Gah!!

You know what I don't like? Prerecorded messages that direct your calls. I also hate call centers, but that's a different story.

I especially hate the college's new recorded messages system for when you call them with questions. Today I just wanted to check if the college is open, since it's Labour Day. So I called right, and before this you would directly get the receptionist to answer the call. But this time, ok, press 1 for English. Fine with me.

But the next message that came on is: "Sorry, TOA is currently closed for it's company trip from the 1st to the 30th of June. We will be open as usual from the 1st of July." But it's only 1st of May! What is this metaphysical glimpse into the future kind of thing going on?

OK, so I finally got to listen to Love Never Dies. I notice there have been some reviews about it in the newspapers too, and generally not very favourable comments, especially about the storyline. I kind of agree actually, but the music is still good, so all things concidered, I do like the album.

So, what's happened to the storyline? Typical fanfiction if you ask me. A wishful second ending that the original author doesn't intend but is inevitable if you concider the huge following that Phantom has. I don't think it's Webber's fault though, I think the storyline was written by someone else(there are many spin offs, sequels and prequels of Gaston Leroux's novel out there btw). The idea was supposed to be axed but somehow got produced in the end. Maybe *ahem* money *ahem* had something to do with it. Phantom is after all the longest running Broadway show.

But if your's still interested to know what it's about, continue reading.

Spoiler alert.

OK, so the phantom is still alive, saved from the mob by mother and Meg Giry. They relocate to Coney Island and the phantom starts a lavish freak show, assuming the identity of a mysterious Mr Y. However, the phantom still pines for Christine and invites her to sing at his show. By now, Christine is living in poverty as Raoul has become a drunkard and gambled all his fortunes away. They also have a son called Gustave, whom Raoul doesn't seem to care about.

Meanwhile, Meg Giry works at the show as a cheap showgirl, and works hard to try to win the phantom's attention. She is forced to prostitute herself to earn money and favours from powerful members of the public, to help run the show. Soon, they find out that Christine has been invited to perform,taking Meg's lead role .They get jealous that their loyalty is not repaid, but the betrayer Christine has become source of new inspiration to the phantom.

When Christine and her family reach Coney Island, Gustave is intrigued by the freakshow. Ignored by Raoul, Gustave enjoys wandering around the building.The phantom soon meets him and notices how much he and the boy are able to identify with each other's love for music. The phantom questions Christine and finds out that Gustave is really their son together.They plan to run off together after Christine's performance at the show.

The phantom then confronts Raoul and challenges his belief that Gustav is his son. They bet that if Christine sings for the phantom, then Raoul must leave them, but if she doesn't, then the phantom would pay off all their debts.On the night of the performance, Christine sings, while Gustave once again wanders off. After the performance, Gustave is missing and Raoul is suspected of kidnap. However, it is found out that he has kept his promise to leave alone. Later, Gustave is found at the pier where a distraught Meg Giry tries to drown him. In the scuffle the ensues, Gustave is released, but Christine is accidentally shot by Meg. As Christine dies, Gustave finally accepts the phantom as his real father.

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You'd notice that the storyline is in direct conflict with the original story. First of all, the narrator in the novel says that he has found the dead body of the phantom. Secondly, although it might be possible that Christine loved the phantom, I don't think that she loved him is such a way. At least to me, their absolute chastity and the phantom's suicide were what made the story as strong as it was.

End of spoiler.

Story aside, lets talk about the music. The music style is a little bit more American and contemporary than Phantom, I guess.But it is still as moving as it's predecessor. One thing I liked was the contrast of the prologue's cold and depressing feel(after the freak house was burned down) and the careless joyfulness of it's former glory in the intro.As for the cast, I didn't feel much of an impact for Christine's role. For the phantom, I get the feeling that Ramin Karimloo switches from tense anger to tender love too suddenly, but maybe that's just me.I did like Raoul's role though. In Phantom, he was a bit of a male bimbo(perhaps intentionally too) but in LND he becomes a more fleshed out ,quick tempered man but with many regrets, especially as to how he feels he cannot be a good enough man for his wife.

Meg Giry's role was a bit of a shock. In phantom, she was an innocent side character, but in LND her life has been so drastically transformed, it's like waking up to the horror of what real life must have been for showgirls. Her thick American accent was a bit weird, but more than made up for by a strong performance. On the other end of the spectrum, mother Giry's thick and fake sounding French accent was somewhat amusing in an unintended way, but eitherway, she's a memorable character.As for Gustave, I'm not sure who sang for the CD version, but whoever he is, he does sing with the typical choirboy innocent charm which is so endearing.

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Overall, I'd say LND is worth your time. It's actually a pretty good story if it weren't connected to phantom, but just was a standalone musical. Like someone mentioned, they should just have changed a few names and it would have been perfect.

So I was curious about Love Never Dies. I read the summary and it sounded a bit like a fanfiction kind of thing. In a nutshell, Christine and Raoul have a son called Gustave, and they have moved to the United States. Also, turns out that the Phantom isn't dead, he's in America too...

Also, the poster kind of turns me off, it looks so 70s and Rock Opera meets flower power to me.Someone even mentioned it looks like Britney Spear's death mask.

But either way I went on to sampling one of the tracks from youtube, and pleasant surprise, it does look very promising after all. Or at least that's what I think from that one track.All the essential feelings are still there despite having different cast and songwriters from the Phantom of the Opera. I think I'll go get the cd and see how it is...

