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The Battalion
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Monday • October 28, 1996
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The mystery of Tori Amos will be
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By Libe Goad
The Battalion
or those not familiar with the music of Tori
/ Amos, prepare to witness a fire-storm of a
woman, who, seated side-saddle at the bench
of a Bdsendorfer piano, flames with raging pas
sion at one moment and slowly smoulders the
next. She is both Beauty and Beast.
And tonight the woman dubbed “the red
headed goddess” by her fans will stop at Rudder Au
ditorium on her 170-date Dew Drop Inn ’96 tour with
special guest Josh-Clayton Felt.
MSC Town Hall and PACE Concerts are responsible to
bringing Amos to Texas A&M.
Liz Conejo, MSC Town Hall Vice Chair of Shows and a
senior biomedical science major, said she is excited about
bringing an artist with the caliber of Amos to campus.
"Everybody I have talked to — even those who are not
necessarily huge fans — are excited about it because it’s a
unique show,” Conejo said.
She said Amos’ musical style sets her apart from any of
the musicians Town Hall has hosted.
“It’s soothing, but at the same time there is so much
emotion and energy,” Conejo said. “Even though it is
not something you can mosh to, you can can get a lot
out of it.”
Carrie Huebner, a Marooned Records employee and a
senior business major, said Amos’ lyrics transcend the
lyrics of most modern rockers.
“You have to read into
the music — it makes you
think,” Huebner said. “She
has a great voice, and I
can’t wait to hear her play
the piano.”
The brutal honesty of
Amos’ songs about sex,
spirituality and guilt
made her a pioneer of
outspoken women musi
cians in the ’90s.
Her music has received
frequent air-play since her
debut album Little Earth-
“I take that stage
and that piano,
and demon girls
come out.”
Tori Amos
in Tori Amos, a book by
Mick St. Michael
LION
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:ndra Rasmussen,
m Day, Sports Editor
ew Milne, Visual Arts Edi
iris Yung, Web Editor
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eed McDonald Building. Newsroom
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nt to pick up a single copy ofl
ull year. To charge by Visa, Masted/^
uring the fall and spring semesters^
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aster: Send address changes toft"
,1X 77843-1111.
quakes sold around two million albums worldwide. Little
Earthquakes, Under the Pink, released in 1992, and her
most recent album, Boys for Pele have produced about 12
single hits in the US, including “Caught a Lite Sneeze”
and “Hey Jupiter.”
Amos cites the Doors, Jimi Hendrix
and gospel as major influences on her
music.
Critics in London, where the artist
resides, have compared Amos’ music
to Kate Bush and Patti Smith because
of its sensuality and honesty.
In Tori Amos, a book by Mick St.
Michael, Amos said she shrugs off
these comparisons and explains that
her music comes from a force within, a
force that often clashes with her bal
anced, happy-go-lucky persona.
“I take that stage and that piano,
and demon girls come out,” Amos said
in the book. “There are things that I
refuse to deal with except through my
music ... Because I don’t trust humani
ty much, and I don’t know if I trust me
that much. But I trust the songs.”
And her blunt lyrics are a constant
reminder of the sprite that resides in
Amos’ heart, one that spouts truths
with a mischievous grin.
In “Leather,” a track from Little
Earthquakes, Amos explores the
depths of sexuality.
“Oh, God, why am I here?
If love isn’t forever
It’s not the weather
Hand me my leather.”
Her childhood as a preacher’s daughter also echoes
throughout her music, always questioning God, yet often
asking God for help. Strong religious questioning comes
through in the hit song “God” from Under the Pink.
“God sometimes you just don’t come through
Do you need a woman to look after you ...
I gotta find why you always go when the wind blows”
Amos’ past plays an ongoing role in her songwriting,
whether it is showing an outright criticism of her
Methodist upbringing or dealing with an event that
changed her life.
After playing a show in Los Angeles in 1984, when
Amos banged on pianos in smoky clubs, she gave a
member of the audience a ride home. She was raped.
In Tori Amos, she said the sex crime changed her
permanently.
She wrote a song about it titled “Me and a Gun,”on Lit
tle Earthquakes. She played the song the day she wrote it
and delivered the following message to the audience.
Tori Amos
“Rape’s not something where you just go, ‘Well, get
over it,’ or ‘Believe in love and peace, my child, and it’ll be
all over,”’ Amos said in the book. “Well, f--k you that isn’t
the answer.”
