Phil's Rambling Rants
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Below are the 25 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Phil Parker" journal:[<< Previous 25 entries]
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01:56 am
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S J Tucker house concert
In an effort to prove that I really am crazy, when I heard that ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) s00j was doing a house concert at Casa Middleton in Waukegan today (Sunday, July 5, that is -- it's still "today" until I go to bed), at 2 PM, I decided that I would go, even though I had already bought my membership and made my hotel reservations for the aforementioned InConJunction. I actually succeeded in my plan of getting up in time to be on the road at 11 AM EDT, which would have actually gotten me to the venue on time, except that I was so stupidly full of myself for knowing where I was going that I didn't actually consult the map. I failed to recognize the area as I came to it, and roads that I was looking for by name were labeled only by route number, so I drove on by and spent at least an extra 20 minutes on my trip. So I missed the first couple of songs.
I'm not going to try to recap the concert in detail. I just want to say that, while I'd gotten enough of an impression of s00j at DucKon that I actually did this trip, I was completely blown away. She was much more than I was expecting. Amazing voice, great guitar accompaniment, wonderful stage presence and showmanship, and some songs that just reached right down into my soul. I'm still riding in the afterglow of multiple musical orgasms. Plus, I'm also aching from laughter. I hope tollers won't take this the wrong way, but I only knew "Alligator in the House" from her. When she does it, it's a fun little song, but with s00j's schtick, it's oh my god I think I'm going to die funny. The Jewish mother alligator just has to be experienced to be believed. However, that hilarity paled to insignificance compared to a number she did in the circle after the concert, "Don't Lick My Toes", in which the singer belabors in excruciating detail how that particular kink just does not work for her. There was a line in there about how it felt like being flossed with warm liver. I laughed very nearly as long and hard as I at DucKon for the Howl for Mayor McCheese.
Absolutely the only thing wrong with the concert was that it was too short. But any more wonderful would probably have burned my brain out entirely, so maybe it's for the best. Even though some people who had said they would be there weren't there, we had a good song circle after the concert. I got to sing some of my moldy old crap filk classics that I don't believe s00j had heard before, starting with Chris Weber's "Beware of the Sentient Chili" in response to her song about the salad of doom. I also got more hugs at the concert/party than I had at the con, and I got to snuggle exapno too.
EDIT: corrected the title of "Don't Lick My Toes" -- I plead lack of sleep when I originally posted.
Tags: filk, friends, music, travel
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01:31 am
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InConJunction
3 weeks ago, still riding the high from DucKon, I pulled the trigger on InConJunction. I went all by myself this time. I had a pretty good time, but it was nowhere near what DucKon had been.
( some recollections )
The InConJunction folks did a good job. It is not the con's fault that there were fewer of my friends there than I might have hoped, and it certainly isn't their fault that I was shorter than even my usual on emotional energy to connect with new people most of the time. There was a period in InConJunction's history when the con was actively hostile to filkers, but I certainly didn't have any complaints this year.
Tags: conrep, cons, filk, food, friends
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01:03 am
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InConJunction
I had a really badly needed good time at DucKon; makes me realize that I really need to get to more cons, because it's my best chance to actually be with people. So I've just bought my reg and made my hotel reservation for InConJunction.
Hopefully I'll see other folks there. Let me know if you'll be there.
Tags: cons, friends
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09:07 pm
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DucKon
I'm going to attempt to remember the weekend in order. This will probably be long, not too coherent, and less interesting than the other 37 conreps that you've already found on your friends page.
( click here if you dare )
Tags: conrep, cons, filk, friends
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07:29 pm
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Thank you DucKon
I will try to manage a real con report, but I can't spend hours on it right now, so just in case I never get back to it, I want to thank everyone who helped me have possibly my best convention ever, and without doubt a really good time at a time when I needed it as badly as I ever have.
Thank you, DucKon committee, for pulling together all the wonderful stuff together. Thank you, janmagic, jerusha, and everyone else who brought in so many performers and made sure we had such a great place to play. Thank you, all the concert and circle performers who gave me more musical orgasms than I can hope to count. Thank you, all the people who made me laugh so long and hard my chest hurts today, especially Adam (anyone who was there Saturday night should). Thank you, all the lovely ladies who let me snuggle them, especially barbarakitten_t and exapno for accepting possibly too much attention. Thank you, all the people who took the time to talk to me, especially filkart and ithiriel, and congrats to you two! Thank you to everyone who offered hugs, compliments, encouragement, or just had fun while I was around.
I hope that I helped a lot of other people enjoy the weekend too. I refuse to feel guilty for hogging all the fun. I really needed it. But I don't want to feel guilty about not feeling guilty.
Tags: cons, friends
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07:38 pm
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Capricon
I just got home from Capricon a few minutes ago, so here is a quick report.
