12 Strange Little Girls Ahead

Heads up, Tori-heads! One of Tori Amos greatest albums that hasn't made its way to vinyl before is finally doing just that in February -- the 2001 record Strange Little Girls can be pre-ordered over on her website in 12 count em' twelve variants, each one representing one of the twelve characters she embodied for this concept album, which had her playing a different role for every song thereon. To be honest I've watched other artists release ridiculous numbers of variants of records like this and found it somewhat obscene, but in Tori's defense...

... it kind of makes sense with this album. It was built into its concept twenty-four years ago. (JFC I am ancient; dust practically.) I will give her this, even if just barely. She does includes a package deal if you buy all 12 but much as I love her I am not that fucking psychotic, so I went with the one seen up top for two fairly random reasons -- it's the character for the title track, and I always loved the "Satin Worship" shirt she's wearing in that image. Anyway if you happen to buy one and are a super-fan like me tell me which one you got in the comments! That said what I really want are vinyl releases of the two albums that came before this -- To Venus and Back and From the Choirgirl Hotel. Perfect masterpieces the both!

We Laughed in the Faces of Kings

.

Lots of new news regarding some of my favorite 90s ladies today -- Alanis Morrisette announced an acoustic concert here in New York next month, and now Tori Amos has announced she's written a book! It's called Resistance: A Songwriter's Story of Hope, Change, and Courage, and it sounds less like an autobiography and more hella political, which in my opinion kicks all kinds of ass. Go Tori. Here's the blurb off Amazon:

"A timely and passionate call to action for engaging with our current political moment, from the Grammy-nominated and multiplatinum singer-songwriter and New York Times bestselling author Tori Amos.

Since the release of her first, career-defining solo album Little Earthquakes, Tori Amos has been one of the music industry’s most enduring and ingenious artists. From her unnerving depiction of sexual assault in “Me and a Gun” to her post-September 11 album, Scarlet’s Walk, to her latest album, Native Invader, her work has never shied away from intermingling the personal with the political.

Amos began playing piano as a teenager for the politically powerful at hotel bars in Washington, DC, during the formative years of the post-Goldwater and then Koch-led Libertarian and Reaganite movements. The story continues to her time as a hungry artist in Los Angeles to the subsequent three decades of her formidable music career. Amos explains how she managed to create meaningful, politically resonant work against patriarchal power structures—and how her proud declarations of feminism and her fight for the marginalized always proved to be her guiding light. She teaches us to engage with intention in this tumultuous global climate and speaks directly to supporters of #MeToo and #TimesUp, as well as young people fighting for their rights and visibility in the world.

Filled with compassionate guidance and actionable advice—and using some of the most powerful, political songs in Amos’s canon—this book is for anyone determined to steer the world back in the right direction."

Resistance isn't out until May 5th of next year -- you can pre-oder it right here -- but 2020 makes sense with it being the year of the Presidential Election... I was going to say "the most important Presidential Election of our lives" but 2016 was that and that went to shit, so now I guess technically 2020 is, if we live to make it there anyway. Ahh optimism! Save us, Tori...
.

I Shaved Every Place Where You Been, Boy

.

Tori Amos' album Boys For Pele (which is my favorite Tori album not to mention one of my favorite albums, period -- you guys have no idea how many times I have listened to this record in my life; possibly more hours than some of you have been alive) celebrated its 20th anniversary back in January and in a couple of weeks she is releasing a Deluxe Edition of the album, which will have a whole bunch of remastered b-sides and bells and whistles of that sort - if you're a fan it seems pretty Cannot Miss. Buy it here and give MNPP a few cents, if you feel like it. 

Anyway I'm not just soliciting miniature donations with this post (not just) - if you missed this interview with Tori about the album and its making and its legacy at Stereogum a few weeks back, it is also Cannot Miss, and today Nylon has shared one of the b-sides that's on the deluxe album, a track called "Alamo," which has never seen a proper release! That puts "Cannot Miss" into a whole new light.

.

I Am Link

.

