Toto’s Legacy and TV Binge-Watching with Joseph Williams (Hour 1)

I hear the drums echoing tonight She has only whispers of some quiet

Welcome back.

I'm Pete Schwabba.

This is Nightlight.

My guest is Joseph William.

He is the lead singer of the legendary band, Toto, who is playing Milwaukee February 18th at the beautiful Riverside Theater.

He joins us here on Nightlight for the first time.

And for what it's worth, my friend Pat Francis, who does a podcast called Rock Solid, which you've been on before, said he saw Toto last year and you guys just absolutely still rock.

So everybody should go see the show on February 18th.

Last thing, before we let you go,

Joseph, what is your favorite Toto song to sing and what do people respond to the most in the crowd when you guys start playing a tune?

Well, there's a lot of songs I love to do.

It's especially fun to do stuff that we haven't done or haven't done in a long, long time.

It's fun to sort of make that order and pick those songs for the set list and stuff.

But to be really totally, I'm being completely honest with you.

My favorite thing to do in the show is to do Africa.

And the way the audience responds, it's so inspiring.

Sometimes they're singing it so loud that you can't even hear us.

And singing, shouting out that chorus, it feels amazing as people know who love the song.

It's just one of those choruses that sticks with you and has sort of an emotional quality.

And it's a blast to do.

Every single night I never get tired of it.

That's so great to hear that I remember that with that came out in the early 80s I loved it so much and then it became part of my workout mix went like in the 90s and such a great song on so many levels Last thing before we let you go.

Are you binge watching anything on TV?

Let's say you're done composing you're done Touring you get to your hotel room.

What is Joseph Williams watching on TV?

Well, I watched lots of stuff.

I mean, I just finished the season, the land man.

That's a, that's a cool show.

Um,

I'm also a big fan of, uh, Jeremy Renner.

He's got the show, uh, uh, the, the mayor of Kings town.

It's great, great show.

There's so many great things out there these days.

The production values that they're doing with these limited series are great and really appeal to me.

And then I go back and re-watch stuff that I love.

I've watched probably Breaking Bad all the seasons, probably a couple of times, easy.

So I'm all over the place.

But I just finished the season of Landman, which is Billy Bob Thornton who's a fave of mine.

He's great.

It's a great show.

Listen, buddy, thank you so much.

Have a great time in Milwaukee.

Stay warm, knock them dead.

And I really, truly appreciate your time tonight.

It's been a pleasure to talk to you and love your music.

Keep up the great work.

I appreciate it, Pete.

And thank you for having me.

And please come out and hang out with us for a couple of hours.

You'll have a great time.

Outstanding.

I appreciate that.

Thanks so much, Joseph.

Have a great night.

You too.

Bye-bye.

All right.

That's Joseph Williams from Toto, the lead singer.

They are playing Milwaukee at the Riverside Theater February 18th, an outstanding show.

I saw them, I think, at Summerfest years ago and just love their music.

So check that out.

And boy, that was fun, Con.

That was great.

You know, there's just certain bands that you've listened to your whole life and they're famously covered by others because they're so influential.

And that's what Toto is, and they're unbelievable when a band stays together that long.

And there aren't many.

You know, U2, Springsteen in the E Street band, I guess you could say the Eagles, and there are different derivations of these bands, and members come and go, but it's so great that they are still touring, and they're an absolute blast to listen to.

Yeah, I didn't know his dad was the general manager.

How about that?

That's cool.

You got a legend breathing down your neck artistically, but he's

handled it well.

Yeah, I mean, Toto's a great band.

They're an outstanding band, and he's done his own thing too.

He's an Emmy-nominated composer, so his dad rubbed off on him definitely the right way.

All right, that was fun.

I think we should go, Conn.

I think we should get like a bus sign up.

thing to go down and see Toto in Milwaukee.

Yeah, how fun would that be?

I'm trying to, I, for some reason, I know I saw them at Summerfest.

Let me just do a quick Google here.

I think they, historically, it was probably like the early 80s.

They were in Milwaukee in 2017 at Summerfest.

It wasn't then.

It was like way long ago.

Anyway, are you a concert guy?

We've never really talked about concerts.

I've been to a bunch of concerts.

Yes.

Okay.

Summerfest.

I've been to Machine Gun Kelly.

Oh, really?

I went to Jake Hull.

I'm trying to think of other Jake.

And then, you know who Kesha is?

Heard of it.

Yeah.

Heard of it.

Well, all right.

So when I went to school at Milwaukee, they did this thing called Pantherfest.

which was like, uh, you know, they did a concert and, um, well, they stopped doing it, you know, for about two years.

Cause I was during, it was during COVID and,

uh,

they brought it back with Kesha.

Um,

it was the worst concert ever.

Oh, it really was.

Uh, let's just say by friends, uh, we went there, you know, got an Uber there, went there, called the Uber literally two minutes after we saw.

We we loved

two minutes.

It was that bad.

Yeah Wow, that's a terrible show Folks we've got news sports and weather coming up in just a couple of minutes Rob Thomas will be here at 635 to talk about the Oscars and we've got a bit of bad news the cold and flu bug has really Pardon me.

