Exhausted Con Chair is Exhausted
Well, we held a Conterpoint this weekend. The hotel is empty now, the guests and attendees are on their way home (some by the long way around, but no worries there, it's by their own design), and the con-com can stagger home and collapse. (Your humble chair's afternoon included a two-hour nap.) So far the feedback I've heard suggests everyone had a great time (even the one person who got stuck in an elevator for 45 minutes), so I believe we can declare the con a success.
Debbie and Jonathan put together a lovely Listener's Choice concert. In addition to their own contributions of song and story, Dave, Harold, Gary M, Josh, Lisa, Batya, Merav, Dave W, and yours truly were invited to provide songs. Jonathan provided introductions for each performer relating how they came to know them.
Our UK friends will be pleased to hear Lissa did very nicely as our Interfilk Guest, ably assisted by Phil, who had a concert of his own. Phil and Lissa stayed with us for a pleasant few days before the con and got in some sightseeing, including what I call the "Giant Quonset Hut Of Planes", aka the National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center. I made sure our Con Suite goddess, a huge Pratchett fan, got to hear "C.M.O.T." with the full performance art component.
Similarly, our friends from the Pacific NorthWet will be happy to know that Andrew also did an excellent job as our Toastmaster. He told us his biggest desire was to have a backup band to help with some of his less-performed pieces. Oh boy, did we deliver! I will grant things did not quite go as expected, since two of the musicians I was hoping to recruit were not able to make the convention. I also figured we would have 3-4 backing musicians and vocalists on each song, instead of the up-to-five instrumentalists and three vocalists we wound up with on a few pieces. But hey, it worked, and it was a blast to be a part of, and I believe we are returning a very pleased Toastmaster back to Oregon. Major thanks to Tom, Gundo, Jason, Josh, Abby, Merav, and Kathleen!
And of course Tom and Sue made as delightful a pair of GOHs as my readers would expect. A fine concert with a mix of Dandelion Wine favorites, songs that Sue wrote, songs that Sue and Tom wrote, and a few covers including Talis Kimberley's "Can You Knit," and Scott Snyder's "Secrets." Tom and Sue did a workshop on singing with a partner, and a show-off-their-instruments workshop, participated in the space concert, and provided all sorts of wonderful music in the filk rooms and conversation in the hallways.
Despite a chaotic setup and a slightly glitchy projector, the Reaching for Space concert featuring members of the FilKONtario concom and friends went very well. Much singing along from the audience. I am told we had a con attendee who was a colleague of someone mentioned in one of the slides. I did three songs in the concert: "Witnesses's Waltz", "Builder's Song" (on which, it figures, I suffered Frank Hayes Disease) and "Somebody Will." My Sassafrass friends will be amused to know that having the latter (1) sung on Sunday afternoon of a filk con, (2) sung near the end of an inspiring and moving concert, and (3) SUNG BY THE CON CHAIR resulted in a fairly predictable outcome... 8-)
More comments and highlights to come, but there are a few other things I need to do before I SLEEP NOW.
Debbie and Jonathan put together a lovely Listener's Choice concert. In addition to their own contributions of song and story, Dave, Harold, Gary M, Josh, Lisa, Batya, Merav, Dave W, and yours truly were invited to provide songs. Jonathan provided introductions for each performer relating how they came to know them.
Our UK friends will be pleased to hear Lissa did very nicely as our Interfilk Guest, ably assisted by Phil, who had a concert of his own. Phil and Lissa stayed with us for a pleasant few days before the con and got in some sightseeing, including what I call the "Giant Quonset Hut Of Planes", aka the National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center. I made sure our Con Suite goddess, a huge Pratchett fan, got to hear "C.M.O.T." with the full performance art component.
Similarly, our friends from the Pacific NorthWet will be happy to know that Andrew also did an excellent job as our Toastmaster. He told us his biggest desire was to have a backup band to help with some of his less-performed pieces. Oh boy, did we deliver! I will grant things did not quite go as expected, since two of the musicians I was hoping to recruit were not able to make the convention. I also figured we would have 3-4 backing musicians and vocalists on each song, instead of the up-to-five instrumentalists and three vocalists we wound up with on a few pieces. But hey, it worked, and it was a blast to be a part of, and I believe we are returning a very pleased Toastmaster back to Oregon. Major thanks to Tom, Gundo, Jason, Josh, Abby, Merav, and Kathleen!
And of course Tom and Sue made as delightful a pair of GOHs as my readers would expect. A fine concert with a mix of Dandelion Wine favorites, songs that Sue wrote, songs that Sue and Tom wrote, and a few covers including Talis Kimberley's "Can You Knit," and Scott Snyder's "Secrets." Tom and Sue did a workshop on singing with a partner, and a show-off-their-instruments workshop, participated in the space concert, and provided all sorts of wonderful music in the filk rooms and conversation in the hallways.
Despite a chaotic setup and a slightly glitchy projector, the Reaching for Space concert featuring members of the FilKONtario concom and friends went very well. Much singing along from the audience. I am told we had a con attendee who was a colleague of someone mentioned in one of the slides. I did three songs in the concert: "Witnesses's Waltz", "Builder's Song" (on which, it figures, I suffered Frank Hayes Disease) and "Somebody Will." My Sassafrass friends will be amused to know that having the latter (1) sung on Sunday afternoon of a filk con, (2) sung near the end of an inspiring and moving concert, and (3) SUNG BY THE CON CHAIR resulted in a fairly predictable outcome... 8-)
More comments and highlights to come, but there are a few other things I need to do before I SLEEP NOW.