Looking for FKO photos

Above: a spectacular screen crash on my external monitor.

A question for anyone who attended our concert at FilKONtario: if anyone has a good full-length shot of Walter in his Jean-Luc gear, I'd love to have a copy. So far I've only found two photos of Walter in his costume, taken by Phil Mills. With all the camera flashes going off during that song, I can't help but think there must be more out there.

If you've posted pics on your blog, please do post the URL. Thanks so much!

Twitter Songs

I've spent most of the past week recovering from a flu bug I picked up at FKO. Symptoms (if you caught the same, we can commiserate, eh?): overwhelming need to sleep ALL THE TIME, plus it feels as if someone has stuffed your head full of Elmer's Glue and cotton. Starting a couple of days ago, I was conscious for periods long enough to (1) post more about FKO and (2) briefly browse Blip.fm and Twitter on my iPhone from time to time. Not terribly productive, but I did find this Twitter song:



as well as discover that Ingrid Michaelson wrote a short Twitter song as well:



Finally finished unpacking from FKO yesterday afternoon! And went out to buy some fruit without collapsing along the way! Yes, I feel SO accomplished. Hoping to do some catching up with work today.

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.

Surprises and highlights from FilKONtario

Whoa, this flu bug has really hit me hard. I've spent more of the past 48 hours unconscious than conscious. My head still feels stuffed with hot cotton, but I may actually be able to finish unpacking from FKO tomorrow.


Photo by Walter.


Speaking of FKO, many thanks to Allison for posting such great con reports over on her Livejournal. Reports so far: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,Part 4, and Part 5.


Photo by Walter.

Allison's already covered most of the same events that I would have, so rather than repeat I thought I'd focus on some of the surprises that I / we encountered during this past weekend.


Photo by Walter.

Like finding out that Jeff's mom was attending our concert! I had no idea. It meant a great deal to me, because Ginny had never seen Urban Tapestry perform live before. Afterward, she told me that some of you had gone up to her and introduced yourselves, and how much she enjoyed chatting with you, like Tom and Dave.


Photo by Walter.

Another surprise: Being presented with a garish tasteful squirrel planter by the Ropers. Apparently Gretchen found it while going through some of her mother's things; she and Bill immediately thought of me. Their kindness will not go unrewarded, I swear.

Thanks also to Carolyn Brown for the Squirrel Voodoo Kit (shown in my previous Blathering) and to Crystal Paul for the cute squirrel t-shirt (my favourite piece of advice from the latter: "It's ok to be a little nuts"!


Photo by Walter.

Another surprise: Finding out that Cat Faber and Peter Alway were behind the mysterious squirrel cartoons that kept appearing under our hotel door. Here are two of them:



Photo by Allison.

I sent back my own cartoon. Heh.


Photo by Allison.

One of the biggest surprises at FKO was the performance by Suburban Travesty, a.k.a. Dave Clement, Tom Jeffers and Walter. You can find out more in Allison's report on the event.


Photo by Phil Mills.

Walter was probably paying us back for making him wear a bald cap in our concert. Heh.

Anyway, here are the lyrics of the song that Suburban Travesty performed in their one-shot:



Walter's first filk! And first time singing on stage!

Another highlight was seeing Adam English doing caricatures for filkers during the weekend:


Photo by Walter.

I was impressed that Adam's fiancee, Jolene, stayed at the convention until quite late Saturday night despite having to drive back to Buffalo and work on Sunday morning (!).


Photo by Walter.

Another nice surprise: Having Walter's son and daughter attend the children's concert on Sunday; they were able to hear us perform our song "Walter" live for the first time. :-)

As Allison pointed out in her reports, we greatly enjoyed all the concerts and one-shots, as well as Robert Sawyer's readings. One of my favourite concerts was Toyboat's; I so rarely get to hear them, and they always seem to be having SO MUCH FUN onstage. :-D


Photo by Walter.

Toyboat consists of Eric Coleman, Daniel (aka "Gundo") Gunderson, Jason Neerenberg, and Mike Nixon. Hey...according to this website, one of their first songs was a version of "The Lady" to the tune of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"!


Photo by Walter.

