Cultural Event 5 - Yusuf

Cat Stevens - Before

    So what happens when you Google Cat Stevens on the internet,  you get a picture of a man with long dark hair standing with his arms crossed on top of a building overlooking a city wearing a sports jacket.  A link to catstevens.com and a Wikipedia page all about Cat.

    Why is Cat Stevens so interesting? besides that he has a bunch of albums in the 1970’s then dropped off the face of earth, converted to Islam, changed his name to Yusuf Islam and then made a come back 28 years later with “An Other Cup” side note he is really into this tea thing.

Yusuf Islam - Now

    Maybe his webpage makes him so interesting.  It’s a reflection of himself there is a lot of Arabic architecture and along with a photograph of him sitting at a table in an arch way, with his fingers on the side of his head deep in thought. On the table a tea cup is spinning around and around.  On the upper right side of the site are four headings Sing, Think, Give, and Bazaar.

    The sing tab is the most colorful and informative about Yusuf. When you open the page its like you entered a music room within this colorful creative atmosphere there are objects that are actually links to information or media.  In this room there is a window door that has links to his myspace page, think page, give page and shop. The picture frame on the shelf is a gallery that shows cute pictures of Yusuf in his GQ style outfitting.  The book with a tea cup on the right side of the room is the discograph, another clever way of showing off his music albums using the front covers of each one.  In the center of the room is yet again a tea cup and that is to go back to the home page.  Registration is a pair of bongo drums in front of the window so you can become a true fan and receive emails of upcoming events and good stuff like that. This somewhat odd Chinese doll with whiskers is Mr Ho-Ho’s FAQ.  This link is about Yusuf Islam and how he became the person he is to today, it’s a rebirth story. The rolled up news paper is news but that link is not yet running.  The record player is the audio link which you can play tracks from different album in the 70’s.  All together there are 12 different links you can find. If the objects in the room get to frustrating to find at the bottom of the page there navigation bar with all the links.

    Overall the website is intriguing and interactive.  You get a good feel of what type of musician Cat Stevens was and Yusuf Islam is.  Hope you enjoy.

www.catstevens.com