Summerfest and Vegetables (Hour 2)

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's had a paper route for 25 years but never collected, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome welcome it is a Tuesday night in Wisconsin and I would say overall this has been a great day and I'll tell you exactly why that is because we are all here together ladies and gentlemen we are talking about movies and TV and music and art and We've got a lot of it tonight on the show Rob

Thomas, Arpal, the Madison Film Critic and Citycast.

Madison Newsletter Editor will be here at 6.35 to talk movies and TV and some cool stuff happening in Madison.

that's coming up.

And then in the second hour, our pal Piat Levy, the music writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, will be here talking about Summerfest.

And I will probably ask him about Brian Wilson and get his thoughts on all that.

Piat does great work and has for a couple of decades now at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, just a great writer and always a fun guest on Nightlight.

So lots of fun stuff to talk about tonight.

Movies and music.

and some cool stuff happening in Madison.

So we've got a great show.

We've got a great question.

Conrad is here tonight.

Have you been here all week?

Yeah.

Okay.

It says Dennis, something or other on the... You left a wrong name up, so I would get confused probably during the show.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Was that sound about right, Dennis?

You know, I just think it's a cool name.

It's not too late.

You know, I did have something happening to me today.

What happened?

I don't know if it's just like my face or something, you know?

But I was in a four-way stop and these two ladies, you know, needed to cross the street.

Okay.

I was next in line for the four-way stop, you know, one person one.

And I said, you know, no, you can go.

Waved him on.

They looked at me and just walked across.

No wave.

They didn't give me a Wisconsin wave.

You get no respect.

You are the Rodney Dangerfield of Northeast Wisconsin, my friend.

That's gotta stop.

I just looked, I looked at him the whole way across and just waiting for it.

And then just kept walking.

I'm like, what's going on?

Did you try to intimidate them?

Maybe I just said that angry look on my face.

Like I didn't want him to cross, but I was like, I guess.

If I were you, and it seems to be the older women that want to give you the shiv.

It is.

You should let them know what you bench.

Just that you are not a guy to, you look really, you look stocky, man.

You've been lifting weights.

I've been lifting a lot of weights.

I can tell.

Did I tell you I benched 275?

Really?

Yeah, on my birthday.

All at once?

No separately.

I could do that in like four or five increments.

Yeah, this PR.

That's a good PR.

Personal record?

Oh yeah, okay.

Very nice

dude.

Never got it before.

Once?

That's

because your max bench is just you do it once, right?

Yeah, I don't know.

I just felt good that day.

You have a spotter when you do that?

I randomly ask a person there.

It's kind of awkward, but you know, whatever gets the job

done.

Like if you didn't ask someone and they saw you were struggling, is yours the kind of gym where people would come to your rescue?

Yeah, I think I mean, I hope so.

Yeah.

I don't think they just let me die there.

What do you think you could finagle your way out of that situation?

Like

you got it on your

chest and it's not going anywhere.

See, this is the thing is that, you know, you got to put, I put the weight things on the end, you know?

Yeah.

So like.

If that does happen, I can't push them off.

So I'm debating if I should even use those.

Because you think you could lift one side and get the weight off.

Yeah.

Oh, that's interesting.

What do they call those?

Butterflies or something like that?

Something like that, yeah.

Yeah.

I like to think I could get my way out of that, but I don't know.

I'm hoping I never find out.

I don't know if I could get all 60 pounds off my chest.

Conrad, that's funny.

I just said I benched 60 pounds.

No, that's good for

you, man.

It's not a PR.

I've been benched in 30 years.

I have no idea what I could get up.

I really don't care, but 275, that's a lot, dude.

It's

like lifting an NFL linebacker off your chest.

It is,

yeah.

Fun show tonight.

Our question of the night is happening right now, folks.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Here, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

What is your favorite or least favorite vegetable?

It is National Vegetable Day today, folks.

And we had Sherry Stoka on the show last night.

And I would like to celebrate her successful run on Nightlight as a guest last night by asking this question.

because she talked about vegetables last night.

And it's the national day.

It's the national vegetable day.

So what is your least favorite or favorite vegetable?

Let us know at 855-752-4842-855-75 Civic.

You can text us on the app.

Or if you're listening on Facebook or watching the radio on Facebook or YouTube or Twitter, let us know there as well.

You can text us on the stream.

And give us a like or a follow while you're there, too.

It's always fun to hear from listeners on Facebook or any one of our streaming platforms that we use to broadcast Nightlight.

Let us know what your favorite or least favorite vegetable is.

Conrad, you got an answer for that?

You know, I actually got three I dislike heavily.

Really?

Yes.

Green beans, can't stand them.

I've tried them all the ways.

My brother, like, has a vegetable garden.

It's like, these are the freshest you'll get out here.

And I tried it and it tastes like

Straight water and a little bit of weird aftertaste to me.

Okay.

That's not for me

My main thing I hate though is cauliflower Yeah, that's interesting.

I just I love broccoli But cauliflower it's that white.

I don't know.

I just it's

a weird texture I agree with you there and I when I was your age I don't think I started eating broccoli or I'm sorry cauliflower till I was in my 40s and then I loved it It's weird.

I really like cauliflower now

and I love sautéing it or putting it in the oven with some olive oil.

