mdlbear | Five Answers (Reply)

These are from

cflute --

what is your favorite song, of the ones you've written, and why?
You would start out with a tough one! "World Inside the Crystal" and "Vampire Megabyte" are both good, in different ways, but I think maybe the one that worked out best all around is "The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of", which I wrote for my father a few months before he died. Just in terms of the music it's probably between "Demon Lover" (which is a duet in 5/4) and my setting for "The Stolen Child". As poetry, maybe "For Amy". The flower_cat's favorite is "Eyes Like the Morning", which I wrote as a Valentine's present for her; can't imagine why. (All lyrics and some audio at on the web, of course.) I wouldn't be able to pick a favorite child, either.
how did 'The Starport' come by that name?
I'm really not sure which of us (me or the flower_cat) first called it that; I think it was after an early, especially well-attended Wednesday open house or party. It was clearly the right name, so it stuck. (I grew up in southern Connecticut, taking the train in to Grand Central Station in NYC, so the name was definitely in my subconscious somewhere trying to get out.)
what one skill do you admire, but don't have?
There are two rather different ones, actually. I've always admired people who could draw -- render whatever was in front of them, or in their imagination, onto paper, quickly and fluently. I can draw stick figures and box diagrams pretty well and I imagine that, with an hour or so of daily practice for a couple of months, I could get to where I could be considered a mediocre beginner.

The other one is conversation -- making small talk (not the programming language). I'm lousy at it, and I'm painfully shy as well. I can talk pretty easily about something I'm an expert at, like music or computers. But even there I'm not very good at starting a conversation; I need somebody else to break the ice. (In case you're wondering, Colleen asked me to marry her. I would have been much too shy to ask her.)
describe your ideal filk con
Well, for one thing, it would have to last for about a week! I think some of the best filk-cons I've been to have actually been Worldcons -- lots of wonderful people to interact with, from all over the world, and always the chance that somebody unexpected will drop by the filk room. (I remember encountering C. J. Cherryh in the lobby with her guitar; might have been in Phoenix?) As time goes on I find myself spending less time in circles and more in hallway conversations and little side-room jam sessions. I still enjoy the concerts, though, both giving them and listening to them. I like evening circles mainly when they're small, either early or very late. Yeah, at least a week.
how long have you played guitar, and how did you learn to play it?
I learned guitar when I was in high school, if I remember correctly. Might have actually started in 9th grade (Junior High, in that time and place). So that would put it somewhere around 1960 plus-or-minus 1. I was almost completely self-taught, with a ghastly old Harmony guitar and a copy of The Folksinger's Guitar Guide. Someplace in there my parents bought me a few lessons, from a darned good blues guitarist I didn't fully appreciate at the time who taught me "Stagolee" in a two-finger Travis-picking style I still mostly use today. The classical guitar I used all through college and grad school was, if I remember correctly, a HS graduation gift from my parents.