confluence (part 1)

Picture above (taken by Andrea, I think): Me with Chris Conway, the Featured Filk Guest at Confluence this past weekend. I am wearing a T-shirt I made to surprise Chris, using a photo I took of him earlier this year at GAfilk which he now uses as one of his Livejournal user pics.

If you have a Confluence report online, please post the URL in Blatherchat or my Livejournal message board, and I will add it here. So far, I've found reports from :
Michelle Sagara West
Chris Conway
Dave Alway
Pete Grubbs
Andrea Dale
David Keefer

I had a *wonderful* time at Confluence...thanks so much to Randy Hoffman and the rest of the concom. I will be posting more photos and highlights from the weekend over the next few days, but here just are a few for now.

Allison, Jodi and I started the weekend off with raspberry margaritas on Friday night at dinner (photo below by Rand, taken at Dingbats) with Chris Conway, Randy Hoffman and Rand. Our trip went pretty smoothly... we feel lucky about this considering the transportation problems experienced by some others attending the convention. Merav Hoffman, for instance, ended up missing Confluence altogether. :-( We also missed Mark Osier, who had to opt out because of work commitments.

Randy Hoffman adds: "In addition to Chris and Merav, Joey Shoji also had a day's worth of flight delays; several people had miserable drives through the storm front; and numerous people who were attempting to commute from the city of Pittsburgh proper on Saturday and Sunday took two hours to drive the twelve miles out to the hotel because of the total closure of Interstate 279 southbound for resurfacing."





If anyone has a digital photo of our Friday night concert, by the way, I would very much appreciate getting a copy. :-) The concert was fun, and the audience was fantastic. Thanks so much to Pete Grubbs, our immensely patient sound guy!!

Our concert set:

The Question
Interjections
The Lady
The Jelly Belly Song
Mr Jelly Belly's Comin To Get You
Bilbo's Last Song
Tiberius Rising
Into The West
Twinkle In His Eye
Starsoul
Hockey Monkey
Encore: Sex and Chocolate

Later on, we found out that both our CDs had sold out in the dealers' room (!).

We shared the shuttle from the airport with the lovely and talented Marty Fabish:





Rand Bellavia and Randy Hoffman on Friday afternoon:





The Boogie Knights gave a great concert despite one of their members (David Keefer) not being able to participate because of a bad migraine. David did make it to the hotel, but had to spend most of the convention in the hotel room :-( :





Mark Bernstein and Allison:





Joey Shoji, Michelle and Tom:





(Continued in part 2)

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wordgoddess collab: handwritten

Extra note: Forgot to mention that the CD cover was created by the wonderfully talented Beckett Gladney.

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queer as folk

I took this photo during our Grand Canyon trip.


Happy birthday to my brother-in-law, Kaarel!

I've heard of Queer As Folk but never watched it until last night, when my friend Craig convinced me to watch the season finale at Slack Alice on Church Street with Derek and Jen.

That was another first: my first gay/lesbian bar. Didn't seem all that different from a regular bar (not that I'm a bar expert, mind you) except that I enjoyed the music more and there was less smoke. Unfortunately it was just as loud as other bars; having a real conversation was impossible. In the fourth annual NOW Readers' Poll, Slack Alice was chosen as Best Gay Bar/Restaurant, Best Place to meet a Gay Man, Best Place to meet a Lesbian, Best Bar for Drinking Alone, Toronto's Best Restaurant Server, and Toronto's Best Bartender.

As for Queer As Folk, the episode I saw last night seemed okay. Intriguing characters, interpersonal relationships, a foul-mouthed but affectionate Sharon Gless (hey, I used to watch Cagney and Lacey sometimes)...enough to convince me to rent the first season sometime in the future. Part of the appeal for me is that the show is filmed in Toronto; one of the scenes in the episode last night, for example, was filmed only a few blocks from Slack Alice.

Any Queer As Folk fans out there? I'm curious.

Only three days until Confluence! And hey, I did another meme ("If you and I were alone in a room right now, what would we be doing?"). Interesting/fun replies. :-)

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cottage, pre-Confluence

Campfire on the weekend at the cottage.


