And another year begins. The weather was pleasant enough for us to ring in the new year at First Night Alexandria, joined by Mark Silverdragon (WINOLJ) and his wife Barbara. I suggested Daniel O'Connell's Restaurant and Bar for dinner since previous experience has suggested it's one of the more reliably decent places cuisine-wise on (or near) King ( Read more... )

Overall, 2013 was a good year for us ( Read more... )

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 ( Read more... )

When I first saw the schedule, I wasn't sure how well 11am concerts would work. Turns out if you have the right performers, they work pretty well.

( Concerts, Canadians, and The Great Gazebo Raid )

I heard that gasp from my readership. Yes, I'm actually starting my report the day after I got home from the con. (Helps when Wednesday is a holiday ( Read more... )

So yesterday, I said Contata was mucho fun. This was not an entirely accurate description. In fact, Contata was a giant chocolate cupcake of awesomeness topped with icing made of pure sugary win.

( A skyscraper's worth of highlights )

This past Wednesday's Washington Post ran an entertaining article on how sign-language interpreters translate Lady Gaga, Bon Jovi and other rockers and pop stars. You think interpreting filkertom or seanan_mcguire is hard? Try dealing with such exquisite lyrics as "Come on now, this beat is sick. I wanna take a ride on your disco stick" (Gaga) or "There's only pictures ( Read more... )

So, NEFilk 20: Conterpoint 2010 is over. We made the grueling 2-mile drive back home a couple of hours ago ( Read more... )

Had a fine time at Concertino, even though we didn't get there until after midnight on Friday. My flight from Chicago (where I had business meetings Thursday and Friday) to Boston was delayed two hours due to the thunderstorms and biblical deluges that hit the Midwest on Friday. Truly impressive; even flooded and shut down one side of Mannheim ( Read more... )