RDTRN Archive - RDT Right Now #1715

RDT Right Now #1715

From: rdtrn@torithoughts.org
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 18:07:15 -0700
Subject: RDT Right Now #1715
To: rdtrn@torithoughts.org

Do not hit reply to unsubscribe. To unsub, send a message to: <rdtrn-request@torithoughts.org> with "unsubscribe" in the subject and body. o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o Really Deep Thoughts Right Now Volume 02 : Issue #1715 . o - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - o . o o . o o O "Thoughts right now... O o What will become of me, o o Become of her, become of we?" o . o o . O O O - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - O o . o o o Tori Amos, "Thoughts" In this issue: o-o-o-o-o-o-o fairfax and camden on ticketmaster [ guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> ] women in rock article [ guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> ] Whoa, dude! [ Jim <jimphynn@mindspring.com> ] camden details [ guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> ] matt chamberlain news [ guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> ] ot: interesting article. [ "heidi maier" <maier@joynet.com.au> ] tori milwaukee details [ guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> ] tori atlanta on-sale date change [ guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> ] [ =======================> In RDT History <======================= ] day off To read more about these items, visit the list archives. [ ================================================================== ] Today's fuzzy ferret assistant: Missed a digest? Pick up a copy at the RDTRN archives: http://www.torithoughts.org/rdtrn/archives -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 14:15:00 -0400 From: guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> To: ustour@torithoughts.org, torinews@smoe.org, fiercest clams <precious-things@smoe.org>, rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: fairfax and camden on ticketmaster thank you to fiona for pointing out that ticketmaster is now the fairfax show: <url: https://ticketing.ticketmaster.com/cgi/purchasePage.asp?event_id=15003532BF9449C D > Patriot Center Fairfax, VA Tuesday, November 12, 2002 8:00PM $40.50 Charge by Phone: 703-573-SEAT Seating Chart Ticket Sale Date(s): Internet Public Sale: Sat Sep 28, 10:00AM ticketmaster is also listing <url: http://www.ticketmaster.com/artist/749136/ > the camden show, but the listing seems to be incorrect since following the link leads to a "this show is no longer in our database" page. i'm guessing that they are in the process of adding the listing now and will have the details posted shortly. woj -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 16:07:33 -0400 From: guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> To: torinews@smoe.org, fiercest clams <precious-things@smoe.org>, rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: women in rock article scarfed from the forum: <url: http://atforumz.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=153289 > transcription credit to FrogNamedJethro -- thanks! A Walk on the Wild Side by Bob Gulla Tori Amos' new Scarlet's Walk , a morality tale chronicling a woman's journey across a troubled American landscape, is the singer-songwriter-poet's most brilliant work since Little Earthquakes In a hotel room full of laminated maps and semi-abstract photographs, the story of Tori's new Scarlet's Walk unfolds. The brainchlid of one of our most innocvative artists, the album is a sonic travelogue full of heartrending encounters and unlucky lovers, pognant moment and teary-eyed observers. Though Scarlet is a fictional figure, these photos and maps bring her to compelling life. As she travels from coast to coast, each song represents a specific stop along the way. Self-produced and recorded in Cornwall, England, the disc represents a stirring rebirth for Tori, and a welcome return to her vibrant musical beginnings. You've described SW as a map of a journey. Can you explain that? Yeah. It's something that speaks to me. When you talk about somebody's body map--an idea that I've been circling for awhile--I think that we all have an invisible map. And at a certain point in your life, you can being to look and really see which places resonate with you, pull you in. You might have only been to a place one time; you might not have even been there at all, but it's a place that gives you a physical response. And that's something that I was going for with Scarlet's Walk. So how did the concept evolve? I think that the songs were similar to song lines in aboriginal culture. They were my ke to take me to places. It's almost as if I were following a crossword puzzle and clues within the songs themselves. And so work started when I began seeing imagery come inl we start going back to threads, because, after all, "scarlet" is a thread. And I was following the etymology of the word. Before it was a color, it was a favric. So in old times, Elizabeth Scarlet would be a weaver, somebody who worked with cloth. And I love the idea that "Scarlet O'Hara" comes from this tradition of Irish weavers. And then There's also the "Red Rope," which symbolizes the Native American spiritual walk. Right, all