Also, when I was a child, my mom told me if I went on a roller coaster, my head would snap off.
What the heck are our parenting skills, or those?
I didn't go on a roller coaster till last summer.
I wore seven turtlenecks and a tie.
I wish I had my helmet.
They take thy ripped apart, wamed for years to lay down by heart.
Back to the leagues, the floor doors are wet.
That took a down and almost cut.
All I got to do is to love you.
All I got to be is be happy.
All it's got to take is a boat to make it blow away, blow away, blow away.
At 707 at WRGN Radio, I'm Don Rosen.
Thanks for joining us here on this Friday morning.
Jimmy Cusca is attending these eight teachers conference in Milwaukee.
He's our sports director here at Civic Media, and I thought he was covering the sports angle of the teachers conference.
But that's not the case. You're actually a school board member, right?
Yes, so I'm on the school board in Bosquibal, Wisconsin, which is in a far south-western Wisconsin.
Yeah, not a lot of sports angles for something like this, but I'm definitely here to open about everything as a school board member.
I thought maybe in case a hockey fight broke out or something.
Yeah, maybe.
Or somebody took a free shot from a half-court line who made it.
I thought you were there to cover it.
Okay, so this is the state teachers conference, right?
So how many people are there?
So, you know, with 421 districts in the state, just about every district sent at least one person.
A lot of districts, including ours, sent multiple, we sent four.
A lot of them sent about the same amount, three, four, some sent five or six.
So just doing the quick math, you know, well over 1,000 administrators, school board members are here at the education convention.
Now where's it being held?
So we're in downtown Milwaukee at the Baird Center.
It's been the venue for the last few years.
One of the cool things about the venue is that they have the exhibitors all, the vendor all, on the third floor, the top floor, right?
So when you walk in there, it's, you know, there's just over 1,000 vendors in there, right?
There are just tons of people with all these different educational services.
But the cool thing is that they actually have the companies that make school buses and sell school buses.
And once you know it, they actually get three or four school buses up there so people can walk through and check them out.
And I ask everybody, you know, how do you get school buses up here?
And I've got, I've heard every theory from, you know, they just pull the roof back and drop them in with helicopters.
And they just go them right on-site and everything.
But it's still quite a sight when you walk in and you see full actual school buses hanging out on the third floor of the building.
They haven't really changed much since I was a kid.
I actually, you know, drive behind them all the time.
And the kids are out there waving at me, giving obscene gestures to me.
I see that all the time.
Now, when I was a kid, you didn't take school buses to school because I was able to walk.
But in kindergarten, they made us take them.
And I remember my bus driver was Mr. Clancy.
And he just, just like you would think Mr. Clancy talked with an Irish accent.
And he was also a volunteer fireman.
And he told me something back in 1960 that I never forgot.
Actually, 1959 maybe.
He told me something I never forgot for the rest of my life.
He told me that if you hear, now this is the town I lived in.
If you hear two short siren whistles from the fire department, it means a fire.
One long one means an emergency.
And it's funny.
And now that may have just been where I grew up.
But it's funny what you remember on that bus.
And again, the buses look the same.
They're simple yellow school buses, the same seats and same everything when I was a kid.
So at the conference, they actually have vendors there showing you the latest in this,
the latest in that, the latest in rulers to hit the kids on the wrist.
I mean, the latest in everything, right?
Yeah.
And what's really neat about it is there's things that you don't even think of in terms of education
that make their way here.
Everything from social media platforms and managers to how you can use AI and education
to just strategies and communication.
There's a lot of aspects to it that you learn about as part of this.
And as far as school bus technology,
it is neat to kind of learn about that too.
I like you.
I didn't really know that school buses have changed a whole lot.
When I wrote on mine, my hour and a half bus ride in northern Wisconsin,
you know, in the middle of the frozen winter, I'm like, well, this is cold, you know.
But it's neat to see some of the trends.
For example, painting the top of school buses white to, you know, for reflecting some of the sunlight
and keeping buses a little bit cooler, you know, in the warmer months.
So just there's a few little things that you learn that you go through the things that you would have never picked up.
Just, you know, not being deeply involved in these things.
So yeah, it is really neat to learn about some of those trends in education and, you know, facilities.
There are a lot of people with facilities things here.
You know, it's really cool to have these conversations and just learn what all kind of goes into, you know, the school process.
Now, a lot of people say, why don't they have seat belts on school buses?
And there's a reason for it.
And this was the reason I was given if there's an emergency.
You've got what 40 kids on a school bus.
And if the bus driver has to unbuckle 40 kids in an emergency, it won't work.
So what they do is they don't buckle them in.
So in cases emergency, everybody can get out in the hurry.
And we've seen school bus accidents on the news where buses burst into flames and these kids got to get out in the hurry.
And if they're buckled in, he would take a long time.
So that's the reasoning they give.
You talked about AI.
Here's something that I don't know how teachers are going to fight this.
