Songs for Saturday: Live filk online

[mdlbear]

All the spring filk cons have been cancelled, but that doesn't mean you can't get a full weekend of live filk if you want to. Last weekend was the Festival of the Living Rooms, and this weekend was the German non-con Bleib auf der Couch! Con. It's a lot cheaper than air fare and hotel. Which is a good thing, because we're all going to have enough money problems this year.

You can find out about upcoming online events -- or announce one -- at FilkStreams.org – Where to find the best Fannish concerts online. You can also find links and announcements (and conversation) on the #filkhaven Discord server.

Software has been a very mixed bag, but all cross-platform: Zoom and Jitsi videoconferencing software for circles, Facebook and YouTube (mostly) streaming video for concerts. Jitsi is the only open-source software in the batch; it's a lot like IRC in being basically ad-hoc. All it takes to create a meeting is to give it a name. It did seem rather flaky, and the documentation is sketchy to say the least, but I love the idea.

I spent most of the day setting up my microphones -- or, rather, looking all over for the mic stands and fittings I knew I had somewhere -- and didn't get around to doing any singing. Maybe tomorrow.