Housefilk, beading, sketchbook doodles

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More Filkcontinental highlights

Today's photos are all from our Filkcontinental/Germany trip. Click on any image for details about the picture.

I've already mentioned a bunch of my favourite Filkcontinental moments and music, in CDs, previous Blatherings and photos in my Flickr set (though I realize not all of you have Flickr access). Here are....

Some more Filkcontinental highlights, in no particular order:

- Hearing Mich and Marilisa sing anything. These two are truly amazing. Incredible harmonies and a wide range of repertoire. They also did a pretty amusing parody of Rand's & Adam's "Home." :-)

- Thursday night dinner before the convention.

- Checking out the Hamburg train station.

- Seeing the whole audience sing along on many of the songs in our concerts.

- Snooping through Katy's tea collection.



- Juliane's costume, which won her first prize at the convention.

- FanTom's parody of "The Lady".

- Seeing Katy and Steve together. Kirstin and Volker teaching us the word "niedlich" (cute) so we could comment on K & S at appropriate moments.

- Seeing Rika perform again. It's been too long.

- The scene as people arrived at the con on Friday: Stevemac, with guitar, singing in the corner. Anke and friends with spinning gear at one of the tables. German and British filkers making their way through the door, a painted dragon on the wall above. As Allison says, it was a pretty amazing way to start a con.

- Fire breathing demonstration.

- Pushing the red button on German trains.



- Mass choral rendition of Castle Of Grey, a song I believe was written by Thesilée (words) and Kirstin (tune), arranged by Crystal (of Summer and Fall) in her workshop.

- Seeing Amy in one of the purple sleepers I had sent her. Even if she had just spit up all over it. :-D

- Allison's and Jodi's surprise birthday celebration (pictured here with Lissa after a fair amount of Sabine's addictive chocolate liqueur)

- Anke's gorgeous costume.

- Franklin's road kill song.

- The castle itself, and incredible scenery.

- Getting to know Kirstin better.

- Language lessons with Christine, Volker and other members of the convention.

- Getting a standing ovation after both our concerts. Heck, we got a standing ovation after our INTRO. :-D The enthusiasm of the audience at Filkcontinental was contagious. Performing for them was SO fun.

- Hey, and our CDs got sold out!

- Noodling on the flute while Franklin played piano.



- Harbour tour with Kirstin, Volker, Katy, Steve, Allison and Jodi.

- The fantastic sound/tech crew at Filkcontinental.

- Seeing Summer and Fall perform. Holy toledo. I was blown away. They are immensely professional, and their vocal/instrumental arrangements are gorgeous.

- Road trip with Franklin, Allison, Jodi, Chris and Keris.



- The opening number by the concom.

- Hearing Christine do "Dancer in the Dark" in open filk.

- Gary McGath's parody of "My Jalapeno Man" (lyrics to be posted in a future Blathering).

- Lissa's bio about us in the Filkcontinental program book.

- Chris "The Magician" O'Shea's concert. Love how happy he seemed throughout, how much he was enjoying himself.

- Seeing Kirstin repeatedly try to get a good photo of a seagull in Hamburg but getting lots of butt shots instead. :-D Then she got this great one.

- Hearing a new Elfquest song performed by Kamen, Shae, and friends.



- Stevemac's concert. I am always impressed by the energy this guy puts into his performances.

- Katy's salmon casserole. Yum.

- The impromptu mime performance (Mike R., Juliane, Emily, Marilisa) to Phil's "Pies" in open filk.

- Chris O'Shea's flute stand. He kindly let me borrow his during our concerts. Now I want one!

- Seeing Lisande, Lastalda and Steffi's reaction as they examined Canadian currency.

- The wonderful short stories told in open filk, with the storytellers walking around and gesturing.

- Zander hugs.

- Doing some preliminary songwriting with Stevemac...our first musical collab!



- Our German breakfast with Harry, Christine, Juliane.

- Getting chocolate. :-D Hey, I'm wearing my signed geBORGt t-shirt in that photo!

- Meeting Ina in person. Sadly, I missed the opportunity to chat with others I only knew by their LJ nicknames because I didn't connect their faces with their LJ names, argh.

- Having Till for 24 hours.

