Troy

Chris, don't mistake my open mind and willingness to entertain different idea for adherence to such positions -- especially those espoused by Bill Bennett. Indeed after speaking with Kam, it is not clear that the authors of Freakonmics stated anything African Americans specifically about abortions. I will let the review stand but I've added a comment. In fact, the idea that legalized abortions has reduced crime is disputed by other economists, who say that the Levitt’s (or Dubner, I forget who is the economist) methodology was flawed. But we also see that "right to lifers" are the ones opposing voicing the greatest opposition. Everyone has an agenda.

There has been a lot of talk about Polio in the news recently. My only experience with Polio was when I was a kid I had a counselor (white) that told me his older brother had polio and eventually died from it. It sounds like the threat of contracting Polio was a very scary thing back then. I heard somewhere that ice cream was suspected as a cause, because incidences of Polio increased during the summer when ice consumption increased. Was this a really that scary a time for us or did Black folks have more pressing things to be concerned with, like lynching, earning enough money to survive, etc... It is also funny I’ve spoken with Black folks who will not get the children vaccinated against Polio?! That is crazy; but given our country’s history of treating Black folks the way Dr. Mengele treated Jews I can understand the aversion. I don’t agree, but I understand…

These will fit her What was your nephew's involvement with the commercials?

When I was younger I thought I would always want to live forever. Now I can image that would be a living hell. Crazy? No. Probably very, very normal. You are just conscious of the change. I miss my children when they were at the toddler stage. The were fun to play with and really into their Dad. But I would not want them to stay at the stage forever. They have to grow up, move on. I'll always miss them at that age, but I'm also really looking forward to seeing become graceful, mature adults. Which will prepare them for whatever the next stage is... ... and I would no sooner hold them from that next stage than I would have held them going from childhood to adulthood.

I watched Freakonomics last night. While the book may have stated or implied what I quoted from the film review; the actual film did present or even drawn the same conclusion (that crime would be “…reduced by sterilizing all African-American females”). All the film said was that legalized abortion had the biggest impact on crime reduction. Apparently, legalized abortions reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. These unwanted children, who are typically the ones responsible for most crimes, were simply not born. The crime reduction was an inadvertent response to Roe v. Wade. That said, there were a couple of other places where the film grated on my nerves, because the way Black folks were depicted. Cynique, I read the book when it first came out. I don't recall reading the conclusion Kam wrote in his review -- but I chalked it up to simply not remembering. I'm going to ask Kam about the reference. I'll pull that line from the review if it can not be attributed directly to the book. Someone did post a link to an audio on my Facebook profile showing Bill Bennet running with the abort all Black babies conclusion: http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200509280006 but again Bill is drawing his OWN conclusions and not attributing them directly to the book.

Thanks Gwen! I also see I couldn't even spell the name of my own website correctly

"A more controversial conclusion arrived at by the authors and propagated by controversial pundits like conservative Bill Bennett was the notion that the U.S. crime rate could be significantly reduced by sterilizing all African-American females." From Kam's review of the film Freakonomics: http://aalbc.it/FREAKONOMICS

I recently saw Joan Rivers at a screening of a film about her life. She, like you Cynique, exhibits more life, and has more to say that most people -- regardless of age. We live in a culture that seems to only give a crap about what some 12 year thinks. The older I get the worse it seems to get. Middle aged women feel like crap unless they look like they are 18. More and more men are even beginning to act like kids. I see many dudes in their 50's and older, wearing pants below their butts, driving around blasting music, acting like ill-manner children. So I appreciate the class of a Diahann Carole and the firey independence of Joan Rivers, but I when a elder begins acting like a teenage it just looks silly -- even though other teenagers might think it is cool.

Hey Always_Lurking! Maybe you should change your name to "sometimes_posts" Believe it or not lurkers help too by creating traffic which drives advertising revenue, which helps support this super tanker of a website. Lurkers can always hit the twitter, facebook, digg or any ofther button under "share this topic" But as far a driving traffic nothing beats a great post. Be well and thanks for saying hello!

AUTHORS Click this link http://aalbc.it/ad092710 for a great advertising deal on AALBC.com - limited time only!

"Top Ten Reasons Why African American Bookstores Are Closing" by Gwen Richardson: http://aalbc.com/blog/index.php/2012/03/25/death-of-the-black-owned-independent-bookstore/ Gwen has actually been running an on-line book store Cushcity.com almost as long as I have been running ALBC.com. Her brick and mortar book store in Houston predates the website, though I forget how long it has been open. Gwen and I collaborate on advertising sales, and the National Black Book Festival. This list is complied from a series of post Gwen made on her Facebook profile. She agreed to let me share her thoughts with AALBC.com visitors. I think there are probably a couple of other stronger reasons why our bookstores are closing; including a cultural shift from immersive reading, and reading for pleasure.

lemme go find that post...

Cynique another wonderful slice of life from earlier time. I've never heard either of these songs. I really liked 60 minute man great tune and lyrics (today I guess they would say hey B--ch! I'll f--k you all night long!). I can't say that I cared for the first song. It was really slooooow. I listened to is three time, but I'm sure it won;t gow on me either. I hope that does not lower your impressions of me too much ;-) The four freshmen made me think of Take Six who I throughly enjoy. Thanks again for taking the time, and dealing with the technical difficulties, to share this with us!

