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SWITCH OFF THE TRUMP SHOW? As far as we know, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hasn’t told President Trump to concede the election and start funding the transition to President-elect Biden. Go to leo weekly.com/web to read Al Cross’ op-ed on why McConnell has been quiet about Trump’s election loss and the tactics and danger involved.

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ON: THORNS AND ROSES, DEMS SHOULD HAVE BACKED PROGRESSIVE

State Rep. Charles Booker’s “From the hood to the holler” campaign is genius! What mid- to low-income Kentuckian doesn’t identify with that (even if one does not reside in a hood nor a holler!)? He is exciting and charismatic, unlike Amy McGrath for whom I voted. I can’t wait for Booker to give this his best shot! I personally know a lot of people who would have voted Booker but their ballots had already been mailed! —Gayle White Johnson

ON: SOME DEMS PRESCRIBE SELF-REFLECTION, OTHERS SAY DISBAND THE PARTY

I’d say the second one: Go grassroots, disassociate from the DNC, and actually listen to constituents. —That Raccoon @ThatRaccoon13Meh History. Democrats controlled the house for nearly a century until four years ago. Democrats have mostly controlled the executive and legislative branches for most all of the 20th century and most of the 21st century. Ebb and flow. Corruption set in due to one party rule and the populace eventually responded. History will again repeat. —Wendell Sego Those of us who voted for Andy and Jacqueline beg to disagree.

—Chuck Eilerman

ON: CHRIS KOLB, ‘NO ONE HAS ANY IDEA WHAT DEMOCRATS STAND FOR’

If this is true, what are the Republicans offering as their vision?

I’d love to know. They seem to offer a lot of hate, pain and no concern for those who don’t make six-figure incomes.

—Jacob Cook @jlcook6 Yup, the center is a vacuum. There’s nothing there to win. The Bill Clintonian triangulation is like trench strategy in WW I. I’d love to see an openly FDR-style candidate run. Maybe create a common sense progressive party. Like the Green Party but competent.

—ursviz @ursviz Gaslighting at its finest. We know what we stand for. As long as churches and Republicans take a stand against women’s rights, Democrats will lose in Kentucky. —Debbie Howes Fleming

ON: UNDERCOVER COMMENTARY

Why is Utah blue?

—Andrew Beaver [Ed. note: Utah is blue because Mitt Romney is a wimp and a dick.]

Where would you find an unbiased jury?

—Bruce Burns

LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

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VIEWS

FOUNDING EDITOR’S NOTE

IT’S THE TRUST, STUPID

By John Yarmuth | ayarmuth@leoweekly.com A FEW DAYS AFTER this year’s election, House Democrats conducted a conference call to review the election results.

To say that the mood was confused is an understatement. While we all were relieved and excited by Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump, a victory we think saved our democracy for the time being, most were very disappointed that Democrats had not — pending two runoff elections in Georgia — retaken control of the U.S. Senate, held or enlarged our majority in the House or flipped legislative control in any state.

Sparks flew during that conversation.

Liberals complained that we had equivocated on the policies that excited young voters and drove turnout of our base, and felt we had not concentrated enough on the digital world where so many voters get their political information. Less liberal members moaned that we had underperformed because many Dems were talking about defunding police, the benefits of socialism, and initiatives like the Green New Deal.

Even F-bombs were thrown.

To a certain extent, these discussions feel

UNDERCOVER

MANOFMETTLE.COM

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

like a Goldilocks syndrome. We’re looking for a “just right” position, not too left, not too moderate. But the debate ignores something that I have been arguing for years, and that Republicans figured out long ago: Most voters don’t cast their votes with their heads; they vote with their guts. They don’t vote based on a candidate’s agenda, but on whether they trust him or her to have their best interests in mind.

Democrats are great at policy. We come up with detailed, 10-page policy proposals on virtually every subject. If we had the opportunity to sit down with every voter, most of them, in Kentucky as well as California, would say they sound great. But That’s Not What Happens!

No, we also come up with names like Universal Healthcare, and Free College, and Green New Deal that are easy to characterize by our opponents as “government takeovers,” and they cancel out any perceived personal benefits for the voters.

In short, Democrats have never really understood how voters make their decisions. We think, logically but erroneously,

that voters think about how a candidate’s positions will affect their lives and vote accordingly. James Carville, whom I like and respect, capsulized this in the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Maybe that was true in 1992, but it’s not now.

Today, most votes are not in play at all.

Drew Weston, an Emory University professor who has studied voters’ decision-making processes more than anyone, estimates that the vast majority of voters’ votes are reliably predictable regardless of who the candidates are. In other words, according to him, only about 15% of voters are “persuadable.” We are wired, he believes, by our backgrounds to vote for one party or another.

I tend to agree with him, but I think I know how people become wired, or are persuaded, to vote a certain way. My theory is that there are 15% to 20% of voters on either side of the philosophical spectrum who vote based on issues, and they are not persuadable. The other 60% to 70% vote based on whom they trust, and the way you gain their trust is to show them respect and empathy.

I know that Democrats have the empathy, but they don’t talk about it. They think their policies speak louder than their words and actions. To too many people, they don’t.

I remember visiting my first Black church as a candidate in 2006. I was worried the congregants would think I was

pandering, but I quickly understood that they welcomed me warmly, because I was showing respect by coming to meet them at a place that was very meaningful to them.

To this day, after visiting hundreds of Black churches — most times not near the election — I cannot count the times a Black constituent remembers my visit to their church.

As I tell any candidate who asks my advice, “People will want to know where your heart is.”

If we want to change the way too many Americans view Democrats, we must show all citizens the respect they deserve, even if we think they’re wrong, and even if we don’t understand their thinking. We must show we are willing to try to understand their thinking, and most important, empathize with their lives and the challenges they face.

Republican politicians, including, most notably, Donald Trump, know this, even though they don’t respect the voters, don’t care about their lives, and don’t think government can or should help them.

Joe Biden knows all this, and that’s why he is our next President. Democrats everywhere need to pay attention to him. • U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, founder of LEO, has represented Kentucky’s 3rd Congressional District since 2007 and is now chairman of the House Budget Committee.

VIEWS

WRITE SOME SHIT

DEAR BLACK PEOPLE, YOU WILL NOT ‘GOOD PERSON’ YOUR WAY OUT OF RACISM

By Hannah L. Drake | leo@leoweekly.com A FEW YEARS AGO, I wrote a blog titled, “The Inconvenient Victim,” about a young Black man named Stephon Clark. Stephon Clark was a 22-year-old Black man who was killed in the back of his grandmother’s home by the Sacramento police. Clark’s name instantly became yet another name in the long list of Black men, women and children who have been killed by the police. As news of Clark’s death spread throughout the nation, so did revelations of the disparaging comments he made about Black women. I labeled Clark the inconvenient victim. While many people disagreed with me, I stood firm — I do not get to choose the victim when fighting injustice. Every victim of police brutality will not be a perfect victim.

And so we find ourselves with Jonathan Price, a 31-year-old Black man, killed by Shaun Lucas, a 22-year-old white officer who had only been on the police force for six months before the fatal encounter with Price. According to The Washington Post, Jonathan was trying to break up a fight at the Kwik Chek, a local convenience store in Texas. Officers received a call about a “possible fight in progress.” Eyewitnesses said, “When Lucas arrived around 8:24 p.m., Price offered a handshake and asked him multiple times, ‘You doing good?’” according to a publicly released affidavit written by Texas Ranger investigator Laura Simmons.

Price apologized for broken glass on the ground (presumably from a bottle of juice Price dropped), saying that someone tried to “wrap me up.” Lucas told the investigator that he believed Price was intoxicated.

According to the affidavit, he tried to detain him, and Price responded, “I can’t be detained” and resisted, prompting Lucas to pull out his Taser. While being Tased, Price continued to walk toward Officer Lucas,” Simmons wrote. “Price appeared to reach out and grab the end of Officer Lucas’ Taser.” Lucas fired his gun four times, Simmons wrote, hitting Price in the upper torso.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital.”

In minutes Jonathan Price’s name joined the chorus of names shouted worldwide as America faces a racial pandemic.

I immediately shared the information about Jonathan’s murder, and as with any Black death, his past will always come out.

