I like space stuff, man. They always say we're looking for intelligent life on other planets.
That kills me. They have that qualifying condition on there. We're looking for intelligent
life. Like finding any life anywhere wouldn't freak us out totally. We're looking for the
more intelligent type. It's like we have found people on Neptune but we're from Earth. We're
looking for intelligent life. Two plus two is chicken. That's a negative Houston. Good
luck with your hopes and dreams.
The church bells and diamonds are ringing the door for the happy sound. Baby please, I know.
There's an index of all. But it's not like Christmas at all. I remember when you were here.
The starling love with the Phil Spector wall of sound behind you. You can only tell that Phil
Spector sound. Baby please come home. It's seven away to WRJ and radio hometown radio
and radio.
I'm John Rosen. I want to thank you for joining us here on this with 20 days before Christmas.
Today's the 50th and 20 days. Good math. I learned something in the grammar school. Right now it's 35 degrees.
Kind of a wet snowy drizzle around town. Rain and snow showers, hands near 41, 14 day. Cloudy
lows around 30 to 9 partly sunny with a high year 39 tomorrow. We will have local news from
the new centers compounded for us. We'll have that at the bar right now. Nick Ramsey is joining me.
And I found that he's a local local born and raised and bred and received. And this is where you've been
all your life, right? That's the truth. Have you traveled anywhere else?
I lived in a walkie for about five years. No, I mean travel to planet.
Oh, furthest away is Nicaragua. Oh, that's as far. What brought you down to Nicaragua?
It was a medical mission for college. Wow, look at you.
Something good for the planet and the people. Yeah, it was a good experience. Really great.
Well, that's great. Nick Ramsey is a kind of an entrepreneur.
He helps with cultural activities all around the Racine area.
And if you don't know his name, you've probably known some of his activities when we go through some of them.
So people would be familiar with them. I've been involved a lot with like the poetry world,
literary arts world. That's not right there. You were a poet laureate for Racine. That's correct.
Yep. And there are states in a poet laureates of a laureates. The United States has one.
They have a poet laureate. She was a, she was a young girl, the latest one.
She, I think I don't know if it's President Obama or President Biden made her the poet laureate, but she's a young girl.
A young youth poet laureate. Yeah. Well, can touch our friend throughout.
I will interrupt you from time to time. That's perfect. Yeah.
I'd say, you know, I've mostly involved with like the literary arts, performing arts.
Big time with events, you know, the poets laureate committee, this organization called Art Root,
our organization, which is a small business called Family Power Music.
We put on, you know, events that showcase all kinds of like multi-disciplinary arts.
And we don't try to connect. Now, what does that mean? Multi-disciplinary?
Yeah. People can hear that and say, hmm, that sounds interesting. What is it?
Yeah. So think of like combining a tap dancer with a rapper and maybe some visual arts on the wall,
a culinary artist cooking up some stuff. And so like each one is a discipline.
And you just collaborate and multi-disciplinary and ism is.
Well, now it makes sense. Yeah. The way you describe it.
Now, you're also involved in what was called Dan Jam at one time. I remember that.
It's not called that anymore though. What does it call now?
So it's the Family Reunion Music Festival. And a fun story about that is it goes way back
to when I was turning 26, my golden birthday, June 26.
And I was just trying to have a birthday party with entertainment and, you know, food and drinks.
And my good friend Dan Conner, rest in peace, Dan Conner, he was helping me plan that.
And so the first year we had the event and then, you know, Dan passed right,
basically right at that point in time. So the next year we decided we wanted to dedicate it to Dan.
We did that for a number of years, helping raise funds for the food bank, the YWCA,
just a lot of different things. And at a certain point in time, we started losing a lot more people.
And we decided to kind of rebrand it to honor not only Dan, but including Dan,
but a lot of all the other people that we've lost and people that are still living, you know.
So just honoring life, celebrating life, we have entertainment, multidisciplinary entertainment,
and tons of local food. It's a fundraiser.
This most recent year, we raised a couple grand for the Racine Urban Garden Network.
Well, obviously he's not held in the winter. When is it held?
It's always the last Saturday in June.
Okay. Yeah. So I think it's the 29th this year coming up, 2024.
Well, that's great. Now you also teach after school programs, Gilmore, and Case High Schools.
