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Another Rockin' Weekend at I-ConGot back from a most interesting weekend. It began with Andrew and I heading out for New York. There was a bit beefed up security, but we made it through fairly nicely. Then as we waited for the plane, Andrew dumped a big wake-up call to me.
Too often, I find myself dissing Andrew. I'm not sure of the exact motivations, but a lot of it is frustration with the fact that he says he'll do something, doesn't and makes up an excuse why. Whereas, I learned in ROTC, there are no excuses. Rather, I don't want to hear an excuse. I want to know he's getting stuff done!
In any case, it's gotten a bit much. The pressure of trying to get this CD out hasn't helped much, nor has the single life. So I found myself humbled once again, which is always a good thing, IMO. I'd hate to become that egotistical nemesis that despise in other people so much, yet maybe it's just something buried inside me.
The talk had a great effect on me. I started thinking about the whys and reasonings and how we both could correct the situation. And so we worked out some duties. The whole discussion got my mind working once again on introspection. And I think I benefitted immensely, and Andrew benefitted from less passive aggressive insults. Our performance also benefitted quite a bit from it this weekend.
The final outcome was that Andrew would completely handle booking, and I'd stick with promotion and avoid badgering him on booking. I admit I'm a little skeptical. But he feels he has a good program that will encourage him to get more booking done. So I'm gonna do as much support as possible. I mean, if we don't, I'm not sure how booking'll take place, but it may be very slow. Friday night in Stony BrookAfter arriving in New York, we caught the thirty minute shuttle to Stony Brook University for I-Con, and decided to find out where we would be performing and where our booth would be. The booth location was less than diserable, but Saturday morning we fixed that.
Then we wandered through the vendor's room and ran into a Nagian, Chelsea, and her friends. Sadly, we were instrument-less, so unable to play music though we did singer her the "Scotsman". Made me wish we'd brought our instruments. Or at the very least had done a better job letting people know when we would be performing. My apologies to all who couldn't make it. I'm not a starFunny thing about this meeting was afterwards, Chelsea made a comment that she was glad to see we were so open to communicate. Me, I wish we could've talked more. I love to meet Nagians, and learn more about them. But it wasn't until today that I realized my goof-up, no Nagian get together.
If I forget in the future, please remind me to have a Nagian Social sometime after our show. I really want to meet people when possible. Because we are nothing without you who support our music. So thank you! Oh, the Horror...Rocky Horror, that isFortunately, we did end up hanging with Chelsea and her friends at the Rocky Horror Picture Show preview while looking for Kate, our "rent-a-wench", as she called herself. We finally found Kate back at the dealer's room, and setup plans for the morn.
The next morning, we arose too early and started a quick day at the Con. Our table location was dreadful, but we talked to the staff and set it up so it worked better. Then we started roaming the dealer's room playing music for the dealers.
As usual, the music went over splendidly and brought many smiles to their faces. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing their smiles, and helping them wake up to a marvelous convention day. I wish we could've done more, but before I knew it, it was time for 2pm show. Live from Stony Brook New York...We hit the stage and were mildly awake for a great show. I did my best to just add energy to the stage with my normal antics, but oddly enough, it was another one of those seemingly dead crowds. There was little interaction. Quite a few BLANK faces. I didn't know WHAT to make of it!?
But once again, we got off the stage, and there were lots of compliments. I started putting names with faces, and it turns out some of the blank stares were Nagians from last year! I didn't know What to make of that, but they enjoyed themselves, and for that I'm happy. Shall we [belly] dance, bum bum bumAs we got off the stage, the Belly Dancers came in. Aviva was next up. Immediately, I noticed a few very hot women among the dancers, but I was exhausted from the show. So after our goodbyes to fans, we made our way back to our booth to give some relief to Kate.
In my exhaustion, I forgot my autoharp case. So I went back to get it. On the way back, I ran into Kerry, the Event Coordinator who hired us. She was performing as a belly dancer with Aviva. I totally forgot that when she mentioned it to me on the phone. And again she invited me to come watch. I made no commitment though.
