The shananigans started early for UT at OVFF this year, even before Debbie and I arrived. Deb and I flew into Ohio on Friday night, but Jodi went a day early to visit with Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers and assorted Ohio early birds. (Jodi: What fun that was! I should mention that I went out to supper at the local Olive Garden with Diana and Shelby, Dave Weingart and Ellen, Carol Flint, Jan Di Masi & Howard Harrison. A lot of fun and good conversation was had by all. Then Dave and Tom finally arrived. They'd driven all the way from Winnipeg and were really beat - but even tired, those two are a blast. :-) It was wonderful to catch up with them since I hadn't seen them in so long.) She was also there to perform her Pegasus-nominated song, "The Lady", at the Pegasus Concert on Friday night. Since Deb and I had commitments that kept us from getting to the con that early, Dave and Tom stepped in to perform with Jodi. (Jodi: Thank you, Dave & Tom! I really appreciate your standing in for that at the last minute. It was a truly magical moment for me. :-)) Seems they gleefully announced off the stage that they were Urban Tapestry, setting up a weekend of identity swapping between UT and Dandelion Wine :). It was rather disconcerting to arrive at the con only to have people say, "Hi, Allison! You look much better than you did a couple of hours ago!" :). (Jodi: It actually got quite a laugh, as a matter of fact. Especially when Tom got up and did the "dimple" bit when he was pretending to be Debbie. I laughed so hard I almost couldn't perform the song. ;-))
Anyway, since Dave and Tom had usurped our places :), Deb and I decided -we'd- be Dandelion Wine for the weekend. Dave and I made it official by swapping name badges at the banquet, not a bad deal for me as it meant I got to be the Best Performer Pegasus award winner for the last part of the con :). (Debbie: I was a bit taken aback to have people call me Tom when I first arrived. Flattered, of course, but surprised. Later on I heard that when Tom said he was me, he did a dimple imitation. As if I had dimples!! I owe him bigtime for that. Anyway, I got a kick out of wearing Tom's name badge for the whole convention. I had a lot of people comment on my extremely good shaving job. :-)) (Jodi: Not to be left out, Rand and I exchanged badges at around the same time. I'm not certain I could pass as a "Rand"... but I think Rand might be able to pass as a "Jodi" (I've seen it used for both males and females... Mind you, "Rand" might also be the same way. I don't know.) ANYway...)
Deb and I arrived at the con by 11:30, shuttling in from the airport with Gary, Sheryl and Crystal. We were glad to make it in time to attend the debut party of Puzzlebox's first CD, "Assembly Required". UT has been watching the development of this project since it was no more than a twinkle in Paul, Taunya and Alisa's eye and we were happy to be there as they celebrated the final results. It's a terrific CD with a wonderful cover by Beckett Gladney. Contact Paul Kwinn for details on how to buy a copy. (Debbie: The cover alone is worth the price of the CD! And then you get all that fantastic music. I'm not just saying that cuz UT is on it, of course. :-) ) (Jodi: What a FANTASTIC album! I can't get some of those songs out of my head. I listened to it for several days after the convention to keep myself sane after the "post-con" blues hit and I started missing everyone terribly. (sigh))
After bunches of happy reunions, we ended up in an open filk across from the con suite. I was dead tired (spent most of the day controlling a Gr. 5 Halloween party) and hadn't -planned- to stay, but SteveMac was singing Beatles and he knows my weaknesses well. SteveMac is evil. He also does Beatles very well :). (Debbie: What Allison doesn't know, of course, is that I ran up to Steve and urgently whispered, "Steve, QUICK, SING SOME BEATLES!! Allison wants to go to bed." And he immediately launched into "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" without missing a beat. And it worked. HAHAHAHA.) We stayed and sang for a few hours before heading off to bed. (Jodi: I was happily exhausted. And yes, SteveMac is EVIL. You have my vote, Allison. ;-)) The musical highlight of that filk had to be hearing Rand and Adam sing "The Hockey Monkey Song" for the first time. It's such a goofy, infectious little song that I haven't been able to get it out of my head since the con! My Gr. 5 class loves it as much as I do. (Debbie: "And it's 1 2 3 the kids love the monkey 4 5 6 the monkey's got a hockey stick...") (Jodi: Hee! I love that song. Allison and I were singing it all the next morning during brunch and in front of the con suite when we headed out there. We'd just launch into a verse or two in the middle of things. It's such and infectuous little song. I think we greatly amused Adam, actually, who caught us doing it several times on Sunday morning, too.)
