Afleveringen
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This week we talk shoulder seasons, GenX empty-nesters, and how AI may open opportunities for people who make their own stuff.
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This week we discuss Spring Celebration in Berlin and beyond.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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In this episode, Todd DeHart and Tony Russo talk about St. Patrickâs Day, which is the unofficial anniversary of Good Clean Fun Life as well as the kickoff of lots of local places opening at the beach.
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As we discuss in the show, the AI is garbage so we wonât burden you with it anymore. Instead, here are some of our favorite moments from the show.
"There's nothing more different from an antique than something you buy in a mall." â Tony Russo
"You have to know what's garbage. Like, before you mess with AI, you have to know the difference between what reads like garbage and what doesn't." â Tony Russo
So the AI is interpreting that as a tennis court and then just going through its catalog of sound effects and pulling up, you know, racket whooshes and ball, bounces and stuff like that. It's cool. It's interesting. Practically, though, you're still just gonna be using the stuff that you're capturing to start with. â Todd DeHart
âYou know, they have the chug a duck. You're drinking a natural light with amaretto on top of it out of a duck's, you know, out of a decoyâ. â Todd DeHart
"Yeah. They have ⊠Is it 311 or Blink 182? I don't know the difference." â Tony Russo
âI think that's one of the nice things about the art league and the film festival. They have international entries, and it's been going on for quite a while. And so it's not gonna be that over-processed, touristy, you know...â â Todd DeHart
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As always the following text as well as the title and the art are all AI. Hereâs the essay Tony spoke about in the show.
Hey there, Day Drinkers!
In our most recent episode, we had a lively discussion about the importance of authenticity in storytelling and the threat of AI replicating voices. Tony shared his unique approach to writing without confining himself to a niche, while Todd emphasized the joy of doing what you love and letting your audience find you. We also delved into the success of a previous music festival and Todd's anticipation of this year's event.
We couldn't resist a bit of humor as Tony jokingly mentioned our show's supposed lack of substance, but we're committed to making it more searchable and accessible through Apple, so stay tuned for that update!
In other news, we explored Kelly's fascinating collection of old magazines and books, and Tony shared insights into the historical significance of hand-lettered magazine ads.
We also dived into the lineup for the upcoming Ocean's Calling event, shared personal anecdotes about the featured artists, and discussed the historical context of voting in Laurel, shedding light on the impact of Jim Crow laws on property tax payments.
We concluded with a valuable chat about refocusing on our creative work, the evolution of social media promotion, and the importance of building positive relationships with our clients.
As always, we're grateful for your support and can't wait to keep the conversation going in the next episode!
Stay delightful,
Todd and Tony
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One of the conceits of Day Drinking on Delmarva is that we let AI name our episodes and then feed that name into an AI image maker. I donât know why there are bears in the image. I mean, the rest doesnât make more sense, but the bears have me stumped.
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Welcome back to Day Drinking on Delmarva! In this episode, hosts Tony Russo and Todd DeHart discuss their recent hiatus from recording, reflecting on the challenges of getting back into the creative groove.
Tony shares exciting new projects involving old postcards and penpal relationships, while also announcing his resignation as president of the Maryland Writers Association Lower Shore chapter.
The hosts dive into discussions about audio editing, productivity struggles, and amusing encounters related to MLK day, including a humorous banter about addressing the holiday's significance. They share a captivating story about an escape from jail in Denton, expressing concern for a coerced 12-year-old inmate involved in the incident.
Additionally, they talk about their involvement in writers associations and Tony's current project writing a combat medic's war memoir. The episode concludes with a lighthearted chat about Prohibition and the amusing language used in a century-old newspaper.
Stay tuned for an engaging and humorous episode filled with witty banter and intriguing stories!
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In this episode, Todd DeHart and Tony Russo delve into a wide range of topics while sipping on their favorite beverages. This episode is filled with engaging conversations and insightful reflections.
Sorry, guys. This weekâs AI was really just too awful to share. Enjoy the show and, if youâre in the mood, listen to this version of A Christmas Carol presented by the Lower Eastern Shore Maryland Writers Association.
We will be back in 2024. Enjoy the winter holidays!
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Hey Day Drinkers!
Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the festive season. In case you missed it, here's a recap of our latest episode.
In this episode, we had a lot to talk about. We delved into a heartwarming event happening on December 3rd, featuring tributes and activities to commemorate a beloved member of our community.
We also discussed the pressure of producing an annual Christmas video and the creative challenges involved in rewriting a song and creating a karaoke video.
Of course, we couldn't help but reflect on our love for what we do, despite the challenges and the pressure of meeting high standards. We even shared some behind-the-scenes insights into our filmmaking endeavors, including our adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" using green screens to maintain social distance.
Tony also discussed some exciting news about his upcoming book signing at the Greyhound Bookstore in Berlin, Maryland, on December 9th. Don't miss out on "Tony Russo Day" and a dramatic reading of "The Christmas Carol."
We even touched on the challenges of editing videos, the fun of working with a team, and the joy of creating new content. Plus, we threw in some lighthearted banter about Tony's mechanical pencil collection and his recent trip to New Jersey.
Remember, "it's happy hour whenever you say it is."
If you haven't had a chance to listen to the episode yet, be sure to tune in and catch up on what you've missed.
Here's to good cheer and great conversations this holiday season! Stay tuned for more entertaining content from your favorite podcast, "Day Drinking on Delmarva."
Cheers,
Tony & Todd
Hosts of Day Drinking on Delmarva
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01:18 Switching editing software to DaVinci Resolve, learning curve.
04:00 DaVinci Resolve: Affordable, robust software for editing.
07:06 Companies embrace podcast advertising for branding effect.
09:54 Emphasize genuine passion and interest in interviews.
15:21 Restaurants spend more for uncertain customer reach.
19:27 Fast, witty adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
22:16 Salisbury lacks arts, seeks community involvement in writing.
26:16 Creating bookmarks, available at signing event.
28:40 Memoir discusses accidental rap joke and nonfiction.
30:22 Don't forget to have fun at the beach!
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I love just running the AI headlines because theyâre so earnest. So even though we make the podcast all by ourselves, weâve handed the promotion over to the machines. The art and description of this podcast is provided by our benevolent computer overlords.
Enjoy!
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Todd and Tony dive into a range of fascinating topics, from the power of AI to the adventures of surf-bum turned brewer Little Brian. They also discuss subscription services, book publishing, and even share some insights into their own personal experiences. So grab a drink, sit back, and get ready to join the conversation on this weekâs episode of Day Drinking on Delmarva!
AI wrote that for us. Bananas, right? Of course, AI also suggested âOcean City, Mexicans, and the Under the Pier Experienceâ as a title. Youâll have to listen to the show to get why, but, Jesus, it isnât whatever you think.
So, I guess what Iâm trying to say is, take AI with a grain of salt.
Anyway, hereâs the skeleton story we talk about. You can subscribe to my
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Todd and Tony talk Garth Brooks, who was accidentally timely when we recorded the episode. They also discuss getting social video right and why you still need a website.
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In this episode, we have sex-crazed priests, a swastika discussion and Tonyâs unfortunate discovery that what he thought would make a good short story was actually an episode of Black Mirror some time ago.
