The State of All Things: October 2022 (Patreon)

Contents of this Althing (which is shorter than usual, because we have been frrrrrried!):

• THE BASIC LIFE-'N'-TIMES UPDATE
• WHAT'S HAPPENED THIS MONTH
• PROJECTS RELEASED THIS MONTH
• DISPATCHES FROM TEAM AFP 
• HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING
• ART BEGETTING ART

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***QUICK! BIG IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!***

TODAY IS THE 22nd BANDIVERSARY OF MY BAND, THE DRESDEN DOLLS!

(photo: John Tlumacki)

TO CELEBRATE!!!!!:

1. NEW YEARS EVE: SAVE THE DATE, LOS ANGELES!!!

THE DRESDEN DOLLS ARE PLAYING IN **LA** ON NEW YEARS EVE. IN A TEENY TINY VENUE, AND THE TICKETS WILL, AGAIN, FLY IN A MATTER OF MINUTES OR HOURS. THE ONLY WAY TO GET TICKETS IS TO BE ON THE BAND EMAIL LIST. WE WILL ANNOUNCE THE ONSALE DATE/TIME HERE & TO THE LIST, SO YOU CAN SET ALARMS. 

The dolls email list: http://dresdendolls.com/emaillist/

2.

ALSO, WHY THE HELL NOT: THE DRESDEN DOLLS ARE HOSTING A RANDOM BAND MOVIE NIGHT! THIS THURSDAY (NOV 3) AT TINKER STREET CINEMA in WOODSTOCK NY ! $10, ONLY ABOUT 100 SEATS. COME IF YOU CAN!!!

https://www.tscwoodstock.com/movie/amadeus-directors-cut-w-hosts-the-dresden-dolls

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ALSO. THIS JUST IN:

The patron-only brunch in woodstock after the dresden dolls shows is NOW FULL!!!!

Thank you all for RSVPing!!! We will be in touch ASAP!

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THE BASIC LIFE-'N'-TIMES UPDATE

Ok for real. Hello my loves.

My shift key, the one on the right, is broken. 

I have to press it extra hard to make it make a capital letter.

This feels like an apt metaphor for the moment.

My life feels a little underwater, like everything has to be pressed a little harder in order to function. I have overcommitted myself as usual, and yet, I'm learning and taking the hard-won lessons, most of them accumulated in New Zealand, and trying to cut off damage at the pass. Every time the universe shakes her head at me and says, no, Amanda, you're just doing too much, adding too much, trying to hard, lost in your ego once again....I am a little more apt to listen. I am still not getting it right most of the time. But perhaps I am at least starting to learn.

Right now there are really only two important things in my life. Ash comes in first, second and third place. The Dresden Dolls shows, and the band's re-connection, comes in fourth, fifth and sixth. Everything else is getting delicately put aside, even if it is flaming. I set those flaming things aside with gloves, instead of setting them aside with my bare hands. 

Here are a handful of beautiful photos - working backwards in time - from the month of upstate LEAF explosion, family connection, and Halloween merriment. 

Collisions.

Sophie Strand came by for dinner and got a magic show put on my The Great Ashtini and his assistant, Alexander....

ART.

MOrE aRT.

My friend Elizabeth's house, and the most peaceful place on earth.

ROCK.

ROCK!!!!!

ROCK!!!!!!!! (Holly Miranda teaches Ash how the bowl works).

Some pictures from my little brother Alex's wedding, now betrothed, MAZEL tov!! to his beloved, Shabnam.... 

This kid, I'll tell you. He knows how to party.

But also, he was a delight at the wedding. He spent the wedding dinner writing and delivering secret notes to the newlyweds. It was the most adorable thing you have ever ever seen.

LOVE.

AND MORE LOVE.

Two days before the wedding, it was my sister Alyson's 50th. We celebrated her up and down in New York City.

Alyson, her husband Cees, yours truly....

Ash in Central Park...gazing at the statue of Hans Christian Anderson :)

I went to the official O+ Festival as the parade "Grand Marshal"....this is me...in the back of a tiny car, marshalling....

On air promoting O+ on Radio Woodstock....

And this secret moment.

After the wedding and my sister's birthday, I took her and the family to an undisclosed location for a few days, where we mostly sat with my dad and played gin and hearts and looked at the sea. Here's me and my sister. Loving.

It was a seriously busy fucking month.

I got through it. 

With a little help from my friends.

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WHAT ELSE HAPPENED THIS MONTH?

The first $10 webcast in A WHILE happened this month.... from my little rehearsal cave. I chatted for just under 2 hours, and if you are in the $10 tier or above, you can still rewatch the webcast here....

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

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Just for shits and giggles, I did a local screening of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in our little indie cinema. It was beautiful!!!

Also....

I just had to share this.

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NEW ART IN THE MAIL is coming!!!

For people in the $25 tier or above, you have probably seen but we're planning our next round of ART IN THE MAIL!

This time we're doing something a little special: we're working with an artist named Joni Augustine, who's based in Northern Ireland and is trying to raise money to help with her transition after being fucked around by the NHS for too long.

We polled the $25 folks and you voted on which photo you wanted to see interpreted by Joni, and THIS IS THE WINNER....a photo taken on Waiheke Island back when I first landed there, by Duncan Innes, for the New Zealand herald. 

Joni's art is just stunning. We've had some progress shots from Joni and it's looking INCREDIBLE.

(and everyone else: it's not too late to up your pledge to $25+ if you want to receive this gorgeous art in the mail! We're gonna apply it CREATIVELY to some sort of mail-able object!)

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Other than that...this month has largely been DRESDEN DOLLS REHEARSAL TIME

WE ARE READY TO SLAUGHTER THESE SHOWS.

