Troy

Very funny, vintage Cynique.

I think that was Emanuel Lewis Rihanna brought on stage with her.

I watched a small portion of this year's grammys. These shows do nothing for me. I'm jaded. I admit it. I went to a party over the weekend. A go-go band performed they were pretty good. Are there any good bands any more...?

But seriously, is Beyonce is truly heads and shoulders above the other talent that is recording today? Does this mean Beyonce is THAT great or is everything else out there so weak, or both?

If I hear Pretty Wings again I'm shoot someone! Are there any male vocalists with masculine voices like, Teddie P.?

I thought something was wrong wth the TV during the Lil' Wayne performance. It would have been better if they actually used the "bleep" instead of me trying to figure out what was up with the audio.

I'm going to watch get off the PC and go watch Sicko.

CONTACT: Sherri Rosen 212-222-1183

E-mail: sherri@sherrirosen.com, www.sherrirosen.com

454 Manhattan Ave., Suite 3J, NYC 10026

Headline: February, 20l0, New York, New York

Pope Annalisa is making its National Premier in New York City!!

Author, Peter Canova, chooses New York City as the place to debut his new thriller Pope Annalisa - Book One of the First Souls Trilogy.

This page-turning novel of action and intrigue reveals real, monumental mysteries of history that lie at the very foundation of our Western world..

1. How could an African nun become the first female pope and why did demonic-looking figures start appearing in the Vatican after her arrival?
2. Is Annalisa, the first female pope, restoring a lost feminine legacy of the Church or is she using her disarming femininity to restore a dreaded heresy?
3. Who are the four people racing against time to learn the secret Annalisa harbors that will touch on the very origin and destiny of humanity?
4. What was the secret oral teaching of Jesus, a teaching so personally transformative that it was suppressed and nearly destroyed by the early Church?
   

As the world nears a nuclear holocaust, as sinister hidden forces from within her own church and terrorism from without rear their heads, one thing becomes clearPope Annalisa is at the very center of all the deadly plots within plots in a world where nothing is what it seems.

Margot Arnold, author of The Penny Spring and Sir Toby Glendower series, says A riveting novel about a troubled world full of intrigues and deadly plots, miracles, murders, and world-changing power struggles

From the time Peter Canova first experienced phenomena such as telepathy, remote viewing, intuitive medical readings, and psychic healing, he has spent much of his life seeking to understand the forces that link humanity together at an unseen level.

His former businesses hotel development, shipping, and import/exporting carried him around the world, where he met a variety of spiritual figures, each of whom appeared in his life unsolicited and confirmed his conviction that spirit transcends the religious beliefs that tend to divide people.

In Pope Annalisa, he explores an ancient spiritual tradition which cut across not only Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but also the so-called pagan mystery schools of ancient days. (www.PopeAnnalisa.com).

The book is thrilling, the author is exciting, and the entire series will be made into a film.

###

Well the first things you can do when the book is available is to come back here and post some information about the book. You can our course post the cover, a description of the book and a link to where people can read more out it.

I would identify other sites where you can do the same thing.

Of course this is just one idea, there are many, many others; including buying advertising on AALBC.com.

Yeah I seem to recall this, but I was too young to appreciate the significance. I posted the same comment on Facebook. One of my buddies accused me of potential slander for making the "unproven statement".

I'm not worried about slander. I did however want to temper my endorsement of the film based upon that new (to me) knowledge about Bill marriage.

Again the film makers did not even mention the "high profile" marriage in the "documentary" of Bill life. That by itself is a glaring ommission. After learning about the abuse in the Denise Nicholas marriage I felt like I was lied to in the documentary.

The issue should have been addressed leaving it out was a mistake in my opinion...

In fact the abusive maariage is a much more plausible explaination of why Bill stopped making records and performing over 20 years ago. This may not be the reason, but it make more sense than what was said in the movie.

I still recommend the movie, but with the reservations I just described.

Hey I heard last night that Bill Withers was known for physcially abusing his ex wife actress Denise Nicholas. The documentary made no reference to those allegations. In fact I don;t recall any mention of Denise Nicholas. While I appreciate Whiter's music the I find the prospect of his beating his wife deeply distrubing.

