Birthdays Ahoy!

Get your party hats on! Two big anniversaries of note will be celebrated and observed over the coming week!

First, 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of Tori’s other labor of love that came into being in 1994: RAINN! RAINN’s second decade will be celebrated with a birthday brunch on Sunday, August 17th at which Tori, RAINN’s first spokesperson, will be the guest of honor. Tickets for the brunch are long sold out but there are still sponsor packages available if you’d like to contribute to the event and attend.

Regardless of whether or not you are able to attend the brunch, RAINN is encouraging everyone to join the celebration using the hashtag #RAINN20th on Twitter and Instagram. Perhaps you have some personal reflections on how Tori’s music and presence as a survivor has helped you or influenced your perception of sexual violence. Maybe you want to share how you are honoring RAINN’s 20th anniversary. It’s all welcome! We also encourage you to, as they suggest, make a $20 donation in honor of the anniversary — every little bit helps!

Second, this coming Friday, August 22, is Tori’s 51st birthday! There are plans afoot to mark the occasion at the concert in Clearwater, Florida on Friday – the first time she’ll be playing a show on a birthday since 2003 if our memories aren’t too whack on a Saturday morning. Details are still being worked out by the crew and should be shared towards the middle of the coming week, so please do not pester them about it. Soon as we get the plan, we’ll be passing it along — hope it’s wonderful night for everyone and, most especially, for Tori!

However, if you want to get in on the birthday celebration early, we encourage you to make a donation to RAINN as an early birthday present via the RAINNmaker page of our fine, feathered friends at Tori Songs. Last year, for Tori’s 50th, Tori fans from across the world contributed $3,500. Celebrate her 51st year, Unrepentant Geraldines, and the incredible tour supporting it by chipping in to thank her for all that she has done since then!

The Winged Painter RAINNMaker

Sanchez 2winz, the art duo of Raúl Sánchez & Rod Sánchez, is using their new track “Winged Painter,” which includes remixed vocals by Tori Amos, to inspire a fundraiser for RAINN. They have produced a video for the song that will be premiered on March 31st and, if you make a donation to RAINN via their RAINNmaker page, your name will be included in the credits for of the video.

They’ve released a teaser video that, besides giving us a taste of what they have in store for the full video, provides a few more details about their campaign:

There are two days left in the campaign and they’re getting close to their goal so please chip in if you can!

Get Into Under The Pink With After The Pink

It seems like just yesterday, we were all talking about Little Earthquakes turning 20 years old but, after the riding Gold Dust’s orchestral dragon in 2012 and floating with The Light Princess in 2013, it’s 2014 and that means Under the Pink is nearing its third decade out in the world.

That anniversary doesn’t come until the end of this month though, as The 405 observes, “Cornflake Girl” was released as a single 20 years ago this week in the UK. Still, any old-timer fans who remember waiting at a record store until midnight to buy the record on cassette or wailing and gnashing their teeth while trying to get through to Ticketmaster on the phone to get tickets for the tour have a few weeks to still feel young and carefree — assuming Little Earthquakes being old enough to drink hasn’t already dashed those emotions!

However, the folks who brought you the 50 Years of Tori Birthday Bash are not waiting until the end of January to get this party started. Rather, they’ve launched 20 Years After the Pink, an ambitious online event that celebrates Under the Pink through an on-going dialogue about artists inspiring artists and art affecting its audience and raising funds for RAINN.

At the core of After the Pink is Marta Woodhull who had the great fortune to be in Taos during the production of Under the Pink. During that time, she created her own art — drawings, photography, writings — inspired by the creative process around her which she is now sharing them with the Tori Amos community, allowing us to explore how we have changed and been changed by this album, by looking back to its beginnings.

Come join the fun on their website where you can learn much more about the extravaganza, view Marta’s drawings and photos, read about the making of Under the Pink and learn about their juried art show. Holy cow! So much stuff!

You can also follow along as After The Pink marches towards the album’s anniversary on all the usual social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

50 Years of Tori Redux

Belated congratulations to the three winners of the 50 Years of Tori raffle: Anne Convery, Kerry Frey, and Samantha Mehnert! All y’all won a whole lotta swag!

Kudos and congratulations to Tiffany, Natasha and Amanda for coordinating and pulling the whole shebang together! That was a mighty feat of catherding, we suspect.

Thanks, too, to everyone who kicked in! The original goal of $500 was smashed to smithereens by your generosity, with a final total of $3,500 being raised for RAINN! Whether you donated $1.00 or $106.58, every little bit helped and helps!

Thank you!

Raisin Girl: A 50th Birthday Celebration for Tori Amos

Live in or near New York City or going to be around the metro area this coming weekend? Looking for a fun and unique way to celebrate Tori’s upcoming birthday? Well, look no further as Enid Ellen and singer/songwriter/pianist Greg Potter have got you covered with Raisin Girl: A 50th Birthday Celebration For Tori Amos, taking place at Joe’s Pub on Sunday, August 18th at 9:30pm.

