Burgers, Bacon, and Wisconsin’s Best(Hour 1)

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Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay, this is Night Light with Peach Wabba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who does his own stunts, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome to Nightlight, ladies and gentlemen.

Great to have you here, folks.

Happy Wednesday, everybody, as we kick off this short week of live shows.

I was out Monday night and Tuesday night, so I love when we still get texts, even though we're not technically here.

So we'll try to address those throughout the course of the show.

It's nice to know people are still listening.

But I am back live tonight through the rest of the week and all next week as well.

So great to have you with me wherever you're joining us from tonight in the beautiful chilly state of Wisconsin.

Thank you for being here.

And we hope to put a smile on your face and, you know, have people walk away.

I don't know, kind of just a little smarter or informed.

Yeah, informed for sure.

Be it about movies or the weather or whatever, right?

Yes, I totally agree.

Yeah.

So great show tonight, folks.

It was fun to put this one together because we've got outstanding guests and some great question and some really fun talking points tonight.

We'll talk about Wisconsin drivers and where you think Wisconsin might measure up in the scope of good to bad drivers.

And maybe you'll be surprised.

Maybe you won't.

But either way, great show.

Lots of fun to be back behind the microphone here, and I had a good weekend.

Conn, how are you doing tonight?

Conn, Red Krieger, folks.

I'm doing great.

Yeah?

Yeah, I'm finally over the little sickness I had.

You sound like you're not fully

over it yet.

You know, I'm getting there.

Yesterday, I felt like a million bucks.

And then last night, I slept like a baby, and I still woke up.

And you ever do that thing where you cough for like two hours when you wake up?

And you are hacking

up just the most

unholy looking nonsense.

It's just awful.

So, um, but yeah, and I have like no voice this morning and then all of a sudden I can talk.

So I'm getting there and it's been about a week.

I think you took off last Wednesday.

Yeah, correct.

I remember I was leaving and you sneezed right on me when I left and then I got sick.

Well, not to mention before you got in, I sneezed all over your seat too.

I knew you did something.

But either way it is great to be back and what did you do what so you were here last night?

No, I weren't yeah, I made I made what I needed to the best of show put it into the system well Aaron Zommer's did thank you shout out Aaron Zommer's

thank you AZ

and Yeah, I was watching a bunch of I just watched a bunch of films over the I tried to get back into my routine of working out again because when you get sick it's tough to even Think about going to do that

Yeah, no kidding.

So I finally got back into a rhythm now.

So I'm happy about that.

It's funny you mentioned that when my daughter was still home last week before we left town on Saturday, we hit the gym.

And I was still not I worked out thinking I can do this.

I was trying to like, I don't know, be a tough guy or something.

I'm going to work out before and I felt OK.

And then later that night, I felt like death.

I was like, that was really stupid.

Like, what am I trying to join a Mr. Universe competition or something?

And it was just silly.

So.

But in any event yeah, it's tough to get back into working out when you've when you've hung it up for a while Do you are you one of those people that just jumps in or do you give yourself?

I'll get myself another day

No, I like I was you know Wednesday Thursday.

I was I didn't even want to like move Pretty much, but then you know Friday.

I was like, it's time.

I need to get back into it Yeah, I didn't do the best workout, but I still

got there and did it.

And then Saturday, I felt a lot better.

So I did a full workout again that day.

Well, it's going to be tough for anybody to want to leave the house over the next few days.

I would say for the next four days, people, the weather is going to be awful.

And I don't mean weather.

I should just say the cold.

The cold is going to be, it's going to be like 15 to 20 below in certain areas here in northeast Wisconsin.

I know Milwaukee is going to get hit, Madison.

And that's without windshield.

I think

I could be wrong, but I don't remember it being that cold in my lifetime.

Just with the basic 10, maybe 15 or 12 below.

I don't know that I've ever experienced like 19 or 20 below though.

So whatever you have to do, get your stuff.

And it's funny when it's gonna get that cold, like today I'm going, like I said to my wife, well, it's supposed to be nice tomorrow.

We should go out and get groceries tomorrow.

19 today was the high.

That's nice compared to what it's gonna be.

That's how I'm talking about, oh, it's gonna be, you know, balmy tomorrow.

Let's go out and get our groceries before it gets really cold.

But we will have new sports and weather coming up at 530.

We're trying to get Mace Michaels here to join us at some point tonight so he can kind of give us an idea of what to expect outside of just reading the temperatures on a phone.

Like what we should do, safety issues or factors we should bring into play during the weather, during the next few days of weather because it is going to be really bad.

