Vampires & Lake Monsters (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 of Wisconsin and the world it's great to have you here tonight on a blustery if I can quote Winnie the Pooh or Christopher Robbins.

A blustery day here in northeast Wisconsin and it was blustery in Madison today where I started out the day.

I got rained on.

I don't know what is going on but we are having some weather in this state.

I hope you're staying dry and out of the wind for the moment and listening to the radio and nightlight.

It's great to have you.

Welcome to the show.

Great show tonight.

Great guests.

A good question.

Lots of chances for you guys to weigh in.

We're going to follow this up with a great show we had last night from Madison, which was always fun doing the show over State Street and back here on the home court tonight.

Conrad, how's it going?

I'm wearing pants tonight.

Yeah, let's hope so.

That was the first thing I checked.

So thanks for going the extra mile.

Yeah, of course.

So we have, boy, there's a lot going on tonight.

I don't even know where to start.

So I'll start by saying happy Pride Month, first of all.

I don't think I said that last night because I was out of my element in Manhattan.

Wow in the show from

that

happened last

night.

That was a big commute.

It was a big commute I barely made it here in time It from Madison, of course, so happy Pride month everybody I know civic media had a great presence at the Pride parade the other day I think in Milwaukee and around the state so that's that's exciting

And we've got, let's do this first too, because it's June 3rd.

This contest just started yesterday.

It's the Civic Media Scotty Summer Text-to-Win Contest.

Our text contest are so much fun here at Civic Media.

So you guys have to partake in this.

They keep getting more and more popular.

There's a lot of winners.

That's the cool thing.

Here's what all you need.

All you need is the Civic Media app.

Then you listen at 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m.

Get the keyword and text it in on the text line, or not on the text.

I'm sorry.

The text line is not the app.

That's a different thing, Conor.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

I just figured that out a year and a half in.

And then just text in.

via the app, what the keyword is, and you are entered to win an hourly prize and a grand prize.

And our hourly prizes include a hundred bucks cash and a pair of Milwaukee Brewer's club level seats.

And that's every hour.

And once you enter for the hour, you are enrolled in the grand prize drawing as well.

What is the grand prize drawing?

That's like at the end of the contest,

right?

Everybody who plays hourly.

has a chance to win the grand prize.

And there are two really cool grand prizes.

A trip to Dork County right down the road here.

I would probably opt for that.

I'm a huge Dork County fan.

But Baraboo, Wisconsin, very, very beautiful part of the state as well.

So the grand prizes are Wisconsin Summer Vacations in Dork County and in Baraboo, Wisconsin with gas money to get you there.

That adds up.

four daily chances to enter beginning yesterday, Monday, June 2nd, and it goes through June 13th.

So make sure you play, folks.

It's so much fun and good luck.

Hope you guys come away.

I hope everybody wins.

I know that's not possible, but we're all winners.

So I was leaving today.

I did some work at PBS Wisconsin today.

And the last two times I went out in Madison, I got horribly sunburned.

So today,

In Vilas Hall, which has no windows, and it's just like probably weighs as much as the earth.

It's like this huge stone structure.

I think they built it in the 60s to make it bomb-proof with all the protests.

So I can't see.

So I'm slathering on Sunblock.

And do you use Sunblock?

I don't use like the...

Like the lotion stuff, I just spray it on real quick and go

good.

Today I did the spray.

The

lotion works better, I'm told, but I sprayed the living daylights out of my neck, my face, my arms.

And I'm like, all right, at least I'm not, you know, I got fair skin.

I walk outside pouring rain.

And now I'm walking around in this mess and I'm getting rained on.

It's like, it's like a.

sunblock rain, gross mixture all over.

It's going down my shirt.

And I know there are people with real problems in the world, folks, but this set me back.

It's like, and all I thought about when I went outside was this is so Schwabba.

Remember your sunblock and then get rained on.

So cobbler.

So cobbler.

PGC.

And then this happened.

Okay, this is interesting.

Last night, I'm in my hotel room in Madison, and I call the wrong number.

And the number calls me back.

Do you answer that call?

Well, do

you think that it's somewhat like...

I don't know who it is.

I made the mistake.

But

I caught myself, and I hung up, and they called back.

And all I can think about is how bored is this person?

Like if somebody called me on a number and I didn't recognize it and they didn't leave a message or hung up I would not call them back unless I was just So bored with my life Hey, who is this?

Hey, what's going on?

Why'd you call

me?

Who are you?

I didn't think it was this this was your cell phone not the phone that was provided with the hotel

No cell phone.

Okay.

No, I don't I haven't got a call in a hotel room in 30 years I'm

saying if you get a call from the like the hotel phone you're like, ooh

Yeah, well that I might answer just because

who the hell

is calling me here unless it's an

emergency.

You don't know what's going to happen with that.

But you're not calling that number back, are you?

No, no, definitely not.

And if they don't, I don't even, you know, 90% of the people that leave messages, I don't even call back because it's like, Mr. Schwabba, your loan has been approved.

I'm like, for what?

It's urgent we hear back from you.

I don't care.

Stop calling me.

I don't have a loan with you.

But it's nice to be approved.

So anyway, that was kind of weird.

Hey, I think it's time kind of, but we gotta get to our question of the night.

We got a good one.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Questions.

What city?

