The State of All Things: December 2021 (Patreon)

Hello my loves.

Welcome to the last Althing of the year. I made a teeny tiny poem-video for you at the top of a hill near where i'm staying at a friend's house here in the woods of Glenorchy, Aoteroa New Zealand. 

I am trying not to read the news. i am trying to read more poetry. i'm succeeding. i'm going to go fully, fully offline from dec 28-jan 6th. No phone. Just woods. 

Th contents for the whole thing is below....but to summarize: I'm really staggering into the finish here this year, with about as many loose ends as I've ever had. but i don't care. It's been that kind of year....for everyone. i'm doin' my best while trying to keep my sanity. I love you all madly, deeply, truly, and i hope to god you're all staying safe and having as gentle a holiday as possible. 

The new year....may she take us in her arms and deliver us to a 2022 that doesn't hurt.

I love you.

I'm so grateful to you. You know.

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CONTENTS FOR THIS ALTHING:

• WHAT I'M UP TO...
• PROJECTS RELEASED IN NOVEMBER...
• WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE PIKE...OR NOT....
• 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 PATRON COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD - news, arts and askings from YOU, the members of this beautiful little community....

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First up....this is out of order but if you missed it....I MADE YOU A PLAYLIST.

You might wanna crank it up while you're reading this post. It'll match:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6wRvHqH1eYreGHcgDBQIxD?si=eb441f8f303e466a

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WHAT I'M GENERALLY UP TO...?

Oh man. Not much. A lot.

Watching all my friends back in the states and Europe either GET covid or get their lives shut down due to covid near them. It's on. I'm just trying to keep my mind and my breath very still.

I'm starting almost nothing new; I am making no plans. I am slowing to a crawl. I may wind up being a solo parent again. I don't know. I don't know anything really, except that I'm very happy at this particular moment of hibernation. I'm doing just enough to keep the patreon lights on; if I don't post something official a few times a month, the bills will outweigh the patronage. I don't mind. It keeps me on my toes and there is a growing backlog of stuff to put out. I also love doing new things....so I think I'll keep feeling into improvising.

I saw THIS guy today - a busker playing piano on the lake and it made me want to join him. I left him my email. Maybe he can bring his piano to the hill.

Don't think I'm kidding. I am not.

I had plans to return home in June. I hope to god I can. I am expecting everything and nothing nowadays.

I am mothering.

I am slowing down my body, preparing for another possible blow.

I am just LIVING. I spent Christmas with a beaitiful family who adopted me, eating beautiful foods, patting beautiful cats and dogs, feeding the beautiful pig with Ash. What more, at this moment, could I ask for? 

Well...plenty. But I know, right now, what to ask for and what to let go.

To let go.

The poem I chose for this month's Althing is all about that. Mary Oliver said it before Elsa did.

Here's the poem, called "In Blackwater Woods":

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

(Mary Oliver, 1983).

To let it go.

.........

INSTAGRAM: A reminder/note

....since I don't post words and photos here every day....I post most of my daily-life stuff on Instagram lately. I think that's partly New Zealand's fault, as they are mostly over there. I've all but gotten off of facebook, and I like that. And twitter seems to be quieting down and becoming a foreign place I don't recognize. The discord will hoepfully help keep us all in better touch, and with more images, but meanwhile, if you want the christmas pictures, and the little videos, and all the silly personal stuff and musings...that's where to head for the next while. Sometimes I cross-post over here, but yeah.

https://www.instagram.com/amandapalmer/

.........

Speaking of the strangeness of Media....

My heart is still full from the improv livetsream I did for you all.....live from Auckland's Roundhead Studios.

It felt like a turning point in many ways, re=connecting with a piano like that, for you, in realtime.....you can see the full post about the livestream, including the links to download the improv piece, or rewatch the crowdcast, here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/59764141

My frequent collaborator Jherek Bischoff heard it, and we are thinking about taking the bones of it and making something bigger. Why not?

Why not everything right now?

Why not?

More, more, more. Many people seemed to really love it. I know I did.

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PROJECTS RELEASED IN NOVEMBER...

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

.......