That's right. Now what are they?
So that's a new endeavor. About three years ago, we started, we were reached out to by a guy named Antonio Crane.
Antonio ran a lot of different programs throughout the community.
And I met him, I think, through the, maybe the cops' houses or, or someone where he does a lot of programming for kids.
So he reached out, he said, Nick, I know you do a lot of entertainment stuff, creative writing stuff.
If you would be interested in coming or putting in a proposal for the school year after school programming,
I'd invite you to do so. So he sent me over the form, filled it all out, sent it in, started at Gilmore.
That's where I went to school. It's close to where I live. So three years ago, we started at Gilmore,
with just a couple students. And we have to recruit every single student. It's a voluntary program.
So the kids, you know, can choose if they want to do it or not.
And we've been doing it for three years. Last year, we added Case High School.
And I'm proud to say that things are just growing pretty organically.
And it's awesome. I get to work with second graders through 12th graders. So it's like reliving my youth a little bit.
You must have the patience of a saint.
Because they get distracted very easily.
Unless there's something so amazing in front of them, they get distracted.
And you gotta drag them back in again.
Yeah, there's redirection that goes along.
Redirection, that's better than dragging back in.
Yeah, we redirect.
But you gotta change things up. You can't just be doing the same thing for a long, long period of time.
So just change it up, have a new activity, get up, stretch, move around.
And yeah, we have a lot of fun.
So poetry is a big part of your life.
Absolutely. When did you start that in high school, middle school, grammar school?
You know, I always tell a story that one of my first experiences receiving poetry was at Gifford Elementary.
So I'm a Gifford Gator at Gilmore Griffin in a case, Eagle.
I can keep going on, you know, but back at Gifford, we had a guest poet who was an artist in residence.
You might know this name Linda Flishinsky.
Okay.
Yes, I do know that. Why do I know that name?
Because of really well respected writer, poet, and just awesome human.
She worked for the school board for years.
She wrote a weekly column in the newspaper.
So the story is her youngest son, Jeff and I were classmates.
She came in as the artist in residence, and I think it was first grade.
And I just remember this lady was introduced to us.
She turned the light off.
Little match, little candle, and recited a poem.
And I thought it was like the most epic thing ever done.
And so that was kind of the first little spark.
And then, you know, I would always write things in school and projects.
And then when I got into high school, my older cousin Dan, he encouraged me to try freestyle rapping, which is, you know, just improv.
So it's like you put on a backing track with a beat and a rhythm.
And you just make things up as you go.
And you try to be funny and it's more comical and just entertainment.
So that was roughly about like 14, 15 years old.
And so I did that for a long time.
Then I started writing thanks to the urge by my good friend Mark Djurgowitz.
And then it was just like, you know, try writing this poem for more, you know, free verse or write a song.
You know, so I just kind of dabble with a bunch of different stuff.
Language wise.
Well, that's good.
And you still do it to this day.
Absolutely.
Do you find any students at the schools you go to that they want to get into overtory writing?
Absolutely. It's not as popular as maybe you would think.
But if you find the right poems and the right audience, you got to kind of gear it towards the grade.
So that's, that's what I found.
You know, you get more simple, kind of rhymy, uh, metered stuff for younger kids and, and very like image heavy and simpler language.
And then when you get to the high school, you just, you get a little more intense with it and, and you break lines down and say,
what do you think this means?
And you create your own.
And so it, it's there.
People like stories, people like songwriting, people, people enjoy language.
You know, and I can't write a song.
I can't even conduct a melody.
I can't sing.
But when I hear a poem, I can get lost in it.
If it's a good poem and it's read properly, with a nice voice reading the poem, the imagery if you close your eyes, you become lost in that poem.
And it really means a lot to you.
Now you want to hear it again.
You want to close your eyes again and picture the imagery when you hear that poem.
If it's, if it's well done, I'm not talking about Dr. Seuss poems.
You know, the eggs are green.
You are mean.
And I, and I am going to scream.
Oh, he's busting a wrap over here, but freestyle.
They W R G.
Of course, Dr. Seuss, you know, everybody grew up with Dr. Seuss poems.
Yeah.
But that's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the poems that just, you're right.
Have a nice metered feel to them.
The young kids up bring out like shell silver steam, you know, and like,
I remember when I was a kid, like, finding where the sidewalk ends.