that intertwines. So then, as you were writing you got a clearer and clearer picture of the concept. Yeah, I did. I think that there's a level of trust that you have to have with yourr song...there were 16 bars coming here and there...and I'd file [them] away, and you don't know what they mean until the concept becomes clearer. But they meant something when you wrote these songs. You just hadn't learned it yet. As things start to become cleaer, I can start pulling threads. I started to see my God. I didn't know I was making a political record at first. Then as time went on, I knew I was on a road trip at a certain point; I just knew. I didn't know how it was going to play itself out, though, or where the chapters would go...but then you talk about them, you surround yourself with these songs. You know they're all there. Would you say a lot of the material cam as a reaction to the 9/11 situation? You were writing a lot at that time, right? Yes, it's very interrelated. If I were ging to follow my quest, which was to know this being named Scarlet, I had to learn first about America. And America truly came alive for many people on that day. For Native Americans, she has always been alive, and they were caretakers of her. There was a respect that it was a spirit, the Earth Mother. So when it became clear how violated people were feeling after we'd been attacked, I started thinking also about the violation of the Native Americans. They were invaded, too, if you really want to parallel it. Back then, a way of life was taken away from an aboriginal people. Treaties were broken. Many people were running from persecution by those people supposedly seeking freedom. So what parallels did you draw from these two events? You have to take it historically--the transgressions as well as thw wisdom. You get the wisdom if you own up to the transgresssions. People now have to ask themselves again: How do I want to lead my life? If tomorrow doesn't come, who do I want to call today? What is the path that I want to walk? When I traveled after 9/11, there was an alertness, an awakening--there wasn't this entitlement to tomorrow, which I thought was really, really incredible for a lot of people. And there was a beautiful sort of humanness. Your writing on this album is stunning. How do you feel about what you've written purely from a lyrical standpoint? I'm very grateful to Mary Poppins , because I've been watching that, and The Sound of Music , and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for the last 12 months. That's where I got my lyrical inspiration! So you're a Julie Andrews fan? Yes, she's the reason for all of this--give her the credit. Maybe it was a rebirth for me, being a new mother and all. I don't really know. Who knows why all the factors line up as they do? If I knew, I'd try and do it every time. And maybe I needed a change...[takes a long pause and a deep breath ] I know you want to talk about this, because nobody's dared ask me, but why not talk about it, right? Maybe the Atlantic label was at a certain place where things, relationships, just weren't right. [This is Tori's first album for her new label, Epic.--Ed] But then nothing's ever enough, you know? [emotional pause ] I gave them Little Earthquakes, and then after that I gave them "Cornflake Girl," and they say, 'Why didn't you give us "Crucify"?' And then you give them "Hey Jupiter," and it's 'Why didn't you give us "Cornflake Girl"?' Then you give them "Jackie's Strength" or "Cruel," or whatever on Choirgirl, and it's 'Why didn't you give us "Jupiter"?' Then you give them "Bliss." 'Well, why didn't you give us "Spark"?' And then you say, 'OKAY, HERE'S EMINEM!' It was horrible, and time for a change. But you couldn't just leave, right? No, I couldn't get out of there! I felt like a Middle Eastern woman where the men can have all these lovers and be in relationships with all these people, but I couldn't, or I'd get my hands chopped off. I couldn't even quit! What other person in a job can say that? You might say, "Nobody wants to hear about it, Tori." You say, "Let her try to work 9 to 5 somewhere." But I couldn't do anything! I couldn't work, I couldn't get laid. I couldn't even do it witht he pool guy, or they would've sued my ass up the river! So do you see what I mean? Then you got pregnant, right? Yes, I got pregnant. I miscarried three time, I was pregnant when I was on the road with Alanis, and it didn't work. I was so hoping that pregnancy would work, and thought that it might. You know, after miscarrying, I did that ridiculous blackmail thing that you do where if you tour radio stations, they'll play your single. I mean, talk about putting your tongue up someone's colon! There's not enough floss in the world to clean my mouth up after that one! And do all this kind of felt like me being held hostage. At a certain point why can't we just agree to disagree and end the relationship? You were trapped. Yes, there is a way of being trapped in a free Western society. I was trapped by this capitalist greed control authority, so the only thing I could do was go to the ancestors. And I went to my mother, and I went to other people that are part of that belief system, and that's where I am today. Polly Anthony, president of Epic, came