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...in continuous publication since October 1994!
Newsletter & mailing list maintained by: Nicole Pellegrini
Email address to unsubscribe from newsletter:
*** [email protected] ***
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DATE: March 28, 1998
ISSUE: 9
VOLUME: 4
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Hey everyone! Sorry there's been such a delay in getting this issue out, but life's been so crazy I really had a put a hold on any list business until the end of this month. So, now it's time to play catch-up...
GENERAL NEWS: A-Team Lending Library Update
FANZINE NEWS: New deadlines, planned release dates, etc. from Sockii Press
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Dirk Benedict interview from Playgirl, 1984.
WEB WATCH
VCR WATCH
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GENERAL NEWS: Our guys have been pretty quiet lately so I don't have much news to report except this...
A-TEAM LENDING LIBRARY UPDATE: I'm making this general announcement to the list b/c it's getting to be too much to respond individually to everyone's questions and concerns. So, in a nutshell:
Yes, we are working on this.
No, I have nothing definite to report on when you may receive your requested 'zines, and yes I understand that's frustrating.
A few weeks back on the reflector I asked that anyone who was waiting for titles to please email me with a) the titles you requested, b) as close as you can recall, the date on which you requested these titles, and c) if your deposit/postage checks were ever cashed. If you didn't do so yet, please do so now. I have been passing along this information to Robin, who is taking over as the new librarian. If necessary, we will reconstruct who's owed exactly what, and who has priority on multiply-requested titles.
Now, messages along the line of, "Well, I just can't remember exactly what I requested so many months ago, I just want my 'zines and my money" aren't gonna be of any help to us, if Denise doesn't provide us with her old records and/or never sends the titles out. This is why, folks, people tell you *every time* you send someone money for *any* goods, KEEP RECORDS FOR YOURSELF. The most we can do if you can't provide this information is hope that you eventually get your deposit/postage money back from Denise, and then you'll have to start over the request process with Robin when things get back underway. I'm sorry, but that's the way things go.
Also, please note that constant emailed queries to me about this situation aren't going to speed things up, either. Believe me, when *I* know something about what's going on, *you'll* know something. I have no idea at this point whether the original collection of copies I made and sent to Denise even *exists* anymore. But I am doing what I can to find out, and either get back the copies or get the money--the money that you all donated into my trust to fund this project--back, so we can start things over again. I can't give a definite time line, when I can't even get Denise to respond to email reliably. Robin has already started making new copies of certain titles and sending them out to people. But this is above and beyond what she's required to do as librarian, so I thank her and the few others whom I know have volunteered to donate new copies.
None of what has happened was remotely expected, nor was I aware fully of the severity of the situation until January. So please bear with us as we try to get the library back in running order.
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FANZINE NEWS: New deadlines, planned release dates, etc. from Sockii Press
Since a few people have been asking me about this lately, here is the current scoop on our upcoming publications, for the rest of the year, as I see it now:
WHATEVER GETS YOU THROUGH THE NIGHT #2 is now CLOSED for submissions. This adult multi-media 'zine will be twice as packed and varied as our first issue last year, and it will be available before MediaWest (late May). Hopefully by early May it will be available to our list subscribers. Of course, you can start sending submissions for Issue #3 anytime :-)
DEADLY MANEUVERS #2: There is still time to submit to this all A-Team title, as currently the deadline is MAY 1, 1998. I would predict right now that this will be available by July. I know a lot of you have been waiting for this one.
PLANS SCAMS AND VANS #6 still has plenty of room available for new submissions, so no deadline yet. I will be aiming for an early fall '98 release on this one.
DWIGHT PAPERS: A few submissions have been trickling in, but we definitely need more! There is no deadline on this one, but I'd like to aim for going to print by December.
...and that's all that's definite for now.
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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Finally, the conclusion of the 1984 Playgirl interview with Dirk Benedict...
