The State of All Things: September 2022 (Patreon)

Contents of this Althing:

• THE BASIC LIFE-N'-TIMES UPDATE
• WHAT'S HAPPENED THIS MONTH
• PROJECTS RELEASED THIS MONTH
• WHAT'S COMIN' DOWN THE PIKE (DRESDEN DOLLS! YUM.)
• DISPATCHES FROM TEAM AFP (JORDAN, in OZ, is HIRING!!!)
• CHANGES TO THE PATREON & HOW BIZ STUFF IS DOING...
• OTHER ARTISTS TO SUPPORT & FOLLOW
• ART BEGETTING ART
• and last but not least....
• THE PATRON COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD

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Hello loves!

I said most of what I wanted to say in the video...which Alex transcribed but it got EATEN by my stupidly saving the wrong draft, so we'll update it tomorrow or when he's back online (and sorry, and thanks, luv). 

All I'll add, as I tip-tap-type, is that I'm deeply humbled and grateful to all of you as usual....and I was especially touched by our chats the other night on the posts that I put out spontaneously about work, balance, and what to thing. I love that you understand me, and it all makes me feel less alone as I work, navigate life, try to make art, and try to figure out this whole ongoing adventure in crowdfunding. You're golden, you crowd. I fucking love you

Hola.

Well, here we are again. Another month, another shitshow.

I’m gonna show you something special this month.

First of all, this is Upstate New York. Bearsville, to be exact. This is the driveway of our house. And I’m taking you on a walk to what is going to be, if all goes well, the Dresden Dolls HQ and rehearsal space, starting in about less than a month. And right now it’s just a fucking barn with almost nothing in it, and we’re gonna fill it with music. So that’s where I’m gonna take you.

And as far as catching up with things goes, oh my fucking god, you guys. It’s been relentless. It has been relentless. But it’s been like that for a long time now and I’m used to it and I don’t mind.

I have a call set up with Patreon to see about moving things to monthly. I’m definitely not gonna do it without discussing it with a lot of you, but from the post I put out yesterday, or a couple of days ago, and all of your feedback about 'we’re just here', 'we’re just here', 'we’re just here', I'm like, okay, you’re just here. 

There’s gotta be a less stressful way of doing this. Especially to sustain it into the future. And speaking of the Dresden Dolls, I’m thinking about a year from now, two years from now, when I’m on tour, and not able to put a lot of Patreon stuff out, but I’m using it as my social media portal instead of Instagram, instead of Facebook, instead of this, instead of that, and using it as a place to keep the community. It will make more sense, I think, to have it be monthly. And then I’m not thinking per blog, or per this, or per that, it’s just a place, and it’s just a stream of stuff.

Here it is.

It’s a little dark in here. Not for long. It’s gonna be filled with music and light. Oh my god, it is pretty dark down here.

So I’m gonna show you up the stairs.

That's the electricity, by the way, downstairs, going in. 

This is it.

This is where it’s gonna happen. This is gonna be the Dresden Dolls rehearsal space, if it all works out.

Look at this! (old timey fireplace)

It works!

So yeah, it’s gonna be cold, but we’re gonna get a heater. And Brian and I are thinking Rocky 4. Have you seen Rocky 4? And the montage between Rocky in the woods, hauling logs, and then the Russian guy in his very fancy 8 billion dollar gym, lifting fancy machines with computers and stuff. And we’re gonna be like the log people. That’s gonna be us. We even talked about maybe getting a video director to create some fictional band in New York City in an 8 billion dollar rehearsal studio, and we’re like, LOGS!

I don’t think we’re gonna make time to do that, we’re gonna be very busy just practicing music.

Anyway, this will be filled with drums and piano, and I might even come in here to write. I might write back in the house, but given the state of my house, and friends, and kids, and relatives, and people coming and going all the time, I don’t even know. I might write over there. I might just write in my fucking head.

That’s what I wanted to show you.

Other than that, things are weird, things are slow. I’m not caught up. 

I’m gonna use this as a beautiful backdrop, the stove.

I’m not caught up, I’m not feeling grounded or centred, but I am feeling okay, and I am just trying to do what’s right in front of me. And if Ash is right in front of me, I’m just all about Ash, and if domestic stuff and a leak in my kitchen is right in front of me, then I’m just doing that, and I’m just trying to do one teeny little thing at a time, and not get stressed out by how overwhelming this all is.

