There will be filk somewhere Saturday night at A-Kon in Dallas, but I don't yet know where. I'm playing it by ear. When I know something I'll put fliers out (the copier/printer is coming up with me for this purpose).
This isn't the only thing I'm behindward on doing, alas. There's stuff I need to tell you about that will have to wait until tonight (early tomorrow morning, actually) when I get home from work -- the Pegasus nominating ballot, the August 5 housefilk in Fort Worth, ApolloCon, SoonerCon... it's gonna be a busy summer...
May 18, 2006:
Last-minute housefilk
Casey "Bearhugger" Sledge reports a last-minute housefilk being held tomorrow night, the 19th, starting at 6:30 at 1426 Amherst Drive in Denton. Elaine Fisher is coming in from Atlanta for this.
May 17, 2006:
New host for housefilk
Say hello to Miles McDaniel -- he's a first-time
sucker host for housefilk in the DFW area. Sez he: "Some of you may have met me at the house concert this past Friday. I am a friend of the Gallaghers, and Laura has been doing her best to pull me into the filking circles.
"After some discussion (and a little friendly nudging), I have been convinced to host a housefilk at my place. We have plenty of room and lots of kitchen space. Feel free to bring any foods that you like. We have a piano available, as well as a large sound system available for DVD / CD playing (no cassette or VHS though, sorry). Also three cats. (Unlikely to be seen with a bunch of singing oddballs around, but their presence will still likely be felt by those with allergies.)
"Current plans are to start around 6pm. Ending time will likely be somewhere between 2am and noon, depending on when people fall over. My house is in Euless, not far from 183 & 360. Email my GMail account (username miles.mcd) for address / more specific directions."
Leigh Ann Hussey, 1961-2006
Another filker gone:
Leigh Ann Hussey of the group Annwn and its successor, Brazen Hussey, died last night in a motorcycle accident. Her partner, Elton, has more at
his LiveJournal. Yet someone else I've heard about that I'll never get to meet, dammit...
Errata
Sigh. Doesn't do a lot of good to find out about it now, but the time I posted for Carla Ulbrich's concert in Arlington last Saturday was an hour late -- the time for the Austin Lounge Lizards concert that she had opened for. I hope like heck nobody missed her because of that...
April 14, 2006:
Pegasus brainstorming
Turns out they had the wrong deadline posted on the
Pegasus Awards brainstorming poll website -- you actually have until 2:01 a.m. CDT next Friday, the 21st.
Housefilk next Saturday
Reminder that there's a housefilk next Saturday, the 22nd, at Gerry & Sandy Tyra's house in Fort Worth.
E-mail Sandy for the details.
April 6, 2006:
Filk Hall of Fame
ApolloCon 3 Filk Guest of Honor Steve Macdonald was among the inductees last weekend into the Filk Hall of Fame, hosted by the Toronto filkcon
FilKONtario. The other inductees were Gretchen Roper, Franklin Gunkelmann and Lois Mangan. (This makes two in a row for ApolloCon Filk GoHs, since Juanita Coulson was in the second class of inductees, back in 1996.) So congrats to all the inductees, and to Steve in particular.
Next year's FKO, with the entire freakin'
n'Early Music Consort coming across the Pond to sing, will be held March 23-25 -- which makes that weekend the one where you want to be in at least three places at once, since it's the same weekend as
AggieCon and
MidSouthCon, the latter featuring Terry Pratchett as GoH. Well, fudge...
March 31, 2006:
Pegasus brainstorming poll is up
The first stage in the Pegasus Award process is active: the
brainstorming poll to generate the list of suggestions that will accompany the Pegasus Award ballot released in May. The Peggies are voted on by filk fans worldwide, no membership fee required, and awarded each year at the Ohio Valley Filk Festival in late October in Columbus, Ohio. Deadline for the brainstorming poll is 5 p.m. CST April 14.
March 28, 2006:
Carla update
Last-minute addition to the
Carla Ulbrich Texas tour: She'll be playing at 8:30 tonight (Tuesday) at
Clark's Bar, 314 Main St. in Houston (right next door to where she played Sunday night) with Ken Gaines and possibly Bonnie Whitmore. The cover charge is $5.
Not-so-last-minute addition: She'll also be opening for the Austin Lounge Lizards at 8:00 p.m. May 13 at the
Open Door Coffeehouse, Trinity United Methodist Church, 3321 W. Park Row in Arlington, TX. Tickets are $15 in advance, $17 at the door.
