Transcript
Brint Davy on Alamo Drafthouse’s No-Phone Policy Debate (Hour 1)
Nite Lite with Pete Schwaba and Greg Bach · Fri Jun 5, 2026
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It's Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.
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You know, I really expected more professional behavior from you.
It's news and culture without the noise.
Yeah, I'm on!
Here's Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.
Dude!
Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.
Happy Friday, everybody.
Let's rejoice the weekend is here.
You made it.
But before we let you go into that weekend, we got a really fun show tonight.
So very glad you're here.
I am Pete Schwabbe coming to you live from northeast Wisconsin in the greater Marinette area.
Marinette proper, as it were, and coming to you live from just down the coast in Racine at Radio Park is Mr. Greg Bach.
Hey, buddy, how are you?
Good afternoon.
Good Friday.
Hello, everyone.
Welcome to the weekend.
Tis a glorious
day.
I don't
know why my voice went that level, but that's fine.
Yeah, I love it.
I love Fridays.
I love the weekend.
I love Thursday evening, too.
It's just great.
It's great.
It's just great.
I met the point now where, I met the point now where I even get excited for Wednesday night.
Cause that's
like
Thursday
tomorrow.
Right,
exactly.
It's Sunday afternoon, Monday and Tuesday.
That sucks really when it comes down.
Yeah, I'm totally with you.
I actually don't mind Sundays either, but.
I actually, I don't either.
Honestly, it's fine.
And you know what?
Even Monday has its quality.
But Tuesday, you are
in the box for good, baby.
You are dead to me Tuesday.
Forget about it.
Ah, Dom.
Dom Lee is coming to us live from Madison tonight.
Folks, we are the Yatterday Triangle.
If you're watching the broadcast on the stream at Facebook, YouTube, or ex Twitter, you can see what we mean.
We are arranged triangularly with Dom, at least on the bottom of the triangle in my view here.
How you doing, buddy?
I'm doing pretty good
fantastic.
Go the
stay.
please, please, please.
And
hello to Daniel Berry Sports Highlights 5851.
I'm just going to say the whole name.
Because he's on the live stream right now where we're streaming.
So hello to you, Daniel Berry's Sports Highlights 5851.
It
is great to see you, Daniel, and have you with us as always watching over the stream.
That is his choice to tune into Nightlight.
But however you're joining us and wherever you're joining us from, welcome.
We have a great show tonight, folks.
You know, I meant to Brent Davies here tonight.
Right.
You know, he is.
I do.
Yes, indeed, because I
Because he's on the show.
Prep pack.
This guy, he joins us at 535.
He's actually our second guest tonight, but he's joining us in our typical guest slot at 535.
He is a descendant of Davy Crockett, as I understand it.
Wow.
How about that?
Wow.
And he's here to talk to us tonight about movies and specifically...
He has a connection to the Alamo 2, he'll tell us all about, but there are Alamo movie houses.
I think you told us a while back that those actually started in New York and not Austin, Texas
or... Well, no, I have no idea.
I've only been to one in DC.
It was nice.
My sister-in-law is a huge fan of them.
She, you know, DC, LA, now she lives in Atlanta.
But yeah, I mean, I've heard nothing but great things about it, but he'll be here talking about his very specific request he has for the company.
Absolutely.
And he, you know, there are some issues, but we'll get into it and we'll have a nice movie talk with Brent.
That'll be great.
But joining us just briefly beforehand at 520 is our pal Norm Kepesky.
He's gonna make one more push because he has this great event called Smoke on the Fox coming up Monday night.
And it's a great, for a great cause.
All the proceeds go to veterans and I just can't speak highly enough of this annual event they have.
I think it's in its third year.
Norm
will
join us.
He is also a sponsor of the show, Appleton Cigar.
We love when Norm joins us.
And then in hour number two, ladies and gentlemen, we will have, it's Friday, Casual Friday, right?
Yes, indeed.
Oh
yeah.
Friday's here and the week's in the rear view.
Whether you're still on the clock or already mentally checked out, Pete and Greg are here for you.
So kick back and grab something to snack on.
It's Casual Friday with Pete and Greg.
Yes, it is.
