Dec. 8, 2004:
Roc*Kon skips a year
I am informed that the Little Rock, Ark., convention Roc*Kon is spending a year UnDead for tax purposes and will
return in 2006.
OVFF didn't move...
...the hotel just got renamed. (Apparently it got renamed sometime this year, but since I wasn't able to make it
there this year I missed it earlier.) What was the Wyndham Dublin is now the Clarion Dublin. Next year's Guest of
Honor is the one and only Frank Hayes of "Never Set the Cat on Fire" and "When I Was a Boy" fame.
Dec. 3, 2004:
Apollocon hotel set
Houston, we still have a con, and
Apollocon - June 24-26 - has a hotel:
the Hyatt Regency Houston Airport.
Hominids/Humans/Hybrids author Robert J. Sawyer is the Guest of Honor,
and this con is your probably not last but likely best hope for Victory, who is the artist GoH.
Nov. 1, 2004:
2004 Pegasus Award winners
Best Filk Song: "The Lady" by Jodi Krangle
Best Classic Filk Song: "Ladyhawke!" by Julia Ecklar
Best Performer: Urban Tapestry
Best Writer/Composer: Kathy Mar
Best Comic-Book Song: "Arthur Curry" by Rand Bellavia and Adam English
Best Tribute: "A Simple Country Doctor" by Matt G. Leger
Congrats to the winners!
Oct. 6, 2004:
OK, there's a page here again
Sorry about the interruption, and for those of you who heard about the site for the first time at FenCon and were
patient enough to check back - thank you, very, very much. Qe'van, whose account hosts this site, had a go-round
with Comcast tech support that apparently started FenCon weekend. This happened, naturally, at the same time that
Filknet, who hosts the mailing list, had issues with the registrar of their Internet domain name, so I couldn't
send a notice out on the mailing list either...
Anyway, we're back up now. FenCon was amazing, the performers were great... and they're throwing another one next
year.
And
Leslie Fish is the filk Guest of Honor.
It's gonna be good.
Hi! I can't remember your name either!
One of the reasons I was sweating the website and list being down: I have a note written down on my FenCon pocket
program about an annual housefilk in Denton the first weekend in February. I didn't write any more than that
because the woman hosting it, whose name has slipped through my colander skull, was going to hit the website
after the con, join the mailing list and post some information on it.
Oops.
So could someone who knows about this please
pass along that info and/or
let her know that the site is back up and she can pass along the info? Thanks...
Filk at Linucon
There will be filk at
Linucon in Austin, hosted by yours truly, Saturday
night starting at 10 p.m. in Lone Star I. Friday night, alas, I will be in Waco trying to sort out a newspaper
front page (this means, among other things, that I will miss the Celebrity Munchkin game Friday night, drat it
all). Save some Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate and Oreo ice cream for me...
Sept. 23, 2004:
Hello, America, how are ya?
Say, dontcha know, it's on another run?
And it's raining in the city of New Orleans
From that freakin' undead
storm that they call Ivan...
Sept. 15, 2004:
Hello, America, how are ya?
Can you spare a bed for someone on the run?
'Cause it's raining in the city of New Orleans
From that freakin' monster storm that they call Ivan...
Itza... mall?
I don't believe I've heard of a convention being held in a shopping mall before, but here it is: Anime Day 1
having been a success in August at the Richardson Square Mall, the folks who bring you A-Kon are holding a second
one there... and throwing
ItzaCon 6, that ultimate in
cheap relaxacons, into the bargain. It's being held Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 13-14 (the weekend before
Panda*Monium), and costs only $7 for one day or $10 for both. There are also late-night events (such as filk)
being held at the nearby Holiday Inn Select, the con hotel. (Note that this is a different Holiday Inn Select
than the one FenCon is using.)
