Good evening to all who have gathered here tonight to enjoy the splendid hospitality at Taverna di Muse.  Not only the food but the entertainment has been top-notch.  Lori, I suspect you will be needing to set up a reservation system once word has spread throughout Cyberia of the delights available at the Taverna di Muse.  For a while I pondered what I could contribute to the festivities and I finally decided to sing a song for you.  It’s not a song  you’re likely to hear on the radio.  In fact, there’s only one kind of place where you could hear it and that is a science fiction convention.  If you should find yourself at a convention, just ask one of the staff for directions to the “filk”.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  I said “f-i-l-k”.  Rhymes with milk.  Both of which are very good for you!  Filk music is the music of sf and fantasy fandom.  Let me tune my guitar while I tell you this last little bit.  The legend goes that long ago-half a century ago-someone made a typo (typographical error that is) when writing an essay about sf music. Instead of  “Folk Music” it was printed as “Filk Music”.  Fans being fans–the name stuck.  So in fandom, a song is a ‘filk’, the activity is ‘filking’, and the singers/musicians are called ‘filkers’ or ‘filksingers’.  If this little tidbit whets your appetite, well-you know where to find me!

TIME WIND TAVERN
Words: Teri Lee
Music: “Those Were the Days”
From The Westerfilk Collection (Vol 1)
copyright 1980 by Jordin Kare.
                                                                                                                                                                  Once upon the time winds was a tavern
Where strange folk could have a drink or two,
Reminding us of their immortal wonder.
I saw a unicorn there, didn’t you?

Chorus                                                                                                                                                   Those days are gone, my friend;
The need is at an end
Of all those strange and mystic beasts of yore.
The dragon’s gone tonight; he went without a fight
And left us here with science evermore.

Unicorns sat perched on the bar stools,
Dragons parked their tankards on the floor.
Orcs and griffins fought for lovely maidens
While imps and demons traded arcane lore.

Chorus

Witches once worked spells upon the tavern
To guard it from the sight of mortal eyes,
For mortals must not seek to know their betters;
What man can know the future and not cry?

Chorus

In the dark alone I sit and wonder,
Will they come and drink with us again?
The tavern waits in sawdust-covered splendour
To be filled with laughing creatures, who knows when?
                                                                                                                                                             Chorus                                                                                                                                                   Those days are gone, my friend;
The need is at an end
Of all those strange and mystic beasts of yore.
The dragon’s gone tonight; he went without a fight
And left us here with science evermore.

This song and many others are posted at the website given below and are available to the general public for downloading.   I thank you for your attention tonight.  May the filk be with you always.

Cheshire

P.S.  I am happy to report that dragons have been sighted again.  In the Iburos Valley.  Has anyone seen a unicorn yet?

(www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/swil/filks.html)