So, my friend Seanan McGuire has a song called "Pretty Little Dead Girl." It's an urban-legend tale about a '40s-era car-racing ghost, available on her album "Stars Fall Home."

Seanan is also a huge Doctor Who fan.

So, some time ago, when I misheard "It's the tale of Rose Marshall" as "it's the tale of Rose Tyler," I started planning this.

I tried performing this one at Baycon 2009, but it really needs production value, or at least an accompanist. Maybe if I had a karaoke version of the original...but in the meantime.

(I gave Seanan a copy of the lyrics at the con. She read a stanza before telling me she was going to kill me.)

"Time-Traveling Blonde Girl"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Pretty Little Dead Girl" by Seanan McGuire

( It's a very sad story... )

This is late, by the standards of when I post relative to mina_de_malfois. I blame law school.

( Case Study, Part 12 )

As much as mina_de_malfois apologizes for a slow pace, I always seem to be rushing these out the door. I've already updated the footnotes for this, so enjoy.

( Case Study, Part 11 )

It does seem to be in vogue to discuss one's LiveJournal alternatives right now. So:

I have a JournalFen account and an InsaneJournal account, both with the handle of scifantasy.

I also have accounts in a few other places, such as Blogger, but as far as active journaling/blogging sites, it's just the three journals.

At present I do not mirror any content from this account to those; the JournalFen account is for my participation in Fandom Wank and its offshoots, and the InsaneJournal account is for following a couple of friends who use it as their primaries.

I would be extremely reluctant to move off of LiveJournal; my primary motivation has always been following my friends and their posts, and I doubt that all or even most of my friends list would end up in one other place.

What this would mean, should the worst occur and the switch be thrown on LJ, is that I'd probably end up with even more accounts on journal sites, mirroring my own posts to all of them. Unfortunately, I suspect it would cut down on the interesting comments that come out of different spheres of my friends interacting. I've always said that was the best part of LiveJournal's system.

Plus, I have a lot of material on LJ. Especially when you count comments.

And finally, I really like LiveJournal's system. Threading comments, especially, with email options for replies; locking posts (I have a single friends-lock, in which a person is either in or out, and most of my posts are locked); you get the idea.

Admittedly, I have a Basic account, so I'm not in a position to complain if something does happen. Still, I really don't think I'll have to change. Certainly not any time soon.

But feel free to add me on IJ or JF.

I honestly hadn't expected a Mina story so soon after the previous, given Mina's busy schedule. Thankfully, this time, the behind-the-scenes work was obvious. I cut off before the scenes everybody thinks comes next, but that's to be expected.

Apologies to Zee's original self--who hopefully knows who he is--but this was irresistible.

( Case Study, Part 10 )

You know, I'm just glad that Mina was busy about the same time I was taking my exams...

Dedicated to the Bavarian Fire Drill Instructor, the Indy Ploy Player, the Galactic Champion of Making Shit Up.

(Seriously. A bunch of Vorkosigan songs, and an unrelated song called "I Meant To Do That"; how am I the first person to put this together?)

"I Meant To Do That, Vor Style"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "I Meant To Do That" by Echo's Children

( My cousin is a genius and a fast-talking man... )

Really, it was the thought (from the Firefly Wild Mass Guessing page of TV Tropes) of Miles as the "deadly and unpredictable midget" that did it.

Or more accurately, the commentary line: "But I had to set it on fire for a very good reason that I will explain at length as soon as I have made it up, no, honestly, Simon/Gregor/Mother!"

These are voiceofkiki's fault. And a little bit of sweetmusic_27's too. Oh, and I guess mine.

Here's how it is...Last week, VoK posted the following thought:


Still Alive: The new Banned from Argo?

Discuss.

I asked her to clarify: was this in the "everybody refilks it" sense, or the "creator is sick of it" sense? She confirmed the former.

That led to...

( Argo Banned )

And...

( Still Argo )

In a comment, though, sweetmusic_27 opined that she was getting kind of sick of the song. That, in turn, led to...

( Had Enough )

(OK, technically, I wrote "Had Enough" first, then "Argo Banned," then "Still Argo." But it works better this way in the story.)

Just when I thought I wasn't going to have anything new for the Wit's End housefilk...now, if you'll excuse me, I need that brain for exams.

No, the Case stories didn't go away, any more than the Mina stories did. They're just slow to come out when the authors get busy. And law school certainly qualifies. But as the third part of "Therapeutic Impulse" went up earlier this week, so too comes your next look at another perspective...

( Case Study, Part 9 )

Edit: Oh, and the footnotes have been updated.

"Do you think I should chime in?"
"There's half a chance in hell the pro-Dementia crowd would listen to you."
"Which is a greater chance than some of the other people discussing it would have."
"Exactly."
"Which almost says I have a responsibility."

And I take my responsibilities very seriously.

Everybody who has no interest in filk (or worse, because I know there are a couple of people, an active dislike), please skip this post.

( Filk, Dementia, Community, And You )

Of course, the flip side of my responsibility is that I have it because some of the dementia artists consider me a friend...and after all this is said and done, I don't know if that won't change.

In retrospect, the Case Study series has enough references to warrant this. I've not footnoted things which you would know from the mina_de_malfois series, though, such as sparkly vampires. If you have any recommendations for other footnotes, let me know.

( Case Notes )

It's been a few months, but don't talk to me--I write based on the mina_de_malfois stories, and as I understand it Mina has been busy.

