THE MARCH STATE OF ALL THINGS, & TikTok Town Hall (Patreon)

Hello my loves, my dear patrons...this one's a biggie.

**And: I am reading all comments here until this line is deleted**

CONTENTS of this Althing:

• A LITTLE LIFE UPDATE
• TIKTOK TOWN HALL DISCUSSION
• WHAT'S HAPPENED THIS MONTH, WORK-WISE
• ROUNDUP OF PROJECTS THAT WERE RELEASED IN MARCH
• WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE PIKE...AND WHAT'S ON HOLD
• DISPATCHES FROM VARIOUS MEMBERS OF TEAM AFP
• HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING/GROWING
• OTHER ARTISTS TO SUPPORT & FOLLOW
• ART BEGETTING ART
• THE PATRON COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD

Kia Ora, all.

Greetings from the center of my own heart.

It's been a really heavy few weeks around here, both in world news (good god) and personal struggle, and it actually brings me a great deal of comfort to have the time to finally sit down and write to all of you, share the month's work,  connect with the team, ask you some deep, important questions, and tell you what's been on my mind and on my heart. Many of you have been seeing my somewhat melancholy posts on social media and reaching out, asking how I'm doing. To set your minds and hearts at ease: I'm really (truly) fine, just going through some typical growing pains due to the inclement weather outside my door. Mixed metaphor there, but you get what I mean.

I also want to kick this Althing off by yet again welcoming in ALL the new people who have floated here from one corner of the world or another.

We have LOTS of new patrons - many who came through the "Surface Pressure" cover (we're gonna discuss that below, at length)...and I just want to say, hat in hand: thank you.

HELLO. WELCOME.

The more this little community grows, knits, chats, loves, helps one another, and bonds, the more I grow as an artist, and - strangely, and I'm only really grasping this for the first time - the more I grow as a person. This patreon was supposed to be a nice little way to fund my ongoing artistic endeavors, my blogs, my writing, my songs, and so forth.

Over the last few years, particularly during the pandemic, it has turned into much more: it's turned into a family of poets of fellow seekers and survivors, it's turned into a lifeboat. It's turned into a little pub. It's turned into a lifeline for me. And I love you all, so much. Thank you for being here, and if you've just arrived, thank you for coming here.

Here's a few little life photos from the past month on Waiheke Island, in my newly adopted home (for now, still) of Aotearoa New Zealand.

This is me at a peace gathering on the beach for International Women's Day, on March 8th....

We lit candles and prayed especially for the women in Ukraine who are getting screwed due to circumstances entirely outside of their control.

I spent a lot of the early part of the month delivering food to people on the island who had come down with Covid. For a week or so, it seemed like every single friend and family were trapped in their houses. 

Neil had taken Ash for a while, and I did something I've never really had time to do before: I just cooked for people. I didn't eat the food. I just cooked and cooked and cooked and shopped and cooked and found it incredibly therapeutic. I went to the internet and asked about good foods for people with Covid. Soups. Curries. Greens with garlic from my garden. I cooked.

While I cooked and dropped off various casserole dishes at various houses, I thought a lot about the patreon, and about art and music, and friendship, and how my life for the last many years has been defined - by me, to be fair - by an endless list of artistic offerings that never ends. About how I feel I can never do enough, say enough, catch up enough, create enough to satisfy myself and my own standards.

I realized that this has been preventing me from being the sort of person who prioritized making soup for her sick friends, because there's always a more burning priority.

This gave me a lot to think about. While this was happening, I released the "Surface Pressure" cover song, which got an immediately wonderful reaction, but then caused a lot of turmoil (see below). I thought about that, a lot, too, while I tried to ponder the re-prioritizaiton of my life and energy.

If it sounds quite existential...it was. It is. Why make soup? Why make art? Why have friends? Why even stay alive? 

I think some of this existential dread was probably brought on by the fact that my little country here is finally facing what everybody else in the world has been facing for more than two years: Covid completely tearing apart normal reality. While the death toll here has been incredibly low, the weirdness-in-life factor has been incredibly high. There was a point where this country of 5 million was clocking 25,000 cases a day....day after day after day. The stores shut down. The world stopped. In the pause, the inhale: a thunderous WHY....ANYTHING? I recognize this freefall from all my friends in New York and the states (and Europe, and Australia) who seemed to have gone through this over a year ago.

For some comic relief....here is me, looking very futuristic. I needed a new pair of glasses, wore my mask into the optometrist in the little village of Oneroa where we live, and found myself wondering what the aliens, or someone from 1749, would think if they could only see this human....

