Entries Tagged 'The Blogosphere' ↓

Other bloggers have been weighing in on the immigration issue. Here is just a sampling:

J�s Theater — Immigration

Pica 12 — The Politics of Other, The Rev. Jackson Urges Blacks to Be More Vocal on Immigration and Okay, Catching Up With The Tour

Blabbeando — Queer Presence at today�s NYC Immigration Rights Rally, with links at the end to many other pieces he�s written on the subject.

The Edge of Night — The Great Black Gay Immigration Debate

Jasmyne Cannick — The Bottom Line

Alternet — Toward a Real Immigration Debate

HispanicBusiness.com — NAHJ Urges News Media to Stop Using Dehumanizing Terms When Covering Immigration

Alternet — Blame NAFTA

Oakland-based blogger and fellow jazz aficionado James Knox is gracing the Big Apple with his presence this weekend. While he and I have known each other via the Internet for years, this was our first face-to-face, and it was a pleasure to finally make the acquaintance.

Readers of his site know he regularly writes about the world of jazz. As that is also one of my passions, we made plans to catch the late, late, late show featuring drummer Louis Hayes and the Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band, who were performing at Dizzy�s Club Coca-Cola. Dizzy�s is a part of Jazz at Lincoln Center, one of several beautiful new spaces devoted exclusively to jazz at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.

After dinner at a quiet little Italian eateria I�ve come to know along Restaurant Row, both of us apparently observing the meatless Friday rule (he of the salmon, me of the red snapper), we walked off dinner for 13 blocks on our way to the club.

Rolling with a recognized name in jazz criticism�although he�s quick to deny it�has its perks. A relationship with trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, a member of the band, got us Table #1 right down front, where we saw a wonderful show. In addition to Hayes and Pelt, Vincent Herring was on sax, Anthony Wonsey on piano, Gerald Cannon on bass and Paula West, who also greeted James warmly, was the featured vocalist.

I�m sure when he returns home he�ll have a more detailed review of the evening�s program, including photos, but as far as this reviewer is concerned, it was just a joy to see artists who love their work, enjoy each other�s company (Herring and Pelt seemed to be sharing an inside joke the whole show), and who give the audience a great show in the process. It�s just a pisser that here are more great talents who are not household names or who don�t have big recording contracts, while other far less talented beings in other musical genres �get paid� by putting out crap. But I digress.

Some of my fellow NYC bloggers are scheduled to hook up for brunch in Brooklyn on Sunday and treat our west coast visitor to more east coast hospitality. I�m sure there will be pictures and stories on other sites soon.

Some interesting reading among my fellow bloggers I am happy to share with you:

Keith traveled to London and gives us the low down on Black gay life there. They know more about us than we know about them, apparently.

Prometheus 6 carries a shocking story about the child sex trade happening in of all places the Bible Belt. Why are we not surprised?

AfroErotik doesn�t care for the images of Black people portrayed in adult entertainment and she is circulating a petition.

Steven tips us off to an upcoming episode of In The Life where he is profiled. We�ll be watching.

Jasmyne challenges the Bush administration to grant full rights to all those who already live here before taking up the immigration issue.

Mama Junkyard�s is spreading the word about attacks on freedom of the press in her native Kenya.

And Rashid�s got a new job, y�all (and a new book coming out).

At the beginning of the month, I asked readers to respond to a little survey I�d developed. The purpose was to allow me to get a better sense of who reads this blog and what you get out of it. While hardly scientific, it was helpful to me and I thank everyone who took the time to fill it out.

My Extreme Tracker gives me a numerical profile of how many people stop by, how they were referred and where they may live geographically. But through this survey I hoped to learn about your age, race, sex, sexual orientation, religious and political beliefs, in addition to what you liked about the site. Needless to say, there were some things that surprised me and other things which met my expectations.

It came as no great surprise to me to know most of my readers are Black or African-descended (86%), male (85%) and same gender loving (77%). While I might think my writing reflects a diversity of interests, it clearly attracts a readership that resembles the writer. Having done zero marketing of this blog, I can only assume folks have found it through six degrees of separation.

Only 15% of readers are women and just 10% are heterosexual.

The blog skews a younger demographic than I assumed. Forty percent of you are between 30-40 years old. An equal number, 27%, are either 19-29 or 41-50.

Most readers identified themselves as politically progressive–71% versus 29% moderate, with no conservatives showing at all. There has been nothing I�ve written to date that would even remotely resonate with conservative ideology, so there�s no surprise there. Fifty-nine percent of you consider yourself spiritual but not religious, with another 9% agnostic, and 4% atheist or practicing some other religion than those choices listed. Considering the sexual orientation of most readers and the loss of faith in Christianity many gay men feel, this also seemed right in line.

An equal number of you�31%–have been reading since I started the blog, or for the last 6 months to a year; 38% visit several times a month or at least once a week (33%).

As for those aspects of the blog you like the most, I was flattered to read that my writing does it for most of you (25%), with another 21% finding the topics informative and thought-provoking.

Concerning content, 16% found the editorials and commentaries most interesting, with 14% enjoying my news and informational pieces.

Now in three different questions, respondents expressed interest in knowing more about me through the blog. Fifteen percent, the third highest response rate, felt they got a true sense of the writer through the blog; 14%, also the third highest response, liked items about the writer�s personal life; and in answer to what you wanted to see more of in the future, 21%, the highest response, wanted me to reveal more about my personal life.

I think all bloggers wrestle with the question of how much to reveal about their own lives, and I am no different. Since anyone can read this thing, you just don�t know who will see this and whether or not you want all your business on the Internet. Nevertheless, personal entries tend to get the best response in terms of comments. It is a balancing act I will consider carefully.

Finally, 8% of you wanted to see more sexual content. Ha! Ya�ll must have me confused with some other Bernard.

Hiatus, yes. Retire for good, never!

The good bloggers always return.