What's In A Name?

We had an AWESOME Halloween, but one that involved no trick or treaters. The house we are renting is in the lower foothills, which has winding streets, lots of cactus, no street lights, and no families with small children. While we missed seeing the kids (that will change next year - we just closed on our own house which is much more centrally located), we anticipated the lack of trick or treaters and that made it possible for us to host Jim Malcolm (Scottish singer/songwriter) for a house concert.

We had a packed house and then some - usually there's a 10% no show rate for house concerts, but we not only had not a single no-show, we had 2 people who had cancelled show up after all, so we were cheek to jowl but we had enough seats for all.

Jim Malcolm is one of my all time favorite singers, and he writes marvelous folk songs, so it was pretty much an ideal way to spend the evening.

I'm streamlining my use of social media - I've already cut back on myspace to the point I visit it about once every couple of months. Facebook is my main point of contact these days, and I'm getting lots of double updates on folks. I've also cut down on livejournal, so it's time to streamline my friends list here. I'm also killing my Plaxo and Shelfari accounts and may also delete LinkedIn.

Please - no one take offense if I un-friend you here - none is intended. If I have another way I keep up with you (particularly facebook), I will be using that instead.

In addition to the regular songwriting competition, OVFF also hosts an Iron Filker contest. They announce a theme at registration and you have to write the song there at the con. Although my song didn't place, I am actually quite pleased with it.

My Star
by Mel Tatum
tto: Flowers on the Wall


This eternal life, it is so different than I guessed
Nights are long, just endless stretches of loneliness
So to answer you, it’s not a life I recommend
I know that’s not what you expect, but I cannot pretend

Countin’ hours til I die
endless stars up in the sky
of but one star do I dream
that’s the one forbidden me
as the sun arrives, I slink away in secrecy
and that’s my life, for eternity

Tonight’s the same as any night, I crawl out of my lair
Then I hunt and then I feed and then I try to care
I wander ‘round from town to town, but they are all the same
At times I wonder whether I should even learn their names

Countin’ hours til I die
endless stars up in the sky
of but one star do I dream
that’s the one forbidden me
as the sun arrives, I slink away in secrecy
and that’s my life, for eternity

Well I must go, the fingers of the dawn reach for the sky
but I long for one more glimpse of sun before I die
God, I want to feel its rays caress my bloodless face
I hear it calling, so I stay here wrapped in its embrace

Countin’ minutes til I die
favorite star up in the sky
and no longer do I dream
this will be the end of me
as the sun arrives, I close my eyes, and feel its rays
and that’s the way, I greet the day

yes that’s the way, I greet the day

The theme of this year's OVFF songwriting competition was Reach For the Stars. Here's my entry (which tied for 3rd Place)

Reach For the Stars
by Mel Tatum
tto: Boy From New York City


DA’s waiting, stalker chickie
Time to decide if you’re pleading guilty
I’m your lawyer, stalker chickie
It’s time you told me the whole story

Name is secret
Okay, Brad Pitt
He’s gonna leave his wife and all those kids
And there is Ben
he married Jen
But I know he’s really, truly in love with me
Reeeaaach, oh I reeaacch for the stars
They own my heart

I’m your lawyer, stalker chickie
You need to tell me the whole story

And Matt Damon
Private Ryan
One look from him my heart goes swoony-sigh
And Tom Hanks
well, I’ll be frank
His smile it oh, my, god, it turns my crank
Reeeaaach, oh I reeaacch for the stars
They own my heart

Ev’ry time I’m in their presence,
My heart goes pitter-pat
Just like a hound dog on a scent
I follow and take photographs

Oh my god you stalker chickie
they’ll lock you up and toss the key

Then I was served
with that order
The one that said to stay away or else
It’s the wives
It’s not my guys
Do you think I’ll get a chance to say goodbye?
Reeeaaach, oh I reeaacch for the stars
They own my heart

Listen to me, stalker chickie
You’re a weirdo, crazy, loony
Hear me tell you stalker chickie
Better hope the court shows mercy

Had an excellent time at my first OVFF. Over the past couple of years, I was disappointed not to be able to make it, but I think in hindsight that was a good thing, because when I finally made it this year, I knew lots of people and didn't feel nearly as shy and out of place as I otherwise would have. I tend not to do well in large situations where I don't know people - I have a marked tendency to find all sorts of things to do on the computer in my room. But this time, I'm not sure I was in my room at all except for limited crash time. And I do mean limited. As a result, this report is going to be a bit hodge podgey and random. It also means I am not going to take the time to figure out (again! WHY won't this stick in my head???) how to do those LJ name reference thingies.

I arrived in Columbus late Wednesday night and spent most of Thursday on work-related business in town, finally arriving at the OVFF hotel sometime around 9:30pm. Checked in, threw my stuff in the room, and headed to find registration. Ran into three or four people I knew before even making it to registration. Eventually got my badge and at some point ended up in a filk circle, and the weekend was off and running.

Over the course of the weekend, I chatted with lots of friends, sang lots of songs, wrote two new songs, including one for the iron filker contest, participated in both the iron filker contest and the songwriting contest. I tied for third place in the songwriting competition! Woohoo! The theme of the competition was Reach for the Stars and I turned Manhattan Transfer's Boy From New York City into a song about celebrity stalking (I'll post the lyrics to it and my iron filker entry next). MEGA thanks to Mary Crowell for playing keyboard and helping with the vocals.

