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 thinks outside the box and hates cliches.
Pete
Chwaba.
Welcome, welcome, welcome tonight, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a beautiful, beautiful Tuesday night here in our gorgeous state of Wisconsin as we ease into summer.
And when I say ease into summer, I am speaking conservatively because it doesn't feel like it's ever gonna get here at this point.
It's like gloomy and, but they're all wonderful days.
Don't get me wrong.
I don't mind a little rain.
I don't mind some bad weather, but give me a nice day, especially.
Because today of all days, we should have good weather.
Because it is the kid, Conrad Krieger, the K-man.
It's his birthday.
Happy birthday, buddy.
Thank you.
Thank you.
How's it going?
It's going well.
Did you wake up to birthday greetings aplenty?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Definitely got the birthday wishes.
Yes.
All right.
What are you going to do?
Wait, don't answer that, because that's kind of plays into our question of the night.
So we'll get to that in a second.
OK.
But you're 26 today.
Yep.
That's a big day.
Yeah.
and you just told me you're off your parents insurance.
That's such a bad way to start your day.
But you have a little time.
I have until the end of the month.
Okay.
And what are you gonna do then?
You're gonna do the ACA?
I
have no idea.
You're gonna roll the dice.
Just never have health insurance ever again.
Never have
health insurance.
It's so ridiculous.
Yeah.
Like, who can afford... We have decent insurance, I would say, through my wife's work.
Not as good as it used to be.
You know, it used to be like my wife's a teacher and it used to be, you became a teacher because you have kind of an extended break in the summer, even though most teachers work a lot during the summer, you have great benefits.
Well, the benefits are gone.
The benefits are like average.
So it should just be more affordable.
And for a guy like you, you're young and healthy, you could probably get the best deal possible.
Yeah, I should be able to.
Yeah.
You got any health issues?
No.
I don't think I could ask you that.
Yeah, I don't know if I want to say that on air anyways.
You
probably should.
Get the insurance and then you can come clean
and
tell us everything that's that's that's passory.
Well, happy birthday.
We have a we have a little celebration throughout the show that we're going to do on behalf of Conrad's birthday.
And we'll get to that in just a moment.
But there is a Facebook post and we have a great some things you can play a part of throughout the show.
First, though, I think before we introduce or
I should say who the guests are.
Let's play a little birthday song.
You played for me.
When it was my birthday, you played that horrible dog's barking happy birthday.
Was
that horrible?
Yeah.
So it was awful.
It's common knowledge.
It's a known fact, as they say.
But this is my favorite rendition of happy birthday that I would like to play for you.
So let's hear that
now.
There are several fine young men who I'm sure are gonna go far.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Ramon.
These minstrels will
Sooth my jangled noobs.
I'd just like to say this gig sucks.
Hey, up your spring field.
One, two, three, four.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Go to hell, you old bastard.
Hey, I think they liked us.
Have the ruling stones killed.
That's a
great happy birthday.
Yeah, that's a great This couple is walking by Beck and forth.
They're very confused.
They don't know if they watch a lot of we're not So do you have do you have plans like I know you're working today?
But what are you gonna do like you're gonna have like a bash this weekend You got friends coming to town or what?
Well, it wasn't it's not really a birthday thing.
It was just something I had planned a while
Going to a comedy show on Saturday a comedian Noel Miller who?
I like his podcast and I've listened to him for I don't even know probably like six years or something around there
nice Where is he performing?
He's at the improv in Milwaukee.
Well, actually it's like Brookfield.
Okay,
and so I mean actually I seen him there already I went to a show.
I don't know two years ago and He's part of the tiny meat gang podcast
tiny meat gang.
Yep
I don't want to do a deep dive into what that means.
So you've seen him before.
That's good.
That's good.
Wholesome, clean, cut, fun on your birthday, right?
He's gone with
a group.
Well, I'd say his comedy style is dark.
OK.
So maybe not wholesome.
We talked about this recently.
Yeah.
I should have pressed you more.
I wasn't sure about that.
Well, he's super funny.
And I've actually seen him four times.
And he is a different set every time.
So he is a couple of jokes that you know, he's like, I got to keep these in there.
But what's his name?
Noel Miller.
Noel Miller.
All right.
I'm going to Google that during the
break.
He's also a YouTuber.
That's that's how I found him.
He was actually, he started on Vine.
If you remember that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's that's why he is a vine that just went like super viral.
Okay.
And I can't recite it, but.
Wow, he's only 35.
He is five feet nine inches tall.
This is what I love about Google
They always he used to have a partner and now he just he rides solo now.
Oh, okay.
The tiny meat gang was a joke because they're short.
Oh Okay,
there was they always called himself short Kings.
Okay, I like it.
Well, that sounds like fun this weekend in Milwaukee
Yeah, and before that getting a we're doing a suit fitting and then I got a wedding and
November for a for a buddy.
Okay,
and then after that we're going golfing and then
yeah the show Dude, that sounds like a fantastic birthday weekend a little golf a comedy show Getting fitted for a is it a suit or a tux?
Yes, okay outstanding.
Well, that's fantastic You know before I introduce who or say who our guests are let's do this Let's get the text rolling and let's do our question of the night
Let's talk about the question.
Okay, question.
Question.
Question.
Pregunta.
Question.
Question.
Okay, I have a question.
Questions.
This question.
Domanda.
Question.
Questions.
Oh, yeah.
How should Conrad celebrate his birthday?
What would you do if you were Conrad?
This weekend's plans excluded.
He's 26.
He's a young buck a strap-and-lad if you will how should Conrad celebrate his birthday Sure Todd Michael's uh response first.
Well, I would bleep a part of it.
I don't know.
I don't know if you can Which wait a minute.
What can't I say on the radio the first part hookers?
I don't know if you I don't
Well, you said it anyway.
Clean it up a little.
I mean, you said it right now.
Anyway, Sony might as well
just go ahead.
That's kind of a phrase.
He said hookers and blow.
And I mean, you could say like an escort and blow.
That just doesn't have the same.
That's an old show business.
That's, you
know.
Yes.
So that is not how you will be celebrating.
No, no, not that way.
That's Todd's.
He's your boss.
And if he's telling you that's how you should celebrate, I think you should consider it.
That's all I'm
saying.
All right.
Well, it's your life.
Your birthday.
Thank you, though, Todd.
How should Conrad celebrate his birthday?
That is the question of the night, folks.
Let us know 855-752-484-2855-75CIVIC, or you can let us know on the app or on the stream.
If you want to watch the radio on Twitter, Facebook, or X, Twitter, Twix, however you want to say it or call it,
We will accept all of your answers and would love to have you be part of the show, especially on this glorious day.
It is the lovable producer Conrad's birthday.
So let us know Also, I would be remiss if I did not tell all of you speaking of the app You have to have it.
That's the only real
qualification you need to play Civic Media's Scotty Summer Text-to-Win Contest.
It's one of our great text-to-win contests that we do hear periodically.
And this one is great, folks, because the prizes are outstanding and it's summertime.
So all you have to do is have the app and text the keyword in after you hear it at 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., or 4 p.m.
Text the keyword in and you are eligible for hourly prizes, which consist of 100 bucks cash in your pocket, tax-free,
or a pair of Milwaukee Brewers club-level tickets.
And that is each hour.
So every time you play hourly, you are submitted into the grand prize for our Scone Summer, and that is a trip to Dore County or Baraboo, two very beautiful spots in our state, and we're even thrown in gas money.
So it's a great opportunity to have even more fun this summer here in Wisconsin.
The state of summer, as I call it, there is no better place to be in the summer than Wisconsin.
So you have four daily chances to enter now through just Friday.
So you got to play.
The end is upon us.
There's only four more days.
Three more, really, because Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
So there you go.
Good luck, everybody.
And may the keyword be with you.
So that's exciting.
So tonight folks we have a good show too, and why wouldn't we on Conrad's birthday?
Matt Miller will be here.
He's a Milwaukee film critic.
He is coming by at six Actually about 640.
I think Matt said he was gonna be running a little late when we booked him.
That's fine Matt will be here to talk about movies.
He has seen he saw the movie friendship You didn't see that did
you know it like it had a very small theater times.
Yeah
Like there's only like a couple of theaters that have it around here.
One of them's in Kimberly and then the one in a Schwabbanon.
Yeah.
But it's like, oh, here are the times two o'clock or like five.
Yeah.
It's like, um, I can't really do that.
But
I always do that.
I do that.
Like I'll check the movie times and it's like, oh, it starts in five minutes.
So
I
have
to, um, but, you know, Madison Ballerina friendship and, um, so we're going to talk to him about those, uh, films.
