; jne L 2004
^^RIS^^^E^fTERTAINMEÍfr
T he C lackamas P rint * 7
Best' content, no filler, lures visitors
Jeff Sorensen
Ü ber N erd
Take a simple layout, some,
bmedic ranting about the aggrava-
ons of daily life, throw in some sar-
ism and hate mail, and the man
hownfcas “Maddox” has created
The Best Page In The Universe.”
L A full-time programmer and full-
mc student at the University of
Itah, Maddox has devised a simple
'tc concept that has made a name
>r himself worldwide. In his little
rare tünc, he has managed to drive
aorc traffic than Coca-Cola, Pepsi
rd McDonalds combined, and all
ithouK spending a single red cent
'n his site. Although his schedule
in bc| rough, he still manages to
ccp his site refreshingly interesting.
In fact, the counter on his home
page tracks anywhere from 100-200
hits a minute.
“It’s not hard to keep it interest
ing,” said Maddox, “when the awe-
somcness flows naturally. There was
a period in 2000 when I felt like I
had to update my site once every
week, and my writing suffered
because of it; it sounded contrived
and flat, like everything else you read
on the Internet.”
However, Maddox made, a quick
recovery and his writing came back
stronger than ever. What’s most
interesting, though, is that when
asked if he attributed any of his
writing abilities to his college educa
tion, his answer was simple:
“Hell, no,” he said. “Everything I
learned in college can be written on
the palm of one hand.”
Just what does this Maddox
character write about that so many
people seem so interested in? Most
frequent arc the articles ranting
hilariously about things that tick him
off. Every once in a while, however,
he’ll have something else he feels he
wants to express about his life, his
adventures and the occasional
movie review. Still he he has friends,
favorite restaurants and favorite pets
like anyone else
“I have two dead praying man
fiscs by my door,” he said. “One is
yellow; the other is brown. I have
threatened to kick friends and fam
ily members out of my house if
they touch the bodies. I yelled at a
spider the other day and the cocky
son of a |gun| kept charging at me.
So 1 wrapped it in paper and it
down the toilet I must give it cred
it for its resilience, though? he
climbed back up but didn’t survive
a second flush. Usually, I let bugs
off the hook if they survive the
first flush. I made the exception in
this case because of the spider’s
sheer arrogance.”
In addition to sifting through e-
mails (“I have 75,000+ unread mes
sages,” he said) and managing his
website, Maddox spends his spare
time playing video games.
“It’s the whole reason I ever
touched a computer in the first
place,” he said. “Of course, I had to
battle powerful forces that tried to
prevent me
from
enjoying
videogames as I grew up.”
Maddox can be found at
www.thebestpageintheuniverse.com
. His writing, although sometimes
blunt, is almost always entertaining.
He also has other projects in the
works, but nothing confirmed as of
yet He promises, however, that he
will definitely have work published
in “mediums other than the web.”
The question is: Will we be ready?
'romotion lacking, jazz band pleases both students in attendance
Joel Gaynor
11 T he C lackamas P rint
CCC’s Ispring-tcrm Jazz Night
s. held (Wednesday, May 26; for
1st readers, the previous sentence
’1 be the first mention of the event
1 yll have come across.
I, also,¡would have been among
many ¡students cheerfully igno-
at of the festivities held in the
"cgory ltorum by jazz band direc-
■Tom Wakcling and his group,
: 1 was assigned, by this fine peri
cal that’s kind enough to publish
1 each week, to do a review on the
•formance. And I’m glad I was.
However, the majority of stu
dents had no idea that, for a $5
donation, they too could have been
treated to an hour and a half of
good jazz music featuring our
school’s own jazz ensemble and
special guest, local saxophone play
er John Gross who, as Wakcling put
it* has played with “anyone arid
everyone who’s anyone.”
Wednesday afternoon, I called a
friend, who met me on campus, and
we walked over to the forum. I did
n’t see any signs or flyers on the way.
