Eric's House Of Ego

This is an official notice from FilkCONbobulated headquarters

2026-05-11T21:25:32Z

Located in the Crowe & Dove House deep in the wilds of Iowa!

The room block closes June 4th, get your reservations in before that. The code is good from Thursday to Sunday.

Pre-reg closes June 19th. Registration at the con will be card only. If at all possible please pre-reg so we have a better idea of how many are coming.

If you backed the Go Fund Me and have not let us know if you are attending, please send me an email, my address is on the website.

The food guide is available on the Hotel page on the website as well as in the files in the FCB Facebook group.

The website has been updated with this information.

The Ropers will be there selling CDs.

The numbers are looking very good. I am actually a little concerned about whether our mainstage area will be large enough to seat everyone. What a terrible problem to have!

See you soon!

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Fifteen Years Of Family - The Aftermath

2026-04-18T01:02:53Z

We escaped the house the next day and quietly made our way across the highways and byways toward our home. I still had the howling of the dogs ringing in my ears.

My sleep had been restless because in my dreams faces kept leaning toward me and warning me about Grandma.

We passed the time with music and stories piped into our vehicle by the stream driven wireless. Occasionally one or the other of us would talk about one incident or another but mostly we sat in happy silence as our home got ever nearer.

We paused for a brief respite in a strange town where people attempt to learn to fly without the aid of machinery. Through the aether we heard a ringing.

The crafty old wizard had found our location out on the road and through obscure magic spoke to Lizzie.

"Let me talk to Eric".

The fear set in again, I had obviously been judged. Would I be joyous, or would I be damned? Or both?

"It was nice to meet you, I like you a lot, welcome to the family".

They say that you have several families in your life, the one you are born into, your partners, and the people you choose to be family.

This one had chosen me.

His voice faded into the aether, and left Lizzie and I looking at each other in amazement.

We would return many times to this strange place, we are due there in a month or so, and I am no longer afraid.

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Fifteen years of family

2026-04-16T22:05:41Z

Fifteen years. Fifteen years years since a sanity sapping incident usually found in the pages of an HP Lovecraft story.

Fifteen years years ago I woke up in a bizarre house on the outskirts of Indianapolis thinking I was prepared to face some truly eldritch terrors.

Nothing I could have done could prepare me for the onslaught.

First there were the beasts, one the size of a small truck. At one point it pinned me to a couch for what seemed like an eternity. The other two were baying hunters who still live in my nightmares. They gave me no choice in the matter, I had to give them all skritches.

Then there the people who lived there. Lizzie, along with two others, would spontaneously break into song. I was in the world's most surreal musical. It knew no genre nor decade, instead it skipped through the years like a stone across water.

The matriarch of the house seemed so sweet, but I heard the stories. She was no one to be trifled with.

Then there was my wife's clone, or perhaps my wife is the clone, I am still uncertain. She greeted me with a grin and could obviously sense my fear.

Her husband put me at ease with talk of games and gaming, but I had also heard the stories.

My wife had tried to warn me of the dangers, still, I faced them as best I could.

And then, without warning, skipping through the wards and shields of the house with no effort came ...

GRANDMA !!!

Oddly enough, regardless of the tales I had been told, I found her easy to face. She met me with absurdity, I responded in kind and she retreated.

Then came dinner, all laid out upon a great table worthy of a castle of legend. I did not realize that the geeky man I had talked gaming with earlier was a master of his craft. I could sing praises of his food, but there is no time at the moment.

Grandma returned along with the rest of the horde. It felt like hundreds, my wife claims it was just seventeen. I grudgingly accept her claims, but I know what I saw.

Then came the expatriate patriarch, the crafty old wizard. He attempted to see if he could instill a certain fear into me. He didn't understand that I also had a daughter, and was prepared to do the very thing he was attempting when my time came to face my daughter's suitors.

The warnings came, one after another, they all wanted me to be aware of the real danger here.

Did they warn you about grandma?
You know about grandma?
Be careful around grandma.

Her youngest child, her only son, shortly after she had left the table for a moment, leaned across and asked "They told you about grandma, right?"

