Sinful Attraction

Tori Amos was in town Monday night, a stop on her Sinful Attraction tour for her tenth studio album Abnormally Attracted To Sin. As passionate devotees of Tori's music, my best friend Willow and I took the day off work to attend the meet and greet and the performance at Abravanell Hall.

Willow and I have been fortunate enough to have met Tori a few times previously at meet and greets and a couple times backstage (with passes won on the radio). Still, we never pass up an opportunity to interact with this incredibly generous and compassionate artist. She is well aware of her influence and how her music has impacted so many of us emotionally and spiritually and is extremely open to connecting one-on-one with her fans.

So we sat around outside behind the Abravanell Hall building, chatting with other fans and getting sunburned in the shade-free 100 degree weather. The heat was ridiculous, but I really enjoyed hanging out with my best pal in this tradition that is going on nearly 10 years.

And, of course, it was so worth it!

The concert was, as always, nothing short of dazzling. Tori is passion personified; she is quite uninhibited on stage and radiates an intensely high energy. She played a generous set list, much of which was devoted to her latest album. She did, however, pull out a few rarer songs from way back and played several of my favorites including Bliss, Body and Soul, China and a gorgeously revamped version of Cooling.

(audio only..but well worth a listen!)

It's difficult to describe just how much Tori and her music means to me. I have never been so emotionally and spiritually moved by any other artist. She has a gift for taking the emotions of the human experience, particularly the feminine experience, and putting them movingly to song. I often find solace in her lyrics, a reminder that none of us is ever alone in that we all share common ground and experiences....as women and as human beings.

I first heard Tori's music as a high school sophomore. I had just met Willow, who introduced me to her music. Little did I know that was the beginning of a life-long friendship and the discovery of something so deeply inspiring. It was a bit of a slap-in-the-face, the revelation that hey, shit happens but you're not in this world alone, honey. At that time, it was a lesson that I very much needed to learn.



As time goes on and I continue to follow Tori's music, I still find wisdom and solace in her words and relate much of her music with my own experiences.



Additionally, her strong feminine representation and her ideal that, as women, we can all wield the power of the ancient goddesses within us is (at least to me) a refreshing breath of air in this sometimes stifling patriarchal society. We can be wives and mothers and still be sexy, strong and powerful.

And we can completely rock (leather pants optional).

Ben Lee

Everything about this photo is wrong. But for some reason, I just like it.

Rockin' The Suburbs

Good morning, dehydration.

Good morning, aches and pains.

Good day to you, voice that is an octave lower.

Rise and shine, smelly hair.

Good morning, day after the concert. Sorry...you'll have to speak up!

It was a packed house at Saltair for the Ben Folds concert last night. The concert, a benefit show for Care for Cambodia, featured a full lineup with four acts performing before Ben Folds.

The evening began with a huge parking fiasco, which involved me chasing my confiscated drivers license all over the venue property, an encounter with a particularly surly security guard and my verbal assault of the parking attendant. We'll just leave it at that.

Thanks to Mindy's expertise and audacity, we were able to secure a decent place in line which allowed us to get right up front for the show. This is a standing-room only venue and I believe this show was seriously over-sold; it was packed pretty tight. My personal bubble was popped by far too many people touching up against me. But hey, that's part of the fun of it, right?

The first two bands to go on were mediocre, at best. They were just your typical, vanilla, sounds-like-everyone-else-out-there band. The third guy who went on was horrendous. He had no original songs, and instead chose to spend his time on stage mutilating songs by U2, Avril Lavigne, The Goo Goo Dolls and Howie Day. His voice was shrill and off-pitch and made my entire body cringe.

The fourth to perform was a musician by the name of Ben Lee. This young Aussie was absolutely brilliant; a wonderful breath of fresh air after enduring the previous performers. His songs were original and simple and perfectly elevating. He had a bit of a Paul Simon-ish quality about him, which was completely charming. His equipment was malfunctioning throughout his entire performance, but he remained a real pro. He worked the situation to his advantage and kept it really entertaining. He really saved the evening and I just loved his music. I'll definitely be investing in some of his albums.

Finally, at 9:30pm, Ben Folds took the stage. The crowd went wild; it was obvious everyone was there to see Ben. He played all the favorites and some songs from his upcoming album as well while we rocked out and sang along and screamed with the crowd.

The whole night was completely insane, but it still ended up as an energetic and highly charged evening with my good friends.

Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

Last night Nick and I went on a little date. We enjoyed a lovely dinner at the Bombay House, one of our favorite Indian restaurants. Their Tikka Masala (my favorite Indian dish) is a bit different (using much less cream), but simply delightful and we sampled some tasty papadums. Afterwards, we drove up to Park City to see Rufus Wainwright live in concert.

