Civic Media Spotlight (Hour 2)

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This is the Civic Media Spotlight.

Hello and welcome to the second hour of the Civic Media Spotlight.

We move on to Night Light.

with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

The guy speaks to film critic Rob Thomas to talk about the latest in movies.

From big releases to indie gems, he shares what's worth watching, where the industry is heading, and how he approaches reviewing

films.

Here's Pete and Greg.

Welcome back to Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on Civic Media Network.

You can always be part of the conversation.

855-752-484-2855-757.

Leave a comment on that live stream.

We're currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.

We still call Twitter still ahead.

We'll be talking to Madison Citycast.

He is the, tell me the title again.

He is the Citycast Madison newsletter editor and newsletter editor.

That's right.

Yeah, there it is.

Okay.

Thank you much.

He will be on the show in just a little bit But before we go anywhere else a couple things we want to do first of all we want to restate the question of the night So let's do that real quick.

Let's talk about the question question question question

question

question

question question this question

question

questions

Question of the night is what is your favorite knock-knock joke?

I did that one up quick here in the second hour because it's taking some time for people to write them out I want to make sure to give them time for them to type them all out if you text it to us Leave a comment on the live stream you can call and let us know your favorite knock-knock joke remember we're FCC complied so please don't be dirty or You know undercover dirty just you know tell us a fun knock-knock joke That is our question of the night also don't forget this Thursday our movie club pick is the classic John Hughes

legendary film, The Breakfast Club.

We'll be talking about that in the second hour or so.

Watch it now.

That's right.

We're giving you some homework, but you're going to like it.

It's fun.

And this is a pick from our dear friend, Dom, who is in Madison.

He is our tech producer.

Actually, tonight it's very special because I am in Radio Park in Racine.

Pete Schwabba is in Madison at World Headquarters HQ for Civic Media.

And so is Dom Lee.

And that is, we're usually the Yadra Hei triangle.

But tonight, we are the Yadar Heiwan Dimensional Continuum, which is a band that I would totally listen to.

I

already forgot what that... Well, you got to send that to me, so I know how to say it.

I already forgot what we were going to write it down.

Love it when things really, really matter.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Stick in your brain.

Stick in your brain.

We are the one, we are the Yadurhe one dimensional continuum tonight because we are, we are forming a straight line between medicine and Racine.

And you can always be part of the conversation.

855-752-4842-855-75 civically that comment on the live stream, or you can get in touch with us via the civic media app.

And of course we're going to round everything up with the nightcap too, to close it out, find out what we've learned and go over some more text messages if we have any to give.

Speaking of

Text messages.

Dumb.

Who are we hearing from?

From the people tonight regarding anything we've been talking about this evening.

We have

a few.

Yes.

Let's start off with some with some knock, knock jokes for the night.

Roger from Stevens Point said knock, knock.

Who's there?

Cargo.

Cargo who?

Cargo BB.

Oh, yeah,

it is.

Oh, see that.

OK.

That's what I like in a knock, knock joke.

Simple setup.

punchline.

That's it.

No sentence

diagramming.

I mean, you can get weird with it.

I don't mind that, but when it comes to a knock, knock joke, there's something pure and beautiful.

It should make a four year old laugh.

It should make a 400 year old person laugh if they're still alive.

But dear God, why?

Vampires basically, but like that's what I love about a knock-knock joke.

It makes everyone laugh So thank you very much Roger.

Thank you so

much.

Wait until you hear this one from Brett.

Okay

round here My favorite knock-knock joke goes like this knock knock who's there Epstein Epstein who what are you Trump?

All

right

But I don't remember that one from when I was a kid I gotta be honest.

No, I did not hear that one on the electric

company

Not bad All right, we also have I don't know who this is it says knock knock who's there grandpa

Quick stop the funeral quick stop the funeral It's tough when you break down the knock-knock jokes here's the thing about knock-knock jokes Greg is I'll say I don't I don't think I ever laugh but I go ah I mean like have you ever a knock-knock joke where you're doubled over and laughter

The only time I do that is when I when I hear little kids try to tell a knock-knock joke And that's just it's just wonderful.

