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Hi loves.

Greetings from the woods. I made you a video in the kitchen this morning, while cracking into the Saturday Pancake ritual. My hair's a mess, but I'm full of joy, and that's about the general way of things lately.

As always, here's your contents list of what's inside this month's Althing:

  • QUICKIE HOUSEKEEPING/UPDATES
  • BASIC LIFE UPDATE
  • WHAT ELSE HAPPENED THIS MONTH
  • WHAT'S COMIN' DOWN THE PIKE/UPCOMING EVENTS
  • DISPATCHES FROM TEAM AFP
  • HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING
  • ARTISTS TO SUPPORT & OTHER ART/EVENTS TO CHECK OUT
  • ART BEGETTING ART
  • THE PATRON COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD

......

QUICKIE Housekeeping/UPDATES!!

NEW YORK PATRONS (or THOSE COMING TO NEW YORK AT THE END OF OCTOBER FOR THE DRESDEN DOLLS):

SAVE THE DATE...we are going to throw a patron-only party in Brooklyn THE NIGHT OF OCTOBER 26th. (That's the band's off night in the four-show run. HOLD THE DATE. We are getting a venue ready for patrons only and tickets will be limited...we hope to have a ticket link for you within the week).

I'm also VERY LIKELY going to be doing a Sinead O'Connor tribute/memorial show in NYC on Oct 29th: hold that date, too.

.........

NEXT WEBCAST, Oct 10th.

The next webcast/Q&A for $10+ patrons is going to be TUESDAY, OCT 10th, at 5pm EST.

NOTE THAT I've shifted the "usual" time slightly to 5-7pm (NY/EST)...(AND note to $10+ folks....it's at 5pm, not 6pm, which I advertised earlier....we shifted it an hour!!).

We usually do these casts around 11:11am EST; this time change means the UK/Europe people can watch if they wanna stay up late, and if the NZ/Aus can tune in if they wanna get up early. Here's the link to RSVP (and start chatting and leaving questions!):

https://www.crowdcast.io/c/comefor

........

PRIVATE PRACTICE, FOR PATRONS ONLY @ GRAVESIDE VARIETY, Oct 9th.

Also, if you're in/near upstate New York and you wanna come hang at a patron-only piano party, come join us for "Private Practice", October 9th at 6:30pm (probably til about 9) at Graveside Variety, 33 Rock City Rd, Woodstock.

I'll take questions, chat with patrons, and go about dumping out my new dolls songs in fetal format into the fire of your ears. Liz and I just added a (literal) handful of tickets...we have about 15 spaces left. Grab em...here's the patron-only link:

https://privatepracticeAFP.eventbrite.com

(I'll also be SINGING AND ROMPING at "Party around a Piano" with Lance Horne and all our queerdo musical theater dork piano-karaoke friends at Graveside the night before - Sunday, Oct 8th. COME! Tickets for that are here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/party-around-the-piano-with-lance-horne-tickets-728835044237?aff=oddtdtcreator)

.........

BASIC LIFE UPDATE....

And now.

OOOF.

Hi.

I've been laying low since Riotfest....trying to be a good mom to both human child, anarchic cabaret venue, and the new batch of songs; which are wandering from the toddler stage to the "having their own opinions" stage.

Brian - the drummer of the dolls - is coming to town in a week or so and we are going to start cracking into these arrangements in earnest. Cracking. Like Ash said (watch the video). Cracking can be all sorts of things.

So much of the last four years has felt like a waiting-to-crack period, and in many ways and on many days I feel I'm still waiting...but the edges of the egg are vibrating.

Waiting has been a global theme among my loved ones.

For me?

Waiting for the 2019 tour to end, waiting to get home from tour to "start my life" (ha), waiting for covid to be clarified, waiting to know what the state of affairs would be, waiting to leave New Zealand, waiting to tell the world about my divorce, waiting to unpack the boxes, waiting to see if my dad would be okay, waiting to see if my band would find management, waiting to work on the songs that had bubbled up in my heart, waiting, waiting, waiting to feel ready for real life, waiting to open the doors of my crushed and closed-down little heart again.

Waiting to have time to feel.

