After my post about music, I received indignant feedback about the lack of information about filking. Filking is apparently the ancient art of taking existing music – traditionally folk but it’s crossed over into other categories – changing the words to make a geek song. I’d heard the word ‘filking’ before the national convention in June this year, but I didn’t know what it meant. At the natcon I started my learning journey.
Here are some examples of filking I’ve found recently. The first one was linked by Boing Boing and everyone is linking the second so I can’t remember who linked that first. I first saw it early yesterday morning when only about 200,000 people had seen it
The below songs are probably not filking but I’m including them anyway.
This is NSFW and could cause offence to some people.
Thanks to Chloe Webber (@LustfulSloth on Twitter) for reminding me of this filking gem from Weird Al
Update: More geek music also thanks to @LustfulSloth on Twitter
Wednesday night there was a fundraiser for Bernard Caleo’s graphic novel in Melbourne project that needs funding for post-production. I couldn’t attend this event, sadly. Important links for this project are here and the below video
On Thursday night I went to see Christopher Paolini at the Anaetheum Theatre in Melbourne. As the Wheeler Centre seems to video tape these talks – and I paid for my ticket, no media pass – I decided it was a night off and didn’t take my camera. It was also really wet and I was using public transport. There was no video camera in sight Braiden recorded and wrote up the talk, although he missed the cartwheel on stage. Christopher signed my copy of Inheritance but, as I said, no camera.
On Friday night we saw Yunyu in concert. In my interview with Yunyu I mispronounce her name AGAIN and she doesn’t correct me -_- I discovered on Friday that the correct pronunciation is like ‘yoohoo’ but with an N and Y in the middle, so Yoonyoo.
Having cleared that up, the minion and I chatted a bit to Yunyu who is very personable, not at all creepy like her stories. When Yunyu went to get ready, we settled down to watch the acts. It was a packed performance schedule with DJ Chiara, Aleeoop and Amanaska appearing before Yunyu.
I should probably point out here that I don’t know enough about the music scene to comment on the music intelligently, so I’m not going to try except to say I enjoyed all the performances.
Aleeoop
Aleeoop was a duo, the above guy singing and another guy who played the trumpet sometimes and sometimes appeared to be playing the laptop although he could have been playing an instrument behind the laptop. I enjoyed the singing although some of the instrumental sounds were a tad high for me – just personal preference. I tend to flinch in certain registers.
After another break with the DJ helping us relax, Amaneska was up next. Amaneska is a trio, although they don’t always play with the full set.
Amaneska
When the woman joined them, her husband (the singer) commented that she is pregnant as if excusing her or something. There was a dissatisfied rumble through the audience at this, with one brave soul expressing our concern: ‘SO??’ The explanation was given that she can be a little clumsy and she was having the didgeridoo moved so she didn’t trip on it.
Amaneska duet
During performances with Amaneska and Yunyu, a cut-out was used as a projection screen
amaneska projection
After another DJ break, Yunyu came on stage, singing both old and new songs, all of which seem to be twisted retellings of fairytales. Seriously, Once Upon a Time, Snow White and the Huntsman – you’ve missed the boat and missed the point. The little match girl becomes a sex worker, Dorothy is a cosmonaut, Blue Beard is a priest who abuses women and children and more. Yunyu’s stories are short and pointed, sung with great expression, counterpointed with anime-inspired video.
Yunyu
To see the anime that accompanies Yunyu’s tales, look on Youtube
Yunyu’s tee-shirt has scan-able symbols to enable access to extras online. Even the stamp that marks your entry at the door scans in for extras before midnight. For more information, go to Yunyu’s website. More Dark Matter photos here.
On Sunday I went to the Comic market at Carnegie Library where a lot of familiar faces were hanging out, talking comics and even selling out. More photos here.
If you know enough about SF culture to be visiting this website I’d be really surprised if you’ve never seen or heard of a musical number in Buffy, Xena or the Simpsons. SFX compiled a short list of musical numbers that are weirder or more unexpected than even the traditional musical episode, but the weirdest and, in my opinion, the least known, is the last on their list. Gene Roddenberry was part way through watching a recently filmed episode of Star Trek: Next Generation, this birthday song surprised him
When they did something similar on the set of Doctor Who it became an instant web-wide phenomenon, but Next Gen was filmed back in the dinosaur days. The below video was made to mark the end of the David Tennant era.
Late last year I interviewed Yunyu, an anime-inspired musician developing musical stories with Queenie Chan. The audio version of the interview will go online as soon as the minion has time.