Well, it's affected Conrad and me but Terry Barr

Can't make it tonight and now we've found out that rocker can't make it tonight So Conrad and I are gonna give each other quizzes We think that'll be fun and you guys

can

get in on the fun too, but Rob Thomas will be here in act two at 635 We're gonna be talking about the Oscar nominations and some of the things he's written about in city cast Madison where he is the newsletter editor He does great work there Our question of the night is what is your who is someone or something you would like to compliment tomorrow is national compliment day

And we're trying to, in the spirit of positivity, bring some positive energy here to the show tonight.

So give us some compliments that you would like to share with people.

It is also National Pie Day, and Mike Clemens weighed in and said that his favorite is strawberry rhubarb.

Mine is key lime.

Yeah, mine as

well.

Key lime?

Seriously?

Yeah,

I mean, it's

just fantastic.

Even a bad one's good.

Even a bad key lime pie is good key lime pie.

Okay, that's fair.

Yeah, you can't really mess that up, can you?

No,

you know what pie I've never tasted mince meat pie.

No, thanks Doesn't it sound horribly?

I bet you don't even know what it is and you still just said no way All right You ponder that over the break we're coming back for x2 Rob Thomas will be here.

We're gonna read your texts next It's peach wala and nightlight on the civic

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Peach Waba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who once tore his ACL playing chess, Peach Waba.

So great to have you here tonight.

It is Friday and we are pretty much jammed through this week and we are facing head on the coldest weekend of the year thus far.

Now hopefully this will be it.

I'm hoping we will have peaked and things will warm up.

It's going to be cold all week but the highs at least will be in the teens as it would appear.

I am Pete Schwama.

Conrad Krieger is working the board tonight.

We spent the first hour, if you missed it, talking to, part of it anyway, talking to Joseph Williams, the front man for the band Toto, and a very successful movie and score composer in TV and film.

And he's also released several studio albums.

We talked to Joseph about all of that.

If you missed that, check it out on the podcast at civicmedia.us.

All of our shows are cataloged in podcast form.

And they're a great way to just kind of keep in touch and See what we're doing here at nightlight on a nightly basis when you can't make it in person Speaking of making it in person Conrad we have a great question tonight.

You think we should reintroduce it

Let's do it.

All right, let's talk about the question question

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Here, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

Tomorrow is National Compliment Day, folks.

So our question tonight is, what or who would you like to compliment?

What or who or whom, whom, who would you like to compliment?

I did a little Michael Scott there.

I said the creator of coffee and all of the guests I've had on here at Nightlight over two years now.

I want to compliment them for their time and their insight.

It's so much fun talking to people and learning about their lives.

So I cannot compliment the guests.

And I know it probably sounds like, does it sound like I'm sucking up, Con?

No, no, they're just

really

good guests.

They're good guests.

And I love coffee.

And Conrad complimented your Wisconsin Badgers.

who are playing quite well.

They're playing quite well.

And a lot of people, you know, were like, running them off at the beginning, but they're turning it around.

They're getting the love they deserve.

Now, is that going to be on make the call tomorrow?

You guys going to discuss the Badgers?

OK.

We're going to discuss the Badgers, discuss, you know, Freddie Peralta just got shipped off to the Mets.

OK.

The Brewer's ace that we had for five years.

And he's gone now, which makes me sad.

So I would not like to compliment the

Brewers' staff for a mid-market team.

It's terrible.

It's not fair.

Yeah, we talk about that.

And then of course, the big thing in Wisconsin here, since the Packers are no longer with a defensive coordinator, who should fill those shoes of Jeff Hathley?

Okay, and Giannis also as well.

Giannis as well, you know, we discussed the the bucks are kind of bad.

So

Yeah, but he wants to stay.

Yes.

He loves Milwaukee.

I find that very heartwarming.

I respect it a lot because You know, there's a lot of people in this in the NBA that would you know Get would like to get shipped off instantly as you know starts going bad

Absolutely

We have kind of a shift.

We have to go to the bullpen.

Terry Barr will not be able to make it tonight, folks.

So, Bar Band Friday night, we'll have to wait until next week.

We can still celebrate music.

And you know what?

We can play one of our favorite tunes, Conn.

And I think you know what it is.

Oh, yeah.

But also, to fill that time, Conrad and I decided we're gonna give each other quizzes, which is always fun to do.

I'm gonna, since I complimented...

My guests here on Nightlight, I'm going to give Conrad a guest quiz.

And he is going to quiz me about Con.

I'm going to quiz you about Christmas Town USA.

Christmas Town USA, baby.

Marinette, Wisconsin.

We'll see how I do in a quiz about my hometown, my adopted hometown.

We'll see how that goes.

But we'll have some fun, even though Terry can't make it.

We hope she gets better soon.

And Rocker was scheduled to fill in.

He cannot make it either, as it turns out.

So I hope he's not sick as well.

But we will figure this out.

Coming up at 6 35 after news sports and whether Rob Thomas will be here.

We're going to talk Oscar nominations.

They are out.

They came out yesterday morning.

Rob will join the show and we will talk about the Oscars.

There are such great movies and really good actors and screenplays and all this kind of stuff.

Sinners broke a record shattered a record 16 nominations.

The previous record was 14 shared by all about Eve, Titanic and La La Land.

So.

Ryan Coogler's film bested that by two.

And you could say, people, I was reading today, I think in Variety or The Hollywood Reporter, it said, if it was 15 and he broke the record, you could argue that it's just because they added another category for, I think, casting or ensemble cast.

And they got that nomination too.

But the fact that they broke it by two really makes it impressive what Sinners did when it comes to this year's Academy Award.

So we'll talk about that with Rob.

break all of that down.

