The PHantom Salute!

When I was 13 or 14 just a mere few years into my obsession with Phantom of the Opera....and yet still pretty much all I talked about, my friend Marissa's mother MaryAnn was talking about her love of rhinos during a Christmas Eve gathering. For a few year my family and MaryAnn's mom Sue's family would join at Sue's house for Christmas Eve celebrations. MaryAnn told whoever was at the table that she had a salute to rhinos, she called it the rhino salute. Of course immediately after seeing the rhino salute I asked about a possible phantom salute. MaryAnn who is extremely clever and full of genius spread out her fingers and slapped the left hand of her face where the phantom's mask is to signify a phantom salute. I loved it, thought it was very perfect and ran with it. So I have photos where I am saluting to the phantom. Sometimes I forget about the salute, and then remember it again and think back to all my years doing it. I'm remembering it now because I'm posting old skool phan photos that I have on facebook. In closing this entry I'll include two old skool photos of the salute so every phan who reads this can see what it looks like and run with it!

A summer night at my parent's house I think it might have been after celebrating my 21st birthday by seeing phantom. I decided to do the salute- most 21 year olds get drunk I chose to see phantom yet again LOL

Demonstrating the salute it was my first time at the stage door after the show, I was with my friends Cathy and Jaime. 

CHANSON DE L'ANGE BY PAISLEY SWAN STEWART - REVIEW

Chanson de l'Ange, Book 1: The Bleeding Rose- An Epic Retelling of Phantom of the Opera

I found out about this book over the summer, I think I learned about it because I friend requested the author on facebook in an attempt to connect with lots of phantom phans through facebook which worked out very well. I spent maybe a month checking out the book online, drooling and dreaming of the day that I would own it. My cousin told me he would send me birthday money so I was able to order the book. The book is large and epic and I was carrying it places with me for awhile but resided to the fact of leaving it home most of the time. Finally while in the process of moving from my apartment back home to my parent's house I bought this book to work, after the move I was able to catch up reading it when I was on break at work, yesterday night I finally took the book home with me and finished it, so finally many months later here's my review.

This book is 636 pages, using the Broadway play, the original novel and possibly other incarnations of the story the author provides the reader with a retelling of Phantom of the Opera of massive proportion. This is part of a two book volume so my feelings are that at the end of this book the reader is left with half the story completed, and the conclusion to the story will take place in Book 2. The story starts off with Christine's move to the Opera House after her father passes away. The reader journeys with Christine as she first hears her angel (who is really Erik) and begins voice lessons eventually becoming the diva of the Opera House. The action was mostly based on Leroux's novel as well as Lloyd Webber's play, with the author writing in her own ideas to the plot as well.

This book gets very deeply into the story, there's a lot of psychology and thoughts revealed about each of the characters which allows the reader to perhaps understand some of the character's actions which they may have never really understood with shorter incarnations of the story. I feel Christine's love for Erik more in this novel although she has many questions about him too. By the end of this book I wanted Christine to end up with Erik, but the book leaves off with an unlikely chance of that happening, I'll just have to wait until book 2 to find out what happens and if I get my wish of her ending up with Erik (as all phans always wish for). The middle up until the end of the book is quite gripping, I was compelled to finish it.

Overall it's a good epic novel for a phan's entertainment.

March's Sexy Phantom and Post # 100!!!!

Exciting stuff in the life of a nerdy phantom blogger! This is my 100th post since I started up this blog!

I'm also naming this Month's Sexy Phantom! In keeping with the recent March 7 performance I had the pleasure of seeing on Broadway I shall name Paul A. Schaefer the sexy phantom for March. I did a google image search and didn't find a picture of him as the phantom but coincidentally I found the photo of him and Elizabeth Welch, Janette and myself that I posted after the show. So I shall use that picture.

Devon's PHan site!

A PHellow Phan created a phantom website, devoted to her life and times as a PHan.

Check it out :) 

ALW's Phantom of the Opera, Majestic Theatre - March 7, 2011 - REVIEW and Phan Nerdiness!

Pre Show Stage Shot 

Shawn, Janette and myself with an awesome cast member

Janette and myself meeting Elizabeth Welch and Paul Shaefer (Christine and Phantom)

In our seats before the show! 

Last night I finally went to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway....again! Okay so you're not surprised! It's actually been quite a long gap since I've gone to see the show, the last time I went was in July when I took Shawn for the first time. By that point the apartment stuff was kind of killing me financially and I only was able to go because Louise gave me some birthday money and I bought cheap seats. These seats were courtesy of my tax refund! I had been promising to take Janette to the show since we met last year - it's exciting to have another Phan PHriend a mere few miles away from me.

The show was pretty terrific as usual. Our seats were awesome - I have sat in every location of seats throughout the various times that I've gone to see the show and my prime choice of seating would be the area that we sat in last night (which is mid-orchestra) or front mezzanine. Both of those seats provide optimum viewing for every single thing going on during the show. Our seats were off to the right but it was okay (I knew that there was the most phantom action there - hehehe).

The cast was very good. Hugh Panaro was not performing for the night (I felt a little bad because Janette was so excited to see him) instead his understudy Paul A. Schaefer took over the role. At the beginning of the show he seemed slightly nervous (the phantom's role and Hugh Panaro's interpretation are very hard shoes to fill) but he gained confidence as the night went on and ended up doing a very amazing job. He had me blubbering into Shawn's arms at the end of the show - I usually cry anyway but he made me lose control with the tears. Elizabeth Welch performed Christine, it was her first night performing the role at the Majestic. She was absolutely positively wonderful. Her voice and her acting was superb. Sean MacLaughlin was Raoul, it was good to have the chance to see him perform the role. He definitely took the role in the direction of Raoul the jerk - which is how I will always view Raoul anyway, in doing so I think he left it open for the phantom to be more understood and gain more pity from the audience.

The music was interesting. It seemed they changed the orchestration for the title song, it sounded like it was a kick back to the Sarah Brightman/Steve Harley video. I kind of liked it though, it added some spice although the classic orchestrations during the title song were good as well.

After the show was over we took off to the stage door to meet actors. They actually let us in past the double doors in the alley to wait right by the stage door. We collected many signatures, took a few pictures, I gave my business cards out so that I can connect with some of the cast on facebook, hopefully they will read this blog too. We met Kris Koop (I think she might actually be on my facebook already) and she promised to hook us up to meet Hugh and go backstage when we have a chance - much YAYNESS!

So #43 was a terrific evening one of the best POTO experiences I've ever had even though every POTO experience is  great for me.