--- Go On Gerwig - It's been super duper difficult for me to rein my eyeballs in and keep them off of reviews out of Sundance of Todd Solondz' Weiner-Dog, which premiered on Friday. (We posted a picture of the film's poster here.) I've skimmed a couple and stumbled upon mind-blowing details (Nina Persson sings a song about dog poop!) but I had to stop myself. But I did read this -- The Playlist talked to Greta Gerwig, who's playing Dawn Weiner in the film, and she had nothing but praise for Solondz:

"I love watching films where it feels like it can be anything you want. It can be anything you want! I think that people get so stuck in these very narrow parameters. To have someone who says, "I don't care" and it's not weirdness for weirdness' sake, it's completely internally consistent with itself and with his vision and what he's doing and, for him, it's the clearest way to express this story and communicate this emotion. And it's beautiful that he has the ability to stick with it like that. "

She also says that her older sister, an avowed movie hater, adored Welcome to the Dollhouse and made Lil' Greta watch it tons as they grew up, which is a story I love. Oh in other Greta news she's signed Oscar nominee Saorsie Ronan to star in her directorial debut called Lady Bird. Cannot wait! Third and lastly, on a depressing note, there's a one night celebration of playwright Arthur Miller happening on Broadway tonight (thanks Mac) that will feature Greta, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bradley Cooper, Peter Sarsgaard and many many more, and I can't go because tickets were too expensive. Fuck this world!

.

--- Prophet Of Doom - This is not a headline I anticipated ever seeing - Sam Raimi's next film is going to be the American remake of Jacques Audiard's brilliantly effective 2009 crime thriller A Prophet, which gifted the world with not just a brilliant film but also a brilliant leading man performance from star Tahar Rahim. I actually really think the story could be translated into something good but different a la Scorsese's take on Infernal Affairs called maybe you have heard of it The Departed. But good luck finding another Tahar Rahim! Maybe just hire Tahar Rahim? He speaks English fine.

 .

--- Surface Effect - I don't know whether this signifies a real change or if it's just the fetish of the moment and lazy asses will go back to the cheap easy way but I found this New Yorker piece on the current love affair with the practical special effect heartening anyway. Everyone should try to be George Miller, basically. Of course going unspoken in the piece is that horror movies led the way, as they often do in their way -- the hatred for CG blood spatter over good old-fashioned gore has been a call to arms for awhile now.

.

--- And Speaking of fetishes, here's something for my biggest non-porny one - io9 shares a bunch of images from inside Neil Gaiman's library, and my god, mein gott, my gott in heaven, my words are all jumbled from the orgasming out of my eyeballs looking at it all.

.

--- Volcanoes & Vulvas - This morning I thought about writing a big post on Tori Amos' album Boys For Pele when I read that it'd just celebrated its 20th anniversary, but I'll just link to this piece at Salon instead because I probably don't have time to do it justice. But I have got the most vivid memory of sitting in my first boyfriend's car in the parking lot of the mall, waiting for him to get off of work and listening to that album over and over and over again, literally for hours, and it signals to me such an important moment in my life. The album really means quite a lot to me; listening to it now transports me right back to that car, that parking lot, even though I've listened to the album more times than I could ever count.

.

--- High Rollas - Here are a couple of top ten lists from good friends of MNPP -- Nathaniel posted his favorite, uh, 15 movies of 2015 over at The Film Experience, and Joe Reid posted his favorite movies and performances and so so much more over on his Tumblr, and save their inexplicable mentions of Creed all over the place (I always knew I was going to feel small and alone not liking it but it's begun to make me feel like a crazy person at this point because I DO NOT GET IT AT ALL; how can any sane person say that Stallone deserves an award for that pile he dropped?) their lists are pretty dang good.

.

--- Bang Bang - This is not a drill - Matthias Schoenaerts is going to be playing a drummer! I repeat, Matthias Schoenaerts is going to be playing a drummer. His great big tree trunk arms, slamming up and down, up and down, covered with sweat... somebody catch me I am fallingggggg.... ahem. The film is called The Sound of Metal and it's written by Derek Cianfrance and it will co-star Matty's Bigger Splash co-star Dakota Johnson as the singer of the group, let me repeat, Matthias is a drummer for. Ba boom, ba boom, my heart.

 .

--- Too Much Magneto -  I got about halfway through this interview with Michael Fassbender talking about the next X-Men movie before I realized that dude, how are you allowed to answer all of these questions? I felt like he was giving the entire movie away while we've still got four months until it's even out. Shut your big beautiful mouth, Michael!

.

I Am Link

.

