Guest Blathering: Dave

The photo above is of Shane McEwan holding the Visual Effects Oscar that the Weta Digital team won. Shane has made several appearances in my Waiting For Frodo comic. Many thanks to his girlfriend Jill for sending the picture! :-)

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Guest Blather by Dave

"Good morning all, Dave here.

And here is certainly a fine place to be, delightful company, delightful harp music to wake to, delightful friends who drop in and share chili. :) Yesterday I overslept getting up just after 1:00 PM. That Debbie, she should have woken me earlier. Visiting time is all too short to waste it sleeping. I set my alarm this morning. :)

Now there's a curious thing. I'm wondering how many of you have had this happen. I set my alarm for 8:30 am. I woke and decided to turn off the alarm before it went off. As I reached for the clock the alarm started. This is not the first time I've had this happen. It is as though I've set a clock going internally that is in synch with external clocks. Hmmm, maybe we are slowly evolving towards a hybrid mechanistic creature. Either that or Debbie was tickling my toe to wake me and I didn't realize it. :)

We had a fine half day yesterday. After shopping for a few ingredients Debbie helped me cook up a batch of chili. I passed on my secret recipe after she swore not to reveal it to others. From all accounts it turned out acceptable. Allison came over to help us eat it and spend a few delighytful hours catching up. Even though we were all at FKO this past weekend (and another fine FKO it was too, thanks to all the concom for hosting this party) we did not get much time together. I have found this to be a problem at most cons. Now-a-days I try to come early and stay late to get in much needed visiting time with those near and dear to me.

This afternoon I'll be heading to my home town of Port Dover to spend a couple weeks with my Mom and sisters. In fact, all of my family, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and so on live in that general area. I guess I'm the only one who wandered out of the fold. Hmmm, does that make me the "black sheep"? But before I leave I hope to get Debbie to record some of her harp music with me. The blend of her marvellous harp and my guitar makes a lovely music. I've already offered to play accompaniment for her on her next world tour.

Speaking of getting on the road I'll sign off now. Debbie is cracking the whip. Time to go and make lovely music together. :) Love and happiness to all.

When are they going to invent that transporter and time machine? There's always too much distance and too little time."

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Debbie here again...

No Dave Clement guest blathering yesterday, sorry. He slept in until 1:30 pm (!). That guy sure knows how to sleep. I started out by tiptoeing around, trying not to wake him up; I know that he didn't get much sleep during FKO weekend.

Around 10 a.m., though, I quit worrying so much about keeping quiet. Went into the kitchen and made breakfast, banged pots around, ate breakfast, cleaned up. Dave kept sleeping. I finally resorted to playing my harp (which is right beside the pull-out couch) louder and louder until he woke up. He was horrified to find out how long he had slept, and I've promised to wake him up earlier today.

Dave's visit has been a lot of fun...in addition to the music, we've spent a lot of time just hanging out and talking. He made his famous chili last night for Allison, Jeff and me (see photo below):





Jeff said it was the best chili he's ever had in his life. I have to agree! Yum, and we have a ton of leftovers in the fridge. We called Beckett last night, and Dave and I played one of our new harp and guitar arrangements at her. We all really, really missed Beckett at FKO.

One of the many reasons I enjoy Dave's visits so much is because they makes me look at everything around me differently. When Dave and I were outside walking around, for example, I was so much more aware of things that sighted people take for granted, such as the sidewalk curb at the other side of the street, the need to know which way a cab is facing before getting in, the confusion of noise in a crowded space.

The main reason I enjoy Dave's visits, though, is just because of Dave himself. I always end up wishing I was more like him in some way...more benevolent, good-natured, patient, adventurous. I highly recommend Dave as a houseguest; he inevitably leaves you and your household in better mental shape than when he arrives. :-)

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Daniel Glasser's FKO photos are online! I rarely get photos of myself or of all three of us at conventions since I'm usually the only one with a camera in Urban Tapestry, so got a kick out of looking through these pictures. Many thanks to the Glassers for making them publicly viewable!

Here are a few I especially liked or found amusing:

* The Canadiana Jam on Friday night: Graham, Jodi, Allison, me, Tom & Dave. I'm wearing the "Get Filk" t-shirt that Lyanne gave me for my birthday.

* Dave Weingart's concert: Ellen and I were helping him out on his last song. (and I got a kiss after, woohoo! :-))

* Tanya Huff doing a reading.

