I guess I'm not sure where the exasperation is coming from.

blink

I'm not exasperated. I'm just being realistic. There are a bunch of math fans in here, do the math: If this party goes, what, eight to midnight? Four hours. The music suggested goes all the way over that. Plus, you want to add swing dancing, belly dancing and Bollywood musicals to the basic mix, you're talking about a kind of long division that simply doesn't worK; it leaves you with a negative number.

Plus, Nic just read over my shoulder and had a few things to say about bringing guitars into that particular scenario. Granted he's just woken up and is grunting rather than articulating, the words in question were still pithy and not encouraging at all.

Plus, again, Drew is not going to be pilloried at the computer all night, playing requests for me, or honestly, for anyone else. Let the boy dance.

So I'm thinking, he has a shitload of suggestions from people. My own suggestion is, load up a mini-iPod or whatever with about seventy five songs, hook the sucker up, and let it go shuffle. That's what I'm planning to do with my own iPod, because I can't and don't dance to stuff my body doesn't vibe to.

But that is not - repeat, NOT - a passive-aggressive request of any kind. I've got my stuff on a teeny little 30 gigabyte MP3 player that will fit in my reticule. I've also got headphones. If I feel the need to relax into the music and dance, I can swirl off into a corner out under the stars, and dance there. Trust me, aint no hardship involved.

edit: Forgot: ND, when you're up and about, can you e me or Nic with just what's needed for amplification for the room?

The past patttern has been an iTunes playlist with a reasonable set of songs playing based on requests I get. My master library is hooked up to the machine, so if folks feel so inclined then they can walk up to iTunes, track down a song, and slide it into the rotation as they please. I'll take everything that's been suggested and try to work it into the rotation. I've got a healthy bit of Bollywood already, I know I have some swing, I've even got Asian Rock Fusion if we want that as well as some great canadian music about trees and rocks. There will be some classic rock in the mix, in the past I know I've had both The Kinks and The Beatles in the mix, I'm planning at least one cut by The Stones, and have been plannning to do that for months. It's actuallly on my To Do list to hit the record shop and buy a bunch of Stones CD's to fill in that gap in my collection.

I'll take everything that's been suggested and try to work it into the rotation.

ND, you're swell. Seriously. This group is big, with eclectic, far-ranging tastes, and you've managed to keep us happy at every F2F so far.

ND, perfect.

Like I said, e me - or Nic, or Matt - with the PA req, and we'll put the needed system together for you. We can do a soundcheck long enough in advance to tweak it.

deb insent

Got it, bebe, and just replied so that I could get Nic into the email stream. That's his work addy, though, and he's presently sitting at his home computer, so he won't get back to you until later, because he can't access his work mail from here.

Bottom line? No problem.

So, guess what Pete got us for his birthday?

A SF2F graphic designed specifically for mugs!

DAYUM.

That is one honkin' pretty graphic, there.

Holy crap, Pete. That art is friggin' GORGEOUS.

packs Sharpie marker

I'm having mine SIGNED.