NEWSLETTER: "THE BEST OF .... "
This Week:
* STUFF - Best of B3ta
* MORE STUFF - Best of Everything Else
* INTERVIEW - welovetheiraqiinformationminister
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____/ _)|_ // /_/ _ |
___/ _ |/_ </ __/ __ | "We're saving the
__/____/____/\__/_/ |_| web ... together"
B3ta email - 18 Apr 2003
Read this issue in your browser:
http://b3ta.com/newsletter/easter03/
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We're on holiday this week - just like
everyone else in the UK. So here are some
old school classics. From back in the day.
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: BEST OF B3TA
Stuff that's done rather well.
>> Female or Shemale <<
B3ta's biggest hit. In numbers anyway. By our
calculations, every man, woman and child in the
world has seen Rob Manuel's mucky quiz at least
eight times. Woo.
http://www.b3ta.com/femaleorshemale/
>> Kitten Band <<
Joel Veitch has made the concept of the kitten
band all his own. This is one of our favourites,
featuring a bunch of scruffy northerners singing
Destiny's Child.
http://www.rathergood.com/independent_woman/
>> Simon Swears <<
It's Simon. With swearing. Despite it being
launched in this newsletter we still get sent
DIYJoe's game every week. Proof that swearing
is the fucking tops. Yay!
http://www.diyjoe.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/simonswears...
>> Weebl & Bob <<
Jonti Picking once made an animation for
our newsletter. Now he's a big TV success, but
this is the one that started it all off.
http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/pie.htm
>> Motorbikes Make You Gay <<
SpunkyBackpack made this. He never made
another. Shame. It's brilliant.
http://www.b3ta.com/motorbikes/
>> Giant Bee Song <<
Nicey and Joel collaborated on this beautiful
song about a boy and his bee. Relax with pretty
flowers, sunny days and the lovely, dulcet tones
of Joel Veitch singing his heart out.
http://www.b3ta.com/giantbee/
>> Gay Skeletons <<
Malevole's tribute to Ray Harryhausen via the
Village People brought unexpectedly camp
overtones to the famous Jason and the Argonauts
skeleton fighting scene.
http://www.malevole.com/mv/misc/tribute/
>> Maggie Thatcher Vs. Bunny <<
David Stevenson made this oddity while off work
with a fever. What's it all about? He's not
telling and we secretly suspect he doesn't know.
Very catchy, though, and nice cameos by
Bez and Sigmund Freud.
http://www.btinternet.com/~david.st/b3ta/
>> Fool the Shopkeeper Game <<
We've all been there; trying to convince
the bloke in the off-licence to sell you
booze when you're obviously underage.
Mantlepies turned it into an innovative
and challenging game.
http://www.mantlepies.com/offlicence.html
>> Stephen Hawking & Davros <<
Chthonic's classy cyborg love story
cartoon, based on Andy Taylor's cover of
Electric Dreams. Possibly responsible for
influencing a whole slew of awful electro
voice-based animations.
http://www.b3ta.com/hawking/
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: INTERVIEW
Welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com
Unless you were sitting under a rock last
week, you were sent the site about the Iraqi
information minister.
And then? He died. (Maybe.)
We got in touch and asked them how they felt.
http://b3ta.com/interview/welovetheiraqiinformatio...
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: OLD BUT GOLD
Stuff we didn't make but is still good
>> Cat Enema <<
Man gets cat. Man gives cat enema. Cat bites
man. It's the hand drawn pictures that give
this story such utter charm.
http://www.catenema.com/
>> Yatta - Naked Japs Go Ape <<
We don't know what they're singing about.
Perhaps no-one does. But it's just so odd and
these guys are enjoying it so much that this
video became a web phenomenon, spawning
imitators, remixes and marches in
San Francisco.
http://web.mit.edu/patil/www/media/video/yatta.asf
>> Fat Chicks in Party Hats <<
Genius. Pictures of fat ladies wearing paper
hats doesn't sound like comedy gold. But
add captions written by a sarcastic retard
and it all falls into place.
http://www.fatchicksinpartyhats.com/part14.shtml
>> Pedestrian Killer <<
There have been a lot of car games on the web.
