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prior listings

 

• Ectoplasma 5/29/02 
  Description: national web gallery - virtual gallery including the coolest Italian web sites about original design, arts and multimedia
  Comments: A quick search of my daily reviews tells me Christmas day of last year was the last time I used the phrase "inspirational portal."  Maybe my preoccupation with the word "pixel" has made me temporarily forget the importance of alternative portals...  ;~))  The site "was born from the requirement to promote the Italian design in the web" and introduces itself as "a collection of the most original and visionary websites of the Italian panorama."  I think those "thoughts" come from Claudia De Luca, the person behind the site who promises a "source of immediate inspiration."  Need I say more?  A great design with tasty screen shots, categorized and ranked listings, dozens of interviews and "the big thing" – explore!
   
• massless 5/28/02 
  Description: the faster I go the lighter I get
  Comments: "If I ever decide to start an online identity anew, I might like to call my online journal Small Nuclear Devices. This is a temporary infatuation to be sure as I am, every day, a small packet of personal fission. And latent energy."  Chris wrote his own blogging tool called "BlogLess" last year and uses it to produce the site.  When this young software engineer (I'm guessin') isn't doing his blog and writing applications, he's off making pop music with some friends – just finished tracking their 3rd album.  And when he's doing the software thing, he comes up with stuff like an ASP Messageboard and a Java-driven headline aggregator.  Those are just two projects from a long list – Chris is a busy guy.  He writes about all kinds of things, some techie, some not, and I find most of it interesting (and well-written).  His sidebar of links includes comments about the listed sites and has a cool design touch – you can sort the list alphabetically (sans descriptions) on the fly without the page reloading – dynamic goodness!  The overall design is excellent, and if you don't like the default layout and color scheme, you have 3 more to choose from.  There's more - photo series, articles, and resources – great content and plenty of it...
   
• Strata Magazine 5/27/02 
  Description: readers meet new people through interviews, intelligent writing and superlative art
  Comments: After trimming some verbiage from the site's description, leaving a perfectly concise statement of meaning ("readers meet new people through interviews, intelligent writing and superlative art"), I started thinking how important a tagline (i.e., slogan, brief description) can be in promoting a site.  I don't mean commercial promotion here – even the most non-commercial of sites needs visitors to have a life.  In effect, creating a webpage means having to do something, anything, to get people to visit.  So, taglines are important.  "The Common Man's Fifteen Minutes" kinda invokes a vision when you hear it.  Interestingly enough, that phrase was part of what I trimmed from the description – it says more on it own.  Then, there's "design, writing & publishing for you, me & them."  Yet another perfectly concise description.  There's a point here.  On the web, if you try to say too much at one time, your message just might go unnoticed.  Saying it briefly, even if you have to leave part of it up to the user's imagination, is definitely the way to go – your message will have been effectively delivered when it's short and sweet and to the point.  With that said, I offer this purely subjective, personally selected entry point to today's pick, an excellent online magazine...
   
• NowGoCreate 5/25/02 
  Description: a news portal with full concentration on art
  Comments: Calling itself a "Daily News & Art Resource" with the second issue scheduled for June, today's pick already has 17 members who have contributed artworks.  "May's issue was a huge success and we're looking to do the same thing a second time."  The deadline has passed for submissions for the new issue, but it's been extended by a few days – "Let's make this thing memorable."  The "art showcase" and "mini splash" galleries are full of great art and the site design rocks.  And get this – Mike Tucker a/k/a FM, the guy behind the site is 16-years-old – wow!  It's about collaboration, art, and design – what great potential!
   
