Rainbow Noise

Zine
Title:	Rainbow Noise
Publisher:
Editor(s):	Tashery Shannon
Type:	letterzine
Date(s):	March 1993-?
Frequency:
Medium:	print
Fandom:	vidding
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

In 1993, Tashery Shannon started a letterzine for vidders called Rainbow Noise, named for the flashes of color between clips in old songtapes made without a flying erase head built into their editing VCR.

Tashery also included a videotape of vids with a subscription, with the hope that each subscriber would add her own vid to the end until there was a collection of vids of all the vidders in the group.

From On the Double #25 (December 1992):

"RAINBOW NOISE - At last, a song video letterzine! If you're a song vid maker or watcher, here's an invitation to join in with: reviews, news about your latest song vids, equipment info and tips, tips on technique, forum for problems and solutions, discussions of your triumphs or failures, songs you'd like to see others do, who knows what philosophical meanderings. Other ideas we might try include a trading corner for swapping your own work for other Rainbow Noise participants, or for getting those missing episodes you need so you can make that great vid you have in mind; and a round robin collection of our work to be passed among ourselves - this idea will be explained in replies to subscriptions and queries. A $15 subscription to Rainbow Noise gets you 4 longish issues, to be published quarterly in 1993 and the right to hold forth therein. All subscribing Rainbow Noise participants also receive the gift of a VHS tape with song vids by Gayle F and Tashery Shannon, (mostly B7, but a few ST, Sherlock Holmes, Vice and Twin Peaks)."

In 1993, Tashery wrote a short article about vidding to the Strange New Worlds newsletter (a mid 1990s newsletter that published original non-fiction articles related to TV media, including science fiction, military, and others). In it she described another purpose of the Rainbow Noise newsletter:

"Perhaps the greatest barrier to their spread among fans is that song videos cannot legally be sold. .....Giving away your song tapes or trading them, however, is perfectly legal. To be ethical, the vid should be your own work or you should have the permission of the vid maker to distribute it. This circulation among friends is being sped up through a new channel of communication, a recently started newsletter for song vid makers and viewers, Rainbow Noise."

At least three issues were published, possibly more.

Before The First Issue

Before the first issue was published in March 1993, the editors sent a lengthy "topics for discussion" guide. The list touches on some of the more important issues to vidders in the analog era

Ideas for Contributions to Rainbow Noise

• Review a song video, old or new
• The ten song videos you'd take to a desert island, and why.
• Talk about different song video styles
• Yeah, song vids are fun, but are they art? Does it matter whether they are?
• Compare one of the successful videos you've made to one you've made that you feel is less successful. Do a nitty-gritty analysis on what you got vs. what you thought you'd get, and why you think this is so.
• Story line in song videos (theories in general, or how story line works well in a particular/favorite vid)
• Trials and tribulations of choosing a song
• Editing songs for use as sound tracks
• Show-and-Tell. Your particular [VCR editing] machine(s) - advantages, disadvantages &peculiarities. Would you recommend it to others looking for a new or used machine for song video making?
• Why doing song videos can make you crazy
• Does watching a songvid work like reading fanfic, or differently?
• Regular Features –I bet everybody can come up with some of these!
• Swapping Comer - Are you looking for certain episodes of a show, or for good quality episodes?
• Would you like to offer to copy rare or especially good quality episodes you've got? What about sound tapes of songs you're looking for?
• Tips on technique - Helpful tricks or new discoveries you'd like to share. Be sure to specify the brand and model of equipment you work with, since in some cases a technique that works with one machine won't work on another.
• Q & A - Have questions about hard to solve problems you'd like to throw open for discussion? But the questions don't have to be technical. What about those questions you've always had about a particular vid, about meaning, or the use of a certain song or image? Would you like the maker to expound? (What about the great unanswered questions of the universe?) If you'll send these a little before the deadline, I'll have time to hustle up someone who's got an answer, so the question and answer can appear together in issue #1.
• Songs you'd like to see others do – Maybe you don't make the pesky things yourself, or maybe you've had an idea you think would be good for a fandom you're not familiar enough with.
• Requests for song ideas. When I go into a record store I'm dismayed at how much of the music I know nothing about. (I know, it's a sign of old fogeydom, but there's just too much to keep track of any more!) So I stand there going, "I know the perfect Sherlock Holmes song is here, if I only knew which it was!" We all keep track of some of what's out there, so let's pool our ideas.
• Describe the fandom and characters you want a song for, what theme or mood you want, and any types of music you do or don't want, if applicable. With luck, someone will send you a title& some idea of the lyrics, and you can decide if you want to get hold of a tape."

