Cotolo Chronicles

Every day, like clockwork, if you will, I get an email offering me a good deal on “replica” watches. They claim to offer Rolex and Patek and Cartier and other popular, high-class brands. I have never clicked the “click-here” link for a few reasons. First, I am still suspect to any bulk email, especially one that is, let’s face it, spam. Next, and more importantly, I hate watches, real or replica.

However, what cracks my whip is not being on this random list (I delete every one instantly), is the strange prosaic code that is entered on the bottom of every ad. Here is one of them:

I am certain of it. I have only to tell her so, and she is sure and drew little nosegays and likenesses of me and Jip, all over theDora. To my amazement she was sobbing on my neck. Not well, my went off together to the lodging which Mr. Micawber occupied as Mr. have tried to find out what nature and accident really had made me, Ten pound, you see. And wrote inside, From a true friend, like shook hands with him again, and laughed rather childishly. another; ship-owners, excited and uneasy; children, huddling

Always in 7.5-point type, strange and meaningless patches of prose are always on the bottom of these ads. Does anyone out there know why? Please email this blog if you have an answer. Your name will be kept secret from the disclosure if you happen to be a spammer or someone with a briefcase full of U.S. dollars from a Nigerian bank.

Next, continued thanks to the growing numbers of people reading this blog throughout each week. The numbers, according to Cybernet Quest, a tally-taker, readership is up 400 percent since March, 2005. Since there is no other promotion for this blog other than the show itself, I cannot wait to see how much more our program has grown on the internet and in the podcast world. It makes me want to continue to chronicle.

A big, big, big and I mean big announcement is poised to be made about a future C-Chronicles, so keep checking in here and into the program.

We present an updated affiliates list below. We urge you to check each of these stations for all of their programs, as well as when they broadcast our show. That could be live or that could be a rebroadcast. Also, links to sites where you can get the podcast of the show are included.

And, some notes below the list ...

COTOLO CHRONICLES
9 p.m. EST Thursdays
http://www.ampcast.com/
http://www.seanradio.com/
http://www.hot-fm.co.uk/
http://extremeradiotampa.com/
http://www.extremeradio.co.uk/
http://www.rantradio.com/
http://www.flashradio.cjb.net/
http://york.onsrn.com/weekend/
http://www.krushradio.com
http://jeeperone.tripod.com/
http://www.indieartistradio.com
http://www.thewolfradio.com/
http://www.crystalone.net/
http://www.usradiox.com/
http://www.kjagradio.com
http://www.shoutcast.com/
http://www.podcastalley.com/
http://www.podcast.net
http://www.podfeeder.com/

So there is a "new" commercial radio format, is there? Ken Kohl, FM-station programmer, calls the Free FM format "an eclectic mix of personalities, whose distinct creativity, perspective, sense of humor, intellect and unpredictability do not fall under the guiding principles of any particular narrowcast theme or ideology.'' Sound familiar?

Also, Pete Townshend is serializing a novel on his blog. Sound familiar?

So because we continue to promote indie projects, my recent conversations with Peter from eye, “a poetry journal that focuses on the literature of editors themselves but also accepts work from the underground” bring me to pass along what I can about this.

Don't be intimidated by the word "poetry." This is just writing and not all of it is verse. And there is music and there are lyrics and off-the-beaten-path people with some things they feel they have to say. You be the judge, as always, and check it out.

The premier issue of eye can be seen at www.watchtheeye.com …

There is also a sister site, “the interactive community where poets and editors meet, organize, and do business” at http://omegainform.projectforum.com/eye …

Peter says, “The eye is released whenever enough quality poems have been amassed and aims for about 30 unique voices per issue. It is high quality with a full color cover featuring the artwork of up and coming artists.”

Sample copies are $5.95 and four-issue subscriptions are $19.95. Send orders, submissions, or questions to: pupil@watchtheeye.com or by mail to: eye, P.O. Box 235, Waterville ME, 04903.

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.

This is the need we may call self-actualization ... It refers to man's desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one is capable of becoming ..." said Dr. Maslow.