I also attended the Pegasus awards. Congratulations to all the winners, especially Bill Sutton (Stray Dog Man for Best Little Bit Country song) and Brooke Lunderville (Wreck of the Crash for Best Filk Song). Saturday night I made it through til the hotel breakfast buffet opened at 6am, at which point I ate and went to my room and fell on my face.

Primary lesson from con: still need to work on controlling the nerves. With the help of my voice teacher, my ability to hit pitches and stay on key has improved markedly. When I'm singing in the car or in my living room, there are definitely "damn, I actually sound good" moments now. But add an audience into the mix, and my throat seizes up and my range narrows to about 5 notes. Sigh.

Laughed-so-hard-I-almost-peed-my-pants moment: Bob Kanefsky's parody Friday night that is hard to describe but involved silkies and references to a pixie stick. When he incorporated "You picked a fine time to leave me, you seal" into the song, I just lost it.

That is SO wrong moment: Tie: Mary Crowell's Wing Man song and Mark Bernstein's Prometheus song.

Magical session: Sunday night dead dog in the hall. So much talent, so much wonderful music, such great lyrics, such great camaraderie. I moved only when the snake draped around the guy across from me lifted its head toward me and flicked its tongue at me and then I pretty much Dukes of Hazzard leapt over the rest of the people in the session (sorry to those who were playing at the time - I did manage NOT to let out the blood curdling scream that was bubbling in my throat).

Favorite first experience hearing: Seanan McGuire, Vixy and Tony, SJ Tucker, Mark Bernstein (apologies for any misspellings)

Favorite Please God let it happen again moment: Hearing someone perform a song I co-authored. Dene Foye (of Ghost of a Rose) and I finished our song Anne and Mary Saturday, and he performed it Saturday night. He also did Moth to a Flame that we co-wrote. If I had my druthers, I'd just write the suckers and let other people perform them. I have no burning desire to continue performing, but right now that's the only way for me to share my lyrics.

Favorite tunes moment: Sunday night, I did My Irish History, after which Amy declared "I have a Follower" and launched into an AWESOME set of reels. I have GOT to learn the first one she did.

Favorite People-So-Aren't-Properly-Appreciating-This Moments: Anytime the aforementioned Amy was playing. Good lord that woman can fiddle and I don't think people have a clue how great she is. She enhanced the performance of everyone she performed with and didn't upstage or overshadow them. The mark of a truly great musician. She ROCKED!

All in all, a great weekend.

Robbie O'Connell played a concert last night in my living room. How cool is that? A great time was had by all and we even got to hear the debut of his new song....

As I've mentioned before, my co-authored article on Gender and attitudes toward intellectual property has been accepted for publication and will appear in early 2010. A draft is available for free public download at www.ssrn.com (search for the word "filk"). Because the full article is rather long, several folks have asked if I would post a summary - here goes:

Excerpts from Does Gender Influence Attitudes Toward Copyright in the Filk Community? by Melissa L. Tatum; Dr. Robert Spoo; and Benjamin Pope

Filk is not easily classified within the intellectual property laws in the United States. Since filk spans the entire gamut from original creations to lawful or unlawful derivative works, we wondered whether there was any difference between male and female filkers with respect to copyright. We were interested both in attitudes towards intellectual property and the types of songs written by members of each gender.

We built two databases – one consisting of songs themselves and one consisting of answers to a survey. We then analyzed those databases for relationships between gender and the other elements of the database. The first of our two databases, which contained 895 songs when complete, identified the author’s gender and whether the lyrics and/or the melody for each song used copyrighted material. The second database consists of the responses to a survey questionnaire administered to members of the filk community. The survey was admittedly not administered in a scientifically calculated method.

Highlights from the Song Database. The rates of publication appear highly connected with gender. Although men and women initially published songs at roughly the same rate twenty years ago, men quickly began outpacing women in the rate of publication, and indeed, between the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, there was a sharp decline in the number of songs published by women. Despite the fact that men publish songs at a greater rate than women, there was strong evidence that females are more likely to be nominated for a Pegasus Award. It is interesting to speculate about the disparity in nominations (particularly in light of the rates of publication). With the exception of the 2003-2007 time span, men and women were nominated for Pegasus Awards in very similar raw numbers. (It is not entirely clear why the 2003-2007 time period is so very different from prior time periods. We have shared our results with the filk community both online and at conventions, and two common explanations have been proffered. The first has to do with the rise of various technologies for distributing songs (such as the internet and mp3s), giving those who are likely to be at the cutting edge of such technologies (usually males) an edge in “growing” the audience for their work. The second is a change in nomination procedures for the Pegasus awards. We think it likely that both explanations are relevant.) And the raw numbers for multiple nominations is also very similar – 19 females and 20 males were nominated multiple times. This could simply reflect either a conscious or subconscious effort to distribute nominations equally among men and women.

We can’t help but speculate, however, whether the disparity is at least to some degree influenced by the originality of the lyrics and the melody. The statistics show that the type of melody used is strongly dependent on gender. Females were more likely to use completely original melodies, while males were more likely to use a copyrighted melody or the melody of another filker . This statistic may also explain part of the disparity in publication rates. We chose Xenofilkia as the primary source of our song database because it has been in continuous publication for over twenty years with a consistent editor. The nature of its format, however, means that it tends to lean heavily towards songs that are “to the tune of” another melody; it is not set up to publish many songs with original melodies. Other songbooks, such as the GAFilk Songbook, have a format suited to and a preference for original melodies, so future studies should be more inclusive with respect to magazine format.

