Puzzlebox Music

Read the reviews and favorite memories of the various conventions we've been to during 1999

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1999

FilKOntario '99

Where:	Quality Hotel, Toronto Airport, Canada
When:	March 26-28, 1999
Duration:	No Concert

OK, so we didn't really have a concert here. We had a great time, we got up on stage, and we entered the songwriting contest. Isn't that enough to make you want to hear about the event anyway? Sure it is!

Puzzlebox didn't all travel together this time. Taunya and Paul had a Thursday morning flight directly to Toronto, while Alisa flew to Buffalo, to visit with Luis Garcia (her sweetheart) and Rand Bellavia of Ookla the Mok. Taunya and Paul picked up their rental car and got to the con hotel in the early evening. They didn't have a room in the hotel for Thursday night (since Allison Durno of Urban Tapestry had kindly offered to put them up for the night), but they called from the lobby to the room where Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers were staying. And voila! The party was begun! Already present were Jodi Krangle (also of UT) and the Official Filk Waif (FKO's equivalent of a toastmaster) Don Neil, with his wife Charity and young (but energetic!) son Leo. It was great to see Don again. There was much happy chatting to catch up with everyone, studying of pictures from last year's Winnipeg Folk Festival (brought by Winnipeg residents Dave & Tom, to provide maximum temptation to make everyone join them this year), and ordering Chinese food. During this time, the rest of UT showed up (Debbie Ohi and Allison), and soon the music began. Everybody traded songs around, getting ourselves quickly into the perfect mood for the con. Paul managed to talk Debbie into staying an extra hour by offering her a ride home [sneaky bastard].

Eventually, the gathering did break up around 11:00pm. Jodi drove herself home, and Allison, Taunya, & Paul dropped Debbie off at her condo downtown, then went out to Allison's place in Thornhill for the night. After a bit of chatting, and checking her e-mail, Taunya wisely took to her bed, while Paul and Allison talked quite late. All night, in fact. Although he felt a bit guilty keeping Allison up all night before a workday (she's an elementary school teacher, and the kids may have gotten away with a bit extra that Friday…), he loved the lengthy catch-up opportunity. Paul gave Allison a ride to her school in the morning, then caught a short nap before he and Taunya and Allison's husband John had to get ready to meet Jodi and Debbie at the SF Cafe for lunch (very fun place! Spaceships hanging from the ceiling, a giant robot coming out of the wall, life-size dioramas from Indiana Jones and other movies, and a comic book store attached. Cool!)

Well enough lead-in: time for a convention! After picking up Allison, the assemblage descended on the FKO hotel. And there in the hotel lobby, they found Rand Bellavia, who was to be Taunya and Paul's roommate for the con. Also found our good friend Kathleen Sloan, and after they got checked into their room (right next door to Dave & Tom!), we all went for a meal in the hotel restaurant. While eating, several friends came by and said hello, including Karen Linsley and Lloyd Landa, who sold Paul their new CD "The Road to Roswell" (which is highly recommended). The "Howdy"s continued as Paul & Taunya went down to register for the convention: Andrea Dale (also bought her new album), Harold Groot (a local filker to us here in California, sent to FKO as Interfilk guest), Diana Huey, Shelby Bartellis, Judith & Dave Hayman, Katy Dröge & Rika Körte from Germany, and also fellow Californian Alan Thiesen. Oh yes, this was shaping up nicely.

Also arriving Friday night was the trio of Alisa, Luis, and Luis' 9-year-old son Tommy (his first filk convention). So all of Puzzlebox was there. We dropped in at the Tie and Tails reception for a while, then went to hear the mini-concerts: Kathleen Sloan, followed by Howie Harrison. Both did an excellent job, and warmed the crowd up for the weekend's festivities. Next was Judith Hayman's concert spotlighting her new CD (were we the ONLY ones who didn't have a CD out at this con?! We'll have to fix that!), including UT, Freddy Brown, and other guest performers from the album.

We settled into the "West Coast Filk", hosted by Harold Groot. Good music all around. It was Alisa & Taunya's first time hearing Howie Harrison's Reincarnation Song, a fun piece where Howie shows off his…unusual…vocal talents.

Take up the story Saturday morning: Taunya and Paul attended Urban Tapestry's arrangement workshop, as did a good portion of the convention's membership. And it was well worth the attending. Almost every idea they had for arrangement ideas was illustrated with a UT song using that concept.

The Saturday concerts started with Don Neill, who did a brilliant job with many songs of his that we'd never heard before. He was followed by Harold Groot. It should be noted that Alisa was not at the con yet, since she, Luis, and Tommy had gone on some morning sight-seeing in downtown Toronto. (Tommy had never been to Toronto before.) The panic began to set in for Taunya and Paul, though, when Puzzlebox's "twofer" (like a one-shot, but two songs) was coming up in 10 minutes, and Alisa hadn't returned yet. So, as T&P were considering what they might do as a duet, Alisa came running in, panting, while Luis was parking the car. It seems they'd been a stuck in a 45 minute downtown traffic jam, and made it back just in time. Whew! We performed Persian Rose (by Maya and Jeff Bonhoff) and The Dark Man (with the help of the lovely ladies of UT). We went over well.

Concerts continued with the sometimes strange songs of guitar virtuoso Nate Bucklin and then Guests of Honor: Urban Tapestry. Their concert was loads of fun, a retrospective of a lot of their material that hadn't been played in a while (including the always-crowd-pleasing A Neurotic Love Song), as well as some new material being debuted here: Allison's This is a Filk Song and Debbie's Home to FilKONtario. They certainly got the crowd going. But they were forced to decline an encore, in order to get the Filk Hall of Fame Banquet started on time.

We didn't end up at the Banquet, but that may have been a mistake: we missed seeing Dave Clement, Mary Ellen Wessels, and the late Gary Anderson get inducted into the Hall of Fame. Very well deserved, folks!

The evening's activities began with the song-writing contest. We entered our latest group-composed effort Ramblin' Time (see the ConChord '98 con report, elsewhere on this site, for the story of this song). And we won 2nd place! Woohoo! First place was taken by Diana Huey with her Solar Gypsies and 3rd went to Dandelion Wine (Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers) for The Face on Mars, both excellent songs. Congratulations to Diana, Dave & Tom. The Interfilk Auction was also that evening, as well as a pinata busting, the Jazz Jam, and other events we didn't get to. FKO likes to pack that schedule! We attended open filk for the evening, in a couple of different rooms. Rand played a couple of new Ookla the Mok songs, including Medieval Evil Knevil. Urban Tapestry tried to escape to their room around 3:00am, walking by the room where we were, just as Dave was leading a rousing rendition of Dixie Chicken. Paul really had no choice but to grab Allison for a bit of dancing in the hallway before the elevator came to whisk them away. And Mark Bernstein Madeira'd Taunya (her "pure young thing" would have brought tears to the eyes of the most cynical theater critics). Once again, we got to bed, well, a tad late.

Alisa, Luis and Tommy left the con shortly after a Sunday brunch with the gang. They stayed through most of the Hall of Fame concert, but then had to head back to Buffalo in order to get Luis packed for his big move to California! (That's right, folks, Luis Garcia is now firmly entrenched on the shores of the California coast, much to Alisa's satisfaction.) Taunya and Paul stayed for the Sunday activities, which included the Hall of Fame concert, and a dinner/party in Dave & Tom's room with UT, Rand, Katy and Rika. The remainder of the evening was filled with the Dead Penguin Filk and saying goodbye to many good friends, including Rand and UT. Taunya and Paul ended up spending the last bit of the evening in Dave & Tom's room again, along with Katy and Rika, trading songs back and forth for a while until sleepiness overtook them.

Monday Taunya & Paul got to meet Jodi for an excellent lunch and a little shopping at a local mall. Then it was off to the airport for the flight home.

Well, we had a blast, folks. Thanks to everyone who was a part of it! FKO is now two-for-two on providing Puzzlebox with a GREAT time!

Special Memories:

Watching Debbie go crazy with props during their song about Captain Picard. Hysterical!!
Howie Harrison's Reincarnation Song (aka "The Birdy Song")at midnight on Friday night.
Listening to Tommy and Luis Garcia sing a "They Might Be Giants" song together...Tommy's first filk!
Mark Bernstein doing "Have Some Madeira, M'dear" for/with/to Taunya.
Our first group-win in the song-writing contest!
Hearing UT perform Monday, a song Allison wrote after last year's FKO. What a song.
Unbelievable Jazz Jam...Alisa requested My Funny Valentine and sat back in amazement as Jodi and Mew sang it gorgeously, accompanied by all the fantastic musicians in the room.
Dave Clement being nominated into Filk Hall of Fame. WAY TO GO, DAVE!!!
Talking with Rand Bellavia and Steve MacDonald in the hall about album recording.
Holding up crayon drawings of cigarette lighter flames during the UT concert.
Alisa touring downtown Toronto with Tommy and Luis for a couple hours on Saturday morning

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