Midwest Melodies & Movie Magic (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 hates shaking hands, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

I don't hate it that much.

Sometimes I like to do it.

It just depends on the person.

Hey, we got a great show.

Folks, I am live from Madison tonight.

It is so great to be in our state's capital tonight.

Overlooking State Street.

A beautiful night.

Gorgeous sun.

Conrad, yesterday supposedly we switched into fall.

It is a beautiful night here.

And I can only hope it is beautiful in Green Bay as well.

Well, it was downpouring for a while today, you know, this morning.

But after that cleared up.

Yeah, it was, it was, it was nice and warm and toasty, you know, didn't feel like full.

Yeah.

It's like 80 when I got here.

Aaron Sommers is here tonight, folks, too.

Aaron, how are you doing?

Well, you know, like you said, beautiful.

Excuse me, like you said, beautiful day here in Madison, even though I have spent the majority of it inside.

You are always a champ.

I love when you're here.

You always help me get set up here because I'm not on my home turf.

But more and more, it feels like my home turf and it's so effortless because you're always here.

So

Big time shout out.

Thank you so much.

Well, thank you.

And we're always happy to have you.

Is that true?

For me, I guess I can't speak

for the rest of the world.

I've heard rumblings.

I don't want to I don't want to cast dispersions or speak for others.

But it's nice to know I'm I'm kidding.

Everyone's great here.

It's always fun to come to Madison and do do nightlight Conrad.

We have a special.

We've got some window love tonight.

Oh,

my nightlight studio south.

I'll just tease that it will appear on Facebook probably in the next hour.

but I couldn't find a 19 foot tall person so I had to kind of look down at the street but we got to taking care of so.

Conrad Krieger working the board tonight, folks.

Aaron Zommer is sitting in for a few minutes, helping us get started here.

And it is great to have you here.

We've got a great question.

I've got great guests.

Always fun to tap into the Madison area in terms of guests.

I've got two live and studio guests.

Our pal, Eric Jellin, will be here.

He is the frontman for the mascot theory.

We've featured their music before.

We've had Eric on the show before, but I will say this.

Since Eric was on the show last November,

He has had major drama unfold in his life and he has turned it into an amazing new record and we are going to share some of the music from his newest effort.

He and the mascot there, he's newest effort tonight when he drops by here at 635.

He'll be in studio as he was during his last appearance.

And then my pal Jim Healy, who is one of the programmers at UW Cinematheque and he is also a top dog at the Wisconsin Film Festival in a

Movie fanatic, I will say this you guys how many Conrad how many movies would you say you watch in a given year if you had to guess

a Lot I don't I don't think I could give a certain number

if you had like ballpark

I'd say Around 250 maybe 250 movies.

Yeah, I think I was

pretty good

I mean like cuz when I'm bored at home.

I was like, yeah, why not just throw on something and I just toss on a movie, you know

You don't have to listen

That sounds great to me.

Aaron, what about you?

I

think that's a number I would love to shoot for.

250.

But I think I'm more at like 100 maybe.

OK.

That's a movie every three days or so.

Yeah, yeah.

One of my roommates is big into movies as well.

So whenever it's just us around, we'll watch a movie usually.

But the other one falls asleep every time or just about every time.

And so he's more into, I don't know, playing games or things like that.

I don't get to watch as many movies as I would like, but.

All right.

Well,

you both, that's, that's a good number for both of you guys.

I couldn't even tell you.

I would say probably I'm closer to Conrad somewhere in the neighborhood of two to 300.

But some of those are movies I've seen.

They're like comfort movies.

I'll

put on

new movies.

I'm probably at a hundred, maybe I'm guessing.

The reason I ask is because my second guest tonight, Jim Healy, who will be here in studio at 720.

A couple of years ago posted on Facebook that he watched 763 movies in one year.

Wow.

I mean, now part of it, that's his job for the Wisconsin Film Festival and programming Cinematheque, but that that was an incredible number.

If you just average them double that, that's like 1500 hours a year of movie watching or probably more.

So

We're gonna talk a little bit about Robert Redford our favorite Robert Redford movies and where we rank him as an actor and then maybe a little Peter Buck Donovich talk and Jim's gonna tell us what's coming up at UW Cinematheque folks if you don't take advantage of this great program and this great theater right on the UW campus You absolutely should go to the calendar and find out what's playing.

It's all free to the public.

So it's good stuff.

So two great guests We got a fun question coming up and I'm gonna tell you all about our new

Uh, text to win contest coming up in just a few minutes and I will give you the keyword after the break in the second segment.

So you got that to look forward to folk and big prizes this time too.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

Um, guys, I got some advice for you.

I'm, I'm older than both of you.

Um, but I'm young at heart and incredibly immature.

Uh, I went to Steven's point this weekend and we went out to breakfast.

My wife and my daughter and I, it was a chain place.

A place I've had, you know,

It's fine.

It's a chain supposed to be moderately priced.

I cannot believe how expensive.

And I'll just say I'll do like a hot wire thing and say roughly what the restaurant was.

It's in the Perkins Denny's.

What else do you have there?

I

hop.

I hop family.

It's one of those.

Okay.

Okay.

So French toast with eggs and bacon was $17.

Must be some good French toast.

It was fine French toast, but it was not worth Okay, our bill was like 70 bucks.

So here's my advice to you And I the guy that's had us It was like he purposely let his hair get really greasy and then he kind of did like a comb over type thing obviously this guy who put some thought into it But it was greasy and it was just like really not appetizing so and then I go into the bathroom and

the paper towel dispenser like you wash your hands and like four inches of a paper towel comes out like who can work with that that's not even you got to do it like 10 times to get enough tolling to wipe your hands off and then use the rest of it to open the door here's where i'm going with this spend the extra money go to a higher class restaurant spend the extra what is it 20 bucks for cleanliness

and good service

Especially because if a place like that selling French toast for 17 plus dollars, you're not paying much more anyway.

No, that's my point Everything is so expensive now.

Just go top tier and spend the extra money I don't go out to breakfast a lot.

