Transcript
Rahr- West and Sputnik Fest (Hour 2)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Tue Sep 2, 2025
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Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we are just kicking off act two.
If you're just joining us.
A phenomenal first hour.
I don't know.
Did you accept my friend request?
I did.
Yes.
Okay.
Conrad and I are, I don't know if this has ever been done on radio.
Maybe it has.
I don't really don't need you as a follower.
I've got over a thousand people.
I barely know.
Oh, okay.
But I think for the purpose of radio and for breaking new ground, if you wanna, you know, de-friend me or unfollow, that's fine.
I've already unfollowed you.
I'm just saying.
Oh.
No, but we broke ground here.
We're officially Facebook friends.
This has never happened to the best of my knowledge on radio.
During a live broadcast, there is a stipulation there.
So that you missed in the first hour, folks, and there was lots of fun to be had.
Conrad saw a bumper sticker that said... Don't be a... We think we can say it.
Don't be a male... Yes.
...tool.
Who is this person to just dispensing this advice?
Like, how does he
one?
she, for that matter?
car in the drive-through
What was the one I saw it was in the drive-through and it said It was either beaver hunter or I like beaver And I don't know why you would have to put that on your car rarely when I've been in my car Does my sexual preference ever come into play with other drivers?
I'm not saying it's never happened
But I would never feel the need to put that on my car what I prefer sexually But maybe it led to something for this guy.
Okay, maybe someone was behind him and said I have a beaver I need to get to know this guy See what he's all about See if there's a love connection What else our question of the night folks we got a good one Labor Day was yesterday.
What is the worst job you've ever had?
Let us know on the text line at 8 5 5
752-4842-8557-5CIVIC.
You can text us on the app or drop us a stream comment, and we will read it on the radio.
Always more fun when you guys participate.
My worst job was a garbage man when I was 19.
I was in the hot sun of Marinette, Wisconsin, smelling bad meat and bad milk.
I will say, you know, it was really cool.
One of the perks of the job is when someone will leave something wooden out there, like a chest or a chair, and that
hydraulic arm just comes down and crashes it.
That was pretty sweet.
I thought you were going to say you took it.
Well, if there was something good, I would.
The problem was you're not taking furniture, though.
You don't know if someone's sitting bare-assed on that chair or whatever.
No way.
It's bad enough in a hotel room, you know.
have, and I never will.
Yeah, you don't want to.
I might just commute from now on if I see what happened in my hotel room.
So that is our question tonight, folks.
Let us know.
Conrad's worst job was he had to clean a bar, top to bottom for 20 bucks, and it took him the better part of his Sunday.
I say when I was a garbage man, we've had some pretty good bad jobs.
Ollie had a bad job picking thistle.
And if you don't know what thistle is, it's like it's in the Daisy family, but it's prickly.
And she was not giving gloves, and it seemed so wrong.
Maybe that's something Labor Day calls attention to, is better conditions for workers.
Sean Boyce on social media says, operating a paint line for incredibly large and awkward iron castings.
It made the Marine Corps seem like an easier option.
Met a lot of really nice guys who were on Huber work release on that job.
I think it's Huber.
You know what the Huber law is?
Huber law offices?
No.
It's when it's called.
It allows, I think, people on parole or actual prisoners, maybe, to go to work and have a job while they're serving time.
So Sean mixed in mingle.
Thank you, Sean.
Paula Krieger, counterweight's mom, says Friday canning factory in Oakfield.
Yeah, she's never talked about that.
vegetables.
Oh, man.
And that's why your dad loves her.
She's willing to work a bad job.
But there are tons of bad jobs.
I mean, chimney sweep seems kind of tough.
Accidentally, with his red suit.
He's not sticking a pipe cleaner up there.
John Murray from Madison.
He's in the 608 says, I worked at the restaurant at that restaurant in Chicago at the 95th floor of the Hancock building.
Oh, cool.
John made a ton of money, but I had seen towering inferno and it was on my mind.
Yeah, especially after 9 11.
I don't know if I'd want to work.
That's a, have you ever been there?
It's called the 95th or is it called the signature room?
I can't remember, but it's a great just 95th floor restaurant.
And supposedly.
My daughter and my sister can verify this the best view of all of Chicago is from the women's room on the 95th floor the ladies room of the John Hancock building.
