Turmoil in Snakedom

Ok Sportsfans, what the hey has been up with that snake? I gotta tell you there are Changes afoot!!! I will not drop it all down on this post as I love a little dramatic tension. . . but here are some clues. I am moving. Out of the NE USA. Out of the USA for that matter. Far away. Far, Far away. Yowsa! It will be very interesting. . . .. . Any guesses as to where that snake will next surface? Anyway - I am really stressed and busy figuring out how to move and all that - hence the silence - but I commit more shows soon.

Argentina Snake Stuff

Buenos Aires is definitely one of my favorite places on the planet. "The Paris of Latin America" is an amazing city with beautiful people, great wine (from Mendoza region - go for the Malbecs from Luigi Bosca and Los Altos), and for the carnivorous - steaks beyond compare.
See the boat pic? This is the Puerto Madero Yacht Club. I rented it out a few years ago for a press conference - that is another story altogether. Puerto Madera is an area by the river with a bunch of old warehouses that are now top end restaurants. Due to Argentina's financial collapse and only partial recovery, the meals are cheap for gringos.

DS Guy in Uruguay

So a mere 11 hour flight from NY to Buenos Aires and a 35 minute flight to Montevideo and - pow! - you are there! That wasn't so hard, was it? Arrived yesterday leaving tmo. Montevideo is a small city that looks like it is on the ocean (can't see across) but it is technically the Rio Plata across from Argentina. It is the evil depths of winter here so tho it feels to me like a NY early spring day, the locals are all huddled up in the heavy layers of stuff.
At the top, we see a close up of a pic of 2 of the local guys I was meeting with and we are all drinking coffee - except this one guy was drinking matte in this cup with a silver rim and a long silver straw. I had thought that was rural indian stuff but here it was in corporate life too! The routine is this - the cup is full of this chopped herb and he has that red thermos of super hot water with which he keeps refilling the cup, Then suck it up!! Yow, that's local.

So, a great little city with great little dark restaurants - not unlike Argentina with that semi-Italian feel to it all. And the last shot is a plaza (Plaza Independencia) with lunch strollers and tons of street vendors. They have casinos too tho the Snake doesn't really bet. Sure things only please. Got some sound from all this too - will try to put something together. . . off to Argentina tomorrow.

I Stopped begging For Votes - ouch

Greetings from Florida. I stopped begging for votes on Podcast Alley. Guess what - i have like no votes for this month yet my downloads keep growing. Gotta say I enjoy not beggin in the podcast and in the occasional email to loyals. Yet my ego hates to see my standing so low - I was top 25 in Music genre for over 3 months (that is a decade in PodCast Years). At first it was the practical aspect of "Get up there in the ratings and more people will wander by and sample, if they like it they will stick around" Well, maybe when I can actually get listied in iTunes directory all this wont matter anyway - I gotta believe that is the wave of the future (present?) due to the gazillions of users. Anyway - if you like DSR, please spread the word. Tell a friend or co-worker, burn a CD for the aging aunt, whatever . . . Damn, there goes that begging again. Maybe this has to do with a poor self-image needing constant reinforcement form the world? Was this child mistreated in some way? Dropped on head?

Apple Ignores The Average Podcaster

I mentioned on today's DSR podcast Order and Chaos that I am still not listed in iTunes directory and I really don't know how to fix that. I submitted stuff on day one but I am not there. Listener Al S. sent me this link to a Post by Matt May about how iTunes has gotten it wrong . . . . Here is some of Matt's right-on view: "Podcasters had been told that Apple was sourcing the iPodder directory to generate its own. This was good news: we all wanted to be there on launch. I knew that I was in that directory, so I figured I was in good shape. Then, on the morning of the launch, I searched the database for my show. No results found. So I went to submit my RSS feed, and found that someone had already submitted it. . . . I can only guess, as I wait through week 2, what the problem could be. One thing is for sure: Apple's not talking. . . . .Almost everything we knew about iTunes, we heard second-hand from people like Adam Curry and Dave Winer. . . . . . Nobody knows how they decide which podcasts they host and which they don't. Nobody even knows what the procedure is. All any podcaster can do at this point is to hope that those who do have access to Apple will let some detail slip. This is no way to communicate with independents. . . . . . "

This post is right where my heart is. Apple is just not paying attention to the broad community that sustains podcasting by creating most of its content. Adam and others probably get more ears with one cast than many of us do combined but it is the diversity and breadth of our content that makes it a unique medium. And more than a few of us get 1000's of real downloads per show. Apple is ignoring a secondary busienss benefit - thousands of podcasters who can tell hundreds of thousands of friends and associates with iPods and iTunes how to get more use from them driving everything from additional iPod sales to putting more eyes looking at itunes pages where Apple will get more sales of their commercial content and views of their add space.

I think it all comes down to corporate decisions on what makes Apple money. So my guess is they devoted very few 'man hours' in their business plan for a support plan around all those feeds that appear 'no charge' in iTunes. And like a bud of mine said - "You spend cheap - you get cheap!" Hope they wise up. . . they are sitting in Versailles playing with G5s while we peasants who till the podcast soil outside are not getting anything from this. . . yet. I doubt we will come up with a cyber-guillotine, but we grow restless, restless indeed.