The second Thing of the month was the recording of the Morra Hall show that I played on Waiheke back in July. IT'S A REALLY GOOD SHOW, and the quality is fab.

The show is up in full on youtube, exclusively for patrons, here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/59240784

The downloads (and some more behind the scenes photos) are COMING.... slowly, slowly we go :)

......

WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE PIKE...

"Ask Amanda" is ALMOST READY.....

We're gonna be kickin' off the new year with something a little bit different... I've talked about SubStack in the past, and if you're one of the $3 patrons, you may remember THIS POST and poll from a while back. The question was: "Where should I host/publish the "Ask Amanda" column?"....and here'a how the votes came in.

So....done. I'm gonna experiment with Substack as the place to publish the column, and I'm gonna announce it to the public and exaplin more on the patreon next month. I'm excited. I'm excited to get back to being a professional writer for a while. It seems like the best and easiest way to channel my energy at the moment. And I think it will create a good, solid foundation for the other things...the songwriting, mostly. I keep trying to find my way backl there, but it's hard with Ash. I can write words on a screen with him around. But not music. For that, I need time and space. I don't have it. I may not get it. I'm okay with that.

The column itself will launch at the start of February.

It's gonna start off as an advice column, but I'm hoping it EVOLVES. I dunno. I'm playing around.

So: more details to come, including the opportunity to ask questions.

......

Discord.....UGHHHHHHH

The Discord is still on the front-burner too - it got so wrapped up in the end of year that we couldn't quite push it over the edge, but it'll be one of the top priorities to get to as soon as the new year rolls in.

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

Meanwhile, the $10+ patrons are hanging out HERE on this chat thread in crowdcast, and every so often I message everybody to go over there and hug me and each other. It's a nice place to hang out in the middle of the night when lonely. We've named it "Home Base".

While I have you here, $10 folks, head on over and hug each other. 

......

In terms of THINGS.....

The Abortion Podcast is still rolling along in the background. At this point the team is just constantly re-editing, and adding in new context as the situation changes day by day... When it does eventually see the light of day, maybe it'll be fun (or incredibly depressing) to look back at the VERY VERY ORIGINAL draft from April this year and see how far we've come......

I've got a slew of video projects that have now been on the burner for over a year, two, three. The "Look Mummy" video. The Tasmania Doco. The Tour Footage from Michael Dunaway. I'll get to it when I have a brain. I've stopped worrying about it. It'll be what it'll be.

I have some recording studio time booked at the end of January....back at Roundhead in Auckland. I think that livetsream fed my soul and might feed yours more than anything else right now. So I might do that again...and this time,. maybe WRITE A SONG.

If I have it in me.

I think I do.

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DISPATCHES FROM THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLES OF TEAM AFP...

Jordan and Michael are down for the count this month. They're both exhausted and dealing with Holiday stuff. We love them and give them the pass.

But....from Alex the Merch Queen / Patreon Elf:

hey folks

honestly, this month has been HARD. i feel like since march 2020 i've had slow tasks and errands trickling into me, with some occasional periods of hard deadlines and full days. but i was quite happy plodding along.

and then while i was plodding along, a couple of other artists got in touch with me about running merch for them too, and i said yes!! absolutely!! i'm cruising nicely, there's room to expand!

and then over the last 3 months, things have gotten busy, the work that usually comes sporadically was suddenly ALL HAPPENING AT ONCE, and then it just has! not! let! up!

i've been trying to balance being out on tour with grace petrie, as well as dealing with hold-ups and issues with the manufacturing of the dresden dolls anniversary merch, and launch a sale on the AFP store, and put together drafts/links/photos for most of amanda's patreon posts here, and also pack and ship orders for the 7 online stores that i'm running now.

it's been A LOT.

i counted up and realised i've packed nearly 800 orders in the last 3 weeks. aside from all the other admin work. 

so i really, truly, cannot express how ready i am to shut up the merch stores for a couple of weeks. 

of course, this is not even touching on the shitshow that is our country's handling of the pandemic. 3 days in a row we have consecutively beaten our figures for highest daily cases since the pandemic began. 100,000 per day. 

fully anticipating an exact repeat of last year, where days before christmas it was announced that we had to lockdown and couldn't leave our homes at all.

sigh.

i got given this book yesterday, by the manager of the charity shop that i sometimes volunteer at (though not so much for the past couple of months...). she likes to recommend me books.

this one is about an american politician from the US and a prince from the UK. they decide to stage a friendship for instagram and diplomatic relations. and then they fall in love.

