Lousy Atmosphere, But the Con Was Terrific Conterpoint III June 16-19, 2000 Ramada Inn Quantico, Triangle VA I'm going to start my conrep with all the complaints. Yeah, it makes for a bit of a downer to start, but it'll also make you appreciate just how good the con was. The Ramada Inn Quantico is a Bad Hotel. I don't just mean for a con, I mean in general. The physical structure is decrepit at best, there's no elevator to get to the second floor (a true pain in the butt when it comes to hauling 2 guitars and a heavy filk bag too and from your room), there are problem with mildew and mold in the rooms, the air condition system is noisy and the locks on the room doors make this gawdawful smoke-alarm BEEP when you unlock the doors (really useful if, like me, you go to sleep about 3 hours later than everyone else in the room). The curtains to the rooms don't close without extra clips and there are big floodlights right outside to light up your life. The hotel leaks water in heavy rain (which we had plenty of) and you need to physically pull the doors shut hard if you expect them to lock. The mattresses are lumpy and worn. Any repairs to the physical structure were done at a bare minimum cost with no attempt at all to make it match the surrounding structure. According to one report, the nonsmoking rooms in a second building are on the same floor as the very-much-smoking employee lounge. There's also not much in the way of food within easy walking distance; if you're devoid of transportation, you have to use the con suit as your primary food source (which was possible, thanks to Carol Kabakjian). To their credit, the front desk staff was, to me at least, generally very helpful and friendly. All that being said, Conterpoint 3 was a Good Con; with the right hotel and a few small tweaks, it could have been truly an Excellent Con. The point of any SF con, being it a general one like Lunacon or Philcon (to choose two I'm a regular at) or a more specific one like Costumecon or the Permanent Floating Northeast Filk Convention, is to meet and mingle with fandom and creators of the material and get involved with it all. Which a con like Conterpoint is perfect for; filk cons are small and friendly and you really do get to see and talk to everyone. And sing with them, of course. We got in Friday afternoon early (just past noon) after a leisurely drive down 95 from just inside Maryland. Traffic wasn't too bad at all, really, except for the 95/Beltway merge south of DC, but that's acceptable enough. It would have been nice, though, if the convention flyer had actually mentioned an exit that existed (the hotel was at 150A, which we'd driven past because the PR said 149A; the exit just south of 150 is 148). Chatted a bit with Mike Liebmann who was sitting in the lobby with his guitar, practicing for his set, and hung with Perrianne Lurie who was going shopping with Ellen for the majority of the afternoon. The room wasn't ready yet and wouldn't be for several hours more (this is not a problem with the hotel; check-in was at 3PM and it wasn't even 12:30 yet), the concom hadn't yet arrived in the hotel, so it was relaxing. Steve Brinich and Sheryl Gere showed up shortly thereafter and we all chatted a bit more there in the lobby. I decided that I wanted to get a cord to plug Six Pack into the sound system during my set because I'd left them all at home (as well as the pickup for The Beast That Eats My Fingers, but that was deliberate -- I don't care for the way the Dean Markley pickup sounds on most of my songs). The woman at the front desk was VERY helpful and directed me to a nearby music store that sold guitars, cables, amps and the like. The store was about a 15 minute drive away, 2 exits up I95 and a few turns. Dangerously, it's right next to a largish used bookstore, across the street from a Japanese place and an Outback Steakhouse (this information will be useful later). They had what I needed, the price was right, so I bought my cable and I headed back to the con. A few more moments chatting with people (Erica Neely and her mom were there by this point) and I decided to see some of the surrounding area. Plus, I was a bit hungry and wanted a snack (which meant a drive). There's not a LOT in the immediate area in the way of places to go; I'd have done better heading back up 95 but there was a 7-11 which had stuff to munch on. Back to the con again, where con chair Harold Feld has arrived with our GoH, Joe Bethancourt and an adorable almost 2 year old Aaron. I'd never met Joe before (except online, of course), and he impressed me as friendly, polite, well spoken and a bit aghast at the fact that we have humidity on the East coast (I think he put it as "You have water in the air out here!"). The room was ready, got to unpack and watch a