I'll share my favorite one This is like I said earlier in the show my kids and I used to make up We used to try to make up our own knock-knock jokes and the best one.

This is my son Joe knock knock

Who's there?

I have a to go

I Have a to go whoo.

Oh the bathrooms right down the hall on the left.

Oh

man

Right in that one.

It's like it's not 11 year old.

That's here's here's what I heard and I came from a social media post, but I think it's just funny here Dom this one's for you.

Oh knock knock.

Who's there?

Yodel a Yodel a who stop yodeling man.

What's up, man?

Stop it.

Just why you're yodeling?

Yeah

All right, what else we got in the text line there Dom

We have a few.

Let's switch it up a little bit.

Let's.

Tom asked me if I would come out of the bullpen occasionally because we got a lot of them.

So

you could read the one from here.

I'll do the one from Chris because it pertains to my meal later.

He said, Pete, try Butterbird on Regent St.

Regent Street.

I'm sorry.

Bomb chicken sandwiches and chicken.

I've never heard of that place.

Thank you, Chris.

Much appreciated.

Okay.

All right.

And then Monica from Mount Horrib.

Great suggestions.

Not upscale, but I'm currently eating leftovers from David's Jamaican.

It was supposed to be jerk tofu, but my order and my friends got a little jumbled.

So I wound up with pineapple tofu.

It's delicious.

And one order was big enough for four meals.

I got fried plantains too.

There you go.

Thank you.

Oh,

if there's Ethiopian food in the area too, check that out because Ethiopian food is amazing.

I don't know much at all about Ethiopian food.

I will definitely do that.

Thank you.

Very tasty.

Thank you, Craig.

Here's another food one.

Anna from Madison says, Pete, since you were downtown, go to Cooper's Tavern, heard of that place, or the Old Fashioned, been there, which are both on the square near you.

They're both great places.

Those are outstanding suggestions.

Thank you guys.

Thank you, Anna.

The Old Fashioned is

so, it's so good.

Yeah, I like the Old Fashioned.

I do.

I have not been there in a spell.

Very, very long time.

Yeah,

that's kind of cool vibe.

Tom from New Berlin says, while serving and taking acid in the 80s was that pretreatment.

Yes, Tom.

Yes, it was Tom.

Just say yes.

Yes, yeah.

And luckily, thanks to Joe Rogan, Tom, now you can have all the psychedelics you want because that's what happens in this country.

We're great.

He just picked up his phone.

Here's

one for you,

Greg.

Our pal Brett says, yes, preach brother, Greg, I need more psychedelics.

I'm a veteran and I love tripping.

It really does calm my nerves and puts my head in a positive direction.

Legalize peyote.

Okay, there you go.

I mean, I am not a person who does any of this.

Yeah, but I am for, I am personally for.

Whatever helps people get through their days,

especially

those who are suffering, whether it's PTSD, whether it's cancer, whether it's pain, whatever.

But also, you know, we live in a day and age, you're an adult, you tax it correctly, you regulate it correctly and treat it like alcohol and just let people do what they want to do with it.

And I'm not going to bother them.

That's about as libertarian as I get.

So.

Well said.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

920 says knock knock.

Who's

there?

Drew.

No, I'm not going to read that one.

You're supposed to hit me off at the pass there.

You're going to go for us.

262.

Oh, that was a phone call.

OK, Chris says knock, knock.

Who's there?

Who's there?

Cow says.

Cow says who?

No, a cow says moo.

Nice!

That's

what a great knock-knock joke does.

It's just simple.

It makes you feel like you almost stepped in some poop.

You're like, I missed it, but that's that would have been a funny story.

Love it.

I

love it.

I love it.

John, why don't you take over again?

Yeah, John Murray from Anderson said, this is a yadur-day commun- this is a yadur-hey communion.

Communion?

Ooh, I like that.

He's got bread and

wine.

He's got bread and wine.

Awesome.

He said or a dot and then he said not a dot.

I don't under

John Are you taking that abide about a John Joe Rogan drug thing because I don't know what's going on there, buddy Or a dot not a not a dot or me Dom can you get me some X file theme song right now?

Or maybe we're all the dots my god.

How did you have that?

