Filk

DucKon is proud to present our filk guest of honor Talis Kimberley.

HOTEL FILK LOUNGE / PIZZA PARTY + DEAD DUCK FILK

After you get your reservation for the hotel, Jan will work with the hotel liaison to put your room near the filk lounge on the 4th floor. She will need the name on the reservation to do this.

Sunday night the Jan and Betsey host a prepaid deep dish pizza party in the Filk Suite. Afterwards there will be a DEAD DUCK FILK until 1:00 am. Consider staying at the hotel on Sunday night to make your trip home safe.

FILK FUND items now available online!

You may now purchase FILK FUND items at the DucKon Online Store. This link will be available all year. You may put a membership in your cart!

DucKon FILK FUND

This fund was created to enhance DucKon's already awesome FILK program. Funds are used to bring in special guests and to help some filkers in need of support. DucKon has graciously set up the sale of FILK FUND items online by credit card year round. You can also get your membership with or without a filk fund purchase. All items are also available from Jan at Gafilk, Confusion, Capricon, Filkontario, DucKon, OVFF, Archon, and Windycon at reduced prices. (Basically, if Jan is there, you should be able to buy these things from her.)

FILK FUND products:

  • Seanan McGuire DucKon 2009 concert, DVD or CD, $20.00.
  • Vixy & Tony DucKon 2009 concert, DVD or CD, $20.00.
  • Acoustic/Electric - a fun hour long skit on DVD from 2008, $10.00. Not available online - contact Jan for purchase at filk@duckon.org. The liner notes may be seen here.
  • Murry - Frank - Michael in concert from 2007, CD $20.00. Several hard to find songs in this concert. Use This Link to see the liner notes.
    Murry - Frank - Michael in concert DVD is no longer available. Thank you for you past purchases.
  • Scorpio - a 2 CD set of a filk from 1987, $25.00. Use This Link to see the liner notes for the Scorpio CDs.
  • We also have a limited number of Scorpio 2 CD sets that have been signed by Julia EcKlar, Sheila Willis, and Linda Melnick. These special CD sets are available for a donation of $200.

Most FILK FUND items may be purchased at the DucKon Online Store.

Watch this space for other FILK FUND items that you will want to have in your collection!

The DucKon Filk committee is very grateful for your generosity to the FILK FUND. Please donate or make a purchase.

Orchestra

Filk Links

For all your general filk questions please visit http://www.filking.net/filkfaq/ this wonderful site has answers to your questions and lots of links to other filk areas.

Another good resource is the Interfilk web site, http://www.interfilk.org. Although it hasn't been updated in a while, it has links to filk cons and a very nice and comprehensive list of "What *is* filk?" resources linked to from their main page.

Live journal is where a lot of filkers hang out and talk about their life. You can often find links to their live journal pages from their personal web pages. You can also check Live Journal's "friends" links for one and find several others that way....

Check out Some Past Filk GOHs and other DucKon Friends...

Capsule Bios...

Additional bios can be found here.

Dancing Duck! Brooke Lunderville

Pharmacist by day, troublemaker by night
Be warned, Brooke is wandering the halls with a banjo. Few can resist or provide an accurate description to the police of the charms of her touching, heartfelt, extremely serious songs about dry-cleaning, LiveJournal, and the Giant Squid. Her band "Brooke vs. John" is releasing their first album this year – Steel Cage Match. Her concert at DucKon represents a rare solo appearance, and she is planning to wear twice as many silly hats to celebrate the occasion.

Dancing Duck! Riverfolk

Riverfolk is a folk group, based Minneapolis but performing as far afield as Winnipeg, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago. Chas Somdahl and Becca Allen feature tight harmonies and skilled instrumentals on songs that are familiar, songs that are less than familiar, and songs you won't hear anywhere else. Performing a little blues, country and even a couple of show tunes, Riverfolk are repeat visitors to Duckon, and can now Meander into your living room on their first CD.

Dancing Duck! Tom Smith

The World’s Fastest Filker
With the lyrical complexity of Ashman and Sondheim, the vocal fireworks of Meat Loaf, the comedic timing of Robin Williams, and the dynamic physique of the Skipper from Gilligan's Island, the only thing Tom won't be is boring. No one alive combines the musical chops, the bizarre yet somehow plausible premises, the catchy tunes, and the barrage of godawful puns that Tom brings to the table. And no one is likelier to break your heart with one song, your head with the next, and your funny bone with the one after that. He has released seven albums and received fourteen Pegasus Awards for excellence in filking.

Dancing Duck! Mark Ewbank

Mark Ewbank started playing guitar in his mid-20s. Although he has always enjoyed making up his own words to existing songs, he was only formally introduced to filk at Archon in St. Louis a few years ago.

Dancing Duck! ToyBoat

This filk rock group made their concert debut at DucKon last year. Described as "filk gone horribly right", they've been performing at cons across the upper Midwest since then. Their performances to date have been marked by outbreaks of dancing and clapping, and a (surprising) dearth of torch-waving hordes. Will this be the con that breaks that streak? Be there to find out!

Dancing Duck! Eric Coleman

Eric Coleman is a semi-reformed ex-punk rocker from Iowa, who has moved on to develop an acoustic folk style that is uniquely his own. A frequent performer at Duckon, he has also appeared at other regional conventions, and his music has been heard on the Dr. Demento show. He has two albums out and is hard at work on a third.

Dancing Duck! Samuel Travis Clemmons

Samuel T. Clemmons was born in Central Kentucky and resided in the city of Lexington before meeting the love of his life right here at DucKon several years ago. He now lives in the Chicago metro area and during the past few years has won several awards for his story telling performances and comedy routines. Titles of his routines include: Mark Twain: The Time Traveler and Python University.

