I logged into Second Life this morning to find that my avatar appears to be riding the fence about who he is voting for this coming November. Is Second Life in a Red State or a Blue State? Or just a confused state?
Category: Politics
“The Breaks” play by Marc Bamuthi Joseph remixing all the elements of hip hop
Tonight my buddy Rafi and I saw "The Break/s", an amazing one-person play by Marc Bamuthi Joseph that mixes dance, spoken word, rap, turntablism, beatboxing and video art, all within a strong hip-hop framework. There’s a loose, dream-like narrative chronicling Joseph’s travels from Senegal to Paris to Tokyo to Havana as a hip-hop instructor, interweaved…
Following the 1st McCain-Obama Debate in Second Life
Tonight I decided to see how the opposing camps viewed the debate tonight between Barack Obama and John McCain. Normally it would be difficult to survey live the differing impressions of Republicans and Democrats. But via the wonders of Second Life (and two laptops) I was able to attend debate viewing parties of both Obama…
Where my Republicans at? The dearth of conservatives in Second Life
According to Reuters, the Social Research Foundation has found that Second Life residents support Barack Obama 2-to-1 over John McCain. The survey of 1,000 SLers found that 554 residents preferred Obama while only 143 supported McCain. This finding is true whether the Second Life resident is a self-reported American or from another country. The Obama-supporter…
Obama for President Music Fest this weekend in Second Life
I got word from my friend Doubledown Tandino that there will be a two-day "Second Life Obama Music Fest" from September 27-28 in Second Life. The "Obama for President" group in SL (with over 1,300 members) is inviting Obama/Biden supporters from across the country for an afternoon and music, fun and activism: Obama Fest is…
War Child’s online peace march in Habbo Hotel today (video)
I dropped in on the "largest ever" online peace march organized by Warchild International in the teen virtual world of Habbo Hotel. Here’s some video I shot there. To call it a "march" was kind of a misnomer — it was basically 50-some avatars standing around and shouting "Peace" in the open chat. It was…
War Child International to organize “largest online protest ever” in Habbo Hotel
I just saw this on the War Child website: War Child and Habbo are teaming up for what promises to be the largest online protest ever. On 21st September, UN International Day of Peace, teens will gather in Habbo hotel to raise awareness about the effects of war. Habbo is a virtual community of millions…
State Dept & Youtube join forces to spur citizen videos on democracy
The United States State Department, YouTube and a host of non-profits, educational institutions and media companies are collaborating on an interesting civic engagement project entitled "Democracy: Your Voice. Your Video." The project challenges amateur videographers from around the world to submit three-minute videos answering the question "Democracy is…" Lots of interesting aspects to this project. …
Madeleine Albright speaking at UT Austin and Second Life (video)
Tonight, the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin hosted an address by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. I got to watch and participate in this event at the GSD&M Idea City Island Amphitheatre in Second Life (teleport SLURL). It was a good crowd for a foreign…
“Sling Shot Hip Hop” documentary on the Palestianian hip hop movement premieres in NY on Thursday
At breakdance practice last night, I was talking with Waleed, another dancer who told me about a real cool film project he is involved with. "Sling Shot Hip Hop" is a film about the role of hip hop music for Palestinians as a form of political expression: Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of…