- Seeing Teddy with kids.



- The group hug with the concom at the end of the convention.

- Hearing nMC "Lite" (only a portion of the group was present). Can't wait to hear the full group perform at FilKONtario in 2007!

- Hanging out with Steve, Katy, Kirstin and Volker in Hamburg with Allison and Jodi.

- Hearing Mike Richards play harp. Mike was the one who originally let me try his harp back at Didgeri-Douze. I started yearning for one, and eventually got my own. Yes, he's a harp pusher!



- Franklin in a Sailor Moon outfit. Apparently he had foolishly made the promise in last year's Filk Fund Auction, not really expecting his price to be met. :-)

- Breakfast conversation with Thea and Sebastos, especially their argument over whether the German word for "ketchup" was neuter or masculine. Answer seems to be: both.

- Sybille doing her Evil Eyeball song.

- Meeting Rafael, an ex-Torontonian.

- Cherry tea at breakfast.

- Hearing Speren play the harp.



- The standing ovation we got after performing a German translation that Gary McGath did of "I Love The Morning." Allison and Jodi worked VERY hard on learning this song (I just played flute so no translation was necessary :-)) and the audience appreciated that, I think. :-D

- Ritual Urban Tapestry pillow fight with Allison and Jodi in the wee hours of Monday morning before we left the castle. Ok, I'm just kidding about the pillow fight ritual, but what a great way to start rumours, eh? I could say anything I wanted about Allison and Jodi here, if they actually have read that far. Though both of them have their own blogs, so I guess they could retaliate. So I'll exercise unusual restraint.

For those interested (and who HAVE read this far), I've collected all the reports/photo collections I could find in my first post about the trip.

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My List of Useful Foreign Phrases and Words I Like

(Photo above: with Juliane)

Finished and sent off an article for an online publication as well as a query for a print publication yesterday. Getting back to work on my novel today in addition to the usual nonfiction stuff; now that the whole househunting and moving thing is basically over (with the exception of some unpacking) I'm focusing on getting my mss finished and sent off to my agent. My next convention is GAfilk in January; it'll be a lowkey weekend of no con commitments, just hanging out with friends. The next Urban Tapestry convention (where all three of us will be attending) will be FilKONtario next March. No Urban Tapestry conventions outside of Toronto planned next year so far.

Unfortunately limited time and finances make it difficult for the three of us to make out-of-town conventions as a group these days. Many thanks again to the Filkcontinental concom for inviting us out to Germany this year! Not only did it give us a chance to have fun performing together again, but Allison, Jodi and I very much enjoyed meeting more of the German filk community as well as learning more about their music. Also way fun to see the British filkers again! :-)


(Photo above: Allison listens to Franklin play the piano
on the morning we left the castle.)

If you're thinking about attending Filkcontinental, be sure to book far in advance. Apparently memberships for next year's convention are sold out already, so you'll have to plan for the year after that.

Speaking of German filkers...Aryana and friends have set up an English section in their Hogwarts Pack Board for filk-related discussion. Just scroll down to the "Filk for our English speaking guests" section and introduce yourself! There are other areas in the board to discuss filk in German, of course, or you can visit the Let's Filk About discussion forums.

Yesterday I listed some useful foreign phrases sent to me by Thesilée. Here are some more useful phrases, courtesy Paul Kwinn of Puzzlebox:

"In the fun foreign phrases department, my two favorite to toss
willy-nilly (both from Franklin's translation of 'It Ain't Easy'):

'Ich bin Niedlich.' ('I'm the cute one.') and the ever-useful: 'Ich will ein kind von dir.' ('I want to bear your child.')"


(Photo above: Juliane introduced us to this
wonderfully cheesy German sf tv show.)

This is wonderful! My "Useful Foreign Phrase" collection is growing nicely. If any of you other there has a useful phrase or two in a foreign language to contribute, I'd much appreciate you posting them in LJ or Blatherchat:

Debbie's List of Useful Foreign Phrases
and Words She Likes

From Lastalda. Rika helped confirm the word meaning breakdown.)

