fko moments (part 2)

(Part 2, FKO moments continued from Part 1)

As Allison posted in her LJ, one of the most magical moments of the weekend for us occurred at around 3 am early Sunday morning. Allison, Jodi and I were heading off to bed when we were lured to linger by a gathering of filkers in one of the alcoves in the main hotel lobby that included Mary Ellen Wessels, Dave Clement, Greg McMullan and Pete Grubbs.

After a some great singalongs led by Pete and Dave, someone asked if Urban Tapestry could do "The Lady." As much as we love that song, we had to say no... it's a pretty demanding piece, and the three of us were dead tired (plus Jodi still had a lingering cough which had gotten a bit worse through the evening).

The fabulous Boogie Knights.

Noticing Michelle and Tom standing nearby, we launched into my new Michelle song again since several people said they hadn't heard it yet. Michelle was thrilled of course (insert evil grin here). After that, we all sang The Hockey Monkey song, and I started hearing some great harmonies from behind me. Later, Allison told me that the group of women behind us had been bopping along for a while to all the music.

When Dave led a version of "Dixie Chicken," one of the women saw me with my shaker egg and asked if she could have something to play, too. "Me too! Me too!" came other cries, and I opened up my percussion bag to them all. They even used my cowbell! :-D Allison has a great picture here. After the song, I asked them where they were from, and they said they were all part of a choir called Youthful Praise from Bridgeport, Connecticut. They were in the area to perform a concert in Malton at Mount Zion Apostolic Church as part of GospelFest 2005, perhaps other engagements as well (I Googled this info).

"So what are you guys here for?" one woman asked me as she returned one of my rhythm instruments.

Tanya and Michelle.

"A music convention," I told her, deciding that trying to explain filk at 3 am in a few seconds was probably not a good idea. She asked if we were local, and I told her we were from all over the globe, that we got together to play music for the fun of it.

We asked if they could sing something, and they sang part of a song called "Awesome God"; the a capella harmonies and arrangement were incredible. Then one woman launched into "Amazing Grace" with a virtuoso skill you usually only hear in concert halls; we were all blown away. She stopped after one verse, saying she didn't know any more of the song, so then Mary Ellen picked up the second verse, Pete Grubbs sang the third.

By last two verses, everyone had joined in. Filkers had wandered in from other areas of the hotel, other guests and hotel staff were watching with astonished smiles as the music filled the space, spilling out into the rest of the lobby, drawing people into our circle.

And in that brief moment, our two groups -- so different in so many ways -- were bonded by music and happy coincidence in a way that could never be planned in advance; it was an experience that we all knew would never happen quite in the same way ever again.

I will never forget it.

Ellen.

Other convention highlights, moments, memories:

- Hot tub and chocolates with Lissa, Katy, Dave, Mary, Tom and Marlene on Friday morning.

- Hanging out with Lissa in her hotel room on Friday. No matter how long has passed between our visits, our conversations always fall immediately back into a comfortable rhythm as if no time has passed at all. Really, really enjoyed our conversation.

- Hearing Graham Leathers do his "Chocolate Is A Vegetable" song again. I want to teach this to Sara and Annie. :-)

- Finding out that Melissa Glasser is pregnant!! Yes, I'm behind in LJ so hadn't heard the news.

- Interfilk auction wench conversation snippets with Mary Ellen and Erica. You ever see the wenches huddled together in line whispering to each other and giggling? Believe me, they aren't talking about the weather. :-D

Freddy and Karen, now engaged. I used to know Karen when we were kids!

- Michelle's reading.

- Randy Hoffman's "Naked Mole Rat" song.

- Dave Alway buttons!

- Co-writing Michelle's bio with Tanya Huff.

- Tom Smith's tactful apology. It must have been difficult, and he handled it with class.

- The Filk Hall of Fame concert. Really enjoyed listening to these performances.

- Filk Hall of Fame banquet. I mentioned the wonderful speeches in Part 1, but forgot to mention that I also very much enjoyed the dinner conversation! My tablemates: Gary McGath, Hilary Sherwood, Howard Scrimgeour, Sheryl Gere, Gary Ehrlich, Lissa & Phil Allcock.

- Hearing Katy and Ju perform again. Some of their songs made me cry, especially "Across The Room." I bought their latest CD and have already started listening to it on my iPod.

I took this photo of Lyanne by semi-aiming my camera over my shoulder. :-)

- Lissa throwing Oreos into the audience while Allison and I performed "Life Is A Bowl Of Oreo Cookies," a song I wrote for her some years back. (Jodi had to go home early because of a family situation.)

- Finding out that Bob Guest's sister Karen Davidson was at the convention; we used to know each other when we were little kids. Karen's now engaged to Freddy Brown. Karen and I found a quiet corner in the lobby and caught up with each other's lives.