This one works. Brilliant, responsive controls
help you mow down hapless passers-by.
http://louhi.kempele.fi/~skyostil/archive/dump/fla...
>> Rate My Kitten <<
Ah. Kittens. Thousands of pictures of
kittens.
http://www.ratemykitten.com/ratemy/kitten
>> I am better than your kids <<
The web is full of self-righteous people,
trying to put everyone else down. This bloke
takes it to the Nth degree, delivering a
withering critique of children's drawings.
Net writing at its very finest.
http://maddox.xmission.com/irule.html
>> Bonsai Kitten <<
The best net hoax ever played. Fact. This still
gets gullible animal welfare groups up in arms.
It wound up the RSPCA a couple of weeks back - who'll
be the next dimwit to fall into the trap?
http://www.bonsaikitten.com/
>> Bloke makes faces <<
Emotion Eric. Send him an emotion and he'll
try to act it out. Well, he used to. A classic
internet eccentric.
http://www.emotioneric.com/
>> Hatten - so much to answer for <<
Where would b3ta be without Hatten? Up
shit creek with no ideas. This was the first
Flash animation that made us go woo. It's
the daddy of that weird, spazzy style we love
so much.
http://user.tninet.se/~prv247p/hatt/hatten.swf
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: B3TA IMAGE CHALLENGE
Results from the Tabloid Photostories Challenge
Each week we run a competition to test your
creative skills. We set a challenge and you
open Photoshop and mess with our heads.
Last week we wanted tabloid photostories:
http://b3ta.com/challenge/tabloidphotostories/
We asked B3ta boarder Supermoore to judge the
entries - here are his 3 faves.
Supermoore writes "A tricky business this.
Lots and lots of very funny tabloid headlines,
but all three winners caught the eye for doing
something a little different.
#1 "You can be as clever as you like but
you'll never beat out and out sillyness, with
a belly-laugh thrown in for good measure.
(Bud_Muhnquai)
http://www.b3ta.com/board/1039706
#2 "Clever. Very very clever. In fact, I had
to think about it for a bit before I got it,
but now I have, I love it.
(Monkeon)
http://www.b3ta.com/board/1036849
#3 "You just can't beat a good pun, and this
is about as good as they get.
(popt_art)
http://www.b3ta.com/board/1035872
"And a special mention for bobodor. Amongst all
the headline satire, here's one thing we will
never see."
http://www.b3ta.com/board/1057371
>> This Weeks Challenge <<
This week, B3ta contributor 100% Gibbon gave
us the suggestion, "Computer and video games
that were never made"
http://www.b3ta.com/challenge/computergame/
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: WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Follow-ups on previous stories.
* B3TA PARTY SUCCESS - it was great. We're
sorry it was so packed. We'll be booking a
bigger venue next time.
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: STAR IN NEXT WEEK'S ISSUE
Next week we'll be back with the latest and
greatest web stuff. Make something cool and
tell us about it.
Things we'd really like to see include:
* PRINTER CARTRIDGE BOMBS - there's a lot of
ink in those buggers. How much can you get
on you?
* COOKING WITH MOBILE PHONES - they pump
out enough microwaves. Can you do a potato?
Or an egg?
* CHEAP ZOMBIES - can you pretend to be the
undead using rice crispies and some
wood glue?
Send contributions to http://www.b3ta.com/mailus/
BTW: If you've sent something in that hasn't
been featured then don't be put off - we look
at everything you send us. Oh, and everything
that was sent this week will be considered
for next week's bumper fun-size issue.
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THANKS:
This issue was edited by Rob Manuel with
David Stevenson.
Image challenge handled by Denise Wilton.
Proofing by the Madchesters' b4ta baggies.
(63177)
And a special thanks to the guys at
makeashorterlink for being so helpful
last week. Their service rocks.
http://makeashorterlink.com/index.php