Save the date: July 3-5, 2020!
Join us at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Danbury, CT, for a filk relaxacon!
(relaxafilk? filaxacon? eh, we’ll figure it out)
To the tune of Metro Train Melbourne’s “Dumb Ways to Die”
—
Stop for pictures at the top of the stairs,
Try to lick all of the vendor wares
Rush a panel room when you’re told to wait,
Tell a Xenomorph you wanna procreate
Chorus:
Dumb ways to con,
So many dumb ways to con,
Dumb ways to co-o-on,
So many dumb ways to con
Keep a Tribble as a pet,
Sell a vial of Chris Evans’ sweat,
Enter the Pokemon tourny with all bidoof,
Do a barrel roll off the hotel roof
Chorus
Challenge a Wookiee to a fight,
Smoke a cigarette and set your wig alight
Go to the LARP with a sharpened sword
Throw some chimichangas at a Deadpool horde
Chorus
Yell spoilers at the Game of Thrones shoot,
Tell an Alucard his Carmen Sandiego’s cute,
Go to the rave when you’re feeling faint
Hug somebody while in unsealed body paint
Chorus
Agree to a group skit without committing…
Watch all of Evangelion in one sitting…
Go all weekend without taking a shower,
Chug energy drinks and just live in the game room
Blow your money on swag and forget food’s important,
They may not rhyme but they’re quite possibly
The dumbest ways to con,
The dumbest ways to con,
Dumb ways to con-o-oooooonnn…
So many dumb
So many dumb ways to con….
I was thinking about Lauren Cox and her wonderful filk of the Disney song “Part of Your World.” Her version is about the sense of belonging in the greater filk family. Alas, I cannot find a recording of her singing it, but I stumbled across this instead. “When We’re Together” by Summer Russell is about the same topic, and I’m so glad I found it. All the feels.
“Filk in the Lobby” by Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff, which I can only assume is based on a true story. The songs referenced in the lyrics are Fire in the Sky by Jordin Kare and March of Cambreadth by Heather Alexander.
At Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, the Finnish nörttikuoro were out in force. Unreality (Helsinki), Pixel Sisters (Tampere), and the joint choirs of Another Castle (Helsinki) and Riverside Castle (Turku) all held well-attended concerts. The Worldcon members even set up their own Worldcon 75 choir, led by former Pixel Sisters leader Päivi Itäpuro. The only choir which did not hold a concert was the most filkish of them all, Filkkifriikit, since most of their members were full-time staff at the con.
Here is the Another Castle & Riverside Castle concert.
Submissions for the Contata 8 songbook are officially open! Got a song you want to contribute? Click here to find out where/how to submit it.
Also: this year at Contata we plan to have at least one jam session. Want to suggest a song to play? Watch this space for updates.
Please signal-boost this in your other fannish communities, or wherever else you think appropriate.
The deadline for submitting to the Contata 8 songbook is April 30! Want to have one of your songs appear in our songbook? Now’s your chance. “Um … what kind of song could I submit, if I wanted to do that?”
I’m glad you asked me that, random citizen! It’s pretty simple really: the only major requirement is that it needs to be a song you wrote. (Yes, you can submit on behalf of another songwriter, but only with their explicit permission and ideally only by their request.) “What if it isn’t a new song?”
That’s totally fine; old songs are welcome. “What if I only wrote the lyrics?”
That’s not only fine, that’s a fundamental filk subtype! Just put somewhere in your submission the name of the original tune that your lyrics are meant to be sung to, and credit the original writer. (If you mean that your song is a collaboration with somebody else, then you should submit it jointly with credit to both of you.) “What if I wrote original music for it?”
If you want to include sheet music or chord notation of any kind, and/or a link to a sound file online, that’d be great! “Does it have to be about something nerdy?”
For broad values of ‘nerdy’ and even broader values of ‘have to’, you could say that. If you’ve got any experience with filk, you may already know just how varied song topics get. (If you don’t, you may want to check out a link roundup and sampler here.) “Do I get a copy of the songbook if my song is in it?”
Why yes, you do! All Contata attendees and all songbook contributors will get a digital copy of the songbook. (Contata attendees will also have the option to buy a printed copy for $5.)
Any questions? Our inbox is always open.
