Really short music is better than no music at all

[annathepiper]

So, as previously hoped for, solarbird and I did make it down to Conflikt in Renton today. We didn't make it down there until 3pm or so, unfortunately, because I got conked with a nap in the early afternoon and there was unexpected traffic on 405 on the way down... but we got there. And we plunked down thirty bucks each for day passes, even though we'd missed half the programming already. I figure hey, it's supporting the con. And I wanted into the dealer's room anyway.

CDs purchased in the dealer's room: cadhla's Pretty Little Dead Girl, the Bedlam Bards' On the Drift finally (because I have been a sad little Browncoat that I hadn't owned a copy of that before now), and Shadowbeast by Escape Key. Not long after I also picked up s00j's Sirens, since I noticed several of her CDs were out on a table just before her concert!

Activities done: sat in on a workshop headed by Steve MacDonald that was described as "Performance Strategies" in the program book. Mostly what got talked about while Dara and I were there was how to memorize songs, and the technique Steve described sounded helpful, though also a lot of work.

Afterwards there was in theory going to be Open Filk, at which Dara hoped to play since chances were high that I'd be too wiped to hang around for the post-concerts Open Filk. Sadly, the earlier Open Filk did not materialize, since most of the con attendees were at the Interfilk auction, and then the vast majority of them went to dinner. Undaunted, Dara rehearsed some of her flute pieces for a while, which had the satisfying result of bringing a few people into the room to listen, and even one fellow I saw tapping out impromptu drum rhythms to accompany her.

Later, Dara whipped out the mandolin and we futzed a little with "Goin' Up" and "Lukey". I had not bothered to bring any of my instruments, since I figured and quite correctly that I would not have energy to play. But I had just enough energy to sing, at which point I learned to my satisfaction that I am definitely more comfortable singing both of these songs in the key of A; so, for that matter, is Dara. However, I also learned that at least in my current condition, I apparently can't remember half the damn lyrics. But Dara saw my missed lyrics and raised me flinging the pick right into the mandolin, coming out of the bridge of "Goin' Up". ;)

Persons met for the first time and/or otherwise spoken to: pocketnaomi, stealthcello, s00j, mdlbear, and one nice lady with a five-year-old, neither of whose names I have managed to remember because my brain is the approximate consistency of cheese at the moment. And of course we spoke with cflute and technoshaman, as well as tibicina who actually sat in on our last Jam (about which I still need to write). ETA 1/20/98 1:12pm: Forgot to mention that I also bumped briefly into kendaer!

Concerts attended: Skinny White Chick, at which point I got a load of stealthcello's cello for the first time. Holy crap. Ladies and gentlemen, that there is one sexy cello. I covet it and I'm not even a cello player. I knew some of the set list already after listening to the recently released live Tricky Pixie CD, but did not know the songs from the Orphan's Tales books by Catherynne M. Valente, which were very cool. I shall have to seek those books out.

Then, immediately thereafter, cflute with assorted backup provided by tibicina, pocketnaomi, mdlbear, a guitarist I didn't know named Cindy, and a vocalist whose name I managed to miss. (See previous commentary re: brain, cheese.) Having recently listened to a lot of Echo's Children for the first time, it was pleasing during this concert to actually recognize several of the songs. I have decided that the overall style of Echo's Children works a lot better for me when applied to parody lyrics; I loved the gaming filk lyrics for "Acts of Creation", as well as the Dr. Seuss parody later in the lineup.

By the tail end of that concert, though, I was fading fast and shivering in what was actually a very warm room; I was sitting there in my coat by the end of it. So I told Dara regretfully that I needed to come home and fall over. We said our goodbyes to folks and came on home... but I am hopeful at the word that registration counts for this con well exceeded expectations (147 where they had expected only around 80), which bodes very well for a Conflikt 2 next year.

Here's hoping I'll be up for the whole thing next time around.

Comments

[morgie.livejournal.com]

We met the Bedlam Bards at DragonCon year before this last. Wanted to buy their cd so much, but so broke at that point.

Hopefully we'll see 'em again, and grab it next time!

