GAfilk part 4: Peter Beagle, Tom Smith, Brian Richardson

I created the above illustration for Illustration Friday. This week's topic: "Plain."

My GAfilk report thus far: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and here's Part 4....

GAfilk doesn't have as many concerts as other filk conventions (contributing to its 'relaxacon' reputation). I spent more time socializing than I did in the concert room; I know I missed some good music as a result but one of the things I've learned about enjoying conventions is to accept the fact that I HAVE TO MISS STUFF. Here are photos from some of the concerts I did attend:



I had no idea that Peter Beagle (author of The Last Unicorn, among other works) was also a musician! Peter was the Super Secret Special Guest at GAfilk this year, filling in for Meg Davis, who had to cancel out because of medical reasons.



In addition to having a Super Secret Guest every year, GAfilk also has a tradition of a "Concom's Choice Concert," where the convention committee chooses someone in the community to do a concert. This year, they asked Tom Smith.

I don't mention Tom much in my Blatherings because I've been assuming that everyone already knows about him, but I realize this may not be the case. :-) Tom is one of the few in the filking community who has successfully made the transition to being a full-time musician in the Real World.

He's an extraordinary songwriter, and has gained the reputation for being the world's fastest filker...I've seen him write an entire parody of a song before the other person has finished performing it!

Tom has several blogs, including iTom: Free Music From Tom Smith (part of his Song-A-Week project) and his Livejournal. You can also find him on MySpace and The Funny Music Project, and his main site at Tom Smith Online.

My favourite Tom Smith songs include Superman Sex Life Boogie,
A Boy And His Frog, Fenton The Death Sheep From Hell, and Five Years (I haven't watched Babylon Five but I still love the wordplay here!).



The Toastmaster at GAfilk was Brian Richardson. I met Brian through Play It With Moxie (more on PIWM in an upcoming Blathering) but until this convention, I had no idea how entertaining and well-spoken he could be. He's the videography producer at Dragon*Con and (along with several other staff members) creates DragonConTV.

He showed us several of the videos during his Toastmaster spot, and they're pretty entertaining. You can download the videos to see for yourself.

Some Dragon*Con TV samples I found on YouTube:

Food Pyramid
Computers Make Things Easy
The Rainbow Connection (Lovecraft style)



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