Troy

@Pioneer1 of course if you got 25 opinions on the video you'd get 25 responses -- that is how art works. Man you ask, "what does he want his audience to do?" Dude, you are doing it! You are talking about his music and his video and raising his profile. Don't you see you are actively promoting his video -- I only saw it because of you. Can you name any other businesses, that you actually like, that you talked about here is say the last month?

Hey @Kalexander2 thanks for the feedback. I wish you would have shared it on the blog post where more people could read it. if it's not too much trouble would you mind doing that? But in case you don't have a chance to copy and paste your response on my blog, I'll reply here. The best thing to do is help you appreciate the fact that the site has thousands of backlinks and I understand search engine optimization. The main thrust of the article was to help people understand that Google, who has a monopoly on search, is using their search engine to Market their products. Making websites more diffickut to find. As a result of this, websites particularly independent ones without deep pockets now find it harder to be discovered. The best search engine optimization and the best content in the world cannot make up for this. The only thing that can is money and a lot of it. Websites with good content will struggle more than they should. This makes the web less informative. I'll let you guess which demographic is hurt most by this. Does this make sense?

https://aalbc.com/books/bestsellers.php

Yeah since you posted this I saw an image where the inference was that the buttons on his trousers are the same as the trouser confederate soldiers wore. At the end of the day it is art and you can see anything in it that you want to see. Some of what you've shared above reminds me of that comparisons between Lincoln and Kennedy's assassinations. Again if you look hard enough you can find all kinds of parallels between anything. At some point you move from appreciating art into conspiracy theories. I'm sure Gambino does not mind as it just makes his stuff more popular... I'm talking about it now and I'm sure I would not have been otherwise. On some level people just accept that the video is so profoundly deep and keep quiet so that they don;t reveal how shallow they must be. @Pioneer1, you see that the emperor has no clothes.

Your posting of this video is the first time I heard about it. I watched the video it was interesting enough for me to watch it all the way through. Whenever we consume art we bring our experiences, knowledge, and temperaments to the experience. The same is true for the creator of art. Sometimes to creator and consumer can be so different the intended message is no communicated. In other words, @Pioneer1, this video will not like resonate with gay white masons Seriously, I think you got the message. But you've been around long enough where you probably feel, "What else is new?" So now you start looking for something more and pick up on peripheral things that don't really matter, like Gambino mimicking Michael jackson. Maybe you can share some of the commentary that speaks to how deep this video is.

Frances, I was informed today that your entry will be accepted. Hopefully it will arrive in the next day or two.

Yes it is a tough battle and impossible to wage alone or without some serious paper. If you read the article, post in the comments and let me know what you think.

Yeah that might sound hyperbolic, but it is true. We all know Facebook is working hard to become the Internet, the only site people visit and engage on. But the real threat to the internet is Google. Google alone controls the World Wide Web. They determine the traffic a website gets and has their finger in the revenue streams of most of them. I just blogged about this subject, so you can read more. If you do please comment and share your thoughts. Here are a couple of images from the article: The following chart is my actual Google adsense revenue back in 2011. You can see, for several months, I was averaging $2,200 a month, after being hit by the Panda Algorithm update my adsense revenue dropped by half the following month then, by half again the next month and was down to $300 in couple for months later. In my case and many others the penalty made no sense and was unjustified. The image below shows how Google has taken complete control of all of the content, above the fold, on a search on the term bestselling book 2018 -- even before the paid advertising.

Interesting subject. The "shovel" metaphor holds true and illustrates the problem with unbridled capitalism -- you know when the only incentive is to make money -- the way it is practiced in the United States. So I can become rich by doing anything from hosting pedophila websites to making the plastic crack vials. At the corporate level, selling toxic securities or cigarettes. It is all the same thing. The human consequences are not important at all...

Oh God, I can't even think about the ramifications of the repeal of net neutrality. The cost of running a website can, and likely will, go up. As we will have to start to paying a premium for providing fast access to our websites. This will accelerate the move 0f people to social media as their primary web presences. The repeal of net neutrality poses an existential threat to independent websites, like AALBC.

Mark do you have a website (other than Amazon or a social media site)? If so post a link to it.

@Mel Hopkins this is important, probably one of the most important things to keep in mind and a good way to differentiate one's product and reach a new audience. You know what, "F" Google's tag manger and Google too. You know they are pissing me off now. recently I noticed AALBC dropped to age two of Googles ranking on the search term "african american books." I'm blogging about his now...

Hi Frances, I'm sorry to read about the difficulty you had with your submission. Our USPS is too busy providing same-day delivery of paper towels for Amazon to be worried about the regular mail. While it is past the deadline I did reach out to the organizers on your behalf -- you never know.

I would be happy to I'd like your send your $50 bucks to the African American Youth Harvest Foundation (AAYHF), in my name PLEASE! In the highlight improbably likelihood that you win. @Delano and @Kalexander2, you may send MY $50, as a tax deductible contribution, in my name to the Literary Freedom Project. I like this bet no one loses and a charitable organization benefits.