What is your favorite Wisconsin city, excluding the one you live in?

And if the one you live in is not your favorite Wisconsin city, just tell us your favorite Wisconsin city.

What is your favorite Wisconsin city excluding the one you live in?

You can't count that one.

And our question tonight is inspired by this study they did in US News and World Report.

They ranked 250 of the top places to live in the country.

And nine Wisconsin cities made it.

That's pretty good.

That's

like,

what is that like 10?

I think we're above average Wisconsin with the livable cities.

I tried to figure that out on the air, and I'm not good enough at math to go nine cities out of 250.

Well, let's say if there were 500 cities and we had 18, that would be 20%.

That's about 4%.

So Wisconsin has roughly 4% of the top 250 places to live in the country.

And this came out late last week.

Here's how each city in Wisconsin was ranked from highest placement to lowest.

Eau Claire was ranked the highest at 49th.

That surprised you.

You know, I thought

we would have won a little higher, to be honest.

Well, I thought that too.

And Eau Claire is great, but I'm surprised it wasn't like, you know, Madison or Appleton is second.

All right, here, let me get through the list.

Eau Claire was 49th.

Appleton was 53rd, this is out of 250, best places to live in America.

So Eau Claire's 49th, Appleton's 53rd, Waukesha 87th, Oshkosh, Todd Michaels, if you're listening, 114th, Wausau, Brittany Merlot, if you're missing, if you're missing, if you're listening, 125th, Green Bay Conrad, if you're listening, and you better be.

Yeah, I

was gonna

say, I should.

170th, Sheboygan 185, Janesville 186, and Kenosha 214th.

No Milwaukee, no Madison.

There must have been a criteria for the size, right?

I'm confused because I mean, a couple years ago, I think like two years ago, Green Bay was like number one place to

live.

Yeah, what

happened though?

Under but that was there was a criteria.

Okay, so it's all criteria based.

Yes for more information on how we rank and I this must have been Traverse City is 250th That's weird.

That's a gorgeous

area.

So what was number one?

Are you gonna make me scroll?

Sorry,

that's all right.

I don't have it here It's like one of those websites.

We have to keep clicking.

So

I don't know okay

And if I was a real journalist, I would have looked that up before I came on the air, but I didn't.

All I will say is Skokie, Illinois, 230th.

Our neighbors to the South, Grand Island, Nebraska, 229.

Nashville.

Nashville's a big city.

228.

That surprised me.

So there you go.

So that's our question tonight, folks.

Let us know.

What is your favorite Wisconsin city excluding the one you live in?

Tell us 855-752-4842-855-756.

You can text us on the app.

Or if you're watching the radio on the stream on YouTube, Facebook, or X, you can message us there too.

All kinds of ways to get ahold of us.

Just please get ahold of us and be part of the show.

My guests tonight include...

The wonderful Rob Thomas.

He is a Madison based film critic and the city cast Madison editor.

And I'm getting addicted to the city cast publication.

They put out so many cool things about the Madison area.

And we have a ton of listeners in Madison.

So Rob is going to come on.

He's going to talk about some cool new films he saw.

And we're going to tell you about toxic traits in Madison.

The whole staff did this podcast and they listed their traits about Madison they don't like.

So we'll talk about that with Rob.

And then at 720, our pal, Todd Michaels, who is the producer of the Mino and the Mayor show here on WGBW in the morning, Todd is also a paranormal investigator.

And he is going to come on tonight to talk to us about lake monsters and vampires and a flight that disappeared if we have time to get to that.

So lots of fun tonight on Nightlight.

Let us know your answer to the question.

And we have a phone call, Conrad.

Yes, Cindy from Appleton.

Cindy from Appleton.

How are you?

Pete, how are you?

I'm good.

Doing great here, too.

Thanks for the call.

What's going on?

Well, I don't know if Bayfield is a city or a village, but Bayfield is one of my faves.

You know, I'm kind of ashamed.

Pardon me.

I'm kind of ashamed.

I've never been to Bayfield.

And all I hear is amazing stuff about the natural beauty in Bayfield and how gorgeous it is.

So I have to get up there.

So you've been there, obviously.

Oh, yeah, many times.

I love it up there.

I haven't been up there for a while, but I used to when I was a little younger spend a lot of time up there.

So,

okay.

So how far of a drive is that city from where you are in Appleton to Bayfield?

Well, when I go up to Bayfield from Appleton, it takes me a good five hours.

Five hours.

Wow.

Yep.

Okay.

But worth the drive, obviously, right?

Oh, God, yeah.

Definitely.

Awesome.

Cindy, thank you for the call.

Have a great night.

Yep.

All right.

Thanks.

You're very welcome.

All right, so that's good.

What would you say, Conn?

I don't even know.

I think I know.

I was going to say some city in Door County, but I think I'll go back to a little bit of my roots.

And I really like the, I would say the village of Dundee.

I don't know if it's a village or whatever it's called, but it's close to Qoscom around that area.

And it's right by Kettle Moraine.

Okay.

Oh, that's beautiful area

and the Long Lake is right there.

Okay.

Comfort food.

You got the hamburger house and then you got the Tiki bar resort or something like that beach resort and that's on the Kettle Marine Lake, too.

What do you want?

Like the welcome wagon or something?

That's a lot of info.

