Not too long ago my friend Andrea dragged me into her bedroom…

Wait, that didn’t come out right…let me try again…

Not too long ago, my buddy Dave’s girlfriend, Andrea (who also happens to be my friend as well), dragged me into her bedroom to show me something she had recorded on her DVR.   A performer she had seen on American Idol…one “Lady Gaga”.   Andrea had gone goo goo for Gaga,  and really wanted me to see her…presumably because Andrea knows I appreciate a good entertainer (that’s what I’m sticking with, anyway).

It was a memorable performance, and I remembered it well.  Twice remembered, in fact.  Two times, once before and then a second time after the first time.  Remembrances in all totaling two.

Fast forward.  The year is 2010.   Where is Lady Gaga?    Everywhere.

Amanda Palmer recently held an entire web chat discussing Lady Gaga which culminated in a song which Amanda Palmer called “Gaga, Palmer, Madonna”.

So I finally started learning a Lady Gaga song, a ballad called “Speechless”:

I was setting up for my gig at The Red Fox Lounge this evening when I discovered a single golden glove nestled in one of the zipper pockets of my keyboard case.    It certainly does not belong to me.   But I think I do know who it does belong to…the last person to use this keyboard, Amanda Fucking Palmer.

I would imagine someone like Amanda Fucking Palmer has many pairs of these fingerless gloves, but I also know that when you pack for a gig, you don’t always check to see if you have BOTH of your gloves (unless you’re Michael Jackson).   And I would hate for the lovely and talented Amanda to be getting ready for her big New Year’s Eve show with the Boston Pops and be freaking out for lack of one golden glove.

But if she DOESN’T want it back, I am seriously considering taking the glove on tour with me.  Johnny Diggz and Amanda Fucking Palmer’s Glove.  This is exactly the kind of thing that could go Gaga Global.

Or I might just take it home to introduce the glove to my family on Christmas.

“Mom, Dad, Merry Christmas.  I’m dating Amanda Palmer’s glove. ”

…and wins my heart (again).

So last Friday @mixiemoxie calls me up as I am driving home from playing the 15th Annual Police Charity Ball.  She was practically hyperventilating when she asks if Amanda Palmer (or, AFP as she’s lovingly referred  to) can borrow my keyboard for a few days.

A.F.P. Amanda. Fucking. Palmer.   Of the Dresden Dolls.  Anyone who’s heard me play more than once has heard me play “Coin Operated Boy” (the guys at Howl poke fun at me to no end anytime I play it)…that song was written by Amanda Fucking Palmer.

My ex, Mixie Moxie, is a SUPERFAN of AFP.  She gets text alerts anytime AFP farts.  I am a fan, but I opted to turn off her fart alerts, and while I was aware AFP was coming to Orlando for a solo show, I was unaware of her need for a keyboard to practice on while she’s on holiday with her boyfriend, Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) in Melbourne (Florida…not Australia).

Mixie Moxie and AFP in my living room, eyebrows and all

So in exchange for an autographed “Who Killed Amanda Palmer” book, a couple of tickets to her show, and fortune and fame of incalculable amounts, I agreed to let her borrow my Roland FP-3 for a week.

Unfortunately I wasn’t here when she came to pick up said keyboard with aforementioned boyfriend…the very reason that I own a keyboard of the sort that AFP would deem appropriate to practice on for her big shindig with the Boston Pops on New Years Eve (how about a couple tickets to THAT that show, Amanda???)    is that I play professionally and I was fortunate enough to have had a paying gig that night  (or unfortunate, from the perspective of NOT being home when AFP and NFG were in my F’n house.)

But they were here, and they left me a very nicely signed copy of the printed third of their first collaborative effort, “Who Killed Amanda Palmer” (also an album and a series of videos), and tomorrow when I go see her perform at her sold-out show at The Social, she will be playing my FP-3.   And I will be wishing I was on that stage with her and my keyboard, but I know I have been on that stage before and I know I will be again…it is, after all, the Social.  And Amanda Palmer certainly needs no help from the Diggz in the entertainment department.  Heck, you should see her “living statue” act.  To. Die. For.

Today I logged on to Twitter and noticed AFP had posted a new blog from her working vacation wherein she wrote:

i twittered for a piano and was graciously lent one by a nice man, @johnnydiggz. thanks, @johnnydiggz.

See?  I am a nice man.

Because Amanda Fucking Palmer fucking said so.

Here’s some video I shot of AFP performing Creep (on a ukulele) with Vermillion Lies in Atlanta last year.  You can hear me singing along, so TECHNICALLY, I think this qualifies as our first co-collaboration.

blog « amanda palmer.

YouTube – I Google You – A Cyberstalking Love Ballad by Johnny Diggz.

Diggz at the Nexus of the Universe

I like to say it was Micky’s Christmas present, but I had such a great time visiting New York that it sure felt like a present for both of us.   It was quite a whirlwind trip.  Left Orlando at 6am on New Year’s Eve morning and took Jetblue up to JFK.  Airtrain to the Metro A line to the F line and got off near the Nexus of the Universe at 1st Ave and 1st Street.

Walked a few blocks to meet up with Mojo.  Snowing the whole time…real blizzard-like conditions.  She took us to get some chocolate bobka and we did some shopping and touring of the Lower East Village, SOHO and Chinatown.  Napped for a couple hours before we headed over to Brooklyn and Amanda Palmer’s New Year’s Eve Party, where we met lots of cool people, including the cats from the Danger Ensemble.

Amanda played some songs on her Ukulele, including an awesome cover of “In Between Days” by the Cure.

At midnight we all wrote down something we were relinquishing for the new year on a piece of paper and threw them into a bucket and burned them. I played some songs on a very cool old piano. Then we trekked it back to Manhattan to the Bowery to see Amanda’s show.  I have more pics and video…just need to go through them still.

And thanks to Tora Hylands, I will forever pronounce metro card,  “Meetro Kayed”.     I did muster up the courage to introduce myself to her.  *blush*

Props to the Walrus

Woke up late New Year’s Day and we headed to Strawberry Fields to pour one out for my homie.  Did a little pause at Time’s Square to look at the pretty lights.  Dinner with Mojo and Itzik and then home again on Friday morning.   It was mini-vacation crammed into about 36 hours and I loved every bit of it!

Happy New Year…2009 starting off on the right foot!

The Lovely Tora Hylands of the Danger Ensemble

Some more video I shot at the Amanda Palmer show in Atlanta in November 2008. The low-end frequencies of her keyboard just overpowered the tiny built-in microphone in my Cannon SD-440 camera, so the audio is kinda splattery.

But, you get a pretty good idea of how the Danger Ensemble really brings the audience into the show. I believe this performer’s name is Mark Hill and, as you can see, he came off the stage and hung out next to me for quite a lot of the song….never leaving character once. It was kinda creepy yet very surreal and really brought you into the performance. I’m looking forward to (hopefully) meeting them on Wednesday in New York at AFP’s New Year’s Eve party. And you never know…around midnight…I might just be standing near Tora

I shot this in Atlanta last month at the Amanda Palmer Show. This was during her encore…it was a fantastic show. We’re flying up to New York for New Years Eve to party like rock stars with Amanda Palmer and the Danger Ensemble.