Will Write For Chocolate (and OVFF highlights Part 2)

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated.

Caught up with adminstuff and approved an article galley for Writer's Digest magazine yesterday before finally finishing unpacking from the weekend. I have two illustration jobs due tomorrow, plus I want to get back to my novel writing. To sum up: I'm not going to be able to post a proper report of OVFF this year, sorry. Instead, I'll be posting occasional highlights over the next couple of weeks.

Me, Allison, Taunya, Adam and Jodi.

Besides, there are already a ton of convention reports out there. Rob Wynne is compiling a comprehensive list, for those interested. For an Urban Tapestry perspective, please do check Allison's Livejournal and her OVFF Flickr pics.

And hey, there are even photos of ME in there. :-) I generally don't get pics of me in my own OVFF Flickr set unless they are posed close-ups ('cuz I'm holding the camera out in front of me and another person). Here are a few of my favourite Allison shots:

-- Group pile on the 'girl bed:' Taunya, me, Seanan, Becca, Michelle, Erin.

-- Me stealing some of Jodi's mousse: After the 'Torch Song' segment of the Pegasus concert, Mark Bernstein generously offered participants decadent chocolate mousse. Congrats to Talis Kimberley for winning with her song, X Libris! You can read the lyrics here. Since Talis was unable to attend the convention, Erica Neely did a marvellously sultry performance of the song.

-- My temporary tattoo: Courtesy Beckett Gladney with her tattoo markers.


-- Seanan teaching me a clapping game: One of my con highlights, by the way, was the amazing Seanan McGuire. Though I had heard rumours and seen pics, nothing could adequately prepare me for the massively slimmed-down dynamo that is Seanan. HOLY COW, she looks fantastic. I have huge admiration for Seanan for deciding to do something and then sticking with it.

Her singing and songwriting have also taken off since I first met her years ago. She was a delight to hang out with at OVFF, wherever she went: always enhancing the con atmosphere...and she wasn't even a guest! :-D

Seanan WILL be a guest, however, at Conterpoint 2007 on June 22-24 next year, in Rockville, Maryland. GoH: Wild Mercy, Toastmaster: John Hall, Interfilk Guest: Seanan McGuire. Lordy, I wish I could afford to go to this...with the guest roster, it sounds like it's going to be an amazing convention!

During OVFF, Seanan and I had a schtick going where we would fall into "lovestruck lovers" mode and compete to see who could be the most effective. Seanan creamed me...that woman has an incredible talent for improvisation, and would launch into impassioned flights of poetic fancy that would have me in hysterics within seconds, unable to come up with even a single coherent phrase. I adore Seanan.

:-D

Urban Tapestry's next convention: GAfilk in Atlanta, GA (just over 2 months away!) At this point, it looks like it will be the only out-of-town convention that all three of us will be attending next year. Woohoo, and we're Guests of Honor!

Below: Tanya Huff fending me off. I love Michelle Dockrey's Flickr comment: "Wow. You look like you were drawn by Shel Silverstein. :)" Allison took this photo.



Livejournal comments

Post-OVFF

(Above: Toastmaster Paul attempts to rehearse before the official launch of the convention despite distraction from friends.)

I went to the very first OVFF with my friend Reid (my first boyfriend, now married to one of my best friends, Luisa). This was waaay before Urban Tapestry, and I attended on my own for several years as well.


The filkers out there can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that OVFF is now one of the biggest and longest-running filk conventions.

One of the advantages is that the convention tends to attract some great musical talent from around the world, though I did notice this year that there weren't many Europeans. One disadvantage is that because of the size and multiple programming tracks, it tends to be an intense and hectic convention, especially for newcomers.

The filk circles also tend to be big and competitive, which is one of the reasons I quit going to OVFF for many years. I strongly recall the end of one convention when I saw a woman playing flute in the hallway.

Delighted to see another flautist, I greeted her and said I regretted not hearing her earlier in the convention. She turned to me with a scowl and snapped, "How could I do any playing with YOU always around?" Then she turned and walked away without giving me a chance to say anything.


The intensity of the woman's resentment shook me, and I didn't go to the convention for years after that. I became paranoid whenever I took my flute to a filk circle...was I scaring away other flautists? Was I "filk-hogging"? Was there some unwritten rule that forbade more than one of the same type of instrument in a circle?

