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prior listings

 

• Punka Punka 6/30/01 
  Description: Killing white space and now, green with envy.
  Comments: "Is it truly possible to do something kind without apotheosizing the self? I am hopeful."  Most interesting.  Do we help others just to make ourselves feel right?  Is being nice to others motivated by guilt or some other emptiness we're trying to fill?  Is life possibly just an endless search for that next "pat on the back?"  Thought-provoking, to say the least.  I noticed that Six and the head monkey chimed in on the question — maybe being kind is just a human thing.  Another entry questions whether Daphne should have told 'em "children, like us, are just products of the Market, of money, of the more-more-more culture."  It was probably just a human thing to not say it, after all.  That entry brought in 9 comments.  So — Daphne's got a definite knack for writing — her love for "everything humanities" probably made earning that M.A. in English Literature more like fun than work.  I lived in Miami for many years before coming to Chicago and for an observer of people with an over-analytical bent (meant in a most positive sorta way, Punka!), one couldn't ask for a better location.  The site design is excellent and we'll give credit to Rony for that, but Daphne's writing is what really makes the site and those photos taken while she was "out there" are a nice touch, too.  Now — if we can only get her to like rock 'n roll....
   
• Burning Word 6/24/01 
  Description: A literary collection of prose and poetry.
  Comments: Joe Kletz can tell you the number of holes in each of the ceiling tiles above him as the unwatched television hums in the background.  The surgery they perform on his soul five days a week leaves him in a nightly alcoholic state, staring at the ceiling, counting the holes.  It's one of those short pieces that's thought provoking and biting.  Joe is just one of the regulars.  Another one of the regular contributors, Chris Wiersema, writes fiction and his most recent piece is a most enjoyable read.  "Oy Vey" is "a look at an aspiring, young DJ -- struggling with his Jewish heritage. Set in the late '60s."  It's an odd piece of fiction and left me wanting to explore the other half dozen works that Chris has posted.  What I've mentioned so far is just a small part of the content you'll find at today's pick.  Though it's got the look and feel of an e-zine, the editor will tell you that it's more dynamic than an e-zine because content is added almost daily and all content is neatly archived with permanent URLs so the users' bookmarks will always work.  Nice use of PHP and a design that's primarily geared for the written word — it's organized and easy to navigate.  The message boards are a nice touch.  This collaborative gem is plugged into the power of the web, giving writers a chance to publish their work much easier than the old media allows...
   
• jimbotron 6/22/01 
  Description: personal design space
  Comments: Bob Marley and Miles Davis are among his favorites and though I'm almost twice his age, I've got to say they're among my favorites as well.  Hell, Jim, I remember when the turnable was all there was and those two big crates of vinyl LPs I have will show you that I like all kinds of music, too.  Think about it — music is life itself.  Today's pick has a heavy DJ kinda theme and the turntabalistic (yes, I just made up the word, I think) graphic on the cover is cooler than cool.  Jim's got his "oldschool" stuff intact, but it's the mixes and static art pieces in the 2001 version that really grabbed me.  Then, I went back to the cover, only to find a bunch of mixes there, too.  The mixes are a combination of DJ sounds and cool motion graphics and Jim's really good at it.  But, that's not all there is — you won't wanna miss the oldschool portfolio, where there's some more samples of Jim's flash work.  All in all, today's pick serves up some great design and content and the guy at the helm rocks...
   
• Metro 6/18/01 
  Description: Metro: Chronicles in the First Person is a unique independently published journal dedicated to the exploration of cultural ideas through the voices of its subjects.
  Comments: The easy to remember link to today's pick is window.to/metro and the producers of the site would probably have preferred that I use that URL in my listings.  Please go ahead and repeat the words "window.to/metro" three times to help you remember it, then click here to visit the site so I can share this great website without having to impose on you by presenting the "redirection" service's ads — just remember "window.to/metro" if you need to remember the URL, please — it's their branding, after all.
  
