The Newer New Yorker.

The New Yorker needs little introduction. It's possibly the most popular source for art, culture, and literary whatnot in North America.  

In its paper format, The New Yorker is text heavy. Each weekly issue includes fiction, poetry, reviews, critiques, and of course, cartoons. In my opinion, it's a great publication. But how does The New Yorker's website stack up against its juggernaut paper cousin? 

www.newyorker.com appears, at first glance, like a carbon copy of the original. We've seen in past comparisons that this is not always a good thing and it often hurts the overall content. They use the same fonts, colours, and images as the paper copy. The articles are available in their entirety. A simple click of a button can take you into a little Malcolm Gladwell or Laura Collins. This is no technological wonder. But of course, it wouldn't be The New Yorker if there wasn't some experimentation. 

Some closer inspection of the site's main page reveals a media player offering a podcast called The Transition. On this page, you don't even have to hunt for a little media. About a quarter of the way down the page there is a video posted and if you continue scrolling you get a menu of Audio and another menu of Video content. All on the Main Page!

If you're interested you can take an online survey or, with a little hunting, you can play some games. And, of course, you can always link to recommended blogs and other sites. 

Another interesting feature of The New Yorker online is the availability of audio downloads of articles. It's like books on tape... weekly. This feature, however, requires a subscription. 

We can learn a lot from the online New Yorker. We can learn that, with good content and up to date technology, the message and the medium work together to create the whole. They are anything but mutually exclusive. The New Yorker produces quality work, in whatever form it takes. This is what seems most important. Flashy media players aren't worth much if the message/content is sub-par. But nobody wants to carry around a stone tablet or wait for a carrier pigeon either. I rate The New Yorker Online 4 Mouse Clicks.

The Coast.

The Coast is Halifax's free Arts and Culture weekly publication. It's a pretty good magazine. It's the Mirror of Montreal, the Now Magazine of Toronto, and the Straight Magazine of Vancouver. And like these other free weekly publications, The Coast promotes happenings and acts in the art and culture community. In the paper format its a good resource. But is this the true of its online equivalent? 

The Coast Online is similar in appearance to the other free magazine sites, albeit a bit more cluttered. The home page contains links to columns, reviews, events, artist profiles, and news. In terms of content, they usually focus on local acts and news. This is appropriate. The Coast is a locally circulated publication. The website offers links to the regular sections of the paper. But, unlike many similar sites, The Coast has an media player on its main page. This is a good thing. With this playlist, the viewer of the site is immediately involved in a multimedia experience.

In the menu there is a button to a variety of blogs as well as a link to "TVCoast". This isn't a televised broadcast of content. I doubt they have the budget for that. TVCoast is a selection of videos, posted by readers. Anybody can post any video. It's a nice feature. And a good place to procrastinate. 

From years of using The Coast's website I've found one feature of the site particularly useful. That would be The Classifieds. The online classifieds allow a user to quickly search through thousands of listings for whatever they desire. A user can search according to price, location, quality, and user. It's a great tool for any student. Obviously this isn't a featured exclusive to The Coast but because I have experience with it, I decided to bring it up now. Another feature that most sites have is a "Comments" link. With this, a user can send timely feedback and receive a response. No stamps for this guy. 

On the whole, The Coast dot Ca is a good resource. It could use a little interactivity... maybe a game of sorts. Nevertheless, I rate www.thecoast.ca 3.5 Mouse Clicks. 

The Believer. Don't believe the hype.

The Believer is another Arts and Culture magazine. It's about $10 at your newsstand and it occasionally comes with a few perks such as stickers, post cards, or compilation CDs. For the most part, it's an interesting magazine with interesting columns and reviews. This cannot be said of it's website.

The Believer Online works as a large advertisement for the magazine. There is very little completed content (only 3 or 15 articles are available). But this is only one of the shortcomings of the site. 

The Believer Online is not interactive, it does not offer any audio or video components. In McLuhan terms, it is rather warm when compared to many other sites. One of the better qualities of the site is the "Online Only" content, which is archived and previously unpublished text. Right now there is a rereleased interview with David Foster Wallace. This is the most substantial piece within the "Online Only" section. The main problem with the site is it's lack of substance. Much like the website for The Montreal Mirror, The Believer tries to recreate the hard copy of the issue without observing or embracing electronic technology. It appears similar to The Walrus' website, but this is only in terms of structure- cascading menu, scrolling pages, etc. There is hardly an mystery to the site, and one can explore the entire site in only a few minutes. Moreover, they don't even focus on images or visuals. 

The Believer makes its aims apparent, Buy The Magazine! Their problem is that they don't fill the site with anything worth looking at so you quickly move on and forget about The Believer, both in its electronic and paper form. 

I rate this site 2 Mouse Clicks. 

"I Am The Electronic Walrus."