But I understand that.

It's a strange looking vegetable too.

It's not green.

It's got a white.

It reminds me of an MMA fighter's ear.

I

shouldn't be thinking

about that when I'm eating vegetables.

And then the last one, I just hate peas.

I don't get why they're vegetable.

They're gross.

You and Amanda, Amanda Nimmer on the social media said that

peas were her least favorite.

She said peas are useless.

They're not useless.

She said and disgusting.

Yeah, I totally agree.

But my favorite is mushrooms.

I love mushrooms.

Is that vegetable board?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's a vegetable.

I

like deep fried mushrooms with ranch.

That's my favorite.

Any way of mushroom I will eat.

Okay.

And I mean, I can't.

The obvious one is carrots.

Those are great too.

Yeah, carrots are good.

Yeah.

What about you?

I think I like them all.

I don't like eggplant necessarily.

I'll eat it.

I love eggplant.

But I don't, I don't, and it's weird because I like zucchini.

I like cucumbers.

I love zucchini actually on the grill, especially with some Parmesan and

olive

oil.

And I've gotten to a point in my life where I kind of just started liking foods that were good for me.

And I don't know what something clicked.

That's when I started eating cauliflower.

And I pretty much like all vegetables, but yeah, eggplant just doesn't, it's kind of tasteless.

Have you

tried it like on the grill too?

Yeah, that's better.

And I wouldn't say zucchini is like the most, you know, tasty or tangy vegetable either.

They're similar, but I don't know.

I like the texture of zucchini better.

Every time I have eggplant, it's like really mushy.

Oh, well, yeah, I mean, so.

You know, I didn't like eggplant until last year when my brother kind of introduced me.

Okay, and I tried it on the grill, but else they also like breaded it Their way though, so it's like really bad stuff.

Okay,

and then they put it in the air fryer And it was dynamite

so it's not deep fried, but it's breaded.

Yeah breaded but not like deep fried in oil or anything It's just in the air fryer.

It was really good.

Okay Yeah, I like I would have to say my favorite my favorite now might be cauliflower, but I could eat Brock I could eat tons of broccoli

I like it all.

I like zucchini.

Yeah, like peppers onions.

Love onions garlic Yeah, it's all good stuff now.

I'm glad I grew into that too because I wasn't a huge vegetable fan when I was here and I do like peas I will say I They're really good for you.

They're very high in fiber and I do like them.

So,

you know, it's also high in fiber fiber one bar

True, but

what else is a lot

better?

What else is in

that?

You don't need to look at that

the chemicals.

No, it's just sherry back in the blower just fiber.

That's it

That's why it's called fiber

fiber

because it's

fiber in one ingredient.

Well, I remember that fiber one cereal that I used to eat when I was younger just trying to get fiber into my system and it literally it tasted like you were eating sticks.

It was the worst tasting cereal ever.

You know, Kellogg's released a protein cereal or something like that and I tried it and it was the same thing.

It was like I was eating sticks and then it got really stale super fast too.

So it was like wet sticks.

Yeah.

That's awful.

I never got it again.

So I have a, I gotta get something off my chest here.

And I don't mean to, you know, I'm really happy here at Civic Media.

I love doing the show from here in Green Bay.

Todd Michaels is our fearless leader, but I feel like, you know, when the boss goes on vacation, we should have a vacation from the boss too.

We should not have to deal with his nonsense.

He is on vacation.

So it should be a lackluster, kind of a chill week here, casual.

I'm wearing shorts tonight because Todd's on vacation.

He should not be checking in on the chat.

I see Todd because he can't let go.

He's just a workhorse and he's texting in on the chat.

I'm like, that's not fair.

I want a week where the boss is gone.

And if I want to do the show in bare feet or no pants, I have that option.

Well,

it's just not fair.

You should do it at home then.

Oh, I almost did today.

I was crabby.

I didn't want to, I didn't want to get the car because I, you know, I drove here today and here's the thing.

It's very, you ever been driving on the highway and sneeze?

I have monster sneezes and especially like now with the pollen count and the air and the allergens and all that kind of nonsense.

I had a double sneeze today.

My eyes were probably closed for about four seconds on highway 41.

It was horrible.

And I couldn't, I opened them, I was like, whoa.

But I couldn't, you know, you ever try to sneeze with your eyes open?

It's supposed

to be physically impossible.

I've tried it.

I don't think

I've achieved it.

Pop a corpuscle or something.

And that's what made me think of Todd.

I said, Todd is not here.

He likes the driving in stories.

He's supposed to be on vacation and he's texting in.

And I don't think that's fair.

You know what, since you're saying you should be casual.

Yeah.

Why aren't you wearing that Badger hat that I saw in the...

in the huge company meetings in the company meetings.

It was just because I had bad head.

Well, you could wear that here, you know?

I'm having a good hair night.

If I had a bad hair night, I would totally wear that badger hat.

If the badgers like go to the playoffs, I don't wear a baseball hat to work because I'm not an animal.

I dress up.

I like to look presentable.

But

you know

what?

But if the badgers made the playoffs or something, I would totally wear a badger's hat.

I think you should just fold Wisconsin Badger gear tomorrow.

Jersey, some sweatpants, maybe get some Wisconsin Badger shoes.

