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song snippets
2021-02-18 14:26"For the rover, has landed! Tell your children when!
Probes will drive through Martian dust again."
This I believe:
Like cereal and sugar, a song should not be more chorus than verse.
"The lyric structure was a sickening sight,
How I wish this song had ended, now-ow!"
The song goes on and on and on, always to the same tune,
I swear it's far more constant yet than the turning of the moon.
How many stanzas can she write to inflict upon our ear?
How many times can she find rhymes until we're out of here?
I won't continue my own song to torture you yet more,
I just wish that Leslie Fish would learn to stop at four.
alt:
I won't continue my own song until my voice is hoarse,
I just wish that Leslie Fish would get her own damn horse.
Probes will drive through Martian dust again."
This I believe:
Like cereal and sugar, a song should not be more chorus than verse.
"The lyric structure was a sickening sight,
How I wish this song had ended, now-ow!"
The song goes on and on and on, always to the same tune,
I swear it's far more constant yet than the turning of the moon.
How many stanzas can she write to inflict upon our ear?
How many times can she find rhymes until we're out of here?
I won't continue my own song to torture you yet more,
I just wish that Leslie Fish would learn to stop at four.
alt:
I won't continue my own song until my voice is hoarse,
I just wish that Leslie Fish would get her own damn horse.
virtual filk
2020-04-18 16:33Virus has led to a golden age of online filk circles! I attended Massfilc for the first time in over a year, then a bigger circle hosted by someone in Toronto, and then there's some concert streaming on Youtube now...
I wonder if Asimov's Solarians presage the future. I'm missing a plantation of robots to provide food, though.
I wonder if Asimov's Solarians presage the future. I'm missing a plantation of robots to provide food, though.
When I lived in Boston I generally went to Massfilc events when transit accessible, and likewise Kate's housefilks while they happened. But since I accidentally left Massachusetts, it's been over a year since I did any group singing, or much singing at all. So the online filk con this weekend was pretty good. I sang a couple times tonight; would have done more, but my home Internet kept dropping, and my phone Internet was too shitty for my audio to get out.
https://filk.dreamwidth.org/56897.html
(Also open filk right now but I dunno for how long.)
(Also open filk right now but I dunno for how long.)
Coder Moon
2015-01-30 01:26Is this my first complete filk? It might be!
TTTO: the Sailor Moon English dub opening song. (Lyrics)
Fighting bugs by moonlight
Sleeping in by daylight
Always there on release night
She is the one called Coder Moon
She'll always pair program with friends
She's following Google Trends
She's the one we call to type make depends
She's the one called Coder
Coder Fortran!
Coder Haskell!
Coder Ruby!
Coder C!
With secret APIs
All so new to her
She is the one called Coder Moon
Fighting bugs by moonlight
Sleeping in by daylight
With her Lovelace Scouts to help fight
She is the one called Coder Moon
She is the one called Coder Moon
***
I'm not happy with the Google Trends line, but haven't thought of better yet.
TTTO: the Sailor Moon English dub opening song. (Lyrics)
Fighting bugs by moonlight
Sleeping in by daylight
Always there on release night
She is the one called Coder Moon
She'll always pair program with friends
She's following Google Trends
She's the one we call to type make depends
She's the one called Coder
Coder Fortran!
Coder Haskell!
Coder Ruby!
Coder C!
With secret APIs
All so new to her
She is the one called Coder Moon
Fighting bugs by moonlight
Sleeping in by daylight
With her Lovelace Scouts to help fight
She is the one called Coder Moon
She is the one called Coder Moon
***
I'm not happy with the Google Trends line, but haven't thought of better yet.
Concertino
2012-07-09 12:48The previous weekend -- June 29th -- I went to Concertino, a filk convention held in Boxborough this year, off the South Acton commuter rail stop. Rather off: supposedly 5 or 6 miles, but the cab charged me and someone else $15 each, and I don't know if that was a split of $30 or just charging both of us.
What happens at a filk con? Concerts, mostly, from 1 hour ones for the top guest of honor, to 20-30 minutes for people arranged in advance, to 5-10 minute slots one can sign up for at the con. I could have gotten one of those, had I more trust in my a capella singing. There's also intermittent panels, on musical exercises and songwriting and on fannish music that isn't filk; that last is the only one I went to, and not for the whole time, but I learned dementia exists, and got a big list of names, including but not limited to Weird Al and Jonathan Coulton and Luke Ski.