  
  
  Today's pick is an interesting concept for those who want to understand what makes cultural "thinkers and creators" tick and how cultural practice, or art, is or isn't affected by the unique environment in which it's created.  Though the world's many different creative communities have unique "social, political and economic elements" in their individual settings, there are things that "creative practitioners" around the world have in common.  In effect, art adapts to its environment and that's what today's pick explores — "First hand accounts in the form of interviews, conversations, travelogues and even diary entries capture the essense of the here and now."  The current issue features 9 artists and they all answer the same questions and offer up a "24 hour log" that lets the user see what a day in their life is like.  You come away understanding what motivates people to create and how they are influenced by real contexts in the piece of the world they reside in.  The site is designed really well and the user has several choices as to how to view the site.  A print version is also available at no charge for those who prefer it — subscribers to the print version only pay for postage.  Kudos to the team behind today's pick — they're obviously committed to the arts and their motivation is in the right place...
   
• Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries Presents 6/15/01 
  Description: collection of words + music via Flash (mature content)
  Comments: It's easy to come up empty in this site picking "business."  I can look at just so many designer portfolio/CV sites before I start longing for content that's broader than a job search and intended for more than just those within the design community.  I guess it's a sign of the times.  So, it's easy to come up empty unless, of course, one keeps an assortment of extraordinary sites in their back pocket so when new site submissions aren't exactly what one is looking for, one has a "plan B" that's even better than "plan A."  Today's pick is coming from the back pocket.  "Why would you hold off on it, then?" is a reasonable question you could ask.  My answer is I'm only aware of the site because another "site picker" (a truly great one, in this case) made me aware of it and I'm not the kinda guy to steal someone else's thunder — call me silly.  The credit for today's pick should go to Glenn Davis, who posted it at the now defunct Astounding Websites way back when he launched the site.  That's how I learned about it and when I first visited today's pick, I was really amazed.  Now that AW is gone, I feel it's a positive thing to pick this one today because if you haven't seen it, you've been missing out on a collection of some the most intelligent and engaging Flash pieces you will ever encounter — that's why they called it astounding, silly...
   
• kOzen elements 6/13/01 
  Description: cool web site, net culture, urban chaos, tribal art, and fashion trend (Flash)
  Comments: I have to admit that on those rare occasions I pick a site that's produced by a corporate entity, I risk sending the wrong signal to my readers.  I open myself up to charges, from that long line of disappointed commercial site submitters who get rejected, that I treated them unfairly or how rude I was for asking them to stop submitting their sites.  They can't stand it when I take the time to let them know that my policy is in big, bold, red letters right there above the submittal form.  "You wouldn't even consider my site but there's other sites in your listings that are more commercial than mine."  That old "if I had a dollar for each time..." phrase comes to mind as I once again make a choice that's gonna frustrate some of my users, particularly those looking for free commercial advertising.  Such is life.  Fact is, today's pick wasn't submitted — I reached out and found it and therein lies the difference.  Coolstop is not anti-commercial — it just doesn't accept commercial site submissions, period.
  
  
  
  Today's pick is produced by a major French fashion designer but the site is not at all an advertisement for the company, nor is it a cheesy attempt to promote the products or services that the company offers.  Rather, it is a profound look into culture, lifestyle, and the arts and the content is as good as you'll find in any online magazine.  Excellent use of Flash as a medium instead of a message is what really grabs me about this site and the articles are contempory and interesting and full of great graphics.  I don't get the impression that the big company behind this site burned through big bucks like a typical dotcom would to pull it off — instead, I get the impression that the motivation to give something special was the driving force and that money wasn't wasted in the effort.  Should be an interesting day in the inbox...
   
• experimental magazine 6/12/01 
  Description: design magazine and community
  Comments: Based in Romania, today's pick just released "Issue One: Feed Your Emotions."  This brand new design magazine is starting strong with a slick graphical style (love those little pixel icons) and a pretty good amount of content.  You can probably expect a tastefully done cover girl with each new issue, including information on who took the photo in context.  There's also a featured designer interview, and an interesting concept called "challenge" which will be passed along from issue to issue.  Designers can join the "club" and the community has a forum.  Add a great links section, called the "guide" plus a section where you can submit wallpapers (and get 'em, too), and you've got a full-fledged centerpoint for designers.  Hats off to Rares and Laura for getting this thing together — lookeeeeng good...
   