It's not gonna happen.

Here's why.

I find that strange.

I have an issue when dudes wear all the same paraphernalia.

Shoes, sweats, shirt, and hat, like all packer gear, or all St.

Louis carton gear, whatever it is, I just think that's a little juvenile.

I think you're supposed to outgrow that, and you can cheer for your team, but I find that strange.

My favorite is when I go to the gym and I'm shooting some hoops, and there's a guy that comes in a full LeBron James jersey.

He's the Laker shorts and the Laker top.

Right.

And he's the headband on.

And?

The LeBron shoes,

just to finish it off.

That's the same thing, though.

That's odd to me.

My son and I have that running joke.

We're like, hey, like if a guy walked in in a jersey, oh, LeBron's here.

One of us will look.

It's like, no, it's a short white dude with a, I don't know.

Hey, Kristen Lyrely show folks, if you haven't heard Kristen Lyrely show, check it out on the weekends.

I was a guest this last weekend.

I just listened to it on the way down.

She's really good.

She does a great

job.

We had a lot of fun in the air.

You can still hear it on the Civic Media app, which you should already have anyway, folks.

All right, we're going to come back.

We're going to read your texts, and I'm going to tell you something that really annoys me about the weather.

That's coming up next on Nightlight with Peach Waba on the Civic Media radio

network.

There you go.

Welcome back.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.

I have to get this off my chest.

I was really annoyed today.

And here's why.

We turn the air on.

It's really muggy.

It's not I wouldn't say it's like crazy hot, but it's very muggy We're running the air.

I had the heat on a week ago It's it's terrible Who do I complain to about this?

Brittany Merleau I Don't want to give Brittany extra work That's what I do when I say my prayers I say God what's going on here.

Can you fix this?

Our question of the night, it's National Vegetable Day, folks.

What is your favorite vegetable or least favorite?

You can share both.

You can share one.

There are no rules to this.

Just have fun and be part of the show.

And we will read your text on the radio.

Dave on the stream says, best corn.

I don't think of corn for whatever reason, but it is vegetable.

Worst, okra.

Okay.

Those are good choices.

I was not expecting to see okra tonight.

But corn is good, too.

And I don't know, does the vegetable count if you can like douse it in butter and put salt on it?

I mean, you can do that to a lot of vegetables.

Yeah, you can.

You want to know what's funny?

Last night, Sherry Stelco was here.

I always love talking to Sherry.

Love her insights into nutrition and diet.

And as she's leaving, I said, thank you, Sherry.

You've motivated me not to have Taco Bell for at least three or four days.

Guess where I stopped on the way back to Taco Bell?

It's because I mentioned it to Sherry.

So I got it in my head and I'm going, I think I need Taco Bell.

And I haven't had Taco Bell in like four months, but it was all of a sudden, it was really, you know what I get?

I get the Crunchwrap Supreme because it's crunchy and there's a wrap around it.

Thus the Crunchwrap.

But I get it without sour cream and they're only like, not only, but they're 500 calories.

So that's my only meal.

I had two of those in two times.

Well,

you don't know where the beef comes from.

I don't know if it's even beef.

I don't know what the hell I'm eating, but I don't.

It tastes good though.

It was like a salt fix that I just, and I hadn't eaten all day.

That was my meal, but still it was terrible.

And I hope Sherry's not listening.

There's some vegetables in there.

There's a little bit of lettuce.

You can get tomatoes.

Yeah, that's true.

I think some onions.

And the tomatoes are almost some type of shade of red.

So I think there's probably a lot of nutrients in there.

So

I'm not proud of myself.

But our question of the night, oh yeah, we got a phone call?

Yeah, I'll leave that call.

Yeah, Ali from the Northwest.

Oh, we missed Ali last night.

So that's good.

Hey, Ali, how are you?

Hi, I'm doing good.

I have three different vegetables that I can't stand.

Our parents had a rule that you had to have one spoonful of

something whether you liked it or not and if you made a face you got another spoon full well my my two I couldn't three I couldn't stand was peas lima beans and Brussels sprouts well I learned how to swallow the peas and lima beans full without having to chew them but Brussels sprouts were a little harder to do.

Do you like Brussels sprouts now Ali?

No, I don't like any of those.

Still.

That's fantastic.

Thanks so much for the call.

You have a great night.

You guys too.

All

right.

Peace are a big winner tonight.

Brian from Green Bay says, did you try and smell their bathwater?

Was he talking about the people that are crossing the street?

Either that or the guys that are spotting you at the gym.

Either way, I don't really care to smell anybody's bathwater.

What's funny is, and I totally fell for this, the Sydney Sweeney Bath Time Bliss soap, my daughter told me it has a hole in the middle of the soap and it's only dudes buying it.

I'm like, you have to be kidding.

She pulled up a picture on Google or whatever and showed it to me and it's a hoax.

That's not really, but I believed it Conrad.

When these guys are paying this much money and I know there's a lot of lonely men out there,

who maybe just want to curl up with a bar of soap at night, especially if it smells like Sydney's Weenie.

I believed it.

Are you telling me that's so far-fetched?

Well, I just got my 30 pack the other day.

Okay.

How many parts are

left?

No holes in it.

No holes in

it.

Not yet.