* Anke encourages Gary during the Interfilk auction.

* Our Interfilk donation being auctioned off: Graham was the auctioneer, with Kathleen as runner. Check out Kathleen's slinky musical dress!

* Me plotting revenge on Andrea when her Interfilk donation is revealed.

* Hey, I didn't know Daniel was taking this photo! Me in the open filk circle on Saturday night. Andrea gave me one of the Debbie Humiliation t-shirts and I actually ended up wearing it because it was so cold in the room. :-)

* Urban Tapestry performing "Precious Moments", one of Lissa's choices in the Filk Hall of Fame concert.

* Allison introduces "Life Is A Bowl of Oreo Cookies" just before we perform it, another on of Lissa's choices.

* I'm not sure what was happening, but I love this picture of Ingrid and Steve.

* Alan and I performing "Under His Blankie" in the Filk Hall of Fame concert.

* Mary Ellen, Alan and I performing "Home Is Wherever" as the last song in the Filk Hall of Fame concert. Corwin cooperated throughout the song by making sleepy baby noises but mainly just snoozing.

Dave Clement visit

(Dave Clement Guest Blathering coming later today or tomorrow!)

Jeff took the photo above: Dave Clement and I were jamming on harp and guitar last night...SO fun. He added very cool guitar twiddles to my rendition of Maids of Mourne Shore (Kim Robertson arrangement) and also taught me an O'Carolan tune. We're going to work on both some more today, plus perhaps one or two others, and record it on tape. Sadly, I haven't had a chance to fully set up Jeff's birthday present to me (my home recording studio) so we'll have to rely on the ancient Fostex 4-track, but I think it would still be fun to have a recording. :-)

Allison's coming over tonight to visit. Dave's going to show me how to make his famous chili recipe!

Some more FKO and post-FKO photos (Daniel Glasser will have photos up on his site soon)...

Andrea and Gray performing in the open filk on Saturday night:





Another con highlight for me was seeing Andy and Martin Gordon-Kerr again. This photo was taken at their concert:





Rand in the audience just before one of the concerts:





Reid asked in Blatherchat whether "Mary Ellen" referred to Mary Ellen Wessels. The answer is yes! And sorry, I have no photo of Clif because he wasn't at the convention. Reid met both Clif and MEW when they came to visit Toronto a long while ago. Hm...or maybe he met them when he and I went to OVFF I (the first OVFF). Anyway, this photo is for Reid, and was taken when Mary Ellen was performing with Joey in his concert:





Lyanne in the Saturday night filk (the room was really cold, as you can tell!):





Paul giving Kathleen Sloan one of his famous patented good-bye twirly-hugs:





Dave, Katy and Ju, just after Dave sprayed Katy and Ju with the contents of his Coke bottle. Okay, so maybe that's just what he was pretending to do in his photo. In reality, Katy and Ju had just been splashed by a truck driving through a big puddle.





After dropping Katy and Ju off at their terminal, Dave & Tom & I had dinner at the Mars Dining Cafe at the Toronto airport.

Dave has agreed to do a Guest Blathering during his visit, yay! I'll post that later today or tomorrow, depending on when he wakes up (he's still asleep as I type this :-)).

post-FKO

For those interested, I've updated my Saturday and Sunday Blatherings with photos from FKO.

The figures above were an Interfilk donation from Michelle Bottorff ("Lady Lavender"), who designed and made each figure to represent Jodi, me and Allison. I love the fact that my figure is playing a flute and Allison's is playing her guitar! The bidding went higher than we could afford (which we were happy about, of course, since all the money goes to a good cause), Kathleen Sloan won the final bid. At the end of the convention, she surprised us by giving each us our own figurine as a gift.

Happy Birthday, Rand! As those who attended FKO probably know, our new Secret Song was actually called "Library Boy", a surprise birthday song for Rand (whose birthday is today and whose photo is at the bottom of this Blathering.) The last photo and the one below were taken when Rand, Allison, Jodi, and I were taking a break just before heading downstairs to attend some more programming.





Just a few of my personal FKO highlights (more coming later this week), in random order:

- Gary McGath's Lord of the Rings parody related to "Waiting For Frodo" (he says he'll send me the lyrics)

- Performing "Saxophone In Spring" with Andrea, our first songwriting collaboration. I played flute and even sang some harmonies (my first non-Urban Tapestry harmonies!). Andrea says she wants me on her recording of this song for her upcoming CD...yikes! I've never recorded my singing on a CD before (except when UT live performances were taped).

