Sci-Fi Site of the Week: William Gibson's Yardshow

Sci-Fi Site of the Week

William Gibson's Yardshow

"Guaranteed to contain no less than 40% shuck and up to 60% jive."

William Gibson's Yardshow
http://www.vkool.com/gibson
By Loverman
loverman@vkool.com
Some Netscape enhancements

Review by Craig E. Engler

illiam Gibson's Yardshow is a site not so much by the founding father of cyberpunk as it is for and about him. It was created by Vkool Communications of Vancouver, B.C., the town Gibson currently calls home. Urban legend has it that Vkool approached Gibson about the project, and it was their work that finally drew him onto the Internet (although not the Luddite many think him, Gibson had purposely been avoiding the Internet for some time).

The Yardshow is a combination of rich graphics and Gibson arcana, strung together in a consciously-hip array of semi-related topics. There are six main sections to the site, although only three of these actually contain much discernible information. Words in a Row is a compilation of an "auto interview" -- presumably this is Gibson answering his own frequently asked questions -- and two speeches Gibson gave in 1993 and 1995 respectively. Testimony lists the books and music that Gibson favors, while Return of the Repressed contains a short diatribe about the Atomic Disintegrator Gun, a toy "more sturdily built than many domestically-manufactured firearms available today in the United States."

Of the remaining sections, Gratitude seems to be left purposefully blank, A Life Deferred is about things "coming soon" to the site, and Gravel is just plain coming soon.

The Yardshow is one of those quirky sites on the Web that is well worth taking a lunch hour to poke through, especially for surfers who are also Gibson aficionados. It's probably not at all what most people would expect from Gibson, although not out of line for someone who regularly prophesies a wired future yet keeps his contact to the outside world down to a fax machine. The graphics, while a bit too self-absorbed and more than a bit too large, are always interesting and invariably worth the download. The text is also engaging and unexpected, offering a slightly skewed look at Gibson, who appears to look at the world with slightly skewed vision, judging from this Web site.

Of particular note is the list of Gibson's "favorite things" in the Testimony section, which gives some insight into the author (he reads Low Life and listens to Steely Dan...hmm) without coming off as simply a retread of, "What's your favorite book?" And the Repressed section promises even more interesting things, assuming they are added to the site, as is promised.

On the downside, the Yardshow's hipster ethic is a bit confusing at times (more so than is deliberately intended), compounded by navigation problems such as no-return links or endlessly looped for-next pointers. There are also a good many "coming soon" pages to wade through, as well as some links that just plain don't work. And the entire site needs to be overhauled to the latest HTML standards.

In the end these are minor irritations, though, and should not prevent users from visiting one of the Web's more interesting corners.

I want an Atomic Disintegrator Gun. I'm one of those people who needs one...I don't know why. -- Craig E.

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