pda joys

The interview with Jeff Bohnhoff is now online!

Jeff and I had dinner at his sister's place last night, and I had a chance to hang out with our four-year-old (almost five) niece Brittany. Brittany is always a bundle of energy, joyous and affectionate. We played Barbies (Barbies have certainly improved in joint flexibility and wardrobe since I was a kid) and chase and camping. Jeff and I are going to take her for a canoe trip this summer.

I've begun to snoop around for interesting software for my Palm Vx. I had been sadly neglecting it for a while, using it only for its datebook facility, and occasional memos. Wow, lots of very cool stuff out there! Here are a few of the goodies I've picked up recently:

AvantGo: I first heard about this application from my friend Brian Parkinson. After you register (for free), you can select whatever "channels" you'd like from a growing selection of news, entertainment and other types of information sites. When I hot-synch my Palm every morning, I automatically pick up that day's news and information. I'm trying out different channels right now to see which ones I want to keep. Channels on my Palm at this moment: Asimba, CBC News, Fictionopolis, HandHeldCrime, Jason Pettus online journal, Kim Holzer Leeds online journal, New York Times, Palm Infocenter.com, PalmPower Magazine, Salon, SCI FI Channel, Space.com, Suck.com, the Compleat Bellairs: Pigwidgeon, and Variety.com. I took my Palm to the cottage...it gave me lots of interesting reading material without my having to fit paper books and magazines into my backpack.

PocketRogue: Augh! This is the game I was so obsessed with in university! And now it's available for the Palm!! I just downloaded it and am secretly hoping that it's not nearly as addictive as I remember.

Interactive Fiction: Remember the old text-based adventure games like Infocom and Scott Adams? I always preferred those over graphic-based adventure games because it left more to the imagination, almost like being part of a novel as it was being written. Ok, so I'm a geeky writer at heart. Anyway, you need a Z-machine interpreter (several versions are available for free), but then can choose from many text adventure games available online. More info available in About.com's Interaction Fiction resource.

Today's Blatherpic:
My nephew Garrison and niece Brittany. This photo was taken at the cottage last Canadian Thanksgiving.

we didn't fall through the ice

Post-cottage

Good cottage visit. The ice was perfect, smooth and with only minimal snow cover. We walked across in about 25 minutes. I did a LOT of napping during the weekend, so cannot accurately report on the activities of Jeff and his parents. :-) I did stay conscious long enough to go for a walk around the lake with them, however, and have a picnic lunch of sandwiches, ravioli soup, grape juice, and (of course) chocolate bars. The marten showed up again, but didn't seem to like my mom-in-law's dog, Jamie. Jamie (named after the hero in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series) is a Scottish terrier type of dog, with a coat of fur so thick you can barely distinguish his features. He's a yappy dog, unfortunately, but is pretty affectionate (he tends to fall asleep quickly in people's laps).

I have to wonder what goes through yappy dogs' heads while they're yapping. When Jamie yaps, his message seems to be, "HEY YOU! I SEE YOU THERE! I'M PRETTY FIERCE, SO YOU'D BETTER WATCH OUT! SIZE ISN'T EVERYTHING, YOU KNOW! WAITASEC, UH OH, YOU'RE NOT ACTUALLY COMING OVER HERE TO CONFRONT ME, ARE YOU? OH GOOD! WELL, IN THAT CASE I'M GOING TO KEEP PROTECTING MY OWNER WITH THIS INTIMIDATING RACKET!! UNLESS YOU DECIDE TO RUB MY TUMMY, IN WHICH CASE I'LL ROLL OVER AND DROOL HAPPILY ON YOUR ANKLE UNTIL I FALL ASLEEP!!"

Jamie rode in the front seat with my mom-in-law (the four of us decided to just take one vehicle up north), but I could smell his doggy breath all the way from the back seat. Ick.

Convention reports

Allison's finished up an Ad Astra report as well as one for Consonance. I've links to these as well as other Consonance reports temporarily in the left navigation bar. Do check out reports by Seanan, Carla, Dave W., and Merav! If any of you have other Consonance reports online, please let me know.