--- Two By Goz - I'm a little bit behind so some of this news might be a little bit stale; still we feel the need to mention it. Let's first catch up with Ryan Gosling! He's got two recent news-items that've caught me eye - firstly, he's been bandied about as the lead for Guillermo Del Toro's Haunted Mansion movie. (Yes based on the Disney ride.) I know this will be different from Crimson Peak in theory, but I feel like GDT might be haunted-housing himself out a little? Anyway onto number two, Gosling-wise - he and Emma Stone are thinking of reuniting (remember when she said his abs looked photo-shopped? Good times) for an "old-fashioned romantic musical" called La La Land from the director of Whiplash. Nobody say Gangster Squad... too late.

.

--- Moore To Love - Julianne Moore is going to team up with Enough Said director Nicole Holofcener... full stop. That's enough! Sold! Okay a little more - the movie is called Can You Ever Forgive Me and it will be based on a fascinating-sounding true story of a woman who forged letters by famous people and got chased by the FBI for doing so. It's based on a memoir by the actual criminal lady. It always makes me nervous when people's criminal behavior gets lionized and rewarded like this, a la The Wolf of Wall Street, but this is a pairing I cannot refuse.

.

--- Wild Animals - Our second favorite television fur-factory James Wolk (second favorite now that Charlie Cox is a TV star, although they had the gall to shave him on Daredevil) has got a bit of a rep for Bad Luck when it comes to his shows - they all die quick. But he keeps getting new ones, because he's super appealing, and we're all hoping one sticks. His latest is called Zoo (see previous post) and the first batch of pictures from it showed up last week (thanks Mac). Wolky looks typically adorbs.

.

--- Webbed Exclusive - I believe I've expressed this opinion on several occasions but I still find it weird that the Universal Monster known as The Creature From the Black Lagoon hasn't had a movie in such a long time - well the ball is rolling now that Universal wants to brand the hell out of their monsters, and Scarlett Johannson is the rumored front-runner for the lead. No, not as The Creature! That's what I kept thinking when I saw the headlines too. She'd be the lady woman who finds the monster. I insist they go full Lovecraft with this story, anyway.

.

--- A Lot Chaos - I hadn't heard that Alan Rickman's movie A Little Chaos starring Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts as rival gardeners in 17th Century France (I know, what a log-line) was getting dumped fairly unceremoniously onto VOD (with a few theaters tossed in for good measure) at the end of June, but The Playlist has that news, along with seven clips from the film. It's that scraggly wig they made Matty wear that's at fault, I'm sure of it. Anyway I'm a little worried about Kate's career right now, aren't you guys? Let's hope Steve Jobs does her justice.

.

--- Old-Timey Murder - Any fans of Caleb Carr's The Alienist up in here? I loooved in when it came out, but I haven't read it since. I will catch sight of it on my bookshelf every so often though and think to myself, Self, why hasn't that been turned into a movie yet? Well here we go: Cary Fukunaga is planning on turning it into a television miniseries a la his True Detective. Now that I think about it the story is kind of True Detective meets Penny Dreadful, with a dash of The Knick, so this makes sense. And hey if it's a hit maybe they'll make the follow-up about baby murder!

 .

--- Twee For Gays - I'm having a hard time reading anything about Sufjan Stevens this week because I had to miss his concert here in NYC this past weekend when that family stuff dragged me out of town, but this piece at Pitchfork comparing Sufjan to Tori Amos is pretty baity to my interests, so I gotta link.

 .

--- Horror Story - Clearly I shouldn't have an opinion on this since I haven't read this dude's book, but some dude is suing Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard and the studio for stealing a bunch from his self-published book for their wonderful Cabin in the Woods movie. There are a lot of similarities listed but I'm always skeptical of that sort of thing - there are only so many stories and Cabin specifically is riffing hard on a very specific story that's been told a thousand times in very similar ways.

.

I Am Link

.

--- Actress Land - The Playlist has some new pictures from Olivier Assayas' Sils Maria, which stars Juliette Binoche as an actress and Kristen Stewart as an actress playing the role Binoche's character played when she was younger. There's a lot of smoking and people looking gorgeous - shocker.

--- French Kiss - There were too many titles I haven't seen and not enough time for me to play catch-up for me to participate in this month's Team Experience poll counting down our ten favorite Cannes winners, but my inadequacies shouldn't keep you from head over to The Film Experience and seeing what everybody else came up with. I already checked one off of the list that I hadn't seen yet over the weekend - the 1958 Russian flick The Cranes Are Flying is totally deserving of the love.

