to Download Plugin?

Use a font that separates the letters. It looks like "AnenKick" or maybe "AneinKick" when I assume it's supposed to look like "AmeriKick".

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}

One is a flash based, with lots of motion, the other looks like slashdot about 5 years ago.

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}

I think your web design skills make it evident that you participate in clown competitions.

---

"I'm very responsive to certain stimuli, and pain is pretty much at the top of that list." - BadDoggie

But I couldn't tell you specifically what was wrong with it. Sorry.

As to the second one, kill it, kill it with fire.
--
smart, pretty, sane. pick two - georgeha

And assure the owner that his taste in web design is FUCKED. Websites are sort of marketing tools, but they're informational marketing tools, not visual. Or at least, that's the way they should be. People thinking they need to FLASHFLASHFLASH get people's attention seem to forget that you ALREADY got people's attention and that is WHY they went to your site. Overwhelm them, and in the clicky era, they'll just click that little X on top of the browser.

I would say fade the background pictures a little more and maybe somehow balance the text colors over those background images so that the text doesn't disappear into the black and white imagery behind up on top. Also, the subdivisions between the pictures and the subdivisions between the text not lining up really makes the eye go, "where, where again, where? WHAT AM I LOOKING AT?" I'd make the menu headers smaller, as the menu at the side seems to just eat up space. The logo up top may look better on a more stark background, but that may not work out.

And I'm sure anybody else interested in web design will tell you at least half of what I said is complete and utter crap. Because we all seem to have different ideas of what should and shouldn't go on on a web site.

Disclaimer: I'm far from a web site design specialist.

1. The logo is hard to read. I also find it ugly, but that's not the point. Some sharpening/unshading/contrasting would help to isolate the letters and make them decipherable.

I also don't like having the title twice, but I can't figure out a good solution - and agree that with the current logo there is no way around it.

2. Header (special events, etc.) is also hard to read. Using image as a background is fine, but it can be much lighter (i.e. almost white) and still provide a visual cue that the header is a separate section from the rest of the page. A strong cue is not needed here as the transition from a 1 column layout to 2 columns is also obvious.
3. Banners on the side look too much like posts headers. See husi as a good example: boxed gray vs. non boxed gray - subtle, but good enough to allow a reader to immediately build a map of the page. For your content, I'd suggest to reverse the Husi pattern and make menu headers less obvious (Husi gets away with more emphasis on navigation mostly because of the natural left to right reading direction).
4. Navigation column font is HUGE. Main value of the site seems to be its second column, and I wouldn't expect the navigation column to see much use. Maybe reduce size/font size/use of emphasis (bold, etc.) so it doesn't distract from main content?
5. Paging: I got a scrollbar already thank you very much. Paging is good to avoid kilometer longs pages, but yours are way too short. Consider most visitors will just run away if they can't get the information they're looking for on the first page .