It's supposed to be spectacular
That's right and it is a good view I had to sneak in to look but
Beautiful stuff.
Good for you.
Thank you, John.
John also says, it's a lot when the elevators take five minutes to get you to your floor.
Yeah, I can see where that would be a little scary.
AJ from the 608 says, good evening, Pete.
My worst job was third shift at Denny's.
So all those people you had to clean up after at the bar were probably at AJ's third shift at Denny's.
She says, tips sucked.
The drunks were a pain in the tuchus and the manager was awful.
I also saw someone getting stabbed.
Fun times.
Gotta be honest, AJ doesn't sound all that fun.
know,
Took us.
You don't hear that nearly enough.
that's a great word.
John from Addison also says, when it was over and I moved on to lesser paying jobs, I felt like I had survived a military tour in a stupid, fleeting way.
John, we're just glad you're with us.
We don't know what we would do without your text, buddy.
John from Oshkosh, the920 says, did I win?
Is he talking about the contest?
I don't know.
He didn't give us a job though.
John, we're all winners, first of all.
Tons of participation awards to go around here.
I'm not one of those guys.
intro.
That was being sarcastic.
Give everybody a damn award who cares.
Take an Oscar.
All right, so also on this day, folks, in 1954, the movie Rear Window dropped.
dropped in theaters, Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, and Alfred Hitchcock film.
If you have not seen Rear Window, it is truly, it's in my top 10 movies of all time.
And it's interesting, it's one of those movies, it was shot on a set.
And if you haven't seen it, you just have to check it out.
Jimmy Stewart plays an injured photographer looking out over the courtyard.
And he has windows in a 360 degree angle, or windows to the side, windows across the courtyard, and then windows to his left as well.
And we meet all these characters, even though they say very little, or we hear very little of what they say.
It's a woman talking to a dog, a neighbor shouting at her boyfriend, that kind of stuff, a honeymooning couple that keeps putting the shades down.
And Jimmy Stewart is a photographer for, like, Life Magazine, I think it is.
So he's got nothing to do and he's bored and he's just watching his neighbors and he sees a terrible crime being committed and It's a film that is cinematic without being cinematic because it's a set But it's so cool.
We've done this question before on nightlight where we ask What movie set or TV set would you want to live on or do you feel most at home on?
We've done a couple variations of the question and rear window is one of mine.
It's it's just so communal
the view that Jimmy Stewart has.
And it's so New York, even though it's not really New York, it's just great.
So if you haven't checked out Rear Window, a great thriller from Alfred Hitchcock, highly, highly recommended.
Tomorrow night on the show, we've got celebrity chef and tailgate expert Robbie Schultz will be here at 6.35, just in time for the NFL season.
And then actor Dan Davies, a gentleman I said was gonna be on tonight, mistakenly, will be here tomorrow night in studio talking about.
his film, The Giant Spider Invasion, and Ed Gein, the musical.
Dan will be here tomorrow night.
That'll be fun.
Greg Vadney is coming up at 7.20.
We're going to talk about Sputnik Fest and some of the coolest stuff going on at the Raar Art Museum in Manitowoc.
Greg is the executive director and a really fun guy to talk to.
He's here in the studio warming up in the bullpen.
So let's do these videos.
You know, speaking of videos, I just saw this on Facebook.
What do you think about people that post videos of themselves working out?
well, that's why they're doing it, right?
I mean they might they want to show you I'm working hard and I get it But I don't think I think I would rather post something like it just had a grueling episode at the gym whatever it is Yeah, cuz I see people like you know
Pushing up a hundred pounds on the bench or doing a squat thrust and it's like this doesn't need to be viewed
Something I don't like is the influencers that I mean, it's their livelihood So I get it but at the same time it's like having that huge camera stands the camera in there just videotaping you right and then you're just in the background looking looking dumb or something and then they post it and then
And it's it's it's kind of like the Jerry Seinfeld joke like when you run or when you ride the extra cycle It only makes you better at riding the extra cycle like it's kind of a pointless.
I know you're trying to burn calories You're trying to get your heart rate up, but that stuff doesn't need to be posted you had another spatial issue in
We're both
I believe yeah, it was last week I talked about there's a 20 treadmills and I was on the left side
I was like, all right, there's no way there's going to be someone next to me.
