The Living Room Livestream, with special guest Glen Hansard, is archived.... (Patreon)

Dear ones.

TR;DL: Yesterday's livestream (many of you guessed it: the special guest was Glen Hansard, of "The Commitments"/The Frames/"Once"/Falling Slowly fame) is UP and you can rewatch/listen here. 

Big question to the patreon: should we do more of these casts?

COMMENT.

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Also coming into (all!) your boxes a moment: a separate post with a video I took of Glen playing "Falling Slowly" (at my HOUSE! at MY HOUSE!!!!! I rarely fangirl. My time came.)

THE FINAL GUESTS, in order:

AMANDA PALMER

SXIP SHIREY AND COCO KAROL (with RAQUEL ACEVEDO KLEIN)

GLEN HANSARD (with RAQUEL)

GRACIE COATES 

FATHTER NATHAN MONK 

HOLLY MIRANDA (SOLO, THEN WITH SXIP, THEN SXIP & AMANDA)

SOPHIE STRAND (with AMANDA, GRACIE & SXIP)

Overlap notes: Holly was also the head tech cast-wizard and sound mixer. She lifted a heavy load and I owe her one for this. Elizabeth Grammaticas was the webcast fairy and cast around the socials while we focused on the live work.

The cast was also peppered with Q&As from the audience, and most of the discussions were between me, Nathan and Sophie....with chime-ins from the rest of the room.

Extra credit to EVERYONE for helping helm the camera, especially Holly's out-of-town filmmaker friend, Mikel.

NOTE: am thinging/charging for THIS post, as I forgot to charge for yesterday's cast post. (Oops, but whatever).

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ABOUT THE CAST, AND THE DAY, and THE DOGS:

So again, here's the link to re-watch/re-listen, and you have to be logged into your patreon: 

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

If you're going to rewatch the cast (do!!), there are some moments where the camerawork is a little shaky, and the wobble kicks in, and the resolution leaves MUCH to be desired. BUT: it works GREAT as a listen, so I'd recommend tuning into just the audio.

There were some really fantastic questions, discussions, and tangents. 

I played Ampersand (the audio was a bit off), Runs in the Family, Thing about things (which Glen loved, insert heart emoji), and sat in with Gracie and Sxip to underscore Sophie's reading, which made us all pretty emo. It was a good way to end. New song....soon. I promise.

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It was attended by about 800 patrons, which is pretty wonderful considering there's 10,000 of you. The comments themselves were a work of art.

If you were there, or have thoughts/ideas/feedback, I'm reading. TALKA TO ME.

There were tech problems galore (we know) but we learned - we think - everything we need to know for next time, and the main question is about whether we should try to make this a monthly event. SHOULD WE TRY?

I bet we can get it working...we are just gonna have to invest in some GEAR. But the resounding screams from the comments were that YES, this kind of thing - an all-community, all-patron webcast, with a rotating set of guests - is a really beloved idea.

So...this one was rough n ready, and it's archived, but honestly, and more importantly, it HAPPENED. Loose cables, pixelated pictures, wobbly cameras, weird sound, volunteer light-holders...and nothing really working perfectly....

And still - it was perfect.

Because it was a perfect day. For me, at least.

I had a Perfect Fucking Day yesterday.

Somehow, between noon and midnight, I managed to write an entirely new song (which I didn't ultimately perform on the webcast, it just wasn't baked yet...but it's ALMOST there), run a webcast with 10 guests, AND perform a guest slot at Glen Hansard's show in Woodstock. I AM TIRED TODAY.

But not too tired to come here and post a ton of photos and thing this THING and bask in the afterglow of a couple jobs well done...or at least...done.

Here's my new writing space for the Dolls record. I officially moved in yesterday, and I christened the space but sitting down and not even taking my coat off because the heat wasn't on but my house was filled with people prepping for the webcast so there was no place to privately play piano and guess the fuck what, I got my song written. Cheer me, please. It's the second one I've written since getting home in June. It's a melodic and tempo twin to "Another Christmas", but this one is about the Titanic and Houdini. It needs a few more washes to sound right.

AND THEN....

We CASTED!

Tons of photos, in no particular order...

Glen on the Viking Hall piano...

And Glen brought along Raquel Acevedo Klein...who I just met.

Want a small world story?

She was literally in the midst of working on a project with SXIP when she mentioned that she might be coming upstate to sing at Glen Hansard's show.

What the fuck? I'm used to this from New Zealand but how does New York also have only like 26 people in it???

Raquel is a really gifted vocalist (AND composer, AND conductor) and she SHONE with Glen...and did some improv with Sxip and Coco as well.

(Some/most of these pictures were taken by me, on my phone, some by others, on their phones, some came in via text but they're all mixed up, so excuse the lack of credits this time round):

Holly on the board, me, Sophie, Nathan....

Nathan reading from my copy of "Russian Sleeper Cell":

Holly and I look weird, but look at Coco's beautiful face....fuckkkk....

I didn't get a good shot of Gracie playing live (she crushed it), but here's her during soundcheck.

Mikel holding the camera...the sweet man:

Coco dancing while Sxip and Raquel play...and Gracie mans the camera:

Sxip and Holly collab:

Gracie and I underscoring Sophie's readings about Ghostpipe:

Gracie listening to Glen...

.......

AND THEN....for my second stunt....

I drove over to Glen's show (which was why he was in town) at Levon Helms Studios (yes, where I debuted "Another Christmas") and managed to get "The Ride" into playable form.

I was so filled with love and emotion from watching Glen play his set, and watching all my friends bear their hearts all day...I brought it, people.

A bit of a final hoot with Glen and more guests...

(photo by Anthony Mulcahy)

LOVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEE

While We are doing THE LOVE....

Raquel, Sxip, Coco, Glen...

......

AND THEN.

We awoke.

THE SUN CAME OUT.

CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE BREAKFAST NATHAN MADE FOR US THIS MORNING.  Don't get me started with how I feel about men who truly love a kitchen. 

He cooked up a full southern FEAST for us....grits, biscuits, gravy...I made some greens, Elizabeth whipped up some heavy cream for the Banana Bread invention we won't talk about....

This is Sophie's dog, Baba Ganoush (and Coco and Sxip's beautiful 3-year-old, and Ash's pal, Thelonious):

I regret that I didn't get any photos of Buddy, who came to the house for the entire cast, and had to keep shifting to different rooms. (He had a bone. He was happy.)

Mount Guardian.

This is what it's all about.

Sophie calls us "Oddkin".

Here we are.

The Oddkin.

I love you all.