David Thaxton's Phantom Is A Special Kind Of Unhinged And...amazing?

Tess (1979)

A Sentimental Soapbox Essay on Fandoms and Archives and Why Your Hyperfixation Matters

Offline, I'm a grad student/historian in training who studies a community that is systemically under-archived. A significant part of my day job involves helping that community craft the archive from what's "left" while coming to terms with what they've already lost. In the meantime, I'm also navigating how to write the dissertation I want to write without the sources I want/need.

Aside from providing the fodder for my gothic romance hyperfixation, fandoms are a breath of fresh air because they remind me that it only takes a few passionate people to build an archive and, eventually, a preservation ecosystem. It all starts with someone who records things, collects stuff, and accumulates niche knowledge--and then shares it with others--just for the joy of it.

Two episodes of a (now obscure) Jane Eyre BBC adaptation have been missing for years, and today an anonymous superfan/de facto JE adaptation archivist who never gave up announced that they've been found after all this time. Masters take the time to make elitist or ephemeral artforms like musicals more accessible for present and future generations' enjoyment and now several Phantoms who performed the role before I was even born are among my favorites. Stuff like this warms my heart as a fan, historian, and a human.

Don't take for granted that some institution is studying and stewarding that "thing" you care about. Universities, museums, and the internet are flawed systems and, yes, instruments of power and capitalism. They also just can't (and shouldn't) do it all. Preservation runs on informal archivists and spaceholders like @glassprism and @wheel-of-fish and @behindthemirrorofmusic and trading economies (in the case of POTO) and so many other people/spaces. It thrives on us investing in the things that bring us joy. And that investment doesn't have to be financial; it often just looks like collaborating with others for free and finding time to channel our intellects and energies toward what we love.

The things that matter to you...matter lol. Don't let *gestures wildly* all the stuff going in the world convince you otherwise. Now or somewhere down the road someone's going to be glad you cared this much.

It's over now, the music of the night. Laird Mackintosh, April 16, 2023. [X]

lol is it good?

masquerade nyc posting a fic on ao3... literally what is going on

really is soooo sick that ppl think that overuse of the em dash is a marker of ai now. like why are you people sullying the reputation of my beautiful beautiful wife. if im not overusing em dashes im dead. im like that chuck tingle book thats like the sentient lesbian em dash makes sweet love to me or whatever

SCREAMING.

thinking about that video of hugh panaro being a slut just about about the normal amount!!!! and had to do something about it

I thought Gary Mauer and Marie Danvers's final lair kiss was special but after watching (more than) a few bootlegs I realize that Danvers never fails to deliver a good kiss regardless of who's playing the Phantom or Raoul.

And I feel like she deserves more appreciation because this is in fact an acting skill. Multiple Christines and Phantoms have already told us that Erik's face is just a disgusting mass of makeup, glue, saliva and sweat by that point in the show, so manufacturing chemistry and infusing the kisses with the right nuance(s) is no small feat.

Legs.

1. Jeremy Stolle 2. Davis Gaines 3. Hugh Panaro 4. Ivan Ozhogin 5. Ben Lewis 6. Gary Mauer 7. Howard McGillin 8. Earl Carpenter 9. Mathais Edenborn

“I have touched you, heard you, felt the comfort of your presence–the sweetness of your consolation: I cannot give up these joys. I have little left in myself–I must have you. The world may laugh–may call me absurd, selfish–but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied: or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.”

— Edward Rochester (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte)