Loscon Report -- part 2
Lee Gold
Denver room, we found only about twenty chairs, set up about the
outside walls, I sent Barry off to the Office room to request more
chairs.
As soon as Alexander Adams' concert was over on Friday afternoon in
Ballroom C at 5 PM, sound crew Barney Evans and Greg Gross, with the
help of Blars (whom I awarded a Staff ribbon, which allowed him to eat
in the Staff lounge) moved the stage and speakers and microphones and
other stuff halfway across the hotel to the Denver room and started
doing sound checks. I'd asked Barney how much time he thought
it would take to do this. "Two hours," he said, so I blocked off
three hours for the moving and the sound checks.
The extra chairs hadn't arrived, so I sent Barry off to Office again.
This time we got them and set them up -- after the sound crew had
set up the stage and microphones. I also ssent Barry off to ask
for pitchers of ice water and glasses, and had him get the extension
number to phone for when we needed more. By 8 PM, we were ready for the
Bohnhoffs. We also stowed a music stand in the corner of the room
for Dr. James' concert at 9 PM.
Then we reset the room into a circle -- AND I put up the PHOTO
and NO PHOTO signs. We got to bed around 2 AM.
We were both awake at 6 AM and drove home, where we got the Kazoo
Awards (voted on at ConChord) and made a light breakfast of
leftovers. Then we drove back to the hotel and fell back into bed.
We got to the Denver room at 1 PM and found the sound crew doing
sound checks for the afternoon concerts. They'd gotten there and
found the room set up with perimeter-only chairs, but gone to Office
and requested more chairs, and the Staff ribbons I'd gotten them
had meant this went through. I don't have words enough to praise
Barney and Greg and Blars as wonderful. I had Barry phone for
more ice water and glasses.
Steve Savitzsky's half hour concert ran 2-2:30 PM, with Chaos
Savitzky helping on drum and vocals. He introduced some songs
as being on his new album, a few more as destined for the next album
which he swore would be out in 2009, and a couple as destined
for the album after that.
Moira Stern brought her glittering gold harp and gave us folksongs
(includign the Great Silkie) and operatic arias (including one
from Gianna Schichi, which I may have not spelled correctly, in
English), 2:35-3:05. She was the only concert performer who'd
given permission for the Dutch TV film crew to photo her, and they
were there with bright lights and camera, but didn't seem to get
into her way. Afterwards, they took her out in the corridor and
interviewed her. And eventually I gave them about five minutes.
Moira's harp stayed in the room the rest of the day. It was there
when we locked up that night but not when we got there Sunday morning
so I assume she eventually got it.
She was followed by Lynn Maudlin with more folksongs, some serious,
some funny. I should note that all the performers at this convention
arrived well before time, and that we never ran late.
And then I got on stage along with Kay Shapero who had made the Kazoos
and explained we had some unfinished business from this year's
Conchord ("No, Dr. James, don't go away") and called him up on stage
to accept two Kazoos awarded for Cynthia's songs and one for one of
his own songs. He accepted with tears in his eyes for Cynthia's.
Then he presented another hour program of his own songs, explaining
them with autobiographical notes of where Dr. Jane had been at
when she wrote them.
After that we had a dinner break till 8 PM, when Barry did
"Banned from Argo" to a small audience, and we then moved to
open filking, with the room gradually filling up. Alexander
Adams later apologized for not attending but explain it was his
wife's birthday and he was taking her own, but all our other
concert filkers were there, and the filking was wonderful.
After only five hours sleep the day before we weren't up to
dawn patrol, and we were back in bed by 2 AM or so.
Sunday morning, Dr. James told Barry his voice wasn't up to
leading a theme circle, especially without sound amplification,
so Barry anchored the Critters theme circle, and then we went
off to Alexander Adams' second concert (which had some new
material).