And then also what is still to come this summer is a
Big summer, we are off to a great start with the box office.
There are some great movies coming out, including Jurassic Park, Superman, the Fantastic Four, and I know Connor is excited about Happy Gilmore
2.
I'm really excited about the release this Friday.
How to train your dragon.
Oh yeah.
Live action.
Oh my god.
So excited.
I'm going to see that as I need to check times.
I need to see when I can get in there.
Right, absolutely.
I'm excited to see that too.
And this is the first one, there was a two, right?
There's three movies
actually.
This is the first live action
one.
I saw the first one when it came out.
I don't know if I saw the next two, but I'm excited to see what they do.
So lots of fun stuff going on here tonight.
Frank Anderson will be here in the second hour.
He's the founder of Wisconsinology.com, and he posts really cool stuff on social media, and also on his website, Wisconsinology.com.
Frank is also a director, an editor, and a producer, and he makes amazing documentary films and commercials, and he's an animator.
He is what I call a showbiz Renaissance man, and he's a heck of a good guest here on Night Light, and he will be here at 720, so that's fun.
We'll do all of that.
We're gonna do the guests.
We're gonna read some texts and You know, I was gonna ask you last night.
We didn't get to it, but I'm curious What do you think of stick?
That's the new comedy show
on Apple
TV with Owen Wilson about golf so far.
Have you ever seen the movie a tin cup?
Yes.
No I
knew it.
I knew what you were gonna say.
I just haven't seen it.
It has a feeling like that.
Okay,
and if you haven't seen tin cup then it doesn't make much sense, but
It has a feeling, a washed up golfer, he's trying to get back in, but this time it's with a student he has, that he finds, because he works at a golf course, and this kid can drive like a dream.
He hits like bombs.
And he drops everything, he's like, I wanna be your coach.
So it's on episode, they dropped three episodes right away.
So far, it's really good.
He drops everything.
Yeah, no, I think Owen Wilson does pretty good in it, and the other characters that have, I think, add something to it.
That's awesome.
I gotta check that out.
You also saw Paddington.
in
Peru.
All right, let's hold that.
I wanna hear about that.
I wanna hear what you thought about that.
I have not seen any of the Paddingtons.
I only know that in the unbearable weight of massive talent, Nicholas Cage and Pedro Pascal talk about Paddington to the point of tears.
So we'll talk about that when we come back.
We'll read some birthday texts to our birthday boy Conrad.
We're gonna do all of that.
Hey, Matt Miller's here.
and Frank Anderson.
Might be the first time ever.
We might make radio history, but glad you're with us too.
It's Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back.
We heard Sly and the Family Stone going into the break, which was relevant because he just passed away at the age of 82.
I think his name was Sylvester.
What's his name?
Sylvester?
I just did this in the beats.
No, it wasn't, it was Stuart, Sylvester Stuart, that's right.
You know what, funny last night, I Googled Sly Stone, because I couldn't remember what his, or no, I said what are the biggest hits?
Because I remembered Dance to the Music, which we have, and Everyday People.
And I wanted it like another song, and I couldn't think of one offhand, so I Googled.
Sly stone hits and it came up as sliced stone hits.
And believe it or not, that's what they called them sometimes, sliced stone.
And I was like, that's a weird thing that just kind of worked out.
The band Sly and the Family Stone is often referred to as sliced stones due to their unique sound.
How do you like that?
Why can't I make a mistake once that gets me a million bucks?
That's a good question.
This just kind of saved me like four seconds.
It was still kind of cool.
Anyway, he has gone at 82.
But if you want to see a really cool documentary, it's called Sly Lives.
I think it's on Hulu.
Really cool.
Like a very, like a serious pioneer in music, you know, influenced Prince, the red hot chili peppers, Stevie Wonder, and some great tunes as well.
So, all right.
And then, okay, here's my dilemma Conrad.
What would you do?
You don't drive an hour to get here anymore.
I do So for father's day, we were just gonna go out to eat because my daughter just got a waitressing job We were gonna go out to eat and then my dad calls and says hey my brother Andrew who spends he comes up to Marinette a couple times a month he lives in Charlotte, North Carolina and He said Andy wants to go to a Cubs game So they want to get in the car at seven in the morning and Saturday drive to Wrigley Field for Marinette Which is a solid
in traffic four and a half, probably.
Go to the game, have dinner, and then possibly drive back or just get a hotel room.
I gotta tell ya, the first thing I said was just, no, I drive every day.
It's like 10 hours a week I'm in the car.
What would you do if you were me?
I wouldn't do it, no.
It's just so easy to sit on the porch.
Yeah, that's
a long travel.
Lance Barber teased me about sitting on the porch last night, but I like to sit on the porch in the summer.
Have a nice seltzer, a nice non-alcoholic beer, play my guitar.
I don't think I want to sit in the car that long.
As much as I'd love to go to a Wrigley Field.
You know, I spent a lot of time at Wrigley Field as a kid.
I haven't been there in about five or six years, but I just, it's the car ride.
And we'd probably talk.
It'd be fun.
That's a long drive.
It's a very long
drive.
So I think I'm going to pass, but.
It's fun to ponder.
All right, so it is Conrad's birthday, ladies and gentlemen.
Our question of the night is, how should Conrad celebrate his birthday?
Do I have the social media responses, Conrad?
They should be.
Do I have them here?
I want to read those, because we always get great.
I do not have those.
So we'll go to the text line.
And how apropos the first texture tonight on the K-man's birthday is Paula Krieger.
Same last name, no relation.
Ha, just kidding.
Of course they're related.
It's Conrad's mom, and she says he should fly to Florida and go golfing with his mom.
Well, I thought Wrigley Field was a tall order.
I mean, if she pays for airfare, you know, I'm all for it.
Don't you think she would?
Yeah, I think so.
You wouldn't be paying your own insurance soon.
You don't have that kind of scratch.
Exactly.
That's a great text, Paula, and happy Conrad's birthday.
Anna from Madison, she's in the 608, says, hi, Pete.
Happy birthday, Conrad.
I think Conrad should go golfing in Door County.
You know, I was close
to Door
Coney while I did it when I golfed today.
Really?
Not really.
I was like two hours away, but.
Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids says, kick that big monkey's butt, blow out his candle, and eat his cake.
That is kind of a kick-ass text.
I don't really fully understand it.
But I like to kick that big monkey's butt.
Is that some kind of birthday thing I'm unaware of?
Jargon?
I'm not aware of it either.
Love it, Tyler.
If you feel like elaborating, please don't hesitate.
Ed from Madison, also in the 608 says, in my adult life, I have never worked on my birthday.
I suggest Conrad follow my lead.
Well, he's already here, Ed.
I'm out.
Keep pushing buttons.
Listen, if you ever had an excuse to take a powder, it would be on your birthday.
Some great responses from social media too.
Daniel Wheeler says Conrad should celebrate his birthday with a free medium order of McDonald's fries available exclusively through their app.
Wow.
I like the suggestion, but I'm gonna have to pass.
A free fry on the app, a Civic Media Scotty Summer Contest on the app.
It's all about the app tonight.
Thank you, Daniel.
Aunt Carla checks in.
Conrad's Aunt Carla.
Happy birthday.
Love Aunt Carla and Grandma Krieger.
That's kind of nice.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
Does your grandma like is she you have a good relationship with your grandma?
Yeah, yeah Emerson layman our pal Emerson.
He is one of the hosts of the WBA Y morning show here in Green Bay He says happy birthday Conrad and you guys went to the same high school
You know Emerson did double actually he posted the happy birthday on that and on my timeline
and on your timeline So thank you Emerson those numbers add up What now where was Emerson and he was a couple years older than you?
He was
one or two years,
I can't remember.
One or two years
older.
Yeah.
Okay.
His brother was a migrant, so.
That's right.
Okay.
J.B.
Thompson, that's the guy behind the guy, Conrad.
Yeah.
Behind the guy.
I took out a guy there.
He says, happy birthday, Conrad.
Paula Krieger, double dipping.
Mom, add it again.
Happy birthday, Conrad.
Love, mom.
And mom's text got three likes.
There we
go.
See, all of that is going to affect the algorithm, Conrad.
These are going to be rolling in all night.
Mike Desitel says, happy birthday Conrad.
I think Pete should let you host a segment on the show where you interview him.
I'm going to get all the dirt.
Hey, we got a few minutes to kill in the next segment before Matt Miller joins us.
Maybe we'll do that.
We've also got some more text to read.
We'll get to all of it tonight.
It is the K-man's birthday.
How should he celebrate it?
That is our question of the night.
