To the stalkers that nearly put me in jail
- Amanda Riddell
- Nov 21, 2024
- 2 min read
Here's the part that really pissed me off about this whole FTAC/sick pervert ideology. I clarified very early on that the show songs and karaoke weren't necessarily related to real life, and was essentially like doing the knowledge as a cabbie. Like any singer, I draw from real life to sing, but particularly with the Sondheim songs, it made no sense.
One of the main criticisms of Sondheim among the Broadway pros of today is that his love songs are few and far between, and aren't full-blooded enough anyway. I never thought that my friendship with him had a sexual dimension. From my perspective, he was just an old pro that was into my stuff (and he was married btw). Like, not to be too blunt, but I was 18 and he was 82 when I wrote that letter. If we'd both been heterosexuals, nobody would've assumed such things.
- It was very clear from the first upload that the words to the song cycle weren't mine. Choosing to add image art was just part of the shtick, and it happened to be Jacinda's birthday when I recorded Pretty Women. Found that out later on in the day...
I got punished for projecting into people's social media pages, but it turned out that most of those people were guilty of doing the exact same thing. Nobody's apologised for deciding I was a pervert while listening to me sing or following my social media pages.
Plus, apparently, I was right and Don really did know Sondheim and Carmen's crowd were indeed involved in the drug trade. I'm a good guesser. As I say, it's not the untrue stuff that annoys people: it's the truth!
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Then you wonder why I refuse to work with Red Scare and a lot of classical people...
They pressured me; they gained illegal access to my personal computer; they blackmailed me.
Nobody has even come close to an apology (largely cos they're very embarrassed).
But they ruined my life, and somebody is going to say sorry.