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*HOT* WEB SITES
Week of January 20, 1997

National Museum of American Art
CATEGORY: Arts and Culture
"Based in Washington, D.C. as part of the Smithsonian Institute and dedicated exclusively to American art, the National Museum of American Art is the first federal art collection. This site presents several of the galleries online with virtual tours and histories of the art. (Some of the 37,500+ pieces are over 200 years old.) Also here are online research resources and publications, as well as a virtual guest book, where you can immortalize your visit without even traveling to D.C."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

National Endowment For the Arts
CATEGORY: Arts and Culture
"The NEA has faced some heavy scrutiny in recent years about the use of public funds to support controversial art and artists, but there's strong evidence here that the NEA is doing a lot of good. Artists will be especially interested in the section on NEA resources and how to apply for them, but any art fan will want to check out the arts.community section, a slick, well-written, online magazine covering what's going on with the NEA and the world of art in America. Features in the first issue discussed online art commerce using 'digital cash' and the response of local artists to the Oklahoma City bombing. There's a lot here to see for both artists and anyone who supports government funding for the arts."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

George Eastman House -- Museum of Photography
CATEGORY: Arts and Culture
"A couple of classes at RIT joined together to produce this beautiful and thorough web site for the museum operated by George Eastman House. The students showcase the museum's ongoing film and photo exhibits, and highlight its tours and lecture series in Rochester, NY. The Timeline of Film and Photography begins with a surprising entry for the 5th century BC (Aristotle was apparently fiddling around with optical lenses back then) and finishes up by noting current breakthroughs in imaging technology. A clickable map of the premises takes the viewer inside every nook and cranny of the old house, including its well-tended gardens. Academicians and film buffs will appreciate thorough descriptions of the Eastman archives (among the oldest and most extensive in the U.S.). First-rate stuff."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

Michael C. Carlos Museum
CATEGORY: Arts and Culture
"This Emory University museum is one of the most lively and multifacted art sites on the Web. It boasts a permanent collection of more than 15,000 objects, from Valdivian fertility gods to 20th Century Sub-Saharan sculpture. We toured the galleries to ogle a wrapped mummy from ancient Egypt, and found the fine craftsmanship of a Nigerian Helmet Mask beautifully rendered online. Choose from several temporary exhibition galleries, where you might find ancient art from the British Museum or a display of contemporary American prints and drawings. A behind-the-scenes peek at curatorial and conservation activities will especially gratify art historians."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

The Krannert Art Museum
CATEGORY: Arts and Culture
"The real-time collection at the Krannert -- part of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign -- spans over four million years, and curators have supplied a generous selection for this virtual presentation. From antiquities like Yupa, an Egyptian stone carving circa 1304 B.C. (long before most of us were born), to Yves Tanguy's 1948 surrealist painting Suffering Softens Stones, the Krannert is as good a place as any to start a comprehensive art history lesson. The 'Krannert Art Museum Explorer' features hypermedia projects reserved exclusively for Web visitors, like the one for Dutch Master Frans Hals, famed for his casual approach to formal portraiture. (Blue jeans allowed.) The Krannert also posts notices of upcoming real-time exhibitions here, as well as ongoing events and series, like the Visual Learning Initiative. A stellar art site."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

World Wide Arts Resources
CATEGORY: Arts and Culture
"Links to more than 250 museums worldwide (catalogued by country), 560 galleries and exhibitions, 50 publications and 40 arts-related institutions are, believe it or not, only the tip of the iceberg here. There are also antiques, an 'Arts Site of the Day,' and much more. Visitors can locate a dealer who can say whether that armchair in grandma's attic is really a Chippendale or they can mine the index of major artists for links to Ernst, Esher, Picasso, Pollack, Arbus, Bosch... and thousands more. Museums vary in focus and diversity, from the National Wool Museum in Australia to Pittsburgh's newly opened Andy Warhol Museum. A tip of the palette is due site compiler Markus Kruse. We've yet to find a more comprehensive arts index on the Net."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

LucasArts Entertainment Company
CATEGORY: Fun Stuff
"Just as the LucasFilm company is known for the wildly popular Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, The LucasArts company is known for its wildly popular computer games based on those movies. This site showcases the software created by LucasArts, and provides lots of dirt for the avid game player. For example, in The Adventurer, their semi-regular promotional magazine, we learned that Rebel Assault II was made with studio-shot action sequences with real actors. (Sure, this is old news now -- but hey, we were the first on our block to know about it.) Demos and "sneak peek" screen shots of upcoming games are provided, and where better to get the latest scoop than the company's own press releases? Seeing this site may set you to sharpening your resume for the Human Resources division provided here."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

Keeper of Lists
CATEGORY: Humor
"The Keepers describe themselves as 'a secret society dedicated to the creation and maintenance of lists.' Each day a new list appears, and visitors vote on their favorites. You're also able to enter your own addition (if your ego can withstand the possibility of everyone voting it down). Since anyone can enter anything, you have to expect some stupidity, but there's plenty of good pickings, too: the '85 Ways To Describe the Internet To Grandma' included 'It's like being able to check on the chickens without leaving the house,' and 'It's like reading a paper, only you go blind faster.' Past lists have included 'Top 139 Favorite Childhood Toys' and 'Top 66 Talk Show Topics that use the word Gorgonzola.' Some good, some lame, lots of laughs."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

