Birthdays, friends and music

Photo by Allison

(temporary interruption of my FKO report)

Hey, it's my birthday today! Happy birthday also to my sister-in-birthdays, Katy Dröege!

Yesterday evening, Jeff and I had a small dinner party. In attendance were some of the visiting Brits: Mich, Marilisa and Simon, as well as Allison and her husband John, Jodi, and Walter. It was a good number; any more and I would have been spending all my time worrying about hostess-stuff. Eight is a good maximum for a gathering where you all actually talk with each other rather than splitting off into sub-conversations, which tends to occur with larger groups.

I learned expanded my British vocabulary to include useful terms like "I'll give it a mull" and "faff" and "waistcoat." Simon, Marilisa and Mich added a highly amusing addition to our Visitor Book which I'll have to Blather about separately someday.


Photo by Allison

What I hadn't realized: that everyone else had been plotting in e-mail for several weeks to surprise me with a birthday celebration after the dinner. I must be truly be losing it; I used to be pretty good at sensing conspiracies, but I've been pretty clueless for the last few. :-)

I discovered the conspiracy last night when Walter arrived after dinner. I was trying to encourage everyone to move from the dining room to the comfortable couches and chairs in the living room, but Allison insisted on lingering over her drink...with an ulterior motive, I quickly discovered, because a few minutes later I heard Walter SINGING; Walter has always told me he doesn't sing.


Photo by Allison

Walter claims he was doing a "military cadence" and wasn't singing, but it was a funny song (Walter, did you write it?!?), and he came in carrying a decadent chocolate cake. Wow, it looks like the top of it is on fire in the photo above! Guess those candles add up...


Photo by Allison

He had also brought some adorable chocolate mice whose imploring eyes begged us not to eat them. We cruelly ignored their pleas, of course. Yum.



Mich, Marilisa and Simon presented me with a smiley-face balloon and a sumptuous-looking cookbook called "Green & Black's Chocolate Recipes: Unwrapped." Oh my; I can feel those calories leap onto my thighs just LOOKING at some of these photos! Can't wait to try them.



Later in the evening, Mich and Marilisa played some music. I pleaded...unfair, really, because how could they say no? As Mich pointed out, I had just fed them and it was almost my birthday; I can be so heartless sometimes. :-D Anyway, as you might have guessed from Tuesday's ravings, I was in Playing Rapunzel Fangirl HEAVEN. Marilisa sang "Puff The Magic Dragon" in Catalan and "Hockey Monkey" in Greek (!!! :-D); I've been told the latter is Merle's fault. Mich and Marilisa sang a lovely a capella medley that included "Wind In The Pipes."



And then...be still my heart...Mich played my harp! I was melting all over the place. Oh dear lord. She tuned it (Omigodomigod Mich Sampson tuned my harp! I can't tune it ever ever again!!), even. Mich played a gorgeous instrumental or two, then performed "Father's Honour," a song I recognized from her Just Beyond CD. You can hear a soundclip from that song on her CD Baby page. By the end of the song, I was bawling.



Then, much to my surprise, Marilisa asked if she could play my harp. I hadn't realized she could play; she played several lovely instrumental tunes:



Thank you so much to Jeff, Walter, Allison, John, Jodi, Simon, Marilisa and Mich. It was a marvelous evening, and a birthday celebration I'll never forget.

Tough to say good-bye; I'm not sure when we're going to see Marilisa, Mich and Simon again. Eventually I'm going to have to make it overseas to one of the UK cons again. Either that or work on getting the Brits to immigrate to Canada.



You can see Allison's photos of the event here (and most of the photos on today's Blathering!). I didn't take nearly as many because I was in hostess mode, but you can see mine here.




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FilKONtario (part 2): Filk Hall Of Fame

Allison has some FilKONtario highlights up on her Livejournal, with photos, and many of her highlights overlap mine:

FKO Memories (Part 1): Concert by Tom Jeffers (with a surprise appearance from Sam Baardman), Phil Mills concert (his first concert was a resounding success), Margaret Middleton's gorgeous n'MC quilt (Peggi Warner-Lalonde won it), North American filk theme circle hosted by Judith and Peggi, Friday night's filk circle highlights.


A birthday gift from Walter:
Harry Potter Durmstrang bag (School of the Dark Arts).

