Confusion - The Final Chapter

[ericcoleman]

To anyone not mentioned in this, it's not your fault, it's hardly my fault. Leave a comment and berate me. I need it

it's been a busy busy week and I'm typing this a few too many days after the fact.
So, that said



I got to billroper's house at the designated time. We headed out a little while later (after being severely snuggled by one of his cats). The drive was pleasant. I will say that Bill is an excellent person to road trip with. He tells great stories and listens to your stories as well. It's an experience that I would recommend highly to anyone.

We got to the hotel and unloaded the van.

Oh, did I mention that I was working for the Secret Empire for the weekend?

I got so much help from so many people so I could do this last con. Sometime early last year I decided that I wanted to try to play music at 12 cons in a 12 month space. Confusion was #12.

Folks who made this possible include

janmagic for reasons beyond counting. Thank you darlin
billroper & daisyknotwise The two of them as a pair, for their support the entire year.
braider For saying "You're coming to my con" in such a way that it was not a question
qvnhrtz for the same reason, only much less insistent
polyfrog for putting up with me showing up and then not being around too damn many times.
alymid For making OVFF possible and bunches of other reasons too
lukeski For Marscon.
shsilver For Windycon, and some nifty things to watch when I am on the road
wylderwolf For Convergence ... this year too ???
chirosinger & chasophonic & bonz_lizard Three of my four favorite stalkers. The fourth isn't on LJ. The rest of you work on him.
cryndalae for booting me out of the house. Even if she never reads LJ
UPDATE
starstraf to whom MUCH groveling is now owed. I'm sorry darlin ... The person who made it possible for me to go to the two MO cons I went to. And for much support over the last two years.

Ok, I digress ... yeah ... no shit

We got set up, I hope that I helped rather than hindered. The dealers room closed up and I headed to opening ceremonies and after that the Emma Bull/Fabulous Lorraine concert.

Which ended up being much more. Steven Brust and a guitar player whose name I don't remember joined in. It wasn't as strikingly brilliant as the Demicon show, but TONS of fun. And I was reminded of just how Fabulous the Fabulous Lorraine is (ok, I was nervous about performing with her) and well ... I did get in at least one great audience line (She's wearing boots?).

In the meantime I was getting more and more scared as my roommates got later and later.

I don't know if any of you know this about me, but I worry. About everything. Everything. The weather was getting worse. I had this image of them stuck somewhere. Of them upside down in a ditch somewhere. I had this image of me trying to explain to the hotel sunday why there wasn't enough room on my credit card.

Geeze I need a life.

They showed up. I relaxed. I went and played music in the circle for awhile.

Ok, I would like to state for the record that I am not even going to try to recall everything I played this weekend. It's impossible. I played SO much music. It was great. I'll mention a few highlights as I go along though.

So I went to bed fairly early friday night. And got up fairly early saturday morning. Had a pleasant breakfast with erikvolson (even if he has left LJ again. And said hi to Emma Bull (is she REALLY as nice as she seems ???)

Saturday

The dealers room opened, and I helped sell stuff. MAN did I have a good time. I think by the end of the weekend I might have had half an idea of what I was doing. Please tell me that the drawer balanced Bill.

I went off to my first panel, Guys And Guitars, thinking it was a panel. We're going to talk about guitars ... cool. I'm on it with musicmutt and chasophonic. Now when it comes to guitars, sitting next to Chaz is bound to make anyone feel inadequate. I've been to his house and he's put an endless stream of beautiful guitars into my hands.

But wait, we're supposed to talk about guitars a little ... and play them a LOT. So we did. In retrospect I should have played Hides, since it is my showiest guitar piece, but who cares? It was a blast. I will say that I think that Musicmutt is one of the most charming performers I have seen this year. His CD is wonderful too. I gotta buy the tapes now.

I worked the dealers table for another hour or so till it was time for Sassy & Sarcastic.

I found out before we started that Lorraine was more nervous than I was. After her first (and only) song she leaned over to me and said "that was the first time I played guitar in front of an audience".

Sandy was great, her take on Joe Hill is deeply funny and quite twisted. I stuck mostly to silly stuff, I think I did Bald Spot, How Can I Miss You, Standards and Trophy Wife, but I could be wrong. The audience was wonderful. It just reinforced why I play at cons. Why play anywhere else when there is this audience who will listen?

