From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V2 #215 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 Monday, August 5 2002 Volume 02 : Number 215 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [chakram-refugees] Kevin in August Starlog ["Jackie M. Young" > ["Cheryl Ande" ] [chakram-refugees] 10 pivotal Gabrielle eps ["Creation (Sharon Delaney)" ] [chakram-refugees] 10 pivotal Xena eps ["Creation (Sharon Delaney)" Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Kevin in August Starlog On Sat, 3 Aug 2002 00:45:32 EDT, IfeRae@aol.com wrote: >I got RW's Official Companion a few years ago. It was obvious to me that >he was indeed a great fan, but kept enough distance to provide real info, not >just gushing personal response. It irks me when publications make >references in their text or captions that are soooo off, but I don't >worry about that with him. And, yes, writing to "fit" the subject's >personality is something I remember liking about his book. Please do >pass on the compliments. - --Hi IfeRae, that's *exactly* what Rob strives to do in his writing (in fact, he and I were just talking about that recently), so he'll be *sooo pleased* to know he succeeded with you!! ;=) I'm also one of those who would rather read about the said subject matter, rather than the reactions of the author or what the subject matter meant to the author personally, etc., etc. *Thanks* again, ;) - --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 * * * * 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. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2002 17:09:10 -0400 From: "Cheryl Ande" Subject: [chakram-refugees] <> # # # ## # # # Paradise Lost is a problematic episode for me. I really like a lot of it and yet I feel that it failed in some ways. Lets start with the good. I thought Lucy, Jeremy Roberts (cast against physical type as the yoga guru), Mervyn Smith as Garr and ROC were all excellent. Lucy did an outstanding job as Xena becomes more and more frightened that her emerging dark side will hurt Gabrielle. She is very vulnerable in the massage scene as she lovingly says good-by to Gabrielle with Xena literally bleeding with despair. Then she is farsightedly funny as she pursues the hapless Garr while calling "here piggy, piggy - nasty but funny. Jeremy Roberts nicely underplays Aiden, and if you didn't just know things were going to turn out badly, you could have believed that he was exactly as he seemed - a kindly and compassionate man. Smith is excellent as Garr- the loopy soldier who is wiser than he seems. ROC does a good job with Gabrielle - - she brings a nice sense of despair to her scenes with Aiden as she talks about her past failures so that her infatuation with Aiden's teachings seems reasonable. Visually it is an interesting episode. Tapert does a great job using light to demonstrate his central thesis that Xena and Gabrielle are spiritual yin and yang. There is the wonderful scene of Gabrielle languorously stretched out on the yin and yang bed so lethargic she can barely move and Xena furiously doing sit-ups unable to stay still. In the scene Gabby is lit so she glows and Xena's face is covered by shadows almost looking like she caught in a spider's web. Then there is the terrific bath scene where Xena hallucinates that she is hurting Gabrielle. Pulling back LL's hair and, I think, shooting with the light below her, Xena looks as malevolent as we have ever seen her. ROC has never looked lovely than she did in this episode - RT shows off her body beautifully in the yoga scenes and her costume was one the most flattering of the series. There are some really nice scenes between Xena and Gabrielle. In the opening we see a bickering couple - Xena is wounded and pissed and Gabby has chosen a bad time to discuss Xena's dark side. We also learn that Gabby may not be a talented healer since Xena accuses Gabby of having "hands like a sailor." Then Gabby goes off to investigate a sound and falls through a hole with Xena, like Alice chasing the white rabbit, follows after her and together they wind up in a very strange wonderland. Xena has a great line here when Gabby says she fell down a hole, Xena eyes her with some distaste and asks "what is about you and holes". There are then some nice comic moments when Gabby swats Xena's backside when Xena is about to refuse a nice warm bath and then there is the bath when Gabby has a unbelieving smirk on her face when Garr keeps calling a very naked Xena sir. The episode falls apart for me is on two levels. First the basic premises of the episode is that in Aiden's land Xena and Gabrielle are devolving into the basic elements: Gabrielle drifting into a coma-like goodness with Xena rushing pell-mell into a hyperactive darkness. I simply don't believe goodness has to be passive and that all action is motivated by the dark side. There was nothing here that convinced me otherwise. Also I don't believe that Xena is at heart a dark personality - in Remember Nothing without Cortese and Caesar she