Buffista Music 4: Needs More Cowbell!
There's a lady plays her fav'rite records/On the jukebox ev'ry day/All day long she plays the same old songs/And she believes the things that they say/She sings along with all the saddest songs/And she believes the stories are real/She lets the music dictate the way that she feels.
I have some sympathy for the writers/creators who get caught up in these negative dynamics with fandom, because fandom tends to be this deep, somewhat closed discourse that's been going on for some time. There are a lot of commonly held precepts (about privilege, for example) which have been hashed out in detail and some creator-type intersects with it and it blows up because they haven't been part of that discussion, aren't working from the same set of notions, don't know the etiquette or aren't using the proper terminology.
And then Amanda Palmer is the enemy instead of some Republican senator that wants to turn over the ADA laws. Whereas I'm pretty sure Amanda Palmer is down with wheelchair ramps.
she was a wanky tool when the possibility of it being problematic was (shockingly gently) presented to her by disabled feminist fans.
This.
Amanda Palmer is the enemy instead of some Republican senator that wants to turn over the ADA laws. Whereas I'm pretty sure Amanda Palmer is down with wheelchair ramps.
You know, that's a false dichotomy. I mean, hello - what this community does is engage on an intellectual and emotional basis with pop culture we love. Joss and Dollhouse, anyone? She crossed a line for me, personally, was my point. And I think dismissing legitimate concerns with "I am an ARTISTE" and some really negative language and inciting one's rabid fanbase (and then Neil jumped in and brought his to the party, IIRC) is shitty.
I evaluate artists' work in the context of larger society and my deeply held beliefs. It was a turn off and I'm done. I'll be over here listening to My Chem.
eta Annaham's reaction to the reaction to her post on Evelyn Evelyn. >[link]
I'll be over here listening to My Chem.
Didn't Gerard contribute to Evelyn Evelyn?
Didn't Gerard contribute to Evelyn Evelyn?
Yes. I pick and choose my battles.
Yes. I pick and choose my battles.
That's fine, I was just clarifying. Did Gerard have anything to say about the kerfuffle, or did he wisely keep his head low?
As far as I know, he did not speak on the topic.
Going back a bit:
Seriously, I think that's a false issue. People have tried to get out of bad contracts by doing stuff like grunting into a microphone for twenty hours, or sticking RCA with Metal Machine Music.
I think you missed my point, or perhaps it's just our dramatically differing perspectives. I'd rather she grunted into a mic for 20 hours. My issue is with the ableism and her response when called on it. Mostly the latter. It's just the sauce on top that it was a concept that she arrived at to solve a personal issue.
It's just the sauce on top that it was a concept that she arrived at to solve a personal issue.
I'm not privy to her thought process on the matter, but I expect that when one avenue closed to her, she simply decided to pursue another collaborative project that had probably been brewing in her mind for a while.
My issue is with the ableism and her response when called on it.
I'm not trying to be a smartass, but is there any response she could've made aside from "You're right and I'm wrong; I'll change immediately" that would've ameliorated the situation?
You don't have to continue the discussion is you find it fruitless or frustrating. I'm just curious to hear your perspective on that event.
ION, a fascinating early Super-8 film of the Residents in the early seventies, without their masks, just living together like crazy art-school radicals.
Seeing them this way links them in my mind with The Cockettes, Can, The Factory, and the Mystik Knights of the Oingo Boingo/Forbidden Zone and other such hippie-ish art collectives in that late sixties/early seventies zone.
I'm not trying to be a smartass, but is there any response she could've made aside from "You're right and I'm wrong; I'll change immediately" that would've ameliorated the situation?
Yes, she could have said "I am sorry I upset people", instead of trying to tell people that they were overreacting, didn't they know she was an arTEEST?
I try to stay out of the AP & Evelyn Evelyn fight, because while I really don't like how AP handled it, the Evelyn Evelyn thing lead to some fantastic opportunities for a dear friend. So I'm massively conflicted.
Yes, she could have said "I am sorry I upset people"
Would that have been enough if she continued on with the project as she had imagined it? I expect it would've been better received but I don't think that addresses the issues raised.
I'm curious because I don't think I've ever seen the end-game of the argument. The logical implication of the objection is that it's ethically wrong to use an experience beyond your own as a metaphor. This is consistent with Kantian ethics (don't use people as a means to an end) but the aesthetic implications are pretty dire.
So I see the argument as a kind of polite tiptoeing up to that point and then people hem and haw because they really don't want to proscribe what an artist could do. But there's a strong implication of what an artist
should
do. Which is to already know these objections about privilege as if they've got a background in womens' studies/black studies/queer studies which is where most of this theory derives.
But I find the discussion in fandom to be very closed and hermetic. Race Fail Bingo (to cite an obvious example) precludes argument; all of those issues are pre-argued. Defined by their existing terms and terminology.
So, while I expect Amanda Palmer could've dealt with the situation more gracefully, I'm really not down with putting a political template out before an ARTISTE. I think that makes bad art.
I'll also plump for art that is transgressive, and object to art which is inoffensive.
For me, the objections are proscriptive. They presume an ideologically proper approach to the subject matter.
Yeah, you can deal with shit a lot more gracefully than tweeting crap like this
setting aside 846 emails and removing the disabled feminists from her mental periphery, @amandapalmer sat down to plan her next record.