In the wise words of Carly Simon, I didn’t have time for the pain. I still don’t have a lot of time for the pain, but I’m starting, glacially, to digest it, and get ready to eat again.

Writing down the music helps so much.

Every melody and lyric that comes out creates a scab over a wound that’s been festering for years. The feeling of healing is profound lately. But, oh, those pins and needles as the life floods back into my body.

......

This morning, after Ash told me the "cracking" thing, he looked me in the eyes and said, a heartbeat later, out of the blue: "I'm glad you met your hero". He's been hearing people asking me about the Robert Smith story all week, because of the internet posts, and...what a thing to say. What a soul he has, this child.

I told him the deeper story of what happened when I talked to RobertSmith, told him the things I won't say to the internet out of respect for the privacy of all. Ash listened, and hugged me as the tears flowed. He's starting to understand; this youngun'. He said: "Mom, we're going to be okay."

Yes, we're going to be okay.

The music will get us all out of here, in so many ways.

To you, my patrons...the slowness isn't stopping.

I've delayed the recording of The Dolls record once again because I just don't have enough energy, enough clarity, enough bandwidth.

This patreon - you patrons - are literally affording me the abilty to go slow.

If I did not have this money, this support, this system, I would not be able to live this way, delay this record, take my time writing these songs.

So, you are saving me.

The fact that some of the money has been poured into Graveside Variety is not a coincidence, and it's not a coincidence that I moved my piano out of the huanted house where I've been living and where I find it very, very difficult to write music...and it's freed me.

The other day, I was sitting in Graveside with my friend mom friend Wren, catchin up about venue business stuff, and our other mom friend Ashlie came in, because she needed to talk to Wren about a shower head (Ashlie was helping Wren figure out how to fix her shower head. Life is like that).

They both paused their days and listened to the song I'd just finished.

The piano - and the song that poured out - tied me to myself, me to them, them to each other.

That would not have happened in the haunted house.

This is why.

Wish me luck as I demo these songs this month, work on de-haunting my house, try to get the boxed unpacked, and wish Wren luck on her shower head.

Winter is coming.

I love you all so much.

xxx

AFP

Here's some random-life photos from the last few weeks.

......

WHAT ELSE HAPPENED THIS MONTH

THE DRESDEN DOLLS DEBUT TURNED 20....!

Yep, our little band's first album came out 20 years ago. Holy shit. We are old. And wise.

In case you missed it, I wrote a whole post - that was initially intended to just be a quick reminiscence, but...you know me. It got long.

You can find the post here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/dresden-dolls-20-89884739

......

And now, 20 years later...indeed.....

THE DOLLS ARE SLEIGH-ING ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.

We wrapped our 3-night residency in Woodstock, and we played at RiotFest to one of the biggest crowds the band has ever performed to.

Here we are in the tiny 300-capacity club in Woodstock....

(photo by Hayley Rosenblum)

(Photo by ManonceArtist)

(Photos by Anthony Mulcahy)

And here we are in front of nearly 50,000 people at RiotFest....

(Photos by Anthony Mulcahy)

And from a backstage shoot at Riot Fest, by Timothy Hiatt for Flood magazine:

My band is still hot.

......

And, of course, playing at RiotFest meant...meeting my hero.

If you've been following me for long enough will know about my deep love and history with The Cure - and the open letter I wrote to Robert Smith in 2009 when we were both playing Coachella.

But I've never gotten to meet him.

Until now.

(Photos by Anthony Mulcahy)

We got to sit down with him and have a long, deep, beautiful conversation.

It was, I gotta say, a life-changer.

(Photo by Jaron Luksa)

I wrote all about RiotFest and this moment....here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/patron-only-cure-89523203

......

And speaking of anniversaries...

WHO KILLED AMANDA PALMER TURNS 15!!!

IT'S BIRTHDAY MONTH.

My first solo record turned 15 this month, so we wanted to throw a little celebration.

First up, I sat down with Ben Folds (the record's producer, instrumentalist, and a million other hat-wearers) and we had a good hour-long chat all about the record: choosing the songs, arranging, recording... it's a beautiful little deep dive.