Jeff and I went to the cottage with my sister and her family this past weekend. Activities included: swimming, saunas, fishing, marshmallow roasts, campfires, canoe paddling, lots more swimming. Sara brought along a penny whistle I gave her a while back; she figured out how to play the "Hobbiton theme" from Lord of the Rings on her own!

Only a week until Confluence, woohoo! Really looking forward to this convention, which may very well be the only out-of-town convention that Urban Tapestry attends this year. Jodi and I are both going to OVFF, but Allison may not be able to attend. :-(

Our concert at Confluence is at 10 pm on Friday, and we will also be participating in a children's filk on Saturday morning. I was practising "The Rattlin' Bog" with my nieces on the weekend, a fun song Urban Tapestry learned in Winnipeg from Ruth Sanderson. Thanks in advance to Mark Osier for helping us in our Friday night concert.

I'm also excited because my friends Michelle Sagara West and her husband Tom West are attending. Tom was the one who introduced me to filk in the first place. Michelle now has a Livejournal, by the way. Her user icon was drawn by my sister when we were back in university (coloured by Reid recently).

Tendinitis update, for those of you who are curious: I had a slight setback during my holiday in Arizona as a result of having to do unexpected computer typing (work crisis), but am doing ok. Can't play guitar at Confluence, sadly, but should still be able to play flute as long as I'm careful. Continuing my at-home physio exercises, trying very hard to be patient.



Jeff's toes, decorated by Sara, Annie and me in Arizona.


Interesting links:

Orisinal: Doom and Halo lovers among you will gag, I suspect, but I find most of the music and animation in these violence-free computer games completely charming. :-)



Sign in Sedona.

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briar patch inn

Snoozing in our cabin. Photo by Jeff.


(continuation of trip report)

After my sister and her family flew back home, Jeff and I drove to the Briar Patch Inn, a bed & breakfast place near Sedona, at the base of the red rock mountains. Upon arriving, we immediately got to work on doing absolutely nothing (see photo above).

:-)

The setting was ideal: short drive from Sedona, nestled in a wooded valley beside Oak Creek. No phone or tv in our cabin; calls could be made from a payphone on the property. We had an air-conditioning unit, but chose to leave it off most of the time so we could hear the creek.

Here's the welcome note we found in our cabin when we arrived, along with a small box of worry dolls:





Here's what our cabin ("The Deckhouse") looked like inside:





View from the inside, looking out towards the deck:





View from the deck:





The cabin also had a kitchenette that included a sink, microwave and a fridge:





And a nicely appointed bathroom with a deep whirlpool tub:





My favourite activity those few days: sitting out on the deck with a book, listening to the sound of the creek and the wind in the trees. Also, lots of birds... apparently the area is a favorite of birdwatchers; I'd look up from by book from time to time and would inevitably glimpse a bird or two I've never encountered in Ontario. No mosquitoes, either!

The Inn property only has eighteen cabins, so no worries about noisy hordes. And lots of quiet spaces on the property in which to curl up with a good book:





Breakfast usually included a choice of most of the following: fresh home baked breads, quiche and muffins, granola, yogurt, fresh fruit, juices, oatmeal, hardboiled and soft-boiled eggs, coffee and herbal teas. We always took our breakfasts out to the patio beside the creek:





...and ate it while listening to live music provided by resident musicians, Allen and Maryanne Ames:



The music duo Lyra.


Jeff and I spent most of our two days in Sedona reading, napping, relaxing, but we also went back to the Lowell Observatory as well as checking out some of the shops and art galleries in Sedona. I even booked an in-cabin massage, and felt very decadent and spoiled.

When we got hungry between meals, we would wander along the path to the main cabin, which always had iced tea, herbal teas and coffee, cookies, crackers and fruit available. The main cabin also had a library with a wide variety of books; I borrowed a guide to the area's flora and fauna as well as "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. Started the latter book the first night we arrived, finished it the next day outside beside the creek.

I fell in love with the red rock formations in the area, like this one:





We also checked out some of the local restaurants:





And I gotta say, I could *never* get tired of those gorgeous Sedona sunsets:



Sunset view from the restaurant in above photo.


It was a wonderful way to wind down the trip. Jeff and I are both keen on going back to the Briar Patch Inn and booking the same cabin someday. I highly recommend this place for anyone seeking a quiet place of relaxation or a romantic hideaway.

More info:

Sedona tourist information

Briar Patch Inn

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