December 2009 Archives   30 December 2009 AUSXIP Interviews America Olivo America Olivo, the star of the movie Bitch Slap, took time out of her busy schedule to talk to AUSXIP reporter Lori Boyles recently. America talks about her role as "Camero", her characters' strength & honesty and how Zoe Bell kept her from seriously hurting Hel (Erin Cummings). America also talks about working with Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor, working with her co-stars and what's in store for this very talented actress. Click here to read Interview & Photo Gallery     27 December 2009 Bon Jovi Sings Hallelujah - AMAZING Bon Jovi singing Hallelujah is an absolutely a fantastic surprise. Not only does he sing this but he gets MEGA kudos for singing the extended version instead of the shorter version. Amazing. Many thanks to Andrea for the link!     27 December 2009 A 2.3 Gigapixel Photo... Over at Gismodo (one of my all time favourite sites - geek heaven) they have this article about a 2.3 Gigapixel photo..not a typo...a 2.3 GIGAPIXEL photo.   Believe it or not, this is the Burj Dubai. The very end of it, the top of its antenna tickling the sky. It’s just a tiny part of this brain-imploding 2.3-gigapixel photo of “>the largest skyscraper in the world. Read More!     26 December 2009 The INCREDIBLE Annie Lennox Singing Hallelujah Annie Lennox is an absolute legend and one of my favourite performers. Her voice is just incredible. Here she is singing Hallelujah...what a fantastic performance! Many thanks to Kim for the link!     24 December 2009 Seasons Greetings To All To those who celebrate Christmas, may your day be filled with all the things you wish for, to be with your families or friends. For those that don't celebrate Christmas, hope you all have a very good day and enjoy the time. For those in the Northern Hemisphere may you all stay warm and toasty and for those in the Southern Hemisphere...well the heat is on and may you all stay cool! Of course this time period leads to alot of parties and fun but please remember not to drink and drive. On behalf of myself and the hard working sidekicks here at AUSXIP, wishing you a very safe, happy holiday season. Cheers, MaryD     21 December 2009 Hallelujah by Richard Istel As many of you know I collect versions of Hallelujah - that glorious song written by Leonard Cohen. It's not an easy song to sing. The latest addition to my collection is a young boy from Germany. His name is Richard Istel and he is around 12 years old. He has an AMAZING voice and he does this song justice. The peformance is from the finale of Germany Got Talent (Super Talent). Many thanks to Swania for sending me the link!     18 December 2009 All Hands On Deck - Message From Lucy! Lucy has sent the following message to be spread far and wide so here it is: Gang, All hands on Deck! I am not as pessimistic as others. Do not lose heart. This Summit will not fail. No matter what, we are part of an irreversible shift in consciousness about our responsibility to Mother Earth. Let's keep the sign-ups happening. Send this out to everyone you know. WE CAN DO THIS!!! Love always and everywhere, lucy L Copenhagen's last-ditch summit to stop catastrophic global warming is failing; only massive public pressure can save it. Sign the giant petition - it may be the largest in history. http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen_now     17 December 2009 AUSXIP YouTube Channel No More The AUSXIP YouTube Channel has passed away...gone forever, never to be seen again. YouTube has decided to terminate the AUSXIP account. So my experiment with YouTube has come to an end. Not pretty. I will be reverting back to making videos available for download on AUSXIP again. I did go to YouTube to stop the theft of the videos from AUSXIP appearing on YouTube. I'll link to the YouTube versions once they appear there which I'm sure they will. Kind of defeats the purpose now doesn't it? LOL! Ah well you need a good laugh every now and then. I will be uploading videos once again starting with the Planet A Concert - that's currently underway and will let everyone know when they can download the videos once again. Battle On! MaryD     15 December 2009 AUSXIP Turns 13!! This time 13 years ago (well yesterday) I sat down to tape a show for a friend. 13 years later...incredible to think that an idea has turned into this whole network of sites. I was going to revert the main ausxip page to it's original design but I've spared you :) What happened on AUSXIP in 2009? January saw me at the 2009 Xena Convention and Lucy's extraordinary Pleasuredome concerts. Incredible energy and it was such a fantastic con and concerts. Meeting up with friends again was one of the highlights! In February the message board Talking Xena was officially brought back into the AUSXIP family to become AUSXIP Talking Xena once again after an 7 year break. The mods and former owner EZ Ryder had made it a great meeting place for people to chat about Xena, Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Connor and the rest of the Xena family. It was with that in mind that I agreed to bring TX back into the fold and have it become AUSXIP's official message board. With Spartacus about to be shown in the US, there is now a Spartacus forum as well. March was the Annual AUSXIP Charity Auction to benefit Starship Children's Hospital and the Renee Outreach Fund. Thank you for once again supporting this! On my recent New Zealand trip I got the chance to meet all the Starship crew and they are just amazing. So supporting them is a no-brainer. The