24 April 2012 - The Mad Filkentist (original) (raw)

01:14 pm - Gary-oke
I was glad to hear that persis was named to the Filk Hall of Fame at this FilKONtario. She couldn't be there in person, unfortunately, because she had an important staff position at the New England Folk Festival the same weekend.

The Filk Hall of Fame concert on Sunday consists of pieces performed or requested by the inductees. The names are kept secret until the con, which makes the job of getting people to perform requested songs interesting. I hadn't been asked to perform anything, so I could just relax and watch.

Till Peggy called on "Gary" for the next song. At first I figured it was gorgeousgary, another of the inductees, who was up on stage. Then she added my last name and said I was performing "Shrink Wrap Blues." It took her a few seconds to noticed my paralyzed stare. Oh, I can do the song on a moment's notice, but I can't do a good job of it without accompaniment, and my keyboard was up in my room.

I asked if anyone could do the chords for it; no response. (My chords are generally a pain for guitarists.) Then someone pointed out that my recording of the song was on the FKO 14 CD, which had just been released. I was asked if I could sing along with it. Doubling my own vocal line would have been a bit silly, but then I remembered there's a harmony part for the chorus which I could sing. So I went up on stage. happyfunpaul called out, "Gary-oke!"

I mimed appropriate actions for the verses, going down on my knees for "Holy Justice throwing shrink wrap licenses out," and sang the harmony ("Beware, beware!") with the chorus. gorgeousgary provided diabolical laughter in the appropriate places, with jslove adding some of his own at the end. Everybody told me it was a good recovery. Certainly it was fun. jslove caught it on video, so it might become available at some point.