Consonance 2010: lead-in thru Friday
Sure, the con was almost three weeks ago. So?
Another Consonance, and an especially good one, I thought. Also an especially busy one for us. We had 3 different groups of guest before the con, 1 of them returning afterwards, a party after the event, plus a non-con-related visit after that.
Two weeks before Consonance, Dave & Elizabeth Clement came to our house for the weekend. I didn't see as much of them as I'd have liked, because my company was rushing to get a demo ready to show to potential publishers. So the last two weekends before Consonance featured me at work (not for long hours, but not having the whole weekend off to visit, either). I did get to chat with Dave & Elizabeth, though, and play several songs with Dave one night.
The Sunday before Consonance, Juliana Honisch showed up at SFO. And despite having a recording session at Kristoph's to lay down a guitar track for Seanan, and attending work for a while, I was able to go along on the ride to pick her up at the airport. My goodness, Ju has dropped a lot of weight! And is quite rightfully proud of it. I believe she said she was celebrating the rediscovery of her legs. She stayed with us, which I enjoyed greatly, and Beckett enjoyed even more (as she's been writing and posting pictures about). That Tuesday, Tom and Sue joined us as well, making for a right merry house. Wednesday morning, we gave a kids' concert for the 2nd and 3rd graders at Casey & Riley's school. That was a lot of fun. We had a variety of Canadian songs from Tom & Sue, one singalong German folksong from Ju (as well as her song about Moaning Myrtle), and a few songs from me as well. It went over very well, including good participation from the kids.
Thursday night was the traditional pre-Consonance welcome-the-guests dinner. As a provider of housing for one of the guests (Ju, with Katy, were the International Guests), we were invited along, and Beck kindly offered to let me attend while she watched after the boys. It was an Afghan place I hadn't been before, with good food. I gave Ju, Sooj, and Kevin a ride from the hotel. (That would be Sooj of Tricky Pixie, the GoH.) I had a good dinner and an excellent time, sitting with Kristoph and Margaret, as well as Ju, Tom, Sue, and brief peeks at other guests and concom members.
Friday included work, still. (But fortunately, our demos had been earlier in the week, so I didn't have to work on Consonance weekend. Relief!) But I got over to the con hotel around 6:00. In a fortunate bit of timing, the boys had been invited to an overnight birthday party Friday night, so Beck and I got one relatively relaxed evening there. We did have to rush our dinner a bit to get to the first concert of the night: Mary Crowell.
My goodness. As I told Mary afterwards, she started off as one of the most talented musicians in filk, so what's she doing getting even better? Nonetheless, that's the situation. She's added a lot of role-playing songs to her rep, and I enjoyed them a lot. And Toastmistress Judi Miller was even more of an amazing signing creature than usual.
Next concert was the Toastmistress herself. She split her set between performing some songs on her own (and a fine performer she is) and bringing up other people to play songs of her choice, so that she could sign them for us. Wonderful.
The rest of Friday evening, we hung out with Tom, Sue, & Dave. Dave had asked Beck and I to join him in a few songs for his set, so this was our chance to rehearse. So we missed the open filk that evening, but we had some good music on our own.
Another Consonance, and an especially good one, I thought. Also an especially busy one for us. We had 3 different groups of guest before the con, 1 of them returning afterwards, a party after the event, plus a non-con-related visit after that.
Two weeks before Consonance, Dave & Elizabeth Clement came to our house for the weekend. I didn't see as much of them as I'd have liked, because my company was rushing to get a demo ready to show to potential publishers. So the last two weekends before Consonance featured me at work (not for long hours, but not having the whole weekend off to visit, either). I did get to chat with Dave & Elizabeth, though, and play several songs with Dave one night.
The Sunday before Consonance, Juliana Honisch showed up at SFO. And despite having a recording session at Kristoph's to lay down a guitar track for Seanan, and attending work for a while, I was able to go along on the ride to pick her up at the airport. My goodness, Ju has dropped a lot of weight! And is quite rightfully proud of it. I believe she said she was celebrating the rediscovery of her legs. She stayed with us, which I enjoyed greatly, and Beckett enjoyed even more (as she's been writing and posting pictures about). That Tuesday, Tom and Sue joined us as well, making for a right merry house. Wednesday morning, we gave a kids' concert for the 2nd and 3rd graders at Casey & Riley's school. That was a lot of fun. We had a variety of Canadian songs from Tom & Sue, one singalong German folksong from Ju (as well as her song about Moaning Myrtle), and a few songs from me as well. It went over very well, including good participation from the kids.
Thursday night was the traditional pre-Consonance welcome-the-guests dinner. As a provider of housing for one of the guests (Ju, with Katy, were the International Guests), we were invited along, and Beck kindly offered to let me attend while she watched after the boys. It was an Afghan place I hadn't been before, with good food. I gave Ju, Sooj, and Kevin a ride from the hotel. (That would be Sooj of Tricky Pixie, the GoH.) I had a good dinner and an excellent time, sitting with Kristoph and Margaret, as well as Ju, Tom, Sue, and brief peeks at other guests and concom members.
Friday included work, still. (But fortunately, our demos had been earlier in the week, so I didn't have to work on Consonance weekend. Relief!) But I got over to the con hotel around 6:00. In a fortunate bit of timing, the boys had been invited to an overnight birthday party Friday night, so Beck and I got one relatively relaxed evening there. We did have to rush our dinner a bit to get to the first concert of the night: Mary Crowell.
My goodness. As I told Mary afterwards, she started off as one of the most talented musicians in filk, so what's she doing getting even better? Nonetheless, that's the situation. She's added a lot of role-playing songs to her rep, and I enjoyed them a lot. And Toastmistress Judi Miller was even more of an amazing signing creature than usual.
Next concert was the Toastmistress herself. She split her set between performing some songs on her own (and a fine performer she is) and bringing up other people to play songs of her choice, so that she could sign them for us. Wonderful.
The rest of Friday evening, we hung out with Tom, Sue, & Dave. Dave had asked Beck and I to join him in a few songs for his set, so this was our chance to rehearse. So we missed the open filk that evening, but we had some good music on our own.