My GAfilk report thus far: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and and here's Part 6:

One of the main highlights for me at GAfilk (and one of the reasons I feel compelled to go every year) is their house band, Play It With Moxie.

Its members (bios excerpted from the Play It With Moxie MySpace page):

	Dr. Mary Crowell (keyboard, vocals; band leader): Mary started as a solo act. When she returned for the second year at the annual GaFilk banquet, she added George and Brian on bass and drums, and it's snowballed into the group as it is today. She's a member of the band Three Weird Sisters, the duo Birds of a Feather and has recently released her first solo CD.
	Jodi Krangle (vocals, percussion): "Jodi hails from Toronto, Canada. She is the editor of The Muse's Muse, an online resource and community for songwriters. Jodi recently launched a new business, voiceoversandvocals.com. She performs with her band, Urban Tapestry."
George Powell (bass, tenor sax, flute, backup vocals): "George does session work and has performed with bands that include Three Weird Sisters. Although he has a music degree, he turned to the dark side in the mid 1980s and went to law school. George practices law by day and teaches at the Gwinnett School of Music in his free time. He and Teresa live in a house full of instruments. Watch for the kilt." Andrew Powell (alto sax, vocals): "Andrew joined in 2006, creating an enthusiastic horn section. Steeped in music since he was a small tot, Andrew is currently a music major at Georgia State University. He lends smooth and animated vocals to a number of songs in the PIWM set."
	Teresa Powell (vocals, bass, percussion): "Teresa is a member of the bands Three Weird Sisters and Birds of a Feather. She excels at arranging harmonies and is the only member of PIWM who looks good wearing a snake. It is a little-known fact that she is quite capable with brass instruments, but we keep her busy singing."
	David Rood (trumpet, backup vocals): "David plays with the jazz combo After Hours and has worked with Three Weird Sisters and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. He helps out with transcription and arrangements, and his trumpet solos with curl your toes!"
	Brian Richardson (drums, band emcee): "Brian lives under the stars many miles from Metro Atlanta. Brian has done session recording for local artists and is responsible for the closed-circuit television programming at Dragoncon. Brian's special brand of genius wit makes him the perfect band emcee."
	Carly Gibson (guitar, vocals): "Joining the band in 2007, Carly is the newest member of PIWM. Already rocking a mean guitar at the tender age of 15, this petite musician also sports a big, lush voice. One of Carly's goals is to attend the Berkelee School of Music after she graduates from high school. We think she has what it takes!"

I had expected to have more time to take photos, but ended up spending most of my time on the dance floor. The band was FANTASTIC as usual. I especially enjoyed hearing Carly's solo debut! I'd love to take some better pics next year; maybe the band will let me sneak in ahead of time to get some photos during their warm-up.

The band works VERY hard at GAfilk and in prep for GAfilk. Not only do they perform over two hours without a break, but they spend time after their performance packing up their gear and taking it out to the cars. Hopefully they also finally find time to actually have dinner, which (though kept warm) has been sitting there for a couple of hours.

This year, I believe they also ended up missing much of the evening programming as a result, including the Guest Of Honor concert. :-(

You can read Dave Rood's overview here.

Anyway, it makes me even more grateful to Play It With Moxie for helping to make GAfilk such an enjoyable experience for the rest of us. And to anyone who has enjoyed their music -- the band is apparently putting together a CD, woohoo! Keep an eye on their MySpace page for updates.

I can't wait! I want to buy the CD not just because I love their music, but also because it's the least I can do to show my support for the band and gratitude for all the effort and time they've been devoting to GAfilk these past years. Another way to show our gratitude: support the individual band members in their own projects, musical and otherwise.

Above: Jeff and Maya, first on the dance floor.

Many thanks also to my dance partners that evening. I enjoyed myself tremendously (huge understatement). One of my favourite mini-conversations during a dance was with Judi Miller. I warned her that I didn't really know how to dance and might step on her feet, and she looked relieved. She confessed she didn't really know, either, and in fact had stepped on Franklin's toes at last year's GAfilk.

"Hey, I stepped on Franklin's toes, too!" I exclaimed. What a gentleman, that Franklin. :-)

But on to non-filky topics...

I worked most of the weekend, catching up on illustration and painting commitments. The North Wales couple (Blush Publishing) sent me proofs of the new letterpress card line with my illustrations, and they look great! I'm so excited! The artwork is going to be sent off today for block etchings.

I've written to the Etsy people to see if I can sell them in my Etsy store; according to the rules, you can only sell stuff you make yourself, but I've noticed that quite a few people seem to be selling prints of their artwork that they didn't necessarily print themselves. If Etsy says no, I might go with Big Cartel.

Speaking of my Etsy store, I've added some hand-painted bookmarks. After doing for-pay work on the weekend, I also did some painting for fun. Beckett Gladney gave me the idea of using artboard as well as drawing with pencil crayons on top of acrylics, so I played around with that, plus used textured metallic paint for highlights. I sent a bookmark to lisande and smoooom because I owe them memestuff, and put my other experiments on Etsy.

The following are currently for sale on Etsy:

Permalink

Rice Bowl | Photogenic

Copyright © 2007 Debbie Ridpath Ohi. Base URL: http://www.blatherings.com
Many thanks to Samurai Consulting. Reproduction and/or distribution of the whole or any part in any form is forbidden unless prior permission has been granted.