- Finding out that Chris Conway is Guest of Honour at FKO next year, woohoo! And the lovely Tanya Huff is Filk Waif! And Judy Miller (she's the woman does sign language to some people's songs, did a hilarious interpretation of Katy's & Ju's "Bathtime for Nanny Ogg" last year) is Interfilk Guest! Way too many exclamation points in this paragraph!

- Mike Browne truffles. Drool.

- Wonderfully silly frogs from Lissa who stuck their tongues out way far when you squeezed them. When I stuck my frog's tongue out at Tanya Huff, she said it would start rumours that I had been tonguing her in the hallway at FKO.

:-D

- Getting a chance to hang out with Tanya Huff more than I usually do. And man, she looks SO great in that little black dress...

- Hearing Lissa sing in the Filk Hall of Fame concert.

- Getting a list of tips on "Reading Your Cat's Body Language" from Crystal Paul and Steve Brinich after seeing my Blathering about Allison's cat Nova. :-D

- Seeing Lissa pregnant.

- Singing Home To FilKONtario with Allison in the closing ceremonies and seeing everyone in the audience sing along on the chorus.

- Getting the Hockey Monkey Song sung at me by friends in the lobby as Jeff and I left the hotel. Jeff was highly amused. :-)

Thanks SO much to the FKO concom and guests, all of whom did a wonderful job at making this past weekend a special one. Can't wait for next year.


Moleskin manuscript book I used to write the Michelle song.

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fko moments (part 1)

Breakfast on Friday morning. Dave, Tom, Marlene, Phil and Lissa.

FilKONtario reports that I've found in LJ so far (I'm using LJ usernames since I'm never sure who prefers to keep their real names under wraps):

oreouk (Part 2, Part 3), ldwheeler, filkertom, phillip2637 and another phillip2637 post, allisona (part 2), chirosinger, tnatj (and part 2), tarkrai, spiritdance, daisy_knotwise, maedbh7, katyhh, shannachie,, kyttn, sposter, zencuppa, musicmutt, catalana (part 2, part 3), jhayman, smooom, demoneyes, folkmew, sexybass, gorgeousgary, billroper, madfilkentist, tnatj, braider, peristalismum.

FKO photos: The ones I took, Phillip, Allison, tnatj, John Hall.

Hey, it's April. That means, of course, that I can now say that we get possession of our new house next month.

The following is Part 1 of a few moments, notes and highlights of FKO for me. Part 2 will be posted later today. To those who responded to my Filker Photo Challenge in LJ: Most of you got the correct answer...Juliane Honisch!

Tom and a Woman of Mystery.

In no particular order...

- Seeing the Urban Tapestry "What Were We Thinking" DVD raise $600 for Interfilk (!). Thanks SO much to Gary and Sheryl for buying the DVD, and to John Durno for all his hard work in putting this project together!

- Erica Neely and I being able to finally grab a few minutes near the very end of the convention for Erica to play a song that she had written for me. Holy toledo, am I glad we managed to do so! I've always adored Erica's voice and have very much enjoyed chatting with her in the past, but this was the first time I got a glimpse of the Truly Evil Erica (deliciously so). And I Must Have My Revenge, of course. Ms. Neely won't know when or in what form. (insert maniacal laughter fading into the distance...)

Allison in our hotel room.

- Being able to spend some time with Dave Clement on Thursday evening. As I've mentioned before many times, as much as I enjoy group gatherings, I'm starting to value one-on-one time with good friends even more. It happens so rarely at filk conventions, and I prefer not to book my weekend up ahead of time. This time I purposely arrived a day early so that Dave and I could get some time together. Bonus: I got to see other early FKO arrivals as well, and got some Lissa time (details in Part 2).

- Surprise birthday party for Maya, organized by Greg, in the consuite around midnight on Saturday. Got to chat with lots of people.

Allison and Becca.

- Seeing Andrea again, checking out her kid pics, talking cooking. And camera wars at breakfast. :-)

- Meeting Rand's girlfriend, Erin (mentioned this yesterday).

- Hearing Steve announce his and Katy's engagement during his concert, just after he had sung "Home" to Katy. God, did I bawl. I have a huge weakness for romantic songs of this type. Steve's entire concert was amazing, by the way. That guy has such incredible stage presence.

- Bill Roper's dinosaur impression during Steve's concert. I can't even think about this without a big smile on my face.

Sheryl and Gary.

- Girltalk with Judith. We were rehearsing for her concert since she had asked me to play flute during "Maid of the Mist" and we just got talking...and talking... :-)

- Seeing Tom West sing in open filk again. Tom, as some of you may already know, was the one who first introduced me to filk.

- The hallway Irish session on Friday night, organized by Mary. WAAAAY fun (thanks so much, Mary!). I had to use my sheet music for most of it, but at least I could play along a bit this time. I would kill to be able to play whistle like Juliane!

