Pheaturing Tori Amos

 

Hey there, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Friday. How are you doing? On Tuesday morning, a gunman shot three workers inside the manager’s office of a Long Island grocery store. One person was left dead while two others were injured, police reported. The attack took place in the Long Island hamlet of West Hempstead, New York (roughly thirty miles from Manhattan) and resulted in a manhunt across the area. Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder named Gabriel DeWitt Wilson as a person of interest in the unfolding case. After a four-hour manhunt, Wilson was apprehended. He was remanded and will appear in court today. And now Wilson’s victim has been identified: 49-year-old Ray Wishropp. The shooting occurred at a crowded grocery store, the West Hempstead Stop & Shop, store today at 11 a.m. Hundreds of shoppers were in the store at the time, but the gunman attacked the manager’s office, targeting employees. The two wounded victims were hospitalized and are currently recovering; their ages are 26 and 50. Gabriel DeWitt Wilson was a 31-year-old and was an employee at the Stop & Shop; as of now, it’s still unclear whether he was technically currently working there. Wilson entered the store in a black sweatshirt, carrying a small handgun. After the shooting, police say Wilson fled westbound on Hempstead Turnpike, Ryder told reporters at a news conference. Nearby schools were in a lockout and lockdown, which prevents anyone from entering the building and also keeps the students safe inside. Wilson worked with shopping carts at the Stop & Shop but was aggressive and had made unwanted advances on co-workers. Allegedly Wilson was fired and tried to ask for his job back; when that failed, he quickly returned to the office with a gun. Stop & Shop President Gordon Reid released an official statement, saying the company is “shocked and heartbroken by this act of violence… Our hearts go out to the families of the victims, our associates, customers and the first responders who have responded heroically to this tragic situation.” 

It’s true and more unfortunate than imaginable that anything could happen at fast-food restaurants, as this family found out while getting food at a McDonald’s drive-thru. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, 28-year-old Jontae Adams and his 7-year-old girl Jaslyn Adams were shot at in their silver Infiniti at a McDonald’s in the Homan Square neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. Jaslyn Adams did not make it. Jontae was driving his daughter through the popular fast-food chain, and according to an unnamed McDonald’s employee, two people got out of another gray car in the McDonald’s parking lot and started shooting at Jontae and Jaslyn. Jontae frantically called his mother, Lawanda McMullen, who recalls him saying, “He said, ‘Ma, come get me. They just shot my baby,’” after the shooting. Jaslyn, who was shot repeatedly, was then taken by police officers to Stroger Hospital. And unfortunately, she did not make it. Jontae was shot oncce in the torso and taken to the same hospital, where he was listed as in serious condition, according to law enforcement. They believe the shooting to be gang-related, as investigators connected another shooting incident, where two people were shot in their car at a Popeyes in Humboldt Park. Tawny McMullen, Jaslyn’s aunt, said that Jaslyn was “beautiful” and a “really sweet child.” Jaslyn was also best friends with Tawny’s 8-year-old daughter, and Lawanda, Jaslyn’s grandmother, explained how Jaslyn loved to dance and post TikTok videos on social media platforms. Jaslyn’s nickname at her school, Cameron Elementary School, was “Pinky” because “she was bright” and pink was her favorite color, according to her other family members. They are begging for gun violence to end. Tawny said, “Put the guns down. Our kids want to play, my kids can’t even go out the door because of [the violence.] Please put the guns down, please. My 8-year-old baby says she doesn’t even want to go outside to play because she’s scared she’s going to get shot. This has gotta stop.” As police continue investigating the case, a vigil was held onWednesday night at the Adams home. Leaning on crutches, Jontae Adams delivered a heart-wrenching message to the crowd of reporters, “That’s my baby I just lost. I got shot once, my baby got shot six times. Six times. My baby got shot six times and they still don’t tell me why she got shot at… I see my daughter face down in my car. Oh, I will never forget… I want my daughter’s killers locked up… All these cameras, use them, use them. I want justice for my baby.” Adams revealed that his daughter’s last words were “Daddy.” 

