Anonymous asked: of course Amanda Palmer has a lot of advantages, when has she ever denied that? everyone who is trying to accomplish a goal uses their advantages. many of Amanda's advantages she has created for herself and she has worked really hard to leverage, and she talked about them in her TED talk, including being on a major label and touring her ass off. that's hard work. she never says it's easy. why do you feel the need to tear her down? seriously, i don't get it. what are you getting out of it?

It’s not “tearing her down” as much as it is “providing a counterpoint to the outsized laurels she consistently receives, and the unrealistic expectations for artists without her advantages encouraged by her elevation in the press.” I can understand in the hater-culture era why you might think of it as the former, though. Bottom line:  She doesn’t talk about her advantages nearly as much as she should, and perhaps more importantly neither do the lazy up-the-market types who think her solution of asking and hugging (and not paying musicians until they raise a stink) is some sort of silver bullet. (Hi Bob Lefsetz!) 

And maybe I get strident because in 2013 that’s the only way to be heard? Can I introduce you to this thing called “the Internet”?

Anonymous asked: "(Also I actually produce things that people want to read, instead of just talk about supporting? Anyway.)" honestly, what does that even mean? Amanda Palmer doesn't produce things that people want to read/listen to? are you seriously that blinded by your disdain for her?

How often do people—even her fans!—talk about why they like her MUSIC, and not about her celebrity or her fundraising prowess or her ability to make people feel really good? (Which, fine on the last point! But I wish she’d have the guts to say that she has a lot of advantages, and that while “anyone can ask for help,” GETTING IT is a lot tougher than she makes it out to be. It’s fucking dishonest and her up-the-market rhetoric obfuscates a lot of discussions that need to happen about the future of the arts in this increasingly technologically deterministic society.) 

The indictment comes on the heels of recent hacks into the computer systems of two other U.S. media companies that own The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Both newspapers reported in February that their computer systems had been infiltrated by China-based hackers, likely to monitor media coverage the Chinese government deems important.

— Except this is NOTHING LIKE the Tribune situation. These incidents involved actual hacking. The Tribune situation involved a guy who got fired, got angry and gave out his login credentials (tricked out with extra permissions, but still his) so a bunch of kids could Sharpie-mustache an article from 2010, which might qualify technically as “hacking” but certainly not in its technophobe-HWFO connotation; it’s more like your ex letting his bros use your laptop to post porn on your Tumblr. It’s fake context, in other words, and prepare to see a lot of it.  (via katherinestasaph)

"It was then revealed by a gaggle of publicists—who, according to Dern, were 'freaking out'—that the dog in question was Giggy, the celebrity Pomeranian owned by restaurant entrepreneur Lisa Vanderpump. He has almost 60,000 followers on Twitter. Dern, by contrast, has 3,500." →

moderation asked: how many games will the Mets win this year?

[SIGH]

I am looking beyond won-loss records this year, I think. 2015, here I come. 

albums i would pay money to own digitally if i could (a woefully incomplete list)

aveo, bridge to the northern lights

flop, whenever you’re ready

etc

katherine st asaph for president →

or, pro tip: once you start talking about the ‘authenticity’ of any artist with a powerful pr machine behind it, you’ve lost the plot

(Source: deadgirlfriends)

"He was the first man I ever loved that I also liked, and I did not want to let him go." →

i have read this piece seven times and this line is a knife in the gut whenever i get to it.