The State of All Things: July 2024. (Patreon)

Hello loves, greetings from my journey from coast to coast as a leave a huge family memorial and head back into heavy-work-land. It's been a very hard month. More on that below.

The video above is just for patrons and embedded, and you can also just hit play and listen to it on earbuds or whatever. The visual isn't that stunning.

For the newbs: welcome to the monthly "STATE OF ALL THINGS" - also affectionately refered to "The ALTHING".

If you're new here - this is a newsletter-type post that we send out at the end of every month, as a sort of wrap-up of the previous month. If you can't keep up with all the posts and projects coming your way, this is a handy way for a nice digest to keep you up to date. I asked for consent from the community ages ago to gamne the system and use this monthly letter as a Paid Project in order to cover our staff and basic costs, and we've been doing it ever since.

First off, before we even get to the contents: let me give a WARM WELCOME to all the new patrons. There's about 20,000 of you, and about half of you are paid subscirbers/patrons. Thank you for simply being here. It means a lot to me as an artist, writer, thinker, mother and musician. I've been crowdfunding this band, my work and this community since 2010. I never take it for granted for a second.

Some people have been here since 2015 and some have just joined in the last week. I try to make everybody feel at home. If you have questions, ask in the comments (I'm always reading everything, and so is the team) or email us (all that info is at the bottom).

Here's the contents of this althing...

• GENERAL LIFE AND DEATH UPDATE
• PROJECTS RELEASED THIS MONTH
• OTHER THINGS THAT HAPPENED THIS MONTH
• SHOWS/TOUR
• PROJECTS AND EVENTS COMIN' DOWN THE PIKE
• HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING
• PATRON BULLETIN BOARD+ART BEGETTING ART
• OTHER FOLKS TO SUPPORT & FOLLOW

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I (almost) always kick off the Althing with a little video, recorded just for you.

In case you're more of a read-y type than a listen-y/watch-y type, here's a transcript of the video for your eyeballs...lovingly transcribed by Alex Knight, our Merch Queen & patron-post fairy based out of London. He wears many hats and often does these transcripts, and this month we got lucky and we nabbed him in time for the end of the month. Read, or skip along.

Hi.

It's 6:45 in the morning, and I have these paintings that my wonderful Auntie Katherine did, and I'm in my uncle's place with Ash, and we're doing this family memorial for her, because she died when I was on my way to New Zealand right after the Dresden Dolls shows.

She left us these paintings. She was a great painter. And I wanted to talk about something I've been thinking a lot about, about art. And I did not script this, I'm just gonna off-the-cuff it. 

I've been thinking a lot about art without words, and why people paint, and why people dance, and why people choose artistic expressions where you speak without using words. And I've been thinking a lot about wanting to draw, and wanting to make paintings. I've never been a painter-painter, but I've been thinking a lot about the feelings and the stories that you can put into even just painting a flower, or painting a stick figure, or a landscape, or a bunch of fruit, or a glass of wine, or something more abstract. 

And I wrote about this in the Art of Asking, I wrote about the blender settings of extreme literal-ness on the one side, and then on the other side extreme symbolism, or vagueness, when it comes to telling a story, or when it comes to just expressing yourself as an artist. 

And I'm thinking it might be fun, along with all the other billions of things that I've promised you and haven't been able to manifest yet - like everyone on the webcast the other day was asking for yoga and meditation, and I'm like, I wanna do that! And I know no one has asked for paintings or drawings, but I'm like, man I wanna do that right now, I wanna make some art without words.

And also, everyone responded so beautifully to the music, the 4-handed piano piece with Luke, and I think especially in times of political uncertainty, and everyone screaming and yelling, and Facebook memes and words everywhere, maybe one of our jobs as artists is to just double down on the less words. And you know me, I have all these parts of my job, I have the make music part, and the make songs part, and the make piano music part, and the talk about art part, and the write a book about feelings part. And often I just do what I need, and then I give it to you, and you take it, and I think right now some piano music, is that okay? 