You can listen to the recording here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/who-killed-at-15-89290693

We also created a little line of merch to celebrate the anniversary - including a reprint of the original beloved Bloody Pianist design, and a new design commemorating the album cover:

All the merch is available to pre-order on the US store and the UK store now

......

$10 WEBCAST

YES! For the first time in a hot minute, we got a $10 webcast out earlier this month.....

It was a beautiful little time - it was just after RiotFest, so I got to tell the story of meeting Robert Smith and got a little (ok, a LOT) teary, we talked about Lorde's mailing list post, plus I answered a few questions from the chat, and THEN.... we had a surprise appearance from long-time Team AFP comrade and now-Patreon-employee Hayley (aka HAYHAY).

She was there to introduce us to a brand new feature of Patreon... LIVE CHATS.

More on that below - but if you want to rewatch the webcast, it's archived forever in this post:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/10-patrons-at-11-89556208

......

PATREON CHATS

You may have been wondering.

Patreon has at last unveiled something that our community has been aching for.... A CHAT FUNCTION!

We've been given early access to the beta version of the chat (which means it hasn't rolled out to all patrons yet, and it's still slightly in development, so there are a couple bugs here and there)

We decided to launch it LIVE ON THE WEBCAST.... AND IT WAS GLORIOUS

It functions sorta like the old-school chatrooms of yore, or your Discord or Slack chats. Basically, a constant and on-going stream of messages.

You can reply to comments and created nested threads (similar to a Facebook comment thread), and also reply to messages with as many emojis as your heart desires.

We initially meant to only open the chat to the $10 patrons (who were the ones TUNING IN to the webcast), but due to one of the aforementioned bugs, it accidentally opened up to EVERYBODY.

Oops! And maybe...YAY?

I took a few minutes to chat (live on the webcast) with the $10 patrons about how to handle it, and we decided that - FOR NOW - it made sense to keep it for $5 patrons and above. That being said, we left it open - and it's still open - to ALL PATRONS....we just didn't announce it. And you'll see I'm being very clever and hiding this information deep in the Althing for the hardcore. I didn't want to do a massive post about it to all patrons quite yet.

This chat feature is still in development, so we don't want to absolutely overload Patreon's servers with 10,000 of y'all logging in at once. We might break it.

So right now, ALL PATRONS can use the chat feature, pilot-test it, figure out what we like, what can be improved, and basically ponder the best way for our community to use these toys.

At the moment, Patreon will allow up to four separate "chats" in the server - so we have our $5 chat (which is currently open to ALL, but we'll probably close down soon), and we do also have a $10 chat that we're planning to use ONLY when we're on a webcast (so those $5 folks don't feel weird seeing us chat in there about a webcast they aren't watching).

We still have two more chats we could potentially open.... and Patreon is hoping that eventually there will be INFINITE chats, and we can have AS MANY AS WE WANT.... one for pet photos, one for memes, one for sharing your art, one for asking for rides and crash space at shows.... I am so excited about what we could do with this platform.

IF YOU WANT TO JOIN US, IT IS VERY SIMPLE:

First thing you need to know - the chat is only available on the Patreon app, so you'll need to make sure you download the app on either iOS or Android.

Second thing you need to know - since this is a recent development, you'll need to make sure you're using the most up-to-date version of the app. If you're not sure, head into the Apple store or Google Play store and update your app to the latest version, just to be safe!

I LOVE THIS CHAT.

It feels like Twitter in ye olde days... when I could just pop on and ask how people are, and have some people somewhere in the universe talk back to me, or share random instant snapshots.

RANDOM. You know?

Fun.

GO CHECK IT OUT, NERDY ONES.

I'll write a dedicated more visible post about this when I feel we are ready.

......

And finally (it's been a busy month)....

GRAVESIDE VARIETY IS HEADING INTO ITS OWN CROWDFUND-LAND!

This is so beautiful.

In case you missed it - a few months back, I decided to hire out a space in Woodstock NY, just a stones throw from Colony (where the Dolls have played twice now), and about a 10-minute drive from my haunted woods house.

The idea was to have it as a sort of.... clubhouse.

Part bar, part cafe, part meeting spot, part performance space.

After talking to y'all, we made the decision that we would fund it via this Patreon, and I would "Thing" it here in order to pay the rent on the place.

