Amanda Fucking Palmer
August 17, 2011 1:03 PM   Subscribe

Amanda Fucking Palmer on Twitter and the new biz.
posted by Ardiril (62 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
You mean MeFi's Own Amanda Fucking Palmer.
posted by Curious Artificer at 1:17 PM on August 17, 2011


I don't think one post, ever, entitles anyone to claim ownership. :-)
posted by Malor at 1:24 PM on August 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


Didn't know she was a street artist for six years. That's a helluva way to pay your dues.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:32 PM on August 17, 2011


Posts about Amanda Palmer makes me understand why people get so pissed off about posts about Lady Gaga. I mean, I still can't articulate it, but I twig to the pissed-off-ness, viscerally.

I like a lot of AP's work--in my opinion, hers was one of only two interesting tracks on Spin's Nirvana tribute--but her presence makes me very tired of her. No good reason, at all, because I also find much of her aesthetic pleasing. Probably own most of the same books and records and shoes. I click though because I want to understand why.
posted by crush-onastick at 1:33 PM on August 17, 2011 [10 favorites]


Even though I am extremely familiar with Amanda Palmer, for some reason I read this as "Arnold Fucking Palmer".
posted by threeants at 1:34 PM on August 17, 2011 [3 favorites]


Even though I am extremely familiar with Amanda Palmer, for some reason I read this as "Arnold Fucking Palmer".

What, is he mixing cocaine in with his iced tea & lemonade now?
posted by KingEdRa at 1:37 PM on August 17, 2011 [9 favorites]


Also, I'll second crush-onastick-- I think Amanda is a stunningly talented and raw musician, but the public persona since she went solo has just been too. much. I went to one of her shows when she was touring for Who Killed..., and the music was phenomenal, but she spent literally about half an hour evangelizing for Twitter and other social media. It was just a lot to swallow. The comments about disabled feminists, the other public debacles-- those things were frankly embarassing. Mefi's Own Amanda, if you are reading this-- you are a truly terrific artist; you don't need to be a media phenomenon.
posted by threeants at 1:39 PM on August 17, 2011 [7 favorites]


She's doing pretty well for someone who is just getting by on pluck, talent, and thousands of Neil Gaiman worshipers who are ready to talk endlessly about her because OMG NEIL GAIMAN.
posted by Legomancer at 1:45 PM on August 17, 2011 [3 favorites]


It was so nice when she got together with Neil Gaiman. It felt like there was finally someone who loved Amanda Fucking Palmer almost as much as Amanda Fucking Palmer.
posted by Eideteker at 1:49 PM on August 17, 2011 [19 favorites]



The only things I know about Amanda Palmer I found by listening to the story of 8 in 8 on Weekend Edition a couple of weeks ago.
posted by mmrtnt at 1:50 PM on August 17, 2011


Of course, she also thinks product placement is evil, unless it's ironic, like for the Klu Klux Klan.
posted by yeloson at 1:51 PM on August 17, 2011 [6 favorites]


She's doing pretty well for someone who is just getting by on pluck, talent, and thousands of Neil Gaiman worshipers who are ready to talk endlessly about her because OMG NEIL GAIMAN.

It's funny, I was vaguely a Dresden Dolls fan and most definitely a Neil Gaiman fan, but that whole marriage thing doesn't make me like Amanda Palmer more, it just makes me like Neil Gaiman less.

On preview, what Eideteker said.
posted by infinitywaltz at 1:52 PM on August 17, 2011 [16 favorites]


I was at a con recently where someone was passing out little buttons that said "I KILLED AMANDA PALMER!" I thought, 'Hah! Rock on!' and stuck one to my coat until about halfway through the day I realized I had been thinking of Laura Palmer, and had no idea who Amanda was. Then I sheepishly removed the button.
posted by FatherDagon at 1:53 PM on August 17, 2011 [14 favorites]


I admit that my love for Neil Gaiman went down somewhat after a few of the "Amanda Palmer says something idiotic and offensive and fights to the death to make it sound reasonable" debacles.
posted by jeather at 1:54 PM on August 17, 2011 [7 favorites]


I'm just sad that every Mefi discussion of Palmer goes the same way. Her music has really helped me in the last few years, and I adore her to the ends of the Earth. Of course, this is Metafilter, where your favourite X always sucks, so I know not to expect a love in. I should really just stay out of AFP posts from now on.
posted by yellowbinder at 2:00 PM on August 17, 2011 [9 favorites]


I still like that first Dresden Dolls album, if that helps.
posted by infinitywaltz at 2:03 PM on August 17, 2011


The Internet: Where Disliking Beats Liking Any Day of the Week and Twice on Sunday.
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:07 PM on August 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


I admit that my love for Neil Gaiman went down somewhat after a few of the "Amanda Palmer says something idiotic and offensive and fights to the death to make it sound reasonable" debacles.

