Baycon wrap-up

[mdlbear]

It's been a tiring weekend, but pleasant and oddly relaxing. We managed to sleep in a little (much easier when we're commuting), so even though we got in between 2am and 3am every night, I'm not as sleep-deprived as I sometimes am after a con. Maybe a little more socializing than usual, too. I wish I could have let the Y.D. stay up later, but it just wasn't feasible given the need to get the flower_cat home before she became too groggy to walk.

One of the better Baycons as far as my singing went.

... which wasn't very far; I had a dry throat all weekend. Well, it was either a dry throat from decongestants, or a really sore throat from sniffling; I made the choice that would let me keep singing. I've probably caught something. (Note to self: stay out of hospitals when possible; there are sick people there!) I held it together, but just barely; ten+ minutes of "Desolation Row" was more of a stretch than I should have taken.

Musically things are going well; I think my guitar playing has improved a bit (as long as I don't get distracted), and the flute arrangements cflute has worked out for "Cicero in the Twenty First Century", "The World Inside the Crystal", and "Ship of Stone" really work, and they were a lot of fun to haul out in the circles and in my concert.

"Desolation Row" was an interesting experiment; combining it with my self-deprecating parody and then doing the same with Paper Wings and Paper Pings provided a bit more thematic consistency than my sets sometimes have. I also tried to spread out the songs with flute parts; I think that provided a more balanced set than having them all together.

I was disappointed that Harold Groot didn't stick around and videotape my concert; I was really hoping to have a record of it, and didn't get things together enough to bring my own recording setup. I don't want to invest in a camcorder, though; it'll get used too rarely. Probably best to just bring a small system, a USB interface, and a couple of decent mics for situations like circles where I'm not amplified.

Thanks to the hotel for the loan of their wheelchair for the flower_cat; to cflute not only for her wonderful flute-playing both on disk and in concert, but for the delivery of "bruise juice" by special courier, and for house-sitting Thursday morning while I was "Cat-sitting" in the hospital; to vixyish for being the special courier; to the convention for having me as a guest; and to the kids, chaoswolf and super_star_girl, for helping me take care of the Cat and for not being obnoxious. Special thanks to super_star_girl for not making much fuss about bed-time; I really would have given you more time if I'd had it.

Comments

[chaoswolf]

Remind me again how vixyish was involved in the courier thingie? I forgot...

[mdlbear]

She flew down on Friday with the bottle in her luggage. See this post

[chatworthy.livejournal.com]

Have you thought about renting a camcorder when you need it? I hadn't thought of that myself until recently. Now I'm looking for some rental gear for a project, so I went to a local (Phoenix area) photo rental place, and among the lights and reflectors and backdrops and stuff I was looking for, were some pretty good camcorders.

H'mmm, says I to myself.

[mdlbear]

Not too unreasonable. I'd also have to dragoon chaoswolf into wielding it, of course. I'd probably get better results from a USB video camera, a USB audio interface, and a laptop. And I might just skip the video, since it's less important to me (as a musician) than the audio.

Or, if I'd been planning ahead and not preoccupied with other matters, I could have borrowed a camcorder from work -- we have some good ones.

[mdlbear]

Come to think of it, there's an iSight firewire video camera sitting next to the ageing Mac laptop on my desk at work -- the fact that I hate the Mac and hadn't been in to work for a week may have had something to do with my not remembering it...

thank-yous all around

[callibr8]

You're welcome for the flute parts and the bruise juice and the housesitting! I had a great time, and anytime I can add flute parts to things that favorite musicians want flute parts for, I'm happy to do so! :)

I'm working on getting more bruise juice for both me and flower_cat, should have that coming our way sometime next week.

Cflute, still sick but recovering cheerfully

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Any time! I'm glad it was a help.

It was great to see you all. I had a wonderful time. :)