300,000

Not sure about today's market but I feel we have had a successful retest of the market lows and I'm thinking we are near the bottom or have hit the bottom. I have always been a contrairian (my football system 4-0 last week is a contrairian system) and when things look the worst it's good.

Fear is running rampant and to me that means most of the hand wringers have gotten their money out of the market. $56 billion from mutual fund investors has been yanked out of the market this month. There will be more big swings but as the paper says one time a rally will not stop for a while.
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300,000

At some point in the next 24 hours this blog will send out page number 300,000 for some one to read. I am humbled and I'd like to thank all of you readers for tuning in to watch me make a fool of myself.

Sure the numbers are falling the farther away we get from Public Enemies but this blog is still getting more then 1000 unique readers a week.

Tuesday March 19th there were 4500 unique readers and that week 37,000 individuals came to this blog for Public Enemies. Not bad considering the blog started March 3rd with 27 people tuning in.

Along the way I found out that Bob Wagner the 1st Assistant Director of Public Enemies was reading the blog and because of PEC I've made a ton of new friends and I sincerely would like to thank you.

I was talking to a new neighbor a couple days ago and she asked how long we had lived in Columbus. I almost said "since March".

Looking at the recent visitor map I see someone from Sao Paulo Brazil and another person from Santafé De Bogotá Colombia that has read the blog almost daily for the last 6 months, Delhi India and Taipei Taiwan, my Aussie friend in Sydney Australia is still reading and someone in New Zealand is watching little Columbus Wisconsin along with Greece and Zagreb Croatia and of course England France and America.

I'd love an anonymous "hi" from all of you lurkers with a location. I saw yesterday afternoon while I was snooping around someone working in a hospital in central Pennsylvania had logged onto the site over 150ish times. HI!!!

ANYWAY

Here is a cut and paste of the relevant words from an article from firstshowing dot net, some of it we all know like "what the movie is about" and "Dillinger background" and so forth but you can read the entire article on that link if you like but most if it is just rehashing what we all ready know - here are the good parts though.

Producer Kevin Misher puts it all into perspective: "If you're looking for action, I don't think you'll be disappointed. We've got three bank robberies, two prison breaks and who knows how many shootouts." Universal Chairman Marc Shmuger also chimes in: "It really felt like the most exciting thing Michael's done in years. It's a seminal gangster saga, but it's also a classic doomed lovers story. They meet on the run and you know that they know that the relationship can't last, which makes the film really heart-wrenching. With that combination, well, let's face it, there's just not that many filmmakers in the world besides Michael could do that."

Although we won't be seeing Public Enemies until July of next year, I'm already looking forward to it. In fact, I'm expecting it to be one of next summer's big hits. I think the combination of Michael Mann with Christian Bale and Johnny Depp can only lead to great things. And the story for this whole movie is incredibly thrilling, reminding me quite a bit of Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (which took place one decade before Public Enemies). Although Michael Mann screwed up most recently with Miami Vice, his past work, including Collateral (my personal favorite), has all been fantastic. And I expect him to yet again shine with Public Enemies. We've still got a year left to go, but it might be worth it to keep Public Enemies on your mind anyway as we progress through the next 12 months of movies.

It's funny to think that the people that read this blog are SO far ahead of the Public Enemies curve.

I was talking to DJ last night about the first time we see a trailer for the movie and how surreal it will be. We'll probably watch hit 20 times in a row!

Speaking of crimes - on this day in 1931 Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion.
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Beer news - a little disappointing news with Flat Squirrel. Seems to be a little oxidation OR tannin problem, a "twang" in the aftertaste. Couple things to fix this the main one will be greater temperature control and I'm now bringing into play the convection oven to cure this problem.

The interesting thing is that I have made 45 gallons of beer (not all drinkable . .yet) and I feel my next batch is the first one where I am putting it all together. I'm pretty pumped to brew batch #10. It's like a light went on and all of the scattered information rattling in my pea sized brain came together, not just the "how" but "why"!

It's one thing to know how but it's even better to know why!
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The ride to work the last few weeks has be just filled with outstanding beauty. Today I wanted to stop 10 times to take photos. The sun is about to rise, frost on the ground, the trees are peaking with color just amazing between Columbus and Sun Prairie.

Get out this weekend and go for a ride in the country and look at the beauty that surrounds you.
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Have a great weekend and thank you again for reading.

Rod