to visit me while I was pregnant, and she wanted to take me with her. Tell me about your leadership qualities. As a producer, you're captain of the ship. Did you discover anything about yourself as a leader of manager? Yeah, I think that it's very difficult being the artist and the promducer, 'cause you have to change hats. The artist sometimes just can't head certain conversations, but these conversations have to take place. It has taken me quite a few years to learn to be a good captain. When I'm not captain, then I'm the ship. And that's what the artist is, the artist is the ship--and you just hope she's not the Titanic! And you also hope that the captain can hear you say, "We're running into an iceberg!" You talk about politics and other subject matter on the record, but you haven't really talked about your motherhood as a muse. Could you comment on that for us? I don't know if I could've made this record without being a mother, just because there is an aspect of communication...Scarlet goes first to a troubled friend, a porn star named Amber Waves. Whether that's America or a woman, or both. And I think that there is a maternal compassion that she has, this confused character, and she doesn't know how she feels about it. And she knows she can't find the answers without a mother figure around. Your reference to "gold dust" in the song of the same name has to do with how precious life is. Is that gold dust passing through your hands? The hands of your parents? The hands of the country? Natasha [not my (Rory's) misspelling] is at that age where so many people were telling me to enjoy it, savor it, hold it. Everyone tells me that---all the mothers in the play group. Right now she loves crawling up on Mommy and Daddy's laps, and there are so many cuddles and kisses, and there isn't any embarrassment; it's still okay to be lovey-dovey. In some ways I still can't believe I'm a mom. But it has really become a major part of who I am. --------------------------------------------------------------------- interesting, eh? there is a short article that follows about a woman who works at the magazine who is an EWF and her experience over the two day process of this interview. I can't type it out now or else my wrists will mutiny. Also there is another article called "Electric Ladyland: the 25 Defining Moments of Women in Rock." Tori is Number 4. Here is the blurb, with a picture from the SW photo shoot. Tori Amos redefines thr boundaries of "personal" The daughter of a preacher man, Tori Amos redefined sense and sensibility when she emerged as a piano-straddlin' priestess at the onset of the '90s. Her previous foray as a hard rock singer in the misguided Y Kant Tori Read was clearly over. She would not go quietly. She would sing from her heart and not be ashamed of her God-given sexuality. Her debut EP, Me and a Gun, released in October 1991, unflinchingly articulated a rape she suffered at the hands of an armed "fan" while returning home one night from a gig. Toris brutal honesty, combined with her angular piano melodies, made her debut album Little Earthquakes the hight-water mark by which all other confessional songwriters would be measured. Best Place to Hear Her: Little Earthquakes (Atlantic, 1992) -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 16:27:17 -0400 From: Jim <jimphynn@mindspring.com> To: RDT Right Now <rdtrn@torithoughts.org> Subject: Whoa, dude! Megan posited: >Be honest now. Am I being a pussy for offering to forgive him in that >email? Am I just opening myself up for my emotional mutilation? Should I >just go find a nice hard board and beat him over the head with it? Because >that's sounding real nice right about now. No, you're not being a pussy; I believe that you overreacted more than a little bit when you learned of his girlfriend in the first place. Since Jenn moved in with me three months ago, we've had some interesting discussions on this topic, and they all boil down to some very basic, natural human tendencies. What you consider a "lie by omission" was more of an omission that he made to protect you, not to hurt you. I seem to recall a while back a discussion on this list about polyamory. It is not a uniquely male or female trait. If you're with someone (and otherwise content) and you meet someone else who interests you, are you saying that you wouldn't even *consider* the possibility of finding out more about that new someone? I concede that I'm a flirt. And I like looking. I subscribe to Playboy. I still watch late-night porn on Skinemax. Jenn accepts this, without compunction or hesitation. (She actually likes to read the magazine once I'm done with it.) When Bill Clinton sought to cover up his affair with Monica L., he did it first and foremost to protect those closest to him. He got railroaded into impeachment from there. That was wrong then, and you're wrong now referring to his attempts to protect you as a "lie of omission." He has a girlfriend you've never met, and, if you hadn't found out about her, things would still be unchanged as far as you're concerned. Would it be any different for you if he had told you? Would it matter at which stage in your relationship with him you found out about it? When is the right time to tell someone something like this? Have