amanda palmer's open poem to jonathan chait (and other crimes)

Dan Rollman on August 21
Hi Josh.

We are now approaching three years since your project was funded. Three years! You relied on the belief of strangers, who gave you over $25,000 so you could have a fun adventure in Africa.

It's truly disappointing. You've hurt my ability to have faith and belief in the honesty and commitment of others. I still hope you'll follow through and deliver what you promised, but with each passing month, my skepticism grows.

Bummed,

Dan Rollman

Animal Collective dude is a much, much worse person than Amanda Palmer; there's nothing really to discuss re: that situation aside from "lol why did you give dude from Animal Collective money, you dimwits"

I dunno, if that is actually him (as I say, I only heard about this last week, never seen anyone talk about it or confirm it), then it should be spoken about - it is a TERRIBLE thing to do.

He has given it to a charity! Maybe. Or something else! Maybe.

it's also not 100% clear that he didn't give the money to this supposed charity, but it looks like he was (1) very vague about it the whole time (2) changed his story (3) never delivered the extras he promised and (4) never followed up to explain wth happened

hmm

I only heard about the AC scam on the Centipede Hz thread last week; I did have visions of starting a "hi I'm Nelly; contribute to my Kickstarter" scam but then I remembered I have morals

There have been several updates posted for the benefit of backers only. I hope that they're something along the lines of "I went, it was great, accompanying album is taking longer than I thought"

I will make a kickstarter for my puerto rico resort vacation. For a contribution of $500, I will send you an autographed photo of me, by the pool at my puerto rico resort, in swim trunks, lighting a cigar with a $100 bill.

He spent it on Dario G white labels

Yeah, there's not much to discuss about the AC dude thing yet. Its fucking awful if true, but otoh, I also think the internet would be all about exposing him if it was true... so I don't think we've heard the entire story yet. It is definitely shady as hell though.

Like I feel like blogs would be blowing up all over the place if an AnCo guy really did pull this, y'know?

I think, as much as ppl love AC, an at-the-time ex-member ripping off $25K from fans isn't that big a story

Eh, there's been bigger stories made out of a lot less on the blog circuit lately.

Regardless, it is shady as hell and I do hope to one day hear the full story.

Seriously, I'd think it was a big story... like, bigger than this, if it's true. I mean, even if the money went to charity, that isn't what he promised his backers at all.

wow that's ill

listen i'm butthurt as the next guy that some crappy steampunk burlesque chick with horrible music who's married to a millionaire nerd author got a lot of money on kickstarter instead of some actual good music....but that animal collective thing is pretty foul if true....and at this point the fact he hasn't gone back to the site to comment seems pretty incriminating...and the fact that, as ppl there pointed out, the band has rolled on w/their career.

According to wikipedia AnCo dude funded a trip to Africa to play a festival, which he did end up playing, but then no autographed CDs or whatever were ever sent to people. I think he used at least some of the money to do what he said he was going to.

yeah but per the main page the proposal was changed because a label fronted the travel money:

For those of you who have been following this project already, the plan has evolved significantly and we feel for the better. The initial consideration for this project was that while the festival wanted Josh to perform, they could offer no fee for performing or assistance for travel. The travel expenses for Josh and the 2 people joining him has come to nearly $10,000. Kickstarter invited us to raise the money through this site. SInce then the record label Paw Tracks has decided to step in and cover the production costs of this project, including the travel expenses and the manufacturing and distribution of the book. This gave us an opportunity to expand this project in two ways. First we felt this gave us a really great opportunity to redirect the funds that come in through this site to an organization in Mali we feel would really benefit from having $25,000 to help people in REAL need. Secondly we will now have the means to get the book out to a wider audience. The way it is now arranged all of the money that has been, and will continue to be, donated to this site will not only make people aware of Josh’s creative endeavor through cross-cultural exchange, but it will directly impact Mali and the Tuareg people whose musicians are a principal part of the Festival Au Desert .

Josh is excited to explore the possibility of finding ways to link his music and making a difference in the world. The vision now is that while he participates in the festival we are able to bring $25,000 directly to TEMEDT, a Mali organization that is working to create a law that abolishes slavery of the black Tuareg people, set up legal support services for them, create economic development in black Tuareg communities, and give them educational possibilities. This project has been validated by a prestigious Ashoka Fellowship award. All Ashoka projects are cutting-edge social entrepreneurs, using innovative approaches to create systemic change. www.ashoka.org Africa is a continent ravaged by Aids, disease, civil war, genocide, poverty and hunger. This festival is an opportunity to celebrate and enhance the beauty and gifts of Africa, and to bring healing internally and with the world. And thanks to terrific partnering with Paw Tracks and Kickstarter every penny of this money will go directly to this vision. Anyone who pays at least $50 will receive one of the CD's from Josh's concert and trip.

