europa, wooden vagina-stage, heartplane tattoos

January 18, 2009

hola comrades!!!

ok, most impo’tent: if you hadn’t noticed, afp & the ensemble are about to come to europe. like, wicked soon, in about two weeks.

i recommend getting tickets online if you know you’re going, you never know.
please forward these dates to ANYONE you think might want to know about these shows. that’s important, i am relying on the fanbase to get the word out on the street.

the dates:
Feb 4 – Electric Ballroom, London, London and South East
Feb 6 – Divan Du Monde, Paris, Ile-de-France
Feb 8 – Gaswerk Kulturzentrum, Winterthur, Zurich
Feb 9 – Fri-Son, Fribourg, Friburgnemn
Feb 11 – Le Bikini, Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées
Feb 13 – Sala Apolo, Barcelona, Barcelona
Feb 14 – Caracol, Madrid, Madrid

tickets are on sale now for all these shows at:
http://amandapalmer.net/tour
buy in advance! some of these places are small and will hopefully sell out.

……………………………………….

TEA & SYMPATHY & PIANO in LONDON?

i’m heading to london early (around the 31st) and am actually hunting for a place to practice….
so if you live near camden and have a piano or a decent electric keyboard with speakers,
will you have me over for tea? seriously. i need to practice and am without gear. within close tube-range of camden would be great.
email beth and give her the scoop: beth (at) amandapalmer (dot) net.

………………………………………….

LODGING IN EUROPE

this has been working awesomely so far, so here we go again.
yes! yes. the danger ensemble and i are looking for crash pads throughout europe.

like our punk ass forefathers….doing it on the cheap and keeping it real – so we are looking for a comfy crash space for 5 sassy australians, possibly a hot tour manager/lighting designer and one lonely little AFP.
we don’t need a palace.. but a bed to rest our heads, get a cup of tea and check our emails would be AWESOME. (if you live near general humanity, life, stores, art and parties – we like that too. and we love pianos.)
we will repay you with love, merch and concert tickets (for you and whoever is helping out).
and will regale you of stories of how rock and roll it is to check your email all day when you’re on the road.

these are the cities and the dates we are looking for:

in or near Paris, France. – Feb 5th and 6th.
in or near Winterthur, Switzerland – Feb 7th.
in or near Fribourg, Switzerland – Feb 9th
in or near Toulouse, France – Feb 10th and 11th.
in or near Barcelona, Spain – Feb 12th.
in Barcelona or somewhere en route from Barcelona to Madrid, Spain – Feb 13th.
in or near Madrid, Spain – Feb 14th.

if you can help or know someone who can please email steven (at) amandapalmer (dot) net! He loves you already.
if you write and you DON’T hear back, please don’t poke. we’re sending this call out so late that steven will probably be barraged. please be pateint.
thank you thank you.

……………………………………………

FOOD IN EUROPE

as for food, yes….we’re still hungry.
imagine that. you guys fed us brilliantly the last time around, and now i can’t even imagine not doing this.
we love you and will trade you love and tickets for food. and you can hang out backstage and drink our beer and wine.

if you can bring food to ANY of the shows, please e-mail food (at) amandapalmer (dot) net and we’ll give you instructions.
dessert foods kill us, so please don’t bring us cakes and cookies and evil foods.
last time around in europe, everyone brought cake and chocolate and we got fat.
loving the belly is one thing, but for christs sake, keep us healthy.

…….

that’s all for now in the touring department.

no, wait, one more thing.

we’ve confirmed support for london and paris and it’s a WONDERFUL band i’ve been itching to play with for YEARS.
they’re called detektivbyrån and they sound like a wonderful tripping movie soundtrack come to life.
they gave me their CD at a gig ages ago and i’m happy i finally snatched them…go listen….

http://www.myspace.com/detektivbyran

…………………….

in the life department, i feel incredibly productive.

i have no feelings.

i will have some feelings in the spring, maybe.

i took a bath last night.

it was 4 degrees outside.

when it’s that cold, my tub refuses to actually become warm enough to feel like a real bath.
the water is just not hot enough.

so i boil two pots of water on the stove plus the kettle and i run back and forth between the bath and the stove for the entire
duration of the bath and it’s a whole activity.

i can’t even take a bath without doing something else at the same time.

something is wrong with me.

but.

i have written over 500 emails in the last 4.5 days.

i have played the piano.

i have broken 3 bass strings in 2 days.

i have done my dishes.

i am on fire.

but it’s freezing here, dudes. it’s just unfair.

jason webley came for a visit. we emailed TOGETHER.
we did take a break and got some dim sum and looked at the dead fish in chinatown and walked around and ran into an amazing old lady in an antiques shop who showed us her photo
album for 45 minutes. she used to tour with her sister in the late forties and early fifteis. they played guitars and wore dresses. she had a picture of her and her sister with FRANK.
i wanted to quit everything and stay with her forever. there is no evidence of their group (the hickory sisters) on the internet. they only toured for
six years and then came back to boston (in the early 1950s) to run their parent’s store. and she’s still there. she’s 85, i think.

………………………………………………………………………..

olga, who designed the lovely amandapalmer.net site, made me a necklace of wooden wings because i coveted hers so badly.
but i decided it worked better as a belt (or as we’ve been callin git around here, a vagina-stage) and beth took a picture of it for me.

i get mad compliments on it.

…………………………………………………………………………

hayley wrote:
I was wondering though, if you ever got your New Years Eve kiss. At the Grand Ballroom last year (NYE 2007) you mentioned that you are always on stage at midnight and that it is frustrating because you never get to kiss anyone (while everyone around you does) – This year’s show was post-midnight so maybe you got lucky?

afp answers:
um, no. i didn’t. another year.

…………………………………………………………………………….

katie wrote:
there’s been a few rumors floating around the interwebz; is it true you were in a porno when you were younger?

afp answers:
TOTALLY true. kim airs, who ran a great local sexuality boutique for women called “grand opening” used to host an amateur porn film night at the coolidge corner.
there would be a bunch of entries and all the tapes would get burned after the screening. my friend sandy and i made a great lesbian porn called “voodoo dykes”, in around 2000.
my screen name was Conni Lingus. hers was Jumbo Lila. it was terrible, and great. i have a copy of it somewhere. when i’m feeling really desperate for attention in
my late hundreds, i’ll post it to the internet for laughs.

……………………………………………………………………………………

Steve wrote:
On the subject of questions, tattoos and the interpretation of art: where, oh where, did the heart/plane/arrow/pen symbol on “Yes Virginia” come from and/or what does it mean? I really like it, am considering getting a tattoo of it, and don’t want to find out after the fact that it’s a Crip tag. Not that I think you’re gang affiliated. Just curious.

afp answers:
it’s not a crip tag, dude. i drew it myself. we call it the “heartplane” logo when using it on things.
i like to think of it as an interpretable symbol that combines the battle spirit of art and love.
there’s a picture of me drawing in the Virginia Companion….let me see if i can find it…..

ah, here we go.
it was on the NIN tour, (you can see the little NIN tour book on the table).
brian took this picture.

and there’s a few other lovely tattoos on the dolls site featuring said drawing….
all the dolls tattoos live up at http://www.dresdendolls.com/closet/couture/index.htm, by the way, and if you have one, you can email it to beth (at) amandapalmer (dot) net