7 interesting entertainment-related websites

This installment of my series on favorite websites is entertainment-focused.
These are websites I like that are related to movies, TV shows, streaming video, etc.

Metacritic

Not including Metacritic earlier was a major oversight of mine.
Rotten Tomatoes is the go-to movie-review aggregator, but Metacritic aggregates critics’ reviews of TV shows, video games and music, as well as movies.
Metacritic is owned by CBS Interactive.

Exstreamist

Exstreamist is a website devoted to news and programming information about the major internet streaming video services, including Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and more.
It is serving the audience of cord-cutters and cord-nevers who prefer to get their video programming from on-demand streaming services rather than cable and broadcast TV.
Exstreamist leans more heavily towards news, while InstantWatcher.com is about programming (what’s new and popular on the streaming services).

What’s On Netflix

What’s On Netflix focuses on just what’s on and coming to the No. 1 internet television network.
It made a name for itself by listing the hundreds of subcategories of movies available on Netflix.

Screen Rant

Screen Rant is a website for lovers of geek entertainment, namely sci-fi, fantasy, superhero and other genres. It’s probably best known for its movie and TV show list videos on YouTube.

Starlog Magazine – Internet Archive

I loved Starlog magazine when I was in high school in the late 1970s. I don’t have any of those old science-fiction film magazines anymore, so it’s great that the Internet Archive has preserved issues of the fanzine online.
(See article by GeekTyrant.)

Interactive Game of Thrones Map

Watching the epic HBO drama “Game of Thrones,” viewers can get a headache trying to keep track of what’s going on where and to whom.
Thankfully some resourceful fans put together an Interactive Game of Thrones Map so you can track where characters have traveled and currently are in the story.
(See article by Screen Rant.)

Phil Grishayev: Movie locations revisited

Instagram user Phil Grishayev has a passion project where he documents visiting famous movie locations by recreating film shots with his own photos.
(See articles by Laughing Squid and Design You Trust.)

Apple Maps still suck

More than 2 years have passed since the debut of Apple Maps made Apple the laughingstock of the tech industry.
I have tried to use Google Maps whenever possible since then. But last week I accidentally used Apple Maps and paid the price. The wrong directions it gave made me about 15 minutes late for an appointment.
To get to my appointment I clicked on the address sent to me via email on my iPhone 5S. Because Apple Maps is the default on iPhone, it launched the application and showed what it thought was the address on a digital map.
Instead of a corporate headquarters in Lincolnshire, Ill., it directed me to an address in a residential neighborhood a few miles away.
It was a great reminder to stick with the experts when it comes to online maps: Google.

Photo: Incorrect map from Apple Maps

The happiest, horniest, wealthiest states

There are infinite ways to look at the U.S. by laying demographic, survey and other data over a map of the country.
What follows are some interesting examples from around the Web.

The Happiest Regions In America

Researchers from the National Bureau of Economic Research put together a map showing the relative happiness of people in metropolitan and rural areas of the U.S.
Among cities, the small city of Charlottesville, Virginia, tops the rankings, and Washington, D.C., and Atlanta both rank as happier than average, according to Priceonomics.
Declining cities like Detroit, Michigan, and urban areas in the Midwest are particularly unhappy. Large swaths of Indiana and Kentucky ranked at the bottom of the happiness rankings.

States with the horniest women

For his book “Dataclysm,” OKCupid founder Christian Rudder uses data gleaned from what people say and do on dating sites to uncover which states have the horniest women and other interesting facts, according to Men’s Health.

States with the longest and shortest average sex times

Fast Company ran a map showing average sex times in states across the U.S.
The infographic was based on data from Spreadsheets, a sort of sex-focused Fitbit.

Map showing whether states prefer boobs or butts

A study of Americans looking for “straight,” “woman-with-man” pornography on websites Pornhub and Youporn revealed which states prefer butts over boobs, Huffington Post reported.

Descriptive words for each state

Business Insider published a U.S. map showing the top autocomplete word for each state when people search Google for “Why is (state) so …?”
Some results:
Why is Illinois so … corrupt?
Why is Virginia so … strict?

Word used most disproportionately in each state’s Wikipedia article

Slate studied Wikipedia articles to find the word most representative of each state. (For Pennsylvania it’s chocolate, for Colorado it’s cannabis, etc.)
Author Ben Blatt discussed how the data can be sorted to come up with different results based on various parameters.

Top State Income Tax Rates

The Tax Foundation has run a series of informative maps.
Check out the organization’s map showing state income tax rates in 2014, which range from zero in seven states to 13.3% in California.

Largest company by revenue in each state

Huffington Post reprinted a map showing the largest company by revenue in each state.
The map was put together by telecom company Broadview Networks.

Wealthiest Americans by state

Real estate blog Movoto published a map showing the richest person in each state.

What each state buys most on eBay

The data analysts at eBay put together a map of the 50 states showing what types of products are purchased in each state most often.
(See article by the Huffington Post.)

Most popular U.S. attractions by state

An Imgur user posted a map showing the most popular U.S. attractions by state.
It was composed using information from a list website called Reflections of Pop Culture & Life’s Challenges.

Each State’s Supernatural Claim To Fame

The Movoto Real Estate Blog published a detailed map showing each state’s supernatural claim to fame, including cryptids, UFOs and aliens, or paranormal activity.
In my current state of Virginia, the top supernatural incident involves the “the Bunny Man” in Fairfax, Va.

The United States of Food

Regional food preferences are the subject of a lot of cool online maps.
As part of my exploration of online maps, I’ll spotlight a few here.

The United States of Burgers

Serious Eats made a map of the U.S. with each state represented by an iconic local burger.
From my old stomping grounds in the Midwest, Illinois is represented by the Steak ’n Shake burger, Minnesota by the Juicy Lucy and Iowa by the Maid-Rite loose meat sandwich.

