Post Meowlone (Hour 2)

Good morning, Wisconsin.

Morning, world.

It's a new day.

Thanks for kicking it off with us at WFHR.

Got your host, James behind the mic.

I am joined by Seth.

Good morning.

And the best listeners in radio.

We appreciate you all joining us.

Thank you so much for the time.

We're going to have some fun this morning and this hour getting into a little bit of entertainment

news.

Got some other fun topics for you a little bit later.

But it is a Thursday in the 10 o'clock hour.

We all know what that means.

It is time for our pet of the week with the South of Cod of your main society.

We have Denise with us when we want to send a big shout out to Mill Tom Coffee sponsoring

this segment.

Thank you to them.

Actually, Denise, if you don't mind, like to start there because you just came from there.

I did.

Yeah, I wanted everyone to understand how wonderful that coffee is so I stopped by there

and my way and brought it in for you all.

Very nice.

Thank you.

I really appreciate that, Denise.

It says above and beyond.

That's very sweet.

And I've been dying to try it.

So thank you for that.

It's good coffee.

They do very good work over there.

Big shout out to them, everybody.

By local support, local support, those that support our non-profits and our community

and our station here.

That's true.

Absolutely.

Denise, how are things going over at the shop?

Really, really good.

It's crazy.

It's kind of kitten season.

We're taking in dogs and cats and we have puppies.

We got two new puppies that, well, we have six pity puppies.

Two were unspoken for.

I was going to bring them today, but they are having their spay neuters this morning.

That definitely comes first.

Really?

And set that I would have no idea how to handle that.

No idea.

It's much better.

No thanks.

No thanks.

I'll avoid that.

No, I'd let them go.

I'd be the worst.

I'd be the worst at that.

There's no way I could ever do that.

When it comes to things over there, as far as the things have settled down for the animals

now, the construction and the fourth is over and everything.

Yep, it's much better.

Things are calming down.

The animals are getting out.

They're not afraid anymore.

It's wonderful.

Nice.

You know, given where you guys are located and for those, don't know, 36, 21, 6 to 4 street

north, kind of on the out way of town, a little bit and everything.

I love the location, love the building and such.

But given that location, do they have a lot of troubles with the fourth?

Did they have a lot of firework sound or anything like that?

It wasn't too bad.

I mean, the acoustics were such that the dogs weren't too bothered.

Some of the ones that are a little more sensitive, they gave them calming things so they could

sleep through the night.

Okay, but it wasn't too terrible.

I'm really happy to hear that.

Yeah.

I've used to worry about a lot more with the old location.

I know.

I don't know that this was an intention of it, but I love when added positives happen

with things.

And here's an added positive of having the building in that particular area.

Absolutely.

Right across the cemetery.

You know, it's perfect.

Yeah.

That's why it.

Really, yeah.

Exactly.

I wouldn't have thought of that.

That's really interesting.

Huh.

Really good to hear that.

And I always like to check in and see if there are things we can help with things that

you guys need a little bit more than others.

Yeah.

We're just, we're still looking for cat litter running short on that.

We just had a big load of pellets delivered and that's what we used as litter for the kittens.

But the other cats we are, we have a lot of adult cats.

That's actually going to be my animal of the week, too.

So, yeah.

Literally keep it coming.

Right on.

Good to know.

And certainly that's one of those things we'd like to always remind people of and everything.

That's a need.

Anything involving cats or kittens, I would think that is a big one right there, especially

if you're just at the store and you're in the moment trying to grab something.

Those are always good things to grab.

Again, you can always reach out to the main society and find out more about your in particular

needs, of course, if you need to.

And we'll tell you how you can do that in a minute.

Today we are getting into our national day of calendar and had a couple of things for

that.

Today is paint a lot of day.

So, enjoy that and ever.

And it's also a national kitten day.

Oh, excellent.

I didn't know that.

So, I did want to mention and just talking about kittens and cats in general.

Because I, I don't know about anybody else, but especially here in Rapids, I have noticed

a huge influx in Rapids.

There's a lot of Rapids.

They're ours.

They had a busy winner.

There's more than I think I've ever seen before and a lot of tinier ones.

I saw something the other day where I saw a cat and Rapids and I don't think they were

playing, but I also don't think they were trying to hurt each other necessarily because

they both had opportunities and did not take them.

Really?

So, I think they were trying to just figure each other out a little bit.

That could be.

Like, what are you?

You smell funny.

I don't think I, I don't think we were working together a little while today.

So, no, if you know this about me, I, I, for years, my palate cleanser at the end of

the day or whatever.

I like watching different animal combinations of bear and a lion that are friends or something

that just, it, it, it, it, it, it entertains me seeing this in the real, in real time in

real life and everything.

Just blew me away.

But it also reminded me, oh, Denise is going to be in the other day.

We should talk about cats in the summer.

We talk a lot about the winner and how they can go into engines or hide under cars for

warmth.

Yes.