Frank Anderson is here on the second hour.
We got a really cool story about an Indian burial ground from an Indian tribe here in...
our Native American tribe here in Wisconsin.
We're going to do all that.
Matt Miller is coming up after the news.
It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're just too good to be true Can't take my eyes off you
Such a great
song Have you seen the Dear Hunter?
I have not That song might be my favorite song from a movie I know we've done a question like that before What is your favorite song from a movie?
Or some kind of derivation of that, but I don't
That was just one of those moments in a movie where it was the perfect song for the perfect moment before all these guys went off to fight in Vietnam and a moment between these friends and it was just fantastic.
You know where I saw from?
Jerry Seinfeld's movie about the Popdarts.
I forget what it's called again.
That song
was in Popdart movie?
Popdart movie.
I forgot what it's called.
Unfrosted?
Unfrosted,
yeah.
You know what's so funny is...
I don't know.
The reason I kind of laughed is because I used the show Seinfeld in one of the beats for tomorrow.
Roseanne Barr is saying that God told her to send a racist tweet in 2018 about Valerie Jarrett and it got her fired from the Connors.
Now, have you ever seen the Connors?
A
couple episodes here and there.
You know what?
It did pretty well.
I was surprised.
the driving force behind Roseanne, which was a great show.
And she was really good on it.
And they took her personality and they perfectly molded it into Roseanne Connor.
And I can't imagine Roseanne the show without Roseanne Barr.
But the Conners, they fired her after this racist tweet.
And they brought the show back anyway.
I think they canceled the show for like three weeks and they brought it back.
and the show did really well and it ran for seven years without Roseanne.
But she says God is the one who told her to tweet that, which I, has God ever
talked to you?
Not to send racist tweets, I can say that.
What has God told
you to
do?
Clean
your
room.
Something like that, not something that she did, that's just.
That's strange.
It's an excuse, you know?
Yeah, and God doesn't even follow her on Twitter.
That's the thing I think is strange, folks.
Anyway, so there you go.
So we saw, Matt Miller is coming up in just a few minutes, folks.
Tell us, what did you think of Paddington and Peru?
You've
seen all
of
them or no?
I have seen the first one.
For some reason, I haven't seen the second one yet.
But the third one, Paddington and Peru came on Netflix and I was like, you know what?
I'll watch a movie.
Yeah.
And I thought it was great.
Okay.
It was the story of how Paddington got to where he is.
What was his, his background, you know?
And what was,
he's a panda, right?
Uh, he's a bear.
He's a bear.
Okay.
Yeah.
Is he from the East or like
he's somewhere in Asia?
He's like, I forget what they call it.
But he's from Peru.
He's a certain type of bear from Peru.
And these bears love these oranges.
That they can turn into jelly
Okay,
and that is their quote-unquote gold over there all right for the Bears and it's just him finding his his way back because his He has this long relationship.
He lives in in Britain with his family and He keeps sending letters to his aunt Lucy over in Peru because she's in the retired
Home for bear retired bears or something like that.
They have that.
Yes Anyways, she says I I'm tear I am sad.
I need you over here.
So he goes over there and she gets kidnapped
Oh dear.
So it's him trying to find his grandma or his aunt.
Oh And he finds all the stuff about him.
He finds this other guy that's like I can take you there, but he's obsessed with gold Okay, and the map leads it to gold.
It never really was gold
So is it like all those movies are supposed to be really sweet?
Yes, it was it was
okay.
Did you cry
behind it was that's did you cry during the first one?
No, I
They said they said in
an unbearable way.
It was Paddington to that made him cry.
Okay, which you have not seen
I haven't seen that one.
I've got to see
both of them I recommend Pennington through I think it was a great movie I'm gonna start with the beginning though because I do want to see like it's harder for me to sit through a kid's movie now
without my kids, but it doesn't mean I can't do it.
Like I still want to see Lilo and Stitch.
It's crushing the box office.
I want to
see it
too.
So
I am curious.
It is Conrad's birthday, folks.
Our question of the night is how should the con man spend his birthday?
Ed from Madison.
That's the 608.
He says in my adult, oh, I already read that.
Sorry.
Jim from Appleton says, happy birthday, K-man.
Little.
You see that little birthday cake?
Yeah, little birthday cake emoji.
He said, you should grab a comfortable outdoor lounge chair, go to Highcliff State Park, find a nice quiet spot, and just relax, recovering from all of Pete's notes.
I've been to Highcliff.
I went to the golf course there, actually.
Oh, OK.
And yeah, it's a lovely, lovely place over there.
Listen, Jim, don't encourage insurrection either.
Conrad is fine.
I don't give him that many memos anymore.
I've slowed down.
Hey, there's another family member, Steve.
It's about time, Steve.
He's in the 9-2-0, but not really.
He's in Florida.
He says, seeing Conrad isn't too far from Lambeau Field and is the Green Bay Packers number one fan.
He should spend his birthday working out with Jordan Love and the team.
Happy birthday, son.
Very nice, Steve.
You
raised a fine son.
Did your dad, did your dad see your outfit last night when you look like Coach
McCartney?
No, he did not.
Oh my
God, you could have like, Conrad, if you wore that outfit to Lambeau Field and Jordan Love saw you, he would probably say, hey coach, and catch himself before he, you look that much like a coach, it was awesome.
Claire from Knowlton, that's the 618.
Conrad, go to the Google, where's the 618?
I don't even know that.
She says, I always think about The Dear Hunter with that song too.
Great movie with Christopher Walken, yes.
Claire Christopher Walken that's the first movie I ever saw Christopher Walken in and he was so good and His character is so tragic But I was like who is this guy?
He was great
Tom from New Berlin.
He's in the 414.
Our pal Tom says, Conrad, go golfing.
And since your birthday, unlimited mulligans.
Oh, that's nice of you.
Yes, yes.
That's a good one.
All right, so we've got more.
All right, so I missed part of Mike DeSatell's social media post.
He said, happy birthday, Conrad.
I think Pete should let you host a segment of the show where you interview him.
Then underneath, nightlight with Pete Schwabba.
which is run by Amanda, correct?
Our social media guru.
She says, Mike Desital, no questions off limits.
And Mike says, well, I do want to remain friends with Pete.
I have no idea what Mike would ask me that's so condemning.
I have almost no skeletons in the closet.
metaphorically, I have a lot of dead people I've buried.
But how wonderfully Wisconsin, our pal Paul says, how about Conrad finally goes to Cheese Steak Rebellion for his
birthday?
I still haven't done that.
Where is that?
It's in Green Bay.
I think it's in Depeer actually, maybe, but it's a Star Wars themed restaurant.
Oh
yeah, okay.
I definitely, I still need to go.
I haven't done that yet.
And Paul has been there.
Yes, he was talking about it last time he was on the show, yeah.
All right.
You replied, but those did not come up.
Did you purposefully not?
I just said that's a great idea.
Okay.
Our pal Nikki Zerjev.
We miss Nikki so much.
Nikki, how are you?
She says, happy birthday, Khan.
Thank you, Nikki.
Thank you, Nikki.
Hope you're well.
Monica Hale says, happy birthday.
I know you're watching what you eat, so you should treat yourself to a massage instead of
food.
I don't know.
I'd have to go somewhere.
I don't have anyone to give me a massage.
Mark, are you offering to give Conrad a foot massage?
That's my question.
I wouldn't recommend.
Conrad does not want anyone touching his dogs.
I hate feet,
so I hate feet.
I can't even stand looking at my own.
You just turn your head away when you put your socks on.
Clare from Knowlton texted us back, the 618 phone number is a carryover from Southern Illinois.
I'm in Central Wisco now.
That's a good move, Clare.
Not much going on in Southern Illinois.
I used to work at Comedy Club down there, and it's pretty barren.
We have Matt.
He's in there.
We have Matt?
Yeah.
Matt Miller.
Milwaukee film critic Matt Miller.
Is he on the line?
Hey, buddy.
Howdy, howdy, howdy.
Great to have you and glad you could do this.
Thanks for adjusting your schedule slightly.
What did you have a class?
Did you say man?
Yeah, I had an appointment unfortunately, but thank you for adjusting your schedule.
I will rearrange my entire life and everyone in it to talk movies.
I'm sure your wife and kids appreciate that so but we sure appreciate your time and it's great to have you back.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
I'm doing great.
It is officially summer in terms of movies, in terms of weather, in terms of festivals.
It's great.
Yeah.
You look like you got a little sun, buddy.
My appointment was a workout situation, so I am sweaty and I'm sitting.
So I am attempting to be healthy, trying to make up for all the time I spent in a dark movie theater eating Mike and Iks.
