Troy

ABM I would suggest you watch the biography of Bill's life -- oh, wait, my bad they left that part out. Seriously just Google their names or talk to anyone 60 or older. ABM you know technically OJ "allegedly" decaptiated his wife. Again can we despense with the allegedly please, that is a technical term for courts. Besides it does not really impact my arguement. The FACT that he allegation was commonly known by most people of the era (except Carey) and was so high profile it should have been addressed in the film of his life. Also, I don't really make a distinction between someone who beat their wife on the regular or that just did it once. The difference between those two individuals is usually one where one wife left after the first beat down and the did not. Say the song "Who Is He (And What is He to You)?" might help explain the motivation...

Carey we can't have a serious conversation if you are going to equate Bill's kicking Denise's ass to a "little tid bits". You don't see this as significant. I see it as major. We'll agree to disagree. I guess you really need to see the movie. They seemingly traced Bills entire life. They visited where he grew up, spoke to childhood friends -- even dug into his ancestry. Bill stuttering (news to me) was a big part of the film. Bill cried over it in the flick. They interviewed Bill's present wife she spoke about how they met. They seemingly have a strong relationship (at least there were no visible bruises ). One got the sense it was a comprehensive story of the man's life. Again, leaving out the marriage, in this content, was disingenuous at best. Besides it would have been a better documentary had they included it and explained how he over came being a batterer (assuming he has) -- in the same fashion they explained how he overcame stuttering. I still love Bill's music. I even appreciate Bill as the complex human being that he is. However I still have a problem with this aspect of the documentary.

Kam Williams: Hi, Zane, I don’t know whether you remember me, but we met last year in Manhattan at the boat party thrown by Troy Johnson on the Hudson River during the Book Expo America Convention. Zane: Yes, Absolutely! Read the rest of the Zane Interview

OK That was easy. I had been typing this in manuall and it would just show the code I typed... Thanks DT! http://www.youtube.c...h?v=3QDvrI1c1nc

From The Sunday Times July 12, 2009 The 10 best book websites http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6684717.ece On the internet, you can download page after page of free material, post your work online and even catch a publisher's eye by Mike Peake Literature is thriving on the web. It’s not just for sale on mega-sites such as Amazon either, but being swapped, analysed and recommended by fellow bookworms. You can download page after page of free material, post your work online and — dare we say it — even catch the eye of a publisher. 1 DailyLit.com Fancy a daily dose of literature? Just sign up, select a book (the emphasis is on out-of-copyright classics, and most are free), then set aside a few minutes a day to read the pages the site e-mails to you at whatever time you choose. The text is readable on a computer and most mobile devices. 2 Shelfari.com Described as a “social network for people who love books”, this site consists of a lot of people cataloguing the books they have on their shelves then indulging in some lively literary banter. For a similar proposition, check out LibraryThing.com . 3 RareBookRoom.org You’ll probably never get your hands on a first-edition Shakespeare, but this is the next-best thing: 400 priceless literary treasures scanned in ultra high-resolution, now yours to peruse online. 4 FreeBookSpot.com A goldmine of downloadable textbooks, saved as PDFs, meaning that unlike most electronic book formats, the diagrams and illustrations are preserved. Most take less than 60 seconds to download over broadband. 5 Authonomy.com Launched last year by HarperCollins, the publisher, this site allows aspiring authors to upload their novels and have them read — and judged — by fellow members. It has already identified some up-and-coming talent, and the best offerings are now being printed. 6 Books.google.com Also known as Google Book Search, this is a gateway to all manner of free book and magazine content, much of it downloadable. The search function is particularly strong, and is able to pull up specific text buried in any of the umpteen-million pages the company has scanned to date. 7 Blurb.com Got a book in you? Use Blurb’s free software to lay it out, then upload it, and the site will make it into a real paperback, with prices starting at around a fiver. 8 BookCrossing.com BookCrossing is the practice of leaving a book you’ve read for someone else to pick up by following your online directions. Nearly 800,000 people in 130 countries are involved. 9 LibriVox.org This is the home of free, downloadable audiobooks — mainly classics and read by volunteers. It may be the only way you get to hear Dickens read in a Liverpool accent. 10 Goodreads.com Described as “the world’s largest reading room”, the site is home to an active and well-informed community of bookworms

Man Thumper I image what it would be like if you demanded as much from our literature...

hummm I can't find the delete post button. I know I deleted posts before... I just wanted to delete this reply I made by mistake. Looks like I'ma have to break down a read the manual.

The End of Poverty? Globalization Documentary Discusses Paradox of Poverty in Era of Unparalleled Wealth Read Kam Williams Review Check out trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRZnEBFYNS0

Man I just got back calling myself adding your youtube video to your AALBC.com page and I realized you did not have one. Don;t worry I'll take care of that during the next updates in that section. Peace

Very good man. I'll add this video to your page too. I still have not figured out, myself, how to add youtube videos to this board. What you do read the instructions? At any rate if you can post the instructions here I'd, and I'm sure some others, would appreciate it.

I did not know you could do that with Thumb Nails. Hey Carey that was pretty creative. But as the cliche goes if we forget the past we are doomed to repeat it. As the Jews say we must never forget. We can move on but we can not, must not, forget our history, what little we still know... even if you are tired of hearing it.

