[scifinoir2] Re: Oppose eliminating the filibuster!
This is so wrong, and the arrogance of it is stunning. The Republicans think they have forged a permanent majority so they feel they are immune to the consequences. This is incredibly short-sighted. It reminds me of when the Republicans engineered the two-term limitation on presidents after Roosevelt won four consecutive terms. Little did they know they would be altering history. Without term limitations there would have been no Watergate as Nixon would have easily won a third term and Ronald Reagan could have served into his senility. (On the other hand, Bill Clinton would still be president). ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Amy Harlib [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Friend, Right now the U.S. Senate is debating whether to end the use of the filibuster. I don't think politicians should have the only voice in the debate. Add your voice by sending a message to your senators today! NARAL Pro-Choice America will deliver your comments to the Senate. Please take action by 10:00 Eastern tomorrow, Thursday, so that they can deliver your message before the vote happens! Click on the link below to learn more and get involved. Thanks! http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/sen_sendamsg_nuclear?rk=G7qFNWF1hmOVW *** Powered by GetActive Software, Inc. Relationship Management for Member Organizations (tm) http://www.getactive.com *** Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/pkgkPB/SOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
RE: [scifinoir2] Re: Star Wars fans have strong presence at theatre
Then you'll have 'perfumed' funk...Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: They could always bring a bottle of Old Spice and try to cover up the funk with liberal amounts of it slathered on. -Original Message-From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of MetaSent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 12:19To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.comSubject: [scifinoir2] Re: Star Wars fans have strong presence at theatre --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Bosco Bosco [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: "But I keeping looking at them, and mixed in with that admiration is one thought: "Man that theatre is going to *stink* with all the funk up in there!" Maybe someone remembered to bring some 'Baby-wipes".Meta Yahoo! Mail Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Re: [scifinoir2] Re: Star Wars fans have strong presence at theatre
Nah...It's raining here...hope they brought soap...Martin Pratt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I anticipate a severe water drain in major metropolitan areas on May 20th.Meta [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Bosco Bosco [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: "But I keeping looking at them, and mixed in with that admiration is one thought: "Man that theatre is going to *stink* with all the funk up in there!" Maybe someone remembered to bring some 'Baby-wipes".Meta"Excuse me while I whip this out."Cleavon Little , "Blazing Saddles" Discover Yahoo!Use Yahoo! to plan a weekend, have fun online more. Check it out! Yahoo! Mail Mobile Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
RE: [scifinoir2] Hercules
Hey, that reminds me of a paraphrase from the movie Airplane: "Have youever watched movies about gladiators?"Martin Pratt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm kinda relieved. I only caught the last thirty myself, and I thought that I'd missed too much for it to make sense. I see that I didn't.Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Amen, maybe that's why I find myself sometimes watching old '50s and '60s films based on the classic mythical tales. At least they're more enjoyable. give me the dark-haired Hercules from the '50s over tonight's. Give me Kirk Douglas playing Odysseus over Armand Assante (from the same people who did tonight's debacle). Hell, give me "Jason and the Argonauts" or even those corny Sinbad journeys with Patrick Wayne. At least the old stuff had cool/creepy stop motion creatures! I just posted a long critique of this wasted three hours of my life. Check it out and see what I missed. -Original Message-From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of md_moore42Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 23:29To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.comSubject: [scifinoir2] HerculesI actually watched the last 30 minutes of Hercules. Oh, the pain! Today's kids will never understand why these storieslasted. Writers/directors/whoever feel the need to eviserate everyGreek legend they approach. They can't even be consistent with thenames of the Gods--instead choosing Greek names and some Roman names.(Pluto is the Roman Hades; and Hades is not Hell, people!) One of these days, I would like to see a writer accept those myths andlegends on their own terms. Now, I like revisiting old tales to showthem in a new light myself. I'm in the middle of writing one. But Iwouldn't ever have the ancient character voice 20th century beliefs. "Excuse me while I whip this out."Cleavon Little , "Blazing Saddles" Yahoo! MailStay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour Yahoo! Mail Mobile Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
RE: [scifinoir2] Hercules on NBC--Weak!
"Tell me son; have you ever seen a grown man naked???"Martin Pratt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
That was a British accent?
I have to agree with you, from what little I saw. This felt like a SciFi special (not surprising, considering that this was still in the Family). I missed the final credits, so I don't know where this was shot, or who should BE shot for staging it. The last fight scene didn't even seem real, and the guy who was playing the evil king, at times, seemed not to know where his marks were (he appeared to be staring into space at times, when he was supposed to be looking at Herc). If you or anyone knows who was behind this, send them numerous e-mails asking them to retire immediately, for the good of mankind.Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Man this was weak! Mediocre FX, confusing plot, performances that seemed like the actors were sleepwalking through their roles. The dude who played Hercules had the musculature but looked way too Caucasian to my tastes (the British accent didn't help). Is there some law that Greek men can't play Greek characters? Honestly, I think the last time a Greek dude played a god was back in the OS Trek episode, "Who Mourns for Adonis?". I heard more British, Kiwi, and American accents in this thing than I could count. Sean Astin was wasted as teacher/sidekick Linus, looking rather blank, which worked for simpleminded Samwise Gamgee, but here makes one wonder if Astin's contemplating a fading career instead of thinking about his lines. Timoty Dalton must have grabbed a fat check to play Herc's father, as he had little to
do but bring his trademark piercing eyes and cultured voice to a boring character. Leeli Sobieski (sp?)got on my nerves playing a wood nymph, with that bronze Nivea tanning lotion slathered on her and the dopey floating scenes where grunts were obviously lowering her from a tree on a rope.Shedid a couple of shots that came periously close to flashing us withher bare breasts, which I guess was supposed to be daring or titillating, but seemed contrived.
I'd go on, but the movie doesn't warrant further criticism.Well, maybe a little more. The only things that made it of minor note were that the writers brought in some realism about the characters' motivations and behaviour. For example, unlike the recent sanitized Hercules series, this treatment pretty much stated that Zeus raped Hercules' mother after morphing into a likeness of her husband. And unlike the series, mother and son didn't have a good relationship, as she spent her entire life trying to do in her son, even going so far as to purposefully being behind Hercules' murder of his own kids. Mom got started way before that though. She was the one who put the snakes in Herc's crib, which were of course strangled by the mighty infant. There were some scenes with nubile women running through the woods with satyrs, and one scene where a lady laid on her back on the grass, about to get
busy with one of the goat-like demigods! That was surprising on network TV at 8 pm.Then there was the Oracle of Delphi who was revealed to be an hermaphrodite (Hercules and others called him "man-woman").He/she gets blinded in a vicious scene for accidentally violating a secretceremony devoted to Hera. The lady who blinded him? Herc's mother. And there was a homosexual thing played up between Hercules' brother and his cousin, who at the end of the movie were shown in bed together. But given the overall clumsiness of the rest of the movie, these attempts at "realism" and a mature theme merely served to highlight the weakness of the rest of the effort, and thus appeared (perhaps unfairly) as heavy-handed and falseattempts to be daring.
Frankly, it wasn't as well done or intelligent as the better Hercules and Xena story arcs. When those shows cut lose with the humour, they were funny as heck. When they dug deep for drama and played it straight, they could be downright impressive. Tonight's efffort was nowhere near as good.