Phile Alum LeVar Burton really wants to host "Jeopardy!" Since the death of Alex Trebek late last year, fans have wondered who might possibly fill the esteemed host’s shoes. But many "Jeopardy!" enthusiasts made a case for Burton, who became such a beloved TV fixture hosting "Reading Rainbow" on PBS for 23 years. But when guest hosts were announced by Sony Pictures, to replace Trebek in the interim, Burton did not make the list. Now, however, after social media outcry, Burton has been slated to host the game show short-term. And after that, who knows? The position of the permanent host remains undecided. When host Alex Trebek passed away from pancreatic cancer last November, the world mourned his loss. It’s important to note that these new additions to Season 37 will host for only four days at a time, as opposed to the two weeks that earlier guest hosts have enjoyed. Perhaps that means the Jeopardy! team is closer to making its final decision. Passionate fans of "Jeopardy!" and LeVar Burton... apparently there’s a large overlap... were furious when Burton was originally passed over to become a guest host. And those "Jeopardy!" fans mean business; when Dr. Oz was announced as an early placeholder, viewers protested the move and signed online petitions calling out Oz for his promotion of pseudo-science. That controversy cast a distinct obvious shadow over Oz’s guest-hosting gig. Now fans have made news again for utilizing a similar format… this time to lift up their own premier choice: LeVar Burton. An online campaign was launched soon after Trebek’s death last year which promoted Burton as the ideal "Jeopardy!" host. And Burton himself quickly commented, saying positively, “Even if nothing comes from it, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of your love and support!” A change.org petition circulated which remained trending for months. In all, 346,000 people signed! Even after Burton was not named as an initial guest host, social media did not relent. And now, per Sony’s recent press release, it’s paid off. Burton will have the chance to guest host "Jeopardy!" at hosting this summer. The chance to guest host "Jeopardy!" is exciting in itself. But it’s clear that Burton hopes to turn the position into a full-time gig… though he might have some fierce competition. During his own two-week stint, Aaron Rodgers was a fan favorite and has also expressed serious interest in balancing the TV gig with his legendary football career. Not to mention, the show saw a 14% ratings increase during Rodgers’s brief tenure… We will have to wait for Burton’s turn, which begins on July 26th, to see who might win the ultimate "Jeopardy!" prize: the title of host.

Amid a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans in New York City, a Brooklyn woman was arrested and charged for harassing and slapping an Asian woman. The incident, which occurred two weeks ago outside an ice cream shop in Manhattan’s Lower East Side near Chinatown, was caught on store surveillance video. In the surveillance footage, Cheyenne Taylor, 29, storms up to a 25-year-old victim chatting with her friend in Mandarin at a sidewalk table. Apparently out of nowhere, Taylor explodes at the victim. “I don’t want you talking! Shut the fuck up!” she shouts. “Go back to where you came from! Go back to your country!” Taylor began to walk away, but then turned back and slapped the woman across the face. According to the New York City police department, the victim declined medical attention. Following a tip, NYPD police officers arrested Taylor near her Starrett City home on Tuesday. Taylor has been charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime. Last year, the city saw a surge anti-Asian hate crimes. The number of reported hate crimes against Asian New Yorkers rose to 28 in 2020, from only three the year before, according to the NYPD. This year alone, there have already been 54 anti-Asian hate crimes reported to the city’s law enforcement. The rise in hate crimes may be fueled by racism tied to the coronavirus pandemic, police say. Last year studies found that unfavorable views of China reached historic highs last year, with the widespread belief that China was behind the spread of COVID-19 around the world... fueled, in part, by comments and Tweets from former President Trump. The list of attacks against the Asian American community this year is a long one. There was the woman whose backpack was set on fire when she was waiting in a subway station. Or the time when an Asian man was stabbed to death in Sunset Park, Brooklyn after he tried to stop the attempted robbery of another Asian man. There was a Chinese-American bus driver who was punched in the face and called an anti-Chinese slur. Then there was that horrifying acid attack against a Pakistani college student, whose face was disfigured after a stranger threw caustic liquid at her face and ran off. “The attacks are random, and they are fast and furious,” Jo-Ann Yoo, executive director of the Asian American Federation, told The New York Times, “It has stoked a lot of fear and paranoia. People are not leaving their homes.” On Monday, the NYPD announced that a new civilian panel was formed to help police officers crack down on hate crimes. 