I got the whole right.
Today it happened again.
Sure enough.
I went right next to me and it smelled like I was just having a whole puff of cologne in my nostrils.
I think a lot of people in the gym do that.
They sweat and they just put on some kind of scent over it.
It's like you can sweat.
It's okay to smell your the gym.
It's
All right, speaking of bad smells, I saw this clip of one of my favorite comedians, Todd Berry, very funny New York comedian who was talking about the three foods.
Well, his three food categories.
You just got to hear this.
It's great.
I'm a picky eater.
I have three categories of foods I like.
Foods I don't like, but I understand why people like them.
Then there are foods that baffle me.
Food I like, let's pick an easy one.
Pizza, yum, delicious.
No need for further discussion Second category sushi don't like it totally get why people like it though.
What a beautiful beautiful awful tasting food that is I Remember the one time I tried it 17 years ago at the Cincinnati Airport I Did not enjoy it No second chances for sushi You blew it sushi
Give you every opportunity to be good with that quarter of a bite that I took and spit out immediately Third category foods that baffle me egg salad If I'm in a diner and I see someone order egg salad all I can think is say you're at all 75 pages of that menu And that's the item that popped Oh honey look what I found Little diamond in the rough
Top of page 59, flip ahead.
Cold, smelly eggs.
I'm sorry, cold, smelly, disgusting eggs.
Got so excited I read that wrong.
Smashing together with cold, awful mayonnaise.
Also made with cold, smelly eggs.
Served on mm, mm, mm, mm, mm.
White bread.
Baby, this is why we go to restaurants.
That's great stuff, Todd Berry.
We're coming right back with the RAR West Museum Executive Director, Arpal Greg
Badney.
Hey, welcome back.
Great to have you with me here tonight.
I was just, I was just telling our guests Greg Vadney about how I got kicked out of a basketball game at Ron Colley.
Which is where my kids go to school.
Your kids go to school.
And I'm sure you're still on a shortlist there.
I probably can't set foot back in the gym.
And the funny thing is, I wasn't even a starter.
I got in the game, it was like when they put the spazzes in, like with two minutes left in the game, just to show up in the box score.
You showed up in the box score, I believe.
I showed up in the, well, I don't know if I did or not, but we were trying to break the press and this one kid speaking of spazzes, just all over me, in my face.
I might be related to them.
Maybe it was you, Greg.
It wasn't me.
And I just kind of lowered the ball and I,
Swung my elbows hit the kid in the chest and he went down.
It wasn't like intentional.
Okay.
He just went down and I was like, you know Then he got up and got my face and the ref broke us up.
He said you're out of here I was like I got kicked out for that like I really was kind of caught off guard Yeah, and and I had like some of the parents at our school supporting me to my face and saying well, that was unfair
We don't know fair
weather fans for a second spring.
Well, I'm
sure you had a
reputation
I was the almost six foot guy who couldn't really dribble or pass.
So basketball was my sport.
But you could throw a good elbow.
I loved playing basketball.
I loved basketball.
And Wisconsin's very cold.
It was the perfect sport for me.
I don't like the out of doors necessarily.
Yeah, I miss
playing
basketball.
Yeah, let's just do this.
This whole segment can
just be talking about our glory.
My non-glory ears.
Yeah, Greg, that is here folks.
He is the executive director of the Rar West Museum in Manitowoc, a gem of a facility right here in north is Manitowoc's northeast Wisconsin.
We count ourselves as northeast Wisconsin.
Yeah, beautiful city right on the lake there.
Yeah.
And
the museum is only about seven blocks off of the lake.
It is an absolute treasure.
And something before I started doing this show, I had never heard of.
And that's why, you know, I mean, I don't live in Manitowoc or even close to it, but I feel like more people should know about your museum.
Well, I'm glad you have me on.
So I can talk about the museum.
We're celebrating our 75th anniversary this year.
That's
right.
All year long.
So, you know, 75 years we've been around.
I'd like to think doing great things.
for Northeastern Wisconsin,
bringing some of
the best art in the world to people from Wisconsin and shining a light on the best artists from Northeastern Wisconsin.
So where is the balance there?
Do you have, is most of the art you showcase from Northeast Wisconsin artists or okay?
