flashpoint magazine issue 0

Bo List | Movement Continuum | DJ DAvinci Squared | Bear Medicine

Blue Stallion Brewing Co:a new Craft in town

featuring

PhillBell

TracyMcIntosh

ZacharyDearingDavid

Laurenvil

KateMiller-Byrne

KorieConyers

YV

IKEBrown

PrinceTone J-Henn

TravisWilburn

RubenLaurenvil Tony

BarbecueMacaroni

Tony TonySixpack

TonyHighLife

TonyGumbo

Ashley RobeRts

MARA FARRis

Action

Stephanie Pistello

AnnaTroxlerMitchell

Project:Flashpointuniting the Lexington art scene

Blue Stallion Brewing Co.Lexington’s newest craft brewery

DJ DAvinci Squarednationally recognized EDM and mash-up artist

MoveMent ContinuuMa progressive dance company

Tha Ua community-focused rap group

Tony and the Toniesa dirt band

Pilots & Errorssinger/ songwriter

This photo represents a small slice of the Flashpoint com-munity. Not all artists and professionals pictured are cov-ered in this print edition, nor are all artists covered in the

magazine pictured. But all are involved with the initiative in one way or another. To find out more about becoming

involved with Project:Flashpoint, go to www.ProjectFlashpoint.com

or like Project:Flashpoint on Facebook.

ContentsLetter From the Foundersby David Laurenvil & Zachary Dearing

A ConversAtion with Bo List:FinDing The FOrmuLa FOr TheaTre in LexingTOn

by mike Tuttle

movement Continuum:A FAmiLy oF Friends

by Korie Conyers

“And some PeoPLe, they PLAy musiC:an inTerview wiTh Bear meDiCine

by ashley roache

A new CrAFt in townby John Code & Zachary Dearing

A BroAd sPeCtrum oF side hustLes:DJ DavinCi SquareD On The BuSineSS OF ParTying

by Bronson O’quinn

dAy oF the deAd Costume GALAa ThanK yOu TO The BanDS

by Korie Conyers

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1November/December 2013 ProjectFlashpoint.com | Flashpoint Magazine

TracyMcIntosh

Letter from the FoundersLEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, a sprawling city of over 300,000 citizens was once referred

to, as the Athens of the West. Project: Flashpoint (P:F), an unprecedented ini-tiative, is here to reclaim that title. Our community is on the precipice of something huge; we’re riding a momentous wave of ar-tistic consciousness, a wave that is ready to crest and crash in a swift and powerful

way. P:F and Flashpoint Magazine are the gale forced winds primed to act as the cata-lyst for positive change and growth within this community.

P:F seeks to facilitate a spark of cre-ative cultural growth by unifying the artis-tic community and encouraging cross-medium and cross-genre collaboration, by spot-lighting talent via new-media platforms and also by hosting frequent and varying cultur-al events. We aim to introduce Lexington to its vast community of talented and motivated artists, while providing those artists with

an open-minded and passionate audience. P:F is unafraid to set a precedent and create a safe place to encourage creators to stop be-ing hobbyists and start being artists.

We are a co-op of young artists and en-trepreneurs; a group effort, and in a more abstract sense, a state of mind. When you

support the P:F move-ment you are not buy-ing a product, rath-er, you are investing in your community. When you attend our events, support our magazine, purchase our merchandise, or distribute our fly-ers and stickers, you are helping to

build local artists and venues. When you donate your precious time or your hard-earned money to the movement, you’re not strictly a consumer but also an investor and a critical member of our team.

This initiative only progresses when so-cially conscious individuals step forward and encourage the positive growth of Lexing-ton’s arts and entertainment community. As

the founders of the P:F movement, we can-not guarantee that you will love every new artist presented to you, nor can we promise a torrent of new followers for artists to bedazzle, however we solemnly believe you will find enjoyment and inspiration in new and unforeseen places. We promise that your minds will be expanded and your hearts will grow to appreciate and take pride in the artists you’ve unknowingly shared the roads, campus sidewalks, bars, and coffee shops with.

This life is a shared experience and fur-thermore, an insanely complex social ex-periment; join our team and help test our hypothesis that all Lexington needs for cul-tural growth is a creative spark. What do you have to lose? Take our hand and help us sow this seed. Let us nurture this living breathing organism, and together, see what grows from beneath this city’s fertile soil.

Welcome to the movement. We look forward to working with and for you.

Yours Truly,

Zachary Paul Dearing and David Laurenvil

2 Flashpoint Magazine | ProjectFlashpoint.com November/December 2013

editoriAL direCtorBronson O’quinn

exeCutive editorKorie Conyers

stAFF writersJohn CodeKorie ConyersZachary DearingDavid Laurenvilruben LaurenvilBronson O’quinn

ContriButinG writersashley roachemike Tuttle

PhotoGrAPhersLandon antonetti

amy h Palmer Josh Preston

ashley roacheBrandon Turner

GrAPhiC desiGnersDaryl Janisch

Bronson O’quinnmatt renfrow

mAGAZine internsDaryl Janisch

Tracy mcintoshKate miller-Byrne

matt renfrow

Copyright © 2013 Flashpoint Ltd., Co. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in part or whole without express written consent is prohibited, especially since we’ll probably give you permis-sion if you’re pretty cool and not doing something lame. For inquiries regarding rights, permissions, and other such practices, contact [email protected].

