12 November 2009

Who Killed Amanda Palmer, aka How not to conduct a pre-order

I had taken out my copy of "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" at the Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer session for the reading. Cheng Tju, who spotted me doing so, borrowed it for a quick glance through. Noticing that my copy was signed by both Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer on the cover, asked me how I had managed to get it so quickly, given that only 5 copies were made available for sale at the Singapore Writers' Festival. My answer simply was that "I had pre-ordered it". That's the short answer. The long story goes further beyond that. Long post today so bear with me. Otherwise, you can scroll downward to the naked pictures. :P

I had received word of the pre-order for the coffee table book featuring Gaiman-penned stories based on photos taken of Amanda Palmer being daed from following Gaiman's blog. Unfortunately, I had to order the whole works in order to obtain the book - everything including the CD album, T-shirt, vinyl record, prints, etc. even though I had never heard of the Dresden Dolls, Amanda Palmer let alone her music at that time. But for the Neil Gaiman stories, I'd be willing to take a chance. So off I go and keyed in my credit card details and placed the order on 8 Sep 2008.

I received the following confirmation email:

"Dear Peow Yeong,

Thank you for ordering from the Amanda Palmer store. Your order number is 22742391. Please retain this email to reference the order.

You can review the order at any time by going to:
http://amandapalmer.shop.musictoday.com/Receipt.aspx?order_id=22742391

The release date for the product you ordered is 9/16/2008. If you ordered Express delivery on your order, you will receive your package on the release date. If you ordered Standard, your package will arrive 7-10 business days after the release date. If you specified international delivery (if available), your package will arrive 2-5 weeks from the release date. The nature of pre-order sales prohibits order modifications and cancellations. All pre-order sales are final.
You can access your downloads here:
http://amandapalmer.shop.musictoday.com/MyDownloadsLauncher.aspx?id=c9b17399-ea70-45cd-a767-311d84f4931c

Orders shipping to a P.O. Box or APO address will ship via US Mail.

We are unable to cancel, change, combine shipping or add items to an order once it has processed."

10 Sep 2008 - My order was confirmed.

"Dear Peow Yeong Pang,

Thank you for ordering from Musictoday. Your customer number is PANGPEOWYEO2391. Your order number is 22742391 and is being processed.

Customer Name: Peow Yeong Pang
Customer Number: PANGPEOWYEO2391
Ship Method: IMEX STANDARD

Payments:

Credit Card Type: XX Expiration Date: X/XXXX
CC# (last 4 digits): XXXX
Authorization Code: R78904
Authorization Amount: $123.92


Qty - Extended Price - Sku/Item Description
1 - $15.00 - PWAM01SET/PREORDER Crime Scene Photo Set
1 - $.01 - PWAM02/PREORDER A. Palmer Signed Litho
1 - $30.00 - PWAM03/PREORDER Autographed The Big Book Of Who...
1 - $14.99 - PWCD02/PREORDER "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" SIGNED CD
1 - $20.00 - PWCT01SMBK/PREORDER Amanda Palmer WKAP Black T-shirt SS/MD
1 - $.00 - PWDD01MP128/Who Killed Amanda Palmer Digital Download
1 - $20.00 - PWLP01/PREORDER Who Killed Amanda Palmer Vinyl LP


Order Total: $123.92

The charge will appear on your credit card statement as Musictoday.com.

Thank you,

Customer Service
Musictoday
www.musictoday.com"

7 Oct 2009 - I received notice that the first item, the signed CD album had been despatched. Whoopeedoo!

"Dear PEOW YEONG PANG,

Thank you for ordering from Musictoday. Your customer number is YEONGPANGPE1573. Your order number is 22871573. Your order has been shipped by IMEX STANDARD.

Customer Name: PEOW YEONG PANG
Customer Number: YEONGPANGPE1573



The following items have been shipped to:

XXX

Qty Ord Qty Ship Qty BO Qty Canc Ext Price Sku/Item Description
1 1 0 0 $.00 PWCD06/PREORDER "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" SIGNED CD


Order Total: $.00

Thank you,

Customer Service
Musictoday
www.musictoday.com
877-MUSIC-77?"

I received it around 10 days later.


