Word Wednesday: Ray Bradbury

Word Wednesday! This week I would like to pay tribute to the incredible Ray Bradbury, who is sadly no longer with us. His book, Zen in the Art of Writing, was recommended to me by wonderful teacher, Francesca Lia Block, and many friends in my writing circle. I finished it a few days before he died, and I was completely enamoured with his spirit for writing, and the way he loved it with reckless abandon. He said, on a number of ocassions, that writing is one of the most wonderful professions one could undertake, something of which I am guilty of forgetting from time to time, when stories aren't coming together, or when I've spent hours on building concepts only to abandon them. He reminds me that we, as writers, should never stop loving to write.

If you've ever read anything by Ray Bradbury, you will know that his love of writing is both inspiring and infectious, and his imagination knows no bounds. I know that any tribute I try to come up will not be worthy of his incredible life and works, but I can share with you a piece that is, this beautiful story written and read by one of my all time favourite writers, Neil Gaiman.

Click here for the link to 'The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury" by Neil Gaiman.

Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra: Do It With A Rockstar

 So this week's Music Monday song is by none other than the amazing woman that is Amanda Fucking Palmer. I don't like to swear much on this blog, but in this case it is completely necessary, because that's who she is! If you've read either my Dresden Dolls or Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra Posts, you'll know how much I love this lady; I love her music, her musical tastes, her attitudes, and her intense passion for the arts.

Her new album is set to come out later this year, and not only does she push the boundaries with her new songs, both lyrically and musically, she's also pushing the boundaries of how to make and distribute music to the masses. Her notoriously enormous fan base and reputation for being SUCH A NICE LADY to us has allowed her to cut out the big wig record labels and take ownership of her music in a completely new way, via her revolutionary Kickstarter campaign. To put it in perspective, she reached her goal value of $100,000 that was needed to make, mix and distribute the record DAYS after launching the campaign. And it's still going!!!! I love this idea of independent, fan funded projects, because you know that everyone involved is so damned passionate about the end product, and I'm so glad that I could be a part of it by being a backer! I really hope that this is the way of the future for musicians, and that it will force the record industry suits to reassess how they treat the musicians on their label.

As a wonderful treat for backers, Amanda and the Grand Theft Orchestra leaked a single from the record exclusively to them, before releasing it to the rest of the world. It's been unleashed now to the rest of the public, so I'm allowed to blog about it now, and I'm so glad because it is a doozey! I cannot wait for this album to come out, I haven't been so excited for an album release since Ceremonials by Florence and the Machine.

Anyways, have a listen, and then if you like you should head over to her Kickstarter where you can get yourself some special exclusive backer goodies whilst contributing to a musical revolution. This is our Woodstock, people!!! We are the media!!!

Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra - Northcote Social Club

 (I have this poster on my wall now)

On Wednesday Night Laura and I went to see "Amanda Palmer and her Grand Theft Orchestra" (pun tittle! I'm already in love) perform one of the five shows she has going as part of her Northcote Social Club residency. What's that? Amanda Fucking Palmer is doing a residency in Northcote, Melbourne, and tickets are only $10? I must have stumbled into an alternate universe where all my favourite musicians are suddenly living in my home city and putting on shows cheaper than the beer prices at the venues in which they play (although in my alternate universe, beer flows from the taps instead of water. No wait, make that Hendricks Gin). Sadly this is not the case, Amanda Fucking Palmer is just really fucking cool. I have a rant about her being the nicest lady in music here in my post about the Dresden Dolls.


This show was more of a cabaret showcase than a straight up and down gig; we were late and so we missed most of the first act; a tall man with an admirable quiff and who sang like Johnny Cash. I didn't catch his name, but he did a great job as compare.
The second act, Kim Boekbinder AKA the Impossible Girl, came out all bright pink hair and fabulous space themed costume, which turned out to be completely appropriate because her sound was so unique she could have been sent here from some far off sparkly planet. She is also doing a residency, at the Evelyn Hotel in April, which I reckon you should check out if you have an evening to spare. And she's super nice; she was waiting at the same tram stop as us to head back into the city, and Laura went up and got her autograph! Too sweet!
Last, but certainly not least, we were treated to a Geisha/Egyptian burlesque style striptease from Agent Cleave and Jess Daly. It was bizarre to say the least, but bizarre is not always bad, in fact it is almost always good!. The costumes were incredible; I also looked up Jess Daly's blog SHE MADE A COSTUME FOR PEACHES YOU GUYS!!! And it is awesome!

This served as the perfect segue to introduce Amanda; Agent Cleave and Jess Daly entered the crowed, and as the song began to fade, the curtains opened to reveal Amanda standing warrior like at her piano, an enormous silver crown atop her head, poised to slay the audience.
Well, she killed it.

One of the many many things I love about Amanda Palmer as a performer is that you can go along to her show, not knowing any of her songs, and still have an amazing time; this was the case for Laura, who didn't know any of her solo stuff, and to be honest I was in a similar boat because she decided to showcase some new songs, which all sounded phenomenal. The addition of the extremely multitalented backing band gave each song an extra punch and sense of bravado. We laughed a lot, and I even cried.  She did some great covers too, Idioteque by Radiohead, a haunting rendition of Everything's Turning To White by Paul Kelly, and Video Games by Lana Del Rey. She said something about this song that I really liked, about how she hated it, but that she also deeply loved it. I think that's how a lot of people feel about Lana Del Rey, but I would take Amanda's version any day, because of the amount of soul she injected into it. A song like that needs her amount of soul.

Highlights: Missed Me. Of course, because I know that  song inside out, and because with every chorus, everyone in the band would get up and change instruments, like some sort of deranged primary school game. All the new songs!! Especially the ones with the horns, supplied courtesy of Felix from the Cat Empire! (C'mon, seriously? Now you're just taunting me Amanda). They made the upbeat numbers so much fun to dance to! Astronaut, Everything's Turning to White, and Map of Tasmania, because that song is so hilariously good, and it included a nifty rap solo from Kim Boekbinder.

I can't wait for the new album, with the band and the brass and Amanda Fucking Palmer writing some of the best songs of her career. And I'm pretty sure it's being recorded in Melbourne. Must fight the urge to stalk....
I would say QUICKLY GO GET SOME TICKETS FOR THE FINAL SHOW TOMORROW NIGHT, but it's already sold out. Still, I have a feeling there will be plenty more opportunities like this once the album is released! Come along, I'll have a beer and a dance with you, and we can bask in the delicious obscurity that is Amanda Fucking Palmer and her Grand Theft Orchestra.