New releases

By Stephanie Schorow, Globe Correspondent  |  August 4, 2008

A guilty pleasure, filled with fantasy, fighting, cheesy plots and lots of gleaming, taut flesh - from the hunky Beast Master himself, Dar (Daniel Goddard), his companions, and his enemies. The 1999-2002 series was cut from the sword-and-sorcery cloth that spawned Xena and Hercules, but the show never quite picked up the same cult following. Still, Dar, who talked to animals and defended the innocent, could have been both a PETA- and ACLU-approved hero.

Family: Nim's Island
Drama: The Executioner's Song, director's cut
Drama: The Counterfeiters
Documentary: Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
TV: Get Smart, season 1
Classic TV: Star Trek, original series, season 2, remastered
TV: Foyle's War, set 5
TV: Hotel Babylon, season 2
Classic TV: Route 66, season 1
TV: Life in Cold Blood
TV: Code Monkeys, season 1

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Legacy Edition, with DVD (Sony Legacy)
The divine voice of Sarah McLachlan never sounded so ethereal as on the creepy and beautiful "Possession," a song of stalking from her 1994 breakthrough album "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy." Now re-released in a two-disc and companion DVD package, "Fumbling" reminds us of the pure power of a great voice and haunting lyrics. McLachlan went on to found Lilith Fair and release best-selling albums like "Surfacing" and "Afterglow," but "Fumbling" has a raw energy that will probably never be duplicated.

Pop: Randy Newman / Harps and Angels (Nonesuch)
Pop: Conor Oberst / Conor Oberst (Merge)
Country: Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra / Let the Whole World Sing (Rounder)
Noise: Greg Kelley / Self-Hate Index (Semata Productions)
Hip-hop: Nappy Roots / The Humdinger (Nappy Roots Entertainment)
Country: Heidi Newfield / What Am I Waiting For (Curb)
Alt Country: Carrie Rodriguez / She Ain't Me (Manhattan)
Folk: Rosalie Sorrels / Strangers in Another Country (Red House)
Metal: Trapt / Only Through the Pain (Eleven Seven)

Nintendo DS (Ubi Soft)
Not every gaming application is for slash and burn action. Increasingly, new "games" are emerging - particularly for the Wii - that exercise more than the thumb. Yoga instruction via Nintendo DS may not take the place of a yoga class, but "Quick Yoga Training" offers more than 180 poses that you can adapt to your own level, and promises hands-free practice with voice navigation and recognition features.

Joan Wickersham (Harcourt)
Every death leaves a void, but none more so than the suicide of a loved one. In 1991, Joan Wickersham's father awoke, dressed for work, got the newspaper, made coffee for his wife, and shot himself in the heart. Wickersham's tender, funny, occasionally sardonic, and ultimately gut-wrenching memoir is more a story of family life than a somber assessment of self-murder. The Cambridge-based Wickersham appears Thursday at 7 p.m. at Porter Square Books.

By Stephanie Schorow; sschorow@comcast.net