And maybe I'll make myself make a drawing today, and add it to this Althing. How's that for a challenge? I can't make a painting this beautiful, but I can make something. I can make a something with a pencil, and a pen, and a page in my journal. That's my promise to you, today, and it's my promise to myself. I'll make a little piece of art today, and I'll send it to you.

I love you all so much. 

Grieving in my family has actually been really good, and there's a dog, so just ignore the dog. And teaching Ash how to grieve, and be with family, and what it all means, and what happens when someone makes art and then leaves this plane of existence has been a good one.

And I have been thinking a lot about a lot of things, and more appreciative of you all than I ever have been since the beginning.

So I'm gonna do this - I'm gonna give you a flower. From my little corner of the world here, with this barking dog, to wherever you are. I hope you have some peace, and I hope you make some art, and I hope you find a way maybe to express yourself with or without words. And I'm gonna try and keep this Althing pretty short, because I'm pretty fried.

But for all of you who are new: it's not usually this weird.

For all of you who are old school patrons: thanks for hanging in there with me right now, as I juggle a lot of things, and a lot of family commitments, and other commitments, and art delays.

And I love you, a lot. I love all of you so much.

Whatever you're going through, it's gonna change. I promise you. Hang in there. Steady a she goes.

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GENERAL LIFE AND DEATH UPDATE....

Well, I said a lot of it in the video, but I've been thinking a great deal these past few weeks about art, truth, visibility, writing, time, patience, and the messages we, as artists, send to the world.

Watching the American Election cycle unfold like mangled origami before our very eyes has given me a ton of hope and fire, and I'm hoping to roll my sleeves up as usual this fall to kick ass in the Get Out The Vote department. I know I'm generally preaching to the choir, but if The Dolls work with Headcount.org at our upcoming shows and even get a dozen people to hit the voting booth, I'll feel like I'm doing my fucking job. Donald Trump and his way of being horrifies me, and the future of democracy worries me, and I also worry about the general outlook for the climate crisis and reproductive rights for women in America, and and and. I know Kamala Harris isn't perfect, and I'd take Bernie Sanders or a Green/Rainbow Party candidate any day over an establishment politician. But good lord. I hope we all learned out lesson with Hilary and just get out and vote for this woman so that Trump doesn't lead us into four years of utter chaos and darkness.

That's my rant, I'll get back to real life.

So, like I said in the video, maybe some visual art.

I have so much to create and to clean up and release, and if you know me, you also know that I never sit still and I never keep it simple.

I'm gonna go buy some canvasses and watercolors.

I think it will be deeply therapeutic. I'll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile, I didn't get time to make a drawing for you. Sorry. I will.

I've been very slowly working behind the scenes with Brian and the new Dresden Dolls team as we carefully build the runway for our next Dresden Dolls recording and tour. There's so many moving parts, and I'm also trying to be a good mom and spend time with my kid as the tectonic plates of life shift beneath us.

But to make you do a little dance inside...here's me and Brian having a meeting in a recording studio the other day. WE don't yet know exactly how and where we are going to record, but we are getting closer and closer to figuring it out.

If I've learned anything from the last five years: don't make hard and fast plans, don't expect anything to go according to plan, don't trust anything will really work, and don't be afraid to throw it all out the window again and again. All the while: enjoy your coffee, enjoy your food, enjoy the wind, enjoy the rain, enjoy the book you're reading, enjoy the birdsong you can hear.

You just never know.

My personal life has been complicated. I'm deeply steady within, very focused on my little family right now, and the sub-storms are blowing all around and under me. New Zealand really....did something to me. I feel, at this point, like I'm up to weathering most conditions. I feel an inner fortitude, and a kind of a deep peace I've never felt before. I'm still finding out who I am, every morning as I wake up to face the day and look at my ever-more-wrinkled face, and I like the person I see. She's wiser than she used to be. She's more patient. She's more quiet. She listens harder.

Covid is spiking everywhere I look and my friends and family are all feeling the upheaval. I did a social media poll (here on FB, here on IG, here on Twitter....yes-I-refuse-to-call-it-X) to see how the Covid is going locally, and it seems things are spiking everywhere.

There Is No Intermission.

