Amanda Palmer

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omg this part! A literal limo to the actual Ritz, after charging her fans $5000 for that evening.

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Hollaaa said:
This (old) article reads like a crossover of the cults thread and this one. Every paragraph gets more wtf as you read on. https://www.12ft.io/https://www.the.../22/amanda-palmer-visionary-egotist-interview
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She’s a major bleep and she has absolutely stupid eyebrows. If I knew her in person I think I’d have slapped her by now, and I’m not violent - and that would be just for the eyebrows.
 
I have a question. How many of us are fans of APs music, either now or in the past?

I still like the Dresden Dolls Albums, Who Killed Amanda Palmer and Theater is evil. I not really a fan of anything post There will be no intermission. I fins her later songs a bit meandering, like she needed someone to help edit them. She has to any songs which are just her saying sad sounding things in a whispers voice for several minutes.

The song that pushed me over the edge was Voicemail for Jill. She thinks it is feminist, I find it offensively stupid.

The thing that made me dislike her as a person, was following her on social media and seeing every single thought she had broadcast to the world. If I hadn't done that, I would probably still like her.
 
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TheStrawberryThief said:
I have a question. How many of us are fans of APs music, either now or in the past?

I still like the Dresden Dolls Albums, Who Killed Amanda Palmer and Theater is evil. I not really a fan of anything post There will be no intermission. I fins her later songs a bit meandering, like she needed someone to help edit them. She has to any songs which are just her saying sad sounding things in a whispers voice for several minutes.

The song that pushed me over the edge was Voicemail for Jill. She thinks it is feminist, I find it offensively stupid.

The thing that made me dislike her as a person, was following her on social media and seeing every single thought she had broadcast to the world. If I hadn't done that, I would probably still like her.
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Are you me? I was a die hard fan of DD as a teenager back in the noughties, went to all their UK gigs etc and was so excited every time she released new music. I still love maybe 80% of the DD discography, and really liked WKAP and TIE. Personally I started disliking her work when she did the album with Edward Ka-Spel and the joint album with her father, both felt completely alienating and just not good. The album with her dad was especially vanity-project feeling, and I ended up with the impression she was trying to impress him somehow by including him on an album despite the fact he hadn't had any success on his own and perhaps that's because his music just sort of sucked.

There Will be no intermission was pretty poor in my opinion, the last song of hers to wow me was Machete and she released that in 2016. Drowning in the sound was okay, but she seems to think The Ride is her magnum opus and I was so bored by that song, especially as it was like ten minutes long or something stupid.

I went from a $10 per thing patron for years to dropping down to $5, then $3, and now I'm on $1 basically just to farm any gossip worthy content that she's only showing to her patrons. If she can release new music that is on the level of her earlier work I'll happily listen to it, because despite her narcissism and general irritatingness, I do think she is a talented songwriter when she wanted to be. The dolls are apparently working on a new record so it'll be interesting to see if that's any good, but I'm never going to be a fan like I used to be honestly.

Also as an aside, I was deep enough in the fandom for a good while to meet some of her inner circle, and Alex (her UK merch guy) is the most insufferable selfish twit I've ever had the misfortune of knowing. A fair few other close orbiters of hers are equally terrible people, although Jason Webley (who she made the Evelyn Evelyn record with) is a darling and I have no idea how he puts up with her.
 
The early stuff is just more punchy. I am hopeful about the new DD album, I think working with someone else will be good for her.

I once almost booked tickets to see her a few years ago, I think maybe at York or Newcastle, but in the end I decided not to as it was a day after I came back from holiday and she was touring TWBNI and I didnt like the idea of paying for a group cry along.

The day after the gig I found out that she hadn't done the planned TWBNI material as hadn't felt like it and had just let the audience do requests. I would be lying if I said I didn't regret not going.
 
TheStrawberryThief said:
I have a question. How many of us are fans of APs music, either now or in the past?

I still like the Dresden Dolls Albums, Who Killed Amanda Palmer and Theater is evil. I not really a fan of anything post There will be no intermission. I fins her later songs a bit meandering, like she needed someone to help edit them. She has to any songs which are just her saying sad sounding things in a whispers voice for several minutes.

The song that pushed me over the edge was Voicemail for Jill. She thinks it is feminist, I find it offensively stupid.

The thing that made me dislike her as a person, was following her on social media and seeing every single thought she had broadcast to the world. If I hadn't done that, I would probably still like her.
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I have the exact same time line as you with her music. Loved the old stuff. But the more recent stuff is just self indulgent AF.
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It was seeing her broadcast her child all over social media that made me dislike her as a person. Made me realise she just uses everything in her life to benefit her even if it is at the other person's cost.
 
skronkywildcat said:
Did you know his parents were Scientologists?
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Yes. Neil Gaiman is from a prominent Scieno family. His (Scieno converts) parents ran a highly profitable East Grinstead (UK Sci headquarters in there) based vitamin supplier business, G&G Vitamins, which I believe is still firmly in business despite his father dying a few years back. His father was also head of PR for the cult for a long time after joining them in the 60s. Scientology uses huge doses of vitamins in various dubious 'therapies' (think giant doses of niacinamide which make your skin go bright red which is used in conjunction with saunas to try and .. oh duck knows, sweat out your inner demons or some tit they do) so it was basically a company directly connected to the cult, a nice money spinner, doubtless all the dupes were directed there to buy their doses.