--- Dystopian Event - A couple of you were adamant that I catch up on the British series called Utopia, which is a twisty thriller about comics books and global conspiracies, and so I also watched that this weekend (it's only six hour-longs) and holy shite were y'all right, it is terrific, so thank to you guys for sharing. To those of you who haven't seen it, do! David Fincher is teaming up with Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn to adapt the series for the US, but the original's already great, I def. recommend. Here's an article about the second season, if you are caught up. That supposedly airs starting July-ish.

--- Siggy Stardust - I didn't think she'd be showing up for the sequels considering the place we left her character at the end of the first movie, but Sigourney Weaver says that James Cameron's found a way to have her involved in all the three sequels to Avatar, so that's cool. Any Siggy is good Siggy, that's what I always say.

--- Redheaded Woman - Tori Amos' new album Unrepentant Geraldines is out this week and Matt got to chat with her over at PopMatters; Tori always makes for a good read. Fairy on crack indeed.

--- Four More - Nathaniel plays some catch-up with four news stories from the past couple of weeks that merit mention if not unbridled enthusiasm - Brad and Angie and Baz oh my.

--- And Finally did you guys watch the first night of the Rosemary's Baby remake on NBC? No? Theyn you're hardly alone because its ratings were abysmal. I myself DVR'd it and I have every intention of watching it (glutton for so much punishment); I couldn't watch it live though, I had tickets to a play. Anyway I might just wait for the second night to air and watch the whole thing in one fell swoop - that way I can just have a hangover one morning instead of two.

Tori At 50

.

I am a horrible fan - I had no idea today was Tori Amos' 50th birthday. The shame, the shame. Weirdly though I have been going through a Tori phase for the past week, as if my mind was urging me there - when you've been a fan of someone for pretty much your entire life (I was fifteen when I started listening to her) you set them aside sometimes, don't listen to them for a little bit, and then one song will hit you and you'll dive back in for awhile; I got "Caught a Lite Sneeze" stuck in my head last week, after a period of not having listened to her for a bit, and so I've been soaking in her again. Anyway thankfully we have Joe Reid, who knew it was her 50th birthday, and went and wrote up this epic list of his favorite one hundred songs of hers. Go forth, Toriphiles, and soak yourselves. Now all I want to do is stick my headphones in and work my way through them all, and then all the other hundreds of songs she's written. Happy birthday, Tori! What's your favorite song? Oh and because Joe left off one of my absolute favorite songs (how dare he) here's that:

.

.

Pics of the Day

.

We got a glimpse of what these folks would look like in Bon Joon-ho's Snowpiercer a little while ago but thanks to these new character posters (via) we're seeing them even clearer and it is something. Most specifically, the Tilda. Goodness! That's a look. Honestly it immediately made me think of all the characters that Tori Amos put on for her Strange Little Girls album, but that might just be the way I'm wired. Meanwhile Jamie Bell and Chris Evans are bringing grimy hotness...

I Am Link

.

--- True Love - Today's movie for Final Girl's Shocktober fest is Takashi Miike's mortifying masterpiece Audition, and Stacie gathered up an awesomely bizarre collection of fan-art inspired by the movie.

--- Prez Sez - I guess they aired a new teaser to Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln after the debate last night, which seems a little obnoxious to me (conflating real life important junk so blatantly with Oscar bait) but whatever, that's the world we live in. Anyway rumor is that NYFF is showing Lincoln as their surprise movie this Monday and I do believe if all goes to plan I will be going, so stay tuned for days full of me being stressed about not writing that review!

--- All About Amos - Have you been reading all the pieces on Tori Amos over at PopMatters this week in anticipation of her new album Gold Dust, which reimagines her standards with an orchestra? You should be, because Matt & Co. are doing the lord's work.

--- But back to speaking about being lazy about writing reviews - I hope I'll find the time but I'm on allergy medication today so who knows where my brain's gonna take me, so if I happen to not get around to reviewing The Paperboy before it's out in theaters tomorrow you could just go read the review at Salon and get a lot of the gist of my opinion upon it. Even the part about Zac's underpants! (Seriously, Zac is in tighty-whities at least fifty percent of the time he's on-screen, that is not an exaggeration.)