[annathepiper]

They have several CDs as far as I know; the dealer's room actually had a couple of 'em. But the Firefly filk one was the one I wanted.

I do note that the CD is for sale on iTunes, which does make it significantly cheaper. I've been surprised and impressed by the amount of filk showing up on iTunes, in fact.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

But Dara saw my missed lyrics and raised me flinging the pick right into the mandolin, coming out of the bridge of "Goin' Up".

Hee. I lol'd. Used to hang out a lot with musicians, and yes: the Inverted Shake of the Stringed Instrument was a familiar coda, as picks were retrieved from cavernous bellies.

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

I don't follow it, but Steve has an LJ: tarkrai

[morgie.livejournal.com]

Ooohhh.

Wait.

No.

Bad Morgie.

No more spending money until next Friday.

You spent enough on new monitor (ooh, pretty big colours!) and a wireless mouse.

Bad Morgie!

.... maybe next week. ;)

[annathepiper]

Duly noted! Thanks!

[annathepiper]

Hah, yeah! I think all the stringed instruments in the house have done that to me at one time or another.

A couple of the people who'd wandered into the room while we were playing around with the song snickered and asked if Dara could do that on demand. ;)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

In cflute's set, the guitarist is shaddyr and the *ROFLMAO* "unknown vocalist" is none other than the Big Green Monster's own jenkitty (who cleans up really well, ainna?)

The announcement has been made, there will *so* be a Conflikt 2. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Wish you could've beeen there for Smac's set; the ending was total magic (and we all got to record!) But c'est la vie. There will be more magic, just in a different form.

And now, as we leave this place between the worlds,
Remember.
What we have done here is ever a part of us.
The Circle is open, but never broken.
Merry meet, and merry part, and merry meet again!

[annathepiper]

.... wait, that was jenkitty? Seriously? Whoa. I clearly forgot entirely what she looked like from when we met before at Third Place Books. Oops. *^_^*;; Duly noted though, re: both her and shaddyr!

And hurrah, Conflikt 2! Glad to hear it!

[howlinhobbit.livejournal.com]

Please tell me that Dara's mando has the center soundhole (rather than f-holes) because I just don't have time to whip up some sort of award plaque for "deadliest aim with a plectrum" right now.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Yes, believe it or not, that was da Kitty. All glammed up...

Conflikt 2: GOH cadhla (aka Seanan McGuire), toastmaster Frank Hayes. This place is gonna be.... a madhouse.

[annathepiper]

Oh wow, that'll be very cool. I'll definitely look forward to this. :)

And the Kitty did look great!

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

We're gonna see Seanan in February at Boskone in Boston. We were listening to "Pretty Little Dead Girls" ont he way home from an SCA event today.

"On the Drift" is a great, great CD.

There is a bedlam_bards community, but no one has posted on it in 10 weeks.

Cedric has an LJ at fithelere.

T-shirts here: http://www.cafepress.com/bedlambards

You know Seanan has a second album out and is working on a third?

[bloody-keri.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm out of it....I didn't realize you were so musically talented! What instruments do you play and what kind of music do you perform?

[annathepiper]

I do indeed know of Seanan's album status; I own Stars Fall Home and liked it quite a bit. I'll be looking forward to her third album.

Thanks for the other data! And hope y'all enjoy Boskone. :)

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure how much a Seanan geek you were.

I am a fanboy. ;) My wife turned me on to her.

We went out with her for an evening when we were on out honeymoon in San Francisco.

S00j did a house concert at a dear friend's house, but I could not get to it.

Did she sing about Demon Mice?

[annathepiper]

I was originally a flute player, being in band for six years in school. Later on when I got into Great Big Sea fandom, my B'ys moved me to take up stringed instruments, and I have since taken up a little mandolin, some guitar, a little bouzouki. I tend to prefer the guitar and the bouzouki, if nothing else because I like to try to sing and play stuff at the same time.

Dara is also a flute player, entirely self-taught, though she's also learning to play the mandolin. Dara moreover has one up on me as she is actively working on composing music.

