The Web site for the Wild Wild Web television show, syndicated by CBS/Eyemark and available in over 145 television markets around the country, awarded Blast with a "site of the week" distinction on Jan. 22, 1998. With permission of the author, the glowing review is included below.

Blast

Associate Site Producer Teresa is American-born Chinese, and proud of it. She wishes you a happy Chinese New Year, but don't you dare ask her to recommend a Chinese food restaurant or ask her if she celebrates Christmas -- as if US holidays are a foreign idea to her. She's about as angst-ridden as can be when it comes to being treated like an alien in her own country, which is why we made her day by finding a spot on the Web that shares her angst. Just one look and it's easy to see why Blast is her new favorite site.

Blast, a self-acclaimed "irreverent webzine," is filled with essays, reflections, reviews, and sometimes bitter, but primarily humorous, rants about life in the United States from an Asian and Asian American perspective. Based in San Francisco with contributing writers in city bureaus all over the country, Blast speaks to people of all ages and nationalities with an underlying assumption that Asians and Asian Americans are hip, happenin' people who have something to say.

Start with the Rants & Riffs section and you'll see what we mean. The Blast writers rant and riff on everything from football to caffeine to buying a car. UberAsian answers your burning questions about life and love while Andrew Hermann offers periodic installments to his "Hermann HATES" series. This is also the section where you'll find "raging angst" about imposter Asians and bowl haircuts.

Visit the Media section for a Blast look at arts and entertainment, including the best movies and most overlooked albums of 1997. Live vicariously through the travel experiences of Blast writers in the Passport section, and share in the creative genius of creative writers in the Ink section, which contains terrific short stories and poetry by a variety of contributing writers. In our humble opinion, the most rockin' part of Blast is Nigiri Nirvana. You have to respect a site that devotes an entire section to all things sushi. Yum.

Blast is an amazing place that's teeming with editorial genius. We love the dummy-proof design that effectively organizes a whopper of content and the positive and headstrong tone of the whole site. For all you people who think that Asians and Asian Americans are just a bunch of overreacting instigators, go to Blast and learn a thing or two. If you're already hip to the fact that all people on this world are equally cool, then you'll love this site too. Either way, have a Blast.

Site of the Week at the San Jose Mercury News. (Week of October 19 - 25.)

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In their review of "Internet Short Fiction Magazines," the Mining Company writes:

"Blast@explode.com - A Generation-X repository for columns, humor, and raging angst. With magazine features like Passport, your ticket to personal travel stories, and Ink, a fiction section featuring some of the Net's newest and brightest, this is the place to go if you want to hear the new voice of fiction in America."

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In listing the best online magazines on the Web, Microsoft Network France's "Le Guide" site lists BLAST @ explode.com along with HotWired and a few others at http://leguide.fr.msn.com/adn/monde.asp.

"Blast est plus ironique et a dŽcidŽ de visiter le plus grand nombre de sushi bars jusqu'ˆ l'Žpuisement financier ou physique des rŽdacteurs."

Translation: "Blast is very ironic and determined to visit the largest number of sushi bars up to the financial and physical exhaustion of the writers."

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Date: Thursday, May 22,1997
From: Sam Vincent Meddis, USA TODAY Online Technology Editor

Congratulations!

The Web site was selected as a Hot Site in today's edition of USA TODAY Online, a free and immensely popular news service on the World Wide Web.

Earning this designation is quite a distinction. Just as we do with top-rated movies and TV programs, we look daily for Web sites that are likely to be sure hits with readers -- sites that seek to astound and delight, inform or amuse -- by exhibiting something remarkable in graphics, content or both.

Your site may also appear in the hard-copy of USA TODAY, depending largely on availability of space. The best way to find out if it will be published in the weekly "New and Notable" column is to check the Tuesday Life section over the next few weeks.

Again, congrats on a real fine site.

Best regards,
Sam Vincent Meddis
USA TODAY Online
Technology Editor

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Date: Sunday, May 18,1997
From: Howard V. Barton of LynxOfTheWeekList

Your Web page/site has been reviewed and rated a "10" out of 10. Varied content and stylish design make this 'zine a WebTreasure.

Congratulations on having a memorable page. You are providing a superior service to the Web community.

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Selected as Site of the Day on Flung!

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