Um, so I had to, all right.

So I went to this funeral for my uncle Pat over the weekend and here's why humor is the greatest stress reliever or tension cutter.

I walk in to the service and this was Monday morning and the first person I see is my dad and my aunt Sarah who drove up from Chicago.

She's my dad's sister, but still came up to pay her respects to my uncle Pat and

I see Sarah and my dad.

I say, hi, dad.

I give Sarah a big hug.

I haven't seen her in a couple of years.

And then I immediately turn and use some hand sanitizer.

And it shoots all over my Aunt Sarah.

Whoa.

My brother Andrew starts laughing like he has never laughed before in his life.

His shoulders were convulsing.

Like it was such a like a Chevy Chase moment.

Sarah, oh my God, how are you?

And I hug her.

And then I turn and I do one of these.

And it obviously hadn't been you since COVID because it's shot everywhere.

And I said, I'm sorry, I got some hand sanitizer in your sweater.

And I start to wipe her arm, the sweater sleeve off.

And she goes, oh, that's okay.

And then she goes, oh, actually, you kind of got it everywhere.

And she started wiping off her vest.

But the best thing about it, and those, you know, those little moments in life where you aren't expecting to laugh.

Like what I'm saying is I'm happy to have acted like a horse's ass because I saw how hard it made my brother laugh And it's that song that's in dumb and dumber by the gigolo ants called I think it's called where I find my heaven and there's a line in the song that says and the sacred moments of silliness are where I find my heaven and it was just so such a great moment because everyone was You know not somber.

I mean my uncle was 85, but he still did go kind of unexpectedly

So to have that happen and just have a huge laugh to start off the morning was kind of set a lighter tone at least, or as light as it could possibly be expected.

But it was a beautiful weekend, great to see family, but also good to be back home and good to be back on the air.

So what did you do, Con?

Well, so we're talking about the cold weather.

Yeah.

I just sent you a little picture.

If you look on your chat and you can read that off.

It's from Christina Laurie, actually.

She posted it last year.

Almost gonna be 30 years ago now, but...

Oh yeah, 29 years ago, Wisconsin recorded the coldest temperature in history.

What?

55 below?

Yeah.

Get outta here.

I don't think I lived in Wisconsin then.

I feel like I'd remember that.

Located in Sawyer County...

the small and nondescript village was the victim of a frigid air mass that settled in and shattered records.

That is insanity.

Yeah, I feel like even like with that, you know, temperature, your house is working like triple over time.

Yeah.

Trying to keep you warm.

Like you had to put that to at least like what 80

you think.

I have no idea would that even work.

I don't know.

Would it freeze?

Would your pipes freeze?

I

mean, that's my biggest fear.

And I looked at my utility bill the other day, and I saw this great article by our pal Terry Barr, who said that in the article, you could check it out at civicmedia.us, utility costs are just a lot higher, because either the prices of natural gas or utility companies raising the prices.

But my bill was twice what it was the previous month.

two kids home for a couple weeks and a Christmas lights out but they're LED lights they're not that's crazy um

you want to know how much it was for not my current place but my last place is a little bit bigger uh and it kept the heat on you know even when i didn't want it on uh i also have a pretty nice pc and then i you know i have two tv so it's like what do you think

What do you think my bill would be around?

In the winter?

700 square foot apartment-ish?

It was, I'd say, around 850.

Somewhere around there.

Ah, that's good.

100?

It was... No, it was about 112 somewhere around there.

112,

okay.

And I didn't even think I used that much.

I was like, how was it this expensive?

But they always had the heat cranked in that place.

Yeah, I couldn't do it Well, I think it's actually that the heat was rising in the place, but I don't know I just could never turn it off and I had to get someone because I don't know if you remember I told last year that my apartment was still like hot like super hot in the summer.

Yeah

Because the heat was still hot.

That's insane.

I felt the you know the furthest at the bottom was like why is it still hot and yeah

That's actually, it was kind of a high guess, because 850 square feet, my house is like 2200 square feet, and our bills have been like 150.

But that's a lot,

I think, for just me too.

This is, in one way, we can fight the cold folks by hugging.

This is National Hugging Day.

And I have discovered, as an adult,

There's nothing more fun for me than creating awkwardness by hugging someone who you realize mid hug is not a hugger.

And they just kind of go stiff and they're not comfortable with being embraced.

And I've changed my tune on this con.

I used to hug everybody.

Like if I hadn't seen like, you know, if I hadn't seen you in three months, I might do the bro thing where we handshake between us and then I'll do the wrap around just so there's no bodily touching.