The Walrus is a popular Canadian magazine that focuses on Environmental Issues, Politics, Arts, and Culture. In short, it's a general interest magazine and their website emphasizes it online. 

The Walrus Online is aesthetically appealing in its simplicity. The white background helps to emphasize the text. It's easy to navigate the site and the menu assists your browsing. It is a cascading website that requires scrolling but not too much of it. The articles are available in their full version. Beyond the basic texts of each issue, the website embraces the electronic medium in a variety of ways.

The Walrus Online offers an archive of past editions, as well as an up-to-date News window. Because the magazine is a published on a month to month basis, the news window enables a daily/hourly update while the archive allows for easy reference. But what is most impressive about The Walrus online is the Blog/Media section. This section displays a list of links to various "Walrus Bloggers" as well as a lengthly selection of PodCasts. The site also links to "Web Extras" which presents content that is only available online. 

This website does not suffer the pitfalls of many magazine websites. While it is simple, it is not boring or bland. There are ads but not too many, and they don't clutter the site. Page space is used well, with margins that emphasize the text. The site is not simply a recreation of the paper text. The addition of video links, a bit of interactivity, and a little mystery would do this site good. It is nevertheless a good resource for the connected Walrus reader. I give The Walrus Online 3.5 Mouse Clicks.

Now Magazine. Even Nower.

Now Magazine, like Halifax's The Coast, is one of Toronto's free weekly publications dedicated to arts, culture, and events. Want to know what's going on tonight? Get a Now. You can find a Now box on just about any corner, in almost any cafe, convenience store, and pub. It is your key to events, reviews, and all things hipster-dufus-cool. But what if you can't get your hands on the hard copy? What does the internet equivalent offer?

Now Magazine online appears to be an electronic edition of the paper magazine. It has a scrolling menu that reveals the same headings as in the hard copy. In fact, the website offers almost nothing more, nor does it use the medium to the fullest. Besides button clicking and page movement, the site has the same content. But I won't complain about this.

Now Magazine in it's paper form is bulky. There is too much content. Besides advertisements, the magazine has venue listings, event listings, art listings, theatre listings, music listings, comedy listings, restaurant listings, reviews, columns, horoscopes, classifieds, and the occasional insert. The website arranges all of this information in an orderly and navigable way. It's a beautiful thing. 

There is a multitude of fonts on the website, as well as colours. And, typical of most sites, there are ads galore. In fact, the entire background of the page is Alexander Keith's Wallpaper. Visually it is somewhat busy however it is well ordered and the content is accessible. Also, it has multimedia capabilities, with an audio player and video archive. There are also links to other sites and event details. The key to this site is the button and where the clicks take you. For that, I rate this site 3 Mouse Clicks.

Cabinet. Open it up and look.

Cabinet is an art and culture quarterly based out of Brooklyn. Its articles are scholarly, creative, and fun. Contributors to the magazine come from a range of educational backgrounds and as a result the content is multidimensional. Artists, professors, scientists and journalists are among the contributors. The New York Press recently called it "the finest thing to come out of Brooklyn since our grandmother" and The Village Voice said "Cabinet is the secret best art magazine." This is high praise for a magazine you've probably never heard of. Unfortunately, the internet offers very little assistance for you to explore the magazine. 

Because Cabinet depends on grants and donations in order to stay afloat, the editors are hesitant to reveal the magazines content in its entirety on the internet. The magazine does cost more than the average publication at $12 per issue so it's understandable that one might search the web for it. No deal. Cabinet Magazine Online offers several complete pieces however they suggest that you subscribe or pick one up at the newsstand. The choice not to offer the entire magazine online is not entirely financial.

Cabinet is a multidimensional and interactive magazine, even in its paper form. Each issue includes original postcards, cool cut-outs, and book marks. It is textured. *The last issue had a Scratch-and-Reveal (like Scratch-n-Win) cover. This cannot be recreated on the internet, per se. That isn't to say that Cabinet hasn't embraced the medium.

The site offers a catalogue of web art, sound art, visual and multimedia. This is where the medium is utilized best. This section contains:

1. An interactive map that explores the genealogy of American map-making.

2. An "exhibit" by artist Ron Lent called "Days I've Been Alive Represented By Dots"

3. An interactive graphing system that graphs your human experience based on chosen variables. 

These art projects promote the internet as an artistic medium by exploring colour, typography, mystery, interactivity, buttons, links, and website conventions. 

Cabinet Online also has an archive of past issues and a list of upcoming events that is updated regularly. These are not necessarily available in paper form. 

I rate Cabinet Magazine Online 3.5 Mouse Clicks.

The Mirror, Not Just A Crappy Publication.