As we heard from his friends and family in the community, Price undoubtedly seemed like a nice, young man who never had

any legal issues. He appeared to be very focused on fitness and working with others to achieve their fitness and personal life goals. According to reports, “Jonathan took a job with Wolfe City in maintenance after moving back to the area from Dallas to help his mother. In his free time, the former college football player was a personal trainer, trained for fitness competitions and spent most of his time with family,” said Lee Merritt, the Price family attorney. “Jonathan was a small-city guy. He spent most of his days with sort of his adopted family,” Merritt said. “That’s where he would lay his head at night, which was a white family.” Many in the community described the 31-year-old as a “hometown hero.” Seemingly, Jonathan is the “perfect victim” in America’s eyes.

However, as people started to comb through Jonathan’s social media, they found several posts that he made regarding the protests surrounding the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

Jonathan speaks about his personal experiences with white people, white officers and his addiction to white women. He talks about the many times he should have been detained for various traffic infractions and never was, even in a town that he says people consider to be very racist. He challenges people not to forget about their own experiences with the police. Jonathan also speaks about the current protests and how the protests and aggressive rioting are fanning the flames. He also called protesters dummies. Finally, Jonathan states, “All of this race shit makes him want to vomit and that it is not going anywhere.”

I took a deep sigh after reading Jonathan’s posts.

There are many Black people, often those who have received a level of economic comfort and social status according to white standards, who believe if Black people are just “good enough,” they will not have to deal with racism and police brutality.

However, you will not good deed yourself out of racism. You will not “good person” your way out of racism. You will not excel your way out of racism. You will not educate yourself out of racism. You will not comply yourself out of racism. You will not codeswitch your way of out racism.

It. Will. Not. Happen.

No matter how many good deeds you do, you are a Black person, and in America, that

is enough for a police officer to kill you with no regard.

You will not avoid racism and police brutality by: Having an Ivy League education.

Having a college degree.

Offering an officer a handshake.

Praying with an officer.

Hugging an officer.

Dancing with an officer.

Living in a nice neighborhood.

Reasoning with an officer.

Wearing a belt/ Not sagging your pants.

Having a well-paying job.

Dating a white woman.

Dating a white man.

Having biracial children.

Having white friends.

Attending social events held by white people.

Doing good deeds in the community.

Being wealthy.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

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China has come back to the Kentucky Humane Society after proving to be too energetic for her previous family. We have seen how smart this girl is and believe she would respond well to positive training and outlets for her intelligence and energy.

She has played well with dogs her size. You can also bring your pup for a meet and greet during your appointment! China is spayed, microchipped and up-todate on her shots. Head over to kyhumane.org/dogs to schedule an adoption appointment at our Main Campus, 241 Steedly Drive.

Redd - Meet handsome Redd! Redd is a seven-monthold kitty who came to the Kentucky Humane Society from an overcrowded shelter. Upon arriving, Redd tested positive for Feline Leukemia or FeLV. While in other shelters Redd would be facing a grim fate because of his FeLV status, KHS believes he deserves a chance at a full life even if it is a shorter life! Redd will need to be the only kitty in the home or go home with other FeLV kitties. Redd loves napping in the sun, playing with catnip mice, playing in/with boxes, chattering with the birds from the window, sleeping and cuddling in bed with his humans.

Redd also spent time with other FeLV kittens and loved hanging out with him. He got along with a small dog too!

To schedule an appointment to meet Redd at our East Campus at 1000 Lyndon Lane, visit kyhumane.org/cats.

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Being raised in a two-parent home.

Being “respectable.”

Speaking out online about inner-city crime.

Adding the phrase “Black on Black crime” to your narrative about the state of Black people in America.

Speaking about your love of the police.

Claiming you never experienced racial profiling.

Voting Republican.

Voting Democrat.

Wearing a MAGA hat.

Being a police officer.

Complying.

Being friends with well to do white people.

Driving a nice car.

Abiding by all the laws.

No level of respectability will combat racism and police brutality. Unfortunately, Jonathan paid the ultimate price to learn this lesson. By all accounts, Jonathan offered the officer a handshake several times, even apologizing to him for the broken glass, and still, Jonathan was shot and killed.

We will not “good deeds” or “good person” our way out of racism. We must

fight and resist our way out of racism. We must challenge systems. We must tear down in order to rebuild something new. The people who are in the streets demanding justice are demanding it for all Black people.

We understand whether you are a Black man or a Black woman, you can be a victim of police brutality. We understand whether you have a GED or a Ph.D., you can be a victim of police brutality. We understand if you wear jeans that sag to your knees or a tailormade, three-piece suit, you can be a victim of police brutality. Do not let your proximity to whiteness and good deeds fool you.

As Jay-Z so eloquently put it in his song, “The Story of O.J.”: “Light n*gga, dark n*gga, faux n*gga, real n*gga Rich n*gga, poor n*gga, house n*gga, field n*gga Still n*gga, still n*gga…”

And if you ever forget it, rest assured this world will always remind you. • Hannah L. Drake is an author, poet and spoken word artist. Follow her at writesomeshit.com and on Twitter at hannahdrake628.

NEWS & ANALYSIS

KDP ELECTS FIRST BLACK CHAIR: WITH NEW IDEAS, IS IT ENOUGH?

By Danielle Grady | dgrady@leoweekly.com FOR THE FIRST TIME in its history, a Black man will lead the Kentucky Democratic Party: Colmon Elridge was nominated by Gov. Andy Beshear to be the party’s chair and was voted in on Saturday by KDP’s State Central Executive Committee.

His election comes after Democrats lost 13 seats in the state House and two in the Senate, further cementing a GOP supermajority that formed in 2016.

Some Democrats called for another post-mortem analysis of “what went wrong” while others wanted to completely disband the state party in favor of becoming a grassroots organization that supports progressive, minority candidates.

Elridge said he wants to keep the KDP together, and he also plans to continue to ask the question of “what happened.” But, he also wants to involve more people of color in the party and collaborate with grassroots organizers.

“We for cycles now have been losing seats, and the cycles have been, I think, losing the communications game in our counties and our cities and person to person,” he told LEO. “And we have to as a party take a step back and say, how did that happen? How did we go from having our finger on the pulse of what was going on in every barber shop and on every corner and in families and things like that to being so out of step that people don’t see themselves as part of the party anymore?”

State Rep. Attica Scott, the only Black woman state lawmaker, told LEO that simply having a new leader isn’t enough on its own to turn the KDP around, even though she acknowledged the significance of Elridge being the party’s first Black chair.

“Change happens with actions, of course, and one person in a position is not nearly enough transformative change, although one person can make a difference,” Scott said.

Previously, Scott told LEO she wouldn’t oppose disbanding the party, because she thinks it would free up fundraising money to go to candidates of color. And she doesn’t like the two party system because it’s restrictive and

confining, she said.

Elridge, meanwhile, already has theories about why Kentucky Democrats have lost so much influence in the state, as well as how to gain some of it back.

He said that Democrats have let Republicans define what the party is by staying silent when Democrats are accused of wanting to take away guns away or kill babies. Really, the party is for things like background checks or safeguarding women from being criminalized for having miscarriages, he said.

Colmon Elridge, the newly elected chair of the Another mistake Kentucky Kentucky Democratic Party. | PHOTO BY MARVIN YOUNG. Democrats made, according to charges while at Louisville’s protests Elridge, was not staying relevant to its for racial justice. In his statement, members — and not just white workElridge also praised Scott for fighting ing class voters but Black and brown against law enforcement killing Black Democrats who have given time and and brown people. money to the party.

Scott has said the KDP didn’t “I think we enjoyed such a voter acknowledge the charges when they registration edge that we frankly took were first filed. That Elridge did was for granted that we had to continuously important, she said. communicate with Democrats and “You can’t be silent when your continuously ask the question: What only Black woman in your entire state do you need and how can we help?” legislature is being unjustly arrested Elridge said. “Or maybe we were and then think people are going to flock asking those questions but they weren’t to your party,” she said. being asked in a credible way.”