--- And speaking of Nicole, I thought I'd posted the first look at Nicole Kidman in character as Grace Kelly over at The Film Experience but the commentors are telling me it's just a shot from a recent photo-shoot. Still, it's Grace-ish.

--- And yet still speaking of Nicole, last night was the gala honoring her at the New York Film Festival and I didn't go - it was too expensive and I already saw The Paperboy - but apparently they showed a clip from Stoker, and The Playlist has the details. It was the scene where the trailer's killer opening lines comes from.

--- Instant Gratification - David Fincher's House of Cards, an adaptation of a British series, will be exclusively released on Netflix Instant on February 1st. I do believe their model will be just to plunk down all the episodes for watching at one time, too. It stars Kevin Spacey.

--- Man Fest - It's been confirmed that Jake Gyllenhaal will be starring opposite Hugh Jackman in Prisoners from his An Enemy director Dennis Villeneuve, which had been rumored last week. I will probably faint if they touch.

.

I Am Link

.

--- Kick Assier - Oh goodness me some pictures from the set of Kick-Ass 2 have dropped and they're displaying the main reason I won't be able to miss this movie even though I did not much like the first one - Aaron Johnson in his tight little costume is something you just don't skip, you know? Good grief. Where is this filming? I need a ticket to there, please.

--- Bad Boy Bardem - I was hoping that we'd get to see some more of Daniel Craig in his swimsuit in this new international trailer for Skyfall (of course I was). We do not. I am linking to it though because it's worth watching for the hysterical shot of Javier Bardem zipping up his prison jumpsuit alone. I am really ready to love his villainous performance in this. I only hope he's as homosexual as he seems.

--- Hawke Fright - Unless it's a sequel to Reality Bites or Gattaca I don't have a lot of interest in Ethan Hawke, I find him kind of insufferable. And yet I keep hearing good stuff about his upcoming found-footage horror flick Sinister, and if there's good word on a horror flick there's a good chance I will watch said horror flick, so I guess I should just steel myself for inevitable Hawke. The trailer just got posted online, you can watch it here. I'm not watching it cuz even though I need convincing I'm afraid it'll give away a good scare. You never know with these things.

--- A Better Bilbo - Speaking of trailers, the second trailer for the first Hobbit movie is out, watch it e're yonder. Again I have not watched it yet, but I probably will get around to this one, I don't think it can much spoil me since I'm pretty well aware of what it's got to show already. Little people, hairy feets, so on. (Isn't that a show on TLC?)

--- Dust Woman - Tori Amos' new album Gold Dust - an orchestral re-imagining of a bunch of her old songs - is out in just a couple of weeks, and our fellow Tori fanatic Matt at PopMatters is going to be hyping it up with a spotlight series of posts on the lovely lady, including an exclusive interview. Read all about it here.

--- Eggshell - If you're an American Psycho fan (and if you're not, you're a weirdo), then you should click on this link. Amazing.

--- Pick A Posey - And if you're a Parker Posey fan (and if you're not a Parker Posey fan you're more than a weirdo, you're a straight-up crazy person), then you owe it to yourself to click over to The Film Experience and watch this comic video of her teaching a class on how to accept an Emmy. Did y'all catch her on Louie? Fucking incredible stuff.

I Am Link

.

--- Way To Go Wallis - I don't think I've said much about Madonna's movie W.E., so let's see what I have to say now that there's a poster and a trailer - where do we stand on Tom Ford's A Single Man at this point in time? I feel like people decided they hated it eventually, but I loved it, and I continue to love it. I know it's an assemblage of other people's influences piled up and slowed down, but I love it anyway. Anyway it's no more that than Xavier Dolan's Heartbeats was, and everybody creamed themselves over that without guilt (me included). Point being, I have been prepared by (excessively hateful) Word On The Street to look at W.E. through the lens of Tom Ford's movie, and if it lives up to that then I might end up liking it.  Or some of it. Or something. Since I don't have to look at Madame's Madonna's face, I am fairly indifferent to her presence. And lord knows I want poor Abbie Cornish to catch a damn break.

--- Speaking of blonds with very bad luck, hiya Sienna Miller! You really just have it out for yourself don't you? Signing on to play Tippi Hedren in that movie I told you about about Tippi's relationship with Alfred Hitchcock is one way to cut your own head off, innit? As for me I don't really dislike Sienna - homegirl knew enough to jump back on top the Jude Law Express - so I could be brought around on this.

