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

Basically, I find laughing at Amanda Palmer in public to be too tiring to be worthwhile, because I have to keep smacking down idiots who decide to slut-shame, body-police, diminish because she's only some woman, her husband is famous, blah blah blah blah

otm

and please, the people who keep going on about her eyebrows - could you please stfu, because that is just shallow and gross.

which is only half-applicable to her eyebrows

the thing that is the most striking to me about Amanda Palmer is the tone in which she writes/talks about herself and the implied audience for that performance. When I read what she writes, my primary feeling is embarrassment, the embarrassment of being privy to a conversation that is not meant for me. Sometimes it makes me angry, angry for being assumed to "buy in" to "be a fan." It reminds me of kids doing talent shows for their doting adult relatives, which is charming and appealing if you are one of the doting adult relatives. But now she is doing her talent show for the doting adult relatives and the general public, with a similar response to like, a dark cabaret Honey Boo Boo child or something ...

It just reminds of countless stories of underground musicians who suddenly become famous, and the ability to speak to their fanbase, their community and just that audience - that privacy - is gone.

the tone in which she writes/talks about herself

she seems to talk a lot about the significance of her own actions and the significance of her audience's being her audience, which is, like, usually a theme reserved for… jesus, dictators, self-realization-method-entrepreneurs, uh…

i dunno - it seems typical of any mutual admiration society, really.

I'm sure there is a degree of sexism in the reaction to Palmer, e.mily, there almost always is anytime any female artist is discussed in America.

I try to be a good person & examine & be conscious of my own privilege & unexamined prejudices

But with her, I just...can't.....I just find her so offensive & so representative of this horrible narcissistic self important manipulative shithole that social media has turned life into I just want to let my hate of Palmer and Gaiman run free like a wild stallion leading a runaway herd of horses, trampling everything in their path

Also fuck Gaimen getting any kind of pass, he might be worse, he's getting his hands on the money while sort of keeping this respectable distance and letting Palmer do the dirty work

And he has no excuse, he's already wealthy

I'm not entirely sure why you assume he's getting a cut of the money?

He's been involved in kickstarted ”performances” with him and palmer, for which tickets were sold at full price, but they kickstarted poor saps the chance to come backstage and kiss the ring of the gothfather and his moll.

For like $1000

Right but for stuff like that he's actually getting dirty for the money.

Well, apart from his ring.

Fuck him

...which ring.

depends, how much did you contribute to their Kickstarter?

I could only afford a Lysol douche.

Her postioning herself as some kind of spokesperson/John the Baptist for proletarian art is what disgusts me the most about her.

I think I've said this before but she was incredibly shitty to a bunch of my friends, who are all incredibly talented classical singers, at a performance of Weill material they were putting on and basically took over their show after they graciously acknowledged her presence in the audience and her Dresden Dolls work, which she took as an invitation to hop onstage and denigrate what they were doing by singing some of their songs herself and saying that her cabaret interpretation was "how the songs should be performed", never mind that all of the material came from Weill operas and all of my friends were in a production of Mahagonny that was about to go up (which I was also in and got fantastic reviews) and opera singers research the shit out of a piece's history and the musical technique behind it before stepping onstage as a soloist.

Then I saw the Evelyn Evelyn bullshit and basically was like "ohh I see, she is unmitigated awful" and stopped really thinking about her until the Kickstarter brouhaha

You sexist hatemonger, why do you despise success

honestly this is one of the greatest things I was ever involved in: http://www.operaonline.us/mahagonny_opera_boston.htm

http://gaylemadeira.com/dance/ballet-and-modern/ballet-and-modern-photos/

scroll down for Mahagonny photos

this show was so badass

seems like a good show, but a really standard template for a production, probably not the future of anything

You sexist hatemonger, why do you despise success

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, March 21, 2013 2:33 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wow. I am actually really shocked, surprised and hurt at this, particularly coming from you, Ned. Dan's post was a perfectly well-considered objection to objectionable behaviour, but you choose to use it as a springboard to present a massively reductionist caricature of people who care about the very real elements of sexism regularly presented in discussions about this woman.