And coming up in just a few minutes, we will read some of your texts.

And I'm going to tell you about Billy Bob Thornton's prosthetic.

We've talked a little bit about that con in the past.

And I kind of feel like if men are going to do nudity, just, you know, you're an actor.

You're open.

Put yourself out there.

It's just a body.

It's just nudity.

However, men—

being insecure as we are sometimes, there are prosthetics everywhere when there's male nudity.

So Billy Bob did kind of an admirable thing, but still used a prosthetic.

We'll talk about that in a few minutes.

It is also National Pie Day, folks.

So you can let us know who you'd like to compliment.

You can tell us what your favorite kind of pie is.

We'll read that on the radio too.

All bets are off here.

855-752-4842-8557-5CIVIC.

Phone lines are open as always.

You can also text us on the app or the stream if you're watching on YouTube, Facebook, or X. And don't be afraid to leave us a like or a follow if you're so inclined.

I believe we have a phone call, Kat.

Yeah, Ollie from the Northwood.

Ollie, good evening.

How are you, Ollie?

I'm doing fine.

I have answered to both questions.

Oh,

perfect.

My favorite pie is minced meat.

And technically, it doesn't have meat in it anymore.

It's really apples and raisins mostly.

Okay.

So it did used to have meat in it, but they don't use, put that in anymore.

Do you, did you like it with the meat?

I remember they used to put actual cocaine in Coca-Cola, Ollie.

So did you, did

you like it when there was

actual?

Yeah, go ahead.

ever since I was a kid.

So I must have had had meat in it when we were overseas.

But I also my favorite pie memory is of going to my grandma and grandpa's house and grandpa would go fishing out at the lake and on the way to fishing he would drop us off in the field and we would walk up to the lake with our buckets and pick blueberries along the way.

And then for dinner

we would have fried fish and blueberry pie oh my

gosh

so that was that's a special memory of me and the compliments i would like to compliment both my daughters for the growth they've made over the years

ali that is so lovely and here's what i want you to do when you hang up will you still have the show on

yes i will

Okay, so when you hang up, I'm gonna give you a compliment.

Okay, and I appreciate your call and I love your your response That's just outstanding.

Love your phone calls.

You have a great night.

Okay.

Thank you.

Bye.

Bye.

You're very welcome Okay, here is my compliment and this is to Ali from the North Woods I've gotten to know Ali over the last two years.

I Love her life.

I love her outlook on her life and I love the way she calls and she has all these great

answers to our questions when it comes to food, typically, but other stuff as well.

And if you only heard some of Oli's phone calls, you would think she has this charmed life.

She lives in the North Woods, she makes this great food, is a foodie, loves it, loves her family, that's great.

But I don't know if you remember this con over the last couple years.

Every once in a while, Oli would talk about how hard life has been for her.

So I love that she has this outlook and just savers every moment of her life despite having some hardships like we all do But I just that's my compliment to Ali.

I love your phone calls Please keep calling and it's always great to hear from you.

Well said.

Well said.

Thank you, sir And that was a compliment Conrad what you just did to me.

So see that it's paying it forward There's a lot of love on night like yeah, thank you all of you for listening as well

And you can compliment anyone you want.

I do want to say, uh, you said you got a ticket today for parking right outside this video.

And this, this made me laugh.

I saw this today.

This was on, uh, I've gone, I never write down these sorts.

I think it was Reuters.

Um, but people spend an average of 15 minutes looking for parking.

Now I realize that's all over America.

And I live in a small town.

I wouldn't say Green Bay is a very big town, but sometimes when I go to the mall even in Green Bay or Madison How long do you look for parking come?

I mean around here in Green Bay Yeah, it's like I won't look like if there's nothing along this like, you know the studio or anything I'll go to the garage and I'll say in Milwaukee when I lived there it was tough because

I had to be on the street parking, so sometimes I'd be going down the whole street to try to find a parking spot when it's super packed that day.

And Madison is super hard to find a parking spot.

Okay, here's why.

I have a solution to all of that.

Okay.

Park your damn car as far away from the mall entrance as you can.

And let us walk our fat butts a few extra steps.

I think people spend so much time looking for parking because they want to find a place that's closest to the door.

And it's like, I've given up on that.

I just drive down to where it's more open.

I don't want to squeeze between two cars anyway.

And I walk the extra, you know, what is it?

It takes like an extra 30 seconds, right?

Okay.

I misunderstood your question for a second.

At a mall, I will park far away.

So I can walk but also because I hate trying to get out of spots sometimes when it's really tight and It's the easiest when you park far away.

Just you can go right out.

I'll do that at any shop to a grocery store When I you know Sam's Club anything even at the gym sometimes I'll do that as well

All right, that's a good answer and that's what I'm saying like obviously when you live in a city and you need to find street parking That's a different animal.

Yeah,

but I do see people circle

And it's like, even in Marinette, at our Pine Tree Mall, it's like, it's not a big parking lot.

Did you tell them you're the Pine Tree Mall and you own this spot?

Yeah, I don't like the way that in front of people's

faces.

You don't like to name

drop?

No, I don't like to, I don't like to pull rank on my fellow citizens here at Marinette.

I did go to the gym last night, though, and that was fun.

Yeah.

And I love going at nine o'clock.

There's never anybody there.

But I forgot my headphones, which makes working out not fun at all.

If you can't listen to music, I almost didn't go.

Right.

Yeah.

