Out Of The (Hunt) Valley
Another Balticon has gone into the history books, and with it ends a 10 year-run at the Hunt Valley Inn. This would be the third extended run; Balticon previously had multi-year runs in the late 70's/early 80's and in the early 90's. (There was a period in the mid/late 80's where Balticon appears to have alternated between the Inner Harbor and Hunt Valley.
This was one of the more interesting years of my tenure as Coordinator of Filk and Other Musical Mayhem. There was some uncertainty along the way over whether or how we were going to be able to use some of the space due to hotel renovations. As it turned out we finally did get most (if not all) of it, but in the meantime we'd downsized some of the program. Oh well. In the meantime, some processes that had worked smoothly the previous nine years suddenly...didn't. Hopefully some of those were just bumps. Next year there's both a Balticon and a Conterpoint on my plate, so things are going to be kinda crazy in these parts. (And that's just for starters!) At least I'm not chairing or doing hotel for Conterpoint next year; I'm hoping to mainly focus on publications and website content.
The music program went pretty well. Open filk did fizzle out early side all three nights; the circle was dead before 12:30 on Friday and Saturday and looked like it was starting to lose steam when I went to bed a little after 1:00 on Sunday. That was probably due to a combination of folks being tired from Friday travel, recovering from various ailments, and getting to bed before 10am panels. Plus we're all getting older and can't stay up as far past our normal bedtimes. But we had a most excellent series of concerts, topped by Erica's GOH set and continuing through Decadent Dave, Maugorn, Sassafrass, Glyn Collinson & Andrew Marcus, Steve & Deja, and Cheshire Moon. Plus Dave, Emily, and I had loads of fun entertaining the kids (and each other) for a Sunday morning children's concert. And two people requested songs from me, which is quite unusual.
As is usual for Balticon, I didn't make it to much outside the Music track. I did get to Jo Walton's GOH talk, during which she brought out Sassafrass to sing "Somebody Will". We also got to the "Am I More Sentient Than My Cat?" panel, which featured Erica for a philosophical perspective on the question. Of course, it should be noted the panelists quickly retitled the question "Am I More Sapient Than My Cat?" (I quipped to Sheryl "are we talking before or after I've had coffee?") Meanwhile, I got to experience a panel from the other side of the table as a member of the "Engineers Can't Write" panel, where I offered myself as a living counter-example. (Both professionally and as an amateur songwriter.)
Next year Balticon celebrates its 50th year and returns to the Inner Harbor, moving into the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace. George R.R. Martin heads the guest lineup, and we have the Ropers for Music GOHs.
This was one of the more interesting years of my tenure as Coordinator of Filk and Other Musical Mayhem. There was some uncertainty along the way over whether or how we were going to be able to use some of the space due to hotel renovations. As it turned out we finally did get most (if not all) of it, but in the meantime we'd downsized some of the program. Oh well. In the meantime, some processes that had worked smoothly the previous nine years suddenly...didn't. Hopefully some of those were just bumps. Next year there's both a Balticon and a Conterpoint on my plate, so things are going to be kinda crazy in these parts. (And that's just for starters!) At least I'm not chairing or doing hotel for Conterpoint next year; I'm hoping to mainly focus on publications and website content.
The music program went pretty well. Open filk did fizzle out early side all three nights; the circle was dead before 12:30 on Friday and Saturday and looked like it was starting to lose steam when I went to bed a little after 1:00 on Sunday. That was probably due to a combination of folks being tired from Friday travel, recovering from various ailments, and getting to bed before 10am panels. Plus we're all getting older and can't stay up as far past our normal bedtimes. But we had a most excellent series of concerts, topped by Erica's GOH set and continuing through Decadent Dave, Maugorn, Sassafrass, Glyn Collinson & Andrew Marcus, Steve & Deja, and Cheshire Moon. Plus Dave, Emily, and I had loads of fun entertaining the kids (and each other) for a Sunday morning children's concert. And two people requested songs from me, which is quite unusual.
As is usual for Balticon, I didn't make it to much outside the Music track. I did get to Jo Walton's GOH talk, during which she brought out Sassafrass to sing "Somebody Will". We also got to the "Am I More Sentient Than My Cat?" panel, which featured Erica for a philosophical perspective on the question. Of course, it should be noted the panelists quickly retitled the question "Am I More Sapient Than My Cat?" (I quipped to Sheryl "are we talking before or after I've had coffee?") Meanwhile, I got to experience a panel from the other side of the table as a member of the "Engineers Can't Write" panel, where I offered myself as a living counter-example. (Both professionally and as an amateur songwriter.)
Next year Balticon celebrates its 50th year and returns to the Inner Harbor, moving into the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace. George R.R. Martin heads the guest lineup, and we have the Ropers for Music GOHs.