Friday, and the concluding part of the conrep at last.

[avevale_intelligencer]

Parliament still there as far as I can tell. They're probably waiting for full attendance before they teleport the place. Yeah, that'll be it. (In which case, of course, they might as well not bother.)

*sigh* One of my characters spent eight years in a fictitious mental home because of these people. This time round it might end up being me. (Of course, reading this paragraph, you may already be backing nervously away and hiding the French cook's knife. Soren will understand, though.)

Anyway. Onward.

When I woke up, the Dead Mouse Filk had been going on for some time. (Further explanation: the final circle at a filkcon always takes place after the closing ceremony and therefore outside the con proper. Some people are already leaving, because they have to be at work on the morrow, and there's a traditional air of exhaustion and determination to wring the last drops out of the con about it. Thus it became known as the "dead dog" circle. And, since fans never name something once if they can name it lots of times, the particular deceased animal is now subject to change according to whim. This year it was a mouse.) So up I got and wheeled Jan towards the room in question, and as we went in Silke was just coming out.

(I had indicated, when apologising for missing her set, that I had wanted to hear her sing some more, and she had been waiting for me to turn up, and had just given up on me and decided to have a break. Unfortunately, I didn't know this, and so it looked a lot more pointed than it was. Happily we had a chat later and straightened it all out.)

My memory of the circle is mostly dominated by Piers. Piers is one of those people *I* find intimidating, though I know he doesn't mean to be; he's big (yes, I know, I know, but I only think of myself as "big" when it's a disadvantage), he has a beautiful voice and a seemingly bottomless fund of unimpeachably authentic actual folk songs, as opposed to the cheap knockoffs I turn out, plus he's Northern and I'm a soft southern pansy so there's privilege guilt there. Fortunately my internal confurblings are of no significance in the real world, and he's very nice and believes in libraries.

Another good thing about Piers is that whenever he's singing I always seem to be able to find a really nice harmony. (Well, it sounds nice to me, and nobody's thrown me out yet.) He did a couple of shanties, including one where the verse consisted of:

[Insert something here] wouldn't do us any harm (x3)
And we'll all hang on behind.

Various somethings were duly inserted, some of them alcoholic. I didn't get to throw in "a cong-a line", which was a shame, but it was fun, and the harmonies on the chorus, "We'll roll the old chariot along," were truly amazing.

There were lots and lots of other good songs and stories as well, from Tiggy and Emily and Soir and 36 whose other name I didn't manage to retain and Talis and Rhodri and Steve and Katy and lots more people. And in the fullness of time Silke came back in and sang, and it was good.

One problem relating to circles was highlighted for me by the experience of two friends, though it's happened to me too. This is when a circle which started out small and bardic becomes too big (in someone's opinion) to carry on being bardic, and the someone suggests that it go chaotic, and other someones enthusiastically agree, and it was just about to be your first turn to sing. It's quite possible to feel extremely got at and put out under those circumstances, and the friends in question actually got up and left. This all happened while I was still sacked out in the lounge area, and I found out about it later, but it seems to me there ought to be a way to mitigate this somehow. Perhaps while the circle is still within notional limits for bardicness the self-appointed someone could say "one more turn around and then can we go chaotic," thus giving the non-pushy ones at least one go, and the people who can't stand chaos at any price a chance to leave without it looking pointed. I don't know. Just a thought.

Anyway. There was good singing, and I got to play Mich's keyboard a bit, and then it was time for bed.

And that was Cre2c3ndo. Next year's con, Duple Time (2/4), will also be in Grantham, with Mary Crowell as the overseas guest and Lissa (as I've mentioned) as British guest. We've booked. See you there?

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Re: circle size -- if it's too big for bardic then it's Too Damn Big, period[1]. Whoever it was suggesting chaos (I wasn't there) should have been sat on immediately, because what they are saying amounts to "I want to perform more often than is a reasonable share". If a circle is too big for your liking, go somewhere else (possibly put a suggestion, "is anyone interested in setting up a chaos circle?".

I agree that any change in format should either be unanimous or should allow sufficient time for people to adjust. From bardic then one full circle is reasonable, from chaos to bardic is not so easy to limit but number of songs equal to number of performers might be reasonable.

(And I did get to hear you do "Centipede Questions", which was good. I missed all the others, apologies to them...)

[1] Of course, if it's too big for chaos then it's also Too Damn Big for bardic. What both mean is "we have to wait too long before we get to perform", and neither form is any better at handling that. The only solution is to split the circle so that those who don't like waiting as long can form their own smaller one.

[legoline.livejournal.com]

Piers is an amazing singer and one of those people that make me return to the British FilkCon. To clarify, there are so many lovely British folk at the con that I wouldn't see otherwise and which have me return to the UK when I can, but musically speaking Piers is one of the highlights for me.

