Music, Music, Music!

Being a report of the expedition to Ohio ValleyF Filk Fest 23: All Dorsai, All the Time; October 26-28, 2007

The last time I made it to OVFF was in 2003 when I was Toastmistress. There were 6 of us in Gerry and Sandy Tyra’s Ford Expedition, and the truck came away from the trip with the monicker “Deerslayer”.  Ask Joe Abbott (Fax Paladin) for the details: he wrote the song.  This trip, it was just Rick Helmich and me, in the Mazda pickup, and the truck had a much less adventurous trip than Deerslayer did.  Rick and I were room-splitting with Kip and Claire McMurray, but they were traveling separately. 

 We had decided that it would be easier for us to stay awake if we set-out right after supper on Thursday (October 25) rather than try to wake back up after a 3 hour nap and start out at midnight. Dublin OH is 14 driving hours from Little Rock AR, so there is no way I would attempt to drive straight through without at least one co-driver.  Maybe after I’m retired and don’t have to ration annual leave days I can make the trip as a 2-day drive and stop-over in Indiana (I have several options).  We traded-off on the driving every 2 or 3 hours, and arrived at the hotel around midmorning on Friday, claimed our room, and proceeded to crash for 2 or 3 hours.  After regaining consciousness, we drove to the nearby Bob Evans restaurant for a late lunch, to hold us until the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party which is the kickoff programming item for OVFF.

Back at the hotel, we found Judy Bemis (with crutches) and Steve Savitzky in the wifi hot spot off the hotel’s lobby.  I took the opportunity to pick Steve’s brain about the production of his recent CD, as I am in the early stages of such a project myownself.

Convention registration and the dealer room were coming together also. That’s Dan Caldwell standing talking to Juanita Coulson in the center photo, and Katie Beth Roper practicing with the family’s cargo dolley. Gretchen Roper is behind the stack of boxes on their table.

Sighted in the hallway: GoH Michael Longcor and TM Martha Coady-Fabish, Interfilk Guest Ellen McMicking (red hair) talking to Ann Nordsmeier, David Glasser in-costume.

One is required to wear a hat to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. If one does not come prepared, the hostesses will issue something outrageous from their Hat Stash.  I brought a hat, but Rick had not, so I showed him where the Hat Stash was located, in order to give him a chance to have some choice in his outrageousness

Bill McGeachin provided the processional music from the parking lot into the function room.

After the Tea Party came the Pegasus Nominees concert, which was my first time to hear a lot of this year’s nominees, actually!  The quality just gets better and better.

Various sightings during Friday night’s filking.

Naomi Rivkis

John Hall, Ellen McMicking, Lori Huff Coulson

Patricia Altergott and Howard Scrimgeour

Mike Longcor

Thom Gresham closest to camera; Kip McMurray is behind him, in the plaid shirt, with Claire McMurray just visible over the curve of Kip's guitar. Daniel Gunderson is in the hat, farthest left; part of the group Toyboat.

I ended Friday’s filking about 2 a.m. Saturday with a muffin washed down with plain water, in hopes of *not* waking up hungry in 4 hours. It worked.  Rick and I each wake up considerably earlier than Kip and Claire do, so we snuck out to get breakfast. The hotel’s breakfast buffet turned out to be competitive with Bob Evans on price, especially since the coffee and juice were included in the price, and a lot more manageable as-to volume, since we got to select our own portion sizes.

Saturday passed in a blur of concerts and conversations. I picked a few more brains (Bill Sutton, Debbie Gates, and Seanan MacGuire) on CD production technical details, set up with Peggi Warner-Lalonde to go quilt fabric shopping on Sunday, and heard a lot of music.

The Pegasus Awards were announced at the banquet and eventually we got to the Interfilk auction.

Bits that *did* come into focus:

Steve Savitzky's cool little digital recorder, and its even cooler adjustable tripod.	Mary Miller and Kerry Gilley in the consuite; Renee Alper beyond Kerry's shoulder
Mitchell Burnside-Clapp and Brenda Sutton	Sheryl Ehrlich wenching an item in the Interfilk Auction for Renee Alper and her assistant

Peter Alway, exploring the resonance of one of the hall tables

Juanita Coulson; Mike Nixon of Toyboat sitting next to her.

Lois McMaster Bujold (in blue shirt) was in town for an event at her alma-mater and dropped in for Saturday evening.
Blind Lemming Chiffon is in the flowered shirt in foreground.

Alisa Cohen and Wick Deer

Cat Faber and Eloise Mason

Mary Bertke and Maureen O'Brien

Gretchen and Katie-Beth Roper

A clearer view of our roomies; Kip and Claire McMurray

Adam English doing caricatures for Interfilk in the hallway.  I recognize Rob Balder (on the far left in gray sweater), Rand Bellavia (bearded guy), and Mary Miller (blue shirt), but not the rest of the audience.

