As you may have noticed from my musical set yesterday, where W was for Xena, Warrior Princess, Xena is one of my favorite fictional characters.
My husband and I named our late dog after Xena. She was our warrior princess, all right.
We were blessed to have her for our dog, and in the year since she's been gone, it's been a gradual healing process for all of us--my husband, my mom and me. We all live together. We were all Xena's pack. She was a cherished member of our family. It's taken awhile, but we're all starting to feel drawn toward getting another dog. I'm certain that by the time we ring in 2014, there will be a new member of our family to help us do that, and we'll once again be members of a pack. Here's to Xena, with love.
Time for my combination eleventh and twelfth status report for the Movie Madness Challenge. WOO HOO! It took an entire year of concerted effort, but I did it. 100 films. Movie Master status. That's the whole point of taking up a challenge. If it's easy, why bother? The point is to stretch outside of your comfort zone.
When I began this challenge, I knew I wasn't watching as many films as I once used to do. Films are the joy of my life aside from dance. If I wasn't making room in my life for joy, it was time to do something about that. A brief shout-out to my late dog Xena:
Last January 1st, one of the things I was happiest about was the time I knew I would be spending snuggled up on the couch with my dog. She spent many an hour beneath my chair here at my desk waiting patiently until I switched over to the couch for some Pack time.
Only six days into 2012, my Xena passed away at age 11. I almost couldn't bear continuing on with the new Movie Madness Challenge, since a big part of it had been my intention to watch the movies with Xena cuddled up beside me.
Yet I persisted.
I dedicate this entire year's Movie Madness Challenge to my little furry chum. Thanks for making all the movies we did share together so comfy and blissful.
I'd also like to tip my hat to my co-movie-watcher: my husband Brad, who watched nearly every movie alongside me. He's a passionate movie watcher himself and far out-stripped me in movie totals. But he had my back for this challenge and helped me keep pace.
Here is my code for the films: New to me - N Repeat viewing - R I'll also be including how I viewed the films: DVD VHS (yes, we have a lot of those, and a VCR) Network TV Pay TV Internet In theatre Because I was deeply involved in writing my second Scorpius book in November for NaNoWriMo, I didn't post a separate challenge update and I'm including those films here. There were only three of them!
Blackadder's Christmas Carol DVD R Dr. Who - The Snowmen Network TV N I combined these two 1-hour Christmas specials to count as one 2-hour film, since I couldn't live through Christmas Eve without watching Blackadder's Christmas Carol, and the Dr. Who special just couldn't be missed. Not with jagged-toothed snowmen.
Faraon (Pharaoh) Internet N Stumbled upon this 1966 Polish film on You Tube. Watched it dubbed in Russian without subtitles - good practice for my Russian. Nothing like today's films-for-short-attention-spans. Loved it.
This one is scheduled for tonight's New Year's Eve celebration. Can't wait to see it! Haven't seen it since it played first-run at the Runnymede Theatre where Brad and I used to work back in the day, in fact where we met.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Total movies for November - 3 Total movies for December - 17 Total movies for 2012 - 100! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
25 Movies: Movie Newbie - reached this first milestone by April 50 Movies: Movie Fanatic - reached this one by July 75 Movies: Movie Critic - reached the third level by October 100+ Movies: Movie Master - it took the 365th day of 2012 to reach the final level. *happy sigh* Thanks to everyone who checked in on my progress every month!
Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.
Today would have been my dog Xena's 12th birthday. She passed away on Jan. 6th, and her loss has colored my entire year. It's taken me all of these twelve months to work myself up to this post in her honor. Happy Birthday, my dear sweet Little Girl.
My 11-year-old Nova Scotia Duck Toller/Beagle mix passed away on Friday after a week's illness.
She was a warrior princess to the end. She did not complain, even though she had a hard week. She even continued to make friends in the lobby at the vet's office, even though it turned out to be her final visit there.
When I'm able to post about the glorious time we spent together, I'll share her life story here at A Piece of My Mind.
Once again, Scorpius' latest installment is being rescheduled to next week.