Oh, man,
you're paying the check.
Awesome.
I love it.
Well, that's great.
So I'm a little behind on movies in theaters.
And I know you're much more caught up than I am, as usual.
But here's one that I'm kind of struggling with, Matt, because I saw really good reviews, really good audience scores, at least on Rotten Tomatoes, for whatever that's worth.
But John Wick Ballerina, the latest installment
I've seen people I respect kind of come out against it, but it
reviewed well.
What did you think?
Yeah, it's interesting because ever since John Wick has become kind of modern action movie canon, you know We've seen all these ripoffs come out We've seen like stuff like gunpowder milkshake and you know all sorts of these movies that are trying to do the John Wick thing and you can watch ballerina and you can see the real deal is
And the ripoff all in the same movie.
So the first half of ballerina plays like a ripoff.
The action is totally serviceable.
You know, it the plot is kind of dumb and silly and kind of you don't really don't really have much investment in it.
There's just not that much excitement to it.
And that's because I think the first half of the movie is directed by the credited director, Len Wiseman, who's kind of
a hack like he did the fourth diehard movie he did the total recall remake that no one asked for he's totally a serviceable director in every way and then the back half of the movie
cooks the back half of the movie plays like a genuine real deal john wick movie the action has these really cool clever fun beats the action doesn't cut as much you're genuinely like you can tell that a stuntman is now behind the camera because they are just absorbing all of the cool like flexibility and the cool stuntman work that goes into these action scenes and for that half of the movie it rules there's like
these awesome flamethrower fights where like people are lighting their feet on fire just for the kick of it and you've got like this crazy kind of ski resort filled with assassins and they're all like there's like fight scenes with ice skates on and stuff like that it's like
It is so clever and fun and there are action beats that you will remember because that's the stuff that makes John Wick pop is that these are people who are like the story of this action scene is going to be this.
The story of the action scene here is going to be mirrors.
There's beats and action ideas going on instead of just you know what if a person kicked another person in the face.
So what I'm trying to say I guess is that the movie's kind of a mixed bag but
It's all worth it for that back half where you were watching quality, awesome action.
Anna Diarmus is a very captivating lead.
She is playing the ballerina, the ballerina assassin in the movie.
I had a good enough time.
If you like John Wick, you will like most of ballerina.
And if you're not a big John Wick fan, then you probably have tuned out the past two minutes of that.
You know, I want to ask you if I could go off on a tangent just briefly.
Yeah,
absolutely.
Total recall.
I remember like 2012-ish,
the
remake, I saw that coming and I never saw it and now it's gone and that's the first I've heard you mention it.
Was that
terrible?
it is a total waste of time.
Total Recall is one of my favorite movies.
I think it is a perfect Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
It is a perfect sci-fi movie.
It is both as smart and as dumb as you want that movie to be.
You want a movie where Arnold Schwarzenegger is saying silly quips, but at the same time, there's this crazy sci-fi mind-bending stuff going on.
It's kind of a perfect movie.
It's the kind of stuff that I wish The Rock made more of.
is our
the
way
Hi, this is Danny Slate, and you are listening to Night Light with Pete Schwabba.
Welcome back.
This is Night Light.
I am Pete Schwabba.
It is the K-man's birthday, so our question of the night is how should Conrad spend his birthday?
or celebrate his birthday.
We've got some good texts.
We've got some more to read.
We'll get to those soon.
Right now, we have our pal Matt Miller is on the line.
He's a Milwaukee based film critic.
And we were talking about John Wick.
So overall, Matt, thumbs up or down on Wick.
You seem a little mixed, but mostly in favor.
Yeah, I would say as summer entertainment goes.
It's a good time You will it does the smart thing of ending with its best stuff the final hour of the movie is better than the first hour It's not the best John Wick movie John Wick universe movie It's probably arguably the worst of any John Wick movie But you know the worst John Wick movie is better than most action movies that come out So yeah, I would say it's worthwhile at least for like a discount Tuesday or something like that.
I think you
will not feel like you wasted your money.
Nice.
I'm anxious to ask you about this next film, Friendship.
I've not seen it.
I live kind of in the sticks.
I don't have access to cool movie theaters like you have in Milwaukee.
But I really want to see it.
It sounds very cringe comedy fun.
What did you think?
What did you think?
Yeah, so it's
called Friendship.
It stars Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd.
Tim Robinson is this dweeby guy, suburban guy who ends up kind of being obsessive about this neighborhood weatherman.
And I thought it was hilarious.
If you are a fan of, have you seen I Think You Should Leave on Netflix?
I have not, no.
It's kind of a sketch comedy show.
Tim Robinson
used to be on
SNL.
He was on SNL for like a season, didn't fit there, and he made this new kind of, you know, little sketch comedy show called I Think You Should Leave.
It's a lot of like...
anxious cringe comedy guys not knowing how to function in society and this is like a feature length version of one of those sketches and if you like I think you should leave then that is mana from heaven that is the best thing ever um it it even has you know it has like it's kind of its own dan flashes t-shirt shop which if you know if you know I think you should leave you know what i'm referencing so it has kind of its own version of that in friendship I had a really good time with it if you are not a fan of kind of cringe comedy
And I think you should leave.
This is not the comedy for you, but if you are, you should be already seated to watch it right now.
I just made a note to myself to watch that because I remember when I was doing the rundown of what was opening and I was on friendship, I was like, I have to check this out.
Like I've heard really good stuff, but you're right.
It's kind of like a, I mean, I like that kind of stuff.
I like that discomfort, you know, like the office or something like that.
And I've heard, I think you should leave is like that.
times three.
Yeah, some of the sketches as all sketches, you know, shows are some are better than others.
But
I think the hit rate is a lot higher than the miss rate.
I think it's it's pretty hilarious stuff.
And I've been really happy to see that it's kind of been a mild summer hit.
I mean, obviously, $15 million isn't going to give Avengers any heart attacks at the top of the box office.
But, you know, for a weird indie comedy starring a guy who is kind of more of a niche comedy star,
And obviously, this movie doesn't have the kind of massive publicity of something like a Lilo and Stitch or a Mission Impossible.
It's been really nice to see it.
Yeah, find some success.
Find its audience.
And you liked it.
I did.
I
was a fan.
All
right.
Yeah.
That's cool.
10 out
of 10.
No, 10 out of 10.
Like an 8 out of 10.
Have you ever seen something Paul Rudd was in that you didn't like or didn't like him in it?
Actually, earlier this year, it's called Death of a Unicorn.
Oh,
yeah.
It's another
824.
Yeah, it's another age 25.
Actually, it's funny you bring this up because I've thought and I There are certain things that I really don't like Paul Rudd in when he tries to play sincere in movies It doesn't play to me
like I think
I need him to kind of be playing things a little askew or you know when he in death of a unicorn his character It doesn't fit that I think he's supposed to be slimmer than he is or he's supposed to be sweeter than he is and he just comes off
I was not a fan.
I don't think he figured out the tone of that movie.
I don't think the movie figured out the tone of that movie.
So
yeah, don't see death of a unicorn, but do see
friendship.
And he is in friendship.
That's why I brought that up for those of you listening.
All right.
So I want to talk to you.
I'm going to come back to movies, but I want to ask you about the pit.
I watched the first episode and I'm not a medical drama guy, but this show has been described as so intense.
And like I said, I've only watched the first episode.
I'll probably go back to it, but I was kind of just curious.
What's the difference, Matt?
First of all, do you like it?
And second of all,
You know, it's the same filmmakers behind ER and Noah Wiley is the star of it and one of the EPs.
What's the difference between this and ER and how do you feel about the pit?
I've been a big fan of it.
I'm not that deep into it.
My wife and I, uh, that is our latest stream and she's actually works in the medical world.
So
it's been really fun watching the first few episodes with her where she's like, Oh yeah, that's what you would do right now.
And like, Oh no, that's like, she's
like following along with
it, which gives me confirmation that the writing is actually good.
It's not like Gray's Anatomy where at some point they're like coming up with gobbledygook and they've solved cancer like 45 times and they turned a band into a pogo stick and they're like, for medicine.
And I was like, why?
Did you do that?
But I really enjoy it.
It's very funny because you're right.
It is a kind of pressure cooker designed TV show.
It's even designed with like the hours of the day.
So it's got this pressure cooker design, but it doesn't feel artificial.
It feels very grounded.
It doesn't feel like Grey's Anatomy, where every case is like a world record case that comes in.
The first episode is like a guy's having some weird arrhythmia situations.
This one person, you know, is dealing with some like family issues.
Like it's not this like super high intensity thing, which ER was that way.
