The State of All Things: March 2024 (Patreon)

HELLO MY LOVES.

ITS TIME!!!

I apologize deeply for the email version of this post being a little un-edited and fucked up. I have tried to post this about 6 times, and the edits keep getting eaten by patreon; possibly becuase the file sixze of this post is just too big?

So: the right-now email version may be a rough draft, and the clean draft may not be fully readable until tomorrow morning, but I don't want to lose my chance to post this before midnight PST, so out if goes.

Is what it is.

IT IS THE END OF MONTH ALTHING!!!! Here we go.

Contents of the Althing:

• GENERAL LIFE AND DEATH UPDATE/QUICK HOUSEKEEPING & GRAVESIDE BENEFIT

• PROJECTS RELEASED THIS MONTH....

• DRESDEN DOLLS RECORDING NEWS/TOUR PHOTOS

• WHAT ELSE HAPPENED THIS MONTH...?

• PROJECTS AND EVENTS COMIN' DOWN THE PIKE

• DISPATCHES FROM TEAM AFP....

• BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS!!!

• HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING...

• PATREON BULLETIN BOARD...

• ART BEGETTING ART...

• OTHER FOLKS TO SUPPORT & FOLLOW....

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GENERAL LIFE AND DEATH UPDATE

OK.

HERE WE ARE! The Dresden Dolls, last night in Nashville. FEEEL IT.

(Photo by Michael).

More on tour below.

MEANWHILE.....QUICK HOUSEKEEPING....

If you're in or near Woodstock, I've got a benefit for our little pop-up in the woods, Graveside Variety, coming right up. We Just planned this out, so hop on board last minute, please. Come from wherever you need to. There are only a few tickets left.

Spoiler: tickets are pricey: they are $150, I am the Peter Pan of live Music. I take from the rich and make free shows for the poor. If you are the rich, COME.

We also have tickets for the super rich: for $1,000 folks we are hosting a super weird private little doo-dad at an undisclosed woodsy speakeasy location. It'll be ridiculously fun and weird. Pull out your wallets and support this little indie miracle in the woods. THANK YOU.

https://www.gravesidevariety.com/spring-fundrasier

.......

AND NOW, REAL LIFE.

Here I am this morning in Nashville, exahusted post tour.

Alex and I have spent the last week, whilst I’ve been touring like a madwoman with the band, assembling this Althing to the best of our ability. I know a lot of you are new to the patreon (HELLO!!!!! WELCOME!!!!) so just a little explainer for the newbies: this is the Monthly Althing, which is sort of catch-all monthly update, newsletter, and community bulletin board that I put together once a month to keep everything connected and to keep the bills paid - I always charge for it (and have been doing so for years since I first asked the patrons for permission to do so, to sort of game the system since I’m on a “per thing” and not a “monthly” form of patronage). To assemble it, I work with Alex Knight, our beautiful merch queen and all-thing-patreon-helper; he also runs our online UK merch store.

I made this long, sleepy, yawn-y very honest post-tour Althing bed video for you (embedded above) this morning before getting on a plane from Nashville back to NYC. As I say in the video…/I kept trying to find an ideal time to make the video at one of the venues and work always got in the way. There’s a kind of a beautiful poetry in that. The reason this patreon works is that I don’t LET it get in the way of the actual art-making, even though it sometimes gets messy. I want to be an artist first, and a patronized artist and amanda-internet-stuff-maker second. That’s how I’ve always done it and the people who have stuck around for joy understand that this is never an exact science…ever.

Before we barrel in, I wanna share a couple POST TOUR photos with you from the last 24 hours, given that I am totally high on the fumes of the End of The Dolls Tour…and I got to magically bask in the aftermath for a few hours this morning before kissing all the magical punk cabaret goodness goodbye for a while.

I posted a version of the below on social media this morning as well….but a little deeper for y’all here: I met Cooper Hays, an activist and sex worker, when I was in Nashville in 2019, and we got to know each other a little bit better when I ran into them at Mary’s Club for the patron gathering in Portland just a few months ago. Her work in the feminist space is important; she’s one to keep an eye on and support. I got to connect her to Father Nathan Monk last night: these two need to work with each other. Nathan is doing more and more thinking and writing around Sex Work and The Patriarchy, and we got to have a deep and declines story-sharing with one another this morning. I wish you’d all been flies on the wall for this discussion; it felt important.