I've done that a couple of times where I forget my headphones and I'm like, well, that there's there's one gym for the YMT is it actually plays good music?

Like the other one general

speakers.

Yeah.

They'll play like an actual like off their phone.

That's the only one that does it.

Yeah.

I appreciate that.

The other ones are like, I just can't listen to their whatever they have on.

All right, we are going to come back.

We're going to read some of your texts.

I'm going to tell you about Billy Bob Thornton's prosthetics.

And what did I say?

Read texts.

And yeah, we're having fun.

This is a Friday night, folks.

Don't go anywhere.

It's cold.

Stay inside.

Listen to the radio.

We're coming right back.

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

I am so excited to talk about the Oscar nominations with our pal Rob Thomas.

He will be here in just a few minutes, folks, after the news.

And we're going to break down all of the Oscar nominations, great movies this year, great actors and performances, screenplays, really outstanding stuff.

So we'll talk about all of that with Rob.

And some records were set this year in some of the announcements.

As I mentioned earlier, Sinner's Drew's 16 nominations will tell you about the other record that was set.

when Rob is here.

Discussing such things with us.

Welcome back.

I am Pete Schwab.

This is Nightlight.

Conrad Krieger is working the board tonight, braving the cold inside the studio.

You have the warmest probably anywhere in the civic media stratosphere, Conrad.

You have the warmest spot in that control room.

Yeah, it gets pretty toasty in here.

Like 80.

Yeah, it gets nice and

toasty.

All right, I wanted to talk about this because Billy Bob Thornton, supposedly this show Landman, you know, the first season I liked, I don't like the wife character and the daughter and it's not because of them.

I know there are, you know, characters like that, but I don't, part of it is that I don't like that a guy wrote them and I feel like they're way over the top.

It's not like

You know, they're hateable or anything.

It's just like when they're on the wife and the daughter, I just want them to get back to the oil stuff.

What makes it worse is Billy Bob Thorne.

We don't need to see a 70-year-old guy doing a sex scene, much less doing full-frontal nudity.

You ever done full-frontal nudity, Con?

No.

Not even like when you take a shower.

I don't mean in front of a camera.

I just mean, no.

So Billy Bob Thornton.

I always shower with a swimsuit on.

That's best to be safe.

But Billy Bob, like, I will say this.

OK, first of all, we don't need to see that.

I get his down home folksiness.

He's a fun character.

The first season was OK.

This season is bad.

It's just not.

I watched three episodes.

I am not digging it at all.

And Taylor Sheridan is a great writer.

He wrote Heller High Water.

I like the prequels to Yellowstone.

I didn't love Yellowstone.

He's certainly capable of writing great stuff.

He's a better writer than I ever was.

So I'm not saying it.

I'm not coming at it from that approach, but I just find it... I don't know.

I would love to hear what people think about Landman Season 2.

However, Billy Bob Thornton, we don't need to see a sex scene with him.

He is doing full frontal nudity this season.

I have not seen it yet, but here's where I'm going with this Conrad.

You know, I've talked about how I feel like, you know, women typically are naked in movies much more than men.

And regardless of body type, they just put it out there probably because it's expected of them the way things were in Hollywood.

It's a little different now, I think.

But when men are naked now, it's like...

They're saying, well, let's even score.

Now there's a lot more male nudity.

It kind of doesn't count because men are using prosthetics because of their own insecurities or the writer's insecurity.

Whoever is responsible for it.

It's not right.

However, Billy Bob Thornton chose to use a prosthetic in this episode of Landman.

So to his credit.

He did not he didn't go for the the oversized prosthetic like we've seen in some of these other TV shows he went for a medium prosthetic Does that evoke any kind of questions in you Conrad

you know this this has reminded me of a scene in friends

Okay,

where Joey was auditioning you know for a role

And

the

person needed to be fully Jewish and he was not.

Oh,

right.

And

how do I say this?

He needed four

skin.

So maybe

crafted or no, it was not Phoebe was Monica.

She's the chef.

And

it fell off.

It's like a piece of baloney or something, right?

They probably tried

to.

Yeah, it fell off while he was auditioning.

See and that's why I guess that's that's a little different.

It's funny.

Yeah, it just reminded me of it, but

I also know it's like I guess to each

their own I guess either don't do it.

Yeah, just be yourself.

You don't have to like like Billy Bob Thornton to say that no, just give me a medium one Most people might go well, how small is it?

Oh, it's just it's just when you're when all the cameras are on you You know, it's like George Costanza used to say

You probably get shrinkage or something and it's just you want it to look a certain way.

I guess I have to see the episode.

I haven't seen it.

I just feel like there's a little bit of a double standard here Yeah, and you know kudos to Billy Bob Thornton for didn't for not saying you know make me look like you know I don't know whatever a porno actor or something But I do think the second season of that show is just really bad.

It's kind of just trashy Not a fan

How are we doing on text, Connor?

Are we keeping up?

Well, we got some texts that you can read if you'd like.

Oh, here we go.

Kate from Hayward in the 715 says, Ollie says, thank you for the nice compliment.

You're very welcome, Kate.

Give Ollie a high five for us.

Yeah.

Say thank you for her calls.

Ollie's great.

Tony the trucker in the 608 says, Pete, I compliment you and Conrad for keeping me entertained every night while delivering groceries.

Also, all pies are good.

Some are just better than others, except for mud pies.

Now, what is a mud pie?

