From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V11 #15 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 Sunday, February 12 2006 Volume 11 : Number 015 Today's Subjects: ----------------- washington blade fade to red article [wojizzle forizzle ] tori on sirius [wojizzle forizzle ] out interview [wojizzle forizzle ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 11:39:14 -0500 From: wojizzle forizzle Subject: washington blade fade to red article http://www.washblade.com/2006/2-10/arts/music/amos.cfm Amos explains it Commentary on Tori Amos new DVD collection proves the singer songwriter takes herself way too seriously. By BO SHELL Friday, February 10, 2006 If theres anything more imaginative, artistic or just plain "out there" than Tori Amos and her music, its her music videos. From dancing with snakes in "God," to crawling on rocks in "China," to making out with Adrien Brody in "a sorta fairytale," Amos video collection "Fade to Red" is somehow appropriate for her image. The two-disc DVD box set is scheduled to be released Feb. 14 and includes almost every video from the singer-songwriters 14-year, nine-album career. The collection also provides comprehensive, if strange, audio commentary from the artist and a short film on the making of the a sorta fairytale video. For eight years after Amos first released her video catalogue on VHS in 1998, fans were clamoring for an updated collection. The long-awaited update includes the 15 videos from the first collection, plus six more recent videos, including the two from her latest album, "The Beekeeper." Amos videos rarely make THE airwaves or the charts. Fans who never saw the videos are treated to new experiences with this release, but die-hard "Tori-philes" are sure to relish the rare commentary Amos offers for every video. In true Amos style, the commentary is a little heady. Even after hearing the singers ramblings, common listeners and non-fanatics are still left in the dark with random references like Mary Magdalene, the Dark Prince and Anne Boleyn used to explain creative decisions. Amos seems unable to laugh at herself or her crazy videos, and she comes off taking herself too seriously. Even true fans can look at the videos in and out of context and give them a laugh, not just because theyre dated  and some of them clearly are  but because theyre just plain freaky. But the best videos are explained in ways never heard before. The clips that feature strong narratives, like "Jackies Strength," "Spark" and "Past the Mission" are arguably Amoss most beautiful videos, each with audio commentary that is educational and enlightening. Who knew Amos mom was on the set for "Past the Mission," that the driver in "Spark" is the same as in "Jackies Strength," or that said driver is missing half a finger? Noticeably absent from the collection, besides the drivers fingertip, are two videos that somehow got lost in the shuffle: "Glory of the 80s" from the album "To Venus and Back" and the title track from "Strange Little Girl." There seems to be no reason why "Glory of the 80s" didnt make the cut. Two other tracks from the album made it to the DVD, so we know it wasnt an album-specific issue, which may be the case with "Strange Little Girl," considering the album was released in the shadow of some fall out between Amos and Atlantic Records. Also absent is Amos video for "The Big Picture," which was recorded for the 1988 album "Why Kant Tori Read." The video would have made great fodder for the DVD collection, but its really no surprise it doesnt appear here. Amos distances herself from that uber-80s era of her career, and who can blame her, but the video is priceless, and imagine the commentary (read: excuses) Amos could conjure for donning a frilly blue pirate blouse, jacked up hair and black spandex. Fans may be surprised that a DVD collection with videos from Atlantic and Amos new label, Epic Records, is available at all, while others are distraught over the exclusions that make the collection less complete. With that in mind, Amos still does her followers a favor with a DVD collection that any true fan wouldnt be without. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 14:08:31 -0500 From: wojizzle forizzle Subject: tori on sirius i wonder if this will be a rehash of the "behind the beekeeper" thing which aired last year, timed to put tori back into the collective subconscious for the release of "fade to red" ... but who really knows? anyone with sirius want to record this for us? http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/CachedPage&c=Channel&cid=1104779639693 Left of Sessions: Tori Amos Wed 2/15 9:00 pm ET Left of Sessions is your chance to hear performances from your favorite Left of Center artists recorded live in our Sirius Studios. The White Stripes, Death Cab For Cutie, The Shins and Ryan Adams are just a few artists who've set up shop and performed on Left of Sessions. It's just like a concert but the tickets are FREE! This week: Tori Amos Rebroadcasts: Thurs., Feb. 16th @ 1 am ET & Fri., Feb. 17th @ 1 pm ET. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 14:37:34 -0500 From: wojizzle forizzle Subject: out interview the complete interview is from the latest issue (march 2006) of out . http://www.out.com/detail.asp?id=16551 Red Alert In outtakes from our exclusive interview with Tori Amos, the alt-rock goddess talks about her new collection of music videos, Fade to Red. Matthew Breen Why was it important to you to make a collection of your videos on DVD? Rhino approached me and I started to watch [the videos]. I realized that with sonic technology the way it is now, we could really present something that I would want to watch. So I decided to sort of pick up the gauntlet that was laid down, and try and present something that I thought would be a contemporary collection of the different archetypes that Ive tried to carry and hold for the last many, many years. Your videos arent traditionally narrative, but often your songs are not traditional narrative either. How would you describe your approach to making videos in general? Is