flashpoint magazine issue 01 (june/july)

photo by Brandon Turner

magazineJan/Feb 2014

FEATURING:

ALISHA MARTINBALAGULA THEATRE

TEEN HOWL POETRY SERIESTHE FORD THEATRE REUNION

JOHN LACKEY

Letter from the EditorsLEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, a sprawl-ing city of over 300,000 citizens was once referred to as the Ath-ens of the West. Project:Flashpoint is here to reclaim that title. Our community is on the precipice of something huge; we’re riding a mo-mentous wave of artistic conscious-ness, a wave that is ready to crest and crash in a swift and powerful way. P:F and Flashpoint Magazine are the forces of nature primed to act as the catalyst for positive change and growth within this com-munity.As a gathering of young artists and entrepreneurs, P:F seeks to facili-tate a spark of creative cultural growth by unifying the artistic com-munity and encouraging cross-medi-um and cross-genre collaboration by spotlighting talent via new-media platforms and by hosting frequent and varying cultural events. This initiative only progresses when socially conscious individu-

als step forward and encourage the positive growth of Lexington’s arts and enter-tainment com-munity. As the founders of the P:F movement, we cannot guaran-

tee our readers will love every new artist pre-sented to them, nor can we prom-ise a torrent of new followers for artists to be-dazzle, however we solemnly believe the readers of Flashpoint Magazine will find enjoyment and inspira-tion in new and unforeseen places. We promise that your mind will be expanded and your heart will grow to appreciate and take pride in the artists you’ve unknowingly shared the roads, campus sidewalks, bars, and coffee shops with.

Yours Truly,

Zachary Paul DearingDavid Laurenvil

FlashpointMagazine.com

facebook.com/ProjectFlashpoint

Check out the Proj Flashpoint app for iPhone or Android at ProjectFlashpoint.com

Zachary Paul Dearing

David Laurenvil

To find out how to get involved with the Project:Fashpoint initiative, find us online:

ContentsNEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONSFrom the Flashpoint Magazine Staff

AN ARTIST’S GREAT MISS FORTUNEJohn Lackey’s Transition to Filmby David Laurenvil & Bronson O’Quinn

STEEPED IN BRILLIANCE AND SLOWLY FALLINGTeen Howl on the Rise

by Whitney Baker

BEHIND THE SCENES AT PRHBTNAn Interview with John Winters

by Katherine Miller-Byrne

TIGHTLY LACED BUT UNBRIDLEDAlisha Martin of the Bad Button Bespoke Corset

by Samantha Jean Moore

THANKS BE TO GROGFriends, Family, and Fanatics at the Ford Theatre Reunion

by Bronson O’Quinn

THE EXISTENTIAL AND ABSURDAn Interview with the Directors of Balagula Theatre

by Katherine Miller-Byrne

2

4

8

10

14

17

21

1January/February 2014 FlashpointMagazine.com | Flashpoint Magazine

Project: FlashpointNew Year's Resolutions“I hope to see Lexington’s young professionals and creative artists build a vibrant and culturally diverse arts and entertainment center in our new Kentucky home.”

-David Laurenvil

“My personal mission for 2014 is to help Lexington flex its creative muscles and roar loudly enough for Louisville, Cincinnati, Knoxville, and Nashville to hear it. As a cofounder of P:F, I am hellbent on making our dreams for this community a reality.”

-Zachary Dearing

“I want to prove to Lexington that business, art and technology are not the three separate things the pub-lic perceives them to be.”

-Daryl Janisch

“I hope to promote an alternative awareness of beau-ty that is inclusive and inspiring for the women in our diversified community.”

-Samantha Jean Moore

“I want to see Lexington’s prose community unite in the same way that the poetry community has, where people see collaboration as healthier than competi-tion.”

-Bronson O’Quinn

2 Flashpoint Magazine | FlashpointMagazine.com January/February 2014

CreditsEDITORS IN CHIEFZachary DearingDavid Laurenvil

EDITORIAL DIRECTORBronson O’Quinn

ASSIGNMENT EDITORKatherine Miller-Byrne

COPY EDITORSZachary DearingDavid LaurenvilBronson O’Quinn

PHOTOGRAPHERSZachary Dearing

James HuddlestonAmy H. Palmer

Brandon TurnerEugene Alexander Williams

GRAPHIC DESIGNERSDaryl Janisch

Bronson O’QuinnMatt Renfrow

FASHION EDITORSamantha Jean Moore

WRITERSWhitney Baker

Zachary DearingDavid Laurenvil

Katherine Miller-ByrneSamantha Jean Moore

Bronson O’Quinn

Copyright © 2014 Flashpoint Ltd., Co. All Rights Reserved. Reproduc-tion in part or whole without express written consent is prohibited, es-pecially since we’ll probably give you permission if you’re pretty cool and not doing something lame. For inquiries regarding rights, permis-sions, and other such practices, contact [email protected].

An Artist’s Great Miss FortuneJohn Lackey’s Transition to Film

The North Limestone community is full of inspir-ing characters and projects. Projects like LuigART Kre8Now MakersSpace, The Night Market and the

North Pole Community Garden are bringing art and sus-tainability to the area. However, the latest project brewing within this vibrant community seeks to expand its reach beyond the North Limestone neighborhood and into the hearts and minds of an entire generation. Flashpoint Mag-azine was given access to investigate the evolution taking place inside Homegrown Press, artistic headquarters to the witty, soft-hearted and socially conscious John Lackey.

If you’ve never stopped by the Homegrown Press stu-dio, you’d be impressed at the melding of so many differ-ent disciplines into one artist. Block prints hang below acrylic paintings. Drawings rest in frames along the walls. Barely dry painted canvases line the walkways. Lackey’s computer streams the latest revision of his newest stop-motion film based on a mural which is painted on the wall next to it. He has to paint over his work for every single frame of animation, and once this short film is finished, viewers will watch a bird swoop down and fly away with a gigantic whale created by old band posters. The film will be synced up to music by local artists and a rap song written by Lackey himself. And he will soon be adding “Screenwriter” and “Film Director” to his resumé, because all of this will be the sales pitch video for a Kickstarter to raise money for his first feature film.