But.

I like to hug and I think times have changed.

I don't think people like to be, which is weird because I know in the past I've said I don't particularly care to shake the hands of those.

I don't really know well.

But I think things have changed.

I don't think as many people are huggers as they used to be.

I don't know.

You know, it's funny when you do like give someone a hug in their arms, just like go.

They're like down on their sides.

Totally.

And then you're like, oh, okay.

All right, never hug.

It's

paralyzing.

Yeah, they don't know what to do.

They're like immobile because they're so they feel so awkward.

New sports and weather coming up in about 13 minutes, folks.

Congratulations Packers fan.

Packers fans.

There was

a big win over the weekend.

Bears collapsed in a way that I couldn't even believe after an amazing throw.

That

was nuts.

An amazing throw.

Yes.

I didn't, I didn't even know what to slide.

I was speechless after that.

I was watching the game with some of my friends.

We all just like, what?

You see a throw like that.

You're like, oh, here we go.

The Bears are going to win.

And that's what I thought.

And I was watching it at the Milwaukee Marriott West with about 20 family members, kind of in the sports bar lobby.

And we just went crazy.

And we thought it was a game the Bears should be winning.

They squandered a lot of opportunities.

But then, then you hold Matthew Stafford off in overtime.

And you get the ball back.

You advance it past the 50, that last throw should not have been thrown.

And there's all this discrepancy.

Did DJ Moore kind of dog it on the route?

But it's Williams who threw it.

He made the throw, and he could have run.

I

don't know.

I was confused why it wasn't a run play to start, to be honest.

Yeah.

That's, yeah.

You know, some of those fourth down plays, you know, were good.

Some of them were, you know, why?

Some of them were lying, you go, I thought we had the offensive genius here calling the plays.

So congratulations Packers fans.

I'm sure you enjoyed that.

Well, I'm happy for it.

The only person I'm happy for is Devonta Adams.

That's the only person I'm happy for.

Yeah, he had a pretty good, or he had a big catch toward

the end.

Yeah, he didn't have the best game, but that catch was crucial.

Yeah, it was huge.

All right, folks, we're going to do a quick break.

And when we come back, I'm going to tell you what our question of the night is.

It involves bacon.

That's all I'll say.

I'll tell you who's going to be on the show.

and talk a little bit about kids wearing, and if that's acceptable.

Alright, that's all coming up.

This is Pete Chihuahua in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

You're

listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

This is Night Light.

I am Pete Schwab.

It is great to have you here, folks, on this Wednesday in our cold, chilly state of Wisconsin.

Joining me in just a few minutes after the news will be Wonderfully Wisconsin's Paul Vandenplatz.

Paul is the creator of Wonderfully Wisconsin, an outstanding social media platform that celebrates all the fun, cool things to see in our state.

He does really cool stuff with his...

With his postings regarding Wisconsin eateries and hotels and places to visit He I think I got to the bottom of this con he is at He's doing a couple visits ago.

He told us he's doing a breakdown of the 100 best hamburgers in Wisconsin And I don't know what I was thinking I thought when we had him back on a couple months later I was like, oh, let's hear what the top 100 are.

Well, he was only on like 15

And then I realize, yeah, that's going to take a while.

100

burger places.

That's a huge undertaking.

So Paul is at about 20.

So we'll get an update on that.

It's actually coming along pretty nicely.

He's 20% done and he'll have stuff to post probably for the next year or so.

So that's exciting.

And he's got a lot of cool stuff that he recently explored.

So we'll talk to Paul about that.

That's at 535.

And we've got a quiz for him.

about Wisconsin landmarks Conrad put together one of his cool quizzes that we do from time to time and we will give Paul a quiz he's always a blast to have on the show that is coming up after the news in just a few minutes then at 635

Comedian, Milwaukee based comedian Chastity Washington will be here.

Chastity is a very accomplished comedian and has made her home base Milwaukee, but she's been all over the place.

Comedy festivals, she's done her own specials.

She's also a teacher, so I'm very excited to talk to her about that as well.

I'm sure she gets...

You know, some material from her classroom.

My wife always says funny stories when she comes home after a long school day.

So we'll talk to Chastity.

She's been on the show before and it'll be great to reconnect with her at 6.35.

Then my pal Frank Anderson will be here at 7.20.

Frank is the founder of Wisconsinology.com.

accomplished director, producer and musician, fresh off yet another appearance at Joey's song, which took place in Madison a couple of weeks ago.

So we'll talk to Frank about how that went.

