the wind, the unwinding, and ARTBOOK NEWS. (Patreon)

(patron-only post) 

hello my loves. 

thank you for your beautiful responses to the Althing. i love you all immensely. im gonna try to keep this brief and i’m gonna fail but hey. 

important: IF YOU ARE IN BOSTON, i’m going to be doing a full-scale video shoot for “voicemail for jill” (one of the yet-to-be-released songs from the album) on FEB 5/6th. i’ll be coming at you with a wishlist within the next few days...and we will also be looking to cast actors and extras. just a heads up.

.....

greetings from a windy island. 

i’ve been catching up on work (there’s still a lot to do...we are rolling out an album), but you’ll be pleased to know i’ve been shutting off my phone a fuck ton and wandering off into the jungle (well, he calls it that) with my child. 

my brain is slowing down and i’m reading more, and we are cooking all our meals from scratch and talking a lot and taking the time to simply be human. i’m sure i’m not alone in the terrifying realization of how much stress i feel in a given average day...and i only really get perspective on it when i slow down. slowing down is good. i am getting better at it. 

a lot of friends of mine and justine’s are going through heavy relationship difficulties. we/i are currently watching the car-crashes of a half-dozen different marriages or long-term relationships. i find myself wondering about people, all these relationships. the winds of change. the wind that guides and the wind that destroys. 

i posted this three days ago. it was me & neil’s anniversary:

“eight years ago today, we got married in ayelet waldman and michael chabon’s living room in berkeley, california. 

there was no wedding photograher (but someone managed to grab this photo, i don’t know who), there was no wedding cake (but ayelet ordered a couple really delicious local pies), there was no band (but there was an accordion around somewhere, and we played the piano), there were no invitations, no decorations, no dramas. there were a few friends. i let michael and ayelet’s little children, rosie and abe, pick my outfit (they chose my dirty, but very believable, street performance bridal gown), the flowers came from outside, and, like a priestly geppetto, jason webley declared us a real married couple. 

this is our first anniversary apart from one another. we miss each other. we didn’t know what we were doing then, and we don’t know what we are doing now. back then, we were trying to fit a real relationship into the cracks of what was most important to us: our work. the day after this wedding we flew separate directions and didn’t see each other for ages. and in many ways, little has changed. it’s a love based on a certain kind of faith that, eventually, we will alight on the same branch. 

neil gaiman: wherever you are when you read this. whether we are flying solo, in tandem, or wholly merged...i’ve got your back. 

happy anniversary, my love.

and to all of you trying to keep steady on the winds of long-distance relationships...keep the faith. anything’s possible with enough love.”

then a lot of people in long-distance relationships wrote things. 

and, yknow...i’m proud of us. eight years is a long time. 

......

wind. 

unwind. 

i encountered something upon arriving here: the wind icon on my weather app. i’d never seen it before. its a little spinning windmill. i cocked my head. qua windmill. it’s always been just a cloud or a sun or a snowflake or a rain umbrella. the forecast for martinique said:

windmill. 

windmill. 

windmill. 

windmill. 

windmill. 

windmill. 

for the next seven days: windmills. 

it’s an incredibly windy place. 

and a profound reminder about the material world. i experienced the same thing in bali, when i found out that they don’t really have pianos because the climate wouldn’t allow the piano to survive, and for the first time i really clicked the connection between climate and music styles.

 the weather creates us. 

the windows all have latch-locks on them on both sides, and still they flap and rock and creak and shudder and shatter. the doors open and slam with full force all day long. 

and all of the flora here, every tree, every flower, every leaf, is built to withstand and stay alive in these winds. the fauna probably stick to the ground like lizards. everything glued for survival. 

when you go to pick something, it gives no fucks. it holds tightly to its mooring, refusing to budge. 

committed. 

the landscape is windproof. i wonder if the people are. or have become so. 