(I feel shades of that scene in Back to the Future when Marty shows up at George's house in the radiation suit with the walkman). 

(Also, I'm getting my first pair of prescription glasses, at age 45. I'm officially old and proud of it.)

I took a walk (several times, it's near our house), through the "Sculpture on the Gulf" installation that was up for about a week or two on Waiheke, near Matiatia Wharf, where the ferry comes in. Different sculptural artists (this one, below, is by my new friend, a Waiheke local named Anton Forde) created outdoor pieces and the walk to admire them all wrapped and snaked along the coastline for about an hour's worth of jaw-dropping. 

It felt like church to go there again and again, in different light and at different times of day, to see what the artists had to offer.

It is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, and here I am, absorbing. (Photo by Rosie Walford). 

This all existed about a ten minute drive from our house. This island is just one of the most unbelievably beautiful places I have ever lives. We celebrated Koro's birthday on the hill next to the sculptures (you may remember Koro, also known as Konstance Miraj, the beautiful drag queen who opened up the small hall shows many months ago) and the sunset, with the rising full moon at our backs, was one of the more glorious productions I have ever seen put on by Mother Nature. We all just stood in total awe, not quite believing the beauty of what our eyeballs were taking in. Photographs do it no justice, but try to use your imagination and stand on that hill with us.

A sunset kiss for Koro the birthday queen:

And if I were to show you more pictures from the month, you'd just see a lot of dishes, a lot of gardening, a lot of grocery shopping and sponges, and mostly: I've been on the telephone, trying to sort things out with and for people, and for myself.

...........

TIKTOK TOWN HALL, and other stuff: talk to me.

I need your input. It's....one of those moments. (*Insert Every Single Circus Emoji*)

**I am, as stated above, reading all comments until this line is deleted**.

While I was working through some stuff in my personal life that had absolutely nothing to do with my art, my career, the internet, or anything public-facing, a classic kerfuffle (as we call it around here) blew my way.

Last week, a discussion about Amanda Palmer blew up on Tiktok: first because people didn't like my rendition of "Surface Pressure", then because the cover itself was deemed an appropriation, and within a few days, the conversation had turned to why I was just generally a terrible person (and a racist, and a transphobe, and an ableist, and an antisemite, and a person who doesn't pay her staff, and the list goes on and on, and is a very familiar list at this point).

One thing I truly love about the low-walled garden of the patreon is this: in these odd moments, I can always come here directly, to you, to talk more quietly, away from the loud arena of social media.

And I also realized something over this past week: I've become much more adept than I used to be at handling the collision of personal/family problems and public-facing/internet problems. 

If you read "The Art of Asking", you may remember that around 2012 was one of the hardest stretched of my life and career: it was Kickstarter/Crowdfunding kerfuffle year...but it was also Anthony's cancer and chemo. I'll never be able to untangle those two things, the same way I'll never be able to untangle Anthony's death - and the grief I was dealing with - from Ash's birth. They'll always live together as a pair of beautiful, morbid, bittersweet twins.

In 2012, I wound up fighting two fronts at the same time, the very public, and the very personal.

I remember days when I was sitting with Anthony - my very best friend - in the hospital, watching the chemo drip into his body, and meanwhile my phone was buzzing with the alarm of another 1,000 people on twitter telling me that i was a piece of shit who should just kill myself.

I would walk with Anthony from the hospital parking lot to the house and have to step away because my manager was calling, because someone had hacked into my facebook and was posting violent porn.

I would be sitting with Anthony during his bone marrow transplant, in a sterile room, and I would have to be holding, at the same time, the image of a tweet with a thousand likes about how I was a transphobic anti-semite who should be cancelled. 

Things happen at the same time, sometimes. Maybe: all the time?

Anyone dealing with a kerfuffle on the internet, or an abortion off the internet, or a cancelation from a friend or family member, or the dirty secret of a partner who has an addiction and is hitting rock bottom in the basement while you try to explain to the family why they haven't shown up for dinner....basically anybody who's ever dealt with LIFE knows that you are never afforded the luxury of having spacious time to grieve, endless time to deal, scads time to stop everything you're doing and tend to a crisis. You juggle. You try. You attempt to keep pace with the world while still keeping pace with yourself.

And good lord, I know how "internet -> real life" bleed works, I've been dealing with it since 2007. Sometimes a pile-on (or kerfuffle, or whatever you wanna call it) will happen on the internet, but you can ignore it. And sometimes, you know it's more serious when you  walk into a party, or a cafe, or start getting sympathetic text messages from your friends "because I am seeing what is happening online". That is happening right now, in my life.

