RIP Teri Lee

[madfilkentist]

Xenofilkia reports that Teri Lee, the co-founder of Off Centaur Productions and Firebird Arts and Music, died on December 13, 2021. I don't know why it took more than a month before I learned it, but it's possible others haven't heard, so I'm mentioning it here.

She was a controversial figure, but let's remember the work she did to get filk published at a quality and availability level far exceeding most personal recording efforts. There was no Internet for the general public in the 1980s. Off Centaur was the first filk publishing business, launched in 1980 by Jordin Kare, Teri Lee, and Catherine Cook. After Off Centaur fell apart, Teri, Andrea Mitchell, and others, founded Firebird. We would be much poorer in filk recordings if it weren't for her efforts. An archiving project has been started at Bowling Green State University to create a permanent archive of these and other filk recordings.

Comments

[we_are_spc]

I'm now wondering what will hapen to the site itself. It wasn't just music that was sold there, after all.

RIP, Terry.

I remember having several enjoyable conversations on the phone with her, even if she was a contrivercial figure.

-T~

[madfilkentist]

It was firebirdarts.com, wasn't it? I just checked, and it looks like a WordPress site with no content or customization. I think the domain lapsed and someone else picked it up.

[we_are_spc]

It was. Well that kind of sucks.

It was one of the few sites with everything in one place. :(

Especially where character dolls/braire models of certain aspects were concerned.

-T~

[ericcoleman]

No orders have been filled from that site for quite a few years. There was a large thread about it on one of the Facebook groups a couple years ago.

[we_are_spc]

Good to know. Shows ho often I've been there. I'd not had the money until recently. :)

Still a loss, though.

-T~

[reedrover]

Thank you for posting the news. I still have a lot of Off Centaur and Firebird cassettes and CDs. It was a great service for me and my friends just getting into filk in the 80s.