Her answer came in 1993, after watching a character
played by Geena Davis shoot a man trying to rape her
in the movie Thelma and Louise.
She said it was then she decided she could be a victim.
Since then, she has spilled her story to the public, know
ing her brutal honesty meant a sacrifice of her personal life
to the media.
“Almost every journalist in this town (London) has
used my bathroom,” she said in the book.
Conejo also said no performers that Town Hall has
brought have been as particular about their surround
ings as Amos. She is bringing her own caterers and
guards for her dressing room and backstage.
“She is really cautious about who goes backstage,”
Conejo said. “I’m not sure why.”
In 1996, Amos has released a third hit album and is fin
ishing the second tour after Boys for Pele was released.
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Sleepers
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro,
Dustin Hoffman and Brad Pitt
Directed by: Barry Levinson
Rated: R
Playing: at Hollywood 1 6 ^
Sleepers is a film with so much star power it
cannot fail. Sleepers not only passes, but it
shines as a good example of commercial
movie making.
Sleepers, based on the autobiographical
book by Lorenzo Carcaterra, recounts the tale
of four boys’ stay in a sadistic/reform school
that would make Stalin envjhus.
The film opens with the boys’ lives in a Man
hattan neighborhood called Hell’s Kitchen. The
friends play stick ball, serve as altar boys at the
local church and get into typical mischief. One
of these ventures into juvenile antics acciden
tally results in the near-lethal injuring of a man.
The four boys earn the title “sleepers” when
they must serve a sentence in a reform school
While being held in the Wilkinson Home for
Boys, the boys are repeatedly beaten and raped
by the school’s guards. After being released from
their tortured life in Wilkinson, the boys grow up
desperately trying to forget their stay in the de
tention center.
One fateful day, two of the boys, now adults,
find the crudest of their rapists (Kevin Bacon)
and kill him. The resulting murder trial which re
sults from the shooting brings the four friends
together again to avenge the crimes committed
against them almost 15 years earlier.
For half of the film, Sleepers concentrates on the
boys, while the other half concentrates on the four
as adults coping with the pain of their past.
Sleepers has many good things working for it.
Excellent writing, visual excitement, great di
recting and one of the most talented casts to be
assembled this year makes Sleepers one of the
best movies of 1996.
Barry Levinson does a great job as both di
rector and writer. Levinson remains very loyal
to the brutally honest book. Minute details,
such as the character named Fat Man and
mid-winter handball games, all find their way
into the movie.
Levinson’s biggest accomplishment in Sleep
ers is his direction. Sleepers stands as Levinson’s
most visually ambitious film to date. He suc
cessfully integrates black-and-white film into
several of the most violent scenes of the pic
ture. These scenes lend a documentary feel to
the movie, reminding the viewer the movie is a
true story.
Levinson deals with the talented ensemble
cast effectively, balancing the characters’ person
alities with the skill he demonstrated in other en
semble movies such as Diner.
The acting in the film equals the power of
the writing.
Brad Pitt plays Michael, one of the young vic
tims, with a quiet anguish that comes through
vividly in scenes with Michael’s former girlfriend
Carol Martinez, played by Minnie Driver.
Michael’s time at Wilkinson crippled him
emotionally, and Pitt demonstrates this pain
with quiet intensity as he looks at Carol longing
ly, yet too afraid to reach out to her.
Robert De Niro plays Father Bobby in Sleepers, based on the true story of Lorenzo Carcaterra.
The real star of the movie is Jason Patric.
Patric plays the author of the book, Carcater
ra, who is affectionately known as “Shakes” by
his friends — in honor of Shakespeare.
This performance wifi propel Patric onto the
fast track of movie making, who has has landed
the lead in Speed II, replacing Keanu Reeves.
Shakes narrates the story, and Patric’s voice nar
rates during most of the movie. Patric’s quiet and
hushed voice illustrates the pain Shakes suffered.
De Niro and Hoffman create strong support
ing characters.
Hoffman takes an uncharacteristic career
turn as a sleazy alcoholic lawyer Danny Snyder,
and he does it well. De Niro plays the moral
conscience of the movie, Father Bobby.
The two acting veterans lend their expertise
and power to the film, but the movie devotes
itself to the younger breed who propel the film
forward.
Sleepers is a film that is put together well, and
it proves that it is possible to make a good film
from a good book.
A- -Aaron Meier
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