Day Drinking on Delmarva

Both Todd and I make our livings from what would be our hobbies. Neither of us would be confused with a wealthy person but that is OK.

I returned to local journalism but of a completely different kind recently, and I’m pretty excited about it. Rather than having to write 10 stories no matter what, I report on issues that I think matter to my neighbors, or that I think ought to matter.

Todd got to shoot a concert at the Starboard and, even though he thought he hadn’t done his best work, he produced something really cool in the edit.

There’s plenty more including a podcast recommendation from Todd and a totally unfair review of the movie Annette by me.

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This week, Tony talks about being on a Christian conspiracy podcast and Todd gets recognized at the host of Dewey Raw.

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The point of live shows is to get caught up in the euphoria, not to relive your mediocre teen years. In this week’s show, Todd and I take a look at live shows and revisit our discussion about tribute acts. He is a fan, I am not.

For Todd, the energy of younger people, especially if the tribute band is right on, is superior to the older voices that sometimes are too weak for the music and the entitlement that comes with having had a hit song in the 1980s (or whenever), mixed with the reeking must of decline.

I guess it’s better to say that he used to be a fan of tribute acts. A recent REO Speedwagon show disabused him of that notion.

What it comes down to in live music is that the act has to genuinely enjoy their work, or at least they have to come across as if they genuinely enjoy their work, which is too hard for many bands.

I was working at the Sheraton Inn in Salisbury when I first moved here. The place was no less a dump then than it is now, but the Moody Blues were genuinely offended by its condition.

In fact, they were so openly hostile to the fact that I worked for a millionaire too cheap to keep his hotel nice that I bring up their priggishness whenever the opportunity presents itself.

What I wanted to say (but lacked the courage as well as other job opportunities) was that if they didn’t want to stay in a dump, they should have more hits and get a nicer bus the way the more popular acts did.

That was their vibe: Here we has-been rockers go through all this trouble to whine our way through that awful poem at the end of Nights in White Satin for the millionth time, and you’re not even grateful enough to have a nice hotel for us to stay in.

There’s no telling what they thought of the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center green rooms, but I’m guessing they weren’t impressed.

REO Speedwagon was, according to Todd, the opposite of that. He wasn’t a fan before the show, but he knew all of the songs and was an avid fan by the time they took their curtain calls. It was good to hear. I like when musicians appreciate the fact that they're appreciated rather than expect it.

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What I thought was a purple bottle of gin turned out to be a bottle of purple gin. This was completely unexpected and a little horrifying.

I’d gone to the liquor store with my brother to pick up some supplies and wanted to try a new gin. I’d never heard of Empress Gin. I just knew it was a little more expensive and took that to mean it would have something herbal and potentially kooky going on.

We drank it with soda. It had a delicate floral taste that made me certain an olive or two would destroy it, so we started simple. Lime wasn’t great in the soda, but lemon was just fine.

The thing is, I like cocktails and if I was going to get the most out of the gin’s flavor, diluting it with soda wasn’t going to help.

I keep St-Germain in the house to replace simple syrup in drink recipes. I’ve yet to be disappointed.

So how’s this for a cocktail: A Martini, but with St-Germain replacing the vermouth and a lemon replacing the olive? Turns out it was spectacular.

My particular take was 3oz. Empress Gin with .25oz St. Germaine and the juice from a thin lemon slice. Twists seem a little wasteful because I’m shitty at making them and I use very little lemon, but I’ll bet it would be just as good.

Since the drink happens to be the GCFL colors, we’re temporarily calling it the DOD Cooler. We understand it’s not a great name and invite you to do better. We’re sure tryng.

Happy Hour is when you say it is.

Best,

Tony

Show Notes:

This week’s sponsor: DOD Cooler and Bullet Bourbon on ice.

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Todd: One Cool Thing

The annual beach olympics were this week and Todd got a chance to get out there. He reports in detail.

The takeaway is that restaurants and chefs around here don’t compete so much as collaborate. Sure, that might not be true all the way down the line, but the better the restaurant, the more likely the chef or owner sees the other good restaurants as a complement rather than a threat.

It certainly helps that there are more people who want to dine out on a given Friday night than there are places for them to dine, but it is an attitude that survives into the winter.

Tony: One Cool Thing

Tony wrote a book. We say this on the outside chance this is the first you’re hearing of it (or, alternatively, you keep forgetting to order it).

If you’re in the area, though, there are plenty of signed copies at The Greyhound in Berlin. That’s where Tony found himself this week. While he and Todd didn’t get to talk too much about the event (there’s another one this week anyway) they did talk about parking for longer than intended, but it’s not too awful.

They promise.

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Todd shares stories from Dewey Beach and the Freeman Stage. Tony winds up his wildly unsuccessful book tour.

You can check out Dewey Raw on the Starboard’s YouTube channel or watch below:

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On this week’s show, Todd and I talk about his adventures in Ocean City, particularly at The Cork Bar, which is one of the few places that knows what Ocean City really is and acts accordingly. 

My own ambivalence about the resort is always this notion that is it anything more than a tacky tourist trap. It’s carny to its core but pretends that it’s a more accessible Martha’s Vineyard or whatever. 

My opinion hasn’t improved over the last few days, but we’ll leave the recent ugliness for next week’s show (which I swear I’ll put out Thursday, guys. Honest!).

