From 11689983fa95b74f3799b8b2290d7213bb2468af Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: j4nk Date: Wed, 7 May 2025 20:49:17 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Added a bunch of stuff --- blog/2024film.md4tj | 46 ++++++++++++++++ blog/midwestemo.md4tj | 121 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ blog/server24.md4tj | 21 ++++++++ restaurants.md4tj | 6 +++ 4 files changed, 194 insertions(+) create mode 100644 blog/2024film.md4tj create mode 100644 blog/midwestemo.md4tj create mode 100644 blog/server24.md4tj diff --git a/blog/2024film.md4tj b/blog/2024film.md4tj new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9ee329 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/2024film.md4tj @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +@@META charset UTF-8 +@@META name viewport content width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0 +@@TITLE 2024 in Film (for me) +@@CSS ../css/main.css +# The Jerks +## Blog +[Back to blogs](https://www.thejerks.club/blog.html) + +### 2024 in Film (for me) +@@BLOGPOSTTITLE 2024 in Film (for me) +@@BLOGPOSTDATE 1746495928 + +#### Introduction +Yes, I'm mad late with this one writing this almost halfway into 2025. Last year in film disgusted me so much, I honestly don't know if there will be much positive in this post. Seriously, I can't name 5 movies released last year worth watching. Of course I was quite busy, last fall in particular was extra stressful as I was taking courses and trying to get a paper publication out at the same time so I didn't have time to really dig into the indie circuit. I was hoping to put this off for a bit while I took some time to watch the Oscar bait, but I think I'll just cover that in "2025 in film" since I just straight up do not have time to sit through several 3 hour movies. Without further ado, here are the 2025 films I watched and my thoughts on them. + +#### Kung Fu Panda 4 +My second-favorite movie of the year. At some point in these endemic franchises the story loops around to the beginning to meta-commentate on the journey thus far, and Kung Fu Panda 4 is that story for this franchise. With pretty much the entirety of the all-star cast missing, the story focuses on Po and his new side-kick Zhen as they try to stop a shapeshifter from stealing the abilities of Kung Fu masters, including previously encountered villains with Po's fathers saving him along the way. It's a feel-good children's movie out of one of my favorite franchises from childhood, I mean there was very little that they could do wrong with this movie. Awkwafina (see 2023 in Film) voiced Zhen, but her voice wasn't nearly as awful and grating and honestly it kind of worked so I'm glad to witness this little redemption arc. Jack Black reprises his role as literally himself, and James Hong does a bang-up job yet again as the ever-flustered Mr. Ping. The line that solidified this movie as my second-favorite film of the year was Mr. Ping's towards the climax: +"Change doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Why do you think I always change the menu at the restaurant? Because if things stay the same forever, sooner or later they would lose their flavor." +Historically, I have had a hard time dealing with change (who hasn't?) I know things can't stay the same forever, but hearing Mr. Ping, Po's sage father and anchor, really did it for me. I don't know, I guess it really struck a chord. + +#### Inside Out 2 +A couple years older from the original film, Riley is now a teen with 4 new emotions - anxiety, ennui, embarrasment, and envy. She goes to hockey camp and has a panic attack or two, Joy ultimately learns that both good and bad memories make us who we are, and Anxiety learns to chill. I don't know, not really my thing but then again I really did not like the first movie either. + +#### Twisters +THE summer blockbuster of the year, this sequel of the 1996 film had me planning on buying a Dodge Ram, bolting augers to it, and going storm chasing. Seriously, this movie was great if not a little bit silly. Making the YouTube "content" "creator" the good guy made me roll my eyes, but I guess the movie makes a small case for why the most useless job in the entire world might not be totally useless. My wife and I spent an hour after the movie debating the wisdom of chilling in a theater during a tornado and not, I don't know, a local grocery store's walk-in freezer (like we did back in Iowa) or someone's basement? We later looked this up and saw that Oklahoma homes notoriously do not have basements despite being right smack dab in the middle of Tornado Alley, an interesting decision. Daisy Edgar-Jones continues her British invasion into American media, and Glen