The worst website of the year goes to . . .

Check it. Judge it. Read this.

Somebody ingested every colour/logo/toolbar ever created and then barfed it all up onto this page.

First things first, why? Why did they create this migraine waiting to happen? Of course, they do not tell us the purpose of this abomination. Purpose would indicate that someone somewhere along the line thought in a linear fashion while making this site , and clearly that is not the case.

There is DEMOCRATIC NEWS sprawled out at the top f the homepage, with haphazard pictures of Obama and some white guy I don’t recognize because his picture is too small, underneath.

But wait! If you didn’t find what you were looking for from that incomprehensible picture banner, maybe you will find it on the  even more incomprehensible alphabet index.

Underneath that we have REPUBLICAN NEWS. And then we have all sorts of other flabbergasting information, whose disarray and excess is reminiscent of gothic style art. Minus the art. And the reverence. And all other qualities that could possibly lead to it making a mark in history.

Okay, so it can’t all be bad. In fact, I did experience some distinct moments of enjoyment while cruising this site.

1.       Scrolling down and down and down and down through 10+ pages of information only to be greeted by a little !-) wink at the bottom. What can I say? Combining the exclamation point with the right bracket is both innovative and endearing. I’m going to start using that when I want to convince people to make world-changing political decisions.

2.       I know I mentioned it already but, THE YELLOW AND LIME GREEN BANNERS really are a nice touch. Yellow and green together, such human colours. Many a bodily fluid runs yellow and green.

3.       Barak Obama’s pixilated side profile, over and over again. Need I say more?

For your own sake, steer clear of havenworks.com. There are many, many other ways to become politically educated. Asking a third grader from Tajikistan will elicit a more comprehensive answer than this website.

 

 

 

South America

On December 14 Helen&Kevin&Matt&Linnea&Hilary&Hannah flew to Peru, and then Argentina. Here is a tidbit of the Jenkins 2008 Christmas. Thank you to Linnea for the stellar photographs.

 

The Beauty of Blather

I put my thoughts in print in the latest Mars’ Hill issue, read the digitized version here.

Be productive while doing nothing

Podcasts! They allow you to do the menial tasks of the day while getting an edumacation.  My favorites are:

BBC Documentries

Westside Kings Church

Podcast Village

and of course, NPR

On an unrelated but equally important note, this website will keep you up-to-date on the vancity musical happenings.

Pullman fights for his right to write

The Golden Compass has been listed as one of the most challenged books of 2007 for religious viewpoint - read Pullmans defense here  and join the discussion on censorship.  Is entertaining the idea that God doesn’t exist too heavy for young readers to handle?

I am a story teller,” he said. “If I wanted to send a message I would have written a sermon.

My basic objection to religion is not that it isn’t true; I like plenty of things that aren’t true. It’s that religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. Destroying intellectual freedom is always evil, but only religion makes doing evil feel quite so good.

COLAB

My friends Peter&Spencer&Jesse have started a T-Shirt company that’s sure to be a big deal.  Get yours while you can at http://www.thecolabonline.com/

Hipster Hate

Douglas Haddow is coming under major scrutiny right now from all the (insert hipster describing adjective here) kids on the net.  His adbuster’s cover story,  “Hipsters: The Dead End of Western Civilization”  has been up a week and has already generated over 1200 replies, most of them raging. Get riled up (or not?) Check it.

The Parcel

In the year five zillion and two

You’ll receive mail quite overdue.

A yellowed bundle tied with string

Return address says from Beijing.

DO NOT PANIC, don’t say a peep

Surely it is still fast asleep.

Go somewhere private, in the dark

Take this here match and light a spark.

Now heed my words and understand

You must obey just one command:

Stop before you reach the finish,

Or all you’ve gained will diminish.

Now, you ask, “How am I to know

When there is nothing else below?”

When curiosity runs dry,

And wonder is in short supply

Wrap it up just as it arrived,

Be satisfied that you survived.

The last gent met a different fate,

Which explains the late delivery date.

 

 

 

 

The start of a story

A Victorian princess escaping the throne in nothing but a sailboat and lace.  A woman entering a new world through the hedge of her garden.  Every Tim Walker photograph is so exquisitely unique that you can’t help but engage in the story it is telling.  Walk the caverns of your imagination through his work.

 

112 year old artist makes it big

 

Many crazed brilliant artists die penniless, receiving their deserved recognition long after their studio is dark.  Frank Calloway is getting his glory while he still can, at 112 years old.  Calloway was born in 1896 (pause to roll off all the things that didn’t exist then: cars, grandma, the first world war) and he has been institutionalized since 1952 for schizophrenia. 

 Using a crayon, marker, or a ball point pen Calloway transforms large stretches of butcher paper into murals of things ancient and forgotten.  Wooden paddle boats and horses laboring under the Alabama sun are part of the reason his art is suddenly a success, he draws the idyllic simple life.

 “I couldn’t get time to go to school much, stopped in the third grade reader, that’s all I could get, third grade reader,” Calloway said. “A school teacher put me to drawing a long time ago, drawing pictures.”

 Calloway’s work will be displayed in October at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore in an exhibition called “The Marriage of Art, Science and Philosophy.”

 Check out some of his work here and here.

Image from Birmingham news.