-Original Message-From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Keith JohnsonSent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 17:26To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.comSubject: [scifinoir2] "Hercules" on NBC
Heard about this one? Soundsa little more serious than Sorbo's outing, as it deals with the aftermath of Hercules having killed his own children.I'll guess I'll have to check it out. My wife already commented that "at least they finally got a dark-haired Hercules with real muscles". She could never get with Sorbo due to his brownish hair and slim physique. That muscled, curly-haired dude from the '50s Hercules flicks set the standard to her mind.
http://www.nbc.com/nbc/Hercules/
He was the slave that defied the gods. The hero who won the people. The man who became a legend. From Emmy Award winning executive producer Robert Halmi Sr. ("The Odyssey," "Gulliver's Travels," "Merlin") comes this epic tale based on the spectacular exploits of Hercules, the super-strong figure fathered
RE: [scifinoir2] Enterprise episode Demons--minor spoilers
OK, that does it...Bring out the 7-Up!Martin Pratt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: PLEASE? It's so- SPARKLY...Astromancer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: NOWMartin Pratt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But...but...Astromancer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK guys...back away from the remotes...Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Nooo! Why'd you have to say it out loud? Now someone's gonna start developing it. I envision a bunch of young hard bodies--blonde women with fake boobs, dudes with surgically-carved abs and impossibly white teeth--jumping through time trying to right the wrongs created by Kirk and other offenders. Sooner or later they'll have to create a nemesis for the team, and then the show will degenerate into a catch-him-if-you-can scenario. I imagine something on the level of "Baywatch Nights". -Original Message-From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Martin PrattSent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 19:50To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [scifinoir2] "Enterprise" episode "Demons"--minor spoilers I had the most horrible thought the other night, after reading some of my backlog of e-mails, in particular the one about Shatner pitching the Starfleet Academy concept to Paramount. An idea that BB would DROOL over. Are you ready? Starfleet Temporal Investigations (shoot me NOW, for even MENTIONING it).Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It wasn't bad, just weak, more like a Season one ep. Please--no more time travel :( -Original Message-From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Martin PrattSent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 14:51To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.comSubject: RE: [scifinoir2] "Enterprise" episode "Demons"--minor spoilers I'm still lagging in reading that thread, so pardon my inexactitude. As for the show, it wasn't bad. Didn't give me the "wow" that most of Coto's other stories have this season, but I enjoyed it. I'm almost afraid to see how the matter of how the baby is Trip's and T'Pol's. (BB, the Return of the Convoluted, UnnecessaryTime Travel Story?) As for the bright idea of sending a Vulcan undercover into a racist underground netowrk- HUNH?Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yeah, I guess you could say it's progress that they put Travis witha white woman in fairly intimate situations too (real kissing, not the quick peck usually shown with Black men and white women). But I'm not as impressed with interracial couples as I am with good Black couples. That was indeed the focus of that thread you mentioned, where there was discussion about things such as why Will Smith lets the studios pair him with Latinas instead of fighting for a Black-on-Black love story. We need to get our own couples to be seen in a more positive light before we branch out to the others. By the way, did you see the show? Thoughts? -Original Message-From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Martin PrattSent: Sunday, May 08, 2005 08:47To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.comSubject: Re: [scifinoir2] "Enterprise" episode "Demons"--minor spoilers The one thing that struck me about this ep hearkens back to a thread we had running a bit back, about Blacks, Whites and love, how Black chars were rarely paired with Black love interests. I know, this is an offshoot of Roddenberry's vision, in which the world knows no color, but COME ON!Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Minor spoilers... What did y'all think about tonight's show? I wasn't too impressed. For some reason the pacing seemed rushed, as if the script had been thrown together. I mean, in about five minutes they go from the discovery of Tripp and T'Pol's baby to that Lunar mining facility with little of the moments to really explore the situation. It's as if they moved from one chapter in a story to another, with little connection between those chapters. At first I wondered if it was Levar Burton's direction, but I realize he simply filmed the script he was given. The characters seemed less realized, less multi-dimensional, than I've seen them in weeks. The show felt like a season one ep written by BB, with a weak script and sketch characterization filling in for a good story. Even my wife said something was off with the characterization and pacing. Also, several nagging things about it bugged me: --What sense did it make to send Trip and T'Pol on the "secret" mission to the Lunar mining colony?? You're gonna send a Vulcan to a hotbed of xenophobic activity, and, to boot, the parents of the hybrid child, *and* two of the most famous people in the world? WTF? What braindead person wrote that artificial device? --Is it me, or did the mining facility seem awfully cliched-looking for that time? Dirty people hand-lifting Lunar rocks like a bucket brigade? In this time of artificial gravity and warp drive, people still have to worklike a Kentuckian labouring underground in the coal mines? Looked like something from a bad Van Damme
Re: [scifinoir2] NYTimes.com: Blowing Up an Assumption
...Or else...Martin Pratt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm in a couple of politically-oriented groups outside Yahoo, and I've been preaching this point for close to three years now. The invariable response, from all of the neocons, is that "Islam is a religion steeped in hatred of the West." They don't even bother to answer the posed idea. It's just the party-line rhetoric for them. "Believe only in what we tell you."[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This page was sent to you by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sensible ideas to ponder. If only the Bushites would heed! OPINION | May 18, 2005 Op-Ed Contributor: Blowing Up an Assumption By ROBERT A. PAPE Suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation rather than a product of Islamic fundamentalism. 1. A Critic Takes On the Logic of Female Orgasm 2. Adrift 500 Feet Under the Sea, a Minute Was an Eternity 3. Op-Ed Columnist: Outrage and Silence 4. Eating Well: Most Improved Pasta 5. Personal Data for the Taking » Go to Complete List Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy "Excuse me while I whip this out."Cleavon Little , "Blazing Saddles" Yahoo! MailStay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour Yahoo! Mail Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Re: [scifinoir2] Re: Oppose eliminating the filibuster!
Similar crap took place in my native Texas when the Republican majority started major redistricting to cut the few gains made over the years. Gots to stop all that "unfair" advantage given to people of color! -- Original message -- This is so wrong, and the arrogance of it is stunning. TheRepublicans think they have forged a permanent majority so they feelthey are immune to the consequences. This is incrediblyshort-sighted. It reminds me of when the Republicans engineered thetwo-term limitation on presidents after Roosevelt won four consecutiveterms. Little did they know they would be altering history. Withoutterm limitations there would have been no Watergate as Nixon wouldhave easily won a third term and Ronald Reagan could have served intohis senility. (On the other hand, Bill Clinton would still be president).~rave!--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Amy Harlib [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Friend, Right now the U.S. Senate is debating whether to end the use of the filibuster. I don't think politicians should have the only voice in the debate. Add your voice by sending a message to your senators today! NARAL Pro-Choice America will deliver your comments to the Senate. Please take action by 10:00 Eastern tomorrow, Thursday, so that they can deliver your message before the vote happens! Click on the link below to learn more and get involved. Thanks! http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/sen_sendamsg_nuclear?rk=G7qFNWF1hmOVW *** Powered by GetActive Software, Inc. Relationship Management for Member Organizations (tm) http://www.getactive.com *** Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[scifinoir2] Re: Oppose eliminating the filibuster!