Isn't that what they call cow feces?

Cow pie?

I've heard of cow pies.

I've never heard of mud pie unless you're talking like a chocolate ice cream deal.

I don't know, Tony.

Thank you for the compliment.

That was a nice compliment.

See, this question is going over.

Gangbusters, Khan, I knew it would.

All right, when we come back after New Sports and weather, Rob Thomas will be here.

We're talking Oscars, movies, actors.

It doesn't get any better than that.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.

So glad you're here, folks.

It's the Civic Media Radio

Network.

Welcome back.

We will get caught up on texts soon, folks.

I will just read these a couple before we bring Rob on here.

Barb from the 262 says, I'm impressed in complimenting all the Minnesota protesters outside today in the brutal cold conditions.

Yeah, that is how you definitely test your will for a cause.

That's

That is dedication.

Thank you, Barb.

Appreciate the text.

Monica from Mount Horrib in the 608 says, I would like to compliment the Dane County Highway Department for doing a great job on snow removal on the highways.

Also, I made a pear pie a couple nights ago.

It was delicious.

I don't think I've ever had pear pie.

Ever had pear pie, Con?

I don't believe so.

It doesn't sounds...

Doesn't sound familiar.

Yeah, you're

gonna have to look at the stream comments and tell me what to make of Dave's because I have no idea So maybe we can get a translator there after we talk to our next guest who Joins us now over the stream from Madison as he so often does It's an exciting time of the year the movie business.

There are award shows everywhere They pop up every week, but the grand 80 of them all

It takes place March 15th and they are called the Oscars and here to talk about the Oscars with us and help us Make sense and dissect this year's nominations is Madison film critic Rob Thomas.

Hey pal.

How are you?

I'm good Pete.

How are you doing very well?

I've been looking forward to this for a couple weeks actually I knew when the Oscar nominations were dropping and It's just exciting stuff

It is, yeah.

Some big surprises, kind of expected.

And it's funny because now we've got like two months

to wait until the

ceremony.

It's so long.

But that's okay.

I have, I've only seen four of the best picture nominees so far.

So I gotta play some ketchup.

But before we get into the movies, I have to ask you, would you like to compliment someone, Rob, or something?

Sure.

That's an interesting

question.

You could think about it too

if

you want.

I don't think about it.

I mean, Pete, I'll compliment you.

I've always had a great time on the show.

I want to compliment Conrad.

He always gets me the the links and gets me set up so I'm hot to go.

And yeah, it's a very smooth process here.

Well, for what it's worth, Rob, we're always fishing for compliments.

So there I figure.

And do you have a favorite kind of pie?

I love pecan pie.

Pecan.

Nice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, some other fancy pies, but a good pecan pie at Thanksgiving.

You can't beat.

It's so funny.

I was not a pecan pie guy when I was younger.

That's something I kind of grew into.

And now I love it.

Like I love pecans.

I think the same.

I was the same that I was more like, oh, give me a banana cream or a cherry pie.

And now as you're older, I think of pecan pies.

You put away childish pies and you get something a little more mature.

You have a more sophisticated palette.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Well, folks, if that wasn't genuine enough, if you didn't trust Rob before his talk about his love for Pi and his thoughtfulness should tell you that what he's about to tell you about the Oscar nominations are going to be spot on.

So yeah, let's jump in.

But before I say anything, Rob, I'll start us off here.

F1, best picture.

Really?

Huge surprise.

That one, I didn't see anybody predicting that.

What is the deal?

I don't know.

I liked it.

I saw

it

twice.

Very enjoyable, you know, trying to make a top good Maverick out of F1 auto racing.

Yeah, I don't know.

It just kind of came out of nowhere.

And I know some people are a little miffed that it knocked out, you know, it's maybe a smaller film.

like it was just an accident or um no other choice but um yeah that's hollywood i guess

i it's almost like i want to say like look red pit got his oscar a few years ago yeah what is this is like an ad for f1 racing and that's you know just basing that on what i read i liked it it was fun to watch but that's yeah mixing

it

Yeah, it was basically a two hour commercial for F1.

They worked really closely with the Formula One team.

I mean, they shot on the tracks like right before the races would start.

I mean, it's pretty amazing how they put it together.

But yeah, I was just like, I was really surprised to see it there, even though there's nine other movies.

And I don't think it has a chance of winning Best Picture, but to see it sneak in there was pretty crazy.

It was crazy,

too, because the film, I like the pit stuff.

A lot of it was fascinating and riveting, but whatever.

I don't know.

That's why I'm not in the academy.

So what did you think overall of the Best Picture nominations?

Were the surprises other than maybe F1?

Well, I was thinking of you because Train Dreams got a Best Picture.

I know that's one you loved and I haven't seen yet.

That's one of two I haven't seen.

So I was really happy to see that.

Um, and I was really happy, you know, sinners is one of my favorites.

And I kind of knew it would get some nominations, but 16 nominations, the boat, I think the most of any film, um, and the fact that like, like I wasn't hearing people talking much about how great Michael B. Jordan was and playing twins in that movie.

And like you watch it and like, you know, instantly, which.

which are the twins you're watching, because his performance is so great and so subtle between the two.

It wasn't a parent trap situation.

I feel it was more sophisticated than that.

No offense to Haley Mills.

So I was happy.

He got nominated like Delroy Lindo, who's like a great character, nominated for best supporting actor.

