Why Did I Get Married Too – a trailer

I cannot lie – Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married” didn’t do much for me. But there’s something that can be learned from any media that resounds with an audience so I’m willing to give this story another try. The trailer for “Why Did I Get Married Too” looks like they’ve upped the drama quotient to make it more of an attention grabber http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810073266/video/16504116 . I will probably watch when it comes out next April.

Update: Nov. 19, wee hours.

I taped Janet’s interview on ABC tonight but haven’t watched it yet. I rarely turn on the tv at night because this is my writing, research, school work time. If I don’t have anything recorded then I watch centric at breakfast (but everyone else I know watches cnn or msnbc or fox). I’m not apolitcal or clueless about current events I just glean my info in different ways.

Kindle for Academics

Yesterday marked the end of my first full week as a Kindle user. I had an earlier review a few days ago but thought I’d do better to learn more about basic features before I posted. It’s easy to get hooked on the instant gratification when you have an ocean of reading material at your fingertips (but not enough writers of color though and we need to get with it on this issue). By contrast a print book I ordered over two weeks ago days ago still hasn’t come yet. This was from an independent seller on amazon and not amazon itself, so not a slam on amazon delivery times but note to self – check with seller for status.

I am a graduate student so the first thing I wanted to know was what other people in academia think about this technology. My initial internet research turned up technophobe scholars who are typing up comments to the effect that this gizmo is just another consumer gadget and not really good for use in academia. This is odd to me because many textbooks already come with e-text versions and other supplemental electronic material even if it’s not Kindle e-text. I’m very happy reading academic books on my Kindle and what academic prefers flipping through four-inch thick tomes to searchable text? Not every academic book is available electronically, and it looks like my next seminar won’t have e-books, but I’ll take electronic over print any day for academic reading. Out of all of reading device target market, academics are the ones who benefit the most from a dedicated reader device. If you read books several hours/day, everyday, then Kindle or similar device is for you. If you are an occasional reader who already has a smart phone or a PDA you already have the option of reading e-books on either or on your lap or desktop computer, and putting out the extra money for a separate device might not be worthwhile.

Hughes Net

I signed up because I’d been on dialup for a year – and it was a brutal year. The bottom line is that today’s internet just doesn’t work with dialup and they might as well stop selling it if there’s no way to improve it. I live in the far edge of the outer exurbs where satellite and dialup are the only internet service options. Prior to the dialup debacle, I had a different satellite service provider – Wild Blue – but discontinued with it because I wasn’t happy with the overall quality of service, and their murky Fair Access Policy. Exceed your quota and you are completely blocked from the internet for the rest of the month. So that’s how I got frustrated and went back to dialup.

In the fall of last year I decided to go back to school, and that required internet access. To get high speed internet juice for school work, I had to drive an hour in one of two directions to the library or Panera and after a while that got old. It was getting more and more challenging to keep up with assignments. Using the internet through dialup felt like trying to suck up the ocean through a coffee stirrer straw. Finally this summer, it was to the point where I was up all night trying to research things on dialup that I knew would take just a few minutes on high speed. I did several oral presentations in my car in library parking lots. Finally I gave up and ordered Hughes net.

Public Enemies (Review)

Runtime: 140 min

Director: Michael Mann

The IMDB user rating average is 7.7/10. My rating – 6.7/10.

We ended up watching Public Enemies after we tried to get into a showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince but it was sold out. I realized then that should have ordered my tickets online ahead of time, but I didn’t have my thinking cap on so like a ‘dumas’ I thought we could just roll up to the window and get tickets  – however, apparently not. Gangster movies are not my genre of choice but I was open minded because Johnny Depp is in it – and anyway since gangster movies are such a significant influence on American pop culture, I figured it couldn’t hurt to watch as part of my ongoing “understanding cultural influences” project.

Michael Jackson Conspiracy (Review)

A book by Aphrodite Jones

ISBN #: 978-0979549809

Jones is a reporter who covered the Michael Jackson trial in 2005. She went in believing the allegations against Jackson, but after observing the 5 month trial, and realizing how the media who were spoiling for a Jackson conviction were disseminating a completely different story to the American public than was being told by trial evidence, and witness testimony she changed her position. By the end of the trial she realized that the “not guilty on all counts verdict” was correct, so she decided to write a book. The “Michael Jackson Conspiracy” book is based on evidence from the trial and trial transcripts, and serves as a good review of the strategies and techniques used by Tom Mesereau, Jackson’s lead attorney, to win the case.

This book is worth reading by anyone who is interested in the workings of the legal system, the American concept of race (even though Jackson’s defense astutely chose not to play “the race card” at trial), the American media machine and the business of American celebrity whether or not you are a fan of Michael Jackson the entertainer. I am a life long fan of Michael Jackson who also happens to be interested in law and sociology, but I do not follow high profile trials because I abhor show trials and executions in the mass media or otherwise. So while I did not believe in the 2005 allegations anymore than I believed the allegations from 1993, I did not follow the trial at all.