Agreed. It is wrong. However, most Radical Republicans I've talked with have this attitude: Politics is a rough sport. Stop whinning and deal with it. Plus, we Republicans have the votes in the House and Senate. So, we can do as we please. What we progressives, Independents, Democrats, and sensible Republicans need to do is vote out these radicals in the upcoming elections. That seems to be the only feedback the Radical Right will listen to. George --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Kelly Wright [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This is so wrong, and the arrogance of it is stunning. The Republicans think they have forged a permanent majority so they feel they are immune to the consequences. This is incredibly short-sighted. It reminds me of when the Republicans engineered the two-term limitation on presidents after Roosevelt won four consecutive terms. Little did they know they would be altering history. Without term limitations there would have been no Watergate as Nixon would have easily won a third term and Ronald Reagan could have served into his senility. (On the other hand, Bill Clinton would still be president). snip Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
RE: [scifinoir2] Re: Star Wars fans have strong presence at theatre
Don't know about you, but I had way too much exposure to that growing up. Man, even now I can smell the rancid smell of the locker room at school, funk and dirty clothes mixed with Old Spice, Brut, British Sterling. I need to eat a peppermint now before I retch. -- Original message -- Then you'll have 'perfumed' funk...Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: They could always bring a bottle of Old Spice and try to cover up the funk with liberal amounts of it slathered on. -Original Message-From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of MetaSent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 12:19To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.comSubject: [scifinoir2] Re: Star Wars fans have strong presence at theatre --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Bosco Bosco [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: "But I keeping looking at them, and mixed in with that admiration is one thought: "Man that theatre is going to *stink* with all the funk up in there!" Maybe someone remembered to bring some 'Baby-wipes".Meta Yahoo! MailStay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
RE: [scifinoir2] Hercules on NBC--Weak!
Watch it with those "gladiator" jokes, or Yahoo will be hop-scotching us to SciFiNoir3, 4, and 5!! -- Original message -- "Tell me son; have you ever seen a grown man naked???"Martin Pratt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That was a British accent? I have to agree with you, from what little I saw. This felt like a SciFi special (not surprising, considering that this was still in the Family). I missed the final credits, so I don't know where this was shot, or who should BE shot for staging it. The last fight scene didn't even seem real, and the guy who was playing the evil king, at times, seemed not to know where his marks were (he appeared to be staring into space at times, when he was supposed to be looking at Herc). If you or anyone knows who was behind this, send them numerous e-mails asking them to retire immediately, for the good of mankind.Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Man this was weak! Mediocre FX, confusing plot, performances that seemed like the actors were sleepwalking through their roles. The dude who played Hercules had the musculature but looked way too Caucasian to my tastes (the British accent didn't help). Is there some law that Greek men can't play Greek characters? Honestly, I think the last time a Greek dude played a god was back in the OS Trek episode, "Who Mourns for Adonis?". I heard more British, Kiwi, and American accents in this thing than I could count. Sean Astin was wasted as teacher/sidekick Linus, looking rather blank, which worked for simpleminded Samwise Gamgee, but here makes one wonder if Astin's contemplating a fading career instead of thinking about his lines. Timoty Dalton must have grabbed a fat check to play Herc's father, as he had little to do but bring his trademark piercing eyes and cultured voice to a boring character. Leeli Sobieski (sp?)got on my nerves playing a wood nymph, with that bronze Nivea tanning lotion slathered on her and the dopey floating scenes where grunts were obviously lowering her from a tree on a rope.Shedid a couple of shots that came periously close to flashing us withher bare breasts, which I guess was supposed to be daring or titillating, but seemed contrived. I'd go on, but the movie doesn't warrant further criticism.Well, maybe a little more. The only things that made it of minor note were that the writers brought in some realism about the characters' motivations and behaviour. For example, unlike the recent sanitized Hercules series, this treatment pretty much stated that Zeus raped Hercules' mother after morphing into a likeness of her husband. And unlike the series, mother and son didn't have a good relationship, as she spent her entire life trying to do in her son, even going so far as to purposefully being behind Hercules' murder of his own kids. Mom got started way before that though. She was the one who put the snakes in Herc's crib, which were of course strangled by the mighty infant. There were some scenes with nubile women running through the woods with satyrs, and one scene where a lady laid on her back on the grass, about to get busy with one of the goat-like demigods! That was surprising on network TV at 8 pm.Then there was the Oracle of Delphi who was revealed to be an hermaphrodite (Hercules and others called him "man-woman").He/she gets blinded in a vicious scene for accidentally violating a secretceremony devoted to Hera. The lady who blinded him? Herc's mother. And there was a homosexual thing played up between Hercules' brother and his cousin, who at the end of the movie were shown in bed together. But given the overall clumsiness of the rest of the movie, these attempts at "realism" and a mature theme merely served to highlight the weakness of the rest of the effort, and thus appeared (perhaps unfairly) as heavy-handed and falseattempts to be daring. Frankly, it wasn't as well done or intelligent as the better Hercules and Xena story arcs. When those shows cut lose with the humour, they were funny as heck. When they dug deep for drama and played it straight, they could be downright impressive. Tonight's efffort was nowhere near as good. -Original Message-From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Keith JohnsonSent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 17:26To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.comSubject: [scifinoir2] "Hercules" on NBC Heard about this one? Soundsa little more serious than Sorbo's outing, as it deals with the aftermath of Hercules having killed his own children.I'll guess I'll have to check it out. My wife already commented that "at least they finally got a dark-haired Hercules with real muscles". She could never get with Sorbo due to his brownish hair and slim physique. That muscled, curly-haired dude from the '50s Hercules flicks set the standard to her mind. http://www.nbc.com/nbc/Hercules/ He was the slave that defied the gods. The hero who won the people. The man who became a legend. From Emmy Award winning executive producer Robert Halmi Sr.
[scifinoir2] What happened to Grey's Anatomy?
I tuned into this show because I'd heard a Sister was the creator and main writer. She spoke at length with Tavis Smiley aboutthe diverse cast (three Blacks and an Asian) and how the stories often center around guests of color. That may be true, but I haven't seen anything that really differentiates this from other shows I've seen that focus on the whites. The star's in a love affair with the doc played by Patrick Dempsey, the buxom nurse (who used to be on Roswell) has gotten some storylines, including one that had her stripping to her underwear in front of her co-workers. The Asian nurse is apparently pregnant. Frankly I quit watching after two episodes because nothing convinced me the Blacks would get major treatment. From what I can tell they're more like window dressing to the white characters. I notice that among the Blacks we have what are becoming familiar caricatures: the older doctor who ostensibly runs the place. But like Fancy on NYPD Blue, it remindsme of the device where you create a leader who's Black, then push him to the background...a mean doc who's shepherding the newbies. She comes onscreen, barks at the youngsters, then stalks off...and Isiah Washington's arrogant, self-centered genius, who reminds me ofEric LaSalle's character on "ER". He gets a few lines where he helps himself by being a real human to his charges, then off he goes. They all seem to do little more than provide plot points for the scared doctors to be, yet have little in the way of fully fleshed out roles themselves. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just feel the hoped-for strong usage of the people of color isn't materializing. This seems to be borne out by all the coverage I've seen: not one commercial on TV shows the Black actors, instead focusing almost exclusively on the star and her lover, with a little bit of coverage given to the other non-Blacks. TV Guide recently did an article on the show that included a two-page spread of photos of the "stars that make it hot". Not *one* of the Blacks was pictured! Am I off base? Are the Blacks used effectively? Do the guest stars consist of people of color with strong roles? Anyone watching this? Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
RE: [scifinoir2] Hercules on NBC--Weak!