It's well worth it to spend 20 dollars Conrad you're laughing.

What am I?

Am I being curmudgeoning?

You know, no, no, I totally agree French toast should not be that pricey because it's not that hard to make Right.

It's just bread and egg.

Exactly

That's it's not hard.

So here's

the weird thing.

I walked in.

Oh, sorry, go ahead.

I

was gonna say eggs are getting up there in price, but still shouldn't be 17 bucks.

No, and it's like one egg.

It's part of combo.

It's not like I'm getting.

So I walk into this hotel to to check in and I could not get a hold of them.

So all morning, I'm calling to make sure or to see if I can get an early check in by like an hour.

Nobody's answering.

And I'm like,

Is this hotel still in business?

Like it's a major chain.

I can't get ahold of anybody.

While I'm driving, I chat with thehotels.com.

I hope I can say that.

In the chat, I'm like, can you guys just confirm to me that this hotel is still open?

The virtual chat person keeps coming back and say, our advice would be to call the hotel.

OK, well.

Everything that started this conversation was me saying, I can't get ahold of anybody at the hotel.

Can you help?

This is how I booked the hotel.

There were no help whatsoever.

I got there.

Luckily they were open.

I walk in.

No one's in the lobby.

This is what you get for 90 bucks a night.

This is me trying to save a few bucks.

And there's this voice like from the heavens that says hello.

And I'm looking around.

I have no idea who's talking to me.

Hello, sir.

I'm like, hi.

Finally this woman comes out.

I was standing in front of a virtual check-in.

Have you ever seen those?

No,

I've never seen those this guy was in Madison and he was gonna check me in over the video and I'm like There was such a surreal experience the whole thing I

Guess what we're learning is when you try to save money there is still another cost to be paid

You're not, you're saving money, but you're not saving frustration or whatever.

Now what I saved on the hotel, I spent on breakfast and whatever.

It's just, I'm not a cheap guy by any stretch.

I'll go the extra mile, but I was expecting at a chain to get a decent meal and a hotel stay too.

And the hotel, the hotel stay ended up being fine.

But we've got bigger fish to fry guys.

Tom Holland suffered a concussion shooting Spider-Man, the new Spider-Man.

He's okay.

Rest assured.

I was worried.

I know you were Conrad, because you watched 250 movies a year.

I was shaking in my boots, you know.

Hey, we are running out of time here in this first segment.

I want to tell you, folks, I'm going to tell you all about our text to win contest.

It's coming up, and then I will give you the keyword after a short break.

But first, we have to do our question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay question question question question question question this question question questions

oh It's national diary day, you know, you all keep a diary.

I don't care what year it is What is the most embarrassing thing someone could read in your diary?

I'm asking for a little forthrightness here

I'm asking you to be an open book, pun intended.

Let me know what you would be embarrassed by if somebody read your diary.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic.

Let me know or you can text us on the app.

Or if you are watching on the stream, drop us a stream comment and let us know what you would be embarrassed by if someone read in your diary.

All right, I know.

I was on the fence about this question, because I know a lot of people.

I'm hoping people just make the leap and tell me what they might be embarrassed about if they kept the diary, because I don't think too many people keep a diary anymore.

You guys keep a diary?

I don't.

Me either.

All right, great question, Pete.

Well, we'll see where we get.

I know.

What about diary of a wimpy kid?

Yeah, I mean, everyone read that diary, so.

Yeah, that's true.

I mean, I'll go first.

I'll start us off.

I would probably just say sexual stuff.

But you got something to be to be ashamed of, though.

Well, yeah, if I'm insecure about something or, you know, if I had to apologize to a girl or something, I'm not even sure.

Actually, I might be too embarrassed to even share that with my diary.

I think in my diary, they there's won't be anything like that.

So not a whole lot to share.

So you're saying you wish you had more to share to be embarrassed about potential added to know

that the lack of things to be embarrassed about you'd be shocked at how much time I'm just at home alone.

OK, spend another night home alone, washing my hair, making a frozen dinner.

What about you, Con?

You know, I don't have a diary now.

I used to have a diary of cheat codes for video games.

Nice.

kind of embarrassing you're breaking the law

I guess so so maybe maybe that's embarrassing I don't know

yeah I don't know I feel like and I'm opening up here I'm an open book here I'm not saying like I mean I think anytime in your life you can find something to apologize to your partner for when it comes to intimacy you put your knee on their hair accidentally

I don't know where I'm going with this.

Conrad, why did you let me pick this question tonight?

You seem like you really wanted to.

Well, it is National Diary Day.

I mean, what am I supposed to do with that?

All right, we're coming back, folks.

When we come back, I'm going to tell you about our new text-to-win contest here at Civic Media.

And I'm going to give you the keyword.

And it's a fantastic contest.

You're not going to want to miss it.

Be part of the fun.

Be part of Nightlight.

Text us and let us know what's up.

It's Pete Schwab.

And Nightlight, live from Madison on the Civic Media Radio Network.

This is Nightlight.

I am Pete Schwab.

It is great to have you with me tonight.

I am coming to you live from Madison Civic Media headquarters tonight.

I have some PBS work to do here in Madison, and there's always a blast to come down and see friends at PBS, as well as here at Civic Media.

Always fun time to be in Madison.

I made a mistake, Conrad.

I'm not giving the keyword until the 7 o'clock hour.

Yep, next hour.

And I am, I am, listen.

I am a rule follower.

I am not going to break from that, so I'm going to wait till the 7 o'clock, folks.

I hope you can hang in there, too, because I will give you all the contest details and the keyword in hour number two.

So Eric Jelland is here, the front man for mascot theory.

He will be along shortly.

He is in the bullpen Conrad, as they say, warming up.

I have to tell you, I was thinking about you yesterday, Conrad.

I know tons of Packer fans, but since I've been doing the show, you are front and center as a Packer fan in my life.

And the first thing I thought, like I was listening on the radio driving home yesterday, and I'm like, well, they got this wrapped up.