In the summer, I don't think we think about it as much, but I know my parents' neighbors

have a cat that does that every, almost every morning, I got to look under my jeep and

make sure.

Yes.

So, in the summer, it can be a thing as well, sometimes even just getting a shade from

the heat.

Right.

They, they go a lot of places because they, they don't sweat.

They have to pant and they, they lose heat through their paws.

And if you take them for walks on a hot pavement or the black pavement, it's like a hundred,

I'm, I'm was of 120 degrees and it can burn there.

So, they do seek shade under your vehicle under, so always check before you move your vehicle.

And when you are, are taking your furry friends out, especially when it comes to dogs, considering

those things, I, I can only imagine how silly it might look to the neighbors or to people,

but whether it's me or my dad, when it gets to a certain, like we, we usually in the high

70s or anything above 80, my parents deck, they got a nice deck, it gets hot.

Oh, yeah.

So, I will pick Sam up and just carry him five feet and, you know, drop him on the grass

and stuff before because those paws, he, um, he's such a good dog and he doesn't

complain about anything, but you will see him sit in there just licking his paws for almost

an hour because they hurt and they're sore.

Yeah.

Um, just doing those little things, it can go so much farther for an animal.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And it's so nice that you carry him to the grass.

Uh, I, I, I, I, we should mention as well, by the way, everybody, keep an eye out.

If, if Disney or Pixar try to steal the whole cat and rabbit thing, that's mine.

That was, that's mine.

That's mine.

That's mine, all right?

Oh, they're listening.

We heard it.

You know Disney is always listening.

And make sure to see if they can sue you first of all, but then, hey, that's a good idea.

Well, I want to, I want my cut.

I want my cut.

That's all I'm saying.

Uh, we have made the audience way look.

It's amazing.

Who is our pet in the week?

We're going to go with a beautiful, great tabby called Post Miao Lone.

You can do it.

You know, we have a cookie office coordinator that comes up with these awesome things.

Oh, wow.

They're great.

Yeah, this cat loves and like back up puts it.

Tell me time.

The minute you go to touch him, he goes on his back and he's like, oh, yeah.

He rides around in.

He's the friendliest, most wonderfully calm cat.

He's just, he's like medium size.

They believe he's pretty young, like two years old.

Great tabby.

He's already been neutered.

He had dollars shots.

He's ready to go.

But so sweet.

I was going to bring him with me today, but it didn't didn't work out.

Does look like a very sweet cat.

He is.

Love's attention.

Love's affection.

Just great.

Beautiful brown eyes.

Um, unlike, was it Axel?

It's brought in the other day.

Axel was a little bigger.

Yeah.

Just a little.

He looks a little medium or more, but no, I don't want to see normal size, but you know,

kind of what you should.

I mean, I'm not large, chunky and not a little kid in his dog.

Yeah.

He's normal.

Uh, looks very sweet, too.

He is.

Just unbelievably sweet.

Uh, and now he's, uh, he's got all of his, uh, checks and bags and all that.

He does.

Yeah.

He does.

Yeah.

He came to us neutered already as a stray.

So he's.

Oh, nice.

That is that, um, appointment.

And we gave him updated vaccines.

He's ready to go with him being a stray.

I don't know if, uh, know some of the details about him.

But certainly there are plenty of the, I don't want to say the important stuff, but the

major things we can definitely check off the box as far as his chip and being neutered

and that.

Correct.

Yep.

He is updated on vaccines and microchipped.

Ready to go.

Healthy.

I kind of like him already more than post Malone to be honest.

I kind of do.

Post me alone.

Uh, be sure to check.

Now there is to be like really raw or that'd be hell of that.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Uh, no face tattoos.

I noticed no face tattoos.

No, no, we can see anyway.

I like that.

Uh, we encourage you to find out.

It's also about post and all these other great animals over at the South of County Main

Society.

Your new best friend is waiting for you over there.

Uh, we encourage you to reach out to them about the animals and find your perfect new

best friend.

Also know that you can help out with there, even if you're not able to donate an animal

or, uh, uh, adopt an animal.

Um, you can reach out to them anytime at, uh, office at swchs.com.

That's where you can email them.

Give me calls 715-423-0505.

You can find them on Facebook, encourage you to do that, subscribe to their page and

share their posts on your page.

You don't know who's might see it otherwise.

Right.

And be sure to know that you can stop by the buildings up and running and things are,

uh, all, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, the construction is all done and all with that 3621-64

street north right here in Rapids.

You can find all this information at their website, swchs.com.

Be sure to bookmark that page and be listening next Thursday for another pet of the week

with Denise and our friends at the South of County Main Society.

Thanks a lot for hanging out Denise.

Thanks for having me.

I appreciate it.

Guys, and, and, and I, I didn't think you enough about the coffee like this is a morning

show.

It's my favorite.

Yeah, perfect.

I figured it's a little late, but still.

Oh, no, no.

Good.

Well, we haven't had a couple more hours yet.

It's going to come to the end.

Good.

We appreciate you.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you, anytime.

