Parchment Paths

First off, this is not a sequel to the book The Phantom of the Opera, but the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. That's rather important to remember. Second, it is the basis of the musical Love Never Dies. I can't help but feel that maybe if the musical had more closely followed the book it would have been a bit better, though I did enjoy the play. The over all story is well written and thought out. The style is similar so Dracula, in the sense that each chapter is a newspaper article, journal entry, or narrative of a different character. I enjoy this style, however I wish more of the main charterers, such as Erik and Christine had more chapters and that the last and most climatic chapter was told by one of the rather than a secondary character, that to me, was a bit annoying. I highly recommend this book to fans (phans) of the original book as well as the musical, especially ones who liked Love Never Dies, but found it lacking.

Today my dad and I took my niece and nephew for a hike and nature scavenger hunt at Frances Slocum State Park. It was a nice, sunny day and under the cover of the forest, it was pretty shady and cool. The kids had a great time looking for rocks, squirrels, and birds while I enjoyed being out in nature and getting some exercise!  I was also able to tell them the history of the park's name sake, who was kidnapped by Native Americans when she was five. They stayed the night under a rock overhang and moved on. By the time her family found her, Frances was quite elderly and had made a life for self among her captives and chose to live out the remainder of her days with the people she came to see as her own. So, the kids got some history as well as nature!  

This past Thursday my dad and I took a day trip to Sight and Sound Theater to see their play Moses. I had seen the show before but it was Dad's first time. I gave a review of it in my post from March so I won't repeat that. I will say, however that live theater is worth seeing twice before you notice different things, a line in a song, a set piece,  or a character that stands out more the second time around. This time I was sitting in a different part of the theater, an aisle seat, which at Sight and Sound is special because the actors and live animals walk through them. Well, the strip of cloth representing  the Nile River was running through the center aisle and kept flopping up and smacking my dad's shoulder. At intermission, a man in our row joked that he was worried Dad would drown.  Talk about immersive theater! After the show, my friend that works at the theater took us backstage, which is always very exciting. We got to see some of the sets up close and meet som