Just who reached such heights of being? Maslow said Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Albert Einstein, Aldous Huxley, William James, Spinoza, Goethe, Pablo Casals, Pierre Renoir, Robert Browning, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jan Addams, Albert Schweitzer, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Joseph Haydn are some we would know about. Do you have the characteristics of such achievement? Click here and have a great weekend.

Thank you, Dr. Popoli.

An ancient center of the Peligni rises near the gorges of the Pescara river, below Mount Morrone, a short way from the junction of the Aterno and the Pescara rivers. Partly on the plain, partly on the hillside, it offers many natural resources and is the starting point for fascinating excursions. The oldest section of the village is just below the Cantelmo castle, in the northeast. Nowadays it is an industrial center and the springs of the Pescara present clear and healthy waters, used to make beer and mineral water as well as in the healing of rheumatic pains. The zip code is 65010.

This is Popoli, Italy.

And on the Oct. 20 program, Dr. Gary Popoli, named for the great Italian city, is our guest. Some call him “The Pope,” but we have not found any who speak it aloud. When not teaching, reading, writing, playing with statistics, betting on horse racing or being a fine family member, The Pope does his best to self-actualize. He thinks you do, too. It will be discussed.

The network show begins at 9 p.m. EST and The Pope will be on around 9:30. The Dressing Room Hour, featuring an interview with Kevin Spacey, starts at 8 p.m.

As they say in Popoli, Svegli, esso è notte! [Wake up, it's night!]

Let’s take a chance and rate this blog to the standards created by Jakob Nielsen. He writes: “Weblogs are often too internally focused and ignore key usability issues, making it hard for new readers to understand the site and trust the author.” Jakob lists the top 10 design mistakes for blogs. Sadly, this once free-of-rules area of expression now has strict must-do list, else be judged ineffective. Also, sadly, many of Jakob’s rules make a whole lotta sense. Anyway, let’s sadly see what Cotolo Chronicles’ blog has done right or wrong based on Jakob’s commandments. Here are Jakob’s top 10 mistakes.

No author biographies
We got ‘em. People who read this blog know who I am and can Google me to smithereens for more info, as a lot of them do, even with my profile posted. Check.

No author photo
I like the cartoon of me playing the harmonica in front of a racetrack better than any photo because it is more realistic. Check.

Nondescript posting titles
I believe our blog has some of the smartest and most intelligent headlines available. They rule over the theme of the text, as all good titles should. All you need to do is compare. Check.

Links don’t say where they go
Ours do. Check.

Classic hits are buried
We fail here. I am still not savvy enough to understand how to do what Jakob suggests here. I need a few more years to figure this out. However, our classic hits are buried.

The calendar is the only navigation
Ibid. I fail.

Irregular publishing frequency
I am not sure if that collection of words makes sense but I understand what he means. This blog regularly updates material, re-issues certain info and deals with material that the net program/podcast features. Check.

Mixing topics
I blend topics with delightful bridges and segues that are MMMmmmmmmmmmm, smmmmoooooooooooth. Check.

Forgetting that you write for your future boss
Jakob writes: “Whenever you post anything to the Internet -- whether on a weblog, in a discussion group, or even in an email -- think about how it will look to a hiring manager in 10 years.” We fail here. The last thing our blog is, is a resume.

Having a domain name owned by a weblog service
Apparently, Jakob says that because this blog URL ends in “blogspot dot com” then I am not the master of my own destiny and no one will take me seriously. We fail that with an asterisk, but nothing with an asterisk in this world, matters.

We did not do badly, if 60 percent is passing. If you want to take the test or learn more about what you should do with a blog, a website, an email or a bulletin board post, go to this link – click here – it is where you will read about Jakob. This link, too, goes to Jakob’s page. Learn from Jakob. Ok, is it clear enough where those links are taking you?

Thank you Leigh Silver and special guests Cordell Crockett and Cheney. The podsters should love the Oct. 13 show, it is filled with the spirit of carefree iPod content.

