There and Back Again -or- A Filker's Holiday Conthirteena Feb 2-4, 2001 Albany Hotel Eastbourne, Sussex England The trip to Conthirteena started off inauspiciously. I left my office at about 3 in the afternoon to make it to JFK airport through traffic and get my 5:30 PM check in time. I was entirely too pessimistic; I made it to JFK the fastest I've ever done, with the exception of the time I drove there at about 3 AM once (long story and it was years ago and now I know better). Sadly, Virgin Atlantic is in Terminal 4, which is new and doesn't have much way to pass the time 'til my 6:30 boarding. Which stretched rather late 'til 7:40, because US Customs was going over the plane. And once we boarded, we pulled out of the gate, went about 100 feet and stopped. And waited. And waited some more. Until the pilot came over the PA and announced that there was a little blinking light in the cockpit that shouldn't have been there, but he had to have it checked out. Another half an hour later, and he announced that yes, it was the sensor and they would replace it and we'd be on our way. So I passed the time chatting with my seatmate and the cabin staff (one stewardess was heading to Cardiff some hours after we got in so she could see the England-Wales rugby match, for example). And we waited and the pilot came on and said, "Yes, it's all fixed, now they just have to close the engine cowling and we'll run some tests and be on our way." And we waited and chatted and waited and the pilot came on and said, "They can't seem to close the engine cowling and they'll need to call a hydraulic lift and that could take some time and we'll see if we can't get some snacks and drinks from the ground crew." Finally, FINALLY, at about quarter of midnight NY time, we taxied off to the runway for takeoff. Soon thereafter, the cabin staff came 'round offering drinks. Sure, I know that you're not supposed to drink on a flight, but I was just so annoyed by this point that I had a double whisky (Grants, not my usual Islay malt). And with my meal, I had a nice glass or two of wine (at about...oh...1 or 1:30 NY time), an after dinner cognac...oh, I was feeling just FINE when I woke up about 4 hours later for breakfast :) I finally go into London (as opposed to Heathrow) at about 1, when the Heathrow Express let me off at Paddington Station. Paddington is a nice station, really, high arching roof, lots of little shops, easy connection to the Tube. Looking over my London A-Z, it's pretty easy to get from Paddington to Blackfriars, just get on the Circle Line and go 'round. But I didn't have the day of siteseeing in London I'd planned on, since I was due to meet Teddy on the Thameslink train at Blackfriars at about 20 minutes to 5. So I did a whirlwind through the Tate Modern (just five minutes walk from Blackfriars, right where the new Millennium Bridge (still closed) is) and I'll have to go back when I'm awake. I also took in St. Paul's, although I didn't feed the birds, no, not even at tuppence a bag, and got on the train and there was Teddy right where he said he'd be. We got into Wimbledon and waited for Tom (FanTom,) to get home from work so we could eat a little something (yummy Indian takeaway -- I'll add my voice to those who say that Indian food in the UK is worlds ahead of what we can get here in the US of A) and head on down to Eastbourne. Teddy and Tom are, in the words of the English, smashing blokes, really fun to hang out with (and costumers as well as filkers, so right away, we had two major fannish activities in common!). I probably wasn't the best of company for the trip down; I think I fell asleep before we left the greater London area as they were singing bits from the Goon Show. We got to Eastbourne about quarter past 9 or so. I was amazed at how many people recognized me, but then, I was amazed at how many people I recognized when I was there (namewise, I guess, since they had an easier time figuring that some American chap who wasn't Bill Sutton, Steve MacDonald or Barry Childs-Helton was probably me). Check in was a breeze, and after I unloaded my stuff, I went off to the hotel bar for a pint and to schmooze and see who was there and kept running into ever so many friends-I-hadn't-yet-met. I never did get to the concerts on Friday night, which was a shame because I know I missed tons of good music and the Taste of German Filk concert (although Anke Teschke's set on Saturday helped me a bit there, but I also spent it with pints and pints of really good bitter (and only 2 pounds per pint (about $3), it was really inexpensive and so very tasty. I cringe to think how many pints I had over the course of the weekend!) and with all these wonderful people. I suspect, of course, that they got tired of me mentioning MilPhil, the Pegasus