Credits

sPeCiAL thAnksJared Brewsterrichard CombsKatie Joe CoxDavid DisponettDuke DunnCommon groundsDavid guessThe ForthlinsJoe harbisonhalloween hqalex Johns

Lillian Krutsingerel habanero Loko

Jack Pattieal the Little PiecesStephanie Pistello

Tony and the ToniesTravis wilburn

ray williamswKyT

& to our readers and supporters

A Conversation with Bo List:Finding the Formula for Theatre in Lexingtonby mike Tuttle

Bo List is a tough man to catch. Many directors in Lexing-ton work at one area theatre after another in turn. Bo List also leaves town to work. Shoe-horning in an hour after his work at Sayre, but before another meeting, and all before he left for Florida, took some doing. But it was worth the phone, text and e-mail tag.

His work as director and playwright have made him a fa-vorite around town. Whether it is his original works, from the monstrous to the historical, or his hand at bringing others works to life on-stage, you’d have to hunt far to find anyone without a high opinion of him.

Bo has found or positioned himself at some handy junc-tures in the Lexington theatre scene over the past few years. He

has taken the initiative to create places where people can discuss what’s going on, collaborate, and sometimes debate. In that ca-pacity, he has had a unique seat from which to watch things hap-pen in Lexington. Not much goes on without his knowing about it, including things that the community-at-large might never be privy to.

It is with this perspective in mind that we sat down to do what theatre people do with an hour and two drinks of any strength: dissect the state of theatre in Lexington, chew on what has happened in the past few years, and wax about what might be. Bo is quick to point out that anything he says is only his opin-ion. But they are opinions that I have seen many share.

He holds out an eternal hope for what is brewing theatre-wise in this town. And he offers a recipe that any company, new or old, could recognize as a formula for success.

You’ve done several things here in Lexington that seem to have been intended to bring the disparate pieces of the local theatre community closer together. There have been online forums, meetings, etc. What can you tell us about those?

There are two separate efforts, one that I think has ended up being fairly successful, and that’s the idea of a theatre com-munity bulletin board. That started on Yahoo and died some-what miserably due to lack of interest anWd a lot of negativity. On Facebook, that survived because people seem to adhere to the idea that it’s there as a resource for people to promote or to encourage, or if someone needs a prop, etc. Also, on Facebook, you have your own status updates to spout off on whatever is on your mind, so there’s less of a temptation to use [the Lexington Theatre Facebook group] for that. It’s been such a relief to not have to stop any fights or tell people to play nice.

We’ve tried a couple of different times to form the Theatre Association of Central Kentucky, or TACK, and that has not worked out so well. And I think that’s because our arts groups are led by very strong personalities, and have very distinctive things that they want to get done. And it may be that at this point we’re too small for everyone to work together on large, big-vi-sion projects. Every one is struggling for money, with the excep-tion of the two oldest groups, which are also the most consistent: Studio Players, and Lexington Children’s Theatre. They’re fine. They’ll both be fine for years and years. Every other group in town, regardless of how long they’ve been around, their leader-


ship is relatively new. Or in the case of Balagula, they’re growing to the point where they’re figuring out their next steps. But with most of the arts groups in this town, theatre-wise, their leader-ship is still new, their structures are still forming, their infra-structures are still solidifying, etc. With some of them, you can look at how many Artistic Directors they’ve had in ten years. I think it’ll be a while before everyone is strong enough to then rest and say, “Ah. Our bills are paid. Our shows are of the qual-ity that we want them to be. How can we branch out? How can we reach out to another group?” Other older towns that have theaters that have been around for a while more successfully collaborate. We’re just not there, for better or worse.

Given where it is now, where do you think Lexington

could go? Could it ever be a “theatre town”? Or is it already?

I don’t think anyone would call this a theatre town. What we’re becoming very fast—and this is delightful to watch—we’re becoming a cool town. The number of cool restaurants or places to get a drink or coffee in the last four years has grown incred-ibly. There are just all kinds of quirky little places, awesome hole-in-the-wall kinds of places. And this used to be a place where you just had Chili’s and Applebee’s. I think that there is a city energy that the theatre can follow. But it’s going to take some consistency on the parts of some of the more ambitious artistic groups before that’s going to happen. More focus, more stability, bills being paid regularly. And everyone’s just getting

the bills paid at this point. I think there’s a lot of great work being done. But everyone’s for-mula is being messed with cycli-cally. Once you get someone in there running a group for five or ten years, it’s easier to know a group, know what they’re up to, know what their plans are.

One of the best parts about what’s going on right now is that there’s this burst of new stuff, but it’s also an obstacle because there’s not a bedrock of history in terms of funding, or a consistent production his-tory for anyone to point to and say, “That’s the character of this town. That’s what this town’s up

to.” And there is a virtue in that. There’s a lot of energy, a lot of new talent, and I look very forward to seeing where it’s going.

Talk to me about the notion of local theatre as it stands in Lexington being “professional” or not. What makes a theatre professional? Could Lexington be home to a union house?

