New Zealand Survival Stories, #1. (Patreon)

Hi loves.

Greetings from Boston, where I’m still in the thick of it and in the hospital-zone. More on that soon, but it’s all fragile.

I took Ash to the Nutracker last night, at least. I cried. I needed it. We needed it. Look at this kid. Jaded already.

Yay Gay.

Not so jaded.

……

And now.

I would like

If I may

To take you on a strange journey.

How strange?

So strange I made a Patreon post about it.

March 12, 2020.

I think a retrospective might help heal some things. You, too. Where were you, March, 12, 2020? What didn’t you realize?

Were you already following this patreon? Did you see me collapse in April? Let’s reminisce!! Because it was …. horrific!

New Zealand Survival Stories, #1.

I’ve been thinking about what I wanna say about this little EP/record I’m putting out soon. Just a few songs, pure survival, pure catharsis. It’s called “New Zealand Survival Songs” and it’s exactly that.

As I’ve shared….I’m gonna tour and start figuring out how to tell this unlikely and horrible, wonderful story.

So many people in my life have remarked that we aren’t processing. Sometimes we wonder aloud if it’s possible, since we all got scattered to such different corners in March 2020, and our collective story fell apart.

Mostly, I look at this girl in the picture…and I wanna say that I had *no* idea.

None of us did.

This is me, displaying a pretty (ominous) cloud outside my hotel window, so unaware that it was all about to blitz and fall apart. I had just landed in New Zealand to play four shows: the first one was that very night in Auckland at the Hollywood Avondale. I didn’t know I was about to spend two and half years in the country. Mother a child solo. I didn’t know my marriage would end abruptly almost exactly a month later, in a lockdown Air BNB in Hawke’s Bay. I didn’t know a pandemic was about to ravage New York. I didn’t know what kind of country this really was.

I was just clueless.

All I knew is that I was about to play a show, my then-husband and our kid were waiting across the Tasman, in Melbourne, for me to finish my year of touring so we could all go home and really start being a domestic trio in a house in the woods. I was ready to do that. That’s where my heart was, and it had taken quite a while to get there.

It was all about to vanish.

The Auckland audience was concerned about Covid, but we used hand sanitizer and hoped for the best. Sweet summer children.

Backstage that night.

My Auckland patrons, after the show…. I am so fucking glad I didn’t bring Covid from Melbourne (as far as I’m aware).

Wow.

It’s painful, looking at these old photos - especially March 2020-June 2020, which was a blur of trauma and darkness. I didn’t write any music during that time. I was incapable, I was paralyzed, in heart and head and body.

I am going to start going back to these photos. It’s time. Especially from those brutal first few months, when the rug was not just pulled away, it was shipped to another planet.

Retro-ing may help me figure out what I wanna say when I come down for tour and drop this album. I changed so much. I am teasing it out. I’m also going to play you some of the new dolls material - which is still in workshop - so get ready for a NIGHT.

I will try to do some things for the patrons, too.

I won’t have Ash with me during the tour bit (he heads back to the states on Jan 19) so I’ll have a little time to catch up with you.

Shall we.

The TOUR:

JANUARY

Sun 21st: Sherwood, Queenstown NZ (SOLD OUT)

Wed 24th: Q Theatre, Auckland NZ

Sat 27th: Old St Pauls, Wellington NZ (I LOVE THIS PLACE)

FEBRUARY

Thurs 1st: City Recital Hall, Sydney

Sat 3rd: Hamer Hall, Melbourne

It’s going to be…something.

Tickets at https://amandapalmer.net/events/

I love you.

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