And then he's going to tell us about some really cool stuff that was created here in Wisconsin.

Stuff I didn't even know about, but it's, I'll give you a hint.

One of the things, Con, is we were in a hotel in Waukesha over the weekend.

And I made a late night grocery store run.

with my daughter and we get in the car and the GPS tells us to pull out onto Les Paul Drive.

And I was like, that's right, Les Paul created the Les Paul guitars here in Wisconsin.

He's got a huge boulevard or street or way or drive named after him in Waukesha, his hometown.

But Frank knows about a lot of these cool things that were created here in Wisconsin.

So we'll talk about that with Frank at 720.

All kinds of fun stuff right now.

I think it's time we get to our night like question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Questions.

What is your favorite Kevin Bacon movie?

It's high time we talked a little bacon on this show.

And you know what I forgot to do?

Check out...

how many degrees of separation I am from Kevin Bacon.

I think I'm like one.

But we should do that.

We'll do that during the break.

I meant to do that before the show.

I actually meant to do that last night, but I kept kicking the can down the road.

But that is our question tonight.

And I think it's because his horrible show, the following, dropped on this day maybe 10 years ago, 15 years ago.

It's a bad show.

But Kevin Bacon's got an incredible resume.

He's been in movies you've forgotten about too.

So that is tonight's question.

What is your favorite Kevin Bacon movie?

I say a few good men and she's having a baby.

He's really good in just about everything.

But I love his performance and she's having a baby as the young husband who has the crazy wild friend and Alec Baldwin, but is trying to be a good husband, working his way up the ladder.

It's a John Hughes written film.

It's a really sweet story.

But I love him in A Few Good Men as well.

He was great in tremors, footloose.

He got all the big ones.

And a couple people on social media even said Animal House, because he is the guy who is getting paddled in his underpants.

I think his only line in the movie is, thank you, sir, may I have another.

But he's one of the pledges of the douchey fraternity, so.

But let us know what your favorite Kevin Bacon movie is, 855-752-4842-855.

7-5 Civic you can also text us on the app or if you're watching the radio on the stream at Facebook YouTube or X Drop us a stream comment.

Just be part of the show folks.

We love it when you join the show.

Con you got a favorite coming bacon?

Yeah X man X men

Yeah, I saw that on the sheet.

Yes, that's one of my see-in that I Just had it might okay.

I'd lost it Steven

Steven

Just Steven.

That's his name in a superhero movie.

And it's Steven, Kevin Bacon.

He is, oh, Sebastian Shaw.

Wow, I got that.

Yeah, I had that in my head and it just vanished when you asked it.

Is

he

a superhero?

Kind of, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, he's a fun character in it.

All right.

Sebastian Shaw.

He's one of those guys, he's likable.

He posts fun videos of he and his wife Kira Sedgwick dancing.

And he's got that dancing gene from Footloose, or that it was made popular in Footloose.

He was also in another movie called Quick Silver from the 80s about bike messengers in Chicago.

I remember seeing that kind of being pleasantly surprised.

Tiff Burry on social media says, Footloose, thank you Tiff.

Eric Rathsack from Ask Your Mother says, Tremors with Reba.

God, I forgot Reba McIntyre was in that movie.

She was funny.

Tremors, have you ever seen tremors?

I have not,

no.

It's

good.

He and the dad, Michael Gross, I believe is his name from Family Ties, play these two guys who are always doing paper rock scissors as to who should do the, and these tremors are these humongous worms under the ground.

It's really campy, but really

funny.

Did you say paper rock scissors?

I think so.

That sounds weird.

Rock paper scissors.

That's gonna be like, is that a Chicago thing?

You knew what I was talking about.

I was making sure, you know.

Scissors,

paper, rock.

Oh, I don't like it.

I don't like

it.

And my pal, Rachel Manick, from Fox 11 News here on Greenbases, Footloose.

Rachel, come back on the show.

We'll discuss Footloose.

I love it.

Great responses.

Keep them coming, folks.

We are going to break for the news, sports, and weather here.

And when we come back, wonderfully, Wisconsin's Paul Vandenplatz will be here.

We're talking Wisconsin tonight.

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

This is Nightlight with Peachwaba.

I am Peachwaba.

It is a Wednesday night in the very chilly state of Wisconsin, so gather the family around the radio, folks.

Get a fire going in the fireplace, and let's go old school here.

Let's retro-radio listen right here and stay warm, because it's only gonna get worse as we just heard over the next few days.

Our question of the night is, what is your favorite Kevin Bacon movie?

