Sturgeon Spirits, Slow Dances, and A Road at Night (Hour 2)

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

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

a man barely six feet tall, but a mountain of muscle.

Pete Schwabba.

Welcome back folks.

All right, we are kicking off act number two here.

606 in the evening, a perfect time to talk about the things we love in this world and do it on the radio, movies, TV, comedy, sturgeon.

All kinds of fun stuff tonight.

If you missed hour number one, you're going to want to check that out in podcast form at civicmedia.us.

My guest was Carl Lowenstein.

He's still here.

We'll be back with Carl in just a moment, but we're talking about his great distillery in Oshkosh and a very cool event he has coming up.

I'll tell you more about that in just a moment.

Coming up this hour is John Roach.

He will be here at 6.35.

John and I first met.

at PBS Wisconsin last year for the Wisconsin Film Festival episode of Directors Cut, which I host on PBS, and I got to know John, and I love, love, love his work.

His resume is incredible.

Co-writer of The Straight Story that was directed by David Lynch and co-written by Mary Sweeney, drew some Oscar nominations, and he created this really cool show in Chicago years ago called The Sports Writers on TV, which was kind of sports radio before there was sports radio.

But tonight he will be joining me to talk about the screening coming up of his new film, A Road at Night, about UW basketball player and coach Howard Moore, who was in a terrible accident with his family.

John made a riveting and really gripping documentary, and it's about to be unleashed on the public, and I highly recommend you see it.

But he'll be here to tell us all about how we can do that.

And then in hour number three, Bode Benz, a filmmaker with a Western.

at the Dore County Film Festival, which launches next week.

I will be there giving the keynote address.

It will be fun.

Hope you come on out, but we'll talk to Bodie about his film in hour number three.

Our question of the night is what is your favorite slow dance song?

And we are falling a little bit behind on text, but we'll get to those in just a minute, folks.

So hang in there and let us know what you think is the best song.

to Slowdance, too.

Before we get back to Carl, we have a call, Conrad.

Yes.

Who's calling us on Mom Bell?

Ollie from the Northwoods.

Ollie,

how are you?

Well, I'm fine.

First off, I'd like to say happy birthday to Conrad's mom, Paula.

Well, that's, wow, is that sweet.

Keep being 30 for a long, long

time.

You know why that's so sweet that you're wishing Conrad's

Mom, a happy birthday, Ollie, because Conrad's mom doesn't really like you, but you're still

wishing.

Oh,

I'm kidding, Ollie,

of course.

Well, that's OK.

I still wish you a happy birthday.

Ollie, I can't imagine anybody not liking you.

I can't imagine people to like you is to be like a ball.

That's true.

And you are certainly that.

You're one of our faves, and you know that.

What's going on tonight?

Well, I'd like to say two songs.

One is Elvis.

Singing I can't help falling in love with great

one.

That's

a great other one was angel baby.

Oh, yeah, it was I from the 50s, right?

Yeah, I think it's like 50s or early 60s.

Um, I know it was sung by a woman.

Yeah, I don't know what the group was

Conrad can Google that.

Well, hang on.

After you hang up, listen and we'll tell you who it was.

Conn is googling

that

as we speak, even though it's his mom's birthday.

Ollie, thank you so much as always.

Have a wonderful evening.

You too.

Bye-bye.

See, Carol, you know, it doesn't kill you to pick a slow song.

That's a nice dance song.

That's true.

That is totally true.

I have a good idea to pick a song.

Carl Lowenstein is here, folks.

He's the founder of Sturgeon Spirits, a really outstanding distillery that builds community as well as creates great cocktails and mocktails.

He is here in the studio and a nightlight sponsor, and we love his sponsorship.

And I love reading his commercials because he gives us recipes periodically.

That's kind of brave that you give out the recipes for people to make at home rather than come into your, I mean...

we're statewide so.

