Transcript
Photojournalist, Fresh Breath, and Strip Mall Bars (Hour 2)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Tue Aug 5, 2025
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I'm Pete Schwabba.
This is Nightlight.
Welcome back.
We are kicking off Act 2 on this outstanding Tuesday, Wisconsin summer night.
My guest at the moment is Chris Rogowski.
We will get back to Chris in just a minute.
He is the founder of chicken or the egg photography and a local musician and photographer.
So we'll jump back into that.
Rob Thomas is here at 720 talking movies and what we can still expect at the box office as the summer goes on.
And we're gonna talk to Rob about his take on strip mall bars and see what Rob has to say.
Cause he wrote a cool piece for a city cast madness.
Our question of the night, folks, is in honor of National Fresh Breath Day, which I didn't even know existed, what is the best way to tell someone they have bad breath?
Do you tell them?
Do you suffer through it?
Do they wonder why you're crying?
What happens, folks?
Let us know.
Be part of the show.
855-752-484-2855-75 civic.
Conrad has told me I have amazing breath.
We don't usually get that close.
There's usually glass between us, but, you know.
It holds up for the most part.
I went off on a Tiger Woods rant for my stand-up dates.
It was crazy.
I haven't done that joke in ages, and I kind of laid it out there.
Chris, like it was just conversational, but it was from the stand-up act, so I apologize.
Oh, well, I would have never guessed.
If that was too overt.
Oh, good.
I'm glad it sounded conversational.
Tom from New Berlin says, worst breath is your friend has pounded too many beers down and you're coming to the party later and you get yeast bomb.
Yeast bomb, they're over-serve them to be insulted on their breath.
Yes, I'm with you, Tom.
I know that smell.
I know that smell.
Tom says, yes, a photo is worth a thousand words.
And that, of course, isn't referenced to our current guest, Chris Rigauske.
Daniel from Anastasia, he's in the 920.
He says, you just have to slowly remove that person from your life.
Offering a mint will only hurt their feelings.
That's true.
And it's a quick fix.
That's just a band-aid.
Yeah.
I like where Daniel's going with that.
And I've seen Daniel's work.
Remember when he came in here and he had that horrifying mask?
Yeah.
He might have some shallow graves in his backyard.
I'm not making accusations.
I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me.
Jim from Avaldon, he's in the 920.
He says, the proper passive aggressive response to bad breath from someone else is to carry smelling salts to sniff after they breathe on you to clear the smell from your nostrils.
Sounds like Jim's got some experience there.
Tom from Jackson says, the bird seed.
You
Eat bird seed?
I'd rather have bad breath.
it's like the spicy bird seed, maybe.
Do people eat that?
I don't know.
It keeps the squirrels away.
Okay.
All right, noted.
Chris, I'm so glad you're here for reasons other than that, but we are starting Act Two here, and Chris Rogowski is here.
He's the founder of Chicken or the Egg Photography here in Green Bay, and he is a local musician and photographer.
So you have a photojournalist background.
Is that a different kind of photography than, you know, say something like, do you ever, let's start here.
What is your favorite thing to shoot?
If you have one.
That's a good question.
Years ago, it would have been bands.
And it still is bands.
But I think my favorite thing to shoot is whatever I'm getting in the moment.
I know that's really ethereal, but I don't really have a favorite, per se.
Some people really specialize in one thing.
And like I said before, the beat thing.
So I just like whatever's in front of me usually.
That's a good answer.
Do you ever go out seeking to shoot things?
Like, it's kind of a hazy night.
Maybe I could get a good sunset or sunrise or people frolicking on the beach or something like that?
I have done that.
When I first, very first started in photography, I was big into nature and sunrises and stuff, so I'd always go to get the sunrises and sunsets and things like that and nature things.
Ever since being in photography full time, I don't go out intentionally now these days because I need a break from the camera, usually at least.
And you do commercial stuff too,
which keeps you busy, probably pays the bills a little bit more than free.
Yeah,
right.
And so have you ever captured anything where it's like...
It just happened and you're like, oh my god, this is the coolest thing ever.
Has that ever happened like unintentionally where you've captured a really cool shot?
Yeah, actually we were in India and I captured this scene outside.