- Paul Kwinn's surprise attendance!

- Having Ellen Weingart call me a bitch (in an affectionate New York sort of way :-)) because I kept taking stealth photos of her. It became a ritual through the weekend, much to Dave Weingart's amusement. ("Hey Ellen, look at the photo I just took!" "Bitch.")

- Hearing Katy and Ju perform "Play Me" (I think that was the name), a song they had written after a visit to my place, and seeing Talis play my harp. Beautiful piece, it made me cry. :-)

- Dinner with Allison, Jodi, Tom, Dave, Katy, Ju, and Rika on Thursday night.

- Andrea's contribution of a particular t-shirt with my photo on it. The photo was taken at Reid's and Luisa's watergun party last July. Clark Weirda won the bid. I must seek revenge on Andrea somehow, of course. >:-)

The photo below was taken in the hotel lobby. From left to right: Margaret, Allison, Jodi, Terence (who might be moving to Toronto!), Andrea, Melissa, Daniel.





Wonderful to see so many attending from Germany and Britain, like Rika performing her one-shot concert below:





Many thanks to Sheryl for buying our Interfilk package! The photo below is of Sheryl and Gary, in the hotel lobby just before leaving the hotel:





Heather did a wonderful job of running the con suite (Heather's on the left, photo below):





Dave Clement is coming to visit for a couple of nights. Looking forward to that, since we didn't have much of a chance to hang out during FKO. I find filk conventions like FKO both wonderful and frustrating because there are always so many friends I want to talk to, but there's so little time.

FKO Sunday

Top photo: Allison, Paul, Kathleen, Jodi, Rand.

Margaret Bumby giving me a "I'll kill you if you take that picture" look reminiscent of the one that Allison gives me in the same situation:





FKO's Special Guest was Tanya Huff (Michelle Sagara West wrote her bio in the program book). Tanya's donation to the Interfilk auction set a new record for the amount of money raised by a single item. If someone remembers the exact amount (around $700?) and person who purchased the item, could they please post the details in Blatherchat? Thanks. The person who bought Tanya's item would be a regular character in her next three novels, and they'd also be able to specify certain characteristics about that character:





The photo below is of Joey and Jodi. Joey Shoji was the Guest of Honour at FKO. I've never seen Joey in anything other than shorts. He does have cute knees, doesn't he?





Joey's workshop was an open rehearsal on Saturday morning. The photo below is of Allison and Jodi rehearsing "Star Sisters" with Joey:





Anke Teschke was the Interfilk guest; her presence had a lot to do with the attendance of the many Brits and Germans, I'm sure. :-) Here's a shot from her concert:





Very cool to see Lyanne at FKO! I first met Lyanne at one of our children's concerts, when she was about nine years old; we've been penpals ever since. She gave me a red t-shirt with "GET FILK" on the front that she had stencilled on herself for my birthday. I wore it in our Canadian concert. :-) Lyanne's attending university now:





Excuse my bedraggled appearance. It was taken on the last day of the convention, and I had only had a few hours sleep the night before. :-)

FKO Saturday

I was offline during FKO, but thought I'd share a few photos from the weekend instead of my regular Blathering. One of the big surprises of the weekend was the surprise attendance of Paul Kwinn, from California (see photo of Allison and Paul, above). Beckett, we missed you!

The photo below was taken in the main lobby of the FKO hotel and is of Paul, Melissa and Andrea.





One of the con highlights for me was getting to meet Mary Ellen's and Ed's young son, Corwin (see photo below). VERY cute and cuddly. He had obviously passed "Baby Cliche School" with flying colours...he cooed and gurgled, squirmed happily when being held, smiled at perfect strangers without reservation. There's nothing like a baby's devastatingly open and trusting (and toothless) smile to make one turn into complete mush inside:





Thanks to Tom Algeo for volunteering to take the picture!

The photo below is of Terence, asleep in the con suite on the first night of FKO. Probably recovering from his flight from Singapore! There is a rumour, by the way, that Terence may be moving to Toronto. Fingers crossed...





And the last photo is of Ellen Weingart, who became my favourite photo subject on the weekend, mainly because of her highly entertaining reaction whenever I brought out my camera. :-)