I want to start off by saying that I think this is ridiculous. No average person has $32 million in their bank account that they are willing to give away so easily. But apparently, this wealthy 90-year-old Hong Kong woman had enough cash to spare. The woman was tragically conned out of $32 million by criminals posing as Chinese authorities. The incident has now become the Region’s biggest recorded phone scam. According to the reports, the woman lived in The Peak, which is Hong Kong’s ritziest neighborhood. She was targeted last summer by fraudsters claiming to be public security officials. The South China Morning Post reported a police source stated, “She was told her identity was used in a serious criminal case in mainland China,” a police source told the outlet. “She was then instructed to transfer her money to designated bank accounts to investigate whether the cash was the proceeds of crime.” Hong Kong police also added that the victim was promised that all the money would be given back to her after the investigation. A 19-year-old university student allegedly then went to the woman’s home and gave her a cellphone to communicate with the con artists. As instructed, she then transferred a sum through 11 transactions into 3 different accounts between August 2020 last year and January 2021. One of the scammers even accompanied the women to the bank to make one of the transactions. Police officers say that the scam was detected after the victim’s domestic helper thought there was something suspicious occurring and then contacted her employer’s daughter who then alerted police. Officers from the Kowloon East Regional crime unit arrested the 19-year-old and froze bank account holding over 1 million. But unfortunately, the phone scammers have made off with the rest. Hong Kong has one of the world’s highest concentrations of billionaires, in which several of them are elderly and make them vulnerable to scams like these. Reports a phone scam rose 18% in the first quarter of this year alone with fraudsters pocketing around $45 million over the period. In 2020 a 65-year-old woman was conned out of $10 million dollars after a similar scheme occurred in which several people posed as Mainland security officials.

You know what makes me chuckle? When families reenact old photos, just like this one...

If I had a TARDIS I would go see the Beatles in concert but I'd just be surrounded by these screaming women... 

Any stroll through a store would have you believe that "pink is for girls" and "blue is for boys" are the associated gender roles are the very backbone of our society. Products from nail clippers to hand lotion are assigned genders when last time I checked, inanimate objects don't have gender identities. This example is so ridiculous, you have to laugh or else you'll cry in the "eggs peaches" bathroom. 

If you're looking for a graphic design job, you may want to contact whoever employed this people responsible for the following design fail. They are most likely hiring.

Truly inspiring. The division of labor between new parents can be tough... especially when it seems like one parent's complaining while the other does all the work. One mom is asking whether she has a right to ask her husband to stop posting online about how exhausted he is when he's not actually doing all that much to help. She emailed the Phile asking if she's wrong in the situation. The new mom says it's been a "struggle."