Oops! My bad[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Watch it with those "gladiator" jokes, or Yahoo will be hop-scotching us to SciFiNoir3, 4, and 5!! -- Original message -- "Tell me son; have you ever seen a grown man naked???"Martin Pratt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That was a British accent? I have to agree with you, from what little I saw. This felt like a SciFi special (not surprising, considering that this was still in the Family). I missed the final credits, so I don't know where this was shot, or who should BE shot for staging it. The last fight scene didn't even seem real, and the guy who was playing the evil king, at times, seemed not to know where his marks were (he appeared to be staring into space at times, when he was supposed to be looking at Herc). If you or anyone knows who was behind this, send them numerous e-mails asking them to retire immediately, for the good of mankind.Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Man this was weak! Mediocre FX, confusing plot, performances that seemed like the actors were sleepwalking through their roles. The dude who played Hercules had the musculature but looked way too Caucasian to my tastes (the British accent didn't help). Is there some law that Greek men can't play Greek characters? Honestly, I think the last time a Greek dude played a god was back in the OS Trek episode, "Who Mourns for Adonis?". I heard more British, Kiwi, and American accents in this thing than I could count. Sean Astin was wasted as teacher/sidekick Linus, looking rather blank, which worked for simpleminded Samwise Gamgee, but here makes one wonder if Astin's contemplating a fading career instead of thinking about his lines. Timoty Dalton must have grabbed a fat check to play Herc's father, as he had little to do but bring his trademark piercing eyes and cultured voice to a boring character. Leeli Sobieski (sp?)got on my nerves playing a wood nymph, with that bronze Nivea tanning lotion slathered on her and the dopey floating scenes where grunts were obviously lowering her from a tree on a rope.Shedid a couple of shots that came periously close to flashing us withher bare breasts, which I guess was supposed to be daring or titillating, but seemed contrived. I'd go on, but the movie doesn't warrant further criticism.Well, maybe a little more. The only things that made it of minor note were that the writers brought in some realism about the characters' motivations and behaviour. For example, unlike the recent sanitized Hercules series, this treatment pretty much stated that Zeus raped Hercules' mother after morphing into a likeness of her husband. And unlike the series, mother and son didn't have a good relationship, as she spent her entire life trying to do in her son, even going so far as to purposefully being behind Hercules' murder of his own kids. Mom got started way before that though. She was the one who put the snakes in Herc's crib, which were of course strangled by the mighty infant. There were some scenes with nubile women running through the woods with satyrs, and one scene where a lady laid on her back on the grass, about to get busy with one of the goat-like demigods! That was surprising on network TV at 8 pm.Then there was the Oracle of Delphi who was revealed to be an hermaphrodite (Hercules and others called him "man-woman").He/she gets blinded in a vicious scene for accidentally violating a secretceremony devoted to Hera. The lady who blinded him? Herc's mother. And there was a homosexual thing played up between Hercules' brother and his cousin, who at the end of the movie were shown in bed together. But given the overall clumsiness of the rest of the movie, these attempts at "realism" and a mature theme merely served to highlight the weakness of the rest of the effort, and thus appeared (perhaps unfairly) as heavy-handed and falseattempts to be daring. Frankly, it wasn't as well done or intelligent as the better Hercules and Xena story arcs. When those shows cut lose with the humour, they were funny as heck. When they dug deep for drama and played it straight, they could be downright impressive. Tonight's efffort was nowhere near as good. -Original Message-From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Keith JohnsonSent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 17:26To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.comSubject: [scifinoir2] "Hercules" on NBC Heard about this one? Soundsa little more serious than Sorbo's outing, as it deals with the aftermath of Hercules having killed his own children.I'll guess I'll have to check it out. My wife already commented that "at least they finally got a dark-haired Hercules with real muscles". She could never get with Sorbo due to his brownish hair and slim physique. That muscled, curly-haired dude from the '50s Hercules flicks set the standard to her mind. http://www.nbc.com/nbc/Hercules/ He was the slave that defied the gods. The hero who won the people. The man who became a legend. From Emmy Award
[scifinoir2] Help protect wild horses from slaughter
Dear Friend, I thought you might be interested in this HSUS campaign to protect wild horses from slaughter. Wild horses were protected from slaughter for years, but this protection was stripped by a stealth change in the law last year. More than 40 wild horses have already been sold and slaughtered. The House of Representatives will vote Thursday, May 19, on an amendment to ensure that no tax dollars are used for any sale of wild horses that could lead to their slaughter. Please ask your U.S. Representative to vote YES on the Rahall-Whitfield Interior Appropriations amendment. The vote is this Thursday, so please go to this link and take action today: https://community.hsus.org/campaign/wild_horses?rk=odao7vd1hzNLW *** Powered by GetActive Software, Inc. Member Relationship Management Solutions That Recruit, Engage, and Retain (tm) http://www.getactive.com *** Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/pkgkPB/SOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Star Wars Stupidity
S P O I L E R S ! - http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2005-05-19/movie_reviews.php Star Wars stupidity Episode III isn't the worst in the series, but it's a still a galactic letdown By GLENN SUMI STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH directed by George Lucas, with Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson and Ian McDiarmid. 140 minutes. A 20th Century Fox release. Opens today (Thursday, May 19). For venues and times, see Movies, page 117. Rating: NN At one point in the disappointing Revenge Of The Sith, Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi asks, How did this happen? We're smarter than this. Apparently not. The final, bridging movie between George Lucas's two epic Star Wars trilogies ends not with a bang but with plenty of artistic whimpering. After the incomprehensible, offensive (remember Jar Jar Binks?) Episode I - The Phantom Menace and the better but still lightweight (remember Anakin and Padmé cavorting in the fields?) Episode II - Attack Of The Clones, Episode III ought to be a no-brainer. Basically, we're willing to wait through all the repetitive space fights, wooden acting and Industrial Light Magic exhibitionism for two events: the birth of heroic twins Luke and Leia and the moment when their dad, Anakin, goes to the Darth side, donning the iconic shiny black helmet, and Hayden Christensen's whiny voice gets replaced by James Earl Jones's booming bass. These should be mythic touchstones, as resonant in their own pop-cult way as Excalibur rising from the water or Sieglinde realizing she's pregnant with Siegfried in Wagner's Ring Cycle. Lucas does send a shiver up our collective spines as Darth Vader rises (a moment that's been spoiled by trailers), but the unemotional birth scene is shoddily set up and made ridiculous when the babies are perfunctorily parcelled out. Says Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa, Leia's future adoptive dad, We were looking to adopt a baby girl, a clunker that gets an unintentional laugh. Lucas is ticking items off his checklist here, getting his plot lines and characters in place so the original Star Wars film makes some sort of sense. On the design front, it's satisfying to see the familiar stark white hallways of Episode IV appear, as well as the less sophisticated ship control panels. You could also argue that the ongoing war (sense a contemporary relevance here?) is so destructive that it's caused citizens to start constructing their world in Episode IV from scratch. But then how to explain the hair? At one point in the new movie, we see pregnant Padmé Amidala with her tresses rolled up in bunches at the side like Princess Leia's double-donut look. Since Leia never met her mom, are we to think that cool hairstyles are genetically passed on? Other silly details include the failure to properly introduce us to the Wookiee Chewbacca, and having C3PO say not once but twice that he's under a lot of stress, a phrase that sounds more like a psyched-out Hollywood writer than a galactic droid. The one unfortunate omission concerns Jango Fett, the bounty hunter who was cloned for the army in Episode II. In the earlier film, his son Boba saw him killed. He picked up his dad's head. Wouldn't it make dramatic sense for him to return in Episode III and seek some sort of vengeance? And wouldn't this have reinforced Lucas's theme of fathers and sons? Also, the underhanded way the Jedi council deals with the dissenting Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid, in one of the film's two strong performances; the other's from McGregor) goes against the Force's philosophy. I guess in a film where all dialogue seems to be spoken in front of a blue screen, you can't expect logic. Maybe the word Sith is an anagram. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: What happened to Grey's Anatomy?
