OVFF 16
October 27-29, 2000
attended by Paul

Ah, the Ohio Valley Filk Festival. The largest of filk cons. This was my 7th foray to this esteemed event. And it was my very good fortune to have my wife (and Puzzlebox's web mistress) Beckett Gladney with me. Unfortunately, though, I was the only member of Puzzlebox who could make it this year. I tried to hold the banner proudly aloft, though. :{)}

As usual for trips from the West Coast to the East Coast (yeah, Ohio's not quite East Coast, but just one state away, and in that time zone), we spent pretty much all of Friday travelling, leaving San Jose at 6:45 AM, arriving in Columbus at 5:00 PM (a little longer than usual, even, due to our stopover being in Houston). We got to the hotel around 6:00 and checked in, then Kathleen Sloan was kind enough to give me a ride to a local music store to buy a tape recorder (I'd lost mine at the last minute while packing). Back at the hotel, I I got ahold of Debbie Ohi and Jodi Krangle (of Urban Tapestry) to arrange a quick rehearsal. Debbie was nominated for a Pegasus award (Best Food/Drink Song for "My Jalapeño Man"), and had been asked to perform the song as part of the Pegasus nominees concert on Friday night. But Allison Durno (UT's guitarist) wasn't going to arrive until later that evening. Well, Puzzlebox borrowed that song for our album, so they asked me to fill in on guitar for the concert. So we ran through the song a couple of times in their room, then went downstairs for the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

This traditional Friday night greet-fest was fun, although we arrived a little late. Beckett and I got introduced to GOH Talis Kimberley and her husband Simon Fairbourn by Debbie. (Deb had spent some time with Talis when Urban Tapestry was GOH at Digeri-Douze, the British filk con, in Februrary.) I had seen Talis at FilKONtario in 1997, but never really spoken with her before. I also got to say hello to other filk buddies I hadn't seen in months, like Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers, Kathleen Sloan, Steve Macdonald, Rand Bellavia, Andrea Dale, Daniel and Melissa Glasser, Diana Huey, Mew & Ed, Cacie Sears, Dave & Judith Hayman, as well as fellow California attendees Scott & Amanda Snyder, Seanan McGuire, Bob Kanefsky, and many others.

Oh, and I won an award for "Best Tentacled Hat" at the Tea Party, awarded by Joy Parker, the Listener Guest of Honor. Thanks Joy. The hat has six flourescent green/pink tentacles with an eye at the end of each. Quite the display. As soon as I saw it in the store, I decided I needed it for the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, even if that was the only time I ever wore it. Apparently, Joy agreed.

The Pegasus nominee concert was up next, with all the nominees for Best Song, Best End of the World Song, and Best Food/Drink Song being played for the last-minute consideration of the con attendees (midnight was the deadline to vote). I then chatted with several people for awhile before going to the open filking. With having gotten up at 4:30 AM to get to our flight, I was only at the open filking for an hour or two, but had a good time.

Saturday morning, I got up a little early (in filk terms) to finish up my song-writing contest entry "Joyride" (the contest theme was "License to Drive"). I really should have forced myself to have it ready sooner. Then I could have gone to Talis' Songwriting & Storytelling Workshop, and I would have preferred that. Ah well. We joined Debbie, Jodi, Andrea and her husband Tom, Dave Clement, and Tom Jeffers for brunch. Then we got into the main function space, missing most of Toastmaster Mark Bernstein's concert, but in time for Erica Neely's concert. I'd heard about Erica in the past year, and she lived up to her reputation. Good guitar work and great singing, showcasing her song-writing skills. She self-admittedly leans toward ose (and self-teasingly, too, with one song proclaiming "That song can't be ose, because not everyone dies!"). Other performers through the afternoon were: Interfilk guests Lee & Barry Gold, Judith Hayman, and Gary Erhlich. Last up was GOH Talis Kimberley, with backing band Simon Fairbourn and Dave and Tom. That concert was, not surprisingly, fabulous. It's amazing how much charisma Talis packs into her tiny frame. Yow! The audience just hangs on her every word. And of course her musical talent, vocally, instrumental, and song-writing, are simply brilliant. I could gladly have sat and listened for twice as long. At least I got ahold of her brand new CD "Archetype Café" to bring home (and it's marvelous, as well).

