THIS FRIDAY, for ALL PATRONS: a LIVING ROOM LIVESTREAM with many special guests. (Patreon)

Hallo loves.

TL;DR, I am throwing a huge variety-let's-hang-and-have-fun-with-all-the-friends webcast for ALL patrons this Friday, 5pm EST. RSVP/stream here.

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Greetings from my house in Bearsville, NY. We had a snow day yesterday, and it was beautiful. Ash had no school and I fecked off work and we made fondue for breakfast.

I've been wondering what to Thing, if anyThing, this month. There's plenty to choose from in the back catalogue and shoebox piles, there's a few demos and poems I've been hoarding...but...

Lots of my friends and a few surprise strangers HAPPEN to be in upstate New York all at the same time, so I said FUCK IT and I am inviting them all over to my house for a full hootenany!!!

We are going to put on a Living Room Concert just for you all, because WE CAN.

Featuring conversation, wine, fires, guitars, pianos, songs and poems.

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It's THIS FRIDAY, from 5pm EST til around 7:30ish.

That's 9pm UK time, 10pm Euro-time, and SATURDAY (March 18th) 10am NEw Zealand time and 8am for Australia.

And YES it's ST. Patricks day. We will bring beer for the occasion in addition to the wine.

Special guests (as of now):

Holly Miranda

Sophie Strand

Father Nathan Monk

Sxip Shirey and Coco Karol

Gracie Coates

....and a very VERY special surprise guest. (IF they make it...and you are welcome to guess who it is. Hint: it is an incredible songwriter/performer, whose work I have covered...but we've never performed together).

It's for ALL PATRONS, not just the webcast tier! All patrons can RSVP, chat, and enjoy the archive when it's done.

The whole concert/cast will be archived if you miss it.

YOU CAN RSVP NOW (and find out your local starting time, and start chatting and leaving questions) HERE:

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/3myf27s1

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More about the cast:

I haven't put together an all-patron livecast concert this way - random guest variety style - in GOD knows how long, and the moment feels ripe and right.

These are some of my dearest friends in the area right now, and the people with whom I feel the safest and happiest. They're all seekers, delvers, truth-finders, brave artists of the heart who like going to difficult places. I love these people. And they're all right here, right now, this one exact Friday on earth.

This is also a healing moment of sorts: we were ALL supposed to be part of my big public O+ festival webcast back in August, and Nathan had traveled all the way to town for the occasion...then Holly got Covid and had to drop out. (And little did I know, I had Covid at the show, because I tested positive the next morning. You can watch the archive of that concert here, it's beautiful).

So forgive me if this is coming out of nowhere, but my tired soul needs nothing more right now that to have a reason to sit down at my piano, rehearse a few songs (and maybe work on a new one), get my goddamn house CLEAN enough to invite a house full of poets and writers and musicians over to break bread, drink wine, and share a little bit of their souls with me, and you.

I'm happy to take song (or poem, or reading) requests. Leave them in the Q&A of the cast or drop them here in the comments.

Holly Miranda, one of the guests, is also going to be doing the A/V, and we have a special new new local cast assistant, Elizabeth Grammaticas (who will not be unknown to a lot of you, she's been part of the Dolls & AFP community for years, and she just moved to my neighborhood!!)

The guests:

GRACIE COATES (Songwriter)

Gracie is my sometimes-neighbor in Woodstock/Bearsville and is half of the band Gracie & Rachel. SHe's gonna kick it on piano. 

HOLLY MIRANDA (Songwriter)

Holly is a singer-songwriter, musician, producer, video maker, and co-founder Eye-Knee Records. She, like me, straddles many worlds and knows many circus people. I discovered Holly's music while I was living in New Zealand and then found out - boom - that she lived right down the road from me in Woodstock. When I got home we became pals. Not unlike the way I met...

SOPHIE STRAND (Writer)

Also based in the Hudson Valley, Sophie's writing and poetry focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. Her most recent work is "The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine", and I can personally recommend it. She's writing writing like nobody on earth. People kep sedning me links to her essays while I was living in New Zealand, and then I discovered she was, like Holly, my immediate mountain neighbor.

Her substack is HERE and very much worth a follow: https://sophiestrand.substack.com/

Also: Sophie and Holly and I recently collaborated on a film/spoken word piece called "I Will Not Be Purified", that was funded by this here patreon. Go listen/watch, and be ready to be strangely moved by her miraculous way with words.

SXIP SHIREY & COCO KAROL (Composer & Choreographer)

Sxip and Coco are partners in life and in art, and they're both old friends who got married here on this land from which we shall be webcasting.

Their work is sui generis: They've performed iterations of their collaborative piece 'The Gauntlet" - an immersive, community-inclusive choral work - at the Sydney Opera House and the Fisher Center at Bard College.

Coco Karol is a Dancer, teacher, and artist whose cross-disciplinary performance works  draw inspiration from many dance and visual art forms including ballet, butoh, and somatic practices. She and I have collaborated on numerous projects including the music videos for "Drowning in the Sound" and "Mother", both of which she choreographed...and performed in.

Sxip Shirey is an International composer, producer, sound artist, and sonic pioneer. His compositions, performances and curated evenings “Sxip’s Hour of Charm” established him as a fixture in New York’s underground art scene and internationally. Sxip and I have toured together on a many occasions. You may remember his role as "The Evil Manager" in the Evelyn Evelyn touring show, and you may find this cover of St. Vincent's "Marry Me" performed by me, Sxip, Reggie Watts, Jason Webley and more very ... funny. Espeically when Jason hands out pizza to the audience.

ALSO: Sxip has one of his own beautiful live variety shows - "Sxip's Hour of Charm" - coming up in NYC @ National Sawdust this April 1st if you're in the area and can go! (I MAY EVEN TRY TO GO!). All info here: https://www.nationalsawdust.org/event/sxip-shireys-hour-of-charm

FATHER NATHAN MONK (Writer)

Nathan is a dyslexic author, former Russian Orthodox priest, depressive humorist and activist writing on the issues of social justice, religion, theology, and philosophy.

I came across his writing while I was in New Zealand and was totally floored by his honest and hilarious way with words. He's very open - and has written extensively online - about growing up occasionally homeless, and he writes with incredible tenderness about what it's like to be an author with dyslexia.

His most recent book is "Russian Sleeper Cell", and his freshly-launched substack is HERE.

AND, my SPECIAL SURPRISE GUEST...

I'm not 100% certain they can make it but if they CAN...ohhhhhhh.

I'll give you a hint.

Just one hint.

Just a tiny, tiny hint.

But only once.

Ahem.

Oh and maybe they are a nationality that helps mark the holiday.

:D

.......

What will we all DO over this 2+ hour webcast?

Read, sing, talk, ask, answer, joke, dance, delight.

We'll figure it out.

See you Friday.

Make sure you RSVP. You have to be signed into Patreon to do so!

And start leaving comments/questions in the Q&A!

Here's the link one last time:

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/3myf27s1

xxx

AFP