hms42

The convention is a lot of fun and the concerts have been great so far.

I am writing this dueing the Canadian Invasion Concert.  (about 15 people taking turns in a round robin style with parts of the audience being called up.)

Partners in K'Rhyme (Randy and Kira) make wonderful toastmasters.  

Open filk was small last night.  

Two CDs (that I know of) were released here at the convention.  Everyone who has a membership is getting a copy of the CD that I produced, "Window on Time". 

The CD contains 3 songs from each of this year's guests plus 1 song each from next year's NEFilk guests -
GOH - Stone Dragons
Toastmaster - Andrew Ross
Interfilk - Lissa Allcock
Listener - Jonathan and Debbie Baker

http://www.conterpoint.net

Plus there are 3 memorial songs for Keris, Badger, and Greg Baker.

And Ariel Cinii has her first CD out!   11 songs of hers, now available on CD.  More details in her LJ.  It will be made available online for mp3 purchasing and download.

http://filk.livejournal.com/677183.html

If you are thinking of going, please pre-register.  That way I know how many CDs to produce for the convention. 

I am working on a limited run CD for the con, which will only be available there (and some interfilk tables over the next year.)  At least 3 songs have been recorded exclusively for the CD.  (I have not gotten all of the recordings together yet and will be seeing the songwriter guest sometime in the next week for a few songs for this CD and her first CD, too. That will be releasing at Concertino, too!)

Now if I can just figure out what I am going to call the CD.  (I wait till I have all of the songs on on hand before choosing a title.)

Just a couple of items that I am not sure if everyone has caught the listings of:

At GaFilk, the house band, Play It With Moxie, released their first CD.

There is a new Cynthia McQuillin CD available.  "Mystic Lady"  Its all new music and was from a rehearsal tape recorded on a home system.  14 of the 15 songs have never been published before.  (#15 was on a VERY limited tape from 1983.)  A songbook is also available.

More details -
http://www.flowinglass.com/shadow.html

Tim Griffin whom I mentioned in a previous post -
Here's his web page.   http://www.timgriffinmusic.com/

All money from his CDs goes to support the school district where he teaches.   I have a couple of copies of each CD for selling on the east coast and will have them at Lunacon and I-CON.

Three Weird Sisters who had a GOH concert (with all 4 of them) at Consonance is now taking pre-orders for their new CD "Third Thyme's the Charm".    I don't have details on where to pre-order, but I have requested it.  According to info at Consonance, release date is June 1.

And one last one (non music)...

Filker seanan_mcguire has a new book out (as of 3/6).  Its the first one in her "InCryptid" series.  More details on the series - http://seananmcguire.com/incryptid.php  Visit your favorite bookstore to get a copy.


(Funny how a quick post takes over an hour to write up....)
 
Thursday morning edit:
Two more things -

Heather Dale has a pod cast that updates on average about once a week.  #15 just came out today.
http://www.heatherdale.com

Tom Smith now has a subscription service for his music.  

Details here - http://www.tomsmithonline.com/support.htm

It was a good convention.  I had a good time and I got to meet a few people i have only emailed in the past.

It was a fun con.   I am typing this up while waiting for my flight at Seatac.

It was nice to see everyone again from the Pacific northwest.  There was a lot of good concerts and good chatting with people.

I got to see friends I have not seen for a year and some I last saw at GaFilk (including one that works two subway stops from me in NYC.  There were other NYC area filkers at the con, but I keep seeing one of them at cons out of the area only.)

Assisting with sound was a little different this year..  I was not on stage much, but I did assist with teardown.  (Sound had a major upgrade of equipment to a newer setup that needs more time training than I would have at a con.  (I got a nickle tour post con and the control surface at the back of the room is amazing on what it can do.  Including a demo of the tablet pc that was a set of controls for the system.)  Thank you for the board feed!   

Concerts were very good aTlnd while I could not hear all of them. I did make a number of them and everyone was great.  (The recorders made all of them and I will be listening to them at time allows and when I am playing with some new software that John recommended.)

Among the highlights I remember -

Char's final song about Twinkies was extermly funny, especially with bonus sponge cakes...  (I don't know who won the CD, but I do know they got a signed twinkie with it.)

