We're getting deluged with e-mails asking us about a peculiar new Web site that just popped up called thisismymilwaukee.com, and we're just as stumped as you.
The site features a bizarre, 11-minute long "tourist" video promoting Milwaukee. Sort of. Thing is, none of the footage is actually from Milwaukee (some of it is clearly filmed in New York's Greenwich Village).
It's allegedly produced by the "Milwaukee Tourism Commission," which to the best of our knowledge, doesn't exist. But it does offer a real phone number, that, when called, delivers a similarly bizarre voice mail.
What's going on here?
The site also links to synydyne.com, which contains no information other than an e-mail address, and nimprojects.com, the personal Web site of someone named Martin Pedrick. The WHOIS information on the domain doesn't reveal anything, either.
Is this some crazy viral movie that will reveal itself later, or is it just a strange joke? The video is clearly professional, so my guess is the former.
Check out the site for yourself and weigh in if you have any ideas.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
