Friday, 20 March 2009 13:27
Six hours later, the Amanda Palmer show continues onstage at The Studio. Palmer faces the crowd, posy of pink flowers in hand and performs an acapella number. There's no missing the element of Shakespearean tragedy, that shadows Palmer's performance. Each song, a candid soliloquy of Palmer's history, imagination and assorted adventures.
Amanda Palmer came.
Amanda Palmer conquered.
... and like an overdose on brain vitamins, maybe I'm just all the better for it.
"... if feminism is ever going to work, women also have to actually take responsibility for knowing how powerful they are and can be."
COUP DE MAIN: Twitter has only begun to catch on in New Zealand... yet you managed to organise a hundred people to attend your ninja ukulele gathering today!
AMANDA PALMER: I, beg to differ! The fact that a hundred people showed up today and they all found out about it on Twitter... tells me that Twitter has caught on enough.
CDM: ... or that Amanda Palmer, has caught on enough.
AP: Maybe that? I've been really pushing people to follow me on Twitter. So, I might be that person who's like the gateway drug for some people. I like how simple it is. I like how I can just give concrete information. My blog is good. But my blog goes to a million different places and it's very big and convoluted and clunky. It takes me a long time to put together. When I put it together, I then send it to my team and they put it up on my website and on Myspace and on Facebook. The whole thing is a big process. Technically, I could do it with my blog as well but since Twitter is a cross between a text message and a blog... I think people are more bound to pay attention to a piece of information if it's very economical and easy to digest. It is also really personal because it's just the basics. Just the basic information. You can't get really flowery with it. You can't get really long and drawn out. It's just, this is the information. This is where I'm going to be. This is where you should come. This is what we're doing. This is what's happening. I think that's why, it's catching on. I think that it was a genius idea to give it a 140 character maximum, because if it were a thousand character maximum it would just be impossible to follow.
CDM: New Zealand versus Australia?
AP: It's tough. I'm a real fan of Melbourne. But I'm not necessarily a fan of all the rest of Australia.
CDM: Will New Zealand ever get it's own song, like Australia has?
AP: Absolutely. I can work on it...
[ the very next day, in Wellington... ]
CDM: Where did you find the inspiration to write your latest single, 'Oasis'?
AP: That one's a confabulated autobiography. There are parts of that song that are very true and actually very dark, but then they are synthesised into this ironic joke. I had an abortion when I was seventeen. I did have that experience where I showed up at the abortion clinic and there were people shoving me, screaming at me and showing me pictures of bleeding babies. It was really full-on and really unpleasant. I didn't write the song 'til years later but it was partly my way of processing that. Which is why it makes it even more painful, if people aren't getting the joke.
CDM: In 2007, there were 18,380 abortions performed in New Zealand. 37 out of every 1,000 women aged 20-24 years old had an abortion in 2007. Do you have any advice for women going through the same experiences as yourself?
AP: Just that, it's nothing to be ashamed of. I think that's the main problem I see in the States and in general. That it's such a taboo topic. I think girls are still made to feel really dirty about it.
CDM: ... and that it's their fault?
AP: Yeah, blame and shame. Of course it can be really traumatising and can be really emotional... probably for most people, will be a really emotional process. I thought about it a lot when the controversy about the song came out. The most important thing is that your experience, is your experience. No one else can tell you how you're supposed to feel about something. Whether it's angry, sad, frustrated, happy... I think one of the complicating things about abortion, is that it is a really strange combination of relief and regret at the same time. It is impossible to simplify. The fact that if you're seventeen, of course you're fucking glad that you're not going to have a kid. You haven't finished high school yet. You have a whole life in front of you. You're not ready to have a kid. So there's a part of you that's really happy that you live in the fucking free world, where you can get an abortion and not be tied to the stake for having a baby out of wedlock. But on the other hand, your psycho biological instincts are going... oh! Maybe I should just run away and have this baby... and hold it and carry it and love it. There's two sides of you, doing battle. That's totally natural. That's got to be respected. The conflict and the confusion, that's got to be respected. If that isn't respected... then that's where you get thrown into that tailspin of, I'm not dealing with this the right way. I'm not feeling what I'm supposed to be feeling. Then, you're just a mess. Which is what happens to a lot of people.