Powell looks like the next Brad Pitt - I've never seen him in a movie before this but I'm sure he's on his way up after Twisters' performance at the box office. All in all, this movie was my favorite of the year. + +#### It Ends With Us +One of the more polarizing films of the year, the message and impact of this movie was permanently marred by the feud between the co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. An adaptation of the novel by popular "BookTok" author Colleen Hoover, this movie was destined to be enjoyed by 20-something women and the men they drag to the theater. Yes, this was me. Centered around Lively's character Lily, a flower salesman who can somehow make a living selling flowers in downtown Boston, she meets her future husband, Ryle, who conveniently introduces himself as having anger issues by throwing a chair (not at her) in frustration. The story progresses in the normal generic pukey romance obviously written by only women until being jarringly thrown off course by Ryle turning out to be abusive. Fleeing the situation, she gives birth to their kid and breaks the cycle of abuse by leaving Ryle, hence the title. I really don't know how to approach this movie. It wasn't the worst movie I saw in 2024, but it was just so plain forgettable. I appreciated the movie having the absolute cojones to portray an abuser as a human with a past and a future and not an irredeemable monster in $CURRENT_YEAR-1; after a steady diet of Law and Order: SVU and other media portraying abusers as inhuman monsters it was certainly something different, but it had no chance of achieving any sort of appreciation in the world we live in. I predict this movie, along with Blake Lively, will be thoroughly forgotten in the coming years. + +#### Megalopolis +This movie first entered my radar 2 years ago when I came across an article that stated Francis Ford Coppola, one of the greatest directors of all time, was coming out of retirement to release a movie for the first time in almost 15 years. This movie spent a vast majority of its history in development hell with initial concepts dating back to the 70s. "Ok," I thought. "He's had almost a half-century to perfect this idea, this will be the next Citizen Kane." Boy, was I wrong. Like dead wrong. Like this is his life work, his magnum opus, (very likely) his swan song, and he VERY obviously has the actors ad-libbing most of their lines. The script, if it exists, reads like it was written by 10 different people failing to coalesce into any form of coherent plot. The highlights of this film for me were the highlights everyone else took from it - the quotes "Go back to the cl-u-u-u-b" and "Do you think one year of medical school entitles you to plow through the riches of my Emersonian mind?"; I've been trying to work the latter into normal conversation to little success. The movie is trying to project the fall of the Roman Republic onto modern day America; the "patricians" of the Roman Republic are the politicians that have ceased to care about the rampant decadence in their empire. It tells of how a scientist-engineer goes on his own Nietzschean quest to impose his (perfect) vision of the future on the masses and the corrupt politicians. How one can botch ancient Roman political intrigue, one of the more interesting facets of Roman history, this badly is beyond me. It truly is a shame because I think America needs a stark reminder of how fascism arises in today's political climate - this movie could have been great AND timely. Of course, I would be more wary of a reddit-mod "scientist" who thinks he can fix everything by invoking eminent domain and borderline breaking the law than your standard run-of-the-mill corrupt politician but this movie engages in the scientist-worship characteristic of so many productions nowadays which I absolutely hate. This movie will also fade into obscurity UNLESS the stoner community can turn it into a cult classic. + +#### Anora +I first heard of this film the way every normal person did - when it won Best Picture at the Oscars. After watching the Oscars, my wife went on a valiant crusade to watch all the Oscar winners, I did not care enough as none really hooked me besides the Brutalist. This film was my wife's favorite out of the ones she watched. If I could describe this movie in one word, it would be "horny". Yes, this is one of the horniest movies I've seen in a while which is disappointing - cut out the sex and nudity and you have a heart wrenching tale of a Russian oligarch's son who offers a stripper her own Cinderella story, them facing a world that utterly disapproves of their relationship and running away until the son ultimately gives in. I was rooting for them until the end