We play folk music as well as filk. Lately, with technoshaman, cflute, and sutures1, we've been playing with songs by cflute's former filk group Echo's Children, some of Heather Alexander's music, a bit of Meg Davis, and occasional dabblings into GBS just because it's impossible for me to pick up an instrument without playing one of their songs at least once. ;)

And! We've been experimenting with playing Dara's pieces, which has been very cool. Right now she's working on instrumental stuff for flutes, but she has plans to write stuff with lyrics as well.

[annathepiper]

Hee! Yes, the instrument has a center soundhole. :)

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

Oh, when you say "Lukey," do you mean "Lukey's Boat?"

I assume that.

[annathepiper]

Yes. :)

[annathepiper]

I'm fairly new to the Seanan fold, though I note with amusement that I actually met her several years before I knew she was a filker--in the line at a Great Big Sea concert in 2001.

No demon mice! Heh, now I clearly have to find that song, because I don't know it!

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

You met Seanan in a line at a GBS concert?

That is so cool.

The demon mice song is from a Cat Valente book.

[bloody-keri.livejournal.com]

The flute - how lovely!!! I should have picked the flute back in school when I joined band, because I realized right away what a beautiful, ethereal-sounding instrument it is. I picked the clarinet instead, never developed a passion for it, and gave up band once I got into high school and joined the drill team instead (LOL). If I were to ever pick up an instrument and try to learn it just for grins and giggles, it would be the flute.

Very cool.

[annathepiper]

The fun part of it is that Dara specifically plays bamboo flutes; she has a whole bunch that she's made herself. They have quite a different sound than the flutes normally played in band. And they're an interesting contrast to the arsenal of whistles and flutes that cflute brings to Jam, especially her bass flute. I love me some bass flute. <3

Me, I have a regular flute and a piccolo as well as an assortment of bamboos. And I still tend to favor flute pieces when I'm looking for classical music to listen to! I've got a few albums that I bought on those grounds alone, most particularly an album released by the piccolo player in the Seattle Symphony, who makes amazing noises with her little instrument!

[hiddenriver.livejournal.com]

I believe I was the "nice lady with a five year old" (ignore the icon - it's an old, old pic. I'm blond now.). It was lovely meeting the two of you as well!

[annathepiper]

Oh cool! Hiya, and glad to have had the chance to chat with you. :)

[solarbird]

Paul says I need to set up a row of pics so I can just grab a fresh one and keep going, like this time he saw KISS in concert, when they had hundreds of pics liked up on the microphone stands.

[howlinhobbit.livejournal.com]

"...he saw KISS in concert, when they had hundreds of pics liked up on the microphone stands."

Yeppers. A lot of bands do that (all you need is some gaffers tape and a mike stand). Not only do they lose picks but they break also them. And sometimes they're branded with the band logo and the guitarist will play with one for a few minutes and throw it into the audience.

Since you play a lot of "unplugged" jams you might consider getting one of those little units that clips to your strap and holds a bunch of picks. I don't use one myself because I'm mainly playing ukulele nowadays and a) it has no strap and b) I don't use picks. ;-) It's a great little device though.

[annathepiper]

I did! mamishka, ssha, and I were belting out "Consequence Free" at the top of our lungs at the time, and Seanan, who was in front of us, blinked and turned around and said, "It's a filk convention!"

Which in turn made me blink, because a mention of filk was the last thing I expected to have made to me in a GBS concert line. :)

And ah yes, the Cat Valente books! s00j did do a couple of songs from those, but not one about demon mice. The books sound interesting, and I have resolved to seek them out and purchase them. And then get the albums. Or vice versa. I'm not sure which yet.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that various insanity and stresses and distractions led to me not getting back with my assorted instruments to show off. Perhaps some other time. (Though I think next Conflikt I'm flying which severely curtails my ability to bring lots of instruments.)

It was fun meeting and playing with both of you, though.

[annathepiper]

No problem about all the distractions and suchlike! Perhaps there will indeed be another time. I'm looking forward to next year's Conflikt, and maybe if my and Dara's finances ever stabilize, I can come down to CA at some point for filking. That'd be nice.

And, likewise! Greatly enjoyed your singing and your flutes and your mutual GBS-fangirlitude. ^_^