Nite Lite at the Museum (Hour 2)

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Chwaba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who writes checks his mouth can't cash.

Pete Chwaba.

Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

All right, let's Tuesday.

Let's Tuesday it up.

Beautiful day in the state of Wisconsin.

We are on the air live with Nightlight on the radio, the good old fashioned radio.

If you're listening on the radio, I applaud you.

We're also on the stream and the app and all kinds of fun stuff and people can probably just go to the website.

and listen to the show as well.

You have many different ways to nightlight.

However you so choose to do so, it's just great.

And it's great to have you.

We have a fun show tonight.

Like we try to do every night here.

We hope to send you off to bed or end your work day with some laughs and some talk about comedy and movies and TV and all that kind of good stuff.

And tonight, this is exciting Conrad.

I don't know if you're aware of this.

I hope you are though.

I think so.

I'm not sure what the talking

thing is.

This is like a field trip tonight.

It's museum night here.

It's night at the museum on nightlight.

Nightlight at the museum.

How do you like that?

I like it.

I like it too.

One of

them I'm really familiar with because I spent half of my childhood there, it feels like.

Did you really?

At the Circus World Museum, yes.

You spent half your childhood?

It feels like.

My grandparents, they live in Baraboo.

Naturally,

they

used to actually, you know, volunteer there.

Oh, I didn't know

that.

So I'd go there a lot as a child.

I probably saw everything that you could see there.

God, no kidding.

I've never been there.

I've never been.

It's really fun.

Experience for the whole family, I'd say.

It's not just for

kids.

Conrad is talking about the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, which is the home or was the home of Ringling Brothers.

Five of the brothers lived there.

which I think is fascinating, like spanning two centuries.

And it's just an institution right here in Wisconsin town in Baraboo.

And tonight joining us at 720 will be Jennifer Cronk.

She is the curator of the Circus World Museum, and she's going to talk about all kinds of fun stuff they have coming up down there right here in our state.

If you live south or feel like a road trip, it's definitely something to check out as attested to here by the kid, Conrad Krieger.

So what did...

What I think is kind of cool is they have shows there, too Yeah, I once saw a magic show there.

Okay, which was I don't remember what age I was but I was like I want to do magic

I

had to be like 11 or something, but it was really cool and then

well that you can flame out you

can see all the like The train cars that they have like going through you know the the parades that they haven't They have them all right there.

You can go see them.

They're really cool

And they must I know they have the big circus parade in Milwaukee.

They must

haul all that stuff over to Milwaukee, right?

Yeah.

And, um, just that you go into the, I can't think of what it's called, but you know, the big

visitor center auditorium arena.

We're getting closer, I think.

Okay.

Just wing it.

It's where the clowns perform.

You know, yeah, the big top, the big top.

There we go.

Thank

you.

I've seen

many, many, many shows.

Okay.

Top there.

Oh, that's fantastic.

Well, you feel free to jump in when Jennifer Cronk is the name of our guest at 720.

She's the curator.

And if something pops into mind, feel free to jump in and ask our guest at 720, Jennifer Cronk.

Then at 635, our first guest tonight is Greg Vadney.

He is the executive director of the Raar Museum in Manitowoc and the Raar West Museum.

Did I say West?

Well, you did now.

OK.

So I don't want people to go to the East Museum.

The North, the South.

But Greg will be here.

He's always fun.

He's coming into the studio.

I was nice enough to judge the Sputnik contest.

No, they were nice enough to ask me and Amanda Nimmer set the thing up and I was the judge of the costumes for...

for a sputnik fest.

That was a lot of fun, and I got to hang out with Greg a little bit there.

He's been on the show a couple times.

Greg is a great guy.

He's going to tell us all the cool stuff coming up at the RR West in Manitowoc.

If you haven't been, you got to check it out.

It's a gorgeous facility.

Did you spend any time there, Conrad?

I can't say.

Come on, man.

You know, I think you should judge the sputnik fest again, and I think I should enter.

I think you should, in like the nine and under group, which is one of the...

One of the

groups.

And just to have a little like paper that says I am nine.

Yeah, like a fake ID.

Yeah,

exactly.

So we'll do all of that tonight.

We're going to talk.

It's museum talk.

And in between that, we'll filter in your texts and we'll talk about movies and TV.

My son, Joe, was he's like, you talked about Speed Racer last night.

And I said, yeah, I said Conrad and I talked a little bit about it.

And then we talked about it with Matt Miller.

So we just kind of touched on it.

Yeah, just a little bit.

Yeah.

I think what you guys talked about yesterday is the visuals of it.

I think like myself, I think are great.

Yeah.