Carey, you are mincing words. The "lie" was one of omission. It is not an opinion but a statement of fact. If you are going to do a documentary of someone's life you can no more leave out the high profile marriage and spousal abuse than you can leave out the high profile murder trial. Carey your argument is severely flawed. Just because YOU "don't know anything about it" does not mean it is unimportant or should be left out of a documentary. Negro THAT is the POINT of documentaries! To teach you something you don't know. Now if you are content on watching so called documentaries which leave out material information then you go on. I'll demand something a little more.

New York Times Fade to White By ISHMAEL REED Published: February 4, 2010 The blacks who are enraged by “Precious” have probably figured out that this film wasn’t meant for them. It was the enthusiastic response from white audiences and critics that culminated in the film being nominated for six Oscars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an outfit whose 43 governors are all white and whose membership in terms of diversity is about 40 years behind Mississippi. In fact, the director, Lee Daniels,said that the honor would bring even more “middle-class white Americans” to his film. Ishmael Reed on AALBC.com http://aalbc.com/authors/ishmael.htm

Here is a direct link: Link to AALBC.com Book Reviews iPhone app Hey if yiou have an iPhone and iPod touch download the ap. if you are so inclined rate the application and write a review -- only if you have something nice to say

Hummm. Are you suggesting our history is unimportant? Would you believe that this page, every february, is one of the most frequently visisted AALBC.com pages: http://aalbc.com/fun/black1.htm While the questions are kinda played (especially after one has become long in the tooth). Perhaps you are suggesting that the information be obtained from a book. If soe I'm all for that too. but I would not dispense with the questions. We all don't assimilate information the same way.

Thanks alot for adding the additional perspective and claification Leonce. I guess my opinion would have been different if I'd actually read the book. Your's is a common complain from authors. One author complained about a stereo typical "urban cover being placed on her literary title. She was afraid people who wanted to read urban fiction was be disappointed and people looking for a literary novel would over look her book. It would be interesting to get Thumper's take since he enjoyed the book and liked the cover. Thumper did you feel mislead by the cover having read the book? It would be really nice if were possible to replish this book with an new title and a cover that matched the contents of the book to see how it sold compored with the original book. Maybe since the publisher is now defunct the book can be republished as a ebook with under a pseudonym and a new cover -- might ring a lot more money out of the title as it pulls in a new audience. I agree Leonce can right since I discovered this article I've read a few of his Huffington Posts pieces. I though this article was on point: On MLK and What Obama is Not

First, Michael Jackson's This Is It was not billed as a DOCUMENTARY. It was a extended music video. That was what I expected and that was what was delivered. Sure, we can disagree about whether one wants to know about Bill's abuse of his wife (and I think we can agree to drop the "alleged"). However, I strongly assert leaving the high profile marriage and abuse out of a documentary of the man's life is horrenous journalism. It is like watching a documentary of OJ Simpson's life an leaving out the his "allegedly" murdering his wife. Now if someone was to do a flick showing highlihghts of OJ's pro football and movie careed and leave Nicole out that is fine with me. But the murder trail HAS to be in a documentary about OJ's life. I guess we are all so used to being lied to we don't even notice or give a shit when it happens!

AALBC.com Launches new iPhone Application AALBC.com has created a new iPhone aplication. You can use it to read recently published reviews of books and films from AALBC.com's.awarding writers including; Kam Williams, Robert Fleming, Emanuel Carpenter, Idrissa Uqdah and of course our very own Thumper! You can also read reviews published by The New York Times, The Children's Book Review, and the Rare Book Review. Simply visit iTunes on your iPhone or personal computer and search for AALBC -- you'll be able to down load the application in seconds and enjoy our reviews anytime and anywhere. You'll never again be caught in a book store without a list or recommedations of what to buy (or avoid). In fact, you can purchase the books reviewed by AALBC.com right on your iPhone!

Carey I'll see if I can dig up Leonce's information and have hime contribute.

We published a review of Gaiter's Burbon Street -- Thumper raved over it While I did not read the book. I don't agree with Leonce's assessment of the cover. If I saw the book in the store I might be promopted to pick it up and see what it was about. And certainly if I read Thumper's review I absolutely would have checked it out. The cover would have increased my anticipation not taken away from it. But I'm a Black man and have no way a know how say a white person might feel. I would however be surprised it they would look at this as a 'Black Book". I suspect the people who chose the design were Black. Thumper did you have an issue with the cover?

From a Huffington Post Article by Leonce Gaiter Controversies in Black Literature Prove Book Sales Aren't Color-Blind "...As a practicing marketing professional, I take the world as it is, not as I believe it should be. I acknowledge buyers' prejudices and preconceptions (especially those they don't acknowledge themselves) and work to subvert them. When the now-defunct publishing house Carroll & Graf published my novel several years ago, they placed an image of a bare-assed flirtatious black tart on the cover. This despite the fact that the book had one major black character among a pervasively white cast--and that character was male. I noted my objections to the publisher, who ignored them, seemingly convinced that basic marketing principles did not apply to the book trade."

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.. How could an African nun become the first female pope and why did demonic-looking figures start appearing in the Vatican after her arrival?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?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?What was the secret oral teaching of Jesus, a teaching so personally transformative that it was suppressed and nearly destroyed by the early Church? HOLY SPIRIT OR WHOLLY EVIL? 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.