Just let me lie here on the tile

Over at Dogged Blog, the first con report I've seen about Michael Hurst and his wife Jennifer Lealand at the Xena con in Burbank last weekend. (This was a Creation Con, i.e. 'pay $70 to have your picture taken with Renee O'Connor'. Gleep.)

This is a great, nicely detailed con report (the rest of the report starts here and she also has an entry about Xena in concert) and this bit cracked me up:

Asked about the origin of "Frock Day," which is a NZ theater tradition rooted, he says, in boredom. The women get all dolled up and the men wear dresses and makeup, just in the morning. At lunch you change, and no one talks about it, other than to say "nice frock."

And Hurst says he'll appear as the Widow Twanky next year, as long as she gets an invitation. Hee.

ETA: Here's another con report with pictures from katbaggins, including details about the cabaret in which Michael and Jennifer appeared. Also check out her gorgeous pic-taken-with-Hurst and her hand-knitted I ♥ Twanky pin, people. Woo!

ETA2: A short con report with pictures from keltcrogue, with a nice pic of Michael and Jennifer at their Q&A.

ETA3: A whole slew of convention pics on Ausxip, with lots of Michael and Jennifer.

If you see more con reports and/or pictures, please link me!

I do so love Michael Hurst and his improbable celebrity star turns - over here, he's only known (if at all) as the blond who played Iolaus in Hercules, over in New Zealand he's the kind of celebrity actor/director who is asked to host television shows, open festivals and present things like hairdressing award galas.

What does one wear to a hairdressing award gala, besides pretty hair?

If you're Michael Hurst, the answer is red velvet and thigh-high red platform boots. Or plasterer's stilts. I love this picture most of all - the pose, the pleased look on his face. Heeee.

In other HtLJ related news, masteralida, writing as Sierra, has put her Hercules stories back on the web.

In non-related news, I picked up Mary Renault's The Charioteer and am reading it for the first time. I've read all her Greek novels, but not the modern ones, and so far it's fascinating and a little sad. Someone please tell me, does this one have a happy ending? Illogically, I don't want to go hunt spoilers or look at the back of the book, but I still want to know.

ETA: Dorinda nobly told me just as much as I wanted to know (i.e., she didn't tell me who ends up with whom. Hee). Yay!

From Corfu, that is. Lovely, hot, lazy and occasionally adventurous, quite apart from the bit where I discovered what happens when you go down a very steep hill on a mountainbike and you squeeze the hand brakes too hard.

I doubt I'll be able to read back to wherever I was on my friendslist two weeks ago, though I'll check up a bit, but if there is anything you think I might like to know about, please do comment. In the meantime, I'll be over at hxyh_challenge, indulging in the challenge responses posted.

While I'm clearing out my inbox, here's a link to an article in the New Zealand Herald about The Duchess of Malfi, in which Michael Hurst plays Bosola - there's a picture of him in character.

I am not feeling very organized, or indeed sentient, and am also very behind on self-imposed Things I Should Be Doing, like rec posts for herc_iolaus, writing and vidding and ugh, cleaning house, so instead I'll throw up some random thoughts on the Hercules season 5 DVDs. Screencaps to follow, I think. Anything that doesn't require a brain seems like a worthwhile undertaking right now. Hmm. Icons? *g*

- I found a small Easter Egg on the first of the season 5 discs (any version, not necessarily Best Buy). Put the disc in, wait til the main menu comes up, then go through the navigation options until nothing is selected. There are links to three episodes, a Gallery, a Weblink and a mysterious dot that turns out to link to the credits - you want none of these highlighted. When you have succesfully selected nothing at all, press enter, or play, or whatever button seems appropriate, and you'll get an outtake followed by some dailies with and without blue screen effects. As far as I know, there are no Easter Eggs on any of the other season sets, but I've not searched for them exhaustively. If you know of any, tell me!

