Happy New Year!

The Undented crew has been away
On much-needed Christmas holiday.

It’s been a while since we’ve updated …
Oops, that’s something we hadn’t anticipated!

We inadvertently played hooky, all at the same time.
(Fortunately truancy isn’t a capital crime.)

But I’m popping in quickly, so this won’t be late,
To wish Toriphiles everywhere a Happy 2008!

We’ll be back for real in the coming days
To catch up on news in the post-New Year’s Eve haze.

Boesendorfer Sold To Yamaha

Richard Handal has been keeping a close eye on the bidding war over Boesendorfer that ultimately ended this month when the Austrian pianomaker was sold to Yamaha. A bidding war over the company kicked off earlier this year after Boesendorfer’s former owner, Austrian bank Bawag, decided to consolidate by selling off some of its flagging properties. Yamaha managed to grab the company for the cost of 15 million Euros. We’re not exactly sure how many individual pianos that would buy, but apparently Boesendorfer lost 2 million Euros in 2006 and is currently 8 million in debt, so it’s probably a bargain when it comes to purchasing 179-year-old makers of handmade pianos.

According to the Times Online article, Yamaha hopes to “[transfer] Bösendorfer’s crafting techniques back to Japan to enhance the quality and reputation of its own brand. Yamaha has recently undertaken a series of bold corporate moves in an effort to protect the future of its piano business, which, like other big players in the traditional piano manufacturing centres, has come under pressure from new cheaper models being made in emerging economies, such as China.”

Tori Talks Musical, Downloads On Polish Radio

Speedie sent us a link to a new Tori interview from Polish radio where she discusses many subjects, including the “Light Princess” musical and thoughts on her future as a recording artist; she even said she might offer future albums for download, rather than publishing them through a record label. Head on over to Speedie’s MySpace blog to listen to the whole thing.

Santa Barbara Independent Concert Review (December 13, 2007)

The Santa Barbara Independent’s Jessica Hilo caught Tori at the Arlington Theatre and offers this report. Cheers, Kimberly!

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L.A. Times Concert Review (December 17, 2007)

The Los Angeles Times‘ calendarlive.com writer Mikael Wood offers his take on the final night of the American Doll Posse Tour. Many thanks to Alex P and Kimberly for sending this in.

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A Holiday Giftie From Tori And WXRT

Chicago radio station WXRT is sporting a complete clip of Tori performing “Little Drummer Boy,” presumably recorded when she was in town last month, on their XRTV Media Player. Her head is occasionally obstructed by the festive frame on the video but it’s still worth a listen. Thanks to Missy for the tip!

Comic Book Anthology To Feature Story Based On Tori Songs

Foxy tipped us off that comic book writer, Russell Lissau, has updated his MySpace page with the following:

Thursday, December 20, 2007

The new project…with TORI AMOS!!!

Man oh man oh man, has it been hard holding my tongue about this one. But the boss says it’s OK to spill, so spill I shall….

I’ve written a story for a comic-book anthology for Image Comics that’s entirely based — get ready for it — on Tori Amos’ songs. The project has Tori’s full blessing and cooperation, and it’s headed by Rantz Hoseley, a longtime friend of Tori’s and all-around fabulous guy. (And he just turned 40, so wish him a happy birthday.)

The news broke this week in the January issue of SPIN MAGAZINE (dig that!), in an article about Rock and Comics that also features Gerard Way’s marvelous Umbrella Academy and other fine comics. Check out the article on newsstands everywhere, and soon on Spin’s Web site.

This project is going to be big, folks. Really big. Physically, emotionally — just, wow. Big.

More tidbits later as they become available!!!

This sounds really exciting! And woohoo, Rantz is involved! (You may remember that Rantz is the friend who originally gave Neil a tape of Tori’s music at a comic convention in summer of ’91, and he’s also the person “Flying Dutchman” was written for/about.)

Russell added that each writer/artist would be covering one song (Russell chose “Happy Phantom”), and they’re aiming for a summer release.

So see? Life isn’t over. We still have stuff to look forward to!

The Advocate Concert Review (December 17, 2007)

Corey Scholibo’s review of the final night of the tour in Los Angeles was published on Advocate.com on December 17th. It’s another “confessional” review, but that seems only appropriate for a “confessional” songwriter.

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LAist Concert Review (December 17, 2007)

While it may be more appropriate to post this as a comment in the Tour section, malingering’s review of the Nokia Theatre show on LAist is a pretty interesting angle on Tori’s current performance from the perspective of a (forgive the Catholic terminology) semi-lapsed fan. Plus, there are a few photos as well. Check it out….

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New Undented Fun Tomorrow

So are we all climbing the walls with boredom yet? Never fear, we still have lots of site areas in development and will do our level best to come up with stuff to keep you entertained.

A new silly bit of fun will debut in the You section tomorrow (December 19th): Tori Turned Me Stupid.

I’ll aim to have it up live around 2pm my time (give or take in the event that I get waylaid by something unexpected), so you’ll just have to check back then to see what it is.

UPDATE: Tori Turned Me Stupid is live. Head over to the You section (click on “You” link in the black bar at the top of each page) to check it out!