I was working on a similar solution and found a few things pre-built into the category template.

<asp:HyperLink runat="server" ID="featuredImage" BorderColor="black" BorderWidth="1px" />
<asp:Label ID="lblFeaturedName" runat="server"></asp:Label>
<asp:Label ID="lblFeaturedSku" runat="server"></asp:Label>
<asp:Literal ID="FeaturedDescriptionLiteral" runat="server"></asp:Literal>

then in the VB file, i found this code which i modified slightly:

Public Sub LoadFeatured(ByVal p As Catalog.Product)

' Name Fields
Me.lblFeaturedName.Text = p.ProductName
Me.lblFeaturedSku.Text = p.Sku
' Check if size of text is within 200 chars limit
If p.LongDescription.Length > 200 Then
Me.FeaturedDescriptionLiteral.Text = Left(p.LongDescription, 189 ) & " (more...)"
Else
Me.FeaturedDescriptionLiteral.Text = p.LongDescription
End If

' Image
Me.featuredImage.ImageUrl = Page.ResolveUrl(Utilities.ImageHelper.GetValidImage(p.ImageFileSmall, True))
Me.featuredImage.NavigateUrl = Utilities.UrlRewriter.BuildUrlForProduct(p, Me.Page.Request)

End Sub

This would be similar to what you consider the "detail view". it shows the product image, title, SKU and a 200 character description. i tested it over the weekend and it works except for the featured product never changes. i have no idea how it is deciding what product to put up there. does anyone know how/where the featured product is chosen?

got it, so then to randomize what product appears i could just change the # listed with LoadFeatured(children(#)). depending on the # of products you have:

Dim children As Collection(Of Catalog.Product) = LocalCategory.FindAllProducts(WebAppSettings.DisableInventory, False)
Dim i As Integer
Randomize
i = Int(Rnd() * 10) + 1
If children.Count > 0 Then
LoadFeatured(children(i))
End If

thanks eric, that randomizer works much better than what i was using. the only issue i had was that it occasionally kicked back an "index out of range" error, presumably because the random number (i) was greater than the number of products in the category. this adjustment seemed to work for me:

Dim children As Collection(Of Catalog.Product) = LocalCategory.FindAllProducts(WebAppSettings.DisableInventory, False)
Dim i As Integer
i = Utilities.RandomNumbers.RandomInteger(children.Count, 0)
If children.count &gt; 0 and children.count &gt; i
LoadFeatured(children(i))
Else
LoadFeatured(children(0))
End If

I hope this helps someone else down the line. Thanks again Eric.