Brenda Sutton, of the filk group "Three Weird Sisters," wrote a song called "Mama's Hands." It's a pretty song about a woman who realizes that as she grows up, she starts to sound a lot like her mother--and maybe her mom was wiser than she thought as a teenager.

I was thinking one day about whether that song could be gender-swapped...and realized that it could, and what it would be. This came out.

I just now performed it on the main stage at OVFF, with Brenda and her husband Bill in the audience. They (along with most of the room) were in stitches.

“Father’s Words”
by Will “scifantasy” Frank
ttto: “Mama’s Hands” by Brenda Sutton

( Today while commuting some moron cut me off... )

I didn't spend all that much time at Arisia with shadesong this year; she was busy, I was busy, and that's the way things go. I'm given to understand that she continued the spread of the Gospel of the Y.T., though.

In one of the few times I did see her, Sunday or Monday, this popped into my head. I came up with the first verse, and she asked me (and slipjig, but I don't know if he did) to run with it.

This is dedicated to everybody who has to ask, "is there gluten in this?"

"Celiac"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel

( Celiac... )

...a new filk. This one came to me recently.

Quick backstory: in the last few years, the waning economy has caused some upheaval in the anime licensing and distribution industry, especially here in the US. A year or two back, Geneon Entertainment shut down its US operations entirely. They're still a major force in Japan, mind. Then, last month or so, A.D. Vision Entertainment, one of the first and biggest US operations for importing, licensing, and distributing anime, sold its assets to five other companies in a complicated deal that sounded like a switcheroo on its creditors (since the five buying companies were ones in which ADV's owners had stakes).

Most of the anime properties licensed by those two companies have seen their licenses bought by another company, Funimation Entertainment. If anybody can be said to be the big winner here, it's Funimation.

Hence, the song. "NGE," for the record, refers to the infamous anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, which was one of ADV's first and biggest titles...but whose "rebuild" series has been licensed by, who else, Funimation.

"ADV (Now Funimation)"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by Nat Simon (original words by Jimmy Kennedy)

( NGE is now Funimation's... )

In the coming days, expect more actual content (behind the normal friends lock, of course), including an expansion of something I said on Twitter:

"Perfect 10 Magazine is the zombie mine canary of copyright law. When it comes alive (files suit--it's sued Google and Visa), the law is bad."

I almost feel too embarrassed to post this. (Almost) It's literally been over four months since the corresponding mina_de_malfois story went live. All I can say is, the end of April wasn't a great time for me for obvious reasons, and then I was caught up in other things. But with Mina returning this week, it's only appropriate I try to play catch-up.

So, this story and one more are due (this one corresponding to 3.10, and the next to 3.11), and then I'll try to get something going for when Mina finishes 3.12.

Amusingly, the first line of this was the same one I'd thought up back when I first read 3.10, freshly thought up this time around.

( Case Study, Part 13 )

So, my friend Seanan McGuire has a song called "Pretty Little Dead Girl." It's an urban-legend tale about a '40s-era car-racing ghost, available on her album "Stars Fall Home."

Seanan is also a huge Doctor Who fan.

So, some time ago, when I misheard "It's the tale of Rose Marshall" as "it's the tale of Rose Tyler," I started planning this.

I tried performing this one at Baycon 2009, but it really needs production value, or at least an accompanist. Maybe if I had a karaoke version of the original...but in the meantime.

(I gave Seanan a copy of the lyrics at the con. She read a stanza before telling me she was going to kill me.)

"Time-Traveling Blonde Girl"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Pretty Little Dead Girl" by Seanan McGuire

( It's a very sad story... )

As much as mina_de_malfois apologizes for a slow pace, I always seem to be rushing these out the door. I've already updated the footnotes for this, so enjoy.

( Case Study, Part 11 )

Dedicated to the Bavarian Fire Drill Instructor, the Indy Ploy Player, the Galactic Champion of Making Shit Up.

(Seriously. A bunch of Vorkosigan songs, and an unrelated song called "I Meant To Do That"; how am I the first person to put this together?)

"I Meant To Do That, Vor Style"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "I Meant To Do That" by Echo's Children

( My cousin is a genius and a fast-talking man... )

Really, it was the thought (from the Firefly Wild Mass Guessing page of TV Tropes) of Miles as the "deadly and unpredictable midget" that did it.

Or more accurately, the commentary line: "But I had to set it on fire for a very good reason that I will explain at length as soon as I have made it up, no, honestly, Simon/Gregor/Mother!"

No, the Case stories didn't go away, any more than the Mina stories did. They're just slow to come out when the authors get busy. And law school certainly qualifies. But as the third part of "Therapeutic Impulse" went up earlier this week, so too comes your next look at another perspective...

( Case Study, Part 9 )

Edit: Oh, and the footnotes have been updated.

In retrospect, the Case Study series has enough references to warrant this. I've not footnoted things which you would know from the mina_de_malfois series, though, such as sparkly vampires. If you have any recommendations for other footnotes, let me know.

( Case Notes )

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.