What You'll Find at the Con

Consonance has lots of stuff going on. Here's a summary.

Courtesy of Gary McGath and his Time Czar site (http://www.timeczar.com), the Consonance 2003 Programming Schedule is available online.

Programming

by Alan Thiesen

We've got all sorts of exciting things already planned for Consonance, and we're just getting started! By the time the con rolls around, we will have added many more fun events. A few things listed here may be changed or cancelled.

In 2003, we will have:

• More filking. We will have all the function space in the hotel from 10 am Friday until 11 pm Sunday, plus we will have the Undead Dog filk room until 6 am Monday, so we will have more time to filk, filk, filk.
• More filking. Concerts will end earlier in the evening, so we will have more time to filk, filk, filk.
• More filking. Have I mentioned that before? We are taking steps to encourage more open filking while other programming is in progress. You will have folks to filk with if you want to skip a concert or workshop.

Open filking begins at 10 am Friday. Other programming, such as workshops and concerts, begins at 6 pm Friday evening and ends at 6 pm Sunday evening.

After programming ends on Sunday, there will be a dinner run followed by the Undead Dog.

Please remember: Programming depends on you. If you want to do a concert or give a workshop, or you have some other neat programming idea, please let us know at the following e-mail addresses: Jane Robinson (drjane@rahul.net), Seanan McGuire (seanan@xocolatl.com), and Alan Thiesen (thiesen@netwizards.net).

For more details on programming, see our Progress Report. For more details about our guests, see our Guests page.

There will be hosted theme circles running throughout the morning and in the afternoon and parts of the evening.

If you want to be a filk host, please let us know in advance by sending e-mail to Jane Robinson (drjane@rahul.net), Seanan McGuire (seanan@xocolatl.com), and Alan Thiesen (thiesen@netwizards.net) and let us know your theme. If we can get the word out in time, folks will have a chance to prepare songs on your theme.

Here are some hosted filksings that are already planned.

• Songs For Amanda
  Come sing to the youngest filker at Consonance, Amanda Kaathlyn Bohnhoff, born December 12, 2002. Don't take it personally if she cries or sleeps or poops. With Amanda and her proud parents Maya and Jeff.
  


• Bawdy Songs
  With Mark Mandel


• Animal Passions, Vegetable Love, and Alien Encounters
  Songs about dating outside our own species. With Bob Kanefsky


• Kermit's Filk Circle
  "As long as I keep you, you'll live." -- Kermit the Frog, as told to Tom Smith
  
  Songs by or about filkers and fans who are no longer with us. With Simon Fairbourn and Alan Thiesen


• Myths and Fairy Tales
  With Andrea Dale


• Songs About Linguistics and Language
  With linguists Mark Mandel and Heather Jones


• Alien Filk Music
  With Talis Kimberley, Simon Fairbourn, and Rika Körte.
  
  Come sing songs that are either written by or written about foreigners or extraterrestrial beings. Songs in languages other than English are welcome.


• Pegasus Awards Brainstorming
  Come sing songs that you think should be nominated for a Pegasus Award.

We have the opportunity to revive the filk operetta "HMS Trek-a-Star", written by Dorothy Jones Heydt and Karen Anderson to tunes by Gilbert and Sullivan from "HMS Pinafore." As far as we know, "Trek-a-Star" has been staged only twice: at Westercon in 1967 and at Worldcon in 1968.

We will put on this play only if we hear from enough aspiring thespians who wish to be in the cast. Parts are available for Kirk, Spock, Rand, Uhura, Chekov, a character called Stackstraw, random crew members who function as a chorus, and a keyboard accompanist. If you wish to perform, you will be expected to learn your part beforehand so that only one run-through will be needed at the con prior to the actual performance.

To volunteer to perform in "Trek-a-Star", email Alan Thiesen at thiesen@netwizards.net. You can find the script in MS Word format here.

Consonance Workshops

We have the following workshops lined up so far:

• Songwriting 101 at Carla U
  With Carla Ulbrich
• Songwriting 101 From Across the Pond
  With Talis Kimberley
• Toastmaster Origami
  With Jane Mailander
• Harmony Workshop
  Simon Fairbourn will teach us the parts for one or more songs in the repertoire of the n'Early Music Consort. We will perform the full vocal arrangements later in the con.

Concert performances will include:

Our guests:

• Talis Kimberley
• Simon Fairbourn
• Jane Mailander
• Mark Mandel
• Ookla the Mok

Other concert performers:

• Rika Körte ("the Bardling")
  Rika started out as a German filker, but she was captured by the English. She will be Interfilk Guest at Concertino 2003... if we ever let her leave California. :-)
• Carla Ulbrich
  Welcome back to Consonance, Carla!
• Throwing Toasters
  If you didn't hear them at ConChord, you don't know what you won't be missing when you hear them at Consonance. Got that?
• Andras Jones
  We discovered Andras when he did an unforgettable concert at Baycon. We are delighted that he will entertain us at Consonance.
• The Songs of Don Simpson
  Performed by Don and friends. If you're not familiar with Don's many wonderful songs, including "Ship of Stone", "Kitten", and "Laughter From the Loch", you need to hear this concert.