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PROJECTS RELEASED THIS MONTH....

"I Will Not Be Purified" - a writing/music/video collaboration

This was a bit of a weird Thing. It turned out beautifully, and I'm so happy it could exist. (Because of patronage. HELLO).

This was a very personal and healing piece of art, made especially for survivors of sexual assault and anyone who's dealt with any sort of life-threatening illness.

In case you missed the O+ fundraiser live stream a few weeks ago, one of the guests was writer Sophie Strand, my new friend here in Woodstock. She read a piece called "I Will Not Be Purified", and I provided live piano musical accompaniment along with two of the other special guests, Gracie (on piano, too) and Rachel (violin).

Holly Miranda was meant to be yet another special guest at the show, but she came down with covid, so she couldn't make it. Instead, she took the recording of Sophie reading her piece backed by me and Gracie and Rachel, and she made a beautiful video.

You can see the video, and read all about the process, here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/presenting-i-not-73123715

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DISPATCHES from TEAM AFP:

Michael, my life-saving assistant, has been up in Woodstock a lot lately, helping me out with just about everything, including Ash and his relationship with his new dictionary....

AND LOADING IN THE BAND GEAR....(that's Eli, who helped electrify the barn):

YEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

From Michael...

Hello Patrons,

As predicted, this month has been non-stop! It’s been so incredibly exciting to see Brian and Amanda back in action and gearing up for the shows! Even if you weren’t able to attend the three shows in Woodstock, there’s a whole lot more in the works that has been percolating in their collective brains.

This month’s update will (I hope) understandably be brief, but please know that I’m sending you all massive hugs from New York and I cannot wait for the shows at The Colony and all the wonderful Patron activities in Woodstock where I will be able to see many of you in person!

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures that I was able to take last week. As busy as I have been, I always try to pause and appreciate the beauty around me when I can.

Hugs and whiskey, always.

Michael

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From Jordan:

Dear Patrons,

I write this from the future – Halloween’s Day, 31 st of October – Sydney Australia. Also, my 28th Anniversary with the love of my life. That’s 10,227 days we have been in a relationship together. I am so very lucky to have found her…

In 4 sleeps time, I hop on my first long haul flight since 2019. Off to New York to be at one with the Dolls over their 4 night stand in Woodstock. It’s excitement plus!

With the next wave of Amanda’s work being focused on The Dresden Dolls, there’s many (many) things to analyse and get in to place. Building the team out to be a more robust smoothly operating international art machine is the very top of the pile. Working in the US from the Australian timezone has its drawbacks and I’m looking forward to helping assemble the next iteration of The Dolls and Amanda’s art-team. It’s going to be next level, and it will be fantastic to have more capacity. I’m so proud of the way we dealt with the pandemic and made it through to whatever this brave new world is. Next steps = new blood to move forth.

The day to day for the past month has been kind of crazily hectic – so many merchandising actions, touring logistics, ticket scalping debacles… Every day brings new challenges, hustles, exciting prospects and things to be broken down, analysed and ironed out. It’s the behind the scenes things which we hope most people don’t see or glance at, that we give the backstage pass to you, the patrons to see. I hope you find it elucidating!

I hope to see some of you at the Patron brunch in Woodstock.

Thanks as always for your Patronage.

Jordan.

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From Alex:

HI FOLKS

I am writing to you today from backstage at The Phoenix in Exeter, where I am currently on tour with Grace Petrie... it's been a pretty full-on month for me, trying to juggle being on the road (19 shows in 31 days, woohoo!) with also nailing down the Dresden Dolls merch, finalising order numbers, liaising with the venue in Woodstock to make sure everything is set for merch selling there, AND trying to keep on top of the online stores that I run

MY BRAIN, SHE IS FRIED.

Anyway, I'll be getting home from Grace's tour on Friday November 4th, get a nice couple of days at home, and then be flying out to Woodstock on Tuesday 8th.

If I fall asleep on you at the Dolls shows, forgive me.

(Who am I kidding, who would be sleeping while the best band in the world is on stage???)

Anyway.

I hope there will be shirts and hoodies aplenty for you all. I spent a good couple of hours poring over spreadsheets in a hotel bar at midnight last week trying to get it right. Fingers crossed!

As always, take care of yourselves and each other, and I'll see some of your beautiful faces very soon.

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AND: THE ENTIRE TEAM - Jordan in from Sydney, Alex in from the UK, Michael in from NYC, and even HAYLEY (also coming from NYC!!!!) - are going to be here for tHe DOLLS SHOWS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

This team is oN FirE!!!!!!

I CANNOT WAIT FOR EVERYONE TO BE TOGETHER AGAIN.

THANK YOU ALL FOR HELPING OUR BAND.

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HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING

As of this writing there are about 10,500 patrons pledging about $34,500 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 September, I Thanged TWO Things:

Ask Amanda #5: Should I Have A Kid?, which earned about $38,863 from 10,789 patrons

The State of All Things: September 2022, which earned about $15,648 from 5,895 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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ART BEGETTING ART

Our beloved poet Angel Rosen has just sent through these BOOKMARKS that she's made for the patron brunch up in Woodstock on Sunday.... if you are going (and we'll be confirming RSVPs in the next couple of days), LOOK OUT FOR THESE....

MOOD.

#Inktober Art by rrrancho_pancho

https://www.instagram.com/p/CkHwhPno8Ex/?hl=en

AND...OH!

ALL OF THE DRESDEN DOLLS CHOCOLATE (art by Cocorina) is SOLD OUT! Unless you're at the shows, the window, it is PASSED.

That's all for now, loves.

xxxx

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