For space is wide and good friends are too few.
Thank you for listening!! I started this blog to help share more filk with the good people of tumblr, and I’m so happy when it actually works
If submitting our own songs is kosher, I wrote and posted an ode to the Christmas Tree Nebula, which might count as astronomy and/or holiday filk.
it is ABSOLUTELY accepted and ENCOURAGED, thank you and Merry Christmas from one of the mods who’s not Jewish!
erdariel asked:
Hi! Sorry if this is a stupid question, but do you think poetry could be considered filk too? Because I wanna try writing some filk stuff, but I’m terrible with music, and even changing the lyrics of already existing songs so that it still works with the music seems like a bit too big challenge to me (especially in English, since it’s not my first language), but I can write poems. Not very good poems, I have to admit that, but poems anyway.
Definitely! I’ve heard a few people read poetry at filk events. Sometimes it’s a song they don’t feel confident enough to sing but want to share anyway, and sometimes because they found or wrote a very filkish poem that was never intended to be sung.
Go forth! Write things!! And there’s always a chance that someone else will be able to set something you write to music later!
goldpilot22 asked:
Do you think the song “Pioneers Over c” by Van Der Graaf Generator could be considered filk? It’s prog rock rather than folk, but it is about the first astronauts to surpass the speed of light, who then find themselves sort of disconnected from time. I suppose it’s more like speculative fiction in song form than science fiction fandom, though. Idk, that’s why I’m asking y’all.
It is if you want it to be! Because definitions are made up and only exist as long as they are useful to us. I definitely thing filk is a genre doesn’t ever need to sound folk-ish, it just often does because 1) it evolved out of the 60′s folk movement and 2) it’s an easy style to write and perform in for amateur musicians. But heck, there’s rap filk, there’s no reason there should be prog rock filk…except that prog rock typically requires at LEAST six musical instruments and electricity, and so is more conducive to staged concerts than song circles.
….but there’s plenty of filk on concert stages, with electric instruments, with the extensive arrangement, rehearsal, and setup you get in prog rock. I saw a prog rock band at a con, and while it wasn’t billed as filk, being at a con makes you basically filk.
As for whether it’s science fiction fandom music – if you’re in the science fiction fandom, and feel like it’s relevant, and you like it, it’s science fiction fandom music. That’s why songs about cats and Shakespeare are considered filk, even though they have heck all to do with science fiction. They might be pretty far removed from Star Trek, but a whole bunch of people like all of those things, and that unites them. Fandom is about the people, more than the content, in the end.
Anyway, I’d say a case can be made for calling it filk, and if you want to make that case that’s fine by me. It’s a few steps removed from what I might suggest as some kind of archetypal filk song, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t one. It’s like how a dachshund and a wolfhound are both dogs. They’re just very different dogs, and you just have to be aware that traits of most dogs do not necessarily apply to these dogs. If filk had a real dictionary definition it would have a dozen subdefinitions, and one of those would probably say “songs about science fiction concepts” and that’s this!
Ooooooh man now this is a good question. Fish is definitely your best place to start, since she’s the only one I can think of who did a full ALBUM of post-apocalyptic (and pre-apocalyptic) filk, AND THEN SOME.
Me and the brain mod went through and came up with as many as we could think of, besides everything on that album:
As always, everyone can feel free to add! I’m sure there are dozens more, at least.
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/
I just noticed we got 25 NEW FOLLOWERS in the past WEEK which is huge for a pretty small blog, especially considering…we haven’t posted much at all recently. So welcome, I’ve loaded the queue for a while in all of your honor, here’s hoping we can keep it up!
Feel free to bother us with “why haven’t you posted x yet” or “do you know any songs about y!” Sometimes we need to be poked.
I believe that was probably Terence Chua, who is from Singapore
(in reference to this post)
Unfortunately not very many, but a few! Sorry this took me like a week to get back to you; I had to consult with @animatedamerican and…I was avoiding my responsibilities, to be honest (yes, there’s a point at which tumblr messages count as “responsibilities,” somehow).
But I can point you towards Terence Chua, whose niche seems to be songs about Lovecraft to the tune of ABBA, and
Errol Elumir, half of Debs & Errol, Debbie Ohi, the flutist (and sometimes propsmaster) of Urban Tapestry, also a children’s book author, and Ariel “Abbie” Cinii, who I unfortunately can’t find any recordings of, so here’s her blog, but she did win a Pegasus Award and is also a writer.
I know there are more, because I’ve run into a few and not gotten their names, so if anyone knows any more please send suggestions! Even if it’s just “hello I am not white and into filk but don’t really perform” because that’s still filking and I want people to make friends.
xpost from my mainblog because it’s relevant, and because there’s a much better chance of me tracking down more Filkers of Color over here
Tomorrow January 22nd–time tba but probably mid-to-late afternoon Central? My voice is a little scratchy so I need to give it time to warm up.
Tell your friends!
If you haven’t been involved in this in the past, what’ll happen is that @scribefindegil will post a link to a livestream when it goes online, and you can tune in a listen, sing along, and request songs. She knows a ton of filk and folk and has an amazing voice, so I highly recommend it!