Jodi and I did brunch on Saturday morning while Debbie went to practise flute with Kathleen, Joey, Karen and Lloyd for later concerts. (Debbie: I was tickled and delighted to play Starship and Haiku with Kathleen and Joey, and Nobody Knows I'm Really An Alien with Karen and Lloyd.) After that we settled in for an afternoon of concerts and one-shots. Toastmistress, Kathleen Sloan, was up first, performing a very entertaining concert with guest performers including Paul Kwinn, Kathy Mar, Joey Shoji and Debbie. She sang many of the popular songs she's sung in recent years and she debuted her very funny "Catalogue Queen" song. (Debbie: I loved that song!!!! Great concert. I love mail order catalogs, too, but I am a mere Apprentice compared to Kathleen, The Catalog Queen.) She also told -great- stories. Ask her about the musk-flavoured Life Savers.
Karen Lindsey and Lloyd Landa performed next. Being fellow Torontonians we knew we were in for an event here. Karen and Lloyd blew away the audience and got a standing ovation for wonderful songs like their new B5 song, "I Am Stardust", "Nobody Knows That I'm Really An Alien" (which Debbie played flute on) and "Road To Roswell". (Debbie: Don't forget to buy their amazing CD!!!!)
Andrea Dale was next with an excellent collection of songs, many from her
CD, "Step Out Of Time". Clif and Carol Flynt added wonderful harmonies on
Andrea's two final songs. A particularly poignant highlight of Andrea's
concert was her tribute to Lan Laskowski who died
of cancer earlier this year.
(Debbie: I bawled, I admit it. Andrea's a wonderful songwriter. You all have to
go out and buy her CD as well!)
(Jodi: A beautiful and fitting tribute to a man who had
brought so much laughter and light into our lives.
Thank you so much for putting that into song, Andrea.
All the concerts I saw were amazing! I'm really proud
to be a part of a community that fosters so much
talent and FUN all at once. :-))
Puzzlebox was next and they were in great form. They performed many of the songs from their new CD as well as a new song by Alisa called "Maple Tree". Guest musicians included Beckett, Rand and Adam, Scott Snyder and Luis Garcia. Puzzlebox had a terrific variety of funny schtick and lush harmony pieces. Watching them in concert is always a treat. (Debbie: Excellent concert. And wow, Beckett's SO great on harmonica...I've asked her to give me some lessons, and she has graciously agreed. Woohoo!)
Interfilk guest, Mary Miller, was the only Saturday performer I hadn't heard before and I was very impressed! Mary has a wonderful soaring voice and she sang a variety of sweet ballads and wonky parodies. She was a great addition to the con. Thank you, Interfilk! (Debbie: I'm grateful to Interfilk for giving us a chance to hear/meet Mary.)
Next up was GOH, Tom Smith. Unfortunately, I missed the concert, but word has it that Tom was super impressive as always and got the second standing ovation of the day. (Debbie: Great concert, of course. :-) I loved his parody of BNL's "One Week".)
Shortly after the concerts we headed off to the Pegasus Award Banquet. We sat with Rand, Dave, Tom, Howard, Geoff (Debbie: It was Geoff's first time at a convention!) , Heather and Kathy. The food was good and the conversation was goofy. I was delighted to be sitting next to Dave Clement when he won his Pegasus Award for Best Performer. Shades of the FKO '99 Banquet when I was sitting next to Dave when he was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame! (Jodi: Yay Dave! Much deserved. :-)) Congratulations, as well, to all the nominees this year and Cat Faber, Cynthia McQuillian, Tom Smith and Leslie Fish for their Pegasus wins.
The OVFF songwriting contest this year was one of the finest I have attended. The calibre of the entries was so high I couldn't have possibly predicted a winner. Congratulations to Taunya Shiffer, Renee Alper and Paul Kwinn for their awards in this contest. (Debbie: Wow, I was blown away by how good all the songs in the contest were. I don't envy the judges...must have been a difficult decision.)