Who Killed Amanda Palmer - Amanda Palmer signed CD

I received assurance that the rest of the items would be shipped in Nov 2008. It turned out that nothing was shipped actually.

"You are receiving this notice because you placed an order with the Amanda Palmer Official Online Store.

Your "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" CD will be delivered to you shortly. Please note, any remaining components (i.e. t-shirt, vinyl, book, crime scene photos, etc.) of the specific pre-order bundle you ordered will be shipped in November as stated on the Amanda Palmer Official Online Store website. If you have any questions, please contact Customer Service at merchandise@musictoday.com or call 1-877-MUSIC77.

Thank you for your patronage.


This email was sent by: Musictoday, LLC. 5391 Three Notch'd Road, Crozet, VA 22932."

Next, I received the download instructions for the alternate digital album as well as the liner notes for the tracks. This was around Feb 2009.

"dear comrades.

thank you so much for pre-ordering the record. now that you've had a chance to live with it, i hope you love it.

i'd especially like to thank you for your patience as i know that this digital download is coming to some of you about two months late -- we just wanted to make sure that you had the option to get the highest possible quality should you feel so inclined [PLEASE NOTE: information about file formats/quality is available at the end of this e-mail from one of our resident tech/audio folks, sean]. thank you for waiting and thanks to our incredible friends at bandcamp.com for helping facilitate the delivery of this, finally.

so....this batch of songs that you're about to download is a special and personal one, and i want to take a minute to explain to you WHERE they came from and what the situation was when i recorded them.

you may have already read the story of the recording process of the album (up at whokilledamandapalmer.com) and some of this information might be up there already. but i think context is important.

when ben folds and i first started breaking ground on the record, the initial conversations were about WHAT to stick on the thing. i sent ben long lists of songs with explanations and attached live recordings of things that already existed ("astronaut" and "guitar hero" for example) but for the most part, ben decided that the best thing to do would be to demo everything in the studio together.

so my very first trip to nashville was like this: i showed up with a pile of 30-odd songs and for three days, with breaks, i just played them all and ben and joe (the engineer) recorded them. just like that, bam bam bam. some of the songs i played for ben weren't even finished, i would play parts, or i would play up until the point where i didn't know where to take the song (none of those recordings are included here). after we finished that set of demo recordings, we starting digging through and decided what would actually go on the album. there were a few disagreements (famously, "runs in the family", which ben wanted on and i wanted off because i thought it was too...teenage angsty) but looking back, i think we made the best record we could have made.

it's still possible that these songs will be developed and put on a record later on in some different incarnation. there was a part of me that didn't want to release these for that reason. listeners tend to get attached to music in its first incarnation, when it first hits them (if i had a dollar for every time i hear: "i like the album version, but that live version i first heard is SO much better...") so when listening, please remember what these are: they are expositions, they are my communication to ben saying: here are the bones of the song, what should we do with it? and try to leave some space in your brain for change and growth. and come to think of it, do that all the time and with everything. it might save your relationship.

ok, enough.

listen happily, and below your download code and sean's geek-info you'll see that i've made some song-by-song notes i think might be fun for you to read.

yours in the punk cabaret,

love

afp




A note from Sean: Now that this wonderful alternate album has finally arrived, you're going to have the choice of grabbing it in mp3 (320k, VBR), Ogg Vorbis, Apple Lossless, FLAC and AAC (aka .m4a or iTunes store format). Confused about which version YOU should download? That's probably a sign that you're going to want the "mp3 VBR High" version. There IS a rabid minority out there who'll love that we're giving them a choice but if you don't start salivating at the thought of AFP Ogg Vorbis' you'll never know what you're missing out on. Now sit back, relax, say a silent "thank you" to everyone at Bandcamp for making this happen and get ready to use this nifty little...




DOWNLOAD CODE!

To get your copy of the alternate "Who Killed Amanda Palmer", please visit http://amandapalmer.bandcamp.com/yum and use the download code fmmh-hskc




If you have any trouble downloading the album, please contact sean@amandapalmer.net.

1. 1.1.94
this is the oldest, by far, in the whole batch of demos. i wrote it in - i think - 1994. which would make sense. people have been asking how it's pronounced. i always call it "one one ninety four." that was a special new years.

