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mnemex and I flew over to Britain for D'Zenove.
D'Zenove
Thursday: We shlepped to Newark via Path, NJT, and the Air Train. I was stressed, and it was less smooth, but easier and quicker nevertheless, and far cheaper than a cab ride would have been. mnemex had checked us in ahead of time, so we had time to eat before boarding. Security was about as annoying as expected -- no one holding us up, but I took up several bins between laptop and electronics, and it took a bit of time reassembling everything.
The flight was reasonable, with quite edible food, and Virgin's usual supply of movies and the like, and a separate screen for each passenger. I didn't use that, spending most of the flight dozing. First class was odd, with each person having a small chair and a footstool, but the chair apparently folds into a bed, as the passengers were asked to put it back into chair shape for landing.
Friday: We had directions for the coach, which the driver told us not to call a bus. This part went smoothly. We had a long wait, given that the bus only ran every 2 hours, but we knew that in advance. The coach left from the airport. We decided not to pull money from an ATM. I had a 20 pound bill and a few pounds in change.
We arrived at Basingstoke in under an hour. mnemex left a book on the coach. We were at something of a loss to figure out how to get to the hotel from the bus stop -- it is still called a bus stop, right? It's a bus station at the airport, even though we took a coach.
There is a bus or a coach -- I'm not clear on which -- the #7, I think, that goes from the bus stop to the hotel, but the one that arrived wasn't heading back there. We managed to find someone to give us directions, and double checked a couple of times. Once we found London Road, the rest was easy. Follow road to roundabout. Hotel is at top of big hill.
The hotel had a lovely lunch buffet, with salmon and pate and tasty desserts. We had no trouble checking in, but the hotel only had one key per room for guests. The woman at the desk gave us a choice between 2 small beds and one large one. We chose the former, and it was indeed a single large bed, as opposed to the very nice hotel we stayed in at Birmingham for Tolkien 2005, which had a large bed made up of two beds firmly attached together.
We crashed out on the bed and woke up at about 7 pm, which was just in time for the 7:30 opening ceremonies. Then, we did dinner, which was cheaper than lunch, and nearly as nice.
After that, of course, we went filking. And, I had a beer, Trusty Servant. We crashed relatively early, like 3 am or so.
Saturday: We woke up too late for breakfast, which was deliberate. We would have rethought had we known a) breakfast was included (and I'd even thought that was the case, but forgot to ask) and b) the hotel wouldn't start lunch until 12:30. I had signed up for a Tech grasshopper slot at 1 pm, so quickly changed that to 2 pm, correctly guessing that I'd not be done with lunch by 1. Lunch was not as nice as the other meals, but this was by design, so that it would be affordable. And, "not as nice" still meant quite yummy.
The grasshopper slot is for folks who don't know how to work tech, but would like to learn. It's a good idea, and I figured signing up would ensure that I was awake and actually present at the main concert. I didn't touch any of the equipment, and my biggest contribution was a flashlight on my keychain so that Christo could see the buttons on the CD player. I figure a couple of more tech slots, and I might be trustworthy with the equipment, though I think my hearing may not be as good as it should for this sort of thing.
Grasshopper recap of Bill Sutton's intro to the equipement: All sound boards are laid out the same way. The knob on top of each row is the gain. It takes the raw sound. One doesn't usually mess with it once it's set. Too much gain can lead to blowing out equipment.
Then, there are 5 knobs. These are the EQ, I think. There's 3 levels, treble, middle stuff, and bass. 2 of them get 2 knobs, but one only gets one. I'm not sure which or why. These get mucked with if there's too much or not enough of one sound, and I think part of this has to do with how close the mouth or instrument is to the microphone allocated to it.
Then, there's a bunch of other knobs. I have no idea what they do.There's a button in each row that can be pushed to make the bunch of lights that shows how loud everything is show only how loud the thing that row indicates is.
There's a switch at the bottom of each row. That's the fader. It controls the volume after it's been mucked with by all the other knobs. Turning it up too high makes feedback, which doesn't sound very good. Sometimes, it's best to turn up the gain, and then play with the fader.
The bottom of the board had masking tape so that each row could be labelled with what it controlled. So, whenfilkerdave held up two fingers over a singer and three over the guitar, that meant that the singer was using the microphone labelled "Vocal 2", and the instrument "Instrument 3" on the board. The keyboard got 2 rows, and instruments that got plugged in had a different set of rows. The most fader switches I saw indicating Stuff was for the Lost Dorsai song whose name I forget ("Music has a strong magic / With longer reach than shinning steel"), where all vocal mikes, the keyboard, and a bunch of instruments were in use.