I have a soft spot for authentic folk music, which we don't get to hear often in Germany, so I'm always looking forward to Piers's songs. Particularly in combination with Tim Walker, like at this year's circle. Wow. Their voices go together so well. I didn't even join in when everybody was singing along. I just listened, having goosebumps.

[eintx.livejournal.com]

I wasn't there when it changed from bardic to chaos, but it usually happens on sunday when lots of folks come back from dinner and sit down everywhere, and suddenly it's not really clear whose turn it is.
I'm not this keen on _singing_ in circles, especially if I had a spot during the con anyway, but I am keen on _listening_ to those who don't sing very often, and I know for certain I'm not going to hear them once the thing has gone chaos.

[tattercoats.livejournal.com]

Sunday's circle... well, you list me as there, Zan, but I was on my way home at that point, so I hope I haven't got a doppelganger going round being me!

We did coincide at the Saturday circle there awhile - you told a story, which was good, and it was (imho) goodnaturedly chaotic, having grown that way out of a small gathering with well under ten people.

Just to clarify, or confuse. Either way... :-)

[pola-bear.livejournal.com]

I found the Sunday circle tough, but I did perform three times (the last with less than 10 people left in the room) which is more than I sometimes do all con.

I think it went chaotic before I got there? It was relatively late before I settled in the circle. Saturday night I certainly felt we needed two circles, but wouldn't know how to make that happen, especially when the many people in the circle that existed wouldn't know about it unless told, which sounds... odd, possibly even bad.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

"One problem relating to circles was highlighted for me by the experience of two friends, though it's happened to me too. This is when a circle which started out small and bardic becomes too big (in someone's opinion) to carry on being bardic, and the someone suggests that it go chaotic, and other someones enthusiastically agree, and it was just about to be your first turn to sing. It's quite possible to feel extremely got at and put out under those circumstances, and the friends in question actually got up and left."

Oh, is *that* what happened? Yes. Problematic.

" Perhaps while the circle is still within notional limits for bardicness the self-appointed someone could say "one more turn around and then can we go chaotic," thus giving the non-pushy ones at least one go, and the people who can't stand chaos at any price a chance to leave without it looking pointed. I don't know. Just a thought."

A very *good* thought, though I note also Silke's point about people coming in and sitting at random points in the circle. (I realised shortly after I got there on Sunday that I had picked a seat that was only a few turns ahead of the current singer, so possibly I should have missed my turn that time to allow for folks who'd been waiting for a while to get their chance. I think the switch to chaos must have happened during one of my trips out to the bar - which often took longer than planned due to bumping into people I wanted to chat to! - 'cos all I remember about it is realising at some point "oh! we're not following the circle any more.")

Perhaps the thing to ask first, then, when contemplating a switch to chaos is "is there anyone who's been here a while (e.g. more than a quarter of a turn), but not had a chance to sing yet? Let's go round those folks, and then switch to chaos."

I *don't* think anyone who's only just entered the room has an automatic right to sing within the first few turns - especially if they're likely to then duck out to the bar for most of a cycle, or wait until they get a 2nd song in before going to bed. I also don't approve of the "well I need to go to bed now, so even though I've fairly recently sung I'm going to do my party/parting piece and then vanish": It clearly shows the person's priority is to perform, rather than to hear others perform. (Different matter if someone in the room says "will you sing us one before you go?")

[howeird]

I like your bardic-to-chaos solution.

---

You are so lucky to have Mary Crowell as your guest next year. She is a truly lovely person, and an awesome talent.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

fans never name something once if they can name it lots of times

Especially UK filkers. Talk about unstable! Last year when I presented "Conomastics: The Naming of Science Fiction Conventions" at the annual meeting of the American Name Society in Baltimore, I had a separate slide two separate slides (this and this) for the UK Filk Conventions. You should have heard the gasps and groans! Come to think of it, you probably did.

[pdcawley.livejournal.com]

Thanks Zander. What a shame we didn't get the conga line verse. I shall have to keep that one in reserve. I thought we'd exhausted contributions by the time we got to "an end to this song".

Sorry if I'm intimidating. I certainly don't mean to be.

[36.livejournal.com]

I'm a Nat, it says so in my profile and everything :)

I agree with the comment that we usually (or at least in the last four cons) switch from bardic to chaos when a several people return from dinner, sit in random locations and double the size of the circle. 'Another time around' could then still upset people who arrived in the subsequent 90 minutes it took to get around the circle and didn't realise they'd chosen the wrong spot...

I personally think it's good practice when suggesting the circle goes from bardic to chaos to direct it to the next five or six people rather than the room in general and phrase it as 'I think this circle's getting a bit too big, perhaps we should consider going chaos soon, have any of you got anything prepared before we switch?'.

Although personally I like a really big bardic circle with lots of harmonising and singing along, we tend to get to hear more people who rarely perform and I can enjoy the performances without thinking about if I have 'followers'. It becomes more intimidating once it goes chaos.