“I’m hoping to get into film ‘cause that way I can put all of my hats into one hat,” Lackey said. “And I think I can reach more people and reach more deeply into people with music and humor and tragedy-filled movies than block prints and paintings. It’s hard for a block print to go viral or to make somebody cry.”

Lackey, a Lexington native, speaks in a syrupy sweet Kentucky drawl that oozes goodhearted folksiness. Even when he talked about things he dislikes or the terrible themes in today’s culture, such as gentrification and the influx of “hipsters” into the neighborhood, you never felt from his cadence that it wouldn’t all somehow be okay.

by David Laurenvil & Bronson O’Quinnphotos by Amy H. Palmer & Brandon Turner


“Some people use ‘hipster’ as a bad term. But a lot of the people I see around here, a lot of the ‘hipsters’… you know, they ride their bikes every-where and they have gardens and they live a more sustain-able lifestyle. I mean, if that’s what a hipster is, then bravo hipsters, you know? But I think the younger people have a different definition of that word.

“Hopefully there won’t be a tidal wave of gentrification. Hopefully it’ll stay fun and funky and just be a mix. I mean, that’s… if I could do one thing with my movie [it’s] just to bring people together to the middle. People are polar-izing people for profit and power these days. And people need to be pulled back together. There’s so much useless fighting and gnashing of teeth. It’s expensive! It’s beside the point. It’s pointless! You know? There’s plenty of other things to do. […] So if this place could be a microcosm of how the world should be, just a mix of all different kinds of people who kind of have a clear eye to how life should be lived, I hope it stays that way.”

The Great Miss Fortune, the working title of Lackey’s feature film, will follow a young orphan girl living in New Orleans who is accidentally kidnapped by the March Mad-

ness Marching Band. The movie continues from her per-spective, seeing Lexington through her eyes as she pivots around many of the interesting real life characters here in town. “First and foremost, it needs to be a great mov-ie that’s compelling to people and utilizes local music to heighten the emotion and the story. But I would like it to be a bit of a Trojan horse for some little progressive nuggets of common sense that people need to adapt for the world to be more sustainable just so there’s a better chance that my kids will have fresh water and fresh fish when they’re my age. I think that’s a humble goal, but one that’s not a given, you know? […] If you think that [society]’s done and we’re screwed, then it’s done and we’re screwed. But if you think there’s hope, and you could talk young people into putting their backs into things and organizing and just looking at the world with fresh eyes… they can do stuff that old people could never figure out, just because they’ve been raised with a different world, and they could use that for good.” Lackey references Bob Dylan singing to the old people “Get out of the new world if you can’t lend

“People are polarizing people for profit and power these days. And people need to be pulled back together. There’s so much useless fighting and gnashing of teeth. It’s expensive!”


a hand.” “All these people that are being smart and progressive.

Especially Seedleaf. Things like that, you know? Just rid-ing bikes. We have obesity and foreign oil dependence and […] we’ve got this little two-wheeled machine that can fix it. It’s so easy! So if we can have this movie that’s wonder-ful but in a few different spots shines light on good ideas like that, then that’s the biggest contribution I can think to make right now.”

One of the many things that gives Lackey hope for the next generation is the recent Occupy movement. “You would think that young people in this day and age had been raised and coddled, and, [with] their electronics and comforts […] would never in a million years wanna go get pepper sprayed or sleep in the rain in a New York city park. But all over the county, young people came out and showed that they’re willing to suffer to try to right wrongs, or to have a voice. So there are people out there that are thinking. There are people out there that are receptive.”

As his smile creased lines across his face, a glint of joy re-flected from his eye. “When […] your grandmother would say you can catch more [bees] with honey than vinegar

[…], it always seemed like they were worried about how you reflected on them. Or they just wanted you to be sweet. […] It just sounded like churchin’. I’ve come to the realiza-tion that our grandmothers were right and it wasn’t about being sweet or reflecting well on them. The world really works better if you think about other people. If you’re kinder to other people. If you take care of other people. Just mathematically, the odds of you having a better life go up if you act like that. So it’s in your best self-interest to be kind to other people. I mean it’s not just a thing to do to be sweet; it makes your life better. […]

“I’ve just kind of fallen backwards into this stop-motion film making, and painting is a part of it. Since it’s a slow evolutionary process with no goal, it’s making me paint things that I never would have painted. I’m coming up with some pretty deep things that I never would have come up with. It’s kind of like making the Holler posters. Since I wasn’t getting paid to make those, I was just roll-ing the dice creatively. I could do whatever I want. I didn’t have to please anybody. I didn’t have to earn my money… it was just pure creativity, which is a real treat and doesn’t happen as often.”

“So it’s in your best self-interest to be kind to other people. I mean it’s not just a thing to do to be sweet; it makes your life better.”


With such high aspirations (and a track record to back it up), Lackey has quite a feat ahead of him. Once he gets the funding, the hard part’s done because he already has a brilliant crew of artists signed onto the project. “Otto Helmuth [is] gonna be my musical director. […] ‘Cause Otto’s done a lot of different kinds of audio and film score work. And then John Ferguson from Big Fresh and Apples in Stereo has offered to be the lighting director. And I be-lieve he’s the [technical coordinator] of the opera house and he’s a real funny creative soul. So I’m lookin’ forward to that. And then Warren Byrom… That album he put out, Fabled Canelands, is so awesome. His music deserves to be on a larger stage and I’d love to use one of his songs in the movie.”

And all of this fits into Lackey’s ideology of helping each other out in order to better ourselves. Because he trusts the people in his community, the Lexington community, so much, he knows he can’t fail.

You can see John Lackey’s work at Homegrown Press, 569 N. Limestone, or on the web at HomegrownPress.com or Facebook.com/HomegrownPress. And don’t forget to look out for his Kickstarter early this year!


You’re too young to understand love—Wait, wha?A phrase constantly being spat down my ears.Excuse me, I’m just reading.When I glance around, what I see is not a generation

who do not know of love,You seem like a nice young lady, but, what are you saying? but those who are so old that they have forgotten

what it means to love.Hey now, don’t be getting too big for your britches.What happened to your first marriage being your last?Aren’t you supposed to be applying for college or some-

thing?What happened to

companionship?We grew apa—hey,

wait, stop it! You’re making me un-comfortable.