That's right, we're talking Bacon, and we have to do...

Can you Google con find out what your degree of separation is from Kevin Bacon?

Do you know of that whole thing?

The six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon.

I don't

but I can look

at a

huge thing and he's been in so much stuff that Everybody is some degree away from Kevin Bacon.

I guess

myself maybe I don't I don't think well Is it the Oracle of bacon that I need to look up on?

The oracle I don't know about that.

I

don't

know.

I would type in Six degrees of separation.

How does the six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon work and see what you come up with?

You could be first cousins.

You don't know.

I think you would

know.

Yeah, I think I'd

know.

All right, so let us know folks.

What is your favorite Kevin Bacon movie?

I said a few good men and she's having a baby Conrad said X-Men

Avengers first

class first class But let's find out what our first guest

thinks about Kevin Bacon.

He works his butt off, folks, traveling our beautiful state, posting really cool stuff about our state, whether it's supper clubs or bars or hotels or cool attractions.

He does it all at Wonderfully Wisconsin, a really cool content creator.

And he joins us here from time to time.

We love it when he's here in the studio.

Mr. Paul Vandenblase, buddy.

Hey Pete, thanks for having me on.

You got the swag on if you're watching on the stream.

Where can people get a really cool t-shirt like that?

I love the green, or sweatshirt I should say.

I love

the green.

They can't.

They can't?

Not yet.

Not yet.

I'll be

working on that.

Paul, when you're trying to promote yourself, you don't just make swag for yourself.

You gotta get it up.

I got no swag,

so what

am I talking about?

Hey, it's great to have you here, buddy.

How are you?

I'm great.

I'm great.

Yeah, good.

So do you have a favorite Kevin Bacon movie?

Oh, of course.

Of course, Footloose.

Footloose, great.

Oh, I just identify with it.

Growing up in a small Wisconsin town, it's like, yeah, I get it.

Were

you

not allowed to dance in the town you grew up in, though?

Well, yes, but not because there was just a general law.

I mean, they just saw me and they're like, no, you don't.

Please don't

dance.

Paul, please go visit Wisconsin Keepsakes.

Do not dance in front of anyone.

I love that movie, and I liked it.

It was about dancing.

I thought it was funny that, you know, I think it was for religious... Oh, it was a pastor played by John Lithgow who said, you can't dance.

And it was because a girl had died in a car accident like 20 years earlier because they were drinking and he equated that to dancing somehow, whatever.

But my point is, in the movie...

There's no dancing in this town But then at the end of the movie the kids in the town get together and overturn the dancing law and they get to have a dance And all of a sudden everybody in the town knows how to break dance.

I was like wait a minute They couldn't dance for 20 years and now they're popping and locking it like what what either they were cheating and Practicing I just thought that was a really fun movie.

Sure great movie

So is your year off to a good start?

How are things going with Wonderfully Wisconsin?

Oh, just busier than ever.

Yeah.

Still in the middle of my burger tour.

So, you know, I've been working.

We're coming up on a year of the burger tour, which sounds insane.

But if your listeners don't know, I am going to at least 100 burger places around the city of Wisconsin.

Oh, man.

And it's probably looking like I'm probably going to try to get to like 125.

So how are you researching that?

Are you?

Like there's so many like Wisconsin's like probably right in the middle of in terms of state population nationwide, but do you go?

Are there a hundred burger places that are great or are there 200?

How did you settle in on a hundred to start and maybe 125?

I

think a hundred, you know, it's a nice round number obviously But I think that's where it starts to be where somebody will kind of take it seriously You

know if

you go to 20 burger places.

Okay.

Yeah, but there is

1500 more in the state right but if a hundred I think is the beginning of like okay somebody really will take that number seriously

like this guy's done his homework right like that's a serious because honestly I said this is the beginning of the show when you first told us what you're doing

I expected you to come back three months later and have the list.

I'm like, wait a minute.

I started thinking about it.

I'm like, 100 burger places.

That's like, they're not all in the Fox Valley.

So where do you, how do you pick them?

Do you pick them randomly or based on

reputation?

Sometimes it's randomly.

It's like, Hey, here's a place.

Let's stop and just check it out.

Why not?

But I do have a very passionate fan base.

And one thing, if you want to get people riled up in Wisconsin, ask them what the best cheese curd is, where the best

fish fry is and who has the best burger.

So people people really maybe

old-fashioned

old-fashioned too but yeah people are really passionate about their favorite burger in the state of Wisconsin so it's it's

easier than you'd think so here's here's what I want to say because you're a pretty positive guy sure and I thought how is Paul gonna go into a place hate the burger I mean do you just not post then or what do you do because you did go to Lambo Field and I was surprised at your candor you said it's okay but

You're also saying you don't go to Lambeau Field for the burgers.

