Is Your TV Watching You to Help Marketers Sell You More?

According to this CNN report, your television may be watching you, sort of, through your cable box: what you watch on TV can give advertisers insight into who you are and what you're likely to buy. Armed with the data collected from viewers' cable boxes about their viewing tastes, an advertiser can send commercials to a television screen customized to the interests of viewers in a specific home while they watch shows such as American Idol or Being Human. It's possible that your next door neighbor, who may be watching the same show, will see an ad for the same product or service but the ad he or she sees will be slightly different, will promote features that would appeal more to your neighbor's personality rather than to yours.

Through the data collected from cable boxdes, advertisers are leveraging the same power of targeted marketing they leverage through collecting data based on Internet browsing habits. Should we thank or blame Google for this technology? It's its success online with targeted marketing that may be driving this marketing method. Keep in mind that the companies making money from this say that it also helps consumers by decluttering their ad streams, narrowing commercial appeals to the viewer's interests so that viewers don't see ads for products or services they're unlikely to ever use.

Cornel West: Barack Obama and the Friendly Empire

Just something to think about.

What is a Closet Drama?

In some ways this blog is a commonplace book for me, and so, as I am researching closet dramas and their relationship to Plato and the dialectic or dialogue, I'm storing this definition or summary of closet dramas from The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama, Volume 1. Wikipedia is good starting point, too.

Isaiah Dolyle Threatens Jury, Gets Death Penalty in Louisiana

Isaiah Doyle, a 28 year-old who confessed to killing a conveneience store clerk in Jefferson Parish, La., during a robbery in 2005, has been sentenced to death. His attorneys argued that he was mentally handicapped in order to save him from the death penalty. According to WWL, "a psychologist for the defense said, 'Without a doubt, he has mental retardation.'”

The prosecution offered its own expert witnesses who disagreed. Doyle himself, however, most likely sealed his fate with violent outbursts in the courtroom and threats against the jury saying that he had no remorse, and while his words seemed like those of a maniac, they did not sound like the words of a man with a low I.Q.

From the Times Picayune's story:

Doyle told the jury that he shot store clerk Hwa Lee four times only because the gun jammed and prevented him shooting her more.

"The only reason she was shot four times is because the gun jammed,'' he said. "Otherwise I would have emptied the gun in her f--- head.''

Later, he told the jury that he would kill them all if he had an AK-47 and pointed to one juror and said he wanted to cut off his head.

Per the same story, Doyle agreed that he has a "mental illness, but also (told the jury that he) knows how to manipulate the system."

Some experts agreed that Doyle is "mentally retarded," but Dr. Mike Chafetz, a neuropsychologist testifying for the prosecution via Skype differed. WVUE reports his testimony as follows:

"He (Isaiah Doyle) has a savviness to manipulate things in the jail and find ways to get nasty pictures," said Chafetz. Chafetz also said the depression and anxiety show Doyle has a "mental illness."

The WWL story quotes Chafetz saying that Doyle shows "very clever and adaptive functioning in many ways and is not mentally retarded.” Other sources report the neuropsychologist to say Doyle has some learning disabilities.

The question for society then is this: Would Doyle have become what he is if we had more help for people with learning disabilities and mental illness?

Given the make-up of Jefferson Parish, the race of the victim, a "hard-working" Vietnamese young woman, and the race of the confessed murderer, undoubtedly racial anxiety was a factor in this case on subconscious levels, and Doyle's appearance and rage must have projected every stereotype of the black man as savage. However, I think that even if he had been white, the decision would have been the same. How could the jurors not come to the conclusion it did given his threats against them and his comments about feeling no remorse? They would consider, if nothing else, that he wanted to kill them with an AK-47, that he wanted to "cut off" one of their heads. Do we really think jurors can put that kind of spectacle and language out of their minds.

The Doyle family, as you will see in WWL's video, has apologized for Isaiah Doyle's crime. However, WVUE reports that his mother hoped the jury would find compassion for her son:

Doyle's mother, Yvette, broke down in tears after hearing the verdict. She was too emotional to talk afterwards, but during jury deliberations, she told FOX 8 she had hoped the jury would spare her son's life. "My son is mentally retarded. He has been you know. He has been diagnosed since he was five. They had all the evidence that he has this problem, and it had gotten worse over the years," said Yvette Doyle.

