laramie

Wow. That was quite the weekend. I'm home again, have even unpacked, and made my apologies to Tigger and gotten reacquainted with Skipper. The worst damage seems to be that somebody threw up on the bedspread.

Over the weekend I played a total of three games of Super Scrabble. I lost at least two. I might have won the first one, but I wasn't paying attention at the time. The third game was a total romp on the part of pgdudda who used all his tiles TWiCE, and the second time extended the word across TWO triple word scores. Ouch. Tripled and tripled again. Margo and I didn't have a chance. I made a good showing in the round against Margo (WINOLJ) and minnehaha K, leading for the first half or so of the game, but Margo triumphed.

I had a wonderful time at the Saturday night Open Music Circle, playing with a good group of musicians, including markiv1111 and Louie, chirosinger and musicmutt, chasophonic, and many more (who, if they are on Lj their handles I know not.) I had the chance to prove that I've learned something in the lessons I've been taking, and to enjoy that happy sensation of being part of that special something when other instrumentalists joined in. (Special thanks to Nate for bass line and AndyA for proper embellishments to El Condor Pasa.)

I was saddened to find that there was no room for me at the private music parties on Friday and Sunday. I made the best of things (as is my way :)) by organizing what rabble remained into smaller filk circles, for those who still wanted to make some music.

It was also puzzling that, despite some really first class music at that Saturday night Open Circle it was sparsely attended by people who weren't musicians. This may be due largely to the location in the Edina Room: so far from the Con Suite, food, drink and other parties.

The situation reminded me of This article, (link courtesy of sleigh), which appears in the Washington Post online. Joshua Bell, one of the world's foremost concert violinists, playing a million+ dollar Stradivarius and performing time-proven great music, played for an hour in a subway station and made about $32. (People pay $100 a seat to attend his concerts.) Proving that context does make a difference. And that Americans have confused priorities. What's the rush to support lives that can't spare a few minutes for transcendent beauty?

Oh, yes: and I'm pleased to say that a couple of my prints sold in the Art Show. This is very good considering that overall sales were down, and since last year's auction was so poorly attended that we didn't even plan for one this year.

I also had a good time with the several dinner expeditions I joined during the convention. Erin, (WINOLJ), chirosinger, musicmutt and Josh(?) were great company for dinner on Saturday. We found a nice Chinese buffet in the Galleria near Southdale. Lenny B allowed me to join him for breakfast on Sunday.

For Sunday's dinner I joined over a dozen other people at the Atlantic buffet near Penn and 494. We were spread out over two tables so I'm not sure of all who attended, but they included dreamshark and thorintatge, fmsv & cowfan, Lisa and William (WANOLJ), Margo and Don, Bill C and pgdudda and jiawen.

The lowest point of this Minicon: The Friday night Open Music circle scheduled (in the program book and pocket program) for the Plaza 2 room, was canceled without notice, when the hotel decided it would be too loud for the location. They locked the room, and several of us who had come to make music found ourselves puzzled and adrift. We heard that the music had been moved to room 118.

When we got to 118 it was to find a music circle, but a small one with no extra chairs. The host came to tell us it was a private party. (An embarassment on all fronts, I'm sure.)

I went on to start a small filk circle, with some of the other inadvertant crashers, in the empty Edina Room, and we managed to have a little fun making music on our own.

The incident was very upsetting, though. The next day I mentioned it to dreamshark and she helped me to assure that it wouldn't happen again. We had to talk to MarkR to find out why the Plaza 2 room had been locked and to discover that it wasn't going to be available Saturday, either. We established that the Edina room would be available and made signs, which I posted at both locations to make sure that none of the musicians who came to the Plaza 2 expecting a circle would find themselves at such a loss as we had on Friday.

As I noted elsewhere, it was also puzzling that, despite some really first class music at that Saturday night Open Circle, it was sparsely attended by people who weren't musicians. This may be due largely to the location in the Edina Room: so far from the Con Suite, food, drink and other parties.

I'd like to suggest that for future MiniCons we plan for Open Music in or near the Con Suite.