Halloween is tomorrow!!!
My brother is coming home from college for the weekend, and my mom and little sister are having a pumpkin pie festival (there's like eight of them in the oven right at this moment), and we're going to a party, and another party, and we're going to get free candy, and I'm going to finally try to get some decent pictures of my costume, and it's all going to be really great!
Happy Halloween, Everyone!
What is everyone dressing as (for those doing costumes this year)?

:there would be a picture of John Denver here if I had the ability to post one:

Twelve years is no short amount of time. It still seems like it was just yesterday, though.

Rhymes and Reasons, by John Denver

So you speak to me of sadness
And the coming of the winter
Fear that is within you now
It seems to never end
And the dreams that have escaped you
And the hope that you've forgotten
You tell me that you need me now
You want to be my friend

And you wonder where we're going
Where's the rhyme and where's the reason
And it's you cannot accept
It is here we must begin
To seek the wisdom of the children
And the graceful way of flowers in the wind

For the children and the flowers
Are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness
Could clear a cloudy day
Like the music of the mountains
And the colours of the rainbow
They're a promise of the future
And a blessing for today

Though the cities start to crumble
And the towers fall around us
The sun is slowly fading
And it's colder than the sea
It is written from the desert
To the mountains they shall lead us
By the hand and by the heart
They will comfort you and me
In their innocence and trusting
They will teach us to be free

For the children and the flowers
Are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness
Could clear a cloudy day
And the song that I am singing
Is a prayer to non believers
Come and stand beside us
We can find a better way

Watch John Denver perform Rhymes and Reason, in an excerpt from the soon-to-be-released John Denver Around the World concert DVD set, on YouTube: [link]

Check your inboxes! Just in time for ALW's big October 8th press launch, the LND website has been completely updated! There are now options to watch the press launch that was given in London this morning (including an excerpt of Ramin Karimloo, the Phantom in LND, singing one of the new songs, 'Till I Hear You Sing' ), preorder the soundtrack (double CD for £12.99 or £19.99 for the deluxe set, to be sent out in March 2010), and you can also sign up for a LND account (which, if you do, you'll get a free downloadable preview track of an instrumental from LND. There's also a 'The Phantom's Scrapbook' page, which is a scrollover tabletop scene, ala jkrowling.com, but without quite as much interactiveness. Oh, and you can pre-order tickets, too... they've seem to have scrapped the "OPEN EVERYWHERE AT THE SAME TIME!!!" idea, as the only options are London spring 2010, Broadway fall 2010, and Australia 'mid-2011'. Canada is supposed to come along some time soon, as well.

For those of you who might have trouble with the Flash-ness of the LND website, the press launch video (and also an interview with ALW about LND) have been posted on RUG's official YouTube channel. You can watch them here:
ALW interview, 8:42 long: [link]
Press Release, 18:38 long: [link]

Have a look at the videos, at the very least! I want to hear some opinions!

In case you don't know, one hundred years ago today the first installment of "Le Fantome de L'Opera" was printed in a French newspaper... and the rest was history.
So happy birthday, Erik, and may your popularity last for many more years!

Fantomedelopera on Twitter (twitter.com/fantomedelopera) has some really neat pictures of the first issue of Phantom, among other things. I recommend you have a look at them if you have an interest in the history of Phantom. (If you want to go straight to the pictures, they're here: [link] , but their Twitter page has stuff that their picture page doesn't, so have a look around both if you like.)