I've now been through a dozen of these moments, perhaps more, in the span of my career. I always learn something, I always come out a little more battered but a little more insightful, and I always take a step back and try to figure out myself, my community, the world, my actions, my artwork and my voice.

I've been making art and being a public figure on the internet for SO LONG and been through SO MANY SHITSTORMS that I really am able to be somewhat dispassionate at this point, and a little bit clinical. Not that these things aren't important. But they don't feel like The End of the World anymore. Ten years ago, they did.

I find myself able to look at things like a professor: What happened? Why? More importantly: Why Now? What are people going through that this is the moment they need to say these things to me, and to each other? Especially if these are things being dredged up from the past that have already been addressed: What do I represent to people? How much of it is "me" (do I still have things to learn, to say, to apologize for, to be accountable for?) and how much of it is "them" (can these people not google the blogs I already wrote about this shit?)

I was having such a hard personal week that I simply walked away from TikTok. I couldn't read the abuse, it was too much to look at. It's pretty horrendous stuff to see about yourself.

But also: I cannot walk away. I always want to be real, accountable. Open. Learning.

I've done some dumb things in my career, for sure, and I've spoken and written at length about those things....and still, the level of abuse that's currently getting leveled at me is pretty seismic. 

And YET....also.....I've built up a pretty thick skin over the years. I worry about how thick, sometimes. I don't want to become bitter, or hard.

It's only in moments like this that I get to test the new hardness and thickness, to see what penetrates and gets to my heart and what just bounces off as a broken arrow. 

I don't ever want to get so hard that I cannot be bent, that I cannot learn, and join with others in an actual conversation. I never want to live in a fucking echo chamber. That feels like death.

But even the scale of things doesn't matter to me as much as it used to. And I don't know whether that's good or bad, sometimes.

As of a few days ago, my little 15-second "Surface Pressure" clip has now been viewed over 3 million times on TikTok.....but the more than 30,000 comments (THIRTY. THOUSAND.) on that post and my subsequent posts are along the lines of: "hey bestie whats ur favorite slur" and "U R a racist" and so forth. Endlessly. It's....a lot.

It's not a dialogue about whether the "art" is good or bad anymore; it is not even a dialogue.

It's all stemming from the many moments in my past - all of which have been addressed and blogged about at one point or another, SOMEWHERE on the internet - that keep resurfacing without context. 

Most centrally (and probably missing from these many little internet spaces) is the post I wrote over a year ago about the lyrics in "Guitar hero" and "Fuck tha Police" by NWA (a song I covered on ukulele many years ago)...and about why I have, in the case of "Guitar Hero" changed those lyrics, and, in the case of "Fuck Tha Police", why I would never cover a song like that again: https://blog.amandapalmer.net/racism-words-art-time-progress/.

I could go on and on, and clarify the other 10 things that keep surfacing, but now...I step back, and I wonder. I big-picture wonder. And I wonder what you all might bring to the table, to this discussion.

I mean: if you know me, I've been here so, so, so many times.

I've always weathered this storm. I will easily weather this one.

I wanted to address one issue very directly, and ask about it, after seeing this on the patron FB page..a place I rarely hang, and a place I hope we can sort of import gradually over to the discord when the time is finally ripe (I know I keep promising, but then life keeps biting me in the ass.....but soon).

First of all, I want you to know that I'm really listening here.

HERE, for the time being. I cannot go, at the moment, to TikTok and listen. It is too harsh, and too loud to hear anything.

It honestly never occurred to me that covering "Surface Pressure", or any other song from "Encanto", would be considered in poor taste, or appropriation. The patron who requested it, Kya Farquhar, is half filipino. We never discussed this aspect of the cover when it was requested; and I didn't see a hundred patrons (or even one?) on the webcast that day saying "NO!!! AMANDA!!! NOOOOOO! That's a BAD IDEA!"

But no matter: this is still my responsibility. And just because I, or Kya (or any of the patrons on that webcast when it was requested) didn't "catch" this or necessarily think that the song was or wasn't appropriation, well....that doesn't mean that it isn't. Like many things, it's in the eye - or ear - of the receiver. So it's really more about how the song is affecting people. It's about that. It's not about "what I meant". So I would like to come to YOU. And ask. I ask YOU, my patrons, especially my patrons of color, and super-especially if you're Latinx, maybe even from Colombia: and ask.

Does it feel wrong? Does it not sit well? Please talk to me. Clearly some voices are already speaking. I want to know why, and I want to listen. 

