All images are © Tash Jayasinghe. If you want to use, ask.
A couple of months ago, I got a mailer from Amanda Palmer asking if anyone could let her, her back up band and crew sleep at their place or provide food.
My apartment is small so choice A was out. At first I was really excited to cook for her and crew but then doubt set in, what would I cook? What would I say? I just couldn’t…Then I thought, fuck it, the Dresden Dolls gig at the Roundhouse changed my life, the least I could do was put a couple of hours of tender loving care into some grub.
Seriously, that gig in 2006 is not something to be underestimated in the life of Tash. It was the first time I was driving into Sydney by myself. I got lost, had to turn around and ask my Dad to give me a ride from church (the humiliation in the italics can not be underestimated, I felt like the prodigal son, except lamer, a prodigal son asking for a ride). My Dad didn’t complain and explained the roads on the way. I arrived just in time. When the Dolls took the stage, every worry was lifted. Bam! Lack of reading maps/boyfriend/internship issues vanished! All of my feminism points of conflict with the world disappeared when I saw Amanda Palmer on stage. No joke. I felt like I had found a role model.
Embarrassingly for the next three months, I plodded around my university grounds in my short shorts, suspenders and doc martens in not-so-subtle adoration . I stopped shaving for three months in an experiment that failed horribly. Thankfully, I did not attempt to shave then paint on my eyebrows. I got my heart thoroughly broken in a typical relationship-from-high-school way. I got into a huge mud fight with some 50 odd people and sang the Beatles with a couple of awesome women and while we washed off the dirt we didn’t compare our bodies against one another. I looked forward in my life instead of burying myself in the past, 70’s feminist literature. And all the while, I was listening to the Dolls.
Amanda Palmer played a pivotal point in my life then and continues to do so but now, in a different way. Instead of trying to imitate her, I admire her career and courage in plotting a path. Of course, I refer to her Virtual Crowdsurfing post as well as her general Amanda Fucking Palmer way of life.
And after all this talk, I forgot to get a picture with her. Oops. A signed Who Killed Amanda Palmer book and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-where-she-calls-me-beautiful-on-her-blog is better than an image to me.
Here’s what I cooked for Amanda, the Nervous Cabaret and crew.
Have some photographs I took of the night. Scroll down.
Taking questions from State Theater blog and twitter.
Amanda’s father lives very close to me. They did a Leonard Cohen duet. T’was awesome!
Amanda listening to her Dad.
The Nervous Cabaret. You should listen.
may you be as energetic as a dragon and a horse
One thing I learned is that the food should be easy to pick up and eat. I cooked stuff in a tomato sauce that was kinda cumbersome to serve. So tapas and finger food = win. Let me know how it goes Claire!
I’m cooking for her in March. Any tips?
AMAAAAAAAAAAZING!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks guys. The beautiful thing is I admire all of you so much so thank you for the comments.
i’m a fan!
<3
I love this post and wondered if that was you! Awww makes me so happy! We need to get together for real and I’ll give you a copy of Constellation with Amanda on it
Wow, that’s absolutely amazing and the food looks delicious!
[...] Tash cooked for Amanda Palmer and her crew. Amaze. [...]
Delurking, because that’s the power of AFP-love. I heart her immensely too – I flew from Sydney to attend her Melbourne Midnight Sleepover Gig earlier this year. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to articulate what that woman and her music means to me…
–xo.
That is SO COOL Tash! I’ve never really listened to Amanda Palmer but I realise this is a big deal. I do admire what she does, how she’s so real.
And you got to feed her! It’s obvious that you like to cook so it’s such a perfect contribution.
Yay!