W. Randy Hoffman (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} mrgoodwraith) wrote,@ 2008-04-17 14:09:00 |
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Filk history recap, Confluence play update, more Pegasus Best Song thoughts
Thanks to everyone who posted comments on my "Recent filk history" entry; that was very helpful, and my presentation was better for the refinement and additional info. (I actually ran out of time at the end of the meeting, but that was partly because I was late getting there.)archiver_tim has asked whether I'll be collecting that info into a permanent document to share with the community; while I'm theoretically interested in doing so, I don't have the time right now, and I don't have a website to post it on if I did (at least not yet). So, might be a while.
Tonight and tomorrow night are set aside for major surgery on the "Girl in the Firefly" script. If I can't cut its length by at least a quarter, and sharply reduce the number of characters, costume changes, props, fight scenes, and choreography involved, "Firefly" will not be performed at Confluence this year. We've received permission from James Morrow to do his play "Come Back, Dr. Sarcophagus" -- which would be a North American premiere for that script -- but, though it's not a musical and has a much smaller cast, it poses challenges of its own (especially in regards to makeup). I dunno, the Confluence play might have to go on hiatus this year.
Although "Uplift" must win, I also want to talk about three other Pegasus Best Song candidates that I will be suggesting in the Brainstorming Poll:
"Wonder" by Chris Conway (unclechristo) is a beautiful, haunting piece that fits my idea of exactly what an SF/fantasy love song should be. The version on his "Alien Salad Abduction" album has marvelous co-vocals by Jodi Krangle and is marred only by a single slightly off violin note; I said "Pegasus Best Song!" to myself the moment I first heard it.
"Vow" by Darren Zieger (darrenzieger) has a knock-your-socks-off rhythm and musical arrangement and is easily the strongest entry on Darren's "fair to partly surreal" album. Its lyrics are somewhat muddy on that recording, but are still clear enough to be peggable as profound and potent (gotta love alliteration!); the song is like a driving multi-part mantra of commitment to Preserve All That Is Good. It labors in undeserved obscurity because Darren has been able to make very few if any conventions in the past few years (though he'll be performing at Confluence this July) and the song would be almost impossible to do justice to solo anyway; also, "fair to partly surreal" is not well mixed, not terribly memorable as a whole IMHO, isn't carried by filk dealers, and has to be ordered through CDbaby. I highly recommend seeking out that song anyway.
"Small Designs" by Barry Childs-Helton (min0taur) is another haunting number, almost the opposite of "Uplift" in scope: Whereas "Uplift" fêtes grand processes on the scale of civilizations, "Small Designs" celebrates subtlety, nuance, and order on one hand, and impermanence and chaos on the other, on the human to subhuman scale. Lyrically dense, it seems very aware of how fleeting and possibly illusory any meaning it might have will be; the closest I can come to encapsulating it is "a wistful romantic musical restatement of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle." It also shares an interesting feature with several other compositions I love, including "Moonlight Serenade" and Vince Guaraldi's "Samba de Orpheus," of returning heartbreakingly and almost existentially to their main theme following a rising bridge, like (to reuse Camus' famous analogy) Sisyphus putting his shoulder back against the rock to start another push. Most of the recordings of this number are less than ideal for one reason or another, but I think there's one on the FKO album from the year when Barry and Sally were inducted into the Hall of Fame that came out very crisp.
For its sheer inventiveness and musicality, I used to nominate "Toxic Swamp" by Kenny Young and the Eggplants for Best Song all the time, despite its being a comic number. Unfortunately, I've resigned myself to the fact that however much I wish it were otherwise, Kenny & Co. don't really have any interest in filk or its community, so I don't nominate them for our awards any more.
Thanks to everyone who posted comments on my "Recent filk history" entry; that was very helpful, and my presentation was better for the refinement and additional info. (I actually ran out of time at the end of the meeting, but that was partly because I was late getting there.)
archiver_tim has asked whether I'll be collecting that info into a permanent document to share with the community; while I'm theoretically interested in doing so, I don't have the time right now, and I don't have a website to post it on if I did (at least not yet). So, might be a while.Tonight and tomorrow night are set aside for major surgery on the "Girl in the Firefly" script. If I can't cut its length by at least a quarter, and sharply reduce the number of characters, costume changes, props, fight scenes, and choreography involved, "Firefly" will not be performed at Confluence this year. We've received permission from James Morrow to do his play "Come Back, Dr. Sarcophagus" -- which would be a North American premiere for that script -- but, though it's not a musical and has a much smaller cast, it poses challenges of its own (especially in regards to makeup). I dunno, the Confluence play might have to go on hiatus this year.
Although "Uplift" must win, I also want to talk about three other Pegasus Best Song candidates that I will be suggesting in the Brainstorming Poll:
"Wonder" by Chris Conway (
unclechristo) is a beautiful, haunting piece that fits my idea of exactly what an SF/fantasy love song should be. The version on his "Alien Salad Abduction" album has marvelous co-vocals by Jodi Krangle and is marred only by a single slightly off violin note; I said "Pegasus Best Song!" to myself the moment I first heard it."Vow" by Darren Zieger (
darrenzieger) has a knock-your-socks-off rhythm and musical arrangement and is easily the strongest entry on Darren's "fair to partly surreal" album. Its lyrics are somewhat muddy on that recording, but are still clear enough to be peggable as profound and potent (gotta love alliteration!); the song is like a driving multi-part mantra of commitment to Preserve All That Is Good. It labors in undeserved obscurity because Darren has been able to make very few if any conventions in the past few years (though he'll be performing at Confluence this July) and the song would be almost impossible to do justice to solo anyway; also, "fair to partly surreal" is not well mixed, not terribly memorable as a whole IMHO, isn't carried by filk dealers, and has to be ordered through CDbaby. I highly recommend seeking out that song anyway."Small Designs" by Barry Childs-Helton (
min0taur) is another haunting number, almost the opposite of "Uplift" in scope: Whereas "Uplift" fêtes grand processes on the scale of civilizations, "Small Designs" celebrates subtlety, nuance, and order on one hand, and impermanence and chaos on the other, on the human to subhuman scale. Lyrically dense, it seems very aware of how fleeting and possibly illusory any meaning it might have will be; the closest I can come to encapsulating it is "a wistful romantic musical restatement of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle." It also shares an interesting feature with several other compositions I love, including "Moonlight Serenade" and Vince Guaraldi's "Samba de Orpheus," of returning heartbreakingly and almost existentially to their main theme following a rising bridge, like (to reuse Camus' famous analogy) Sisyphus putting his shoulder back against the rock to start another push. Most of the recordings of this number are less than ideal for one reason or another, but I think there's one on the FKO album from the year when Barry and Sally were inducted into the Hall of Fame that came out very crisp.For its sheer inventiveness and musicality, I used to nominate "Toxic Swamp" by Kenny Young and the Eggplants for Best Song all the time, despite its being a comic number. Unfortunately, I've resigned myself to the fact that however much I wish it were otherwise, Kenny & Co. don't really have any interest in filk or its community, so I don't nominate them for our awards any more.
