by Ryan Mathews

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January 2000

First off, if all goes as planned, 2000 should see the first major upgrade to the Anime Web Turnpike's appearance since the old star-field format with the multi-colored life-savers in front of the links that took forever to download. Man, those were the days, back when the whole 'Pike ran off a personal machine down at Ohio State and got maybe a thousand hits a month. I helped Jei write the introduction on the original homepage, you know. Anyway, the new format, call it "Turnpike 2000", looks quite promising. A preview is a available as the Turnpike's Princess Mononoke Page.

Secondly, Jei has given me permission to proceed with an experiment. As anyone who's read Last Exit for any length of time knows, I generally don't review non-English-language sites. The reason is simple enough. I don't speak these languages, and so I don't feel I can give them a fair review. Well, as anime fandom becomes more and more global every year, it's occurred to me that, if I can't review them, perhaps I should make an effort to find someone who can.

Therefore, in the following months, I will be searching for individuals willing to write a series of special non-English versions of Last Exit, which will appear in addition to my own monthly ravings. I'm looking for writers, preferably but not necessarily native speakers, of Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, and any other language that has a sizable fandom as represented on the 'Pike. As I said before, this is an experiment. Some of these columns will no doubt fail miserably. But others will likely be a success. If the hits warrant it, certain languages will get a repeat performance, or even the ultimate prize, a regular column on the Turnpike, independent from Last Exit.

If you feel qualified to write one of these columns, drop me a line at mathews1@ix.netcom.com. Let me know why you feel qualified, preferably something more than "I speak Spanish". Any evidence of writing experience, such as a website, would be appreciated. Choosing who gets a column is likely to be tough, and will probably involve more than a little guesswork on my part. Also, people with short attention spans need not apply. Columns come with deadlines. It's the nature of the work.

I'm really excited about this experiment, but I'm also very nervous about it. I'm stepping into uncharted territory here. Any and all feedback on this idea is welcome, including advice on the best way to choose the columnists.

Gee, I haven't really ranted about anything, have I? I guess I'm just flush with the optimism of a new era. Or maybe I've been kept dumb and happy by all the anime I've been buying. Tell you what, here's a quickie for you.

I have a new least-favorite web-hosting company. GeoCities, my former target, has replaced its pop-ups with a smaller console that stays in the window and shrinks to nearly nothing after delivering its ad. So now let me have a go at Xoom.com. What is it with them? No address gives me "Connection reset by peer" more often. And that stupid navigation bar. Unless you're well-versed in HTML, a simple, understandable mistake will result in a second copy of the bar being loaded when you click to the next page, then a third, until your browser is full of the damned things. No other hosting service has this problem. Xoom needs to get their collective heads out of their collective rear-ends.

As promised last time...