OVFF highlights (part 3)

OVFF highlights continued...

Photo by Allison

Getting to wear my mom's kimono to the banquet. I didn't know how to tie an obi so I sewed one on the night before we left for Columbus, and used VELCRO as a fastener. Velcro isn't exactly traditional, but it worked. I'd like to think Mom would have been amused.

Photo by Walter

Seanan's demonstration of how a Cone Snail devours its prey. Seanan knows WAY too much about poisonous animals.

Photo by Walter

Mary Crowell's song, "First Time Out In A Thong."

Watching the crafters in the corner.

Photo by Walter

Performing Starsoul in open filk with Brooke Lunderville.

Open filk on Sunday afternoon and evening. All the open filks were fun, but I enjoyed Sunday's filk the most. The atmosphere seemed more laid-back. Sunday's afternoon jam was WAY fun -- this is one of my favourite kinds of circles, where everyone's just playing and singing along for the pure fun of it.

Photo by Walter

Hearing Erica sing Elektra's Song (by Chris Malme).

Hanging out with Erin and Rand in our hotel room. Loved hearing Erin sing. We also got in some serious girltalk.

Photo by Walter
Sib's improvisation workshop. I was too busy trying to avoid being assassinated to take any photos, sorry.

Photo by Walter

Singing Magic In The Air to Sue and Tom (part of our wedding present to them earlier in the year) and seeing them make up actions.

Seeing Katy and Steve again. It's been way too long. Loved their concert.

Photo by Phil Mills

Toyboat's concert, especially watching the star performer above.

Getting my hair braided (a bit of it, anyway) :-).

To be continued...

Guest Concerts (OVFF report, Part 2)

Photo by Phil Mills

My OVFF report continues...

The Guests of Honor at OVFF were Annie and Tim Walker. I first met Tim and Annie when Urban Tapestry were guests at the UK filk convention in 2000 and saw them perform with Phoenix. At OVFF they performed as Wilderwood, accompanied by friends (see Annie's LJ post for details).

Photo by Walter

I've seen Annie in rocker chick mode before (wild hair, black leather) and loved how much energy she poured into her performance. At OVFF, she was in Wilderwood garb but put just as much enthusiasm and joy into her singing.

Photo by Walter

My strongest musical memory of Tim was when he performed a hilarious Elvis style song. He plays a huge number of instruments and has a voice that makes a fangirl melt at the knees.

I picked up "Dancing Through The Past," Wilderwood's newest CD. For some reason it won't play on my laptop :-( but I'm going to bug Allison or a Jodi for a recording from theirs so I can feed my Wilderwood fangirl soul.

Photo by Allison

Becca and Graham Leathers were excellent Toastmasters. Allison, Jodi and I were paying special attention since we're going to be Toastmasters / Filk Waifs for the first time next year at FilKONtario! I loved the interaction between these two during their concert.



So great to see these two again! And Graham's jacket tastes just as good as when I first met him years ago.

Photo by Walter

Graham has a new CD out, by the way: GRAHAM LEATHERS BEARS ALL. :-D And I also enjoy a CD by Becca's group, Riverfolk, which gets regular play in our home.

Photos by Walter

Sibylle Machat was the Interfilk Guest this year. I first met Sib when Allison, Jodi and I were guests at Filkcontinental in Germany some years ago, and was immediately drawn to her wonky sense of humor and contradictory extrovert/introvert personality (we have a lot in common that way); we've been friends ever since. Hearing that she was the Interfilk Guest at OVFF was a huge factor in my deciding to attend the convention.

Photo by Walter

I'll continue my OVFF report soon.

Photo by Walter

Above: Spot, Jan DiMasi's Ball Python. Jan was the Honored Listener guest at OVFF, and started traveling with Spot a little while back.

Barracuda, music and friends (OVFF - Part 1)

I woke up this morning hearing "Barracuda" in my head this morning, and it's the fault of Michelle Dockrey and Jeff Bohnhoff.