I believe that a professional theatre could work here. On the level of an Actors’ Theatre of Louisville? Probably not—not in the next 15 years, anyway. Could you have a company doing a handful of shows a year, mostly small shows, paying their actors union wage? Absolutely. But I don’t think Lexingtonians know what that looks like. If we promote the idea that community the-atre is in fact “professional”, and an audience goes to see that and they think that’s what professional is, they will never have the sense of being willing to pay more money to see something better, never having seen that “better”. It’s hard to envision.

“If edgy means ‘naked all the time, lots of curse words’, and that’s all it was, then I think that the novelty[...] would wear off. But if you mean ‘truly provacative, that is occasionally shocking, usu-ally contemporary, very new’, then I think that’s an easier sell [...]”


Why would they want to spend more money to get something else when they think that they are already getting the best that there is? I don’t know that our audience has the palate to know the difference at this point. If they see it, I think they’ll like it. And if a company steps up and decides to do it - and do it well - I think they’ll get support. But it’s not happened.

Do you think the culture of Lexington would support edg-ier theatre? Do you have to be careful about what you put on, in order to not alienate the au-dience?

I don’t believe so. I believe that if you had a professional theatre in this town, doing edgy work, that had a professional structure, the qual-ity was good, there’d be no problem

with that. We’re a very well-educated town, literate. We’re sur-rounded by other communities that feed into that. I have par-ticipated in work that I would consider edgy here. Some were successful, some not very successful. If it was marketed well, it tended to do better. If the structure was there, it tended to do better. I think we could do very “safe” and “traditional” theatre very well and it would be supported. I think if it had the right vision and clever marketing, we’ve got enough young, hipster crowds here, keeping all these breweries open, that I think that something edgy would succeed as well. It also depends on your definition of “edgy”. If edgy means “naked all the time, lots of curse words”, and that’s all it was, then I think that the novelty of that brand of “edgy” would wear off. But if you mean “truly provocative, that is occasionally shocking, usually contempo-rary, very new”, then I think that’s an easier sell to maintain a broader audience. If we’re going to have a professional theatre in this town, I think it’s going to be a theatre that sets itself apart by being provocative, and intelligent, and exceptionally well-done.

What sort of things could theaters that are already here do better than they are to help themselves or to help the overall “rising tide” in the theatre commu-nity?

Everyone can market better. Again, with the exception of Studio Players and Lexington Children’s Theatre, because they have either stumbled upon or honed a formula over the years where their marketing works for them. Balagula is doing some-thing interesting. They form community partnerships with oth-er not-for-profits every time they do a show. It’s not necessarily a sponsorship; if anything, some of the box office goes to that organization. But they’re building a new audience out of an or-ganization that might otherwise not be theatre-goers. But they share some benefit. It’s not a cold, callous marketing move. It’s a way of reaching out to other worthy organizations. I think that’s clever—getting more people invested in the success of your the-

from Bo List’s adaptation of Draculaphotos by Josh Preston

“You’re driving by a four-way intersection, and there’s one gas station at that intersection. Do you want to stop at that gas station? Or do you want to go around the block where there’s a four-way intersection and four gas stations? You want to go where there’s four gas stations, because there’s choice, and there’s variety, and there’s a sense that there’s more stuff going on.”

Mike Tuttle is the Managing Director of Wood-ford Theatre in Versailles. He has written for Business Lexington and Chevy Chaser magazines, webPronews, iBm midsize Business insider, Palm-er grove magazine, and several other online re-sources.

You can connect with Mike on Twitter: @miketuttle, on LinkedIn: tuttlemike,

and via email: [email protected]

atre. How that’s doing financially for them, I have no idea. Theoretically, it’s a marvelous idea.

What about attracting tal-ent? What is working among area theatre, and what should change?

I don’t think a stipend at this point is a motivator. At this point I think it is the quality of the work that they know they’re going to do, and if they know that they’re going to have a good time doing it, with their time respected, and be treated with re-spect. I don’t know how consistent that is among the companies. Some people have a great time at this theatre or that, and oth-ers have a lousy time. Until audiences are rewarding the growth with attendance and regularity, I think we’ll see a lot of unpre-dictability with the talent that shows up to auditions, as well.

BCTC is a kind of different animal because it’s an academic theatre, but somehow Tim Davis has attracted lots of talent, both among community college students and what we call “the local pros”, in a way that other academic institutions nearby have not. And he’s grown that program. I mean, who thinks of a commu-nity college theatre program? Well, he’s got a really legitimate, successful community college theatre program, against all odds. So Tim’s doing something right. I don’t know what that is, un-less it’s consistently doing a quality of work that is attractive to other people.

I have heard Lexington described as a pie that has to be sliced ever-smaller every time a new theatre or company pops up in town. Do you see it that way? Are there too many people trying to divvy up a limited pie?

Sheila Ferrell put it this way: You’re driving by a four-way intersection, and there’s one gas station at that intersection. Do you want to stop at that gas station? Or do you want to go around the block where there’s a four-way intersection and four gas stations? You want to go where there’s four gas stations, be-cause there’s choice, and there’s variety, and there’s a sense that there’s more stuff going on.