There is weak evidence that the originality of the lyrics used is dependent on gender, although the originality runs the opposite direction here. Males were slightly more likely to use completely original lyrics, while females were more slightly more likely to use lyrics based on another's characters or universe.

Highlights from the Filk Survey Database. For the filk survey database, we elicited four general categories of information from each responder: basic background information; the types of filk songs written, performed and/or recorded by the responder; the responder’s understanding of copyright and IP law; and the responder’s opinions about that law. For each type of information, we evaluated whether there were gender-dependent differences among the respondents.

Of the 62 responses we received, 33 (or 53%) were from females and 29 (47%) were from males. We inquired about age, length of time involved in filk, educational background, occupation, and nationality. With the exception of occupation, none of these variables was dependent on gender. Occupation, however, showed strong evidence of dependence on gender. Males were more likely to work in technical jobs.

The survey elicited narrative answers to several questions seeking information about the responders’ understanding of copyright and IP law. Among these categories, only whether all legal requirements were considered showed strong evidence of evidence on gender (males 17%, females 0%). We also explicitly asked how each responder defined “fair use.” Among these categories, only one - whether fair use includes not profiting from others' work - showed strong evidence of dependence on gender (females 63.6%, males 31.0%).

Our sampling of filk responses is too limited to derive any strong conclusions from the data. Nevertheless, certain tentative inferences are suggested by those data. Women in the filk community are more likely than men to create original melodies to accompany their lyrics, while women are only somewhat more likely to borrow from others’ lyrics than are men. Because filk is often viewed as an imitative culture, the tendency of women to depart from that ethos in creating their own melodies seems significant. It might reveal a heightened contextual sensitivity to the legal rights of others, a sensitivity also suggested by the greater number of female respondents who believed that filkers should give credit to the authors from whom they borrow, and should not record copyrighted work without permission . Similarly, female respondents were much more likely to define fair use as not profiting from others’ work, and somewhat more likely to define it as giving credit to the original author and making private as opposed to public use of a protected work.

Male filkers, on the other hand, offered fewer responses about how to define fair use, while being significantly more likely to assert that they consider all legal requirements before engaging in filk activities . That men showed a markedly greater tendency than women to borrow the melodies of others would seem to be consistent with the imitative, competitive, and satirical impulses behind filking, and may suggest that attitudes of men and women to exploiting these impulses differ in certain respects.

Male respondents, however, were slightly less likely than female respondents to make use of the lyrics of others, i.e., slightly more likely to create their own original lyrics. Some of this may depend, however, on what respondents meant by “original” lyrics. Men might have been suggesting, for example, that filk lyrics that borrow from others’ songs but transform those lyrics to some degree are “original” lyrics. Women might have been more reluctant to make that claim, particularly in light of their greater sensitivity to giving credit to other authors and their markedly greater tendency to define fair use as not profiting from others’ work.

Finally, because use of others’ work is regarded by the filk community as a distinct type of homage, common attitudes towards infringement, piracy, and other copyright prohibitions simply may not prevail among filkers, or may be significantly inflected. The
foregoing data must be viewed, at least to some extent, in the light of this communal ethos. While some filkers take a step out of the filk community by marketing recordings of their songs, it would appear that most filkers confine their activities to cons and other traditional filk settings. These traditional, insulated settings, along with the imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery ethos prevalent among filkers, suggest that filkers have crafted a pastime that they regard, quite rightly perhaps, as essentially and institutionally a type of fair use. This might account, for example, for the generally low response rate to our specific questions regarding fair use.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical study examining the types of songs written by male and female filkers and surveying attitudes of those in the filk community toward intellectual property law. It will take some time to fully digest the results, and it may even be fool-hardy at this stage to attempt to draw too many conclusions. We think it more likely that the best use of our work is as a springboard for additional empirical work targeting those areas where we found gender-related differences. Those studies should seek both to confirm (or refute) our results and to gather more information about why and how those gender-related differences arose.

Sunday I struggled out of bed at 9am (having crawled in at 2:30 and slept poorly), got myself ready, fed, and packed, and headed to my 11am panel "Survey of Funny Songs," which I was moderating. We had a neat discussion about favorite funny songs and places to find funny songs. I had gone through my iPod to find non-filk funny songs to recommend, and came up with the following list:

The Princess and The Frog by Michael Smith
Frederick's of Galilee by Jon Campbell
Dear Boss (I have conflicting info on authorship, but bedlamhouse knew who wrote it - he told me and of course I forgot to write it down!)
Oor Hamlet by Adam McNaughton
The Scottish Song by Adam McNaughton
You're Not Irish by Robbie O'Connell
The Singer by Robbie O'Connell
How Does Dennis Do It by Robbie O'Connell
The Starbucks of County Down by Neal Phillips, Greg Trafidlo and John Seay
A Fairy Story by Shay Healy
Missisippi Squirrel Revival by Carlene and Cyrus Kalb
The Devil Made Texas (words trad, set to music by Ed Miller)

I then headed to part two of the Lyric Writing Workshop, to discover the 12 folks we had Saturday had dwindled down to 4 for Sunday. I was intrigued that of the four of us, my song was the only one without a dragon. Whodathunkit? My song was Home Repair, and I got some really usefuly comments on it. Here's the song:

Home Repair
by Mel Tatum
tto: Lovely Ladies (from Les Mis)

Sheets of plywood
waiting in the drive
stacks of shingles, roofing nails
and oh dear god alive

shiny nail gun
gleaming in the sun
plug it in and turn it on
I'm on the ladder, hon

Go ahead, turn the compressor on

CHORUS: Project waiting,
hear the siren sing
power tools and shiny screws
and nuts and bolts and things
D.I.Y. a
gift straight from the gods
save some money, have some fun
whatever could go wrong?
Hear the distant sirens wail their song....