I’m so grateful to you. I posted that middle of the night 'what should I do? Should I write this thing? Should I put it out?' And you’ve known me, a lot of you, for long enough that you know I like to work with company. I’m not the kind of artist who ever wants to just disappear for two years to work on my book and then deliver it and then hide away again so I don’t need to be with people. 

Being with people makes me happy, and I don’t ever want to work in a void. And I’ve been crowdfunding for so long, and doing this Patreon, doing Kickstarter, trying to figure this out in a million ways. 

And I wrote this on the post the other day, it still astounds me that I spend most days thinking that I don’t know what I’m doing. And I mean it. I kinda know what I’m doing, and I know you guys trust me, and I know you’re giving me your money, and I know that I’m putting it to good use, and I’m doing all these projects, and I’m hiring all these artists, and I have this great staff, and it all makes sense on paper, but then there are moments where I’m like..... is this happening? Did I do this? Is this real?

And so taking the Patreon to monthly I think will alleviate a lot of stress. I think.

I also wanna talk to you, and I will talk to you a little bit in the text, about the Althing, because a lot of people are telling me, and I saw the feedback in these last posts, a lot of people are just like, it’s too long. I’m not reading it.

And I’m like, well, all the information in there is… necessary is the wrong word, but I do want you to know what I’m up to. And sometimes I feel like, even if you’re not reading it, I’m like, I did my homework. I passed in my assignment, you know that I’m working, you know that I’m doing projects, you know that my team is there and present and actually doing jobs. Then there’s this part of me that’s like, are you overdoing it? Are you trying to justify your existence? What should you really be doing? What is the Althing for? What is any of this for? What makes sense? You’re allowed to do anything you want, you have your Patreon, you’ve asked for all the permission in the world up and down and across to do it the way you want it, what are you doing? What are you doing?

And I’ve always done this differently from other artists. I never just go into a secret laboratory and give you a finished product. I figure out what I’m doing by asking you, and the community, and I don’t think I have some secret answer. 

I think you know what you want. I think you know how you wanna have a relationship with an artist, I think you know how you wanna feel valued and supported back if you’re supporting me. You know what’s worth what. 

And this is, I think, why I work, why I function as a crowdfunded artist, because I’m not trying to bullshit anybody, ever. I really like doing things this way, I really like that this is an active conversation, I really like that this is a family, and a community of people, and not just a commercial cash transaction. It’s why I do it. It makes more sense to me than doing it the other way.

So things might change. I’ll let you know. 

I don’t have a poem for you this month. This is the poem. Look at the lighting! This is the poem. The empty space is the poem. This door that just leads down to the ground is the poem.

Alright. Wish me luck. 

Oh! And I will tippy-tappy a little bit about it, but it’s actually easier to just tell you here in the video. I’ve got a lot coming up in October that is not art. It’s not an art month, it’s a family month. My sister is turning 50 and she’s coming form Europe, there’s a big party for all her friends, there’s a big party with all my family, and LITERALLY the same week, my little brother is getting married in DC. And then after that, my sister and I are taking my dad off on a vacation for a week, which we’ve never done before! And that’s gonna be very awesome. 

It also means that I am gonna be barely at my desk for… I don’t know, two solid weeks and change. It means that next month will be a very quiet month. There will be an Althing, there will be a very, very, very exciting new project, which I will talk to you about down in the body of the Althing. It’s a beautiful video that kind of got made by accident, which is the best. It’s really moving, I think you’re gonna fucking love it. It is of absolutely no commercial potential, no viral potential, anti-everything art piece. It’s a perfect Patreon thing, it could never have made any money in a million years in any way, and that’s why you’re here, and why we’re all here, and it’s beautiful, and it should exist, and I’m really glad it exists, and I think you will be very proud that I spent Patreon money making it, and giving money to the artists involved.

And, oh I’ll just say what it is. It’s a spoken word piece by Sophie Strand, with music by me and Gracie and Rachel, live at the Old Dutch Church. You might have seen it on the webcast. And Holly Miranda, who couldn’t make the gig but is a video editor, turned it into a really gorgeous, disturbing video with subtitles. That’s what it is. And it’s amazing. And it took Holly a really, really, really, really, really lot of time to make.

I think that’s it! I think that’s all I got. I already said that, but now my brain is empty. My gratitude for you is bigger than ever. I love you more than ever, all of you, for supporting me, for believing in me, for sticking around. For partaking in this giant, bizarro, constantly-evolving experiment.