No, I would say the bulk of our collection would be national and international art.
So you're going to find artwork from certainly names that you'll recognize like Picasso, Warhol.
Georgia O'Keeffe,
which
actually was also celebrating an anniversary.
Our Georgia O'Keeffe painting, Birch and Pine Tree number two, was painted 100 years ago.
It's the original, right?
Yeah.
That is
really cool.
But we also, as a city of Manitowoc facility, are mission driven to shine that light on local art.
So we do collect from the community.
both the the Manitowoc community, but also the greater Wisconsin community of
artists.
How do people do that?
If they're a local artist and they want to get their stuff showcased, they have to wait for an event to come up.
Do they just reach out to you and say, hey, I'm a painter.
I'd love to get my stuff up.
What's the procedure there?
Well, it can be it can be really difficult for somebody to get like a solo show.
That
that is very, very hard because we just don't have that many slots available in our season.
Sorry, Conrad.
I
try, you know, we try to schedule things about two, three years out.
Whoa.
And.
we do have a lot of opportunity.
We have our Biennial County artists, members in Manitoba County Artists Show, that both members of the RR West and then people from Manitoba County are allowed to enter, and it's an open show, so you have your, and then we also do a Biennial Jury Show.
So right now we have milestones, our Jury Show, and any artist from Wisconsin or beyond was allowed to submit artwork.
that was judged and we had a juror from outside come in, take a look at the art and select artwork for that show.
So that is a great way, a great opportunity to kind of take your first step into the museum.
Now for the jury show, one of the little carrots we put for artists to submit is that not only was there a cash prize for the Best in Show, but the Best in Show is going to be given a show next year.
So they'll
have a solo
show.
which
is probably even more valuable to an artist than the cash prize, I would imagine.
Yeah, it can be.
I mean, first of all, from a monetary value, just to be able to showcase yourself and put yourself out there is great.
Yeah.
And then, yeah, you're given a pretty big light on your artwork.
That's exciting.
And, you know, again, the the Raw West 75-year-old institution, we're no slouches.
Absolutely not.
We're a pretty good place.
You get your
artwork in the Raw West and you get your own solo show in the Raw West.
That can be good for an artist's reputation.
That is the voice of Greg Vadney.
He's the executive director of the Rar West Museum in Manitowoc, a treasure right here in northeast Wisconsin.
We're going to do a quick break.
How much time do we have?
Oh, I'm totally messed up.
Okay.
No, we would just put five minutes up.
No.
All right.
On social media, Mike Tessitel says, I've done many things in my life and not once did I ever not love my job.
Okay.
Every job had a purpose.
Every job helped me support myself and my family.
Every job gave me a feeling of worth and accomplishment from Paperboy to TV news producer and so many others.
Well, isn't Mike just a ray of sun?
Do you believe that?
Do you really think he?
Mike, yeah.
I mean, he's got the work ethic, right?
He's a hard worker.
I'm trying to think back on, like, which one of my jobs tested that.
Yeah.
Right.
Tested my tightness.
We
all have them.
There's no shame in that.
I definitely can think of a few.
All right.
So, Mike, there's no shame in having a bad job, but I appreciate your work ethic.
But yeah.
We are still on the air, correct, Conrad?
Every once in a while, it's the 29 and the 30 you get confused about.
You just go back to the old clock?
I guess so.
All right.
That's okay.
That happens.
Greg Vadney is here, ladies and gentlemen.
He is a great guest and our pal here at Nightlight.
When we come back after the news, we're going to talk about Sputnik Fest and some other really cool stuff they have going on at the RAWR.
We'll be right back here at Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Our pseudo Monday broadcast.
That's Tuesday after a major holiday, which is Labor Day.
Great to have you with me on this Tuesday night.
I am Pete Schwab.
This is Nightlight, and you've got the Civic Media Radio Network.
Sarah Jean on social media says, a factory on the production line, zero stars.
I hated it.
I worked in a factory too one summer between...
Semesters or whatever summer of college.
Okay.
That was not funny there gets very monotonous I was on third shift, but it was not as bad as my garbage man job Greg Vadney.
Have you had a horrible job?
I did the I worked for one of those companies that does the Like retail counts after hours.
