FilkOntario 12
April 5-7, 2002
Sheraton Four Points Hotel, Missisaugua, Ontario

GoH: Joey Shoji
Filk Waif:  Dave Weingart
Interfilk Guest:  Anke Teschke
Special Guest:  Tanya Huff

One measure of how good a convention was is how bad you get the post-con
blues.  By that measure, Filkontario 12 was one of the best for a great 
many of us, because we all seem to be suffering from the loneliness that
comes after the con is over and the music fades into memory.

FRIDAY, April 5

The flight from New York's LaGuardia airport left at 10 in the morning,
which meant getting there by 8am for the international flight (yes folks,
Canada really is a whole 'nother country).  Which meant, in turn, getting
up at what my friend Mich calls "stupid o'clock in the morning," not a good
thing when you're up 'til 1am the night before with last minute packing and
pre-con jitters .  Still, it wasn't so bad getting there, and as an extra
bonus, Merav Hoffman & Jon Lennox were on the same flight.  I was antisocial
and slept the flight away anyway, because I wanted to be up to filk that night.

We were met at the airport by Yvonne Penny, toting a nice bright "FILKONTARIO"
sign that I managed to walk past until it was pointed out to me by Ellen.  She
wasn't expecting 4 people with luggage but managed to fit the lot of us into 
her car anyway, even after Merav and Jon offered to take the shuttle to the 
hotel.  It was tight, but hey, we're fen and friends; this is chosen family.
We managed.

Check-in was a breeze.  The hotel staff was friendly and efficient (this was
true the entire weekend), and was even able to change currency for us at a 
better rate than we would have gotten at the airport.  Our room on the 8th 
floor was nice, with a view of the CN Tower off in the distance (didn't make
it there this trip, but Worldcon in 2003 will be in Toronto, woo hoo!  I 
really want a filk circle on the glass floor). 

After unpacking and saying hello to people, we took a break for lunch across
the street and ran into Judith & Dave Hayman having a bite with GoH Joey Shoji.
It was an entirely pleasant surprise, and they invited us to join them.  Which,
I add, we happily did, and there were more than a few smiles.  I haven't seen
these people in far too long.  Ellen decided that a nap was in order after 
eating, so I wandered around the hotel for a bit, did some swimming, soaked in
the hot tub for a bit (where I had a nice chat with Canadian filker Carolyn
Brown), helped on setup in the main room & in Heather Borean's con suite for a
while and talked to people who I hadn't seen in ages (too many ages, certainly).

I walked on down to pick up my badge in the afternoon, which is where the 
running gag between Tanya Huff and I started. (I was going to tell this story
for a donation to Interfilk, so if you read it, you should feel free to send 
in a couple of dollars.  If you don't, terrible guilt will haunt you for all 
eternity, or until the end of this paragraph.)  See, Dave Hayman introduced me
to Tanya just prior to the con's "official" start.  Judith was standing there,
even paying attention and all, or so it seemed.  But not two minutes later, she
turned to us with, "Dave, have you met Tanya?"  Well, we both burst out
laughing and pretty much simultaneously swept into each other with cries of, 
"Dave!" "Tanya!" "It's been YEARS!"  This (the "Dave!" "Tanya!") was repeated
many times at the con, and will probably happen  at Torcon – be prepared for it.

Friday night's programming started at 7pm with the "Tie & Tails" party in the
con suite.  But we needed food before that (Passovoy's Rule holds, even at a 
filkcon), so we met the German filkers (Rika Köerte, Katy Dröge, Ju Honisch,
Anke Teschke and her boyfriend Michael) met us for dinner.  We had a great
time, it must be said, but we were a bit late getting back (the service wasn't
bad, but it wasn't incredibly speedy either), so the judging for T&T was 
delayed since the guests (that would be Anke, Joey, Tanya & I), were the 
judges.  We did get it done, though, and awards were given out for worst pun,
least Colonial, etc.

Heading back down to the main room for the concerts, I was given the *best* 
greeting by Seanan McGuire, who squealed and grabbed me in a full-body hug.  
Friday night's concert sets were Frank Parker, Gary McGath (both from New 
Hampshire), and England's Martin & Andy Gordon-Kerr.  Frank and Gary are both
relatively local to me so I have several chances to sing with them, but I
don't get to hear the GKs unless I'm overseas (which is sadly rare) or listen
to their CD (which I own and is not at all rare).  As Filk Waif, I had the
utterly delightful job of acting as MC for the con, and introducing everyone,
and all of them did a fine job, I have to say.  There's some very potent magic 
in music done well.

