Sunday, April 13, 2008

And the FKO Report Continues...

When we last left our fearless crew of Browncoats at FilKONtario 2008, they had just enjoyed vixy and Tony's concert, ending with "Mal's Song". As vixy said, "I think we'll get lynched if we don't do this song!" Do you know how awesome it is to hear 150 people singing "..you can't take the sky from me..." at the top of their lungs. Oh. So. Shiny.

Anyway, some of the Browncoats went to buy the new vixy and Tony cd and commenced stalking them for autographs. Marianne and I went to the "new" room we were put in and the hotel staff asked where we wanted the chairs. This was odd because they were bringing in semi comfortable ones, when the room was already filled with padded leather swivel ones. Anyway, we told them to put them in a circle and then we moved one of the two long tables in the middle and made for an eating place. When people started showing up we got a rough count of how many would be eating with us and what everyone ate on pizza.

I then left to call for it, but had left coloring sheets and Wash'n'Wear paper dolls and scissors and photo boards to keep the troupes entertained:
The Pizza Pizza guy said it would be about 40 minutes, so after 30 I went to the lobby to wait for the delivery. At 40 minutes there was still no one. At 50 minutes someone joined me in the lobby to see where dinner was (hi Tom!). I asked if they were in there gnawing on the tables in hunger. I was reassured no one was.

By 7pm I was on my cell phone in the lobby trying to find this friggin' driver. They asked me my phone number and I told them I was calling on a different phone in the lobby. The Pizza Pizza operator then asked, "What city are you in?" I knew this was not going to go well! Durng a billion more questions the delivery guy walked in the door. I sort of mobbed him- gave him the money and then saw that Tom had the pizzas. How Tom got sucked into carrying the pizzas I'm not sure but he did a damned fine job! We all ate (finally) drank (thanks to the FKO con suite crew) and were merry (because we are a happy lot.)

By the time everyone had their fill (and Alex walked back in-- almost missed the meal, didn't ya!) it was going on 8 pm. Any schedule I had thought of was now completely out the window. So I asked which of the two activities I had planned would most people like to do. A third option was presented that I didn't even think of-- they wanted to be hypnotized by Cedric again! I apologized for not even considering that, but it did put Cedric on the spot. He rose to the occasion and had all of the room feeling the experience of being on Serenity in flight. I, being in charge of other things, had to opt out of taking part again, but everyone else said they really enjoyed it all.

Closer to nine I cornered the Bards into performing again like the original schedule had intended. We got private concert performances of "Fruity Oaty Bars', "The Ballad of Jayne" and "Leaf on the Wind" among others. We were only about 1/2 way into it when Marsha lamented that she had to go help with the auction but didn't want to leave the private concert. Cedric suggested we all go check out the auction. We all agreed.

The auction. WHAT can I say about the auction? I've been to auctions before. Never one like this one. They had "runners" who would take the items to members of the audience who wanted a better look. They also had "wenches". These were (mostly) women (but Tony helped out too) who would run from bidder to bidder, massaging their shoulders, and sitting on their laps and stroking their hair, trying to get them to bid higher. Once they did, the wenches would run to the second person in the bidding war and pamper them until *they* bid higher- then back to bidder #1. It made for a wild, funny and profitable night for the auction. There were other items that remained in the silent auction that continued into Sunday, but more about that later.

After the auction, most of the Browncoat crew said goodnight and went their way. Those of us who were in for the weekend however were just getting started. Marianne Dave and I went to the Celtic Filk circle in which Cedric was participating. It was fine, if not overly celtic (I don't consider the Rolling Stones to be a celtic band!) The stuff that was celtic was more of the slow melodic type and it was very nice, but not helping keep me awake. I suggested to my sister that we hit one of the other filk rooms or the con suite. It was then she noticed Cedric was packing up too. Great, I was going to look like a stalking fangirl.

About a dozen of us all had the same idea when we invaded the second filk room. Cedric scored a chair and two of the 3 members of Urban Tapestry literally sat at his feet. I no longer looked that much like a fangirl! :) During the night Cedric kept his word of singing "Sail the Sky" with UT. Debbie's beautiful flute solo in the instrumental break made me adore more a song I already love. This room had more of the music that kept us going for a long time. It was 2 am before Dave said his goodbyes and Marianne and I held on until 2:30. Cedric was still going strong, however.

On the way up to the room, we ran into Hawke in the hall coming out of the room in which we had our dinner. It seems there was another filk going on in there and he'd been there all night playing! Ah, the things you learn too late! But we'd had enough and headed up to our room and those night comfy beds that we neither had to share- or make!

More on the remaining day of the con in the next post.

Until next time:
"Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?"

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