And a big, thank you, of course, to Milltown Coffee.

We appreciate them sponsoring this segment.

We'll take a quick time out.

We'll come back with some entertainment news on the morning show at WFHR.

Welcome back, everybody.

Good show here at WFHR.

Locally grown radio.

Seth and James hanging out with you.

Gigantic shout out to our friend Denise from the South of County Main Society, talking

with us, sharing with us, post me a loan, uh, meowloon, meowloon.

What a name.

I kind of turned it into French.

I kind of turned it into French.

You did?

Meowloon.

Meowloon.

I didn't need to do that.

I find out about this great cat and, and more of these great animals over at the South

of County Main Society.

And just as importantly, find out ways that you can help out and be a part of things

over there.

They're doing some really vital work.

We appreciate them.

Uh, and we appreciate the coffee, Denise.

I want to try.

Yes.

So I have not, uh, a meal time.

Big thank you to Milhtown Coffee.

Sponsors that segment.

We greatly appreciate them.

I have been dying to try their coffee.

I'm going to try it for the first time on the air here.

I'm going to try this.

Let's try it.

I say it's good.

I have, uh, I have.

Oh, that's nice.

That's, it's a really nice flavor to it, so.

So I, um, I was telling Denise I, when I'm trying a coffee for the first time, I just

want to black.

Right.

I don't need anything.

It tastes the coffee.

Right.

I love the taste of coffee.

That tastes good.

That is good.

That is a nice, uh, an original taste too.

Yes.

I got it.

I was trying, you know, I was trying to like, um, uh, pin it to like one of the more, you

know, big brands like Starbucks or Caribou, something like that.

No.

This is different.

This has its own little thing to it.

100%.

100%.

That's got to be tough to do.

I mean, they're all using like coffee beans.

You know, there's only so much you can do, but yeah, it's great.

That's really good stuff.

I talked about, about that as I actually, especially at this point, I think the lore and

the stories of the behind the scenes are bigger than the movie.

It's gotten to be that way and because it was such a game changer, it literally shifted

Hollywood to a whole new model of doing business and because it was so important, people wanted

to know, right?

It's like, well, how did this get made?

How did all this happen?

And then they realized, wow, they had a lot of problems on the set.

My goodness.

Next week, Seth and I are going to be diving into the summer blockbuster and going over

the, from the early 70s to now.

But this was really the biggest, to Seth's point.

It's the biggest game changer in summer movies history.

So much so that it's not, I don't know that wherever we've seen some lulls, but even

with that, we're back to it now where what's happening this July?

Yep.

You've got the biggest movies.

Biggest movies of the year coming out this month.

So even if it's not on technically 4th of July weekend, July is still the summer blockbuster

month.

It's still the month and everything.

You got it.

And Spielberg really got that started.

And one of my favorite directors, one of the, you know, the world's favorite and best

directors.

And also, you know, like a, like a lot of us, you know, those of us of the Jewish faith,

really close with our mothers and, and very, very.

So the problems on the set of jaws were so bad that Steven was calling his mom constantly.

Oh no.

There's a new documentary airing tonight on that geo called jaws at 50, the definitive

inside story.

Oh, yeah.

I think I'm going to have to watch that one, man.

The look in the sound you just made was what I did this morning when I read that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but sometimes I'm more fascinated by the making

of any movie than actually watching the movie and I've seen jaws, of course, but I totally

want to see this.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah.

You know, apocalypse now is an incredible movie.

It is.

Even on, even to the stage 2025, that is it.

That holds up.

It's a very difficult movie to watch.

It's very well done.

It's, I mean, Martin Sheen had his best and all that and even even in a warped out brando,

it's still brando.

It's so incredible work by him and everything.

All that being said, heart of darkness is way better.

Heart of darkness is insane, the making of that movie because it caught so much, so much

interesting stuff about what was going on.

And that's, and that's, to me, if I'm making almost any movie, I don't care what an indie

movie, blockbuster, whatever, I've got somebody, I'm paying somebody on the side to be filming,

to be filming the making of this.

Just it, you know, you never know what might turn up, hey, you get no good footage, nothing

out of it.

Nobody knows.

Nobody cares.

You know, pay the intern or whatever.

You're right.

If you get good material, if you've got something there, oh, you got a two movies.

Right.

Well, and that really started, if I remember correctly, the first time I really deliberately

doing that, I mean, Lucas did some of that when he did the prequels, not the original

films, but the prequels.

But that was Peter Jackson with Lord of the Rings.

He documented everything they did and turned it into some really fascinating material.

More on him in a moment and Seth does not know.

Oh, I try to give Seth and Melissa a heads up on a couple of stories that we're doing.

And then the other stories I like to get their initial first reactions up, so Seth doesn't

know what's coming up.

I do not.

We have a Peter Jackson story.

Oh, my gosh.

That's funny.

That's even awesome.

That's more awesome.

It's Spielberg said, quote, during this documentary that's going to be airing tonight

on that geo, I talked to my mom a lot.