• Pixelbreaker 5/24/02 
  Description: Flash experiments plus screen savers and walls
  Comments: I mentioned in yesterday's review that there were some prime destinations among the sites listed in the dropdowns on the site's main page – today's pick is one of them.  I love the fact that today's pick gives the user a choice before throwing them into fullscreen mode – just click [OK] if that's how you want to view it or click [Cancel] to view the site in a compact popup window, nicely centered on the screen.  Next, for those of you who might think I've abandoned my quest to keep adding sites with "pixel" in their name or description – think again – today's pick is yet another one.  If you're gonna submit a site, you just might wanna throw the word "pixel" in to appeal to that irrational, somewhat prejudiced side of the coolstop guy (moi) – it might not help, but it won't hurt (hehe).  Anyway – today's pick is a collection of interesting Flash diversions with some screensavers and walls, plus some photography, thrown into the mix.  Personally, I really like the cool interface...
   
• 8minus8 5/23/02 
  Description: interactive experimental transformations (Flash)
  Comments: At first, Eileen's site appears to a simple little design portal – a few nifty rollovers at the top provide some info and there's a single, tasty image in the lower right portion of the page.  You can almost make out an address and phone number in the dirty graphic, but not quite – and I'm thinkin' that "38" is somehow significant.  Add 4 dropdowns full of prime destinations along the bottom and it's easy to surf away and miss the best part.  So – remember to click on the image before you leave 'cause it'll lead you to a unique multi-window Flash thingie Eileen describes as "in_ter_active ran_dom pro_cess."  I won't spoil the fun by describing it too much – but be patient and connect all the dots and move all the slices when you encounter such things and play with the left navigator enough to encounter all the possibilities...
   
• Exposition Kink 5/22/02 
  Description: blogging is my anti-drug
  Comments: "I don't get out much, so this was the result..." says 21-year-old Kika, "it's really a more of a journal than a blog."  I've been familiar with her site since March – an entry she wrote back then stuck in my mind.  "Websites basically fall into one of three categories: Beginner, Perfect, and Overdone."  Though I'm not sure it's all that simple, her statement is basically true – of course, "perfect" is one of those words that means something different to each of us.  What stuck with me was something Kika said at the end after having described some of the not-so-perfect things:  "I was really tempted to link to specific sites for examples of various criticisms up there, but I decided not to. It's mean, and everyone has the right to express themselves however they see fit, even if it is through craptacular web design, and it is my right to be able to bitch about it."  Well said!  Her site is quite interesting to me – probably because Kika is an interesting person and writes honestly about all those things going through her head.  As far as design and layout goes, I'm gonna stick my neck out and say it's a lot closer to perfect than not.  The site is focused on words and thoughts, though there are some neat photos in some entries. Kika admits that she's "not too skilled at graphics manipulation" but her site is proof that things like design and usability, and most of all, meaningful content, can be pulled off with or without heavy use of graphics – it all depends on the real focus of a site.  So – kudos to the "punk geek granola yuppie wannabe" behind the site – real personality rules...
   
• whear 5/21/02 
  Description: photos, beats, and narrative (Flash)
  Comments: "Faded" is a "Monthly Mix Series by Eug." done last year between the beginning of April and the end of July.  I'm not crazy about downloading humongous .zip files, but my curiousity made me give it a shot.  So, I downloaded the 40+meg file, the last of the 4 mixes, with fingers crossed that it would be worth it.  It was – all 50 minutes of it.  As I listened, I explored (and enjoyed) the "photos" and a section called "doko" which had even more photos in the form of "moments" in and around Tokyo plus a subsection called "narrative" which promised "daily diary . moving sounds . coming soon..."  I'll be checking out the other "beats" soon and am looking forward to the narrative content.  In the meantime, the soft look and feel of this well-designed site with great sights and sounds and a simple, effective Flash interface is definitely an entertaining diversion...
   
