confluence (part 3)

Tom West, the person who introduced me to filk.


Happy birthday to my niece Sara! Sara found out last week, by the way, that she is one of seven winners in her age group (9 years old and younger) in the Toronto Star Children's Short Story Contest, out of 2034 entries! I'm bursting with auntly pride, of course. :-)

Confluence report continued from Part 1 (which also has a list of other people's reports) and Part 2 posted yesterday:

The highlight of the weekend for me was getting together with some of the attendees of Alpha young writers' workshop, which is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing workshop for young writers organized by Diane Turnshek, an sf writer.

Diane used to work for Inkspot, moderating the Young Writers' Speculative Fiction message board. After Inkspot was shut down, she continued to be involved with the young writers from the forum. The bond was so strong between these writers, in fact, that some of them began to meet in person, and Diane got involved in organizing workshops and other events.

Anyway, it was wonderful to finally be able to meet some of these young writers at Confluence. Here's how the meeting was listed in the pocket program:





Sort of sounds like a comic book hero fight, as one person pointed out. :-)

And here are some of the Alpha writers I ran into the lobby on Sunday, with Diane Turnshek (in front):





Diane gave a short speech about how they wouldn't have been there if it hadn't been for me and Inkspot; I was deeply moved. Seeing evidence of the goodstuff resulting from Inkspot helps tremendously in taking the edge off some of the badstuff that happened near the end. It was wonderful to see this flourishing young writers' community in action, thanks to the efforts of the amazing Diane Turnshek and others.

The community recently moved a few weeks ago, and young writers interested in speculative fiction are welcome to visit The Inkspotted Phoenix.

More pics from the weekend...

One of the things I like about the convention is its small size, which contributes to the friendly and creative atmosphere, with more opportunity for hanging out with people than at larger conventions. Nice to have some one-on-one chat time with Andrea on Saturday night, for instance. Here's Andrea in the lobby on the last day of the convention:





Allison and Jodi at breakfast:





Jodi and I assist in Dave Rood's concert:





Sigh...lordy, can that guy ever sing/play, and I was tickled to be asked to play in his concert, as I was for Chris's. One of the things I love most about filk is the musical collaboration aspect, the exchange of ideas and music:





Performing for the sake of performing is fun, of course, but my personal passion is making music with -other- people...writing, performing, improvising.

Allison got randomly selected for a security check both to and from Pittsburgh:





And because I think it would be funny to have three pages in a row with Michelle photos:





In case you couldn't tell from these photos and my report, I had an absolutely fantastic time at Confluence and plan to come back again.

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confluence (part 2)

Continued from part 1, posted earlier today:

One of the many highlights for me from the convention was seeing Tom West and Michelle Sagara West (my friends from university days; I've known them over 20 years) get to know some of my friends I met in the filk community. For a long time, there seemed to be no overlap between my filking and non-filk worlds. This has gradually been changing over the years, I'm happy to say.

Tom, Michelle and Rand chat just before Chris Conway's concert (Steve Brinich in background):





Jodi, Allison and I helping to perform "The Alien Jellyfish Song" in Chris's concert (Pete Grubbs in foreground as sound guy):





We also performed on this track on Chris's Alien Salad Abduction CD, by the way.

Chris was amazing, despite feeling ill. At the end of his concert, my friend Tom (who was the one who introduced me to filk in the first place) turned to me and said, "Thank you SO much for telling us to come to this concert." You can find more information about Chris and his music at www.chrisconway.org/.

The wonderfully entertaining and talented Dan Hart performing an Elvis song in the Kinderfilk on Saturday morning:





Me and John Hall:





Jodi, Allison and I had great fun at the Dorsai room party, by the way. I tried some Tully (sp?) and embarrassed myself by having a small coughing fit.