1 - The wonderful thing about a career in film and television is the vibrant legacy of memories that allow a performer to reach out to all of us, even after they've gone.
That's the way it is for late New Zealand actor Kevin Smith.
2 - To the shock and distress of the film and TV industry, and his legion of hot-and-bothered fans, Kevin passed away after an accidental six-story fall from a prop tower on a film set in 2002.
While he was with us...
Kevin Smith
6' 3"
Eyes - Brown
Hair - Dark brown
Type - Athletic / Mid-30's
He worked as an actor / Co-founder of a theatresports troupe, Scared Scriptless
Worked in television / Film / Stage
3 - Kevin grew up in Auckland and later Timaru, New Zealand. He played rugby and sang in rock bands in school, continuing with his musical interests all through his acting career.
Appeared as the same character on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess and Young Hercules for seven seasons (1995-2001)
Unlike the three previous hotties showcased so far in my Thursday Thirteen Eye Candy series, Kevin's only other genre work was his final project, Riverworld (2003). Because of his death, his voice had to be looped by another actor in post production.
Kevin did a wide variety of roles, including:
Lawless, a three-film crime series for television following a Kiwi private investigator (1999-2000) Jubilee, a comedy featuring Kevin as an All-Blacks Kiwi rugby player (2000) Desperate Remedies, an art house film featuring Kevin as a settler in colonial Down Under (1993)
He also participated in an improv comedy theatresports troupe, and had considerable stage credits, including:
Cabaret The Rocky Horror Picture Show A Streetcar Named Desire The Blue Room Othello
Next photo is straying into Not Safe For Work territory...
4 - Kevin kept in tiptop shape for the grueling stunt schedule required of his role on Herc and Xena. His role as the god of war meant his call sheet contained a steady stream of fight sequences. He excelled at these, and in fact took his final role in a film shot in Beijing in order to work with a stuntman from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
This saucy fanvid clip contains a tongue-in-cheek homage to the side of Ares we didn't see very often. There were a few episodes in a story arc where Ares had lost his god-powers, which is where all the footage for this video came from.
5 - No matter how delicious Mr. Smith might have been, he was strictly eye candy, ladies - he belonged to Mrs. Smith. Suzanne was his childhood sweetheart and the mother of his three boys.
We all have her to thank for our introduction to Kevin, as it was her suggestion that he go to a casting call after a sports injury which led to his career before the cameras.
6 - Kevin played himself in a mockumentary directed by Hercules co-star Michael Hurst, which follows the fictitious development of a unique shellfish industry in a small New Zealand town.
The scene where Kevin discovers the aphrodisiac qualities of the local seafood begins at the 9:32 mark.
7 - Kevin appeared for seven seasons as Ares, God of War on three connected series - Hercules, Xena and Young Hercules.
He ranks up there with Keith Allen's Sheriff of Nottingham as one of my favorite TV villains. Ares relished his every rotten impulse and apologized for none of his self-interested mayhem.
I suspect Kevin imbued this character with an aspect of himself, as his co-star and director Michael Hurst said of him:
"It was always a riot when Kevin was around because (and I think I can speak for many people here) he made you want to be naughty. He had a streak of madness that seemed to call to everyone's inner lunatic, and my memories of working with him throughout this time are of both laughter and insanely hard work."
Here's a scene featuring Bad to the Bone Ares from Hercules the Legendary Journeys.
8 - Remember my soft spot for a man in chains?
...well...
Herc and Xena only gave us a few tied-up Ares moments. The nature of the god of war made this moment pictured above a rarity.
In the less-is-more category, the sight of Ares in this predicament had a far more powerful effect because of its singularity.
It led to big character growth for him, as well. Awesome stuff.
9 - Although Xena's character developed a longterm romantic relationship with her sidekick Gabrielle during the series, she also had several male romantic relationships, which included an ongoing love-hate thing with Ares.
Contrasting his uber villain persona with his lovestruck side, Ares' black shades lightened to much more fascinating grays in his pursuit of his warrior princess.
Champion of the Arts - I write historical and paranormal fiction, as well as poetry. I love to showcase creative works by artists of all stripes. Blogging from Nova Scotia, Canada
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