Amanda Palmer Reads from Her New Book with Neil Gaiman

Amanda Palmer, the rock/cabaret songstress formerly of the Dresden Dolls, gave an impromptu concert in a Portland park last night -- one of several announced solely via Twitter -- where she played songs on the ukulele and read aloud from her new book "Who Killed Amanda Palmer," where pictures of her as a corpse are paired with stories by comics legend Neil Gaiman.

Gaiman and Palmer are currently dating, and at one point Palmer even called Gaiman and put him on speakerphone for the crowd. The pair have collaborated on a modern-day torch song called "I Google You" in addition to the photo book, which accompanies her current album and will be released later this month at Comic-Con.

Palmer read two stories from the book to the audience, including one described as "Amanda Palmer circa 2008 killing Amanda Palmer circa 2003," where the current Amanda Palmer goes back in time "Terminator-style" to kill an earlier version of herself dressed in her signature Dresden Dolls costume of white makeup and striped stockings.Another story featured the very first "corpse" photo of Palmer, taken at age 18, in the guise of a Cinderella-style fairy tale character who spills jewels out of her mouth every time she speaks.

Palmer also has a set of perfumes coming out form the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab -- which also created scents for Neil Gaiman -- that coordinate with the book. They work as a sort of "smell-o-vision" accompaniment, with different scent to match different death scenes -- a breakfast-themed coffee/maple/bacon perfume matching a diner scene death, and a nutmeg and pine scent for a Christmas death.