Next was the ever goofy Interfilk auction. Debbie won a loaf of chocolate bread. I can vouch for the fact that it is very, very good :). (Jodi: Mmmmmmmmm!) (Debbie: Yum!!!!! There was loads of good chocolate in this auction, but (not surprisingly) there were many other chocolaholics in the audience. :-) Interfilk auctions are always a ton of fun to watch...if any of you have never been to one, I highly recommend sitting in on one or two. I had lusted after Andrea's chocolate cake and Mike Browne's Truffles but their prices quickly zoomed into the stratosphere (stratospheric to me, anyway, since Jeff and I are currently living on one income :-)))
We spent a couple of hours visiting with friends before heading down to the open filking. We settled in a far hallway near the piano with folks like Scott Snyder and Bill and Gretchen Roper and as the evening went on the numbers grew into a very warm and friendly filk. I -really- enjoyed it a lot and was reluctant to leave, even at 5:30 in the morning. Highlights included Gary's tribute to FKO, "Ten Years", and hearing Beckett Gladney wail away on the harmonica as Dave and Tom sang "Dixie Chicken". Great filk! We also debuted Deb's new Phantom Menace song, "Four Days", and Jodi's new Dorsai song, "Amanda". (Jodi: I love those impromptu filks that just crop up organically. This one was really rockin' and filled with good friends and lots of good fun. A *wonderful* night - and one I was thrilled to be a part of.) (Debbie: That was SUCH a fun filk. And I got to request "Japanese Kids" from Joey Shoji, "Popsicle Girl" from Bill Roper, and "Brain Sludge" from Bill and Gretchen. I was amazed at Scott Snyder being able to manage his amaaaazing instrumental in "Fey Grass" (I think that's what the song is called).)
After a luxurious four hour sleep, we were up and moving again. I went back to the dealer's room to pick up a copy of Sally Hedford's SF datebook for 2000. It's a nicely done calendar with many of Sally's illustrations from con t-shirts and filk songbooks. It's well-worth checking out. (Debbie: I had breakfast with Rand (an annual tradition...almost sounds like a song, doesn't it? Breakfast With Rand...) and I got back in time to join brunch with the others. Much silliness and giggling, much of it caused by Scott harassing Allison. He does it so well, too! Heehee...)
Went to brunch with a bunch o' friends, laughed and goofed around with Debbie and Scott and Amanda Snyder throughout the meal. Conspired with Scott on ways to get Pete Grubbs to FKO this year (hee hee).
We finished the con by settling into the Farewell Jam Session where we had time to sing one song and listen to folks like MEW and Ed, Bill Wells and Gary sing, too. I also enjoyed a woman who played "A Toast For Unknown Heroes" on the violin. (Jodi: What a treat that was! Once again, a great filk, and a wonderful time. :-)) After many good-byes we headed for our shuttle with Matt Leger (who performed a lovely tribute to DeForest Kelley at his one-shot which made me misty-eyed). We flew back to Toronto on the same plane as Karen and Lloyd, who were still pretty high from their first OVFF :). (Debbie: I didn't get nearly as much time to spend with certain folks as I wanted to. Next year I'm hoping to fly down a bit early to spend time with local friends.)
Deep bows and kudos to the OVFF concom for another fantastic con. With GOH Talis Kimberley and Toastmaster Mark Bernstein you can bet it's high on my 2000 agenda to be back next year. Until then, see you all at FilKONtario! Right? Of course, right! Unless, of course, you can make it to Didgeri-Douze in England and we'd love to see you there, too! (Jodi: I had SO much fun! There's never enough time to really sit down and talk with people at these things - so many fun things to do all at once! But I really enjoyed speaking with the people I managed to connect with over the weekend and I hope we can do it again soon (next year!). The concom did an AMAZING job! Thank you so much!) (Debbie: Great convention, many many thanks to the OVFF concom. And yes, please, all of you must come to England next February! If you didn't have a chance to pick up a Didgeri-Douze flyer at OVFF, just check their website for info. And of course, we'll see you all at FilKONtario!!)
THE END