I made good friends with Father Nathan long-distance while I was in New Zealand, and our friendship has deepened since I got back to the states. We’ve had some really lovely chats over the last 24 hours including what it means to experience church in a secular world, and how we - as community leaders - try to create something to fill that space. Also: it’s Trans Day of Visibility today and all sorts of people (including on the American Left) are getting their panties in a twist that it happens to fall on March 31st which happens to be Zombie Jesus/Easter Day. THIS YEAR. Let’s remind everyone that Easter moves around, FFS.

…..

LOVE. That’s the short story.

As a person who grew up in the Episcopal church and always liked the part of the myth where the guy said everyone should, y’know, love each other and just be non-judgmental and super-compassionate and generous of heart and all that…I honestly can’t imagine a better way to spend easter morning and #transdayofvisibility🏳️‍⚧️ than being art-hungover from the epic, church-like @dresdendolls show last night and blearily wandering around Nashville with two fellow weirdo activists who happen to be a sex worker and a priest.

Jesus would be psyched, especially our spontaneous photoshoot stolen from the prom step and repeat that must have happened yesterday in this hotel lobby. And look what Father Nathan Monk had in the trunk of his car! It’s the book of common prayer!

Every Sunday, man. I read from this book. Unlike many of my friends who escaped Christian cults, Scientology, Morman madness, hardcore Born Again weirdness cults, I was lucky. I wasn’t too traumatized, and I was never physically, sexually, or emotionally terrorized and traumatized by my church experience. I even sometimes liked church. But it wasn’t really for me, and now we have secular art church in the form of live music and gatherings and it’s pretty groovy. Whatever works, folks.

If you’re out there and you got out of a church or a family that didn’t truly love you for who you were, I LOVE YOU AND I SEE YOU. Come to the church of art and music; we don’t judge.

🎉DO WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE YOU

🎉TRANS RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

🎉BELIEVE WOMEN

🎉REMEMBER THE PATRIARCHY HURTS *EVERYBODY*

LOVE ALL THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE OR WHAT THEY WANNA LOOK LIKE OR HOW THEY WANNA LOVE

MAKE JESUS PROUD, PEOPLE.

LOVE. That’s the only way.

Me and Cooper.

💃🎉🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🥁🎹🥳

………..

Nathan posted this beautifully-written recap of our morning, this morning on his subastack, read and follow him there:

https://fathernathan.substack.com/p/for-the-first-time-i-didnt-go-to?r=5ihsh&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

……..

I posted this great Jesus drag queen photo, obviously made by AI.

I got a lot of shit for it.

So I posted this:

AND GOT A BUNCH OF GREAT REPSONSES FROM ARTISTS! I FEEL A PATROEN PROJECT COMING ON, DO YOU????

And then this:

Let's see where this goes. But meanwhile....What are your thoughts on this?I want to know. I am reading coments. Talk to me.

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Speaking of....whatever...

Here I am backstage last night reading a letter from a patron.

In general…how am I? I’m really, really good.

Here is me, in the Cemetery two days ago. Feeling like myself.

And in Mississippi....

I am overwhelmed by things to do but not feeling overwhelmed by the doing, if you know what I mean. 

I mentioned this at the patreon gathering yesterday: my to-do list has gotten so comically ridiculous and I had NO IDEA how I was gonna pull this tour off, including all the behind-the-scenes life admin PLUS the extra daytime shows…that I decided to not drink (and mostly fast) for this entire nine days of touring. I mostly stuck to that: I fasted pretty much every show day and had about two drinks all week. I just couldn’t afford the extra fuzziness from even having a glass of wine after the show. I made it to about 6 yoga classes over nine days. I got pre-and post-show bodywork (thank you Bijan <3). spent a lot of time just taking care of my body, and my voice. I fucking had to. There is just too much to do.

There always was, I suppose, so why choose now? I dunno. 

I have projects to release, obituaries to write, a kid to raise, a house to clean and run, a career to maintain, and a body to feed and exercise, but it all feels oddly doable at the moment.

