Elise Matthesen

 I took yesterday off from filking, and will be taking today as well.

Things just hit me harder this hear, for Reasons.

Back soon.  Much love.

Neil has this on his journal, which Mike wrote in 2003:

Real short, that is.

(Shorter things take a lot longer to write than longer things. I say this in much the same spirit as one apologizes for the length of a letter because one hadn't enough time to write a shorter one. But the lure of being more exacting is worth it.)




As always, my thanks to communal_creators for the impetus, encouragement, and fun.

As has been my recent practice, this filk is written for communal_creators, which is full of lovely creative people having fun. Yay!

I am getting this in after midnight because Reasons. Also, I am in a bit of a mood, so what you get is truly obscure, and might not hit anyone else's bone of amusement the way it hits mine. Also, I miss John Brantner, who would be truly horrified but also probably amused by this. We sang at his house. In the words of the round written by Sherry Wohlers Ladig:

Let us sing a round together
In all seasons willing are we
Every other Sunday to meet with friends and
Raise our voices in harmony
Who's the master of the measure?
In this house who keeps the key?
John Brantner, John Brantner, John Brantner, John B!

Brantner, of course, declined to sing what he called so self-centered a final line, so he substituted:

All sing soundly, all sing roundly, soundly roundly is the key!

For which he was immediately dubbed the Obstinato.

Anyhow, none of that is in this filk, except that John Brantner and his fellow singers introduced me to "Sweet Day" or Laudibus, a setting by Ralph Vaughan Williams of the poem Vertue by George Herbert. This filk is, strictly speaking, a filk of the poem, as the musical version is shortened by one verse, but hey, it still could be sung with the second verse restored. Anyhow, here; there are dead people I miss singing with, and some of them would gently tease about goth tendencies, or about my fondness for the Sabine Baring-Gould version of "Now the Day Is Over," or my love of the Gounod setting of "All Praise To Thee My God This Night" and they'd tell me how they "could practically see Marguerite mounting up to heaven!" and so forth. Anyhow, here. I wrote a filk to a song about death and life, so of course it's a goth filk. I wish those friends were still around to tease me about it, but the older one gets, the more of one's friends join the choir invisible.

Sweet Night, or, Very Very Goff

Sweet night, so deep thy velvet black
The robes of darkest midnight sky
My mordant mood’s worn on my back
So goth am I

Black rose, thy hue somber yet sharp
Bids careless laughter cease its cry
And on harmonium and harp
Sings all must die

Dark road where the shadow composes
The solemn path on which we ride
Our wardrobes show we have black clothes-es
All must be dyed

Only a true and morbid soul
Can love both candle and the moth
Songs must have endings to be whole
Then truly goth


Here's a link to the Vaughan Williams arrangement, with a score card so you can know the players: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAYvC9j29Qc

Anyhow, this is the fifth filk for communal_creators which is being a lot of fun so far.

My Favorite Shells
to the tune of “My Favorite Things”
dedicated to Sharmon of SWF Beach Life on YouTube

Sharmon like shelling and when she sees seashells
She gets excited somewhere there might be shells
She’s in the water or up on the sand
Showing us treasures she holds in her hand

Hello there, beach friends! She wants to invite us
To see shells and critters she hopes will delight us
Shark eyes and murexes, olives and drills
Florida fighting conchs bring on the thrills

Find her on YouTube especially on Sundays
SWF Beach Life can make your days fun days
So if you’re ready to see what’s out there
For us today, she’s got seashells to share

You need shelling
You need beach time
It’s within your reach
Just tune in to Sharmon
She’ll take you along
Oh yes, let’s go to the beach!


This is my filk for the third day of communal_creators which is turning out to be good fun. Also, this time I started earlier in the day by at least a few hours. :-)

For Communal_Creators, I wrote a filk on the WGA strike:

Why We Need Writers
(tune: The Sounds of Silence)

In the spring of ’23
We saw the AMPTP
Offer no contract satisfaction
Writers voted to take action
And the words of strikers were written on the picket signs
(spoken: “Now I Am Become the WGA, Destroyer of Corporate Greed”)
Creative minds
Is what you find in writers


The heat was ninety-plus degrees
When Universal sheared the trees
No more shade there for the picket
The City Council told them to stick it
And the words of the strikers were written on the picket signs
(spoken: “Pencils Down ’Til Pay Is Up!”)
Our favorite lines
Who thought them up? The writers


And from the east to west we saw
Ten thousand picketers or more
From Netflix down to Paramount
Plus more actors than you could count
Then SAG-AFTRA came and brought their picket signs
(spoken: “Temba! His checks blank!”)
So get behind
The actors and the writers


“Fools!” said AMPTP
We’ll outwait you, wait and see!
Wait ’til writers lose their housing!”
That’s the plan they were espousing
But the words still filled the picket signs
(spoken: “Hey AMPTP! We have a few notes for you!”)
Out you will find
If around you try to F with writers


More than nineteen* weeks to date
(Not as long as ’88)
And the picket signs keep coming
Studio execs keep bumming
As the words of the strikers are written on the picket signs
(spoken: “I Told Chat-GPT to Write a Picket Sign and It Sucked”)
Like they’re designed
To show why we need writers


* at the time of writing, Friday 15 September 2023


I am too tired to remember how to post the link to communal_creators https://communal-creators.dreamwidth.org/ or to put in the tags and all. It's been a really fierce few days/weeks/months here, and I'll come back and put them in after I'm rested. But I wanted to see if I could still do this.

