Selective memories - Columbus Auditoruim.

Obviously my Wisconsin basketball experience was traumatic since I have not blogged since the day after. . . . and there was some holiday also I guess.

The big news in Columbus, besides me missing the Holiday Parade (I did not know!!) is that there is now bus service linking Madison to Columbus and the Amtrak Station. Of course this will put Todd Frey out of bigness because he was going to offer carriage rides to and from Madison . . . a three hour ride (insert Gilligan's Island theme song - Todd would be _________________________ fill in the character).

But yes - for $14 a person you can get a ride from or to Madison.
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Did you know that Wal-Mart has extra people and almost all registers open at midnight on the 1st of the month? Seems many people living on food stamps wait outside Wal-Mart and as soon as they can confirm that their food stamps have arrived in their banks they go shopping. Wal-Mart officials say that they are quite busy at midnight on the 1st. WHO KNEW.

Then there is all of this cyber Monday broo-haha.

Just like all the people that say they were against going to war in Iraq when in reality 99% of Americans were all for attacking AT THAT TIME. I know because I was watching and told DJ to watch what happens in following years when they would all say NOOOOOO, I was against the war . . . anyway . . . .  People always say - OH - you were pro war!!  No - the thing was that EVERYBODY was so amp'd up that NOT going to war was almost viewed as anti-American.   It was only later when things started to look shady that people started to pull away and say "OH - I was anti war".

ANYWAY - Cyber Monday is 100% prefabricated. I remember the very first year when people started to order things online. IT was scary and people were all like worried. Then year two came and 30% MORE people were buying online and then all of a sudden Cyber Monday was INVENTED.

The stories you hear about how Cyber Monday came about are all bunk. It was/is a marketing ploy invented by internet retailers. Not some cyber phenomena.
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I was in Fort Atkinson this weekend and decided to do some photo taking. One thing that Fort did while I was gone was create a really really nice River Walk. Steve Sobiak the Economic Development/Energy Sustainability Director of Columbus came out with a great plan for our river that was quickly poo poo'd by the non-thinking, stubborn, dull witted people of Columbus as way outside the box.   I was at a econ meeting and a person actually, to me, insulted Steve, and his forward thinking views (although it was more in a joke form but it was an insult! . . I know "I" was insulted . . I guess it has ALWAYS stuck in my craw!).  Did you know that a "craw" is the throat of a bird?

I wish I had that plan to show you. The main thing is that Fort's river walk is wonderful. Here is one photo of Fort's River walk looking towards the Main Street Bridge. This is from the spot where Jeff Judd and 2 friends hung Elwood over the railroad bridge by his feet when we were I believe juniors in high school. (the same spot where a child and his police rescuer-er drowned a few years earlier).

Main Street Bridge from the former railroad bridge

That area on the right was all industrial when I lived in Fort and the railroad bridge is now a very much used bike bridge.

One thing I found while walking around was .  . well. a lot of empty store fronts (I would have to think a much higher percentage then Columbus) was a large iron sculpture where it looked like a couple upscale bars used to me.  Too bad they went belly up.

Catfish Alley

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I don't typically send around stuff for people to watch unless I really think it is something special.  This I believe is something very special.

It's a family in Slovenia (just above Italy) that put a video on youtube and BAM - 7,000,000 hits. I told Elwood about this 10 year old girl singing and how I was really taken by her . . . adult-ness,   and he said "geez, I feel a little uncomfortable all of a sudden". We watched the video and his first word after it was over was WOW!!!!

http://youtu.be/y8w1fHfcqqE



Solvenia was part of the Roman Empire (I just found that interesting).
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Hydro Street Brewing looks to have a TENTATIVE SECRET opening December 7th . . . if all goes well (which seems to be a problem with inspections and so forth). A grand opening will come later when everything is up and running smoothly. Sandye(sp?) and Aaron from Hydro will also help in a movement to re-energize the "let's fix the Columbus Auditorium" which seems to have gone on the back burner again WHICH I will now start bringing to the fore front again.

I would LOVE to have another chance to photogize the inside of the Auditorium (hint hint). I got some ideas.

So that's it for the time being.

Have a great Cyber Monday!
Rod