Maybe it’s because I’m still on the tour high and haven’t face my post-tour crash….but for right now, I’m just filled with love and gratitude and hope.

I thank you all for that. A lot of this feeling of goodness comes from seeing all of your faces on tour and getting to spend time with my community.

I love Woodstock, but it’s been really lonely in the Wooded Valley, away from the bigger world.

………
Speaking of which

THE PATRON GATHERINGS WERE AMAZING….!!!!!! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO MADE IT OUT!!

I’ve already posted some of these but here are ALL THE GROUP PHOTOS (and more) from the PATRON GATHERINGS IN…

AUSTIN, TEXAS (at The Museum of Human Achievement)

DALLAS, TEXAS (at Fred and Ashley’s house)

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI (at The Mississippi Museum of Art)

ATLANTA, GEORGIA (at Oakland Cemetery)

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE (at Bicentennial Park….with special guest Father Nathan Monk)

All of these photos (minus the selfie) by Michael

………..
HERE ARE THE PHOTOS FROM AFTER ALL THE SHOWS, WITH PATRONS!!!!! (All by Michael.

AUSTIN NIGHT 1

AUSTIN NIGHT 2

DALLAS NIGHT 1

DALLAS NIGHT 2

ATLANTA

NASHVILLE!!

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PROJECTS RELEASED THIS MONTH

ACROSS HARVARD YARD - the latest Dresden Dolls demo came out a couple weeks back.

In case you missed the memo, I'm gradually releasing some piano-only demos of the new songs I've written for the upcoming Dresden Dolls record... these are the very early, bare-bones recordings of me alone in a studio, before they've been tweaked and finessed on the road, and before Brian has added his drum slayage to them.

The demos are streamable to all patrons - you can find it here.

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DRESDEN DOLLS TOUR UPDATE/ROUND-UP

Here we are with our whole road crew.....from the bottom left, with Michael....Jaron our tour manager, Dave our sound person, Brian, Sarah on merch,. Dan on lights!!!

Some gorgeous shots by Melissa Smith:

First: this LAST TOUR WAS A MIRACLE.

WE’ve been playing select USA cities gradually over the last year (shows in New Mexico, Colorado, Florida, New York, Louisiana, and California)…but this last run (in Texas, Georgia and Tennessee) was DIFFERENT. We have finally fully arranged and worked out the new songs (well, seven of them, but that’s a LOT). They’re all INCREDIBLE.

I cannot put into words how healing, liberating, and wholesome it feels to be back together with my band, playing the songs that have - in the writing and arranging process - cathartically stitched up my heart, especially the songs that poured out of me after getting home from New Zealand and getting my emotional footing back after years of recovering from heartbreak and divorce (I’m looking at you, “The Nail”, “Mister God”,  and “The Runner”.)

Being able to build on what The Dresden Dolls created, so carefully, back in our touring heyday of 2000-2007, and to see the new music resonate and bring a whole new crop of community to screams and tears is about all I could ask for in this life….besides my kid being okay.

I feel I’ve filled my true calling when I tour, and when I get to run into somebody after a show, or in a coffeeshop the next day, or in a hotel lobby, or the airport, who cries in my arms, saying something along the lines of: “You have no idea what the new songs mean to me / I followed your whole story in New Zealand  from afar without saying a word, but thank you / I am a mother and just went through my own version of pandemic hell / I just lost somebody dear to me and your new songs are giving me hope / I just escaped a long, toxic, abusive relationship, etc etc” and we get to have a little mutual cry. These are the things that make me get out of bed in the morning. To know, to know, to know that in some way, somehow, my little song-offerings are going to wander away from my heart and into somebody’s else’s heart and make somebody feel a little less alone. I’ll take it. This is literally why I do what I do. To de-lonelyfy.

Brian is a very special magician of music. The Dresden Dolls are not just a piano-playing songwriter and a drummer. The Dresden Dolls are two human beings who share an unspoken chemistry that nobody can explain.

I used to try to describe the band to people by saying “It’s like watching a very sexual, very funny and deeply emotional tennis match.”

It’s still like that. Brian and I cannot do what The Dolls do when we are in other contexts. We have both played with scores of other musicians (no pun intended there) and there is no comparison. 