And oh my God, I turned off the radio in the car and I just put some music on.

And then when I got home,

It was like down to the wire.

And I thought, well, I turned it off again.

I said, oh, the Packers are going to make this kick.

What the heck was going through your mind?

Well, first of all, it's it's hard to win with all those penalties that we had.

It's the first time since 2000, I think 10 that we had that many 2000.

Yeah, 2010 since we had that many penalties, it was like 18 or something.

So it's hard to win like that.

But I guess a Tucker Kraft phenomenal player.

huge mistake at the end of the game.

Missed that block.

The guy who blocked the field goal, Tucker missed

that block.

Oh, OK.

I

still haven't seen the highlights.

I guess it's not just on him, though.

It was the whole team.

It was Matt LaFleur.

It was our offensive line.

We had two injuries out of the gate, pretty much.

So it's just a rough game.

We'll bounce back.

Here's what I can't wrap my head around.

in with the NFL You got 17 games.

That's why I love it all the more important.

Yeah, but it's amazing to me how

in one week and listen I've been lamenting my bears forever and they had a great game yesterday they choked their first game they got blown out last week I don't know what to make of that team because they look great yesterday but this was like a reversal now I feel like every Packer fan like and I'm looking at you how every all my Packer fan friends have looked at me it's just crazy but like

All of a sudden you're feeling great and I thought oh my god This is every this is the Packers League right now with how they're playing and love and all that and a couple mistakes and all of a sudden you start second-guessing just like with the Bears They're one and two now they play the Raiders.

Oh two and two going into the vibe Maybe they're still like it's like a constant carrot and stick thing.

It's horrible, you know,

it's like It's any given Sunday, you know, you know, it's it's the NFL there's not

a team that's terror, you know, they could be have a bad record, but they're still football team in the NFL.

So

anything can happen.

Yep.

Um, so what do you guys have this week?

Well, we go to the Cowboys.

Oh, that's right.

I knew that.

Well, and, uh, huge CD lamb will not be playing.

So

we'll not be playing.

He only played like seven, seven plays or something like that.

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, for the Bears fans, like I say, it must have been nice to

Stick it to Maddie Berfluss like that.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

I mean, it's to me, it's just like when you get a win against a team that, you know, it was probably close to a toss up, but we have like four guys out on defense.

Two of them are serious playmakers.

So when CD lamb went down, I didn't feel that bad for the Cowboys.

Yeah, I felt bad for him.

All right, we've got a great show tonight, folks.

Eric Jelen is here from mascot theory.

He's he is shared with me.

New music from their new album called Cosmic Hit and Run.

It's a very personal album.

We'll talk to Eric about that at 635.

He's been on the show before and he's always fun to talk to.

And a great band.

If you haven't heard the mascot theory,

Google it, go to Spotify, whatever, but definitely don't miss this interview because Eric is a great interview as well.

And then my pal Jim Healey will be here at 720.

We'll be talking movies, famous directors and all kinds of stuff with my movie buff friend, Jim Healey.

Our question of the night and I, boy, I'm not, I've rarely bailed on a question and I'm not bailing.

But I just don't know just because diaries are so obscure I don't know what but you know what folks if you don't have a diary Just tell me what you'd be embarrassed to put in there or what you'd be embarrassed if someone read your diary Something vulnerable like what would you not want them to know about you or what you're writing in your diary?

Some of our social media answers Chad Fran Oh Chad yeah, he says that I am an older man who doesn't know how to express his emotions

for example, anger.

So instead of using a proven method of emotional relief, he would rather make fun of the thought of writing in a diary.

And then he wrote Mic Drop.

I don't think you can, you can say what you wrote is a Mic Drop.

I think that's for other people to determine if what you said is worthy of a Mic Drop.

Exactly.

Daniel Wheeler, our pal, Danny Wheeler says Dear Diary.

It was a it was late dinner with friends in Boston walking back to the subway the food poisoning hit me I wish I could say it was nausea, but it wasn't no bathroom.

No choice.

Those bushes were the real victim.

Oh Well, I'm just gonna assume that's a true story because who would and I pretty listen I appreciate The fourth rightness of Danny wheels are Bell

My pal Mike Desital says that I have a diary.

Okay.

There's obviously a couple guys here not comfortable with their masculinity.

You have to rip on diaries.

Journaling is healthy, folks.

Don't you remember when Brandon Marshall used to do it on the sidelines during NFL games?

There's nothing wrong with keeping a journal.

So be part of the fun.

Text us what you would be embarrassed to have somebody read from your diary.

When we come back, it's our first guest of the week.

Eric Jellin will be here.

Jim Healey's coming by later.

Texas folks, be part of the show.

I'm live from Madison tonight.

It's great to be here.

It's great to have you here with me, so to speak.

Conrad working the board, all is right here in America.

It's Beachwabbit and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome,

man.

I'm Pete Schwab, and this is Night Light.

And we are enjoying this beautiful Monday evening here in our state's capital, coming to you live from Madison tonight.

Great to have you with me.

Conrad is back in Green Bay.

working the board and holding down the fort.

What am I missing?

Anything happening up there, Conrad?

Not really.

No.

Okay.

Yeah, you're not missing much whispering to everybody to keep it down while he talks to me on the stream.

All right, this is exciting, folks.

Listen, at the top of the second hour act two, as I like to call it, I'm going to tell you all about civic media is go for the green and gold text to win contest.

And I'm going to give you a keyword.

It's our new contest here at civic media.

And I'll just tease you with the, it involves Green Bay versus Minnesota.

That's all I'll say for now.

More details coming in hour number two, as well as Jim Healey at 720 Talkin' Movies.

Right now, I'm very excited to have this next guest on.

He's been on the show before.

Terry Barr, our mutual friend, introduced us.

And that's how I first learned of the mascot theory's music.

And I just love it.

And they're frontman.

And you're just a friend of the show at this point,

Eric, I

think.

Eric Jowell joins me here in the...

in the studio.

But I have to say, before I dig into this conversation with Eric, it is time.

