It’s time for PURPLE!

Shrink Rap is a purple themed blog run by Kathy James. Kathy has a psychology practice and her goal with Shirnk Rap is to “create an awareness of how psychology impacts us all.”

Her blog is being reviewed because of it’s purple theme. Kathy is still working on the blog, it is currently in a state of clean purpleness. A purple header on a white background sets the tone for the site.

The text in the navigation, titles and headers is in a nice plum purple. The body text is in a soft readable gray. I like the graphic on the title. It is a simple two lines and circle but how it is designed makes it look like the i from Shrink and the top of the R from Rap have formed to create a body with head and embracing arms. Notice that when you roll over the title the color changes to the same as the logo graphic.

In the Shrink Rap’s first column are the articles shown in two paragraph lengths. She uses the “click to continue” link to article’s page. There are also some posts that use a “Read more” link. This is a great post technique. A simple lead in, a source given, then a link to the article. I hope Kathy continues to do this type of post.

In the second column we are offered a purple widget from clipmarks with psychology themed news clips. The big purple RSS button for the subscribe adds another purple splash.

Is it possible to over analyze a psychology site? Articles include:
Watching too much TV is causing some university students to pack on the pounds
Health and marriage: The times they are a changin’
APA highlights importance of psychotherapy in treatment

APA? Oh no, I better cite something quick. Check out “About Shrink Rap“ to find out about Kathy who also takes care of Tri-City Psychology.com website.¹

But that is not all, if you act quickly you can also get PDFs full of Psychobabble. Psychobabble is a Newsletter from the real world published by Tri-City Psychology Services. New old editions will be added periodically.

Sign up to the Shrink Rap RSS feed to keep up with what is going on at Shrink Rap.

When I clicked on the RSS icon in my browsers toolbar, I saw that there was a podcast available. A Switchpod widget with podcasts would be a nice addition to the website.

Well, that’s a rap on my review of Shrink Rap, a purple themed site with purple themed psychology.

1. Retrieved from the Shrink Rap Website: http://www.tricitypsychology.com/blog/?page_id=12 [↩]

DeepPurple.com is the official website for the musical group Deep Purple. The home page has a countdown clock to their next show, for today it’s Copenhagen. Currently, the Summer Tour Dates are the biggest hotlink on the page. There is also photos from their latest tours.

On the right side of the Home page are Upcoming Shows, News and a Poll. This is THE place to come to confirm any new dates that have been added to Deep Purple’s touring schedule. The News section is extra sweeeet when Steve Mores writes in from the road. The current poll question is: “What makes you most interested in purchasing the latest Deep Purple DVD?” four multiple choice answers makes this a quick fun poll.

The sites navigation bar has history and information on the band members under the “Band” drop down.

• History of Deep Purple
• Don Airey
• Ian Gillian
• Roger Glover
• Steve Morse
• Ian Paice
• Discography

Under Media are pages Audio, Photos, Wallpapers, and Buddy Icons. You can see the Buddy Icons in use above. The Audio page has interviews with the band members. Photos has a Flash viewer where you can see Photos from their gigs in Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, UK and Germany. Wallpapers are images that you can put on your desk top to be wall to wall Deep Purple. I used one of the images at the beginning of this review, if you click on it it goes to the large Wallpaper photograph.

Tour includes the Summer Tour Dates as well as Concert Recaps so you can see photos from the concert you attended. It’s under Tour that you will also find VIP Package Info. Wow! You can actually get the Purple Envy package (if its available for your show) where you get to Meet and Great with the band members! Purple Flame will get you backstage passes. Purple Charm is the last way to get more than the average concertgoer.

DeepPurple.com also has a Shop Page for Deep Purple merchandise. They have Tee shirts on sale including shirts from the 2007 concert tour. They also have links to Amazon for distribution of their DVDs and CDs.

Under Community is a thriving Deep Purple Fan Club Forum. It’s a place where you can go to talk about just Deep Purple. It’s also a place where fans from around the world can meet each other. Interesting observation on the DeepPurple.com website here, the drop down on the navigation menu do not work when you are on the Forum page. You have to click out to get to the other areas.

The Community area also has the latest email newsletters, current and past polls, and links. The coolest thing in Community is Ask Steve where you can ask Steve Morse questions. Questions have been asked about flying planes, guitar scales, practice techniques, being a lefty, strings and humbuckers.

Info includes:

• Contact Us
• Purchasing Policy
• SiteMap
• Ticket FAQs
• General Policy
• Privacy Policy

I liked how under “Purchasing Policy” they spell out that the VIP “Fan Experiences” can not be resold by auctioning it off. So Purple Envy will not be on eBay soon.

