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updated intermittently!
mike baker is not french but his name is michel which is french. mike's name is michel baker or michel ronald baker, it is not michael, he signs his name as mike r. baker and you can call him "mike." spelled backwards, ekim rekab (the url of this geocities site), it sounds a little middle-eastern but mike baker himself is french-canadian, german, with some english, native american and more but mike has no significant tradition or culture from any of his heritages. mike baker often goes by the name "spanky" on the internet. the name spanky is more humorous than indicative of any kind of hobby. mike baker was born in newport beach, california, on december 13th, 1961. mike baker remembers watching the apollo 11 moon walk live on television when he lived with his father (anthony peter baker), mother (elaine dora robillard-baker), and sister (sherry ann baker) in las vegas. mike baker's parents divorced when he was 11 and he moved to california. mike baker lived in costa mesa going to estancia high school (class of 1979) and orange coast community college. mike baker moved to long beach in 1984, got married in 1989, separated in 1991, got divorced, got married again in 1995, had a daughter and bought a house with his wife in 2000. mike baker works at the california sate university chancellor's office making web pages for analytic studies' statistical information. mike baker's wife is kelly baker, an 8th grade school teacher. mike baker's daughter is jasmine lenore rose baker. mike baker has worked as a graphic artist, a muralist, an illustrator, a truck driver, a salesman, a bar tender, and santa claus. mike baker - aka mike r. baker, michel baker, michel r. baker, michel ronald baker, or mikey - is much more complex than a single paragraph can describe. mike baker uses this site to record and link to sites that he enjoys and to share those sites with friends. mike baker's favorite sites are often of an artistic or bizarre, weird, odd, freaky or humorous nature, or any combination of such. mike baker presents links that are often legendary in net lore. mike baker hopes you found this site searching for weird links or fun flash links. mike baker's links are intended for entertainment purposes only so please take it all in good humor. funny links, weird links, interactive links, flash links, silly links, freaky links, charming links, art links, and more can be found at mike baker's links. the rest of the mike baker site is stuff about mike baker, mike baker's web projects, mike baker's art, and just some fun stuff. enjoy the weird links and come back often for updates. and if you can't wait, mike baker also has a blog: partly my fault "Those who hear not the music
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mike baker's web picks
yes, mike r baker. that's mikerbaker.com! me! i started a new blog to feature my endeavors in illustration and other dabblings in art. check it out!
at fourmilab you can view the earth as seen from the sun, the moon, a specified satellite or directly over your location, as well as the whole earth which shows how the sun is currently shining. there's lots more. you can also use the terrific your sky, interactive planetarium. neato!
mark ryden is one of my favorite artists. i recently had the pleasure of seeing his 'wondertoonel' exhibit at the pasadena museum of california art. if you ever get a chance to see his paintings in person i recommend you do so. from pmca: "although often pink and pretty, mark ryden's paintings are not for the faint of heart. in his dazzling mixmaster universe, symbols of truth and innocence intermingle with signs of adulteration and dark mystery. he entices by setting the center stage with cotton candy colors, juvenile vixens, party hats, and cuddly plush pets."
i have a blog. that's where i spend most of my internet posting time now. it's a bit of pop culture, a bit of science, a bit of nature, and a bit of entertainment. and it's every bit of fun. go there and read all about it!
the ramayana is a hindu story of rama (an avatar of vishnu), his wife, sita (an avatar of lakshmi), ravana (the demon that kidnaps sita), and hanuman (the monkey king, loyal friend of rama and sita). nina paley's sitarama is a new twist on the ramayana told more from sita's perspective with beautiful animation and set to songs from old, scratchy 78s. i got the link from turbanhead and it's already an internet favorite.
hello kali, indeed. sanjay patel, an animator with pixar, has spent his spare time designing incredibly cute illustrations of the hindu gods. he's produced a new book that he's marketing himself called little india which you can see at his site, "ghee happy" - which i assume refers to krishna who, as a child, loved to steal butter (ghee).
oddly addictive, bollywood music videos (usually part of a bollywood movie) have little to do with logic and all to do with crazy love-sick fun. check out this site and subscibe to his free user group for videos. then shake those hips and make those googly eyes.
ymck is one crazy tokyo band that uses a famicom (8-bit nintendo) to create some very weird but fun tunes. give them a listen. and check out some more odd but fun music below.
live in a cube with fold-out fixures, a mega-ship with schools and hospitals, a tropical island made of floating trash... here's just a few interesting abodes.
yeah, scroll down for 'orange splatter' and 'city planner' for other time wasters. then check out these.
