Ouch!

Wow. Or should I say, 'ow'.

We don't usually get the Sunday Globe, but this weekend we did. It sat on the freezer over the weekend, and this morning I retrieved it and took it down into my basement office. I had noticed the front-page story about Plymouth Rock Studios when Mary brought the paper in with the groceries, Sunday, but as I was already aware of the collapse of the financing agreement, I wasn't too concerned.

Ouch!

The front page was bad enough - as it cast the project and its nominal head, David Fitzpatrick, in unflattering terms. But from there it gets worse, far worse.

I won't rehash it here - if you haven't read it, here's a link. I have to say that the Globe story underscores what I had been saying from the beginning, that certain proponents of this project have been far too glib, and town officials far too gullible. Despite my natural cynicism I too had come to believe in this project. I was especially impressed with the talented people who were attracted by the opportunity, and were willing to do what they could, to make it happen.

But now it may be too late.

It's a Mickey Rooney moment, boys and girls.. that point in the film when we decide to do this on our own.. And the first thing we have to do.. Well actually, in the Rooney-Garland films they just did it all, on their own: raised the tents, wrote the musical, sold the tickets and put on the show. I don't think that's going to work here. If a thousand 'fans' of Hollywood East each gave a thousand dollars, we'd be short about 499 million. But perhaps what needs to be done - what can be done, is that the focus is narrowed: that PRS find some way to achieve some tangible success (buy the property, produce a more elaborate and financially rewarding feature?).

You can't tell a Hollywood executive to put their money where their mouth is, because that's what they do all the time: they believe in, well, 'make-believe' (and you can't blame them). But instead, now, they really need to put their money into the ground: they need to plant something, build something, produce something real, convince the hard-asses that lend the big money, that this remains viable.

The best thing about dreams is that we wake up from them  - inspired.

But if you spend the whole day talking about your dream, the next thing you know its time to go to sleep again.

Wake up PRS: time to get to work.