I am going to be spending a fair amount of time in Philadelphia this month. Does anyone from Philly have any recommendations re: where to eat and what to do? I’ve been to that Science Center, the Liberty Bell, and Independence Hall already, and I’m not into cheesesteak. I like antique shopping, flea markets, baseball, and bars with good jukeboxes and nice bartenders. Anyone?

Ah, balls. Someone just pointed out to me that Tori is playing the Vic in Chicago. I have always wanted to see a show there. If it were at all possible to drive there in a few hours, I would so do it. Meh.

I’ve been getting some emails and some guestbook comments re: why I’m not going to any Tori shows. I don’t think I did a good job of explaining it. The way I feel about Tori right now is similar to the way most people felt about Outkast’s “Hey Ya” by the middle of 2004, the way they felt about the Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” by the end of 2006, and the way my rock ‘n roll cover band musician father feels about “Stairway to Heaven,” “Free Bird,” “Yesterday,” and anything off the Eagles Greatest Hits record. To put it simply, I’m flippin’ sick of her. Because I’ve been to ninety live shows, and because I spent the majority of my teenage years listening to Tori and only Tori, I estimate that I’ve heard each song on the Little Earthquakes record 400 times. I simply cannot ever hear “Winter,” “China,” “Silent All These Years,” or “Leather” ever again. Likewise, there are songs on the radio I used to love but now I always skip when they come on because my eyes glaze over and my brain starts to go numb. Those songs include “Hey Ya,” “Crazy,” Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love,” Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab,” and other joints that were fantastic the first 500 times I heard them. I have retired Rihanna’s “Umbrella” out of fear that I’ll wear it out and it will become dead to me.

So anyway, I’m taking a break for my own sanity. I expect to go to a show in CA because I promised a friend a few years back that I would take her and she just reminded me of that pledge. I reserve the right to change my mind and add more shows, but at this point I really don’t see that happening. More power to anybody who can go to ninety of her shows and still enjoy every minute of them. But my guess is that most of you would feel the same way I do after so many gigs. The last few tours the travel was enough to get me out on the road, but now that I fly all over the place for work, my bug to get out of the city isn’t as bad. The setlists are too static for my money, and my interest in her has waned. I lay ninety per cent of that on myself and ten per cent on the wigs.