Shower head, it
trickles and it drips
got a fancy new one, it
has six speeds, it's a pip

Got a wrench, this
time I read the book
got a step stool and
some extra light so I can look

Sweetheart, did you turn the water off?

CHORUS

Ceiling fan, we
need one in the den
spent the bucks for turbo speed
so I will put it in

Get my tool box
measured, cut the hole
lined up the tools I'll need
this time I'm on a roll

Did you turn the circuit breaker off?

CHORUS


After the workshop ended, we chatted with some friends, made the rounds saying good bye, and headed back to my parents in time to see my niece's soccer game. Fencon always does such a good job - thanks to everyone involved who made it such a wonderful con!

After breakfast on Saturday morning, I headed to my reading. I shared the 10am slot with Alexis Latner, which was a really good pairing (at least from my perspective). We were half expecting no audience, and were pretty much planning to chat and catch up with each other's lives, but we actually had two audience members. I gave them their choice of one of my short stories or my forthcoming nonfiction essay on the Anita Blake series, and they opted for the essay, which led to a very interesting discussion. Alexis then read from her new novel-in-progress, which is a dark western fantasy. I was really sucked into her chapter and can't wait to read it in context with the rest of the book.

I popped into the dealer's room for a bit and then found a spot in the hallway to do a bit of songwriting (a song I've been working on for two weeks starting really percolating in the brain). I work best with white noise in the background, and this also gave me the chance to chat with folks I had not yet had a chance to visit with. And in the really spiffy weekend news, Sundara of Ghost of a Rose walked by and sat down to chat. She asked for a copy of my song My Irish History because she wants to start performing it and eventually record it. I'm still floating.

I did everntually come down to earth enough to head to the Lyric Writing Workshop taught by bedlamhouse and ladyat. They do the workshop as a two part process. On day one, we meet, talk a bit about the songwriting process, and then as a group we brainstorm topics. We then vote on a topic and proceed to brainstorm images and active verbs associated with that topic. We are then all sent forth with instructions to write a song - approximately 3 verses and a chorus - by the next day. On day two, we share what we've come up with and critique it. Last year I found the workshop incredibly useful, and this year was no different. We ended up picking DIY (do it yourself) as the topic, largely because it was the theme of the con.

Chris and I then went to grab some lunch, and I'm afraid I mentally abandoned him about halfway through lunch because my brain locked in on the tune for the song, and I was off and running with lyrics. I scribbled notes, but had to postpone the actual writing for a bit, because first I was scheduled for the Yard Dog Press road show, which went well. The con had given us only one hour, so several of us didn't get a chance to read, but I think the audience had a great time, and that's the key.

I went to bedlamhouse and ladyat's concert (wonderful, as was to be expected), but ended up skipping Bujold's key note speech to go scribble on my song. Within an hour, I had most of it roughed out. It's always a bit amazing when a song bursts forth so close to being fully formed.

Met up with Alexis and two of her friends and we headed off for a great dinner. When we returned to the hotel, Alexis and I secured a quiet corner and then finally had a chance to catch up with each other's lives. That's one of the things I miss the most about living in Tulsa - the ability to visit with friends at conventions and festivals.

I then eavesdropped on the cabaret and, when that wrapped up, headed to filk. The filk circle (and audience) were bigger than the night before, and most of the filkers at the con popped in for a bit, and some stayed for quite awhile. The only frustrating part was we had a couple of enthusiastic but not very attentive folks who kept stepping all over folks like billroper, ladyat and filkertom. While I love the egalitarian aspects of filk, there does need to be some common sense and courtesy - when ladyat and filkertom haven't gotten to perform, it's not really cool for one person to jump in to do their third song in 45 minutes.

I performed (again, in no particular order) Home Repair, Kilmainham, The Greys are Here, The Menu Song, and That Man Rolf. I originally had no plans to do The Greys Are Here, but it fit as a follower, and Casey graciously agreed to let me jump in front of him to do the song - he had stepped aside for faxpaladin, and it was pretty clear we were wrapping up and I didn't want The Greys are Here to be the last song of the evening - I took the tune for How Great Thou Art and wrote a song about alien abduction. When I finished, one person said "that's just so wrong" and another said, "as a Baptist, I am appalled. As a filker, I'm in awe." And that pretty much sums up my reactions to my song - I love the way it turned out, but everytime I sing it, I wait for lightning to strike.