"Me and my husband had our first baby together 3 months ago. We're overjoyed but like any new parents we're struggling. My husband recently started posting about how exhausted he is. How having a newborn is exhausting and draining. He posts about everything he does. Talks about the fun/calm times he sacrifices. Sleepless nights but he goes to bed at 10 and wakes up at 9. He tells friends about how demanding it is to be a new parent completely acting like he's a single dad or something which's strange because everyone around us noticed how he was acting. He does little compared to me. I do most of the hard work from feeding/changing diapers/bathing/while he does simple occasional things like going to the store/cleaning the bathtub/changing the sheets etc. I thought he was just venting. But I had family and friends reaching out asking if my husband's is okay and why I was making him overwork and not giving him a break. I was berated by my own parents after seeing his posts. Yesterday I talked to him about what he's been doing and how he was exaggerating with his posts about his contribution in both our son's care and house chores. He said there was nothing wrong with what he was doing. I said actually there was. Told him he's out there and on social media complaining all the time so much that everyone thinks I'm sleeping 24h doing nothing. He argued that he wasn't lying. I said well, he wasn't the one who went through the difficult birth experience. That I was struggling for 9 months of intense symptoms and my birth was extremely difficult. I've never experienced anything more difficult. (I have several medical issues btw) and I'm still recovering. I'm not trying to minimize his struggle but whatever he's dealing with I'm suffering 10 times more than him despite the physical and emotional stress I keep my mouth shut and just get things done. He snapped saying he couldn't believe I made it all about me and that he's the right to be able to vent and say whatever he wants whenever he pleases. Wherever he pleases. I asked what's up with this attitude, I mean he's always been the "woe is me" type but he's making me look bad to everyone. And that's not okay. I asked him please stop or get himself some therapy if he's feeling overwhelmed. He looked at me shocked then argued that I needed to stop policing his words and opinions. And trying to tell him what to feel and how to deal with it. He went into the office. Minutes later I saw a new post from him talking about me thinking he's not doing enough and acting as if me going through labor/birth makes me a better parent than he is. I was... I mean I might have been too harsh but now he's getting others involved."  Wait he's going to bed at 10 p.m. and getting up at 9 a.m.? I'm sorry, but WTF?! He's getting a solid 11 hours sleep a night in a house with a newborn baby, and complaining online about how tiring it is. He needs a reality check yesterday. If he wants to act like he's doing all the work online to his/your friends and family, then he needs to be doing it. Otherwise he needs to sit his ass down and zip it. If he won't, then you need to lay down the law. He doesn't get to claim to be Superdad if he's not even pulling half his weight with baby care. Which it certainly doesn't sound like if he's sleeping 11 hours straight, seriously how do you even do that as an adult with a job? Especially when you've got a newborn at home. The petty part of me thinks you should start posting photos of him asleep at 10 p.m. and still asleep at 8 a.m. Respond to his posts saying you can’t believe he has time to go on Facebook when he’s so busy doing everything. Also honestly, he shouldn’t be talking shit on Facebook. It also sounds like he’s quite happy to diminish your contributions and he doesn’t care how other people see you as long as he gets to scrounge for attention. I have an idea... Make a big list, of ALL baby care tasks and household tasks. Take turns picking tasks from the list until it's split up 50/50. Start being petty. If he wants people to know all of your business, make a tally chart. Every time someone changes a diaper, feeds the baby (or pumps milk for later), soothes them when they’re crying, etc they get a tally. If they are the ones to wake up with the baby at night, they get two or something. At the end of each day, post it on Facebook. It sounds like you two have really different interpretations of your division of labor, but beyond that entirely, for him to be posting things that invite this level of criticism of you is really inappropriate. Maybe the difficult pregnancy/birth wasn’t 100% relevant to the current parenting conversation, but it’s concerning that he’s more interested in his own feeds than he is in how they make you feel AND the conversations you’re having to have because of them. You’ve got a social media problem as well as a household/parenting problem, and I’m sorry you’re dealing with it. Congratulations on the baby and best of luck! So there you go. Not doing your share of the work is bad enough. Posting online that you're doing it all? Even worse. Hope this mom gets justice. If you have a problem you want my advice on then email me at thepeverettphile@gmail.com. Okay, let's take a live look at Port Jefferson, New York shall we?

Looks like a nice day there today. 

What the hell is going on there? Hahahaha.

Hahahaha. If you spot the Mindphuck let me know.