Along with fellow devotees Cole Escola, Nicholas Gorham, Dane Terry, Kim Smith, Erin Markey, Joseph Keckler, Brett Every, Natti Vogel, Dan Fishback, and B0DYH1GH, they’ll be performing a range of Tori’s songs in the intimate confines of The Public Theatre’s posh night club and, as a portion of the night’s proceeds will be donated to RAINN, raising some funds for a good cause as well.

For more information and insight, check out the event’s Facebook page and this interview of Enid Ellen and Greg Potter by Adrienne Trier-Bieniek (whose name may ring some bells) in The Examiner.

Tickets are still available from the Joe’s Pub box office.

The 50 Years Of Tori RAINN Fundraiser!

While it has not been an entirely quiet summer of news on the Tori Amos front, we have managed to fall behind on what news there is for various, uninteresting-to-everyone-even-us reasons. That will be changing over the next few weeks as this summer draws to a close and we gear up for The Light Princess and all the hoopla that entails. However! There is one thing that can’t wait for us to get our collective asses in gear and that is a RAINN fundraiser to celebrate Tori’s upcoming 50th birthday.

Three of the Tori Tumblrverse superpowers — Amanda of Tori Songs, Natasha of All These Years, and Tiffany of Tori Amos Confessions — have joined forces and, with help from some well-known artists, newly-published authors, etsy craftspeople and arty friends, concocted a project to raise money for RAINN and maybe put a few interesting and unique Tori-related items into your hands as a little thank you for donating.

They have collected a number of items ranging from out-of-print CD singles to posters to necklaces to some exclusive items like a signed print by Paulina (Stuckey) Cassidy and a limited edition print by Scarlet’s Walk photographer Kurt Markus. On August 22nd, at least three prize packages will be raffled off and anybody who has made a donation by then will be eligible to win one!

To make a donation, start at their RAINNmaker page which will link you to rainn.org to donate.

Whether you donate or not, you can contribute a birthday message to Tori via their tumblr. All the messages will be collected and shared on their site and wrangled into a video as well.

RAINN Ticket Auctions Reminder

Just a quick reminder that, as we posted about earlier, a pair of VIP tickets for each show on the North American Night of Hunters tour are being auctioned off to benefit RAINN. Donated by Tori, these tickets are within a few rows of the stage in the center orchestra and are an ideal place to take in the show from.

Auctions for the last three shows on the tour — Los Angeles, Austin and Dallas — are still running.

Check them out on eBay!

Night of Hunters VIP Ticket Auctions To Benefit RAINN

The Night of Hunters Tour’s North American leg kicks off this Tuesday in Atlanta and, as announced in a RAINN newsletter, Tori has donated a pair of VIP tickets that are being auctioned via eBay with proceeds from the auctions going to benefit RAINN. The first round of auction ended today but the second round — for the Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Vancouver and Seattle shows — are all still running and the other shows will be added as time goes on.

If you’re looking for great seats to shows on this tour and also to help make a difference to an organization that is doing good work and enjoys Tori supports, this would be a good way to achieve both goals.

Thanks to David for the tip about this!

Broadway Sings Tori Redux

Don’t forget! Broadway Sings Tori: A Benefit For RAINN takes place next Monday, June 27th, at New World Stages’ Stage 2 in New York City (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).

Will Chase (Billy Elliot), Stephanie Gibson (The Addams Family), and Michael Buchanan have joined the cast which already featured Tony nominees Christine Andreas (Oklahoma, La Cage Aux Folles) and Stephanie D’Abruzzo (Avenue Q) as well as Natalie Joy Johnson (Legally Blonde, Bare), Celina Carvajal (Toxic Avenger), Steven Cutts (Hairspray, Camp), Katie Thompson (Bloodties, Giant), and Molly Pope (Our Hit Parade).

Tickets, priced from $35 to $125, are still available though Telecharge but if you purchase them through broadwayoffers.com using the code BRAMOS6, you can pick them up for the discounted price of $30.

We’d love to hear about the evening from anyone who is able to attend!

Broadway Sings Tori: A Benefit for RAINN

Tickets are now on sale at Telecharge for Broadway Sings Tori: A Benefit for RAINN. Taking place at New World Stages’ Stage 2 in New York City on Monday, June 27th, the concert features Christine Andreas, Celina Carvajal, Ben Cameron, Steven Cutts, Colleen Harris, Natalie Joy Johnson, Brian Nash (who some may remember having performed Boys for Pele and From the Choirgirl Hotel), Molly Pope, Kate Shindle, Katie Thompson and more! All proceeds from the event will go directly to RAINN, to help support their mission of assisting surviviors of sexual violence.

Thanks to Alex for the link on this one!