FKO Surprises and Highlights (Part 2)

Photo by Walter.

Above: one of my con highlights -- Heather Dale in concert, with Ben Deschamps and Jason Sonier. I love watching Heather performing. She always sings with such joy, and I love the way she sweeps the whole audience into her music.

Continuing my somewhat incoherent list of surprises and highlights from the weekend...


Photo by Walter.

- Erin singing lead for the first time, with Rand accompanying. She sounded fantastic, and I look forward to hearing her sing a lot more in the future.

- Having Amy McNally accompany us in our concert.


Photo by Walter.

- Reminiscing about The Wedding last year.


Photo by Walter.

- Adam presenting a caricature to Robert Sawyer. It was great to be able to catch up a bit with Adam, and talk to Adam and Jolene about their upcoming wedding plans while we were all in line for the Filk Hall Of Fame Banquet.



- Discovering that Deborah Crooke had, at the last minute, decided to fly across the pond and attend FKO. Yay!

- Concert by Juliana McCorison, who just released "Not Just Lullabies From Planet Earth" (cover art by yours truly!), ably accompanied by Douglas McCorison and John Caspell.


Photo by Walter.

- Hearing Karen perform "Road To Roswell" in open filk, with Judith accompanying. I never get tired of hearing that song. And, as always, I'm reminded of the blow that the local filk community suffered when we lost Lloyd Landa.


Photo by Phil Mills.

- Seeing Erica being inducted into the Filk Hall Of Fame. The FHOF banquet is always one of my FKO highlights. As I've mentioned before, the Pegasus Awards are one of the ways that performer achievements are acknowledged, while the Filk Hall Of Fame is one of the ways that those behind the scenes are formally thanked. Performers often tend to get much more of the attention at a convention than those who help run it. It's one of the reasons I always try to attend the FHOF banquet.


Photo by Walter.

- Catching up with Gerry and Sandy Tyra, the Interfilk guests. Gerry donated an amusing "Debbie Ohi Trap" into the Interfilk auction. The main bait? Chocolate, of course! :-D



- Seeing Dave and Rick perform together. Rick has known Dave since they were college roommates, and it was also fun to hear them banter back and forth.



- Seeing John Hall again. It's been too long.




- Seeing Ju Honisch again. She looked AMAZING, and it was wonderful to hear her sing again.



- I know I've mentioned Eva and Rafael before, but I feel compelled to mention them again. Not only did I enjoy meeting young Talea for the first time, but it was so great to spend time with these two. They're one of those couples whose love for each other radiates around them all the time, and their benevolence and gentle thoughtfulness makes it a pleasure just to be near them. Each of them also can be found enjoying parts of the convention without the other sometimes; e.g. it's actually possible to have conversations with them individually rather than always as a couple.



Photo by Walter.

- One of my weekend highlights was seeing Sally Headford in action as the con chair. She puts so much positive energy into her role, guiding and organizing in the background. Urban Tapestry also owes Sally a huge debt for convincing Suburban Travesty NOT to do their one-shot immediately before our concert. :-)



- I had a lot of fun being an overly avid Phil Mills fan. :-) And YAY for Phil releasing his debut CD this past weekend!


Photo by Walter.

- I was amused by Suburban Travesty's list of my Victims -- which, mind you, should actually be URBAN TAPESTRY'S victims rather than just mine. Others missing from this list: Erica Neely and Mark Osier.


Photo by Walter.

Many thanks to the concom and volunteers for their hard work in making FKO a success. I especially appreciated the clear instructions and schedules we were given before the convention, outlining what our con obligations were, and what time we had free. As a result, we always knew exactly what we were supposed to be doing at any time, and when we had some flexibility.


Photo by Allison.

In the past, FKO reps have said that Urban Tapestry were good guests, but I think that often not enough credit is given to those who organize the conventions in helping their guests be "good." I've found that FilKONtario has always been one of the conventions who communicate well with their guests, and who are very good about answering questions, clearly outlining obligations and schedule commitments, etc.


Photo by Walter.

It looks as though our next convention as a group will be next year's FilKONtario. Woohoo, only a year away!

Can't wait. :-D

For more info about FilKONtario, please see the FilKONtario website.
You can see Allison's con reports at her Livejournal.