ok....WE DID IT. Introducing GRAVESIDE VARIETY: our New Home away from Home, the Third Space. (Patreon)

Okay My Loves!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I GOT DEE NEWS.

Short story: pop-up is HAPPENING, and I'm doing two patron-only events IN it this Sunday. We aren't ready to stream yet, but we will take video and send word.

Long story:

I threatened, I polled, I read, I thought, and I did.

I'm going for it. NAY, I AM DOING IT. DOING!

STAND UP, HOLLER, CLAP YOUR HANDS, SIGH BLISSFULLY FOR....

....a community art-space for my patrons, the dresden dolls community, my local friends and musos and neighbors, the kiddos of all ages, and basically a waystation for all my rando tender-weirdo-soul-mates.

YEssss....I am thrilled to announce that after some hems and haws, I've signed a short lease on 33 Rock City Road, in Woodstock, New York, and this weekend will be the soft opening - for patrons and pals only - for GRAVESIDE VARIETY: your local patron-clubhouse, coffeehaus, meeting space, meeting house, and piano bar.

A place for friends.

A place for kiddos.

A place to play.

A place for the dolls community to gather when the band comes to play locally later this summer.

A place to read - drink coffee - drink - teach - learn - listen to music - knit - DANCE - discuss - strum - argue - SCREAM - move - hug - meditate - DREAM - love - paint - and SING.

A place to feel wonderful and play the piano. A place - in the wise word of Shakira - to TRY EVERYTHING .

She's ragged, but she's ours, loves.

We just moved the piano in.

Like most of my art, this undertaking will be partly patron-funded AND will eventually be open to the public. I am funding the majority of this with my own cash, and I also have some friends investing and helping out to make sure I don't go under.

For the feelings: I wanna start this space off with just us, and then I’ll eventually tell the rest of the world (and the internet).

For now, this space is just for patrons (and my friends and neighbors, and whoever you patrons wanna bring).

I read the hundreds of comments that y’all patrons put up on the post i started about this idea. The main gist I got was threefold:

1) The locals - and the people who think they might be able to occasionally visit - were JAZZED BEYOND BELIEF.

2) The majority of non-locals who live around the globe were excited to be patron flies-on-the-wall and contribute to see what artistically/communally manifests out of this weirdly expressive community experiment, and we are gonna try to STREAM A TON!!!

and

3) The majority of people (which was a small slice) who weren’t jazzed to fund this allowed that they are happy to cap their pledges for the next three months or so - and I’ll go this as a Third Thing every month.

Which is poetic, because *so* many patrons, in their comments, mentioned the concept of A THIRD SPACE, and how this sounds like one. A third space: a place that isn’t home and isn’t work but feels cosy and safe. That’s the concept here.

So. For the next THREE MONTHS, I am going to Third Thing this third space, create in it, use it for patron events and webcasting, share it with other artists, see what patrons wanna do with and in it, and basically use it as ... an inspiration base. As requested: this will ONLY be thing-ed on a three-thing month, so that people can cap their pledges if they're not feeling like funding it. But I feel at the core of my soul that this space is going to give back to the patrons more that it's gonna cost. We are plotting some really cool shit that will resonate not only locally, but into your ears, eyes, screens, hearts. We're gonna make this work.

My hope is that by the end of those initial three months, we'll hit a fork: either the space will be able to financially carry/pay for itself, or me and y'all patrons will decide that it's worth continually Thinging, OR I'll just let it all slide into the creek! Hooray.

My partners in crime this summer are going to be the musicians Holly Miranda and Gracie Coates - they're both helping me run the space/venue, and they need this post-covid joy-buzz as much as I do. Above is a little video Holly and Gracie took of me this morning in the space, trying to compose a theme song. Our internet and security guy, Mike, wandered in and pointed out that it bears an uncanny sonic resemblance to:

https://youtu.be/zNq0Umgvkas

:D

I'll post a longer video showing off the whole space when I send up the Althing tomorrow! And I'll let you all know about some streams we're gonna do for $10 patrons AND all patrons.

THERE IS A LOT MORE INFO and FUN COMING: events, event ideas, wish lists for furniture/stuff, potluck ideas, streaming ideas ... endless ideas. This is JUST THE BEGINNING.

And - I just got off tour and I'm fecking exhausted so forgive the messiness.

