Tori did an online chat on America Online on Wednesday night, January 20, 1999. This was the launch of a series of chats to celebrate the fact that People Magazine was coming to AOL. You can read a transcript of the chat on the Dent.

Read the AOL chat transcript.

EWF Elizabeth Lauren Perry informs me that the January 1999 issue of Lighting Dimensions magazine contains a great article that explores the lighting design and techniques used for the Plugged '98 concert tour. It includes some great photos and some very interesting, although technical, info. The article is called "Plugging In: On Her Latest Tour, Tori Amos Brings Along A Rock Band - And A More Amplififed Look." Read the article and see the photos in my Articles Archive.

Tori was part of an article that appeared in the January 5, 1999 edition of the Buffalo (NY) News. The article had the title, "Song of Survival: How 'Me and a Gun' Has Led Rape Victims To Seek The Help They Need." Read it in my Articles Archive and thanks to Shannon and Kathy Andolina for telling me about this.

Tori was #5 on Wall Of Sound Readers' Top 10 Albums of 1998. They said the following about Tori:

No doubt the singer-songwriter's fervent Web following played a part in her strong showing here, but 1998 was undeniably a big year for Amos, as she mounted her first-ever arena tour and played to largely sold-out houses.
Curious Coincidence: Both Amos and Hole's Courtney Love have a penchant for Stevie Nicks songs, with the former covering "Landslide," the latter "Gold Dust Woman."

Toriphile Tara tells me that Tori's wedding was featured as one of the "Coolest Weddings of The Year" by Woman's Day magazine in Australia in the January 4, 1998 issue. Sharon Stone, Barbra Streisand, Kate Winslet, Cindy Crawford, Scary Spice and their respective grooms were also included. The article includes a rather common wedding photo of Tori and Mark. You can read the short text of the article below:

Tori Amos & Mark Hawley

When songbird Tori Amos, 35, wed sound engineer Mark Hawley, 35, she wanted a fairytale wedding - and that's what she got in the 13th-century Norman Church on a hill in West Wycombe, England

Creating a surreal medieval-style fantasy, candles burned in church windows and pipers played Irish folk songs during the Church of England service. The bride was resplendent in an ice-blue gown with embroidered bodice and satin skirt.

"I believe in the elementals," said Tori. "I figured if I had the wedding where there were trees and water, then maybe fairies would show up."

Going to the chapel...

(pic of the happy couple holding hads and walking away from the church.)

Tori Amos & Mark Hawley

Amos 'n' Hawley: In 1997, Hawley, a 34-year-old sound engineer from Lincolnshire, England, asked Amos, 34, for her hand in marriage, but the faerie-lovin' songbird wouldnt divulge any details. "He asked me, I said yes - it was that simple," she said. "We're kind of shy about it. It's our little treasure." A fairy-tale weddings: On Feb. 22, 1998, Hawley and Amos climbed the hill to St. Lawrence's, a 13th-century Norman church in West Wycombe, England, to pledge their love before God and 150 friends and family members. In true Amos form, the ceremony was a surreal medieval-style fantasy. The bride was resplendent in an ice blue gown with a low-cut square neck embroidered bodice ans satin floor-length skirt. Candles burned in the church windows, and Uilleann pipers played Irish folk songs during the Church of England service. "I believe in the elements," Amos said. " I figured if i had [the wedding] where there were trees and water, then maybe the faeries would show up."

First it was AP, and then Spin. Now Q Magazine on the U.K. has recognized the brillance of "from the choirgirl hotel." In their January 1999 issue, they voted the album to be one of the "50 Best Albums of 1998." The albums were not ranked in numerical order, justed listed alphabetically. Q said about choirgirl:

tori amos ( from the choir girl hotel)

Having shown us every damp fold and moistened crevice first time out with Little Earthquakes, it's been a case of trying to revive some of the mystery. Lyrically, Tori Amos's fourth album is her most guarded yet. It also placed her in a band setting for the first time since her abortive Y Kant Tori Read incarnation, and the feistier rhythms helped take some of the weight off her shoulders. Hardcore fans (Some of the most obsessive in pop) imagined it as some sort of clipping of wings. Better to see it as a genuine desire to move forward by this most incorrigibly female of performers. Less kook; more hook.

IN A WORD: Moist

Thanks to Penny and wee for telling me about this.

If you check out the January 1999 issue of Spin Magazine you will see that "from the choirgirl hotel" made #13 in Spin's Top 20 Albums of the year! There was a paragraph dedidcated to each album, and the one for Tori said:

13- Tori Amos
From the Choirgirl Hotel (Atlantic)
Sarah McLachlan checked herself outta this particular residency ages ago, but here Tori pulls the shades, orders up crazy room service, and lays in for the long haul. The result is claustrophobic art-rock where the encroaching walls blossom into wide-screen Technicolor psychodramas. With a vocal mix that often sounds like you're swinging from her epiglottis, she shucks the feminine in all its forms (male included), making it both quiver and deliver. Her very own Hounds of Love, without the dogs. WILL HERMES

Thanks to Penny, Jared, and Nithya Rajendran for informing me. This issue also mentioned Tori in a review of a "singing teen ingenue" named Shelby Starner. It said, "Something about the way she sounds, reminds you of: Tori Amos (down to the way she straddles her piano stool)."