Anyone see the just-released music video for Four Winds off of Bright Eyes’ latest album? Spinner calls it “retro-cool.” Maybe. I get the distinct feeling that I’m either all in or all out in Conor Oberst’s way of seeing things. Which sounds a bit like the “with us or against us” language of Oberst’s favorite target. Hmm. Still, I enjoyed the video.

If you’ve got about 10 minutes check out the website for Miranda July’s new collection of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You. Jason Kottke points out why this very lo-tech site is so captivating…

The really intriguing thing about the site is that it breaks pretty much every rule that contemporary web designers have for effective site design. The site is a linear progression of images, essentially 30 splash pages one right after another. It doesn’t have any navigation except for forward/back buttons; you can’t just jump to whatever page you want. July barely mentions anything about the book and only then near the end of the 30 pages. There’s no text…it’s all images, which means that the site will be all but invisible to search engines. Yet it works because the story pulls you along so well; July’s using the site’s narrative to sell a book that is, presumably, chock full of the same sort of narrative. If you think the site sucks and quickly click away, chances are you’re not going to like the book either…it’s the perfect self-selection mechanism.

If you haven’t seen it, take a look at July’s short film, Are you the favorite person of anyone? on YouTube.

Ok, this may be less of a distraction and more of the main event. Google and the Holocaust Museum have partnered to put together an application for Google Earth that gives a distrubing picture of what is currently taking place in Darfur, Sudan. Given my general tendency to be more aware of my weekend plans than an ongoing genocide I’ll take any help I can get, be it from Google or MTVU and the Shins.

All for now.