After the main concerts was a performance circle of Canadians, consisting of 
Urban Tapestry (Allison Durno, Jodi Krangle, Debbie Ridpath Ohi), Dandelion 
Wine (Dave Clement, Tom Jeffers) & Graham Leathers.  It was a rolicking good
time, but I couldn't stay until the end -- I was hosting a theme circle on 
"Songs That Tell A Story" (not coincidentally a Pegasus category this year)
that was taking place just down the hall.   There were so many wonderful 
stories told that evening!  Funny ones, sad ones, silly ones, oh, it was 
wondrous.  People have been telling stories this way for millenia for a reason.

In the same room, just aftewards, we had the "Tanya Huff Requests" circle, 
which was just that, songs that Tanya wanted to hear. We sang some great 
songs for our special guest, really classic stuff that I haven't heard or
sung in a while.  There had been prepared songs done by some people (I don't
recall, but I know that the concom had arranged this in advance), and after
that, others that she just wanted to hear.  By the time it was all over, we'd
sung and laughed and shared some more.  And frozen; the choice of heating was
a noisy air system that wreaked havok on sound (and filk is music, after all;
we need SOME sort of quiet) or none at all.  But all-to-quickly, by about 1 in
the morning, we realized just how early we'd gotten up in the morning to get
to FKO.  We decided bed was a good idea and toddled off to sleep the sleep of
the dead.

SATURDAY, April 6

The first order of business on Saturday was breakfast.  We'd previously 
arranged to meet Debbie Ohi because she was going to play tambourine for me
on one song.  I was delighted to see that Allison & Jodi  were joining us as
as well.  A few others joined us as well (my mind is blanking, but I believe
Terence Chua & Steve Simmons), and we ate and laughed.  Yes, there's a LOT of
fellowship at a filkcon, why do you ask?  One quick practice session in the 
same semi-frigid ballroom we'd filked in the night before and then it was off
for Joey Shoji's open practice session for his set later.  He was having 
several of us sing on a few of his songs.  Given that we'd never worked 
together (well, sort of, since Joey's sung with SOME of us before) before,
it went rather well, I thought.  Some of the people singing with Joey were
Jodi and Allison, MEW, Anke, Dave & Tom and myself.

My set was the first of the "main" sets of the con, coming right after some
of the one-shots.  I'd practiced the first bit over and over in the best (read,
"not very good") French I could muster.  What I'd done was translate Steve 
Macdonald's "Many Hearts, One Voice" as "Beaucoup De Coeurs, Un Voix."  And,
amazingly, it worked.  I don't speak French very well, but people were singing
along, even with the wonky scansion.  The other singalong, "The River," worked
better than I'd dared dream.  Thank you so much to everyone at FKO who sang
along.  It was one of the more special moments of my con.  

My set list as played:

Beaucoup De Coeurs, Un Voix (original by Steve Macdonald, translated by me)
Carving the Dawn
Political Science 101
The River
Just A Boy Named Harry
Ozymandias
Last Run (by Gwen Knighton)
Ghost Piggies In the Sty
For the Sake of Tomorrow
Closer to Fan (Ellen Weingart on pennywhistle, Debbie Ridpath Ohi on tambourine)

Then followed more one-shots and Tanya Huff's concert.  Now, Tanya doesn't 
perform as such, so she did a reading of a very amusing story about a vampire
and giant bugs in the Toronto Metro that made me wonder why it's been so very
long since I've read one of her books (note to self: remedy that ASAP).

Interfilk guest Anke Teschke's set followed more one-shots.  Anke is one of 
those filkers that I can't see very often, since she lives in Germany; we're
typically at one con a year together (if that).  She's fun to listen to; and
does a nice range of material on her gaily-decorated guitar.  She did most of
her songs in English (which is OK, since most of the people at FKO spoke 
English rather than German)  One big surprise in her set was when she talked
about doing a song by another filker and struck up her opening chords – and 
it was one of my songs ("Deceiver")!  Now, I knew that Anke sang it because 
she'd asked me for the chords after Conthirteena and she said she was going
to sing it for me at FKO, but I surely didn't expect that.  I was (and still
am) very honored that she sang it in her set. The only question is, why does
 everyone do my songs better than I do?

