cora does OVFF

Cora finds love in Columbus, OH.
Pictured here: Cora with Amanda Snyder's Mouse.


Got home from OVFF last night. Still somewhat braindead and need to catch up on e-mail and workstuff, so I'll post more con highlights in Blatherings later.

I thought that going for five days instead of three would make it easier to good-bye to people at the end of the weekend, but I was wrong. Geez, I hate good-byes. And what a wonderful convention! Thanks to the concom for all their hard work, and the guests were all fantastic (again, more details and photos later this week).




Cora and Paul Kwinn.


Here are some Livejournal OVFF con reports that I've found so far, if you're interested:

allisona
cosmo
peteralway and here too
beige_alert
Jim Poltrone
Kyttn (includes link to photo album with a bunch of shots from our kids' concert!)
jalapenoman
ladymondegreen
zencuppa
theo_knight
jhayman

Several people have asked if I can post all my pics online. Unfortunately this is impossible because of lack of space and time (editing), not to mention the fact that the repetitive mousework is tough on my tendinitis, but I will be posting a few favourites here and also in the Flickr Filking photo group. Please note that only members can view photos (basic membership is free).




Cora and Beckett Gladney.


Urban Tapestry was honoured (and quite floored) to receive the Pegasus Award for Best Performer this year. And congrats to Jodi for her Best Filk Song Pegasus for "The Lady"! Congratulations also to the other Pegasus winners:

Best Classic Filk Song
Ladyhawke! by Julia Ecklar

Best Writer/Composer
Kathy Mar

Best Comic Book Song
Arthur Curry by Rand Bellavia and Adam English

Best Tribute
A Simple Country Doctor by Matt Leger

I'll post some personal con highlights in the next few days. Meanwhile, here are some more photos from Cora's first OVFF:




Cora and Bryan Snyder (Scott's brother).





Cora jams with Paul Kwinn and Scott Snyder.





Cora bonds with Katy Dröge and Steve Macdonald.





Cora and Mary Bertke.





Cora congratulates newlyweds Gary Ehrlich and Sheryl Gere.





Luke Ski meets Cora. Rand is on the right, Rachel on the left.





Cora and Rob Wynne.





Cora and Heather Dale, Interfilk Guest at OVFF.





Cora and Seanan Maguire.





Cora hangs with Scott Snyder and Marty Fabish.






Cora at her first OVFF room party, hosted by
Amanda Snyder at the end of the convention.





Amanda welcomes Cora by trying to eat her head.





Cora and Erica and Erica's friend Andy.





Cora and Jim Poltrone and me after Jim gave Urban
Tapestry a box of Esther Price chocolates.





Cora with Alisa and Luis Garcia.





Dave Clement shocks the room by trying to pull Cora's head off(!).





Cora meets Tom Jeffer's girlfriend, Marlene.



Non-Cora photos and con highlights soon!

November 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

pre-OVFF

Our Interfilk package description (click on image for larger version).



Ok, I've added a couple of items to our Interfilk package: an Urban Tapestry tote bag and a copy of my book (now out of print). Please click on the image above for details.

Crazybusy, trying to get workstuff and OVFFprepstuff done before I leave for Columbus tomorrow for OVFF. Jodi and I are heading down tomorrow; Allison will join us on Friday.

I took a peek at the preliminary program. Wow, I can already tell it's going to be a busy weekend. So many great programming items I'd like to check out, but also so many filk friends I haven't seen in ages. Yikes.

To non-filkers out there: This has always been a quandary for me. Conventions like this have so many concerts and workshops I'd like to attend as well as the evening music circles, but over the 20+ years I've been in filk, I've developed friendships with people I only tend to see at these conventions, several from overseas.

To guarantee that you'll have any actual one-on-one conversations with a particular person, you have to schedule ahead of time, else trust that you'll both find an opportunity during the weekend. I usually have to opt for the latter since I very rarely schedule this sort of thing ahead of time; for me that would be worse, having most of my weekend already set in stone weeks before the event because of booked "meetings" and rehearsals and programming commitments (unless I'm a guest of the convention, of course!), with little flexibility for anything else.

Rand and I always try to get together for Sunday brunch at conventions we're both attending; other than that, I generally like to leave things open until I get there if I'm not a guest. My favourite weekend moments usually take place outside of scheduled programming...a mini jam session that springs up in a corner of the lobby, for instance, a hallway conversation, an impromptu room filk.

And this year, my pal Scott Snyder is Toastmaster! And Rand & Adam are Guests of Hono(u)r!

Geez, I am SO looking forward to this weekend.

ONE MORE DAY.

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Thank you, Interfilk!

(Update: Looks like Jodi's story has been postponed for a week (instead of running today). We're still putting it in the Interfilk package, but we'll be mailing it to the person who buys the package since the story runs -after- OVFF. :-))

So my music partner Jodi Krangle is apparently going to be a cover feature story in the York Region Era-Banner next week! Some of you may recall that my other music partner Allison was a cover feature in the Liberal last month. We'll be including a copy of Allison's story in our Urban Tapestry Interfilk package at OVFF, and mailing Jodi's story to the winner of the package after the convention.

For those unfamiliar with the term "Interfilk", here's more info from the Interfilk Web site:

"The main goal of Interfilk is the promotion of cultural exchange through filk music. We provide the means and opportunity for talented members of the filk community to attend filk conventions they otherwise not be able to attend. This provides the opportunity to share performances, songwriting, organizing, publishing and other talents with a wider community than might otherwise be possible.

A secondary goal is promoting filk conventions by adding talented (though often not widely known) persons to their program. Interfilk tries to select guests who would draw people to see them again at another convention."