--- Say Yes To The Uterus - I really don't link to Nick's often enough, so let me link to his latest write-up, this one about David Cronenberg's masterpiece (you know, one of his masterpieces) Dead Ringers, and from there you should just click on every link in sight because there aren't many people writing online about movies as well as he does. Read what he says about Geneviève Bujold's wonderful work:

"Bujold takes a woman who could be boiled right down to a grotesque high concept—a pill-popping actress and bondage enthusiast whose mutated, three-chambered uterus is an object of horror and fascination for the Irons characters—and she makes her mordantly intelligent, frankly self-confident, and incongruously "normal" without being boring for a single second. She never seems like she's not doing something for her scenes, whether inserting an unexpected pause or offering a smile when you expect a grimace or playing a confrontation as a seduction, and yet she never ever feels like she's acting for a camera. She suggests a filthy mind, a fond self-image, and a feminine practicality all at the same time, with zero signs of strain."

.

--- Sam's Gams - Slash was kind enough to round up a bunch of sequel news in one spot - they've got the first picture of Sam Worthington in his skirt in the Clash of the Titans sequel (his skirt seems longer, do not like), as well as word on a sequel to Insidious (okay) plus where the Jurassic Park franchise stands right now - why is it so hard to write a script about rampaging dinosaurs? It's not rocket science. Give me ten minutes and I will have you movie for you, Universal. And it will be fucking awesome. Dinosaurs attack, on an island, the end. Cue three hundred billion dollars.

--- Stealing Lindsay - Sofia Coppola's next movie might be about that group of teenagers who robbed celebrity's houses several years back, which sounds about as perfect a topic for her to cover as I could possibly dream up.
.

--- His Father's Son - Twitch has the first picture from David Cronenberg's son Brandon's first movie, called Antiviral. It stars Caleb Landry Jones, who was very good in X-Men Muppet Babies, and sounds chipped right off his papa's block, with the body horror stuff.

--- Red Lady - Since I haven't gotten around to writing anything on the Tori Amos concert I went to last week, you should read Joe's take on it since he was sitting right next to me and I agree with what he said. Ahh, easy.

--- And finally, this list of good actors' turns as awful super-villians at io9 is a lot of fun to read through, but mostly because I love so many of these horrible campy performances and it makes me want to watch them all again. Faye Dunaway in Supergirl is genius!
.

Formal Tori

.

Got my copy of Tori Amos' new album Night of Hunters in the mail just now! I'll refrain from taking a bug-eyed photograph of myself just this once, since it's lunchtime and nobody needs to see that. The album's been online for a couple weeks now so I've already heard most of it, and I like it! I was curious how she'd adapt these very formally arranged songs for her upcoming tour, though - thankfully we've got Matt Mazur over at PopMatters, who gets to talk with the lovely singing lady herself and ask the questions we're wondering.

Matt: How will playing with these guys affect the spontaneity of the live show and the older songs?

Tori: Well, we decided that it would be really great to choose songs from different records and give them a new arrangement with the quartet. Some songs, like “Baker Baker” aren’t so far away from a quartet, because the original arrangement had an element of quartet within it. Songs like “Girl Disappearing”, which we did with the Metropole Orchestra last year, that’s not hat difficult to rearrange for a quartet. The tricky ones are ones that have never had any kinds of arrangement, except maybe a band arrangement, and those take a lot more time."

Click over to read more. I was hoping she'd be lugging around some orchestra types with her! Super excited to see the show, and to see these new arrangements of old tunes.

And I can't believe that I'd never put together the cover image of Boys For Pele with Lillian Gish in The Night of the Hunter until Matt pointed it out. D'oh!

Happy Birthday, Tori

.

.

I saw Tori perform this song here in New York not long after 9/11 and she dedicated it to the city and it was to put it mildly an emotional moment. With her new album Night of Hunters out in a few weeks I've been on a total Tori kick lately... that's actually an understatement - she's all I've been listening to this week. I've been hearing really good stuff about the new album, so hope's spurring on an aural renaissance. Fingers crossed. And then I'll be seeing her live in December!

.

I Got My Rape Hat On, Honey...

.

