Media Diet: Stacy Horn
(Page 2 of 3)
January/February 1996
Joshua Glenn, Utne Reader
What CD-ROMs do you use?
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- None. They're all awful and slow, except some that are in development by a colleague of mine named Joe Rosen, including one that's about the movie The Blob. I'm also really hopeful about a new, independently produced CD-ROM called The Mutant Gene and Tainted Kool-Aid Side Show by M.R. Petit, a performance artist whose work I greatly admire. Maybe it won't be as lifeless as all the rest.
What Web sites do you visit regularly?
- Again, none, really. Nobody's doing anything the slightest bit compelling, as far as I'm concerned. At first I thought it was because only computer programmers were designing home pages, but now there are all kinds of artistic, talented people funded by big organizations designing Web pages that are every bit as lame. Everybody is treating the Web as archival storage rather than as a new medium in and of itself. Also, if someone used sound effectively on the Net -- and by that I don't mean just using a great piece of music on their page, but using sound as part of the thing, as part of the point -- they would have a site that blows all the others away.
Which on-line activities most amuse and intrigue you?
- Sure, the Internet is useful for getting information, but that isn't much of an experience in and of itself. Anything that enthralls people, whether it's a happy thing or a crisis or some simple day-to-day ongoing dialogue about nothing in particular, is what I like on-line. What's the point otherwise? Flirting is fun!
Is there a film you'd like everyone to see?
- Coney Island, a dark, somber yet lyrical documentary that studies the history and culture of Coney Island. It's by Ric Burns, who also directed the Donner Party documentary, and now he's working on a ten-part documentary about New York City. I can't wait!
Do you read any zines or newsletters?
- Bust, of course. It's a great chick zine in which girls get to speak in their own voices, uncensored [reviewed in Utne Reader, March/April 1995]. I really like Inquisitor, too: Unlike all the other new media publications out there, this is just new media insiders telling it like it is; they're not writing for an audience, or trying to sell copies or ads or anything. And I love the New York Chronicle, a zine about New York's history. An old retired guy out in Queens does it all on a typewriter. He reprints ancient newspaper articles, reviews walking tours and museums, and tells great stories.