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~ Phantom Of The Opera – Liberation Romanticism For a World In Crisis

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Miscellaneous Updates.

21 Monday Mar 2022

Posted by Sarah Erik in Uncategorized

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So once again I haven’t posted in a really long time! Indeed, all my stuff’s been on indefinite hiatus for a while while I’ve been focussing on trying to get the bulk of my dissertation written. And it’s coming along awesomely, although there’s still lots to do! But it hasn’t left me bandwidth for much else.

My various projects are definitely coming back, though! I’m just not sure how soon. And in the mean time, I’m taking some time to do some infrastructure tweeking to hopefully make things more cohesive. You may have noticed some of that already here and on my Twitter. And then, with any luck, I’ll be able to get back to actually creating new content in the not too distant future!

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My podcast has new hosting!

25 Wednesday Aug 2021

Posted by Sarah Erik in Uncategorized

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So I wanted to let folks here know that my podcast has moved. Don’t get me wrong, Fireside are great! Although, there site has gotten less Safari compatible, and therefore less accessible for me, since I started with them back in 2018. And there were some accessibility issues I brought to their attention that they never did fix, although, admittedly, I didn’t nag them nearly as much as I should have. But those aren’t the reasons I decided to move my show. They’re still a great service and I’d definitely recommend them!

No, I decided to change hosting services because of straight-up affordability LOL all to be able to keep hosting one episode! Because, the one catch with Fireside is that there cheaper plans have a 100 MB file-size limit. And there’s this one interview I did last year where the file goes just a bit over that! LOL And I don’t have nearly the editing skill necessary to get the file-size down, much less without loosing audio quality!

But then, actually during my zine launch, a friend mentioned Anchor.fm, which is a free hosting service. But even though it’s free, it still has quite good creation and distribution features, although I’m still getting the hang of all the ins and outs. And while it does have a file-size limit, it’s 200 MB!! LOL So that gives me a lot more wiggle-room. Which is awesome, because I’m hoping to do a lot more interviews! And I don’t like to cut them. I prefer to keep interviews as natural as possible.

Anyway, the new podcast site is https://anchor.fm/in-this-labyrinth to check out. The show’s also back up and running on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify (URLs at the bottom of this post), and is newly available on RadioPublic and Breaker. So we’re back in business!!

Oh, and I’ll be posting a new episode very soon with highlights from my zine launch. Because, as I think I mentioned, the fabulous folks who volunteered to read excerpts from the first issue also awesomely allowed me to record their readings to share on the podcast! I’m so thankful to them for that. So watch this space, and/or the podcast website, and/or the podcast Facebook and Twitter for that very soon. Indeed, I hope to get it posted in the next few days!

In This Labyrinth: Justice From The Heart Of The Phantom Of The Opera connections:

Twitter: @ITLPodcast

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/inthislabyrinth

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/itlpodcast

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-this-labyrinth-justice-from-the-heart-of-the-phantom-of-the-opera/id1433588959

Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy82N2E1OTM1MC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3kti86f6mnlMnhkBpeoRG7

RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/in-this-labyrinth-justice-from-th-6V7yKl

Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/in-this-labyrinth-justice-from-the-heart-of-the-phantom-of-the

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Launching The Zine At Last!!

31 Saturday Jul 2021

Posted by Sarah Erik in Uncategorized

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So once again I know I haven’t updated in a while. There was all the usual end-of-term stuff around getting my final grades done and ready to be sent to the department by my prof, and then I moved half way across the province! We (Mom and I) had actually been thinking about moving for quite a while because where we were was getting really, really unaffordable, but then the new place came up really suddenly! So yeah, the past bunch of months have been something of a mad whirlwind. LOL We only just got the last of the boxes sent off to recycling last night, and there’s still a load or two of bubble-wrap to be disposed of! LOL And I never imagined one could use that much bubble-wrap outside and industrial setting. Wow!! And of course, it’s taken a while to recover (though, actually, I’d say we’re still recovering), and to get settled in and get everything back up and working.

Anyway, I mentioned last time I posted that I was hoping/planning to have an official launch event for my zine. And I’m now delighted to say that it’s actually happening!! It’s on August 10th at 6 PM on Zoom, right in the midst of my 31st Phanniversary week as I’d originally hoped! Which is perfect, because this first issue – Creature Of Darkness – really focusses on my first encounters with POTO and the contexts that set them up to ignite such a powerful, long-lasting obsession. And I’ve got a lovely team of volunteer readers lined up to read a selection of excerpts at the launch, which is really exciting! LOL I decided to do that because, alas, I’m a better writer than a reader, even of my own stuff. So huge thanks to them!

