THIS WEEK IN XENA NEWS... TWXN 112 09/25/97 The advance sheet of XENA MEDIA REVIEW (XMR): http://xenafan.com/xmr Excerpts from the following cites will appear in future issues of XMR. From the editor: 1. I have started watching TV again. I was only watching XWP for a while but I have decided to give this season a bigger chunk of my discretionary time. Last night I watched ST: Voyager. What a weird episode. Chakotay was trapped in a massive indoctrination program. I found more questions than answers when watching it. So, why am I even mentioning it in a XWP broadside? Because Voyager is one of the few programs on TV that could learn from XWP (and vice versa) without having to completely re-write itself. "Nemesis" was the episode title, and it was an exploration into how ultra liberal peaceniks like Chakotay could be sucked up into one-sided militaristic marginalization of sentient beings in less than thirty minutes if exposed to the proper "training" program. I have suspicions we might see a story or two like this on XWP. Okay, I really think it will be a long dragged out story arc. After all, the resident liberal peacenik on XWP is Gabrielle. This year has been promoted as her Year of Hell (tm). Rumors of a demon child, loss of blood innocence, and a serious rift from her best friend (and companion for the last two years) seems like things that one would expect to put someone a little "out". Again, the mantra is "Wait and see". So, let's wait and see. 2. Want ad! WHOOSH is possible only through the hard work and dedication of volunteers. WHOOSH needs another volunteer! The "On the Road" feature needs an assistant editor. If you love reading about conventions, fests, and gatherings, this is the job for you. It's a plus if you know coding and have a flare for graphics placement, but it is not a requirement. Really, just enthusiasm, an ability to edit text, will get you the job and the rest will work it self out. Write to ktaborn@lightspeed.net with the subject "ROADIE". You will be glad you did! 3. Upcoming in TWXN: May is Prom month and fashion month...all rolled into one, so look forward to more fashion stuff than a human should be exposed to and hokey stuff like People's 50 Most Beautiful People. Once we get over May, things should settle down... And here are the stories: [ ] 05-09-97 LOS ANGELES TIMES. Friday. Sports. Page C10. 1555 words. "Outdoors / Pete Thomas. Sports Weekend. Gray Whales' Trip Home Is a Killer" by Pete Thomas COMMENTARY: This is really a bizarre article when you think about it. EXCERPT: ...In the La Paz area, fishing has picked up markedly in the last week. David Jones of Fishermen's Fleet says the estimated size of the school of pargo on the east side of Cerralvo Island is 10,000 fish. One of his customers--Jones didn't divulge the name but a friend said it was Lucy Lawless, a.k.a. Xena the Warrior Princess--muscled in a 44-pounder. Jones said cabrilla and yellowtail are also abundant and feeding around the island, and that schools of sizable tuna--one tipped the scales at 72 pounds--are breezing about offshore... [ ] 05-09-97 LA WEEKLY. Page 147. 841 words. "KTLA'S 50 Golden Years" by Derek Thomas COMMENTARY: Yes, KTLA gets skewered for airing shows the likes of XWP. XWP is probably one of KTLA's highest rated programs if not the highest. EXCERPT: ...It's too bad that KTLA today has lost much of its taste for homegrown programming. The channel's current sked (among the most popular shows are Xena, Hercules and reruns of Seinfeld) is really just so much TBS. KTLA-TV 5, Thurs., May 15, 8-10 p.m. (A special edition of the 10 p.m. news, revisiting major L.A. stories of the past 50 years, follows.)... [ ] 05-09-97 THE HOTLINE. 667 words. "TV Monitor" COMMENTARY: This is a David Letterman top ten from 5/8/97 which mentions Xena. EXCERPT: ...TOP TEN SIGNS YOUR MOTHER IS NUTS 10. What she calls a "Tupperware," the FBI calls a "Three-Week Standoff." 9. She tried to rob a convenience store with her Martha Stewart glue gun. 8. Instead of "Mom," she makes you call her "Xena, Warrior Princess." 7. You and your eight siblings are all named Carl. 6. It took her four years before she divorced Donald Trump. 5. She insists on eating Mother's Day dinner under the porch. 4. Every morning, says, "Wake up, or you'll be late for Comet Hale-Bopp." 3. Whenever you lose a sock, it turns up in that night's meat loaf. 2. Believes Eddie Murphy really was just giving hooker a ride. 1. Your name is Michael Jackson Jr. ("Late Show," CBS, 5/8) [ f] 05-10-97 THE SEATTLE TIMES. Saturday. Sports. Page B1. 722 words. "Program Gurus: Sonics in Need of Screen Savior" By Ron C. Judd. Seattle Times Columnist COMMENTARY: A bizarre quick mention of the Ducks-Red Wings hockey incident. Someone obviously felt they were being clever. EXCERPT: ...Keeping You Abreast of Hockey Developments: TV star Lucy Lawless, aka "Xena: Warrior Princess," was in the middle of an animated national anthem performance at an NHL playoff game in Anaheim this week when her lowcut dress failed and . . . well, her left-side personal flotation device deployed, right there in front of the Zamboni and everybody. At press time today, stunned Anaheim hockey fans were still on their knees, thanking God it wasn't Roseanne... [ ] 05-11-97 CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Sunday. Page 10. 