I suspect his family members have been on their knees many a night pleading, "Lord, what can we do about Isaiah?"

Within hours of Doyle's threats against them, reports the Picayune, the jury reached a unanimous decision that Doyle be sentenced to death by lethal injection.

Rest In Peace, Elizabeth Taylor

I awoke this morning to the news that screen legend Elizabeth Taylor had died. According to NPR, "A publicist told The Associated Press that Taylor died of congestive heart failure at a Los Angeles hospital. She was 79."

As someone born in 1960, I grew up seeing Taylor's movies on television. I remember Lassie Go Home and National Velvet, and also her adult movies. The latter were often presented as big television events with an announcer saying very seriously something like, "Don't miss the world television premiere of the year, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton star in Cleopatra!" Back then major motion picutres would come on TV a couple of years after they had been in theaters. I'm surprised when I view the list of her movies on IMBD at how many I've seen.

I also grew up hearing about her marriages and scandals in household conversation. She was married eight times, twice to Richard Burton, and once she married Debbie Reyonold's husband Eddie Fisher, father of Carrie Fisher. Reynolds and Taylor were known as close friends at the time, and some movie fans held the break-up of the Fisher-Reynolds marriage against Taylor for years. However, Debbie Reynolds, who was on Oprah in February, seems to have healed. She blamed Fisher, who she appeared to suggest had taken advantage of Taylor, who fell into his arms after the love of her life, first husband Mike Todd, was killed in a plane crash. Later in life Taylor's off-again-on-again relationship with Richard Burton seemed equally passionate.

Despite her romantic life raging like a roller coaster, Taylor had the reputation of being a loyal friend. She took up AIDS as her cause, raising money to find a cure, after watching friend and fellow movie star Rock Hudson battle the disease and eventually lose that battle. I also recall that she was fiercely protective of Michael Jackson, another dear friend of hers. I think she felt connected to him because she understood the pressures of being a child star as he had been.

Liz Taylor was a fascinating woman and gifted actress, and she was so much a part of American culture, I all but forgot that she was born in Great Britain. May she rest in peace.

Stefano Langone Sings Smokie Norful's "I Need You Now" on American Idol

Stefano Langone won me over a few weeks ago on American Idol when he sang Smokie Norful's "I Need You Now." And when I say "he sang it" that's an understatement. He slayed it! So, I wasn't surprised at all when he won a wild card slot. He committed to this Norful gospel song like he grew up in a black Baptist church. According to Idol's site, Stefano admires Stevie Wonder.

Jay Smooth on MLK's Letter from a Birmingham Jail

In the video below, Jay Smooth recites excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" on the topic of extremism. You can read Jay's post at Illdoctrine.com.



I listened and thought that we have Talk Like a Pirate day and Talk Like Shakespeare Day. Perhaps we should also have a Speak the Words of MLK Day.

Did Paulo Freire Write Poetry? "I Like Being Human"

Let me say at the outset that the verses that follow are by Paulo Freire, but in their original form they are presented as prose not poetry in his last book Pedagogy of Freedom, Chapter 3, "Teaching is Not Just Transferring Knoweldge." (The video at the end of this post is one of his last interviews before his death in 1997)

As I read this book, I am struck increasingly by how his philosphy had become as much a spiritual message as a political-pedogogical philosophy. I see in his final book, much more so than I saw in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, the view of him presented by bell hooks in Teaching to Trangress in which she associates his thinking with that of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

From Pedagogy of Freedom by Paulo Freire:

"I Like Being Human"
(reset from prose into a traditional poetic form by N.A.)

I like being human, being a person,
precisely because it is not already given as certain,
unequivocal, or irrevocable that I am or will be
"correct," that I will bear witness to what is authentic,
that I am or will be just, that I
will respect others, that I will not lie
and thereby diminish the value of others
because of my envy or even anger of their
questioning my presence in the world.

I like being human because I know
that my passing through the world is not
predetermined, preestablished.
That my destiny is not a given
but something that needs to be constructed
and for which I must
assume responsibility.

I like being human
because I am involved with others
in making history out of possibility,
not simply resigned to fatalistic stagnation.
Consequently, the future is something
to be constructed through trial
and error rather than inexorable vice
that determines all our actions.

