More Contata brain dumps...

-- Would any of my readers be offended if we get rid of Delaware? The drive up took about 4 hours and 45 minutes. A good portion of those additional 45 minutes were spent in Delaware, I believe. This is largely why we got to the con just in time for starmalachite's Filk Classics concert, in which I rocked my way through Frank Hayes' "Lola the Engineer". And why we split for the hotel's dinner buffet shortly afterwards.

-- Aside from the event coordinators who need to be fired, the Hilton was quite a nice hotel and excellent con space. The alcove between rooms made for lots of quick chats while passing back and forth from circle to circle, going to and from the bathroom, etc. We lucked into a sleeping room right across from mamadeb and jonbaker's fine Con Suite. Yay for Entenmann's donuts and danish and Real New York Bagels! (And lots and lots of chocolate.) I actually slept pretty well I think...or at least pretty solidly (since nobody sleeps *well* at a filk con!) Plenty of food options, the non-existant Hong Kong Buffet notwithstanding. We had enough time on Saturday to make the 0.7-mile stroll up to the Atlanta Bread & Cafe by Rtes 10 & 202. Exercise gooooood.

-- It was great seeing fleetfootmike, who handed off the Intefilk CD I'd bid on last Concertino. I'd actually totally forgotten about it. I think Mike played as many songs on my axes as I did over the course of the weekend. We listened to the CD on the way home--good stuff! Although you can probably guess what we were thinking during "Only The Innocent"...*grin*

-- Wheels come full circle...when I first started doing filk concerts back in 1993 & 1994, including at Contata '94, suecochran played guitar for me. So it was amusing that I played guitar for her at this Contata. Although it would have been even more amusing if Sue had asked me to play "Lullaby For A Weary World", which I parodied early on (along with a million other folks probably) as "Lullaby For A Weary Fan", and was the first song I asked Sue to back me on. (That and "Donuts, Donuts".)

-- I think I got batyatoon good with "Baltar's Song". She pulled her headscarf down over her face when I hit the first refrain. Yes, I'm eeeeevil... 8-)

-- I wonder if a Joe Giacoio/Pete Kennedy double bill would make the audience's heads explode? Or just smash, then burn, their guitars. (Or is it burn, then smash? I never get the order right.) Which reminds me I still need to blog on the Kennedys show a couple weeks back. Maybe together with Carla's show Wednesday (same venue, same series).

-- I should make the observation that Northeast-style Chaos sometimes annoys me. I've been in OVFF filks that weren't as competitive as several East Coast filks have been at times this year (going back to Boskone and Balticon). And that includes the famous OVFF Hallway Filks. At least this time when the main room started to annoy me on Saturday night I did take the initiative to jump to the smaller room where fleetfootmike, folkmew, edstauff, osewalrus, and gimmeahand were hanging out, among others. Even after folks started coming over from the main room, it was still friendlier.

Definitely many kudos to the con-com for pulling together an excellent con despite all the challenges. Looked to my experienced con-runner eye as if everything ran smoothly (other than the hotel idiocy, of course). The sound was great, as always. BTW, I volunteer to help mike wrangle next time. It makes sense, since I'm usually sitting in the first few rows anyway. 8-)

While I still have a few functioning brain cells...

I had a great time at Contata! I'm told they had about 100 folks registered not including kids or guests, which is excellent. I was much in demand as a Trained Stunt Guitarist, accompanying signy1 on "Rich Fantasy Lives" in the Tom Smith benefit, partiallyclips on "Uplift" and suecochran on "God Lives On Terra" in the one-shots/two-fers, and batyatoon on "Mornington Crescent", among other things. I quite enjoy playing for other people; it's something I'd like to have more opportunities to do. It gives me excuses to stretch my guitar skills. My axes also saw action in the hands of starmalachite and fleetfootmike. Got to spend lots of time chatting with and catching up with folks, which is always good and something I don't always manage at cons. (Although I'm getting better at it.)

The Tom Smith Benefit was most excellent, and our special guest Christine Lavin did a great job as MC. Judging from the look on his face, I would not be surprised at all to see Nate Bucklin turn up at the next con with a Boomerang. I definitely must catch Tom Paxton's next local show and find out his reaction at having Christine and all the performers sing "Peace Will Come" to him (and filkertom) over the phone.

