On Saturday night, at Madison's Favorite Block Party, I was fortunate to run into JM and Nichole of Eating in Madison A to Z, one of the city's most popular blogs and an indispensible guide to our city's wealth of dining options. If you haven't perused their site yet, do so now. I'll wait.
Alright, so I was only able to chat with them briefly, but in that short time they informed me that they had graciously invited Mayor Dave Cieslewicz to dine with them, and he has accepted, but hasn't yet decided on a date. Well, no wonder. As you can see below, the dude's got a lot on his plate. I mean, he's booked some time at the Period Garden Park (aka that little garden on North Pinckney and East Gorham where neighborhood residents often go to "get mellow"), will hang with the Regents and guest conduct a band this week. I'm sure that all of those things are cool. Well, not for you and me, but for a mayor they probably are.
But it should be made clear that JM and Nichole are the new kind of celebrities made more and more common by the democratizing vibe of the internet. Sure, the Regents are celebrities and probably lovely people. But they got where they are by cozying up to the governor, not by coming up with a great idea for a blog and continuing to add engaging content to it long after a lot of us would have lost motivation. And they're not even getting paid!
The guess here is that Mayor Dave would learn a whole lot more -- particularly about the restaurant scene in Madison and how it pertains to this new, buzz-worthy concept of the "nighttime economy" -- by hanging out for a couple hours with JM and Nichole than a hundred picnic dinners at Brittingham House.
MAYOR CIESLEWICZ WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Monday, August 18, 2008
10:00 a.m. Policy Staff Meeting (Mayor's Conf. Room)
11:00 a.m. Nan Fey, Mario Mendoza (Mayor's Office)
2:00 p.m. Pam Williamson and Policy Staff re: appointments to City boards, committees and commissions (Mayor's Conf. Room)
3:30 p.m. Mayors' Innovation Project Steering Committee conference call (Mayor's Office)
4:30 p.m. Period Garden Park visit with Joe Bonardi, Ray Harmon
6:00 p.m. Mayor's Public Hearing on the Budget (Central Library, 201 W. Mifflin St.)
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
9:00 a.m. Capital Budget Meeting (Mayor's Conf. Room) 12:00 p.m. Alder Brown Bag Lunch (Mayor's Conf. Room) 1:00 p.m. Janet Piraino, Dean Brasser, Mark Olinger, Jim Bower, Salli Martyniak, Don Marx 2:00 p.m. Operating Budget Meeting (Mayor's Conf. Room) 4:30 p.m. Taping of "The Mayor's Report" (MMB 260)
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
8:30 a.m. Office/work time 10:00 a.m. Staff Meeting (Mayor's Conf. Room) 2:00 p.m. Capital Budget Meeting (Mayor's Conf. Room) 5:00 p.m. Jazz at Five 15th Anniversary Celebration (100 block of State Street)
Thursday, August 21, 2008
9:30 a.m. Jim Sykes, Connie Ferris Bailey, Mark Olinger, Ray Harmon (Mayor's Conf. Room)
10:30 a.m. Public Works Improvements (PWI) meeting
1:30 p.m. Chuck Kamp, Ray Harmon (Mayor's Conf. Room)
2:00 p.m. Operating Budget Meeting (Mayor's Conf. Room)
4:30 p.m. Common Council Leadership Meeting (Mayor's Conf. Room)
6:00 p.m. Picnic dinner with Board of Regents at home of President Kevin Reilly (The Brittingham House)
7:00 p.m. Guest conductor for Capitol City Band concert (Rennebohm Park)
Friday, August 22, 2008
9:00 a.m. Larry Nelson, David Dryer, Joel Plant, Ray Harmon (Mayor's Conf. Room) 10:00 a.m. Capital Budget Meeting (Mayor's Conf. Room) 1:30 p.m. Fire Department Recruit Group 28 Graduation Ceremony (Olbrich Gardens) 4:00 p.m. Interview with WisconsinEye (122 W Washington Ave)
