SUNDAY  09:17
 At breakfast I spot Heather, Talis, & Simon and invite them to guess
the language of the text on my T-shirt. Talis ("a Romance language that's 
trying to become Spanish or French") and Heather ("I don't know Catalan") 
were both right, Heather as a professional and Talis as a layperson. 
-- I would've worn this to the linguistics theme circle, but I was wearing 
my MASSFILC shirt yesterday for my concert.

(Somewhere in here I give Blake my room key to retrieve his stuff.)

10:04
I moderate a circle of religious filk.

  Lee and Barry Gold, [Hillel]
  Ben Newman, Shekhinah
  John Tumlin, (the dream of the glade)
  me, Ivanova Blasphemy Song (sometime MASSFILCer Matt Leger from an
idea by I Abra Cinii, ttto God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen)
  Golds, (Abrahamic) Lord of the Dance
  Ben, I Am Just a Song That You Sing
  Fred Capp, [I Am In Thee] (Roberta somebody. Not Rogow; not a known 
filker)
  Golds, A Poet is a Maker, (words: Lee, music: Fred Capp & Cat Faber)
  The "Wings" Cycle. Lee Gold and I independently wrote followers to
and ttto Cat Faber's "Wings" that fit together with the original to
make a single larger story. Lee published both followers in
_Xenofilkia_ #84, August 2002.
      Golds, Wings (Faber)
      me, Wings In Flight
      Golds, Who'd Believe
  Fred, Angels (of Fire & Smoke)
  John, The Pilgrim's Encounter With the Antique Knight (his poem)
  Ben, (Chocolat)
  Golds, Banned from Egypt (Avram Grumer), ttto Leslie Fish's Banned
From Argo
    
 
11:00 
 "Harmonic Convergence" was scheduled next in the same room. I wasn't
familiar with this term in a singing context. It's a cappella
singing. Great! I didn't take notes; we sang a lot of rounds and
talked about the musical "1776".
  

12:02
  Damn! Blake still has my room key!
  Dr. Jane sees me coming out of a down elevator on the 2nd floor with
guitar & backpack, shortly after going up with same, & asks what's
wrong. I explain. She says, "Let me find him & get it for you. I can
do that; I'm Logistics!" And in what must be under three minutes she
hands me the key. Bless her!

  
12:16
Ookla the Mok (join in progress)
  [Gary Coleman]
  Go On
  Dollar Fifty Movies
  (comics superhero)
  Arthur Curry
  [Prima Donna]

(I cut out for a quick bite & lie-down.)

  
13:35
 Go to the main room for Angelica & Athrylis's set. The schedule is
running 20 minutes late, so it's off to the dealers' room for an Ookla
the Mok CD.... Oooh, I want something more.
	("Boss, you can't afford to buy everything you want to." 
	 "Damn, you're right, Loiosh." 
	 (smugly) "I always am." 
	 ... He is, too, dammit.) 
OK, then... Dither, dither, dither... A Phoenix CD.

Back in the concert room. Harold Groot gives me a videotape of my
concert! AND THEN a copy of the unavailable, not-for-sale videotape of
last year's Consonance highlights!!! Am I one lucky filker, or what?!

Angelica & Athrylis Sather Hodgetts (papa Blake accompanying on kbd)

  [I Don't Need You To Sing This Song]
  [Rita] 
			{God, these kids are GOOD!}
  [Don't Fall In Love With a Cactus] (a parody of one of Blake's songs)
  Consuite Bound (ttto Homeward Bound, Simon & Garfunkel)
  [Moral Dilemma] by a friend, Steven Nance(?)
  [Until the Slayer Stakes Me], a Buffy song

  
Dealers' room again. Poke around some more, then sit down to rest and
realize that the quiet guitar sounds emanating from this corner are
coming from Leslie Fish. I listen to her kipple, toss a quarter in her
guitar case at the sign that says "Feed the Bard", & talk with her
about reconstruction of universal vocabulary. (In my professional
opinion, very dubious: that far back in time the signal gets lost in
the noise.)
  

15:50
 concert, J.T. Filkers (the Journeyman Trenchermen, if I have the name
right, in their filkish incarnation).
 They're just winding up. No notes.
 [But I found a memo. Nola (last name?) had specifically invited me to
this concert to hear their Hanukkah carol, as had another member of
the group. And it was a hoot!]
  

16:04
 Merav Hoffman's concert, another filking friend from back East (But
my wife calls just as she starts, so I step out & miss the 1st song.)

  [The Minstrel]
  [If You Are A Dreamer, Come In] (in memory of Shel Silverstein)
(Seanan McGuire singing harmony)
  The Miller's Daughter (a respinning of the Rumplestiltskin tale)
  Haven (w: Seanan & Batya Wittenberg; m: Merav)
 
 
16:28
 More two-fers. (According to the schedule. But I missed the first set
of them to prep for my concert. I came in in time to hear...)
  