And I remember when it was like homework, a homework, a H.U. stink.
I wish I would wash away in the sink.
That's good.
Yeah.
Let's shell silver steam, you know?
So, yeah, meter definitely helps and helps with the flow.
And yeah, you can get lost in a poem for sure.
Oh, yeah.
Nick Ramsey, my guest.
He is all about recene, arts, cultural activities going on.
We'll talk more about that coming up in just a moment.
He had 718 at W.R.J.N., rain and snow showers.
So, most of the day, today with the high-tier 41, right out 35 degrees,
still a wet snowy drizzle out there, careful driving, careful walking.
You're at Civic Media, hometown radio, refresh time, Don Rosen.
Thanks for joining us here on this, what is it?
Tuesday, Tuesday morning.
Hang all the mistletoe, I'm gonna get to know you better.
This Christmas, and as we trim the tree, how much fun it's gonna be together.
This Christmas, the fire size blazing bright.
We're caroling through the night.
And this Christmas will be very special Christmas for me.
At 721 at W.R.J.N., and my guest is Nick Ramsey.
And Nick does a lot of work with cultural activities in recene and the surrounding areas.
I've done plenty of stuff.
Yeah, it's about to say it's not just recene.
I don't want to just say recene if you dabble in connoction.
A dabble in Milwaukee, and a dabble in Milwaukee again, and have been around.
Is there money in this?
Not a whole lot, no, not much.
But you gotta just keep on going at it, and you can definitely make a living out of it.
Yeah, what's art route?
Oh, thank you very much.
Art route is an organization.
A bunch of artists, art lovers, art advocates.
They all came together on a table, like a brainstorming session, and created art route.
And so the goal really with art route is to reinvigorate recene through the arts.
And so one of the first things we ever did with art route, and one of the founding members of that.
And it goes back 10 years roughly, and I'm not gonna shout out everybody because it would be just too long.
But there's so many great people that are involved with art route.
One of the first events that happened was just a mixer.
So getting people together, artists together.
And so we do that two times a year, and it's free food.
There's music playing.
And we just mingle, get to know about different events and activities and programs and offerings that the community has.
And you get representatives from the symphony orchestra, to gallery, to the museum, to the theater guild, to a dance company.
So everybody's coming together and figuring out how they can collaborate.
That's the first thing art route started with.
Then the second thing, you might have seen some of these huge wall poems around town.
That was based off of Charlotte, North Carolina, had some called the wall poems of Charlotte.
And we wanted to model it after that, but use local poets instead of nationally recognized poets.
So it was our job to catalog a bunch of local poets, get their material, vote on them, and work with UW Parkside and their graphic design department and the students.
And they create a project where they take these excerpts of local poets and match it with artwork.
And then it gets put up on a big old wall.
So there are six wall poems around Racine now.
There's at least one schedule for this next year.
You know we're any located.
Absolutely.
So I think the easiest one to say is at the Racine Public Library when you first walk in, you know, the newly renovated public library.
You go in there, right in the lobby, right where you would check out first floor, right behind the checkout desk.
Yes, yes.
That's one.
So that's the only indoor one we have.
That features Dan Nielsen, a local poet here, and the artwork is done by a good friend of ours, D Hutch.
The first one that was ever done is on 16th Street.
It is between Ann and Junction across from 16th Street Studios.
Features Ann, Lungquist, Poem, and the artwork by Laura Houter.
So yeah, there's six of them around.
You can go to artroot.org and forward slash wall poems and you can find the locations of all those.
So yeah.
I went to the open house of the 16th Street Studios over the weekend.
And for people that don't know, it looks like an old banded industrial building.
It's the old Vaughn Schrader building.
And that's what it looks like on the outside of the inside.
And it's still got that factory feel to it.
But once the doors open to the small little cuppy hole offices all around artists.
I don't think of all the names I can come up.
People who created things with their fingers, their hands.
We went there mainly to see Jim Brissier.
He has a collection of old Racine.
I mean, old Racine's got the old Nelson's variety neon sign laying on the floor in there.
It's too big dang up and he'll bang against the ceiling.
But he's got memorabilia, including a horse and buggy, which I would never have driven in.
Well, I wouldn't have a choice back then with steel wheels.