- Learning "Paige's Polka" from Dave Clement, doing other whistle stuff with him. He's an incredibly patient teacher.

Andrea.

- Morden chocolate ducks from Dave, Green & Black organic chocolate bars from Lissa, keepsake box from Kathleen. Got "Spinning Reels" as a birthday gift from Gary & Sheryl, a great CD from D. Glenn Arthur's band. Lots of tunes I've heard of! Veryvery cool; I can practise playing along with these. Lyanne made me Oreo cookie pants! They fit perfectly, and I'm wearing them now; they're ideal work-at-home comfy pants. Rand gave me a copy of the Ookla the Mok Consonance concert DVD for my birthday; I'm looking forward to watching this.

- Chatting with Clark Wierda on the phone. Clark is in Kuwait right now, where he is doing a tour of duty with the US Armed Forces.

- Hearing Peggi and Carolyn perform their parody of Urban Lullaby in concert.

Lissa with Oreos.

- Seeing Tom's (as in Tom Jeffers, not Tom West) girlfriend Marlene again. Marlene attended her first filk convention last year at OVFF; I was so happy to see that we hadn't scared her off! :-)

- Carla Ulbrich's dress at the Saturday night banquet. Her concert was fantastic; I had SO much fun as did the rest of the audience. Plus she and Joe are just so darned cute together.

- Hallway conversation with Paul Estin. Wish it could have been longer.

- Mini birthday celebration with Allison and Jodi in our hotel room. Got a gift certificate for Staples from Jodi (Jodi knows I have a thing for office supplies, plus I'll need more for my new office) and some heavenly-smelling Mango Mandarin body cream (Bath & Body Works Pleasures line). Allison gave me an Incredibles gift bag with fun stuff inside like mini-bubbles and Incredibles stickers but also practical gardening items to help my new garden survive my less-than-expert care. I especially loved the plastic flowers (a suggestion of Allison's husband John, apparently) in case ALL MY PLANTS DIE. :-D

Tom and Michelle at the Filk Hall of Fame banquet.

- Being able to take so many photos of Michelle. My favourite photo: Michelle in a gorgeous sleeveless evening gown at the Filk Hall of Fame Banquet, looking elegant...and with her clenched fist upraised in her usual "I'm gonna kill you, Ohi" gesture of affection.

- The Filk Hall of Fame Banquet. Moving speeches, well-deserved awards. Congratulations to Clif Flynt, Tom Smith and Judith & Dave Hayman. I'm very glad I attended.

Jodi as a Filk Wench (runner for the Interfilk auction).

- RED BALLOONS! I posted a handwritten entry explaining my red balloon obsession on my birthday, and apparently more than a few people saw it. Mary Bertke organized a conspiracy in which some of my friends came up to me at random times during Saturday afternoon with a helium-filled red balloon, saying, "I hear you like red balloons, Debbie. Happy birthday!" By the end of the afternoon, I had quite the floating bouquet. Ju tied them to my ponytail at one point. Here's a photo Allison took partway through the afternoon.

- Seeing the Boogie Knights perform again! Geez, they are SUCH good performers...such amazing energy and good humor.

- Hearing Becca Allen sing anything.

(Continued in Part 2...)

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post-FKO

Michelle, me and Tanya. Photo by Allison, I think.

Had much fun at FilKONtario this past weekend but I'm too braindead from lack of sleep to post a proper report yet.

I'm gradually uploading photos from the weekend to my Flickr account. Feel free to check them out here, or you can also view all the photos as a slideshow if you don't feel like doing all that clicking. Move the cursor a bit after the page loads to rid of the thumbnail images along the bottom. I took nearly 400 over the weekend, ended up with about 90 after eliminating the ones that were blurry, unflattering, repetitive, or just too baffling (e.g. I have NO idea how or why I took a picture of a blank wall).

I had a LOT of fun taking photos of my friend Michelle (who was the Author Guest at FKO) this past weekend, as you may notice.

Erin and Rand.

And I finally got to meet Rand's girlfriend, Erin! Very cool person, and I greatly admire her for coming to a weekend full of people she hadn't met before. Also good to see Rand again; our paths don't tend to cross all that often these days.

Jodi and Allison. I love the expression on Allison's face here. :-)

More later after I've had a chance to get my brain back as well as catch up with some work. Be sure to check Allison's FKO pics. I especially like the one she took of the hallway Irish session; I had SOOOOO MUCH FUN. Thanks so much for setting it up, Mary!

Thanks to the FKO concom for a wonderful weekend.

:-)

Michelle and me. Photo by Allison.

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Russian Dwarf hamsters, new house, tranzac

The photo below is of one of my nieces holding Fuzz, a new addition to my sister's family. Fuzz is a Russian Dwarf Hamster and looks an awful lot like a mouse without a tail. VERY cute, and seems to enjoy being held. She peed on my hand.