you ever dated more than one person at the same time? Here's something to ponder. Assume the following: -- you don't know about Crystal -- he's with you and everything is the same as it was before you found out -- he and Crystal break up, with the resulting emotional distress on his part -- you perceive that something's wrong and you ask him -- this is when he tells you about her With it being already and officially over, how would you react to his response, knowing now that there was another in his life while he was with you... Now flip the tables. Are you saying you'd tell Alex (or anyone else) right away that you'd met someone else you would like to know more about? You can't close yourself completely off to the opposite sex just because you're with someone. There may be some lines that are taboo to cross, but even those taboos deserve to be questioned seriously. Jenn's biggest problem with "wife-swapping" is the name of it, as it implies treating women as possessions. She's right, but she doesn't have as big a problem with the act. Give Alex a chance. His actions were not intended to hurt you, just to protect you. Jim -- Jim Goldman jimphynn@mindspring.com ICQ: 6380342 www.mindspring.com/~jimphynn ---------------------------------------------------------------- "I get good advice, if you will, from their people, based upon how we are doing business and how we are operating, over and above the normal, by-the-books auditing arrangement." -- Dick Cheney, in a video for Arthur Andersen -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 16:45:58 -0400 From: guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> To: ustour@torithoughts.org, torinews@smoe.org, fiercest clams <precious-things@smoe.org>, rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: camden details many thanks to LetCrazySettleIn for calling the venue and trying to figure out what was up with the wonky listing at ticketmaster.com. it seems that they have finally fixed it up on the web: <url: https://ticketing.ticketmaster.com/cgi/purchasePage.asp?event_id=2003534AC2D4D1B > TORI AMOS Tweeter Center at the Waterfront Camden, NJ Friday, November 15, 2002 7:30PM Price range is not available Charge by Phone: 856-338-9000 Seating Chart Ticket Sale Date(s): Internet Public Sale: Sat Oct 5, 10:00AM -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 17:23:02 -0400 From: guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> To: torinews@smoe.org, fiercest clams <precious-things@smoe.org>, rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: matt chamberlain news from <url: http://www.mattchamberlain.com/ >: sept-20-2002 Just got home from tori rehearsals--man it is really exciting to play the new and old songs with just piano,bass and drums ,it definitely leaves alot of space for everybody to listen and react to each other.I'm playing a pretty small kit-kick-rack tom,floor tom,snare with a bunch of percussion around it and surprisingly little electronics---very liberating.The next couple of weeks i'm going to L.A. to play some gigs at the Knitting Factory with Brad Mehldau then I will be recording with Fiona Apple again for phase 2 of her record, and this really great artist/ band called mellowdrone.Then with producer rupert hine for this artist I can't pronounce called tigere? from the ferrel islands--off to nashville for 3 days of sara evans recording then to N.Y.C for Tori TV shows and production rehearsals for the tour--Bye-peace-out -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 13:18:53 +1000 From: "heidi maier" <maier@joynet.com.au> To: <rdtrn@torithoughts.org> Subject: ot: interesting article. i thought that others, too, might find this article from salon.com interesting. it's so lovely to hear michael chabon talking about his childhood reading ... warm wishes, heidi, an admitted lifelong bibliophile :) ---- from: [ http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/09/21/kids/index.html ] Kids lit grows up: Inspired by Harry Potter, bestselling authors Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, Carl Hiaasen and Isabel Allende are spearheading a renaissance in books that enchant readers of all ages. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Charles Taylor Sept. 21, 2002 | When I was a kid, I was too busy reading grown-up books (mostly junk) to pay much attention to children's literature. I assumed that kids lit was what people wanted me to like rather than what I really did like. So by the time I reached my 20s, I had all sorts of treasures waiting for me. Among them were the books of Frances Hodgson Burnett. Even if I had read children's literature as a child, Burnett's most famous novel, "The Secret Garden," was considered a girl's book and not something little boys read. When I finally got around to it in the late '80s, I loved it so much that when I finished, I immediately picked up a copy of Burnett's "A Little Princess." I was reading that on the bus one morning when I noticed a businessman in his 40s sitting beside me and eyeing the book. Finally, I nervously allowed my eyes to meet his only to hear him say, "It's a great book, isn't it?" He went on to praise Frances Hodgson Burnett's writing and told me how much he had enjoyed reading her books to his own