Enjoyed all of the concerts that I made it to, even if it looked like I was asleep (or nearly so) once or twice. (I'll note I missed the two Friday concerts, that being the only opportunity to eat dinner.) Of course, it's almost impossible to not enjoy a Heather Dale concert. In addition to being talented performers and fine songwriters, both Heather (as I've noted before, I think) and Ben clearly enjoy being on stage and take great delight in performing. I have observed this to be a fairly consistent characteristic of my favorite performers across all genres.

More thoughts tomorrow.

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.)

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.

( Finding my voice. Literally )

And it's time to go to bed...we'll pick up the rest tomorrow or Tuesday.

filkertom's post on parodies reminded me I hadn't posted the new one I uncorked at Boskone. This is one of those that had been floating around half-written for a couple of years. It wasn't until shaenon started the "Narbonic-Director's Cut" run that things finally fell into place.

So, without further adieu...
( The Narbonic Labs Love Song )

They say all work and no play makes Jack (or Gary?) a dull boy. So, while I was toiling away at building code hearings, I still found time to enjoy Southern California. For starters, Palm Springs makes a nice venue for a convention; especially compared to previous sites Rochester and Orlando. No offense intended to the residents of either town, but a downtown that mostly closes at 5pm and a resort that's 15 minutes from any food other than its own restaurants limit one's dining options, especially when one only has 30-45 minutes for a meal. Palm Springs, OTOH, has lots of restaurants open all day and late into the evening, and all within a 5 or 10 minute walk from the convention center. So even though many meals were takeout, it was good takeout, including Shakey's Pizza, Mexican, Chinese, and several sandwiches from Sherman's Delicatessen.

( Fun, Friends, Food, and Filk )

Posting (sleepily) from a spacious room at the Hyatt Regency Suites in Palm Springs, CA, where I am on business. Luckily, flying weather was good on Sunday, so had no trouble making my connection in Denver. Had a nice dinner with Lee and Barry last night (having flown to LAX) before heading out to Palm Springs.

Boskone was fun, if abbreviated. We will not discuss my spectacular memory failure during "Come Travel With Me". The rest of my set went fine. As I said last year, I *LOVE* *LOVE* *LOVE* *LOVE* *LOVE* the Quincy (and Revere) rooms. Also enjoyed my stint as Trained Stunt Guitarist in cadhla's set. Never did get around to geeking on Numb3rs, though. Caught three David Weber items (his reading, the Military SF panel, and the Treecats to Tribbles panel).

Our thoughts and prayers are with lovensong87 and kyttn tonight. As most of my f-list knows, their townhouse burned down last night and filkergem died in the fire. Obviously, we are all stunned, particularly those of us who just saw Greg & Maya a few weeks ago at GAFilk.

I can't think of a time I didn't see Greg with a huge grin or a laugh on his face. I think my favorite memory will be him and jslove flanking the stage at an FKO, in formal dress, acting out verses of a song about penguins Ellen Kranzer sang to the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance". (I think madfilkentist was on keyboard, but my brain is suffering a few bad sectors). I may even still have the lyrics around somewhere. Greg also was part of my backup chorus at FKO in 2000 when I performed Technical Nerdy Guys as a one-shot, waving his PDA in the air behind me.

First, a hearty shout-out to my fellow idi...er, comrades in con-running about to embark on the grand adventure known as Conflikt, the Pacific NorthWet's first filk con. My best wishes for good luck to the concom, and I wish I could join the action. (Especially with Steven Joel & France as Interfilk guests!) Hopefully my work and travel schedule will be a bit kinder in future years.

Monday evening we went to a house concert featuring Andrew McKay and Carole Etherton, a couple from Llangenith in South Wales making a whirlwind tour of Maryland, Virginia, California, and Australia. The duo write songs inspired by the industrial and maritime traditions of Swansea and South Wales, and perform other traditional Welsh songs. We met them in 2005 when they attended the FSGW Getaway, part of that year's batch of Mudcat Cafe denizens (aka "Mudcatters"). An enjoyable evening was had, with lots of rousing choruses to warm the heart on a cold night.