A lot of our medical dramas now are so ridiculous and so overblown.
And this one, at least thus far, feels really real.
And that's really fun to watch, but also still character and also still, it feels very much like the bare but medicine.
Oh,
interesting.
That's a great comp.
Uh, okay, cool.
Well, that's good to know.
I will stick with it.
I'll go back to it a little bit.
I never know because I don't have connections to the medical world, but, um, and I, I felt like an ER, maybe it's Gray's Anatomy.
I'm thinking of like, they'd be over a patient operating and someone's breaking up.
It's like, come on.
Like
that's definitely, that's 10 out of 10, Gray's Anatomy.
Like Gray's Anatomy, everyone on that show should have been fired 15 times or more over for like gross ethical malpractice.
That is the voice of
a show in terms of
ethics.
The voice of Matt Miller will have more with Matt after intermission and Civic Media's new news team keeps you informed.
We're going to talk about upcoming movies and bring her back a horror film.
We're coming right back.
It's Peach Wabba and Nightlight.
Broadcasting
live statewide 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 who wanted to be in porn but didn't have the acting chops, Pete Schwabba.
Hey, welcome back.
This is nightlight.
I am peach wabba.
We are starting off act two here of this Tuesday night edition.
It is a big day here at nightlight folks Conrad Krieger the man behind the glass running the board
doing what he does.
It's his birthday today.
He turns the tender age of 26.
So you're welcome to text in, wish him a happy birthday.
But our question of the night is how should Conrad celebrate his birthday?
How should a 26 year old Strap and Lad celebrate his birthday?
The world is his oyster.
He lives in downtown Green Bay.
You got the world on a string, Conrad.
What are you gonna do after tonight?
Are you gonna leave here?
Are you taking any of these suggestions we're getting tonight so far?
I'm gonna go home and eat dinner.
I'm sorry, confused you with someone who knew how to party.
Okay, it is Conrad's birthday, so that is our question.
How do you think he should spend his birthday?
We had a great first hour.
We talked a little bit with Matt Miller, who we will get back to momentarily here, and we talked about birthdays and all kinds of fun stuff.
We gave a little
recap of Paddington 3 that Conrad saw and the show Stick.
Oh, Matt Miller.
I think Matt wants to weigh in on Paddington 3, so we'll do that too.
And Frank Anderson is here at 720, the founder of Wisconsinology.com.
Frank is always fun.
He's one of our best pals, as is Matt Miller, who we will get back to right now.
So, Matt, you gave the thumbs up.
I was going to ask you about a horror film, but if we want to kick off with Paddington 3, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Oh, is Paddington 3 not a horror movie?
No, I love the Paddington movies.
And that includes Paddington and Peru.
I found it very charming, very sweet.
It's interesting because it's a new director from the first two movies, Paul King.
He wasn't able to do third one because he did Wonka.
But I still
think it
has its charms.
I still think it's a very sweet, lovely movie.
It's probably, again, probably the least of the three.
But I find those movies so insanely charming.
That's great.
Yeah, I've not seen
one of them.
I know that we've laughed at Nicholas Cage and Pedro Pascal from The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
They referenced Paddington 2 and how great it is.
And the movies sound very sweet, but with my kids being grown, it's harder for me to sit down and watch a kids movie.
But those three are on my list.
I hear they're
just... They're so kind.
They're like feature length hugs.
They're just so nice.
That's so great.
Claire from Knowlton, that's the 618, even though she lives in Central Wisconsin, now says...
in that same vein, the recent Blade Runner 2049 was decent.
Matt, I saved that text to see what you thought about that.
I saw it too, but it's been a while.
I would agree that the the new Blade Runner 2049 was was decent.
I would argue really good.
It is a very gorgeous movie.
That's Roger Deakins on
the
cinematography.
So gorgeously done.
I don't I wish I liked it as much.
Some people love that movie.
Some people were like that movie needed to be a best picture nominee.
It was
The story is a little too attached to the original Blade Runner.
It's kind
of got this
weird thing where it's kind of got stuff going on and kind of not.
I kind of just wish it made its own story in the Blade
Runner
universe rather than doing the legacy sequel thing where it's like trying to like catch up with all the characters and all that stuff.
But no, that movie's, I mean, just period, that movie's gorgeous.
Like you could frame every shot of that movie.
and put it up in your house as artwork and everyone would be like, good art.
You did great.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's pivot and go to my favorite new studio, A24.
You saw Bring Her Back.
Bring Her Back is A24, right?
It is.
Yeah.
This is like our third A24 movie we've talked about today.
They've really kind of become the indie studio.
They're just doing great stuff.
Even if it's not a genre I love, yeah, they're doing great work.
Conrad saw it and did not.
Well, you said it wasn't for you, right?
I
don't think I
watched that.
Who was I just talking to?
Somebody just saw Bring Her Back and said, no, thank you.
Oh,
maybe it was just the trailer you saw,
but what did you think?
Oh, yes, it was the trailer.
I said this movie was scary.
Yeah, and your opinion of the trailer is the one I have of the entire movie.
No, thank you.
It's a shame because it's directed by two brothers who started on YouTube.
I believe they're pronounced like the Philippu brothers.
They're from New Zealand or Australia, I believe.
And their first movie, Talk to Me, came out about two years ago, was a little summer horror movie hit.
And that movie's good.
They have a really, that movie's got a little zip to it.
It's got a mean bone in its body, but it's also, you know, a fun horror movie.
And this one to me is just a...
kind of.
unpleasant slog.
It is this unrelenting for those who don't know it's about these two kids who get adopted by Sally Hawkins from The Shape of Water.
But
she
also has this other child who's very weird.
And you find out why as that movie goes along.
And it's just unrelenting in a very grim and ugly way.
But not an interesting way either.
It's trying to be about grief and trauma because every kind of prestigious horror movie is about grief and trauma.
these days and but there's just no feeling behind it it feels there there's no emotion to it and that even goes to the violence in the movie it's an extremely violent gory movie it is not uh it is pretty gross if you are not
a
blood person this is not the movie for you but like
for as violent as it is and as gory as it is, it doesn't really hit.
It's just a very cold movie and I was sitting there and I hit like the two-third mark and I was like, I don't need to keep watching this.
And I did, I kept watching it because I'm, you know, trying to be a good ethical critic.
But I just did not have a very good time watching it whatsoever.
And it also just wasn't that scary.
The scariest thing about it is that it's one of those movies where you spend the entire running time waiting for the movie to catch up with what you, the audience already knows
is going on.
And you're like,
come on, come on, character.
Stop acting stupid.
Figure this stuff out.
We've all
figured it out.
Everyone should know what's going on at this point.
Yeah, I was disappointed by that one quite a bit.
I think they're really talented young filmmakers, but this is a true sophomore slump on their part.
Interesting.
Okay.
Well, let's keep it in that genre.
Let's talk about some movies that still will open up this summer, Matt.
I would say The Box Office is off to a great start with Lilo and Stitch, and I know it was ahead or caught up or something like that, too.
It's pre-pandemic days, but 28 years later, speaking of horror films, Danny Boyle is back directing the third installment, I believe, correct?
Yes, this is the third one.
He
didn't direct the second one.
And this is also the first Danny Boyle movie in like half a decade.
Yeah,
he hasn't directed anything since the, I think, 2019, yesterday, the What If The Beatles Didn't Exist movie.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, so, and honestly, I think part of it is just they stopped making the movies.
Danny Boyle makes, you know, if you look at the genres of movies, Hollywood really doesn't make as much anymore.
It's a lot of, you know, mid-level budget movies for adults.
And that was kind of Danny Boyle's, you know, sweet spot, you know, stuff like 127 hours, slumdog millionaire, train spotting, like he makes stuff that now A24 basically is the only studio really making regularly and with big budgets.
So yeah, but I am very excited to see him back.
I'm very excited to see him back in 28.
years later.
So much so that I have not watched the trailers for this movie.
I have tried desperately
to
avoid seeing as much as that because like I'm in I'm already excited about this.
The 28 days franchise is really interesting.
Both the movies 28 days and 28 weeks later, I think they're both really well done.
And it's been hard to find weirdly enough.
Yes,
28 days later.
I think part of that is just because the that movie
was like filmed on like my dad's VCR camera.
And so it looks terrible.
And so in this modern age of, you know, renovated like blue rays and like 4K definition, you know, I think a lot of studios were like, are we really going to do like a restored version of this home video looking movie?
Now it's starting to get on streaming again.
It sounds like it's gonna open really big, which I'm very excited about.
The first teaser, which I did watch the first teaser, is really good.
It's really exciting.
