Vidukon Premiere: Starkville (Xena)

[frayadjacent]

Title: Starkville
Song: "Starkville" by the Indigo Girls
Source: Xena: Warrior Princess
Characters: Gabrielle, Xena (Gabrielle character study)
Content notes: Bright flashes. Institutional and relationship violence (as depicted on the show). Spoilers throughout the series.
Summary: "I chose the way of friendship"
Captions are available on the youtube and vimeo streams. They are also included in the downloadable zip file. If you don't want captions, just delete the .srt file.

As always, please feel free to contact me if you want more specific information about warnings/content notes.

Remastered for 720p (ish -- it's still 4:3) in 2020. 

Download | Vimeo | Youtube

 

Watch on YouTube

If you were here in Starkville
the townie boys would love the way you stare
If you were here in Starkville, the local girls
they wouldn't have a prayer
I spent a reckless night inside the wonder
of your everlasting charm
now I'm haunted by geography
and the flora and the fauna of your heart

At the dawning of some road worn day
I called you on a whim just to say-
The morning birds are singing
but I could not do them justice
so I hung up and fell back to sleep

I'm in love with my mobility
but sometimes this life can be a drag
like when I noticed your nobility
and how my leaving only held you back
I remember one occasion when you were drinking
and you asked me to the coast
but I was hell bent on agony back then
so I missed the boat

At the dawning of some road worn day
I called you a whim just to say
My regrets become distractions
but I can not do them justice
then I hung up and fell back to sleep

When I was down in Starkville
I was hiding out inside some Comfort Inn
from a local gang of troubadors
when the homecoming queen -she come riding in
I slipped out of my room into the rain
and I went running for my health
I watched the headlights turn to moonlight and finally
 I was running by myself

Now it's the dawning of some road worn day
I call you a whim just to say
The morning birds are singing

Comments

[beccatoria]

Dude, this vid is just so fantastic. I think it might actually have been my favourite premiere. I adore lyricism in vids and you use the complicated depth provided so well. One of the most striking moments is Xena's "charm" and your perfect capture of her violent joyful ease. You understand then, it's not the violence that attracts Gabrielle, it's that devilish grin, that freedom. The way the water imagery becomes more forceful and violent, with bloody hands and violent waterfall-fallen impacts and Xena islanded in chains in a lake. Water is powerful and deep, and capable of both defeating fire and causing far more devastation and employing more force. But it's also more thoughtful, more changeable; less simple joy and quick decisions. It's a more complex element capable of many states.

I love how it frames this as Gabrielle's choice. The flames over her at the end, what she's chosen to embrace, but still so much more complicated than either a simple tragedy or an improvement.

It really is an extraordinarily well-constructed vid. And it may just be my perception, but I feel that lyrically dense vids are getting rarer, and I love them so, and this one is so good.

Thank you so much for making it.

[frayadjacent]

Thank you so much for this comment!

it's not the violence that attracts Gabrielle, it's that devilish grin, that freedom.

YES. Ugh Gabrielle, I love her arc so much.

I love your reading of the water stuff. I had been thinking of it mainly along the lines of representing peaceful stillness and life-giving/affirming at first, but then bringing its own chaos and violence. But your addition that "it's also more thoughtful, more changeable; less simple joy and quick decisions. It's a more complex element capable of many states" is incredibly apt for Gabrielle, especially circa S5 & S6 (after she abandons pacifism and chooses life with Xena and all it entails).