I mean, kids doing their term papers and their papers with AI help.
I mean, it used to be we copied out of an Encyclopedia.
And that was pretty obvious because they were using words we didn't know how to pronounce.
But when you have AI, how they going to fight that?
You know, and that's the thing is a lot of these districts, you know, 56% of the districts in the state are considered rules.
So they don't have the resources for someone to go through and check every paper and make sure.
But, you know, the things that they were talking about here, you know, that was one of the subjects for sure.
And you don't think sometimes of things like AI being necessarily a, you know, like a K through 12 school issue.
But it was interesting to see that it was part of the sessions that were offered yesterday.
It wasn't one that I made it to, a lot of my sessions that I was embedding were, you know, school board related policy communication
and obviously school funding, which is a big issue this week at the convention.
I mean, theme of it.
But it was, it was easy to see just some of these trends that kind of emerged, some of these new processes, new, new teaching style.
All these things are kind of on display here this week.
You know, I'm still friends with some of my high school teachers in junior high school teachers on Facebook.
A lot of them, a lot of my, oh, my most of my grammar school teachers are gone now.
But my high school teachers are still there.
And I, they're on Facebook with me all the time.
I love, I can't think of one teacher I had.
Oh, there was one teacher I had that didn't like me in seventh grade.
She actually told my mother because I have a problem with your kid.
We have a personality conflict.
That's great.
That's why I got a D in that subject.
Anyway, so, but I loved my teachers.
I learned so much from them.
And I could tell you every single teacher I ever had in school and their names.
Not just because I have the yearbook.
I could tell you my grammar school teachers.
I picture them in my head.
My teachers were so good.
And my school district is very lucky to hire great teachers.
Is that a big problem hiring the right?
By the way, are people wanted to get into the teaching field?
You know, this is one of, I would say if there's a theme of this convention.
Number one, and it's really pretty far away.
The number one theme is school funding and how schools are going to make money.
And keep operations going in the light of declining enrollment.
And the end of federal dollar.
That's a longer conversation.
I've talked a lot about that on civic media this week.
But you hit on one of the ones that's kind of like a, if we had a second one,
let's look at two A to B hiring retention, you know, getting teachers in.
That's been a huge issue because the teacher pool was much smaller.
And there's some equity issues in terms of smaller districts being able to afford quality educators
where, you know, a larger district can offer a bit more in salary.
They can follow inflation and offer wages that are kind of keeping pace with that.
Whereas in a small district to say, you know, last year when the inflation index was 8%
to offer in across the board 8% raise, you know, that's a huge, huge commitment in your budget.
So a lot of districts wouldn't do that this year, by the way, the number is up.
You know, a little over 4%.
And that's still a really big number when historically the number is, you know, less than 2%.
So it is a big issue.
And it's a really big issue for rural districts that, again, have to compete with the rest of the state
and getting teachers in.
And I'll just share an example of my district.
We needed two math teachers when we went in, you know, in the summer,
the offseason when you're hiring teachers.
There were 276 openings for math teachers and maybe only 180 people kind of in that pool.
So if you need to kind of an example of what it's like to be a small district,
a lot of cases, a lot of times smaller districts are pulling, you know, people who are just getting out of college
or maybe just getting off their first student teaching assignment.
And that's where they got to go.
And oftentimes in a small district, they're often used as a stepping stone to get to one of those suburban or urban districts
where they can offer more salary.
Yesterday, we had a program here.
We had one of the teachers in and two other people with a student, a 16-year-old junior from Park High School here in Racine.
She developed working on a diesel engine that down NASA will start to use.
This is a junior in high school, is developing this diesel engine that NASA now has their eyes on.
That's amazing.
That's amazing.
Plus, she also plays the piano.
She plays other instruments.
She says, 16-year-old kid, this kid's got a future.
And she's only 16 years old.
Very quiet, unassuming person.
But we're in here doing talking about education yesterday, so it just kind of felt good to you coming in today.
Well, you know, you just sit on something too.
If there was another theme of this convention, it's a student achievement.
And highlighting just some of the incredible work that, you know, students are doing across Wisconsin.
They every year they do.
And our exhibit here at the General Assembly, they have, you know, yesterday it was a window ensemble from Middleton.
You know, we have music performers come in at this convention, which is then they're all really good.
I played band and there's no way I could sit any of these kids are really good.
But, you know, I think of just the things in our schools that are different than when I was in school.
And I graduated high school in 2003.
And it was kind of just that early emergence of, you know, online schooling, you know, getting your credits through a webcam, right?
Well, you know, last year at our graduation in basketball, again, not a big city, 2000 plus people.
But in our graduating class, we had one of our students graduate last year.
And what we offer, like a lot of schools do is dual credit.
You can earn your college credits and your high school credits with the same course.
You have to do it as distance learning, but a lot of students take advantage of this.
And we had one kid who graduated with 27 college credits already in hand.
That's a full year worth of college credits and you're leaving high school with basically a year of college already done.