Issue 1

Issue 1 was published in March 1993 and contains 14 pages.

Contents

• Basic Song Selection by DJ Driscoll
• Songvids and FanFic by Tashery S
• A Musing On Vid Making In General, And The Use of Color In Particular by Gayle F
• In Case You Didn't Get To Escapade by Sandy Hereld (see the Escapade page)
• Reviews - Too Long a Soldier and Winds of Change by Karen Y (see those pages)
• Fan Music Videos That Please Me by Nicole V
• Audio /Visual Rhythm by Nicole V
• Favorite Vids by Gayle F (The Boxer by Mary Van Deusen and Evening Falls by Tashery S) (see those pages)
• Natterings From The North by Sandy Hereld
• Desert Island Songtapes by Sandy Hereld
• VCRs? By Sandy Hereld
• Show and Tell of My Setup by Tashery S
• Email Anyone? (Looking For Slash Fans) by Sandy Hereld
• Current Projects by Gayle F, DJ Driscoll and Tashery S
• Swapping Corner – Bazaar For Ideas and Tape Trades

Songvids and FanFic

Selected excerpts from the article:

"Songvids and FanFic. How are they alike, and how are they different?....Do they satisfy the same itch for favorite fandoms, or do I get something different out of each....

To begin with the obvious, both are a way of getting new doses of a favorite fandom... Their biggest differences are equally obvious. I quietly enjoy a story when I'm alone, while watching vids is otten a social occasion, or even a performance, as at a con showing. Even when I'm alone, ifs noisy, and I sometimes dance to a vid, or sing along. I don't have to be in a contemplative mood to enjoy it...

As I view a vid or read a zine-and even more when I make a vid or write-I'm struck by one outstanding difference between them. A story can make the characters do anything the author pleases. I can follow them through additional adventures like the ones in the episodes, or read about them in situations the episodes don't show me. I can watch them interact more intimately or erotically than the mass media of a repressed culture will riskletting me see, and I can follow the effects of these hypothetical actions. Anything can happen, because there is no limit to the word combinations a writer can use.

With a vid, there is a strict limit. The images come from the episodes. There have been attempts to push this limit, to combine images from other sources, like Dee Jay's Vietnam war footage giving reality to what Bodie has experienced in "Too Long a Soldier". If used carefully, as in this vid, images from outside sources can strengthen the message, and interesting work has happened this way, but the effect is different from a writer's conjuring.....But a vid is just as likely to work the opposite way for me, giving reality to nuances that are different from those in the series, by combining a certain line of music with a certain image. That image then becomes many-layered, filled with resonances more powerful than the episode gave it, and when I watch the episode, some of that magic rubs off on it. Stories can do that too, but not at the same sensory, visual/auditory level as seeing and hearing the image in a vid.

But I've been talking as if fanfic and vids existed in complete separation from each other. Actually, I find that for me, they interweave….. I think my ideas about Blake in A Companion for My Death were influenced by Mary's vids, especially Sleep, My Weary World, and Back Where I Started. This is not to advocate ripping off someone's story and doing it as a vid, or writing someone else's vid up as a story—not unless proper credit is given ….