During's Toastmonster concert, there was one reply to her LJ and one friend's post.  (If you don't get the reference, see - http://catfish.dhs.org/~happyfish/filk/livejournalshanty.html)

Watching 3 signers at the GOH Concert signing "Stray Dog Man".  What was interesting was seeing how they all signed it differently.

Getting to meet and see Talis live was just amazing and worth it.  (See her at Soul Foods on Tuesday, if possible.  Link to internet feed in conflikt LJ for those of us who will not be able to attend.) :(  I had never met her before, but just had spoken with her via email previously.     She also had the one new CD released at Conflikt.   (She sold out of CDs, too.)  She does have some Duckon Cds for selling at Soul Foods, but not many.  (There were only 6 left at the end of the con.)  Really good concert.

The filk circles were great and I got to hear them earlier than usual.  (I didn't donate as many concerts to interfilk this con and most became part of a GOH bundle, which works better, IMHO.  I just underprinted (by 1 disc) on the pre-printed blanks.)

Actually attending and particpating in a panel.  (Home recording).  I think I learned a couple of tools I can use from it.  (John also suggested 1-2 programs I need to look at and purchase.  One is a likely, the other is going to get some research first.  (Reaper  & tape cleanup software.  The first is the planned purchase after a little playing.)

The bonus concert for the convention (Dave Clement) was one I did not attend (but recorded for the interfilk winner) so that others who have not seen him before could attend.  (Dave's concert is aways worth attending.)

The concom did a great job for Conflikt 5 and on the Confilk web page, the webmaster has already posted Conflikt 6 info, including GOHs.  I already am planning to attend my 5th conflikt. 

Next con for me, Boskone in a few weeks and I am seriously looking at Consonance attending this year. 

Ok.  The plane is in, so I am going to pack up in a moment.

Edited from NYC (at my desk).  I got into NY about 2 hours ago.

Also, the agent at the counter from Jet Blue happened to be a filk fan.  (Knows Alexander James Adams and would have been at the con.  Said to tell Alec "Hi" from Ali.)

The dead dog has ended. :( Good con, lots of great music. 90+ gb of recordings from the weekend. (Plus some mp3s that were not labeled, have now been IDed.)

Good con.. One recording from the last recorder has an interfilk donation permission. (Consonance will see it and possibly Conflikt will get it.) More of a report when I am awake..

I saw this on thnidu and Catsitting Still's LJs.

Tom Smith is having a sale on his concerts on Bandcamp.com and he has split the recording from http://www.Contata.org into separate tracks currently up. He expects to get two concerts online tomorrow (Monday) and two more by the end of the week.

http://filkertom.livejournal.com/1473204.html

Home safely (as of about 1 1/2 hours ago.)

It was nice to see everyone who did make it again.  More of a report when I am not so tired..

Congratulations to all of the 2011 Pegasus nominees!

http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/2011finalballot.html

Now that the Fanac CD info has been posted, I can give some comments on the con. :)

I had a good time at the convention. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun.

While I mostly saw the main room filking, I did make it into the other rooms at points. (Usually to change the recorders.)

On Friday, the convention opened with a parade of the Guests of the convention being led in by a parade of kazoos, a drum and a Uke.

Peter Alway opened the convention with a concert on his Banjomer. (Sorry if I got the spelling wrong.) He is someone that does not get to the east coast often and while I have seen him before (OVFF), I don't recall seeing him in concert before, only in circle. (I am not sure if he has made it to an NEFilk convention before.)

Deb's concert I was a little busy downloading one of the recordings that was planned for later in her concert and did not get a chance to listen as much as I want to. (I have to listen to the recording when I get a few minutes. I had to miss more of it due to finding out mid concert that I needed to get a 2nd recording from the internet (which was played later in her concert.)

Open filk was fun and went to about 3:30-4am.

On Saturday, there was a number of concerts including Ian Hanley and Blind Lemming Chiffon (both of whom were was fun to listen to.) GOH Judi Miller's concert was a mixture of her singing followed by her signing some classic songs from the North East. (The only song I am recalling at this point is At The Worldcon.) She ended her concert with Tom singing "Operation Desert Storm". Normally, I only get to see Judi on stage @ OVFF during the Pegasus nominees concert and I am more concerned with who is on next vs watching her sign the songs. I was able to sit down for a few minutes and it was a lot of fun watching her sign the songs. I hope to get to see someone's video at some point of her signing the songs from her concert.