I'm pretty certain Ned meant "sexy hatemonger"

Also that's he's been friends with DJP for 15(?) years.

I am not sure that I am not falling into a comedy trap, but too far in now...

I'm... not entirely sure how you read my post, there. Nothing he said was insulting to Dan, but it was directly insulting to me.

And I do apologize for that, as I well know my snark gets the better of me sometimes. If reductionist, though, I think there's a LOT of that going around. As I think we can all agree on, a lot of Palmer's fanbase (and I'm not counting you among them, per your earlier comments) is doing her absolutely no favors in the slightest at present when it comes to their own reflexive reactions.

what happened, I am confused (and it's Andrew's fault)

I was trying to think of a straight male equivalent to AP--someone whose ego and neediness pleases a certain fanbase but invokes nausea in many others--and all I can come up with is Dane Cook.

Charlie Sheen
Chris Brown
Mel Gibson

... just off the top of my head

Guy Fieri?

"ANYONE CAN ASK FOR MONEY, ANYONE" reminds me of the famous observation by anatole france that the law, "in its majestic equality", forbids both rich and poor from stealing bread and sleeping under bridges

besides the raw feeling of embarrassment whenever i hear her talk, i think what bugs me the most is how cult-like her whole deal is -- the extra-musical things are the main things, as far as i can tell.

and all of my friends were in a production of Mahagonny that was about to go up (which I was also in and got fantastic reviews)

(The bit in brackets made me smile, doubtless it reads in a way not intended)

it was semi-intended, give me a little credit

by that i mean that her musical output is a relatively small and almost perfunctory part of a larger project of micro-fame status management. OF COURSE it would be this half-assed cabaret stuff.

xp to myself

xp: but the main point was more that not only was she outright dissing friends of mine who are all a good bit more talented than me, but she was also also dissing something I was directly involved in that was actually really fucking great

Charlie Sheen
Chris Brown
Mel Gibson

There are other reasons to dislike these guys than that they go on about how they used the internet to revolutionize the comic-audience dynamic

"how the songs should be performed",

In a bra and a German military cap?

I was trying to think of a straight male equivalent to AP--someone whose ego and neediness pleases a certain fanbase but invokes nausea in many others--and all I can come up with is Dane Cook.

― gentle german fatherly voice (President Keyes), Thursday, March 21, 2013 11:04 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's been about 10 years since I noticed anything that Dane Cook has done. Did he pen a manifesto or something?

"challops as a way of life"

besides the raw feeling of embarrassment whenever i hear her talk, i think what bugs me the most is how cult-like her whole deal is -- the extra-musical things are the main things, as far as i can tell.

I find her fans quite creepy -- they seem more like religious fanatics than music fans. Even Morrissey fans aren't as creepy as hers, jfc.

xxpost -- He gave a TED talk. (Ted's his barkeep.)

I was trying to think of a straight male equivalent to AP--someone whose ego and neediness pleases a certain fanbase but invokes nausea in many others--and all I can come up with is Dane Cook.

Ricky Gervais?

she seems to talk a lot about the significance of her own actions and the significance of her audience's being her audience, which is, like, usually a theme reserved for… jesus, dictators, self-realization-method-entrepreneurs, uh…

― j., Thursday, March 21, 2013 3:38 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. Every time I encounter anything she's doing, the underlying theme is a celebration of her ego. I'm trying to even think of a musician i like that does constantly talk about themselves and how amazing they are. Are there any? I mean John Lennon was in the 'Bigger than God' Beatles and even he was mostly fond of saying "it was just a band get over it".

andrew breitbart

the KLF, probably

― ☠ ☃ ☠ (mh), Wednesday, March 20, 2013 5:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

<3<3

Justin Bieber
Drake
Kanye West

Noel Gallagher
Billy Corgan
Yngwie Malmsteen

World's worst G3 touring lineup.

i don't think any of those people get to the level of "the title on their business card is not really what they do" that i'm trying to get at. maybe noel, now.