But I have taken a lot of baths.

Can I even say not yet on the radio?

I don't know.

Yeah, it was I totally bought it and it would not have surprised me I mean it's weird enough that bathwater soap and bathwater is dirty typically even if it's Sydney Sweeney's So but I believe it.

I'm a sucker All right, so Annie from Watertown says Donald Trump pumpkin.

What's that vegetable?

Or maybe her favorite is pumpkin and she doesn't like Donald Trump.

I don't know.

Thank you, Annie.

Mark from Prairie to Sack, he's in the 608 says, was talking what they benched.

One of the first conversations between Dirk, Eddie, Mark Wahlberg and Reed, John C. Riley in Boogie Nights.

Yes, that is one of the funniest conversations or lines in that movie.

What do you bench?

And it totally took me back to the early 80s when I used to go to pornographic parties at pools.

So Mark also says, oh, I'm sorry, Mark, oh, he sent that same text three times.

He must've really wanted an answer.

I hope we, four times, Mark.

Mark also says, carrots, celery, and pickled beets.

I don't know if that means, I would assume he's just sharing the ones he doesn't like.

You like those, Mark, or you don't like them?

Let us know.

Jim from Appleton, that's the 920.

He says, explain this one to me.

I agree completely with the K-man.

I love broccoli, but can't stand cauliflower.

Well,

I mean, they're very different vegetables.

I mean, they kind of look the same, but that's not it.

That's like

saying you taste the same.

You love

root beer, but hate Mr. Pibb, you know.

Oh, do that.

You go in again.

Do you have root beer?

No, but we have Dr. Pepper.

Okay.

They're very different.

Do you have any idea?

Well, I

mean, yeah, one is caffeine, one doesn't too.

They just aren't the same thing.

You have Coke?

No, we have seven up.

Well, I assume you had something.

RAP's of the big winner cam sent a picture to of me with a very tall forehead.

Is he is cam saying he doesn't like Is that like a carrot thing or a cone head?

I think you just wanted to do a little

photoshop.

It's just having fun at home.

All right cam.

Thank you.

Let's not share that All right, we're coming back Rob Thomas is here next folks.

We're gonna talk some movies with Robin What's going on in Madison?

So great to have you with me on this Tuesday night on nightlight with peach waba.

This is the civic media radio network

This is Nightlight with Beach Wabba and Beach

Wabba.

Those are the Golden Pipes of Barry Manilow who turns 172 today.

He's been around forever.

I was actually surprised he was only 81.

Which means, God, I was listening to him in the 70s.

That's crazy.

Welcome back to Nightlight, folks.

We got a great show tonight.

We're talking movies and some fun things happening in Madison.

And then we'll talk about Summerfest and some music with Piat Levi from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in hour number two.

This vegetable question has really struck a chord.

Yeah, we're gonna have to do like an overtime thing like a Bill Maher dealio here or something to get through all the texts I think people are passionate about vegetables whether they love them or hate them But what I want to know is how does Rob Thomas?

Madison film critic feel about vegetables He's also the city cast a Madison newsletter editor and he joins us now on the stream as he so often does.

Hey, buddy

Are you doing Pete?

Yeah, are you

a vegetable guy?

That's an interesting question like I definitely was picky as a kid.

Yeah

You know peas and corn that's about it.

I think I've embraced all Most vegetables now, you know But this remind me I was out to dinner Sunday and I had a side salad with my burger and I had and the guy came to pick it up and said, you know There's still like a few leaves left.

So you're gonna finish I was like for me that's finished for a salad like I'm not gonna clean the whole thing out, but if I get like, you know

two-thirds of the way there that's a thinner salad i i get i get points for that one yeah so you're not a vegetable lover per se no but i mean you can make them good you can roast asparagus or brussel sprouts or whatever and you could you can get by

I agree and I'm that guy that does just the opposite.

I can't stand watching like the healthy stuff go to waste.

So like my daughter will be like your show a few bites of a salad or my wife will leave a couple tomatoes or something and I'll be that like human doggie bag when it comes to salads.

Good for

you.

I try, you know, I'm not like the healthiest guy in the world, but when it's sitting there looking me in the face, I can't throw it away.

I'd rather finish the salad than muscle down four more bites of a burger that I don't need.

if that makes sense.

Wow, that's

discipline.

I can tell you're impressed, Rob.

I am.

How are you?

I'm doing good.

Summer's good.

I'm hopefully in the home stretch of a summer cold here that's been sticking around, but good.

My youngest graduated from high school over the weekend.

I saw that on Facebook.

Facing Empty Nester Syndrome.

Yeah.

You know, I went through that last year.

My daughter went to junior college or community college, I guess, for a year and then went away last year for her second year.

And it is, it's like haunting.

You know, the house is so quiet.

And I remember when my son went to school and he had kind of the whole basement to himself.

It's like a

finished

basement type, split level, whatever.

And I would hear him down there, even though he wasn't there.

It's, I hated it.

I hated the adjustment of becoming empty nesters.

But I hope

it's great.

Well, I'm real excited about it.

Thanks for the pep talk.

So enjoy your

fall.

The badgers.

That is funny.

I, you know, they, because they, because my step son's control or a step son controls the basement.

Yeah.