But I think it's a great one of the things that's made our place awesome is that I can't I can only take credit for finding great people to help who uh Tanya who is in at at the distillery today is an amazing flavor master and she can put together the best combinations that you can imagine you're trying one of her combinations right here today she in fact made that up

right before we left really she said i said i need something with blackberry that we could do blackberry and you know a nice berry thing and she's like sure done

and that's what's great as we were talking earlier folks that less and less people are drinking you said 56 percent of americans drink now something like that is it a little higher in wisconsin

i'm sure it is i don't think it was a dead

end question broken down by state but we've got i've got a mocktail carls got a mocktail

Without the mock and they're they're delicious.

So check out sturgeon spirits But before we forget again, you told us about this great thing you're doing on the 14th and we failed to mention that that's another In addition to you having an oh bar out on the ice a mile out on Lake Winnebago for sturgeon spearing which is

cool on its own.

It's also cool that it's Valentine's Day, but it's even cooler that it's a big day for Sturgeon Spirits.

Tell us about that.

That's right.

I totally forgot to mention because I love Sturgeon so much that it's our third anniversary.

We've made it three years

and

then it's been incredible, incredible time and incredible experience.

And so we're celebrating that actually the second weekend.

So February 21st is our third anniversary party and we'll have a band and we'll have food and we'll have a lot of fun stuff going on and the distillery itself.

Todd will still be on the ice.

on the 21st if you want to come out and visit him then.

So we are going crazy to celebrate the sturgeon this year.

That's great.

I love how you got carried away with the sturgeon.

I forgot to mention your own true history professor like you used to be.

Tell us where sturgeon spirits is and what people can expect when they go there, if they go there to take a tour or whatever.

So our place is in South Oshkosh.

It's 2663.

Oregon Street in Oshkosh.

And if you have some sense, we're right next to the airport on the east side of the airport.

We are just about two miles south of downtown.

We have a self-standing facility where we do all our production.

And then we have a tasting room and cocktail bar.

And in fact, you mentioned our flavors.

We have over 300 cocktails on our menu right now.

And new ones are being created even as we speak.

Pete is drinking a brand new cocktail that will be on the menu.

We probably should call it the Schwabba.

I think that's got a nice

to a car.

I think we're going to do that.

The macuba.

So let me ask you this.

I'm fascinated, but when I drank it was always spirits.

I wasn't really a beer guy, some wine I like, and occasionally a beer, but I love spirits.

And I remember watching Mash and they had a still.

in their tent, Hawkeye and BJ or a trapper.

And I thought, man, it'd be cool to make.

It just looked like a cool process.

And so I thought if I ever made my own alcohol, it would be spirits.

I don't think that's going to happen now.

But talk us through that process.

Like, how involved is it?

And what have you learned since you've been doing it?

Oh, I love doing it.

So this is my hobby.

I actually started distilling probably 10 years ago in my garage.

My wife kicked me out of the house because she was afraid I would blow it up.

So I had to be in the separated garage and I was out there in the cold.

Were you doing meth too or something out there?

You're boiling a volatile chemical, right?

So the way you distill is you take...

big essentially beer or you take it make a mash that say 10% alcohol 11% alcohol so like a stiff beer and you essentially boil it in a pressure cooker and the chemistry is pretty simple in that the steam when it comes off that boiling liquid alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water so the first steam that comes off of a 10% alcohol solution is pure ethanol

And that's what you collect.

And so you're always watching your temperature.

You're keeping it between 172, which is the boiling point of ethanol, and 212, which is the boiling point of water.

And so that steam is alcohol steam.

And then you catch it and you run it in copper because copper cleans it up.

There's a chemical reaction that makes ethanol better when it touches copper.

And that's why stills have those big copper tops on them.

It's because it makes better.

booze.

And then you shock it with cold water, so that turns the steam back into liquid and collect it.

No kidding.

And that's what they were doing.

If you think about Trapper, they had that really nice like lab setup, but that's all they were doing.

They would put essentially that beer or whatever they were making in the bottom and then you heat it and the steam that comes off

is your alcohol.

Is it an expensive hobby?

Does it still cost a lot?

Do the materials cost a lot if people wanted to try it at

home?

It's super easy.

I bought my first still off of eBay, I think.

I bought a little five gallon.

pressure cooker with a copper.