Today, the actor describes his dedication to macrobiotics as purely practical: "It's not gibberish, not religious, not mystical, and not magical. It's like fixing a car. It says, look, if this car's running rough, the trouble's in the carburetor and the fuel mixture is too lean. So let's enrich the fuel mixture."
"You might say macrobiotics can't work or everybody would be doing it. But the truth is, it's too simple for most people to accept."
Because of his emphasis on fundamentals, Benedict says he tries to keep his life basic and as free of posessions and attachments as possible. Nevertheless, despite talk of freedom and self-reliance, this vagabond, this dyed-in-the-wool wanderer, is about to marry. the impregnable loner is actually engaged to Toni Hudson, the 23-year old blond actress who appeared in "Cross Creek", and whom he met while visiting a university in northern California. He was talking to students about careers in acting, she was talking about careers in modeling.
Benedict concedes he was not an easy match. The die was cast early in childhood when he'd spend hours of solitude hunting, fishing and walking in the mountains. He preferred seeing movies alone, too, finding that a companion somehow distracted from and diluted the experience. That feeling rolled over into his relationships.
His views were always crystal clear, he says. Unless a relationship added something to your life, why be in it? "People would look at me like I was sick, as if there was something wrong with me because I was free and clear--I didn't have two or three half-assed relationships going along while I was looking for someone. I always kept it very clean. People settle for arrangements because, heaven forbid, they should sit home alone on a Saturday night. Well, that was not part of my mentality.
"I've been a bachelor my whole life, and I'm comfortable being a bachelor. I never missed having a woman around because whenever I wanted a woman around, for the more fundamental needs of mankind, it was possible."
Mind you, he believes fervently in marriage. "It's the ultimate dream, and any man who doesn't accomplish it in his lifetime is a failure, including Warren Beatty.Anybody can be president of a corporation, but to create a family is really the ultimate art form. Paintings, museums, and God forbid, TV shows, are a meaningless legacy--children are the ultimate."
Benedict envisions an arrangement that includes joint bank accounts, total sharing and distinct male-female roles. He doesn't think marriage partners should be like sexual bunkmates leading separate lives. In pre-Toni days, he'd have said that uncomplaining Oriental women came closest to his ideal.
The media contribute to this material, symptomatic facade of sex, says Benedict. "All those glossies of all those beautiful people with their clothes off have nothing to do with anything of valid importance in terms of the human experience. They've got nothing to do with love, nothing to do with longevity.
"In contemporary America, everyone wants to be 'out there.' Everyone wants to be a movie star! Women say, 'There's no fulfillment in having kids and washing dishes and scrubbing floors and cooking. That's boring and mundane. You do it--I'm going out to have lunch with the boss. I'm going out there and I'm going to have all the excitement of the workaday world.' Well, that's bull---t."
Women today pay a high price for their so-called liberated lifestyles, claims Benedict. "Women in their thirties who've had the single life, had their career, got their own car, got their own apartment, they're despairing. They're saying, 'Why can't I meet a man? Why can't I find a man who'll commit?'
"Well, what the hell for? Why do they deserve that kind of commitment? There's no reason for it, they're never going to have it, any more than a man will get it with another man, because there's no difference. It's very unisexual, and the vibrations are very much the same; the polarity has been decreased."
[At this point, your transcriber grinds her teeth more than a bit at certain comments of Mr. Benedict which she will NOT editorialize on in this forum...mumble mumble mumble...]
As for sex, Benedict believes many women have made themselves a bed they don't really want to lie on.
"You have a one-night stand, a one-week stand, they want to talk about your relationship--why you haven't called, what does it mean?
"They've got it all confused! If they want it that way, fine; but don't try to reverse it and say, no, we *mean* something to each other in some emotional or psychological or, heaven forbid, intellectual or spiritual way. It's nonsense! We're animals mating in the dark, and let's not pretend it's something else."
Of course, there is glaring contradiction in his philosophy. Toni has just finished an as yet untitled film with Sally Field. Why hasn't *his* working woman sacrificed her career?
