July 2020: The State of All Things {official Thing} (Patreon)

{patron only}

hello dear ones.

i love you. thank you for being here on the patreon. to all the newcomers, welcome, welcome...

and welcome ALL Y'ALL to the JULY edition of the "state of all things", or the "althing" as we call it around here. 

since these monthly recap posts can be, er, very long and packed with information, here is a little table of contents for what you'll find in this post, after i ramble a little bit about how i'm doing:

• HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED - a round up on projects and events that have happened in the last month (the month of may, but some recent july stuff will be peppered in)  
  
• AN UPDATE ABOUT THE NEW TOUR IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND (LIKELY TO BE SHIFTED)
  
• WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE PIKE - this is a lonnng list of projects that are currently in production and updates on where they're at. with covid, there's a ton of log-jam in project world, but we're trying.
  
• HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING - this is the nitty gritty numbers on the Things (or paid posts) released in the previous month  
  
• DISPATCHES FROM TEAM AFP - this is a space to all of team AFP around the globe to share what they're working on & how they're doing. they are real people! don't forget: this patreon not only funds my art production, it also affords me the ability to have a full-time staff helping me (and all of you) to make this art community as wonderful as it is. i spend more money per month on salaries and office costs than actual art making, and my staff is a critical part of my ability to work the way i do.
  
• OTHER ARTISTS TO SUPPORT - a place where i share other patreons, crowdfunds, or other artists who are making work i think you should know about.... 
  
• ART BEGETTING ART - there's always so many beautiful pieces of fan art and art made inspired by me, the dresden dolls and so forth... i always  like to include a little collection of some pieces to share with you each month.

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

greetings from havelock north, new zealand. as i type this, literally, i am sitting at my desk listening to RNZ, aotearoa new zealand's national radio station, as jacinda ardern and her director general of health give the nation an update. they're going to announce the new levels at 5:30pm, in a few hours. right now we are in level two and things have remained relatively normal...ash is still in school, there's no massive shake-up in our lives. up in auckland, things aren't so hot: our pals up there are at level 3, which is a harder-core lockdown.

i have heard from so many americans that the most frustrating part of covid has been the lack of very clear nation-wide messaging. if you want to see an example of a government giving VERY CLEAR MESSAGING to a WHOLE COUNTRY about what these various levels mean, may i suggest you amble over to the government "alert system" website, it's inspiring. if you're wondering "amanda, what does level 2 MEAN?" you can go read exactly what it means: https://covid19.govt.nz/covid-19/alert-system/alert-system-overview/.

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

i am hoping to do more long-form writing this month.

i know i keep saying that.

i have things brewing inside of me, writing things.

they are going to have to come out eventually.

but i am starting to think like a book-writer again for the first time since 2013.

i think i have enough dots to connect.

i don't want to write a book.

maybe i'll just do what's easier: a series of essays? and then, voila: a BOOK of ESSAYS!

i don't know.

i do know that i made random friends with a copy-editor here in town, and my desire to befriend her told me a lot about my own subconscious agendas.

......

i'm very fragile nowadays.

my life feels very weird. 

there are still days where i wake up and i laugh, or i cry, and i think "this isn't happening."

today i haven't been to my own home in almost exactly one year.

i left the states for tour in the UK on august 20th, 2019.

i have never been away from america for a full year.

i am trying to make it all feel okay; it is not easy.

i miss my friends, i miss my family, i miss my belongings.

i miss america, even though america is being kind of terrible.

i miss going through what my friends are going through.

i am tired of talking on the phone all the time. i am tired of only hugging people i just met.

but at least i can hug people.

i keep telling myself that.

