• Nov 14. New York, NY.
• Nov 15. Amherst, MA.
• Nov 16. Burlington, VE.
• Nov 17. Lowell, MA.

• Picture taken at Carlton Arms Hotel Shulamis, Tovi and me.

We got there at around 5 and there was *nobody* there but us.  So we waited and waited and waited until Joel came out and talked to Elyse and Ruth. He said that he only had a few tickets but he would see what he could do. At about 8 some other people arrived and they also talked to Joel .. and got "our" tickets...oops. But we didn't loose our hopes, so we stood on a "line for the rejected and ticketless people" with some other guys.. there I met Kim with whom I corresponded a cuople times two years ago, and to whom I swore back then that "I will see Tori next tour even if I have to hitch-hike all the way from Uruguay to the USA. "The girl from Argentina" was there too and yes, Richard introduced me to the almighty Woj!!! Hi Woj :-) It was a pretty cold night so a couple of people decided that Tori wasn't worth the wait and they came and gave their tickets to the first 2 people in line. By that time a security guy had come and told us that there was no way we could all fit in there, but said he would try to get us to a room where there are big TV monitors.

Later on, another "elder" couple decided they didn't want to freeze and they came up to the line and gave their tickets to the girl in front of me and to Linda... who understood what they said :-) I was like.. "I must have got that wrong.. they just told me they didn't wanna go in??? my english translator must be malfunctioning. I flew 12 hours to get to a Tori concert... and they are an hour away and they are leaving??? this can't be what they mean.. " :-)  But I wasn't wrong. So the girl went in and Linda gave me her ticket. I really don't know why people were *so* nice to me. I mean she had the ticket and she must've gone in, but she said she would have more opprtuinties of seeing Tori than I so she made me go in. EWF's are some of the best people around :-) I don't have enough words to thank Linda. I went in but I wasn't really comfortable leaving Richard and Linda there, Ruth and Elyse were in the front row. It was funny it looked like Tori was playing for her friends in the livingroom. I have to agree that she needs familiar faces around her... especially on the TV presentations. And she got all the familiar faces she needed :-)

By the time I got in all those wonderful seats were taken so I kept walking and found *one* empty seat right at the end of the piano on the 4th and last row. but it was a great place still... she was going to be facing us!!  Then the cameraman took his place and  him and his camera were completely obstructing my view. Woj was to my right and a camera on rails was behind me. It was great that when they started filming, there were some cables on the floor right behind me so I moved a little to the left to get out of their way...*and* mainly to get a clear view of Tori...  I thought they were going to tell me to go back to my place, but instead they thanked me, so there I was,  just 3 people separating me from the piano and Tori right there... heaven must be a Tori concert.

The show was very very good, and she played "a whole concert" except for the last encore. She told some funny stories about how she is not a very good cook and Caton said that she was, she makes good sandwiches. Then someone asked "Tori how's married life?" and she said that Mark didn't want her to talk about that... but whispered "it's fantastic" -big smile-
There were a lot of cuts in between songs and she got her make up retouched and she was talking while they did that.. I wish I could remember each word she said... well someone must've made a boot of off it. I had my camera with me, nobody searched me for anything. No, I didn't use it. I didn't want to get thrown out of the place. Even after the show was over I was afraid to take a pic of the Bösendorfer. I had other pics in that film that I didn't want to lose..so I missed a great picture opportunity.
She played Take to the Sky that night, that was another of the songs I really wanted to hear. I really wish this one makes it to the broadcast. On waitress no one made the hang ten sign, but I saw Tori smiling on Elyse and Ruth's direction. Later that night I found out that they had been making the Hang Ten sign on their laps and Tori was smiling (almost laughed) because of that.

After the show we all went to have dinner together... it was like 20 of us. awesome. All the Tori people and *me* a "foreigner Tori people" but I felt like with a group of friends. After dinner, what was left of Linda, Richard and me, went back to the "Carlton Arms Hotel" for a much needed rest. This one was some hotel. Richard knows about *everything* and restaurants and hotels weren't an unkown topic during our trip :-) I should show everybody the pics I took, this room was just awesome. Cartoons painted on the walls and an Maya inspired bathroom. ...  the place was unreal :-)

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• Picture taken after the concert Linda and me with the setlists she got for us :-) BTW the setlist said "Spank" instead of Spark :-)
• Mr.Puppethead saying goodbye right when Linda started screaming
• Tori too close to use flash... moved but I *love* this picture.

