It's lunch and a mum has just dropped off three boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts for her son's birthday. Whee, high times in Gr. 5 this afternoon...

I'm going to start some random OVFF memories here and finish up later.



Concerts:

Two things drew me to OVFF this year- the chance to see friends I don't see nearly often enough and a guest list chockful of some of my favorite performers in filk- Ookla The Mok, Scott Snyder, Heather Dale. Ookla rocked and gave one of the best concerts I've ever seen of theirs. It was great to see Rand and Adam reunited with Luis for OVFF. Kudos, too, to the OVFF sound crew, who did a great job with the demanding Ookla sound logistics. It had been far too long since I'd seen Scott in concert and it was a joy, as always. It was nostalgic and wonderful to hear Scott performing songs like "I Play Magic Now" again. Toronto's Heather Dale was a huge hit as the Interfilk guest and I cried through all the beautiful songs in her concert. Later Heather apologized for making me cry :) - I -thanked- her for performing music that touched me that deeply.

Andy Eigel performed Saturday afternoon and I especially enjoyed "Uplift" and the spiritual "chariot" singalong he used to end his concert. Carla and Joe were adorable and inspired together and it was a kick to hear Carla's "Waffle House" song again. I think this was maybe the first time I've seen Joe perform live and I was intrigued by his nifty unique guitar playing. Maureen O'Brien gave a lovely a capella performance and I was especially charmed by her Rosie and Sam Gamgee song, "Rosie's Song", which I was delighted to learn is up as a MP3 on her website. I've already sent it to some of my Tolkien friends. Katy and Ju gave a wonderful concert on Sunday afternoon with a mix of introspective, moving songs and, um, strange ultra-sonic Ju choruses :).

I -so- enjoyed the joint Urban Tapestry/Ookla The Mok children's concert we participated in on Sunday afternoon :). It had been a very long time since we had done a concert together with Rand and Adam. It was very gratifying to have such a packed house of children and adults! Highlights for me included Debbie singing lead for the -very first time- on her new song, "I'm Going to Build A Rocketship", holding cartoon props as Rand and Adam sang "Math", watching Mary and Debbie lead the actions for "Rattlin' Bog", hearing Ookla sing "Columbia" and doing four-part harmonies plus flute on "Still Can't Buy Me Love".

Circles:

The Irish Folk Jam on Saturday night was amazing. I didn't play, but I placed myself in the middle of the circle and just let the music wash over me As Paul Kwinn teased me, it spoke to my Celtic blood, it surely did. There was a blend of guitars, drums, fiddles, banjos, dulcimers and the energy was fine.

Later in the evening UT ended up in a hall filk out by the piano and I really enjoyed the blend of music there, too. Joe sang a moving song about the Red Sox and war, Luke Ski performed an inspired Star Wars parody of Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues", The Boogie Knights performed several fun songs, Juanita Coulson scorched us with a few ballads,
and there were others whose names I didn't catch who added wonderful music to the circle, too.

We were able to briefly attend the Group Harmony Circle on Sunday afternoon, before heading off to Katy and Ju's concert. I so enjoyed listening to all the beautiful harmonies and I was glad Seanan finally got to hear UT's cover of her song, "Galadriel's Lament". And, hey, Seanan is the Toastmistress at OVFF next year! Very cool and very well-deserved! Congratulations, Seanan!

I also attended my first OVFF Dead Dog Filk on Sunday night, too, and that was lots of fun. My strongest memory of that circle is that I left my guitar in our hotel room which gave UT the chance to sing and collaborate with other musicians during the evening. We sang Scott's "Lady of The Wood" with Scott accompanying us on guitar. Paul accompanied us as we sang "Homecoming". I really enjoyed that chance to perform with other filkers.

The lunch bell is going to ring soon, so more later.