From: Uucp@ofa123.fidonet.org
Newsgroups: alt.music.filk
Subject: Eli's Magicon mini-report
X-Sender: newtout 0.02 Aug 21 1992
Date: 11 Sep 92  16:19:19

From  ucivax!enet-gw.pa.dec.com!starch.enet.dec.com!jslove
From: jslove@starch.enet.dec.com (J. Spencer Love; 237-2751; SHR3-2/W28 
11-Sep-1992 1810)
To:   filk@ofa123.fidonet.org
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 15:31:11 PDT
Cc:   jslove@starch.enet.dec.com

I shouldn't give a convention report because I was one of the people
running the filksings at Magicon.  However, I need to post a correction
to Eli's report, and I'll give out a few credits and apologies.

The convention songbook was ably edited by Gary McGath, of Penecook, NH.
I helped out by a bit, but my only contributions to its production were
writing the introduction and transcribing the tune of "Caretakers" into
ConcertWare.  (The title in the book was "Caretaker" -- Bill Sutton
corrected me at con which was a wee bit late.)  Helva Peters assisted
Gary in the book production.  Collation and binding was done by the elves
of M.A.S.S. F.I.L.C.  We printed approximately 300 copies.  At the con and
to hucksters we sold 209, and gave out 8 of the 15 contributors copies.

Huckster sales were as follows: 5 to DAG, 5 to Secret Empire/Dodeka, 5 to
Tales from the White Hart, and 6 to The Stars My Destination (Alice Bentley's
bookstore in Chicago).  Bob Laurent has agreed to take a bunch, but this
transaction has not occurred yet.  There was also a somewhat rotund huckster
with a pigmentation problem who spoke to me in the filk concert room and
offered to buy a bunch of copies, but didn't return to buy them and whose
name I didn't get.

The books were sold for $3 each at the convention, and also to the hucksters.
I seriously doubt that they will be available now for less than $5.  I don't
plan to process individual orders for books, so if you want them at $3 you'll
have to pay for at least 5 copies and also postage.  Except for the postage,
all proceeds go to Magicon which paid for the book production.

The book has the same number of pages of music as the ConCertino songbook and
was produced by the same people although the contributions were different.
I think that means only 52 pages were of songs.  Most had music as well.
Leslie Fish contributed three songs with 3-part harmony arrangements.

The events department, which "owned" concerts and evening filks, was
represented for filk by Barbara Higgins, who appointed Crystal Hagel to
do the work.  The program department, which "owned" panels, appointed me.
I did a mediocre job of making arrangements in a timely fashion, but
attendees seemed to be happy with the choice of panelists.  The filk
program was not all that well attended for a convention of 5,000+
attendees; I'd estimate that only about 200 people showed up at the
various filk events, and that's counting each person who came to at least
one event.

The convention technical department was very nice to us, taking on a lot of
the set up and tear down work as well as contributing a sound technician for
2 and a half days of the convention.  I'd particularly like to thank Jeff
"Hunter" Jordan and Bill Kohler (I think that's how he spelled his name but
it's not handy to check it).

Many compliments were received on the sound system.  Performers and the
audience alike told me that "We should have sound systems like this at all
future filk and world cons."  This in spite of a very disconcerting echo that
was only apparent to the performers on stage -- the room was very
accoustically
"bright."  I would be glad to furnish details to the curious.  Someone wrote
a song for the last-minute written-at-con contest entitled something like
"The Microphone Is Your Friend," a line for which I took a lot of good natured
kidding because of trying to get the performers to stand or sit closer to the
mikes.  I'll post the details of the contest later.  The winner was Rennie
Levine with a song about the amount of walking between the Peabody where the
filking was and the convention center where most programming, art show,
huckster room, etc. were to be found.  Close behind (lost by one vote) was a
song about voting for the 1995 WorldCon by Brenda Sutton and Mike Whitaker.
(The runner-up song was the only one not taped, an error on my part that
Brenda will probably appreciate since it makes it less likely that certain
people will ever hear it.)

All in all I think it went well, but I wish it seemed less like a recording
session and more like something else (an occupational hazard for the Wail
Songs crew).

                                                -- Spencer

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