You know,

it's a pretty safe thing to go two stars,

you

know, because you got the Packers there.

That's why you're there.

But have you been to a lot of places like that where there was just like a

few and far between?

I've been lucky enough.

I've made the decision if I went to a place and it was a terrible burger, I just would not post the content because I've seen the.

good that my content can do for a business.

So I know it can be equally damaging.

So

I've been lucky enough, though, to not run into that.

And like I said in my Lambo, I always look for something positive.

So in the Lambo Field video, I said, hey, after an afternoon of barley pops, this burger will do.

All right, that was

great.

What about you also posted something recently, and I've heard this before somewhere that the hamburger was created.

in Wisconsin, possibly Seymour, or has some origin here.

That was an interesting post.

Tell us about that.

Yes, I forget the year 1800s at the Seymour County Fair.

Oh, to game me, I believe.

Whatever fair is in Seymour, I apologize.

But there was a man selling

meatballs and apparently as the story goes they weren't selling that well and he thought of a way that he could make them something you could eat kind of on the go and therefore the hamburger was born.

Well it's just a matter of convenience.

Yes.

How do I take this goodness with me?

Yeah and ironically enough in researching the story I found out there's a hamburger hall of fame in Seymour.

So a great video idea.

I have no clue what it all entails but why not.

Now, is there a place in Seymour that has a great burger that you've been to?

Is

there

going to be one on your list, do you

think?

I haven't yet.

There is a bar and grill there that a lot of people say is fantastic, that I was unaware of before people were telling me about it.

The only burger place that I knew of in Seymour was McDonald's.

And they're burgers, you know.

It's all Mickey D's.

Billions and billions served.

And apparently, I think Terry Barr did something on the burger a couple of years ago on the Civic Media website.

They smashed it, I think, and put a bun around it.

Because the burger used to be like a meatball, right?

Yes.

Okay.

Brilliant.

Yeah.

Innovative.

Yeah, and I believe a burger's actually supposed to be served with the rounded part down was traditionally how that was done to soak up more juices.

Interesting.

Wow,

that's so cool.

All right, so we got burgers.

I love the post you did recently about...

Freezing to death on the way to quicktrip.

Where did that come from and let's get a lesson for Conrad here because he spends a lot of time at quicktrip And we don't want to lose anybody on the track.

So,

oh, I don't know I just think of funny things, you know funny, Wisconsin is so I thought I'm like I would like to tell a funny joke about how cold it is here and kind of

How on Mount Everest, you know, the Sherpas are guiding people and people don't make it back.

And so, unfortunately, they use bodies as landmarks on Mount Everest.

So we'll

equate that to Wisconsin.

He just went in for cheese curds and now he's part of the landscape.

You know what?

I went to Quick Trip on the way down to Milwaukee on Saturday, I think, and they have, they have these cheesy like potato dealios.

Oh, yeah.

Man, those are good.

And they always have cheese curds, and cheese curds are fine, but whenever they have them, even if I'm fasting or on some kind of program, I'm like, oh, I'm sorry, they have cheesy potato puffs.

I have to get those now.

But they don't always have them like they have the cheese

curds.

No, the loaded cheese spuds, I think they're called.

Cheese

spuds, yeah.

Oh, those things are addicting.

Dynamite.

And really healthy, too.

Yeah.

So where are you before we move on from the burgers?

Because who doesn't love hamburgers?

Do you have two or three places that you've been to so far that you can really tout their work

when it comes to

the burger?

Absolutely.

I like to say, giving more of a generalized answer, the places that have been around for like 80 years and haven't changed anything are the places that really have been standouts to me.

A place that I went to recently that really was a surprise was just a bar and grill in the small town of Michicot It's a newer bar and so a couple people like I go check it out and It was one of the best burgers.

I've had great service.

Just yeah, just a surprise Yeah, not the best burger I've had so far, but you stumble on.

Yeah, you stumble into some place and it's just an incredible burger

That's the voice of Paul Vandenplatz folks follow him at wonderfully Wisconsin Facebook

Instagram?

Yep.

Everywhere.

TikTok?

Everywhere.

Really?

Sure.

So what am I missing?

Oh, I'm on X on YouTube.

Oh yeah, X, okay.

Okay, cool.

That's a lot of work, man.

Keeping up all those... Do you have to post?