That Dom is actually humming that

that's how we found it so

quickly

He brought in the entire original symphony who played that track way back in the early 90s.

I know them personally.

That's

fantastic.

Well done.

We also have Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids said, from Pulp Fiction, knock knock.

Who's there?

Who's

there?

Zed.

Who's Zed?

Who's

Zed?

Zed's dead.

Boom,

there it is.

I think you actually have

to have Zed's dead,

baby.

Love that.

And, and, and before we know it, Pete Hegseth will be quoting that line from all fiction as well.

It is a little, it is a little speeches where there's time for breakfast.

Yeah, exactly.

Uh, let's see here.

I see here, uh, Chris in Madison suggests sake sushi for dinner.

$30.

All you can eat sushi up.

Would either of you guys do that?

I would.

$30.

All you can.

Well, no, probably not by myself.

If my wife was with me on this trip or something, we'd probably hear one of my kids.

We'd probably go.

there or somewhere a little, spend a little more money, but not just for me.

No.

I would totally do it.

I love sushi.

I love sushi.

I'm willing to send.

I want to know what the parameters are because there was there.

I think there still is a sushi place or just a Japanese place in Chicago on Lincoln Avenue.

And they had a thing where it was all you can eat sushi for a specific price.

And I can't remember what it was.

No, I'm probably 20 bucks.

But here's the catch.

You cannot.

You can take the leftovers home, but they will charge you.

You have to eat what you can eat.

Yeah, exactly.

So it's all you can eat sushi.

And I was dating somebody at the time.

We went there and I'm like, oh, I'll ruin this restaurant with their plan here.

And I got two rolls.

I finished the rolls and she said, would you like another one?

I said, yeah, I think so.

And just as she was bringing that, that third roll, all the seaweed, all the stuff, all the rice started just exploding in my stomach.

Like, you know, you know, just that thing when you eat a lot of bread or something, you're just like, oh, I'm, I'm very full now.

And she put it in front of me and, and my girlfriend at the time, she was like, yeah, if you don't eat that, you gotta, you can't even say you have to pay for what you don't eat or take it home.

And either way you're paying.

That's, that's, that's the fine print.

So I had to eat that whole roll.

right there, and I thought I was going to die.

It's like John Candy in the 96er.

Yeah, the old 96er.

Yep, just get a couple of desserts.

That's worth checking out.

Maybe I will check.

I'll put that in the catalog.

That's a good one.

How we doing, Don?

We got more here.

We have

Andrew from Maine.

He said, for the theater crowd, knock, knock.

Who's there?

Toby.

Toby who?

Wait, sorry, not Toby.

Make up your mind make up your make up your mind.

Who's there Toby or not Toby and that is the question There it is.

Oh

Here's one from Brett and brown deer another one from Brett.

He says hey, I've got a movie suggestion 1969 Peter Fonda Dennis Hopper Jack Nicholas easy writer

Yeah, that's you know folks if you have an idea for us for a movie for us to see or a guest or a topic You can always get in touch with us

email us nightlightatcivicmedia.us.

So if you have an idea for a movie you want us to watch or you want us all to watch nightlightatcivicmedia.us plus also if you think there's a great guest or hey there's our new story here that we'd love you to talk about send it to us we'll take a look and we'll see and who knows if we pick your movie there could be some fun there.

We got to figure

that out because

that's

a cool deal if we do use some of the suggestions.

Oh

yeah and I think we're going to be introducing a listener quiz in the next few weeks as well because we want to really involve the people as part of the show in the because we're all part of the movie club my friends.

Indeed.

All part.

Before we get out of here, do we have time for one more knock-knock joke there, Dom?

Yes, we do.

We have Andrew from Mainz has

knock-knock.

Who's there?

Yaher.

Yader who?

Yader hey, one directional triumferent, also known as Nightlight.

Thank you, Andrew.

That works.

We're putting that whole thing on a t-shirt.

Let's save John's, and I've got some social media ones here for...

Yeah,

absolutely.

That's awesome.

Great text, everybody.

When we come back, we're going to be talking to our friend Rob Thomas from this from from Madison Citycast talk about his articles talk about what's going on talk about their newsletter all that coming up in just a few moments So don't go near us.