But, there are more things she wants Though Elridge doesn’t want to to see from the KDP, in addition to disband the party, he said he does supporting candidates of color with want to invest in grassroots organizsocial media posts and funding. She ers and to work collaboratively and would like for the new vice chair to be share resources with more progressive, a woman of color; she thinks that KDP like-minded organizations. He also said members, not the governor, should be he wants to devote more resources to in charge of picking the next chair; and candidates of color and fill the party she wants to see Elridge’s ideas in writwith campaign managers, strategists and fundraisers of diverse backgrounds. ing and sit down with him and share her concerns.

His election as the first Black chair Elridge said his doors are open to could be the start. those who want to speak with him, and “I hope what it means for the party, at least out the gate is that there is room he plans on reaching out to those grassroots organizers and people working for everyone to sit at the table and not with progressive groups. only sit at our table, but sit at the head “One, it’s the right thing to do,” said of the table,” he said. “And that hasn’t Elridge. “The urgency of the moment always been the case. I don’t make any demands that we don’t waste any time bones about that.” when it comes to bringing together our Elridge also issued a statement on mindsets and our resources in a way Monday, saying he was happy to see to where we can begin to fight back in that criminal charges against Scott 2022.” • had been dropped. Scott incurred the

THORNS & ROSES THE WORST, BEST & MOST ABSURD THORN: ...BUT SHOULD WE ALLOW HIM?

U.S. Sen. Mitch “Traitor” McConnell said tRump “is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options.” He also is within his rights to tweet out lies he hears on FOX, undermine our democracy to the brink of civil war, idolize dictators, pack the White House with swampy sycophants and scar the United States like a case of chronic cystic acne.

ROSE: JUST LET GOV. ANDY DO HIS JOB!

Kentucky’s highest court smacked down state Attorney General Daniel Cameron and other nano-minded Republicans who think Gov. Andy Beshear wrongly saved lives by enacting science-based rules in the pandemic.

“The governor’s orders were, and continue to be, necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect the health and safety of all Kentucky citizens,” the court ruled. Meanwhile, we log record numbers of cases.

ROSE: DISMISS ALL PROTESTER CHARGES!

All charges now have been dismissed against state Rep. Attica Scott. They stemmed from the night Scott joined protesters, and police said she was in a group that damaged the downtown library. Now, dismiss charges against the other 500 or so peaceful protesters!

ABSURD: EXTRA NONTHREATENING, PLEASE

We wanted to give a rose to new state Democratic Party chairman, Colmon Elridge, who lauded the dismissal of Scott’s charges and wrote: “If America is to truly be great, freedom and justice for all must mean All. Until then, there is no justice, there is no freedom, and there cannot be a lasting peace.” But then Elridge “corrected” his statement to end: “If America is to truly be great, freedom and justice for all must mean All, and we must acknowledge that black lives matter is not merely a movement, but a statement for the dignity our humanity deserves and has been too long denied.”

THORN: DEFUND THE LMPD? REPLACE IT

The Louisville police Explorer Scout program’s sex scandal worsens. The CJ says “that LMPD concealed at least 738,000 records documenting the sexual abuse of Explorer scouts by two officers — then lied to keep the files from the public.” And now a third cop has pleaded guilty.

THORN: GOP DOESN’T WANT YOU TO VOTE

If you liked voting early, too bad. “I can tell you that right now, that the model that was used for this election is not going to be made permanent,” Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, told The CJ. LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

7

BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES: WHY YOU SHOULD SUPPORT THEM, HOW THEY’RE SUPPORTING OTHERS

Illustration by Lane Levitch | Photos by Kathryn Harrington 8

LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

By Danielle Grady | dgrady@leoweekly.com

:

Whitney Powers.

AS A BLACK entrepreneur and nonprofit founder, Aaron Jordan has submitted grant proposals and pitched to investors before. And he’s experienced the feeling that comes when it is clear to him that those efforts aren’t taken seriously. But, that’s not what happened when he presented his latest idea, a co-working space focused on Black-owned businesses, to Tawana Bain, a Black woman and the founder of the economic diversity nonprofit GEDDI. She has become a mentor to Jordan and lets him operate The Black Complex out of her business, Encore on Fourth.

A $50,000 investment from entrepreneur Gill Holland followed. But, without Bain’s buy-in, The Black Complex would have been just another business proposal by a Black entrepreneur, Jordan said.

“I still have the same vision. I’m still the same person; She’s just giving me the pieces to put together, like, ‘OK, you need to do this; you need to do that,’” Jordan said.

“Imagine if Black people all over the place had those types of resources.”

Now, Jordan hopes to help other Black business owners obtain those resources with The Black Complex by providing its members with business training, mentorships and networking with other members and business partners from Louisville and beyond.

Black-owned businesses need the help.

Only 2.2% of businesses in the United States with employees are Black-owned, according to the U.S. Census, although that percentage has grown since 2002.

They are denied loans at higher rates than white-owned businesses and, when they do receive a loan, they’re twice as likely to receive less than what they asked for, according to a survey from the Small Aaron Jordan.

Business Administration. Black business owners in Louisville whom LEO spoke with saw other challenges to fostering new ones, such as a lack of business education opportunities, mentors and investment.

This has created extra challenges for many Black-owned businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses with existing lender relationship were more likely to get help from the federal Payroll Protection Program quickly, according to the Center for Responsible Lending — a benchmark that Black-owned businesses are less likely to meet. More Black business owners, 41%, shut down at least temporarily from February to April because of COVID than entrepreneurs of any other race, according to the University of California, Santa Cruz.

But, in 2020 there has been another factor at work impacting Black businesses: the racial justice movement.

Tanika Bryant created Buy Black Lou in 2019, a directory and Facebook group to discover Black-owned businesses in Louisville. After the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor ignited quests for racial equity across the nation, Bryant’s app received its highest number of monthly users — 21,000 — in June.

“While we were already trending in the Black community, the civil unrest in Louisville and the racist ideologies

supported in a local restaurant promo group on FB contributed to many non Black community members reaching out to us asking if they could join in support,” she said. “I think with a spotlight finally being put on the many injustices and neglect in the Black community, many non racists were ready to step up and put their money, time and resources where their mouths are.”

This support does more than just help out a few business owners, according to Bryant.

“When Black businesses flourish, so do their communities,” Bryant said. “Black businesses foster job creation. We are more likely to hire unemployable and Black community members. Black business owners invest in the communities they are in. It celebrates culture and diversity. It brings hope and pride of ownership to Black families and it allows Black youth to see successful Black people in their community. It also helps Black families to create generational wealth.”

Other ventures supporting Black-owned businesses have opened this year. For example, the nonprofit Change Today, Change Tomorrow, which works to meet the needs of the Black community, created Pocket Change, a hub for Blackowned businesses to showcase themselves in a Butchertown storefront.

Still, Bryant said that Louisville’s major employers and organizations need to do more to help local Black businesses. Her call is for them to “unclench their fists” and to invest in Buy Black Lou, her nonprofit the Black Business Association, and other Black-led organizations that are actively “doing the work.”

LEO talked to four business owners in Louisville about their successes and the challenges to running a Black-owned business.

GARDEN GIRL FOODS

Whitney Powers comes from a line of Black business LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

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owners. Her greatgrandparents sold vegetables and preserved jars of food from a stand, her great uncles own a construction business, and her mom has run an event planning enterprise for 21 years.

Powers started out helping with her mom’s business, Penelope Party, and has since become a co-owner. And this year, at the age of 33, she created a business all her own: Garden Girl Foods.

When COVID19 halted Penelope Party’s work, Powers decided to start a garden. She claimed a spot in Germantown’s community plot and soon found herself with too many vegetables for her and her husband to eat on their own.

Powers decided to start canning them, using her greatgrandmother’s recipes. By June, Powers had sold her first jar, and by October, she had a permanent stall at the Logan Street Market, selling her preserves but also soups and baked goods.

Powers attributes this swift success to her locally-grown, handmade product; her cute setup at the market; and a recent surge in support for Black-owned business.

To Powers, being a Black business owner means she can break the cycle of poverty. It’s something that’s been present in her own family, even though she comes from an entrepreneurial unit.

“For me, it’s not like, ‘Oh my gosh, buy my stuff because I’m Black, and it’s so much better.’ It’s more about: As a Black person, I had less opportunities from the beginning, and so I had to scratch and claw my way through everything, and every single thing I’ve gone through in life has gotten me to this business,” she said. “So, people see Garden Girl, and they see the finished project. They see success, and they see beauty. But when I was a restaurant manager for 10 years as a GM working 90 hours a week, underpaid, no one’s seen that. So, to be able to take all of my past experiences and do something for myself and be successful as a Black business owner, again, it means healing poverty for my family and anybody that wants to join my team actually.”