We were in the bus and doing on this tour and I captured the scene of three guys with a newspaper all reading it and then
immediately I was watching them as we were going by they looked up and they looked at each other and they started laughing and it was this like beautiful image of oh wow you know not something and you'll ever get again and I think that's to your point about photojournalism like that's really what I aim for is that moment you will never get again
and
then not and not editing it
you know, what you see is what you get other than, you know, make-uping the contrast or something, but I hate post-work.
I absolutely hate
it.
If I can avoid it, I will.
All right, so that was my next, and I know exactly what you mean, like, when you capture something that you, like, if I'm looking at the photograph, I can put myself there.
Or
I can anticipate almost what they're saying.
It's like a movie that you lose yourself completely in.
That was one of my questions, too.
The shooting part...
point and click, I'm sure I know more goes into it than that, but
the editing
part, just like movies, it can be really tedious, but what's less fun for you and what's more fun?
I think it depends.
You know, if it's a project where I know there's going to be a lot of editing, I will probably aim to enjoy both parts.
If it's something like Mile of Music where I'm like, I got thousands of photos to edit here and I know that they're not going to use all of them, I don't pay attention to every single photo.
with intricate detail, but I still make sure they look good.
Of course, I don't want
to send them junk.
Right.
Where can people find out more information if they want to use chicken or the egg photography?
I'm assuming you have a website, social media, stuff like
that.
Yeah, so the best place to find me if you want to work with me is my website and use the contact form or just shoot me an email, chicken or the eggphotography at gmail.com or
Text me.
Yeah, my phone number's on there, too.
I do not use Instagram.
Please.
I don't check Instagram.
Okay.
Facebook is pretty big.
If you want to follow me, that's a that's a really good place to do that.
I get a lot of follows and interaction on Facebook.
I'm on LinkedIn a little bit.
Okay.
Still breaking the mold on that one.
But yeah, between those three or just talk to your friends.
because someone you know knows me, I can almost guarantee it.
Interesting.
You know, in one of those articles I read about you, you credited LinkedIn.
I
make
jokes about LinkedIn.
Six people noticed my profile, so long suckers, you know, but like I've never got, I'm on it, but I see jobs come up for radio or screenwriting or whatever, but what did it do for you?
Because I don't know a whole lot of...
stories about LinkedIn catapulting someone to fame, you know.
Well, let me tell you.
No, it didn't catapult me to fame, but what it did do, it got me a job with a family shoot with someone who works at a pretty big company here in town.
And then that was nice.
And that was my first job from LinkedIn.
And then the second one was the read job, the first one I talked about with the
bikes.
And that all happened because I tagged
the company online on a LinkedIn post.
It was after a nice January day.
It was like 50 degrees in January, which is unheard of in Wisconsin, right?
And I went out, I rode the bike and I took this nice picture and like a month later, one of their marketing people reached out to me and was like, Hey, we really like this.
I'm going to pass your name along to our marketing, like head of marketing or something.
Yeah.
And it just kind of blossomed from there.
Wow.
And they still didn't throw in a bike.
Well, that's the next
job.
All right.
Also, in this article I read, you were talking about a photography style.
Do you have one?
Like, if people are in the know in your line of work, oh, Christopher Growski, he's a... How would they define your style?
A really good photographer?
I don't know.
Okay.
I heard actually, I heard it recently and I was gonna make a Facebook post about this, but someone, I was talking to them at mile and they said, what I like about your photos is there's this 3D aspect to it.
So you
know, there's a
foreground, a middle ground and a background.
And you just have this way to make it look natural.
And you know, it's not portraits, it's photojournalism.
I mean, that's really at the end of the day, I'm really good at photojournalism.
I capture the moment.
I do well at all the other stuff that I do, but I've trained myself to do that stuff.
Whereas the photojournalism
comes naturally.
My guest is Chris Rogowski.
He's the founder of Chicken or the Egg Photography here in Green Bay, and he is a local musician as well.
Should we get to some of your music stuff?
Because you do work acoustically by yourself, or is it by yourself?
Because you do have a title, The Finest Fo.
Yeah, The Finest Fo is my own solo project.
Whatever comes to my mind and then there's age of fable the full band and what do you prefer?