Der ZwerchfellmuskelKater
(literally means "diaphram muscle ache", in context of a laughing fit)

Kirstin's photos

Photo to the right: A button I designed to help raise funds to fly The N'Early Music Consort to FilKONtario in 2007, printed up by Raoul Benefiche (aka "Blind Lemming Chiffon"). Valerie Housden was selling them at Filkcontinental, so I bought one since I hadn't seen it in button form yet. For those curious: FKO = FilKONtario, IF = Interfilk (partnering with FKO for this endeavour), nMC = n'Early Music Consort.

At Filkcontinental, I chatted with Thesilée of Lord Landless about impressive-sounding foreign phrases to throw into casual conversation; she knew a lot more than I did and promised to send me some. Here are a few:

"Il seno e grande." [Il SAYnoh ay grranday] ("These breasts are huge")

"Il letto e sofice." [Ill letto ay sofeechay] ("This bed is soft")

"Sono stufo di andare a piedi." [Sonno stoofoh dee anDAHrreh ah
pee-AY-dee] ("I am fed up with walking")

And a very, very brief Welsh version of Cyrano:
"Mae trwyn da chi." (You have got a nose)

Thanks for these helpful phrases, Thesilée! :-D

And for those who didn't see my LJ posting, I got very briefly mentioned in a Newsweek article while I was in Germany. To clarify: I don't believe the Internet can easily replace a good literary agent. I love mine (Virginia Knowlton at Curtis Brown Ltd.) and wouldn't give her up for anything.



(Above photo: I took this during a hike up at the cottage.)

Just a reminder that the online ballot for the 2005 Pegasus Awards will be closing next Monday. The Pegasus Awards were founded to recognize and honor excellence in filking. These awards are given annually at the Ohio Valley Filk Fest (or OVFF). Anyone with an interest in filk can nominate songs or individuals for the awards, and anyone can vote. You do not need to be a member of the convention to be involved in the nomination and voting process.

No, I'm not on the ballot...which is why I feel more comfortable encouraging people to vote this year. :-) In fact, even if you don't plan to vote but are curious about filk, I encourage you to check out this year's nominees as well as past winners. All recent nominees/winners have MP3 clips; I've found this a great way to hear at least a sample of songs and musicians I haven't had the opportunity to come across in person.

Anyway, here is a list of this year's nominees.



The rest of the photos on this page were taken by Kirstin Tanger (see Kirstin on the left in the photo above, husband Volker is on the right), reprinted here with permission. Kirstin was on the Filkcontinental concom and is also one of the Webmasters of the Let's Filk About Homepage.

Like most other avid trip photographers out there, I tend to get left out of most of my own photo collections because I'm always the one with the camera. That's why I was grateful that both Allison and Kirstin were taking photos as well, especially after the convention when a technical glitch caused the loss of some of my Hamburg pictures. And since Allison and I take a lot photos, we very rarely get photos of all three of us together. So thank you, Kirstin!

Allison and I during "Neurotic Love Song":

Allison and Jodi look at Beckett's and Paul's birthday message at the surprise party:

Me, on the flute. I'm wearing a top I bought in Frankfurt:

Gary performs the German version of the Hockey Monkey song in our concert:

Jodi, Allison and me, in Hamburg:

I love this picture that Kirstin took of Katy and Steve:

During the Hockey Monkey song:

Dozing in Hamburg:

The answer to Urban Tapestry's question, "Wo ist der Bahnhof?!":

Thanks so much for letting me reprint some of your photos, Kirstin!

You can find the rest of Kirstin's trip photos here. Allison's are here and mine are here.

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German CDs

While I was in Germany, I was impressed by the level of talent at Filkcontinental. Here are a few of the CDs I picked up while I was at the convention (if I have any of the facts wrong, please do let me know!):

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Album: DEMONS

Artist: Christine Hintermeyer / Nella Darren

Many thanks to Christine for helping Juliane pick us up at the airport at such an ungodly hour in Frankfurt. I immediately loved her wicked sense of humour, which came through especially in her trying to teach us a new German word, "Eichhörnchen," which she insisted was a swear word but which we later found out meant "squirrel." :-D

Yes, that's Christine on the front cover of her CD. Many of the tracks of Christine's CDs are in English, several an intriguing mix of English and German. My favourites: "Restless" (bittersweet, gorgeous melody & acoustic guitar accompaniment), "Dancer in the Dark" (Spike song, in open filk everyone sang the instrumental bridge), and especially "Demons" (insanely catchy tune, esp. love the 'shoobie doo wah wah wah...').

