cellio: (musician)
Monica ([personal profile] cellio) wrote2006-11-26 10:04 pm
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Darkover: other stuff

The drive down was uneventful, and after an initial room-assignment glitch I was settled in about half an hour before Shabbat. (The glitch was that there are two kinds of rooms in this hotel, ones with thermostats and ones with knobs that you have to manually twiddle to control heat level and fan level without timers. I needed a thermostat due to Shabbat. Got it on the second try.)

The hotel is doing something new and laudable to save energy: by default they change linens and towels every three days, not daily, and they turn off lights and heat in the rooms. If that's not acceptable, there was a card to hang on the door with check-boxes. I checked off the boxes for "don't mess with the lights and thermostat", ignored the rest (I re-use the sheets and towels at home...), and hung it up. The hotel gets points for trying but not for implementation: they changed my towels and I think sheets and also messed with the lights. Oh well.

I knew that [livejournal.com profile] osewalrus and [livejournal.com profile] beckyfeld were coming but didn't find them before Shabbat started, so I didn't know what room they were in. I ran into them for the first time at our concert that night; Becky was struggling with some sort of illness, alas, so I didn't see much of her. Their eight-year-old son went to the grandparents' for Thanksgiving, so [livejournal.com profile] osewalrus and I were able to have a long conversation Saturday afternoon without interruptions every few minutes. We haven't done that in a long time. So we caught up, talked a lot about religion, and just generally got to relax together. It was very nice.

[livejournal.com profile] dglenn's group, Homespun Ceilidh Band, played Friday after us and Saturday night. I enjoy their shows; they're musically interesting and high-energy, and these guys get stagecraft in a way that I can only admire from afar. There are three key aspects to being a good performer -- being a good musician (or whatever your area is), having good material, and knowing how to work with an audience. The more you have of some the more you can slip with the others, but it's best to have all three. On the Mark had the first two with glimmers of the third here and there; HCB has all three.

Glenn had a string bass with him. It was a loaner (his was being repaired); his regular is 3/4 sized and this one was 7/8 sized. I thought it looked bigger! I don't know how tall it is, but it towered over him and I think he's over 6'. I am impressed and a little astonished that he fit it into a Honda Accord.

There was other good music too, and I didn't make it to all of it. I also didn't make it to the regency ball; I had planned to go and provide percussion support. (Shlepping the dulcimer and keeping it in tune would have been hard. But I can do good things with other percussion.) Sorry, Glenn!

Saturday night was the traditional Clam Chowder concert. They had a lot of new material, and they "let slip" that they're working on a new album. Yay!

The fundraiser deserves special mention. But first, let me back up. Ten years ago at this con, a fan asked Kathy to sing "Bend Over Greek Sailor" (yes, it's as raunchy as you think it is) and she said "no, I have kids now". The fan reportedly said "would you do it if I raise $100?" and Kathy, thinking this unlikely at a con that doesn't attract wealth, said "sure". The fan proceeded to pass the hat and, in short order, Kathy had to figure out what to do with the $100 (which she didn't want to keep). So she announced she would donate it to the local children's hospital.

Thus began a tradition: Clam Chowder would agree to perform the song if money was raised for that charity, and each year the amount collected rose. Ed (Kathy's husband) can get matching funds through his employer, and there's even been media coverage of this fund-raising event by these wacky SF fans. Last year they collected over $5000, which I think surprised everyone, and John Huff said that if we collected $10,000 next year (that is, this year), he'd sing "Sweet Transvestite" in fishnet stockings. I don't think anyone thought this would happen; he said he was giving a year's notice.

So, we got there this year. There are some traditional fund-raising auctions -- pairs of comfy seats front and center, and chances to sing with Clam Chowder as your backup band. Last year the first pair of chairs went for $200 and the second for under $100; this year they went for $325 and $300. (Robert and I had planned to bid; the first bid matched our joint cap, so we said "oh well". Didn't even get to play.) I think the "Clam karaoke" (as it was called) also drew more than usual, though I haven't paid much attention to that one in the past. (This con is kind enough to give me stage time; I'm not going to compete with people who don't get that for the chance to sing with the Clams, fun as that would be.)

This year they also had two limited-release DVDs, one of last year's concert and one of the concert 20 years ago. I didn't much care about last year's -- sure, I'd probably buy it as a conventional commercial release, but not at inflated prices -- but I was interested in the older one. I was at that concert; the group was rather different then. I would have liked to have a copy. I was going to make a donation to the charity anyway; I got a bonus this year that I haven't finished tithing yet. So I made a $100 opening bid. For a couple minutes it looked like no one was going to seriously respond; however, once people started, even with someone else fueling part of my bidding (he, too, was going to make a donation anyway so offered to help me), I ended up bailing. The winning bid was $500 -- too rich for me for "play money".

So that laid a foundation, but $10,000 is still a lot of money for a con with, what, 400 people? To my amazement they got it, and John came out for the second set in full costume to many camera flashes and much laughter and cheering. People will do silly things sometimes. :-) I wasn't personally motivated by this, but as with other bits of goofiness, sometimes that's not the point.

I do hope everyone is clear that this can't keep escalating. :-)

A few years ago I think I noted that there was a lot more gray hair at Darkover than there had been. (I don't go to a lot of cons so don't know how much of a trend that is, though I've heard the phrase "the graying of fandom" in a few different places so it's not just Darkover.) This year I noticed a jump in a different area: many more canes, wheelchairs, and scooters. Many of these people are probably under 60, so I was a little taken aback. (Is that me in a decade or two? I sure hope not!) In some cases the people were extremely large, which can add wear and tear on joints, but not all of them.

The weather was good on Sunday (how rare!), but I took [livejournal.com profile] xthlcm's suggestion anyway and took the long way home, via I-68 and not the PA turnpike. He's right; it's a pretty drive. It was 50 miles longer than the drive out there, so not too bad. It took me 45 minutes longer to get home than to get there, but I won't say that it cost me 45 minutes because I have no idea how bad the interchange in Breezewood was. Some years it's trivial and one recent year we spent an hour going half a mile.

I must say, however that whoever designed some of the interstate interchanges I passed must have been smoking crack. If I'm already on 79 I shouldn't have to go through weird contortions and an exit to stay on it (at 70). Now that I think about it, I think there's an interchange in Ohio involving 70 that's similarly wacky. Maybe it's an I-70 thing -- the Breezewood mess also involves I-70. (What did they do, mark out sections of existing roads to appropriate and then build the connectors and call it all 70?)