amanda palmer, f*ck yeah

I follow Neil Gaiman, a writer I like very much, and read his blog posts, on Goodreads. I'm not sure if I first heard of his romance and subsequent marriage to musician Amanda Palmer in one if his blog posts there, or somewhere else. But his writing about his wife led me to her blog, and her music. I liked it. As she says in her recent TED lecture, "The art of asking," it's an acquired taste. But she has acquired a lot of fans and supporters over the years, and in this fascinating talk she touches on making art and making money and how the usual model — of artists needing representation, a buffer, having someone else hold out the tin cup — may be outdated, and possibly even anti-art.

Her enthusiasm is infectious, and her techniques to raise money on her own to make an album with her new band, The Grand Theft Orchestra, without the sponsorship of a record label, are inspiring. I have been posting excerpts of a current writing project of mine on my blog, off and on, but after hearing Palmer, I have started having a whole new idea about how to proceed.


Her husband admits to being both proud and a little jealous of how her crafting her speech took her attention away from him. And a great speech it is. Palmer, who has been an independent and struggling artist for many years, could have hit "the big time" when she married the über-successful writer. But she hasn't seemed interested in proceeding with her career in any way but her own way.

She craves a true one-on-one connection with her fans, to the extent that they even put her up when she's on tour, as well as accept her open invitation to join the band onstage. The latter offer was received with the inevitable internet criticism, but Palmer genuinely wants to make art and stay connected to her audience — preferably simultaneously. Social media offers abundant opportunities for her to do just that. It's a revolutionary way to think about art-making and art support, for both the artist and the audience. If you have the time, I strongly urge everyone to listen in on Palmer. And get inspired.

livingsocial

LivingSocial is a facebook app that has taken me (and many of my friends) by storm. The LivingSocial website describes itself as a place where a person can catalog his or her "collections" and share these likes and dislikes with others. On facebook it's seems like an image database, run not very differently than many other facebook quizzes. A question is posed: name five films that twisted your mind? What are your five favorite kid shows? What five albums shaped you? You rack your brain, type the answer, and hopefully up pops the appropriate album, movie or cartoon thumbnail. This game is of course frustrating, as we are all fascinating creatures who certainly have more faves than the magic number of five (five thumbnails fits ever-so-conveniently on a computer screen, however.) It's so frustrating that we want to play it again. And again. And again.

The power of facebook is that you're not just waxing nostalgic in a vacuum. Once I proclaim that my five greatest television shows were Angel, Buffy, I Love Lucy, The Odd Couple and The Tudors all my friends can see it and my fellow Buffy fans are revealed. Who knew? And they post their faves in the same and other categories until there is a pop culture back-and-forth frenzy of posting.

Movies that warped my mind
A Clockwork Orange, Blue Velvet, Brazil, After Hours, Orphee [1950].

What makes this particular app more appealing than the countless other memes and quizzes that populate facebook is the power of the visual. Most of the movies, books, etc. have an appropriate icon. You get to see a visual capsule of a person's tastes. It is also quite enjoyable to dredge up one's personal mythos, albeit via pop culture as diverse as Clockwork Orange and The Flintstones.

Most importantly, this app understands the basic premise of facebook - put yourself out there and see who will respond. Use your past and present to define who you are. We live in a random, high-speed society and social randomness is where it's at. The only thing I can't figure out is why they haven't made all the books, shows and movies we're citing clickable to Amazon...