Author of WAR SONGS, I am an Artist Representative, Gallery Owner, writer of essays and articles on Figurative and all Representational art [...]What's the deal with the capitalization here? Is the self-inflated maestro misunderoverestimating a bit his, uhm, literary prowess? No, that can't be, 'cause if it were true, how would he be getting so many 'helpuful' votes. Please advise, for I am lost.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
In Grady's own words
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15 comments:
Mr. Harp's book of poetry written about his experiences in Vietnam in 1968 as a surgeon has been reviewed on Amazon. One reviewer said "he must have been an angel" to have written such exquisite poetry. I've not been able to find any independent critical reviews of these poems.
Yes, I remember someone from The Grady Bunch saying he'd written a book of his own. I'd love to get this book into my sweaty little hands! Is it available in libraries?
Be careful! It might be safer having him operate on you than reading his verses
Malleus, I checked my county library (which is pretty well funded I might add) and no sign of the book there.
Reviews for his book, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/1888033002/sr=1-1/qid=1187310254/ref=cm_rev_prev/002-5252214-5336844?ie=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=283155&s=books&customer-reviews.start=1&qid=1187310254&sr=1-1
Sometime if I feel ambitious I'll try to see how many of those reviewers correlate with GH's Amazon friends.
I'll try to get it via an interlibrary loan. Sometimes these guys do the impossible, so we'll see. I don't mean to rip Grady's book btw, I'm just curious about what he has written.
Malleus, I tried the interlibrary loan in my area. One response I received referred to it as a pamphlet and said that they did not acquire it. Here is a link you might find interesting;
http://www.stephenfreedman.com/War%20Songs.htm
Grady Harp doesn't seem to mention his collaborator Stephen Freedman. One of his Amazon friends, Betty Dravis, who said Grady should receive a Nobel Prize(!) did mention his partner but spelled his name incorrectly.
Cathy:
Thanks for the links. I noticed there were 33 or so reviews of Harp's book, all of them 5 stars by the way. Just glancing at the names on the blurbs to the right of the "most helpful" reviews, I found Betty Dravis, FrKMesick, and Leonard all of whose names rang a bell. I wonder if Harp and most of his rave reviewers are in fact taking in each other's laundry. I'm curious to see the result of your exam of all 33 reviews, should you find the time.
Stanley,
The taking in of each other's laundry that you speak of is a common occurrence among many of the top reviewers. Sometimes for fun I would follow "friendships" around Amazon and was amused and appalled by what I found. Were it not for the quid pro quo I doubt some of those reviewers would be in the upper rankings.
It was what thoroughly disillusioned me, even more than Hurriet or the other blatant cheaters. The whole system is rotten. In addition to the rings you also have the punishment voters which several of us here have felt the wrath of. One of our favorite trolls who frequently protests their innocence is my prime suspect for the negative voting. I've noticed people on both sides of the debate commonly complain of being hit with negative votes on threads where this individual has weighed in.
One of those 33 glowing five star reviews is written by Grady Harp himself. I never report that type of thing because I think it's instructive to keep examples of these "top reviewers" hypocrisy where everyone can see it.
I completely agree. Don't 'report' anything; better let it be so we can point to it.
Saturday, August 18, 11:20 pm:
It looks like the infamous Harp instant voting machine is back up and running. Barbara and Malleus predicted as much. If Amazon had indeed conducted an investigation of Harp's absurd vote totals, as one reviewer suggested it was, like Claude Rains in "Casablanca it must just have lined up the usual suspects, considered what it would lose by conducting a real investigation, and instead decided magically that its cash cow Harp was above suspicion.
Stanley.
I knew it was too much to hope for. I think Grady Harp has merely tinkered with his amazing vote gathering machine. I think it's probably something along the lines of, "first third of the alphabet vote immediately, second third wait forty-eight hours, final third come in after at least seventy-two hours have elapsed", and that's clearly devious enough to pull the wool over Amazon's very willing to be fooled eyes.
Wot? You mean The NGHVM is back to buisiness? Well, I never thought it was out of it to begin with -- even despite Mr MCCALLISTER's assurances that The Holy Amazon took care of the problem. I wonder how he explains the situation though...
Barbara:
Your explanation of the Harp voting strategy is very likely the right one- squadrons given the signal daily rather than whole batallions at once. Such a procedure has the advantage of appearing a little less deceitful, at least to newbies.
Malleus:
Though MCCALLISTER was directly challenged on his assertion that Amazon software deletes the repetitive positive votes of fans, he has yet, as you suggest, to answer the charge that Harp's record provides no evidence for his claim. Either he is lying, or speaking complacently and inaccurately off the top of his head. One thing I've noticed is that negative reviews of a merely spiteful sort DO tend to be dropped after a week or so -i.e. a whole page of negatives after a disagreement with a top reviewer troll, for instance. However,I have yet to see a single POSITIVE vote deleted from any reviewer's totals or individual entries. Amazon no doubt considers such a practice as "bad for business."
C.MCCALLISTER becomes mysteriously quiet when asked about the fact that positive voting of a suspicious nature is not remedied by Amazon wizards. However I think his claims of being privy to the inner workings of Amazon are a lot of bunk. There are others like him who put forth arcane explanations for some of Amazon's more baffling policies but when they're asked where they obtained this information silence reigns.
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