And you didn't have to pay a thing for it.
I think that's just incredible.
We also, this next year with our curriculum, I didn't even know this about our own district.
I only lived there for two and a half years.
But our district actually, because we have a regional airport, we have an in-house flight simulator program.
So we actually had a student who actually was the first one in our district last year that actually went through in past back class.
The flight simulator class.
And now it's actually a course offering for people interested in learning how to be a pilot.
Hold it right there.
Jimmy Cusco is my guest.
We're talking about the state education conference in Milwaukee.
More to come.
Stay right here.
719.
WRJN.
All down radio refresh.
At 720, at WRJN radio, I'm Don Rose and Jimmy Cusco's here.
He's our sports director at Civic Media, but also a school board member.
And he's at the state education conference going on right now in Milwaukee.
And we're just talking off year that you're graduating class.
What had 36 people in it?
Yeah, flamboyle high school, 36 kids.
And there was one of the bigger classes that we had to go through.
You could have held that one at Denny's at graduation.
Mine had 970 people in my graduating class.
4,000 people in my high school, four grades.
Town that our high school was in at 110 as a population.
That's pretty crazy as well.
But you know what?
It wasn't odd to me because that was just it.
It was just, you know, the bell rang.
And it was bumper to bumper people in the hallway all the time.
But you know, I love my high school.
I was in the, I tried to be in the drama club.
I couldn't act.
So I was the stage manager for a couple of years.
We built a radio station.
Me and another person there got enough money from the principal.
We stormed into his office that need money to build a radio station.
And we built it.
And whenever I graduated, it still wasn't on the air, but it was built.
It looked like a real radio station.
We took over part of the lighting booth.
We had the janitor's build a wall.
And so I had a great time in high school.
I love school.
You used to know famous for building a radio station.
My school was famous for being one of the first to have
drive your tractor to school day.
I grew up in New York.
We didn't have tractors.
I was lucky though.
I grew up in a nice town of Massive Peak.
Well, my brother went to school in the Bronx when we were growing up there.
But I grew up in Massive Peak.
It was just a great time.
I love school.
I love my teachers.
I love everything about it.
I just, you know, and when I talk to a lot of the kids on Facebook that I went to school with,
of course, they're all senior citizens now, unlike me.
And we just talk about the good times we had.
And it's just, you know, they say you forget the bad times.
And how many bad times?
So.
So what else was going on there at the conference?
Want to get some of the other stuff you've been listening to over there?
Sure.
The big thing has been school funding.
A lot of schools are facing financial things.
And I think one of the things that's going to affect, you know, especially, you know, listeners,
is the fact that a lot of school districts are considering going to what is called an operational referendum,
which is going to raise, you know, which could potentially raise property taxes.
They survey districts and about a quarter of the districts in the state,
but a little more than a quarter are considering that for this year.
The record was 92, two years ago.
And everybody's sort of expected to be well over 100 this year.
You're listening.
There's a good chance for districts considering this.
And if they are considering it for April, they'll probably have a school board meeting on Monday to decide that.
So if you want to be somebody engaged in that process, make sure you're checking that part of it out.
I know that this is the news a lot.
And people talk about a lot of these things.
But the bottom line is that districts haven't had the funding to keep up with the rising cost of just about everything.
But that includes, you know, staffing and materials and facilities.
And so that's why they go to these operational referendum to kind of fill that gap in the budget.
The expiration of federal COVID funds is what's really taken off this round of it.
But you're going to see quite possibly it.
I would say it's almost certain that we'll have a record number of these referendum
because the federal pandemic funds all expire in September.
And that's how a lot of districts have been balancing the budget until now.
So that's something I think that's really the big trend from this convention.
It's what it's been talked about a lot this year.
So I would say that if there was anything that really came from it, that's one.
We talked already a bit about some of the other positive trends,
obviously, in education or the achievement and everything.
And, you know, obviously this convention draws, you know, the big stars of education in Wisconsin.
So, you know, a couple of days ago, actually the last two days,
we've had the state superintendent here, Dr. Joe Underley.
And then today, at the final part of this, which is just before noon today,
that's when everything wraps up.
We'll have Governor Tony Evers here to give a speech as well.
So that is really kind of, I guess, a two-minute kind of synopsis of everything that's going on here
this week at the Education Convention.
Now, we had something in my high school that I can't believe we actually lived through it.
We had a teacher strike in my senior year.
I think it was a senior year. It could have been the junior year.
And they were off for two months. That's a long time.
And a lot of the teachers were walking to picket lines in front of the high school.
The other teachers, some of mine, were having classes at their house.
So we go over the teacher's house and in their rec room, we would do our studies
because we were getting ready for, you know, the college exams
and the New York state requires the regent exam.
They don't have that anywhere else.
But you have to take these regents exams if you're going to state schools.
And you have to be prepared for it with a two-month strike or whatever it was.
I mean, even on my, my high school isn't there anymore.