It looks like nothing else, because Danny Boyle is such a vivid filmmaker.
I
can't
wait.
It's one of the movies that I've been most excited about this summer.
I am too.
It's got a great cast, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Jody Cumber, and Ray Fiennes is in it.
And I like the first two as well.
And that first one, Matt,
I think that's the one you met or maybe both of them.
You couldn't find the first 28 days I couldn't walk I started it years ago and then about a year ago I went back to it I gotta finish that and it wasn't available to stream and then all of a sudden it was somebody had to acquire the rights or something like that But now you can see him both and I'm with you.
I liked him both I'm very excited about the this film as well though
Yeah, I think part of it too is I think they may have fallen into kind of a like studio rights like black hole because I think the first movie is like
I think it might be like a weird shingle of like 20th century Fox.
And obviously
Fox is now bought by Disney.
So I just think the rights got maybe lost.
And again, you know, their priorities were not in getting this modestly successful horror movie back in front of people's eyes.
But now I'm very excited.
Same.
All right.
Well, we've got about three minutes left, Matt.
Let's get your thoughts on, you've got Superman, there's a Jurassic Park, Happy Gilmore 2, lots of stuff opening still this summer.
And what are you most excited about?
I'm excited about Superman.
I like James Gunn a lot.
I think he's a very good director, especially when he's working.
Like obviously the Guardians of the Galaxy movies are some of the best Marvel movies that were made.
His Suicide Squad movie is insanely good.
Not the Jared Leto one, the one that no one saw that came out in 2021.
So I'm excited to see his take on Superman.
He's kind of the perfect guy to it.
He has this really heartfelt, sincere bone, but he also has this like love of weirdness, which kind of fits perfectly with Clark Kent.
You know, he is a super sincere alien superhero man.
Like he kind of seems perfect for it.
I'm a little nervous because when I see the trailers, they're loading it up with all of this like, oh, we're going to have Hot Girl and the Green Lantern and we're going to have this extended universe.
And I'm like, I don't want that.
Just make me a good Superman movie first.
And if you make a good Superman movie, then I'll want to see more of your movies.
I want to see more of your universe.
Hopefully it's more focused on being a Superman movie and not trying to be five other starter franchises at the same time.
But we'll see.
I know Warner Brothers, they really want to rejigger their DC universe again.
They really want to bring that back to the forefront after the past DCU kind of died on the vine with Zack Snyder.
So we'll see how it turns out.
I think it's going to be a big hit.
I
don't know if
it's going to be the monster hit that they think it's going to be, but I am happy to be proven wrong.
We've got about a minute left, Matt.
What does not excite you at all that still has to open?
I'm waiting to be excited by Jurassic World's rebirth.
I'm waiting for the moment.
for it to like click and for it to have like this exciting new idea and all the trailers just look to me like oh so it's Jurassic World again but this time Skyleth Johansson's there doing Black Widow but Dinosaur Hunter.
Like I'm just waiting for the part and the director's really good.
Gareth Edwards did the Godzilla movie.
He did the creator.
He's a good director.
I just haven't seen anything there.
Now I'll say the one I'm least looking forward to is Bridehard.
I like seeing comedy back in theaters, but if I never have to see another movie about a wedding that all of a sudden turns into an action movie, I will die a happy man.
I don't understand why that subgenre
of action
comedy-
has become the only genre that studios will green light in terms of comedy, but we got to put it to bed.
We got to, we got to take it out back and send it to the farm, uh, upstate.
I think that's a great, uh, great end of the segment.
Very funny.
Uh, Matt Miller, uh, great stuff.
Thank you buddy.
As always.
Thank you for having me.
Thank
you for letting me cool down after my workout.
That's Matt Miller.
You can follow him at A Man About Film on his substack.
He does great work.
We are coming right back, folks, with Mr. Frank Anderson, the founder of Wisconsinology.com.
It's Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
the K-man's birthday tonight.
It is Conrad Krieger's birthday.
He turns the ripe old age of 26 years old.
Ladies and gentlemen, our question of the night is, what should Conrad do to celebrate his birthday?
Dave on the stream says, go out to Siegel Bar, start a fire, chillax.
Dave is referring to Segal Bar in Marinette, Wisconsin.
Many people will boat out to this sort of sandbar dealio that comes way out from Red Arrow Park in Marinette, and people will have bonfires there sometimes.
It is a good place to chillax.
Thank you, Dave.
Dearmageddon, the musical says we need a godfather of Green Bay Universe.
See what happens when you have Lance Barber on the show, Conrad.
People, Mike Dessertel suggesting sequels again.
We know they want to franchise a movie that didn't make any money, really.
I think it's time for a second one.
Okay.
Jeremy again, the musical also says JB.
That's JB.
That's the guy behind the guy, behind the guy.
And he says Conrad should celebrate with a trip to and all you can eat sushi place with Daniel Wheeler.
Boy, you're getting golf outing invitations, Conrad.
People want to take you out for sushi.
It must be nice to feel loved.
Yeah, you know, I think I might take a couple of those up.
Do it.
And if you don't like it, take a powder.
All right.
This is exciting, folks.
We haven't had our next guest on.
He's one of our best pals.
We haven't had him on in a while.
He just came off a huge vacation to the last frontier.
We'll talk to him about that, too.
But right now, it is my pleasure to welcome back to Nightlight, showbiz Renaissance man and founder of Wisconsinology.com.
If you haven't seen it, you should.
Frank Anderson joins us now on Nightlight.
Hey, buddy.
Hey, Pete, you know, you haven't made a movie in a while.
Well, I know.
You got a check for me?
No, I know why
why
because you haven't all movies come from good titles and I've got one for you.
Oh, ready?
Yeah.
Big trouble in little swamiko.
Part of that's already been
taken.
And frankly, that would be a love letter to swamiko, right?
Not Wisconsin.
No, no, no, no.
I like the title.
A little bedroom community.
Oh, I know what
Conrad should do tonight.
Oh, tell me, please.
Conrad, I didn't know he was 26, amazing.
Yeah, he's much more mature.
He seems so mature, yeah.
He should do what people who are in Green Bay have done for over a century to have a good time.
What's that?
Go to Appleton.
That was a very subtle dig at one of your sister cities here in northeast Wisconsin, Frank.
Well, there is a lot of fun stuff to do in Appleton.
You could get in some trouble in Appleton.
Oh, you can get in a lot of trouble.
Come on, America's drinkiest city.
Let's go.
That's right.
There's some nefarious things happening in your in your fair city, Frank.
So, hey, tell us, before we get into some topics, I can't wait to discuss with you.
How was Alaska?
You were there for quite a while.
Wait, is it your birthday or was it your birthday a day or two ago?
No, no, it was not.
OK, I saw on the Wisconsinology Facebook page, was it Wisconsinology's birthday?
Might have been.
Somebody said, somebody said, yeah, on June 8, they said happy birthday.
I was like, oh, OK.
Oh, wow.
I didn't want to miss
out.
Probably.
Yeah, I don't know.
I've been around so long.
I don't know anymore.
Well, how was Alaska?
I was there years and years ago to do stand-up.
Oh, just okay?
Well, it's so remote.
Yeah.
It's much more remote than anyone who has not been there knows or thinks or can even imagine.
And yeah, it's fine.
It was cold.
What was your what was your point in going there?
Was it just an exploratory trip?
I don't know.
I've been asking myself that question ever since I got back.
Was it
was literally
landed and went what the hell was that?
Oh, wow.
So where in Alaska did you go?
Was it just Anchorage or?
Oh, I did a Juno Anchorage cruise down the coast.
Okay.
The usual, you know, you know, the touristy stuff.
I did all the touristy stuff and those
cruise ships to me are like a floating mausoleum oh my god anyway uh uh it all ended up in uh i forgot the name of the place some little ketchup can or something like that okay yeah yeah yeah and then they had this uh they had this uh tourist show you know uh featuring lumberjacks right
oh yeah
lumberjacks they're doing a show it's uh
Timbers sports.
It's called and you know, they cut the tree down rappel down the tree and then they have a big you know axe wielding contest and it was kind of fun and They pitted each one against each other.
You know one guy was from Michigan One guy was from Vermont and then they introduced his fellow as being from Alaska.
I Heard him speak and I went that guy's not from Alaska
Why was
he like?
It turned out to be turbo Tom Lancaster, the king of the lumberjacks from Hayward, Wisconsin.
No
way.
That's right.
That's so fun.
And it's so typical that you're there because you tie everything in the history of the universe to Wisconsin.
Well, it's true.
I know.
And that's so funny that this happened when you were there and this guy was exit.
But so why would he diss his hometown like that and not claim
that?