Yunyu is performing at these venues soon:
Friday 22 June, Revolver Upstairs
With Amanaska & Aleeoop
229 Chapel St, Prahan
Tickets: $12 + BF/ $15 Door
Saturday 30 June, Carriageworks
245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW
Tickets: $25/ $20
Update: Yunyu’s second Twisted Tales, Bluebeard, is here
At the national convention it came to my attention that some people have missed out on some awesome geek culture. Here are some videos you must see. If you like The Guild or want to hear more, don’t miss my interview with Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo) and Jeff Lewis (Vork) here
Gamer Girls and Country Boys
This is Felicia Day’s latest, from her Geek and Sundry channel on YouTube.
I’m the one that’s cool
This is a song from The Guild, a joint project with Felicia Day, the Guild team and Jed Whedon.
Game on
This is the second song from The Guild, where Zaboo tries to convince Codex to play. The Bollywood style is awesome and note the 8-bit props.
Do you wanna date my avatar
This is the first Guild song.
The Guild Sells Out
After being accused by some of selling out because they accepted sponsorship from Microsoft, the Guild did a Christmas special. This is the intro, from which you watch the ads for each item based on the Guild’s characters.
UPDATE: Ben McKenzie: what, no filking? No TMBG? No Jonathon Coulton? …fancy a follow up article?
And before Dr Pants, I interviewed the Jane Austen Argument. I don’t have authority to put that interview up as an audio file yet, but the text interview is in issue 9 of Dark Matter here
I looked up TMGB and was so unimpressed, then realised it was TMBG…
I refrained from posting this when Ray Bradbury died, but I think this is geek music. Definitely NSFW.
“Yunyu hasn’t just created music, a movie, or something else, she is creating an experience.” – Brice Fallon, Critical mass blog
Yunyu [a former triple j unearthed winner] has teamed up with New York Times #1 Best Selling Manga Artist Queenie Chan and leading animators to create a twisted adult storytime, where Pied Piper comes back as a cult leader, Little Matchgirl has a drug habit and Dorothy isn’t lost in Kanas, she’s lost in space.
Merging live music with cutting edge technology, this innovative show will be brought to you by Yunyu, her six piece band, live VJ and designer Imogen Ross. Twisted Tales will lead you down the yellow brick road to a universe so twisted that you’ll need a trail of breadcrumbs to find your way home.
Maurice Sendak, author of Wild Things, died age 83
Vale Maurice Sendak. My family had a hard cover copy of Where the Wild Things Are when I was a child; I enjoyed it and I think my brothers loved it to death.
An interview with Maurice Sendak
Dark Matter offers condolences to the family, friends and fans of Maurice Sendak.
Insurgent is the sequel to Veronica Roth’s Divergent, one of the best dystopian fiction books from last year. I’m currently reading Insurgent and this morning I discovered this book trailer.
Battleship: the movie
This io9 article anticipates the movie Battleship, explaining that it’s meant to be a fun summer movie with lots of explosions. They’ve put aliens in this movie because there aren’t many forces in the world could take on the US Navy.
Today’s tentacled goodness
New SF end-of-the-world TV series
JJ Abrams is creating a new SF TV series where the energy has all gone. If this promo features the central characters, I think he’s got too many to make it work effectively. While Game of Thrones has successfully followed numerous story-threads, some people complain that they can’t keep track of all the characters; this series does not have the advantage of being a best-selling series of books from a much-loved author, nor is it made by HBO. Don’t get me wrong: I want more SF on TV so I want this or any other series to succeed. http://www.starburstmagazine.com/tv-news/2471-tv-news-jj-abrams-ends-the-world
Late addition to today’s post: Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game, homophobia scandal I haven’t read any of Orson Scott Card’s works yet although numerous people have recommended his series. His novel, Ender’s Game, is being made into a movie to be released in 2013, starring Harrison Ford, Abigail Breslin and Ben Kingsley. A scandal has been percolating on the internets, gradually coming to my attention through comments along the lines of ‘if the movie’s producers are gay, it’ll be put into development hell’. Not a quote, but more or less what I recall seeing earlier today when I didn’t have a clue. This facebook rant by Jessica Amanda Salmonson seems to have been well-researched. I followed a link or two to find articles like The Hypocrites of Homosexuality by Orson Scott Card. I can’t comment due to lack of personal research, but I’m very concerned about the destructive potential of any homophobic message.
Comic Book artist – Loulou’s Art Loulou does amazing fanart in a variety of styles. To see more than just the one image below, visit her facebook page here Felicia Day does Steampunk Cosplay photoshoot The cake is a lie – Portal Cake Best Iron Man Cosplay EVER
Felicia Day does Steampunk Cosplay photoshoot The cake is a lie – Portal Cake
Best Iron Man Cosplay EVER 