Eric, is our first guest Conrad, did you know that?

He is.

First guest of the week.

So it's time to light it up, right?

With the nightlight first guest of the week brought to you by Chicken or the Egg Photography.

Chris specializes in food, event, music and product photography for businesses across Wisconsin and the Midwest.

See what he can do for you at chicken or the egg photography dot com.

Do you think he can photoshop out excess pounds, Conrad?

I think he could.

Conrad has no idea.

He's trying to make me

feel... No, I think he could do

it.

Of course he can, right?

But that might cost extra.

That's all I'm saying.

So but check out chicken to the egg photography comm Chris does great stuff Eric challenge is here.

It is great to have you here.

You were here last November Yeah, and that was that seems like forever ago, but also not really.

I mean I remember you talking about You brought in a great vinyl album of your last album and now you've you've I'm gonna show this on the screen Conrad check this out Eric brought

in a

copy of their new album

The cosmic hit and run and it's great.

We're gonna play some music from the from the album tonight during the interview Eric is here in the studio Thank you again for another awesome pleasure.

Yeah, is that how you like to listen to music?

I liked Producing it that way this this album was very specific to the vinyl format with side a side B It's kind of the first time we had created an album and we're like, okay We have X amount of time on the one side and this

technically 18 minutes on one side, 18 on the next before it starts to degrade a little bit.

So we really put a lot

into that

thinking of it that way.

It's on CD as well.

But really

that was the, okay, we have this much to get done and we know someone's going to flip that record at some point.

So

it was

made for it for sure.

I never even want to thought of that.

That's so interesting.

All right, so.

How was Max Inc.

the other night?

You were in with Terry and Rocker.

I was right here.

Literally

right here.

We had the band here.

We had

our full

drum kit out there.

It was a blast.

Yeah, we had it rocking in here.

Do you do that often on the radio perform a lot?

Not with the full band.

It's an ordeal with the full band.

We have to bring our mixer and kind of get

a

whole bunch.

We had in-ear monitors on our own and so I was over there and then when it was time to do the interview, pop over here really quick and try not to get tangled in my chords, but it's always fun.

It's a blast.

So all right, before we jump into your new album, Cosmic Hit and Run, we have to, you would have been on this show again since last November if you didn't have some health issues.

So you've had a pretty, a lot of trauma, drama, whatever you want to say, however you would categorize it over the last year.

Tell us what happened.

Well, really not too long after I was here, so it would have been around that mid-November, I was having these headaches, these really bad headaches and kind of facial pain and other neuro pain, vision loss, lots of stuff like that.

It was super scary and we thought, well, maybe it's just, I'm a graphic designer and videographer, so I work on screens all the time.

So we thought maybe it was just, okay, let's go to the eye doctor, maybe there's something with that, you're staring at screens.

So we went and I got some glasses.

They did not help with the headaches or anything.

They just got worse and worse through December.

And we just decided at some point we should get an MRI done just to check out was having these blurry visions and dizzy things.

And they're like, let's just make sure there's no like pre-stroke or stroke stuff going on here.

So right around that time in December, we started doing that.

We did an MRI in January and then another follow-up one with contrast.

And they found this arterial.

What did I say?

It's

AVF, bacterial venous fiscula.

There it is.

I always get that mixed up.

It is,

it is.

So they found that it's right in the smack dead in the middle of my forehead and the brain right there.

And so it's like this artery in this vein that are kind of connected and that should never happen because there's pressurized blood and non-pressurized blood and the pressurized goes to the non part and it can.

blow up with an aneurysm and that's it.

Is that one of those things where they caught it just in time or it was like a ticking clock like something could have happened at any?

Exactly.

They thought maybe you know eight to ten years it probably had been there or been developing throughout that time so the headaches and stuff we still don't know if that was all officially from that you know we got the MRIs they discovered this thing four months later I had to wait and then eventually got the uh procedure and they went and put some cement in to kind of block it off after

four and a half hours of procedure.

And we just went in a few weeks ago and double checked with another MRI.

The fix worked.

Everything's good.

So that possibility of an aneurysm is not going to happen anymore.

So that's fixed.

Just still dealing with.

a lot of those same symptoms, the headaches and stuff.

And we're just trying to figure that stuff out now.

But yeah, I remember when you posted this on social media, I don't think I knew that you were going into surgery.

I think I just saw that you posted something after you had been out.

It was there's probably been 10 social media posts since I've been on it that made me go, whoa, like you just didn't have any idea.

So I'm glad that worked out.

But you when you when you play.

What does that do like you play music in bars sometimes or outdoors?

Does that affect your headaches or anything?

Well, it certainly was at the end of the year, you know flannel Fest was probably about we were

here

promoting and and that was around that time and it was like Fine at that show, but really after that it really the headaches just started getting worse So I didn't really play again.

I think I did one show

in December and was miserable didn't know why just it was headaches but it's it's not just like your typical headaches it's like eye pain it's just really bizarre facial pressure type stuff and uh and so I had a couple shows around that time that were not great and it was like oh but uh typically in the winter time we don't play much and actually our whole plan with the mascot theory was to record an album so we weren't going to be playing we were going to work on this album which we did start doing and then this all kind of got

diagnosed and we still were able to kind of work on the album I kind of just worked on it when I could kind of in my home studio with the guy bring the guys over I'd be working on my laptop and just kind of working on stuff when I wasn't my head buried under a pillow from all this pain and stuff so

that's incredible that you went through that issue had surgery and in that

time since you've been recovering, you still have, I mean, every sign of life is what we were discussing last November.

You already have a new album out despite what you went through.

That's kind of a fast turnaround, isn't it?

Well, that every sign of life actually came out, I think in April.

