Hey, back from Conflikt! They were in a new hotel this year, and the social flow of the convention really benefitted from the new room geometry. Thanks to Dave “Salad of Doom” Tinney, I gained like three pounds despite not eating out once, and it is a damned good thing he’s not cooking for me regularly, that’s all I can say.

What kind of convention is it? It’s the kind of convention where I end up doing excerpts from musical theatre at 1am Monday morning, that’s what kind. (I still have glitter stands in my hair, but that’s okay.)

Not that late yet, but pretty damn late
photo jen_kalea

Also the kind where I got to catch up with a bunch of people I don’t see very often, like Allegra and John and Heather and Ben and Shaddyr and all these people I’ve now met a few times at events and really like! but whose names are right now just gone, like Guitar Player With Memory Issues Like Mine, and Not Sue But Reminds Me Of Her from Georgia, and like the solo I was going to play on stage on Sunday morning.

…which was actually kind of funny; I joined an instaband to play a Blind Lemming Chiffon comedy song about Thing from The Addams Family, and his unhappiness about his career. They wanted a zouk solo, which I never do because I’m normally playing out alone, so I stole one of Tom Schultz’s guitar solos from “Peace of Mind,” which is a song about careerism, and the kind of joke only people at conventions like this would get.

Anyway, I’m up there, and the bridge comes around, and I hit the first note…

…and it is gone. The whole solo is out of my brain. BYE! So I go, “uh” and just start improvising in key, in the right rhythm. “Is this it? Nope. Is this it? Nope. Is it comin’ back? … … … Nope! Have I played enough notes yet? … Yes! Outro!” And we’re into verse three.

So that was kind of hilarious, but to the wrong people, namely, us. The audience didn’t know anything was wrong, they even thought it was kinda cool.

But hey, I survived my first on-stage zouk solo. Everybody wins! XD

Anyway, that was fun. And both exhausting and energising, so I’m wiped out, but in that good kind of way. But now, back to work!