At this concert I snuck my camera in, but the security guy was right in front of us ...and he did come to check on Richard, because of the red light to make notes... I was paranoid that he would come and take the film away and i'd lose even the pics from the M&G from Indiana. As a result I only got a couple of pictures without flash... moved.. and was paranoid during the whole show :( Nevertheless the show was excellent, she was in a very good mood and that reflected in the whole set. She was smiling a lot during the whole time.. I actually didn't get to see all that.. I *am* definitely bringing opera glasses with me for the next tour :-)

The setlist was awesome and the story she told about "husband, food &sex" was very funny. I don't remember details about it but there's probably someone at the dent that documented it better than I. I can't say much about the show,I just remember it being great. And she did a lot of encores.. I was sad to see that the girl that was seated to my left, had to leave during Waitress. No, she wasn't going to the M&G the last bus for Boston left just a couple minutes later...Anyhow, the encores were awesome too and for the last song she played "Pretty Good Year" one of my all time favs.

As soon as she played the last chord I thought it was time to run and try to get to the barricades, to my surprise, there was no one in the hall so I made a very quick exit and got to the barricades and got a pretty good spot. SECOND ROW WHOA!!!!!! There I found William Fuentes, and Melissa? mmm the short girl with red hair that took the pic of Linda and me w/setlists :-) Thanks BTW :-)

When she came out and I was there with my camera but she was *so* close I didn't want to take pictures with flash and blind her.... So once again I took pics w/out flash and they turned out moved. But I still love this pic ain't it cool? Anyhow I didn't care, i took two pics and then waited until she got in front of me. She talked with the girls in front of me and then I murmured "is there a chance that you'll play South America one day?" I already knew that there weren't many chances, but I wanted to hear it coming from her own mouth. So there she was, looking straight at me -well not all the time, she was signing stuff too- and giving me a long explanation on how they would have to sit down and talk about it with the tour manager and see about all that, because it is far away and . . . " In a whole the answer was "I don't think so" but she was quite nice to take the time to say something else than " I don't think so honey" :-) So even though I heard what I didn't want to hear I was happily dancing around.

When she got on the bus, MR.Puppethead made an appearance. He came out from the window and I got the chance to take a picture. As I was doing so I heard Linda's lungs at maximum power screaming "MISTER FUCKIN' PUPPETHEAD, MISTER FUCKIN' PUPPETHEAD, MISTER FUCKIN'PUPPETHEAD" That cracked me up, I couldn't see her as she was all the way to the right and I was still at the barricades... But I saw that at that time MR.Puppethead gave room for Joel to try see who was screaming that.

Hilarious.

When I met Richard and Linda ... hehe I guess that they got pretty used at me running out from the venues and dissappearing without previous notice :-) SO I met them and Linda had this precious trophy that she got for us.

At this show we found out that Rurik was staying for one more show before going back to Germany :(

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• The roof and my new found love for snow.
• Coincidences the truck outside the Motel.
• Ruth in the NYC subway...the station close to St.Mark's Street.

I was in a very nice spot at the concert so I found myself looking right in Tori's eyes more than a couple of times.. eye contact.. I guess that's the way to say it. amazing. I usually had a big smile during most of the concerts.. but in Burlington during "The Waitress" we all started to do the Hang Ten... so I was looking at the others, and while doing the Hang Ten I had this *huge* smile on my face. When I looked back at Tori, she was looking straight at me and I just kept smiling and "hang ten", and I swear to god, she started smiling and laughed... she had to turn and face the piano... it was amazing for me to see that not only she was causing a reaction in me but she was getting the same from me and the audience..

Anyhow.. right to the post concert experience..after everyone left the concert roundabouts it was Richard, Linda and me... we were walking to the pizza place right at the corner of the venue, when Linda told me it was SNOWING!! I didn't realize it was snow *I had never seen snow before* and that just seemed like very thin rain, as it turned into water as soon as it touched the ground. But then WHOA!!!!! I looked at my sleeve... I started screaming, "they really look like *that*.. they *REALLY* look like THAT!?!!!" I don't have to tell you the look on Richard and Linda's faces .. they were like what are you on? :-D

Snowflakes.. I thought that the snowflake symbol was just a drawing, I never expected snowflakes to look exactly like that :-) Yes, I know it probably sounds stupid for all the people that grew up with snow.. but it was like an amazing discovery for me. :-D

We went to the pizza place where we had delicious mushroom pizza and beers.. ahhh I needed a beer. YuM. Richard got a *very* strong drink. The bartender was off and this blonde waitress prepared the drink for him ..and she obviously didn't know what she was doing :-) During our dinner I often left the place and walked to the street just to see the snowfakes on my sleeves.. cool and *very* cold. but amazing! I just *loved* it and was *really* amazed.

