ConCertino

Well, between vacation the week after ConCertino (which I will cover separately) and being just flat out tired this last week, I haven’t managed to do any updating in a while. So here’s some flashbacks on ConCertino. As usual, this isn’t so much a con report as a bunch of random memories. Being two weeks later, I’m sure I’ll forget something and then be mortified about it later, so apologies in advance.

Fun stuff from the con:

• Arriving at the airport in style. Since we were arriving mid-afternoon to the Boston airport, it would have been impossible to get anyone local to give us a lift, so I had investigated transportation options from the airport to Worcester. After looking at and discarding the idea of relying on public transit, I looked at the prices of hiring a shuttle to the hotel. Given that the prices for a shared van were already absurd, and deciding that this WAS our vacation, after all, I arranged a stretch limo to deliver us to the con hotel in rock-star splendor. This was the first time kitanzi had ever been in a limo, and she told me i was a “nutcase” more than once, but it was a very nice way to get from point A to point B. Wish I could afford to get used to it. 🙂
• Being greeted by filkerdave immediately upon arriving. The reason I go to cons is to see all my too-far-away family, so running into one of those people the moment I got out of the car was wonderful.
• Meeteing several people for the first time in real life, including the Mangans, Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff, allisona, aiglet and bercilakslady. The latter two were a surprise, since aiglet had insisted they weren’t coming. It was especially nifty to finally meet allisona, since we had had a long correspondence back during ohi‘s first reading of Lord of the Rings, where we kept a close eye on the comments and played spoiler police together. (I’m a little bummed, however, that I somehow managed to make it through the entire weekend without hearing UT perform together. Some of this is my own fault, and some of it was just being in the wrong circles. Oh well, next time, I’ll make sure I don’t make that mistake again!)
• My own concert set. I had a 20 minute set on Friday night, immediately following South Carolina’s Larry Kirby. Larry has really come a long way in the last two years, and did a fantastic job. My own set — well, I always have mixed feelings about my performances, since I tend to focus on the mistakes and not the overall performance. Several people came up to me afterwards to say they really enjoyed it, so it was probably better than my own judgment of it allows. As a change of pace, I decided to do an entire set of covers, so I performed surrdave‘s “Cece N’est Pas Une Chanson”, adamselzer‘s “Polly Vaughn Dreams Of England”, Barbara Bowen’s “Final Mission”, and Tanya Savory’s “Different Shore” — the last being a non-filk song, and specifically for Kit. The first three are, of course, from Atlanta area filkers, and as an Interfilk Emeritus, I thought it would be nice to spread some of the filk goodness from Georgia to the Northeast. 🙂
• Saturday morning hottubbing. Mmmmm. I really would love to have my own jacuzzi/hottub, since that’s an activity I don’t get NEARLY enough of! This caused me to miss a couple of things that morning that I would have liked to attend, but it was still marvelously relaxing.
• Wonderful concerts from filkerdave, filker0 and spiritdance, Erica Neely, and bardling. There’s very little programming at a filkcon that I consider “can’t miss”, but I was determined not to miss any of those, and none of them disappointed.
• Going out to dinner with teddywolf and tigerbright. We went across the street to Maxwell Silverman’s, which is a very nice, upscale restaurant that has apparently been a popular spot in Worcester since anyone remembers. The food was excellent, and the company more so.
• The Bohnhoff’s concert. Oh. wow. I haven’t the words to express how much FUN these guys are live. I already knew I’d like their stuff, because i have both of their albums, but wow. If you get a chance to see them play, jump. I really wish I’d made it to Jeff’s parody writing workshop earlier in the weekend.
• The Interfilk auction. Ah, what fun. I missed the first part of it, because I was out in the lobby talkign to Jeff Bohnhoff, and that means I missed seeing Kit being wenched by the delectable bardling, but I did get back in time to get in on a bit of wenchery myself. Ah, I do love Interfilk auctions.

  Ironically, the one thing I bought at the auction was not the thing I got all the wenchy attention for — an advance copy of Urban Tapestry’s new album, “Sushi and High Tea”, which will be released at Torcon. Yum, new UT album. And it came with a T-shirt, which was just Kit’s size. We win!

• The cuddlepile in the dealers room Saturday night. I’m not sure exactly how it evolved, but somehow I found myself in the middle of three lovely ladies: maedbh7, bercilakslady, and tigerbright. As someone observing the attention I was receiving from these three remarked, “Boy, he sure has a hard life, doesn’t he.” Fortunately, the dealers didn’t mind, since we weren’t blocking traffic, and it was one in the morning, besides. It DID mean that somehow I never made it to open filk that night, but oh well, priorities must be kept in proper perspective. Too bad no one snapped a picture of it.
• Getting rid of every single copy of Gwen’s Java Sutra benefit CD that I brought with me. About half of the copies I had with me were Mongol Post deliveries, but I had brought along about fifteen extras for people who hadn’t heard about the project yet or hadn’t had a chance to send money. I’m especially thankful to Kathy Sands, who, despite being told that it was not available for dealers to sell, bought a personal copy AND played it in the dealers room for most of the weekend.
• Dead Dog Dinner — we skipped on the big communal dinner everyone else went to, opting instead to have a quieter, more intimate meal with maedbh7, her housemate J., and her son B.. We went to a nearby Mexican grill called “Tortilla Sams” which was highly recommended by the restaurant guide, and was within my definition of walking distance. Fortunately, the others didn’t think it was too far either. The food was quite tasty and not terribly expensive, and we had good conversation and a plesent walk back.
• The Dead Dog Pool party. This should become a tradition. Like, now. A group of us jumped into the pool after dinner and had a grand time splashing about, jumping upon one another, spinning around, and generally having a grand time. cadhla, you can ride me like a pony anytime. For the record.
• The actual dead dog filk. I was in and out of this, but I was there. As usual for me, I only actually sang in open circle at the dead dog. I finally realized that one of the reasons I tend to skip on a lot of open filk, and even programming, at filkcons is that I spend most of my time socializing with my too-far-flung family and friends. Given the choice between cuddles and chat or sitting in a circle, I’ll probably take the cuddles and chat. Still, I probably should make more of an effort to get into open filkrooms more often.

Of course, it was wonderful to see so many of my found-family. I’d list all those wonderful people, but I know I’d leave someone out, so I’m just going to offer *hugs* and *smooches* to you all — you know who you are.

Next con is OVFF is October. Can’t wait to see everyone there again!