 Identify this "chick" and tell me you can before she gets her words in here and I'll say you're either lucky to know her or have a taste for adventure.
For me it was a mix of good fortune and the start of a friendship with a librarian who takes risks when it comes to what she buys for her shelves and has done me a favour. Once she knew what's going, she waived the rule about no more than four CDs at a time with such zeal it's almost alarming.
"Take out whatever you like when you want!" she said. Once I have, it's time politely to flee because there's always a somebody else she wants to add.
"You're a darling, but we'll 'meet' her next time maybe, huh?"
"Oh well, as you like."
The snow's come to town, a little yesterday, while this morning it was heavy, almost settling. Daily contacts in Africa make me jealous: "Today, it's sunny, it's 30° (C) plus and it's just right!"
One friend, who spared me the weather, was less keen than I am on Liz Phair's latest slice of life. Lauren had none of the Judas touch I berated on finding so many knives out, but she was right. Until Liz is ready to open a new chapter, those songs dubbed "radio-ready", to pick up an industry term, don't usually stand up on their own.
That's one goal too far, I reckon.
What's brought me back in out of the cold to stress this includes an introduction to someone else's ''Confessions'. Madonna is everywhere with her return to the dance floor, including the corner bar where I fuel up on coffee.
The bone-chilling damp in the air is so vile that barman Hugues did well to give the very few of us who had braved it a buzz off his recent acquisition. Any fear I had that Madonna might have misjudged this step has been put to rest. I heard only three or four tracks, but she didn't.
If you remain a newcomer to the log brought by a search engine about people you fancy or want to discover and you have a tight budget, it's worth noting I deal with albums as a whole in the context of musicians' careers.
Thus my idea of what's good music frequently doesn't match the charts, so now I know I'm turning people on, I ask you to take what I write in that context. I'm happy when you've bought an album because of an entry but I'm not a "mainstream critic"; taking my word for it is flattering but can take you out on a limb!
Contact request: help please
Thus it was with Liz Phair. I won't argue her latest album is a good introduction to her work as a whole. As for 2005, it's already begun on the Net, music mags and sometimes in your mail: many critics and reviewers are already getting on with their 'Best of the Year' lists.
To read a few I have this past week, you could be fooled into believing what some have said pretty bluntly. We're still a month short of Xmas, but you'll find a bunch of writers, particularly rock critics, telling you what a bad and banal year it's been!
Tip: don't believe them, judge for yourselves and remember where they are sometimes coming from with all the biases that entails, such as industry "freebies", piles of music the "pros" don't always take the time to hear properly, and a rivalry regarding the charts.
This annoys some musicians so much the attention has left them wary and inaccessible to people like me. In some instances, I need help, particularly from industry "insiders" so here's my seasonal appeal to match those from the likes of the Red Cross, 'Medécins sans Frontières' and the other charities that want your cash around Christmas.
Not money, thank you. Contacts!
There's a revolting industry that's grown, particularly in the United States and one or two other countries. Musicians have agents, record labels and ... "bodyguards". Such people are obviously there both to promote and to protect them. We journalists can usually breach these barriers, it's part of our job, but a time-consuming pain when you're in good faith and need to go to source with a question or two to get the facts right.
What sickens me is the appearance of agents for agents on the Net. These parasites -- do you want some company names? -- earn a living by compiling lists of the direct contacts you can't always reach and then selling them! It's fair enough to protect musicians from mountains of fan or hate mail. That's what forums are for. But the downside is odious profiteering when the business overdoes it so people with a job to do need to pay go-betweens to reach the go-betweens. I won't.
Hence a public appeal for contacts I've also issued professionally among friends who know the industry well. If you have any names and contact details for insiders who can save me a swim through these sewage channels and money I've not got to do this job, please use my mail box and drop me a line. Strictest confidence goes without saying.
Places I particularly need such people are New York and in California.
Looking back to get ahead
 The Tori Amos picture's an old one I like: a detail from the 'Boys for Pele' cover that's particularly appropriate when I'd rather face her guns than turning mine on those various parasites.
As elsewhere in a competitive world, "Best of" lists do what happens at Cannes and in the Oscars when it comes to movies, where the brownie points and awards frequently go to the latest, forgetting achievements that preceded them in the same year.
That's what I mean by the Janus touch: these annual rituals, particularly at year's end, tend to be cursed by it, making them as top-heavy as what that particular god has on his neck! To place too much importance on what's brand new is to risk your balance and sense of perspective.
Tori, who's learned to keep hers and remain centred, has been my long-suffering example of the musician who incites ridiculous comparisons at the expense of very many another singer by people who don't respect the latter for who they are.
Whether Amos makes many "review of the year" lists is another question since so much good music has been released since February people may well forget 'The Beekeeper'.
It's "too old" already -- but what an album! In due course, we'll be taking a listen to it. I've had it for months and now it's pretty high on my list of "who's next", it's worth pointing out that another site has just rediscovered it in a singular way.
"'The storm is on the horizon,' says Amos. 'It's coming, this massive force. It can be emotional or physical 0 or all these things.'
"The Beekeeper is an allegory about that coming storm, and one woman's journey through it. It's not strictly an autobiography, although as Amos admits, 'If I didn't relate to it in some way, I wouldn't be able to sing it.' It is, however, very much about these times, and about the struggle to find a bedrock of truth beneath the tangle of lies, mythology, casual assumptions and political manipulation that have formed the cultural landscape of the U.S.A. today."
Tori also said:
"'I don't usually talk about what the songs are about, because they're about many, many things' (...). Indeed, she treats songs as beings in their own right, each with its own identity, personality and agenda."
Whether you're an Amos admirer or in that "a name's always new to somebody" group, you may well find the Auralgasms update on Tori's bio a good read. It reveals a whole side to the woman I knew nothing about until I got into the research.
Tori's done a lot of her own. People who share her Christian faith may find it reassuring to learn what she needed to do with it on seeing how "Jesus' teachings are being hijacked and manipulated by politicians".
I'm not a Christian but this doesn't switch me off to "that symbolism and those allegories" she's been exploring to keep her own focus. Mick Jagger made the headlines this year, but his onslaught on the White House version of Christian practice was a facile flash in the pan.
Try Tori's perspective and you may end up listening to 'The Beekeeper' anew. I am; there are many bees abuzz in this bird!
3:44:16 PM link 
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