"I'm going to go back there someday"

Inspired by tisonlyhersef who asked “What songs do you consider essential for someone to have at least knowledge of in a filk circle?”

Below are the 259 songs which have been nominated for a ( Pegasus Award )

Just a warning to gospog, and other non-filkers on my list.

A Boston Phoenix Article on Filking finally came out.

A rather well written article as it happens

Friday I got out of work, went to Kelly's Roast Beef to pick up a couple of sandwitches, and then headed down to Providence Airport to pick up chaoticgoodchic. I had not seen her since Seattle in January.

We decided to go see Fool's Gold on the way back to Worcester (We were hoping to see 27 Dresses but it wasn't playing at that theater.)

As a coincidence, Saturday, March 1st was the monthly MassFilc meeting.
We arrived at a little after 5pm, and I introduced her to those who had not met her at any of the past year's cons.

I briefly went to talk to Gary about some Concertino09 details, and when I came back to the circle room, she was already singing. She must have sung or lead nearly a dozen songs over the course of the evening, but without hogging.

While there were nearly 20 people there, most people swiched back & fourth between the "singing" area and the "talking" area, so that there was usually only about a dozen in the song circle at any given time. Everyone else seemed to enjoy her being there as well.

It went well beyond my expectations.

Squeeeee

Thank You So Much T & S (& D too)

You really didn't have to but I do enjoy them, and I have heard "finished" CDs that were not as clean and smooth as your Scratch Tracks.

I will be sharing them with chaoticgoodchic who chippped in half of the bid last year, but that is all.

but my pants are so bankrupt. Beyond the usual "too busy to read LJ", the screen of my laptop stopped working on Saturday, right after I finished editing a spoken word piece I was planning on doing that night. I couldn't get the screen to work for the rest of the con.

Other than that frustration, and missing chaoticgoodchic on her birthday, everything was good.

Most of the con was spent hanging out with people, chatting (too many to mention, but if we talked, then thank you for adding to my fun.) and going to filk circles. I'm glad that I went to the memorial circle, I had only met Greg recently, and in a way, that circle let me get to know him better. It was wonderful seeing Faeryn & Maya again, and meeting Scott.

I did 4 songs in open filk over the course of the weekend. All of which were well received.

Friday I did Colonies' Lament,
Saturday I did Catch a Tail by the Tiger & Getting to be a Rabbit with Me,
Sunday I did my usual I'm Going to go Back There Someday

I tried avoiding the Concertino 09 concomm planning meeting, but it came after me. I was invited to do the Hotel Search for the convention (partly because they would like to hold it in Worcester again, and I am the only member of MassFilc currently living in Worcester). I accepted. I have No Idea what I do next.

The concerts were all highly entertaining, Including the Song Sequiter "panel".

Closing note: Sunday night; Waiting at South Station for a train back to Worcester, I met up with Guitar player, and he admired my cloak. He asked if I was a LARPer? Or maybe I did ren-fairs, I said "no, I'm a filker" and then some more we spoke.

He was in town visiting family for the weekend, and was waiting for a train back to Quebec City. He recognized the term Filk, so I asked where he had heard of it. He said he had learned about it after he heard, "This woman who wrote a song based on the Firefly Theme". So of course I informed him that she would be one of the Guests of Honor at FilKontariO in April.

[Just a couple more and I can get a New Toaster ;) ]

When I met up with lovensong87 at Boskone she told me that she had been offered a job in Pennsylvania, so had moved in with her Aunt for a while. As a result lovensong87 had brought a number of things from home with her including the Colonies' Lament painting.

At the “Smoked Salmon” (Dead Dog) circle someone read a poem that pointed out good experiences only end if you lived life in chronological order. So my con report is going to ( bounce around )

Plus more meeting of people and moments than I say. It was a great con.

Just in case I didn't abuse my health enough at Arisia last weekend, I am going to another con in 2 days. A filk con called Conflikt, in Seattle.

