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Let's be honest. Thanks to broadband - T1,
cable modems and DSL (amongst others) - your computer’s capacity
to relay information to you in the crisp manner of a TV set, all
the while, empowering you to fully interact has finally arrived.
Thus, music, movies, games, gifts, clothes, audio equipment, and
even cars can all be purchased through this practical medium. Hundreds
of thousands of new web sites arise globally each day. With the
next generation facing an entire array of exotic, eclectic, and
devastatingly addictive alternatives, somebody needs to step up
and guide the masses through their next batch of opium. If indeed
the Internet is the greatest mystery since Bob Dole's decision to
endorse Viagra, then together we must explore it.
The Pseudo Online Network (www.pseudo.com)
offers a great pop cultural boost, balancing
educated click-candy such as SpaceWatch’s “Latest from
Mars” with occasional Webcasted chats with icons such Bret
Easton Ellis.
Pair that with Pseudo’s buffet of political
highlights and you have the net’s greatest attempt at interactive
TV. If you’re working on a 56k, though, kiss some of the fruits
goodbye because Pseudo deserves broadband at its swiftest. In the
realm of slack, Shockwave (www.shockwave.com)
has fast become one of the most popular places to blow an entire
lunch break. In addition to offering such Atari 2600 gems as Frogger
and Missle Command for younostalgia maniacs, surfers landing at
Shockwave are privy to the warped sensibility of Trey Parker and
Matt Stone, who are currently generating original content for the
site, along with filmmakers David Lynch, Tim Burton, and animator
Stan Lee. Time Warner’s Entertaindom (www.entertaindom.com)
is a site packed with good stuff. This amusement
park on-line dishes out precocious 3-D animation fare such as “The
Multi-Path Adventures of Superman” and the wildly popular “God
and Devil Show,” where users get to decide if talk show guest’s
such as Keith Richards ultimately get sent to heaven or hell.
If there’s one thing the Internet can take
sole credit for, it’s the rebirth of the short film. Immensely
do-able by standards of new wave digital filmmaking, filmmakers
everywhere are honing their interests on the www - the wild, the
witty, and the warped. AtomFilms (www.atomfilms.com)
for instance, syndicates the rights to their
shorts theatrically, to cable, and even airlines. For a free show,
visit Atom's home page and see such favorites as the British shadow-puppet
romp “Humdrum,” which received an Academy Award nomination
this year. By the same token, Ifilm (www.ifilm.com)
mixes spoofs like “The Blair Warner Project”
with such provocative after-school fare as “The Beckers: Cannibalism
and Your Teen.”
And like all big fish who send the small ones
in to get chomped first, POP (www.pop.com)
enters the fray as a new co-production from
Dreamworks SKG and Imagine Entertainment. Capitalizing on the frenzy,
POP claims to offer studio development deals for the creators of
their most popular submissions.Musical mavens MP3 (www.mp3.com)
instituted a free downloadable audio format,
turning the Web's listening experience into sheer democracy. With
3compressed files ensuring a CD quality sound, MP3’s technology
offers the listener access to over 50,000 independent artists; from
the found, to those not yet. As for the digi-celluloid folk at SightSound
(www.sightsound.com), they're aching to become
the first "Blockbuster Video of the Internet." It hasn't
happened yet, but they do offer the ability to buy or rent digital
downloads of feature length movies over the Internet. And though
studio majors are trying to figure out how SightSound can be the
only one patented to provide such technology, SightSound plows ahead,
having signed their first studio deal with Miramax to deliver some
of their films for pay-per-view on the net.
In its current incarnation, the Hollywood Stock
Exchange (www.hsx.com)
represents the Internet’s most blessed fusion of novelty, presence,
and fun. A popular site since its inception in 1996, HSX allows
the user the power to buy or trade entertainment commodities such
as films, musicians, screenplays, or actors. Buy 1000 shares of
The Blair Witch Project 2 (TBWP2) or dump stock in the Backstreet
Boys (BACK). Just watch out. Even though Lion’s Gate Entertainment
offered cash incentives to those who bought shares in American Psycho,
for the most part, the money is as real as a Brentwood breast. For
some of the most ingeniously ridiculous content on the net, you'll
cry reading The Onion (www.theonion.com),
cyberspace’s top satirical news reporting
site. With headlines such as “Apple Employee Fired for Thinking
Different,” you cannot blame these passionate lampooners for
having a little fun with freedom. Having crossed over into mainstream
media with books such as Our Dumb Century, it’s clear that
these people take the bogus very seriously. For more laughter, try
Bizcotti (www.bizcotti.com),
where you'll be fed headline’s such as “Anna Kournikova’s
Breasts Sign With CAA.” Young Turks beware.
Nerve (www.nerve.com),
the best literate smut on the I-net, touches on erotic fiction,
poetry, and also possesses such titillating constructs as “Star
Firsts,” where celebrities like Cher and Marlon Brando tell
the tales of their first sexual encounters. Crushed Planet (www.crushedplanet.com)
on the other hand, is not to be read, but watched instead. Brothers’
Harry and Joe Gantz of HBO’s Taxicab Confessions have created
six dazzling fetish driven shows such as “Couples Arguing,”
where couples experience domestic disputes for viewer enjoyment
and “First Apartment,” a 24/7 glimpse into the lives of
those who barely have one. Finally, Rouze (www.rouze.com)
started as an online men’s magazine so unabashedly similar
to Playboy that Hef has since bought it. Boasting itself to be “Unapologetically
Male,” Rouze is a provocative tour-de-force with articles,
nude pictorials, and a section recommending films in which to view
female celebs at their barest.
airdisaster.com,
a shockingly thorough analogue of every airline
disaster ever, eyewitness accounts and all. classicgaming.com:
the best place to polish off those old Coleco, Nintendo, and Atari
2600 skills. notquitehollywood.com:
the most hilarious, repulsive, and taboo candidates
for e-mail attachments you’ve ever seen. mulletsgalore.com:
the quintessential roast for anyone still donning this phased out
hairdo. icebox.com:
talented comedy writers such as Seinfeld’s own Larry David
go to work for this site. reporterTV.com:
entertainment business news you can actually
watch. audible.com:
Robin Williams spouts free e-wise at this site.
citysearch.com:
the best compass to finding that nightclub in
Philly or Manhattan. thesmokinggun.com:
a site Oliver Stone would be proud of. Live police reports and conspiracy
documents for your suspicious eye. iuma.com:
Underground Music Archive. Another site delivering
the musician directly to potential fans. dotcomix.com:
allows you to send a 3-D comic, or a “Spam-a-gram”
to a friend.
mediatrip.com
| wirebreak.com
beatnik.com
| listen.com
| soundbreak.com
thethreshold.com
| whatshotnow.com
checkout.com
| slate.com
| google.com
dogpile.com
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