Imagine hitting bumps in the road with that thing.
I mean, we're talking not paved roads.
We're talking to potholes, which is dirt.
I don't know.
People survived.
They didn't.
They died early.
They didn't survive.
But if you want to take it, I think they do an open house twice a year.
You've got to go in that place and see the artists at the run.
We went on the second floor, but they're on all floors.
You've been there before.
I was there this weekend.
Oh, you were there this weekend.
Yeah.
I was bopping about, you know, second floor, third floor, fourth floor, first floor.
So yeah.
And it looks kind of old and rugged.
But once you get in, you're lost in these places because it's all their artwork.
Everything they've created.
And some of them won't sell anything like Jim Garcia won't sell anything inside there.
Because it's his collection.
I took a picture in there because we have a historian from the public library coming in Thursday.
So be our guest here.
And it took a picture.
And in the picture, you can't see with a library.
That's how early the picture was.
And I'm going to show it to her and say, where is it in this picture?
Because there was a library, but it's not where it is today.
Is that library?
I don't think it's that old.
So, but you get to find these things and, you know, you can get lost.
You can spend three, four hours without even realizing it inside the 16th Street Studios.
I wish they put a sign outside that says that.
It's kind of a hidden gem.
And that's like speaking of cultural things.
Like when there's people that want to get more involved in the arts community,
one of the first places we recommend to take them or encourage them to go to a 16th Street Studios
or even the uptown area in general.
Because there's tons of arts going on over there.
So, yeah, it's a great open house.
Now, was this one time?
I know they have some sculptures on Highway 20 in uptown.
Was it meant to be an artist colony at one time?
Were they going to build that?
Did it not happen?
Or what happened to that?
Yeah, my understanding.
Is this kind of like right when I was getting involved a little bit with it?
This was a past mayor.
I think it was Mayor Becker at that point.
And I remember them talking about making affordable studio space.
Where you could like lease a building for like a dollar or buy a building for a dollar.
And they were going to make uptown the arts district.
Right.
I'll just, I'll let you know that it is the arts district in Racine.
And, you know, along with downtown and midtown and all kinds of different spots.
But uptown is really doing a whole lot right now.
You could take glass blowing downtown.
Right.
One of our aldermen in town, she owns that.
And she, you could take glass blowing classes right there.
And there's so many other classes you could take all around.
You got to look for them.
They're not going to shout at your face.
They don't advertise on television.
Some advertise on radio.
Some don't.
So, you got to look for these places or you're not going to find them.
Yeah.
And I bring your kids because you never know what you're going to spark in a kid when he sees that.
I mentioned this the other day.
My wife teaches piano lessons to a 10-year-old.
Now that she played the piano now, and she's beginning on the piano.
She plays a viola in the band in school, New Orchestra.
But here's a kid that wants to learn everything she can about music.
Teach me piano.
Teach me viola.
I want to learn everything out there.
And that's great when you have that kind of thing inside a kid.
But if you don't expose them to it, see, I'll tell you this right after the break here.
How I got involved, loving Broadway show music.
And I have one of the biggest collections of Broadway cast albums at home.
And I'll tell you about that coming up.
It's 729 at W.R.J. in the Grams U. My Guest.
We've got more coming up.
Keep it here at W.R.J. in.
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.
Just like the ones I used to know.
Where the tree tops glisten, and children listen.
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.
With every Christmas card I write.
May your days be merry and bright.
And may all your Christmas be white.
That's the biggest selling song in history.
Not the biggest selling Christmas song.
The biggest selling song in the history of music, white Christmas.
And the Bing Pronsby versions, the biggest version.
Taylor Swift has had beaten that.
No artist has ever beaten that record.
Literally.
And it did not come from the movie White Christmas.
Like Ramsey, you know where it came from?
It didn't come from White Christmas.
So it was used in the movie White Christmas.
But it was from Holiday Inn with Bing Pronsby.
And he had a, he bought a bed and breakfast type set up at restaurant.
And they did holiday shows only.
Only on the holidays we were able to come in.
And one of the holidays was Christmas.
And they sang this song.
The hotel chain Holiday Inn took their name from that movie.
Holiday Inn.
And that's where that came from.
So you come here to get a little smarter.
Every day and no.
I know nuggets of information.
Little pockets.
Bust them out, man.
