For space is wide and good friends are too few.
When I was a mermaid, my daughter, my dear
And a long time before I had you
I lived in the ocean a long way from here
And some of my stories are true
Apparently, Talis Kimberley’s daughter once pointed at a picture of a mermaid and said “That’s you when you were a mermaid”.
This is Cassandra for the BBC reporting from the war
Calling in, calling in…
distressingly topical Greek mythology modern AU fanfiction from Talis Kimberley
For I am like the highwayman
Who cares not where he rides
Follow the black satin ribbon road
With danger by my side
“The Highwayman,” a beautiful fantasy travelling song by Talis Kimberley
Burn it down, burn it down, burn it down
Throw your fear upon the fire and burn it down
Throw your voice out to the wind
Feel the heat upon your skin
As you hunger, so begin
Burn it down
“Burn It Down,” a song about drastic creative measures from Vixy and Tony
This song was written by Marshall Burns (and animated here by Sunny Adams) for the novel Autonomous by Annalee Newitz, and she wrote a really good post about the genre she’s calling “Canadian prairie futurism” and how it relates to traditional music. I’m just gonna copypaste a chunk of it here because it’s such a good explanation of a huge part of the filk ethos:
Two summers ago, when I was finishing the first draft of my novel Autonomous, I watched Marshall play and thought about the future. Back then he was at Leopold’s Tavern, and I’d come to the crowded bar with a bunch of family after a long dinner full of conversations about politics and art. This is the sort of thing we might do more often if there were an apocalypse, I mused. We’d gather in some communal shelter, after a day of hunting and gathering in the trashed wastes. Then somebody from our family would start to sing. We’d raise our voices too, to take our minds off the famine and plague and wildfires.
But it’s also the exact kind of thing we’d do in a Utopian future. Imagine us surrounded by carbon-neutral farms whose plants are monitored by sensors and satellites. Our brains would be crackling with ideas, thanks to government-funded science education. After a productive day in the fields and the labs, we’d gather at the co-op watering hole and sing our brains out in agrarian socialist solidarity. We’d all sound great too, because we’d have optimized our vocal chords with open source biotissue mods.
Maybe it sounds a little strange to say that Marshall’s old-fashioned songs gave me these vivid, contradictory images of the future. But I see the future clearly in these anachronistic moments. If we can still hear traditional prairie music in a modern city bar, then it’s a kind of guarantee that people of the future will still be listening to us. As Marshall sang, I could imagine distorted bits of my own culture still alive in a world utterly transformed by time’s passage.
And besides all that, enjoy a song about sad robots!
There are women I’ve been who you would not have liked
Very much – and I can’t say I’d blame you for that;
but I had to be them before I could be me
They are threads on the loom of the woman you see
And they’re all – here – sewn in the lining of me
In the seam-folds and the small mended corners
Tucked into collar and sleeves in the lining of me
“Small Mended Corners,” by Talis Kimberley, a song about identity and sewing – which, as someone who has struggled with both, I appreciate.
The moons are the moons and the sun is the sun
The fish bite at dusk and the fish bite at dawn
But a sun is a star and a moon is a world
And the deep shall bite down when the dusk unfurls.
The sea is the sea and the land is the land
A fish is a fish and a man is a man
But men are as fish to the land of the sea
And fishes, like men, cannot live hungry.
An arm is an arm and a leg is a leg
A seed is a seed and an egg is an egg
One for to butcher and one for to thresh
But the flesh of all is all one flesh.
A womb is a womb and a prick is a prick
The slow fish are slow and the fast fish are quick
But a womb may have thorns and a prick may bear wounds
Oh the swift break their fast, but the slow shall eat soon.
And the deep shall bite down when the dusk unfurls
From the hungriness at the heart of the world
So sleep, little fishes, swift may you dream
And slow may you wake to the arms of the sea.– local woman of Scaparus Port, Arkanis recorded by Sabekka Pallopides, student of Sentient Cultures at Theed University, Naboo
Keep reading
Everybody Knows
Collaboration with kristalbrooks who wrote the lyrics and I offered to write the music and record it. She also made the cover.Lyrics:
INTRO
“Our lives are back to front: his future is my past, his firsts my lasts. The day is coming when I’ll look into that man’s eyes, and he won’t have the faintest idea of who I am. And I think it’s going to kill me.“VERSE 1
Do you remember any of my faces?
You were older but still I recognise you
Sometimes you knew me well, sometimes you didn’t
And it would break my heart when you didn’t trust meVERSE 2
You used to yell at me for knowing things you didn’t
And I would hear you scream a thousand times now
If I could run from here, somewhere you don’t see me
So, is this how you start, is this how I end?CHORUS 1
‘Cause since the first day you came into my life
It’s always been ‘spoilers’ and twisty time lines
Never thought this was going to be our goodbye
But, love, you have always known, this is how I dieVERSE 3
I can’t seem to break this glass case to wake you
I feel the world breaking, falling, burying me
This is the first time you meet me, I can see
It’s written in your eyes and it’s killing meCHORUS 1
‘Cause since the first day you came into my life
It’s always been ‘spoilers’ and twisty time lines
Never thought this was going to be our goodbye
But, love, you have always known, this is how I dieCHORUS 2
And I should have known, ‘cause when I last saw you
You made the Towers sing for me and we danced
I heard you cry as you held me close to you
So, love, you have always known, this is when I dieBRIDGE
And I know I won’t see you any more
But, sweetie, you’ve got all of that to come
It’s all still waiting for you, all that we’ve done
You and me, time and space, you watch us runCHORUS 1
‘Cause since the first day you came into my life
It’s always been ‘spoilers’ and twisty time lines
Never thought this was going to be our goodbye
But, love, you have always known, this is how I dieCHORUS 2
And I should have known, ‘cause when I last saw you
You made the Towers sing for me and we danced
I heard you cry as you held me close to you
So, love, you have always known, this is when I die
And everybody knows everybody dies
Everybody knows that everybody dies
A cheeky song about Garnet (and the others) looking after baby Steven!
Tagging the usual crowd plus some who I think might like it: @bluespacequeen @jen-iii @jasper-jen @basicblokc @harley-stuck-30This is based on two one-shots, whose writers have very kindly let me use. The first is this one by @cardassian-andorian – the first verse is basically lifted from it (with adjustments for rhyming). The second is A Moment of Rest by @squaremomgsquad. Both are lovely adorable pieces with a wholesome dose of Rupphire as well, so go read them and leave all the reviews! The rest of the song is my own stuff. It’s also the first I’ve recorded with my new mic so I hope the buzz is slightly less!
If you like this song, check out my other 2 Steven Universe fansongs!
Lyrics (cut because it’s very wordy):He’s on the warp pad, in the fridge, he’s on the couch, he’s on the ladder
He’s outside, inside, on the roof, floor, television, kitchen counter
He’s crawling everywhere, and Garnet’s got to keep her wits about her – her future vision’s going wild…