Guitar
www.guitar.com
Not much different from an online version of Guitar Player
magazine, www.guitar.com offers a wide variety of features which
will interest any guitarist, from the novice 14-year-old punk
enthusiast to the wizened, gear-savvy jazz virtuoso. Free of
charge, the Web site boasts access to album reviews, interviews,
online contests and prize drawings, as well as “chat”
sessions with mini-star guests. After the simple registration
process (also free), members have access to discussion boards and
artist and instructor pages. Members also have the ability to
upload band Mp3’s and bios. And to help you complete your
next Thrash Metal outfit, there is a musician-matching feature that
can find freelance musicians in your area. Although the online
guitar tablature behemoth OLGA was sued out of legal functionality
a couple of years back, guitar.com utilizes its remains to offer
members tablature searches. For instance, if you should one day
wake up and have the desire to play REM’s “Wolves,
Lower”, a search could be completed for the band name, and
then you could scroll through the 248 song tablatures listed until
the one in question was spotted. Now that you’ve got the
chords in hand, don’t know where to go next? No problem.
Simply use guitar.com’s own “Chord Generator”
which will show you where to put your fingers on a standard-tuned
guitar to make any chord your heart desires. For further inquiries
into how to play the guitar, the site offers several FAQ’s
and basic lesson regimens. There are texts covering blues playing
and bass playing, as well as advice on how to create the spacey
effects of Jimi Hendrix or Radiohead. If these do not suffice,
check out the instructors section for a list of guitar teachers
from all over the country who can aid you in your studies. If you
are perhaps in the mood for some Grateful Dead-type jamming, check
out the “Scale Generator”, which can show you how to
play all the notes in any given scale so your solos can sound in
key with the rhythm section. Check out the links section to buy
products from guitar giants such as Fender, Ibanez and Gibson, or
peruse guitar auction and new product release sites. Although the
Web site does have album reviews and band interviews, most of the
interviews posed as “new” are actually quite old and
probably culled from outside sources. For example, a dateless
interview with jazz fusionist John McLaughlin spotlights his 1997
release, “The Heart of Things” as if it were a current
release. All in all, guitar.com provides an adequate starting point
for anyone who wants to pursue the craft of guitar, providing
visitors with all sorts of handy information from how to put on new
strings to how to perfectly amp a 1950’s Stratocaster. If
you’ve ever been interested in picking up a guitar and
becoming the next Van Halen or if even if you’re already a
seasoned axemaster, Guitar.com is sure to offer advice as well as
entertainment.
Cyrus McNally Rating: 8
Indie Planet
www.indieplanet.com
With a motto like “Screw the majors, make your own
scene” Indie Planet is sure to spark your interest and
curiosity. Visitors to the Web site will be confronted with a
flashy intro and a variety of exploring options. Categories of
interest include business, fantasy, motion, food, theater and
spirituality. There is also a sarcastic and fun poll visitors can
participate in. For example, one poll reads, “It’s
about that time. Who should the U.S. bomb next? a) Bob Jones
University, b) Pokemon headquarters, c) wherever the Backstreet
Boys are from, d) random brown-skinned country.” Each
category includes a witty and interesting article about the given
subject as well as links to related features, columns, reviews,
articles, artist profiles and archive articles. Many of the columns
are visitors’ posted responses to the main article. On the
Web site you can register for a free custom homepage, use the Indie
Planet Instant Messenger, sign up to receive a free newsletter, or
shop at the Indie Planet storefront. Check out the humor section
for articles on topics like porn parody, or for the latest comic
strip. Indie Planet offers a place for visitors and members to post
responses to both issue and humor articles. It’s sleek and
user-friendly design allows easy viewing of the site. Whether you
are in the mood for some serious reading, a forum open to response,
or fun polls and comics, you can find it all at Indie Planet.
Angela Salazar Rating: 7
I-Film
www.ifilm.com
Most filmmakers can tell you there’s only one thing harder
than making a movie, and that’s getting exposure and finding
a distributor. But film students fret no more: ifilm.com, an
indie-oriented site, posts work from all over the world by
established directors as well as fledgling filmmakers. The site
contains a number of features aimed at informing amateur artists,
offering valuable nuts-and-bolts insights on everything from script
writing to post-production. These aspects should make the site a
favorite for film gurus in-training, but before anything else,
ifilm is the Internet’s own entertainment art house that just
about any movie lover, regardless of film knowledge, can enjoy. The
movies posted on ifilm span all genres, and range in length from
brief comedy shorts, like Ron Hampton’s minute and a half
“Bag Boy”, to feature length films such as
“Moosie” from Paul Rohrer. “Stigmata”
director Rupert Wainwright even released his latest film,
“The Sadness of Sex”, as a 10-episode series on ifilm.
Each movie is accompanied by viewer commentary and a 1-10 rating.
Simply browsing the “Highest Rated” index almost always
yields a rewarding experience. The highest-rated film,
“More”, a 70 mm IMAX short by Marc Osborne, was the
recipient of the inaugural Special Jury Award at Sundance 1999, and
was also nominated for an Academy Award. “More” is a
short of rare caliber, and there are many works on ifilm which
deserve merit for their artistry. “Herd”, by Mike
Mitchell, is another such film. However, it is done a disservice by
being presented in Realplayer, whereas most all of the other films
are viewed in the higher-quality Windows Mediaplayer format. In
addition, it’s difficult to make a short that isn’t
gimmicky. Some of the films, like “The Beckers: Cannibalism
and Your Teen”, might leave you waiting for a punchline that
never comes. Nevertheless, ifilm is more than worth a visit, if
only to see “More” or “Herd”.
Anthony Camara Rating: 7