From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V5 #128 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 Friday, May 20 2005 Volume 05 : Number 128 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [chakram-refugees] New Hercules [IfeRae@aol.com] Re: [chakram-refugees] Brief con review for Seattle [IfeRae@aol.com] Re: [chakram-refugees] Quick and dirty Seattle report [cr ] Re: [chakram-refugees] More S6 ramblings.... [cr ] Re: [chakram-refugees] Bats are back. [cr ] Re: [chakram-refugees] New Hercules ["S. Wilson" ] Re: [chakram-refugees] New Hercules ["S. Wilson" ] [chakram-refugees] ADRIENNE WILKINSON TV ALERT TONIGHT! ["Xena Torres" Now I have the fishy feeling that Rob has been ripped off somehow. > Especially since he can't seem to get Universal to cough up the money for a > Xena picture but the studio has enough money to go to NZ to make a Hercules > film. I suspect that next May we will be watching a film called Tina, > Warrior > Queen who has a chatty blond sidekick named Gertrude ( Gertty to her > friends) > also filmed in NZ. > Bwahahahahahaha! Such cynicism. They'll probably come up with something entirely innovative, like "Lucinda, Locust Priestess," with a redheaded sidekick called NayNay. Filmed in Louisiana. - -- Ife "You are what you do. You can re-create yourself every second of your life." - - Xena in FORGIVEN ========================================================= 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, 19 May 2005 01:24:36 EDT From: IfeRae@aol.com Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Brief con review for Seattle In a message dated 5/17/2005 11:28:04 PM Pacific Daylight Time, xenatorres@hotmail.com writes: > >I did check out the Lucy pix you posted earlier. Nice. Took only seconds > > >to download. Heh. > > Uh, are you kidding or serious? I don't know? ;) I made them all under > 100KB, which cr has told me is the best to do for dial up users. So, I'm > trying! ;) >> Sorry, I being teasingly serious. The pix did indeed pop up quite nicely over my stupid dial up. > >Um, I see you did extracurricular work with Renee and Adrienne. Okay, > long > >as you didn't divert too much attention from Lucy. > > LOL! I love them all! It was SO unfair on Sat to make me choose!!!!! If > Renee hadn't left, I don't know what I would have done. I mean, totally love > > Adrienne, but I HAVE had an in person interview with her and I'd never been > near Lucy, so I HAD to go for Lucy (good call, good call). >> Being a bit biased, I shall remain silent. I believe your choice speaks for itself anyway. > Well, just for you, if you wish I can divide up the review and post > Friday, > Sat and Sun as they come. I'm about HALF way through GPB (uh, eight pages > later, tee hee - DETAILED see, DETAILED - you'd think you were there!). >> Excellent! I suppose it's fortunate that your Lucy haze isn't as bad as Some People's. At least you can keep your eyes from glazing over and your fingers moving sufficiently enough to take notes. Apparently they're even legible. <> Fri/Sat/Sun are owned to the convention (except three > hours to go see "Sith". Only three, is that okay?) ;) >> We'll see. Don't know why you couldn't find somebody to take notes for you on Sith. Thing'll probably be out on DVD by Friday anyway. > > >I can figure out how I'm gonna see all that great stuff you shot. > > Well, I've been told streaming video is BAD, so if I DO put up the video > files, it will be stuff you CAN download, but I must check with Silverwaves > because she shot the footage not me.>> Well, I'm sure it'll be fine for those who weren't born before the American Revolution. I'm just the one making an ass of > > myself. :D Then again, if I don't tell you which one I am....damn, the Xena > yell will give me away. ;) >> Hey, that's one of the perks of being a fan. Yell away. We'll say, "Hear that? That's our own Xena Torres, demonstrating her Xenaesque vocal skills." Anybody gives you guff, send 'em my way. As Jax said about Joxer, nobody gets to give you guff but me. > > >Oh, and don't worry about spelling and grammar in your report. See? I'm > >not so demanding *all* >the time. > > LOL. Well, Word will cover that for me. ;) Gods know *I* can't spell! >> Neither can Word half the time, but it's too late to worry about that now. Besides, most of us who actually know and care about such things will soon be lucky to remember how to spell our names. > > >Glad you're back and had a great time. > > You have no idea. ;) >> Heh, straining to find you way up there on Cloud 9 is a pretty big clue. - -- Ife "You are