OVFF is now 22 years old. I've started attending some years again, this year with Allison and Jodi. I'm more confident as a musician and an individual than I was 22 years ago, but I still find the convention intense and hectic, often with competitive personalities...but I have fun anyway :-). I go into the convention better prepared. I don't have to attend ALL the programming, for instance...believe it or not, it took me years before I realized this. I don't even have to go to the open filk circles if I'm having more fun just chatting with friends in the hallway. I make sure I get enough sleep; I used to be able to survive with very little, but these days I need more else I get punchy and oversensitive, plus I want to get back into productive workmode as soon as possible after the weekend. I take more frequent breaks, finding quiet time in our hotel room.



I want to emphasize, of course, that the rules all change when Urban Tapestry is a guest of a convention...in that case, we all know that our duty is to be accessible as possible, and our focus is to keep the attendees happy. If I'm paying my own way, however, my time is my own. There's an interesting discussion going on in Eloise's Livejournal about filk circle dynamics, by the way. I've noticed the discussion has spawned other LJ posts and discussions as well.


At OVFF this past weekend, however, I was paying my own way. I attended much of the concert programming this time, and was impressed by the calibre of talent. The main guests: Mary Crowell (Guest of Honor), Judi Miller (Honored Listener), Tony Fabris (Interfilk Guest) and Paul Kwinn (Toastmaster) gave excellent concerts, as did Brooke Lunderville, Tom Smith and Kathy Mar. Allison, Jodi and I had fun participating on one of Tom's songs with Seanan...yay for Seanan being there, since neither A nor J nor I had heard the song before when we got up on stage!

I especially enjoyed Paul's concert. I remember how quiet Paul seemed when I first met him...quite the contrast to the confident performer he is now! More on Paul at OVFF in an upcoming Blathering.



I was delighted to hear more of Brooke Lunderville (who goes by "hsifyppah" on LJ); I was blown away by one short insta-song Brooke performed at GAfilk some years ago but hadn't had the opportunity to hear much else. Kudos to the OVFF concom for giving this talented young woman a concert of her own. Brooke was ably assisted in her concert by John Caspell, an ex-Torontonian (see photo above). Brooke also did a wonderful job of performing Talis Kimberley's "Archetype Cafe" in the Pegasus concert. My favourite of Brooke's songs: her Livejournal song (can't recall the exact title), which I had missed hearing her perform at FKO. Very funny and accurate. :-D

Brooke's concert was definitely one of my personal musical highlights of the weekend, and I'm very glad I was in the audience. She has an appealing stage presence with good audience rapport...I'm looking forward to seeing more Brooke performances. She also has a wonderfully twisted sense of humour and drawing style; check out this Tetris analogy she drew after I posted in Eloise's LJ discussion about how difficult it is sometimes for a trio to find a place in a filk circle. :-D

Another highlight: being able to get to know Cat Faber better. Allison, Jodi and I went out for dinner with Cat and her friend Donald on Sunday night and actually had a real conversation with each of them! As opposed to the snatches of conversation once usually gets at a busy convention like OVFF.




This is one of the reasons I tend to steer clear of dinner outings involving more than six people during con weekends. Though the idea is fun, with bigger groups you only tend to get to talk with people beside and across from you at the table anyway.

More highlights in future Blatherings.

Livejournal comments

Back from OVFF

Above: Becca and me at OVFF. Photo by Allison.

Just got back from The Ohio Valley Filk Festival; I was able to catch a stand-by flight home with Allison and Jodi. We all had a fantastic time. HUGE kudos to the concom and guests for making this event such a success.

I have to unpack plus have lots to catch up on before I make any attempt at a convention report, but feel free to check out my OVFF pics on Flickr for now. I took a zillion photos but have ruthlessly culled out any that were unflattering to the subjects, blurry (unless I liked the blurry effect), repetitive, or just didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.



Livejournal comments

Postcards from Germany!

(Above: I took this photo during our concert at Filkcontinental last year.)

Last year, the members of Urban Tapestry were invited to be guests at Filkcontinental in Germany. As you probably could guess from my online report (Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 ), Allison, Jodi and I had a ton of fun and enjoyed making some new friends as well as seeing old ones.