I hate public speaking. This may come as a surprise to some who have seen my stage antics, but I've found it much easier to clown around than talk on stage. When Urban Tapestry was invited to be the Filk Waifs (e.g. Toastmasters) at FKO, Allison and Jod knew I'd have mixed feelings.


Photo by Walter.

One of the reasons I made so many props for our Filk Waif gig was because it was my contribution for not being as publicly talkative as Allison and Jodi. However, to my surprise, I found that doing some announcements wasn't quite as horrible as I thought. I even VOLUNTEERED to do some announcements on my own, though Allison and Jodi had been ready to cover for me. :-)

Why the change of heart? I blame the filk community, and especially Allison and Jodi. Through their never-failing encouragement, they got me singing in public when I swore I never would. It was inevitable that their support has also bolstered my confidence enough to do some public speaking as well.


Photo by Walter.

The mutual encouragement and support is part of why I love the filk community so much. I know I'm not the only one who has found the self-confidence to do things I never thought I could do because of this amazing community of people.


Photo by Walter.

Allison has posted a Survey Of Firsts, for those interested. First time performing in open filk, etc. Do go over and participate!



And some more pleasant surprises:

Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff are Guests of Honour next year, woohoo! And the lovely Erica Neely is the Official Toast Waif! I look forward to finding out more about the Interfilk Guest, Mark Simmons.



Also see the comments in LJ.

Back from FilKONtario

Got home from FilKONtario last night...dead tired but happy. What a wonderful weekend!



Allison, Jodi and I had a fantastic time at FilKONtario, where we were the Toastmasters (a.k.a. "Filk Waifs"). It was our first time in this role, so we were a bit nervous but we got helpful coaching from experienced Toastmasters like Tanya Huff ("Hey, once you have the microphone, you have THE POWER!") as well as concom encouragement.



Sadly, I forgot my camera for the first part of the convention. When I told Allison, she thought I was kidding ... I'm NEVER without my camera, after all. Things were crazier than usual right before the convention, however, plus I was distracted trying to prepare more props than usual for our concert and Toastmaster duties.

Below: Walter prepares a box for some of our Neurotic Love Song props. HUGE thanks to Walter for helping out on that song, by the way. You'll find out more in Allison's con report soon.



As you can see from the photo, between the rollaway cot, suitcases, craft stuff, our instruments, music and props, our hotel room usually looked cyclone-hit and navigation was sometimes a challenge. Happily, however, we always managed to find what we needed for each event.



(Above: Phil Mills fends off an overly avid fan.)

Walter, by the way, was kind enough to pick up my camera as well as a prop I had forgotten at my house. He also gave me a ride to and from the convention, along with all my gear (and there was a LOT more of it this year than for other conventions). These kindnesses, however, are not going to be enough to exempt him from Urban Tapestry's revenge from what he (and others) inflicted on us later in the convention. Again, you'll find out more in Allison's con report soon.



Many thanks to the concom for all their hard work. Whenever Urban Tapestry is invited as a guest, we get more of a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes work. I am deeply grateful to the volunteers who help run FilKONtario...without them, the event would simply not be possible.



(Above: A Squirrel Voodoo Kit from Carolyn Brown)

I'll write more about the convention later, but I have a ton of work and e-mail to catch up on first, plus I still haven't finished completely unpacking from our California trip (!). With FKO over, I'm going to be spending the next couple of weeks FINALLY CATCHING UP with everything I've been letting slide.



Meanwhile, please do keep an eye on Allison's Livejournal and Flickr photos.

Feel free to browse my small set of FKO photos; thanks to Walter for going back to my house and bringing my camera to the hotel for me. I also took far fewer pics than I usually do because I figured I needed to focus more on my Filk Waif duties. If you've posted FKO photos online and don't mind me using them in my future FKO posts, please do let me know! I'll include a credit and link, of course.



Below: one of the personal highlights of the convention for me was seeing some of my German friends again, and meeting baby Talea (pronounced "Ta-LAY-ah", I believe).

Allison, Jodi and I would wander down to seek breakfast companions each morning, and we were delighted to find Ju, Eva, Rafael and Talea doing the same.