Because every time you post, I guess the posting doesn't take time, but cutting the videos together.

How long does that take you?

Because I don't know if people realize what you put into this content creation.

You've got to drive there.

You've got to film it.

You've got to edit it.

And you do have edits.

And you have sound.

It takes work.

So tell us, walk us through that process.

Oh,

sure.

traveling.

And then when you're at the location, it's just like any other videographer, you're looking at the shots that you want, you want the general idea of what you want this video to be.

Can't just take random shots and like, okay, I'll just cut it together.

Yeah, you want to tell a story with your video.

So, so you're taking the shots that you want, and then you're editing that video down.

And then I do voiceovers over most of my work.

So then I have to tell the story with my voice that I'm trying to convey in the video.

So it's

Without the travel, just the editing part is several hours per video.

Well, and that's just for short form.

So people who do YouTube long form content for half hour hour videos, I can't even imagine.

Yeah.

Have you, what have you learned since you've been doing this?

Have you become a better filmmaker?

Because you are creating little movies.

Yeah.

Yeah, I've learned a lot in the way that I do want to story tell in the beginning.

It was just piecing things together.

If I'm like, I'm here and I don't know what to do.

I didn't go to school for film or videography or marketing or media or anything.

So it's just learning that along the way of how to tell the story.

Yeah.

That's so cool.

Well, you're very good at it.

We've got John on the stream says, he's not a fan of Culver's burgers, but he says way over cooked.

But he does say, this is for Paul, does your guest prefer his burgers medium rare?

How about fresh or frozen meat?

That's a good question.

Sure.

I do like medium rare or rare, depending if it is a really good quality meat.

Okay.

I've had decent frozen burgers, to be honest, if they're like flash frozen and high quality beef.

But of course, tend to prefer fresh.

Yeah.

I think the frozen ones are better on the grill, maybe, if you put them on the grill.

You prefer not to have frozen.

Right.

But you're right, they can taste okay.

Pardon me.

All right, Paul van den Plaas is my guest.

We've got, if you have a question for Paul, first of all, follow him, folks.

He does great stuff.

You'll be very proud of our state and you will love the work he does.

And you want to go to some of these places.

He recently visited a hotel.

We'll ask him about that.

And we'll talk about, oh, you like Brewer.

You said the Lambo burgers are better than the Brewer burgers, right?

Yes,

yes.

Oh, that's

good.

By

a smidge.

By a smidge.

So we'll have a lot more coming up with, have you been to Leon's and Oshkosh?

I have, but not for video.

I love

Leon's.

Okay.

Love Leon's.

The Juice Burgers are fantastic.

All right.

We're coming right back with Paul Vanden Plaus.

This is Pete Schwabba and Nightlight 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.

My guest in studio.

This is always fun.

Paul Vandenplatz is here.

He is the content.

He is a content creator and has created the platform wonderfully, Wisconsin, which is a wonderful follow.

You have to check him out.

He's on all the social media platforms.

He goes from establishment to establishment, event to event, landmark to landmark here in Wisconsin, and he will make you very proud of our state.

He does great work and it is always fun to have you here, buddy.

Well, thanks for having me.

You're welcome.

I heaped so much praise on you, you probably were expecting me to comp you a drink.

Oh, of course.

There's your water right there.

So you were at a hotel recently, I thought, and this was the first time I had seen a post you had done about hotels.

Sure.

And I thought, oh, those are great to visit too.

There's some great old historic hotels here in Wisconsin.

But it was the Charmont Hotel in La Crosse.

How come you liked it so much?

What was so great about it?

Oh, it's just...

kind of like everything all rolled into one.

History is very luxurious.

They take very good care of you.

The room was cozy and comfortable, but very high end.

Yeah,

just a really cool experience.

You love going to places like that.

I mean, because let's be honest, I feel like unfortunately in our country right now, if you pay top dollar $500 a night for a hotel room, you get great service.

But then there's the rest of us.

who, you know, don't go beyond 200 bucks or whatever, or whatever, $100, 80 bucks, it's just like take it or leave it.

You know, there's could be stuff broken in your room and they're like, ah, sorry about that.

Like, I feel like the middle class, when it comes to hotels, it's not a great fit right now.

Like people aren't really attentive at some of those chains.

But when you go to a place like this, you expect great treatment because they obviously take pride.

in their space, in the history surrounding the establishment.

Right, right.

And that's why people are probably familiar with the Michelin Guide as far as restaurants, Michelin Star restaurants.

So the Michelin Guide recently started doing hotels.

So there is a key rating system, I believe one through three.