The idea was that we'd do it for 3 or 4 months as a temporary pop-up venture... and oh my god. It's such a magical place.

There have been so many gorgeous events there...

From tiny intimate DeVotchKa shows...

to Drag Queen Story Time...

to open house coffee mornings...

to group singalongs with my friends...

to poetry readings...

to emotion-processing workshops with the kids...

In short: EVERYTHING.

It's a little safe heaven for the queer people, the art people, and the general rando weirdos of upstate NY, who (like me) are a little lost in this small-town woods life.

And there's a little team working together there - here's me with Liz, and our wonderful Graveside team member Ry...

And this space is absolutely, I gotta say, THRIVING.

It's time to let it spread its own wings.

I'm so, so, so excited to say that as of next month, we won't be Thinging it on Patreon any more.

Last month was the first month it didn't actively lose money - so we are getting there.

We need to figure out what the best way to continue crowdfunding, we WILL NEED HELP, but we want that help to become more localized.

So for those of you who may have been sad seeing your patron-dollars being spent on a venue that is half a world away from you - YOUR SADNESS SHALL CEASE.

And for those of you who are local, or have just loved seeing your money allow this place to exist - YOU CAN CONTINUE DONATING DIRECTLY TO THE SPACE. We are working on HOW.

If you want to check out what your dollars funded, and what amazing things happened in the past month at Graveside, there's a whole gorgeous post here put together by Liz, who's been wearing double hats both helping out the Dolls online AND pulling shifts at Graveside (WE LOVE YOU LIZ)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/graveside-lifts-89539982

You should also DEFINITELY sign up to the Graveside mailing list, and check out all the listings for upcoming events on the GV website:

www.gravesidevariety.com

......

WHAT'S COMIN' DOWN THE PIKE/UPCOMING EVENTS

THE DRESDEN DOLLS ARE CONTINUING OUR SLOW DOMINATION OF THE USA.....

In case you missed it, we've announced a whole run of shows in the West Coast in December:

December 28th - The Aladdin Theatre, Portland OR - SOLD OUT

December 29th - The Aladdin Theatre, Portland OR - SOLD OUT

December 31st - The UC Theatre, Berkley CA - LAST FEW TICKETS

We're also just about to announce (in the next couple of days) TWO MORE SHOWS in California in December - these shows are selling out so quickly, and the mailing list ALWAYS gets first access to tickets, so for the love of god idon'tknowhowmanytimeswehavetosay GET ON THE MAILING LIST

And don't forget.... the Dolls are returning to New York City at the end of October - which are all SOLD OUT.

......

And... this is a bit of a weird, local one...

THE MUSHROOM HUNTERS IS GETTING A SCREENING AT A FUNGI FESTIVAL

Some of you might not remember - but a few years back, using patron dollars (YOUR DOLLARS) we funded a short film, of me reading the poem "The Mushroom Hunters" by Neil Gaiman (HOW'D WE GET THAT GUY?) with music by Jherek Bischoff

You can see the original video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak6sdSAcNkw

And now... IT HAS ANOTHER LIFE.

The New York Mycological Society is holding a film festival, including a selection of MYCOLOGICAL FILMS, and they're including The Mushroom Hunters! You can read more about the event, and get tickets if you're in NY, here:

https://newyorkmyc.org/myco-film-festival/

......

DISPATCHES FROM TEAM AFP

From Michael:

Hello Patrons!

What a crazy month September was!  Dolls Shows!  Patron Meetups!  Birthday!  RiotFest!  Oh My!

This tired assistant is filled with joy when I think back about the last month.  Seeing so many of you upstate at the shows, at Graveside Variety, and at the Patron Meetup was simply wonderful.  Plus getting to share hugs and waves and stories (although generally brief. . . sorry) with you, always fills my heart.  I truly love this community and what it stands for and how effortlessly we all step in to look out for each other, prop each other up, and be there for each other.  You really do make all of this happen.  I know I sound like a broken record, but every time I sit down to write one of these updates my first thoughts are about the community and I’d be remiss if I didn’t share with you how prominent those thoughts are for me all of the time.

