#filksing

[greenlodgecypher]

What's a filk?

From Gillian

Ever wondered what a spaceship pilot's folk song would sound like?

The ballad of a Lackey character's ride, always the complaint of its subject? Maybe thought of a song about, not a bandit's ride, but the legend of Mike Jittlov, Wizard of Speed and Time? Filk is the medium for you. Legend has it that that's a typo for 'folk'. Filksings are where people meet up and perform theirs and others' music. Some local science fiction conventions used to have filksings, and some still do, if you ask around. The topics handled in filk range from Star Trek (and Star Wars) to scifi/fantasy novels, other filk singers, modern (often space-related) topics, and humanity's aspirations for the future. Modern social commentary can and does happen. One of the notable, and easy to overlook, aspects of filk is its crowd-participatory nature. Filksings are for the whole audience, and may allow any or all comers to take the stage. The folk-music nature of a lot of filk means that the crowd can learn and join in on the chorus of a song. A lot of filk is out-of-print and available on cassette tape only. All tapes by Off Centaur Productions (especially the Bayfilk/San Francisco crowd's work, including some by the incomparable Julia Ecklar) are out of print, but you might be able to pick them up used. Today, you can order some material from that era from Firebird Records, and Alexander Adams is still in print. There was a group called the Technical Difficulties on the East Coast, as well, who wrote some lovely original work and a delightful anthem to the Enterprise. If you'd like to explore filk, send the Cypher a note; the Anime Ramen crew has a couple of English-language scifi fen who have been around and would be willing to either run a tape copy or have you come listen. Maybe we can set up a filksing…

[vbartilucci]

Old school sci fi fans, especially filkers, will be aware of a beloved Irish whisky called Tullamore Dew, fabled in story and song.

So imagine my surprise when I saw an ad for the beverage before a news item this evening.

What inspired them to begin advertising, I wonder? Was the filksing market just not paying the bills?

[spikewriter]

I’ll make you more envious. I used to filksing with Jane Yolen from time to time, when she’d come down for a con. (I think I may still have her audio tape, and possibly a live recording of her. Really need to transfer that stuff to digital.)

And I definitely remember librarians steering me toward books suitable for teens/young adults during the 70s to keep me away from the adult books. They weren’t always succesful.

So, like, the thing you have to understand is that prior to the mid-2000s, the "Young Adult" genre as we now know it didn't exist. The expectation was that you would graduate to the adult aisle of the book store at, like, 13-14. This worked because the only people still reading long form novels into their teens were precocious bookworms who were better read than their parents.

Harry Potter changed all this. The success of the Harry Potter books convinced the publishing industry that selling full length novels to normie children was a business model. The thing about the Harry Potter books, though, is that at least for the early books, the target audience was a bit younger than what we think of as the YA demographic; tweens, rather than teens. Now, the publishing very much wanted to keep all these normie kids buying books into their teens and beyond, but the previous model of treating teens as functionally adults for marketing purposes would not work; there was simply no way that normie parents were going to let their normie kids read fully adult novels where the characters, like, do drugs or have unprotected sex and stuff. So, in order to be allowed to market to the teen demographic, the YA genre was created.

However, teens have an inherent interest in reading about sex and violence and drugs, and so authors who are able to incorporate these kinds of themes into their YA novels in a discrete way such that it flies under the radar of the moral guardians are met with success. But this is a precarious tightrope to walk. Not enough "mature" themes and the teens will loose interest, to much or to blatant and the teens won't be allowed to read it. And so, it should come as no surprise, that the first person to successfully navigate this tight rope was a Mormon housewife with a vampire fetish.

[othercat2]

Just Some Sword In Exile Notes

General note: I am slightly frustrated by a minor writing block in regard to fan fic WIPS. I am even more frustrated with a stalled original fic.

That said, I am about to do some blathering.

--Shen Jiu's adoptive father is based on conservative military sf writer David Weber. >_> My main beef with the guy is the way he does inclusivity! That is, he does "there are multiple people of various skin tones, but they are all essentially European/White." He also does "there are multiple religions but all of them are Christian. Yes, even the ones that are not in any way related to Christianity." I did initially like the books but the conservative bullshit across most of his writing soured me on his work.

