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Two new episodes of SecondCast, Johnny Ming’s weekly podcast about the virtual world of Second Life, on which I’m a regular co-host, just hit the pipes. Episode 40 is one of our regular newscasts — though a particularly cogent and informative one, for a change. Episode 39, on the other hand, is a horse of an entirely different color, being our first full-length machinima podcast, in anticipation of the upcoming Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences annual machinima festival, being held this weekend. Johnny, Torrid, Lordfly, Cris, moo Money and I spend some time checking out recent Second Life machinima entries — in a style that may remind you of a certain television show that featured silhouetted avatars viewing other people’s movies. NOTE: Don’t forget to check out the machinima festival in Second Life this Thursday, when a preview of some SL work will be running. Read more at Rik Riel’s blog.

Like any good work of religious architecture, perhaps, the First Second Life Church of Elvis creates a paradoxical container that is at once about being woven together with others in a community yet completely naked before a higher power. In this case, that higher power wears a pompadour.

But then again, so did I. They were handing them out at the door.

The build sits on a mere 512 square meters of First Land in the sim of Nampo (slurl link). Its 117 prims, while representative of one of the humble gable-roofed churches found in rural areas across North America, also happen to be hovering in the air, fused with bling and iconography of the The King. Fittingly, a yellow porcelain toilet sits at the apse end from which the clergy (including the Right Reverend Elvis Faust and his associate SpaceProphet Jay (who kinda looked like a young Darth Vegas)) deliver their services. The pews are emblazoned with the visage of the man originally known as The Hilbilly Cat, allowing attendees to take part in a ceremonious sitting on of his face.

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