The Websites of me

These are a couple of websites that I visit, it’s fairly limited but all are usefull to my own purposes.

(BTW, I know that no one gives a shit, but an assignment is an assignment, and hopefully some might provide some insight to those in the class)

 

 

kexp.org/      ->

(http://kexp.org/live/default.aspx

http://kexp.org/streamarchive/streamarchive.asp)

 

I’ve probably spent more time on KEXP’s website sight than any other in the past 5 to 6 years, they have truly opened my eyes to the music world. KEXP is initially a radio station based out of the UW, which can be found at 90.3 FM. They used to be known as KCMU, but changed their name in April of 2001 after partnering with Paul Alan’s Experience Music Project at which time they moved to a location in downtown Seattle and began broadcasting 750 watts from their original 400 watts. They started streaming online in 2000 at 128 KBPS and now they stream their live broadcast in several formats including a 1.4 mbps uncompressed stream, as well as a 128k wma/mp3 stream.

What makes the site really stand out is not its live stream, though the stations radio broadcast, despite having decreased in qualitative programing in the last few years, is still superb in comparison to the rest of the music based FM band, as well as in comparison to a vast amount of internet radio stations (especially due to the quality of the stream). What makes it truly worth mentioning is the stations vast archives which are available to anyone. Since 2002 they have been archiving the many live performers they have in their studio (200 to 400 per year), these are all on their site. The quality of the 02 to 03 performances is somewhat poor but anything after 04 is quite good 128k wma, and the diversity of the performances is splendid.

They also archive their broadcast for 2 weeks, allowing one better access to the niche shows they have on the air, often at somewhat inconvenient times. These are archived in 24k, 64k, 96k WMA’s as well as 1.4mbps uncompressed wav files.

If your into music of any kind I highly recommend you check this out.

 

rogerebert.suntimes.com/

 

As far as any one singular movie reviewer, Roger Ebert is truly without precedent. Perhaps its because he has been writing for over 40 years, and seems to be no longer subject to any particular format, but his analysis of cinema is truly brilliant. His site archives almost every review he has written since 1968, as well as many editorials.

 

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

A useful tool in finding what movies are out, and more importantly what to watch, The sight catalogs a vast amount of reviews for movies, then compiles them together in both how much people liked it, as well as whether or not  the movie gained a positive review. If 60 percent of critics liked it, then the movie has a 60 on its famous “tomato meter”, then in addition to this would be the percentage of how good they thought the film was. Again, its just a great site to get the gist of whether or not a movie is worth seeing.

 

www.metacritic.com/

Essentially the same thing as RT, but they expand their compilations, to television, games, and music.

Unlike RT’s famous meter, Metacritic is focused specifically on the quality of the film, also its list of critics is limited to national press, rather than the massive collage of assorted web and blog reviewers that RT also includes in addition to the national press. Metacritic is most useful when looking for television, in that its somewhat unique as it reviews the seasons of TV shows.