Where's The City Council

Public Enemies.

You can tell news about the movie is winding down when most of my Google Alerts about Public Enemies has to do with the Bush Administration.

If you want PE news you can check out this blog called Waiting for Gouda (that's a cheese isn't it?), and there is a piece called Mann's Vision on JSOnline.
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As for me it seems filming was so so long ago, it's just a distant memory. All I have are Post Cards I am creating (soon to be on sale).

Still on topic was a meeting Michelle, Kim, Sharon, me and Mayor Nancy O Friday about how to capitalize on the movie in Columbus.

Being invited sort of surprised me because , well, I thought this was all thought out already. But then I started thinking in my little brain about small town dynamics and I came to a realization. It is way way different then large town dynamics.

For instance. In any town or city you need three groups of people. You need the Thinkers - they brain storm and come up with wonderful ideas. Some outlandish, some interesting and some actually Doable.

Then you need the Doers. These people take what the Thinkers thought, get pumped up and get things down. In a city like Madison you need about 1 Doer for every 15,000 Sitters.

Sitters are the citizens that vote for the Thinkers and hope all goes well. They complain when things don't go as they like but are passive for the most part. The reap the rewards and whine about the hardships but are just along for the ride.

But all this is a little different in a small town. The Thinkers do what they do best and come up with outlandish, some interesting and some actually Doable ideas.

But here is where there becomes a problem. The lack of Doers. There is no 1 to 15,000 ratio of Doers to Sitters. At that rate we would have 1/3 if a Doer for each project.

So I believe the Thinkers in a small town must also be Doers (are they??). OR the Thinkers must somehow excite the Sitters into becoming Doers.

Mayor Nancy O (who seems to be a Thinker AND a Doer) has done just that. She enlisted citizen Sitters to become town Doers. This is what surprised me as I thought wrongly that the rest of the Thinkers (City Council) had things under control and had the Doers already working on things.

THUS - to my surprise I along with the rest of the above were called in to become Doers.

What are we Doing? The Amtrak Station is the first major Do-Job and I am WAY WAY surprised it has long been neglected. Good Grief - it is the door to Columbus for strangers and it is FOUL! What were the Thinkers thinking by letting the Amtrak Station look like CRAP!

So it is up to us to fix the place up. Paint is being volunteered(is there a color choice) and a clean up crew is being looked for. At THIS point 6/21/08 is the day we ascend and give the Station a makeover. All parties are invited, lets make it fun!! Michelle and I are going to SOMEHOW have photos and posters from the movie (if we can figure out some sort of cheap security) on the walls once they are cleaned and painted.

But all this takes money. As a bribe Nancy said we could put signs up to sell the photos but Michelle and I are not "into" making money - we're more "into" helping the town.

What we really need are more Doers to come down and help the town. We need a flower box Master Gardeners to help and we need volunteers to once a week take a look at the boxes and water/weed and so forth.

I'm donating time AND money to help Columbus because after living in Madison for 30 years I can see just what a diamond Columbus is. I think people that LIVE in Columbus might not see this.

I'll have more on Amtrak as we get closer - A bonus about that date is the Milwaukee 261 will be making a stop. Some would say we should move the date but I say this is perfect - people will see us cleaning and fixing and ask questions.

BTW - the above photo is what the internet has for the Columbus Amtrak Station. hmmmmm, I must have missed that room!

Here is what one website (Great American Stations) says about the Columbus Station.

"The Columbus station was built of rusticated concrete in 1906 by the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad (Milwaukee Road). The station originally had separate waiting areas for men and women. Benches in the facility have been in use since the days of the former Milwaukee Road, now the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Canadian Pacific Railway refurbished the interior, installed new flooring, painted the restrooms, pressure washed the building and is planning to reshingle the roof (what decade was this done in?), in celebration of the station's centennial. This facility has a waiting room and is staffed by an Amtrak employee. The Columbus station is served daily by two trains."

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Indiana Jones - Not bad, $126 million in the 4 days, but below expectations. The 10th highest four day total in history. Reviews were mixed but generally good.

But the biggest surprise was "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" which was the worst gross in nine years for the second place film over Memorial Day weekend. Only Notting Hill (I liked that movie) was worse. This is a MAJOR stumble for Disney which had been looking at Narnia as a long-term franchise.

And then there is overachiever Iron Man. Where did this movie come from!! It's made $257 million in four weeks. Solid word-of-mouth keeps this movie rolling and it is now 40th on the all time list of money makers.

Next weekend Sex and the City and The Strangers both debut.
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WWII buffs - on this day in 1941 The largest Germain Battleship built in WWII was sunk.

In 1911 Vincent Price was born.
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Rod's Garden blog is in the works - even though I was called Gay in the ride up to Lawsonia for mentioning how long the flowering trees were . . . flowering.

Rod Melotte