ocono.com

We’re excited gang!

First: Nick lives in Oconomowoc and likes to ride his motorcycle and have a good time. Is he Hot? or Not?

Second: If Nick is really serious to his commitment to having a good time, he should sign himself up for the Oconocon. To the best of our knowledge, the Oconocon will be our fair city’s first bona fide comic-book convention, and is being held as part of the promotion around the annual Free Comic Book Day event in May.

There is a fairly impressive list of comic creators booked for the event on the group’s myspace site; comic creators behind Batman, Night of the Living Dead, and Sonic the Hedgehog, are among those sharing the marquee, for example. Friends of the blog, the local comics retailers and enthusiasts from Kowabunga Comics are involved in the event.

We were saddened to hear of the death of Schatzie’s Old World Cakery. (And by “death” we mean seeing the “Closed” sign on the door.

We are fans of cake in general, and had plans to visit the cakery, but never really got a chance to. I guess no one else got a chance to either.

Can Oconomowoc support these smaller specialty shops? Would this business have done better as one of the “Pabst Farms” shops we can expect to see in the future?

All I know is, the loss of cake is a great loss indeed… As of right now, their web site at www.schatziescakery.com lives on…

Oh, I guess you can still order a cake by calling Michelle at 414-687-7929 or emailing schatziescakes@sbcglobal.net.

It was 2-degrees last night while we stood in our backyard and peeked at the moon. I’d been out there for 10 minutes when I realized that I should probably have put my coat on. And that I left all my cameras at work. D’oh!

Did you get some shots of the eclipse last night? We know you did. So far, Shes Not Ther’s is the only one to show up in the Oconomowoc Flickr Pool.

The photo is generously shared under a Creative Commons License, none-the-less. Many thanks to the photographer! See you in 2010, Total Lunar Eclipse!

Did someone say Lunar Eclipse? Wednesday night will be your last chance to see a full lunar eclipse in Oconomowoc until 2010. That’s forever away! (Surely we’ll have flying cars by then.) This is why we must mark the celestial event in style. Here’s our list of the five best places in the general Oconomowoc from which you can check out the Feb. 20 Eclipse.

1. Nature Hill.
   If it’s not too cold, try heading out to the city’s north side and hiking up the hill for a snoot-full of sky.
2. Ashippun Town Hall.
   Honestly, we’re sure there are better places in Ashippun to skywatch, but Town Hall at the intersection of O and P is a safe place to park your car for a while, and is comfortably outside the glare of the city’s lights.
3. Monterrey Park.
   You know that huge soccer park on the West side of Highway 67 northbound? Again, lots of space, lots of sky, not too near city streetlights.
4. Fowler Park.
   Technically, city parks close after 10 p.m. Don’t get yourself arrested on our account.
5. The Fowler Lake Board Walk.
   Ok, again, too much ambient light downtown, and city parks close at 10. But city parking lots are fair game, right? Besides, what makes this a great place to watch an eclipse is the City Hall Clock tower. You can watch the Clock tower’s hands turn as the moon moves through the stages of the eclipse.

Where do you do your stargazing in Oconomowoc?

The Blah Blah an MP3 Blog of questionable legality, speculates about bringing a Christian Music Festival to the fine city of Oconomowoc.

We’re not unnecessarily… um… fans of the Christian Rock, but we do love us some festivals in our good town, and we’re happy that someone out there feels the same way.

Jake at The Blah Blah is looking for your help organizing his festival, which he hopes could span a couple of days and include an educational component. I hearby volunteer to give a workshop on how to use Creative Commons Music Licensing to promote your band.

Head over and leave some comments at The Blah Blah if you have any tips or ideas for Jake.

We were saddened, but not surprised, when General Growth Properties left Oconomowoc and Pabst Farms holding a bag full of broken promises last fall, pulling out of a multi-million dollar development deal that could have put a world-class mall on the city’s south side.
It seems that the good city of Oconomowoc isn’t General Growth’s only jilted lover. According to some wackadoo real-estate focused subsidiary of the Wall Street Journal General Growth has also left the city of Detroit standing at the development alter.

In Detroit, General Growth has pushed back the construction of the Shoppes at Gateway Park, a 330,000-square-foot open-air mall.

It’s fortunate, then, that the bizarre funding scheme that paid for the the development of Pabst Farms’ infrastructure is on track to be paid back, regardless of the construction of whatever “mall-terantives” are in the works.
Because there is no pressure on city leaders to scrape up tax revenue at any cost, project planning can be done smartly; leaders are free to hold developers to high ideals. Good for them.
Frankly, we just want that west-bound entrance ramp to I-94 on Sawyer Road. If it takes a mall to get it there, so be it.

We were just alerted to a new site, Oconomowoc Listens.

They even got a nice little write-up for their brand new site: New Oconomowoc blog site set for public discussion; Site provides place for public debate on hot issues.

I mean, sure… ocono.com is coming up on it’s 3rd year of existence, and the site has languished a bit in recent times, but who knows what 2008 will bring. We may just revive the site and forge full-speed ahead… or we might sell it. We’re not sure yet. Either way, watch this space for details…

Friend of ocono.com mainfr4me has planned the second OconomoPhotoWalk, and even though it will not be in Oconomowoc, it’ll be worth attending. (Not sure what a photowalk is? See our first OconomoPhotoWalk post.)

This one will take place Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 1PM. We plan to meet at Nashota Park. There is a $5 entrance fee to the park unless you have a Waukesha County Parks sticker (not a Wisconsin State Parks sticker.) If you want to carpool in and save costs, meet at the park & ride lot at HWY 16 and C around 12:45.

Besides photo opps, there is a sledding hill at the park, so if you want to make a day of it, bring a sled as well as a camera. (Er, if we have any snow…)

More info? See the discussion on Flickr.

This coming Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 3:00 PM is the annual Oconomowoc Christmas Parade.

We (being ocono.com and 2XL Networks) may or may not be appearing in the parade this year. Once again, keep a look out for the silver Honda CR-V, that would be us. (If we’re not in the parade, then look for us standing on the sidewalk on Oakwood Avenue.)

The first OconomoPhotoWalk happened on Sunday, November 18th, 2007, and it was a great success.

While we only had 7 people show up, we had a good time, and took a lot of photos. You can see them in Flickr’s Oconomowoc Group.

We had a few cancellations, some due to the cold, but for those that came, we got some exercise, shot some photos, and made new friends. We’ll be planning another one, but we may wait until it warms up a bit. Thanks to all who came…