And so that was, I think that was the one that I was just really happy that people did not forget that movie, even though it came out in April of last year.

Yeah, it's hard to, um, it's interesting because I think like with Michael B. Jordan, he played twins.

Like you said, smoke and stack.

Yep.

And I thought, ah, come on, what is this gimmick?

You know, this is just whatever.

But when you watch it, it's like, no, it makes total sense.

Yeah.

He does a great job.

So that was very well said.

Um, and also 16 nominations.

And I read that it was like, if it broke it by one, it was all about Eve, Titanic and La La Land that received 14.

That was a record.

Okay.

But if now, I think is it casting that is the new category?

Oh, that's right.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I forget where I think I read this in Variety and said if they had gotten 15, you would have an asterisk, but they broke it by two, like a phenomenal thing.

And now I almost think like, and I've said this before, I liked one battle after another, I think a little bit better, but I love both films.

But sinners with all those nominations and everything Ryan Coogler crushed.

it would almost be a surprise if it didn't win.

Yeah, it's interesting.

I mean, typically if you're betting that the movie with the most nominations tend to clean up.

But then there's also that thing where some years they seem to be like trying to give every movie a little something, you

know?

So like

sometimes a film will get best director and then another film will get best picture, which is like...

You know, the director directed the movie, right?

That's kind of their job.

So why did they not win Best Picture?

But

that happened with Mad Max Fury Road, I think George Miller didn't get the director, but at one best pair or something like that.

Something

like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They said, I've seen that more and more over years.

You know, to me, I think one battle after another is still the front runner.

I think Hamnet would be the one that would really upset it.

Um, I think Jesse Buckley is kind of a lock for best actress for Hamnet.

But now with sinners making such a strong showing, I mean, you could say it's probably a three way, at least a three way race for a best picture.

So.

You didn't mention marty supreme in there and i've heard that a lot too i have not seen that yet where does that rank in here

message i could be up there too i think the chalamet has a really really strong shot of getting best actor i've seen it twice i saw it with my brother last week and he was like wow that's really dark for a movie about ping pong that was a funny reaction uh but it's i think it's i think i really love it uh it's a movie that makes you very anxious and you know it's sort of.

Following this guy who's like ping pong champ and his ups and downs and he doubles down and he wins and then he loses it all and you know, it's and Um, I do wonder if that would play as well for like the average academy voter Um, but maybe I would yeah, I would probably put that in like the You know fourth or fifth slot maybe an upset

For me, I guess

at least yeah,

my guest is rob thomas.

He's a madison based film critic and he is also the city cast at madison newsletter editor

And he joins us here often to talk movies.

And we love when he's here, Rob.

So given what you just said, and I haven't seen the film, but I've heard that.

Like my son compared it to uncut gems or something like that.

But he likes Chalamet's performance a lot.

So who's the front runner, in your opinion, for best

actor right now?

I think it would be Timothy Chalamet.

I think.

Yeah.

I mean, also because.

You know, he's on a roll.

He did so, you know, the Bob Dylan movie, a complete unknown.

He was also nominated for very different kind of performance.

I think, you know, I'm trying to look at them.

I think if there's an upset, you know, people love Ethan Hawke and he's really good

in

Blue Moon, which at this point, I don't think is a movie that a lot of people have seen, but they're bringing back into theaters.

It's probably on streaming and he plays a very different, you know, Ethan Hawke, I love, but he a lot of times he's playing sort of the same guy, kind

of a

scruffy, grascal, you know, and I love that persona, but he's like totally different in Blue Moon playing this, um, uh, drawn

card.

Yeah.

But, you know, he's like, he's shorter and has none of the charisma of Ethan Hawke and, and, um, it's a really, you know, it's one of those.

performances that Oscars really like where an actor transforms himself, right, and plays

a real

person and is very different.

So, and like I said, I think people really like him.

And he's had like, if you think about it, he's had a career that's probably 40 years at this point, going back to when he was a kid and explorer explorers and dead poet society.

So that's the one of the group there that I would say would be spoiler.

Although again,

Michael B. Jordan was great in centers and, you know, and

if

that kind of thing, if it's like a wave for centers that might end up picking him up as well.

Boy, that would be something.

It's an interesting element.

How did they do the height?

I think Lauren's heart was like.

five, two or something.

Right.

How did they do that?

Was it, did they do like a thing like in Clifford with Martin Short and Charles Groton?

Or his head was at the bottom

of the screen.

I,

or Tim Conway and Dorf.

Remember that where he would have his knees in the sneakers.

I

always loved that.

I think it was like a lot of, I think they would like put him lower, like a lower platform than everybody else and shoot, do kind of tricks with perspective and stuff.

Cause he did really seem like a little guy.

And it was pretty, yeah.

I mean, at some points it was a little distracting, quite honestly, because it

was like, did

you really need to make it that, you know, make a point of how little he was like that?

But for the most part, I worked in like, again, Ethan Hawke's performance is so good and so different from anything I've seen him do.

I'm excited to see that one too.

So, okay, I feel like too with Timothy Chalamet,

You know, he might be one of those guys, if he didn't win it for Dylan, such an iconic character, maybe he's going to be one of those guys where it is like Brad Pitt, where they drag it out and then finally, or Leonardo DiCaprio for that matter.

And then he got this one.

And I will say DiCaprio's performance, I thought he's not like a bona fide leading man in it.

There's a great ensemble in that movie, but he is kind of the lead and he's really good.

