WWFC, Phantom of the Opera, and Blood Ties news

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated.

Way busy, hence the dearth of Blatherings. I try to limit the amount of time I spend blogging (reading and writing blogs, that is), and now that I'm doing some writing for blogTO, I'm having to take time away from other blog-related projects.

Jeff and I went to see Phantom of the Opera last night. Jeff was shocked that I hadn't seen it before, considering my love of all things musical. The main reason I never saw it when it first came to Toronto was because I was teaching piano at the time, and pretty much ALL my students wanted to learn Phantom of the Opera music; a bunch of schools in Orangeville were making student trips to see the musical. Anyway, as beautiful as the score may be, I could only stand to hear "Think of Me" and "Phantom of the Opera" so many times before I felt like running screaming whenever I saw a student come in with that songbook.

Besides, after seeing Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise, I didn't really need to see any more Phantoms.



But then I heard that Phantom was leaving Toronto for who knows how long AND I had the opportunity to buy half-price tickets. Jeff generously offered to accompany me. I went in with mediocre expectations, but I have to confess that I was disappointed. Maybe Phantom is something you had to see when it first came out, or maybe it's just not my kind of musical. I loved the costumes and sets, but the story and characters left me cold. And despite being vaguely familiar with the story, I still found the story flow confusing at times.

Excerpt from a hastily whispered exchange between Jeff and me after what was an obviously heartfelt musical number by the heroine:

JEFF: "What was she just singing about?"

ME: "I have no idea."

My favourite theatre musical is still Les Miserables, but also very much enjoyed seeing the performances of The Lion King, Rent, Cats, Wicked and Urinetown. I'm sure I'm missing some others.

Survey: What are your favourite live musicals?

Speaking of music, thanks to all those who helped out my friend Julie with her audio software question!



Above: A bunny in our back garden! It looks just like a Lindt bunny, doesn't it? It nibbles at some of our plants, but isn't nearly as destructive as the Demon Squirrels. Jeff says I'm being massively unfair by hating the squirrels for eating my plants but going all googoo-eyed over the bunny just because it's so cute. Well, so far the bunny seems to have the decency not to MALICIOUSLY DIG UP hapless seedlings and leave them TO DIE ON THE SUN-BAKED EARTH. Plus yes, it's darned cute.

For those other Blood Ties fans, Tanya Huff has posted an updated about Canadian airdates:

Citytv Toronto and Winnipeg:
Monday August 20 8-10PM

Citytv Vancouver:
Sunday August 26 8-10PM

Citytv Calgary / Edmonton:
Thursday August 23 8-10PM

From Tanya: "Tell two friends. Heck, tell three. Remember, we need 62 episodes to make it into syndication and replace Mutant X as the weekend Can-con on SPACE (Canadian humour) That's pretty much three seasons and the only way to get that is for the show to have the kind of viewing numbers that convinces CHUM and their advertisers, that we're a good investment."



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