Other than that, not much else to report. I do believe one of my fellow DC-area filkers does have an announcement to make. Let this be a prod... ;-)

Posting from GAFilk Saturday night (or Sunday morning, I suppose, except I haven't gone to be yet, so it's still Saturday, right?). I've been a bit slowed down by a sore throat--don't know if that's just the hotel or something else. Otherwise having fun.

( Details cut-tagged for your browsing pleasure )

In my usual scatter-brained way, I managed to post about New Years Eve, but of course blithely skipped over the rest of the weekend. Granted, much of it was spent around the house, but that was OK since I finally caught up on a bunch of things that needed doing. For example, raking the rest of the front yard, cutting up the branches that had fallen off our tree, and carting stuff over to the dump. Also got in a couple of treadmill sessions and guitar practices. Meanwhile, watched the Terps lose (bleah!), the 'Skins win (woo-hoo!), Michigan win (I can hear the cheers from my friends up North!), and USC leisurely stroll up and down the field.

But most importantly, we did have a filker in town--catalana, for the APA conference. We shuttled her up to Stately Zeve/Andrews Manor for dinner and hanging out. starmalachite and stevemb joined the party. We had an excellent dinner at Liberatore's up in Owings Mills. Lots of food--big dinner plates and the salad could almost have been a meal in itself. A most enjoyable evening was had by all.

I've heard it said that what you do on New Years' Day determines what your year would be like. In my case, that would mean I'll get lots of exercise (used the treadmill), make lots of music (played guitar), and see lots of sports (watched bowl games). I think I can deal with that! 8-)

So those of you who've been following catalana's journal know that the fine Doctor is in Baltimore this weekend. We've arranged a dinner mission for this Saturday, December 29th. The plan is to meet at Steven Joel's and France's at 6:30pm; we'll decide what we're eating and where from there. E-mail me or leave a comment if you're interested in joining, so we have an approximate idea of how many folks to expect.

Also e-mail or leave a comment if you need directions. (Granting that the usual suspects know how to get to stately Zeve/Andrews Manor...*grin*)

Home from a trip to Phoenix (out Tuesday evening, back this afternoon). Grueling meeting, at which my colleague and I and the folks we represent were something of a punching bag. But such is the nature of advocacy. Anyway, am thoroughly exhausted and mentally drained. Still, there are things to summarize...

This past weekend was the return of my traditional Birthday housefilk. Good turnout--katrinb, thelongshot and Robbie, starmalachite and stevemb, museinred and stevezeve, dr_zrfq, Dave Wegener from Georgia (on assignment here in DC), and of course myself and the_sheryl. As typical, there was much more chatting than singing, but that's fine since we it was a chance to catch up with folks we don't get to see nearly often enough. Meanwhile, I'm glad to report our Nova-kitty passed her first big test, hanging out with the strange humans, soaking up the love, batting at France's knitting needles. (Luna-tic of course hid. Some things never change...)

Meanwhile, we've had an array of fine dinners. We went over to my Mom's for a Hanukkah dinner last Thursday. Then my dad and Bobbie took us out Sunday evenin for dinner at Golden Bull in Gaithersburg. And on Monday (my actual birthday), Sheryl took me out to the Cheesecake Factory. (Which is why we were a few minutes late for practice). Yes, we had cheesecake, of course...Chocolate Raspberry Truffle. Yum.

Now I get to relax home for a week before we head down to Florida for the holidays. We don't have anything particularly planned except for my Mom taking us out Sunday (one last birthday dinner). Other than that we'll probably just curl up at home with tea, soup, computers and DVDs.

And in my brain dead state, I nearly forgot...while in Phoenix last night, I did get together with blackfeatherdjr. We went over to Tempe and had dinner/dessert/drinks at Gordon Biersch and a brief stroll. An enjoyable night was had.

Mostly quiet weekend here, for once. Ran some errands today, raked leaves, caught up on some recorded stuff. Trying to clean up some of the crap strewn around my computer desk.

Have tickets to Avenue Q tomorrow! 2nd time seeing it, having caught it in NY a couple of years ago. As of Thursday evening, there were still a few upper balcony and even some orchestra tickets left for the run (through Dec 9th), especially for the weeknights. So if any of the locals out there haven't pounced yet, go do so!