And as for me "not addressing" the criticism: let me reassure you about that. I stopped looking at TikTok the minute the comments became 99% abusive and I just couldn't handle the fire. That is, in my humble opinion, always the wisest option for one's mental health when something like this is happening. But it also means I stepped out of the civil side of the conversation as well. I want to have it, and I am going to have it, but not while the tenor over there is so hot that I cannot hear other speak, or be heard. Trying to have nuanced conversations on TikTok while everybody is screaming is the equivalent of trying to hold a conversation in a bar while a brawl is happening. You just have to leave the bar.

Trust me: all of this will be addressed. But in a kind, slow, civil manner. I am also going through my own big, personal problems at the moment. So I beg you, Bernadette (and anyone else who's wondering), I'm mostly staying off social media and away from there, not because I can't engage with the content, but because I need to be with my kid. Trust me, believe me. Priorities.  

I wonder, though, with these issues.....if things might also be a little more profound, because unlike 2012, I have my patrons to come to. To ask for feedback, for help, for impressions, ideas.

This is where you come in.

I know that many of you aren't on TikTok but some of you may be. It's mostly a platform for a younger generation, and I know that my patrons tend to skew older (especially because there's a paywall), but I know we have at least ONE patron here under 40 (I'm looking at you, Rae...wait! and Angel). But many of you are parents, and might have teenagers that use TikTok, and may have impressions and so on that you could share. 

SO:  here is what i would ask, and, as usual, I'll read all the comments here (I'm staying off TikTok and other areas of social media right now for my mental health):

What do you think the best way to address this is, right now?

If you've come across this, what would you want to ask me?

What would you want to know, to discuss? To learn about me?

If you were me, and you saw that there were a lot of new people coming my way - with no context about who I am, what I've done, and what's already been discussed - how would you navigate this?

What I am seeing right now is that there are plenty of places on the internet that have compiled lists of reasons Why You Should Hate Amanda Palmer, but I've never actually compiled a list of central resource that addresses each of the issues. 

Is it perhaps time to do that? If I did that, would you help me?

Is it time to write one big essay called "Amanda Palmer clarifies all her kerfuffles, for the TikTok generation and anyone else who is interested"?

Is it time to just get off the internet for a couple months? (it seems very tempting).

What is hardest is this: a text message from a random friend on the island saying "hey, someone was talking at a dinner party last night about how sad it is that you're transphobic."

this is gossip, and it pains me.

it especially pains me when i think about my community. my fans, my patrons who are trans. what do they feel when they hear that? do they question whether or not i love them? do they second-guess everything i've ever said about inclusivity and wonder if i'm secretly a TERF?

the same holds try for the racist stuff and my community who or BiPOC. is it just too scary to hang around me? is it too messy? even if my community know that i've done all sort of things to explain why i've made mistakes, multiple mistakes, that covering an NWA song was a dumb idea, and so forth....i wonder if it makes people of color in my community just look at me, and the charges leveled at me, and say "it's just not worth it. she's too hard to be with."

for the record: i think trans people are beautiful. i support trans rights. i believe that trans rights are human fucking rights and watching what is currently happening in the states with regards to trans rights is horrifying. i think that racism is a huge fucking problem - in america and the world over - and i think that privileged white people like me still have a fuck ton of things to learn and active work to do to understand what moves we need to make to support progress and create justice. i try to do this work. i'm always trying to figure out how my words, my art, my contribution, can add to progress and cause less suffering. for everybody.

PHEW.

I know that was a lot.

But... it's been a lot.

Talk to me.

......

And now....

WHAT'S HAPPENED THIS MONTH...

I am sure that all of you - my patrons, who are People of the Internet - are all already inundated with news, stories, and harrowing, unforgettable images from the senseless destruction of life, property and peace over there.

I made a whole post about this, but it really is worth repeating here in the Althing.

I spoke with my friend Gaba Kulka, who lives in Poland, about the best way to actually, tangibly help, and this is what she said:

Ever since the Russian army's aggression on Ukraine, Polish people started mobilising at every level to help our eastern neighbours, and that feels like a beacon of hope in this grim time.

But even though the countless, grassroots efforts have been uplifting, they have also been really hard to get my head around, and this fragmentation has become an increasing problem - it may feel overwhelming right now, to find the exact right place where you should put your energy and money.

What we need is better communication, and a more centralized system of support for people affected by this war.

That's why my first thought  went to nonprofits that I'd already known for years, who already have the know-how - most of all Fundacja Ocalenie, who has been working with and providing help to refugees in Poland for many years.

Luckily some people have it together, and know that combining efforts is the way to go: There is a huge fundraiser, Together For Ukraine:

https://zrzutka.pl/en/razemdlaukrainy

It is based on one of the largest fundraising platforms in Poland.