I could Blather on for many pages here about how much I enjoyed our visit to the New House yesterday, but I know it would make some of you ill. The hardest part was leaving at the end of the four-hour visit; I WANTED TO STAY. Jeff and I also very much enjoyed chatting with the current owner. Not sure how common this is during the house buying process, but my appreciation of the house has been greatly enhanced by getting to know the owner a bit, finding out how much love and thought was put into the design and maintenance of the house. It's a small house but has been opened up inside, giving the feeling of more space and light, full of unusual angles. There is no wasted space.

I chatted about the garden some more with the owner and learned more about a mock orange outside the kitchen window, two quince trees, a tamarisk, a crabapple tree, and the fact that our yard will have one of the few remaining mature elm trees in the city that survived Dutch Elm Disease. SO looking forward to seeing the garden once the snow is gone.

After talking with two sets of potential contractors about renovations, it seems clear that Jeff and I won't actually be able to move into our new house until the end of June or possibly even July. Augh. MustMUST be patient, I know, but I wish I had been able to see into the future back when I packed up most of my office supplies and warm weather clothes in December for the storage locker. I feel as if I've been wearing the same sweater for months now. Oh wait, I have. :-) I have no idea what I'm going to do when warmer weather comes.

Tranzac session last night was wonderful as usual. We learned Peeler's Jacket, The Butcher's March, and Sixpenny Money. And in the free-for-all, I was actually able to play on at least half a dozen tunes without my music! Including the Swallowtail Reel, which I had never heard played at the Tranzac before; it was the first tune I had ever learned on my own. When one of the fiddlers launched into it, it took me several measures before I recognized it and picked up my whistle. Only a few played along but everyone seemed to like the tune; it was put on the "learning list" for the future.

Which made me realize, of course, that I should have the confidence to be taking tunes I like into the session even if I'm not sure if others know them. Lesson learned.

I'm also starting to recognize many more tunes even if I can't play along yet, or even remember the tune name. Still very nervous about leading tunes in the circle; I'm much more comfortable playing along with tunes other people choose. And my ear is definitely improving; I was able to play along with "Ger the Rigger", for example, even though I've never tried to memorize the tune...I've just heard the tune so often through my iPod session recordings.

Going to Richmond Hill tonight to practice with Allison and Jodi. Only a week left until FilKONtario, yay!

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meltykisses

Had a wonderful time hanging out with Allison yesterday (though we both missed Rand and Erin). I gave her a tour of the condo and then we had lunch, raspberries with a bit of vanilla sugar sprinkled on top for dessert. And MELTYKISSES! Many thanks to Joey Shoji for the early birthday gift. The package included several flavours I had never tried before. Yummmmm.

We did some music together, worked on a new song I've written, then went through some Irish session music with her on guitar, me on whistle...I enjoyed this tremendously, hope we get to do some at FKO. The rest of the afternoon was just as relaxed: saw Bride and Prejudice at the Paramount, dinner at Queen Mother's Cafe (I introduced Allison to the delights of ping gai) and then some book browsing in Chapters before we both headed home. 'Twas a wonderful way to spend a Saturday. You can see some photos Allison took in her Flickr photo page.



Today, Jeff and I visited Nicholas Hoare's (my favourite bookstore in Toronto right now, right around the corner) and then walked over to the Distillery District to have a cup of the world's best hot chocolate. Soma's Mayan Hot Chocolate is truly to die for; ingredients include chili peppers, ginger, orange peel, Madagascar vanilla and a bunch of interesting spices. Drool.

I'm finding that all the listening to my iPod session recordings is making it much easier to learn new tunes. This past week I memorized Paidin O'Raifearta's (jig), The Maid in the Meadow (jig) and Green Fields of America (reel). Thrush in the Straw, Maid In the Meadow, and Green Fields of America are often played as a set at the Tranzac. My next goal is to memorize Lord Inchiquin and The Red-Haired Lass, the two tunes we learned at the last session.



So in theory, I know 20 tunes by heart so far:

Apples In Winter
Austin Barrett's (Dusty Windowsills)
Ballydesmond #1 (polka)
Ballydesmond #2 (polka)
Boyne Hunt (reel)
Cooley's Reel (reel)
Donegal Reel (reel)
Drowsy Maggie (reel)
Dunmore Lassies (reel)
Dusty Miller #2
Egan's Polka (polka)
Galway Rambler (reel)
Green Fields of America (reel)
Green Groves of Erin (reel)
Maid in the Meadow (jig)
Ms McLeod's Reel (reel)
Paidin O'Raifearta's (jig)
Sligo Maid (reel)
Swallowtail (reel)
Thrush in the Straw (jig)

I'm keeping a penny whistle by my desk and tend to pick it up at random times throughout the day and practice a tune or two.

Hope you're all having a good weekend.

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