Flixster.com combines the data on IMdB.com with all network-y goodness of FilmTrust and the user-submitted content of MySpace. The interface isn’t quite as horrible, and there’s lots more to do there than surf your friends pages. Witness: I just spent much of the last few hours there and I have no friends in the system. (Although I do have almost 30 Facebook friends using it through their integrated application.)

The main benefit for me over IMdB (which I love) is the ease of surfing movies and the simplicity of rating and reviewing. The associated drawback is that there is much less rich information about each film, performer, and crew member.

But wait, there’s also widgets!

For this installment of my series of visits to each candidate’s Second Life efforts, I was joined by PDF Associate Editor Josh Levy, also known as Spencer Mukerji. We had the good fortune of running into Astrophysicist McCallister who is the official (but unpaid) Second Life Coordinator for Mike Gravel’s presidential campaign.

This is the first campaign we have seen with an officially recognized and at least nominally supported presence in Second Life. Other efforts are entirely volunteer-generated with little or no contact with their respective campaigns. Overall, I was impressed with Gravel’s site. It has a professional feeling (not overly showy nor amateurish) and is quite functional as well.

The main building at Gravel’s HQ has displays on the first floor which link to his web site and other sites (such as fairtax.org) for more information. Upstairs is a conference table and a press briefing room with information packets at each seat. On a hill behind the building, a scenic hike takes you past sign with information about Gravel’s platform. At the top of the hill sits a large meeting area and very presidential monument (as phallic as any in DC).

Selected photos are below, and more (including Mr. McCallister’s plush director’s office) are on Flickr.

Gravel HQ (left), and information display with bonus graffiti (right)

Press briefing area (left), and conference table with obligatory American flag

Mt. Gravel

Here are some selected bits from our talk with Gravel’s Second Life Coordinator:

[8:57] Astrophysicist McCallister: I am the Second Life Coordinator, not the online director for the campaign. Something Sen. Gravel has been amazing at coordinating is an organized online support team, and Second Life is one cog in that virtual machine.
[8:57] Spencer Mukherji: what are the other elements to the online campaign?
[8:59] Astrophysicist McCallister: Alright, thus far, Sen. Gravel has a very popular website, a myspace coordinator, a youtube coordinator, a blogger, a podcast team, a virb team, a facebook team, and a DFA site.
[9:01] Spencer Mukherji: so how do all of these online aspects fit it to Sen. Gravel’s campaign philosophy?
[9:02] Astrophysicist McCallister: We’re running a very virtual campaign. Because the web, including Second Life, myspace, youtube, has such a broad range of users, Sen. Gravel is utilizing that outreach potential to its greatest.
[9:02] Astrophysicist McCallister: We can accurately and easily communicate our message to thousands.

[9:03] Ruby Glitter: Is this sanctioned by the campaign, or actively supported or…?
[9:03] Astrophysicist McCallister: Yes, I am a campaign official, we are endorsed by Sen. Gravel himself. I’ve been given a Gravel e-mail, and a letter of endorsement is being drafted as we speak.
[9:03] Spencer Mukherji: are you paid?
[9:04] Ruby Glitter: What do you mean by “campaign official?”
[9:05] Astrophysicist McCallister: I am not paid, and maybe campaign official was the wrong choice of words. I am merely the Second Life Coordinator for Sen. Gravel’s presidential campaign in world, but I am recognized by Sen. Gravel’s Staff in functioning and serving this purpose.

[9:08] Ruby Glitter: I’m interested in your choice of location. What is “Digital Zion?”
[9:08] Astrophysicist McCallister: We chose to operate our HQ here in Digital Zion as it represents the crossroads of the future, both in the figurative and literal sense.
[9:09] Spencer Mukherji: Zion as a biblical idea, and digital as the future of that idea?
[9:09] Astrophysicist McCallister: No, not in that sense. Zion more so as a crossroads, not a religious staple.
[9:09] Spencer Mukherji: I see
[9:10] Ruby Glitter: I’m not sure if I grok that.

[9:13] Ruby Glitter: How long has this build been here?
[9:13] Astrophysicist McCallister: Our Grand Opening was on May 18th
[9:13] Spencer Mukherji: is Sen. Gravel going to check it out?
[9:13] Astrophysicist McCallister: He’s been inworld a few times in exploration, and his Online Coordinator visits daily.

[9:13] Ruby Glitter: So have you had a chance to use the space? I like the meeting area there to your right.
[9:14] Astrophysicist McCallister: We used the small press area during the Grand Opening, and the large meeting area on the top of the mountain later on.
[9:15] Ruby Glitter: So this is for press here?
[9:15] Astrophysicist McCallister: Yes, Press Kits area available in front of each seat.
[9:15] Ruby Glitter: I see. Clever.

