Oops...

…guess the world didn’t end after all. Was wondering why the Undented Dork Posse Apocalypse-o-Bunker 5000’s generator never switched on. Damn you, Mayans!!!

Happy 2012 From Undented!

As 2011 winds down — and 2012 has already started for those out on the western side of the International Date Line — we just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy New Year and the best of good fortune in 2012.

2011 was a busy but Tori-filled year with the release of Night of Hunters, the ensuing tour and all the hub-bub and madness associated with it. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t looking forward to the quiet lull after a tour but, that said, we’re still looking forward to whatever 2012 brings — the 20th anniversary of Little Earthquakes, the premiere of The Light Princess musical (or whatever it ends up being named) and, if the rumors are true, maybe even some live shows.

Happy New Year y’all!

— Violet, Beth, Ruud & woj

Undented: The Home Alone Edition

We need your help. Things are going to be wonky around here for the next two weeks…

woj has wandered off to Ireland (hey, who authorized this?!), so it’s just going to be Violet and Beth holding down the Undented fort. Violet and Beth were not invited on this magically-delicious Lucky Charms trip. Violet and Beth are pissed. It’s surprisingly difficult to see a computer screen through blinding jealousy. If any of you Irish fans run into him, play “Ireland” for him. Every last one of you. Over and over. He likes that song. (No, he really does!)

As woj is the one who spends the most time scouring the nooks and crannies of the Interwebs to ferret out the [many] news items that aren’t sent in and he’s gone off skipping with the leprechauns (oh great, he’s just texted from a Dublin hotel saying he’s gonna get a Guiness, the swine!), we’re hoping you guys will lend us a hand by being extra vigilant and letting us know if you spot anything interesting anywhere.

The biggest way you can help us out is by submitting all news via the Contact form. A lot of folks send us news via Twitter and Facebook, but it’s harder for us to track there, especially if we’re not logged in. Even when we are, news gets lost in the chatter. Things scroll in, things scroll out, poof! Even if we do see a piece of news you’ve sent our way and pass it along in our stream, unless we remember it LATER and go back and hunt for it (assuming we can even find it again), it’s gone gone gone, dancing somewhere out in the ether with that cool alarm clock we had in 6th grade.

So if you come across something and send it through the form, there’s no way we can miss it.

As always, submit concert reviews via the flashback pages in the Tour section. For all other show-related stuffs (setlists, corrections, links to videos/photos, pic files that need to be sent as attachments, etc), email those directly to Violet with the show’s city in the subject line and include the name we should use to credit you.

The photo and video portions of the concert flashback pages will suffer most with woj away, which you may already have noticed. He typically handles that. Violet is going to do her best to man the post, but she’s slow as molasses at sorting and organizing and compressing and uploading, so it’s going to take longer than normal for those to be added. Re-sizing and compressing your photos in advance would be a huge help! YES, YES!!! (640px or less in height, 100kb or less in file size.) Any that she doesn’t get up, woj will take care of when he gets back.

So we hope you’ll be patient with us. It’s going to be challenging, but with your help we’ll be able to get by without going all psycho on Joe Pesci. Besides, he could probably beat us up. Okay, he definitely could.

Holy Mackerel! Five Years of Undented!

Five years ago today, our fearless leader Violet ushered in the post-Mikewhy era of the online Toriverse with the very first story on Undented!

Half a decade, 2,367 articles and zero layout changes later, we’re still kicking thanks to all of you: the folks who read and visit the site—whether daily or occasionally and whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or are a recent newcomer—and those who have sent in anything from news tips and links to concert reviews and photographs to LOLTORIs. All of you have helped to make Undented what it is today and we can’t thank you enough.

Even more importantly though, the Undented team—Violet, Ruud, Beth, and myself—appreciate your support over these past five years. We couldn’t do it without that and we wouldn’t have done it for any other fans.

Thanks from the bottoms of our fairy-winged hearts!

Site Update: Brief Silence

Just a short note to say that neither Violet nor I will be able to doing any site updates over the next couple days. As a result, we’ll be getting the Pori Jazz Festival show setlist will probably be posted on Sunday. If you need a fix, keep an eye on the #toriamos hashtag on Twitter or follow along on one of the freak-out threads on the big Tori Amos forums (Unforumzed, Yessaid and The Afterglow.

Update: @NicotineLove is updating today’s setlist on Twitter — check it out there!

Kim Flint, 1969 - 2010

We’re very sad to report, as some of you may have heard by now, the news that Violet’s husband of 19 years, Kim Flint, was tragically killed in a bicycling accident this past weekend.

While probably not a name recognized by many of Undented’s visitors, Kim is very well-known in musician’s circles as the co-inventor of the Oberheim Echoplex Digital Pro, a device for looping audio, and the founder of Looper’s Delight, an Internet mailing-list and website that began in 1996 and brought together and forged a community of musicians interested in looping that continues to thrive to this day. As Red Sun Soundroom’s memorial post says, “Kim was an inventor, musician, internet community organizer, scientist, avid cyclist, single-malt Scotch enthusiast, teacher, and tireless provider of encouragement to so many creative people (some quite famous, others relatively unknown).”

He was also manager of the Signal Integrity group at tech giant Nvidia. Among his many contributions, he worked closely with Sony in development of Playstation 3, and was currently working on development of Playstation 4.

As great as his technological contributions were, it was the community-building and creative inspiration to others that Kim provided through Looper’s Delight that he will be most remembered for. Undoubtedly, that factored into Violet’s involvement in providing the original Tori Amos mailing list, really-deep-thoughts, a stable home and guidance in its latter years as well as her decision to pick up with Undented where Mikewhy left off when he retired A Dent in the Tori Amos Universe (which, incidentally, continues to be hosted on the same server as Looper’s Delight and Undented thanks to Kim and Violet’s support).

In honor of Kim, Violet will be continuing to grow and expand the sites they started as well as moving forward with future web endeavors in his memory. If you’d like make a donation in Kim’s honor, we’ve set up a Paypal account for that purpose. Additionally, a memorial t-shirt has also been created by Chris Aynesworth, a close friend of Violet and Kim’s, all proceeds of which will go towards keeping their sites running.

Finally, to close this on inspirational note, Bill Walker, one of the many people touched by Kim, shared “Blues For Kim,” a live looping improvisation he shared with the Looper’s Delight community after learning of the accident. Listen and be inspired.

Happy Holidays From Undented!

Well, it’s getting to be that time of the year when we retreat to visit with family and friends for the holidays. Violet and I will both be out and about for the next week or so through New Year’s so site updates will be sporadic at best but before heading out into the snow, we both want to wish you all and yours a happy and joyful holiday season, regardless of which — one or ones — you may celebrate this time of year!

We’ll sign off for now with this lovely rendition of “Star of Wonder” performed by the PS22 Chorus.

All the best and see you in 2010!

In Honor of Violet's Mom, Marilyn

One last note before knocking off for the night…

As those of you who follow Violet on Twitter may know, the memorial service for her mother, who was tragically killed in a car accident a couple weeks ago, took place yesterday in Half Moon Bay, California. She’s hanging in there and appreciates all the e-mail, private messages, direct messages and tweets of support she’s received since then.

As a few of you have asked about memorial donations, Violet forwarded me some information about that to post. If you’re interested, please read on…

read more...

A Somber Note...

Unfortunately, I have some very sad news to share this morning too. Violet asked me to let folks know that she lost her mother in a car accident yesterday. She and her mom were very close — the best of friends — so please keep both of them in your thoughts, prayers and hearts over the next few weeks as Violet and her family work through this difficult time. Thanks.

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.