Miscellaneous

Night of Tori

Genre-shifting singer brings her ‘Hunters’ tour to D.C. Monday

Published

13 years ago

December 1, 2011

Tori Amos’s new album ‘Night of Hunters’ explores the demise of a relationship in a song cycle based on musical themes from the classical masters. (Photo courtesy Live Nation)

Tori Amos
‘Night of Hunters World Tour’
Monday at 8 p.m.
DAR Constitution Hall
1776 D St., N.W.
$46.50-$57.65
800-745-3000
toriamos.com
ticketmaster.com

Ahhhh Tori. How she likes to keep us guessing.

The creatively restless singer, who released current album “Night of Hunters” in September on the classical label Deutsche Grammophon, is touring the complex concept album now with a show that brings her Monday to Washington at her usual concert spot — DAR Constitution Hall, where she played for her “Sinful Attraction Tour” (2009) and “American Doll Posse World Tour” (2007) among other jaunts.

Tickets were still available as of Blade press time. Prior to leaving on the tour, which kicked off in late September in Finland and has found her in both Russia and South Africa in addition to her usual European stops (she opened in the U.S. this week in Philadelphia), Amos, 48, spent time by phone from her Florida home to talk about the album, the tour, her gay fans and how she maintains such precision at the piano.

WASHINGTON BLADE: After many years with Atlantic, you’ve recorded for several big labels in the last 10 years or so and now, rather unexpectedly, this new album is for Deutsche Grammophon. Is this industry tumultuousness, logistics, your choice or what?

TORI AMOS: A lot of people have common bonds who were at these labels and what’s funny, well, not funny, but Doug Morris who was running Atlantic when I was there, so he would say, “Tori, I didn’t leave, they forced me out.” He left this year to go to Sony, so I think people do jump around depending on who the people are at any given time. For me, I’d fulfilled my commitment to Universal and … Deutsche Grammophon kind of tracked me down and Dr. Alex Buhr said, “Look, I know you’re working on a musical, but I think you should consider a 21st century song cycle based on classical themes.” I was like, “Are you serious, that’s a very tall order.” He said, “Don’t you want a challenge, don’t you want to do something different?” I said, “Well nobody has approached me,” so he said, “Deutsche Grammophon wants you to try this.” I thought how many times in life do you get offered something like this with the support of one of the great classical labels of all time? I said, “OK, you’re going to have to send me lots and lots of good music, loads of classical music.” So “Night of Hunters” is really based on themes from classical music over the last 400 years.

BLADE: What kind of instrumentation will you use for the tour?

AMOS: We’re going out with a string quartet and that just seemed to make sense. They play with such a high caliber that it was really quite tempting. And yet they’re very young, in their late 20s and early 30s so they’re very passionate about their playing and I thought this would be a good balance. They’re so passionate about classical music and early 20th century music and they played on the record. So then I thought why not arrange some of the catalogue just for strings, piano and vocal and so we’re doing some of the older songs in that configuration. We’re just starting some of that now. Once we get to America, we should have more in our repertoire.

BLADE: You’re well known for varying your set list from night to night. When you have songs like the ones from this new album or, say, another concept album like “Scarlet’s Walk,” is it problematic sequencing them with others into a live show that will flow either musically or thematically?

AMOS: When I’m traveling, I think the key is that when you go into a city, you really have to take stock of the emotional temperature there, so for instance, when things have happened in the world like the Oslo tragedy and you’re playing a show there that night, the people are in absolute shock and grief at that level of violence so then there’s an opportunity for something healing to happen and to work through the shock of an experience like that together through music. Or if you’re not in that city but you might be close by, you might still form a connection with current events … I design the sets based on the energy of the city I’m in and what they’re responding to and if there’s something that seems especially appropriate, I mean except for like “Datura,” I can pretty much do a version alone at the piano even if it’s not something the band or in this case the string quartet has worked up. Or I can do a cover. I see all songs as part of the palette and it’s about changing something every night so that it’s unique. Some songs are just part of the basic repertoire and you’ll find I’m playing them at almost every show. They’re kind of our building blocks and we go from there.