2. The Point of it All
i wrote this song in one sitting in lisbon, portugal, thus proving for the first time that i could write a song on the road if i just got off my lazy ass, skipped lunch and DID it. and i did. and i'm very proud i did. the idea for the song came to me that morning on the bus. i was walking through the front lounge and i saw our monitor tech sitting on the couch and staring into space. and the line "no one can stare at the wall as good as you" came into my head with the melody. and it stuck there. and usually, those things come and go 23 times a day and i let them fly away. but this time i decided to skip lunch and write, since i had a dressing room all to myself in the huge government building we were playing that night. had i not had the room, i wouldn't have written the song. thank you, lisbon.

3. Night Reconnaissance
this recording has a funny story, because ben fired himself from drums. lots of journalists have asked: "what is the difference between a dresden dolls song and an amanda fucking palmer song?" and my answer is that there is none. it's mostly coincidence. i assumed this song was going to go on the WKAP record and so did ben. and then we tracked it with his band, and ben listened to it a few times and said "you know what? i'm firing myself as your drummer for this song. viglione will do a better job. make it a dolls song." ladies and gentlemen, ben folds. you gotta love him.

4. Runs in the Family
like i mentioned before, this one was itchy for me. i didn't like the angsty angsty lyrics, they felt like too much of my teenage self. but ben loved the song. as you can hear, there's a bridge in the song that later got chopped out. that was all ben folds. he was convinced it slowed the tune down. i have to agree. it's better when the driving pace never lets up. this song is almost impossible to sing live. in fact it IS impossible to sing live. i have to edit out words. if you listen to a live recording, you'll notice that certain phrases get contracted and certain words get dropped. it is a necessity, this song is literally not singable the way it wound up on the actual record.

5. Blake Says
blake really likes this song. he wrote me an email saying so. that made me happy. when the record first got finished, i invited him out for breakfast and i played it for him on my hi-fi system. he approved. i was relieved. how many velvet underground/lou reed references can you spot? it's a fun game. email me the answer, maybe i'll mail you a toaster.

6. Strength Through Music
i didn't think this one was going to wind up on the record. i thought it was too weird, too slow, too something. ben loved it. you can hear similarities between this song and 1.1.94, for sure, and people have pointed that out. 1.1.94 came first and i think, since it had been at the bottom of the pile so long, weirdly re-incarnated itself into strength through music, at least those first few chords. this will happen all the time with songs. i don't remember writing this one. at all. i must have been tired.

7. Guitar Hero
we had a bitch of a time creating the right sound for this song and i maintain it holds its own as a solo piano tune.

8. Boyfriend in a Coma
i think this song would have been great on the record, but it slid down the list quickly. but as far as good demos go, i think this is one of the best. i wrote this one in the winter of 2003-4 when my (fairly new) boyfriend was in the hospital for a few months, paralyzed by a crazy syndrome that left him, for days, unable to move anything but his eyes. i wrote it and recorded it live the same week (the only time i'd played it live, until recently at the boston show in november) at a little gallery called the zeitgeist in cambridge. i took the recording to the hospital the next day and put the headphones on him so he could listen. he couldn't answer with words, but his tears did the job.

9. Oasis like my old producer friend sean slade used to say, "just three minutes of truth, baby."

10. You May Kiss the Bride
can you hear me saying "goth!" at the end of this song? you can? i can. i left that in there on purpose. sorry. i had to. ben really liked this tune because it was very different in structure to the rest of them, but i squirmed at the gothiness of it. i wrote this one when i was about 18 or 19 and though i liked the melody, the lyrics were just too gloom and doom to put on the record. so there you have it. it does, aside from it's gothiness, contain some of my favorite lyrics, so i don't mind having it out in the world.

11. I Will Follow You Into the Dark (cover, originally by death cab for cutie)
i was in hawaii right before getting to ben's studio for the first time, at a yoga retreat. i met a guy named david who worked in the kitchen and when i was done with the retreat we decided to take off for the weekend and rent a car and drive across the big island, over the mountains. i hadn't brought any CDs with me, and the car had a CD player, so we stole two CDs from the cafe at the retreat center. one was a chemical brothers CD and one was a mysterious mix CD with no writing on it. and this song was on it. and i played it over and over and over again. it was a long drive, about 5 hours maybe. and this song probably got about 50+ spins. i had no idea who it was by or where it was from. which was good. and it was so stuck in my head that when i got to nashville, i asked joe one night to turn on the tape deck so i could record it. and i did. i played it in one or two takes, threw an extra vocal on top, and posted it to the internet a few days later. i like the future. and i love this song. the slowed-down rendition kind of reminds me of what iron and wine did with "such great heights." you can inject and infuse new meanings into covers however you want. faithful covers are the worst. they are useless unless you are a bar band.