March 22, 2006:
AggieCon schedule
AggieCon runs Thursday through Sunday at the Memorial Student Center on the Texas A&M campus in College Station. All of the filk events will be in room 410 of the Rudder tower next door to the MSC. The Filk 101 panel is at 6:45 p.m. Friday. The Steven Brust concert follows at 9:15, then when he's done, at 10:30 or so, we get the room back for late night open filk. Saturday night filk is not currently listed on the schedule, but Rudder 410 is listed as empty Saturday evening/night so we'll probably be there again.
Hope to see you there!
March 21, 2006:
Carla Ulbrich's Texas tour
I'm annoyed that I left this off the last update on this page (it was on the calendar page, and the front): The witty and wonderful
Carla Ulbrich, whom many of you will remember from her appearances at the first two FenCons, is making another swing through Texas this weekend and next. She's in Dallas for two nights, first opening for Robin and Linda Williams at 8 p.m. Friday at
Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse at Northpark Presbyterian Church, 9555 N. Central Expy. (tickets $15 in advance, $18 at the door), then being the main attraction 8 p.m. Saturday at
Labyrinth Walk Coffehouse, Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff, 3839 W. Kiest Blvd. ($10 in advance, $12 at the door).
Sunday night at 8 p.m. she's in Houston for a
Live Music Records Sunday Session with Matt Harlan and Jim Kam at Dean's Credit Clothing, 316 Main (no cover charge!). Then after a week spent doing I'm-not-sure-what, she plays at 8 p.m. April 1 at
Barker House in Austin.
Housefilks
The DFW housefilk in set -- it'll be 6 p.m. April 22 at Sandy & Gerry Tyra's house in Fort Worth;
e-mail Sandy for more info on that. Still looking for a host in the Houston or Austin area; again, if you're interested in hosting (or attending), post to the
LiveJournal community or the
mailing list, or
e-mail me.
Check back tomorrow; I should have more info then on AggieCon this weekend...
March 14, 2006:
I've been under the weather and neglecting the website, but there's a lot going on the next couple of weekends so let's get started:
All-Con schedule
All-Con 2 is being held this coming weekend at the Sterling Hotel in Dallas. The Brobdinagian Bards will be performing at 6 p.m. on Saturday, then hosting an open filk at 11 p.m. They have a panel at 11 a.m. Sunday, then a "Write Filk With the Bards" workshop at 1 p.m. If I'm not still coughing a lung up, I'll be there...
AggieCon
AggieCon 38 is the next weekend at the Memorial Student Center on the Texas A&M campus in College Station. The schedule has been released yet (and apparently won't be until con day), but there will be a Filk 101 panel and there will be open filking on Friday and Saturday nights. There may be a Firefly-themed filk session in one of the afternoon panel slots (if there isn't, we'll designate the first bit of Saturday night open filk as having a Firefly/Serenity theme). And Author Guest of Honor Steven Brust will have a concert set.
Housefilk
The housefilk page... is out of date at the moment because we're trying to sort out when and where to host the next one. Trying to shift focus last year from the DFW area to the Houston area as the con schedule shifted that direction didn't work out so well; we lost some momentum on the DFW filks. So this time we're keeping the DFW filks going, and I'm looking for someone to host a Houston- or Austin-area filk in addition to that. If you're interested in hosting (or attending), post to the
LiveJournal community or the
mailing list, or
e-mail me.
Feb. 24, 2006:
ConDFW schedule
The Filk 101 panel is at 4 p.m. today, and a Firefly/Serenity theme filk will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, both in the Mesquite room. The Bedlam Bards perform at 8:30 tonight in the main programming room. Open filk starts at 9 tonight in Live Oak, and on Saturday we get the Magnolia room once the art auction is done.
Hope to see you there!
Feb. 7, 2006:
Tom Smith coming to Houston
One of filk's leading lights is stopping in Houston this month on his way cross-country: The infamous "World's Fastest Filker,"
Tom Smith. (Apologies, by the way; for years (and for reasons unknown) I've had him horribly misplaced geographically: I kept telling people he was from California, and he's actually from Michigan. D'oh!) Anyway, he'll be at Oxford Hall,
1135 Oxford Ave. (the link is to a Mapquest map) on Tuesday, Feb. 21. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the concert starts at 8. Admission is $10 or $8 with student ID (kids get in free). This quite makes up for my having to miss him at
MidSouthCon this year because it's back to being the same weekend as
AggieCon.
Oh, yes, one other item about Mr. Smith: He's also announced he'll be music Guest of Honor in 2007 at
FenCon in Dallas...