One thing was clear: when filk gets defined as the folk music of SF fandom, we don't mean just geeky songs set to folk tunes, but a living folk tradition of musical participation and exchange, where the core experience is not "I bought their album" or "I went to their concert" but "I sang their song." Or "I parodied their song." And core experience is also of a circle of filkers singing at each other in turn, even if not always very well, rather than the dominant producer and mass consumer model.
That said, I didn't do much individual singing. Thing about a filk con is that everyone else is a filker too, so in the large bardic circle Saturday night it took two hours for the turn to go around once and a half times, before I went to bed. I got one in there, a song or two in Sunday's dead dog filk (after the con's officially over) and that's about it.
But! After Friday's chaos filk, where I was one of a few people who hadn't put ourselves forward to sing, a woman said "I didn't get to hear you sing". Non-participation got noticed and invited to participate. Probably helped that I was sitting between one of the best singers and one of the most prolific, rather than hiding in the second row of seats.
The dealer room had more filk CDs than I'd ever thought about existing laid out for sale, and rationally they'd only be a fraction of what's out there. That was intimidating; even this tiny tiny niche subculture has produced more stuff than I'm likely to ever own or even hear.
Con hotel was the Holiday Inn, which had what I thought was a really neat garden court. Third story skylight roof, containing not just a swimming pool but lots of trees and some fountains and a couple of gazebos. One of those "indoor outdoors" things that I love. Especially in last weekend's heat wave. Location sucks though; beyond the distance from the train station (there's a hotel shuttle, but it was already booked for the time I wanted to come; did take it outbound), there's about nothing in walking distance. The hotel restaurant is ok, with slightly crappy service; there's a take-out pizza and sub place a mile away, and then one gets into multi-mile distances.
Hmm, Arisia and Boskone aren't in top locations either. (Lot easier for me to get to, though.) Westin Waterfront Hotel is a decent hotel in its own right, but it's got somewhat expensive restaurants scattered around, and the South Station food court 20 minutes away. Not like Anime Boston, in the Hynes right in the middle of Back Bay. Of course, you pay more for locations like that.
What happens at a filk con? Concerts, mostly, from 1 hour ones for the top guest of honor, to 20-30 minutes for people arranged in advance, to 5-10 minute slots one can sign up for at the con. I could have gotten one of those, had I more trust in my a capella singing. There's also intermittent panels, on musical exercises and songwriting and on fannish music that isn't filk; that last is the only one I went to, and not for the whole time, but I learned dementia exists, and got a big list of names, including but not limited to Weird Al and Jonathan Coulton and Luke Ski.
One thing was clear: when filk gets defined as the folk music of SF fandom, we don't mean just geeky songs set to folk tunes, but a living folk tradition of musical participation and exchange, where the core experience is not "I bought their album" or "I went to their concert" but "I sang their song." Or "I parodied their song." And core experience is also of a circle of filkers singing at each other in turn, even if not always very well, rather than the dominant producer and mass consumer model.
That said, I didn't do much individual singing. Thing about a filk con is that everyone else is a filker too, so in the large bardic circle Saturday night it took two hours for the turn to go around once and a half times, before I went to bed. I got one in there, a song or two in Sunday's dead dog filk (after the con's officially over) and that's about it.
But! After Friday's chaos filk, where I was one of a few people who hadn't put ourselves forward to sing, a woman said "I didn't get to hear you sing". Non-participation got noticed and invited to participate. Probably helped that I was sitting between one of the best singers and one of the most prolific, rather than hiding in the second row of seats.
The dealer room had more filk CDs than I'd ever thought about existing laid out for sale, and rationally they'd only be a fraction of what's out there. That was intimidating; even this tiny tiny niche subculture has produced more stuff than I'm likely to ever own or even hear.
Con hotel was the Holiday Inn, which had what I thought was a really neat garden court. Third story skylight roof, containing not just a swimming pool but lots of trees and some fountains and a couple of gazebos. One of those "indoor outdoors" things that I love. Especially in last weekend's heat wave. Location sucks though; beyond the distance from the train station (there's a hotel shuttle, but it was already booked for the time I wanted to come; did take it outbound), there's about nothing in walking distance. The hotel restaurant is ok, with slightly crappy service; there's a take-out pizza and sub place a mile away, and then one gets into multi-mile distances.
Hmm, Arisia and Boskone aren't in top locations either. (Lot easier for me to get to, though.) Westin Waterfront Hotel is a decent hotel in its own right, but it's got somewhat expensive restaurants scattered around, and the South Station food court 20 minutes away. Not like Anime Boston, in the Hynes right in the middle of Back Bay. Of course, you pay more for locations like that.
