| Pixar They're the coolest movie studio on the planet. Says who? Says us. And their web site ain't half bad, either. Featuring not only trailers and outtakes from their feature-length films (Toy Story, A Bug's Life -- perhaps you've heard of them), the site also offers complete versions of six short subjects. Plus, you'll find a sneak peek of their latest short, For the Birds, currently gracing theaters with the box-office-blitzing Monsters Inc. Finally, if you've ever wanted to know what it takes to make a computer-animated feature film, check out the interviews with Pixar's artists, the "How We Make a Movie" slideshow, and the detailed dirt on the company's Renderman software. |
| Air-Jordans.com This exhaustive fan site, dedicated to the shoes that revolutionized the footwear biz, will having you jumping for joy. Air Jordans debuted in 1985 with a look that seems clunky when compared with the fancy hoops shoes of today, but these landmark kicks led to a "gotta have it" craze that's spawned 17 straight years of high-tech sneaker innovation. Track the development of Jordans year-by-year with extensive detail photos of every color iteration, browse through the informative overviews, and read interesting tidbits on how each year's model was received by the buying public. It's gotta be the shoes. |
| OddTodd: Laid-Off OddTodd is "one of those people who people wonder about." You know the kind who sits around the local coffeeshop on Tuesday afternoons, eats fudge-striped cookies for breakfast, thinks about volunteering (then reconsiders), fantasizes about what he's going to do with his lottery winnings, and takes 20-minute afternoon power naps that tend to run a little long. "OddTodd" is actually the web comic persona of Todd Rosenberg, another dot-com casualty with enough time on his hands to create hilarious animated shorts. Odd as Todd is, he's just looking for a little love, understanding, and maybe a dollar for an ice-cream cone. Throw the Todd a bone. |
| Way of the Exploding Stick Here's a kung fu action game you can play in your web browser. Colorful animated stick figures battle it out in a keystroke coordination challenge that's guaranteed to wile away solitary hours in front of the computer. Run, jump, jab, punch, and kick as you exercise hand-eye coordination and the dexterity of several fingers at once. You'll need the S, X, D, C, and V keys; four arrow keys are also essential. The animation design is appealingly simple -- think "Crouching Stickman, Hidden Drag-and-Drop" in the bold colors and crisp lines of Japanese woodblock prints. The key to success? Just lay off the noodles... |
| Picklebird Picklebird focuses on promoting alternative art, the kind that is "unique, provocative, sometimes odd, but always damn good!" The creators of the site aim to open your eyes to art that might never be seen in museums or galleries, believing that the "outcast artists of today will be the modern masters in the future." The In the Life section offers advice on "How to Survive Art School," while the Spotlight area highlights ingenious art works like Simon Rodia's Watts Towers. The site's just launched, so pickings are a bit slim, but the promise of exciting "outsider, contemporary folk, pop, naive, lowbrow, visionary or intuitive art" has great potential. |
| Dream Catcher Have you ever had a dream so intricate and intense you couldn't believe your own twisted mind? Have you jolted awake from a night of "mental gymnastics" and thought, What the...? Well, here's your chance to make a public spectacle of your most private thoughts. While there's a blog for just about every self-absorbed topic, this is one where self-absorption works. Why? Think of it's as fantasy quid pro quo -- collective unconscious therapy. You spill your intimate details while you crawl into the heads and dream journals of others. In the process, you'll find that other folks are just as whacked in the head as you. |
| Historic Weapons Collection The clean, simple design of this site reflects the elegance and artistry of the medieval and renaissance arms on display. Designer Nathan Robinson meticulously catalogs his vast collection of reproduction swords, daggers, and other historic weaponry. Witness the splendor of the Italian Renaissance on a 1560s Italian falchion, etched with the personal coat of arms of Cosimo de' Medici. An early 16th-century Scottish claymore evokes the fierce determination of the Highlanders. And imagine the hours of labor it took to produce this medieval chain mail armor! These items aren't simply weapons -- they're reflections of the societies that produced them. |
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