BLADE: These songs are more classically oriented than anything else you’ve done. Is that dictated by the arrangements and instrumentation or is there something in their basic lyrics and chord progressions that makes them inherently classical in nature? Could they have worked with drums and bass in theory?

AMOS: With this project, I knew I couldn’t make it too obscure in dealing with classical themes. I didn’t want it to sound un-contemporary. I wanted people to listen to it and say, “Oh, that’s the Tori I recognize.” I didn’t want it to be “Tori goes classical.” And so while there are some ancient melodic elements here, it’s really worked into a 21st century framework and so it’s not that they aren’t really built in a pop structure, but I think there’s a fusion that is happening and I told somebody yesterday you have to approach something like this where you’re using a master classical work as a base, there’s a delicate ruthlessness you have to apply because a lot of these pieces are very beautiful in their original form, but for a lot of people, unless you’re really into the classical arena, they haven’t been exposed to it all. So I would say to the masters themselves and their energy, “OK look, if you want to be part of this, you’ve got to let me know.” And each one would hunt me down. I’d just be walking around and it was like popcorn, “OK, I’m the Chopin piece, I’m in.”

BLADE: Tori fans are known for their extreme devotion. Do some fans take it too far with the massive collections, tattoos, following you around on tour, etc. Does that level of fandom ever freak you out?

AMOS: I think to some degree, that isn’t really any of my business. People have their own relationships with the songs. What maybe gets confusing is when people start trying to read so much into the songs that they think that I’m leaving my husband and child and running off with somebody from the planet Saturn and joining a cult and that’s just not happening. And so the songs can have heartbreak and all kinds of emotions but especially if you’re a writer, you write about it but you also have a private life and some entertainers don’t hold their private life very sacred. I have to walk a delicate balance because you want to be open with your emotions and let that into the music on one level but also present it in a way that transcends the particulars of what’s going on in my own life.

BLADE: As your early career was taking shape, it was clear you weren’t accepting history and religion from a traditional Judeo-Christian perspective. Did you and your father (a Methodist minister) talk about such things? Did your parents consider your lyrics and imagery sacreligious?

AMOS: Yeah, there were some conversations years ago, like before the turn of the century, there were many discussions and he would say he thought I was being a little hard on the big G and I would say, “Well, you know Dad, writers have to be able to have their say and it’s important because it’s from a different perspective.” I would never tell another writer what to say or not to say. They have to have their own musical expressions. I don’t always agree with other writers or other theology, but it might really motivate me to ask questions on my own. I think that’s what a good writer does, motivating others to ask questions. Not to tell them something, but to find out what it is they believe.

BLADE: Why do you think gay people exist? Is it to fulfill some evolutionary or biological role? Does it matter?

AMOS: Well, different people have had different information over the years that I find very fascinating. I’m sure you’ve been reading. Some of it sounds very iffy but it sounds like the science is very supportive that this is not something you just choose and I think the religions really need to hear this from the scientific community. I do think the judgment that is against people who are gay is so misinformed and cold. I’ve met quite a few young people who have been really tormented by other teenagers and they’re not being accepted even in the 21st century. I think in some ways the world has become more judgmental. It’s almost a world of extremes and then you have the center, we see this even in Congress, trying to find some balance and logic amidst these extremes. I mean, I don’t know what it would be like to be a teen today and realize that I’m gay. I don’t know if it’s any easier than it was, if you’re in, say a very conservative household. I mean what happens when somebody in a tea party household realizes this?

BLADE: You play the piano with such precision. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you hit an obvious wrong note. Is this just from years of playing? How do you manage this? Don’t all pianists hit wrong notes sometimes?