It is definitely casual Friday because I completely mentally checked out on our casual Friday music So but you know better late than never it is casual Friday and that means That can mean well a few things but specifically in hour number two.
I get excited about a Dom quiz Dom is gonna give us a quiz tonight in hour number two.
You're all welcome to play along We've had people play along in the past and it's so much fun John Murray I'm pointing at you and yeah, there's two but feel free to join us down tell the people tonight what
This Dom quiz encompasses on this Friday
Yeah, it's gonna be another multiple choice true false quiz You guys are going up against each other again right now I gotta give it it's five to two all right Pete has five Greg has two and there's two ties So Greg this is your chance.
It's a it's called the whole truth.
It's a donut quiz.
It's national donut day
So I decided to look at
that pertain it to the donuts.
That's what it is.
I think it's great that they have their own day.
It's high time.
It is
her Pete has five wins Greg You
it's never
mind.
No, no
some somehow made that even weirder.
Let's not say that ever again
I think just talking about donuts is fun, guys.
I try not to eat them, but on the weekends, I will say I usually have a donut or two on one
of the
weekend mornings and I dive in and it's fun.
So it'll be fun to talk about donuts on National Donut Day and maybe even celebrate our favorite donut eater or my favorite donut eater, at least Homer Simpson.
So we can.
You really love the
Simpsons.
Donuts.
You really love the Simpsons, don't you?
Dude, I love the Simpsons.
You've been bringing them up a lot lately.
Like, you've been peppering references into the show, like, quite a bit.
I didn't realize how big of a fan
you are.
Big-time fan.
And my pal Mike Siegel got me into it.
The first episode I saw was the monorail episode.
No, I mean, that's like the pinnacle episode.
It's fantastic.
Conan O'Brien written.
He
did write that you're
right.
Yeah, he did that sets the one like when people talk about like top five episodes That's usually number one or two Conan
also wrote the one where Homer goes back to college which I Where he keeps you know he all of his knowledge of colleges like from movies and he keeps calling the Dean the crusty old Dean and the Dean's like hey if you guys ever want to swing by a play base
like he couldn't be a cooler guy, you know.
So anyway, but we'll do that in hour number two.
We've got lots of fun stuff to get to tonight.
And I will say, Greg, you sent me this thing today about Bruce Springsteen.
Let's talk about that.
It was Aaron Lewis, I believe.
Yeah, the lead singer of Stained.
You know, he's a real cool guy.
If you don't know, okay.
So stained as a band that came out in the early, in the early 2000s, discovered and fostered by Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, had a couple of really big hits.
It's been a while as their, or been a while as their biggest hit.
And he decided to go solo many years ago and he is now an ultra right wing singer, songwriter.
Like he is un, unapologetic.
in his stance politically, he, he, I mean, it's somewhat of the point where it feels like it's pandering because like his songs are like, you know, he's got an American flag tattoo on his bicep.
He talks about living in the country and all it's like, it's fine.
Like write the songs that are your heart.
I'm not getting too, I'm not upset about that, but now he's out there.
What happened?
The comment got posted on the,
I
don't know what happened here.
But now he's like, he's just been a guy who has been on the very right wing of music and art and whatnot.
And he always like, he tried to use his platform to whine and moan about many things.
And now he's realizing after what now Pete, 42 years this album came out.
That the song, that the song born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen has lyrics.
Who knew?
Who
knew?
I think most people were clued into the idea that that was, you know, he was taking a shot at the war.
Like everybody, you know, it was 10 years later, but, you know, certainly that's what a lot of rock and rollers do.
A lot of artists do, but I love that when people that get ticked off about that, when they find out, it's like, do you ever listen to, like when they say Springsteen doesn't like Trump or the right wing, okay, that's fine.
But have you listened to his lyric?
He's always,
Springsteen has always been a champion of the working man.
And unions have disappeared since the late 80s.
He's been singing about that, the working man.
I don't know what people have an issue with when it comes to that.
I know he criticizes certain political candidates.
Okay, he's entitled to do that.
But if you don't like his lyrics, I don't get that, you know.
Well, after how after four decades, if you don't know what that song's about, that's on you do this.