what you do. You can re-create yourself every second of your life." - - Xena in FORGIVEN ========================================================= 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: Fri, 20 May 2005 05:18:57 +1200 From: cr Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Quick and dirty Seattle report On Tue, 17 May 2005 15:58, Mirrordrum wrote: > > The fascinating thing about watching Lucy constantly was noticing that > > she was always Dorothy-she was always in character and always doing > > something to show what Dorothy was thinking and feeling. She didn't just > > stand around waiting for her cue to come to life. Not that she was > > mugging mightily or trying to steal scenes from the other actors-it was > > just that if you were looking at her, you could see from her facial > > expressions and small gestures, her shifting slightly in her seat, the > > tilting of her head, that she was Dorothy, reacting to the people and > > events happening around her.> > > um, somebody check me on this but i believe this is what's generally > referred to as "acting." you know, where you're in a play and you actually > perform as a character in the play? you crack me up. Vaguely in that respect, I was just watching the video commentary to Fates, and it struck me that Lucy is interested in 'getting in character' - she criticises (or commends) the cast for whether they did a 'good read' or whether a line seemed 'off'. (Usually, it's criticising herself or praising another cast member, but that's just LL). I don't think she ever tried to follow the plot very hard except insofar as it had an influence on Xena's performance. (Rob Tapert OTOH has a very detailed memory of when things happened and why, both in the Xenaverse and in the production world behind it). 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: Fri, 20 May 2005 06:14:20 +1200 From: cr Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] More S6 ramblings.... > Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] More S6 ramblings.... > > Incidentally, what I said about Xena in 'Helicon' having lost some of her > > fighting ability - when Bellerophon calls his men in his castle, all she > > can > > do is jump out of the window, instead of flattening them as classic Xena > > would - is in stark contrast to Last of the Centaurs, where Xena does > > just exactly that - flattens them - to Belach's men, never mind that > > they're surrounding her pointing spears at her. And, she does it twice. > lfe said: > I saw those as two very different situations. In the former, she's > surprised to discover he's half god, more formidable than she thought. The > Amazons needed her. If she got out alive, she could have a second chance a > him. If she lost, the Amazons (and Gabs) were toast. She didn't "lose" > her fighting ability. She simply used her brain, as she generally did when > picking when to fight and when to run (like when she initially fled from > the Horde). Hardly. I think you're making differences where none exist. Since when was the Warrior Princess ever cautious about anything? And is leaping out of a window at the top of a cliff necessarily being 'cautious' anyway? Wouldn't it have been actually safer, assuming her full fighting ability was on call, to flatten Bellerophon's men just as she did Belach's? And as for her dependents-of-the-episode, one could equally say the same about the Centaurs and Ephiny (and Gabrielle) needing her in 'Centaurs'. It just struck me as very un-Xena-like to bail out so smartly. 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: Tue, 17 May 2005 10:52:08 +1200 From: cr Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] More S6 ramblings.... On Sun, 15 May 2005 08:27, IfeRae@aol.com wrote: > Another difference is that I'm not watching the eps with the same sense of > impending loss and nostalgia as I did the first time around. I'm grateful > I've got what I do and am squeezing every ounce out every scene, rather > than worrying about what I won't get to see. With distance, it's more like > *a* season, not the *last* season. Yeah, I have that feeling too. I guess because the whole series has receded into the past now. Just watching the audio commentary on Helicon - I note that Rob Tapert commented it was a stretch trying to justify why Xena didn't just take command. He also commented at the start of the ep that it was hard trying to avoid making any of the characters look bad (my view of course is that they rather failed in that respect :) Incidentally, I'd thought that Varia's motivation in trying to