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

http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/227061643/dear-robert-smith-an-open-letter

I've done this a few times myself and it always spins the ol' head around.
Generally quite nicely put.

Will have to give that a closer reread but that beyond rules.

But Dan's going to hate what she's going nuts for in the final photo.

hahahahahahaha I did get to the end and go "OH COME THE FUCK ON"

but yeah, that pretty much exactly encapsulates why I still listen to The Cure (and why, in general, I think making fun of anyone for liking a "past-their-prime" band is the hallmark of an irredeemable dick)

Interesting.

Getting backstage at The Cure show at the Greek in Berkeley in '87 (I think) was the highlight of my life at the time.

hahahahahahaha I did get to the end and go "OH COME THE FUCK ON"

Seriously LOLing for real here.

"Amanda Palmer performs the popular hits of Radiohead on her magical ukelele" EP out tomorrow:

http://music.amandapalmer.net/album/amanda-palmer-performs-the-popular-hits-of-radiohead-on-her-magical-ukulele

fuck that

it seems like the only thing that poor instrument is used for anymore is for shitty covers

extra 'for' in that last one

fake plastic covers

I've spent quality time with Amanda. Never seen the Cure though. I would like to.

Always hated this woman, her music, her shitty graphic design & her terrible personal brand.

Jeez.

Anyway...

I never ever had this close a connection to any rock star, father figure, or (day I see it) hero type as so many people have done. To the extent that I wanted to follow them or be them (beyond the thought that I'd like that job yeah, sure)...

Even to the extent that I don't even have a default understanding of the mindset beyond appreciating how someone else might feel in the situation.

Anyway, nice letter, it's good to be happy.

my extreme distate for dresden dolls, that letter, her wordiness, etc, put me off listening to 'who killed amanda palmer' until now but I really like it, it's a good record.

She may not get a lot of ILM love, but getting crowdfunded to the tune of $1m is still something worthy of note, I would say.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amandapalmer/amanda-palmer-the-new-record-art-book-and-tour/posts/232020

also recently filled in for erykah badu as bathtub fodder

25,000 people pledged an average of $50... how

25,000 people pledged an average of $50... how

I was sitting next to the writer Neil Gaiman in a pizzeria today, and he was with this lady with tattooed eyebrows and a bunch of Bard kids who appeared to be shlepping them around.

Tonight I learned that she's Amanda Palmer, and they're married. Also that Gaiman is some kind of Upper Poobah Lightning Level Scientologist (son of former U.K. Scientology boss and Vitamin mogul David Gaiman), and that many suspect the $1 million was just poured in through Sea.Org (fancy Scientology people) as part of a pretty sneaky publicity stunt....

and now I guess I should be drawing the blinds or changing my display name or something

Also that Gaiman is some kind of Upper Poobah Lightning Level Scientologist

this is not true, although his family are still. (he was actually listed as supressive for a long time iirc). and anyone who needs to make up conspiracy theories abt Palmer's fanbase and social media aptitude has prob not read anything about her, or spoken to anyone who likes her, in the last five years.

What's a suppressive?

WTF Church of Scientology is in my iPhone! Just resumed scrabble game and "Hard" robot played ENGRAM(!)

^true

Wait hold on

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/rockers-playing-for-beer-fair-play/?hp

um

isn't that the entire point of funding your enterprise via Kickstarter, so that you can raise enough money for the things you want

on the flip side, this appears to be a "hey fan musicians, I invite you to play with me for a night on stage" thing and, as such, should be looked upon as a giveaway for amateur musicians rather than a solicitation for professionals

hahah goddamn musicians union folks are weird. DJP otm.

oh don't get me wrong, if she was doing this to drum up her core band she would deserve every bit of invective and more

What's the distinction your drawing there, though? "one gig vs a tour" or "horns & strings vs guitar/drums" or "a few songs vs the whole show"?