major downer of the year was AUSXIP's hack meltdown. I'm not going to into that other than to say it was an experience I would rather not repeat. In May (and in the middle of the meltdown) we had Cat and Nora's AIDS SF to LA auction. Thank you again for supporting the girls as they worked hard to raise money for this very worthy cause. They made the trek from SF to LA and I'm in awe of them both. I crossed the ditch in September to support Starship and watch Lucy perform on the Starship Swing Supernova - that was ABSOLUTELY brilliant and I had a great time reporting back. Auckland is incredible and had a terrific time. It was my first (and not my last) NZ trip..hard to believe but true. November saw Adrienne Wilkinson's Official charity auction and some new auction software which got it's first run on the site. That was very well supported and thank you to everyone once again! Some more sites were added to the AUSXIP Network including my new Blog- MaryD's Blog This That & Other Stuff and The Daily Cheer in addition to the following sites: AUSXIP Spartacus Blood and Sand AUSXIP Crystal Chappell Website AUSXIP Jessica Leccia Website AUSXIP Andy Whitfield AUSXIP Erin Cummings AUSXIP Otalia AUSXIP Venice AUSXIP also partnered with a fantastic site, MichaelHurstNow.com, to bring you all the latest Michael Hurst and Jennifer Ward-Lealand news. It's been a busy year! What's in store for next year? We have the 2010 Xena Convention which I will be attending. It's Xena's 15th anniversary with Lucy, Renee and a whole bunch of other guests which promises to be fantastic. If you haven't bought tickets yet, hop on over to Creation Entertainment and get them. March will once again see the annual AUSXIP Charity Auction and hopefully it will be a great way to raise some money for Starship and Renee's charity. I'm quite sure lots of things will happen in 2010 that AUSXIP will report on...it's fun. As long as it continues to be fun; AUSXIP will be around. All throughout the year your support via contributions of news, articles, pictures and other multimedia has been fantastic and very much appreciated! Battle On! MaryD     13 December 2009 Donny Osmond and Susan Boyle This is such a great video - Donny Osmond and Susan Boyle. Loved it!     12 December 2009 Susan Boyle's I Dreamed A Dream CD What a sensational voice. Susan Boyle is such a talented singer and I'm spellbound by her voice. Just beautiful. Who can forget her performance on Britain's Got Talent. The youtube clip has been seen 80,773,431! times - Watch it on youtube Her new CD - I Dreamed A Dream is now available. Click here to purchase this on AMAZON.COM   Listen to mp3 samples 1. Wild Horses 2. I Dreamed A Dream 3. Cry Me A River 4. How Great Thou Art 5. You'll See 6. Daydream Believer 7. Up To The Mountain 8. Amazing Grace 9. Who I Was Born To Be 10. Proud 11. The End Of The World 12. Silent Night     12 December 2009 Cage of Death - Swim With A Croc... ADVENTURERS are flocking to experience 15 minutes in a Cage of Death, sharing a large glass tank with a 700kg crocodile at Crocosaurus Cove in downtown Darwin. And a guidebook features a two-page photograph of a toothy-grinned croc under the caption "Pleased to eat you". But fear not! The Cage of Death, holding two swimmers at a time, is designed to give you the thrill of your lifetime, not to end it. It's fabricated from acrylic-strengthened "glass" that reptiles' jaws and claws cannot break - although the cage bears scars where they've tried. The nearly 3m-tall cage is filled about 75 per cent with water, topped by a grid-roofed section containing air, to which the adrenaline-charged swimmers float up to breathe when required. The croc divides his time between snoozing on the tank floor and circling the cage as its occupants wave at him - or at the watching spectators and their cameras, who are attracted by both the drama and the swimmers who often are bikini-clad girls. Read More     10 December 2009 Giant Iceberg Heading For Western Australia A GIANT iceberg -- 140sq km and weighing 20 billion tonnes -- is heading towards Australia. The frozen mass, 19km long and 8km wide, is already far closer to Australia than icebergs normally travel, about 1700km south-southwest of Western Australia. But the man who spotted the iceberg (known as B17B) on satellite images, Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young, said yesterday it was certainly not in a hurry, moving at a fraction of a knot a day. Dr Young said it was still heading north but its eventual destination depended on ocean currents, winds and storms. He believed it was likely to eventually shift eastward and then break up completely. It has already melted from its size of 200sq km six weeks ago to its current 140sq km. In the meantime, Dr Young warned that B17B and smaller bergs breaking off it would pose a hazard to any shipping in the area. Dr Young said the iceberg was not linked to climate change, but was significant, given its size and position. Its position, 48.8 degrees south, is far closer to Australia than typical icebergs sightings north of 56 degrees south. "This is way out of the zone," he said. "It's big and very rare." It is 10 times the size of the iceberg that recently caused a stir when spotted heading towards New Zealand. It has also been a long time coming, having broken from the eastern end of the Ross Ice Shelf almost a decade ago, spending much of the past nine years drifting along the Antarctic coastline. Dr Young said while Tasmanian Aboriginal legends spoke of "white islands" floating by, he did not