TRASHY GAY INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC ROMANCE.

i'm so excited to turn my brain off and fill it with this mush over christmas.

and now i leave you with this image of me and my new bundle of pure, unbridled joy:

yes. it is a giant pusheen. and yes. she takes up an entire seat on the sofa.

i have pined after her for literal years. and one popped up on ebay (the only place to buy them now) at a reasonable price, in the midst of my burnout work fest. so i had the pennies, and i figured i had earned it.

i'm so glad i did.

i hope, that wherever you are, whatever your circumstances are, however you celebrate, or if you don't celebrate at all, that you're able to find your own comfort and joy.

onwards we go my friends, into the next year.

-alex

xox

{I love you Alex. Hang in there. Keep on....keeping on, you queen - AFP}.

......

HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING...

As of this writing there are about 12,290 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 October, I Thanged TWO Things:

The State of All Things: October 20th 2021, which earned about $46,132 from 12,286 patrons.

The Ballad of the New York Times, which earned about $19,724 from 6,903 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...

You may remember my old friend Jamil Zaki.

He was one of the very first guests on my podcast and he wrote this incredible book:

He's got a new TED talk FRESH OFF THE PRESSES and it's so so so so good.

Please go watch it. It'll help you.

Promise:

https://www.ted.com/talks/jamil_zaki_how_to_escape_the_cynicism_trap?language=en

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

IF you want a little deep dive into songwriting. I'm featured in this new book....

https://bookshop.org/books/music-lyrics-and-life-a-field-guide-for-the-advancing-songwriter/9781493059874

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ART BEGETTING ART...

from @talderwitch on instagram...

MY HEART.......

from @rabi_xq on instagram (as posted by @joniserio, who i believe is here on patreon....)

....and finally, from @auxxy_smooothey on instagram...

That's about the feeling right now.

Yep.

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THE PATRON COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD.....

This is the section of the Althing that we hand over to YOU ALL. Tell us about your new projects, pimp out your blogs and crowdfunds, anything else you want to get word out about. 

Email anything you want to include over to Alex at patronhelp@amandapalmer.net! (note: we generally pick 2-3 per month to include, we can't always include EVERYTHING. and if you're sending something time sensitive, note that we usually post these around the middle of the month!)

Lori Snyder has just published a new middle grade fantasy book with HarperCollins, called THE CIRCUS AT THE END OF THE SEA. I like the title :)

The book was written as a love letter to Venice, CA, to the sea, to magic, to delight, and to found families.

You can read more about Lori, and pick up the book, here 

And here’s Lori reading a chapter aloud

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This one came in through the comments on the Morra Hall post...

Little Torch Blog is run by Erin, who is going through Stage IV neuroendocrine cancer, and is using the blog to document her life and her journey.

It's SUCH GOOD WRITING. I got lost.

GO READ IT.

Go go go check out the blog, or/and you can sign up to support her on Patreon here.

If you don't know where to start, "The Good Cancer" was my first read and sucked me in.

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and finally....

LAST CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS TO THE AFP PATREON POETRY ANTHOLOGY!!

In case you missed it in the last couple Althings, our beloved patron Angel (who some of you will recognize from sharing her gorgeous poetry on some of the webcasts lately) is putting together an anthology of poetry written by YOU GUYS.

All details can be found at https://poetryclubafp.wordpress.com/ 

The final deadline for submissions is JANUARY 1ST, so go forth and channel your emotions over the holiday season :)

Submissions can be sent to poetryclubafp@gmail.com

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That's all for now my loves.

I hope you're all staying sane, loving, and in good health. It means a lot to say that right now, and I mean it.

Stay safe.

Smell whatever roses are around, even if you're still on the other side of the world from everything you used to know.

AFPp.s. my fave Xmas photo of Ash. THE JOY. And Saffi The Reindeer is SQUISHING HIS SMILE cos you just gotta

------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