Forever and always,This is really not your busi—Until you are too uncomfortable,I think you’ve said enough.Until you have stumbled upon someone that looks

better to fulfill your needsSomeone that makes better company.How dare you!You cannot fill up a cup that has a hole gaping in the

bottom.I don’t have time for poetic musings, thank you.Stop walking on water for a moment and realize it is

possible to sink

And the only thing keeping you afloat is vanity.Aren’t you supposed to be in school?You are not GodBut since you claim to have so much authority, why

don’t you go turn that water into wine,And replenish the thirsty.Maybe the flawed is not the other.The nerve!Maybe if you tuned down your screaming, your child

wouldn’t be listening under the door crying, wondering why mommy and daddy can’t get along.You wonder why we don’t know what true love is?

Huh?Just look to the twisted role mod-els we have.In my day, we would never speak like this.Don’t misinterpret my words.You’ve got some guts, I’ll give you that.

I am not saying love is easy, what I’m saying is that love isn’t impossible.

What I’m SAYING is, love changes you, devotion roots you, and faith stays you.

Nobody cares about poetry!But what you’re DOING is preventing the idea that

we might have a fighting chance.But in fact I know we have that chance.I am going to tell your parents about this.If we do not follow in the footsteps of our parents.

Steeped in Brillianceand Slowly Falling:Teen Howl on the Rise

by Whitney Baker

(continued on next page)


That’s me, the author of this piece, in italics, in-serting myself into a poem, and playing the role of the uncomfortable poetry hater. That’s Emily Manning, in the straight font. Emily is a member of Teen Howl, a fantastic, gutsy group of young Lexingtonians (and kids from surrounding counties) willing to get up in front of their peers and the public and say things, of-ten shaking, yelling, or cursing, with a wit, a sincerity, and a gravity most of us either never have, or leave behind, drown in cortisol and fearful of impropriety.

Before the start, scan the poets at Morris Book Shop, where they meet the first Thursday of the month. As diverse as a line at the DMV, and, frequent-ly, looking just as bored—but not when someone’s reading—and it’s a look that couldn’t be more de-ceiving. Listen—they are building their lives. They are plumbing the depths of their hearts and speak-ing what they find: their hurt, their loves. Found: the death of a friend by the violence of a crash, disgust at a school system seeming more intent on buttress-ing its own bank account than understanding its stu-dents. Gluttonous parents, strung out siblings. But also they find dreams of flight, of future joys, and of past passions. And most of all, they find courage. Hell yes I can get up there and read. I can keep reading though my hands are shaking, and though I know if it gets back to that kid three lockers down I’ll never hear the end of it.

Founded by Elizabeth Beck and Jay McCoy in 2011, The Teen Howl Poetry Series continues to fos-ter important young men and women, offering them a safe haven in which they can speak what once they censored, with a voice they might not have recog-nized as their own. This is the foundry, people. This is where amorphous angst goes into the furnace to be made red-hot, immediate, malleable. This is where

hammers swing and eyebrows are singed by the fire of all-over-me feeling, because those we might call lazy video-gamers are staying in the proverbial kitchen when others flee the heat. They are holding up a mirror to one another, and to us. No, thangs ain’t like the old days. Someone has to put words to this rising age, and no one better to write them than these children of 9/11, of spying, of endless wars as far as Afghan mountains and as close as the bedroom at the end of the hall. But unlike the sound in Afghan skies, this sound is not a drone. It is a moan. It is a cheer. It is a cry, clarifying with every call to a friend to hear a poem, with every gifted hearing.

Title excerpted from a poem by Aaron Redding.

Whitney Baker is an artist living in Lexington.


Let me introduce you to PRHBTN. Hus-band and wife team John and Jessica Winters are behind the new murals

you see in town at the Bazaar, West Sixth Brewery, and N. Limestone. I had a chance to sit down with John one week before the completion of Kobra’s Abraham Lincoln mural behind the Kentucky Theatre.

So, tell us the story of how you and your wife created PRHBTN.

Two years ago we did our first PRHBTN. It was Jessica’s idea. I was out of town. We were kind of dating. We’re married now. I had seen Exit Through the Gift Shop. I had been a graffiti and street art fan forever. And when the movie came out I saw it and I told her ‘You have to see this movie’ and she said ‘Oh okay’ and she apparently had a few drinks, watched it, it made her real-ly emotional, she really connected with it and she texted me and said ‘We have to do a street art show’ and I said ‘Yeah, okay’ and kind of blew her off. And then next time I saw her; she was like ‘Seriously we need to do a street art show.’ And I was like ‘Okay, let’s do it’.

So, the first year just jumped into it head

first. Neither of us had done an art show, we’d promoted concerts and I work in marketing. We just started doing it two years ago and the first year it was all lo-cal. It was awesome; we had a ton of fun. We ironed out some of the kinks and then last year we had Herakut do two murals, one on Market and one on N. Lime in con-junction with some other people. And we just really liked the community aspect of people coming out and seeing art being created and really being a part of it. And putting something in Lexington that’s kind of permanent. And then this year, we were like, well, let’s see what we can do. And we went balls to the wall and threw a bunch of stuff at it and said whatever works works and we got lucky enough to get Kobra which is unbelievable. I still kind of don’t believe it even though it’s al-most done and he’s here. Now we’re just trying to catch up to what’s going on.

So, I’m curious, what did it take to get Kobra here? Because he’s done London, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo and …Lexington, Kentucky. What did you have to say to get him to come here?

Behind the SceneS at PRhBtnAn IntervIew wIth John wInters

by Katherine Miller-Byrnephotos by Brandon Turner


Yeah, the places where he does murals are world cities. I mean, they’re massive, when you think of global cities, you think of the places London, Paris, Rio, Tokyo, and Moscow. He just came from Moscow.