... but I always could accessorize. I heard those lyrics earlier this week when "Talula" (and yes, Tori geeks, I think it was the "Tornado Mix" from the soundtrack to Twister) shuffled up on my iPod and I got to thinkin', where the heck's the next Tori album? It's been ages! Abnormally Attracted to Sin came out in 2009; there was Midwinter Graces last year but that was her Christmas album so it doesn't really count. Even if there wasn't anything really approaching a straight-forward cover on it and it was all her own music. (But I'm not the best judge on Midwinter Graces since I never could get too into it.) Anyway we have news! Via here:

"Hey Tori fans,

We have some exciting news to report. Tori has a new album titled Night of Hunters set for September release. The album will coming out via the world’s most celebrated classical label, Deutsche Grammophon.

Here’s how Tori describes the new record:

"It's a 21st century song cycle inspired by classical music themes spanning over 400 years. I have used the structure of a song cycle to tell an ongoing, modern story. The protagonist is a woman who finds herself in the dying embers of a relationship. In the course of one night she goes through an initiation of sorts that leads her to reinvent herself allowing the listener to follow her on a journey to explore complex musical and emotional subject matter. One of the main themes explored on this album is the hunter and the hunted and how both exist within us.”

Hear exclusive tracks from Night of Hunters via the website and email soon."

Night of Hunters, huh? Has Tori been 

watching some Charles Laughton lately?

.

I Am Link

.

--- This Is A Knife - When I wrote about Wolf Creek 2 yesterday I hadn't seen this interview with Greg McLean on it, but thankfully Glenn pointed it out.

--- Cornflake Guy - Probably the coolest and most unexpected thing I'll read this week is this piece by wrestling star Mick Foley on how Tori Amos changed his life. Yes, the faerie songstress we all know and love. She made him feel better about putting his balls on barbed wire, y'all! (via Sean)

--- Behind The Mucus - Y'all did watch that Stacie Ponder video I posted last week right? The faux-trailer for In Satan's Closet? If not go do that first, and then go read this piece she wrote for AfterEllen about the making of the movie.

--- Dario Acula - BD has a clip of a four-minute interview with Dario Argento on his next film, a 3D version of Dracula. While I'd love another classic from him, his recent output suggest otherwise, and the quotes they post from the interview are frankly a little bit embarrassing. We will see.

--- One Word - Bearantula.

--- The Regal Smeagol - Thought there couldn't be any more problems with getting The Hobbit made? Oh how naive you were! Now Peter Jackson's duking it out with unions. This movie will be the death of us all.

--- Hard Muscled! Soft Hearted! - This list of the greatest tag-lines to Susan Hayward movies at The Film Experience is cracking me up. I wish this level of camp were still embraced as a mainstay of mainstream pop culture. It's all too winky now.

--- Golden Slumber - Cinematical put together a list of seven films playing at Fantastic Fest that have no American distribution but deserve it. The list includes the new film by Yoshihiro Nakamura, the director of that movie Fish Story which I reviewed last week and loved.

--- Aliens In Space - Sam Raimi is producing a series for FOX written by Brian K. Vaughn, the writer/creator of Y: The Last Man (he also did a bunch of Lost episodes) about "a documentary crew following working class heroes who exterminate alien threats in deep space." It'll be called Smokers. I will be watching it.
.

Midwinter What's The What Now?

There's a new Tori Amos album out today?

WTF? I had NO idea!

An album of holiday-ish songs
called Midwinter Graces.
Out today. Ack!

What's weird is I was just thinking about Miss Amos this morning, some song came on my iPod and I wondered how long it'd be til we got the next album. Never did "five minutes" pop into my head as a possible answer. Lordy. Yay!
.

Smells Like Tori's Spirit

I posted about this at my Facebook page the day after the concert but now there's video! Exciting. It's Tori Amos at her concert last week singing her cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (via). Lovely.

.

.
(Thanks Dave!)
.

Abnormally Out Today

.

Tori Amos' 10th album,
Abnormally Attracted To Sin,
is out today. Yo. I like this song:

.

.

"Maybe California"

.

Another song and video from Tori Amos' upcoming album have made their way online... it's called "Maybe California" and you can see and listen over here (unfortunately they're not letting me embed it). The album, called Abnormally Attracted to Sin, is out on May 19th.
.

"Welcome To England"

.
Hey everybody! It's a new Tori Amos video!
For a new Tori Amos song! Wowza!
.

.