  Puzzlebox sans Tanya:
  (+ Jeff & Maya Bohnhoff, their) [The Persian Rose]
  In and Out
  
  Callie Hills:
  (+ Merav & Tony Fabris for ) Columbia, written by Cat Faber
  [Each Life Has Its Place] (Indigo Girls) (+Tony on guitar)
  
  Steve Savitzky:
  Thrillseekers' Waltz ttto Witnesses' Waltz, Leslie Fish (No one
admits that we're having a bash / As we watch all the space ships that
blow up & crash). Someone sitting near me says, "After Columbia, I
can't decide whether that's in the worst of taste or the best of
taste." In this context it feels more like the latter to me. [Lee Gold
says the lyrics are here, and "I had the glory of printing them in the 
ConChord #9 songbook".]
  Mary Ellen Carter, Stan Rogers
 
  Ben Newman:
  The Great Explorer Zero, (sentient ships, his own fictional
universe, nothing published yet) ttto Mary Ellen Carter. (Ben says
he was undecided whether to use this or another song in his set, but
having The M.E.C. immediately precede him decided the issue.)
  Three Bright Jewels, (Tolkien's Silmarillion)
 
  Blake Hodgetts:
  Lawns (parody of Al Stewart's "Trains")
  [I'm Done Writing Filksongs]
  
  Jordan Mann:
  (Blake accompanying on keyboard) Solitaire
  Basketball
  {announcement: his CD of 7 songs, "Solitaire", is now available from
Random Factors}
  
  Simon's harmony workshop: Boy in a Room, Chris Malme. I would've
liked singing with them, but I like hearing them from out front.

Everyone joins in Sam's Song (Zander Nyrond), to bring the formal
programming to a close according to a UK filking tradition that I
like a lot.


19:23
Dinner run.
 Lynn Gold has a very bad encounter with a mushroom, after we'd been
very clear and explicit with the waiter (and maitre d'?) that there
were to be NO MUSHROOMS BECAUSE THIS CUSTOMER IS DEATHLY ALLERGIC TO
THEM. It's already been written up on rec.music.filk in more detail
than I can provide. Brett Glass provides Benadryl. Mary Creasey drives
her to the ER; John fills Mary's plate during the meal for when she
gets back.

Chat notes during the meal:

Rod O'Riley reports a movie marquee from his hotel. (I wrote
"hotel". Is that right? Maybe "home town".)
    GLADIATOR
    RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
    SCREWED
    BATTLESHIP EARTH
Read them aloud in order...

Rod mentions a button he's seen, "dyslexics have more fnu". In
response, I sing Brian Biddle's "Sad Tale of the Not-So-Dislexic Bank
Robber".

I ask Randy Hoffman if there's a story behind the interesting hat he's
wearing, which I've seen on him at East Coast cons. This leads to our
trying on each other's headgear (I'm wearing a kippah, aka yarmulka:
Jewish skullcap). Harold Groot takes a picture (70k).

Randy says he's thinking about Tom Lehrer's "Poisoning Pigeons in the
Park" with respect to Lynn's experience.


20:40
 Mary's back. When she left the hospital, Lynn was sitting up & giving
the doctor instructions, and her boyfriend was on his way.


21:25
    Undead dog, already in progress ...

