don't eat the berries

someone today asked me to recommend some tori amos tracks.... i don't know if she'd heard any tori before and it's just possible that the music might not appeal to her at all - tori is an all or nothing sort of artist. i've never heard of anyone being so-so on tori. either you are lifted to another realm by tori, or you stay on this one. i think it's really that simple.

going through each album and trying to select just the right songs to recommend to a new listener was an interesting little task. a refreshing challenge to try to bring some objective ears to her music! tori's music for me is such an intensely personal thing. listening to her albums over and over and over again until every nuance flows with my very blood and breath.

and her live shows.... well - that's a whole 'nother level of personal. only twice have i gone to her shows with someone else (monique who i used to work with at lichtmans - lichtman's luvs ya! and ambika, rob and mike more recently). all other times i have gone on my own. at the beginning it was out of necessity - no one i knew liked tori enough to spring for tickets & i didn't have enough $$ to buy a ticket for them. almost immediately i became protective and selfish of my tori-time. once i had told someone how excited i was that a tori show had been announced - and this person (lovely margarita) wanted to come too. i felt not-so-great about it, but we bought our tickets together. then, the night of the show, margarita ended up not being able to go & had her boyfriend scalp her ticket. i did not know this until a stranger came and sat in her seat.

on another musical note - i've been listening to witching hour by ladytron. i'd read a good review and besides - how could i not buy an album named 'witching hour'? itunes describes the music as electronica - but i don't think i agreee. i actually hear a lot of 80's gothy influence there.... the jesus and mary chain, bauhaus, the cure, joy division and a bit of siouxsie in the vocals. if you like any of the mentioned - check out this disc.... turns out this is their 3rd album - looks like i've got some catching up to do. yey for new discoveries!

tonight i'm off to the drake to check out chris koster. i've seen him a handful of times and he really just seems to get better and better (excepting an odd yelping performance at cmw a few years back). seeing him both solo and with a band - i'm not sure which i prefer - though some of the songs are quite epic with a full band backing them. his album secrets of the lonely is really quite amazing - it will go down as one of my most listened to of 2005.

on a non-music related note - i am very interested in seeing body worlds 2, currently at the ontario science centre. a german scientist found a way to placticize human bodies, organs, tissues, muscles, etc so that they look as close to living as possible. the exhibit contains over 200 specimens. i was going to go in january 2006, thinking it'd be better to go in the deep of the toronto winter (to beat the crowds), but i heard from my yoga instructor that if you go now, there are hardly any crowds at all and you can spend as much time as you want in the exhibit. the tickets are crazy expensive ($25.00), but i really think this will be a unique exhibit.

[music | ladytron, "the last one standing"]