Photo: Stella by Thomas Hawk

Very cool capture.

Great title.

Killer color.

Thank you very much!

"Johnson well says, 'He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.' Life is made up of little things. It is very rarely that an occasion is offered for doing a great deal at once. True greatness consists in being great in little things." Charles Simmons

"In great straits and when hope is small, the boldest counsels are the safest." Livy

"The art of using moderate abilities to advantage often brings greater results than actual brilliance." La Rochefoucauld

The History of Rock and Roll: Bill Mouzis has a commemorative CD set on offer. A share of proceeds benefit charity. Beginning today at 3pm Boss Angeles' time (pac) place your order at Bill's site here. Robert W. Morgan narrates the Pete Johnson written opus, engineered by Bill Mouzis. In 1969, during the watch of legendary genius Ron Jacobs, 93 KHJ presented this 48 hour history making special. More info here. Please join me and order yours today; a strong addition to any serious audio collection (and it benefits some good work). My thanks to Claude Hall for the tip. Thanks too to Bill for making this available, very cool.

Black Swan? Lots of buzz on the new Nassim Nicholas Taleb writing, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. NPR TOTN info here. NYT Book review here. It makes a book list by Tom Peters here. Amazon info here. I did enjoy Taleb's previous book, Fooled by Randomness and highly recommend it. Speaking of buzz...Feedburner!

Kudos: Chicago programming ace Elroy Smith is stepping down. He joins the greats that have made a difference in Chicago radio including Lucky Cordell, Lee Michaels and Marv Dyson. He's certain to do more great work. All the best Elroy.

Congrats & cheers: The Library of American Broadcasting honors the "Giants of Broadcasting." Those honored this year include Cathy Hughes, Diane Sawyer, Dennis Swanson, Joseph Flaherty, Dennis FitzSimons, and Charlie Rose. Also honored are the late, great John Blair and another we lost, the charming wit Tony Malara, forever our favorite master of ceremonies. Howard Lindzon, Adam Eland, Jeff Marks and the star of the show Lindsay Campbell all headed to the big time, CBS acquires WallStrip. Check out today's vid wherein Lindsay is escorted out of Black Rock "We're here to save your network" (nice cameo Quincy).

Connecting the dots: "If the ad networks are just playing an arbitrage game, then they will not survive in the long run" so said Gokul Rajaram project management director for Google's AdSense. He's right on the money. He also believes indies can survive by adding value to publishers in a sustainable and scalable way. Bravos Gokul! OMD's Temeka Kee writes Google Inches Toward Comprehensive Online (and Offline) Ad Solution here.

Google Proposes Innovation in Radio Spectrum Auction, a writing by John Markoff via NYT here. Kudos John, well done! The bottom line...there is plenty of spectrum needing more diverse, innovative allocation and Google's concept would seem to provide opportunities for real depth in practical shared distribution.

Alpha is the new beta: Operator 11. Smash or trash? You decide.

Hope he's wrong, but my sense is he's right: Michael Arrington is a bright guy. If you are not reading Techcrunch put it in your reader and give it a week. Read his post - Silicon Valley Could Use A Downturn Right About Now - with comments here. Danger, Will Robinson! Dave Winer weighs in and agrees with Michael to wit: "As they say, you can't throw a pot sticker into a crowd without hitting a budding entrepreneur with a pitch. The place is crawling with get-rich-quick schemes." More Dave here. Bravos to Michael and Dave. There is a late 1999 vibe out there and lots of cash parked on the sidelines. Reminds me of something the brilliant Gary Hamel once said "Money makes you stupid. Lots of money makes you really stupid." This remains a year of amazing opportunity for the real deals. The danger is the enticement of easy money. The sketchy business model. Dave Winer's superficial pet food example is only too real. Sales and profit are very, very important, don't leave home without them. When the team is more concerned about, focused on, preoccupied with the next round rather than obsessing on sales and profits, trust me, you're in the wrong outfit. Word to the wise - do not make a move without paper that includes a bullet-proof exit.

Thank you very much but you just can't motivate others. A bunch of emails on yesterday's sales manager post. One example: "Hey, did you forget about being a motivator, duh?"

Well, no. Motivation was discussed and dismissed.

Granted, a great leader should have the ability to inspire, to encourage, to incite but even the greatest leaders are not able to motivate. Can't be done.

People motivate themselves.

The real enemy of the dead tree guys - the dead tree guys."I'm talking industrywide mismanagement among print-media companies -- both glossy and newsprint. I'm talking Detroit-in-the-'70s, with no Lee Iacocca in sight." Simon Dumenco writing in AdAge, Are Your Shoes Tied? Then You're Smarter Than Many Print Execs. Bravo Simon! Read the entire article here.