But I digress. Got back home from OVFF last night. Allison, Jodi and I had a fantastic time. It's been years since the three of us have attended a convention at which we had zero commitments. Next year, our only filk convention as a group will be FilKONtario and we'll be busy Filk Waifing, so it will likely be at least a couple of years before we'll have a relaxed weekend like this.



We took advantage of the situation, therefore, to have a wonderfully low-key few days. I had a huge amount of fun just wandering around the convention catching up with friends I haven't seen in a very long time. I loved the creative atmosphere -- everywhere you looked, there were people writing and playing music, involved in needlecrafts, drawing, and conversations of all sorts.



I opted to leave my heavier camera at home and just take my little point-and-shoot. It was much easier to carry around but wasn't nearly as good as my Rebel for low-light conditions. As a result, I didn't take nearly as many pics as I usually do, but you're bound to see a ton start appearing in Walter's Flickr account eventually, plus many others. I'll be gradually uploading some of my photos to my Flickr account over the next few days.



Part 1 of my personal highlights (I'll cover guest concerts in a future Blathering):

- Stroll with Andrea, outside in the sunlight and fresh air one afternoon.

- Monopolizing Sib while she was taking a brief break from her Interfilk Guest duties.

- Artsytalk with Vixy. We aim to catch up on each other's art goals and progress (but inevitably end up talking about other stuff in our lives as well).



- Erin Bellavia's decadent and totally addictive salty caramel chocolate chip cookies. My Nerd Ninja Doll (see above) was very sad that he didn't have a mouth.

- Listening to the hallway filk circle on Sunday night, especially Mary Crowell and Teresa Powell.

- Ice cream at the North Market. Thanks so much to Jim and Andrea for taking us!

- Seeing Stone Dragons do their first OVFF concert!



- Brooke Lunderville's reaction when I gave her a handmade sock monster. I only started making these this past weekend (I made two). I'm not a great hand sewer, so the little guy was sort of lopsided with less than neat stitching. He had also caused me problems because I kept making mistakes as I got distracted while listening to the wonderful concerts, so had to unpick stitches a LOT. But Brooke's obvious delight made it all worth it. :-) Sadly, I forgot to take pics of either of my two sock monsters before I gave them away. The other one went to Sib.

- Breakfast with Larissa. I woke up way too early one morning and went wandering down to the hotel restaurant, hoping to find someone to chat with. Happily, Larissa had woken up even earlier than I did! Great conversation. I love Larissa's frank honesty and benevolent outlook.

- Introducing my Nerd Ninja Doll (made by Ryan Couldrey, see Ninja-Dolls.com) to some of my friends, like Sib:



You can see other Nerd Ninja Doll portraits in my Flickr set (I'll be uploading photos over the next few days)/

- Seeing Wild Mercy perform. I'd never seen them perform before, and they were pretty amazing.

- Mini Irish session on Sunday afternoon. Thanks to Mary for starting this. I -so- need to practice before the next one!

- Watching Allison get a haircut, courtesy France.

- Seanan McGuire. I just wanted to pack her up in my suitcase and take her home with me.

- Seeing Andy Eigel take a Pegasus Award for his song, "Uplift." All the nominees in the category were deserving but Andy's wonderful song has been nominated many times before but never won.



- Dinner conversation at the Pegasus Awards banquet. Unlike many weddings where you're seated with people you don't know very well and have to endure smalltalk, conversations at filk conventions are rarely boring. Especially at the table where Walter and I were sitting! Conversation ranged from musical creativity, AI and computer programmed music, copyright issues, Tolkien scandals and Babylon Five. And HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE PUNS from Blind Lemming Chiffon.



Kudos to the concom and the amazing guests for helping to create such a wonderful weekend. I still have to unpack and a ton of catching up to do, so it will likely be a few days before I'm able to post a more detailed con report. Autographedcat has been kind enough to compile a list of OVFF-related entries here.