Last

year but that album actually been recorded two years before

okay,

we went down to Texas We recorded it we kind of shopped it around seen if we could there's any record labels what the industry was looking like at that time And we decided to release it on our own so it had been around for a while in our world not out in the world To everybody else so when we had that one done we still had a ton of songs that were ready for a next album already So it was just kind of waiting for the right moment, but then

um kind of at the end of last year we were starting to think about well what do we what do you want to do for this next album we knew we were gonna kind of do a hiatus anyway and we thought well let's let's tackle something a little bit different well we'll set even those other songs aside for now i had a song actually a final hour that i think is on the list

yeah

potential for playing tonight that was all dealing with my my dad's passing back in uh 2020 and he had you know

two years of being in the hospital of he had a blood infection that led to from a kidney stone that led to I think his pancreas getting destroyed and then it was just two

years

of misery for him and then you know a pandemic and all of that so trying to to help him with the care and but also

Limited to who could go in and when

yeah the

hospitals it was a real tough time And so I had all these lyrics that I'd kind of came up with specifically vinyl hour was kind of one of those main ones And then eventually it was like okay, let's try something different from a recording aspect Let's just go ahead and and and do a concept album, you know, we were inspired by

Pink Floyd and some of those older those out the who you know the bands that did those concept albums where it's all thematically and musically tied together.

So

that was our plan for this even before the headache stuff.

That was what we were going to do and we were able to kind of start doing that and it just sort of worked because we were doing it in our own studios.

We could kind of keep moving forward with it when I felt good.

It

actually really helped me because I didn't have any I couldn't do anything they were like very specific don't do anything you know until this procedure happens so nothing.

tragic happens.

That's incredible.

Eric Jellin is my guest.

He is the front man for the mascot theory, a great band.

Check them out, Google them, Spotify, whatever.

But right now we're going to play one of their new tracks.

What should we lead with?

God of Grip is the one that we've been playing most

so far.

So that one.

Con, let's fire up God of Grip.

This is the mascot theory in Eric

Jellin.

He start to rush to the ambulance, tempting to break all the rules.

And lady, justice has been and so saved me from all the lies and the maybes.

Cause maybe if he told the truth and all our lies would be gravy, I'm going.

Face the key.

You've got the Civic Media Radio Network, folks.

We got a shout out for our guest, Eric Jelen, from Terry Barr.

Hey, Terry.

Yay, Eric, which is so cool because Terry introduced us to Eric, and Eric was on Max Inc Radio with his band, Mascot Theory, Saturday night.

So we just heard Get A Grip, Got A Grip.

Yep.

You have a little rap in there, kind of.

A little bending some genres here.

I love when people do that.

Yeah, we just, you know.

we're doing this we decided to do this album completely on our own with no constraints we'll just do whatever we felt like fit the mood and a friend of mine Tyler Durden the rapper on there had actually heard a demo of that song probably a year before and he had actually really loved the demo and then he wrote a whole verse for it and then sent it to me and I totally forgot about it and a year later we'd pop it down on the album and I was sharing with him kind of where we are at with the song

he's like

I wrote a verse for that

like, Oh, no, I forgot about that.

And I'm like, Well, I don't know, we've got like I said, we got these things timed down.

So

anything that goes in, something else is coming out.

But you know, if you want to send it to me, we'll see and we started working on it.

And it's like, Oh, this is amazing.

This is going to fit perfectly with the theme of the album and everything and dealing with grief and loss and kind of the cosmic picture after what happens next.

So it just fit perfect.

So

yeah, talk about that a little bit.

You had this

serious brain surgery and your dad passed away without sounding crass or whatever.

Does that make it easier to write material when you're going through such crap in your life?

Was it easier to write this as opposed to like every sign of life?

I would say, well, we'll see what happens with the brain stuff.

I haven't written

anything after that.

All

of these songs are written through.

lens of my father

which took me

you know years to finally final hour song was written years ago um so that one was kind of the first one and then this year when we decided to do this kind of an album I had some other ones that I that were dealing with the same kind of theme so I think it was once we decided okay this is the theme of the album I'm gonna write it specifically about this topic then actually it did just kind of flow out a lot of the songs were written towards the end of the year last year were kind of right before we were about ready to start recording um

That's kind of how it goes.

Sometimes we have some older songs and sometimes we have just brand new stuff.

I bring to the

band

and they're not really ready for it.

And it's it's a blast.

So we kind of just do it that way.

And that's that's exactly how it happened for this one.

And then with the brain stuff, it'll be interesting.

I think I'm one of my posts.

I was like, I'm sure I'll deal with that at some point on the next album, you know,

right?

I it's it's interesting.

Eric Yellen is my guest from the mascot theory.

We just heard his song got a grip.

The new album drops October 3rd.

Yeah.

Okay, so where can people find that Spotify the usual outlets all the

streamers will have it on our on our website the mascot theory.com There'll be a link to our store our band camp store so you can order it right from there.

We'll send you CD or vinyl

Versions and digital streaming

all that stuff and when can people see you it's October 5th You have a release party at the Atwood music hall here in Madison and then you mentioned one in Appleton as well

October 3rd the actual release day We're gonna be at Gibson music hall in Appleton So it's gonna be a blast and they're very different kind of shows that we would typically do we're kind of a rock folk rock band with this album We really felt like we wanted it to be the focus of everything that we're performing.

So it's actually a very intimate kind of sit-down

We're going to do an interview.

Terry Barr is actually going to be at the

Madison Run and

going to do an interview on stage.

We'll talk about the album and the process a little bit.

And then we've got our friends into the music podcast up in Appleton.

We'll do the same thing.

On your website, you have a passage that says, um, where you describe this album, peering jittery energy with a little self interrogation.

Can you explain that?

Yeah, I think it's especially with this theme.

I mean, when you're trying to tie in all the songs or all the songs are all in the same ideas, you really have to look into, okay, what was I feeling during all of this, specifically when my dad was passing away?

How was that really affecting me at the time?

How do I reflect on that now?

So you really got to dig deep on that.

What is that?

And then kind of the side B of the album is really more of the, okay, after...

After death what happens now?

How do we grieve from that lens now when it's it's the healing part, right?

So it's like what does that look from a cosmic standpoint?

Where do we go after?

