THOMAS PODVIN’S FREELANCE WORK
Freelance writer - translator - Editor

http://wwww.uglydress.com

Internet technology provides many types of services, from cultural to informative to commercial. The web is the perfect way to see the high and low, as well as great and dull of this world. Or, one can spend endless hours on utterly demented websites like “Ugly dress”. Here, the simple and unpretentious concept is to show the very worst of bridal wear, the special outfits that brides made their friends wear on their special day. Yes, this site displays some truly horrendous sartorial mistakes and lives up to its name. This database is a temple of abominable taste. Webmaster Keesha Myas has managed to survive numerous assassination attempts after compiling all the dreadful pictures she received (and categorized) from all over the globe: Ass Widener; Bad Color, Pattern and Shape; Hello Kitty Wedding Dress; Big Ass, Short Skirt; Bad Tuxedo; Condom Dress and so on. Check out the Pregnant Prom Dress, if you dare.

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
October 2005 issue

http://www.shanghaiist.com

Writer Dan Washburn, famous for his city blog, Shanghai Diaries, launched an even more ambitious blog last July; Shanghaiist. This website follows the ‘Gothamist’ concept: a series of highly-successful city blogs founded by Jake Dobkin in New York in 2002. Gothamist.com is one of New York City’s most popular independent websites, with 1.5 million pages viewed per month. It features daily posts about news, events, entertainment and food. London, Los Angeles, Toronto and Paris are among the eleven cities with “-ist” web-magazines. On the look out for whatever happens in Shanghai, a city Washburn clearly loves, it didn’t take him long to make the first “-ist” in Asia a very successful website. Six staff and twenty contributors are necessary to review Shanghai’s gossip, local and national papers, and up-to-date listings. Both Gothamist and Shanghaiist were named a ‘Forbes Favorite’ in Forbes magazine’s ongoing ’Best of the Web’ series.

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
October 2005 issue