Powers did walk into owning Garden Girl Foods with at least one advantage: Because of her business experience, she knew how to scale up when her supply of vegetables started depleting. Powers was quick to find organic farmers in and around the city to buy more product from. And, she listened to her customers to find out what else they wanted. Then, she met that need.

If Powers didn’t have that knowledge — as well as her perseverance — she said she probably would have given up Garden Girl Foods after running out of supplies. And, a lack

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Timalyn Bowens.

of knowledge to begin a business is one of the biggest challenges facing other Black-owned businesses, she said.

“We,” Powers began, referring to Black entrepreneurs in general, “don’t have our aunts or our uncles or our grandparents or our parents to look at and to say, ‘Hey, this is how you start your business credit,’ or to say, ‘Hey, this is how you scale,’ or to say ‘Hey, you have that great idea? This is how you can take $100 and run with it.’ We don’t have people who have already done it in our ear or right in our corner to help us along our way. So we have to scratch, and we have to find people and we have to find each other.”

BOWENS TAX & BOOKKEEPING SOLUTIONS

Timalyn Bowens, 31, grew up in a family that told her she could be anything. So, owning her own business was a goal that didn’t seem out of reach when she left her hometown of Evansville, Indiana, to study accounting at Bellarmine University.

Bowens got distracted by making money right away at an “amazing” internship at Crowe Horwath. Then, she transitioned to contract work while she took care of her and her husband’s infant daughter. But, three years after graduating, she was ready. Bowens opened her bookkeeping and tax advising and preparation business in 2016.

As time has gone on, and Bowens has joined Buy Black Lou, she’s realized how lucky she was to have an encouraging family and the college experience.

“I just didn’t realize I was blessed with so many resources and connections,” she said. “Like I could probably reach out to a classmate or another alumni for anything I ever need. Whereas other people don’t have the same access to that or know who they want to talk to.”

In some ways, Bowens has become that resource for other members of Buy Black Lou. She shares informational

Erica Hector.

blog posts and gives business advice that she didn’t even realize would be needed, like how to set up an LLC. “I was coming in and thinking that people knew the information that I had,” Bowens said. “Tanika and other people were like, no you need to break it down a little bit more because the people in these groups, they can definitely sell, they can raise the money, but it’s after that.”

Bowens has also been surprised to learn since starting her own business how aspirational she can be for others.

“I have had other people tell me that they are pursuing this because they have seen me do it,” she said. “I have had people reach out and tell me, they’re not in the accounting field, but after talking to me they were inspired to go out and pursue their own thing.”

As the operator of a Black-owned accounting firm, Bowens also believes she serves a purpose for her Black customers. “The way I explain things as if you don’t know anything makes people feel more comfortable,” she said.

“Because, like I said, I know there’s a tax education gap there. So, we don’t have as many legacy businesses and that type of thing. So, I get to come in and bridge that gap.”

STACEY’S DONUTS

Erica Hector has a surplus of entrepreneurial spirit, she said. But business knowledge? “No,” she admitted.

Hector, 34, is an actress by passion (and schooling) and is currently working toward a master’s degree in marketing

and public relations. While taking various jobs in the service industry, she started a side clothing business called Tomboy Empress in 2015. And, in 2019, she paused that dream to take over State Donuts in The East End after the owner died.

She renamed the business Stacey’s Donuts to honor her former boss and friend, Stacey Trieu.

The business, under her leadership, has received an enthusiastic response on the Buy Black Lou and Louisville Takeout Facebook groups as the only Black-owned donut shop in Louisville. She’s kept the donut recipe the same and added different toppings. But, Hector said, she’s struggling under the strain of the pandemic and her own lack of business know-how.

“I’m not business savvy,” she said. “I’m just, you know — I want to be business savvy. I love the entrepreneurial spirit. I love the idea of financial freedom. I love the idea of being able to give back to my community and help rebuild in my community… The best attribute that I bring to this business is customer service and marketing. And the rest of it, I need help.”

The pandemic, meanwhile, has slowed traffic at her shop.

Now, her storefront is open only Friday and Saturday, with delivery on Tuesday through Thursday. It used to be open to walk-ins every day except for Sunday. As a result, she’s had to cut hours for three employees. A few more decided to leave their jobs voluntarily.

On top of that, Hector has struggled to get one of the forgivable, low-interest loans that the federal government offered businesses during the pandemic under the Payroll Protection Program. The problem, according to Hector, is that State Donuts is still registered to the store’s address.

Recently, though, she received $25,000, because a customer nominated her for — and she received — an award from Discover for their Eat it Forward program. The financial services company is giving out money to Black-owned restaurants as a part of its “commitment to fighting systemic racism and injustice and driving change to create a diverse, inclusive and equitable place for people to work and live.”

Hector has had people reach out to her because of her involvement with Buy Black Lou to help her with business advice. But, all of their talk about supply and demand, profits and loans sounded like a foreign language to her.

(Learning is already complicated for Hector because she has ADHD.) Since then, she’s done some of her own research and reached out to other, retired business owners. But, Hector said she still needs more help to keep her business running: a strategic mentor, she said, or a partner, as long as they’re interested in helping her expand Stacey’s Donuts into something more than it is already. Hector’s vision for the shop is a full-fledged cafe with a traveling donut truck.

Being a successful business owner benefits Hector’s community, she said. “It’s very important, especially in today’s society, other Black people and Black women in general, we’re being overlooked,” she said. “Like, just for maybe loans or scholarships or golden opportunities, or internships and things like that. And we’ve always had the will to actually want to work and want to be something great. We’ve just never had the resources and the opportunity.”

JW CUTS LAWN & LANDSCAPING

Jason Whiting, 45, started manicuring lawns — mowing, weed eating and leaf blowing — in 1994.

He got his equipment from a friend. The push mower was missing a wheel and the other tools weren’t gas powered,

Jayson and Jason Whiting.

so he’d often have to snake an extension cord through his customers’ garages to connect to an outlet. Over the years, Whiting has taken jobs bartending and driving trucks. But as he’s gotten better equipment, picked up more clients and expanded his services, he’s been able to grow his side hustle into a full-time business.

“I like bartending — it was cool. Driving trucks is cool,” he said. “But it’s something about owning your own business in lawn and landscaping. When you work for yourself, you feel a certain kind of productivity when you do it.

Sometimes when you work for other people, you just kind of, you feel like you’re just kind of walking the trail which they laid for you. And regardless of how profitable the country that you work for is, you’re still just a digit within the whole parameters of everything. So working for yourself, you kind of see yourself growing or see where you make the mistakes.”

He gravitated toward a landscaping business because there’s a creative aspect to it. “It’s almost like a blank canvas to an artist,” he said. “It’s instant gratification. You see what the yard looked like when you got here. You see what it is when you leave.”

Recently, his landscaping business has grown by 15% to 20% with the help of Buy Black Lou. Before, he paid Home Adviser to be listed on its website and receive leads. Now, he’s on a directory for free.

To help other Black-owned businesses flourish, he said, there needs to be more resources for aspiring entrepreneurs.

“It’s kind of hard to get experience if no one’s hiring you, and you’re dealing with lack of support in general,” he said. “You know, if you’re looking to expand to more of the commercial side, obviously you’re going to require more revenue in order to get bigger and better equipment to be able to account for the projects. So, unfortunately a lot of minority businesses don’t get the support that allows them to grow to be able to get them the things they need or want.”

Being a Black-owned business is important to him, because sometimes, he feels as if they get a bad rap from the public.

“And there’s a lot of Black-owned businesses that are thriving,” he said. “So, it’s a lot of talented minorities in the city, all over, and we’re just like, you know we’re just like anybody else. We want the same opportunity to thrive and to make the money and things like that.” • LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

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WOULD EAR X-TACY SURVIVE IN TODAY’S VINYL REVOLUTION?

