Regretfully Leaving ConFlikt Behind

[filkertom]

ConFlikt was extra-mega-fantastic with sprinkles. (That would've been the all-day rain on Saturday.)

• All the con staff, including Con Chair Beth Runnerwolf, Vice Chair Rick, Programming Head vixyish, especially my liaison Jen, Jeffrey Cornish, ever-damn-body was wonderful. Thanks so much for all the help and support.
• Everybody else was wonderful, too, with too many names to list, although I would be remiss if I didn't mention Frank Hayes, the ever-fantastic cadhla, hms42, lemmozine, palenoue, hsifyppah, filkferengi, technoshaman, Toastmaster admnaismith, jenrose1, Cecilia Eng, Kathy Mar, Marc Osier (dang, man, you're really getting a Steve Goodman vibe going, and it sounds great), Char MacKay, Aydan, Tristan, Bill & Carole Laubenheimer, Kathy Sands, Creede, Dara, moshez, Luis Garcia and his brother Tomas, October Country, several others whose names and/or LJ names I can't remember this morning.... oh, just everybody.
• I spent more time hanging out with and listening to Alexander James Adams than I have in, like, ever, and honestly Alex is better than Heather Alexander. His Friday concert was so high-bar-setting (he frickin' started with "He of the Sidhe") that I was terrified all of my inadequacies and flaws as a performer would be laid bare, and the con would wonder why the hell they paid for that train trip.
• On the other hand, I got him but good during the Friday open filk. He'd just done "The Stolen Child", which was, like, the forty-third song of Faerie he'd performed in the past twenty minutes, and I did "Smash the Frickin' Fairies" and just broke the room, but most especially him. He was laughing so hard and turning so many different colors that I almost lost it mid-song myself.
• The panel on Recording Your Own CD ended up much more technically detailed than I expected, but that ended up being a good thing. I think tfabris and I are on the verge of getting a lot more functionality out of our software than we realized we had.
• The "Whose Line?" set Saturday was a lot of fun. I think, though, that I'm going to assemble a page of overall rules and conventions for playing some of the games, and for being a moderator. It'll make things smoother in the future.
• The Interfilk auction raised a bunch o' money. An original CD by Phoenix got $600.
• I went for almost two hours on Saturday night, and I guess I didn't have to worry that much about being compared with Alex. ;) VERY hot crowd, I only made a few little mistakes, lots and lots of energy, a good range of stuff, I faked an encore by starting to leave the stage after "The Here And Now" and then doing "307 Ale" and "Rocket Ride", lots of singing along and hand-clapping and the whole thing was just fantastic.
• Juried One-Shots and Songwriting Contest were pretty good as well, and I'm sure the results will be up on the ConFlikt web site soon, and I'll link to 'em.
• Got a nap and a pizza, and went down for almost three hours of the Smoked Salmon Party (this is the Pacific Northwest, Dead Dogs are at a premium). Again, lots of excellent music and shtick, the highlights of which for me were Alex and Marc combining on something lovely that I can't recall the name of right now, Alex and Tony doing a lovely slow version of "I Want To Hold Your Hand", a parody of "307 Ale" about BPAL (which I think was written by ladymondegreen and batyatoon, given they're invoked in a scripted shtick on the lyrics I got), and admnaismith performing his Hamlet-based parody of "The Ballad Of Fenton", which I had completely forgotten existed. Heck, I even signed his page of lyrics FSM knows how many years ago.
• More hugs from more wonderful people. Sigh. It's a good life.

So now the con is over, I intend to do some laundry, Jen will pick me up for lunch and the schlep back to the train station, and, yeah. Good con. Very good con. I intend to get back here again, although I'm not sure when it'll happen.

How's your week looking?

ETA: ladymondegreen does indeed claim ownership of "307 Imps". And, I have no idea why I kept calling Marc Osier "Paul". Must still be tired.

ETA2: I cannot believe I didn't mention Luis Garcia or lemmozine.

