From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V4 #272 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 Saturday, November 6 2004 Volume 04 : Number 272 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] Re: Lucy's diet [HJJH ] Re: [chakram-refugees] Lucy's diet [cr ] [chakram-refugees] 'Motherhood' on the S5 DVD's [cr ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 01:16:48 -0600 From: HJJH Subject: [chakram-refugees] Re: Lucy's diet KTL wrote-- >And everytime I run into other Americans who have also been >away for a while, inevitably, someone says, "Boy, do I miss >hamburgers". Hooo, boy! I \know/ what you mean!!! Living at the hostel run by the Auckland YWCA (called "Y-dub", there) I ate "Kiwi-ly" determinedly for 29 and 1/2 days a month. After all, what's the point of being in a foreign country and eating American? (And the NZ food was so blah, then, that even a visiting author from Britain-- which at that time was itself home of notoriously blah cuisine-- commented on it.) But one day a month-- the day my stipend arrived-- I went out for Coca Cola and hamburgers! Not that the hamburgers were authentic; in fact, the beef was in crumbles rather than patties, but in my college days in Iowa City I had frequented a fast-food place [can't recall the name of the chain after half a century] that specialized in that kind of burger. So to me it \felt/ American, however it may have tasted. At LEAST it didn't taste like the Y-dub's frequent steak and kidney pie!!! (Or, the ubiquitous Vegemite!) TEXena P.S.: The author was nature-writer Gerald Durrell, novelist Laurence's brother. ========================================================= 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, 4 Nov 2004 12:37:52 +1300 From: cr Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Lucy's diet On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 21:58, KTL wrote: (massive snippage) > > KT > who saw beetroot burgers at a McDonald's in En Zed. But forebear to > partake. Next time. . . *Nothing* sold in McDonalds qualifies under the category 'food'. Any resemblance between what McDonalds optimistically calls a 'burger' and that sold by any New Zealand takeaway is just in the name. ;) cr ========================================================= 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: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 13:07:48 +1300 From: cr Subject: [chakram-refugees] 'Motherhood' on the S5 DVD's My set of Season 5 DVD's just arrived and I've cheated by taking a look at 'Motherhood' (the commentary, interviews and alternate scenes). (I say 'cheated' because it's way out of sequence, I haven't even got half-way through S4 yet, but I love Motherhood....) Some of the editing choices in the 'extras' seem a little strange - for example, the Motherhood interviews are introduced by a lengthy clip of Mavican dodging the dual-chacky in 'Succession' (but maybe all the interviews are introduced by that clip, I haven't looked yet). Josephine Davison's comments on doing scenes with Lucy was illustrated by clips of Xena fighting Athena (where I would've thought the scene where Artemis shoots an arrow at Xena, who catches it, throws it back and kills her, would have been more appropriate). I noticed a similar vagaries in the Sin Trade interviews - at one stage, someone (can't remember who) is talking about closing in on the actors' faces - I'm sure in reference to the Alti-vs-Cyane staring match - but the clips shown are of various Amazons. This is just a minor nitpick, though, I guess obsessive fans who know the ep by heart can match the comments up with the right scene for themselves. I was amused by Rick Jacobson's comments on the Gabchak - he obviously feels that his version is perfectly good (the script said 'Xena chackies Gab' and that's what he filmed). And as he points out, getting Xena *and* Gabs in shot at the same time so the CGI chaky could hit Gabs, without any cuts in between, was very dramatic and effective (and I give top marks to LL, ROC and the director for getting their timing spot-on, that must have been very tricky). Rob refers to the furore caused by Xena apparently choosing Eve's life over Gabs' - as if it was unthinkable for Xena to harm Gabs - but I'm a little puzzled by that. After all, this was a desperate measure, Xena had no time to do anything else. Yet, a couple of seasons before, Xena had deliberately and with malice aforethought dragged Gabs across half of West Auckland to the nearest convenient cliff with the intention of throwing Gabs off same. So, what was new? Evidently, what TPTB had in mind for this scene was that Xena should chacky an unidentified half-seen assassin who turned out to be Gabs. Personally, I think the way it was filmed added more drama to the episode. The 'half-seen assassin' option belongs in the 'accidents happen' category (though doubtless Xena would feel guilty when she found out who she just whacked). The option as filmed confronts Xena with a difficult choice to make at a moments' notice. I think it's a 'weightier' and more interesting option (whether one thinks she made the 'right' choice or not). What else was there? Oh yes, Rob T mentioned Josephine Davison not having any lines in the ep (and indeed the 'Director's cut' shows she did have a few lines that were cut). I've seen this stated elsewhere too. This is, technically, incorrect - (thanks XT for your transcripts!) - Artemis gets to say, early in the ep, "So what exactly is the plan?" Hardly the most inspiring line to have as your only surviving line, I guess. RT also mentioned (in the commentary) a number of gods not previously seen on Xena... such as Discord (though I think LL and ROC started to correct him before further events interrupted) and Deimos. In fact Discord appeared in several Xena eps, including (IIRC) her very first brief appearance i.e.before any Herc appearances, in The Deliverer with Ares. She also appeared extensively in Takes One to Know One, and Married with Fishsticks. IIRC, neither Strife the flaky henchman of Ares, not his cousin the even more flaky Deimos, was seen on Xena until 'Motherhood'. (RT mentions them having to 'restrain' Joel Tobeck, and Lucy refers to him 'chewing the scenery' in the background - Lucy seemed to find that rather disconcerting, but I found it amusing - Deimos always was completely loony). Hephaestus was previously seen on Xena, only in Looking Death in the Eye. And Artemis (Josephine Davison) was first seen only in 'Motherhood' (though Velasca zapped one of her temples in A Necessary Evil, and her rather evil followers cropped up in Eternal Bonds). The Directors' Cut scenes were interesting (aside from another of these strange editing choices in the extras - the introductory title is shown against a wall on which, if I'm not mistaken, there's the shadow of Tara dancing from Tale of Two Muses in Season 4). But anyway, the split-screen presentation is an excellent idea and an improvement (IMO) over that adopted for previous seasons, it makes it easier to see what was cut. I have to say that, unlike 'Sacrifice' where some of the omissions of Callisto's dialogue were, IMO, grievous and sorely missed, none of the missing bits in Motherhood fill me with angst at their omission. There was one very brief moment I would have liked to see in the ep - where Ares says "So what we need is a distraction. Oh, pick me", Athena raises an eyebrow at him - that was neat. The Ares-Xena conversation at the very end would have been a sad omission, but in fact it wasn't lost, merely postponed to the end of Coming Home where it was re-shot with almost identical script. cr ========================================================= 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 V4 #272 **************************************