...The particular opportunities and problems in slash vids, as compared with slash fiction, seem worthy of a little probing. On one hand, slash is a natural for song videos, since there are more love songs than any other kind. Yet any sort of erotic relationship is harder to do in a vid than a story, because the images are usually gen. At most, when used with the right lines those great closeups and exchanged looks imply something romantic or sexy beyond the episode's plot. But it just ain't like seeing them get it on together. Recent attempts to simulate this by editing in porn footage are valiant and the way-out pushing of the limits admirable, but for me, the porn images don't mesh with the series images with the same convincingness as a good story. Yet, I find vids far more convincing than a not-so-good story...when I see [ OOC behavior] in a story, no matter how much I may want to like the story, the characters mutate dreamlike into distorted, half-formed aberrations of themselves. This is an uneasy experience, and has made me put down many a story unfinished. But I can't ever remember fast forwarding through a vid on the first viewing, as long as I liked the fandom at all. When you're stuck with the character's actions as they are on the screen, you can reinterpret the hell out of them with any lyrics you want. You may achieve nonsense, but the characters remain themselves. For some reason I don't really understand, this makes it possible for a vid to get away with taking liberties that in a story would shatter my credibility...

Color

"I realize this will not be obviously apparent to the viewer, but I do believe [color in vids] influences the whole, making it a more aesthetically pleasing and emotionally effective vid. …. I do think it is an often over-looked way of adding richness and cohesion to a video. It can be used to build mood, and to smooth transitions….. While color is generally only one of these many on-going considerations for me, I do have one recent vid where I feel it works a major force in the emotional effect of the vid, fusing meaning and mood. This is the MV vid, End of the Night.....When I was listening to the Doors' End of the Night, I decided it would be a great song for a Sonny-as-Burnett vid. Without a clear memory of that part of the series, I knew I wanted to use the dream sequence, and imagined that it would be played against a lot of night images, dark both visually and in content. When I actually rewatched the episodes, I was delighted by the frequent use of surreal color, and decided to build the vid using those images. Because so many of the images from these episodes have colored lighting, the same visual effect might have been inadvertently obtained choosing images only on the basis of content, but there were significant moments that could have been used with more natural lighting which I rejected in favor of the strange nightmarish world that builds up with the heightened color. All the night blacks are stained with either blue or red, and the cold, distant blue and the hot, flame and blood red are themselves used as the predominant lighting in other shots. The unnatural, bleached white of the dream sequence becomes the "bright midnight" of the lyrics, fusing the black nightmare world of Burnett with Sonny's haunted dreamscape. I choose just one moment of white interior lighting before the end of the song-in Burnett's bathroom, where the screen splits into black and while halves as Sonny/Burnett reaches out to touch his reflection in the mirror. Although the color was less exaggerated, it echoed the other scenes and epitomized the emotional conflict. Only when Sonny starts to remember and accept who he is, does natural sunlight, normality, enter the images. Even then, the first images are blue washed, impressionistic. Only in the last-paradoxically nightmarish-shot of Sonny's return to the station is the lighting clear and bright. "

Vids As Audio/Visual Poetry

Vids As Audio/Visual Poetry. Music videos pulled me into fandom. I watched a series of Blake's 7 songvids produced by MVD Mary Van Deusen, and became intrigued with the characters and plotlines. Some of them did not make much sense. I eventually collected the 52 hours of B7, and now the B7 songvids not only make sense, they make poetry. Traditional poetry has the capacity to illuminate a Truth via the intersection of word-meaning and word-sound that comprise the poem. Songvids can do the same, adding a music layer, a visual layer, and a story layer to the rhythm and meaning of the words of a song. This multi-dimensional junction can provide a shortcut for a viewer about characters or storylines of a particular program."

Natterings/Desert Island Songtapes

In 1993, Sandy Herrold posted to the Virgule-L mailing list the following letter that she had mailed to the new letterzine. It is reposted here in its entirety with permission.

"Natterings from the North:

Rather than think of this as a column, I decided to act as though I was answering a lot of people's mailing comments from last month. (Some people hear voices in their heads, I see non-existent mailing comments. No problem.)

I've heard people whine about vid makers being self-indulgent, and it started me thinking about "perfect songs" and "self-indulgent songs." A perfect song to me is one where every line works for the character, every line has a good clip in the episodes, and as if those two weren't enough, is a song where the words are articulated, and the song itself would be interesting to listen to, even if there were no accompanying pictures, even through a terrible speaker.

