What's new on my Web site
Your host, Mark A. Mandel
March, 2008
February, 2008
December, 2007
November, 2007
-
You're A Kitty. The girl can't help it.
-
A new verse in Trolls, insta-ed by Roberta Rogow
in open filking at Philcon with kibitzing from about half a dozen of us.
-
Seventeen Nights Drunk In Adrilankha.
A Dragaeran
version of an old song (Child #274) called "Five Nights Drunk",
or "Seven Drunken Nights",
or ....
-
The Perilous Gard.
At the end of The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope,
the minstrel Randal is beginning to make a song about the events
in the story. He's only written one verse so far, and I wanted to
hear the rest.
October, 2007
- I'm doing some updating of content and appearance in the interests of
finding a job.
May, 2007
November, 2006
- The Uniform. Facing peer pressure in
adolescence. Completely fictional, but inspired by a high school
classmate's integrity.
April, 2006
February, 2006
January, 2006
- NancyButtons.
An addictive lady, rather as in the original song... though less
dangerous to the health, and with much more personality.
December, 2005
October, 2005
- B Movie. So bad you can't stay away.
August, 2005
- Dolly Boxes.
They're taking over, and they aren't even alive! ... are they?
A familiar story from another kind of fandom.
- Rude Awakening.
Oh, our wired world. A case of felony music abuse.
- Somebody's Moggy's
Clone. At Genetic Savings and Clone in Sausalito, Calif., you
can have your cat cloned for $32,000, not counting cell sample,
preservation, and vet fees. (The New York Times,
2005-05-28, p.C5)
- The Two Towers.
Not what you're thinking. ... ... Not what you're thinking now, either.
- Dr. Whom has added a small
section on Language Abuse.
- A new metacategory of my filks, Groupings: Sets of songs
grouped by some common theme.
- Little Fuzzy Lunatics. Not
H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy (IMHO one of the sanest characters in
SF) and his kin, but about another little fuzzy race, Poul
Anderson & Gordon Dickson's Hokas.
- La Drogvendisto.
Tom Lehrer's "Old Dope Peddler" in Esperanto. Why? Why not?
- Yielding to
Temptation. Those little distractions that run through every
day (and night) of our lives.
July, 2005
- Listed my LiveJournal
blog,
"Occasional kvetch"
April, 2005
March, 2005
- Eight Days of Luke.
Based on the novel of the same name by the ever-original Diana Wynne Jones.
December, 2004
October, 2004
September, 2004
- Valse Macabre.
In invading Iraq, the Bush II administration has whirled America
into another dance of death and brought the word
"quagmire" back into public discourse.
- Filkoda. An offstage coda to The
Filkado, a Filbert & Sullivan space operetta first
presented at Noreascon 4.
(The 100th song I have posted here!)
July, 2004
March, 2004
- Noman's Plan. Odysseus
and the Cyclops Polyphemus, based on Book IX of The Odyssey.
(Formerly titled No Man's Island.)
- Beast Of My Kind.
Encounter in the pasture.
February, 2004
January, 2004
December, 2003
My family and I are now living together, in Philadelphia!
I have a domain of my own. My home page is now accessible as
mark.CracksAndShards.com
June, 2003
May, 2003
April, 2003
March, 2003
January, 2003
December, 2002
November, 2002
October, 2002
August, 2002
sometime early in 2002
December, 2001
September-October, 2001
- Worldcon report
- September 14, in the wake of nightmare:
The Interfilk pishka signs up for the
Red Cross.
- How Can I Keep from Screaming?
(A Dilbertiad).
The subtitle says it all about the point of view of this cri de coeur
from cubicle-land.
Posted at the request of the author, who wishes to remain pseudonymous.
- When Cons Come To New England.
It's all Gary McGath's fault. In October 2001 he wrote, "The leaves are changing color, and it's heading toward that time again -- con season." That started me on this.
- No Safe Ground.
September 11, 2001. Life is not the same.
- Split main filk index into two pages.
July, 2001
May, 2001
- A King in Krothering.
An episode from E.R. Eddings's* masterly heroic fantasy
The Worm Ourobouros.
* Not "Eddison".
- The Definition of Filk.
I decided to express my opinion on the matter in the appropriate form.
March, 2001
- Added explanatory footnote to
The Ballad of Lois Mangan.
- Me and Brennan Out On the
Warpath. Larry Niven's Protector,
as not sung by Paul Simon.
- The Interfilk pishka.
- Posted the retired verses
from "Video Heroes".
- Father's Little Helper.
How Daddy makes it through the day. (Not really. What, never?
Well... hardly ever.)
- Insomnia Suite.
How Daddy makes it (or fails to make it) through the night.
- The Waffle Song
commemorates the American Great Electoral Mess of 2000.