I really, that place is awesome.

I

always go back there in the summer and visit because I, you know, I got friends back in Qoskin.

We go out to the beach resort, have a couple of drinks and then go to the

Hamburger house and eat some comfort food.

I'm gonna say I'm gonna say city Madison But I also I got to put Dorr County in there too, and I'll figure out my city.

Maybe egg Harbor I'm gonna say egg Harbor Dorr County in Dorr County or Madison.

Those are my two faves, but let us know what you're

favorite, what is your favorite?

Wisconsin City, excluding the one you live in.

This is Pete Schwabba in Nightlight.

We read your texts next and I play a really cool clip on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

Well, what is your favorite Wisconsin city excluding the one you live in?

Tonight's question is inspired by a list that came out from US News and World Report that ranked nine Wisconsin cities in the top 250 best places to live in the country.

According to US News and World Report, here is how each city was ranked.

In Wisconsin, Eau Claire was 49th, Appleton 53rd, Waukesha 87th, Oshkosh 114, Wausau 125th, Green Bay 170.

You're right, Green Bay.

I mean, that was a separate report, but...

to go from number one to 170.

What the hell happened here?

The draft, I guess, I don't know.

But I thought it came out okay.

Sheboygan 185th, Janesville 186th, and Kenosha 214th.

My favorite, I think I would say Madison, but I also like Egg Harbor.

And I'm totally choosing that randomly in Dork County, because I like Sister Bay, Fish Creek.

They're all great.

E from.

Conrad said Dundee, Wisconsin.

Yes, I have not heard of that's kind of cool So let us know what you guys think on the we posted the question today on social media Mike DeSatell on Facebook says Pine Lake home of Rocktoberfest, which is a well I thought when I picked Pine Lake as the town name in Wisconsin for the movie in my movie the Godfather of Green Bay I thought it was a fictional town.

I guess there actually is a Pine Lake, Wisconsin so

But Mike says, home of Rocktoberfest.

It certainly was in the movie.

Sarah Jean says, recently I've been enjoying Wapaka.

In the last year, there is a record store that opened back to vinyl Wapaka.

On my last trip there, I explored some of the other shops as well.

Super cute area and only an hour-ish drive from me from Green Bay.

Have you ever been to Wapaka?

I think once.

It wasn't memorable for me though, I'd say.

There's a lot of lakes.

My wife's family had a cottage there.

And I guess the water, she always describes like, you could see the bottom of the lake in like eight feet of water.

It was very clean.

That's awesome.

So I've only been there a couple of times, but beautiful area.

Matt Harper, rock rap artist, Matt Harper.

We gotta get Matt back on the show.

Oh yeah.

Is it about time?

It's about time.

Okay.

Matt says Milwaukee.

Not a big surprise for a rock rap artist.

Thank you, Matt.

Daniel Wheeler says the town of Lily, small on a map but big in my heart.

My grandparents cottage was there surrounded by pine trees perched on a hill above the copper colored waters of the Wolf River.

Daniel is stealing my heart right now, Conrad, with his whimsical writing style.

He says endless exploration for my brothers and I. Great text, Daniel, thank you.

Lehman Robb says Kiwani, a city on Lake Michigan.

Have you been to Algoma?

Yeah, yeah, I've never been there.

That looks gorgeous though It's right on yeah on the actual lake not the bay and it looks very picturesque.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I gotta check that out.

That's on my list that in Bayfield Monica Hale says Bayfield another vote for Bayfield I had one of the most relaxing vacations of my life there and the view of Lake Superior from the hotel was amazing Alright, that's definitely on my list So keep those texts coming folks.

We'll go to the text line here and start with

Sydney from Oregon.

Sydney from Oregon also says definitely Bayfield, Wisconsin.

Bayfield's rocking it tonight.

Ed from Madison says Milwaukee and Spring Green.

Well done, Ed.

Spring Green.

Only been there a couple of times.

House on the Rock?

Yeah, another gorgeous area of our state.

Rain from the 920 says Hewley.

Where's

that?

I'm going to have to go to the Google.

Go to the Google for Dave's too on the stream line.

I don't know where that is.

But that was interesting.

I never even heard of that city that Dave mentioned, but we'll read that one soon too.

Al from Madison says, Sister Bay, I'm with you Al, gorgeous Dork County.

Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids says, Pittsville, the geographic center of the state, its name says it all.

Pittsville, yes.

I assume it's beautiful.

But based on its name, it sounds like it's not.

But that's Tyler Tyler's got cheeky texts.

I've been watching a British show called line of duty lately So I'm starting to talk like a Brit and I think Tyler's texts have been very cheeky Tori from Kiwani says frog station which soon will be everyone's favorite city as soon as Mino opens the abandoned bar.

I Don't know about that You produce the morning show sometimes what's going on there Mino opening a bar.

I guess so does that surprise you?

Uh, yeah, yeah, I didn't know if he was, I didn't know he was getting into the bar business.

Why

not?

Might as well open a bar, he knows everybody.

Yeah, that's a good point.

That's the guy who should open a bar.

Anna from Madison, she's in the 608, says, Hi, Pete and Conrad, my favorite Wisconsin city is Sister Bay, I love Dora County.

I would say right now we're in a runoff between Sister Bay and Bayfield.

Right?