And when he's gone, I, I don't know if I'll feel comfortable going down to like watch TV down there.

It's them.

So used to that being.

Yes.

It's domain.

It's weird.

You know,

I, I read Al Franken's book years ago and I just, he, he said it's not about quality time.

It's about quantity time big blocks of stinking time when you're all just in the house together Not even necessarily doing anything and I totally understood that when my son went away to college because the same thing like that's where the big TV is I go downstairs and it's like it's weird knowing a that he's not watching TV with me and be that he's not even in his room down the hall.

Yeah,

right Yeah, all right now that we've depressed everyone.

Let's get to some movie talk.

Shall we?

So all right, so I'm trying to figure out where to start here with you Robbie got movies You got some really fun stuff today.

I am in love with citycast Madison.

I love reading that yeah, it's really a good It's just everything is is fun.

You know whether you guys are rating donut shops in Madison or outdoor eating It's just a great.

It's a really fun read So

I want to ask you about a movie because Conrad saw this movie last week and I can't remember if you and I had talked about it.

The Surfer.

I have not seen it yet.

Conrad saw it and said it was really strange.

Have you seen that movie, Rob?

I have not.

It was at the Wisconsin Film Festival when we were there, but I could make time to go see it.

I was curious for sure.

It was high on my list to see, but it's one of those films you see on Rotten Tomatoes where critics, I think it was like in the 80s,

And then the audience was like at 50 and I'm like, okay, something at the end happens that people

don't like

or something, you know.

And Conrad just said it was really weird.

Yeah, it's about, I remember watching the trailer and it's about Nicholas Cage.

Yeah.

So what it was seemed like a, you know, a trademark weird Nicholas Cage role where he plays this millage guy who goes back to this Australian

and correct me Conrad if I get this wrong but Australian surfed him where he grew up and is like bullied by the locals um and I'm sure it gets much weirder than that but it seemed very out there and

that's the part that I responded to I thought this could be cool he teaches the young bucks a lesson a straight up shoot him up or fight him up or whatever but right not not even close really wow

That's interesting.

All right.

Well, I'll have to check it out.

Maybe next time you're here, we will have both seen it.

But you've got some other films that you're reviewed on your sub-stack.

Check out Rob's work on sub-stack.

That's where most of his movie reviews are nowadays.

And let's start with the life of Chuck.

I really liked what I read about this and is based on a Stephen King novel.

And Mike Flanagan is the director.

You seem to respond to it.

Can you tell us about the life of Chuck and what your thoughts are?

Yeah, it was funny as you mentioned Stephen King and Mike Flanagan, but it's not a horror movie.

Right.

I mean, it's very hard to describe, which is probably a good thing because the less you know in some ways, the better.

But it takes a very unconventional, very unconventional look at like one man's life.

It kind of goes back in time and makes these interesting connections.

There's sort of kind of supernatural things going on.

Tom Hiddleston plays the man as an adult.

You also see him as a kid.

And yeah, it was the movie.

I think I've told you I love doing these mystery movies on Monday nights at my local AMC.

And this was the movie.

And I knew I had not seen a trailer, just saw the poster and didn't know what I was getting into.

But it's very light.

I mean, it's a lot about death.

It's

a lot about mortality.

But it's also I saw a lot of comparisons to it's a wonderful life in that it's very life affirming and very much about like

all the connections that one life makes that you don't really realize at the time to sort of add up to the importance of a life.

So yeah, highly recommend it.

You know, some people might see it as a little too sentimental, which I understand.

But I think it takes so many interesting turns along the way where you're like, what is going on here?

That

it sort of keeps that at bay, I think.

That's interesting.

You said it started with like in the apocalypse

it just happened.

Yeah, I wasn't quite sure I wanted to say that, but yeah, basically the first act is the end of the world.

And it's very realistic, I gotta say, in some ways and like how people would face that.

And, you know, it's not like a deep impact to an Armageddon, it's just sort of like everything's kind of falling apart.

And there's just this one very weird

twist to it where and Wherever people start seeing these billboards with this guy Chuck and nobody knows who this is and that's how the movie starts and that's the start is act three Yeah, and then you go to act two and act one so it's a really strange structure, but that follows I guess Stephen King story pretty closely.

Yeah, so and the

apocalypse part

does sound like Stephen King and Mike Flanagan,

I

guess.

Right.

Well, I mean, they know how to hook you.

There's stories, you know, and there are a couple of, you know, I know they're called jump scares, but definitely shocks as that happens.

But it's the kind of thing that sort of keeps you off balance in a way that's really good because you're set up open to like, OK, what's going to happen next?

What's, you know, like, what does that mean?

And who's this person?

Yeah.

So it's not a straightforward.

inspirational drama at all.

But you were kind of an open book in your review.

Tell us what happened at the very end, Rob.

Oh, yeah.

Spoiler alert.

Yeah.

I mean, it was funny.

I think, like I said, it keeps you kind of held in and it's very moving, but like I was pretty dry eyed.

And then like the last shot of the film,

Like, I just lost it.

Like, in a way, I haven't in a movie in a long time.

Wow.

Like, it all just kind of built up.

It was a really, you know, it's a positive experience, but it's really interesting kind of like, kind of see myself go through that.

