Best. Freaking. GAFilk. EVAR. Period.

[thatcrazycajun]

I haven't been posting during the weekend as I've been much busier than I expected serving my first-ever stint as Toastmaster at a convention, GAFilk XIII. But it has, with only one or two minor glitches (none of which were the fault of the con or anyone therein), been simply incredible.

It wasn't just the seeing of friends I haven't been able to see in person for a whole year (and missing far too many others who simply couldn't be here for one reason or another...including, sadly, our Super Sekrit Guest, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, who had to cancel at the last minute due to a loved one's medical emergency). It wasn't that we had none other than the literary world's newest fantasy-writing sensation and John W. Campbell Award winner, cadhla, as Guest of Honor (and all us filk types being able to smugly say, "we knew her when..."). It wasn't getting to do a rare hour-long concert with my sweet Songbird and  catalana as well, and to introduce the other guests' concerts and the 2x10 member performances. It wasn't just the extra-long fun of dancing to the faboo-as-always music of Play It With Moxie at the banquet that was the only good thing to come out of Patrick's absence (his concert had been scheduled for immediately following), or the GAFilk-record-breaking amount of money the auction later that evening raised (along with the usual quilting by msminlr and friends, haircuts by msminlr and other stuff) for Interfilk to bring more great talents like this year's guest Howard Scrimgeour to filk fans far from their home regions. (Over $3,800, in case you wondered.) It wasn't just having talents such as Chairman Emeritus bedlamhouse and his delightful wife ladyat and billroper and decadentdave performing in open circles and in a massive ad-hoc backing band for our GoH, working the sound boards, running the auction and generally kicking the weekend up several notches. Or even just the special bonus concert D-Dave did this afternoon as one of the items auctioned off last night.

It was also the scads of people who approached me after my concert and through the remainder of the weekend to tell me how much they enjoyed my songs and the job I was doing (some even offering me gifts in token of their appreciation, such as a free CD of a new member's music and a sterling silver finger-ring), despite the flubs of lyrics and other mistakes I know I made. It was being invited to the con-ops suite this evening for a private schmooze with the committee as one of the main guests before joining the Stray Dead Dog filk. It was the raw recording to CD of my concert (put together by hms42 for the purpose) getting auctioned off last night for a staggering $450 with chorded lyric sheets thrown in. And it was getting some generously offered technical advice from the Grim Roper hisownself to help make that years-awaited CD of my own music a reality at long, long last. And it was finally getting to hear kbeader perform my Pegasus Award-winning song "A Simple Country Doctor" for the first time, as she had in my stead at the Nominees' Concert during the 2004 Ohio Valley Filk Fest when our flight's delayed arrival prevented me being there until late Friday evening (though I did get to collect the award the next night). And her telling me the funny story of how her playing it at a Star Trek con out west resulted in its inclusion in Denise Crosby's documentary Trekkies II, complete with my name in the credits. And, and, and...well, you get the idea.

And to top it all off, it's snowing outside. It'll be tricky as hell driving back across town to get home (assuming the roads are passable), and it did drive off some of our friends early to avoid getting stranded and caused others to get flights home delayed or canceled. But it means we have one last evening of fun before having to resume dealing with Real Life again tomorrow.

Comments

[tollermom]

That would be cadhla (not catalana) as GOH.

Wish I'd been there... it sounds like tons of fun!

Oops...sorry

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

This is what typing in the middle of a filk room while sleep-deprived for two days running gets me. Thanks for the correction; it has been fixed and now I just have to hope neither Seanan nor Erica kills me when they see this... :-)

And we wish you'd been here, too - it was indeed several metric buttloads of fun. (How many buttloads can you get in a ton, I wonder...or is it the other way round?)

Re: Oops...sorry

[gorgeousgary]

One is tempted to observe there isn't that much difference between the two. Sure, Erica's the reputation for making characters suffer horribly in her songs. Meanwhile, Seanan's written many cheerful, uplifting songs like "Dear Gina". 8-)

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Your concert was, from the audience point of view, a definite high point of the weekend. You had at least half of us in tears. More than once. I look forward to that CD. I was one of the bidders on that concert CD, but the price got a little higher than I could afford. So, I'm glad I got to hear it. If you and Harold should ever conspire to make another copy of that concert, let myself and Kathleen know, as I'm sure both of us would make substantial Interfilk donations to get a copy.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much, sir, for your kind words. As for further copies of the concert CD, I would suggest you address such requests to hms42 as he has the master recording. I for one would be quite happy to consent to his offering copies of the set for other Interfilk auctions or other fundraising. And I don't think the other two will be terribly hard to convince on this either.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

People all over my blogs are posting about how good your set was. I'm sorry to have missed it.

Congratulations on hitting one out of the park!

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Could you give us some links to these raves, please?

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Matt, I'm glad everything went well for you. And as far as your being the toastmaster, dang it, you deserved it and you earned it!. As another person who has problems taking compliments well (and as one who rarely gets compliments at all - me, not you), you rocked this weekend. The fact that the CD finally went for as much as it did is nothing less than a testament to your musical ability (as a writer and a singer).

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

I was worried about all the folks @ Gafilk getting home when I saw the snow coming on the weather forecasts. May all your tires find grip.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

It was a really fabulous concert. I came to GaFilk largely for those moments, and you made if amazingly worthwhile.

What was the name of the song you did for your closer?

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Thank you so very much, dear lady. The song we closed with was "Come the Dawn," and you can read the lyrics here (http://thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com/56625.html). My Trained Pet Guitarist™ has the corrected chord sheets from last weekend and should be sending them to me shortly.

[filkferengi]

You also got a new name out of it, o Tear-Bringer.