mneme | Entries tagged with fandom

I do try not to write in anger. Mostly.

But since I got blindsided by the most -smug- pro-harassment, pro-puppies song in a while today...wel, this came out.

A Pack of Lies
Joshua Kronengold
may be sung to the tune of Stan Rogers' "Lies"

At last, the con is quiet for a year,
The worldcon held in Finland, too much fun for pain and fear,
The filkers, sharing new and ancient verse,
The concourse filled with sales and games and lots of fan discourse,

Sure was a bitter couple of Worldcons for a while,
Some trolls tried to take over using cheats and hate and guile,
They thought they could pay money for our prize,
And tricking fans by posting wicked lies!

All lies
All those trolls are telling wicked lies,
Lies all lies
They have no shame for their disgrace,
If you disprove their story, they revise,
Their pack of wicked lies!

Are Hugo nominations ruled by TOR?
That was their story; somehow we don't hear it anymore.
Are they just fans just wanting to have fun?
They always seem so angry when the ceremony's done.

Each time the story changes, like Rashamon it sounds,
Like they think they can't lose if they keep giving runarounds,
But every time they give the game a try,
Why can't they post a better class of lies?

Those lies,
All those trolls are telling tired lies,
Lies all lies
They have no shame for their disgrace,
If you disprove their story, they revise,
Their pack of tired lies!

And now the pack have come around again,
This time they say they're being banned for what they think and when,
It's "censorship" that now ignites their fears,
Well we've been hosting everyone for over fifty years!

Your politics don't matter, if you are here for fun,
Your passion for SF should let you blend with everyone,
But if you come in hate, say your goodbyes,
You're banned for breaking rules, and not your lies,

Those lies,
All those trolls are telling themselves lies,
Lies, all lies
They cannot think they've lost their place,
So when they see their losses, they revise,
Their foolish little lies.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Lies, by Stan Rogers (in my head)
Crossposts: https://mneme.livejournal.com/97591.html

drcpunk and I will be at Chessiecon. I'm running music, so I'm not sure how much attention I'll have to spare, but still, it should be fun.

Also, we could use lifts. We're arriving at the train station (Baltimore Penn, natch) at 10:37pm on Thanksgiving, and the light rail isn't running by then. We can take a cab, but a lift would be better, if available.

And going back, we're on a lovely 4AM (almost) train, Which is a minor, if soluble problem, as there's no light rail that late and Penn Station closes for an hour between 2AM and 3AM [for cleaning]. We can finesse this if we need to; there's a walkable Korean restaurant that's open until 4AM that we used last year for this purpose; however, if anyone has a better plan, I'd love to hear it [one where we get to sleep? Even better!)]

Current Mood: tired
Crossposts: http://mneme.livejournal.com/87290.html

The music schedule for Chessiecon is pretty solid at this point. I'm taking some risks, but I think it will be fun, and that the con will be awesome.

Some hilights:

Tom Smith. Because.

Batya. In, and out of the Funny Things (with Merav).

-Five- sometime members of Clam Chowder, doing their thing in, and out of the music room. Including Don Stallone, who hasn't been seen for...quite some time.

Familiar. Who I've never heard in person(that I know of), but sound -damned- good.

Glen Raphael, Gary Ehrlich and Roberta Rogow (because I do actually want filk on the menu).

The Usual stuff (filk circles, including a moderated 2pm Friday one; the Halelujah Chorus, caroling, Moggy, Ellen James, Sarah Pinkster, and, of course, an insturmental jam).

More lobby performance than you can shake a stick at. Because it's always good to have a choice about where to go.

There -may- end up being too much music. (is there such a thing?) There won't be too little.

If you don't have anything else you're doing on Thanksgiving Weekend this year, it's worth doing.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://mneme.livejournal.com/86916.html

Where to find me at Lunacon (unless it changes), next weekend:

Saturday:
10 AM: Lost in Fanslation (Moderator) (Discussion of where/why/why not/pitfalls, etc of watching anime (and if I have anything to say about it, reading manga) in fan translations).