The organizations benefiting from the fundraiser include Fundacja Ocalenie, Polskie Forum Migracyjne, Homo Faber, Fundacja Dialog and many more.

They post frequent and helpful updates documenting how some of the funds are already put to use.

As an addition: if someone likes to know very precisely what their money buys. Here are two verified fundraisers that gather money for 1) tactical first aid kits https://zrzutka.pl/dlaukrainy and 2) bulletproof vests and helmets https://zrzutka.pl/pomocukrainie The links come from the Euromaidan-Warszawa organisation, which has been active since 2013.

Please consider supporting them.

I really trust Gaba, and I hope you trust who I trust, so please consider sending your money over in that direction.  I donated $500.

I also found out that THE KYIV INDEPENDENT is on Patreon - one of the only independent media outlets in the country. I'm supporting them, and I cannot tell you how good it feels to be able to know that my dollars are literally keeping real, honest journalism funded in Ukraine.

i became the 3,249th patron last week, they're now up to nearly 7,000 patrons, earning about $70k. I've heard they are re-distributing any extra money to places that feed the funds.

This is revolutionary. 

Please join.

......

PIANO? PIANO!

Sydney Opera House 

invited me to join them for PIANO DAY on the 88th day of the year....and I played an especially emo version of "The Ride", filmed on roundhead studio's massive steinway. Go watch:

https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/events/whats-on/live-stream/piano-day.html

......

And:

I was interviewed by my new kiwi pal Jesse Mulligan on RNZ a few days ago, about Surface Pressure going viral....and....you can guess:

You can listen to the interview from anywhere in the world, right here:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018835714

......

Also?

I was invited by amazing academic and writer Helen Sword to join her on a conversation event, broadcast via Zoom to the world, about creativity.

Helen's and expert who writes ABOUT writing...

Here's one of her best books.

The talk itself was truly AMAZING....we covered all sorts of things from process to imposter syndrome to...just go watch. 

There's an archive link especially for Helen's supporters, and she's given permission for me to share it with all of y'all too. 

You can check it out here:

https://vimeo.com/691594950/1bf83eae13

(the quality of the video isn't amazing because zoom, but O WELL the CONTENT is hopefully worth it :))

We even had a bonus guest dog at the beginning. this is Freddie, as in Mercury:

......

ASK AMANDA is OFFICIALLY ON HIATUS!!!

I set out on Substack as an experiment during February.... and what I learned is that writing a weekly column takes a FUCK TON of time and energy. And if I kept it up 52 weeks a year, I'd probably have to drop everything else.  

So we're on hiatus...... FOR NOW. 

I plan to continue, and Sarah Beetson, the artist who I collab'd with, is also very keen to keep going. But maybe monthly?

It was, by the by, a huge success. I'm so proud of what we created - not just my articles, but the beautiful questions, and comments, and connections from inside the community. 

So consider this a promise: we will be back. It will just likely be more sporadic. I'd love to do it once a month.... We'll see.

The "paid" subscribers over there (there's only about 2-300) will not be charged this month. I've paused the billing cycle. I assume that if I kick it back into gear, I'll do it under the umbrella of the patreon, otherwise I won't be able to pay for the time and editing and artists. We'll discuss.

In the meantime, you can catch up with the 4 existing columns at:

https://amandapalmer.substack.com/

......

I ALSO RECORDED SOMETHING ELSE SPECIAL IN AUCKLAND.....

Superstar political-expert and special-ass person Samantha Bee is doing an episode of her show Full Frontal all about book censorship, so she asked me if I would play Judy Blume...

And fuck was I honored.

BUT

Since I'm still in New Zealand, I figured I'd have to sadly pass, because I couldn't make it to the states to film.

BUT....I was like, I can ASK. So I asked: hey Sam, will you pay for a film crew to record the song in New Zealand? At a library, maybe?

THEY SAID YES.

Here's some photos from the day:

This shit cost MONEY....and we went way over the budget that the show gave us. Those lights weren't cheap. ;)

So I came to the Patreon that very evening before we filmed....and asked how you'd feel about me thinging this video, and the results were - honestly - OVERWHELMING:

Interestingly, less than 10% of y'all actually voted in this poll.... I tend to think that means you're pretty much shrugging your shoulders and happy for your money to go to whatever I deem is Art Enough.

But probably if you didn't vote, the chances that you're reading this far down the Althing are close to zero. So....yeah.

......

AND

This is probably also a good time to mention that I have started getting some social media help - everybody, MEET AURA:

AURA'S DAD, NATE, IS A PATRON (h nate!!! and I think their mom is a patron too?? HI MOM) and he hooked the two of us up.