It was really a piece of copper pipe stuck in the top.

So doing it on a small scale is super easy.

I probably paid a hundred bucks for it.

And I just started playing with that five gallon batches.

Now I'm running 150 gallon batches.

So it's a it's a much different animal.

And that's a lot of copper.

So it's not cheap anymore.

My guest is Carl Lowenstein.

He is the owner of Sturgeon Spirits, a distillery in Oshkosh.

They have a great event coming up February 14th.

They'll be serving.

For the first time ever, legally, booze out on the ice of Lake Winnebago while people will be spearing sturgeon and laughing and talking.

It's going to be a fun event.

What else you've got?

That's Valentine's Day, too.

What better Conrad get a date and take her to Lake Winnebago.

But don't tell her what's up.

Just surprise her.

And then, Carl, you got your third anniversary celebration on the 21st a week later, correct?

Perfect, yep.

Very cool stuff.

How do you know when you have a good flavor?

Like, let's say this is excellent, but how much experimenting goes into this and how do you know when you have something?

You just taste it and it's like, yeah, that's great.

I think of distilling as more of an art than a science.

I can almost tell by...

the smell, whether something's going to be good.

And then actually, it's Tuesday night.

If you were having this talk in the distillery, Atanya is testing out the new cocktails on the customers.

No way.

So if you happen

to be in the distillery on

Tuesday night, she's got a spread of six, seven, eight cocktails that she is putting together.

And she's like, what do you think of this one?

What do you think of this one?

It's awesome.

So 300 flavors, though.

How long did

it take you to get the 300 flavors?

We add them

all the time.

I don't even want to tell you, we have actually over 700 in our cocktail book.

So we've cut it down to only 300 that our customer

is facing.

That's so great.

What are your best sellers?

I'll tell you this, let's do this.

If people come to Sturgeon Spirits, let's say they're listening to this and they're like, I got to check that out and they go in.

If they've never tried any of your products, what would you steer them toward?

What's your specialty?

So our number one seller for all three years is an espresso martini.

And part of the reason that is our vodka is terrific, but we also make our own coffee liqueur that is 100 times better than Kahlua.

So

you do

vodka, our coffee liqueur, and a shot of espresso.

Best espresso martini you'll ever have and it's been our bestseller from day one

That is very convincing that sounds I'll tell you what when I come in there I will try that too and you can put the booze in it.

I'll even have a sip Conrad you need to tag along though and say you've had enough Pete

You can't be

officially on the wagon if you finish that whole damn martini

That's great stuff.

Check out Sturgeon Spirits, folks.

Carl does a great job, and he is a student of history because he was a professor at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and you could tell that your love of history and Sturgeon, right there, that's a parallel, and then Booze as well.

It's great stuff.

This is outstanding, so thank you for coming in tonight.

Hey, thanks so much for having me.

It's been

great.

Any time.

It was good talking to you.

You too, buddy, and check out Sturgeon Spirits, and especially on the 14th out on Lake Winnebago.

their lake bar.

And on the 21st, helping them celebrate their third anniversary.

That's impressive.

Three years.

A lot of businesses don't make it six months, right?

That's the hardest three years, they say.

Oh, well, good for you.

You're in the clear.

You're loaded.

I need a loan.

Carl Lohanstein, thank you very much.

We will be back to read your texts and get caught up with that.

And then John Roach comes by at 635 to talk about a road at night.

It's Pete Schwab and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

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Happy Tuesday, everybody.

I'm Pete Schwabba.

This is Night Light.

It's great to have you here.

We are talking about movies and booze.

We got some movie talk coming up and a movie very close to Wisconsin's heart.

That's coming up at 6.35 when my pal John Roach joins the show to talk about his documentary A Road at Night, a really outstanding film that I cannot recommend enough.

Our question of the night is, what is the best song to slow dance to?

We do talk about music often on Nightlight, and tonight we're talking about dancing to that music.

You know, Conrad, I had one sip of that cocktail with booze in it, and I'm feeling it.

I don't think so.

You don't think so?

You don't think that's pot?