And I still think that. But I admit that it’s nice to have a partner blogging sweet nothings at me today.

And while we’re on the subject, I want to point readers to the very excellent OutKast song “Happy Valentine’s Day” which includes a slogan I love so much that I put it on a post-it in my office: Cupid will not be defeated!

Speaking of OutKast, I finally saw their move Idlewild last weekend and it was awesome! I remember seeing the trailers last year and thinking “wow, that’s gonna be fun.” But I didn’t hear a peep after it was released. I assumed that the polite silence indicated that it was a dud but I was wrong. This movie is visually and aurally stimulating, well-written and acted, and overall very entertaining.

I have to assume that the radio silence was more because people couldn’t figure out what genre to put it into. The film is way more sophisticated then your stereotypical “black movie” and yet it has no white main characters to pull in the yuppies. This combination suits my tastes just fine, and I hope there is more to come for OutKast on the silver screen.

Tags: valentines, v-day, outkast, idlewild, brianandruby

Hollywood screenwriter and producer Norman Steinberg, who co-wrote the screenplay for Mel Brooks’ landmark 1974 Western comedy “Blazing Saddles,” will show and discuss the movie at 7 p.m. Monday in 116 Murphey Hall on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Admission is free.
- newsobserver.com | ‘Blazing Saddles’ to be topic of talk

I love Blazing Saddles. It had a huge impact on the development of my sense of humor when I was in high school. (Other key comedic influences included Monty Python and The Young Ones.) So much so that I already own it on DVD. According to IMdB, Norman Steinberg hasn’t done to much else to make me get off the couch. Heels it is!

Tags: blazing+saddles, mel+brooks, unc, women, basketball

Just watched this with my Jewish family (and goy husband) and we *all* had a great time. This is a visually beautiful comedy that really gets at the complexity of American Judaism and American families in general.

Like Little Miss Sunshine, it’s dark and twisted, and ultimately reveals the humanity in all of us.

I can’t wait for the sequel: “When do we light the candles?”

Tags: jewish, seder, passover, film, review, movie

I’ve got a backlog of things I need to blog, so look for a bunch of new stuff in the next day or two. Meanwhile you may wish to cleanse your mental palate (after watching the above sickening video) with this excellent animated short that I saw at the Carrboro Film festival: All’s Fair in Love and Police Actions by local artist Alex Wilson.

“What if an icon like Marvel’s Captain America was to the U.S. government what Mickey Mouse has been to Disney? Here’s what a taxpayer-funded Steamboat Willy might’ve looked like during the Vietnam War in 1971.”

Tags: iraq, christofascism, war, troops, video, alex+wilson, youtube

“If you mean by ‘military victory’ an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don’t believe that is possible,” he told the British Broadcasting Corp.
- Kissinger: Iraq military win impossible - Yahoo! News

First woman to serve as speaker of the house: Nancy Pelosi

First Muslim elected to U.S. Congress: Keith Ellison

First Democratic Socialist elected to U.S. Senate: Bernie Sanders

First African-American governor of Massachusetts: Deval Patrick

And, according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, 67 openly gay candidates were elected to state and local offices (more than ever before)…
- Government Looking More Like Its People

I didn’t even know about all those gay candidates! We hardly notice that kind of thing around here where we have had gay folks in almost every level of local government office.

(Link via Wonkette.)

Tags: congress, election, senate, democrats

(CNN) — A Democratic takeover of the Senate is appearing more and more likely after an ongoing canvass of votes in the Senate race in Virginia produced no significant changes, sources told CNN late Wednesday.

With Democratic challenger Jim Webb leading Republican incumbent Sen. George Allen by about 7,200 votes and the canvass about half complete, the Associated Press declared him the winner in the race.
- Democrats win control of Senate, AP reports - CNN.com

Tags: election, democrats, republicans, senate, webb, VA, virginia

Gillo Pontecorvo, the Italian film director famous for “The Battle of Algiers,” a starkly realistic depiction of Algeria’s war of independence from France, has died in Rome, aged 86.
[...]
The documentary-style black and white film showed brutality on both sides of the 1954-62 war, including bombings of civilians by militants and torture by the military, and was banned in France for several years.

In 2003 the Pentagon screened the film to officers and civilian experts who were considering the challenges faced by the U.S. military in Iraq, the New York Times reported.

A flier inviting guests to the screening read: “How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas.”

- “Battle of Algiers” director Pontecorvo dies - Yahoo! News

Tags: war, peace, film, iraq, network-centric, battle+of+algiers