This article in ultimateclassicrock.com is titled Aaron Lewis says Bruce Springsteen quote, duped us all with this song.
We knew about this back when it came out, but also Ronald Reagan used it as a song, and politicians continue to use this tune.
And he says, please don't play this song.
You didn't ask permission.
And Ronald Reagan used it and didn't understand the irony of the bombast and pomposity of the song, like with the East Street band, but what the lyrics were really bad because they just thought, oh, born in the USA with a big band.
Here we go.
And he's like, you didn't read the lyrics, did you?
And so we're right.
I mean, this happens all the time.
But the fact that this guy who
Are you serious?
He duped us?
What, was this the 1940s?
There's no duping.
The lyrics weren't
in code.
He's a
flim flam, I tell you.
He's bamboozled us.
He's home swoggled us all into thinking that he's a man who loves America.
Ha!
He duped us into me never reading the lyrics.
Okay, that's fair.
I had a brother at K-San fighting off the Viet Cong.
They're still there.
He's all gone.
Dude, the lyrics are amazing on that song, too.
You don't have to
also be a deep poet to understand what he's trying to say.
Like, the fact that you don't understand and you don't realize until now, dude, that says more about you and your songwriting, but whatever.
That one was just, I saw that immediately.
I sent it to you.
I'm like, you've got it.
Cause
I
know how much you love spring.
So I'm like, and it made you laugh and I knew it would.
So.
Yeah,
it
was,
it gave me a chuckle on the treadmill.
So
thank you for sending that, but hey, we've got to get to some business here, folks.
We have our contest information coming your way.
Get your phones ready, get
the Civic
Media app ready because it is our accelerate your summer multi-stay text-to-win contest and you must have the app to play.
I'm sure you all have it anyway, but if you don't, download that quickly.
You have this hour to play because I'm about to give you the key word.
Our daily prices are a hundred bucks a day and a Wisconsin Dells prize package.
You can't beat that and then also just by playing taking part you make yourself eligible for the grand prize Which is a two hundred and fifty dollar a grocery card and a two hundred and fifty dollar gas card
like that Dom.
I love it Especially I can't
ready.
Let's do it All right, here is this hour's keyword folks in our accelerate your summer multi-state text-to-win contest ocean
O-C-E-A-N, ocean.
O-C-E-A-N, ocean.
I had to think about that for a moment, but I
nailed it.
Yeah, that's a tough one.
That's
a tough one,
because you're like, you think you know how to spell it?
It's so easy, but the microphones
are on.
And Greg, tell people how they can get an extra shot to win.
Oh, simple.
Just go entering right now.
Put in the keyword.
Ocean, O-C-E-A-N.
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And then if you get a message back from us, you will be able to get an extra entry by maybe signing up for the newsletter or following us on social media.
You get it one time during the entire cycle, not every single time you enter.
But if you get that message, follow through and get that extra entry for your chance to win.
Outstanding.
Good luck, everybody.
And I think without further ado, before we bring our pal Norm Kepesky on from Appleton Cigar, we should get to our night-like question of the night.
Let's talk about
the question.
Okay, question.
Question.
Question.
Question.
Domanda.
Question.
Alright, we're gonna get to this quickly because we have to get to a break, folks.
Sorry about that, but...
Tonight's question, Alex, I'll explain where it came from after the break, but I saw this on Yahoo News and CEOs are even acknowledging people are running out of money.
So our question of the night is when you're low on dough, what's the first thing to go?
What don't you spend money on, folks?
Let us know.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2, 8-5-5-7-5 Civic, and we'll repeat the question of the hour.
Or of the night, I should say, when we come back.
After this very short break, don't go anywhere.
Folks, it's Night Light with Pete and Greg on the Civic Media Network.
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Well, that just makes me happy.
Excellent.
Tunage, Dom, welcome back to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach, folks.
Happy Friday.
It is great to have you here.
Just because we were kind of rushed.
I'll repeat the question of the night and it is, when you are low on dough, what's the first thing to go?
What's the first thing you don't spend money on?
And I saw this because in Yahoo News, there were some CEOs that are even acknowledging people don't have any money.
Economy has started to, it's not very good.