And yeah. When I get home from all the family stuff, I’m gonna go straight into this space, straight into Dresden Dolls rehearsals, and that is gonna be fucking fun. And then we’re gonna have the three Dresden Dolls shows, and then I’m gonna collapse once again, and maybe then I will turn my attention to all of the broken, lost Patreon projects of yore that never got any attention and never got out.

There’s so much stuff to do, but… new music. That’s what a lot of you said in the post the other day. New music. New music. New music is coming. That’s exciting. I don’t know what it’s gonna sound like, but it’s gonna be good.

Over and out.

I love you all.

Bye.

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WHAT'S HAPPENED THIS MONTH...

I hosted two SPONTANEOUS webcasts...!!!

The first was for $5 patrons and above, and it was centered  on a comment on my Instagram about "joy". You know me. We went places.

You can rewatch it if you're in the $5 tier or higher here:

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/a-spontaneous

And then, last week, I posted another spontaneous all-patron Sunday morning webcast, this time joined by various patrons throughout the hour that I was live...we had coffee, hung out, mused, it was just gorgeous.

I love crowdcast, and I love that you're all getting more comfy with it! It's taken years, but it feels a lot cosier than it used to. I still remember the webcasting days when you had no idea who was there, who was watching, or WHETHER anyone was even watching. We tried, in those days. It's easier now.

This one was for ALL patrons at any level, so any patron can rewatch it here:

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/sunday-morning-coffee

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PROJECTS RELEASED THIS MONTH..

Just sayin....I wrote a pretty awesome POEM the other night. There's sometimes a part of me that wants to thing those really good poems. It feels like cheating.

Only one paid one....Just an installment of the Advice Column, "ASK AMANDA #5: Should I Have a Kid?"

....which I finally finished in a 6-hour writing and editing marathon the other morning in order to get it out before the end of the month. Nothing like a deadline to light a writing fire under my ass. It's a touching piece, I'm super proud.

Here's the patreon post about it:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/72651201

And here's the post to the column itself on substack: 

https://amandapalmer.substack.com/p/ask-amanda-5-should-i-have-a-kid?sort=new

Sarah Beetson, my incredible Brit friend who lives in Australia, and working-artist mumma of a little one, did this gorgeous piece for the column, and also wrote her own bit (because the topic moved her....)

You can subscribe to my substack for free. I'm basically using it as a publishing platform for all my long-form writing, whether it's the advice column, essays, or longer weird pieces that just don't fit or look pretty on the patreon page. I always crosspost and link the substack stuff over here, so if you don't want yet another amanda-missive in yer box, don't worry, you'll always know when I'm put something up.

There's a $5 tier over there on substack for those who ONLY ever want to read my long-form writing and aren't interested in the full-color patreon world. The last time I published a piece on substack, I just cross-posted the video content to all the patrons here. (It's a bargain, I tell ya.)

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WHAT'S COMIN' DOWN THE PIKE...

MORE WEBCASTING!!

I'm a little behind in the $10+ webcast department, but I've scheduled one for NEXT WEEK, October 4th at 11:11am. 

If you're a $10 patron, you can pre-register for the webcast (so you'll get a reminder email when I'm about to go live) HERE:

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/10-patron-webcast

You can also head there and start chatting in the comments and leave questions. 

If you're NOT a $10 patron.... consider this your week's notice that you still have time to join us :)

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The Dresden Dolls reunion in Woodstock is APPROACHING EVER CLOSER!!!

Don't forget you can head on over to THE SHADOWBOX, the beloved forum that has been going in some way or another for most of the band's history.

If you're looking for a RIDE, if you're looking for a TICKET, if you've got a SPARE TICKET, if you need somewhere to CRASH, if you can HOST people coming from out of town... 

Go hit up the community. They're beautiful people.

I'll try and boost on social media if people are looking for tickets/rides/housing.

THE LINK YOU NEED IS HTTP://THESHADOWBOX.NET !!!

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And speaking of the Dolls.....

NEW SHOWS always means NEW MERCH, and we couldn’t resist going a little crazy this time. 

Alongside your standard shirts, hoodies, posters, tote bags..... I made friends a little while back with some chocolate-makers here in Woodstock, called Fruition Chocolate Works. They make custom bars, and got quite jazzed at the idea of doing a LIMITED EDITION DRESDEN DOLLS CHOCOLATE BAR.