Feel free to keep sending us your favorite knock-knock jokes civic media or Nightlight of civic media dot us or text it in or send us a comment on the live stream So don't go anywhere.

You are listening and or watching nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on civic media.

Stay tuned.

Stay close

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I thought you were going, Greg.

No, all of a sudden, all these things popped up on the live stream.

Welcome back to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

We're coming to you live from Radio Park in Racine and all the way at World Headquarters of Civic Media in Madison, Pete Schwabba and Dominic Lee.

Together, we formed the Yadirhe one-dimensional continuum because we are no longer a triangle for the time being, but we are happier here joining us.

You can always be part of the conversation, 855-752-4242, 855-755-CivicLive, a comment on the live stream.

We are currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform.

We still call Twitter.

Really quick here, Sydney Politics says, Happy New Year.

I sent contact information and interview the people of Atlas Improv.

Should I email?

Yes, you can email at Sydney.

Nightlight at civicmedia.us.

Send us all that information.

We'll take care of it from there.

Thank you so much for getting in touch with us and happy new year.

Guys, it's time for our second guest.

Are you all excited?

What?

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Time has gone way too fast.

I'm excited.

Are you excited?

Oh, okay.

There we go.

Our next guest is a regular guest on this show.

He is a contributor to CityCast Madison.

He's also the newsletter editor at CityCast Madison.

Welcome to back to the show, Mr. Rob Thomas.

Hey, buddy.

Great to have you.

I'm in

Madison.

We're in person.

Yeah.

This has happened before.

You've been here before.

It has, but it always feels special.

Yeah,

I

agree.

It feels like you've, you've had me over to your house.

Yeah.

Which has, which has never happened, but if it, yeah, if it did, you'd feel like this.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I

know the feeling, Rob.

Hi from Madison.

Hi from Racine.

Greg feels left out.

You're

here in spirit.

Yeah,

exactly.

Thanks.

It's great to have you buddy.

Thanks for having me.

Do you have a favorite knock-knock joke?

I think of one and I hope you baby stop it.

Don't stop me if you know it, but knock knock who's there the interrupting cow Interrupting

Oh Fished me in

Rob.

It's still a good.

It's still a great joke.

It's good every once in a while adults forget it I know they for completely forget the setup and then when you say move so satisfying they just

Melt into a puddle of shame and realization.

That's

great.

And the kid telling it cracks up like it's the greatest thing that's

ever happened.

Exactly.

Exactly.

I think I'm done.

I think that I'm not going to talk about that.

Good talking to you, Rob.

Send that one

to WBA.

We are good to go.

What's going on, Rob?

We haven't talked to you in a few weeks now.

What is to happen in all of Madison?

This is a very Madison-centric episode of the show this evening.

So what's going on?

What are you seeing out in the world?

tell, I saw an article about bagels.

So, you know, yeah, there's big news happening here.

Yeah.

It's a beautiful day here in Madison.

Uh, just got off the Wisconsin film festival, sort of going back out into the world.

And, um, we got graduation coming up around the corner at UW.

It's one of those times a year where it feels like everything's happening all at once.

Absolutely.

You did, there's actually, Greg, I want to piggyback on what Greg said.

You wrote about Gotham Bagels.

I have heard nothing but great stuff about Gotham Bagels, but I also know CityCast Madison did a thing and I love the way you guys approach these community-based things.

Favorite bars in Madison.

I don't think you wrote that one, but do you have a favorite bar and what is your take on Gotham

Bagels?

Well, it's interesting because it was like neighborhood bars, so it wasn't like...

you know, cut the best drinks.

It was like the place you go to see other people in the neighborhood, you know,

a neighborhood

bar, right?

Not even necessarily a dive, although it's often a dive.

Um, for that, I would say players on the East side, it's kind of around the corner from the Barrymore.

Great sports bar, the best bar burger in town by far.

I think they make them literally one at a time on a tiny little grill, but they're so worth the wait.

So players is the one.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cause I've had Bob's big bread, big bad breath burger, but I guess they got rid of that.

Maybe

the weary traveler, that can't stand.

That was on the list of best burgers, but now you're saying players is

better.

