amanda palmer: why i am not afraid to take your money

As One Working Musician put it, "[Amanda] clearly lays out her reasoning for not being ashamed or afraid to ask her fans to pay her for her work. This is one of the clearest statements of what I call the New Artist???s Creed that I have read to date." On a tip from uglyrug, a snip of Amanda's Creed:

it???s about empowerment and it???s about SIMPLICITY: fan loves art, artist needs money, fan gives artist money, artist says thank you.

the critics are welcome to criticize.
they do not have to attend the party.
and even if they attend the party with rolling eyes, they will not be charged.
they will be hugged, they will be accepted and entertained, and they will not be given the hairy eyeball if they leave the room without tipping.
chances are they???ll tell a friend about the next party, and their friend will probably leave a dollar. and tell someone else.

taking my stand as a virtual street performer is the best thing that???s happened to my career and i revel in it.
and i love bringing people along for the ride.

i believe in the future of cheap art, creative enterprise, and an honorable public who will put their money where there mouth is, or rather, their spare change where their heart is.

via amanda fucking palmer

So says the self-professed Virtual Street Performer who started her performance career working the street-busking circuits as an inert sculpture, "i do not claim to have figured out the perfect system, not by a long shot. BUT ??? i???d rather get the system right gradually and learn from the mistakes and break new ground... we are creating the protocol, people, right here and now. i don???t care if we fuck up. i care THAT we???re doing it."

The Staffordshire Hoard

This hoard is perhaps the most importantcollection of Anglo-Saxon objects foundin England. It compares and perhapsexceeds those objects found at SuttonHoo. Originally discovered by metaldetectorist Terry Herbert in July 2009and subsequently excavated by BirminghamUniversity Archaeology Unit andStaffordshire County Council.

Leslie Webster, former Keeper ofPrehistory and Europe at the BritishMuseum describes this discovery as:

"...this is going to alter ourperceptions of Anglo-Saxon England inthe seventh and early eighth century asradically, if not moreso, as the 1939Sutton Hoo discoveries did; it will makehistorians and literary scholars reviewwhat their sources tell us, andarchaeologists and art-historiansrethink the chronology of metalwork andmanuscripts; and it will make us allthink again about rising (and failing)kingdoms and the expression of regionalidentities in this period, thecomplicated transition from paganism toChristianity, the conduct of battle andthe nature of fine metalwork production- to name only a few of the many hugeissues it raises. Absolutely themetalwork equivalent of finding a newLindisfarne Gospels or Book ofKells."

The images contained in this set invitecomment. We accept there may be someerrors with labelling as this was donein a very short space of time. If you douse these images please attribute asused courtesy of the Staffordshire hoardwebsite.

For more information:
www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk and www.finds.org.uk The entire hoard will be catalogued onour database in due course and madeavailable to the public.

via flickr.com

see also http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011708.html for some context on the biblical inscriptions.

An Anatomical Guide To Monsters

The people at HuntingLodge.no noted that these illustrations

by Shogo Endo are from "An Anatomical Guide To Monsters,"

a 1967 book with text by Shoji Otomo,

adding "If anyone can find a copy, we'll take it!"

[via Milena]

via bookofjoe.com

Study these carefully. You just never know. In related news, if you're looking for the sort of mini-pickup used in Godzilla - Final Wars
to transport baby-Godzillas (Minya), there's a pristine (untrodden) one for sale at the video store in Sauble Beach. Again, you just never know.

Enhancing Attention and Cognition

If there were a surefire way to improve your brain, would you try it? Judging by the abundance of products, programs and pills that claim to offer ???cognitive enhancement,??? many people are lining up for just such quick brain fixes. Recent research offers a possibility with much better, science-based support...

via dana.org

"when children find an art form that sustains their interest, the subsequent strengthening of their brains??? attention networks can improve cognition more broadly."

Put another way, yes there are other ways to enhance the humanity in children, but looking at it realistically, will anyone later pay to watch them do those? That said, I often criticize precisely these sort of me-first rationales because the key difference with music or dance training is in the societal dividends that the playing induces, and it disturbs me a bit to see the music shops now brimming with accolades of musical training as some sort of self-improvement, self-enhancing strategy, which is true and good, but they neglect the wider and perhaps more important aspects of community enhancement to be had in a choral society.