is a loving sister and a productive member the community. Later on we will see two instances of Xena with amnesia, Chakram and The Return of The Valkaries and we see a Xena who wants to do good but is not dark (this is of course unfair to criticize this episode with these two examples but I'll do it anyway). Gabrielle as we know also has her dark side. She betrayed Xena out of jealously and she had enough gumption to kill her daughter three times. Finally I thought the episode fell apart at the end. Xena turning into rat face at the end was just too over the top - it was more comic than scary. If she would have gone cold and deadly calm, it would have been more effective - the evil Xena from the bath would have been terrifying. Finally turning Aiden into the stock evil villain was disappointing. It would have been more interesting to have given Aiden a real motive for draining people of the goodness - to have answered the question as to why he was so ruthless in his efforts to create his perfect world would have given the episode more power and meaning. Evil is always more compelling when there is some kind of logic behind it. CherylA ========================================================= 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: Sun, 4 Aug 2002 14:46:54 -0700 From: "Creation (Sharon Delaney)" Subject: [chakram-refugees] 10 pivotal Gabrielle eps On with the thinking caps What would you say were the 10 pivotal episodes in the life of Gabrielle? I'll put the votes on the fan club page at http://www.creationent.com/outback/fanclubs Sharon Official Xena Fan Club ========================================================= 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: Sun, 4 Aug 2002 14:46:49 -0700 From: "Creation (Sharon Delaney)" Subject: [chakram-refugees] 10 pivotal Xena eps On with the thinking caps What would you say were the 10 pivotal episodes in the life of Xena? I'll put the votes on the fan club page at http://www.creationent.com/outback/fanclubs Sharon Official Xena Fan Club ========================================================= 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: Sun, 4 Aug 2002 14:47:22 -0700 From: "Creation (Sharon Delaney)" Subject: [chakram-refugees] 10 pivotal Xena/Gabrielle relationship eps On with the thinking caps What would you say were the 10 pivotal episodes in the relationship of Xena and Gabrielle? I'll put the votes on the fan club page at http://www.creationent.com/outback/fanclubs Sharon Official Xena Fan Club ========================================================= 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: Sun, 4 Aug 2002 15:57:44 -0700 From: "Creation (Sharon Delaney)" Subject: [chakram-refugees] UPDATE -- 10 pivotal Xena eps UPDATE -- I was looking for Xena the character, not Xena the show. Just wanted to make sure that was clear :) On with the thinking caps What would you say were the 10 pivotal episodes in the life of Xena? I'll put the votes on the fan club page at http://www.creationent.com/outback/fanclubs Sharon Official Xena Fan Club ========================================================= 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: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 18:05:09 EDT From: IfeRae@aol.com Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Whoosh Article In a message dated 8/1/02 2:05:06 AM Central Daylight Time, cr@orcon.net.nz writes: On Thursday 01 August 2002 07:12, IfeRae@aol.com wrote: > I guess I'm saying "reasonably merits" requires *for me* more than what I > saw in Going's article. I can call him a "disgruntled fan who makes ugly > and often unsubstantiated remarks about XWP and Xenastaff." You obviously believe in understatement. ;)>> LOL! I've been told that before. Perhaps it's my journalism background. << I do understand your point, though a quick re-read of his article would doubtless remind me why I think you're being way too reasonable ;)>> Yes, it would be very easy to attribute a lot of "isms" to him. But he does seem to confine himself to the Xenaverse, with that being his context for comments about various groups and individuals. Would he make those same comments outside the specific experiences he talks about? Who knows. Certainly not I. Like I said, I simply don't want to make the same kind of leaps and conjectures he does, and I'd like to see a minimum of that on a list about the show I love. - -- Ife ========================================================= 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: Sun, 4 Aug 2002 21:11:44 -0700 From: "Creation (Sharon Delaney)" Subject: [chakram-refugees] UPDATE -- pivotal eps list Someone just included why they chose each ep and that will be a big help when I make up the lists for those that haven't seen some of the episodes. Goodness -- some people haven't seen all the eps?! Sharon Official Xena Fan Club ========================================================= 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 #215 **************************************