So, presenting to you.... 

the COIN-OPERATED BAR!!!

YES.

Dark chocolate, flecks of salt, and flakes of ACTUAL 24k GOLD.

The chocolate at Fruition is ethically-sourced and has won multiple gold medals at the International Chocolate Awards. It’s hand-made with incredible care, and it’s seriously CREAMY AND DELICIOUS.

Here are some behind the scenes photos of their process...

All these items (SUPER-WARM HOODIES! T-SHIRTS! POSTERS! TOTE BAGS!...AND THE CHOCOLATE) will be for sale at the shows, but for the millions of people who can't to the woods of upstate New York, we got you covered. You can order it all online...

ORDER HERE from the US store 

ORDER HERE from the UK store

I think you might want to order 10-20 bars of the chocolate to give people for the holidays.

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Next month, as I mentioned in the video, I'm gonna be pretty offline with family. It's my sister Alyson's 50th in the middle of the month, and a few days later my little brother Alex is getting married! SO MUCH HAPPENING. After the giant birthday party(s) and Wedding party(s), my sister and I are taking my dad on a breather vacation for a solid week. It's the first time we've ever done that, and it's high time. So I'll be running around being a daughter and a sister most of October.  

It feels so good, after so many years in New Zealand and separation from my fam, to be able to do this...but it is all at one time, and right in the run-up to the Dolls. I'll be rehearsing a lot...in my head. :)

My current plan is to put out the Althing and also one very special video project that I've been working on with Sophie Strand and Holly Miranda. It's weird, and disturbing, and beautiful, and very meaningful to me. I think you'll love it.

Here's a still from it:

Watch for it.

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DISPATCHES FROM TEAM AFP...

From Jordan:

Dear Patrons,

Firstly – if you live in Australia, have previous experience in touring and releasing music, and are looking for a challenging and fulfilling job… Come work with me! We’re hiring… Read all about it here:

https://www.topshelf.com.au/hiring-managers-assistant

I write this message to you folks with a strange feeling of tiredness yet excitedness. I’m concerned about finalising my flights to the US for meetings about The Dresden Dolls and Amanda in NYC and to finally SEE the Dresden Dolls again up in Woodstock. It will have been four years since I did a long-haul flight and I am both excited and dreading it. The costs have risen drastically. I’m not in the groove of travel as I used to be. We’ll see how it hits me. I used to do long haul flights 3-6 times a year for the last 20+ years of tour-life and now I have been sedentary for so long I am intrigued as to how I will cope with international travel again. Might be as familiar as riding a bicycle or perhaps it will be long-form torture. One thing is for sure, and that is that I am certain jetlag and I will be reunited at last!

I’m really excited to be in New York again and can’t wait to see The Dolls play again and to sample the new merch! The new Dolls merch was a lot of fun to work on for these shows. It was such a privilege to work with the people from Fruition Chocolate. They have very much embraced the spirit of the band and the event and taken the ball and run with it. I can’t wait to eat one of those chocolate bars!

The shows themselves are going to be awesome. There’s been a few issues with booking people to work on them, simply due to the somewhat regional nature of Woodstock and the way that in general quotes on travel and services and suppliers have hugely risen post-pandemic… this kind of thing is always nerve wracking, but there is always a solution, and we shall persevere and conquer.

This kind of thing makes me empathise deeply with Santigold, who just cancelled her North American tour due to inflation and the changing of the touring landscape due to the pandemic.

Here statement is HERE. The resonating statement though is:

“I will not continue to sacrifice myself for an industry that has become unsustainable for, and uninterested in the welfare of the artists it is built upon.” 

When I read things like that and think about the time, effort and money it cost her and everyone on her team, to get to the stage of cancellation… it makes me all the more grateful for you fine folks supporting Amanda (and us, her team) via Patreon.

Seeing as Amanda loves to clear away the cobwebs and dispel the smoke and mirrors, I’ll let you folks in on a little secret that links in with all of this….

Sometimes when we book shows we are able to do it from a view point of not being worried about profit. I’m talking about little runs of gigs, definitely not mammoth adventures like the There Will Be No Intermission tour. Amanda puts so much time, effort and love into crafting her gigs that for me it sometimes feels as if we’re re-inventing the wheel every time she plays. She’s never been the type of artist that just books a gig and goes to play it and gets her check (or cheque). She, and we (the team) invest our time, energy, soul and sweat into crafting these shows where we do; new merch, filming, photographers, guests, using venues that make no financial sense but are awesome to stage a concert in, all the bells and whistles… We can do this because we know that (a) people will come, and (b) touring is not the end of the income line for us.