With that being said. . . Dresden Dolls at the Colony!  What a wild week this was!  There were delayed flights, last minute changes to so many moving parts in the background that our amazing crew handled without missing a beat.  I wish I could take you through the beat by beat moments of that week, but there’s simply too much.  I’ll summarize by saying that from August 28th through Sept 4th I easily worked over 100 hours and it was worth every minute because those shows were on FIRE!  If you were there, you know.  If you weren’t. . . just wait until the Dolls come to your area, because (spoiler alert) there’s a good chance that they are going to in the not too distant future.  Watching Brian and Amanda work their magic on stage night after night never gets old.  There’s simply no other band that I’ve seen that cares that much and leaves that much of themselves on the stage for all of you night after night after night.  One of the many reasons why it feels easy to say “Oh you need all this in a week and it’s going to take all of my energy so that you can do *that* on stage?  EZPZ.”  What a fucking joy to be a part of something like that.

RiotFest and my somethingth birthday . . . I’m still trying to process it all.  The team pitched in to gift me a couple extra days in Chicago as a birthday present, and I was able to get to spend time with my partner EJ (who went to college in Chicago) for a few days before the Dolls played on Sunday.  I got to eat tons of good food and be a bit of a tourist and visit the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum (because I’m an unabashed nerd like that) and I had an absolute blast.  Plus I got to see SO MANY amazing bands that I already love and I got to see and fall in love with others for the first time.  Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, The Bobby Lees, PUP, Parliament Funkadelic, Death Cab for Cutie, Tegan & Sarah, Frank Turner, Ani DiFranco, and . . . of course. . . The Cure.  My goodness what a way to celebrate a birthday weekend!

And if that wasn’t enough. . . being a part of the Dolls team while they navigated such an enormous show was empowering and humbling all at the same time.  Seeing so many of you out in the crowd, feeling all the love while they absolutely slaughtered their set. . . holy fuck.  I’ve never experienced anything like it.  So. . . thank you for making it possible to continue to support Amanda, Brian, and all the endeavors in between.  Without you all I wouldn’t have this job and this life and I am always beyond grateful.

This is getting to be one of my lengthier updates, so I’ll wrap it up by saying that there is so much more to come, there are so many amazing projects in the pipeline that I’m thrilled about sharing with all of you, and I can’t wait to see what’s next on this incredible ride.

Me during setup (📸 Amanda)

DD Curtain Call (📸 me)

Brian & Amanda backstage for The Cure (📸 me)

EJ & me back stage for the Cure (📸 me)

......

From Liz

Hello patrons!

It’s been an incredible and BUSY month. I’m so glad to have met so many of you at the Dolls shows in Woodstock and at Graveside Variety over the past few weeks. Broken record over here, but you’re all so wonderful.

I’ve been pretty much living and breathing Graveside Variety the past few weeks, as you maaaaay have noticed from the most recent Graveside Variety posts….

But oh. My. God. THE DOLLS SHOWS

My heart = dsklgjdsgjdlskgjdsljgsldkg

My brain = sdgjsdlkgjlsdjgssdgdssdgs

My soul = sekgljseldgjssdgdssegsgsga

That’s the sound of me breaking in the best of ways.

It was so wonderful to spend some IRL time with Michael and the incredible crew, AND so many of you. Amanda and Brian are a FORCE together and continue to blow me away. Without fail.  This new chapter keeps getting better and better. I am pretty sure I’ve said the exact same thing after the last Dolls shows I attended this spring, but what’s true is true.

I can’t believe I’m approaching the 20 year mark of this band being in my life.

Here’s me on stage for “Sing” back in 2006 during the brief period when I had bright red hair back in my early 20s.

And as a living statue with my good friend Mary during the True Colors tour back in 2007.  (We were the entirety of the brigade when at the very last minute we got cleared to by the venue/tour to do it.  I was already at the show in the audience---Mary met me at the venue with the make-up and sheets.  We did it. This is us post show with Brian)

So much love and gratitude.  long live punk cabaret!

<3

-Liz

......

From Alex:

HIYAAAAA!

One of the big things for me this month was the Who Killed Amanda Palmer anniversary post, and I had an absolute WHALE of a time finding little artefacts and putting together this time capsule of the era - finding old blogs, the reBELLYon, the music video series, the book... It was such a fun time. I became a massively obsessed fan just after all this stuff happened, so digging back into it was like going back to 15 year old me discovering this weird arty person who had left this whole trail of incredible stuff all around her.

