A Slight Delay

 Yenz.com is the online home of German graphic artist/web designer Jens Schmidt. Like so much else, I came across this site by accident (via Random Website.com, in this case) and ended up spending quite some time looking over the different graphics and designs on display. Besides showcasing Schmidt’s work for various clients (and a few things that seem to have been done just for the fun of it), there’s a short story, and an animated fish thingy that has a certain addictive Zen simplicity to it. If Schmidt’s aesthetic is decidedly postmodern, at least it hasn’t lost its sense of humor; if you remember any of the early-90’s stuff from the Designers Republic (and even if you don’t), you’ll probably find something to like about this site. Careful with that fish…

You know the little warning stickers on pill bottles about taking the medication only on a full stomach? That goes double for Man Eat Food. Entry after entry will leave you either salivating, or listening to your growling stomach (or both). What I like about the blog is its catholic quality. This is clearly someone who loves to eat–no arguments from these quarters, certainly–and who, though he loves good food, isn’t a snob about it. It’s a nice antidote to some blogs I’ve seen written by self-proclaimed “foodies,” where the simple pleasure of a good meal gets lost amid the stuff calculated to impress the other foodies. Hold onto your napkins…

Blogs on religion proliferate like weeds on the web. Unfortunately, they all too often settle into trite cliches, facile dogmatism, and sloppy theology. A refreshing exception comes to us courtesy of Amicus Dei, a blog written by Pastor Chuck Warnock. Once you’ve read his writing, both there and on his other blogs, such as Confessions of a Small-Church Pastor, you come to realize that any preconceptions you might’ve had about Baptist pastors pretty much go out the window. At least mine did. (more…)

In lieu of writing an entry today, I’ve made an update to the site. Two pages–Links and Resources, and Quotes–have been added. Both pages will be updated from time to time, as the inspiration strikes.

Case in point as to why this blog is titled “A Slight Delay”: Some time back, I had the idea to do a “Turn Off Your Computer Day.” Turns out, they beat me to it.

They, in this case, are Michael Taylor, Denis Bystrov and Ashutosh Rajekar. Since anyone who advocates a less plugged-in life usually gets pegged as a Luddite, it should be noted that Messrs. Taylor, Bystrov and Rajekar’s professions both heavily involve computing. What they’re suggesting isn’t the eradication of computers and all that goes with them; rather, they’d like people to realize that there is a world beyond the one of Warcraft, or of Messenger, MP3 downloads, blog surfing, or any of the hundreds of other timekillers that exist on our desktops and online.  (more…)

Maybe it’s just a byproduct of being in the New York media market, but it seems like radio is a fickle place. Radio stations don’t last, and the few that have seem to have mutated beyond all recognition. At any given point from the late ‘70’s to the early ‘90’s, you could spin the dial and hear anything from Nektar, The Clash, Elvis Costello, PiL, the Smiths, the Cure, Joy Division, and the Style Council rubbing elbows with the likes of PWEI, Killing Joke, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, King Crimson, Big Youth, Pat Metheny, The Wonderstuff, and others, sometimes side-by-side.

Times have changed. WQCD is off the air (thankfully), while WNEW and WHTG have changed call signs and formats multiple times. These days over at WBLS (which Ross Davis once described as a “crack house with turntables”—does anyone else remember Paco?), if anyone tried to play a Clash dub plate back to back with the Sugarhill Gang, someone’d throw a Molotov Cocktail in the lobby. (more…)

If you’re looking for an interesting new website, or just looking to kill time at work, you could do worse than randomwebsite.com. The site offers no more or less than what its name suggests; click on a link, and you’ll be taken to a totally random website. There are roughly as many hits on Dutch and German-language websites as English ones, but that’s a relatively minor quibble. Also, while they try to vet the sites that are submitted, sites and domains do change hands, so from time to time you’ll either come across a dead link, or something that’s NSFW. Proceed with caution.