The Rest of the Story

[howeird]

Had about 2 hours of cat time, nibbled on some celery with ranch dip.

Rehearsals was supposed to be a stumble-through of Act I, I think we got 3/4 of the way. Now that we have most of the set, it is clear the scene changes will be long and painful and there are too many of them.  I hope they get a large run crew.

I got to sing my solo twice, but the second time I didn't get the cue I was looking for, and it was a total FAIL. I also need to memorize the part. I'm not called tomorrow, so I'll do it then.

consonance_con finally published their schedule for this weekend - not just the schedule but the whole effing program book. Interfilk GoH is Merav Hoffman. I don't really remember, but I think I once walked out on her concert for being boring. She has nothing on youtube, everything on bandcamp is for pay. I just need 30 seconds of audio to know. I guess it doesn't really matter, it's Saturday, and from the looks of the schedule I'll be there from 1 pm till midnight. Friday I'll wait till after commuter gridlock, maybe halfway through the sing-along concert, then toastmaster concert. Open filk depends on how sleepy I am.

Not much on Sunday - a concert by someone I've never heard of at 12:30, Adam Sakellarides**, 2x10s, Puzzlebox concert I'll probably bail on because I have seen them so many times.

**Looked him up on Youtube. Nasal voice. Some clever lyrics, but mostly cliché. 50-50.

Plans for tomorrow:

WFH early - I need to install VM on the work PC and then linux. Should be doable with RDP.
P/U two packages at the apartment office
Mountain View, doctor's appt
Plan A: take the car to the place which installed the alarm and have them fix the trunk release, and install a new backup cam
Plan B: Go to the office and twiddle my thumbs all afternoon.

Comments

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I know this because I've actually worked both sides of the concert-booking thing at cons - the standards of professionalism for booking filk concerts are near-nonexistent. Often, concerts are booked based on fan creds, writing ability, or simply the fact that there's an empty slot someone wants to fill. I've heard concerts that are totally off-key, out of tune - well, you know. If someone comes along who's actually talented and entertaining - well, that's something of a miracle in the singer-songwriter genre, and even more so in filk. Since Dylan, and even a bit before, what used to be a huge crowd of people with different talents - a lyricist, a composer, one or more singers, an orchestra, etc., is down to one person. The majority are strong in one area (if any) and weak on the rest. A slightly smaller number are strong in two areas. Strong in 3 and weak in the 4th - that's about the level of a superstar.

I try to bring at least some minimum standard of professionalism to my own concerts - don't always do as well as I'd like, but hope people don't often run away screaming. I've gotten some very scathing criticisms of my performance. Mostly from the kind of people who judge Bob Dylan by the same standards they'd judge Pavarotti. I ain't a-tryin' to be no Pavarotti. I'd say I'm strong in two areas - instrumentalist and lyricist. If I weren't weak at composing, I'd write fewer parodies. As far as singing, I'd rate myself somewhere between Shel Silverstein and Utah Phillips, both of whom one of my oldest friends finds hard to listen to. If someone compares my singing to Dave Van Ronk or David Bromberg (and they have) I take that as a huge compliment.

What I'm trying to get at is, generally, when people are publically critical of filk performers at any level, it sounds to me like someone trying to crack an egg with a baseball bat.

[howeird]

I prefer a cricket bat for cracking eggs - it has that nice sharp edge. :-)

I think all I said above was I was bored. Not IMHO an indictment of anyone's musical ability.

But to your point. You, sir, are one of the most talented players of guitar-like instruments on the filk circuit, your lyrics are clever and funny and sometimes even poignant, and you can carry a tune. Your voice somewhere between Utah Phillips and Pete Seeger. You don't get all whiny like Shel used to do. You aren't Pavarotti, but what you sing isn't Joe Green, either.

As for filk talent ranges, I am spoiled. First circle I was in there was Kathy Mar, Dr. Jane, Cynthia McQuillan, Kristoff Klover and some other very musical and welcoming people.

I'll add more to this later...

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Pete Seeger. Wow!

[howeird]

later...
If I recall correctly, we disagree on one thing about filk performers. I am turned off by coarse voices, and moreso by out of tune, key-challenged singing. Bob Dylan is one such. Johnny Cash was mildly annoying, with his tendency to sing flat, but how can one completely condemn the man who gave us "Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart"?

Another thing which will see me looking for the exit is those endless fantasy epics which have the structure A A A A A ad infinitum. I can't remember if it was Jeff Bohnhoff or Tony Fabris who said in a songwriting workshop "please, people, write a bridge!".

BTW, enjoyed very much our elevator music. Maybe we can do "Please Don't Busy Me" as a duet during 2-fers at a future con.