So my question is, what do you give up?
What is the first thing that goes from your budget?
I'd say pay bills, but I was gonna say the
same thing.
Amazing.
No,
love it.
Love it.
Love it.
All right, Greg and I are in cahoots, but think about that.
Text us 8557-524-842-8557-5CIVIC.
You can also text us on the app or if you're watching the radio on the stream, drop us a stream comment and we will give you the keyword too in just a few minutes again for our Accelerate Your Summer multi-state text-to-win contest.
Hope everyone's having fun with that right now.
I'm very excited to welcome back tonight light He was here a couple weeks ago We thought we'd invite him back on make one last push because he's got a really great event for an excellent cause and he's just a swell guy all around and Full disclaimer.
He is one of our nightlight sponsors and we love when he comes on the show especially to talk about such a great cause Mr. Norm Kepesky.
Hey, buddy
Hey, good evening guys Welcome back sir.
How are you doing tonight?
Outstanding I'm on the phone with you guys
He
doesn't even have to do that.
He's just being a sports.
So I just love it.
I love it.
I love
it.
Love
it.
Yeah.
that?
What do you
There you go.
Look at
There
Well,
Speaking of that, Norm, I love this event you do.
I believe it's the third annual Smoke on the Fox at the Lion's Tail Brewery.
Tell people about it, give us a thumbnail, and then also, if they can still get tickets, which go to such a great cause, tell us where they can do that.
You'll
And they'll have additional gifts and then there's raffle prizes.
We're going to do a 50-50 raffle for Box City's Veterans Council in addition to the proceeds from our event goes to them.
And they do a ton of work.
Tim Cody, who you've had on the show,
they do a
citizens.
Absolutely.
Love it.
And as you said, there's going to be vendors there, but it's going to be it's going to be cigars.
There's going to be food.
There's going to be everything going on.
What else can people expect when they come to the event just coming in and having a good time?
that
J. Henry Bourbon, Old Station 31 out of Dale, Wisconsin.
That's a newer distillery that's cranking up and putting on some nice products.
Medrock out of the Fondoak area is coming up with some of their stuff.
And then Mindfell is a craft brew shop, anywhere from IPAs to seasonal October fast, different stuff like that that they have going on.
You'll be able to run through their portfolio if you have enough time and liver stamina.
But yeah, there's a lot of great stuff going
on.
And you're good.
Here's what I love about this event too.
Like, yeah, 200 bucks may sound like a lot, but it's really not when you figure out or when you realize where the proceeds go and what you get.
Like you said, Norm, like basically $400 worth of cigars alone just from that entrance fee.
And sometimes you go to events where it's like, all right, I'm gonna stomach this because it's for a good cause.
This is a fun event that also goes for a good cause.
So it's like, win, win.
You're gonna have a cigar cutter too there, correct?
Yeah, so our one of our new brands to the to the lounge is a company called La Galera and one of their corset ores That's a fancy word for cigar roller in the Wisconsin, Mexican is He's gonna be coming up and he's gonna be doing some fresh cigars.
He's gonna be rolling those and kind of demonstrating what goes into that process and He's gonna be rolling cigars and handing them out until the tobacco runs out
That is so that is that would be a very very good time.
We only have about another minute left Is there any last things we want people to know before they go to look for tickets to get themselves prepared to come out?
But anything else you want to tell them?
So if you don't have time to get online and register to show up at lion's tail starting about six o'clock
And we're making some extra cigar bags and you just pay you the cash price then and come on into the event and we're going to try to show you a good time.
Wonderful.
That is fantastic.
And I'll tell you, folks, even if you don't smoke cigars, just watch a cigar being rolled smell a cigar.
They smell amazing.
Definitely check this out.
Norm, tell Tim Cody I said hello and best of luck.
I hope you raise a ton of cash for people who certainly deserve it.
So thank you for all you do on behalf of veterans and for all you do on behalf of Nightlight, my friend.
It's great to talk to you.
No problem.
Have a great weekend.
Check out Appledon Cigar.
That's Norm Kepasky co-owner and check out Smoke on the Fox.
It is Monday night.