By Kevin Gibson | leo@leoweekly.com FOR MUSIC LOVERS in Louisville, it’s almost a citywide shared memory: You carve out some time, head to ear Xtacy in The Highlands and get lost for the next two hours checking out new music on the many listening stations scattered around the store.

The hope was you’d hear that next band or artist that you were about to fall in love with and listen to incessantly, as the thrill of “discovering” that new favorite band is something that cannot be explained, only experienced.

The iconic store opened Aug. 1, 1985, at 4264 Poplar Level Road, moved to a space next door to Great Escape where it did business for three years, then to the 1534 Bardstown Road location that became its long-time home. It ultimately landed in a smaller spot down the street, at Douglass Loop, before closing for good in late 2011. The classic Bardstown Road space then became a Panera restaurant, adding insult to injury. Ear X-tacy’s legacy would spark the 2012 documentary “Brick and Mortar and Love,” and many remain wistful for those days of browsing through albums and CDs and soaking in the quirky atmosphere of the destination music shop.

Founder John Timmons, now a daytime host on WFPK, doesn’t necessarily remember the store the way much of Louisville does, however.

“I get it now,” Timmons told LEO Weekly. “I didn’t see the story like you would until long after it was gone. As an owner, it was a totally different take. Now I can see it was a good store. I couldn’t see that for a very long time.”

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ear X-tacy. | PHOTO BY SPENCER JENKINS.

Here we are nearly a decade later. Several music stores have been born in ear X-tacy’s wake, while stores such as Better Days Records and Underground Sounds continue on.

This is in no small part due to a vinyl revolution that’s been building steam for several years now.

According to a recent report from Business Insider,

Americans are spending more on vinyl records than CDs for the first time since the 1980s; the report estimates the Recording Industry Association of America show vinyl sales through the first half of 2020 totaled $232.1 million, nearly double the $129.9 million raked in from CD sales.

And Billboard reported that — boosted by Record Store Day on Aug. 29 — vinyl sales in the week ending Sept. 3 rose to 802,000, a 63% increase over the previ-

ous week and second only in history to the Christmas-fueled week ending Dec. 26, 2019, citing numbers from Nielsen Music/MRC Data.

So, the question we set out to answer, at least in theory, was: Would ear X-tacy survive during the modern vinyl revolution? Even in a pandemic?

SIDE A

While Timmons was busy building a business, he didn’t realize he was building a community space that would become socially legendary. After about six months in the original spot, he relocated the store to a slightly larger spot on Bardstown Road, next door to The Great Escape.

As business grew, so did inventory and so did the need to have a store that would be able to welcome more people. Moving to the two-level, 10,000-square-foot building at 1534 Bardstown Road a couple of years later proved huge results. Timmons added video, T-shirts and other swag, quirky and fun novelty products, a record label and more.

In-store performances became more and more frequent, with acts such as Queens of the Stone Age, The Black Keys, Drive-By Truckers, Cage the Elephant and Tenacious D, interspersing with acoustic gigs, album release performances and local bands from Cooler to Tim Krekel.

But as the cost of the lease on the spot went up each year, revenues gradually decreased. Downloading of MP3 files transitioned into services such as iTunes and Amazon selling music downloads, prompting many to skip the in-store experience and download music to their devices. Streaming was on the horizon, people were enjoying music differently, and brickand-mortar retail felt it in a major way.

What was lost for many was an experience, even if the music was still available.

DEEP CUTS

Lisa Foster, co-owner of Guestroom Records in Clifton, grew up in Campbellsville, Kentucky, making frequent trips to Louisville during her high school years with ear X-tacy a frequent focal point. When she went to college and later graduate school, trips home to visit family usually included a side trip to Louisville. It was a lifestyle thing, she said.

“To me it was just a part of home that meant something to me,” Foster said. “When I went home I would go see my parents, I would go see my friends and I would go to ear X-tacy. It just became part of my social fabric.”

Matt Anthony, owner of Matt Anthony’s Record Shop, was a longtime ear X-tacy employee, giving him a different perspective. Asked his best memory of the place where he worked and socialized, he paused and said, “The lifetime friends I made at that shop. Working with the best of Louisville musicians, just hanging out. Working the counter with an incredible guitarist [Jason Noble of Rodan and other bands]. Black Keys playing for 20 people, and you’re right

While Timmons was busy building a business, he didn’t realize he was building a community space that would become socially legendary.

there. The White Stripes coming in, shopping, ringing them up. Hanging out with Jack Black.”

Brett Ralph, a musician and owner of Surface Noise, located at 600 Baxter Ave., was one of the early adopters of businesses like ear X-tacy, likening it to other long lost Highlands businesses like Twice Told and Hawley-Cooke Booksellers.

He loved ear X-tacy for the same reasons most of those who still mourn it loved it: for the experience of discovering new music. That’s the business he’s in now. He started out in vinyl sales renting a booth at the early versions of The Flea Off Market; he saw the vinyl trend growing around him.

But he pointed out that a key difference between his store or, say, Matt Anthony’s, which is on the other corner on Baxter at Payne Street, and ear X-tacy, is that the latter had grown into a huge, one-stop shop in its heyday, whereas his and other smaller stores are more focused on specific audiences.

For example, ear X-tacy was certainly selling a lot of indie punk records and CDs, but a lot of its bread was coming in the door by way of sales of Britney Spears and Limp Bizkit CDs. As Anthony put it, “We sold hundreds of those so we could sell one Gang of Four record, one Nina Simone CD.” Better Days relied on sales of used music, with a lot of blues and jazz, while Underground Sounds took a deep dive into punk and underground (thus the name) to attract a specific audience. Modern Louisville record stores are doing

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Timmons browsing the racks of his now-closed business.

Guestroom’s Foster concurred, saying, ‘If it were alive in same market I would think it would absolutely be doing well, but operating at that level seems like it would be difficult.

I’m not sure you would see ear X-tacy the exact same way that it was.’ the same thing.

For Ralph of Surface Noise, it’s hard-to-find used vinyl and classic vinyl, as well as a unique environment. The store also includes an evergreen art installation, in a space that Ralph said was curated to feel “like a cross between a museum and a living room.”

For Anthony, it’s about getting the right music to the right people, skipping selling modern pop hits in favor of classics: “The stuff that really matters: Marvin Gaye, ‘What’s Going On?’, Etta James’ ‘At Last.’ Those were made in the ’60s, and I still sell them every week.”

WOULD EAR X-TACY THRIVE TODAY?

And there’s the rub. If ear X-tacy was the ultimate onestop shop, it was also far closer to a big box store than most local stores ever get, in Louisville, at least. And big box music stores have been slowly falling by the wayside for a long time.

Jennifer Rubenstein is the director of Louisville Independent Business Alliance, and while she is quick to point out she is no music store expert, she quickly supports the point that today’s record stores look nothing like commercial record stores from the past.

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“They’re a little bit more boutique-ish,” she said. “I think we’re going toward right-sizing the venue.”

And while she misses ear X-tacy like many Louisvillians, she pointed out that it was, basically, unfortunate timing to have a store like Timmons’ as CD sales were falling and downloads, and later streaming, were becoming the new norm: “I feel almost it was like the cross-point of a graph, you know?”

Guestroom’s Foster concurred, saying, “If it were alive in same market I would think it would absolutely be doing well, but operating at that level seems like it would be difficult. I’m not sure you would see ear X-tacy the exact same way that it was.”

Anthony pointed out that shops like his have an added point of sale — online — that ear X-tacy didn’t have and probably couldn’t have effectively managed. Given ear X-tacy’s massive inventory, it would have been difficult to simultaneously do in-store and online sales. When he gets a great new record in, he has it simultaneously for sale in multiple places, driving more and quicker sales while minimizing the overhead.

But the legacy of ear X-tacy isn’t lost — it just may exist in many different, more manageable, forms today in other, smaller stores.

“It created a void that a bunch of us were able to fill,”

Ralph said of ear X-tacy’s demise. “I certainly miss ear X-tacy and what they offered to those of us who loved records but I feel like the record culture in Louisville is healthy right now.”

WHAT IF … ?

The answer is “No.” And Timmons doesn’t even need time to think about it. And he’s amazed that people still, nearly a decade later, ask him if he’ll ever reopen ear X-tacy.

“Sometimes it’s a polite no,” he said. “Sometimes it’s a hell no. I wouldn’t be passionate about it at this point. The store could never be as good as it was — so hang on to those memories.”

