batyatoon | Conflikt (or, Holy Six-String, It's A Con Report!)

So I never do these -- I always say "more later" and then never do -- and I think I should really start. To make it a bit easier, I will do my con report in the form of a series of bulleted lists.

First, to get it out of the way, the Less Than Ideal:

As always, not getting to spend enough time with people I love or with people I'd just met.
Similarly, not having enough time to see more of Seattle.
Jet lag. Seriously, jet lag is never ideal.
Scheduling difficulties that meant there was no Closing Jam, which I'd been looking forward to. :(
An unexpected emergency landing in Great Falls, Montana on the way home due to a sick passenger. (I don't know what was wrong with the guy or what became of him and probably never will, but last we saw of him, he was being wheeled into an ambulance by competent-looking EMT types. I can't help feeling bad for him; falling seriously ill when traveling is terrible, and it looked to us like he was traveling alone.) Fortunately for the rest of us it was not a very long delay.

And now, The Awesome!:

Getting to see the mountain. Mt. Rainier is the reason I can't take New York mountains seriously. Vast and gorgeous and horizon-dominating, and he was visible on Friday when we went to get groceries and on Monday when we drove to the airport -- and when we took off. I've missed him.
As always, getting to see cadhla and vixyish and pocketnaomi and sweetmusic_27 and mrgoodwraith and markbernstein and various other filker friends I don't get to see nearly often enough.
Making new friends! Everybody we met was delightful and friendly, and we had some great con suite and random-hallway conversations. (Those of you who friended me after this con: firstly, hello! Secondly, would you terribly mind replying here and reminding me which one you are? I can barely remember anyone's real name after a single weekend, let alone LJ handles.) (Also, see the final list below.)
Watching cadhla react to being gifted with a POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS scarf and a velociraptor-headed hobbyhorse. There was galloping involved.
Being made to fall out of my chair with laughter on two separate occasions in open filking -- by two_star's "Maid of Féil" and by Bob Kanefsky's showstopper parody of "The Great Selkie". (Bob's a bad, bad man. Many of you probably already knew this.)
Breaking cadhla, along with co-conspirator ladymondegreen and last-minute accomplices vixyish and tfabris, with a parody of s00j's "Ravens in the Library" about a certain story that cadhla tells. If you know it, you may be able to guess the punchline. (cadhla, meanwhile, has sworn revenge. I live in fear, and/or gleeful anticipation.)
Getting Kathy Mar to back me up on guitar when I sang "Thirty Million On Miranda," my Serenity filk to the tune of Kathy's own "Forty Thousand In Gehenna." Also fun: getting to say "I hear tell this is Browncoat country" when introducing it.
Speaking of Browncoats: hearing Marian Call in concert. Folks, if you haven't heard of this lady, check her out. Srs.
Debuting ladymondegreen's and my other latest collaboration: a parody of filkertom's "307 Ale" about Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. We used this to kick off an invitation to a BPAL party in our room the following morning, which was also fun; I discovered that the Eggnog Latte perfume smells like freshly baked coffee pastry on me (and then had to fend off people trying to nom my arms).
Cracking up both Frank Hayes and Bob Kanefsky (again, along with ladymondegreen) with our "Child (Ballad) Abuse".
Hearing Great Big Sea sung in a filkroom! It's been ages and ages, and it meant that I was able to join in on "The Old Black Rum" and "Lukey's Boat", and sing my own GBS filk "Subway Riding".
Backing up Paul Kwinn on "Carrot Juice Is Murder", and capping his improv schtick in the second verse.
Getting taken out to dinner Sunday evening by milliways_bar folks twintailmadb and steahl!
Hearing s00j perform one of the best renditions of "Tam Lin" I've ever heard.
Being bombarded with requests of copies of my lyrics, both solo and co-written, and being told I have a lovely voice by several people -- and hearing ladymondegreen told the same, which she doesn't get told nearly as often as she deserves.
Hearing pocketnaomi give a concert. :D!!
In the Silver Lining category: unexpectedly getting to see what Montana looks like from the ground, however briefly, and discovering that they call it Big Sky Country for a reason. Gorgeous, gorgeous land.
At sdelmonte's suggestion, selecting Movie Soundtracks from the available music on the airplane and tuning in to the Superman theme as we were taking off from Great Falls. I gotta say that's an experience.

And finally, I would now like to get in touch with some folks I met but can't recall their names or handles. Please sing out if you are (or know) any of the following:

You played a mandolin, and at one point in the alternate filkroom you and I went back and forth on Songs To Be Sung With Nasty Intent.
You were with the mandolin player and we talked about Great Big Sea between two of the concerts.
You were delighted by "Gabriel Gray's Song" and wondered aloud why there hasn't been more Heroes filk, and we talked about that in the hallway later. (I think you're kendaer but I'm not sure.)
You sang "LOL Together" in the alternate filkroom early on in the weekend, and later you were standing around near the reg desk wearing a sign about the Brunch CDs.
You were Theremin Guy!
You were running the con suite, and you saved me a tomato. :)

...I feel sure I'm forgetting somebody. Feel free to identify yourself by some other means if you met me at the con! (A couple of you already have.) -- Also, if I promised you lyrics, please drop me a reminder here?

Does anybody have any questions? Any answers? Would anyone care for a mint?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hi! Yep, we met at Contata. (To narrow it down, I was the one in Sassafrass with very short hair.)

I've been sad that I'm missing all of the cons between last summer and now, but Boskone is local and I'll get to go, yay.

That's right.

(I was just singing "Fall" in the kitchen about twenty minutes ago -- I have discovered it is the perfect timer for beating egg whites for chocolate mousse.)

That's...wrong somehow.

For eight egg whites: "And I've lost so many homes / Sure heaven was one / But the thunder hooves call as strong" is the soft-peaks stage; "And could I walk those clouds / As freely as then / With my face forgotten as the fight?" is the stiff-peaks stage, and then the last verse is for mixing in the chocolate.

*monkeygrins*

But wouldn't "Gabriel Gray's Song" be much more appropriate as a... timer?

... oh, boo. :P

(I'll have to try that next time!)

Conflikt (or, Holy Six-String, It's A Con Report!)

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