I said this at the patron gathering yesterday, but I feel like my band is hitting a peak, and we are far more powerful than we were in the old days. We have more grace, we leave more space, we’re just as loud and real and emo but we know a little bit more about what we are doing. It’s so fucking good being a middle-aged band (and woman, for that matter).

We are just getting this shit started and it feels so vital. Like: we get to take everything we’ve learned in 24 years of being a band - and being human beings - and APPLY IT TO THE NECESSARY MOMENT.

I am happy to report, at this point, that the Dresden Dolls will be regarded as a tired old vintage act trudging around, playing our hits of yore (we never had any, really, anyway). We are about to make the best record we’ve ever made, and I am so fucking excited. I’m also excited to take all of you patrons on the journey with us.

These new songs….these shows….

If you were THERE AT ANY OF THESE RECENT SHOWS, I would love to hear your reflections. What stood out? What moved you?

What confused you? Did anything sound not good (sound wise?) Did you wonder anything?

Ask me.

I’m here reading comments and taking questions.

Here’s the list of new songs we played (pretty much in order):

MISTER GOD

HOUDINI

WHAKANEWHA

BOYFRIEND IN A COMA

ANOTHER CHRISTMAS

THE RUNNER

THE NAIL

This is, weirdly, almost enough to make an album with. These songs are pretty long (with the exception of “Boyfriend” and all in all, this is probably over 40 minutes of music. 

A fun note: our cover of “Pirate Jenny”, which we’ve been playing for years on and off, usually because Brian loves it so much, has been so blisteringly good live (especially the last two nights of tour in Atlanta and Nashville, HOLY SHIT) that we are actually considering it for the record, which is a fresh concept. It’s been a fan favorite for a long time, and my god, what I wouldn’t give to make that music video with a real filmmaker….COMPLETE WITH PIRATE SHIP.

If you don’t know about the history of the song…it’s one of the betterl-known songs - after “Mac The Knife” from The Threepenny Opera by Berthold Brecht/Kurt Weill, my forebears (original German: “Seeräuber-Jenny” from “Die Dreigroschen Oper”. 

Here’s the WIKI. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Jenny

It has been famously covered by Little Lenya (back in the day) and both Judy Collins and Nina Simone (in the 70s). I knew those versions when I was a wee sprout in my twenties. But the version that really brought the fire to me was this rare one by Dagmar Krause, from a CD called “Supply and Demand” that my step-father, John, gave me when I was about 16. I don’t know HOW HE KNEW that this CD would change my life, because he never gifted me music. 

But he gave me this ONE CD because he saw my love of music and theater and knew about Kurt Weill and Brecht…and it was enough to set me off.

There are modern versions of it by Ute Lemper (of course) and The Young Gods…and (Wiki just taught me) NICK CAVE with Warren Ellis and Shilp Ray (gotta go listen to that) and Xiu Xiu, who worked a ton with my arranger and bassist best, Jherek Bischoff, so here we go full circle all over again.

And some more from Todd Jolicoeur...

And finally, a little selection from our very own Michael McComiskey...

And then we just hit up Dallas -

and

here are a couple of shots from there from Michael McComiskey again...

And Atlanta....

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WHAT ELSE HAPPENED THIS MONTH

REMEMBERING SINEAD AND SHANE AT CARNEGIE HALL - me and my dad performed our cover of Black Boys On Mopeds as part of this beautiful evening of a whole host of performers covering songs by Sinéad O'Connor and Shane MacGowan.

We've uploaded a post here with the full video of a speech I made, as well as mine and my dad's performance.

We also ended the evening with a whole group singalong of Dirty Old Town, with each performer taking a verse - I shared mine with Billy Bragg.

There's a video of the whole performance of this song here on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

......

I'm also featured in a new podcast by ALLAN AMATO - called the MAKE ART MANIFESTO.

Allan and I are long, long time art friends - he's taken a bunch of photos over of me over the years, including both the Art of Asking cover...

...and the cover photograph for There Will Be No Intermission...

The podcast is all about creativity, deconstructing useful creative habits, demystifying the process for aspiring artists.

