the ace of ninjas (…lots of newses and a little tarot kickstarter insider info).
hola comrades!
greetings from cafe pamplona.
i am kind of a zombie…i just got off a run of 9 shows in 8 days; one at lincoln center and 7 house parties.
was it wisely scheduled? i think i was a little over-ambitious actually. i’ll write a whole epic blog about it, the photos are still coming in.
but from a farm in portland, oregon to cakes made of boobs in st. paul to coming up with a game called “everybody gets 2 minutes in the closet with amanda, who is tired and wants to cuddle on a futon” in virginia…it was enough to write a whole fucking book about.
i have some quick quick newses for you, then stories.
first of all: neil and i are doing a SHOW TOGETHER IN NEW YORK CITY, since we’re about to announce the full-on commercial release of “an evening with”…
there’s ALMOST NO TICKETS LEFT. we MAY add a second night, not sure, but please get tickets soon.
my tour dates in europe, new zealand and oz still have tickets left…melbourne and sydney are the biggest ones almost sold out: amandapalmer.net/shows/
this TUESDAY AT 10 am california time (PST) i’m going to do an “ask me anything” on reddit.
if you’re a redditor, rejoice, and if you don’t or haven’t used reddit, go familiarize yourself before tuesday (you could always start on my subreddit, /r/amandapalmer). it’s an awesome system where the good questions float to the top and a really vigorous discussion takes place in real time. i’ve been wanting to do this for a LONG time so i’m really excited about it.
the exactly link will go live on tuesday, but it’ll be somewhere n’ here.
i was originally going to spend the past week tooling around the west coast and visiting jason webley, but i decided that i needed a boston/cambridge recharge and i’m really glad i did it.
i drove to melissa auf der maur’s in hudson, NY, and replenished my soul poking around town with her, petting her little baby’s head, chopping scallions for dinner and basically hiding from my own existence, which is important when you’re touring yourself into the ground. i had to stop myself from doing a ninja gig in a bar in hudson. it’s like i’m a fucking addict. for real. can. not. stop.
i couldn’t stop myself in portland…i did a weird ninja gig on the last day of the house-party tour.
i woke up that morning with the day off in portland because i had two in a row in the same city, and the first thought i had upon waking was that i’d love to play a ninja show somewhere that afternoon, because both parties were the private kind (i.e.: they weren’t group-funded via facebook, people just threw down $5k and i was headed to their situations….which was amazing, more later). and i wanted to connect with the general weirdos of portland. but i was tired. and the idea floated into my head that i could just hug people. somewhere quiet. and so i announced that i would be giving away silent hugs at powell’s bookstore, along with recommendations for poetry books. and it worked like a dream….i ran around the poetry section, whispering with people and asking them what kind of poems they wanted. i think i was single-handedly responsible for the sale of over 50 poetry books that day in powell’s…and the bookstore was REALLY NICE ABOUT IT…we even thanked each other on twitter. especially given that we created a traffic jam in their poetry section….and i was technically vandalizing their books by signing them before they were sold to their rightful owners. but we all trust each other…and everybody bought their books. some people were like “i’m broke, i needed the cheapest poems you got”…and they were given $1 used editions of walt whitman.
(click to enlarge)
i’d tweeted “if you need to tell me something, write it down”, so i left the bookstore laden with about 15 letters. i read them all on the plane home. some of them made me cry, thank you to everyone who wrote.
and this was amazing….when i finished the silent bit inside, a bunch of people still wanted photos. I suggested we go outside so as not to continue disturbing the bookstore.
we all came outside and 3 minutes later a wedding party walked by
we yelled
CONGRATULATIONS
and they waved back and then stopped and said
AMANDA !
and i said
YES !
and they said
WE WORK AT TED !!!
and someone had a ukulele and handed it to me and we sang HAPPY WEDDING BECKY AND MICHAEL FROM TED to the tune of happy birthday. they were very gleeful even if the bridesmaids were confused.
it was quite awesome (photos by @adamthealien, @eguasc, and @onditimoner):
(click to enlarge)
so….APPLAUSE FOR THE AWESOMEST PUNK ROCK BOOKSTORE. powell’s ftw. you can buy books from them online. give them all your money: powells.com
so if you haven’t noticed yet…a few weeks ago, pretty quietly, a kickstarter was launched by a bunch of artists entitled “The Amanda Palmer Tarot”.