--Shang Qinghua's family are also sf/fantasy fans. Both of his parents have been on convention committees and his mom hosts monthly filksings. Filksings are fun, though I am not social enough to attend.

--The reading habits of Shen Jiu and Shang Qinghua differ in that Shen Jiu has read more conservative writers, and more classic sf. I don't have a precise breakdown of who has read what.

--Shen Jiu's most read authors

Anne McCaffrey (sword and planet, sf,)

Christopher Stasheff (Conservative writer. Most known for his "Warlock" books, which features the agent of an organization that "protected" democracy via cultural engineering, and opposing two counter organizations, one communist (or totalitarian?) and the other anarchist.)

Roger Zelazny (Extremely surreal sf and fantasy. Often very poetic!)

Robert A. Heinlein (So many Mary Sues. So Many. Also incest.)

Isaac Asimov (much ado about robots)

Glen Cook (Writes both grimdark and humor!)

Brian Daley (Good author! Nice blend of adventure and humor.)

James White (Very optimistic outlook. Sector General is pretty awesome.)

Tanith Lee (Tanith Lee is the kind of writer you like if you like hurt/no comfort.)

Michael Moorcock (I really hate Moorcock's writing style. Also, most of his characters. However, the bleak nihilism would be appealing to Shen Jiu.)

Piers Anthony (Books that you read that are occasionally good but then you realize how weird and creepy they are.)

Andre Norton (sf and fantasy author. Sometimes there is very little difference between the f and the sf.)

Robert Adams (I do not recommend this guy. Most known for his Horseclans series, which were very rapey, racist and homophobic. I was mostly reading it for the telepathic horses and giant saber tooth kitties.)

Elizabeth Moon (mil sf and also fantasy writer.)

P.C. Hodgell (sword and sorcery)

Greg Bear (extremely hard sf. Has also written a fantasy duology that is pretty much high concept hard fantasy.)

Shang Qinghua's most read authors

Steven Brust (great character voice, fun settings. comparable style-wise to Roger Zelazny.)

Martha Wells (awesome worldbuilding! Sympathetic characters, engaging story lines)

Anne McCaffrey (sword and planet, some mil sf in conjuction with Elizabeth Moon.)

Jo Clayton (sword and planet, space opera, sword and sorcery. Following recurring themes: Someone is filming the engineered destruction of a world or culture for entertainment purposes. Someone is stuck between a devastating competition between gods or godlike beings. Someone acquires powers beyond the ken of mortals and Shit Happens.

Barry B. Longyear (I recommend Enemy Mine and sequels. Do not watch the movie. The movie is terrible and takes a hammer to the very subtle message the original novella was trying to convey. )

Marion Zimmer Bradley (he feels guilty about it. The writer's personal life was a trashfire and she was abusive to her kids. Was one of the rare early sf/f writers who wrote mostly positive depictions of gay and lesbian characters.)

Octavia Butler (Wrote dystopias. Scary scary dystopias written really, really well.)

Elizabeth Moon (Mil SF, high fantasy. Possibly wrote the best paladin ever.

Martha Wells (High fantasy, urban (ish) fantasy. sf!)

Lois McMasterBujold (High fantasy, military sf. post apocalyptic fantasy.)

Patricia McKillip (His sisters tease him because the books are "girly.")

--This is not a complete list by any means. Also, there's some overlap.

--Both Shen Jiu and Shang Qinghua play D&D.

[scribefindegil]

so who wants to do a virtual filksing on Saturday? i need an outlet for crying about hope songs

[songsbyscribe]

Anyone in the mood for a last-minute virtual filksing?

i’ve been singing a bunch of poignant hope songs to myself but if people are interested i will sing them to The Internet instead!

[elfwreck]

I'm very fond of "The Word of God" and "Lullaby for a Weary World," but I like them all. Plz ignore the word "New" on some songs...I think they were new additions in 2002.