Theoretically, I had a half hour shift, but as nobody showed up to claim grasshopper position, I kept it for most of the rest of the concert.
Then, the original Three Weird Sisters performed, and if we hadn't all known that the last time they did this was in 2005, we would never have known.
After that, the theory was that there would be a 5 pm - 7 pm dinner slot. As near as I can fathom it, the hotel staff thought that meant it started at 7 pm. Possibly, they were confused by the justification on the schedule sheet, but if so, they were the only ones. A compromise was worked out, which meant that, in theory, dinner began at 6 pm. It was more like 6:30 pm, and then, only after mnemex poked his head in to say that, really, it was okay if the silverware wasn't perfect, and could we please eat?
The food was good, andtelynor went around to give the Official Conchair Apology to any who wanted it. We ate quickly, as there was not enough table space for everyone, and almost forgot to pay. We hurried back in and managed to find a staff person clueful enough to take down room number and signature from us.
Mike Richard's concert came next, then Chimes, and then Lady Mondegreen brought the house down.
After that, general filking. My throat and ears were miserable. Brenda Sutton explained that the hotel air was bone dry, as she wet down her drum so that the head wouldn't pop. I decided not to risk alcohol, and by the time I reconsidered, it was after midnight, so the bar near our area was closed. I gather it was slow service before, as we shared a bartender with the disco party. The disco party was fortunately inaudible in the filk room.
mnemex and I did our usual version of "Lammas Night", with him singing lead. He accidentally cut a verse, but we're thinking it wouldn't hurt to cut it deliberately. It's the one non-essential verse, basically there to build tension. And, my brain clicked on why it's better when we shift the roles. mnemex sings loudly and strongly, and I sometimes have trouble holding my own vocally, but for this song, it works rather well if my voice starts off a bit softly and builds.
Sunday: Breakfast was very nice. My timing, while annoying to mnemex, ensured maximum peace of mind to me. We left the hotel at about 11:15 or so, arriving at the bus stop by 11:45. We were waiting for a 12:30 coach, the next one being at 2:35 pm, and our flight at 6 pm. Virgin says to show up 3 hours early and won't let folks check in once it's 60 minutes before the flight.
So, first we learned that the ticket office was closed on Sunday. Then, we learned that yes, we could buy tickets on the coach -- if there were seats available. This worried me a lot less than it would have if we hadn't had an absurd amount of clearance built in. If there's a next time with the same hotel, we figure out in advance when we are leaving and buy a round trip ticket, and we spring the exhorbitant hotel fee to use an hour of Internet to book the flight online, which means it's okay to show up a mere 2 hours before the flight.
The 12:30 coach did have seats for the one stop we needed. Check in went quickly. We wandered, and we ate a yummy meal in O'Neil's. British security procedures are a bit odd. I'd called in advance to confirm that I could bring one carry on piece of luggage and a laptop, both directions, and was assured I could. But, for the security line, everything had to be in one bag, or in the pockets of a coat. This included the contents of pockets.
Then, of course, before these things went through security, I was told that the laptop had to go through separately, which is what I'd thought to begin with.
After this checkpoint was a second checkpoint solely for the purpose of screening shoes.
There were random searches at the gate. I drew the lucky number this time, and had to pull the battery from laptop and Sidekick as part of this. The woman was reasonably efficient -- and okay with my asking mnemex just how to remove the battery -- and apologized for the inconvenience at the end. mnemex thought the whole thing was absurd and that anyone talking to me for five minutes would know I had other things on my mind than sabotage or hijacking. I don't know. If I were a terrorist, I'd probably want to act about the same.
We saw The Prestige, which left a bad taste in mnemex's mouth, though he enjoyed it. He hadn't read the book. It washed out the bad taste from the novel in my mouth, as the movie has a coherent plot with a coherent ending. i should reread the book, I guess, to see how it differs.
My ears really didn't like the landing. Once down, though, we reclaimed luggage and took Air Train to subway to home. Not sure I'd want to try that for a gaming convention or a worldcon, where I carry more, but it was interesting and inexpensive.
