ASK-POST. agoraphobia, let's do shintaido (space needed!), LODGING needed in IRELAND, free tix for cardiff (Patreon)

{public post - mostly in case people can provide shintaido space and need to read this! hello!}

hallo loves

**EDIT! we just added a shintaido practice in cardiff! into here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/30855220**

this is a quick news-y one from a coffee shop in camden.

i'm working on a long-form blog about a lot of things and it is taking, as usual, weeks not days or hours. there is a lot happening in my head in intersection with the world. and this community.

but with everything going so crazy in this world.....dammit. 

this picture makes me so happy.

look at us. 

it is a picture of the patrons who made it out to our aborted-beach-swim in bexhill.

the coast guars shut down our swimming plans (i mean, it was kind of them)....so, instead, we did some shintaido on the cold beach.

this circle happened.

it wasn't a long moment, but this photo reminds me how fucking powerful this whole community is, and how singular these moments are, however fleeting. ia few days ago, during my interview with KT tunstall for the podcast, she said something about how she reminds her audience that THIS PARTICULAR COLLECTION OF PEOPLE WILL NEVER BE TOGETHER AGAIN IN HISTORY. 

it's obvious, sure, but it's also sometimes worth stopping and noting. gathering is so fucking powerful. we don't do it in the same ways that we used to, and sometimes our gathering-mechanisms can feel so broken. sometimes i feel like part of my career is making peace with the fact that i wanted to be a gatherer more than a musician, and i became a musician because it seemed like the only way to get people to gather.

i like being together with a lot of people. i really, really like it. it's what i'm good at. it's my superpower. i've been really disoriented and feeling sort of kryptonited by parts of my life-away-from-crowds lately. as lovely as quiet domesticity can be, it can be soul-famishing. whatever the opposite of agoraphobia is, i have it. if you google that, it's claustrophoa, but i don't have that. if agoraphobia is a fear of crowds, i have not-that.

i have fear of non-community.

i am, perhaps, an agoraphile?

staryting a band is easy. starting a cult just seemed like, you know, a BAD IDEA. 

let's not do that.

i was too broke in my twenties to start a bar. 

SOMEDAY I SWEAR. 

i will start a bar. then i can be truly happy. 

my bar will have space for everything and everyone. 

where should i start a bar? the moon. mars. i dunno.

BEXHILL?

................

back to the point.

i've written about shintaido here and there...it's a slightly esoteric form of japanese body movement that i got into in my 20s, when a cadre of my boston friends were very into it. one of those friends, david franklin, became a high-level shintaido instructor and sometimes comes on tour with me so that we can hang out and do our practice together. you may have met him on the road. 

shintaido is basically a cross between tai chim, karate, yoga, and dance improv. 

in prague we got a bunch of patrons together for a fun day-of-show practice and it was SO FUN. (prague people! tell people how fun it was!!)

everybody had no experience. we just hooted around.....

there's a post with more photos here...

here's the group photo we took, by emilie tondeur:

ANYWAY YOU WEIRDOS, 

david is totally game to lead some gathering-beginner's-let-just-move-around practices while we are on the raod together, so LET'S DO IT!!! all we need is SPACE!!!!!!!

i asked him to knock together the below...if you can help, holler.

if you're interested in coming, also sound off in the comments! we'll keep a head count.

i will be at 90% of the practices but may have to skip some because i've got press.

.........

here's more photos from bexhill, and a letter from david....

Hello patrons in Cardiff, Cambridge, Cork, Dublin, Belfast, and Limerick!

I’m David Franklin*, and Amanda invited me to come on part of the UK tour to offer you an amazing experience of body movement, expression of life, and health exercise with your fellow Patrons in the afternoon before Amanda’s concert in your city. 

It’s called Shintaido. It's energizing, it's edgy, it's fun and playful, and it's completely accessible to total beginners and people in a range of physical conditions. 

It's also a fantastic enhancement for people who do another practice such as yoga, acting/performing, tai chi, dance, martial arts, etc. It’s a great way to warm up for the concert. You can watch a 5-minute video into about it here.

We want to find a place (a yoga studio, dance studio, aerobics studio, basketball court, aikido dojo, a place for movement) in your town where we can have a short (1 hour) Shintaido practice in the afternoon before the concert for anyone who already has concert tickets / is a Patron.