In many states it is perfectly legal for a 15 year old to get married. Maybe IL is not one of those states or maybe they require parental consent. In FL you can marry your 15 year old 1st cousin. But these laws come from a period when a person's world, were they were born and died, was a maybe a 50 mile perimeter, and you life expectancy was 40. True, our society has skewed values and it is the reason why people pimp their children and themselves.

An underage harem may be a bit hyperbolic, but for someone of his wealth this is not a big thing. Hugh Hefner had one; the age discrepancy was much larger and he was celebrated. Michael Jackson allegedly courted young boys and vert few called for muting him. Look man, for MOST of human history 14 year old girls were making babies. Now if you told me Kelly was banging babies I'd have a serious problem. Do YOU @Delano believe Kelly should be muted? I'm surprised o no other than me voted in your poll. I think lurkers can vote without creating an account, but I'm not sure.

One thing for sure is that these guys are sloppy. But it is interesting to see these powerful folks fighting amongst themselves. Too bad the poor and vulnerable will be collateral damage..

I did not read the article, I sure nothing new is being related. If there were I would hope you would have highlighted it.

I read the article. Again it still seems like a lot of accusations. Of course where there is smoke there is usually a fire. But it sounds like like a guy who was abused himself that needs help too. I'm not about to rob the brother of his livelihood because he married Aaliyah when she was 15 or allegedly urinated on some girl. There are more important things to worry about. The argument that R Kelly gets away with it because the victims are Black is bullshit, white women are victimized everyday of the week by white men who get away with it -- some of them with the support of the church! Should look at all the dudes in NAMBLA, the Catholic Church, Penn States campus, etc R; Kelly is nothing in comparison... Indeed R. Kelly is highlighted ONLY because he is a celebrity, there are plenty of Brothers doing similar things with teenage girls.

....that does not even address slumlords in places like the Bronx (in NYC) burning their buildings down to the ground for the insurance. To be replaced, after decades of decay with housing unaffordable to both the people previously displaced and low income people trapped in dilapidated housing projects. If you want to live well you can't ignore the plight of your neighbors, or worse actively try to undermine them. Poor and desperate people, of any color, do dangerous things.

The historical context is important and fascinating, but it is also very sad. Generations of people lives have been crushed as a result of these policies.

Just this morning I was listening to the news and there was a segment in which they discussed the #muterkelly movement. The segment was at least 10 minutes long and they never mentioned what the specific allegations against him are. I think part of the problem is just the fact that this is all rumors and hearsay right now. Ha Kelly been charged or convicted of anything? I mean I've seen comedians make jokes about Kelly urinating on women. I have also heard some rumors about undeer age girls. Is Kelly accused to have sex with prepubester youngers are teenager groupies chasing behind him at concerts? I'm not going to go out my way to research this subject. In the universe of things I care about this is way down on the list. The reality is that I don't have to mute R. Kelly. I have never been to see R. Kelly perform live (I understand he puts on a good show) and I have never purchased any of his music, thought of course I've heard it. He is so popular it is unavoidable. "I believe I could fly" was like the graduation national anthem. So I guess were are on the same side of this issue @Pioneer1 albeit, as usual, for different reasons.

I'm selling books directly again. The URL of the store can be found here: https://aalbc.com/store/ What makes the store viable again. First I have a group of people, the Go On Girl! Book Club who are committed to buying books, on their reading list, from Black owned, independent, bookstores. More importantly they recognize that I can not sell books at a loss they way "The Big A" can. But the are willing to do patronize AALBC, because they recognize that we need independent booksellers. Now I can offer Go On Girl! a decent dea deal, free shipping and in the most cases no sales tax (I operate out of FL). I also give a discount for bigger orders and I have committed to contributing 1/2 of my profits to their scholarship fund! It is win-win-win! I also sell @David Covin's upcoming title Raisins in Milk. David is selling his book for $10 ($5 off the regular price) to book clubs who buy his book before the June 1st publication date. Of course more books will be added along the way and alliances, partnership, and more creative strategies are developed. Thoughts?

I witness the turn in the projects in the 60's when they were nice places to live. Sure the mentality of the people is one problem. I'm not even talking about the majority of people -- who are decent folk, but a large enough minority of people who are completely ghetto and destroy the entire community for everyone. They throw garbage one the ground because they don;t know better or care. Nowadays folks carry their household garbage and dump i front of the building rather than placing it in the receptacle inside the building designed to take it. The blast music, urinate in the elevator, break the locks and intercom when ever they are installed on the front doors. Still the builds and the are terribly maintained and I image some people behave like animals because they are treated like animals. Tearing down the projects would probably be worse for many people because there are simply no better options for many, There are people trying to get appartements the PJ's. Nowadays when folks leave the the projects they leave the city altogether.

After I saw the film I looked for some videos of the actual man. Yes it did occur to me upon initial inspection that he might be gay especially with the jherri curl, his strong rejection of homosexuality and waiting until he was 40 to get married. Of course I was biased having seen the film and hearing him interviewed. He was naive thinking the the Church, Pentecostals no less, would change their entire worldview because of him -- perhaps he was looking for away find acceptable for his true nature.... one he will never reveal. It was a good film nonetheless.