Sept. 9, 2004:
News from Worldcon
Lots of stuff to tell you, if I can only remember it all... Yokohama, Japan, won the bid for the
2007 World Science Fiction Convention, which, among other things, means there
will be a North American Science Fiction Convention, or NASFiC, that year. The site of that NASFiC will be voted
on by the members of next year's NASFiC,
CascadiaCon in Seattle
(there's a NASFiC next year because the Worldcon will be in
Glasgow,
Scotland).
St. Louis appears to be the only bidder so far;
Columbus, Ohio - Yokohama's competition for the 2007 Worldcon - has dropped out of the running.
The switch to a two-year lead time on Worldcon bids also became official this year, so members of both next
year's Worldcon in Glasgow and the
2006 Worldcon in Los Angeles will vote
on the 2008 site, for which
Chicago seems to have the only genuine
bid. (The Geneva, Switzerland, bid appears to be a hoax.)
All of this confusion is by way of working up to the real news:
Kansas City, which lost the 2006 Worldcon to LA, is back in the
hunt, launching a bid for the 2009 Worldcon (to be voted on at Yokohama). Imagine, a Worldcon that's actually
within reasonable driving distance... They'll be having a room party for the bid at FenCon.
AggieCon dates shift
AggieCon on the Texas A&M campus is moving dates again (they were, as you may
recall, bumped out of their traditional spot by next year's Easter weekend). The nation's largest student-run SF
con will now be held April 21-24, 2005.
August 27, 2004:
Pegasus nominees
Right, then. Nominees for the 2004 Pegasus Awards, to be given out Oct. 30 at the Ohio Valley Filk Festival, have
just been announced; you can
go here to vote online or get
a ballot to mail in (this link first goes to a page that explains a change in the voting procedure), or you
can vote at OVFF. Deadline for e- or snail-mail if you're not going to OVFF is Oct. 25. And the nominees are:
BEST FILK SONG
A Thousand Ships, Katy Droege and Juliane Honisch
The Lady, Jodi Krangle
Po' Boys, Marty Coady Fabish
Rocket Ride, Tom Smith
Uplift, Andy Eigel
BEST CLASSIC FILK SONG
Black Davie's Ride, Cynthia McQuillin
Don't Push That Button, Duane Elms
Ladyhawke!, Julia Ecklar
Nessie Come Up, Dr. Jane Robinson
Never Set the Cat On Fire, Frank Hayes
BEST PERFORMER
Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff
Chris Conway
Dr. Mary Crowell
Ookla the Mok
Urban Tapestry
BEST WRITER/COMPOSER
Chris Conway
Blake Hodgetts
Talis Kimberley
Kathy Mar
Debbie Ridpath Ohi
BEST COMIC BOOK SONG
Arthur Curry, Rand Bellavia and Adam English
Catatonia Country Rag, Julia Ecklar and Leslie Fish
Elektra's Song, Chris Malme
Superman's Midlife Crisis, Joe Giacoio
When I Grow Up, Dr. Mary Crowell
BEST TRIBUTE
A Simple Country Doctor, Matt Leger
Dangerous Heroes, Michael Longcor
Half A Chance, Bill Roper
Howie in Waltz Time, Cat Faber
I Want to be Peter Lorre, Tom Smith
Rouget De Lisle Award winner
Speaking of awards, the
Mars Society gave its second Rouget De Lisle
Award for songs encouraging space exploration at its convention last weekend in Chicago. The winner - "Thank God
Dreams Survive," by Bill, Tina, and Casey Swindell - will be available soon along with other honorees at
http://song.marsstuff.com, alongside last year's winners.
ConDFW's guest of honor...
...is none other than Steven K.Z. Brust, the author of
To Reign in Hell and the Dragaera books (including
the Vlad Taltos stories and the recently concluded
Viscount of Adrilankha trilogy (itself the conclusion
of the Khaavren Romances trilogy (do you think I have enough parentheses here?))). More to the point for our
purposes, he is said to be a musician of no mean talent, and is fairly likely to display that talent at some
point during the convention.