That's it.
We have news headlines this morning at WRJN Stewart J. Wattles in our news center.
The proposed we're seeing Woodman's would be an updated version of the ganosha store
with a target for opening date in the mid to late 1925.
The received planning commission supported the Regency Mall redevelopment proposal last night.
A year and a half ago, the announcement was made to demolish the section of the aging mall.
To make way for the construction of a large grocery store and 300 apartments.
The city has already given approval for nearly $40 million in tax incremental financing.
The ganosha police and fire commission has selected Daniel Tilton to be the next fire chief in the city.
He's been with the department since 1996 currently serves as a deputy chief,
will have his appointment confirmed at a meeting scheduled from March 19th.
He said to assume the role April 2nd, following the retirement of the current fire chief Christopher Bigley.
They'll conserve three tours of duty overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Poor Kenosha County board supervisors don't want to keep that job.
The Kenosha news reports Jim.
Excuse me, Jeff Wombal from the 18th district has filed an official notification of non-candidacy.
In the county, he will not seek reelection.
He joins a man in Ned Wasky and Ed Kubicki, if I'm saying those right.
And also John O'Day is supers.
They will not run for reelection.
The deadline for notification of non-candidacy is December 22nd.
The deadline for candidates to file official documents for the spring election is January 2nd.
They were seen unified school district.
Planetarium is reintroducing its evening programs with the upcoming session set for tonight.
The program's called season of light aims to use astronomy to tell a story.
People showing up can expect the spotlight on northern hemisphere winter console.
Constellations and an in depth examination of the December evening sky.
Resumations are necessary.
The program takes place at the recene unified school district planetarium located inside Gifford.
Some Kenosha County firefighters are providing a free CPR class.
Summer is professional firefighters.
IAF local 4831 is offering a 100% free bystander CPR class next Wednesday night.
Those interested must sign up at advance for the link to the union's website.
The firefighters say it's a perfect opportunity for anyone to acquire basic CPR and life saving skills.
And finally, Kenosha County officials are seeking public input tonight on a proposed multi-use trail in Bristol.
The project along highway sea involves building an eight foot wide paved path replacing culvert pipes and installing a storm sewer system for improved drainage.
The meeting 4 p.m.
It's a presentation open house with exhibits and maps.
An opportunity for attendees to ask questions and provide feedback.
That's news from Stuart J. Wattles in our new setter today providing that those news stories keep you abreast of what's going on.
And we're seeing Kenosha in the surrounding communities.
The planetarium inside Gifford, huh?
Hey, man, I remember I went to Gifford and I'm ever being in the planetarium.
I want to go back and check it out.
The only planetarium I was ever in growing up in New York City in the New York City area.
We had the Museum of Natural History had a planetarium inside a huge planetarium.
And you look up and you feel like you're outside in the country.
Now keep in mind we didn't see the stars like everybody did in the Midwest.
We were covered with something else in the air.
So I never got to see the stars until you went to a planetarium.
But I didn't know that when they had a Gifford, it was a big.
Oh, it's, I mean, it's a smaller room, but it's not the Museum of Natural History.
I remember going there, you know, when you were in like fourth and fifth grade, you became a science docent,
at least back in the 90s.
And it was, it was John Cerndonk who ran it.
I think he's retired and there's, there's a new, new person, but maybe I'm wrong on that.
But yeah, you would be a docent and you had all these kids from other schools come to Gifford.
And you would kind of showcase all these different science experiments and bring them to the planetarium.
And it was the cool thing, you know, Gifford was known as the cool place to take a field trip.
Well, that's great.
You know, my wife and I this summer went for the first time to the observatories out in Yorkville.
They have these big buildings where you can, they open the, to do it, if they'd be a member,
except a couple of times a year, I think once a month or in the summer, they, they open it up to the public.
And you can go there and look at these giant telescopes.
I've never been that close to the moon in my life.
I mean, you can see the craters.
I mean, you can see somewhat when you look at the sky moon binoculars.
But with their telescopes, you can see the 3D effect of those craters on the moon.
I suggest people take a trip out there.
I don't know if they'd do it in the winter at all.
I know Hawthorne Hollow has an observatory there as well, a big telescope that is.
Well, they have two of them.
They have a smaller building and the big one.
We've done both of them.
Okay.
