An eclectic, and by no means exhaustive, list of fellow artists/activists who’s work has inspired my own. Do check these folks out! They’re truly awesome!
Phantom
Phantom of the Cross https://phantomofthecross.wordpress.com
My other site where I explore connections between what I’ve come to call Liberation Phanship and my Christian faith, especially with regard to social/environmental/economic/Disability justice.
🙂 It wouldn’t be PhantomFemme without a Phantom-related site or two! This discussion-forum, which I’m a member on, is a great place to find information on Phantom and the Phan community. Not very active right now, but hopefully it’ll pick back up soon!
The Phantom section on Fanfiction.net
In addition, if you’re a Phanfic junky like me, you might want to check this out! Admittedly, the quality can vary widely. But I’ve also found some truly brilliant Phics here, including the one that inspired my Masters thesis! So definitely worth the weeds. Warning, though, lots of Geriks! But, thankfully, you can still find old-school stage-version, and/or Leroux, and/or Kay based Phics too, and it can be well worth the search!
The Facebook group for the All Things Phantom podcast that used to run on Blogtalk Radio. Sadly, the podcast itself hasn’t been active in ages, although you can still find the old episodes on ITunes and maybe other places too. But the Facebook group’s still active! And, if the podcast ever comes back, which I really hope it does, that’s where you’ll hear about it. Plus, they often post various cool POTO links and resources, so it’s another good place to find out what’s going on in the Phantom-verse!
Yay! Us Phantom Phans finally have our own convention! And here’s it’s Facebook page. Apparently it’s going to be a biannual thing, so the next one’s set for 2019.
Most of the world know Mr. Wilkinson as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, which role he originated both in London and on Broadway. But we in Canada have the privilege of having known him as the Phantom too, as he played that role in the Toronto production for the first four years of its long run. And without the slightest bit of understatement, he is to the musical stage what Richard Burton, may he rest in peace, was to the straight stage! Seriously, everything I know about singing a song with equal care to both the musicianship and the dramatic presentation, I learned from listening to this artist. Not to mention versatility, as his rock-song performances are as killer as his Broadway stuff!
🙂 The performer who first really inspired me to start singing in a serious way way back when I was in fifth grade. Phantom Phans will know her as the one who originated the role of Christine back when POTO first began its run in London, and, in fact, the one for whose voice the role was actually written. But she’s since gone on to have a long and very successful solo career!
Disability
First of all, there simply aren’t enough synonyms for amazing to adequately describe this blog by Disability-justice activist Mia Mingus, on which I found the amazing piece “Moving Toward the Ugly: A Politic Beyond Desirability” that I also link to in my own intro post. Even though I’ve only recently been introduced to Mingus’s work, without it, the PhantomFemme could never have come into being! They’re not, that I know of, a Phan. But so much of what they write about is so pertinent to the Queering of POTO that I want to do!
Interview with Loree Erickson on Femmegimp porn!
Check out this awesome interview thing with a chick whom I’m immensely proud to call a colleague, and who’s been an absolutely mind-blowing inspiration to me, both artistically and as a scholar and activist! Seriously, I couldn’t be the PhantomFemme without Loree’s work having gone ahead of me, shown me how to imagine outside the box, and broken new and sexy ground in terms of how Crip people perceive ourselves.
And, on a similar note, check out this utterly awesome podcast by Disability awareness consultant Andrew Gurza, in which he, as he puts it, “shines a bright light on sex and disability”! (Though, really wish he’d loose the visual metaphor.) Raw, frank, often hilarious discussion of a topic which, sadly, still all too few even in the Disabled community dare discuss openly. And rocking interviews with other Disability and sexuality activists/artists!
Check out this awesome, Toronto-based organization by and for Disabled artists!
And here’s another awesome Disability podcast from the BBC. Not exclusively about sexuality, although that certainly does come up. But again, raw, frank, honest, and, again, often hilarious razor-sharp discussion of the realities of living in a Disabled body and confronting ableism.
Other Politics/News/Etc.
My lifeline for real news free from government and corporate BS. They “go where the silence is”, as anchor Amy Goodman puts it, covering the stuff the mainstream media doesn’t, and giving voice to those whom the mainstream media excludes and marginalizes. You might have seen their brilliant coverage of Standing Rock around the web over the past few months?
People’s Climate Movement of Toronto
The Facebook page of a group that I work with on climate-justice issues. It grew out of the organizing that culminated in the great People’s Climate March in NYC in September 2014 and its Toronto solidarity counterpart. People wanted to keep the momentum going and the organizing building so we can really make some change! So we’ve ben running various campaigns in the years since the big march, many of them on social media.
This podcast blew my mind, and totally opened my spirituality up to new possibilities! Actually, it still does that every time I listen to it! It’s run by a woman in (of course, LOL where else?) California who’s, get this, both a Christian pastor and a Wiccan priest (she identifies as a priest, not a priestess). And I was like “you can do that? Wow!”. 🙂 No, I don’t do that myself. That’s not quite my path. But it’s really has helped me figure out how Phantom and my Christian practice can work together, and better understand what it means to be a Queer, progressive, yet theistic person of faith in general. So do check it out! She covers a lot of issues with the people she interviews – race, gender, Disability, etc – as well as spirituality. And the faith-fusion perspective she and her interviewees offer has hugely informed what I want to do with PhantomFemme, though not in ways that will necessarily be obvious LOL even to me!
Note: sadly, the podcast is on indefinite hiatus right now. But I’m really hoping and praying she’ll bring it back!
Another fantastic podcast! They play a different lecture every week featuring people like Naomi Klein, Arundhati Roy, Vandana Shiva, and other voices rarely heard in the mainstream corporate media. They’re a great source for real, in-depth analysis of issues!
Also, check out this documentary on the Canadian mobilization toward the great People’s Climate March that took place in NYC in 2014, produced by my friend Kai! Although it’s focus is the Canadian mobilization, he really explores how the climate crisis can also be our great opportunity to demand a just and sustainible world. And, I’m thrilled to say, Kai’s very awesomely used one of my versions of the song “Bread and Roses” as part of the soundtrack!
Miscellaneous Inspirations/General Coolness
Check out this awesome Toronto-based artist! I hear him all the time at demos, and his stuff rocks! He tells it like it is with awesome, inscisive poetry.
Also, check out this artist-run, corporate-free music festival that happens annually in Toronto! I’ve performed there a couple of years now, and it’s always a great time both for performers and audiences!
This band is another one of my biggest inspirations, especially their first album Fallen! Their songs have taught me huge amounts about lyric-writing and rock orchestration. And Amy Lee’s also an amazing pianist!
In somewhat contrast, check out this awesome country/rock/roots duo. I love their lyric-writing and their harmonies! As the name suggests, they’re strongly political (named for legendary early Feminist socialist Emma Goldman), which is a lot of what I love about them. But the musicianship and poetry are first-rate too, which is what makes them so awesome!
And in another contrast, perhaps, check out this awesome hiphop duo, also Toronto-based! Great beats, and great, razor-sharp poetry! Anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, anti-racist, pro Earth and all living beings. And yes, they are still very much active even though the website seems to be a bit out of date. I hear them often at various events too, and they totally kick ass!
The Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. Seriously, if you don’t know these dudes, then check them out! They’re awesome! And, of course, they’ve been a huge influence on my own music as well. Not to mention, they do a killer cover of the title song from Phantom! In fact, quite a few of their early original songs could be heard as having POTO overtones too!
The homepage of the totally awesome Dutch band Within Temptation, also symphonic metal. Again, if you don’t know these guys, then go check them out pronto!
🙂 And more to come as I think of/find them.
The Tao of Phantom 