From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V2 #54 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Wednesday, February 27 2002 Volume 02 : Number 054 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] CON 2002 Day one, Part 3 [KTL ] [chakram-refugees] Re Kevin Smith speculation ["Jackie M. Young" Subject: [chakram-refugees] CON 2002 Day one, Part 3 As I said before, we heard the news about Kevin from a phone call that one of us had made to a Xena friend who told us about it. I kept saying to my bud, "She looked herself, yeah? She's not just repeating something she heard online, right?" And she confirmed that she had gone to the New Zealand Herald site and read it herself and this is a very reliable person, so we knew it was true. But still almost unbelievable. I just felt so badly for his little sons and for his partner. Man... We talked a little bit about the con-what the heck do you do? Do you cancel a program that hundreds of people have planned to attend, and saved up for and traveled sometimes thousands of miles to get to? Do you just close up shop and leave everyone hanging, cast and fans alike? We even brought up the hoary old show business tradition of "The show must go on". We wondered if there would be an announcement about it tonight. Should Creation take it upon themselves to tell everybody? Or should they wait to hear from Kevin's family or business manager to release a statement? And if Creation did decide to announce it, when would be a good time? Do you hit people with this on the way in and thus ruin the evening and scuttle the performances people had worked on and prepared for? Or do you wait until the evening is over? It was a very hard situation for Creation and I think they handled it extremely well. So we headed out for the evening performances. As I said in my first post, some people on line were talking about it quietly among themselves, but the vast majority of people were just not aware of it yet. You could tell of course, which groups of people knew and which didn't, by the sad shocked looks and the tears in some people's eyes. The evening show: Josie Ryan had been introduced in the afternoon at the con. She definitely has a strong resemblance to her sister. Josie said she was looking forward to seeing us that evening at the show. She left the stage and sat on the side and a break followed. So a kind of spontaneous line formed of people wanting autographs from her. She signed them for anybody who wanted to go up to her. She stayed there through the whole break, signing until the house lights went down for the next event. Very nice of her to do that, I thought. And I thought to myself, what do people say when they go up to her? You can't say, "I enjoyed your show" because it hadn't happened yet. Beats me. I'm really not into collecting autographs, but I do like a chance to thank the folks who worked on the show or whose work I particularly enjoy. So I just don't know what I would have said to Josie had I gotten on line. So I talked to a friend instead. Josie's "set" that night consisted of a chair and I can't remember if she had a mike or not-I think she had a hand held mike that she walked around with. I found it impressive that she had written this piece herself-I so like a well-rounded person. Smile. As many of us know from reading the reviews of "Sister Wonder Woman" when she was appearing in it in New Zealand, it's a piece about an actor who played the part of Wonder Woman on TV and how this affected the lives of her and her family, particularly, her younger sister. The thing about Wonder Woman was that that part was the highlight of her career. She never went on to anything else, didn't break out of the pack and so spent her whole life as "Wonder Woman" rather than as Rhonda Carter the actress. The repercussions for the younger sibling were things like missing her older sister terribly when she was a child because she had moved away to Hollywood, and having people in her life who liked her only because she was Wonder Woman's sister. One guy actually only dated her because of this and admits that sometimes when having sex with her, he fantasized that he was actually sleeping with her famous sister. There were a few hysterical lines that certainly might have been teasing of you know who. Rhonda is talking about her life and says, "And yes, I married the executive producer, but it was purely for love." And later on Rhonda gets pregnant while filming Wonder Woman and so the show has to deal with a pregnant action hero. Josie played all the parts, Rhonda Carter, the younger sister, their father and Rhonda's unborn baby, whom she plays in the womb while the show is being filmed. Josie hopped and twirled around the stage and, playing the baby, said ,"Things are fine except for when she does those flips and twists-they make me very dizzy." And the little fetus is staggering around and looking dazed. Rhonda winds up doing commercials, becoming a product spokesperson and going to cons. (Grin) But even at the con, she mostly works the information desk, endlessly pointing out where the bathroom is. She winds up drugged, drunk and drying out off and on. And still dreaming of making the big comeback some day. It's a very interesting piece, one that raises a lot of thoughts about fame and celebrity and its effects upon your life and the lives of those around you. One of my honey's cousins was a famous racing car driver and from the pictures in his parent's house and the way they talked, one would have believed he was an only child. He wasn't-he had a younger sister. A fact that surprised the heck out of me when I first heard about her in an offhand comment another relative made. Sibling rivalry can be horrific-among the famous it must be almost mythic. It also makes you think about all those actors who had these one shot deals and are now out of work yet still appearing on things like "Return of the Brady Bunch" or endlessly adorning the squares in Hollywood Squares. Not quite a life well