daughter. The reasons so many adults are reading books written for children seem pretty simple. A good book is a good book is a good book. What holds true about movies made for children is also true of books written for them: There is no truly good one that adults can't enjoy as well. It may also be that for adult readers, kids books offer the strong, straightforward storytelling that reminds them of why they first started to read fiction. The adult readership for children's books stands to become even larger this fall as some writers with certifiable literary standing and large adult followings publish kids books. Neil Gaiman's (truly scary) "Coraline" is already in the stores and on the charts. And in the next few weeks will follow books from Michael Chabon, Carl Hiaasen, Isabel Allende and Clive Barker. It's a fair bet that readers who loved "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," or who count "The House of the Spirits" among their favorite novels, or who wait greedily for their yearly dose of Carl Hiaasen (I stand accused), will pick up these writers' new works, regardless of whom they were written for. And established writers aren't the only ones getting into the act. The veteran rappers L.L. Cool J and Doug E. Fresh also have children's books coming out soon. Obviously, the success of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has made it easier for authors to work in children's literature without risking a smaller audience or worrying about being taken seriously. Chabon says that Rowling's success allowed him to go to his agent with his idea for a children's book, and "instead of saying, as she might have done a few years ago, 'Please just take a year of your writing life and flush it down the toilet," she said, 'Hmm. Interesting idea! Go for it!'" Daniel Handler, who, under the nom de plume Lemony Snicket, has achieved wide success with his riotously dour "A Series of Unfortunate Events," isn't certain that Rowling's success translates into newfound respect for children's literature. But, he says, "It does make it an exciting time to be writing such things. Another children's author I know compared it to playing rock 'n' roll in the '60s -- it's a time when children's literature is part of the zeitgeist, which results in a lot of experimentation and innovation." The main thing Rowling's success seems to have done for writers venturing into children's literature is to allow them the means of satisfying a desire that already existed. Michael Chabon, whose new "Summerland" is his first novel for children, cautions about separating "a publishing phenomenon" from a literary one. "Adult writers," says Chabon, "especially in Britain, have always written, or considered writing, for children." He cites C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Roald Dahl, E.B. White, Dodie Smith, Mordecai Richler, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling and Salman Rushdie. You could also tack on Ian Fleming ("Chitty Chitty Bang Bang") and the great Peter O' Donnell, who wrote the Modesty Blaise novels and kids books like "Moonlit Journey" and "Pinkie Goes South." Paula Fox, an author currently enjoying a revival (her memoir "Borrowed Finery" was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award and selected as one of the year's best books by the New York Times Book Review), has written for children for years -- of her 21 kids books "How Many Miles to Babylon?" impressed me, when I read it as a child, as the grimmest book I'd ever encountered. It's partly the memory of the potency of their childhood reading that prompts many adult authors to try their hand at the form. Handler says, "You never love a book the way you love a book when you're 10. No matter how much I admire the work of Nabokov or Murakami, I'm not going to reread 'Lolita' or 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' nearly as many times as I reread 'Harriet the Spy' in third grade." (It might be interesting to see what part "Harriet the Spy," a book about the pleasures of voyeurism if ever there was one, played in the development of future film critics. I know of at least three who worshipped it as kids.) Chabon feels similarly: "You never forget the delight that the books you loved as a child brought you; it's all still there, you remember it. It's fairly inevitable, I'd say, to want to try and get some of that for your own kids; but in the past, in this country at least, it was not necessarily feasible and perhaps not quite taken seriously enough." As Chabon notes, the appearance of these books does seem, for some of the writers at least, tied to the children in their lives. Isabel Allende says that her new "City of the Beasts" was inspired by reading to her grandchildren. The household of Clive Barker, whose "Abarat" is the first in a new fantasy series, includes the teenage daughter of his partner. Michael Chabon is only partly joking when he says that he always thought he was going to write kids books because he was a kid when he first wanted to become a writer. But having his own kids returned Chabon to that desire. "I started back through the beloved books of my childhood with my oldest daughter. We began with the 'Wizard of Oz' when she was about 2 and a half, and on