muvee Technical Issues

Because of technical issues, the muvee page at everythingtori.com has been put on hold for a bit. We’ll let you know when it’s back up and running.

Neil's Fragile Things Includes SLG Stories

Neil Gaiman’s new book Fragile Things is a collection of stories, essays, and other miscellaneous material, including the series of prose-poems Neil wrote for Tori’s Strange Little Girls tourbook. If you missed out on purchasing the tour program at the time, now’s your chance to check out the stories. Kind thanks to Alex F. and Anne for sending this in.

Gaelle, Eduardo, and Vasilis Bibas tell us that the book also includes “Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Louisville, Kentucky,” the short story Neil wrote for the Scarlet’s Walk tourbook.

Tori/PJ/Björk Photo In "Q Idols" Exhibit

The October, 2006, issue of Q magazine includes an additional mag titled 20 years of classic music photography, Q Idols.

Included is John Stoddart’s 1994 cover photo of PJ Harvey, Björk, and Tori (seen below). Looking back, Stoddart had this to say about the experience:

“Bjork, PJ Harvey and Tori Amos represented a new wave of female rock. They hadn’t met each other before this shoot. I thought it was going to be a real number having these three egos in one studio, but they couldn’t have been nicer to each other. There was no prima donna behaviour, and they all swapped numbers afterwards. My only regret is that Bjork had the worst hairdo of her career at the time. Look at it – it’s horrible.”

This and other photos from the Q Idols collection will be on exhibit in the Getty Images Gallery at 46 Eastcastle Street in London from September 25th-October 6th (or, if that’s a bit too far to travel, take a virtual tour of the exhibit from the comfort of your own home). Just think though … if you go in person, you can take A Piano in your iPod as background music!

(Many thanks to Saar for being vigilant, as ever.)

Professional Widow on Back 2 The Dance

“Professional Widow” has been included on yet another dance compilation. This time it’s Back 2 The Dance, a three disc collection released in France in June 2006. It’s not clear which version of “Professional Widow” is included here as none of the track listings specify which mix. However, since the length of the track is stated as 3:47 on several websites, one guesses that it’s probably the “Just Da Funk Dub” mix from the Professional Widow single, which clocks in at 3:44. Or as Dan points out, it could be the radio edit of Armand’s Star Trunk Funkin’ Mix which is 3:45 in length. There is a 30 second clip of the track at FNAC’s listing of the compilation, but the quality is poor and it’s hard to tell either way. If anyone happens to buy this collection, please let us know which version of the song is used!

Thanks to Stephan for bring this to our attention!

Happy Birthday, Tori!

Tori turns 43 today! We hope that she (and you) are doing something delicious to celebrate.

For instance, if you happen to be in the Nashville area, we recommend your delicious activity be attending the Nashville RAINN Benefit concert at 3rd and Lindsley on Thursday, August 24th. The evening will feature performances by The Gabe Dixon Band, Garrison Starr, Rachael Sage, Sandra McCracken and Tyler James and promises to be a fun way to help raise some money and awareness for RAINN!

AfterEllen Queers Up The Classics

AfterEllen fingers Tori’s covers of The Rolling Stones’ “Angie” and Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire” as two of the “Top 10 queered covers of heterosexual love songs.” Lest anyone worry about Husband Mark’s potential fate though, this is a list of men’s love songs to women covered by women, regardless of their orientation—though Tori’s gay-friendly position may have factored in her favor as she is the only artist who has two songs on the list. Interestingly, despite describing “Angie” as “one of the most beautiful cover songs Amos ever recorded or performed,” it placed tenth behind the fifth-place “I’m On Fire”. One supposes it’s “the liquid sex of [her] voice,” which vaulted the latter above the former.

A tip of the hat to Marie for tipping us off to this tidbit! (And a tip of the hat to AfterEllen for picking up on the relatively uncommon “I’m On Fire” cover that, despite what they say, was commercially released on the VH1 Crossroads collection!)

UPDATE: Thanks to Andrew for contacting AfterEllen and letting them know about the VH1 Crossroads release; they’ve updated their list to include this information.

Neil Made Her A Tree, But Can Tinseltown?

In his most recent journal entry, Neil includes a link to an article in the Hollywood Reporter’s “Risky Biz Blog” in which Stardust scriptwriter, Jane Goldman, confirms that they would like to have Tori do the voice of the tree if a deal can be negotiated. Having finished filming earlier this month, the movie is currently in post-production and is scheduled for theatrical release in March, 2007.

(Thanks to marla for letting us know about this.)

Overview: Pretty Good Years

Pretty Good Years has finally been released. I was tentative in my hopefulness when I got a message from Amazon saying my order had shipped, but yes indeed, it really did arrive. I have no idea why the publisher told us the book was back-ordered and would be available in August (they still don’t have a release date listed on their own site).

This is Undented’s overview of the book.

read more...

What Sparks Creativity? Ann Powers Knows!

Ann Powers, co-author of Tori Amos: Piece By Piece will participate in a DoubleTake panel discussion entitled What Sparks Creativity?. She, along with Greg Bear and Michael Klein, will discuss the creative process in the context of popular music, science fiction and fine art, using, respectively, Tori Amos, Ray Bradbury and Beverly Semmes, as their examples.

The panel takes place at 7pm on Thursday, July 13th at the Experience Music Project’s JBL Theatre in Seattle, WA. Admission is free. The reservation period is past, so e-mail Talks@DoubleTakeExhibit.org or call (206) 770-2702 to check on availability.

Thanks to Richard and Melissae for the head’s up!

Biography Release Date Pushed Back Again

The eagerly anticipated unofficial biography, Pretty Good Years, was not released on June 30th as expected. The publisher tells us that the book has been back-ordered and should be available in August.