Like, my tolerance is zero.

You don't think even a sip could have anything?

Maybe placebo?

Maybe.

I'm gonna have to call an Uber.

That's a long Uber.

$150.

That's a $150 drink of that cocktail.

That's what it was.

Carl Lowenstein, always fun to talk to Carl.

That was great.

Mike from Madison in the 608 says, anything by Barry White.

Awesome, Mike.

That's a great text.

And I could not agree more.

Carolyn from Heartland in the 262 says, nights in white satin moody blues.

Again, a slow song.

I don't picture that as a song you slow dance to.

But you know what, Carolyn?

If the partner is right, it really doesn't matter.

So that's a great text.

Mike from Madison says, white punks on dope.

Not too familiar with that

one.

Is that a song?

Sounds very romantic, Mike.

Mark from Prairie to Sax says, three times a lady to Commodores.

Yeah, you can't go wrong with Commodores.

Great song.

608 says, unchained melody.

Another vote for unchained melody by the Righteous Brothers.

Classic slow dance song.

Jim from Brookfield says, good evening Pete.

My favorite slow dance song is Sleepwalk by the brothers Santo and Johnny.

My wife and I slowly danced to that song late one night on one of our first dates.

We were married within a year.

I hope you played it at your wedding, Jim, because that is a great story.

and obviously a very influential song.

Thank you for the text.

Tony the trucker in the 608 says, Pete, in seventh grade, we would slow dance to Hey Jude at sock hops in the middle school cafeteria and thought we were so cool.

I have no reason to believe you were not Tony the trucker.

That's fun.

But you know, Tony is showing his age kind of, you ever hear that phrase sock hop?

I have not.

It's a dance.

And I don't know where I think it has something to do with Bobby socks.

But like a real a real fifties thing.

Yeah, I would have loved to have experienced one of those Jim from Appleton says I think I already I'll read it again just in case best slow dance song of all time is nights in white satin the moody blues and another vote for nights in white satin John from Columbia County in the 608 says not just that 12 dreams of dr Sardinicious

Spirit Rocked, Rest in Peace, Randy Last, Saw in Chicago in 93.

John is very connected to that band.

Well, it led to wild sex.

Why wouldn't you be?

And again, what is wild sex, people?

It's different things to different people.

Some people are just happy having any kind of sex.

That could be wild.

Bridget in the 818 says, heaven by Brian Adams, our prom song.

I just loved it when I was younger.

Thank you, Bridget.

That's a great text.

And I remember that song as well.

Mark from Prairie to Sack Against as I've never gone to Spear Sturgeon, but I used to spear lawyers in the Magi River that goes into Lake Superior up north.

Now, I have a lot of lawyers in my family, and they've helped a lot of people.

So I don't have the animosity toward lawyers that Mark does.

I guess it depends on the kind of lawyer.

But I am having a very funny image in my head right now of lawyers kind of just a whole mess of lawyers swimming upstream in their suits and their trench coats around each other while Mark is trying to kill one of them.

Frankly, Mark, thank you for the text.

John again in Columbia County says, screw slow dancing, more fast sexing.

What if we got John on like the horniest night of the year for John?

He's just on fire right now.

Sal in Sun Prairie in the 608 says, Pete, I am not a drinker and the thimble of wine hits me when I get back in the, when I get back in the pew and my kids can't believe it.

So I understand that sip you had affected you.

Thank you, Sal.

And you know what?

We needed to challenge Conrad on that.

Cause I do feel something.

I mean, I'll feel drunk, but I feel it a little bit.

Thank you for the support, Sal.

Turning to the stream, Dave says, wonderful tonight.

Great song.

Eric Clapton, really good song.

Love, wonderful tonight.

Not as much as the song Cocaine, but it's up there.

Dave says, also, come sail away until the fast part.

I can't even picture the slow part, now that you say that, but.

Bill, sorry, Sydney Politics says, I want it on record that Ollie and I got beef.

What in the hell does that mean?

That you know, they got a hate for each other or something

No Ali already.

She's Ali nobody could ever hate Ali.