FKO Memories (Part 2): Jodi with her kahlua, Sholem practice, Playing Rapunzel concert, hearing Gwen Knighton on her harp again (*happy sigh*), my surprise birthday mini-party with Jodi, Allison and Walter, Judi's signing.

I also attended the Filk Hall Of Fame banquet on Saturday night. Walter kindly agreed to be my date, and I'm very grateful to Trish for lending me her husband!




The Filk Hall of Fame Banquet was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. And not just because I finally got to hang out with the adorable new addition to the Roper family:



Both Valerie and Trish gave wonderful speeches from n'MC's point of view and n'MC's experience at FKO. Valerie was inducted into the FHOF years ago but was unable to attend at the time.

This year, the inductees consisted of Bruce Pelz, Chris "Keris" Croughton, and Kathleen Sloan. Bruce Pelz was a Los Angeles fan who died in 2002. He chaired many science fiction conventions, including one World Science Fiction Convention, and was fan guest of honor at many others. He generously donated his fanzine collection to the UCR Campus Libraries and Collections.



Above: Allison and Keris.

When Keris's name was announced, the room filled with a resounding cheer, especially from the n'MC side of the room. Keris has been involved in many recording projects in the filk community as well as helping with the sound at UK conventions. Urban Tapestry is grateful to Keris for some of the engineering work he did for our most recent CD.



When Kathleen Sloan's name was announced as an inductee, my first thought was: "But I thought she was in the Filk Hall of Fame already!" And then my next thought: "Shame on me for not knowing that." Good thing I had tissues handy; I was bawling after Judith's INTRO to Kathleen's speech. :-)

Kathleen has made so many contributions to the filk community over the years that I can't possibly list them all here. In fact, please do check the Filk Hall Of Fame site after it's been updated to read the full citations of the inductees, current and past. I know I've missed listing other info about Keris and Bruce, for instance.

Urban Tapestry has been grateful for Kathleen's support and friendship over the years. We've also enjoyed an entertaining exchange of blackmail material over time as well :-D ... I wrote a song about Kathleen; I've included the lyrics at the end of this post, for those interested.


Jodi, Marsha and Allison.

Kathleen fought tears throughout her speech (as did many of us in the audience!), and I was deeply moved by her words; she summarized so much of how I feel about the filk community.

And this brings me back to my shame about not realizing Kathleen wasn't in the Filk Hall of Fame in the first place. As Dave Hayman said at the end of the ceremony, only those who are nominated are considered for the FHOF...and it's up to members of the filk community to make those nominations. I hadn't realized that even a short paragraph or two will do for a nomination; Dave collects and archives all of these, and compiles them into full nominations.

Something else I hadn't realized: nominations are cumulative. You may think, "Well, I'm not going to nominate so-and-so because I'm SURE someone's already nominated them." Every nomination counts. Sometimes a new nomination (even if it's just a paragraph!) will be enough to push an already-nominated candidate into an official induction; apparently this happened with one of this year's inductees.

Dave even said that you could always update a nomination you've sent him in the past; just e-mail him -- he'll send you what you wrote so you can update the text and send it back. I was floored when I heard this because of the amount of work it must involve for Dave.


Gary and Sheryl.

So I've resolved that from now on, I am going to send in something for the Filk Hall of Fame nominations EVERY YEAR, even if it's just a paragraph (though hopefully longer). There are so many people in the filk community whose longterm contributions have enriched the community and its music, especially behind-the-scenes rather than flashy performing....the least I can do is send in a nomination every year to acknowledge their efforts.

You can find out more info about the Filk Hall of Fame on the FHOF Nominating Info page, where you can also find details about who is eligible, how to nominate, and even examples of good/bad nominations.

And if you'd like to join me in my resolution to send in a nomination (even if it's only a paragraph!) -every- year from now on, please do post in my comments section. We can remind each other when that time comes around. :-)

And many thanks to Dave Hayman and others involved in the Filk Hall Of Fame selection committee for their time and effort!

ODE TO KATHLEEN

Words and music (c) 2001 Debbie Ridpath Ohi

She sits in the corner of the
filk room, she is listening, she is nodding, she is fine
She weaves a design into her
hand loom, what is she making, she is biding her time, oh
look at her smiling! Her gui-
tar is by her side, when will she play? Oh
she's so beguiling! Oh Miss
Sloan, we feel compelled to say...


CHORUS:
Kathleen, will you sing for us
Will you help us find the right way home
You're our Catalog Queen, Angel of Interfilk
O Kathleen Sloan.