• now-i-decided-to-speak-with-the-silence.com 5/20/02 
  Description: its an artisy site... only emotions and poetry (Flash)
  Comments: Two songs are in my mind this morning – Simon and Garfunkel's Sound of Silence and Cyndi Lauper's Money Changes Everything.  Once upon a time there was a site that got my attention.  It was a single Flash piece that chilled the spine – music, motion, intense graphics – it had a soul!  I would visit it a few times a week, each time thinking what I might write if I reviewed it.  "Damn!  This is good stuff" went through my head each visit and I was sure it would become a daily pick, especially if additional content appeared.  A few months went by since I had originally encountered the site and checking in yet one more time, I found a notice saying that the piece I loved so much was sold and it was gone.  I was shattered and never returned to the site since.
  
  
  
  "Sometimes I give up the idea of being a loser.  Sometimes I wake up from a nightmare... just to discover that it still goes on."  Having forgotten that site long ago, I enter the "nightmare" thinking that the long domain name sounds awfully familiar.  It's funny how memory works (or doesn't work) at times – I knew I had been here before but I just couldn't tie that oh-so-long domain name with the special experience that lay dormant in my memory.  "Words that I never told you" takes me over and I know when "it's all over" that Gianluca was special.  The pain was a powerful force in breaking one's silence.  "Things that DISAPPEAR" reminds me of the trains I've missed in my own life.  By now, I'm touched by all of this in a familiar way.  Ely says it's "only emotions and poetry" but I'm seeing much more than that – I knew I had been here before, though this was the first time I encountered these particular pieces.  If only I could tie it together in my mind.  Then I hit "Phantom in my heart" and it's all clear to me.  What was once sold has been given back.  Perhaps that's the nightmare, but to me, it's almost a dream come true.  I remember how shattered I felt before, take a deep breath and say thank you to someone who's anything but a loser...
   
• saltfreak 5/18/02 
  Description: a seasonal exhibition of personal photographic work (Flash)
  Comments: Thad's "Spring 2002" exhibit was done in and around Seattle in April.  He quotes Meng Hao Ran from centuries ago – "The spring dawn has crept upon me, heralded only by the singing of the birds..."  This issue contains some outstanding nature shots, blue skies, and architectural forms.  A signage shot shows a timely message – What makes us great.  UNITY.   Pass It On."  Signage shows up more in the exhibits from the last 3 seasons and it's Thad's composition that makes it all so interesting, not to mention the dreamy music playing in the background as you browse his work.  The first exhibit from last Summer is a hefty download, though the other exhibits will load reasonably fast even on a dial-up connection.  The big Summer exhibit covers a trip to New York last May and is divided into "people, places, and things."  Each season's exhibit has its unique navigation devices – Thad does the Flash thing nicely.  What I like about the site in general is that it's focused – it's all about the photography and there's no distractions – just clean design with just the right atmosphere for enjoying it.  Simple is good, especially when the style is on the money...
   
• Kanibal 5/17/02 
  Description: I must change to stay the same
  Comments: I discovered today's pick via the Visitors' Gallery.  A 19-year-old designer living in the Czech Republic, Miroslav Toman a/k/a Kanibal, submitted this image yesterday.  His minimal site design is all text – actually tiny smoothed text on images – I think it's impressive.  Though the design is all text, the content is different story – it's all visual in the form of "artworks" and "photos" presented in clean popups.  For a guy who's only "19 and still rising", there's quite a collection of works.  Though I'm considerably more risen  than Miroslav, I admire his taste in music and movies as well as his positive attitude about change which shows up in some of his creations – "I must change to stay the same..."
   
• artetic 5/16/02 
  Description: multimedia design, including painting, illustration, webdesign and digital art (Flash)
  Comments: "Since bread heals the hunger / holy the mutated flesh whips / once and for all up the skirts / the membrane bombed speech collaborates."  The words of Irene's friend Anna, a writer she's collaborated with and for whom she built a website, fill the splash page.  On one hand, Irene's an artist.  Her "HEROinES" series of 40 paintings on canvas, from which she displays a sampling on the site, plus the remarkable background image(s) on her site's interface clearly spell a-r-t-i-s-t.  On the other hand, Irene's a knockout web designer and programmer – the site puts all of it together perfectly – what else can I say?  She's done splashes for a number of well-known design sites and has art and photography on exhibit in various places.  She produced an interesting project called "self exposure" for our friends at experimental magazine – what else can I say?  Finally, there's a sweet little project (actually a stand-alone site) called razorshark that's a collaboration between Irene and 15-year-old Isabell – wow!  Now, all I really wanna know is whether Isabell is Irene's sister or daughter...
   