Oh wow. Yeah that is sketchy, I wonder if that charity has seen a dime.

i've heard the "used kickstarter $ to pay for drugs" story before but never attached to a big band.

And here I was hating Animal Collective just based on their music.

That really is fucked up. Almost three years without receiving what you paid for? That thing is never coming...

What a massive massive cockend.

Amanda Palmer starting to look pretty good, huh? At least she delivers.

This is when that AC dude was on walkabout from the band while the group blew up, right? Maybe it was a Kickstarter to get him to rehab. How long until that happens?

Ah, well, a lot of assumptions being made. There are private donor-only updates as late as mid-2011. I don't know the story and I'm not so interested in playing Animal Rescue but if the guy has a drug problem he has my sympathies and I'd contribute to a rehab fund almost certainly

That's still a year ago, Owen. I dunno, maybe there is some mitigating circumstance, but I'm struggling to think of what it would be. I think it's pretty much fair enough that if a label decided to pay travel money they swap to those donations being to charity instead, but it's not fair enough to donate for a CD of music made over there and to receive nothing at all.

http://whatbettyknows.com/2012/09/13/why-i-volunteered-to-play-with-amanda-palmer/

Still super surprised this story isn't gaining much traction though.

anco thing is classic, he's just operating in a long tradition of con men, only thing that would make it better is if mali weren't a real country

whereas the palmer thing is horrible and annoying in a sign of the times way, like she coulda just avoided all this trouble by calling it a 'band internship' and offering college credit

That would have been far more repulsive to me, dude.

they know she tweets a lot (as does Gaga, but AP’s tweeting is several orders of magnitude more)

uh

"Band goes to record in Mali. Shame they forgot the songs." Classic rock review trope imo

Nice to see the Dylan Carlson solo jawn got fully funded on Kickstarter at least.

More conspiracy theory about Palmer, Gaiman, and Scientology: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/05/amanda_palmer_dramatically_answers_some_doubters_about_her_connection_to_scientology.php

And still more:
https://whyweprotest.net/community/threads/amanda-palmers-sea-org-scientology-connections.102233/

She's naked, it must be art.

that why we protest link is demented bullshit

Palmer's latest response

Amanda Palmer OTM.

Amanda Palmer sitting on a pile of money and enjoying the privilege, more like. She has the right to set up any model she wants; anyone who plays with her is an idiot, and I would not be surprised if the pool of willing suckers started shrinking rapidly.

http://imageshack.us/a/img692/816/berneydidnotreadw.gif

I admire how she's willing to go into this stuff at length - she also posted a fairly detailed breakdown of where all the Kickstarter money would go. Whether or not you like her or buy her argument, there's nothing stopping her from ignoring it or brushing it off in a tweet. People are getting way too pissy about this imo.

yeah, i'm not super enamoured of her "so we decided that in some places like new york we'd pay for professionals but where we could get good fans to do it for free we'd go for that" but the post is a long and considered response that sites the decision in her own history as a musician (as she sees it), and, you know, the straightforwardness is good.

The fact that she does a ton of stuff for free over the years and, for most of her career, hasn't had much cash should play into this.

(WCC, I'm 12 hours late but I didn't mean to "slag off who a woman is married to" - Gaiman gets wheeled out to sing badly and awkwardly as part of the Amanda Palmer roadshow for ironic fan lols, or so it seems, which I find kinda embarrassing for everyone concerned, but if they're both having fun and the fans too it's none of my business. You'll probably say it's sexist to be embarrassed, like maybe I think it's automatically demeaning whenever a man joins in with his wife's job or passions, but really I just think the schtick is wearing thin in this one particular case and I hope I would think that no matter what the gender roles)

But, to continue being late, video of yourself being onstage and sounding competent does sound a pretty big ask (I hate that phrase) to me though for someone who is not a professional musician or a conservatory student. If you are even at the level of playing your viola onstage regularly in yr local rock band scene - which seems like it should be about the top level you can expect for an unpaid volunteer - then sure there are probably videos of you onstage but they probably also sound like digicam-mic'ed ass and have your viola part completely inaudible

The 99% Invisible podcast just raked in $170,000 on their Kickstarter (400% of their goal) and then immediately started asking for unpaid interns. I guess this is the new thing.

http://io9.com/5855635/watch-neil-gaiman-amanda-palmer-moby-and-stephen-merritt-sing-rocky-horror

The fact that these unpaid musicians have to back up Jherek's own set, and that Jherek himself is responsible for wangling those players... like I want to send Jherek a care package or something that is some shady practice.

AP's assertion:

the minute YOU make black and white rules about how other artists should value their own art and time, you disempower them.

is totally OTM, but it's an argument for the prosecution.