No, it's Sydney politics I'm gonna change your name to Sydney contentious because that's not right.

We got a call Yeah, Richard from Waukesha Richard from Waukesha.

Hi, how's it going buddy?

No, it's going pretty good today.

It's a nice day today.

Yeah, it's not too bad.

Yeah, I got some

I learned something today.

See, I'm like a coffee cup collector.

Oh, yeah.

Sure.

Coffee mugs.

Love it.

With sayings on them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you know, I got some like from like live from New York kind of cars with sayings on them and this and that.

And I found one today and it's got a whole back story written and it's a true story.

It's about a woman.

from Minnesota that the state honored after a while and when she died hmm and her name her she got the name the root beer lady that's interesting did you ever hear such no name she was noted as being one of the best canoe paddlers and campers throughout her life oh nice and she uh

saved people in duress like Canoers that got stranded?

Hey Richard.

Hey Richard, we're up against the news.

Do you want to hang and finish the story after the news?

Yeah.

All right.

Hang on the line.

We'll finish this up.

We'll have about a minute after the news before we get to our guests.

So stick with us.

We are coming right back.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

My mic on time.

Yeah.

All right.

People heard me say welcome back.

Yes.

I don't want to be rude.

All right.

We have John Roach will be along momentarily, folks.

We were in the middle of a phone call before we were rudely interrupted by the news.

But Richard from Waukesha was telling us about a woman in Minnesota who saves people and how it relates to his coffee mug collection.

Richard, please continue.

We've got about a minute or so.

OK.

Well, it was a it's still on the shelf.

It was a toss up.

between that cup and another cup.

And I took the other cup, but this story is so interesting.

And it had such a great story.

It sounded like a nightingale, you know, like a kind of story.

And it's a fact.

And the state of Minnesota honored her.

And she did this most of her life.

They talk like she should have been like an Olympic canoe paddler.

So talented and it and she got the nickname the root beer lady and It was so interesting and then the other cup that I purchased Now this is the name of a band Mm-hmm.

It's got on it and I'm wondering I'm it's pretty long back I was real little and I'm kind of figure if it's the one I saw a couple times the showman

Are the legends

yeah,

there was the showman the legends and the fender men I'm trying to figure out which one is the one that you know was pretty famous and when I was really little I saw him at What they had years back was the Sentinel sports show?

Okay, and and this group performed and Whatever way I like the caption of the

the cup.

Yeah.

On each side, it says, I used to work with the legends.

Oh, that's awesome.

And coffee mugs are

reminded me of, yeah.

Yeah, they're a great thing to collect too.

And, you know, I mean, let's be honest, my goal in life is always to have a cool enough nickname that it fits on a coffee mug.

It could be part of your

collection.

Well, there's so many different ones, you know, yeah.

It's it's amazing.

That's awesome.

So I got a little collection, you know, some New York live at New York and you know, yeah, this and that and I got a couple soup bowls, you know, you want the soup, right?

Absolutely.

Who doesn't like

soup?

You don't know soup for you.

You

know, live from New York.

So there you go.

That's awesome.

I'm

curious about this woman.

Yeah, I know maybe con Google.

Root beer lady All right, thank you for the call my friend you have a great night Richard always fun to talk to you buddy.

Okay.

Thank you very much I Do I do really I've never had a cool nickname

her name the root beer lady her name was Dorothy Malter,

okay?

And that's why she changed it to the root beer lady.

Yeah, just has a better

ring to it.

I think

better Schwama

All right, we are going to turn our attention to our next guest, folks.

I am always excited when this gentleman is on the show because he is an extremely talented guy.

He's got an incredible resume with so many different credits and different genres, and he's kind of, he's sort of a master of all trades, jack of none, if that makes any kind of sense.

It is my pleasure to welcome tonight, Mr. John Roach.

Hey, buddy, how are you?