Valentine's housefilk
The next housefilk is the weekend before Tom's concert and has a Valentine's Day theme. Not that it'll all be sappy love songs; there'll be at least one Tom Lehrer song, and at least two by
Blake Hodgetts... Laura and Karl Gallagher are hosting it again at their house in Saginaw, starting at 6 p.m. Feb. 18; e-mail
Laura for directions
ConDFW
And if that weren't enough, the weekend after Tom's concert is
ConDFW with musical guests
the Bedlam Bards -- who, it turns out have issued an
entire gorram album of Firefly/Serenity-themed songs. In light of which, I'm going to try something a bit different than I've been doing: In addition to the Filk 101 general-themed session at ConDFW, there will be an hour of Firefly-related filk. So if you've got a Big Damn Song you've been waiting to unleash upon the 'verse, that would be the time to do it...
Jan. 23, 2006:
Heating up a bit
More info on this coming weekend's housefilk, plus word of another one coming up in a month and change:
•Sandy & Gerry Tyra are hosting a housefilk at 6 p.m. Saturday at their house in Fort Worth. From Sandy: "Food: We have a NEW BBQ grill so we will be supplying meat (Hamburgers, hotdogs, possbly chicken), so any side dishes that would go with that plus sweets and munchies (are chips a side dish or a munchie?). We always have 7UP, Orange crush, and diet coke on hand, but anything else one might want, one should bring. Folding chairs are always welcome." For directions, e-mail Sandy at sandy (at) sa-tech (dot) com.
•Remember also the Brigidantia Bardic Bash a week from Saturday in Denton, about which see the Jan. 15 entry below.
•The newly announced housefilk is being hosted by John Connolly on March 4 in Tulsa. From e-mail: "Babe [John's dog] is the official greeter! Tickly her tummy and she'll be your friend forever. Bring your music, music stands, folding chairs, and whatever you want to eat and drink. There will be food there, but we all have our particular tastes. No smoking, please. ... John has a hot tub, so bring your bathing suit. He says he has plenty of towels. He has crash space for those from out of town: a bed, two sofas, two recliners and an inflatable bed. Please let us know if you will need crash space. We have other homes in the area who have volunteered space, but we need to know ahead of time, so we can clean house. This will be a Chaos filk. I'm not fond of structured circles. No songs with 47 verses, unless you want to be unceremoniously dunked in the hot tub (while we hold your guitar). If you have something new, we'd love to hear it. There will be solos and group songs. And probably lots of knitting, tatting, etc. in the background." E-mail bluefran770 (at) cox (dot) net for directions.
•And oh, yes: In the initial planning stages is a Valentine's themed housefilk Saturday, Feb. 18. Watch this space...
Jan. 15, 2006:
Brigidantia Bardic Bash
At long last, I have information for this (I managed to misplace the business card that one of the organizers gave me at FenCon. Sigh...) Brigidantia Bardic Bash will be held Saturday, Feb. 4, starting at 6 p.m., at 614 Parkway in Denton. "It's an open invitation so if you know of anyone who might enjoy it let them know," says the e-mail. "All we ask is that you bring an open mind, some music, and something to donate to the food/drink catagory if possible." The host, Laura Easterling, can be reached at Faylara (at) ureach . com.
Remember that there is also the
housefilk the previous weekend, Jan. 28 at 6 p.m., at the Tyra residence in Fort Worth.
ApolloCon filk GoH
ApolloCon 3 has announced its filk Guest of Honor (though last I checked, it wasn't up on the website yet):
Steve Macdonald.
Cynthia McQuillin, 1953-2006
Someone else I never got to meet, and now never will, dammit. The
summary of her filk career on the Pegasus Awards website is pretty good to start with, though with (as it points out) some 200 songs to her credit it's hard for anything to do her justice.
The remembrance sites seem to be scattered around a lot of LiveJournals and elsewhere; if a central one develops I'll post information here. Her longtime partner, Dr. James Robinson, says that at her request there will be a filksing rather than a funeral, probably to be held at
Consonance, the San Francisco-area filk convention Dr. James helps run, in early March. (Which convention I somehow seem to have missed in my
calendar; I will rectify that now.)
The word that keeps coming up in those remembrances is
nice. Her role in filk is more than just her singing, it's the encouragement she gave to a lot of filkers as they were just starting out. She was the one who welcomed a lot of filkers...
home.
"...She'll watch us and guard us
In Her crimson keep."
"Crimson and Crystal," ©1979 Cynthia McQuillin
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