AMOS: Well part of the whole thing is that my core is very aligned and it might not seem like I’m moving around much but my core is pretty anchored, I kind of balance myself on the high heel and it gives me a stance.

BLADE: So the heels aren’t just for the glamour? They factor into how you play?

AMOS: Definitely. If I have a flat foot, I don’t have the same kind of core or if it’s anchored too high, then I wobble, but if it’s just the right height on the foot, it’s a huge support to the core because you play from your core, not from your hands. It all comes from the center, your solar plexus.

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Miscellaneous

Stephen Miller’s legal group sues Fairfax County schools

Lawsuit challenges policies for transgender, nonbinary students

Published

1 year ago

March 7, 2024

Staff reports

(Bigstock photo)

Former Trump administration official Stephen Miller’s legal group on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Fairfax County School District over its policies for transgender and nonbinary students.

America First Legal in a press release notes it filed the lawsuit against the school district on behalf of a female, “practicing Roman Catholic” student “for allowing teenage boys to use the female restrooms and for forcing a radical, government-sponsored gender indoctrination and approved-speech scheme that discriminates against students on the basis of sex and religion and violates their free speech rights under the Virginia Constitution.”

The lawsuit was filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court.

The Virginia Department of Education last July announced new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, would forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.

Fairfax County schools are among the school districts that have refused to implement the guidelines.

“Fairfax County Public Schools appears to believe that its policies and regulations can override the Virginia Constitution’s protections for religious beliefs, speech and from government discrimination on the basis of sex and religious beliefs,” said America First legal Senior Advisor Ian Prior in a press release. “It is well past time for FCPS to stop sacrificing the constitutional rights of its students so that it can implement a state-sanctioned ideology that demands compliance in speech, beliefs and conduct.”

FCPS Pride, a group that represents the Fairfax County School District’s LGBTQ employees, described the lawsuit as “abhorrent.”

“We are confident that the school board and the superintendent will strongly and firmly oppose this specious suit and continue to support all students, including transgender and gender expansive students,” said the group in a press list.

Miscellaneous

More than a dozen LGBTQ candidates on the ballot in Va.

Control of the state Senate hangs in the balance

Published

2 years ago

November 2, 2023

Michael K. Lavers

Virginia state Del. Danica Roem (D-Manassas) speaks at the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch in D.C. on April 23, 2023. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

More than a dozen openly LGBTQ candidates are on the ballot in Virginia on Nov. 7.

State Del. Danica Roem (D-Manassas) is running against Republican Bill Woolf in the newly redistricted Senate District 30 that includes western Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

Roem in 2018 became the first openly transgender person seated in a state legislature in the U.S. after she defeated then-state Del. Bob Marshall, a prominent LGBTQ rights opponent who co-wrote Virginia’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Roem would become Virginia’s first out trans state senator if she defeats Woolf.

Woolf supports a bill that would require school personnel to out trans students to their parents. The Republican Party of Virginia has highlighted this position in ads in support of Woolf.

“Thank you for reminding me why I won three elections in this district in Prince William County, which is the most diverse county in all of Virginia and the 10th most nationally where we welcome everyone because of who they are, not despite it, no matter what you look like, where you come from, how you worship, if you do, or who you love because you should be able to thrive here because of who you are, never despite it,” said Roem on Sept. 28 in response to a woman who heckled her during a debate with Woolf that took place at Metz Middle School in Manassas.

Gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) is running for re-election in Senate District 39. State Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County), who is also gay, is running for re-election in House District 43.

Former state Del. Joshua Cole, who identifies as bisexual, is running against Republican Lee Peters in House District 65. State Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler (D-Virginia Beach), who came out as bisexual last year at Hampton Roads Pride, will face Republican Mike Karslake and independent Nicholas Olenik.

State Del. Marcia “Cia” Price (D-Newport News), a Black woman who identifies as pansexual, is running for re-election in House District 85.