The Pegasus Awards are for "excellence in filking" and they're awarded at OVFF every year. The winners only sometimes have lyrics and rarely have MP3s, but sometimes you can track them down elsewhere.

tell me more about classic filk i know a few songs but never got deep into it

Heck YEAH

"Filk" is music (often but not always folk music-style, often but not always song parodies to the tune of famous pre-existing songs) about sci-fi, fantasy, and other fannish topics. Filk circles are popular events at science fiction conventions, and that's really where the genre started. The word "filk" actually arose from a typo in a convention program once, and people just rolled with it ever since!

Some of the most iconic albums in the filk world are the anthology albums "Minus Ten And Counting" (songs about space exploration and the real-life space program), "Carmen Miranda's Ghost" (songs about sci-fi space shenanigans and space ghosts), and "Finity's End: Songs of the Station Trade" (songs set in the world of CJ Cherryh's Alliance-Union novels, and my personal favorite. I've never read any of CJ Cherryh's books, but these songs paint such a vivid world.) "Space Heroes and Other Fools" is another big one, it's more hit-or-miss for me but it's iconic. Other really good and foundational ones are "Divine Intervention" by Julia Ecklar, "Avalon is Risen" by Leslie Fish, and "We Are Who We Are" by Vixy & Tony.

I lean more towards sci-fi and space than fantasy, but fantasy and paganism are huuuugely popular filk topics too.

Some of the most popular names to look into include Leslie Fish (intensely prolific, barely a fraction of her work is on any streaming or music service), Julia Ecklar (famous for her "ose," the filk-world word for sad songs - because they're "ose, more-ose, and even more-ose), Juanita Coulson, Kristoph Klover, Vic Tyler (who just recently died :( rest in peace), Duane Elms, Kathy Mar, Bob Kanefsky, Alexander James (trans, with lots of filk under his previous name as well), Vixy & Tony, and Seanan McGuire. (I like Seanan McGuire's filk music better than her books, hah.) Some other great ones include Cat Faber (most acapella), Astrisoni, The PDX Broadsides, Kari Maaren, and Sassafrass (also mostly acapella. Includes Ada Palmer). Heather Dale, Tom Lehrer, and Jonathan Coulton are kind of honorary filkers too haha.

The best place to get the ones from 80s and 90s cassettes are on the Internet Archive or Youtube; a few filkers who are more currently active have their stuff on Bandcamp.

And I'll leave you with a few of my Favorite Ever filk songs:

"Sam Jones" by CJ Cherryh and Leslie Fish

"Pushin' the Speed of Light" by Julia Ecklar and Anne Prather

"Chickasaw Mountain" by Leslie Fish

"Fire in the Sky" by Jordan Kare

"The Phoenix" by Julia Ecklar

"Freedom of the Snow" by Leslie Fish

"Burn it Down" by Vixy & Tony

"Hope Eyrie" by Leslie Fish, or this Minus Ten And Counting version

"Rocket Rider's Prayer" by Kristoph Klover, Ernie Mansfield, and Cecilia Eng

"Dawson's Christian" by Duane Elms, performed by Vic Tyler or Vixy & Tony

"Somebody Will" by Sassafrass

"Chances & Choices & Fortunes & Fates" by Astrisoni

... my tastes lean sentimental and ose but I swear there's a lot of very funny filk out there too

"Never Set the Cat on Fire" by Frank Hayes (a famous one)

"Banned From Argo" by Leslie Fish (an INFAMOUS one)

"Don't Push That Button" by Duane Elms and Larry Warner

"No More SF Cons" by Juanita Coulson

"One More Ose Song" by B. J. Willinger

everything Bob Kanefsky writes

[polydreamusfilk]

“Never Use A Grand Relic”

Instructions for All Members of The Bureau of Balance to the tune of Fantasy Frank Hayes’s “Never Set The Cat on Fire”

Lyrics and notes under the cut! Sincere and special thanks to @astriiformes and @scribefindegil for inspiring me to write this several years ago!

Never use a Grand Relic, you only will regret it!

The victory will be pyrrhic, you surely won't forget it!

At no point should you use the mitten, stone, chalice or ribbon

No, never use a Grand Relic!

[Refrain: Mind your orders, like the wizard fighter and cleric,

and never use a Grand Relic!]