June 18, 2004:
AggieCon dates set
Bumped out of its usual March spot by the Easter holiday (and returning to a four-day schedule),
AggieCon will be held April 7-10 next year, still at the Memorial Student
Center on the Texas A&M campus.
Kerrville followup
Carla Ulbrich, alas, wasn't one of the New Folk Competition winners at Kerrville this year. (It took me a while
to find out who was; they didn't post it on their website very quickly...) For completeness' sake, here's who did
win: Claudia Nygaard of Nashville, TN; Idgy Vaughn of Austin; Cary Cooper of Garland; Effron White of
Fayetteville, AR; Julie Clark of Norfolk, VA; and John William Davis of Indian Hills, CO.
May 22, 2004:
Conestoga website moves
Conestoga has changed URLs; they're now at
http://www.sftulsa.org.
April 2, 2004:
Yet another new con
This one promises to be... interesting. (And yes, it also promises filk.) Quoting from the flier: "
Linucon is a combination science fiction convention and linux/open source expo.
Is it a science fiction convention where it's exceptionally easy to check your email? Is it a technical
conference where you can buy pocky while dressed as an elf? The answer to both is 'yes, and so much more...'"
It's Oct. 8-10 at the Red Lion Hotel in Austin; guests include Eric Raymond, Steve Jackson, Howard Tayler and
Eric Flint, plus an anime mystery guest.
AggieCon followup
Clearing up a rumor I was hearing at ConDFW: Aggiecon will still be held at the Memorial Student
Center on the A&M campus next year (though the organizers, Cepheid Variable, are no longer affiliated with the
MSC organization); what's moving is the dates, which have not yet been determined. The traditional AggieCon time,
the weekend after A&M's spring break week, would put it on Easter weekend next year, which is a bit
problematic...
Feb. 25, 2004:
It's okay, see?
The Oklahoma City area is regaining a con after a long drought:
Panda*monium will reign Nov. 19-21 at the Holiday Inn in Norman. Mel
Odom is Guest of Honor, Selina Rosen (man, she's
everywhere!) will be toastmistress, David Lee Anderson
artist GoH and Roger Tener fan GoH. There will be filk here, too.
Nov. 2, 2003:
The OVFF 19 trip report
...may be found by clicking above. In summary: we heard a lot of great music, we had a blast, we hit a deer.
Also, not just one but
two FenCon filk guests won Pegasus awards: Filk Guest of Honor Michael Longcor won
Best Filk Song for his Columbia tribute "Shooting Star," and Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff won Best Parody for "Knight's
in White Satin."
FenCon updates
Speaking of
FenCon, a third filk guest has been signed, and that's
Carla Ulbrich, Professional Smart Aleck. Another of my favorites, with songs
like "What If Your Girlfriend Was Gone," "The Guy Who Changes the Light Bulbs," "I Have to Kill You Now," and
"Boy Wonder." And, it occurs to me, I haven't mentioned here yet (well, other than in the paragraph above) that
also there will be
Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff, with favorites like "Hotel
Dealer Floor" and "The Actor," and the filk group
Windbourne. Longcor,
Ulbrich and the Bohnhoffs I have heard in person and they are
good. Windbourne I haven't heard in person
but I am assured they are also
good.
Also, the Hotel Deal has been reached - FenCon will be held Sept. 24-26, 2004, at the Holiday Inn Select, North
Dallas. Double-checking that at the website, I find they've also named their Toastmistress, writer Elizabeth
Moon, and their Fen GoH, Jim Murray.
Hal Clement dies
On a sad note, acclaimed writer Hal Clement died Wednesday at age 81. He was a pioneer in the art of hard-SF
worldbuilding, constructing settings based on solid scientific principle and following those principles to their
often astounding conclusions.