As you may recall, weâve been trying to use AI to write our newsletter, but our conversations are just too convoluted for machines.
Hereâs what AI thinks this show is about:
Hello Day Drinking on Delmarva fans!We hope this newsletter finds you well. In our latest episode, DDD 9-6, we delved into some thought-provoking and controversial topics.
Here's a rundown of what Tony and Todd discussed:
1. Child Rape and the Power of Awareness: Tony shared his frustration and disappointment surrounding a situation where a person seems to be escaping punishment for heinous crimes against children. This topic led him to reflect on the importance of spreading awareness and not shying away from discussing difficult subjects. Stay tuned for updates on Tony's upcoming book on this very topic.
2. Swastikas in East Asian Buddhist Places: The presence of swastikas in East Asian Buddhist temples can be puzzling to some. Tony shed light on this matter, explaining that while the swastika symbol holds deep significance for many Buddhists, they are cautious about displaying it in public near temples to avoid hurting anyone's feelings. He even mentioned how some Buddhists cover up the swastikas when guests come over. For a detailed discussion, don't miss the episode!
3. Gaming the System: Drawing inspiration from a "Black Mirror" episode, Tony shared his idea about a world where positive mentions on social media generate income. He challenged our audience to offer suggestions on how one could manipulate this system to achieve their goals. It's a fascinating concept, so be sure to tune in and share your thoughts.
4. Show Recommendations: Tony suggested checking out "Behind the B******s" for an intriguing look into the world of the popular show. However, he did express some frustration with the banter in the beginning, so feel free to skip ahead to the main content. Additionally, Tony highly recommended the show "Behind the B******s," which dives into fascinating historical stories. Just make sure to skip the early banter there too!
5. Google Reviews and Social Proof: Moving on to business-related topics, Tony highlighted the significance of online reviews and ratings. He mentioned that Google reviews hold great trust among people, making it the go-to platform for testimonials that cannot be easily manipulated. Don't miss Tony's valuable insights on the importance of testimonials and how they can impact a business's success.
We hope you enjoyed this recap of our latest episode. Remember, you can always listen to the full episode for a more in-depth discussion. Stay tuned for more exciting topics and engaging conversations on Day Drinking on Delmarva!
Cheers!
The Day Drinking on Delmarva Team
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Hello Day Drinking on Delmarva enthusiasts,
We hope this email finds you well and ready for some exciting updates from your favorite podcast. In our latest episode, Tony Russo and Todd DeHart dive deep into the world of creative projects, photography, and Toddâs recent adventures in Austin, Texas.
đž The Importance of Headshots
Tony expresses his shock at the number of people who don't have headshots. He firmly believes that headshots are essential for various individuals, from authors and real estate agents to companies and podcast hosts like themselves. Tony's wife is a portrait photographer, so he gets new oneâs every six months. Treating yourself to at least one every other year is worth it.
đ Birthday Celebrations and Austin Adventures
Todd recently turned 50 and celebrated with a bang! His favorite band played at the cherished Starbird venue, creating an unforgettable atmosphere. However, he admits that post-celebration blues inevitably followed. To lift their spirits, Todd and his wife embarked on a trip to Austin, Texas, to visit friends and enjoy the vibrant city's offerings.
đ„ Independent Filmmaking and Book Publishing
Our hosts contemplate the rise of independent authors in the publishing industry and wonder if the same trend will emerge in filmmaking. By avoiding reliance on big industries for funding, independent filmmakers can exercise greater creative control and potentially rejuvenate the industry. Tony also discusses an intriguing podcast that explores the challenges faced in getting movies produced.
đ A Not-So-X Generation and The Strand Theater
Have you ever wondered about the origins of the term "Generation X?" Tony sheds light on the fascinating history behind it and shares his thoughts on his own generation's lack of a cool name. Moving on to the cinematic world, he delves into the intriguing evolution of The Strand Theater, from its humble beginnings as The Marks Strand to its association with fun fairs and even adult films.
đ· Soul Fire Collective and the Art of Capturing Beauty
In photography news, Todd is gearing up to do headshots for Soul Fire Collective, a sought-after yoga studio in Northern Virginia. With new speed lights in tow, he has delved into the world of lighting and learning to capture the essence and beauty of each individual. Additionally, Soul Fire Collective has exciting plans to expand their offerings, bringing more joy and wellness to their community.
Remember, our podcast wouldn't be the same without your enthusiasm and support. We can't wait for you to listen to the latest episode and join us on this journey of exploration and conversation.
Stay tuned for more exhilarating content, interesting guests, and thought-provoking discussions, all in the spirit of Day Drinking on Delmarva.
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Welcome to another episode of Day Drinking on Delmarva! In this episode, our hosts, Tony Russo and Todd DeHart, share their experiences and insights while enjoying some bourbon. They start by discussing a canceled shoot due to bad weather, but Tony is surprisingly okay with it.
Then, they dive into the topic of a powerful tool called Cast Magic that Tony has recently discovered. Tony finds Cast Magic impressive, as it provides timestamps and creative titles for interesting parts of their podcast, making editing much easier. Tony shares his thoughts on their podcast being somewhat of a vanity project and his struggles with promoting it. However, he is amazed by the capabilities of Cast Magic in summarizing and extracting key information from their podcast, which he believes can help attract more listeners.
In their quest to encourage more people to write, create, and enjoy art, Tony and Todd express their disinterest in voting on budgets or being on committees. They mention their Substack account, where they publish news and sell Tony's book, "Being Burly." While some content requires a minimum payment of $6 per month, they also provide free content to engage with a broader audience. Tony emphasizes the importance of enjoying the present moment, regardless of the time of year, although he admits struggling with this concept and sometimes waking up with negative thoughts.
He encourages the audience to engage with them on social media and provide feedback on their newsletter, partially written by AI, where any mistakes are promptly fixed, except for instances where they may have said something inappropriate. Moving on, they discuss the Maryland Writers Association's annual conference in October and encourage people to attend.
They also mention the "3rd Fridays" art walks that take place in various towns, including Salisbury, Berlin, Crisfield, and Cambridge, and Tony declares his plan to participate in as many third Friday events as possible. Touching on a serious topic, Tony reflects on the perception of white people being racist and shares personal experiences of racism directed towards white individuals.
He discusses the challenges of distancing oneself from racist views expressed by others and even mentions how wearing masks during the mask controversy could temporarily shield one from racist comments. Tony expresses concern about computer algorithms categorizing individuals as racist and its potential impact on the content they see. He also shares his frustration with algorithms making assumptions about his preferences based on his identity, especially regarding the lack of diversity in recommended content.
Tony contemplates sending a note to Amazon to actively seek movies with black actors, in an effort to broaden his entertainment choices. As the president of the local chapter of the Maryland Writers Association, Tony talks about its role as a state-sponsored arts project and his involvement in preventing negative impacts caused by COVID-19. He briefly mentions the association's monthly meetings, which discuss budgets and other writing-related topics, but admits not paying close attention to those discussions.
The hosts engage in a lively debate on whether July 4th is considered the beginning or middle of summer. Tony shares his personal perspective, defining summer as the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day, taking into account the school schedules of high school and college students. He playfully concludes that the love of summer solely belongs to the month of July. Throughout the episode, Tony emphasizes the importance of taking time to acknowledge and enjoy the present moment. He shares his personal experiences, such as playing golf with friends during the summer, and encourages listeners to do the same.
In discussing their work with various clients, Tony mentions his control over specific channels, including the search page and the "for you" page. He highlights the personalized algorithm that reflects his interests and preferences. Tony mentions his new restaurant, Starboard Claw, and expresses frustration with irrelevant content appearing when searching for it, but he intends to train the algorithm to better suit his needs.
To wrap up the episode, Tony reveals that he hosts a podcast called Funeral Service Insider for funeral directors and recently recorded an episode on Green Burial, a popular topic. He shares his excitement about a transcription tool they discovered that provides 80% accurate transcriptions, assisting with SEO and generating text for their podcast episodes.
Furthermore, Tony is thrilled that the tool creates introductions, reel scripts, social media posts, and tweet threads for different platforms, ultimately streamlining their content creation process. Be sure to tune in and enjoy this episode of Day Drinking on Delmarva, where Tony and Todd cover a wide range of engaging topics while sharing their love for bourbon and the present moment. Cheers!
TRANSCRIPT
This week though is the Maryland Writers Association because I am a member not only that, I am the president of the local know I had my first meeting this week. And if you are a member of the Maryland Writers Association, I apologize in advance because I'm going to talk a little Maryland Writers Association s**t because I think it's adorable. And I mean this all with love in my heart, but have you ever been to so I'm on the state board. So the Maryland Writers Association is a state sponsored arts project and I'm a member of that esteemed board. And they get together once a month and they talk about writing stuff. I've got to be honest, I didn't pay real close attention. They talk about budgets and things like that. And the reason that I wanted to become president of the local board is that nobody else was and I helped found it and I didn't want to see it. Got it got you know, kind of run over a little bit by COVID. And Stephanie has been out of her mind busy and she was the president for like six years. And it is a kind of thing that'll wear you down. One of the things that wears you down is this monthly meeting where it's about I've got to admit I have no idea how long it was either. It was anywhere between it was maybe an hour, maybe 2 hours.
You were writing the whole time, weren't you?
Well, I don't want to give away too much, but I was in one of those conditions where I'm like how much time has passed, man? Like four years. So I'm not sure how long the meeting is. It could be an hour, could be two, could be ten. But people don't get into writing to be on boards. It's not pleasant. And I see why people do it. I don't see how anyone enjoys it. I use all my spare time to do more writing. It's this thing that always bothered me about Ocean Pines. You work your whole life in upper middle management in a Fortune 1000 company and you bust your ass and you don't know your kids names and your grandchildren don't talk to you. And then you retire to Ocean Pines and you get on their board of directors and like really?
Yeah, really.
I don't know. It's not my scene. I guess what I'm getting at, I'm not a really good representative.
But you are.
You can't put me on a board. I mean you can put me on a board, but you can't like I'll go to the thing. I'm not going to participate, but I will make an announcement from the board. There's a Maryland Writers Association has an annual conference in October and they want people to go. So you should go to Mwa.org or whatever and find out about Ever. What I do want to talk about are third Fridays before I use up all my commercial time. Salisbury has third Friday events, which are art walks. Lots of places have them. We're going to try to do as many as possible. So when there's something in Berlin, if they're letting art things come for free, we'll do that. There was one in Chris Field, as I understand it, one in Cambridge, my second favorite town on the Eastern Shore. And all those places have them. We're going to do them all. One of the things we're going to do, though, and I want to entice you, this is coming out on it would be a miracle if it was out on Friday the 21st. I've got to be honest. So let's say this comes out Monday, which is July 24. On my calendar, there's a third Friday every month. So please put August 18 in your schedule, because what we're doing is something called the Exquisite Corpse. And as I explained to Todd, we're going to start off with one sentence and then we're going to let someone read that sentence and write the next sentence, and then we're going to cover it up and cover it up so everyone can write a sentence. Everyone who wants to can write a sentence based on the previous sentence, and.
Todd DeHart [00:04:39]:
We'Ll see what kind and nothing more.
Tony Russo [00:04:41]:
And nothing more, right. And so we'll see what kind of it's like a weird kind of telephone, almost, right, where you have enough information, you have information to continue, but you don't know if you're making any sense.
Todd DeHart [00:04:56]:
I feel like this is like an improv kind of it is.
Tony Russo [00:05:02]:
And that's my promise as the new MWA lorison Shore. By the way, that's M-W-A-L-E-S. So it's like MW ales or M wales, but I like MW ales instead. What I want to do is I want to get more people to write, more people to make stuff, more people to enjoy it. I don't want to get people to vote on budgets. I don't want to get people to be on committees, which is what makes me a mediocre president, but hopefully an effective one where we get more people who are writing, making stuff. We're going to bring back one true thing for sure, hopefully in the winter, once we get everything else together. So please stay tuned to that and you can follow everything that I do on my substac by substack is bytonyruusso substack.com and all of my news and stuff is on there. You can buy my to. I meant to tell Todd. Oh, I think I did. I've started my Burly book is now out, and every Friday I publish another section of a book that didn't get published called Being Burly. And as I'm going back through it. I've said it before and I've said it again. It's pretty good. So it's $6 a month is the minimum to have access to all that. Although there's plenty of free stuff. I write one free thing and one paid thing each week. Sometimes I write two paid things, but I write at least one free thing every week, and it's fun to read. And that's the end of my commercial. You talk now while I get a drink? Yeah.
Todd DeHart [00:06:46]:
What are you drinking today?
Tony Russo [00:06:49]:
I am drinking water. The people I'm sorry, they don't know this, but you do, Todd. We moved it back to 04:00. We usually record at three. Today we moved it back to four. I started writing at two, and Tod texted me at, like, 410 to say, are we still doing this or what? I didn't get a drink. I have the last little bit of some soda water, and I have about half a thing of regular water, half a container of regular water, and then a little bit of coffee left from this morning. So I have a nice collection of cups here on the side of my desk, but nothing alcoholic. I saw you were drinking something alcoholic and brown.
Todd DeHart [00:07:28]:
I am drinking a little bit of bourbon, and because we got pushed back a little bit, we had a shoot that actually ended up getting canceled because of the weather, which is fine, because I, too, was kind of in the zone and had sent you an email at 330. And then I looked up and it was 410. Are we still doing this? But no, it's been fun. Bourbon is a way of life for me. The one cool thing that we've been doing is a tool that you actually introduced to me last week on Wednesday. I record the Dewey Beach podcast on Thursday, and I ended up playing with this tool called Cast Magic, and it was pretty robust. I mean, you sent probably an hour after we finished recording an email to me that said, this was generated by AI in whatever, under ten minutes. And it was a synopsis of the show. It was a great newsletter and fantastic. So it was a neat tool, especially for somebody who does podcasts like we do, because I am always in the frame of mind. Well, I'm always doing so many other projects. And truthfully, the podcast, I some feel like it is a vanity project, right? In some respects. So I want to promote it. We talk about this all the time is that we don't really do a good job of pushing our own show that we've been doing for a know recording as long as Joe Rogan has, with a fraction of percent of the success. But this was a really neat tool. Cast Magic is I was able to go into my Dewey podcast, and because it gives you timestamps of interesting parts in my editing, I can go right to that and be like, oh, boom, there it is. They give you creative titles. They give you a lot more than just the breakdown or newsletter. I was really kind of impressed in the volume of stuff that they were able to just pull out and then slice and dice. Some of it's repetitive, but it's good. It's probably the best bit that gets what is happening in the podcast that I've seen so far.