Don't use the Phoenix-Fire Gauntlet, you'll just burn yourself out!

You'll wind up like a comet, it'll end badly without a doubt!

If Phandalin gets turned to glass, everyone involved will pass!

Don't use the Phoenix-Fire Gauntlet!

[Refrain]

Don't try on the Oculus, your tie's already rocking!

The accessory will be superfluous, the Boys will keep a'mocking!

If you get thrown from a train, you'll only have yourself to blame!

Don't try on the Oc-cu-lus!

    [Refrain]

Don't dare put on the Gaia Sash, you'll only hurt your girlfriend!

You're acting pretty rash, things won't turn how you intend!

Though it seems you can't be beat, sooner or later you'll take the heat!

Don't dare put on the Gaia Sash!

[Refrain]

Don't disturb the Philosopher's Stone, or you'll cross The Director!

Your lab/the world will turn to a crystal zone, you really ought to respect her!

This whole thing has gone off track, and it won't bring your mother back!

Don't disturb the Philosopher's Stone!

[Refrain]

Don’t reach for the Temporal Chalice, or time itself will be rewound!

Even if it’s not from malice, to an hour’s loop you will be bound!

Refuge will be turned to rubble, until someone can burst the bubble!

Don’t reach for the Temporal Chalice!

[Refrain]

Don't try and ring the Animus Bell, or you’ll have to give up all you’ve got!

It’ll be your own death knell, and that’ll make everything all for naught!

Wonderland is quite a trap, and what you give up you can’t get back!

Don’t try and ring the Animus Bell!

[Refrain]

Don't touch The Director's white-oak staff, it could be very dangerous!

Whatever you do won’t be worth the laugh, it might even be traitorous!

The battle is not yet won, and...Lu-Lucretia, what have you done?

Don't join an interplanar mission!

[Refrain]

I can’t believe I finally have this done! I started writing it years ago, thought about doing something different and ambitious with the Temporal Chalice verse, then completely forgot it existed. Which...now that I think about it, is fitting for a TAX filk. I still have fond memories of tapping rhythms between classes and trawling through Rhymezone, though! I finally remembered it existed around the start of summer(?) after a filksing, but only figured out how to post it recently! I think it turned out pretty alright for my first filksong! Enjoy!

[karajstorm]

The password was "The Green Hills of Earth" sung to the coke song

KWestCon Report

From Menagerie Vol 2 No. 1 February 1975

by Sharon Ferraro

by Paula Smith

Sure is tough to write about your own con. Especially since there was so much we missed. Friday afternoon got started a little late with the Man from UNCLE panel. Buck Coulson, Paula Smith, Joan Hunter Holly, Carol Lynn and Ruth Berman discussed the show and the growing fan movement behind it. After that was over, the rest of the afternoon was unscheduled except for the movies and the informal discussion on Klingons. And of course, the dealer's room and art show were on. Friday night was fantastic. Harlan Ellison made his first explosive appearance and had us laughing till our lungs gave out. He read some of his latest stories--and told some personal ones, the Revival Meeting and the Dating Game. He did an impromptu presentation with his water pitcher and microphone, and read a mind-blowing short story called Croatoan that he had barely finished two hours earlier. ('Twill be published in an upcoming issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.) Great stuff. Saturday morning was the Star Trek Trivia Contest (see next page for Phillo), and won by "Dave". Also nearly [laid?] waste to by the con chairbeing and her ever-lovin' administration assistant. In the main room, Buck Coulson moderated a panel of new writers, like Mike Toman, Bob Borski, Harlan Ellison.... At 1pm, Harlan was back on, for 2 1/2 hours. He read another story: "Corpse", and discussed the nature of writing (masterb*tion). For those who couldn't face The Truth, there wre continuous showings of Trek episodes till six. Along toward Saturday evening, the filksing was held in a secluded locked room off the third floor men's john in the building across the street. The password was "The Green Hills of Earth" sung to the coke song.  At this open meeting, Juanita Coulson managed to shatter glass with sheer lung power, which Yang T. N. Asprin proceeded to melt with nasty Dorsai/Klingon stares. And a bit of songs were heard. Still later, the Costume Show went on, emceed by some clown in full dress, and flunkeyed by Commander Krass and Dr. Kwak of the Klingon Diplomatic Corps. Patti "Godzilla the Brat Eater" Helmer won Most Original, Greg Hagglund was Most Humorous as a Calabranian, and Nancy Hastings-Trew and Brian Broun took Best of Show. Interestingly, every one of the winners, it was later discovered, were from Windsor.