So I called up the other high school in town. There were two high schools.
I said, whatever happened to my records from my high school,
we have them here. What's your name? I told Donald Rosen.
He's, oh, I'm holding it in my hand right now.
I said, could you send me a copy? He goes, yeah.
And she didn't ask for proof or anything.
So I got the copy. And on there, you know, all your grades are there for four years,
all your achievements. There's a note in bold.
It says the teachers were on strike and the list of the dates,
please don't hold this against this student.
When it comes to regents testing or any other testing that wasn't available
during those two months, it was written right on there.
And I kind of forgot about how long it was.
But you know, I coos to those teachers that said, come on over our house.
They had lunch for us and everything.
And each day was a different teacher.
I remember the Spanish teacher went over our house,
and she got us ready for the exams during the teacher's strike.
And I think that was great.
Well, you know, in current students, especially younger students,
had to go through something sort of similar with the pandemic,
where we had a lot of schools going to virtual learning.
So now we've seen the drop off in the testing and everything like that.
And I think people understand that that was all going to be affected by that.
So I think the kids now actually relate to something like that
because they had to go through it,
where they weren't able to go into school.
Absolutely. You know, I kind of forgot about that.
Virtual learning.
Was that, did it work?
I mean, were you able to sit there at home and learn on a, was it Zoom?
Or how did they do it?
Yeah, that was what happened in a lot of cases.
My kids are very young.
So my experience with it was my oldest, was in 4K.
And let me tell you, virtual 4K is not the way.
Kids, that young need to be able to run and play
and trying to sit them down in front of a video for, you know,
even seven minutes of the challenge.
I think it's like anything at various by person.
Older students, you know, older kids can probably handle it better.
But I tell you what, the data's pretty clear that
pandemic, pandemic era testing really brought scores down.
And, you know, it really kind of presented a change.
And what, you know, were students are going to school.
You see, you know, you're seeing rises and kids doing the voucher programs
or private schools or homeschooling, especially homeschooling.
But, you know, that being said,
there's still, of all the students in Wisconsin, 83% of them are still in public schools.
So, but, you know, you look at the testing the numbers.
There's no doubt that the pandemic and the virtual learning and things like that.
All really affected how kids have learned here in the past four years.
Well, I'm going to find out because I went to Hofstra University.
And I was working overnight at a radio station seven nights a week.
I was the station janitor and I was going to college full time.
And I was so exhausted.
I said, I'll take my last semester and one semester to go half a year to go.
And I said, let me put that on hold for a while.
My mother said, if you do that, you'll never go back.
I said, I'll go back.
What shoes right I didn't.
So, I called Hofstra University last year.
And I said, you know, I want to go back.
Well, first you have to go online and do this, this, this, this, this,
to find out how many credits you need because you lose some of them.
And I said, well, how would I do it?
Oh, you're doing online.
So, I'm going to find out what it's like to learn online.
I did this.
I actually went, because during the pandemic, I had a radio job for 17 years.
I got laid off from it.
I'm like, well, I got to do something, you know, with my time while I'm out.
So, I actually went back and did my schooling online with you to be superior.
And it was all virtual.
And a lot of different experience of what I had when I'd run the college previously.
So, I did my one year to finish my bachelor's degree.
And it is a lot different.
But the technology is a lot different to it and makes it able for you to actually learn things as well.
So, Jimmy Cuscus at the estate convention.
Thank you very much for spending Friday morning with us.
I do appreciate it.
Jimmy, so are sports director here at Civic Media.
And I know the vendors are playing tonight at 6 p.m. against Indiana because Jimmy told me so.
So, that's how I know.
Hey, thanks a lot.
Hey, thanks a lot, my friend.
Hold on the line.
Don't go anywhere.
Hold on.
In 729 at WRGN, we're hometown radio refreshed at Civic Media Station.
I got a great family.
I got a 16-year-old daughter who just got her driver's license.
So, she used to all drop to your knees and think the good Lord above that you live here and not where we live.
God, she's growing up.
She's growing up.
But I don't know when it happened, man.
I used to buy her mini-mouse panties and a little Winnie the Poo underwear.
I came home the other day and I was helping my wife fold clothes.
I picked up a little pair of skimpy underwear.
I looked at my wife and I said, hey, hey.
When you're going to wear these for me, she goes, I can't. They're your daughters.
Ow!
No, no, no.
There was nothing to them.
When the how-to wash tag is the biggest piece of cloth on there.
So, no one told you life was going to be this way.
Your job's a joke, you prove.
Your life's going to be a way.
It's like you're always stuck in second gear.
But when it hasn't been your day, we came up.
We're even going here.
But I'll be there.
When it hasn't been your day, we came up.
We're even going here.
But I'll be there for you.
Please don't see me.
I'll be there for you.
I'll be there for you.
Because you're there for me, too.
I'm still in bed at 10 and work again at 8.
And bring your breakfast so far, things are going great.