So, I guess, a song vid becomes more and more self indulgent, the farther the song is from being perfect. I have seen people get obsessed over totally unsuitable songs: ones that are too long, ones that no one will ever understand more than 10 words of, ones that are too melodically challenging for the average TV speaker, (especially to show at a con, where we are pushing those speakers way beyond where they were ever supposed to go). But, I can think of great song tapes from songs that violated one or more of perfect song tenets. I tend to get obsessed over an unsuitable song if it has one perfect line. There is a song called, "Getting Away with it all my Life." Doyle actually says those words in an ep (Mixed Doubles). You could have the clip of him saying the words, and then start the video. I can see it! But...you kinda have to know the words to understand them, and the song is kinda long, and... (But we're still considering doing it.)

The Virgule songtape contest had 50 entries! I saw almost as many songs there as I had seen up till then. A lot of them were excellent, and as we only had a few categories, it made judging very difficult, and made me think about how I rate a songvid. One thing I realized, is I give a song (at least slightly) more credit if the clip, no matter how apparently perfect for that line of the song, actually meant the same thing in the show's context. (Harder to do for slash, of course.) But, on the other hand, when the entire video is twisted into a new context, (Asparagus, Pros for example, or even Comedy Tonight, B7), I give that more credit as well.

Desert Island Songtapes. Until I made this list, I would said I liked comedies more than serious songs...

• Cold - Biography of a bastard in 4/4 time. B7 - Serious - DeeJay. Every clip in order, to a song that was made for Avon, as if narrated by Vila. Perfect.
• Too Long a Soldier - Pros - serious - DeeJay. I still like Doyle better, but I've never been able to look at Bodie as a "conscienceless thug" since.
• Tapestry - TNG - serious - MVD? This is slow, and sweet, and near perfect. (And isn't it amazing what a hold Tasha's character still has on fandom. I mean, she was only in about 10 eps. Give us more strong women!) *Alone - Pros - serious - MVD. Again, I'm a Doyley, I swear, but this songtape actually brought tears to my eyes, (even more amazing when you realize I *hate* the song).
• In The Eyes - Wiseguy - serious - ??? This vid is so good, it may have intimidated other would-be Wiseguy fans, since I've seen no other WG vids since. Another perfect song.
• My Yellow Car - S/H - humorous - MVD & DeeJay. I dislike country and western intensely, but the clips to the song are so well done... The affection between the two, the silliness seemed perfect for the song, not forced, or overdone (like the show itself often was), the car rolling down the hill in perfect rhythm...
• Continental Drift - B7 - serious - Tashery Shannon. I had to watch this 2 or 3 times just to figure out what was going on, but it repays your attention.
• This Boy--both versions, one for B, one for Doyle - Pros - humorous - Jean Curley?? I love both versions. Each one starts with B or D flirting with other guys, and then shows the 'other' one, for the "this guy, wants you back again" line. If one of them is better, it is the Doyle one, since it has Doyle hitting Bodie (in Involvement) for the line, This guy, wouldn't mind the pain..."
• I Think I'm a Clone Now - MM - humorous- MVD? I think this video is the first place I ever saw Blake's 7.
• My Way - B7 - humorous - ?? The first porn I saw cut into a video. I looked at Avon's black leather differently after that...
• Deteriorata - Pros - humorous - DeeJay. The funniest vid! I can't see the kid in Takeaway without wanting to call him "Ken."

Honorable Mentions

• Forever in Blue Jeans - Pros - lusty... - ??? The vid is basically 3 minutes of watching Martin Shaw, in tight jeans, walking towards the camera, and then away from the camera, and then towards the camera, and then away from the camera. Yes!
• Hold On - B7 - serious - Liz J.. A good video; made even more by the line, "Don't you recall how you felt when you weren't alone," The clip is Avon in the third season, it has stuck in my mind ever since.
• Asparagus - Pros - serious? - ??? Doyle as cat carried to a logical extreme. Everything out of context, sort of a songvid a/u.
• Don't Use Your Penis for a Brain - SH - humorous - Megan Kent. Maybe the funniest song used for a vid. I wish it could have been slash, but it's still great.