After we pass away all those kind of big big big ideas is kind of the second half of the album And that's kind of what we were shooting for on this one

So why don't we do this just to get as much bang for our buck as possible?

Why don't we play a song into the break at the top of the hour?

Then we'll get the third song played in the first segment after the news

what should we go to during the break?

Let's do Constellation Prize.

All right, Conn, get that ready.

Eric Gellin is here.

He is my guest in studio.

Coming to you live from Madison tonight.

When we come back, folks, Eric Song will take us to Intermission.

We'll be back for Act 2.

And I'm going to tell you all about Civic Media's Go For the Green and Gold Text-to-Win Contest.

And I'm going to give you the keyword.

Great stuff.

You can win cash and jewelry and a...

two amazing tickets to Green Bay and Minnesota.

I guess I just kind of told them about it, but I'll elaborate a little bit after.

I bet they could guess.

Here's Eric Gellin and mascot theory.

We're coming back for act two after

this.

It's clear So clear All covered up in my feelings

But

I was not alone

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Chwaba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who still likes to build a fort.

Pete Chwaba.

Welcome back, little ladies and gentlemen.

2 Act 2 of Night Light this Monday edition as Night Light comes to you live from downtown Madison.

We are just above State Street at Civic Media headquarters.

It is so great to be here.

Another shout out to Aaron Zomers for helping us get set up.

Conrad Krieger back in Green Bay holding down the fort, working the board.

Conrad, everything okay?

Yeah, it's going great.

All right.

We've got Jim Healy coming up at 720.

He is one of the programmers at UW Cinematheque and also one of the big shots at the Wisconsin Film Festival.

We're going to talk about both of those things and Robert Redford, maybe some Peter Bogdanovich, all kinds of fun stuff with my film buff fan pal Jim Healy, who will be here shortly.

Right now we've got a few more minutes with our friend Eric Jellin, the front man for the mascot theory who is here in the studio with me.

We just heard.

A couple songs off their new album, Cosmic Hit and Run.

I will get back to Eric in just a moment.

But right now, ladies and gentlemen, this is exciting.

Civic Media has a new text-to-win contest.

It is our multi-state, go for the green and gold text-to-win contest.

Conrad, back me up here.

Our daily prize in this contest, folks, is 200 bucks in cash and gold jewelry.

So, there's one winner every day.

You have to have the app to play, but I assume most of you have the Civic Media app.

If you don't download it, get the app and text in the keyword on the app.

That is the way you qualify for our multi-state go for the green and gold text to win contest.

And here is the grand prize.

So, you win $200 or gold and gold jewelry.

That's an and con, not an or.

$200

and

gold jewelry.

Correct.

That's the daily prize just for texting in the keyword.

And then our grand prize, two club level indoor seats to Green Bay versus Minnesota.

I'm talking football here, folks.

It's a Green Bay home game, November 23rd of this year at 12 p.m.

That's a Sunday.

We can say Sunday, right Conrad?

Yes.

Okay.

And you get a gas card to get you to the game.

So that doesn't do a guy like Conrad much good because he lives there and he doesn't qualify anyway because he works for us.

But it's like a $1,550 value.

And you can, winners are selected.

There's one per day and then one final grand prize winner.

And I am going to give you the...

keyword folks right after our first break when we're done talking to our pal Eric Jelland here.

You will have tonight's keyword.

Text it in right away.

Get yourself eligible because you could come out way ahead on this.

That's great stuff.

Our civic media, go for the green and gold text-to-win contest.

A multi-state text-to-win contest by the way.

So that is all good stuff and we'll do the keyword shortly.

Our question of the night is it's National Diary Day.

I realize most people don't really keep diaries anymore.

But our National Diary Day question of the night is what is the most embarrassing thing someone could read in your diary?

We'll read some text coming up off the text line.

Dave on the stream says the coolest thing I have in a diary is text messages.

It documents in real time when you may not remember.

Okay, that's good.

Is that embarrassing though, Eric?

It

depends on what it is, I guess.

Who sent it?

That is the best thing about texting is I can look back like my pal Jim is on the show tonight.

I'm like, when is the last time I had him on?

I just look at the text thread.

True.

So it is a nice way to chronicle certain things.

All right, Eric Jelland is here.

We've got a few more minutes with our pal Eric Jelland, the front man for the mascot theory.

So you got mineral point this month.

on the 24th.

Talk about that show.

What a great little town, and it sounds like a fantastic venue.

Yeah, two days.

We'll be in Mineral Point on the, further, it's on the Orchard Lawn, which is a cool old, used to be the Gundry House, or maybe they still call it that, I'm not sure, but it's an old house, and they have throughout throughout the summer, they've got all these

Concerts on the porch they call them and so we're

I think

we're the last one now and we're I think we're gonna get lucky It's like 70s or something.

Maybe tomorrow.

Hopefully by the time we play

it's supposed to be nice like for the next you should be fine I love it.

Yeah, cuz you never know it's freezing cold a few weeks ago, so I'll take yeah, but yeah, it's my hometown So we're really excited to be there.

We're gonna do an acoustic shows.

Well the full band, but it'll be acoustic.

Oh, so it's gonna be it's gonna be a blast

So all right, Cosmic Hit and Run, your new album drops, drops October 3rd.

Correct.

Okay.

Um, your last film, every sign, your last film, your last album, every sign of life was produced by kind of a legend, Terry Manning, who produced Zeppelin stuff, and he passed away.

But you guys totally self produced this album without nullifying or cheapening the contributions of a famous producer.

What's more fun for you?

I mean, there were both a blast.

Going down to Texas and working with Terry was like a just Cadillac experience.

We're just like, this is going to be so amazing.

We put a lot of time and effort into rehearsals to make sure that we were as polished as possible when we got to work with Terry, somebody of his pedigree.

And we had a blast down there.

We're extremely excited about what we came out with with the Every Sign of Life album.

Um, but also part of us then for the next one now.

And that was, you know, we've been down.

That was three years, four years ago.

So it's been a

while.

Um, and so now we were looking for this next one.

