Carla's Consonance Report

GETTING TO CONSONANCE:

so, where to begin describing my Consonance experience... Well, i'll start at the beginning. I drove to Atlanta Thursday night and spent the night a a good friend's house. You often can't get a parking space at the Atlanta airport, so it's best to get a ride. It's $9 a day to park your car anyhow, and that's not even in an enclosed parking deck. More on why I hate flying later...

We got up at 7am, an hour I never see unless I stayed up all night, and my friend nearly got us killed twice driving to the airport, because he was so tired. I asked him to *please* stop and get coffee on the way home and then I called him during my stopover to make sure he got home alive. He did.

I managed to not have to check my guitar on the way out. Continental in pretty reasonable about this and I recommend you ask for a rear seat if you're going to carry on a guitar. Then you can get on before all the overhead space is gone.

So about filk already!

BACKGROUND ON HOW I FOUND FILK:

A little background: I am new to filk, coming from the world of folk. I actually have a pretty wide interest musically, coming from classical guitar and piano, marching, concert, and pep bands, and a few years doing rock. My first filk was GAfilk, in January 2001. A fellow folkie told me about GAfilk. She didn't really know what is was, either, so we both showed up kind of looking like deer in headlights. She had a gig to go to Saturday night, so she missed out on much of the festivities.

We showed up Saturday and the first person I really talked to was Micheal Leibmann, who filled me in pretty well about filk. I sat through a couple hours of concerts, then I did a double-shot and was pleasantly ovewhelmed at the positive response. (I later found out why everyone laughed so hard at my lyrical reference to guys named Steve). I was a little concerned because I don't really sing about SF-type themes, but the world of filk has welcomed me with open arms, inspired me with their great lyrics, gave me hope with the all-inclusive atmosphere, and delighted me with their bad puns.

So when Alan e mailed me about coming to Consonance and Dr. Jane offered me a concert slot, and I had the weekend open, I thought, what better way to spend a weekend!!

CONSONANCE:

I arrived Friday afternoon, met Heather "Starshine" in the lobby and asked if she'd like a roommate. She took me up on it, and her sister Allison joined us later. They were very friendly and refer to themselves as "con brats" from an early age.

The concert room was a bit small, but I understand it was due to the fact that we were sharing hotel space with a large contact con. Let's see, it's all a jumble now, so i'll have to go about this in a random fashion rather than in order of appearance. Jordan Kare was quite entertaining. I swapped CDs with him. My Dad currently has my copy of Jordan's CD. Jordan is a rocket scientist. My dad is an atmospheric physicist. I didn't understand *all* of Jordan's references in his songs, but I knew my dad would get whatever jokes I didn't, and he did.

In filk, I am no longer in danger of being the smartest person in the room. In fact, nowhere near it, and that is refreshing!

Darnit I can't remember the guy's name but the song about the Key of R (flat minor 7 dimished with a dominant 9) was quite memorable. The Divas of Chaotica were *really* talented. Urban Tapestry was (were? are you British?) great fun, very entertaining and just fun to hang out with. They have some clever songs! And Debbie has more things up her sleeve. I never know what she's going to pull out of that bag! I met Jodi at GAfilk. there seemed to be about a dozen folks at Consonance who were at GAfilk. Jodi, of course has a beautiful voice and a really cool website at musesmuse.com, which I had heard of before.

The interfilk auction was fun. I think I only caught part 2. I must have slept through part 1? Auctions can be tedious, but the filk auctions seem to have a sense of community and fun. I really appreciate the fact that the filk cons don't start any activity til noon. many thanks.

The other thing I love about filk is the ability to laugh at oneself. I don't expect to ever hear in filk (the way you do in Nashville) "Oh you can't write about that. it's not mainstream. who would buy it?" etc etc. Of course, those kinds of comments are often what fuels me (I have a rebellious muse) so I'll have to keep going to Nashville once in a while just to have something to be contrary to.. :)

I mean, I may no longer be the smartest person in the room, but it's darn near impossible to have the weirdest song with the most obscure references in the room when you're filking. Lots of competition for those slots. And lest you misunderstand my intent with those words, that is the very thing about filk that inspires me-it is cool to sing about anything and everything. And that, my friends, is *real* folk music. As is the atmosphere that makes all feel welcome and appreciated and included- anyone can sing regardless of talent, experience, authorship, etc.