I tried to make the syllable count match the original, line for line, EXCEPT for those final three sung lines (and the interpolated spoken line), and I have commentary about how unsingable the original is in terms of scansion. But I matched it because I love you all, and you should have to wrestle with it like I did. :-)

Also, I sat down to write my filk at a little after 10:11 tonight. On a midnight deadline. Without having chosen subject yet, or song to filk. (That's the "this" I meant when I said I wanted to see if I could still do this.)

There are various works, amusing and otherwise, that I want to have resident here, so this post is a reminder to post them. I'll make the links below live when I have done so.

That Musical Pastiche Thingy for Neil's Party

This was because Mike wrote a goofy little play based on a typo in the invitation to Neil's Guy Fawkes Day party, and then all heck and amusement broke loose. Mike's was Guys and Dolls, and it's gorgeous. We sang it through at the party. Mine was from various corners of Gilbert and Sullivan, and contained a version of that "Apprenticed to a Pirate" song (which instead of confusing pilot with pirate, confused magicians with munitions) that contained the lines

"... they feared his flubs would bury 'em
He blew up three of the faculty
And the brand new school aquarium"

.. because of course we had to get the fishies in there due to the barrels of herring. (Mike did a thing where "they tried to blow up Parliament with gunpowder disguised as barrels of herring" where his characters tried to blow up Parliament with gunpowder, disguised as barrels of herring, and I can assure you they were fetching in those barrel costumes. Fetching what is another question entirely.)

More will be added as needed.
Well, more or less. One must leave certain options open.

Bottle of Klein
Fill it with wine
But is it inside or outside my
Bottle of Klein?
Either is fine
It won't matter after you've tried my

Bottle of Klein
Lovely design
There isn't anywhere I can hide my
Bottle of Klein
Look and you'll find
The whole universe is inside my

Bottle of Klein….


(I blame Brother Guy for mentioning Klein bottles recently. There will probably be more verses.)
(And there are more verses.)

Bottle of Klein
Tricky design
Puddles appear when I've tried my
Bottle of Klein
Drinking the wine
Gravity must have defied my

Bottle of Klein....

Well, I still have a few things in progress that aren't done yet, so I'm giving you a favorite oldie. This is about Lois McMaster Bujold's hero Miles Vorkosigan, and I wrote it back in '96 to make Lois smile and also to make Pat Wrede go *snrch* at the verse about obfuscation actuarial. It worked, too, in both cases, which made me very happy.

The Accidental Admiral

He is the very model of an Accidental Admiral
Familiar with the frying-pan, the fire and the free-for-all;
He’s chummy with the Emperor — won’t let him get morose again –
And when the intrigue starts to wane, just call in Miles Vorkosigan.

He’s very well acquainted, too, with matters of security;
The overwhelming menace in his motives is their purity;
His hyperactive habits are believed to be incurable,
But actually they’re useful, for they make him pretty durable.

He’s very good with justice and occasions magisterial
And he’s a Vor that one can trust with matters quite Imperial;
So whether it’s a picnic, an invasion or a free-for-all
He is the very model of an Accidental Admiral.

At moments of excitement one can see him flailing frantically
(It’s possible in combat but it’s likelier romantically)
He idolized Elena and was hoping he could marry her
But didn’t know her warrior ambitions were a barrier;

He brought in Trainee Taura, who is like a Wookie Amazon
(He got her into uniform but likes her with pajamas on)
His ship’s so full of women you’d mistake it for a nunnery –
But one where all the sisters are superior at gunnery.

Some think that he’s a Vorish twit, effete and egotistical,
Some feel for him a reverence that borders on the mystical,
But whether it’s in fealty, in fieldwork or a free-for-all,
He is the very model of an Accidental Admiral.

Subordination’s difficult — he’s had all he can stand of it –
But point him at a problem and he’s sure to take command of it,
And as for plans alternative he’s sure to have a million.
His little mind’s so devious, he croggles Simon Illyan.

And Illyan’s who receives the tales of matters mercenarial,
In masterful reports of obfuscation actuarial,
For Miles is mayhem’s magnet — this conclusion’s ineluctable –
And Simon is considering a hike in his deductible.

So when it comes to mercenary’s luck and synchonicity,
From galaxy to galaxy, from war to infelicity,
You’re bound to find Vorkosigan a grinnin’ in the free-for-all:
He is the very model of an Accidental Admiral.