and was crushed when the worthless son gave up on the relationship, I felt so incredibly bad for Anora and incensed at the family who refused to give her a single chance. In parallel, you have the absolutely hilarious tale of the oligarch family trying to force a divorce throughout the entire film via a couple of inept enforcers and the family drama that happens as a result. This film stars Mikey Madison who I was introduced to in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as the crazy hippie that got burned alive by Chekov's Flamethrower in a scene that had the entire theater in hysterical laughter, along with a bunch of Russian actors I will never hear from again since we are not allowed to like Russian things right now. In my opinion, the Armenian actors who played the enforcers stole the show, they were my absolute favorite part of the film. The movie would have been so much better if it ended about 2 minutes earlier. If anyone but Sean Baker, the horniest film director since Paul Verhoeven, directed this film, this would be my favorite film of the year. Alas, I have to confine it to my third-favorite movie of the year. + +#### Wicked +Every theater kids dream, I am so glad I wasn't in high school when this released lest I be tormented by every single theater kid trying to hit Cynthia Erivo's high notes. Serving as a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, it tells the origin story of the wicked witch of the west, Elphaba, and how Oz is literally Donald Trump. The songs were catchy but the movie just wasn't for me, way too long and bloated. I will say though Jeff Goldblum as Oz was a perfect casting choice, his mannerisms lend themselves well to the role. I will say Emilia Perez winning best musical over this film is an absolute travesty though. + +#### Moana 2 +Set a bit after the first film, Moana and Maui reunite to raise the sunken island of Motufetu for Moana's tribe's survival and Maui settling a score with Nalo, the storm god that sunk the island in the first place. That's literally all I remember of this movie, it was honestly quite forgettable. + +#### Carry-On +A thriller shilled by Netflix? Of course it'll be bad, right? Actually, it wasn't that bad. I am a sucker for airport/airplane thrillers though so I am a little biased. A TSA agent is blackmailed into letting a criminal get onto a plane with dangerous biological weapon on Christmas Eve before ultimately saving the day. Jason Bateman plays an excellent villain, the only thing I'd seen him in before this was Arrested Development where he played a complete opposite of his character in this movie. Honestly though, there's just nothing **notable** about this film, I predict this one will also be relegated to the dustbin of history. + +#### Conclusion +Overall 2024 was pretty disappointing in movies. I acknowledge I missed a lot of releases so maybe I'm overly pessimistic but the only movie I wanted to see before making this review was The Brutalist, I'm still holding out hope to see it soon. I've also heard Deadpool & Wolverine was quite good but I just have no desire to see more Marvel movies. Another notable film was Dune 2, but I haven't seen the first movie yet and honestly don't know if I'll ever bother. Hopefully 2025 has more original, non-sequel, standalone films or at least decent Oscar bait. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/blog/midwestemo.md4tj b/blog/midwestemo.md4tj new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d62da7e --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/midwestemo.md4tj @@ -0,0 +1,121 @@ +@@META charset UTF-8 +@@META name viewport content width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0 +@@TITLE On Midwest Emo +@@CSS ../css/main.css +# The Jerks +## Blog +[Back to blogs](https://www.thejerks.club/blog.html) + +### On Midwest Emo +@@BLOGPOSTTITLE On Midwest Emo +@@BLOGPOSTDATE 1741001767 + +#### Introduction +Midwest emo is hands down my favorite music genre. Sitting at the corner of math rock and emo, it has endured for about 25 years in the shadows impacting the minds of terminally-online netizens while having little to no impact in the real world; perhaps this is why it has endured for so long, never doomed to the travails of mainstream attention. + +Midwest emo nowadays is divided into two camps, what I will henceforth term the "purist" and the "modern" camp. The purist camp demands all the pockmarks of math rock in most or every work put out by a band in order to earn a band the midwest emo label - accidentals, nonstandard time signatures, weird guitar tunings, syncopation, harmonics, and "twinkly" guitar riffs. These are the guys that are stuck in the 90s and early 2000s and refuse to even