Adele McClure, a queer Democrat, is running to represent House District 2 that includes portions of Arlington County. Laura Jane Cohen, a bisexual woman who is a member of the Fairfax County School Board, is a House of Delegates candidate in House District 15.

Rozia Henson, a gay federal contractor who works for the Department of Homeland Security, is running in House District 19. Zach Coltrain, a gay Gen Zer, is running against state Del. Barry Knight (R-Virginia Beach) in House District 98.

LPAC has endorsed Jade Harris, a Rockbridge County Democrat who is running to represent Senate District 3. Harris’ website notes trans rights are part of their platform.

“Protecting trans rights, repealing right to work, strengthening unions and supporting our farmers are just a few of my legislative priorities,” reads the website. “I am dedicated to addressing the revitalization of our state’s infrastructure, fostering a favorable environment for job creation, and supporting our public education system.”

Republicans currently control the House by a 51-46 margin, while Democrats have a 21-19 majority in the state Senate.

Senate Democrats have successfully blocked anti-LGBTQ bills that Republicans have introduced since Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin took office in January 2022.

The Virginia Department of Education in July released new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students that activists and their supporters have sharply criticized. They fear that Republicans will curtail LGBTQ rights in the state if they regain control of both houses of the General Assembly on Nov. 7.

“Time and time again, anti-equality lawmakers and the Youngkin administration have made it clear that they will continue to disrespect and disregard the lives and lived experience of LGBTQ+ people within Virginia,” said Equality Virginia PAC Executive Director Narissa Rahaman in August when her organization and the Human Rights Campaign endorsed Roem, Ebbin and other “pro-equality champions.”

“We must elect pro-equality champions who will secure and strengthen our freedoms,” added Rahaman. “We have that chance as the eyes of the nation are on us this November.”

The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund has endorsed Fairfax County School Board Vice Chair Karl Frisch and Fairfax County School Board candidates Robyn Lady and Kyle McDaniel, who identify as lesbian and bisexual respectively.

Michael Pruitt would become the first openly bisexual man elected to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors if he were to win on Nov. 7. Blacksburg Town Councilman Michael Sutphin and Big Stone Gay Town Councilman Tyler Hughes, who are both gay, are running for re-election.

“Tyler will be a critical voice for equality as the only out LGBTQ+ person on the Big Stone Gap Town Council,” says the Victory Fund on its website.

Cal Benn contributed to this article.

Miscellaneous

What it means to be an active ally to your LGBTQ+ co-workers TEST

Five easy tips to help you avoid common risks

Published

2 years ago

November 1, 2023

Brad Baumoel

Be sure to install baby gates if you have stairs in your home with young children. (Photo by Kasia Bialasiewicz/Bigstock)

Your home is more than just a place to eat and sleep; it’s your safe haven. As much as you might cherish your home, you should probably also recognize the potential hazards within its familiar walls. Accidents can happen in an instant, yet with a little foresight and some simple adjustments, you can transform your house into a safer haven.

Accidents can happen anywhere, and with a few simple tweaks, you can lower risks in your space. Below you’ll find five tips for each room in your home to help prevent injuries, falls, and other mishaps. In short, home safety.

This article was inspired by a shower in a rental we managed that began leaking through the kitchen ceiling below. If only the landlord had installed grab bars, right!? Below, we’ll guide you through the steps to fortify your bathroom, making it a place of relaxation without the fear of slips and falls. Then, we’ll venture into the room where the magic happens, where proper planning can ensure great nights and peaceful mornings. We’ll show you how to prevent accidents while you experiment becoming the next Gordon Ramsey. And we’ll include a few surprising solutions for those other rooms that hold their own unique hazards, offering solutions to safeguard against unexpected mishaps.

Bathroom Safety

Install Grab Bars: Adding grab bars near the shower and toilet can provide essential support for family members of all ages. Not only can they help with getting in and out, but they can help provide stability when washing. Make sure they are securely anchored to the wall.