You know, I just realized while I was talking to Norm, they have these poker nights and smoke on the Fox.
It was on a weeknight last year too.
I'd have to take a vacation day to go to this, but I really want to check it out.
Like I'd love to go to
their poker live show, live show, live show.
That's broadcast live from the poker room.
Hey, he's got two fours, that's cool.
All right, folks, this hour's keyword in our Accelerate Your Summer Multi-State Text-to-Win Contest is ocean-o-c-e-a-n ocean.
Text that in and you're eligible to win our fantastic prizes.
When we come back, Brent Davy will be here.
We'll be talking about movie theaters.
And should you be allowed to be on your cell phone?
I don't know.
We'll discuss.
It's Nightlight with Pete and Greg.
We'll be right back.
Welcome back.
This is Nightlight with Pete Schwab and Greg Bach.
Coming to you live on the Civic Media Network, I am broadcasting from beautiful northeast Wisconsin in Christmas City, USA, aka Marinette.
And joining me just down the coast of beautiful Lake Michigan is Greg Bach.
Coming to you live from Radio Park in Dom Lee, holding down the fort at Civic Media headquarters in Madison.
We are the Yatterhay Triangle.
And ladies and gentlemen, this is...
Movies are kind of in my blood.
That's my background, my biz, if you will, in addition to radio.
I have a true passion for movies, as do a lot of us.
I know Greg and Don both do too, but this next gentleman writes about movies and he has a special connection to a certain movie theater that he also has some issues with.
He's a culture critic and he's here to talk about phones in movie theaters, among a few other things.
It is my pleasure to welcome Mr. Brent Davy.
Hey Brent, how are you?
Hey Pete, how's it going?
It's going great.
Say hello to Greg Bakken, Dom, as well.
Hey.
Hello.
Hi.
Britt, it's great to have you.
You have a very, you've carved out a very unique, I love that your title, Culture Critic.
I would kill to be a culture critic, but I'm not very critical.
I'm not very cultured.
What's that, Greg?
I criticize culture all the time.
That's true.
It's a broad category in politics, civics, I mean, everything,
film, music.
Yeah, just a license to criticize.
It is.
Speak your mind.
So.
I'm trying to figure out where to jump in here.
You have a great background in past.
Tell us about, let's start with the Alamo movie houses.
These are movie theaters that I believe were the first that you could order food and booze in.
I love the concept.
I used to
go to them
when I was working the road and they're just great, but you kind of have an issue.
You started a petition.
Tell us what's going on with Alamo.
Tell us about your connection to Alamo theaters and then what you're trying to do.
Sure, I've been going to Alamo Draft House for probably 10 years, two or three times a week.
Just as a film fan, I've worked on some films and critique films, and I watch a lot of movies because I love them.
They're probably the best thing in the world, like you Pete.
And let's see, well, after the pandemic, you know, all the theaters were having problems.
Nobody was going to theaters till Top Gun, Maverick.
And that kind of broke the spell, but Alamo Draft House cinemas were sort of a legendary iconic brand in that they were a culture hub.
I mean, they tapped into the zeitgeist and it was really cinephiles and film freaks.
I mean, you got cosplay all the time.
They had an exceptional loyalty program that almost felt like it was a film club.
as much as it was a loyalty program because they would do VIP screenings.
I mean it was a cultural hub and after the pandemic Alamo was in bankruptcy and Venture Capital came in, Altamont Venture Capital saved them from bankruptcy but they also put in their guy CEO Michael Kusterman who just started squeezing all the life out of it.
you know that's what the venture capital guys seem to do it's like the
bottom line yeah
yeah it's a trend so they went to mobile ordering for the longest time Alamo was no talking no texting watch the movie if there's if there's somebody causing a ruckus whispering
using their phone with the glare, you know, distracting you.
They're just out.
I mean, it's no questions asked.
Usher, you know, no, it's zero tolerance.
And now Alamo has completely 180 on their brand promise and wants you to order food on your phone during the movie.
It's got everybody upset.
It's it's it's just got Elijah Wood is tweeting about it now.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's huge.
So I started a change.org petition I am connected to the Alamo the real one that
I Remember that place.
Yeah.
Oh good.
