Second Class Fans

[billroper]

Meanwhile, I've been given to understand that just because you're on the filk program at LACon IV, doing panels and workships and the like, that doesn't mean that you're a program participant. Fascinating. I thought we gave up that sort of thing 30 years ago. But maybe not.

In the meantime, I wrote this:

Words: Bill Roper
Music: "Second Hand Songs" by Jonathan Turner
Copyright 2006

Second Class Fans

Thirty years I'm in fandom, plus or minus a few
And I've seen lots of blunders, and I've made one or two.
And I work on conventions -- I help out where I can,
But for all that I do, seems my fandom's not true.
I'm a second class fan.

(Chorus)
I'm a second class fan, I sing songs late at night.
I give workshops and panels, but they say it's not right
To put me on the program though I do what I can.
Seems they just need to say that while I'm in L.A.
I'm a second class fan.

I was on the filk program at LACon Four.
Thought I might get a ribbon, but they showed me the door.
Such things are reserved, not for our calloused hands.
Seems we don't have the clout, so the Green Room is out
For us second class fans.

Now Columbus likes filkers and Chicago does too
And I bet Kansas City wouldn't have done what you do.
We write songs to remember so we won't do this again.
We will vote for a site where they treat filkers right
And we're not second class fen.


Update: Fixed a wordo where I typed a homonym in my sleep-deprived state back in Grand Junction, Colorado. Thanks, Murray!

Comments

Re: 2nd Class Filkers

[filker0.livejournal.com]

I wonder if andpuff is going to be there. If so, she could give programming a piece of her mind. Any other filk-friendly professionals should be encouraged to make Mr. Miller feel rather foolish, if not downright stupid, for excluding a part of fandom that helps conventions break even. Filkers are, for the most part, cheap dates. We pay just as much as everyone else, but (in my experience on the concom of non-filk cons) don't eat as much of the con's food in the consuite, and much of our activity takes place when other tracks don't need the space anyway, thus better utilization of facilities. Are gamers, specifically the organizers and those who run the games and panels on gaming, also not program participants? How about visual artists? All they do is make pictures, afterall; how is that participation in programming? Costumers? Nope, not them either; they're just dressing up, afterall. While we're at it, we might as well exclude the authors -- are they writing at the con? And anime fans? Nope, not them either, they're just watching films and TV programs, many of which don't have any Science Fiction or even Fantasy elements. Who does that leave? The concom, I suppose.

It's probably too late for anyone to make ribbons or arm-bands for filkers and those who support the filkers.

I do recall that at least some of the bit comittee claimed that LA was going to be a Filk Friendly WorldCon. Someone should look back to the flyers and PRs to see if they put it in writing -- if they did, someone should show that to CM.

If I was going to be there, I know that I'd probably arrange a bit of guerrilla filking in protest of the policy. I would not boycott if I had a membership, I'd just make it very clear that the policy is alienating a not insignificant segment of the membership.

Re: 2nd Class Filkers

[mdlbear]

andpuff is not on the program, as far as I can tell, and doesn't show up in the membership list search.

Larry Niven is there, however. And several big-name filkers (including Leslie Fish and Maya Bohnhoff) are published authors.

Re: 2nd Class Filkers

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

What about Mercedes Lackey? She's West Coast, published author, and BNF(ilker).

Is Frank Hayes there? He's a genuine computer guru with a weekly column, and a damned fine musician, and a BNF. (and he should come back to Chicago more where he's *appreciated* dagnabit . . .)

OT reply

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Actually, Lackey is Middle Coast: she lives near Tulsa, OK.

Re: 2nd Class Filkers

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

andpuff is not here (though Fiona Patton is on program).