I think players is, but I mean, I mean, for a bar burger, best bar burger.

Yeah.

Well, let me, let me ask you a question real quick.

I will be in Madison with my wife and some friends going to a show at the Sylvie.

Okay.

Anything around that area we should check out for dinner.

For pizza on the spot.

Yeah, there's a sales Pete tomato pies is really good.

That's sort of kitty corner There's one called palette that we ate at that was nice.

There's a super if it's a nice weather.

There's the Attico lounge on the roof of one of the hotels near there is great for like drinks after But you're in a good spot there.

You should be all right.

Great.

Excellent.

Awesome.

Cannot wait

Rock I'm gonna go see Steven Wilson, Jr.

Oh

Yeah, I heard that sold

out.

So that's great.

Oh

even better

and those

tickets and what's what's funny about that show is that we bought tickets back I think this is okay.

This is April we bought tickets.

I think in November and

I remember buying a ticket and going, huh, only $75.

And then part of me died inside.

When I said that out loud, I'm like, I was impressed that it was $75.

I know.

I know.

I know.

Anytime it's not triple digits, you feel like you got away with nothing the next day.

Exactly.

Oh my gosh.

Yes.

So it'll be fun.

We'll have a good time and we'll take pictures when I'm in Madison and none of you guys are there.

Well,

that'll be here.

Don can pal around.

Even if you're not in the air, I just make things up.

We're between my two coworkers.

Tom's like, yeah.

I get the

food, Tom.

Oh my gosh, come on.

I gave you their, I gave them your number.

They're going to call you when they're in town and you can guys go out dinner.

Thanks, mom.

Rob, before we got to do a break in about a minute or so, but I want to ask you, we put the question out there, where should Pete eat tonight?

Or what genre of food should I go for?

Cause I'm kind of overwhelmed cause where I live, there's not, there's slim pickings compared to Madison.

Oh, interesting.

Just down the block, a Chento, great Italian food.

If you want to try something like that, yeah, block away.

If

you

like Italian food, Dom's favorite place is Jimmy John's.

He always, when he comes to Italian, fine Italian cuisine, Jess, you cannot go wrong with the James John's.

It's just absolutely wonderful.

The best bread.

He's not wrong.

He's not

wrong.

They

just love the way you do it.

It's the best bread.

I'll probably end up with Jimmy John 7.

I can't make up my

mind.

Get

over

it.

Well, we'll talk more about this and other things, including we'll talk about the Wisconsin Film Festival with Rob Thomas, who is our guest this evening.

He is from CityCast Madison.

He is the newsletter editor.

He's going to be here when we come back from the news break.

So don't go anywhere.

Feel free to still send us your knock, knock jokes, your favorite ones.

That is the question of the night.

855-752-4842, 855-757.

You can leave a comment there on the live stream or you can send us a message through the Civic Media app, but don't go anywhere.

you're listening to and or watching Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.

Stay tuned, stay

close.

Welcome back to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

You can always get in touch with us, call or text the number is the same 855-752-484-2855-755.

Civic, leave a comment on the live stream.

We are currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.

We still call Twitter.

You can also get in touch with us via the Civic Media app.

Download it right now.

Wherever you get your apps, you can call, text, leave a voice message.

You can also listen to the shows live.

You can get your news there.

It's absolutely free and it's always being updated.

So get that Civic Media app.

And yeah, be a part of the show.

We are talking to our guest.

He is the newsletter editor at CityCast Madison.

Mr. Rob Thomas is back on the show talking about, you know, what to do in Madison.

Basically, we're getting the ideas of what we should do while we're in Madison at various times, whether we're eating, whether we're enjoying things.

But Rob is here giving us all the great selections.

Rob, you said earlier that you went, you just, you just wrapped up the Wisconsin Film Festival for yourself.

What were the highlights?

What did you love about it?

What were the things that you really were excited to see?

Yeah, it was really good.

It was, it ran Thursday through Thursday and it was like, it said the Barrymore, which is a great old theater here in Madison and then a bunch of videos on campus.

There's one that's in theaters now actually called Normal.

And besides it's really fun action comedy.

So the guy who wrote the first three John Wick movies is from Madison Derek Colestad.

