Wonderful Con
Oct. 25th, 2010 05:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillI am back safe from OVFF. I had a wonderful time at the con!
By now people probably know the Pegasus winners, but if not, you can go to the Pegasus Website here.
Congratulations to the winners! The field was, as always, very strong indeed, and I had a hard time picking in just about every category. I have anecdotal reason to believe I'm not alone in this.
If you have been following this LJ for any length of time, by now you know you're not going to get a con report out of me no matter what I might promise now, so I won't.
Driving up with someone is a lot more fun than going alone, and Alice is a lot more fun than the average someone.
The Utah Filkers were there in force. These are the people who kind of got me started in filk--the first people to give me a concert, if I remember right, and the first people to invite me as a Guest. They are seriously fun folks and they're looking for more contact with the outside world. Their major con is ConDuit, and I have had a great time every time I've gone. They re-adopted me into the clan and gave me a set of antennae--apparently this is their seal of approval. I was charmed. Also they gave me a CD because one of the filkers (who I knew peripherally, but she was about ten years old when I was there) had written a filk to _Acts of Creation_ (called _Acts of Procreation_). She's definitely adult now. Which feels kind of odd. I don't feel any older inside. What happened? Also another one of the Utah filkers had accidentally started one of my songs to the tune of another--twice--and a filk had resulted, and he gave me a copy. :-)
The new hotel's buffet has a star attraction--eggs cooked to order right in front of you by a guy who can actually flip the omelets. I'm trying to reorganize my eating patterns (and did, I think, fairly well at the con) but I thought an omelet would be okay. He started by ladling something yellow into the pan which I thought was eggs. It seemed a little small--maybe one egg's worth?---but I figured he knew what he was doing and anyway there's a whole buffet over there, I'm not going to starve. Then he dropped the veggies in to cook and I slowly realized that what he had ladled into the pan was ...butter. Quite a bit of butter. The eggs came later.
Well, it seemed churlish to object at that point. You know? And the omelet was just as delicious as you would expect something fried in a piece of butter roughly the size of an egg to be. But I did fill the rest of the plate with fresh fruit and a carton of skim milk, figuring I'd better get some protein and fiber to balance all that... butter. Mmmmm.
I finally got to see Sooj--aka S.J. Tucker. Wow. If you get the chance--go to one of her performances; you won't be sorry.
I really enjoyed the Burnside-Clapp concert. Another Wow. Another you won't be sorry.
I got to meet boywizard, who kindly gave me a chunk of beeswax about the size of my head. (It's a woodworking thing.) I had a lot of fun talking with him, and it was great to meet his wife whose name I have forgotten because I am like that and especially at cons.
There was this great workshop on jamming. Barry Childs-Helton taught it. It was loads of fun, and I want to try more of this new skill. It is an intersection of a set of musical skills and a set of social skills--not just rules, though there are some rules, but the skills of picking up on who has the lead and when the lead is going to change and when and how to wrap up. I can see I need to learn some new chords, which I can do on my own I guess, but also practice these awarenesses.
I wrote a song. I hadn't been paying much attention and then I saw the song contest had the subject "It's not Rocket Science." Since this is something I have been saying to myself about Constance for quite a while, it kind of rang a bell with me. I got the idea like five minutes before the jamming workshop, though, so I scribbled down a line and some rhymes on a piece of paper and shoved it in Pearl's case. The workshop was so much fun I didn't realize how much we ran over the hour, so I seized the opportunity to jam a bit with Peter Alway afterward (which was fun--one thing Peter definitely has is the courage to noodle against someone else noodling--and while this doesn't always work out of you're not quite headed toward the same chord, when it does work out it's really cool; sort of improvised counterpoint.) So then I was late for something else I wanted to see and I kind of forgot about the whole thing until the evening.
Then I thought "maybe it's not too late" and I sat down and finished the song (I think during the end of the Interfilk auction--while I wish interfilk well, auctions are not my thing and I never go to this.) Then I walked down the hall looking for the sign-up sheet and realized it was gone. I thought "oh well..." But just on the off chance I asked around, found the person organizing it, and she kindly let me sign up in one of the "if we have time" slots.