191 words. "Shortcuts" Compiled by Leigh Behrens. COMMENTARY: Is there ever such a thing as knowing too much? EXCERPT: ..."Tampons." --actress Lucy "Xena" Lawless, in TV Guide, on what modern, indispensable comfort her character would kill to have... ...GRAPHIC: PHOTOS 2; PHOTO: (Lucy "Xena" Lawless.); PHOTO: (Florence Henderson.) [ ] 05-11-97 THE SUNDAY STAR-TIMES (Auckland). Page 2. 1449 words. "No time to brag" by Michael Lamb & Melvyn Bragg COMMENTARY: Whoa! Someone doesn't like the writing style of XWP. Isn't it fun when writers get catty? EXCERPT: NIP down the pub for a pint with Melvyn Bragg? No problem. Sit next to him on a bus? Bit of casual conversation? Certainly. But interviewing the master interviewer at 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning? Surely there are laws. And rightly enough, by the time we're down to discussing the art of interviewing itself (shape, says Melvyn, an interview must have a definite shape), I've come to the terms with the fact that the man who quizzed a dying Dennis Potter, the man who has chatted purposefully to a smorgasbord of late 20th century creative luminaries from Ingmar Bergman to Barbara Cartland, is nonchalantly swatting aside my little league grilling. Despite dozens of interviews, I'm a straw-grasping neophyte compared to the maestro. Mind you, Melvyn Bragg makes most of us look like underachievers. In between pumping out endless seasons of the South Bank Show (now in its 20th year), Bragg is controller of arts for London Weekend Television, president for the National Campaign for the Arts, a novelist, has been known to serve on various boards and advisory groups, writes a regular newspaper column, hosts a weekly radio show and still finds time for wife, family and the odd drinking binge... ...The latest result of Bragg's four-lane highway of energy is the epic novel Credo, warmly received by British critics and the book-buying public alike. No mean achievement for a novel set in the 7th century BC. But at 800 pages plus, even india-rubber man Bragg felt this one -- a little... ...While Bragg's descriptions of feelings, places and events recapture the idiosyncratic and very successful style of earlier historical novels like the Maid of Buttermere, the dialogue in Credo could be mistaken for a contemporary vernacular. He considered it the only course... ...Harder still was inventing the characters. But Bragg easily avoids slipping into the overly ornate styles of fantasy novels, or worse still, a script from Xena, Warrior Princess.... [ ] 05-11-97 THE SUNDAY GAZETTE MAIL. Sunday. Page P4E. 745 words. "Gardenscape. Aa Close Encounter of the Compost Kind" By Lynne Schwartz-Barker COMMENTARY: Gardens and XWP. 'Nuff said. EXCERPT: At this time of year, I have a list of garden chores an arm long. I keep it on my computer and update it as thoughts occur to me... ...I got four more wheelbarrow loads out before I finished and another whole bed done. I could feel my muscles pumping up. I was Xena, Warrior Princess. I felt really strong..... [ ] 05-11-97 STAR TRIBUNE (Minneapolis, MN). Page 1F. 1311 words. "Viewers face battling miniseries" By Bill Ward; Neal Justin; Tim Campbell; Staff Writers COMMENTARY: The reviews for The Odyssey on TV (miniseries) start to come in....guess what? This reviewer felt "Xena does it better". Hey!!! We already knew that! EXCERPT: ...'The Odyssey' 8-10 p.m. next Sunday and May 20, KARE-Ch. 11... ...Director Andrei Konchalovsky gooses the narrative with cinematic craft and a funky tribal atmosphere far removed from stereotypical Greece. But after four hours, we hardly know Odysseus. And the lessons learned (don't mess with the gods; there's no place like home) seem hardly worth the journey. If fun is your quest, "Xena" does it better. Three out of five stars... NOTICES: All back issues of XMR and TWXN are available at (http://xenafan.com/xmr). We herein give praise and thanks to Tom Simpson for the space he has graciously donated from his spectacular, TOM'S XENA PAGE (http://xenafan.com). If you have never been there, you are **not** a xenafan! And congrats on Tom finding the woman of his dreams. I wish them all the happiness in the world and look forward to the wedding of the decade. TWXN is the advance sheet for XMR, an annotated world press review of reports regarding the internationally syndicated television show XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (1995 - 2000) and the castmembers, Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor. TWXN is not available for subscription, however it is posted regularly on the XenaVerse, Hercules-Xena, and Chakram Mailing Lists (thank you Lucia! I am greatly indebted to you), the MCA NetForum, the Xenite Message Center, and alt.tv.xena. I also would like to thank sirvin@law.wfu.edu for assistance in collecting the newstories. For a free e-mail subscription to XMR subscribe by e-mail to ktaborn@lightspeed.net by stating somewhere in the subject or text "sub xmr".