The con is in a new hotel, which is always a bit scary. The Westin Chicago North Shore is very nice, shiny, new, and upscale. The room rates were a bit steep, but other than that the hotel seemed to be fine. Since I was on the 14th floor, I never even looked into whether the stairs were usable, but I am surprised to report that the elevators were amazingly non-sucky. I really hate elevators, but I only mildly disliked having to ride these. For anyone else, this would translate to "the elevators were totally awesome!" Objectively, they were so fast and efficient that I never had to wait more than half a minute to get on an elevator, and I seldom had a crowded car -- even during the Sunday morning rush.
Between the Capricon Cafe and concerts in the evenings, music took up so much of the con that I only managed to squeeze in looking at the art show, a little looking in the dealer's room, and one panel. The concerts were good both in performance and engineering, especially considering that Sally Childs-Helton had a medical scare on Friday morning (she's fine, but she had to go in for an emergency test and then couldn't travel), so she and min0taur were not there, so both their cafe set and the Wild Mercy concert had to be taken care of. sweetmusic_27, tollers, and harperjen went above and beyond to give us a fine concert Saturday evening and still handle their own solo sets.
Open filk was very light, because there were very few filkers at the con except for the ones who were performing. I'm not sure where everybody was this weekend. We who were there had a good time, but things wound down quite early, especially on Friday night.
It was good to see everyone who was there; thanks for all the hugs and company.
Tags: conrep, cons, filk, friends
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11:06 pm
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Home from GAFilk
Made it home safely from GAFilk. Had a great time. Love you all. Pants seeking credit counseling if not actually bankrupt. Must sleep now.
Tags: cons, friends, travel
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01:42 am
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Home safe
I came home from ericcoleman's birthday party tonight rather than staying over night. The weather looked to be better tonight than tomorrow morning. It was a bit nasty, but not too bad. I am, however, very tired now, and I am going to sleep.
Tags: friends, travel
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09:55 pm
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Chambanacon report
Thirty years ago, an awkward high school kid, I found myself at Chambanacon VIII in the hotel across the street from Memorial Stadium in Champaign. It was a chain hotel then, a Ramada if I remember right. The convention landscape and the filk scene were very different then, but what I found there kept me coming back, and through all the changes, I've been to every Chambanacon since.
( fast forward 30 years )
Tags: conrep, cons, filk, friends
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07:39 pm
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Windycon
I have returned from Windycon. Because of my cold, I kept things to a lower key than I might otherwise have, but I had a good time. It was good to spend some time with friends. I hope I didn't give anyone else my cold.
( the longer version )
Tags: conrep, cons, filk, friends, travel
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05:18 pm
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Windycon ho!
I think hope harbor some delusions that I'm past the worst of this cold and will be more or less functional tomorrow. I haven't missed a Windycon since I got into fandom, and I don't want to start now.
For those out there who are also attending, a few points:
- As I said, I have a cold. If you want to avoid me, I'll understand. I can use hugs, though.
- If anyone still wants to hang out with me anyway, I'd be just thrilled to make a plan ahead of time for dinner Friday or Saturday.
- If you want an EFRC calendar, please track me down. I will have a limited number with me, so to be sure you get one, say so.
- If you're picking up one of my games, don't let me forget to connect with you.
- If anyone familiar with the location of the hotel would care to give an independent opinion of how to get there from I-57 on Friday afternoon, feel free. The con web site recommends taking Roosevelt Rd. from 294, bypassing I-88 entirely. That looks like a long way on surface streets just looking at the map, so I'd like to know if there's a good reason to go that way.
- I won't have anything in the art show. I haven't found a satisfactory solution to the framing/matting problem.
Tags: cons, friends
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01:45 pm
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Surplus board games
I have a lot of board games I've collected over the years that I never expect to play again. I want to reclaim the space they're taking up and I'm hoping to get a little money for them. I'll put any I still have left come February in the Winter War auction, and I've been meaning to look into offering them for sale on a board game site, but for right now, here is a list. I'd rather sell them to someone I know than to strangers. If you see anything you want, say so. Unless otherwise noted, figure at least $5 each, and they go to the best offer before Nov. 15.
( long list of mostly obscure old games )
Tags: friends, home
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02:34 pm
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Paging Badger
Last weekend at OVFF I conversed with a woman who had the badge name "Badger". I'd like to stay in touch, but I didn't think to get any sort of contact info. I saw her real name once, but I'm doing well to remember the badge name. I don't know if she's on LJ. If anyone who was at OVFF knows how to contact her, let me know. Replies are screened.
ETA: Badger has been located.