I mean, I was talking to my mom kind of like, mommy, this is really impossible help.

Spielberg says he never wanted to quit, but he was constantly worried he was going to

get fired.

He really felt like this was not only going to be his last film.

His name would not even be on the end credits to get an idea of how, I mean, he's a young

director.

He's only directed a few things.

They have given him the mandate now, make this an amazing film.

And then he's got all these problems.

I can't imagine what he was feeling.

I mean, I get the anxiety and the fear and I'll constantly, oh, my God, as a part of Mr.

Slavie's class, shout out to Lincoln High School's alums out there.

One of the things that he got us gave us a chance to do was watch Spielberg's high college

submission, his thesis and everything, his thesis film, right?

And it's about these people make like a road trip.

It's nothing too crazy.

It's filmed out in California and everything is not too crazy.

But you see little glimpses here and there of his angle or his editing choices and some

of that where he's going to go, right?

Yeah.

And never, ever forget being in that class and watching this film and being like, wow,

he was this good at this age.

And then there's a scene where he is filming with his camera on top of a mountain, the

car go by.

And as he's filming it, you can see his shadow clear as day in the shot and just the car

going at all that.

And it's just, it's just, it's directing 101, yeah, yeah, and this is his thesis he's

doing.

Yeah.

That's the, I don't know.

I love Martin Scorsese.

I like a lot of directors, man, a lot of directors.

I don't know I've ever seen a more complete, better director than Steven Spielberg.

I don't know that I ever will with the body of work he has going from jaws to the color

purple, to shinlers list, to just et cetera, et cetera, the work, the body of work this

man has in his connection to human beings is like nothing I've ever seen.

Yeah.

As good as Scorsese is, Scorsese gets people, certain types of people.

I think Spielberg gets everybody.

Yeah.

And just his work is that kind of good to me.

He's not my favorite director, but I think he's the most complete director I've ever

seen.

Right.

And he was making mistakes.

You know?

He's got it.

Yeah, exactly.

He's got to learn somewhere, right?

Yeah.

It's such a good lesson for a young creative to have.

Yeah.

Right.

And it's something that he really embodies.

Like he works with a lot of young filmmakers.

He's very into the growing the filmmaking industry into something that's not just a corporate,

you know, a safe thing.

Right.

He used his words, safe things.

That's not filmmaking.

That's supposed to be safe.

That's supposed to be risky.

It's supposed to be risky.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're supposed to be trying to do something different.

You know, he is so supportive of that stuff and so self-deprecating that it makes some

sense.

He would be reaching out to his mom, Leah Adler, who was a wonderful woman and she passed

away back in 2017.

And a lot of talk about jaws, not only because of short week coming up and everything,

but the 50th anniversary of it and that.

It is remarkable.

Yeah.

Did have this other one that I thought was incredibly interesting, Seth.

Okay.

So when this movie came out at the time, there were quite a few people that felt like this

should be nominated for a best picture.

Mm-hmm.

Now, if jaws had come out in 2025, it would be nominated for a best picture.

Even as a blockbuster, right?

Yeah.

Because that's what they're doing now.

Yeah.

They got 10 nominees and you always see a couple of them in there that you have no chance

of winning, but it's in there for eyeballs.

Acknowledgement, too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

I mean, you're right.

It's also to drop people there.

To say, you know, hey, this movie was important, we'll throw it up there, right?

It's okay for it to be a little economy, a little economy.

I think in this situation, especially where it does both things we just said there.

And that's cool for all parties.

Yeah.

Well, Spielberg admits he was let down when he wasn't nominated for best director for jaws,

but only because everyone kept telling him it was going to happen.

Oh, really?

Uh, quote, I just understood, I guess I'm getting nominated.

So when it, I wasn't, I was surprised and I was disappointed because I was believing

the noise and you have to not believe that stuff.

Right.

Another lesson learned, right?

Jaws was nominated for best picture, but it lost to one flow over the cookus nest

and Spielberg approves of that decision.

In fact, quote, I don't think that Jaws should have been nominated for best picture.

Really?

I would have voted for one flow over the cookus nest for an over Jaws, he said.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

Well, that's, he's being honest.

I like, I appreciate that.

Yeah.

Jaws is a good movie.

And again, everything's said that I just said about it and everything.

One flow over the cookus nest to this day is one of the most, the better class you'll

ever see.

It's a classic.

It's, it's, it's, it's a legendary film and yeah, it deserved to win until it happens

or if it ever happens, one of my dream roles will be McMurphy.

That's, it's always going to be as a kid seeing that movie on WGN, man, that, that movie

changed a lot of things for me.

That ending is etched in my brain, said such a good movie.

I like what he said there.

I don't think that it's anything surprising.

I don't think anybody would disagree with you.

No.

But it's not always something that's no, you know, we hear from directors.

Yeah.

There was one other thing and there was Peter Jackson.

Peter Jackson will always be associated with Lord of the Rings.

Of course.

But maybe we should start looking at him and maybe in the Jurassic Park world.