Tony Russo [00:10:22]:
Absolutely. I started using it at work. I do a podcast called Funeral Service Insider, the podcast, and if you're into, like, death stuff, you should listen to it. It's mostly for funeral directors, so some of it's inside baseball, but some of it is cool stuff to know. I just recorded one about Green Burial, which is a hot topic, but what I discovered, I can't remember. I would love to tell you who I got it from, but I can't. I heard about it on a podcast. And what this does is it does a transcript. So the transcript has got to be 80% accurate. It's just as good as one that you'd pay for, except that it's part of it. And one of the things that I liked about the transcript, which was really the first thing that drew to me, is for my podcast at work. And now, of course, for this podcast, there's SEO to be had if you have a lot of text about everything that we talk about just gets put onto text. So I like that. And then I like the summary. It will write an introduction. It will write a reels script. It will write a social media post for LinkedIn. It will write a tweet thread for Twitter, and now a thread thread for threads.
Todd DeHart [00:11:44]:
Yeah, I love it. To give you ten options for each of those platforms.
Tony Russo [00:11:51]:
Yes. And you can scroll through and get extra ones. The other thing and maybe we can start to do this next week, the other thing it gives you is discussion questions.
Todd DeHart [00:12:00]:
Yes.
Tony Russo [00:12:02]:
And the discussion questions I find wonderful. But last week it's funny to hear a computer critique you. And last week I felt a little critiqued by the computer because the computer didn't want to repeat what I said. Something like, Tony had some controversial thoughts about Andrew, and I'm like, wow, the computer is hedging. Maybe I did go off the rails a little bit. I don't want to self censor because I'm afraid of the computer, but it is something that when I saw that the computer was, like, afraid to kind of try and contextualize what I said, they're like, you know what? Listen to it if you want. I wouldn't. This guy's a maniac who wants to kill everyone.
Todd DeHart [00:12:57]:
Yeah. Soon, in the not too distant future, you'll actually be linked up to the computer that will be monitoring live. It'll give you a little shock, like a little zapper from the e collar to be like, no, pull it back in. Pull it back in.
Tony Russo [00:13:14]:
Well, I'm making that part of an essay. I don't think it'll be out this week. It'll probably be out next week on Substac bytonyruusso Substac.com about I don't care if people think I'm racist, but I do care if computers think I'm racist.
Todd DeHart [00:13:34]:
Interesting.
Tony Russo [00:13:35]:
And the main reason is because if people think I'm racist, there are probably other white people, and I don't care, as one of the, quote, curses, if there is a downside to being a white guy, it's that all the racists treat you like you're on their team because you're a white guy. And sometimes you have to be like, yeah, I don't really agree with that. Or sometimes you just have to say, oh, I'm late for something and leave. But people say awful, vile things to you as a white guy that, I swear to God they don't say to anybody else. Yeah. And so there's no point in me wearing a sign. I guess back when there was the mask controversy, that was convenient. You could wear a mask and no one would say anything racist to you. They're like, oh, you're a mask person. That means you're not a racist. I don't know why, but if the computer thinks you're a racist, it's going to change what it shows you. And I don't want to miss out on stuff because the computer thinks I'm a right. So while I was on vacation, I watched a movie. I watched, I think, two whole movies the entire week. One of them wasn't a good movie, but I want to talk about it. It was called Safe, and it stars Denzel Washington and Reynolds. Like, how bad could that movie be, right? It wasn't great.
Todd DeHart [00:15:04]:
It was was it would be Ryan Reynolds being Ryan Reynolds cast opposite an incredible actor in.
Tony Russo [00:15:15]:
It was it was a spy thriller. It was very Jason Bourney like, by minute two, you're like, okay, I see how this goes. But on Amazon, there were two promotional videos for Know. Amazon has the previews, right? They'll show you, like, the COVID all right? So if you look up Safe and I took pictures of it, I don't know if you can still do it today, but I challenge you to try. If you look up Safe, there's one with Denzel Washington on the COVID and then there's another one with Ryan Reynolds on the COVID Right. And to hopefully get more diverse suggestions from Amazon, I clicked on the Denzel Washington cover, and it said, this title is not available. But then I clicked on the Ryan Reynolds title and was subjected to two and a half hours of very predictable spy.
Todd DeHart [00:16:25]:
So title not available under Denzel and completely available.
Tony Russo [00:16:34]:
That's interesting.
Todd DeHart [00:16:34]:
I don't know.
Tony Russo [00:16:36]:
And I wonder if it's because last year when we went on vacation, the house we rented, we believe had been rented by a black family before. And the reason we believe that is because there's a black Netflix, like there's s**t that you will never see because you're a white person and what you watch. But they were still signed into their black Netflix unquote. And so all of the suggestions were movies that I'd never seen, television shows I had never seen, people that I'd never heard of. And my wife explained to me that this was normal and that everybody knew it but me and apparently you.
Todd DeHart [00:17:17]:
I didn't know that. Wouldn't it, though just be the previous family regardless of yes, it could have.
Tony Russo [00:17:25]:
Been a white family that only watched black entertainment. It's true. But my guess is whether the point is whatever they watched, they were getting suggestions that I had never even seen. There were movies on there that never come up in my spectrum. And that's when I started realizing that our choices, our online choices make us racist by accident. Because if we don't choose enough black things, then they stop showing us black things and then we won't get to see cool black things when they come out.
Todd DeHart [00:18:04]:
It is interesting. I'm going to interject, if you don't mind, handling several different channels for several different clients and then including my own. A number of the channels that I handle, I solely handle. So like the search page or the for you page kind of reflect the stuff that I get personally. So if you go to the back end of the Starboard Instagram handle and you look at and you do a search, there's going to be some marvel stuff in there. There's going to be some lacrosse highlights, right? The algorithm is tuned into me. What is interesting is so we had a couple of new restaurants open up and then it's like what the baseline is before me and or the business has established. And I don't know. We opened Starboard Claw and it is all a bunch of big boobed women holding fifth for some reason at the beach. And I'm like scroll. Scroll? All right, cocktail video. Let's look at that. Like seafood. Let's look at that. You have to train the algorithm a little bit, right?
Tony Russo [00:19:29]:
Because it knows who you are or it's got a good guess who you are. But who I am isn't what I want to be or who I am isn't who I want to be. I don't want to miss out on things just because of previous choices, which is of course how life works and why it can be disappointing, but that should be with people. But when it's with the algorithm, it's worth knowing. It's worth knowing. So you make other know. The movie wasn't any good, but at least I showed them that I'll click on a black face sometimes. You could show me more black faces. I'm not afraid. I just want to send them a note. I want to send Amazon a note and say, listen, yeah, I'll watch movies with black people in them. If you show them to me. But if you keep them hidden from me, then I won't. And then I'll just reaffirm how narrow minded I am when it comes to tune in, tune out entertainment. Right.