Next was the Pegasus Awards Banquet. We had a good time at our table, goofing with Urban Tapestry, Rand, Scott & Amanda, Dave, and Tom. We had five Pegasus award nominations among the folks at that table, and two actual winners:
Debbie tied for Best Food/Drink song with "My Jalapeño Man" (shared with Tom Smith for "307 Ale") and Rand accepted the Best Performer Pegasus on behalf of Ookla the Mok (the beginning of his acceptance speech was one of my favorite con moments: "I just don't agree." :{)} He was pretty shocked that they got that award with having performed so little in the past year.) Other winners were "Sam's Song" by Zander & Soren Nyrond for Best Song, Bob Kanefsky for Best Writer/Composer (long overdue, says I!), and Dr. Jane Robinson's "Out of a Clear Blue Sky" for Best End of the World Song. (Y'know, Steve Macdonald sang that song for the Pegasus nominees' concert on Friday, apparently after having heard it for the first time only an hour before, and did it brilliantly. Ah Steve, you talented bastard.) Congratulations and a heartfelt "Well deserved!" to all the Pegasus winners.

As the banquet let out, I ran to my room to grab my guitar and do a last-second run-through of my song-writing contest entry, then came down to the contest. I was up against some serious competition here. Funny thing is, nobody wanted to go first. Renee Alper took the 5th slot on the sign-up sheet, and ended up being first to perform. :{)} I was out of the room after the contest when the winners were announced, but Renee took first place with a pun-fest running through all possible definitions of "drive" Randy Hoffman took second with a piece about rush hour in the meadow, with traffic jams of faeries riding their bugs home; and third place was a tie between Susan Urban's story of a stranded traveller getting a ride from an under-aged ghost, and my own "Joyride", the tale of a teenager whose dad loans her the family vehicle: a time machine.

The Interfilk auction was a lot of fun. The wenches decided to dress up in Ren Faire-type garb, and there were quite a few of them on duty: Judith, Kathleen, all of Urban Tapestry, Mew, Barb Riedel, and Talis.

After that, I spent the evening at the "Rockin' Filk Jam". That was a lot of fun. Steve Macdonald, Scott Snyder, Howie Harrison, Pete Grubbs, Dave Clement & Tom Jeffers, and Tom Smith more or less formed the core of the event, with a large supporting cast, and we rocked and rolled and filked. Included in the lot was a series of Rocky Horror numbers, including "The Time Warp" just
before the 1:00 AM change from Daylight Savings Time. Woohoo! I got to bed around 5:30.

Sunday morning, Beckett and I decided we wanted to stay an extra day, so I called to rearrange our flight home. That turned out to be a good idea. Then we went to brunch at a local restaurant with Andrea and Allison. There was, unsurprisingly, much discussion of pregnancy, since both Beckett and Andrea are expecting. In fact, people in general were very helpful and encouraging
toward Beckett all weekend about her impending motherhood. It was wonderful to have all that from the mothers, mothers-to-be, and just general folk of the filk community, so thanks to everyone from Beckett and me (and our pre-natal twin boys).

Back at the hotel, we began the usual Sunday farewell rounds, but more relaxed than usual, from our point-of-view, since we were going to be staying over another night. We caught very little of the afternoon programming, sitting around chatting with various people instead. We said our goodbyes, over the course of the afternoon to Urban Tapestry, Kanef, Rand, and others. Then we went to dinner with Kathleen, her sister Mary Jo and two other folk whom Kathleen invited (Frank and Larissa? Sorry for not remembering names), who turned out to be delightful people, as well as Puzzlebox fans.

We finished the evening off at the Dead Dog Filk. One last chance to play and hear some late-night music, and we did enjoy ourselves. I got to say farewell to Talis. She said that she'd definitely be at FilkContinental to see Puzzlebox next September (Woohoo!). For now, she and Simon were heading out with Dave and Tom in the morning, for a tour of house filks in various U.S. and Canadian towns between Columbus and Dave and Tom's hometown of Winnipeg, over the following week and a half. Man, I wish I could have come along on that little trip. Hope you all are having fun, out there.

Well, Monday, we slept in, had breakfast with Kathleen and Mary Jo (and another woman who's name I've also forgotten; sorry!), then headed off to the airport.

Let's see, have I forgotten anything? I was surprised to be asked, at various points in the convention, by 5 different people whom I didn't know, whether Puzzlebox was at work on another CD. :{)} Not at the moment, folks, but I'd sure like to, and with support like that, we'll look into it.

There are some other great OVFF Con reports from other people's perspectives if you want to read/see more:

Allison Durno's perspective (of Urban Tapestry); Jodi put in some of Debbie's fun photos as well!

Tom Smith: always an entertaining and witty read, but also surprisingly touching...

Daniel and Melissa Glasser have put up their digital photos of OVFF, with lots of fun sequences of shots such as The Chocolate Wenching Sequence, Talis worshipping Melissa's Boots, and more.

Talis Kimberley, OVFF's Guest of Honor, has put her tour report up on her site now.