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

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.

Free Jherek

Owen's comment on the piece is worth reading; it's the second one.

xpost She trotted out Gaiman for one novelty tour, and I believe in a recent interview with her - AVClub? - she said she's not going to do it again.

Well, it's all the points I made in this thread (minus yesterday's food poisoning, general biliousness) (plus a couple of genuine positive feelings that I leave out round here)

Which piece is the comment on?

Owen, I hope she responds to you. I bet she does. I think, for better or for worse, her transparency works in her favor, even when folks disagree.

I think after all of these "some of your friends are already this fucked" sorts of Albini-y debates, most people still have no idea of the real costs of recording, touring, publishing, whatever, and have no idea what a pretty prominent artists like Palmer actually pulls in. Or the costs, time, effort, etc. to even get to a level like Palmer's. I'm finding the whole discussion as educational as anyone.

It's funny, I don't really care about her hypocrisy so much as the horrible logic she uses to defend it. She loves the glorious experience of mingling with fans while they give her food and perform with her on stage? Great! But what the fuck does that have to do with NOT PAYING THEM?

the food thing is fucking unreal

I wish I could afford to donate to dozens of my favorite artists, if they ever came asking.

Can't she just say "hey i'm really lucky to have a fan base that loves to spend money, cook food and perform on stage with me. what a life of riley i have" instead of going on about her artistic freedom?

I gave a package of gummi bears to the Dead Milkmen back in 1993.

And a tie to the drummer from Skankin' Pickle ('96)

Just writing that down for tax purposes.

Kind of lolling at how AP has effectively removed the middleman and gone straight to having fans make food for her, that is gangsta

I think the two may be intertwined in her conception/business model. She recognizes that her fans support her artistic freedom, and they in turn value her artistic freedom enough to shell out to support her.

none of this has anything to do with "artistic freedom"

It just says a lot to me about the difference between people's expectations of ~what touring is like~ based on rock biogs and rockumentaries etc. and the actual experience of scrabbling from gig to gig without Tour Support and trying to get fed, even when you're on a major label tour, that stuff doesn't trickle down to support bands.

(It's always eye-opening to see which ~big stars~ as headlining bands make sure their support acts get a slice of the catering and which ones don't. My estimation for Kathleen Hanna went up 100x when she brought round a platter of their food into our dressing room. Things like that do make a difference. As compared to which bands actually make you pay a buy-on to get onto the tour in the first place, oh boy don't get me started...)

(I don't begrudge her that or anything, it's just hilarious and does speak very directly to her viewpoint)

She might as well go whole hog and start issuing stock