A Train Story with Two Names

Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day: A Fateful Year in Life of John Lee, Railroad Man is a fantasy based on the efforts of 18-year-old J.M. McFadden to buy the Yosemite Valley Railway in 1945. In real life, the railway was shut down before passenger rail business had a chance to recover from World War II. In the movie, John Lee, the descendant of Chinese railway worker, manages to borrow enough money to keep the railway open. The movie has a lot of magnificent train and scenery shots which the black and white film actually makes more interesting. The choice to film is black and white also helps integrate the historical footage the director found. The director and writer, is more interested in scenery than in the actual running of the railroad. The historical footage shows people working, but we never really see the main character actually working. Instead, he spends a lot of time with his girlfriend. Unfortunately, we are not sure where that part of the movie is going either.

Overall, the movie is well acted and has good cinematography for the its small budget, but the writing has no focus. It does make you think about what could have been done with all of the rail lines that have been abandoned since the 1945. John Lee's plans seem like they could have worked if he had worked harder. Maybe the director made him that way because making the railway successful would have gone against history.

The writer/director does include two facts of historical interest. First, the Interstate Commerce Commission was instrumental in ending the line. Second, the Yosemite Valley Railway was probably shut down for its rails and other equipment. A.E. Perlman, who bought the railroad and then shut it down to benefit the Rio Grande and Western R.R., also ripped up track when he was with the New York Central Railroad. However, the director speaks of Americans loving their cars at time when most Americans did not yet have them.

Overall, the movie has the potential to remind of us the role that Asian-Americans have played in our nation's railroad history and of some of the politics that have shaped that history. The skeleton is here for a much better movie. I love movies about people actually working which may be one of the reasons that I love train movies.

More Ways to Improve Transportation in Boulder County

As I stated before, Boulder County is developing a Transportation Master Plan. One of the goals of the plan it to find ways to improve public transit and fund it more evenly and effectively.

You can influence this process in two ways:

Take the Transportation Master Plan Survey.

Review the presentation materials from public meetings that were held in January and send comments to Julie McKay at jmckay@bouldercounty.org.

As of right now, the county has a plan for improving transit in the western part of the county, but not in the east. Add a bus route from Ward to Nederland, add buses to the Y route or add a bus from Longmont to Lyons, add a rush hour bus from Jamestown to Boulder, get the N to run to Eldorado Springs in the summer as well as the winter, add a circulator bus to Nederland, and add a shuttle connecting Boulder or Nederland to recreational areas.

New Arts District when Lamar Light Rail Station Opens?

Update: I went to the first meeting and there was an hour and a half long presentation instead of a community discussion. The announcement for this month again promises small group discussions. I will see if I can make that happen.

The Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and the City of Lakewood are thinking of creating an arts district near the Lamar Street light rail station in Lakewood. The station is opening in 2013 as part of the West Corridor, a light rail line that will run from downtown Denver to Lakewood and on to end at the JeffCo Government Building in Golden.

The Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design's main building is a fifteen minute walk from Lamar Station, and the school recently purchased an empty grocery store building just two blocks away. And so the City of Lakewood sees an opportunity to make something special.

There are two open houses scheduled so far with another possibly scheduled for June.

Tuesday, March 15 and Thursday, April 14

6:30 to 8:00 pm

Molholm Elementary School

6000 W. Ninth Ave., Lakewood

The 9 bus stops a couple of blocks from this location, although you need to leave early if you are headed east toward downtown.

I am going to suggest a pedestrian bridge over Colfax and a shuttle bus to connect the arts district with the rest of Lakewood. The city should also do more to make sure that the sidewalks get shoveled when it snows.

(Thanks to Karen Groves of YourHub.com for much of the information in this post.)

One of My Favorite Cheesy Movies

Under Seige 2: Dark Territory, the over the top sequel to Under Seige, is the perfect train movie for when you are home sick. I know that some people consider the first Under Seige to be the only decent Steven Seagal movie, but how can boat beat a train? The first movie is also trying to be good, Under Seige 2 is not good, it is fun. The movie includes Katherine Heigl from that early period when she played characters who cared about things other than shoes, and Steven Seagal singing a song that he wrote himself, "After the Train Has Gone".

The action takes place aboard the California Zephyr Grand Continental train that runs from Denver to LA through the Rocky Mountains. The mountains shown in the film are in Colorado, and the train was assembled by the now defunct Colorado Railcar Company.

You can rent the DVD from Netflix or you can rent it online from Amazon.