But also...just in the last breakneck day of working in the space, I’ve met three of my neighbors who I didn’t know. Norman saw I was in the space and came by to chat about his childhood. William - my immediate new neighbor across the way - came by his dashing hat and told me about the groundhogs who burrow under his house and mostly hang out in the cemetery. He told me knows "how to deal" with the groundhogs. I don't know what he means by that. BUT HE OFFERED HIS SERVICES. Mike, from the fire department, came by to help with the internet and looked at the flue.

I mean.

This is also why I am doing this: THIS IS WHY. Meeting these people. Coming back to life. To connect the neighborly fabric of my life after so much ripping. And to write about it and bring you all with me … and to have a physical place I can go that feels totally unbaggaged, safe and holy, not doused in pain and bad memories.

I am a groundhog.

I am a mammal.

I go where the food is.

This is the food.

..........

THIS SUNDAY, IT KICKS OFF FOR PATRONS!!!

SUNDAY IS THE DAY WE OPEN OUR DOORS TO PATRONS ONLY, and we'll take it from there.

**FREE PUBLIC PARKING IS AMPLE RIGHT BEHIND THE BUILDING!!!!**

PATRONS (and your people) CAN SWING BY THIS SUNDAY, JUNE 4TH, for TWO soft-opening EVENTS, one morning, one evening!

** WE DO NOT YET HAVE A LIQUOR LICENSE**!

You can BYOB non-alcoholic stuff, we will have cups and NA beverages for donation!

Do what you gotta do.

For both of these events: I am going to put a TINY number of tickets on sale TOMORROW, in the patron-only Althing, that way only patrons can access tickets. The space only fits about 50(ish) people and we don't wanna deal with people dropping out, or not being able to get in!

So we are charging a nominal amount of $($5 for the morning, $10 for the evening) to just make sure there aren't 100 people loitering outside. If it sells out, don't worry!

We are going to be doing TONS of stuff!!!!!

SUNDAY MORNING, JUNe 4th - 9AM-12PM - $5 donation - MORNING PIANO LOUNGE/BAKED GOODS POTLUCK/KIDDO PLAYSPACE/COFFEE TRUCK!!

Our friend Jeff from Heavy Feather is setting up a coffee truck in the parking lot! Come on over and we'll show you around! Bring any kind of breakfast-y food, baked goods, juice or morning-food to share, and we'll bless this goddamn space! We'll bring some cups and plates and napkins but anything you can bring (if you're bringing food) will be helpful (plates, flatware, etc).

Again, tickets will go on sale tomorrow - link will be in the Althing.

GET TICKETS.

…………..

SUNDAY NIGHT, JUNE 4th - 6pm-9pm - $10 donation - LANCE HORNE AND AMANDA PALMER PRESENT:

"LANCE AND AMANDA SHOW UP": a Piano-side sing-a-long party!!

Yes. We are musical theater dorks. My old friend Lance is an accomplished piano accompanist (I met him because he was touring with Meow Meow, and he's accompanied Alan Cumming, Liza Minelli, Jake Shears from the Scissor Sisters, and many more). Here's me and Lance being ridic at one point:

If you're ever been to his "Mondays in the Club" night at Alan Cumming's Club Cumming, you'll get the drift. It's A PARTY AROUND A PIANO. Curated Chaos. WE WILL SING! Lance will play. I will play. Friends will play. We can do some piano KARAOKE. We'll have a hoot. Lance will bring sheet music and also has an ipad he can use to pull up songs, and we will DORK OUT. Musical Theater dorks extra welcome. Bring Sheet Music if you wanna.

GET TICKETS.

...........

AN ASK:

FOR BOTH OF THESE EVENTS, if you wind up coming, and you have any CHAIRS you can bring with you to DONATE, we are looking!!! Nice, wooden, cabaret-style, kitchen/dining-room style....

.....not too big, not too clonky, easy to move around: this kinda vibe. If you have a chair or two, email us and we'll yay or nay it. We don't need 200 chairs...only about 15-20. Email us at gravesidevariety@gmail.com if you're able to bring chairs!

.......

ALSO, for these and all upcoming patron events: we are going to try to put up a WALL OF PATRON MINI-ART. I have 10,000 patrons, so keep the art **small**. ANYTHING! A photo, a drawing, a painting, a pressed flower in glass, an old piece of memorabilia, anything goes. I'd love to have ONE PEICE OF ART from every patron!!!! I'll be chuffed if we get 500.