One loose end: We still have the room key. Need to mail that back.
mnemex and I flew over to Britain for D'Zenove.D'Zenove
Thursday: We shlepped to Newark via Path, NJT, and the Air Train. I was stressed, and it was less smooth, but easier and quicker nevertheless, and far cheaper than a cab ride would have been. mnemex had checked us in ahead of time, so we had time to eat before boarding. Security was about as annoying as expected -- no one holding us up, but I took up several bins between laptop and electronics, and it took a bit of time reassembling everything.
The flight was reasonable, with quite edible food, and Virgin's usual supply of movies and the like, and a separate screen for each passenger. I didn't use that, spending most of the flight dozing. First class was odd, with each person having a small chair and a footstool, but the chair apparently folds into a bed, as the passengers were asked to put it back into chair shape for landing.
Friday: We had directions for the coach, which the driver told us not to call a bus. This part went smoothly. We had a long wait, given that the bus only ran every 2 hours, but we knew that in advance. The coach left from the airport. We decided not to pull money from an ATM. I had a 20 pound bill and a few pounds in change.
We arrived at Basingstoke in under an hour. mnemex left a book on the coach. We were at something of a loss to figure out how to get to the hotel from the bus stop -- it is still called a bus stop, right? It's a bus station at the airport, even though we took a coach.
There is a bus or a coach -- I'm not clear on which -- the #7, I think, that goes from the bus stop to the hotel, but the one that arrived wasn't heading back there. We managed to find someone to give us directions, and double checked a couple of times. Once we found London Road, the rest was easy. Follow road to roundabout. Hotel is at top of big hill.
The hotel had a lovely lunch buffet, with salmon and pate and tasty desserts. We had no trouble checking in, but the hotel only had one key per room for guests. The woman at the desk gave us a choice between 2 small beds and one large one. We chose the former, and it was indeed a single large bed, as opposed to the very nice hotel we stayed in at Birmingham for Tolkien 2005, which had a large bed made up of two beds firmly attached together.
We crashed out on the bed and woke up at about 7 pm, which was just in time for the 7:30 opening ceremonies. Then, we did dinner, which was cheaper than lunch, and nearly as nice.
After that, of course, we went filking. And, I had a beer, Trusty Servant. We crashed relatively early, like 3 am or so.
Saturday: We woke up too late for breakfast, which was deliberate. We would have rethought had we known a) breakfast was included (and I'd even thought that was the case, but forgot to ask) and b) the hotel wouldn't start lunch until 12:30. I had signed up for a Tech grasshopper slot at 1 pm, so quickly changed that to 2 pm, correctly guessing that I'd not be done with lunch by 1. Lunch was not as nice as the other meals, but this was by design, so that it would be affordable. And, "not as nice" still meant quite yummy.
The grasshopper slot is for folks who don't know how to work tech, but would like to learn. It's a good idea, and I figured signing up would ensure that I was awake and actually present at the main concert. I didn't touch any of the equipment, and my biggest contribution was a flashlight on my keychain so that Christo could see the buttons on the CD player. I figure a couple of more tech slots, and I might be trustworthy with the equipment, though I think my hearing may not be as good as it should for this sort of thing.
Grasshopper recap of Bill Sutton's intro to the equipement: All sound boards are laid out the same way. The knob on top of each row is the gain. It takes the raw sound. One doesn't usually mess with it once it's set. Too much gain can lead to blowing out equipment.
Then, there are 5 knobs. These are the EQ, I think. There's 3 levels, treble, middle stuff, and bass. 2 of them get 2 knobs, but one only gets one. I'm not sure which or why. These get mucked with if there's too much or not enough of one sound, and I think part of this has to do with how close the mouth or instrument is to the microphone allocated to it.
Then, there's a bunch of other knobs. I have no idea what they do.There's a button in each row that can be pushed to make the bunch of lights that shows how loud everything is show only how loud the thing that row indicates is.
There's a switch at the bottom of each row. That's the fader. It controls the volume after it's been mucked with by all the other knobs. Turning it up too high makes feedback, which doesn't sound very good. Sometimes, it's best to turn up the gain, and then play with the fader.