There is a sense of “a high tide floats all ships”. New York is a theatre town, and I don’t think anybody complains about the “pie” there because there’s so much wonderful stuff to do. You get people that are subscribers to more than one organization. Louisville is popping up as a theatre town, nobody complains. There’s more opportunity, more people audition, there’s a sense of build.

If we had the consistency that I keep harping on, and ev-erybody was fiscally responsible, respectful of personnel, artis-

tically ambitious and successful - with hits and misses like everybody has - I think we’d start to see a build where everyone realized that the interest would multiply instead of divide. In a town that has five awesome theatre groups, the love is multiplied. Five so-so groups or inferior groups, it might be divided. Someone might like what

these people do over here a little more than what those people do over there. I don’t know that we’re seeing enough excellence in this town to feel like we can multiply our interest.

Would it take a lot of time for a theatre to establish that consistency? Or can you do more things right than wrong and speed up the process?

You could. If you had a Board of Directors, all of whom were fiercely loyal advocates of the theatre, aggressive fundraisers, re-sourceful community members, there’d almost be no reason to have a lousy organization around them. That also takes the heat off the staff at the theatre itself to do the extra work that really a Board should be out there doing: fund-raising, that sort of thing.

I think 1) an awesome Board, 2) a savvy business leader, paired with 3) a savvy artistic leader, and 4) a mission that meant something in this community, would already have a reci-pe for success. I have no idea if that recipe is in play with any of our organizations. And I’m not saying it’s not. I just don’t know if that’s the case.

“What we’re becoming very fast—and this is delightful to watch—we’re becoming

a cool town.”


Movement Continuumby korie Conyers

A Family of Friends

photos by Brandon turnerand Landon Antonetti

“Dance Company.” The term is associated with uniform, wispy women and regimented, clockwork leg lifts. This mono-chrome vision is more prevalent in contemporary dance than it should be. Kate Hadfield, Cara Tery, and the dancers of Move-ment Continuum are taking pain to dispel that cliché. Founded by five dancers over a potluck in 2010, Movement Continuum had their first performance, “Smoke & Mirrors”, in November 2011. Their second show, “Flaming Youth”, garnered much ac-claim in 2012 for the comparisons made between women’s rights of the 1920’s and the struggles women face today. This December the company flows forward with “Chronology,” a show designed to take an audience on a journey through the varying phases of womanhood.

From the pastel purples and greens of the Limelight Studio where the company practices, Artistic Director Kate Hadfield

gave Flashpoint a dancer’s perspective on the performance art the Company creates.

Finding the time for the craft is not to be taken lightly: six-teen hour days in the studio honing their routines and muscula-ture for months for a single event. “There are no stipends. These are volunteers.” The dancers trickle in after classes, jobs, families and their full-time lives for rehearsal. The passion conceals the exhaustion. “You watch the sun set but you don’t even think, be-cause you’re doing something you love.”

The space the dancers call home is a refurbished garage; the doors once harboring machines now let cascade a Kentucky sun that sinks low and permits light and music and movement to pour outward.

There is an informal play to the rehearsal. Donning every-thing from leotards to tee-shirts, the dancers wander in, each

woman as varied as her garb. The talking and laughing quickly subside, the music swells and movement is achieved. Uniform rhythm flows and ebbs through the space as the performers lift, stop, and bend. They move, different people with one goal.

Body image and the issues stemming from it have often resulted in the end of a dream. Working with the Full Circles foundation, Move-ment Continuum workshops with young girls to teach confidence and healthy eating habits. “Dance shouldn’t be an exclusive thing, you know? Our women look like women. As long as you’re healthy it doesn’t matter.”

And like that, the synchronicity fades and the laughter returns. What was a fiery declaration of intention after months of work morphs back into what it was at it’s start: a family of friends, dancing.

For dates and contact visit www.kentuckymovement.com

For questions about the Limelight Dance Com-pany contact [email protected]

For questions and contributions regarding The Full Circles Foundation see www.fullcirclesfoundation.org

from Finding Homeat the Downtown arts Centerphotos by Landon antonetti

Kentucky native Josh wright (also songwriter, guitarist and founder of the up and coming Lexington local band Bear medicine) says, “some people cook, some people run gas stations... and some people, they play music”. he doesn’t state that it’s a choice he’s made, he states that it’s a fact of life for him, an unshakable reality and a necessary function of his journey as an artist, a musician, and a human being.

when we’re young, they tell us we can be anything we want. They teach us that we can attain our beautiful and fantastical dreams through passion, perseverance and hard work.

as we get older, the story changes. They don’t tell us to give up our dreams—but over time the advice gets more practical: get a job, keep it; get a house and mow the lawn; meet someone and make them yours forever. Suddenly you notice more and more people around you succumbing to the “right” path, the “appropriate” road, the one that will allow you to retire at 60 and tell people that you worked hard, you contributed to society and you FiT in. you did it right, they say. you did it smart, they croon. you did what they did, and the instruments gather dust along with the typewriters and the canvases and the ballet shoes.

But what becomes of the dreamers? The ones who never gave up? 5 percent make it, but the others? Do they drift out to sea and dissipate into the great abyss? what happens to them when their dreams of toddlerhood are suddenly deemed immature, unattain-able and foolish? Do they die of a broken heart? Do they resent the others who gave up and moved on? Or do they rewrite the lore for themselves, redefine what success is, retell the story as it changes, day to day, year to year, life to life.