Both my bandmates are listening.
I like both.
I Hate having to split the check with
them So what kind of music is that
the finest foe is like acoustic yeah 90s alternative stuff
And then and covers and then the full band is good old rock band and we will melt your faces sweet progressive rock.
Yeah.
Yeah, how'd you know?
You said melt your face.
It
probably is in my in my subconscious too, but what?
So is that all original stuff?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we we've got an album out right now.
It's going to be
Hopefully we're going back in the studio pretty soon to record some new stuff with the new guys, but yeah, it's gonna be fun.
We have to play next time you come back.
Yeah, well, hopefully I'll have it on hand.
I know sometimes a bunch of band, a bunch of long hairs get together.
Sometimes they break up.
Well, we took the dreaded
photo
and no one's left
yet.
Chris, what are you watching on TV?
You work hard, you edit photos, you shoot photos, you're playing music.
When you sit down at the end of the day, what are you watching?
If it's not Lord of the Rings or The Matrix or Batman, it's Egret Zuko.
Oh, that's what you mentioned during the break.
Yeah, Egret Zuko, and it's a super funny anime.
It's on Netflix, but it's just funny.
I mean, it's this little like...
red panda girl who works in accounting and Gloves to do metal screaming karaoke and the switch between Egret Zuko and a Retzko Retzko I think is the character's name and then the screaming guy.
It's just it's wonderful
For someone who I've never really watched anime.
Yeah, and I'm intimidated by it because
I don't know I
Honestly, I like I like animation like I watch, you know the Simpsons family guy, whatever But what is it about anime?
that why would you tell me to watch it?
Frankly, I
watch whatever Melanie puts on.
Is that that?
I don't.
I apparently have a Netflix account and I don't know how to use it.
Okay.
So it's funny.
I'm a tech guy who doesn't use Netflix or anything.
Interesting.
Yeah.
I just whatever she puts on, we watch and it's usually good.
All right.
Well, that's good.
So she puts it on.
If you don't like it, you just space out and kind of
sell my pineapple and don't do anything.
And, you know, Netflix is only like two grand a month now.
So that's all right.
Hey, this was fun.
Thank you.
It's been great
meet you, Chris, and continued success with all your photography and music.
And
come back and play sometime and let us know where you're playing too.
We'd love to
answer you.
Yeah, well, you know where to find me.
Yeah, for sure.
All right, Chris Fragowski, ladies and gentlemen, when we come back, Rob Thomas is here, our favorite Madison based film critic.
We'll talk all things Madison and movies with Rob and we'll read your texts.
Send us a bad breath text.
Text it with bad breath.
Breathe on the text and send it in.
It'll permeate the interwebs.
All right.
It's Pete Chihuahua in Netflix on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Welcome back!
I think that was like the
first song we played.
The bumper tune.
One of the first ones, because everything I picked had to have night in it, because it
nightlight, but that's when we were on it like 10 o'clock.
It's just each one of it, and Netflix.
I would kill to be
Yeah, right.
They own everything.
Our question of the night folks, you still have time to get something in.
It's National Fresh Breath Day.
What is the best way to tell someone they have bad breath?
Would you do it?
Would you ignore it and bear it and just let your eyes well up with tears?
What do you do?
And our next guest would not know anything about this because he has about the freshest smelling breath I've ever.
And I within 10 feet of the guy, you know, he has great breath.
And he is also a film critic in Madison.
And he is the city cast of Madison newsletter editor and does fine work there.
You can also follow his sub-stack at not that Rob Thomas.
That's a lot of stuff.
Rob's up to Conrad.
Yeah.
He's a busy guy.
And he joins us now here on Nightlight as he so often does.
Hey, buddy.
Hey, Pete.
How are you?
I'm doing well.
How are
What's your secret?
I've been known to fake an injury and just go down.
And then it's like, you know, I take a knee and then they, they don't know they're none the wiser or a good head fake too.
It can get you out of some, some bad breath radius.
Hey, how are you, Rob?
Are you having a good summer so far?
Right.
of seeing Naked Gun?
I was actually going to go Sunday night, and then it was just so nice out.
I went and rode bikes with my daughters, which was awesome.
Oh, it's tough to dance up, yeah.