Comments

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Glad you had a good con, Tom! No real plans here. I want to work on the DucKon (http://www.duckon.org/) site, mostly to come up with a design that fits the theme "Plan B". I still have no idea how to represent it with graphics. Over the weekend I set up an RSS feed for the site. I hope there will be more stuff to add to the site this week.

Then I have some maintenance work to do with my City of Hero characters.

Hey is it me or have TV shows been cutting back on secondary characters? NCIS LA kidnapped one of the new agents last week, Numb3rs had one character quit and the main protagonist's fiance has rarely been seen these past few episodes, on Psych the girlfriend left to build a school in Uganda. Has similar things been happening on other shows? Are the networks trying to save some money by trimming the cast any?

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

Finished my federal tax return and am looking for a job. And trying to fight my way through nebulous unemployment info to see if I am even eligible.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Sorry you lost your job. Good luck finding a new one. Maybe you'll be able to trade up.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Many hugs, much good luck. Sorry I didn't notice you'd mentioned the unemployment the other day.

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

It was so lovely to see you! And to see you rock the house! I think my favourite part of this con is getting to introduce my local friends who don't travel much to the awesomeness that is my friends from far-away filk cons. (Man, I knew you weren't done when there wasn't no Rocket Ride at the end. ;) )

Now I must pout 'cause I won't see you until OVFF. Pout!

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

"wasn't no Rocket Ride?" Oh god, go back to sleep, Brooke.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'm poutin' myself, dear. [hugs] Never get enough of you. But! As you say, OVFF.

[sdelmonte]

In theory, I have a lot of work to do. It all depends on whether my boss breaks her logjam and can work with me on joint projects. Otherwise, Lost is back tomorrow and we all wait eagerly for the results from the various groundhogs, so the week has promise.

Yes, I think that Batya and Merav did "307 Imps," though I cannot recall if they had co-conspirators.

And I really, really want to get out to Conflikt next year, to see Ben Newman get his due and to see Brooke and Marc as toastmasters. But I also want to get to GaFilk to see Matt Leger as toast, and given the shorter (and cheaper) trip, if we do either, odds are it would have to GaFilk. I wish I could be a filk-jetsetter, with a fortune to spend on travel and a private jet to get me from Atlanta to Boston (for Arisia) to Seattle to the UK. And time off to sleep in between.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Nope, we're the only ones to blame for 307 Imps. I wonder who pulled it out. I think we've only performed it twice, and then I did it 'solo' once was at the OVFF hallway dead-dog with tollers filling in the interstitial bits.

Apparently our creation has legs.

Also? I can't wait to see Marc do the Steve Goodman thing. We're hoping to drop at least one Steve Goodman tune into our Duckcon show this June.

[bluesmancd.livejournal.com]

It was a great con. It sure was great seeing you live for the first time.


And I'm really glad I have another guitarist example to include in my 5,138th conversation of "...it's tuned down a whole step... don't worry where the capo is... don't try to figure out transposition, just play the same damn chords I am... *mind trick* this is not the capo you're looking for..."

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Indeed, and you've got some nice work yourself, m'friend. Keep an eye on this guy, gang.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

My God, but you rocked the house, Tom. It was great having you up in this part of the country.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And it was great being there, Ace. Let's not let it be years before we see each other again, hm?

[solarbird]

I had to leave before the dead dog because of annathepiper's early work start today, but it was great catching up a bit with you and I'm sorry I took off without saying g'bye - but I couldn't find you! I looked! And we needed to leave. Hopefully it won't be another, um, two decades before next time, eh? ^_^

[annathepiper]

Great fun to hear you perform again, sir! And I must note that after grabbing three of your CDs this weekend, I went home and bought two more of of iTunes. ;)

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

Glad I finally got to see you perform in person. Many of my email friends have been asking all weekend "Is Tom Smith _really_ that fast?" and this morning I answered them all with "No, he's faster."

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

:) So sorry we didn't have the time we needed to talk this weekend -- I'll e-mail you later in the week, we'll compare notes, an' stuff.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Gods, I wish I could have been there...law school puts a real crimp in your life.