Yeah, yeah, I would say Bayfield.

Yeah,

Steve from Florida says, if I had a place in Wisconsin, that would be my favorite would be Northern Dork County, Washington Island.

Steve goes even farther north.

So we are all caught up in the text line.

Sarah Jean on the stream says, hey, sorry, I missed it.

When are you dishing out the code word tonight?

Sarah Jean, you can tune in at 7 AM.

11 a.m.

2 p.m.

And 4 p.m.

For the keyword we don't give it out on this on this show The contest is not eligible during nightlight, but good luck tomorrow definitely play and Thanks for reaching out Dave says Pioli I don't know if I'm saying that right, but I pulled it up on Google.

It looks beautiful.

It looks like it's down by kettle meringue.

Oh, okay And it looks like some sort of historic village very nice.

Thank you Dave.

Hey, we have that we have time to play that clip

Uh, the... Dana Carvey.

Uh, no, not... Oh, come on, Conrad, you're killing me.

Sorry.

That's all right.

How long is it?

It's like a minute?

A minute and 30.

All right, I'll have to save some time.

Coming up in just a few minutes, folks, our pal Rob Thomas.

He is the city cast, Madison newsletter editor.

They do some really cool stuff.

I love that little rag, as they call it.

And we'll talk about some movies, too.

Rob has some new movies he's reviewed on his sub-stack, one of which I've never heard of.

So, we'll talk to Rob about that, and what's going on in Madison, including the city's toxic traits.

I wish I'd known that.

I was just there last night, and I have to admit, nothing really looked toxic.

I love Madison.

And it's good to be home in Green Bay, and Conrad is wearing pants.

All is right in the world.

Welcome to Nightlight, folks.

We have a really fun show.

Weigh in with your thoughts in your favorite Wisconsin cities.

Text us your thoughts throughout the show.

Always more fun when you guys are part of the show.

We're coming right back.

This is Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

I'm Pete

Schwab, but this is Nightlight.

Great to have you with me on this Tuesday night.

Is it weird that it already feels like Thursday?

I don't know, because last week was a short week, so, you know.

So this seems like a long way.

I feel like I've already done eight shows this week.

I think it was The Driver or something, I don't know.

So we will read your texts coming up soon, folks.

I did look up that Paoli, and it's a gorgeous little historic town, and it says 12 miles from downtown Madison.

I've never even heard of it, but it looks beautiful.

All right, keep those answers coming, or those questions coming, I'm sorry, those answers coming, folks.

Our question of the night is, what is your favorite Wisconsin city, excluding the one you live in?

So far, I would say Bayfield.

And what was it, Sister Bay?

Yeah.

And Sister Bay.

Mine was Agar Harbor because it's a little closer to civilization than Sister Bay.

But they're all good.

Dore County in general, probably going to get a lot of votes tonight.

So keep those answers coming.

Right now, I'm very excited to welcome back to Nightlight one of our favorites.

He is the city cast Madison newsletter.

Check it out if you haven't.

And he's also a Madison based film critic.

And he joins us now over the stream, our pal, Rob Thomas.

Hey, Rob.

Hey, Pete, how you

doing?

Good.

How are you?

Hey, how was your vacation?

It was mostly great.

We went to New York City for the more than a long weekend.

I was the victim of a crime, which is that I was scammed on.

Well, I was scammed on tickets to see a fellow with Denzel Washington, which was like the whole point of the trip or main thrust.

It's my own fault.

I waited till the last minute was looking for deals on StubHub.

Got it.

Got a nice one.

What's the theater?

And the guy was like, yeah, those seats don't exist.

That's not real.

And luckily, StubHub was on it.

They gave us a full refund.

but it was sold out.

So we were out of luck on theater, but you know, we found a bar, we found a bookstore, we had a perfectly great time.

So next time Denzel Washington does a fellow, we'll be sure to be there.

It did what any good Wisconsinite would do as a backup option and find a bar.

It's always a plan B, if not a plan A.

If Denzel wasn't in a fellow, the bar probably would have been the first option.

Exactly, yeah.

I can't even imagine seeing him on stage.

That must be something.

So I'm sorry that happened to you.

And

we'll have to imagine it.

It looks like you had a nice yoga work out there too, Rob.

I saw one of your posts.

I went to Peloton.

I'm in the Peloton.

I'll say it up front.

And the spinning class, the bikes.

And I've been since the pandemic, I've been pretty avid.

And I went to the studio where they live stream the.

the classes to like all the members.

And so I got in and was, you know, pebbling away.

And you can see like, mostly my head was cut off on the stream, but you could kind of see me and I sent a video to my kids and they were suitably embarrassed.

Which is really the whole point, right?

I have to ask you, as a guy who saw those commercials over and over,

It's an exercise bike.

What is it about Peloton?

Is it because there's someone kind of steering the ship in a Peloton headquarter location?

What is it that's so special about Peloton?

I think that's the big one is like it's sort of halfway between just like messing around at home on a you know an elliptical and like actually going to the gym because they have set classes at a certain time or they have a bunch on demand as well, but it's it keeps it's just enough of a

motivation to get you in the seat and also like, you know, you have other people, you sort of friend and high five virtually and nice.

So it's a very, you know, my wife is a big gym goer.