But yeah, yeah.
But I definitely, I mean, I love, I mean, watching the original, what, 1988 movie with Leslie Nielsen in the theater.
Listen, I, uh, Police Squad ran for like maybe a half a season in the late 80s.
like, that's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
And then it made a comeback, but I thought it was gone forever.
And I thought,
It was so, like when he looks in the telescope and he says, I don't, or not the telescope, the microscope.
He says, I don't have to look at DNA samples.
I don't see anything.
Use your open eye, Frank.
Oh, stuff like that.
And I don't know, like I saw a naked gun.
I don't think they totally captured that.
There's some big laughs in this.
But Leslie Nielsen was born to be that guy, whether it was airplane or naked gun, in my opinion.
Who did airplane, please go out the zucker brothers.
So yeah, there's a bit, uh, although I guess they got kind of froze out of this remake from what I heard.
They got paid, but, uh, when they wanted to, at least one of them wanted to offer some, some jokes.
They.
They were, yeah, it was kind of the bad breath scenario.
They were polite and
turned away.
Bad breath of movie involvement.
Yeah, I read the thing with David Zucker yesterday that said he was developing a script where Drebben's son was in his 30s.
This is years ago.
So he had a great attitude, I thought.
He said, I'm not gonna see this movie.
I don't need to see it.
But I wish the director well.
I'm glad comedies are back.
He texted the director.
I thought he had a very professional response to it, but I kind of get where he's coming from too.
and he's good, but he's like
He's just too much of an ass kicker, I think, you know, and it's like, it's like, I don't know.
But anyway, there's some good laughs.
I'd be curious to know what you think if you ever,
if you ever decide
to check it out.
Let's talk about Sketch.
You reviewed the film on your sub-stack, you liked it a lot, and you said it was better than like Harold and the Purple Cran.
Tell us about Sketch.
I think it's having sneak previews tonight and then opens wide tomorrow and when I saw the trailer I thought oh, this is like one of those you know power of imagination family films and and like like the Herald in the purple crayon movie or there's one called if last year with bad imaginary friends with Ryan Reynolds and they're just so like
I don't know, just so forced whimsy.
But this one I thought was pretty fun.
It was about this girl, probably 10, who is an artist and she's mourning her mother's passing and she gets out all her negative emotions by scribbling in her notebook and drawing all these monsters and horrible.
horrible for a 10 year old images and stuff and her, her, her dad's cool with that and like, however it works, however your process and things, that's great.
Um, but then, uh, there's like a magic pond, which, you know, most properties have, I think, right?
It's all how you look at it.
It is.
I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's a perk on the real estate list.
Um, and all the monsters come to life and they're all like, they look like they're hand drawn or.
uh paper mache and satirize in the town so it remind me a lot of gremlins or the goonies those kind of 80s movies that like yeah they're kids movies but like not for two young kids they might be a little scary um it moves fast it's really funny at the adult performances i think are great uh tony hail from uh the rest of the development plays the dad and um
So I thought it was good.
Yeah, it was a nice surprise.
I'll say that for sure.
It's on my list now.
And I watched, I don't watch a lot of kids films anymore, but like you recommended Flow and I watched that and loved it.
And this, this has the same type of feel like I'll probably
check this out just because it seems different.
And it's getting a 97 on Rotten Tomatoes with like 30 reviews.
Which is really good, yeah.
one.
All right, Rob Thomas is here, folks.
We're going to do a quick break for news and we are coming right back and he broke down the movie so far this year.
We'll talk about that and Cool Bars in Madison.
It's Pete Chihuahua and Night Light on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back folks.
This is Pete
Chihuahua at Nightlight.
That song, you probably don't know this con, was featured in the show The Wire.
What I'm very excited about, I think it was the end of season three, there was this great montage they did.
And Dan Schaefer is coming on the show next Thursday.
We're going to have a special wire talk because he loves the wire political consultant here at political guru here at civic media.
Dan Schaefer will be here next Tuesday tomorrow night on the show.
Northeast Wisconsin filmmaker Craig Kinnit will be here in studio and Deandra Marie a local singer songwriter will be in the studio as well seeing so it's kind of a Northeast Wisconsin theme tomorrow night.
Yeah.
