Joshua Kronengold

This was written this morning, with an idea popping up as we set up for
working on our Band Scramble set. It almost certainly wouldn't have been
finished if it had not been for the enthusiastic help and encouragement from
my insta-band mate, Dawn Jackal.

Hold On
Lyrics: Joshua Kronengold, with help and encouragement from Dawn Jackal, to the tune of "Calm Down," by Kathy Mar

Musicians have invaded, they're everywhere you look
And they speak of each performance from a music theory book
They rant of broken measures, rave of substitution chords
I'd love to find some way say I don't know all those words

Hold on, it's only pitch and rhythm,
Hold on, it's only G and A
Hold on and speak to me in English
Please realize, I'm a filker, and that I just want to play

They sit around for hours as I'm sure you've seen and heard,
But though the music's nice, we cannot understand a word
With meter, modes, and intervals, time: broken, cut, and whole
You work each piece of music 'till it starts to sound like coal
The theory group is growing and the hour may not be long
Before you need doctorate before you sing a song
I'd rather be a maverick and just sing what sounds good
Than have to make my music sound like others think it should

Hold on, it's only pitch and rhythm,
Hold on, it's only G and A
Hold on and speak to me in English
Please realize, I'm a filker, and that I just want to play

One day I'll study theory -- get a doctorate or two,
And throw it all away to talk like normal people do,
I'll make a music language that is clear, concise, and clean,
With terms derived from English and that says just what I mean

Hold on, it's only pitch and rhythm,
Hold on, it's only G and A
Hold on and speak to me in English
Please realize, I'm a filker, and that I just want to play
Please realize, I'm a filker, and that I just want to play

I instafilked the verse of this during one of the chocolate parties for Contata. Only finished it up just now, though (ok, it could get a spoken bridge and another verse or two. But without a lot more good jokes, why?

---

Chocolate Tonight
ttto Sondheim's Comedy Tonight

Something that tasty
Something that's racy
Something euphoriac,
Some chocolate tonight
Something that's sweeter,
Something that's bitter
Something thobromine
Some chocolate tonight

Nothing that's fruit, nothing that's sour.
Mabye a cute thing made with some flour.

Something enticing,
Maybe some spicing,
Tastes that will make your mind take flight
Hamburgers tomorrow, chocolate tonight!

---

And since I mentioned it, you all are going to Contata, right? It's in just under 3 weeks, June 20-22nd. With Heather Dale as GOH, Tom Smith as Toast, Nate and Louise Bucklin as IFGs, and Crystal Paul as listener guests...not to mention attendees like Mike Whitaker--it will be a too much fun to package in just one weekend.

I suppose this counts as "folk processing" my own song. AKA editing it! I changed a bunch of scansion bits that were were bothering me, though I left the double-length "our hearts sound" in the alternative chorus as onamonepia.

The tune, btw, is pretty similar to Acts of Creation...but not quite (and the chorus tune is different)--as a whole, derivative of a whole bunch of different common tunes. Which fits the theam well enough, I suppose.

( To save your friends page, I'll cut tag this one. )

To catsittingstill's tune Wings, about a character from Catherine Valente's _Orphan's Tales_ novels...

A princess she once was, before she was changed,
Her form made quite monstrous, from rescue enstranged,
Fur on her skin,
given parts -- bird to stoat
Under her wings is a coat

And another insta -- this one to Jordin Kare's "We Sail for Amber" about Zelazny's blockbuster:

We shop for amber,
We have lots but we need some more
We shop for amber,
As we hunt on the dealers' floor.

Hold fast to Amber,
As it warms in your hand so nice
Pay cash for Amber,
As we bargain for half the price.

I'll do some byreq journaling once I'm back. In the meanwhile -- Lunacon has been a touch small, but fun. Friday, I did the "sex & writing" track, then latenight filk. I'm sure drcpunk will have a better summary of the former, but the only thing I wrote down was Jacqueline Carey saying that the reason she put the Signal (ie, the safeword) into her novels was to underscore and emphasize the importance of consent in bdsm.

Today, I played "An UnConventional Odyssey", an excellent 2 hour larp where I got to play the other side of (nearly) every phone call in the game.

Wandered for a bit, then got a few hours of Race for the Galaxy (still fun, but gaming was still pretty lame overall at-con, with nearly no games being played I wanted to play other than those I brought with me).

After dinner (mediocre buffet, but very, very yummy deserts -- a clotted cream-like confection in a chocolate covered wafer cup, delicate small cinnamon cannolis, a surprisingly good cheesecake, and a lovely, not at all cloying lemon pie) we did Esther Freisner's very silly opening party for her novel _Nobody's Prize_ -- very silly greek themed carnival, from which we took home four stuffed sheep (one from the Kalisti raffle).

Then another panel, and a lot more filking. Filking has more or less broken up, at 3:40 or so, but we had a lot of songs (and I got to deliver the above instas).