Thinging. A Realtime Discussion. (Patreon)

Hello my loves.

This is a Thing. It’s…an arm warmer? A leg warmer? I found it in my woods. I asked Coco if it was hers. She had been shooting a music video in the woods the day before, so it seemed like an obvious match.

This is not her thing. What is this thing and who does it belong to and how did it get in the woods? I may never know.

It is a beautiful Thing. I know, like many Things in my life, do not know what to do with it. Throwing this Thing away seems criminal. It’s a beautiful, possibly hand-knitted, Thing of beauty.

Since I am Amanda Palmer, I am tempted to ask here in the community if anybody needs or wants this thing. I would mail it to you. But that would mean adding one more Thing to Do and Mail to my now catastrophically long list of Things to Do and Mail.

This is a good note on which to open what I wanna talk about right now.

I have a Thing backlog that is very, very, very long. The pandemic and my waylay in New Zealand destroyed my work flow, and my capacity to organize (which was never top-notch to begin with), and my release schedule (and my brain, and many parts of my heart).

There's a beautiful video recording I did about a month ago - of a live sunset four-handed piano performance I did at the top of a mountain at sunset with Luke the genius street performing piano-player - with the intention of maybe Thinging it. I'm getting good at making things again but worse at relasing them to the patreon. I get overwhelmed.

The Thing-shoebox Explodeth.

Now I am home and truly confronted with the Things that never got finished, or put out. The podcasts, the video projects, the half-done ideas, the old recordings….it’s all THERE.

I have no anger at myself. My god, none.

It has been such an arduous few years.

I spent many months just surviving, digesting, mothering, keeping my head above water. I forgive myself for starting things and not finishing them.

It's okay. I say it because I need to say it to myself.

Meanwhile, as the Things confront me, I am putting together a team for the Dresden Dolls and all of the work that I made five years ago seems like a distant dream. I am not sure what has value anymore - to the world, or to me.

I asked and received permission and am seriously thinking about Thinging a poem this month. Alex and I have also been working on a kind of “Best Of” Thing-retrospective, and I’m also spending time with some new musician pals in Woodstock who have great gear and I’m wondering if it might be nice to just MAKE some music, some cover songs, some beautiful sounds. I also wonder if it isn’t time to just rent the gear and do a long piano session - like the “Emergency Soothing Music” session / webcast that I did in New Zealand, which everybody seemed to love.

I have a lot on my mind and heart, and I’m exhausted. I am still trying to catch up with the friends and family I haven’t seen for four years. I’m trying to mother my culture-shocked kiddo. I am trying to empty, empty my brain in order to figure out what the next right decisions are: and I have many huge life decisions heading my way. I am trying to SORT. It's so hard.

So I do what I usually do in these situations, and I come to you, the patrons, the denizens of this backstage haunt.

What do you ... need?

What would pacify your heart right now? I mostly just want to ask and see what you say. It may not change the nature of what I release - and how - too very much. But it helps to ask, as I want to be more in dialogue with the world. I've missed the world. I don't want to music and art into the void. I have so much to put out, and so many questions, but I also want to cast my eyes around the room and see who's here, and who's listening, and what it is that you crave. This is why I love the patreon so much.

Because you're real, and you're here.

So I supposed I'm not asking a very direct question, and I suppose I often know the answers deep in my heart, but like with many things, I need to talk out loud with my pals to understand what's going on.

So talk to me about Things, and I'll be listeing, and slowly, I'll start the long haul of excavating the Art Pile.

What do I do with this Thing?

I'm reading comments for the next day or so.

Talk to me, dear ones.

Love from the woods...

XX