Day 1

We arrived in Dallas Thursday and spent Thursday and part of Friday with my parents before heading to Fencon on Friday afternoon. We arrived a little after 3pm, got checked in, picked up badges, and I headed to the 4pm panel featuring a conversation between Lillian Stewart Carl and Lois McMaster Bujold, who have been friends since they were 12 years old, having met when both their fathers were professors at Ohio State University, They were witty and entertaining and the hour passed very quickly Chris and I chatted with some friends, and then I moderated my first panel of the con - After the Vorkosiverse: Other Works of Lois McMaster Bujold. The panel description seemed to me to be targeted at introducing the audience to Bujold's non-Miles books and I prepared accordingly. I was a little apprehensive when I discovered the panel was in the main ballroom, but we drew a good size audience (and one that wasn't too large). It very quickly became apparent that 99% of the audience had already read all the non-Miles books, so I tossed my prepared questions out the window and flew by the seat of my pants. The other panelists - msminlr (who, thank god, had brought copies of all the non-Miles books, providing a great visual aid for the panel), Lillian Stewart Carl, and Kathy Sullivan were very good sports as I ignored them for a little over half the panel and did a big audience participation thing. Bujold came into the room about halfway through and sat in the back. Most of the audience didn't know she was there and I didn't let on, but I have to wonder what she thought as I led the room through a debate about which book and which series and which universe was their favorite and why (Spirit Ring, the 3 books in Chalion, and the 4 Sharing Knife books). Interestingly enough, every book and every series and every world had at least one proponent, making for a great discussion.

It was then time for opening ceremonies, although Chris and I snuck out early to go eat dinner. I went to Music Guest of Honor Carla Ulbrich's concert and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I had never heard Carla's stuff before and that woman has an awesomely wicked sense of humor. She also had a great rapport with the audience, so I bought both her live CDs.

I then alternated between chatting with friends and practicing for the filk circle - I'd had no time to practice before the con. Two filk rooms were set up - one for bardic and one for chaos, but everyone was in the chaos room. Friday's crowd was thinner than last year's Fencon, but we had a great time. Filkers included Ghost of a Rose, bedlamhouse, Luke Ski, billroper, faxpaladin, msminlr, Casey Sledge, Rick (didn't catch his last name), and several others whose names I don't know. My apologies to all who I've falied to list - my brain is still sleep deprived. Joe Giacoio also joined us at some point, and can I just say, MY GOD that man can play the guitar. After his first number, the person sitting next to me asked the question that was running through my brain - "where do you keep the third hand that allows you to play like that?"!!!

I performed (and this is not in order) My Irish History, Twitter, My New Song, Number Four Privet Drive, Urban Legend, and I'm Your Boss. This con was the first time I'd heard billroper and filkertom in person, which was a real treat. I also particularly enjoy Ghost of a Rose, faxpaladin, bedlamhouse and ladyat, Casey Sledge, and msminlr, so to have them all at one con (and sometimes all in one room) was nothing short of amazing. The filk broke up about 1:30, and I went back to my room to practice for my reading and then pretty much just crashed.

My very first peer reviewed article has just been published in the Journal of Transformative Works and Cultures

http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/issue/current

It's entitled "Identity and Authenticity in the Filk Community"

Woohoo!

We are declaring October to be singer/songwriter month (at least in our household!). We are thrilled and privileged to host two international award-winning singer/songwriters for house concerts in October. As you may already know, we are hosting Jim Malcolm on Saturday, October 31. We have just learned that Robbie O'Connell will be coming through Tucson on October 15 and have been able to arrange a rare opportunity to see him perform at a house concert. Please feel free to share this information with anyone who might be interested.

If you are unfamiliar with house concerts, they have re-emerged over the past 5-10 years as a great venue for independent singer-songwriters. These are entertainers who can expect to fill a 150-200 seat auditorium, but who find that after fees are taken out for renting the hall and the sound system, as well as other miscellaneous expenses, they make less money than they do performing for 40 people in someone's living room. The result is that both the performer and the audience get the benefit of a more intimate venue and the audience gets to mingle with the performer at intermission and after the concert. House concerts are thus essentially private parties organized as a concert. Since they are private parties, there is no ticket price, but we do ask for a donation, 100% of which goes to the entertainer.

Robbie O'Connell
Thursday, October 15, 7pm

Robbie O'Connell was born in Waterford, Ireland and grew up in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, although he is now based in the United States. Robbie recorded several albums with the Clancy Brothers, and currently tours both on his own and with his cousins Aoife Clancy and Donal Clancy. He has performed at Carnegie Hall with the Clancy Brothers and was also seen by an estimated 500 million people worldwide on the telecast of a live tribute to Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden, a performance which Rolling Stone magazine described as "breathtaking.” Reviewers have described Robbie as a "national treasure" and as "man blessed with an enviable turn of phrase and a gift for melody bestowed on only the few.” A master of songs ranging from heart-breakingly to humorous, Robbie O'Connell is a marvelous entertainer and you won't want to miss this opportunity to see him in person in an intimate setting. You can find samples of Robbie's singing on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN2s0J3Y8mc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnHn8jWUTIM


Jim Malcolm
Saturday, October 31, 8pm

For those of you unfamiliar with Jim Malcolm, he is an internationally award-winning Scottish folk singer and songwriter. In addition to his successful solo career, he also spent several years as the lead singer of the Scottish group Old Blind Dogs. Jim Malcolm has been described as "without any doubt, one of the best singers and most gifted songwriters to be found today on the Scottish folk scene," and as possessing "transcendent brilliance in songwriting and musicianship." One reviewer summed up his performance by saying "Jim Malcolm will just melt you in your seat." This year marks the 250th birthday of Robert Burns, and Jim has a wonderful, witty evening of Scottish songs and stories planned. Because the concert is on Halloween, we are encouraging (but not requiring!) costumes. We'll award a free Jim Malcolm CD to the best dressed. Jim's website (including sample tracks of his work) is at www.jimmalcolm.com and he has a music video on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-gJou3b80k and there's also some decent quality video shot at the Kansas City Irish Fest at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdDJhA7m5Zg&feature=related