The strong ones, the ones who refuse to take no for an answer, the ones who want it more than breathing, more than cars, more

“And Some People, They Play Music” An Evening with Bear Medicineby Ashley Roache

sketch by David guess


than fine suits, fat steaks and champagne, the ones who can’t face life without their art, their music, their souls—these are the ones to look up to, the ones to follow, the ones to celebrate. These are the real artists, the real musicians, the real people. and they are beautiful.

Bear medicine is just such a motley band of dedicated artists. Josh (guitar, vocals), although passionate about music

most of his life, is just recently coming into his own as a songwriter—and the effort is unique and breathtaking. Self-proclaimed as Dylan obsessed, one can’t help see the parallels to the great american song-writer as well as others with a more Southern influence (neil young) and even more with a soulful, sorrowful blues edge (nick Drake). his bandmates, although all close friends of Josh, have come together in the effort that is Bear medicine for one reason: they believe in Josh’s music, and have confidence in the sound they are molding together and putting out into the universe.

Bear medicine has gained some serious ground in the short time they’ve been playing together in the Lexington community. what be-gan with Josh alone with a guitar and notebook soon added Seth mur-phy on cello, Severn edmundson on drums and lastly, Kim Smith: keys, flute and backup vocals. appropriately defined by Kim as “progressive folk”, the band is quickly picking up fans and praise and most recently, recording time in a local studio, where they hashed out a full length eP.

Lexington is on the smaller side of music communities, but what you find here are diehard musicians who take their art very seriously. and perhaps the most refreshing aspect of this close-knit community is that all the musicians are friends and supporters of one another. at

“When we’re young, they tell us we can be anything we want. They teach us that we can attain our beauti-ful and fantastical dreams through passion, persever-ance and hard work.

As we get older, the story changes.”


places like SideBar, the green Lantern and al’s Bar, you’ll often find more musicians in the audience than partygoers and drunks.

Seth says, “i think Lexington is a good size, i came from a smaller city where...people are playing one genre of music and that’s all you know, because that’s all there is. [On the other hand], if you’re in a bigger market...[there’s so much of everything] you can just stay ab-sorbed 365 days a year in that one genre and not get bored...[in Lex-ington] it’s in between, if you want to be totally absorbed in one genre you’re stuck seeing the same band a lot, but there’s so many genres out there [you end up seeing more different types of bands than you would somewhere else].”

when pressed as to why they do this, why they play music, the response was overwhelmingly similar: to connect with people, each other, and most importantly the music. Severn says he’s a part of Bear medicine for one reason: “letting Josh express himself and seeing what comes out.” Josh says, “it’s just what i do” and more eloquently, “mu-sic in and of itself is about being connected to people, and bringing people together. That’s why i do this. we all know the world’s fucked, beyond fucked. and if there’s a moment where people can transcend and come together, i feel like music brings that [about] more often than most things in life do.”

Kim says, “the music industry is incredibly saturated. There’s a lot of people touring and putting out music. For us, we love what we’re doing and we feel like we really resonate with people. we wouldn’t keep doing this if we didn’t get a good response. and everywhere we go, people are enjoying it, they’re liking it.”

and she’s right. Bear medicine can play a venue where they know no one, and by the end of the show they inevitably have more fans than

they did when they started. recently they played a show at Cosmic Charlie’s, not their normal spot, but they adapted as they always do. a few college girls chatted idly about class and boys who had dicked them over and what type of liquor they might drink that night. more and more as the show went on they would stop their chatter to take in the moment that Bear medicine was artfully spinning. at some point one of them commented that the cello player was “sick, and kind of cute”. The band closed with “Big Chief”, a purely instrumental piece and crowd favorite. On the last upswing of the song, as Josh revived the guitar melody for the last time, one girl stopped mid-sentence, turned towards stage and shouted, “fuck yeah!” This writer smiled drunkenly, turned to her and said, “i know, right?!”


A New Flavor in Townby John Code & Zachary DearingIf you’re a self-proclaimed beer snob like myself, you’re lucky to live in this city.

Two-and-a-half years ago, the Donnelly brothers, Kore, Zac, and Xavier; Jim Clemons; and Nico Schulz attended a distilling seminar and brewery tour hosted by Alltech. The experience spawned a dream deep within the mind of each man, a dream which would age and ferment until at last it could come to fruition. With a shared passion for beer and brewing, friend-ships quickly formed between the men and the group decided to pool knowledge, talent, and resources and they set out to make their dream of starting a brewery a reality. Two-and-a-half years later, Blue Stallion Brew-ing Company opened its doors.

The Blue Stallion team’s strength rests in its diversity. The Donnelly brothers are all experienced home brew-ers, as is Jim Clemons, but the men come from a fas-cinating coliedescope of professional backgrounds—Kore, a former employee of U.K., and his brother Xavier each hold M.B.A’s and have experience serving local nonprofit trade organizations, while Zac teaches high school art in Frankfort. Jim, a chemical engineer by trade, made his living building plants--while Schulz, a professional brewer from Germany, earned certificates in microbrewing at the Siebel Institute in Chicago, and also a degree in food science from the University of Kentucky with a focus on microorganisms. The division of responsibilities was a fairly natural one: Zac does a lot of graphic design for the brewery, Xavier does the majority of social media and marketing, Kore does a lot of the financing, while Jim constructs and maintains the equipment.

