June 17, 2024

A brief pause for some naked piano…

Hello loves

I have so much to catch up on but last night necessitated some celebrating after all the hard work in DC. There’s a mountain of work ahead of me but I’m trying to just take a breather before the next assault.

The final DC dolls show was UNBELIEVABLE. If you saw the stream, you know.

It’s gone now, thank you all who tuned in, and THANK YOU for your patronage. You could see that the quality was off the hook. It cost over $12k to hire that whole camera and sound crew but it was well worth it and we have it in the can forever if we need it later.

Here’s the final patron photo from night #2. Photos from the patron gathering coming. Gimme a second.

So I veered through NYC for the night on the way home and posted this from the train to IG, FB, threads and twitter.

Well. There was a ton going on (including multiple Tony award parties!) but the two tastiest things that came in were from Anthony / AR Kieran (who did the poster for the upcoming Gogol Bordello/Dolls shows in Boston)….who was hosting a life drawing class at Club Cumming downtown from 4-7pm and Eugene Hutz, the singer of Gogol, who as hosting a punk show in Brooklyn from 7-midnight. Boom. Spontaneous night sorted.

Even when you’re Amanda Palmer there’s a first for everything.

What I didn’t expect last night when asking the internet for things to spontaneously do in NYC was to wind up on stage with Tallulah Talons here

….who was the featured model and who happened to be celebrating their 44th birthday.

We posed for and drew each other (I used to do this for a living, I’m still good at holding a pose for 20 minutes) and I got to gift my drawing to Tallulah for her birthday.

I am BASICALLY Egon Schiele amiright???

And then I took a dive and played the assembled artists one of the new dolls songs because, you know, there was a piano there and I was already naked so why not play the piano naked and see how it goes.

Gorgeously, half the people in the crowd of 18 had no idea who I was. Score. The song still worked.

This is the first time in my life I’ve ever cried while playing the piano naked for a burlesque performer named Tallulah on her 44th birthday. I hope it happens again.

Seriously, though, playing “The Runner” to a group of people who had never heard it…in a state that vulnerable was, I dunno. Unforgettable.

I love when life lifes like this. I’ve been so caught in the trauma and recovery web of survival that I have forgotten how utterly delightful life can be.

I can’t wait to travel more, create more, recover more. Every day, another step away from the dark and into the light and back into the arms of love and my queer chosen family, and my theater and art family. If you know, you know.

Massive thanks to Anthony – who I actually met through Lance Horne – for luring me to the club, to Moleskine (?!), who apparently are sponsoring the event and will either be the sorts of people who are really excited this happened or…not…and to all the artists who came out to draw live models and drink Negronis on a Sunday night in New York City (and thanks for listening to my song).

The world needs people like that.

NYC: Anthony hosts this session at Club Cumming every Sunday! Grab your pencils, pens, watercolors, whatever and GO!

Tell him I sent you.

Also yay I know now what my surprise content for my $5 patrons this month is gonna be, because Anthony and Tallulah both recorded the whole nudie song 🎉

More shots from the afternoon …