[u.s. only at this time] look up your address and get an aerial view of your home. zoom in to see your dog in the backyard, out to see your whole town. age of the shot, quality of zoom, and color may vary depending on where you live - i'm lucky enough to live in an area with a very recent photo... hey! there's my car!
mashi maro is a gross little bunny, rude and disgusting. he's also very popular in japan. watch his little cartoons and download a wallpaper or two.
pucca - "funny love." pucca is a very successful korean marketing character. she's a cute, happy little girl wearing boxing gloves that beats up her reluctant boyfriend (the one with the funky pigtails) and then kisses him. more pucca animations can be found here.
firmly implanted in the realm of odd. i'm not really sure how to describe this site - download freaky little mp3s, view tormented graphics and insane html effects, buy cds if you dare, play with the little scripts and more. most scripts work only in internet explorer. you'll play for hours or run away immediately, depending on your temperment.
from the files of max cannon, the comic strip red meat is a disturbing slice of a very surreal suburbia. matt groening describes it thus: "in a culture full of sick, twisted, perverted art, red meat is up there at the top--it's that good."
the adventures of august strindberg and helium... it might be intellectual... but it's not. it is, however, weird and funny. brought to you by the fine people of milky elephant and killing my lobster.
fug. well, it's shortened from the slang "fugly" which, of course, means "f---ing ugly." 'go fug yourself' is a blog by, apparently, heather and jessica. the blog is all over the world of fashion (or lack of) and is scathingly funny and catty. i could give a crap about fashion myself but the site is well worth a read for a good laugh. these girls are sharp. start with this one.
children, isolated, lost in the wilderness, raised by animals, or confined, locked up against human interaction. without language or human contact, what happens to them? read historical histories, find out more about language, physical development, and more. A good place to start is with genie.
big happy funhouse is a blog that features found photos titled by the blogger, art collector and liquidator, ron slattery. old photos, some happy, most strange, all sad in that they have been discarded. a picture may say a thousand words, but these seem to say several thousand. take a look.
a creative little site from the netherlands by jogchem niemandsverdriet, started in 1998. click through the pages to discover many little surprises, heart-felt sentiments, silliness and art. it comes in english, dutch and japanese. rather meditative, actually. "i'd like to apologize for all this."
this group of young film makers at olde english (not affiliated with the malt beverage) makes some seriously funny little documentaries. this one, titled 'dead puppies', asks the question, "how much money would it take for you to kill a puppy?" an uncomfortable but hilarious psychological study. how do these people put a price on this? and what would they do if they were actually given the opportunity to earn their price? note: no puppy is hurt or even appears to get hurt in this video.
a couple of wtf flash animations to
established in 1987, the try group, in tokyo and osaka japan, "serves as an advocate for change in the education system." this interactive flash animation asks the student if they are "willing to try." well, i'm not so sure about that, but it's a cute little piece. choose a curved line, circle, or several straight lines. after that, try the wonderful fly guy.
okay, it's an ad campaign from burger king for chicken tendercrisps. but it's pretty funny. click the tv link to see the controversial commercials (also funny) and then tell the chicken what to do. "stand on your head." "bark like a dog." "sit on the couch." "spank yourself." dang, what this chicken won't do for you! a little on the, uh... freaky side. when you're done with the chicken, check out the parody, subservient president. he doesn't understand ant commands unles it's from the gun and oil people. try, "legalize automatic weapons" and "bomb iraq." and if you're stumped with the chicken, snopes has the master list of commands (enter commands, don't go to links).
i say "orange splatter" but it's a flash interactive called "jackson pollock by miltos manetas" by mike migurski of stamen.com for the neen project. the faster you move the mouse, the thinner the line and vise-versa. click to erase. a fun time-killer. after that, maybe look at some other jackson pollock sites or read about miltos manetas.