Well, not new by me, and two actually college-old in my life. But singing them at song circle, or at all, was new! "The Werewolf's Lament" from memory, "Dragons in the Deep" and "Merlin" from text. Merlin was the hardest tune of the bunch, but I think I did okay. Every third line wants to go off somewhere crazy, and I varied whether I let it go up or down, partly for semantic variety and partly because down was easier.
Someone else sang a version of Galadriel's Lament, from the MSU Tolkien Fellowship Songbook, so I did my version yet again for tune contrast.
I realized on the way home I'd completely forgotten I could do "Caretakers", from memory even! I'd been looking at I.R.A.Q. before Galadriel became mor salient. Oh well, something new for next time and Kate, and hopefully I can master some of the harder old/new songs off Snow Magic and Time Winds Tavern as well.
Unrelatedly, I realized the off-peak commuter rail only lets you board or exit at one door. There were a bunch of us bunched up at Porter; this seemed to defeat part of the efficiency advantage of a train, i.e. parallel boarding. The conductor said "what, you want someone to jump the train?"
I sponsored someone for a charity walk thingy. First time I've done that, vs. giving directly. Well, I gave her money for the charity, rather than sponsoring X miles, so I guess I still haven't. Not like I care a whit whether she actually walks 20 miles for hunger. But it was fun to expose her to Nobody's Moggy Lands and watch someone else's mind gets blown. And I don't think she even had the full background.
Someone else sang a version of Galadriel's Lament, from the MSU Tolkien Fellowship Songbook, so I did my version yet again for tune contrast.
I realized on the way home I'd completely forgotten I could do "Caretakers", from memory even! I'd been looking at I.R.A.Q. before Galadriel became mor salient. Oh well, something new for next time and Kate, and hopefully I can master some of the harder old/new songs off Snow Magic and Time Winds Tavern as well.
Unrelatedly, I realized the off-peak commuter rail only lets you board or exit at one door. There were a bunch of us bunched up at Porter; this seemed to defeat part of the efficiency advantage of a train, i.e. parallel boarding. The conductor said "what, you want someone to jump the train?"
I sponsored someone for a charity walk thingy. First time I've done that, vs. giving directly. Well, I gave her money for the charity, rather than sponsoring X miles, so I guess I still haven't. Not like I care a whit whether she actually walks 20 miles for hunger. But it was fun to expose her to Nobody's Moggy Lands and watch someone else's mind gets blown. And I don't think she even had the full background.
I was surprised
2012-04-17 01:17Wondering about the existence of Hitler/Anne Frank real person fic was too dark or offensive for gamers who used to bond via dead baby jokes.
For the record a cursory search didn't find any, though I did see a couple of one-panel cartoons along those lines.
Tonight's big activity: greatly expanding my filk website, with recently acquired (or typed) music and lyrics from 1980s albums. I went the lazy way, with simple directories; I don't know if Google will index those. If not, I suppose a bit of Perl would help. The toplevel probably needs a re-organization but eh, I'm more interested in learning how to sing the songs. Be nice to add new blood to the next song circle.
I have an offer of a room for FilkOntario this weekend. Last minute plane ticket Boston-Toronto would be $600 wtfbbq. Greyhound would be $160, for 15 hour rides. I am torn between "new experience" and "$1000 and 15 hours would get me to *Tokyo*".
For the record a cursory search didn't find any, though I did see a couple of one-panel cartoons along those lines.
Tonight's big activity: greatly expanding my filk website, with recently acquired (or typed) music and lyrics from 1980s albums. I went the lazy way, with simple directories; I don't know if Google will index those. If not, I suppose a bit of Perl would help. The toplevel probably needs a re-organization but eh, I'm more interested in learning how to sing the songs. Be nice to add new blood to the next song circle.
I have an offer of a room for FilkOntario this weekend. Last minute plane ticket Boston-Toronto would be $600 wtfbbq. Greyhound would be $160, for 15 hour rides. I am torn between "new experience" and "$1000 and 15 hours would get me to *Tokyo*".
Next Year in Samaria
2012-04-15 01:40I went to my first Passover seder last night. A vegetarian one, with a fairly liberal haggadah and not a single yarmulke, but still. Heck, my first Jewish holy day of any sort, apart from rather lame Chanukah observance as a kid at my mother's urgings. That I grew up only really knowing of Chanukah, and not Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah or Passover or Purim, says something. (I probably heard of them, certainly passover, but didn't know anything.)