Both concerts will be at our home in Tucson, which is just north of River between 1st and Campbell. We are asking for a donation of $15 per person for each concert, or $25 per person for both concerts. For more information, or to make a reservation, contact me (Melissa Tatum) at melissaltatum@yahoo.com or 520-275-3811. Reservations are required, so that we have an accurate headcount and can ensure there is a seat for everyone. We also request that you please give us 48 hours notice if you are unable to attend, which will allow us to notify any people on the waitlist of the opportunity to attend the concert.

While this is not a true story, my husband is a Twitter addict and I have been known to say "Back away from the iPhone"

Twitter
by Mel Tatum
to the tune of Lucille (as sung by Kenny Rogers)

When I sneezed at his cologne, he took out his iPhone
and he started to peck at the keys
as I kept on sneezing
I saw he was tweeting
and he was ignoring my plight
as my eyes started to blur
He said I must twitter
that your brains just came out your nose
I’ll tell those who follow
you can’t even swallow
cuz that is the kind of thing they want to know

Through gray fading vision
I helplessly squinted
and thought of his priorities
His wife is not breathing
and he’s calmly tweeting
it’s cyber crack, e-heroin
It is so addictive
He’s lost all perspective
For a minute I thought I was dead
Then I started breathing
and soon I was seething
I turned to my husband and said

You picked a fine time to twitter, you jerk
I’m aspirating and my lungs will not work
Back off the iPhone
I’ll find it a new home
I’ll shove it where the sun doesn’t shine
you picked a fine time to twitter, you jerk

Once I recovered, I grabbed for his iPhone
it was time he went cold turkey
I looked for a hammer, he started to stammer
Now I was the one ignoring
And when I had finished, it lay there all squished
I wiped both my hands of debris
I was triumphant; he stood there struck dumb
I hollered with my victory

You picked a fine time to twitter, you jerk
I’m aspirating and my lungs will not work
Back off the iPhone
I’ll find it a new home
I’ll shove it where the sun doesn’t shine
you picked a fine time to twiter, you jerk

The filking at FiestaCon was great. The number of filkers was small, but the quality was very good and I got to meet a number of filkers I hadn't known before and hear their stuff. I'm going to miss folks (and I apologize for that - blame it on two very late nights in a row in the filk room) - but filkers at the con included Leslie Fish, Mark Horning, Chris Paige, Marilyn Miller, Mary Creasey, Jenny Aronson, Lynn Gold, Bill Laubenheimer, Darren Reale, Tom Tuerff, Melissa Trible and at least three others whose names I didn't catch.

The small number of filkers meant lots of turns and I trotted out a lot of stuff I'd never performed before, including some of the serious songs I'm usually scared to try. I received several nice compliments on my lyrics (including requests for copies), and perhaps even more important at this point, some really helpful performance tips. The ego boosts are fabulous, but I know I need to work on performance issues, and the con just reinforced how great the filk community is and how happy I am to be a part of it!

And guess what was waiting in my mailbox when I got home? Steel Cage Match! Brooke & John's CD!

I just returned home from my very first SF convention in Arizona - Westercon 62, aka FiestaCon, in Tempe. I had an excellent time but that was due entirely to Gary Swaty, who was running the filk track, and the filkers who were present. The convention was poorly planned, poorly organized, poorly executed, and basically (except for filk) a giant disappointment. I am pretty much done with Arizona fandom.

Normally I put my "pro" hat on when writing a convention report. That means I report honestly but do not air dirty laundry and do (at most) mild constructive criticism. (Or at least that's what I try to do - I probably do not alway succeed.)

For this report, I am wearing my "fan" hat and my "teacher hat."

I had no plans to actually get involved in staffing or running cons here in Arizona (due to lack of time), but I did want to connect with Arizona fandom and would certainly have volunteered for a registration shift or something like that at the local cons. Not anymore. I have been involved in various stages of conventions at several midwest cons, from volunteering to concom to fan to panel participant. Never have I been treated so dismissively or made to feel so unwelcome.

Shortly after we moved here, we went to the Tucson Book Fair. We stopped by the TusCon booth to chat and see how to get plugged into local fandom. They were nice and polite, but all we got was what was clearly The Standard Spiel given to the casual walk in off the street. Even when we told them we had con experience, we got no real reaction. There was no reaching out and no welcoming us to the area. I didn't expect a ticker tape parade or anything, but I expected more than, "oh, you'll have to find some event that interests you in the local newsletter and attend." They were totally disinterested in us.

That "we are our own insular little community and outsiders need not apply" mentality was also ever present at FiestaCon. Chris and I had the con written on our calendars for several months, but it wasn't until 3 weeks ago that we were absolutely positively sure we could attend. At that point, I contacted the program chair with my credentials and volunteered to be a panel participant. I apologized for the late notice and explicitly stated that I was not looking for a waiver of the registration fee - I just wanted to participate if I could be of help.