I like Grey's Anatomy, it is a perfect companion to Desparate Housewives but if I miss either, it is not a tragedy. When the show first came on I mentioned the 'bizarro world' aspect of it --where the blacks were ostensibly in charge and were, in essence, oppressing the downtrodden white characters. I am sure the show's creators had to make many compromises. For instance, one of the four interns was supposed to be a black man but I guess that was too much diversity for the suits that run ABC. Television is a cruel master and an incredibly difficult place for a person of color to get a foothold. There has been much to do about Everybody loves Raymond coming to a conclusion after nine seasons. One of the hubbubs when the show was getting off the ground was that they didn't want Italian Ray Barone's wife to be too ethnic. By that Les Moonves (who is married to an Asian woman as is Rupert Murdock)didn't want Ray's wife to be Italian or Jewish. They originally wanted someone like Meredith Baxter Birney. If Ray Romano can't get an Italian wife in a show based on his life on a show he co-created and co-executive produces, what chance does a black show producer have? That said, let me say I thoroughly enjoyed the episode of Grey's Anatomy where Anna Maria Horsford played an old scrub nurse who was dying and even though her illness was terminal and the hospital could do nothing to save her the administration was letting her stay until she died. This episode showed the humanity of all the black totems and taught the callow young white interns something about caring and community. As an aside, I have never been an Isaiah Washington fan. I loathe almost every character I have seen him play including his debut in Spike Lee's Girl 6 where despite substantial screen time he is credited simply as the Shoplifter. But I saw him the other day on The View touting Grey's Anatomy and he was lovely. He looked great, loved his mama (as came out in an anectodote) and he simply adored his pregnant wife of nine years(who was black and in the audience). This man has been horribly miscast. I hope to one day write something worthy of his silky elegance. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I tuned into this show because I'd heard a Sister was the creator and main writer. She spoke at length with Tavis Smiley about the diverse cast (three Blacks and an Asian) and how the stories often center around guests of color. That may be true, but I haven't seen anything that really differentiates this from other shows I've seen that focus on the whites. The star's in a love affair with the doc played by Patrick Dempsey, the buxom nurse (who used to be on Roswell) has gotten some storylines, including one that had her stripping to her underwear in front of her co-workers. The Asian nurse is apparently pregnant. Frankly I quit watching after two episodes because nothing convinced me the Blacks would get major treatment. From what I can tell they're more like window dressing to the white characters. I notice that among the Blacks we have what are becoming familiar caricatures: the older doctor who ostensibly runs the place. But like Fancy on NYPD Blue, it reminds me of the device where you create a leader who's Black, then push him to the background...a mean doc who's shepherding the newbies. She comes onscreen, barks at the youngsters, then stalks off...and Isiah Washington's arrogant, self- centered genius, who reminds me of Eric LaSalle's character on ER. He gets a few lines where he helps himself by being a real human to his charges, then off he goes. They all seem to do little more than provide plot points for the scared doctors to be, yet have little in the way of fully fleshed out roles themselves. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just feel the hoped-for strong usage of the people of color isn't materializing. This seems to be borne out by all the coverage I've seen: not one commercial on TV shows the Black actors, instead focusing almost exclusively on the star and her lover, with a little bit of coverage given to the other non-Blacks. TV Guide recently did an article on the show that included a two- page spread of photos of the stars that make it hot. Not *one* of the Blacks was pictured! Am I off base? Are the Blacks used effectively? Do the guest stars consist of people of color with strong roles? Anyone watching this? Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your
[scifinoir2] Grammer To Play Blue Beast in 'X-Men 3'
Fans of Kelsey Grammer are set to find him tough to recognize in his next project - he's playing a furry blue monster in the second X-Men sequel. In X-Men 3, the former Frasier star will play oversized mutant Beast, who has not yet appeared in any of the franchise's installments. While there has been a shocked reaction to Grammer's casting, producers of the movie insist he's the perfect choice for the part - because Beast is the most intelligent of all the mutants. Snatch star Vinnie Jones is also set to undergo a huge image overhaul when he plays villainous Juggernaut in the movie. His character is a 900 pound metal-clad battering ram. The sci-fi series stars Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijn. The movie, to be directed by Matthew Vaughn, is set to debut in May next year Tracey de Morsella Phone: 215-849-0946 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] View The What Happened to ScifiNoir at Yahoogroups FAQ, at: http://www.visitfloripa.com/scifinoir/ -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.12 - Release Date: 5/17/2005 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] NASA Challenge: Pull Oxygen from Moon Dirt, Win $250,000
http://www.space.com/news/050519_moonrox_challenge.html NASA Challenge: Pull Oxygen from Moon Dirt, Win $250,000 By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 19 May 2005 NASA has promised a cool $250,000 for the first team capable of pulling breathable oxygen from mock moon dirt, the latest award in the space agency's Centennial Challenges program. The cash prize is the reward for winners of the agency's Moon Regolith Oxygen (MoonROx) challenge, the third contest set by NASA to encourage commercial space industry. It our hope to kind of seed some of the long-term technologies that were going to need for future exploration, said Brant Sponberg, NASA's Centennial Challenges program manager, in a telephone interview. In the MoonROx contest, NASA and the Florida Space Research Institute (FSRI) challenge inventors to pull at least 11 pounds (five kilograms) of breathable oxygen from a volcanic ash-derived lunar soil substitute called JSC-1. But it doesn't end there. Participants not only have to extract the oxygen, but must accomplish the feat within eight hours. The competition expires June 1, 2008. Oxygen extraction technologies will be critical for both robotic and human missions to the moon, said Sam Durrance, executive director for FSRI. Like other space-focused prize competitions, the MoonROx challenge will encourage a broad community of innovators to develop technologies that expand our capabilities. Earlier this year, NASA detailed two other centennial challenges. The 2005 Beam Power Challenge will award $50,000 to the first team that can use wireless technology to lift a weight off the ground. Such technology could eventually be employed to beam payloads off Earth. Meanwhile, the 2005 Tether Challenge calls for teams to build the strongest tether of a specific diameter. The tethers will each be stretched to the breaking point, with winners advancing through the ranks toward a final showdown with NASA's house tether, made of existing material. Beat the house tether and you snag $50,000. NASA plans to set aside about $80 million towards Centennial Challenge prizes over the next five years to encourage private space technology development. Partly spurred by the $10 million Ansari X Prize for a private, manned suborbital spaceflight - which was snared last year by Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne - the cash prize is also geared to help support NASA's space exploration vision. That vision, announced by President Bush on Jan. 14, 2004, calls for a resurgence of human missions to the moon by 2020, as well as the ultimate push out to Mars and beyond. The use of resources on other worlds is a key element of the vision for space exploration, said Craig Steidle, NASA's associate administrator for the exploration systems mission directorate, in a statement. This challenge will reach out to inventors who can help us achieve the vision sooner. Sponberg said that more challenges will be announced in upcoming weeks, and may include additional contests to develop off-planet resource utilization tools or astronaut support systems. Other front-runners for near-term contests could challenge innovators to develop a better spacesuit glove or an unmanned, lighter-than-air vehicle that could one day lead to a Venus or Mars probe. Longer-term challenges may call for full-up space missions or complex demonstrations, such as a high-precision landing, Sponberg added. I think it adds great dimensions to our [exploration vision], Sponberg said of the Centennial Challenges program. It's a great way to reach out to innovators that we couldn't before. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/pkgkPB/SOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Fw: Listen to Bill Moyers' historic speech
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Do check this out! A goldmine of enlightenment! Dear Amy Harlib: In an historic speech on Sunday, legendary television journalist Bill Moyers blasted Kenneth Tomlinson of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB) for launching a partisan witch hunt at PBS and called for a series of town hall meetings across the country. "I simply never imagined that any CPB chairman, Democrat or Republican, would cross the line from resisting White House pressure to carrying it out for the White House," Moyers told a packed room at the National Conference for Media Reform. "And that's what Kenneth Tomlinson has been doing." You can now watch or listen to Moyers' entire speech on the Free Press Web site: An audio recording can be downloaded at: www.freepress.net/conference/audio05/moyers.mp3 Or you can watch the video at: www.freepress.net/conference/audio05/freepress-closing40515.mov Transcript online (as soon as it's available) at www.freepress.net/conference. In his first public statement since the controversy at PBS emerged, Moyers endorsed a call by media reform groups for a series of town hall meetings nationwide so that Americans can speak directly to station managers and policymakers about what they want and expect from public broadcasting. More than 50,000 Americans have already signed the Free Press petition calling on Kenneth Tomlinson to resign and demanding that the public be put back into PBS. Please add your name to the petition by clicking www.freepress.net/action/pbs. "That great mob that is democracy is rarely heard, and that's not just the fault of the current residents of the White House and Capitol," Moyers said. "There is a great chasm between those of us in the business and those who depend on TV and radio as their window to the world. We treat them too much like audiences and not enough like citizens. They are invited to look through the window, but too infrequently to participate and make public broadcasting public." Please support Bill Moyers, public broadcasting, quality journalism and democracy by signing the petition and passing along this message to everyone you know. Onward, Robert W. McChesneyFree Presswww.freepress.net P.S. The conference was a rousing success. Visit www.freepress.net/conference for audio and video recordings of the sessions, new episodes of "Media Minutes" and news reports. New content is being added daily. You ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) are receiving this message as a subscriber of the Free Press E-Activist list. To discontinue receiving messages, please visit
RE: [scifinoir2] Re: What happened to Grey's Anatomy?
