SONG: THE BLACKTHORN BLOOMS
By Talis Kimberley-Fairbourn
I’ve no magic words here
No dice left the throw
But the seeds that I’ve planted
Are willing to grow
We’re all feeling hopeless –
Disaster looms.
But still the bread rises
And the blackthorn blooms.
Here’s fury and fear
Here’s stunned disbelief
That we could lose so much
Our own leaders turned thief
I get that you’re numb
I get that you’re tired
We had a ticket to the future
But the future’s expired
I’ve no magic words…
They’ve played us as pawns
They’ve played us for fools
They want us divided
And to make us cruel
So kindness is sacred
It’s a choice, it’s an art
It’s an act of resistance
From the breaking of heart:
Can you carry a song?
Can you carry a light?
We did not deserve this
And it isn’t alright
We’re all feeling hopeless
Amidst the lies
But the blackthorn is blooming
And the bread will rise
I’ve no magic words
No dice left to throw
But the seeds that I planted
Are going to grow
I know we feel hopeless –
Disaster looms
But still the bread rises
Still the bread rises
Still the bread rises
And the blackthorn blooms.
_______________________________
Words & music by & © Talis Kimberley, 21st March 2019.
Talis Kimberley, one of the finest filkers and social justice bards I know.
links
Erin and Rand are making an album!
Erin and Rand are making an album!:
And we’re running an Indiegogo campaign to help us do it! Go to the link for all the juicy details! I’ve hashtagged some subjects and fandoms that will appear on the album.
Please help us meet our goal before it ends on December 21.
Sharing our indiegogo campaign again…please check it out/share widely! There’s only one week left!
Oh, and here’s a sneak peek of 3 of the tracks! At the link, you’ll find rough mixes of “Do As Peggy Says,” our ode to Peggy Carter; “Fighting the Black Thing,” inspired by A Wrinkle In Time, and “Orphan Black,” a musical adaptation of the season 5 trailer
“Encounter in Space” at Club Cosmos
“Encounter in Space” at Club Cosmos:
A video of Lars-Göran Johansson performing “Möte i rymden” (“Encounter in Space”) by Sam J. Lundwall at a 2012 club meeting of Club Cosmos, the oldest still extant science fiction club in Sweden (it was formed in 1954). “Möte i rymden” was one of three science fiction themed songs on Lundwall’s record “Visor i vår tid” (“Songs in Our Time”) which was released in 1966, which also contained several more songs that had fantasy themes or were fannish in outlook. It is possible that the song was written as early in 1963, when several of Lundwall’s songs were played at a Swedish con.
Note that the linked video is only available in WebM format. Here is a rough translation to English of the song:
Encounter in Space
We anchored in space by a faraway satellite
that lied in eternal orbit around its star.
In the mess hall I met a thirsty parasite;
||: a childhood friend that I now met again. :||
“Hi, dear Oskar Fikonström, mu old childhood friend!
You old sailor, are you still alive?
What has happened to you, you’re barely recognisable!”
||: “Yes, what has happened I will tell you right now. :||
I ran away from Earth real early as you know,
since I wanted to be on the ocean of space;
and with time I found a berth on an old space rocket,
||: the boss was a devil, but he was a fan! :|| [1]
We traveled to Vega with contraband and liquor,
I was still young and green and rather naïve.
I removed rust at the prow but got hardly any pay –
||: that time was the worst one in my life! :||
Work like a dog at any weather in the black holes of space,
and have the free watch in the terrible reactor light.
Space is filled with monsters that will kill humans,
||: and at all times a spaceman should be at hand! :||
Yes, I’ve seen most things that are here to see;
at Capella I met a beautiful blonde.
We were in her apartment when she exploded –
||: all of her was made up of nitroglycerine! :||
Black from soot and without clothes, all my body as a wound,
I sat astounded there with ashes in my lap
when a man with eight arms suddenly walked up to me:
||: the Earth’s consul with an unfathomable name! :||
I got new oxygen tubes and a decent ray gun
that was filled with death and the power of wild stars.
The consul’s fourth cousin got me a berth to a very far away sun,
||: but that trip wa the worst I ever had! :||
The ship where I got a place was of a strange type,
everything was wrong, and the air stank like a sewer.
Its captain was like an cephalopod with great green scales
||: and with evil-looking eyes at front and back! :||
Twenty light-years from Earth our engine broke down;
the animals in our cargo drank all our supplies.
We had to keep us alive using beer and aspirine;
||: one can hardly believe it’s true! :||
Yes, it was hard years in space, but I managed pretty well,
and though thirty I’m still at full vitality.
So thanks for all the drinks, but now I have to leave;
||: I have contraband in the rocket parked outside! :||
And then we parted in the mess hall with some simple words
and a handshake with my old childhood friend,
while thousands of millions white stars stood above
||: on the cold and black sky! :||
[1] The word “fan” can in Swedish both be used for fen and for the Devil.
Re: The Weather – the PDX Broadsides
There’s a noise coming out of the dog park
And I think it means me harm
There are lights up over the Arby’s
And I wish I’d never left the farm
There’s a glow shining out of the canyon
And I hope it’s gonna get better
From the noise coming out of the dog park
I take you to… the weather“The Weather” by the PDX Broadsides, the first Night Vale filk I think I’ve ever encountered.
Another Night Vale filk is Bob Kanefsky’s Downtown Night Vale, written with his usual brilliance.
Reblogging with addition!
The Spotify Filk Compendium
The Spotify Filk Compendium, a playlist by axons-and-synapses on Spotify →
I’ve kept meaning to post this and forgetting – if anyone’s interested, I’ve put together a playlist of all Filk music I’ve found thus far on Spotify. There’s actually a ton of Filk albums you can listen to for free, and I find new stuff all the time. Feel free to contribute if there’s anything I’ve missed or as new music is added 🙂
Featured Filker #3 by Gabrielle Gold
Gabrielle Gold features the music of Mary Crowell in her series on Filk in The Fangirl Initiative. Thanks Gabrielle! ❤️
today (friday aug 4 2017), bandcamp is donating 100% of their proceeds to the transgender law center [link: x].
this applies to all proceeds, regardless of whether or not the artist is trans themselves, but you should still take this opportunity to support trans artists – here’s the transgender tag [x], here’s the trans tag [x], and here’s the transcore tag [x], if you wanna look around. or you can go by my (impeccable) taste! i suggest picking up
- together not together by winter sisters [x]
- god forbid anyone look me in the eye by two steps on the water [x]
- the magic fountain LP by the magic fountain [x]
- soft hits by ashby and the oceanns [x]
- uncertain transitions by wren, like the bird [x]
- girl particular by bella trout [x]
- VEIL by lich [x]
- body trauma by naive sense[x]
- undertaker by disemballerina[x]
- as i am by mya byrne
[x]- GLITTER BOMB by EEKUM SEEKUM
[x]- from rotting fantasylands by lauren bousfield
[x]- the long lost art of getting lost by a stick and a stone [x]
It’s a good day to stock up on some Alexander James Adams!
https://alexanderjamesadams1.bandcamp.com/
Gremlins by Leslie Fish
Was reminded of this old filk song while trying to think of an appropriate goddess of technology. Ignore the AMC Gremlin hatchback gas cap. It’s a song about how sprites of the forest became gremlins in our technology.
I hum this whenever I work on cars.
Pegasus Awards
So you remember the Nominating Ballot we were telling you about? Well, the nominations are in; the finalists have been named, and the final Voting Ballot is live! Go check it out!