acknowledge modern "midwest emo" bands save Tiny Moving Parts; generally they are limited to niche online fora and are disregarded in the larger (albeit small) community. These will be the first to tell you that midwest emo can be made outside the Midwest. + +On the other hand, the modern camp is focused more on the "vibe" of being a disenchanted college-aged individual trapped in flyover country, pining for the days of high school drinking beer with the boys and pursuing an unrequited love while enjoying a cigarette on a crisp fall day and coming to the realization that those times are gone and are never coming back. Honestly, I should let the music speak for itself. Here's one of my favorite lines, off of [Hot Mulligan's BCKYRD](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTfsRD7Ja-4) + +> Rain +> You're better off in the clouds as we fade +> Barely leaving a semblance of +> What we thought it meant to grow up +> When things don't get better +> No things don't get better, just different + +These will be the first to bestow with the midwest emo title four-(augmented) chord virtuoso bands with emo-tinted lyrics and are able to list off the influences on the midwest emo genre without ever having listened to them. The YouTube playlists containing hyper-specific emotional titles would almost all fall into this camp, starting with the venerable ["Midwest emo/emo Revival Mixtape" by Zoe Hardee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJQ7fvTdrlQ). + +Setting these two groups as two extremes on a spectrum, where do I fall? I would say I'm roughly 10% purist and 90% modern - vibe matters a whole lot more than technique in a subculture; even historically we can see this in bands such as Nirvana who favored simple riffs and Bullet for my Valentine whose riffs are considered warmups in the metal community. On the other hand, I can see the importance of not letting in just any band with sad lyrics to the midwest emo club lest the culture end up like mainstream emo, an overpriced fashion statement at every Hot Topic in America. Luckily, the genre has several advantages in this area - singers who should be brought to the Hague for going anywhere near a microphone, instrumentals that sound like they were recorded on a laptop mic in a crowded subway, and lesser-used chords that sound weird to the normal music-listener's ear. + +#### (More rigorous) Definition +Music critics have developed this incomprehensible mess of emo "waves" that no one can really agree on. The gist is that emo can be divided into 5 waves: +- 1st wave - Unlistenable trash from 1980s Washington D.C. that music obsessives try to psyop normal people into believing is somehow different from the definitional noise that is early punk. If you're a well-adjusted member of society you have never heard of any bands from this wave; nevertheless, the most often name I see pop up is Rites of Spring +- 2nd wave - The original midwest emo and its prototypes, localized mainly in 1990s Midwestern USA. This gives us the legends like American Football, The Get Up Kids, The Promise Ring, Cap'n Jazz, Sunny Day Real Estate, and many other bands I will be excoriated for not including +- 3rd wave - When emo went mainstream and was married with pop punk, this is the Hot Topic/Spencers/Mall emo featuring the bands in every early Gen-Z misfit's soundtrack: My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Jimmy Eat World, Brand New, Paramore, etc. mainly from the 2000s +- 4th wave - Midwest emo Revival, a bunch of bands that rejected the mainstream excess of the previous wave and "went back to the roots" of 2nd wave, bands like Algernon Cadwallader, Modern Baseball, Mom Jeans, Hot Mulligan, and Moose Blood active in the 2010s to today +- 5th wave - I, and most other people, can't really define this genre. I personally haven't delved much into it but it's basically midwest emo Revival mixed with bedroom pop and shoegaze, early 2020s to today. I can't really namedrop anyone to be honest + +In lieu of introducing yet another classification system that will further muddy the scene, I will try to fit what I previously termed purist and modern into these waves +- Purist - 2nd wave + more math rock-y bands from 4th wave like Tiny Moving Parts +- Modern - American Football from 2nd wave + all of 4th wave + +#### Recommendations +We now arrive at the meat of this post, which is a list of recommendations for getting started in midwest emo which honestly may just turn into a bunch of roasts. My taste in music is still largely conventional - I need the singer to have a modicum of ability to stay on key, I need the guitar to be interesting enough, etc. + +##### [American Football - American Football (LP1)](https://americanfootball.bandcamp.com/album/american-football) +More math rock with lyrics than midwest emo, this album feels like a calm breeze in your face on a fall day. LP2 and LP3 suck, I truly believe it is impossible to recreate the magic of this album. Also has probably the most iconic midwest emo riff in its first track, Never Meant + +##### [The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good](https://thepromisering1.bandcamp.com/album/nothing-feels-good) +I usually put this one on for background noise but it doesn't sound awful + +##### [Dowsing - It's Still Pretty Terrible](https://dowsing.bandcamp.com/album/its-still-pretty-terrible) +One of the more normie-friendly midwest emo revival bands, this album is full of anthems like Midwest Living. Music video for that song is kino too. + +##### [Swordfish - Rodia](https://swordfish-mi.bandcamp.com/album/rodia) +A fairly depressing album. I can hear the pain in the singers voice when he sings +> So I'll wash +> The cigarette smoke out of my clothes +> They smell like +> Your car did six months ago, back when +> You picked up a pack +> Because you thought that they made you look cool + +##### [Marietta - Summer Death](https://whereismarietta.bandcamp.com/album/summer-death) +One of the classic emo revival albums, I love the riff on you've got the map backwards, matt. The singer sucks and the recording quality is awful but several songs on here are able to overcome that just with the quality of songwriting. + +##### [Modern Baseball - Sports](https://modernbaseballpa.bandcamp.com/album/sports) +I've spent lots of nights burning the midnight oil to this album. Every song on this album is a banger, but calling Modern Baseball midwest emo is a contentious topic in the community. + +##### [Modern Baseball - You're Gonna Miss It All](https://modernbaseballpa.bandcamp.com/album/youre-gonna-miss-it-all) +Not really any standout tracks in this album, it flows well as a whole regardless. Features the extremely influential song Your Graduation. + +##### [Camping in Alaska - please be nice](https://campinginalaska.bandcamp.com/album/please-be-nice) +Another classic revival album, favorite tracks are c u in da ballpit and dragon ball z budokai tenkaichi 4. + +##### [Kayak Jones - You Swear It's Getting Better Every Day](https://kayakjones.bandcamp.com/album/you-swear-its-getting-better-every-day) +Awash in production quality, song writing, and vocals, this band hits the rare trifecta perhaps because they are barely midwest emo. It truly is a monumental shame that this band fizzed out a couple years back after only releasing this album and an EP (which is also excellent). Every track is an absolute banger. + +##### [Kayak Jones - Sort Out Your Head](https://kayakjones.bandcamp.com/album/sort-out-your-head) +The aforementioned EP, all 3 songs on this one are excellent + +##### [Hot Mulligan - Pilot](https://hotmulligan.bandcamp.com/album/pilot-2) +Pop punk anthems on the surface, heartwrenching lyrics if you really listen closely to the music + +##### [Hot Mulligan - you'll be fine](https://hotmulligan.bandcamp.com/album/youll-be-fine-2) +Excellent album overall, unfortunately I skip equip sunglasses (track 2) on every listen, just a bit too much screaming for me. + +##### [Charmer - Charmer](https://charmermusic.bandcamp.com/album/charmer) +A nice album to relax to, really feels like a slightly more forceful fall breeze. + +##### [Owen - The Avalanche](https://owenmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-avalanche) +Mike Kinsella, the front man of American Football, created a solo project named Owen after the American Football breakup. With most songs being a sort of math rock-tinged contemplative indie pop, I will forgive anyone who claims this isn't midwest emo, it's barely there but in my defense his entire discography sounds like a continuation of American Football. In any case, this album is truly amazing, super relaxing with incredibly sad lyrics. + +Seriously, just search up "midwest emo mixes" on YouTube, do some work and if you notice a track that just especially stands out, listen to the entire album that contains that track. I've been disappointed very few times doing this, mostly due to learning that the band just released one album and dipped 10 years ago never to be heard from again and not really due to the quality of the album itself. + +#### Recommendations against +##### Tiny Moving Parts +No matter how much an emo fanatic recommends you Tiny Moving Parts, don't listen to them. I spent 2 years forcing myself to like them to try and fit in the community but their combination of terrible songwriting and screeching banshee vocals are impossible for me to penetrate. The guitar noodling is complex