Hey, Pete, it's a...

jack of all trades master of none i think

no no no you reversed it man you turn that on its ear yeah how are you well john does not take well to compliments as you can see folks uh i'm very well thank you how are you doing tonight buddy

i'm good i'm good we're excited about the premiere of um a road at night um you you know you're a film guy um to get a theatrical run at marcus theaters with a small indie film locally produced is uh unusual

Yeah, but we've got a great coalition of people who've jumped in to help us and so we open There's a there's a premier gala on Thursday night the 12th, which is kind of an elevated ticket price Unabashedly a fundraiser for the Moore family and then it opens for the general public on Friday February 13th and runs through the 19th and if we have a strong opening weekend, it's a good shot will

Extend the run.

That's awesome.

All right, let's let's get into all that but first for people that don't Who aren't familiar with a your film and be the more family or Howard Moore Tell us tell us who Howard Moore was John and then we'll get into the film, please.

Well, Howard Moore still is he Howard was a schoolboy basketball player at Taft in Chicago and it was during the golden era of

Chicago schoolboy basketball, Mark Aguirre, Juwan Howard, three of the fab five, Michael Finley, Tracy Webster.

At any rate, Howard was recruited heavily by Northwestern, but made his visit to Madison and opted to go there.

So this is in the early 90s, late 80s,

early

90s at Wisconsin.

And Howard became a Pied Piper.

after Mike Finley signed with the Badgers and came up here and then Richard Griffith.

And they eventually became the first Badger team in 47 years to make the NCAA tournament.

And as Tom Oates says in the former sports columnist for the State Journal of Madison, he says that is the team that took the lid off and led to really consistent success through the years.

And then Howard came back.

And after he graduated, he became a coach under Bull Ryan, assistant coach.

So he coached, he recruited Frank Kamitsky, coach John Lauer, some of the great names in Wisconsin basketball.

But most importantly, Pete, this, he was a guy, as was his wife, Jennifer, he's beloved.

He only scored 99 points in his career at Wisconsin.

Oh yeah, that's right.

Once again, as Tom Oates says,

No one who scored 99 points had a greater effect on the program than Howard.

And sadly, while he was coaching, he left to be the head coach for University of Chicago, IC in Chicago, University of Illinois, IC, and then he came back to the Badgers as an assistant for Greg Guard when Bo Ryan left.

And in May of 2019,

He and his wife, Jennifer, their daughter, Jayden, their son, Jarell, got in the car, you know, coaches get Memorial Day weekend off.

There's no recruiting.

So they drive to Chicago to visit Howard's parents.

And then they decide to leave late at night to avoid the traffic to visit, to go to Detroit, Jennifer's hometown, to visit her mother.

And somewhere outside Ann Arbor, Michigan, at around 2 30 in the morning, they were hit head on by a drunk driver going the wrong way on the interstate.

And it's public record, Jennifer and Jayden were killed.

Jarell, who was only 12 at the time, was able to get his dad out of the car.

Howard had third degree burns over a third of his body, the upper part of his body.

And the story is really about how this band of brothers, these guys who played ball together, banded together again.

to help Howard and his son.

It's about love and loss and hope and the undying bonds of teammates.

That's a great description and I've seen the film folks it is it is outstanding and my only regret John is that I haven't been able to see it with an audience.

I missed the screening you guys did at the Barrymore at the Wisconsin Film Festival because I love to have you.

I had another screening that night, and I'm gonna be at the, I've already committed to the Dora County Film Festival next week, but I am determined to see this film with an audience because I've heard that like collectively and the community exists on the screen and off the screen when people see the film.

It's really just an incredible work.

So congrats on finishing it, congrats on the premiere.

And tell us now, okay, so you've got this premiere Friday, February 13th at Marcus Point Cinema in Madison.

Well,

we have a we have a private kind of gala fundraiser for the Moore family on Thursday night.

We're 225 bucks Greg guard some of the basketball team members will be there and you know other Stars in the athletic firmament and then Friday nights open to the public we have panels every night for Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday Thursday night is

really a gathering of the basketball community who knows Howard.

And then Friday night, it's a filmmaker's panel, myself, Joe Fung, my DP, an editor who played such an important role.

Doug Moe is going to be doing the Q&A, and Jarell Moore is going to join us, Howard Sun, who's now a sophomore in college at Edward University.