The contest was very strong--there were some really excellent entries, and I was thinking the judges were going to have a hard time choosing. I missed the first couple of songs, on account of needing to copy my song out fair and get it photocopied at the front desk, bur of the ones I heard, time after time I was thinking "Yes, folks--we have a winner!" Then there would be another song, and I would think it again. I wish I had the words for them all (actually, I wish I had a CD of them all.)
But here are the words for mine.
(Spoken prologue: "Actually, rocket science is fairly straightforward. It's rocket engineering, and rocket manufacture, that are difficult.")
.
True To A Sixteenth
lyrics and melody by Cat Faber
I've worked in the boat-shop for months now
Building another canoe
And when I am stressing, my boat-builder's blessing,
Says what I already knew.
This isn't some space engineering
Sweetie--it's cedar and glue
This isn't a rocket you're building--
If it's true to a sixteenth, it's true.
I want to make everything perfect.
It's something I simply can't do
For comfort in sooth, I must cling to this truth:
If it's true to a sixteenth, it's true.
The forms must be laid out exactly;
Any flaw will forever show through
Any bend, any twist, will forever exist... (pause, deep breath, let it out slowly...)
If it's true to a sixteenth, it's true!
Now, arguably true to the subject of the song, this doesn't quite scan right. Normally we would say a sixteenth, not a sixteenth. So you have to think of that part as kind of having a shim under it to bring it into line.
But it seemed like people enjoyed it--they chimed in on the repeating line and on the chorus, just like I hoped. It was fun to get to perform it, and lots of people had nice things to say about it.
Regarding the open filking I wandered around looking for a room, but couldn't seem to find one to settle in. Eliott later made a comment that the chairs need to be set up in such a way that entering a room is not either disruptive or making a commitment to stay and I realized that was my problem. I was trying to get into the same circle as it_ain't_easy since I seemed to recall he'd requested _Black Molly_ and I had printed out the song and even practiced it a couple of times. It's not a bad song, really. But the one time I saw him the room was packed and I didn't feel like I could get in without making a big deal of it. I wound up in the big concert room, which had a nice little filk going with the Ghost of a Rose guy and a couple of new people I didn't recognize but who had great songs, and Tom Smith, so that was fun. But I'm a lot less of a night owl than I was so I wandered off to bed about 1:00am or so.
I had to leave early on Sunday--my friend Alice had to be at work on Monday and had to drive four hours beyond my house to do it so you can imagine she wanted to leave on a realistic schedule. I spent much of the morning ripping a last few CDs for Donald--kind of belatedly, I admit. Then I wandered around, looking sleepy no doubt, trying to find everyone to say goodbye to. Then Kathleen Sloan came by (oh--and she ran a great workshop and I owe her 3$ for beading supplies--does anyone have her address? Or could someone forward my e-mail --catfaberyouknowwhattoremove@toast.net---to her and let her know I want to pay her back?) and mentioned that they were going to announce the winners of the Rocket Science song contest very soon, so I mentioned to Alice that I'd like to stay for that.
And I was listening as a number of well deserved honorable mentions were given out and thinking "that was a great song--I'm surprised that song didn't win" and kind of hoping, you know, and thinking, well there's still first place and audience choice--maybe one of those... And then for first place--they called my name.
And I walk up --I can feel this big silly grin stretching my face--, and the prize is this pretty little crystal with a pegasus three dimensionally etched inside, and I bow and say thank you and turn to go, and one of the judges says "don't go; you won't get far on foot..." And I have time to think "um?" And it turned out the song had won audience choice too.
So thanks to everyone who voted and I'm very glad that people enjoyed the song so much. I'm still grinning, typing this.
And hopefully that motto will see me through finishing Constance.
By now people probably know the Pegasus winners, but if not, you can go to the Pegasus Website here.
Congratulations to the winners! The field was, as always, very strong indeed, and I had a hard time picking in just about every category. I have anecdotal reason to believe I'm not alone in this.
If you have been following this LJ for any length of time, by now you know you're not going to get a con report out of me no matter what I might promise now, so I won't.
Driving up with someone is a lot more fun than going alone, and Alice is a lot more fun than the average someone.