But as I walked away, I thought, "It'll be good P.R. Probably ought to go." Admittedly, I've had little interest until recently in bellydancing. I guess it always embarrassed me, Mr. Sexually Repressed. But at Excalibur I got to watch a little and wasn't bothered. Then the Lady in Green mentioned she wanted to learn a wee bit o'bellydancing. So when I got back to the booth and found myself falling asleep, I thought I'd go find a place to crash and maybe stop by the bellydancing show while I was at it. I told Andrew I'd be back in about 20 minutes, ended up taking a good hour, methinks.
I got to the show, and by then I was having a wee bit o'trouble staying awake, but I did learn a little. Seems there's a bit o'difference between the dancing here and well at faires in any case. Much more improv at faires, while this was all danced to pre-recorded music instead of pounding drums. Even some modern Middle Eastern dance music. Some kinda cool stuff. Bellydancers and ElvesI did however arrive a wee bit late for Kerry's solo, but stuck around trying my best to stay awake and make a good impression. The show ended, and I hung around to chat with Kerry some. In walked a cute blonde dancer. I attempted to flirt and found myself in an awkward position when another beautiful dancer...this one an elf, joined the conversation.
The elf, Kyara, and I chatted and flirted a bit. She was wearing a tight suede outfit that had my eyes dropping a bit low, but I did my best to keep from staring at her chest. Finally, I had to get back to my booth, so we parted company. Time flies...Got back and already it was five o'clock. The dealer's room would close very soon and then the Cabaret.
The Cabaret arrived, and I sat outside flirting more with Kyara. We had a wonderful discussion on a variety of topics. Then after watching the audience diminish due to a couple of rock bands in the cabaret, we put on our show and were cut off at midnight by the university. Filkin' AThen Andrew and I head back to join the filking. I thought this would be a bother, but I'm really loving filking! Yes, it kept us up too late, but we had fun introducing our Tolkien songs and listening to some other great songs. We stayed up wayyyy too late, but had a great time doing it. So I have NO regrets. All the world's a stage, except when you don't get enough sleepThree or four hours later, I got up and got to the Con early fumbling around waiting for our noon show. I really didn't expect people to be there. I was so exhausted I thought EVERYONE would be extremely exhausted.
Lo and behold, come noon, the audience started filling up with people lead off by our now-known online friend Cereal Killer. Turned out to be a fairly decent sized audience who all seemed to get involve. We put on a much better show IMO and then headed back to the booth for a new show.
At the booth, we started playing and Leonora plopped down by our booth and started listening to our music. Then she began asking for more songs, and more songs, and more songs... oh, and more songs. Fortunately, I was having a pretty good voice weekend, methinks. And I love having such an enthusiastic audience. We must've played two hours, and before long, more and more people joined her.
Finally, my mind was going dead from exhaustion, and Leonora's friends dragged her away and told her to stop being a nuisance. No, it was just a joy. I love sharing my music.
We then had a bunch of CDs to sign. And Debra, Steve and Vicki were all gathered getting ready to go. I had a wonderful time escaping from the world by chatting with Vicki, Debra and Steve's 10-year old daughter.
One of the reasons, I enjoy photography so much is that it gives me time to escape. But oddly enough, even chatting with Vicki was a bit of an escape from the real world. She's a delightfully smart and sweet girl. She became a fan last year, thanks to "Donald, Where's Your Trousers? Medley", and the whole family is not much dearer to my heart. Filk PizzaSoon they departed. Then the Con came to a close. We packed up our stuff then headed upstairs to join Lenny and some of the other filkers for some more filk music.
But hunger got the best of me, and I decided to head out to dinner with Kyara while Andrew filked some more. Kyara took me to a cool little pizza joint somewhere not to far from the Con. It was a cool experience. As we drove to the pizza place, it started to snow. Oh, how I love and miss the snow!
Meanwhile, she and the rest of New York were cursing it, remembering their harsh Winter. I got a Calzone. It was different. I can't say it was anything spectacular, but it was good. Still no Veneto pizza, to be sure! But mine was tasty.
Even more, I enjoyed listening to the pizza employees chat in their New Yowrk ack-cent. That was a delight.
Finally, Kyara dropped me off at the hotel. She headed home. I headed to bed.
All in all, I had a fantastic time. I'm hoping we'll be able to get back next year, but only time, and now Andrew will tell.
Posted by Marc Gunn on Tuesday, April 01, 2003 |
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Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers
