Our longtime beloved Friend–Muse–Patron Whitney was on tour this fall with her longtime friend Amanda Palmer.
On Halloween she and Amanda and baby Ash and the whole delightful entourage of cool people came to our house. I made this drawing of Amanda in the kitchen. Daria drew the same moment!
Amanda and I had only met once before, almost a decade ago, so we had some sad quiet time in my bedroom talking about our mutual friend Conor. Amanda’s blog still sends a reader almost every day to my post about how Conor lost his battle with depression and addiction.
While we talked baby Ash, a sweet-tempered and happy baby, crawled around the coverlet and peered at the cats. He has soulful, deep-set eyes. I love him.
Then on the next day me and Daria got to go to the show and be backstage and draw and it was wonderful.
This is Whitney and Amanda practising “Paperback Writer” in the empty venue before the show. The show was at a legendary Berlin venue, Huxleys Neue Welt, and the acoustics were gorgeous. Their voices rose up pure and exquisite in the open space, and the piano was amazing.
When we came into the concert hall where Amanda was at the piano, she sang into the mike, “The artists have arrived!”. I would like to be introduced this way everywhere.
In the green room Ash was looked after by his nanny, who had been an on-point Eleven for Halloween, and old friends of Amanda’s who live in Berlin. His mother’s ear was always tuned to him, even as she got ready to perform.
Scotty the Blue Bunny, another Bay Area refugee now in Berlin, opened the show with his signature baton twirling. Amanda said she would like to be introduced this way everywhere she goes.
Amanda speaks fluent German, as you may or may not know, and fans were yelling “Your German is great!”
She spoke in German quite a bit and it went over gangbusters.
Here’s Amanda taking requests by writing them on her arm!
This is her traditional method of taking requests. The audience happily complied, yelling out song titles.
And Amanda playing the ukulele. I fucking love when Amanda plays the ukulele!
Here’s Daria’s. It was so great, and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to be there and make these drawings. You can support both me and Amanda continuing to make exactly the art that feels most authentic to us on Patreon!
Amanda Palmer playing ukulele in Berlin by Suzanne Forbes Nov 1 2016
Amanda is in Melbourne right now, but in the US you can hear Whitney sing with group Midtown Social all over the Bay Area.
This is one of those Berlin moments that kind of confused me.
