Author: admin

Christopher Walker likes to make monkeys cry. On purpose. Thus the title of this lovely online journal. This particular predilection is never fully explained, but it’s enough to justify the title.

A young man from the UK, Walker is a writer and web designer. He began Monkeys Cry in June of last year. Walker is a talented writer with a love of language and good ear for a cleverly turned phrase. When I first started reading through the archives, I thought to myself, “This guy takes himself a little too seriously,” but slowly his dry sense of humor began to show up here and there. Walker, like most writers, is an avid reader and many of his entries are concerned with his latest read. He’s a thoughtful and witty critic.

The first half of Monkeys Cry details Walker’s move to Nagano, Japan to become a teacher. His descriptions of the landscape, the people, and the cultural differences he encounters are delightful to read.

Some of the entries are a little cryptic, but deliberately so, and it doesn’t happen frequently enough to be annoying. Instead it serves as an incentive to read further in the hope that these riddles will be solved. A few of the entries are a bit wordy and at times the author’s flowery language borders on pretentious, but the subjects he chooses to expound on are interesting more often than not.

There are some excellent extras to be found at Monkeys Cry. Several lovely photo series taken by Walker in both Japan and Europe are available. Also included are links to Walker’s original short stories and online novel, The Last People. I haven’t read the novel yet but his short stories are interesting.

Visually, Monkeys Cry is lovely. Walker is a talented web designer. He recently started his own design business, Ubik Studios. His journal is simple but not plain and looks great in both Netscape and Internet Explorer. An appealing patterned background and photos that rotate as you move from page to page add visual punch. He’s a proponent of fully accessible design, and for that I could just kiss him.

Monkeys Cry is a sturdy, engrossing journal. Walker takes the time to craft more than just a laundry list of his daily activities. You can tell he puts a lot of thought into each entry. He takes chances with his writing and isn’t afraid to experiment with style. That, combined with a pleasing original design, makes Monkeys Cry a journal worth returning to.
Monkeys Cry

Every so often, while stumbling through the lists and links and indexes of blogs, you come across a site so well crafted and interesting you are reminded of why you became so excited by this whole “blog” thing in the first place. Johnny America is one such site.

It appears to be a group blog started in July of this year. Each author has a distinct voice. All of them are fabulous writers. There’s something here for everyone: Reviews of everything from bars to books to movies to restaurants. Wonderfully written fiction. Daily “dispatches”. Funny asides. Cultural commentary. But even with such a wide array of entries from several different authors, there’s still an overriding cohesive feel to Johnny America.

Each entry stands on its own. You can dive into the site at almost any point and find something wonderful to read. The posts are sublime. They crawl under your skin. Some are light and funny. Others are darker, cryptic and more disturbing. All are worth savoring. I found myself laughing in odd spots. A few simple sentences detailing the relative efficiency of toothbrush dampening methods caught me off guard, making me laugh out loud. The effect is a subtle one. The authors play with their audience (in the best way). Johnny America draws you in, gets you hooked, and leaves you wanting more. I was disappointed when I came to the most recent entry, since it meant I could read no further.

The design is as simple as can be and it perfectly fits the tone of the site. Johnny America is about the words. It’s about the writing. Any unnecessary bells and whistles would take away from the quiet, reflective atmosphere of the site.

There are a few amusing extras to be found here, including some chuckle inducing emails having to do with an “Am I Hot Or Not?” experiment, and an odd little Questions and Answers page. My only complaint about the site is that I wish there was a little more information on who these people are.

Johnny America is a wonderful young site with incredible potential. It takes the concept of a blog or online journal and runs with it, offering unique and thought-provoking writing to what’s sure to be a rapidly increasing audience.
Johnny America

High school life is a time of struggle, regardless of which country you live in or where you study. It is a time for young individuals to form their own characters, often an amalgam of their parents and their peer group, or in the case of the lucky few, a result of their learning. It is also a time of struggle for precocious talent. Sports stars are pressed to do better, train harder, and attract more cash to their schools. Attractive members of the student populace fight to become more attractive and more popular.

And there is also the next generation of writers to consider. Finding a voice is incredibly tough; many fail, instead attempting to adopt the style and language of their favourite published authors. To those that succeed, I raise my hat to you.

Fatuity (With A Grain Of Salt) is the work of a sophomore named Karan (with an ‘a’, apparently), a writer with a voice.

