ifics

This last weekend I went to ConChord 21 in Woodland Hills. (In the Los Angeles Area.) It was a little smaller than other years, but still was a good convention. I was providing sound and lapislaz setup and ran the con suite.

We went up in two vehicles and had to stop and pick up Rod O'Riley. After several traffic jams, we arrived in the late afternoon. I proceeded to unload and set up the sound gear, while Lapis did the same with the con suite.

In the evening was the traditional Pool party/reception which we attended for a while. I went back to the concert room to ready the evening show. My assistant, Greg Gross, arrived with the soundboard and amp along with other miscellaneous stuff. The only Concert was Lynn Maudlin, then we shut down for the night and attended some circles.

Here are the Photos I took at the Con. ConChord 21 Photos

I started the day at the Christian service. It was a combined Catholic Episcopalian service. There was a Priest from each church jointly running the service. It worked out fairly well. The one thing that was odd for me was the Lord's Supper. The Episcopalian one did not use unleavened bread. I was not sure if I could take the Catholic Communion, so I did not go up for the bread and fruit of the vine.

I went to Richard Hescox's slide show, then to the digital photo restoration demonstration. Since we have recently inherited old family negatives dating back to the late 30s, I thought might be useful. It was presented by a professional photographer named Ctein, who also has a book out. I will have to pick that book up someday.

Our evening sound got started off late. Our concert room had a panel that ended at 6:30, but ran almost to 7pm. (This con had an half hour buffer between panels). When we finally got into the room we had to very quickly set up our sound system and do a quickie sound check. First up was Tres Gique. This is the first time I got to hear them in concert and they are quite good. Next was Taunya Gren and Paul Kwinn. The last person was Seanan McGuire. Paul stayed and played guitar for Seanan. I really liked her plague teaching song. (The Black Death.)

After tear-down, I hit the sack. We got up early, loaded up the van and headed south. We got through LA, (I-5 all the way), with out any traffic jams. The grapevine had one point where traffic slowed to 30 mph for a few minutes. About an hour or so the traffic report stated that traffic was backing up on the grapevine, so we managed to miss all the jams.

In the morning I went to con-ops to see if my badge was ready. Not yet. It was 9am. Still not there by 10, so I went to the Richard Hescox panel. I have always been a fan of his art. Afterwords back to con-ops and no badge. Waited around a bit and still no badge. Got permission to see the art show badge-less, and wondered around there for a while.

Back to room to eat lunch and still no badge. Finally got the badge at about 2:15. Ran off to see Dr Bridget Landry talk about the Casinni mission. Wondered a bit and back to the room for dinner.

We started setup for the concert at 6:30 and we even started on time. Greg has a nice condenser mic and a parametric EQ to balance it. Just as the concert started he noticed a cable had come loose. So the first song was not miked.

First up was Lynn Gold who did a 30 minute set. she was followed by Harold Groot. After harold was one of my favorite harpist, Moira Stern. Even though her voice was not in the best condition, she did a fantastic performance. Last but not least was Callie Hills and friends.

Here are some pictures I took of the concert.

After tear down, I spent about an hour or so in the filk room. The filk circle was smaller than I expected for a Bay Area con. It may be due to the fact that Westercon is going to be at the same hotel in about 5 weeks.

We were invited to provide sound for Baycon's concerts by Alison. Greg and I packed up tons of gear and made the 9.5 hour trip north to the Bay area.

We arrived at about 7pm and attempted to get our badges. Baycon is a for profit enterprise, so badge forms are a little more involved than other cons I've been to. While Alison Stern went off the get the proper sigs, Greg and I unloaded the van of its load of sound gear. Our room is only a few doors down from some of the function rooms of the con. We are about 100 feet from the filk room.

Small filk tonight, but some Atlanta area filkers dropped in with some good material, didn't catch their names. We wont get much more filking done due to concerts of Saturday and Sunday nights. We have to drive home on Monday.

Yesterday I was listening to "A Way With Words" on our local PBS station. A caller called and wanted to know if there was a word for the process of writing new lyrics for songs. The co-host, Grant Barrett, said the only word he was aware of was a term used by science fiction fans, filk.

Here is a link to the episode. http://www.kpbs.org/words/. It is the April 14th episode.

Posted late, due to not having time to get online. Three of us in the room and only one connection....

( On to the Con Report )

( Thursday at LACon IV )

Up at 4am, finish packing the food, loading the truck, making the two hour drive north, getting registered and then begin the task of sorting Amy Carpenter's booth.

Amy brought a huge inventory, and not enough shelves. I spent 3 hours sorting the hardbacks, then about 4 hours on the paperbacks. I got up to the Ms before I had to leave to check into the hotel and then setup for the evening concerts.

There was no one to help haul equipment, so I had to do this alone. Across the street from one hotel to the other. I did it in three trips. Set up and did the sound check. Ran into Gerry and sandy_tyras, Jeff & Maya Bonhoff, and many others. Saw a dealer selling Serenity ornaments for $20. (Must get one of those!!). Trying not to buy to many books, tight budget. Hard to do when there are so many book dealers around.

The Thursday concert was Karen Anderson and Leslie Fish. To our surprise, the concert room was packed to the rafters. At the 96 worldcon the room never got half full. I took some pictures, but will post them later.

Today is finish sorting Amy's books, and more sound for concerts.

After work I went on down to Conzilla to help with setup. After getting by badge and stuff, I check to pocket program to see if filking got into the program. The Saturday concerts didn't, Heather on Sunday did. The Cindy McQuillin circle did, Monday it says Concerts, and nothing for Tuesday. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I sent in the schedule before the deadline, and gave the program guy, Jim a hard copy. I hope my entry makes it into the daily newsletter. I also came home and made a schedule to hand out at the filks.

After that bit of frustration, I spent several hours hanging art, got no free art this time!! (As if we need more art around our house.) lapislaz came an hour or two later and assisted Amy with the Book Universe booth.

Tomorrow I haul the stage and sound equipment down and do the first set of concerts. And hope my wallet does not get loose in the dealers room.