Consonance March 2-4, 2001 Biltmore Hotel, Santa Clara California Guests of Honor: Urban Tapestry Toastmaster: Mike Stein Interfilk Guest: Dave Weingart (yeah, THAT Dave Weingart) The reason I go to filkcons and why I love filking was best expressed at the very end of the convention, when I walked into the consuite for the dead dog and Merav Hoffman looked up at me, 3000 miles away from the New York area where we both hang our hats and said, "Welcome home, Dave" and both of us knew it was meant exactly as it sounded. Filk is home. However, the longest journey home begins with an airplane flight, and that looked chancy at first. The day before our flight out, American Airlines' mechanics were staging a work slowdown at JFK Airport. 90 flights were cancelled on Wednesday, and all flights until noon on Thursday as well. Did I mention that we were scheduled to fly out on American from JFK at 6:30 PM on Thursday? Thankfully, things were essentially settled by the time we arrived at the airport, and though there was an hour-long delay, it was strictly mechanical, and there were the O'Halloran's waiting for us at the San Jose airport with a sign that said, "Weingart" as soon as we got out of the gate. Made the hotel without any trouble, met Dr. Jane, who checked us in pronto, gave us her number and the Tyra's number…and off we went to sleep, dead tired. Dead tired is a good phrase to remember, as it describes me for a good chunk of the con. Jet lag is a killer. Friday before the con, we ran into Debbie, Allison and Jodi (aka Urban Tapestry, the Guests of Honor) right after breakfast. It was great seeing them again and we chatted for a bit, and we set a time to get together in the afternoon (we were meeting a friend who lives out that way now for lunch), because we were going to be doing two songs together during the con and we kinda sorta needed to practice; we'd never sung together before, y'see. Oh, it was marvellous, these are three very talented ladies (as if having looks going for them wasn't enough!) and they make my stuff sound good. Then dinner in the hotel restaurant with UT and a Gary Ehrlich and…and…and Dave blanks on who else was there, I know there was someone else, but I was so dead tired (there's that phrase) that I can't remember, but it was a nice dinner indeed, and then off to the concerts! Consonance programming is very heavy on concerts, which is nice; you get to sit down and listen to all kinds of really amazing folks. This was my first trip out to a west coast filkcon (thank you, Interfilk!) Tuppence was loads of fun to listen to. And after that, we got a no kidding around filk legend, Cindy McQuillan (appearing with Dr. Jane). Cindy's a fabulous songwriter and a marvellous singer and there are songs of hers that you know, even if you don't know you know them, and she's been fafiated for medical reasons for far too long. She clearly still has it and it was great to see and hear her. Jordin Kare was on after Cindy. He's one of the few filkers (indeed, possibly the only filker) who can make a song about high-energy physics into a singalong tune. Steve Savitzy followed (and anyone who doesn't get why computers are so fascinating need only hear his song, "The World Inside the Crystal" to understand). Leslie Fish followed, in her usual fine form. And smewhere Friday was Lee and Barry Gold, but I can't recall where they were. Possibly just before Tuppence? While the concerts were going on, there was a drum circle in the Biltmore's atrium. The was a large room, perfect for a small banquet, a drum circle, an open sing, or just hanging out in. I didn't join in, although I listened and it sounded really nice, and I passed by several times on the way to and from the consuite. Late Friday night (and this means 11:30 California time, which was about half past 2 according to the bodies of the Interfilk Guest, the Guests of Honor and the Toastmaster), after all the concerts, were the practice and recording sessions of Steve Macdonald's WorlDream project. A brief overview: Steve is going to every filkcon in the world (yes, he's nuts) in calendar 2001 and recording a single song ("Many Hearts, One Voice," lyrics available online at www.smacdonald.com) with the massed filkers of that con; the various tapes will be mixed down to a single master chorus, with every person singing along. I happen to think it's a great idea, even if it takes a lunatic with lots of time to do it. I think it sounded really good, and I finally bought a WorlDream tee shirt and tried to talk Steve into doing a session at Worldcon. I do hope he can make it; it would be so very cool to have it there. It was late by that point, and I was falling over being dead tired, so I headed on up to sleep. Saturday's first program item was the Children's Concert, starring UT, with help from Alan Thiesen (who is still one of the nicest guys in fandom you'll ever meet), Mike Stein and Yours Truly. I was really excited, because UT was going to sing "Just A Boy Named Harry" with me and I figured that would be that. Instead, we were doing a whole concert, almost as a round-robin. Well, heck, there were kids of the adult variety in the audience; I didn't see anyone who wasn't of legal age to vote, so it was easier, and it was fun. UT led the bunch of us in the Banana Slug song ("Oh banana nana nana nana nana nana nana