More one-shots (and did I say that I like the way the one-shots were broken up
into groups of 3 rather than being in one block the way most conventions 
(including ones I help run) do it) and then GoH Joey Shoji.  Joey's a sweetie,
he really is.  And a good performer.  And very funny.  He started with a song
that talked about Anke, Tanya & I and which had me giggling; he may well have
written the lyrics at-con.  As said previously, he had several of us singing
with him during the set:  Mary Ellen Wessels (aka MEW), Dandelion Wine (Tom 
& Dave), Urban Tapestry (Allison, Debbie and Jodi), Anke & myself.  The final
song was about the TV show "Enterprise" (which I don't watch)  with Jodi, 
Allison, Anke and myself doing backup vocals and guitar. That was a blast; I
got to play with Joey Shoji and it was fuuuun!

On Saturday evening, FKO hosts the Filk Hall of Fame banquet, where people
are honored for their service to the community.  As this was my first (but
definitely not my last) FKO, it was my first banquet, and I wasn't sure what
to expect.  I didn't expect to have to speak, but all the guests were each 
asked to say a few words.  Joey started off talking about the community of
 filkers, and that was a good lead in for me and then for Anke and even for 
Tanya.  She may not have known it before, but she is One Of Us.

After some baseball chat with Bill & Gretchen Roper and Steve Simmons, it was
time for the inductees to the Filk Hall of Fame.  The awards this year were to
England's Lissa Allcock (accepted by Rika), Germany's Kirsten Tanger (accepted
by Katy, who read the citation in German; it was the first time I've heard her
give an extended talk in her native language and she sounds so different!) and
the US's Alan Thiesen (still one of the nicest guys in fandom).  It was very
emotional, and the honor is very well-deserved in all three cases.

After the banquet was the first of the two song contests of the convention.  
The first was sponsored by Tanya, who offered a prize for the best songs 
written about her work, with judging to be done by the guests of the con.  I
don't think she realized that, as a guest, she would have to do that (and it's
not the easiest thing in the world).  So after the presentation of the songs,
we retired to The Semi-Frigid Ballroom and hashed it out.  In the end, we came
up a tie between Judith's "The Lazy Wizard" and Ju's "Fading Day." 

Between the two song contests was the Interfilk auction.  Now, if you've been
to any auction before, you'd have some idea of what the Interfilk auction is
for; it raises money for Interfilk, an organization that brings people to North
American filkcons from other places; it brought Anke to FKO from Germany and 
last year it sent me out to Consonance in California.  But it's not just an 
auction; it's an entertainment event.  Instead of runners, there are wenches,
typically female and typically dressed in enticing clothing (wee Talis, being
only 5, wasn't, but she's just too cute for words).  The idea is to entice
people to bid (not that  we need much enticing).  Some items are silly, some
serious. One-off CDs from people go for decent bids but the highest amount 
raised on a single item was to have a secondary character in the next 3 Tanya
Huff novels named for and based on you.  This went to Zev Sero for $700 CDN 
(thank you so much Zev!)

After that was the regular songwriting contest, on the theme of "Technology,
Past and Future." It was Anke's job to MC it, and I didn't have an entry.  All
I needed to do was sit back and enjoy all the great music that people were 
making.  Some entries were silly, some were stunning.   The winners were:  Fred
Brown,"I'm Lookin' Back (to the Good Old Days)"; Paul Kwinn, "B.S"; Joel
Polowin, "Universal Translator."

For Saturday night, we had what I consider the single worst problem at a 
filkcon.  Too much good music, not enough time to hear it.   There were 3
rooms and I only got to two of them.  I started off and mostly stayed in 
The Semi-Frigid Ballroom that Anke's theme circle on space songs started in.
Steve Macdonald and Katy did "A Thousand Ships," Rika didn't sing nearly 
enough, Erica Neely wandered into the room at about 5:30 AM, too late to sing
"The Wild Hunt" with me, but not too late to sing "The Prisoner of Chillon."
At some point, there was an Irish pickup band in the hallway outside, with Ju
on pennywhistle, Graham Leathers on bodhran, Mary Bertke on banjo and Amy 
McNally on fiddle.  I was pulled into the other room so Andrea Dale and Debbie
Ohi could play a delicious New York song, "Saxophone in Spring" for me.  
Andrea, by the way, says that this will be in her forthcoming CD!  Long at
about 6 in the morning, it was time for bed, so bed it was.  Had the hotel
started serving breakfast sooner, I'd have seriously considered it, but I 
opted for a few hours sleep.