So… I really spared a moment to send Santigold some good vibes today. It’s a tough biz, and all the tougher when things don’t work out the way you planned.

I look forward to eating some chocolate and drinking some beer with some of you folks in Woodstock soon, and well… we’re about to gear up for more Dolls touring in 2023 and an onslaught for 2024, so watch this space for more news soon.

In the interim, if you want to know a bit more about what I do, I recently did a podcast interview for the 80/20 show, which is a podcast about life in the music game. They unearthed my origin story. I cringe at my weird accent. You can listen HERE 

Jordan.

{Oh, man, I love a good coincidence. Jordan...this is what I posted on Santigold's Insta post yesterday. Also, I LOVE YOU AND SEE YOU SOON - AFP}

From Michael:

Hello Patrons,

I know I haven’t written to you in a month of Sundays, and for that I apologize.  Whenever I sit down to write my monthly update I, like I’m sure a lot of you, suddenly have my mind go as blank as the page in front of me.

So, instead of being overwhelmed with everything that has happened this month and since I wrote to you last, I’ll just give you all a quick little snapshot into just some of the things that I’m working on.

A lot of what’s on my plate today has to do with the Dresden Dolls, which I know many of you are very excited about.  While the shows at the Colony are in our backyard, in a venue with a small capacity, and seemingly straightforward, there is still tons to be done.  I’ve been managing the Guest List, helping Amanda stay on top of all the merch decisions and mailers that are going out (if you’re not on the email list yet. . . why not?), as well as coordinating with Brian for travel arrangements and figuring out space for the band to rehearse, housing for the band, and all the crew.  There’s meals to plan, equipment to check/fix, press to coordinate, photos and video to take, all before Amanda and Brian even think about stepping into the Colony.  It’s a whole lot of logistics to nail down!  On top of all of that, these shows are also being considered a bit of a mini maiden voyage to set up how we want the team to work moving forward, so every time a decision is made we have to look at it to see who made it, if the communication was clear, and address any issues that while small now, might have big consequences when things with the Dolls really kick into high gear.  All of that being said. . . it is absolutely a labor of love because I know how incredible these shows are going to be because I know how incredible Brian and Amanda are when they get together!

On top of that massive undertaking, there’s still so much to be done to help Amanda settle back into her life here in the states.  Multiple projects at the house, helping her find a decent “soccer mom” car now that Ash is older and entering that phase of childhood, opening mail, organizing/rearranging furniture, weddings, birthdays, pop-up performances, etc.  All things that I won’t go into detail about because I’m a good assistant who keeps private things private even though I work for someone who shares damn near everything with the internet. . . needless to say, it’s never boring!

And then, just to add one more hat on my head, there’s this.  You.  The Patreon.  Keeping the projects alive, on time, in some semblance of order is absolutely a team effort, with Alex, Jordan, and I all contributing to help Amanda work on her art, get artists paid and properly credited and hopefully helping to make you all feel considered, seen, and cared for.

So that’s what is on my plate today and most days lately.  Well. . . all that on top of trying to enjoy the onset of fall in the northeast (my favorite time of year), celebrating my birthday (which was sadly a bit of a bust this year), performing with my band (we got our residency renewed for Oct), snuggling my cats and partners, and making my way through the Star Wars TV shows and movies in chronological order.  It’s enough to keep me busy for sure!

I am looking forward to seeing quite a few of you in a little over a month up in Woodstock!  Feel free to say hi if you see me, but please don’t be offended if I’m dashing off and can only offer a quick wave or hug. . . I’ll be . . . a bit busy!

Hugs & Whisky

Michael

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HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING...

As of this writing there are about 11,000 patrons pledging about $35,000 for the first Thing each month.

A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE FOR NEWCOMERS: you are welcome to (and encouraged to) CAP YOUR PLEDGE! PLEASE.

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 August, I Thanged THREE Things:

"Susan Cain: Longing For The Beautiful World" Podcast, which earned about $39,415 from 10,989 patrons

My O+ Festival performance livestream, which earned about $16,357 from 6,097 patrons

The State of All Things: August 2022, which earned about $9,550 from 3,671 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 & FOLLOW...

This is just a random share, but I listened to Beth Orton's new record, "Weather Alive" the other day and really loved it.