And his more thoughtful response to such a question is, why not support the indie record stores that are in business now and help make sure they don’t have to close? Right now, the market is working at least somewhat in their favor.

And asked if ear X-tacy would survive in today’s economy and culture, Timmons isn’t sure.

“That’s an interesting question,” he said. “I’m not sure what the market looks like these days. I don’t know how ear X-tacy would do at this point. I don’t think it could be as large a store. I feel fortunate that it was able to hang on as long as it did in Louisville.” •

STAFF PICKS FRIDAY, NOV. 20

(Virtual) Vernissage 2020

KMAC Museum | 715 W. Main St. | redpintix.com | $25 and up | 7-8 p.m.

Vernissage is French for“varnishing,” referring to private previews of art exhibitions, when artists still had the opportunity to put finishing touches on their artwork by ART varnishing them. How’s that for Wikipedia etymology? This vernissage features Brooklyn artist Jordan Nassar, as well as a collection of photographic interpretations of Louisville’s parks from five local artists, curated by Louisville artist Ramona Lindsey. While this preview party must be held virtually, it provides a unique opportunity to include “a virtual tour ‘behind closed doors’ to see some prized KMAC artworks at the homes of private collectors, and other surprises,” including conversations with the artists. There will also be a raffle for three incredible packages… did someone say Pappy? Options for a home-delivered, three-course, Mediterranean dinner and more are available on the website. —Aaron Yarmuth

‘A Stream Is Singing Under The Youthful Grass,’ 2020, by Jordan Nassar. | Hand-embroidered cotton on cotton; 42 x 108 1/2 inches. | PHOTO BY PHOEBE D’HEURLE.

SATURDAY, NOV. 21

Louisville Orchestra Virtual Edition: American Soul Old Forester’s Paristown Hall | 724 Brent St. kentuckyperformingarts.org | Free | 7:30 p.m.

This ain’t your grandparents’ Louisville Orchestra. Teddy Abrams and LO continue to demonstrate R-E-S-P-E-C-T how the instrumental ensemble of classical music can build on the music of today, including Motown, soul and R&B, “the heartbeat of American music.” This free, livestream performance from LO and local artists Jason Clayborn and Daria Raymore is a tribute to that American soul, and includes classics such as, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “What’s Goin’ On?” and “Endless Love.”

The stream will be available ondemand Dec. 2 through the end of the year. —Aaron Yarmuth

SATURDAY, NOV. 21

#clothethewest pajama party

St George’s Episcopal Church | 1201 S. 26th St. | Search Facebook Free | 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

St. George’s Episcopal Church and Clothe The West PJS are getting in the holiday-giving spirit… in particular for the kids! Bring the kiddos (in pajamas or regular, day clothes) to pick up new pajamas, books, toothbrushes and toothpaste, bonnets, durags and more. Due to COVID-19 precautions, only a limited number of people will be allowed in at a time, but to-go breakfast boxes will be available as you leave. To donate new items, search for the Clothe The West Facebook page, where you will find a link to an Amazon page with their holiday drive items, which runs through Christmas. —Aaron Yarmuth

FRIDAY, NOV. 20

Reel Latin American Film Festival: ’Guie’Dani’s Navel’ Zoom | medina502.com | Free | 6:30 p.m.

“Guie’Dani’s Navel” is a Spanish language film about an indigenous, Zapotec girl helping her mom who’s working as a housekeeper for an upper middle-class family in FILM Mexico City. Stream it for free anytime through Friday at medina502.com. On the last day it’s available, join Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez, a scholar of Latin America, for a post-screening discussion and Q&A. –Danielle Grady

An image from ‘Guie’dan.’s Navel.’

LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

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STAFF PICKS

SATURDAY, NOV. 21-24

Louisville Ballet: ‘Kentucky! Volume 1’ Online | louisvilleballet.org | $25 | Anytime

The ballet might conjure images of Renaissance Italy — from where the art was born six centuries ago — but that’s not this story. “Kentucky! Volume 1” is the first of DANCE a three-part ballet story about Kentucky. Featuring spoken word artist and LEO favorite Hannah L. Drake, “this new ballet art film explores human connection and resilience through the lens of the people who make it a place. Weaving together the state’s present with its past, and told in a non-linear style, with one dancer as the central character and thread that connects it all.” Choreography directed by Louisville Ballet Artistic Director Robert Curran, set to “The Violin Concerto in D minor, Op 47” by Jean Sibelius and an original score by Scott Moore. —LEO

THROUGH NOV. 30

‘Creating Change Through The Arts’

By Kara Walker 849 Gallery, KyCAD | kycad.org/849-gallery | Free

Silhouettes have been around for centuries. Created in black cut paper or paint, they feature benign profiles of people’s faces or bodies, usually static but occasionally ART in action. That description references Kara Walker’s silhouettes, except for the benign part. Her art highlights the violence, slavery and rape innate to Southern plantation life. The Kentucky College of Art + Design (KyCAD) is displaying Walker’s work in a virtual exhibition. Go to kycad.org and click on 849 Gallery. The planned in-person show was altered due to COVID-19. The prints were gifted to KyCAD by Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown of 21c Museum Hotels.

—Jo Anne Triplett ‘Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta, from the portfolio Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)’ by Kara Walker.

Offset lithograph and screenprint on paper.

Image from ‘Kentucky! Volume 1.’

MONDAY, NOV. 23-29

Thanksgiving Day Run

Iroquois Park | 1080 Amphitheater Road | Search Facebook | $25 | Anytime More like Thanksgiving “Week” Run. The regular Turkey Day Run has been modified to conform with 2020’s madness, and will now be a 5-mile run any GOBBLE GOBBLE day and time of your choosing Thanksgiving week. The regular course through Iroquois will be marked, but you are free to even choose your own trek this year. Registration includes an event T-shirt, which can be picked up from Swag’s Sport Shoes’ South End location on Nov. 24 or 25, or have it sent to you for an additional $5. The first 300 registrants will also receive a commemorative medal.

Official race times and winners will not be counted, but there will be a raffle for a $100 gift card to Swag’s. —LEO

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FRIDAY, NOV. 20 THROUGH JAN. 3

Winter Illuminations

The Parklands of Floyds Fork | 1411 Beckley Creek Parkway winterilluminationsky.com | Prices vary | 5:45 p.m.

If you love the Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular, you’ll love the Winter Illuminations: a 1-mile trail of animated light installations, comprising over 100,000 lights that are set to GET LIT theme music. The entire trail takes about an hour to complete and includes a combination of gravel and paved paths, which organizers say are ADA accessible. Tickets must be purchased online in advance of arrival, and you must arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled time. Closed Mondays, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. —LEO

@leoweekly

LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

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MUSIC

MUSIC INSTRUMENT SHOPS ADAPT TO SURVIVE BOREDOM, STIMULUS CHECKS AND TECHNOLOGY HELPED

By Scott Recker | srecker@leoweekly.com THE PANDEMIC has caused ups and downs for sales at the Doo Wop Shop, which rents and sells instruments, PA systems and other concert and event equipment. While in-store customer traffic went from nonexistent during the shutdown in the spring to currently extremely light, certain aspects of the business have thrived. For example, when everyone was staying home as the first wave of the virus circulated, people were bored. Learning to play music or picking up that old instrument became popular.

“At first, we actually had a strong bit of sales in beginner instruments,” said John Metcalf, manager of the Doo Wop Shop. “We sent the lights out of your $100 to $200 guitars, your keyboards, your cheap, beginner-level stuff.

We had record numbers of guitar restrings every day because people were getting that guitar out of the closet that they haven’t played in 10 years, and they had some time to do it.

As adults, often we say, ‘Well, if I still had the time to,’ and everybody did.”

That lasted only so long.

Now, with a drop in large orders of rental equipment, the Doo Wop Shop’s challenge has become to get customers into the store in a safe way. It has installed safety measures, including hand sanitization rules for people touching instruments and how rental gear is cleaned upon return.

“We had to do some serious homework before we unlocked the doors and quarantine kind of stopped and you could have people in,” Metcalf said. “One of our biggest issues was, how do we sanitize if someone wants to play a guitar? Who buys a guitar before they’ve played it?”

