MEMORIES OF OVFF (2000)

FRIDAY

Well, I almost didn't make it to OVFF this year, funds were low, but thanks to the persuasive e-mail powers of one Debbie Ridpath Ohi I did choose to go to the con and afterwards I know I made the right choice. Had a great time, caught up with some wonderful friends, got to know some new friends better. Didn't sing a lot (except for singing -along-, which I did do a lot :)). Did a lot of listening, though, in concerts, open filks, in the hall. Really terrific music.

I got to the con quite late to start with, due to a day of teaching and some mix-ups with the shuttle service at the airport. It was almost 1 am by the time I finally made it to the hotel. Deb and Jodi arrived earlier in the day and were involved in the Pegasus Award concert, performing Deb's nomination, "My Jalapeno Man". Paul Kwinn stepped in to do the guitar accompaniment thing. It sounds like it was a fun concert! Wandered the halls, said "hi" to lots of people. It was especially great to spend some time with Debbie, since Jodi and I have really missed her since she went to Philly. Crashed around three, very tired.

SATURDAY

Only got about four hours sleep before I was up and at it again. We went to the con suite for breakfast and to catch up with a bunch more people. OVFF had an -excellent- con suite- Pat, Ginny and Andy, take a bow! Had a chance to talk a bit with Simon Fairborne (who, if you haven't met him, is married to Talis Kimberley and is an incredible musician who plays bunches of instruments and is super nice), which was great since I met him in England, but didn't have a lot of time to talk to him then. Also bought one of Talis' cool new t-shirts. Had a chance to look at Amanda Snyder's scrapbook of photos from Toronto and FKO last year. The captions were hilarious :).

Went down to the filkroom and settled in to listen to the concerts for most of the afternoon. Really enjoyed ToastMaster Mark Bernstein's concert- he performed a selection of his songs from throughout his filk career. Erica Neely's concert showcased her lovely voice and pretty songs (OK, yeah, people are right when they say most of them are depressing :)) and the crowd really enjoyed her closer where she sent up her own "ose" reputation. I'm looking forward to hearing Erica again when she's the Interfilk guest at FKO next year. She says she's releasing her new CD there, too!

Judith Hayman performed a moving concert of her excellent space songs, including some of my favorite songs of hers, "Sea Of Stars", "Aux Etoiles" and "Outward Go". Gary Elhrich got the room rocking with a lot of his fun songs, including "I Just Love Tim Burton Movies" and a new tribute to California, clearly inspired by his recent visits. Unfortunately, I didn't see all of Interfilk guests Barry and Lee Gold's concert, but I enjoyed the few songs that I heard near the end of their show. As always, it was fun to see Scott and Amanda Snyder perform "Rudy" as a one-shot. Scott said that he expects someday Rudy will win a Pegasus Award for Best Performance by a Stuff Animal :). That stuffed fish is developing his own following!

Guest of Honour Talis Kimberley was up next and she was a wonder. With the impressive backing band of Simon, Tom Jeffers and Dave Clement, Talis ran through several songs from her new CD, "Archetype Cafe" (which you want to buy right away, trust me), among others and kept the crowd riveted for an hour. Wow, she is such a dynamic performer and her songs and lyrics and so full of thought-provoking imagery. She got a well-deserved standing ovation when her concert ended.

The Pegasus Award Banquet was up next. I had a very enjoyable meal with Jodi and Deb, Paul and Beckett, Scott and Amanda, Dave and Tom and Rand. It was fun to be at the table when Debbie went up to receive her Best Food Song award for "My Jalapeno Man" (tied with Tom Smith's "307 Ale", which made for a fun joint acceptance speech :)) and as Rand Bellavia went up to accept the Best Performer award for Ookla the Mok. Well-deserved Pegasus Awards also went to Bob Kanefsky (Best Songwriter), Zander Nyrond's "Sam's Song" (Best Song) and Dr. Jane's "Out Of The Clear Blue Sky" (Best End of the World Song).

The theme of the songwriting contest was "Licence To Drive" and there were several excellent entries. Renee Alper won the contest with a fun song where she must have hit on every interpretation of the word "drive" :). Awards also went to Randy Hoffman, Susan Urban and Paul Kwinn.