Not to mention the whole "a few dead Indians" thing. *sigh* Oh Neil.
posted by kmz at 2:09 PM on August 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


The Internet: Where Not Liking What I Like Means You're Obviously a Bitter Old Curmudgeon Who Hates Everything.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:10 PM on August 17, 2011 [6 favorites]


I always confuse Amanda Palmer with Amanda Lepore.

The comments about Palmer's media oversaturation do ring true to me. I kept seeing her name everywhere without knowing who she was, and it got to the point where I decided I just didn't want to find out.

She might be amazing, though. It's certainly possible I'll enjoy her stuff if I listen to it; I've done that sort of thing before. But it's possible to annoy away potential fans with too much publicity.
posted by Metroid Baby at 2:15 PM on August 17, 2011


Joan Fucking Jett, I get.

Amanda Fucking Palmer?
posted by Trurl at 2:37 PM on August 17, 2011 [6 favorites]


I always confuse Amanda Palmer with Amanda Lepore.


Not to derail, but i love the club kids from that time (Lepore), and was amused to discover lisa edelstein was one back then too. :) Disco Bloodbath/Party Monster is still one of my favorite reads, and remember them on the talk shows of the time. Good times.

Part of me loves Amanda Palmer, (and ditto confusing her with Laura Palmer) part of me wishes she'd just make pretty music, especially since the marriage. Now there is this annoying part that tosses in Doctor Who (an acquaintance of mine, who sometimes attends our movie nights, knows Neil, and never, ever shuts up about it, and he's a huge Who nerd, so the two are now linked for better or worse).


Amanda Fucking Palmer?


No clue where it started, but i believe it's her blog name, so there is that.
posted by usagizero at 2:42 PM on August 17, 2011


Who the hell is Amanda LaPore? No matter, I hate her and everything she's done.
posted by happyroach at 2:44 PM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


Let's just hope Palmer's wife doesn't find out.
posted by mmrtnt at 3:05 PM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


Inexplicably, I imagine her having a personality like Mel from Flight of the Concords.
posted by TheRedArmy at 3:21 PM on August 17, 2011


Coin Operated Boy? Pshaw. Beer Operated Girl.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:49 PM on August 17, 2011 [3 favorites]


Is this a thread in which I can just tell you all how much Banksy pisses me off?
posted by thebrokedown at 3:57 PM on August 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


But how much relevance will superstars like Lady Gaga have to the music people are making? That’s a totally different question. I don’t think teenagers are buying guitars and writing songs because they picked up The Fame and it changed their lives in that particular way.

Aw, snap!
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:06 PM on August 17, 2011




I'm just sad that every Mefi discussion of Palmer goes the same way. Her music has really helped me in the last few years, and I adore her to the ends of the Earth. Of course, this is Metafilter, where your favourite X always sucks, so I know not to expect a love in. I should really just stay out of AFP posts from now on.

The downside of creating a cult of personality for yourself -- if you're an artist and not, say, a Kim Kardashian -- is that any discussion about you quickly becomes about you, for good or ill, with the art being a necessary but ultimately not hugely relevant byproduct of your greatness. Or, for that matter, of your outright suckage. By which I mean to say, it becomes a matter of liking a person because of the persona they project, or disliking them for same, with the actual art getting lost in the shuffle. That's kinda too bad, because I don't think that even many of Amanda Palmer's detractors would say she's a bad musician. But that becomes not so relevant...

Of course, the upside is that you get a huge cadre of fans who might keep buying your stuff no matter what. So there's that.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:30 PM on August 17, 2011 [7 favorites]


Amanda Fucking Palmer's twitter feed actually turned me off of her peonsa pretty quickly.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:48 PM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


Amanda Fucking Palmer's twitter feed actually turned me off of her peonsa pretty quickly.

persona, even
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:20 PM on August 17, 2011


I love Gaiman and must admit I was a bit baffled when he announced he and AFP were an item. I could not imagine a less likely couple and still have trouble with it (mainly in the fact they keep two separate homes and yet whinge on Twitter about how they never see each other enough). I like Amanda fine; her music is good, and while it doesn't always resonate with me, I applaud the way she markets herself and her music that supports her.

Still....
posted by Kitteh at 5:33 PM on August 17, 2011


I rather liked them both before they got together, and liked them even more afterwards.
posted by Catbunny at 5:53 PM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


I heard Neil Gaiman charged Amanda Palmer like $20,000 to show up to their wedding.
posted by tumid dahlia at 6:17 PM on August 17, 2011 [7 favorites]


I didn't know Gaiman had a new wife! Well, Neil Gaiman's old wife, that probably sucked, but at least learned a thing or two about self-promotional moxie in the digital age.
posted by ignignokt at 6:26 PM on August 17, 2011


It's funny, but I kind of feel the same way about Neil Gaiman's whole persona as I do about Amanda Palmer's, and I love his books. Not sure if I've ever heard a song by her, honestly. She's was in the Dresden Dolls? I wasn't so into them. I see pictures of them on Neil's blog like this and I just kind of cringe inside, though I usually love schmoopy couples. I have no idea why they're so off-putting to me as institutions, and I wish I could articulate it.