Oh, so you go in and you've got this little electronic scanner that attaches to your hand Oh, and you're hitting all the skews and counting them
at like two in the morning when I had a full-time job, but I had another
kid on the way, so I had to make a
little extra money.
That was a job where I spent the entire time thinking about, I need to write something about this job.
I need to write
about my time at this
job.
It wasn't great.
It wasn't the worst.
thing in the world to do.
Tidious though.
But it was very tedious and just like you're working in the middle of the night and it's exhausting and you had to be ideal with the count and if you like the machinery that we had sometimes didn't work properly and then your counts off and they'll say okay go count it again.
Go count like 400 sweatshirts.
in the back room.
I did not have that job for long.
That was probably the worst when I had.
I worked for the Postal Service.
How was that?
That does not seem like a bad gig, I have to say.
That was the summer
job.
That was between two of my years in college, between my freshman and sophomore and then sophomore and junior.
And it was a pretty decent gig.
Nice.
You know, I would, I would fill in, but I will tell you, I knocked myself out cold on one of the routes because they would always tell us, don't like finger through the mail to get the next house
as
you're walking.
And I didn't know why they said that until one day I was walking and I looked up ahead and I saw a tree and there was a low branch and I thought I was ducking, but I was hurrying, trying to get the route done.
and I went smack into it.
The next thing I knew, I was flat on my back with mail scattered.
Oh
no.
And this predates, you know, the ring doorbells and stuff, but man, it would have been a sight
because I
hit that thing flush
and it just took me out.
The worst part about when I was a garbage man, and I avoided this for the most part, but a guy that was riding the truck with me,
got a garbage can up on the edge of the truck.
And when he went to take it another way and turn it in, it fell off and hit the ground.
And it rained the night before.
So there were maggots in there.
And water just splashed.
Yeah.
And he had like this curly, almost like a fro.
And it went in his hair and he started kicking the garbage can across the lawn, like picking a fight.
and using swear words, I wouldn't even say to my friends.
I was just standing there like, oh my God, this is terrible.
But yeah, there's just some things about certain jobs that you just, they're
awful.
And while I have the chance on the radio, on live radio, I wanna thank all garbage men because the people that do that work, we take so for granted.
And it takes one time for them to not be able to be there.
And immediately, most of us are like, oh my gosh, what do we do?
What are we going to do?
The world collapses in seconds when we don't have their work.
And we overlook them a lot.
So thank you
to everyone who collects
garbage.
Absolutely.
Well said.
And let's talk about a great job you've had, your current position at the Rar West Museum.
See, that was a good segue
there.
I
liked it.
All right.
So Greg Vadney, executive director of the Rar West Museum in Manitowoc.
This is such a fun event.
Talk about what's happening next week.
All right.
So Sputnik Fest.
Yeah.
It's been going on since we believe, I think it's 2008.
It started before me.
I've been with the museum since 2011.
So I've been doing a lot of Sputnik Fest.
Yeah.
And it is a just ridiculous wacky block party that we throw to, I'll say, commemorate the crash landing in 1962 of the Soviet.
Sputnik 4 spacecraft.
So this, I didn't know this until I got to the museum.
The Rarwest, I guess keeps this a bit of a secret.
Mattiswalk keeps it a bit of a secret.
They do?
I don't know.
I mean, I
felt like that was
something I would have heard.
Yes, that's a great point.
Cause I learned about it last year, the first time I was doing the show and you guys asked me to be a judge.
And I was like, this happened in Matt, you're right.
That's exactly what I thought it
was.
But in 1962,
It was the Carabals Sputnik 1.
Sputnik 4 is kind of how we know it in the West.
Crashed in, you know, in Wisconsin and the largest recovered piece was found on North 8th Street directly in front of the Raw West Art Museum.
And it, like, by, I don't know, what, 20 feet, missed actually landing in the museum.
We
could have plopped that sucker right in the museum.
He would have had a lifelong exhibit.
It would have definitely been.
But as it is, it's directly like on the double yellow lines.
So it's not something that you can really go out and take pictures of most days out of the year, even though people do it.
We see people, you know, froggering their way through traffic and taking photos all year long.
But because there's a little brass ring to commemorate it in the middle of the street.
But at Sponic Fest, we close down the streets.
You get to take your picture right there.