We emailed him. That’s literally what we did. I made a list of street artists and he was my number one. I was thinking “I’m never going to get him and that’s totally okay. But I’m going to ask any-way because it never hurts.” So I said, “Hey you know this is what we do. This is our show. We’d love to have you here. Is there any way it’d be possible?” He has an artist’s agent who deals with all sorts of his travel and arrangements and he texts about a month and a half ago and said, “Yeah, sure we’d love to.” Jessica and I freaked out, like ran around in circles screaming and then went, “Oh crap how are we going to do this?” And I was like, “I don’t think we can, I don’t think we have the time, I don’t think it’s possible.” And

Jessica said, “You know what, if he wants to come, we’re going to make it work.” And so we just said yes and went through the process with his agent of solidifying and confirming and then going through the process with the city which should have taken way longer but there are great people in the mayor’s office and with city government who’ve been totally helpful. But we had no idea. It’s the equivalent of, for us, okay; we want to bring a band to play a show. Who would we like to see? Oh, Radiohead. Oh yeah, I’ll just email them and see if they want to come. That’s how I feel about it. Like it’s getting some-thing ridiculous that you never thought was possible.

You were talking about Mayor Jim Gray. One thing that’s been writ-ten about it is he had a big street art crackdown in 2011 and now he’s a sponsor of PRHBTN. How did that come about?

We had looked into the whole street art crackdown. I mean, some of the guys who were implicated in that or arrested are in our show. I think a lot of that was more, from what I could gather, was more community-oriented and [Mayor Gray] went along with it. I haven’t talked to him personally about it. But he’s a huge sup-porter of art. And I think that the percep-tion of street art and graffiti has changed a little bit. People think we’re a show based around what we normally see as street art which is somebody writing their name on an electrical box or some-where it shouldn’t be. But we’re focused more on the art side of it. I think he sees that. But I definitely think the perception of it has changed. And I think the illegal stuff is still illegal but the perception of it has gone from nuisance to, I don’t know that people necessarily like it, but at least they find it interesting or something they can look at instead of covering it up and painting over it as soon as possible.


How would you respond to the criticism that PRHBTN in focus-ing on the art more than the street is de-politicizing and com-mercializing street art the way that hip-hop has been commer-cialized over the years?

Oh right. Like we’re co-opting the trend. You know, our first year when we started none of our artists had ever had a gallery show. They had never been able to put their art somewhere where people could look at it and people could buy it. Every-thing was temporary and on the street. We really just wanted to give people a lit-tle bit of exposure to this art. It’s art that doesn’t necessarily belong, or is not seen as belonging in a gallery. The cool thing has been, and we’ve noticed this in the last couple of years, after the first year, is that a lot of these artists have never met each other. They were scattered around town. It’s more of a reclusive in nature. They’re not out to socialize. So a lot of them have made a formidable little com-munity and after the last couple of years we’ve seen, usually around the weekend of PRHBTN when people are in town, the amount of art on the streets goes up exponentially. I can’t speak as to who or what drives it. But that week, it seems like the street part of it goes crazy. But we feel like bringing in the big murals and doing these pieces that are a little more public in nature and are a little safer than some of our other stuff. But it’s almost a nice soft intro into street art. This is a big painting of Lincoln on the back of the Kentucky [Theatre] that you can bring your kids to. […] And it needs to be seen. And, for us, there’s no capital-izing. There’s no profit margin. We’re not taking a dime. We’ve said to the local art-ists, we’re not taking a commission at all.

You sell it; we’ll help you sell it. We’ll give you all the money. That’s it. I just don’t believe in it. I don’t believe in taking a commission.

What do you think of the choice of Lincoln and how is Kentucky im-portant in PRHBTN?

When [Kobra] comes to town, every city he goes to, he does extensive research on the city and the state and the region for historical figures. The Lincoln image, I absolutely love it, I think the image is so iconic and so striking that, on a large scale like that is unbelievable. Lincoln has history. His wife was born down the street. He was married at Fort Har-rod, lived in Lexington. And honestly for me I was very happy to just see it not be horses. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I love horses but there’s a trend.

How is Kentucky important to PRHBTN? Why could PRHBTN not exist somewhere else? In this form?

Very good question. I like that question. I always tell people this. I moved here ten years ago, and in the course of those ten years, I’ve had every reason to leave Lex-ington. Every single one. The block that I love was torn down. My wife and I got a divorce. I lost my house. I was miserable and poor and broke. And the thing that kept me here was Lexington. I can’t live anywhere else. I’ve lived here ten years and this is my home. Part of the reason [...] is that this city has grown to be so supportive of things like PRHBTN. You’ve got a city that has a Zombie Walk that is the craziest thing ever for the year. They support, just like the Bourbon Chase and all these really cool, like Woodland Arts Fair, these great kind of quirky things. But the best part, the reason why we’re

here is because we live here and it’s our home but the reason we are able to do this is because of the support. Every day I’m getting texts and phone calls and emails like how can I help? From friends and strangers and we were able to get the back of the Kentucky and get those lights because the city was so supportive. And was so proactive. And the coolest part about that mural that I kind of love is that it’s on the back of the Kentucky Theatre, a place that my wife and I love and try to go to almost every week to see a movie and every single dollar of it has been funded by a Lexingtonian or Blue-grass resident. And there are no corpo-rate sponsors. Just local businesses and private citizens. It’s been amazing and that is why it exists, the support in Lex-ington and the support in Kentucky. We could probably do it somewhere else but I don’t want to.

What one thing do you want ev-eryone to know about PRHBTN?

We don’t really have an agenda. We’re not aiming for political office or trying to get jobs in the art world. We have no agenda except to throw a show and make art. I guess that’s an agenda but that’s all we want to do. There’s no bullshit. WE really want people to come out and come see the local artists and support the lo-cal artists and understand that there are no barriers. There’s no barrier between someone who comes to see art and some-one who creates art. There’s no need to feel separate or like you can’t do it.

The third annual PRHBTN occured on November 15-20, 2013. Check out PRHBTN.com for future events.


Phlegm: He does a very comic style, a very Edward Gorey black and white, a little on the strange side and I absolutely adore it. I met a woman yesterday who said she’s followed his work all over London and he had an old, old piece that was on a car park in Sheffield and they refused to tear down the car park to make a better one because the piece was there. He does crazy stuff. He has, I think, one piece in the states and we saw it in Brooklyn a year and a half ago and we wandered up on this massive gor-geous piece in a park and I knew we had to have him here.