Non-Slip Mats: Place non-slip mats inside the shower and bathtub to prevent slips. They’re a small investment that can save you from falls and head injuries.

Adjust Water Temperature: Ensure your hot water is set to a safe temperature to avoid scalding. The hot water heater should be set to around 120°F (49°C)l, the middle setting on many water heater settings.

Medicine Cabinet Locks: If you have young children, use childproof locks on your medicine cabinet to keep harmful substances out of reach.

Proper Lighting: Ensure there’s adequate lighting in the bathroom to avoid trips and falls during nighttime visits. Nightlights can be a simple and effective solution.

Bedroom Safety

Clear Pathways: Keep pathways in the bedroom clutter free to prevent tripping. Ensure there’s enough space to move around comfortably, particularly getting around the bed. Be aware where all furniture is when walking around to avoid stubbed toes, particularly at night.

Secure Rugs: If you have throw rugs, use rug grippers or double-sided tape to keep them from slipping. Loose rugs are a common trip hazard.

Bed Rails: For anyone at risk of falling out of bed, consider installing bed rails to provide extra support and prevent falls.

Nightstands with Drawers: Opt for nightstands with drawers to keep essential items. This reduces the need to get out of bed at night, minimizing the risk of falls, as you race to grab what you need and not lose a moment’s rest.

Fire Safety: Install battery-operated smoke detectors in the bedrooms if there are none. Make sure to install them 36 inches away from an air vent or the edge of a ceiling fan. Also six inches away from the joint between the wall and ceiling. And test smoke detectors regularly.

Kitchen Safety

Non-Slip Flooring: Choose slip-resistant rugs in the kitchen, especially in areas where spills are common. Mats near the sink and stove can also help and you can often buy them fairly cheaply at Costco.

Childproof Cabinets: If you have little ones, use childproof latches on cabinets and drawers to prevent them from accessing potentially hazardous items.

Anti-tip brackets: Install an anti-tip bracket behind the range. These are often used when children are in the home. Although they are less likely to open the oven door and use it as a step stool to get to the stove-top, adults can also benefit from installing these.

Adequate Lighting: Proper lighting is crucial in the kitchen to avoid accidents. Under-cabinet lighting can illuminate work areas effectively.

Secure Heavy Items: Ensure heavy pots and pans are stored at waist level to prevent straining or dropping them from high shelves.

Sharp Object Storage: Keep knives and other sharp objects in a secure drawer or block. And handle all sharp items with extreme care, even when washing and drying. These steps reduce the risk of accidental cuts.

Other Safety Tips

Furniture Anchors: Secure heavy furniture, like bookshelves and dressers, to the wall to prevent tip-overs, especially if you have young children.

Adequate Outlets: Check for damaged outlets and replace them promptly. Avoid overloading circuits with too many devices. Install placeholder plugs in outlets to prevent young curious fingers (or tongues?) from going inside an electrical outlet.

Stair Gates: If your home has stairs, install safety gates at the top and bottom to prevent falls, especially if you have toddlers or pets to keep them off of the stairs when you cannot monitor them.

Emergency Escape Plan: Develop and practice an emergency escape plan with your family, including a designated meeting place outside.

Carbon Monoxide Detector: If your home burns any fossil fuels for heating or appliances, install carbon monoxide detectors in common areas of your home to detect this odorless gas. The D.C. building codes require this if you use a fireplace or if you have an attached garage. In essence, if there is any potential source of carbon monoxide in the home, be sure to install these detectors.

Remember, a safer home not only prevents accidents but also provides peace of mind for you and your family. Implement these simple tips to create a secure environment in every room of your house.

With these practical tips and a few adjustments, you can significantly reduce the risk of injuries and falls in your home. Enjoy peace of mind in your now much safer haven.

Scott Bloom is owner and senior property manager of Columbia Property Management.