awards, the songbook and the Filk Hall of Fame. I did get down to the open circle in the room off the main concert room, even though Six Pack was being very tempermental and offkey (much like my voice, really, after the jetlag and the drink and the lack of sleep), lasted 'til about 1AM UK time and then off to bed for a night of much-needed sleep. And, I ask, how fannish is this, sharing a king-sized bed at a con with a guy who I've never met before? A good solid English breakfast was included with the room, and I barely got up in time for it. At this point, I still haven't met my roomate, since he was abed before I was and was awake before I was. But I showered up and staggered downstairs, had some much-needed coffee and food (what sadist decided that the best way to get fried eggs out of a serving tray was to use a pointed cake server???) and wandered off to Eastbourne to see what was there, since I had time before the first concerts of the morning. It's quite a nice town, and much livelier than an American seaside town would be at the beginning of February. It was decidedly a misty, moisty morning, but it was worth going for the walk and taking in a little air. The first concert I got to Saturday morning was Lawrence Dean's. He's got a nice strong voice, very folky stuff, and he does some really nice pieces (and, BTW, I recommend you pick up his brand-spanking-new CD, "Labyrinth of Shadows" -- it's really good). After Lawrence was the Obliter8/HarmonIX Guest, Scott Snyder, a demon guitarist and a very strong performer. I'm not sure my fingers move as fast as his do when I'm NOT holding a guitar -- if I were a quarter as good a guitarist as Scott is, I'll have massively improved. And he's got this killer song about the Man Who Wears No Gun that you simply must hear. (Oh, and did I mention that his wife, Amanda, is really nice, too? But I can't get them for MilPhil because she's due to be giving birth right around then. *sniff*) I went off in search of a chip shop at the lunch break. This being England, I had to, just HAD to have proper fish and chips. Which I did, at a little packed place with a very fast takeaway counter. And it was good. Looked for a few souveniers, some books and such (for example, the Hugo-losing "The Science of Discworld" is Just Not Available here in the US). I've heard that English food and service is supposed to be bland at best and spotty at worst. This is absolutely false, at least in my experience. I was served faster in this particular chip shop far faster than I would EVER be at almost any American fast food place, and it was incredibly good. The Indian food I had with Teddy and Tom on Friday night was likewise superb. Breakfast at the hotel was really good, the Chinese takeaway I had up in Nottingham was marvelous. And in every place I went, service was good and quick. After lunch was the N'Early Music Consort, a filk choir, and a damned good one at that. They did quite a few lovely pieces, one of the most memorable was Lawrence Dean's "Labyrinth of Shadows" -- I may have to go out and read the Ghormenghast books again; it's been years. And they had a lovely Hogswatch carol, done with straight faces. Somehow. Tim and Annie Walker (collectively known as Wilderwood) also had their set. in the afternoon. I was very impressed. I hadn't heard them live before (since I missed GaFilk :( ) and it was well worth the wait, really good stuff. And I need to learn that song they did about the Silmarillion (I don't recall it properly, but the chorus ended with some variant of "My family and relatives are readers, every one, but I still can't understand the bloody Silmarillion."). And Annie insisted that she had a cold and you couldn't have shown in by me; she sounded great. I admit, I skipped out on the WorlDream practice session that followed and missed most of the Songs From The Opera concert, opting instead to go back to Eastbourne and see some more of the town (well, it was only a short walk away, and I needed postage stamps) and I spent a chunk of the afternoon in the bar, writing postcards, talking with people (and I discovered that in addition to being a fine performer, Talis Kimberly is also a snowboarder!). I caught the last half of Barry & Sally Childs-Helton's afternoon concert and went in for the UK Filk Fund auction and business meeting. The UK Filk Fund auction was very different from an Interfilk auction here in NorAm. Interfilk auctions are full of shtick and jokes; they're an entertainment event as much as a fund raiser. The UK auction was much quicker, really. It seemed odd, somehow; it was an auction, sure enough, but really no more than that. Although I'm glad to say that the items for auction were no different than the ones we'd get on this side of the Pond. I have no