bit of some British Premier League soccer match (it was quite good, although I don't know who either team was -- one was "A Villa" on the scoreboard). Tracked down Gary Erlich to tell him I wouldn't be able to perform "Old MacDonald's Deformed Farm" in the Retrospective, as it was during the banquet I wasn't going to be at. He provided me with proper printed lyrics to "307 Ale" which I was going to be singing in the Pegasus Nominee's Concert later that evening (my copy is handwritten and very sloppy). All this and the con hasn't even started! Well, I did get down to get my badge, helped Carol and Rich Kabakjian set up the consuite (Carol is the Goddess of the Consuite -- I swear, she could do one out of whole cloth on no notice at all and it would be good), helped Lynn Gold, the Interfilk guest, move some of her stuff to her room and got to hear a prequel of "Winter on My System" and wandered down to check out the Dealer's Room. It was there that I ran into Erica again, who had agreed to sing two songs with me during my set on Saturday afternoon. I'm glad I ran into her (aside from the fact that she's just generally a nice person and pleasing to the eye and ear) because we needed to practice those two songs; I'd sent her RealAudio files, which she'd had only a couple of days to work on. We'd never sung together. Well, up to the room, where she backed my stuff up VERY nicely (and Erica's album is coming out WHEN? It was RSN at Concertino a year ago). Chatted a bit with Merav Hoffman, Batya & Alex Wittenberg, Steven Joel Zeve, Sue Cochran and others. And are the filkers kids cute or what? My own included, naturally, but they were safely at home with Grandma and Papa for the weekend. Due to a pressing gastronomic engagement (which is to say, dinner at a Thai restaurant in Manassas, some miles away), we missed the RegenFilk Ball. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not; it's nice to spent the time with people, but I have zero interest in Regency dancing or English country dancing, even if the tunes are filked. I hadn't planned on missing most of the Friday night concerts, but Manassas is quite a trek from Triangle and the Ramada Inn Quantico (especially when the road is blocked by an accident on the way back). (The food at the Thai place (can't recall the name of it, but it's around the block from the Visitor's Center -- Thai Secret, perhaps?) was good), so we missed all of it but about the last 5 minutes of Mike Liebmann's set (which is a pity; he happens to play and sing very nicely). The Pegasus concert was great. Some songs were represented on tape (for example, Debbie Ridpath Ohi's "My Jalapeno Man"), Matt Leger represented himself with "A Simple Country Doctor," as did Mark Mandel with "Little Fuzzy Vegetables." Erica did a lovely version of a British filk tradition, "Sam's Song" (Zander Nyrond). I can see why it's become a standard on that side of The Pond and why it's been nominated for a Pegasus. Joe got us all moving with his performance of Leslie Fish's "Serious Steel"). I should note that the performance were only for the actual songs nominated in the Best Song, Best End of the World Song and Best Food and Drink Song categories. The Best Performer and Best Songwriter categories were technically unrepresented (I'm a nominee in the latter category). Open filk Friday night was good. I didn't perform too much, since I wanted to make an attempt to save my voice for my set on Saturday afternoon. But there was plenty of good stuff out there to listen to and to enjoy. And I got to run interference for Erica, because (surprisingly for someone with that good and strong a voice) she's a little shy when it comes into breaking into a chaos circle. (Note to self for Millenium Philcon: arrange for designated "break-in" people at chaos filks). Saturday was just full of concerts. Perhaps too full; there really weren't a whole lot of breaks, which may have hurt the Interfilk auction scheduled in two parts between. (Interfilk is an organization that gets filkers from one part of North America to filk conventions in other parts that they wouldn't ordinary get to; Erica Neely will be sent to FilkOntario next April Fool's weekend, Lynn Gold was sent from California to Conterpoint, some guy named Dave Weingart is going to Consonance out in California next March.) Since that was the only break between performances, people had to take that opportunity to get food, go to the bathroom, etc. The auction and silent auction that followed still raised about $1100 for Interfilk, but I wonder if it might have been better to offer breaks between performances, and perhaps spread the one-shots out between the main performers I'm sorry to have missed the morning concerts, but sleeping latish and breakfast called to me, along with