But there is Family, and there is Art, and there is Food, and there is Goodness All Around.

I'm trying hard to focus on those things and not get swept into the undertow.

I'm trying hard to make a good world around me for my kiddo.

He's got a new friend, a parrot, who is - when I asked - apparently a They/Them.

Ash named the Parrot (without any input from me, I swear to god).

The Parrot's name is Parratox.

Get it?

They're a TALKing parrot, AND, apparently, a paradox?

This is definitely my child.

I love him, and the paradox parrot, so much.

I hope all of you are keeping well, holding steady, keeping your boats afloat in the storms....whatever kind of storms they are.

Your patronage at this time means more than it ever did, and it's always meant the world. Now it means the galaxy and the universe.

Got that?

Really.

Now....

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PROJECTS RELEASED THIS MONTH....

The first project of the month was a SOLO PIANO-AND-UKE LIVESTREAM SHOW....for patrons only.

It was just me, and a piano, and a ukulele, the comments, a lotta love, and a tiny film/lights/sound crew in the gorgeous and historic Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY.

I played a bunch of requests and songs that I just WANTED to, and it was cathartic and beautiful and good.

Here's a screenshot from the stream...it was truly lovely.

THE SETLIST:

Ampersand (from Who Killed Amanda Palmer)

Backstabber (from Yes, Virginia)

People Ain't No Good (Nick Cave cover)

In My Mind (from Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under)

Astronaut (from Who Killed Amanda Palmer)

Between The Bars (Elliott Smith cover)

The Runner (Unreleased)

Sing (from Yes, Virginia)

The show is archived for patrons - and will be forever - and ready to rewatch on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/july16th2024

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"Here, There and Anywhere" is the latest new creative project to come out - it's another collaboration with Luke Gajdus, who I worked with to also create "Neither Here Nor There", another 4-handed piano piece that we put out last year.

Luke's a piano-busker from Aotearoa New Zealand, and his musicality is one of the most comforting things on earth.

The timing felt right for this piece to come out into the world.

I'm so glad so many of you enjoyed it, and if you missed it, go listen.

You can watch/listen to Here There and Anywhere HERE, and check out the Patreon post HERE for more behind the scenes info and photos. We dropped the audio only to $3+ patrons HERE in this locked post with the download info: https://www.patreon.com/posts/3-patrons-here-108752752

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OTHER THINGS THAT HAPPENED THIS MONTH....

We had our first $10 webchat in a hot minute.....

I love these little webchats. I like taking a moment to slow down and head-gather with a more intimate group - this time we had about 100 people come in throughout the hour.

Angel came up and read us a poem...

And generally.....we had a good ol' little chin-wag.

If you're part of the $10 tier, you can rewatch the webcast HERE. I try to do these once a month and I'll schedule the next one, for August, ASAP.

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SHOWS/TOUR.....

Tickets have just gone on sale for my FINAL THREE SOLO SHOWS OF THE YEAR, all close to home in the northeast US:

September 21 - Academy of Music, Northampton MA - TICKETS

October 17 - Sacred Heart Community Theatre, Fairfield CT - TICKETS

October 19 - Tarrytown Music Hall, Tarrytown NY - TICKETS

Following on from those, there are the final Dresden Dolls shows of 2024.....

October 26 - Dresden Dolls at Bearsville Theater, Woodstock NY - **SOLD OUT**

October 27 - Dresden Dolls at Bearsville Theater, Woodstock NY - TICKETS HERE (this one's about 80% sold, so don't hang around!!)

November 1 - Dresden Dolls and Gogol Bordello at Roadrunner, Boston MA - TICKETS HERE

November 2 - Dresden Dolls and Gogol Bordello at Roadrunner, Boston MA - TICKETS HERE (this one's about 75% sold, so again don't hang around too long!!)

As usual, guest list tickets to the above shows were offered to the guest list tiers ($75+).

You can always pop up there if you wanna support at that level. It means a lot. 

.......

PROJECTS AND STUFF COMIN' DOWN THE PIKE....

I've been backed up since 2019.