.........

i am trying to work on artistic projects, my patreon, my podcast, the upcoming dresden dolls record, videos, films, writing....

and i also feel like i'm falling down a fucking well.

but y'know...after the skirt poofs out. falling in a pleasant, manageable way.

i am floating, towards an unknown destination.

i know when i land, i'll be okay.

if you read my post a few days ago, called "don't get comfortable", you know that i'm personally struggling with balance right now. balancing single parenthood, balancing my work and art time, balancing my desire to stitch this community together and to delve into the stories that i know are blossoming under the surface in all of your lives.

i want, as usual, to do everything.

and: i have been a person and an artist (and now, a mother) for long enough that i know that "balance", is, of course, impossible. you aim, you guess, you do what feels right....you try. you get to the end of the day and you go to bed you say: i did enough.

the patreon has been more of a godsend than i ever could have imagined. it's making my work possible, my staff possible, EVERYTHING possible. 

who knew that we all might be locked up in our houses, trying to make sense of this all in the long haul?

i know that you're here because you're in for the whole ride, the artistic-long-haul, and oh boy, is this shit getting interesting, isn't it.

i'm a fully crowd-funded artist in the time of covid. me and my team are all making up the rules as we go along.  

i hope you understand how revolutionary this is, and also how messy.

i'm one woman trying to raise a kid on my own in a foreign country, with a manager in sydney and two staff in new york, and THAT'S IT, dude. no publisher. no label. no magical support system or bank to draw from. this is IT.

that being said, i have a BIG OL' REMINDER TO ALL OF YOU, whether you are BRAND NEW TO THE PATREON or you've been here for five years....

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE PATREON IS A REVOLVING DOOR.

(look! a vintage revolving door!)

the whole concept behind this patreon is that the CROWD WILL SHIFT,

the support net will expand and contract, and there will always be enough people to keep me afloat that people who cannot afford to stay can still access the majority of the content i put out.

from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.

yes. crowdfunding is kind of marxist. sue me.

but this is me banging you over the head with this idea:

IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO SUPPORT ME RIGHT NOW, DON'T. I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU ALWAYS.

IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO RAISE YOUR PLEDGE, GREAT. DO. THANK YOU.

and to all:

CAP YOUR PLEDGE! here's a tutorial! most of you, especially at the higher tiers, HAVE DONE THIS, which i find relieving. 

i am about to launch the podcast (next month, god willing) and that will mean that i could be putting up to 5-7 "things" out per month, that's a LOT, but as long as every has their pledges capped where they feel comfortable, we are ALL GOOD.

you may also want to rethink your tier! if you're in the $3 tier and have your pledge capped at $12....why not just join the $10 tier? you're probably going to be paying $10 anyway, and you may has well get all the extra perks, webchat access, and downloads.

same if you're in the $10 tier and capped at $30....just join the $25 tier and cap out at $25. you'll save money, and get ART IN THE MAIL (which is, by the way, COMING SOON, FROM NEW ZEALAND!!!)

and so forth.

can i say it again?

CAP. YOUR. PLEDGE.

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

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED IN JULY

someone local donated a piano.

i wrote a brand new song and recorded it in auckland, and then sent it to jherek bischoff in LA, where distance-string players played the orchestration.

it is one of the most beautiful songs i have ever made.

it makes me cry.

it's about lockdown, and support, and fear, and pain.

y'know, all the fun things.

i am going to be releasing it to patrons only at the end of the month if all goes well....(see below).

here's me and ash in the recording studio, roundhead, in auckland....

photo by xanthea o'connor

ash and xanthea and i cut loose and drove all the way up here.

here's ash...romping around waiheke island, near auckland. 

i'm glad we went while we had the chance.

right now, this would not really be allowed.

the auckland zoo...

...