[revelcon]

REVELCON 28 FRIDAY PROGRAMMING

REVELCON 28 FRIDAY PROGRAMMING

FRI Panel Room Panels

11AM Early Bird Panel - Star Trek, the little fandom that grew and grew: When did it start for you? Anita K, moderator

12Noon Oh the Pain -- When actors get bored and ruin their characters and/or the show's dynamic Mary Ellen M Territrek Ronda

1PM Why so much zombie/end of the world stuff in fic and on screen? What's the appeal? Barbara Holly EveSong Heather

2PM Sentinel Fusions -- Taking the Sentinel into other fandoms: Who is the guide? Who is the Sentinel? What characteristics determine which is which? Story recs for those that work well! Ceares Jamie Rosie P

3PM I'd Watch That!: What attracts you to a show? Specific actors, character types, situations? Holly Ronda Teri H Louann Carole

4PM International TV such as the Australian City Homicide: What are You watching? Kat Liz K Lezlie

5PM Buddy shows of today: Do they hold up to comparison to our favorite oldies? Comparing oldies like Sentinel/Starsky&Hutch/ to Lucifer/Sherlock/LethalWeapon and other current shows. Sue K Wendy Territrek

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FRI Vid Room Panels

12:00Noon Stargate Songvids Compiled by Amy and Sallye

12:30PM Starsky and Hutch Songvids Complied by Kat

1:00PM Star Trek - Oldie but Goodie Songvids Compiled by Kandy

1:30PM Star Trek Not Quite as Oldie but Still Goodie Songvids Compiled by Kandy

2:00PM Multi-Fandom Bingo (With Prizes!) Gamemaster: Angie

3:30PM Supernatural Songvids Complied by Sue W

4:00PM Cabaret Rehearsal

5:00PM Filksing - Classic Trek and other Golden Oldies: Lyrics will be provided so come join the songfest! Led by EveSong

[vbartilucci]

Dying to know whose names he dropped in here.

I never met Buck, but I've seen Juanita blow out a few microphones at a filksing or two.

A book you very likely don’t have on your shelf #431

Cover by Jim Holloway -- 1981

[fanlore-wiki]

Terminology Thursday: Filk

[ID: The word “filk” in curvy geometric lettering floats over a silhouetted guitar receding into the background, which is a star field. Everything but the background is textured like pulpy brown paper. /End ID]

Now for a musical interlude! Sometimes referred to as "science-fiction folk music", Filk is the creation and performance of songs that are intimately tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom. Filk features subjects like space, aliens, and unicorns, as well as references to popular movies and TV shows.

Often created by groups of fans, these songs were commonly performed at conventions in the 1970s and 80s, most times in the evenings to help wind down the day. At the time, Filk was often compiled in printed songbooks, that were distributed and shared among fans. Although it doesn't have the popularity it once had, some still carry on the tradition.

Come learn more about Filk and its history on Fanlore!

---

We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!

[olderthannetfic]

Nope. There were filksings at Escapade, at least one of them led by Leslie Fish. Apparently, there used to be a tradition of doing them before or after the vidshow, but that was before my time.

90s Escapade had a lot of traditional SF fandom influence (I mean, it still does, but much more so in the 90s), so words like ‘filk’ and ‘fen’ crop up with their usual SF fandom meanings.

Were the video shows calling remixed fan videos “filks”? That seems like a very unusual usage to me. Thoughts, @elfwreck?

Vidding absolutely counts as a fandom, and Escapade is key to the history of vidding.

Notice how the terminology shifts over the course of Escapade: The first year, it’s ‘songtapes’ being shown, then ‘songvid’ or ‘song video’ predominates for much of the 90s, and then we move on to ‘vidding’ and ‘vids’.

