Consonance 2010: Sunday, etc.
More concerts! Seems them filkers can't get enough of them. I'm afraid I missed Timothy Griffin, up in Tom's room once again, rehearsing the numbers that Beckett & I were performing with Dave in his concert. Then I guess we were finally ready, because we went down to the concert room.
Ah Steve Macdonald. An excellent musician and a real friend, whom I don't believe I've seen since he moved off to Germany a few years ago. Apparently had prepared a half-hour concert, only to find, shortly before hit-the-stage time, that it was an hour. If he hadn't made such a big deal of the fact, nobody would have known; it all sounded great.
Stone Dragon(s?) was next. That would be Tom & Sue, and they were very good! In fact, even better than when I'd heard them earlier in the week. I think it may have been the singing-for-dear-familiar-filkers effect again. And they seem to have a real nose for finding hilarious songs, from in and out of filk, to steal and bring to us. These include such things as "We're Canadian, and We're Sorry" and a wonderfully strange song entirely composed of individual lines out of a couple dozen famous songs (both the lyrics and the tune, mind you, and yet it somehow managed to hold together).
And then the fabulous Mr. David Clement. Tom joined him for the set, and they sounded as excellent as anybody who'd heard them before would have expected. Stan Rogers, of course, some songs from their upcoming album (available soon, we're told), and some I haven't heard in a long time, like "Chlorine and Sodium". I got to sing Stephen Stills' "Helplessly Hoping" (ah, sweet harmonies), Jimmy Buffet's "Volcano", and Dougie MacLean's "Caledonia" with them, as well as their encore of "Hockey Monkey". Beckett added her harmonica to the latter three, and also joined them on "The Woodland Dream". And as I said during the songs I participated in with him, "If Dave Clement asks you to play some songs with him, SAY YES."
After that came the Rock Jam. I don't really know how I came to be the host for that the past several years, but I do enjoy it, and I'd be there even if I weren't running it. :{)} We had some great, bouncy fun with such classics as "Gloria" and "Johnny B. Goode". Just such fun, banging away on the guitar with a dozen or more others, singing the hits.
Dinner was Peach Garden, our favorite Chinese restaurant. (Had I mentioned that the convention was maybe a mile and a half from our home?) with Usual Suspects Tom, Sue, and Dave, as well as Kathleen Sloan, and the entire Kwinn-Gladney Four.
I enjoyed the Sunday evening filk a lot, as I usually do, even though I had to go to work the next day. (Really, the whole week was kind of a sleep wasteland, between the con, the following party, and various visitors. Non-coffee-drinker that I am, I had to resort to some No Doze at work a couple of days.) I finally heard the Evil Eyeball Song (yeah!). shaddyr, attending her first Consonance I believe (yes?), requested a song of Alisa's that I hadn't sung since Conflikt last year, when Puzzlebox debuted it: "More to Come". (Although, in either a weird coincidence or a case of prescience, I had been listening to our practice sessions for the song in the previous week.) I like that song, although I was unable to sing my counter-melody/harmony, of course. But still, fun to have such an unexpected request. And I managed to squeeze in several songs of my own during the course of the evening, including a request, as the circle was falling apart, for "Let's Get the Monkeys to Do It". I even got to sing "Father & Son" with Steve Mac in the hallway just before he went to bed, which is a tradition for us. Or, as Steve put it to someone who heard us, "Our song". :{)}
Monday, we had a post-con party at our house. Attendance was good, but not huge (which was probably just as well): Dave & Elizabeth (who were staying at our place that night), Tom, Sue, Sibylle Machat, Chris O'Shea, Kathy Mar, Jeff, Maya, Kris, & Amanda Bohnhoff, Steve Savitzky, Lynn Gold, Chris & John O'Halloran and some friends of theirs. That was a good time, as well, and I got to hear some more from people I hadn't heard much at the convention. And we had pizza and leftover con suite goodies.
And the day after the party, Alisa came to stay with us for a couple of days while she had a local business meeting. It was excellent to see her for a while, but I so wish I'd realized the timing ahead of time, and begged her to show up the day before for the party. Ah well...