All of the music instrument shops that LEO spoke with echoed the sentiment that, throughout the pandemic, business has been an unpredictable mixture of high and low, with repairs and online shopping being up, and in-store foot traffic being down. Like many small businesses, music stores generally had to furlough some employees. And, most significantly, they’ve been attempting to adapt to a fluid situation that’s significantly changed people’s shopping habits.

BETWEEN THE SHUTDOWN AND THE HOLIDAYS

Jerry Hill, owner of J&J Old Louisville Music Shop, said that late March and the beginning of the spring were tough, but when the federal government cut stimulus checks, he saw an increase in business.

“When the shutdown first happened, boy, that was scary.

We were able to maintain doing curbside, but no one was doing any of that,” Hill said. “It really wasn’t until people got their stimulus checks that we started getting repairs come in, and people were buying strings and stuff. Everyone got a breath of fresh air, and had a little more confidence to do those things.”

Like the other shops, J&J has seen a drastic decrease with in-store browsing, but Hill said he’s been using social media to push new and popular items. And Hill hopes that the

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upcoming holiday season means that people searching for gifts for musicians will help the business survive through the winter.

“With the Christmas holiday coming up, we’re usually able to get a boost in sales during that time,” Hill said.

“For the Christmas holidays, accessories, they sell like hot cakes, because that’s what people buy for musicians — strings, cables, straps, effects pedals.”

‘BULLSHITTING’ WON’T PAY BILLS

Phillip Bullock playing a bass guitar at the Doo Wop Shop.

PHOTO BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON.

When the pandemic started, Guitar Emporium furloughed all of its employees except Eric Whorton, who continued to do business via online sales for the store. Finding buyers hasn’t been a problem, since the Guitar Emporium has long done business all over the world, but Whorton said getting new inventory has been hard.

“We’re shipping stuff all over the world every day, and we’ve been doing that since the late ’70s,” Whorton said. “The difficult things were getting products from manufacturers, because manufacturers closed, and many products, the things that we are a dealer for, small accessories and stuff, that aren’t made in America, they come from China or wherever, a lot of that stuff gets tied up in customs and ports. So, it makes it hard to replace things once you’ve sold them.”

Currently, the Guitar Emporium allows only five people in at a time, which is much different from how the store operated pre-pandemic. Instrument shops, like a lot of other small specialty businesses, were often used as a gathering place for like-minded people and a cultural nerve center for some musicians. Whorton said the social aspect of the shop is missed, but it’s become more important to give the most in-store time to people who have the intention to purchase something.

“It’s a social hangout, which we love, and we understand,

Doo-Wop Shop.

and it’s just that kind of a store,” Wharton said. “There are other businesses that are like that too — comic book stores, barbershops, places like that. However, you can’t pay the bills with bullshitting.”

Although the Guitar Emporium has had enough business to sustain itself, Wharton said, the store has only been able to bring back one of the four people they furloughed last spring. It’s something that he worries about — not just for the Guitar Emporium, but also other small businesses that are struggling.

“I wonder, in general, will all of these small businesses be able to employ their full amount of former employees again — restaurants, small merchandise stores like this,” Whorton said. •

FOOD & DRINK

Kale Italian salad at Emmy Squared is a tasty mix of healthy things from the garden, sorted in the box for you to mix up and dress at home.

RECOMMENDED

EMMY SQUARED BRINGS DETROIT PIZZA FROM BROOKLYN

By Robin Garr | LouisvilleHotBytes.com Kale Italian salad at Emmy Squared is a tasty mix of healthy things from the garden, sorted in the box for you to mix up and dress at home. | PHOTOS BY ROBIN GARR.

PAY ATTENTION, NOW, because what I’m about to tell you might not make sense if you hear it with only half an ear: A popular Brooklyn restaurant that features Detroitstyle pizza has opened in Louisville.

Yes, that’s right: Say hello to Emmy Squared, new in NuLu, where you can get fine square pizzas in the fashion of Detroit, plus worthy burgers and a lot more goodies that you won’t find in your usual pizza joint.

Starting from its base in gentrifying Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2016, Emmy Squared is going national, with two more shops in Gotham plus Philly, Washington D.C. and most recently, Nashville, Tennessee and Louisville.

Emmy Squared’s East Market Street storefront joins the emerging NuLu Marketplace consortium along part of the 800 block.

But we’re here to talk about pizza, and Emmy Squared makes a good one. The menu offers a broad selection of pizzas and quite a bit more. It starts with seven appetizer plates that include such Italian restaurant standards as cheesy garlic sticks ($8) and eggplant parm ($15), but goes on to add five variations on waffle fries (from $8 for plain fries to $13 for double chopped cheese topped with grass-fed beef, smoky queso and more).

Four salad options range in price from $10 (for a Caesar) to $15 (for the Huge Hot

Chicken Wedge, iceberg topped with Nashville hot chicken. Want bacon? That’s three bucks more).

Three sandwiches — eggplant parm, chicken parm or Nashville hot chicken katsu, all built on tasty pretzel buns — are $13 each. Burgers, also on pretzel buns, are the chopped cheeseburger with grass-fed beef and American cheese ($11) and Le Big Matt, double-stacked grass-fed beef patties and American cheese ($16, plus a $3 upcharge for bacon).

Someday, I’m coming back for that Le Big Matt, but we were here for the pizza, and it did not disappoint. Nine red-sauced pizzas and eight white pies range in price from $13 (for a classic cheese-and-tomatosauce model) to $19 (for a red-sauce pizza topped with Nashville hot chicken). You can also get creative with 16 added toppings, $2 for most veggie options, $3 for meats and $5 for creamy Italian

Spicy, vodka-laced tomato sauce and pecorino cheese make Emmy Squared’s vodka pizza a piquant mashup of the classic margherita pie.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

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FOOD & DRINK

FOOD & DRINK

VEG OUT — DINING IN A MEAT EATER’S WORLD

BAR VETTI SERVES ITALIAN VEGGIE FEAST

By Joe DeSensi | leo@leoweekly.com

Emmy Squared’s roasted cauliflower appetizer is kicked up with turmeric and spicy chili flakes, raisins and pine nuts and a shot of lemon.

burrata cheese.

I ordered online and was given only the option of an immediate (20 to 35 minute) pickup; but that didn’t matter since I was hungry for pizza and ready to dine. The menu also didn’t mention curbside pickup, but in fact you can call in when you arrive to have your order brought out. I didn’t bother and found my order waiting with my name on it on a large black shelf just inside.

A roasted cauliflower app ($10) sounded healthy and tasted delicious. Enough florets for two to share had been steamed until just tender but still showing an al dente bite; they gained an Indian vibe with enough turmeric to color them bright yellow plus a good dose of fiery chili flakes. Puffy golden raisins and toasted pine nuts added flavor surprises, with a squirt of lemon to bring it all together.

The kale Italian salad ($11) was a real winner. It did require some assembly, but that’s a good thing as you can mix it up fresh. Whole leaves of baby lacinato (“dinosaur”) kale and red Russian kale, crisp and dry, were nestled in a compostable cardboard box with other bits of deliciousness to mix in: chopped red peppadew peppers, halved green olives and quartered marinated halved artichoke hearts rubbed with hot paprika. One tub contained generous portions of pine nuts, and a second a delicious basil, Parmesan and olive oil vinaigrette.

Once assembled, the interplay of flavors and textures made clear that real thought had gone into creating this salad. Two thumbs up!

But wait! I need more thumbs to hail the pizza. No, it’s not the classic Neapolitan or New York City style that I love in my heart,

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

but it’s a mighty fine alternative, fashioned with quality King Arthur organic flour and made in that Motor City mode, fired in buttered rectangular pans so the crust turns extra crisp and buttery while its interior remains biscuity light and fluffy. It’s not a deep-dish pie but comes out about 3/4-inch thick.

Triggered by memories of the iconic penne with vodka sauce at beloved ItalianAmerican restaurants in outer borough-New York and NYC expat eateries in South Florida, I went straight to Emmy Squared’s pizza with vodka sauce ($13). Contrary to its name, there’s nothing particularly boozy about vodka sauce: It’s a succulent blend of spicy tomato sauce, cream and small portions of red pepper flakes and vodka that seems to brighten the flavors.