And like, all of a sudden, it's like, boom, you know?

Well, that part of the review, I mean, I liked all of it, but that made me go, I have to see this movie now.

Like, didn't it affect you and creep up on you like that?

That's really

curious.

Yeah, I'm curious what you think.

Yeah.

Let's talk about Rob Thomas is my guest by the way.

He is a Madison film critic and the city cast of Madison newsletter editor check out city cast Madison You can also follow Rob.

He does a great sub stack Great reviews in his sub stack at not that Rob.

Is it not that Rob Thomas?

I got that right.

It is.

Yeah Just Google not that Rob Thomas sub stack great stuff So I wanted to ask you about this new movie to Echo Valley with the stars Sidney Sweeney

Sidney Sweeney, Sidney Sweeney, and I think there are some other actors in there as well.

But what, Julian Morris, the other actor, she's fantastic.

And

Sidney Sweeney's not a bad actor.

They're both great, but the movie, how was the movie?

It's just okay.

It's an Apple TV plus original, so it's not in theaters, but you can watch it.

And it's kind of a thriller.

The guy who wrote

Mayor of Easttown, that Kate Winslet.

Oh, that's a great show,

yeah.

A couple years ago, yeah.

So similar where it's like a mystery, but it's more of a thriller, I guess in this case, but very grounded in sort of real emotions and like Julianne Moore plays this horse farm owner who's had like a series of tragedies in her life and sort of barely holding it together and kind of the one

Kind of the one joy in her life is her adult daughter played by Sydney Sweeney who we can see is a Manipulative Junkie who is totally taking advantage of her mother, but her mother is always like one more chance and you know And so anyway one night the daughter comes home covered in blood.

It's not hers asking for help and it

It kind of spirals out from there.

What's interesting is that it takes a twist and halfway through that I, I kind of thought where I knew this movie was going and took a really good twist that I did not see coming.

But kind of after that becomes like a totally different movie.

It's not really about the mother daughter anymore.

So I, you know, Julian Morris kind of like.

Nicole Kidman doing a lot these days on streaming like she's that siren show on Netflix Yeah, she's really good in this but the movie is not really quite up to her up to her performance Interesting Hmm.

Yeah, so, you know

worth it, worth at least starting on streaming.

How it goes.

Well, we're going to do a very short break and then Rob is, I'm going to ask Rob about a new show called Department Q. We didn't get to that last time and you mentioned it again.

So I'm thinking maybe Rob likes it or really dislikes it.

You'll have to wait through the break and find out.

And then we'll talk about some things going on in and around Madison.

There's some Juneteenth celebrations, outdoor dining in Madison, all kinds of great stuff.

And Kelly from Wannakee on the

The stream on the text line in the 608 says, I saw the life of Chuck yesterday.

It was good.

All right, Kelly.

Thank you.

We are coming right back.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwamba on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Rich LoCasio.

You're listening to Night Light with Pete Schwabba.

I would like to introduce to you the Pine Tree Mauler from Marinette, Wisconsin.

He is Pete Schwabba.

Thank you, Rich.

I am the Pine Tree Mauler named after the Pine Tree Maul.

This is Pete Schwabba and Night Light.

Welcome back.

Monica from Mount Horrib.

She's in the six oh eight.

She says eggplant to me is like licking a tire.

I know it's odd, but I love broccoli not cauliflower.

Okay.

That's all right, Monica.

And Brian from Green Bay agrees with me.

Dammit Todd put the phone away says Brian.

Let us have a week without the boss here.

We don't need Todd chiming in on the on the chat.

My guest is Rob Thomas.

He is a Madison film critic and writes writes and edits the city cast of Madison newsletter.

You can all follow also follow

Rob at his not that Rob Thomas sub-stack for all of his movie and TV reviews.

He does great work there Rob 501 we got a texture from the 501 area code.

I don't know where that is Pete I'm 76 years old Nobody has ever explained to me what the whole rotten tomato rating series is about can you I can 501, but let's have we have Rob here

Rob can help me explain.

It's basically just cumulative movie reviews.

They add them all up and decide how much, what percentage of it is positive and what is negative.

Rob, do you agree with the system?

I quote it all the time.

It's interesting.

I

mean,

you know, my reviews are up and around tomatoes, which is great.

And you find interesting reviews, you know, at kind of rates like.

the New York Times film critic at the same level as, well, a guy with a sub-stack like me.

So I think the, I don't know, the statistics are probably weighted in a certain way because of that.

But if we get people's temperature, I think, of what they're thinking, what is it like, 60%?

It's fresh and below that it's rotten or something like that.

And I find a lot of times I'm like, a review is like kind of fresh, kind of rotten, you know, kind of in a way

like

it's kind of hard to, hard to quantify that with a tomato.

Um, but

yeah, I don't, I'm with you.

Like sometimes I'll read a review there.

I usually don't.

I just look at the score, but if you really do kind of dive into the reviews.

A positive isn't necessarily a glowing one.

It was like this movie has some good parts to it.

And I don't know if they focus in on keywords.

They can't be looking at every single review or maybe they do, but by and large, I would say it's somewhat reliable.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, like I said, sometimes, and they also have an audience score there

as

well.

Like you said, so sometimes like the surfer critics will, you'll see critics love it.

