Three Conreps for the Price of One
Because life with a toddler means never having time/energy to post.
OVFF was interesting this year due to a conflict with a lumber industry committee I serve on. We still made the con, we just flew out early and I made the round trip to and from San Antonio from Columbus. This also meant I missed the Mad Hatter's Party and Pegasus Nominees Concert. (I did get my vote in.) Other than that it was a good con; vixyish and tfabris rocked the house, Tim Griffin did a fine job of toasting, and there were fine concerts by quadrivium and Leslie Hudson, among others. (I missed a few concerts due to Sam-wrangling and/or rehearsing with Trickster and King, who invited me to play guitar on "Hearthfire".) Open filk was good as always, though somehow I managed to miss hearing a lot of the Canadian and Midwest folks I usually wind up in rooms with (like decadentdave, sexybass and billroper) and caught more from the West Coast folks (like the prolific and always-entertaining admnaismith). Which isn't a bad thing per se, since I see my Canadian and Midwestern friends more often, just an observation.
If Philcon weren't a reasonably short drive we'd have probably dropped it by now, but we go to support hms42's filk program and because they sometimes have an interesting Principal Speaker (like C.J. Cherryh this year). And we do typically have a good time, though as usual between filk program commitments, going offsite for meals and the needs of little boys I only managed to catch Cherryh's main speech/Q&A. I did have a concert set this year which drew surprisingly well for being towards the end of the prime Saturday dinner hours. The setlist was:
Hey Commander (words mine, parody of "Hey Conductor" by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer)
One More Earworm (words mine, parody of "One More River to Cross", traditional)
Through a Child's Eyes (words and music mine)
Bridge Shanty (words and music mine)
Builder's Song (words and music mine)
Songs Flying Free (words and music mine)
My best comment on Chessiecon this year was the observation that people started leaving the filk/bardic on Friday for bed at about the time the filk often got started back in Darkover days. This is also not a bad thing. Just because 15 years ago I could still be fully awake past midnight doesn't mean I necessarily liked waiting until after midnight (especially following the Hallelujah Chorus) for Darkover filks to reach critical mass. It's a nice change. As are the number of new participants and voices we seem to be gaining in the DC/Baltimore area. (If I had been more with it I would have made sure to collect everyone's e-mails and find out if any of the newcomers were actually capable of hosting a housefilk.)
The appeal of Darkover and Chessiecon has always been the concert program; this year was no exception. There were excellent concerts from Cade Tinney, Sarah Pinsker (also the Author GOH), maugorn, thnidu, Ben Newman, Goldberry, the "Totally Not the Clams" concert (Bob & Sue Esty, John Huff and Kathy Sobansky), Ed Sobansky and osewalrus trading stories, and Music GOH S.J. Tucker (accompanied by Betsy Tinney).
And of course lots of catching up with friends. I need to do more of that.
OVFF was interesting this year due to a conflict with a lumber industry committee I serve on. We still made the con, we just flew out early and I made the round trip to and from San Antonio from Columbus. This also meant I missed the Mad Hatter's Party and Pegasus Nominees Concert. (I did get my vote in.) Other than that it was a good con; vixyish and tfabris rocked the house, Tim Griffin did a fine job of toasting, and there were fine concerts by quadrivium and Leslie Hudson, among others. (I missed a few concerts due to Sam-wrangling and/or rehearsing with Trickster and King, who invited me to play guitar on "Hearthfire".) Open filk was good as always, though somehow I managed to miss hearing a lot of the Canadian and Midwest folks I usually wind up in rooms with (like decadentdave, sexybass and billroper) and caught more from the West Coast folks (like the prolific and always-entertaining admnaismith). Which isn't a bad thing per se, since I see my Canadian and Midwestern friends more often, just an observation.
If Philcon weren't a reasonably short drive we'd have probably dropped it by now, but we go to support hms42's filk program and because they sometimes have an interesting Principal Speaker (like C.J. Cherryh this year). And we do typically have a good time, though as usual between filk program commitments, going offsite for meals and the needs of little boys I only managed to catch Cherryh's main speech/Q&A. I did have a concert set this year which drew surprisingly well for being towards the end of the prime Saturday dinner hours. The setlist was:
Hey Commander (words mine, parody of "Hey Conductor" by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer)
One More Earworm (words mine, parody of "One More River to Cross", traditional)
Through a Child's Eyes (words and music mine)
Bridge Shanty (words and music mine)
Builder's Song (words and music mine)
Songs Flying Free (words and music mine)
My best comment on Chessiecon this year was the observation that people started leaving the filk/bardic on Friday for bed at about the time the filk often got started back in Darkover days. This is also not a bad thing. Just because 15 years ago I could still be fully awake past midnight doesn't mean I necessarily liked waiting until after midnight (especially following the Hallelujah Chorus) for Darkover filks to reach critical mass. It's a nice change. As are the number of new participants and voices we seem to be gaining in the DC/Baltimore area. (If I had been more with it I would have made sure to collect everyone's e-mails and find out if any of the newcomers were actually capable of hosting a housefilk.)
The appeal of Darkover and Chessiecon has always been the concert program; this year was no exception. There were excellent concerts from Cade Tinney, Sarah Pinsker (also the Author GOH), maugorn, thnidu, Ben Newman, Goldberry, the "Totally Not the Clams" concert (Bob & Sue Esty, John Huff and Kathy Sobansky), Ed Sobansky and osewalrus trading stories, and Music GOH S.J. Tucker (accompanied by Betsy Tinney).
And of course lots of catching up with friends. I need to do more of that.