If you are into fake news, check out the latest on Angelina Jolie by clicking here.
If you are wondering about the Stock Market these days, read an analysis here.
If you think you know all there is to know about gorillas, think again and read a special report here.

If you want to learn more about the video iPod, as mentioned on our Oct. 13 show, then click here.
Does the topic “Bird Flu” ring a nasty note? Click here to find out more.

Is football your thing and, specifically, the Minnesota Vikings? Click here.
Amit Varma lives and writes in India. Check his blog, click here.
Even more on the video iPod can be found by clicking here.

Read on, learn, digest well, clear your mind and free your heart of all burdens. Good coffee helps. See you next week.

Over the past few weeks Apple has continued to sensationalize on the popularity of iPods. Things are moving faster than Clancy's nuts in this department, as the nano iPod appears and the newest iPod, one that includes video.

In this quick-moving climate, we turn to Leigh Silver, our up-and-coming starlette who is thriving and striving in this neck-breaking pace. Our Oct. 13 program turns to Leigh for answers ...

What is ahead? A world more open to more talent and ambition or a world with so many details that no one can put together a complete thought?

Be afraid, be very afraid. Or celebrate. Beats me. So come on in at 9 p.m. EST for the network/podcast program and if you come early, we are there at 8 p.m. with The Dressing Room Hour.

COTOLO CHRONICLES
9 p.m. EST Thursdays
Check the following stations for broadcast times and avilability
http://www.Ampcast.com
http://www.seanradio.com
http://www.hot-fm.co.uk
http://extremeradiotampa.com
http://www.extremeradio.co.uk
http://www.rantradio.com
http://www.live365.com/stations/quikcliff
http://www.flashradio.cjb.net/
http://york.onsrn.com/weekend
http://www.krushradio.com
http://www.podcast.net
http://www.indiemusicxchange.com
http://www.newtimeradio.com
http://www.indieartistradio.com
http://www.thewolfradio.com
http://www.crystalone.net
http://www.usradiox.com/
http://www.kjagradio.com
http://www.kubcradio.com
http://www.jiggyjaguar.com
http://www.shoutcast.com
http://www.podcastalley.com

Tokyo - 10:00 a.m. : Sydney - 11:00 a.m. : Los Angeles - 6:00 p.m. : Chicago - 8:00 p.m. : New York - 9:00 p.m. :London - 2:00 a.m. : Baghdad - 5:00 a.m.

It is officially Fire Prevention Week and you can help preventing fires, especially if you are a pyromaniac.

Fire Prevention Week is not just a week we are asked not to start fires, it is a week we are asked to tell others not to start fires and teach them how to stop fires from starting. Stopping anything from starting is a good way to prevent anything from happening, since when something starts it happens. And when something happening is a fire no one wanted to have started, then trouble isn’t far behind.

That’s right, this is really Fire-we-don’t-want Prevention Week, because we don’t want to prevent the fires we want and actually need. Fire, after all, can be friend or foe. Foe fires can hurt and sometimes kill, so let’s call this Foe Fire Prevention Week and be done with it.

The first tip to not starting a foe fire is easy. Don’t play with matches. I don’t mean things that like one another, although matches that burn usually look alike and come in a book. Not a book you read, although sometimes there are things to read on a book of matches. The point is, these are not toys, they are sticks that burn and can start foe fires. So don’t play with them. Use a lighter. Of course a lighter has fluid in it that can start a foe fire. So don’t play with lighters, either.

Another good tip is to try not to carry a torch. I don’t mean a feeling for someone you still love that now hates you and has a happier life living with someone else. I mean a piece of wood that is on fire at one end. If it was on fire at both ends I don’t see how you could carry it. You would get burned.

That is the whole point here, really, on Foe Fire Prevention Week. Don’t do anything that will get you burned or anyone else burned or that will burn something you need or want. Just be careful.

Ugly? Certainly. Misguided? Without a doubt. A mommy’s boy? Let the facts fall where they may.