He also did at least he used to had a hand at the two nobody movies with Bob Odenkirk.

Yes.

And this is one where Bob Odenkirk plays like a the interim sheriff in a very small Minnesota town dead of winter.

He's just there to kind of

you know, keep the chair warm until they elect the next sheriff, uh, discovers the town is hiding this, uh, big secret in the bank vault.

And it turns into an action movie where like the entire town is basically trying to kill him.

It's like, it's like a reverse high noon where instead of the townspeople not sticking up for them, they're actually trying to shoot them.

It's really fun.

Like it is.

It's a, it's, uh,

Like I said, it's an action comedy with both sides of that.

Odin Kirk's really good.

And yeah, I just had a really good time.

It's so funny, like Bob Odin

Kirk, it just gives that movie kind of a soul.

Yeah, it's like a folksy kind of guy.

But he's kind of a badass too.

And I really liked it.

It got pretty crazy, but you just go with it because it's so much fun.

And it's, it's a shoot them up.

I

mean, it's like a

really, there's violence.

The Yakuza is in it.

And it's just like insane in the small town of Minnesota.

I mean, my favorite Minnesota fight was the fight with a woman in a yarn store who uses like every implement, enter disposal, like a, like a ninja, just very silly, very funny thing.

So I think that's really, yeah.

I was gonna say what's really funny now is there's a whole generation of kids who only know Bob Odenkirk as the guy from Better Call Saul and he's now an action star whereas like he's been around for well now 40 years between SNL, Mr. Show, his TV, his movie work like he's so wide range now where the time was he was just one of the best comedy sketch writers who ever lived.

Now he's

Bob Odenkirk, as Mel Brooks put it, he's Bob Odenkirk.

Like, I love

that.

I love it.

You watch him snap somebody's neck on screen and you go, that's the guy who wrote Chris Farley's van down by the river

sketch.

Yeah, exactly.

That's like a

Jeopardy question.

Like

you

could never...

No one ever would have guessed the trajectory of his career as he was that guy in Chicago I remember he was leaving right as I was starting and he would Go up on stage and make the back of the room left.

He didn't care.

Oh, yeah

And I was like, oh god, why would he do that?

That was terrifying to me But you know, he just became a comedy icon and now he's doing movies like this.

It just doesn't make any sense Yeah,

right?

And I'm pretty sure he was nominated for a Tony for for

Yeah

Another thing.

And

a great

guy.

You couldn't wish it on.

He's just well deserved.

He's a phenomenal dude.

Rob, you wrote, well, you didn't write it yet.

This is a teaser.

Okay.

You're going to write, follow Rob, by the way.

Rob, it's R-O-B-T-77 or not that Rob Thomas

at Substack.

Not that

Rob Thomas.

Okay.

Not that

Rob Thomas,

not the

Matchbox 20 guy.

There you go.

Not that Rob Thomas at Substack.

Rob's movie reviews are there and they're great.

You have one coming up tomorrow for a film called Fuse directed by David McKenzie, who directed Heller Highwater and Relay.

Yeah.

I loved them both.

This film has been on my radar.

Can you give us a teaser?

of what you're going to write.

Yeah.

It's another thriller.

I write in my review that like, like right now in the world, we're ruled by nitwits and grifters and like just seeing guys on or women on screen who know what they're doing, like Dr. Robbie on the pit or high skies.

Like, like that's entertaining, right?

Yeah.

Smart people dealing with problems.

And this is kind of like,

two versions of that where there's a old, unexploded World War II bomb found in downtown London.

Love that.

So right, great idea.

So they've got to clear the area.

This bomb disposal team comes in to work on it.

Meanwhile, there's a group of bank robbers who are using the distraction to break into a bank.

So you're kind of watching these two suspense things going on simultaneously.

It's, it's good.

It's really good.

Like it's, it's very sort of, uh, you know, lean and mean and, and you, you don't get much character development.

You're just kind of watching these, all these people go through things and kind of wondering what the connections are, where it's going to go and who's going to, who's going to screw it, who over and stuff.

So I thought it was really fun.

So yeah, it's confused.

It's going to open on Friday and I think pretty wide in theaters.

