July 13, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Sound of Freedom,” “Joy Ride,” and “Insidious: The Red Door”

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Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about their varying levels of enthusiasm for the forthcoming Wonka film. Schulz isn’t on board for it, whereas Levora and Pitra sound intrigued by what director Paul King, who was previously responsible for 2014’s Paddington and its 2017 sequel, will bring to the enterprise. Still, no one sounds so obsessed about the origins of Willy Wonka, not any more than they are about how Charlie Bucket’s grandparents became such bedridden parasites. Concerning Insidious: The Red Door, the weekend’s acknowledged blockbuster, which earned $74 million against its $14 million budget Continue reading July 13, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Sound of Freedom,” “Joy Ride,” and “Insidious: The Red Door” →

July 6, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny,” “Past Lives,” and “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken”

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Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about the terrific time he had watching Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with his family, all two-and-a-half hours of it. “It’s not a great movie,” Schulz allows. “None of the sequels are great. But it’s got great stuff; and the best thing about it is Harrison Ford looks like he’s having fun.” Compared to 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Ford in Dial of Destiny seems both pleased to be involved and collect a fat paycheck (plus some filth-lucrative profit-sharing on the back end, no doubt). The Dial of Destiny also has some visual surprises, which, given the plausibility-straining physical stunt-work we’ve seen in sequels’ past, Continue reading July 6, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny,” “Past Lives,” and “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” →

June 29, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Asteroid City” and “No Hard Feelings”

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Mike Schulz begins his session with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about Mel Brooks’s ninety-seventh birthday. Levora shares a fantastic anecdote Brooks shared with Judd Apatow his experience in World War II — you should hear Levora tell it, here. (Or you could read it, elsewhere, in The Atlantic Monthly: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/07/mel-brooks-judd-apatow-interview/674167/.) After this, talk of Jennifer Lawrence’s new film, the R-rated sex comedy No Hard Feelings, seems somewhat anticlimactic. Continue reading June 29, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Asteroid City” and “No Hard Feelings” →

“Who’s the Boss?”, Applesauce, Tony Danza — Not at a Loss, and Very Much Present: Aaron Dail Talks with the Man, May 4

WQUD

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Anthony Dail talks with Tony Danza, the son of a Brooklyn garbageman and a graduate of the University of Dubuque, about the great good fortune of his career, whose embers started glowing on Taxi (1978-1983), caught fire on Who’s the Boss? (1984-1993), lighted his way to teaching English for a year for a reality show (Teach: Tony Danza) and wrote about that (I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High), and continues to blaze his way across the nation, having played his alma mater 22 October 2022 and, most recently, Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center in Davenport, 23 May 2023. As assuredly as one can sustain a metaphor across an entire sentence, Danza works a room, reminding (or teaching) audiences about the days of variety TV, when a performer performed: If he could sing, dance, play a ukulele, tell jokes, and keep a steady patter going, then he might be ready for Prime Time. And Danza’s been ready for PT for the longest time. Respect!

Between What the Government Can’t Talk About and What It Won’t, We Survive, Somehow — Todd McGreevy & AD in the Morning on WQUD Discuss the June Edition of River Cities’ Reader

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River Cities’ Reader publisher Todd McGreevy talks with Aaron Dail and his buddy Gary re the highlights of Issue N° 1010: Continue reading Between What the Government Can’t Talk About and What It Won’t, We Survive, Somehow — Todd McGreevy & AD in the Morning on WQUD Discuss the June Edition of River Cities’ Reader →

Aaron Dail Interview with Andrew Lehman, New John Deere Classic Tournament Director, June 20

Quad Cities Events, WQUD

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Aaron Dail talks with Andrew Lehman about the big gets for this year’s John Deere Classic Tournament. Among them is West Des Moines’s Caitlin Clark, the celebrated Hawkeyes basketball guard, “the closest thing the state of Iowa has to The Beatles right now,” whose nine-hole club-off with Waterloo’s Zach Johnson will be well-attended. “We’ve seen such a positive response since we announced that [Clark is] coming,” Lehman said, Continue reading Aaron Dail Interview with Andrew Lehman, New John Deere Classic Tournament Director, June 20 →

Aaron Dail Interview w Fanny Curtat, June 21, re “Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience,”

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In the “Crows” segment Akira Kurosawa’s 1990 film Dreams, Akira Terao portrays an art student. The student views the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh one minute, and the next he steps inside the canvas, into the worlds Van Gogh rendered. He finds the artist, played by Martin Scorsese, and learns from him his extreme dedication to his work: That he’s forever chasing the sun, that he drives himself “like a locomotive,” and that he had a problem with getting his left ear just so for his Self-Portrait, so he did what any reasonable person would do Continue reading Aaron Dail Interview w Fanny Curtat, June 21, re “Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience,” →

June 23, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Elemental” and “The Flash”

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Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about how, despite the warning signs, he didn’t hate Elemental, the latest Disney/Pixar animated joint. Given the film concerns anthropomorphic elements — earth, air, fire, and water — he was a bit flummoxed that earth and air didn’t figure hardly at all in the finished work. Apparently, the thematic thrust is whether fire and water can get along with each other without, you know, canceling one another out. Aside from the lack of songs from Earth, Wind, and Fire in the soundtrack, Continue reading June 23, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Elemental” and “The Flash” →

June 15, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

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Mike Schulz, back from holiday, having seen no movies over the break, talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about how “man-oh-man” good Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was; about how the richness of the concept (infinite Spider-Men across an infinite multi-verse, each sharing special life circumstances that made their super-heroism possible) is matched by the eye-popping digital visual effects and the compelling voice-acting. “Favorite movie of the year?” asks one of the Deez. Continue reading June 15, 2023 Movie Mike on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” →

Monday June 5, 2023 Davenport City Officials Shift to “Under Investigation Can’t Answer Questions Mode” on The Davenport Building Collapse

Quad Cities Events

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This podcast is the ten-minute news conference held Monday, June 5, 2023 around 10AM. Only once was the Saturday before the collapse 911 call mentioned, and then only fleetingly, as if an afterthought. Andrew Wold, the owner of The Davenport Hotel, had to be brought up by a reporter, and might otherwise have gone unmentioned throughout the conference. Continue reading Monday June 5, 2023 Davenport City Officials Shift to “Under Investigation Can’t Answer Questions Mode” on The Davenport Building Collapse →