The other thing we talked about is how much contempt many of the small business owners in the region have for people who make stuff. Todd spoke about literally being asked to work for exposure. He’s been at this like, 20 years. 

The myth that exposure works should be dead and gone by now, but somehow it isn’t. The reason is that people wrongly believe that word of mouth is effective if you’re not getting paid. Instead, it turns out to be one mooch telling another where they can get free work done. 

I’ve honestly stopped promoting things that I like just because I got a name for “working for free” when my hobby just happened to be blogging about things I liked. The only thing it did was ruin my ability to enjoy my hobby. 

I may have mentioned I had a book come out recently about a cult murder. At least three people suggested I should do a story about their business. They didn’t mean to be a******s, but the worst a******s rarely do. For me, though, I’ve just become a little contemptuous of people who don’t know not to ask for free work.

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In this week’s episode, Todd talks about getting back out on a regular basis and interacting with the crowds as they return to the beach. Todd does a bunch of work in Dewey and talks about how the Starboard is kind of built for the easing of restrictions. Not only is a lot of it outside, but that’s kind of the attraction.

Dragged Into the Light is out now, and I would really love it if you got a copy. It is availible wherever you can get books.

The Amazon link is here.

There’s another buying option I think you may want to consider and that’s BookShop.org. It’s like Amazon in that it can get pretty much any book in print. It’s not like Amazon in that it shares a cut of your purchase with the bookstore closest to you.

Check it out.

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Todd lured a tree guy to his house and the neighbors never let him leave. It’s astounding how much more confident we feel hiring someone when we see them working. There’s a reality to it. Even if they’re doing something we don’t understand, seeing someone who appears to know what they’re doing is so much better than looking at Google Reviews and such.

We don’t spend too much time on the show taking about it, so don’t worry, this isn’t Tree Talk with Todd and Tony (yet) although we do kick the idea around.

Todd has a construction background as well as a vibe that comes along with it. I have no such thing, as evidenced by the questions I asked about tree-cutting equipment. You’d be surprised how rarely tree guys use axes and wear flannel.

I briefly pitch a This Old House-style show wherein I just walk around behind Todd asking questions that reveal my ignorance and making guesses that cause more sophisticated people to snicker.

But the big news this week is my upcoming book. Still.

Dragged Into the Light: Truthers, Reptilians, Super Soldiers, and Death Inside an Online Cult will ship in the next couple days and I’m so excited for you to read it. Todd and I spoke about an early review from Tehben.com that really got to the heart of the book.

I also was on the “Follow The Woo” podcast. I’d really like it if you at least listened to the opening of that. The host, who is so much more spiritual than I will ever be, had some great insights. If I’m honest, my Dragged Into the Light isn’t friendly or forgiving when it comes to religion and spirituality, but that has more to do with the practices I witnessed. We spoke a lot about how if faith makes you mean, you’re probably doing it wrong.

Finally (and again) If you’re in the Berlin, Md. area, I’d love it if you came to my book launch, which is 11-a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, June 5 at The Greyhound Bookstore in Berlin. If you’re coming for sure, consider clicking on the Facebook Event.

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Now that he can go out again, Todd takes the opportunity to pair his ability to leave the house with all the alcohol available outside. In this episode, he talks about #TastyTuesdays, his project to just start dropping in to places while he still can have them (mostly) to himself.

While Todd spends Tuesdays exploring, Tony spends them fielding emails about the recently concluded The Devil You Know.

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I’ve mentioned before (and let’s face it, kinda constantly) that I have a book coming out about a cult. I’m also featured in a six-part documentary series about the cult called The Devil You Know Season 2 on ViceTv. The show airs on Monday night and, as a result, people reach out to me about it, often in reference to another cult they would like me to investigate.

I’m not a cult investigator, like, professionally, but I respond to everyone and want to hear their stories. I’ve heard some doozies.

This week, though, I was privileged to have been contacted by a childhood friend of Sherry Shriner, the cult leader at the center of the story. They asked not to be identified in any way but shared with me some insightful stories about the prophet before she fully launched into religious extremism.

It was a tantalizing conversation and made me wonder whether having spoken with her would have changed much about the book. I don’t know if it would have except to make me take an even harder stance against sending children to religious schools.

In other show highlights, Todd and I discuss the return of going out as he recounts his visit to the Evo Public House, a brewery and restaurant in Salisbury that is really among the top places to hang out.

One of my favorite things about Evo is they’re not super-trendy in the best way. As a former beer writer the abject desperation with which so many places try to be hip and cutting edge took a lot of the fun out of experimenting.

You may not recall, but if you went to local breweries before the apocalypse you had better have been ready to try a variety of sour beers and “juicy” IPAs or else go thirsty. Evo had them, but they made other beers as well.

For me, the craft beer revolution devolved into a boring attempt to predict trends rather than make the beers the brewers wanted to drink. It’s possible that most brewers just started drinking tart, fruit-infused malt liquor and beer-flavored orange juice, but I got the sense it was more about getting your beer talked about than making something interesting that you think people might like.

It is also possible that the culture passed me by, that this was a battle that my side lost. Speaking of which, I’ll be producing a new podcast soon called “A Bagel Manifesto” where I talk about learning to live with culture changes that you hate.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit daydrinkingondelmarva.substack.com