Salon.com > Amanda Palmer

Kickstarter: Stop blaming us for Zach Braff and “Veronica Mars”

Fri, 10 May 2013 16:20:00 +0000

Now that everyone else on the Internet has weighed in on who is and isn’t allowed to crowdfund creative projects, Kickstarter has published its own statement. The short version: Stop whining about the "Veronica Mars" movie and Zach Braff’s “tonal sequel” to “Garden State.” A rising Kickstarter tide lifts all boats, so says their math:

“The Veronica Mars and Zach Braff projects have brought tens of thousands of new people to Kickstarter. 63% of those people had never backed a project before. Thousands of them have since gone on to back other projects, with more than $400,000 pledged to 2,200 projects so far. Nearly 40% of that has gone to other film projects.”

Kickstarter also reiterates its famously loose mission, which is to “help bring creative projects to life.” A customizable e-paper watch raised $10 million last year. Its goal? $100,000. Zach Braff should be so lucky. Kickstarter’s wide net includes bike lights, food trucks, board games, the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, all 729 (!) current zombie projects and, to his chagrin, projects to which Ken Levine won’t give a dime.

Amanda Palmer’s trollish Dzhokhar poem

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:59:00 +0000

In case you thought the "too soon" response applied only to jokes, or that trolling and poetry don't mix, behold what broke out when musician Amanda Palmer set her feelings about current events to verse.

Palmer, whose online community is nothing if not robust and vocal, posted "A Poem for Dzhokhar" on Sunday. The poem, which takes its title from the first name of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, imagines the things a young man might not yet know: "you don’t know how to make something, but the instructions are on the internet/you don’t know how to make sense of this massive parade/you don’t know how to believe anyone anymore … you don’t know why you let that guy go without shooting him dead and stuffing him in some bushes between cambridge and watertown." Underneath, she posted a link to the newly formed One Fund "to help the people most affected by the tragic events that occurred in Boston" -- noticeably right above a link to donate to "give me some help for the time and effort" of Palmer's own work.

Even a rocker can be bullied

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:03:00 +0000

It doesn't matter whether you're a lonely high school student or a successful, Billboard-charting star. One thing is certain: The trolls are going to find you. So what are you going to do when they come for you? More to the point, what are we all going to do, together?

That's a question musician Amanda Palmer, in her typically candid, crowd-sourcing way, got at in a blog post over the weekend, with revelatory results. In her post, she admits that while "ego surfing" for stories about herself one night, she found a different Amanda in her Google search. She hadn't heard of Amanda Todd before. She didn't know about the teenage girl who'd become a viral star for making a YouTube video about her struggles with "bullying, suicide, self harm." She didn't know that a month later, she committed suicide.

As Palmer notes, she shares more with Todd than just a first name. Both of them had been inspired by Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" to tell their stories via a stream of note cards. And they both experienced the relentless viciousness of bullies.

Amanda Palmer still doesn’t get it

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:48:00 +0000

The generosity and collaborative creativity of the online community are unparalleled. Just don't push your luck.

Earlier this year, the entrepreneurial singer Amanda Palmer made headlines when she drummed up $1.2 million for her new project on Kickstarter, making it one of the most successful crowd-funding ventures ever. Palmer called the enterprise "the future of music" and released her "Theater Is Evil" album to respectable reviews a few weeks ago. And as she prepared for her tour, she called upon the crowd yet again.

In an Aug. 21 blog post, she said she and her band were "looking for professional-ish horns and strings for EVERY CITY to hop up on stage with us for a couple of tunes," and that "we will feed you beer, hug/high-five you up and down (pick your poison), give you merch, and thank you mightily for adding to the big noise we are planning to make."

For a successful artist to offer audiences the opportunity to participate in her show might well be seen as a bold gesture. It could be a chance to create something new and unique every night. As Palmer promised, "its almost as good as the circus." [sic]