From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V8 #214 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Thursday, September 18 2003 Volume 08 : Number 214 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: orlando vs. wpb [Brian K Tanaka ] Re: Get Taped Live With TORI In West Palm Beach! [Brian K Tanaka ] Re: last show stuff [Richard Handal ] A Happy Ending ["Giovanni Mantilla" ] Re: precious-things-digest V8 #213 [Lisa071573@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 15:16:38 -0700 From: Brian K Tanaka Subject: Re: orlando vs. wpb On Tue, Sep 16, 2003 at 12:04:16PM -0400, Lisa071573@aol.com boldly wrote: > > I was a little miffed when BEFORE the WPB show, someone said to me, > "tonight's going to suck, Orlando was the real last show." Ok, so rub > salt in my wounds because I couldn't make it to Orlando (or New > Orleans, for that matter) but geez, it'd be damn nice to give Tori a > chance to sing one note before profoundly declaring that the show will > suck. Gee, I hope that wasn't me. Naw... I think I was being pretty good about it, wasn't I? Anyway, sometimes it works to your advantage to hear negative predictions, when, for instance, a show blows your expectations away. Look at the Greek show in LA this year. People were saying it'd be so-so. I was one of them. And then Tori proceeded to kick Angeleno ass. - -- - - Brian Tanaka - - LiveLists: http://livelists.dyndns.org - - Thunder Wishes, Fire Thought: http://www.well.com/~btanaka/tori "think of me as a librarian from a different dimension" -- Tori Amos ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 15:47:44 -0700 From: Brian K Tanaka Subject: Re: Get Taped Live With TORI In West Palm Beach! On Tue, Sep 16, 2003 at 12:09:59PM -0700, Tito Balleste boldly wrote: > > I heard from my cousin's sister's boss's daughter's boyfriend's neighbor > that it was a technical glitch - something about the crane camera... See? I KNEW mounting one of those big cameras on a bird with such a long skinny neck was a bad idea. Poor thing. They should have used something with a strong neck and a big head. Like a moose. Or Herman Munster. > All that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the WPB show - attempting to > bring no expectations to the shows allows each one to emerge as a unique, > multifaceted experience. In many cases song selection and performance are > less important factors in determining the emotional value of a show and the > memories that persist afterward. You're preaching to the choir. I was insanely good (I think) about being as open to each night as it unfolded as possible. I know we talked about that stuff before. But the WPB taping completely derailed me. Heh. While we're talking about it though, I'll play both sides of the fence by being the one who started this thread about how WPB would suck AND the one who'll defend going into the shows as "blank and receptive" as possible. I'm a freak. Anyway, I'm totally into the no-expectation, no-setlist approach. The nights I was in the mode were the nights the whole phenomena reached me the best. The first big example of course was Radio City Music Hall, night 2, which I blathered on about at the time. The key bit there was that it didn't matter in the least what song was happening at any given time. The magic was happening and there was no stopping it. Well... you *could* stop it, internally, by thinking something like, "Hrm... this song... I wish I were hearing that song instead". So, I came up with some ways of trying to be as open to each night as possible. (Someone, not naming names, implied that my approach was merely a set of devices designed to produce a delusional state in which I could relive past emotional responses. This is totally false, of course, because the aim is to be "open", or better, "empty" so that the experience can permeate you with better goodosity, regardless of how much or how little resemblence this new experience has to one that you remember fondly. But I digress...) Here's the things I would do (at least from March until about Holmdel): 1. For at least the full day before the show, I wouldn't think at all of songs I wanted to hear or not wanted to hear. The mantra? "There is no setlist. It's all one song." After the show or long before a show, I'd think about setlists like anybody else. 2. Once in the venue, I tried to have a few minutes to myself before Tori appeared to shake off whatever junk had mentally or emotionally clung to me during the day. 3. The moment Tori walked on stage at the beginning of the show, I'd say to myself, "This is now." Some of you will recognize that I stole that from Tori herself... Watch the very beginning of the Paris DVD (the one with Cunnie Williams) very closely. She is obviously employing a number of techniques to get in the right space, and then RIGHT before she heads for the stage she says, "This is now." It's so cool. If I found myself drifting later in the show, I might say it again just to knock me back into the present. Maybe I'm a weirdo for putting so much into it, but it worked well for me. It worked well because not only did it allow my experience of the show to grow exponentially, it also worked in the other direction (that is, rather than from the outside in but from the inside out) by making myself more open to things within myself that I might need to be open to over the course of the show. That, I'm sure, makes perfect sense to some of you, and absolutely none at all to others. I'm