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EAGLE BYTES

The Electronic Newsletter of Prometheus Music

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Volume 9 December 2006 Issue 5
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Hi, there --

We're in the midst of a graduate school holiday, so here's
another issue of Eagle Bytes!

In this issue:

1. Julia Ecklar stuff
- "One Man Magical Show" video on YouTube

2. Westerfilk songbook again available from your local filk
dealer

3. Random Stuff
- "To Touch the Stars" in MTV Press's "Alien Rock"
- More Leigh Ann Hussey MP3s
- Free filk through rhapsody.com

4. Pandora's Soapbox

1. JULIA ECKLAR STUFF
---------------------

* Julia Ecklar music videos on YouTube

You can now three Julia Ecklar music videos on YouTube! These
are:

#1: A new anti-Bush parody of "One Man Magical Show".

I'm not sure who made it, but it has its moments, and I know
Julia liked it. So, you can find it at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdL19XaC1bU

#2: Per Malm's "Hope Eyrie" video

This is the same Hope Eyrie video that's on our website, but
viewable on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cVOOXQo22o

(If you're wondering why it's been viewed so many times, it's
because Jerry Pournelle recently linked to it twice from his website,
commenting that "I do not think you will regret watching this." Woo
hoo!)

#3: Per Malm's "Terminus Est" video

Same video as on our website, now viewable at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqY0dCmAyNM

2. WESTERFILK REPRINT, REDUX
----------------------------

Some of you may remember the long out-of-print "Westerfilk"
songbook published by Jordin Kare in the early 1980s, and later
reprinted by Off Centaur. The Westerfilk songbook collected the best
filksongs from the 1970s. With about 2000 copies in circulation,
these songs naturally became the filk "standards" of the 1980s.

Fewer of you may know that Bob Laurent's Wail Songs label printed
a limited-edition reprint of this songbook in the mid-1990s, of which
about 150 copies were sold. The production of this (also
out-of-print) reprint was my first-ever filk production project as a
teenager.

I'll let you all in on a secret: it's not actually out-of-print.
For years, Bill & Gretchen Roper have had another 100 unsold copies
of this songbook stashed away in their basement.

Why didn't we let them be sold?

The afterword I wrote as a teenager just embarrasses me to no
end, and contains stuff that Jordin's wife Mary Kay wasn't too happy
with at the time, either. I assembled a reworked afterword page, but
nobody has had a chance to rebind these 100 songbooks with that new
afterword.

Since Julia Ecklar opened up her adolescent angst to the world in
the Traveller songbook reprint -- and Mary Kay confirmed that she's
fine with our releasing the original afterword, too -- we've both
given Bill & Gretchen Roper (www.filker.com) permission distribute
these remaining songbooks as-is.

If you can find one at a filk dealer, I do recommend browsing
through it. With both songs and rare essays by Leslie Fish and
others, I think it's a fascinating look back at late 1970s/early
1980s filk. I'm not sure if it'll be reprinted after these 100 copies
are sold out -- it's not a Prometheus project, and I'm not touching
it!

But, please -- cover your eyes when you reach the afterword.

(And, sorry, with Eric Gerds' FILK.com store offline, I don't
know of any web stores where you can click a few buttons and buy it.
If you can't hit a filk convention, your best bet is probably to
e-mail Random Factors at creasey (at) att.net ).

3. RANDOM STUFF
---------------

* "To Touch the Stars" mentioned in "Alien Rock" book from MTV Press

Michael Luckman's book "Alien Rock" (from MTV Press) mentions "To
Touch the Stars", Karen Linsley, and Lloyd Landa on pages 236 and
271.

You can view these pages (or even buy the book!) on Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/074346673X

* More Leigh Ann Hussey MP3s

Last issue, I mentioned the tragic and unexpected death of Leigh
Ann Hussey, a songwriter and performer whose works were well-known
within filk. Although I provided an URL by which you could download
MP3s of her best known works with band Annwn, I neglected to provide
URLs for her recordings with "Nuit".

So, you can find those Nuit MP3s at: http://nuit.nithaus.org/

And if you're a new reader, the URL for downloading her Annwn
tracks is: http://annwn.nithaus.org/

(Although she had a download page for her own -- very early! --
solo album MP3s, that page appears to have been taken offline.)

* Real's "Rhapsody" and Filk

If you haven't already checked out rhapsody.com, they are
currently allowing you to listen to 25 CD-quality song plays free
each month without registration or payment.

(Their hope, of course, is that you'll shell out ten bucks a
month for their full, "Unlimited play" service. However, I think the
service is clunky enough that I can't recommend them beyond the free
plays.)

Most filk albums sold through cdbaby.com allow free listens via
Rhapsody. Here's a few of the familiar names you'll find when you
search on Rhapsody:

Julia Ecklar
Heather Dale (if you haven't heard her, she's *really* good)
Tom Smith
Blake Hodgetts
Three Weird Sisters
Escape Key
Emerald Rose
Avalon Rising

And, yes, artists *are* paid a teeny amount when you listen to
them through Rhapsody.

4. PANDORA'S SOAPBOX
--------------------

Moving to Seattle was a great change, and the first quarter of
grad school at the University of Washington was pretty intense. Not
much to say, still too exhausted.

If you're really bored, uh, an anonymized version my first-ever
term paper can be viewed at:

http://www.prometheus-music.com/501paper.pdf

(This paper was written for a technical communication theory
class, and discusses the disenchantment and resignation of a senior
technical writer from a Silicon Valley open source start-up earlier
this year. And don't feel too bad for the tech writer -- she's now a
bigwig at Apple Computer.)

On the Prometheus front, Divine Intervention and Traveller are
now profitable by $4,000 combined (!). These profits, of course, are
being set aside for Michael Moricz and Julia next summer, should they
be available to record a new CD. Yippee.

Collectors' notice: we'll have a limited number of collector
copies of "My Favorite Sings" available for sale next year,
autographed by about 20 of the artists. (All profits will be used to
pay off remaining production expenses on that album.)

Happy holidays and a happy new year!

Eli
Proprietor, Prometheus Music