Todd DeHart [00:20:31]:
Well, I wonder if they need a category and not stuff you might like. It would be stuff if you're thinking about expanding your horizons or if you want to learn something about somebody that's not like you, that should be a whole category on Netflix, right?
Tony Russo [00:20:51]:
Yeah.
Todd DeHart [00:20:53]:
Stuff you might potentially hate. And this is why.
Tony Russo [00:20:57]:
Well, I guess they could turn it inside out. I don't know if you know about the Napoleon Dynamite complex and Napoleon Dynamite problem.
Todd DeHart [00:21:07]:
No.
Tony Russo [00:21:08]:
So Netflix has and I think they still have it a contest every now and again. The first one they had was for Napoleon Dynamite. And it was a million dollars to improve their who did the best improvements of their algorithm. And the problem that they had was Napoleon Dynamite became crazy famous on Netflix. And there was no rhyme or reason for who watched Dynamite. Like, it was people who watched The Notebook, people who only watched you know, it was like there was no napoleon Dynamite didn't fit anywhere in the algorithm.
Todd DeHart [00:21:55]:
Right.
Tony Russo [00:21:56]:
And they're like, well, how can we make the algorithm find more Napoleon Dynamites that everyone's going to love? And that's something that they've been doing for a long time. But I think that, as you said, maybe throw a couple in there that I'm going to hate. Like, you have to watch this. That's right. For 1495 a month, you get Netflix. For 1395 a month, you get Netflix. But they get to choose the first movie you watch of the week. And you can't watch any more movies.
Todd DeHart [00:22:27]:
Until you watch that.
Tony Russo [00:22:28]:
Until you watch that whole one.
Todd DeHart [00:22:30]:
It would be great. It would be like an amuse boost for your viewing pleasure. It's like, you need to watch this because we know you, and this is going to make you a better person and viewer.
Tony Russo [00:22:47]:
This is a hole in your instead of trying to make a pile of stuff that I like, fill the holes of my mean, I I'd be for really it's rare that I watch a movie because they're always bad. And as I was watching this stupid Denzel Washington movie, I'm like, man, now it thinks I'm a racist and I have to watch this bad movie because I don't turn movies off. Once I started, I'm committed.
Todd DeHart [00:23:13]:
Yeah, now they think you're a racist and like bad.
Tony Russo [00:23:16]:
I know. I know.
Todd DeHart [00:23:18]:
Let's give this racist jerk some more crap.
Tony Russo [00:23:22]:
All Chris Pine all the time. That's all I can see. Chris Pine movies. Oh, and that other guy, the jumping around guy from The Office that's playing Jack Ryan now. John Krasins.
Todd DeHart [00:23:37]:
Oh, yeah.
Tony Russo [00:23:40]:
Unlikely. White guys doing action movies. Go. So that's my thing on AI. You wanted to talk about July, and I want to let you okay.
Todd DeHart [00:23:56]:
So I feel like this comes up every time this year, and I always like the question to be, is July 4 the beginning or middle of summer? And a lot of people have different answers. I personally always fall in the middle because I'm looking at summer as being between Memorial Day and Labor Day. But a lot of high school kids are in school through the middle, at least of June, and a lot of college kids have to go back in the beginning of August. If you want to boil it down, the love of summer is solely the month of July. So that would make sense that July 4 is actually kind of the beginning, but it's also the middle because it's compressed so much. But it's always been something. And I don't know. It's kind of a silly question. And people have strong opinions either way. But what I realized is somebody it's kind of like take a step back and when you're sitting and it's freezing and you're daydreaming about the best time of year could be up for interpretation. But a lot of people think about summertime and vacation, schools out, all of that. And the importance is to take time in this moment right now, the middle of July, the middle of summer, and just acknowledge it and enjoy it. Be a little present if I can borrow from my yoga practice a little bit, right? I played golf yesterday, played golf at Glen Riddle. And I kind of despise the purpose of golf, but it is what it is, and I think the best explanation I heard, it's sport for white guys who hate water. Something about arrogance. But I enjoy being with my friends and I enjoy being outside, and it's the middle of the month. It's the middle of summer, the middle of the season, and we played Twilight because we're cheap and wanted to get a better rate, and it was fantastic. And I was super tired, and it was a little bit run down from a busy weekend and week, but it was great. So take time. Remember the moment you're in, and it's up to interpretation as to what the best time of year is, because then you can always look forward to the next best time of year.
Tony Russo [00:26:59]:
Yeah. And at the risk of getting too Zen about it, you can just also kind of learn to enjoy the moment that you're in, whether it's your favorite time of year or not. I'm not good at that. As we said in the beginning of the show, every time I wake up and I'm in Del Mar, it's not going to be a great day. The only other options I have is to not wake up, which is going to be even a worse day. And that's the last thing I think before I fall asleep every night. All right, well, we are up against it, and we had a great time. Please do all the social things that we ask you to do or not, but we should ask. Do it and tell me how you're enjoying the newsletter. I sent out the one newsletter. I'm going to send out another one. And we're letting AI write it. I'm fixing stupid mistakes, but not like when the machine's like, oh, Tony really put his foot in his mouth this time. I'm leaving that in. I don't care.
Todd DeHart [00:28:08]:
Soon the AI newsletter will just be and Tony says something controversial.
Tony Russo [00:28:15]:
I love being a cliche. Well, I'm out of stuff. How about you?
Todd DeHart [00:28:21]:
I got nothing.
Tony Russo [00:28:22]:
All right. Well, remember, until next time at the.
Todd DeHart [00:28:24]:
Beach, it's happy hour whenever you say it is. Cheers.
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 -
This was written by AI, so I felt like I had to share it:
đïž Exciting news, fam! Just joined Threads, the new Twitter-like app. Ready to dive into conversation about battery life, social accusations & more. Let's connect and keep the dialogue flowing! đŁïžđČ #Threads #NewApp #JoinTheConversation
The show is more complex than that, including prayer for a class war and love for the Running of the Bull in Dewey Beach. You know how these things go.
This is the AI transcript, itâs not super accurate, so if youâre confused check the tape.
Todd DeHart [00:00:20]:
I am Todd from Good Cleanfunlife.com.
Tony Russo [00:00:22]:
And I am Tony Russo. No relation. And you're listening to Day Drinking on Delmarva, a show about life and culture on the Del Marva peninsula. Tod drinks because he gets to live here. I drink because I have to live here. And since I've been back, I've been drinking a lot more. So as you know, if you're a regular listener, we haven't been regular posters because we've both been away. But now we're both back for at least two weeks.
Todd DeHart [00:00:49]:
This week and we'll see about next, right?
Tony Russo [00:00:52]:
So much to get to. We won't get to it. All I do want to say so I was on vacation in the Pacific Northwest. I was in Pullman, Washington, which is by Washington State University. And every day when I woke up, I'm like, it is so great not to wake up in Del Mar. It was shocking. What did you do on vacation? I not del. Mar. That's what I did. I woke up, I saw what it's like to wake up and not be in Del Mar and I felt like I could live another six months.