I'm still on tour with Grace Petrie at the moment, merching and doing some general PA stuff, so putting all the stuff together for this post had to be done in the cracks of time - which meant that, inevitably, I ended up finishing it off in a hotel bar late at night... where I spent two hours sitting alone at my laptop, inserting all these wonderful time-capsule photos, until finally at 4am I left.

Sidenote - imagine my heartbreak the next day when I get this text:

... annnnnd it turns out that there was some glitch in the machine, and while it saved all the TEXT of the post, Patreon had just not saved a single photo that I had been up until 4am adding in.

And for context - inserting photos into a Patreon post is unfortunately not as simple as dragging and dropping, or copy and pasting, or anything as simple as that... It involves manually inserting every. single. one.

So I got to spent another 2 hours the next day, re-doing it all.

HEY HO.

Glitches aside.... I think that whole album campaign was glorious, and I hope we did it justice in giving you a sneak peek into the weird and wonderful world of Who Killed Amanda Palmer.

Until next time - waving at you across the world, specifically from a hotel in Liverpool where there is a wedding reception happening in the bar so I have been shown to a conference room to finish this post before leaving for the last two shows of this tour!

(and yes, I know I need to bleach my roots)

((PS - I am absolutely OBSESSED with this song - "Pink Pony Club" by Chappell Roan, it's just so full of joy and really reminds me of early-era Marina & the Diamonds and I have not stopped dancing to it for the past week. Her album The Rise & Fall of a Midwest Princess is basically all I've been listening to since it came out last week.))

......

FEELS.

I have so much love and gratitude coursing through my veins for my whole staff right now. Everyone's just gorgeous and the team is working like such a family.

I weep with thanks.

Liz, Michael, Alex...thank you for everything you're doing.

.......

HOW THE PATREON ITSELF IS DOING.....

As of this writing there are about 9,600 patrons pledging about $31,500 for the first Thing each month.

A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE FOR NEWCOMERS: you are welcome to (and encouraged to) CAP YOUR PLEDGE.

CAP CAP CAP CAP!!

I sometime release one thing a month; sometimes three. We know this can create financial insecurity and uncertainty - so Patreon allows you to cap your pledge. This is, essentially, setting a MAXIMUM amount that you want to pay per month.

YOU CAN BUDGET. Say for example, you're happy to pay $3 per Thing, but you don't want to pay more than $10 a month. In that's the case, you can "cap" your pledge at $10, and whether I release 4 Things or 4,400 Things, you won't be charged more than $10. But MOST IMPORTANTLY, you will still have access to ALL the things/posts/links, even if you cap your pledge!!! It doesn't effect your access.

You can read all about capping your pledge here.

I go over this stuff in every Althing, 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 (SEE ABOVE), 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 guilty about releasing TOO MUCH!!

So really. Please, cap your pledge.

......

In August, I Thanged THREE Things:

The August Graveside Report, which earned about $35,302 from 9,663 patrons

The State of All Things: August 2023, which earned about $14,503 from 5,301 patrons.

The Last Day of Our Acquaintance, which earned about $8,317 from 3,197 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.

And remember: these numbers are gross. 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.

These numbers also do not reflect the money I SPENT MAKING THE ART, paying our staff, paying the office rent, paying the Graveside rent and costs, paying for crowdcast, getting myself around, getting the team around and fed and slept, all the collaborators, and my actual staff payroll, etc....you get it.

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.

Right now, because I'm not regularly touring or putting music out, we're just about breaking even.

Which is nice.

......

ARTISTS TO SUPPORT & OTHER ART/EVENTS TO CHECK OUT

NEW VIDEO FROM SINGER MALI....

My old friend/housemate/Cloud Club comrade Mali SastrI has put out a new video - directed by none other than Grand Theft Orchestra album Michael McQuilken.

You can see the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StnsMNoqTVU

......

MELISSA VILLASEÑOR'S TED TALK....

If you came to Ninja TED in Vancouver - or watched the livestream - earlier this year, you'll have seen Melissa Villaseñor there.