Just a quick follow-up, Greg, for Rob.

His first movie, and I didn't know this.

I had never heard of this, was called Start Up.

From 2014, this director got a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes.

So now that's on my radar, too, even though

it's not on the tape.

Never heard of that.

OK, I was going to ask

you.

Yeah,

yeah.

Cool.

I'm going to take this opportunity.

I'm going to, I'm going to put two questions from listeners into one question really quick.

So Sydney on the live stream wants to know if you've seen exit eight and have any thoughts.

And then Anna in Madison listening asks if you have seen the new Michael Jackson movie.

Interesting.

Now I have not seen either one exit eight.

Looks really cool.

It's like, like, like there's two movies, like this one and this other one.

I saw the trailer for back rooms where really it's like just these weird landscapes that people get stuck in, right?

Like exit eight is like somebody's at a train station and just endlessly lost.

And back rooms is this, I think it's based on a video game.

They just seem like really cool, different when we get like a horror movie every week, different horror movies at least.

Michael have not seen I.

I mean, this, it's, it seems kind of wild because like they didn't have the rights to talk about basically anything that the family didn't want them to.

So it seems like an extremely sanitized version of the Michael Jackson story.

Um, sort of like if like a Bill Cosby biopic ended in 1985.

Uh, so I don't know.

I don't know if I'll see that one or

not.

Our guest is Rob Thomas.

He is a Madison-based film critic and the CityCast Madison newsletter editor.

Follow him, read his sub-stack.

That's where all his reviews are, folks, not that Rob Thomas on sub-stack.

So, okay, so you have, all right, so Fuse, I'm excited to see now this exit eight.

I haven't heard of that, but Project Hail Mary, big time.

Another movie that's not a franchise, that's a studio film, you know, a vehicle driven by

a huge star Ryan Gosling, but still love seeing a movie do well that is not tied to a franchise or anything.

What did you think of project?

Tell me.

Absolutely loved

it.

I've already seen it twice.

Uh, saw it on IMAX a second time with telling my daughter, uh, let's go see it.

She hasn't seen it yet.

I'll see the third time.

Easy.

Nice.

And like you said, like it's like, it's like everything you want out of a movie.

It's, it's based on a book.

You still got original story, but not IP nine.

That's something you have to watch six other TV shows and nine other movies to understand.

It's like, I think good for kids.

Like, like there's a little scary, um, but also really involving for adults.

Like it's, and it's just so cool and beautiful to watch.

Like gorgeous movie.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And in a different way than a lot of outer space movies, like interstellar and things like that are.

So.

I love it.

I mean, I think it's one of my favorites of the

year.

That's a great point.

What you just said in this movie, Greg and Dom, they have like a spacecraft like I've never seen before.

Just the design of

it.

Right.

It's like, oh, thank God,

something outside the box, not a huge metal lung going through space.

You know, yeah, it was really cool.

It's really colorful.

Like a lot of space is like black and some white dots, but it's like, yeah, it's like, you know, it's like your poster on your door on your dorm wall in the seventies or something.

Right.

Yeah.

Was there, was there anything that at the Milwaukee, I'm not in Milwaukee, that's happening right now, Milwaukee Film Festivals right now.

By the way, we are sponsoring that.

So you're welcome, plug.

But the Wisconsin Film Festival, was there anything that stuck out to you that made you say like, oh, you guys need to see that?

Or like something that really, you know, cause there's the film festivals, whether it's Milwaukee or Wisconsin, they have, you know, those big films that are out there and people know about them.

And then there's small films, but is there anything that stuck out that you're like, oh, you guys need to see

this?

Put this on your list.

Speaking of the Milwaukee Film Festival, there's one called 25 Cats from Qatar.

That was

here too.

Yeah.

I don't know if it's the Milwaukee Film Festival this year, but it started when the director and the subject met at the Milwaukee Film Festival a couple of years ago.

And the subject is this Milwaukee cat cafe owner.

I think it's called Sip and Purr who goes to the Middle East to rescue cats on the street and follows her.

rescuing, as the film says, 25 cats from the streets of Qatar, which has like, like three million stray cats or something like that.

And it's a great, like, like I thought, oh, this is a worthy cause.

