Survival Season. (Patreon)

Hello Loves.

Quickie reminders/things:

-The next $10+ webchat is now up! It's this Tuesday, Nov 14th, at 11:11am (it runs about two hours) it's and ready for RSVP/chatting: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/letsnovemberthisshit

-There's a TINY handful of tickets left for my "Private Pratice" patron-only piano show on Nov 14th @ Grqveside VAreity in Woodstock. Doors at 6pm, show at 7pm, AND IF WE GET OUR SHIITAKE TOGEHTER, we are gonna try to stream it to THE WHOLE PATREON. So watch for a link. And cross fingers!

-I also just did a little poll of the $25+/Art in the Mail patrons about what we might wanna make next, if you're up there and you missed it: https://www.patreon.com/posts/91653471

..........

Now.

How are you doing?

How's everyone feeling?

And a quesiton I haven't asked for a while...

What are you feeling like digesting, artwise?

I have a variety of Loose Things on the burner...including a dark autumnal poem I wrote a year ago and have been saving for a rainy fall release.

And I have a handful of new Dolls songs to treat you with... 

I am also wondering if y'all might like another round of insturmental, crowd-soul-inspired piano music. 

I've been doing little dribs and drabs of live piano-playing improv on Instragram and Facebook lately and I'm feeling the yearn to maybe do another half-hour-long offering based on some community input...a la the lighthouse piece we made back in New Zealand together. (That was was advertised as "Soothing Emergency Piano Music".

What's the vibe? Want? Poem? What do you all need?

It's cold.

And getting colder. Everyone I know is in need of some comfort 

It's just...that season. Survival season.

The weather has turned, 

so has the political mood,

the heart's openness is shivery-fragile,

the patience level is sub-zero.

There's rough news all around my parts...friends with health scares, close calls, near misses, lostness.

In the last 72 hours alone, I've clocked, in my immediate-to-wide circle: a likely cancer, a possible miscarriage, a pre-teen suicide in a friend's family, a mystery hospitalization, and tests, tests, tests in hopsitals, hospitals, hospitals.

This is not just because I am old and my friends are old.

Is it?

Maybe it's because I know a lot of people? Have a lot of friends?

Or maybe it's always 

Survival Season.

I'm writing this post from backstage at the Rubin Museum, where I'm JUST about to talk to Sophie Strand about....exactly all of this. 

So that's convenient.

One of my besties from NYC just swung by on her bike.

She hadn't heard any of the new Dresden Dolls songs. I played her The Runner on this hidden piano in the Rubin Museum basement.....fifteen minutes ago.

She said, and she is a bold critic, that it's one of the best things I've ever written.

I have to agree with her.

My new songs scare me. They're awful. Awfully good.

So, this is how I survive. I get my friends around me.

I play them music. In basements. In my living room.

Over the phone.

.............

The main header photo is a Classic Jason Webley wandering into the sunset. Jason, if you don't know him, is Ash's GodFather and one of my oldest friends.

Having him around is a balm, a comfort to my soul like nothing else. The house has been full of men and music lately. Books, too. Ash has been in a whirl of boy delight.

Jason's show tomorrow at Graveside Variety (our little patron-funded - at least until last month - venue) tomorrow is sold out, which makes us happy.

This morning, he gave me and Sophie a ride to the train, and he took this gorgeous photo.

I think we look like a band.

The talk tonight....which starts in about an hour, it will give me life. 

I posted this to socials earlier...

Getting on the city-bound choochoo with beloved Sophie Strand / @cosmogyny for our talk at the @rubinmuseum tonight for the second installment in the “Life After…” series. We are going to discuss Life After Diagnosis, Life After Wellness…Life After Life.

I need this talk, this conversation, at this moment. I need it like lungs need oxygen. I need to feel not alone, not crazy, not lost. Sophie does this magical thing when we talk. I can’t explain it. You just gotta be there.

Today of all days…I need this.

This is me, watching Sophie talking at Campersand, our patron retreat in Augiust at Omega Institute. She comforts me, just our conversations, it fuels me.

(photo by Hayley Rosenblum)

The talk/event/show/thing tonight at the Rubin is more or less sold out, which is great, and we're going to record it for all of you, so don't worry. We're cutting together the Gonka Gyatso talk from last week, and we'll use that one as a test runner to see how releasing these via the patreon goes.

I wrote this on socials: Who’s have thought I’d have so much in common with an conceptual avant-garde sculptor from Tibet. But. Both of us have one son - his is nine, mine eight - both of our marriages ended, both of us got trapped in unusual situations due to the pandemic, and both of us used art to survive. This is me with Gonkar Gyatso at the The Rubin Museum Of Art in NYC after our “Life After…” talk.

(photo by Michael)

(photo by Pony)

Meanwhile....

my friends are coming to town.

If you're in Woodstock....TOO LATE IT'S SOLD OUT!!!!! I just made this to post up, up and away....LIKE MY GRAPHIC DESIGN SKILLS???

BUT

THIS is not sold out, and THIS is a small miracle......

My friend Meow Meow - who's an international cabaret sensation, and I do not lie -  is coming to town and the fact that she's gracing our tiny tiny stage in Woodstock, NY is insane.

There's only about a dozen tickets left. They're pricey, but she's worth it.

gravesidevariety.com 

And 

If you HAPPEN to want to infuse yourself with JOY....come sing with us.

Almost every Sunday coming up this season....Lance and I are gonna be throwing PARTY AROUND A PIANO....where it's part open mic, part musical-theater singalong, ALL JOY ALL THE TIME.

Great for parties, all ages, heartbreak....just come.

It's so so so good.

gravesidevariety.com