Warning: Geeky Tori Amos fan stuff ahead

The track listing for Tori Amos' best of album, Tales of a Librarian, has been released/leaked. View it here.

A breakdown of each album that's represented:

Little Earthquakes 6 songs 30%	Under the Pink 3 songs 15%
Boys for Pele 3 songs 15%	From the Choirgirl Hotel 3 songs 15%
To Venus and Back 1 song 5%	Singles 2 songs 10%
New 2 songs 10%

I find it interesting that Little Earthquakes is so heavily represented. It's one of my favorite albums of all-time, and I think it's Tori's best. But is it double as good as BFP, UTP, and FTCGH? I don't know. That's just what the track listing seems to imply to me. Agree? Disagree? There's no Scarlet's Walk represented, either. I think at least "Wednesday" deserves a nod.

I can't wait to hear the new versions of "Mary" and "Sweet Dreams". I don't know about the new songs. If they're too much in the vein of Scarlet's Walk, I don't know if I'll dig them as much. Not that I don't enjoy SW, but it doesn't have the same effect on me that Little Earthquakes or Boys for Pele has.

So, fellow Tori-people, what do you think?

As per Beth's request, I will blog about the
Erin McKeown
show on Saturday night.

We got there a little after nine, when doors were supposed to open. They didn't open until about 9:20, I guess. We found some seats near the back of the venue, which really wasn't too far from the stage. It was the first time I'd been to The Dame, a venue that opened a few months ago in Lexington. (It has been through several different incarnations, but I'd never been in there before.) It was a pretty good small venue. The sound wasn't bad at all, as I've witnessed in a few other smaller venues in the area.

Anyhow.. we got inside, and I bought Jay and I two beers for lack of a better alternative. I bought Kentucky Ale. While it didn't taste bad, per se, it also wasn't good. Jay drank about 2/3 of his, and I drank a sip. I just gave it to my friend Shawn when he and his wife arrived. I went next door to Buster's where Aimee was supposedly having her birthday celebrations, but they were not there. The opener (Kelly Hogan) finally came onstage at probably 10:30 (it was s'posed to be 10:00). She was ok. She had a good voice, but I'm not running out to buy her album.

Finally, Erin McKeown came on at probably 11:15 or so. She rocked. There are a lot of songs off of Distillation that kinda bore me after the first four, but they were completely different live. She definitely needs to release a live album. They had so much more energy. I really should have got off my ass and gone to the front to watch her, because alot of the people around us were obnoxious. Some chick in front of us had on a fedora, and it was in my line of vision a good deal of the time. There was a lot of talking, too. Next show at The Dame (Cracker, I think), I'm going to be up front. While it's nice to have somewhere to sit, I'm not quite that old. Anyhow, I definitely have to get the Ms. McKeown's new album, Grand. Next time I see her, I will be closer to the stage (and farther away from stupid people who could care less about who's on stage.) She played every song I wanted to hear. I would have stayed after to get something signed, but it was after 1 am, and we were tired. (Jay turns into a pumpkin after midnight. It was awkward carrying a pumpkin that size out of the venue, but I did.)

If she comes to your city, go see her! :)

Ok, since I'm updating the links on the left, I'm taking off the TMBG Offtopic one, since no one's posted there since July 2002.

I'd like to thank Tara for a heads up on the BNL tour of "small" venues (hehe. Although I personally consider small venues to be the Bogart's and the like.) Anyhow, I got box seat tickets at the Taft Theatre. I was getting utter crap on the floor, and I love Taft's box seats. They're so much better than bad floor seats. We're in Row D. (I'm taking my cousin Emily). Yay! It'll be the first time I've seen BNL in years. I probably wouldn't have gone if it was another arena show, but I'm all for The Taft.

Jay is now removed from the links, per his request.

On the left, you will see a link to my friend Ben's Live Journal. Read, enjoy, etc.

I'm tempted to take the link to Jay's blog off of the left, since he never actually updates it. I'll leave it for now, out of love. heh.

The Onion | Idaville Detective 'Encyclopedia' Brown Found Dead In Library Dumpster

So this morning I wake up at 9:00 am, on my clock (I keep my clock 18 minutes fast for reasons I don't understand myself.) I realize, "Wow, I have to get to work." I rush around trying to get ready, when I ran into the doorway of my room. I think I broke my left pinky toe. Ouch.

Ok, this is weird:
Having Princess here seems to have turned Anastasia nice again. I just don't understand. She's letting Jay pet her, and cuddling with me, etc. I wish I understood more about animal psychology.

I think it's cute. hehe.

Nicole and Tara especially, batten down ye olde hatches. (While not in as much danger, Beth and Nathan better be careful too.)

As of Wednesday, Jay and I will have a new member of the household: Princess the doggie. She's a lab-chow mix that my dad's loaning us for the time being (he wants to travel a bit.) We might keep her, we'll let him decide that. Anastasia has an eye infection; giving her medicine has been SO MUCH FUN. I mean, I wouldn't want anyone putting some greasy ointment in my eye, so I understand.

We're finally getting the living room decorated, but we can't find the clock we bought (Beth's theorizes it's missing because "Time Flies." hehe. She's going to kill me for putting that up.) I'm going to buy a new clock tomorrow. It's driving me batty. I think it might have gotten thrown away when I was in WV (inadvertently, of course.) MUST. HAVE. CLOCK. I think I'm possessed by Martha Stewart.

Well, life is slowly getting back to normal. Normal, minus my mom. It hits me every now and then (more now than then, I guess). But I'd rather not discuss it right now.

I have a few upcoming concerts. Looking at the past year makes me realize: I see the same people over and over. hehe. That's fine with me.

I swear to god, we saw the lead singer from Incubus at the hotel we stayed at in South Carolina, when we went to scatter mom's ashes. The funny thing was that this wasn't a really nice hotel, just a family-style one. Maybe it was a hideout. Very weird.

Ok, that's all I have for now. Maybe I'll blog tomorrow.

Here's a link to my mom's obit

My mom died this morning.

She'd been in the hospital since Friday with peritonitis, and the massive infection overcame her. Her heart stopped once and they revived her, but we had them put a do not resuscitate order on her after that. She went peacefully, after we said our goodbyes.

Please, don't leave comments on this post, because there's nothing anyone can say that will help or do anything. I appreciate all thoughts and prayers for my family.

In lieu of flowers, we're asking that people send a donation in her name (Diana McClanahan) to the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation. The information is below:
PKD Foundation
4901 Main St., Suite 200
Kansas City, MO 64112

Thank you so much to everyone that's been there for me along the way. I'll be in touch sometime later in the week.