12. Ampersand
this was one of the songs i knew, without a doubt, would go on the album.

this is an ampersand: &.

any questions?

13. Straight
this song was recorded for the record itself, with a full string section, and battled against "another year" for a while for the last song slot. i'll never know whether i made the right decision or not. but i love this tune. this song was recorded around the same time i was making the record, but at home in boston, in my bedroom on the night that noah came over and helped me set up garage band and a small mixing board next to my piano. it's the only song i've recorded at home, because the minute i came back to town and things were unplugged, i couldn't remember how to set the fucking thing up again.

but i got one recording out of it, at least.

14. Astronaut
my favorite. i remember when i was first playing around with the intro to the song. it was all i had written, but i kept playing it over and over, waiting for it to turn into something. this would have been...i don't know, in 2006 sometime. i was playing it in soundcheck on a dolls tour. i was playing it at home. i was recording with ...and you will know us by the trail of dead in austin. there was a big old concert grand piano in the studio and i was playing the "astronaut" intro. which was still all i had, just those YA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA bangs. and conrad, the singer from trail of dead, was listening from the other room and called out "is that yours?" and i called back "yep, but it hasn't gone anywhere yet" and he called back "it's going to be a good one" and i called back "i know, dude." sometime i want to make a whole record with that guy.

15. Have to Drive
this song is the only song that i already had finished in my head - as far as the orchestration went - when i demo'd it for ben. ever since i first wrote it, around 1999, i heard the cinematic swells and strings and crashes and orchestral bangs perfectly in my head. that made this song different from all the other songs on the record, which were all up for grabs as far as the arrangements went. ben and i almost came to fisticuffs over one section of the song (in the final version, where the choir comes in on "we will save...") we had paul buckmaster, the string arranger and orchestrator, do about 10 different mixes. ben won, in the end. of course he did. he's magical ben folds. i'll have to go back and listen and see if i still think he's right. the most essential part of this song is understanding that the first line includes the word "deer." yes, "deer," not "dear." i have my reasons.

p.s. feel free to post this letter on the discussion forums or wherever you deem interesting."

27 Mar 2009 - I received confirmation that the pre-order was fucked and Amanda Palmer apologises.

"hola, comrade.

first, thank you, thank you for buying Stuff in the pre-order. you and other people like you are literally keeping us afloat. thank you.

it makes me sad that i've been hearing that things went wrong with some of the orders. some people didn't get the signed CDs they were promised. others received damaged vinyls, t-shirts or lithos. there was also a mix-up at musictoday (the merch company we used to send out your orders) with the apology notes. this meant that some people received photocopied apology notes instead of the real deal with signatures and photos.

i could tell you that at the time we launched this pre-order, we had only a brief time to set everything up. that two days before launch we found out we had to switch merch companies after the first one we selected turned out not to be able to do digital downloads. i could say that at the time "Team AFP" was three people -- my manager emily, my social networking guru sean, and my assistant beth -- who were working around the clock trying to make life work. maybe you would forgive the things that went wrong if i told you that none of us had ever run a pre-order like this before and that we were flying blind, doing what we thought was right at the time.

we made some mistakes. your lithographs were supposed to be numbered and in the chaos of trying to get everything to you, we forgot to do that. your CDs were late because we underestimated the time it would take us to get them, sign them, and get them to the merch company.

we also made a mistake in not being more hands-on with order fufillment. i've heard stories of people waiting on hold for an hour with musictoday, other people who called and were told one thing one day and a different thing the next day...i wish that we'd been able to be ten places at once handling all elements of this. but we weren't.

so. the good news with regards to musictoday is that they are out of the picture. we will be having our friends at JSR ship your books and crime scene packets. JSR has filled merch orders for us for many years and we are glad they are stepping in to make sure you get these things undamaged.

