UNDERTOW 2.27

"An underrated gem." - Terry O'Brien

GIGS! GIGS! GIGS! OF THE WEEK (MONTH, WHATEVER…)

Friday, 10/25: Rusty Nail 5-9. My final October gig with Sugar Dave and my/ we/ our final gig at Beach Shack for 2024. It was another in a long line of excellent summers at the Nail, dating back, oh, 7 years or so now, I’ve lost count. And yeah, we owe a lot of that success to the hundred and thousands (and hundreds of thousands? Millions?) of tourists who filter in and out every summer, but we mostly do it for you, the Terry & Jerry faithful who come out in numbers large and small every week. You know who you are. I crack jokes at your expense in here every week. Just… thanks. And we hope to do it again next year, we’ll let you know.

Saturday, 10/26: Anglesea Pub, 8-1130, Terry & Sugar Dave. The Pub is going to basically be our off-season home, so I hope you’re all ready to make that long trek to Exit 6 to see us. (Which many of you have, and many of you… haven’t. Let’s work on that, shall we?) We’re very grateful to Pub Dude #1 Sean McMullan for booking us so often, and for giving my various band projects a place to play. I worked there quite often in my youth when I was the front man for the late, lamented Southwind from 95-99, took about a 20 year hiatus to get married, raise a family and work countless “full-time” jobs, and reacquainted myself with the old gal a few years back and found Sean ready with a welcoming smile. It’s been good to be back. Now, if he could just move that ATM we’d be onto something… (love you, big man).

Saturday(s), 11/2, 9 (w/ Sugar Dave), 16, 23: Anglesea Pub, 8-1130, Terry & Jerry. So mark your calendars…

Thursday, 11/28: THANKSGIVING! The Brown Room, 7-11. Terry & Sugar Dave. Fill yourself full of turkey, take a nap, come here some tunes.

And while they’re not technically “gigs”, I will be performing in Scrooge in Smithville on 11/30 & 12/1. I’ll post a ticket link in the next couple weeks in case any of you want to venture out and see it. I believe it’s outdoors, so you’ll want to bundle up.

SECOND KILLER OLD NAVY CASHIER JOKE:

As promised, here it is.

Last week I revealed Killer Cashier Joke #1 (“I’ve gotten very good at fo lding since I started here, I’m just terrified my wife will find out.”

Killer Cashier Joke #2:

ME: Hello INSERT NAME HERE, it looks like you have $3 in rewards if you’d like to use them.

CUSTOMER: Sure, why not?

ME: Never know when the metoer’s gonna hit, right?

Fucking gold.

WORK IN GENERAL:

For those that may be wondering, I am generally enjoying my time at Old Navy. No real complaints. I don’t LOVE-love still working early (fuuuuuucking early) mornings, but I’ve fallen into a solid routine, and on those early days I still have the shank of the day left to do other stuff, like laundry and dishes and trying to convince someone to go to the movies with me. (They never do. But then, every movie sucks now, so I can’t blame them…) And they’re very accomodating of my gig schedule, working around existing gigs and gigs that pop up every now and then. So… so far, so good. ANd di you know, if you apply for and are approved for the Old Navy Mastercard in-store you get 30% off your first purchase and 20% off your next purcahse within 14 days! Not only that, you get 5x the reward points when you shop in-store, points if you use it to pay for outside purchases like dinner or movies or bills, and access to card holder exclusive events!

Now say that 75x a day…

SPEAKING OF MOVIES…

I had been relatively excited for two recent releases, Bettlejuice, Beetlejuice and Joker 2. But reviews for Beetlejuice were very lukewarm, at best, and Joker 2 is apparently one of the worst movies of all-time. Incredibly, the last movie I saw in the theater was Deadpool & Wolverine in July. And it was very good. But really, what was the last movie anybody was excited for? Barbie? Oppenheimer? It’s been a brutal year for theaters, and I almost feel bad for my former employers at Cape Square. Almost.

STUFF I WATCHED:

HBO (I REFUSE TO CALL IT MAX): The Franchise. This show is an allegedly comedic look behind-the-scenes of the production of a big superhero movie. This should be fertile ground for satire, the problem is it’s produced by the same people behind VEEP (the okayest show ever, incredibly and massively over-praised) and Avenue 5 (a show that is nearly unwatchable and, unbelievably, made me hate Hugh Laurie). The Franchise isnt THAT bad. Yet. But, if past is prologue, I believe it soon will be.

The Penguin. I was very leery of this show. So much so that I waited over a month to start it. Turns out my trepidation was unwarranted. The Penguin is fantastic. Set in the world of director Matt Reeves’ The Batman (starring Robert Pattinson, in which the Penguin has a small part), The Penguin picks up in the days following that movie but does A LOT of time-skipping, filling us in on his origin story, as well as his female counterpart, Sofia Falcone (Christin Millotti, the mother from How I Met Your Mother and excellent in this). Mind you, this isn’t the Penguin we grew up with, a cackling Burgess Meredith in top hat and tails. This Penguin is a ruthless underworld character fighting to stay alive pretty much every second of his life. 5 episodes in I’m completely hooked. Colin Ferrell proves he’s not just a pretty face, nearly unrecognizable in his make-up and severe limp. There’s nothing comic book about this show. It has more in common with The Sopranos than Adam West. Watch it.

Umuzaki. There is no way to explain this show without sounding like a crazy person so I won’t try. It’s a Japanese anime about… things. Weird things. If you’re looking for something totally bonkers, give this one a try. I’d also recommend other animated gems like Primal, Scavenger’s Reign and…

NETFLIX

… Twilight of the Gods. This VERY adult animated show is a revenge tale set in the world of the Norse god like Thor, Odin and Loki but bear no resemblance to the characters you’ve come to know from the MCU. It’s violent and horny and very good.

Nobody Wants This. The wife and I did something we never do last night (insert sex joke here); we sat and binged an entire season of a show. Is it the best show ever? No. But it’s a very enjoyable romcom of a show starring Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) as a podcaster who falls in love with a rabbi (Adam Brody). Will they? Won’t they? I won’t tell, but it was charming enough to keep me plastered to my chair for 8 episodes.

Couple of things before I sign off this week…

There’s a new Elvis Cole/ Joe Pike novel by Robert Crais coming out in January (yes, I’ve pre-ordered). But the main thing here is; if you’re not reading Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole/ Joe Pike novels you need to stop what you’re doing and remedy this immediately. Start with The Monkey’s Raincoat (1987) and thank me in 20 books.

I won’t say where because I want to wotk there again, but at a recent-ish gig Jerry and I were asked to “turn it down a bit.” Now, this happens all the time and is totally not a big deal. But this particular time occurred during a version of Harry Chapin’s Taxi. Not exactly Metallica. Turn down on Taxi… yeesh.

Lastly this week, in 2004 I reviewed the movie Spanglish for Exit Zero magazine. It’s an Adam Sandler dramedy about a famous chef who falls in love with his cleaning lady, played by Penelope Cruz. There is a moment in this film where Cruz leans in to Sandler and whispers in his ear, “I love you…” and in that moment I fell a little bit in love with Penelope Cruz and remain so to this day.

I bring this up only to prepare you for the music video I’m going to post to close out this week’s column. It stars a fetching Margaret Qualley (daughter of Andie MacDowell and a quickly rising star in her own right) and there is a moment at the end of the video where you’ll fall a little bit in love with Margaret Qualley. You’ll know it when you see it.

Til next week, don’t get caught in The Undertow.