Lessons from The Phantom of the Opera - REVIEW

Lessons From the Phantom of the Opera
Kindle Edition

Haven't done a review here in quite some time. I'm going to have at least two reviews this month, maybe more, the 10,000th performance of the Broadway Phantom is coming up and for some reason I'm choosing to read through all of the phantom of the opera literature I have on my kindle too.

Vicki Hopkins was strongly influenced by the story of the Phantom of the Opera, she started a blog to discuss lessons she learned from the story, her blog received many hits so she chose to publish a book based on her blog. I am a follower of her blog but so far I've only read this book version, haven't actually sat down to plow through the blog yet.

She divides this book into a few sections, she takes a few pages to discuss the characters, symbols, emotions as well as other aspects found in the story of The Phantom of the Opera. At the conclusion of each section she includes what she calls the view from 5. In the view from box 5, she asks a few thought provoking questions about what she just discussed. The View from box 5 was my favorite feature of the book, I didn't take the time to reflect or think about all of her questions but sometime in the future I'd like to go back to the text and write out answers. I'm all about encouraging reflection, conclusions or your own thoughts about a story so this little addition to each chapter was awesome in my opinion.

Sometimes I found her writing style to be a little bit campy but overall the book wasn't bad, definitely thought provoking and wonderful for delving deeper into the story. I think if I ever achieve a silly dream I have of becoming a Phantom of the Opera professor/lecturer in the future I will definitely use Ms. Hopkin's text, it makes a great teacher's text.

Sexy Phantom - February 2012

My sexy phantom might be a disappointing choice for this month and I apologize in advance since February is the month of love with Valentine's Day and all. Sometimes I find myself grasping at straws when it comes to the choice of sexy phantom for the month and I'm trying to keep it alive for as long as I can. Next month is the two year anniversary of sexy phantom. Anyway my choice this month is William Finley, star of Phantom of the Paradise. He's a very goofy phantom but at least he's masked unlike Julian Sands Phantom failure.

William Finley before he became the phantom in this movie

Here he is, he could be sexy in a steampunk alien fetish sort of a way! 

Phantom Las Vegas to come to an end

Sad horrible news today in phantom land. I received a tip from another Phan about The Las Vegas Production closing. I quickly verified the information and was dismayed to find out that is in fact true. The Phantom production in Las Vegas will end it's run on September 2.

I thought the production would be around for more time, apparently it isn't doing so well with the economic times and if they don't close they are going to sacrifice the quality of the production. So dear Las Vegas Phantom, I'm very sad to hear this news and I'm sure many other phans are with me. You've had a great run and we'll all be sorry to see you leave the Venetian.

January 2012 Sexy Phantom!

It's the New Year! What better way to start it then with the first sexy phantom of the year! This month's Sexy Phantom is Jeremy Stolle.

Mr. Stolle before he's the phantom

I picked Jeremy Stolle because my best Christmas present (from Shawn) has gotten me thinking about the phan gathering last September. A bunch of us phans got to see Jeremy perform the role of the phantom. I can't wait for the 10,000th performance and to see a few of the phans again, since I was getting nostalgic while picking a sexy phantom I decided Mr. Stolle was the right choice for this month.

I couldn't find a shot of him in the role but I found this twitter shot of him getting into make up! 

Phantom of the Opera to perform it's 10,000th show!

On February 11, 2012 at 2 PM Phantom of the Opera will perform it's 10,000th show in NYC at the Majestic Theatre!

If you are interested in tickets some are on sale through the actor's fund website as far as I know nothing is for sale through ticketmaster or telecharge.

Maybe I'll be seeing you at the show - who knows?!?

December 2011 Sexy Phantom!

A Phan's Christmas dream come true!

Sometimes my sexy phantom of the month floors me because I'm just surprised I never picked the phantom that I end up choosing. That's exactly what happened this month. I performed a google image search for Christmas and Phantom of the Opera, when I found this image I knew who the sexy phantom had to be!

His voice does lack much skill and the scar the make up artist gave him is the size of a quarter but the man himself isn't all that bad looking. So for Christmas rabid phans feast your eyes on Mr. Gerard Butler. 

Wouldn't you want to wake up here?

Here he is unmasked! 

Life after Phantom by Samantha REVIEW

Life After Phantom: Opera Erotica
Kindle Edition

It's been a very long time since I reviewed anything besides the show for this blog. While I was on the train choosing what my next kindle read was for my travels I went into my phantom collection on the kindle. I decided I was in the mood for erotic phantom and this was the read that I would finally get to after purchasing this book for the kindle last winter.

This book was a pretty decent read. The author tells her version of Erik's story after the opera house incident. Erik escapes the opera and he's ready to die from despair, but then Catherine comes into his life. She saves him from despair and shows him love he never thought was possible.

There's some excitement, there's happiness, there's love, there's terrifically delicious sex scenes and hunky photos of Erik created by the author. I was really surprised by this book I really thought it was going to be a bad read but it turned out to be much better than I had anticipated.

If you are going to buy but don't want to splurge the $25 the kindle edition is only $8. When I purchased the book there wasn't any used editions for sale but it seems like there are some now. You can also check libraries to see if you can borrow it. The library system I work for doesn't own it but if they ever allow me to build up a whole phantom collection this is one of the books I would want in it.

This is Samantha's website if you wish to check it out! You might recognize her Erik from a previous entry where he was the Sexy Phantom of the month!