The Utah Filkers were there in force. These are the people who kind of got me started in filk--the first people to give me a concert, if I remember right, and the first people to invite me as a Guest. They are seriously fun folks and they're looking for more contact with the outside world. Their major con is ConDuit, and I have had a great time every time I've gone. They re-adopted me into the clan and gave me a set of antennae--apparently this is their seal of approval. I was charmed. Also they gave me a CD because one of the filkers (who I knew peripherally, but she was about ten years old when I was there) had written a filk to _Acts of Creation_ (called _Acts of Procreation_). She's definitely adult now. Which feels kind of odd. I don't feel any older inside. What happened? Also another one of the Utah filkers had accidentally started one of my songs to the tune of another--twice--and a filk had resulted, and he gave me a copy. :-)
The new hotel's buffet has a star attraction--eggs cooked to order right in front of you by a guy who can actually flip the omelets. I'm trying to reorganize my eating patterns (and did, I think, fairly well at the con) but I thought an omelet would be okay. He started by ladling something yellow into the pan which I thought was eggs. It seemed a little small--maybe one egg's worth?---but I figured he knew what he was doing and anyway there's a whole buffet over there, I'm not going to starve. Then he dropped the veggies in to cook and I slowly realized that what he had ladled into the pan was ...butter. Quite a bit of butter. The eggs came later.
Well, it seemed churlish to object at that point. You know? And the omelet was just as delicious as you would expect something fried in a piece of butter roughly the size of an egg to be. But I did fill the rest of the plate with fresh fruit and a carton of skim milk, figuring I'd better get some protein and fiber to balance all that... butter. Mmmmm.
I finally got to see Sooj--aka S.J. Tucker. Wow. If you get the chance--go to one of her performances; you won't be sorry.
I really enjoyed the Burnside-Clapp concert. Another Wow. Another you won't be sorry.
I got to meet boywizard, who kindly gave me a chunk of beeswax about the size of my head. (It's a woodworking thing.) I had a lot of fun talking with him, and it was great to meet his wife whose name I have forgotten because I am like that and especially at cons.
There was this great workshop on jamming. Barry Childs-Helton taught it. It was loads of fun, and I want to try more of this new skill. It is an intersection of a set of musical skills and a set of social skills--not just rules, though there are some rules, but the skills of picking up on who has the lead and when the lead is going to change and when and how to wrap up. I can see I need to learn some new chords, which I can do on my own I guess, but also practice these awarenesses.
I wrote a song. I hadn't been paying much attention and then I saw the song contest had the subject "It's not Rocket Science." Since this is something I have been saying to myself about Constance for quite a while, it kind of rang a bell with me. I got the idea like five minutes before the jamming workshop, though, so I scribbled down a line and some rhymes on a piece of paper and shoved it in Pearl's case. The workshop was so much fun I didn't realize how much we ran over the hour, so I seized the opportunity to jam a bit with Peter Alway afterward (which was fun--one thing Peter definitely has is the courage to noodle against someone else noodling--and while this doesn't always work out of you're not quite headed toward the same chord, when it does work out it's really cool; sort of improvised counterpoint.) So then I was late for something else I wanted to see and I kind of forgot about the whole thing until the evening.
Then I thought "maybe it's not too late" and I sat down and finished the song (I think during the end of the Interfilk auction--while I wish interfilk well, auctions are not my thing and I never go to this.) Then I walked down the hall looking for the sign-up sheet and realized it was gone. I thought "oh well..." But just on the off chance I asked around, found the person organizing it, and she kindly let me sign up in one of the "if we have time" slots.
The contest was very strong--there were some really excellent entries, and I was thinking the judges were going to have a hard time choosing. I missed the first couple of songs, on account of needing to copy my song out fair and get it photocopied at the front desk, bur of the ones I heard, time after time I was thinking "Yes, folks--we have a winner!" Then there would be another song, and I would think it again. I wish I had the words for them all (actually, I wish I had a CD of them all.)
But here are the words for mine.
(Spoken prologue: "Actually, rocket science is fairly straightforward. It's rocket engineering, and rocket manufacture, that are difficult.")
.
True To A Sixteenth
lyrics and melody by Cat Faber
I've worked in the boat-shop for months now
Building another canoe
And when I am stressing, my boat-builder's blessing,
Says what I already knew.
This isn't some space engineering
Sweetie--it's cedar and glue
This isn't a rocket you're building--
If it's true to a sixteenth, it's true.