Seven times I was warned, there must be a significance to that number.

By that time I was fully aware of the dangers of grandma. Still that was the least of my problems.

After dinner some of us retreated to the kitchen where I found that the crafty old wizard was a raconteur of considerable skill. Yet, I come from a family of story tellers going back generations, so I did my best to match him story for story. The laughter went far into the evening.

Evening passed, and the horde vanished into the night. I still did not know if I had passed the many tests they had obviously, and in some cases not obviously at all, laid out for me. And that is a story for tomorrow.

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FilkCONbobulated Update

2026-04-16T18:17:41Z

We're just a little over two months away from this craziness that we have decided to commit.

Our room block is moving along nicely, as are registrations. I'm sitting here and listening to EuroFilk while working on the first draft of the program book. I have an idea for the cover but I need someone to do a bit of artwork for it. Simple semi-realistic person with a guitar in a specific pose, one color. If this is something that interests you, send me an email and we can talk. ericcoleman @ gmail.

We have our evil plans for the gathering after opening ceremonies.

Staff has come together, and we have several people who are willing to help on sound.

Sound gear is close to being put together.

It's all falling into place.

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This week on FilkCast

2026-04-14T21:16:21Z

Hallie Dolin, Marty Burke, Flash Girls, Linda Short, Pair O'Dice, Moss Bliss, Rhiannon's Lark, Puzzlebox, Playing Rapunzel, Two Bard Party, John Anealio, Ookla the Mok, Phoenix

Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.

filkcast.blogspot.com

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This week on FilkCast

2026-04-07T21:42:30Z

Pete Clark, Roberta Rogow, Diana Gallagher Wu, Elizabeth Stevens Jean Strathdee & Jim Strathdee, Leslie Fish, Cindy Smith, Stephen Savitzky, Robin W. Bailey, Randy Hoffman, Brenda Sutton, Chris Weber, Carolyn Brown, Carl Hylin Karen Jolley & Karen Willson, Tricky Pixie, Joe Ellis, Griff The Filker, W Scott Snyder

Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.

filkcast.blogspot.com

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FilkConbobulated Registration!

2025-12-06T20:37:06Z

After much coding, waiting for Square, and gnashing of teeth, FilkConbobulation registration is live! Prereg is $50.00, it will be $60.00 at the door. There will be a student rate, that will be posted soon.

Folks who backed the GoFundMe do not have to go through the registration process. We know who you are (bwahahahaha).

Our special thanks to JT Traub, Rob Wynne, and Merav Hoffman for helping Lizzie get through the coding with an inkling of her sanity left (as much as she generally has).

Hotel registration is also live.

This is starting to look like an actual con!

filkconbobulated.org

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This week on FilkCast

2025-11-26T01:14:50Z

Phil Mills, Windbourne, Rhodri James, Rhiannon's Lark, Bill Maraschiello, Wyld Dandelyon, Char Mackay, Andrea Dale, Eli Bar-Yahalom, The Unusual Suspects, Boogie Knights, Valentine Wolfe, W Scott Snyder

Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.

filkcast.blogspot.com

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This week on FilkCast

2025-10-29T00:06:53Z

Anne McCaffrey, Tania Opland & Mike Freeman, Jim Thorne, Carol Ferraro & Barisha Letterman, Random Fractions, Linda Melnick, Bill Sutton, Meg Davis, Dan The Bard, Ju Honisch & Katy Droege-Macdonald, Jordin Kare, Puzzlebox

Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.

filkcast.blogspot.com

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FilkConbobulated! June 26-28 Des Moines IA

2025-09-28T03:20:26Z

Ok, we are doing this thing in a slightly different way. Because kickstarter has limitations on how they fundraise, we are doing this thru GoFundMe. HOWEVER, much like a kickstarter, there will be tiers for donations to the convention that get you different things. Badge level, Supporting Membership level, and Glad to help level. Come see!
https://gofund.me/70d28e045

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Here is the FilkCast Pegasus schedule for this year.

