MISCmedia for 5/2/01
Plugfest 2001, Part 1

I OFTEN GET EMAILS from folk who run other websites, asking for plugs for their sites on mine. And on rare occasions, sites are even recommended to me by people other than the sites' own creators.

Today, a look at some.

Creating Your Own Funeral: Site creator Stephanie West Allen calls her site an info-repository for creating your own funeral or memorial service."

It's a basic links page to basic, relatively cheery how-to pieces (some by Allen) about "designing your end-of-life event, regardless of your age or state of health." One thing you can say: It's one artistic creation where you won't care about the audience response.

Xiao Xiao: Described by the correspondent who recommended it to me as "deranged but weirdly hypnotic stick-men homage to Jackie Chan, The Matrix, and Crouching Tiger, etc. etc."

It turns out to be a cute, albeit morbid, Flash animation of simply-rendered figures in various monochromatic colors, engaged in violent karate and knife fights in a setting reminiscent of '80s video games.

Cranky Media Guy: Site runner Bob Pagani thinks I should put in a good word for his online narrative about a friend, Tom Kraemer, who (according to Pagani) "is in love with an imaginary woman."

As Pagani explains, "Back in February, I loaned him my Mac and a copy of the imaging program SuperGoo. With them he made the face of a 'woman....' Now he says he is in love with the woman he created and wants to find her real-life counterpart. While I realize this is pretty odd, he is my friend and I do want him to be happy so I have put the picture of Tom's 'dream girl' and the entire story on my website... so that Tom can find his 'dream girl' and have a happy life."

The Art of Kissing: Reader John R. Nicholson recommended this online posting of a 1936 how-to manual by one Hugh Morris.

This simple, one-page, all-text work is elegantly and tastefully written, even as it discusses such topics as "Why Kissing Is Pleasant" and "How to Kiss Girls with Different Sizes of Mouths." While some readers might chafe at Morris's insistence upon traditional gender roles ("He must be able to sweep her into his strong arms, and tower over her, and look down into her eyes, and cup her chin in his fingers and then, bend over her face and plant his eager, virile lips on her moist, slightly parted, inviting ones"), I believe all of you will enjoy the way he expresses his convictions.

Written long before the first computer, this is clearly the best site of today's reviewed batch.

NEXT: Just a little more of this.

ELSEWHERE:

• A whole fascinating site devoted to other news outlets' corrections and errata (found by Anita's List of Links)....

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• The possibly rose-colored memoirs of a former Seattle Weekly editor.
• Previewing the great Jewish-baseball graphic novel.
• Images signifying nothing.
• A partial defense of fast food.
• An attempt to save a beloved Net radio station.
• Turning off Turn Off TV Week.
• The real problem with delivery dot-coms.
• The Bush regime compared with the novel Underworld.
• A Chant, re: the art of Art Chantry.
• Joey Ramone reaches the ultimate sedation.
• John Keister gets canceled again, apparently.
• Tulipomania redux.
• Parts one, two, three, four, and five of a tour through every home I've lived in.
• Parts one and two of a guest columnist's reminiscences of beer, basements, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.
• Mulling still more potential changes to the site.
• Memories of the radio station formerly known as KCMU.
• Thanks to the Net, some folks are writing more. That's supposed to be a bad thing?
• Remember rain?
• In defense of DIY publishing.
• A special offer on slightly-hurt Losers.
• Parts one and two of Boeing becoming just another global corporation.
• Could you be turning into a hippie without even knowing it?

ARCHIVES:

• 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and 1986-94 columns
• Reviews of literature & art, nonfiction & culture criticism, movies & videos, and music & noise
• Longer articles and essays
• Some slightly weird little fiction pieces
• X-Word crossword puzzles, now with on-screen solving
• Cyber Stuff, links to cool and/or useful sites
• A listing of many Things I Like (and a few things I hate)
• The origin and future of MISCmedia