By the way, I'm updating the OVFF Web site, finally. Just waiting for approval from the OVFF concom before linking up the Pegasus Award nomination ballots. If you're anxious to nominate sooner, however, Dave Weingart has kindly made a DOC format nomination ballot available online.

Also working on The Dandelion Report (www.filking.net). Coming soon: interviews with Jeff Bonhoff and Carla Ulbrich. I hope to officially launch this in the summer, but will be linking to individual articles and interviews from my Blatherings for now. My goal is to keep this a low-maintenance and fun project on my end, so I'm not committing to any update schedule yet, sorry.


Miscellaneous

The Reuters story on Inkspot came out yesterday, for those interested. Wired covered the same story, but I have to wonder if there's a typo in the headline.

Mini Annie story

Apparently Annie woke up crying in the middle of the night last week. When her dad went to see what was wrong, it turned out she was worried that Sara wouldn't be her older sister anymore when they grew up.

FilKONtario

Only a few more weeks to go! Katy and Ju are going to be crashing at my place after the convention. I must brush up on my extensive knowledge of German! ;-) I'm not sure if I'll be staying at the hotel on the Thursday night before FKO (it's my birthday and Jeff & I might be going out; I have to talk to him). I just found out that it's Katy's birthday on March 29th, too (and she -will- be at the hotel). It sounds like FilKONtario is going to be quite the party...I can't wait! :-)


Today's Blatherpic:

My dad-in-law.

Jamie, my mom-in-law's cute but yappy dog.

The cool beaded badge holder that Kathleen Sloan made for the Interfilk auction.

sara's play

Last night, Jeff and I went to see Sara in her school play. The junior department did two performances on successive nights. Jeff and I attended the second night. We showed up an hour early to make sure we got good seats...the first row had already been filled by the time we arrived. One mother commented that we were going to be waiting for longer than the duration of the play itself. :-)

'Twas well worth the wait, however. Sara's first grade class were seated all along the front so they could be seen. Jeff and I got seats in the second row, right in front of Sara. Ruth had told me where to sit, since she, Kaarel and Annie had gone the night before. Apparently Annie was so excited to see her sister in the play that she hummed along loudly on all the songs (she knew all the music, of course, having heard Sara practise at home).

I was bursting with pride, watching her up there on the stage. She seemed so confident, so poised. From time to time she would look in our direction, as if to make sure Jeff and I were still there, and give a huge gap-toothed grin.



Scott Murray came to visit a couple of nights ago. We got take-out pizza and watched "Army of Darkness" on DVD. Very silly, very entertaining movie. :-) Have any of you seen it?

No Blatherings until next week...Jeff and I are going up to the cottage again this weekend, this time with his parents. We've gotten word that the ice is much safer now.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Today's Blatherpics:

Sara in her play last night.

Picture of me and Sara at the cottage, several years ago.

more consonance highlights

Hearing Cynthia McQuillin for the first time. Cynthia McQuillin has always been one of the "filk legends" for me. Her name has been around forever, as has her music. We cover one of her songs, "Bring Me A Star" pretty regularly. One thing that really surprised me about seeing Cynthia's performance live was her sense of humour. She writes such beautiful ballads that I never guessed what an exquisitely sharp wit she has, especially with atrocious puns. :-) She and Dr. Jane gave a wonderfully entertaining concert.

Merav's concert: Merav claimed it was her first concert, but she seemed way too remarkably composed and organized! :-) I remember Urban Tapestry's first concert. None of us fainted or threw up, but it was a close thing. Merav also has a very clear, sweet voice that is a joy to listen to. You can see her Consonance report here.

Children's concert: Ironically, no children showed up for the concert, just adults. There were lots of around who were still children at heart, however. Performers: Urban Tapestry, Alan Thiesen, Dave Weingart, Mike Stein. We did our Banana Slug song (Allison had to do an emergency fix to one of the slug puppets who had lost an eye).

