Chat heaven: Alex Zahara,Dylan Neal, Dean Marshall

Thank you, thank you, thank you to crazybillyo for posting that transcript. Man, I am so bummed I missed it because Alex strikes me as being a super nice guy.

I was sitting next to a guy at the Gathering back in May who apparently is involved with a magazine in Canada. It sounded like this mag had an aritical about the show which he gave to the cast members. After the cast presented themselves to the audience, Alex made a beeline right to this guy and shook his hand and thanked him sincerly for the magazine. He even small talked with him for a bit so it was really great to witness it.

Also, I figured out why I couldn't connect to the chat ... our damn firewall at work prevented it! Guess I will have to brush up on my UNIX IRC skills for the next one since I will have to sneak in from our home network.

I thought I had some good questions too.

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Monica Hübinette | Seattle, WA | Send a Warm Fuzzy!
What do we tell the children? Do we tell them evil is a foreign face? No, the evil is the thought behind the face, and it can look just like yours. --JMS (Amazing Spider-Man #36)

I don't think I've heard one negative thing about any of the cast of B5LR. They all seem like very nice, very cool people.

Keep up the good public relations, cast!

I really enjoyed the chat. I was flattered that Alex remembered my nickname.

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The writer's life is not meant to be a happy one. We all accept that going in. -JMS

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by channe:
I don't think I've heard one negative thing about any of the cast of B5LR.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmm. I'll be the grump, then. I will probably regret this, but:

Our leading man seems a bit terse, tense, I don't know. I’m sorry if this offends him, or his fans. But he did come off from time to time on the threads as, well, pushy or something. He was offended that someone might think he said B5LR was great. He was insulted that his picture was automatically put in his posts.

I saw all of this as what is probably typical on a messageboard. Over-enthusiasm from fans. To be expected. But the picture thing seemed totally practical to me. Sorry, Dylan, but we don’t all know the names of you stars. I found the picture to help me sort out who was which actor.

I will probably not ask any questions during his chat. He just doesn’t seem to be as easy going as the rest of the cast.

Of course, I’m judging from the most limited facility I could: a messageboard. I know I have come across in ways I did not mean to here.

Anyhow, I’ve hanged myself already. I’ll stop now.


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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

"I think I speak for Mr. Bloom and myself when I say: you are the only director in the World who can do justice to 'Springtime For Hitler' " - Zero Mostel, The Producers

Well, hypatia, if there's one thing we expect on this board, it is for people to speak their minds. And an argument is just an invocation for getting "my freak on" devil's-advocatewise. So here we go:

Dylan's in a different place than the rest of us. I can sit here and talk about my thesis until I'm blue in the face; I can complain about my avatar; I can rib GKarsEye and apply deadly denn'bok force to anyone.

But then, I'm not about to become a commodity.

I'm a fan. In the public eye, I'm considered a nobody. I can afford to be loose, to come to messageboards and be less than terse. Dylan, on the other hand, is the star of B5LR. The show centers around his character. He's in the public eye.

He's acting in a fashion totally consistent with an actor keeping a public image straight.

Different actors do that in different ways. Maybe this is his. *shrugs*

Then again, I could be wrong, but that's just consistent with my experience with public relations (which, while slight, is not inconsiderable.)

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The writer's life is not meant to be a happy one. We all accept that going in. -JMS

Excellent points, Channe. Thanks. As always, you have food for thought.

Actually, I thought it was interesting that he was there at the chat last night. And that he was there as a regular member. AND that he was identified. If I were in his place, I'd watch the first B5LR chat, too!

I'll reserve judgement.

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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

"I think I speak for Mr. Bloom and myself when I say: you are the only director in the World who can do justice to 'Springtime For Hitler' " - Zero Mostel, The Producers

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by channe:
I don't think I've heard one negative thing about any of the cast of B5LR. They all seem like very nice, very cool people.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, maybe that is because they are still new to us and we are still holding them up on pedestals? Or, that we just don't know them well enough yet? Or, maybe people are being nice and don't want to bad mouth anyone in front of their face?

In any case, I admire Hypatia and Channe's observations on the matter. I see Hypatia's point about Dylan and I have similar feelings but ... I am keeping an open mind (which sounds like what Hypatia is doing as well).

I have to admit that my least favorite characters/actors in the series are Dylan/David and Dean/Malcolm. It is based on a lot of factors which I will not go into here. Hey, I am probably one of the few women in the world who thinks Brad Pitt is a turn off so what do I know!