I came across it because someone thought this article/interview with her would resonate with me (and indeed, it did).

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/arts/music/beth-orton-weather-alive.html

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ART BEGETTING ART...

We have a little art-is-amazing story in this month's art section. while scrolling through social media, I came across this gorgeous painting:

It didn't have any credits attached (ALWAYS CREDIT YOUR ARTISTS, FOLKS!!!) and I didn't even remember what photoshoot it was based on. So, as I usually do, I went straight to the internet...

And THE INTERNET CAME THROUGH FOR US.

The artist is Bartel Schechinger, aka @twistedpopart on Instagram (and for bonus points, the photograph was by M. Sharkey (@msharkeystudio), for Out Magazine)

I've been in touch with Bartel, and we're hopefully going to be making some PRINTS to raise some dough for a charity... He's from Nebraska, and I've been reaching out to some local abortion rights organisations in Nebraska to get some dough to the small grass roots groups where it's needed. It looks like we've found a winner (Nebraska Abortion Resources).

SO HOLD ON. It's comin'.

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And in other art news from the month...

From @salve_reginaaaa on Instagram:

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Gorgeous tattoo work on @alice_wonders_creations, done by @anna_amonarttattoo_

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And a beautiful little Dolls plate made by beloved Angel aka @axiopoeticus 

And this beautiful Dolls art by our own Justine Marzack, Ash's old "assisant":

You can follow them on IG here: https://www.instagram.com/trognettetattoo

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THE PATRON COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD...

Coin-Operated Press, run by two members of this community (Katie and Chloe) are putting together a DRESDEN DOLLS ZINE!!!

They created the first Dolls zine a little while back, and now are creating round two!

Katie and Chloe both met through the Shadowbox and as a nod to our punk cabaret friendship we named our zine shenanigans Coin-Operated Press. In this zine, we want you to share with us your Dresden Dolls fan-art, your gig memories, your anachronisms, your music notes, your ode to the Dolls poetry, your Brian Viglione fanfiction, your cosplays, your night reconnaissance comic-strips, your concert photography, your Amanda Palmer album reviews, your essays on why your faves are sometimes problematic, why the Dolls mean so much to you, your experiences of meeting Dresden Doll fans, your dirty business collages, or any other Dolls inspired work that you would like to create for our zine!

We are looking for: articles, illustrations, short stories, zine excerpts, photography, poetry, artwork of any medium, fanfiction, guides, posters, flyers, short essays, recipes, comic-strips, reviews, informationals, collages, and anything else you can put your imagination to.

The finished zine will be A5 in size and printed in full colour.

Send us your submissions by filling in this Google form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0SqXLlR0IkWq3WcI0y1p4eq-kiAC0n8JoK9Bvx7Y3ZP4pGA/viewform?usp=send_form

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HELP WANTED:

LINDSAY NEEDS A CARETAKER....

And from my dear friend Coco Karol (who you'll probably recognize from the Drowning In The Sound video, Mother video, the list goes on....). My brother Karl died from ALS when he was only in his twenties, and it left strange scars. I makes my heart soar to know that the community is always rallying around people who are suffering from ALS. I wish America just had good health care. But hey.

If you are this person, or know someone who might be up for this job....share!

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We are in search of in-home caregivers to join our pool of caregivers for Lindsay, who is a 41-year-old artist living with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). She lives with her mother, Karin, in Flemington, NJ. 

Will consider all compassionate and dependable people experienced or interested in caregiving and will provide in home training. ALS requires 24/7 attention, and so there is a pool of caregivers that work for this family.

Currently looking for coverage for daytime shifts!

Family will work with right candidates to accommodate.

Looking for someone who is:

• kind, reliable, strong, has good hearing, a sense of humor, can follow direction, and has an open mind. LGBTQ+ friendly

• can be Lindsay’s hands to help her make art, make delicious food, use social media.

• Must be ok with herbal remedies, tarot cards, glitter and liberal sensitivities.

• Must be ok with cats. There are two cats that live in the house that are emotional support animals.

Preference given to applicants who have been vaccinated for COVID and don't have issues with mask-wearing or hand sanitizing protocol.

Please feel free to share this job posting with anyone you think may have interest and send Lindsay an email to noisettepuppet@yahoo.com.

Please include your full name, email and best phone number and time to reach you and if you have a resume include that as well.

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Thats all for now, loves.

xxx

Amanda

------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