But Matt kind of was like, you know, the comedy doesn't really hit that well when you're older.

True.

And I mean, I rewatched it probably about a year ago or something.

And I agreed.

It was, you know, the story, though.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But the parts of it you liked.

The visuals held up.

You still like that.

The visuals when he's racing on all those tracks, you know, yeah,

that's different places.

I think it's it's it's really cool.

Agreed.

So we will we'll talk with those are our guests.

And then we've also got it's Homer Simpson's birthday.

I can't wait.

We missed that last night, but he is a he's a cartoon character.

Do you know how old he is?

He stayed 37.

That

is not true.

Well, the show has been on over 30 years now, but Homer on the show they say his age several times

He's got to be pushing, you know, probably about 60.

I think

Well, it just depends how they how they attack that from a writer standpoint on the show like is this all one year?

I mean the Simpsons have been on for what?

I mean 30 they came on an 89 That's like 36 years.

So there's definitely more

you know, then a year's worth

of work.

Worth of episodes, yeah.

I don't know.

Yeah, that's a tough one.

But it's like, you know, they don't age.

Like Bart Simpson stays the same age, just like family.

Yeah.

They never change age either.

And then, you know, they stayed.

It was just kind of fun because my mom, it was her birthday yesterday.

That's why I was in a hurry to get out of here.

And she shared a birthday yesterday with Homer Simpson, which she was thrilled about.

That's awesome.

And all of her kids let her know, Mom, this is so great.

So.

So, lots of fun stuff happening tonight.

I have to say, I drove here tonight, and as I do every night, on 41, and coming up over, it's not hilly from Marinette to Green Bay, but there are slight inclines, and if you come up fast enough, you can come up on another car.

Well, today, I drove up, everybody was hitting the brakes because it was one of these humongous farm.

Equipment things it took up a lane and a half.

Yeah, everybody hit in the brakes like those things are dangerous like I Can't believe they can't go on the frontage road or something it was like

You know those are the most I think dangerous vehicles to be on the road with oh, yeah one time I was hit like a Vehicle that was I don't know what it was.

There was a farm equipment

And they didn't have any reflectors on

anything.

Oh, really?

So I turn on this road and they're going across.

No reflectors or anything.

But it wasn't the freeway or the highway.

No, I just couldn't see it.

Yeah.

I almost I was like really close to hitting it.

It was dangerous.

Everybody locked him up.

People were letting people in and everybody knew everyone was screwed if people didn't get over.

It was kind of a nice it was like everybody working together.

And then you start to speed up and there's another one like in a quarter of a mile.

And it was just

And

whatever.

It's the highway.

It's a country highway.

What do you expect?

I mean, yeah, you're up there.

It's far bill up there.

I'm the one that moved very far away.

It is my fault.

I take full responsibility just so I could get a cheap house near the water that I had to move to the edge of the universe.

Also known as Marinette Wisconsin, a dandy little bird.

We got a text overnight from Bud in Janesville.

Bud often texts us between 4 and 6 a.m.

when he is out delivering papers.

He said, hey, Pete and Conrad, the summer song that comes to mind, that's right, last night our question of the night was, what is your favorite summer song?

And Bud says, the summer song that comes to mind is Saturday in the Park by Chicago.

That's a great one, Bud.

To give it some context, I was playing on my boom box when I was with my first serious girlfriend on a blanket underneath the stars where I was learning about the birds and the bees on the job, on the job.

The hell kind of job is that?

Yeah.

Pretty good gig.

Keep it clean.

But this is a family show.

He says, actually, it was more by trial and error.

We don't need all these details.

Where does that go?

What's happening over here?

Regardless, it was very memorable.

OK, I may have made up the contextual part.

He just wants to go back down memory lane.

And Vertendi is messing around with his high school girlfriend.

Couple of fun kids.

There you go, bud.

Thank you for the text.

He says, love your show, bud, from Jamesville.

Always good to hear from you, pal.

And be careful out there, delivering those papers in the early morning hours.

So, all right, last week.

Oh, we gotta get to the question.

Good God.

Sounds good.

Let's get to it.

Let's do it.

This is a question of the night, folks.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Question.

Questions.

What is... Oh, I'm sorry.

If you could only listen to one style of music for the rest of your life, what would it be?

If you could only listen to one style of music, what would it be?

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic.

Let us know via text message or on the app.

You can just click the little icon if you're listening on the app and we will get your text and read it on the radio.

And if you're listening or watching on the stream, that's fine too.

Let us know and text us your favorite style of music.

Not even your favorite, but what could you listen to for the rest of your life if you had to choose just one genre?

I yield the floor to you Conrad tonight first.

