The Blogs of Geekesses dot Net

I'm probably one the last folks in the world to hear about this, but last night, while at the theater watching Vanity Fair (more on that in another post later today), I saw a trailer for Phantom of the Opera. It premieres on Christmas Day of this year. The trailer itself is magnificient - mesmerizing - addictive, even! I can only dream of putting film clips and music together so well! As for the music, there are sections of the Phantom main theme (particularly the low brass and swirling strings) that are among the most perfect collections of notes written, IMHO :-)

Now, it may seem odd to some folks, but I've not seen the play/musical. I've read the book, which is wonderful (I wish I could read French so as to read it in its original language, because I'm sure some has been lost in translation). My mom is a huge fan of the soundtrack (and of Sarah Brightman, the original Christine), so that is how I was exposed to the music.

At any rate, I'm counting down the days until Christmas (97!) when I can see what promises to be a spectacular cinematic offering.

Oh, and the guys in the lead roles are nice eye candy, as well ;-)



Gerard Butler as the Phantom (I'm guessing he won't be delivering in his native Scottish accent...oh well...;-)



The Phantom (I'm sooo looking forward to seeing Butler in this role!)



Patrick Wilson as Raoul (he's a bit fresh-scrubbed for my tastes, but the long hair adds a lot :-)

And I have the stats to back it up:

1992-1998 USA

Fatal Shark Attacks: 3

Fatal Large Round Hay Bale Attacks: 42

---

Sources:

http://tinyurl.com/4cebn

http://tinyurl.com/4tp24

http://tinyurl.com/57n4p ("unwitnessed" the key word here)

http://tinyurl.com/3s3l9 (again, the guy was alone...I say the bale saw the opportunity and pounced...)

[Note: my deepest sympathies (and apologies) go out to anyone whose family/friends were killed by either large round hay bales or sharks - I'm not trying to mock death, merely extending my killer large round hay bale mythology*.]

---

*I went to university here in Lincoln, Nebraska - Nebraska is one of those large square-ish farming states that is driven through on the way to go skiing in Colorado or Utah. My roommate my freshman year grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio. One weekend I took her to my hometown, Holdrege. Along I-80 one can see hundreds of these large round hay bales; apparently she had not ever seen one before and remarked on them. I then mentioned that, yeah they are pretty cool looking, but people actually get killed by those every year, meaning farm worker accidents (see http://tinyurl.com/56hjh for all sorts of tragic farm accident stories). She somehow thought I meant the bales got on the highway and killed folks that way. I've always gotten the giggles from picturing those bales sneaking up onto the road and doing away with folks, like some really bad 60s horror movie (hey, that gives me an idea...I've got a digital video camera...there are hay bales all over the place out here...hmmmmm....mwahahahahahahahhaha! ;-). So, ever since then (1982) I've been calling them "killer hay bales" and I photograph them at nearly every opportunity I get. I was recently informed that their proper name is "large round hay bales", hence the current "killer large round hay bales" moniker.

Mild-mannered MCTs by day, by night the Geekesses blog: often irreverently, but always relevantly...