and surprisingly listenable but when the singer opens his mouth I just lose any interest I had in the song. Their most famous song, Always Focused, involves one of the most beloved guitar riffs in the community followed by the singer going "IM GETTING HIGHHHHHHHH". In their most recent albums, they've tried going more mainstream which means simplifying the guitar parts leaving only the terrible songwriting and vocals. + +##### For When You Can't Breathe +Don't get me wrong, I like the music but it's more Dashboard Confessional than American Football. His midwest emo mixes are quite good **except** for his own songs he includes in them. + +##### Most midwest emo before American Football's LP1 +The venerable saints of midwest emo from the early and mid-90s do not break nearly enough from their atrocious 1st wave emo roots, most music I've tried from the mid and early 90s is garbage. + +##### Mom Jeans +Aside from the community drama split squarely down the middle about the members' personalities, I extricate myself from the argument by acknowledging their music just plain sucks. + +#### Other sources of midwest emo +The midwest emo guitar riffs on YouTube set to random scenes from videos or movies are hilarious, I honestly can't get enough of them but they rarely become full songs. + +For live concerts, your best bet is to find basement concerts in your area. I had the privilege of attending one years ago that was only spread by word of mouth, it was truly the most fun I've ever had at a live music venue. + +About the only music festival that has midwest emo acts is Fauxchella, held every year in Bowling Green, Ohio but the main focus of that festival is DIY punk with midwest emo being only a peripheral genre. I'm hoping to make my way out there sometime. + +#### Midwest emo fashion/trends +I put this last and at the end because I don't see it as that important but I would like to make a few notes on what I've observed of the community. +First off, attire is similar to casual Midwest attire - flannels and jeans which is pretty close to what I wear regardless at least when fall and winter hit. The official beers are Pabst Blue Ribbon and Hamms. The drugs of choice are cigarettes, beer, and marijuana but absolutely nothing harder than that. The average listener is profoundly socially stunted. + +#### Conclusion +Midwest emo is unique in that its a niche genre actually worth listening to. Whatever you do, stay out of the community as you will spend way too much time trying to defend your favorite band as midwest emo while staving off attacks from joyless basement-dwellers that demand that the label be applied only to their obscure mid-90s screamo. Just enjoy the music as it is: kick back, crack open a PBR, light a cigarette, and let the horrible high school memories flow back to you, ever thankful that you are on the other side of that mess but also wistful that you will never experience that mess again. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/blog/server24.md4tj b/blog/server24.md4tj new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f11b507 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/server24.md4tj @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +@@META charset UTF-8 +@@META name viewport content width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0 +@@TITLE Two Years of thejerks.club +@@CSS ../css/main.css +# The Jerks +## Blog +[Back to blogs](https://www.thejerks.club/blog.html) + +### Two Years of thejerks.club +@@BLOGPOSTTITLE Two Years of thejerks.club +@@BLOGPOSTDATE 1737687703 +Happy (very late) second birthday to thejerks.club! It's been an incredibly uneventful year so thank goodness for that, as a result this will be a very short blog post. I've been very busy in life so I haven't been contributing to this blog as faithfully as I would like, but I have several (less than) half-completed posts in the works. OpenBSD continues to be the legitimately most stable operating system I have ever used and I continue to shill it to everyone I know. I attained an uptime of 177 days this year before I shut down the system to upgrade the operating system in early December. +On the XMPP front, I established an English-language Christian MUC since the pre-existing communities either had no moderator or were not English-language. Feel free to join us [here](xmpp:christianity@conference.jabber.hot-chilli.net). + +#### Plans for the future +As for the action items I laid out last year, the only one I actually did was setting up certificate autorenewal. My website is now good to continue on into perpetuity assuming I keep paying for the domain renewal and my hardware doesn't die. This year I'll be working on the others - auto-shutoff