You know, I've given thought about this, but like it is the genre I listen to the most and it's like rapping hip-hop.

For the rest of your life though.

Yeah.

I've been doing it for, you know, however, I

think

probably about since I was like 12 or 13.

It's

been my favorite genre.

There are slower songs.

Yeah, there's different.

Yeah,

yeah, there's different styles of it too, you know, so yeah, I think I'd go with that because most of my favorite artists are in that genre.

I think I would I want to say rock and roll.

But I don't know, like, I might have to go folk rock because I need some up tempo and then I need to slow it down like I would say classical because that's like the most soothing.

But sometimes I want to rock.

Or love jazz love blues.

Jazz can be

up tempo or slower.

So I'm gonna figure this out, folks.

My answer will be on standby, but I will get back to you.

But let us know what you think, 855-752-4842, 855-755-CIVIC.

If you could only listen to one style of music, the rest of your life, what would it be?

Let's have some fun with this one.

I also wanna say, I wanna get back to this because today, I took a walk and the Mayflies are insane.

And we talked about this last week.

It's it's out of control and then I go to my car and I get in the car and 18,000 mayflies go in the car So I'm like swatting them as I'm driving and avoiding farm equipment on the road and it's They're dangerous And I think my question what last week why I asked you is can mayflies break a fast?

So here's what we're gonna do when we come back

folks after this very short break.

I'm going to read some texts and I'm going to tell you how many calories per fly, dry weight, are in a Mayfly.

Very

interesting

topics.

Nightlight

tonight.

Probably a little protein in there.

But it's Museum Night.

Welcome.

Greg Vadney is here at 635 and Jennifer Crock from the Circus Museum.

She's the curator down there in Baraboo.

Both guests so much fun tonight.

We'll tell you everything that's going on.

We'll read your texts.

We got some great clips, all kinds of fun here on Nightlight coming up next though.

And if you want to text over the commercial, let us know how many calories you think one Mayfly contains.

This is Peach Wapa and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I already have, like, the shiniest forehead in the history of radio.

I've only been doing this a little over a year.

That's impressive.

That's a

little better now.

All right, the glare is off.

We got a glare bouncing off the building across the street here in downtown Green Bay that was illuminating.

Yeah, you, like, I was looking on stream, you know, I didn't want to interrupt you, but, like,

appreciate

that.

It was just a yellow spot on your face.

You could barely see your eyes.

Yeah, that's all right.

So, all right, let's get this out of the way because I know people are chomping at the bit trying to find this out.

This is information, by the way.

If it's unclear, Conrad, part of this is on you because you sent this information last week.

I asked if me swallowing like 100 mayflies on a walk breaks a fast because I was doing intermittent fasting.

Here's what one mayfly weighs.

and this is dry Conrad took the liberty of putting dry weight this is dry weight .008 calories per fly that's dry weight and then you wrote .0004 calories per fly but what does that mean because they're both per fly do you remember i

think the dry weight is when they're dead maybe i don't

know okay

um well i you are breaking it fast though probably

it's not zero it's not zero calories so

You did.

Well, that really sucks.

Um, they, I mean, don't get me wrong, they taste it good.

They're, they're such a nuisance though.

And then they get in your car, it's like everywhere you go.

I mean, to put my car in the garage at night just so mayflies don't get in there.

You know, I'm like, if I swallow a bug, I'm deeply worried that I'm going to get sick because of all the stuff that they touch.

It's going to like glom onto your stomach or something and put.

Something it sat in the picnic bench in your stomach.

It's horrible.

It's like when you're younger and you swallow a watermelon seed Yeah,

that works all right, so there you go folks so in case you were wondering and I thought for whatever reason I thought may flies I said like a day or two.

It's been a week

And they're still everywhere, at least where I live.

You know, it's terrible.

So our question of the night, folks, is if you could only listen to one style of music the rest of your life, what would it be?

I'm on the fence.

I love jazz because it's cool.

You can speed up, slow down, but rock has a lot of jazz in it and blues.

That's where rock comes from.

And there's rock like Chicago with horns, Springsteen's East Street band has a ton of horns and brass.

I don't know.

I'm struggling here, but I'm probably going to say jazz.

I

mean would you miss though like people like is it jazz that sings too right?

Yeah well you could sing to jazz absolutely

yeah.

I just like thinking if it's just instruments would you miss the vocal part of

it?

Yeah I would but you can sing during jazz or blue like I just saw centers some great blues songs and centers.

I don't know maybe I'll rock and roll.

Well, we'll see let's get to the text on the social media Daniel Wheeler says I choose Brazilian jazz It's upbeat relaxing and great background music to just chillax with I Have to wet my mouth to say the word chillax Yes, you do to say it properly That's an inside joke.