Went back to the room at that point to change into garb to help wench at the Interfilk auction. Thanks to Beckett Gladney for the garb she lent me, oh, so many years ago- I love it :). Jodi didn't bring garb, but she did wear some rather -interesting- sparkly purple deely boppers for that Vegas Medieval look, instead. Wenching at the auction was great fun, UT joined Erica, MEW, Judith, Barb, Diana and Kathleen for an hour or two of silliness, all for a great cause. Erica brought assorted water pistols with her and we all had fun posing as "Charlie's Wenches" :). Mark Bernstein and Bill Roper did a great job as auctioneers.

The most moving moment of the auction was the bidding for a copy of a very limited CD run of Karen Linsley and Lloyd Landa's OVFF concert from last year, produced by Mark Peters. Judith paid tribute to Lloyd and Mark played a selection from the CD and as we listened to Lloyd play and Karen sing, Lloyd's spirit was surely in the room with us. The CD sold for $400 and it's a wonderful memorial to Lloyd that that money will go towards bringing other filkers together from around the world. Also a reminder that if anyone is interested in joining the many filkers who have donated money for a grove of trees in Israel in Lloyd's memory, they should contact Judith and Dave Hayman either directly or through the FKO address.

Judith tells me they raised over $2000 at the auction! Whoo hoo! Lots of moolah for Interfilk to continue its good work. And it was very cool to hear that Toronto's own Freddy Brown is the most recently announced Interfilk guest, appearing at Conterpoint next year!

After a bit of downtime (and a chance to get out of a rather binding garb bodice :)), we headed down to the rock jam being hosted by Steve MacDonald. Great fun, lots of old and familiar rock tunes played by the likes of Howard Harrison, Scott Snyder, Tom Smith, Pete Grubbs, Tom and Dave, Cacie Sears, Paul Kwinn, Rand Bellavia, among others. The session evolved into a more general filk, with folks like Erica Neely and Talis Kimberley joining in as well. Highlights for me included hearing Talis sing her new tribute to Tom Jeffers while Tom listened- very moving, hearing Cacie Sears sing -anything- :), listening to Howard sing my favorite Beatle song, "In My Life" and then rocking out with Scott on "I Saw Her Standing There" :).

Plus, it's always a treat for UT to sing Scott's "Lady Of The Wood" with him playing guitar. Singing some old duets with Paul was fun, too. And I took special pleasure in singing with Jodi and Debbie that night because UT can only sing together rarely these days with Debbie living so far away (the next time we'll be singing together is at a tribute for Lloyd Landa at the Tranzac Club in Toronto on Nov. 25).

The filk wrapped up around 4:30 and Deb and I visited Dave and Tom's room for a few minutes before finally giving into exhaustion (Jodi had gone off to sleep a few hours before).

SUNDAY

Sunday was a fairly low-key day. I was up around 10 and then wandered around for awhile buying earrings and a copy of Talis' CD in the dealer's room. Went out for an omelet and conversation with Paul, Beckett and Andrea around noon. Deb, Jodi and Rand went out for breakfast, as well. I came back to squeeze in some more last-minute socializing before seeing Debbie off in her airport shuttle as she flew off to Philly. It was sad to see her and Bob Kanefsky go, but we sang them a chorus of "The Hockey Monkey Song" (the traditional good-bye song...) before they left and we know we'll see Debbie at the end of November.

I did another circuit of the con as the minutes counted down, sitting for awhile in the afternoon jam, hanging out and talking with Daniel and Melissa Glasser and Erica Neely in the hall and listening as they sang lovely songs (request Erica's "Delenn's Dilemma" at FKO- I think it's beautiful and I'm not even all that familiar with B5 :)). Said lots of good-byes and left plenty of "Come to FKO" wishes with people. Kathleen Sloan very generously offered to drive Jodi and me to the airport, which we both appreciated -very- much, especially after the hassle we both had with airport shuttles getting to the con. Thank you, Kathleen! By 6:30 we were in the air and by 9:30 we were home.

Thanks again for all the hard work put in by the OVFF concom- your efforts are always appreciated by those of us who have such a good time at your con. I'm left with great memories, warm melodies and a heart that is very glad I made the choice to go to OVFF after all.

THE END