Looking at Tashery's flyer, she mentioned [there would be a column called] Swapping Corner. I am definitely in the market for good quality Wiseguy, especially eps with Roger Lacocco and the DC arc. DeeJay mentioned, (when I admitted I was late mailing my trib) that she's looking for Cop Rock episodes.

More natterings: I would love to see a FanQ award given for song vids (not just the winner of the MediaWestCon songvid contest). I know that fewer people voting would have seen them, than vote for the zines, but it would be like the fanzine category in the Hugos. It gets far fewer votes than the pro book categories do, but it's still an important category. If songtape people were better about putting titles on their vids--so people knew who to credit--and addresses on their tapes--so the distribution method was a little more organized--I think it could work great.

Unsuccessful videos? I helped work on one recently that ultimately disappointed me, and Barbara T., without even seeing the video, helped me realize why. "The song is 'perfect' for the character," I said to her, "and the clips are good. Why don't I love it?" She basically said that, a song can be too perfect. If the song fits the aired character exactly, then the songvideo doesn't show anything new. She made me realize how many of my favs (see above list...) show hidden (or even non-existent) sides of my favorite characters.

e-mail, anyone? Anyone out there on the Internet? There is a slashfen e-mail list where song tapes are discussed: any slash fans with e-mail access are welcome. Contact me at [address redacted] if you are interested.

B7 fan? There has been a fair amount of songtape discussion on the B7 e-mail list as well, feel free to contact me for that e-address as well.

VCR Help

"Help! I am looking for an editing machine under $600. I want one that will let me hear what I am doing as I am inserting. I've looked at a couple of Sonys (though I don't have the model numbers): one approx. $600, but although it has a wheel on the remote, it doesn't seem to be a true jog shuttle. (Of course, the next one up ($1000+) has every feature I'll ever need...) I also looked at a Mitsubishi HS U57. It has a jog shuttle, and a double flying erase head; ifs a little cheaper than the Sony at $525, but I've been warned that Mitsubishis start leaving rainbows on your edits 6 months after you buy them. Any truth to this? Anyone had any (bad/good) luck with them? Other recommendations happily accepted. ~ Sandy Hereld

Upon reading this, your dedicated editor undertook a research trip to the local electronics store….Of the VCRs I tested, all had video and audio dub capability, a flying erase head, and hi-fi sound. If you're not familiar with the role of hi-fi sound in song tapes, hi-fi VCRs record sound onto two tracks, the linear track (non-hi-fi machines use the linear track only), and the hi-fi track. Hi-fi sounds better than linear. When the video dub (video insert on some machines) edits your image onto the tape, it leaves the linear track untouched, but records over the hi-fi track. On the song tape master, the linear track is the sound track. Any attempt to play the master on the hi-fi setting gives you only the episode dialogue from the images you edited in. On any copy for friends or your own viewing (ifs not a good idea to subject the master to casual wear & tear), you can put the song on both the linear and hi-fi tracks by setting the source machine to linear and recording normally. So, while hi-fi sound is nice to have, you can't take full advantage of it in your song vids. Though all the machines I tested have at least one flying erase head, beware—not all VCRs with edit features do.

So what is a flying erase head? Contrary to its name, it isn't something out of David Lynch's nightmares, ifs a moving head that erases the partial frames left by editing, for a clean, flashless cut. Without a flying erase head, the rainbow noise between cuts is very annoying, especially in later generations (copies). I don't recommend working without this feature.

Flying erase heads - though necessary, these are a pain in the butt. As far as I know, all erase heads in home machines deteriorate somewhat after a few months of hard use. And let's face it, we song vid makers give a VCR harder use than manufacturers count on Hint: to check how cleanly your erase head is working, check the top of the* screen for little flashes of black or white at the cuts. This garbage makes for a more jarring cut, but isn't uncommon (you can always lay in the cut again, if it's too noticeable, since the problem is usually intermittent). But if you start getting big, flashy rainbows, the head has stopped working, and should be serviced For reasons like this, do get an extended warranty instead of 90 days!