OFFICIAL THINGS THAT WENT OUT.

first of all, an update about the release of my portishead cover, "it's a fire", with rhiannon giddens....

in the "shit gets delayed for reasons outside my control" department...

well.

i know that when i posted the backstory for this project, and charged for it here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/38758446

...i said it'd be out within the week.

then rhiannon's management got back to us and told us they needed to delay the release for their own reasons.

that's....fine! we can do that over here, because we are our own record label working on a psychedelic timeline that doesn't actually exist alongside any given reality.

it is now slated for release in september. 

i hope this does not degrage your trust...and the good news is, we've now run enough of the cost on the song that we've made a sizeable donation to the Free Black University...and that's awesome.

well done, us. now we just have to bite our fingernails and wait for the release of the actual song and artwork. waiting is hard, but some things, when i work with other artists, our out of our hands, and it's all good. it'll be out when it's out. this is part of why patreon is awesome. it's already paid for. rhiannon needed to wait. y'all get it. i'll keep communicating.

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

WE (FINALLY) RELEASED THE DIGITAL VERSION OF THE "THERE WILL BE NO INTERMISSION" ARTBOOK!!!

this project took a REALLY LONG time, and even if you have the physical book, there are literally hundreds of links to follow down the rabbithole, and a whole new introduction that i poured out of my heart.

if you haven't downloaded it yet, it's here for you:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/39853779

...

WE RELEASED "A NIGHTINGALE SANG IN BERKELEY SQUARE" with the BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA.

it's a lovely, calming, soothing song.

if you haven't listened yet, it's HERE:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/nightingale-sang-39600499

...

THE MUSICIAN EMILY WURRAMARA TOOK OVER MY INSTAGRAM FOR A DAY:

you can watch (or re-watch) the stories she posted in the takeover highlight:

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17944073713364158/

we are going to continue to pass the mic to black artists on my IG. 

if you aren't following over there: @amandapalmer.

...

WE ANNOUNCED A RUN OF NEW SHOWS IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND...BUT....

about a week and change ago, i added a few more dates in new zealand aotearoa, including an all ages matinee performances for kids...https://www.patreon.com/posts/lemonade-y-nz-40094532

BUT, all these shows will probably shifted/be rescheduled/be re=jiggered.

we will know more tonight, and we'll probably make big, hard decisions over the weekend.

as always, tickets and more information on my site...and for now, sales on most of these upcoming shows are frozen:
http://amandapalmer.net/shows

....

WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE PIKE....

as mentioned above, there's quite a logjam of projects....

i went to google a picture of a "logjam", and this is the best one that came up....and lo and behold the beauty of synchronicity, it's from everett washington, home of jason webley, my friend, who is the co-maker of one of my log-jammed projects! life is poetry.

right now...to avoid being repetitive, since most of our projects in production are still in the pipeline, i'm going to list them out by title only and if you'd like more information or to see an in progress picture, click here to view this section of may's althing....since news hasn't shifted much. 

https://www.patreon.com/posts/state-of-all-may-37552735

• THE "CONFESSIONAL" DOCUMENTARY WE SHOT IN TASMANIA....
  
• LOOK MUMMY NO HANDS MUSIC VIDEO...
  
• THE JENESSA JOFFE VIDEO PROJECT
  
• AT LONG LAST, THE NEW AMANDAPALMER.NET WEBSITE!!!! (HOPEFULLY COMING VERY SOON)...

YAYYYY.....the new website is on track to be finished by the end of this month, so if all things go according to plan, we will have this ready for you and launched at the end of august!!!

it's taken us, i shit you not, three years and a boatload of dough to make this thing.

there's also that UPCOMING SONG THAT I RECORDED IN AUCKLAND - title TBD - and i am VERY EXCITED ABOUT IT. 

all i can say about that is that i don't want to say too much, but it's incredible and you are going to love it and it feels very good to make new music again.

trying to get all these old logjammed projects out the door is going to be balanced out by my ability to release something incredible fresh and emotionally relevant.

this i, again, why i love the patreon. 

i wrote it last month, i recorded it...and i can put it the fuck out, just for you.

it's too good to release to the public, especially since it think it might be worthy of a video, which i would like to make here on the island.

and

one last teaser, since i mentioned jason webley....one of my favorite friends, soul sisters, and collaborators: jason and i recorded a secret song many months ago, and we have just been waiting for the right moment to make a crowd-centric video for it. well need some help from you. things have been so nuts that i haven't been able to ask for that help, but it's coming. stay tuned. 

