Alas, ego-Googling has been a letdown for me, until recently. You wouldn't think so, but the world is crawling with Mike and/or Michael Schneiders. There's a state senator in Nevada (D-Las Vegas). A one-time news anchor turned wannabe politician. A justice on the Texas Supreme Court. A "a postdoctoral researcher in the Stochastic Systems Group." The president, publisher and editor-in-chief of Chocolatier and Pastry Art & Design magazines. There are also several college professors named Michael Schneider -- apparently we're a smart bunch.
But thanks to this blog and Variety's website, I've steadily moved up the "Michael Schneider" ranks... and now wind up as the second or third on the list.
Still, on the "Mike Schneider" side of things, I don't hold a candle to this guy. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the leader of Wisconsin's top polka group... The Mike Schneider Band.
From the site: Many Catholics have framed pictures of the pope or John F. Kennedy hanging on their walls, but at the Schneiders' house in Brown Deer, it's polka king Frankie Yankovic, front and center. And with good reason. A Yankovic performance at a fair at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church some 12 years ago inspired Schneider's love affair with polka music.
"I liked what I heard," Schneider says. Music lessons soon followed, but, after a year and a half, Schneider, then a seasoned 8-year-old, opted to wing it, teaching himself to play by ear. "I can't read music," he confesses. Before long, he was teaming up with his father, Paul Schneider, who had played in a polka band as a young man, and drummer Dennis Wiskerchen to form the Mike Schneider Band.
Here's the scary part: This Mike Schneider has a niche radio show too! "Polka Parade" airs in Southeastern Wisconsin each Saturday on AM 1250 WEMP from 1 until 4 PM.
(We're a music bunch as well -- another Michael Schneider has appeared on several CDs as a master recorder player. Yes, the recorder-- that thing you played in the fourth grade.)
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