At OVFF this year, for example, the amazingly talented Celtic singer-songwriter Heather Dale is the Interfilk guest, sent from Toronto.

My music group, Urban Tapestry, was honoured to be chosen as Interfilk Guests for Conchord (a filk convention in California) in 1994. We've been grateful for the experience, and have tried to give back to Interfilk whenever we can.

This year, our Interfilk package includes the following:

• Allison's cover story
  
  
• Jodi's cover story (will be mailed to the person who buys the package)
  
  
• Cool item from Jodi's Muse's Muse store
  
  
• Two recently released kids' books illustrated by my sister, written by Hazel Hutchins: Beneath the Bridge and Sidewalk Rescue. Beneath the Bridge contains a picture using Rand, Jeff and me (well, my legs) as models. Ruth signed both books specifically for Interfilk.
  
  
• Certificate for a custom-made LJ icon by me. Here's a sample of some I've done already.
  
  
• Certificate for a custom-made kid song by me, recorded by Urban Tapestry. The song can be about anyone or anything, within reason (e.g. grown-up "kids" are fine :-)).
  

Interfilk auctions are a lot of fun and have grown to be a source of entertainment themselves, mainly because of the enthusiasm of the auctioneers and "Interfilk wenches." Plus they raise funds for a good cause!

Only four more days until OVFF...

October 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

dot com survivor

Congrats to my sister, whose book with Hazel Hutchins, "Sidewalk Rescue, has been nominated for the 2005 Blue Spruce Award!

So I was going through some old lyric sheets and came across a song that I wrote several years ago, taught Allison & Jodi, but we never got around to performing in public; we didn't get out to many conventions as a trio that year, and all forgot about it after that. It's too late to resurrect, so I'm posting it here before it sinks into its final obscurity. Be warned that it's one of my songs in which the scansion is likely baffling until you hear how it fits with the music (which you won't, so you'll have to suffer, sorry):

urban tapestry, happy songs, private dancing

Had a good practice with Allison and Jodi last night. Geez, I love being in Urban Tapestry. I feel incredibly lucky: not only are we all friends, but we also work so well together. After ten years, we've all gotten to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and we've settled into a wonderful comfort level while still supporting and encouraging each other to grow, learn new things, whether it's in songwriting or performance or trying new types of food in restaurants or our personal lives.

Taught my new song, "I'm Gonna Make A Rocket Ship," to A&J last night and we added harmonies, counterpoint. Lots of fun, and I'm looking forward to performing this in our kids' concert (shared with Ookla) at OVFF. :-) Allison taught us some other new kids' songs and we also ran through some of our regular grown-up repertoire, taking out songs we haven't done in a while, shaking the dust off and oiling the creaky joints, etc.

OVFF's only a couple of weeks away, woohoo!

---------------

Thanks for the bug info!

Yesterday I asked if anyone could identify the bug in the photo I took in Austria. Some replied in LJ and Blatherchat that it was a grasshopper or katydid, and I also got the following info from my biologist friend, Peter Kotanen:

"It looks like a Long-horned Grasshopper (Order Orthoptera; Family Tettigoniidae). It's rather a diverse family, and includes a variety of grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids. It's likely in the subfamily Decticinae (Shield-backed Grasshoppers). They lay eggs in plants or the ground with their rather menacing ovipositor, and eat a wide range of plants. Specifically, it might well be Pholidoptera griseoaptera (Dark Bush-cricket). See here or here for some images!"

and from Alexa Karina on LJ, who suggested the bug was a grasshopper in an earlier post:

"Now I know for certain: Pholidoptera aptera, female. Rather common, in higher region (600m above sea level), day active but sing also at night. The attachment at the back is a ovipositor to lay the eggs. Does not sting but can bite. Best wishes Alexa"

---------------

Thanks also, everyone, for the lists in LJ and Blatherchat of depressing songs! I modified my own list a bit as a result. Lots of weeping to do, I can see.

One of my favourite excerpts was from my friend Andy:

"...Also, a special mention for ABBA. Whenever I hear any ABBA song, I always end up feeling that the human race must be destroyed, and the sooner the better.

So thanks for putting me in a miserable frame of mind. Here are some cheerful sad songs for you, you wet blanket, you.

Bessie Smith - Gimme a Pigfoot
The Clash - Brand New Cadillac
George Thorogood - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
Joe Jackson - What's The Use of Getting Sober?
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
The Pogues - The Sickbed of Cuchulain
Rolling Stones - Midnight Rambler
Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime
They Might Be Giants - Particle Man
Tom Waits - Jockey Full of Bourbon
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

because sometimes when you're sad, the last thing you need is some hippie weeping over her acoustic guitar."

:-D

And to continue on the theme of CHEERFUL songs, I offer the following poll:

What are the best FEEL-GOOD songs you know? i.e. the kind of music you can't resist dancing to, or that almost always cheers you up, or makes you feel good about life and friends in general?

Also, do ever dance in private, when no one else can see you? I do, in my office (a challenge to do without knocking things over) or the living room. Sometimes just because I need a short break from working in front of my computer and sometimes because I can't sit still when listening to music, like my new Carbon Leaf CDs, which arrived from Amazon a couple days ago!

I am not a good dancer. I'm uncoordinated, have no slick moves, have never taken lessons, but it's wonderful to dance just for the sheer joy of it.

I've always avoided formal dance situations, though I do admit a curiosity about the whole contra-dancing thing. Mark Osier gave me a short lesson a while back, and it was fun (and man, can that guy LEAD). Also had fun dancing with Bill Sutton at GAfilk last year, though I think he was startled by my unorthodox style. :-D

Have a great weekend, everyone.

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