I want to make everything perfect.
It's something I simply can't do
For comfort in sooth, I must cling to this truth:
If it's true to a sixteenth, it's true.
The forms must be laid out exactly;
Any flaw will forever show through
Any bend, any twist, will forever exist... (pause, deep breath, let it out slowly...)
If it's true to a sixteenth, it's true!
Now, arguably true to the subject of the song, this doesn't quite scan right. Normally we would say a sixteenth, not a sixteenth. So you have to think of that part as kind of having a shim under it to bring it into line.
But it seemed like people enjoyed it--they chimed in on the repeating line and on the chorus, just like I hoped. It was fun to get to perform it, and lots of people had nice things to say about it.
Regarding the open filking I wandered around looking for a room, but couldn't seem to find one to settle in. Eliott later made a comment that the chairs need to be set up in such a way that entering a room is not either disruptive or making a commitment to stay and I realized that was my problem. I was trying to get into the same circle as it_ain't_easy since I seemed to recall he'd requested _Black Molly_ and I had printed out the song and even practiced it a couple of times. It's not a bad song, really. But the one time I saw him the room was packed and I didn't feel like I could get in without making a big deal of it. I wound up in the big concert room, which had a nice little filk going with the Ghost of a Rose guy and a couple of new people I didn't recognize but who had great songs, and Tom Smith, so that was fun. But I'm a lot less of a night owl than I was so I wandered off to bed about 1:00am or so.
I had to leave early on Sunday--my friend Alice had to be at work on Monday and had to drive four hours beyond my house to do it so you can imagine she wanted to leave on a realistic schedule. I spent much of the morning ripping a last few CDs for Donald--kind of belatedly, I admit. Then I wandered around, looking sleepy no doubt, trying to find everyone to say goodbye to. Then Kathleen Sloan came by (oh--and she ran a great workshop and I owe her 3$ for beading supplies--does anyone have her address? Or could someone forward my e-mail --catfaberyouknowwhattoremove@toast.net---to her and let her know I want to pay her back?) and mentioned that they were going to announce the winners of the Rocket Science song contest very soon, so I mentioned to Alice that I'd like to stay for that.
And I was listening as a number of well deserved honorable mentions were given out and thinking "that was a great song--I'm surprised that song didn't win" and kind of hoping, you know, and thinking, well there's still first place and audience choice--maybe one of those... And then for first place--they called my name.
And I walk up --I can feel this big silly grin stretching my face--, and the prize is this pretty little crystal with a pegasus three dimensionally etched inside, and I bow and say thank you and turn to go, and one of the judges says "don't go; you won't get far on foot..." And I have time to think "um?" And it turned out the song had won audience choice too.
So thanks to everyone who voted and I'm very glad that people enjoyed the song so much. I'm still grinning, typing this.
And hopefully that motto will see me through finishing Constance.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-10-25 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 02:15 pm (UTC)Plus, filking is the folk music (in the folklore sense) of the science fiction / fantasy community. The SCA community is a different folk group, though many people belong to both.
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Date: 2010-10-25 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-10-25 10:59 pm (UTC)I had problems with the late night filking as well. I found that it was nearly impossible to get into any of the rooms due to seating arrangement and room size, and I just can't physically stand for very long. There was an occasional seat in the filk circle, but as a listener, not a performer, I didn't feel comfortable encroaching on p-space. I ended up in the ballroom, which turned out fine, but I'm disappointed in not getting to wander around and listen to a wider variety of music and musicians.
I hope our paths cross again in the future - you are delightful!
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Date: 2010-10-26 12:17 am (UTC)I had no idea the feng shui of chairs was so complicated.
I really enjoyed meeting you too and hope our paths cross again also. :-)
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Date: 2010-10-26 03:30 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-11-01 12:49 pm (UTC)I have been meaning to put up an mp3 but my usual mp3 recorder bit the bitter black finger of death (bad battery gooshed its innards all over the recorder's innards and now the recorder won't turn on--Bad Battery!) I just need to get it together to work out how to adjust the volume on my backup recorder.
The matter transmitter is still on the drawing board but Skype might work if I can figure out how to use it...
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Date: 2010-11-02 12:11 pm (UTC)(hug)