Dancing Duck! The Black Book Band

It's taken them ten years to recover from the Brain Weasels tour, but they're back. They haven't performed together in seven years, but they're back. Their members have been scattered to the four winds, or at least three different states, but they're back. So who are they, you ask? Well, Michael Kube McDowell is an author, Gwen Zak McDowell is a professional mother, Barry Childs-Helton is a folklorist, Sally Childs-Helton is an ethnomusicologist, and Mary Ellen Wessels is a proto-teacher (otherwise known as graduate student). Together, they rock hard - and loudly. Come hear them blow the roof off the house!

Dancing Duck! Wild Mercy

Wild Mercy - also known as "Three Women and a Giraffe" - is an Indiana-based Celtic Folk Fusion group comprising Barry Childs-Helton, Sally Childs-Helton, Debbie Gates, and Jennifer Midkiff. They take guitar (Barry, Debbie), bass (Barry, Jen), harp (Jen), keyboards (Debbie), assorted percussion (Sally, Debbie), and voices (Barry, Jen, Debbie) and weave them into a full sound that runs the gamut from traditional folk pieces to rock-influenced folk to original music.

Dancing Duck! Three Parts Invention

Susan Urban is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Chicago who writes story and slice of life songs. Sandy Andina is a professional folksinger from Chicago who has performed and recorded at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Ingrid Frances Stark is a singer, songwriter, artist, and poet from Wisconsin. Together, they're Three Parts Invention, and completely unforgettable.

Dancing Duck! Rob Middleton

What can I say? The man is a pirate. There's usually at least one in every crew, singing chanteys. Rob has been such for longer that I've known music existed. Rob is also involved in the Chicago traditional folk music scene and works as the musical chair of the Cotswold Renaissance Faire when he is not performing either by himself or with his band CrossRougues. Come see him; it's Sing Like A Pirate Day.

Dancing Duck! Randy Hoffman

After spending too many years in college, Randy Hoffman spent even more years writing manuals for keyboard/video/mouse switches. Along the way, he discovered science fiction fandom and filk music. He’s now a technical editor for Westinghouse Nuclear Systems Engineering, has written more than 150 songs, and has run the music track at Pittsburgh’s Confluence for over a decade.

Dancing Duck! Kathy Mar

Kathy Mar started her professional music career as a street singer and folk artist in the clubs and coffeehouses of Denver and environs, where she discovered filk and filk discovered her. Kathy has won seven Pegasus awards and was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in only the second year of its existence. She is opinionated, very approachable, a little shy, and loves what she does with her whole being. She is infamous for keeping the Saturday filk at every convention she attends going until dawn and sometimes beyond.

Dancing Duck! Stone Dragons

Stone Dragons is the duo of Tom and Sue Jeffers. Recently married, they have recently started performing together. Tom is familiar to Duckon audiences as half of Dandelion Wine, our 2002 Filk GoHs.

Dancing Duck! Phil Mills

Phil describes himself as an "Old fogey F&SF fan" with a taste for musical variety and a habit of letting weirdness escape into his music. Although he was only introduced to filk in the summer of 2004, that introduction inspired him to pick up a guitar, write songs, and generally reach a new level of obsession about musical things. His first CD, Rain on the Sand, is now available.

Dancing Duck! Amy McNally

Amy McNally (also known as Amy McFiddler) is that chick with the hair, in a skirt and no shoes, who sits on the floor with a violin and a stash of Pixy Stix. She’s been hanging around filk circles for at least nine years, and has been playing fiddle for a couple of decades. She’s been sighted singing with Lady Mondegreen, and on recordings with Wild Mercy, Seanan McGuire, Adam Selzer, and other assorted musicians and rogues. Amy does folk, Celtic, and historical music too, but considers herself a filker first. She currently lives in the Midwest, and likes Doctor Who, sugar, roller coasters, single malt, books, and pie, although maybe not all at once.

Dancing Duck! Graham Leathers

Clever, witty, sometimes sentimental, often satirical and always whimsical, this stuff will put a smile on your face, a laugh in your belly and a tap in your toe. Graham delivers an eclectic blend of styles ranging from blues to rock to traditional Celtic, Bluegrass and contemporary folk music. Graham attributes most of his influences to Stan Rogers, Steve Goodman, Spike Jones and Bugs Bunny. He plays guitar, 5-string banjo, bodhran and fills in the cracks with a bit of keyboard. Blessed with a quick wit, a playful sense of the whimsy as well as a more touching side, Graham promises a musical romp you won’t regret.

Contact

Contact Jan at filk@duckon.org for FILK ROOM BLOCKING. Be close to the filk suite and all of the filk guests.

DucKon 19 is being held at the wonderful Holiday Inn Select, located at 1801 N. Naper Blvd., next to the Naperville Road Exit off of I-88, west of Downtown Chicago. The number for the hotel is: 1-630-505-4900.
 
DucKon is an activity and fund raiser for Super-Con-Duck-Tivity, a non-profit organization under 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Proceeds from DucKon go to support the Golden Duck Awards for Excellence in Children's Science Fiction Literature. Donations to Super-Con-Duck-Tivity are considered tax deductible. Please note that only the amount above and beyond the amount paid for services or items is tax deductible. The price of membership to DucKon is not deductible. Direct donations (cash or merchandise) are considered to be deductible according to the IRS. Please keep this in mind as you complete your taxes. #D19 flyer v1 - 9-28-09
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