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02: What Is Filk, Plus Bonus Song Lyrics

I thought I'd have my first, non-introductory, post be something kind of fun. There are a lot of legacy bits and pieces of fandom that aren't being carried into modern fandom. This isn't usually due to a lack of interest. It is usually due to a lack of exposure. Filk is one of those niche items. When I went to a convention full of nerds and performed filk in their talent show; my co-performer and I had to educate the audience on what filk was before we sang. What is filk? According to the Fanlore site, “Filk is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom. The genre has been active since the early 1950s, and played primarily since the mid-1970s.” Filk can be any style of music and about any geek oriented topic, including cats. Most filkers I know define filk as anything sung in a filk circle. A filk circle is like a drum circle with more guitars and fewer drums. The hippie ratio at some conventions might be similar. Some filk uses th...
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15. Quarantine Stream of Consciousness

We sure are living in historic and challenging times. Millions have been confirmed ill. Millions more have gone unconfirmed. Hundreds of thousands have died. The worldwide economy has ground to a halt in a way that hasn't been seen since the Great Depression. Billions are under stay at home or quarantine orders. People of all kinds are using this to gain advantage. Authoritarian regimes are tightening their grip. Populists are feeding off the chaos. Capitalists are scraping up every free bit of cash. Criminals are preying on peoples' fears. Personally, I'm in a pretty privileged place and I acknowledged that fact. I get to work full time from home and have only taken a minimal pay hit. My family has always maintained food and supplies storage. That's a lesson we learned from my grandparents who survived the Great Depression in the rural Midwest and has prevented us from having to try to stock up all at once. I have friends who can sew and have made me a lovely selecti...
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11: No Shit, There I Was - Political Edition

I've been told by a lot of people that I have a lot of "no shit there I was" stories. Not all of my encounters with politicians, famous people, or weird situations were accidental. I sought out a few of them and here are a few of those stories. I mean, I did intentionally show up and throw rotten fruit at President George H. W. Bush when I was in high school. ActUp was having an AIDS protest at an event he was having local to me and asked folks to show. So, I did. This was before the world of Patriot Acts and extreme paranoia. Hell, there wasn't even a legal structure for dealing with domestic terrorism. That didn't happen until the Oklahoma City bombing. We were considered rude, but within our legal rights. Our rotten fruit wasn't considered a security threat, just a hygiene issue. I don't think I hit him, but I'm pretty sure that a few Secret Service guys had a hell of a dry cleaning bill. Also in high school, I'd made personal enemies with a...
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