Thank you Daniel.

Sarah Jean Rosenberg says Daniel Wheeler.

Oh, I'm intrigued any suggestions on where to start listening to this I have a band or album recommend

Have a band or album recommendation to check out.

I love see look.

I love that textures.

It's an information exchange.

It is I Hope Sarah Jean finds something she loves thanks to our pal Daniel Daniel says Sarah Jean honestly, it's all Pandora.

I think Daniel's full of it Ever listen to Brazilian jazz

He says, it's all Pandora.

I like this song.

It made a station from it.

I get that.

I've done that too, Daniel.

He says, it's wonderful background music and just drifts nicely between your consciousness, your conscious and subconscious as you're working on art or something.

I get that because that I like to listen to music when I write.

If I'm trying to capture a particular mood or scene, but jazz is something I really started to dig because I could have it on in the background and you can't follow jazz.

So it's easier to concentrate.

Amanda Nimmer, all caps.

She says rock.

That a girl.

Nothing wrong with that, Amanda.

Dan Davy says they say one's choice of music style mirrors their persona.

My favorite is angry and drunk Irish music.

Oops.

Okay, Dan.

Kick back a few more and go pick a fight, Dan.

Sarah Jean also says probably bluegrass.

I've heard some variations that I think...

could quench my multi-style music needs.

That's a great choice, actually, because you've got all of those different things coming together.

You've got rock, jazz, blues, rockabilly, hillbilly.

You could have someone play in the jug.

Steve from Florida says, interesting fact about Conrad, he attended Clown Camp at the Circus World Museum at around the age of seven.

Do you remember that?

I remember a couple of things from that.

That's kind of cool.

I remember it being really hot in a gym where we practice and that I was the big guy who lifted heavy things.

Okay.

So I was like, I was like seven lifting like 50 pound dumbbells.

Here's

what your dad says.

Conrad and his cousin Colin also spelled with a K. Okay, this is getting weird.

Performed at the end of camp and in the big top.

They brought the house down, a memorable event.

We gotta see pictures, Steve.

Please share some photos if you have.

Don't.

Ross from Crawford County says classical because it covers them all.

Yeah, that's a great choice, Ross.

I thought about classical too.

I listen to it a lot.

KUSC on iHeart, great stuff on a Sunday morning.

Sherry from Hurrican says, good evening.

Pete and Conrad, I would pick all 70s.

She just goes year.

She's not.

Confining yourself to a genre, Sherry says, I'm picking a decade.

We love you enough, so that's fine, Sherry.

Jimmy Kay, Max Inc Radio says, original local music from Wisconsin, of course.

Yeah, that's a genre, sure, we'll take that.

Wisconsin is a, I like

that.

Yeah, I love it, Jimmy, thank you, buddy.

AJ in the 608 says, good evening, PNC.

PNK.

Oh, AJ.

You are gonna, you are gonna invoke the wrath of the kid Conrad Krueger.

She says the Speed Racer movie was a triumph of cinema and comparable to Charles Dickens.

A Christmas Carol.

Interesting.

Honestly, it was just so much fun, but if I had to choose a music genre for the rest of my life, it might be folk.

I'm with ya, AJ, that's a great choice.

She says love sun, kill moon, sun, kill moon, Gordon Lightfoot, and I would put Luminers in there.

I guess I feel like it's broader than people give a credit for.

There's no bigger fan of Gordon Lightfoot than me, AJ.

That's great.

We'll read some more texts as the show progresses.

Rose on the stream, though, says, hi, Pete.

Hi, Rose.

Great to have you with us tonight.

Great to have all of you with us.

It's a field trip to museums tonight on Night Light, and it's all coming up next.

After the news, this is Pete Schwab, but we'll come in right back.

I'm Pete Schwabba.

It is National Crouton Day.

Oh, that gets your mouth watering, huh?

You ever been so hungry, you just reach in to a bag and grab some croutons and start mowing them?

Yes, I've done that.

100%.

I've done that

too.

I've done that like, oh, here comes Greg.

I've done that too, like where I'm having a cocktail and sometimes you just need something to kind of, just kind of snack on when you're having a little whiskey or a beer.

And sometimes, you know,

A Cruton provides that.

It's also National Apple Pie Day, which is cool.

Our question of the night is if you could only listen to one style of music for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Nick from Marshall says I listen to a variety of genres, but reggae music is my ultimate favorite genre.

Agree with Conrad, rap and hip-hop is very good, but old-school hip-hop from the late 70s through the mid-2000s, modern rap and hip-hop can be good, especially if it's by a rapper who has been in the game for a very long time, like Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Nas?