The three of us were kinda wistful a few weekends ago when Filkcontinental reconvened for its annual bash because we wanted desperately to be there (!). We'd all love to go back to Germany someday. Especially NEXT YEAR, when our pals Dandelion Wine are Guests of Honour, woohoo! (or "Juhu" in German I think (?)) Sounds like this year's convention was a huge success, and I'd be surprised if the last few memberships left for NEXT year haven't already been snapped up.

Anyway, in the middle of reminiscing (and rejoicing that Franklin has just agreed to help perform "Wo Ist Der Bahnhof" in our GAFilk concert in Atlanta next January) . . . lo and behold, a package of postcards arrived this afternoon from the castle in Freusberg via Sibylle snailmail!



Allison, Jodi and I are incredibly touched...THANKS, YOU GUYS! (*insert weepy sniffle here*) I'm going to bring the postcards to show A & J at OVFF this weekend. And thank you, Sibylle, who was apparently the fiendish mastermind behind these community postcards! :-)

Hopefully we'll be seeing some of you at some North American conventions to give you hugs in person (like GAFilk, when Summer and Fall are Interfilk guests...yay for Interfilk!), but we're each hoping to make it back to Filkcontinental someday.







And just 'cuz I'm feeling all sentimental, here are a few photos from Filkcontinental LAST year. Also be sure to read Allison's Filkcontinental Nostalgia post in LJ. :-)












Livejournal comments

Birthdays and home recording studios

Happy birthday to my music partner, Jodi! Allison's birthday is this Tuesday, so I've decided to host a virtual birthday party on Livejournal. You're all invited...feel free to drop by. Happy birthday also to John Hall (whose birthday is today) and a belated happy birthday to Alisa Garcia (whose birthday was yesterday)!



Above: Allison and Jodi blowing out candles at a surprise birthday bash in Germany, at Filkcontinental last year. To those at Filkcontinental this year (right now, in fact): hope you're having fun!



Other big news:

My home recording studio is set up! "Epi-LJ" was kind enough to lend us his MOTU 828 to try out, but in the end we decided to opt for a more portable set-up, plus an audio interface with MIDI. Jeff, Ray and I visited Saved By Technology yesterday, and Jeff bought me the last part of my 40th birthday present (long story, but tendinitis and other factors got in the way up to now) as well as an early Christmas present:

- A Presonus Firebox (here's a review): 24-bit/96K Firewire recording system with 6 inputs, 10 outputs, MIDI, S/PDIF and Cubase LE software (I'm still opting for Garageband for now, tho)

- Audio-Technica AT2041SP Studio Pack: comes with two microphones -- an AT2020 side-address cardioid condenser mike and an AT2021 small-diaphragm condenser mike. I already have one other microphone (dynamic).

- Mike stand (I already have one, but figured two would be good)

Yes, I know we could have spent a lot more money for higher quality equipment, but music recording is a hobby for us, not a business. Besides, we can always upgrade later when my books start selling bazillions of copies.

;-)

Anyway, Jeff set everything up last night and YAY it all works fine with my computer. Jeff even made up a short fun piece himself using loops and my voice...it was SO great to see him play around with musicstuff again, and I'm hoping this set-up encourages more of that. Many people don't realize that my technonerdboy husband also has a pretty creative side as well. :-)

Now I just have to learn more about twiddling. Y'know, when you see sound engineers twiddle knobs and such during a recording session? I can see why learning more about The Art Of Twiddling Knobs could greatly enhance the quality of a recording. Thanks to those of you who have been offering recording equipment and recording advice in LJ.

And HUGE thanks to Jeff Bohnhoff for being our consultant throughout this process in e-mail, live chat and by phone. We called him yesterday before opening any of our packages; if he had said "ARE YOU GUYS NUTS THAT EQUIPMENT SUCKS" we would definitely have reconsidered our purchases, but he seemed to think our set-up is perfectly fine for now, for what I want to do.

Very excited! Not only will this be useful for Urban Tapestry, but I'm looking forward to experimenting more with my own instrumental recordings as well as doing recordings for other people.

Livejournal comments