FKO 18 -- Filkin' Down The Highway, Part I
Picking up from my brief post Monday with a more complete conrep. As already blogged elsewhere, the fine folks at FilKONtario put on another fabulous weekend. For only the third time in 15 years of attending, I chose to drive, rather than us paying two $450 airfares. Both drives were actually quite pleasant. It took us a little over 10 hours to get up (going the all-highways route via Pittsburgh) and just short of 9-1/2 coming back (via US-15 through Williamsport & Harrisburg). Caught up on a bunch of CD listening, including They Might Be Giants' "Dial-A-Song", a Warren Zevon collection, and the two-disc Lafitte's Return--Pirates for the Preservation of New Orleans Music set. Having taken I-79 up, we passed by Cooper's Lake, which is about as close as you'll ever get us to Pennsic without a kidnapping involved.
It's been said many times that filk conventions are magic places. If I didn't believe that before, I sure do now. I'd come down with laryngitis (or something similar) the Tuesday before the con, and as of Friday morning still had limited voice. In fact I had Sheryl drive us across the border, since I certainly didn't want to be the one talking. And yet, somewhere between the 403 and the front door of the Delta I suddenly recovered most of my voice, and actually managed to sing a few carefully selected songs Friday night (a-capella or fingerpicked). Happily by Saturday I seemed to be close to, if not at normal. At least close enough to loose a rockin' "Sedona" in open filk. Meanwhile, I discovered that "Wishful Thinking" (or more precisely, "Healthy Thinking", my contribution to a round of medical songs) works quite nicely fingerpicked rather than strummed as I usually do it. The things one finds while compensating.
Assorted highlights and amusements of the weekend (many covered in detail elsewhere):
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sexybass and sposter's wedding. Bride & groom were radiant, and the ceremony was lovely. Filkers clean up so nicely (*grin*). I wonder how many times it will take for my friends to stop doing double-takes when I turn up in a blazer and slacks.
-- UT's Friday night concert. lord_korak appearance during "Those Were The 70's", busting out the finest dance moves to be seen on the FilKONtario stage since it_aint_easy's Technonerdboy dance back in the mid-90's. "Magic's In The Air" and unkbar's look of mock offense at the "at least he's not a bear..." line.
-- Katie Beth Roper watching her dad's Filk Waif concert. From our perpsective, we could just see her head peeking over the edge of the stage. It reminded us of when Nova comes up to the front door when we're unloading food or whatever from the car, and we can just see her furry white and brown head peeking up over the bottom of the storm/screen door.
-- billroper and daisy_knotwise performing "Stuff". Oh yeah, we understand *grin*. And of course "Apology" is always fun.
-- Marilyn Miller's Interfilk set. We'd had a chance to see her at LACon IV, but her computer (which provides backing track and commentary) wasn't behaving. This time, any technical difficulties were ironed out and we got the full "Marilyn and Mac" show complete with onstage banter.
-- vixyish and tfabris's rockin' GOH set. "Peppercrumb" with visual aids. The well-timed tuning break that let Vixy launch her birthday conspiracy (and Tony's "Aw geez" look when the audience burst into song). "Apprentice" and "Companion" (the latter of which keeps floating across my brain). They got a well-deserved standing ovation (and looked so adorably sheepish receiving it *grin*).
And it's time to go to bed...we'll pick up the rest tomorrow or Tuesday.