So if my pants weren't already bankrupt, then they will be by next week.

BTW, note to eustaciavye, I was just looking at the concert schedule, and one of the concerts will be by s00j.

After a train, a subway, and a shuttlebus I arrived at the hotel at about 7pm. At the door to greet me ( were )

Packing for Arisia

• Kilt^ Check


• Hawiian Shirt^ Check


• Leather Mask^ Check


• Towel^ Check


• Shipping Cylindars^ Check


• Cloak^ Check


• Choke Chain^ Check


• Belt^ Check


• Pi~Con T-shirt^ Check


• Bathing suit^ Check


• Sandles^ Check


• Socks^ Check


• Ear Cuff & Enhancer^ Check

Am I forgetting anything?

I just found out that the one of a kind "Vixy & Tony Holiday Concert: Recorded Live at Wayward Coffeehouse" that went to the GAFilk interfilk auction was won by none other than chaoticgoodchic for the bargin price of $135.00

It includes such holiday favorites as: Chiron Beta Prime, The Christians and the Pagans, & Santa Baby

Plus many other great songs such as The Girl Whose Never Been, Emerald Green, & Mal's Song.

ewin mentioned that she is once again collecting Spoof Christmas Carols, so I blame her for this:

Wassailing away again down in Hooville,

Looking for that, last holiday crumb,

Some people claim,

That The Grinch is to blame,

But I know,

Ho Ho, Ho-Ho-Ho,

That Christmas has come.

Tonight (Thursday)
My brother Brian is the featured poet at the "The Ship" (Vernon Hotel, Kelley Square, Worcester, Ma.) starting at 8pm.

Tomorow (Friday)
I will be once again visiting WPI for their Friday Night Open Gaming (Octawedge, WPI, Worcester) starts at aprox 7pm.

Sunday
I will possibly go to Poets Asylum (Java Hut, Webster Square, Worcester, Ma.) starts between 7pm and 8pm. This week's feature is Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz.


I also need to find time this weekend to do:

• Laundry


• Visit Bank


• Christmas Shopping


• Practice Habitrail Named Klein


• Watch Dungeon & Dragons cartoon, DVD boxed set that chaoticgoodchic got me as an early Christmas Gift (she insisted that I open it early).



What's everyone elses plans?

A gentleman I met at a con the past summer has been dragged into filking by his own mind:

88 Lines About 44 Fangirls

I'm wondering if I should point him at The FUMP

Incase anyone has noticed that I haven’t been posting much lately; let me tell you that having a life can really cut into your internet time.

( Over a week ago I went to Ohio Valley Filk Festival. )

Just got home from Ohio Valley Filk Festival

More Later

g'night

It started on Friday when The IT dept. had an event in Boston. We went on a Duck Tour of the city & the river, then a tour of Fenway Park. Because of the event I was able to get home early.

Then Friday night I went to Phonix Rising Games to pick up a new game I had pre-ordered Cutthroat Caverns, and then I took it to Friday Night Open Gaming at WPI. It is a hack & slash game using cards instead of dice. We got in one game of it (It took 2 hours including teaching the rules) I also got in a game of Settlers.

I got home about 1 am and slept till 5:30am, when I had to get up to do a couple of loads of laundry.

After laundry I headed to Medford to help xuth move. There were roughly a dozen people there who helped with the move at one point or another. Some I know, some I barely know, and some I have never met before (I’m not going to even try listing names).

Once there was a full load on the rental truck, we went over to his new address about 2 miles away in Cambridge. We ate lunch, and then started unloading. At about 3:30 I decided had reached my limit and went to the MASSFILC filk circle which was about 3 blocks away from Xath’s new address.

The filk circle started slow, but ended up one of the largest housefilks I had been to. I am sure part of the reason was this MASSFILC meeting was their election of officers. Joe Kesselman stepped down as president and victorthecook was elected by acclaim. Also announced at the meeting happyfunpaul is the Interfilk guest at Conchord 2008.