Todd DeHart [00:01:24]:
Yeah, well, there you go. That's good for you. That's good for you.
Tony Russo [00:01:28]:
Yeah.
Todd DeHart [00:01:29]:
I mentioned before the show, we got started, been up and down the road, all over the place and some work, some fun, but all great experiences. But summer is in full swing now and our busy season, and I always say that we're busier in the off season now, but we are really busy running. And I think towards the end of last year I tried to stop using busy in sort of like a negative connotation. Oh, yeah. Some friends that we just saw live in Montgomery County and talk about how people use busy like a badge of honor. It's like, oh, I'm so busy. And it's sort of a toxic environment, but we're very busy. So not a badge of honor, just the facts.
Tony Russo [00:02:31]:
No, just keeping ourselves occupied. Yes. Yeah, that's what you say. You say we're well occupied. The other thing that we do every week is we're sponsored by a company that is a local business that we like. And this week it's you because you're clearly not ready for it. And I clearly just remembered it. Yeah, we're still knocking the rust off a little bit, but Good Clean Fun Life Productions, I guess I've started looking at social media, so I've seen you more on social media, but you guys have been running all around taking photos and doing events.
Todd DeHart [00:03:08]:
Well, one of the things that causes us to be very full this time of year is Freeman stage is up and running. We're going to be doing covering about a third of their shows all summer long. We're back at Hammerheads, we're back up in Dewey quite a bit, and big events there. We've had the Running of the Bull, which is one of the most enjoyable and silliest events that you've ever witnessed, which is also a fundraiser, which is super fun for the local fire department up there. And we've been doing all sorts of stuff. And of course, as the business as the commercial would go, we do event video, photography, websites and in general marketing, digital and all sorts. I said media production.
Tony Russo [00:04:08]:
So let's spend a minute talking about something we didn't prepare to talk about. Threads. Have you looked? Have you gone? Have you been? I have.
Todd DeHart [00:04:19]:
We were actually out at a shoot when I guess it dropped and I hadn't been paying attention enough, close enough attention to anticipate it. But I signed up. I got our good, clean fun handle. I got the starboard handle. I'm just going to hold it there for now. But I never was a big Twitter user to begin with. And it was sort of funny though. I had a friend who shot me a text and she said, if I learned anything from you, it's always just sign up for the new thing and then give it a taste test, right? And she had actually signed up before I did, but I was one of the first night. It was super easy to do the next day. Then they have all the conversation and articles about, I don't know, battery life and more information gathering accusations. And I'm like, yeah, you know what, I didn't use Twitter a whole bit. I don't know how much I'll use this, but I'm going to check it out.
Tony Russo [00:05:35]:
Actually, this morning was the first time I messed with it at all because it was a little overwhelming. But it reminds me of early Twitter and early Facebook. And as long as they don't mess it up, it would be really interesting to see if they genuinely just if this is a present to people who use social media, that would be nice because it really is. You see your friends post. If there's an algorithm, I haven't figured it out yet. It is the perfect marriage between Twitter and Instagram and Facebook. You can have longerish posts, you can use photos, you can use videos. I'm trying to train the algorithm, so I go on to Instagram until it shows me the first reel. And then once I accidentally click on a reel and it won't let me back to not reel, I turn them and I don't go for another week. Yeah, I don't know if that's going to train the algorithm, but that's what I'm trying to do. But I can at least say, as you say, you should at least be on it to make sure you have your handle, if nothing else, right? And I don't think anyone can take your handle if you're already on Instagram.
Todd DeHart [00:06:52]:
Well, that was one of the nice and interesting things, is that everything pulls over. Everyone you follow, you already follow. What a way for them to just throw a switch and for people to feel like they they already have a presence, even if they've never well, nobody had ever used it before, so yeah, it's a good integration.
Tony Russo [00:07:21]:
One of the things that I thought was very interesting about it was that they chose to do Instagram rather than Facebook, knowing that it was like they were admitting that Facebook is an unsalvageable cesspool. And we don't want that vibe over here. We want the Instagram vibe. We want the sharing vibe. These are the people that you share with. These aren't the people that you follow so you can mock. These aren't people that you follow with your fake accounts or whatever. These are the people that you want to see what they have to say already. And so they chose Instagram instead of Facebook, where it's which, like Twitter has a lot of hate following right. And different lovely things like that. I don't know. I'm for it. I'll be for it until I'm against it. But I haven't been on Twitter in a long time.
Todd DeHart [00:08:11]:
It is interesting. Like I said, I haven't been a Twitter user. My first thread, I think, was something to the vein of I liked Twitter sucking so that I didn't have to do it for my clients. But there is something is it considered shot in Freud? Like seeing Twitter getting beat up a little bit for the number of users that are jumping on this right away and seemingly to be excited where that was missing something for a long time now.
Tony Russo [00:08:53]:
Yes. And actually, one of the last things that I wrote, I think I wrote it two or three weeks ago or maybe last week, I don't know. But I wrote about the submarine. Remember the submarine guy died?
Todd DeHart [00:09:10]:
Yes.
Tony Russo [00:09:11]:
And everyone was so happy that these people the only argument was if you felt better that they died. When everyone heard that they may not have experienced any pain, we were all a little disappointed. Good. I was very happy they died. I was very disappointed that they didn't die painfully. But what is that feeling? Schottenfreude, for sure, but more important, like, this kind of hatred of the ultra rich feels very guillotini is what I yeah. Is what I wrote.
Todd DeHart [00:09:57]:
So somebody, somebody very similar to kind of making the same point and commenting that how close it seems we may be to eat the rich sort of revolution.
Tony Russo [00:10:17]:
That's what I said. What I said in my little story. I'll put my story in the show notes. I said, I'm not going to build the guillotines, but I'll come out and cheer if you want to start dragging people out of their mansions by their hair and cutting off their heads, I am not going to stop you at all. Right. Yeah. And it's a weird feeling to have. It's not pleasant to know that that's my gut reaction. Right. Because if you asked me to think about it, I'd say, no, we shouldn't drag people out of the houses. But what I think it kind of represents for us as a culture is, as we were talking about at the beginning, we're starting to realize that the fix, like, everyone is starting to realize that the fix is in, and there increasingly doesn't seem to be we can't vote our way out of it. We can't negotiate our way out of it. You know, the second the Prince Andrew can have 16 year old girls to rape, shipped to his house and rape them all and kill them all, and nothing bad will happen to him because he's ultra wealthy. And we're starting to realize that you can only let so many people off before people stop feeling bad for rich people having awful things happen to them.
Todd DeHart [00:11:53]:
Well, and it's also interesting when you say the ultra rich, everybody has this preconceived notion that there's the general population and then the 1% is like a gentle slope, and there are some moderately wealthy people think that it's like a steady incline, but it's not. It is like a flat line and then a cliff that goes straight up.
Tony Russo [00:12:22]:
In the right angle yeah.
Todd DeHart [00:12:26]:
To the 700 billionaires that there are in the world. And I had seen something that kind of just quantifying how much a billion dollars is so much more. They have examples if you put it in terms of time or if you put it in terms of grains of sand and that sort of thing, like how much more it is. And it's just impossible for one person to acquire that much wealth based on their own skill or work. They're obviously exploiting the work of others and hundreds of others and all of that.