Thank you.
Somebody does I am a indirect descendant of Davey Crockett
So as a film critic and an indirect descendant of David Crockett, when I go to the Alamo, they already know who I am.
You know, I kind of expect the same courtesy of the cinema that's named after my great, great, great granduncles of battlefield grave.
And yeah, it's I want them to like respect the sanctity of the screening and honor their original mission to
provide a distraction-free screening environment.
Now what kind of what kind of support have you been hearing?
I mean you've spoken about Elijah Wood getting out there but like what other support have you gotten from folks on this matter as far as like you know I saw an article we talked about this topic a couple like about a month or a month a half ago and you know
it seemed like it came not out of nowhere and it doesn't surprise me when a when a capital venture capital group buys something up they want to start like finding all of the whatever they need to do but like what are you hearing from the people out there i mean i see a lot of names on the on the change.org site but what are you hearing specifically from folks with regard to these changes that have been implemented
Long time fans don't like it
in general.
I mean we have 10,000 signatories on the petition drive Social media blew up reddit blew up.
That's where I started kind of
reaching out to people and being like, this can't be for real.
They invested so much money in their pre-shows where celebrities would come on and warn, no talking, no texting.
And then all of a sudden they've just thrown all that out the window.
And we've got the Austin Film Critics Association came out condemning the move.
Lots of filmmakers, filmmakers don't want their screenings that they're gonna go to.
For like a premiere or a q&a screening.
They don't they don't want people Whirling away on their phones here in their movie So it's really undermined the brand's value as a cultural hub and a prestige exhibition venue which is astonishing because Sony recently bought Alamo draft house from Ultima which came in and saved it so ultimate is is done
but their guy is still the CEO, and Sony looks like it's continuing to degrade the cinephiles theater.
There's no sign of them really changing course.
Every time somebody presses a corporate rep in mainstream journalism, you know,
They're just like, oh, we're happy with the move.
We're getting lots of positive feedback.
But where is it?
It's not online
from my underlings.
Yeah.
Yes, exactly.
Look at
all these anonymous comments here on this thing.
You don't know who big bike rider 68 is.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Our guest is Brent Davy.
He is a writer and a cultural.
I almost forgot my true love in life is to be a culture critic.
He joins us now to talk about his...
relative Davey Crockett and his connection to the Alamo and all kinds of fun stuff.
You know, I have to say, Brent, when this all started, not when it started, but when I became hip to the whole, you can buy your ticket ahead of time, like at the center, Ramadan or these big theaters.
And it's a little more, but you don't have to rush to get there.
And people that are there are true movie fans.
They will pay a little extra not to have kids talking and horsing around or whatever.
And you just mentioned the CEO.
You know, it's all about the bottom line.
But if people stop going, that affects the bottom line too.
Where's the disconnect?
Like, could you see this being reversed if your petition is successful?
And when will you know the petition is successful?
Well, I am not really holding out hope that Sony's going to change course.
We're actually just looking for other options at this point while we're making our objection.
You know, I don't really.
think that they're going to change course.
I mean, they have all the money in the world.
And I feel like they would have changed course when the Austin Film Critics Association condemned the move two months ago.
That was probably the biggest blow that film critics are going to stop reviewing movies there.
So it completely destroyed the brand's
Exhibitionary value and we're looking at other alternatives.
We're going to violet crown.
We're going to Austin Film Society You know, we're we're just finding other cultural hubs
has
Has Alamo Draft House as far as like the choice of films waned at all?
Are they still showing movies that cinephiles would really like?
And it has that quality changed or has it just been the change to now people are required to order on their phones for their food and drink?
There's been a lot of quality changes.
I would say that the programming is still good.
They're still screening good movies.
But the food has become more expensive while the portions have become smaller.
They've consolidated the concierge roll, the host roll, and the runner roll into one roll.
And so service is just its bottom of the barrel.
It's never been this bad.
And the several locations have been unionized recently.
So Alamo and Sony have done this, implemented this.
against the objections of organized labor.
And it's taking jobs.
It's making the cinema experience worse.
It's damaging the brand.
It is the most, I mean, I'm a business guy, like, you know, at my core.
