Mrs. Mecomber’s Scrapbook

My husband is a musician. He listens to everything. Believe me, I’ve heard it all! Country, metal, grunge, gospel, funk, pop, disco, and indie. Indie is short for “independent” and is the musical branch of the “do it yourself” culture. Technology and education has really contributed to its rise. There is a ton of great talent out there. Rather than wait for the recording industry to “discover” them, musicians are just playing their own songs, making their own CDs, and distributing their stuff thanks to the Internet. One of my favorite bands, Third Day, started out independent (but were “discovered” and later went mainstream). When I was younger, we called them “garage bands.” Indie music usually has its own subculture built around it, too.

Allan’s World Music is a multi-authored blog highlighting different indie groups and music, and offers reviews of indie albums. Allan seems to be the master of ceremonies at the blog. He and the other authors are media-minded and include short audio or video clips of the groups they blog about. This is very helpful, especially to visitors who are out of the indie loop (like me). I listened to a few clips, and really liked the Red Sparrows.

The blog design is classy, but the background is dark. I’m not too fond of dark backgrounds, but for this blog it seemed OK. It’s an appealing theme- I like the Scotch-tape effect on the virtual notebook paper. I also love the big blue RSS feed badge. I’m a sucker for big shiny badges like that. The blog header is a little plain for the stylishness of the theme. It looks like Arial font, and the title description bleeds over the header image. I don’t think the header font should get any smaller, but maybe the header could be enlarged, if possible. It’s not terribly noticeable, but it is slightly awkward when the rest of the blog looks stylish. (I love the “Allan’s World” script font at the top of each sidebar; I’d like to see it more noticeable, or use that design idea for the rest of the fonts– like, the post title).

Going to the blog content: I think the posts’ title font is Arial, too, which is dull, and a tad large. Because some of the posts’ titles are several lines long, it might be better to make the post title font smaller.

The writing of the posts is good– not too long, not too short. The transitions in thought kept me reading, even though I can’t say I am terribly interested in the world of indie music. The content is very readable. The pictures and sound clips are incremental to its cohesion. Very good job. Posts are short and sweet and keep one’s interest.

The font in the sidebars is a bit too small for me, but it does go nicely with the overall design; it’s just a tiny bit difficult for me to read. The categories lists is extremely long and a little difficult to follow because the font is so small. But as a blogger who has long categories lists myself, I understand that sometimes organization and thoroughness must trump brevity. If I was looking through the categories for a specific group or topic, I’d appreciate such a thorough list.

I like that there are “about” pages for each author. I can’t say I like what’s in some of the about pages (I’d really rather not know about belly buttons and bongs, thanks anyway). I did like that they have an “Upcoming Album Reviews” schedule for the organized indies among their readers. Allan has a good, well-organized, and well-written blog. A few tweaks, and it’ll look perfect.

I recently reviewed a page from the Beandom website, The Space Turtle. This is part two of reviewing more pages within the site.

The Beandom is a fanciful and fun collection of websites done by Justin Lowmaster (aka, Chivalrybean). I love the entre page: there’s a classy clipper ship (or is it a schooner?), a banner, and a selection of links to take you on your journey. It’s very professional-looking and quite elegant.

I visited The Blogdom, a suburb of the Beandom (who knew?) and Beanspiration. I also checked out the other two links, Games (which took me to a beta testing website for what looks to be a promising computer game) and the Beandom Forum (also under construction). Since there is some activity going on at the first two, I’ll address those.

Beanspiration is new. It has a few posts. The template is the default “Kubrick” theme by Wordpress (yuk). Seeing how classy the rest of the Beandom is, I strongly suspect this blog to get some new clothes when things get rolling. Right now, it’s still in the formative stages.

The one post at Beanspiration is lovely. I am studying Philippians, too, with my kids. It is one of my favorite New Testament books. I liked reading what Chivalrybean had to say. I hope he continues to write more, as he did describe the blog as “Daily (mostly) inspriations and thoughts from my personal Bible studies.”

