Monday, July 04, 2005

Ugly Websights

I love the brutal glamour of German expressionist woodcuts, but this web page makes them look almost pretty, pretty by comparison. My first impression was that it looked like something from the early Nineties, when the Horizontal Rule (in 3D no less!) reigned supreme. The kicker, it's only 3 years old. What, no scrolling text?

Ugly limos = ugly website. Lots'a fonts! Multi-coloured text! Crappy line breaks! Poor grammar! Unusual use of ALL CAPS for emphasis! Crappy 'cute' spelling like "Please take a LQQK...at our nu 2006 Chrysler 300 8/pass".

LQQK and weep, people.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is not a comment about ugly websites, but rather a comment on the passing 4th July, American Independence Day.

I recently watched Angels in America (again), and as always was both moved and inspired. Here is a brilliant quote from that Emmy award winning series:

“I hate America. I hate this country. Nothing but a bunch of big ideas and stories and people dying. The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing when he set the word free to a note so high nobody could reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing on earth sounds less like freedom to me.” Tony Kushner's Angels in America

God Bless America, indeed (for no one else will).

Bodhi :-)
Sydney, Australia

The Other Andrew said...

OK, deep breaths.... so, not a fan of America then?

:-)

Anonymous said...

Its no so much American's that I hate, in fact there are a number of them I quite like and am even happy to call as friends, its much more the ideology of the USA that often gets me going. Yes, there are some things that I like about the ideology of America too, but there is much that is ugly and really annoys me. Need I say things like Christian fundamentalist, political far right, gun rights, WMD lying, pre-emptive strike invading, self-rightous hypocritical arrogance? Or the worse cult of celebrity, greed is good, self serving do-you-want-lies-with-that and "have a nice day" obesity and corporate exploitation of the fast-food multinationals? Or the cultural imperialism imposed upon the rest of the world through endless hours of American media and advertising? Or for all the 4th July flag waving in the "Land of the Free" there are millions living in poverty with virtually no welfare support, and millions too in jail? One law for the rich, and yet it seems another law for the poor? Hate crimes anybody? Any US citizen has potential to be President? ... sure, as long as he has the tens of millions of dollars that he will need to campaign, or rich friends to support him.

And they wonder why so much the rest of the world increasingly hates or dislikes them. They wonder why terrorists attack them, yet in the same breath their government has been acting in its own interests (not preservation or protection ... interests) and has ruthlessly attacked others and has even supported or turned a blind eye to dictators and regimes when it suited them (including Osama Bin Laden at one time). They spend trillions of dollars in defence, yet sit idly by as millions of people die from abject poverty, starvation and disease. They often think the only reason for all the hatred is the rest of the world is jealous of what they have. But for other Western nations this is simply not so. I for one would rather live in Australia than America anyday. So focused on themselves, the so called greatest nation on earth, their large scale ignorance of the rest of the world is unbelieavable.

I have even had Americans ask me what do we do for 4th July celebrations here in Australia. I kid you not. Kinda prooves my point really.

Anyways, will get off my soapbox now. As I said before, there are things that I like about America. There really is. But there is also much that saddens me.