Tags: cons, friends, questions
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07:52 pm
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OVFF part 1
We (that is, birder2 and myself) drove to Ohio on Friday. It was a wet but otherwise uneventful drive, and I only mention it because my car passed a geeky milestone on the way over. ( explanation and photographic evidence cut )
We arrived at the con and, got badges, and went to dinner with robin_june at Aladdin's, where I started a trend that would continue through the weekend by eating way too much because it was so good. We got back about halfway through the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.
I got this picture of the lovely vixyish (with tfabris on the right) while she wasn't looking.
( Friday continues behind this cut )
Tags: conrep, cons, filk, friends, pictures
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12:12 pm
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Paging Bonnie
I need to get in touch with Bonnie Somdahl. It's about OVFF, and since I forgot to deal with it before now, it's kind of urgent. I know she has a LiveJournal but she doesn't seem to be active. Replies are screened so the world doesn't see any contact info, or you can have her email me, (my first name) at tigertoy dot net.
ETA: Bonnie has been contacted; thanks everybody.
Tags: friends
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08:38 pm
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I survived!
Enjoyed it even!
In a little more detail: I got up too early Saturday morning. As I was on I-465 around Indy I realized I'd forgotten my phone. Fortunately, I managed to not get lost or have any emergencies on the trip. My first destination was a home on a lake in Rome City, IN (a small town north of Ft. Wayne), for a meeting of the Midwest Exotic Feline Educational Society. I estimated that it would be a 4 hour drive, and it was supposed to be at 12:30 (EDT). I planned to leave at 7:30 (CDT). I actually left at 7:40, and I arrived at 12:41. Pretty darn good estimate. After the meeting, I headed back south a couple of hours to tollers's housewarming, where much food and music was enjoyed. After the party closed down sometime after 1, I crashed in tollers's basement. The alarm rang at 7:00; I wanted to be on the road at 7:30. Even though all I did was get dressed, throw stuff in the car, and leave, it was 8:00 before I got going. I made it to EFRC, got through the day, and have arrived at home. I'm pretty tired, but good.
I have to comment on the canine portion of my trip. tollers's housemates have two Shiba Inus. I didn't recognize the name when I ran across it earlier this week in a context that implied it was a breed of dog. Yesterday, I discovered that "Shiba Inu" is, in fact, Japanese for "absurdly cute". I am not a small dog person, but if Snickers and Secret are fair examples of the breed, I could actually imagine myself owning one. Sadly, I never brought my camera into the house, so I didn't get any pictures.
Tags: dogs, friends, travel
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09:58 pm
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DucKon report
The trip up Friday was uneventful. We left on time (which makes this trip one for the record books) and encountered no traffic or other problems. I-57 was fully open where it had been closed for the tornado. At the rest area at Monee, I asked the attendant if I was heading for trouble, and she advised me that I could expect a significant delay at the intersection of I-355 and I-88 and recommended detouring by way of 75th St to Naper. As I came north, it didn't look like we were heading into trouble, but I decided better safe than sorry and took the recommended detour. The detour was as easy as it could be, but it was surface streets, so it probably added 10 minutes to the trip. I checked in uneventfully, asked to be moved down from the 5th floor, and got moved to the second floor. Room 213, to be exact, which I mention because due to an oddity in building layout this room is ENORMOUS (though slightly irregularly shaped). It was so big that I called the desk to make sure that they hadn't made a mistake and given me a room that was supposed to cost way more than normal, since (a) I didn't want to take a chance that they would try to tack the extra charge onto my bill, and (b) I didn't want to have to worry that the hotel would ask me to move later when they discovered their mistake and I was moved in. They assured me that it was fine, and I unpacked a bit, where I discovered that my neti pot was missing. The saline was there, but not the pot. Grumble.
( Read more... )
Tags: conrep, cons, filk, friends, travel
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09:42 pm
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Public Announcement
With DucKon just around the corner, I figure it might not hurt for me to say this to the world -- it just might bring a little more happiness to some people (one of whom is me).
I'm a very shy person, and I am very bad at noticing and understanding non-verbal cues. I have a short list of people I know it's OK to touch, and outside of that, I'm really unlikely to risk it without specifically being told it's OK. So if you'd like a hug or a backrub, please say so.
Tags: friends, life
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10:02 pm
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Lovely housefilk
Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a housefilk at the home of bedlamhouse and ladyat. I've been hoping to attend one of the Indianapolis filks for about as long as I've been aware that there are such, and this time it came together, because (a) they're not actually in Indy, but conveniently just west in Danville (Indiana, that is, not Illinois), and (b) they generously offered crash space and a willingness to get up early enough the next morning that I could be at EFRC at more or less my regular time.
