The Friday Fillip

Sometimes, though perhaps not on Friday, you want to be elsewhere — or elsehow. Come to think of it, wandering and mood-altering were probably among the very first things that people took up way back at the beginning. (A moment of respectful silence for travel and legal drugs.) Now the internet wants to help you escape the moment and the momentary you. There are lots of ways it can do this, and I’m sure you’ve probably discovered most of them. A late entry in the field is Moodstream, by Getty Images, the folks who make available some 70,000,000 still and moving pictures.

Moodstream, best viewed in full screen mode, presents a slideshow of images or movie clips at a rate you determine, along with music it deems appropriate. As you see from a portion of the Moodstream control panel to the left, there are five mood controls you can play with (and a number of “presets” that will get you going if you’re a single click person). As well you can select among four transitions and vary the proportion of black and white to colour in the images.

If you create an account, you can create your own Moodboards which let you add and rearrange images as it suits you — all of which seems a bit deliberate when it comes to mood altering, until you think that it’s kind of like putting bubble soap in the bath, pouring a glass of chilled Chablis and selecting just the right playlist on the iPod.

Now if you’d just turn the lights down on your way out and shut that door…