shoot Gabs was only that Bellerophon cut her a deal. But watching it again, I see that Gabs gave her a hefty nudge in that direction - (transcript from XT's page): VARIA We'll wait for nightfall. Then we'll retreat. GABRIELLE Retreat? Gabrielle looks to Xena, then to Varia who stands. VARIA I have got to get my troops home to safety. GABRIELLE Varia, Bellerophon will come after us. He will not rest until the entire Amazon race is annihilated. XENA We have to stop him, Varia. Varia looks away from them, sighs and then looks back. VARIA How? XENA If we go by water, we can take up a flanking position on the other side of the fortress. GABRIELLE I think the wounded will be better off here. XENA They'll be completely defenseless against Bellerophon's men, Gabrielle. VARIA I am not leaving any of my soldiers. GABRIELLE Xena, carrying the wounded will slow us down. More of us will be injured...or die. Gabrielle looks to Xena and then Varia. Varia has a serious, cold look in her eyes. Gabrielle looks to Xena. GABRIELLE You're right. I'll tell the others. Quite plainly, Varia was more concerned for the wounded than Gabs was. Gabs was all ready to sacrifice them. I rather think that was what prompted (or confirmed) her decision to shoot Gabs and bank on Bellerophon's offer. Which makes it a bit rich when Gabs gets all bent out of shape because Varia decided to sacrifice her instead. Umm - GABRIELLE The Amazons are a sisterhood, Varia. You broke those sacred bonds. So, just exactly what was Gabs proposing to do for her wounded Amazon sisters three minutes earlier? Believe it or not, I actually like this ep a little bit better now I realise Varia's attempt to shoot Gabs is better motivated than just coming out of the blue. Amazing the extra details one notices on a second viewing of the ep. Incidentally, Michael 'buckets of blood' Hurst's glee in the audio commentary over the gory FX and the enthusiastic fight scenes was contagious - I started admiring all the action (and it was well filmed). Pity about the plot holes. Fates, OTOH, I just re-watched and didn't care for - I must have been in the wrong mood. Yes, there are quite a few good bits - in-jokes and references back to the series. (Though Clones did that rather better anyway). But this time round I guess my subtext-filters weren't up, so I noticed rather more the completely groundless instant infatuation of the Empress Xena for this unknown playwright. I even found some of Gabs' dialogue to be really pretentious and un-Gab-like. Not, as I'll readily admit, that I'm an expert on Gabs. But in Helicon, though I felt it wasn't very complimentary to Gabs, she was nevertheless the real Gabs all right. In WFC she wasn't. More a cardboard cut-out. It started well, I liked the premise ("Mysterious... romantic... good lighting" - Caesar. ) And there were nice little bits of dialogue scattered through it - XENA Unlock it. BARNABUS But Caesar said - XENA To enrage the Empress till she beats the tar out of you? BARNABUS No, I must have missed that. I'll open the door. But it all foundered before (apparently) Katherine Fugate's desire to bring Lurve into it at every possible opportunity, apparently to the detriment of Xena's intelligence. Even if we concede that she was lovestruck, would the real Xena ever have let it be so obvious to Caesar? Okay, there's the standard Fates-lovers' universal excuse of 'this isn't the same Xena' but IMO that won't wash. Yeah, we know she was naive towards Caesar in Destiny, but since then she's had 30 years (?) of commanding Rome's crack legions - she didn't manage that without acquiring some savvy. Yet she rushes towards Gabby on the cross and starts roughing up the guards ("Get your filthy hands off her!") - hey, Xena, they're only Roman troops following orders, that's no way for an Empress to behave. The real Xena wouldn't have lost it that way, not in front of witnesses. Now this isn't some objection I've cooked up since - this is what struck me watching it. And Alti - what the hell was Alti up to? We know she likes power, so getting Xena ditched and taking over as Empress makes sense. But killing Lao Ma's envoys? - what for? What could it possibly gain? And then, when she's won and Xena is being crucified and Alti is shacked up with Caesar, she kills him. This is utterly brain-dead. Right at this moment, all her political power comes from being Caesar's new Empress. Kill him and poof! - it's gone. This just makes no sense whatsoever. It looks cool as an echo of Xena about to knife Caesar in Ides, which I suspect is the sole reason it was there - but