Title: Message From your response and Tracey's, I guess ABC's pullling stealth diversity, using white-oriented marketing to pull in the mainstream. Like I said ,all the commercials focus on the whites. And I'm still troubled by magazine and other media coverage like TV Guide, which completely ignores the Blacks. Isaiah Washington's a good actor, but something about him often seemed to get him villain roles. He was a villain in "Romeo Must Die", and a couple other films I saw. I saw him in an interesting movie a few years back with Mirando Otto (Eowen from "Lord of the Rings"), where he falls in love with a white South African played by Otto. He was a villain in "Exit Wounds" too. But Washington's done a lot of work, almost 40 films! Could we be looking at another Sam Jackson? check out his filmography: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0913460/ Also, I have to give him my props, as he's a fellow Texan! -Original Message-From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kelly WrightSent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 22:07To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.comSubject: [scifinoir2] Re: What happened to "Grey's Anatomy"?I like "Grey's Anatomy," it is a perfect companion to "Desparate Housewives" but if I miss either, it is not a tragedy. When the show first came on I mentioned the 'bizarro world' aspect of it --where the blacks were ostensibly in charge and were, in essence, oppressing the downtrodden white characters. I am sure the show's creators had to make many compromises. For instance, one of the four interns was supposed to be a black man but I guess that was too much diversity for the suits that run ABC. Television is a cruel master and an incredibly difficult place for a person of color to get a foothold. There has been much to do about "Everybody loves Raymond" coming to a conclusion after nine seasons. One of the hubbubs when the show was getting off the ground was that they didn't want Italian Ray Barone's wife to be "too ethnic." By that Les Moonves (who is married to an Asian woman as is Rupert Murdock)didn't want Ray's wife to be Italian or Jewish. They originally wanted someone like Meredith Baxter Birney. If Ray Romano can't get an Italian wife in a show based on his life on a show he co-created and co-executive produces, what chance does a black show producer have? That said, let me say I thoroughly enjoyed the episode of "Grey's Anatomy" where Anna Maria Horsford played an old scrub nurse who was dying and even though her illness was terminal and the hospital could do nothing to save her the administration was letting her stay until she died. This episode showed the humanity of all the black totems and taught the callow young white interns something about caring and community. As an aside, I have never been an Isaiah Washington fan. I loathe almost every character I have seen him play including his debut in Spike Lee's "Girl 6" where despite substantial screen time he is credited simply as the "Shoplifter." But I saw him the other day on "The View" touting "Grey's Anatomy" and he was lovely. He looked great, loved his mama (as came out in an anectodote) and he simply adored his pregnant wife of nine years(who was black and in the audience). This man has been horribly miscast. I hope to one day write something worthy of his silky elegance.~rave!--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I tuned into this show because I'd heard a Sister was the creator and main writer. She spoke at length with Tavis Smiley about the diverse cast (three Blacks and an Asian) and how the stories often center around guests of color. That may be true, but I haven't seen anything that really differentiates this from other shows I've seen that focus on the whites. The star's in a love affair with the doc played by Patrick Dempsey, the buxom nurse (who used to be on Roswell) has gotten some storylines, including one that had her stripping to her underwear in front of her co-workers. The Asian nurse is apparently pregnant. Frankly I quit watching after two episodes because nothing convinced me the Blacks would get major treatment. From what I can tell they're more like window dressing to the white characters. I notice that among the Blacks we have what are becoming familiar caricatures: the older doctor who ostensibly runs the place. But like Fancy on NYPD Blue, it reminds me of the device where you create a leader who's Black, then push him to the background...a mean doc who's shepherding the newbies. She comes onscreen, barks at the youngsters, then stalks off...and Isiah Washington's arrogant, self-centered genius, who reminds me of Eric LaSalle's character on "ER". He gets a few lines where he helps himself by being a real human to his charges, then off he goes. They all seem to do little
RE: [scifinoir2] NASA Challenge: Pull Oxygen from Moon Dirt, Win $250,000
Title: Message This is one of the things we discussed a couple a days ago in how terraforming would work. I noted that needed gases could be pulled from a planet's soil. Wouldn't that be awesome? -Original Message-From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brent WodehouseSent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 23:38To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.comSubject: [scifinoir2] NASA Challenge: Pull Oxygen from Moon Dirt, Win $250,000http://www.space.com/news/050519_moonrox_challenge.htmlNASA Challenge: Pull Oxygen from Moon Dirt, Win $250,000By Tariq MalikStaff Writerposted: 19 May 2005NASA has promised a cool $250,000 for the first team capable ofpulling breathable oxygen from mock moon dirt, the latest award in thespace agency's Centennial Challenges program.The cash prize is the reward for winners of the agency's Moon RegolithOxygen (MoonROx) challenge, the third contest set by NASA to encouragecommercial space industry."It our hope to kind of seed some of the long-term technologies thatwere going to need for future exploration," said Brant Sponberg, NASA'sCentennial Challenges program manager, in a telephone interview.In the MoonROx contest, NASA and the Florida Space Research Institute(FSRI) challenge inventors to pull at least 11 pounds (five kilograms)of breathable oxygen from a volcanic ash-derived lunar soil substitutecalled JSC-1.But it doesn't end there. Participants not only have to extract theoxygen, but must accomplish the feat within eight hours. Thecompetition expires June 1, 2008."Oxygen extraction technologies will be critical for both robotic andhuman missions to the moon," said Sam Durrance, executive director forFSRI. Like other space-focused prize competitions, the MoonROxchallenge will encourage a broad community of innovators to developtechnologies that expand our capabilities.Earlier this year, NASA detailed two other centennial challenges.The 2005 Beam Power Challenge will award $50,000 to the first teamthat can use wireless technology to lift a weight off the ground. Suchtechnology could eventually be employed to beam payloads off Earth.Meanwhile, the 2005 Tether Challenge calls for teams to build thestrongest tether of a specific diameter. The tethers will each bestretched to the breaking point, with winners advancing through theranks toward a final showdown with NASA's house tether, made ofexisting material. Beat the house tether and you snag $50,000.NASA plans to set aside about $80 million towards Centennial Challengeprizes over the next five years to encourage private space technologydevelopment. Partly spurred by the $10 million Ansari X Prize for aprivate, manned suborbital spaceflight - which was snared last yearby Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne - the cash prize is also geared tohelp support NASA's space exploration vision.That vision, announced by President Bush on Jan. 14, 2004, callsfor a resurgence of human missions to the moon by 2020, as well as theultimate push out to Mars and beyond."The use of resources on other worlds is a key element of the visionfor space exploration," said Craig Steidle, NASA's associateadministrator for the exploration systems mission directorate, in astatement. This challenge will reach out to inventors who can help usachieve the vision sooner.Sponberg said that more challenges will be announced in upcomingweeks, and may include additional contests to develop off-planetresource utilization tools or astronaut support systems.Other front-runners for near-term contests could challenge innovatorsto develop a better spacesuit glove or an unmanned, lighter-than-airvehicle that could one day lead to a Venus or Mars probe."Longer-term challenges may call for full-up space missions or complexdemonstrations, such as a high-precision landing," Sponberg added."I think it adds great dimensions to our [exploration vision],"Sponberg said of the Centennial Challenges program. It's a great way toreach out to innovators that we couldn't before. Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[scifinoir2] FW: Bill Moyers Blasts CPB Chairman Tomlinson
