Tim Wu shows how advertising is manipulating us and our spending habits. With “Fake News” and bogus web sites and FACEBOOK there’s a storm of “content” swirling around the Internet to grab our attention and our dollars. Tim Wu documents how advertising has grown more sophisticated and savvy at targeting audiences for their products and services. The use of “celebrities” and actors to “push” a product is refined by advertisers to draw the maximum interest. Smartphones offer new ways to reach consumers. If you want to learn how you’re being manipulated and marketed to, The Attention Merchants reveals all the tricks of the trade. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction Here’s the Deal 3
PART I: MASTERS OF BLAZING MODERNITIES
Chapter 1 The First Attention Merchants 11
Chapter 2 The Alchemist 24
Chapter 3 For King and Country 37
Chapter 4 Demand Engineering, Scientific Advertising, and What Women Want 51
Chapter 5 A Long Lucky Run 65
Chapter 6 Not with a Bang but with a Whimper 73
PART II: THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE
Chapter 7 The Invention of Prime Time 85
Chapter 8 The Prince 95
Chapter 9 Total Attention Control, or The Madness of Crowds 108
Chapter 10 Peak Attention, American Style 123
Chapter 11 Prelude to an Attentional Revolt 144
Chapter 12 The Great Refusal 151
Chapter 13 Coda to an Attentional Revolution 170
PART III: THE THIRD SCREEN
Chapter 14 Email and the Power of the Check-in 183
Chapter 15 Invaders 191
Chapter 16 AOL Pulls ‘Em In 198
PART IV: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING FAMOUS
Chapter 17 Establishment of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex 217
Chapter 18 The Oprah Model 227
Chapter 19 The Panopticon 237
PART V: WON’T BE FOOLED AGAIN
Chapter 20 The Kingdom of Content: This Is How You Do It 255
Chapter 21 Here Comes Everyone 267
Chapter 22 The Rise of Clickbait 276
Chapter 23 The Place to Be 289
Chapter 24 The Importance of Being Microfamous 303
Chapter 25 The Fourth Screen and the Mirror of Narcissus 308
Chapter 26 The Web Hits Bottom 318
Chapter 27 A Retreat and a Revolt 328
Chapter 28 Who’s Boss Here? 335
Epilogue The Temenos 340
Acknowledgments 345
Notes 347
Index 387

In the run-up to the opening of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, I decided to prepare myself by watching Star Wars: Rebels, Season Two. Darth Vader sends Inquisitors to crush the fledgling rebel alliance. Plenty of animated action and thrills make this a fun feature for Star Wars fans. There are 485 minutes of clever plotting and suspense in this package. May The Force be with you! GRADE: A

Fantagraphics Books has published a gem just in time for the holidays! Wallace Wood was a terrific artist whose work appeared in the early MAD Magazine, GALAXY, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, and DARE-DEVIL. This over-sized volume includes 256 pages of great color and black & white artwork from Wood’s thirty-year career. The informative “Introduction” by Howard Chaykin and Maria Reidelbach detail Wood’s troubled life. Additional essays by Bhob Stewart, Roger Hill, Bill Mason, and others discuss Wallace Wood’s technique and provide context to his artwork. If you’re a fan of Wallace Wood, this is a must-buy! GRADE: A

The 6-6 Buffalo Bills have a 9% chance of making the NFL Playoffs. Today, the Bills host the 7-5 Pittsburgh Steelers. Snow is in the forecast. Clearly, if the Bills lose today their ulta-slim Playoff hopes are over. Last week, the Bills had a 24-9 lead over Oakland. Then, inexplicably, both the Bills offense and defense stopped playing. Could that happen today? Stay tuned. How will your favorite NFL team fare today?

Nobel Prize winning performer Bob Dylan toured England back in 1966. The concert at Royal Albert Hall achieved legendary status. Bootleg recordings circulated for decades. But now, through the magic of greed, we have an “offical” or “real” tape of that 1966 concert at Royal Albert Hall. The acoustic portion on Disc 1 is remarkably well-recorded. Disc 2’s sound quality varies. These two CDs are #27 and #28 of the 36-CD set released a couple years ago. If you’re a Dylan completest, then this is a must-buy. But I suggest you skip it. GRADE: B
TRACK LIST:
Disc 1
She Belongs to Me
4th Time Around
Visions of Johanna
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
Desolation Row
Just Like a Woman
Mr. Tambourine Man
Disc 2
Tell Me, Momma
I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat
One Too Many Mornings
Ballad of a Thin Man
Like a Rolling Stone

Shanghai Flame first appeared as a Gold Medal paperback in 1951. It’s a twisty story of China with plenty of suspense as the Communists close in. Counterspy Express was half of an ACE Double (D-57) with Treachery in Trieste by Charles L. Leonard (a pseudonym of M. V. Heberden) published in 1954. Counterspy Express takes the reader on a thrill-ride across Europe. A movie based on Counterspy Express, Spy in the Sky!, showed up in theaters in 1958,

I’ve been a fan of A. S. Fleishman’s work for decades. After writing a series of suspense novels in the 1950s, Fleishman switched to writing children’s literature. In 1987, Sid Fleischman won the Newberry Medal for The Whipping Boy. Over the years, I read plenty of Fleishman’s books to my kids.

