I love Filk, and a lot of it is coming from the Star Wars universe these days. The first track is Hello (From The Dark Side), the second is Leia’s Call Me Maybe, and the 3rd is Jedi and I Know It. Yes, these are all very silly, but that is a big chunk of the fun for this kind of fan creation.
Tessa Violet was known as Meekakitty when she recorded I’ll Be Your Star Trek Girl and her video of the ALL CAPS classic Don’t Unplug Me. Now she has another instant classic with Sorry I’m Not Sorry under her own name, the fist track presented here, and I have to say I love her music. Sadly, her Star Trek Girl video has been removed from the internet except for bootleg copies, so I can’t post it here. It sounds like her Don’t Unplug Me instance has some corrupt audio around the 3rd verse, but otherwise it appears to be both intact and legal, so I do get to include it. The third track of the set (and she has a TON more songs, please check them all out) is her Wizard Love, a Harry Potter Music Video that she recorded with heyhihello which should be in everyone’s collection. The final track is a bit of a tribute to Alice herself, and if you haven’t already been following Tessa Violet for years, now you know why you should be. For more, grab her songs on iTunes or pick up her Maker Shop album.
Like all good filk artists Danielle Clarke took a tune that everyone knows and added some Sci-Fi/Fantasy lyrics, in this instance all about Terry Pratchett’s DiscWorld series. I find this appropriate because NADWCon, the North American Disc World Con, takes place July 5th through the 8th in Baltimore, MD. Unfortunately the audio quality of this recording leaves a bit to be desired, So I am posting the lyrics after the video so you can follow along.
We Didn’t Start the Turtle
By Danielle Clarke
(and Billy Joel)
Twoflower comes to stay, Rincewind runs away,
Homicidal luggage and Ankh-Morpork burns.
Zoon traders can’t lie, Esk learns magic on the sly,
Death takes an apprentice and Mort’s lifetimer turns.
Spelter and Carding plot, Half-brick in a sock,
Try to make a tortoise run, and the pharoahs raise the sun.
Change the play’s murder scene, Lancre’s got a new king,
Guards! Guards! dragons fight, Eric’s demonology.
We didn’t start the turtle,
It was always swimming since the Disc was spinning.
We didn’t start the turtle,
No, we didn’t write it but we idolise it.
Ancient Leshp is waterlogged, Gaspode the Wonder Dog
Snow globes, fields of corn, Fresh Start Club
Magic Kindom far away, Chelonian Mobilé
Mica, Beryl, Shale, Nanny’s bathtub
Crop circles, bees swarm, Edward’s rampage with a gonne
Dead Punch and Judy man, Imp y Celyn and the Band
Lord Hong’s clothes chest, Red Army, unrest
Joy of Snackes, Opera Ghost, Walter Plinge’s roses
We didn’t start the turtle,
It was always swimming since the Disc was spinning.
We didn’t start the turtle,
No, we didn’t write it but we idolise it.
Golem king, clay feet, arsenic candles, Cockbill Street
Hogfather, ho ho ho, blood on midwinter snow
Captain Jenkins, sea squall, Battlefield football
Bugarup Mardi-Gras, Rincewind the Archchancellor.
Carrot and Angua, Space Ape, Breccia
Lettice Earwig, gold cup, Granny messes minds up
Igor’s dog Scraps, Brother Oats’s holy axe,
Balls of rock in motion, Blobs in the oceans
We didn’t start the turtle,
It was always swimming since the Disc was spinning.
We didn’t start the turtle,
No, we didn’t write it but we idolise it.
Low King, Dr’zka, Sybil sings an opera
New Firm, William, and Dog Bites Man
Deja fu, Auditors, saga of the Silver Horde
Spider, rat pipe, Maurice gives an extra life
Magic symbols, special robes, Elves and wizards at the Globe,
Lilac, 25th of May, what else do I have to say?
We didn’t start the turtle,
It was always swimming since the Disc was spinning.
We didn’t start the turtle,
No, we didn’t write it but we idolise it.