Mike Longcor and Adam English jamming in the hallway; Hawkeye Passovoy on washtub bass.

Joe Abbott in the yellow shirt; Kathy Mar in the reddish shirt at center

Saturday night’s crash was around 3 a.m. Sunday.  I set the oven-timer [makes a convenient travel-alarm clock that doesn’t wake everyone *else* up] for 6 hours and put it in my PJ’s pocket. Rick got up around 8:15, so I got up then too. I’d been awake since about 8, actually, but kind of waiting to see if Rick stirred before the alarm went off. I knew Kip and Claire would be capable of sleeping til 10, at least.

Rick and I were not going to be staying-over Sunday night, so we went ahead and checked out of the hotel after breakfast, though we did not pack up until after Kip and Claire were awake.  Item for the learning curve: when there are three surnames and three credit cards but one of the surnames is for a couple, make sure the reservation for the couple’s name includes both first-names, or the hotel computer will try to divide the bill three ways instead of four!
I didn’t get a photo of the wedding-anniversary cake in the consuite Sunday at 11 a.m., but Bill and Brenda Sutton were celebrating their 20^th wedding anniversary, having tied the knot at an OVFF (with Buck Coulson presiding) that long ago.  Photos had been recently discovered of the event, and made-up in a scrapbook, which Bill and Brenda had not previously had. Bill blogged more about this in his LiveJournal.

I met-up with Peggi Warner-Lalonde and her husband Ken, and we all piled into my truck after a helping of anniversary cake, and went fabric shopping. [Note for next time, Peggi: there is another quilt shop even closer to the hotel! I spotted the “Red Rooster Quilting” sign on the way to the Mongolian BBQ on Sunday evening!]  She was hoping to find a particular gadget, but they didn’t carry it. So she went for cat prints. I went for music prints.

All right, so I also found an irresistible print of highway signs!

After I got back from the fabric shopping we put everything into the truck except for what we’d need at the All Dorsai Concert and the Dead Dog Jam Session.

It are Very Dorsai up there!

From the left: John Hall seated in green shirt; Bill Sutton standing; Mark Bernstein seated in red shirt; 
Dorotha Biernesser standing between Sutton & flag, Marty Coady standing in gray, Bob Passovoy with washtub bass, 
Steve Biernesser seated in black shirt, Ellen McMicking standing, Mike Longcor standing with guitar.

Martha Coady-Fabish sings "Falmorgan"

This is the only angle I could get where I could see Brenda Sutton: she sat down right behind John Hall. Mark Bernstein is singing something; Judi Miller is signing.

Dorotha Biernesser does push-ups in time to "Kaydets"

Elizabeth Huffman and "Spot"

The Sunday Farewell Jam Session

Barry Childs-Helton emcees; Phil Textor (playing trumpet in the foreground) put together a “chamber filk” pickup band of other-than-guitar-playing musicians for one of the one-shot slots.

Peter Alway on hammer dulcimer, Phil Parker on guitar in the middle; I don't know the guy in the tie-dye shirt; Robin Nakkula on far right.

A better view of Peter Alway and the hammer dulcimer; Kip McMurray in gray shirt sort-of behind Robin

Brenda Sutton does baby-pushups with Michael Glasser

Pete Grubbs in white hat, between Robin and Barry

Phil Textor on trumpet;  Helen Parker on bodhran

Steve Brinich standing with camera; Joe Abbott hunched over guitar; group at Joe's feet = Michelle Dockrey, Batya Wittenberg, Will Frank, and Ben Newman

Sorry; I don't know this lady with the tambourine

Becca Leathers in blue skirt; the guy whose head we can't quite see sings with her in Riverfolk, but I've lost his name.

Mary Bertke on Bodhran

Eventually the Dead Dog Dinner Run to BJ’s Mongolian Barbecue was assembled, and I wound up at a table with Naomi Rivkis, Josh Kronengold, Joe Abbott, and three folks who I had only met this weekend for the first time so I don’t recall their names. One of them was a young lady, and I hope Joe caught up with her again during the after-meal dead-dogging; the other two were a mother and son combo. Son was the fan; Mom was basically there to pick him up and bring him home after the meal. Next year Son should be able to drive himself to the con, and we think Mom might be interested in checking out some filking in the area between now and then, too.  Rick and I decided that if we went back to the hotel, we’d get sucked into the singing again, and it would be midnight before we got out onto the road, so we opted to head straight for the Interstate after we finished eating.