idea what poor fool got the hot chili pepper lollipop I donated, but I hope it was someone who appreciates spicy food. :) The Main Concert of a UK filkcon is what we'd call "One Shots" or "Twofers" here in the States (and, I'm guessing, in Canada). Performers sign up, do one or two songs, and get off. It was great. There was a nice range of music. I did two (Well, sort of, I got through "Deceiver" OK but I managed to blank on the words to "The Gift I Would Give" and my songbook was out of the room. When will I *learn* dammit??? Thankfully, someone brought it in and I finished the song OK). Fortunately, the other people did a much better job, I think, really worked well. And then, Saturday night's open filk. Oh...my... It was, in a word, overwhelming. UK filkdom has a hell of a lot of good performers, higher percentage-wise than the US does, I think. Rachel-the-Fiddler started up a tune, she was joined by the Walkers and the Whitakers and the Childs-Heltons and the Suttons and the room it just went from there. For hours. And hours and hours. Talis did a song or two, Christo did stuff, Lawrence did stuff. Miki Dennis did some really wonderful spoken word pieces. Minstrel played. Chris O'Shea played. God, I think *everyone* did something there. Steve MacDonald sang "Locomotive Queen," Steve and Bill did 20 minutes of "When I Was a Boy." I sang stuff too, but I can't recall what it was I did (I think I did "Neverwhere" at one point later on, probably the first time I haven't had to explain what the song is about). It was truly a magical moment, and a high the likes of which I've rarely felt anywhere, in fandom or out of it. People began to dwindle away; at one point, the non-UK filkers outnumbered the UK ones 3:1. But this two changed as numbers dropped (Kathy Mar left! I've arrived in filking, I outlasted Kathy Mar! :) ) through the early morning until there were but 4 of us: Mich Sampson, Snowdrop, Soren Nyrond and me. It is at this point that I'm going to rave about Mich. She's a keyboardist, a good keyboardist, does some really evocative stuff, AND she sings well and pulls it all together. At one point, I handed her a topic. "Eggplant," I said. She thought for maybe 5 seconds, started playing some off-the-cuff tune and started to sing, making it up as she went along. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, final chorus, looking and sounding like she'd been practicing her performance for 6 months instead of creating it on the spot. Mich, by the way, had no idea what an eggplant is. She's a confirmed carnivore and, as it turns out, in the UK, what we here in the US call an eggplant is an aubergine. And she still pulled it off, and pulled it off really well. I WANT THIS WOMAN AT A US CON!!! The Four Filkers of the Apocalypse, we were, kept going 'til people started coming down for breakfast. Mich did yet another off the cuff song on a suggestion (I can't recall who it was who was talking about "morning talk," the sort of yawning, semi-coherent stuff you say when you first get up) and damned if she didn't do another miraculous job of it. At 7, we were all ready for caffeine and food (well, we wre ready for it hours before, but the restaurant hadn't yet opened, and the concept of the 24-hour diner hasn't hit the UK yet, so we trouped on over to the restaurant and ate. And chatted with people (all of whom had managed to do things like shower and sleep -- the wimps!). And had a wonderful time. And I got to play with little James Whitaker, who is just too cute by far. After a nice hot shower and lots of coffee and packing, I caught Anke Teschke's set on Sunday morning, as well as the Childs-Helton's second set (that's something you wouldn't see at a US con), both of which were excellent. But I left the con way too early (and, perhaps, not early enough) on Sunday; I cought 12:50 train from Eastbourne to London Victoria, a far too-short lunch and then a 4:00 train from St. Pancras up to Nottingham, where I've a very dear friend who I was going to see (I mean, really, go all the way to England and not go?). All told, the con was super. The hotel was under renovation, but the staff was friendly and helpful. The concom did a great job; this was probably one of the most fun weekends I've had. That poor night guy who kept the bar open until 4 AM for us (this is normal for a New York bar, but the beer and the company in the Albany Hotel were much better than in your generic New York bar!) was fun, and there were so many wonderful, WONDERFUL people there. The absolute highest points of the con, in no particular order, were the Saturday night circle, greeting the dawn, Mich Sampson, meeting all these people I knew only as an online name, and I want to go back, I want to go back NOW! Which still won't be soon enough.