There are still a handful of unreleased shows, videos, documentaries, and all that....and I'm just taking my time. I've been so relentlessly on my back foot for so long that it doebns't bother me anymore. It'll all come out when it's supposed to come out. Everything is measured now in years, not months, not days. It's fine. Who cares. I care. I try not to care too much. It's art, and it's not life or death.

Project-wise, in GOOD news....we also have the final two AUTHOR TALKS from Graveside Variety (our little venue, RIP) coming up.

In case you haven't seen it yet, back in May we posted the cleaned-up transcript of my talk with Elizabeth Lesser (and also posted up the iphone-filmed video of the talk for $5 patrons)

There are two more talks - one with Katherine Yeske Taylor, author of "She's A Badass: Women In Rock Shaping Feminism".

That talk will be another transcript-with-bonus-$5-video, like the Elizabeth Lesser edition had...

And then we also have a talk with bestselling author Leslie Jamison - and for that one we hooked in a super-pro film crew, so we'll be releasing the FULL VIDEO to ALL PATRONS for that....it was FIRE.

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ALSO - as mentioned in last month's Althing, we have a little book giveaway coming up. We're running a little behind with it, but it'll be coming your way VERY SOON.

We'll be giving away two books from pals of mine: a memoir from performance artist Ruth Ivo, and a cookbook by photographer-pal Kyle Cassidy:

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HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING....

As of this writing there are about 9,400 patrons pledging about $29,500 for the first Thing each month. There are also nearly 20,500 total patrons (over 10,000 just following along), which is SWELLLLL.

We are holding steady, and I'm also doing almost nothing to promote the patreon itself lately.

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

CAP CAP CAP CAP!!

CAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOURRRRR!!!!! PLEDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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 June, I Thanged THREE Things:

The Dresden Dolls: Livestream from DC, which earned about $33,171 from 9,279 patrons

The Final Private Practice Film, which earned about $14,525 from 5,255 patrons

The State of All Things: June 2024, which earned about $9,034 from 3,288 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.

It all works out in the end, and all comes out in the wash.

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PATRON BULLETIN BOARD/ART BEGETTING ART

This section is where we highlight some of the gorgeous artwork within the fan community - art inspired by my art! If you want to share any art here, once again you can email art@amandapalmer.net !

This first one came in from a patron, Liz, who just got a gorgeous new tattoo inspired by "Lost", from my 2012 crowdfunded/kickstarter album "Theatre is Evil".

The tattoo is a tribute to my cousin Dawn, who passed away a few years ago, and it was designed by LD at Black Lotus in Maryland.

And this gorgeous piece is by Adrienne Danielle (@adriennedanielle_arts on IG).

I'm loving a lighthouse lately.

Can you tell?

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OTHER FOLKS TO SUPPORT & FOLLOW....

REGINA SPEKTOR has TWO more shows on her New England tour:

https://www.livenationentertainment.com/2024/04/regina-spektor-announces-limited-run-of-summer-tour-dates-an-evening-with-regina-spektor/

Fri Aug 02 | Portland, ME | Merrill Auditorium at City Hall

Sat Aug 03 | Stamford, CT | The Palace Stamford

((REGINA TOUR))

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IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE IN NEW YORK CITY, FOR ALWAYS OR FOR SHORT, you should go pay a visit to one of my besties, Lance Horne, who's there EVERY MONDAY NIGHT at Alan Cumming's namesake club, Club Cumming for a super-fun live-piano Karaoke party called "MONDAYS IN THE CLUB".

https://www.mondaysintheclub.com/

IDEA....I would love y'all NYC patrons to self-organize a field trip there...it would make Lance's life. Can someone do that?? Hit the comments. I'll boost!! (or email us at management@amandapalmer.net if you start a thread wherever)

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And just because it's so incredibly awesome and I'm re-discovering my Love of Ren....here's a video to move your heart.

"Violet's Tale" by Ren.

Chills.

Full Body Chills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4R9Vk5_CbU

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That's it for now, my loves.

Gratitude galore....

more than ever, every day.

Love, in art and heart,

from an aeroplane over the plains,

from me, the Paradox Parrot and the Child....

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