I was talking to a friend of mine today (a woman), she was telling me how gay Black men have far more difficulty finding a partner than Black women... I thought that was interesting when juxtaposed with this subject. I just never thought about but the issue. She sited the natural tendency of men (even gay ones) promiscuity as a major factor preventing long term monogamous relationships. She also said gay men are under even more pressure to have great physiques...She supported her opinions on knowing and observing a lot of gay men. Maybe CBS will do an investigate report on this...

The link you provided did not work for me. Here is one from the Huffington Post

Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn has been fighting for progressive causes since the 1930s, when he began organizing workers in the New York City shipyards. He later embarked on an enduring career teaching political science first at Spelman College and then at Boston University.

Over the years, the celebrated firebrand wrote numerous eye-opening books advocating economic and social justice, perhaps most significantly, A People's History of the United States, an incendiary work which turns many of the prevailing myths about America on their heads. Presented from the perspectives of assorted minorities and women, it, for example, portrays leaders of slave and Indian revolts like Nat Turner, John Brown and Geronimo as heroes, and once-revered, fat cat Presidents like Washington and Jefferson as exploitative slave owners guilty of expansionist ethnic cleansing.

Los Angeles Times Article

Last night I had the pleasure of watching the new Bill Withers Documentary. Afterwards Bill Withers answered questions. If you like Bill's music you like it even more as you discover more about the man. The movie reveals a lot; how Bill only he started performing professional in his 30's, how he suffered from stuttering until his late 20's, it was really quite fascinating.
 

A Message from the Center for Black Literature…

Greetings Everyone:

The Center for Black Literature would like to remind you that if you are planning to stay at the NY Marriott while attending the Tenth National Black Writers Conference the cut – off to make your reservation is February 25, 2010. We encourage you to make your reservations now before the block of rooms fill up!

Visit the following links to get more information:

Registration Information:

http://www.nationalb...gistration.html

Hotel & Travel Information:

http://www.nationalb...org/travel.html

Visit our website for Program updates! http://www.nationalb...e.org/home.html

The Center for Black Literature

Medgar Evers College, CUNY

1650 Bedford Avenue

Brooklyn, New York 11225

Phone: 718.804.8884

www.mec.cuny.edu/blacklitcenter

TUNE IN every week to

"Writers on Writing" with Dr. Brenda M. Greene

SUNDAY's, 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm

WNYE 91.5 FM

Deep.

Cynique, you have an interesting mind...

I had not even considered changing fonts myself. Your exploration got me playing around too.

Sad, and too common a sentiment...

Carwey you you know who this person is? Why don't you venture a guess.

This book came across my desk today. Good Fortune by Noni Carter What stuck me about this title is that Noni, the author, is only 18 years old. At first I questioned whether someone so young would have the experience or knowledge to write a compelling story on such a subject (see description below). [i know someone is saying, "Well Troy, the fact that it was published by Simon & Schuster, should be evidence to the quality].At any rate, the promotional copy described how the story is based on Noni's great-great-great-great grandmother. So I figured the family history provided at some background for a moving story -- probably worth checking out...

Brutally kidnapped from her African village and shipped to America, Ayanna Bahati struggles to come to terms with her new life as a slave. Rising from the cotton fields to her master's house, Anna is threatened by the increasingly dangerous world of the plantation. Risking everything, she escapes and makes her way north to freedom and an education, but can she shed the chains of her harrowing past to live the life she has longed for?

Thumper, I avoid ALL of those facebook games like the plague. Facebook "management" has already added at least an hour to my work day (admittedly 75% of that time is goofing off). If I spent time playing games I'd never get any work done. Plus I completely ignore all "hits with pillows", "mafia war" -- all that stuff!

Man I'm glad you mentioned the Ellison Book: http://aalbc.com/authors/ellison.htm I was completely unaware of it -- thanks!

She/He will have to post a few times for us to peg her/his identity. Even beyond the her voice, Kola was easy to spot because her posts never took up the full width of the screen. (I'm not sure if that will happen too) But if allforyou is a frequent poster and still true to her voice from the old board it should not be too hard.

allforyou give me a head start and answer thiese 5 questions:

1. Were you, initially a Barack Obama supporter?
2. Where your were featured in a Carey Sunday roundup story?
3. Do mostly agree or disagree with ABM opinions Men's feeling on fidelity?
4. Have we ever met in the real world?
5. Are in the the top half of the bottom half of the top 50?