Gaia: Gaia will be doing the side of the West Sixth building; they were nice enough to sponsor that. The side of the w6th, I can tell you there might be horses in that one. He’s got like a very artistic modern meets classic style to him. It’s very hard to pin down his work. He loves using animals. He loves using people. I can’t wait.

Odeith:He’s from Lisbon ,Portugal [and] will be doing the side of the

Bazaar. He does this crazy graffiti slash 3-D anamorphic style. It’s all 2-D on the wall but if you stand at a certain spot it looks like it’s jumping out at you. I don’t know how he does it.

Local artists:The local artists are a lot of the driving force behind [PRHBTN]. Ever since I moved here, I’ve absolutely adored Drone X’s work, Caper West’s work. Love Drew Lance. Love Hello Mona. Her stuff is so striking. Every time. And Weepy who’s new to the show this year. We’ve got Elusive Line who’s a new female art-ist. My wife’s always had a big push for female artists and I agree with her and this year we have two female DJ’s and four female artists in the show and we’re just thrilled because sometimes it is really male-dominated music and art and there’s no need for that. Then we’ve got great guys who’ve been with us forever. That Stencil Guy does amazing work. Then Stencil Killer will be back; they’ll be doing live stuff again this year. Graham Allen’s got a huge piece that I’ve seen pictures of that’ll definitely wake some people up. Jeff Murphy, we bought a few of his pieces that we just couldn’t pass up when he hung them.

the aRtiStS of PRhBtn (in John Winters’s Own Words)

They call her the Bad Button, and she is every bit as devious and industrious as the name might imply. Her backbone is literally reinforced with steel boning,

and her determination to succeed is equally rigid. Alisha Martin, a corsetiere by trade, is one of only 200 people worldwide who can make that claim. Think of her as an architect of the body. More than just a designer, Alisha is a sculptress. Putting on one of her corsets is like sliding into the driver’s seat of a Lamborghini—the smoothest curves wrapped around hard steel, artfully crafted, dangerously delicate, and built to thrill. Most of her peers hail from Europe or Asia where the demand for classic corset-mak-ing is stronger, but Alisha has made a name for herself in the Bluegrass among subcul-ture enthusiasts. If you aren’t in the know, you may never have heard of her, but her business, The Bad Button Bespoke Corsets, has been growing steadily for three years.

What started as a hobby, turned into a lucrative business shortly after Martin fin-ished her Master’s in Folklore. Her empha-sis is in Historical Preservation, and while corsetry may seem like an unconventional path, it really makes perfect sense. Alisha studied architec-ture as well as human anatomy, which gives her a tremen-dous command of the human skeletal structure. In college, she took a handful of studio classes, learning to draw the human form and even modeling for other students and pro-fessional artists. Because of her background in anatomy, she was able to visualize and manifest images of the body with perfect precision. So when it comes to building struc-

by Samantha Jean Moorephotos by James Huddleton

Tightly Laced but UnbridledAlisha Martin of The Bad Button Bespoke Corset


tures which house the body, Alisha’s skill is unparalleled. Though she was lucky enough to secure a position right af-ter graduating, funding ran out and she was soon let go. In this delicate economy, she took an amazing risk and start-ed her own business. Her mother warned her it would be difficult to survive on art, but her father told her to go for it, trusting she could make it on her tenacity alone. Martin is not the romanticized starving artist type. Nope. She’s a serious business-minded realist who just happens to like making pretty things, and she’s damn good at it! She now gets more requests than she is able to fill and sells her cus-tom designs for thousands of dollars.

Like many contemporary business owners, Alisha is a one-woman show conducting many of her transactions through her website (TheBadButtonCorsets.com). Using the exact measurements of a client’s figure, she can con-struct custom designs for international clients from her studio in Georgetown. An individual piece can take up to 8 weeks to finish, though many clients ask for multiple items to complete their desired looks. Alisha regularly designs layered crinoline skirts, leather gloves, and all manner of frilly undergarments for her lady’s pleasure.

But not everyone understands or appreciates her work. In fact, Martin is constantly dealing with people squabbling over her ticket prices. Why not just buy a corset from China? It’s certainly cheaper. And she would agree, yes, mass produced corsets are cheap—cheaply made. To a skilled craftsperson, there is a constant necessity to fight for quality. A true corset must be custom made. Export-ers have turned the craft into a cheap novelty, forgetful at best, and uncomfortable and even dangerous at worst. It is necessary that a corsetiere have a decent anatomical awareness, and usually a close physical relationship with the client. “It’s not necessary, but I can certainly create a better product if I’m able to touch the person.” And that absolutely involves seeing her clients in the nude and “ad-justing” their naughty parts in order to get the right fit. She is totally professional, and always asks before lifting a breast or squeezing a hip in order to align her designs or measure an inseam. Exact measurements are needed to ensure proper fit, meaning a finished product that will look and feel perfect. It’s easy to see how an ill-fitting cor-set can be unattractive and difficult to wear. Many women have tried to wear mass produced corsets and blamed


themselves when their bodies bulge in all the wrong plac-es. Martin is a champion for women of all shapes and sizes. She explains that any woman can look amazing in the right corset as long as it is made to compliment her shape. This simply cannot be achieved through mass production. So while her work is expensive, it is thoughtfully crafted and worth every penny.

And she knows what she’s talking about. Alisha has fitted everyone from conservative brides to extreme cos-play fanatics. The burlesque scene is having a thrilling comeback, which is a bonus for anyone who loves the fe-male form, but it’s an added boon for someone who spe-cializes in intimate fashions. Martin has synched the waists of some of Lexington’s most buxom burlesque performers including Zsu Zsu Starr. Her designs were even featured at the recent Bluegrass Burlexpo hosted by Rebel Riot Revue Productions.

