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, tisonlyherself 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).

I'm just posting left and right today, aren't I?

Here's the delayed (blame the Ren Faire) third part of my mina_de_malfois story, "Case Study," wherein Case and Jamie meet in person, and Case gets his mission, should he choose to accept it...

(As usual, the story has been updated at the Mina de Malfois fanfic archive as well.)

( Case Study, Chapter 3 )

Here's chapter 2 of the mina_de_malfois story. Thinking about it, it's probably a good idea to be familiar with the original stories, because otherwise you'll be missing context. Like, who Judy and Nancy are--though they have different names in most of the main story anyway. *grin*

( Case Study, Chapter 2 )

The board game Pirate's Cove has twelve rounds, referred to as days. When the chez_turtle crowd realized this, it was inevitable...

"The Twelve Days Of Pirates"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank, Reuven ryvex, chelona, xydexx, rigelkitty, and justpoet
ttto: "The Twelve Days Of Christmas," trad.

( On the first day of pirates... )

I do not apologize.

For those of you who don't know, I've been a huge fan of the mina_de_malfois stories since almost the beginning[1]. The Malfois stories are an elaborate, and affectionate, parody of fandom in general and the behavior of some Big Name Fans in specific, in the style of the P. G. Wodehouse "Jeeves And Wooster" stories. The two main characters are Mina, a talented (if somewhat vain) BNF whose real life is substantially less impressive than the one she has built for herself; and Archivist12, the maintainer of the fanfiction archive Penn'd Passion who makes Havelock Vetinari look like a bumbling amateur. While I'm sure the stories are far more entertaining if you're familiar with Wodehouse, fandom, or both, my small knowledge of the latter and zero of the former has never stopped me from enjoying them immensely.

It was a line in the recent "Mina de Malfois and the Outburst of Grief," though, that got me thinking about a story. In this one, Mina has plans for her virtual property in the Second Life-esque Sanguinity Online, but finds that she can't implement them in time. She commiserates with Arc, who, Mina reports, "did, however, pass my request along to some sort of Sanguinity coder, who must have been awfully good."

This got me thinking. Knowing what I know about the major and minor personages in the story, what must the coders be like? Before I knew what I was doing I was writing scenes.

This is the prologue and part one of the story which grew out of that question. It's tentatively titled "Case Study," but I welcome recommendations for a better name.

( Case Study, Prologue And Part One )

[1]I first learned of the stories when the second one was posted.

Incidentally, as promised, I've recorded Fugue For Hallows. It may be found at:

http://www.stwing.org/~wmfrank/music/fugue.mp3

Enjoy.

This one hit me on the drive from DC to New York, and I realized I had to do it before someone beat me to it. Nothing like being stuck in a car to force you to rhyme...

Spoilers for Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows.

( Fugue For Hallows )

(And yes, when I get back to DC and my computer, I'll consider recording it.)

I lost all respect for Ray Bradbury when he decided to complain about the title of Fahrenheit 9/11, but this is just insulting.

"Oh, no," cries Bradbury. "Fahrenheit 451 isn't about censorship! It's about television!"

Right. Uh-huh. Sure. So, Mr. Bradbury, about this coda, written by you, in 1979...

"'Shut the door, they're coming through the window, shut the window, they're coming through the door,' are the words to an old song. They fit my lifestyle with newly arriving butcher/censors every month. Only six months ago, I discovered that, over the years, some cubby-hole editors at Ballantine Books, fearful of contaminating the young, had, bit by bit, censored some 75 separate sections from the novel. Students, reading the novel which, after all, deals with the censorship and book-burning in the future, wrote to tell me of this exquisite irony. Judy-Lynn Del Rey, one of the new Ballantine editors, is having the entire book reset and republished this summer with all the damns and hells back in place."

(Emphasis mine.)

Nice try.

