Anna's one-day Conflikt amusements

[annathepiper]

solarbird and I quite enjoyed going down to Conflikt yesterday for a one-day hang-out. We got down there earlyish in the afternoon, missing some of the beginning panels, but making it down in time to wander around the dealers' room, see various people, and do some hanging out playing where people could hear us.

technoshaman was one of the first people we ran into, and he made good on his promise to treat me to anything in the dealers' room by way of a birthday present. I took him up on that and had him buy me a nifty Dr. Horrible t-shirt. But I wound up picking up music as well: cadhla's Red Roses and Dead Things, which I'd already pre-ordered, and a new Pern music CD by the same folks who did this one.

Also bumped into elfs and omahas and their younguns, and had pleasant chats with them. And, there was maellenkleth as well, albeit briefly and in passing.

I periodically had to duck to the lobby to keep tabs on my email so that I could get the post up about the Drollerie blog tour--but once that was done, I joined Dara in hanging out in one of the open filk rooms and just playing stuff. She'd already attracted a bit of an audience, which was cool. But while I was in there with her, a little girl came in and was absolutely floored by the mandolin. It was great how she reacted to it, and kept dancing around while we were playing. Aw. <3

And, I had the pleasure of meeting Batya Wittenberg, who apparently is someone else who's actually filked Great Big Sea. And done it quite effectively, I might add! There we were singing songs about weird relationships, which slid into songs about nasty intentions, and I couldn't follow Dara so I announced I was going to sing a drinking song instead. I launched into "Old Black Rum"--and Batya knew it. There are few things more satisfying than belting out a Great Big Sea song in a place where I don't expect people to back me up, and then they do, and it's awesome.

The main highlight of the entire day was of course the evening concerts. The first one of the evening was actually the one in which I had the most interest--because I'd heard very good things about Marian Call, and I very much wanted to hear her perform. She turned out to be quite good, and I was happy to buy both of her albums afterward.

Second performer of the evening was a bit of a shock to Dara and me, coming as we did out of Midwest fandom--Frank Hayes! I told Dara he was going to be at the convention and she blinked and went "He's still alive?!" Hee. He is. And it was gratifying to see that he could still bring the Funny. He managed to broadside Dara with a pun about a "parody/parity error" in the middle of a computer geekery song.

And, I'll have to admit, it was kind of satisfying to be able to recognize at least two thirds of the songs he references in "The 12 Years of Worldcon".

Last but not least was the mighty cadhla, backed up by vixyish and tfabris and several other folks with whom I was not familiar. Very solid performance despite issues with the sound mixing, and in particular I liked the "big bucket of Creepy" that is the song "Gina" off the new album. My inner Browncoat must always squee at "Evil Laugh", but I also have to say that my inner Elvis fangirl, with the affection she has for Elvis-era rock, squees harder at "Pretty Little Dead Girl".

So yeah. Nice experience all around, and although I didn't go back down with Dara today on account of needing to take care of various things around the house, I'm going to have to consider the full weekend next year.

Because next year? They're getting filkertom.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Batya (VERY cool individual) is batyatoon... and, yeah, that was a very satisfying little jam we all did. I think that was my favorite part of the whole con, was our little chibi-jams over in the little room. Both the one with Batya, and the one where it was just us and the kid. (I hope she gets to pick up the mando soon...)

Frank is now living in Portland. (!!) (He's a BMOC with OryCon, IIRC...)

Seanan was backed by Amy McNally (whose LJ escapes me), Paul Kwinn, trystel (Alisa Garcia, Goddess of Keys), and, on "Pretty Little Dead Girl", the incomparable pill-flinger from Canukistan, hsifyppah (Brook Lunderville)... and of course Vixy and Tony.

And, yeah.... Tom was *my* first choice for next GOH... and cflute has good things to day about the toast, too...

carmiel and kendaer said we totally blew the doors off our membership estimates and room count... Reg printed 185 badges or so, not all of those were legit, but still. They also doubled the room block count and blew right past that. Costs have gone up $5 a head for next year, but dayum. And Tom won't be near as hard to mike as Amy and Paul... poor skydancer had a time of it. So I s'pect next year is gonna be hammered awesome again. Definitely recommend the full gig. And if you can swing it, get a room, at least for Saturday, because Kathy Mar reported that main open filk didn't break up until the coffeehouse opened... thus pretty much guaranteeing that y'all will wanna go splat first. And driving all the way back to the Murk on filk fumes... I want my elves in one piece, y'hear?

[callibr8]

Amy "McFiddler" (McNally) is sweetmusic_27

Next year will be made of at least as much awesomeness as this year was! And unless I get roped into onstage time again (which seems unlikely), I'll have a lot *MORE* time available for jammin', which would be nifty!

[hms42]

Micing Cadhla and the backing group of people is always fun for the sound crew. (Lots of people and instruments to setup for.) Then again, Marion Call had the oddest percussion instrument I have setup a microphone on so far... (Typewriter.)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I bet it was easy to mic as opposed to, say, Amy's fiddle...

It's too bad there's not a suction-cup-mount mike you could just slap on any polished surface .... 'course, that would *not* have done for micing the Underwood, but it would've been dead easy to get either Amy's or Paul's instruments that way....

[annathepiper]

I was very impressed by her playing a typewriter. :) And also pleased that the typewriter makes an appearance on both of her albums!

[howlinhobbit.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

"...a little girl came in and was absolutely floored by the mandolin. It was great how she reacted to it, and kept dancing around while we were playing."

Dancing babies are the bestest applause.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, and dancing older kids, too. She was fun, she had this ZOMG wide-eyed smile going on on her face. Her mom said she plays the cello, so clearly she was just blown away by an entirely different instrument.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

You met my clone! Yes, she likes the b'ys. I'm sorry I missed that.

I think I scared solarbird by knowing her by face, or at least, by hat. She had no flipping idea who I was, and I felt bad.

Sorry we didn't get to say more than hi.

[annathepiper]

Had I but known you'd be around, I'd have been on the lookout for you! This is what I get for having my head under a rock. *^_^*;; No worries though--Dara's memory for names and faces is poor.

I hope your whole con experience was good though!