But you never know when something you write is going to have a ripple effect. For instance, when I do a web search for articles with my byline, I expect them to turn up in the places I've sent them. Addicted to Noise, for instance, as well as The San Francisco Chronicle or even The Dent in the Tori Amos Net Universe, which reprints a lot of my Tori Amos-related stuff.

However, a number of fans out there have kindly archived my articles -- some of them by now long gone from the net, especially since the Chronicle doesn't keep real archives.

Oddly, though, the fact that some of these articles hang around mean I get emails out of the blue from time to time about something I've written years ago. For instance, my review of Alice in Chains' self-titled album riled a lot of fans who were angry that I slammed an album they liked. (To their credit, I was corrected on one substantial point: guitarist Jerry Cantrell, not singer Layne Stayley, is the principal songwriter for the band). And who would have thought Cranberries would be so adamant about a record I was only so-so about? It's not a crime to dislike something, but for the amount of grief I got, you'd think it was.

Other music fans are just bizarre in their reactions to things. The Alice in Chains fans got mad at me -- again! -- when I reviewed Jerry Cantrell's Boggy Depot. I gave the album four starts. Four stars! And what did they complain about? My saying that Cantrell is "not the best guitarist." Some Metallica fans got mad at me for my review of their album Load, and specifically for criticizing the band's new image. Most of those fans rescinded their remarks when I asked them if they'd bothered to read the rest of the review -- which gave the album a glowing report.

I wish I'd kept some of those letters, but maybe it's just as well.

One of the letters I did keep pertained to my review of Pantera's first and only official live album, which I thought missed the mark. The letter itself lambasted the Pink Section for allowing a metal-know-nothing like myself review a Pantera record. I hope that by the time you look through the list of reviews I don't have to point out how wrong that reader was about my tastes.

I will admit I made a mistake -- which no one caught -- in my review of the first Days of the New record. I gave guitarist Todd Whitener a lot of credit for many of the solos -- including the two outros -- on the album. Turns out that Travis Meeks deserves most of the credit for them, as I found out when I saw them live (wish I knew where my review of that show has wandered off to). Mea culpa.

Some of the articles brought back other kinds of memories. My interview with Primus, for instance. I'd always wanted to meet them, and when I got to go down to San Francisco to interview them one summer afternoon, I made a blackberry pie to bring them. I think they were suspicious, but Brain and Ler were kind enough to try it nonetheless. Transcribing the interview itself was tough; at any given time, one of the three would be talking, and the other two would be laughing so loudly that it was difficult to make out the words.

Interviewing Tori Amos, on the other hand, was beyond unbelievable. Originally scheduled for early in the morning -- she was going to call me from New York -- the interview kept being postponed as Tori was traditionally running late for everything, and she had to give TV and radio interviews that day as well. Her publicist kept calling me and asking me if we could do it one our later, etc. I was Tori's last interview of that day, and her last interview for some time -- it was a week after the RAINN concert and she was planning to take some time off. What I -- and the world at large -- did not know at the time was that it was just a month after she'd had her now-infamous miscarriage during the Christmas of 1996. She was exhausted, and talking about motherhood and metaphors of sowing seeds, but not giving all her secrets away. To this day I am amazed she managed to play that show at all, to do that publicity tour, given what she was going through. "Jackie's Strength," indeed.

And then were was the Squirrel Nut Zippers interview. Oh, the interview was fine -- but when I told Jim Mathus that the auditorium he was about to perform in at the Luther Burbank Center in Santa Rosa, California was also used as a church, he lit up. I made the mistake of guessing which denomination of church -- I think I told him Presbyterian -- and an hour or so later he announced the fact to an audience of 3,000 people. (It turns out to be used by the Christian Scientists).

Live shows have always been fun. Tori Amos live at the Paramount was amazing -- and seeing Sarah McLachlan there, later, was an eye-opening experience in terms of her beef with the management at the site (she said she'd never play there again). I saw Ani DiFranco live many times, and three of those times are reviewed her. Perhaps the most memorable was the Maritime Hall show, part of which was later immortalized on "Living in Clip," mainly because that was when I determined that the venue (with its horrendous acoustics) has to be the worst place in San Francisco to see a show.

I've learned a lot from music. Much of it is inexpressible. But where I've had the opportunity, I've done my best to be honest. I hope you find these reviews useful or interesting in some way. It's what they're here for.