Before the weekend totally recedes over the horizon, I should wrap up my Balticon report...

( Schedule? What schedule? )

As the con-rep goes rolling along...

( Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! )

See, I promised I'd continue! Even though I seem to be coming down with con crud. Ah well, I'll take getting sick after the convention over being sick before the convention (see FKO '08), not to mention during (see Conterpoint '07).

( On to Saturday )

Recovering today from a fabulous Balticon. Got home around 6pm last night after dropping UT at the airport. Ordered pizza and took care of a few things that needed doing before bed. (Which is why we didn't go to the Dead Dog Dinner.)

( Friday )

To be continued...(I promise this time!)

Tomorrow we dive into what promises to be an amazing Balticon! Just having either the always-entertaining Connie Willis as Author GOH or the fabulous Urban Tapestry as Music GOH would be enough for a great con. And we've got both! Plus the spirit of Ghost of Honor Douglas Adams will be looking in on the proceedings. Make sure y'all know where your towels are!

Of course, no program survives contact with the fans (or, apparently, with the Pocket Program editor). Here's a quick rundown of the main filk program, with corrections from the pocket program noted in bold:

FRIDAY
7:00pm Everything You Wanted To Know About Filk (Salon E)
8:30pm Concert: Maugorn (45 mins)(Salon E) (not 9pm)
9:15pm Concert: Gary McGath (45 mins)(Salon E)
10:00pm Open Filk (Salon E & F)

SATURDAY
2:00pm Musical GOH Concert: Urban Tapestry (1 hour)(Valley) (correct in the grid, though missing from the Special Events list)
4:00pm Medieval Dancing (2 hours)(Garden)
10:00pm Open Filk (Salon A)
10:00pm Storytelling Circle (Chase) (not Salon A as listed in the Pocket Program)

SUNDAY
11:00am Kids Concert: Urban Tapestry and Friends (1 hour)(Chase)
7:30pm Concert: Stone Dragons (Tom & Sue)(45 mins)(Salon E & F)
8:15pm Concert: “Decadent” Dave Clement (45 mins)(Salon E & F)
9:00pm Theme Filk: Literary Songs (Salon E & F)
10:00pm Open Filk (Salon E & F)

MONDAY
1:00pm Enhancing Your Musical Performance (Salon E)
2:00pm Arthur C. Clarke Memorial Filk Circle (Salon E)
(both programs shifted an hour)

Also performing Friday night in the Main Tent (Valley Room) are George Hrab, Peter Beagle, and Rob Balder/Sudden Death, at 9:00pm, 10:30pm, and midnight respectively.

Hope to see a bunch of you there!

After about two years of trying, Paul Fischer finally got me down to his VA studio last weekend to record a filk-related episode for his Balticon Podcast. The episode, titled "Filk-o-rama with Rob Balder and Gary Ehrlich", features partiallyclips and I expounding for an hour about the filk program for this year's fast-approaching Balticon. In addition to a couple of live offerings, the podcast also features cuts from Balticon Music GOHs Urban Tapestry and other featured performers.

(Note: There were a few errors in the credits. I've e-mailed Paul about them already.)

Well, despite my job intruding on Friday, and despite a few stumbles with the filk program (all my fault), the weekend turned out to be a good one.

( Friday )

( Saturday )

Before the week gets too late, I should get off my duff and plug the other two events I'm involved with.

First, this weekend, Saturday & Sunday, is the Maryland Faerie Festival at the Patuxent 4H Center in Upper Marlboro, MD. I will be performing twice on Saturday--a solo set at 11:00am and with 3LF (for which the_sheryl will be dancing) at 5:00pm. Also among the performers are maugorn, Clam Chowder, and Emerald Rose.

And Memorial Day weekend, of course, is Balticon. The GOH's this year are Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. I haven't seen Niven as a con guest (or even much at Worldcon) in several years, so I'm looking forward to that. Meanwhile, there will also be music, music, and more music! In addition to Jeff & Maya Bohnhoff who are the musical GOH's, there will be concerts by negothick, Dr. SETI, decadentdave, Ian Hanley, pclips, lukeski and wormquartet. And that's just my track--there are a few other concerts scattered around the schedule. Plus we'll be joining maugorn and patches023 for the Medieval Dance on Saturday afternoon.

So hope to see a few of you at MDFF, Balticon, or better yet--both!

Continuing with the commercial plugs...with the new year arrived, it's probably about time to start hawking some of the events I have a hand in this year. So let's start with Balticon, held over Memorial Day weekend in lovely Hunt Valley, MD (just north of Baltimore). The Author GOHs this year are legendary scribes Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The Filk GOHs are the fabulous Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff (woo-hoo!).

One reason I wanted to post the plug is that some interesting musical possibilities have either been rumored or floated. What this means is that if you're thinking of coming to Balticon and have any interest in filk programming (and haven't already told me you're thinking of coming), it would probably be a very good things to let me know in the not-too-distant future. This is so I know if (a) I need to ask for more time slots or (b) negotiate carefully with other tracks to make sure we don't have two concerts trying to pull the same audience at the same time.

This leads to the other reason...one of the possibilities is that a move is afoot to get Jonathan Coulton to appear at Balticon. Now, my understanding is that Jonathan is using Eventful.com to schedule his gigs these days. The Podcasting folks have set up a demand to have Jonathan play Balticon which has 13 folks as of tonight. So, if you're planning on coming to Balticon and like the idea of having Jonathan come do a concert, hop on over and add your voice to the chorus!