GaFilk

[mneme]

So, I went to GaFilk, with nrivkis

And it was a -lot- of fun.

Hilights:

Getting to spent a lot of time with nrivkis.
Getting, even with a croak on the harp that caused me to put her down gently and sing a capella, a very good reaction to my (with nrivkis's help) performance of Helen All Alone...to the point of having ladyat tell me she liked it the next day. Am still glowing from that.
Getting to see this Bob Asprin person for the first time.
Getting to meet kitanzi and autographedcat. And getting to help them in surprising nrivkis for a smallish birthday party.
Getting to hear Teri do a kick-ass Riddlemaster song...about the very scene that I've wanted to write a song about but not had the round tuits.
Getting to sing lots of songs.
Getting to hear lots of cool songs.
Actually getting to be more -there- in the filk, since I'd dumped the last addictive game off my Handera a couple of days before going to GaFilk. I feel...free. And occasionally obsessive for activities I can't actually accomplsh, but I'm hoping this will pass.
Getting to meet paprica, who is a very cool woman.
Meeting telynor's son, who's a great kid, and getting lured into a Nanofictionary game with him (and Nrivkis, and, IIRC, a steve). And realizing that I'd misread the published rules, and that a weakness I'd thought existed in Nanofictionary decidedly didn't.
Breakfast, Saturday morning, and all that that entails, including the company.

Lowlights (yeah, they happened, though not in anywhere -near- the numbers needed to diminish this experience):
Having my adictive activities end up accidentally making my pilot sound during someone's song. Ack. Oh, well.
Having my drum fall down a few times, noisily. I packed it better on Saturday night, but in any case...my bad.
figmo performing her "look how bad poetry would be were it done to muzak/lullabies" performance sequence, which has a very long intro, and a very meagre number of jokes in a very long sequence of what is, basically, a bad filk karioke. If the intro were stripped to the bone, and most of the sequences were either cut, or striped to -only- the funny bits (and the entire piece was under 2 minutes), it would probably be good. But as it is, it's a long, 15+ minute nightmare.
Having to run -3 more times-, as figmo proceeded to peform the same piece (or as like as never you mind) repeatedly Friday night, Saturday day, Saturday night, and Sunday day.
The Saturday night large chaos filk getting overly agressive (and unmoderated), with about three people (plus 3WS, which doesn't count largely because they -are- a three person band) dominating the filk, making it very hard for the dozen+ other performing filkers to break in. There's a word for this, but I somehow can't remember it right now.

Comments

[almeda.livejournal.com]

I think the word you're looking for is 'filkhogging.' :->

In re the poetry song ... Lynn needs to work on performance skills, and timing, a whole lot. This is true in most of her compositions (having heard her do concerts repeatedly).

[mneme]

What word was that? I couldn't read it. :)

And yeah, performance skills and timing are important, though most of what I was seeing here was more a matter of "too long for the material, and inappropriate to the audience"...(and "repeated too often") which, I suppose, counts as "timing" for the most part, but is also a different, but very important filk skill: judgement.

This kind of judgement is similar, in many ways, to the "how can I tell if I'm doing that filkhogging thing" question that many of us (including YT) have had trouble with [which is one reason I tend to err on the side of singing too little rather than too much, in recent years]; it's too easy to guage yourself by those who are performing most [ie, either too, or by acclaim/request] often, producing the kind of "circle of five" dynamic I was complaining about above even if you're not actually doing every third song or anything -- it's too easy to lose track of the whole circle, only paying attention to the parts that favor your self-image.

It's something I know I used to be a lot worse at...and am certainly still not anywhere nere perfect with; low levels can lead to performances actively painful for most of the circle, or to filkhoggoing; the highest levels can let someone know when to cut short a performance that was clearly mistimed, or just isn't working, or even to change it on the fly so that it is working (the best I can usually manage is to cut madly, something that really needs to be done with potential pizza songs like my Martins one.