The program chair wrote back and said sorry, they were full up on panel participants, but please come to the con and enjoy yourself. A very polite answer, but I as always, I am totally baffled by this "our guest roster is full" mentality. I was asking for NO financial breaks - not even registration - basically, I was volunteering to work for free. And in return, I would be renting a room and thereby helping them to make their room block. This costs them NOTHING. I understand if the guest roster has grown to the point that there simply are no panel spots left, but half the panels listed on the website had open seats. A quick scan of the "program participants" listed on their website showed that almost half were fans and less than 30% were writers. Of the writers, I had better credentials than about half the listed guests.

Nevertheless, they are entitled to run their convention and their guest list as they see fit. Over the next few days, I was perusing the scheduling information on the web and noticed there was a dedicated filk room 24/7 during the con. So I emailed the filk address on the FiestaCon Website and asked if there was space for me to present my academic paper on filk and seek feedback. The filk address did not go to the filk chair - it went to the con chair who wrote back and said "no." I really did need feedback on the paper, and viewed this as a good opportunity to talk face to face with a group of filkers I didn't know very well, so I posted on the filk LJ community and asked if anyone was interested in chatting with me for an hour if we could find a convenient time - we could find a quiet corner somewhere and just discuss the preliminary results of my study. At the urging of people on the site, I contacted the filk chair directly and explained the situation. He was very interested in the paper and made space for it. And I got some absolutely invaluable feedback from folks. I also ended up pinch hitting on two filk panels.

But outside the filk room, the weirdness at the con continued. (And to some degree, the weirdness was also in the filk room, because I didn't see all that many filkers there from the Phoenix community - and a couple people mentioned that a lot of Phoenix filkers weren't there. I don't know what was up with that - and I really don't want to get into filk and/or con politics, so I probably don't want to know, but the absence was glaring).

Two years ago, Chris and I went to Balticon for the first time at the urging of friends in the area. We knew very few people there, and it was a 1500 person con, but we were instantly folded in to the community there and made lots of friends. That sense of community, and reaching out to include new folks, was totally missing at FiestaCon. I did meet a number of lovely people who reached out, but with one or two exceptions, they were all California fandom. (and I must say, I am now trying to work a couple of California cons into my schedule - everyone I chatted with was so nice and we had great conversations and I really enjoyed that part of the con).

Outside the filk room, there were absolutely no panels I was interested in attending - the literary panels were all fairly generic and it was hard to figure out who was on what panel because panelists were not listed in the pocket program.

The LiveJournal community for the con was singularly useless because it was just a list of mundane announcements by the con chair - he was apparently the only one allowed to post there. Over the last couple of years, the LJ site of a con has been a great way to connect with folks, plan meet ups, and get local info, but FiestaCon foreclosed that option.

The con's website was also difficult to navigate and lots of information was hidden. I didn't know they had kaffeklatches until I got there. I love kaffeeklatches - they are a great way to have a casual chat with a favorite author or editor. I dutifully followed the rules and signed up for the three I wanted - Stanley Schmidt, Diana Gabaldon and Beth Meacham. I got a seat at the table for only Gabaldon. Apparently, the concom didn't care a rat's ass if you followed the rules and signed up - all that mattered was who rushed the table and got a seat. After I got closed out of the Schmidt kaffeeklatch, I went to the information desk and let them know that no one was checking names or cutting off the number of people. They apologized and said they'd handle it.

Snort. They way they handled it was by giving the guest a list of names and saying "this is who signed up. Someone has complained about not checking names. If you want to check names, here's the list, but if you don't mind others sitting in, it is alright with us." And they said this TO the guest IN FRONT of the fans. What the hell do you think the guest is going to say? That's an impossible position to put them in. The job of a good program chair and staff is to protect the guests. By advertising kaffeeklatches, the concom also promised a certain type of encounter with the guests (both to the guests and the fans), and when that promise is violated, everyone is the poorer. I got a seat at the Gabaldon kaffeeklatch by showing up 10 min early and rushing the table. I was 2 minutes late to the Meacham one because I stopped to help with a tech set up in the filk room. Result? I got a seat in the second row around the table looking at the back of Beth's head. I left after about a minute.

So FiestaCon - thanks for the warm and cheery welcome to Arizona fandom. You really made me feel welcome in my new home state.

Chris and I trekked up to Tempe last night for the opening evening of FiestaCon (which is also Westercon 62). With everything so crazy at work over the past month, I hadn't paid attention to who was attending. And OMG! Last night I was in a filk circle with Leslie Fish! How cool is that? (for my non-filk friends who have no idea what this post is all about - take my word for it - it was majorly cool)

Had a great evening and swapped lots of great songs.

Before the circle started, I sat on the Semi-Instant Filk panel. We had a very small crowd at first and had a bit of a slow start extracting panel ideas but eventually someone supplied the words Nocturnal, Robot and Algae. An alternative set of words was also supplied, but I was already off and running with the first and wasn't paying a lot of attention. The result?

Marvin's Song
by Mel Tatum
tto: Annie's Song (John Denver)

The nocturnal robot and the pond full of algae
He was manic depressive and he wanted to see
the green glowing carpet laying over the water
He rusted his chassis, he's frozen in place

Please help him unfreeze
Do you have some oil handy?
He is drowning before you
He needs oil right now
Look - the water is rising
soon hell be no more with us
Please help him unfreeze
Before he drowns

The nocturnal robot and the pond full of algae
He was manic depressive, now he's drowning you see
He was once known as Marvin, now he's just frozen metal
He flooded his chassis, he's Marvin no more.

