So, there's a lot of flash stuff out there now, you know? Enuf that if you don't look at it for a while it just keeps on piling up until one evening you wind up fallling into a vat of it. Tonight I did that. So whenever you feel like losing an hour (on the short side), get a comfortable chair, close all your other programs (you'll need the cpu) and, finally, have sound ON, but start the volume out low, k? You've been warned. On to the cool shit...

Vector lounge's Web Jam is apparently a gathering of topnotchrightnow Flash work. Thanks. The work from the #4 show in Amsterdam is what I bumped into and launched me to all the links below. There's a lot more to explore from the first 3.

flammable jam are responsible for Slap the Monkey on Vector Lounge, and also this funly dumb kung fu game (on the bbc site, so hopefully they got paid); they are based in Scotland. Apparently there's some connection with h69.net, another site with a bunch of Flash, which is mostly just okay and sometimes downright annoying (from the 6 or so I checked out).
OTOH, this puppety skeleton thing by Wireframe Studio is impressive and fun--much better than their homepage which is still under construction, tho it has some cool tools, but its minimal content-wise). But ShapeSquad and most especially Post Panic, who are both outta the Netherlands, really kick my ass.

Another thing that definitely gets my attention on several of these sites/pieces is the music--it actually SOUNDS good! It's not like the first wav of embedded sound on webpages (which can still be found looping endlessly cliche and LOUD on Geocities homepages, etc). Here are songs you've never heard, usually cool hiphop or 'lectronic basic recipies, which are looped well and catchy. I also thank the makers of Flash for getting us back to mousing around--Flash can either be viewed passively or interacted with or frequently in these examples both. WIll you ever find everything that's there? Probably not. Does that make sense for a designer to do when they are trying to sell their services? It's a moot point if the overall effect is so impressive. Sure, it's not great information architecture--but if there's enuf "information" then no one will think there's a problem; that is it's about experience, too. I don't know, it's late, and I'm just waxing on. But I guess what I'm saying is that I like the experience of being thrown into something and having to swim my way out--or thrash about to find my entertainment dinner. Shape my own experience, and foul up joyously my own perceptions. I like forks-in-toasters, at least sometimes. On that clank, g'nite! mikl.