Leaving Terra

I have recently fallen in love with Tori Amos's album Scarlet's Walk (2002). I've loved the singles "A Sorta Fairytale" and "Taxi Ride" for a long time, but have only recently listened to the album after borrowing it from the library a few weeks ago. The fans seem to love it, and it was the critics' favorite since Under the Pink, but I wasn't feeling it at first. Even though I originally thought my girl could do no wrong, I am beginning to suspect that perhaps her career peaked with From the Choirgirl Hotel. But like all of Amos's music, and even more so with SW, you don't listen to the music and lyrics, the lyrics and music listen to you. And so, slowly, I have fallen under the spell of Scarlet's Walk. Neil Gaiman describes the album this way, "the CD's about America--it's a story that's also a journey, that begins in LA and crosses the country, slowly heading east. America's in there, and specific places and things, Native American history and pornography and a girl on a plane who'll never get to New York, and Oliver Stone and Andrew Jackson and madness and a lot more. Not to mention a girl called Scarlet who may be the land and may be a person and may be a trail of blood." That's a beautiful description, and I think it is also helpful in discussing Tori's music. Ever since Boys for Pele, Amos has created elaborate concepts for her albums that sometimes fall flat and/or overwhelm her songs. But one doesn't listen to a Tori Amos song the way one listens to nearly any other artist's work. Each individual track is like a chapter in a novel, and her songs work best as ethereal poems which tell stories through her lyrics and the piano melodies that underscore them. Obviously, she is not a universal but a niche artist. Anyway, this exegesis has gone on for longer than I intended, but I just want to briefly mention a few of the songs I love from Scarlet's Walk. I enjoy "Crazy" very much, especially for its religious implications. These lines are just delicious: "First, let's just unzip your religion down / Heard you were once Temptation's Girl." In "Another Girl's Paradise" Amos explores how hard it is to genuinely wish others well and not envy them, and how impossible it is to placate Desire--she will always remain everything we want and cannot have. "Does it all come down to the thing one girl fears in the night / is another girl's paradise." And I love the eponymous track "Scarlet's Walk," which for me not only refers to Amos's persona's cross-country road trip across America and especially her retracing of the early European settlers' footsteps, and conjures up images of Scarlet O'Hara, but also refers to the Trail of Tears which is also a path of blood "through the violets." It's also a commentary on the state of America and her land, religion and liberty. I also enjoy "Amber Waves" and "Don't Make Me Come to Vegas" which are about a fading porn star, and "I Can't See New York."
By the way, Tori Amos's latest album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin, hits the stores tomorrow. I haven't much cared for the first single "Welcome to England" but the reviews have been mostly good. I'm still not sure whether I will purchase it or not--I probably will. But I really hope to see her in concert at Abravanel Hall here in SLC in July.

In another commentary on the future of our land, Tim DeChristopher is one of my heroes. He threw a monkey wrench in the bidding at a questionable auction of Utah's BLM properties which were being bid on by oil and energy companies. He made a false bid of $1.8 million dollars he has no intention of paying. You can hear more about his story and a broader discussion of civil disobedience by listening to this episode of RadioWest which aired three weeks ago. (I am behind on my podcasting.) He has been charged with two felonies and is currently awaiting trial which will hopefully raise more awareness of our land and energy policies. I firmly believe in civil disobedience especially as one of the few ways to truly enact social change. It also reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from V for Vendetta, "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." Of course, V isn't about civil disobedience as much as a violent revolution, but still. Furthermore, I sometimes wonder about the relationship between Mormons (and other Christians) and the land. I'm not entirely clear about the theology/doctrine but I know Mormons have a covenant with God to be stewards which includes a stewardship over the land and our planet. Yet, a majority of Utah Mormons are quite conservative on this issue (as they tend to be on all sociopolitical issues) and even anti-environmentalist. And from my own point of view, there seem to be a number of fundamentalists who welcome climate change and global warming and whatnot as a signal of the "End of Days" and perhaps eschew any responsibility for the care and protection of our home: Earth. On a related note, Utah's popular and moderate governor, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., is accepting a new post as ambassador to China. This means that presumably the much more conservative Lieutenant Governor Gary Herbert is poised to take over. He will be the first governor, I believe, to be from Utah County (or Provo, which either way doesn't bode well for me), and over the last few months he has taken some distance between Huntsman's more moderate and progressive stances on issues such as same-sex civil unions and energy policies. We will have to wait and see what happens, but I am not terribly optimistic. I guess it's a good thing I am moving to Washington state in the fall.