Gary's concert: Woohoo, Gary! My favourite part about Gary's concerts is his sheer enthusiasm. He puts so much energy into his performance that sometimes I think he's going to explode onstage. But he doesn't, which is a good thing, especially for the people in the front row.

Interfilk auction: I love Interfilk auctions, what can I say? I enjoy the fun interaction, quips, good-natured threats and silliness, all for a very good cause. Kathleen Sloan ran the auction this year, with Nick Smith as auctioneer. I believe that this particular auction set a West Coast record, raising US$2100. I bought the Joey Shoji chocolate package (yummmmmmmmmmmmm), half of which actually made it back to Toronto. The Urban Tapestry sweatshirt I made was auctioned off for US$300 (many thanks to Sandy Tyra!). And there was another auction item related to Urban Tapestry which was donated by Kathleen Sloan...

Our infamous Birthday Suit Polka Video:
When we were Northern Retreat (and Kevin Davies was part of the group) instead of Urban Tapestry, we did a highly embarrassing song called The Birthday Suit Polka, which we performed in a concert at FilKONtario about eight years ago. Jodi wore a Viking hat and would utter operatic screams every few measures. I provided background percussion by blowing raspberries in an "oom-pah-pah" rhythm whilst bobbing up and down. Allison and Jodi would link arms and do a little dance during the chorus. <long silence> It was definitely not one of our proudest moments. :-) During the auction, there were two hats being passed around. Paul collected money from those who wanted to see the video (Lynn Gold had generously provided a television monitor and VCR machine), and I collected money from those who wanted to see Urban Tapestry's dignity preserved and have the video NOT shown. Paul raised about $140. I raised about $40. Everything went to the Interfilk fund. After the money had been tallied, everyone gathered around the small television (see photo) and watched the video. Twice. Kathleen Sloan, wherever you are, Urban Tapestry will have our revenge someday! >:-)

Our Guest of Honour Concert: We had a lot of fun, mainly because the audience was so responsive. Allison, Jodi and I were a bit zoned (our concert didn't start until 12:30 am, which was 3:30 am Toronto time!), but the energy in the room was great. We ended up with some extra time, so threw in "Cuz He's A Guy", with Paul Kwinn adding the Guy vocals. Many thanks to Jane Mailander for being our Xena yell for "Battle On". :-) By the way, does anyone have a photo of us during our concert? If so, we'd love to get a copy.

Dave and Ellen Weingart: It was SO great to see Dave again, and to meet Ellen. I loved Ellen's dry wit...sure wish she lived closer to Toronto. Heck, New York isn't that far away! I'm hoping to be able to go visit sometime. It was way fun to perform with Dave in the children's concert (he has a great Harry Potter song) and on a song in his concert. My fave song from his set was his Iron Chef song...the song has even inspired Allison to try watching it!

Today's Blatherpics:

Some amazing origami animals (turtle, peacock, billy goat) made from dollar bills that were contributed by one of the attendees at our vocal arrangement workshop. Unfortunately I didn't get the guy's name, but apparently he was attending another convention at the hotel. Jane Mailander also gave us some wonder origami (she had a whole kit with her).

Merav in concert.

Gary Ehrlich.

Con attendees watch Urban Tapestry embarrass themselves during the Birthday Suit Polka.

John and Chris O'Halloran. A very friendly, gentle couple who were kind enough to pick us up at the airport. Our flight was delayed, and poor Chris had to wait several hours.

Ellen and Dave Weingart.

consonance

Brrrr....Toronto sure is a heckuva lot colder than California.



Allison, Jodi and I had a ton of fun at Consonance. The tough thing about going to conventions across the continent is having to say good-bye at the end of the weekend, knowing that it will likely be a long time before you see some of these people again. Sigh. I sure hope someone will hurry up and invent transporters. Many, many thanks to the Consonance concom for inviting us as guests.