An excellent extended event. Thank you to the concom, guests, and everyone else. :{)}
Ah Steve Macdonald. An excellent musician and a real friend, whom I don't believe I've seen since he moved off to Germany a few years ago. Apparently had prepared a half-hour concert, only to find, shortly before hit-the-stage time, that it was an hour. If he hadn't made such a big deal of the fact, nobody would have known; it all sounded great.
Stone Dragon(s?) was next. That would be Tom & Sue, and they were very good! In fact, even better than when I'd heard them earlier in the week. I think it may have been the singing-for-dear-familiar-filkers effect again. And they seem to have a real nose for finding hilarious songs, from in and out of filk, to steal and bring to us. These include such things as "We're Canadian, and We're Sorry" and a wonderfully strange song entirely composed of individual lines out of a couple dozen famous songs (both the lyrics and the tune, mind you, and yet it somehow managed to hold together).
And then the fabulous Mr. David Clement. Tom joined him for the set, and they sounded as excellent as anybody who'd heard them before would have expected. Stan Rogers, of course, some songs from their upcoming album (available soon, we're told), and some I haven't heard in a long time, like "Chlorine and Sodium". I got to sing Stephen Stills' "Helplessly Hoping" (ah, sweet harmonies), Jimmy Buffet's "Volcano", and Dougie MacLean's "Caledonia" with them, as well as their encore of "Hockey Monkey". Beckett added her harmonica to the latter three, and also joined them on "The Woodland Dream". And as I said during the songs I participated in with him, "If Dave Clement asks you to play some songs with him, SAY YES."
After that came the Rock Jam. I don't really know how I came to be the host for that the past several years, but I do enjoy it, and I'd be there even if I weren't running it. :{)} We had some great, bouncy fun with such classics as "Gloria" and "Johnny B. Goode". Just such fun, banging away on the guitar with a dozen or more others, singing the hits.
Dinner was Peach Garden, our favorite Chinese restaurant. (Had I mentioned that the convention was maybe a mile and a half from our home?) with Usual Suspects Tom, Sue, and Dave, as well as Kathleen Sloan, and the entire Kwinn-Gladney Four.
I enjoyed the Sunday evening filk a lot, as I usually do, even though I had to go to work the next day. (Really, the whole week was kind of a sleep wasteland, between the con, the following party, and various visitors. Non-coffee-drinker that I am, I had to resort to some No Doze at work a couple of days.) I finally heard the Evil Eyeball Song (yeah!). shaddyr, attending her first Consonance I believe (yes?), requested a song of Alisa's that I hadn't sung since Conflikt last year, when Puzzlebox debuted it: "More to Come". (Although, in either a weird coincidence or a case of prescience, I had been listening to our practice sessions for the song in the previous week.) I like that song, although I was unable to sing my counter-melody/harmony, of course. But still, fun to have such an unexpected request. And I managed to squeeze in several songs of my own during the course of the evening, including a request, as the circle was falling apart, for "Let's Get the Monkeys to Do It". I even got to sing "Father & Son" with Steve Mac in the hallway just before he went to bed, which is a tradition for us. Or, as Steve put it to someone who heard us, "Our song". :{)}
Monday, we had a post-con party at our house. Attendance was good, but not huge (which was probably just as well): Dave & Elizabeth (who were staying at our place that night), Tom, Sue, Sibylle Machat, Chris O'Shea, Kathy Mar, Jeff, Maya, Kris, & Amanda Bohnhoff, Steve Savitzky, Lynn Gold, Chris & John O'Halloran and some friends of theirs. That was a good time, as well, and I got to hear some more from people I hadn't heard much at the convention. And we had pizza and leftover con suite goodies.
And the day after the party, Alisa came to stay with us for a couple of days while she had a local business meeting. It was excellent to see her for a while, but I so wish I'd realized the timing ahead of time, and begged her to show up the day before for the party. Ah well...
An excellent extended event. Thank you to the concom, guests, and everyone else. :{)}