So she loves the in person experience, but I like to stay home and this is, this gives me what part of that I need, I guess.

That's excellent.

You know, I remember from the Palatine ads during, uh, during COVID.

where, and this shows you where my brain was at during COVID and how little I was working out.

All I remember thinking was, I had Peloton girls more attractive than the other Peloton girl.

How sad is that, Rob?

They're all in excellent shape.

It's true.

They're all in better shape than me.

I have to, okay, before I want to ask you about some movies, but before we started, did we talk severance last time?

Um, yeah.

So though, I think we weren't that far into it.

We just like,

My wife and I just finished season one and we're taking a little breather because the rest of the world had to wait, what, three years before season two.

So

we don't want to

jump right into it.

And I loved it the whole way through.

And she very slowly came around and was very into it by the end.

That's kind of how I was.

I don't know.

I still don't know how I feel about it.

I felt like it was so slow and overly stylistic almost.

And I know the story grew and then I got more into it.

But I think.

It lost me a few times and I, I didn't go back and catch up.

And I think that's my problem because, and you know, rarely do I do this, but there's so much hype around the show.

I feel like I have to go back and watch the whole damn first season over again.

Yeah, it's pretty dense, I guess.

I haven't, like I said, I haven't watched season two yet, so I don't know.

But I can't, like, I can't imagine.

a three-year cliffhanger like that after the end of the first season.

But honestly, I just kind of enjoyed the vibe of, like, I didn't need that much story.

Like, I thought it was very funny, like, sort of the satire of the workplace and the melon party and the middle management, all that stuff I thought was really interesting and funny and the relationships between the characters.

And I didn't need too much of the, I guess, the conspiracy part of it of what's going on.

Oh, interesting.

Okay.

Yeah.

It seems like a pretty good place to work.

I don't know.

This is from a guy who likes his gig, too.

That's right.

All right.

So let's jump into some movies, Rob.

You wrote about Jane Austen wrecked my life.

This is interesting to me.

I haven't seen it.

I've read about it.

You said you were calling it lit.

I assume that you liked it.

I thought it was really well written.

Tell us about the film.

Oh, thanks.

Yeah, I

liked it well enough.

It's a very kind of quirky, low, let's say low energy, but just sort of take on the rom-com.

It's in French and English, and it's about this woman in Paris who works in a famous bookshop, Shakespearean company, who's sort of a wallflower, writes in secret, but never shows anybody, and her best friend sends it to this.

Jane Austen residency, like this, where writers go with this, this beautiful country house and right for two weeks.

And so she goes and kind of gets out of her comfort zone, but there's like, it's just so quirky.

Like I think I wrote, like my lead was like, you know, not a lot of rom-coms have the heroin fantasizing about slow dancing with the naked man in the Chinese restaurant.

And I was like, that was just so odd that I was like, okay, that's that.

Bridget Jones never did that.

So it was like,

There's a little low key.

Low key is probably the word I would use.

And it's

a little more low key than maybe it should be.

But it's interesting.

Yeah, it's an indie, so it's in some theaters now.

Probably be on streaming pretty soon.

Okay.

I thought something was, this was really funny, Rob.

You wrote, you made a joke about one of the main characters playing out or typewriter and writing in the movie.

And they never do this in movies about writing.

Writing is not very exciting to watch, is it?

No, it's not very cinematic.

Yeah, right.

Um, so it's a keeper though, thumbs up.

Yeah, it's pretty good.

I think if you, if you think that I might like that kind of movie, you'll like that kind of movie.

Yeah.

I think I, I think I would like that movie because of another line in your review that I really liked.

You said it may be a little too muted for traditional roundcom fans, uh, and a little light on Austin for Jane Austen fans.

That's a great line.

Oh, thanks.

Yeah.

Alright, so we'll put that in the category of to see I Did not read this review But I saw that you wrote about the new boys starring Kate Blanchett.

Tell us about the new boy

That's yeah, that's a very like I think it's on streaming I don't think I played in theaters even in Madison and usually like it's a new Kate Blanchett movie You think it would play fairly big.

Yeah,

I knew

it's like her so she's Australian which I keep forgetting but it looks like her first

Australian movie in like, I think like 20 years.

I was looking at her IMDB.

She plays a nun in very rural Australia in, it looks like the 30s or 40s.

And there was this kind of very shameful thing which happened in a lot of colonial cultures where they would basically kidnap kids and convert them to Christianity and sort of rub out the old culture and they

they snap up this one nine-year-old boy who just, you know, resists and apparently has some sort of like supernatural abilities.

I guess I would say like healing abilities.

And so it's kind of like the war of wills between the two of them.

And it's like an unbelievably beautiful movie.

Like it like every shot is like a painting.

So if you like keep my chat and you were you know, I we just are in black bag, which is one of my favorites of the year This

is

a completely different role for her playing a playing a nun But I do recommend it.

Let's that's a great segue actually because

We might have touched on black.

I don't think you had seen black bag, actually.

Maybe not.

Took a little while

before I

saw it.

Same here.

And I think you saw it very shortly after I did, but you kind of did a deep dive in your article on your sub stack.

And by the way, check out Rob's sub stack, not that Rob Thomas sub stack.

He does great work there.

So your entire article, I equated it to, you talk about the Blu-ray extras, your article was like a Blu-ray extra.