It's not as if every cult-of-personality around an author or artist makes me uncomfortable. Like, I was just squeeing over Frederick Pohl's blog with his puppies and his brilliance and his oldness. But these two . . . yeah.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:33 PM on August 17, 2011


I also heard that Neil Gaiman charges Amanda Palmer $5000 every time they have to go shopping for tulle.
posted by tumid dahlia at 6:34 PM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


Amanda Fucking(?) Palmer

I can answer that one. Photographer Kyle Cassidy, who is a pretty cool dood of my acquaintance, tends to get excited when interacting with musicians and other people of note (in fact his career got started shooting "goffy girls" while attending shows in Philadelphia such as ... Dresden Dolls) and so he often discusses people by spelling their names as "$firstname freaking $lastname".

I believe the freaking ("Amanda-ed" up to be Fucking, of course) became part of her "official" name when Kyle and Amanda and the writer they'd asked to do the words for the photo book "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?" got together in Boston for the photo shoot / write up.

The writer? Neil (freaking) Gaiman.

So you can pretty much blame Kyle Cassidy for rather a lot of it.

But it's okay, he rescues cats.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:35 PM on August 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


... and he throws pretty women into lakes fully clothed.
posted by Ardiril at 7:17 PM on August 17, 2011


Amanda Fucking Palmer?


No clue where it started, but i believe it's her blog name, so there is that.


From the embarrassingly-broken website dedicated to her solo album debut: It was Ben and Joe who dubbed me AFP. Apparently, they heard a woman refer to me as “Amanda Fucking Palmer” and it just stuck. It sounds great with a slightly southern drawl.
posted by indeciSEAN at 7:37 PM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


Yngwie welcomes her to the party.
posted by ignignokt at 7:48 PM on August 17, 2011


I have no idea why they're so off-putting to me as institutions, and I wish I could articulate it.

I'm really squicked out by the whole thing where their fans refer to them by their first names like they're all old friends when in reality the fan is a person looking into a window on a stranger's life and the stranger is in fact a stranger. It's just all very weird and cringe-inducing for me. I don't blame Gaiman or Palmer for their fans, exactly -- though they don't exactly go out of their way to discourage the over-invested, as far as I can tell -- but it does make me inclined to steer clear of their fandoms. For real, when otherwise normal people (they are always women) start talking about "Neil," and Neil Gaiman isn't someone who they know personally, I scan for the exits. Is that just me?

I mean, look, teenage me loved the shit out of The Sandman; I'm not trying to crack on the dude, or his wife. I'm sure they're fine people. But jeez...some of their fans need to take a step back. Not all! Just some.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:04 PM on August 17, 2011 [8 favorites]


I love the hell out of Amanda Fucking Lear.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:40 PM on August 17, 2011


Mefi's Own Amanda, if you are reading this-- you are a truly terrific artist; you don't need to be a media phenomenon.

Weird. My reading of that article was, whether or not you're a terrific artist is really secondary to your success, and failing to also be a media phenomenon means you probably won't be eating very well in two years.
posted by mhoye at 8:54 PM on August 17, 2011


Well, yeah, I'm more concerned with my irritation level than her coffers. Which is probably why no artist should listen to me.
posted by threeants at 8:56 PM on August 17, 2011


I'm really squicked out by the whole thing where their fans refer to them by their first names like they're all old friends when in reality the fan is a person looking into a window on a stranger's life and the stranger is in fact a stranger. It's just all very weird and cringe-inducing for me. I don't blame Gaiman or Palmer for their fans, exactly -- though they don't exactly go out of their way to discourage the over-invested, as far as I can tell -- but it does make me inclined to steer clear of their fandoms. For real, when otherwise normal people (they are always women) start talking about "Neil," and Neil Gaiman isn't someone who they know personally, I scan for the exits. Is that just me?

I mean, look, teenage me loved the shit out of The Sandman; I'm not trying to crack on the dude, or his wife. I'm sure they're fine people. But jeez...some of their fans need to take a step back. Not all! Just some.


I was heavily involved in Neil Gaiman online fandom for about 5 years, and it squicked me out too. But I still did it, and I still do it with artists I really like. I'm not sure why.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:03 PM on August 17, 2011


At one point I was going to write 'The Amazing Adventures of Neil and Tori', a Hot Topic style goth comic...
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:03 PM on August 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


I'm really squicked out by the whole thing where their fans refer to them by their first names like they're all old friends when in reality the fan is a person looking into a window on a stranger's life and the stranger is in fact a stranger.