Well, he didn't do it.
For the show that they had they needed someone to be pretend that they
were
from Alaska just help Alaska alone, but you and I know when it comes to mowing down trees Nobody compares to Wisconsin.
I know we have it in Marinette.
We have a big show every year It's like log days or lumber days or something and they do the log rolling and these guys get up there It's like there's some serious skilled professionals in that is
the world championship of lumberjack skills
and turbo tom multi champion so i got all interested in turbo tom Lancaster he's fabulous by the way that guy i mean
One chop, that tree's down.
He brings it.
Well, we're going to do this.
OK, I'm sorry your vacation was not maybe what you had hoped it would be.
So let's get that bad taste of Alaska out of our mouth.
And when we come back after the news, I'm going to ask Frank about a lot of really cool stuff, some rock and roll Hall of Fame inductees and an Indian burial ground, so to speak.
We're coming right back.
It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Miles Davis on your birthday.
Can't be too bad Conrad.
It is Conrad's birthday.
I am Peach Waba.
This is Nightlight.
Our question of the night was, what should Conrad do to celebrate his birthday?
And we've gotten quite a lot of different suggestions.
Jim from Brookfield, he's in the 262.
He says, happy birthday Conrad.
When I hit 60, I told my wife that I wanted to get on my bike and ride 60 miles.
So after having some fun tonight, get on a bike tomorrow morning Conrad and bike 26 miles.
That sounds like a really awful birthday.
If I can just weigh in Conrad, it's your birthday.
You do as you please, but...
Well, you know, tomorrow would be too late because it won't be my birthday anymore.
That's
true.
Darn the luck.
Thank you, Jim, for the text.
And kudos on 60 miles.
That's incredible.
I mean, I have a car, but if I didn't, I would be even more... No, that's fantastic, though.
60 miles at 60 years old.
Very impressive.
And thank you for the text.
Frank Anderson is with us, folks.
Our pal Frank Anderson.
He's the founder of Wisconsinology.com.
He's a writer, producer, editor, animator.
He does it all.
And he's made films, commercials, music.
He plays with Butch Vig often in many bands.
And Frank, we're going to have to have you back when Joey's song gets closer, because I know you're a big part of that.
And that is an absolute bash every January in Madison.
Yeah, you got a horn in on that.
That's a pretty big to do and It'd be a lot of fun if you were around.
I think I'm gonna try to make arrangements to do that I love doing the show from Madison when I do it
and bring Conrad.
I will Conrad how do you feel about that?
We'll see what
happens.
Okay.
Conrad calls his own shots now, Frank.
I don't know
if you do
that.
Hey, so I wanted to ask you, you know, you're a music guy.
You know probably more about music than anybody I know.
This year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.
And the first one you mentioned on your Facebook post was Chubby Checker and the Twist.
And, you know,
At my age, Frank, the twist was before I was even born, and it was one of these things that was just a phenomenon.
For those of us who don't, and I don't even know how much of it you remember, but what was that like?
And where was America at this time?
It was before my time.
Okay,
the 50s, right?
No, no, it was 1960 to
62.
Okay.
Why was that such a, I mean, it's a cool dance.
I get it.
But where was America at that this is
the thing?
I'm going to give it to you.
Yeah.
For the twist.
Okay.
Couples dance together.
They held hands.
They did the fox trot.
They did jitterbug, whatever.
There was
always touching, right?
Touching was involved in certain steps.
Sure.
The twist broke that.
All of a sudden, you're free to do your own free form thing.
opposite each other.
And that's what we ended up growing up with by the mid-60s.
All hell breaks loose.
There's about 100 dancers, and everybody's just doing their own thing anyway apart.
And that's the huge revolution that the twist was.
It was like a gentle first step towards the mayhem of the later 60s.
But it was so huge and the part I bring to it, you know, I grew up in the Philippines.
Yeah.
They it was insane over there.
They would they literally aid up every new dance and music craze that came over from the USA.
And it was on TV.
It was everywhere.
It was just astounding.
So far more than any of the other inductees.
I by that reason, I believe
Chubby Checker is the coolest of all.
Yeah.
Well, how did you feel about, pardon me, some of the other inductees, Warren Zivine, you made a quote that's, or you made a comment that his song, Where Was the London?
He did a song I loved called Sentimental Hygiene.
I don't know if you remember that, but that was a good one.
I know that
one.
I had all his albums.
He had
one real good album.
And he had, you know, he had some really nice songs on there.
But I don't think it's rock and roll Hall of Fame-y.
Yeah, it is weird every year they come out and I'm like, well, okay.
But are they just trying to get, is it a tourism thing?
They want more people to tour?
No,
it's a certain group of people who have foisted classic rock over our damn heads for the last 40 years.
I mean, we can't escape that crap, you know?
And people will defend it.
My music was the best music.
And that's what it is.
It's a certain generation and it's LA Rock 1972 when the man took over the business right up to the 80s.
I mean, that's true.
I've read so many rock and roll biographies where someone like Pete Townsend or...
other great songwriter, McCartney himself said 1969 was the last year where they felt like they could do anything.
Really?
You know, no rules, no nothing.
Corporate America didn't know what to do with all this music.
They were terrible at packaging it.
And it was freedom.
And then of course they're going to take control again.
and they did and and a prime example of that is the rock of the seventies the eagles things like that the cell corporate so tightly controlled and so carefully done it's almost anti-rocket roll
Man, people have issues with the Eagles.
I have to say, I like the Eagles, but they've become kind of a, I know they made fun of them in the Big Lebowski, but I hear more often than not, I hear a lot of people say stuff like what you just said.
If Rock and Roll hadn't become corporatized, whatever you want to call it, would the Eagles have had a different sound?
I mean, they're still good musicians and their music, they had some good songs.
Yeah, but sure, I mean, they're very good at writing tuneful songs.
We know every one of
them.
Yeah.
We know it all.
I'm sure they would have been something, but Eagles, more so than anything, they represent that careful control that happened, and it was careful controlled, and it was completely directed from the top.
From that point till the big stadium acts, a lot of kids today don't understand that those stadium acts couldn't draw.
anything by the late 70s.
They were considered, you know, they called them dinosaurs.
You remember that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I remember going to Emerson Lake and Palmer and
there's,
you know, room for 4,000 people in the Coliseum and there are like 600 people there.
My guest is Frank Anderson.
Check out Wisconsinology.com or follow Wisconsinology.com on Facebook.
Frank, it's funny you said you posted something today on Facebook because I always go to the website.
I look at your posts on Facebook, but not necessarily Wisconsinologies.
So that's a great place to follow Wisconsinology as well on Facebook.
So tell us, I really want to get to this.
Aztalan Indians, they were a branch of the Cahokia Indians outside of East St.
Louis.
You posted this great video from 1960, anthropologists from the Wisconsin Historical Society, and what you posted really grabbed me.
You said it gets very morbid around three minutes and 50 seconds.
Tell us why that is and what these archaeologists found.
I thought it was really cool.
Because there are cannibals.
Yeah.
They sacrificed the dead and they ate the dead and kind of awesome.
Yeah,
I Years ago I was involved in a show called the spirit the seventh fire Peter Buffett's traveling show Involving all the tribal nations and it's here.
It was a river dance of Native Americans Good
way to put
it.
Yeah
And I mistakenly told an Aztec who was helping out the show.
I forgot what he was.
I was bragging about Aztec.
You gotta go there.
They have these two sacrificial temples on each side of them.
And then today they actually now gather since that moment in Aztec.
Even though they have no relationship to Aztec or Mayan culture or anything like that.
These
were the middle Mississippian culture of, you know, a thousand years ago.
And it's a fascinating, huge civilization.
We're so lucky to have this Northern outpost that any of you can see in Lake Mills, Wisconsin.
Yeah.
Fantastic.
Jefferson, or Aztlin is a town, right?
It is well it's
got four buildings,
but yes, it is barely a town Well, I thought it was so cool that they said in the video and you should check this out folks if you go to where can people see this video Frank would that be on your Facebook?
Wisconsinology
Facebook is full of stuff.
Yeah, and if you're willing to go in there and dig there's a ton of
stuff It's great and I love how they said this archaeologist or anthropologist said in 1960
He was being interviewed and he said, that's when they discovered they were cannibals and they had just human bones discarded with like fish bones.
They just ate like an arm and tossed the bone in the hole.
It was just so incredible.
Well, you wonder why they had to leave all of a sudden because they do.
Is it climate change yet?
There was climate change then.
And is it they were just jerks?
And the surrounding native tribes were just sick of them.
It could be.