You had some great stuff in there about just a creation of the film and what David kept.

Talk a little bit about David Kep and where he's the screenwriter, where his inspiration came to write this movie when he was working on another project.

I found that really interesting.

Yeah.

So David Kep, UW-Badison graduate, has come to the film festival a couple of times with his movies.

He wrote the first Mission Impossible back in...

1996 he's a big-time screenwriter.

That's

where Jurassic Park has written the new one that's coming in the summer, but he was talking to CIA guys and like They were telling him about you know their job as much as they could about their jobs and like and he was like, okay, but what's it like to be married when you're CIA agent when you spend your entire day lying and then you go home to your husband and wife and you know, there must be a lot of Infidelity going on there because you're all really good at lying

Right.

And so he's been working on this movie, the screenplay for like, yes, ever since 20, 30 years.

And it's, you know, a British spy.

I would say thriller.

I mean, there's very little action.

It's all dialogue and, you know, tension and as.

Michael fastbender is trying to figure out who in there who in his team is a trader and his wife who's played by cable ancient is one of the suspects And just I thought it was great.

It might be yeah that is sinners and this other movie I saw last night is a sneak preview called the life of Chuck Those are kind of I think those are all vying for my favorites of the year so

far

nice

Yeah, you're right and I that

It wasn't a complaint.

I was expecting a little more action in Black Bag.

There is a scene where a drone, it's really cool the way it's shot too.

It just bird dogs this van and blows it up and it was like, whoa.

Like that kind of came out of nowhere because a lot of it is dialogue.

And you talk about in the film how, you know, them sitting around the table talking about their private lives is almost

more interesting than them talking about the office, even though they work their spies, you know, so I thought that was really cool too.

Yeah, it's really interesting.

There's like two dinner party scenes, one at the beginning, one at the end.

And yeah, I loved it.

I can't wait to see it again.

Do you think you can beat a polygraph test?

Well, I learned a good tip from...

The

movie, I won't

spoil it, but I think I would need to practice beforehand.

I would be so scared.

I think I would wet myself if I had to take a polygraph test.

That might

be a giveaway if you wet yourself.

That screams guilty conscience?

Is that what

you're saying?

Yeah, maybe.

Maybe.

I don't know.

Great point.

All right.

Rob Thomas is my guest.

He's the editor for the CityCast Madison newsletter.

Check it out.

And a Madison-based film critic.

We will come back and talk more movies and some toxic traits of Madison.

That'll be an interesting conversation with Rob.

That's coming up next on Nightlight with Peach Waba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

You got night light

All right, with Peach Wabba on a Tuesday night here.

We are broadcasting live from beautiful downtown Green Bay after another lovely and successful run doing the show from our state's capital, Madison, Wisconsin, which is not on this list.

I find that strange.

I'm not gonna lie.

My guest is Rob Thomas.

He is the editor for the city cast at Madison Newsletter and a Madison-based film critic and a proud Madisonian.

Rob, when places put out these lists,

What is going on like a couple years ago Green Bay was the number one place to live in America And it's a lovely town here on this list US News and World Report.

It's 170th Madison is not on this list.

It's the top 250 cities supposedly Madison has been the number one place to live according to Forbes and various other publications Multiple years in a row and it's not even on the list.

What do you think?

I think I think Madison has

yeah

Oh, great.

I think Madison has a housing problem, so they're trying to tell people not to go.

Not to go.

Quite frankly.

The restaurants

are too crowded.

Don't tell people we're so great.

I think that's what it

is.

Well, I wonder, because they're all over the place, these lists.

I figure, I feel like something's going on here.

You know, how much to put you on the list?

I mean, Displains, Illinois was on the list.

I've been to Displains.

It's not bad.

Yeah.

It's fine.

But come

on, top 250, give me a break.

Kind of French.

Exactly.

It's

worldly.

Rob, do you have a favorite city in Wisconsin that is not Madison, Wisconsin?

That's our question of the night.

I'm

just curious

where you would fall in that.

That's a good question.

I mean, honestly, I would say Milwaukee.

Milwaukee is a great city.

If you're talking small towns, probably Spring Green.

Yeah.

So much less to do there and very close to Madison.

A couple people have mentioned Spring Green.

Sure.

Yeah.

That's great.

Before we move off of Black Bag, I just, I read in your article too that, and I was surprised by this too, the Too Flat where Michael Fassbender and Kate Blanchett lived was a set you wrote.

Where was

that filmed, you know?

I

think it was London, but they just built a set inside a studio in the light.

Yeah, it blew my mind because when I saw that,

Movie I was sure that was like what how much that cost yeah for this beautiful two-story apartment, and there's a street out front all fake all all built in a studio I guess so they could shoot wherever they wanted to and not damage it but Movie magic.

I'm telling you I always love when they film on location, but sometimes a set you're right can be so magical

It just makes you want to move there like I remember seeing pictures of rear window and how they set that jib like that camera coming over the whole courtyard to film

stuff

and that was just It's really spectacular when you see those things.

The last thing is Soderbergh Did his own camera work?

I didn't know that.

I think he always does that.

Under maybe an alias, he always does the camera work.

He does the editing.

So you're watching the making up, and usually the director's way in the back watching what's being shot on a monitor.

He's right up in their faces with the camera, with the actors.