I watched some of filkertom's show, went back to help Bill close out the table and then came back for the rest of Tom's set. Man I wish I could write songs. He's so damn good.

I had some dinner, decompressed some in the room and then came back down for the B-Movies circle where I did (oddly enough) the Fabulous Poodles song ... wait for it ... B-Movies for the first time ever in front of people. The rest of the time we all forced Filkertom to play more. I was perfectly happy having a second concert that evening, but eventually other folks started playing. I got to see tigertoy play a little but ended up heading upstairs fairly early but not before a wonderful version of Hides. One of the best of the year IMNSHO.

I stopped by the Minicon party to see some folks play some music and was greeted pretty much instantly with someone telling me "you aren't playing here"

Well ... duh ...

My friend Susan Urban kept asking me to sit down, I thought that she was (as Susan is inclinded to do) stirring things up. Turns out that she didn't know what goes on at these parties. She was in because of Sandy, who I found is an old friend of a lot of these folks. Susan was PISSED the next day. That made it worth it.

I went off to bed.

Sunday

The dealers room opens at 11. Did you hear me?

11 !!!

What a great idea. It's sunday of a con, let everyone sleep an extra hour.

Ran into Emma Bull again (I mean really ... is she REALLY that nice ???)

Got some breakfast, and helped get the table up and running.

It was a pretty low key day, I stayed at the table most of the time. Bill had hardly a chance to play all weekend, so he headed off to the final filk of the weekend, then came back, we shut down, tore down and headed to tarkrai's house for a bit. Hung out, talked, ate pizza and had a nice quiet time before we did the drive back to Chicago. Bill gave me SO much good advice on recording, we talked about comedy, it's nature, it's construction and just what was funny.

We got back to his house before midnight, I took some time getting the snowdrift off my car and headed back to polyfrog's house.

I slept late, spent about 2 hours more talking to bammba_m and S. Had lunch at Pita Inn and got home around 8.

It was such a nice time. I played so much music, I heard so much music. I made some new friends, saw a lot of old friends.

It was the perfect ending for my tour.

So, planning out this year now. Anyone have anywhere they think I need to go?

Comments

[freeimprov.livejournal.com]

d00d we are SO playing at Marscon!

[xap]

CAPRICON!!! :)

and Windy :) and maybe Duckon? (i think i'm gonna try that one this year too)
ummmm...any other con around me that i can make *grin*

oh, and did i mention Capricon?


yes, i know you'll be there :) But i missed this one, and Cap is only TWO WEEKS AWAY! *laugh*

[ericcoleman]

There will be a show at Cap ... we're still working out where ... In the meantime I am frantically working on getting Radio Capricon finished ... I lost a sleeve of CDs (buried in our storage space as we have been rehabbing the house) and that has slowed things down quite a bit.

Duckon definitely, although I would say that a show there is unlikely, I've had shows the last two years now. But who knows ...

Windy, yeah if things work out well. It's a long ways away so I'm not sure yet.

I might be going to 2 Be CONtinued , but I need to go through my budget a little more. It's possible.

[starstraf.livejournal.com]

Hey, I may not have been at Confusion, but I helped make the 12 cons in 12 months possible!

Yes Emma really is as nice as she seems.

I think you should come back to Conquest.

[ericcoleman]

See my update ... what a gerbil I am ...

Cool ... I thought so, but one always wants to check.

I am ... We've already been in contact. Conquest was just too nice of a con to ever miss.

[starstraf.livejournal.com]

I need to check to see if the next door hotel allows dogs this year (if so we will stay there) and double check with pooch, but do you want to room with us again?

[ericcoleman]

Sure ...

[kivasfajo.livejournal.com]

Kool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ericcoleman]

And I just looked at my schedule ... I can't make Conquest ...

I am so bummed ... but instead I will be hanging out for the weekend with a bunch of musicians I used to hang out with some decades ago ...

It should be fun ...

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Emma is a very mean person, because she hides herself in California and hardly ever comes to parts of the country where we can see her. *pout*

[wylderwolf.livejournal.com]

I'm fully expecting to have you back at CONvergence this year.

And this year, at least one of my own bands will be playing as well, so I might be more inclined to actually sit down at the jam session for a bit longer *grin*.