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Vienna's 'Cool Sites' provide interest and info for travelers
Regular visitors to GeoCities and Yahoo!GeoCities will have noticed the restructuring and redesign of the main neighborhood pages. One of the additions is the links to "Cool Sites," which, so far, are the sites of neighborhood community leaders. Someday these links will be opened up to other pages, as newer and cooler sites become more well known. I decided to take a tour of some of the sites currently in the queue, since they are now so visible. I present here my report on some of the better ones, IMHO.
Rainy Sunday - Martin Reyto's site opens up to a clean, simple index page, with links that lead to an amazing depth of writing, graphics, and music pages. I most enjoyed the fractals and computer art sections. Fractals, Martin explained, are "essentially visual representations of complex mathematical equations [which] can be used almost like paint brushes, and the range of effects that can be obtained is practically infinite. ... They provide a glimpse into an artificial but incredibly detailed and sometimes very beautiful universe." Rainy Sunday features a large section of writings, probably because "I've been writing poems since I was a little kid. ... I can express feelings in poems that I can't express any other way." Many readers will enjoy the "surreal landscapes" Martin's poems paint, "where events flow in unaccustomed ways and people do and say strange and yet not quite unexpected things." In his midi files, Reyto is most pleased with the collection of Bach works he has sequenced, because Bach's "is about the only kind that can be trusted to speak for itself without interpretation. ... I think if the performance is technically correct, the intended illusions appear. This makes the music ideal for sequencing because we're essentially dealing with obstacles similar to those faced by the composer: instruments which are unexpressive and clumsy, limited in dynamic range and tonality by comparison to most of the real-life instruments in use today." Exeter Children's Orchestra - Besides lots of great personal webpages, we also have several youth orchestras represented by our leaders. Exeter's is a well-kept page, from a London-based VCL. It features a history of the orchestra, a program of events (usually updated), interesting European and Who's Who links, a raison d'etre for musical education, photos of the group's practices and performances, and information about their schedules -- in short everything a well-made page about an entity should have. Time and space -- mostly time -- preclude in depth looks at the rest of the pages I most enjoyed. But here are some notes about them, with my guarantee that you'll enjoy your visits to them. Flute, Piano, and Classical Music Page - By a 1999 leader/teacher, this site presents a fascinating discourse on musical timelines, Guillaume Dufay, as well as popular music, especially of the Canadian variety. Scott Kaul Presents... - Scott presents a good personal web page, full of original works and interesting things to see. You'll enjoy his good sense of self-deprecating humor. Smaug's Mozart Page - The mysterious Smaug gives us a good Mozart music page, focusing on that aspect of the beloved composer's life. An exciting looking site, visiting requires a 4.0 or better browser, (whose isn't these days?). Original Compositions - Bruce DeBoer offers many original midi compositions to greet the traveler on his Vanguard page. Not one to skimp on graphic quality, his site will require you give yourself an extra few seconds for the page to completely load. Connie's Violin Page - Another of our Vanguard pages, this site is always being updated by its studious creator. You'll find many well-written papers here, as well as information on a vast number of subjects. Ashlee's Creative Zone - This young, creative Australian is always thinking of something new for her page. MU64U's Music Graphics and Links - One of our newest and more helpful leaders, Marg's site is an often-updated graphics extravaganza, with many well-written pages in between. Klassiks' Classics - Associate Editor Keith's site is one of several being totally revamped now that the pages are more prominent. But you'll still find plenty to keep you interested, as well as a lot of ideas for your own page. Florian Keller - The Entertaining Salzburger - Austrian Editor Florian's page is another that enjoys constant updating by this working musician and Austrian citizen. A winner of many awards, Flo prides himself especially on his RealAudio files. The Time Machine - Though this page is not updated much since it was finished, it is a famous page among GeoCities gentry. The Crazy Oboist's Looney Bin - Another of our 1999 crop of leaders, Emily gives us an attractive page with some interesting links and midis onsite. Music Place - Lilly is our Norwegian connection, with a page of composers, as well as interesting links to Norwegian sites. You can check out these and the rest of the leaders' pages at the new neighborhood portal, where you'll also find links to chats, message boards, the Music Clubs and more. Hope you see us there!
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Robert Farley (aka cl_kaulana) is a long-time community leader who has one of the coolest sites of all. As a leader, he's ready to answer your questions, and looks forward to finding the next sites to write about in "Visiting Vienna." Did we mention his website is located at