Dinking at the forum, I wouldn’t
have been able to tell there was any
thing happening, other than the spo
radic uniformed band member walk just didn’t realize the number of stu
ing in or out of the building.
dents that would come to these
When we arrived, it was obvious events if presented with the oppor
the evening wasn’t well promoted. In tunity. There were a total of maybe
fact, there was more information 20 people (a generous estimate) at
available for one student’s own off- ' this concert, and my friend and I
campus wine tasting. The closest appeared to be the only students, but
thing to advertising was the white the band deserved much more for
board easels freshly erected next to their efforts; they can really play.
the entrance that were being written
One thing I was struck by
on as we arrived ten minutes before watching the band perform was
show time.
not that they were amazing; they
The lack of promotion is a were good, yes, but with room to
shame. I don’t know where the grow. What really got me was how
blame lies or even if there is a need much fun they were having. They
for blame. Maybe the people were laughing (when appropriate,
involved or the music department of course) and just plain enjoying
»tudents garner, publish
early literary compilation
Writing class has
upils cull and edit
:ampus magazine
Isaiah Creel
I
V «I
A&E E ditor
>Each tear, Clackamas’ Editing
J Publishing class produces a
gazinclcompilirig the literary
j artistic efforts of contributing
»dents;- Synesthesia, as it is
'led, is free to students .and will
available June 9.
“Synesthesia” |syn- (together)
-esthesia (as in anesthesia)) is
: evocation or transportati<iri'+>f'
c sensfe (such as a sound) by
>ther (such as vision.) The
riceis..much used in poetry and
nrr,on speech. It can also be
:ll<<f Anaesthesia,
“I ler nerves ^efe ltke'ti' nettle
rt/’saÉ'Johú Simpson,,desertb-
: Sy» With to demonstrate
Ksfhefc«
Amanda “The Mild-Mannered
te” Coffey, Michaele “l-ircfly”
oper, Stacie “Captain Sarcasm”
>ng and Marilyn Davis make up
¿ year’s WR 246 class. This
(nail butmighty” editorial staff is
charge of the publication of
nesthesid as well as weeding
ough the stacks of entries they
eive from as early as winter term.
Where do they get the material
put together a 50-plus page
gazinc? All entries for the
Writers (Hub Contest are passed
along to the Synesthesia staff for
evaluation. Additionally, the group
makes flyers encouraging students
to submit material as well as rely
ing on the primitive “word-of-
mouth” technique.
Since the literary magazine is
designed to highlight only the best
writers, it would behoove the
applicant to .remember some of
the criteria involved in the selec
tion process. One of these crite-
M^and probably the most impor
tant, is having a firm grasp of the
English language.
“We look for things with
j^iQMght putjnto them,” said
Coffey, “wifcœ>®urface errors. It
'Mylo be interesting and engag
ing from a literary view ... the
dcanet the better.” .
'.
All hough the majority of appli-
cantsj&f&tinit 'wititi^/l^hir^s like
poems, short • fiction,5 short non-
fictibn and even the odd play), no
form df expression which is trans
latable to print is turned away.
“No one submitted art this
year,” said Griffey, “so we took it
upon ourselves. Wc went to the
student art show, found some
things wc liked and asked for per
mission to use them?’
Synesthesia has been pro
duced annually since 2001 and has
become more professional with
each consecutive year. So support
the WR 246 class and pick up this
free publication June 3.
themselves. It was jazz, the way it
was intended to be. It was fhc kind
of thing people will go to if they
know it’s there to attend.
Maybe the music department
should promote more (as if they
aren’t busy enough). Perhaps the
band members should take it upon
themselves to get the word out. It
might be that students in general
should make an effort to be more
up-to-date on campus happenings.
(It’s more likely that a combination
of all the aforementioned is needed).
I don’t know the answer. What I do
know, is people will come; they just
need to be informed.
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