Huh?

His latest project involves reviving an extinct species, but it's not a dinosaur, not

the T-Rex.

Oh, goodness.

This partner, Fran Walsh, had partnered with a company called Colossal Biosciences to

genetically engineer birds that are similar to the South Island giant Moa.

The Moa is the largest species of bird ever known to exist.

It was flightless, of course.

It was flightless.

They say it was flightless, of course, because we all know about the Moa.

Everybody, it's common knowledge.

That's it.

Nobody knows that.

If it's a certain size, I guess it's impossible for it to fly, but yeah.

And it went extinct around the year 1500.

We all remember that.

The news stories.

A lot of times I go over there.

Peter and Fran have donated 15 million to the effort.

He says, quote, the movies are my day job and the Moa are my fun thing I do.

Every New Zealander school child has a fascination with the Moa.

I think the, while this is a funny American equivalent, because it's not an American animal,

I think Americans or even Europeans, you look at the dodo.

And how popular the dodo can be in stuff for days.

As far as extinct birds go, you know, burn more popular than the dodo.

But with this for New Zealanders, I think even for Australians, I've heard something similar

to this.

Although I apologize for merging those worlds.

Don't do that.

They don't like that.

They do not like that.

But the Moa is a little bit that equivalent over there.

Just, you know, give this a little bit of weight.

But I mean, that's, hey, Pete.

What movies are you working on?

Yeah.

Anyone?

You got anything in the thing here anymore?

I mean, you were a filmmaker.

Yeah.

Well, and, and I mean, I feel like this would actually make a better film than real life.

I see.

In fact, I have proof of it.

We have 18 movies already up there.

One of them just came out with Jurassic Park rebirth.

Apparently, he does not learn anything from Nobs.

Right?

Yes, yeah.

You're not supposed to do that.

Well, yeah, talking about it.

I watched the first 10 minutes of Jurassic Park.

I figured it's a documentary.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What else was to do that?

I'm sure everything worked out.

I don't need to finish it.

What could go wrong?

I could go wrong.

I think that that, you know, obviously, I say the, you know, the heart of mine can't help

it saying that that 15 million could go to a lot of things to help out a lot of people,

especially in areas like New Zealand, where they've had some wildfires and different problems

like that and everything.

I also, for one of the most intelligent people I've ever seen in entertainment, I do

think that a Peter Jackson.

I agree.

I can't think of a dumber thing to do.

I've been trying to bring back an extinct animal.

In a perfect world, sure, sounds cool.

Sounds great.

That's wonderful.

It also sounds like one of the most selfish things you're going to hear in your life,

because it's not about the animal.

It's about this person, whether they realize it or not, wanting to bring back this animal

and wanting to have the notoriety or something like that or just even getting it done through

their own vision.

Once that moa died off, that last moa died off or that last dodo died off.

The food chain, it didn't just leave that link open.

No, it connected.

It made it work over hundreds and hundreds of years sometimes to get that chain solid

again.

So ecosystems could work with other ecosystems and all of these things.

You throw the animal back into the food chain.

It not only mucks up the whole thing, it would probably make another animal extinct.

And we're back where we started.

Now we've got to bring back the yellow belly sap suckers or something, right?

I just wanted to say yellow belly sap shut up to comedy a comedy goal.

They got to throw that one out there.

Thank you, honey.

How about this, Peter Jackson?

How about instead of bringing back, how about keeping species from becoming extinct in

the first place?

How about even better?

Let's fix the planet.

Let's work climate change stuff.

How about that?

And they can save everything.

I bet you that 15 million is a lot of people that could do some good with that.

Seriously.

It's all well and good.

It makes a good story.

And I don't think anybody would be unempathetic of the idea if he was in an interview talking

about wanting.

I'd love if this animal was still around, you know?

But I see a number like 15 million and the efforts being put into this and it just seems

like I'm sorry.

I don't know if it seems like a waste to me.

Really is.

Yeah.

And that's a really smart guy there doing it too, which is just mind-boggling.

But he made a lot of money and then I don't know.

We know what that does to be.

Yeah, that's very true.

Very true.

Well, one of the remind everybody that our great friends at Wisconsin Threats Community

Theater have some great team shows going on throughout the summer.

They've had some really good ones.

Dare to dream.

It was great.

Her wonderful things about it.

You got the brother's grim, spectacular and spectacular thorn coming up and that was

good.

No, that's coming up in August.

That's hoping.

Yeah.

But right around the corner, in fact, premiering tonight, West Side Story.

Yes.

We had them in earlier.

Susan Becker was with us.

We got to hang out with her and some of the kids.

This is a classic in set that's been a part of this show.

In fact, you got a nice shirt on with her right now.

I do.

A nice shirt out of it.

Yeah.

I set how was the cast?

How was everybody feeling after last night and that final rehearsal?

It's great.

I know that the last night they did it as good as they have.

For sure.

They're peeking right now at the exact time.

They need to peek.