I brought 1 new song and 1 new poem to perform at the filk circle. I ended up doing both early before the crowd arrived. The poem did a bit better than the song. Later in the evening someone played a seasonal song, and I thought of the perfect follower, but I didn’t have it prepared; so I went online, looked up the words, plugged my headset into the PC and listened to the recording (I have all my filk CD’s backed up on my PC). I then performed the song and it was not bad. A couple of people even joined in. This brings me up 8 song/poems I feel comfortable performing in circle.

Sunday I crashed, I had hoped to make some progress on my paintings, but I had misplaced some of my tools (I spotted them this morning as I was leaving the house.)

In some ways I feel like this weekend was practice for Pythonacon next weekend.

Today I was calling my soon-to-be-ex to arrange use of the car this Saturday. She happened to ask if I was going to a filk thing.

I told her that "yes, it is the monthly Massfilk meeting."
She stated that she "might like to go to that also."

Anyone have any suggestions on how to handle a situation like this?

I am starting to make plans for Ohio Valley Filk Festival

So who is going to it this year, and how are they getting there?

I have now been to my first Dragon*Con

I had a great time, although I’m not sure how much credit goes to the con.

I arrived on Thursday and met up with chaoticgoodchic at the main hotel (the Hyatt). We put our bags away in the room and went out to get some dinner. At the elevators we ran into Rob partiallyclips Balder^, and Jan (whose LJ I don’t know) who were also heading out to dinner and invited us to join them.

Dragon*Con officially started Friday. The music track had a lot of talent I had heard of but never had a chance to hear live such as: newlyweds, Carla Ulbrich and Joe Giacoio, The Brobdingnagian Bards, The Bedlam Bards, Throwing Toasters, & Emerald Rose. I also got to hear some more familiar talents: Tom Smith, Rob Balder, The Boogie Knights, Matt Leger and Roberta Rogow.

It was fun filking in front of an almost completely new group of people. It meant that practically none of them had heard me sing any of the 3 songs I typically do at circle. I also did 2 spoken word pieces over the weekend; a poem by my brother Mounting the Earth and another by a friend of his Physics for Slam Poets.

There were also some unexpected bonuses at the filk circle. One was Robert Asprin (yes, That Robert Asprin). He is quite entertaining in person, and rarely at a loss for words. voiceofkiki Debuted a new filk mixing Harry Potter with Broadway’s Hairspray. Another young lady gave us Renfair Women (to the tune of Gretchen Wilson’s Redneck Woman).

I also met several other people who (like me) don’t write filks, but enjoy singing & listening to them.

Outside of Filk, Saturday Morning was the costume parade, which is held outside on the street. Our room on the 6th floor had an excellent view of the parade from the balcony.

Saturday night was the Dawn (comicbook) look-alike contest, hosted by Voltair, CGC and I watch some of this. In my opinion it is a beauty pageant that is in danger of turning into a costume competition (go figure).

One of my regrets is that I only got to briefly meet ewin at the Saturday Morning Cartoons event. I can now say that I have met her in person. I was not able to get in much gaming (just a couple of hands of Fluxx) because it was located in a separate hotel, which happened to be undergoing renovations, which made getting to game rooms harder (luckily I have a high survival skill so I was able to find it.)

On Sunday we went to some of the CrookShanks show.

Considering the con as a whole, I had fun. I have been to a few filk cons, some small region cons, many Boskons and Arisias, and 2 Worldcons. I would say that at Dragon*Con the different event tracks tend to be quite isolated, and it is tougher to sample back and fourth between different tracks than at other cons (including Worldcon).

^Fanboy moment: For those who don’t already know Rob Balder, he is writer of the webcomics PartiallyClips & Erfworld, Get Nifty: The Sluggy Freelance Card Game, and the Pegasus Award Nominated filk song (for the second year in a row) Rich Fantasy Lives. He is also a fun person to hang out with.