- On the Stranger and Stranger commentary, Paul Robert Coyle talks about what they originally had planned for this episode. It's true, some of the shots make a lot more sense when you know they were intended to be 3-D. You also have to wonder what Tapert was smoking, but never mind. And then there's the whole Pregnant!Sovereign thing I talked about earlier. Eeek. I was fascinated to learn that there was talk of setting part of this episode in the parallel Underworld, and that AU!Strife had the role of Hades there as King of the Underworld (what with being dead and everything, he seemed suitable, as Coyle says). I would have loved to see that.

- On the CD-Rom included with the set, the only interesting bit I could find are the production notes and call sheets for several episodes in .pdf format, under 'Extras'. Unfortunately, they've created some kind of shell for these which makes them extremely difficult to navigate. But if you just look at the contents of the CD-Rom in your file browser, you'll find the complete .pdf file in the folder media>scripts, called script01.pdf. It doesn't contain any scripts, though, just notes, but some of those are fascinating:

"IOLAUS 2 - Michael Hurst and Bruce request discussion and clarification of the Iolaus 2 character ie. he will now be Hercules' new sidekick for episodes to come. What is he like? What bonds them other than the fact that he looks like dead Iolaus? Should he be less whining, complaining, bumbling?"

- I still foolishly want the Best Buy extra for this season, even though I know it'll be lame. My trade offer is still open.

- I didn't notice this before, but in Greece Is Burning, Michael Hurst plays another role beside the Widow Twanky. He's only on screen for half a minute, but it's unquestionably him - even though he's listed in the credits as 'Billy Wagstaff'. (Sounds like a pun on Shakespeare to me. *eg*) Also, while Hercules is building up the stage for Twanky's show, he lifts a block of stone with a bas-relief depicting a blonde, blue-eyed man in a purple vest with a manaia in his hands...

I would so go have dinner with Michael Hurst. And it's for a good cause, too. I mean, an even better one.

In completely unrelated and infuriating news, Verizon has been blocking all email from Europe since December. Their rationale? It might be spam. Like about 98% of the mail I get from the US isn't spam? Graaaaargh. Morons. (Thanks to therienne for the heads-up; now I know why some of my mail has been coming back to me...)

Michael Hurst is writing and directing another panto, over in Auckland - and he's playing the Dame, of course.

From the team that brought you AK03’s wildly successful children’s theatre production, Aladdin, comes Michael Hurst’s latest creation, Jack and The Beanstalk. Hailed by the Prime Minister and the entire cabinet as a much awaited literary masterpiece, Jack and The Beanstalk will thrill you with its thrills, stun you with the things that stun people and amaze you with amazing things that go ping! (...) Will feature the much anticipated return of that erstwhile darling of the stage door johnnies The Widow Twankey in the role of Jack’s mum, Mrs. Sidebottom.

I love how this time, Mrs. Edith Sidebottom is the character name and The Widow Twankey is the actress. Also, 'amazing things that go ping!' and 'darling of the stage door johnnies' makes me grin. I wonder who wrote the blurb...

Ages and ages ago, I promised barbaraa to make some screencaps of Michael Hurst and Kevin Sorbo from the interviews on the Hercules: the Legendary Journeys fourth season DVD set. I intended to make two or three, but I never know when to stop when making screencaps, so there are fourteen. *g*

The guys seem a bit uncomfortable, stuck there behind that little table, and Kevin Sorbo never really stops looking tired, but in the last few caps Michael Hurst is acting out what it was like to both act in and direct One Fowl Day while wearing big teeth, big flappy shoes, sacks and a whole lot of mud, not to mention being shackled to Autolycus. The whole bit makes me laugh much more than that terrible episode ever did, and you can see Kevin Sorbo cracking up too.

I'm not linking to them from my site, BTW, so grab 'em from here if you want them. (I just feel weird and uncomfortable about putting up screencaps of the actors on a site devoted to the fictional characters they're portraying.)

( 14 large Hurst & Sorbo screencaps ahead )