The Blogdom template (hmm… looks mighty familiar) is crispy clean and clear, like iceberg lettuce. As I discovered with The Space Turtle, the content is minimal but there is a lot of emphasis on the written word and content. This is a refreshing change from so many blogs I encounter that are cluttered with glittery baubles and flashing advertisements. I’m pretty stubborn about those “read more” links and the registering requirement to comment: I don’t like them.

The blog is relatively new to the blogosphere, begun in August. Already, there are pages and pages of content. The narrative is brief and clean, and reads like a daily journal of the author’s activities and thoughts. In reading some excerpts, I found that I like this author. He plays guitar, he gives money, he’s got a sweet marriage (expecting first baby!) and seems like a really nice guy. I liked his honest movie reviews (I’d never heard of The Last Mizmy, will check it out) and cracked up at this:

I find out on the 7th of January is our baby is going to be a boy or a girl.

I’d say, “yes.”

Heh. I’m being sarcastic a little! I’ve had four, so I’m crusty about childrearing by now. By the way– the new parents are going to have a … well, I won’t “spill the beans.” Go here to find out the good news. Pictures, too! Wow, I wish I could have put my ultrasounds on Picasa– too cool!!!! (Picasa wasn’t invented when I was expecting my kids).

The Blogdom was refreshingly open. The word that keeps coming to me is “clear.” He seems so simple yet so thoughtful; so colorful yet so temperate. I’ve come across Chivalrybean in various forums, but never knew “who” he was. After reading his The Blogdom, I like him even more. Keep up the blogwork, my new friend!

Mrs. Mecomber (uh, that’s me. I sometimes speak about myself in the third person) has the pleasant opportunity to review blogs for those who request a review. It’s a free review, I ask nothing in return except a visit to my humble blog to read the review.

I’m fresh from checking out an entertaining blog called The Space Turtle: odd news that never happened, stories that entertain. The stories certainly do entertain. The post titled “Russian Subs Seen at Los Angeles Coast” caught my attention. When I read that sandwich mogul Crazy Ivan has just opened up a submarine sandwich shop in California, I had a good laugh. The Space Turtle reminds me of Scrappleface with the good humor and entertaining stories– very “punny,” as my husband calls them.

The design of the blog is clean and very simple. I usually dislike dark backgrounds with light-colored font, but the color scheme complements the style of the blog’s content. There are few diversions in the sidebars, supposedly, I assume, to keep the reader’s attention focused on the content of the posts. It is effective, whether it is intentional or not. I thought the sidebars a little too sparse, but hey, too sparse is better than too overbearing.

I did a little searching to find out the who and why of the blog. I always like to know why a blogger names his blog as he does (especially something so unique as the “space turtle”) and the author was kind enough to divulge:

The idea for the space turtle came from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series where the entire Discworld rests upon four elephants that stand on the shell of a giant turtle. My turtle is no where near that big, of course.

…What is the Space Turtle? Mainly it is a vehicle for me to write creatively and be able to share my silly stories with the entire world. Unfortunately most of the entire world has not even seen my site yet, so feel free to help me inform the entire world in any way you can. This is somewhat a “news” site, where I make up silly news, but I also post stories, some single short stories, as well as some continuing stories.

Discworld, hmm. Isn’t this from some ancient myth, similar to Atlas holding the world on his shoulders? I am not familiar with Terry Pratchett so I wasn’t sure. Anyway, it’s a quirky title for a blog filled with quirky stories. I like it. I like reading how people can take a story and be very creative with it, and present it from a different (and funny, like the Russian subs) angle. I also love how some of the links for replacement windows and wood preservation fit into the stories so well. Now that’s creativity!

One thing I didn’t like was the requirement to register to leave a comment. I know, I know, in this world of blog spam and nasty anonymous sideswipes, comment control is becoming a necessity. I just hate to see it, and I think it discourages readers from commenting when they otherwise would like to. I also don’t personally like to click on “read more” to read more. I am impatient, and my Internet connection is sometimes slow; plus, I am a very lazy clicker and I don’t like to click any more than I have to.

These days it seems hard enough to find good writing and quality content anywhere, but especially on blogs. The Space Turtle is different. Combining good content within the brevity of a blog post, you can get your craving for a good, short story fulfilled.