And I just think that we're going to study this.
It is a boneheaded move from the cinephiles perspective as much as business.
Like, why would you buy this legendary brand and just
squeeze all that value out of it and throw it in the trash
can.
That because that's what venture capitalists do.
They squeeze it for its last dollar and then they pick it apart and they sell it for pieces or they just close it down.
They've gotten everything.
I mean, that's, that's their MO.
They do this with companies all the time.
They buy, they buy companies.
They consolidate shrink fire.
Make it less and less and then when they when they can't get another you know It's kind of like from the movie good fellas when they can't get another Loan from the bank when they can't squeeze any more credit.
They just sell it for parts and that's it's gone
Right.
It's they don't care about building anything.
It feels like it's just there.
They're in the commodity space So it doesn't really matter to them, but there are at least 10,000 people it does matter to and I feel like it's a lot more than that
out there.
We're losing something special here in Austin.
It was a big deal, especially in Austin, the birthplace of Alamo Draft House.
Yeah, it's too bad.
It's kind of like Nike saying the swoosh is too expensive.
We're going to do away with the swoosh.
Well, then you're just another movie theater.
I also read in the article that they dropped the checks in opportune times, like during the climb.
And Greg and I have both have stand-up comedy in our backgrounds.
The worst time of the show was when the waitress would drop the checks.
Right, it's your big punchline or your climax.
Yeah.
Right now, the big problem is you're working on a mobile app, putting in your credit card number in the dark.
Like, it's madness.
I mean, I don't understand how they did not beta test the user experience or they did not care for one.
That's what Elijah Wood was complaining about the other day.
Oh, go ahead, Greg.
I was going to say, is this something we can talk about on the other side of the break too with regard to the lack of forward thinking on this one
too?
Because that part of it just kind of blows my mind.
It doesn't make sense.
I have
a
question
for you, too, Brent, about an article I read that you wrote about one battle after another.
So if we have a couple extra minutes, we'll get into that as well.
Just a reminder, folks, our keyword this hour in our Accelerate Your Summer Multi-State Text-to-Win Contest is Ocean.
O-C-E-A-N-O-C-E-A-N Ocean.
Text that in only on the app and you're eligible for $100 cash.
and a little prize package to the Wisconsin Dells and playing automatically enrolls you for the grand prize, which is a $250 gas card and a $250 grocery cart.
All great stuff.
So glad you're here, folks.
We are talking movies with our pal Brent Davy.
We are coming right back.
This is Nightlife
with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.
Welcome back.
This is Nightlight with Beechwaba and Greg Vaak.
Folks, you have about eight minutes, if that, to get in the keyword for our Accelerate Your Summer multi-stay text-to-win contest.
This hour's keyword is ocean, O-C-E-A-N, ocean text that in on the app and on the app only.
And I hope you all win.
I wish that were possible, but good luck, everybody.
We are talking to our guest Brent Davy, who is a film critic and a culture critic.
He's just a critical guy, but his criticism is well placed because we're talking about movie theaters that used to go there and they respected movies and now you get to
order food on your cell phones and people have their cell phones out.
You can't play the accordion anymore during a movie.
It's all going to pot.
So Brent is here.
And I'm going to throw to my pal, Greg, because he had, I have an off topic question for Brent, not really off topic, but I know Greg wants to follow up with what we're talking about here.
Well, what's one of the concerns about the Alamo Traffthouse?
essentially making you order on your phone is that I know that the CEO said something to the effect of well people are doing it anyways this is where the world we live in people are on their phone so it's not that big of a change and people are getting used to it but really when it comes down to it it's not so much it's not even I can't remember if it was you or somebody in the article we read that it's not so much even about the ordering it's the fact that when folks have to go back on their phone to do something then they start checking notifications and it doesn't become about
the actual experience of whether you're paying or not.
It's about, oh, I've got an email here.
I've got a text message.
I got it.
And then all of a sudden they're on their phone for a few minutes and it strays off and it becomes a distraction.
What is the response from folks like yourself when the CEO says, well, it's just a part of life and that's who we are.
So kind of deal with it.
Well, the phone, phone free environment of a screening is magical these days because where else can, can you go where you just have an awesome excuse to tune out?