Less than 5x5 inches, and please, if you can, frame it and make it hangable with a nail!!

It'll wind up looking something like this in the space:

Gimme a second, you non-local/overseas people, we are also going to set up a PO Box!!!!!! This isn't the end.

......

Why are we calling it Graveside Variety ...?

Well, first, because it's hilariously squished between three  graveyards.

Which is just very funny to me, a card-carrying goth living in the hippie-est town in America.

Our original name for the joint was going to be "Bob's Not Here", as a kind of nod to the Bob-Dylan-Disneyfication of Woodstock. if you know your American history, you know how deep the feels go when it comes to the Woodstock festival (the 1969 one -not the rapey 90s reduxes). It was good shit. Great music. Now there is a whole Woodstock festival cottage industry in my time. Seriously - this town is in danger of becoming a full-time monument to Bob Dylan’s penis. I think he’d hate it. Any great musician would. He didn’t even play Woodstock - but he lived here for a spell. Now? There is 1960s Spaceballs-the-flamethrower-level merchandising effort here in town. Tourists come. They buy the Bob Dylan merch. The whole town is starting to feel like a Hippie Hard Rock Café. Dude. BOB IS NOT HERE.

So I wanted to name it “Bob’s Not Here”. The people who got the name joke thought it was hilarious, but some people just stared blankly.

Graveside Variety was my runner-up, but it also made everybody laugh.

So it STUCK.

I can also already see the T-Shirt. Although I think, when we get to the point of merchandising, that "Bob's Not Here" might have to make a comeback.

I mean...here was my original sketch for the venue's logo.

.....

In closing...

there is so much more to come.

I wanted to thank you for helping to fund this little dream.

And I wanted to tell you that I talked to one of my fave cousins on the phone this morning and she said: “Whatever is happening, you sound happy. You sound like yourself. You sound like Amanda again.”

And I told her:

"Yes, because I am happy".

And I am HAPPY. This makes me HAPPY. I am also happy because my fucking band is back together and we just FUCKING CRUSHED the last two weekends of shows and my soul came back to life .... song by song.

But I am also seriously happy because of THIS, because I AM OPENING A SPACE FOR YOU AND MORE ME AND FOR MY FRIENDS to play in. This opens my heart up.

This is really what brings me joy.

This kind of connecting.

I need this.

Like air.

I used to be happy so much more often, and then Covid and New Zealand and Divorce and near-full-time mothering all happened at once, and I found myself in a kind of permanent catatonic mode. Just surviving, and not feeling a lot of joy. Not finding the beauty of connection through spontaneous making of space and place.

But now I'm here, and my friends are all excited and have my back, and many of you are going to come be here with me, and my friends are going to use this place to make music and art, and have a THIRD SPACE, and this all feels so so right. And who knows what will happen next.

I hope me doing this brings a lot of joy to a lot of people.

I think it will.

So thank you, patrons.

You helped me make this happen. Hopefully it will increase the net positivity of the neighborhood, the world, and beyond.

Here’s some more photos of the space.

So much more to come.

Here’s Mike checking the FLUE....the fireplace WORKS!!!!!!!!

We cannot wait to GARDEN....

Andy is loaning us his jukebox !!!

Lance and Holly…loving me up/////

And see many of you this weekend, I hope.

If you get tickets for either the Sunday morning or Night or both....please also comment below so I can connect the dots!!

Stay tuned.

Links for Sunday coming tomorrow in the Althing.

LOVE.

x

A

Gracie, Holly, Lance.

———THE STUFF I PASTE AT THE END OF THE POST———

1. if you are a patron and new to my work, don’t forget your patronage allows you access to ALL of my patreon releases to date. HERE is the link to download my latest big solo record, “There Will Be No Intermission”, and HERE is a link to download the PDF of the art/essay book that goes with it.

2. if you’re a patron reading this post via an email notification, 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.

3. see All the Things (over 200 of them) i've made so far on patreon:

http://amandapalmer.net/things

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

5. are you 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/

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

2023 Tour Dates:

***THE DRESDEN DOLLS***

June 16th, 17th, & 18th - Orlando, FL - The Social *SOLD OUT*

June 23rd, 24th, & 25th - New Orleans, LA - Toulouse Theatre *SOLD OUT*

All tickets at: https://amandapalmer.net/events/