And then Saturday is another kind of basketball

Interview with more basketball luminaries coming some haven't been announced yet, but there's some pretty big names

and

then Sunday very interestingly You saw the film and We didn't plan on doing this but we dealt with the issue of faith Howard and his family are people of great faith faith.

I admire I don't necessarily

have that level of faith.

Perhaps I wish I did.

I had 12 years of Catholic education,

so I'm not uneducated.

16 here, John.

Yeah, I'm with

you.

There you go.

But I was just moved by the faith that the Moors have and some of Howard's teammates, and two of Howard's pastors were interview subjects on the dock, and they were powerful.

When something like this happens, it's not unusual for people to say why.

As many people said, this is the last family that anything bad should have happened.

They're active in the charitable community.

Howard had a foundation.

No one deserves it, but they deserved it even less.

And you have to ask yourself why.

And so we delved into that issue with,

his two pastors as well as his teammates, coaches, because everyone asks that question of themselves.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

And so we took on that question.

And so the panel on Sunday is with one of Howard's pastors and myself just because it's such an interesting editorial topic because

We didn't set out to include that in the doc.

That, you know, doing a doc is you're peeling the onion, right?

It's an exercise in discovery.

And it was very difficult to tell the story without dealing with the Moore's faith.

John Roach is my guest.

He is the director and filmmaker behind A Road at Night, which you can see the weekend of February 12th, 13th, 14th.

The first night is a fundraiser for the Moore family, which the film tells their story.

It's a great film.

I've seen it on the stream.

We've got a text, John Krause, who is one of the organizers of the Dork County Film Festival, says, sounds like a very powerful film, John Roach.

I hope to catch one of the Marcus screenings.

So it would be great if you guys... Oh, great.

We'd love to see you.

That would be great if you guys did get some kind of run because I think more people should see this.

You know, John, as much as I got to know Howard and his family through your film, it also makes you so proud to be part of the UW community.

You know, I've never lived in Madison.

I didn't go to University of Wisconsin, but I love when...

you know the coaches are telling the stories and the players and even the ones that that had come and gone like Stan Van Gundy you have a great right you know

he

said he said Jarell came up to him and said uh coach and he called Stan Van Gundy coach and talking about his dad there's so many beautiful moments in this film like that John we have to do a really short break and we're coming right back we'll have a few more minutes with our pal

John Roach

the director of A Road at Night this is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network

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song.

What is the best song to slow dance to?

Let's ask our guest before we get back into the meat of this interview, John Roach, who is here.

He is the filmmaker behind A Road at Night.

John, Anna from Madison says, I always enjoy hearing John Roach on your show.

I still miss his back page column in Madison Magazine.

Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah, I

did that for 30 years, Pete.

A monthly column, I used to have an occasional beer with Doug Moe, who was the editor of Madison Magazine.

Magazine, there were about, you know, six or seven guys who would always gather there and kind of our Algonquin round table.

That's great.

Midwest style.

And Doug, I was, you know, holding forth on something not unusual.

And Doug said, why don't you shut up and write about it for me?

And I saw, okay, so I did a column and I just kept doing them.

So, turn into a 30-year run, which was, you know, as a writer, Pete, as you are, it's really a good exercise to write for public consumption every month.

I

would

imagine so, yeah.

Effectively an essay,

right?

Yeah.

That's

great.

And it helps you find a voice.

Yeah, for sure.

And Anna is a big fan and, you know, just food.

Thank you.

Maybe maybe you take it up again, John.

I don't know.

Do you have a do you have a favorite slow dance song, John?

One, maybe a dance.

Well, first of all, cast

and drift on memory is tremendous cast.

Actually, for the film, that is of the era of Howard Moore and his teammates at the university.

My son's a singer-songwriter in Los Angeles, and he and two of his compatriots

did compose the score for the film.

Oh,

nice.

Which is really gratifying.

My son, JT

Roach.

It's great.

I didn't know that.

That's great.

Yeah, and it's so satisfying at this stage of my career to work with my son and my brother worked on it.

So it was really satisfying, but they did a wonderful job.