I've been needing a little bit of social media help for a while now - my team is GREAT, but they're strapped with their own actual jobs, and timezones are a bitch, so having someone HERE on the ground with me is a serious godsend.

I especially realized I needed a second pair of hands when I did the Enjoy The Silence webcasts back in February, and realized that while I was concentrating on TALKING TO THE STREAM and RECORDING THE GODDAMN SONG I WAS THERE TO RECORD, I couldn't be tweeting and instagramming at the same time.

So.... Aura came with me to the studio for the Surface Pressure podcast, and posted up a storm.

Since then, they've helped me out on a few occasions. 

Watch out for more from Aura. I might even ask them to write a note to y'all next month. Why not?

......

ROUNDUP OF PROJECTS RELEASED IN MARCH...

The cover of "Surface Pressure" from Encanto, performed with Jherek Bischoff and the Black Quartet, was released into the world!!!

If you missed, you can read all about it HERE:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/63918580

(and don't forget, if you're in the $3 tier or above, you also get an mp3 and wav download of the song here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/63848737 )

And this just came in from Alfredo, my artist friend from Puerto Rico who provided the gorgeous cover art...

THE ART CIRCLE CONTINUES.

Aura and I held a webcast when the song was officially released. If you missed it, you can catch up here:

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/surface-pressure-coffee-

I played some music...including a live piano version of "Surface Pressure" and "The Ride"

Aura played some their OWN music...and oh my god....it was good....

We chatted and spontaneously interviewed one another....

........

SOCIAL MEDIA TIME?

Well, it's sort of an odd time to ask you to follow me on TikTok (I'm @theamandapalmer) since I'm going to stay quiet over there for at least another few weeks, but hey. Still come. I'll be back.

And speaking of the BRIGHT side of TikTok:

I fucking love the idea of the DUET, and posted a duet with the user @nursejessicasites, who had decided to use "Surface Pressure" to talk about being a nurse. Is it complicated yet? Maybe. Talk to me below.

And here's a sneak peek behind the scenes of what it took for me to set that duet up....from a cafe in Devonport. Where, weirdly, LORDE grew up. It's not, as I was shocked to learn, a "torn up" town. Oh well. Art.

......

WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE PIKE...OR NOT....

In the IMMEDIATE FUTURE...

Enjoy The Silence is going to get a proper, full public release... hopefully in the next month or so.

We've also roped in our filmmaker pal Hugh (who has been behind the camera for these recording studio livestreams, and also recorded the Waiheke show last summer) and he's editing the highlights of both the the 10-hour livestream to make a nice digest-able short documentary following the whole process.

.......

As for what's coming down the pike in a more long-term sense.... 

Well, I may need your help with that.

If you've been reading these Althings, or my posts about work, for about the last (gulp) three years, you'll know there's a long, long list of projects I've worked on that are in some sort of state between being an idea in my head, and being officially Thinged into the world. 

Some projects are 99% there. Some projects are 60% there.

I've got some time now to focus on getting some of these motherfuckers across the finish line. But WHICH PROJECT WHEN?

I'm gonna be doing a longer dive into this in the next while, so keep your eyes peeled on your inboxes - I'll probably hit you with a look at 4 or 5 different projects, write a little bit about what they are, how they came into being, who I'm working with, why they've stalled, where they've stalled.... and then I'll listen to y'all when you tell me what you want to see. Maybe we'll do some POLLS.

You all love a good POLLING. :)

......

DISPATCHES FROM THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLES OF TEAM AFP...

From Jordan.....

This is a time for eternal optimism. 

It sincerely feels like the world just cannot catch a break at the moment. I write this from Sydney, Australia after spending almost 60hrs in bed with some weird stomach bug fever, after dealing with insurers and sub-contractors to deal with damage to my house due to floods, after mopping up after three separate flooding events, after dealing with crazy and unexpected work business and of course, zooming out from my myopic personal view to the world at large… 

DAMN… This world right now... The serious floods on the East Coast of Australia and of course the real tragedy at play globally here… Russia and the Ukraine and the media hype of the next world war. 

There has never been a better time to practice eternal optimism. I write this while I look out the window and see trees swaying in the breezy sunlight, as my dog snuggles up to me, as I listen to a live unreleased recording by one of my favourite bands that was mixed and sent pretty much just for me… 

I write this as I consider my girlfriends limitless supply of love, as I reflect on the taste of the guacamole I ate for breakfast, I write this as I consider the things I will be doing this weekend to try to guide and help my 16 year old through the things he wants to do and achieve… 

I write this as I consider empathy and love and to give without expectation… 

I write this as I think of one of my estranged best friends who reached out to me to re-connect… 

I write this as I feel that all I can do in the world right now is to give a pure and positive intention. To help, to be of service, to do the best I can, to look to see the good in everyone. To not judge a book by its cover and to simply feel the world flowing through me in a positive way. 