The vidshow moves from being more of a curated presentation of old favorites to having a lot of premieres. It goes from just one night to two, then back to one. Vidshow panels where you just watch vids for a whole panel slot come and go. In 1998, vid review starts up: This is a Sunday morning panel for in-depth critique of the vids shown the previous night and is a famously contentious part of the con. And then there was this:

2002, Friday, 6pm - VividCon Discussion (Come discuss the proposed VividCon, tentative time/location, August/Chicago.)

Yep. Escapade was where Vividcon was born!

By 2008, people were talking about how vidding had moved on from Escapade. In 2011 a vidshow retrospective was added to try to counter the lack of vidding-centric programming. There was a big resurgence for a few years, including such hard-hitting topics as:

2016 - Vidding Aesthetics (”Why is there so much show audio in this vid?“, “Why didn’t that cut hit on the beat?”, “What do you mean ‘Cheesy?’ She’s Celine Dion!” and other immortal questions of vidding aesthetics. If you’ve ever watched a vid, we want your opinions.)

Why yes, it was my panel. Why do you ask?

There were rounds of warnings wank, caused by Oz vids and by that time Absolute Destiny sent a vid of a violent coming of age film.

Check out this 1994 panel description from Fanlore:

“[The technology in fandom panel] included several things that people can now do in-home that they couldn’t do five years ago: cutting and splicing songs on Macintosh computers (to remove inappropriate choruses, verses, or the word "girl”); the soon-to-be-easier ability to select different people from different clips and combine them onto a new background (also for songtapes); printing vhs video frames directly to computer screens, printers and/or color copiers (for fun); and zines and/or libraries on disk. Most of the new technology possibilities were followed by comments that the actual work we can do is illegal […]. Which comments were followed by the statements that seventeen years ago, writing and publishing a slash fanzine was illegal…. […] a few people […], talked to me at different times throughout the con about getting accounts or modems […]”

This is interesting not just technologically but aesthetically. Is the word ‘girl’ bad in a slashvid? Different communities have disagreed.

Conversations about digital vidding and digital vs. VCR really heated up around 2001, much later than you might expect if you’re coming out of an AMV background. While most of Youtube vids on Sony Vegas–a Windows-only program–at Escapade, Mac has been the norm.

The topics that have remained big are vidding aesthetics, including things like how to make an effective pimp vid, discussions of hosting options and where the community is hanging out now, and how-tos for people who want to get into vidding.

(And before anyone asks, the answer is that you should download DaVinci Resolve because it’s free and cross-platform. And you should encode with h.264 because it’s widely compatible.)

The 2020 vidding panels are:

Vidding 101: The Vid Bunny Farm So you’ve had an idea, and it’s gnawing on your leg? Or maybe you have too many vid ideas and can’t choose? Or you want to make a vid but don’t know where to even start? Aspiring fan vidders, unsure-vidders-to-be, and experienced vidders welcome alike to share vid bunnies, brainstorm together, and talk about the processes of conceptualizing a vid.

Vidding Genres Then & Now We’ve come a long way from “living room vids” vs ‚”con vids‚” or have we? Let’s talk about evolving fanvid genres, from ship vids to AU vids to multivids, from character vids to fake trailers, from genre-bending vids to long form vids to cosplay music videos, and more. Let’s talk about all the genres of fan videos floating around YouTube, Billibilli, AO3 and beyond, and also consider if the old school genre terms still apply.

Escapade has had many, many vidding panels. So many that even I feel the need for a readmore. I’ve pulled out the meta ones and left off some single-fandom vidshows and whatnot. Sorry for the wonky formatting, but Tumblr, in its infinite wisdom, seems to have removed the horizontal rule feature.

Keep reading

[scribefindegil]

my real-life plans fell through so i think i’m gonna do a Birthday Virtual Filksing for myself sometime on Saturday!

[scribefindegil]

yooo come celebrate my birthday by having emotions about space and friendship and the ocean!!!

[scribefindegil]

i need a good version of Tam Lin to perform at filk sings. it’s such an important ballad for me, but the traditional tunes don’t hold up so i never sing it