FORGIVE ME UNDERTOW READERS FOR I HAVE SINNED:
It has been 30 days since my last Undertow…
Honestly, I, uh, thought it was something closer to two, maybe three weeks, NO WAY could it be a month. Well… sorry about that. Anyway, onward and upward!
GIGS! GIGS! GIGS! OF THE WEEK:
THURSDAY: Terry & Jerry at Jersey Girl Kitchen, 530-930. *Please note; Sugar Dave Hughes will be filling in for Jerry this week. Still awesome, just different.
FRIDAY: Terry & Jerry at Joe’s Fish Co., 6-10. *Please note; this is our FINAL Friday at Joe’s Fish this season, so if you’ve been wanting to give it a try, now is the time…
SATURDAY: Terry & Jerry at PigDog, 1130-330.
SUNDAY: Terry & Dave at the Beach Shack & Rusty Nail, 5-9. *Please note; this will be our FINAL Sunday gig at Rusty Nail for the season. Had a great summer down there, starting with the ill-fated SING-ALONG W/ TERRY & DAVE and ending up as my chill-est gig of the year. Me, Dave and a guitar. As God intended… and though we’re sad to say goodbye to the Nail, we have a number of Brown Room gigs coming up between now and 2026.
2026 MUSIC? I’M GLAD YOU ASKED… OF THE WEEK:
As of this moment (and there are a LOT of moments between now and 2026…) we will be returning to Jersey Girl, Joe’s Fish and PigDog on the same nights and times next season. No word on anything beyond that, but… there are whispers, just the faintest of suggestions on the wind, that there may be some FULL BAND GIGS in the offing for 2026… but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
THE TIPPING WARS: PART ONE
I know I promised to never mention tips again in the column, but it seems a little rivalry is developing between two of my greatest benefactors. I speak, of course, of David Miller, who recently finished my short story, Murder-Oke, and dubbed it “a heartbreaking work of staggering genius”, at least that’s what I heard, and Alex (and by-association Lynn) Sosik, they of the giving-of-lawnmowers to the weedy needy. You see, last summer I wrote that I was running low on Q-Tips. The following week at the Rusty Nail, David tipped me in Q-Tips, dubbing himself '“the Q-Tipper.” David gifted me a 400-ct pack of Q-Tips. Well, I mentioned something similar recently and Alex shows up at the Nail this past Sunday with a 600-CT box of Q-Tips, a heretofore unseen escalation in the Great Q-Tip Wars of 2025. (I actually have no idea how many Q-Tips were in each box, I just love pitting my readers against each other… if I play my cards right I may end up with a 12-pk of Scott Tissue toilet paper…). We’ll see how things play out. I hope to mediatre a Q-Tip detente by the end of the year.
(Dave send a great photo of him reading my book on the beach but after 7 attempts I can’t get the fucking thing to download properly, but trust me, my book does exist.)
And Alex, thank you for the Q-Tips. I’ll think of you every time I clean my ears and definitely not when I clean my cat’s asshole…
IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING OF THE WEEK:
At Jersey Girl Kitchen, they really want you to know their mouse is a mouse.
COLD-ASS BIRTHDAY OF THE WEEK:
Last week was my son Henry’s 20th birthday (I’m all out of teenagers) and our dog Charlee’s Coming Home Day and Owen, my oldest, got a doggy cake for Charlee and jack shit for Henry. (We took him to dinner later that week and got him a cool Lego Galactus and a poseable Bender from Futurama figure. Charlee loved them… HA!)
JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS COVER OF THE WEEK:
The 530am security guy at the Rio Grande Wawa looks like the lead singer of a death metal band probably called something like Satan’s Minions or some such and I absolutely 100% feel less secure going into that Wawa.
I KNOW HER! OF THE WEEK:
Spun the dial over to 101.5 WCFA the other day and caught Beautiful Temporary, a song by my friend Maddie Hogan. She is my second-favorite person to hear on WCFA. (Me. It’s me. I’m my favorite person to hear on WCFA…) And while I’m on the topic, I caught this R.E.M. banger on 101.5. If you catch me on the right day, this is my favorite R.E.M. song…
LOOK AT ME! EVOLVING! OF THE WEEK:
I have, for several years, steadfastly refused to watch Shrinking on AppleTV because I kind of hate shows about psychiatrists and I’m not very pleased with Harrison Ford these days but Cathrine absolutely loves it and wants me to watch season 3 with her when it starts in a few weeks so, okay, I'll try it out, and in the first minute of the first episode a character says, “Billy Joel is king!” and it's now my favorite show. (No, I have not yet watched part two of HBO’s Billy Joel documentary, but I have broken down and re-subscribed because Cath wouldn’t stop badgering me about The Gilded Age… and because I want to see part two of the Billy Joel documentary…)
HILARIOUS, HURTFUL COMMENT OF THE WEEK:
Walked into Andrew’s Automotive in Erma to (finally) pay Andrew Fiocca some of the money I owe him for work he’s done on my cars, and as I walk in he says, “Uncle Leo!” Apparently, my eyebrows have gone crazy…
That is some dirty, hilarious shit right there…
Anyway, Andrew swiftly recovered and asked, “Are you losing weight? You look good, my man!” Well played, Andrew… well played…
POSSIBLY TERRIBLE DECISION OF THE WEEK:
In solidarity with my son, Owen, I will be going with him to get a tattoo on/ around his birthday on September 18th. I am weighing 3 possibilities. Please log your vote below. (Meaning, Wendy and Lynne, log your votes below, you’re the only ones who ever read this far…)
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