these guys from germany (art director richard schumann, artist kim köster, sound johannes bünemann, flash stephan schulz), created this little journey through 99 rooms in an eerie abandoned warehouse/factory full of artsy graffiti that comes to life. click around for the switch but take your time. watch and listen for what happens. emerse yourself into this myst-like underworld.
freaky flash stuff! start out by selecting music from the buttons below and click the play button. i like number 5. then start clicking. the interface for the gallery is a little odd. don't give up. that is, unless you'd rather pursue something more, er, sane.
steven cerio is another cutesy but weird illustrator. his stuff is floppy, organized chaos in muted colors with characters that remind you of cecil the sea-sick sea serpent. he's done a lot of work for san francisco based avant garde group, the residents. nice flash intro too.
j.otto seibold is a popular artist, illustrator, children's books author (with vivian walsh), animator, and website designer. you may know his delightful holiday special, 'olive, the other reindeer'. this website is packed with clickable oddities suitable for putting a smile on a child of any age.
koshiro torisu is an illustrator and animator in tokyo. in particular, check out the 2 music videos - 'you drive me oh oh oh' by juicy panic and 'eurostar' by the boum. fun, colorful, happy stuff.
ze frank is... is... some kinda freak. but a very creative, artistic, funny freak. the kind of freak you'd like to have as a friend (unless you're easily embarrassed). his website is full of wacky ("wacky is an appropriate word here) web applications that will have you either going "huh?" or laughing out loud. he's probably best know for his how to dance properly webpage.
what could be more enlightening than to travel the world, meet interesting people of many cultures, and put a balloon hat on them? this is a project of love by a man that makes balloon hats (addi somekh) and a photographer (charlie eckert) that captures the warmth, humanity and humor in the subjects that wear them. amazingly, no dignity is lost to the wearer of the balloon hat. instead, a glow of laughter shines on the subject and the viewer is drawn in to share a moment of pure delight. also available as a book and kit (which i have and love)!
yes, you're bored. that's why you're here. and you can't load sim city on your computer at work so how, oh how, do you get your city planning fix? well, there was a time when all you needed was a purple crayon but technology marches on and we now have the means to build cities galore on the web!
i just watched an old movie where people smoke in hospitals and drive with no seat belts, kids climbing around the seats. you ask yourself, "what were they thinking?!" times change and the past looks ridiculous only in retrospect. safety, health, popular music, fashion... and food. here's a site that reveals the culinary delights of weight watchers recipes of 1974, much in the tradition of our favorite regrettable food site...
'rather good' makes the oddest little flash animations. you may have seen their weird quizno's commercial with the spongmonkeys. ah... and pavarotti loves elephants.
brilliant... and stupid... which is why it's brilliant... or... something. homestar runner and strong bad will entertain you for hours. this site is huge and packed with odd cartoons that are great for all ages. you'll be talking like homestar in no time. or strong bad. it's true.
in a.d. 2101 captain: what happen ? operator: we get signal.
pak chooie unf pusher robot versus shover robot somebody set up us the bomb.
the criteria here is that the stories have to belong to someone else, not your own story. these stories are wonderful and worth revisiting again and again.
hello kitty stuff:
somewhat related links: hello kitty update:
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it seems korea produces more marketing characters than japan these days. these are characters created and promoted to lease to other companies to use with their products. hello kitty (japanese) is one of the best examples of a marketing character. this site promotes egg characters - eggs with yolk faces that transform into other objects or characters using the same egg shape. an eleven on the one-to-ten cute-factor scale. listen to (and watch) the i love egg theme song in 
weebl is, like, an egg thing, and he, uh, is not very... articulate. yep. other than that, it's all pretty damn funny. go to the full list link for all the toons. a good sample of weeble might be the one about 
boohbah is a surreal kid's show for one to three year-olds starring ball-shaped monochrome creatures dancing and playing and pooting. weirder than teletubbies (anne wood created both shows), the show is very zen for adults like me that like that kind of stuff, and the website is just as good as the show if not better. if you think it's all just silly, 
so, if you haven't figured it out by now, i'm a big fan of '
hello kitty is one of the few icons that is both pop culture and counter-culture. i am deep into the weird world of hello kitty. please don't try to stop me. it's sick but i love that kitty, i really do.