She's got a taste for Musk Life
Savers (tm), she sings of catalogs, of filk, and of meat
It takes a lot to ever
faze her, she is calm, she is composed, she is discreet, she
excels at blackmail! She claims
it's for Interfilk then laughs with glee, does she
ever read her e-mail? If she
did, she'd hear our heartfelt plea...

CHORUS:
Kathleen, will you sing for us
Will you help us find the right way home
You're our Catalog Queen, Angel of Interfilk
O Kathleen Sloan.

Her guitar may not be really
full size, but its music (like her voice) is sweet and strong
Crossing Kathleen Sloan is likely unwise, so hey
why are we then singing this song? Be-
cause we're suicidal! And we
owe it to Kathleen, she knows what for...re-
venge is so vital, as we
raise our voices to implore...

CHORUS (twice):
Kathleen, will you sing for us
Will you help us find the right way home
You're our Catalog Queen, Angel of Interfilk
O Kathleen Sloan.




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Post-FKO (part 1): n'MC and Playing Rapunzel

My bug is gone, so it seems it was more of a momentary post-con brain-twitch than an actual cold.

As I mentioned before, the members of n'Early Music Consort were excellent guests. It was fun to meet some of them for the first time after having drawn their picture; I'd be able to do a better job now that I have more of a sense of their personalities. I also had some interesting conversations with several of them about British vs Canadian vs American English, and we were mutually relieved to be able to fling about our extra "u"'s without being mocked.


Photo by Phil Mills

I was impressed by n'MC's arrangements (particularly Trial and Worry), and was also fascinated by the fact that different people conduct different songs, usually depending on who did the arrangements. They even performed "Chocolate Is A Vegetable," a song by Graham Leathers! You can find a sound clip from the original song on the CDBaby page for Gray's "Reality Check" CD.

Hey, as I created the link to that page, I just noticed that Dave Alway posted the review at the bottom of Gray's CD page.



Photo by Phil Mills

The individual talents within the group were also impressive. I admit I am a Playing Rapunzel fangirl. I would go to great lengths to be able to listen to Mich and Marilisa sing pretty much anything, for any length of time.

I had only had a chance to speak to each very briefly at Filkcontinental. At FilKONtario, I discovered (though wasn't surprised) that both are as likeable and just darned NICE as they come across on stage. I especially loved their joint persuasive strategies while helping to auction off the vandalized sheet music for and a recording of "Sholem" (I happily assisted with vandalizing) in the Interfilk auction. Joey Shoji won the item.

As I mentioned earlier, I was thrilled when they invited Allison, Jodi and me to participate in performing "Sholem" in their Saturday concert; "Sholem" is my favourite track on Mich's CD. Mich sent us our individual parts by e-mail; we didn't have a chance to actually practice it with each other or with them until the morning of the concert.



Above: Allison and Jodi singing their parts on "Sholem." Allison has a photo of Mich, Marilisa and me at the same practice. We were all a tad nervous in the beginning, not quite sure how it would come together.

Mich suggested we go through the whole thing once, then fine-tune. After we finished the run-through, there were a few brief seconds of silence, and then we all started jumping up and down, screaming like lunatics. Dear lord. It was JUST SO FUN PLAYING MUSIC TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!

Once we calmed down, then we went through smaller bits for individual people, going over rough bits and fine-tuning. Mich is wonderful to work with...she's very gentle but also has a clear idea of what she wants, and is able to articulate it in a way that the performer can understand and accomplish.

Photo by Phil Mills

My biggest challenge was not getting so distracted by all the beautiful vocal harmonies that I'd forget to come in where I'm supposed to with my flute. It was a musical highlight for me, being surrounded by all that wonderful music; I felt as if it could easily lift me up and carry me away. I just couldn't let that happen when we were on stage. :-)

Mich and Marilisa write and perform such gorgeous songs that even if the words are sometimes in another language, I still find myself moved to tears by the beauty of the music itself.

Ok, I'll stop gushing.

But just for now.

Link O' The Day

Predatory squirrel attacks: Yet more evidence that SQUIRRELS ARE EVIL! Thanks to Dave Weingart for the link. :-)




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Back from FilKONtario

Back from FilKONtario. Dead tired but happy; it was a glorious weekend. Thank you THANK YOU to FilKONtario and Interfilk (and everyone else who contributed to the effort) for making it possible for the 16 members of n'Early Music Consort to come to Toronto from Britain.