Our question tonight in honor of Fresh Breath Day is
What is the best way to tell someone they have bad breath?
Our pal local actor Dan Davey says, just a quick question.
Have you been chewing on your socks?
That's a good one.
haven't.
That's good.
Dan has about the freshest breath.
Not as fresh as Rob Thomas' breath, who joins us now over the stream from our state's capital in Madison.
Rob is a film critic.
based out of Madison, follow him at his sub-stack, Not That Rob Thomas, or you can read the city cast at Madison Newsletter.
Rob, as always, you guys had great articles in there.
We'll get to some of those.
What I want to ask you about first though, you followed suit and you're doing like this thing that every film reviewer does.
You're recapping the first seven twelfths of the year.
I love that.
I
what makes you unique.
That's why you were such an effective film critic.
Let's jump into your list.
Hey, first of all, where can I see 40 acres?
You reviewed that on your sub-stack.
might actually watch that tonight.
You gave it such
good
review.
That's
one.
Okay.
So let's talk about your movies so far in the first seven twelfths of the year of 2025.
Number one, you have
Black bag, right?
thriller thriller, but like much more about dialogue and performance and character than action I mean there's two not one but two dinner party scenes in that movie.
So it's not definitely not a John Wick movie
But, you know, Michael Fassbender and Kate Blanchett, and it's so twisty, but I felt like I could follow it pretty clearly what was going on.
The supporting performances are all great.
Pierce Brosnan looks like he's never looked in a movie before.
Very sort of
It's so great.
I agree with you.
It started slow.
But I have so much confidence or faith, I guess you'd say, in the right.
I think it was David Kapp, right?
Right.
Yeah.
So I had faith in the writer and in Soderbergh's directing.
I'm like, I know this is going to pick up.
And it's not like I didn't like it when it was slow.
I don't mind a movie that breathes and they kind of gradually
get
into it.
But yeah, that was a good one.
And then you had centers number two, which I might say is my favorite of the year so far, just because it was so cool and different and like on every aspect, like the look of it.
the script, the music, the direction, the acting, it was just a masterpiece, I thought.
Like I said, they're close.
Like Black Bag is very controlled and precise, whereas like Sinners is taking big, big swings.
A couple of them, towards then I wasn't crazy about, which I won't spoil, but like the way it mixes horror and historical drama, the way you just buy that Michael B.
Jordan is two different people.
Like you just completely buy that.
Yeah.
And both performances are Oscar worthy.
And the way it's like, yeah, just so scary, but also thrilling and funny and very thoughtful, I think,
could
I want to ask you about one more.
You've got it rated really highly at number three, and I think you just reviewed this recently in your sub-sec.
I did not read that review, but Ephis?
It's a It's a baseball movie, but a very different kind of baseball movie It's set in
I'm going to say like Long Island or New England or something like that in the 90s.
And it's these two amateur weekend teams that are playing on this field, which is going to be torn down to build a middle school.
Some of the guys are old guys who, you know, this is the height of their athletic career.
Some of the guys are college guys who didn't quite make it.
former college ball players.
And it really is less about the game than about observing all the different characters and their interactions.
And it's, it's fantastic.
Like, like
it didn't
I thought that was a change up.
But if this must be like the
you
F1 is on your list at number seven.
My son has seen that, also has seen it twice.
And I agree with your review perfectly.
The human stuff is pretty basic, you say, but it's such a deeply pleasurable movie to watch with all of the racing and as you say in your review, you have to see.
You don't want to watch this one on the old black and white.
Even though it's an Apple movie, I think.
Uh, yeah, I mean, I saw it with my wife and then when I was busy, my mom, we saw it because it was the one she wanted to see with Brad Pitt and I'm amazed how they made that movie because when you realize like, I don't think when I saw it the first time I realized that they were shooting it on the F1 circuit.
So they get the cars and the actors out right before the race and shoot for like eight minutes and then get them all off and
It really makes you feel like you're in the driver's seat and you are in that world.
And I understood a lot more, especially the second time I watched it about the strategy of it.
how the drivers work together and oh
Very well said.
My guest is Rob Thomas.
He's a Madison-based film critic and the CityCast Madison newsletter editor.
Check it out if you haven't already.