You can find the podcast here, or just search for Make Art Manifesto in all the usual podcast places to find it.

The other guests so far have been Mike Mignola, Kevin Smith, Molly Crabapple, and Mark Mangini, so go CHECK EM ALL OUTTTTT.

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PROJECTS AND EVENTS COMIN' DOWN THE PIKE

There are MOAR DRESDEN DOLLS SHOWS TO COME!

We are headed back to the East Coast in June, and these will likely be our last real big shows for... a while. We don't currently have a ton of plans for the summer or the fall, and this goddamn record has gotta be recorded!

The first show in DC has SOLD OUT ALREADY, so we've just added a second date, and tickets for that one have JUST gone on sale.

The shows of the last 18 months have really been some of our best ever, I'd say, so if you wanna come see us out in style, the dates are:

FRIDAY JUNE 7th - Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA - TICKETS

SATURDAY JUNE 8th - Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA - TICKETS

FRIDAY JUNE 14th - 9:30 Club, Washington DC - SOLD OUT

SATURDAY JUNE 15th - 9:30 Club, Washington DC - TICKETS

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DISPATCHES FROM TEAM AFP

Hello Patrons!

There’s SO much to update you on, but it’s late on Easter Sunday and the Althing has to go out. . .

So.  Dresden Dolls Tour - Amazing.

Crew - Incredible.

Patron meetups - heart and soul fulfilling.

Work - Difficult but joyful

But. . . holy shit. . . Singing “Dirty Old Town” on stage at Carnegie Hall in honor of two artists I revere with bands/musicians that I have been enormous fans of for decades. . .

Priceless.

I love my job.  I love you.  Thank you.

love Michael

photo by EJ Baker

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HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING

As of this writing there are about 9,500 patrons pledging about $30,000 for the first Thing each month. There are also about 18,000 total patrons (8,000+ just following along), which is FAB.

We are holding steady, and I'm also doing almost nothing to promote the patreon itself lately, because I've been in hardcore tour-and-mother land, and this month especially been deep in TRAVEL, and not so much posty-posty-writy-writy.

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

CAP CAP CAP CAP!!

I sometime release one thing a month; sometimes three. 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. If that's the case, you can "cap" your pledge at $10, and whether I release 4 Things or 4,400 Things, you won't be charged more than $10.

But MOST IMPORTANTLY, you will still have access to ALL the things/posts/links, even if you cap your pledge!!! It doesn't effect your 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.

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In February, I Thanged THREE Things:

"Life after COVID": Interview with Gonkar Gyatso, which earned about $33,694 from 9,298 patrons

New Zealand Survival Songs: Live Concert from Auckland, which earned about $14,422 from 5,159 patrons

The State of All Things: February 2024, which earned about $8,925 from 3,200 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 our staff, paying the office rent, paying the Graveside rent and costs, paying for crowdcast, getting myself around, getting the team around and fed and slept, all the collaborators, and my actual staff payroll, etc....you get it.

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.

Which is nice.

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PATREON BULLETIN BOARD

This section is for YOU GUYS to share things with the community - whether it's a fundraiser, a novel you wrote, an ask you have for the community... email us at patronhelp@amandapalmer.net and we will try to feature as many as we can!

This month, we have a really great fundraiser from Joelle that you can support:

I am aiming to walk at least the 2863km that it is from Hobbiton to Mordor, and along the way raise £1 for every km. I’m raising the money for Doctors Without Borders, specifically in memory of Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila, Dr. Ahmad Al Sahar, and Dr. Ziad Al-Tatari who died while staying in Gaza and doing their job. You might have seen a surgery planning whiteboard that said “we did what we could. Remember us.” That was written by Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujalia. 

The stretch goal aim is to do full There and Back Again, and make it all the way home to Hobbiton.

As this is a cumulative challenge I would understand if people wanted to hold off on donating until they see results. So I will be posting at least one update a month with my progress.

Here's the link to donate!

......

And we also have the following beautiful submission from Alexis:

I took Amanda’s advice during “There Will Be No Intermission” a little too literal, and uprooted my entire life over the past couple of years to finally pursue music. My debut single, “My Little Butterfly” is finally coming out Friday, March 22nd. It’s a humble offering about a VERY complicated relationship.

