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I will now be posting all updates to The Spreadsheet [in the Spreadsheet Blog]. Please feel free to use this as a forum to comment about anything relating to the spreadsheet.

In addition to using this blog as a means to keep people updated on the progress of The Spreadsheet, I have come up with a secondary use for it, as well. A while ago, my brother and I decided to start picking entire tours or months in Phish history and listening to them straight through. We started with Fall 97 then moved to August 93. As we started telling friends about this, a lot of people joined the party. We now have a good chunk of people listening and we all shoot emails back and forth about highlights, song selection, etc. Very similar to the emails we all share as the band is on the road.

So…I thought, why not include everyone in this listening party? I will be posting a new show each day (or every other day) for everyone to enjoy and post comments about.

“HOYDOG23”, curator of The Spreadsheet at  http://tinyurl.com/6kozou

“The Spreadsheet” is a, well, Google docs spreadsheet of a virtually complete collection of Phish audience tapes downloadable in *.mp3 and iPod compatible file formats, with links to Phish.net’s setlist database.

Today’s show for downloading and discussion on the Spreadsheet Blog:

07/29/1998 Riverport Amphitheater, Maryland Heights, MO (Source: Source: B+K 4011, Highlights: Bathtub Gin, Buried Alive, Tube > Kung > Run Like an Antelope).

Link to the Spreadsheet Blog here: http://tinyurl.com/ydfnu6b

Telluride Town Meeting notes

MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY!  TOWN GETS 1500 TICKETS TO SCALP (let’s be honest).

It’s streaming live on KOTO.  Looking promising right now as they’re just talking about technicalities and parking/security fees, nothing too blocking.  Only big issue is that Jazz Fest is worried about conflicts.

10:08 (all times PST)-  AEG/Jazz Fest people have just shown up.  Nothing will be done until the two groups agree.

10:10 “I believe an agreement exists. There is a parking plan that exists.”  Some worries about lodging due to the fact that Phish fans bought out all of the lodging during Jazz Fest weekend.  Heh, “depending on how the tickets sell,” like it’s not going to sell out.

10:14 Trying to get the curfew kept at 10 because people will be able to shop afterward… The counter is that they need all the time they can get.

10:16 Worried about 3-5k people would show up without tickets.

10:18 These shows will be isolated in the tour schedule.  It’ll be hard to go on the tour.  No one day passes.

10:19 EEP!  2-3000 tickets will be reserved for locals.  That’ll be scalp city.  AEG is scaling down to 1500-2000.  This is a bad idea.  They’re going to decide the number based on demand.

10:26 Heh, signs to be put up asking for people to not use neighborhoods for toilets.  Some worries about a microburst thunderstorm.

10:34 AEG and the jazzfest people have an agreement in principle.  I’ll be stunned if this doesn’t happen.

10:38 There’s a lot of concern about ticketless Phish people overriding Jazz Fest…

10:48 Heh the penalty of violating curfew is only $100/minute.  Play all night!

10:56 Public comments now… only a few people speaking, all positive.

11:03 “I haven’t heard anyone say that they don’t want it.”

11:06 Heh, they’re amending resolution 11-420 to make this happen.

Jim Pollock, Great Went “Robot” poster (1997), edition of 100. Photo source Phishposterarchive.com

Jim Pollock, Great Went “Robot” poster (1997), edition of 100.

Photo source Phishposterarchive.com

[ARTICLE] Pollock and the Poster People

Sometimes this link becomes enveloped in the folds of the Internet and obscured from view via search engines. But, as I’m coming across it right now while on other business, it seems as good a time as ever to post this link.

This piece of mine was in the on-site newspaper at Phish’s Coventry festival (8/04), and never really been circulated digitally. Enjoy (one hopes).

My blog.

Coming to a theatre near you, in 3D…

Phish, the (3D) movie.  Filmed last October at Festival Eight.

Source/more info: Jamtopia (3/5/10) http://tinyurl.com/yldxwqx .

Sign up for email details at the official page here: http://www.phish3dmovie.com .

UPDATE (3/6 12:50 p.m.):  More details emerged about the 3D movie from yesterday’s business and trade press.  The trailer will start running this weekend at screenings of Alice in Wonderland at the approximately 3,700 theaters in the U.S. with digital 3D projectors.   The 3D filmed at Indio was from the same cameras doing the big video screens at the site.   The industry has big hopes for 3D concert films.  See articles in online Business Week here http://tinyurl.com/yz53gwz  and from Consequence of Sound here http://tinyurl.com/ye7njzb .

Happy Hamptonversary!

A year ago today it all ended.  The speculation, the ticket crunch, the hype, all of that ended when the lights went out and “Fluffhead” was played.  Regardless of whether you enjoyed the hell out of 2009 or thought it was kind of weak, I think we can all rejoice in that moment.  To March 9th and to many years still to come!  A year ago today it all began.

