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limitlesspolydreamus asked:

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limitlesspolydreamus asked:

Hi there! I hope this message finds everyone well and in good spirits! I don’t know if this technically counts as a filk thing, but I couldn’t think of a community better than filkers to track down a hard to find track! I’m looking for a recorded version of Music Box Dancer. Not the Ray Conniff version. The one that starts “You walk in the room and you’re wearing a frown/You reach for the shelf and cradle it down…” It’s the strangest doggone thing! I can find the lyrics just fine, but (½)

(2/2) I can’t find a recorded version of that set of lyrics, nor who wrote them. (Unless that version is indeed written by Frank Mills.) Instrumental versions abound and I’ve found the stray recorded Conniff version, but no luck on this alternate version. I’d appreciate any help, but totally understand if it’s not possible! Have a great day!

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this song, but I can signal boost! Hey followers, anyone have any ideas?

Anonymous asked:

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As someone whos starting their masters degree in cosmonautical engineering of course i fell in love with filk not long ago (especially the space shanty kind). Im kinda hoping i can find someone who shares my love for space and filk here, maybe a penpal 🙂

I hope you can! Hey followers, sing out if you’d like to meet Anony here!

Anonymous asked:

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Could you or maybe your lovely followers help with a recommendation?

I’m looking for some filk music that follows the same cadence as “Back home in Derry” but with more of a sci-fi twist. So far I’ve found The Ballad of Apollo XIII but the lyrics are too specific for what I’m working on. Would appreciate the help, thanks!

Hey! I wasn’t familiar with “Back Home in Derry” but youtube proved helpful there, and it seems to be the same tune as “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (which I should have guessed from your reference to “The Ballad of Apollo XIII”).

I can’t think of any less specific sci-fi-themed songs to that particular tune or meter, so I’m gonna throw this question open to our lovely followers. Sing out if you’ve got any suggestions!

EDIT:

I’ve been informed by one of the fine folks at the filkhaven discord server that one Wolf von Witting has written a song with exactly that theme! Lyrics to “Wish I Was Back Home On Terra” may be found in this collection here along with many others, and have been copied below the cut for those who don’t feel like digging through the rest.

Wish I Was Back Home on Terra
Trad.Music: ”I Wish Was Back Home in Derry.”
Written in Moscow, June 1998. revised 1998-Oct-11
(Wolf von Witting)

Read more

who-needs-words asked:

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who-needs-words asked:

Hi, so I was introduced to Filk music (excluding The Mechanisms) very recently, and I have absolutely no idea where to start. I want to learn more/ listen to it more. But confused Googling can only get me so far. Do you have any pointers?

We certainly do!

For starters, I’d recommend just browsing our back posts, especially the ones under the links tag, which includes a lot of posts about various resources and collections people have made. Pulling out three in particular:

Elsewhere: The wikipedia article on filk is dry but pretty accurate, and a good resource if you want to learn more about the history and typical present-day practice of filk. You can also check out the filk tag on bandcamp for a hell of a lot of good music, and searching for “filk” on youtube will turn up at least two fairly long playlists.

Followers, if you’ve got any more suggestions for @who-needs-words and anyone else who’s new here, please feel free to reblog this and add them!

Anonymous ask

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I gotta admit that I’m just using you to pass the message on to the rest of the filk community on tumblr. I noticed that due to the covid-19 situation, there was a virtual filk con earlier this summer. I’d like to suggest that there would be more virtual filk events (cons or even just small filk circle type things) in the future, too, even after the covid-situation has passed. As a broke younger generation nerd from a country where filk has never been a thing, getting into the filk community 1/3

2/3 and getting to know filkers, has been very hard to me, and I feel like if there were more virtual filk events, it would be easier to me at least to meet more filkers (even if I can’t even write good poetry in English or any other language, let alone make music, I can’t play any instrument, and my singing voice is about as good as a crow’s,

3/3 so I know I don’t really bring anything into the filk community to be honest), and I’d really like that! And I’m guessing I can’t be the only one with this problem? Please tell me I’m not?

Hey Nony! I know filkers are already talking about the prospect of continuing to do online filk events after the pandemic has passed, precisely because of the wider participation they allow. Even those of us who regularly go to filk conventions have been enjoying the chance to see and hear people from farther off than we usually get to travel – and for those who almost never get the chance at all, virtual events are that much more important. Personally I’m hoping that the virtual events do outlast the pandemic, and I suspect they will.

For now, there are definitely more events planned while the pandemic is still ongoing! Here’s some ways to find them:

  • Filkstreams.org is a repository of sorts for tracking upcoming virtual filk events, including concerts, conventions, and open circles. It’s not always comprehensive but people are working on that.
  • Friends of Filk is a Pacific Northwest filk organization that hosts monthly filk circles (now virtual for the duration of the pandemic), and their website hosts a very useful event calendar.
  • F Is For Filker is a Facebook group for filkers – I’m not on Facebook so I don’t know very much about it, but it was recommended through …
  • #filkhaven is a Discord server for the filk community, and an excellent place to meet filkers. The #schedules channel there is a place where people often post news about upcoming events.