Anyway, it was fun.
Coincidentally, today I found http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,827144,00.html on the real world Samaritans (they live!) and how early Jews probably altered their Torah in dispute. Pretty interesting.
Totally unrelatedly, will sub-Saharan Africa undergo the demographic transition? Or rather, will it do so in time? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/world/africa/in-nigeria-a-preview-of-an-overcrowded-planet.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
I missed all the March filking, but went to MASSFILC today, despite my slow cold recovery. Biked over even, in the nicer weather. Glad I did, it was fun, singing and arguing over Facebook and asking about obscure songs (no one knew) and then finally finding them and most of the Snow Magic album on Youtube, which I spent the evening downloading. FilkOntario is next weekend, and I'm contemplating dashing for it. I've been to SF cons, gaming cons, and anime cons, but never a dedicate filk con. Give that I spend half my time at SF cons in the filk room, I'd probably enjoy one. Next one is in June/July and there's not that many; I doubt the German one would do much good... then again, its website *defaults* to English.
http://www.interfilk.org/interfilk/cons.htm
Anyway, it was fun.
Coincidentally, today I found http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,827144,00.html on the real world Samaritans (they live!) and how early Jews probably altered their Torah in dispute. Pretty interesting.
Totally unrelatedly, will sub-Saharan Africa undergo the demographic transition? Or rather, will it do so in time? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/world/africa/in-nigeria-a-preview-of-an-overcrowded-planet.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
I missed all the March filking, but went to MASSFILC today, despite my slow cold recovery. Biked over even, in the nicer weather. Glad I did, it was fun, singing and arguing over Facebook and asking about obscure songs (no one knew) and then finally finding them and most of the Snow Magic album on Youtube, which I spent the evening downloading. FilkOntario is next weekend, and I'm contemplating dashing for it. I've been to SF cons, gaming cons, and anime cons, but never a dedicate filk con. Give that I spend half my time at SF cons in the filk room, I'd probably enjoy one. Next one is in June/July and there's not that many; I doubt the German one would do much good... then again, its website *defaults* to English.
http://www.interfilk.org/interfilk/cons.htm
Life activity
2012-02-27 12:50Feb 17-19 I went to Boskone
Friday: Panels on how to read aloud (good), aristocrats in SF (good); filk
Saturday: Joan Slonczewski "hell in high school", creationism, meh for me, then short story writing, meh; hung out; character in hard SF, with a panelist who denies he writes it, meh, went to Song Sequitur instead, fun. Underpinnings (assumptions) of SF panel which was fun, with Jane Yolen, and an entertaining military guy, though he gushed about the Windup Girl. YA panel "why so dystopian?" Optimism and pessimism in SF, which I left early for food.
AWESOME FILK CONCERTS by S. J. Tucker and Heather Dale. Actually the proportion of songs which were outright filk wasn't that high. Still good songs, good singing, and good performances. Individually, then con highlight, then encore, and also a close-up one Sunday.
Boskone's warming up to costumes again.
Song circle Saturday, which was fun. Met an old cousin yesterday at the MFA, also fun, then went to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). Holy art Batman, it's huge! Also expensive, $22 to get in, though you get a second visit free. I spent the afternoon just trying to eyeball everything there, actually really using the place would take days.
Friday: Panels on how to read aloud (good), aristocrats in SF (good); filk
Saturday: Joan Slonczewski "hell in high school", creationism, meh for me, then short story writing, meh; hung out; character in hard SF, with a panelist who denies he writes it, meh, went to Song Sequitur instead, fun. Underpinnings (assumptions) of SF panel which was fun, with Jane Yolen, and an entertaining military guy, though he gushed about the Windup Girl. YA panel "why so dystopian?" Optimism and pessimism in SF, which I left early for food.
AWESOME FILK CONCERTS by S. J. Tucker and Heather Dale. Actually the proportion of songs which were outright filk wasn't that high. Still good songs, good singing, and good performances. Individually, then con highlight, then encore, and also a close-up one Sunday.
Boskone's warming up to costumes again.
Song circle Saturday, which was fun. Met an old cousin yesterday at the MFA, also fun, then went to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). Holy art Batman, it's huge! Also expensive, $22 to get in, though you get a second visit free. I spent the afternoon just trying to eyeball everything there, actually really using the place would take days.
Speaking of filk
2008-05-11 02:01Cat Faber, author of the filk song The Word of God (mp3, simpler music), which I've memorized, has a great analogy about Creationist "controversies of evolution."
