The Village Idiots

The discussion boards on mubi.com currently has a film director’s cup challenge that some of you would be interested in. Basically, this a tournament style competition between the film directors. Here’s how it works. Individual users select specific directors to “manage.” The users will then select a film from their director in the first round. These films are then paired up in a “competition.” For example, in the first round, Alfred Hitchcock might go against Steven Spielberg. The users managing the directors might choose Psycho and Jaws as the films to “compete.” The general user group at the site then votes on which film wins. The winning director advances to the next round, until only one director remains. The tricky part is that only films can only be used once, so the managers have to be strategic in their selection. Think of this as a sort of “fantasy football of films.”

What makes this cool is that you can see a lot of good films, films you may not have heard of, and you get to discuss them with other people. Some of the films are hard to get a hold of, but many of the films can be seen on youtube.

I saw a Time magazine article, “How Twitter Will Change the Wolrd”. I haven’t read it yet, but I know that Mitchell (and maybe others) use twitter. I wanted to hear the value they see in using the medium and possible pitfalls.

Lane Wallace of Atlantic Monthly discusses a possible downside of the internet and other technology that allow for electronic connectivity in an article titled, Loneliness in Numbers. Do you think her points are valid?

That’s what this Times of London article claims.

Some people have touted the internet as something that will improve the quality of public discourse in our country, but my experience with bulletin boards and blogs (comments) has not supported this claim. I would go so far to say that bulletin boards set up for discussing political issues are the worst!

What do you guys think? And, more importantly, what makes the internet not conducive to intelligent, civil discourse?

Share some of your favorite podcasts that you have found. Here are two: Read more »

I’m still tinkering, as you can see. I gotta get the duplicate post titles off the main page, and I’m fiddling with the colors. Please have patience.

Have any of you given the village-idiots podcast a listen? We’ve had fun with the two casts we’ve already done, but we’re interested in stretching it, and that includes including the rest of you. If you’re interested in participating, let us know, okay?

Meanwhile, I have a new project that just went live: HawaiiBeliever.com. The V-I was meant to be a closed community, just for you Idiots, but this new thing is meant to be an open community. Please feel free to jump in and help me get this thing kick-started. Let me know, too, if you have suggestions.

We’re thinking of including some V-I topics in the next podcast. Any suggestions for a topic we’ve explored here that would go well in the podcast format?

For the Christians here wanting intelligent discussions with other Christians about film, I found a new website (bulletin board) that just for you. especially It’s called Arts and Faith, and it seems to be a site for Christians who want to discuss…well, art, with an emphasis on film. I’m pretty excited because the people seem like intelligent and eager to talk about film, particularly spiritual films! The forum also has other topics on music, books, theology, politics, among other things. (Chris, Kevin and Tony, if you don’t know about this place, I recommend checking it out.)