• 20 things. 20 people. 20 days. 5/15/02 
  Description: people making and trading nondigital art
  Comments: Like yesterday's pick, today's deals with art of the nondigital variety.  Judith had a brainstorm one "sleepless night" after pondering over what it might take to lure some web-based artists to make something nondigital.  She admired their online work and "wondered what they might make given the opportunity to create something nondigital."  The concept was born as she "lay in bed in the dark."  Dontcha just love stories like this?  I do!  Anyway, the idea caught on immediately and a whole bunch of artists started "making and trading art" thanks to the platform that Judith created.  All the trading of art is done by snail-mail – real art being returned to each participant in exchange for having sent 20 pieces of their own creations to Judith.  Fortunately, the site also presents a sampling of each "swap" and it's absolutely wonderful.  Excellent design and a great concept – kudos to Judith for her unique spirit!
   
• normal natural 5/14/02 
  Description: gallery of illustrations
  Comments: What's interesting about today's pick is that all of the illustrations on display appear to have been done on paper with pen or pencil – sketches, ideas, etc. all done the old-fashioned way – then scanned and presented on the web.  Some are quite primitive, while others are more intricately detailed – I like the flavor of the whole thing – it's different than most of the art we're seeing on the web.  And quantity?  There's over 200 illustrations on display.  It's not like Lance, the artist behind the site isn't plugged in to digital media – see his other site – digital designs and Flash – in fact, there's a finished piece of digital art there based on one of the illustrations I remember seeing in the gallery of sketches...
   
• Sentient O.S. 5/13/02 
  Description: Do you think your world can be better? (Flash)
  Comments: I'm pleased to kick off the new week with one of the most unique sites I've ever come across.  Yeah – I know – words are easy, but I really mean it.  Unique in that it has some important things to say, little lessons if you will, and if you're patient and go through the whole thing, you'll walk away truly enriched.  I found this site early this morning and it affected me in a most positive way.  Patience is just one of the topics it touches on and I'm leaving out the other interesting subject areas intentionally.  Go there, be prepared to interact and most important, be patient and let it affect you...
   
• FAZED 5/11/02 
  Description: a community of humor - pictures, video and sounds (mature content)
  Comments: Following suit from last Saturday, it's time again to look to the lighter side.  Today's pick is all community and if you like humor, it'll tickle you senseless.  A 26-year-old guy named Adam a/k/a SpunOne appears to be a key figure behind the site, but the community appears to have mucho members.  "For those of you that haven't seen this site before, I urge to you grab a jar of peanut butter and read the comments for a while. I used to write interesting stuff here until I burned out. Now, somewhat uninspired, I just write about nothing, and throw a few links down while I'm at it. Most of the fun around here is found in the comments made by others."  The posts are searchable, but if you really wanna get to the heart of the humor, just choose one of the "entertainment" links on the sidebar – "Pictures, Videos, Sounds, Misc." and you're in for total amusement.  I hate to admit it, but this silly video simply grabbed me – and so did this one.  And it's not like there's nothing to learn here – did you know that "8% of Americans twiddle their thumbs?"  I didn't think so!  "Random Fact" could possibly eat up a few hours of your time today.  So – select from one of the 10 available "themes" for the look you like and have fun!
   