You mother won't you let me days like these.
I want you here to tell you where the world's from.
Tell your knees.
I'll be there for you.
It's 636 at WRNC and Radio.
Home town radio over fresh to civic media station.
I'm Don Rose, and I want to thank you for joining us here on this Friday morning.
We have got a full half hour today.
We have Brett Hoffman for Marcus Naders.
Now the reason we did that I spoke to his agent.
It was a long negotiation, but I got him to approve an extra 10 minutes with Brett this morning.
It went into the middle of the night last night, Brett.
We just had to talk to your agent.
He didn't want to give in on this.
He said we can't have him on for an extra 10 minutes.
Finally, we negotiated.
We got it done and now you're in.
Good.
And ultimately done.
The reason we did that because today is January 19th.
And for those that don't know, happy national popcorn day to everyone.
Oh, theaters were built on popcorn.
That's exactly right.
So come out to Marcus theaters.
If you're a rewards member today, you're going to get $5 off any size popcorn.
And you have a chance to win popcorn for a year.
So happy national pop.
Wow.
Look at that.
January 19th.
Now, they don't have these anymore.
But when I was a kid, we used to have matnays, Saturday matnays.
And during the summer, we had the, we had a theater chain called AIT, associated independent
theaters.
And they were all looked the same.
They were all identical theaters.
And they all ran kitty matnays every day during the summer at one o'clock in the afternoon.
And on Saturdays and Sundays at one o'clock in the afternoon.
And these were just, these weren't the regular movies showing in theaters.
They were monster movies, horror movies, things like that.
And we used to go and they had a matron in the theater.
She wore a white outfit.
She was an older lady.
And she knew, she knew us because we were the same kids every day coming in every weekend.
And she used to say, you're going to sit over there.
You're sitting over there.
It's just to break us up, which, you know, then when the lights came out, we all, you know, went back to our seats together.
But she wanted to keep the troublemakers, you know, separated.
And she actually came, and they used to shine a light in your face when you were talking.
Stop talking.
And kids were, you already said, maybe think about this because you, kids used to throw popcorn at the screen.
I mean, nobody does that anymore.
But we used to, not I didn't do it, but they stick their popcorn and shoot at the screen.
And I can't believe we used to do that.
Not we, they used to do that.
But she, and she used to catch you with the flashlight.
She said, come with me, come with me and kids on a regular basis.
We get thrown out in the middle of the movie.
Of course, I don't do that anymore.
But those are the go to all these mentioned popcorn.
That's what remind me of that.
But I remember pretzel sticks.
They used to sell in bags.
Pretzel sticks were six cents for the bag of pretzel sticks.
The cheapest thing to do, no money left and get the pretzel sticks.
And one thing we couldn't bring into the movie theater, the kids during the matinee,
they wouldn't allow us to bring our drinks into the theater, couldn't bring sodas in there.
Because they, because they knew you're going to throw it at somebody.
They didn't want to deal with it.
You're going to throw it and remember, we are years past the age of soap floors.
But if you remember, soap floors and movie feeders when sodas would spill,
would travel all the way down to the front and create those sticky floors.
But we don't have that anymore because all the feeders in the area are stadium seating
and have recliners and things like that.
But if you remember the conditions of feeders before,
it was definitely not the luxurious experience that it is now.
No, it is not.
And I just remember that he had a drink in the lobby.
You couldn't bring it to your seat because they didn't trust.
Now, the adults can do it at night.
Is during the matinee as they wouldn't let us do it.
I look back now.
I would have said, I'm drinking in the theater.
I don't care what you say.
You can't discriminate against my age.
All right, let's talk about movies right now.
What's the top of the box?
I was number one.
What was the number one film this past weekend?
Well, this past weekend, it was Mean Girls, which is tremendously.
Yeah, it brought in 32 million dollars.
And this was the musical rendition of the 2004 movie.
It came back.
It came a phase in the movie.
A lot of others are in this one.
And people are really enjoying this.
If you didn't get out because of the cold snap and the snow last weekend,
Mean Girls is an excellent choice.
And the other one at the top of the new one, the beekeeper,
which got some great ratings.
We got people loving that movie.
It's an action movie of Jason Stadham.
And that's another good one that people may have missed because of the cold last week.
Now, I asked you about a movie before we went on the air because
on nightlight here in WRJN with Pat Schwabba, he had a guest on.
And they were talking about movies.
And they mentioned this picture that they think is the second coming.
And I already forgot that it was Saltburn.
Saltburn.
I never heard of it before, did you?
Yeah, you know, I did.
It's about a student that basically finds himself.
Basically, he gets charmed in to get invited by an eclectic family through an eclectic family
for states in the summer.
And when he gets there, he finds that things are almost cold like a very interesting
when he gets there.
But it is a tremendous film.
It's a rated hour film.
And it came out towards the end of this past year.
Now, it was originally talked about four nominations.