Hold up y'all! Why the heck can't someone make up a name -- for their own damn child? ALL names were made up at some point. Why can't Black women introduce new ones without being the source of ridicule? I understand that you may not like the name; but come on, just because someone does not choose a name that mimics their slave master or that meets your approval, do they really deserve all this greif? From other Black people no less...

Personally, I have MUCH more of a problem with the names of people from other countries like Poland, India, or even Nigeria. Some of the names are unpronouceable a native English speaker -- forget about knowing what the name "means". There was some cat, from India, in the corporate database from my last job with 26 characters in just ONE of his names. The feeaking database I was working with could not handle the name!

Do you realize we are probably more likely to encounter a name like Balasubramaniam in a US corporate environment than we would encounter as Shaniqua -- That is actually THE problem.

Besides I can definitely pronouce Shaniqua with more ease.

Carey I did not read you Blog post yet. But what you are asking for Barack to project a 'tude that, I doubt very much, is in him. Brother don't anywhere near as far as he has behaving the way you describe. If he changed his style they'd have his arse out of DC faster than Bill Clinton would solicit an under age intern.

Thnaks all4you I'm glad you like the new environment. Give us a clue are you one of the top 50 posters from the old board hre is a link to that list: http://aalbc.com/top_posters_from_tc_pre_2010.html

AALBC.com will be releasing an application for the iPhone which provides book reviews from AALBC.com, the NY Time and a few other sources. Visit here http://bit.ly/7kbJ5n for a preview.

The Top 10 Things You Need to Know about On-line Advertising

by Troy Johnson

1. Advertise on sites that target your audience.
   
2. Advertise on sites that have high traffic.
   
3. Advertise on sites that can provide details on your advertising campaign (how many times was the ad viewed and clicked). This will enable you to compare how well your advertisement is performing relative to other sites or forms of advertising.
   
4. More is always better: The more targeted people who see your advertisement, the more people who will have an opportunity to take action (fill out a form, visit a website, view a video, or buy a book).
   
5. Your creative (book cover, ad banner, or video) must be visually appealing (text legible, no fuzzy images)
   
6. Your landing page (where you send visitors who click you ad) should be; visually appealing, free of errors, directly related to and provide more information on the advertised product.
   
7. On-line advertising (advertising in general) is not a 1 week proposition. It takes time to build a brand; and continuous advertising is required to maintain it: Coke, Apple, and IBM still buy advertising. Budget accordingly.
   
8. While the ultimate goal of your advertising campaign may be to sell a book; that is not the only reason you advertise (see #7).
   
9. On-line advertising does not replace promotion. Continue to promote your brand both on-line and off-line.
   
10. Ultimately, your business success is a function of your ability to maximize customers AWARENESS of your product that actually satisfies that customer’s NEED.

Check out a short Video from the Self-Publishing Symposium 2008

This is always a popular question. Sometimes the books which I list "that I'm reading" I actually never complete. I plan to start Dolen Perkin-Valdez's Wench I'm looking forward to this one given the positive reviews.

I'm currently reading, on my Kindle, Malcom Gladwell's What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures this collection of articles is not very interesting, or at least not as interesting as his books. I'll probably read a few more then bail if nothing else strikes my fancy.

My Mom has read the last 4 of Vanessa Davis Griggs novels -- she loves them. She could not find the Griggs' first 3 novels in books stores (no PC at home, to purchase via AALBC.com). I had Grigg's first novel The Rose of Jericho in my library. I gave it to her. I think she read it in 5 minutes. I asked for it back she told me, "No!" -- Ma just took my book. The other two I found on Amazon through a third party.

Congrats on your book Shay!

Hey Guest, you should also post your events on our calendar http://aalbc.com/tc/index.php?/calendar/

Thanks for the kind words all.

When I get a chance I'll will try to figure out a way to bump people up to the level they were at on the old board. There is still a lot more I have to learn about administering this new board myself.

Yeah, Xeon, the old board was really showing it age. We actually went 8 YEARS without a significant upgrade -- that is a really long time. Think about the last time you used a piece of technology for 8 years...