  Consonance Special Events

  Here are some of the special events, other than concerts and workshops, that we are planning.

  Twofers

  In honor of our British guests, this year we will have Twofers (also known as 2x10s) instead of one-shots, because that's the way they have traditionally done it at British filk cons. (Let's ignore the fact that the British are switching to one-shots in 2003.) You get up to 10 minutes to sing up to two songs.

  Drum Circle

  A Consonance tradition. All percussion instruments welcome!

  Interfilk Auction

  Enjoy the luscious Interfilk wenches and he-wenches! Help support Interfilk! Bid early and often!

  Rock Jam

  Sing and play along on rock classics such as Johnny B. Goode and Stairway to Heaven.

  Closing Ceremony: Sam's Song

  It is an informal tradition at the annual British filk con for the entire con gather to sing Zander Nyrond's beloved "Sam's Song." Talis Kimberley, Simon Fairbourn, and Rika Körte will show us how this is done.

  Live Radio 8-Ball

  This one requires some explanation. In the words of Bob Kanefsky:

  During his second Baycon concert set, Andras Jones described a recurring radio show he'd done in his DJ days at a small radio station. Listeners would call in with questions about their lives that they wanted an oracle on, and the DJs would randomly select a CD from a pile of them, put it in the player, and press Shuffle to play a random song. After the song, the DJs would give an oracular interpretation of how the song answered the question.

  Here's how we can adapt the idea at Consonance, using live performers.

  Pick several performers who are willing to do this -- as many as can comfortably fit on stage. Each submits in advance a list of songs in their repertoire they can play at the drop of a hat. They have to be able to claim a long list in order to be good candidates.

  Someone from the audience asks a question through the moderator. The moderator randomly selects a song from the combined list, maybe by pulling it out of a hat, or maybe by rolling dice. The appropriate performer sings whatever song came up.

  Then a panel of interpreters (possibly including the moderator, but not the performers, who remain aloof and mysterious channels of the radio 8-ball oracle) discuss how the song answers the question. From the performers' point of view, this at worst reduces to a concert set where their songs are chosen randomly, and at best they'll get into the spirit of it and it will be a lot of fun.

  Undead Dog

  For the undead who do not depart after the closing ceremonies, there will be an Undead Dog Filk lasting until sunrise Monday.

  Children's Programming

  The children's room will be run once again by the incomparable Lindy Laurent. We are also planning some special events for children. More details later. You can contact Lindy through her husband, Bob Laurent at bob@laurent.com.

  See you soon! We hope you're looking forward to Consonance as much as we are.

  Related Information

  by Lynn Gold

  In addition to the wonderful work being done by the programming crew, here are some things you can expect to find.

  Sound Techs

  Morgan "Mud" Andrews, who co-ran our con suite last year, is in charge of technical and sound assistance. She is looking for help in operating sound equipment. If you're willing to pull a shift running the sound board, or if you have special needs in this area, contact her through sam@deepforest.org.

  Open Filking

  What would a filk convention be without the free exchange of music and stories? We'll have at least one open filk room at all times where you can swap songs and jam with other folks, or you can just plain listen to whatever's going on at the time.

  Con Suite and other Edibles

  Our con suite is being run by the experienced Devon Black, who will be assisted by Morgan "Mud" Andrews and crew. If you have any special dietary needs or want to arrange for something special, contact them by clicking here.

  As part of Consonance's newest annual tradition, we'll also be organizing dinner runs Saturday and Sunday. Here's how it works:

  1. Someone decides they want to organize a dinner run to a particular restaurant serving a particular kind of cuisine.
  2. This person posts a sign-up sheet for that restaurant at the registration desk with "n" number of signups where "n" is the number of spare car spaces available (if applicable; many fine restaurants are within walking distance).
  3. People without cars (or who don't want to drive) just sign up in a numbered slot. People with cars add numbers to the signup sheet for themselves and each additional car space available in their vehicle, and draw a star next to their name to indicate they're a driver. (This helps when we're gathered in the lobby and trying to figure out which people on the list are the drivers.)
  4. If possible, we'll take the list and make a reservation at the restaurant listed around 5pm.
  5. When it's time to go to dinner, people gather in the hotel lobby, meeting up with the rest of the folks signed up for their restaurant. Note that even if there's no driver needed, the restaurants within walking distance are very popular, thus a reservation is recommended.
  What you get is an organized (eep!) restaurant run in which we get there, are seated quickly, and can enjoy a relaxed meal yet get back more quickly to do yet more filking!

  Internet Lounge

  Consonance in 2003 will have its first ever Internet Lounge, maintained by the members of the local Federation Starship, U.S.S. Augusta Ada. This will be a place where you can look up information or chords and lyrics on the Internet to help you while writing filk songs. In addition to having bookmarks tuned up for a few places of filker interest, we'll have at least one printer and will try to have music typesetting software on at least one system.

  Heather Stern, who ran the Internet Lounge for ConJose, will be running our Internet Lounge. If there's something you'd like to see in it, if you'd like to help, or if you have any questions about it, contact her at star@starshine.org.