"Well there's no doubt but that she would. But, you see, it's perfect because it allows me to experience the lesson that there are no rules. There are always surprises. She's a very unique kind of person, and now that she's succeeding, I don't want her to stop. She has fulfilled every dream I ever had about a woman. She takes care of me in a way that's never happened to me before, and she never complains."
Perhaps he never let anyone else get close enough? He admits he has been accused of that. He also admits that the very mention of the dreaded words, 'Let's sit down and talk about our relationship,' have been enough to make him ask for the check in a restaurant before the main course arrived. He hates soap-opera style chewing over relationships.
"Toni makes breakfast for me every morning at six o'clock, which means she had to get up at five. And the way I eat was not part of her life before she met me."
Toni didn't ask a million questions about miso and seaweed, but quickly picked up his cooking methods. By her second trip to Montana, she was the one in the kitchen. Benedict also admits she was the one to make adjustments, compromises and changes. Whenever he met a woman he told her the same thing. Toni was no exception.
"I said, 'Look, I'm never getting married and I'm never having kids.' In spite of that, she said, 'That's alright, you just tell me when it's over.' And it worked. All that giving paid off.
"This may sound melodramatic, but I believe men should be willing, in the classical tradition, to lay down their life for that woman, that family, that commitment."
Old-fashioned romantic or rip-roaring chauvinist? Well, that's a matter of opinion. But how has this notoriously roving eye taken to staying focused on one-woman? At the beginning of the year, he had said: "I've never been married for reasons similar to why I don't like doing a TV series. A film is like a one-night stand, and a TV series is like a marriage---it goes on and on and on."
Well, we know about the TV series. Doesn't marriage compromise a man w hose idea of a long patch of monogamy used to be a couple of days, or maybe a couple of weeks? Giving up the women and the sex is not, Benedict answers, much of a compromise.
"I don't meet many women who would really be attractive to me sexually, even in terms of being curious about the experience. I find most women in Los Angeles, and in cities, rather garish--all that makeup, the designer costumes, the attitudes. They're like female impersonators. You want to scrape away and try to find what's underneath.
"They get themselves all painted up, and it's like a circus or like they're streetwalkers. It's all so blatant, so contrived, so planned.
"Sheer physicality. Fast-food sex. When you're hungry, eat. When you're horny, screw. Without any concern for all the infinite number of other elements that are involved."
Opinionated? Yes. Controversial? Certainly. Uncompromising and irritating, but also honest and disciplined. The contradictory adjectives are all accurate. Benedict eludes neat stereotyping. He is the perfect face who feels inner spirit is more important, a series star at odds with the medium of TV, a confirmed bachelor on the threshold of marriage. Is the actor reshaping his values to fit the hands life deals him? Probably not. More likely it's the lesson of the kamikaze cowboy--the lesson, as Benedict says, that there are no rules.
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WEB WATCH:
Here are a few new A-Team related web sites you might wish to check out...
T.E.M.P Agency
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/3466/
is the place for Templeton Peck fans to hang out. You'll find files on the Agency members, and of course plenty of Face-related goodies.
Mr. T--The Man, The Hero, The Legend
http://students.cs.byu.edu/~vandrem
is a snazzy-looking tribute to, obviously, Mr.T, with bio info, pictures, links, and more.
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VCR WATCH:
DIRK BENEDICT
Alaska
Sunday, March 29, 1998 - 10:35 AM - TMC
Friday, April 3, 1998 - 11:30 PM - SHOW2
Friday, April 3, 1998 - 1:30 PM - SHOW2
MOVIE: Drama (115 Minutes)
(1996) Children find an orphaned polar-bear cub while seeking their father, whose plane crashed in the wilderness. {CC,Stereo}. Thora Birch, Vincent Kartheiser, Dirk Benedict, Charlton Heston, Gordon Tootoosis. Directed by Fraser C. Heston. Rated "PG". Adult Language, Adult Situations.