Just like a skilled Photoshop artist, Alisha is a master of exaggeration, transforming the slimmest frame into an hourglass figure. She has created curving chests for the transgendered and rounded the hips of cross-dressing fel-lows. Alisha is accustomed to catering to niche markets, and while she is very accommodating, there are some requests that she simply cannot entertain. While many corsetieres dabble or even specialize in fetish markets, Alisha draws a clear distinction. “I refuse to work with latex…and if you’re looking for suspension rings or ball gags, sorry, there are other people who do that.” Alisha is gracious and non-judgmental but she knows what she’s into. The plus side is that she knows what other people are into as well and can turn you on to other professional corsetieres if she thinks you’d be better served. The world of corset-making is an elite and close-knit community. On-line forums provide a space for international designers to distinguish themselves, encouraging artists to refine their unique styles. “It’s a close-knit community and we support each other.”

She even caters to Lexington’s thriving horse market through Hippik-Hippique, a sophisticated online gallery dedicated to equestrian curios.

“From corseted waistcoats to finely tailored riding en-sembles, the designs are meant to bring out the unbridled in all of us” –The Bad Button Bespoke Corsets for Hippik-Hippique

She is a full-time artist, and with all that she is cur-

rently doing, it would seem that she never sleeps. Alisha is ambitiously working on her spring collection titled “Birds of Paradise - Birds of Prey.” Imagine the delicacy and precision of a snowy owl in flight as it swoops in to capture a fleeing rabbit. Her handy work drips with tri-umphant femininity. Black satin panels embroidered with gold thread press against full lungs and ribcage. Delicate curves are reinforced with steel boning. Bright red feath-ers outstretched protrude from the shoulders of a leather collarbone corset, like the garb of a glorified huntress. Are you getting anxious? Many of her pieces are already com-plete and several are in the works. But you can only catch a glimpse from her Facebook page. The full looks will not be unveiled until the collection is complete, so keep an eye out for her spring photo shoot. The plan was to complete four pieces, but she is adding one more, a full length gown which will be worn in this year’s Miss Kentucky pageant hosted at the Ursuline Arts Center in Louisville, Kentucky, January 11th and 12th.

So if you didn’t know, now you know. Kentucky is home to a wealth of underground artists who are trans-forming the fashion scene and making a name for them-selves, locally and abroad.

You can find out more about Alisha Martin and The Bad Buttons Bespoke Corsets at http://www.TheBadButtonCorsets.com/

phot

o by

Tot

al B

etty

Bud

oir

in N

icho

lasv

ille


Eric Myers sat on the hood of his van smoking a cig-arette. It was a muggy September night outside of Lexington’s Green Lantern Bar. “Either everything burns down and we have a party,” he said. “Or ev-

erything stays up and we have a party.”Ford Theatre Reunion’s unique five piece that includes

an accordion and sometimes banjo or clarinet has cement-ed their stake in Lexington’s music scene with a passion-ate calling from the disenfranchised child-like wanderers. Their tagline—“circus freak music for circus freak peo-ple”—alludes to their vaudevillian cacophony of upbeat thrash, summoning images of rag-tag carnie folk strug-gling to maintain their dysfunctional family unit. And for the Ford Theatre Reunion, this isn’t far off.

Alex Johns is the sprightly singer/keyboardist whose bottomless energy careens FTR out of the typical “gypsy punk” sound of syncopated tempos and scream-singing. She treats every song as an invitation to shed your inhi-bitions and seduces you with her pixie-like voice into a clandestine forest of danger like a Red Riding Hood with schadenfreude. And you realize that she’s not trying to get you lost in the forest, just that she’s leading you down a better path.

After the performance, I found Johns embracing Bear Medicine’s Kim Smith, murmuring gracious epithets about her performance and attendance. Johns introduced us, jok-ing that Smith’s her manager. “I’m her personal manager,” said Smith. “She is a particular thing. She doesn’t have one

Thanks Be To GroGFrIends, FAmIly, And FAnAtIcs At the Ford theAtre reunIon

by Bronson O’Quinnphotos by Zachary Dearing


skill or another. She embodies it all.” And before excusing herself to allow me the interview, she added, “When she’s ready to experience you, you experience her.”

Alex covered her blushing face and answered my ques-tions in-between fits of manic, adrenaline-fueled glee. I asked how the show was, and just like everyone I spoke to, she couldn’t hide her excitement or gratitude. “In my whole heart,” she said, “all of the time all I want to do is this. All of the time. So it’s really nice when everyone thinks it’s great.”

Ford Theatre Reunion’s tour had a minor snag when a convention shut down in Lansing, Michigan and no one notified the band. Worst of all, Alex Johns awoke choked up and unable to breathe. “Everybody was asleep, and when they woke up, I was like, ‘Okay, we have to take me to an urgent treatment center because I have to get an inhaler.’ […] It cost $190 for the inhaler and the visit and the antibiotics.” Wow. “And then the doctor said, ‘Oh, it’ll be fine if you take it easy for a couple days, like three or four.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I only have today off.’ And he was like, ‘You need to call in.’ And I can’t really do that.” And did she call in? “Fuck no! Rock waits for no one.”

But one door slams and two windows smash open. Eric Myers, the band’s accordion tickler and soccer mom (to crib from FTR’s amazing interview at SteampunkChron-icle.com) expressed genuine gratitude from their fans in Dayton, Ohio. “On three days’ notice,” he said, “our fans in Dayton found us a show. […] And three days is nothing. There’s no time to promote or anything. We got there and there were fifty people. And it was a free show and they all tipped and everybody bought CDs and helped us make up our losses and keep going to the next town.”

Bassist Luke Harrington added, “[Eric] found out the show was cancelled […] through Facebook, through some-body that was not associated with the event at all. […] And so it was one of our really good friends in Dayton that just fucking does so many good things for us. He used to be in a touring punk band before the days of the internet and cell phones and everything. And he found a way to print up flyers, put them in record shops and just every kind of

place you’d want to be in downtown, like coffee shops and vintage stores, and he managed to get us a show at what used to be, like, a taxi cab warehouse workshop.[…] And it’s just kind of an open area that they’ve turned into an art space and it’s really nice. It’s a really nice art space that’s been repurposed. We call him Grog, but his name’s Greg Simerlink. Fucking Grog did it for us.”

“If you haven’t met Grog,” said Joe Harbison, the guitar-ist and whimsical wild card of Ford Theatre Reunion, “I highly suggest meeting Grog.” Is there anything else to add about Grog? “Very tall.” Okay. “A tall man, that Grog.”

