Not filk, but filkers (or coders) might be interested...


New Sounds (newsounds.org) is a genre-defying series that started as
late-night programming on New York Public Radio, exploring less-common
music -- anything from the oldest musics to the latest avant-garde, solo
to orchestral to synth to vocal... Basically, it it's something good
that will be new to most people, John and company will consider it. They haven't done filk or other fannish musics yet, though some if the cross-cultural collisions and invented instruments verge on the steampunk-inspired bands I've heard. There's a themed episode every day, sometimes repeats but lots of new material; John and company are still discovering new performers and new recordings, and they're tied into the
New York new-music scene, recording performances at Bang On A Can as
well as hosting their own series of public performances and in-studio
sessions.

They have a podcast feed, but it wasn't always up to date, and it didn't
give access to the 40 years (4000 episodes!) of archived shows on their website... So I've written a smart-speaker skill to explore their
offerings. It's still very much in development, and so far is Alexa-only
though I'm hoping to enable Google support soon. It can also access
their live stream, which has much the same mix of musics but mostly
without John's descriptions of what we're listening to and why it's
worth paying attention to (though it does include episodes of the show too).

If this sounds interesting, you're invited to alpha-test the Alexa
skill. Just tell me you're interested and give me the E-mail address
associated with your Alexa account. Note that this doesn't absolutely
require you have Alexa hardware; it can be run from a tablet or phone
that has the Alexa app installed.

And if you're interested in how it works, the JavaScript code has been
checked into Github as kubycsolutions/new-sounds-on-demand. Note that I
started this not knowing Alexa programming, not knowing the libraries
I'm using, and in fact barely knowing JavaScript, so I'm sure the code
isn't idiomatic for any of them, and it's "whittled" code so the
organization is less than optimal.

Feedback on either functionality or implementation is welcome, of
course. There's a fairly long wishlist of things I still want to do with
it, including. But it's a more complete example than I'd found
elsewhere, and I at least think it's a fun toy and good listening.

The producers are aware of it, so I'm hoping it may someday graduate to
being official. For now it's strictly skunkworks.

Anyway, thought some of you might be interested in either the code or
the music.


"We now return you to your regularly scheduled conversation."

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(Apologies for the editing glitches in that, but you get the idea.)

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On 10/9/21 11:35 AM, Joe Kesselman wrote:

If this sounds interesting, you're invited to alpha-test the Alexa
skill. Just tell me you're interested and give me the E-mail address associated with your Alexa account. Note that this doesn't absolutely
require you have Alexa hardware; it can be run from a tablet or phone
that has the Alexa app installed.

The series sounds interesting, but the only Alexa I'd let into my house
is Alexa Klettner. :)

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

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In Message-ID:<sjshta$3a9$1@dont-email.me>,
Gary McGath <garym@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:

The series sounds interesting, but the only Alexa I'd let into my house
is Alexa Klettner. :)

[Original and reply retyped from a picture of text found on the WWW:]

I work in IT, which is the reason our house has:
mechanical locks
mechanical windows
routers using OpenWRT
no smart home crap
no Alexa/Google Assistant/...
no internet connected thermostats

[to which someone replied:]

Tech Enthusiasts: Everything in my house is wired to the Internet of
Things! I control it all from my smartphone! My smart-house is
bluetooth enabled and I can give it voice commands via Alexa! I love
the future!

Programmers/Engineers: The most recent piece of technology I own is a
printer from 2004 and I keep a loaded gun ready to shoot it if it
ever makes an unexpected noise.

--
Arthur T. - ar23hur "at" pobox "dot" com

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The series sounds interesting, but the only Alexa I'd let into my house
is Alexa Klettner. :)

You can explore the show and stream (and a few related shows) via the
website at https://newsounds.org, or by listening to the WNYC stream at appropriate times (11PM most nights, midnight on Saturday-into-Sunday).
I just wanted the hands-free control for convenient time-shifting... and
wanted to contribute back with more than membership dollars.

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On 10/9/2021 4:07 PM, Arthur T. wrote:

I work in IT, which is the reason our house has:
mechanical <etc/>

I worked in software development for 40 years and have a hardware
background, which is the reason that my house has an industrial-quality firewall and a carefully isolated subnet for home automation -- and the
home automation is not used anywhere mission-critical.

Granted, when it comes to computer security, paranoia is not enough. But
I understand exactly what trade-offs I'm accepting. I mean, being a part
time locksmith I know how to secure my physical property ridiculously
tightly, but realistically I don't need that overkill; all I need to be
is secure enough that attackers won't waste their time on me when I'm surrounded by easier and more rewarding targets.

Pick the trade-offs that suit your willingness to pay for/maintain them
vs. their convenience, entertainment value, or other benefits. Your
thresholds will differ from mine, and that's OK.

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Joe Kesselman <keshlam.cat.nospam@verizon.net> writes:

They have a podcast feed, but it wasn't always up to date, and it
didn't give access to the 40 years (4000 episodes!) of archived shows
on their website... So I've written a smart-speaker skill

Are the archived shows easily accessible some other way? Otherwise, how
about uploading them (if it is ok with the show) to archive.org? They
have a huge audio collection of things like this.

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On Sat, 9 Oct 2021 21:55:15 -0400, Joe Kesselman <keshlam.cat.nospam@verizon.net> wrote:

On 10/9/2021 4:07 PM, Arthur T. wrote:

I work in IT, which is the reason our house has:
mechanical <etc/>

I worked in software development for 40 years and have a hardware
background, which is the reason that my house has an industrial-quality >firewall and a carefully isolated subnet for home automation -- and the
home automation is not used anywhere mission-critical.

Granted, when it comes to computer security, paranoia is not enough. But
I understand exactly what trade-offs I'm accepting. I mean, being a part
time locksmith I know how to secure my physical property ridiculously >tightly, but realistically I don't need that overkill; all I need to be
is secure enough that attackers won't waste their time on me when I'm >surrounded by easier and more rewarding targets.

Pick the trade-offs that suit your willingness to pay for/maintain them
vs. their convenience, entertainment value, or other benefits. Your >thresholds will differ from mine, and that's OK.

:) "I don't have to out run the lion…
--

Qualified immuninity = vertual impunity.

Tim Merrigan

--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

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On 10/10/2021 8:28 AM, Tim Merrigan wrote:

:) "I don't have to out run the lion…

Considered referencing that, yes. Or the various scientist vs.
mathematician vs. engineer jokes (never mind other points of view).

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On 10/10/2021 12:10 AM, Paul Rubin wrote:

Are the archived shows easily accessible some other way?

See the pages at newsounds.org. My toy is really just convenience
front-end on the existing resources.

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On 10/10/2021 2:04 PM, Joe Kesselman wrote:

On 10/10/2021 12:10 AM, Paul Rubin wrote:

Are the archived shows easily accessible some other way?

See the pages at newsounds.org. My toy is really just convenience
front-end on the existing resources.

(And in any case, _publishing_ elsewhere would be something the station
would need to do, not a skunkworks effort like mine. My code is just a dedicated and specialized browser.)

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Joe Kesselman <keshlam.cat.nospam@verizon.net> writes:

(And in any case, _publishing_ elsewhere would be something the
station would need to do

It might be enough to just get their permission and then do an upload.

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On 10/10/2021 3:04 PM, Paul Rubin wrote:

It might be enough to just get their permission and then do an upload.

1) Very unclear that their broadcast permissions would include upload elsewhere.

2) Unnecessary while their own server carries their archives.

3) Out of scope for my project, in any case.

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