last night justine and i found a local babysitter and went to the shack fish cafe way down the way. we sat outside and the waitress spent about two minutes arranging our paper placements, napkins, forks and knives.

she criss-crossed the placemats, and carefully tucked the napkins under multiple utensils and the placemats under the ashtrays (everyone still smokes down here) and generally made sure that everything was battened down. it was like watching a short wind-proofing ballet, because she had the arrangement down to a graceful and silent science. she did not leave until everything was perfect. 

a place where everything is built to withstand the wind. 

the windows, the napkins, the shutters, the leaves, the flowers. the forks. 

the animals. 

the people. 

i wonder what the divorce rate is in very, very, very windy places. 

.........

this happened:

and today ash wanted to climb out of the window onto the roof. it’s two stories down. i said 

“no ash, the roof is slanted and you would fall. and look how far down it is. you’d be dead. and dead is bad.”

and he looked at me and said

“no. dead is nice.”

.........

there are a few books i forgot to put on the reading list, by the way, and one of them is “10 Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now” by Jaron Lanier, who I know through TED-world. before you run screaming: no, i am not going to demand you all delete your beloved facebook and instagram feeds ... but the book is full of painful (and necessary) knowledge about how algorithmic systems currently work. if you use social media, you should just be AWARE of how it’s using us. 

(jaron is also a great, funny, no-bullshit writer. he’s also featured as a musician in the NINJATED show recording that i’m currently working on Thinging for you) 

https://www.amazon.com/Arguments-Deleting-Social-Media-Accounts/dp/125019668X

........

ARTBOOK UPDATES. 

OVER 2,000 patrons (wtf!??) ordered the hardback !!!!!! it’s just amazing. thank you all for your faith in me. it’s heading to the printer on monday and it’s really beautiful. it’s 90 pages in the end, and over 10,000 words. there are a total of SIXTY SEVEN photos taken by three photograhers. and i’m goddamn proud of it. i put a ton of work into it (and so did jamy, who helped me edit, and the designer, andrew, and so did hayley, who swooped in as a last-minute indispensable mistake-finder and editor). 

here’s a little sneak peek video of the PDF layout:

https://twitter.com/amandapalmer/status/1081623219919044610?s=21

a handful of people on various channels (including the facebook patron page, well, especially the FB page) asked if we could PLEASE EXTEND THE ORDER DEADLINE because of holiday budget tightness, etc. 

while we still had to get the order in, we did the second best thing we could think of, which was to ESTIMATE how many people still needed one - and we PRINTED 200 EXTRA COPIES. they are for sale now on both the US & UK stores. the vinyl is ALL DONE! we sold about 1,000 pre-order copies! 

so....you’ll notice that the vinyl is gone but the patron-only hardback of the book WILL STAY THERE UNTIL THOSE EXTRA 200 COPIES ARE GONE. could take a few days, could take a few weeks. but if you want one, they are still there - til they ain’t. ALL copies of the patron-only hardback come with a print and a signed letter, even if you’re ordering up these last copies. 

AND...THE PUBLIC / PAPERBACK COPY (and also the cheaper copy) is also now on sale. 

the COVER IS DIFFERENT, but the books are THE SAME INSIDE - including the pages where i thank all 8,000+ patrons who got their names in on time. 

here’s the link to the US store...

the patron hardback is $50. (and here’s the patron password: nointermission)

the public paperback is $35. 

https://shop.amandapalmer.net/?utm_source=landingpage&utm_medium=landingpage&utm_campaign=nointermissionmerch&utm_content=bottom

and here’s the link to the UK/euro store:

the paperback is $41.99 (that’s about £33, or about €37)

and the patron-hardback is $55.98 (that’s about £44, or about €49). 

this is a special site JUST for patrons. you can get both books here. 

the password is: nointermission. 

http://eupatreon.amandapalmer.net

.......

thats it my loves 

for now. 

everything changes. 

resist the wind and as john irving reminds us in the hotel new hampshire: “keep passing the open windows.“

x

a

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

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