Also, to address your parenthetical, for you and for anybody else reading this who’s wondering the same thing: please don’t feel like you need to “bring something” to the filk community in order to join it! The community exists for the people in it, not the other way around; if you want to be part of it, it doesn’t matter if (or how well) you sing or play or compose, you’re still welcome.

Hope to see you at some of the upcoming events!

re: is there even a better genre of music than gay space shanty, really

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lesbianomens:

is there even a better genre of music than gay space shanty, really

randomacts13:

hey op, you got a playlist?

lesbianomens:

unfortunately i’ve only got the one, so ​if you have more, then PLEASE share

randomacts13:

Thank!! I didn’t have this one. And yeah, I’ve got more, ill pull a list together tomorrow and tag you!

randomacts13:

(I realized I’m dumb and can just add them here, I’ll still tag though, jic @lesbianomens​)

A disclaimer: As far as I know, the one you have above is the only explicitly gay filk song with recordings available online. I am 100% sure others exist!! But, I’ve not found them (if anyone has links to more, PLEASE send them my way!) SO, the songs here are ones I’ve got tagged as queer/gay/lgbt in my library, sometimes for textual reasons (Archetype Cafe, It Suits You), sometimes for thematic (noted below), and sometimes just because the #vibes are undeniable.

If there’s an ** next to a song, it’s filk more broadly, not necessarily a space shanty, but the pickins are slim and they’re all good songs. This fall mostly into the sea/space songs sub-genre of shanty (in that they would be sung when the crew is at leisure, not while they’re doing work. hence the lack of a pulling/pushing rhythm for most).

  • We’re Not Friends (The Future Has a Place) by Crime and the Forces of Evil.
  • **It Suits You by Kirby Krackle
  • Signy Mallory by Heather Alexander/Leslie Fish (written by Mercedes Lackey; not explicitly gay, but oh man the Vibes)
  • Somebody Will by Sassafrass (Look, LOOK, this song changed my life. I’m not kidding. It’s all about fighting for a future you may never see, but knowing that someone out there will live that future, again, not explicitly gay, but thematically)
  • **Archetype Cafe by Talis Kimberly (not space, but hella wlw)
  • Long Distance Transmission by @astriiformes​ (No pronouns, a song of longing and wanting someone who’s far away, hopeful and sad all at once)
  • In Flight by @idiopathicsmile​ (written by @soemily, inspired by star wars (Poe Dameron I think specifically?))
  • **I’m Your Moon by Jonothan Colton (technically about a literal moon, spiritually though? about saying fuck societies expectations and being who you are and with who you love)
  • The Seas of Space by Mark Heiman (again, no pronouns, a song about traveling out into the wonders of the vast expanse with your beloved at your side, also about helping each other through the loss of your old home, ultimately hopeful I think)

In the true sea shanty genre there are some obvious gay™ choices that could be easily rerecorded as space shanties (The Handsome Cabin Boy (warning for possible gender dysphoria issues, not sure how to tag/warn past that?), Leave Her Johnny Leave Her (technically the ‘her’ is a ship, but uh, I’ve never heard this sung as if that were the case), and Don’t Forget Your Old Shipmate, to name a few). So, if anyone out there is less tone deaf than me, do us a favor huh? There are even more if we step outside f shanties into traditional folk (which was sung on ships as well) but this post is already long enough.

filkyeahfilk:

A minor correction: while that recording of Seas of Space is sung by Mark Heiman, it was originally written by
Suzette Haden Elgin.

The only other Gay Space Shanty I can think of is Make it So by Annwn. While the lyrics aren’t *explicitly* set in space, it’s not so subtle Picard/Riker slash.

But yeah, thank you for pointing out that there are tragically few songs in this genre, I now have a document open titled “the gay space shanty project” and am brainstorming trad shanties I can adapt to fix that…

– the brain mod

A delightful commenter on our WordPress left this addition: Captain Jack and His Crew by Bob Kanefsky. (Not set in space, but very definitely a gay sea shanty).

sophus-b asked:

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What is your recommendation for non-tumblr-dependent sound hosting? I was considering Soundcloud, but if I’m reading their TOS correctly, anything that uses copyrighted elements risks getting one’s entire account terminated. To name an example, I was working on a version of Pure Imaginations based on the “World of OSHA Violations” joke, but though that *is* a parody, it’s also a copyrighted tune. Do you know of any sound hosting services that allow transformative works?

I personally have…no idea.  I use Soundcloud, but I haven’t tried putting up a parody.  Does anyone out there know?

Anonymous asked:

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Do you take donations to help support your other location?

We didn’t have a donation system before, but your question prompted me to set one up! If you want to help us keep filkyeahfilk.com hosted, you can now donate at http://ko-fi.com/filkyeahfilk.

If you want to donate in something other than Ko-fi units of $3, you can message me off of anon or through the contact form on our site, and I can get in touch with my Paypal information. [Since it displays my actual name, I’m not comfortable posting a Paypal link online for the entire world to see.]

Keeping the site online costs me about $100 per year, so if folks wanted to help offset that, I would be incredibly grateful. Thanks for asking! <3

-The brain mod