SUNDAY, April 7

We awoke at the crack of  noon for Sunday's breakfast at the coffee and donut
shop across the street; since I didn't have any official duties for a while 
and sleep was a Goodness (as well as a necessity).  The first item of business
at FKO on Sunday that I got to was the Filk Hall of Fame concert.  Each of the
inductees to the HoF gets to choose 5 songs that they want to hear; they 
needn't be songs of their own, presented in random order.  I got to announce
them and…well..there were some truly beautiful songs; Phil Allcock's "Precious
Moments" as performed by UT was enough to bring one to tears (and deserves a 
nomination for Best Song on the Pegasus Awards).

It was, by the way, during this that the members of FKO showed what stuff as 
filkers are made of.  I was handed the total from the Interfilk auction to 
read; just under $3600 CDN.  After much cheering and clapping during this break
in the concert, I just (strictly on the spur of the moment) asked, "What am I 
bid to screw up their bottom line?"  Terence, bless his cthulhu-shaped heart,
opened bidding with $5 CDN, Ingrid bid $10, someone with jumped in with an
irrational number, Gary McGath bid some multiple of pi.  In the end it went for 
$37.01 CDN, which brought us over the $3600 CDN mark.  Well done!

The open jam ran for about an hour and a half in the main room, after which 
there was a dinner break.  During this time, we wandered in and out, listening 
to the music or saying goodbyes to those who were leaving. The guests had 
dinner with the concom (where we laughed and sang and had a good time), and
many of the rest of the people who hadn't yet left went out elsewhere (where
they laughed and sang and had a good time).  We all converged back into the
main room for the Dead Penguin Filk after we had eaten, slowly but steadily,
until the room was filled.

My one complaint with the Dead Penguin Filk at the end of the con was that it
was far too short.  There were so many good songs, so many voices.  And…oh, the
final musical moments of the con were really quite special.  Steve Macdonald 
led us in "Many Hearts, One Voice" which had the entire room's collective voice
raised in song.  Followinq that we sang the Pegasus-winning song & UK staple 
end-of-con "Sam's Song."  And finally, Steve led us in "Merry Meet," arms 
linked, voices blending, tears in more than one eye (including mine).  It was
a bittersweet moment, one that's almost impossible to explain to anyone who 
hasn't experienced it.  You want to hold on and on to that final note.  No 
recording, no matter how good, can capture that feeling and that energy.  We 
cried, we laughed (et simul) and we hugged one another as FKO's programming 
faded into the dark.

MONDAY, April 8

Monday morning started with breakfast in the hotel with Rika, Katy, Ju, Anke,
Michael, Terence, Daniel & Melissa Glasser and Larry Kirby.  It was a sad 
moment because we knew it would be the last time for all of us to be together
for far too long time.  The hugs weren't long enough, couldn't have been long
enough, but had to be given and had to, at the finish, end.  Finally, 
regretfully, we took the shuttle back to the airport with Erica and Terence.

The crowning moment, the most powerful moment, the very best and very worst 
moment of FKO would have to be the final 3 songs on Sunday night that had the
a good chunk of the room holding back tears.  Beyond that, my favorite moments
of FKO,  in no particular order were:  the big squealy greeting I got from 
Seanan.  Anke's set.  Rika singing for me (she did this lovely, haunting 
Tolkein song in German during the Dead Penguin Filk, and I really need to 
learn it). UT singing "Precious Moments" in the Filk Hall of Fame concert.  A 
room of people singing "The River" with me during my set.  Tanya Huff being so 
amazingly cool.  Playing and singing with Joey Shoji.  Seeing all my friends
and chosen family and all the hugs.

Au revoir, Filkontario.  A bientôt!

Useful links:
Filkontario: http://www.bserv.com/community/fkoa.htm
Interfilk:  http://www.interfilk.org/
Pegasus Awards:  http://www.ovff.org/pegasus.html