A poor Uber driver in St. Petersburg, Florida, explained how traumatized he is after he was attacked by a female passenger who was not only choked him but also bit a chunk out of his neck. An Uber spokesperson responded to the unprovoked attack, telling WFLA8, “What’s been described is disturbing. Violence of any kind is not tolerated on the Uber app, and we immediately removed the rider’s access as soon as this was reported to us.” Twenty-two-year-old Michael Hassey Jr. was just doing his job in picking up Uber passengers when he picked up 55-year-old Michele Stilwell, a registered Florida nurse with over 25 years of experience in her career. Although she doesn’t recall the altercation, Hassey explained that Stilwell was asleep for most of her ride with him. However, right up until a few blocks from her home, Hassey said she woke up and began attacking him, screaming, "my daughter, my daughter!” while slapping him in the head. He said, “She started screaming curse words at me and slapped me in the face. She sinks into my neck like a pitbull, shaking her head and stuff.” “I’ve never been that scared in my whole entire life, I thought I was going to die,” Hassey added, going on to explain that he didn’t want to fight back because he didn’t want to hit a woman. He said, “I let it happen. I didn’t put my hands back on her because I have two sisters and I was raised to never put my hands on a female.” Interestingly, Hassey also explained that he has since tried to get in touch with Uber, but hasn’t heard anything back from the ride-share taxi service. And it’s also believed that Stilwell may have been under the influence of alcohol during the attack. Stilwell has been charged with aggravated battery and tampering with a witness but was later released on a $15,000 bond. Hassey explained how he has to deal with the terrifying experience, and we can only feel for him. It’s sadly frightening to see these kinds of attacks are becoming a tad bit more common with ride-share workers. It’s unfair that they already have had to deal with working during the coronavirus, and I’m sure dealing with violent people wasn’t in the job description.

Phact 1. In a remote valley in Sweden, people still speak an ancient dialect of Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. It’s called Elfdalian and they still used runes up until the 1900s. 

Phact 2. When you turn 100 in Japan, the Prime Minister sends you a silver cup to celebrate. So many people are turning 100 that they had to find a way to make cheaper cups. 

Phact 3. The first nuclear missile test in space “starfish prime” knocked out several allied satellites and disabled communications in Hawaii. 

Phact 4. In 1592 “the London Clerk of Markets issued a decree forbidding the sale of hot cross buns and other spiced bread, except at burials, on Good Friday, or at Christmas. The punishment for transgressing the decree was forfeiture of all the forbidden product to the poor.” 

Phact 5. Two of the six joints in a spider’s leg are hydraulic. The spider flexes muscles that increase pressure and straighten those joints. When the spider dies, those muscles relax and the legs curl up.

Today's guest I had a HUGE crush on in the early 90s. is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her charting singles include "Crucify," "Silent All These Years," "God,""Cornflake Girl," "Caught a Lite Sneeze," "Professional Widow," "Spark," "1000 Oceans," "Flavor" and "A Sorta Fairytale," her most commercially successful single in the U.S. to date. She has received five MTV VMA nominations, eight Grammy Award nominations, and won an Echo Klassik award for her "Night of Hunters" classical crossover album. She is listed on VH1's 1999 "100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll" at #71. Her memoir Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage is the 149th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club. Please welcome to the Phile... Tori Amos!

Me: Tori!!!! Welcome to the Phile. I have been wanting you to be here on the Phile since 2008 when I first started doing interviews. How are you? 

Tori: Hey, Jason, thanks for having me. 

Me: So, I have to tell to tell you this... I saw you in Orlando in concert in the 90s and I was so excited... I had a HUGE crush on you and got to sit behind your parents. Anyway, I purchased every piece of merchandise you sold there. I was a big fan.

Tori: That is nice, Jason. Thank you. 

Me: So, your new book is the 149th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club. Was it fun to write? 

Tori: No. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. 

Me: What? Really? Why? 

Tori: I didn't realize how hard writing a book was. 

Me: I recently finished two novel's and writing the third and I didn't think it was that hard. Why was this hard? 