I mean, Gaiman is from money. Dresses like a gothy bag person who doesn't own a hairbrush, but then people from actual money often do (see also Helena Bonham Carter for reference), it's only new money that flashes it around. Now, it's not Microsoft money, but he was brought up with money enough to be able to pursue writing - never a big money spinner for most who pursue it - as a career. His first wife was a $cientologist he met at East Grinstead, the ones deep in and generational Scis only marry each other. He was never listed as an SP (Suppressive Person, a label given to anyone in who then renounces Scientology) and was listed as a member in good standing and with donations long after he wasn't really with Mary (his first wife) anymore, so I never believe he's really 'out' out. Anyone who leaves the cult isn't allowed to speak to family still in - they are supposed to shun the leaver and refer to them as an SP. Until I see Gaiman listed as an SP I will not believe he has left. Perhaps he keeps his distance, but I strongly doubt he has broken off contact and put himself in their (traditionally criminally unpleasant) firing line. His sister Claire is apparently Head of International Missions for the cult, so there you go.

Apparently Palmer has some familial connections to Scientology too, but has batted it away to the point of making fun of the 'rumour' in one of her videos (think it was Do It With a Rock Star). I think she's just his type (see Poundland Tori Amos, thirty years too late), but it wouldn't shock me if there was some weird Scieno bullshit behind their connection tbqh.

I recall some scuttlebutt from years and years ago that in his very early career, early-ish eighties, when he was still a journalist, and before he did Sandman and became A Great Big Thing, he was somewhat notorious for shilling $cientology at various writing conventions and annoying the livid blue tit out of people. Seems to have dropped that sharpish after learning how it alienated the very people he wanted to get in with in the publishing industry. He always seems to have had a nose for who to collaborate with or pal up with to increase his options and his audience. The Tori Amos connection probably brought him a decent uptick in sales over time. Amanda Palmer, smaller, but again, it helped keep him connected to younger people through her fanbase.

I know someone who has worked on a couple of TV adaptations of his stuff - American Gods and Sandman, I will one day have to ask her for any scuttlebutt about him or Palmer she's been privy to.
 
I am a huge Terry Pratchett fan (GNU) and read Gaiman later, and I think he has some good stuff, American Gods and The Sandman - the adaptation of the Sandman is very good - but in his books I do sense a slight creepy factor when it comes to how he writes women and sex scenes. Same as Stephen King is kind of creepy about women, also GRR Martin (most fantasy writers slant incel). TP of course avoided all of that by writing three dimensional women who were not defined by that - see Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax, Susan etc.
 
Vanelope said:
I am a huge Terry Pratchett fan (GNU) and read Gaiman later, and I think he has some good stuff, American Gods and The Sandman
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The Sandman comics which really were groundbreaking at the time are very good, although I imagine certain aspects have dated by now. Haven't read any since the late 90s. So. I really liked American Gods a lot, didn't make it through the adaptation for some reason, but am informed it was a very troubled production (nothing to do with Gaiman though).


Sandman - the adaptation of the Sandman is very good[/qi - but in his books I do sense a slight creepy factor when it comes to how he writes women and sex scenes.
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I think like pretty much any bloke with a younger-slanting female fanbase, a lot of whom likely match his exact preference (gothy, quirky, artistic types) he's like, to quote Big Male Feminist and Inevitable Pervert Joss Whedon, 'a kid in a candy store'. Like the person above who thought he probably has at some point shagged fans, I can't imagine he hasn't at some point. It's just so drearily predictable at this point. And the 'We have an open marriage' thing with him and Palmer made me veer closer to believing that's likely the case. I doubt he's having affairs with his age-group peers, you know, when he likely has a line of Aspiring Young Cute Female Writers who swoon over him.

FFS, Tom Baker self-reportedly shagged fans at conventions during his Doctor Who days, and nobody ever thought he was a sex symbol. Lots of women fancy Gaiman, he probably has options, let's say. Warren Ellis (comics writer who looks like an alcoholic, sleazy old tortoise) played the field behind his wife's back with female fans from his little online forum back in the day, with promises of help with writing and industry connections. Gaiman has way more to offer, looks more palatable and apparently had permission from his bloody wife to do it, so he probably has.

TP of course avoided all of that by writing three dimensional women who were not defined by that - see Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax, Susan etc.
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Yes, Pratchett wrote women beyond personal sex fantasies. Gaiman, well, a lot less. More like Whedon, tbqh, without going full Dollhouse, of course.
 
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