Around the same time that Country Boy and West 6th began brewing their own creative and traditional American style beers, the future Blue Stallion crew de-cided to begin brewing European style beers and fill a gap. “We had been brewing those kinds of beers for a long time on our own, so it made a lot of sense to go that way,” says Kore, “Having a brewer from Germany


that’s trained to do those kinds of beers made a big difference,” and while Nico is the group’s passionate head brewer, the process according to Kore, has been a very collaborative one. Everyone shares partially in some of the brewing duties, with Nico doing most of the recipe creation.

The brewers at Blue Stallion, despite opening only a few short months ago, have already presented the community with an impressive and mature se-lection. The team seeks to offer a variety of options in terms of flavor and complexity, but they also wish to introduce Lexingtonians to European craft beer in a way that is accommodating to drinkers who may have never been exposed to such styles. The Pilsener

and the Helles are particularly good entry points for the Miller and Bud Lite crowds. They provide a way to get a good first taste of craft beer without deliver-ing the shock a different flavor profile, like say an In-dia Pale Ale, typically would on most American drink-ers. As Kore suggests, “Craft beer doesn’t necessarily have to be this way-out-there, Belgian, 25% alcohol, with hibiscus leaves (style) you know? Which is fine beer, but if it’s the first one you ever have, you’re prob-ably less likely to try other craft beers.” Kore himself, enjoys what he calls the “in your face” styles of craft beer, ones with more complicated flavor profiles, but of course his opinion is the result of a taste acquired over the span of 10+ years of drinking craft beer.


The Dunkel is a current customer favorite and, in Kore’s opinion, probably the brewery’s best made beer thus far saying, “It’s a crisp, clean, approachable option for new craft beer drinkers. This brewing style is very popular in Germany, but it’s difficult to find a good smoked lager in America.” The process, native to the Bamberg region of Germany, involves smoking the grains themselves as if they were a pork butt and using beachwood or cherrywood to smoke the malt as it dries, both of which add their own characteristic flavors. This results in a flavor reminiscent of barbe-cue. A lot of traditional German breweries use a 100% smoked malt that would be too strong for local drink-ers starting off on the ground floor. Blue Stallion uses roughly 55% smoked malt and approximately 45% non-smoked malt to provide a more welcoming intro-duction to the beer.

The brewing community in Lexington may be young, it may be ambitious, and it may be modest in scope and presence, but fortunately for local craft beer aficionados, it is not cut-throat and isolationist. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. From a business per-spective it is a minimally competitive scene, and is all around a very cohesive, open, and welcoming group of brewing professionals. The owners at Blue Stal-lion openly recognize the overwhelming support they received from the brewing community. The team at Blue Stallion received much-appreciated help from like-minded artists at Country Boy and West 6th dur-ing the initial phases. Their fellow brewers provided advise and assistance when it came to retrieving the

proper licenses and also helped to point them in the right direction for everything necessary during the brewery’s construction and continued operation. This supportive and collaborative mindset is proving para-mount to the growth and success of the industry here.

Kore suggests that it was Kentucky Ale who blazed the trail, making it possible for companies like Blue Stallion to open shop. Others came before Alltech, but non survived. It would seem that the timing was wrong in the past and that Lexington is only now in a position to harbor the industry. Establishments like Pazzo’s, Marrika’s, and Beer Works have slowly condi-tioned the community over the years and provided it with the opportunity to develop a taste for new things. Blue Stallion recognizes the value of the wider Lex-ington community and want to provide the populace with an identifiable community bar and hang out spot. They plan to have live music on Wednesdays and have already hosted fundraisers for nonprofits, which, according to Kore, are always welcome in their doors. Works by community artists are also featured on a wall in the brewery, and they hope to become a staple of the Lexington Gallery Hop circuit, as well.

To Kore, one of the most redeeming aspects of opening a brewery is seeing, or drinking as the case may be, the final product. “You get to have ownership of it,” he says with pride, “like an artist of his work or a carpenter of a table, at the end, when it’s done you get to look at it and say that it was yours. You get to give it to your friends and hear what they like or dislike about it, and figure out how to fix it.”


In 1998, a clerk at the now defunct 808 record shop called up Phill Bell about a pair of Technics 1200s and said, “Man you gotta have these.” Bell transformed those turntables into a career, performing over the years in party hot spots across the US, particularly Miami where he learned the euphoric ups and the brutal downs of the club scene. “You were making money that night for a gig, but by the time you got home, you’d have, like, three dollars in your pocket.” He keeps a huge grin the whole time he talks. “You’d go out and play a killer show, make all sorts of money, and you’d party for the rest of the night […] and blow every-thing.” Yet fifteen years later and he’s making music full-time.

