2001: A Space Opera
The Committee
The Conthirteena committee consists of Miki Dennis, Jon and Janet Waite, and Mike Richards. It's not entirely clear who is to blame; Mike keeps blaming his email program (for torturous reasons), and since all four of them have done it before (either Harmonix or Decadence) they can't plead ignorance. In any case, they are:
Miki Dennis (Hotel Liaison)
Michelle Dennis was a folk singer before she discovered filk, and she first encountered that late at night after medieval revels and Unicons more years ago than she cares to remember. She was sitting in a bar in Brighton when some people she knew by sight started writing this 'Smilk' song and let her join in. Luckily she had to go and do some costuming and thus avoided the infamous performance that directly led to Contabile! However, since then she has been known to stand up and sing her own material in public at filkcons, as well as continuing to read poetry at folk evenings.
Jon 'Zander Nyrond' Waite (Guest Liaison)
Some people need no introduction, particularly when I don't enough of his early history, except that it involved presenting 'one or two' songs at a Wiggle. Zander has been a leading member of UK filk fandom for a long time, with a reputation for beautiful originals as well as wicked parodies - few people are capable of writing a parody in the time it takes the circle to get round to them, but Zander can. His best known song must be the classic (and 'all time great') Sam's Song, but his 'little' book of filks demonstrates the wide variety and large quantity of his output.
Janet 'Countess Axylides' Waite (Programming)
The Countess is the hostess of the twice-yearly 'Nycon' house parties, as well as an accomplished lyricist (a significant number of Zander's original tunes go with her lyrics).
Mike Richards (Membership and Treasurer)
Mike started out reading military SF at an early age, then any SF or fantasy he could get hold of. He played clarinet and piano a little before going to university to do mathematics, where he ended up serving on the committee of an undergraduate society for six years. In his final year there, he discovered filk fandom, and went to Transept after hearing who the guest of honour was. The first filker he heard live was Phil Allcock (does it show?) Since discovering the harp at Decadence, he has been doing fewer parodies and more original songs, and generously letting people try out Enwyn, his harp - with the evil intent of making people want to buy one... two... seven...