Jodi performing with Chris in his concert (Pete Grubbs in foreground as sound guy):





Joey got Allison, Jodi and me hooked on this amazing dessert wine:





Loved Dave Rood's concert, and also enjoyed performing with him:





Blade, John Hall and Mary Bertke at breakfast on Saturday morning:





Encounter at Fourpoints (the convention was at the FourPoints Sheraton Hotel), a parody of the first episode of Star Trek The Next Generation:





The Klingon in the picture, third person from the left, is Randy Hoffman. :-) From Randy: "...The cast on stage are (from left to right) Kim Eklund as Datum, Heidi Pilewski as Queue #1, me as Warp, Barb Carlson as Queue #2, Kevin Hayes as Placard, Kira Heston as Toy, April Geiselman (mostly obscured) in a stellar performance as Wisely Cracker, and Tracey Levino as Queue #3."

Chris, Michelle (LOVE her expression in this photo) and Joey:





Chris and Andrea, who finally got to meet in person at this convention:






(to be continued)

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confluence (part 1)

Picture above (taken by Andrea, I think): Me with Chris Conway, the Featured Filk Guest at Confluence this past weekend. I am wearing a T-shirt I made to surprise Chris, using a photo I took of him earlier this year at GAfilk which he now uses as one of his Livejournal user pics.

If you have a Confluence report online, please post the URL in Blatherchat or my Livejournal message board, and I will add it here. So far, I've found reports from :
Michelle Sagara West
Chris Conway
Dave Alway
Pete Grubbs
Andrea Dale
David Keefer

I had a *wonderful* time at Confluence...thanks so much to Randy Hoffman and the rest of the concom. I will be posting more photos and highlights from the weekend over the next few days, but here just are a few for now.

Allison, Jodi and I started the weekend off with raspberry margaritas on Friday night at dinner (photo below by Rand, taken at Dingbats) with Chris Conway, Randy Hoffman and Rand. Our trip went pretty smoothly... we feel lucky about this considering the transportation problems experienced by some others attending the convention. Merav Hoffman, for instance, ended up missing Confluence altogether. :-( We also missed Mark Osier, who had to opt out because of work commitments.

Randy Hoffman adds: "In addition to Chris and Merav, Joey Shoji also had a day's worth of flight delays; several people had miserable drives through the storm front; and numerous people who were attempting to commute from the city of Pittsburgh proper on Saturday and Sunday took two hours to drive the twelve miles out to the hotel because of the total closure of Interstate 279 southbound for resurfacing."





If anyone has a digital photo of our Friday night concert, by the way, I would very much appreciate getting a copy. :-) The concert was fun, and the audience was fantastic. Thanks so much to Pete Grubbs, our immensely patient sound guy!!

Our concert set:

The Question
Interjections
The Lady
The Jelly Belly Song
Mr Jelly Belly's Comin To Get You
Bilbo's Last Song
Tiberius Rising
Into The West
Twinkle In His Eye
Starsoul
Hockey Monkey
Encore: Sex and Chocolate

Later on, we found out that both our CDs had sold out in the dealers' room (!).

We shared the shuttle from the airport with the lovely and talented Marty Fabish:





Rand Bellavia and Randy Hoffman on Friday afternoon:





The Boogie Knights gave a great concert despite one of their members (David Keefer) not being able to participate because of a bad migraine. David did make it to the hotel, but had to spend most of the convention in the hotel room :-( :





Mark Bernstein and Allison:





Joey Shoji, Michelle and Tom:





(Continued in part 2)

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cottage, pre-Confluence

Campfire on the weekend at the cottage.


Jeff and I went to the cottage with my sister and her family this past weekend. Activities included: swimming, saunas, fishing, marshmallow roasts, campfires, canoe paddling, lots more swimming. Sara brought along a penny whistle I gave her a while back; she figured out how to play the "Hobbiton theme" from Lord of the Rings on her own!

Only a week until Confluence, woohoo! Really looking forward to this convention, which may very well be the only out-of-town convention that Urban Tapestry attends this year. Jodi and I are both going to OVFF, but Allison may not be able to attend. :-(

Our concert at Confluence is at 10 pm on Friday, and we will also be participating in a children's filk on Saturday morning. I was practising "The Rattlin' Bog" with my nieces on the weekend, a fun song Urban Tapestry learned in Winnipeg from Ruth Sanderson. Thanks in advance to Mark Osier for helping us in our Friday night concert.