spent. Not in the public, professional arena, anyway. Josie is a good writer and a good actor. She held the crowd's attention throughout the whole performance. I would recommend this little play to any Xena fan. And even to "regular" people. Next was the "Three Acts: Callisto vs. Alti" show. Act one started with a scene from an old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie being played onscreen. In the movie there's the usual little tiff and conflict between the two and then this older woman at the table with Ginger waves them off to dance. As always, Ginger is slightly peeved but gets up anyway. At this point, as the dance began, Claire came out from backstage on the side of the screen that Fred was on. She was wearing tails (black of course) and had her hair combed straight back and tied back off her face. Hudson came out on the side Ginger was on. She looked absolutely beautiful. She had on a white dress (just like Ginger!) and her hair was very carefully coiffed. She had straight hair to just about her ears and then it formed about three rows of soft waves down to her shoulders. I've seen pictures of Jean Harlow with a "do" like this. (Gods, I hate having to describe this girly stuff-shudder.) So then Claire and Hudson began to dance (to "Cheek to Cheek") exactly like Fred and Ginger were doing on the screen behind them. It was kewl! A guy came out (I didn't keep the program and so don't have his name) and tapped Claire on the shoulder to cut in. She handed Hudson over to him and then walked to the apron of the stage and stood there smoking and drinking and quietly steaming as Hudson and the guy danced. At this point the dance on the screen got pretty exciting. There were lots of fast steps and Hudson and the guy kept up with Ginger and Fred. Fred and the guy held Ginger and Hudson up in the air over their heads and twirled and did all kinds of fancy steps. Hudson did great. She held her pose perfectly as she swanned her way through the air. Then Claire walked back to the couple, punched the guy across the face and danced away with Hudson. I don't THINK this happened on the screen, but I was too engrossed watching how well Hudson danced to be sure. So then Hudson and Claire finished the dance together. I can't remember if they ended this skit with a kiss or not. Part two was a little film that Claire had produced. It opened with Callisto dollie sitting at a campfire with the head of Xena dollie on a pike next to her. Then "Alti" (really shamaness Xena dollie since they never made an Alti dollie, tch) came up demanding the head. Callisto and Alti fight over who hates Xena more and then in the classic stereotypical scene, as they're rolling around on the floor together, they suddenly realize they are attracted to each other and begin to kiss. The dollies wind up naked in a hot tub and the last shot is a close-up of the Xena dollie's head floating in the tub. It was pretty hilarious. Two folks came up to me afterward and said, "I immediately thought of you and your dollie stories!" Grin. And I remembered that during season five at Christmas time, we had a roll of film with some pictures of my nephew on it and my sister-in-law asked us to get them processed so she could send some to her relatives. We had about 5 or 6 shots left on the roll. And of course, I had two Xenas and a Gabrielle dollie hanging around the crche as usual. So I figured I'd use up the roll by taking some pictures of the grrls with the Nativity gang. We have a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament which is this lovely little wicker carriage with a little baby inside. The wheels actually roll-I love playing with that one every year. So I set up a shot of Xena with her hands on the carriage handle standing talking to Mary who's kneeling by the manger, both of them tending to their babies. I put Gabrielle and Joseph (another famous sidekick) in the foreground. I figured they had a LOT in common to talk about. In my mind, they were saying things like, "You're kidding! Xena claims it was a visit from an angel too!" And St. Joseph answers, "Well, I'll be darned--I guess it DOES happen" And after seeing Claire's little film, I thought-darn-I shoulda madea movie! (I included some of these photos in the pile I gave to my sister-in-law to send to her family-and she never even thanked me for them. Well, what can you expect from someone who hates XWP?) Actually the very first use of the dollies for sport that I'd ever seen was on a site called Xena meets Barbie. I ran across this years and years ago but I just did a search on the net and could only find references to it-when you click on a supposed link all I got was error messages. It had stuff like Barbie being menaced by toy dinosaurs and Xena coming in to save her. It was totally hilarious-I just about laughed my butt off when I first saw it. And the next time I brought out the creche I just happened to notice that the Xena 1 dollie was a perfect size to "visit Bethlehem" so to speak. So Xena's been part of our creche for the last four years or so. My only excuse is that the Holy Family and the shepherds, angels and wise men were the only "action figures" we had in the house pre Xena. If I'd had some He-Man or Star Wars guys, this woulda never happened--or else the creche would be even more crowded than it is now... Act three: This was a scene from a play called the Boom-Boom Room. Again, I didn't save the program so I don't' know who wrote it. Claire and Hudson came out as fancy show girl strippers. They had these absolutely hilarious huge feathered headdresses on-the grrls looked like gigantic sunflowers in them, with their faces being the little seed pods. The costumes were very revealing and the grrls shimmied and shaked. (I KNOW it's shook, but don't shaked just sound better?) So they show us a little bit of the show and then we realize that they are in the dressing room after the show. Now the really bad part was that the grrls were miked with the mike on one strap of their costumes. So