[Bards] Dream? What Dream? Did you see a Dream? I know I didn't!

[Lou Burgin]

My Dear Sir Kenneth,  Even though I agree about "bad filk", I must put another side to things.  The particular song you referenced, I heard the filk first. I had never heard of Stan Rogers until I was told where that song came from.  The song in and of itself is not grossly mundane unless you know the original.  I understand your point of view, but everyone has their own yardstick of "acceptable" mundanity. Yours is obviously shorter than mine.  You know that I love you and Adelaide, so I hope I am not sounding too critcal. I am just presenting the other side of the coin.  Thanks for letting me share.  H E AmberLea
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ken Theriot 
  To: 'Ansteorran Bardic list' 
  Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 12:55 PM
  Subject: Re: [Bards] Dream? What Dream? Did you see a Dream? I know I didn't!


  <Their mundaneness then trickled down into our humble camp via many others where it proceeded to fight us for our own suspension of disbelief.>

   

  I feel I must jump in here as the above statement relates directly to our craft.  For me, bardic performances have provided some of the few golden moments in my SCA career (over 20 years now.uggh) when I felt the "magic" of being lost in that long-ago we come to the SCA to find.  So even though not all of my performance pieces are intended to do that (The Feast Song, for example, is meant to evoke a magic of another kind.laughter), one thing I try REALLY hard to do is NOT snap people out of their suspension of disbelief.  That is the ultimate no-no as far as I'm concerned.  So this is why Adelaide and I are so against the fairly common practice in the bardic community of "bad filk."  Notice I didn't say "all filk."  To me, creating a bardic performance from a blatantly modern song is what snaps me out of my "suspension of disbelief."  Go ahead and filk other original SCA songs, no problem (as long as you credit the original composer/author), and filk unknown tunes, or heaven-forbid, filk to a period tune.  But please, please, please STOP filking to Stan Rogers Songs, or top 40 songs.  NOTHING brings me out of the dream faster than a filk to "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," or "Take me Home Country Roads."  And since in my mundane life, Stan Rogers was like a god to me, I was horrified to hear "Northwest Passage" filked (and using many of the same lyrics of Stan's song!!!) in Ansteorra!  Talk about a dream killer.

   

  So while we are calling for the halt of the dream-killers, let us also look to our own craft to bring this about.

   

  Kenneth        

   

   


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  From: an angel in black ink [mailto:angelinblackink at yahoo.com] 
  Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 8:02 AM
  To: ansteorra bard list
  Subject: Re: [Bards] Dream? What Dream? Did you see a Dream? I know I didn't!

   

  Thank you for your kind words, Elanor, it means a lot to me for you to say such things.  

  Now, Svetlana, I feel that I must clarify for you.  I'm not wanting to change the way 

  people play, I just want them to play.  You see, I've stumbled upon Laurel camps filled

   with people talking about their mundane jobs and such and been so turned away from

   the dream that I had to leave and return to my own.  Their mundaneness then trickled

   down into our humble camp via many others where it proceeded to fight us for our own

   suspension of disbelief.  We eventually won but my point is that we need to pay

   attention to what we're doing or we might ruin it for others.  Also, there have been a

   load of people bringing the mundane into our game *cough* 'mod squad' *cough*

   which ruins it for many people who don't give a damn about why they're mad at 

  so-and-so.  The politics are getting out of hand.  People are getting turned off by the 

  vast freakiness of it all.  (example:  "I believe this, but I can't say it because it'll tick off

   <insert name(s) here and they'll make my life a living hell for it.>")  It's ridiculous.  Even

   now there are those who will speak privately but do not post their feelings here.

   

   

  Yes, there are people who are deep within the Dream and perhaps I am a bit jaded by

   all the silliness, but these people need to share their Dream with those who don't know.

    I said it in my Work, to be without blame is nearly impossible while being a part of the 

  community.  We have a responsibility to see that the next generation of SCAdians know

   what we really are instead of a bunch of NERO nerds squabbling over political crumbs.

   

   

  To live the Dream and to help others,

   

  Xue XianXian, Miscreant at Large

    


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