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... )

In 1982, after the release of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, filker Julia Ecklar wrote a song called "Born Again Trek." In it, she cheered that she and Trekkies like her--first-generation fans who had been losing their faith in Star Trek after the show went off the air and the first movie was such a disaster--were "born again Trek fans," their faith restored by the brilliance of the second film.

I've heard many comparisons made between the state of Star Trek after the first film and the state of it today. A lot of people are hoping that the new movie will breathe fresh life into the franchise, the same way Wrath Of Khan did twenty-five-plus years ago.

So it seems only appropriate that I update Julia's anthem for a new generation.

"Born Again Trek: Reborn"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Born Again Trek" by Julia Ecklar

( I was with... )

I've been sitting on this one for months.

For those of you who don't know, which probably isn't many at this rate, I was a cast member on this season of Beauty And The Geek.

I'd been thinking through this filk from the time I first heard about the show, but it crystallized in the days following the first episode's airing. It's pretty short and to the point, and kind of sappy, but then, I did have a great time on the show.

I sang this at the OVFF Dead Dog filk on Sunday night. The convention as a whole knew I was on the show thanks largely to filkertom and partiallyclips inviting me up to sing "Rich Fantasy Lives" with them, so when I started, people realized where I was going to join in on the obvious line.

"Beauty And The Geek"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Beauty And The Beast" from the movie of the same name

( Television show... )

With the flood of people discussing possible spoilers for Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, I started thinking about spoilers in general.

First, some ground comments. The Darkfriends of my acquaintance have a rule about spoilers: Once you get past maybe a year or two tops, it's no longer feasible to protect against them. Certainly not for old material like Citizen Kane. The rule is summed up best by prince_corwin: "Caesar dies. Frodo lives. Christ does both."

Spoilers are often not the whole story anyway...as in the case of Citizen Kane, the spoiler doesn't destroy the movie, because it's often just as much about the process. Babylon 5 mastered this.

That said, there are some movies (or books, or possibly even video games) that have spoilers, now long since past expiration of course, that qualify as Big Deals, or would have when they came out, or are just ones that people pretty much know or know about. Revelations that really change the equation, or are historically significant. I'm curious what some of you think they are. I'll seed the pot with a few of my own; feel free to leave a comment with more.

Ground rule: If it's still spoiler-protected (read "less than a year or two old," unless you'd have to be living under a rock not to know it), don't post it. This is about more "classic" spoilers. If you complain about spoilers, don't do it here, because you're given plenty of warning. Don't piss me off about that either...you will get no sympathy.

The Current List Of Big Spoilers (last updated Saturday July 16 0215 PDT):
Citizen Kane
The Maltese Falcon
Star Wars
The Usual Suspects
Soylent Green
The Sixth Sense
War Of The Worlds
The Crying Game
Final Fantasy VII
Fight Club
Psycho
Harry Potter
Memento
Vertigo
Babylon 5
Spartacus
Escaflowne
The Third Man
Watchmen
Old Yeller
Planet Of The Apes
Primal Fear
Chinatown

(Those are the ones I really consider spoilers, or recognize. There are some that really don't count in my mind [such as, I kid you not, Kefka being crazy in Final Fantasy VI] or whose source material I am completely unfamiliar with that I've not listed here.)

( Abandon all spoiler-protection, ye who enter here! )

Any more from the peanut gallery? What spoilers are (or were) big?