3/30/98, 16:00 (SCIFI - GEN)
Battlestar Galactica () - no description available
3/31/98, 16:00 (SCIFI - GEN)
Battlestar Galactica () - no description available
4/2/98, 16:00 (SCIFI - GEN)
Battlestar Galactica (Murder on the Rising Star) - Apollo uncovers a blackmail plot and finds his own life in danger when he tries to clear Starbuck of a murder charge.
4/6/98, 16:00 (SCIFI - GEN)
Battlestar Galactica (Greetings From Earth) - Apollo and Starbuck intercept a primitive ship and discover its inhabitants, in suspended animation, are a direct link to Earth.
4/7/98, 16:00 (SCIFI - GEN)
Battlestar Galactica (Greetings From Earth) - Having intercepted a spaceship containing six lunar-based Earthlings, Adama learns that the atmosphere of the Galactica may be fatal to them.
4/8/98, 16:00 (SCIFI - GEN)
Battlestar Galactica (Baltar's Escape) - Baltar leads a deadly prison revolt aboard the Galactica.
4/9/98, 16:00 (SCIFI - GEN)
Battlestar Galactica (Experiment in Terra) - Two American astronauts discover Galactica's log book floating in space; the space voyagers believe they have found Earth, but Apollo discovers that the planet will be exterminated.
4/13/98, 16:00 (SCIFI - GEN)
Battlestar Galactica (Take the Celestra) - Starbuck and Apollo get involved in a struggle for control of a battlestar ruled by a tough and unyielding commander.
4/14/98, 16:00 (SCIFI - GEN)
Battlestar Galactica (The Hand of God) - Rather than continue fleeing from their enemies, the crew of the battlestar commences an all-out attack on a Cylon base.
MELINDA CULEA
Brotherly Love, M-F 18:30 (DISN - GEN)
GEORGE PEPPARD
3/31/98, 9:30 (A&E - GEN)
3/31/98, 15:30 (A&E - GEN)
Banacek (Project Phoenix) - Banacek is called in after a Boston-bound railroad car carrying an automobile prototype takes another route and disappears.
4/7/98, 9:30 (A&E - GEN)
4/7/98, 15:30 (A&E - GEN)
Banacek (No Sign of the Cross) - Banacek is headed for a complicated investigation after the priceless Cross of Bayonne falls into the hands of thieves.
4/14/98, 9:30 (A&E - GEN)
4/14/98, 15:30 (A&E - GEN)
Banacek (A Million the Hard Way) - Banacek heads to Las Vegas to investigate the theft of $1 million from a casino.
4/21/98, 9:30 (A&E - GEN)
4/21/98, 15:30 (A&E - GEN)
Banacek (To Steal a King) - A coin collection is stolen prior to an auction, and its owner stands to lose millions. Guest stars: Pernell Roberts, Brenda Vaccaro.
4/28/98, 9:30 (A&E - GEN)
4/28/98, 15:30 (A&E - GEN)
Banacek ($10,000 a Page) - After a tycoon's (David Wayne) priceless book vanishes, Banacek moves in to crack the case.
DWIGHT SCHULTZ
Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder
Sunday, March 29, 1998 - 1:00 PM - WGNN
MOVIE: Mystery (120 Minutes)
(1989) Lawyer Mason hires an ex-client to help defend a stage manager accused of killing a director. {Stereo}. Raymond Burr, Debbie Reynolds, Jerry Orbach, Dwight Schultz, Barbara Hale, William R. Moses. Directed by Christian I. Nyby II.
ROBERT VAUGHN
4/28/98, 4:00 (TNT - GEN)
Man From U.N.C.L.E. (The Ultimate Computer Affair) - Solo and Illya (Robert Vaughn, David McCallum) head for Latin America to destroy the computer that controls all of THRUSH's activities. Guest stars: Charlie Ruggles, Judy Carne.
