Platial News and Neogeography

Making April fan Map

Platial is proud to highlight our latest musical fan map for Making April. Hailing from Cortlandt Manor NY, Making April is among the most popular truly independent bands on the music scene today. Their infectious piano rock melodies have led to them being featured on MTV's 'Laguna Beach' and have earned them a spot among the top unsigned artists on MySpace. They have now sold over 70,000 singles on Itunes worldwide. Stop by to add yourself to their fan map and check out their song, "I Wrote This Song" on their MySpace page.

Here's a video of the group!

The History of...

I discovered a new history map today. It's The Encyclopedia of Islam by Qwickmalik. The website seems to be based in Ghana, but the map and the rest of the site are in English. It's a pretty interesting resource for anyone curious about Islam. They have many interesting links.

Some other awesome history maps on Platial:

Psychodiscography by Spinneyhead tells the musical history of the Manchester area. This one would make a cool guide book. Be sure to check out the Spinneyhead website

The Boston History Map and the excellent blog that goes along with it are well worth a look.

The History of Videogames by Scootdown is edifying.

Portland Radical History Tour by Jason is an old favorite of mine.

Family Values Tour Map

The family Values Tour is a huge event wrapping up this week and they've got their tour on a Platial map.

They have an impressive line-up: Korn, Evanescence, Atreyu, Flyleaf, Hellyeah, Trivium... to name only a few.

You can see the map on the Friendster profile of Evanescence, the family Values Tour Friendster page, and on HellYeah's Myspace.

He-Man Sightings

Today I stumbled across one of the more bizarre community mapping projects I've seen on Platial so far. Find He Man.

Yes, He Man, of Masters of the Universe and Castle Greyskull fame. It seems that a new Masters of the Universe movie project is in pre-production and planned for 2009.

I suspected that this Find He Man project might have something to do with the movie plans, but the more I look at it, the more I doubt it. For one thing, they are recording sightings of one particular He Man, who seems to be a Manhattan character the blog authors noticed. It's a funny project, but clearly bordering on the stalker-like. I hope He Man has a sense of humor.

Class of 3000 Fan Map

Class of 3000 is the latest project from Andre 3000, famous for his work as half of the pop band Outkast.

Class of 3000 is a cartoon show. Andre does the voice of an entertainer-turned-teacher named Sunny Bridges. He's writing a new song for each episode and has a hand in production and writing, too.

If you or your kids are fans of Class of 3000, be sure to stop by the Myspace page and add yourself to the fan map.

A Few Sites Using Platial Maps

Boston History

Airfields I've visited on the blog Leia Airborn.

Ashville river Arts District has a nice blog with a map of local attractions

San Elijo Life is a community website for San Elijo Hills, CA

Blog from Italy has a nice map of Places to see

Tribal Journeys has a map on its blog about Native Canoe Journeys of the Pacific Northwest

Geo-named Bands on the Wired blog

Where are the Joneses?

Checking out sites that are using Platial maps often leads me to discover some really cool projects, and Where are the Joneses has got to be one of the best of the best.

It's a funny interactive comedy, with viewers helping to write the scripts. The general starting point of the story is that a woman discovers that she is the daughter of a sperm donor and so goes about trying to find all of her brothers and sisters, an endeavor which takes her and her "brother" Ian all across Europe. The videos are really good, and the blog is hilarious.

Visit their wiki to find out more and to get more involved. You can even become a Jones by submitting a profile.

This is a really wonderful project, the videos are all funny and well worth watching. Thanks for using Platial to map your progress!

Cheap Dates in Philly

uwishunu is a great Philadelphia blog. In addition to covering the music scene, restaurants, sites, and insider hotspots, they have a really fun video podcast called Cheap Dates, "featuring the dashingly bearded Mark Schoneveld and his lovely fiance Audrey Smith." They have a map on Platial showing all of the cool places they have been in the course of making their show.

Italy

I noticed a few new maps in Italy recently and figured it would be a good time to do a little round up. Thanks to these mappers for sharing their insider knowledge of Italy!

Alexfromitaly has a great map of Italy on his site, Blog From Italy, Life in the Living Museum. You can also read his book.

Firenze Shopping gives you locations and informations about some exciting upscale shops on the main drag of Firenze. Petershieh also has a map of Manhattan.

Italian Poker Rooms, by Petrax, gives contact numbers and locations of places to get into a poker game across Italy.

Italy by Jklmiller is a nice personal tour of the country.

Sleary just made a new map called Italia_V!, showing all her favorite spots across the country.

Panairjdde has been a member of Platial almost since the beginning. He built his two excellent maps, Churches of Rome and Roman Battles only a few months after our launch.

Shark Week

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The Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week cable TV event starts Sunday and is celebrating 20 years of gruesome success.

Years ago, my family shared a great loft space in Brooklyn with two of the Platial co-founders, Jason and Di-Ann. When the building was sold and we had to move out, we ended up selling a bunch of our furniture to some people somebody knew at the Discovery Channel, who were looking for props. They wanted basically to get some sharks to bite some furniture so people could see how it looks. I don't know if they ever went through with their plan, but it sure makes a good story.

In honor of the TV event, I'm posting again about a map that has been around for some time, the Shark Attack Map. It lists all the fatal shark attacks since the year 2000, plus pretty much every shark bite from the past year or so. Every time someone gets bitten by a shark, the map gets updated, so you can see the most recent attacks.