The sad thing is that it's really hard for me to say much about the actual events of the evening, because most of the people there were people I either hadn't met, or whom I vaguely recognized but couldn't attach names to when they first arrived, and even though we did a round of introductions, by the end of the evening I still didn't know their names. Ernest Clark, who wrote a whole bunch of really great songs back when I first started in filk but whom I only see sometimes at Chambanacon, was there and he told me he's in Lafayette these days. There was an older fellow with an odd looking but nice sounding guitar (which he explained is actually an Elizabethan-styled instrument, based on the first proto-guitars that actually sported metal strings) and an impressive repertoire of Irish songs. I managed to pick up that he's an SCA member and his SCA name is John of someplace. When we broke for eating and socializing, he and I told each other how much we enjoyed each other's music.
Sitting in the circle helped me to remember why I've spent all this time and effort on music. Going through my filkbook as my turns came up kept whacking me with the painful knowledge of how many songs I used to do in circles that I no longer remember fully. (The book helps with words, and a little bit with chords, but when I can't remember the playing style and rhythmic feel I used with a song, I'm just reduced to trying to reinvent something on the spot, and when I can't remember the tune, having it in the book doesn't help.)
I hope we can do it again real soon.
Tags: filk, friends, life, music
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07:07 pm
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FKO report
( long and boring account of my trip )
Somehow I've managed to mostly avoid mentioning the various conversations I had with people, the conversations that made me feel like a valued member of the FKO family. I left home on Thursday thinking that I probably should have stayed home, but by Friday night I was very glad to have gone. I may have found a lot to bitch about on the trip, but it was very good to me, and I'm very grateful to all of the FKO concom for all their efforts. I really needed a good con.
Tags: conrep, cons, filk, friends, travel
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07:12 am
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Thanks
Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday.
Tags: friends, life
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05:34 pm
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New Year's
The quick version of my New Year's trip:
I wasn't as ready to go Sunday morning as I should have been, and I got stressed out about taking longer than I meant to about getting packed. But even though I ended up leaving something like 45 minutes later than I meant to, I was able to grab a sandwich and get to VOTK when I meant to. I got my calendar and the folks there were really happy with the several years' worth of aluminum cans that I dropped off -- out of proportion to how much 40 lbs or so of cans could be worth. I then headed up to Milwaukee and got to filkart's, where we piled into his car and we went to Barisha's for an event that was scheduled to be a group singalong with the local public radio's folk music show. We didn't end up doing much singing, instead hanging out and chatting.
Monday morning Art and I went off to the Milwaukee Public Museum, leaving ithiriel to do work she had to do. From there, we walked to Thai Palace, our favorite Thai place over the years, where ithiriel met us. Unfortunately, Thai Palace seems to started watering down their menu. My "hot" Nam Sod was quite hot, but the curry that followed, while tasty, didn't deserve to be called more than medium, and itheriel ordered her food "Thai style" and survived. From there, we headed to New Year's Eve at Lytheria. The party was fun; I had a good chat with beige_alert, played one game of cutthroat and actually managed to look like I knew what I was doing with a pool cue, and ate more than I should have. The first round of filking was good, with more people than would fit in the filk space, and I did several songs without falling on my face. Then we toasted the New Year, and most of the filkers got sucked into the stupid vortex watching the commercials tape a second time. The second round of the filk was just me and Michael, and I was getting tired. We started leaving around 2, and were actually on our way by about 2:30. We'd decided that ithiriel would ride home with me while filkart drove Jim home in her car. ( and then things got very interesting )
Tags: filk, friends, travel, votk
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06:02 pm
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Chambanacon report
I'm home from Chambanacon. The tired is dripping to the floor from my smoking, charred carcass, but I'll try to get a report out here.
( long-winded report in here )
Next year's con is still a lot of question marks, but we do intend to have a Chambanacon, and it will be Thanksgiving weekend, so do plan on saving the weekend. We hope we can have it at the Lincoln again -- everyone I heard offering an opinion thought it was great. The con was fun, but we need to bring a few more people in to make it financially viable.
Tags: art, c-u, conrep, cons, filk, friends
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10:09 pm
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Windycon
So, I have returned from Windycon, and I will write a bit about my experience.
( my whiny emo Windycon )
Thanks to those of you who bought EFRC calendars. If I missed getting a calendar to someone who wanted one, I'm sorry. I was not firing on all mental cylinders for a lot of the con. (And if I was rude or just not fun to be with, I apologize for that too.)
Tags: conrep, cons, filk, friends
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07:55 pm
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OVFF report
I have returned from the trackless wilds of Ohio, and here is my story. (Pictures, if any, will wait. Far too much to do to dig into that.)
I've been having enough trouble coping with life that my spoon supply was pretty much empty, and this meant that I had a pretty low key con and didn't actually get to very much filking, but I did get to spend time with friends which I really needed.
( the boring details )
Current Mood:  exhausted
Tags: conrep, cons, filk, friends, travel
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