But we might get into some nominations later because they get released next Tuesday.
It looks like probably not.
It won't make the cut.
But it was a darling of the critics and people definitely didn't enjoy this one.
Now, when the nominations come out years ago, five pictures nominated for best picture.
That was it.
Now it's up to 10.
And I think the reason they did it was the five nominated pictures nobody heard of
because they're good movies.
It's just they weren't action movies like, you know, people like to go see.
And nobody was watching the Academy Awards because nobody cared.
So they made a 10 so they get movies like Batman, the dark man, the dark night return.
They get all these movies in there that people heard of now.
So they make it up to 10.
But it's they don't have to have 10.
They can up to 10.
Did it help any by
then nominating up to 10 films?
I think it might have.
Well, I think it makes it a little bit more interesting.
You do get some films that maybe on the fringes that may have not gotten before when there were five.
Five was probably too exclusive.
This gives a lot of different voices to be heard and a lot of different things to come in.
You normally get a film, a four language film or a film produced in another country that gets in.
And of course, we had that with the Korean film Parasite.
That's actually one best picture.
Good.
A couple years ago.
Good movie.
Yeah, when you look at some of those things, I think it's very positive that we're getting more films.
It gives it just gives chance for more people to debate.
And I think in general, they've done a very good job nominating 10 good films over the core, you know,
that from the course of the previous years.
So I'm in favor of this.
I think it gives more people a chance.
And we do look at what probably will come up or the nominations that probably will happen this next Tuesday.
I mean, there is a good mix of popular movies and other movies.
A lot of people may have not experienced.
They have a chance to go see over the course of several weeks leading up to March 10th when on Sunday night,
that's when the award broadcast is.
You're going to see Barbie in it coming up.
You're going to see Oppenheimer coming up.
But you're also going to see some movies that people probably have an experience that are, frankly, gaining momentum.
Also, killers of the flower moon.
I expect to be up there as well.
Because the flower moon will be there, amazingly, what's being talked about for best picture right now.
Oppenheimer is probably in it.
I don't think Barbie will get it, although it is being considered.
The movie Poor Things has tremendous momentum right now.
And this is a movie starring Emma Stone.
It won awards at the Golden Globes.
And it seems to have the most momentum right now.
So this is one that people will probably get more familiar with.
It has been out for a few weeks in limited to moderate release.
This is one that people will probably become more familiar with as they get nominated.
And people start talking about this one.
It's a movie of Emma Stone.
It's in the Victorian era.
She's a woman that gets brought back to life by this mad scientist.
Not only is it starring Emma Stone, but it also starts looking to fall in barcwafalo.
So great cast.
And should be an interesting movie.
But when you look at everything else that's coming out, you've got a movie called The Holdovers,
which starts Paul Giamatti, which was a tremendous movie, which will likely get nominated.
This is one of those movies that probably will not win, but we'll get nominated.
And people should see that.
And then there's a movie that is out right now.
And it's at the Renaissance Cinema, right there in Sternovich's last scene.
And it is tremendous.
It is called The American Fiction.
It's an R-rated drama slash comedy.
It stars Jeffrey Wright.
And he's this African American novelist who's just fed up with what he thinks is the establishment property
and from black entertainment.
And he feels that it's reducing people to these outrageous stereotypes.
So he goes out.
And he writes this lander's book using a pen name.
And it's all a satire.
And he puts it out.
And of course, everyone, including his publisher, seems to take it seriously.
They don't think it's a comedy.
And this sets up this wild string of events throughout the film.
Jeffrey Wright is fantastic.
And I think that's going to get some nominations.
So that is currently playing now at the Renaissance Cinema.
Go check it out.
It's American Fiction.
I think it's going to be nominated next week.
And it's a funny movie and just a great experience.
A great experience from Jeffrey Wright, too, because it's also a drama.
So he really shows his first utility to this movie, American Fiction.
You mentioned Paul Giovanni.
He won the Golden Globe for Best Actor.
And for the whole nervous.
And they showed him.
He had his Golden Globe with him.
And he went out to In and Out Burger in his Tuxedo after the award ceremony was over.
And somebody took a picture of me sitting there with a hamburger in an out burger.
And they're on the table.
This is Golden Globe Award.
He's going to be wearing a Tuxedo.
He just said he wanted a burger.
He didn't want to eat the fancy food.
He just was in the mood for it.
You know, here's another film.
This happened during the pandemic, beginning of the pandemic.
It won for Best Picture of the Year.
Nobody had ever heard of it.
I've seen it four times already.
I just love this movie.
No madland.
One Best Picture.
And who's the lady?
She was in, she started in Fargo.
I can't think of that over.
Yeah.
It's France's dormant.
And what is tremendous performance like?
It will be as well.
Yeah.
And it's basically a true story.
I mean, the characters are in true.
But the whole story about people that can't afford to live, you know, in a house.
They live in their vans.
And they travel the country because they don't have anywhere to go.
They live in everything.