time to practice my set. I knew it was going to be tight because I'd timed myself to something like 27 and a half minutes of my 30 minute slot, and I didn't want too much too go wrong (something always does, of course). After the first Interfilk break, we had Matt Leger and his Trained Guitarist Gary (con programming head "Gorgeous" Gary Erlich). Matt can't play guitar worth a damn, but he writes really great stuff (which is why one of his songs is up for a Pegasus) and it's a treat to watch him perform with someone who can back him up (hence, his appearing with Gary).Erica Neely followed Matt. Despite her jokes about stage fright, she was self assured and calm on stage (any nervousness she had surely didn't show), chatty and a good performer. The people at FilkOntario are in for a treat when she graces their stage as Interfilk guest. She showed a nice range of material, and Not Everybody Died (not even close; she does depressing stuff, but her set wasn't, particularly). The second Interfilk break followed that, but, as I said, it may have been hurt by there being no OTHER breaks in the schedule to run to the con suite during. One good thing about the Interfilk auction break after Erica's set was it gave me extra time to set up, because I was right after it). I made a few flubs on songs and chording while I was performing, but on the whole, things were going pretty well (although, listening to the recording I made of myself, I sound a little rushed in spots, and flat as well. I've discovered why they invented kickback monitors). It was at this point that I made one of the more embarrassing mistakes of my filkish career and one that I suspect I'll be cringing about for some time yet to come. I figured to mention something about Echo's Children, since they were following me. So, between "The Prisoner of Chillon" and "Destiny's Shore" I said something on the order of "And after this, some people with musical talent, as opposed to Erica." Now, I'd planned on saying something like "as opposed to JUST Erica" -- the implication was to have been that there were two people on stage, one of whom was musical and wasn't me. Well, backpedaled as best as I could, I'm hoping it didn't throw me off too much (it certainly didn't throw Erica off any, performance-wise), but it was one of those "curl up and die" moments. (For the record, let me state that Erica Neely is a fine performer, a wonderful singer, a good harmonizer and looks really good in a short leather skirt and stockings. Hmm. Maybe I could get her to do backup while I sing her praises). Echo's Children followed me, with help from Bob Esty of Clam Chowder. They were fun; I don't believe I've heard them live before. They've got one CD out, which I *can* recommend, and I believe I heard another would be coming out RealSoonNow. The banquet break followed. Now, I didn't go to the banquet because the kids were at home with my parents, which meant Grownup Time and dinner at a Japanese place (across from the music store and bookstore). GOOD sushi. It also mean that I missed the Conterpoint retrospective, at which I was originally scheduled to sing a song, but had said I wouldn't be able to. Sadly, this info wasn't relayed to Steven Joel Zeve, our Toastmaster (who got someone else to sing in my place -- I believe Merav Hoffman and Batya Wittenberg, which is good, since they're both much better singers than I am (and cuter too ;) ). The evening's concerts were Lynn Gold, Joe Bethancourt and Clam Chowder. All of them are good performers and worth catching. Lynn has a very sick and twisted sense of humor and, thanks to a keen little synthesizer, some nicely complex songs (this will, sadly, limit their exposure; "Winter on My System" is probably NOT going to be properly done on acoustic guitar at any time soon). GoH Joe Bethancourt is quite an impressive musician, with two very cool looking guitars, a banjorine (kind of a smaller version of a banjo) and -- I kid you not - - an electronic bagpipe, which is fortunately nowhere near as annoying as the real thing. He did a good mix of up songs and down, even making country music sound good to me (I'm not a big fan of country). Clam Chowder was just a riot and had the whole audience up and dancing more than once, opening with "Science Fiction Double Feature" from the Rocky Horror Show (complete with those of us in the back row calling out the appropriate lines). Saturday open filk went on after that for quite some time. A few unusual touches were a friend of Joe's, name Vasaly, carrying around a Ukrainian instrument called a bandura -- GREAT sound, very neat indeed and D. Glenn Arthur's "Wall of Sound," a whole MESS of instruments, guitars, acoustic bass, trombone, several drums...all there to be used and played. Sunday morning was a problem. A