Amanda Palmer took off her clothes at the MFA, but nobody got to see anything except her husband!

From Neil Gaiman's blog.

Now if you were Amanda Palmer, and you went to the Edgar Degas exhibit at the MFA, ask yourself -

What would you be inspired to do?

Well. obviously, you'd strip.  Which is what Amanda did yesterday.  (She was once a life model herself, btw, and does the narration for the audio tour; I guess our major publicity-seeking art institutions - the ART, the BSO, and now the MFA - are trading her around like a mass-market charm.) The funny thing is, though, that Amanda did it while nobody was there but her husband, Neil Gaiman (who sketched her, like some hipper, goth-ier Degas, while someone unknown took the photo at left).  The couple was on a private tour of the exhibit when Palmer was suddenly (uh-huh) inspired to disrobe.  They even put little styrofoam cups over the security cameras, that's how wild and crazy the scene got!

We always thought Amanda was needier than that, BUT we do appreciate her own appreciation of how her career parallels and turns the tables - sort of - on the position of Degas' muses.  Now the naked lady calls the shots - that's Amanda's whole idea, and it's an idea that sells (the naked lady cashes the check, too).  So she's a smart cookie.  Obviously.  The only problem with her publicity gambit is, let's face it, Gaiman.  I mean - is he really another Degas?  (And are husbands really dirty?)  Gaiman's a famous graphic artist, sure, but will he really come up with a modern equivalent of the French master's cold, calm analysis of his own fetishes?  (Which is kind of the opposite of the self-dramatizing ethos of goth, when you think about it.) Oh well, we'll find out eventually, I suppose!

But in the meantime, I have a different suggestion.  At right is another Degas nude in the exhibit.  If anyone who looks like that feels the urge to strip down at the show, call me, I'll meet you in the gallery, and we can play  at "Degas and the nude," too.