The Arrival of "A Piano"

Planet: Jupiter
Mood: Celebrating


Woohoo! With every Tori Amos release, the excitement rises. I have been tracking down daily any new info on this 5-cd box that retraces the solo career of Tori, my ultimate artist.
Too many gems are here, and everything is either re-worked through an alternate mix or re-mastered. The strings are brilliant in the magnificent Yes, Anastasia, the sound is angrier in Precious Things, the backing vocals enhanced in Caught a Lite Sneeze. Baker Baker even starts with strings!

And there is the other side of this box set, many new previously unreleased new songs that I happened to have heard instantly when they leaked earlier this month (through the naughty Tori fans community haha).
Zero Point is a pure gem from the To Venus and Back era, with re-recorded vocals. Yay for electronica! The bridge, as well as the piano intro and outro are to die for. And the ending is fabulous. Kind of the live Waitress, only different. Zero Point has been in the talks since 1999, and to be released is such a relief for the Venus lovers like me!
Take Me With You is another gem. The music has been written in 1992 for Little Earthquakes, only the lyrics came while producing the box set. So yeah, it took THAT long to be done. But it's amazing. The bridge has vocals that Tori didn't dare to sing since a long time. Very Kate Bush-esque. The simplicity of this song makes it yummy.
Not David Bowie. Man, who could've said Tori was able to do a song like that for The Beekeeper days? The overproduction and rainbow/butterflies that reigned on Tori's last album are nowhere to be seen on this track, which is taken from The Beekeeper sessions. If the next album sounds anywhere near that, I'll be happy. And the sound of the clavichord replacing the guitars is perfecto!

As for Jupiter, it is the largest planet in the solar system. And the Roman god of the gods. It’s for this reason I have chosen it to be here with me tonight (and of course, Tori has included the Dakota version of Hey Jupiter on A Piano: The Collection).
This is undoubtedly the largest Tori collection to be released so far (if one doesn’t count the live Original Bootlegs released last year).


Of course it has it flaws (many many b-sides are not featured here notably Ode to the Banana King, Graveyard, Me and You and my favorite Mountain among others), but it is still a LARGE box set featuring 86 songs.

Jupiter is one hell of a huge planet, but it’s still minimal compared to the size of the universe. And this collection is minimal in the Tori World.

Post-Festival

Aster: Sedna
Mood: Festive

It's festival time!
It's been a month since I last updated this tiny blog. But it was for a good cause.

After the month-long nonstop working for the fourth edition of Ayam Beirut Al Cinema'iya, the festival kicked off last Saturday. And ended yesterday.
We had many directors, journalists and guests coming from the Arab World, Europe and even the States.
The 40-film selection (which was shortened because of the war and the festival's tight schedule) is thrilling enough with a World Premiere (Falafel by Michel Kammoun) and many Arab and Lebanese Premieres (including Ghassan Salhab's newest feature Last Man).

But now that the festival is done, the thinking gets started. I am tired enough, mentally and physically. I need a rest. And after that, we'll see what will happen.

Why Sedna? Because for the time being, I need to go, as far as possible, while keeping my feet within the Solar System. So Sedna it is!
And Sedna in the Inuit Sea Goddess. So a virtual aquatic trip to the coldest ends of our Solar System ... *drools*