Am I saying that right?

Yep.

Okay.

Wow, even Greg Vadney knew that.

I don't mean even like... I'm a New Yorker.

I don't think

like museum directors

shouldn't know cool music.

He says, but most of the new young artists suck.

Plus...

The names suck, too.

Like Lil Boopy,

remember that, Conrad?

We had fun with that dude's name.

We need to remember his birthday, you know?

So we can wish him a happy birthday next

time.

That is an awful name, though.

I could not agree more with you, Nick.

All right, it is time for... This is our field trip tonight.

We are doing nothing but museum talk when it comes to guests anyway.

Jennifer Cronk, she's the curator of the Baraboo...

Baraboo Clown Museum.

No, that's not right.

Baraboo Circus.

Circus World.

Good God, Pete.

She's coming up.

I got here just in time.

I went to Clown College for three years, but I couldn't finish.

Oh my gosh, that's right.

It was too difficult.

You'd think it'd be easy, but no.

And now, our first trip down Museum Lane is with our pal Greg Vadney.

He's the executive director of the Raar West Museum in Manitowoc, and he joins us here in studio.

It's great to see you, buddy.

Great to see you, too.

Yeah.

Thanks for having me by.

Hey, anytime.

This is, like, what, your third or fourth?

I think it is.

Yeah, it's third, I think.

Always fun.

Yeah.

So how have you been?

Good.

Busy.

Yeah, it's the 75th anniversary of my humble museum.

Is that

right?

So we've had programming all year long, and we're going to continue it all year long.

So 75 years.

75 years starting

in 19.

You've only been there 61 years of that, right?

That's correct.

Okay.

Yes.

Came over from New York.

I know.

12 year old.

Don't I

look young for being 85 years

old?

For a stressed out executive museum director.

No, man, I've been there 13 years.

Wow.

Good for you, man.

Yeah.

And you're a New Yorker.

We've covered that before.

But I don't know if I ever asked you this.

Did you

Did you come here for this gig or

were you here already?

Oh, that.

Let's see, because we don't have that much time to talk about it.

But the short story is I came here because of a girl.

My wife

is from

Manetswak.

That's how they get to

Greg.

But I had a museum degree, so I was looking for museum.

OK.

You know, it's funny, because we would come and visit her family.

And they'd be like, hey, I thought you were going to move to Wisconsin.

I was like, well, it's not like being an electrician.

It's not like there's a job in every town.

Then I started to think maybe I should just be an electrician.

Right?

Yeah.

I could visit museums.

I could volunteer.

But then this, thankfully, this job opened up in her hometown and it worked out.

incredibly well.

And you love it

there.

You like Manitowoc.

I do.

I love Manitowoc.

I

honestly do not like just blow and smoke with it.

I

adore Manitowoc.

I love raising my kids there.

I'm very, very blessed to have married into a wonderful family.

So my wife's family, many of them still live in Manitowoc and they're wonderful

people.

See, that's the problem with me.

I only like my wife of all of her family members.

Oh, yeah.

How do you navigate that?

That is

hard.

That's hard.

I know they're listening too, so I could ask a problem.

All right, so you said we don't have that much time.

Are you got a scoot?

No, I don't have a scoot, but you know, I can... Did it hurt you?

Yeah, no, I'm telling you, you pull the string with me, we're going to have like a three hour conversation.

Well, we can't do that.

We can't do that.

That's what I'm saying.

That was more for me

than you

or our listeners.

I needed to know that I had to keep it short.

We had a guest on three weeks ago or so, who we had booked, and we solidified the time and all that.

And he goes, I can only stay a couple minutes.

Oh, okay.

He's just

stopping by.

But it worked out just fine and there was a miscommunication.

But anyway, so you stay as long as you like, buddy.

That's what I'm saying.

Awesome.

We do have a lot

to cover because

there's a lot

going on at RR West.

So

we're, you know, should we start with exhibits or events that people can still be part of before we get to the upcoming?

Yeah, let's do it.

Let's do that.

Yeah, let's do it.

So the big one would be this week.

And that is,

I said we're celebrating our 75th anniversary, which

is a big

anniversary.

We're also celebrating another huge milestone, which is the 100th, we'll say anniversary of our George O'Keefe painting in our collection, Persian pine tree number.

That's

right.

Right.

That was painted in 1925 and the museum.

It is it is kind of like we have some wonderful art.

Don't get me wrong.

Yeah, we've got Picasso's.

We've got Warhol's.

We have

Some some other like very well-known American artists from the 20th century.