• photographica 6/10/01 
  Description: upload/share/review
  Comments: Today's pick is an excellent community-based weblog with a twist.  It's for people who like to share their photography and the result is a constantly updated assortment of shots that offers something for all photography lovers.  Members can upload their pics with their entries, and most of the linked images open in a perfectly sized popup (the way I really like it).  The user has a choice whether to open offsite links in a new window or not, which is a nice user-friendly touch.  Users can also comment on the posts and the sense of community here is obvious.  There's already dozens of members, many of whom you'll recognize if you spend any time surfing personal sites and weblogs, and I think the quality of the content is suberb.  Kudos to Jonathan for the concept and a job well done...
   
• eugenemirman.com 6/9/01 
  Description: Eugene - the marvelous crooning child (Flash)
  Comments: Today's pick was listed at perfect on May 16th, and then I noticed it mentioned several times yesterday in the news at k10k.  That left me thinkin' I better check it out and see what's bringing on all that attention.  I did and I'm still laughing.  It seems that Eugene likes to croon the tunes and there's something about his looks and singing style that I find totally amusing.  The "about eugene" page is not done yet, but there's several other little diversions besides the list of tunes that Eugene performs.  What will the future bring for this one?  More tunes, I hope...
   
• JonSullivan.com 6/8/01 
  Description: Jon's really neat homepage type thingy.
  Comments: When Jon submitted his site to the ageless project yesterday, I went to grab a screenshot, and immediately noticed the words "PHP/MySQL" in his navigation bar.  I've been looking for resources in that area and his clean and clear navigation at the top of the page certainly helped me get a quick overview of what his site's about.  Anyway — his page of resources turned out to be excellent and I spent a few hours going through several tutorials that were quite helpful.  I then returned to Jon's site to check out more of his extensive content.  The nice design certainly played a part in my wanting to go back there and the fact that the site is called "the official homepage of..." made me want to learn more about the character.  Okay — so I haven't heard of him, but he's been on the web since '95 (according to the copyright notice) and knows a lot about design and development — it shows in his work and his bio and portfolio confirm it.  Damn!  He also seems to know a lot about Diet Coke®, has a section with hundred of photos, and another section with his favorite recipes.  Add plenty of other topical stuff, an extensive bio, rants, and poetry — the content just keeps coming.  The clincher is a personalization feature that works quite well, giving the user a choice of look and feel while flawlessly delivering the same great content.  That leaves me with nothing else to say, but that I agree with Jon when he says "the web is your friend..."
   
• stellargirl 6/7/01 
  Description: we can connect with each other here
  Comments: You can tell immediately that Rosalyn likes people — she likes being connected to her friends and goes out of her way to give them a means for connecting to her.  I can't think of any more powerful use of the web than what I found at today's pick, which is Rosalyn's "stellar" work.  She's been taking pictures for 5 years and the "photo" section is rich with images of the people in her life, but the idea for her current site came about from a need to do more than "sharing [herself] visually" — it was time to really use the medium to express herself (more verbally) and to get into arts and culture and the other varied things that are part of her everyday life, and more importantly, to connect to her friends and invite them to participate.  Well — what a wonderful job she's done of it!  She's got "Dr. Heather" doin' the "bring it on" thing, while her friend Christine tells the story from London, and Susannah shares some intriguing art (with other artists waiting in the queue).  There's also several other areas where a number of her friends are participating.  Chalk one up today for great personal sites using the power of the web for good things, 'cause this is definitely one of 'em...
   
• no-sleep 6/5/01 
  Description: Work smart, not hard - Kinetic Aesthetix (Flash)
  Comments: Though the splash page says that Marz will be with you shortly, as if there's something new in the works, you can refill your "prescription" to open the door to the existing content.  The highly "kinetic" approach to dealing with "addiction" is most effective, and the whole "pharmaceutical" theme starts to make me think that the web is the addiction and motion is the cure — is that what Marz is saying in using the analogy?  Hell.  I don't know, but I do appreciate the provocation of thought that came about from it all.  I really like the interface and the interactive presentation — great visuals and motion and — viola — I'm relaxed and didn't even have to pay for the housecall...