nana nana nana nana nana slug") and the Hockey Monkey song, both of which are great fun to sing along with. Also, since saying goodbye is kinda sad (especially to filk family), they've been trying to infect fandom with the song; when someone leaves a con, you sing the Hockey Monkey song at them and you can laugh instead of being sad. It almost works. After the Children's Concert came Merav Hoffman. Now, I've known Merav for ages (and she's my Official Recording Engineer to boot) and this was her first concert set and I think she did quite well, thank you. She's definitely gaining confidence, and she did a good job of it. Her Jack & Jill song is definitely worth learning -- I'd heard it before, but I need to bug her for the chords and words. Well done! After Merav was Carla Ulbrich, from down in the Georgia/South Carolina area. Carla's music is more folk than filk, but she's definitely one of us. She's also a polished performer (she does this for a living as well and I really must recommend her CD, "Her Fabulous Debut") and an awful lot of fun to hang out with and talk with. The title of the CD is almost accurate; she had her fabulous debut in filk out of the blue down at GaFilk this year and she fits right in. She's got a number of songs that are fun to sing along with as well; check out "What if Your Girlfriend Was Gone" and "The Wedgie" if you get a chance. Gary Ehrlich stood in for Mitchell & TJ Burnside Clapp, who weren't there. Gary's the Jewish guy from the Right Coast who's 5'10" with a 6 string, 12 string (although he left the 12 string home this time) and glasses who isn't me. He's also lots of fun to watch perform. Aside from being a good songwriter, he puts everything into it when he's up there. I'm especially fond of "Sedona," one of his non-filk tunes, and just as I'm writing this conrep, Gary sent me the URL for the lyrics and chords (which I'll happily mention is http://users.erols.com/hyperion/filk/sedona.html). New daddy Paul Kwinn did a non-quite-Puzzlebox set, because it was close enough to be almost all of Puzzlebox, minus Taunya, who now lives in another state (did someone say Utah?) and couldn't make it. After the Interfilk auction break (which was fun, and I got to split the Chocolate Raspberry with Debbie Ohi), there was an hour and a half of the Divas of Chaotica, consisting of Maya and Jeff Bonhoff (have I mentioned that their new CD, "Retro Rocket Science," was released at Consonance? You want this CD), Nancy Louise Freeman, Dr. Jane and…ummm…damn, blanking on another name. I should learn to write these things down. These people were good. I don't just mean a little bit; they're all seasoned performers (and Jeff is an incredible guitar player) and they had a pile of songs that were funny, serious, and in between (the Buffy 101 song about the Leather Pants of Evil is the one that sticks most in my mind, I really, really enjoyed it, and I keep finding myself singing bits of the chorus. The dinner break on Saturday consisted mainly of waiting for pizza to be delivered and practicing. It took a while for the pizza, during which I practiced, alone and with UT (because they were singing a song with me, remember). And the concerts were running late for setup, because Contact was in the same hotel, and they had the ballroom until after dinner, so the sound couldn't be set up on time. This is a hazard of sharing function space, I'm afraid. Toastmaster Mike Stein's set was first, already 9:30 California time and I was already dead tired (I warned you about this phrase, didn't I?). I've seen Mike on and off at cons for ages now; I first remember him at Concerto, the first of the Permanent Floating North East Filkcons, and I particularly remembered his songs "Frozen Dreams" (very depressing but a lovely and haunting song, and I was delighted to hear him sing it again) and "How Can I Keep From Filking" (ditto). My set was after Mike Stein's. To put it mildly, I was terrified. I've been in front of larger audiences at the Worldcon Masquerade, but that's different. There are lights in your eyes, the hall is lost in the glare, and you're in disguise. And it's over quickly, presentations are under a minute long. But a concert set is entirely different; you're up there alone. Now, I've done sets before at Worldcons and filkcons and they were OK, no problem, but this time I was one of the main attractions. But if there is a more welcoming audience than filkers, I've yet to meet them. They're there for the music and the fellowship and together they make strong magic. By a few songs in, the magic worked through me and with me and fed me. Gary Ehrlich rescued me by bringing me some water, Steve Macdonald rescued me by retuning The Beast That Eats My Fingers (my 12-string), which had already taken two flying dives on the stage. And Urban Tapestry was wonderfully kind enough to sing with me on my last song. My set list was: The Battle; Leftover Hell; Ozymandias; Deceiver; Ghost Piggies in the Sty; Men of Iron, Women of Steel; Starbound Escape; Guiding Star; Filk Up Your Voices; Destiny's Shore and The Gift I Would Give. After my set was the second half of the Interfilk Auction. There was lots of good stuff auction, including a video of an early incarnation of Urban Tapestry. Money was collected in two hats, one by Paul Kwinn (to show it) and one by Debbie Ohi (to not show