Each month the Browser features some pop-culture places on the World Wide Web offering the coolest in free interactive sounds and action.
Netting the Punisher
The unstoppable vigilante, who has been a character in the Marvel Comics universe for the past 30 years, returns to the big screen Friday. The new Punisher film (not to be confused with the 1989 Dolph Lundgren version) stars Thomas Jane as Frank Castle (aka the Punisher) and John Travolta as the bad guy, Howard Saint. It gets a promotional push via a clever Web site (www.punisherthemovie.com) that allows visitors to view some of the characters’ histories and the headquarters of the antihero.
By dragging around a mouse pointer, cyber-snoopers can explore Castle’s world: a photo-realistic, dimly lit room containing tables, weapons, spy equipment, computers and memories of a man who lost 30 members of his family to a squad of mobsters.
The Shockwave-fueled endeavor features multiple layers of clicking to reveal a wide variety of information, such as fake Web sites, newspaper articles, photos, encrypted e-mails, surveillance videos, police radio broadcasts and government documentation.
For example, moving from an over-the-top perspective of a side-wall will reveal a white-cross hot spot that when clicked upon leads to a horizontal perspective of a table, bulletin board and computer station. Click on the table to scroll virtually (one page at a time) through an edition of the magazine Tampa Today featuring an interview with Mr. Saint. Click on the computer screen and various icons to either hack the FBI National Academy Web site and take part in a firing-range simulation, pull up the Saint Worldwide Web site, or read official correspondence from the Tampa Special Operations Unit.
Other information scattered around includes a multimedia collage of FBI agent James Weeks, who has a penchant for gambling and women; the Toro brothers, who clean drug money through Mr. Saint’s corporations; and the FBI employee database containing Castle’s records from his stint with Special Ops in the Marine Corps.
Those looking for a less noggin-tasking endeavor can click on the Movie Info on Ign.Com link to find a biography of the Punisher character, cast and filmmaker interviews, a film trailer in Windows Media and Quicktime formats and previews of the Punisher album containing 19 90-second tracks from such alternative acts as Seether, Queens of the Stone Age, Drowning Pool and Nickelback — all in Real Player and Windows Media formats.
Plugged into Sleater-Kinney
Before female college alternative rock trio Sleater-Kinney stops by the Recher Theater in Towson, Md., April 21, fans and potential fans will want to visit the group’s official Web site (www.sleater-kinney.com) for a dose of the band’s Siouxsie and the Banshees-like pop sounds.
After reading about the group’s origins in Olympia, Wash., during the early 1990s and viewing some photos of the girls in action, viewers can download full MP3s of seven songs, with “Oh!” easily being the best of the bunch.
Portland’s power-pop trio the Thermals (www.the thermals .com), which will be opening for Sleater-Kinney, will underwhelm with their cyber-stop, but the site still gives visitors a chance to hear the band’s quirky sound through a video of “No Culture Icons” from the album “From More Parts Per Million.”
Worldly cyber-sounds
Music lovers looking for an eclectic mix of tunes to toil by need to look at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records Web site (www.realworldrecords.com) and click on Audio Wall to find 119 full tracks presented in Quicktime Audio 3 format. Be it the New Age vocal olympics of singer Sheila Chandra during “Ever So Lonely/Eyes/Ocean,” West African rhythmic sounds of Farafina with “Dounounia,” or “Offering Chant” from Tibetan Buddhist Lama Gyurme (collaborating with keyboardist-arranger Jean-Philippe Rykiel), the record label offers a bit of everything to tickle the ear drums.
• Have a cool site for the online multimedia masses? Write to Joseph Szadkowski at the Browser, The Washington Times, 3600 New York Ave. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002; call 202/636-3016; or send an e-mail message (jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com).
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