See, the only thing I can think of is, when you wrote that coda, censorship was really a game of political correctness. You write at length that you will not bow to a group which doesn't like your portrayal of them: "If Mormons do not like my plays, let them write their own. If the Irish hate my Dublin stories, let them rent typewriters."

I can't help thinking that now that censorship is the provenance of the side you tend to support--besides your idolatry of our current President[1], you didn't have a leg to stand on by complaining about title theft[2] so I have to assume you didn't like the politics of Fahrenheit 9/11[3] and decided to do what you could to muddy the waters--you have a choice between retracting the novel and declaring that maybe those people you support aren't always right.

Nice to see your principles are so consistent: my guys can do no wrong, truth be damned.

[1]Of President Bush: "wonderful. We needed him. Clinton is a s***head and we're glad to be rid of him." --Salon, 2001. Ironically, the linchpin of his support was "now we can get some education reform." I doubt No Child Left Behind is what Ray had in mind.
[2] Or would you like to justify Something Wicked This Way Comes and I Sing The Body Electric?
[3] I thought it was a bad movie, plain and simple, but that's a different matter...

In honor of today's bonehead move by LiveJournal staff, as chronicled on liz_marcs's LiveJournal, a filk.

"The Strikeout Of 2007"
by scifantasy
ttto: "St. Gertrude" by Arthur Sullivan (better known as "Onward, Christian Soldiers," lyrics by Sabine Baring-Gould)
Spoken part patterned after "Casey At The Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer

Onward, Inn'cence Warriors, fighting your good fight,
Don't mind breaking eggs because they think they're right.
Consequence ignored with deniability;
They claim absolutely no responsibility.

Onward, Inn'cence Warriors, fighting your good fight,
Don't mind breaking eggs because they think they're right.

Six Apart is silent, won't explain their case,
Have the advertisers taken users' place?
Won't explain their actions, will not say a word.
Hiding behind legalese so they will not be heard.

Onward, Six Apart-ers, getting paranoid,
Bowing to this pressure, users they avoid.

Fandom Wank is busy, going to explode,
I bet JF's servers can't take this much load.
Older grudges settled, members all unite,
Each one of them could be wrong, but this just isn't right!

Onward, Fandom Wankers, mocking everyone.
Best way to stay sane is to try to have some fun.

Some are out there talking, like Lizabeth Marcs,
Trying to make fire from the smallest sparks.
All the rest of us should simply vote with cash,
Pulling out our funding, might the servers crash?

Onward, Journal users, though it drives us mad,
If we just do nothing, are we not as bad?

SPOKEN:
Oh, somewhere in this Internet the pings are flowing free,
The fic is written somewhere, and it's only fantasy
And somewhere fact and fiction are as stark as in and out
But there is no joy on LJ - the Abuse team has struck out.

I finally found the time and recorded my Re Your Booze filk. The guitar tracks were provided by Geordie Keitt, who I met through partiallyclips, and to whom I am very thankful.

http://www.stwing.org/~wmfrank/music/booze.mp3

I've been sitting on this one for a day or two.

I came up with the central line of this one, appropriately enough, during a run to a VABC (Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control) store during MarsCon, but the scene I saw was one from my college days (all of last year)...

Imagine you and your roommates are putting together a small party. Nothing big or elaborate: a few friends, some food, drinks, music, a good time had by all. Then, a knock comes on the door, and there stand fifty frat boys with pleading looks...

As with my other filks, this one will eventually be recorded. But this time I'm going to wait until I have a novox recording of the music--a friend is providing that, and once he does, I'll record this...

( All We Wanna Do... )

lady_neon, whom I've been friends with for years, has come to me with a passionate plea. She works for Collie Rescue for the Carolinas, and they've just gotten a real heartbreaker of a dog in need of some major surgery.

I could go on with a sob story, but I won't. It's not my story to tell, for one. And I know that money's tight all over. And...this isn't just about the one dog. It's about all of the dogs CRC has saved.

So I'm just going to say...if you have any spare cash, throw it to a good cause, please?

Thanks.