They do great work.
Is there anything else coming up, Rob, in the summer that you're excited to see before we move on from movies?
I've heard of it.
I don't think I've seen the trailer.
Right.
much either.
That's awesome.
Alright, so let's move on here.
I thought this was great.
I stumbled.
I was in Madison all week last week and I stumbled.
I went to have breakfast in Middleton at a place called Grace's and I see the National Mustard Museum across the street and National Mustard Day was August 2nd.
I'm like, this is, you know, serendipitous.
So I walked in and I had Barry Levinson, who was the curator on the show last week.
He was a great guest, knew more about mustard than anybody combined.
Why is the National Mustard Museum?
in Madison, Rob, or Middleton?
for
like,
And he tells the story that, like, the mustard was telling him, if you collect us, or something like that, even though, like, this was three years before Field of Dreams.
So I'm a little suspicious.
Yeah, I'm a little suspicious.
But, like, and he's just started amassing this collection of mustards and then had a little.
exhibition space in Mount Horab that double that in size and then now has moved to Middleton and it really is this like destination where you can get like mustards from like all 50 states and 70 different countries and there's all this like you know old advertising for old mustard campaigns and
promotional videos, and they have a mustard tasting every year where people come and try like super hot mustards and super unusual mustards.
And then they have this thing, that's like a big street festival where they have, you know, obviously mustard, brats and hot dogs and stuff.
And last weekend I did try, the chocolate shop had a limited edition mustard sundae.
What?
right?
He told us that story too about how he was staring at the mustard Yeah, it's such a great story.
Yeah.
Yeah That's great and it's great space too.
It's a really nice.
Yeah sparkling when you walk in there.
It's incredible
Yeah.
All right.
So I want to ask you, Rob, we're going to do a very short break and I want to ask you about strip mall bars because you seem to have an opinion on those.
And then also I ate last week.
And we'll get into this after the break, but my son came over from Milwaukee and hung out with me last Saturday, and we went to the tornado club.
And I want to talk to you about that too.
So we'll do that all coming up next.
Let's let's bang a text out here, kind of, if we can.
How much time we got?
You got like three minutes to the break?
Oh, no, it's coming up.
Conrad's got the fist up.
That means get to the break.
John Murray.
Our pal John says, we all know better, don't we?
Unless it's your old, oh wait, no, I gotta read.
All right, he has another text I have to read first.
We'll do that after the break.
It's Feet Shwaba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Welcome back.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabbo.
We are winding up this Tuesday night.
with our old pal and Madison Bay's film critic Rob Thomas.
We will read texts from Conrad's mom and our pal John Murray in just a moment too to close out the show.
But right now we have a few more minutes with Rob.
Rob, you did a great, I don't know how you guys do this, but CityCast Madison, you pick great things to talk about that I find interesting.
And what is it about a strip mall bar?
I read this actually yesterday and I just found it fascinating.
What is your take on strip mall bars?
Like you, you can't put on airs in a bar that's sandwiched in between a laundromat and a subway, you know, get your nails done, go for martini.
Yeah.
And then go, yeah.
And then go get your taxes done.
There is this thing in Madison, at least where.
these strip malls, you know, away from downtown, which are where a lot of the cool places like the Toronto Room is, for example.
Yeah.
These little strip malls are kind of, they're not dying, but they're not, they're sort of just hanging on and people are moving in and opening these really cool bars.
Like there's one called Lola's on the north side of Madison, which is this cool bar where they play vinyl and they have great cocktails.
Yeah.
On the east side called the Muskie.
short for the Muscle Lounge.
Muscle Lounge.
Yeah, where they have great cocktails, nice big space, lots of like parlor games and stuff.
And they really become these, you know, community hubs.
They're really fun.
And in Madison, the sort of the granddaddy of this is LaTigre, which is this bar in this very
unassuming strip mall on the west side which has been there for like 60 years and it's like a time machine it's like you know the waiters all or the bartenders all wear white shirts and ties
it where when you're in there they make the classic cocktails martini's manhattan's and and the whole place is latee gray all places covered in like
you know velvet tiger paintings and stuffed tigers and all this kind of stuff is great I mean it's a must when you come to Madison so yeah so I wrote an article about kind of the best strip mall bars in town and kind of what makes them special and it's yeah it's pretty cool I mean
It's just a great angle to write about.