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

THE "ART OF ASKING" PODCAST IS COMING.

REALLY. REALLY REALLY!!!

over the last year and a half, i've amassed over 20 interviews with amazing people.

the podcast was supposed to come out in feburary; the bushfires happened.

it was supposed to come out in april; but covid happened.

it was supposed to come out in may; but i'd become a single mother.

it was supposed to come out in july; i moved, and single-parenting remained really fucking hard.

it was supposed to come out in august; you can start seeing the theme.....

NOW, IF WE DON'T FUCK IT UP, IT'S COMING OUT IN SEPTEMBER.

do i promise?

no.

will it all get delayed again?

MAYBE!!!

is that okay!!

YES.

is that the theme of the podcast itself?

is EVERYTHING OKAY?????

YESSSS!!!!!!!

here's a little still of one of the "audiogram" images - this is me and laura jane grace....one of my favorite guests.

so.

the idea for the podcast is currently to release one of the "old" interviews every tuesday but have new, live follow-up interview with every guest a few days after the episode comes out, for patrons only, then archived for the public.

hold the phone.

also also, do the math: that's possibility 4-5 episodes a month. we'll be thing-ing all of them.

CAP. YOUR. PLEDGE! 

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

HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING...

and now...NITTY GRITTY TIME.

as of this writing there are 14,960 patrons pledging about $49,388 for the first Thing each month.

i go over this stuff every month, 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 (HOW MANY TIMES CAN I SAY THIS....if you are on a budget, you should cap your pledge please: here's the tutorial again), 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 too guilty!!!!!. really. do it. cap cap cap your pledge if you are on a budget. 

the numbers below are gross. they are 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. 

also, none of this reflects the money i SPENT MAKING THE ART, running the business, paying the office rent, getting myself around, getting the team around and fed and slept,....all the collaborators and my actual staff payroll, etc. 

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, especially when we do a lot of charity projects.

back in June, i Thanged Two Things:

May 2020: State of All Things was the first Thing and it earned about $56,158 from 15,225 patrons

"It's A Fire" (Portishead cover) was the second Thing and it earned about $24,717 from 8,939 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.

the patreon numbers have gone down a bit...but they tend to go up and down depending on my abilty to engage and make. i've been pretty preoccupied (ya think?) with ash and keeping house and home together, and also, people are tightening their budgets. this, again, is totally fine. my team can still get paid, i haven'thad to lay anyone off, and i'm so grateful we have this safety net, period.

some of my musician friends are selling their pianos, their apartments, their cars, their houses.

i am not having to do that. 

i am really fucking grateful.

i believe in the ebb and flow. so the patreon has dropped a bit $$-wise, but the number of patrons has stayed pretty steady, which is really great. it means that people are adjusting but sticking around.

......

DISPATCHES FROM TEAM AFP.....

from hayley:

 In July I took a week off work starting on my birthday, which was on the 3rd, and it felt really food for me to be offline. On my birthday itself I got some friends together with my twin sister for an online zoom party where we got to catch up and play games together. 

It’s not often that I don’t celebrate my birthday with my twin, so it was sad to be apart this year, but we made the best with what we had available.

There wasn’t much I could do or anywhere I could go on my time off work considering the circumstances, but New York City opened beaches for swimming in July and the idea of being around water, outside in nature and have something, anything, to experience that felt like summer was very appealing. I rented a car with the person I’m seeing and we went to the beach and had a picnic in a park and it was extremely soul enriching. Despite my best efforts, I got very, very sunburnt. To be able to spend time with another human being (I live alone so I’ve spent this lockdown quite isolated), and to soak up some sun and nature and experience such simple but so precious summer activities was really rewarding and made me feel more human, more me than I have in quite a bit. 