2025-09-07T19:36:36Z

We're starting a week earlier this year so everyone has a week to listen to the Best Filk/Classic Filk songs, rather than two days. The Wednesday of OVFF we will play songs from albums coming out at the con, and that have come out recently.

If you have music being released that weekend, please let me know.

October 1 - Hero Songs - Villain Songs
October 8 - Writer/Composer - Best Performer
October 15 - Best Classic Filk Song - Best Filk Song
October 22 - New Releases

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Here is the FilkCast Pegasus schedule for this year.

2025-09-07T19:36:06Z

Here is the FilkCast Pegasus schedule for this year. We're starting a week earlier this year so everyone has a week to listen to the Best Filk/Classic Filk songs, rather than two days. The Wednesday of OVFF we will play songs from albums coming out at the con, and that have come out recently.

If you have music being released that weekend, please let me know.

October 1 - Hero Songs - Villain Songs
October 8 - Writer/Composer - Best Performer
October 15 - Best Classic Filk Song - Best Filk Song
October 22 - New Releases

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This week on FilkCast

2025-08-19T23:41:50Z

Nathaniel Johnstone, Daniel Kelly, Naomi Hinchen, Heather Alexander, David Kushner, Catherine Mac Donald, Steve Macdonald, Karen Jolley, Beth Kinderman, Yang The Nauseating, Lambda Miners, Meri Amber, Hello, The Future!, Gary "MoFilker" Hanak

Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.

filkcast.blogspot.com

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14 Years

2025-06-19T02:01:08Z

The day before, when we had got to the hotel and realized that I had forgotten my stage rig. It was sitting by my desk at work.

Also Pauly Shore was sitting on a bench in front of the hotel working very hard on us noticing that we weren't supposed to notice him, but of course we were supposed to. But hey, it was Pauly Shore ... so we ignored him.

My boss overnighted the case to us. The hotel lost track of it for a bit, but we got it in time to play our first show.

14 years ago today. The very first full length Cheshire Moon show.

Looking at the set list is fun. Half covers, we still do one of them occasionally (She Moved Through The Faire). We only play two of the originals still, Out Of The Light And Widow's Garden. We will occasionally play If I Were The Rain if we have a second voice for it.

Pronouns (parody of Wimoweh)
Child Of Stars
Lighthouse
If I Were The Rain
Out Of The Light*
Halley Came To Jackson (Carpenter)
Temple Of The King (Dio/Blackmore)
World Walker
Follow That Road (Hills)
Swamp Witch (Stafford
Bloodletting (Napolitano)
She Moved Through The Faire (trad)
Widows Garden*

Since then ... a couple things have happened.

Let's see, over half a million miles on three vehicles. Two wonderful train trips. We flew to England. 4 Albums, three EPs and a couple of singles. Pushing 200 songs written. 200+ shows played (I lost count a few years ago). GOHs at 10 cons, played at many more. 300+ episodes of FilkCast. The Filk Hall Of Fame.

And all because two people met walking down a hall at a con.

The most important thing. Lizzie is sitting across the room from me while I type this. With me retired we're together all of the time, and that suits us so well.

15 years together this fall. 14 years married. The best time of my life. Thank you, all of you, for giving us this life.

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Help Cat Greenburg & Matthew Morrese

2025-06-07T02:53:09Z

A wonderful school is in danger of closing. Everything is explained here. Help them out if you can! Spread the word if you can't!
https://www.gofundme.com/f/saving-dreamflight

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SURPRISE !!!

2025-06-04T02:40:18Z

Thanks to the efforts of Bryan Baker, we have a live album!
We play songs!
We tell stories!
We digress!
Eric only plays THREE instruments the entire show!
So gather up your farm fresh produce and listen to us live at Demicon 36!
https://cheshiremoon.bandcamp.com/album/cheshire-moon-demicon-36

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This week on FilkCast

2025-05-07T00:06:40Z

Lawrence Dean, Cat Greenberg, Ju Honisch & Katy Droege-Macdonald, Harmony Heifers, Harold Groot, Rhodri James, Nancy Louise Freeman, Capplor, Bardz At Large, Suzette Haden-Elgin & Randy Farran, Clam Chowder, Dandelion Wine, Foot Pound Force, Bryan Baker

Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.

filkcast.com

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In which I talk about FKO

2025-04-13T03:09:02Z

( It was quite a weekend. )

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I wrote this thing ...