Tori: Well, maybe because music is my first language. It always has been so it always made sense. Music makes sense to me and the words work with melody and cordial combination. And the bones of a song just shows itself. So the words come in relation with the music. Whereas I didn't have the music as part of my collaborator really so this was different to me, I had to find the rhythm without the music for the book. 

Me: When did you start to play piano and do shows? You were young, right? 

Tori: Oh, my goodness. My father took me, my father's a Minister and it was about 1976 and I had been kicked out of the Peabody conservatory at 11, so he was devastated and wanted to break my failing streak so to speak, so he had his ministers's outfit on and we knocked all around Georgetown and finally, at the last place, Mr. Henry's, they let us in. And it was a gay bar. I didn't know that until I looked up and realized they were all staring at my father. They asked me if he was in a costume. I said, "No, no, no, he's really a minister." Then they decided to help us figure out the bar scene, which they actually did. They really helped us. 

Me: Haha. What was that area like back then? 

Tori: By the time she was 15-years-old I was playing the happy hour circuit in Washington, D.C. hotels. That's where the lobbyists would gather. I called it the liquid handshake. And I didn't really understand until waiters and maître d's started explaining to me how it worked and how deals were made and the different groups. And it it pretty much blew my mind. I played three blocks from the White House during the 1980 election when Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter. 

Me: Did what you saw make you cynical? Somehow I don't think it did. 

Tori: Well, I put what I saw in my work. I wanted to get out of Washington but I couldn't leave until I was 21. I played professionally since I was 13 and turned 21. Then I went to L.A. It wasn't until later that I really valued having a look see, behind the curtain because it started to really inform my work later on in the late 80s and early 90s. And it's been influencing me ever since, especially with the years rolling on and different issues coming up. 

Me: What are some of the issues you're talking about? I know you mentioned them in the book, but can you tell me? 

Tori: The Iran hostage crisis, 9/11, the election of Donald Trump... 

Me: When you respond to moments like this is it about you processing them or about you trying to do something about them? 

Tori: Well, I feel as a writer I'm kind of searching for my true north. And what that is. Everybody has to think right toward their true north. That's what I called it in the book. Sometimes it takes a while for a writer to realize their calling. When I was younger I was writing a lot about teenage, going through the things. I started writing pretty young and so those kind of relationship struggles that I had and I continued writing about them but also I began to get more interested in what the powerful were up to. And I think that seed was planted when I was a teenager playing for these very powerful... and many were corrupt... men. And it was it was pretty unbelievable to me to realize how few hold such power and how they can be owned and bought. 

Me: Is the goal of the music to raise awareness about these things? 

Tori: Well, music powered the revolution in the 60s, didn't it? The Civil Rights movement as well as dealing with the Vietnam War and they were amazing writers talking about these things. And I watched the affect the the music had on people. And so with all these messages that are being put out there I think that it's really essential that we take the narrative back. But artists, if we're called to write about stuff then it's about unveiling people's emotions about that they think and what they believe and reflecting that back and empowering them to make up their own minds. 

Me: I remember in 2001 when you were on Letterman, like a week after 9/11 and you performed "Time" by Tom Waits. What do you remember about that? 

Tori: The responsibility was huge, Jason, because I've been in Midtown on 9/11 and we were promoting this record of covers called "Strange Little Girls" written by man and Tom Waits' song was on that record. We were touring in about two and a half weeks or so and so after a few days they found a rock and roll bus and two drivers so my tour manager at the time and a couple of people asked my team if they can jump on the bus and so we drove straight down to Florida where my husband Mark was and our one-year-old daughter Tash was. While we were driving down there I did not see a country committed to war yet. I didn't see that and didn't feel that. And we stopped at truck stops all the way down so you can imagine. Truckers can get a sense of where the part of the country is, just by keeping their ears open. They would come over to us when they knew we were from New York and they would put their arms around us and they were grieving but looking for leaders to guide is through this. I don't know if you remember but so much love was being sent to America from so many people, from so many countries. So on our way back after Letterman had called saying they were going back on air and asked me to be the first music. They weren't going to have music on their first show, which they didn't and we would do the second show. I kept thinking that song is the right song for this time? Thinking our leaders have to make the right decision. I didn't know until I heard "Imagine" by John Lennon had been banned, I heard that many days after the Letterman show. And then I understood the narrative, and they didn't want the masses to imagine the world living life in peace. 