Think of it this way: we see Brangelina in the tabloids, the Kardashians all over TV, and Neil and Amanda all over the Internet. We probably see them more frequently than we do our next door neighbors or our relatives in Scranton or our best friends who moved to the other end of the country. We are strangers to them, but they sure as hell don't feel like strangers to US when we see and hear from them (in a way) more than we do our "nearest and dearest" who actually know who we are. Our brains are calibrated to feel this way about people we see so frequently-- and we don't really have a concept of "we know them but they don't know us" in our own heads. It's just weird to us and it's weird to them. But that's celebrity for ya.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:01 PM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


eh - the rabid fan thing - every person in any sort of spotlight has a certain proportion of rabid fans. It's a symptom of our species being social. You're seeing this because you're looking harder at it, because by all appearances they are 'people like us'. Look hard enough at any celebrity of any status and you'll find a few crazies, they're just already under our collective microscopes.

Gaiman's rabid fans have always been vocal and a bit evangelical about him because his books are fun. He seems like a decent enough guy who lives a reasonably unusual life. I think he should be forgiven a few attempts at public banality. The rest of us do it, why shouldn't he. (And if you say you don't ever engage in any sort of public banality, normalcy or just mundane existence, you're lying.)

That said, my personal impression of Amanda Palmer's music (in our out of the Dresden Dolls) is that it is therapy for some pretty dramatic high school traumas. Lots of people here on the blue carry that shit around with them also, so while you're cutting him some slack, cut her some slack.

In re the 'F' in AFP. I take it as being a bit mocking of the arrogant and a bit of subtle self-deprecation posing as self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement. Having listened to a reasonable amount of her solo album and the Dolls, she doesn't come across to me as being narcissistic. She just is showing off a few scars. I'm more-or-less ok with that.

(note - I don't consider myself a 'fan' nor do I like the vast majority of her/their music, but when people I trust say 'hey you should check this out,' I check it out. If i don't like it, I tell the people/person 'I checked that out and I didn't like it, but thanks.' For every Dresden Dolls I've had to listen to (suffer through?), there have been an equal number of things I've really liked.)
posted by Fuka at 10:03 PM on August 17, 2011


Meh.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I suspect it has something to do with their mutual fundamental gothiness.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:24 PM on August 17, 2011


Schmoopy? Is that really a thing?
posted by newdaddy at 11:14 PM on August 17, 2011


yes.
posted by dubold at 4:01 AM on August 18, 2011


that yes should actually have been this yes.
posted by dubold at 4:02 AM on August 18, 2011


totally different from this yes.
posted by dubold at 4:02 AM on August 18, 2011


also


Metafilter: says something idiotic and offensive and fights to the death to make it sound reasonable.
posted by dubold at 4:04 AM on August 18, 2011


re: Amanda Fucking Palmer

The woman has earned the appellation; she wears it well enough.
posted by Ardiril at 4:58 AM on August 18, 2011


Must have missed the Amanda Palmer train (never heard of her), but it's nice to be reminded that being successful doesn't have to involve a corporate structure. People like Ian MacKaye of Fugazi have extolled the virtues of going one's own way for a while now.
posted by Rykey at 7:22 AM on August 18, 2011


I really liked the Dresden Dolls when I was in art school, and Palmer's solo album was agreeably bombastic, but I made the mistake of learning what an insipid wretch of a person she is, and the bloom went right off the (dead) rose (wrapped in black lace).

Same thing happened with Matthew Good: loved his music, bought his book, went to his shows—then I actually talked to the guy and realized he's a prick of the worst order.

These days I generally avoid blogs, Twitter accounts, interviews etc. with the artists I like. Ignorance is bliss, yo.
posted by Zozo at 7:49 AM on August 18, 2011 [2 favorites]


Why does Amanda Palmer marrying Neil Gaiman weigh on anyone's opinion about them as individual artists? That seems nuts to me.

Also, haters gonna hate.

I dunno. She writes great music, she makes a living at it (and gives four other people a living too) without selling herself to the man. I think that's a lot more than most of us sitting here at work computers can say for ourselves. I'd rather be her than me.
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:03 PM on August 18, 2011


I just watched some of her videos. Wanting to dislike. And she may have charmed me. The Twitter video was fun. The daterape song made my skin crawl a little, but i'm thinking that's the point.

I would recommend she lose the eyebrows, and possibly the Neil Gaiman. He seems like the sort of person that steals people's souls.
posted by gjc at 6:45 PM on August 18, 2011


I'm just going to leave this here
posted by brand-gnu at 8:07 AM on August 19, 2011


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