I got to the con at 2ish, and after a little problem where my badge disappeared, and turned up stuck in the flap in my art bag that can go over the handle of a carryon bag only after I'd spent 10 minutes running around like a headless chicken looking for it, I got to the art show. There was no problem with putting the pieces I had in the show, and they said I could put them anywhere that wasn't already taken. There was one panel in the bay right in front of the door, which you could see from the hallway as you walked in. Almost the best spot in the show (though only a single panel, since the rest of the bay was full). I figured, what the heck, and put my stuff up. Then I spent a couple of hours helping get things ready and running the bag check once the show opened.
I took a break at 5 to see the "We're friends but we've never met" panel (about online communities including LJ and the peculiarities of relationships with people we only know on-line). A reasonably entertaining discussion with
I grabbed a bite to eat, put in another couple of hours working at the art show, took advantage of my artist ribbon to actually look at the art show a little bit during the artists' reception, and went to the filk. The filk was pretty good Friday night, even though I wasn't; I was tired and out of practice, and made enough of a hash of the Berryman's "After Life Goes By" that
Saturday started with Nate's guitar workshop, which turned out to be a repeat of the workshop he gave at Torcon. Which I can't complain about, since it puts at least as much good stuff into one hour as an hour can possibly hold, and I have not actually practiced the exercises he introduced, so having him run me through them again is not a bad thing at all. If I could attend the workshop twice a week, maybe after a few months I'd actually have done the exercises enough for my fingers to have learned something. (It's all stuff I understand intellectually just fine. It's the practice that I need.)
Next we had concerts. First, my good friend Art Warneke had a solo billing for a slot, but he arranged to have Milwaukee drummer Joe Connolly and Filk GoH Nate Bucklin be his backup band. It sounded really good. I think it was really generous of a Guest of Honor to be a sideman, especially when he lives in a different state from the main performer and they couldn't rehearse much. He played fairly basic bass lines, but he played them well. Art and Joe have rehearsed a little more together. They sounded really nice on stage.
Next, science guest Mark Osier had a concert slot. (I didn't get to any of his science stuff, unfortunately.) He did more tacky humor material than I hoped for, because that meant that he did less of what I think is his really good stuff, but still a good concert.
I did not stay for the remaining concerts because I needed to get more volunteer hours, and also because I have trouble sitting for too many hours of concerts in a row, and while I consider
Then the filk pizza party, where I indulged myself in a limited way (I had only one slice of Giordano's stuffed sausage and pepperoni), which became a little impromptu filk for a while, I caught a few minutes of Samuel Travis Clemmons (comedy storytelling, with material and delivery that would not be out of place on a stage in a venue that charged asmission), and then the Guest of Honor concert, where Nate and Louie gave us a really tasty hour. They made a point of ending their concert after just one hour, and then we filkers promptly arranged the room into a circle and proceeded to sit around and converse in small groups for an hour. I decided that this had gone on long enough, and launched into Hope Eyrie, where I proved that I still was less than completely awake as I stumbled over the words a little bit, and the audience didn't seem to be much into it (at least, most people weren't singing along very enthusiastically), but the filk started. It was a good filk. I think any filk where Nate is sitting in and putting bass behind most of the songs is going to be good. I sang "Little Fuzzy Animals" because Sue had requested it earlier in our impromptu session, and it seemed to go pretty well. I recited "Horrton Hears a Heart (by Dr. Edgar Allan Seuss)", and I think it went over pretty well, though I stumbled a little bit on the scansion-challenged places because I haven't practiced that enough either. I think that was about when some schmuck pulled the fire alarm, and the hotel made us all go stand outside in the howling gale for 20 minutes. I took my guitar out with me, and when I started getting cold, I started singing "Jim Root's Ride" because I thought I should sing about something hot. The hotel let us back in about halfway through the song, and I kept singing.
Sunday, I got to