but another bit of bad news is that, due to some problems with the book designers (who we fired), the book is taking longer than we hoped. it is coming, i promise. the tentative ship date we have is june. it's looking like that will really happen, god willing. your crime scene evidence packets will be shipped then too.

so. the sheer number of things that have gone wrong with this preorder is very frustrating. but i don't want this e-mail to become about passing blame.

it's about how we are going to make things right for you.

we have compiled a FAQ (below as well as at Pre-Order FAQ) which covers all your problems and how to fix them. please go read it.

and... not that this makes it any better right now... i want to tell you about what we learned from this whole process.

and for fun, pretend that i am saying this in the deep and sexy voice of barack obama.
ok. number one, we're not going to have pre-orders for items that we do not have a FIRM release date for. these delays won't happen in the future because we won't sell the shit until it is IN OUR HANDS or at the very least at the printers. number two, we are going to do as much in-house and with trusted allies (like JSR) as possible, and fully check out every potential new company to make sure they will deliver what we need them to. number three, when things do go wrong -- and they will, because this is life and that's what happens -- i am going to make sure you know what's happened and why and how we're going to fix it. communication is the most important part of this whole thing... i know that we need to be honest with you or else you will eventually get fed up and tell me to fuck off and you will go buy miley cyrus's CD instead and that would make me very sad. we didn't do so well with the communication this time but, as your president motherfuckers, i am dedicated to complete transparency. we are in this together. you are my partners and i need you.

thank you for reading this very long apology e-mail. thank you for supporting my art. you are awesome and i am really lucky.

as a reward for reading this far, here is a photo from the WKAP book (it was supposed to be a photo of my tits but we don't want to piss off anybody's MOM who ordered for them):

love,
afp
WKAP PRE-ORDER PROBLEMS FAQ

Note: When forwarding anything regarding your orders to us, please include the name the item was ordered under as well as the e-mail address given to MusicToday. We are doing our best to compile a database of all the different issues that arose. That information is incredibly helpful in making sure that we can sort ALL of you. That means if the order was for you but your Mom ordered it on her credit card, please give us her name so that we can cross-check.

Q: My CD/vinyl/litho/t-shirt was damaged when I received it. What do I do?
A: Please e-mail bandaid at amandapalmer dot net with the subject line DAMAGED ((ITEM)) and we will replace it. In your e-mail, please include your mailing address and a photo of what was damaged.

Q: I simply didn't get my CD/vinyl/litho/t-shirt at all. What do I do?
A: Please forward your e-mail order to bandaid at amandapalmer dot net with the subject line MISSING ((ITEM)) and we will replace it. In your e-mail, please include your current mailing address and any correspondance you have had regarding your missing items -- some people have specifically been told that "their item was shipped" and we need to chase down what happened as best as we can.

Q: I was part of the first 672 who ordered the deluxe package, but since it never arrived, MT canceled it and refunded my money. I still want my signed items -- how can I get them?
A: If you were refunded (partially or in full) for the deluxe package but want the signed book/lithograph/whatever else you were missing, e-mail a copy of your receipt with the subject line 672 CANCELLED ORDER to bandaid at amandapalmer dot net and we will put you on a "shortlist". This "shortlist" will be contacted in approximately one month with the ability to re-order a copy before anybody else via credit card or PayPal for the price which was offered to MusicToday. When you order, should you wish, there will be a field titled "SIGN TO:" wherein you can put something (your name/nickname/friend's mom's name) and Amanda will personalize the book for all of this trouble.

Q: What is up with the alternate album? I never received a download code...what do I do?
A: On December 24th we managed to get the Alternate WKAP album to a few hundred people on The Shadowbox and approximately one month ago we sent unique download codes to EVERYONE who had pre-ordered WKAP through MusicToday. If you still have not received your download code, please e-mail bandaid at amandapalmer dot net with the subject line DOWNLOAD and we will get it to you through our friends at Bandcamp.

Q: When is "The Big Book of WKAP" (the one with Neil Gaiman and Kyle Cassidy) coming out? What is taking so long?
A: We had a problem with the book designers (who we fired) which set us back quite a bit. The book is now at the printers and we have a tentative ship date of June. We are so incredibly sorry about this delay.

