Balticon Report
First, I'm on vacation! Wheee! I'm actually on day four of vacation! Four and one-half months of 70-80 hour work weeks are over. I still have buckets of work to do, but it is now at the manageable level. And I'm getting caught up on sleep and relaxation - just spent a fabulous Memorial Day weekend at Balticon. Since I haven't been posting on a regular basis, let me start with a Balticon report, and then I'll catch up on other news in posts over the next couple of weeks.
After departing at o-dark-hundred (0430 to be exact) for the airport, we had a blessedly uneventful, if long, travel day. Flew to Albuquerque where we had all of a 30 min layover, flew into BWI, caught the train (90 minute ride) to a station a few blocks from the con hotel, got settled in, got food, got badges, and started having fun.
Balticon was where I started filking 2 years ago and it was great to be back. We traveled to Balticon 2 years ago because we had met Paul Fischer and Martha Holloway on a train in Scotland after the Glasgow Worldcon and become friends. Paul got Chris started in podcasting (and thru Chris, I got started podcasting). Since Paul and Martha work on the con we don't get to spend a lot of time with them, but it is nice to see them in person and we did get to chat a bit here and there.
I spent most of the weekend hanging out with the filkers, although I did pop into a few podcast panels. Friday at the con started with me attending a panel on pushing the boundaries of filk with Musical GoH Mary Crowell, who I met a couple of years ago at an Archon and who also performs with The Three Weird Sisters. Also on the panel were Rob Balder and Devo Spice of FuMP - the Funny Music Project - and Gary Ehrlich, who was coordinating the filk track.
Friday also featured concerts by Roberta Rogow and Robert Cooke - Robert did a hysterical version of an old Irish Standard pub song (it's late as I type this and my brain is totally drawing a blank on the original song but it's really famous and I'm going to feel totally stupid when it finally pops back into my brain) that featured a happy if rather dim dog. He also did an a cappella song inspired by the show Angel that was awesomely haunting and really cool.
Open Filk on Friday night was fun and low key. It basically did an almost complete turn over after midnight, so it was really 2 circles. Mary Crowell was there, as were two girls who performed as a duo and had some great stuff (I didn't catch their names), Dave Clement, Robert Cooke, Steve Haug, Mattie (blanking on the last name), Rob Balder, Gary Ehrlich and his wife Sheryl (MUST remember to ask what her last name is) and two guys from Bene Gesserit Witch who do a rock opera based on Dune. I did several well-received songs, including Technobabbletertiaryplasmagroundencoder. Sheryl did a Bash the Bulrog, and Dave followed up with a version set to that famous folk song (again blanking on title, but the chorus includes the line The Band Played Waltzing Matilda). And Dave (at my request) did Caledonia, which I had heard him do two years ago and adored his version. His voice is simply amazing and I could listen to him all night.
To Be Continued ....
After departing at o-dark-hundred (0430 to be exact) for the airport, we had a blessedly uneventful, if long, travel day. Flew to Albuquerque where we had all of a 30 min layover, flew into BWI, caught the train (90 minute ride) to a station a few blocks from the con hotel, got settled in, got food, got badges, and started having fun.
Balticon was where I started filking 2 years ago and it was great to be back. We traveled to Balticon 2 years ago because we had met Paul Fischer and Martha Holloway on a train in Scotland after the Glasgow Worldcon and become friends. Paul got Chris started in podcasting (and thru Chris, I got started podcasting). Since Paul and Martha work on the con we don't get to spend a lot of time with them, but it is nice to see them in person and we did get to chat a bit here and there.
I spent most of the weekend hanging out with the filkers, although I did pop into a few podcast panels. Friday at the con started with me attending a panel on pushing the boundaries of filk with Musical GoH Mary Crowell, who I met a couple of years ago at an Archon and who also performs with The Three Weird Sisters. Also on the panel were Rob Balder and Devo Spice of FuMP - the Funny Music Project - and Gary Ehrlich, who was coordinating the filk track.
Friday also featured concerts by Roberta Rogow and Robert Cooke - Robert did a hysterical version of an old Irish Standard pub song (it's late as I type this and my brain is totally drawing a blank on the original song but it's really famous and I'm going to feel totally stupid when it finally pops back into my brain) that featured a happy if rather dim dog. He also did an a cappella song inspired by the show Angel that was awesomely haunting and really cool.
Open Filk on Friday night was fun and low key. It basically did an almost complete turn over after midnight, so it was really 2 circles. Mary Crowell was there, as were two girls who performed as a duo and had some great stuff (I didn't catch their names), Dave Clement, Robert Cooke, Steve Haug, Mattie (blanking on the last name), Rob Balder, Gary Ehrlich and his wife Sheryl (MUST remember to ask what her last name is) and two guys from Bene Gesserit Witch who do a rock opera based on Dune. I did several well-received songs, including Technobabbletertiaryplasmagroundencoder. Sheryl did a Bash the Bulrog, and Dave followed up with a version set to that famous folk song (again blanking on title, but the chorus includes the line The Band Played Waltzing Matilda). And Dave (at my request) did Caledonia, which I had heard him do two years ago and adored his version. His voice is simply amazing and I could listen to him all night.
To Be Continued ....