Tony Russo [00:13:20]:
Yeah. Anyway, let's get the guillotines out. I'm all for it. But the other thing is that as far as people liking to see Twitter fail, the notion that you have to pay, like they want everyone to be an advertiser. And when Elon Musk said, if you don't get a blue check, we're not going to show your tweets, that was the last time I tweeted, except for having been paid to do it. My company wants me to tweet my show out, so I do that. But it took the joy out of it. It looks as if threads might have the opportunity for fun interactions. I'm still a big fan of Substac, and you can still find me over there if you'd like to find me in Substac, it's by Tony Russo. Substac.com. But the idea of just being able to communicate with other people online without to have strangers see what you post and respond is something that doesn't happen to those of us without blue checks on Twitter. Right. One of the things that I am doing, though, on threads is whenever someone pops up that does have a blue check, I block them.
Todd DeHart [00:14:56]:
Yeah. Instagram has kind of gone the same model, too. Now you can purchase a blue check on Instagram.
Tony Russo [00:15:05]:
It's fine with me. Let me know because I won't block you. But if you buy a blue check, but everybody else, if it's a blue check, you know how sometimes you'll be standing in line like cleaning out your email inbox?
Todd DeHart [00:15:19]:
Yeah.
Tony Russo [00:15:20]:
So my new thing is when I'm standing in line, I'm going to go through and block people with blue checks on threads or whatever it's called. Perfect. Just like Tony Russell block, you said.
Todd DeHart [00:15:35]:
Yeah. You want them to know that you block them. A lot of times it's like they won't know if you need to do this. And I'm like, no.
Tony Russo [00:15:45]:
Well, yes, because you can hide them and just not see anything. No, block them and anything else they post. I love the option. It says block so and so and any accounts they create in the future. And I'm like, thank you for saving me the time. And so that way if you block Kraft, you don't have to also block Kraft macaroni and cheese and Hines Ketchup. And they blocked the whole company. Yes, thank you. Thank you for making that easier for me. Facebook. Sorry. One of the things that I did on my vacation, I did lots of things on my vacation and I had a wonderful time. But I think one of the real highlights was we went out into the world of the Pacific Northwest, which is not where I'm used to dealing with. And there's this town we went to called Colfax. And Colfax is very much like Berlin circa 1986. There's six different junk shops, five of which were closed, and a ballet studio and a Chinese restaurant or something like that. And we had walked across the street, we had jaywalked, and this lady pulled over and she's like, wow, I can't believe you did that. It's it's so dangerous, you know, this is a dangerous road. And I'm like, no, it's not. This town has a population of maybe 6000, maybe 8000. And it was weird to get all like, east coast hip.
Todd DeHart [00:17:45]:
Right?
Tony Russo [00:17:47]:
This is not dangerous. And it was also weird that she even mentioned it because she wasn't scolding us, right? She wasn't saying, you Jay walked and you shouldn't have. She said, you got to be careful. Roads are dangerous. They have cars on them. And I'm like, yeah, going back to New Jersey tomorrow. I'm going to Jaywalk when I get there, too. Don't worry about it.
Todd DeHart [00:18:12]:
Have you ever crossed coastal highway in the summertime?
Tony Russo [00:18:17]:
It actually was one of the last things I did before we came here. Kelly and I had a wedding shoot in Ocean City, and we had to do the whole frogger thing. That's taking your life in your hands.
Todd DeHart [00:18:32]:
Absolutely.
Tony Russo [00:18:33]:
Because even when I see people slow down at a red light, ocean City is one of the few places where I make sure that they stop. Also, a lot of places, once everyone starts to slow down, you go, Ocean City, I want to see you stop. I want to see take your hands off the wheel and check your text messages before I'm going to cross the street there, because otherwise you might decide to run me over.
Todd DeHart [00:18:55]:
Right. And you only have 15 seconds to get across 18 lanes of traffic.
Tony Russo [00:19:02]:
It can be quite a challenge. We also went so my hips have gone or are going. And I don't want to carry a cane because I don't want to feel that old. So I have a walking stick, and I'm very proud of the walking stick that I have here, but I had to acquire one on the West Coast, too, because the walking stick I have here has, like, spikes and stuff on it. It's like a punk rock walking stick. Yeah. But they're never letting me on a plane with it.
Todd DeHart [00:19:28]:
Right.
Tony Russo [00:19:31]:
And I'm like, Cane stores in Spokane, Washington. How exciting. So we drove to this cane store in Spokane, Washington, and it was an Internet only store. It was closed. It was, like, open by appointment only, and everyone was giving me a hard time about it. But it's something that I guess we have to take into consideration. I recall in Salisbury, I went to a place that fixes your Macs, and I went to get my laptop fixed, and I knocked on the door, and I came in, and they're like, can we help you? And I'm like I'd like to have my mac fixed. And they're like, we don't do that. And I'm like, It says you do it. And he's like, yeah, but people mail them in. You're supposed to mail it to this thing on the website. I'm like, I live a mile and a half from here. Why would I say you? And they're like, yeah, I guess good point. But this was before I knew Patty. This is a long time ago, okay? And they were baffled. They were baffled. And it's interesting to think of as ecommerce becomes just kind of primary, how many false front doors we're going to have, how many places that there are going to be where there are just like, this is where our business is. But we only deal with you online. It's an interesting concept.
Todd DeHart [00:21:05]:
Yeah. Sorry about that. Little distractions in the background.
Tony Russo [00:21:10]:
That's fine.
Todd DeHart [00:21:12]:
Yeah. If you're an Internet only business, I guess it still does make sense to have a brick and mortar to some.
Tony Russo [00:21:20]:
Extent, if you've got enough stock.
Todd DeHart [00:21:22]:
Yeah.
Tony Russo [00:21:23]:
At some point, your wife is like, you can't keep those canes in the garage anymore.
Todd DeHart [00:21:30]:
So were you able to get a.
Tony Russo [00:21:33]:
I just bought another walking stick that I can't take on a plane and I leave it there. So now I'm by coastal walking stick man.
Todd DeHart [00:21:39]:
Oh, well, that's good.
Tony Russo [00:21:40]:
But I don't know if you've been I can highly recommend Spokane. Spokane is a hipster city waiting to happen. Lots of bars, lots of restaurants. We went into a place called Nito Burrito that had a place called the Baby Bar in it. And the Baby Bar, it had like two tables, three tables, a six foot long bar, and the walls were all done in red velvet.
Todd DeHart [00:22:13]:
Oh, nice.
Tony Russo [00:22:14]:
And it was very vampirey, but also kitschy. The needle. Burrito guy collects Christ portraits. There's black jesus. There's like all the different Jesus's portraits. Right.
Todd DeHart [00:22:35]:
The red velvet. Makes sense, then, right? Because the Velvet Jesus is probably my favorite.
Tony Russo [00:22:43]:
But I can't recommend Spokane highly enough. There's like three comedy clubs. Well, there's one comedy club and two theaters in Spokane. And there is a video game arcade that was closed. It opened today, it opened yesterday. It opened back up on the 11th. And I was so disappointed because all I wanted to do was play pinball. That was the only thing I didn't do on my vacation that I had desperately, desperately wanted to do.