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

Very glad to have met you finally. And once again, thanks for the feedback on the juried one-shot. I'm still trying to figure out how to address what you brought up. I suspect it'll work itself out.

But the song from the song contest totally made up for it. :D That one's going into the repertoire.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

My pleasure, and good to meet you as well!

honestly Alex is better than Heather Alexander.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

From conversation I heard at GaFilk [Alex's sales table was right next to Quilt Central} I think he's more comfortable in his skin as Alex than he was as Heather. That can release a LOT of energy which had previously been tied-up in what was at-bottom an imposture.

[ladyallyn.livejournal.com]

Amazing Con! Well met, Good Sir. Fun busy weekend and I didn't get to do as much as I'd have liked (pesky body betraying me). I wish you a wonderful journey and hope you get back to our soggy shores before decades have passed.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And thee, milady. Yeppur, real good time, and now I want to drive out there when the weather is more tenable for such a trip.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Greetings from SeaTac airport as we wait for our only-slightly-delayed flight! It was SO FANTASTIC to have you up here-- and ditto what Brooke said about getting to introduce our locals to the awesomeness of our faraway filker friends. (And our faraway filker friends to the awesomeness of our locals, too.)

I just can't even tell you how much it made my con to have you as our GoH. And to get to see you a little bit more than hi/bye (even if it wasn't *too* much more!)

See you at OVFF! :D

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

Hey, if you see Laurence Dean say hello to him for us and tell him the Jaffa Cakes were really good. :D

[hms42]

It was good to see you. Safe travel, Tom. I fly out in a couple of hours (leaving for the airport in about 20 minutes.).

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And you, Harold -- so glad you made it out there!

[jw1776.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your imput on the juried one-shots. I tweeked "The Roomba Song" and did it after you left smoked salmon.. worked well, and others picked up on the 'improved' sing-a-long chorus.

Many laughs were had.

Thanks again for coming out to our little rain soaked corner of the world!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Kewl! And thanks again for having me. :)

[jenk]

YOU were wonderful and classy and amazing! Thanks so much for coming!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And you, my dear, were amazing. Thanks so much to you and John for everything.

[moshez.livejournal.com]

Hi Tom! It was a delight (as always) to see you -- your concert was AWESOME [I really can't remember when I had this much fun at a concert], your participation in the circle was WONDERFUL and your advice was PRICELESS.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Oh, gawrsh. :) Great to see you too, m'friend, and thanks for the kind words.

[she-who-filks.livejournal.com]

Hello, Tom! I'm happy to know you had such a fantastic time at Conflikt. We'll work on getting you back soon! Anyway, just wanted to reconfirm that "307 Imps" was performed by tibicina at Conflikt (I was sitting next to her!) and that ladymondegreen performed it last year at Conflikt 2. The song by Mark Osier and Alex James Adams was called "Two Sailors", an original by Mark Osier. Very nice indeed! Until that point I had only heard Mark do his humorous songs! Oh, Mark, more please! Oh, yes more of that! You'll have all the girls sitting at your feet next year!
And speaking of soulful songs--Tom, add a few more songs like "Dervish" to your concerts. Yes, more please! (Swoon.)
I'll be posting my Conflikt notes soon I hope. I need to check a few song titles, and consult with John or Harold about any gaps in my notes. (I was the redhead taking notes during concerts and the open filking.) I also do the unofficial Conflikt scrapbook.
Conflikt 3 was so fun! Let's do it again next year!

DJ

[ttamsen.livejournal.com]

It was *amazing* to finally get to meet and see you perform in person, and thank you so much for being so gracious and patient with our son Tristan. He doesn't really know how to express it (figures: neither do I) but he's a huge fan of yours and he couldn't stop talking about meeting you the whole trip home.

High points were you breaking Alex, the always heart-breaking A Boy and His Frog, and your Whose Line? sketches -- the duets with Seanan in particular were just amazing.

I certainly hope you make it back this way again sometime soon!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Thanks kindly, and it was my pleasure. :) Tristan was great -- you guys gotta see this kid, he's got this Meeno Peluce thing going on, but with longer hair, big ol' smile.