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February 3rd, 2009
 | 08:28 pm - It's been a quiet week on Lake Washington...
... then the filkers showed up at Conflikt and demonstrated what could be done with diatomaceous broccoli melons and a black hole. With a flying visit to Spokane for good measure.
But I get ahead of myself.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) harmonyheifer and I went to Conflikt, and while we were both exhausted when we got there and didn't participate as much as we might have, it was still a good weekend.
Thursday, Chris' electric cart refused to hold a charge. This will be of some import as the story progresses.
Friday morning, without Moonlight the Ailing Electric Cart, we used the nicely-tipped assistance of the Sky Harbor Wheelchair Cadets, and got on the plane in sunny Phoenix. The flight being barely a third full, we had a swift and uneventful flight to...
...a scenic holding pattern around Umatilla. Perhaps we jinxed it by discussing lunch plans, but the fog at Sea-Tac wasn't clearing, despite the best efforts of pea-soup eaters from all over, many of whom seemed to have been flying in themselves. After several orbits of the Umatilla metropolitan area, air traffic control advanced us to...
...somewhat more dramatically scenic Mt. Ranier, which we circled a few times before the pilot, defeated, bored, and running out of Jet-A, diverted us to Spokane.
Once on the ground at Spokane, we were allowed off the plane to feed and graze on surprisingly good airport food. There were a lot of people sitting at the gate, yet a Southwest pilot in line at the food stand said his plane, diverted to Spokane earlier, was now leaving, empty of passengers, to Oakland to get back on its schedule. Thus, once cleared to Seattle, our nice friendly flight suddenly became three flights in one: the Sardine Express, featuring the Brigham Young University Womens' Cross-Country Team.
The Express finally trundled to the gate at Sea-Tac, some five hours late. We, exhausted, made our way to the con hotel, dined in their pretty good eatery, and crashed. Kudos to the Holiday Inn, for putting us in rooms as close to the action as possible. I un-crashed in time to get to see the Puzzlebox concert, and hear the Rules and Regulations for the Songwriting Contest. Which were determined like so:
Seanan McGuire, the Guest of Honour, was summoned to the room and asked to choose a number. Seven was chosen. The following seven words (though it is true, there was some debate on the true numbering of the words: see the Appendices as soon as I write them) were chosen at random from a small word salad: Diatomaceous, Random, Meretricious, Melon, Broccoli, Black Hole, and Licky. Yes, Licky.
Seanan, having written The Words where all could see, added her own thought to the list: "You people are so screwed".
The idea, then, was to write a song using the seven words, and present it to the judges and the con in general Sunday afternoon. We looked around the con a bit, and ran into jhitchin and had a bit of a chat. I also signed up for the Band Scramble.
At this point, open filking began. However, supplies for the weekend were needed, so I shopped. Stopped in at Open Filking briefly, then went to sleep, blissful sleep. Exhausted sleep.
Saturday morning, the Seven Words having drilled themselves into our minds, we had a bite of breakfast and began to brainstorm. Chris decided to write a song, as did I, both on differing topics. Post breakfast, we verified the word list and went to work, finishing up in time for lunch. I fetched fast food and stopped at Kinko's to print our songs. Then it was improv time: Seanan conducted a one-hour improv workshop. A good time was had by all.
About then the bands for the Scramble had been assigned, as well. Band Scrambles are a staple of folk festivals, and they work like this: Musicians or even interested civilians who want to play, submit their names, which are chosen at random and are formed into pick-up bands. Each band comes up with an amusing name, chooses and practices a song, which is performed late in the event. So I started looking for the other three members of what would become "No Guitars - No Problem" (hereafter referred to as NGNP).
Chris retired to the room and I went to the Interfilk Auction. A good time was had by all there, and there were some serious dollars being bid. I needed to step out briefly as the bidding topped $500 on one item and the oxygen was sucked from the room. (Having bid items to lofty heights myself at Interfilk auctions, this was good to see.) By then the schedule had slipped by an hour, and Chris and I slipped as well, out the door for some dinner. (It's not that we didn't want to go out with a Con Gaggle, we were just stuck on Nuevo Zealand time or something. Which is odd, as we've been back from Nuevo Zealand for eleven months). So off to Anthony's for some good seafood.
We both needed fresh reading material, so we stopped at a Major Bookstore Chain on the way back from dinner, and ran into jhitchin, with whom we conversed for a while, there among the mysteries. Then back to the hotel in time to catch the Hayes and McGuire concerts; both great fun. Chris retired, and I attended the NGNP initial meeting. Incorporation papers were signed, a song was chosen and run through once, then we dispersed. I spent an hour or so at open filking, arriving back at Arizona Filk Central at 0111.
Sunday dawned; we yawned. Breakfast was hunted down and ordered. I went off to NGNP practice, then when that was done we girded ourselves for the Big Event. I put on all of the Steelers paraphernalia I had carried with me, Chris dressed in Cardinal red, and we went downstairs for the competitive event everyone had been waiting for: the songwriting contest. After a brief delay, Seanan was located and made an Entrance, resplendent in jacket and yellow-and black scarf. Not a Steelers scarf, hers had the look and lettering of high quality crime scene tape. And we were off. I wasn't showing off at all (as I told the audience) but I had written a little ditty regarding one Agatha Heterodyne, and used all seven Words in the order presented, then "you people are so screwed", then the Seven in reverse order. I suspect I lost points because I wasn't showing off. Is okay. Chris had written a song about Adrain Monk solving a murder, and set it to a Duras Sisters tune (Good Old Cardassian Days). The banjo player from NGNP wrote a song called "Can't Find a Rhyme for Broccoli", which was well received. The winner was a hilarious X-Rated talking blues, second place went to a song about being a foodie, and Mr. Monk (as written by my sweetie) took third.
Off then for lunch, then back to the Band Scramble. By then the schedule had, with a bit of a mind flip, gone into the time slip, and was about a half-hour behind, so we got to see mdlbear's concert. His new songs are his best ever, a song called "Wheelin'", about dealing with a handicap, brought tears to our eyes.
And then it was time to, as Mr Hayes put it "put some bands into a pan and fry 'em up". NGNP did our thing, one of four scheduled bands. Dinner, the Jam and the Smoked Salmon (think dead dog, but tastier) got combined together, so the joke was "Smoked Salmon and Jam for dinner". I went to the Smoked Salmon after we had a bite of Vast Food, stayed about an hour and then off to bed.
Monday: no fog, so we breakfasted, flew home, and arms exhausted, had jambalaya that puglady brought over.
In summary, the cart would've helped us get to more of the con, but a good time was had by both of us.
And that's the news from Lake Washington.
Current Music: S. McGuire and students: The Black Death
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Comments:
Well at least you stayed out of trouble.
Congrats to Chris! |
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