*you're

If she's doing a "let me bring out enthusiastic fans at each show to do a song or two" thing, then who cares

If she's doing a "let me fill out my band for the majority of my set with people I don't have to actually pay" thing, she should fuck off

i had never paid any attention to this person until this musician thing, which is shitty. but even shitter, she apparently was dating (pre-gaiman) someone who was a recovered drug addict and relapsed, and she faked a suicide attempt to show him how hurt she was by it, and recorded his reaction to finding her and thinking she had killed herself, and used it on an album. he later committed suicide. how is this person real?! that is stomach turning.

holy shit, is that for real

http://youtu.be/h57XWrFNGs8

5:10

this woman, holy shit

I hated this woman anyway for being a total shit to my friends when they were doing Weill cabaret, this is next level

ennh, she was 18 and the "gf fakes a suicide" -> "he commits suicide" connection doesn't ring true for me. It is so fucked up that she'd put that recording on an album, though, oh my god.

and christ, pay your musicians. Amateur vs. professional who the fuck cares. More like "I am blessed with a worshipful fanbase now let me exploit you for cheap labour"

haha Owen I think we're pretty much on the same page here with minor deviations

like... always?

he said here.

ennh, she was 18 and the "gf fakes a suicide" -> "he commits suicide" connection doesn't ring true for me. It is so fucked up that she'd put that recording on an album, though, oh my god

yeah i wasn't making the connection that he committed suicide because of her, it was more of an aside. but faking suicide is horribly abusive behavior, and using the recording on an album implies she has no remorse about it.

If she's doing a "let me bring out enthusiastic fans at each show to do a song or two" thing, then who cares

If she's doing a "let me fill out my band for the majority of my set with people I don't have to actually pay" thing, she should fuck off

― DARING PRINCESS (DJP), Thursday, September 13, 2012 2:18 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, this is OTM. I think if one of my favourite bands put out a call for people to show up and play either a track they already know or jam out some psych a la Suzuki's Network, I'd jump at it and not expect payment. However, if it was "please learn my entire set, be present at a rehearsal, play for the entire show or at least when and where I expect you to" then I would find that a very different proposition indeed.

The string/horn sections she pulled together for the immediate post-Kickstarter mini-tour thing were all fans who opted in. They were asked to learn two songs I think, and turn up in time to soundcheck - and they looked like the happiest damn fans on earth onstage (as well as actually being really good).

i had never paid any attention to this person until this musician thing, which is shitty. but even shitter, she apparently was dating (pre-gaiman) someone who was a recovered drug addict and relapsed, and she faked a suicide attempt to show him how hurt she was by it, and recorded his reaction to finding her and thinking she had killed herself, and used it on an album. he later committed suicide. how is this person real?! that is stomach turning.

She's also ableist. I think she's an asshole.

You guys don't understand, she's an artist. You can't be an artist and an asshole at the same time, they're like matter / anti-matter.

(If I listen carefully, I can probably hear DJP's reaction to that from across the Atlantic)

I think a lot of the greatest artists have been complete and total assholes, and she's certainly living up to that. But women get given a harder time for ~not being nice~ and the level of assholehood required to be a ~great~ artist, so I try to cut female rock stars some slack on that count, i.e. The Courtney Love Clause.

The problem is, I've never heard any work of Amanda Palmer's that actually inspired me or blew me away in the way that I require ~great art~ to do. Which may well be my failure to appreciate it. So it's complicated.

Oy oy oy, that Evelyn Evelyn thing. I would have no problem if it was a Victoriana/Steampunk concept album about conjoined twins, really, but... positioning them in the contemporary world? Pretending that you rescued them? Giving *quite* such a distressing backstory to the record? DRESSING as them?

Yeah, that thing Nicole posted, that was the thing that really just crystalised a lot of the floating discomfort I'd been experiencing about her and her schtick. But, like I said, it's complicated.

but faking suicide is horribly abusive behavior, and using the recording on an album implies she has no remorse about it.

I've not knowingly heard an amanda palmer record but she reminds me so so so strongly of girls i used to know -- there can be this sense that making art around something shitty that you did is a way of working through it, the experience and your own behaviour? I mean, to me it is a terrible thing to have used that recording on an album that you release and get money for, but I can sense the edges of the logic that leads to it. Also i do not think her behaviour can be held responsible for his later suicide.

Like WCC says, it's complicated - because there've been these girls I knew who would have been so happy to grow up into Amanda Palmer, the very phenomenon of her existence is dear to me -- even when she does stuff like the Evelyn Evelyn project, which was frankly repulsive.