11 AM: History Repeats: Revisiting Old Skool Games (Tabletop RPG focused--older systems worth playing, older worlds worth revisiting using newer systems)

1 PM: Adapted Songs Circle (this category is so open it hurts, but it'll be pretty easy to follow, at least)

3 PM: If I Ran the Hugos (No smofs here, no sir :)

Should be an interesting day.

Current Mood: anticipatory
Crossposts: http://mneme.livejournal.com/85336.html

I just said I probably wouldn't do a Conterpoint report. Which would be shame, as my Conterpoint was Packed With Things. So this is a small (probably) con report. I will miss things! I will skip things!

( Also, it's not actually that short. )

Crossposts: http://mnemex.livejournal.com/82601.html

Had a short dialogue with

gundo on the nature of fandom, coming out of my musing on running a con (did I mention? No, I didn't--yet--but I'm running a con, and it will be -fabulous-) and occasionally having to -un-delegate, which I figured was worthy of wider distribution. "mneme" is, naturally, yours truly.

mneme: I have very mixed feelings towards the hotel/guest liaison positions, as having someone focused on making the hotel/guests happy = good, but having another step in the game of telephone between the rest of the concom and these ever-important externalities = bad

gundo: at a larger con, I believe those are necessary, but the size of the NE cons...

mneme: Indeed. A larger con also has a larger pool to troll for someone with the combination of knowledge and proactiveness you really need for a good liaison. But they also have (potentially, anyway) a lot more guests, and not a presumption that most of the concom already know some or all the guests.

gundo: Well, and at the larger cons the guests aren't part of the larger family, whereas here they are

mneme: Indeed. Well, sometimes they aren't--but filk overall is a much smaller community, and, yes, we pull guests from that community rather than across a (however artificial) "pro" barrier. (something that sf fandom in general also resists, but..it gets complicated).

gundo: Very complicated

mneme: Yes. In general, fandom favors GOHs who are part of the fannish community, if on the pro side. But there are exceptions--and someone who is fan/pro and treated as such in one area is still going to be a superstar in another where they're less well known.

gundo: Well, there are a lot of us who are in the filk community who are pro in some way

mneme: Indeed. The filk community -also- has a pro/fan barrier, although it's even thinner than in literary fandom for a number of reasons. But with the exception of segmented GOH items like the GAFilk "Super Secret Guest", we don't even -think- to pull from outside the community (if often Pro-side people known and known to be within the community ). This is, I think, because Filk defines itself as "within the filk community" -- whereas sf defines itself primarily as "within the dialogue of science fiction" and the literary fandom/convention-going communities is within and appreciative of (as well as in dialogue with) the larger community.

gundo: Right...there's that definition of filk as community, vs filk as style or content

mneme: *nod* It's very telling. And I think a lot of that -is- dialogue. Something is part of a folk tradition if and only if it is in dialogue with other things within that tradition -- just as a work is genre sf only if it is in dialogue with the body of sf works (and when a sf work gets written that is -not- in dialogue with the sf genre, this is often painfully obvious).

gundo: As long as there is ongoing dialogue, then yes, it works

mneme: Indeed. A one-sided "dialogue" can go south, very quickly, particularly when it's perceived differently from both sides.

mneme: Ah, true. And yeah, the whole dysfunctional fannish community thing can be...bad. Some of that is that different people can have really different idea of what a community, well, means.

gundo: Yeah, that's true as well

mneme: Particularly when you're looking at communities built out of geography vs ones based on association and common interests. I mean, one of the reasons that Merav and I are pretty good choices for leadership in the NYC filk community is that we're both in close dialogue the the more global filk community, rather than mostly/primarily in the local area. But that also means we'll have some closer relationships with people across the country than ones with some of those in the local filk community.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Crossposts: http://mnemex.livejournal.com/82410.html

I'm apparently on a fair amount of programming at Lunacon (despite the program not, you know, being up even on the day the con starts; yay organization and new software and non-redundant medum-sized groups).