it’s currently at almost $50,000, it exceeded it’s $15,000 on the first day. i was really impressed (and proud). i approved it’s existence.
there’s now 9 days left to order it and it’s trending towards crushing that original pledge number by 500%, which is amazing.
the really cool thing about this project is that in addition to being entirely fan-funded, it’s FAN-OPERATED, and the art is FAN-SOURCED, as well.
here’s a sampling of some of the cards:
(click to enlarge)
here is the FULL list of contributors…so many amazing artists, many of whom will look familiar to you (kyle cassidy, molly crabapple, kambriel, etc):
Alex Ghosn • Alexa Dunham • Aly Fell • Amarantha Bissell • Amélie Marandet • Amy E.S. Lanteigne • Ana Veronica Guevara • Ashleigh Haddad • Audrey Bishop • Barbara Bëër • Ben Beaty • Ben Naylor • Bobby Jean • Bradeb Nesin • Carly Mazur • Carly Susman • Chris Lowrance • Christina Hess • Christopher Titus • Clark Huggins • Corina St. Martin • Cyrrise Locke • David Ayllon • David McQuillan • Drew Rausch • Faunalia • Galen Dara • Georgia Kristoffersen • Grant Cooley • Heather Rose • Heather Noye • Jake Stephens • Jasmine Becket-Griffith • Jason Cheeseman-Meyer • Jerem Morrow • Jess King • JessyLou D’Aprile • JM Tolman • Judy C Riggenbach • Julia L Singh • KAMBRIEL • Kara M DeCarlo • Kate Conover • Katelan V. Foisy • Kelsie Gygi • Kinlyside • Kirsten Brown • Kristina Carroll • Kyle Cassidy • Lani Irving • Laura Tempest Zakroff • Linda Paúla Marcos • Lisa Tagliaferri • Lucy Coombs • Madeline Carol Matz • Marc Scheff • Mark Readhead • Mary Walsh • Melissa Dowell • Meredith Thompson • Molly Crabapple • Nathan Novak • Paulina Cassidy • Philip Harris • Raliel • Rebecca Kate • Reynardin • Sarah Richardson • Sean Archer • Shannon Saar • Sylvia K • Tania Rodriguez • Tim Kress • Tim Youster • Tina W • Trixy Grace • Walter Sickert • Zelda Devon
(click to enlarge)
amazing, jah?!
and beautiful. so many different kinds of art…which is uncommon for a tarot and therefore totally fitting for a all-weirdos-on-board AFP project.
and now, a little bit of history:
we tried really hard to get the tarot project off the ground about 5-6 years ago as something cool to put up on post-war trade, but shit got in the way.
conflicting projects were released, there were staff changes, balls got dropped, lists got lost….and like things do occasionally, the entire project sank under it’s own weight and the team got sucked in by other projects (at the time, i believe, it was mostly “amanda palmer goes down under” and then everything shifted hardcore into “theatre is evil” land).
and there it sat, in imaginary files on some lost computer…..sadly.
especially since so many people had already started putting together so many beautiful pieces for it…and then earlier this year, i was walking through harvard yard (yes! the one that is pronounced in a funny boston accent, where you allegedly “pahk ya cah”, which is impossible, because there is absolutely nowhere in hahvahd yahd where one can pahk a cah, it’s all fucking grass).
so there i was, walking with neil to have dinner in the square, and we passed by a building with a giant library and i light in it and goddammit who was in there finishing up a show…it was none other than zoë boekbinder. so we scampered in to say hello even though we’d missed her performance. and a girl came up to me. she said “a bunch of artists are thinking about reviving the long lost tarot project, would you give us your blessing?” and i was like “FUCK YES i will”.
this is one of the amazing things about crowdfunding and the internet. i actually think this project is BETTER off being done by the artists – with me as a signal booster.
i wasn’t initially doing it to make money, anyway, the idea was to just do a cool community project and showcase everybody’s art.
now it’s happening and i didn’t even need to be in charge. it’s MAGIC. MAGIC, i tell you.
and now, a word from Madeline Carol Matz, the person heading up this whole amazing project…
“It all started on Amanda’s forums.
One person there was inspired by Amanda and created a tarot card as a piece of fan art and everyone thought it was cool. Over time, more and more cards got made. The variety of the media and all the different ideas people were coming up with were amazing!
