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

getting zinged by weird al would be an all-time life goal if it didn't involve being an asshole on the level of neilmanda

m@tt otm

Weird Al is a good dude.

I just want to reiterate how much of a scumbag you have to be to exploit a kid that committed suicide for sympathy and free content from your fans.

amanda palmandkiss

Al Yankovic ‏@alyankovic
My Anus True #ElvisCostelloAlbumsAboutAnuses

xp at least she isn't asking them to give her money

yet

my question is, how does this compare to the "USA for Africa"/"Do They Know It's Christmas" type of endeavor?

It sucks more

"Do They Know I'm Precious"

Bully Aid

what would have been an acceptable way for her raise the issue?

Let's start with have some respect for the dead.

one could argue that by highlighting this girl's tragedy to her audience, that Amanda is respecting the hell out of her

Cool, please argue away. I don't think simply featuring this tragedy on her blog is sufficient evidence for that.

reme,ber when amanda palmer was just someone who wrote a letter to robert smith? she's come a long way!

xp - I'm just trying to separate out the truly egregious behavior from the instinctual knee-jerk loathing

i don't think ap gets the benefit of many doubts

matt quit being a dick to gay men on twitter, it's bullying and it doesn't make you cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXGgWf2lacM

Yeah i mean i think on some level i'm just being knee-jerk about this. And i think even if this is objectionable as i think it is, it's not exactly mean-spirited on AP's part. She's probably trying to do a good thing. She just is so wrapped up in her own ego that everything she touches gets absorbed into her personal brand. She's basically a well-meaning vampire.

The Part 2 isn't filled with the words of encouragement she imagines herself coming up with in Part 1 yet instead asks her fans for. Part 2 basically sells her expertise at blogging, tweeting, emailing, how glad she is that she is famous, how happy she is that she can host these conversations, etc. It is brand-building, pure and simple. There is no substance to it, nothing in the direction of this bullied girl who killed herself. She is mentioned again, but only for the fact that someone close to her is re-blogging what AP wrote. The rest is an AP stroke-fest between her, her fans, the Salon writer that wrote about the content her fans provide for free, how hard it is blogging about how awesome you are, googling her name again, etc.

I tried reading her posts, pretending I was a fan, which was a bit of a challenge, especially because I couldn't stand that Neil Gaiman-scripted Doctor Who episode, but anyway...I could see how someone could read it and not find it objectionable. That girl's video was public, after all. The story of her death was public. And while I do feel like the way Amanda framed it was exploitative, I feel like contemporary culture lends itself way more easily to that sort of exploitation than it did when I was that girl's age back in the 80s. I couldn't imagine making some video about how pathetic and miserable I felt and put it up on the internet for random, potential bullies to see. To me, that would have been something I'd have considered crazy.

I have a pretty low opinion of almost any public statements re: youth suicide fwiw. Her posts are heinous in the specifics but really no more morally reprehensible or self-aggrandizing than any It Gets Better video.

I do think it's interesting how she talks of herself as being bullied, but then describes "people on the internet with opinions" in the lowest and most demeaning of terms.

that's the thing - while she's definitely engaging in some egomaniacal, distasteful shit - it's the kind that also might make a bunch of teenagers feel loved, understood etc. so while if todd's family was like "fuck off with this shit and pay your trumpet player" they'd be well within her rights, it's worth acknowledging there are ways she could flatter herself without bringing warm vibes to the little vampires or little palmer fronds or whatever she calls her fans.

lol "palmer fronds"

Yeah i haven't even considered tying this into the "pay your musicians" nonsense. In that case her fans' willingness to play music gave her plenty of free publicity. And in this case it seems to have worked the same way, only instead of them playing music it is writing comments. In both cases fans do most of the actual work while she coordinates it and receives publicity and praise.

The good publicity is baked into a "We Are the Media" cookie she gives to fans every blog entry. The bad publicity is propped up as proof that she relies on the fans for emotional support.

the reason this thing seems odd to me is the timing, coming well after the "It Gets Better" campaign and the media focus on Phoebe Prince and Amanda Todd and bullying becoming a huge deal.

It's like she's going to post the Kony 2012 video on her blog next.

make a difference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-w1GeH8KPU

trying to figure out forks' post

In retrospect, I should have been even more of an asshole to gaimen on twitter

― matt (upper mississippi sh@ke

iirc, ums mentioned the word "troll" or "trolling" in one of his tweets and gaiman was like "oh, I get it, you're a troll. I'm blocking you now."

I did to Ned, not gaimen, because a former ilxor was tut tutting about me trolling and I said ”you mean awesome trolling”

I brought up many substantial points about how it was impossible for their claims that ”all this money is going back to the fans and better packaging” were false based on my knowledge of putting out and paying for the manufacture of cds....he never once bothered to respond with facts of his own.

He cut off and blocked me after I mentioned ”special hugs”

Perhaps someone else could have done better but I was the one called to do twitter battle that day, I pray I brought no shame upon my family and swear by Christ that Neil Gaimen shall taste the bite of my sword someday

oh, that's not what I meant at all. lord and life. you were a hero to us all that day.

” The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. How did it come to this?”

http://www.seethemuzic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Amanda-Palmer-and-the-Grand-Theft-Orchestra-performing-at-St-Andrews-Hall-Detroit-MI-November-11th-2012-photo-by-Marc-Nader-5498.jpg

pink isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel

I can't get over how she can take a musical style/aesthetic that is totally my shit, be good at it and still be wholly repellant and unlikable artistically.

irl lol mookieproof

mookie otm

^

ftr, i thought matt's trolling of neil was awesome
also dan otm

It's a shame, really (though a minor shame), since she is absolutely not terrible and in fact was pretty great when I saw her a few weeks back. But as a person she's this horrible mix of showbiz kid, whimsy-miner, pretentious artiste, ironic hipster and all sorts of other unctuous things.

she was a living statue. You almost don't need to say anything else.

I like a big chunk of her music, and she was actually very nice when I met her, but that doesn't excuse any of this shit.

frankly, i don't care about the weird ethical shit like you guys do. I just want her to grow ordinary eyebrows.

that's p much my position

...and I recognize that she sucks, the terrible person thing is just shit icing on the shit cake.

Oh dear.

RT @amandapalmer: just sat alone with bono in an irish pub for an hour and talked about music.

Did he end up with her eyebrows and did she end up with his glasses?

"music"

Then they pretended they were conjoined twins...

music = "factivism, stadiums, kickstarter and eyebrows"