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All
Movie Guide
This database site aims to one-up the Internet
Movie Database’s mission to provide information on every movie ever
made. Whereas IMDB tends to sacrifice accuracy in favor of comprehensiveness,
All Movie Guide skips over lesser films and makes sure the info they do have
is correct. Click around to figure out where you’ve seen that familiar-looking
character actor who played the editor in Never Been Kissed. Find out
how much money Freddy Got Fingered actually made. Or dig up respectable
filmmakers’ dirty secrets, like the first feature from Lord of the Rings
director Peter Jackson, in which the protagonist is made to drink space-alien
upchuck.
DVD
File
If DVD is the cinephile’s dream, then DVD File must be a complete psychoanalytical
dream-interpretation guide. This massive site contains up-to-the-minute reviews
of almost every notable DVD release, paying special attention to audio-visual
transfer quality and supplemental material on the discs. Editorial
columns examine industry issues. Feature
stories provide interviews with filmmakers (and the occasional telecine
specialist). And the Petition
of the Month section offers visitors the chance to DEMAND the DVD release
of their favorite flicks (The Cars That Ate Paris, anyone?)
The
Onion
This site simply does not need my plug. For years, the University of Wisconsin’s
satirical weekly newspaper has led the scrawny pack of American humor—and
all the hip are wise to it. Fake headlines such as Chess
Supercomputer Beaten Up By More Popular Computer and Burundi
Beef Council: ‘Please Send Beef’ provide endless giddy amusement
for the young and listless. Read horoscopes more precise and accurate than any
others, such as: “Capricorn: You will find yourself in yet another argument
over whether Murasaki's The Tale Of Genji is the world’s first true
novel.” The audio-visual
club section of the website contains some of the web’s most intelligent
(non-satirical) capsule reviews of books, movies and music.
Scott
McCloud
Scott McCloud is the world’s greatest living evangelist. With his books
Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics, this charismatic
cartoonist preaches the Word about the Great American Artform. McCloud’s
personal website showcases more than 25 breathtaking examples of his online
comics work. (Be sure to read one of the most flawless comics ever, Choose
Your Own Carl.) The site's links
page serves as a basic portal to the best of the webcomics vanguard.
Advanced Book
Exchange
See, if I need to buy an out-of-print book and I can’t find a copy, after
a while my hands start to shake real bad. When this happens, I know what to
do. I simply ask a friend to type in the url of Advanced Book Exchange. Droves
of independent book dealers catalog their inventory on this website. Most books
are available from multiple dealers, removed various degrees from immaculacy
and priced correspondingly. I always know that if I can’t find a book at
ABE I’m SOL—anything that’s not listed here is definitely out
of my price range.
Mere
Exposure
My roommate Jason Arthurs is a photo-snapping, action-filming, rock-outing fool.
His webzine has original content—reviews, feature stories, photo spreads,
video interviews . . . all produced by Jason and his merry cronies—about
the happeningest indie folks this side of the Yangtse. Check out the skateboarding
section, too. On April 14, 2002, Jason’s site got 45 hits in one day, none
of which was Jason. It is obvious he has arrived.
Created for Deb Aikat's Electronic
Information Sources class
@ The University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
feedback? i pretend to care. jhurtz@email.unc.edu