And the lines move fast because they say, look, next, look, next, look,
you got to keep it moving if you don't know what's going to see anything.
And then they've got club members who set up telescopes all over the grounds.
So in the meantime, you can look through their telescopes.
We went out, not to get too much into astronomy,
but we went out to the country to watch the parade of planets.
It was this past summer.
Did you, were you aware of that?
I didn't know about that.
No.
Yeah, you were able to see, I think eight planets all in a row.
They called it the parade of planets.
Two of them were hard to see because you had to see it just as the sun was coming down.
You had a brief glimpse of them.
But the rest were all up there.
And we had to go way out in the country to go get a good look at it.
And we pulled up to this person's driveway.
I knocked on the door.
They weren't home, but we parked in the driveway because we couldn't park on the road.
It was a thin road.
And we saw the parade of planets.
I waited for the police to come because I didn't know if they had a camera and a alarm system in the house.
But anyway, we saw the parade of planets.
You got to get out and see this stuff.
I have a friend who puts the sterling stuff on her website, not a website, Facebook page.
And you can actually hear the space station going, you can see it and hear it.
It makes a buzzing noise when it goes over your house.
They tell you the exact time to look at the sky.
Do you need binoculars?
No, but it would help if you did have them.
And you look at the sky.
You can hear, you can see the satellites going over.
They have a short window.
So you got to be out there.
It's got to be a clear night.
But when the space station came over, you can go, normally you wouldn't pay attention to it.
It goes fast.
And you got to be waiting for it.
Anyway, there are things you could do all over, you know.
Right.
I mean, you get the arts, you've got the sciences.
And put down the computer, put down the cell phone, put down the television, don't put down the radio.
And put down all and just look at the sky, go examine what's around town in museums and so forth.
You wanted to talk more about art route.
Yeah, I wanted to make sure that I mentioned one other project specifically for art route.
We have a program that's been running, oh man, pretty much the length of history of art route.
It's called the Racine writer in residence program.
So before the pandemic, a writer that was chosen was paid to write.
And it could be a nonfiction writer, a fiction writer, a poet, any type of writer.
And they would take residence at a location.
It was the Racine Arts Council for a while.
Then it was the branch at 1501 and then Wilson's coffee and tea most recently.
But when the pandemic hit, it was hard to like, you know, outside of being at your own residence, be at a physical location.
But we're getting back to having the writer in residence be at a physical location.
So the reason I'm bringing it up is we have had 15 writers in residence.
And there is currently an application out there for people to apply from Racine or Kenosha.
You have to be 18 years of age or older.
You get paid $1,500.
It's a six month gig and your responsibilities are, they're definitely, you have to do something pretty significantly.
But it's not a whole lot.
So what you have to do is you have to write a weekly blog post.
Post about it online on the writer in residence website, which is Racine WIR for writer in residence, Racine WIR.com.
And a community based project and then take a residence somewhere.
So it's really not a whole lot, but you have obligations, at least weekly obligations.
But yeah, it's a $1,500 gig.
You can go to the application tab on Racine WIR or forward slash application.
And you can download the application and potentially become the 16th Racine writer in residence.
And you can be from Kenosha.
We play well, Kenosha and Racine.
We were just talking about that.
And actually you talked about the open house at 63 studios.
I used to be part of a group that doesn't exist anymore.
It's called Get Behind the Arts.
And that was where we connected Racine and Kenosha arts communities.
And you would take tours to art studios in Racine and then tours in Kenosha.
It was a big old event.
It was just crazy amount of work to organize.
So it disbanded.
But Racine and Kenosha were cousins.
You like music tonight at park.
I think it's park high school.
I'm going to have to look it up just to make sure park high school is the Racine concert band.
Now I'm involved with them for about.
I think it's 12, 13, 14, maybe 15 years as their host over at their MC at the zoo during the summer.
But they also do winter concerts.
And one is tonight is free.
Just show up at park high school.
They combine, they do their own music.
And then they combine with the band, the orchestra from the school.
And they work together with them.
That's got to be a lot of rehearsal.
Yeah.
That's right.
It's next level.
I was at the one last year at Horlick honoring Del Aish.
Oh, yes.
I know Del.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, he passed away just, you know, last September.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He was my band teacher.
What a nice man.
He was in here for many.
