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What's "filk?" How do I get Xenofilkia? How do I contribute a song to Xeno? Who is Lee Gold
Index to past issues Sample songs from past issues of Xenofilkia Jump to
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Xenofilkia is still coming out.

Indexes

Click one of the links below for a cumulative index of Xenofilkia:

What Is Filk?

I usually define filk as songs that interest science fiction fans: primarily songs about fantasy or science fiction or related topics. Related topics include computers, roleplaying games, mythology, science fiction fandom, history, current events, puns, and a number of other things I can't think of right now. For other definitions, check out rec.music.filk.

SF fans have been writing songs (sometimes parodies, sometimes to original music) since at least the 1940s, but they didn't start calling them "filksongs" until the early 1950s. That was when Lee Jacobs mistyped "folk" as "filk" in a fanzine article on folk music. Karen Kruse (later Karen Anderson) liked the word and used it to describe the long-standing fannish phenomenon in an article for "The Zed #780," her SAPSzine (December 1955), and the use caught on.
    Karen's article

See Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Filk FAQ for more info about filking. Dandelion image

Xenofilkia comes out every even month (February, April, June, August, October and December). Each Xenofilkia has about twenty pages of filksongs and weighs 3 ounces. The first issue was October of 1988, and issues have been appearing punctually ever since.

How To Get Xenofilkia

If you want to buy Xenofilkia, please contact Lee Gold: leeway@leegoldfilk.com. Do not write Barry, he is the webmaster, not the publisher.

The cheapest way to get a copy of Xenofilkia is to contribute a song you wrote — one with original lyrics which is not generally available. A contributor gets the issue s/he contributes to for free and the next issue for postage only. (Free if you get Xenofilkia by email.)

Xenofilkia costs US $1.50 per issue plus shipping. All back issues of Xenofilkia are still in print. They're US $1.50 each plus shipping.

Send payment by currency - or by check, traveler's check or postal money order in US$ (made out to Lee Gold), to:
Lee Gold
3965 Alla Road
Los Angeles, CA 90066

Non-US buyers may send currency or a cheque in your own national currency. UKans may contact Lee Gold to be put in touch with a UKan who has a US$ cheque account. Payment may also be made by PayPal to Lee Gold's account. (Your payment will be debited the PayPal fee, which is 3.49% plus 49¢, plus an additional 2.2% if your original currency is not US$.)
Use https://thefeecalculator.com/ to see how much to send to cover PayPal's fee.

Do Not send a PayPal payment to Lee as "send money to friends and family." You are paying for goods.

Current shipping rates are:

Destination In #10 envelope
US $1.16
Canada $3.64
Europe $5.45

For further details, see http://ircalc.usps.gov/

Here is a conversion table for anyone who wants to figure out which issues came out near a certain date.

Contributing Songs To Xenofilkia

You can choose either of two methods to contribute.

Please state if the song has been published elsewhere, on paper or electronically. Please don't send copyrighted songs or melodies without the writer's permission. If your song has an original tune, please send one of the following:

Please send sheet music or a CD or DVD for any songs written to your original tune. Sheet music can be sent as gif, jpg, pdf, Finale, PrintMusic, or Noteworthy Composer format, or printed on paper.

You can send a formatted song in Word97-compatible or RTF format.

DEADLINE: no later than the 7th day of every odd month:
Jan, Mar, May, July, Sep, Nov

Xenofilkia welcomes contributions from everybody, but is not in any way obligated to print each song submitted. The only way to ensure you will receive an issue of Xenofilkia is to send money.

Since the cost of getting Xenofilkia is not predictable in advance (due to post office rate changes, contribution credit, etc.), no fixed rate subscriptions are offered. Instead, you should send a check or money order made payable to Lee Gold. I'll note your remaining balance on the envelope of each issue I mail you. (Special rates for dealers.)

Sample Songs

Here are a few examples of songs that have been published in Xenofilkia.
The Beagle Has Landed by Michele Eatough
about Snoopy's adventures as a WWI Flying Ace.
Bertholdt Brecht Does Shakespeare by Jane Mailander
MacBeth, to Mack the Knife
Harvester by Leslie Fish
about a peasant turned soldier
Acts of Parody by Bob Kanefsky
A parody of Acts of Creation, about how filkers steal tunes and ideas to create parodies.
Home Again by Raoul I. Benefiche
about Gilligan's Island, but to The Mary Ellen Carter
Sirius Song by Lee Gold
A calypso song about the Dog Star (to Dayo)
P G P by Lee Gold
About Phil Zimmerman's Pretty Good Privacy

Other Filk Publications

Lee Gold also publishes infrequent, unscheduled anthologies of what she considers to be the better filksongs that she and a few of her acquaintances have written. This is the FILKER UP series.
(Now Available: a cumulative index of Filker Up.)

Other filk publications available from Lee Gold

The Synergy Press edition of Bruce Pelz's The Filksong Manual (all four books in one volume, plus a few extra songs):
On paper: $10 plus postage.
Emailed: $10
On a DVD, alone or with Dr. Jane's Songs, or with the Cynthia McQuillin Songbook, or both: $10.50* plus postage plus $10 for each additional songbook.
All songs have been retyped and all sheet music has been reset, so its now much easier to read. The songs have been rearranged so two-page songs are on facing pages. Each song shows the page it was on in Bruce Pelz's original edition so you can easily have groups singing out of mixed edition songbooks.
Still available as of July, 2021.

* 50¢ for the DVD and jewelbox.

Lee has published the CYNTHIA MCQUILLIN SONGBOOK, a compilation of lyrics of Cynthia McQuillin's songs — everything that Dr. Jim Robinson, Kristoph Klover & Margaret Davis, Harold Stein, Mary Creasey, Kay Shapero, Bob Kanefsky, Alan Thiesen, and Lee Gold could find in 2013, with illustrations: $10 plus postage. see the CYNTHIA MCQUILLIN SONGBOOK webpage for more information, including available formats, postage rates, and a list of songs.
Still available as of July, 2021.

Lee has published a book of DR. JANE'S SONGS: A compilation of all of Dr. Jane's songs that Dr. Jim Robinson could find in his archives, plus a few that Lee Gold found from other sources, with illustrations. $10 plus postage.
See the Dr. Jane's Songs webpage for more information, including available formats, postage rates, and a list of songs.
Still available as of July, 2021.

Poet and filker Tom Digby wrote a number of filksongs, instrumental pieces, and spoken word pieces. These are available:
    Tom Digby's music on the Xeno website


Other Publications

Lee Gold also publishes a monthly roleplaying game APA: Alarums and Excursions, which won Origins Awards in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

Links

Filk FAQ
Filk FAQ

This page maintained by Barry Gold