  Rika, a song (in English) by a German group, Wild Silk
  Bill Laubenheimer & Blake Hodgetts, Blake's The Reader, about
reading sf. In the song itself Blake invites others to add verses, and
Bill sang several such. [Lee Gold adds: "'The Reader' appeared in
Xenofilkia #88 (which I hope to mail out Monday [2003-03-17]). A
couple of people's new verses should appear in #89 (June)."]
  Randy Hoffman, Poisoning Our Conchair After Dark-- "an insta
reaction to Lynn's reaction" (vide supra)
  me, Ballad of Late-Night Hubris, aka A Small Snarky Voice (about
Loiosh, my familiar, who can be seen in the hat photo), ttto Home on 
the Range
  Jane Mailander, ['Cause I'm a Blonde]
  (Jim P, anecdote about a Korean [teenage girl] bus assistant)
  Rika, A Gown Too Blue (Brenda Sutton), based on Connie Willis's 
_The Doomsday Book_
  Ben Newman, Oxfordshire Dreaming ttto California Dreaming, The Mamas
and the Papas. Heather: "You didn't give me the flute solo!" Ben: "So
take the flute solo!"  So she does.
  Jordan Mann asks the room for the loan of a stick. I offer my
four-foot-long walking stick and he uses it for a song with a
soft-shoe routine: I've Got a Hunch, as Shakespeare's Richard
III. Several of us are alarmed at its proximity to Heather's harp,
which is probably never in danger, but I interpose a hand just in
case.
  Scott Snyder, [Electronically Unorganized]
  Blake, [Virtual Date]
  Mary Creasey, [Little Computing Machine], Steve Savitzky
  me, Few Hours (Kay Shapero), ttto Leslie Fish's Few Days. [On seeing
this report, Kay wrote to inquire, because she didn't remember writing
anything such. I sent her the citation, which jogged her memory.]
  Ben, Heart of the Apple Lisa (Jordin Kare), ttto Fred Small's Heart
of the Appaloosa
  Kathleen Sloane & Joey Shoji (guitar - El Kabong), Starship & Haiku
(Kathy Mar)
  Mary Creasey & Rod O'Riley, The Saga Begins (Weird Al Yancovic's
Star Wars Episode 1 filk of American Pie)
  "Lady Mondegreen Local 74": Seanan McGuire, Alisa García, Merav,
Rika bodhran, Scott guitar), perform Three Fine Daughters of Farmer
Brown
  whole room, "Good Night Mary" (ttto "Good Night Ladies") as Mary
Creasey pumpkins
  Kathleen, Dinner Party (Bill Roper)
  Golds, Aral's Nightmare ttto Five Hundred Miles, trad. (based on a
just-suppose that is not in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books
and never will be. At Arisia '01?, where Lois was GoH, we held a
Bujold Filk Session at-and-during an autographing session. Hearing
this one, Lois just put her head down on the table, laughing
helplessly. There was more of the same this time.) [Lee Gold adds:
"Talis was the primary victim this time. -- Lois announced after the
song [at Arisia] 'This is truly a nightmare.  It will NEVER happen.'"]
  me, Disaster Trail (MASSFILCer Jacob Sommer, ttto Sick Note aka
Garden Where the Praties Grow)
  Blake, (174 years to go)
  (Talis asks to audition for Lady Mondegreen, UK branch. There's a
shout of "Stand up, Talis!" -- when she already is)
  Talis & Rika, Cottontail Girls (Talis), ttto Cotton Mill Girls
  Brett Taylor, Position Number Nine, ttto Love Potion Number Nine
  Ben, Pfnakapfna. (Based in another of his fictional universes. I've
heard this one from him back east, and I love to say the name. I like
singing along on the chorus, too: "Where are you going, old friend,
old friend?...")
  (Carole asks Heather to play her harp) -- [Blood on the Land]
  me, Who Killed the Piper?, author unknown to me at least
  Golds, [The Long Watch] (Heinlein's story)
  Jane Mailander: "Marion, Gordie, & Douglas" (ttto "Abraham, Martin,
and John", in memoriam Bradley, Dickson, & Adams)
  me, So Long, And Thanks (ttto "For the Longest Time", Billy Joel, 
in mem. Adams)
  Brett, A Habitrail Named Klein
  Bill Laubenheimer, insta about culinary disasters (to which others
contribute further verses as the evening continued)
  Ben, [Altar of Fire] (paganism/cooking)
  me, Piggie Chow ttto Bella Ciao (about our hungry guinea pig)
  Heather, [We've Got an Animal Liberationist In Our Lab]
  Rob O'Riley, No Men
  Golds, Vampire Pie (Tom Digby poem. Tom is at the con, yet another
face for the name; I've been enjoying his poems in _Xenofilkia_, and
in Lee's recitals at cons, for years.)
  Angelica & Athrylis Hodgetts, (Oliver) (not from the musical; their
own, about a horse in love with a woman)

(At some point during the con, maybe during the Undead Dog Filking,
Lynn Gold asked to borrow a guitar, and didn't realize at first she
was being lent her own.)
   
00:39
  LOST MY CAPO!!!! MANY CURSES
  I empty the punfine can so it won't rattle in my luggage; it has
collected $6.31. I will send Interfilk a check when I get home. Not
all of that is from the filking sessions; e.g., during setup for one
of the concerts the performer started to fiddle with the music
stand. A couple of the stage crew rushed to help, and I called out,
"Leave it to the pros... even if it scans!" Someone behind me yelled,
"You owe for that one. Where's your can?" I answered, "I'm sitting on
it!", and mentally promised two quarters to the can.
  But I'm still lower on the folding stuff than I'd like to be and
I'll have to stop at an ATM tomorrow. I'm to meet with John and Chris
O'Halloran in the hotel lobby at eight for my ride to SF airport and
to give them El Kabong to return to Lynn.

Saturday, part 2 < ------ > ... and Back Again
/ Con report table of contents