After that we headed back to the Denver for more singing,
planning to go home if not many people showed up, but instead
more and more people came in, and there were twenty or more
people there at 5 PM. They started raiding my songbags,
sometimes asking to hear new songs, sometimes singing songs
they'd just found there but whose melodies they knew.
Dr. James drifted in around 8 PM, borrowed Barry's six-string
nylon, and did some songs. Eventually we pleaded that Barry
had to be at work tomorrow, and we all hugged each other goodbye
and we got home at 10 PM and fell into bed.
This morning I drove back to the hotel at 8:30 AM to pick up
Chris Paige (a Tucson Arizona filker) to bring back to our home
for a bit to watch some "Blake's Seven" and then took her back there.
I have spent the rest of the day napping.
The convention filking went smoothly, in part thanks to the
concom for giving me the room I asked for -- one with no
amplified sound sharing a wall with it or across the corridor
from it and thanks to wonderful performers who showed up
when they said they would (though the fact that I emailed them
schedules and made sure they were okay certainly helped)
and having a great sound crew plus other dependable staffers.
--Lee
Kay Shapero
--
Kay Shapero
Signature munged - to email me use kay at domain of my website, below.
http://www.kayshapero.net
Filk FAQ at http://www.kayshapero.net/filkfaq.htm
Sean Cleary
I hope it is a high compliment when people expect that if you are
running things they will be run well. I did not spot a glitch.
Wonderful.
Sean
Lee Gold
>
> On Nov 26, 5:48 pm, Lee Gold <lee.g...@ca.rr.com> wrote:
> > My interim report forgot to mention that when we first looked into the
> > Denver room, we found only about twenty chairs, set up about the
> > outside walls, I sent Barry off to the Office room to request more
> > chairs.
>
> > This time we got them and set them up
> >
> > Awards (voted on at ConChord)
> >
> > sound checks for the afternoon concerts. They'd gotten there and
> > found the room set up with perimeter-only chairs, but gone to Office
> > and requested more chairs, and the Staff ribbons I'd gotten them
> > had meant this went through.
>
> running things they will be run well. I did not spot a glitch.
> Wonderful.
No, I managed to take care of the glitches (forgetting the Kazoo Awards
at home, the hotel not supplying enough chairs for Friday and Saturday)
before they inconvenienced people.
I wrote about this stuff in some detail so people could see the
behind-the-scenes scurrying that I and my staffers had to do to
make everything go smoothly.
--Lee
Kay Shapero
> I wrote about this stuff in some detail so people could see the
> behind-the-scenes scurrying that I and my staffers had to do to
> make everything go smoothly.
>
FWIW, I stayed at the LASFS tonight for the start of the Loscon post
mortem to thank the staff for the job they did, and especially for the
treatment of the filk program, and expressed the hope things would go
this well next year.
John in detroit
> I wrote about this stuff in some detail so people could see the
> behind-the-scenes scurrying that I and my staffers had to do to
> make everything go smoothly.
Lee, That things WILL go wrong, Well, I'm a dedicated believer in
Murphy's law, in fact Davis' collorary to Murphy's law is "If nothing
can go wrong... It will anyway"
(How that got on the back cover of book II with the proper attribution I
don't know but yes I did write that when I first heard about Murphy's Law.
The original Murphy of course, was a Woman (You remember Mrs. Murphy's
Chowder)
That you would make it so that only a few folks know of the glitches...
having met you on occasions.. I can truly believe that you would make
problems vanish like smoke in the wind.
Some folks, faced with problems, say "Oh me, Oh my" and though in many
cases you may be surrounded by them. You are not of their number.
Some folks, When things go wrong... Well, they either fix it, or cause
it to be fixed or both (help fix) and it appears. You are in that
somewhat smaller number.
We need more like you and fewer "Oh My Oh My" types
Rob Wynne
> Lee, That things WILL go wrong, Well, I'm a dedicated believer in
> Murphy's law, in fact Davis' collorary to Murphy's law is "If nothing
> can go wrong... It will anyway"
>
I think my favourite collorary to Murphy's Law is "If everything appears
to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something."