not sure why I became so sloppy about it at the end. Maybe I was getting weary of being so meticulous. Maybe it was the impending end of the tour and the realization that there were ONLY SO MANY CHANCES to hear certain songs. Whatever it was, the announcement of the taping tipped me over the edge. Of course, now I look back and laugh. - -- - - Brian Tanaka - - LiveLists: http://livelists.dyndns.org - - Thunder Wishes, Fire Thought: http://www.well.com/~btanaka/tori "think of me as a librarian from a different dimension" -- Tori Amos ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 15:52:52 -0700 From: Brian K Tanaka Subject: Re: last show stuff > Richard you absolutely suck for pointing this out. Yes the Phoenix 01 > show sounds unfuckingbelievably awesome on the bootleg and I am still > kicking myself for not realizing how close Phx was to San Diego and not > going to that show... (and that show is the sole reason I will never > ever again miss an AZ show). And then we get Phoenix 03. Sigh... Was it as "eh..." as I thought it was? It's hard for me to remember. I know I was sick that night and that there was a family medical emergency going on so I wasn't very engaged, but it seemed like that show was not the kind of show that would, say, inspire someone to rant and rave about it as they might for Phoenix 01. That said, I think a general policy of never missing an AZ show is a good one and should be adhered to with determination. - -- - - Brian Tanaka - - LiveLists: http://livelists.dyndns.org - - Thunder Wishes, Fire Thought: http://www.well.com/~btanaka/tori "think of me as a librarian from a different dimension" -- Tori Amos ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 21:09:25 -0400 (EDT) From: Richard Handal Subject: Re: last show stuff Of the 2001 tour in the U.S., Lisa quoted me and then said: > [ . . . ] the San Diego shows were really good and I don't think they > were a let down as "final" shows go. I would never complain about those San Diego concerts. I would say they were more about "goodbye" and wrapping up that leg of the tour than they were about the concerts on their own terms, but I find nothing wrong with that. A given piece of music, music itself--let alone Tori Amos concerts-- have various intentions and meanings behind and within them. In San Diego, Precious Things for the first time on that tour would have *alone* been worth the travel and expense, even with the drive back to Maryland all by myself. :-D Be seeing you, Richard Handal, H.G. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. --Arthur Conan Doyle, physician and writer (1859-1930) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 01:27:40 +0000 From: "Giovanni Mantilla" Subject: A Happy Ending Hello everyone, First I want to thank everyone who wrote me regarding my misfortune with the tickets to see Alanis. I deeply appreciate your support and the fact that you went out of your way to write me. Everything worked out fine. I did not get my tickets back even though I did about all I could do... the last thing I did was talk to the boss of the ticket company, he said he'd give me his phone number and that I should contact him at the venue on the day of the concert. Quite frankly, I thought it was his own polite way to get rid of me. But I was determined not to miss the concert! So the only thing I could do was get another ticket, which I did. The day of the concert (saturday) I decided to give it one last shot and called the guy on his cell phone. Surprisingly, he asked me to meet him at the entrace of the stadium. We met... and he talked to all the people in charge of letting everyone in for the concert... and guess what? They let me in without a ticket! I was absolutely ecstatic and could not beliieve it was true. I gave the ticket I had bought to my boyfriend and ... everything was solved! Alanis rocked! It was one of the best concerts I've been to... I can't believe Tori & Alanis once toured together. Amazing. Thanks again everyone for the support... YOU ROCK! Hugs, Giovanni _________________________________________________________________ Fotos - MSN Fotos das virtuelle Fotoalbum. Allen Freunden zeigen oder einfach ausdrucken: http://photos.msn.de/support/worldwide.aspx ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 02:34:22 EDT From: Lisa071573@aol.com Subject: Re: precious-things-digest V8 #213 >As far as it being the middle of the week, I don't think Tori herself had >anything to do with that. But that's why you save up your vacation/sick >days! lol! I know, I know... (I had used mine up already for WA through AZ through :P) I just wanted to also point out that both of my previous posts were intended as sarcasm and I was not attempting to sound "bitter," "sad," or "judgemental." From now on I will make sure to preface my remarks with SARCASM - WARNING. My point was not to rag on the people that don't have real jobs (that's a joke, folks) but rather to poke fun at myself for being stupid enough to not tell my boss to fuck off and go to Orlando instead. I promise not to post for another two years. (I think the last post I made was standing by my comment that the mp3 of "Me and You" from the Hand of Fate soundtrack rocked, which it still does since it's the only copy of the song that exists.) I'll go back to hiding behind my computer screen now, thank you very much. everywhere a Judas... Lisa ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V8 #214 *************************************