Audiences don't like it so much or vice versa.

So it's a good starting point, but like,

like I like I still like reading great review great well-written reviews and I don't read them usually movies I'm gonna review myself because I don't want to get other people's ideas in my head but once I've written my review I'm really interested to see good writing about other movies and so and that's it you get little blurbs you sort of get an idea

of what people are, and you can read the full review, what people are writing and thinking about.

I

love that.

You're such a purist.

I like that you're like this respected reviewer, but you also like to read other people's reviews.

Oh yeah, that's so great.

I'm sure you

listen to other radio shows all the time, Pete, right?

Nope.

Of course I do.

Right only right here at Sipping Media, though.

Yes.

Yes, I just pulled up the surf for 46% audience.

and 86% critics.

So definitely have to give it a watch.

Let's get to some stuff happening around Madison, Rob.

You've got there are Juneteenth celebrations happening around town, quite a few of them, actually.

Yeah, actually, it's I mean, Juneteenth is Thursday.

Yeah.

And it's a celebration of, you know, it's it's specifically in 1865 when Black Texans found out that

that they were freed.

Lincoln, I think, signed into law the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but America being what it is, it took a little while for all that to be enforced in every state.

And that's become just a celebration, I think, and there's all kinds of stuff going on.

I just saw the soccer team here, the forward will have Juneteenth themed

uniforms when they play on Thursday.

Oh,

nice.

There's

a parade.

I think that's Saturday, maybe Sunday and a big sort of park celebration.

I saw there's even a burlesque show.

So all kinds of different ways for people to celebrate to all be calling here.

Go to CityCast Madison because you guys got them all listed.

I love that you did this too.

You guys did an article.

I think it was yours, actually.

Best outdoor dining in Madison.

Let me ask you this, Rob.

How do you guys do this?

Do you mean you have a staff?

Do you all go around?

Is this from memory?

How much research is involved?

They're pretty comprehensive articles.

Well, thanks.

Yeah.

Well, usually I'm either, you know, looking at other local media or I'm looking at, uh, the websites or Instagram pages of restaurants in this case is to see, you know, who's opened a new patio, uh, some restaurants that I know have opened, like, uh, uh, I think it's called the Attico lounge.

I think I'm pronouncing that right.

It's on the roof of the Muxley hotel.

Okay.

Kind of, it has this fantastic rooftop bar space.

that on the ninth floor overlooks Bree Stevens Field across the street where they have a lot of concerts.

Incredible view.

So yeah, just kind of, you know, and sure, I'll miss a couple and try and get them later, but just trying to get it, take the temperature of what's going on.

And, you know, people love, love eating outdoors in the summer.

And the Capital Times here in Madison has this great patio guide with like literally over 600 places you can eat outside, which is incredible.

and they're always updating it.

It's so great.

Definitely check out CityCast Massing.

Can we keep you just for a few more minutes, Rob, after the questions?

Of course.

I do have to get to Department Q. So that is my vow to the listener.

We will talk about that.

But let us know what is your favorite or least favorite vegetable, folks.

That's our question of the night.

PJ says, best vegetable is broccoli.

The worst is cabbage, especially when it's fermented into sauerkraut.

I can see that.

Paula, Conrad's mom checking in, says, corn on the cob is delicious, but really not good for you.

I'm the opposite of Conrad.

I like cauliflower and not really a fan of broccoli.

Thank you, Paula.

PJ also says broccoli is great, steamed with butter.

Agreed.

PJ says tomato is a fruit.

We got people taking issue with other people's answers here.

When I get to these texts, all hell's breaking loose.

Corn is apparently a grain.

I didn't know any of this stuff.

All right, we're coming back after intermission here for Act 2.

This is Pete Schwab at Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

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's had a paper route for 25 years but never collected, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back to Night Light.

Ladies and gentlemen, great to have you with me on this Tuesday night.

It's a great night to sit inside and listen to the radio.

It's hot outside.

It's muggy.

If you missed the first hour, we're talking about vegetables tonight.

It is National Vegetable Day.

Our question of the night is, what is your favorite vegetable and or least favorite vegetable?

Share those.

We'll catch up on some texts in just a few minutes here.

Piat Levy will be here at 7.20 from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

We're gonna have a final recap here on what's coming up at Summerfest.

I'll probably ask him a little bit about Brian Wilson and Sly Stone as well.

Always fun to have Piat on the show.

And we have, I think a winner so far would probably be P's in terms of what is least.

Least exciting, vegetable-wise.

Amanda Nimmer, as I read earlier, said, peas are useless and disgusting.

Civic Media's own Luke Mathers says, no.

Amanda, false.

They're delicious.

Oh, I see something brewing here, Conrad.

It's going to blow up all over the network.

It's insane.

Jody Himman says, my favorite vegetable is a bell pepper.

And lima beans are my least favorite vegetable.

Mike says, my favorite vegetable is a cucumber.

My least favorite vegetable is cauliflower.

Wow, everybody picking on cauliflower.

Luke Meathers also shared his favorite, says, roasted Brussels sprouts are the best.

I agree.

Those are outstanding.

He says, I'm not a huge fan of lima beans, but vegetables are made up.

There's nothing technical about the term.

It's just made up by big culinary.