We're like, let's do just something the complete opposite.

Let's do our own thing.

Um, we'll get our pal Michael mood, um, who came out to our studio to, to help us work on it in, in our home studio.

Um, and we just thought, let's try it.

We've got tons of gear.

We know we can, we know what we were looking for.

We know we're going to be rehearsed.

We had the songs, we had the chops and what we want to do more with it too.

Cause as you look.

listen to the album, every song is tied together.

There's found sounds that we just literally went out and picked up on our phones and just all kinds of things in this album that we never would have been able to do in a full big studio without paying tons and tons of money of time.

So being able to work on it on our own was kind of the only way to make this album.

So you've got two completed albums now.

Is there one you favor or do you notice the difference in it?

You're not going to make your album worse working with Terry Manning.

But I mean, what is the difference?

Is there a difference in the finish line?

To me, there's not.

I mean,

that that's the thing we wanted to make sure is if we did this on our own, it's got to sound as good as our last ones.

And we've done six, seven albums.

We've got a lot of albums out.

So we're like, it has to just kind of keep in that same vein of.

the quality that we're used to and and with this one once we we got the recording done once we got it to our pal Michael to do the mixing and then we actually had it mastered by a really amazing mystery room mastering um we just knew it was something that was equal to the other in terms of quality and and

it just means a ton you talk about pink floyd your album covers i realize is there some floyd influence there too yeah yeah it's cool

i love pink floyd albums and that was hypnosis uh

Storm Thurman, I believe his name was the guy who designed a lot of their album covers.

I

love them.

I mean, I loved it.

And do you design yours?

Because your graphic are okay.

I do all this stuff.

Eric Jelen is here.

He is my guest from the mascot theory.

They were just on Max Inc Radio the other night here on WMDX.

Go check out that interview too if you want to check out the podcast at civicmedia.us.

They play Mineral Point, the 24th.

Two shows there.

They're coming up to Green Bay and Appleton soon.

You can check all of this out.

Do you want to give your website?

TheMaskOutTheory.com

All the dates are on there.

They got Madison at the Atwood Music Hall here October 5th and October 3rd.

The actual date the album drops at the Gibson Music Hall in Appleton.

Do you have a favorite venue in the state or a couple of them?

Well I mean Mineral Point Opera House is always one of

my hometown so that's always a favorite

and we did that one last year and I'm sure we'll be back in a year or two.

but really you know Gibson music is such an amazing space up there and it's the folks that that created the Myla music festival and that's just such an amazing thing for the state and you know it's original music it's all original music and that's what we do so it's any kind of experience that that are any kind of folks that really put that out there that hey this is original stuff

And you're gonna like it

and

people they've just kind of cured it that way with that festival And so you feel like you're going into a hometown crowd when you're not even from there because they're already just Pumps to be here and some stuff they haven't heard before

all right We're gonna try to get one more song in here.

Tell us about this final song

This is called final hour and this is kind of the main

linchpin for the entire album that I the first one that I wrote it was a night when my dad was going into surgery and was not expected to come out and so I was kind of dealing with that with with writing some lyrics down and ironically he actually did come out of it and it was another year before he finally passed away but it was a lot of those kind of moments and so this was kind of that one

all right con let's hear it

So you're taking an unplanned midnight stroll Wanderin' blind through the unknown Searching for answers Only ghosts could ever know Travelin' on paved gravel road

What you will find there God only knows a thief in the darkness or a light to guide you home Is this the final hour?

Is this the last goodbye?

Can I get some sleep tonight while these memories collide?

Is this the last goodbye Can you make it back to me when shadows fill

Surrounded by strangers, while the symptoms multiplied.

I try to decode inconceivable plots, unwinnable games, unreachable docs.

lyricist and this has been so much fun buddy.

I love when you come on the show.

Awesome.

Thanks for having

me.

I wish you luck with the new album and all the shows you have coming up to promote it.

It's I love the material and thank you again for the for the album.

Here you go folks right here.

Pink Floyd influenced and you

kind

of tell he does all this stuff.

Thank you sir.

Thank you.

When I come back Jim Healy will be here and I'm going to give you the key word to the our multi-state civic media go for the green and gold text to win contest that is coming up after the break.

apps ready you'll have the keyword and you can be part of the contest we're coming right back check out the mascot theory google them folks great stuff

Welcome

back,

ladies and gentlemen.

I'm Pete Schwab, and this is Night Light, coming to you live from downtown Madison tonight.

Always fun to be doing a show in Madison.

Conrad, are you envious?

I am, you know, I could be on the other side of the glass right now, but, you know, there's just nothing on the other side.

Aaron kept the chair warm for you, buddy.

If you ever want to make the trip.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to give you all the keyword of our civic media.

Go for the green and gold text to win contest.

Check this out.

The daily prize $200 cash and gold jewelry.

There's one winner every day and the grand prize to club level indoor seats to Green Bay versus Minnesota.

That's football we're talking about.

That is a Green Bay home game November 23rd.

at noon and you get a gas card to get you to the game.

It's like a $1,550 value.

You can't beat that and you get to see some football and it's the green and gold versus the, what do you say, purple and gold, right Conrad?

Purple people eaters.

The purple people eaters, there you go.

So this hour's keyword, ladies and gentlemen, is night.

N-I-G-H-T, not night light, night light.

the actual word night n i g h t so text that in right now on the app and you are eligible for our daily prize of two hundred dollars cash and gold jewelry and you are automatically entered into the uh grand prize contest as well so good luck everybody uh it is my pleasure to welcome a friend of mine back to the show he's been on the show before i love talking movies with him he's a movie buff who does amazing work at the wisconsin film festival as well as uh u w cinema tech

And he is, first of all, I want to talk about Cinematheque.

This is a great thing.

We'll start with that because it is this fantastic program.

But joining me here in the studio right now is my pal Jim Healy.

Hey, Jim.

Hey, Pete.

Great to have you back.

Thanks.

Thanks for having

me.

These are new microphones.

So do whatever you need to do there.

Are you

comfortable?

