One More Bag of Stuff

Copyright 2005 by Jeff Suzuki

This is another filk to the tune of the SCA Maltese Bransle (the actual music is "Schiarazula Marazula" (1571) by Pierre Phalese. At this point, let me philosophize a bit...but you can skip to the song if you prefer.

How does one become a great creative artist? I don't know, but I can tell you this: every great creative artist is a prolific artist. This makes sense, if you think about it: a great artist has to be a skillful artist, and an artist who produces hundreds of works is going to become skillful, one way or another.

This is a corollary of Sturgeon's Law: if 90% of everything is crap, then someone who writes 10 songs can expect to have 1 (one) memorable one, while someone who write 100 songs can expect to have 10 memorable ones. In fact, we can go further: while there is “natural talent” and the like, we can expect two equally talented artists to have their nth songs of roughly equal quality. But if Arnold has only written 10 songs while Boris has written 100, that means that Boris's last 90 songs are of equal or greater quality that Arnold's best song! Yes, I'm aware of the implicit assumptions...but I stand by my basic point, which is that quality is obtained through quantity, not, as some would claim, in spite of it.

In my case, I'm hoping that my 100th song will be at least as good as a talented tunesmith's 10th song. But how do you get there? My road is through using the same tune for different songs. Thus far:

• • Scarborough Fair has two filks (the SCA filk Scarred Borough Wear and the non-SCA based Are You Patrons of the Megacorps?).

  • Greensleeves has two filks (the SCA filk Alas, My Friend and Whose Garb Is This?)

  • Maltese Bransle has this song and Master of the Field.

Actually, I'm not completely happy with the way this song turned out. One reason is that while it's an SCA filk, it has a lot of modern referents, so it's not completely appropriate for an SCA event. Another reason is that the song just...ends...without any real lead-up. I may come back and fix it, but Jeff's Rule #3 for Creative Artists is: It is more important to finish a work than to perfect a work. This runs counter to the “rewrite and rewrite” rule that most English teachers give their students; all I can say in response is that Shakespeare didn't go back and fix Twelfth Night, he went on and wrote Hamlet. (And look at what happened when Lucas tried to “fix” the original Star Wars movies...)

The music is “Schiarazula Marazula”, often known as the SCA Maltese Bransle. Your option whether the tempo accelerates, but the last verse should be sung at the same pace as the first.

When I was a newbie my stuff fit into a box. A t-tunic, a pair of boots, an eating knife and socks. Back in those days the SCA was just for the weekend. And not a lot of time or gold could I afford to spend. When I took up fighting my accumulation grew. A chain mail shirt, a helm of steel, a tabard gold and blue. I cleared the closet in the hall of all its mundane stuff. At four feet wide by eight feet high I thought it'd be enough. If at court you show up in a torn and muddy gown, The Lords and Ladies present there will surely turn and frown. So bolts of wool and linen made their way to our front room. We found some space for trim and lace, but couldn't fit the loom. Brewing filled the kitchen up with other real neat toys. Siphons, stockpots, waterlocks and 5 gallon carboys, The dishes fled like refugees from shelves onto the stove. From spices: saffron, borage, nutmeg, galangale and clove. If you want a tent for Pennsic canvas is the best, But hornets filled the shed out back so I cleared out the nest, Our neighbor's yard has rusting cars, we have a catapult. They called the cops the first time they saw me the pell asault! The attic's filled with loaner garb, the basement smithing tools. We've got no place to keep the kids so they're at boarding schools, We lost the cat five years ago behind a bale of silk. But then and now we hear it "Meow!" and place a bowl of milk. The car's still packed from Pensic and the hallway's filled with swords. To make a brand new antique chest we bought some wooden boards. The stuff medieval we possess grows at alarming speed, No wonder why the folks of old did a great castle need. So you should take a warning from my sad and woeful yarn, Before you wage a war of conquest for your neighbor's barn. The SCA is not for those who cannot say “Enough!” For soon you'll find your life filled up with one more bag of stuff...

Notes

In May 2008, I was dusting this off to present at a bardic circle, and decided to fix it up a little. A few years away gave me some new insights:

• • The original stanza was:

    • Brewing filled the kitchen up with 5-gallon carboys, The bedroom was besieged by all our kids' medieval toys, We lost the cat five years ago behind a bale of silk, But then and now we hear it “Meow!” and place a bowl of milk.

  • However, this combines three distinct manias in three different areas of the house: brewing and sewing. I changed it to the current stanza.

  • The cat line was originally in the brewing stanza. I moved it here, because it added impact (I think) to the stanza.

  • The first two lines of this stanza are new. The rearrangement of the song made the castle couplet an orphan. I didn't want to get rid of it, which meant two lines had to be added.

In 2013, we returned to Pensic for the first time in 15 years. And yes, I bought some wooden boards...

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