I woke up with a bit of a bug this morning (hopefully short-lived) and have way too much catching up to do with work to write much today, but I had to say that this past weekend was definitely an example of one of the things I love so much about a filk community event like this one: the exchange of music and friendship from all over the globe.



Above: Simon Fairbourn took this photo of Marilisa and me yesterday (and recursively, here's Walter's photo of Simon taking the photo)

I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to say proper good-byes to some of you; I had to leave right after the closing ceremonies (thanks to Walter for the lift home!).

Speaking of closing ceremonies: huge thanks to Judith Hayman, by the way, who filled in at the VERY last minute as stunt guitarist for Allison, who had to leave just before because she was feeling quite ill. Judith had never played the song with us before, and there was no time to rehearse. And thanks SO MUCH to those who sang along; Allison usually sings melody for parts of the song...as Jodi and I were singing the first half of the song, we later found out that the same thought was going through both our heads: "Oh dear lord, both of us sing harmonies on the bridge and don't know the melody well enough to wing it..." :-)

It didn't help, of course, that we were still teary-eyed from n'MC's rendition of Sam's Song, a beautiful song by Zander Nyrond traditionally sung at the end of every UK filk convention. As the room filled with the voices of people joining in on the chorus, I couldn't help thinking, "When am I going to see these wonderful people again?" It's one of the bittersweet aspects of the global filk community: you meet so many kindred spirits, yet most of us live so far away from each other that many years may pass before our paths cross again.

I've posted some photos from Sib's visit and will gradually be uploading photos and con highlights to my FilKONtario Flickr pics set. I'm sure Allison will be posting photos and con reports in her LJ when she's feeling better.

Again, many thanks to the FilKONtario concom and guests!



Above: a gift from Heather Borean, who knows about my love-hate relationship with squrrels. I *love* this mug...thank you, Heather! :-)



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Guest Blathering: Sibylle!

As I mentioned earlier, my friend Sibylle is visiting from Germany. Sibylle has kindly agreed to be my Guest Blatherer today:

From Sibylle: Hi everyone, this is Sib writing. Debbie is finishing her packing right now so I am taking this opportunity to write a little something here. I arrived in Canada two days ago and am having an absolutely great time. It's so good to be seeing Debbie and Jeff again! I don't want to leave here! (I also find it surprisingly easy to use the differently layouted keyboard, so I guess my time spent living in England (where the keyboard layout seems to be very similar to the Canadian one) was good for something after all. Hmm, and that was probably not so interesting a fact to know, right?) Reg. the photo above - I want to have a Wacom artpad of my own! It seems to be a lot of fun to work and play around with - but be glad that Debbie is not subjecting you to what I drew so far. "Stick figures drawn in multiple media, by a three year old in a dark room" would be my title for it. :-) It's only a couple of hours until FKO now, and I am looking forward to it very much. I can't quite believe I am back again, just like I couldn't believe I was actually there last year. Living in an age where you can get to everywhere in the world in a couple of hours (a large couple of hours if you are going somewhere far away maybe, but still) and talk to people all over the world pretty much as if they were in the next house over the street is still an amazing and baffling experience for me, sometimes. And a very very good one. OK, and I think this is where I will love you and leave you ... time to get on with things. Hope you all have a great time, and I am handing you over back to Debbie now! Cheerio, the Sib

Don't miss Sib's one-shot at FKO, where she will perform her famous "Lord of the Rings in 10 minutes"! Also, she may be willing to perform her equally famous "Star Wars in 10 Minutes" in open filk, but you will have to ask because she claims to be out of practice since she hasn't performed this in 4 years. (Editor's note: BUT I forced her to do it for me, and it was GREAT! Plus I've provided her with some extra silly PROPS!)



We've thrown some extra items into the Urban Tapestry package for the Interfilk auction at FilKONtario, by the way. In addition to the Live From Debbie's Living Room CD, lyrics/chord sheets, and hand-decorated fan, the winner of the auction item will also receive a set of six of my Little Nightmare prints, an Annikin-size version of a book that my sister illustrated ("Katie's Babbling Brother", written by Hazel Hutchins), and a print of my Library Thief cartoon.

Click the image below for a bigger version of the package description.

Whoops, Rand and Erin just arrived! Must go...





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