Todd DeHart [00:23:13]:
Well, it's funny and it's surprising that it's taken me this long to remember and to bring it up, but I'd mentioned that we were in four states in four days, and one of those states was New Jersey. We went to the Stone Pony. Oh, I saw that in asbury. What a neat little also kind of weird place. And I heard a story, and I'm sure you can confirm that it was sort of like run down and not very they're like half built condo buildings ten years ago. And now it's had this sort of revitalization. The Stone Pony is this venue, and then they have an outdoor venue that's right on the beach, and they don't care if you pull up right next to it and just hang out in your truck on the other side of the fence and listen. It was really quite neat. We wanted to go see one of Natalie's favorite bands and then turns out her cousin, who has lived there for a while now, and it's an up and coming hipster ish area.
Tony Russo [00:24:28]:
The Asbury Park that you were in looks nothing like the Asbury Park of my childhood, I'm sure, right. It doesn't even look like the Asbury Park of the 1990s, which was the last time I was kind of around in there. My story about so the Stone Pony, if you're listening and for some reason don't know, the Stone Pony was a place where Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played a lot before they were super famous. And then even after they got famous, still today, Bruce might show up and just do a show. A lot of times I remember when not to show too much my age, in case you can't say. But I remember when he was touring and supporting Born in the USA. Was that the name of the album? Whatever album. Born in the USA was on. One of the few that I really desperately don't like. But when he was on tour, the rumor is always he's going to do a set at the Stone Pony when the album comes out or when he gets to Jersey before he goes and does the metallands and stuff like that. So there's always like this groundswell of you'll be like this local band because they have local original bands play there all the time or play there all the time. When I was a kid, anyway, I was friends with a band that played there. So you go and you're used to seeing like, 20 or 30 people, and there are 200, and it's just like, oh, the rumor was that Bruce was going to show up tonight, and so people just came out in case he did, but he didn't. But here we are.
Todd DeHart [00:26:05]:
Yeah. And good for that band who had that slot, right?
Tony Russo [00:26:08]:
Yeah. But the other thing that it used to be also a bar, and I didn't know that it was no longer a bar.
Todd DeHart [00:26:20]:
It is a bar.
Tony Russo [00:26:21]:
Well, yeah, but it's only open when there are shows.
Todd DeHart [00:26:24]:
Oh, I see.
Tony Russo [00:26:25]:
Okay. Yeah. And so I went in and I wanted to take my wife and see what the inside looked like now and get a drink, because I haven't been there I haven't been inside the Stone Pony since 1990, 1980. 919. 91. Right around in there. And, you know, the last time I was in there, it wasn't very pretty asbury park was still falling down the stage. Did you go inside the Stone park? Yeah. Yeah.
Todd DeHart [00:26:57]:
Well, that was one of the the fun things that happened is we we saw the outside venue, you know, reggae band, and then we're, like, getting ready to leave, and we're gonna, like we're gonna have one more beer, and we go inside. And then as soon as the show ended outside, a local van started playing inside, and we hung around and they were fantastic, and we had a great time.
Tony Russo [00:27:25]:
Is the stage still like there's only 5ft between the stage and the ceiling? Is that still the case?
Todd DeHart [00:27:31]:
No, that was definitely not the case. It was a small riser, but had plenty of headroom.
Tony Russo [00:27:38]:
Yeah. No. So when I was a kid, it was almost like a bunker. The ceilings may have been 12ft, maybe 12ft.
Todd DeHart [00:27:49]:
Right.
Tony Russo [00:27:49]:
I want to say ten, but let's say they're 12ft. But the stage also 12ft. So if you were 6ft tall standing on the stage, there was maybe just a foot or two between your head and the ceiling. And I just remember after hearing that this was this epic place getting there and just how ratty it was and how small it felt. But also you can get French fries and a beer and you can hang out and you can't do that anymore, apparently, because I went maybe three or four years ago with Kelly. And we went to the door and they're like, can we help you? And I'm like, yeah, now we just want to get a beer. And they're like, we're not open that's. Wait till the show starts. And I'm like, oh, all right, new rule. And they've probably been doing that for 30 years. I haven't been there 30 years, but.
Todd DeHart [00:28:46]:
It was a really neat experience and definitely would like to go back. And it was good to connect with a cousin, too. It's been a good summer for that already.
Tony Russo [00:28:57]:
Yeah, there's so much cool stuff up there, too, because Asbury Park is Asbury Park. But that whole strip has been long branches not far from there. And that's got all sorts of cool places to see shows. You can see a lot of live music on the Jersey Shore. And you can well, we're calling it the Jersey Shore. I'm not going to fight about that. But you can see live shows and all winter, too. It's not just a summertime thing, it's all winter. You can see shows in all of these bars and still lots of local bands doing original music or mix originals and covers. I can recommend it. I like Dazbury Park when it was shitty, though, so there's no when I was a kid, we would go to the boardwalk and it was like, again, they hadn't updated the rides. It made Trimpers look fancy. Some of my fondest memories are going through, like the fun house and stuff there. If you go Christmas time, I don't work for the Asbury Park Tourism Board, but they have a big Christmas fair there. And Johnny Cash famously played that show at the convention center there.
Todd DeHart [00:30:15]:
Yeah, big deal.
Tony Russo [00:30:16]:
Big deal. So, yeah, I like Asbury Park. You should go more often. We all should.
Todd DeHart [00:30:21]:
We all should.
Tony Russo [00:30:24]:
All right. It looks like we are up against it now, so we're going to call it a day. I got nothing else anyway. How about you?
Todd DeHart [00:30:31]:
I got nothing.
Tony Russo [00:30:32]:
All right, well, until next time. Remember, at the beach, it's happy hour.
Todd DeHart [00:30:36]:
Whenever you say it is. Oh, I'm supposed to end it. Hi.
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Back from their pre-summer break, Todd and Tony talk beach restaurants, junk mail and âGet Smartâ villains.
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There almost are too many things to talk about for this one episode, but Iâll try and keep it brief.
Todd got an âinfluencerâ kit from ABInBev, which bought Hoop Tea. If youâre not familiar, Hoop Tea was developed in Ocean City as a beer alternative in the style of things like Mikeâs Hard Lemonade. This was before every local brewery realized it was cheaper to just hook up their alcohol to their club soda dispenser, but thatâs a story for another day.
Then point is Todd isnât an âinfluencerâ in the normal sense. Instead, heâs someone who knows his way around an area and topic. Heâs more an expert. An influencer will take their picture with any dumb thing theyâre paid to take their picture with. Todd promotes local things whether or not heâs being paid to because thatâs kind of his style.
We also talk about Substack âNotesâ which is something weâd love to see you on if you play Substack. I talk at length about how Substack is becoming a place where there are no such things as influencers, which is so pleasant.
So.
If you miss the old days of social media where random info trumped trolling and âinfluencingâ seriously consider joining us. You can find my substack here (sometimes itâs political, other times itâs just strange):
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 -
Is the government really trying to limit communication on TikTok or are we witnessing the first virtual trade war? Todd and Tony tackle the tough questions.
Show note links:
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 - Laat meer zien