Phill Bell (more notably known by his “nom de turntable” DJ DAvinci Squared) carries a relaxed, assured demeanor that propagates from his DJ dreads and chill flip flops as an amicably humble vibe to everyone around him. When I met him for this interview at Common Grounds, he had no trouble car-rying conversations with the baristas about the closest coffee shop to his new house, or chatting up random students about why they’re studying on a Friday night. “Promise me you’ll get out at least one weekend a month,” he said to one girl hunkered over a laptop. Personable, smooth, and easy-going. He’s certainly the kind of person you want to party with.

“It was crazy,” he said of Florida. After about four years of partying down South, DJ DAvinci Squared returned to his home base of Lexington, KY. “I mean, Miami is great, but you only have, like, Miami, Orlando, or Tampa. That’s it. But if you lived in Kentucky, you could go to Chicago in five hours. You could go to Atlanta in five or six hours. Nashville, you know: two hours. Knoxville, four. […] Detroit’s not that far. I mean you’ve got all these great places. When I was little, like, some of my first parties, we would just go to Louisville, go to a party, and people would be like, ‘We’re going to this pajama party in Pennsylvania.’ And you’re just like, ‘Alright. It’s drivable!’”

What most intrigued me about DJ DAvinci Squared wasn’t the party life fan-tasy, but the sweat that goes into it. He gave performance dates for a fully packed

A Broad Spectrum of Side Hustles

dJ dAvinci squared on the Business of Partying

photos by Amy H. Palmer (outdoors)& Brandon Turner (club)

by Bronson O’quinn


month. He talked about making tracks for UK football games. He even talked over my head about the difficulty of turning a Danny Elfman waltz a potential dance track. “Everybody thinks I just, like, show up and play music and drink. And that’s so not true. It takes so much work, practice. Figuring things out.” He wiped his brow. “Oh man.”

When I asked how much time he spends just prepping for shows, he said, “If I had a huge show, that could take 10 or 15 hours of prep work.” For one show? “Yeah.” He sipped his coffee. “Now the clubs and stuff: I’ll spend a good ten hours a week on that. And then of course UK takes ten hours. […] But each show is different, man. I mean last night was a lot of mash-ups and stuff. So I’d say Saturday night is probably gonna be a lot of EDM. A little bit of mash-ups, some hip-hop, videos, but everything’s different so I don’t get burnt out on it. If I try to do the same show every time, then the show I do af-ter that, I’m my biggest critic. I’m like, ‘That show was terrible because it sounded like that show.’ I record all my shows now and I’ll just sit there and scan through them and sometimes be like, ‘Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!’” He laughs with ease over the idea of ripping his own work apart; after all, it’s just a part of the job.

“You have to have such a broad spectrum of side hus-tles to make it as a musician in general.” It’s not just about “DJing”, whatever that means. It’s about creating an experi-ence and turning it into a business. “The arrangement of mu-


sic. The styles. Ethnicity. Everything’s taken into play. Which makes it not harder, but more technical, so you can’t leave any-body out. And we worked with some really great guys at UK and we actually sat down and was like ‘What do you want? What does the players want?’ ‘Cause I’m used to the wants and needs. Say if I did, like, a fashion show or something. They would give me a runway song list. ‘Mix this. Here’s the time. Be within five seconds.’ And when I go to a club […] I mean, that is, like, a blank canvas for whatever you can throw up. Like, not only do I play videos, but I’m doing mash-ups live. My new latest thing is I like to find music videos that contain nudity. And you see the people that watch the music videos and you see the people who just came to hear music and dance. And it’s like seeing a contrast over a flash mob inside of a crowd.

“But all of it together, you know, it’s being a musician. Like, you have to do everything to make it work. Because if I was just a DJ, I’d definitely have to have a day job. Not only, like, to sup-port my family, but my career takes a lot of money. Equipment has to have upkeep. I have to travel.”

Bell says he couldn’t do it without the support of his wife and kids. His three-year-old daughter is too smart for her own good and his 16-month-old loves to dance. I asked how his wife

felt about him working sweaty dance clubs with beautiful wom-en. “Oh my god. She’s sometimes frantic about it. […] When she comes in, sometimes someone will be like, ‘Can you play that song that’s like “di-di-di-di”?’ and the girl will just be drunk, but [my wife] will be like, ‘She was trying to hit on you. I’m gonna stab her in the face!’” He breaks into laughter. “It’s like, ‘Honey, they request a song. It’s my job!’

“But I kinda space myself, especially on stage or in a DJ booth or something. I like to space myself from any of those things ‘cause I know I would never do anything in the world to jeopardize what me and my girl has. She’s 110%. I wouldn’t trade a million skanks for her.”

I had to fight back tears.But don’t mistake the switch from the party scene to the

family life as “selling out”, or whatever. Phill Bell (aka DJ DA-vinci Squared) works harder than ever because he has to. He’s not in it to get wasted and find girls; it’s all about the music.

You can find DJ DAvinci Squared at Two Keys Tavern on Thursdays, Hugo’s on Saturdays, and he is in the works for a show at Campus Pub on Wednesdays. You can get some free music, podcasts, and information at www.DAvinciSquared.com.

“He’s not in it to find girls and get wasted; it’s all

about the music.”


