GaFilk 2008 – The Toastmaster’s Report

Well, it’s more of a summary than a report … but I’m too tired to give a proper report. I’m tired because I had a good time, and wish I had more energy over the weekend to hang out with the fun folks there.

For those who don’t know, GaFilk is a filk convention held in Atlanta for the past ten years. I’ve been attending the past few years thanks to my wife’s attendance in 2001, and I’ve been more involved each year. I’ve made friends with many people through GaFilk, and met a number of quality musicians. Despite it’s reputation, good filk music exists in quantity.

For the 10th GaFilk, I was asked to be the convention toastmaster … sort of a “master of ceremonies” without any real control over the event. It’s a laid back convention, so I mostly introduce acts and keep things moving between events.

I had two events that required actual work & preparation at GaFilk …

1. The “toastmaster’s concert” … which might be a problem since I don’t sing
2. The GaFilk Banquet, featuring Play it with Moxie (I’m the drummer)

The “toastmaster’s concert” became a “presentation” where I showed Dragon*ConTV videos. This works well for a filk audience, since sci-fi parody is alive and well in the filk community. I don’t think PowerPoint and videos show up in many filk conventions, so I may be part of a new trend.

Play it with Moxie is the eight piece jazz band that grew out of Mary Crowell’s original GaFilk banquet performance many years ago. This year’s banquet was a solid & fun performance. The banquet is also one of the few times I get to play drums … it’s good to know I can still call on those rusty percussion skills.

The rest of the convention was spent seeing old friends, making new ones and watching some great performances … Tom Smith, Peter S. Beagle, the Brobdingnagian Bards, Jeff & Maya Bohnhoff (well, I missed most of that show because my body needed food after our banquet performance).

I didn’t get to play in any of the “open filk” sessions, because my body needed sleep. Parts of my body are also insisting I work out a bit more before trying another 2+ hour drum performance. But I had a blast, and am glad everybody enjoyed my various “performances” over the weekend.

Check Flickr for photos (they are starting to appear)