tfabris: (Default)
tfabris ([personal profile] tfabris) wrote2008-04-30 02:53 pm

It's Sereniversary time again!



Wayward gig, Saturday, June 14th, just added to the calendar! And there was much rejoicing. This one falls one week before the Sereniversary annual Equality Now charity screening of Serenity. And if you don't know what that is, add a comment here and surely a bunch of folks will set you straight.

Last time we were at the Wayward, I was introduced to at least a few people who had been dragged there kicking and screaming by one of our regulars. Lo and behold, the newbies enjoyed themselves! Go figure! I was very gleeful about this. Thanks for spreading the love!

So I have a challenge to all of the Wayward regulars: Bring a newbie this time! June 14th will officially be "Bring a Newbie to Wayward" day. Or perhaps "Scare the Mundanes" day, depending on who you bring. Which is wonderful in its own way. Either way, let's have some fun!

By the way, Vixy, with help from our friend and fan JT, has set up a mailing list where we'll be announcing events like this, among other things. Sign up!

[identity profile] tithonium.livejournal.com 2008-04-30 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
do you have a shared google calendar for your gigs? might be useful for people who wanna subscribe to the .ics
ext_3294: Tux (firefox)

[identity profile] technoshaman.livejournal.com 2008-04-30 10:45 pm (UTC)(link)
You did warn Bronwyn you were gonna do this challenge? Because she's liable to bust a fire code.... :) :) :)

Consider y'self warned. :)

[identity profile] tfabris.livejournal.com 2008-04-30 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I just got done writing a screen-scraper for the web site so that I only had to update the gig dates in one place (MySpace). Now you want me to add another calendar to update? :-)

I do think the idea of a shared Google calendar is good for many things. I just discovered one called "Cons" that I'm really interested in seeing flourish. I'm not convinced it's right for me and Vixy's every-couple-of-months schedule though. I'll think on it.

Would anyone else find it incredibly useful for us to make (and tediously update) a shared Google calendar for our gigs? Let me rephrase that. Would anyone else learn about our gigs (or be more likely to attend) that way, but wouldn't through our current announcement methods?

[identity profile] tithonium.livejournal.com 2008-04-30 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I assume myspace can't import a calendar elsewhere. 'cause, you know, silos are the future of data.

Gimmie a URL, I can scrape it into an ics. I did it with the Spot's calendars, I can do it with yours.

[identity profile] tithonium.livejournal.com 2008-04-30 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
http://www.martian.at/calendar/VixyAndTony.ics

It updates every morning at 3am, scraping the myspace page.

[identity profile] tfabris.livejournal.com 2008-04-30 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Dude.

DUDE.

DUUUUUDE.

That is so very awesome.

I'll add it to our web site this evening. Gotta run at the moment, but...

DOOOOOOOOOD.

:)

[identity profile] tithonium.livejournal.com 2008-04-30 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, I'm embarrassed that it took me 28 minutes to do that. Let's see.. three minutes to find the calendar I wanted to scrape and figure out the structure.. 5 of testing and cleaning up the data.. that's 20 minutes of reworking the spot scraper code to work on this. Man, I'm so off my game it's not even funny. ::(

[identity profile] mathochist.livejournal.com 2008-05-01 03:13 am (UTC)(link)
You have the Spot's calendars in ics? Where, where? Would you mind if I used that? I've been keeping a separate Google calendar for Spot events, but I fall way behind on updating it.

[identity profile] tithonium.livejournal.com 2008-05-01 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
Had. I wrote a scraper several years ago, back when it was still at http://wetspot.org/schedule.htm. I haven't updated it since it became CSPC. Some day perhaps I will.

[identity profile] tfabris.livejournal.com 2008-05-01 06:22 am (UTC)(link)
Very awesome. What did you write it in? Is it something I can actually host on Cyphertext itself (or any web server for that matter) with fairly little trouble?

I know that since Cyphertext is currently in the same room with whatever server is running your script, that's a somewhat silly distinction at the moment. But I like futureproofing stuff before the future becomes the present. Even if that future is only theoretical.

[identity profile] science-vixen.livejournal.com 2008-05-01 10:23 am (UTC)(link)
Have you considered making a themed album of the live performances at the Sereniversary?

[identity profile] tithonium.livejournal.com 2008-05-01 02:32 pm (UTC)(link)
It's a simple perl script that spits out an .ics file. depends on a few standard libraries, nothing major.

[identity profile] tfabris.livejournal.com 2008-05-01 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Absolutely. We've done it twice already, once for last year's Sereniversary, and once for our Holiday gig last year. Our friend John Seghers, who does sound for us, recorded and mixed them.

We chose to make those items unique collector's editions, with a print-run of only one copy each (not counting the personal copies made for John, Broenwynn, and us). The discs in question were each auctioned off to benefit Interfilk. Each of them brought in a significant amount of money for Interfilk, and we're very happy to support them in this way.

We're likely to continue doing it this way in the future, since it's worked out so well. If you want one, the only way to get one is to come to a Filk con for which we've created one of these, and then bid in the Interfilk voice auction. Oh, and win the bid. :-)

I'm considering taking one or two tracks from these albums and making them available for free download eventually.

[identity profile] tfabris.livejournal.com 2008-05-01 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Awesome. Thanks so much for doing it! The more I think about it, the more I think that, for now, it's best if the script resides with you in case it needs maintenance due to MySpace changing somehow. I need to learn Perl, but it's not in my repertoire yet.

[identity profile] science-vixen.livejournal.com 2008-05-01 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
the only way to get one is to come to a Filk con for which we've created one of these

Though I'd love taking a a week off and spending a more than $1000 to attend a con for a weekend in the US (and that's just airfare), it's highly unlikely.

It's tempting though...

[identity profile] science-vixen.livejournal.com 2008-05-01 03:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Interfilk desperately* needs to expand it's borders though.

*) That might be my desperation not theirs.

[identity profile] tithonium.livejournal.com 2008-05-01 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Here's the source, if you want to study: http://martian.at/other/vixyandtony.pl.txt

[identity profile] slantiness.livejournal.com 2008-05-02 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Don't forget to add the cost of the CD to the cost of the con, the last vixy and tony live CD went for...what was it? It was over 300, wasn't it?

[identity profile] science-vixen.livejournal.com 2008-05-02 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
You know. If they just do an album with all the proceeds going to interfilk, that would raise much more. I mean. They're good for more then 50 albums at $6 profit right?

One order right here. Can I have 49 other volunteers?