Okay,

but

the Georgia O'Keeffe painting is like the big one the piece de resistance

Do you feature local artists?

We do.

We do.

We'll

get, yeah.

I'll actually talk a little bit about that.

But, you know, Georgia O'Keeffe kind of counts.

People think of her as like New Mexico, but she grew up in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

I just did a painting of Conrad last week, and it's fine, but you're probably, I understand.

Oh, all right.

Well,

yeah.

No, if you're doing the hard sell here, I'm listening.

He's got high tops on and a backwards baseball hat.

I don't see enough.

of those kind of paintings.

That's nice.

That's

contemporary.

I like it.

So I forgot you guys had a Georgia

O'Keeffe.

So we had.

We do.

And I'm telling you, man, it is our calling card.

It's traveled around the world.

It is, I mean, out of our collection.

And if you'll indulge me, I'll tell you a little bit about

what I know

about it.

Yeah.

Because we have an event coming up this Thursday, free event, 3 p.m.

PD Young, who is an art educator at the Art Institute of Chicago, is going to be at the museum.

And he's going to put this O'Keeffe painting in proper context.

He's the professional, right?

I pretend to be a professional, but I know two things about this O'Keeffe.

I know where it was painted in Lake George, New York, which is not far from my hometown and a place where I go every year.

I have family that live in Lake George.

I know exactly the spot because there's a nice marker, thanks to the state of New York, that shows where she summered.

That's

so great.

It's not far from where my family.

I've got my aunt and uncle have a house in Lake George.

I've got friends who have Lake Lake George house.

So I see it every year, which

is

fun.

And it's funny for Wisconsin people.

Lake George Village in Lake George Lake George has been a tourist town for centuries, like Thomas Jefferson used to vacation there.

It's been it's been a long time.

It's been a place to go.

What was his name again?

Uh, last name was Jefferson, Jefferson.

Uh, he was, uh, Southerner.

I think he's in that musical, you know,

the one

with all the

ramping.

Do you get to see when you're there, do you get to see where she painted that kind of, you know, it's the property and the house, the house

is gone now and all that.

Uh, and, and a few years ago, the first time I saw it after I had taken the job.

I've got a bunch of kids.

So like I said, Lake George village, it's been a tourist destination.

Now it's kind of like a miniature version of the Dells.

You're talking about a lot of miniature golf and water slides and, you know, chachkies that they sell in every store and

ice

cream and all that.

So my kids want to go there.

They're like, let's

go to the arcades.

And, uh, and dad pulls over at a stupid sign on the side of the road and, uh, the painting is birch and pine tree.

Now.

New York is kind of like the north woods here.

There are a lot of pine trees.

So my kids are in the car screaming at me, dad, you said we could go to the arcade.

And I'm like, let me just find one stinking birch tree.

It doesn't matter if it's the right one.

I just want a picture.

So eventually I had to acquiesce and I just gave up

and I said,

listen, you know, we'll go to the arcade.

Let's

just go to the arcade guys.

Is this the painting?

Well, that's the one right

there.

that you're scrolling over right here.

Yeah.

And it's one of three.

So it's good because you

said

which one is ours.

So we have Birch and Pine Tree number two.

There

is a Birch and

Pine Tree number one, which is at the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Think Rocky, right?

The Rocky steps.

Yeah,

their museum has the first one.

And then there's what is known as Birch and Pine Tree pink, which almost looks like rhubarb sticks of rhubarb, you know, huh?

And that one is up in Maine at a college Colby College in Maine.

But ours is the best obviously

how does this little museum in Manitowoc this cool little funky me?

It's

like we work this out ahead of time because that's the other thing I really know a lot about yeah, and that is how we got it Tell me

right.

I think it's that's part half the story right there so

again quick answer is there's a West Connected to our name and that is the West family John

and

West okay, and the easy answer is Ruth West is the reason

The West family owned the Manitowoc Company, which was shipbuilding.

A lot of people know them for cranes now.

So

they were great patrons.

And Ruth West knew that she was nearing the end of her time.

She had already really turbocharged the museum with her money, but also with her knowledge of art.

And she had gotten us an amazing collection of art.

And she decided, I want...

one last big piece

as a

final gift.

And the beautiful thing is that that final gift was this painting, and this painting has had two owners.

One is the Rar West Art Museum.

But before that, it was owned by one individual, Georgia O'Keefe.

Georgia O'Keefe?

Oh my God.

Georgia O'Keefe never sold

it, never gave it away.

She had it at her property.

She kept it.

Her entire life, she died in 1986 in 1990.

her family auctioned off some of her own personal artwork, including some of her artwork that she had created, including Birch and Pine Tree number two.