Her talk at the conference is now finally up online, and it's absolutely beautiful. She's a comedian and impressionist, and talks about everything that's taught her.

It's called "How I Found Myself - by Impersonating Other People", and you can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFjv971_NZM 

......

And I just got an email from another old friend - Maxim Melton - who is based in London and has two shows coming up that are undoubtedly going to be absolutely incredible, and full of queer joyful art.

YOU WILL LOVE THIS SHOW.

And you will love Max.

First up:

Queerstory: A Night of Queer Music - October 5th (this Thursday!)

This time at the rather swanky Crazy Coqs we are bring you some selections from Queerstory: The Musical, joined by some fabulous cabaret friends for a night of old and new queer music. A grand piano, some cocktails, a polari patter song and an accordion track about the hanky code. What’s more to love?

https://www.brasseriezedel.com/events/queerstory-a-night-of-queer-music/

And later this month:

Cabaret Roulette: The Zoo - October 19th

Eight performers, one theme, one extraordinary night of new cabaret. I took over the legendary Cabaret Roulette brand at the start of this year and it’s my commitment to bring icons of the cabaret scene to the legendary Royal Vauxhall Tavern and make them do new, weird, ridiculous work. This month - our last show of the year - we are going full National Geographic with the animal kingdom!

https://www.outsavvy.com/event/15808/cabaret-roulette

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ART BEGETTING ART

An unusually wonderful form of art begetting art this month....THEATER.

There's a theatrical production of Evelyn Evelyn coming to Turtle Rock Park in Irvine, CA - if you're in the area, check them out on Instagram, and report back on how it is!!!!!

And in more traditional 'art-begetting-art' news this month...

A stunning acrylic painting by @lucia_zaprazna_art on instagram. YUM.

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AND DON'T FORGET - as always, if you have anything you want to plug or promote within the Althing, email patronhelp@amandapalmer.net and let us know! We can't guarantee that everything will always make it in, but we try our best :)

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So much love...

More soon.

AFP

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

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 150 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. 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

Comments

Anna Bruce

Fucking amazing🖤🖤🖤 Love you, you amazing, wonderful human.

Lauren

A few follow up questions… will you and Brian be jamming at all during the patrons only party in Brooklyn on Oct 26? Also do you know if Brian will be practicing with you at the Graveside variety or will you be solo?

Jamie P.

A butterfly cracking out of the chrysalis. A very positive cracking.

Damian Masterson

My goodness do I love the idea of someone staging Evelyn Evelyn. So great. Hope will get to see some clips or stills from it.

bluefoxx

The ancient Japanese art of kintsugi — which repairs broken ceramics with gold to make them stronger and more beautiful

Daniel Allen

Watching the video, I couldn't help but hear Ash and his friend in the background. And it reminded me so much of my boys. 12 and 5. They live with their mom right now. Almost 200 miles away from me. And I don't see them very often. It's what's best for them right now because she works from home and can be there full time. But hearing those kids in the background and then hearing about cracking . . . I lost everything over the summer. My wife confirmed she wants a divorce, I had to sell my home because of black mold, and I lost most of my possessions because of it, then I lost my job. But I'm housed, I'm fed, and come Monday I may be employed. So yeah. Cracking. But I'm trying to direct that. Cracking is happening. But I'm trying to make it the cracking of an egg that's hatching instead of the cracking of a glass that's hitting the ground. Thank you for all you do. You help. And good luck with your cracking.

Angel Rosen

🥰🥰🥰 could you or Liz text me the picture of me kissing your hand so I can save it?? How lovely!!!

amandapalmer

Brian will most definitely be resting and i will 90% be there if my voice isn’t dead.

Lauren

Thank you!!! I’ll be riding this high all night over here just ecstatic that you answered me directly 😍😍 You and Brian and your music have gotten me through all of the good and bad since I first found you guys in my sophomore year of high school in 2004. I FUCKING LOVE YOU!!!

Erika Blumberg

My heart is cracking and not in a good way but I think it’s wonderful that Ash can talk about his feelings. My parents had a very ugly split when I was 11 and it was years before I could talk about it. I will see you on the 8th and 9th and I’m very excited about the new material.