I lived in Montreal for three months in the spring and summer of 2006. While I was there I took in as much culture as I could, I went out to pubs, drank lattes at cafes, spent an afternoon at La Place des Arts, ate poutine ... the usual. These cultural excursions would have been made easier had there been a free cultural publication of any note. There was not. The Mirror is Montreal's free mag and it leaves much to be desired. For starters, I will give you a thousand dollars if you can find one copy in ten minutes or less. Unlike most free publications, The Mirror is not available. Anywhere. There is a select number of pubs and cafes that carry The Mirror. If you do find one, it is either out of date or irrelevant to your cultural needs. It's surprising because many cultural happenings depend on publications of this sort for promotion. And I know what you're thinking, you're thinking "Thank goodness for the internet." Well, you're thinking wrong.

The Mirror's website www.montrealmirror.com is useless. It does not even begin to explore the medium. No audio, no video, no enhanced images, no movement, no mystery. The site does not explore colour combinations or typography. It offers nothing in terms of visuals. The menu is not displayed in a particularly appealing style. It doesn't draw the reader. To be honest, it does the opposite. The articles are all available but it has nothing to offer outside of the textual content. In fact, the articles are reproduced on the screen with black print on a white background, displaying only an introductory image to the article. It is lackluster to say the least. Ironically, the best feature of the website is a virtual edition of the paper publication. Cover page, Press The Arrow, Wait 10 Seconds and VOILA!, Page 2. It is literally a photograph of the entire magazine. Beyond the cool factor of this effect, a factor that lasts about 47 seconds, the virtual Mirror is equal to the paper version in that it is notably uninformative. I rate this site 1 Mouse Click, and that click is to another site.

Exclaim the Magazine the Website

Exclaim Magazine is a free bi-monthly Canadian publication that boasts itself as "Canada's Music Authority".  It can be found in almost any cafe, pub, club, shop. The paper publication is informative, well written, and text heavy. These are good things. The reviews featured are indepth, critically sharp, and intelligent. They don't focus on any particular genre and the well-rounded analysis can accommodate music lovers of all kinds. The only drawback to the magazine is it's bi-monthly release.

The majority of free publications are released weekly. In order to stay up to date on arts and culture, a speedy turnover is important. Nobody's interested in last weeks trends and happenings. However, because Exclaim is the only comprehensive free music publication in Canada, it can afford the time lapse... probably because it can't afford $$$ not to. Luckily, when Exclaim becomes digital @ www.exclaim.ca it retains it's textual strengths while gaining the advantages of the electronic medium.

The Exclaim website publishes articles, news, and reviews daily. It is visual appealing and has a simple layout. The menu, running horizontally across the top of the page, helps the user to navigate. The cascading structure allows for easy scrolling. But the true strength of the website lies in its embrace of the multimedia. 

What else could be more important to a music magazine besides audible music? Besides a variety of playlists that are available on the main page, the site invites users to listen in on "Exlaim Radio" which is a list of podcasts, divided into genres available at the click of you mouse. This is not a feature of the paper version. 

The site also has a video menu and a link to "Exclaim TV" which makes video interviews, live performance, music videos, and artist profiles. Three cheers for multimedia!

exclaim.ca allows readers of Exclaim magazine to relieve their frustrations and read up to date journalism about a wide range of musical topics. And if the reader is too lazy to read, they can listen to or watch. Exclaim also avoids printing and distribution costs, which is certainly beneficial to a free publication. I rate this site 4 Mouse Clicks.

any suggestions?

There are always things that need doing. It seems so, to me. 

The dishes need drying.

The laundry needs sudsing.

The floor needs sweeping.

I need to return the movies.

And pay the fines.

I need to read some words.

And write some.

I need to eat more vegetables.

I need to buy some toilette paper.

I need to clean my room.

I need to be more considerate to other people.

I need to start thinking about gifts for the holidays.

I need to think more in general.

I need to drink less.

I need to wipe off the screen on my laptop because I spilled coffee on it about a month ago and there are still smears.

I need to take the garbage out.

And the recycling too.

I need to relax.

I need to go to the doctor because I may have bronchitis.

I need to call those people. I need to send those emails. And write them first.

I need to take some time for myself.

I need to stop using humour to fill silences. 

I need to clip my toenails. 

I need to wipe the countertops.

I need to do many things. 

Where do I begin?

Suggestions?

a is for apple

Yesterday, while I was performing the nearly immediate and seamless movements from site to site, I  landed on a peculiar page. *I use the word "page" with intention. Connecting through the blog "Forgotten English" I linked to a website under the domain of "A is for Apple". This jump marked, not only a new page in my browsing but a new page in my understanding and appreciation of digital writing. aisforapple.net/main is the most innovative example of digital writing I've seen. I will try my best to explain:

After a multi-sensory introduction that displays a myriad of images and sounds (mostly concerning apples) gathered from art, advertisement, science texts, and pop-culture, I was confronted with the image of a dissected apple. It also marks the location of a button. At the bottom corner of the page is a stamp that resembles a label in an encyclopedia and it, too, marks a button. If one chooses to hit the dissected apple, an audible analysis  of "the Apple" is recited, accompanied by a display of movement and other sound. This deconstruction is grounded in many disciplines and might be understood as an example of what Dene Grigar refers to as Trandisciplinary or that which looks "between the disciplines, across the different disciplines, and beyond all disciplines". During this analysis, other buttons become available on the page and they each mark a possible movement on the page. For a better example, just see the site because as we might understand from Grigar, my rhetoric is not sufficient to explain the digital. 

