone who has some - and wanna see it featured here, WE WANNA SEE IT. You can post it to any social media and tag me (@amandapalmer everywhere) or email to art@amandapalmer.net.

ART ON, WAYNE.

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THE PATRON COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD.....

**This is a NEW SECTION of the ALTHING!!!!!**

If you want to share a crowdfund, promote your new book, or art, or anything else, send your things in to patronhelp@amandapalmer.net and we'll try and feature as many as we can here each month! And hopefully when the discord channel heats up, we'll be able to pull from there, too.

In case you've missed it, our beloved patron Angel Rosen is putting together an AFP Patron Poetry Anthology! I'm so excited to see what comes in. Here's some info about it:

I'm accepting poetry submissions for a patron collaborative poetry anthology. We've extended the deadline to December 1, 2021, so that absolutely everyone can submit! You can find out more information here:

http://poetryclubafp.wordpress.com

Poetry of any style, quality, length and language is welcome.  There are currently just under 100 submissions. I will also be looking to get a team together to help sort, proofread, organize and format. You can find me on Twitter at @axiopoeticus or by email at poetryclubafp@gmail.com if you have questions or want to help!

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Andrew Van Rompaey shared his album "Infatuation Junkie", which you can hear here on Spotify

Here's some info from him:

Hi everybody. I made this covers album through crowdfunding, inspired by reading The Art of Asking. They’re songs about love and longing, most in English, some in Spanish. The title is a reference to Alanis Morissette's album, which contains one of the songs I covered, "That I Would Be Good". That song and Amanda's "In My Mind" have been very influential in my path towards self-love/compassion/acceptance.

I hope you listen to it and, if you like it, that you share it with your friends and community.

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AND IN CLOSING.....

Here's the Nick Cave Quote... from One More Time With Feeling:

Most of us don't want to change.

What we do want is sort of modifications on the original model.

We keep on being ourselves, but hopefully better versions of ourselves. But what happens when an event occurs that is so catastrophic that we just change from one day to the next? We change from the known person to an unknown person, so that when you look at yourself in the mirror, do you recognize the person that you were, but the person inside the skin is a different person?

So that when you go outside, the world its the same, but now you are a different person, and you have to re-negotiate your position in the world.

For instance, when you go into a shop to get cigarettes, because this new version of yourself smokes, and the shop owner says, 'How are you?'

And you don't know how to answer.

Or when you meet a friend on the street who says some kindness, and suddenly you are crying their arms for ages, and then you realize that person is not a friend at all, but someone else that you don't actually know very well.

Or you go into a bakery to buy a loaf of bread, say, and you're standing in the queue, and someone grabs you by the arm says something with their kind eyes, but you can't work out what they've said because the new you can't hear very well. And so you say, 'What?' but too loudly, and angrily and he says, 'We are all with you, man,' and you look around and all the bakery is looking at you with kind eyes.

And you think that people are really nice. But when did you become an object of pity?

.....

Women have more facets than men. Men are pretty much two-dimensional, and women are like fucking 3-D. My wife is spectacularly three dimensional. Every time I try to get a handle on her, and to pull her into focus, she shifts and change and becomes someone else, or worse she steps out of the frame entirely, and I am left with a hovering ghost image that is burned on my retina, like I've stared into a spotlight, and closed my eyes.

Eventually she steps back into the frame, and I pull her back into focus, but she's changed because she's been out there, communing with the dead.

........

.....and here's the Wyslawa Szymborska poem, "Family Album" that I read in the video.

I love you all so much.

Happy Rest of November.

xx

AFP

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

1. if you are a patron and new to my work, don’t forget your patronage allows you access to ALL of my patreon releases to date. HERE is the link to download my latest big solo record, “There Will Be No Intermission”, and HERE is a link to download the PDF of the art/essay book that goes with it.

2. if you’re a patron reading this post via an email notification, please click through to comment on this post. at the very least, if you’ve read it, indicate that by using the heart symbol. that's always nice for me to see, so i know who's reading.

3. see All the Things (over 150 of them) i've made so far on patreon:

http://amandapalmer.net/things

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

5. 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/

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