Q: I pre-ordered a bundle which included the WKAP book, then I got a photocopied apology note/didn't get an apology note at all! What do I do?
A: If you pre-ordered the book and received a photocopy/didn't get one at all, please e-mail your mailing address to bandaid at amandapalmer dot net with subject line APOLOGY NOTE and we will send you a new one. [Please note: This is not a perfect science since things were messed up SO badly with the cards. We have to hope that people that got them don't fib and say they didn't in order to get extras...it will only take longer to fix so please be honest.

Q: My lithograph was supposed to be numbered and wasn't. Why?
A: In the chaos of trying to get everything to you, we forgot to do that. We're sorry. Really sorry. BUT, if you were supposed to get a litho that means that you were also supposed to get a copy of the WKAP book. We are going to number THOSE 1-672. We're also going to have Amanda personalize them...should you wish to get your book personalized, please forward a copy of your receipt to bandaid at amandapalmer dot net with the subject line "SIGN MY WKAP BOOK"...make a note of the name (yours or whoever you want it signed to) and Amanda will personalize the book for all of this trouble you've had. We appreciate your patience and if a personalization will help acknowledge that it's WELL worth our time.

Q: How long will it take to get a replacement CD/vinyl/litho/t-shirt/apology note?
A: We are going to wait two weeks to see how many things need to be replaced so that we can print all of them at once; Please get in touch with us ASAP, preferably before APRIL 10th. Please don't procrastinate. We need to see the real scope of this problem so we can make a concrete plan as to when and how you'll get your replacement stuff. That means that the actual answer is "We don't know" but we will keep you updated right here when we do. Since Amanda is on the road and wants you to have a signed thing to replace the one that got fucked up, it'll be a bit longer than if we started haphazardly shipping tomorrow, but it WILL get done.

Q: I moved since I ordered. How do I make sure the rest of my stuff gets to the right place?
A: Please email bandaid at amandapalmer dot net with subject line CHANGE OF ADDRESS with a copy of your order details and the new address you'd like the rest of your stuff to be sent to.

Q: But I already emailed someone about my problem!
A: Please email us again. We know this is frustrating, but we need to get a real handle on how many people have been affected and we don't want any of you to slip through the cracks.

Q: I emailed Sean/Beth and that mofo didn't get back to me. What do I do?
A: Please email bandaid at amandapalmer dot net with your problem as specified above but also include information about your previous attempt at correspondence so we can track down where the lapse in communication happened.

Q: My t-shirt was damaged AND my vinyl was missing AND I got a photocopied apology AND I never got my download AND my litho wasn't numbered! Should I send you five separate emails with different subject lines?
A: First, we are SO SORRY. You really got totally fucked in every way possible. That sucks. To keep things as un-fuck-up-able as possible on our end, please email bandaid at amandapalmer dot net and make your subject line "DAMAGED T-SHIRT MISSING VINYL APOLOGY NOTE DOWNLOAD SIGN MY WKAP BOOK." We will deal with every single thing that went wrong and make it right.

Q: My order problem isn't covered here. What do I do?
A: E-mail bandaid at amandapalmer dot net with the subject line OTHER and someone (Sean or Beth) will be in touch with you ASAP. Please include as much information about your problem as possible.

Q: I am really upset about how all this went down and I want to talk to someone about how fucked over I feel. What do I do?
A: If you want to talk to a human about what's going on with your order, or how pissed you were that you got it late, or how you received your shirt and it was covered in cheesecake, you can e-mail fucked at amandapalmer dot net to reach Sean and Beth. One of them will be in touch with you directly as soon as possible. Seriously. What you have to say matters to us.

Q: Fuck you, fuck all of this. I never got my stuff and I just want my money back...WHAT DO I DO?!
A: Please forward your e-mail order to bandaid at amandapalmer dot net with the subject line REFUND and we will have MusicToday get your money back to you. In your e-mail, please include your current mailing address and any correspondance you have had regarding your missing items -- we want to know exactly what went down to help prevent anything resembling this situation from EVER happening again."