During the show, the crowd moshed and thrashed to the music. At one point, Harbison jumped into the audience to shred on the banjo. When asked why, he said, “Well, the

crowd needed a banjo. And as it happens, I was in the perfect position to provide them with a banjo. And so provide them with a banjo I did.” Despite the band’s other characters, Harbison one-ups them all in terms of sheer madness. He an-swered my questions in the

cadence of a 1930’s ship captain, saying of the show, “Aww, it was fun. We played some music. There wasn’t a fire. Someone broke something.” Broke what? “Jimmy broke the kaleidoscope.” Who’s Jimmy? “I don’t know.” Why do you have a kaleidoscope? “We don’t.”

And offsetting that frivolity is the newest addition the Ford Theatre Reunion, drummer Will Chewning. Throw-ing all rhythm-section stereotypes aside, Chewning main-tained a quiet assuredness throughout the whole show, leaving his red velour suit uncreased while his band mates stripped down to the essentials in the sticky heat. And af-terwards, when we finally got a chance to speak, he pro-fessionally excused himself from loading instruments into Eric Myers’s van. “The show was great,” he said. “I think the energy was great. The crowd was awesome. It went over really well.” He continued lamenting over the amaz-ing experience in Dayton, but also added Detroit, saying, “We’re starting to kind of get a following in all of the cities we’re going to, so it’s kind of cool.”

The band mostly played songs from their newest EP, Famous Monsters, with the ex-

Or, if you’re lucky enough, you need to be in Lexington. “Everybody here is a friend,” Eric Myers told me. “It’s like playing for family.”

(continued on page 20)


“If you haven’t met Grog, I highly suggest meeting Grog.”

-Joe Harbison

“Fucking Grog did it for us.”

-Luke Harrington

“Rock waits for no one.”

-Alex Johns

“Thanks to everyone who came out [...] and made our homecoming great.”

-Will Chewning

“On three days notice, our fans in Ohio found us a show.”

-Eric Myers

ception of an old favorite, “Huff and Puff” (which couldn’t be heard over the audience’s sing-along), and Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose on a Grave”, a choice I wouldn’t have expected, but speaks volumes to the band’s urge for surprise and merriment. Aside from their EP, they also have a vinyl sin-gle with “Tea and Cakes” and “Polka Vulgaris”. “We have a record!” Luke Harrington shouted in a rare break from his defining nonchalance. “We have a seven inch vinyl and I’ve always wanted my own vinyl and I’m proud of this one.[…]It’s quite representative [of this ensemble].”

Ford Theatre Reunion hasn’t always been honed into the five-piece it is now. Alex Johns said, “We’ve actually gotten better as a band as we dropped members and didn’t re-place them. And then we got this new drummer; his name is Will Chewning. And once he started, that’s when the real band started. Really, our band’s only been going for about a year because when he started and we were a five piece, everything meshed just right and we started writing and it just happened so quick. Like, every practice we wrote a song for weeks and weeks and weeks. And that’s the real band. And that’s the band that performed tonight.”

But describing a Ford Theatre Reunion show is throw-ing so much noise into the ether. With the release of Fa-mous Monsters last July, they’re doing plenty of shows around town, so there’s no excuse not to see them live. To

really understand the spectacle, you need to face off with their merchandise table, adorned with a gothic assortment of dolls rejected from the Island of Misfit Toys. You need to feel Eric Myers’s spit misting behind the microphone or touch Joe Harbison’s pink mohawk while Alex Johns shrieks out a grim fairy tale threatening Luke Harrington and Will Chewning’s rhythm section to keep up. But more than anything, you need the energy of the crowd washing over you while the big, bad wolf bares his teeth. You want the fanatics and lifelong friends grabbing you into the fray. You need to glimpse the kind of unconditional love that called forth Grog to market an entire show on a whim, con-juring dozens of fans at the last minute. Or, if you’re lucky enough, you need to be in Lexington. “Everybody here is a friend,” Eric Myers told me. “It’s like playing for family.”

Author’s note: The Ford Theatre Reunion wanted me to thank Jason Groves of Sneak Attack Records and Greg “Grog” Simerlink in Dayton, OH. And Will Chewning want-ed to say, “Thanks to everyone who came out tonight and made our homecoming great. So, thanks to Lexington.”

You can check out The Ford Theatre Reunion at TheFordTheatreReunion.com where you can find their new EP, Famous Monsters, as well as their previous albums.


The Balagula Theatre began in 2003 as the cooperative ef-fort between actors, some of whom were servers at Na-tasha’s Bistro. Their first performances came in the form of what they called “Surprise Theatre”, spontaneous per-formances which erupted during select evenings at the bistro. Surprise Theatre had a strong positive response from audiences and in 2007 Artistic/Managing Co-Direc-tors Natasha Williams and Ryan Case incorporated under the name Balagula Theatre with the vision to provide lo-cal performance artists with a space to grow and develop their craft in a professional environment. Their cohesive artistic vision and desire to provide thought-provoking theatre gave birth to a company which prides itself on a reputation for professionalism and individuality.

Recently, I sat down at Natasha’s Bistro with Natasha, Ryan, and Technical Director Tom Willis to discuss Balagu-la’s ongoing efforts to honor the vision they brought to life seven years ago.

Flashpoint Magazine: Describe the artistic vision and direction of Balagula and also how that vision relates to yours as individual artists.

Ryan: For me at least, [Balagula Theatre] reflects my per-sonal artistic development. It started as a place for actors and the work developed from there. I was working in the-atre before I came here and what I was looking for artisti-cally was a place to develop as a performer, somewhere to grow, somewhere to learn, to take roots. So I think it does reflect where we are artistically and what we’re exploring.

Natasha: We throw everything into one big pile, arts and entertainment. Entertainment, of course, is an interesting question because what is entertainment? Because it’s very entertaining watching a drama or a dark comedy, at least for me, it’s exciting. But people think entertainment is light fare, something they can consume instead of participate emotionally in. So, we wanted to create a not-an-entertain-ing theater, but an art theatre.

