A Closer Look: Toriphiles And The Road

While much has been written about the dedication and intensity of Tori’s fans, Lindsay Pereira’s Times of India article gives the phenomenon a personal angle as the author speaks with several world travelers following 2009’s Sinful Attraction tour as it wound through Europe. In addition to discussing the reasons that we Toriphiles have become the Deadheads of today, the article provides a primer for the uninitiated on Tori’s background and her art that has inspired so many to become fans and embark on this journey.

Thanks to the several of you who pointed this piece out!

The Tori Store Is Back Online

For those who have been eagerly waiting, the Tori Store is back online. Yay!

Thanks to Scott for noticing.

L'Oreal's National Woman of Worth Voting Ends Soon!

Just a gentle reminder that Toriphile and friend of Undented Shannon Lambert is one of ten Women of Worth honored by L’Oreal for their community service and volunteerism. The voting period for the National Woman of Worth, in whose name L’Oreal will make an additional donation of $25,000 to her cause, ends on on Tuesday, November 24th at 11:59 PM EST. If you haven’t voted already and want to support Pandora’s Project, an on-line resource for survivors of rape and sexual abuse, please cast your vote for Shannon to help her and Pandy’s out!

Maybe One Day She'll Be Her Own

In response to the performances and setlists from the Australian tour so far, Toriphile Melanie has created a petition to show the demand for solo tours of North America and Europe and to encourage Tori to supply the same. Melanie is planning on getting a list of the signatures to Tori at either the end of the Australian tour or at the upcoming Jazz Cafe show so if you agree with the sentiment, we’re sure that she’d appreciate you adding your name to the petition.

The PS22 Chorus Tackles Midwinter Graces

You know those talented and amazing kids in Mr. B’s PS22 Chorus? Well, they don’t mess around and the 2010 Chorus have already learned a couple songs from Midwinter Graces!

Gregg posted a recording of them performing A Winter’s Carol on YouTube yesterday:

And, one of last year’s soloists, Allie, came back for a visit, learned A Silent Night With You on-the-spot and performed that with the chorus as well:

Damn they’re good!

Pandora's Project Needs Your Vote!

We’re happy and proud to report that Shannon Lambert, long-time Toriphile and founder of Pandora’s Project, an online resource and support forum for survivors of rape and sexual abuse, has been named a 2009 L’Oreal Woman of Worth!

Shannon is one of ten honorees chosen for their contributions to their communities through volunteerism and service. As a direct result of her selection, L’Oreal Paris will make a donation of $5,000 to Pandora’s Project.

Additionally, one of the ten women honored will be selected via online voting as the National Woman of Worth and L’Oreal will make a donation for $25,000 to her selected charity.

And this is where we can help!

Voting is easy and fast and doesn’t require registration. Just head over to the Shannon’s bio page on WomenofWorth.com, enter your e-mail address (only one vote per address) in the ballot and submit. Easy-peasy and it benefits a great cause that is near and dear to many a Toriphile’s heart as well as Tori’s.

Congratulations again to Shannon and Pandora’s Project, good luck to her in the voting and thanks to all of you for supporting her!

Remembering Matthew Shepard

Ten years ago this week, the murder of Matthew Shepard rocked the Tori Amos fan community. If you were on any of the Tori mailing lists at the time (yes, this was in the olden days, before forums really took off), you remember what it was like: the horror, the shock, the disbelief, and the heartbreak that something like this could still happen in our world.

We’ve come a long way since then. I still can’t get over the fact that in many high schools, students are able to be openly gay now, something that was not remotely the case when I was in high school.

But we haven’t come far enough.

Shortly after graduating from high school, one of my friends killed himself because he was gay. Take that in: he killed himself because he was gay. All these years later, I still think about Robbie all the time. It’s something that will always haunt me. He wasn’t beaten and tied to a fence and left to die, but I believe if he had lived, he very well would have been. In the place and time where he lived, I believe he saw that coming and couldn’t live with the fear of that kind of hate day after day.

And even now, in 2009, there are places where that fear remains a reality.

No, we still haven’t come anywhere near far enough.

Jeremy Elder has written Merman, a touching essay in memory of Matthew Shepard. Please take a moment to read it and remember all the people who have suffered, even died, simply because they loved.

A Night In Fantasyland

Well, the first Tori Amos Fantasy Setlist Night is under our belts, and it was a blast! It’s hard to point up highlights, because just about every performance was a highlight, but among the many surprise songs were covers of “Real Men,” “Desperado,” “Only Women Bleed,” and I think everyone was on the floor when we kicked the show off with “Bad Company.” I also debuted a short film I editted for “Datura,” since there is no live performance of that. (“Datura” was the #1 most-requested song by a landslide.)

So perhaps now it’s clearer why it was so hard for us to answer questions like “Is Tori going to be performing?” No … but, um, yeah, kinda.

If you weren’t able to join us, you can relive the show again any time you want over in the Tour section. (Well, at least until the videos go poof!, as most eventually do.)

Feel free to leave your “reviews” of the event, and we look forward to doing another in the future. But first, we need to recover and gear up for the start of the UK/European leg of the tour.

Tori Amos Fantasy Setlist: Tonight's The Night!

A lot of people are confused about what the Tori Amos Fantasy Setlist Night is going to be. This is understandable. It’s difficult for us to explain what it is and how it will work beforehand because we’re trying to retain an element of surprise and anticipation, the sort of happy feeling you’d experience on the day of an actual concert.

What I can tell you is that it will be a somewhat unusual interactive Twitter-based event — the posting of a fantasy setlist (as in dream, made-up, make-believe, etc.) — intended to provide a bit of entertainment for fans during the hiatus between the US and UK legs of the tour. How it will be done and which songs were chosen, well, that’s the surprise. No, we’re not going to sit around posting random song titles and stats all night, and no, it will not be a special performance by Tori. But we think it will be fun, especially for those of you who aren’t going to be able to attend any of the shows this tour (or those who have and are sad it’s over). If you don’t like it, you can always wander away.

Where: Undented Twitter

When: Tonight at 9pm. We will show up about an hour early to chat and gear up, and we’ll go until about 11:15pm (approximately).

Bring: Yourself, a computer (if you’re not in front of a computer, it won’t be much fun), something to drink, snacks, a diaper.

How: You don’t need to have a Twitter account to watch our [Twitter] stream and follow along, but you will need to refresh the page at regular intervals to see each new update/song.

If this event goes well, it could be the start of something really nifty. We have loads of ideas for the future.

And on a more personal note…

read more...

Submit A Song For Tori Amos Fantasy Setlist Night

What song would you most like to see on a Tori Amos fantasy setlist?

For the next 24 hours, we’ll be taking your submissions for Tori Amos Fantasy Setlist Night.

Here are the rules:

1) You may submit more than one song, however you must submit each song separately and you must use the complete song title (no abbreviations).

2) You don’t need to be on Twitter to submit a song or view the results, but if you are on Twitter, please use your @TwitterID as your name, making sure to include the @ symbol.

Submissions for the fantasy setlist are now closed. Join us for Tori Amos Fantasy Setlist Night starting at 9pm Eastern on Monday, August 31st on Undented Twitter.