Conday Two

Much more event-filled than yesterday. The brunch was very enjoyable, I picked an empty table and was joined by many people I do not know, and a couple I did. Amazing but true, Alex was the first. Second to last, sitting on my right, was the woman who had been next to me at the brunch 2 years ago. Last to join, on my left, between me and Alex was figmo. The insta-filk was a blast, almost everyone at the table had great ideas, and we did a whole table chorus to the tune of Deck The Halls which I think was the best of the brunch. Sponsored by the yarn department at Leathermasters. Most of the other tables only had one person sing their entry.

After brunch I went looking for a place to have my nails done. ( Read more... )

After that FAIL, back to the con, in time for most of the songbook sing-along, which was mostly fun. Two-fers had a couple of very young entrants, both quite good. Enjoyed lemmozine's set, though I had expected a uke, not a guitar.

Went to my room during break and watched CNN talk to a lot of Atlantan-Egyptians about the unpleasantness in Cairo. Wolf Blitzer interviewed some of the scholar types, and I was surprised once again that Blitzer, who started life at CNN as their Israel correspondent and had been a "guest" of Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War, pretended to not know anything about the politics of the region. His questions were as neutral and bland as any other DC "journalist".

Back to the 12th floor, Katie Tinney's concert. I don't know how young Katie is, she looks 14. I expect she is the daughter of Tricky Pixie's Betsy Tinney. I suppose I should ask. She is totally adorable, her voice is clear and well-trained, and while I love watching her and listening to her voice, her choice of songs put me to sleep. No humor in her set, which is odd because I first heard her a year or two ago singing a comic song which she had co-written with Betsy about alligators in the room.

Next up was Leannan Sidhe, possibly the smallest adult woman in the Pacific Northwest. She and Alex are connected somehow, he joined her set, and I think Betsy did too. Katie also had a people on stage with her, but I forget who. Like Katie, Leannan sings beautifully, had no humor in her set, and put me to sleep. Tony Fabris played in one of those sets, which surprised the heck out of me, since [edited:] I thought his mother in law had just passed away yesterday. I spent a good 3 minutes trying to convince myself it was someone else up there. As the replies below show, it was his singing partner's mother who passed away. Partner Vixy is married to someone else. [end edit]

The Interfilk auction was next, and it provided much comic relief, including a fierce bidding war for the one GoH cape hsifyppah had sent, which finally was won by a cartel consortium to be given to Dr. Mary.

After the auction, lemmozine took me to dinner, Moshe Z joined us. We walked over to the nearest Denny's, which worked fine for me. Pleasant meal with some good conversation.

We were back at the hotel in time for Alex's concert (he was subbing for the missing Vixy & Tony). I opted to go to my room, get warm and catch up on the news. CNN has a woman with a very pronounced British accent interviewing Egyptians from a script which was written for an American to read. Bizarre.

Concert time. Toastmaster Mark Osier was a lot of fun, until he brought his band (two scruffy young men) on stage. A drum set and an electric bass, both of them also sang, the drummer enunciated and was in tune, the bass player not so much. How's that for a twist? Prior to the band, he brought up bluesmancd, who worked his magic on an electric guitar. Good to see him there, after a year of major foo. Spontaneous applause for his riffs. Mark had a good mix, I especially enjoy the non-PC, mildly inappropriate songs.

GoH Dr. Mary was resplendent in a red bare-shoulder ball gown, was gifted with the sparkly gold cape with blue fur collar which she modeled for us (photos to come). She was joined onstage by Betsy on cello (there's always room for cello) and a violinist whose name I can't remember (but should, she is super), and a very eager Katie. A fun set, lots of variety, a standing ovation and a somewhat reluctant encore. During her closing thank-yous, she got Betsy's name wrong, realized it immediately, and reflexively said a Bad Word
which, the toastmaster reminded her, was streaming live across the Internet. It has been a long time since I have seen someone blush as deeply. She and her dress were about the same color.

Another break to set the room up for filk circle. I went back in time for Kathy Mar to start things off with hsifyppah's The Wreck of the... but things progressed pretty slowly after that. I ducked out for a potty break, came back later,  bluesmancd did another Brooke special, I want to Die Like They Do in Sci-fi. Dr. Mary showed up in red PJs and the knit hat which was part of the cape ensemble. Unfortunately, by the time I left at 2 am, she had not sung.