Title: Message Amy, I hadn't heard about Moyers recent speech until you posted that info tonight.So I searched and found this article about it. Are we surprised? I've been wondering when the villagers would start bringing their pitchforks and torches to the public broadcasting arena. I remember years ago when NPR was airing Mumia Abu Jamal's "Live from Death Row" recordings. There wasa firestorm of protest from citizens and some public officials, a huge mess. NPR finally dropped him. I think Pacifica Radio picked it up, or it might have been a conscious, independent radio station here in Atlanta, WRFG. But the bottom line is NPR was forced to kowtow to the right. I knew then it was only a matter of time, and with Bush in office the witchhunters are emboldened indeed. Very worrisome this is... http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051605N.shtml Bill Moyers Blasts CPB Chairman TomlinsonThe Free Press Sunday 15 May 2005 Veteran journalist calls for nationwide public hearings on future of public broadcasting in speech at the National Conference for Media Reform. St. Louis - In a speech before 1,400 media activists, television journalist Bill Moyers lambasted Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), for hijacking public broadcasting to serve a partisan agenda. "I simply never imagined that any CPB chairman, Democrat or Republican, would cross the line from resisting White House pressure to carrying it out for the White House," Moyers told a packed room at the National Conference for Media Reform. "And that's what Kenneth Tomlinson has been doing." Tomlinson, a staunch Republican, has launched a personal crusade aimed at "eliminating the perception of political bias" in PBS programs. He has covertly promoted right-wing programming and tried to install his political allies to CPB's board and executive offices. He even contracted an outside consultant to monitor Moyers' weekly PBS news program, "NOW with Bill Moyers," for signs of liberal bias. "The more compelling our journalism, the angrier the radical right of the Republican Party gets," Moyers said. "That's because the one thing they loathe more than liberals is the truth. And the quickest way to be damned by them as liberal is to tell the truth." In his first public statement since the controversy over the CPB emerged, Moyers announced that he had sent a letter to Tomlinson requesting an hour-long program on PBS to debate the direction of public broadcasting. Earlier this month, 50,000 concerned citizens signed a Free Press petition urging Tomlinson to resign. Moyers also endorsed a call by Free Press, Common Cause, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union and Media Access Project for a series of town hall meetings nationwide so Americans can speak directly to station managers and policymakers about what they want and expect from public broadcasting. "That great mob that is democracy is rarely heard, and that's not just the fault of the current residents of the White House and Capitol," Moyers said. "There is a great chasm between those of us in the business and those who depend on TV and radio as their window to the world. We treat them too much like audiences and not enough like citizens. They are invited to look through the window, but too infrequently to participate and make public broadcasting public." The National Conference for Media Reform, hosted and organized by the nonpartisan media reform group Free Press, brought together thousands of media activists, educators, journalists, policymakers and concerned citizens from across the country and around the world who are concerned with the current state of the media. "An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda, is less inclined to put up a fight, ask questions and be skeptical," Moyers said. "And just as a democracy can die of too many lies, that kind of orthodoxy can kill us, too." Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Re: [scifinoir2] NASA Challenge: Pull Oxygen from Moon Dirt, Win $250,000
I want to play a 'Moon Is A harsh Mistress' role playing game. before veyerhoeven RUINS IT with a TRUNCHEON the way he decimated ST. mikal x! --- Brent Wodehouse [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.space.com/news/050519_moonrox_challenge.html NASA Challenge: Pull Oxygen from Moon Dirt, Win $250,000 By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 19 May 2005 NASA has promised a cool $250,000 for the first team capable of pulling breathable oxygen from mock moon dirt, the latest award in the space agency's Centennial Challenges program. The cash prize is the reward for winners of the agency's Moon Regolith Oxygen (MoonROx) challenge, the third contest set by NASA to encourage commercial space industry. It our hope to kind of seed some of the long-term technologies that were going to need for future exploration, said Brant Sponberg, NASA's Centennial Challenges program manager, in a telephone interview. In the MoonROx contest, NASA and the Florida Space Research Institute (FSRI) challenge inventors to pull at least 11 pounds (five kilograms) of breathable oxygen from a volcanic ash-derived lunar soil substitute called JSC-1. But it doesn't end there. Participants not only have to extract the oxygen, but must accomplish the feat within eight hours. The competition expires June 1, 2008. Oxygen extraction technologies will be critical for both robotic and human missions to the moon, said Sam Durrance, executive director for FSRI. Like other space-focused prize competitions, the MoonROx challenge will encourage a broad community of innovators to develop technologies that expand our capabilities. Earlier this year, NASA detailed two other centennial challenges. The 2005 Beam Power Challenge will award $50,000 to the first team that can use wireless technology to lift a weight off the ground. Such technology could eventually be employed to beam payloads off Earth. Meanwhile, the 2005 Tether Challenge calls for teams to build the strongest tether of a specific diameter. The tethers will each be stretched to the breaking point, with winners advancing through the ranks toward a final showdown with NASA's house tether, made of existing material. Beat the house tether and you snag $50,000. NASA plans to set aside about $80 million towards Centennial Challenge prizes over the next five years to encourage private space technology development. Partly spurred by the $10 million Ansari X Prize for a private, manned suborbital spaceflight - which was snared last year by Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne - the cash prize is also geared to help support NASA's space exploration vision. That vision, announced by President Bush on Jan. 14, 2004, calls for a resurgence of human missions to the moon by 2020, as well as the ultimate push out to Mars and beyond. The use of resources on other worlds is a key element of the vision for space exploration, said Craig Steidle, NASA's associate administrator for the exploration systems mission directorate, in a statement. This challenge will reach out to inventors who can help us achieve the vision sooner. Sponberg said that more challenges will be announced in upcoming weeks, and may include additional contests to develop off-planet resource utilization tools or astronaut support systems. Other front-runners for near-term contests could challenge innovators to develop a better spacesuit glove or an unmanned, lighter-than-air vehicle that could one day lead to a Venus or Mars probe. Longer-term challenges may call for full-up space missions or complex demonstrations, such as a high-precision landing, Sponberg added. I think it adds great dimensions to our [exploration vision], Sponberg said of the Centennial Challenges program. It's a great way to reach out to innovators that we couldn't before. http://particlezen.proboards7.com/index.cgi the edge of everything. no, really. http://www.deadjournal.com/users/cataleptik/ catal3ptik is a rav3r Discover Yahoo! Stay in touch with email, IM, photo sharing and more. Check it out! http://discover.yahoo.com/stayintouch.html Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Fw: Bill Moyers slams right-wing takeover of public broadcasting