After I jumped on a roof and wrote something in the snow we got in the car and went to our "Motel 6". The following morning we met yet two more funny coincidences. The first one was Hawley Street right by Historical Hotel De Ville in Binghamton. The second one and first for the day, was that as we came out of the room and looked to the left at the end of the corridor there was this Caton truck parked right in front of the exit. I have a pic to prove it :-) Half an hour later at the diner where we got yummy yummy food, I got this "paper to put the plate on" (don't know what to call it) and it had some interesting things written on it. Right in the middle of the page  there was the "pandora's Box" story :-)

It probably sounds like isolated things that I am making a big bluff about it. But I will never cease to be amazed by all the "connections" and coincidences (if they can be called that) among us. Just like on the 17th of feb.. Richard got calls from the German girls, I called Cynthia(whom I've known for two years now, but never talked to other than ICQ or mail) and right after I hung up with Cynthia's answering machine.. I started listening to the Winter CD that Richard sent me.... *and* he called *me*.... Oh.. the last one.. on the 19th of Nov. I was in NYC I took the subway to go to St.Marks to try to find the Complete videos.. when I got off the subway and as was about to go up the stairs..something told me to turn around.. and there I saw Ruth waiting for the subway... I know like 7 people that live in NY.. what are the probablilities that I would see one of them at the subway????.

anyhow.. I was supposed to write about Lowell.... umm... this is 4 months after that.. *exactly*... so let's see what I remember....

I remember the beautiful landscapes from VT and MA. I remember writing in a piece of paper that there was going to be a Tori interview at a Boston station... Two Toriphiles drove by us and we *had* to share that with them :)

After waiting in line for a while I needed to use the restrooms and they let me in the arena... I couldn't have chosen a better time to go in.. Tori was doing soundcheck so I could hear part of it. I met Dor and Gina at the bathroom.. I guess they liked the bathroom excuse too :-)

When they opened the doors I was lucky enough that they opened them exactly the opposite way they should've... so I ended up going in first from the "girl" line... but I was stopped for a while because they touched my pocket and I had like 2 pounds of coins ... it's amazing how many coins one can get while traveling through the US (does that remind you of something Richard? ) ;-)

So I ran, and stopped when Steve told me to, and ran again and found a place to the right of the stage, very good place indeed. Michael who was on the line with me (thanks *so* much) ended up in his normal place.. first row center..perfect spot for his RS crazy dance. I was there with Paul, Gina, and Dor. A little more to the right were Matt and Tony. I remember that when the show started, Tori asked Matt Page how many shows there were left till the end of the Tour. She said something like she couldn't believe there were only 10 more.. obviously not the words she used..   It is funny how she sees everybody there..like Matt.. I wonder what did she think about the *big* uruguayan smile that followed her for ten shows... mm but she probably had more to think about the guy with antennas that was to my left, that was a pretty funny character.

Anyhow, my notes say that the show was awesome. My memory says that I had a blast and that I couldn't believe it when I heard the drum intro to Girl. As soon as the drums kicked in I was asking "that's Girl isn't it, isn't it" and we were all just asking that ourselves. It was a wonderful version of Girl.  The whole setlist was great. She played Space Dog and yes!!! Here. in my head. Another song on the list of songs I wanted to hear :-)

As always I have not much to say about the concert... just because I lack ways/words to describe such an amazing experience... I guess that I am done with my Tori trip/dream chronicles... until next tour ;-)

I really hope that all these typing I've done at least helped to show to some people who might think that a Tori concert is just a dream..... that it can be done.. wherever you are.. you are probably closer  to Europe/USA from where I am ;-)  it is a wonderful experience and I would definetely do it again... even if I have to save up for another 9 months. The concerts are awesome and the Tori-people are just wonderful too.

I should thank Richard once again for being a big part of this dream...... and for putting up with me :-), especially during the Sneak Preview tour, when I was going crazy because I didn't have enough money for a plane ticket ..and thought I was going to miss another tour. Becky, Carolyn, Dor, Elyse, Emi, Gina, Jen, Jeremy, Jessen, Joey, Kim, Linda, Lisa, Maria(BlueKeetcha), Marian, Matt, a phone version of Mikewhy :-) , Melanie, Melissa, Megan, Michael, Paul, Phyllis, Shulamis, Tony, Tovi, Tucker, Rurik, Ruth, William, Woj, the guys with the Orange CD that was autographed twice at the Lowell M&G, the Argentinian girl, The London Girls, The Faerie in Binghamton.... if I left your name out please insert it here "               "  :) besos para todos and hopefully I'll see you next tour !

Laura. (a very braindead version after a long day at work... )

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