I cannot wait until Warren's chat because he -is- my favorite person so far. Enid-Ray is a close second so I hope a chat with her is coming up soon. Then Myriam is close third.

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Monica Hübinette | Seattle, WA | Send a Warm Fuzzy!
What do we tell the children? Do we tell them evil is a foreign face? No, the evil is the thought behind the face, and it can look just like yours. --JMS (Amazing Spider-Man #36)

The only person I've placed on a pedestal my entire life was my mother. *grin*

I'm going to remain mute on these points, other than being a devil's advocate (see above - which keeps me on my toes), and other than saying that I really can't say much about the actors other than I haven't heard any bad press/buzz (see above), most of them seem personable, and they appear to be really into what they do.

I guess you can say I've had the most interaction with Warren, so I'll be looking forward to his chat.

The following is from a fairly neutral vista:

Hmm, I'm trying to explain... let's see, here. We all have selves we present to others on this board. For an actor, especially, the "self," or the ethos, in the face of the public, can be a pretty important thing in more ways than one.

The B5LR actors have radically different ways of dealing with their ethos on this messageboard - as I can see, at least, from my limited text-vantagepoint. For example, compare Dylan's posts to Dean's posts.

Just keep that in mind, y'all. Gosh, this is a longer post than expected. Feel free to bash - I'm an amateur, all the way.

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The writer's life is not meant to be a happy one. We all accept that going in. -JMS

[This message has been edited by channe (edited November 16, 2001).]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hypatia:
Our leading man seems a bit terse, tense, I don't know. I’m sorry if this offends him, or his fans. But he did come off from time to time on the threads as, well, pushy or something.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Oh? I thought he comes off as professional and forthright - two qualities I value very much. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>He was offended that someone might think he said B5LR was great.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Don't know about Dylan, but I generally get rather displeased when someone distorts my words or puts new ones into my mouth. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>He was insulted that his picture was automatically put in his posts.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I can't be bothered to dig out the thread again, though I know I didn't interpet it that way. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>I will probably not ask any questions during his chat. He just doesn’t seem to be as easy going as the rest of the cast.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>No... He seems a bit more pointy and "challenging". I like that. And it's far better than some actors, who make up whatever they think the fans want to hear, and cause rifts in fandom when said fabrications start to collide with the real world.

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Evil alien at large! Looking for cities to pillage and women to abduct! Pre-jumptech planets preferred. (Run your own country? Ask for my special collaborator package, with extensive health coverage and a life-time personal assistant!)

drakh@spamcop.net

drakh, you must have missed it then. He stated very clearly that he was insulted that anyone would assume he would want his picture next to his name during posts.

It never occured to him that it might just possibly help us identify who is who in this new assembly of stars. As I said, I reserve judgement. But he did come across, to some of us, as a bit pushy for a bit.

Just MHO, nothing more.

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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

"I think I speak for Mr. Bloom and myself when I say: you are the only director in the World who can do justice to 'Springtime For Hitler' " - Zero Mostel, The Producers

This is odd.

I just got the email from Antony asking me to get him the transcript.

It was dated 17:58 yesterday.

Darn servers.

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Sheridan: Are you trying to cheer me up?
Ivanova: No sir, wouldn't dream of it.
Sheridan: Good, I hate being cheered up. It's depressing.
Ivanova: So in that case we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths.
Sheridan: Thank you, I feel so much better now.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR> He stated very clearly that he was insulted that anyone would assume he would want his picture next to his name during posts.

It never occured to him that it might just possibly help us identify who is who in this new assembly of stars. As I said, I reserve judgement. But he did come across, to some of us, as a bit pushy for a bit. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Well, it IS his face. He has the right to feel annoyed if people use his photo without asking, even when it is a benign use.

Plus, he said that he especially didn't like That Particular photo.

He's a person. We don't "own" any part of him.
He has just as much right to want a personal life apart from his acting as any one of us does to go home from work and relax.

If saying so makes him "pushy", too bad.



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The 3 most common elements in the Universe:
Hydrogen, Greed, Stupidity!

True, bakana. But I'm frequently reminded when I'm reading on a messageboard that there are nice ways to say things and nasty ways. I know I have been more careful lately with that, myself. I tend to proofread before I post now, to see how the words are going to come off.

And still it's easy to make mistakes.

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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

"I think I speak for Mr. Bloom and myself when I say: you are the only director in the World who can do justice to 'Springtime For Hitler' " - Zero Mostel, The Producers