Yes, I am talking about Christopher Columbus, a man whose actions made him famous, even though “was not a perfect person by any means, and was a man of many flaws,” according to one historian.

Is it any wonder, however, that as America celebrates the wrong founder of its country, Canada celebrates its own Thanksgiving day? One of the things Canada is thankful for, by the way, must be that Columbus gets no credit for finding the other part of North America.

Born in Genoa, the son of a wool merchant and weaver, in 1451, Christopher wound up in Spain thanks to his brother, Bart, a cartographer (map-maker). Legend has it that Christopher was haunted into his teens by dreams of finding a “new world,” and that his brother jokingly claimed he could make a map for Chris to find it. “And when you find it,” his brother allegedly said, “we can all go there and eat Spanish rice and salami wearing funny hats with feathers.”

Facts are still uncertain about Chris’s journeys. After five hundred years there's still disagreement about just where Columbus set foot upon his new world. Historians wrote that before he got to Cuba he went to five islands in the Bahamas. He reportedly named them San Salvador, Santa Maria de la Concepcion, Fernandina, Isabela, and Las Islas de Arena. But some say he just called them Island I through Island IV, because he wasn’t so smart.

On the day America celebrates this man, I come not to bury him but to praise him. If nothing else, the wonderful circle named after him in New York City is a delightful place to hold the hand of someone you love.

For facts, theories and history on Columbus, click here.

Thanks to John Ingram and Neil Weiser for making the Oct. 6 show work despite a number of technical difficulties attributed to kinky software. Listen to John Ingram’s groundbreaking soundscape program, NTNS Radio, by clicking here.

Now, a quick sports report …
How about those Yanks?
How about those Cards?
How about those Braves?
How about those ChiSox?
Oh yes, in case you haven’t noticed or cared, pro ice hockey is back in action. The world of dentistry applauds.

This weekend …

Don’t be a shmuck, take a chicken. And go download the Henry Morgan and The High Grass Boys’ Live from Stony Creek concert by clicking here. For your computer, your iPod or burn a CD, free. Catch up, because the next “Morgan” concert event and CD are in the works.

Catch up on the history of Japan, now in its 500th chapter, at Indie Journal Daily. This epic novel is being published on the ‘net before it becomes a high-priced book with a fancy cover.

And visit Maurice the Rug.

See ya next week.

It is known as the month for Halloween, but many more celebrations take place in October. Here are a few.

Oct. 6 is Music vs. Noise Day
The new electronic-music boon explained by John Ingram on Cotolo Chronicles. Neil Wieser will co-host and contribute to the youth's view of digital culture.

Oct. 9 is Moldy Cheese Day
Followed this year for the first time by Sour Milk Day and Rotten Egg Day

Oct. 11 is It's My Party Day
Thousands of parties are held across the country, all ending with the ceremonial burnings of Leslie Gore-like scarecrows.

Oct. 13 is We Love Leigh Silver Day
Lovely, talented Leigh Silver is the Chronicles’ guest. An update on up-and-coming stardom.

Oct. 18 is No Beard Day
Thousands of people being used to cover up the crimes of others celebrate today by revealing themselves.

Oct. 20 is Tend To Your Curiosity Day
And Dr. Gary Popoli tells us just what makes it all so curious on Chronicles.

Oct. 21 is Babbling Day
Blah, blah, blabbo, blech, blah, yadda, yadda, blah, blah

Oct. 25 is Punk For A Day Day
Wear a colorful safety pin in your cheek to let people know you are in on the celebration.

Oct. 27 is Legs Forever Day
First-time guest and long-time friend Laura Legs reports from Hollywood on the state of the state of the business. She is exclusive to Chronicles.

Oct. 28 is Plush Animal Lover's Day
The “L” is a typo. It is really “Push,” so give a good shove to anyone today who admits to loving an animal and remember, it is still illegal in every state except Alabama.

Oct. 31 is Increase Your Psychic Powers Day
You should already know what to do.

And …
Get over to Maurice The Rug’s pages by clicking here. Get in on the groundswell of excitement and remember, you don’t have to foot the bill.