In This Labyrinth: Getting to the Heart of The Phantom Of The Opera

In this episode, I share highlights from the launch of my zine In One Combined.  Several fabulous volunteers read excerpts from the first issue at the event, and they were awesome enough to grant permission for their readings to be recorded and shared here on the show!  So enjoy a taste of the zine, and also the story of how I first became a Phantom Phan!

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Links:

• My Lulu Press author page — Where you can purchase my zine in both etext and hard-copy versions.
• My Zine Launch! — Where you can purchase tickets to the launch event for my zine!
• Spirit And Voice — My new YouTube channel where I share my music, and where I also share my spirituality and talk about the role that POTO plays in it.
• The 2030 Archive — The project that inspired me to start the Phantom Of The Future subseries of this podcast.
• Phantom Of The Future Episode 1 — Episode 1 of the Phantom Of The Future subseries of this podcast as seen over on the 2030 Archive site.

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In this (LOL very much belated - Oops) Halloween/Samhain episode, I explore some of Phantom’s mythological roots. In particular, I explore some of our Erik’s connections to/resonances with deities of the underworld, death and passion! Oh, and apologies for the issues with the sound-quality. Tech weirdness!

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Links:

• Hades: Greek God of the Underworld
• Pluto: Roman God of Death and the Underworld
• Baron Samedi — Lord of sex and death in the Haitian Vodou tradition.
• Haitian Vodou — More info on the religion of Vodou as practiced in the Haitian tradition.
• Matchmaker II: Perfect Pitch — The Phanfic where I saw the resonances between Leroux Erik and Baron Samedi explored.

In this episode, I discuss the brilliant Phanfic Shadow Government/Shadows Over Eden by Quiet2885. I discuss how it explores the intersection of trauma and politics in a way I haven’t seen done elsewhere in Phanfiction. And I discuss some of the reasons why I find I prefer the original online Phic to the published version, at least on first reading of the Kindle ebook.

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Links:

• Shadow Government — The original Fanfiction.net version of this Phanfic, which I mainly discussed in the episode.
• Shadows Over Eden: A Phantom Of The Opera Inspired Tale — The published version, available in both paperback and on Kindle.

In this episode I interview Dutch Phan Melissa Duijvestijn. We talk about some of her experiences as an Autistic and Visually Impaired Phan, and also about the very cool POTO role-play and recording groups she’s involved in! #ManderleyAgain #QuarantineOfTheOpera #MusicOfQuarantine Plus, bonus, she sings and reads an excerpt from one of the role-plays!

Special Guest: Melissa Duijvestijn.

Support In This Labyrinth: Justice From the Heart of The Phantom Of The Opera

Links:

• Final Lair featuring Melissa, Phoenix, and another friend!
• Wandering Child/Bravo Monsieur featuring Melissa, Phoenix, and another friend.
• All I Ask Of You featuring Melissa as Christine
• The Title Song from #MusicOfQuarantine featuring Melissa's friend Phoenix.
• Why Have You Brought Us Here, also from #MusicOfQuarantine.

PSA #SaveTheBrilliantOriginal #PhantomoftheOpera! As folks may know, the London and Broadway flagship productions have been closed due to #COVID19 (read more about it on the podcast blog). So now, we need to make sure that, when they reopen, Hal Prince’s, Gillian Lynn’s and Maria Bjornson’s original vision is preserved! You can sign and share the petitions https://www.change.org/p/cameron-mackintosh-save-the-brilliant-original-phantom-of-the-opera?fbclid=IwAR3P7J_BdCaByzAps3_Ofh4TvbpEOJK3W0ycEDNLxkVUnfDEgCSd6xsFh88 and https://www.change.org/p/cameron-mackintosh-save-phantom-london?fbclid=IwAR0WRO06G32BepAvz5oRaRiCqNdwmyEXKOF9QhVeglPF9B36DLGVnvJH87A or contact Cameron Mackintosh @CamMackLtd at https://www.cameronmackintosh.com/contact or @OfficialALW to make your voices heard!

Support In This Labyrinth: Justice From the Heart of The Phantom Of The Opera

Links:

• Petition to Cameron Mackintosh - Save The Brilliant Original!
• A second petition to Cameron Mackintosh - Save Phantom In London
• Contact info to send letters and emails to Cameron Mackintosh

In this twentieth episode - Wow!, I review and discuss the awesome Queer sequel to the Leroux novel - Lazare: Gaston Leroux’s Continued Investigation Concerning The Phantom Of The Opera - by K. E. Torwood. I talk about how this book is not only masterfully written, but awesomely historical and intersectional as well! Check it and the author out at @KETorwood and https://ketorwood.com.

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Links:

• Author K. E. Torwood's website! — K. E. Torwood is an author of speculative fiction. She lives near Kansas City with her family, where she enjoys attending festivals and conventions, playing open-world video games, and curling up on the sofa to read on cold winter days.

Content warning. This episode weighs in on on-going discussions of whether or not Phantom condones, glorifies or romanticizes violence, especially gendered violence. I argue that it doesn’t! And I discuss how, instead, Phantom addresses certain realities of trauma and makes a powerful case for transformative rather than punitive justice.

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Links:

• Overview of Transformative Justice by Mia Mingus — This was written for a transformative justice (TJ) intervention I led and I’m sharing it here for others to use in their work. It was meant to be a brief description for those who are not as familiar with the framework and orientation of TJ and do not have the time or capacity to read a large, long document. It is not a history of TJ, nor a complete naming of every part of TJ, or even a thorough fleshing out of all that is named here. It is an introductory description of work that can be hard to describe. It is meant to be a starting point, not an end-point. I hope it may be useful for some of you.
• An article on Transformative Justice from Teen Vogue.
• A TJ overview from the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
• An excellent in-depth analysis of TJ from the group Generation Five.

In this first episode of 2020 - Wow! - I review the French language in-concert production of the Lloyd Webber Phantom that ran from January 8th to 26th 2020 in Montreal, Canada. I had the sheer privilege of going twice, and really loved it both times! Although, I also found myself having some friendly critiques. So needless to say, I have a lot to say about this production!

Support In This Labyrinth: Justice From the Heart of The Phantom Of The Opera