I also just wanted to mention the incredible time I had this past weekend. As my hours got cut at the Marriott Library--called "work sharing"--I no longer work on Fridays, for the time being at least. Which is sort of nice, but I also really need the money. Anyway, I went to an early matinee of Angels & Demons with my dear friend Kristyn whom I haven't seen hardly at all this last semester. I read all of Dan Brown's books when The Da Vinci Code first became popular, though since then I have joined the Dan Brown backlash to a great degree. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the novel Angels & Demons more than the Code. When I finished the book, I wished I was Catholic, or to be more precise, I wished I was a lapsed Catholic. Anyway, even though it wasn't on my summer list, the movie was pretty decent, a bit a lightweight fun, much better than the adaptation of the Code anyway. And it raises some interesting questions between science and religion. Vittoria, one of the scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider and a proponent of anti-matter technology, believed she was helping to change the world. Her greatest fear about anti-matter concerned the unscrupulous energy companies; she did not imagine that it would be used for terrorism. In the end Tom Hanks's character urged her to go back to her work and "change the world." Anyway, in terms of renewable energy we still have a way to go. And I wonder if there is truly such a thing as a stable, clean, safe, efficient, and renewable source of energy. Ewan McGregor makes a hot priest by the way.

On Friday night, I went to my friend Melissa's house where her family was having a barbecue--the first one of the season. I had my first hamburger since a rather unfortunate experience back in March, and I enjoyed a truly delicious pasta salad. I had fun playing night games such as Kick the Can and Capture the Flag which I haven't played for years. Saturday was a pretty chill day. I worked on chores and cleaned my room. I watched a silly movie from Netflix entitled A Touch of Pink. It was a good idea that had great potential but fell flat in its execution from the script to the actors to everything else. There was still a scene set on the Thames with the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament--how cliche!--that nonetheless stopped my breath as I was washed over in nostalgia. I never got over that perpetually surreal moment of stepping out of Westminster station and seeing the Houses of Parliament, lovely as a postcard.

On Saturday night, I went out with my friends Dain and Megan to see Star Trek--the best movie of the summer so far! It was most excellent, and I felt a little giddy most of the time. I especially enjoyed Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine as delicious eye candy. The action was eye-popping, and the plot, while fairly simple, was nevertheless entertaining, and the movie moved along at a nice place. If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly urge you to go at your earliest convenience. Throughout the movie I was reminded of watching TNG every afternoon as a child. By the way, seeing one of the Star Trek movies as a young child terrified me and was what instilled in me a deep-seated fear of eternity--in terms of both time and space, which may turn out to be the same thing. It wasn't until I watched Star Wars (the original trilogy) with my family that I could appreciate science fiction and also watch Star Trek. What is wonderful about the Star Trek franchise is that it portrays a largely hopeful, post-racial future--something we can look forward to instead of a more traditionally bleak, dystopian future. Anyway, I look forward to the next movie. I think J.J. Abrams did a masterful job of reimagining the original series.

And on Sunday I went to my friend Whitney's apartment to cook dinner as our group likes to do every so often. But first it was the one year anniversary of my sister and brother-in-law's wedding. They came over for an early dinner as did my aunt. For her birthday, which is later this month, I gave her a personally signed copy of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. It is her favorite genre/fantasy novel and Gaiman is one of her favorite authors. She cried and told me it was the best present she had ever received which made me feel pretty good. I also want to thank Rae, who encouraged me to buy the book and get it signed. Anyway, at Whitney's we made risotto and tri-tip roast which was incredibly delicious and we all got drunk on wine and too many Long Island Iced Teas*. After which we watched some YouTube videos including "Puke in My Mouth" and then we watched a number of episodes of How I Met Your Mother, one of my favorite television series. We were up till two am which made getting up for work this morning at seven a rather fun adventure. Anyway, all in all, it was a fantastic weekend.

*Here a couple of quotes concerning the Long Island Iced Tea which I rather enjoy.

"Honey, someday when you're a little older you will be introduced to something that is extremely seductive but fickle. A fair-weather friend who seems benign but packs a wallop like a donkey kick, and that is the Long Island iced tea. The Long Island iced tea makes you do things that you normally wouldn't do, like lifting your skirt in public or calling someone you normally wouldn't call at really weird times." - Lorelai Gilmore Girls

"And don't forget that one Long Island is nice, two is okay, and three tends to start unhappy problems." - A.J. Rathburn Good Spirits