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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Blood Ties coming to Canada

I recently posted an Inkygirl interview with Tanya Huff, the author of the novel series upon which the tv show Blood Ties is based. In my comments section, children's author Arthur Slade posted that one of the screenwriters for the series has his own blog, Dead Things ON Sticks.

Intriguing blog title, I have to say, plus I like the tagline quote: "One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us." -- KURT VONNEGUT



Anyway, according to this post by screenwriter Denis McGrath, Blood Ties now has official air dates in Canada:

Citytv Toronto and Winnipeg - Mon @ 8PM, starts August 13

Citytv Calgary and Edmonton - Thurs @ 8PM, starts August 16

Citytv Vancouver - Sundays @ 8PM, starts August 19



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Will Write For Chocolate and an interview with Tanya Huff

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. I've also updated Inkygirl with my interview with the fabulous Tanya Huff, whose Blood novel series has been turned into a television show:



Click on the above image to see the interview and a video trailer. Blood Ties will be airing in Canada starting August on CITY-TV (yay!).



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Harry Potter, Dave Huth and Heather Dale

I created the cartoon above for a Facebook group for grown-ups who read kids' books for enjoyment. :-) I go through a similar situation (though I'm somewhat more polite about it) fairly frequently when buying books. Some people have difficulty understanding why any grown-up would want to read a book written for children.

Speaking of kids' books...

I was torn about whether or not to line up for the new Harry Potter book at midnight on July 21st, or to order it online. Encouraged by the signs all over the bookstore, I actually did go to my local Chapters-Indigo to pre-order, but the clerk at the counter told me that it would cheaper for me to order online (!).

So I ordered from Amazon.ca (hey, he didn't say WHERE to pre-order). My copy of the book is guaranteed to arrive on Saturday, July 21st, or the cost of my book will be refunded. It would have fun to line up at midnight, but these days I tend to crash around 10 or 10:30 pm. What about the rest of you? Have you pre-ordered? Are you lining up? Do you simply not care?

Allison and Jodi are coming over this weekend so we can record "Hey, J.K." I figure the song has a limited shelf life, so we may as well get it out there while we can. :-) We'll be uploading it to the FilkArchive and other venues. You can see the lyrics here (I've changed the lyrics to remove a possible spoiler). If anyone has venues to suggest, feel free!



Above: I thought this was some kind of moth, and labeled it as such when I posted the photo in Flickr. It was sitting on the railing of our back deck yesterday evening. But my friend Dave Huth pointed out:

"Hey D.O.! Actually this is a butterfly, a Red Admiral. They are one of my favorite species, along with the Painted Lady, The Monarch, and the Mourning Cloak! I guess I never realized til now how my favorite butterflies have names that sound like some kind of weird Tarot deck! :-) This one looks like it's lived a long and adventurous life (this early in the year, that probably means it made it through the hibernation period)! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Admiral"

Speaking of Dave Huth, do check out his Flickr page, where he has been posting some fascinating and highly creative Photoshop creations recently. Like Care and Feeding Of The Chicken Cow.

And if you haven't been keeping up with Dave's video blog, check out What I've Been Doing Lately, a video explanation of why his vlog output has slowed down...parents of young children will especially appreciate this, I think. :-) Click on Watch the video.



I enjoyed reading through the responses to my plant memory survey.

One of my favourite's was Beckett's post:

"I don't think I really had any memory plants from when I was a kid, but interestingly, I seem to be developing some now with the boys. Riley loves smelling roses, and lavender, and we all love smelling the blossoms on my lemon tree and the big orange tree in the backyard. The lemon verbena tree in the back yard, mint everywhere. And summers smell like jasmine now, because of all the jasmine in the front and side yard. It's all rather crept up on me, and now I realize that all these scents are part of home now, and will always make the boys think of home when they smell these things. :)"

Speaking of Beckett, check out this great photo that Beckett took of our friend Taunya. And Obi-Wan the owl, from a presentation at Casey's class. Beckett's such an incredible photographer!




Looking forward to seeing Heather Dale perform tonight at the Renaissance Cafe (1938 Danforth Ave, Toronto ON 416 422 1441) with Allison and Walter. I found out about this event from Allison's Livejournal.

DATE: FRI May25, 2007 TIME: 8:00 pm LOCATION: Renaissance Cafe 1938 Danforth Ave, Toronto ON 416 422 1441 TICKETS: $5 at the door This will be a special show to celebrate the launch of Heather's "The Legends of Arthur" songbook/storybook. Come prepared for a musical journey through the King Arthur legends, featuring original songs from Heather's "May Queen" and "The Trial of Lancelot" albums. Heather and Ben will be joined by special guest Martin Springett, whose beautiful illustrations adorn the book. Martin will start off the concert with his own literature-inspired guitar compositions. Not to be missed!

You can hear MP3 clips here, and you can find out more about Heather on her site.




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Blood Ties

Jeff cut his eye while gardening yesterday; a small branch got behind his glasses. We called his eye doctor, whose office is conveniently only a few blocks away, and she said to come immediately. Looks like Jeff's eye will heal fine. He's wearing a protective contact lens band-aid for now and using eye drops, with a follow-up appointment early next week.

Ugh. I hate the idea of an eye cut. Reminds me of that scene in A Clockwork Orange that always makes me squeamy.

Let's move onto another topic, shall we?

Last night I watched the premiere of "Blood Ties," a new tv show based on Tanya Huff's bestselling Blood Books series. I -love- these books.







Jeff and I don't have cable tv, but our friend Reid was kind enough to record the show for us. Anyway, I loved it. For one thing, it's explicitly set in Toronto. None of this "we're in New York city in this scene even though there's a clearly marked Toronto transit bus stop right behind the main character."

But what I liked most about the show: the characters. Vicki Nelson, for example, is exactly how I imagined her from reading the books: smart, tough yet vulnerable, funny, sexy. I'm SO glad they didn't choose a Pamela Anderson type for the role. I was also very happy to see the great chemistry between the actors who played the two main characters (Christina Cox, who plays Vicki Nelson, and Kyle Schmid, who plays Henry Fitzroy); to have it come through so clearly in the first episode is extremely encouraging for the rest of the series.

Partway through, I switched from "I'm watching a cool show based on books that Tanya wrote!" mode to just "I'm watching a cool show!"



Anyway, you can find out more about Blood Ties at the official site or Tanya's Blood Tales blog, plus she sometimes posts about Blood Ties in her Livejournal. For those in the U.S., you can see Blood Ties on Lifetime TV on Sundays at 10 pm ET/PT. For those in Canada, Blood Ties will be airing on CITY TV starting August. Those in the U.S. (insert envious sigh here) can get episodes from iTunes as well.

I'm interviewing Tanya for an upcoming Inkygirl and Will Write For Chocolate.



Above: ME with the FAMOUS Michelle Sagara West and the FAMOUS Tanya Huff, woohoo!

John Chew has started a Michelle Sagara West Fan Club group on Facebook, by the way, where I have also posted a Heartfelt Poetic Tribute to my friend Michelle. Michelle only found out about the group recently, and her son Daniel posted a message for John to flee while he had the chance.

:-D




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