Rufus is nothing less than spectacular performing live. It was a small, intimate venue and we had amazingly close fourth-row seats. His flawless, smooth-as-silk voice resonated beautifully and, as always, he exuded passion. He played almost all of my favorites, including 'April Fool' and 'California'.

Rufus is one of those artists who can weave a story with his music and there is nothing I love more than a well-told story. His distinctive lyrics and melodies are sometimes playful, sometimes somber and often the stuff of diaries, and still they are always stirring. When I need some music to make me smile, Rufus is at the top of my list.

I really enjoyed sharing this with Nick. It had been a while since we'd had a proper date and it was a little slice of serenity to sit together in the dark and be serenaded.

When we left the venue it had been snowing and we had to brush our car off before driving away, something I had thought was well done with for the year. Nonetheless, the light dusting of snow on the cars and trees, which sparkled under the street lights, sort of added a bit of magic to the evening. It was simply lovely.

Steal This Album

Trent Reznor has made his latest album, 'Ghosts', available online for FREE.

You can download it from BitTorrent or from Nine Inch Nails official website.

I suppose it's not technically stealing, since he is offering it for free. But he has expressed his disapproval of record companies in the past and has now joined the growing number of artists who are offering their work online in similar manners.

And let me just say that what I have heard of 'Ghosts' so far, I love.

Rabbit in a Sombrero and A Leprechaun Napping

This was found tucked inside an extremely old and well-loved copy of The Hobbit. How it got in there, I do not know. I haven't read The Hobbit in years. It's written on a piece of paper from the Circus Circus hotel in Las Vegas. The writing, which is written in a combination of my writing and my best friend Willow's writing, reads as follows:

a ducky or three

Rabbit in a sombrero

Leprechaun napping

Dream & Sister

a flying *something illegible*

bear elephant

pig, no aardvark

puppy bone

Winged shoe

lions face

turtles, bees

in the peaks of snowy mountains, tops of grassy rolling hills

I'm guessing this was written either in the Circus Circus hotel, or on the way back from Vegas. The last time Willow and I was in Vegas was 2003 for the Lottapianos Tour featuring Ben Folds and Tori Amos at the Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel. We had managed to sweet talk our way to some front row seats courtesy of Tori's personal security, and we hit a parked car. Don't worry, though...the hotel security cameras didn't see us fleeing the scene. It was a fabulous trip!

I have no idea, however, what this piece of paper means (or meant to us at the time). Still, you can't deny it's a riveting read. And it sure made me smile!

The Storytellers - Part One

A clear, brisk Friday morning found me and my dear friend Willow on the road, heading to Boise to worship the Goddess Tori Amos in concert. To say we are merely fans is putting it lightly. We are enthusiastic followers.

Tori is more than a musician, she is a weaver of tales. She marries her words with the music so beautifully and her spirit embodies passion, love and what it really means to be a woman. Her music has long been a place for me to escape and take solace or simply just to rock out. It often reminds me of where I have been and also where I am going.

Willow and I have traveled to see her in concert before, but as it had been some years we decided a girls road trip was definitely in order. Our girl trips are always the best.

Getting out of town was a bit of a comedy of errors, forgetting pillows and directions and also the tickets, but eventually we made it onto the highway. A storm was set to hit any time, but our five hour drive to Boise was clear sailing.

Once we arrived, we decided to stop first at the venue to see what the meet-and-greet looked like. Much to our surprise and delight, there was hardly anyone there which meant it was most likely we'd get a chance to talk to Tori. And we did. Well, Willow did. She and Tori shared a good ten minute conversation while I stood by and took photographs. I have met Tori several times in the past, and I felt that I have said everything I needed to say to her and that I didn't have anything else to say that she hasn't already heard a million times. I was quite content to shoot pictures and just observe. She is an amazing subject, I love to photograph her.

The concert was extraordinary, she played most of the songs I had hoped to hear and some I never dreamed I would hear her perform live. Willow had made a request of her at the meet-and-greet...a song that was very special to her...and Tori played it. I really enjoyed sharing that moment with Willow as I knew how much that song meant to her and how much it meant that Tori played it. We both got a bit teary...it was so great.

Despite being exhausted after a long day of travel and excitement, we were still on far to much of a high to sleep once we got back to the hotel, so we stayed up talking. I love just staying up talking.

Again, despite the storm warnings, the drive back home was smooth sailing and we arrived back in Salt Lake about 5pm Saturday evening, just having missed the huge snow storm that dumped six inches of snow in the valley.

It was a brilliant trip. Good Karma was with us all the way, and so was a cherished friend.