And when people think about it, there was nobody on board the ship.
So it's not like it's a memorial to someone.
It is just a piece of space junk.
It was an unmanned satellite spacecraft that crash landed.
So we don't have to.
worry about like it's sacred ground where it's instead like just this goofy thing that happened in the middle of the space race, in the middle of the 1960s when people are just dreaming about science fiction and space.
Oh, right.
And
so it became a great opportunity to just dress up in alien costumes and and embrace Star Wars and Star Trek and all of these things that kind of are
humans launch into space inspired.
Like
this dream about what happens
in a galaxy far, far away.
And it was before you walked down the moon.
It was before five years or eight years before that.
So, and if you haven't been aid to the Rar West folks, check it out.
I was blown away when I was there last year and I will say,
I expected some kind of shrine or something, too, because you're right.
It wasn't man-made, but this satellite landed.
It could have killed someone.
Yeah, definitely.
But it landed right in the middle of the road.
And there's like a steel ring there.
Even when I was looking at this plain steel ring, I was like, God, a Soviet satellite crashed
right here.
And you think about, because things do crash from outer space, whether they're man-made or not.
They're a space junk that they'll come down.
But I mean, the Earth is mostly water.
And then even the part that's land is mostly uninhabited land.
So for it to have crashed in the middle of a city is like the one in a Googleplex, you know, chance.
Then it didn't necessarily have to come back to Earth.
It could have just stayed
in orbit
or gone into, you know, outer space.
So the fact that it landed is such a mind boggling infinitesimal.
thing
to have happen.
It's just goofy.
It's just like, how did this happen?
Right by a museum.
You couldn't have a better reason to have a festival like Sputnik Fest than the fact that, well, Sputnik landed right there and it's right by a museum.
And
I'll tell you this, to have that as an art museum is a wonderful gift because not everybody feels comfortable going into an art museum and we're a big old mansion.
So
people think of a mansion and they're like,
Well, maybe that's not where I belong.
I don't know that much about art and I don't want to be talked down to and all that.
The Sputnik story and Sputnik Fest is a great equalizer.
It's a reminder as
a
city facility that we belong to everybody.
And
we have our doors open to everybody.
And it allows for people who might not otherwise feel like an art museum is a place for them to walk inside and be like, well, I got to check this out.
And then you start to see all these other great things from the art that we have.
And you go, okay, this
This isn't so hard.
This isn't so foreign to me.
I get it.
Greg Vadney is my guest.
He is the executive director of the Rawr West Art Museum in Manitowoc, right here in northeast Wisconsin.
That's really interesting that you say that, that most people, not most people, but some people don't feel comfortable going into an art museum.
And I never consider that, but you're right.
Some people probably feel intimidated.
I will tell you, if you haven't been to an art museum.
Start with the RR West, but wherever you go, people don't hassle you.
You can really be kind of left to your own Interpretations and walk through and just see great beauty without being hassled.
Yeah
Yeah, I think I think people get their impression of the art world and stuff through like me like like, you know TV shows and movies
like that and
a lot of that is not what we are like I like to think I mean we couldn't get away with being snooty
right
because in Manitowoc
People would sniff that from a mile away.
Yes, great.
And
they're like, well, who do you think you are?
Come on, man.
And I love that.
I feel like the Rar West, we don't talk at you.
The way that we try to present things is, hey, I just found out about this cool thing.
Like, here's what I just found out about.
What do you think about it?
Rather than being like, I've got multiple graduate degrees in this and you better catch up because... So we try to...
You know, we don't talk down to people because like, first of all, we only exist because of these
people,
right?
And then secondly, like, who do we think we are?
Yeah.
And again, that's that's a beautiful thing about, you know, Wisconsin and Manitowoc is like, we're not going to get big in our britches.
We've got wonderful artwork, man.
We've got really, really good stuff that could be on either coast and not be out of place in museums.
But we're not gonna follow you around with a security guard.
We're not gonna tell you to Be quiet because you're chatting to somebody about it.
We're not gonna, you know, tell a kid that they don't belong there, right?
So Yeah, and I'd like to think that most museums are like that certainly the ones here in Wisconsin, you know, we get to work with a lot of the other museums we have this conglomerate called the Wisconsin art destinations and we're actually doing a Visit three get a tee
Campaign right now where you visit three participating art destinations.