- The Campaign Volunteer's Lament.
My wife and I actually met in a political campaign long, long ago.
- The Fanboy.
The convention experience familiar to any con-goer,
as seen by an otaku (Japanese-animation fanboy).
- Jupiter Farewell.
On June 27, 2000, the New York Times Sunday Magazine had a long tribute
to Stanley Kubrick. One week later the TV broadcast of the Boston Pops
Independence Day concert had a commercial for vacation cruises on
Holland America Lines with a toll-free number:
1 800 SAIL-HAL.
- A Chat With Your Teenager.
In behalf of one of the most maligned minorities in today's society.
- Zander's Little Filkbook.
I bought Zander Nyrond's book of filksongs last year
and promptly misplaced it. I still haven't found it.
- Men of Good Fortune.
A retelling of Neil Gaiman's story of the same name.
- Editors' Waltz.
Misuse of language can be hazardous. See also
Dr. Whom's Peeves.
- Ko-Ko's Great-Great-Grandson.
If the Lord High Executioner from The Mikado had a
twelve-year-old male descendant, can you doubt that he would be as
insufferable as his illustrious ancestor? Now imagine the brat
as a computer gamer...
- The Hallways of BucCONeer.
Con hotels are bureaucracies, and therefore especially vulnerable to
Murphy's Law. A nearly-true story from the 1998 WorldCon.
- Al Amarja (Fiddler on the Edge).
Life in Al Amarja is lived On the Edge... and in The Edge, and Over the Edge.
- Branches on the Lawn.
A small suburban tragedy.
- Body Art in Jewish Law.
The halakhic take on tattoos, piercings, and similar adornments.
- Admonition in Unseasonable Weather.
Early December, 1998, brought some remarkable days to the Boston area
February, 2001
-
MAJOR REORGANIZATION of
my filk page.
- Billboards.
A light-hearted look at advertising for one of America's drugs of choice.
Frankly tendentious, and possibly not for the queasy (but only because
of its subject matter).
- Last year, when I posted
My Grandfathered Plot
on rec.music.filk, Lynn Gold told me that things in Houston aren't
really as they were rumored to be. So I wrote another verse, and I finally
got around to putting it up here.
- Dark and Light.
Not the Force, not even duct tape: it's laundry! Other people's
laundry. My teenagers' laundry. I can run, but I can't hide.
- Under the Griping Beast.
Note, that title has just one "p"; Cat Faber's title has two.
The beast itself has plenty.
- The Wreck of the ConCertino '99.
Gary McGath swore a mighty oath before East Coast filkdom that ConCertino
'99 would have full one hundred registered members.
Whom the gods would destroy they first make proud... but we made it.
In some other universe we didn't, and that must be where this song came from.
- An HTML-formatted version of my story
Pachinko to Pisces, whose origins you may
recognize if you're a filker, and which I hope you enjoy even if you're not.
- Added a skeleton key to
"Con From Argo".
- Video Heroes (v2.0).
Animation! Action! Adventure! "Daddy, daddy, let's get that one!"
(Revised to be not too many years behind.)
- Enrique's Lament.
Poor Enrique Burgos in Lois McMaster Bujold's A Civil Campaign.
His genetically-engineered insect creations produce a perfect foodstuff,
but nobody wants anything to do with them, let alone it.
- The Dutchman and the Lady.
A story that Poul Anderson never wrote, but I think it's in character for
this hero.
- Scumble.
A potent beverage of Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
- Virgin Blood.
Whoso would command a greater power had better be damn sure of the rules.
- To the Tune of... What?.
The Web and the Net are a mighty tool, but they are mostly visual and textual.
This sometimes leads to a problem when a filker posts a song "to the
obvious tune", which isn't always as obvious as one might think.
- The Roadkill Song.
Waste not, want not. Be warned by the title.
- Mark's Jingle.
Dendarii maple mead has been called "the most disgusting, gut-destroying,
guerilla attack-beverage ever brewed by man". But once Mark Vorkosigan
starts thinking about what he can do with it, we might get a
distillery and an ad campaign such as this.
January, 2001
June-July, 2000 (Boy, I've been occupied, haven't I?!):
- My Grandfathered Plot: A meditation on zoning regulations.
-
An Odometer Toast:
Written to welcome the new year 2000.
(Not the new millennium; that came 366 days later. If you don't believe me,
start counting from the Year 1 of the Common Era*
and see how many it takes to complete two thousand.
Little Dennis, the monk who [mis]calculated the year of Jesus's birth,
didn't know about zero.)
Chosen Best Humorous Song in the "Looking Forward, Looking Back"
theme contest at Conterpoint Three.
* Or "A.D.", if you like.
What was new in 1998-1999
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