One of the other things I wanted to ask you about, Frank, was I've seen you, you've written about on Wisconsinology, and I think I saw a recent post on Facebook about the hodag.
And I've heard about this for so long in Wisconsin.
I've talked about it a little bit on this show.
You had a great post about JFK being presented with a mini hodag.
Can you tell us about that a little bit?
Well, JFK, who of course won the Wisconsin primary, that was the biggest win of his primary run, and it really kicked him off into high gear.
He loved Wisconsin.
His lobotomized sister was kept in, you know, down in Jefferson County at an institute there, and which, by the way, is surrounded by Indian
by older, Native American burial mounds and effigy mounds.
And he was Green Bay Packers number one fan.
Really?
Yes, absolutely.
I didn't know that.
And he loved this state.
He loved everything about it.
He loved Door County.
He loved the Apostle Islands.
He loved everything.
And a really big connection there, though, was he was Catholic and Eastern Wisconsin.
He was still in some way.
overly Catholic, one of the biggest Catholic populations per capita in the United States.
Yeah.
And in 1961, you know, when he was running and the famous movie primary, everybody out there should watch primary.
It's about the Wisconsin Democratic primary.
And it's insane when you watch it.
Yeah.
You know, the priests and bishops and nuns screaming and yelling.
And fainting while JFK drives by, it's amazing.
And great shots of Green Bay and Milwaukee and such.
But it was crazy back then.
But he was Wisconsin bother.
That's so cool.
And they gave him a mini hodag.
which I thought was interesting, but I'm also like, whatever happened to that?
Will that turn up on eBay at some point?
Where did the mini-hodag make its way through Kennedy floor?
I wonder,
who got it?
Exactly!
Is Caroline going to wear a mini-hodag?
Do you give it
to a member?
That's right.
We're going to come back.
We'll have a couple more minutes with Frank after a very short break.
Also, John F. Kennedy was at Marinette Catholic Central, my high school, when he was campaigning.
And the last time he was on Wisconsin soil, and I saw this because I was there, Ashland Airport, Frank, did you know that?
I'm sure you didn't.
No, I did not.
A little tiny airport in Ashland, Wisconsin.
It was like a week before he died or whatever.
So Frank Anderson is here.
We'll have a couple more minutes.
We're coming right back.
It's Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.
I'm the Civic Media Radio Network.
All my instincts
Sam Peshwava.
Thanks for being with me on this Tuesday night.
A very special Tuesday night.
Conrad Krieger's birthday.
He turns 26.
The big two-six.
And we wish him a great year and hopefully a great year at Nightlight.
So I'm saying that like you're not even here, Conrad.
I'm here.
I know you are.
No, I did take a powder for a little bit.
OK.
Everyone's got to check out for a little bit.
Hey, tomorrow night on the show, Rich Tellerico will be here.
Rich is a Key and Peel writer.
He wrote the famous substitute teacher sketch.
Rich also connected me with someone who's going to talk about new Sydney Sweeney products that are coming, not just her bathwater soap.
She's got
other stuff lined up, too.
So we'll talk about that.
And then we'll talk with Rich right after that.
And then Christina Laurie from Up North News will be here.
Christina was on the show a couple of months ago, and she's great fun, too, and has great Wisconsin.
facts, and I'm sure our current guest, Frank Anderson, is aware of the work Christina does.
Have you heard of the Up North News, Frank?
I sure have.
I've shared the Facebook feed many times.
Yeah.
They have great stories.
You guys are a great combination with that, too.
So we have a couple more minutes, Frank.
Let's do this.
Do you want to talk about the Ringling Brothers wives?
I didn't really have a chance to look too much at that, but you seem kind of excited about that post.
Is there interesting or new information there we need to know?
No, not really.
OK.
All right, good talking to you.
Or we could talk about Sylvester Stewart, who just passed away.
Sly Stone.
Were
you a fan?
Oh,
isn't
that amazing?
Yeah.
Did you see the documentary, Frank, on him?
I think it was on
a movie called Sly Liz.
Man, that was fun.
I'm fascinated by Sylvester Stewart.
Me, too.
He produced such great singles before Sly and the Family Stone.
The Bo Brummels had two hit songs.
He produced them.
He made the kick drum louder and gave more emphasis on the drums when he was mixing them.
And you could always tell when he was producing, there was a spark to the music.
Yeah.
It's too bad.
You know, I mean, I don't know.
He had the addictions of terrible disease.
Yeah.
He was.
And I think in that documentary, I was fascinated that they
They figured out they did a real deep dive into one of his songs and found out that Janet Jackson and the producers took it for Rhythm Nation.
It was like three or four beats.
But like, I loved how they talked about all of his, the artist he influenced, like such a punk pioneer and the red hot chili peppers and Stevie Wonder and Prince.
Like, I think more people should see that documentary because I always liked his music.
I didn't know half of what I knew before I saw that documentary.
Yeah, and it makes it makes it all even more tragic when you realize how far ahead of his time was absolutely 20 years ahead of his time
Yeah, for sure and spinning tunes in San Francisco at like 15 like he was like a prodigy in so many ways it
was
Frank you're a prodigy
And it is an absolute pleasure.
I don't know if you're a prodigy, Frank.
I think you are at the steel guitar, maybe, or the slide guitar.
What's that instrument
technically called?
Pedal steel guitar.
Pedal steel guitar.
But you are.
Yeah, I was when I was 13.
That's amazing.
And you're an actual showbiz Renaissance man.
All the hats you've worn.
I assume you appreciate that about yourself, but I think it's pretty amazing.
I haven't met too many people
like
you.
Pretty special guy.
Hey, this is always fun, buddy.
Thank you so much and glad you're home safely from horrible Alaska and
let's do this again.
All right, Frank.
Have a great night.
Thank you, sir.
Thanks for having me.
Always.
That's Frank Anderson.
Check out Wisconsinology.com or follow Wisconsinology on Facebook.
So many fun things that Frank posts sometimes daily.
He does great work there.
So, Conrad, overall, how would you say your birthday has been when it comes to a nightlight perspective?
Well, sadly, steady Eddie hasn't touched it in yet.
Oh, he's going to pay for
that.
And I was hoping for a nice poem for my birthday from him.
He's
running out of time because steady Eddie, you know, he does not text in a couple words You know, we have to have enough time to read steady Eddie.
We have to have a whole segment Exactly, but we did hear from Ross from Crawford County.
He's in the 608.
He says happy 26th Conrad short and sweet.
I love it.
It's nice to
be wished happy birthday.
That's so much fun So you're just gonna go home and chill.
That's what I'm hearing from you
Yeah, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna go to the grocery store after this real quick, grab some chicken breasts and then cook them.
You know, the sad thing is, nobody at that grocery store is gonna know it's your birthday.
You're gonna
walk around, you're gonna look
like a sad sack, like all these other single guys looking for their chicken.
And I feel like people should know, hey, it's my birthday today.
I should go on like the announcer that they have.
It's my birthday.
Give me free chicken breasts.
I think.
Well, I
don't know if you want to get belligerent like that,
but yeah.
No, you go on like on those Instagram posts when these guys that are lacking
entertainment
in their lives go up and grab the customer service mic and put it their butt and rip one.
You ever see those videos?
I have.
I have.
I'm ashamed that I laugh at those, but I'm more laughing at that someone has the gall to do that.
Like, what are you hoping to accomplish by doing that?
Make a viral video.
I guess so.
Yeah,
but nobody sees that face.
They achieve it.
Cause if you're seeing it, it's probably.
Yeah, I guess.
And all they, all they got was a band from that Walmart.
They can never shop at Walmart.
So I'm not saying do that, but maybe go there and just say, Hey, I'm Conrad.
It's my birthday.
Thank you, ladies.
Can I get something free?
Oh, look at this.
Just under the wire.
Steady Eddie Conrad.
Peace.
Steady Eddie.
I love it.
In some ways, that's his best text ever, because it's so short and sweet and to the point.
As I mentioned, Rich Tellerico will be here.
Rich wrote the substitute teacher sketch on Kian Peele, A. A. Ron J. Quellen.
You've seen it.
He's a comedic genius.
He will be here tomorrow.
And Christina Laurie.
I'm so glad we got in touch
with
Christina Laurie.
She's such a fun guest, and I look forward to speaking with her again tomorrow night.
My thanks to our guest tonight on this festive Conrad birthday show, Frank Anderson and Matt Miller.
Thank you for all your text and birthday wishes on behalf of the lovable producer Conrad.
I hope everyone has a great night.
We'll be back tomorrow night to do it all over.
Good night, Wisconsin.
Oh, sing it to your best friend's house, mama li-