I'm also excited because my friends Michelle Sagara West and her husband Tom West are attending. Tom was the one who introduced me to filk in the first place. Michelle now has a Livejournal, by the way. Her user icon was drawn by my sister when we were back in university (coloured by Reid recently).

Tendinitis update, for those of you who are curious: I had a slight setback during my holiday in Arizona as a result of having to do unexpected computer typing (work crisis), but am doing ok. Can't play guitar at Confluence, sadly, but should still be able to play flute as long as I'm careful. Continuing my at-home physio exercises, trying very hard to be patient.



Jeff's toes, decorated by Sara, Annie and me in Arizona.


Interesting links:

Orisinal: Doom and Halo lovers among you will gag, I suspect, but I find most of the music and animation in these violence-free computer games completely charming. :-)



Sign in Sedona.

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recording projects

Happy birthday to Scott Snyder today!

Someone recently asked me what recording projects I've participated on, and I could only remember a few, so I decided to do a bit of research. For my own records (I'm linking to this Blatherings entry from my personal homepage) but also in case any of you are interested, here's a list in chronological order:

Songs That Go Filk In The Night (1986 tape)
OVFF II compilation
- played flute on Nightmare Lord with Mike Stein

Castles and Skyscrapers (1994 tape)
Artist: Urban Tapestry
Urban Tapestry Publishing
- wrote My Jalapeno Man, Cuz He's A Guy
- played flute

Less Than Art (1997 CD)
Group: Ookla The Mok
- played flute on Still Can't Buy Me Love

Myths and Urban Legends (1997 CD & tape)
Artist: Urban Tapestry
Dodeka Records
- wrote Technonerdboy, I Love The Morning, Song For Jim, Puppies Cooked In Brine, Leftovers, co-wrote Sex and Chocolate
- played flute, tambourine

Bardic Lug (1997 tape)
Artist: Scott Snyder
Dodeka Records
- played flute on Cuz She's A Guy (a fun parody of my song, "Cuz He's A Guy")

The Road To Roswell (1999 CD)
Artist: Karen Linsley, Lloyd Landa
Martian Trophy Music
- played flute on Nobody Knows (That I'm Really An Alien) and By The River

Assembly Required (1999 CD)
Artist: Puzzlebox
- played flute on The Dark Man

Alien Salad Abduction (2002 CD)
Artist: Chris Conway
- played flute on The Alien Jellyfish Song

Zen Cappuccino (2003, CD)
Artist: Andrea Dale
Bedlam House
- played flute and sang on "Saxophone In Spring", a song I co-wrote with Andrea
- Andrea covered my song, "Homecoming" on this CD

Sushi and High Tea (2003 CD)
Artist: Urban Tapestry
Dodeka Records, Ltd.
- wrote Friendship Song, Waiting For Frodo, Homecoming, My Jalapeno Man, The Truth Is Out There, A Neurotic Love Song, co-wrote Another Story
- sang, played guitar, flute, triangle, claves, music stand

MISCELLANEOUS:

My brain is mush right now and I suspect I've left out some projects. If you happen to know of one I've missed (like yours), please feel free to let me know!

I've been on a number of convention live recording compilations, including North Coast Cabaret, sometimes just for flute, sometimes with Urban Tapestry.

I've had a couple of professional studio engineers tell me that I could make some income from playing flute as a sort of "musician for hire". I think this might be fun in an alternate life, but I already have too many other things I'd like to do. I'm hoping to eventually get some kind of home recording studio set-up working, however, so I can more easily collaborate with other musician friends rather than have to go to an expensive professional recording studio.

I actually do like the recording studio environment; I was terrified at first, but then started having fun. :-) Too much fun, sometimes; I tend to move around a lot when I'm enjoying playing the flute, a habit which drives sound technicians and engineers crazy during concerts and in the recording studio.

Not to mention my flute baton-twirling, but that's another story...

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