I think I'm probably misreading you, WCC - your first paragraph seems to suggest that there's a minimum level of assholehood required to be a great artists? But your second suggests that if she was a great artist, she'd get a reduction in effective assholehood?

in short, Great artists tend to be assholes, but assholes do not tend to be great artists.

she is kinda the human embodiment of the new fb "cares" react

hope and prayers

My first thought was that she was feeling upstaged by the pandemic.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Birds gotta swim, fish gotta fly

AP gotta say me me me

popping in from extended (indefinite) hiatus to say ahahahahahaha

it literally took grimes half a day to in turn entirely upstage her. full pro

jeez, the faux tattoo baby pic musk tweeted is very yikes

uh, excuse me, why are you posting about musk on the AMANDA PALMER thread??

open goal there

please someone ... take the shot

Amanda Palmer’s musk bottled and sold to her creepy patrons

why are we assuming this is the end of the marriage and not just another dramatic gesture in the never-ending stream of dramatic gestures

That's more her style than his, and moving to the UK from New Zealand in May 2020 seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a dramatic gesture.

I too would leave one of the safest places in the world for one of the most dangerous in order to get away from Amanda Palmer

all i can say is that i’m heartbroken, i really am profoundly struggling and i need to call my community to me like never before.‬ i need you to update your credit card information and if you got stimulus money from your government, consider upping your tier?

Just when I thought the neil gaiman amanda palmer mess couldn't get any more ridiculous pic.twitter.com/1FTl2CWkJH

— shugs (@aulsegoshas) May 9, 2020

klassy

did we ever sort this out?

That's gotta be fake.

He was hacked apparently. (Still funny tbh) pic.twitter.com/wylqrbwDx6

— katrina (@kbeth_x) May 9, 2020

Stigmatizing of bpd people sucks

that is very true and i despise that such a book exists; nonetheless i feel that of the two eponymous personality disorders, that might not be the one in play

this is definitely an art project on how people perceive men and women in breakups

good call and i will owe you five dollars when the performance is named

It's named "Can I have five dollars?"

i despise that such a book exists

why? people with BPD and/or narcissism are often really damaged/damaging in relationships and do not take break ups well -- like that's part of the disorder. Considering there are books with helpful advice for partners/former partners of depressed people, alcoholics, victims of childhood sexual abuse ... it isn't saying "people with these issues are evil" just that their mental health problems often make the already difficult task of ending relationships even more difficult.

going to be really funny if he left a kindle linked to his account behind in nz and it was her reading it

i am certain that she still has loyal nerdbro fans from her early Boston days that could hack his shit for her.

MIT grads, Harvard grads -- C.S. degrees and fondness for RPGs -- Gaiman is going down

Idk Amanda Palmer and Anonymous are two concepts that don’t jibe

lol

i'm glad they're splitting, it means I can feel better about liking Gaiman now.

same, but for ap

https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/117915650.html

what a timeless love story this was

lol at Neil and his request for privacy, if you want privacy then marrying and then breaking up with Amanda Palmer must be the worst possible way to go about it.

Gaimen leaving his child in the middle of a pandemic is really horrible

^^^ yeah, regardless of how this went down I keep coming back to that and feeling really sad for everyone involved

otm x2

it makes sense if you’re rich. Maybe he felt like his other properties were feeling lonely.

So anyway they haven't split up, end of drama*
(*probably not)

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2020/05/where-i-am-what-im-doing-how-im-doing.html

Glad the dickhead has gone to rural scotland where they definitely need international tourists rn during a pandemic lol

"I needed to be somewhere I could continue to isolate easily, which definitely isn't our house in Woodstock, currently at capacity with five families who have fled Manhattan and Brooklyn and Boston"

What a delightful treat for the people of Woodstock NY

Amanda and I wrote a letter together, for the curious and for the bits of the world that is wondering what's going on, and whether they should worry about it.

my mind flat out rejects the existence of the thousands of people who presumably give an atom of shit about these nonentities. I’m even disgusted at myself for being irritated about it.

to worry about it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU1y9iYFLHw

xp - idk i find their drama and annoyingness entertaining in the way that a lot of people do those reality shows about the kardashians -- it's like the idea of the charcuterie plate being lunchables for bougie educated ppl

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-52697289

aw i was hoping that would be a story about a pitchfork-wielding mob storming his house and burning it

early days yet.