Stuff I'm on :

150 The Life of a Filker Brundage I Filk Sat 10:00 AM Duration: 01:00: I'm dropping this. 10AM is TOO DAMN EARLY, plus I'm on too much on Saturday as-is.
Food Songs Filk Circle Brundage I Filk Sat 12:00 PM Duration: 01:00: This could be fun! But I'm definately going to need more people showing up, as Amy and I can only trade food songs back and forth for so long.
53 What are "Euro" Games and How Do I Get Involved? Elijah Budd Gaming Sat 1:00 PM Duration: 01:00: This sounds like it will be a blast. Between Perianne, Kevin, and YT, we should have stuff covered and a good vibe; I don't know Tim Rogriguez by name, but with "games" in his email address he should have something to add.
80 Online Fandom Migration Birch Fan Interest Sat 4:00 PM Duration: 01:00: This should be fun; a bunch of us have been on since antideluvian times. That said, we could really use, given the panel description:
More people (on the panel or in the audience) with a wider experience (Deviantart, maybe? Or deeper Google+ experience than I have?).
And we -really- could use someone from the fanfic side of the force, as the panel description talks about that but we don't currently have any panelists who are fanfic writers (I've written some fanfic -filks-, but that's not the same as being part of the online fanfic community). Anyone?
159 Travel Songs Circle Brundage I Filk Sat 7:00 PM Duration: 01:00: Just me and Amy again -- help? There are a lot of great travel songs, though.
163 Ghost Songs Circle Brundage I Filk Sat 10:30 PM Duration: 01:00: Lisa and I are moderating this, and we -can- just sing ghost songs for an hour if we have to. Hopefully, we won't have to. :)
73 EReading Device Petting Zoo Maple Fan Interest Sun 1:00 PM Duration: 01:00: I'm curious as to how this will go. I have a (rooted) color Nook, and can talk about calibre, conversions, and, of course, buying stuff online; it sounds like we have a good variety, but I -might- be motivated to pick up a larger tablet before the con just for funsizes (this would be really silly, but stranger things have been known to happen). We'll see how much this is a talking thing vs a "let peopel try stuff out" thing.

So, who's making Lunacon? And...anyone up to helping out for the online communities panel (talk to Kate Nepveu if you are willing to be -included- on the panel, as she's moderating it).

Current Mood: busy
Crossposts: http://mnemex.livejournal.com/81370.html

Keeping with long tradition, I'm not going to writeup Confluence, Gencon, nor Worldcon. (The statue of limitations has probably passed on Origins, Contata, and Dexcon)

But I guess I should say something about them. So...

( These aren't writeups! Really! Ok, mabye a little )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: home
Current Music: the hugos
Crossposts: http://mnemex.livejournal.com/74656.html

Lisa and I are not -actually- doing a grand tour--but we are doing enough cons this ye\
ar that one could argue it anyway. Spring cons included Lunacon(Rye, NY), Concertino \
(NEfilk Massachusets), Origins (Columbus), Dexcon (NJ), Intercon (Mass.), Balticon (Ba\
ltimore), and this past weekend,

drcpunk and I took a quick flight over to L\
ondon to make HarmUnu (and Unicon in general, as we did have non-filking UK friends in\
attendence). (and in terms of trips, I suppose I have to count my cruise with

pocketnaomi to Alaska, with Seattle on the way).

It was great. Expensive in both money and energy, of course, but much fun and we got \
to both reconnect with old friends from that side of the pond and meet and chat with n\
ew friends. I even got a few games in.

This coming week, naturally enough, we're planning on taking a train up to Montreal t\
o attend Worldcon.

And we -hope- to also make PiCon this summer...not that we've planned for it even a li\
ttle bit--it just sounds fun.

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).