laramie

Hi, just dropped in thanks to a pointer from markiv1111. I'm a long-time, active filker in Michigan. I do know who the SEMP people are, but have only ever been to one of their parties, many years ago.

I'd say you put your view very diplomatically. And I would completely agree that ". . what filkers want out of a music circle may be different from what other musicians want out of a circle". One of the primary values of the filk community these days, at least at the cons I go to, is to encourage everyone to express themselves. In the short term, that does lead to some performances that range from less-than-professional to not-very-good-at-all. In the long term, I find it leads to a lot of people getting better at it with time, which I regard as, well, joyous. For more, take a look at this link (http://www.filking.net/filkfaq/what-is-the-filk-community), where a number of people, including me, talk about what the filk community means to them.

I don't bear any personal animus against the "snobby elitists". They're just a bunch of long time friends, who like to get together and make music with each other, and keep control of who they invite to their parties. And I certainly don't think any less of Nate for attending - they're his long time friends too. (If the Tor Books party was a SEMP party, that probably just means it was being run by Patrick and Teresa, who are both editors at Tor, and part of that circle of friends.)

Questions, from someone who's never been to Minicon: Does the SEMP party take place in a hotel room, or a function room? If it's a hotel room (which I suspect, given usual hotel policies on outside food in function spaces), who's paying for the room, and who's paying for the food and drink? If it's the people throwing the party, then they have the right to handle things as they see fit. If it's the con, well, I would object on principle to part of my membership money going to any purpose that's not available to all members.

Most of the filk circles I go to are in function rooms, and as such aren't allowed to bring in non-hotel food and drink. Getting a room that's closer to the con suite may well be possible, depending on hotel layout. Getting facilities equal to those of a private party probably isn't. Nonetheless, if I ever make it to Minicon, the open filk is where you'd find me.