You get a free t-shirt is a an exclusive design from a Wisconsin artist and The whole idea is like hey give these things a chance give our museums a chance, right?
We got some fun things
and and great things and go in there and if you do have questions Don't be afraid.
I think people that work at museums love
being asked.
Yeah, most of us
are pretty quiet.
I'm not one of them.
But a lot of museum people are quiet until you ask them about something.
And they're like, I've been waiting my whole life to tell you.
You
might have to take an injury to get out of the car.
Yeah.
Greg, before we go to another break, we got about a minute or so.
What else can people expect to see at Sputnik Fest?
Like you've got people walking around.
We haven't even talked about
Sputnik Fest.
So, Spidey Fest begins on Saturday, September 6th at noon.
And we've got a Y variety.
We've got a 5K sponsored by Freaky Printing that is got a brand new trail this time, which goes right along the Lakeshore, which I'm really excited about.
We've got music by Bacchus Lotus, which is a fabulous Northeast Wisconsin band.
You definitely want to check them out.
That's sponsored by TDS and the bar by Dental Parker.
Good friends, you're gonna have a bunch of dentists serving you beer,
and
you can't go wrong there.
And we have costume contests all day long.
We have the pet costume contest, sponsored by Central Bark Doggy Daycare, then a kids, then an adult costume contest.
It's all free to the public, but we do have some wonderful raffles going on, our alien drop raffle
of the night.
great food, great drinks.
It's all sponsored by Community First Credit Union.
I got to sneak in all of our great sponsors.
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
Because we don't have this without them.
And every dollar that we collect during Sputnik Fest goes towards Rar West Art Museum education programming during the year.
That is fantastic.
And that is the voice of Greg Vady.
We'll have a few more minutes with Greg when we come back and we'll put a button on Sputnik Fest and we'll tell you what else you can expect to see if you visit the Rar West in the coming months.
This is Pete Schwab.
In Nightlight, we're coming right back on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Welcome back.
This is Nightlight IMP Chwaba.
From the 818 Bridget says, I worked in the cafeteria in college.
I had to clean off the trays and load the dishwasher.
It was pretty gross, especially first thing in the morning, but it helped pay my way, so I am grateful.
Very well said, Bridget.
Thank you.
That's a response to our question of the night.
What is the worst job you ever worked?
Carla from Baraboo, that's Conrad's Aunt Carla, says Grandma Krieger going to bed.
So Aunt Carla was thinking about jobs.
I worked for a temporary place after college.
I had to send cribs for orphanages.
Not sure where, but my arms hurt for weeks.
Clintonville, Wisconsin was the place.
Thank you, Aunt Carla.
Good to have you back.
Where's your aunt been?
She took a powder on us for a while there.
She's been on flights.
Okay.
That's a good excuse.
Greg Vatney is here, folks.
We have a few more minutes with our pal from the Raw West Museum in Manitowoc.
We were talking about Sputnik Fest.
Sputnik Fest is this coming weekend.
It sure is.
So definitely get out there.
It's such a fun, weird, cool, awesome festival.
I love it.
Yeah.
And it really, I mean, the whole idea is Sputnik in 1962 crash landed in Manitowoc.
And so we do this kind of...
Crazy block party to commemorate that and actually it was September the 5th.
So we're
one day
off this year
But we always do it the Saturday after Labor Day.
It makes a lot of sense for us.
And tons of costumes.
So, like, if you're going to imagine what Sputnik Fest is like, it's a bunch of people dressed up in crazy sci-fi costumes.
We have the 501st, which is kind of the official Star Wars costume group that come through.
And then different people, like last year, you were there as a judge.
As a judge for the costumes, yeah.
And the
costume contest winner had made her own alien
costume by hand.
Oh,
that's right, yeah.
That
was incredible.
And she's
now in design school.
It makes
sense if you had seen it.
And then we finished things off with our alien drop raffle, where everybody who wants to participate in this raffle, instead of a ping-pong ball, you get a little rubber alien.
All the
rubber aliens end up in a tub.
Tub goes up into a fire truck, up the ladder, and gets dumped over where Sputnik hit.
Because as a brass ring, you have this built-in bullseye.