The Great American Pizza Map

The Washington Post assembled a collection of maps showing which pizza chains dominate what areas of the U.S.

Red, White & Food

Thrillist published a U.S. map showing the most noteworthy restaurant chain from each state. (See map at top. Click for larger view.)

Mapping the Rise of Craft Beer

The New Yorker created an interactive map to chart the growth of craft beer.
You can click on the map to see which states have the most breweries per 500,000 people, the fastest growing breweries and other neat statistics.

The United States of Corn

Photographer Henry Hargreaves and food stylist Caitlin Levin collaborated on a series of “Food Maps” that are made out of the types of foods best known from the places the maps depict.
The U.S. map is made out of corn and corn products.
(See photo below. Click for larger view. Also check out articles by the Laughing Squid and My Modern Met.)

Entertainment maps: music artist preferences by state, Hollywood destruction targets

The United States are not homogeneous. There are distinct differences among the 50 states.
Paul Lamere of the Echo Nest released several maps showing music preferences by state. One map showed the most distinctive favorite artist in each state, meaning the artist that each state listened to more than other states.
Lamere and blogger Randal Cooper put together charts showing the Most Ignored Artists in each state, based on the top 50, top 100 and top 200 artists.
One contributor to Reddit created a map showing the best-selling musician or group by state of birth. Some are obvious, such as Prince in Minnesota and Billy Joel in New York. Others aren’t, such as Kenny G beating out Nirvana in Washington State, according to Fast Company.
Continuing with the entertainment maps theme, Deadspin’s The Concourse did a map of the U.S. showing where Hollywood movies have destroyed the most cities in alien attacks, natural disasters and other cataclysmic events. (See image at top. Click for larger view.)

See also: U.S. maps showing movie and TV show locations.

Fun, educational map websites

Maps are endlessly fascinating. They show how we define the world. They can be geographical, sociological, political, historical and otherwise educational.
Many popular maps circulated online combine maps with demographic data to yield eye-opening results. They might better be described as infogaphics.
I’ve found a couple of websites devoted to maps that are entertaining and illuminating.
Maps on the Web is a Tumblr blog that posts several cool maps a day.
Amazing Maps is another Tumblr blog that spotlights neat maps.
Both are worth checking out.

Samples maps (Click for larger view): Apostasy in Islam, punishments by country for a Muslim who consciously abandons Islam (top); and Tearing Europe Apart, 20 ways to slice a continent from Yanko Tsvetkov’s Atlas of Prejudice 2.

U.S. maps showing movie and TV show locations

As a pop culture fan, I got a kick out of these three U.S. maps showing the settings of movies and TV shows.
The most comprehensive is “America: the home of television” by graphic artist James Chapman.
The map includes “Friends,” “Frasier,” “The O.C.,” “The Wire,” “Community,” “ER,” “The Office,” “Breaking Bad,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Portlandia,” “Dexter,” “Homeland,” “Glee,” “Parks & Recreation” and many more. (See articles by Laughing Squid and the Huffington Post, as well as Chapman’s Tumblr blog.) It’s for sale as a poster on his Etsy shop.
Reddit user Subtonix made a map of what movies best represent each state. EW had some bones to pick with it, but I think it’s pretty good.
Andrew Shears, assistant professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley in Menasha, Wis., responded with a map showing what TV shows best represent each state.
Shears followed up that map with a second map that used input from others. (See article by the Huffington Post.)

Maps from top down (click images to enlarge): “America: the home of television” by James Chapman; U.S. movie map by Subtonix; “50 States, 50 TV Series” Remixed: Popular Feedback Edition by Andrew Shears.

Theme Park Brochures: Check out historic maps like Marriott’s Great America circa 1979

Here’s a fun website for people who want to reminisce about amusement parks from their youth: Theme Park Brochures.
I was able to look up a map of Marriott’s Great America in Gurnee, Ill., from 1979. The Marriott hospitality company opened the park in 1976, during the American Bicentennial. Six Flags purchased it in 1984.
I worked at Marriott’s Great America two summers while in high school in Lake County, Ill., in 1978-79. I worked in the games and arcades section of the County Fair area, running carnival games like the Ring Fling.
I have some great memories of working there. I got to hang out with some beautiful girls who worked there (Jane, Betsy, Edie, etc.) We were able to get into the park for free. Sometimes we’d get off a few hours before the park closed, change into our street clothes and ride the roller coasters.
Some of the rides are still operating, but under different names. The roller coaster I remember as Willard’s Whizzer is now just the Whizzer and the Turn of the Century is now the Demon. Other rides, such as the Tidal Wave, are gone.
I met John Willard “Bill” Marriott Jr., now chairman and CEO of Marriott International, while I was an employee of the park. “Bill,” as I called him when I shook his hand, is the son of company founder J. Willard Marriott.
In 1979, admission to Marriott’s Great America was $9.60 for adults. Today general admission to Six Flags Great America costs $54.99 (but you can buy tickets online for $34.99 each).
Now I feel old.

Photos: Front of brochure for Marriott’s Great America 1979 (top), and inside pages from the brochure (bottom).

Visited Countries: Create maps showing where you've been in the U.S. and the world

Visited 35 states (70%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

A fun Web site called Visited Countries lets people create personal maps of where they've been. You can do a map of the United States with the states you've visited highlighted in red. (I've got some traveling left to do in the West and central U.S. See above.)
You can also create a map of the countries you've visited. Mine is pretty lame. (See below.)
Check out Visited Countries. It's the work of Douwe Osinga of Zurich.

Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series on Tech-Media-Tainment’s favorite Web sites.


Visited 18 countries (8%)
Create your own visited map of The World