know of any sightings of icebergs from Australia. Source     8 December 2009 AUSXIP Sidekick Jo At The Planet A Concert Here's a photo of AUSXIP sidekick Jo doing her duty... sitting on her butt waiting for Lucy to show up. What you don't see is Jo's injured right arm which accounted for the shaky cam at the start of the videos. The things I make the sidekicks do; go to work with injured arms and I haven't paid her in chocolate yet; donations are welcome. <g> And for those that haven't figured it out; Jo is the other half of The Fashion Rejects (tm) and as you can see she's is wearing jeans and t-shirt. The tartan blanket she's sitting on doesn't even go with what she's wearing! <g> Hope everyone enjoyed the videos as much as Jo and I enjoyed bringing them to you. Click here to watch the videos Click here to read all about Lucy's role as Sign On Ambassador     5 December 2009 Susan Boyle - I Dreamed A Dream Number 1 on US Charts Wow this really makes me smile. I love it when someone succeeds like this! Good on ya Susan! Susan Boyle dreamed a dream and now she's breaking records on the Billboard album chart. I Dreamed a Dream is debuting at No. 1 with 701,000 copies sold in the U.S., breaking the record for highest single-week sales for an album in 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It also now stands as the best-selling debut album from a female artist since tracking began in 1991. Susan Boyle's Dream tops U.K. album charts The former Britain's Got Talent contestant and YouTube phenomenon's first-week sales stateside come just two days after Boyle broke records across the pond. In her native United Kingdom, the Scottish singer's album sold 410,000 copies to become the best-selling debut album by a singer. The name of the record stems from Boyle's cover of the Les Miserables tune, which first shot her to stardom in the United Kingdom and across the world. Boyle's rise to fame will be documented in her own hourlong special on the TV Guide Network. I Dreamed a Dream: The Susan Boyle Story will feature a sit-down with Boyle herself as well as friends and fans. The special airs Sunday, Dec. 13 at 8/7c. Source     3 December 2009 A Smile A Day - A Happy Story Yesterday I received a very excited email from a friend. She's the sort of friend that you can say anything to; you know the type - unconditional friendship come rain, hail or shine. The type of friend you can be uncensored with. Very rare species. My friend has the ability to see the fun in life; I find myself laughing so much my head hurts and she brings alot of joy. That's not to say she doesn't have her down days; she does, like everyone else in the world but she chooses to see the good and steer to the positive side of life. Love being around people who do that because they brighten your day. She smiles. A lot. You can't help it, you have to smile back. She's had a difficult life growing up but that doesn't stop her from enjoying life and living in the moment. Makes her appreciate life even more. Yesterday she received a very beautiful gift from the New Zealand bus company...free travel for three years! That is just amazing and we're not talking about a small amount of money here...it goes to nearly $4000 worth of travel for three years! How absofrigginlutely cool is that?! Why? The bus driver could nominate any passenger for this free travel and she chose my friend who has a cheery smile every morning; greets the driver, talks up a storm and just makes the person feel good. No amount of money can buy that but the bus driver has given her a very cool gift. That's my mate and The Daily Cheer for the day! So take some time to smile and be friendly; you may not get a bus driver to nomitate you to receive a gift but you will make someone's day and you will feel good about yourself.     1 December 2009 World AIDS Day - 01 December 2009 01 December is World AIDS Day. It's a day to take a moment to remember the MILLIONS who have died from this horrible disease. 25 million people who have died of AIDS since 1981 and there is an estimated 32 to 38 million people living with HIV/AIDS now. Two million of those are children. Events taking place in Sydney (check the papers or online for events taking place in your area): Red Ribbon Appeal - Mon 22 Nov - Tue 1 Dec On Tuesday 1 December, over 250 volunteers will be selling red ribbons ($2) and red wristbands ($4) at over 30 locations all over Sydney as well as selected locations throughout NSW. And in the lead-up to World AIDS Day, Red Ribbon merchandise can be purchased from businesses displaying Red Ribbon boxes or donations can be made via the official Red Ribbon Appeal web site: www.redribbonday.org.au 5 December 2009 The Choir will sing beautiful songs from around the world and there will also be inspiring stories from people living with HIV/AIDS. Light refreshments after the performance. Free event and no bookings necessary. Saturday 5th December at 12 pm Where: Level 1, Stanton Library 234 Miller St. North Sydney Enquiries: 9936 8400 For more information about World AIDS Day go to www.worldaidsdaynsw.org Invitation (PDF 907 KB) Candlelight Tue 1 Dec / Paddington Town Hall / 8pm The annual Candlelight AIDS Memorial is held to remember people who have died from an AIDS-related illness. During the hour-long ceremony, the names of people who have been lost to HIV/AIDS will be read out as participants light a candle to remember their loved ones. Names can be submitted online at www.candlelight.org.au or on (02) 9206 2110.   Click Here For More Australian Events       Read More Archives