Tiffany, Wee Free Men, Roland Chuffley’s back again,
Hiver at the Witch Trials, chocolate nougat missiles
War in Borogravia, Stanley’s acuphillia,
Giant chicken, Mister Shine, Reading “Where’s My Cow?” on time
Rescue Summer, Winter dies, Mister Bent with battle pies
Glenda’s kindness, Brazeneck, Nutt, Trev and Juliet
Goblin slaves on foreign shores, Leap knave, jump whore,
Geoffrey’s shed with poo galore, Still the fans all scream for more
We didn’t start the turtle,
It was always swimming since the Disc was spinning
We didn’t start the turtle,
But when we are gone, it will still swim on and on and on…
Yes, it is Worldcon time again, this time with Chicon 7, the 70th annual World Science Fiction Convention. It started on Thursday, august 30th, and runs through the holiday weekend, with an incredible line up of guests and events. One of the most important events each year is the presentation of the Hugo Awards, which has John Scalzi as Host and Toastmaster, and will be held at 8PM CDT tomorrow, September 7th. If like me you can’t be there physically, you can actually watch it Live on the Worldcon UStream channel as well as on the Hugo Awards CoveritLive page. You can go to the Worldcon UStream page now and watch last years Chelsea Awards, Hugo Awards, and a quite amusing presentation of Just A Minute that had me laughing up a storm. If I had a vote of what program out of this years offerings should also be sent out live or included as a recorded online video it would have to be the Filk Opera version of Tanya Huff’s Choice of Ending.
Jonathan Coulton writes and performs some truly excellent science fiction music, including the theme song to John Scalzi’s new book, Redshirts. Scalzi liked it so much, he did his own cover of it, on a Ukelele no less. And then he recently interviewed Coulton on his Tor Press blog/podcast segment, which you should read, then go back and listen to. It is good to know there are some people having this much fun while earning their living; it gives the rest of us something to aspire to!
Lots of people look forward to holiday weekends because of the extra time you get, and fans are no different than anyone else in that respect. Give a fan an extra day or two, and they will look for a way to celebrate; one of the better celebrations is a good Con, and there are a lot of them this weekend. In fact it looks like this may be the final major weekend of the 2009 convention season, since December looks noticeably more quiet.
In Keokuk, Iowa we have KeoKon, a general readercon, with fan films, filk, Anime, and all the usual guests, costume ball, dealers rooms, etc. This one runs Friday and Saturday only.
ChambanaCon 39 takes place in Springfield, IL, and refers to itself as a RelaxCon. GoH this year is Eric Flint, and again all the usual ReaderCon events. This particular Con does seem to be heavily into Filk, with what looks to be a Con-long Filking room (Con long being Friday through Sunday).
OryCon 31 happens in Portland, OR, with Writer GoH Patricia Briggs, editor GoH Lou Anders, and several others. This ReaderCon has a lot going on.
LosCon 36 has the tag line BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE!, and that seems to sum this event up. Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes are the writer GoH’s, themes include Dress Like A Pirate Day on Saturday, there is a Steampunk Science Competition… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You will have to visit the site to see what all is happening at this one.
Steampunk also features in to DarkoverCon in Baltimore, MD. The tracks at this Con are so rich they have built four of them into the web site, and you will find the Steampunk Events in the Alternate Track. Again this is a ReaderCon, built by fans for fans. The Video schedule has some rare gems, including the 2008 remake of The Survivors, based on the 1970’s classic BBC series. They will be showing all 6 hours of season one (yes, they are making a season 2); the original was created by Terry Nation, inventor of the Daleks. Another classic film offering is Mistress of Atlantis/Siren of Atlantis/L’Atlantide (1932); the queen is the Maria of “Metropolis,” Brigette Helm. And there are so many more, and still more tracks.
SorcererCon is somewhere between a ReaderCon and a MediaCon, and takes place in San Jose, California. Their baseline statement is to complex for me to re-quote here, but trust me, this is an event you will want to be a part of if you possibly can.
TardisCon in Chicago (or if you want to be nit-picky, Lombard, IL) looks to lead the pack for this weekends MediaCons. They have a truly impressive collection of talent here, centered around the 8th Doctor TV-Movie, with Paul McGann, Daphne Ashbrook (Dr. Grace Holloway), and Yee Jee Tso (Chang Lee) all taking part. Other media guests include Naoko Mori (Toshiko of Torchwood) and Nicholas Briggs, amongst still others.
Another Fan-run MediaCon this weekend is Star Base Indy located in Indianapolis, which has been running since 1988. It started life as a Trek con (witness Garrett Wang, William Morgan Sheppard, and Deborah Downey as the primary guests), but is now expanding itself to a wider fanbase.