Tom was great as always during his concert and as far as I am concerned, it was too short. He performed a couple of songs that he has not played in a concert that I have heard in a while. (Cheap Ass Cyborg and Trans Poly U. Fight Song)

Pavlov's Duck was a great interfilk guest. I have not had a chance to hear them in person before (as Lord Landless/Lord Bandless). (I have listened to their 2008 Confluence concert to find the songs for the Fanac CD. Thank you Filkferengi for the 2008 recording!) They were great and I hope to someday get over to Germany to see them perform again.

On Sunday, the Joe Bethancourt tribute concert concert introduced us to a number of Joe's songs. About 2 months ago, Joe's house had a fire and they got out safely (along with the pets and the Banjo's) and we held a fund raiser which raised money for him. (I think the number was $675 by the end of the convention.)

Roger and M'Liss (from Florida) whom I had last seen at GaFilk did a 1/2 hour concert at the con. They were great and did a nice set. One song of theirs that I liked was "I'm A Snake" by M'liss TTO "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (At least I think that is the source tune.)

That covers the concerts.

Besides the concerts, there was a number of theme circles (which I missed most of, but I saw a positive comment on the 'Short Attention Span Circle'); the interfilk auction, some one shots, a song writing contest (won by Peter Alway, using a tune from Cat Faber), and 2 hat bands. Also an interesting concert was the "Song cycles Concert". Ben Newman played a couple of songs from the "Dragon from Sale" universe, Sassafrass sang a couple of songs and Abby performed a couple of her songs from her Flying Stones universe. (Sorry, I can't remember the name of it at 1:30am and I know she will provide the right title.)

The other highlights of the convention (besides the GOH concerts) were the two musicals performed.

There was the NEFilk debut of Ben Newman's "Walk In the Day", finally complete with an ending (and a couple of new songs.). This was the 3rd performance of Walk In the Day (Conflikt 4 and Boskone 48) and it was great to see again, with a mixture of both previous casts performing this time (plus a couple of new people.)

The other musical was the "Rocky Horror Muppet Show" written by Tom Smith. Its only the second time its ever been performed. (The last time RHMS was performed was in 1987 and the Special Friend package included as one of the CDs in there, a copy of the 1987 RHMS performance.) We had a few of the original performers back to reprise their rolls. (Tom, Mark Bernstein, Mike Stein.) Some of the jokes were updated for 2011, and Judi Miller played herself as the special guest this time. We even had a couple of people in Rocky Horror Costumes in the audience. (I did get some pictures of the con and the RHMS.) Yes, we recorded the show (Zoom recorder, board feed to my laptop and multitrack on a HD recorder) and I saw at least 3 video cameras in the room.

Open filk (when I finally got a chance to listen at 0:dark 30, which means after 4am or so) was good and fun to listen to. The Rotten Apple broke up about 3am or so.

One fun thing I did get to see was Ben Newman sharing a new song with Tom Smith (using Operation Desert Storm as the music) when Tom was heading off after the Rotten Apple. (No, that was not recorded with Tom playing, but Ben did perform the song in the circle later.) It was a myth from his Walk in the Day universe and it was interesting to get a little more of the culture of the creatures the store is about.

Also, on a slightly different note (and will have its own post in the next day or two), I managed to pull off 3 CDs for release at the convention. The 3rd CD (which has not been mentioned before) is Roberta Rogow's new CD "Dark Deeds and Desperate Men (and Women)" which is a collection of songs about highway men, privateers & others of questionable morals. (It includes a cover of "Been There, Dun That" by Juanita Coulson.) Most songs on the CD were recorded live at east coast conventions.

It was great seeing everyone at the con and thank you to the rest of the concom who did a great job putting on a fun event. ladymontegreenladymontegreen posted a link earlier wih links to many convention reports. http://ladymondegreen.livejournal.com/94860.html

I look forward to seeing many of you again next year in Boston at Concertino. http://www.concertino.net