ericcoleman | Windycon, the long form

Friday

We got out of town at a reasonable time, the moose and I ... weird

The trip was uneventful even if the traffic sucked as it usually does. We got to the hotel right around 2:30. We got badges, ran into the folks who we were sharing a room with.

I had my first panel … Friends You Have Never Met

As I have discussed, this has happened a fair amount to me lately, folks out on the net who have contacted me for some reason or another. It’s been cool.

The panel was fun, I think everyone on the panel was on LJ, and most of them on my friends list. This has been the most common theme this weekend. I’ll talk about my show later.

The second was a panel on Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. Sitting next to Nick Polletta is always fraught with peril, mostly because he is so damn funny. We ended up talking about a whole bunch of things that had nothing to do with HHGTG (surprise). There was quite a wander into comments about OTR and a great deal of fun ensued.

The circle was serious fun. The GOH’s did a bunch of songs. I was in a position to really watch Nate’s playing. He is one of those players who, if you aren’t watching, seems to be playing really simple stuff. But he does a bunch of passing chords, changes the bass note a lot and just generally shows why so many of us flashy players are really just fakers, it’s the guys who get the job done who are really the great players. Sure I can do the fast folk/punk strum, but I learned more in Nate’s one-hour guitar workshop this morning than I have on my own in the last several years (more about that in a moment). So … the songs I played last night.

I Want To Kill Everybody (a request)
Only Coffee House In Town (I know I should have saved if for the concert, but I had to)
Roman Wall Blues (a request)
Hand Above The Water (I had a follower … WEIRD, one of

catalana’s songs … even WEIRDER !!!, I hadn’t played it in a long time, it went really well)

Saturday

I had a bad case of hotel throat so I wandered back to the room around 1. I woke up at 6:30 to get the kids on the bus. This was bad, it was a Saturday and … two of them are in IOWA !!! I rolled over and went back to sleep.

I hate my automatic clock sometimes.

markiv1111’s guitar workshop was the first thing this morning and as I said above, I learned more in that hour than I have in a couple years of working on my own. He gave us a handout that has some of the best finger-picking exercises I have run into in one place. There is also a scale for guitar that I have not run into before. The blues box I was given by a friend is very different. So he was very nice and gave me a couple of new toys to play with.

Sorry, I was gone for just a minute,

almeda just ran her hands all over the upper part of my body.

The next panel was on the Marx Brothers. WHY

shsilver decided that I needed to be on this panel I have no idea. Poor Steve, he was between Lee Darrow and myself. Things got ugly, there was much audience participation. Steve actually got

exapno to talk about Harpo. The panel was probably the most fun I have had so far at a very good con. I did commit the ultimate sin several times, and for this my apologies.

Next was the concert.

The previous act ran over. Since it was one of Art’s first concerts, I could certainly get behind that (thanks to

lukeski for the reference). I wish I had been able to see more of it, but the panel and all.

I think I did a good show, it was certainly a relaxed show. I think perhaps more of a technique show than an inspiration show, but that is a good thing,

I cut a few things as I went along from the set list. This is what I think I did.

(this is my) Soundcheck Song (for the very first time)
Only Coffee House In Town
Low Self Esteem
Standards
Color Of Your Eyes
Trophy Wife
Woman I Want
Jordan Cochrane
Don’t Go Home
How Can I Miss You?
Nice Guys

FINALLY Nice Guys got the reaction I had been looking for, even though I had beaten poor Prince Tisanne out of tune (at least the E string, I can leave off that one pretty easily). I knew it needed an audience with a lot of fannish women in the audience to appreciate it.

Hang on … I’m sitting here typing this during Nate and Louie’s show. They are doing just the best version of Catseye I have ever heard. WOW. It sent chills up and down my spine.

The pizza party was fun. Then on to the concerts

So it was

lukeski first. I’ve seen most of what he has done so I didn’t pay a lot of attention. I did run up and do a little bit of help. The sound guy was trying to mix through his headphones and Luke didn’t have a live mike till about halfway through the 2nd song.

Next up was Samuel T Clemmons.

I interviewed him on Radio Capricon last year and I am a big fan. His show went very well and he did a couple of my favorite pieces.

Next up were Nate And Louie, the Filk GOH’s. They were brilliant. Too many highlights to go into, but I already mentioned one above.

I ran upstair and grabbed the Martin and came back down to the open filk.

I’ve played better. I did …

How Can I Miss You?
Marie Provost (as an answer to another animal song, Mark Osier, the science GOH followed it shortly after with Old MacDonald’s Had A Deformed Farm, it was so severely wrong, I can’t still quite comprehend how wrong it was. I need a recording)
Nice Guys (as a follower for a song

lukeski and

pixelene did)
And the low point of the weekend. Simply the worst version of Hides ever. I stalked out after in a foul mood, to which I apologize to all. That song is very very special to me, and the butchering of it that I did came very close to ruining the weekend for me.

The moose was feeling ill, so I loaded up the car and then told him that if he felt he had to go, to come pull me out of my final panel. He did and we hit the road around 1.

It was generally a good weekend. Some disappointments and some things that made me pretty sad. But what can you do? I know there were more things I wanted to talk about, but, I'm tired

So how was your weekend?

Threaded | Flat

I just shared the first two verses of "Old MacDonald" with my roommate, and she was laughing so hard she could hardly breathe. I need the rest of the verses; better yet, the recording. (Found it, but it'll be *days* and iTunes doens't have it, darnit).

*hugs* Sorry about being a philistine, and sorry you needed to leave so abruptly. Thanks for playing, though.

Just want to say that I was not paying close attention (for which I apologize) because I was distracted by wanting to interact with the people around me, but to my not-paying-close-attention ears, Hides did not sound bad. So it's not like you had your guitar in the wrong tuning and played the whole song without noticing. I won't say you didn't make mistakes, but you didn't make the kind of mistakes that jump out and grab the listener and make them wince and whimper. Like I think I was making most of the songs I played.

I know I told you this yesterday, but I want to reiterate how bummed I am that I missed, well, everything you did this weekend. I really wanted to do that Marx Brothers panel, and I saw .3 seconds of your concert. Not enough.

Capricon, then?

The Marx panel was INCREDIBLY fun! Granted, i haven't been to that many panels...still, it was far and away the best ever in terms of energy & enjoyment!

Re: the ultimate sin - blame Lee :) He did it (twice) first....tho it was fun to twit you about it a couple _hours_ later *grin*

Concert was way fun :) Even

miridearie liked it *laugh* (yes, the little one you met later). Nitpick - wasn't the first time for the Soundcheck Song.

Actually having time to talk with you during the pizza party was wonderous :) Thank you for the conversation (and the amazing weekend full of huggles, of course!)

Hides....hon, you may not have been thrilled with it, but honestly it went fine :) At least the rest of us enjoyed it....really.

*huggs* Is it time for Cap yet? :)

It was good to see you this weekend - sorry you had to leave early, but I hope the moose feels better soon. *grin*

Hides didn't sound quite like what I was expecting, but whether it was exactly what you wanted or was Not Going Well I couldn't say without you saying which. We really are our own worst critics.

Sigh — my weekend was boring at home

Windycon, the long form

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