2025-04-12T03:40:00Z

And I kinda stuck to it as well.

( my FHoF speech )

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The State Of The Eric - Retirement Week One Edition

2025-03-02T01:02:46Z

It's been lovely. I've been sleeping late and taking it easy. I have managed to accomplish very little this week, as planned.

The only real problem is that I am having problems with my vision. Things were blurry earlier in the week, and have turned into frequent double vision the last couple of days. The doctor found no evidence of neurological problems, so I am going to get my eyes checked as soon as I can make an appointment. I can't drive. Computers, phones and iPads are a little combative but cope-able. I have a lot of stuff to learn how to use in the weeks ahead, and this is going to make that trickier.

Unlike every year for the last 8 or so, this is my biggest health issue this winter. I've been very healthy, BP has been great, I've lost a few (very few) pounds, and my lungs are doing wonderfully.

Generally I am doing good. I'm anxious about money, as expected, it was a bit weird getting my last paycheck. Still, my whole attitude is much brighter.

We're busy the next month or two. A wedding next weekend, two cons in April, and one the first weekend of May.

Then we're quiet for some time. We'll go see Lizzie's family at some point, but no other travel in the foreseeable future after that. That's weird, we thrive on that.

If I get recording moving we may re-open our Patreon page, it's been quiet for a couple of years now. The money made there before paid for the studio updates, anything in the future will go to getting the music out there.

Callenwood and Shifting City are first and second on the list. The first depends on learning the drum software, the second on learning a drum machine. We've been trying to get Callenwood done since 2017. I've been working on the Shifting City music for four years. Our last full album came out 7 years ago. We have so much music we want to get out there. The quarantine year is still weighing heavily on us. Cope and energy are still in small amounts. I'm hoping on being more active now that I am not stapled to my work laptop.

We're doing our best to keep moving along. We'll see how it goes.

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FilkCast in January

2024-12-09T17:34:46Z

As we generally do, we are taking January off from FilkCast. But we don't want to leave you without music for those 5 weeks. So we are leaving it up to you.
Give us your favorite filk song. Yes, just one, if you give us more than one ('cause choosing one can be hard, I know, oh, and Hope Eyrie is already on the list) Lizzie will dig into her massive collection of dice and roll for it!
We will take all of the songs mentioned and make all music shows out of them. If we don't have a song mentioned, we will do our best to go find it!
Help us play FilkCast the home game!

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This week on FilkCast

2024-12-03T00:19:28Z

Bryan Baker, Dandelion Wine, Roberta Rogow, Linda Short, Gary McGath, Boogie Knights, Duras Sisters, Bedlam Bards, Summer Russell, Technical Difficulties, Heather Dale, Three Weird Sisters, Nathaniel Johnstone, The Scrap Merchants

Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.

filkcast.com

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A comment on Monday.

2024-04-10T21:52:17Z

This was the second time I have had the good luck for this amazing event to happen near enough that I could witness it.

I have lived an interesting life. I have seen (and done) a lot of amazing things.

I almost walked right past the Mona Lisa. This was before the various problems over the years, and it was presented like it was just another work.
I spent hours with the paintings of Claude Monet, always my favorite.
I have spent hours staring at A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
I have seen Niagara Falls (and will again in two weeks) and been on the Maid Of The Mist.
I have taken the Cass Scenic Railway to the top of Bald Knob in West Virginia.
I have stood at the foot of Mont Blanc.
I have climbed the stairs to the top of the Duomo in Florence.
I have seen the David, and walked towards it past the Prisoners & Slaves.
I have seen the moon rise over a very still Adriatic Sea, casting a reflection in the water as far as I could see.
I have walked on the Acropolis.
As an aside, that week I stayed in a hotel in the red light district of Athens.
I have stood on the stage of the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.
I took a train through Yugoslavia in 1975, well before it opened to the world. Everything was grey, and the guards were terrifying.
I took a train through valleys of Switzerland.
I have seen a couple dozen cathedrals all over England and Europe.
I went on a boat trip on Loch Ness. Nessie ignored us.
I have been on the Autobahn and saw a car pass us so fast I couldn't make out what it was.
I have taken a train over the 9000+ ft tall mountains just west of Denver.
I have scrambled up the sides of mountains in West Virginia.
I have driven along the Eastern Continental Divide many times.
I lived for a summer in Rae-Edzo on the Great Slave Lake in the NW Territories. It never quite got dark.