Dancing in the Dark
Thursday, April 2, 1998 - 2:00 PM - LIFE
MOVIE: Drama (120 Minutes)
(1995) A dance instructor battling depression is institutionalized after accusing her lawyer father-in-law of sexual assault. {CC}. Victoria Principal, Robert Vaughn, Nicholas Campbell, Dawn Greenhalgh, Geraint Wyn Davies, Kenneth Welsh. Directed by Bill Corcoran.
3/30/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team () - no description available
3/31/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team () - no description available
4/1/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (West Coast Turnarounds) - The A-Team rescues a farmer from bankruptcy.
4/2/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (One More Time) - Guerrilla terrorists capture an Army general and his daughter.
4/3/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Till Death Do Us Part) - A Texas heiress hires the team to keep her from marrying a man she believes murdered her father.
4/4/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (The Beast From the Belly of a Boeing) - The A-Team sneaks aboard a jet to nab hijackers.
4/5/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (A Nice Place to Visit) - While attending a friend's funeral, the A-Team encounters a crazed mountain clan.
4/6/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Diamonds `N' Dust) - A mysterious woman hires the A-Team to keep shady business associates from claiming her father's diamond mine.
4/7/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Recipe for Heavy Bread) - The A-Team members try to save the life of a man who helped them escape from a Vietnam prisoner-of-war camp.
4/8/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (The Only Church in Town) - The team protects a South American orphanage from a group of wild fugitives.
4/9/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Bad Time on the Border) - A lost Mexican girl leads B.A. to a smuggling ring responsible for illegally transporting aliens across the border.
4/10/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (The Taxicab Wars) - The team helps a cab company that's being terrorized by rivals.
4/11/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (When You Comin' Back, Range Ryder?) - The team helps smash a mustang-rustling operation on an Arizona Indian reservation.
4/12/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (When You Comin' Back, Range Ryder?) - The A-Team continues to harass the rustlers while evading capture by Col. Decker and his minions.
4/13/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Labor Pains) - Overworked and underpaid farm workers form a union with the A-Team's help.
4/14/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (There's Always a Catch) - An extortionist threatens a fisherman's livelihood.
4/15/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Water, Water Everywhere) - A greedy developer threatens to drive four people off their land.
4/16/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Steel) - A dangerous mob figure takes steps to prevent the demolition of an old warehouse.
4/17/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (The White Ballot) - Face becomes a candidate for sheriff to expose a small-town law officer's shady dealings.
4/18/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (The Maltese Cow) - A powerful Chinese group ruins a restaurateur's business when he refuses to pay protection money.
4/19/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (In Plane Sight) - The team sets out to clear the name of an alleged cocaine smuggler.
4/20/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (The Battle of Bel Air) - An undercover reporter discovers some devilish goings-on at a security firm.
4/21/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Say It With Bullets) - A woman hires the team to investigate the murder of her brother, who was part of a munitions theft operation.
4/22/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Pure-Dee Poison) - The team helps a minister break up a moonshine operation.
4/23/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (It's a Desert Out There) - An outlaw desert group robs a busload of elderly people.
4/24/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Chopping Spree) - The team attempts to nab a car-theft ring.
4/25/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Harder Than It Looks) - A wealthy man hires the A-Team to free his kidnapped daughter.
4/26/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Deadly Maneuvers) - Terrorists capture Murdock, Face and B.A.
4/27/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Semi-Friendly Persuasion) - Members of a peaceful group ask the A-Team for help after ruffians harass them.
4/28/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Curtain Call) - While helping a wounded Murdock, the A-Team members are pursued by Lt. Decker and his men.
4/29/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Bullets and Bikinis) - The team flies to Miami to wage war against gangsters threatening to take over a resort hotel owned by two sisters.
4/30/98, 17:00 (FX - GEN)
A-Team (Fire) - The team tries to protect a fire chief from harassment.
nicole ()
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"The main motive for going beyond the rim...there's a
heck of a big Taco Bell out there...." jms
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Proud member of the Narn Bat Squad <Whack!> and the C.o.M. | | |
