From: figmo@netcom.com (Lynn Gold)
Subject: Re: BNFs vs "Filk Elitists"
Organization: The Burn the Candle at Both Ends Club
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 18:27:29 GMT

In article <BxFu2t.6Hs@chinet.chi.il.us> roper@chinet.chi.il.us (Bill Roper) writes:
>I should not type this message at 1 in the morning, but...

Ah, but you did.... :-)

You also missed my point totally.

>We're going to see damn few perfect filks.

>Now my personal preference (possibly due to my Midwestern upbringing)
>is for Midwest chaos.  But (except under VERY unusual circumstances)
>the carrying capacity of a chaos filk is about seven people with
>instruments who want to sing regularly.  (And the wording here doesn't
>try to imply that others are not welcome to sing; nor that they're
>not welcome to sing along if they're familiar with the material.
>Mind you, you haven't lived until you've seen someone trying to sing
>along with a song that's being sung at a filk for the first time
>that's NOT to some known tune...but I digress.)

[I'm digressing too...at last year's ConChord, people were singing
along with "Road Kill Cafe," even though I'd just written it at dinner
that evening and *I* wasn't solid on the tune!]

>At OVFF this year, I went into the big room after the banquet.  I 
>sang a song or two.  I watched Wulf (Mike Longcor) getting stepped
>on as he tried to get a song in.  I felt like I was having to work
>pretty hard to get in edgewise.  So I did what I always advise people
>who are not happy with the current filk to do -- vote with your feet.
>When Wulf packed up to go, I followed, and we headed down to the
>alternate filk room and started a filk -- which is, by damn, what
>that extra room is there for.

Agreed.  My point was that there are some people who actively snub
up-and-coming filkers.  Getting up and walking away to another room
and starting up another public filk room does NOT constitute "filk
elitism" by any stretch of the imagination.  

I didn't see any examples of "filk elitism" at OVFF.  "Filk elitism"
is where you have a filksing and say "only so-and-so can sing; the
rest of you have to sit there and idly watch" (as opposed to a
Performer's Circle, where it's billed as such) or "we're having a filk
and you're not invited because you're not a BNF."  I caught the tail
end of the filk room you mentioned; my only regret was that I couldn't
be everywhere at once and more or less missed my "big chance" to filk
with you and Moonwulf. :-)

>Side comment about getting on the convention live tape:  I ran filking
>at the first Worldcon where there was "professional" taping going on
>(Chicon IV, back in 1982).  Although there were multiple rooms
>available for filking, you could not get people out of the room where
>the taping was going on.  It was wall-to-wall bodies and no oxygen.
>Nobody was going to miss their opportunity to get on that tape and
>become a star.
> 
>Anyway, the point of this is that the tape came out (and the only
>reason I'm on it is because I happened to end up at a dead dog filk
>in Kelly's suite where the mikes were -- I never did make it into
>that big room!)  And it didn't change anybody's life.  I won't deny
>that it was a kick.  But in the long run, it didn't change anything.
> 
>It's 10 years later now, and I've gotten familiar enough with the
>process that I believe that ANYBODY who really wants to can produce
>a tape of their stuff.  Recording technology has improved; duplication
>is cheaper.  What you need is (a little bit of) money, time, patience,
>and talent.  (Practice is also good.)

Nowadays it IS much easier to put out a tape.  My group's working on
one.  However, it DOES require capital outlay that many of us don't
really have (speaking of which, does anyone have a permanent tech
writer position available in the SF Bay Area?  I'm looking....).
Also, many people do the one-shots because it's their only chance to
get exposure in front of an audience.  If you or your group doesn't
get a concert set, it's the one chance you'll have to be performing
where people will see you, and with taping going on, it's more likely
the room will be well-occupied -- unless, of course, something more
exciting is going on (such as an out-of-area BNF in concert).

>And if you (collective you, addressed to no one in particular) put out
>a good tape, people will buy it.  And if you put out a bad tape, people
>won't.  But if your goal in life is to be on a published tape, you 
>can do it, and there is nobody out there who's going to stop you.

Agreed.  It's a matter of getting exposure.  Getting onto con tapes
where you're there with other artists -- some BNFs, some not-so-well-known
but equally good filkers -- people will be more likely to buy your tape
because they will know who you are.

--Lynn