through Lewis and Tolkien and Ingalls Wilder and Dahl and Alexander and O'Dell and Fitzhugh and White. And it was all still so wonderful, and just as reading Alan Furst, say, makes me think about writing spy fiction ... I started thinking, Hey, I want to do this. I still want to do this." You can't help but wonder, though, whether there's another reason, one these writers haven't acknowledged to themselves -- namely the sheer challenge of writing for kids. The old excuse among writers who write long is that they did it because they didn't have time to write short. While some of the batch of new books are long ("Summerland" comes in at just over 500 pages), kids books, no matter how long they are, require writers who know how to write essentially. That's a very different matter from writing simply, which, in the context of children's literature, has the connotation of dumbing things down. Even when the back story or mythology of a children's book becomes complicated, the story has to be expressed in the clearest possible terms. That means finding what might be called a suggestive concreteness, a way of conveying action, character and setting in a few sharply defined strokes. It's an egalitarian approach, allowing the readers to shade things in for themselves. Here, from the opening of "Coraline," is a description of a forbidding well on the grounds of the house that the young heroine's family moves into: "She found it on the third day, in an overgrown meadow beside the tennis court, behind a clump of trees -- a low black circle almost hidden in the high grass. The well had been covered up by wooden boards, to stop anyone from falling in. There was a small knothole in one of the boards, and Coraline spent an afternoon dropping pebbles and acorns through the hole and waiting, and counting, until she heard the plop as they hit the water far below." Gaiman melds the secret and the hidden with a sense of danger, drawing a picture of the well as a lurking presence in the high grass; he describes the boards, which raises the possibility of someone falling to his death. And then there's the way he uses the evocative clause "and counting," which allows us to imagine the depth of the well. As it turns out, there's a more dangerous portal lurking in "Coraline." Exploring her family's new apartment, Coraline comes upon a door in the living room that opens onto a skewed replica of her family's new digs. Waiting for her on the other side are her other "parents," funhouse mirror replicas of the real ones with black buttons sewn on for eyes (told you it was creepy). Coraline finds everything she's wished for in this alternate reality: parents who pay attention to her and delicious food. Then it turns out this "other mother" has no intention of letting Coraline get back to her real life. Gaiman's book is a potent parable about a little girl getting her first inklings of the compromises of the adult world. It's also a good, frightening read. (The book says it's for readers 8 and up. I'd just make sure I knew the fright threshold of any 8-year-old I gave it to.) One of the reasons Isabel Allende's insufferable "City of the Beasts" doesn't work is that she trusts neither her material nor her readers. She falls prey to one of the classic traps of bad writing: She puts her story at the service of her message. Kids can scent the kind of didacticism Allende engages in, and she doesn't even use the proverbial spoonful of sugar to help her medicine go down. She shows no faith in her audience's ability to suss things out without being preached to. You never get the feeling she believes in the material on any level but the "instructive" one; it's merely a sanctimonious little lesson in how man is despoiling the environment. This is exactly the kind of reductionism that William Bennett exalts in literature, only in Allende's case, it's coming from the left instead of the right. And it shrivels up next to Carl Hiaasen's charming "Hoot," another environmental tale, but one in which, as in his Floridian mysteries, Hiaasen's first concern is to be an entertainer. He uses a reliable old formula, that of the new kid in town finding his place, and joins it to one of his multistrand plots, this one about a scheme to save a group of miniature owls who've made their home in a vacant lot scheduled to have a pancake house built on top of it. It won't take Hiaasen's adult readers long to realize they're in Hiaasen country -- not when the corporate dolt is named Chuck E. Muckle and when the characters include a kid who can fart the first line of the Pledge of Allegiance. Hiaasen is the environmentalist as vaudevillian. When a kid slips baby gators down the porta-san at the construction site, you know you're dealing with the same man who once fantasized about putting bull gators in the tourist pond at Disney World. That Hiaasen is such a natural at writing for children gives weight to Daniel Handler's insistence that there is no difference between writing for kids and writing for adults."I always suspect that people who regard them as different things are the sort of people who talk to children in that annoying high-pitched voice." And Chabon echoes that sentiment when he says, "I tried to keep my sentences shorter, my diction plainer and