And

Mrs. West, Ruth West bought it on behalf of the Raw West Art Museum, a final wonderful gift.

That is the voice of Greg Badney.

He is the executive director of the Rarwest Museum in Manitowoc.

If you haven't been there, you have to check it out.

They have an original Georgia O'Keefe.

That's what we're talking about right now.

Aaron Zommer is listening on, I believe, on the app says, I love the Rarwest.

One of the things I miss the most from living in Manitowoc.

I didn't know Zommer's lived in Manitowoc.

I didn't either.

Oh man, he'd be a great neighbor for you, Greg.

Well, thank you.

Good

dude.

Come on back

and

visit.

Yeah, absolutely.

So is that the prize piece, would you say, of the museum?

Yeah,

that's our big one.

We have other ones that are incredible, a great Chagall, Mark Chagall,

art and

collection.

Like I said, Warhol, Picasso's, but that O'Keeffe is like, that's a big one.

Fantastic.

So what else is an exhibit like people can still check out that might be running out, or do you want to get to the upcoming stuff?

Yeah, you know.

Well, first of all, let me let me continue on with the O'Keeffe because we have the celebratory event, which is Thursday this coming Thursday the 15th.

It's free to the public three o'clock.

We have PD Young from the Art Institute of Chicago visiting us and sharing his great knowledge of Georgia O'Keeffe and putting in putting the painting into like the context of what Georgia O'Keeffe was up to in the 1920s.

Is

that something people

have to get tickets

for no tickets even though it's free like come on

by

Wow

nice come on by and then we're gonna do a special ribbon cutting because we figured we got a bunch of people coming anyway Yeah, so we're gonna celebrate the 75th anniversary with a ribbon cutting at the at the museum That'll happen at four o'clock just after the the talk so we'll

all

get together and do kind of a photo op and celebrate

both the George O'Keeffe paintings, 100th birthday and the 75th of the Roar West.

And, you know, as you were saying, what kind of other exhibits, our historic Vilous Roar Mansion is just chock full of exhibits this year celebrating our 75th.

We'll jump into

all that.

We got to do a very short break.

But is that house, was that the West's house?

No, that was the Roar's house.

I'm sorry, the Roar.

The Roars gave us the house, the Wests gave us the art.

Wow, that's teamwork right there.

All right.

Greg Vadney is here.

He's the executive director of the Raw West Museum in Manitowoc, which absolutely rocks.

We'll have some more with Greg, more time with Greg, and we're going to find out some other events that are upcoming and all kinds of fun stuff.

Maybe we'll even touch on Sputnik Fest if we can.

That's always fun.

I don't mind talking about that.

All right.

We're coming right back at Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

to this Tuesday edition of Night Light.

It's Night Light at the Museum.

That's what we're calling tonight's show because we have two great guests who are very involved in different museums.

Jennifer Cronk will be here from Circus World in Baraboo.

She's here at 720 and right now our pal Greg Vadney is here for the multiple.

You're like basically, you're like the house band almost.

Oh,

I don't mind that man.

Have me back as many times you want.

I love it.

You play an instrument.

There's the rub.

I took guitar.

I took guitar lessons in sixth grade boy for like a month or two.

And this will give you the exact age that I am.

I learned one song.

Hip to be square.

Louis and the new one.

Yep.

I mean, it's not bad.

It's not necessarily known as a guitar song.

Not even his best song either,

but

a fine tune.

But yeah, yeah.

Well, it's great to have you here.

We were talking about Georgia O'Keeffe and that's Thursday.

And P.D.

Young will be there from the Art Institute in Chicago talking about this original painting that you guys have at the Raw West, which I think is just spectacular.

That starts at three.

It starts at three o'clock.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And again, free to the public.

We'll have enough seating.

We'll have it in our Ruth West Gallery.

It's got a lot of seating.

It should be a wonderful event.

And again, it's a celebration of, it is the 100th birthday of that painting.

It's been 100 years since it was painted.

And it just so happens that that falls during a member swap weekend.

The Roar West works with a bunch of different other cultural institutions in Manitowoc and Two Rivers.

And each year we host a member swap, which is kind of that

for anybody's members.

So if you're a member of the Raw West, the Farm Discovery Center, the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Woodland Dunes Nature Preserve, Hamilton Wood Type Museum, or the Pinecrest Historical Society, if you're a member of one, you're a member of all, all this weekend from Thursday until Sunday.

So, you know, for most of us, the membership.

the big membership perk is free admission.

So it's free admission in all of these different places.

Now the RAR West is one of those places that we don't charge admission anyway.

But we do offer our member rates for classes if people want to sign up for classes this weekend.