Meanwhile, though, I had to share the lyrics to an Evil Song written by my friends Vixy and Jeff; apparently Vixy wrote it ages ago and finished it recently with Jeff's help. They sprung it on me at the Dead Dog filk on Sunday night with the help of Maya. It was a brilliant performance, but I'm still going to get my revenge. :-)

Anyway, here are the lyrics....

DEBBIE OHI
Lyrics: Michelle "Vixy" Dockrey and Jeff Bohnhoff
To the tune of "Barracuda"

So this ain't the end - I saw you again today
Chatting in the hallway
Smile like the sun - photos of everyone
    and blogs - her daily logs!

   CHORUS
    You looking oh so harmless and sweet
    I bet you gonna ambush me
    You'll have us down, down, down, down on our knees
    With laughter-- Debbie Ohi

Back at the con, we were all on for Toast
You set your phasers on 'roast'
So right, so wrong, your little song of fame
...and middle names.

    CHORUS
    And if the real facts won't do the trick
    You're gonna make up something quick
    Your little lies, lies, lies, lies, lies are gonna stick
    Oooh, Debbie Ohi

BRIDGE
Let me tell you what she will do
Write down deep dark secrets on you
She'll draw you in her cartoons, too

Her inky heart will never rest
Dark as Swiss chocolate
Don't you mess with this girl-- silly, silly squirrels.

    CHORUS
    And if the real facts won't do the trick
    Nope, she's gonna make up something quick
    She'll make you laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh until you're sick
    Ooooh, Debbie, Debbie, Debbie Ohi

Ohhhhhh, Ohi

Singing For The Cure

Photo by Phil Mills.

Urban Tapestry's performance at the 2008 CIBC Run For The Cure went well; we had great fun and my voice held out (though I had to crash and slept for several hours after getting home). Below: links to reports and photos, plus download our new "Running For The Cure" song!



Photo by Phil Mills.

Allison has a great report and photos up on her blog; rather than duplicate, I'm just pointing everyone to her LJ for an overview of the event. :-)

Many thanks to Phil Mills and Cathy Rutland for coming out to support us. My friend Cathy (the same Cathy I used to visit in Calgary but who now lives in Toronto, yay) drove all the way out from Brampton! She said she had never heard us perform live before. It meant a great deal to me that she was there.



You can see Phil's photos from the event in his Flickr set. I especially like this one of Allison during our concert set:


Photo by Phil Mills.

Here's a photo of Phil and Allison. My friend Cathy is also lurking in background; I didn't notice this until I downloaded the few photos I took on my point-and-shoot -- You can see her behind the older woman at Allison's shoulder; Cathy's has a sweater draped over her arm. We chatted after the performance, and I enjoyed introducing her to Allison, Jodi and Phil.



Phil also recorded our new song, "Running For The Cure," which was written specifically for this event. You can download and listen to Running For The Cure at the FilkArchive.



Above: I wrote "For Beckett Gladney" on the Wall of Hope; our friend Beckett's a breast cancer survivor and I was thinking of her a great deal today.



I also wrote one for my Aunt Agnes, who died from breast cancer.



I think we all took turns getting teary-eyed as we wandered the grounds after our performance. I'm always moved by the "I'm running for" signs on the backs of participants. One that especially got me: a photo and a tribute to a young woman who apparently died from breast cancer a week ago. :-(

If you missed this year's event, you can still contribute. And/or consider participating next year! You can find out more about the CIBC Run For The Cure at their website.

Thanks so much to Becky Wedgewood and Kathy Tran for inviting us to be part of this event!

Sunday morning

Getting ready to leave for Nathan Phillips Square and the CIBC Run For The Cure. I'm taking some cough suppressant and crossing my fingers I won't cough during our performance.

It turns out that Allison's husband isn't going to be able to make it, so we've lost our videographer/photographer. If anyone out there is going to be taking pics, we would VERY much appreciate getting a copy afterward.

Hope to see some of you there! For some inspirational stories about the run and breast cancer survivors, do visit the Finding Hope Blog.