AP: When it comes out. I really think that until that baby comes out and is breathing and hanging out with us... Is it tragic if a woman has to abort a child for some medical reason, at eight months? Of course it's fucking tragedy. But it's a tragedy for her anyway, no matter what.
CDM: It could end up being worse for both her and the baby, if she carries through with the pregnancy...
AP: Of course it's sticky. But I just really think, it's gotta be up to her. If she, wants to make a moral judgement and say... I don't want to abort this baby. That's her call and that's totally fine. If it's for religious reasons, fine. If it's moral, ethical, satanic? It doesn't matter. But it's up to her. It's not up to somebody else.
CDM: Date rape, is also on the rise. What's your opinion on popular belief that if a girl dresses in revealing clothes, then she is putting herself out there and asking for it...
AP: Well, there's a certain level of which that's true. But it's also really dis-empowering to women, to say that A necessarily equals B. The problem with the whole idea of date rape and blame, is that once again it's not simple. Girls aren't stupid. Of course if you go out at two in the morning to a party, where everyone is really drunk and there's a bunch of bogans and you're dressed like you want to have sex... you're going to invite a different kind of energy... and you know that. You're not dumb. To blame things simplistically, is obviously not the way to go. I think the important part, is to acknowledge how empowered women are sexually. I think that's, the main problem. People don't give women enough credit for how savvy they are and can be... and women don't give themselves enough credit. If you're all of a sudden waving your hands and saying, I'm a victim of this whole situation. Then you're not owning that you know how powerful you are. That you know how powerful it is, to fucking put your ass in a guy's face when you're not wearing anything. Women have to be able to own that, at every level. Which doesn't mean, take blame if something happens. Absolutely not. If someone grabs you and pulls you into an alleyway, of course it doesn't matter what you were wearing. They shouldn't have done that, period. But if feminism is ever going to work, women also have to actually take responsibility for knowing how powerful they are and can be. I think that's one of the problems with different waves of feminism. That women really don't want to take that responsibility. They want to believe that there's just these evil powers out there. When in fact, they have so much more control than they know. They need to use it. They can, use it. They can abuse it. But, you gotta own it.
CDM: Do you think feminism is dead?
AP: I think it's being synthesised weirdly, in different ways. One of the problems is that, nowadays feminism is seen as outdated. Girls growing up... I especially see this a lot in teenagers. They assume that it's over. They assume that men and women are just going to be treated equally and respected equally. They don't quite get how...
CDM: ...there's still a fight to be fought?
AP: Yeah they just don't even realise that the imbalance is still gigantic. That what they're being told is power, isn't power. It's false power. Thinking if you act like a man, you're going to be a powerful woman... is not real power. It's bullshit. So, there's still a long way to go.
CDM: Tell me about the 'ReBellyon' escapade...
AP: That was just awesome. That was my fans totally going off the hook. I posted a blog about my label wanting to change certain cuts of my video, cuz they told me that my belly looked fat. I thought that was bullshit. My fans reactions were really great and really creative. They started sending in pictures of their bellies to my label. They posted them all up on the Internet and it turned into a beautiful, gigantic collection of belly-photos. It was just one of those wonderful random moments, where I stepped back and I hadn't done anything to encourage them. They built it themselves. Somebody made a website. The media picked up on it and I had just been sitting alone in my apartment going, wow... this is pretty amazing. That's why I love my fans.
CDM: ... and why you organise all ages cookie and cake, ninja ukulele hang-outs?
AP: Yeah!
CDM: For a dead woman, you are looking pretty lively. Who! Killed Amanda Palmer?
AP: You know, that answer changes daily.
CDM: How about today?
AP: Oh, that's a good question. Today I feel like the person that killed Amanda Palmer, was that insane fourteen year old fan who dive-bombed me as soon as I arrived (at Aotea Square).
CDM: Oh yes. I saw you hit the ground...
AP: I let her knock me over. It was enjoyable. It was beautiful. I love shit like that.
Amanda Palmer's 'Who Killed Amanda Palmer', is in-stores now.
AMANDA PALMER live at The Studio, March 10:
AMANDA PALMER live at The Studio, March 10:
