Аманда Палмер: The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help

Spine/front flap photograph © Geoff Spear

Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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First ebook edition: November 2014

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Ukulele photo by Natasha Moustache. Bride photo by Michael Volpe. Amanda Palmer photo by Pixie Vision. Brian Viglione photo by Pixie Vision. Crowdsurfing photo by David Aquilina. Kissing Tattoo photo by Hayley Rosenblum. Piano Ninja Gig photo by Lyndon Hood (scoop.co.nz). Naked Marker photo by Strangelfreak aka Luis Pedro de Castro. Naked Yana painting by Amanda Palmer. We Are the Media photo by Shervin Lainez. Blake photo by Shira Shaham. Bride with Children photo by Michael Volpe. Hermosa Ninja Gig photo by Lindsey Byrnes.

ISBN 978-1-4555-8107-8

E3

Writer disclaimer: My mother is totally going to read this book and she’s probably going to call me after she reads this part and so I am going to preemptively tell her right here that I love her and this probably didn’t even happen even though I think I remember it and it’s really important to the story. HI MOM.

My mother will be happy to know I never gave one. HI MOM.

She said yes. If you haven’t read it, go back and read it now. It’s wonderful.

That started as a temporary solution after shaving my face for a Marlene Dietrich look-alike contest that Brian and I attended shortly after forming the band. I lost the contest. I kept the eyebrows—I found, to my delight, that it had the unintended side effect of causing people to look me in the eye. When you have creatively painted eyebrows, people will assume you’re approachable and affable, and talk to you. It’s like having a funny mustache.

“to grok”: from Robert Heinlein’s made-up word from Stranger in a Strange Land , meaning to communicate and understand deeply, empathetically, completely.

As I learned from a marvelous talk given by Maciej Ceglowski, awesome founder of the “social bookmarking” site Pinboard, at the 2013 XOXO Festival.

That night, before the doors opened for the show in Houston, I hid all the penises in different locations around the venue—the bathrooms, the bar, the lobby—and twittered photo clues as to their whereabouts. Every few minutes, from my dressing room backstage, I could hear a giant cheer coming from the house as one by one, each penis was discovered.

I emailed Sxip to ask him what those people wound up with. In one case, at the request of the backer, he arranged a piano composition orchestrated by the backer’s wife, and performed it for them live at Joe’s Pub in New York City. I’m sure they got their money’s worth.