Thanks for Keeping Me Posted on MJ's Every Move

I confess that I watched the O.J. Simpson trial routinely. I knew all about it: names, locations, timelines, shoe brands and of course the finer points of DNA analysis.

I'm not sure if it's the trial itself or if I've just changed, but I'm completely disinterested in the Michael Jackson proceedings. And what makes it worse is that my news headlines stay jammed with the man's every move: he's sick, he's late, he's tired, he's hospitalized, he's waving, he's lethargic, he's denying it all, etc. etc.

When O.J. was involved in the high-speed chase--er, "the low-speed follow,"--I didn't even have an e-mail account. The only thing I knew was that a good friend of mine at college had just gotten some sort of new-fangled thing on the computer that allowed people she knew to "send her messages." And she could reply--again, through the computer.

It would be several more months before I got my first e-mail account while a graduate student at Auburn in 1995. But even then, I wasn't getting news on the Internet. All the O.J. coverage I got was through CNN, whose own breakthrough coverage of Gulf War I was just a couple of years old.

Now it's Michael Jackson on trial, and oh how times of changed. I wonder if I would have been as interested in O.J. if I'd had the Internet then ...

Digital Projection in Theaters Lagging

With digital video here and revolutionizing who can make movies, studios still aren't getting their way when it comes to digitally projecting their movies in theaters.

George Lucas had wanted to show his new set of "Star Wars" films to audiences digitally, but aside from a few test markets, his dream remains unrealized.

Basically, the studios would stand to save hundreds of millions of dollars each year by showing movies digitally (either through digital duplication to tape or disk, or by beaming movies to theaters via satellite). They could thus avoid having to make thousands of film prints, which are costly to print and distribute.

So, the studios want the theaters to set up digital projection equipment. But this, too, is costly, and the theater owners understandably aren't willing to foot the bill for it when the studios will reap most of the benefits.

Recent conversations among the major players (studio heads and theater owner reps) indicate that maybe the studios are starting to come around on this. The sooner they invest, the sooner they'll start saving.

Selma's 'Bloody Sunday' Turns 40

Today is the 40th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Ala., when civil rights activitists planning to march from Selma to Montgomery were beaten and gassed by Alabama State Troopers.

Each year Selma has a "Bloody Sunday Jubilee" on the weekend around March 7. There's a "mass meeting" at Brown Chapel, site of many historical march deployments; a parade on the same route marchers took; and a festival of sorts with food, entertainment, etc.

The original march and its commemoration were part of my dissertation on Selmians' struggle for civil rights in 1965. I still find these "public displays" fascinating.