THE COUCH OF TRUTH: EPISODE TWO. “Miscarriage: Where Is The Hallmark Card?”
Hello my loves.
Well….here we are again, back on the couch. Weekly therapy!
TL;DR! Episode Two of The Couch of Truth – “Miscarriage: Where Is The Hallmark Card?” – is UP. I’ll share it to social media next week. Feel free to share it yourself.
The video is embedded at the top of this post, or you can see the full playlist (episode one and episode two) here on YouTube or here on Vimeo.
AND even more important: share your own stories here in the comments, on youtube, or if you want a quieter patron-only space away from the public where you can speak very candidly and openly away from your “normal” community, on the shadowbox, HERE.
Please watch it, share it, and comment here or on the video itself.
You know I love you, right?
I do. I really do.
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I asked a few days ago what y’all thought about The Art of Thinging these videos – how many to Thing, when to Thing, etc etc, and overwhelmingly you were all in favour of Thinging ALL of them….
So… that’s where we’re gonna do!
And thank you, all 534 of you, for voting.
This great comment came in from Melanie….
We love this idea, and we were dumb not to think of it. THANKS MELANIE. So…we’re talking within the team to work out how to do it, when to do it, we’re gonna see if Jenessa can join us for a Q&A, and hopefully maybe some of the participants will be able to join us too. Hold the phone for updates. It looks like we can do one of these the week of Aug 16-20th or thereabouts for ALL PATRONS.
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Quick update for the $10 tier: we are aiming to do a webcast next thursday or friday morning my time, I’M ARRANGING A RECORDING STUDIO!!! We will get to do the webcast in the studio while I take a break from recording and we will have a REAL PIANO!!!! It’s gonna be a good one. Git ready. Info coming,….
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And now, a little deeper dive into this episode…
Episode one, titled “Suicide & Mental Health: Three Stories”, went live a couple of weeks ago – a lot of the backstory to this whole project is over in the patreon post for that episode, so I encourage you to go read all about it:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/54178798
As I said in the last post, I am so, so proud of everyone who bared their souls to me, and this week is exactly the same. The Bravery is massive.
These stories about miscarriage are so common, and we need to learn to speak and find each other.
And talking about this stuff to me, to the community, to “strangers” (but are we getting now that we aren’t strangers….?) is so, so hard, and so necessary.
This is how we do it.
This is how we start changing culture and breaking down the strange, silent stigmas around these topics.
Bear witness to these stories, applaud those who told them, and then go forth into the world a little braver yourself.
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“Miscarriage: Where Is The Hallmark Card?”
photo by Kahn & Selesnick
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SHADOWBOX/PATRON-ONLY FORUM THREAD
As I said up top, if you want a space space to go chat, I kicked off a thread on the box: https://forum.theshadowbox.net/t/miscarriage-thread/7898
Don’t forget, your hard-earned patreon dollars BUILT THIS FORUM!! IT WAS EXPENSIVE!!! FUCK FACEBOOK!!!! USE THE BOX!!!!
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And like last time, since the folks speaking to me in these videos are part of our community, I wanted to give them a chance to speak directly to you, give an update on themselves, how they’re doing, how the last year has been, and give them an opportunity to highlight causes close to their hearts…
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Stash
A lot of things in my life have changed since the interview, much of which was based around the pandemic. Early in to lock down I ended up moving, getting covid. I was lucky that it wasn’t as severe as it could have been with my asthma.
The worst part? I caught it again nearly 6 months later. I lost several friends to covid and I miss them all dearly. I am taking every day one step at a time just like before and one day I will get to where I want to be. Part of what helps me keep going is my emotion support animal, Hina.
She’s kept me going for such a long time. We will survive this and take the next step in life together and see where it goes.
{So much love to you and Hina, Stash…..thank you again for being so forthright and doing this. xxxx -AFP}
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Tara
As with many people these pandemic times were not all easy.
