7QUESTIONS+PLUS

John Schuld, who you may know as a member of the Radioactive Squirrels and a Bloomin’ Days organizer. Schuld and his wife arrived in Kenosha in 2001 when he took a job that required him to commute to Great Lakes in Illinois. Schuld says they took one look at downtown Kenosha and Harborpark and fell in love with the city. Now he’s hoping residents discover downtown the way he did while answering questions about music and Bloomin’ Days.

John Schuld will now take your questions ...

How did you get involved in Bloomin’ Days? Initially my only involvement was to perform with my band Radioactive Squirrels on the main stage last year. A few weeks after she booked us, Maria Caravati, last year’s head organizer, asked me to organize all of the street music. This year, I was responsible for organizing all of the stage bands, all of the street music and I’ll probably emcee some of the main stage acts during the day.

How is Bloomin’ Days going to be different this year from last? This year's event will run for two days instead of just one. The beer garden will be bigger, we have 14 bands — last year we had four — and we've added another stage in Friendship Park. We'll also be closing Sixth Avenue from 54th to 59th streets to accommodate over 160 acoustic performers from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. More new additions this year include a live art event called LemonAID and RocKollege will provide an "instrument petting zoo" for kids. We have kids bands, original bands, folk bands, cover bands, tribute bands and we even have Pat McCurdy on Saturday night. The only thing that hasn't changed is the admission price — Bloomin' Days is free!

Since you’re involved with Bloomin’ Days, do you have an interest in flowers too? Can you offer any gardening or landscaping tips? I just organize the music, dude.

What’s a festival Kenosha doesn’t already have that you think it should consider organizing? I'd love to see a night time music festival in Harborpark with tons of musicians performing along the harbor with lanterns or paper bag luminaries lighting up a path through all of them.

If you could play with any musician, living or dead, who would you play with? Why? It would be a toss up between Tom Petty and Elvis Presley. I could play with either of them because I know the chords to a lot of their songs and I love their music. I especially admire how Tom Petty organized a music festival in Gainesville for a couple of years in the early ’70s when he played with Mudcrutch. Other bands were invited to play and people traveled from Georgia, Alabama and all over Florida to attend. The event became so popular they had to shut down the highway.

What’s your favorite song to perform? Why do you like it? I enjoy playing any song that people will sing along with. If people are smiling, singing and clapping to any song I'm playing — that's my favorite one.

What do you think is Kenosha’s greatest asset? The first two obvious choices that come to mind are the harbor and the community itself. Personally, I think Kenosha's greatest asset is the Rhode Opera House. My wife believes in it so much that she dedicated six years of her life to it and it's become a big part of our lives. The members of Lakeside Players are some of the craziest, strangest and most wonderful people I've ever met in my life and I'm proud to call them my friends.

The Rhode is an incredible building and performing there is something everyone should try to experience at least once in their lifetime. Within the past century, generations of talented, loving friends have passed through there and you can't help but feel the energy when you walk inside. Helping to build the new stage in Skinner Hall and being involved in our new Children's Theater has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I hope people reading this will schedule time to support Lakeside Players and experience it for themselves. We need sponsors, actors, directors, set builders and a few new board members. If you’d like to volunteer, just show up at the Rhode (located at 514 56th St.) on any Wednesday night at 7 p.m., e-mail me at john@rhodeopera.org or call (262) 657-PLAY.

From your point of view, what has to happen to resurrect Kenosha’s downtown? I think the downtown area needs to continue appealing to families and drawing tourists. Downtown should be a fun place for a family to explore during the day and a cool place to have dinner and catch a live show at night.

What three words would your mother use to describe you? Let's not go there. And this Q&A was going so well.