Wow, people picking on big culinary.

Daniel Wheeler finally says, my favorite veggies are the peppers inside of jalapeno poppers.

My least favorite veggies are radishes.

Even with salt, the bitter taste is nasty.

I always forget about radishes being part of the vegetable family.

We have a few more minutes with our current guest.

Rob Thomas was nice enough to join us tonight.

He is a Madison based film critic and the editor of the city cast, Madison newsletter and check out his substack at not that Rob Thomas on substack.

I want to know who's still eating a line of beans.

I haven't seen a lime of beans

in 30

years.

I thought they went extinct.

I totally, that's a really interesting, and a couple of people have said okra, I guess okra's more popular, but you're right, lime of beans is like eating liver and onions, I think, so right out of a 70s sitcom or

something.

Exactly, it should be like a Swanson's Hungry

Man,

you know, TV dinner.

Those were healthy.

That's right.

Rob, so tell us about Department Q.

Are you a fan or did you want to talk about it because you're a fan or not a fan?

I think I'm a I mean I'm a fan and it's it's the show that You know how it is you have your shows that you watch with your partner And then you each have your own separate shows and this is a department cues the one that my wife and I are watching We're almost done with it.

It's a Netflix show and it's good.

I mean I think I went into it pretty high hopes because

the writer-director did the Queen's Gambit, which I think is a fantastic show.

And this show is pretty good.

It's like a detective show, pretty familiar.

It's based on a Danish series of novels, but it's set, this version is set in Scotland.

You have this sort of tortured...

anti-social brilliant detective trying to find this woman who's been disappeared for four years but we know is not dead he does not know that and it's a good you know it's a good mystery and good performances and you know like I said the main detective is sort of like

you know, kind of irritating in a very familiar way for that kind of character.

But the people around him are really interesting as his sort of associates.

So, yeah, I'm sticking with that.

I think it's a perfectly fine watch, you know, if you like Scandinavian mysteries.

That's very specific.

People do, though.

Oh, I know.

And I've seen some of them myself, myself, myself.

I have a split personality.

Rob, what, have you seen Line of Duty?

Yes, I've seen a little bit of it.

And it was, it was incredible, I thought.

Yeah.

So good.

Yeah.

I started, there's like six seasons, but a total of 36 episodes for all the seasons.

And I'm on season four.

I just, I've been reading, like rarely do I like a show so much I read about it on the internet.

You know, like I, Wikipedia, I'm like, who are these actors?

Apparently, it was like the number one show on BBC Two, so they moved it to BBC One, the highest rated show ever.

I've never even heard of it, and it was from 2012, but I'm so into it.

Is it on Netflix now?

It's on Hulu now, and you can probably find it on BBC as well.

Because I think it was on, like, Brit Box or something for a few years, which is not a very widely seen streaming service.

But the guy who created, also created this other great Netflix show called, I think it's called The Bodyguard.

Oh, yeah.

Oh sure

that really good show.

Yeah,

the guy he can't just write an episode where nothing happens like always so much going on in every episode No character is safe from getting killed or you know double cross it.

Yeah, so very entertaining show

It's one of those shows where I watch it and I go even if nothing else happens with the story

or it doesn't escalate, it's still really good.

The acting is good, the writing is good, but they always go in a different direction that you don't see coming.

And I have to slow down because I don't want to be done with it.

It's like one of those type of shows.

So, let's see, what else do we do here, Rob?

How about the Midwest linen revival before we let you get out of here?

That's interesting.

We had a podcast today, CityCast Madison podcast.

And it's a really interesting, you know, there's kind of the farm to table movement.

Yeah.

That's the elsewhere we're like.

People go connect directly from the farm and get, you know, vegetables, speaking of vegetables, not lime and beans, I don't think.

Like vegetables from the farm and sort of, you know, so you know where your food's coming from.

Right.

So this movement is like, know where your clothes are coming from and they know where.

the flax fiber that's being, you know, turned into your shirts and the linen are being, you know, where they're being harvested.

And so it's this interesting movement.

There's these, they call it like field to frock events in medicine.

We kind of build awareness.

So it's an interesting thing.

I just listened to the podcast and I'm starting to learn about it, but it's an interesting idea, I think, to sort of have a homegrown apparel

economy here in Wisconsin.

It's so great.

I got into, I got into this a few years ago when I had a distant relative pass away, single guy and lived a long life and they were getting rid of his stuff.

And I'm like, look at all this stuff that one person had.

So it's like, where does everything go?

There are eight billion people on the planet and I started to get very conscientious of this, conscientious of this kind of stuff.

And I started trying to find secondhand stuff that's still good.

And it's a crapshoot.

You don't know, you know, you got to know where to go.

And that's what you guys kind of did.

You listed several places where people can go and find good secondhand stuff.

And I

like

goodwill, but you have to go to, you have to go to a cool city's goodwill because you'll find better hand-me-down, so to speak.

But my

daughter's really good at thrifting and like going and like, you know, there's these places like you're right.

We went to Chicago to a thrift store and the clothes were incredible because people like bringing their old clothes and take some new ones.

And like, it was really good stuff.

You know, you can stuff like good stuff at St.

Benny's for good luck.

You just got to look harder.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Is rag stock even considered?

Thrifting anymore.