Conflikt Day 1, in which there was much chronocide

[howeird]

I had misread the programming guide and some FB and LJ notes about the con which had me believing pre-filking started last night and the con started sometime in the morning, maybe 10-ish. Boy was I wrong.

Meet & greet was listed a starting at 2, opening ceremonies at 7. There was nothing which said when registration would open.

Spent a lot of time watching TV coverage of the unpleasantness in Egypt. All the stations were playing pretty much the same images of things on fire at night, and isolated pieces of men jumping on tanks, APCs, motorcycles and each other. Many of them were looking self-consciously at the camera, sort of posing, guiltily. During all this, no one mentioned that Mubarak came to power when his minions assassinated Anwar Sadat, who had just made peace with Israel.

Finally got my badge & program guide. Walked half a block to Denny's for a late lunch, service was lightning fast. The food was edible. I left a big tip.

Back at the hotel lemmozine and Kathy Mar were there hanging out, after a little chatting I went to my room, got the Interfilk donations out and brought them upstairs to sign them in, then took some Hawaii uke trinkets down to lemmozine and chatted some more.

 Hung out in the room some more, then went back upstairs and waited for the opening ceremony to begin. A little before time, GoH Dr Mary Crowell walked in looking stunning in a cobalt blue dress. Or at least I think that color is cobalt blue. Or maybe lightning bolt blue. Love that color, and that color loves her too. Photos when I get home. She even chatted with me for a while, remembered my review of her at a previous Consonance. I thought it might have been Conflikt too, but she said this was her first one.

The con was opened by chairperson Beth Runnerwolf, who spent entirely too long on con minutiae before delivering a moving and tearful homage to a person who had been near and dear to her mother and her, and had recently passed away. It was a difficult speech to give, but touching and inspiring.

Audio WTF - Beth ended up speaking from the keyboard bench because the main mike kept cutting out, and the audio folks kept trying to blame it on her not speaking into it. But she had been. Tonight there was a lot of speaking into mikes which had not been turned on until the speaker was well into his/her first sentence.

Time to move on, Toastmaster Mark Osier on guitar and Mary on keyboard led us through a practice run and then a final take of Leslie Fish's Hope Eyrie for the con CD. The song chokes me up for the wrong reason. When it was written in 1975 it was a prediction that the moon landing was the first step for humans out of the the earth's gravity well. Today the opposite of that prediction has come about, and public opinion sees the whole thing as a waste. I'm not sure if anyone else in the room shares my view on this.

Concerts next. Interfilk guest Ben Newman. Annoyingly nasal voice, mostly listenable material, joined for the last few numbers by Callie on her bass flute.

Steve Dixon. Beautiful voice, tuneful songs with lyrics worth listening to (some were covers), pleasant guitar style. Unfortunately I was distracted by rude conversations at the side of the room by people Who Know Better™. And dancing. Both Ben and Steve's every number were danced to in the area between my seat and the windows by a couple who obviously love each other and express it through awkward dance not appropriate to the music.

Cecelia Eng. I first heard her in a filk circle at a Rustycon, I think, and am always blown away by her amazing singing, enunciation, and clever lyrics. And for me, the total disconnect between how she looks and how her voice sounds. Small package, huge voice.

Did not go to open filk after, needed to get some toiletries and such at 7-11 which is UP a steep hill a very long block from the hotel. Not a good con hotel - the restaurant is open very short hours, the bar even shorter. There are only three restaurants in easy walking distance, one is a Denny's, one is a run-down teriyaki shack, the other is very pricey.

Back at the room, ate some of the 7-11 food, wrote this.

Plans for tomorrow:
Con Brunch at 10. Too early for a brunch, but whatever. Looking forward to that, it's usually fun.
May go to the home recording session, if it happens. Was supposed to be co-presented by Alec Adams and Tony Fabris, but Tony is away on a family emergency.
Looking forward to the Interfilk auction. I don't think my Howeird's Grossest Hits CD is worth what people are bidding for it, but Interfilk is worth it, so I won't complain.
Dinner with lemmozine, I hope.
Concerts by Mark and by Mary. Not sure if I'll go to Alec's concert, there is only so much manic fiddling I can absorb in one lifetime.

Comments

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

If you have time, you should go to the concert by Katie Tinney, backed up by her mother Betsy (yes, the same Betsy who is SJ Tucker's partner in crime, and who also plays often with Vixy & Tony), Tony Fabris if the family emergency permits, and Sunnie Larsen, who also plays with Vixy & Tony. Katie is a very talented girl and utterly charming; we're all very proud of her.

[howeird]

Thanks for the tip, I'm planning to be at all the concerts except Alec's, now looking forward even more to Katie's. Unfortunately Vixy's mother passed away yesterday, so she and Tony will not be here. Doubly sad because I wanted to tell them how much my mother had enjoyed their song "Emerald Green". Mom lived in Seattle from 1965 until she passed away last March, and the song touched her deeply.