Rule Britannia

[tfabris]

Hello from the dead dog (er, dead mouse) filk at the UK Filk Con!

We've had a fantastic weekend, we've been treated extremely well by our hosts, and we had great fun at each of our concerts. There were some technical troubles with the sound system during the second concert, but everything got sorted out in the end and everyone enjoyed the set. Some kind compliments from Smac after our second concert gave me a warm fuzzy and meant a lot to me.

For both concerts, though, we had to perform under duress: We both have colds. But Vixy, ever the professional, was able to sing right through her cold and blow everyone away (in the good way). I was able to pull off the counterpoint vocals in Companion, but that's about my limit. There's some doubt whether Vixy will be able to sing at all in tonight's circle; I might read the Blimp story when it's my turn in the Bardic circle, since I can't really sing.

Speaking of circles, Saturday night's filk circle was one of the best filk circles I've ever been in, the quality of the songs and performances were top notch. My favorite moment involved Christo and Tim Walker dueling on recorder Ian Anderson-style. Tonight's circle is going well so far, we shall see if it lives up to last night's standards. I'm told it will. It's looking good so far: Christo just sat down next to us.

Tomorrow we get on the train to King's Cross, then tube to Heathrow, then home, and try to go to work on Tuesday, completely jet lagged. Erk. Wish us luck!

VixyAndTony.com
Vixy & Tony's Schedule

Comments

[bluesmancd.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a great con, despite the illness. Get well soon, and safe journey home.

[tereshkova2001.livejournal.com]

AND I GET TO SEE YOU MONDAY NIGHT.

"since I can't really sing"

[janeg.livejournal.com]

I hope you mean because your cold is bad, because normally you really can sing!!! We just don't get to hear you often enough.

Re: "since I can't really sing"

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

Yes Tony, you really should sing more often!

Re: "since I can't really sing"

[tereshkova2001.livejournal.com]

We tell him and tell him this, and he never believes it.

Re: "since I can't really sing"

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

I meant, I couldn't sing because my cold was really bad. :-)

[slantiness.livejournal.com]

I love the blimp story!

I'm sure everyone will love whatever you guys do :-)

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

The Blimp Story went down very well (*groan*) ... and I really enjoyed the rendition (from the base word "rend" meaning to be ripped apart on exiting the wardrobe!)

Excellent sets from T&V (or V&T ... the GoH gifts had "V&A" written on the box, so is Tony short for Ant(h)ony? *grin*) (Victoria & Albert Museum, a must visit place in London, and a damn good reason for coming back if you've been to London and not seen it!)

I was particularly impressed by Tony's amazing guitar damping ability (some wonderfully rhythmic "wakka-wakka" chords!) and very envious of it ... I must go practice! Not to sure about the dance routine though ... ;-P

And Vixy's voice was *fabulous* ... so if that's her sounding rough, I'm not sure I could survive it sounding even 1% better!

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I really try to treat the guitar as a rhythm instrument where appropriate; that's where the damping and such comes from. It comes from years of playing classic rock, stuff like "Peace of Mind" by Boston, etc. The biggest secret is to make sure that your right arm is doing relaxed constant up and down motions (not stopping the up and down motion of your arm) and you use the damping combined with various patterns of up and down strokes to get results that simulate polyrhythms.

In the Sunday night circle, I saw someone doing that kind of strumming, but going about it exactly the wrong way: Stopping the motion of his arm for each change in the rhythm pattern. He strangely made it work, but it was interesting watching how hard he had to work at it when doing it that way.

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Yes, your damping is amazing!
I hope to assimilate some of that skill by listening lots... of course, actually making myself practice might help more.... ;)

[solarbird]

TUUUUUUUUUUBE!

Good luck! And get well soon. ^_^

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

It sounds like it was so much fun. :-) *hugs* You and vixy get well soon!

[cleothyla.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that you guys had fun and everything worked out fabulously! Take care and hoping that you're not too lagged at work.

[jodimuse.livejournal.com]

So glad you guys are having fun, despite colds. :) I hope you feel better!

[bardling.livejournal.com]

So, how did the sunday circle compare?

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

It was a wonderful circle! The whole room harmonizing on some of the songs was just incredible. Absolutely top notch.

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it! :)

[tig-b.livejournal.com]

I loved your music, and although I wanted more I also enjoyed the Blimp story.

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I hope we were worth the plane tickets! :-)

[36.livejournal.com]

It was a priviledge to hear you both perform, and I'm enjoying your CD as part of my convention 'decompression'.

The Saturday and Sunday circles were both particularly good, even for a UK filk con, I especially liked the contrast between one of the most chaotic chaos circles I've yet to experience and such a harmonious bardic circle :)

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Nat! It was great to meet you and hear your stuff. You were a lot of fun.

[lastalda.livejournal.com]

Yay, the blimp story linked! Thanks! :-) I admit I got on-board relatively late because I didn't know the term blip (at least not as in baloon). But around the timeof the LARGE SILENT MENACING PRESENCE I went face-palm, and then it was pure joy and hilarious! :-)

It was ever so great having you there. I picked the right convention to be made footloose filker! :-P