And we have a lot of wonderful, very unique things in our gift shop.

You know, you would mention Sputnik Fest before that.

We have some Sputnik Fest gear that you can get at a discounted price as a member price.

So we do have all those member benefits available to everybody who's anyone who is a member of any of those six institutions all this weekend as part of our member swap in Manitoba.

That is outstanding.

I remember when I judged it, when I was one of the judges for the costume thing last year at Sputnik, I thought, you know, I got my car.

It was a beautiful day.

The sun was out.

I got the manna to walk.

I don't know.

I stepped into a vortex or something.

It was 30 degrees colder by the time I got there.

It was probably 50 degrees colder in two rivers.

I'm going to wear a

snowsuit if I'm

invited

back.

I don't know.

Courtney Hanson, our tourism chief probably wouldn't like us talking about poor weather.

Oh, that's true.

I will say that when I left there on my way here, it was very foggy.

Really?

Oh my gosh, it was like PC fog.

You know,

there was fog 20 miles south of here in Manitowan

or 30, whatever about 30 miles south of here.

Wow.

But you know, that's like it's like going to London.

Right for for somebody in Green Bay.

It's like you go to London.

It's cheap.

It's cheaper than flying there and wonderful artwork.

Different

different accents to different

accents, fish and chips.

We don't call it.

It's just a fish fry.

But hey,

let's be honest, that's fishing shit.

Absolutely.

So what else we got to do the news in a couple of minutes?

Can you stay through the news?

Oh, heck yeah.

OK.

Awesome.

So Greg Vadney is here, executive director of the Rawr West Museum in Manitowoc.

Great stuff happening.

What else is there now that people should take advantage of before we get to the upcoming...

Upcoming stuff?

Well, as I said, we have a 75th anniversary theme going on at the historic Vilas Rawr mansion, which is part of the museum.

And so we have two floors, about six different independent exhibitions.

And they all are tied into this theme of our 75 years.

And one of the examples I'll give, there was an affinity group of artists and art aficionados in Manitowoc for many, many years prior to the Raw or West forming.

They were called the Little Gallery.

And the two things that they did that were very important, one, they collected art.

And some of the art they collected is incredible.

Yeah.

A good example, there was an artist in town who was friends with an artist named Stuart Davis.

Stuart Davis was a New York City modern artist.

And because of the friendship between him and this guy from Two Rivers named Lester Bentley, I think because of the friendship, he sold a painting to the group for like $150.

$150, $150 grand, $150.

Now, Stuart Davis nowadays is really considered to be one of the big kind of first level American contemporary artists, right?

1930s and 40s.

And so, of course, this painting is a lot worth a lot more now.

It's like about 1.5 million now.

So that's a good investment, right?

So that painting, during its time with the Little Gallery, not only was that museums, it hung at restaurants.

In Manitowoc.

It was at the schools.

The 1.5 million one libraries.

This is through the years.

It's like 1930s 40s 50s through the years, you know locals stores in our downtown like department stores had it there There are photos of it up there because it was like part of the community, but I love that dude Oh That's great, but now we have that it's part.

It's been part of our collection since the 19th and it's worth 1.5 million

Yeah, about that thereabouts in our last give or take a hundred thousand.

It's not, you know, I'm a I'm a museum guy.

I don't talk about the numbers.

Sure.

You know, no, it's about it.

But it is.

I mean, it's it's a painting that could easily be New York, Chicago, L.A.

London and would not be out of place in the largest museums in the world.

And it's here in Manitowoc.

You can find it on the second floor of the historic violence for our image and learn about how that group of artists and things really.

built the RAR West collection into what it was.

You just invited every cat burglar in America to visit.

I got a security system.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's not.

Yeah.

Back up.

We got your

buddy.

Our question of the night is if you could only listen to one form of music for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Dave on the stream says all country for me.

All right.

Let us know folks and we'll read your text on the radio.

More coming up with Greg Vadney after intermission here at Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'll be happy

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy whose house has an actual wiggle room, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back to hour number two.

of Nightlight at the Museum.

That's our theme tonight, folks.

We're all about museums tonight, and we're having a blast here.

We've got Jennifer Cronk coming up at 720.

She is the curator at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo.

Greg Vadney is here in studio talking about all things RRW in the first hour.

If you missed it, our question of the night is, if you could only listen to one

Style of music for the rest of your life, what would it be?

And the answers are all across the board, as you would expect.

More hip-hop, I would say.

That surprised me.

We've got more hip-hop.

I don't, because I like some hip-hop.

I don't think I would pick that as my music for the rest of my life.

I'm kind of torn between rock and folk.

Maybe jazz?