And we got to see the Kwinn twins! They were absolutely adorable, of course. I got to hold both Riley and Casey, who gurgled and dozed and smiled at me (I'm sure Beckett and Paul will tell me they weren't real smiles but just gas, but what do they know). The new parents looked remarkable awake and cheerful. It was also great to see Alisa, Luis and Tommy when we visited. Alisa looks radiant (but is also very much looking forward to having the baby so she can get the "radiant pregnant women" part over with :)).



Wonderful to see some of the Blatherchatters in person again! All their concert sets went wonderfully: Gary, Merav, Dave. More details in upcoming Blatherings. Allison and Jodi will likely be posting comments as well (and Dave said that he'll be coming up with a full con report soon). For now, here's just a few of my highlights from the weekend:


Some of my Consonance highlights:
(to be continued)

References to Karen Linsley and Lloyd Llanda throughout the convention. It was obvious that both Karen and Lloyd had made quite the impression (and many friends) in California during their visit to Conchord in 1997 as Interfilk guests. Quiet tears were shed in the audience during Kathleen Sloan's concert (see photo) set when she performed "The Road To Roswell", Karen's and Lloyd's Pegasus award-winning song. I think Lloyd would have been touched by the performance as well as by the obvious caring and support from the West coast filk community.

Divas of Chaotica. Members (left to right, in photo): Jeff Bonhoff, Nancy Freeman, Maya Bonhoff, Debbie Baudoin (formerly of The Duras Sisters), Dr. Jane Robinson. You really, really must hear this filk group perform. They're amazing, fun, and give an outstanding performance. I'm hoping they come out with a CD soon! I did pick up Jeff's and Maya's new CD release, "Retro Rocket Science", which is excellent. I brought it home and played it for Jeff (who has never been to a sf/filk convention and who has never heard Urban Tapestry perform in concert), and he was really impressed. Hm...maybe Jeff and I will be going to Consonance together someday soon. :)

Hearing Carla Ulbrich perform. Apparently she already had caused quite the stir at GaFilk. Wow, super-talented performer. Loved her repertoire (and am thoroughly enjoying the CD I bought at the convention), and twisted sense of humour. Carla says she is going to try to make OVFF. My favourite songs included: "Boy Wonder", "What If Your Girlfriend Was Gone", "Wedgie", "Please Do Something Stupid". More on Carla in an upcoming Blathering.


Today's Blatherpics:

I took this photo just before some of us went out for a dinner run during the weekend.

Casey and Riley (the Kwinn twins) with proud parents.

From Steve Macdonald's World Dream recording at Consonance.

Kathleen Sloan performing "The Road To Roswell".

The Divas of Chaotica in concert.

Carla Ulbrich in concert.

Allison, Jodi and I on the flight home. I took this picture by holding out the camera in front of us. We are somewhat giddy.

Here's a mini-report from Dave Weingart posted on Blatherchat:

"Despite the snow, despite the wind, despite Gary Erlich travelling the same day, I am here, back in NY and missing all of you. Consonance was wonderful, even if there was nobody left to sing the Hockey Monkey Song at me by the time I finally left the hotel. A full conrep is coming in a day or two or three, but a few memories that burn brightest: the WorlDream recording, practicing with Debbie and Jodi and Allison (and singing with them; I really *can't* thank them enough), Steve's reaction when Merav's song, "Many Huns, One War" was sprung on him at open filk, realizing I had no breath to sing with at the start of my concert, all these people and voices around me, the Divas of Chaotica singing about the Leather Pants of Evil, the Sunday night dinner run, Carla Ullbrich's wedgie song, *** If I carry one very special memory away from Consonance, it will be, I think, Kathleen Sloan singing "Road to Roswell" during her set on Sunday. Working on my conrep on the plane home yesterday, I found myself still crying at the memory of it (I didn't think to bring a napkin or handkerchief or anything during the concert...didn't think I'd need one until then.) *** More tea is needed; my body still thinks it's not quite 7 AM and the snow is falling here in NY."