I have to admit, here, that I've never read his work, but I met him at Conestoga in Tulsa last summer, at a talk
he gave on worldbuilding and a panel he took part in on writing - still active in science and fandom, as he
reportedly was even the weekend before his death - and came away greatly impressed with both the mind and the
man. I am sorry now that the once was all I'll ever meet him.
The story is being told in online newsgroups of a small SF con - no one seems to recall which one - that
advertised that despite its small size it was able to get three guests of honor, though it was able to save money
since they shared a room. The guests were:
Writer Guest of Honor: Hal Clement
Artist Guest of Honor: George Richard
Fan Guest of Honor: Harry Stubbs
The joke, of course, was that all three were the same, extraordinary man, Harry Clement Stubbs. He (they?) will
be missed.
- Fax
Oct. 30, 2003:
2003 Pegasus Award winners
Best Filk Song: "Shooting Star" by Michael Longcor
Best Classic Filk Song: "Banned From Argo" by Leslie Fish
Best Performer: Dandelion Wine
Best Writer/Composer: Cat Faber
Best Parody: "Knight's In White Satin" by Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff
Best Original Humorous Song: "My Husband the Filker" by Bill and Gretchen Roper
Note: Best Classic Filk Song is a new category, for filk songs 10 years old or older, that this year was selected
by the OVFF concom and will be on the ballot starting next year.
- Fax
Sept. 18, 2003:
Longcor named FenCon Filk GoH
FenCon, a Dallas convention set to debut a year from now, has named as its
inaugural Filk Guest of Honor singer/songwriter Michael "Moonwulf" Longcor. Yep - that
would be the same
Michael Longcor listed above as a Best Filk Song Pegasus winner. He's won six Pegasi now - in addition to this
year's Best Filk Song, he's won twice as Best Performer and one each in the categories of Best Humorous
("Rhinotillexomania"), Best Military ("When Tenskwatawa Sings") and Best Eerie ("Monster in My Head") - and is
known as well for such filk hits as "Truck Drivin' Vampire", "Dangerous Heroes", "Silver Bullet Blues" and "Bob's
Dog Obedience School".
FenCon is to be held Sept. 24-26, 2004, in Dallas and has also announced Larry Niven as its main Guest of
Honor.
Yes, I
am excited about this. Longcor was the toastmaster at the Ohio Valley Filk Festival two years ago,
where I got thoroughly hooked on filk - and he was one of the biggest pushers. This is going to be
good...
- Fax
August 7, 2003:
Apologies and changes
I've let this lapse for far too long, and for that I apologize. I can only plead an excess of real life, combined
with various technical pains. Speaking of which...
Comcast having bought AT&T's cable-TV business, this website is now hosted by comcast.net instead of attbi.com.
As you may have noticed. The changeover was not as smooth as I had been led to believe it would be, so while
www.texasfilk.org now points to the correct page (and has for a while), texasfilk.home.attbi.com
doesn't.
So please change your bookmarks to
www.texasfilk.org
(texasfilk.home.comcast.net also works, but I may move the page off here at some point in the (not near) future,
so texasfilk.org is safer).
March 19, 2003:
A faster way to get here
There's now a simpler, easier-to-remember domain name pointing to this site:
www.texasfilk.org. The
comcast.net address still works too, though.
Feb. 18, 2003:
Pegasus Award changes
Nominations for the Pegasus Awards being given out at this year's
Ohio Valley Filk
Festival are working a little differently than they did last year. This time it starts with an opinion poll
to gather suggestions for the nominating ballot, in an attempt to widen the field somewhat. More information on
the changes is available at
the Pegasus Awards FAQ page.
November 2002 : Pegasus Awards Winners!
Best Filk Song:
"Velvet", by
Talis Kimberley
Best Writer/Composer:
Zander Nyrond
Best Performer:
Three Weird Sisters
Best Chilling/Spine-Tingling Song:
"In A Gown Too Blue", by
Brenda Sutton
Best Song That Tells A Story:
"Horsetamer's Daughter", by
Leslie Fish