And whichever one lands inside or closest, kind of like curling.
Oh, that's so great.
That's our winner.
And so that's how we pick the winner
of the raffle.
It reminds me of there was a film called Doc Hollywood with Michael J. Fox, like in the late 80s.
Yes, I remember it.
Sure.
Your festival has that kind of vibe.
I think they had a squash festival or something in the movie.
But like Sputnik Fest is just kind of like you go there and everyone's kind of just in a good mood because it's such a fun, unique thing.
Yeah.
And it's all so laid back.
It reminded me of something out of a movie.
I cannot recommend it.
It
really is.
It's a wonderful kind of like that small town commemorates something that you have that nobody else in the world.
Right, right.
It's not like a satellite drops out of the sky in every.
in every town?
Every town.
What else you got coming up, Greg, that you want to tell people about here?
Yeah, it's not only Sputnik Fest,
but, man, we
roll into the next thing after next Saturday.
As I had said, we're celebrating our 75th anniversary.
We've got a wide variety of exhibits all year long that kind of have a through line of that 75th anniversary.
Oh, nice.
And so you'll find those in the historic Vilas-Rawr mansion, and those are up until October.
We also have
this October, our 51st version of the Art of Table settings.
This is an annual that we have been doing for 51 years.
It was founded by Mrs. Ruth West, which is the West in
our
name, and it invites designers to create tablescapes, many of which that are based on artwork from our collection, or the designer will bring in their own art that has inspired
table setting.
So some of them might be you're more conventional with, you know, floral bouquets and China, but people will take it in all different ways.
We've had ones that are kind of kind of like in Arabian tent table setting.
I remember one very fondly that was a tailgate where somebody had
like cut the back off of like a pickup truck and rigged up the tail lights and had it mounted onto the wall and flipped down with the tailgate going on.
So wide variety and the beautiful thing about it is like we all celebrate meals.
Meals mean something either with others or even meals that you've had on your own.
They might connect.
And we have about 50 different table settings.
And there's no overriding theme each year.
So each table setting is its own theme.
So I might look at one doesn't really connect with me.
Another one doesn't connect with me.
And then I see a farm table.
And I'm like, that's like my grandma's house.
I remember being a kid.
And my grandma making fried chicken from scratch.
And us going out to the garden and picking stuff.
And suddenly it hits you.
And you realize like.
Meals mean something
on a
very, very human level to people.
And it cuts through.
That is so cool.
Greg Vadney is here, the director of the Raw West Museum in Manitowoc.
Check out Sputnik Fest this weekend.
We've got a couple of texts to get through.
Janet says, as a teenager, corn detastling in the heat of July.
That was her worst job.
Still doesn't sound as bad as yours.
Yeah.
that
it
was monotonous.
At least you were in a heated,
nice place.
Yeah, no
kidding.
I wasn't in a bad
place.
And then on the stream, Dave Kunich says, I love the trucks with balls hanging down in the back.
I think he's being sarcastic.
Those are called truck nuts.
Truck nuts.
I thought it was truck balls, but I see that and I immediately think, well, I can tell you what the guy driving it doesn't have.
It always seems like it's compensating, right?
Yeah, it's even compensating for your truck.
Just get a more powerful truck.
Right, my truck is much more attractive now.
Tomorrow night, folks, on the show...
Northeast Wisconsin actor Dan Davies will be here.
He's got a lot to discuss and a lot going on and Celebrity chef and tailgate expert Robbie Schultz will be here as well.
That's tomorrow night on nightlight Greg.
Thank you as always is so much fun when you come in here It's a pleasure Pete and if you want more information on spotnik fest go to Facebook in about five minutes Greg's picture will be up there He is our window love dude tonight on our Facebook pictures and he's gonna be holding up a poster You can see all the information you need
about Sputnik Fest.
And if
you need to find it on your own, you can go to our website, rarwestartmuseum.org.
That's a better way to do it, probably.
No, let's go to the Facebook.
Absolutely.
All right, on behalf of the lovable producer Conrad, we are coming back tomorrow night, folks.
We're only going away for like 22 hours here.
We'll be back.
We hope you are too.
Thank you for all your texts.
Thank you to Greg Vadney and Ty Williams.
It's Peach Waba in Night Light.
Good night, Wisconsin.
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