Signs and signifiers

1. The ‘hire me’ thing from Garyfilm was totally unintentional. I was just filming him randomly, and that’s what happened.
   

2. Yes, the National lady sounds like she’s saying sexual harassment is a good thing! Also just what my camera recorded… -
   

3. Those Royal Wolf shipping containers are everywhere … life is fucking nuts! [slings and arrows joke]. -
   

4. People interpreted the evil parts into my Ads. I was honestly just trying to get my work out there, and trying to sell my music; as I put it, people built the monster who they wanted to see, rather than the real me.
   

5. Everyone has prejudices. That’s my philosophy, and I stick by it. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” .. -

1. I think people’s conspiracy theories about me - i.e. that I deliberately ‘impersonated’ Michael Riddell, and ‘deliberately’ changed my name to piss off Senor Luxon - are pretty ridiculous, and we all look bad for believing stupid things about people we barely know. As my famous song puts it: we all have to share in the blame when it comes to life. -

1. I may be a punk satirist, but I was genuinely surprised to watch Jacinda resign: I was still backing her for 2023, despite my criticisms. I’m very proud of my Lullaby animation, though. And all my political song caricatures. -

Fun tidbits:

1. The RP shared universe was a really bold idea. And I think the fans created that, along with myself and Stephen: we definitely were trying to make that happen with our early moves after the POAK release. Adding myself as a character was something that the Myths and Legends framework was supposed to cater for: and, while it wasn’t my plan and I was having a mental health crisis, the celebrity jokes were part of that scheme of raising the profile of the company. I don't know what Stephen’s up to these days: I think the ALL CAPS idea works great if it’s the full Film Crit Hulk effect, but the sporadic ones aren’t as effective, though for my blog they’re fun.
   

2. I love it when people build running gags into the Weeded Out cartoons! Chloe’s ‘honourable Paul Goldsmith’ line and Dakta’s Gandalf impression were awesome.

3. I do wish for political change, particularly re: climate change, but I don’t tend to think my songs are genuinely capable of that. My approach with magical thinking is that it’s fun to believe, but that’s just faith rather than reality. I see myself as a shamanistic figure, and tend to think my rituals might result in change, but my goal for 2022 wasn’t the anti-mandate protest: I was too busy writing about the future to care about the present. The Capitol insurrection associated the term ‘shaman’ with right-wing wackos, but it’s a fairly common part of traditional cultures, and often linked to the Third Sex. Most cultures have religions, and many religions have asexual priests.
   

4. However, when Chloe bought into my dream, that probably effected change.

5. My legal name is Amanda Robert Riddell. I have zero plans to change that, and it’s a totally valid legal name change - I even have the birth certificate to prove it. The Nats might have just learned a lesson about assuming one and one = three [lol]. I’m not finished with the ID papers, though, and that’s because getting the gender marker change is a hassle. But the critical point remains that I have solid evidence that I was planning to use that name from 2019: ask Michelle Cameron - she helped me pick the name.