when external power is lost. This isn't a hard task, I'm just too lazy to do it. The other major thing I have to get done is a logging interface which might take a decent bit more time. I've determined that the way in which I currently update my website is sufficient and I don't really care about separating my server from the rest of my network; the firewall rules are sufficient. +One useful thing that was recently brought to my attention is how incredibly cheap storage is. I have a couple of Raspberry Pis collecting dust and I was recently told about a RPI SATA shield that can make the RPI useful as a storage system. I will probably set up such a system this year as you can never have too much storage in this day and age. +Finally, I'd like to finally finish out md4tj, the static website generator written in ELisp that powers this blog and entire website. The main thing to accomplish on this front is writing a feature-rich major mode for .md4tj files. The rest is minor cosmetic details that involve me digging deep into the code for a notoriously "write-only" language. + +#### Conclusion +Administering a server continues to be one of the most fun and easy undertakings one can do technologically (once you get past the setup phase). Here's to another year! \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/restaurants.md4tj b/restaurants.md4tj index 67eb852..c6832bb 100644 --- a/restaurants.md4tj +++ b/restaurants.md4tj @@ -118,5 +118,11 @@ This was our second attempt at Tex-Mex; of course, Chuy's is a Southern chain bu #### Main Street Pizzeria and Beer Garden - Buda, Texas A pizza joint and bar in the middle of downtown Buda. We got a large "coppola" pizza which had prosciutto, salami, pepperoni, and basil for $23. The pizza was excellent and I'm sure satisfactory even for a New Yorker, the beer was cheap, and they have generous daily specials. They have many of the local brews on tap as well. 10/10. +#### P. Terry's - Austin, Texas +Featuring a style reminiscent of that of the 50s, this is a burger joint with locations scattered all throughout Texas. The exterior is a striking baby blue and red with a distinctive architecture, making this hard to miss from the highway contributing to my curiosity in trying out this place. I went here on the recommendation of a couple of friends. I paid about $14 for their signature double cheeseburger, fries, and a shake which is on the cheaper end of what you would find in the Austin area. Incredibly, they serve my favorite root beer - IBC - out of the fountain; normally, I would have to go to the store and pay way too much for 4 tiny bottles of the stuff. The menu is no-nonsense - they serve burgers and chicken and nothing else - with only about 6 items on the menu, I had no trouble at all choosing what to eat which I really appreciated. The burger was great, the fries were meh, and unlimited IBC was an excellent experience. 8/10. + +#### Teri Black's - Austin, Texas +In my previous review of Black's, I mentioned Teri Black's - the competing barbecue joint split off by detractors of the Black family. I finally got the opportunity to eat here, and I was beyond disappointed. Keep in mind this is the Austin location and not the original location in Lockhart; I'm sure this implies a drop in quality regardless. Upon arriving, I was shuffled into a huge line - it was a Friday night in Austin so understandable. Throughout the line, they scatter beer that you can purchase while you wait in line utilizing the "checkout psychology" of stores nowadays. Upon reaching the front of the line, it was the same setup as Black's - order meat by the pound and a couple of sides. To the employees' credit, they did a GREAT job of moving the line along, everyone was whizzing along exceptionally quickly. The meat is beyond expensive - $30/lb for brisket as an example. We got some brisket, sausage, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, coleslaw, and banana pudding. Upon receiving our meal, it was a mad dash to find an open table. Most of the seating was outside, and the location wasn't especially interesting so no points on that front. The brisket was dry and cold by the time we got to our table, the sausage was fine but overpriced, and the sides were nothing to write home about. The one thing I did appreciate was the banana pudding - I think I liked this better than Black's implementation but in our opinion, for everything else Black's was the superior choice. What shocked me was what everyone around us had - there were some plates that we estimated cost over $150 for a single person. Our meal came out to around $100, and we were thoroughly disappointed. Overpriced and inferior to Black's in almost every way. 2/10. + @@LASTUPDATED