Happy Friday night, all. Say hello, and Grow, grow, grow. (Patreon)

Hello my loves!

First of all: WELCOME to the hundreds (yayyyy) of new patrons who I presume came on board after my birthday post.

Greetings from upstate New York, where I'm currently living in Woodstock (but may be in for a shift sometime soon, so stay tuned).

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It's so exciting, and comforting, to see so many new patrons.

Please PLEASE take a moment to introduce yourself in the comments! I'll be reading everything over the weekend in the cracks of time. (I've got a little road trip to Boston planned, but I should have time to read and respond to most everything).

Tell me: where are you from? What is the place you live like? How do you know my work? Have you seen my band? Read my book? Just found me amusing on Instagram and know nothing about me? DO TELL.

I wanna know everything. And tell me a little about you...what you're into, what your world is like, what's going on in your heart. I like knowing.

We're all very kind here, nobody will be judge-y in the comments, one very up-up-side of this place on the interwebs. So go on, talk to us.

FYI: This post is for patrons only! So the open internet cannot access these comments.

Go crazy. Your family isn't reading.

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May I suggest a little pairing to listen to while you wrote your intro, and/or read the rest of this post?

One of my fave PJ songs...

Here on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4GAdh4UqPh6vQGLadG5wVU

Here on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwbwKM051wU

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I sowed a seed

Underneath the oak tree

I trod it in

With my boots, I trampled it down

Grow, grow, grow, grow!!!

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I love to watch things grow.

My world, my mind, my friendships, my heart.

My child. He's 8. Almost 9. How did that happen?

My patreon.

My audience.

My understand of art and music and what it can do.

My writing of words.

My understanding of how allll the things work.

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A little more about this all growing....

I want to write to all of you, together, so I'll try not to make this boring for anyone.

(There are some people here who've been patrons since 2015, god bless 'em).

I've been at this weirdness since 2015 and I gotta say: I wish I had an easier way to explain other than.

It's....Nice Here.

I've been quietly running this crowdfunding-art circus with the help of the MANY PEOPLE you will meet here....my staff and together, over the last 9 years, we've put out over 200 pieces of art from videos to podcasts to essays to charity albums to poems to little cabaret venues in the woods to "what the fuck even is that" and it's been a deliriously good time for all. The first rule of Patron Club is you can talk about Patron Club.

I don't like to think of this as a "paywalled garden"; I like to think of it as a one-woman Art Show with a cosy backstage workshop where my patrons can hang out with me while the art-sausage gets made. I try to keep as much of my work in the public domain as possible. I try to make as many of my posts as public as possible.

Sometimes, I do things behind a paywall (like the posts for the $5 patrons, or the download codes for the $3 patrons, or the smaller more intimate Q&A/"Ask me Anything"/ catch-up webcasts for the $10+ patrons, which happen about once every month when I'm not crazy busy and more like every few months when I'm insane and on tour. I just set up a new webcast, by the way, y'all, the next hang will be May 10th, at 11:11am NYC time...and it'll go, as it usually does, for about two hours...I'll send a separate post to all you $10+ folks pronto. (And I'll remind you all here when the time is nigh-er).

I OFTEN ask for comments, and conversation, and I often poll the patrons to make a deicsion about how to spend funds. This works best when you engage.

You don't HAVE to engage. You can just set this to stun and support me, and I'll be happy.

But like a plant, I grow with attention.

I love when people comment, when people share their thoughts about my writing, my work, my offerings. Even if the feedback isn't all positive.

I make so many things. I have a thick skin. You can always be honest with me.

You can also always leave the patreon and come back if you're on a budget. People do that all the time).

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I'm working on a post for Monday FULL OF BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS! This is exciting to me. I don't charge for posts like that, but it's part of the general support structure that makes this all work. I love sharing work that's inspiring me to work, and I love hearing about what y'all are reading, listening to, watching, ingesting.

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I have been thinking a lot about the art that I'm going to be planting this season.

The new Dresden Dolls record. A few new book projects. Maybe some theater.

So many leftover projects from pre-pandemic shoeboxes that never made it our of the greenhouse, into the sun.

What shall I plant?

I wrote this little post on socials this morning:

I am becoming my own songs, and basking in it.

We’ve been gardening before school this week. The kale is going in before we have to brush teeth and get to the bus stop by 8:10.

So much of the last five years has been destruction, boots on fragile seedlings over and over again, dis-assembly, scorched earth. Now, finally, maybe something can flourish from the ash.

We are all so slowly recovering. Putting our hands in the ground helps with the metaphor every day. My body shakes less. My mind can settle. My little seed here is starting to smooth out his anxieties, make sense of the pain. We slowly get away from the darkness that bites at our heels, we wake up to date after day of very simple delight. This garden, I know, is a luxury. I think about the burning ground in so many places on earth right now. The wreckage. This oasis.

What else to do? So slowly, one handful of dirt at a time, we plant, we feebly attempt to heal our own little broken worlds.

The things that happen in our lives, my friends, may be horrific. Unimaginably dark. But then, things settle; there is compost.

So please (as Sophie Strand so beautifully puts it, in the project we made together using this very patreon):

please

"make something grow".

On that note, here's a little piece of art that caught my attention this morning, from the fine artist by Alma Haser.

It spoke deeply to me, for some reason. It feels a lot like 2024.

Alma wrote me a kind thank you note on Instagram for posting her work; go give her a hug and a follow if you're on IG, she seems like a wonderful being, and her work seems really nuances, political, beautiful.

https://www.instagram.com/almahaser/

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Thank you so much for being here....

let's grow.

I love you all.

Have a beautiful weekend.

See you in the comments.....say hi.

x

x

AFP