you for a while

YouForAWhile.com is immensely thankful for the warm welcome into the Tori Amos Website community. What a bunch of truly talented, dedicated, passionate people we are (kind of like our heroine herself). As a way of thanking the community and to provide a service to new-budding Toriphiles in search of great Tori sites, the following is the first in a series of dedicated to reviewing, describing, and linking to the dozens of informative and inspirational Tori Amos Fan Sites.

Let’s start with TheVelvets.com.

Webmaster: Inge

URL Inspiration: “Where are the velvets when your coming, coming down?” ~Hotel

Summary: Photos, MP3 and video downloads, links, graphic art (i.e. wallpapers and avatars), updated frequently.

Highlights: Honestly, the whole site is a highlight. But if forced to choose, the graphics section is the heart and soul of this site. Inge is a brilliant graphic artist (as is evident by the site layout and design…but that’s for later)–that the music of Tori Amos inspires her every cut, paste, font, effect, and adjustment is unmistakable.

TheVelvets.com boasts 12-20 Tori-inspired icons/avatars for each album (over 100 in the case of American Doll Posse…which seems to have Inge particularly inspired), plus animated .gifs and live shots. The wallpapers are must-haves for any Tori-fan, especially those in the ADP or Beekeeper frame of mind (although all eras are represented). TheVelvets.com also hosts rare Tori photos, including shots of Tori with Tash and Tori’s wedding. My personal favorites are the photoshop manipulations (see Tori’s cameo appearance on the Titanic or Tori as the Mona Lisa).

Other Pages/Content: No Tori site would be complete without lyrics of course. And TheVelvets.com is also home to some rare MP3s such as live bootlegs, talk show appearances, and improvs. Funny Tori videos hosted on this site will keep any Tori fan out of commission for a while. In the “informative” section, Inge provides a collection of Tori quotes, info on Tori’s pianos and fave dishes, and Neil Gaiman-isms. And…get this…Inge actually translates the Dutch Pilot bit from Not the Red Baron into English. TheVelvets.com also provides fellow Toriphiles shoutouts from the links page.

Layout/Design: Genius, professional, state-of-the-art, and currently ADP inspired.

Updates: Listed on the home page. The trend appears to be 3-7 times a month…always exciting and relevant.

Communication: Link requests and other comments appear to be answered within 24 hours. This site also has a fully functioning myspace page on which to communicate with its webmaster.

Future Projects: According to the homepage, TheVelvets.com is up to the challenge of compiling a large collection of meet and greet pics. This interactive component provides Tori Amos fans the opporunity to proudly display one of the best moments of their entire lives: meeting T. in the flesh.

Click here to visit!

Filed under: Tori Amos Website Reviews on September 25th, 2007