GAfilk highlights (part 3)

As promised, here are some more highlights from GAFilk, in no particular order:

- Getting a chance to finally have a real conversation with Sherman Dorn on Friday night.



- Swing dance workshop with Mark Osier. It was great to see my friend MarkO again, but even more fun to see him in dance instructor mode. :-)

- Meeting Karen Anderson.

- Seeing Carolyn Brown as Interfilk Guest. Yay for Torontonians! She certainly did us proud. Jodi and I also got to hang out with her and Marie in the airport on the way home.



- New buttons from Dave Alway. Thanks, Dave!

- Chatting with Sheryl just before MarkO's swing workshop started.

- Talking comic-making with Adam English.

- Going drinking with John Hall. Ok, so maybe I had half a glass of white wine spritzer. That's a lot of booze for me. And I stayed awake for at least a couple hours afterward!

- The wonderful con suite courtesy Cris Schoenborn. She had chocolate fondue again! And some really amazing chocolate truffles! And some non-chocolate stuff, of course... ;-)



- Having my first real conversation with Tanya Huff, at the Waffle House. Shortly after, I saw in the hotel hallway and didn't recognize her; I don't think she's going to let me forget about that one. :-D

- Sue Posteraro's red socks. Plus Sue's smile, and she was always smiling whenever I saw her at the convention this past weekend. :-)

- Getting a cool penguin tea-maker from Crystal and Steve. I've already tried it out several times, and it works wonderfully!

- Seeing several people (including Crystal, Deborah, Adam) try out my new rollable keyboard.



- Seeing Katy and Ju in horns!

- Wireless Internet access in the hotel! The connection in our room was pretty flakey, but it was good enough for me to pick up e-mail and it was FREE, so I can't really complain.

- Opening ceremonies.

- Seeing Josh and Naomi relaxing on the couch in GAfilk function space in nearly exactly the same positions (on the same couch!) as when I saw them for the first time last year. :-D



- Blueberry muffins from Mary B.

- Seeing the Suttons again. It's been way too long.

- Posing for silly pictures in the hallway with Tanya, Michelle, Jodi and Mary. (Photo link courtesy Rob Wynne)

- Hearing Dandelion Wine! I can never get tired of hearing Dave and Tom sing.

- Chatting with Myra Hunter at the registration desk again. This year they had coloured markers which also happened to be fabric markers; I used these to finish off my Dandelion Wine square for the Interfilk Quilt.

- Chocolate cake from Mary C.



- Finally getting to meet/hear Michelle Dockery. Lordy, what a voice that gal has! She was kind enough to sing "Mal's Song" for me in open filk; I'm sure she was requested to do this song many times.

- Being attacked by the Toastmaster (blackmail photo courtesy Rob Wynne).

- Seeing/hearing Tony Fabris again! Thanks to Tony for being Urban Tapestry's stunt guitarist for Library Boy. We wanted to sing it for Rand's girlfriend Erin, who had never heard the song before. Here's a photo that Rob took (tho I think we were singing "Closer to Fine" at the time).

- Brenda Sutton winning my Interfilk package. Thanks, Brenda!

Photo courtesy Erin.

- Singing Hey Tom early in the weekend. It was the first time I had ever sung a song by myself in an open filk (i.e. without Allison and/or Jodi). Many thanks to the local filkers for letting me practise solo singing on them first. :-) More about this in a future Blathering.

- Watching Margaret Middleton in action, fixing up my Dandelion Wine quilt square so it could be added to the others. Thank you, Margaret!

- Seeing Erin and Rand again.



- Last filk circle (photo link courtesy Rob).


- Not having to be up on stage in "My Filk." I humiliated myself a couple years ago, not even being able to remember lyrics from Jodi's song "The Lady." MUCH more fun to be in the audience! :-D Rob, as usual, was an excellent gamehost.

- Dave Rood as Toastmaster.

- Irish music session on Friday night. I was so happy I nearly exploded; it was INCREDIBLY fun. Lots of participants, including Bill Rintz, whom I hadn't seen for years, as well as Mary, Dave, Tom, Helen, Phil, Sherman and Kathryn. I was actually able to play some tunes from memory this time. MANY THANK to Mary B. for organizing this event! Here's a pic that John Hall took.

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- Kathleen's amazing dragon bead necklace.

- Bellydancing workshop with Sharlene. This wasn't an official part of the programming, but put together on the fly because enough women at the convention were interested. It was WAY fun, with lots of giggling and joking. I also really enjoyed Sharlene's singing with Kathleen Sloan and Kathy Mar in open filk.

- Playing flute in Dandelion Wine's concert. Here's a pic that John Hall took.

- Saturday afternoon conversation with MarkO.



- Getting a postcard and lyrics from Marilisa via Deborah. After seeing Marilisa and Mich do their "Home" parody at Filkcontinental, I asked Marilisa for the lyrics. I showed them to Rand and Adam during GAfilk, and Adam liked the lyrics so much he said they were better than the original. :-D

- Seeing people in their fancy duds on Saturday night.

- Talking Celtic music with Bill Rintz.

- Being introduced to Woodchuck cider by John Hall. I don't like beer, and had just started liking Strongbow after being introduced to it by Jodi. I like Woodchuck even more, probably because it has a lower alcohol content. :-)

- Seeing Jodi in her "Canadian chanteuse" role with the GAfilk House Band. I -love- hearing her sing jazz.



- Getting some more nMC headshot photos: Deborah, Kate.

- The GAfilk songbook, put together by Mary Crowell. Wow, what a project that must have been; it looks fantastic and the hefty volume makes a wonderful (and useful) souvenir of the weekend. Thanks, Mary!

- Seeing Sue Posteraro win Dandelion Wine's Interfilk contribution, an hour-long private Stan Rogers tribute concert. Sue generously opened up the concert to the entire convention on Sunday.



- Another first for me: singing with Dandelion Wine in their Stan Rogers concert. I sang with Dave Clement on the a capella "Torn Screen Door" (David Francey tune) as well as with Dave and Tom on "Saints and Sinners" (another David Francey tune). Yes, I was terrified, but I think it went okay. :-) More on this in a future Blathering. If anyone has a recording of this, I would very much love a copy.

- Meeting David Glasser for the first time. What a sweetie!

- The GAfilk banquet/dance, of course. See this Blathering.

- Seeing Daniel Glasser menace Adam English in open filk while singing his now infamous "Close Your Eyes."



- Having Juliane Honisch as our Honourary Urban Tapestrite (since Allison was sadly not able to attend GAfilk this year). We performed "Another Round" in open filk, a piece that Ju wrote and that we had performed in Germany.

- Getting together with filkers, sometimes accidentally, in the Atlanta airport on the way home, including: Ju, Katy, Steve, Michelle, Tony, Carolyn, Marie and Kathy Mar.

- Katy and Steve providing dessert at the airport. ;-)

I know I'm missing some highlights; there were so many at GAfilk. :-) Rob Wynne has collected a number of GAfilk online reports. You can see my Flickr photo set from Gafilk, Rob's photos, and John Hall's photos.

THANK YOU so much to the concom and guests for all your hard work!

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