And I can guarantee the next several nights are going to have just fantastic shows.

I do know that tonight and Sunday, they don't have a lot of tickets left, just to let you

know about that.

If you are planning on coming, everyone, that tonight and Sunday, those are pretty full.

But we still have plenty of tickets available for Friday and Saturday.

So if you are planning on coming, look at that because then you can go online, wrctheter.org.

And you can pick your seats and wherever you want to sit.

But I can guarantee one thing.

It's the kids do a fantastic job.

And you will enjoy yourselves with this classic musical, you know, the song.

You know the songs, everyone.

I mean, there are many of them, maybe not all of them, but you've heard many times before.

And they do a great job.

So we do invite you to come on down.

Every one of these kids is amazing.

It's a flawless cast.

And I cannot encourage you enough to not only hear these songs like you've never heard

them before because you probably haven't heard teenagers actually singing it.

That's right.

It's such great.

But it's of course, buying local and supporting local and that includes the arts.

I had a meeting for those that don't know.

I'm directing on golden pond this year, the opening stage of the main opening show of

the main stage.

And I met with Gretchen and Beth, Bethany earlier.

I got to say Bethany because I don't get to see people.

Yeah.

Right.

And we were taught, we met with our stage designer and creator and everything.

And we were talking about that and Gretchen at the end of it was like, oh, do you want to

see the set for what site?

I'm like, oh my god.

Yeah.

And go over there.

I thought I knew what to expect.

I was so blown away.

It's such a cool set.

I don't want to get a spool anything for anybody.

But the gating and the, we actually have chain link fences on the stage, which is really

cool.

It's a nice layer.

They did a great job with that set.

That set is going to be another great piece to this ever.

And I want to give a shout out to so many of the parents who helped put all this together

and without them doing this painting and getting everything set, big shout out to the parents

for this too.

Check out West Side Story tonight.

It premieres tonight, July 10th, going on tonight at seven.

They'll have a show tomorrow at seven.

And then on Saturday, they'll have a show at seven o'clock.

And then on Sunday, at two o'clock, Matt and I to wrap it up.

Yeah.

I'll get your tickets at WRC Theater dot org by local support, local support, the arts,

everybody and taken as many of these shows as you can.

All shows taking place over at the Wisconsin's Rebs Community Theater.

And we're just about an hour and a half away from a new addition of the WFHR newsletter

showing up in your email box.

Right.

Yeah.

Get on over to WFHR.com.

Sign up for that newsletter, support, local support, the great work that this team is

doing around here.

A shout out to everybody involved, of course, especially Melissa working so hard on this.

Very hard working on that.

We have so many great civic media writers and Michael and Laura and so many other people

and Chuck putting in work into these articles.

They appreciate all the work by everybody.

Get on over to WFHR.com, sign up for that newsletter, your one stop shop for all Central

Wisconsin news.

All right.

We'll come back after our news break, we'll have some more fun, got a good one coming

up for you.

The best classic arcade games.

Oh, can't wait.

So exciting.

And we want your answers for these.

We want your best arcade games ever to come up on the morning show.

Welcome back everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you to Mr. Dan for playing us in.

I like the idea of somebody thinking Steeley Dan was like on the name of a guy, what an

odd name you have, Steeley.

That's a very odd.

We appreciate you joining us, everybody.

Thank you so much for hanging out.

We got a couple of more, we got about 20 more minutes to hang out with you.

We'll get into our schedule and some good stories of the day in a little bit.

You're having a last and some and you can see it.

Rest of my life, man.

That little segue right there would love it, love that part.

We're going a little nostalgic right now because we're talking arcade games.

All right.

Now, people at our age range and younger Seth might start thinking if we talk video games,

home video games games, you know, from everything from Atari to Sega to Nintendo, PS5, all

that stuff.

Right.

We were that generation.

Okay.

So we weren't the first wave of arcades.

That was the late 70s and early 80s when they just exploded all over the United States.

You couldn't, you know, turn a corner without running into an arcade.

So much so that people were, of course, there was a panic about it.

It's like, people are playing too many video games.

That kind of thing.

And then it was, there was kind of a crash there in the early 80s.

And by the time we're aware, you know, of what's going on, it was Nintendo.

Yeah.

They came along and that changed the game for everything, you know, about home consoles.

You know, I had a computer PC, so I had a lot of games on that too.

It was a little bit different, but still it was all about home gaming.

Now arcades were still around, you know, and it was always fun to go to an arcade.

But it wasn't, I don't think it was quite the same experience that that first generation

had.

And I think the biggest difference in, in all the, everything you said, just picking

back on it, whether it was arcade games or PC games, the controller.

The controller was specifically designed just to do this, PC was designed to do a hundred

other things along with games, right.

Arcades, it was pretty much button smash, you know, it wasn't a whole lot.

You had to stick into a couple buttons, right?

Yeah.

It wasn't a whole lot of that.

The controller, something designed specifically just to do this, to play video games was such

the big game changer for all of this, having it at home was one thing.