But "Wizard's Staff" has finished, and with it comes your look on the other side of the record:

( Case Study, Part 8 )

Not long on events, I grant, but I hope it's at least entertaining. I'll note that here, I've injected a bit of myself into both Jamie and Case, especially regarding the "privileged child" issue. It's something I've struggled with myself. I may expand on this in future parts.

Tonight, for the first time in a few weeks, I discussed Metaranger with my partner in idea jchance, and even wrote part of episode 3, "Family."

I realized that I'd never posted episodes 1 and 2 for evaluation. So, here they are:

Metaranger Episode 01: "101"
Metaranger Episode 02: "Nothing To Fear"

As a reminder, here's how I summed up the "Metaranger" scripts last time:

"They were five ordinary students...until they got the Hero's Keys. Now they're the Metarangers, five different aspects of the Hero--Slayer Red, Protector Blue, Healer Green, Teacher White, and Trickster Black--and they have to defend themselves and their world from demons of fear, lust, jealousy, and far, far worse."

Basically, it's a Power Rangers/Super Sentai-style story, as created by Americans (as opposed to just adapted), with the central theme the metaphysics of heroism, and a bit more mature than the kid-aimed Rangers shows.

It'll never see television, of course--but wouldn't it be fun.

Short one this time, reflecting the abbreviated writing time. The latest Mina story was up sooner than I'd expected...

( Case Study, Part 7 )

Not my best, I'm afraid, but I want to keep it current. And I like some of it.

It's like this. cadhla is a good friend of vixyish , and one day, Vixy gave Seanan an idea--which became the song Oh, Michelle. Yesterday, hsifyppah raised the stakes by challenging Seanan with Dammit, Seanan. Seanan fired back at Brooke with Oh, Brooke, and Brooke backed off, pleading Oh, Seanan M. Watching from the sidelines, libraryraven weighed in with Clever Brooke.

My turn.

( Oh, Michelle/Seanan/Brooke/Dagain... )

In 1982, after the release of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, filker Julia Ecklar wrote a song called "Born Again Trek." In it, she cheered that she and Trekkies like her--first-generation fans who had been losing their faith in Star Trek after the show went off the air and the first movie was such a disaster--were "born again Trek fans," their faith restored by the brilliance of the second film.

I've heard many comparisons made between the state of Star Trek after the first film and the state of it today. A lot of people are hoping that the new movie will breathe fresh life into the franchise, the same way Wrath Of Khan did twenty-five-plus years ago.

So it seems only appropriate that I update Julia's anthem for a new generation.

"Born Again Trek: Reborn"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Born Again Trek" by Julia Ecklar

( I was with... )

mina_de_malfois posted her story part 3.3, but it was in the nature of a Christmas special and doesn't need a counterpoint. She then went back and did 3.2, which definitely does. This one began, appropriately enough, with its first line.

On another journal, I opened the floor for people who wanted to have cameo roles is this part, the same way that mina_de_malfois's writer did for similar roles in her story. Two people took me up, so they're in here. The third will recognize himself, as will our mutual friends; I'd apologize, but after all we've done for (and to) each other, I think it's just my basic right. *grin*

There are still places open, though, if anyone's interested...

( Case Study, Part 6 )

Note that there's something up with the Mina Fiction Archive; the maintainer added the story manually, though.

Well, mina_de_malfois has made a triumphant return to form with her latest story, so it's time to revisit Case. (I didn't put up a response to her 2.13 story, because one didn't seem appropriate.) I'll put this up at the Mina fanfiction archive later this week, once I'm home from New York City, but here it is...

( Case Study, Part 5 )

I wonder how many of you remember Orson Scott Card; he used to be an SF writer...

OK, enough Lehrer patter. Basically, for those of you who didn't know, Orson Scott Card, multiple-award-winning author of Ender's Game and Speaker For The Dead, has in recent years written about how homosexuality is a sin and should be illegal, along with several other political/religious positions which, let's just say, don't endear him to the vast majority of SF fans. Many people have said much on the matter; two of my favorites are from Aerie of Queen Of Wands and Randy Milholland of Something Positive. Most responses, I think, fall into one of those two camps.

This song comes from the Aerie side: how did someone who wrote such fantastic work about tolerance and overcoming differences become a paranoid homophobe?

"Whatever Became Of Orson?"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Whatever Became Of Hubert?" by Tom Lehrer

( Whatever became... )

I've been sitting on this one for months.

For those of you who don't know, which probably isn't many at this rate, I was a cast member on this season of Beauty And The Geek.

I'd been thinking through this filk from the time I first heard about the show, but it crystallized in the days following the first episode's airing. It's pretty short and to the point, and kind of sappy, but then, I did have a great time on the show.

I sang this at the OVFF Dead Dog filk on Sunday night. The convention as a whole knew I was on the show thanks largely to filkertom and partiallyclips inviting me up to sing "Rich Fantasy Lives" with them, so when I started, people realized where I was going to join in on the obvious line.

"Beauty And The Geek"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Beauty And The Beast" from the movie of the same name

( Television show... )

The next part of the mina_de_malfois stories takes place at a convention, and therefore, Case ends up there as well. Certain parts of this, especially some of the scenes at the room party, may seem familiar to longtime readers or close friends. To others, let's just say that while the characters of Case and Jamie may be fictional, the situations they find themselves in at this con generally aren't...

( Case Study, Part 4 )

The next part should prove to be interesting, not least because the Malfois stories have thirteen-part volumes, and whatever Mina writes next (which, of course, is what I react to) is the end of a volume...

(Again, this story has been updated at the Mina De Malfois Fanfic Archive).