They lost everything.
And it's, you know, it's, it's that you get a good actor.
In a, in a movie that you never, and they can make the whole film.
They can make, it's like Paul Giamatti.
You can make it or break it.
And this film, Frances McDormand, makes no madland.
You just, you empathize with this woman.
And if nobody's ever seen that film, I get a copy of it.
Go watch it somewhere.
Get, I don't know where you can find it.
But if you can find it anywhere, like the public library, get the film no madland.
And we were talking about, there's another film, which I, I think it came out this year.
Is it the, the boys in the boat?
Is that the film from George Clooney?
Yes. And that one likely won't get nominated.
But let's talk about a film that everyone is loving, which is the boys in the boat.
And that was based on a novel.
And it was based on the novel of a, of the rolling team from Washington University,
for the University of Washington in 1930s, that basically qualifies
and goes over to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and beats the Nazis.
And it's a very uplifting movie.
It's, it's one that everyone's enjoying.
And that's out right now, too.
So I'd encourage everyone to go see that.
George Clooney directs it, but he doesn't star in it, which is interesting.
And I think people were probably been looking for that.
But regardless, it is a spectacular film that I have not heard anyone come out of.
That did not enjoy it, did not feel uplifted.
It just did not feel tremendous after seeing the movie, the boys in the boat.
Yeah, my wife wants to see it. We're probably, maybe see it this weekend.
We have no plans on the agenda.
So I think we'll take it a movie this weekend.
We still have, we bought, we bought a gift card, which comes with a,
a snack card in there.
So I think we'll use it this week.
So we buy gift cards for ourselves, not to get to, we think, give away to anybody.
We buy it because we want to use it, get that $5 snack card with it.
It's $7.48. And guess normally we say goodbye to Bret Hoppe at this point.
You're not saying goodbye, he's hanging in there.
We can tell you what's new with the movie this weekend.
It's $7.49 at WRJN Radio.
Clotting with a high-tier 15 today.
Right now it's cloudy in 11.
Don't forget the Packers against the 49ers live on WRJN Radio Saturday 5 p.m.
They win this game.
They got one more to go and it's to the Super Bowl.
You can hear all the action right here at WRJN.
Don't forget Badgers hit Indiana tonight at 6.30 p.m.
Radio refresh to Civic Media Station WRJN.
Oh great, I just cleaned the CD player too.
It's skipping all over the place.
I'm going to try that one more time.
That's such a good song.
I can't believe that thing is skipping.
Let me just get that thing straight.
I told you I said Brett, you're going to know this song
after the first note.
Fortunately, it didn't work.
I was trying one more time.
See if we can get that note for you.
Let's try it.
Here we go.
Not anywhere.
But you didn't recognize it from the first note, right?
Well, you definitely do.
The first line gives it away.
A tremendous film by the Beatles.
And what a time that was.
In fact, do you watch that movie now?
And it's kind of interesting as a retrospective
to look at what were concerts back then.
And then you look and see what Taylor Swift is doing right now
and what she put out of a big screen.
And you just see how far we've come in terms of production.
And everything else that goes into a stadium music experience.
It's funny, every song on that album is a hit song.
It's interesting because the Beatles were signed to capital records
at the time.
So every song that came out had to come through capital records.
Except this.
Because United Artists released the movie.
And they claim we have the complete rights to everything that's in that movie,
including the soundtrack.
So United Artists put out the soundtrack to a hard day's night,
which was, you know, sold, you know,
noodles and bootles of albums.
And capital records couldn't release any of those songs.
They were all on United Artists.
Funny how those things work out.
Hey, we've got a new movie opening up one movie this weekend.
And it sounds like it's a really exciting space movie.
What is that?
Yeah, it's called ISS.
It's an already sci-fi thriller.
Now, ISS stands for International Space Station.
This is put out distributed by a smaller studio called Bleaker Street.
But they put out some tremendous films.
And as you write, it occurs in space on the International Space Station.
And the story is really an interesting one.
Tensions, they look down on Earth and tensions are flaring.
And conflicts are going around on Earth.
And there's a team of U.S.
And there's a team of Russian astronauts on the International Space Station.
And they both independently get orders from the ground
to take control of the station by any means necessary.
So of course, there's conflict.
There's confined spaces.
It's space.
This is a movie that people are really enjoying.
So ISS is out at the theater right now.
And would be a good one to check out.
As a matter of fact, I'd recommend anyone go to see it.
Because space movies just look tremendous on the big screen.
When you think about movies that you just love to see on that big screen
with the black, the dense blacks of space,
whether it's the movie gravity or this one,
ISS, it's a great movie.
I was just going to say gravity.
My mom, I took her to see that in 3D.
And we're sitting in the theater.
And it was the best 3D I have ever seen in my entire life.
When, what's the actress's name?
Don't tell me I got it in the tip of my tongue.
Sandra Bullock.
