It’s Sunday. The heat wave is over. (It has been *hot* here in Seattle. We’ve been running our AC so much we got fretful about the noise for the neighbours and so had a sound baffling blanket thing fitted to the compressor. Now it just sounds like one jet on the runway, not two.) Anyway, I find I’ve been talking about boys a lot the last couple of days (especially if you count the penguin), so now it’s time for some mushy, sentimental girl stuff. Here’s some Xena and Gabrielle vidding.
(Thanks, Fran.)
Nicola Griffith 
Hey Nicola!You’ve probably seen this before, but in case you missed it, this is my favorite xena music video — < HREF="http://www.ausxip.com/multimedia/musicvideos/djwp/BITCH_DSL_Cable_Medium.mov" REL="nofollow">Smack my Bitch up by DJWP.<>Cheers!
Bye bye boys…These two have such papable chemistry it is no wonder that the subtext/maintext debate went on, and I guess still does, for years. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
Ok, after watching that, I can see more potential there for liking the show. But am I the only lesbian who doesn’t like that show? I never watched it when it was on, and I finally rented the first DVD back in January at the urging of a friend of mine. I couldn’t sit through it. I tried. I thought the whole thing was, for the most part, poorly acted and produced, and on top of that it seemed that Xena spent a lot more time being interested in some guy or other than in Gabrielle. I didn’t like to see Gabrielle in that position. I hated that I had to look for some subtext that might (or might not) be there. The first three episodes seemed exactly the same. After the first one I fast forwarded through the next two in an effort to see what all the fuss is about. Didn’t get it. I couldn’t overlook the rest of the crap for a few crumbs. Sorry.
jane, I totally hate the title of that vid, so much so that I almost didn’t watch it. And then I almost stopped watching it when the lyrics became clear. < HREF="http://asknicola.blogspot.com/2008/07/origins-and-insults.html" REL="nofollow">The word ‘bitch’ is really ugly<>, as far as I’m concerned.linda, people actually *debated* the subtext??jennifer, yep, you might be the only dyke on the planet who doesn’t love Xena :) The best season is Season Two (but skip the Ulysses ep, pah).
I think the word “bitch” is so common that it has lost all of it’s shock value in our society (at least for my generation). Sorry to disturb you, though!Subtext was entertaining, but the violence has always been the truly attractive part of Xena for me. (I feel the same way about Aud and other series like Buffy). I had always disliked the song “Smack my Bitch Up” until I saw that particular music video. It distills down all the lovely violence in Xena, and redeems the song for me.
Oh, I don’t think it’s a generational thing. I think it’s a matter of care and attention, of understanding the roots and foundations of woman-hatred. It’s about seeing the connections between casual insults, domestic violence, and lack of self-esteem. It’s– But I could rant about this for pages and I really want to get back to my work.I’m with you on (most of) the violence in Xena. I loved the strength and self-determination and ah-fuck-itness. One of my favourite eps was ‘One Against An Army’. If and when I ever write the last Aud book, it will be like that…
Can anyone remind me what happened in the Ulysses episode? I think I completely (and it sounds luckily) missed that one.Do I even want to know?
A Google search will take you where you want to go. If you want to go there.
Brought back loads of memories. Thanks for sharing, Fran and Nicola.