The Games Domain
CATEGORY: Fun Stuff
"Could there be a more complete source than this for the home computer gamer? The Games Domain has built its popularity on its huge array of direct links to games and tip sheets around the Internet. You'll find pointers to games, mailing lists to discuss games, and resources to help you play games; or, if you can't solve your own file transfer software, you can download files directly through your Web browser. In recent times, the Domain has added The GD Review, an online magazine 'by gamers, for gamers' with the hottest reviews and sneak peeks available. (We don't know if they're really 'the hottest'; that's just according to these guys). Programmers will like The Nexus, with its links to resources for creating games. Face it: you're not a true gamer if you haven't memorized the location of this site."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

DoomGate
CATEGORY: Fun Stuff
"DoomGate is on the Net, and it's just WAD the doctor ordered. (That's a Doom-junkie pun.) Here you get all the latest shareware releases of Doom, Doom II, and Heretic; spoilers, cheat codes, and screen shots; utilities, editors and add-ons; more WADs than you can count; themes that cover everything from the Simpsons to Star Trek; plus a kazillion docs and FAQs, including 'The Wadster's Guide' and "DEU For Dummies." Stop us when you've had enough. There's even a section on iFrag (for playing DOOM over the Net). If none of the above makes any sense to you, you can safely skip this site, which is really aimed at dedicated Doomsters. In that sense, this page is to Doom what Stonehenge is to Druids."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

Centre for the Easily Amused
CATEGORY: Humor
"Picture, if you will, a crack team of scientists in white lab coats exploring the Internet for the most astounding sites on the Web. Now forget it, because you're way off. It's just Canadian authors Cathie Walker and Brian Leslie, browsing around the Web and finding those sites that are silly, strange, or just plain stupid. All their selected sites follow a common thread, however -- they're a delightful waste of your time. The pair offer links to dumb spots such as the Pez Home Page, the Random Monty Python Skit Server, and, of course, the Belch Page. You don't have to do any hard work if you don't want to -- they select a 'Short Attention-Span Site of the Week' every seven days (or so) for your benefit."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

Thomas Pynchon
CATEGORY: Books and Literature
"Pynchon admirers from Pomona College have done their homework on this elusive and reclusive author, and the result is a real treat. Thoughtful examinations of Pynchon's work include essays on peripheral themes like V2 rockets and entropy, and the entire site is peppered with amusing, Pynchon-esque diversions. Like prizes from a Crackerjacks box, some of these are gems and some are duds. Besides covering his major novels 'The Crying of Lot 49' and 'Vineland,' we are treated to several previously uncollected works, from short stories and magazine articles to liner notes for a 1994 Spike Jones album. Personal information about the author (a rare commodity) is presented with fitting unobtrusiveness, including trivia treasures like Pynchon's love of 'The Brady Bunch.' On the serious side, Tim Ware's remarkable concordance to 'Gravity's Rainbow' is just one impressive feature of this fine site."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

Literary Kicks
CATEGORY: Books and Literature
" 'If Generation X is like Woodstock, the Beat Generation was like a small dark tavern at two in the morning, with a bunch of old jazz musicians jamming on stage and Jack Kerouac buying rounds at the bar,' explains Levi Asher, who has developed this impressive tribute to some of his favorite writers. Asher wisely keeps his distance, with biographies of Beat authors Kerouac and Ginsberg that don't portray them as heroes, but as guys who wrote some good stuff in spite of their sometimes glaring lack of cool. He's not blind to their literary faults either, noting that while what they wrote is sometimes brilliant, 'a lot of it sucked.' Selected writings are provided for the uninitiated, and Ginsberg fans and critics should love the parody 'Yowl,' an updated version of his classic poem. Asher works in some fantastic links -- his own -- on topics like Bob Dylan, San Francisco, and Buddhism."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

Bullets and Beer: The Spenser Page
CATEGORY: Books and Literature
"Spenser, mystery author Robert B. Parker's fist-fighting Boston dick, is the hero of more than a dozen novels, all of them known for their swift action and tough-guy wit. Uncommonly comprehensive in scope, this site offers not only character descriptions and favorite lines, but also an annotated list of the novels, citing and explaining the literary references that pepper Parker's novels (he was a lit professor in Boston). This seems mighty highbrow for a character who's punching and wrassling bad guys with guns all the time, but it somehow isn't as pretentious as it sounds. In the mid-80s, Spenser had a TV show, and there have been a number of TV movies made with the same cast (Robert Urich as Spencer, and Avery 'Captain Sisko' Brooks as Hawk); these are briefly covered here, though they rightfully take a back seat to the novels."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

AwardWeb: Collections of Literary Award Information
CATEGORY: Books and Literature
"Dominated by science fiction, AwardWeb offers current lists of major literary awards. (It's also where we learned that the crew of Apollo 11 was given a special 1969 Hugo Award for 'The Best Moon Landing Ever.') Laurie Mann maintains this excellent source, catalogued by year and by decade with winners of laurels like the Arthur C. Clarke Award (best science fiction published in Britain), the Bram Stoker Award (from the Horror Writers' Association), or the James Tiptree, Jr. Award (for literary work that 'explores or expands gender roles'). If this all seems a bit mainstream, more adventurous readers might explore the European Sci-Fi Awards or the French Sci-Fi Awards here (because, you know, the French aren't regular Europeans). A list of Newbery Medal winners for children's literature is also here, once you have waded through all that science fiction. Although a bit dry in presentation, this is one heck of a resource for recommended books and a font of trivia for tome gobblers."
Review courtesy of Point Communications Corp.

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