dude, you’ve got nothing to lose. Your tour is tanking. And it might not be so bad. In fact, if you ask your fans for help, they might surprise you. How? They might be really flattered that you trusted them enough to look uncool.

From the start, The Dresden Dolls functioned in an artistic community that depended on messy exchanges of goodwill and the swapping of favors.

and my blog. The platform is irrelevant. I’ll go wherever the people are. What’s important is that I absorb, listen, talk, connect, help, and share. Constantly. The net gets so strong at a certain point that I can let it go for a few days—maybe weeks—and it…

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And so you will take the coffee, because the truth of the matter is that your acceptance of the gift IS the gift. And if you’re not in a hurry, you will also draw the barista a picture, or draw a picture for his friend who’s a huge fan, or tell her about the Ben Folds song.

Hi. It’s Amanda Palmer from The Dresden Dolls. I know you don’t really know me, but I need to ask you for advice. It’s a phone call, not an email.

What was enough to make the band “successful”? We weren’t starving. We could pay our rent. What did we actually … need? To live? To be happy?

You’re an artist when you say you are. And you’re a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected.

Your songs are good, Amanda. And I’m not just saying that.

I would try to make things as freely available as I could: I would encourage sharing, burning, torrenting, and downloading. But I would leave my hat out, I would ask, and I would work from a place of gratitude if people stepped up to help. I wanted it to be like the street.