OVFF CONREP #1: THEY HATE UNICORNS

OVFF, 2008 -- Suttons
Originally uploaded by Looly Huheet

As promised and threatened and alluded, here comes the first installment of the Ohio Valley Filk Fest conrep. As ever, weekends spent among the filkish are always among the highlights of any year.

My plan was to arrive in time for the Pegasus concert, and I actually got on the road to Ohio in some semblance of timeliness, though stopped for an oil and filter change on the way out of Canandaigua. An uneventful journey until I hit the Cleveland area at rush hour, in which about three miles' travel lasted an hour. So I ended up starting the roughly 100-mile swath of Route 71 with about an hour to go, which is when I realized I wasn't going to make it. Ah, well. It turned out I only missed the first quarter of the concert, the comedy category -- kind of a drag, as I hear that billroper and daisyknotwise did a particularly inspired version of "Apology" and I'm always up for hearing musicmutt explain why "Chocolate is a Vegetable." I made the reg table to the strains of (eventual winner) "Black Davie's Ride" (unsure who was singing it) and located mrgoodwraith, Rand and erinwrites across the room, where, between songs, mrgoodwraith revealed that he had his second CD finished after all.

Which leads to a parenthetical paragraph on the greatness of Randy's new disc, More Vocals in the Monitors, which has gotten a number of listens since, much to his disbelief. ("But you've heard it all before, multiple times!" Actually, no -- there was some stuff here new to me, such as "Parallel" and "The Scriptorium.") For those who know Randy and haven't heard the disc yet, I heartily recommend it. While it sounded admittedly rushed on the first listen, it sinks in deeper on subsequent spins -- and, as with Scratch These Vocals" before it, it highlights one of mrgoodwraith's primary traits, his versatility. A lot of people know Randy as a comedy songwriter, and the funny, lighter stuff does make up a large percentage of what he performs and he's even got a song about killing the mood in draggy, ose-y circles, "Laughter." But he also writes some powerful, affecting, poignant and, sometimes, dark-n-creepy material. This particular disc has some delightfully Silly Stuff ("Blue Moons Blues" -- the Lucky Charms song, if you don't recognize the title -- "The Other Squirrel's Secret," "Rules of Engagement," etc.), plus some serious, dark and reflective pieces ("Ebon on Sable on Black," "Elizabeth Dane" and his autobiographical "Confessionaspirational"), a couple that are fusions of the two, funny stuff that leaves something to think about ("Core Dump," "Desperation"), a couple excellent spoken-word pieces (including "For Susan," a rebuttal of sorts to Neil Gaiman's post-Narnia story) and, best of all, some gorgeous harmony vocals with Kira Heston on songs by fairly recently departed filkers (Cynthia McQuillin, Leigh Ann Hussey). Kira doesn't get out to too many cons other than Confluence, which is added incentive for everyone to make their way to the Pitt next summer. Anyway, and anyhow, that's eight thumbs up for the new Randy disc.

That was one long parenthetical.

The rest of the concert was, of course, outstanding, particularly hsifyppah's "The Wreck of the Crash of the Easthill Mining Disaser" (with visual aids displayed by cadhla and vixyish); Juanita's rendition of "Chess" in the classic category (which absolutely needs to win sometime soon, though I certainly can't argue with "Archetype Cafe"); and Andrew Eigel's delivery of his incredible song "Uplift," the eventual winner. (I think he's on LJ, but I don't know his tag.)

I hung out in the hall for a bit after the concert, where Rand Bellavia was regaling all and sundry with selections from Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney's Book of Lists. I particularly enjoyed the one about answers to questions posed in favorite songs: (I paraphrase): "It feels, oddly enough, astonishly like a rolling stone." Somehow, musicmutt and I got roped into switching off on a reading of 42 questions raised by Charlie Daniels' "Devil Went Down to Georgia." And vixyish noted a distinct bias on the writers' part against unicorns. This one goes near the top of the Must Buy Real Soon Now Should I Ever Have Any Money.

Spent most of Friday's open filk in the hall -- the hall-filk, incidentally, seemed nowhere near as big and impenetrable as in previous years, though that may be partly a function of my growing ease and comfort among all y'all. Highlights include the Bohnhoff's springing "Soylent Green" on vixyish and tfabris; peteralway's rendition of "Mice Will Rule the World" (attentively taken in by Vixy's stuffed mouse); getting to hear Ben Newman's "Here Be Cartographers" again (which needs to be on the best-song ballot Real Soon Now) and so much else that has since receded somewhere in the brain. (I really need to start writing impressions down during the con.) I myself did "Casa Blanca" once again, after rewriting large swaths of the final verse that I'd never really liked -- which reminds me, starmalachite asked me to post the lyrics, so that'll be my next post, since it's all topical and mildly political and stuff -- as well as "The Beagle" (a particularly lively group of "waaaa-waaaa-waaaaa"ers on the chorus -- for those who haven't heard it, it's my parody of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer" from the point of view of Charlie Brown, with the "li-li-li" replaced by Peanuts Adult Dialogue) and a half-sung, half-taking-blues cover of Loudon Wainwright III's "The Man Who Couldn't Cry." Somebody -- Kanef, I think -- remarked that it reminded him of the old joke about playing country music backwards and getting your wife, job, dog, pickup, etc. back ... which makes sense, as I first heard the song in a cover version by Johnny Cash.

And that was Friday. More to come in Conrep #2