Pretty Little Dead Girl — Behind the Curtain
Mark Peters has been recording filk at conventions since he
discovered fandom in the early nineties (somehow, this has become a long
time). Although his first recordings were made with a handheld Walkman
recorder, technology -- and budgets -- have come a long way since then.
He remembers a time at OVFF when he was looking over the shoulder of
Spencer Love (who was running the sound board), admiring all the fancy
knobs and sliders. Spencer saw him looking, and said, "One day, you'll
have a setup like this." Mark laughed at him.
Never let Mark predict your future, because today, you can usually find him behind his sound board at conventjons, recording to a 24-track hard disk recorder. And he's got a lot of those fancy knobs and sliders. Spencer seems to have gotten the last laugh on that one, although oddly, Mark doesn't seem to mind all that much.
Mark loves to share recordings with the filk community. While there are a few commercial projects still in his pipeline (shhhhhhhhh -- they're secret), he is most proud of a number of Interfilk special projects which have raised over $2000 for Interfilk. His recording and mix of Seanan's Toastmistress concert at OVFF 2005 became Pretty Little Dead Girl. In an indication of how far the technology has come, that mix was done on Saturday night at OVFF, and no additional work or cleanup was needed. Mark has succumbed since then, becoming a member of the OVFF concom. Though he has been the primary sound person at OVFF and Marcon (a Columbus general con) for at least five years, he wishes to thank all his helpers who make everything run smoothly. Please don't kill him in the night, guys.
Like much of male fandom, Mark falls into the 'big guy, beard, works with computers' category. He recently returned to school for an Associate's degree (in computers) and graduated class valedictorian. Go Mark!
Christopher 'Chris' Mangum (also known to readers of Seanan's humor
column, A Phouka Walks Into A Bar, as 'Chris the Taxi Whore) was
not allowed to write his own bio, despite being the webmaster for this
site. As Seanan knows where he sleeps and often expresses her displeasure
with sharp things, he was also not allowed to rewrite or accidentally
delete his bio. So ha.
Born in Texas, Chris had the good sense and good fortune to relocate to California at a reasonably early age. Seanan has done her best to recreate his roots for him by putting him into as many situations involving poisonous snakes and spiders as possible; Chris has been singularly ungrateful for this honor, yet continues to drive her around. This may be all that saves his life. He also does her web design and maintains the site, which lets him be alpha geek without any of that pesky chest-beating or the need for twenty crates of Red Bull.
The cover, liner note, and disk design for Pretty Little Dead Girl was entirely the doing of the fabulous Mister Mangum, who put up with Seanan's tendency to peer over his shoulder (at least until he sensibly distracted her with Kingdom Hearts). He was also forced to attend pretty much all rehearsals for the original concert, which may well have earned him a certain level of sainthood.
Chris has a lot of empty Diet Dr Pepper bottles in his car, even though he can't drink the stuff.
Beckett Gladney is one of those sweet, elegant, effortlessly
comforting people who makes life better just by being a part of the
universe. The wife of Paul Kwinn, aka, 'the primary guitarist on
Pretty Little Dead Girl', Beckett tolerated not only the repeated
thefts of her husband for this project, but frequent home invasions by
groups of roving musicians looking for a place to practice. The fact that
she didn't just shoot them all is truly a testiment to her glories.
An artist whose work has graced the covers of multiple CDs throughout the filk world, when asked to supply a cover for Seanan's 2005 poetry chapbook, Leaves from the Babylon Wood, Beckett came through with a piece of breathtaking black and white art that left Seanan squealing and clapping her hands like a six year old confronted with a gingerbread house. (Beckett did not attempt to shove Seanan in an oven and eat her. Just so it's said.)
To make this more impressive, Beckett proceeded to figure out how one hand-binds a poetry chapbook, and did exactly that, stitching all twenty copies of Leaves together by hand with a needle and waxed thread. That's a sign of either dedication or insanity, folks, and nobody's really entirely certain which one it was.
The mother of twin boys, Beckett doesn't sleep much, but when she has time to do things other than chase after her sons, she can be found at www.artbeco.com. The gallery there is truly amazing. Check it out.
Mary Bertke was the Ohio Valley Filk
Festival Head of Programming in 2005, the year in which Seanan was
their Toastmistress and Pretty Little Dead Girl wound up being
recorded. This means that it was Mary who got to field all the exciting
questions, like 'can we run timed trials to see how long it takes to get
Seanan into a prom dress?' and 'is it okay if there's stripping?'. She
handled all this with good grace, and, so far as we know, without alcohol.
Mary spends her life running many directions at once. These directions occasionally snap back together into a unified whole, causing some people to speculate that some of the sonic booms attributed to jets are actually the sound of Mary stopping for rest. In no particular order, Mary is a singer, braider, dancer, Irish musician, filker, wanderer, songwriter, technical writer, trainer, reader, spinner, knitter, kayaker, adventurer, raving fangirl, and member of Lady Mondegreen. Supposedly, she sleeps. There has been little actual evidence of this.