• photograph@kensuke.net 5/10/02 
  Description: Japanese urban photography
  Comments: If you can read Japanese, you might want to go through the front door instead.  There's a diary that looks like it's updated frequently with plenty of links to other Japanese sites and the splash page will show you Kensuke's cameras.  You guessed it – today's pick is the photography site of Japanese photographer Kensuke.  He's all over the urban landscape capturing colorful signage, people, architecture, mass transit – local flavor!  In each of the six galleries, just click on the photo to view the next one – a link to the starting page is always present – what I like to call perfect navigability.  Did I ever tell you how much I like cool photography sites?
   
• bacillo organization™ 5/9/02 
  Description: photography and web projects of Anthony Wallace (Flash)
  Comments: A 19-year-old multimedia student living in Yorba Linda, California is the guy behind today's pick.  His photography and the way it's presented is as good as gets in my opinion – great people shots!  One of the photos is dated July, 1957 – obviously taken long before his time, but Anthony's treatment of the image is superb.  The site design has a soft, smooth look and feel and I didn't even realize at first that he was using Flash – very subtle.  His "web projects" section is excellent as well.  An interesting sidenote, which is purely coincidental, is that Anthony's using one of youngpup's scripts – you might recall that youngpup was Monday's pick – small world...  [Newstoday®]
   
• ni9e 5/8/02 
  Description: a vehicle to display art that is updated as life dictates (Flash)
  Comments: "A painter would not stand for this. / A branded canvas is as good as trash. / The browser is our "blank" canvas. / Are we not artists?"  That's the message that "browser destruction" conveys – it's an interesting combination of sight, sound, and motion and just one of over 20 works presented.  "Clientless and budgetless the system fails.  Clientless and budgetless we are free... Can we not transcend traditional notions of thought, identity, and order to live lives based on the value of our experiences and acts, rather than contemporary desires based on the capitalist's goal of commodification and consumption?"  Whether or not you agree or feel that it's a practical point of view, you've got to admit that the excerpt from the mission statement is great fodder for meaningful thought.  In the end, Evan and Max describe it as "Just the two of us having fun, and trying to turn thoughts and ideas into pixels."  Yep – I love those pixels!!
   
• iotic experiments 5/7/02 
  Description: experiments in html, shockwave, and sound
  Comments: I like the simplicity of the design and though today's pick is produced by a design agency in London, it's presented anonymously.  Among the experiments are several entries done for a competition where the HTML can be no larger than 256 bytes.  Wow! – and you thought 5k was tiny!  There's also 9 Shockwave movies that can occupy your mind for awhile, and if you're into Director, you can download the source code.  Then, there's what I liked the most - 5 original mp3 tracks, all very good.  It's a low profile, entertaining webspace and I commend that agency that builds music websites for keeping the promotional activity in the right place...
   
• youngpup.net 5/6/02 
  Description: dreaming up new ways to interact with data
  Comments: "Bringing better ui to the people!" was the random tagline... on reloading the page, "I'm not a programmer, I just play one on the internet" was next in line – I just love those little random thingies.  Anyway, I bumped into today's pick in the source code of another recent pick – a really cool scroller got my attention and thanks to the conscientious designer leaving the credits intact when he grabbed and used the free script, I found the source of the source, so to speak.  It's a cool personal site of a young "programmer/developer/designer person" named Aaron who's into discovering and developing new "ways to talk to a computer system."  He wants to see "the web community continue to lead the software industry into the future of interface design."  That's part of what motivated him to open his site in early 2001.  So, I found a wealth of "components" and "snippets" at Aaron's site, not to mention some interesting writing about trends in design and scripting.  Aaron is deep into CSS and DHTML and it shows in his site's design.  "There is something that just feels good about developing open-source software and then seeing people use it."  I'm thinking it feels good to know that people like Aaron are out there doing their "new school stylie" thing and sharing it with us.  Cheers to Aaron, and wishing him luck in finding his new digs in NYC...
   
