| le piano graphique Tres cool. This very hip and very French music simulator transforms your PC into a fully funktified groove machine. It works by assigning a sample to each letter on your keyboard: a breakbeat, a lead synth melody, a hip-hop chorus, etc. Lay down a basic bass and drum track, then go crazy with the leads. You can choose between five types of songs -- "Cargo" is world music, "Rude Boy" is reggae, "Lov' Techno" is electronic, etc. And as you play, you manipulate the swirling psychedelic images on your screen. Why go outside? |
| Icuna In Finnish, Icuna means "window." In Latin, Incunabula means "cradle" or "beginning." In reality, Icuna is a new media company that hopes to send you a one-minute film via email every weekday. While they're not officially up and running just yet, they do have a fascinating archive of one-minute wonders form the likes of Alex Cox, recent NYU film school grad Julie Delpy, and the mind-bogglingly prolific Paul Mazursky. So spare yourself sixty seconds for a filmic haiku. |
| Piet Mondrian: The Transatlantic Paintings Mondrian's "transatlantic paintings" refer to a group of seventeen works the artist began in Europe between 1935 and 1940, and finished in New York after arriving in the States in 1940. The interest in these works stems from the fact that they are the only pieces that were worked on both in Europe and America. Mondrian's art underwent an extreme change while in New York, which led to the paintings having a split personality. Mondrian's decision to inscribe two dates on each painting only adds to the "schizoid" nature of these works. |
| InterPlanetary Internet The Internet Society is an organization that works to ensure the growth and evolution of the Internet and its infrastructure. The Interplanetary Internet research group represents its latest foray into the future. The goal of this project "is to define the architecture and protocols necessary to permit interoperation of the Internet resident on Earth with other remotely located internets resident on other planets or spacecraft in transit." What's all that mean? Well, as far as we can tell, it means that if this plan takes root, sending an email to Mars in the future will be much easier than downloading an MP3 from Napster. |
| Bob Hope and American Variety The Library of Congress presents this impressive look at the first half of the American 20th Century. This isn't just about Bob Hope's comedy career, it's about American immigrants at the turn of the century, Vaudeville, the glory days of radio, the Great Depression, the advent of sound in Motion Pictures, World War II, and early live television, among other things. It's also loaded with fascinating primary documents: original Vaudeville showbills, movie publicity stills, a packed 1983 appointment book, and letters from POWs. All this from the man who claimed "I have performed for twelve presidents and entertained six." |
| Underwater Archaeology Beneath the waters of the Mediterranean lie vast amounts of relics from the region's maritime history. Undisturbed for centuries, these items are painstakingly uncovered, identified, catalogued, photographed, and analyzed by teams of intrepid marine archaeologists from France and other countries. This site highlights some daring expeditions and pays homage to past discoverers who brought the complicated craft of modern diving to the fore. Like their dry-land counterparts -- these marine archaeologists are concerned with more than human artifacts. While visiting the undersea world, they also note the unique topography of a site and survey the terrain surrounding the excavations. |
| The Waiter's Revenge (R.I.P.) Working in the food service industry isn't always a proverbial piece of cake, but now there's a special place for waiters to vent: Waiter's Revenge. This site features a chat room and a message board, plus places to share table-waiting horror stories and signs of bad tippers. Waiters looking to improve themselves can read the Tips for Better Tips section, while poetic waiters and even restaurant customers might enjoy the "Waiter's Haiku page, which includes this gem: "I ordered it rare / The steak is over done, Yuk / Your tip will suffer." |
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