The CD, by the way, was produced by Ju's husband, Harry Sawatzki.

Web site: no Web site that I'm aware of, sorry.


With Christine at a Frankfurt ice cream shop.
L to R: Allison, Juliane, Christine, Jodi.

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Album: WIR ASSIMILIEREN ALLES

Artist: GeBORGt

This group was immensely entertaining to watch in performance; they all seemed to have such FUN. They sang both English and German songs, serious and humorous, with a wonderful variety of voices. Fun to see their repertoire affected by the new addition to Sabine's and Michael's family; their song "Baby Wizard" was performed in the Request Concert on the last day, complete with custom-made t-shirts and pacifier props. :-)

We were also lucky enough to hear various incarnations of the group throughout the weekend since members also obviously enjoyed making music with other filkers as well as their own group. I was thrilled to be given a signed geBORGt t-shirt during the last day of the convention. Thank you, geBORGt! :-) Sabine was kind enough to bake a cake for Allison's and Jodi's surprise birthday party, and also introduced us to an enormously addictive chocolate liqueur called Black Batida with cocoa, hazelnut cream and Batida de Coco. On the last day, she gave Allison a giant box of chocolates.

My favourite track on this CD was "Liebeslied" even though I couldn't understand the lyrics...I loved the rhythm of the German words and interesting change of pace/harmonic structure several times throughout the song. Other favourite tracks include "Past Life's Temptation" -- gorgeous counterpoint harmonies in an a capella setting, "Skalish" (moving lyrics, beautiful melody).

Members: (Sa)Bine "Tarish", Michael "Astaron", Sandra, Jan-Hendrik "D'Chan", and Kris "Aryana."

Web site: http://geborgt.aryana-filk.de/

Unfortunately I missed getting a photo with all the group members performing. If anyone out there has a good one online, could you please send me the URL so I can post it here? Thanks.

(Update: From Lastalda - "Lisande managed to take a nice photo of all 5 members of geBORGt. It should be here.")



Aryana singing in open filk with Lisande:

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Album: UMWEGE

Group: Milchstrassenstreuner

This group performed all in German, but I still very much enjoyed their concert and open filk performances. The lead singer, Silke Kovàr, has a wonderfully richly-textured voice. I've been told that their lyrics are more "word paintings" than stories, and I'm looking forward to gradually translating them.

Even though I didn't understand the lyrics yet, I found all the songs extremely pleasant to listen to because of the wonderful arrangements of voice and instrumentation. This album is going on my "work music" list along with my Italian progressive rock music from Parki.

One of my favourites on this album: Asphaltsommer. Love the easygoing, catchy melody and harmonies.

Members (but see below): Sven Bothe (guitar), Daniel Horn (keyboard), Silke Kovàr (voice, fiddle), Daniel Lohausen (percussion).

Correction: Silke just posted: "Hey, thank you so much! *blush* I love your CDs as well and I was/ am so delighted about your interest! (PS The members are right as far as the record is concerned, but we have a 'new' piano player instead of Daniel Horn for 3 and a half years: Svante von Erichsen.)."

http://www.milchstrassenstreuner.de/

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Album: GARDEN OF THE LOST

Group: Lord Landless

Unfortunately final edition CDs weren't available at the convention, but Kirstin was kind enough to give me a promo copy until my own arrives.

Lord Landless consists of Silva, Thesilee, Kjenjo and Peredar. Before their concert at Freusburg, they handed out booklets which contained the lyrics to the songs they were performing. I found this immensely helpful for their German songs since it gave me more of a chance of translating some of the words. Some lovely harmonies and tunes; I'm looking forward to getting my CD!

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Album: CELTIC CHAKRA LIVE

Group: Celtic Chakra

Juliane Honisch's husband, Harry Sawatzi, plays the bodhran in a professional Irish band. Being interested in traditional Irish music myself, I had to buy this CD, of course. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, and will definitely be putting this on my "frequent listen" list.


Below: Allison and Harry.

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