If you choose to click the button on the bottom corner, I spiraling list (and more buttons) appears, each one relating, in some way, to the Apple. From here, the choices move in many directions. You might choose, for example, Snow White, or Apple Records, or Apple Computers, or The Big Apple. It seems to follow no apparent trend, however, with 2 or 3 hours of experimentation, you can see the the websites themes include Language and Linguistics, Art, The Beatles, John Lennon, Technology, Myth, Culture, Religion and Christianity, and of course, The Almighty Apple. 

In a sense the apple serves as a jump-off into all other information on the website. However, if we consider the sites domain name (A is for Apple) we appear to begin at a much more basic point: The letter A.

We might interpret this website as, not only a fantastic example of the possibilities of web design and digital writing, but also an example of what the internet is and what it provides. This website reiterates the media mantra that "the medium is the message". In other words, the content reflects the structures of the medium. This website (which does offer a map, in case you get lost) embodies, in a small way, the interconnections and intertextual qualities that characterize much the world wide web. It challenges the ways that we use it and understand the possibilities of the internet.

Explore this site! Explore this medium!

An Essay.

Horizontal Motion

This photograph was discovered on a digital "roll" on my FujiFilm Digital Camera in June 2008. I wasn't the photographer and I'm not sure who was. That's a mystery. It has been sitting on my memory-chip and in my mind since I made the discovery. This photo, which I have dubbed 'Horizontal Motion', ignites many questions for me. For starters, what is Horizontal Motion? I may need more context.

In the center of the photograph, beside Horizontal Motion, the word Helvetica is clearly marked on the page. That's a font! Below that piece of text the words italic, roman, and lowercase letters are written with ink. Yes! I believe this to be a photograph of a book about typography. It's a book about text. And what do I know of typography?

Eva Brumberger in "The Rhetoric of Typography" notes that typography "occupies a place that is simultaneously verbal and visual" (13). In a sense, we might understand the photo as a reiteration of this simultaneity. Because it is a photograph it's primarily visual but it contains a verbal element in the text. What is this significance of this transformation (or translocation) of a paper text into a digital text/ digital photograph? Besides the obvious meta consequences (it is a text about text, afterall), what can be said of the new format? Does it remain a text? Is it available to criticism? Is this an example of digital writing, or is it a piece of web art?

I have never seen the hard-copy of the text, only the photograph therefore it can only be viewed on a screen... I suppose I could print it off, but this might cause some sort of postmodern catastrophe. Post-Post Modernism? Double Post Modern? Do-Po-Mo? No. We can't go there. I'm just beginning to grasp the concept of the single Post and I'm not even entirely certain about Modernism. I won't enter this discussion but I will point out that the Modern period marked high times for the study of typography, and is occasionally referred to as the"typographic renaissance". Both Helvetica and Times New Roman were introduced in the 2oth century. Graphic Design also took on a new importance during modernism- Beatrice Warde published The Crystal Goblet in 1955. But to be honest, the only question that truly concerns me is What is Horizontal Motion?

I suppose we might say that horizontal motion is the movement along a horizontal plane. If you're reading this than you are involved in horizontal motion right now. Your eyes have moved from left to right, skipping down at the end of each line (unless you suffer from a certain variation of dyslexia). In a sense, this movement from left to right is what we call reading. However, it has been observed that when a child is too young to read, they associate the movement of the eyes as reading. They will move their eyes across the page, left to right, and they consider that movement to be reading. "Look Ma, I'm reading!" Most of us wouldn't consider this reading. Darn kids! But it seems we've lost our way again.

Returning to "The Rhetoric of Typography", Brumberger points out that "most contemporary designers now approach design from the perspective that a reader interacts with a document- with both its verbal and its visual content- to make meaning" (14). I think this nearly answers our question, or rather it sums up the process of our search for meaning. As we have interacted with both the visual content and verbal content of the photograph, we have gathered some understanding of the piece.

Personally, I find typography fascinating. To my mind, typesetting resembles art curation. A page and the physical/visual aspects of that space, like the walls of a gallery, facilitates the narrative. McLuhan urged us to consider the spaces surrounding the box- if we understand the subject of the text as "inside the box" we might consider the "object" of the text (typography) as "outside the box". Moreover, it is important to recognize that the object of text might have a subject and narrative of its own.