The blog is new, fresh, and like all young blogs faces the threat of becoming stillborn with each day that passes unremarked. Fortunately, there are no gaps in the history of this work; though it stretches back only two months (this and last), Fatuity is packed with highly involved posts, many worthy of comment here. Early in the writer’s online career, Karan takes an insightful look at the phenomenon of real-life stereotypes – those people that make a snug home for themselves in the pigeonholes society has crafted for them.

The site is a little empty, though. The design is wonderfully minimalist and doesn’t distract the reader, which helps, but I’d like to see more content. The page has a random photograph at the top – all of the ones I’ve seen look majestic and wonderful, but I know nothing about them, such as who took them, and with what, and why? The “About” section is prosaic and leads to no useful additional information, which is a shame, considering I have no idea about the name “Karan” and feel like it may be closely related to the effeminate “Karen.”

I also want to know more about the author’s experience with Dengue Fever in the Pacific Rim. I have read tales about Dengue, and know that it is a nasty, nasty virus; an additional post or even a short travelogue separate from the main content would be most welcome.

Otherwise, this is a good site, and could one day become very good. Karan has heard from the site’s detractors, complainants saying the tone is too depressive. It isn’t, I don’t think, and it is worth visiting. With a bit more time invested, and the continued hard work of the writer, it could grow to be a titan in its field. Until that time, I’m forced to give no more than an upper-average grade.

Fatuity

With a title like Mike’s Brain, one has to assume that this site is going to be daily thoughts and ramblings. Anything other than the above would just not fit with the title. Thankfully, nothing is out of place at Mike’s Brain.

The weblog itself is complete random posts and thoughts as I thought it would be. Posts range from topics such as movies, to cool websites, to just strange things. Most of the posts are written very well, and will make you laugh. The humor in the posts comes naturally and is not forced which is a good thing.

The design however is not near as good as the weblog. He is using a standard blogger template that has been used over and over again. Even if he doesn’t know HTML, I think he needs to tweak the colors to serve his site better. Of course an original design would be best. The one good thing about this design is that it makes it very easy to ignore the ad at the top of the page since this is a blogspot page.

Unfortunately there aren’t any extras for this site. There are your usual links to places and what have you, but nothing else about the author or the site. I really wish that I could have found out more about the author other than what was posted through out the blog.

Overall we have a very good weblog. There are lots of posts to keep you entertained, and it is fairly easy to read. The lack of an original design and extra content brings the score of this blog down. With a little bit of an extra effort, I see this blog scoring higher in the future.
Mike’s Brain

Xenon, huh? Could be anything. It’s number 54 in the periodic table of the elements, symbol Xe. It is a noble gas. Maybe we’ve some deep-geek scientist here unlocking the secrets of the universe…

Two column template, purple and white. Purple’s my favorite color, so I’m inclined to like this blog anyway. No distractions, a few tiny graphics, looks like navigation’s going to be easy. All the links are neatly lined up on the right hand side. He’s got links grouped by astrological sign, which is a clever touch. But wait — where’s the “about” section? I scroll down to the bottom and find there are 753 entires, 498 comments, and 47 members. Members? Is this a group blog? How can that be — it’s copyrighted by a single individual. Huh…

So far, there’s no indication the author’s a scientist, or at least maybe not. There’s a graphic for a web writer’s conference in Austin next month. There are also links to the Pepys project, Austin Bloggers, and Austin Stories, so even though he could be a scientist or anything else in his day job, he’s certainly interested in writing online. There’s also a terms of service page, (lengthy, tiny print) and a link to an astrology site.

Wait — there’s a link to a profile! Maybe there’s something there. Nope, sorry, it wants me to log in. The Members link also wants me to log in. There’s nothing up front here that says what happens when you log in, or why you’d want to, so I pass.

I read through some of the entries (no, not all 753, this guy’s already made me work too hard) and find some nicely-written daily ramblings, some references to astrology, and a daily record of a trip to England, apparently going on now.

See, the thing is, when I look at a blog, I’m there for the first time without knowing anything about the author, his or her intentions in doing this, or if the author has been doing this for two months or two decades. It’s good to know as much of the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where,why ) as possible going in to something like this. Sometimes, though, the author gets caught up in other details and forgets the casual visitor. It’s always possible for bloggers not to really want people reading the blog, or sometimes a blog’s there for a definite purpose that’s so important to the author you feel badly if you miss it. If the blogger doesn’t let you in on the secret, the reviewer or casual visitor may entirely miss the intended message.

I’ll probably look in from time to time, because I’d like to hear more details of the trip. Otherwise, I most likely wouldn’t. I’m a big fan of clarity and ease in writing, and when the structure around it fails, it can’t help but detract from the main event.

xenon