That's why you're good at what you do.
I would never
oh, I should write about bars and strip malls.
But my eyes went right to it, and I was fascinated by it.
So did you ever go to Smokies when that was still there?
Same.
Now that they were closed, I was like, I got to go.
And then everybody wanted to go before they closed.
I really missed out on that.
Those kind of old places, there's another one on the south side called Filers, I think, which is another very old school Madison spot.
Yeah, you gotta treasure those before they're gone.
Absolutely.
And now you drive by where Smokies was and I walked past that a few times.
There were times when I was ambitious where I'd walk from like Midvale or the Target all the way back downtown if I had time to kill and I walk by Smokies and every time I walk by I'm like I have to go in there
and I
never did and I'm kicking myself but that leads me to another place.
I'd love to get your thoughts on the Tornado Club.
We just had such a fun time there and it was a great steak too.
I don't go there enough But but it is the place where like when people come to town you show that you show them off by Taking there my dad's coming to town next month.
I think I'll take him and you know very great cocktails Yeah, great steaks and the sea the secret is you know, it's pretty pricey But like if you go in after nine, they've got this late night menu in the bar
I got lucky because I knew my son was coming to town.
I went in there on a Tuesday and I said, can I get, you know, at eight o'clock, will you still be serving dinner?
There's two of us.
And she said, no, we're booked up through the weekend.
And she said, I can put you on a waitlist or something.
And she said name.
And I told her my last name and she goes from civic media.
I think Civic Media's arrived.
She said, you know what?
I can get you in the bar if it's just two of you.
And Rob, I almost invited my niece Caroline to join us because we're going to meet up with her later.
The table was like the size of a quarter, but we didn't care.
It was like the greatest food ever.
And we just had a blast.
It's an old school place.
Absolutely loved it.
there.
Okay.
Rob Thomas with Civic Media.
Hey, thank you buddy.
Always fun.
Yeah, thanks, Pete.
Yeah, anytime.
All right, Rob Thomas, ladies and gentlemen, check out his work at CityCast Madison or follow him at NotThatRobThomas on his sub-stack and read his reviews.
We've got a couple of texts we'll get to here before we sign off for the evening.
Conrad's mom says, where is that text, Conrad?
Oh, she says, if it's someone I don't know, I won't say anything, but if it's a real close friend, I will let them know nicely.
You do that.
Hey, your breath is really smelly.
Hey, just letting you know your breath sucks.
Your mom's so nice.
She says, I would want to know, along with that, if I had any food stuck in my teeth.
All right.
Well, that's very well done, Paul.
Thank you.
Great text.
And John Murray, our pal from Madison, is listening.
He says, Peter, really enjoying the show tonight.
Your guest, Robert, I think he means Chris.
Yes.
He has to mean Chris.
Because his last name was Rogowski.
Maybe he thought that was Robert.
But he says, your guest, Chris, is one of...
is one clever dude.
Always wanted to be a playboy photographer in my youth.
I joined the club, John.
Then I switched to regular boring jobs because I'm not enough like.
Chris.
Nice job, Chris.
He kept saying, Robert, that cracked me up.
John says, continues with another text.
He says, and there was no internet in my youth.
Dang it anyway.
Yeah, I feel your pain on that one, John.
He says, here's what John would say if he knew someone with bad breath.
He said, yo, Doug, your breath has the funk of a thousand jackals.
Up out of mint or a root canal you pick.
John says, if it's a lady, well, that's a tough one.
Indeed John then he says we all know better don't we unless it's our own lady Then we know a way to keep dignity intact.
You feel me?
I feel you John and I think John he referred to his wife is his old lady the other night.
Oh lady That's like a bygone.
I haven't heard that in so long.
Yeah, you don't say old you say all my old lady Well, you are saying old lady even though she might not be old.
That's just a phrase But
E. Oh old lady
We'll debate this until we're
on the air
tomorrow night.
It's Pete Chihuahua at Nightlife, folks.
Thank you to everybody.
Thanks for your texts and calls on behalf of the lovable producer Conrad.
I'm Pete Chihuahua saying good night,
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