Random UT Highlights of FKO 8

Thursday

• getting together on Thursday night at the hotel with Dave and Tom (of Dandelion Wine) and Paul, Beckett, Taunya and Alisa, fresh in from California.
• meeting Alisa for the first time! (D: Alisa is a member of Puzzlebox, a new filk group from California)
• learning that Dave Clement will be the GOH at the UK filkcon next February and that Tom is going, too!

Friday

• sightseeing in downtown Toronto with Paul, Beck, Alisa and Taunya. (D: Alisa and Taunya seemed to like the Glass Floor a lot) (J: Beckett kept looking around for the strongest beams and pillars so that she would know where to run when the quake hit. "You're MOLE people!")
• exploring the underground TO malls with Beckett and Jodi.
• Jodi seeing Elvis Stojko in The World's Biggest Bookstore, though I missed him! (D: Jodi didn't tell Allison and me because she was (justifiably) afraid that we'd go chasing after him...) (J:It was cool! But Debbie and Allison frighten me at the best of times. Can you blame me? ;-))
• going to the SF Cafe for dinner (good food, new volumes of Sandman to buy and Paul beat me at pinball)
• reuniting with everyone at the con!
• D: sampling Lloyd and Yvonne Penney's chili in the con suite...yum... (J: Having my first taste of leggo candy. Fighting the urge to build a fortress on the coffee table.)
• the cool FKO 8 T-shirt designed by Sally Headford (I love the design, Sally!)
• the back cover of the FKO program book that revealed that Urban Tapestry will be GOH at FKO 9 next year :). And Don Neill will be Toastmaster! (J: Don as Toastmaster! Yay! I was giddy about that the whole weekend. :))
• hearing Ray Hickey, instrumentalist extraordinaire.
• the rollickin' Celtic jam! Great music, very fun.
• meeting Interfilk guests, Juliane Honisch and Kerstin Dröge, and debuting our new song Ich Mag Chokolade in their honour.
• open filking with lots of cool people until way too late :).

Saturday

• having breakfast with Dave and Tom, Katy and Ju.
• reuniting over coffee with ConCerto concom friends, Bill, Terry, Gary and Steve.
• enjoying Freddy Brown's concert (Freddy is the featured filker at Toronto Trek this July!)
• great one shots by Karen Lindsey and Lloyd Landa (you've got to hear "Nobody Knows That I'm Really An Alien") and Andrea Dale.
• debuting our new Xena song, Battle On! in our one shot. Wow, was that fun :). And Alisa coming on stage with us to finish our song with the best Xena yell this side of Lucy Lawless! (D: she tried teaching us how to do it, but no one can do it like Alisa) (J:I know where she can find the leather costume, too! :-) Wait. Maybe I shouldn't have admitted that...)
• my first opportunity to see Puzzlebox in concert! Paul, Taunya and Alisa- you rock!! (J: My first time too! Wow! Pretty impressive. Can't wait to hear you guys perform again!)
• singing Paul's "The Dark Man" with Puzzlebox in concert :). (J: That song always makes me shiver... Good job, Paul!)
• D: the Interfilk auction...always lots of fun. :-) Many thanks to Ellen Kranzer for buying our Interfilk activity/fun graffiti book package. I bought a very cool container of snackfunstuff donated by Diana Huey as well as a half hour private concert by Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers.
• Ju and Katy's Interfilk concert. The Star Trek "Lessons" song made me cry and their dinosaur song made me laugh! Thanks so much to Interfilk for bringing Katy and Ju to FKO! Keep supporting those Interfilk auctions, everyone! (J: What a treat they were! It was wonderful getting to know them and their music. Interfilk really did us a great service in bring them to FKO.)
• Heather Alexander's GOH concert. Oh, my, it was excellent. Also really enjoyed Maire's sign language. (D: me too. And I could have listened to Heather's fiddlestuff forever...) (J: Wow! What a stage presence that lady has! Mesmerising.)
• pizza dinner with bunches of folks. Kindereggs, glittery nail polish and too much silliness :). (J: "My puter knight can take YOUR puter knight ANY day..." "Oh... Um... It looks like all Mr. Potatohead's accessories fit into his butt." "Danger Will Robinson!") (D: I should point out that it was Kathleen Sloan who pointed out the anatomical possibilities of my new Mr. Potato Head keychain toy...)
• the arrival of Rand and Luis (of Ookla The Mok) from Buffalo.
• hearing the cool drum part that Luis wrote for our new song, "Another Story". (whoooo! Thank you, Luis!!!)
• the excellent entries in the Songwriting Contest. Congrats to award winners Paul Kwinn, Blade and Maureen O'Brien.
• the excellent jam by Dandelion Wine and Brandywine Bay.
• hearing Andrea and Tom jamming together on harmonica and guitar!
• and more filking until dawn! (literally, we saw the sun come up!)
• hearing Toastmaster John Hall sing Dorsai songs, especially Mark Osier's newest song, "Song For Foralie". (J: I'm reading "Spirit Of The Dorsai", John & Mark! There might just be a song out of that... Who knows? You've inspired me. :))
• singing "Never Too Old" with Diana Huey. That was fun, Diana :).
• D: I really enjoyed listening at the Song-Writing Contest...lots of great entries! Was tickled to hear Urban Tapestry mentioned in Ingrid DeBuda's song entry...thanks, Ingrid! :-) Congratulations to the winners.

Sunday

• casual breakfast and an advance listening of Ookla The Mok's new CD! Great fun! I can't wait to have my own copy, I highly recommend it! The CD will debut at Marcon where Ookla are also the filk GOHs- check it out!
• listening to the concert by Dave and Tom that Deb bought in the Interfilk auction :).
• congrats to new Filk Hall of Famers Cynthia McQuillian, Filthy Pierre and Rafe Culpin.
• way too many tearful mid-afternoon good-byes...
• D: being able to talk rubber stamps with Kathleen Sloan
• relaxed late afternoon filking in the con suite. A chance to sing "Face To Face" with Gary E. again!
• Chinese food and more evening chat and music with hardy remaining friends until we, too, had to leave for home.
• and a slew of other warm memories too numerous to count.

A rousing cheer for the FKO concom on running such an excellent con! We're honoured and excited to have been chosen to guest at FKO next year. We're looking forward to working with the concom to make next year's con just as memorable as FKO 8! We hope everyone who reads this report (and all your friends!) will join us there. It's gonna be a party, for sure, and it can only be made better with your presence. (D: For information about FKO, please check out their website Please do show your support by preregistering! Please come!!!! We'll bring chocolate... ) (J: Ooooo! Now when Debbie's willing to *give away* her chocolate, you *know* she really wants something. I'll bring the plum wine! It'll be a blast. Hope to see you there! :) )

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