Like he uses comedy.

It's just a way that's great acting, almost like an Albert Brooks type.

It comes out of the character, you know?

Oh, I totally agree.

Yeah, he's very funny.

In fact, the scenery got tased.

I keep thinking about how funny he was when

that

happened.

Yeah, I would say that's the strongest performance in that movie, but I think Sean Penn and the Chase Infinity plays his daughter great, too.

But yeah, I'm rooting for him.

It's all great stuff.

We're going to come back with Rob Thomas after this very short break and continue our talk about the Oscar nominations.

Text us who you'd like to compliment or what you'd like to compliment folks.

It's Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

That it won't take them all in my life

Welcome back Dave on the stream shared with us a text that just reads a nice pair of breasts and I don't really I don't recall a pie that has anything to do with that or the question

I guess that's the compliment or we were talking about prosthetics and Billy Bob Thornton's prosthetic and landman and maybe he's a stream of consciousness thing.

I don't know.

My guess is he's a

compliment.

Usually you compliment the owner, don't you?

You don't talk directly to the breasts,

right?

Yeah, you

can, I suppose, but that's

every

behavior.

Is etiquette is

social

behavior.

No classic.

I'm up here.

Right.

Yeah.

My eyes are up here.

Yeah.

Thank you, Dave.

It's fun to figure out.

Dave is usually pretty direct, but it's fun to have to break down or diagram this.

My guest is Rob Thomas.

We're talking about the Oscars.

The nominations came out yesterday.

Some great films this year.

As usual, but some great performances as well as well Rob before we get on to the actress actresses.

I think I told you I've seen four films.

I've seen F1 One battle after another sinners and train dreams of the remaining six begonia Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme and the secret agent and sentimental value Where should I start?

What of the ones I haven't seen?

What should I see?

So I've seen eight.

I have not seen begonia.

I had not seen train dreams, but you've seen

I mean, I think Hamnet is spectacular and I think Jesse Buckley is going to win for Best Actress.

I think set the mental value is fantastic.

And I think, like I said, I think Marty Supreme is just a really

You know so much momentum watching that movie like it's like yeah, like it like it flies by like something is always happening There's always some new eccentric character.

He's running into and having to deal with Great even when I set in the 50s the score is like the eight like an 80 score And it's just really interesting and and honestly great ping-pong action.

So did you want so those would be the three I would say

All right, cool.

And

what about the I'll tell you the one I'm most want to see or I'm most curious about is what I've heard from you and other critics and just what I've read about is the secret agent.

It's supposed to be dynamite.

Yeah, it's a wild movie.

It's a you know, it's set during the you know, during the 70s and way to more plays this.

Professor kind of on the run from the repressive regime and and but it's also very funny and very cinematic as well as the thriller almost surreal It's definitely not what you expect So I was really pleasantly surprised.

It's getting so much so much attention.

Yeah, oh, that's great Okay,

so let's move on to the actors of best actresses and best actors what so we talked about I didn't realize was was taking the Lord a

Oh, he's best supporting actor.

Okay.

Yeah.

So we've got

Yeah, right.

So we've got best actor Timothy Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, Michael B. Jordan and Wagner Mora.

And we talked a little bit about that.

Who would surprise you if they won

there?

Yeah, probably Wagner Mora.

I mean, even though he's great.

It's just such a different kind of movie.

And also, he's very

low key and controlled in that movie because he's playing a guy who's kind of on the run from secret police and hit men and stuff.

So he doesn't have a big scene the way the other four do to some degree.

So it's a very understated performance.

But I mean, I would not be mad at all if he if he pulled it upset.

Let's

let's pick make a prediction.

And then I'm sure we'll talk before the Oscars, Rob, we can circle back but

I'm going to say Michael B. Jordan is going to win this year.

I don't know.

I think he deserves it.

And I don't even like the guy.

He was drag racing on Hollywood Boulevard.

And I have no tolerance for people that endanger other people's lives.

Oh, wow.

Probably not a nice guy in real life.

But maybe I'm wrong.

But he was excellent.

And I'm going to say Michael B. Jordan.

OK.

I think I'm going to say Timothy Shallow.

I think I'm going to say it's his year to win.

Very cool.

All right best actress you said Jesse Buckley for Hamlet.

She is kind of the frontrunner I've read that a lot of different places even though I haven't seen Hamlet Who would surprise you if they won between Jesse Buckley Rose burn for if I had legs I'd kick you Kate Hudson and song song blue kind of a Wisconsin favorite maybe given the subject matter The girl from sentimental value the only girl I don't know how to pronounce her name and then Emma Stone from the good

Yeah, Renati, is it Reinceva?

Apologize if I got that wrong.

That's the

last name I don't know.

Yeah, it was great, although she was also great in the director's previous film, The Worst Person in the World.

I mean, I think Emma Stone is probably just because she's already got two, you know, and she's got two Oscars.

With?

Jorgos Lanthimos, right?

Yes, same director.

Yeah.

So, I mean, it's so funny how she's become his muse, really, and is in all his films.

Yeah.

That would really surprise me.

And Rose Byrne would surprise me.

And if I had legs, I'd kick you just because that's a movie I don't think as many people have seen as some of the other ones.

I have

not seen that.

Yeah.

And I think Kate Hudson's great in songs.

She's the best thing in that movie.

And I'm really happy she's getting

recognized for that aside from the the home state connection she plays you know one half of the Singing to lightning and thunder and very and she's very entertaining and her character probably goes through the most Most of an arc compared to Hugh Jackman's character in the movie, right?

