Hello loves.
Greetings from my desk in New Zealand. Thank you all, so, so deeply for your comments and discussion on Ask Amanda #1. Holy shit. It’s even more powerful than I thought it would be, and for the reasons I hoped. This community really knows how to … connect itself. Your comments were all so thoughtful and well-written and compassionate, and … just, wow.
I hope it all grows and grows and grows. You have my permission, nay, my encouragement, my PERSONAL ASS-KICK, to comment on one another’s comments. That’s why I’m doing this, okay? To try to help everybody feel a little less lonely, one post at a time. I’m currently cranking hard right now on Ask Amanda #2, answering a big assortment of interconnected questions (instead of just one), and Sarah is plugging away at the illustration for the post.
You’ll see (embedded here) that I just made an almost hour-long video (with an 8-minute introduction wandering around the house and making the coffee) of me reading this last Ask Amanda (the one addressed to Penny).
I read the column aloud, but I also add a lot of side commentary and extra thoughts, and a warning: there’s crying, which always seems to happen when I’m actually talking to a camera instead of just tip-tapping with my fingers.
For the rest of the month, these videos/live-readings are going to go out to the paid subscribers, but I figured it’d be nice for you guys to all see what the deal is/will be. I’m wide open here to any comments about the video, the process — send ideas. I’m reading and listening. It’s easy to up your subscription from free to paid (it’s $5 for the rest of the month to get all the videos). Just go to the “subscribe” button (here below, or up in the corner) and change your choice to “monthly.” Any questions/issues, hit me up in the comments. Me and the team are reading everything.
As I’ve said before, this is an experiment that will last the month of February, so I would hold your horses and not subscribe for a whole year, even though it’s an option.
We’re gonna see how this goes, and I need to take things one day at a time and check in with my patrons (who’ve been over at patreon.com/amandapalmer with me for 6+ years now) to see how this is all sitting with them as I cross the streams. We’re going to have to figure out a sustainable path forward if I’m going to use both platforms. I can’t do every month like this … it’ll make the patrons feel shortchanged and it’ll bleed me dry of time and energy to keep up two full-time crowdfunded platforms. So stay tuned.
And: please leave comments here about ANYTHING. I’m readin’.
And please share this video post if you wanna.
It’ll help get the word out.
Lots of love to you from my living room … and see you in a few days.
And no: that’s not black schmutz on your screen, so don’t try to wipe it. That’s mascara all over the inside of my reading glasses after crying through the making of the goddamn video.
xx
Amanda
Live from my house: The Weepy Live-Video Reading, free this week to all subscribers