djonn | And lo, there was an OryCon...and a song!

On the one hand, I am woefully deficient in self-promotion, for OryCon was this past weekend and here I am, home again, having not posted about it beforehand. I was on two lightly attended but lively and thoughtful panels, and saw some folks I had not seen in many, many moons (one of whom has a book coming out in March!).

On the other hand, I have been productive, for at this just-concluding OryCon I wrote a filk (start to finish in under three hours, premiered at the circle Saturday night within moments of completion).

Naturally, it then went through a couple of wording tweaks when I got back to my room and wrote out a clean copy of the lyrics, but still, I'm glad to have resumed the tradition of writing a song at-con (even as OryCon is now planning to take a year off to regroup).

And here it is! If you have not been watching Stargirl (the CW series, not the recent feature film), you should be - this is a pitch-perfect Silver Age DC comic deftly sort-of-transposed into the 21st century, and the ensemble cast is superb. The color palette is Batman '66, the visual style is Back to the Future, and the heroes are modern teens who are (for the most part) rather less angst-ridden than their Buffyverse predecessors.

This song, however, concerns one of the thorns in Stargirl's side, played with debonair panache by Jonathan Cake ("Oh, Charles, you know I have a flair for the dramatic gesture"):

ENTER THE SHADE

words: John C. Bunnell © 2021
music: "Drunken Angel" by Michael Longcor

Oh, a gambler I, and a rogue as well, and a gentleman besides,
And I've traveled round this world and back on some most peculiar tides;
I can tell of treasures best left lost and of ill-kept bargains made,
For I live my life in the shadows:
I am he who's called the Shade.

I freely grant I am no pure saint - I'm a thief, and yes, I've killed,
But the righteous need not fear my hand, for it's not their blood I've spilled;
I thrive by night and avoid high noon, for of darkness am I made;
And my soul is that of a shadow,
For I truly am the Shade.

Now a living Shade commands the dark and the shadows heed his call,
He may shape them too, howe'er he will, to hold his foes in thrall;
Yet I tell you this and I tell you true: you should rather be afraid
Of the evil beyond the shadow
Far more deadly than the Shade.

A shadow's edge is defined by light; in the dark it disappears;
And a shadow always stands alone, sharing neither joy no tears,
For the shadow never truly dies, though the mortal friends he's made
Turn to dust in the hands of the shadow
Who is doomed to be the Shade.

Yes, a gambler I, and a rogue as well, and a gentleman unwise,
For I find I cannot flee the trap that I fear I helped devise;
So between the light and dark I stand, my decision freely made:
For I am the eternal shadow;
I shall always be - the Shade.