In & out

Group, Sep/Oct 2000

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show me the fun

Shockwave.com, one of the Web's most popular interactive playgrounds, is set to unveil a fall line-up of animated series created by well-known Hollywoodtypes. The site launched last year as a showcase for Flash software, which allows designers to produce eyepopping animation that works on home computers. Upcoming debuts include: Tim Burton's Stain Boy, a superhero whose power is that he leaves stains, and Jim Belushi's The Greedy Show, co-starring fellow Second City alumni in a weekly sketch show. In spite of 20 million registered members, the site-like most e-enterprises-is highly unprofitable, but artists are lured by the chance to create whatever they want.

dance `til they drop

Ulala, the pink-haired, platform-booted, miniskirted space reporter in Dreamcast's Space Channel 5 (Sega), is out to save the universe (of course) in this bizarre rhythm-action video game. As players take on the role of this 25th-century newscaster, they must outdance the Teletubbie-like Moroliens to free human prisoners. The hostages they save-including Michael Jackson-join Ulala's dance troupe and add their musical expertise. (Not for the rhythmically impaired.)

move over, cleveland

The Experience Music Project, a high-tech museum dedicated to pop music, opened in Seattle to mixed reviews. Financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for $240 million, EMP houses artifacts, interactive music labs, a multimedia thrill ride called Artist's Journey, and Sky Church, which features three-storyhigh music videos. Julie Myers, an instructor at the Art Institute of Seattle, while crediting Allen's generosity, voiced reservations: "I say thank you, but I also look at the homeless in Seattle. I just wonder what else could be provided?"