The publishers of Blender bill their creation, a music "megazine" on CD-ROM, as a pop-culture encyclopedia. The première issue offers exhaustive archives on celebs, such as a scowling Henry Rollins, captured in QuickTime vignettes. Blender conforms to magazine models, featuring text-intensive "front of the book" departments, a features well, and an astrology column. But it spices things up with music samples and surprise trapdoors.
Blender deserves high marks for relying primarily on original video material, and it has an in-group feel: scenes are recorded by Hi-8-equipped roving reporters. Unfortunately, the footage is not particularly riveting, and the dialog is often unintelligible.
On the CD, trendy display fonts juggled with textured screens can be darn hard to read. Also, the 10 seconds of "compulsory" advertising at the end of each section is highly annoying. Oh, and people, lose the dorky cartoonist!
Blender: US$19.95 an issue, or $49.95 for five issues. Dennis Publishing: (800) 825 0061, +1 (212) 302 2626, e-mail blender@sonicnet.com.
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