I missed Steve's Worlddream recording. I may be at another filkcon this year and get another chance at it. I had gone to lie down for a couple hours so i could filk long into the night. I still only lasted til 4am which is nothing for me- i'm always up til 4am- but this was California time... And I did get to hear Steve lead us in singing Many Hearts One Voice for Cynthia at the open filk. But only after Merav led a group in a parody of his tune: Many Huns, One War. It was quite funny. Steve shook his head, looked... suprised and finlly joined in.

One of the other kneeslapper songs I heard at the open filk was "Your Song's Name Here," (parody) which is fitting since I had heard the same gal sing "Your State's name Here" at GAfilk (that was my first acquaintance with that song). A parody of a funny song, and the topic is parodies. Marvelous!

Jordin Mann (sp?) was so entertaining on Sunday. He had recorded some piano tracks on his laptop to which he sang and did some nifty Broadwayish moves. I caught him rehearsing on stage the previous night. I love to see that level of devotion.

So on Sunday I had this weird thing happen where I thought my plane left at 10pm. In fact it arrived in Atlanta at 10pm. Without me of course. I knew it arrived at 10pm in Altanta, so how I thought it took off at 10pm in San Jose and arrived at 10pm in Atlanta, which is actually negative 3 hours flight time... i don't know. I guess I thought being around all that SF I could accomplish time travel. So I missed my flight, which turned out to be really cool because I got to hang around for all of Sunday, including the Dead Dog Upholstery thing (?)- meaning, the diehards.

Tony Fabris, Merav, Dave Weingart and Urban Tapestry (and Mama con) were among the dozen or so die-hards who stayed through Monday morning. The lobby jam was fun. Again, blanking on a name, but a song highlight for me was the lady who sang about wanting to be put in a hefty bag when she dies. (or if she ends up in the hot place, an oven bag!) UT did a schoolhouse rock tune. Tony and I talked about guitar long into the wee hours.

Let me give 2 or 3 thumbs up (depending on your species) to Mamacon and the others who ran a marvelous and health- conscious consuite. good food, kosher food, sugar free snacks for the diabetic, and nut-warnings on brownies. The diet coke and cookies flowed freely.

And two more thumbs up to the sound crew, who not only did a fabulous job on live sound, but recorded us all digitally. What a long weekend it must have been for them. I wonder if they are still sleeping!

When Dave dropped someone at the airport Sunday and came back to the consuite, Merav said to him "Welcome home." I've exchanged a couple e mails with Dave since getting back, and the world of filk really does feel like home to probably all of us who are in it. It is a place where we can be ourselves and be loved and appreciated for it.

A couple of people have asked me why a "professional" musician like me would hang out in the world of filk. I think I explained that above when I said this is the "real" folk music. there are no music snobs, nothing is sacred (is it? please tell me!), no joke or lyric is wasted on filkers...

the world of filk gives me hope and makes me want to be myself. Trust me, the world of "professional" music is not that affirming and is often stifling. I like to be around folks who are doing it for the sheer love and fun of it, to remind me why I am a musician.

On the plane home, I had to check my guitar *and* my carry on! I was so annoyed. I had to dump my valuables into a plastic bag and check my backpack. then this wanker guy wouldn't let me by so I could get up front and check my stuff that I didn't want to check. He was so rude and annoying that when I fnally got to my seat, I wrote a song. And not about him either. There, that'll show him! They served us cheeseburgers. How gross.

Then I got my guitar back and the case was split. A small price to pay, really, for such a fun weekend. Flying is always annoying, esp. with guitar. When I got back from Consonance, I read my friend Gregory the lyrics I had written on the plane ride home. He said "Are you sure this is going to scan" and I said "well if it doesn't scan I can always xerox it." Eventually I will bring Gregory to a filk. I think you all will like him!

I know that putting on a con is a lot of work, so I would like to thank Dr. Jane, Lynn Gold, and all the other behind the scenes folks. See you at "home"!

Carla Ulbrich
http://www.carlau.com
http://www.mp3.com/carla_ulbrich
carlau@mindpsring.com