unless they had their faces turned towards that side of their body, it was very hard to hear what they were saying. They should have been miked at the cleavage or even like in some plays where they tape a (insert actor's race here) flesh colored mike to the actor's forehead. So I missed a lot of what was said. But pretty much, the Hudson character was having man trouble. She was seeing a guy who wasn't treating her very well. The Claire character was cynical and impatient and challenging to the Hudson character about this. They talked a little bit about being in the business and how contemptuous they were of the men who come to see them. And the Hudson character talks about loneliness and wanting love. And the Claire character offers herself to her. She gives her a big passionate kiss. They look at each other for a moment and then Claire walks offstage and Hudson just sits there, staring at the floor. The End. This was really good. My buddy Mike and I were just blown away by Hudson's performance. She played that woman just so vulnerable, fragile, so yearning, it was a fabulous performance. She was just riveting. Claire did really well too as this tough, no-nonsense, way past romantic ideals (mostly) person. But Hudson was just luminous and just so damn real in the part. I was talking to another friend about Hudson's performance and said, "I was so stunned. I didn't think Hudson could play "good". Not after seeing her awful performance as Angel Callisto." And my friend said, "Well, she wasn't just playing a generic good person in the show. She was playing a good *Callisto*." And I thought, "Damn, that's right. That's why she's so nothing but good. Because all Callisto was was vengeful, hateful, vicious and driven to do evil to Xena. What's left in her when that's gone? Because her whole post Cirra raid life was tightly focused only on this one goal-to torment and break Xena. And once Xena takes Callisto's evil unto herself-what the heck is left in Callisto? My bud's insight makes me understand and appreciate what Hudson was doing in her performance as Angel Callisto. But I still don't like it all that much. I still like and enjoy regular Callisto very much more. And finally, that was the end of day one. KT Okay, now the corrections. My honey tells me that the sign in Winslow said, "Stand on a corner in Winslow, Arizona" (Not "Standing" as I said.) And at the bottom of the billboard, it said, "Exit here." P.S. I lost my comb somewhere in the hill country of Texas. And find to my great bemusement that my hair looks much better uncombed. Travel is just so broadening... ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 02:00:43 -1000 (HST) From: "Jackie M. Young" Subject: [chakram-refugees] Re Kevin Smith speculation First of, I want to *apologize* to anyone who took offense at my original post. ;=( I honestly did not mean any disrespect to Kevin or his family by what I said. ;=( What I *love* about this list in its current form and in its previous forms, is its unwritten quest for The Truth, in spite of how painful or difficult it might be. We've seen each other through hard times and painful endings and "family squabbles" and now, a personal tragedy. But we've never shied away from searching for The Right Way or Honesty. In fact, an actor's life is full of coming to grips, either on the stage or in film, with Life's painful moments, and using it as fodder to touch an audience in so many different ways. Kev himself was no stranger to struggle or conflict, so I don't think he would've wanted us to flinch from the truth, even if it were about him. It was in that spirit that I wrote my comments. On Sun, 24 Feb 2002 22:36:10 -0500, "Cheryl Ande" wrote: >First off the family has more important things to deal with than getting >the details out about Kevin's death to an anonymous public. - --Granted, and so they should. In a sense, we're less important, and that's OK. They need to take care of themselves. But even in the most straightforward of accidents, such as a hit-and-run, once the family is notified, there are at least some bare details from the authorities. Here, there were none. Even the piece on ET said something along the lines of "details are sketchy", and didn't say more than what was in the printed releases. ;( >Second the family and his representatives are dealing with foreign >authorities and very likely some very complex legal issues because of the >accident. - --What got me to mulling about this to myself, and then sharing it with the list, was that in this day and age of "instant information", there wasn't more. Even that NZTV clip on NZoom that Jester told us about had a NZ reporter IN CHINA, having talked to the doctors, but still not quite sure of how the accident happened. Although 9-11 was a larger national and international incident, we still had reporters IN AFGHANISTAN within 24 hrs., reporting on events there. So apparently the international factor doesn't preclude getting information out, should one wish. > As for any other speculation - let's be realistic - accidents happen >without rhyme or reason. They are shocking and we can't believe it has >happened. Our natural instinct is find a reason or pattern to the random >nature of tragedy - there isn't any. - --I _hope_ this is what it is. ;( I know for myself, it would be a bit easier to take if I could understand *how* it happened, so I could piece together the *why*, and come to grips with it......;( For me, the less you know, the more shocking it is.....;=( Just MO, - --Jackie ****************************************************** * Proud to have the same birthday as Lucy Lawless! * * * * "I think New Zealand geographically comes from * * ... Hawai'i." --Lucy Lawless, Late Show, 4/9/96 * * * * "Feel the fear and do it anyway." --Lucy Lawless, * * Evening Post, 7/4/98 * * * * JACKIE YOUNG, JYOUNG@LAVA.NET * * * ****************************************************** ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V2 #54 *************************************