He did many interviews with us on the year at WRJ.
And I have his book at home and the band played on.
I got it too.
He autographed for me.
He was at all the concerts.
He stood by the donation drum, the big bass drum out there.
And he was so helpful.
And I used to need a lot of pronunciations.
And I said, he pronounced it.
And he'd say, whatever, give me the pronunciation.
And I said, you're sure?
He says, no.
That's my best guess.
I said, you know what?
Coming from you, I'll take your best guess over my best guess.
Any other way.
I'm pretty sure it's park high school.
I'll check it out in a moment.
And it's free.
And you get to, and bring the kids they're going to play,
not just Christmas music.
They play all kinds of music.
So I had, yesterday was, Mark Ockner was our guest yesterday morning.
And he put a lot of work into that.
I went to one of the rehearsals.
And all they do is rehearse once.
And then they put on the concerts at the zoo during the summer.
I said, they get that down in one setting.
He said, they're pros.
And only twice I had to rehearse with them because I had to do a narration,
Casey at the bat, and the pipe, pipe, or a hamlin.
I did that.
And I took me a few times to get into the sink where you've got to end up a sentence
right on their notes.
But they are.
What pros they are.
They're excellent.
Nick Ramsey, my guest.
We're talking about arts and everything going on in the scene.
You got to get your kids involved in this stuff.
Tell them to put down their cell phones for a few minutes,
unless they're looking at arts on their cell phone.
And they can be like, hey, hey, it works.
Tell them to put down the video games and all that kind of stuff for now.
We're going to talk about how to become a poet laureate.
Okay.
I've heard of states having them.
The United States has one.
I never heard of local communities having one until you told me.
So how do you become a poet laureate?
We'll find out.
Coming up here at WRJN.
Right in the snow showers for the high near 41 today.
Clotty with low around 30 tonight.
Party sunny highs near 39 tomorrow.
Right now, wet snowy drizzle mixture out there, 35 degrees.
A WRJN hometown radio refreshed.
But baby, it's cold outside.
But baby, it's cold outside.
Been hoping that you drop in.
I'll hold your hands that just like ice.
Beautiful, what's your father will be facing?
Listen to the fireplace roll.
Beautiful, please don't embrace.
Put some records on while I pour.
Baby, it's bad out there.
No caps to be had.
They know what a coincidence.
They know a demon.
I feel bad.
He died on Christmas Day.
He was a broken man.
His son was killed.
He was in the Air Force and a plane.
He was in crashed in the desert out in Nevada.
I think it was.
And he never recovered from that demon.
And he lived alone.
And here's a guy who was the rat pack, the toast of Vegas.
Everybody wanted to be his friend.
He died a lonely man all by himself because he was broken.
He couldn't get over the death of his son.
A lot of people can't.
And he couldn't.
And they showed a picture.
I'm sitting alone in the restaurant eating.
And I think a couple of weeks later, he passed away on Christmas Day.
A sad ending.
But you can understand why all of a sudden his life changes from being Mr. Party.
Mr. Excitement had his own show.
The Dean Martin, the gold diggers.
And then he had the Dean Martin roasts and all of a sudden all over when his son died in the crash.
And one of his sons was in rock and roll.
Dino Desi and Billy.
Now you don't remember that song.
I was back in the 60s.
Dino Desi and Billy.
They had one song.
It wasn't even that big a head.
We're talking to Nick Ramsey, poet laureate for recene.
Tell us.
I know what a poet laureate does, but tell everybody what it does.
And a poet laureates responsible for.
And how do you get the job?
I mean, I know that young girl who's the US poet laureate.
She got it because she was an amazing.
She got all the news media coverer and brought the attention to the president.
But yeah.
So I just want to clarify like I'm not the current poet laureate.
I was recene county poet laureate in 2014 and 15.
And the program is existence in Racine and Kenosha.
Again, cousins.
They decided to come together to form this collective group to bring a poet laureate forward from our counties.
And so there's a Kenosha County poet laureate and a Racine County poet laureate.
The current Kenosha County poet laureate, his name is Christopher Cologne.
The current Racine County poet laureate is Elizabeth Park.
And they're just really, really great.
So I think the way I can best describe a poet laureate is basically you're an ambassador for poetry.
Can I kick your foot?
No.
Well, I kicked another human being.
