Sort of an OVFF Report

[billroper]

I had a fine time at OVFF. I had a chance to chat with some of my friends, to do a bit of singing (despite having a fairly raw voice), and even to get a completely inadequate amount of sleep (for which I'm paying today).

The Pegasus Nominees concert went well. catalana managed to keep things moving to the point where the concert could have been run in two hours with no intermission. I'm hoping that the committee will decide to drop the intermission next year, since two hours is within the reasonable length range. There were many kickass performances given, which is a fine thing. And where else but a Pegasus concert would you see one nominee playing backup for another person who was nominated in the same category? :)

On the personal level, The Destroyer didn't win its category, but I didn't expect it to and was simply delighted that it had been nominated. And I enjoyed singing Don Simpson's Ship of Stone as a more upbeat number. Heck, that was a song written by the survivors! They won. (The song didn't win, but that's a different thing altogether. I'm talking about the protagonists...)

I ended up not singing on Friday night, as it was really too late to get started after getting dinner after the Pegasus concert. But on Saturday, the "old fogey" crowd took over the main room (the "kids" were in the hall :) ) and I had a fine time singing with min0taur, Sally, tollers, quadrivium, ladyat, bedlamhouse, weirdsister (who has only been playing guitar since July and has nothing to apologize for), George, catalana (who I guess is an honorary old fogey), Dorotha, sexybass, sueposter, gorgeous_gary, Sheryl, Art, Kathy Mar, and other folks who have plumb evaded me in my current foggy state.

There was way too much traffic and construction on the way home, so we got home very late.

But it was still a fine time.

Comments

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I didn't have the chance to mention it to you at the time, but I thought your performances of "The Destroyer" and "Ship Of Stone" were aces. That may be the best I've ever heard you do "Destroyer".

[mgucciard.livejournal.com]

I'd have to concur. Bravura performance, no doubt.

-M

[billroper]

Thanks! I'll have to try to remember what I did...

[billroper]

Thanks, I appreciate it! And congratulations on Peter Lorre!

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Dittoes! :)

TTTO: Never Set the Cat on Fire

[daisy-knotwise.livejournal.com]

Never build a ship of stone,
It isn't very buoyant.
It'll sink and leave you all alone,
You'll find it quite annoyant.
If you don't want to lose your race
forever in some watery place
Then Never Build A Ship Of Stone.

Re: TTTO: Never Set the Cat on Fire

[kestrels-nest.livejournal.com]

Gretchen, that is an absolute hoot! Thank you.

Re: TTTO: Never Set the Cat on Fire

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

*gigglesnort*

I am so sorry that I didn't get to see you except when you were wearing your Dealer Hat! I missed many people this year. It was just so full of great people!

*faraway hugs*

Re: TTTO: Never Set the Cat on Fire

[patoadam]

That's priceless!

You're probably familiar with Frank Hayes' version:

Once there was a ship of stone.
It sank.

[tollermom]

Hmmm... I couldn't decide whether to be offended at being dubbed an "old fogey"... then I looked at the company I was in and decided I could live with that. :-)

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I don't mean to offend, but I did not like the bright bouncy Ship of Stone. The song is not commemorating a victory; it's affirming a history and a connection with others that would easily be lost without making an effort. The feeling I get from the lyrics is almost sacred; the song is the singers telling themselves that This Is Important. It needs musical gravity.

[billroper]

That's certainly a different and valid interpretation. I just prefer to treat it as an upbeat anthem. I think that approach is closer to the way that Leslie Fish's performs it; what you have in mind is closer to how Kathy Mar performs it, if I'm judging correctly from the clip on the Pegasus website.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

*many hugs* I wish I'd gotten to see you more!

Heh. I didn't realize it had split into the grown-ups' table and the kiddie table. :D

This is definitely a year that I wish I could have been everywhere at once. When I walked down the hall for something I counted at least four and possibly five filk circles all at once, and there were even two dead dogs, a thing of which I have never heard before!

hsifyppah made the remark, and I have been spreading it, that it would have been great to have a choose-your-own-adventure OVFF like Paul's choose-your-own-adventure song, where we could all go back and reread the endings we didn't choose the first time. :)

[billroper]

Oh, that (choose your own adventure) would have been fun! :)

It wasn't so much the grown-ups and the kids, just that the ages of the two circles were skewed differently on average, I think. And with the circle in the hall already well developed by the time the Interfilk auction ended, setting up a second (third, fourth?) circle seemed like a really good idea...