it). And for the record, I put money in both hats. I was pleasantly surprised to see my tape and song sheets go (one was a companion book to the tape, the other was the actual songsheets that I'd used for my concert, complete with scrawled notes and bits on comments that I wanted to make. UT had the final concert of the evening. If you haven't seen them perform, you're missing a real treat. They harmonize well, they have a great stage presence and they really, really get the audience involved. It also doesn't hurt that they have great material to work with: their love song to Jean-Luc Picard is one of the funniest performances that I've ever seen on stage or off. Oh, and they taught everyone the Hockey Monkey song so we could all sing it to whoever was leaving. After UT was open filk, which was fun. This is where Merav Hoffman sprung "Many Huns, One War" on Steve Macdonald for the first time, with guitar work by Eloise Beltz-Decker. It got just the reaction you'd expect, which was laughter and fun. There was a lot of good music that night from the Bonhoffs, Tony Fabris (who we pestered into signing up for a miniconcert the following day), UT, Bob Esty and Callie Hills...Kathleen Sloan did her "Meat" song (based very heavily on the Terry Bisson story) with Paul Kwinn (oh, and Paul did stuff to, of course). I collapsed out of the open filk at about 5 and slept until breakfast. Sunday morning was UT's harmony workshop. The room was small, crowded (like, most of the con was there, at least those of us where were awake, so they rescheduled the miniconcerts until afterwards, and with the weather, they moved the miniconcerts and the one-shots together, giving precedence to those people who had planes to catch. There was alot of good music, but I needed to take some time from it and head down to the consuite to do my "Colleen gig." Since Colleen Savitzky was stuck running the con suite and missed the concerts, people were going down and playing music for her at points during the weekend. I made sure to take my turn on Sunday; I went on down and sang half a dozen songs or so for her. And I hung out for a bit and eventually went on back to the concert room, where I found myself...well...you'll see. I got back down to the concert room in time to see the last part of Lynn Gold's set. Lynn does some really funny stuff, and despite some technical problems, she still had me laughing. The hardest part of the con to make it through (harder even than my own set) was Kathleen Sloan's set. Without any real introduction, a few songs in, she started singing Lloyd Landa & Karen Linsley's "Road to Roswell." The song itself, if you've not heard it, is a lovely and touching one, a song of mourning and healing and hard enough to listen to dry-eyed. It was made harder with the knowledge of Lloyd's sudden death in August of 2000. I can't claim to have known Lloyd very well; we mainly corresponded online via Debbie Ohi's Blatherchat. But he was one hell of a nice guy, and his death really sent a shock through the filk community and I found myself needing to wipe my eyes every few seconds. It was hard not to break down completely, and I'm sure there were others in the room who felt the same way. The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur after that, really. I know there was another quick Interfilk fund raiser, Kathy Mar did a great set, I spent some time teaching Jackie Nieves (who I know from out here in NY, but haven't seen but once since she moved to California a few years back) "Ozymandias" UT (with several of us helping from time to time) sang the Hockey Monkey song at several people and about 20 of us went out to dinner to a Chinese restaurant. The food was good, really, even if they put mushrooms in the vegetarian soup after being told that under no circumstances could they do that, but Lynn Gold who's deathly allergic to about half the foodstuffs on the planet had only a sip of soup and only swelled up a bit; her boyfriend didn't take her to the hospital until well after dinner. And then it was back to the con, where I walked into the con suite and Merav welcomed me home. The dead dog was going in both rooms for a while; we eventually moved out into the hotel lobby, those of us who were left (UT, Carla, Harold Groot who'd been busily videoing things, Tony Fabris, Lee and Barry Gold (and I know they had a concert, but I'm damned if I can remember just when it was -- I know I listened to it, though, and I can see them both on stage). And Monday, it was over. Breakfast and chats in the hotel, a few bars of the Hockey Monkey song for UT when they left, and a van ride back to the airport with Nick Smith and Carla Ulbrich. And I'm left with a need to go back home soon. All told, the con was a blast, even though I was (ta ta ta TUM) dead tired. My only complaint was that the hotel was isolated from everything and there was no place to walk to (other than the gas station next door). And the room we had for concerts when it wasn't Saturday night was too small, we were standing room only out in to the hall at several points. Everyone was really nice. UT…I love the three of you, you know that? Mike Stein was an excellent toastmaster, really quick with a pun and a smile. And there are so many talented and creative and wonderful people…I can't wait to get back home to it all. Filk is home.