• Ghost City 5/5/02 
  Description: an interactive urban environment designed by jody zellen
  Comments: It's funny.  A long time ago, I had recognized a site that is definitely one-of-a-kind  in terms of it's mission and value as a useful web resource and the person behind the site ridiculed the fact that the notification message he received said the site was entertaining.  Every site reviewed here at coolstop receives the same generic notification – there's simply not enough time to handle it otherwise, so the message is written to apply, in general, to most of the sites that get picked.  I've modified the standard message several times since then – it's amazing how "and/or" can affect it – "excellence in graphic design and/or usability" – "entertaining and/or useful content."  So it goes in my little world of doing the daily webthing – I expect that when the person behind today's pick receives their notification message, they're probably gonna scratch their head and say "huh?"  Today's pick is definitely not about usability, easy navigability, useful content, or excellence in web design (though it does shine graphically).  It's more about original, meaningful art and exploration, which I find extremely entertaining – on some days, nothing else matters...
   
• Drunk Men Work Here 5/4/02 
  Description: fresh zero-content for compulsive clickers
  Comments: It's Saturday morning so, chill and be prepared for a little web fun.  I've noticed that a search for the word "drunk" in the portal cool zone, which has roughly 1,750 sites listed in it, turns up zilch.  I'd say that's probably a positive thing, but with today's pick, it all changes – drunks are now officially represented thanks to the name of the site I've chosen to review today.  I guess it's all downhill from here, baby!  Anyway – the odd looking navigation menu on the main page might validate the idea that drunks do work there, but don't let it fool you – some of the experiments they've been doing are far too cool to have been pulled off in a stupor.  Go for the "archive" link to see a list of 149 "editions" done since February, 2001 – it was edition #146 that got my attention – giving the phrase "mirroring a site" a whole new meaning – see what a mirror of coolstop looks like?  Edition #144 ("recycler") is kinda cool, too, and I noticed that some of the images in the "gallery" have something to do with it.  There's also a long list of "games" you can play.  To be serious, I've gotta give kudos to the people behind the site – it's fun net art and if they really are drunks, more power to 'em...   [moluv << stereot]
   
• _kovert.dot.org 5/3/02 
  Description: visual experiments plus other creative design projects (Flash)
  Comments: Version 4 just launched in the middle of March and the most recent "visual experiment" occupies the space where the "covers" appear.  Limited by a 16 color monochrome palette and image size of 120x120, this "image collection and presentation" project is pretty cool.  The "wristcam" rocks.  As far as the covers go, there's currently 7 of them, dating back to February and when you switch between them, the color scheme of the page changes with them – great transitional effects.  There's some walls and screensavers for you, too.  Another project residing on it's own domain is a real treat – the "freedom project" – "Give a group of designer one goal.  To create art that expresses FREEDOM to them.  Whatever they want, as long as it can be displayed on the screen."  A dozen different designers have already participated – ahh! – the visuals!  Believe it or not, this project lead to yet another offsite project that just launched a few days ago and looks like it has great potential.  Damn!  Looks like John's a busy guy – it's all about creativity and collaboration and, yeah, freedom – designers doing their thing and doing it well...
   
• joey 5/1/02 
  Description: exposing the jaded array of artwork and exhibitions by joey senatore
  Comments: When I hear the phrase "jaded artwork" (this isn't the first time I've heard it), it makes me wonder what the artist is thinking – is he or she saying that it's worn out, or repetitious?  Or maybe they mean to say it's excessive – I just don't know, but their use of the phrase is, at least, thought provoking and that just might be the point.  Joey Senatore, an artist living in New Jersey who's trained in the fine arts and web design, is the guy behind today's pick which he describes as "exposing the jaded artwork."  And artwork it is, mostly acrylics on canvas with beautifully done abstract flavor.  The site is designed well and the quality of the scans is excellent.  It's all very colorful and thought provoking like the site's description.  In the end, I wished I could see all the works on a real wall, up close and fullsize – the site has, indeed, interested me in Joey's art and in that respect, has done its job well...