Except for the occasional Beaux Arts Ball or Neon Jungle, the Lexington party scene needs some word-of-mouth resuscitation. At DJ DAvinci’s set with DJ Four20 at Art Bar on October 18th, the resounding consensus was that Lex-ington must reach out to the people that matter. Louisville and Cincinnati can thrive because they not only cater to surrounding towns, but do their best to keep the college crowd active and (more importantly) stationary during the school breaks. Phill Bell, DJ DAvinci himself, said that the focus is too much on the musicians and not the audience. “But you could have DJ Aoki and it wouldn’t matter.” You can’t fill a club without warm bodies.And then there’s the dreaded “bar curse” looming over Lexington hot spots. As Bell explained, “It’s terrible! Like, over there in Lexington Green, behind the Chase. What was the name of that? I even played there a couple of times and

that place was beautiful, but nobody would come out for it. Nobody. It was just really hard to get busy. But people got stabbed there with pool cues, so it was, like, super cursed. And do you remember A1A concert hall? When I was a kid, I remember that. They were dealing guns out the back or something. Kid got shot out front. Club was cursed. I mean, small things bring on the curse, but once it’s put on the bar (or a club), Dude! It’s got, maybe six months.”The solution to both problems is collaboration. After all, each venue has their own advantages and disadvantages. Hugo’s does not offer the same things as Trust Lounge or Skybar. Art Bar is the only club in town with a CO2 system. And once we all remember that we’re all in this together, that we’re all just trying to have a good time, things should slide into place. All we need to do is spread the message. Hopefully, I’ve talked my share. Now it’s your turn.

How to Save Lexington’s Night Lifeby Bronson O’quinn

“I mean, small things bring on the curse, but once it’s put on the bar (or a club), dude! It’s got, maybe six months.”


Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos):A celebration of remembrance of those who came before and why we soldier on; a time of legacies remembered and legacies fresh made.

november 2nd, 2013Blue Stallion Brewing Co.

Tony and the Tonies

down home all night rock ‘n roll. rowdy, loud and barely under control. marconi tony, tony Gumbo, tony Barbecue and tony high Life. Livin’ it.

Folk-County-rock jams, with a hint of blues. Comprised of Justin Adams, Gareth evans, Adam Luckey, Adam napier.

The Forthlins

Day of


Costume Gala

A experimental five piece nrock-blues-jazz fu-sion medley consisting of rhyan sprague, thom-as suggs, Billy P. thomas, Chris Jones, and emily miller. resonating rhythms and swaying sounds delving into love, loss and searing sereneness.

All the Little Pieces

-DJ DAvinci Squared

“mash-ups are like a signature move. if you record your mash-ups and put it out there for someone else to have it then they have it. you’re already done, they’re just gonna play it. But if i’ve got a mash-up that i keep in my arsenal that i can do live, i mean that’s just like saving up pole-dancing tricks, you know? you don’t give away your pole-dancing tricks or no one’s gonna tip ya.”

the Dead


Creativity & Self-Expression: Every party associated with P:F must strive to push the

limits of their own creativity while vowing to stay true

to their soul’s purpose. Section 3. Setting a Precedent: Every party associated with P:F must be eager to blaze

the trail and set an example for the artists and entre-

preneurs who, for financial or emotional reasons, find

themselves in hiding. We bold few will show this commu-

nity the extent of what can be achieved when artists and

entrepreneurs unite and push boundaries. Section 4.

Positive Influence: Every party associated with P:F must understand the im-

portance of forging positive change. There exists not

the room for negativity or ridicule within the movement.

Criticism is constructive and never demeaning. P:F will

always provide a safe environment for creative thought

and expression. Section 5.

Non Self-Serving:Every party associated with P:F must live beyond the ego.

This movement is not about one artist, one business, or

one discipline; this movement is about the community as a

whole. We will work toward the betterment of the Univer-

sal Mind.

The ConstitutionPREAMBLE:

We the people of Lexington, Kentucky, in order to form a more per-fect arts, entertainment, and entrepreneurial community, to estab-lish cultural identity, insure creative integrity, provide for a sovereign arts culture, to promote community investment, and secure the right of all citizens to explore creativity and self-expression, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Project: Flash-point (P:F) initiative.

ARTICLE 1.

Section 1.PURPOSE:Members of P:F accept that their purpose is to unite the Lexington arts scene, inspire creative self-expression, and foster the spiritual and economic growth of their commu-nity.

Section 2.GOAL:Members of P:F accept that their goal is the endless pur-suit of methods which promote artists who haven’t the means to promote themselves, by hosting frequent and varying cul-tural events, and also, by spotlighting them through new-media and entertainment platforms. Thus, the exposure and support of venues and small, socially aware businesses, becomes an equally necessary goal.

Section 3.METHOD OF GOVERNANCE:Members of P:F accept that they are part of something larg-er than the capacity of human governance. Consequently, they agree to adhere to and be governed by the five FOUND-ING PRICIPLES outlined in Article 2.

ARTICLE 2.

Section 1.Unity & Collaboration:

Every party associated with P:F must work within the prin-ciples of unity and collaboration. A fragmented and closed-minded approach only exacerbates existing weaknesses within our community. This movement is about learning from and working with one another. Everyone wins when we work together to build and share a common audience.

Section 2.


flashpoint magazine issue 0

Documents

flashpoint p

motivated artists

local artists

coop of young artists

artistic community

vast community of talented

flashpoint community

newmedia platforms