No, I think it's just the bottom here.
But yeah.
So Paul, Laurie, you got to be basically an ambassador for poetry, for language.
Encourage people to like it, to love it, to explore it, to navigate the world of it.
The poetry community in Racine and Kenosha is super amazing.
And you jump in.
You're going to find out that we are.
That's why we have wall poems all around here.
That's why we have so many great poetry open mics and really great poets around here.
So how you become a poet laureate, it's different in every community with Racine and Kenosha.
It's a two year term.
So the next term will be 2025 January will be like the start of the next term.
So we'll be calling for applications later on 2024, probably towards I'm guessing September, August, or something like that.
And basically it's like it's like a job.
You put your resume together, you've CV, you put poetry examples together and you send it all in based off of the checklist that we ask for.
We narrow it all down.
We have in-person interviews, they do readings.
We all vote for who we think is the best fit.
And that person is in place for two years.
Any age limit?
18 years young and older.
Any educational qualifications, no?
You know, it's obviously kind of a not of the hat and what is a feather in the cap.
Like if you have some kind of like literary background with like maybe English or creative writing programs or whatnot, but it's not necessary.
It's not like an absolute necessity to have that background, like a teaching background or something like that.
Well, that's neat.
Yeah.
It's 18 and older.
So if you are younger than anything, you have something to shoot for.
Yeah.
And who do you put the applications in?
It's about to drop that and drop that out there.
You mentioned that.
Yeah, you must have seen it coming.
So I've been doing all these comms.
This is a K.R. Poets.
So Kenosha Racine Poets.com.
So K.R. Poets.com.
You can find information about the current writers or current poets and past poets and applications when they are open.
And yeah, the poetry community.
Large and in charge.
And pretty amazing people around here.
Who knew that there's so much going on under our noses in Racine and most people don't even know about it?
Well, let me just drop this on your head real quick.
So last night, there's jams all over the place and open mics all over the place.
Kenosha Racine, Milwaukee, obviously everywhere has them.
But last night at Georgia's tavern, we had the opportunity to go to their jam and a friend of mine,
a pro-fellow poet and myself.
We got on stage with the musicians and performed some poetry.
So it was live and well, just even less than 12 hours ago down.
You know, I mentioned I grew up in New York City.
And I've been to Greenwich Village a lot.
But I've never been into one of the coffee shops where the poets used to just recite their poetry in the coffee.
You just stand up on a makeshift stage.
People went about their business.
They listened.
Some didn't listen.
But back in the 60s, that's what they did.
They stood on stage of these coffee shops, recited their poetry.
And they hope people listen.
And they were really intentional about listening.
And I remember hearing a lot about the beats and studying the beat poetry.
And the beat nicks.
The beat nicks.
And New York and poetry cafe.
That's New York.
I remember I've been in New York City and done some poetry out there too.
Really?
Yeah.
Oh, no doubt.
It's alive and well for sure.
You know, I remember my mom and dad taking me once on a summer night in the Greenwich Village.
And there was some artist night.
I don't know what it was.
I was a young kid at the time.
But all the artists had their easels on the street showing their artwork.
There were people reciting, I guess, poetry.
I was a little kid at the time.
I didn't really know much about it.
But it was a great time to grow up when people, before the internet, before people blogging
and putting all their stuff on Facebook.
They used to stand out in the streets.
And that's how they got there.
Where's out there?
And that is show people.
And it was kind of nice walking around Greenwich Village looking at all that stuff.
I like the fact that a lot of those artists would hang out with one another.
Yeah.
So that's the case in Racine, too.
So you might be a poet or a songwriter.
But you can be hanging out with a visual artist.
And it's kind of like the cafe mentality or like the parlor mentality.
You know, like talk back to like Gertrude Stein and Hemingway and Picasso and all that.
Like they all would hang out.
And so that's a good thing.
Nick Ramsey, thank you for being my guest today.
I kind of have you back some time.
Hey, you bet.
When you have more events coming up, let us know about them, okay?
Oh, yeah.
Look online and you'll those dot coms dot orgs.
You'll find out tons of information.
I want you to tell us on the radio.
I'm Don Rosenberg, catch you tomorrow for our anniversary show.
Six a.m. bright and early.
Be here, okay?
Thank you.
Thank you.