As for the reviews, some people were waxing lyrical , and some thought it wouldn't be worth you time, the usual variety you get from online reviews, so I cannot conclude anything from that.

The above clip is Ramin Karimloo playing the part of the Phantom.Yes...strangely they chose not to make him look deformed...hopefully the term 'American cutting edge plastic surgery' will not be mentioned...

Nowadays in the morning on the radio(i think it's Light and easy, either that or Mix) they play songs according to themes. A few days ago, the themes was songs with women's name in them. Which is pretty easy right.Right now off the top of my head:Sara, Laura, Mandy,Roxanne,Jainy(I dunno if those are the actual titles but I know there are songs about women with those names)

But what if the theme was men's names? How many can you think of? I tried and can only think of 3: Alfie, Daniel and Billy Brown. And Billy Brown is gay(because while it was all going according to plan, then Billy Brown fell in love with another man), so that's...probably not a full point based on gender.(btw no offense, i'm not homophobic, i'm in the art field, remember)

Oh yeah, let me know if you can think of more, I'm curious to know.

Learning English Malaysian style.

OK, so this lyrical wax is dedicated to the fact that I finally bought an original copy of The Phantom of the Opera. So called because the novel was originally in French and the common English version of it (I got one published by Penguin popular classics, the first translation that was done in 1911) is a lot shorter, which is sad...maybe I should learn some French.

Anyways, I'm enjoying reading it now. That makes me wonder why we studied out of that tiny little book back in form 3(if I remember correctly). How long was it? 15 pages? Probably even less if you don't count the illustrated pages. For comparison, Konserto Terakhir is 285 pages, and the Penguin book I bought is 270 pages, so why didn't we study out of that version directly? It would be kind of sad if a 15 year old 'modern' Malaysian cannot read a simple story book 1/2 an inch thick.

As a side note, the language used in the translation wasn't very difficult, it's similar to modern usage of English. Weren't we forced to learn classical and royal Malay in highschool too? Why the double standards? In my mom's time, they studied Romeo and Juliet,probably the complete version too.With classical English.

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The rest is waxing lyrical. If you don't like broadway or are just tired of my Lloyd Webber free promotions, you need not read on.

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But that aside, I found the other tracks from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera on youtube. I'm so happy to finally hear the complete story from Webber's point of view. I mean it's genius (Yeah, I know I've been going on about this for the past few months, I'm not over it yet) And Michael Crawford is Genius. Capital G. Those who liked whatshisname from the recent movie don't know what they're missing. I think I never felt what was so great about the phantom's character from studying English literature in form 3, and I downright hated the phantom from the movie. But with Michael Crawford's interpretation, you really understand the depth and emotion of the character. The wierd thing is that when I first heard Crawford singing Phantom, I thought he wasn't suitable because his type of voice is not 'angelic'. But the more I listen to it the more the music grows on me. I think the idea was to portray a character that was neither the Angel of Music nor a demon(so Rock Opera and Nightwish's version fails too), but just a human. I guess it's something you have to listen to for yourself, the contrast of the taunting phantom at the beginning of the musical to the heartfelt ending portrayed by Crawford and Webber's musical mastery.The ending ties everything up nicely and hits. Hard.

Also, I read online that Webber's original plan for his Phantom was to make it a Rock Opera style musical(like Jesus Christ Superstar. Which hasn't grown on me. Or not yet at least). Luckily Michael Crawford convinced him to do something operatic, and all that is left of the rock style is in the title song. And that new Webber musical, Love Never Dies(came out in March this year), is also sort of based on Phantom. But I'm not so sure about whether that will be good, I don't really support sequels.My motto:" If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. If at first you do succeed, congratulations, now go and do something else."

You know how I always complain about the earbuds that came with my iPod?(i think my facial oils made the rubber coating melt and tear) Well... 2 days ago the wire split and exposed the copper inside. So I bought new earbuds today.

I was kind of expecting it to be an expensive purchase. Earbuds from Apple cost around RM90 ++, and checking from the online Apple store, that's concidered cheap if you compare to other brands like Sony that is double the price, some brands can even go up to RM300 or 400. But I remembered that at the PC fare headphones can cost as little as RM30. So today I decided to skip going to MaChines and just have a look at the IT centre in Pyramid. Most brands and most shops sell earbuds for around RM60, but I got mine at a discount for RM30. It's a Philips one, so I think it won't be too bad. Oh yeah, and it's pink.

Before this I thought the Apple earbuds could be better, but now I think the problem was that the earbuds I used was too small, so sound leaked out the sides a bit and I had to listen at quite a high volume,(although stuffing the earbuds deeper into my ear canal or pressing them against my face works). Now I think the Apple earbuds sound quality is clearer than other brands though, although the EQ settings on the iPod helped a bit. I never used that setting before.

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Also, I finally bought 'The Kite Runner' after countless times going to the bookshop to see if it's on sale (it wasn't, but oh well) . Enjoying reading it now,I knew it was going to be good after reading 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' .The author's character development is very good. At least in Suns there was no categorisation of a character being 'good' or 'bad', just why they are like that because of the situation they were in. Dang...they didn't have the above cover...I wanted that one...

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Lastly, everyone's raving about 'How to train your dragon'. Should I watch it at the cinema? Who hasn't watched it yet? I think the whole Malaysia has seen it (except me)and all the sales nowadays are just return customers.