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Three of the four suspects in the Wiseguy Tickets computer hacking case pleaded not guilty in federal court in New Jersey Tuesday, March 2, and the alleged owner of the company remained in custody pending a bail hearing scheduled for today.

Kristofer Kirsch posted a $1 million bond, while Joel Stevenson posted a $500,000 bond and both are currently free. Suspect Faisal Nahdi is out of the country and is negotiating his surrender, according to federal prosecutors.

But Kenneth Lowson, the alleged ring leader, could have his bail set at well above $1 million today when he is arraigned, his attorney, Mark Rush, told TicketNews.

“My client is looking forward to vigorously defending himself in this case,” Rush said. “At the end of the day, is this a federal crime or not? We don’t believe it is.”

TicketNews, ’Wiseguys’ plead not guilty in alleged massive ticket hacking scheme, by Alfred Branch Jr., 3/3/10, http://tinyurl.com/ybwoaa5

Rumor mill: September 7th at Wrigley Field?

“The Cubs got the go-ahead Wednesday to hold a nighttime concert at Wrigley Field on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, but they’ll bend over backwards to minimize conflict.

Mike Lufrano, Cubs senior vice-president of community affairs, said the time of the Saturday, Sept. 18 concert — by either the Dave Matthews Band, Paul McCartney or Phish — will be pushed back until after sundown, when Yom Kippur ends.

Because the Sept. 17 concert coincides with Kol Nidre, the start of Yom Kippur, the Cubs have reached out to all three synagogues in the area.

“It’s really parking that they’re most concerned about. You won’t hear it because they’re far enough away. But, it’s fans coming to hear the concert at the same time people are going to worship,” said Lufrano, who is Jewish and plans to miss his first Wrigley concert to celebrate the holiday.

- Source:  Chicago Sun Times, 3/3/10 http://tinyurl.com/yapq97f

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“It may also be a good idea to ask your trusted brokers if the situation has changed for the buying public once you monopolized the market. In other words, I suspect that in the past there were [sic] some opportunity for normal people with a macro and an internet exporer [sic] to score a few quite good tickets for themselves and event flip them on ebay. This is probably no longer the case, therefore such people are either forced to buy worse seats from TM once you have got all the best, or must now use brokers to get the good seats. Such a situation would increase the sense of unfairness normal people already have and if you raise your overs and the brokers raise prices in return, this will result in more newspaper articles, more fan-club-only presale schemes and more TM action that [sic] you can possibly handle.

So, whenever you think about pricing, please also think that you are a monopoly not just for your brokers, but for their clients as well - those small clients no longer have the opportunity to score on their own on the web and feel vindicated…

I would suggest that you try to contain your price haggling between you and the brokers, because if you overstep a certain phycological [sic] threshold (where it is exactly is not known), TM and the general public may snap and kill your business overnight. Maybe you should team up with your brokers and order a marketing research and polls on end customers and how much more they can handle.”

- Wiseguys employee “P.S.“‘s email dated 2/25/07 to main defendant Kenneth (“Money”) Lowson explaining how Wiseguy’s business success in snatching up all onsale tickets might become a problem. Indictment, Paragraph 56 at http://tinyurl.com/yz55u3v

And if you wondered about Hampton and scalpers, read the indictment for some interesting details.  Not only did Wiseguys figure out how to defeat the CAPTCHAs and have hundreds of fake fans, employees with fake emails, IP addresses and different credit cards ready to pounce, but they figured out a way to snatch up ALL the tickets at the moment of presale and block them from real customers while the Wiseguy employees went over the possibilities and picked the best ones at their leisure.

Some of the emails back and forth are priceless: that visually impaired seats are good buys (second row, baby!) and this one from “Money” to employee “L.P.”: ”Just Lost 30 Seats Because of Your Sh*tty [credit] Cards Thanks F*ck*r. “

To which I’ll say “Thanks, *******.  Hope you’re going to jail”.

If you haven’t read it yet…

…go to the Wiseguys Indictment File  ( http://www.justice.gov/usao/nj/press/press/files/pdffiles/Wiseguys%20IndictmentFiled.pdf ) and check it out.  They got 2500 3 day Hampton passes.  That’s 20% of the capacity, probably more once you factor in holds and the like (not to mention the percent that went to Mail Order).

The part that interests me as a programmer is how they got around the captchas.  I know how to make an automation program.  It’s trivial in Ruby.  What I didn’t know was how to paste in the right response.  How did they do it?  They hacked into Ticketmaster’s database and got all of the answers.   So they knew if the file was named - say - captchas/32434234.jpg, the correct answer was “melon.”  That still says a lot about AI that it’s faster to look up a long list of correct answers than to try to parse text.  I’m glad that these guys are caught but I doubt they’re the only ones out there.  Encrypt your files Ticketmaster!