Thumper's complete review of this collection has been posted here: http://aalbc.it/jamesbaldwin

I watched most of the 3 set DVD. It was really interesting to see how quickly the culture changed as depicted in the dress, hair styles (the women went form mostly natural to mostly relaxed) and even the commercials changed from the early to late 70's. The funniest commercial was one where Frederick Douglas came back to chastise a Brother on the condition of his 'fro. I also did not know that Soul Train broadcast until 2004 or 5. I stopped watching it in the late 70's, I'm not sure why. I think I was spending less time in front of the TV. But is may have been I did not care for the artists they showcased every much -- probably too much into rap, I'm not really sure. I liked seeing the Isely Brothers, Sly and the Family Stone (looks like they performed live too, while many of the performers lip synched). They interviews were really interesting too. James Brown had some really big plans for helping Black folks back in the day -- even saying that he was going to stop performing to concentrate on this work (if I heard correctly). Well worth watching.

Hey Jackie welcome back -- hope to read more from you soon! Congrats on the little one. I just sent my first off to college!

Hey Cynique, You made me go hunt for the video huh. I did not see it on your wall but I think this is it. It is quite a good and clever editting job: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEvNS5TzvwM Still, someone's tragedy is fodder for someone else's entertainment. I guess that was always the basis of "news"... b.t.w. I saw your tribute your grandson. We share the same middle name and I was a gymnast too. Did you create a group or fan page?

When we were younger we used to complain about a media that always seemed to be on the look out for the craziest sounding people to use as a sound bite for a news story. They did this so much it became a cliche. Over the years the media has taken this type of "journalism" to a new level with shows like Jerry Springer which are designed to profit by entertaining the masses at the expense of the most dysfunctional in our society. Now here is a story (that someone forwarded to me); covering a very serious crime -- attempted rape. However rather than being at least partonizingly sympatetic to the victim; the highlight of the broadcast was a rant by the victim's brother -- in all the glory of a character from a Morton Downy highlight reel. Is this what passes for news coverage today?

Chris, I'm not shooting the messenger; but i would like a little more insight. I did not know who Alveda King was until you mentioned her here. I know my pop culture quotient is pretty low nowadays, but I can't image than anyone cares what an Alveda King has to say or how well she says it. Do you? If so, why do you think so?

Hey Bookfan, I spot checked some of my sales and ranking and found the following: Confessions of a Video Vixen Has an Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #74,758 on 9/3/10 I've sold more than 24 copies of this title this year. Total Eclipse of the Heart Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #276,332 (Hard) - I've sold more than 24 of this title too. Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #11,265 (paper) - The paper version of this title has sold almost half as many copies as the hardcoveron my site, but it's Amazon rank is much higher. Obviously more people are buying the paperback over all. I spot checked a few more titles and there is little correlation between my sales and Amazon's ranks. This could be because I took far too small a sample (a handful out of hundreds of titles sold). More likely however is that my sales volumes are not large enough compared to Amazon's total sales. You are probably right predicting that 99.9% of all Amazon titles sell less than 2 copies a month over the course of a year. Consider; 10,000,000 = Assumption of total umber of Amazon titles for sale 10,000 = Amazon Rank of Juliette's book (actually it is 22K tonight) 99.90% = which means that it is selling better than 99.9% of all 10MM titles 10,000 = Number of titles selling more than 24 copies a year (I suspect even this estimate is quite high) Bottom line Juliette's stat sounds quite reasonable.

Chris, my personal opinion on what I promote is irrelevant. If I just promoted what I liked I'm sure no one would visit the website. Sure, some of the stuff I promote I do actually like, but some of it I could care less about. Much of what I promote is based upon feedback from various sources. I read reviews, I analyze my web site traffic, I look at book sales, and I listen to what the literati talk about. I even run experiments posting a variety of content to see what people like -- in many ways it is a science. I also try to balance things out. I knew before I got started Ai would generate, relatively speaking, very little interest. I however know plenty of people who LOVE her work. To answer your question I've read some of Ai’s stuff, but I'm not all that moved either. Again, I did not post the Ai stuff for my benefit, I did so for my readers. I also know that my Ai content will not generate much revenue for the site, but I'm (obviously) not drive solely by money. Yeah, I complained about the lack of pages views on the Ai post but I was really just busting y’all’s chops .

Bookfan Amazon updates its rankings hourly. It would be more useful to know what the rankings were over the course of the year and when the sales actually took place. If 24 of the sales took place in the past week she could have that kind of rank but been in the high millions the rest of the year? The sharp spike in sales trajectory might explain the ranking despite few sales over the course of a year. Tonight sometime I run the numbers for my July/August best sellers list which is derived solely from my sales on Amazon. I will compare my sales figures against the current Amazon ranking and get back to you with a comparative analysis. Keep in mind Amazon tracks the sales of MILLIONS of books. The vast majority of those books sell very few copies. Someone that sells 2 books a month, on average, is probably tied with a 500,000 other authors. When the Amazon ranking is that low (less than 1,000 or so) the differences in the sales figures probably don’t amount to very much. I don't even take notice of an amazon rank greater the 500.

ROTFLMAO!!

Cynique, I'm gonna request the cremation/ashes route myself. I think it is cheaper, besides after 50 years no one is gonna visit the grave site. In a 100 years, no one will even know it ever existed. If anyone felt that strongly about it after I'm gone and wanted a physical memorial -- they can knock themselves out. Either way, I won't know the difference. Hopefully my legacy will be more that a plaque or stone in the ground.

Off-line someone said they thought the idea was morbid, kinda creepy. They thought someone would discover the profile and think the person came back from the dead or get weirded out. I know people are pretty superstitious regarding the departed. But since Thumper and Cynique like the idea -- it can't be all that bad. Thought I've never heard of anyone doing this; I'd be surprised if I'm not the first person to do it Thanks for the feedback.