my vocabulary simpler" -- but, he adds, he didn't feel he had to try very hard. Still, if writing for kids requires more discipline, it may also be liberating. Chabon, who calls writing "Summerland" "the most pleasurable experience, page for page and paragraph for paragraph, that I've ever had as a writer," says that the book allowed him to write about all sorts of fantastical things "without apologies or explanations or rationales." What's striking about the best of these books, and what's always true about great fantasies, is that they're rooted in recognizable emotions. One of the reasons Harry Potter has been such a success is the casualness of J.K. Rowling's style, the fact that she's writing about wizards and witches and demons and dragons at the same time that she's describing school bullies and tests and grumpy teachers and first crushes and feeling left out. There's no hoity-toity ethereality in her brand of magic, no Stevie Nicks-style preciousness. The books are written in the same good, durable, plain language that you find in Hiaasen and Gaiman and Chabon -- and even in the mock-Gothic grotesqueries of Lemony Snicket. There are plenty of reasons for writing a kids book right now, some of them obvious, like the financial rewards and the current critical attention paid to children's literature. Other reasons -- the satisfaction the writers get from giving back the kind of pleasure they experienced as children, for instance -- are more personal and intangible. But there's one other reason that not even writers themselves may be aware of: Writing for kids allows them to fulfill the great primal satisfactions novels can give us, while it demands that they work at the absolute peak of the craft. It's a win-win situation: Readers are reminded of why they read in the first place, and writers of why they ever wanted to write. - - - - - - - - - - - - About the writer: Charles Taylor is a Salon contributing writer. ---- "she's the far end of the graveyard, up where the nettles grow ..." * heidi maier :: maier@joynet.com.au * -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 02:39:33 -0400 From: guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> To: torinews@smoe.org, ustour@torithoughts.org, fiercest clams <precious-things@smoe.org>, rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: tori milwaukee details <url: http://cc.com/detail.asp?eventID=50677 > (with some additional information from lioness -- thanks!) Clear Channel Entertainment Presents Tori Amos With Special Guests Howie Day December 1, 2002 - 7:30PM Central Riverside Theatre Milwaukee, WI 116 W. Wisconsin Avenue Milwaukee, WI 53203 Box office (414) 224-3000 Fax (414) 224-3013 Email: theatrerob@aol.com -The Box Office opens 1 hour prior to the event. -Parking is available at the Grand Avenue Mall. On sale September 27, 2002 - 12:00PM Reserved : $ 35.00 Tickets available at the Riverside Theatre Box Office and at all Ticketmaster locations or charge by phone at 414/276-4545 in Milwaukee, 608/255-4646 in Madison, and 920/494-1414 in Northern Wisconsin Seating chart: http://media.ticketmaster.com/tmimages/venue/maps/ch5/ch5140a.gif http://www.concertlivewire.com/seat18.htm -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 03:11:40 -0400 From: guapo stick <woj@smoe.org> To: ustour@torithoughts.org, torinews@smoe.org, fiercest clams <precious-things@smoe.org>, rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: tori atlanta on-sale date change clear channel is now listing <url: http://cc.com/detail.asp?eventID=49386 > an on-sale date of friday, september 27th at 10am for the atlanta show. this is one day earlier than the previous on-sale date. woj o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o *** Subliminal Day Off digest *** To POST messages to this list: <rdtrn@torithoughts.org> Can't figure out how to SUB, UNSUB, or CHANGE ADDRESSES? Send a message to <rdtrn-request@torithoughts.org> with "help" as the subject. Digest PROBLEMS or QUESTIONS? Contact: <admin@torithoughts.org> Want your BIRTHDAY announced on RDTRN in 2002? Visit the registration form located at http://www.torithoughts.org/RDTRN/birthday.html RDTRN SITE AND ARCHIVES: http://www.torithoughts.org/rdtrn RDTRN'S SUBLIMINAL THOUGHTS (you can't see this): http://www.torithoughts.org/rdtrn/subliminal/ For information on joining the TORITOUR list: Send a blank message to <tour@torithoughts.org> and you'll receive an instruction file. Any self-respecting Toriphile is on The Registry. (That means you!) http://thedent.developium.com/ _ . /\ , _ _ ( _ )_ {Oo\{o\ .=. ( ` )_ (_ _(_ ,) {o: \:.\ / \ ( ) `) | {O:' \:.-'_.-\_)____ (_ (_ . _) _) \ _ / {o:. /`~('-./-----.\ -= (_) =- }o: // /| `/\ ( ) / \ {O:'// /-' /\/\ ( ` ) . ) | }o-/( <___ \'/ /\/\/\ (_, _( ,_)_) /o./ ;--._)====* -\/\/\/ `"`\ \ /.\ `""` \ \ \ \ wWWWw wWWWw /`\ ) vVVVv (___) wWWWw (___) vVVVv |/| | vVVVv (___) ~O~ (___) vVVVv ~H~ (___) vVVVv _// \| (___) ~H~ \| ~U~ (___) |/ ~T~ (___) | / || \~T~/ \| \ |/ \| / \~G~/ \| \ |/ \~S~/ |/ / | \\|// \\|// \\|// \\|/// \\|// \\|// \\\|/// \\|// ` `\| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ` thanks for visiting this pretty garden

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ToriThoughts.Org > RDTRN > Archives > September 2002