What about supporting at we got supporting actress and supporting actor elf fanning for sentimental value Inga Obstotter Linneas

I had to say that earlier.

I'll take your word for it.

Amy Madigan, Wummy Masuku, and Tiana Taylor.

I love Tiana Taylor.

I

like

her too, yeah.

I think Amy Madigan's a good way to play Aunt Gladys in my fights.

What a wild performance.

Yeah, the whole movie I was going, who is that?

I know that face, I know that

mouth.

You know what I mean?

Like I was trying to put it together.

Um, can we keep you robbed through the news?

Absolutely.

We can finish this up and I got a couple of city cast Madison I want to talk about the best sandwich in Madison

because I think

that's the net made me hungry So we'll do all that after the break when we start act three Rob Thomas is here on a bar ban Friday night But no Terry bar but Conrad and I are going to give each other quizzes folks And that'll be musical in its own way.

All right.

We are coming right back This is nightlight with each wobble on the civic media radio network

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Peach Waba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who considers a silver medal, a participation award, Peach Waba.

It is time for Act 3 on this Friday night edition of Night Light.

Great to have you here, folks.

Rob Thomas is my guest.

We will be back with Rob in just a moment.

If you missed our discussion last hour, feel free to go to civicmedia.us and check it out.

We were talking about Oscars and our reactions to the nominations which dropped yesterday.

If you missed hour number one, that might be worth a listen too.

to the podcast at civicmedia.us.

Joseph Williams, the lead singer of Toto, was here.

We had a great time talking to Joseph about his, just his career with Toto and his famous father, John Williams, who is probably the most famous film composer of all time.

And that was a lot of fun as well.

There were no sneezes tonight, no toenails flying into, or fingernails, I should say, flying into coffee.

Last night's show was a lot more gross.

Would you agree with that, Con?

Yeah, I would say you needed, you know...

More

seriously, I thought I thought you had matured since last night and you didn't need to play that over especially we have a guest Conran you're

playing Rob would like to hear that because it was it was pretty loud.

So why on earth?

It was impressive

I agree if you're gonna sneeze let it fly It's dangerous to try and smother

it that's the voice of Rob Thomas our guest who has agreed to stick around a little bit into act three here

Yeah, it's horrible Rob.

I don't know if I can't that was gross because I'm coming off a cold here and it was just it's a horrible thing because usually I sneeze loud and my kids go God dad really like they think I'm doing it on purpose and I can't control it

Yeah, I mean a dad sneeze is a thing of beauty though.

I mean I think I mean I have my own patented sneeze

Well, if it ever comes up during the show, feel free to share the Rob's knees, the dad's knees, whatever we appreciate

that.

I appreciate this being a safe space.

Exactly.

All right.

So we were talking about the Oscars and I think we were on, oh, Amy Madigan, you said you kind of predicted would win for her role in weapons and she was great.

And did we say, did you have a male supporting actor?

No, we didn't talk about supporting actor.

I would lean towards Benicio del Toro one bell after another.

I think he's so fantastic in that movie playing.

Sensei,

such

a funny, warm, and in his own way, like very heroic character, right?

Like he's keeping that resistance together in a very empathetic way.

And it's very grounded and I like I mean and and again another actor who's been so good for so long That that's the one I would I lean towards although I mean also you didn't see Frankenstein did you I have not seen Frankenstein yet.

I mean Jacob Elordi is amazing as Frank like it's a whole other kind of acting then I've seen from him or in movies this year like it's almost like Interpretive dance in a weird way.

So like yeah, so if anybody would

Take it from Benicio.

I think it would be

him.

Okay, I'm gonna Not think out the box.

I'm gonna go conservative here and go with Sean Penn Because I he's he's just been there so many times which works against him I think and he's controversial all that but he was great like the choices he made I felt could have been way over the top But they totally grew on me and I thought he became the character.

I thought he was great.

Yeah.

Yeah, such an eccentric weirdo, but so yeah

and such a good villain, but also so pathetic and kind of funny and yeah, he's great.

There's very few, especially in the acting, where I'd be like, oh, that's too bad they won instead of somebody else.

There's not a

really good performance this last year.

I loved Benicio del Toro, too, but I almost thought he was not even in the movie as much as I would have liked him to have been.

That's true.

Yeah,

that's

true.

But he was outstanding.

Director, got

a prediction?

That's interesting.

I mean, I would say Paul Thomas Anderson for one battle just because he's never won and like, I mean, he's,

is that true?

That's what I believe

that's

true.

Yeah.

If I'm wrong, please correct me.

But

no,

I'm

sure you're

right.

But again,

you know, go back to sinners.

Ryan Cootler was just that's such an amazing film that film takes such big swings and connects with nearly all of them is so entertaining.

I almost would like to see them split Best Director and Best Film, because I like those so much.

Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah, but I would say if I'm predicting, I'd say probably Paul Thomas Anderson.

Okay.

I couldn't argue with that.

I mean, as much as I think Ryan Coogler, has he won an Oscar for Panther or anything?

Not maybe for Director, but... Yeah, I'm not sure.

Not sure, yeah.

But I'm with you.

I think a split there would be great, actually, even though it would be totally conciliatory, like they're just doing it to make both of them happy out of respect, you know what I mean?

Right.

Hard to

argue with that.

Very cool.