I just updated my filk site with five songs - the two I posted here this week and three I discovered I had forgotten to upload.

meltatum.wordpress.com

As always, everything posted there is available under a Creative Commons non-commercial, attribution, share alike license

At Balticon, the filk circle one night started by singing silly childhood songs, and I got to thinking how many of the ones I remembered dealt with food of one sort or another. Then they got mushed together in my brain, and the result was what I am called the Menu Song. This doesn't really have a tune yet - just basically follow the rhythm of "great green gobs":

My best friends are Susie, Pam and Lizzie Jane
We live on the same street. We all hate that Elaine
Our moms made us ask her if she wants to play
so she's coming over and we'll have a party

We're serving
great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
with a side of meatball garnished with a peanut
cake made out of itsy bitsy spider bits
pureed cream of earthworm topped with some chewing gum
peeled from the bedpost.

I just saw my boyfriend with some other girl
they were in a liplock; Makes me wanna go hurl
No man treats me like I am disposable
I've been plotting vengeance, gonna cook his last meal

I'm serving
great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
with a side of meatball garnished with a peanut
cake made out of itsy bitsy spider bits
pureed cream of earthworm topped with some chewing gum
peeled from the bedpost.

Life has got a funny way of bringing joy
thought I'd have a daughter. Ended up with four boys
Love them dearly, but I think I run a zoo.
It is Peter's birthday. Can't believe the menu

I'm serving
great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
with a side of meatball garnished with a peanut
cake made out of itsy bitsy spider bits
pureed cream of earthworm topped with some chewing gum
peeled from the bedpost.

Today was a great day, musically speaking.

Before work, I had a skype lesson with my flute teacher - there's an 8 hour difference between here and Dublin, so the lesson is right before work for me and early evening for him. This was the second lesson - the first was a week ago. I've been struggling for months with my new wood flute; I just can't seem to get it under control and I've been spinning my wheels with no forward progress. With a little guidance from a great teacher, I catapulted out of the rut this week and made substantial forward progress. I do believe he was impressed. I know I was thrilled. Because not only did I make progress on the flute, I made progress in learning by ear, which has been a major bugaboo for me.

Then after work I had my very first voice lesson. I've been trying for a year to find a teach willing to work with an adult novice. I found one here in Tucson, and she not only has experience with adult novices, she has a wide range of teaching experience, AND she is familiar with Irish and Scottish music. And we isolated several things I was doing wrong, and the fixes were fairly straightforward. Woohoo.

Then shortly after I got home, a friend from Oklahoma called. I had sent him the lyrics to a Christmas song I wrote - the first time I every wrote just to the rhythm of the words, and not with a melody. I don't "hear" melodies, so I've been using traditional tunes as the basis for many of my songs. My friend hears melodies, but not lyrics, so I sent him the lyrics to see what he would come up with. I thought it was a good song, but fairly pedestrian in parts. He called to see what I thought of what he'd come up with and played it for me over the phone. I was in tears halfway through. It was SO much better than anything I've ever imagined. It was not only hearing the words come to life, it was realizing that they'd graduated from college and landed an amazing job, when I figured they would be sacking groceries with a GED. Mega, major coolness. Sniff. He's going to fine tune it and record it and send it to me over the next week. I can't wait.

Life is good.

I love Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series - and tonight this song just started falling in to place - as long as you've read a dust jacket or seen an HBO trailer for True Blood, there shouldn't be any spoilers here:

This Here's Bon Temps
tto: Master of the House (from Les Mis)

This here’s Merlotte’s the local bar
We welcome all despite who you are
You must behave, that is our rule
No starting fights or wrecking the stools
And if you are wise
you’ll heed our advice
cuz some things may not be
what they seem to be

Shifter at the bar, vampire in a booth
Oh my god, I think that he just said forsooth!
It’s a little weird, knowing that he’s dead
knowing that he watched a French king lose his head
We’re a crossroads here in Bon Temps
Everything from Were to Fey
So do not be surprised
when you find that dog is not a stray!

Check out our barmaid, Sookie is her name
She is special in a telepathic way
Serving up the beer, handling the crowd
Pickin’ up their stray thoughts when they broadcast loud
Tara thinks her date is boring
Jason thinks he’s getting laid
No wonder she likes vampires
It’s because they have a quiet brain

Eric runs a bar; Pam she helps him out
Fangtasia is fun of that you cannot doubt
Look around the room, fang bangers galore
Who needs that New Orleans or that Lestat?
We’ve got our own local vampires
That’s enough for us ‘round here
So keep Jean-Claude and Asher
Really! We don’t need them to appear!

His name is Bill, he’s back in town
it’s been awhile, he roamed around
they’re after him, his blood to drain
but thanks to Sookie, he is okay
Sookie’s head o’er heels
words they don’t convey
She really does not care
What her friends will say

[note: skip musically to last verse]

Sookie and the Vamp
Setting tongues to wag
You would think that no one here had ever shagged
Vampires are real, time to readjust
Southerners must let loose of their prejudice
Some vamps they are going mainstream
they’ve achieve a life long dream
They are drinkin’ that True Blood
Even if it tastes like crud!
You cannot deny that life in Bon Temps is forever changed!