And a reminder that next Saturday (December 8th) features the return of my Traditional Birthday Housefilk, starting at 8pm. Leave a comment or drop me an e-mail and I'll send along directions. Be seeing you!

Had a good time at Darkover this weekend.

( Cry CHEEBLE and loose the Hamsters of war! )

It's been quite a while since we had a housefilk in these parts. I used to have a tradition of throwing one around my birthday, but Philcon's detour into December (among other things) put that on the back burner. But, Philcon's moved back to November.

So -- I'm announcing the return of Gary's Birthday Housefilk, December 8, 2007, 8pm, at our place in Rockville, MD.

Donations of food and drink welcome, of course. Birthday presents *not* required. There are two felines in residence, though one is likely to
spend the housefilk hiding under our bed. (Some things never change.) The other will likely hang around, batting at anything that moves and many things that don't. E-mail me for directions or comment here and I'll send them along.

Be seeing you!

Before it totally disappears over the horizon! (And yes, I know I never finished the Seattle trip report...)

OVFF was fun, as always. We actually took an earlier flight than usual, so we got to experience the entire Pegasus concert in all its glory. (We did last year too since we drove, mind you.) It was great to see Moonwulf, who I hadn't seen in a while (possibly not since Conterpoint 2001; I can't quite recall). Although, two weeks later I still have "Flying Monkey" wafting across my brain, complete with mental image of Judi's flying monkey sign. (This is in the intervals when "Evil Laugh" isn't on repeat-play.) Also a nice concert from Dorotha and Steve Biernasser, including a great duet of "Girl That's Never Been". And of course always great to hear from unkbar, markbernstein, and bedlamhouse and ladyat, among many others.

Given that I've been avoiding the piano filk like the plague the last several years, I am somewhat amused that I ended up there both nights. I suppose it helps that by the time I got there Saturday the morning people had already gone to bed and it wasn't so large and aggressive. And Saturday night I turned up as it was first forming, so I was able to get a decent seat. The Saturday night circle afforded me a rare pleasure: I got to perform "Sedona" with folks representing all three legs/verses--nimuejohn for Arizona, vixyish and tfabris for the Pacific NorthWet, and cadhla for California.

The Interfilk auction was its usual nutty self. Talis nabbed the wind-up Corporate Zombies I donated (acquired from The Great Wind-Up in Seattle's Pike Place Market). I ended up bidding a copy of Edward Gorey's AMPHIGOREY up to an insane $250. I blame it on the wenches (*grin*). That and sleep deprivation...yeah, that's the ticket. I also tried to talk the auctioneer into getting a caricature from Adam English, who'd set up outside the room. I saw him standing in the crowd of watchers; I didn't see if he actually did get sketched.

The Dead Dog on Sunday was definitely the Place To Be for the entire con. sposter and sexybass did a hilarious song about a gypsy sock. Sue even had a red sock pulled over one hand. filkart and I made our usual exchange of Schooner Fare songs. My profuse apologies to everyone I threw off by doing "Boats of Stone", which has three different parts with different chords and different speeds. Oops. Enjoyed hearing vixyish sing her Gorey song "Peppercrumb" with partiallyclips' backing track. And bunches of other great stuff (plus some good photos I need to upload/e-mail). Just one note though--a Dead Dog Filk with over 50 folks in attendance that runs 'til 3:30am in the morning ain't a Dead Dog Filk; it's pretty much Sunday Open Filk at that point. (I mean, I remember Dead Dogs when it was 15 or 20 survivors and I closed the thing down a little past midnight...)

Back from a wonderful OVFF! Columbus is still standing following the Dorsai invasion. Sheryl is off retrieving Nova and Luna from the vet and water for pasta is heating away.

Great seeing and making music with everyone. Congrats to all the Pegasus winners!

Thanks to the wonders of free wireless in both the hotel and the airport, my pants are actually in decent shape.

Before it totally slips into the distant past, I should post a complete Archon/TuckerCon/NASFIC report.

( Meet Me In St. Lou...er, Collinsville )

Now that I've had a week to recover (sort of), time to take a swing at a con report, taking into account that I missed a few bits of the con here and there. (Particularly large bits of the open filk, and the dead dog.)

( The ConRep (sorry, brain's too dead tonight to be more creative...) )