Indistinguishable from Noise

I went to SCAMfest without Helen because we broke up on Wednesday. But I invited my parents, who hadn't been before, and they loved it. My parents and I bought BOCA 2002, and I plan to buy the new Shades CD, "Phonogenic", when it comes out in December.

My favorite songs from SCAMfest were Hotel California (UCLA Random Voices), I Heard it Through the Grapevine (USC SoCal VoCals), Fields of Gold (Midnight Echo), Poisoning Pigeons in the Park (Midnight Echo), and Harder to Breathe (Shades). Of these 5 songs, I knew the original versions of the first 3.

The 8th annual Southern California A Cappella Music Festival will be Friday Nov 7 at 8pm. Last year's SCAMfest was amazing, so if you're in the Los Angeles area, you should come.

Eleven college a cappella groups will perform this year:

• The Claremont Shades
  • mp3: I Can See Clearly Now (cover of Johnny Nash)
  • mp3: Isobel (cover of Dido)
• Claremont Midnight Echo
• Claremont Shower Quality
• Claremont Soul Control
• Pomona Men's Blue and White
• Pomona Momen's Blue and White
• UCSD Tritones
• USC Reverse Osmosis
• USC SoCal VoCals
  • mp3: Torn (cover of Natalie Imbruglia) [mp3 removed after SCAMfest]
• USC Sirens
• UCLA Random Voices

Tickets will be available starting tomorrow at the ASPC office (above Edmunds Ballroom at Smith Campus Center at Pomona College) for $5. If you live in the Los Angeles area and want to come, tell me so I can get you a ticket. Or call Lisa D'Annunzio from the Claremont Shades at [phone number removed after SCAMfest] to reserve a ticket to pick up the night of the concert. The concert will be in Bridges Auditorium aka Big Bridges on Pomona College.

Filk began as the music of the fantasy and science fiction fan community. It has expanded to cover other geeky topics such as space exploration and computer programming.

Some of my favorite filk songs:

• Eternal Flame (God Wrote in Lisp) by Bob Kanefsky and Julia Ecklar (download, lyrics)
• I want my music on napster by Tom Smith (download, lyrics)
• The Word of God by Cat Faber and Kathy Mar (download and lyrics)
• Asteroid Named Rest Stop by Leslie Fish and Julia Ecklar
• God Lives on Terra by Julia Ecklar (lyrics)
• The Phoenix by Julia Ecklar

Filk downloads:

• The Virtual Filksing
• Samples from an upcoming space-filk CD, "To Touch the Stars"
• mp3.com: Bob Kanefsky (songs from Roundworm)
• mp3.com: Kathy Mar

I was introduced to filk music at a small concert the night before the 2001 Mars Society convention. After the concert, which I enjoyed, Eli Goldberg gave me one of the copies Roundworm with defective cases he was trying to get rid of. Since Roundworm is all parodies of other filk songs, it was a great starting place for finding out about other filk writers and singers.