Suspend disbelief like have this intense relationship with one screen and not three Yeah for an hour and a half to two and a half hours to three maybe and just like really really tune out the entire world and you don't get to do that very often I feel like the expectation.
It's a user expectation now To use your phone and I don't want to because I don't want to get that I don't want to get caught in the phone rabbit hole
You know, I really like the sanctuary of just being like screw everything.
I've
got a movie
Work can wait It's so funny because I do that too.
I'm as guilty of that as anybody I'll open up Instagram to see something my son or daughter posted and then before I know it I've got 18 reels in front of me I click on 80 of those and I'm like, what the hell was I trying to do here?
Like your brain just turns to mush and you don't want that when you're watching a movie
Speaking of movies, Brent, you wrote a great article about the film One Battle After Another.
It was from last year, but I really enjoyed the read.
Can you tell us your take on that movie?
It was very unique.
Oh, absolutely.
Every now and then I'll review a movie from a perspective that nobody else has done.
And this was, I have not seen anybody else come at this movie from this angle.
One battle after another was either panned from one political party.
or celebrated from another political party.
And I tried my best to objectively review it from what's happening on the screen and in the script and cinematically, artistically, knowing how Paul Thomas Anderson's awesomely complex
mind
works.
I don't think he came at it from a political position, really.
I feel like it was a satire on our current times.
extreme bipolarization of both sides because on one side in one battle after another you've got a paramilitant you know lawless army that's half stoner comedy they're all stoners they're kingy they're crazy they're murderous they're bank robbers they're not likeable
You know, they're certainly not heroes.
And on the other side, you've got the worst villain since Kubrick's general ripper.
You know, I mean, he's a madman.
He's willing to kill his own daughter like to prove that he's not racist.
Like it's it's insane stuff.
It is absolutely ludicrous political satire, but it's cinematically beautiful.
And in the middle of it.
you've got this buddy comedy with sensei and oh my god it's just there are so many there's so much depth in this film i'm wild about it and i i do believe it was best picture
It was such a great article.
Check it out if you can, folks.
I agree with you because I said to a lot of friends of mine, they said, well, they really ripped the right.
I'm like, they ripped the left, too.
Teyana Teyana was a terrible mother and
a horrible
paramilitary compadre, you know what I mean?
Right.
And the stereotypes were funny, like the long hairs couldn't get it together and the crazy racists were doing this.
And it was, I loved it.
I loved your write up on it.
It was outstanding.
Thank you.
I truly enjoy when neither side can understand get me self referential or self like a facing and they don't understand the irony.
And they're like, haha, check out what they did.
Like they did to both of you.
They really did to
both of you.
And the fact that you don't know that.
Gee, that's bad.
Yeah, great stuff.
Well, hey, listen, this was really fun, Brent.
Thank you for being here tonight.
And I wish you luck with your petition.
you can save movie theaters.
Oh, go ahead.
We got a
text.
We got a message on the livestream right here.
Noble, Noble, Noble, Noble.
We'll call them Noble.
Says we need more Brents in the
world.
There you go.
It's
pretty unique name.
Thank you for the text, Noble, and we agree.
Thank you so much, Brent.
Keep up the great work, and please come back sometime.
We'll do it.
Thank you.
Okay.
That's Brent Davey, folks.
Check out his work.
Just Google him.
He's the only Brent that's probably going to come up on Google, and he does great work, and he writes about a wide array of things.
He's a culture critic, Greg.
That's right.
That's right.
First of
his
kind.
First in his culture.
First in his name.
Literally, first of his name.
That's right.
All right.
When we come back, folks, in hour number two, Dom is going to give us a donut quiz.
Oh, man.
Oh, yeah.
You thought the conversation was deep in hour one.
Wait'll hour two starts.
And then we're going to read some of your texts.
And real quick, you got less than a minute.
Ocean, O-C-E-A-N.
Ocean, text that in on the app.
And our question tonight is, when you're low on dough,
What is the first to go?
What don't you buy?
So answer the question.
Tonight we'll read those after the news.
We are coming right back.
It's nightlife with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media
Network.
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