So there are only two Michelin Guide rated hotels in the entire state of Wisconsin.

One's in Beloit.

And then the other ones, the Sharma.

No kidding.

Yeah.

And it really is.

It is unbelievable.

You go there, service is incredible.

And like I say in the video, you think a stay like this.

If you were in LA or Chicago or New York, this is going to be a $700 a night room.

Little lacrosse, it's $220.

Nice.

And you're overlooking the Mississippi River.

Oh, wow.

So just beautiful views and really a great bang for your

buck.

And I'm always worried because people say, well, check the reviews.

So there's 1,000 reviews.

AI, I don't know, like, honest to God, I don't know if those are real people now.

I think 10 years ago they probably were, but I don't know what I'm looking at right now.

I just look at the star rating and I'm like, well, all right, the pictures look okay, I guess, but I don't know what you're walking into.

Have you ever heard of the shikwame gun in Ashland?

Is it the

shikwame gun?

It's up in Ashland.

It's right on Lake Superior beautiful old hotel.

No.

Oh, you got to check it out I did stand up there like 30 years ago And it was like just this it was a heck of a drive from Chicago where I was based at the time But when you got there it was like oh my god, it's like it's like the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island you're stepping back

sure, you know, sure

Let's talk about that because you did a recent post about why isn't Michigan's upper Peninsula part of Wisconsin

What can you tell us about that?

What did you find out?

It was due to, I forget the name of a war.

It wasn't a real war, but there was a huge disagreement back before these states here were states.

They were territories.

And at the time that I believe Ohio and Michigan were getting ready for statehood, they were kind of battling over this area at the lower part of Michigan.

They came to an agreement that it's like, you know what, we'll give Ohio this, but then Michigan gets the upper peninsula.

No kidding.

Yeah.

And it's like, well, that makes sense because there is no reason it should be a part of Michigan.

It is kind of weird, but I mean, let's be honest.

Do we want the UP?

Yeah.

We would want it as part of Wisconsin.

Oh, it's beautiful up there.

Oh, it's gorgeous.

No question about it.

But as far as bang for your buck goes, I think there were 300,000 people in the whole.

I don't know.

It just seems like a lot more land to take care of and I don't know.

I don't know.

I like Ubers.

I just consider them extra drunk Wisconsinites

Listen, I'm not trying to start

a fight between us and the Ubers.

I think they're

wonderful people.

I'm just saying What do you what are you alright when it comes to the time of year Paul?

We talked about, you know, you just mentioned a hotel where it's really cozy in that winter is very special in Wisconsin.

Not all of us love it, but we appreciate it at times, you know, for times like that when you're at a great hotel.

What's your favorite time to travel around the state?

Oh, it's summer.

Yeah.

Wisconsin is really known for our summers.

That is the best place to live for three or four months out of a year, unfortunately.

But no, that's my favorite time.

There is anything you could ever want to do.

You can do here in

summer.

particular part of the state you would prefer to go to in winter or fall or spring say?

I would say summer is probably driftless area because you can go and there's a lot of hiking opportunities.

It's just very incredibly gorgeous.

Yeah, and then you head up north in the winter, you know.

Nice cabin, roaring fire, a lot of great skiing opportunities.

Just downhill, a lot of cross country.

I think the Berkey is the biggest cross country race in North America, I think, or maybe the world.

Are

you a snowmobiler or a skier?

Do you like any of those

winters?

I used to do all that when I was much younger and more flexible.

Now you just, if you're like me, you just avoid injury if you can.

John on the stream says, does your guest like Angus beef?

Do you get into what kind of beef is on the burger?

That would be a serious deep dive.

Sure, I don't make any content on it, but I am huge into Texas style barbecue.

That is one of my personal.

Massive passion.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, I could talk beef all

day What about when you're at home and you make something like that?

Would you is there a particular kind of beef you go to?

Oh, yeah, it's I'm going for like prime grade stuff usually, but I'm usually not working with ground

hamburger.

I'm usually working with actual cuts of good stuff.

Look at

you, man.

All right.

Paul Vandenplatz is my guest, folks.

He's going to stick around with us through the news.

We're going to give him a Wisconsin.

Is it a landmark quiz con?

Wisconsin landmark quiz.

I think you're going to crush this thing, buddy.

Well, if I fail, I'm blaming you.

Fair enough.

All right, we are coming back after the news.

This is Pete Schwabba and Nightlight.

And also in hour number two, Comedian Chastity Washington will be here.

Hour number three or act three, Frank Anderson will be here talking about our state as well.

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

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