Then began a long series of me emailing for updates on the status etc. before I finally received the coffee table book and set of photo prints in Aug 2009 (close to a year late). Argh! It's signed on the dust jacket rather than inside the book because they could not or did not bother to ship the heavy books to where Amanda Palmer was touring and Neil Gaiman was writing at that point. By the way, fans who pre-ordered get screwed again 'cos time was needed to obtain the signatures so people who placed orders for the book after the pre-orders actually received their books first as theirs were not signed and personalised. I felt ripped-off that I had sponsored her music tour while getting nothing in return all this time.


It's a lovely book, other than the signatures appearing on the dust jacket


I did promise you some naked pictures... so there!

After a couple more months waiting, I finally managed to get a refund for the outstanding items I didn't receive. A terrible, terrible introduction to the music of Amanda Palmer especially when I was not really a fan and only wanted the coffee table book.

Nonetheless, the happy ending was that I managed to meet Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer who turned out to be real sweet and apologetic. She signed, posed, smiled and at the end of the day, I felt it was okay. All was forgiven.


Amanda Palmer writes "LOVE" with a Sharpie marker


She signed my set of photo prints


She wrote more stuff on the CD album cover

08 November 2009

Singapore Writers' Festival (24 Oct 09) - Lat, Mark Waid, Sonny Liew

It was a bright a cheery Saturday to kick off a series of panel discussions at the Arts House featuring comics.

First off, I went down to Funan Centre food court to meet some of the folk from a local comics mailing list. Some are published creators, some are aspiring to be published and others like me are just starry-eyed fans.

Then we made our way to the Arts House for the first panel. Moderated by Cheng Tju and featuring the art of the Malaysian cartoonist Lat, it was an informative session about how the beloved Lat started out and ended up in a career of cartooning - first from his early days learning English from listening to rock and roll records to performing well enough at school to head to town for further studies to his days as a journalist for the New Straits Times newspaper. A real-life Datuk, he was friendly and approachable nonetheless and gamely signed all the Lat books I had - Kampung Boy, Town Boy, Lat: The Early Years as well as added his autograph to the Liquid City anthology.


Cheng Tju and Lat


A portrait of Lat

Next up was the Terence Chua-moderated panel featuring Mark Waid. Mark was supposed to have arrived at SWF two years ago together with Kurt Busiek and Gail Simone, but had to pull out at the last minute. This year he finally managed to participate as a guest. The room was packed with comic fanboys and the line of questions was reflected as such (from Superman's telephone number to the gang of 4 working on "52" and why Geoff Johns is a very evil man). Someone went so far as to declare that he's here attending this panel while leaving his girlfriend to wait at the airport... and something about preferring comics to sex (too much information, dude!). Mark cruised through the autograph line and signed my set of Kingdom Come issues. I realised I didn't have many books by Mark Waid... having been more of a Marvel Zombie early in my comic reading career, thus missing out on many of the DC titles Mark had worked on, such as JLA, Superman, The Flash etc. I also asked him to autograph a CC Beck (creator of Shazam!) tribute that appeared on the inside front cover of Sandman #14. G&B Comics were giving out free comics to those who attended. I scored a copy of Valor #17 written by Mark Waid and with great art by Colleen Doran.


Mark Waid

The final panel for the day... also moderated by Terence Chua featured Lat, Mark Waid and Causeway Child - Sonny Liew where they dished out advice to aspiring writers. I don't remember much of what was said except Lat stealing the scene with his funny quips - "I was popular in the last century...".


Sonny Liew, Mark Waid and Lat panel


Lat The Early Years featuring Lat's cartoons from the New Straits Times


Signed and sketched Lat The Early Years


The First Second American editions of Lat classics - Kampung Boy and Town Boy


Signed Kampung Boy


Signed and sketched Town Boy


Signed Liquid City Vol.1


Signed Valor #17


Signed column in Sandman #14


Kingdom Come


One of Mark Waid's autographs in Kingdom Come

18 October 2009

Lego 4475 - Jabba's Message, Lego 4476 - Jabba's Prize, Lego 4480 - Jabba's Palace

The other set that arrived together with the TIE Bomber from Canada was the long-awaited Jabba's Palace. I had won Jabba's Message and Jabba's Prize from earlier eBay auctions and was missing the big chunk in the middle until now.