But whether it was the controller or like with Duck Hunt, and you had an actual gun that

you were shooting.

Yeah, the lights after, yep.

But you were doing it in your basement, you were doing it in your living room, like

it was such a game changer.

I don't know that if you compared TV, radio, video games, the home PC, I think video games

ranks a lot higher.

The video games system ranks a lot higher than we might realize.

I think so.

And as far as impact on pop culture and all that.

Oh, absolutely.

But the thing, real quick, before we start this, the thing you remember though is that where

did they get the games from for the consoles?

They got them from the arcade.

Yeah.

If it was a hit in the arcade, then they ported it to the home consoles, and that was still

a big deal, even when, you know, the late 80s in the early 90s, that was still a thing.

I remember, I can't remember what a pinball, something it was called, there was a game

for Nintendo or a pinball game.

And I remember my friends and I were rented it.

We were playing it like crazy.

And my dad coming in and like, you know, there's like the real pinball machines.

You guys could actually be playing a real pinball machine.

We laughed them off at all.

Yeah.

Sure.

Yeah.

Everything.

It was a big deal.

Now we have games like the Sims and things like that.

Yeah.

Exactly.

People just living day-to-day real life.

But they're a sim, but they're a simulation, right?

And no judgment on that.

It's just that I was doing the same thing as a kid with pinball.

Yeah.

It's just funny how that evolves.

It is.

So many of us have memories filled with the arcades and that.

Our generation and even people here in town

shout out to the gold mine, the last arcade that I was in.

And I think a lot of Rapids residents were in.

They had it in the old mall there.

The arcades, you know, went away.

But there are actually people bringing them back.

There are actually a number of retro places

that have video games.

And I think that that's actually something

that's going to get bigger and bigger.

There is at least two that I know of in Madison.

I've been to one and it was an awesome.

It was so much fun.

I mean, we never do that.

Haven't you?

Like a couple of years ago.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They have this great place in Madison.

I mean, even down to the feel.

It feels like an old arcade.

I was like, wow, that's amazing.

Yeah.

Ranker.com asked its readers to vote on the best old school arcade games of all time.

Right.

And we're on the top 20.

And of course, we always encourage our audience participation.

We want you guys to let us know what your favorite ones were or what you think

what the best one was.

We'll go through.

There's a lot of these.

And honestly, I think that some of these, I don't remember them being arcade games.

At number 20, Golden Axe, I remember that one was definitely an arcade game.

But then the Simpsons Arcade game at number 19, which I remember playing a little bit in the arcade,

but also there was a home version.

There was.

And then we're different.

But I liked the arcade version.

Because it was very, it was very symphony.

Yes.

For lack of a better term about the characters and stuff.

But I thought it was cool.

It actually was pretty a fun game.

Did the surprise of nobody, the number 19 on this list is probably my number one.

I love that game.

Yes, it was good.

I love that game.

At rampage, at number 18.

Oh, that game was fun.

Oh, I take it back.

Rampage was more fun.

It was it.

Oh, rampage from already.

He sees a backtracking.

I love it.

It was such a cool game.

It was such a simple game.

You just smash buildings.

You want to be King Kong?

No, I want to be King Kong.

Yeah, I want to be or the lizard.

You know, the big lizard, right?

And I don't think I gave it simplicity enough credit back in the day.

Because it's actually a really cool idea.

It is.

Get to be King Kong or Godzilla.

Not building salad.

Yeah.

At number 17, a sneaky good one, 1942.

Plane game.

You were a early shooter.

Yes, yeah.

Gauntlet in number 16.

Oh.

Okay.

Interesting story about Gauntlet.

I first played then the arcade or at Abe somewhere on the arcade.

I love the game.

And there was a version for the Commodore, which is the computer that I had.

That was the game that my mom and I played together.

Oh, wow.

Cool.

Like the one game.

I mean, we would play a few games together, but that was the one was our game, right?

And it was like an endless game.

I mean, I think we got to level like 106 at one point.

Yeah.

And this was before like pausing and saving.

Yeah.

You just had to keep going.

Oh, I didn't think about that.

Wow.

That is impressive.

Shout out to mom.

I know.

It was like, wow.

I remember where you almost had to have other friends to play with.

Yeah.

Otherwise, you're going to die.

Yeah.

It was an unforgiving game.

Absolutely.

I don't know if it was the first one, but it was the first one of its kind that I remember of the scrolling kind of like, you know,

Lord of the Rings kind of stuff.

Yeah.

We had a fantasy vibe to it, right?

Yeah.

And you know, now it's almost every one of these kind of games, but it was really the blueprint of, okay, you need a mage, you need a warrior.

Yeah.

And the lady warrior, Velcro year, whatever they call it.

Yeah.

Mario Brothers at number 15.

Again, I don't think of it as a arcade game.

I think of it as such a home game.

And I think if they're talking about the original Mario Brothers, the single screen one.

Yeah.

Where they're together.

When you hit the turtles underneath and the crabs and stuff like that.

