Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Where did all the interesting websites go?

Google’s Blogger used to spotlight interesting blogs on its platform with a feature called Blogs of Note. But it quit that feature in 2012.
The Huffington Post used to have a weekly article titled “7 Sites You Should Be Wasting Time on Right Now.” But it ended that feature in June 2014.
Internet users have shifted from blogs to social media to share fun and interesting ideas and media. Lovingly curated blogs devoted to a single topic have given way to quick hit funnies and notes on Reddit, Twitter and elsewhere online.
In the seven years I’ve been writing Tech-media-tainment, I’ve spotlighted over 250 cool websites. But lately they’ve become fewer and far between.
Early on there were a lot of Blogger blogs highlighted on TMT. Then Tumblr was a popular place to create blogs (before it became a heavy-handed DMCA tool and a vast wasteland for TV show GIFs, lame quotes and cat photos).
Now it’s hard for me to find interesting websites, especially those devoted to pop culture and Internet curation.
It’s been almost a year since I last posted a collection of 25 interesting blogs.
What follows are a few interesting websites that I’ve been meaning to spotlight.

The Meta Picture

The Meta Picture is an old-fashioned photo blog with funny memes, comics and inspirational messages.
The quality is hit-and-miss, but the blog posts a lot of material. It’s worth checking out for grins every now and then.
See sample photos above.

Perv_magnet

Professional violinist Mia Matsumiya created an Instagram account, Perv_magnet, to document all the rude come-ons and misogynistic comments she gets online.
Matsumiya describes herself as a “perv magnet.”
“I’ve archived 1,000+ messages from creeps, weirdos and fetishists over the past 10 years,” she says in her bio. “I’ve decided to post them all.”
(See article by the Huffington Post.)

Couple Pictures 2015

Last fall, Nicole Larson of Alberta, Canada, made a lot of people chuckle by posting a parody engagement photo album on Facebook.
She posed with a Pizza Hut box in a series of outdoor photos for a collection called Couple Pictures 2015.
“I wanted to do a spoof of other couples pictures because I am single and in my opinion pizza never lets you down,” Larson told the Huffington Post.

FatCatArt

Russian artist Svetlana Petrova likes to add her large ginger tabby into classic works of art. She posts the works on her website FatCatArt.
She has since branched out into FatCatArt calendars and a book.
(See article by the Daily Mail.)

Chipmunkson16speed

Toronto-based electronic musician Brian Borcherdt took some old Chipmunks records and rerecorded them on a suitcase record player at 16 RPM.
The result, a SoundCloud account called Chipmunkson16speed, is “both brilliant and terrifying,” the A.V. Club said. The chirpy pop records now sound like dirge metal tracks. My favorite is the cover of Blondie’s “Call Me.”

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