church group (a Sunday morning regular at this hotel) took the main function space until 2, which meant that there couldn't be much programming. The alternate programming room was, quite frankly, inadequate for programming; it was a sleeping room with furniture and was being used for instrument storage to boot. It was still a great workshop and I got quite a bit out of it. Who knows? I may even learn to play guitar one day. And after the guitar workshops was the song contest (on the Conterpoint theme of "Looking Forward, Looking Back," or "Pasts and Remembrances" - - I seem to recall that the website said one thing and the flyer said another. The absolute funniest song of the contest, IMHO, was Lynn Gold's uplifting tale (of which I shall say no more, lest you miss your chance to hear her sing it). My own song, Dream Rider, did fairly well :) One shots came after that, with a pile of good songs. This was one of the few problems with con programming. Since there were so few breaks, it meant that the one-shots and the song contest was on Sunday afternoon, after many people had either left or were packing. In the future, it might be an idea to scatter the one-shots between performance sets, with a few songs here and a few songs there. And certainly hold the contest at a time when people are there and available! Dinner Sunday night after the con became the Dinner Run from Hell -- 8 of us in Mark Mandel's van, heading out to the Outback steakhouse, where we were informed it would be a two hour wait or so. Well, the weather was nice-ish, and we sat on the grass chatting for quite a while on various subjects (Mark on the Left, Kip McMurray on the Right, most of the rest of us all over themiddle and Erica trying to get comfortable sitting on the grass, and then most of us decided to walk across the street to the used bookstore across the street, next to the music store (see, I *told* you it would come up again!). It turns out that this store has a nice, large SF section, so a dozen books later (including yetta NOTHA copy of "Silverlock" to replace one that was lent and never returned) it was time to go. Except it was thundering and pouring and we had to get across the street to Outback, because it was about time for our table. Except it wasn't. We went off across the street in the rain (in my case, with a run to the ATM), and Mark was waiting with one of Outback's beepers. The table wasn't ready yet, and so I went in to find out. Still another 20 minutes to go. 15 minutes later, I went in to check and it was STILL another 20 minutes. About 2 and a half hours after we got back, I went in to check ONE more time and they said "Oh my god, we thought you guys left! We called you 45 minutes ago!" (Mark had their beeper and we could have heard their PA, so this claim is, In My Humble Opinion, suspect). We were NOT happy campers. Very severely not happy campers. But they found a table for us pretty much right away, and once we got there, the service was good and the food was good, and we all had a good time. Back to the hotel for the dead dog filk, after which we slept like them and got up in the morning for the drive home. So, on the whole, it was good. The programming was nice, although packed a bit too tightly. The musical guests were all good and entertaining, toastmaster Steven Joel Zeve kept things moving along quite nicely and the concom was quite responsive and available. Stage Manager Sheryl Gere kept a reign on people's time, mostly (although it is just NOT FAIR that she sat in the front row in a miniskirt while some of us were trying to concentrate on our music!). The con next year needs to move to a different hotel, though. Favorite moments: getting to filk wit' alla youse who was there, "Science Fiction Double Feature" during the Clams, managing to get through my last song even though I put my lyrics sheet back on the music stand upside down and backwards after I dropped it (about the same time I'd made my gaffe w.r.t. Erica's musical talent), Lynn Gold and I backing up Gary Erlich for "Interfilk Express" during the One-Shots, the guitar workshop, Joe Bethancourt's amazement at the water in the atmosphere (and there I thought it wasn't all that humid out!), the bandura in Saturday night's open filk, hanging in the con suite, and...well, almost all of it, really. Least favorite moments -- those mistakes during my set, of course, I think I've mentioned enough, having to get up in the morning and leave the con 'til next year. So, it was a Good Job all 'round by the concom, by the guests and by the assembled filkers. Here's to an even better con in 2001! Useful URLs: Interfilk: http://www.interfilk.org Pegasus Awards: http://www.inkspot.com/ovff/pegasus.html Permanent Floating Northeast FilkCon: http://www.filker.org/nefilk/