it specific to each song, or is there an over-arching approach? Ive never really done a literal read on something In Jackies Strength, for example, that was one of the ones that we decided to bring the song to life, and you have Tori reliving her life as shes going through her neighborhood on the day of her wedding, and she cant decide if shes going to make it to the church or not. And I dont think it really matters if she makes it to the church or not So I felt that that was one video that we tried to bring the song story in its truest form to the visual story. Others, of course, like Past the Mission, it was important to follow the bloodline of what that story was about. That was about the old world coming to the new world and saving all the savages. This has always been a real discussion within my family because my fathers side of the family came from Scotland and Ireland to save everybody. And my mothers side finds this all really amusing because they didnt think that they needed saving at all. So [for the video] we talked about how to bring this to moving picture. Instead of following the trail of Cortez, we went back in the bloodline and we went back to Spain. And Jake Scott, the director, Ridley Scotts son, had found a village in Spain that was sort of frozen in time. And he had said that when he heard this song he really felt this undercurrent of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, which, of course, as a good ministers daughter, Im always writing about that. So we decided to go back in time and create somethingand this is before all The Da Vinci Code hoo-hahbecause if you did it now, it would just be in bad form. And so I started off with that, because to answer your question, I take each sonic and visualits a marriagewhether its in the still photograph that you present with the sonic work, or the moving picture. And sometimes its like a visual poem, or a short story. Each [video] is very different. Have you ever said to a director, I wont do this or that in a video? I wont let [directors] hijack a song in order to make their own point, one that goes against who the song is. But you shouldnt walk into a partnership with a creative partner if you dont like their treatment. I know that sounds obvious, but sometimes in the editing process [videos] have come in, and Ill say, Wait a minute, you have made a choice here that we didnt agree with originally. So you get them to do a second edit or a third edit. You always try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Some directors just hand it in and you know youre 90% there. Some can lose their way from the time they left you back to the editing suite, back into L.A., intoIm sorry, but the paranoia of the cityespecially the entertainment industry where you can lose your way. I mean, if you start doing things for MTV or VH1 or anybody else, then youre a whore. You just are. And bask, love your whoreness. Enjoy it. But if Im going to be a whore, Im going to be a fucking goddamned good one. The songs are not here to do that. If Im going to investigate what it is to be paid for sexif thats what the song is, then Im not being a whore with the art of it. And I think you know very well that you can write something for all the wrong reasons or film something for all the wrong reasons and then you start editing and doing this stuff and you dont even know what your work is anymore because youre trying to please everybody. You cant shake the western world and be in Kmart all at the same time. It doesnt work like that. Lets talk about your gay and lesbian fan base. Do you have a sense of why gay and lesbian fans are drawn to your music or your sensibility? Is it an outsider perspective? Everybody is ready to judge you guys, man People have such an issue and they bring up the Bible and they bring up this and they bring up that, and their arguments are very weak, because Jesus, the last time I checked, was about compassion. And I see very little compassion when Christians, or any other religion for that matter, are self-righteous and judge the gay and lesbian community. I find it incredibly condescending, just as an on-looker. There are a lot of same-sex relationships that I think are far more sacred than anything in the heterosexual community, but this means that your community carries a lot on its shoulders. If youre not going to wear peoples opinions like a second skin, then you better be reaching for something other than peoples harsh judgments. You better be reaching for, I would say, the tools to take you to the next part of your journey, which ultimately is wholeness with yourself. It seems that a lot of what organized religion did to women is the same thing that society has done to gays and lesbians. I wonder if thats an area where your music connects with gays and lesbians. Thats a good point because women [were prominent] in the early Christian church, as Im sure you know. When I was making The Beekeeper I did a lot of study that there were women prophets, and I always saw Mary Magdalene as a prostitute but as a prophet, and that was not profitable for the early church. Because clearly they needed women to be subservient if they were going to construct the patriarchy, no different than Rome was, they just needed to do it through Christianity, and therefore thats how the structured church developed If the gay and lesbian community were fully empoweredthink about itthey would be bringing forth ideas and concepts. Other people might have to go back to their closets and open them and see whats truly there instead of pointing the finger at you guys. And its no different than when women are sitting at the roundtable saying, You know what, guys, Im not going to hold this issue for you, I disagree with you, and I have a voice at this roundtable, and Im going to speak. You might just make people uncomfortable with what you have to say. Lets face it, if everybody were truly comfortable with ourselves, we wouldnt have any problem with you guys, would we now? ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V11 #15 *************************************