There was so much incredible art created that this deck HAD to get made. Getting a deck printed is a huge task involving raising money to order the minimum number of decks necessary to get the deck printed. With the arrival of crowdfunding, it made getting the funds needed to get the deck printed up a realistic goal. Not only could the deck get printed but the the deck could be made available to anyone who wanted one!
With a plan in place, Amanda was approached about it and she was all for it!
Then the nuts and bolts had to be covered. The deck needed to be filled out with artists for the cards that remained. When word got out, there was a great response from artists interested in doing a card and becoming part of the project. There were not enough cards in the deck to go around. Even after the kickstarter launched, inquiries are still coming in!
One of the things we are most proud of is that the artists are getting a royalty for their work being used. With 78 artists splitting it, it’s not a fortune but it is very important that artists receive payment for their work! Amanda has been a big inspiration in helping us remember that art is valuable and artists should not be embarrassed about getting rewarded for their work. That’s why everyone should get a deck! The more sold, the more the artists are going to get paid for all those beautiful images!
The kickstarter campaign has been wonderful. I never imagined Amanda would be supporting it so actively! She’s giving back all our love we put in mailing the art!!
So, the deck is complete and the funding goal met! The deck will be printed, all the art will be getting out into the world and the artists will be paid for their work all while having a great time celebrating all the inspiration Amanda has put out into the world!”
….and that about catches you up. truly awesome.
and she doesn’t talk about it here, but there’s a lot more to making a kickstarter and a big manufacturing project like this than meets the eye.
i got a chance to sit down with madeline at the indianapolis house party and we chatted for a while.
the woman has been SLAVING over spreadsheets. 78 artists. that’s a SHIT TON of emails and conversations and files to keep track of, not to mention pricing out the printing, making the boxes, it’s a HUGE job and she’s doing it pretty much for the joy of it – to connect everything and everyone. and judging from the number of exclamation points in her description of the process, i don’t think she’s bummed.
and NOW, as a treat for you quick-fingered blog readers, there is a second printing of the special edition BOX that houses all of the cards. there are some left if you act quick.
originally the box-artist said she could only make 100, but she’s decided to make 200 more.
AND…extra cool…they just unlocked some rewards levels with ORIGINAL ARTWORK FOR SALE (click the pics to pledge)!!
you can find the kickstarter HERE and you’ve got 9 days to get in on that shit…i bought a few for myself, even. these’ll be amazing christmas gifts.
“like” them on facebook | follow them on twitter
ALSO in kickstarter-land…
if you’re familiar with the work of marina abramovic (“the artist is present”), she just kickstarted a VENUE in upstate NY…i actually gave some feedback to her and her team about the creation of their project, and i’m really proud of how they did. keep your eyes on it even if you didn’t get in before it closed.
AND, lastly, just a random bit of crazy art-geeking…and maybe it won’t be a kickstarter, per se, but i had an idea and people seemed to like it…because i am the freak i am, i thought it would be fun to manufacture a “dear daily mail” nudie pen – a pin-up painting type painting of yours truly…
kinda like this:
image thanks to trishhunterfinds.com.au
i mentioned a vanishing kimono, but now it seems like it’d be a better idea all together to use the photo that started all of the hullabaloo as inspiration.
the only problem with that would be the daily mail suing me for using the photo – which wouldn’t even be the photo…i’d have someone do a painting inspired by it. but those guys…i dunno, they’re sneaky. if they sued me, i’d have a whole OPERA on my goddam hands….
OMG NIPPLE. anyway…
we’d make a small batch at around $10 or so each to make it worthwhile.
so if you wanna weigh in in comments below…tell the truth…would you spend $10 on a nudie pen?
enlighten me. and if I really do this…keep your word. i need to manufacture about 1,000 minimum, and i don’t want to
end up being the owner of 800 unwanted nudie pens. though…i could make an amazing art car…
till soon, mofos. flying to LA now for secret business (soon to be revealed), then to new zealand to start tour.
love
afp
p.s. OH one last thing…. “do it with a rockstar” is in a trailer for a new film called “how i live now“. the film stars saoirse ronan and looks pretty awesome. the song will also be on the official soundtrack along with some other great artists. i’ll keep you looped.
rock.
love.