In any case, you can get tickets at the EventBrite link below. It’s PWYC, and half of proceeds are going to be donated to an org doing work on Disability Justice in line with the values of the zine. And hopefully it’ll be a really awesome, fun evening!

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/zine-launch-in-one-combined-tickets-162110537983

Unfortunately, though, the one downer is that I don’t, at this point, have the ability to provide closed-captioning for the event. Really sorry about that!! But it’s set up as a regular Zoom-meeting, and apparently that doesn’t give me the ability to enable CC. Maybe because of my account type? And while it might if I upgraded the event to a webinar, I’m not sure I can afford to do that right now as my finances are still incredibly shot after the giant move! If anyone knows a cheap/free work-around for that, though, please get in touch? That’d be enormously helpful as I don’t want to be inaccessible if I can help it!!

Anyhow, that not withstanding, and hopefully with a solution found soon if possible, it’s shaping up to be a really exciting event. I’m enormously looking forward to it, and I’m looking forward to seeing/hearing folks there!

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Check out my new zine!

13 Tuesday Apr 2021

Posted by Sarah Erik in Uncategorized

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So I know I mentioned ages ago that I was working on this. And I finally got it up and published!! Yay!!! I had the content written way back last year. But then formatting it properly for Lulu Press and getting it actually published on their platform was quite a bit more significant a learning curve than I counted on! Hopefully future issues will go more smoothly, though, now that I’ve (more or less) got the hang of it (LOL I think).

It also underwent a name-change in the process. I was originally going to call the overall zine Creature Of Darkness after that awesome line from Phantom – “Pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known? God, give me courage to show you you are not alone!” (Act II scene 9). Because, especially in this first issue, trauma is one of the major themes of the zine. But I ended up making that the title just of the first issue, and changing the overall title to In One Combined – after the line from the title song “Your spirit and my voice in one combined, The Phantom of the Opera is there inside your mind” (Act I scene 4). Because, while trauma definitely remains a key theme, I found I wanted a title for the overall zine that pointed as much toward healing and discovering one’s power. And of course, the title song has always been my favourite!!

Anyhow, as mentioned above, the first issue is now up on Lulu Press. You can find:

the print version at https://www.lulu.com/en/ca/shop/phantomfemme-/in-one-combined/paperback/product-vwmeme.html?page=1&pageSize=4

and the ebook version at https://www.lulu.com/en/ca/shop/phantomfemme-/in-one-combined/ebook/product-ww28em.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Note. The ebook is significantly cheaper! And it should be fully accessible. I hope! There are no images, only text. And my screen-reader did OK with it when I test-read the first few pages (not withstanding that the Mac OS Books app navigation is a pain in the ass).

Note also, all issues (whenever they come out) will be available to subscribers on my Patreon at the $5 per month level and above, along with other flavours of bonus content as well. You can find me at www.patreon.com/phantomfemme

I’m planning to do an official launch for the zine (on Zoom of course) later in the summer 🙂 around the time of my 31st Phanniversary. Because, that seems appropriate! But I wanted to go ahead and let folks know it’s out now. Though, caveat, I have no idea how often future issues will come out! It all depends on how often I find time and inspiration to write for them. Though, I suspect that, as with this issue, out-takes from my dissertation will be rich sources of content!

Anyway, I hope folks enjoy the zine and find it interesting/useful. And I hope it opens up new ways of thinking about, imagining, and loving Phantom!!

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Song Of Hope – Lyrics

26 Saturday Dec 2020

Posted by Sarah Erik in Uncategorized

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So I recently posted this cover of one of my favourite songs – Song Of Hope by Jim Strathdee – on my new YouTube channel Spirit And Voice. It’s one of those songs that’s kind of a musical manifesto for me because I feel like it really captures the values, politics and spirit I find in Phantom! You can listen to it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF5xjXnCfPQ&t=45s

It’s been mentioned to me, though, that the words can be a bit hard to hear. I hope not, though sorry about that if they are! So I thought I’d post the lyrics here just in case, so folks can read along if that’s helpful. Hope so!

Note: the lyrics below are significantly rewritten from Strathdee’s original. Don’t get me wrong, I love the original and the sentiments it expresses. But unfortunately, a lot of the imagery it uses is really ableist! Gender-binaried, too. And as a Disabled, Gender-fluid musician, I just wasn’t comfortable with that. So I took the liberty of rewriting portions of the words to hopefully express the same sentiments but without the heterosexism and ableism! I hope I’ve succeeded. (There also some other, minor rewrites as well that expand the song from its original anti-war context.) Also, the tune that I use is not quite Strathdee’s original either. I sing the tune the way I learned it in an awesome liturgical band I used to sing in called the Fallen Angles!