The Existential and AbsurdAn Interview with the Directors of Balagula Theatre

by Katherine Miller-Byrnephotos by Eugene Alexander Williams


Ryan: It was important for us when we were beginning to solidify this idea, for Lexington and the surrounding com-munities, the importance of retaining our local artists in-stead of having [them] leave for New York or leave for Los Angeles. Because the mentality seems to be sometimes that this is a great artist, this is a great painter, this is a great singer, dancer, actor. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you somewhere else?”

Natasha: What we wanted was to create a place for people who see themselves as artists first to grow and develop and have an outlet that’s not community theatre level performances, where it’s serious work. And this is what’s important in our mission to us. We aspire to deliver in-telligent, innovative, inspiring theatre to audiences in Kentucky. It was pretty ballsy considering we don’t have a space that is our own. We work in a restaurant, which completely changes the way we have to do things com-pared to other places so it necessitated thinking outside the box. We didn’t want to be a presenting organization that thought, “Here’s a moneymaker, let’s do it.” We really wanted to be driven by artistic exploration and driven by certain themes which were very apparent in our first sea-son which we called the ‘Existential and Absurd’. So the existential and absurd is very much a theme and the pub-lic knows us by doing this kind of a-little-out-of-left-field thing. As a society, we’re changing very quickly, regressing or progressing, depends on the point if view. And we’re re-

ally changing the morphology of the society, the thinking, the approach. Your generation is already different from the generation of your parents or your grandparents. Your approaches are different, your thought is different, your interests are different, but you are human. So the question is, “Can we take a piece written a hundred years ago and make it interesting to somebody considering their think-ing, their mentality and interests?”

P:F: It’s hard to ignore that the themes you choose to tackle are profoundly provocative as in Caligula, Bug, The Goat, and The Two-Character Play. And then you have Terrorism coming up. Why choose things that can be more disturbing to audiences?

Tom: I think what’s mainly disturbing about the plays we produce is that these characters whom you may not see day-to-day, you can relate to them on a very deep level. And that’s what drew me to this theatre. [They] were do-ing No Exit and at the time I was going to UK trying to fig-ure out what I wanted to do. I wanted to do theatre and someone told me about [Balagula] and I came and saw it, and it was the theatre I had always dreamed of. Existential, really deep in-your-head stuff.

Ryan: I remember when we were sitting and choosing our season. It was right there at the table. So, this wasn’t premeditated what we chose. The existential and absurd, that came after we chose the material. […] Each produc-


tion does become personal; it becomes your own personal world. But, you know, I don’t think we set out to be sort of labeled as the gloomy or whatever. But it punches at the gut, the work that the actors put into the piece itself. The truth that comes out of it in such a small venue becomes so much more concentrated. And it is the new thought, the new life, the new exploration. It’s something new. Even if it’s an old chestnut like No Exit, it comes out and it be-comes fresh and new because of the new thought that we put into it.

Natasha: If you look at our values, you see artistic process as a form of continuous learning and evolution of self. So you can’t evolve self if you’re not actually engaged in it per-sonally. So, of course, choices come from [the] personal. Interpretation comes from the personal. And theatre is alchemy of thought and emotion and you’re basically cre-ating something out of living people, living people’s feel-ings. So everybody brings their vision, their perception and their range of expression. But basically everybody goes there as much as they can emotionally go anywhere. The question is why as an audience member would I want

to go and be disturbed? That’s why it’s important that we engage these people and bring them to that experience. Our communication as we develop as a society is becom-ing more and more verbal and deprived of all the conno-tations that are added to words. Because mostly now we don’t talk. We text. We email. So, we’re becoming more and more verbal because we have to think in typeable words. But the experience of how we truly as a complete human being express or share emotion or share complex thoughts that include emotion into it is disappearing very quickly, and if we don’t spend time practicing that, if we don’t es-tablish a collective force where we as a society understand what tears mean, what laughter means, what the intona-tions mean (whether it’s anger or pain) that is expressed in those words, we’re going to really lose our ability to communicate.

P:F: There are typically themes of political, social, and sexual anxiety in the plays produced at Balagula. When you’re talking about our neutered empathy and com-munication, I wonder if you have more to say on theatre as political and social criticism.


Natasha: Theatre should not be didactic. There are forms of theatre that are didactic. There’s presentational the-ater. That’s not what we do. And that’s important. We’re not necessarily trying to communicate specific political thought, though the truth is theatre cannot be apoliti-cal. It just can’t. Because we’re talking about humans and the human condition and no matter how removed the play seemingly is from the cultural or social criticism, it’s not. Like, if you take The Two-Character Play, it’s cry of the heart. It’s about just two people, an apparently ex-tremely removed psychological thing, but if you take an honest look at it, it’s the American South. They live in a place people can be abandoned, neglected, rejected, espe-cially people who suffer psychological trauma like those kids. They live poor. They can’t even go to the market. And the imaginary citizen’s relief that leaves a card is actually imaginary. It’s not actually a real card, nobody came to the door. It’s a hope that these poor people have that some-body will come, that there is someone to help them. And even if there were, they still expressed their distrust to the social organizations, the social services, because they say it’s a lot of questions, a lot of bureaucracy. Where are

the neighbors? Where are the people? So, yes, it is social criticism. It was not intended but you portrayed the way people live. So, yes, of course it’s politically relevant and of course it’s social criticism. From this, we can go to some-thing like Terrorism, which is the play intending to talk about human relationships and human isolation and how we humans are indifferent to each other and how we ter-rorize each other just by being emotionally dull and not empathetic and not compassionate. Just the mere fact that we’re indifferent creates the terroristic assault on the oth-ers. Is it social criticism? Of course, because that’s how we live as a community. Nobody gives a damn about anybody, really, when it comes down to personal sacrifices. In other words, nobody hurts because you hurt to the point where they would share with you to alleviate your pain. Because they just can’t hurt for you. […] Theatre is socially minded and politically minded by definition.

For more information regarding the Balagula Theatre and their current season, visit them at Balagula.com or “Like” them on Facebook.


Community-Conscious Sponsors

CHARMED LIFETattoo & Artwork

flashpoint magazine issue 01 (june/july)

Documents

creative artists

readers of flashpoint

flashpoint magazineproject

artists youve

new kentucky home

proj flashpoint app

gathering of young artists

artistic community