Silliness and potluck and music and Chris Malme.



Last night I rather gleefully blew off finishing up my report cards to go to a housefilk at Sally Headford's place (the reports will get done tonight). It's unusual for us to have a housefilk mid-week, but the gathering was held in honour of Chris Malme, an English filker visiting Toronto after being the Guest of Honour at the East Coast Filk Con, Conterpoint, last weekend.

We started with a delicious potluck dinner of chicken, salad, bread, fruit and pastries and caught up on the highlights of Conterpoint and Chris' North American adventures. There was lots of chattering and silliness with everyone and we all saw photos of smoooom's new house in Richmond Hill. Sally's cats, Sputnik and Gallileo, were appropriately playful and entertaining. Sally showed us the wonderful artwork she plans to put in the Toronto Trek art show next month. She also showed us her -gorgeous- beaded bookmarks, a skill she's only picked up since FilKONtario in March (!!).

A few hours of singing followed, lots of familiar favourites and some moving and funny new songs, as well. It was a special treat to be able to hear Chris Malme's music again. He has a great voice and plays excellent 12-string guitar. I was especially struck by the spell cast by Chris' songs, he is a wonderful songwriter. "Elektra's Song" and his Bradbury "Rocket Man" song (which I've also heard demoneyes sing before) made me cry and his bluesy cat song was a lot of fun. I also really liked his scary movie/reality song. I find Chris has that effective, seemingly effortless way with lyrics that makes you itch to pick up a pen yourself, that reminds you of how many themes are out there that you'd love to spin into songs as memorable as Chris'. I really liked his haunting melodies, too, the melody to "Electra's Song" gave me chills. Heck, even re-reading the lyrics in ohiblather's journal this morning made me mist up again.

Added: Hey, I just discovered Chris has a page of lyrics and sound files here: http://www.filklore.com/songs/index.html

Another thing that really struck me last night was how much I really enjoyed hearing Debbie playing flute along with the songs sung. Other filkers commented on Deb's flute, as well. Due to her tendinitis Deb hasn't been able to do a lot of instrumental playing in the last year and hearing those sweet melodies beside me last night reminded me of how much I've really missed hearing her play. As part of Urban Tapestry it's easy to begin to take Deb's flute as a given, it's such an integral part of our sound. We'd frequently have practices where I'd bring a new song to the group and I'd simply comment, "I can hear flute here." and within a week or two the song would have a lovely flute accompaniment. Last night reminded me how lucky we are to have Debbie's flute as part of our local filk sound. So, thanks, Deb, your flute and penny whistle last night were terrific :).

And, thank you, Sally, for hosting such a fun and memorable housefilk!