“When there’s darkness all around us overwhelming heart and mind,
when all roads lead to confusion and hope’s impossible to find,
free our – free our minds for dreaming of the day when hate and war shall cease!
Free our – free our dreams to lead us onward to the ways of peace.

When the sounds of destruction seem to freeze our very breath,
when our songs and laughter vanish in terror at the sounds of death,
free our – free our hearts for loving this life, so precious and so dear!
Free our – free our voices for singing the songs that overcome our fear!

When, in weary isolation, we’ve lost the courage to care,
when our captive spirits languish in the bondage of despair,
free us to reach for one another in whatever ways we can!
Free us to work boldly together to restore hope to this land!

When our kindred are in slavery, when our neighbours are in need,
when the cost is untold misery for the 1-percent’s power and greed,
when the – when the ties are broken, when it seems we’ve lost our soul,
free our lives for service to make the human family whole!”

(Note: in Strathdee’s original version there’s one more verse that I don’t do. For one thing, the four verses above make the song quite long already! But also, I find it more powerful to leave it where I have above.)

Anyway, I hope folks enjoy that/find it meaningful/inspirational. And of course, merry Christmas and happy new year!!

Writer and musician exploring Phantom of the Opera as trauma-magic for humanity in crisis. Also, host of the In This Labyrinth: Justice From the Heart of The Phantom Of The Opera podcast.

www.phantomfemme.com

https://inthislabyrinth.fireside.fm/

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My Music Finally Launched – Spirit And Voice!

21 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by Sarah Erik in Art, Uncategorized

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Tags

"Phantom of the Opera", ChristoPagan, music, Phanship, spirituality

So it finally happened! LOL I know, it seemed like it might never. But yep, I’ve finally got my music re-launched! The delay was caused by trying to work out the most accessible way to post videos of me doing my music online that can then be easily shared. And to my surprise, after quite a bit of trial and error, I ended up going with old-fashioned YouTube! It’s not perfect by any means, and honestly at first I didn’t think it would work for me. But I found Vimeo not that accessible either, and ultimately YouTube ended up being easier to post to and share from – which surprised me! And I was ultimately able to get it to give me a channel name that I like, and allow me to make sure I’m signed in properly and not accidentally in one of my other Google accounts, both of which were problems when I first started exploring it.

So now that that’s all sorted out, welcome to my new YouTube channel – Spirit And Voice! And it’s not only the new home for my music. Recall a while ago I mentioned really wanting to find a space to start sharing my spirituality? Well, I’ve decided to use the channel for that as well. Which makes sense, because my spirituality and my music are deeply intertwined! So the channel will be a blend of music posts and posts where I share the work in progress that is my Phantom-centred ChristoPagan spiritual practice. You can check it out at the link below!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3l3r0mI033oE36uoXpUsOA

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy that and find the stuff I post there interesting. Uh, and I hope this works! I’m trying posting by email for the first time because the new WordPress post-editor has some accessibility issues that are driving me up the wall! So let’s hope this works as a work-around.

And of course, blessed Winter Solstice to everyone, belated happy Chanukah, and merry Christmas!!

 

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So I’ve now joined my generation in being bitten by the podcasting bug!

06 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by Sarah Erik in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

"Phantom of the Opera", creativity, podcast, politics

LOL So once again I haven’t posted in ages! Again, sorry about that. But as usual I’ve been busy, and not only with school! Although, definitely with that. But mostly, I’ve started a new project!

So I mentioned a long while back that I was thinking of starting a podcast of my own. Well, I finally took the leap and did! LOL And as will surprise no one, it is, of course, on Phantom of the Opera. It’s called In This Labyrinth: The Phantom of the Opera In Erik’s Times and Ours, and it’s very much the kind of stuff I do here. Like here, I bring together my Phantom obsession and my passion for Disability-centred intersectional analysis. So so far, I’ve done episodes on how the Leroux novel and Lloyd Webber stage-musicals treat the concept of normalcy, the ableism in the Gerik (the 2004 movie of Phantom) based on the blog-posts I’ve done on that topic here and elsewhere, why I find the Title Song from Phantom so thoroughly awesome (again based on some of the analysis I’ve done here), how Phantom shaped my Disabled identity and continues to do so, and most recently on Phanship and obsession. And next up is one on the Phantom and/as Red Death in the Masquerade scenes in Leroux and ALW, and how those scenes put an unintentional? Disability-political twist on the original story by Edgar Allan Poe that they’re based on. So I’m really excited about that! I was, of course, hoping to have that one up by Halloween. LOL But keeping to schedule has been interesting! Though, of course, I keep trying.