More a playset than an actual model of the palace, this features several unique mini-figures - including every adolescent fanboy's fantasy - Princess Leia in chains and a bronze bikini. Jabba's platform slides back to drop his victim down a trapdoor exactly like in the Return of the Jedi film. What's lacking is a Rancor monster and his keeper.

Jabba's Message and Jabba's Prize playsets can be connected to Jabba's palace to form various scenes from Return of the Jedi. Jabba's message is arguably the better of the two as it has both C-3PO and R2-D2 mini-figures in addition to the unique Bib Fortuna mini-figure. Jabba's Prize has Han Solo frozen in carbonite, Gamorrean Guard and the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Both sets are overpriced given the small number of pieces though.


All 3 sets combined


Princess Leia (yellow-skinned, bronze bikini and chain!) with Jabba the Hutt


Princess Leia


Jabba with "snack"


Luke Skywalker


Rancor pit


Trapdoor to Rancor pit below


EV-9D9 and Gonk droid (GNK power droid)


B'OMarr Monk


Jabba's Prize


Gamorrean Guard


Han Solo in carbonite


Boba Fett


Jabba's Message


Bib Fortuna, C-3PO, R2-D2


Instruction manuals

Lego 4479 - TIE Bomber

I have been busy recently. Didn't have time to read my comics nor play with toys, let alone blog about them. Hence the absence of new posts the past few weeks.

This is one of two sets which arrived in the mail in the past week and I had only managed to build it this weekend. All the way by surface mail from Sasketchawan, Canada, it took all of 11 weeks to arrive.

This set was released back in 2003 and consists of 230 pieces in total. Overall, a pretty good design that resembles the movie version in Empire Strikes Back and comes with a TIE pilot mini-figure. It fires a missile and actually drops fusion bombs once the bomb bay is opened. Picture parts are also non-stickered, so no problems with decals peeling. However, the connectors are not sturdy enough. It also requires a odd-looking support at the bottom just to support the middle commponents from slacking down.


Front view


TIE pilot mini-figure (brown head)


TIE pilot with open hatch on TIE Bomber


Rear view


Side view


Top view


Bottom view (bomb bay on the left opens when slider is pulled down)


Instruction manual

22 September 2009

Lego 3723 - Minifigure

Carrying this huge box past some colleagues and hearing their audible gasps made me smile to myself. Back in 2000, Lego released this set as an exclusive. You would be able to build a sculpture of the mini-figure 20" tall out of 1849 Lego pieces, which I did over 3 sessions over the recent Hari Raya long weekend.

It probably took me 5.5hours in total to assemble this. It was fun, although it did get a bit repetitious after awhile adding layer after layer from the foot upwards. This is a good set and you should get it should one become available. However, the stickers which go over multiple bricks as well as the loose attachments (only one peg at the wrist!) at the wrist and shoulders prevent it from being great. It should be easy to modify the attachments of the arms and hands for more stability. Overwise, it can do pretty much anything a regular mini-figure can do, except move its legs.

Mini-figures (also called minifigs)are usually sold with Lego sets, meant to populate the various Lego environments. The modular design allows all sorts of mini-figure characters to be customised and created. Wikipedia reports that by 2003, Lego had produced 3.7 billion mini-figures!




Standing tall


Removable cap


Rotatable head


Included a Stormtrooper mini-figure for scale comparison

20 September 2009

From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

Back in my 4 Sep 2009 post, I mentioned Alan Moore's and Eddie Campbell's epic "From Hell" comic books. Originally serialised in Steven R. Bissette's Taboo anthology, they were published by Tundra and then Kitchen Sink Press.

The theory of the Jack the Ripper murders as a conspiracy to conceal the illegitimate child of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence was told over 16 chapters and released in ten prestige format books during the early to mid-'90s. An epilogue, "From Hell: The Dance of the Gull-catchers" was released in the late '90s.

The From Hell Scriptbook published by Borderlands Press was the first of four planned volumes, but only the first volume was ever released. It presents a glimpse into the creative process, the extensive notes, stage direction and gives insights into some of the subtleties and gestures that could not be portrayed in the comics.

Meticulously researched by both Moore and Campbell to present the look and feel of Victorian-era England, this is an extremely engrossing read from start to finish. An essential addition to any Alan Moore library.












From Hell vol. 1-10



From Hell epilogue



From Hell Scriptbook vol. 1