well, hello there 500 new patrons. say hi? (Patreon)

hallo loves. 

this is just a quick note...i'm writing to you from on a bed in a friends house  in burlington, VT, where jason webley and i are currently holed up in a little recording studio trying to write sketches of songs for our long-term musical theater project. 

we're also visiting our old touring musician cello friend, zoe keating. (if you don't know her gorgeously-layered looping cello music, which is perfect for all artists and writers to work to, or you didn't know she had a new EP out, run, don't walk, to her bandcamp.).

we went for a swim before cooking dinner today - and it rained on us. jason and zoe responded by both tilting about 20 degrees to their rights:

i'm writing late at night when i should be sleeping (and since i have no toddler this week, i can do whatever i WANT, HOORAY) because something unprecedented just happened: 

over 500 new patrons have joined in the last 48 hours or so, presumably because you wanted to watch the "rewired" journal clip, which has gotten so many beautiful and profound responses i don't know where to start. (if you missed it, it came out night before last and it's here, for patrons only.)

i really did not expect that to happen, and i'm overwhelmed with gratitude to see so many new people here in the community. you've come to the right place.

i also feel a little conflicted: i hate feeling like i'm putting art "behind a paywall". in general, i put about 99% of my work, whether it's videos, songs, blogs, whatever, out in the public for free - it's the way i was raised on the internet (CONTENT FOR ALL). but i also don't like what the internet's turned into lately. i put that clip up for patrons-only not to attract people to a walled garden, but mostly because i didn't really want to deal with trolls on the internet telling me things about my body and my life and my feelings...i especially didn't want to deal with fielding trolls for the past two days while i was trying to work from 10 am-7 pm in a studio.

it makes me wonder how much of my work to hold onto in this here safe little place, and how much to put out on the world wide internet. just like i say in the clip, i'm always just guessing. about everything.

it's sort of like how i felt when i did my TED talk about asking. like: i knew i cared about this sort of shit, but i didn't know it would resonate quite so hard. it's been viewed almost 10,000,000 times now on the TED homepage. where did those people come from? who knows. 

i know that i feel more strongly about women telling the truth, loudly, than i ever have.

it's trump, it's #MeToo, it's the surge of women's voices rising against a huge growing wave of fear, racism and fascism and feminist backsliding and mounting tyranny all over the world.

it feels like the moment to not shut up. not just about politics i can tell you to vote (please for the love of god, vote) until i'm blue in the face, but i'm an artist, a maker, a storyteller. 

i feel like the biggest thing i can do right now, as a woman, is gather up everything i've ever learned and use it to tell the stories that feel difficult to share. 

maybe that means that it's time to fuck it and make more work like this in addition to my usual musical output, because i could do it til the cows came home and not get bored. and maybe it's an important moment right now. to just answer that call and do it.

i wish i had more time to do this all. i just had a kid. i wish i had three of me. one of me would just ditch songwriting and mothering and touring altogether and just start running an all-naked body-image self-help video service for global weirdos. whooo hooooo.

anyway.....i'll talk more about this later. it's late here. i just wanted to ask everyone new here to SAY HI, if you would, in the comments below.

we haven't had a good group patreon moment in a while where everybody just waved hello in the comments...go for it, tell us where you're from, tell us how you wound up here, tell us something about yourself, what you're up to right now. patreon regulars, give everybody a warm welcome. show 'em how it's done here.

as usual: i read all the comments. i'm still catching up from the other day, but i pride myself on reading everything.

and y'all new folks: this patreon page is a really beautiful community - people are kind, they're supportive, it's a nice place to be. especially as facebook and twitter dwindle into cesspools, it's nice to have a place on the internet where it feels like more of a family. we've been growing and learning about each other in really astounding ways: this isn't just a channel for my work, it's a pub where we can all talk openly and honestly and with buckets of humor and insight and support. use it. 

i just wanted to take a moment to welcome so many new people - it's just amazing....thank you for being here.

all the money - even if it's just $1 - that ou are funding me with is a giant pile of fuel with which i can experiment more, make more, make better, try bigger, work with more artists, stretch myself harder. 

i love you all with all i've got. 

the day after tomorrow you'll all be receiving my end-of-the-month "state of all things" report, which is my giant monthly blog, musing and recap about everything your ongoing support is making happen....watch out for it. 

and.

really....thanks for being here, old and new. i'm a little weepy about all this support. it's good, it's good, it's good. together we're gonna make some amazing shit. this is just the beginning.

oh, and i think you'll like this moment on ellen....

 someone just sent it over - where jennifer garner addresses her so-called "baby bump". 

fuck yeah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyCIfhOFewQ 

xx

AFP

------THE NEVER-ENDING AS ALWAYS---------

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3. join the official AFP-patron facebook group. it's great and there's lots of feelings:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/afpland

4. new to my music and TOTALLY OVERWHELMED? TAKE A WALK THROUGH AMANDALANDA….we made a basic list of my greatest hits n stuff on this lovely page: http://amandalanda.amandapalmer.net/

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