You hear me okay?

I can hear you just fine.

Conrad, can we hear Jim okay?

Yeah.

Perfect.

All right, Jim Healy, ladies and gentlemen, I am I'm excited to have you here, Jim.

I always love having in studio guests, but especially when they know so much more about movies than I could ever imagine knowing.

So let's jump right in.

How are things at Cinematheque?

Better than ever.

We're really enjoying great crowds for the movies.

There's been a lot of kind of event feel to our screenings like this is the one chance to see this and let's all go and we've had

packed houses we showed apocalypse now in the original release version a couple weeks ago and we gave out the original souvenir booklets that you got when you saw it in 1979 and

it

was you know it was packed there was a lot of students there and young people seeing the movie for the first time

I wanted to go the last time I was in town you guys were screening a David Lynch film and Mary Sweeney his partner and editor and producer producing partner was going to be there for Q&A and

I don't get out of here till eight and I texted

Ben

and he's like I'm I knew it was gonna be full but I thought Are there any no shows he goes text Jim and I was like no, I'm not gonna do it I knew you had your hands full at night.

Those screenings were

really crazy.

We showed Mulholland Drive Mary produced and edited

She spoke afterwards, but we had we had a full crowd for the full house that showed up almost an hour and a half before the movie and just made a coil line outside and and they were all there, you know what they wanted to be there for that That's

incredible and mostly I would have just wanted to be there for the Q&A because I've seen Mulholland Drive I think I I don't know if I talked to you about this, but I did rewatch it about

probably eight or nine months ago.

I still have no idea what's going on at the end of the movie.

And I would have loved to have asked her.

I'm sure she gets that all the time.

But do you know?

I mean, have you heard her talk about the end of that

film?

Well, she won't talk about it as Norwood David Lynch.

ever talk about you know what it means or you know they'll talk directly about what you're actually

seeing like

yes those are the those are the same older people from the beginning of the film who are crawling off from under the door at this point you know but that's it you know it's just you know talk about what you're seeing.

Well it's a great program and for people who haven't been to Cinematheque I talked a little bit about this at the top of the show

It's free to the public.

I mean, probably I would imagine with the amount of film buffs you have in Madison, they can fill up pretty quickly and maybe you have to turn people away sometimes.

Sometimes.

But it is definitely worth checking out.

It's this great theater.

I mean, it's not it's a little outdated, but the screen is state of the art.

All the equipment you guys have is state of the art.

And

it's a beautiful place to watch.

Great sound system.

Yeah.

And, you know, and we frequently show original 35 millimeter prints.

That's great.

That's how we showed mahal and drive last summer

You had a paper moon screening recently and you're showing another film of Peter Bogdanovich is called targets

on

October 4th I've seen some of Peter, but well, let's talk about targets.

Okay.

What's coming up?

Let's start with that I have not seen that film

so targets is Bogdanovich's first feature film, you know, he'd done some work editing and I think Roger Corman gave him a

an old like Soviet sci-fi film that he dubbed and edited

himself.

So

he had projects that he worked on.

He worked on The Wild Angels and a number of other films.

But Roger Corman gave him the opportunity to direct Targets, his first feature in the idea that he could use Boris Karloff for a few days in one of his last movies.

And he had to come up, you know, come up with a script himself.

And it's a really kind of brilliant movie that

cross-cuts between the story of an aging horror movie star, Boris Karloff, playing Byron Orlock.

So the comparison is there.

And a terrifying secondary story about a sniper who is driving around Los Angeles and bringing himself to hidden locations and shooting people.

And it's a frightening pression film that only

unfortunately has gotten more real as the decades have gone by.

But the two stories collide at the end at a drive-in.

It's a really, really incredible, scary, intense sequence.

at the end of the film.

It's a great film.

Jim Healy is here.

When we come back, folks, after the news, I'm going to ask Jim, and I need this for myself as well, where you start with Peter Bogdanovich.

If people haven't seen a lot of his films, we'll get that from Jim.

I'll read some of your texts.

And it's just a fun night here at Nightlight.

And it's great to have you with me.

We are coming right back.

It's Pete Schwabba in Nightlight, live from Madison on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Ladies and gentlemen.

So, Conn, this question apparently was not as much of a dud as I thought it was going to be.

I don't even know if I'm going to get through all these texts because I want to talk movies, but if I don't, folks, we will read them tomorrow as we always do.

There's just too many.

What am I supposed to do, Conn?

You know, I think we get a diary ourselves and write all the diary entries in that diary.

That's a terrible suggestion.

Monica from on horror.

She's in the 608 says having feelings for people who treated me like crap.

Yeah, you don't want people to read that

Chris from the 773 says, I had a diary for about a month and a half when I was 12.

And unfortunately, there was nothing embarrassing in it.

But if I was writing one to date, I would hope no one read that you asked this question tonight in my diary.

Haha.

Yeah, that's fine.

Okay.

I can, you know, just ban Chris from future shows.

Tyler from the 608 says, same old same old the monotony of it all the highlights.

I got a dog.

He is funny, gets the most ink.

Okay, Tyler, that's good.

All right, we'll do our best to get to these texts, folks.

Thank you for playing along on a question.

I did not expect to get this amount of mileage from, but we've got Jim Healy here from UW Cinema Tech and the Wisconsin Film Festival.

So, Jim, I wanted to ask you, Peter Bogdanovich, he's just one of those names that...

you know, probably in the past 20 years ago, I would nod my head like I knew who Peter, but I knew who he was, but I don't know his work.

And I think a lot of people, he's made some great films, but he's not, you don't hear his name like you do Scorsese or Coppola or whatever.

He's kind of more of an offbeat name.

Where would, where should people start with his?

Films if they wanted to check out more of his work.

Well, if you want to come to the cinema tech you can start at the beginning with his very first feature I served you a softball.

Yeah But you know what's interesting about him is he comes out of that same kind of school of filmmakers is Scorsese and You know the movie brats of the late 60s early 70s in New York, New York guy.

He moved out to LA