--
Rob Wynne / The Autographed Cat / d...@america.net
http://www.autographedcat.com/ / http://autographedcat.livejournal.com/
Gafilk 2008: Jan 11-13, 2008 - Atlanta, GA - http://www.gafilk.org/
Aphelion - Original SF&F since 1997 - http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/
Lee Gold
>
> John in detroit <bl...@blank.net> wrote:
> > Lee, That things WILL go wrong, Well, I'm a dedicated believer in
> > Murphy's law, in fact Davis' collorary to Murphy's law is "If nothing
> > can go wrong... It will anyway"
> >
>
> I think my favourite collorary to Murphy's Law is "If everything appears
> to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something."
I sometimes refer to Pangloss's Law: "If there's no chance whatsoever
for something to go right, sometimes it will anyway."
Some years ago, I had a Book Search out for an out of print book
but the store couldn't find it, but I wandered into a thrift shop
and picked it up for twenty-five cents. That was Pangloss's Law
in operation.
--Lee
John in detroit
> I sometimes refer to Pangloss's Law: "If there's no chance whatsoever
> for something to go right, sometimes it will anyway."
>
> Some years ago, I had a Book Search out for an out of print book
> but the store couldn't find it, but I wandered into a thrift shop
> and picked it up for twenty-five cents. That was Pangloss's Law
> in operation.
>
> --Lee
Well Murphy's Laws cover that too "If Murphy's Law can go wrong.. It will"
Alas, I often eat at a coney island called Murphy's. Run by John and
Rita Murphy IIRC (not sure of Rita). Nice place, Nice owner
thn...@yahoo.com
But I've Dun That. (This is not new, but it is apropos. IMHO.)
Smoffing the Filkers
Words: Mark A. Mandel (c) 1997
To the tune of "Waltzing Matilda" by A.B."Banjo" Paterson*
http://filk.cracksandshards.com/Smoffing.html
Once a jolly filker volunteering for a con,
Said to the Chair, "Is there work for me?" [spoken: "Hah!"]
He told her, "We've no filking, so if you want some, Make It So."
Who'll come a-smoffing the filkers with me?
CHORUS (after each verse exc. last)
Smoffing the filkers, smoffing the filkers,
Who'll come a-smoffing the filkers with me?
He told her, "We've no filking. If you want some, Make It So."
Who'll come a-smoffing the filkers with me?
Five weeks before the con, looking at the blocking chart,
"Where is the concert promised to me?"
"Concert? What concert? Maybe we can squeeze it in."
Who'll come a-smoffing the filkers with me?
Two days to go, (_) Scheduling remarked to her:
"We needed your space to show Robocop 3;
We've moved you to the Club Room, opposite the disco bar."
Who'll come a-smoffing the filkers with me?
Standing at the front desk, she asked as she was checking in,
"Is there a message waiting for me?"
"Your Filker Guest is here, but his luggage is in Singapore."
Who'll come a-smoffing the filkers with me?
The sound tech at the concert was able and experienced.
"I can relax for an hour," thought she,
Until a running gopher fell into the microphones.
Who'll come a-smoffing the filkers with me?
After the Dead Dog, our weary filker staggered home,
Slept solid hours twenty and three.
And said to her fellow fen, "I'm never doing that again
Till you come a-smoffing the filkers with me!"
The moral of this story hasn't much to do with filk:
Con volunteers learn invariably
That smoffing for a con is like juggling bees and herding cats
And playing the flute ... simultaneously.
[FINAL CHORUS]
Smoffing the filkers, smoffing the filkers,
Who'll come a-smoffing the filkers with me?
Smoffing for a con is like juggling bees and herding cats
And playing the flute simultaneously.
* "Banjo" Paterson: Yes, indeedy, this "traditional" old song has a
known author.
-- Mark A. Mandel, The Filker With No Nickname
http://filk.cracksandshards.com