When she's holding a wrench and she lets go of the wrench,
she's trying to fix her spacecraft,
which she's all alone up there.
George Clooney was in that movie, by the way.
When she lets go of the wrench, it's floating through the theater.
And my mother's trying to grab it in the air.
And she says, it's right here.
I said, yeah, it's right there.
Grab it.
It was the 3D in that picture.
It was so good.
And when you think about the whole movie for the most part,
except for the ending, was in a very confined space and outer space.
But yet it was so riveting because you had a great performance
by Sandra Bullock in that film.
And that is it.
But you got to see that movie in 3D in the theater.
You can't watch it.
When you watch it in 2D on a TV screen,
it doesn't have the same effect as the 3D did.
It was that good.
But did you see it in 3D?
I did.
Gravity is a tremendous movie.
And in fact, when people talk about 3D,
they often talk about the Avatar films.
They often talk about gravity, which is really shame.
Because 3D has come a long way.
I think maybe 10, 15 years ago or so,
people looked at some of the 3D movies and they said,
well, this is not the greatest 3D movie.
Now, the movies that are being put out in 3D now
have spectacular production behind them.
And I'd recommend people go give 3D a chance.
The next time it comes out in the next time a movie is in 3D.
Now, an international space station is not.
But I'm an advocate for 3D and give it a chance
because it's come a long way, the digital production technology.
And they don't use those red and blue visors anymore to go see it.
I actually have a DVD at home of the Polar Express in 3D.
It was put out on DVD in 3D.
But you got to wear those red and blue glasses.
And it's not horrible 3D.
But when you want you to the home, it's not the same thing.
It has more depth than anything else.
Nothing comes out at the screen.
It's just very deep into the screen.
You can see it.
So let's talk about Mean Girls.
Now, this is a sequel.
Do you know that Lindsay Lohan, and I'm going to kind of spoil,
put a spoiler here.
She got a half million dollars for that cameo in that movie.
Half million bucks.
This is based on more of the Broadway musical Mean Girls.
She's got songs in it.
It's a great hit.
Yeah, exactly right.
People are loving this one.
If you like the comedy of the first Mean Girls,
you're going to love this one.
And of course, this is a musical version.
You know, I'm meeting people.
I'm talking to people.
And I'm sorry about how many people have Mean Girls.
And they're top five movies of all time.
In terms of enjoyable watching movies.
You know, when people go back and they say movies,
a lot of them psych comedies, like some of the job use films.
But then there's a whole group of people that cite the 2004
film Mean Girls as their favorite film ever.
And every one of those people comes back to me
and tells me how much they love going to the movies
last weekend to see if this Mean Girls musical.
I got news for you.
People who grew up in the 80s,
they always tell you about the Breakfast Club
being their favorite film.
Quick, quick, a side here.
The pastor at my church, Spencer DeBurg,
he went to high, he went to North Hollywood High School.
And his class was Molly Ringwald.
It was one of his classmates in that in Hollywood High School.
But yeah, the Breakfast Club is one of those films.
People always talk about it.
And you guys have brought that back a couple of times already
in the theater, the Breakfast Club.
It was a good movie.
I liked it.
Of course, I'm not a child of the 80s,
but a lot of people like those films.
You know, I'm from the 80s.
I like my high school films growing up.
So everybody's got their favorites.
So anyway, so this weekend.
And what's the name of the film again?
It's called ISS.
It's called ISS.
It's called ISS.
It's called International Space Station.
And then don't forget.
Also American fiction has recently been expanding,
which we talked about earlier.
And this is the, the Calvin drama starring Jeffrey Wright.
It is doing tremendously.
And it will likely get nominated next Tuesday
when the Academy of Nouns is there.
And nominations.
So let's check those two out.
Those are great films.
And next Friday, you and me,
we have to commiserate about these names.
Next Friday.
Next Friday.
We'll see what surprises.
How is a few surprises.
And that's what makes it so thrilled.
Yeah.
A Bret Hoffman.
Good friend.
I love you.
Marcus theaters.
Go see a movie this weekend.
Get those recliners.
Get the National Popcorn Day today.
Get your special deals on popcorn.
Hey, thanks, my friend.
I'll talk to you next Friday.
They're very good.
Happy National Popcorn Day, everyone.
Okay.
Bye-bye now.
Bret Hoffman from Marcus theaters.
Always good to talk to him.
Love the movie.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's good to talk to him.
Love the movie.
We'll see you next Friday.
Go on.
Love the movie.
And I love movies.
Love movies.
You guys have fun.
Love movies.
It's 7.58 in WRGN.
And I will see you Monday morning,
six o'clock right now.
We've got a full week of guests next week.
You're going to love it.
You've got to be here for that.
Don't forget Saturday,
the Packers and 49ers live from San Pratisco 5 p.m.
on WRGN Radio.
Home town radio.
Refreshed.
A civic media station.
1,400 a.m.
99.9 and 98.1 fm.
Happy's up.
And enjoy yourself.