[EMAIL PROTECTED] I saw and heard the whole speech on the Internet and it is so dead on! Don't miss this! Subject: Fw: Bill Moyers slams right-wing takeover of public broadcasting The slam is well deserved. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/BBB15FFD38DCFFFB86257003001B326B?OpenDocument Speech at conference assails right wing By Michael D. Sorkin Of the Post-Dispatch 05/15/2005 Bill Moyers denounced on Sunday the right wing and top officials at the White House, saying they are trying to silence their critics by controlling the news media. He also took aim at reporters who become little more than willing government stenographers. And he said the public increasingly is content with just enough news to confirm its own biases. Moyers spoke in St. Louis at a conference on media reform. His reports have appeared on the Public Broadcasting System since the 1970s. He was an aide to President Lyndon Johnson and is a former newspaper publisher. Moyers said those in power - government officials and their allies in the media - mean to stay there by punishing journalists who tell the stories that make princes and priests uncomfortable. Moyers described those officials as obsessed with control of the media. He said they are using the government to threaten and intimidate. Moyers answered for the first time recent charges that public television in general and he in particular have become too liberal. Those charges are from Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and, in effect, Moyers' boss at the network. Tomlinson, a Republican, paid an outside consultant $10,000 to keep track of the political leanings of guests on Moyers' show, Now. Moyers left the show last year but is back on public television as host of the series Wide Angle. Tomlinson, on the recommendation of administration officials, hired a senior White House aide to draw up guidelines to review the content of public radio and television broadcasts, according to a report in The New York Times on May 2. Tomlinson has denied that he was carrying out a White House mandate. Tomlinson complained that Moyers' show was consistently critical of Republicans and the Bush administration. He said there was a tone deafness at PBS headquarters on issues of tone and balance. Moyers said he knew his broadcasts have created a backlash in Washington. The more compelling our journalism, the angrier became the radical right of the Republican Party, he said. That's because the one thing they loath more than liberals is the truth. And the quickest way to be damned by them as liberal is to tell the truth. Moyers' speech was interrupted by standing ovations at the Conference for Media Reform here over the weekend. More than 2,500 people attended the three-day conference. Ernest Wilson III serves with Tomlinson on the board that oversees public broadcasting. He said PBS outranks the Fox News Channel, CNN and all the broadcast news networks in a survey that asked whom the public trusts. We are, by far, the most 'fair and balanced,' he said, a reference to the motto of Fox News. Moyers complained that PBS' liberal label is undeserved. In contrast to the conservative mantra that public television routinely features the voices of establishment critics, he said, alternative voices on public television are rare and usually drowned out by government and corporate views. Moyers said that's exactly what the right wing wants. They want your reporting to validate their belief system, and when it doesn't God forbid. He said he always thought that the American eagle needed both a left wing and a right wing. But with two right wings, or two left wings, it's no longer an eagle, and it's going to crash. Moyers said right wingers had attacked him after he closed a broadcast by placing a flag in his lapel. It was the first time that he had worn a flag. He said he put it on to remind himself that not every patriot thinks we should do to the people of Baghdad what bin Laden did to us. The flag has been hijacked and turned into a logo, a trademark of a monopoly on patriotism, Moyers said. Moyers had harsh words for reporters who simply recount what officials say, without scrutinizing what they say and do. He said New York Times correspondent Judith Miller, among other reporters, had relied on official but unnamed sources when she served essentially as the government's stenographer for claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Moyers said he has come to understand that news is what people want to keep hidden and everything else is publicity. He said that kind of reporting has never been tougher to do: Without a trace of irony, the powers that be have appropriated the news speak vernacular of George Orwell's '1984,' giving us a program, no child will be left behind, while cutting funds for educating disadvantaged children. They give us legislation
Re: [scifinoir2] Fw: Bill Moyers slams right-wing takeover of public broadcasting
for a long time asa commercial art and communications grad i have noted that NPR is a mouthpiece for the right -- to the point where -- if a guest has ideas that are liberal the guests -- like mart i moss-cowan or terry gross try to put words in theimouth to the tune of surely you didn'tmean to disparage capitalism. as an anarchist i am especially sensitive to these 'little things that mean so, so much. it's...not so complicated. there is a force happening in america that people who wish to be proud' of their nation don't want to look at -- a force that mirrirs like a click on the spiral the repression and sneaky censorship that led to the down forall of Germany at the hands of the National Socialists. America is perhaps even more ripe for that sortof real evil to seduce it because americans are so proud -- they don't want to admit that there is anything wrong. Moyers is a man of means. Intelectual means, emotional means. I am glad he soke out -- especially becaue se NPRs status as non commercial is ajoke -- each hour they thank with advertisements some of the riches t people in the nation or the world with reminders. MERCK. The Ford Foundation for chrissake. it's not in vain to consider that the radio is now obsolete as a place for progressive views. i have had issues witgh some fake progressives who toe the line a pull punches for years -- and i monitor NPR as part of work for independent media concerns (other than the left biased and ethically spotty indymedia.arrgh.). what is happening in the united states is a fascist tranformation -- a fall to the darkes of places where enlightenment is traded in for illumination -- and at the same time -- perhaps there is some sort of grey awakening taking place. i would not call moyers anything but a reactionary conservative -- but all conservatives are not as evil as some of them come off. maybe the good guys are waking up. there's a tidal wave of mysticim coursing through our jket age generation. -- P-Funk All Stars mikal x --- Amy Harlib [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I saw and heard the whole speech on the Internet and it is so dead on! Don't miss this! Subject: Fw: Bill Moyers slams right-wing takeover of public broadcasting The slam is well deserved. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/BBB15FFD38DCFFFB86257003001B326B?OpenDocument Speech at conference assails right wing By Michael D. Sorkin Of the Post-Dispatch 05/15/2005 Bill Moyers denounced on Sunday the right wing and top officials at the White House, saying they are trying to silence their critics by controlling the news media. He also took aim at reporters who become little more than willing government stenographers. And he said the public increasingly is content with just enough news to confirm its own biases. Moyers spoke in St. Louis at a conference on media reform. His reports have appeared on the Public Broadcasting System since the 1970s. He was an aide to President Lyndon Johnson and is a former newspaper publisher. Moyers said those in power - government officials and their allies in the media - mean to stay there by punishing journalists who tell the stories that make princes and priests uncomfortable. Moyers described those officials as obsessed with control of the media. He said they are using the government to threaten and intimidate. Moyers answered for the first time recent charges that public television in general and he in particular have become too liberal. Those charges are from Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and, in effect, Moyers' boss at the network. Tomlinson, a Republican, paid an outside consultant $10,000 to keep track of the political leanings of guests on Moyers' show, Now. Moyers left the show last year but is back on public television as host of the series Wide Angle. Tomlinson, on the recommendation of administration officials, hired a senior White House aide to draw up guidelines to review the content of public radio and television broadcasts, according to a report in The New York Times on May 2. Tomlinson has denied that he was carrying out a White House mandate. Tomlinson complained that Moyers' show was consistently critical of Republicans and the Bush administration. He said there was a tone deafness at PBS headquarters on issues of tone and balance. Moyers said he knew his broadcasts have created a backlash in Washington. The more compelling our journalism, the angrier became the radical right of the Republican Party, he said. That's because the one thing they loath more than liberals is the truth. And the quickest way to be damned by them as liberal is to tell the truth. Moyers' speech was interrupted by standing ovations at the Conference for Media Reform here over the weekend. More than 2,500 people attended the
