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The Cool Tricks and Trinkets Newsletter #242 4/17/3 |
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Welcome to the 242nd issue of the Cool Tricks and Trinkets Newsletter offering weekly insights into new, cool, useful, fun, unusual and interesting sites on the Internet. In this issue: - American
Music Mavericks ~~~~~ Cool Tricks and Trinkets is made possible by A1 Discount Hotels ~~~~~~ A1 Discount Hotels (an affiliate of Hotels.com) offer discount rooms in over 20,000 hotels worldwide with choices from budget to 5 star hotels. Bookmark our site for you next trip. http://www.a1-discount-hotels.com 888-511-5743. Group and Corporate Travel Services are also available. <Editor's Note> A1 Discount Hotels is our primary business and source of income. You can support Tricks and Trinkets, by checking us out the next time you're planning a trip. For personal travel needs, write me at info@a1-discount-hotels.com
American Music Mavericks Avant-garde musical innovators who shaped non-traditional American music are the inspiration for American Maverick, a 13-part radio and Internet series launched in April by Minnesota Public Radio. Suzanne Vega hosts as both composers and performers tell the story of American musical inspiration and creativity. Visit The Listening Room for streaming audio, to "roll up your sleeves and get your ears dirty." The continuous-playing Smooth Channel has ambient, nature, minimalism and drone; while the Chunky Channel offers experimental, electronic, found sound, avant-garde and invented instruments. Join the creativity with musical interactives, like a chance to perform on a virtual Rhythmicon, the musical keyboard instrument built in 1931 by Leon Theremin. http://www.musicmavericks.org/ Ghosts of Albion It is London, 1838, and demons swarm the land. William and Tamara Swift must heal the wound in the heart of London, using magic, intelligence and the help of long-dead friends at Ghosts of Albion, a fully animated web cast of five episodes. Visitors can help Tamara solve puzzles to discover demons, read her diary of mystical research and go behind the scenes for interviews with cast and crew, send e-cards or download screensavers and eerie music tracks. Co-writers are Amber Benson, Tara in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and Christopher Golden, who wrote the script for X-Box's Buffy video game. The cast includes such cult legends as Anthony Daniels, who was Star Wars' C-3PO; and Leslie Phillips, the voice of the Sorting Hat in the "Harry Potter" films. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ghosts/index.shtml Photo Journalism "We left early in the morning, surrounded by Bedouins searching through our trash and empty MREs looking for any semblance of food. It was a sad sight …" So begins the April 9, 2003, entry of Jim Watson, a photojournalist in Iraq whose updates to American Photojournalist.com give visitors an inside look at working with a camera on the front lines. Launched in 2002, the site is a resource for photojournalists who bring us the heart-breaking and heart-warming images below the headlines, with a Members' Forum and the Blackbook, an online virtual organizer of professional contacts, from photo editors to camera labs. The rest of us will enjoy access to the compelling images in the hundreds of online portfolios from freelancers and newspaper-based photographers. http://www.americanphotojournalist.com/ SHORT TAKES Banished Words Lake Superior State University has issued its 28th annual list of mis-used, over-used and useless words deserving of exile at LSSU.edu's Banished, and the list speaks volumes about the year behind us: included are "homeland security," "weapons of mass destruction" and "undisclosed secret location."
Imagine a light bulb that has burned continuously for more than 100 years. The fantasy is real at Centennial Bulb.org, honoring Shelby Electric's handblown 4-watt bulb with a carbon filament that was installed as a nightlight over the fire trucks at a fire department in 1901 and remains burning at a fire station in Livermore, California, today. http://www.centennialbulb.org/
http://www.robertsondex.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/carcam/ Enjoy
the newsletter? Tell your friends to subscribe by sending an email to: Virtual 'Vertigo' A mysterious blonde spends her days visiting gravesites, staring at a portrait of a woman in an art museum and gazing out the window of a rented room in a run-down hotel -- hints of the whirlpool of illusion, murder and madness into which Scottie Ferguson is about to descend. Widescreen Cinema's Vertigo is a tribute to the mystery and the master of Alfred Hitchcock film classic, "Vertigo." Take a virtual tour of 1950s San Francisco to visit many of the film's landmarks, from the McKittrick Hotel to Muir Woods. Read about the extensive restoration process that restored the original film negative, and visit the store for Hitchcock films now on DVD and books about the life, times and creative genius of the great director. http://www.widescreencinema.com/vertigo/ OMB Watch Do you believe that public participation leads to greater public protection? That government must be held accountable? If so, visit OMBWatch.org, formed in 1983 to lift the veil from the powerful Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which oversees the budget, proposed legislation and much more. OMB Watch tracks OMB activities, reports on and gets involved with the federal budget, regulations, non-profit policy and much more. Described as "a band of Davids [that] has proved most effective against the Goliaths," the site lets visitors follow topics from estate taxes to homeland security, stay current on wide-ranging issues as they're debated, and take action via an online contact system that puts you in touch with federal, state and local decision-makers. Vintage Brochures Find travel-related ephemera of the 1920s and 1930s, like travel brochures, airline and oceanliner time-tables, luggage labels and ads at Travel Brochure Graphics.com, an online gallery of original, not-for-sale items from a personal collection. With more than 1,300 images now online, the collection is still growing. It's all paper, and mostly from Europe and Asia, with a bit from the US. Visitors can view memorabilia like a 1932 ad for Scintilla batteries; a 1931 travel magazine from the Cunard Steam Ship Company; and a 1931 road map for the Continental Strassenkarte, Karte 33 in Frankfurt. Search by type of material or by nation of origin and, with permission, even use the images on another web site. http://www.travelbrochuregraphics.com/ **********Advertisement************** THE COOLEST COLOR BUSINESS CARDS These cards will make you proud to have a business. Create, personalize, edit, print and order a unique one of a kind business card. http://www.ebusiness-cards.com
Bowling To Vegas Put together bowling and a road trip, and you've got Derek, Matt, Mike and Todd's excellent adventure at Bowling To Vegas.com. The four recently bowled their way from Chicago to Las Vegas, roughly 1,748 miles, by way of a whole lot of 60-foot long bowling lanes from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Flagstaff, Arizona. They estimated they would roll 153,878 balls in about 9,000 games. On April 9, the group arrived at Jillian's HiLife Lanes in Vegas. Check out their route, their updates and entries, bowling averages, fan letters and the photo gallery. Bowling To Vegas bowling shirts were sold to support a non-profit organization called Reading is Fundamental, to put books - not balls - in the hands of school kids. http://www.bowlingtovegas.com/ Create-A-Band For a new take on garage bands, the easy way, visit CreateBands.com to create your own band, give it a name, choose the members, make the music and get them jamming. You can even add FX lighting or, if necessary, replace that percussionist who just keeps falling behind the beat. The first step is to choose a band name, then select your musicians: percussion, keyboard, horns, and rhythm and bass guitars, even a DJ. Once your band is put together, your keyboard controls any musician on stage using his or her designated keys to create loop play, manual play or stop play. Then start the jam, crank up the volume and don't worry about the neighbors complaining or your garage getting thrashed. SUBSCRIBERS' SITES - Many of our subscribers have fascinating on-line projects. This weekly section will introduce you to some of these sites. Please let me know about your project so that I might mention it in this section. Write me at info@tricksandtrinkets.com ~ 5 Star Support - When you need computer help. ~ Jewish Education & Entertainment
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~Loy Ching-Yuen
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