And it seems like a very different process.

He's a lot more intimate and maybe

I think it's the actors very engaged when the director's like literally right their face.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Great point.

Um, before we get to toxic traits of Madison, which I loved reading that, um, what, uh, what did you think of Mission Impossible?

To me, this is like the biggest film for adults, probably all summer.

And it opened well.

It, uh, was dwarfed by Lilo and Stitch, but that was kind of expected.

What was your take on Mission Impossible?

Well, I love those movies like I I mean, I love the last I mean, I think only two was like the last one or is like that wasn't so good, right?

And I think I said this is like a three-star movie in a four-star series, you know, it's it's good.

Okay

held my attention, you know Incredible sequences towards the end But a lot of exposition especially in the first half a lot of backstory a lot of flashbacks

It takes a long time for my mind to start getting fun and, you know, kind of that mission impossible fun with like, you know, the intrigue and the suspense and kind of the trickery and stuff like that.

Like the moment I really locked in was when, speaking of severance, when Tramiel Tillman who plays Mr. Melchek, I think on the show.

He's the sub-commander and he is so funny and missional possible.

Every line is hilarious.

That's the guy from Severance?

Yeah, yeah.

I loved that guy.

I thought he was going to be the president's son or something, but then he was, that's so great.

I'd never put

that

together.

Yeah, he was very funny.

I mean, just every line, he just made a meal out of it.

And that was like, okay, this is going to be fun.

And from then on, and that's probably the main way through the movie.

Yeah,

I was I was really enjoying it.

So, you know, I think I think they kind of pushed it as far as they can go and maybe a little too far too big.

Yeah,

the only argument I can make and it's not a good one because I've had I've talked about this film now with Ben Riser.

I think Matt Miller and I discussed it and I know one seems to like that sort of recap.

But and I didn't love it.

But with eight movies over 30 years and most of us don't have time to go back and watch every movie.

I watched part of seven and part of three.

Yeah,

it's tough.

I mean, I didn't think it needed to be that long.

But I thought for what it was, it was OK.

But you're right.

It wasn't like when the movie gets going, it gets going.

Yeah.

And I agree.

It was OK.

It was engaging.

I thought the way they brought three in was pretty interesting.

But I think too often.

It brought stuff in and then it didn't really pay off.

Correct.

In a way.

Like the Shay Wiggum character, we find out.

But that doesn't really pay off, right?

It was

unnecessary, I thought.

I'm like,

he doesn't need to be

related to John Boyd.

Yeah.

And I love

Shay Wiggum, but come

on.

Absolutely.

But yeah, if you're going to spend time at the beginning to set that up, then have it pay off later on.

And a lot of people off, many of those things didn't, I thought.

No, that's a great point.

Now that you've seen all eight, how would you give me your top three, Rob?

Ooh, that's a toughie.

Fallout is my favorite.

Is that five?

That's six.

That's the one where he broke his ankle in pairs.

After I saw Final Reckoning, I was like, it was OK.

These movies are overrated.

And then I watched a two minute clip of him running across rooftops.

I was like, oh, no, these are the best movies ever made.

It was incredible.

I probably would go.

Okay.

Hold on, hold

that thought, hold that thought.

We will get

Rob Thomas' favorite Mission Impossible movie after the news, and we're going to talk about toxic traits in Madison.

It's time for intermission, folks.

We're coming right back.

This is Peach Wabba at night.

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 appreciates a nice hot meal at a fair price.

Pete Chwaba.

Welcome back to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

So great to have you with me on this Tuesday night as we start act two here on On the show so our first hour was packed with infotainment folks We talked about the nine best cities in Wisconsin supposedly because they are the only nine mentioned in US news and world reports top 250 list Conrad by the way In case you were curious the number one city it only took me 12 and a half hours to scroll through this list

John's Creek, Georgia.

How proud John must be, who probably isn't around to see the blooming of his discovered city, but it's the number one city in the entire country, which is exciting for them.

Carmel, Indiana is number two, so I think I have a guest idea, because we have to fill in somebody tomorrow.

My friend Dave lives there, so I think we can get Dave on.

He's a great comedian.

Carmen, I want to see that's where David Letterman is from.

But either way, our question of the night, folks, given the inspiration of the Wisconsin city list, the top nine, what is your favorite Wisconsin city excluding the one you live in?

You cannot vote for the city you live in.

But what is your favorite secondary city here in Wisconsin?

Let us know at 855-752-4842.

And or you can text us on the app or the stream coming up at 720 some paranormal talk with paranormal investigator and Mino and the mayor producer Todd Michaels He'll be here.

We're gonna talk about lake monsters and vampires and Todd might give us a good Gettysburg ghost story, which I didn't even know those existed So we will do all that and we will get back to our our guest here Rob Thomas in just a second.

We also talked about do you call back a wrong number?

I'm amazed that people do this

So, maybe I'll just rob that when we come back.

Right now, if you're not playing our promotion here at Civic Media, Arsgani Summer Text-to-Win Contest, you really need to, folks.

All you have to do is download the Civic Media app.

Very easy.

Then, when you hear a keyword at the top of the hour, text in that keyword and you are eligible to win prizes every hour that you play.

From $100 in your pocket to Milwaukee Brewer's club level tickets.