Unfortunately, for under $1000, I didn't find any one perfect machine for making song videos."

Issue 2

Issue 2 was published in June 1993 and contains 12 pages.

• The Use and Abuse of Videotape by Kandy Fong
• About Rainbow Noise issue #1 (Letters)
• Old Vidfellows by Sandy Hereld (a survey of the frequency of pairings in Blake’s 7 vids to date)
• Editing For Continuity and Motion by Tashery Shannon
• Song Videos and the Male of the Species by Clif Davis
• Reviews by Gayle F (Arbiter and We Will Never Pass This Way Again) by Paul and Mary Van Duesen (see those pages)
• Various Vid Reviews by Alana M
• Technical Tips: 1 ¾ <F*INSERT PAUSE (AKA What The Cat Tries To Do to Your VCR) by T’Rhys
• Trading Corner
• Round Robin Tape Schedule
• The Lost Pages: Diary of A Mad Vidder by DJ Driscoll
• Ideas and Offers by Kandy Fong

Videotape Handling

"It is possible to love a tape to death. Recently, I borrowed a series from another fan, and I can tell where every one

of her favorite scenes is located. Every time she paused the tape - backed it up - paused the tape - replayed it (sometimes in slow motion), the tape stretched a little bit. Now her favorite scenes are bracketed with wavy pictures and rolling images. You can avoid this. First, pause a tape as little as possible. Second, if you must pause, as in making music videos, try to pause in a different spot each time. Doing it just seconds before and after the usual spot can minimize the damage. Third, use a stronger tape. Professional (AKA industrial) tape is made for editing. Few of us can afford it for a whole series, although you can get best episodes in rerun. The next best choice is an extra high grade

(AKA special event) tape. I use Sony, Maxell, or TDK.

Letters

"Sticking with a single point of view may be a good rule of thumb, but I've been taken with at least one video which repeatedly switches back and forth between two points of view. The technique is too useful in telling a story not to emulate. I agree though that sudden changes in POV with no supporting context would be disruptive."

"...it might be interesting to take a new song and have a group of established vid makers each pick a different random and from each independently do a video. It would be intriguing to compare what the different artists did with the same lyrics in the different fandoms. Putting them together on a single tape could make for a fascinating study. I can see where the average viewer might not want to sit through them all at one time, though."

"The comparison between Song Videos and fan fiction was interesting, but without wanting to start a religious war, I would suggest that the average quality of vids is much higher than the average quality of fan fiction. For the very best examples of each, the relationship is probably reversed, though. Music videos are, after all, an inherently limited form."

"Sandy Hereld's comment that until she made her list of Desert Island Songtapes she would have said that she liked comedies better than serious songs struck a chord. When the comedies come on I settle back in my chair with a smile of anticipation. But the song tapes that I remember, the ones that move me, are mostly serious ones."

Editing For Continuity and Motion

Selected excerpts:

"If we can't create our own footage in our favorite fandoms, it is still amazing how much control is possible— how

differently the same images can come across - through editing. I want to share some techniques I learned through film-making that I've found useful for vids...I'll talk about purely visual aspects of making "cuts"...

In the early years of fil-mmaking, directors and editors evolved rules of thumb as they learned what edits worked best for the eye and gave a sense of continuity. These guidelines are now so standard they're taught in all film and video making courses. Though we vidders can't always pick and choose like these folks, I've found that when I tell myself I have no choice and ifs okay to ignore the conventions of camera work and editing, I can end up with edits that feel awkward, but when I try as far as possible, to follow professional editing practices, my vids are not only smoother and more graceful, they're more emotionally powerful.