in Ides, Xena had motivation. What was Alti's? Even if she isn't identified as the killer and executed, the most she could hope for is to be regarded as Caesar's new widow - with the minimal courtesy afforded to that position (and it would be very minimal, since all those around would know just how she attained the position - by backstabbing Xena - and Xena was very popular). More likely she would be quietly shuffled off into a dungeon and disappear after a few weeks, courtesy of one of Caeasr's rivals. It would have made more sense if, say, Pompey was still around and she had been plotting with Pompey to overthrow Caesar. Suppose Caesar, while he was willing to roll in the hay with Alti, wasn't ready to make her Empress just yet - and Pompey had promised to make her Empress right away - *there's* yer motivation. Golly gosh, I can write a better plot than Katherine Fugate. 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: Fri, 20 May 2005 06:19:40 +1200 From: cr Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Bats are back. On Wed, 18 May 2005 15:38, Cheryl Ande wrote: > I resemble that I wasn't drunk at breakfast. Anyway here is the scoop on > shy KT. > > There have many momentous reconciliations in history - Nixon and Mao, Sad > and Begin, Newt and Hillary - but this weekend was the biggest. KT and > Katherine Fulgate are now best buddies. Yes you heard it here first. > Katherine has even dubbed our KT a "friendly face" - imagine all those WFC > lovers at the con and Katherine just knows that KT is her biggest fan of > all. Well KT was agog and soon the two had adjoining rooms - ah soulmates > meet once again at a Xena con. I was shocked when I read this. It's a bit like finding - umm - Xena having a cosy chat with Dahak. Unthinkable. But then I thought, can we trust the word of a self-confessed bat-murderer? Even though she is a member in good standing of this list? I would love to see this resolved without damage to the character of either of these - characters. Maybe it was just a KT impersonator that Cheryl thought she saw? cr ... living in hope ========================================================= 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, 19 May 2005 08:37:13 -0500 From: "S. Wilson" Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] New Hercules At 01:24 AM 5/19/2005 -0400, IfeRae@aol.com wrote: >In a message dated 5/17/2005 9:55:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time, >candex@verizon.net writes: > > > I suspect that next May we will be watching a film called Tina, > > Warrior > > Queen who has a chatty blond sidekick named Gertrude ( Gertty to her > > friends) > > also filmed in NZ. > > > >Bwahahahahahaha! Such cynicism. They'll probably come up with something >entirely innovative, like "Lucinda, Locust Priestess," with a redheaded >sidekick >called NayNay. Filmed in Louisiana. > >-- Ife Hahahaha! You guys are dragging me out of lurkdom. These are my people. Does NayNay wear gold lami flip flops and a bgsb with "Ozzy" on the front? I think I saw her on "Cops" the other night. S. ========================================================= 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, 19 May 2005 09:52:17 -0500 From: "S. Wilson" Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] New Hercules >Hahahaha! You guys are dragging me out of lurkdom. These are my people. >Does NayNay wear gold lami flip flops and a bgsb with "Ozzy" on the front? >I think I saw her on "Cops" the other night. > >S. Lami?! That was supposed to be lamE with a little accent acute. Silly encoding, tricks are for kids. Back to the show. *shuffling away, red-faced* S. ps May the Force be with you. :) ========================================================= 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, 19 May 2005 16:23:50 -0700 From: "Xena Torres" Subject: [chakram-refugees] ADRIENNE WILKINSON TV ALERT TONIGHT! REMINDER! Adrienne Wilkinson guest stars tonight on ER as a patient/love interest. 10pm - don't miss it. Adrienne makes it sound really great. She says it's the most expensive ep of tv EVER filmed. And check out her site on Friday when behind the scene videos of her stunts will be up at http://www.adriennewilkinson.com BATTLE ON XENA! Xena Torres: Warrior Writer http://www.geocities.com/bitchofrome "And most importantly, I've learned that the heart can betray, but the sword never lies." - Eve "Heart of Darkness" ========================================================= 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 V5 #128 **************************************