I’d just love the opportunity to tell the story of how I cycled to Bexhill to hug Amanda, and everything that ensued, and to thank her and the community for making me feel a little less alone and a little less weird over the past couple of years.

Find the single online here!

And find Alexis online:

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AlexisMai

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexismaimusic

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexismaimusic

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ART BEGETTING ART

Here's some of the latest gorgeous artistic offerings we've found across the internet this month...

A little AFP-inspired sandwich by bling.dat.cake.baby...

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And some collage work from az_collage...

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And finally for this month - from long-time beloved zugart...what can I say but

HOW DID I NOT KNOW I NEEDED THIS IMAGE IN MY LIFE?

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AS PROMISED to many of the patrons at the gatherings....

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS!!!!!!!

I talked about both of these books at length at the gatherings when asked what I was reading!

I haven’t been reading a ton in the last few years with all the moving and the mumming and the crazy, but these two books absolutely gobsmacked me in the past few months, so I gotta share:

SPLINTERS by Leslie Jamison.

Leslie is a pal of mine, I reached out to her in awe and admiration after reading her so-honest-and-well-written-it-blew-me-away memoir “The Recovering”. When I found out she was working on her second memoir - this time about marrying a novelist, conceiving a baby with him, and then divorcing him when the baby was tiny…I literally put the book release ON MY CALENDAR so I could devour it. The book is a miracle of truth-telling about heartbreak, betrayal, the pandemic and motherhood. She just KILLS IT. There’s no way in words to describe what this lady does with words, she’s a word magician. I texted a friend the other day to recommend this book and said “Writing this honest should be ILLEGAL.”

BONUS: I’m doing an author event with Leslie at Graveside Variety (our little pop-up venue in Woodstock, NY) on June 1st!! Tickets not announced yet but there will only be fifty so make sure you’re on the graveside mailing list!!! gravesidevaritety.com

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BIG SWISS by Jen Beagin.

I don’t read a ton of fiction. I read a ton of fiction in my teens and early twenties and then I sort of became a news and non-fiction junkie. The bar is high. Most fiction pisses me off because it just isn’t real enough, good enough, emotionally believable enough. Occasionally, a book finds me or enough people insist that I read something, and I’ll be moved (examples over the last decade or so: All The Light We cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, which I love for reasons unknown to all others). This book was recomme3nded to me by Jackie Kellachan, who runs The Golden Notebook bookstore in Woodstock, and she has impeccable taste (and knows me pretty well). So…I grudgingly bought it, because I trusted her. But then it sat there isn there pile of 17367 books I’d bought but hadn’t read yet, and nothing increased my desire to read it, until I was in an airport news stand in Sydney, on tour, and saw the book and figured the universe was punishing me for not reading fiction and pleading. THIS IS AN AMAZING FICTION BOOK. It's a send up of therapy culture, upstate New york, and there are some incredibly hot and honest lesbian sex scenes.

OTHER FOLKS TO SUPPORT & FOLLOW

This one is a really heartfelt PLEA, from me to you - the Drag Queen storytime from Aotearoa New Zealand has been under threat lately from fundamentalist church protests... and now they are crowdfunding for legal fees to FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE BIGOTRY.

From their fundraising page:

The church leaders, members and affiliates have caused disruptions to these sessions by protesting, vandalising public property, threatening the performers and spreading disinformation and making false allegations about the Queens. Extreme homophobia and transphobia is displayed.

Haus of Flash Ltd who run Rainbow Storytime are taking action about this group and have found a lawyer to assist with this action. We just now need to raise funds to help with the expected legal costs.

I visited these storytime sessions with Ash back during 2020/2021, and we had a fucking FANTASTIC time...

(yes, Ash is dressed as a stormtrooper. Drag is whatever you want it to be.)

If you do have anything you're able to give, it would mean so much to me, and to them, and to the whole rainbow whānau of Aotearoa.

Here's the link to donate.

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THAT IS IT FOR THE MOMENT.

I COLLAPSE.

I SEE YOU SOON, however, wherever, MY LOVES!!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATRONAGE AND I AM READING ALL THGE COMMENTS.

LOVE

LOVE

AFP

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------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