But one of the things I asked him, as I said, can you do a little like, you know, cast a drift on memory-ish cut?

here, because it's just so much of that era.

But in terms of slow dances, I think your most formative slow dances are when you're just learning about girls, right?

And so for me, I'm dating myself now.

But two of that I like were Because by the Dave Clark Five and Fairy Cross the Mercy.

by Jerry and the pacemakers, which they were both British invasion bands in

company

with the Beatles.

Those are great.

And I just want to say, I'm still learning about girls.

And sadly, there are nights I date myself, so I can relate to everything.

Yes,

no.

Yes,

I think I think Jackson Brown wrote a song about

that.

Mine was How Deep Is Your Love and Always on My Mind.

So there's so many great ones to list.

But

well, also, you can't miss with the Righteous Brothers.

Oh,

yeah.

You know.

They're wonderful.

We've heard several people have chosen that song.

John, we just have a few more minutes.

I love this movie.

I hope everybody goes to see it.

Documentary filmmakers don't do this for the money.

What was your goal when you set out to make this film?

That's a great question.

Well, first of all, this was a passion.

Project, but there is a very specific goal and that's to raise money for the Moore family all the box office receipts goes to go to the moors The film was financed by George Hamill who's a great Wisconsin grad Tim Valentine's an exec producer

A whole bunch of people with Wisconsin connections came together.

Sean Hannish, Kelly Call from where Wisconsin grads who have cannonball and they, you know, made some distribution headway with their films.

So they just jumped in and said, we want to be on team more and get you into

a

Marcus run as well.

And so that was, we're so grateful to them.

But, you know,

Pete, I think you know, from my past, I mean, I did, you know, a David Lynch film, but I've also dabbled in sports stuff.

The

sports writers on TV back in Chicago, long, you know, back in the 90s and aughts.

And I've always felt that sports is at its best when it transcends sports, when it's kind of a jumping off point to look at a bigger picture, right?

Agreed.

And

This is not a basketball documentary at all.

It's the stage upon which the story is played out.

However and You know sports are inherently dramatic.

That's why they're popular, right?

Yeah, and there's there's art.

There's grace and beauty.

There's tension.

There's drama.

There's violence at times, you know, there's action and so

there are things in sports that appeal to me from a storytelling standpoint.

And so as soon as Tim and George approached me on this, my first thought was, it's not a six minute video, this is a documentary.

It also came when the genre was really blowing up during COVID, because we've worked on this project for four years.

So it really began just as we were coming out of COVID.

And I just felt comfortable telling the story, honestly.

I grew up within five blocks of Camp Randall and the old field house.

And my dad played baseball at Wisconsin.

I went to Wisconsin.

My wife went to Wisconsin.

My kids went to Wisconsin.

And so, you know, I know Bo Ryan and Greg Gard socially.

And so I understood the culture.

And also I was in Chicago for 20 years.

And I knew

the environment that Howard and Michael Finley, Tracy Webster, Richard, I knew that Chicago that they came out of.

So it was just very intriguing to me.

John, this has been so much fun.

I'm one of these days over a beer.

We'll have to talk.

I follow the Chicago hoops to the King, Marcus Liberty days and Simeon and all that.

Oh, my God, absolutely.

Marcus

Liberty was almost in the dock.

Oh, nice.

But I want to say when I met John,

You talked about your days in Chicago and I thought, Oh yeah, he's totally a Chicago guy.

Then later in our friendship, like two months, I found out you were born and raised in Madison.

I'm like, Oh, that makes sense.

He's such a Madison guy.

You're just a guy and you're an awesome guy.

City is regardless.

Thank you for being on the show and best of luck with

talking to you.

And yeah, we have to have that beer.

We'll do it.

I'll

be there in March when you're

in Madtown.

You got it.

Okay.

We'll definitely do it.

Thanks for your support.

always.

All right, John Roach, folks.

We'll keep you posted, too, ladies and gentlemen, on streaming information as that becomes available for a road at night.

But if you're in the Madison area, definitely check it out, John Roach.

We are coming right back for Act 3.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

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