It, of course, was surreal to be outside of my apartment and to see other people out in the world, but I took precautions, wore masks, kept my distance and was on high alert. The time in nature, plus actually taking time offline and not compulsively checking my email and working at all hours of the day, felt really, really good for me and felt like I swept out the caves of my brain and discarded some mental weight.

As far as Patreon goes, releasing the digital edition of the artbook in July was such a massive project that I put a lot of effort and time into. It really felt like my hands were touching every piece of it along the way and I felt a lot of pressure to get all the pieces out the door on time, almost like my fingers were pulling the limbs of various marionettes. Seeing it come together and get out the door on the wire was such a relief, and even better seeing how happy many of you are to have it in your digital hands. Lots of labor and love for over a year has been put into the project, lots of it you just can’t see because it’s behind the scenes, but I hope you feel it when you browse through the digital pages.

July has also been a productive month in the development of Amanda’s new website, which I am also overseeing. It’s coming together quite nicely and we’re working with a great development team to get it ready for you.

It’s been hard to write these updates these last few months, because I want to share good news, exciting news, but, quite frankly, times are hard, morale isn’t quite there with the weight of current events and I’m plugging away trying to get my work done, support Amanda and all of you, and keep my head above water. 

Lots of the work these days is behind a screen, alone, not much tantalizing details to share. 

So with that, know that we are all here, doing our best, and trying to keep our spirits up and we hope you are all too.

Be safe, and be well, wherever you are create and share some joy.

\m/,
Hayley

P.S. My siblings and I have been having regular game nights over zoom and I've been using the virtual background feature to entertain and appeal to my 3 year old niece... and let me just say, it's working, here I am "hanging out with my friends" :)

{dearest hayley. what a marathon of perseverance. thank you for continuing to show up, even though the landscape, in reality, is not quite a rainbow festival of muppets. i lvoe and appreciate everything you do, every day. this community wouldn't be what it is without you....hats off, as always. xxx AFP}

.....

from michael:

Hello Patrons,

Greetings once again from my apartment in Brooklyn. 

With the exceptions of a few day trips to drive family members places I have been within a 3 mile radius of where I currently sit for the past 162 days as of Tuesday August 11th. I’ve missed friend’s weddings, 4 funerals (as of yesterday), several birthdays, many dinners with friends, summer vacations that had been planned, day trips to the beach, and, and, and. . . 

I know that so many of us are all in the same boat. While I am incredibly lucky to have a wonderful home and a great situation overall comparatively, this past month. . . really got to me. 

I’m usually the one who is trying to see the silver lining in things and help other people not get too down when things are difficult, but July was a difficult month for a lot of reasons. As mentioned in my last update my July started off healing from the injuries I received from the accident I was in. This coupled with the state of the United States at the moment on so many levels, the continuous bad news regarding Covid here, the political climate here, and other things going on in my personal life left me in a pretty low state. Since we are all so tight-knit and because I’m not one to hide my feelings, Team AFP was amazingly supportive and lovingly strong-armed me into taking two weeks off of work to recover both physically and mentally. 

So. Here we are. In August already. Not sure how that happened.

Because of my time off, I don’t have too many work updates for the month outside of all the things we have in the pipeline that are slowly but surely making their collective ways from our desks to yours. Prepping the Podcast; Setting up a NZ Tour which is now tentative due to NZ returning to Level 2 & Level 3 Lockdowns; Looking at Documentaries, which are beautiful and important but feel like they were filmed a lifetime ago; And trying, as always, to make sense of all the email. That’s what my desk looks like these days. Normally I would make some kind of apology for being a bit of a downer this month, but I’m trying to switch from being overly apologetic to being thankful, so I will say instead, 

“Thank you for reading. 

Thank you for your continued support. 

Thank you for hanging in there wherever you are. Thank you for being you. I love you.”