That's each hour.

two great prizes hourly, and you automatically enroll yourself for the grand prize drawings, which are both two amazing trips, one to Dork County, Wisconsin, and one to Baraboo, Wisconsin, beautiful Baraboo down in southern Wisconsin.

And gas money is included.

So if that was a deal breaker for you, forget about it.

You're in.

You got to play.

4 p.m., 2 p.m., 11 a.m., and 7 a.m.

See what I did there?

I went backwards, just in case there are any people listening that get confused easily.

It started yesterday.

It runs through June 13th.

It's a great contest.

And good luck, everybody.

Hope you play.

Hope you win.

And thanks for listening.

So right now, we're going to get back to our guest, Rob Thomas.

Rob, have you ever had anyone call you and...

Or have you ever called anyone and it was the wrong number and they call you back?

I'm trying to understand what this is.

So you have a wrong number.

I called somebody.

Correct.

I called someone and I realized it was a wrong number.

So I hung

up

after about three or four rings.

They

called

me back.

Hi, I just missed a call from this number.

Like they're like soliciting phone calls, which most of us are trying to avoid at all costs.

I think I've done that occasion if it's a hang up like it But what I don't understand is if someone goes oh, I'm sorry wrong number and then you call them back like Did you feel like you had a connection with them?

That's

what I don't understand.

I

don't know

but

generally in general if you know the less phone calls I have to deal with the better

correct And that's what I was saying like I feel like people are bored.

Hey, who is this what you need?

You know, I don't think anybody's that outgoing.

OK, right before we did the news, Rob, you were about to give us your favorite Mission Impossible film of the franchise.

And I think that was a great what they call in radio teaser.

So we would love to hear.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I appreciate

the time to think about my answer.

Sure.

Yeah, so I would I would definitely say the sixth movie fallout is my favorite.

Yeah.

I watched that so many times.

Um, I used to watch it on the elliptical.

And then at the end of, I, you could watch, you could basically review the movie by my little EKG and like, Oh, that's, that's the car change.

I went way up here.

Oh, that's what he's in the helicopter.

That's way up there.

You know, it's like,

you're getting personal calls from Peloton.

Hey, will you crush that workout?

Are you

okay?

Are you okay?

Uh, sis here, you're 56.

I'll have to give that a rewatch.

I watched a lot of seven leading up to this.

I've watched a lot of three.

Three is to me when the series really started crushing.

Like when J.J.

Abrams got involved and it was just this like non-stop movie, that's when I thought they just started escalating.

But I gotta give six another watch.

Yeah, I agree.

One is a lot of fun.

It's a different kind of movie, I think.

It's 30 years old at this point.

Who is the one I think that nobody really likes?

Clunker.

Yeah, clunker.

And four and five are fantastic as well.

Four is the one where he's hanging off the building in Dubai, which is still one of the greatest stunts I've ever seen.

It's funny, like you mentioned, when he broke his ankle, anybody who does not like Tom Cruise?

Needs to watch that because I've seen internet videos on it when he jumps.

I mean, I know he had a cable on him But he was jumping it looked like 30 feet building to building.

Yeah, and that's when he broke his ankle and he kept going in the scene I mean, that's remarkable.

I know he got out of the shot because he knew like I'm I'm not gonna do that for six months.

Well, I'm

ankle.

I better get it done now.

So No, it's I mean and the one I mean this movie final reckoning him in the biplane like yeah

That's truly insane.

I don't even know how they did it.

He must have just, how real was that?

I don't want to sound like a rube.

I mean, I've been part of movies, but I still, I don't know how they did that.

I've been watching a little bit of behind the scenes clips coming out online.

And I mean, a lot of it seems real.

I mean, I think there was a pie that they kind of digitally erased when he's out on the wing.

So it's not like he's in an out of control plane.

Right.

But they, I think they shot it for like four and a half months.

Just like little bits

every day.

You know, he's hanging up, it's hanging upside it.

It's unbelievable.

He needs to stop.

Yeah.

62.

Yeah, exactly.

62.

He needs to stop.

Thank you, Tom.

All right.

So you did this great piece at CityCast Madison.

And it's funny because I'm talking about how much I love Madison and it's been the number one city in America, like seven out of the last 10 years, whatever it is.

And you guys, your group there at CityCast Madison.

did a podcast talking about the city's toxic traits, which I don't often associate with such a great town, but you guys did not hold back.

Can you tell us what the inspiration for that was and where people can find it?

Well, I think like any town you live in, you have these gripes, you know, even a seemingly perfect town like Madison that like things that bug you.

And there's something about sort of the ideal of Madison that

Make bugs even more when things happen.

So yeah, we had a we did a podcast where we all talked about our You know the things that bug us and some are really big like You know the city's racial inequities or the housing problem and some are really little like You know Pedestrians when they come to a crossing don't press the button like the walk button.

So

it's

like

Yeah, there's a lot of that I noticed because we also asked readers and listeners to come up with their toxic traits.

And the interactions between pedestrians, bikers and cars came up a lot.

It seemed like pedestrians not crossing the street, drivers not pulling over for emergency vehicles, which is also a real annoying thing.

Wow, really?

Yeah, that is annoying.

I didn't realize that was an issue there.

Yeah.

And then the whole thing on the bike path where some of the...

doesn't say on your left when they pass you.