I like to be human
because in my unfinishedness I know
that I am conditioned. Yet,
conscious of such conditioning,
I know that I can go
beyond it ...

Paulo Freire (September 19, 1921 – May 2, 1997)

I am learning that like most visionaries, Freire was a polarizing figure. His Marxist leanings have caused some to discount his pedogogical philosophy, I think, and never to read it with an open heart.

Japan: Earthquake, Tsunami Devastation, and Nuclear Power Plant Instability

Below is an effective montage of video footage from CNN of the earthquake hitting Japan, the tsunami destruction, and the aftermath of these two catastrophic events. In the shadow of loss of life--"more than 1,000 feared dead"--and property, the Japanese face another potential catastrophe with unstable nuclear power plants shaken by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake. The area around one of the plants has been evacuated, reports the Voice of America.



My heart and prayers are with the people of Japan as are the hearts and prayers of my two adult children, both of whom have an interest in that nation and its culture. My son and daughter both decided to take Japanese in college as their foreign language, and my son has been saving money to study in Japan in 2012.

All on a Mardi Gras Day: Zulu Parade, Red Beans, and Family

I got up at 5:50 a.m., again complying with my dearest cousin (yes, the same cousin with whom I went to the Zulu Ball) but also with pressure from my son, and went to one Mardi Gras parade, the first of Mardi Gras Day, which is the Zulu Parade. We stood somewhere on St. Charles Avenue between Jackson and Felicity Streets. Scenes from the morning are in the video above.

We didn't stay until the end, however. Once my daughter had three coconuts and my son had an ax (he's too old for that), they were ready to go. But we also caught waaay too many beads and toys despite ducking some of them. Afterward, we went to my aunt's house and ate red beans and rice, hot sausauge, ribs, potato salad, garlic-stuffed chuck roast, and King Cake. Now, that his how to wreck a diet! We reminisced a little about former Mardi Gras and friends and family who are no longer with us, and we played cards. My adult children and I got home after 6:00 a.m., and I plan to sleep late tomorrow.

About the Zulus: I know for some people seeing black people and white people dress up in grass skirts and blackface is a shock. Wasn't it just last month that folks on the Net bristled at Beyoncé Knowles in blackface on a magazine cover? For some explanation of why the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club wears black face, try this article at Mardi Gras Digest.

After the Debutantes: Zulu Ball 2011

I have to thank my cousin for encouraging me to go to Zulu Ball 2011, which was held at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Friday, March 4. It started around 8:00, I think, but we skipped the coronation and debutante/Zulu maid and court introductions. We didn't arrive until about 11:00 p.m., and got home around 5:00 a.m.

My cousin is a Frankie Beverly and Maze fan to the death, and both Maze and the O'Jays were scheduled to perform for the guests. How could two midlife divas turn that down? We're glad we went.



I went last year, too, and sat through the coronation, etc., because I wanted my adult children to see the ceremony, but this year I didn't want to spend 10 hours there, and I had a lot more fun in fewer hours. At one point my cousin and a friend of hers jokingly argued at the table over which one would marry Frankie Beverly, who is 64 now. The discussion made me laugh and remember how girls used to argue over who would marry which Jackson 5 brother. (BTW, Frankie Beverly looks quite sexy and the O'Jays' voices are still hot!)

Cool: Seeing people line dance and second line in ball gowns and tuxedos. Not-so-Cool: Seeing a woman try to steal an unopened bottle of Crown Royal still in its blue velvet sleeve from the table.

The morning after the ball, I was "dead to the world," as my parents used to say, and I didn't even drink that night.

The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club is the oldest African-American Mardis Gras krewe in New Orleans. While it is racially integrated, it is still all-male and its kings and queens are black. In addition, its African-American members are often from prestigious families, and usually you have to have some kind of social clout to be the king or queen. Former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers was queen twice years ago.

Prior to ball night, I saw quite a few people hitting this blog wondering how to dress for the evening. Perhaps the video in this post will give those in the future some ideas. It is a formal, black-tie event, meaning that the women are expected to wear full-length evening gowns and the men should wear tuxedos. However, we saw people there who did not meet those expectations.

At one point the Zulu Ball was invitation only, but today anyone can go who has money for a ticket and knows where to buy one, which is usually through the club itself or through a member, can do so.