I’m used to helping and supporting others and it was tough to do during all this, even for myself. My sons and partner had to endure so many changes. As a teacher there were so many uncertain days at school, then teaching from my kitchen while assisting my own children in their learning. It’s been hard leaving my students at the end of the year without a proper goodbye, twice. My mother is in a Long Term Care home due to a stroke she suffered while undergoing cancer treatments. She is unable to walk, write, type or speak. I was prevented from entering the home for a while, Covid eventually got in and she had to stay in her room or weeks with only her TV. A window visit, video call or phone call just don’t measure up when she can’t speak. We needed touch so much. It gutted me to not be there for her how I wanted.
Overall I’m grateful for the things I have had during this pandemic – time to slow down, read, learn, pursue hobbies, sew, have more board game nights, movie nights, being active and having the time and energy for it. I’ve been blessed in many ways along with the difficulties of it all. I try to appreciate the balance. My family is safe and happy.
I have no specific place to highlight or organization to link to and would just like to say reach out if you need it to a community that resonates with you.
Our physical health and mental health have been hit hard.
Our hearts have been hit with a long list of atrocities happening around the world too. It honestly does take a village, there is someone who gets what you’re going through, talk about all the things! In many cases the pandemic has distanced made it hard to have a village to support us.
Please reach out if you need it.
(And here’s a post hair salon visit picture because those have been few and far between in this pandemic in Ontario and I remember Amanda saying I had great hair!!)
{You DO have great hair, Tara. And thank you for saying that, Tara, about asking for help, for support. You know how I feel about that….-AFP}
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And just to hammer home the point yet again….. this whole project, this space for these people to share these stories, exists because of you.
Because of Patreon.
Thank you. GODAMMIT.
This is really amazing.
I still sometimes can’t believe it.
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AND now, to whet your appetites, the remaining episodes yet to come are……
“GRIEF: AND IT’S GOING TO HURT”
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“ABORTION: THREE STORIES”
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“HAVING A KID… OR NOT: TWO STORIES ABOUT BEING OKAY”
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ONE MORE TIME FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!!
Here’s the link again for the playlist, currently featuring the first two episodes:
and keep your eyes on your inbox for the next drop heading your way very soon.
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THE CREDITS
Cast:
Amanda Palmer
Stash
Tara
Director / Producer:
Jenessa Joffe
Field Producer:
Lora Campbell
Director of Photography:
Nyssa Gluck
Camera Operators:
Chantal Garcia
Danielle Thorn
Location Sound:
Bridget Tang
Hair / Make-Up Artist:
Sahar Junejo
Production Assistants:
Lindsay Duncan
Sarah JM Kolberg
Editors:
Cindy Long
Caddie Hastings
Matt Marhefka
Penda Diakité
Re-Recording Mixer:
Greg Townley
Still Photography:
Allan Amato
Kyle Cassidy
Lindsay Duncan
Kahn & Selesnick
Stephanie Zakas
Special Thanks:
Jordan Verzar
Hayley “Hayhay” Rosenblum
Michael McComiskey
Alex Knight
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LOVE LOVE AND LOVE.
AFP
——THE NEVER-ENDING AS ALWAYS———
1. if you are a patron and new to my work, don’t forget your patronage allows you access to ALL of my patreon releases to date. HERE is the link to download my latest big solo record, “There Will Be No Intermission”, and HERE is a link to download the PDF of the art/essay book that goes with it.
2. if you’re a patron reading this post via an email notification, please click through to comment on this post. at the very least, if you’ve read it, indicate that by using the heart symbol. that’s always nice for me to see, so i know who’s reading.
3. see All the Things (over 150 of them) i’ve made so far on patreon:
http://amandapalmer.net/things
4. JOIN THE SHADOWBOX COMMUNITY FORUM, find your people, and discuss everything: https://forum.theshadowbox.net/
5. new to my music and TOTALLY OVERWHELMED? TAKE A WALK THROUGH AMANDALANDA….we made a basic list of my greatest hits n stuff (at least up until a few years ago, this desperately needs updating) on this lovely page: http://amandalanda.amandapalmer.net/
6. general AFP/patreon-related questions? ask away, someone will answer: patronhelp@amandapalmer.net