This wonderful STARK HOUSE omnibus includes an introduction, “The Magic of A. S. Fleischman,” by some guy named George Kelley.

OTHER STARK HOUSE A. S. FLEISCHMAN OMNIBUSES:
Look Behind You Lady/The Venetian Blonde
Danger in Paradise/Malay Woman
The Sun Worshippers/Yellowleg

Just in time for the Holidays, this 3-CD collection of Kate Bush’s 2014 live concerts are a joy to listen to. If you’re a Kate Bush fan, this new release is a must-buy. Kate’s voice is strong and she has a great band backing her up. Many of her most well-known songs are here in extended versions. My personal favorite, “Hounds of Love,” scintillates. The sound is extraordinary. I highly recommended this set! GRADE: A
TRACK LIST:
Disc 1
Lily
Hounds Of Love
Joanni
Top Of The City
Never Be Mine
Running Up That Hill
King Of The Mountain
Disc 2
Astronomer’s Call
And Dream Of Sheep
Under Ice
Waking The Witch
Watching Them Without Her
Watching You Without Me
Little Light
Jig Of Life
Hello Earth
The Morning Fog
Disc 3
Prelude
Prologue
An Architect’s Dream
The Painter’s Link
Sunset
Aerial Tal
Somewhere In Between
Tawny Moon
Nocturn
Aerial
Among Angels
Cloudbusting

Diane and I like to support local theater companies so we went to see Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical. Neither of us knew the life story of Rosemary Clooney (she was a little before our time) so this production that starts with a Rosemary Clooney meltdown during a performance and leads to Clooney going into Rehab surprised us. Using the device of Clooney talking to her psychiatrist, this production uses flashbacks and songs to present the highs and lows of her life. In the production we saw, Debbie Pappas performed convincingly as Clooney. But we were most impressed with Louis Colaiacovo who plays a dozen roles:
psychiatrist, sister, mother, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and many others. What a versatile actor! The band was wonderful, too. If Tenderly shows up in your neck of the woods, check it out! Are you a fan of any of Rosemary Clooney’s songs? GRADE: B+
MUSICAL NUMBERS:
ACT I:
“Someone To Watch Over Me”
“Come On-A My House”
“Hawaiian War Chant”
“It’s Only a Paper Moon”
“Sisters”
“Count Your Blessings”
“Straighten Up and Fly Right”
“Tenderly”
“Botch-A-Me”
“Are You In Love Again”
“I Get Along Without You Very Well”
“Come On-A My House” (Act I Finale)
ACT II:
“I Remember You”
“How About You”
“Sway”
“Hey There”
“Have I Stayed Too Long At the Fair?”
“Mambo Italiano”
“What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”
“This Ole House”

Val Kilmer’s version of The Saint (1997) bears little resemblance to the Leslie Charteris character created in 1928. Where Charteris’s Saint was an adventurer, Kilmer’s Saint is a high-tech contract thief. The movie opens with Kilmer stealing a valuable micro-chip from a heavily guarded building in Moscow. His next assignment is to steal the formula for Cold Fusion (remember that?) from a beautiful physicist played by Elizabeth Shue. But, of course, Kilmer falls in love with Shue so that complicates the caper with the Russian Mafia. I particularly liked the chase scenes in the Moscow slums and sewers. Kilmer and Shue are far superior to the clunky plot and dialogue they’re forced to endure. If you’re in the mood for a silly espionage thriller featuring Val Kilmer in a chameleon role, The Saint might amuse you. But after watching The Saint I wanted to drop everything and watch Roger Moore as the Saint! GRADE: B-

Thomas Friedman believes in the power of technology. In Thank You For Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations Friedman shows how accelerating technology, climate change, and demographics change the world. Along the way, Friedman tells stories like how Airbnb came about. Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening.” (p. 97) I found plenty of interesting facts in Freidman’s latest book. However, I am not so optimistic. Airliners are great, but not when terrorists use them to crash into buildings. Computers are wonderful, but not when someone hacks mine and steals my identity. Smartphones are supercomputers in your pocket but can be used to bully teenagers. Friedman and optimists like him need to deal with the Dark Side of Technology, too. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PART I: REFECTING
1. Thank You for Being Late 3

PART II: ACCELERATING
2. What the Hell Happened in 2007? 19
3. Moore’s Law 36
4. The Supernormal 55
5. The Market 115
6. Mother Nature 157

PART III: INNOVATING
7. Just Too Damned Fast 187
8. Turning AI into IA 203
9. Control vs. Kaos 244
10. Mother Nature as Political Mentor 298
11. Is God in Cyberspace? 337
12. Always Looking for Minnesota 358
13. You Can Go Home Again (and You Should!) 410

PART IV: ANCHORING
14. From Minnesota to the World and Back 447
Acknowledgements 455
Index 463