None of that compares to seeing a full eclipse in person. It is rare that I am without something to say, but I really have no words to describe the feeling. It's the greatest thing I have ever seen. And that I was able to share both of these moments with the love of my life makes it even more wonderful.

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This week on FilkCast!

2024-03-05T01:27:35Z

The Unusual Suspects, Court And Country, Lawrence Dean, Joe Bethancourt, Bill Marischiello, Downtown Freddy Brown, Steve Macdonald, Debs & Errol, John Anealio, Dan The Bard, Kathy Mar, Charming Disaster, Tania Opland & Mike Freeman

Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.

filkcast.com

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The State Of The Eric - Late 2023 Edition

2023-12-30T21:01:26Z

Actually pretty good. The last couple of months I have had back problems which are almost entirely resolved. I had to sleep semi-sitting up on the recliner for a month or so. Laying down caused a lot of pain.

I am slowly coming back to playing guitar. My hands are doing very well. I don't have my speed up, nor my calluses where I want them yet, but I'm getting there.

My lungs are good, I mean really good. I am not as worried this winter about them. Doesn't mean that I am taking too many chances, but less stress is good.

And of course there is the whole thing with us asking for some help, and our friends taking that as a dare. The response helped us immensely and gave us a piece of mind that we have not had in a couple of years. I can never be able to properly express my thanks.

The Shifting City project keeps, well, shifting. I am still looking for the point of view for the lyrics. I am on story line #4 now. Three of them are connected and the direction I am going seems promising. I have all this music, I need words.

FilkCast is done for the year. We put together a month of just music shows and they are already uploaded and scheduled so we have 5 weeks off. Our intention is to get a lot more done with our music in that time.

My weight is a problem, I am the heaviest I have ever been. I still can't get around well, but now that the holidays are over a lot of the temptation is gone. Back to no soda, no chocolate, no fast food, a lot less sugar and simpler snacky things.

Having the trike at the end of the summer helped a lot, but I need something with a more powerful engine. I can still only do so much of the pedaling myself, and not having pedal assist means that even the slightest inclines become difficult if not impossible. We do have a place nearby where I can go several miles with no real struggle. I want spring to get here so I can get back to that.

The new car is ridiculous. We're slowly digging into what that screen does. It came with a few months of Sirius radio, so Lizzie has been listening to nothing but Christmas music since we got it. We were listening to the pop Xmas channel and became the musical MST3K. We've spent several evenings wandering around town looking at Christmas lights. It's our favorite thing to do this time of year.

It gets amazing gas mileage, we can't wait to take it on the road to see what it gets there. Once again, we would not have had the means to be able to do this if it wasn't for the help from our friends.

Our passports expired in 2019, not too long after we got back from England. We sent off the renewals yesterday. That means that FKO is a definite possibility. We need to see our friends.

We're still not dealing with people well. 14 months of isolation did both of us a lot of damage, physically and mentally. Hopefully there will be a couple of road trips and a couple more cons in 2024.

Speaking of which, who will be in Indianapolis for the eclipse? Talk has gone around about there being filk happening somewhere. There are a lot of filkers in the area, and since Lizzie's family lives there, it's where we're going to see the eclipse.

This ended up a lot longer than I thought. If you got this far, say hi, I need to hear from people. I do feel isolated sometimes. Not as badly as I did, but we really don't go much of anywhere, especially with it being so hard for me to get around. We are heading to Winter SACC in a few hours, see some local friends, play some music. We intend to drop in on the 24 Hour New Years Filk tomorrow.

This year has been hard, but it is ending well. Now to make next year better.

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