What is a Filk convention without guests?
Probably a lot of fun, really, but it is better to have guests, and we have a very good set of them this year. The concentration of talent and personality in these eight honored guests is almost scary; which is appropriate for a convention held close to Halloween.
Founded in 1993, Urban Tapestry is a Toronto filk group consisting of Allison Durno, Jodi Krangle and Debbie Ridpath Ohi. They've performed concerts in England, Germany, the U.S. and Canada, and have won two Best Performer Pegasus Awards, Best Song Pegasus, Best Food/Drink Song Pegasus, and an Aurora Fan Achievement Award. More info can be found at urbantapestry.org.
We're hoping to get a better group photo soon. :-)
Mitchell & TJ Burnside Clapp met at OVFF in 1987 shortly
before the first and only live reading of Tom Smith's "The Rocky Horror
Muppet Show," and have the entire recording of their first room filk
together on tape. Since then, they have spawned three children, all of them
musical, written a few more songs, and mastered toast. It's a difficult
skill; don't scoff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know that Kathleen Sloan is a performer.
We know she's even written a few songs. But OVFF has been around since 1984,
and Kathleen's been around filk even longer. She started listening in 1976,
and only started performing in 1989. And where do you think she did most
of that listening? That's right - right here in central Ohio! She is pleased
to be the Listener Guest of Honor for the convention at which she has had
years of (premium!) quality listening.
On a dark and stormy afternoon, wolves howled as Cindy entered the world. She's pretty much been making people bay at the moon ever since.
A geek and a nerd long before these things were fashionable, Cindy has been a die-hard science fiction fan since childhood. While the other kids were watching Romper Room, she cut her teeth on Lost in Space and ST:TOS. One day, while looking for Star Trek books in the library, she discovered the existence of other science fiction. Heinlein, Ellison, L'Engle and McCaffry all led to deeper levels of addiction. A true SF junkie, she reads voraciously, ever in search of the next fix.
Cindy runs the filk track for VCON, and has been involved with putting together the songbook and running hospitality for Conflikt since its inception. When not actively convention planning, she amuses herself by cooking up fanfics about Sexy English vampires and Stargate personnel. When inspiration strikes, she adds music, stirs vigorously and bakes up a filk.