I sincerely feel like now is a time for eternal optimism because without that how will we give freely? How can we spread love when we feel that we’re doomed and there is no point to it all? In these days of fractured and stolen attention spans, of inequality, of struggles real, imagined, unexpected, and unjust, of the repetitive bombardment of negativity at every angle that we look… I just have to look out the window and see the trees swaying in the breeze and forget it all. To disconnect to reconnect. I must be coming down from a three day fever… 

I want to thank each and every one of you for your support of Amanda and the work we do as a team. Without it, our worlds would be a very different place.

{Jordan...I have never been more grateful or proud to have you as a manger. I fucking love you. Reading this made my heart explode and my breathing slow. I just love you so much. -AFP}

......

From Alex.....

This has been a bit of a weird month, in that life almost feels..... like the Before Times.

I accidentally ended up with almost an entire month of concerts and theatre shows that I booked months/years ago, under the naive impression that things MUST be better by March 2022!!! And, well....... I'm looking around nervously, but our government has decided that yep, lift all the restrictions, life back to normal. So the shows all went ahead.

It's been a hard decision, and I've spent the past 2 years being so ultra-cautious (I wouldn't even go out to eat until about 6 months ago). But I've got to the point where, unfortunately, the UK government has given up. We have no restrictions, and as of April 1st they won't be offering free testing. So the virus simply isn't going to go away now. So my options are either to continue living the hermit lifestyle, not going back into the city, not going to events that I love so dearly. Or else I just accept the risk, and at least do what I can to minimise the risk.

So, I went out to several shows this month. I remained masked, I tried not to breathe on people, and am putting my faith in my (relative) young age, my vaccine and boosters, and my general good health, and hoping that if (or, more likely, when) it finally catches up with me, I can suffer at home for a week or two.

I can only imagine how much harder these decisions are for people who have underlying conditions, or disabilities, or are older, or have other reasons why they may not be able to put as much faith in their immune system as I can. I wish so dearly that the world collectively had had a better response 2 years ago.

But...... god, it feels so good to see and hear and FEEL live music, and live theatre, and live comedy, after so long without it.

I hope that the theory of diminishing variants is correct, and we do end up seeing covid as a mild cold or flu, and society as a whole is able to get back to proper normal again soon, instead of just pretending it's normal while case numbers still rise and hospitalisations are still steady.

But in the meantime... here's Tori Amos, doing what I love the most about her performances - straddling the piano stool, one hand on her grand piano, and one hand on her electric keyboard, duetting with herself. MAGICAL:

I also want to share something Hannah Gadsby said which really hit me.

She introduced the show by saying that she had written a feel-good show. And she acknowledged that it does feel a lot like the world is ending right now, and maybe it feels inappropriate to do a feel-good show.

But then she decided that actually, she doesn't have the answers to solve the world's problems. (Is she talking about Ukraine? COVID? Climate change? All of the above? Probably!!) She said she's not going to profess to be an expert, and that actually if she pipes up with a half-informed opinion, maybe she'll actually make matters worse.  And she talked about how celebrities are tripping over themselves right now to 'make the most of their platform' and be constantly 'commenting' on world events. 

And sometimes it's okay to not be an expert, and instead to just be quiet, and to listen, and to perform a feel-good show and make an audience of people laugh for 90 minutes.

In other news - I finally renewed my passport this month. My partner's family live in New Zealand, and he hasn't been able to see them for 2 years now. But finally the borders have opened to citizens, so he's planning a trip in May, and I'm going to go halfway with him, and take a little holiday to Toronto. So if anyone has recommendations or advice for spending a week in Toronto in April, please do hit me up :)

That's about all for now, and I shall see you next month.

(My new passport photo, looking deeply serious and worryingly dark around the eyes)

-Alex

xoxox

{Alex....welcome back to the real world-ing, my queen. I am so grateful to have you on this team, and I love that art is flowing back into your veins. You know how much we all need it. And I love that you do so much to keep us all connected. I love YOU. Thank you....for all of it. -AFP}

......

HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING

As of this writing there are about 12,500 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 February, I Thanged TWO Things:

The Surface Pressure webcast, which earned about $44,319 from 12,119 patrons.

The State of All Things: February 2022, which earned about $18,541 from 6,879 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.

......

OTHER ARTISTS TO SUPPORT....