Although Mary doesn't appear on Pretty Little Dead Girl -- she was too busy making the convention actually happen -- she belongs to the Irish folk band, Aisling, and is on their recently released CD, The Pilgrim's Road. Mary plays the banjo, but we try not to hold that against her overly much, since she's quite nice otherwise. As Mary mostly sings folk and Irish songs, rather than actual filk, she doesn't sing much in open circles. If you want to hear her, ask!
When we say 'braider', we mean that. Mary braids hair as an art form, and her braiding website can be found at www.braidedimage.com.
Allison Durno is one-third of the filk trio Urban Tapestry, a group
whose music, wit, and overall geekiness has earned them well-deserved
recognition within the filk community. But beyond that, Allison is a
sweet, entertaining, fascinating friend, and while she doesn't appear on
Pretty Little Dead Girl -- sadly, she was unable to attend the
convention on the year when it was recorded -- she was still a vital part
of the preparations that led up to that year's OVFF.
Many people are unaware of the fact that Seanan also put out a book of poetry in 2005 (Leaves from the Babylon Wood, discussed in more detail in the bio for Beckett Gladney, above). Because of this, many people are also unaware that the book's introduction was penned by none other than the amazing Allison Durno, who answered Seanan's meek request for some sort of intro with a piece that brought tears to our resident blonde's eyes. So points to Allison.
A musician since grade school, Allison currently resides in Richmond Hill, Ontario, where she teaches elementary school (fifth grade) and passes her love for life and music on to new generations. Her home is shared with a husband, John, a cat, Edward, more books than some small town libraries, a great deal of cross-stitch, and a lot of love. She's been a part of the filk community since the mid-eighties, which has somehow become an awful long time.
Allison is also very fond of the works of some dead British dude with a thing for hobbits. We don't know. You can follow Urban Tapestry (and hence, Allison) at http://www.urbantapestry.org/.
Martha 'Mars' Hage does not actually appear on this recording,
although you can probably find a picture of her in the actual liner notes,
if you look hard enough. No, her involvement was of a more stealthy,
subtle sort, and was all the more important for being so easy to overlook.
You see, she...suggested. She...recommended. She...nudged on occasion.
And she, most of all, provided the support, comfort, and friendship that
was so very necessary to keep Seanan from losing her tiny little mind.
What's left of it, anyway.
It may seem that this implies that nothing on Pretty Little Dead Girl is actually Mars's fault. Nothing could be further from the truth. You see, many of Seanan's songs are based on RPGs, or roleplaying games, in which she has taken part. Call it a little quirk of creative leanings, or call it a muse with a sick sense of humor; whatever you call it, if she games with you, she's likely to set it to music. And Mars, in addition to being a dearly beloved friend, has been gaming with Seanan for the better part of a decade.
Still not seeing why this places blame? Try this on for size: not only was Mars one of the driving forces behind The Watcher Diaries: Martin's Passage, she was the player of Ole Ryan, aka, 'the male half of the duet in 'River Lies''. Yes, that Ole, and he can be blamed entirely on her. Which kinda explains why we keep her around, because she can be counted on to bring the awesome, just like that.
Mars lives in Wisconsin with her husband, Jens, and daughter, Kat. Her planetary nom de plume was the result of her saying, in Seanan's hearing, that no one had ever successfully given her a nickname. She has not, as yet, said 'no one has ever successfully given me a pony' where Seanan could hear.
But we're waiting.
Phil Ames is not a singer. Does not play any instruments (that
we're aware of). Is not really a musician. So what does Phil play?
Well, among a lot of other people, Phil plays Harry Marshall. The picture
you see here is a reasonably accurate representation of dear Phil's
reaction to hearing 'Sycamore Tree' for the first time. Live. In
concert. In a room full of people he didn't know. With no warning.
Never having seen the lyrics or having been told what the song was about.
Yeah. Did we mention that being friends with Seanan should really come
with hazard pay?
Eight out of eleven tracks on Pretty Little Dead Girl can be either directly or indirectly blamed on Phil. As the creator and primary GM for The Watcher Diaries: Martin's Passage, he was entirely responsible for the setting which has been the basis for Seanan's largest song cycle to date. As a player in several other games, he's been wholly or partially responsible for the inspiration behind a lot of other songs. You may use this as justification for either buying Phil drinks or throwing things at him. Just please don't kill him. He's more entertaining alive.
Phil resides somewhere in that big middle part of the country that Seanan tries not to think about too much, since it's all flat and away from the ocean. (Accuracy demands that we admit that there are supposedly states there; the imaginary 'state' Phil lives in is called 'Oklahoma', which everyone knows was really a musical. Next he'll probably move to 'Children of Eden' or 'Jekyll and Hyde'.) He continues to do things we all wind up blaming him for later, which is probably for the best, as he's at least keeping Seanan distracted.
Phil does not want a hug.
More to come soon...