I try to put an episode out twice a month. I thought about doing only once a month, LOL but I knew from my own experience with my favourite podcasts that, if I were the listener, having to wait a whole month between episodes would drive me up the wall! So I decided to do twice a month instead. But thus the delay in posting here. Because, especially on top of school and my teaching assistantship, that schedule can be a challenge to keep up with!!! In spite of that, though, I’m really loving doing it!!! And I’ve got lots more (hopefully) interesting episodes planned for the future. And I’ve even got them more or less scheduled into the new year! Though, of course, there’s room for flexibility. I’ve got a bunch of book and Phanfic reviews planned, plus episodes on the “good girl/bad girl binary” in Phantom, Phantom and economic precarity, mothers and fathers in POTO, and the similarities and differences between Phantom and the classic Beauty and the Beast legend (especially as depicted by Disney)! And I hope to do one on POTO and the famous Beauty and the Beast TV series eventually, especially since I gather there was, at one point, a significant overlap between the fandoms of the two. But believe it or not, I haven’t yet seen the series, so, alas, that’ll have to wait till I do! And of course, I plan to do episodes on race in Phantom, and on other aspects of how gender plays out in the various versions too. So stay tuned for all of that!

Additionally, I really hope to do interviews! Because, of course, while I bring my own perspective and experience, there’s a great diversity out there in the Phandom. And I definitely can’t speak for all of that! So I’d love to have Phans who come from perspectives other than my own – at intersections other than my own – on the show. That’d be very awesome indeed, and make it much more interesting for listeners!

Anyway, so that’s what I’ve been up to. Don’t worry, though, I haven’t by any means abandoned this site, my other writing or my music! LOL It’s just a bit hard to squeeze everything in. So don’t be alarmed if there are longer than usual delays between posts here and/or updates on that other stuff! Because, school kind of has to take priority, and beyond that, the podcast’s taking priority right now, too. But I definitely plan to continue with my other projects as time and energy permit!

If you want to check my new podcast out, though, which, of course, I sincerely hope you do, you can find the show’s website at the link above. And it’s also available on iTunes and Google Play now as well! So, if you like what you hear, and again I sincerely hope you do, I’d be ever so obliged if you could subscribe in iTunes and drop a rate and review. That would be enormously appreciated, as it will help more listeners find the show! You can, of course, also like/follow the show on Facebook, and on Twitter at @ITLPodcast. There’s also a Facebook group, in addition to the page, for sharing and discussion. So by all means join there too, and I very much hope you all enjoy the podcast!

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Finding Each Other: Building Legacies of Belonging (reblog from Mia Mingus’s blog Leaving Evidence)

14 Saturday Apr 2018

Posted by Sarah Erik in Uncategorized

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Tags

politics, Queer

Wow!  Everyone should read this post, and indeed their entire blog!  Although Mingus is speaking specifically to a Queer Korean-American audience, what she says here may be applied to other contexts too.  Very powerful!

 

via Finding Each Other: Building Legacies of Belonging

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Forced Intimacy: An Ableist Norm

03 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by Sarah Erik in Uncategorized

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A powerful and painful piece because it’s so damned true! I experience this every time I have to ask a sighted stranger to guide me somewhere, fill out forms for and with me that ask for very personal information because the forms are in formats I can’t read myself, etc. And of course, I experience it every time a sighted stranger comes up to me and asks me how long I’ve been Blind and what caused it, questions there’s no way to answer without going into my personal history! Mingus is absolutely right. It feels as oppressive as it is! And she does a brilliant job of laying out why it’s oppressive!

Source: Forced Intimacy: An Ableist Norm

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Charlottesville was my Fault

15 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by Sarah Erik in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Ouch! But so true. It’s the lesson of Nevel Longbottom, though. Isn’t it? (paraphrasing Dumbledore) “It takes courage to stand up to your enemies. But it takes even greater courage to stand up to your friends!” So let’s all help each other cultivate that courage please? A really important start would be to creat circles of support for those who have friends or, especially, relatives that they’re going to have to confront. This can be really scary, especially for those who fear isolation. But knowing you’ve got a circle of supportive friends to whom you can go to decompress/debrief/just plain not feel alone after you’ve pissed off your other friends/family can make all the difference in whether some one has the courage to stand up or not!

Source: Charlottesville was my Fault

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