First the technical background. This website was created by me and I both wrote articles and programmed the website. Back in 2000 I did this in plain HTML, then jumped on J2EE. Looking back that was a nightmare. When Rails hit the scene in 2005 (I think) I ported everything to Rails and have been using that ever since.

In fact GO Magazine has been running every Rails version from 0.9-something until now. In recent years the website has been defunct and completely stagnant. Until now!

After a quick website design contest using freelancer.com, which was eventually won by Webdeezine from Serbia, I had SliceCraft do the HTML5 front-end. This all went very smoothly.

I coded the back-end in Rails 3.1 using the awesome asset pipeline. What does that mean? Well, it’s the Rails solution for all the CSS and javascript files that make up a modern web site. The asset pipeline makes sure all these little files are grouped together, so they can be pushed into your browser in the least amount of time possible. And when you visit www.gomagazine.nl you can see exactly that. There is only one CSS file and only one Javascript file visible to you, but actually there are lots of different files in the back end. Last but not least SliceCraft did their magic and made sure the HTML is squeeky clean. Check the source to see what I mean, it’s beautiful.

With this massive refresh, GO Magazine can continue showing all the articles written by me and my friends, when we were heavily into electronic music and DJ culture. Enjoy!

The live mix performed on John Digweed’s show Kiss 100 FM in 2005 is one of the best musical journeys of this century. Really, it is that good. Grab it if you can.

It’s true you know (and I am certainly one of those ninety-nine, although I strive not to be). Case in point: disgruntled event organisers who are personally offended every time I won’t do exactly what they tell me to do.

People who organize music events/parties want to have maximum exposure/promotion for a minimum of cost. So, naturally, they submit their event details to me, for inclusion in the GO Magazine clubbing calendar.

I on the other hand, make decisions about which events make the front page, and which do not. As you might have guessed, most do not make the front page. There simply is not enough room there. What I print on the front page, is the big names, huge artists, popular venues, mega-events. It makes sense, no? These draw the largest crowds.

Every once in a while though, I will get a nasty email demanding to know why I did not list small-ass event X on the front page. My reply is always courteous. You’d think that most people have the basic intelligence to guess the answer, but apparently not. But, that’s not all. No sir. My reply will, in most cases, only add fuel to the fire.

You see, when I try to explain, in kind words, that someone’s event is just too insignificant to be listed on the front page, people take it personally. It eats at them. It gnaws, it brings out their insecurities and echos in their brains, nee, it reverberates, louder, louder and louder until….

they reply they let it all out. I am unprofessional, I run a small website anyway, I don’t know what I am doing, I this I that you suck and, joy of joys, they proceed to demand I remove their information at once since obviously it is of absolutely no use to them.

Sigh.

These people make me tired, tired. Dear (you know who you are). Take a look outside. Then take a look inside. You are putting on a 5 euro event in a provincial town with DJs nobody has heard of. Do you really have a right to be printed on a national magazine’s front page? Or could it be, just maybe, that our scales are too different in this particular case?

If you can wrap your head around that, you surely must realise I mean you no disrespect, I still will print your event in the local listing for the area and your event can still be found deeper inside my website. Also, really you should know that if you book a well-known artist you will make front page without trouble.

Don’t insult my intelligence by demanding this or that and don’t ruin three minutes of my day by calling me names. That shit’s just not cool. And don’t “threaten” me with removing me from your press mailing list or denying accreditation. Really, it is not possible for me to care less. Really.

Rant off.

Time Out is a city guide, and I’m not lying if I told you it’s the best one on the planet. Maybe even the solar system. If you find yourself in Amsterdam and you don’t know what’s where, pick up one of these babies. I don’t even know if they’re free, but pick one up anyway. They rock.

Pay especially close attention to the club chapter; which I wrote, obviously.

It lists all the cool clubs to see [and hear] in Amsterdam if you’re visiting town.  Places like 11, Studio 80 and Pakhuis Wilhelmina are all in there. And, I might add, were put in because of yours truly! The previous edition was quite old and even mentioned a club like More. Yawn!

So the good news is that tourists will be able to find cool places. The bad news is that they won’t be able to for several months. TOA [as it's called by us professionals] will come out some time this fall, hopefully in time before Amsterdam Dance Event.

We’ll see. I’m just happy to have contributed. And proud!

I just implemented a blog import tool for GO Magazine. Ruby and Rails just make it so easy. I generated two models: Blog and Post. Blog gets hooked up to an Artist, and Blog has_many :posts.

Blog is hooked up to a Link as well. Every day, I just traverse the Links, fetch the feed and parse it using Ruby’s built-in RSS Parser. Walk the items and insert them into the database, done!

I’m even surprised at the speed, tens of blogs are imported in a few seconds.

Last week I added a section called livesets to GO Magazine. Just a page where anyone can submit a live-deejay mp3 set. Of course anyone can then download the set, plus people can vote. Basic stuff.

Originally I wanted to use it just for myself, since people throw their livesets at me all the time.

But then I decided to mail this to the artists I know and what do you know? Now every day livesets are added, people are downloading and voting like crazy and I have lifted some gems off the net already! Flow’s liveset is great, as is the one by Ellen Allien.