"ALL THE LIVING AND THE DEAD" BY HAYLEY CAMPBELL

Hayley's a friend of mine via Neil (he's her fairy godfather), and is just about to publish this book. It's officially released in March in the UK, April in Australia, and August in the US. I just cracked into it and FUCK IT IS REALLY GOOD. Promise.

Here's the blurb:

WE ARE SURROUNDED BY DEATH.

It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts. Yet from a young age, we are told that death is something to be feared. How are we supposed to know what we’re so afraid of, when we are never given the chance to look?

Fueled by a childhood fascination with death, journalist Hayley Campbell searches for answers in the people who make a living by working with the dead. Along the way, she encounters mass fatality investigators, embalmers, and a former executioner who is responsible for ending 62 lives. She meets gravediggers who have already dug their own graves, visits a cryonics facility in Michigan, goes for late-night Chinese with a homicide detective, and questions a man whose job it is to make crime scenes disappear.

Through Campbell’s incisive and candid interviews with these people who see death every day, she asks: Why would someone choose this kind of life? Does it change you as a person? And are we missing something vital by letting death remain hidden?

There are pre-order links at her website for pretty much anywhere in the world:

https://www.hayleycampbell.com/all-the-living-and-the-dead

......

If you're a Decembrists or Colin Meloy fan (I AM), I have tidings of joy:

Colin Meloy is now on substack!

https://colinmeloy.substack.com/

I just followed. Cannot wait to see what this dude does with it.

......

ART BEGETTING ART

This is where we share some of the gorgeous artwork inspired by me and my work.... Don't forget, if you've got some artwork you'd like to see featured here next month, send it over to art@amandapalmer.net !!

First up, a beautiful drawing by beloved patron Angel Rosen...

Next, a line drawing from Mike Zug, aka @zugart on Instagram...

And a gorgeous oil painting by @joanning on Instagram... 

......

THE PATRON COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD

Our final section is the bulletin board for YOU, the community.

If you have something you'd like us to share - to promote, to ask, to offer up, send it through to patronhelp@amandapalmer.net and we'll do our best to get it added in! 

This month's delights from within the community.....

POEMS FOR THE RIDE - THE PATRON POETRY ANTHOLOGY!!!

If you've been following along the last few Althings (or the last few webcasts), you may know that long-time community patron Angel Rosen has been at the helm of putting together a poetry anthology. The physical copy is now up for pre-order here, and I am so goddamn excited. Here's the description:

Poems for the Ride is a poetry anthology zine edited by Angel Rosen (@Axiopoeticus) and Joshua Pipkins (@PipkinsJoshua).

This anthology includes poems written by people within the Amanda Palmer Patreon Community and covers the topics of life, death, grief, joy and everything in between. It features poetry from over 100 community members and reminds us that even if we're all going through something different, we're never alone.

There is a poem out there for everyone.

And here's a link to the list of contributors.... wow.

AGAIN, the physical copy is currently up for pre-order here. The digital copy will be available for free next month too (and I'm sure we'll share the fuck out of that link here, too)

And if you can't swing the $20 for the physical copy, there are also a bunch of volunteers who have offered to 'pay it forward' and offer free copies to people. If you want to be added to this free copy list, contact Angel at poetryclubafp@gmail.com

I love you all.

......

Patron Miriam got in touch with us about her online bookstore, Catalyst Books & Gifts...

Catalyst Books & Gifts has a mission of celebrating and supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in science and academia. 

It's a Specific Benefit Corporation, meaning I will pass a lot of the money it makes along to non-profit organizations supporting diversity in STEM. 

I can't ship internationally (yet) but I would be so grateful for any business from fellow patrons in the U.S.! 

The website is catalystbooks.org: it has lots of science-themed stuff featured, but you can order just about any book using the search function. I just launched the store last summer and I'm still keeping my day job, so things are ramping up slowly and I could use all the help I can get.

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES, YO. Especially when they're owned by patrons :)

......

Rowan aka Dizraeli, a self-described "rapper-poet-musician-songwriter" from Bristol, UK, is currently fundraising for their upcoming tour...

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dizraeli-the-twenty-years-deep-tour#/ 

The vision for the tour is to do it as sustainably and socially consciously as possible, travelling and eating low carbon, offering free tickets and performance opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The funds we raise will pay for us to make this tour a new, necessary kind of tour, connected and sustainable, that will be a model that other artists can draw inspiration from; we'll also create a live album and videos if we raise enough beyond that. 

You can check Dizraeli out on Instagram here:

instagram.com/mcdizraeli

......

That's all, my loves.

See you next time.

I'm reading all the comments til this line is deleted.

x

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