The bottom of the board had masking tape so that each row could be labelled with what it controlled. So, when
filkerdave held up two fingers over a singer and three over the guitar, that meant that the singer was using the microphone labelled "Vocal 2", and the instrument "Instrument 3" on the board. The keyboard got 2 rows, and instruments that got plugged in had a different set of rows. The most fader switches I saw indicating Stuff was for the Lost Dorsai song whose name I forget ("Music has a strong magic / With longer reach than shinning steel"), where all vocal mikes, the keyboard, and a bunch of instruments were in use.Theoretically, I had a half hour shift, but as nobody showed up to claim grasshopper position, I kept it for most of the rest of the concert.
Then, the original Three Weird Sisters performed, and if we hadn't all known that the last time they did this was in 2005, we would never have known.
After that, the theory was that there would be a 5 pm - 7 pm dinner slot. As near as I can fathom it, the hotel staff thought that meant it started at 7 pm. Possibly, they were confused by the justification on the schedule sheet, but if so, they were the only ones. A compromise was worked out, which meant that, in theory, dinner began at 6 pm. It was more like 6:30 pm, and then, only after mnemex poked his head in to say that, really, it was okay if the silverware wasn't perfect, and could we please eat?
The food was good, and
telynor went around to give the Official Conchair Apology to any who wanted it. We ate quickly, as there was not enough table space for everyone, and almost forgot to pay. We hurried back in and managed to find a staff person clueful enough to take down room number and signature from us.Mike Richard's concert came next, then Chimes, and then Lady Mondegreen brought the house down.
After that, general filking. My throat and ears were miserable. Brenda Sutton explained that the hotel air was bone dry, as she wet down her drum so that the head wouldn't pop. I decided not to risk alcohol, and by the time I reconsidered, it was after midnight, so the bar near our area was closed. I gather it was slow service before, as we shared a bartender with the disco party. The disco party was fortunately inaudible in the filk room.
mnemex and I did our usual version of "Lammas Night", with him singing lead. He accidentally cut a verse, but we're thinking it wouldn't hurt to cut it deliberately. It's the one non-essential verse, basically there to build tension. And, my brain clicked on why it's better when we shift the roles. mnemex sings loudly and strongly, and I sometimes have trouble holding my own vocally, but for this song, it works rather well if my voice starts off a bit softly and builds.
Sunday: Breakfast was very nice. My timing, while annoying to mnemex, ensured maximum peace of mind to me. We left the hotel at about 11:15 or so, arriving at the bus stop by 11:45. We were waiting for a 12:30 coach, the next one being at 2:35 pm, and our flight at 6 pm. Virgin says to show up 3 hours early and won't let folks check in once it's 60 minutes before the flight.
So, first we learned that the ticket office was closed on Sunday. Then, we learned that yes, we could buy tickets on the coach -- if there were seats available. This worried me a lot less than it would have if we hadn't had an absurd amount of clearance built in. If there's a next time with the same hotel, we figure out in advance when we are leaving and buy a round trip ticket, and we spring the exhorbitant hotel fee to use an hour of Internet to book the flight online, which means it's okay to show up a mere 2 hours before the flight.
The 12:30 coach did have seats for the one stop we needed. Check in went quickly. We wandered, and we ate a yummy meal in O'Neil's. British security procedures are a bit odd. I'd called in advance to confirm that I could bring one carry on piece of luggage and a laptop, both directions, and was assured I could. But, for the security line, everything had to be in one bag, or in the pockets of a coat. This included the contents of pockets.
Then, of course, before these things went through security, I was told that the laptop had to go through separately, which is what I'd thought to begin with.
After this checkpoint was a second checkpoint solely for the purpose of screening shoes.
There were random searches at the gate. I drew the lucky number this time, and had to pull the battery from laptop and Sidekick as part of this. The woman was reasonably efficient -- and okay with my asking mnemex just how to remove the battery -- and apologized for the inconvenience at the end. mnemex thought the whole thing was absurd and that anyone talking to me for five minutes would know I had other things on my mind than sabotage or hijacking. I don't know. If I were a terrorist, I'd probably want to act about the same.
We saw The Prestige, which left a bad taste in mnemex's mouth, though he enjoyed it. He hadn't read the book. It washed out the bad taste from the novel in my mouth, as the movie has a coherent plot with a coherent ending. i should reread the book, I guess, to see how it differs.
My ears really didn't like the landing. Once down, though, we reclaimed luggage and took Air Train to subway to home. Not sure I'd want to try that for a gaming convention or a worldcon, where I carry more, but it was interesting and inexpensive.
One loose end: We still have the room key. Need to mail that back.