• Jump Cuts. A jump cut is an edit that boggles continuity. First Sam stands with his hands by his sides. Then one hand has leaped(no pun intended)to his hip, though I never saw him put it there.....So when putting together two shots with the same person from two different episodes or scenes, I like to check to make sure I'm not accidentally creating this kind of jump cut Sometimes ifs impossible to see until the images are edited together, then it suddenly becomes all to obvious. If using different scenes together can lead to jump cuts, using pieces from the same scene has pitfalls, too. Since TV and movie studios avoid jump cuts by intercutting a shot of a someone or something else, we vid makers are prey to awkwardness if we... use two similar almost consecutive shots of the character we want, but cut out an irrelevant shot that separated them. Another kind of jump cut goes from, say, a dose up of someone to a different range shot of the same person from the same angle, giving the impression that not the person, but the camera, has suddenly jumped. The effect is disorienting....So unless I mean to distress my audience, I try to avoid jump cuts by cutting to a different character, or a different angle and range (long, medium or closeup) of the same character.

Other topics addresses: Actor's Motion, Camera Motion, Length of Shots.

Gender and Vidding

"Unless we can argue that there is some inherent predisposition from an interest in slash to the production

of music videos, above and beyond a familiarity with video equipment which is shared with, for example, fans of Japanese Animation, we must admit that the particular way in which song tapes have evolved and the resulting preponderance of female video artists is largely a historical acddent

All this may be painfully obvious to everyone else, but if the theory is true we can make several predictions. As time goes on, the dominant sex of those creating music videos may remain female, just as a small majority of science fiction fans are still male, but the ratio will level out More significantly, we can predict that as the hobby expands, the total number of slash videos being produced will probably increase, but the percentage of slash videos will drop dramatically."

Lost Diary

"Kudos to whoever did the MV vid "Where's the Fire?" That vid made me get outta my seat and crawl towards the TV screen. My copy's audio is awful so when I try and show it to people who are Vice fans I have to crank up my TVs sound REAL high. Who did it? And is her audio better than on my copy… Also really loved "One Moment in Time" for Star Wars. Brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes... "

Note: The Miami Vice vid may be by Tolbran.

Ideas and Offers

"Opinion Time: Like a story sitting in a drawer, a video that no one sees is wasted. Years ago I became frustrated because I would see a video once at a con and never again. Or, even worse, hear about it second hand. Or, the very worst, have only multiple gen or ripped-off copies floating around. That's why, back in the Calicon days, I started making "contest tapes" for the convention members. There has been wonderful encouragement and support from concoms (like Candy P. who even makes special lists on her computer) and the video makers who allow me to copy their songs. I want to publicly thank everyone for their help. But, I'm still a little frustrated. I keep hearing about videos, videomakers that I've missed (I was told 2 years ago about a funny video with different fandoms bowling—but have yet to see it!)

I am also disturbed by reports that pseudo fans are duping off multiple gen copies of music videos and selling these for big bucks. If anyone wants more than $5.00 for any con, or compiled (ie. from multiple video makers) tape—this is a rip-off. Please spread the word and let's try to shut them down.

A second means of attack and a way to relieve my frustration with missing videos came to mind while talking with several video makers. I propose setting up a music video library. Video makers would send me tapes of their work and I could dupe for fans (at cost) on my industrial quality VHS, Beta and PAL machines. Creators would have a wider audience, the best possible copies would be available, and creators would miss the hassle of running bunches of copies. This arrangement has worked out well for people like Mary Van Deusen and Cybel. However, if a maker, such as Dee Jay, prefers to make her own copies, I'd be willing to pass along flyers, or info. So, I invite all video makers to contact me.

I am also willing (eager) to put together and distribute copies of con video contest tapes for cons that1 do not attend. I would like to invite any concom to contact me."

Note: The vid library and duping tree never did materialize.

Issue 3

Unknown content. It was mentioned in Rallying Call #13 in April 1995 when a fan addresses another: "Do we know each other? Well, we would (sort of) if Tashery Shannon had put out that fourth issue of "Rainbow Noise" on anything resembling its originally projected schedule. I have comments in there replying to your comments in the previous three issues... it's hard to remember after all this time."