Yeah.

I cannot imagine how many shoes Mario went through.

Defender at number 14.

I forgot about that one.

Insanely hard game.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then you know, the one that you did at Defender, man stationary.

You were pretty good.

Centipede at number 13.

Simple but fun game back in there.

Here's a nice little tidbit about that one.

The first hit video game designed by a woman.

Oh, yes.

Centipede.

Yes.

That's a great one.

Another, that could be a tough game too.

Yeah.

Double dragon at number 12.

The first beat him up is what they're called.

Yeah.

Basically, it's a side scrolling game where you beat up a bunch of enemies as you go around with kicking and punching, you know.

One of the few that in Contra were some of the first games where I remember even as a kid playing these and being like,

okay, they ran out of ideas.

Yeah.

I think it's done in double dragon.

Like you beat up a car for like an extra level or something.

You just punched a car.

Is that what was that?

Was that a street fighter?

No, I think it was double dragon.

They might have had it in Street Fighter 2, but I think it was originally double dragon.

I just remember beating up this car like, okay, what am I doing?

Yeah, I'm out of ideas there.

At number 11, one of our, I think, nostalgic favorites, DigDug.

Love that game.

It's a great game.

That game was fun.

I actually, I purposely am doing this with the Simpsons and Rampage, and I take back Rampage into Simpsons.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Arcade game.

I think that.

Another beat them up, yeah.

That may have been one of my favorites just because it always involved my friends.

Yes.

And the memories of that one aren't so much about the game, but me and like, who's going to be Donatello and fighting over that stuff?

The idea of having like four different characters who could play at the same time.

That was big.

There were several games that were like that.

I loved every one of them.

I remember playing that a lot here in Rapids, and then when we went on a field trip in sixth grade to the Dells,

and it rained.

So we couldn't do half the stuff we wanted to.

Me and like three guys went over to the Arcade and played.

It's just played.

It was awesome.

It was awesome.

You're so right about that.

It was like a revolutionary game in that respect that you could play with all of those guys.

At number nine, on a lot of these lists, the number one, Miss Pac-Man.

Yes.

That was, I think, the, I still holds a record for the most like console sold.

Yes.

It was the highest selling game of all time.

Number eight, Asteroids.

Very similar to Centipede and some of those games.

Another hard game.

That was a lot tougher than it looked.

Wow.

Yeah.

Mortal Kombat at number seven, a bit of a game changer there with the fighter.

That and Street Fighter came out around the same time, and they were both really, yeah.

They changed a lot of things.

The fighting game, yeah.

Yeah.

There wasn't anything like it before.

No.

And I think one of the biggest things about it was the graphics had evolved enough to where they could get.

Yes.

Special moves.

Remember, you could like do certain things to, you know, finish him, you know, that kind of thing.

Yes.

That was, if you learn those tricks, you're like, whoa, that was cool.

Space Invaders at number six, similar to the other ones we've talked about.

Frogger, very famous for, you know, just being a simple but difficult one.

Challenging, very challenging.

Number four, Donkey Kong.

Still one of the best games ever.

I still love that game.

That's still a fantastic game.

And brought us not only Donkey Kong, but of course Mario.

Jumpman at the time.

Yeah.

Until he got his name, Mario.

Yep.

To your point about Mortal Kombat, Seth, at number three, not Street Fighter, Street Fighter II,

was technically the one that was exploded.

Yes, that is correct.

And just as much fun as well.

I could never choose between those games.

They were both really good.

I thought they were very different in a lot of ways, but they were really good, yeah.

Get over here.

Hadoogan.

The Hadoogan stays with me.

I don't know why, but it stays with me.

Hadoogan.

Galaga.

Galaga is right.

Yes.

Number two.

Yes.

Again, that was the one where you have your ship captured, and then you could get it back,

and you'd have two ships.

Yeah.

At the same time.

I forgot about that.

That was awesome, man.

And at number one, of course, it is Pac-Man.

Yes.

I mean, the first big game, the first, I mean, everything we were saying about jaws was summer blockbusters.

You could say about Pac-Man and the video game world.

Fun little tidbit about Pac-Man.

His original name was Pac-Man, and then they realized what kids do to consoles in our Cades,

and they're like, ooh, wait, we probably shouldn't do that.

No, Pac-Man.

Pac-Man instead.

Plus, Miss Pac-Man would have sounded horrible.

That's true.

It wouldn't have made no sense.

It's funny to me how many people get into the argument of who's what's better, Miss Pac-Man or Pac-Man.

It's basically the same game.

I never understood that argument.

No, never got that.

But what's your list?

Let us know everybody we'd love to hear from you.

Take a short break and come back and wrap up the show Morning Show at WFHR.

Welcome back, everyone.

Morning show at WFHR.

Locally grown radio.

Hope you all had a good time.

We sure did.

Thanks so much for hanging out with us.

It's been a fun show.

Want to get into our schedule and some local events going on.

We got a great wrap and support lined up for you today.