I was a different kind of Passenger last night: I flew on the Vegas.com Airship. I'd never been on an airship before, and if I hadn't gotten this job I probably never would have, so the jubilation I felt when the flying burrito took off was palpable. I can't begin to describe the experience of floating, nor can I give words to the pride I felt looking down at the lights of the city I've come to call home. All I can say to you is this: I'm waiting, impatiently, for those feelings to invade my dreams.

I am intrigued by the very idea of The Shaggs - the all-girl group Frank Zappa declared "better than the Beatles." Sisters Helen, Dot and Betty Wiggin only formed a rock band to meet the demands of their father, Austin Wiggin Jr. - who, in turn, was acting in accordance with a prediction made by his late mother. The songs of The Shaggs' 1969 debut are off-kilter, off-tempo and very nearly off-putting, the kind of music that only time can validate. Today, placed alongside girl-punk outfits like Cub and Maow, The Shaggs' music seems just right - even a bit prescient. It's fairly easy to imagine the sisters vamping up "Who Are Parents" with Liz Phair, or sending "My Pal Foot Foot" to Cibo Matto for a club-worthy remix. The Shaggs Unofficial Homepage makes no promises, and neither do I - you'll either like the band's music or hate it. But even if you fall into the latter camp, you have to admit that the sound of The Shaggs is entirely too bizarre to have been an accident. Fate spoke to the Wiggin clan, and they answered with everything they had.
 

I could have gone my entire life without recalling the events of October 1977, yet here they are: David Berkowitz - a.k.a. Son of Sam - was found competent to stand trial, the film that came to be known as "Star Wars Episode 4" was still playing in theaters, "Boogie Nights" and "Brick House" were playing on the radio and a brand new Sony device called the "Betamax" hit the stores, retail price $999. All these memories and more can be yours at Pop History Now!, a cool site that reconstructs a different random week of American history every day. Check this page every day and you, too, will feel very old. Or too young.
 

Forget Fluke. Forget Garbage. Hell, you can even forget Madonna, even though she told you not to. Breakbeat Era produces the sexiest, smartest club beats you've heard out of a techno-funk group with a female vocalist since Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart hung their synths to the wind. A triple-threat outfit featuring DJ Die, drum 'n' bass whiz kid Roni Size and singer-songwriter Lennie Laws, Breakbeat Era is as significant a stride in sound and form as the group's name implies. The group's official UK website has everything you need to move forward into this important Era: Real Audio samples of every track on the group's debut CD "Ultra Obscene," a brief history of their world, tour dates and more. Don't read another word - just get your butt over there, cue up "Ultra-Obscene's" title track and move into the freaking now.
 

My favorite question on Marshall Brain's wonderful How Stuff Works page is "How do light sabers work?" As if somebody didn't know, for crying out loud ... you turn it on, swing it wildly, and cut Darth Maul in half. Easy, right? I guess there's a whole process of animation effects that goes with that simple action, which How Stuff Works describes in detail. I also learned how a cellular phone works, what makes a Cruise Missile the bad boy of any block and what not to do around vast amounts of flour. The site is organized by subject ("Electronics," "Food"), takes on subjects your parents may not have fully explained (human reproduction, IPO's) is fully searchable, and boasts some of the most fascinating reading I've come across in some time. Put that in your Darth and Maul it.

And what about you? What occupies your mind, fills your dreams, buoys your soul? Tell me all about it at passenger@vegas.com. And it goes without saying that if you've got a website you'd like me to cover, you should mention that, too. See you next week.