The DeepPurple.com website’s navigation is rounded out with shopping cart functionality.

Deep Purple the Official Website caters directly to their core audience with quick access to fan based information.

Here is a video of Deep Purple from their latest album, Rapture of the Deep, Live in Montreux in 2006.

I was scrolling through purple flickr pictures when WHAM a purple light was shining in my face. I grabbed a mirror to look, yep there was a purple light cast onto my face. I tried to look at the screen to see what photo had caused this and I found I was part of a crowd “Waiting for the Buzzcocks.”

It’s Saturday, July 20th 2008, 2 A.M. and we are in the Film Tent at the Latitude 2008 Festival at Henham Park, Southwold, Sunrise Coast, Suffolk UK. It’s the 32nd anniversary of Buzzcock, this young old punk rock band. Their first song “Boredom” showed there was nothing boring or old about this band as they invigorated the crowd. The crowd was energized with purple light and Buzzcock sound.

The photographing concert goer was Julia aka Judyboo. I asked her if she knew she was getting such a great purple shot. She said, “I could see how pretty the light was, bouncing off the crowd but I had no idea how nice the photo would come out. I am very pleased with it.”

Judy was glad the concert was inside the tent because it was “nice and warm, unlike the weather!” Judy was having a good enough time to jump into the moshpit when her favorite song “Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t've)?” was playing.

Here are a couple of videos from this Buzzcock performance at Latitude. Listen carefully at the end of the second video and you can hear everyone singing “happy birthday” in celebration of this day being the 32nd anniversary of the group.

Buzzcocks @ Latitude 2008 (1/2)

Buzzcocks @ Latitude 2008 (2/2)

If anyone sees Julia in these clips let me know. You can certainly see the purple light that she was able to capture. I asked Julia what she liked about this photo. She answered “I like the darkness of the people in the foreground contrasting with the purple lighting and the sense of expectation.”

Camera: Sony DSC-P200
Exposure: 0.04 sec (1/25)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 7.9mm

Besides attending concerts and taking cool photographs and being a big fan of purple, Julia runs Judyboo’s Fairy Wings where she makes and sells custom wings for fairies, butterflies, bumble bees and more.

She also has a etsy shop set up at www.Judyboo.etsy.com.

You can see more of Julia’s photo’s in her flickr photostream including her other Latitude Festival 2008 photos.

If you enjoyed this artist interview, please leave a comment below.
Click here for more Yancey interviews.

Welcome to the Top Purple Blog where we will be talking about and looking at all things purple. Purple is the royal color associated with nobility and personal individuality. If your favorite color is purple then you probably enjoy being different and unique.

Extra-spectral Special Purple

Purple is an extra-spectral color that is mixture of Red and Blue light. It can look like violet which is a spectral color that is next to blue. A spectral color is a wavelength of light, violet is a wavelength of light where purple is a combination of wavelengths.

Purple History

Because of purple pigments and dyes, purple has been around for a long time. The word purple has been used in the English language for over a thousand years. It was not easy to make the color so purple garments had more value and this started the connection of purple being associated with wealth.

In the Top Purple Blog, we will rediscover purple in history from purple hearts to purple pride.

Purple Music

Purple populates popular music pushing the purple pop culture. We will get into “Deep Purple”, under the “Purple Rain” while we watch the “Purple People Eater” until we go into a “Purple Haze.”

Movies and Books of Purple

The Color Purple by Alice Walker was a book that was turned into a movie. The novel won a Pulitzer Prize and the movie was nominated for an Oscar.

We’ll look at books like:
- Purple Panties: An Eroticanoir.com Anthology
- Purple Hibiscus: A Novel
- Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

We might eve find out about the Riders of the Purple Sage.

Purple Products

This whole color blogs idea started when I saw a purple truck. It was a day where I had worked long hours doing very physical work and I was really tired. I saw a purple truck and thought, what about a Purple Blog?

The purple truck started it all.

Perfect Purple Products
Purple Stuffed Animals
Purple Clothes
Purple Cars and Trucks
Purple Toys
Purple Art
Purple Computers
Purple Gadgets
Purple Pets

Purple Food

Would you eat purple rice, purple popcorn, purple chocolate, or chew purple chewing gum? We will review and chew and do a purple report for you. Grape never tasted so good.

Purple Places

We will climb purple mountains, cross purple streams and pursue purple butterflies. We will knock on purple doors, stay at purple hotels during the purple holidays all while riding the purple wave.

Purple Promise

If you are wanting to learn more about purple, it origins and history, as well as learn about current purple culture, then this Top Purple Blog is for you.

Yancey Grantham and
The Purple Team at Top Purple Blog