-Michael

{michael, i love you. we're all in this for the long haul, everything we're all feeling is real. take what you need. the donut will keep changing form :). xxx AFP}

.....

from alex:

this month was a hard one.  

merch has dried up like a shriveled little raisin, not just for amanda but for all the artists i work with, and combined with my planned touring work for the year all being cancelled, i’ve essentially been out of work for a couple of months now.

it’s gotten hot and sticky and unpleasant here in London. i am thankful I have a garden i can lie down in, but even that has become unbearably warm. 

so here we are, 4 months into lockdown, and it finally broke me. 

so i took myself on a solo trip to the beach for a day. i found an empty corner of the world and i stood on the shoreline feeling the water between my toes and splashing on my shins, and i stood there for 3 hours

and now i feel less like I am falling apart.

i fully recommend it to anyone.

i also recommend alanis morissette’s new album, “such pretty forks in the road”. 

i’d go so far as to say this might be my favourite thing she has ever produced. it’s a journey through her emotions, fears, anxieties, and depression, and while her experiences come from her journey through motherhood, i’ve found her words transcend that experience, and i’ve been finding a lot of solace in it lately.

be good to yourselves, my friends.

-alex
xo

{i love you alex. i'm excited to hear the new alanis. we are going to figure out some merch things to keep you occupied, i hope...may we unjam our log. keep breathing. xx afp}

.....

THE SHADOWBOX COMMUNITY FORUM....

is doing pretty well! i haven't been able, as usual, to spend as much time there as i want, but i'm trying to breakl the older social media habits and spend more time over there. if you want to weigh in about the biden/harris ticket, i invite you to converse (kindly) with your neighbors...

.....

OTHER ART TO SUPPORT....

THE PIANODROME CROWDFUND!!

this is a really worthy crowdfund for an incredible venue in the UK - MADE OF PIANOS.

i've met and love these people and just donated myself....please give it a look:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-pianodrome

here are some photos of when i played this phenomenal venue in edinburgh a couple years ago.

here's a little video of me playing "elanor rigby" badly on the ukulele in the space...

https://twitter.com/SCOTCHBOXVR/status/1029764838854209536

and here's me and neil...memories.

.....

ART BEGETTING ART....

if you have art, send it to art@amandapalmer.net, post it to the shadowbox (AFP art, or DOLLS art), or tag me on instagram. 

here's a gorgeous oil on canvas by rick battram (@rbattwo)...

I WILL SURVIVE.

remember that day?

i do.

.....

here's a gorgeous "there will be no intermission"-inspired piece by @mortuaryofart

...

this painting, by @krista_ewer_art....

...

this beautiful sketch by @j0ni_augustine....

someone named Jakepatch posted this RAD dresden dolls hand tattoo to the forum...

i bawl.

if you have tattoo art, please post it up to the box!! here is the DD tattoo thread, and here's the AFP one.

we'll scour those posts every month looking for new things to post on instargram and here on the althing....even if your tattoos are old, they're beautiful.

....

i love you all.

thank you for being here, for supporting me, my child, my team, and my ability to make art.

you have no idea how much it means to me, especially in these uncertain times.

i know my whole team would hug you if they could.

i am hugging you with my mind.

see you soon....

xx

a

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

IF YOU'RE IN THE USA.....DON'T FORGET TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN THE NOVEMBER 2020 ELECTION. DO NOT BE CONFUSED!!! help is there: you can register to vote, find your local voter registration deadlines, update your voter registration, check that your registration is still on the books, find your polling place and other important election information HERE at http://headcount.org

..........

1. if you’re a patron, 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. 

2. see All the Things (over 100 of them) i've made so far on patreon: http://amandapalmer.net/patreon-things

3. JOIN THE SHADOWBOX COMMUNITY FORUM, find your people, and discuss everything: https://forum.theshadowbox.net/

4. 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/

5. general AFP/patreon-related questions? ask away, someone will answer: patronhelp@amandapalmer.net