And I love cats and that's going to be great.

But it's actually quite moving and suspenseful.

She's meeting all these other cat rescuers who often have to do it under the radar and of the government there.

And she's trying to kind of smuggle them back.

She's sort of got permission, but it's, it's a, it's a little hazy.

Um, and it's really interesting.

So like it's a very small film.

Like it's, it's just hitting festivals at this point.

But if you ever play near you and if you have even 1% love of cats, you got to go see it.

Yeah.

There's a cat in this movie called Dr. Garfield, which looks like if Garfield was a doctor and he is my favorite cat of all time now.

I we had the director on directors.

Oh, did

you pbs?

Yeah, we showed a clip and there's one clip where you see like three million cats on the streets in this Middle Easter It's like what how did that happen?

Like that alone made me want to see the film, but I didn't get to it But

well Pete when a cat a boy cat loves a girl cat

slow down talk slow Let's really drag this out

You wrote about another film, Rob, on your subject, The Christopher's.

Tell us a

little bit about that.

That sounded really good.

Yeah, I saw that at the festival and also is now in some theaters.

I think it's a smaller release than normal was.

But it's a new Steven Soderbergh, one of my favorite filmmakers.

I was thinking, I've seen movies by him in theater since I was in college 35 years ago.

And he still makes great ones.

This is like Ian McKellen plays this.

old semi-retired artist, once famous, can now kind of forgotten.

And Michaela Cole, who is on the show, HBO, I may destroy you,

I will destroy you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She also was on a chewing gum is where she got

a lot of notoriety.

Yeah.

She's in a new movie with Anne Hathaway, Mother Mary.

She's excellent.

Anyway, she's hired ostensibly to be his assistant and kind of go through his things.

But in fact, she's an art forger who has been hired to finish some unfinished paintings that he's made so that what he

dies, his kids can sell them for like millions and millions of dollars.

And it's this sort of battle of wills between the two of them and like who's going to get one up on the other.

Uh, but they're also kind of a bond because they're both artists, even though they're very different.

Uh, for me, like it's even accounts best role since Gandalf, like he's so good in it.

And, um, it's a really, I thought it was a great, great film.

Kaper film.

Kind of.

And then it turns into something else.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nice.

Well, we're to check all of those things.

I'm going to write them all down because I want to just see a bunch of movies this spring because I feel like I'm not watching anything good.

But we could talk more about that next time, Rob's on the show, because this has been so fun hanging out with you, Rob.

If you want to check out his work, go to city, uh, check it out in city cast Madison.

He is the newsletter editor.

He's also a Madison based film critic.

You can check them out at not that Rob Thomas on substack, correct?

Correct.

All right.

Cool.

Thank you so much, Rob, for being here tonight.

We appreciate your time and we hope you have a wonderful, wonderful evening.

Thanks, guys.

Great

to see

you.

Thanks, buddy.

Yeah.

Great to see you too.

When we come back, we'll be wrapping it all up with the nightcap talking about the, talking about what we learned as well as getting some last knock, knock jokes as well as your texts in there.

So don't go anywhere you are listening and or watching nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

Stay tuned and stay

close.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

It's time to wind it down.

This is Nightcap with Greg and Pete.

Welcome back to Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on Civic Media.

You are either listening to us live on the radio or on the Civic Media app.

If you want to download that app, do that right now.

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If you're watching us right now on Facebook, YouTube, or the platform you still call Twitter, we can take your comments, your knock-knock jokes anytime because tonight's question of the evening is...

What is your favorite knock-knock joke?

Let us know.

Drop a comment in the live stream.

Drop a text.

We'd love to hear from you.

Tomorrow, our buddy, our pal, Martin Alvarado, will be here.

He works at the Madison Central Library.

He's a business and technology librarian there.

He'll be talking about everything going on at the library.

He'll probably have some great fun facts for libraries around you because last time he was here, he talked about a ton of libraries in the civic media reach.

And so,

Tune in tomorrow for that.

It's gonna be a great, great show.

Do we have any last-minute text messages?

Knock, knock, jokes, thoughts, anything you would like to share, gentlemen?

We have quite a few left.

We have quite a