National Features >

  • Broward-Palm Beach New Times

    The Agent from Iran

    How a mother of two ended up in a plot to smuggle high-tech gear to the enemy.

    By Deirdra Funcheon

  • Westword

    Murder By Design

    In life and death, tattoo artist Kauri Tiyme made her mark.

    By Alan Prendergast

  • Village Voice

    My Brother the Slumlord

    Amy Neustein never could resist going public with her family dramas.

    By Elizabeth Dwoskin

  • Houston Press

    The Ghosts of Galveston

    A visit with the hurricane victims that a country forgot.

    By John Nova Lomax

Byte Me

MySpace sucks. These guys don’t.

By Steve Jansen

Published on February 27, 2008 at 4:01am

Every time we log on to MySpace, we cringe. Not because of its inherent narcissism or the music promoter who posts the same bulletin 27 times in a row. We huff and sigh because the site is the epitome of piss-poor Web design. There’s the gal who uses glitter text as if Tinkerbell just shat upon the page and dude’s profile pic that looks as if it came from another wingdinger of a Web site, Hot Chicks With Douchebags (www.hotchickswithdouchebags.com).

So imagine our surprise when we logged onto MySpace for work (not personal) purposes to check out the Philly-based group Aunt Dracula. The site is pretty typical for a band page. There are tour dates for the DIY trio and a couple of psychedelic/free jazz-esque songs available for a listen. But then we scrolled down a bit and were greeted with a digital monstrosity known as “Time Coat Bear.” Now, we can’t stop thinking of the animated GIF image, which is a waving teddy bear sporting a retro sparkling coat that turns into a colored clusterfuck. It’s so bad it’s awesome, so awesome it’s badass.


Fri., Feb. 29, 8 p.m., 2008