Me: What? Why? 

Tori: Because songs can be dangerous. Especially in the hands of dangerous men. And so I chose "Time" because I thought that was the message the country needed to hear. 

Me: So, what was it like to perform that? 

Tori: I had to ground myself. I'm not me anymore. That's really the key. When people ask me, I remember young artists coming up to me on the 2002-2003 tours which was after this, she said to me, "All that power you have up there." She said, "I want that." I just said, "That is not my power. That's the power of the muses. We serve them, that is our obligation, that is our duty, we serve them. And we're vessels for them." Then we leave we have to realize we have to hand it back, we have to hand that energy and that feeling back to the songs and the muses. And that's really how you serve them. 

Me: I have to say "Little Earthquakes" was one of my favorite albums of 1992, and it was on that tour I saw you. What is it like to go back to those songs when you role this book? Does that make sense? 

Tori: Yes, it does. In some ways it's like meeting friends again. Dear, dear friends who've never betrayed me. Not that all friends do on that thing but I am saying there's something about songs that I trust. I trust them to show me what I need to learn that day, because we're learning something every day, especially during these crazy times. We're having to sit with ourselves and we're all facing different kinds of challenges. So being with these songs, I think, made me realize how much they have helped me and taught me. They taught me so much. 

Me: The song "Me and a Gun" is about you getting raped, and then years and years later this whole MeToo thing happened. What was it like for you to talk about rape back then? 

Tori: Well, I remember people didn't want me to put it on the record. It was one of those conversations, it has to go on the record. Its demanding to go on the record. Somebody said, "It just makes me feel terrible." And I said, "Well, you're not supposed to feel comfortable when you listen to it. Because it's not very comfortable, is it?" 

Me: I remember seeing you in concert and you explained the whole story before you sang it a cappella. Was it hard to sing it? 

Tori: This song was requested every night so I sang it every night for the first couple of tours. People would talk to me about their experiences. That really bean to open up my eyes about how common this is. Not just in the states, but everywhere around the world, and that was back then, that was in the early 90s. Being part of RAIN, and that's The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network in the states and watching it grow, the good news is it's there, the hotline is there and people can call. The bad news is the calls are increasing every year so that's the reality we're living in right now. 

Me: Does it feel with the MeToo movement the world is catching up to you a little bit? 

Tori: It feels that what is positive is people are find their voice and speaking about their experiences. That's what really is behind these songs, "Silent All These Years," it's about finding my voice and "Me and a Gun" is about being in a car with that woman who is singing to you and feeling her fear and her fight to stay alive, that was really the most imperative thought at the time was to survive. 

Me: So, what would you say the book is about? 

Tori: Documenting moments of crisis and how I responded to these moments. 

Me: That's cool. Tori, thanks so much for being on the Phile. I'm so glad you're here. Take care and please come back again before I end this thing in September. 

Tori: Thanks, Jason, hope we meet again.

That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Tori for the interview. I hope I can interview her again. Okay, I have to mention this... Phile Alum Felix Silla passed away on April 16th from pancreatic cancer at the age of 84, in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can read the interview I did with him here... thepeverettphile.blogspot.com/2018/05/pheaturing-felix-silla.html. RIP, Felix. The Phile will be back on Monday with Brian Posehn. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye. Kiss your brain.

Give me some rope, tie me to dream, give me the hope to run out of steam, somebody said it could be here. We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year. I can't count the reasons I should stay. One by one they all just fade away...