A Confession of Sorts
Back in the mid 1990s when nerd fashion almost dictated that you should buy webspace and publish your own website, I installed a copy of a web development tool from the CD on the front of a magazine, and built a single page website called “ThoughtCafe”. The future of that single page site probably warrants a big rambling post of it's own at some point. Today we're not talking about that site though.
Today we're talking about the second website I published on the internet. It was called “Box of Delights”, and was a fan-site for Tori Amos.
I discovered Tori while watching breakfast TV one weekend morning. She had just arrived in the UK to promote Little Earthquakes, and I remember watching the video for “Silent All These Years” in the back room of my parents house like it was yesterday. A few weeks later I picked up a copy of “Q” magazine, and read an interview with Alanis Morrisette and Tori Amos. The article was titled “Hips, Lips, Tits, Power” – it's funny, the things you remember.
Tori became an unlikely voice in my head throughout college – an unfashionable companion ripped to cassette tape on my knock-off Walkman (“Brit Pop” had happened, and our charts were filled with Blur, Oasis, James, and countless Manchester bands).
Several years later I sat kicking ideas around for a website, and found myself building “Box of Delights”. It had a photo gallery page, a discography, and I ripped a playable track in a new format just emerging called “MP3”. You needed Java in your browser to listen to it.
She has been with me – in my head – for nearly 25 years now. I was going to mention a few favourite albums, but there are so many. She has lived over here for years now – down in Cornwall I believe. Maybe next time I'm down there visiting my parents I'll look her up. One of my old friends fromthe US once met her on a tour bus.
“Scarlet's Walk” – that's my favourite album. Or maybe “Little Earthquakes”. I don't know.