Christina C.

Too easy to accidentally burn shit when you're on fire all the time. 🔥🫡

Jen

❤️❤️❤️

Len Tower Jr.

Most chordates (except most mammals), crack out of their shells as they are born. Then grow towards adulthood. I'm glad our patronage & support let you art at your own speed. It will be different better art. -Len

Coila

Cracking. Sometimes it starts bad/sad and then Becomes. A place for the light to come in. A place to decorate a cup with a string of gold. Our pain is our strength. It's how we make the strongest connections to other people. Crack, love. Let us all crack. ☺️❤️

Mary Ann Wesselman

Good Althing. 💜 Just a note: for some reason when I click on the link for Villaseñor, it takes me to Mila’s video?

EmVT

cracking open like a pinata! ❤️ Alex, I'm so sorry, what a pain to lose all that work, argh! Maybe Patreon should buy squarespace (or at least their engineers). Possibly the new chat functionality is a sign of their commitment to making your life easier :)

Rivers Fleming

Hi Amanda, I'm new to the Patreon but have been a Dolls fan since I saw y'all open for Panic! At The Disco in Denver in 2006. I had the pleasure of seeing all three of your shows in Denver this May, and they absolutely cracked me open. I'm so delighted that I now get to have these lovely little peaks into your world. Thank you for being you; I can't begin to express how much your art has meant to me over the years ❤️

Dahlia Graham

Liz’s red hair! Yes, I read it all. Alex, sorry to hear you had to redo the photos, technology sucks sometimes. Michael, glad you got extra Chicago time, and your 100 hours during Dolls week made the world go round. Amanda, 🎡. All the love to everyone.

Christopher Werner

I looked up “cracking” on Google, because the only reference I could remember was Wallace and Gromit (“well, that’s just cracking,” or “get cracking!) The first definitions that came up were, ‘excellent,’ ‘particularly good,’ and ‘very impressive or effective.’ So hopefully Ash using this meaning. That would be just cracking!

Erinn Baldeschwiler

Transmutation my love [fill in the symbol] I love you. 💕 thank you.

Sam Allen

Love this. On The Mushroom Hunters - it has brought me comfort several times when grappling with loss and change over the last year or so since I've heard it. I'm a sucker for animation, and the animation in this one is absolutely gorgeous. Add to this your tender voiceover/reading, and it's gold. Thank you so much for sharing it with the world.

R.J. Ehlert

The cracking of a crustacean's shell so it can grow.

Esteban Montemayor

I don't say this enough, so here it be: Thank You Team AFP! Michael, Alex, and Liz, y'all are constantly killing it. I'm sure it's not easy helping Amanda in all the ways that you do. It's been beautiful to see what Liz has done with Graveside. Big Texas Hugs to y'all!

Tanya Gerrie

When you said cracking my first thought was of chicks cracking their way out of their egg shells to emerge into the next stage of life. 💜

Lindsey Lubow

A billion extra thanks to Alex for all the photos in the post! I'm still learning how to work my laptop after having switched away from Microsoft machines a year ago. YOU ARE SUCH A CHAMPION. Thank you for every single photo in here. 🫂

Anne ROBERTZ

Boy oh boy, this update is HUUUUUGE! Thank to the whole AFT team for all the work and effort putting it together and garnishing with so many great pictures and letters/messages. This is so uplifting, really! And I will make the time to read it all through <3 It is really so great to have so much news from the AFT team (Hayley, Michael (oh gosh, I'll never forget your rendition of Rainbow Connection), Alex (it's been too long since that show in London!) and I am so glad I could attend the Crowdcast that announced the Chat release! This is such a great new communication channel! This is such a game changer! Question for Hayley "at Patreon": I know this creator on Patreon who is VERY excited about the chat feature and would be thrilled if he could have it "soon" (dunno when the chat option is supposed to roll out to other creators) since he is currently touring and would love to have the chat to organise "meet and greets" in the cities he'll be playing at. He is a stand up comedian based in France called Paul Taylor. Love to everyone and thanks again for such a great job and the many beautiful things we get to share, witness and enjoy with and thanks to all of you!!!

Lynn Robinson

Such a heart warming update. Thank you. Much love ❤️