Geek Stuff
Forget TV and Norway, We've Got Flash long long ago
It wasn't so long ago that I viewed Flash on the web as a nuisance. Like
JavaScript and Java applets, it was a good way for a site author to break
his or her site for a substantial subset of users, in the name of putting
something, usually gimmicky, on the site.
In recent months I've really come to appreciate Flash as a medium for
distributing animation on the web. Macromedia seems to have done a good
job of making sure that their Flash Player is stable on all platforms,
and rather than using it to add unnecessary bells and whistles to
websites, a growing number of sites are delivering gorgeous, addictive
Flash content.
Here are some Flash productions (and in a few cases, whole sites) I've
seen that deliver at least a minute or two of top-notch timewasting.
Some are movies, some are a series of movies, and some are just eye
candy. Most are in some way humourous.
- Kenya —
Quite possibly the most disturbing piece of Flash to enter my brain and
refuse to leave since All Your Base Are Belong To Us hit the big time.
CLEAN
- Magical Trevor —
From the folks who brought us Kenya. Stick mentioned Magical Trevor
recently, and I was foolish enough to look it up. I wouldn't say that
the entire site is anywhere near the quality of these two movies, but
Kenya and Magical Trevor have me hooked. And there's a second Magical
Trevor short if you care to explore the site.
CLEAN
- Strong Bad —
A lengthy series dedicated to answering the fan mail of a... actually,
I have no idea what Strong Bad is, but he's cool. The series features an
interesting if nonsensical collection of characters. The quality of the
plotlines varies like a yo-yo but I keep coming back since 10% of the
episodes are mindbogglingly funny (to me). My personal favourites are
50 Emails,
English Paper,
Dragon
and
Flashback.
CLEAN
- Xombie — A short series of
nice, long, gorgeous, somewhat serious toons featuring a girl and a
zombie. I'm very pleased that the immensely talented James Farr
appears to have scored a movie deal for Xombie.
CLEAN LANGUAGE BUT SPOOKY AND SOMETIMES GORY
- Tokyo Plastic —
Hard to describe, but if you like headphone-wearing Japanese women who
just might be drum machines in danger of being swallowed by giant machines
or plants, you might like this. This site best experienced with a
subwoofer. CLEAN
- Switch to Linux
— The best of several movies at
uberGeek.
CLEAN
- Alexander
Leon — His Super Mario Bros. movies transform a cute video game into
intense theatrical drama. Excellent use of music.
CLEAN
- Xiao Xiao #3 — This is from
a series but the third seems to capture the true essense of... stick-men
employing martial arts. VIOLENT
- Foamy the Squirrel
— Definitely not the cutest or most polished of cartoons, and
decidedly foul, sometimes incomprehensible language, about 15% of
Foamy toons crack me up. I like
Coffee-House Propaganda
and
Foamy's Rant.
DOES NOT RESEMBLE CLEAN
- #&%* —
An documentary with a decidedly retro feel, explaining the utility of
a certain word beginning with the letter between E and G.
DEFINITELY NOT CLEAN
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Paruda, also known as Derek England in what some people call real life, is
a Unix geek in Toronto, Canada. When not applying his geeking skills to working
for the man, he likes to draw cartoons and serve as overbearing overlord on