To make this happen, we need your help finding a local studio to rent. Here’s what we’re asking for:

• a place for movement minimum 50 sq metres / 500 sq feet

• available to rent in the afternoon before the concert (details below)

• within about 2 miles / 3 km from the concert venue (details below)

Can anyone help us find a movement space to rent for 60 minutes? As soon as we confirm the space, we’ll get you the details and let you know how to buy tickets to the “Pre-concert Shintaido session” first-come, first-serve for £10 per person.

Cardiff Oct 19:  between 4 and 6pm (7:45 show) within 2-3 miles (10 minutes by car) of venue https://goo.gl/maps/LYvSDqHX81GuVCgJ9

Cambridge October 20: between 4 and 6pm (7:45 show) within 2-3 miles (10 minutes by car) of venue https://goo.gl/maps/WuToLnySNnuA7YAU6

Cork October 23: between 4 and 6pm (8:00 show) within 2-3 miles (10 minutes by car) of venue  https://goo.gl/maps/2fy6QG78TYaxShG48

Dublin October 24: between 3:30 and 5:30pm (7:30 show) within 2-3 miles (10 minutes by car) of venue https://goo.gl/maps/j8E84Qv6jXxiNuo46

October 26: between 3:30 and 5:30pm (7:30 show) within 2-3 miles (10 minutes by car) of https://goo.gl/maps/j8E84Qv6jXxiNuo46

October 27: between 3:30 and 5:30 pm (7:30 show) within 2-3 miles (10 minutes by car) of https://goo.gl/maps/KXLn19HJ1tfkmez89

contact david:

shintaido@dfranklin.org

see you soon,

david

* David Franklin (a.k.a. “manta”) emerged from the same art scene in Boston in the late 90s and early 2000s where Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione’s band the Dresden Dolls first made their debut. He is a Shintaido instructor, visual artist, performance artist, and video- and filmmaker whose work includes collaborations with performance artist Milan Kohout and with filmmaker Michael Pope, with whom he produced the Dresden Dolls first two music videos, “Girl Anachronism” and “Coin-Operated Boy,” and the experimental film/performance “Neovoxer." His current performance work-in-progress, “How to Talk with Children about Global Warming,” will debut his experimental electro-acoustic music. He lives near Prague, Czech Republic.

.............

ONE MORE THING ABOUT UPCOMING DATES,.....

we are SEEKING LODGING for the TEAM IN IRELAND!!!!!!

we are looking to save resources and dough on the road!

we have hotels booked, and electricity on the bus some nights....but hotels are cancelable and i am finally getting around to asking (sorry i'm late)

 me, michael, david, our foreign tour correspondents (gabrielle, and jack + one) and possibly some film crew are also looking for LODGNING!!! and relief from the no-intermission tight-budget-touring life of living on the tour bus. 

anyone who can offer us a place to sleep and take a shower on the following nights would be helping us enormously. place needs to be relatively near the venue, have bedding, and WIFI (a huge plus - we are all working!!!!!):

we need help these nights:

October 21 in Cork

October 22 in Cork

October 24 in Dublin

October 27 in Limerick

let us know  if you have crash space near the venue!!!

email david & michael IN ONE EMAIL (it's all hands on deck now):

michael@amandapalmer.net

shintaido@dfranklin.org

use subject:  LODGING: CITY

PLEASE INCLUDE:

-the address

-how many beds/sleeping spots you got!

-whether there's wifi

-and the basic housing situation (family, housemates, air bnb, etc)

CATS AND KIDS ARE OK!!! WE LOVE THEM! but we do need to sleep, we are working our asses off, so don't count on a whiskey & guitar & yarn party til 4 am. count on really tired people blearily falling asleep fast.

..............................

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, CARDIFF TICKETS!!!!!

i have a bunch of guest-list spaces for CARDIFF TOMORROW (sat oct 19th)!

the show is at st. david's hall (which is MASSIVE!!!!!!) 

doors at 6:15, show starts at 7:45 SHARP!!!!

this has been working great. if you wanna come, just get me your FULL NAME and whether you want a single ticket or a pair (+1) by about 4 pm tomorrow. i'll check this post often and let you know that we got you.

and if YOU ARE already coming to cardiff, GROUP PHOTO WILL HAPPEN AFTER THE SHOW!!! JUST STAY IN YOUR SEATS, WE WILL DO IT IN THE HALL!!!

SEE MANY OF YOU TOMORROW.....

LOVE ETERNAL

xxxx

AFP

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

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