What do you hear in these sounds?
Hi, I'm Xenacryst, and over at the OTW, we're talking about why we hopped on board. I'm on the Systems committee, helping manage the servers that host our web sites and mailing lists.
I've been with this fan archive/OTW thing since the Strikethroughs and FanLib and astolat dreaming her big dream, and probably everyone else has already eloquently said the things that I'd say about why we're here. I'm here because I have something to contribute to the Systems group. I'm here because it's a community I've grown to like. Really, it's a community that can do some wonderful things when we want to. I think the OTW is something that's done by this fandom community, for this fandom community. And it's just starting down this journey.
I have a playlist on my iPod, which I was listening to on my way home today - I call it Space Babe's iPod. The songs are all really about empowerment, being yourself. And somehow, this one stuck in my head, to talk about the fannish community. It's Dar Williams, What Do You Hear In These Sounds. If I had any vidding skill, I'd make a vid to this, but you'll just have to imagine a nice meta vid. And then go watch Us by Lim...
I don't go to therapy to find out if I'm a freak
I go and I find the one and only answer every week
And it's just me and all the memories to follow
Down any course that fits within a fifty minute hour
And we fathom all the mysteries, explicit and inherent
When I hit a rut, she says to try the other parent
And she's so kind, I think she wants to tell me something,
But she knows that its much better if I get it for myself...
And she says
Fandom... is a refuge
a place where I can go and be myself
I don't look to fit in
I don't look to live up to someone else
I just look to be myself.
We have a community here.
We look after each other
we help each other along.
We write stories
create vids
or just squee together.
Ooh, aah
What do you hear in these sounds?
And... Ooh, aah
What do you hear in these sounds?
What do you hear in these sounds?
I say I hear a doubt, with the voice of true believing
And the promises to stay, and the footsteps that are leaving
And she says, "Oh"; I say "What?" She says "Exactly",
I say, "What, you think I'm angry
Does that mean you think I'm angry?"
She says, "Look, you come here every week
With jigsaw pieces of your past
Its all on little soundbytes and voices out of photographs
And that's all yours, that's the guide, that's the map
So tell me, where does the arrow point to?
Who invented roses?"
And...
Sometimes an episode of my show
is perfect
sometimes all that gets me through
is everyone else deconstructing it
trying to make sense of it
and then we hold out hope
that the next one will work...
But what are we left with?
Just episodes.
Just books.
Just canon.
We get to put it together.
We get to reinvent it, retell it.
Make it our own.
Ooh, aah
What do you hear in these sounds?
And... Ooh, aah
What do you hear in these sounds?
What do you hear in these sounds?
And when I talk about therapy, I know what people think
That it only makes you selfish and in love with your shrink
But, oh how I loved everybody else
When I finally got to talk so much about myself.
We're a subculture.
At times misunderstood,
like any.
But this space works for us.
And I wake up, and I ask myself what state I'm in
And I say, well I'm lucky, 'cause I am like East Berlin
I had this wall and what I knew of the free world
Was that I could see their fireworks
And I could hear their radio
And I thought that if we met, I would only start confessing
And they'd know that I was scared
They'd would know that I was guessing
But the wall came down and there they stood before me
With their stumbling and their mumbling
And their calling out just like me...
And...
So many of us have been
...creating
...telling stories
...telling the next chapter
...filling in lives
to ourselves or our friends
And we thought it was weird.
That everyone else was doing it right
That the real people were
playing D&D
or writing novels
or filming their own movies.
But the real people are here
telling the same stories
creating each others' worlds
just trying to be people.
Ooh, aah, the stories that nobody hears... and...
Ooh, aah, and I collect these sounds in my ears... and...
Ooh, aah, that's what I hear in these sounds... and...
Ooh, aah, that's what I hear in these...
That's what I hear in these sounds!
These are the stories
I hear in these sounds
I've been with this fan archive/OTW thing since the Strikethroughs and FanLib and astolat dreaming her big dream, and probably everyone else has already eloquently said the things that I'd say about why we're here. I'm here because I have something to contribute to the Systems group. I'm here because it's a community I've grown to like. Really, it's a community that can do some wonderful things when we want to. I think the OTW is something that's done by this fandom community, for this fandom community. And it's just starting down this journey.
I have a playlist on my iPod, which I was listening to on my way home today - I call it Space Babe's iPod. The songs are all really about empowerment, being yourself. And somehow, this one stuck in my head, to talk about the fannish community. It's Dar Williams, What Do You Hear In These Sounds. If I had any vidding skill, I'd make a vid to this, but you'll just have to imagine a nice meta vid. And then go watch Us by Lim...
I don't go to therapy to find out if I'm a freak
I go and I find the one and only answer every week
And it's just me and all the memories to follow
Down any course that fits within a fifty minute hour
And we fathom all the mysteries, explicit and inherent
When I hit a rut, she says to try the other parent
And she's so kind, I think she wants to tell me something,
But she knows that its much better if I get it for myself...
And she says
Fandom... is a refuge
a place where I can go and be myself
I don't look to fit in
I don't look to live up to someone else
I just look to be myself.
We have a community here.
We look after each other
we help each other along.
We write stories
create vids
or just squee together.
Ooh, aah
What do you hear in these sounds?
And... Ooh, aah
What do you hear in these sounds?
What do you hear in these sounds?
I say I hear a doubt, with the voice of true believing
And the promises to stay, and the footsteps that are leaving
And she says, "Oh"; I say "What?" She says "Exactly",
I say, "What, you think I'm angry
Does that mean you think I'm angry?"
She says, "Look, you come here every week
With jigsaw pieces of your past
Its all on little soundbytes and voices out of photographs
And that's all yours, that's the guide, that's the map
So tell me, where does the arrow point to?
Who invented roses?"
And...
Sometimes an episode of my show
is perfect
sometimes all that gets me through
is everyone else deconstructing it
trying to make sense of it
and then we hold out hope
that the next one will work...
But what are we left with?
Just episodes.
Just books.
Just canon.
We get to put it together.
We get to reinvent it, retell it.
Make it our own.
Ooh, aah
What do you hear in these sounds?
And... Ooh, aah
What do you hear in these sounds?
What do you hear in these sounds?
And when I talk about therapy, I know what people think
That it only makes you selfish and in love with your shrink
But, oh how I loved everybody else
When I finally got to talk so much about myself.
We're a subculture.
At times misunderstood,
like any.
But this space works for us.
And I wake up, and I ask myself what state I'm in
And I say, well I'm lucky, 'cause I am like East Berlin
I had this wall and what I knew of the free world
Was that I could see their fireworks
And I could hear their radio
And I thought that if we met, I would only start confessing
And they'd know that I was scared
They'd would know that I was guessing
But the wall came down and there they stood before me
With their stumbling and their mumbling
And their calling out just like me...
And...
So many of us have been
...creating
...telling stories
...telling the next chapter
...filling in lives
to ourselves or our friends
And we thought it was weird.
That everyone else was doing it right
That the real people were
playing D&D
or writing novels
or filming their own movies.
But the real people are here
telling the same stories
creating each others' worlds
just trying to be people.
Ooh, aah, the stories that nobody hears... and...
Ooh, aah, and I collect these sounds in my ears... and...
Ooh, aah, that's what I hear in these sounds... and...
Ooh, aah, that's what I hear in these...
That's what I hear in these sounds!
These are the stories
I hear in these sounds