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 Wed Jun 05, 2002 « recent »
* Inkygirl *
Filk FAQ
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(Preamble: There is lots of filk talk in this particular entry. If you want to know what filk is, feel free to check out The Dandelion Report) So I've been missing some of my filk friends a lot lately. I only get to see them at a few conventions throughout the year. This used to be enough, but over the years I've grown closer to some of them. Geography really sucks sometimes. So do airfares, else I'd be spending a lot more time in Michigan and California and New York and the UK and Winnipeg and Ohio and Atlanta. :-) I'm also finding that conventions themselves, while lots of fun, tend to be too hectic to spend any real time with friends. I always feel as if I'm getting snatches of conversation with many different people, with everyone being pulled in a hundred different directions at once. 
Maybe it's an age thing. :-) When I first began attending sf and filk conventions, I enjoyed all the activity, hanging out with as many different friends as I could, wanting to absorb as much as possible within the limited time I had. Unless I have Guest duties, I now far prefer a lower-key con experience. I realize it's unrealistic to try attending ALL programming and every concert, even if it means having to risk offending the person running the panel or performing in the concert. I also have realized that if I try to see everything and spend time with -everyone- I want to at a convention, I'll only end up frustrated and feeling as if I didn't get enough time with any one person. So I have to make choices. At OVFF last year, someone I didn't know came up to me in the hallway and started reaming me out, saying that I was a hard person to get to know because I was always busy at conventions, that I never seemed to be free for conversations, that I should be making time to talk to people other than my friends. At the time, I was too shocked to say much except a toned-down version of what I've already said in my Blatherings. Later on, though, I was angry. 
I'm sure that's where some of the "filk elitism" stuff comes from in filk politics, to tell you the truth, when certain types get upset about some people hang out with certain friends rather than everyone all at once. I once read a posting in rec.music.filk from someone who felt that once a filker released a CD or performed in public, that they had an obligation to make sure they were always accessible by the filk community at a convention, that they should always attend the open filk, avoid private room gatherings, and should focus on keeping the filk community happy. This majorly ticked me off, I have to say. If I've been invited to be a guest of the convention, then that's a different story. I consider Conchord in August, for example, to be a working con. I know Allison and Jodi do, too. We'll have fun, of course, but our primary obligation IS to the convention committee and those who are attending the convention. The people at Conchord are being kind enough to fly us out to California as well as paying our memberships, banquet and hotel fees. It's fair and proper for them to expect to get their money's worth in return. Allison, Jodi and I work very hard to earn our keep when we're invited to conventions. At the risk of blowing our own horn, I think we do a darned good job, too. If I'm paying my own way, however, I feel that I can spend my time at the convention however I'd like. But I digress. 
So I'm missing my filk friends and selfishly wishing that everyone would just give in and move to Toronto. No, really, I mean it. Toronto's a very cool city with lots of interesting things to do and see and eat. And we have FilKONtario! I recently came across a great group picture taken by Beckett Gladney at FKO 2000. 
Click on the above photo to get the bigger version. I'd love to be able to identify all the people in this picture (Update 3:24 pm: Yay, all the question mark names have all been filled in or corrected. Many thanks to Bill Sutton, Allison, Heather Borean, Rand Bellavia, Steve Brinich, Beckett Gladney, Sherman Dorn and Katy Droege for their help :-)). The bigger photo has numbers written on everyone's chests, and I've listed the names I know below. I would greatly appreciate any corrections or additions being sent my way!. 1. Amanda Snyder Today's Blatherpics:
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