A rectangular pie cut into four 4-by4-inch squares filled a pizza box. A cousin to the classic margherita pie, it was topped with a thin layer of umami-rich and gently spicy vodka sauce; melted, earthy Pecorino cheese and a large fresh basil leaf on each square. The flavors worked together beautifully with the medium-thick, buttery crust and it was even better reheated in the toaster oven for lunch the next day.

Our tab totaled $36.04 for two, plus a 20% tip. •

EMMY SQUARED PIZZA 825 E. Market St., 785-5800 emmysquaredpizza.com

SINCE THE APOCALYPSE started, my wife and I have taken advantage of carry-out mostly and gone to only a few restaurants we know well. Hope and I are trying to venture out, safely, again, so I asked her if she wanted to try bar Vetti Italian Restaurant. She told me I had her at “bar.”

BV recently moved to Nulu adjoining the new AC Hotel. We went with family members who are in the culinary industry, which made for an evening of tasting and trying a variety of dishes outside of my normal gluten-free, vegetarian purview. While there are plenty of Italian options for those who don’t eat things with faces (or who hang back from wheat), the other side of our table ordered a true beef-pocalypse of menu items.

We started our repast with an exploratory bottle of Sean Minor Sauv Blanc ($40), light and crisp with a hint of grapefruit in the nose. For no-meat appetizers, we selected the Gräńde Burrata ($15) and the roasted cauliflower ($17).

Hope and I love a good, fresh burrata, which is made by stretching mozzarella into a sheet, filling it with curds (about the consistency of cottage cheese) and folding it to look like a little snowman. Think of it as eating a savory Olaf. BV serves its dish with an interesting twist — set in a bowl of high-end olive oil, balsamic vinegar, slices of toasted Blue Dog sourdough and cracked pepper and finishing salt. We got the bread served on the side with a medley of thick cut carrots and celery for my cheese consumption experience, while the rest of the table flouted their gluten tolerance by dipping the bread into the oil-vinegar mixture, eliciting a moan with each bite. We ended up ordering a second burrata.

Our veggie starter was the cauliflower “small plate,” with small plate being in quotes because of the entrée-sized portion that came out. A trough of cauliflower seasoned with seaweed tonnato, white grapes, golden raisins, herbs and capers (breadcrumbs on the side to make gluten-free). One note for those of you who find white bread and table salt a little too spicy: There is a little slow-burn kick in this dish.

The starters for the animal-killing side of the table included beef tartare ($19), a shareable Caesar salad ($10) and chicken liver toast ($13). The tartare looked like the “before” picture of a burger about to be grilled and was the fave of the bunch.

The toast featured rich foie gras on a thick cut of toast accented with butternut squash caponata, pecans and balsamela (a sweet apple balsamic vinegar), perfect for those who like to eat the pureed glands of fattened water fowl.

As we pivoted to entrées, we tried a bottle of Malvira Roera Arneis ($50), unoaked and dry with a hint of melon and citrus, just like my 12th-grade English teacher.

For entrées, there are a variety of meatier options including some steak dishes and what was described as the best chicken Parm in town ($30 — spaghetti, red sauce, mozzarella, parmesan); BV also offers a variety of pizzas and pastas.

Hope and I decided on the cocoa campanelle ($27 for a full portion) with the glutenfree pasta. The white wine sauce had rich, sweet and savory notes with black truffle and corn, but the locally sourced Frondosa Farms mushrooms did the heavy lifting on the flavor profile. With a starter or two, the full portion is more than enough to split.

Our niece ordered the kid’s pizza ($12), which I thought was going to be way too much food for her until the eating machine found a second gear devouring it as well as the residual Blue Dog toast from the appetizers.

Though a very interesting Italianinspired dessert menu, my brother-in-law and I decided to drink our dessert with BV’s specialty pick of bourbon, Willett 6-year Eternal Optimist ($16 for a 1.5 ounce pour).

At 129-plus proof with one small ice cube, it has a luxurious caramel and vanilla flavor that is complex on the tongue with just the slightest of Kentucky hugs on the finish to let you know you’re drinking Bluegrass gold. •

BAR VETTI

727 E. Market St. 883-3331 barvetti.com Noise: The evening topped out at 93 decibels with an average of 78 with the main bar area about two-thirds full.

Accessibility: The restrooms have an accessible stall with handrails in the stalls, and the low top tables are accessible.

COVID-19: Masks were worn uniformly in a spacious dining area with tables spread out and capped at 50% capacity. Also, online ordering with curbside carryout or delivery is available.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | BOOKS/COMICS

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | COMICS

‘GLOSSARY’: DRAMA, LAYERS YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD

By T.E. Lyons | leo@leoweekly.com “Glossary for the End of Days” by Ian Stansel (Acre Books; 192 pages, $17) SOME OF THE MOMENTS that change lives are sudden: a random act of violence, an unexpected reunion, a storm, a lover’s meeting.

Such moments can and will throw crosswinds where there were already courses set, ambitions that had developed momentum, personal histories being taken over by inertia. But most of us look on incident versus habit and feel compelled to stir such alreadychangeable pots with reactionary opinions or fallback beliefs — some eye-opening, some willfully blind. UofL’s Ian Stansel (director of the Creative Writing Program) can take hold of all of these in less than two dozen pages and bring insight into entertainment.

Or is it vice versa? This is his second story collection, coming three years after his fine debut novel “The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo.” It may be an unintentional benefit for 2020, when many activities are limited, but the primary stories here keep busy.

Author Ian Stansel.

They are layered but keep their characters on the move, so don’t come here looking for drawing-room stillness.

What can be found includes specks of speculative fiction. An alternative history where John Lennon recovers from his wounds to reunite the Beatles. A near-future when utility outages are subject to foot-dragging depending on whether it’s a liberal- or conservative-leaning district. But the meat of the prose here depends on what’s brought out in characters when individual events either tear at — or glaringly reinforce — their perspectives, the phase of life they’re in (several are in grief) and their need to act or respond or be heard.

For instance, in reading “Someone Interesting I Know,” you’re invited for the drama (and the drama *is* good — a few stories offer nail-biting suspense), but the author’s style gradually makes clear you’re also on a garden walk. Little lessons are on display, showing how people gingerly reinforce half-truths for their own convenience or tell lies to protect the hearer’s sensibilities or time their honest revelations as if wielding the weapon to raise them above perpetual defensiveness.

The centerpiece here, “The Caller,” is keyed to melancholy, but with numerous twists. Unreliability is in plentitude, even as various parties in the plot base much of their lives on flow of information (e.g., phone-in journalism, marketing and of course social media). Some progress toward justice is sought — but it’s attitudes that drive actions — some of them drastic or violent. Matters like determining root cause, or giving thought before affecting others, aren’t high priorities.

In one of several stories making good use of music as symbol or harbinger, a character muses on his own performance history: “ … it was only a matter of time before the novelty of a new group wore off and all he could see, all he could *hear*, was the windy gap between what he’d always thought he’d wanted and the reality of what he was doing.”

Small wonder that Stansel’s interviewer at this week’s online event is Craig Finn, singer-songwriter for the Hold Steady.

Occasionally, a story’s character conflicts aren’t | PHOTO BY TRAVIS STANSEL. the ideal match to the background actions. In “North Out of Houston,” dialogue about betrayals and alliances seems rushed alongside the well-constructed tablesetting of a potential cataclysm playing out in slow motion. But other stories have lingering impacts. “Coordinated Efforts” at first seems reductive — a middle-class academician and a food-industry wage earner trade self-pity stories that turn into escalating, competitive accusations. But the framing circumstances work with irony and timeliness.

If not quite up to, say, Updike or Cheever, Stansel certainly gets into the league of the masterful T. Coraghessan Boyle when marooning the reader at a finely honed point to consider whether a character has learned to scratch the itches that he *can* reach. •

AUTHOR IAN STANSEL ONLINE WITH CRAIG FINN

Thursday, Nov. 19 Carmichael’s Bookstore virtual event To register: crowdcast.io/e/ian-stansel--craig-fınn Free | 7 p.m.

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS! ‘Punchline Special’ No. 1

Writer James Tynion IV and Sam Johns and Artists Mirka Andolfo and Romulo Fajardo Jr. Review by Krystal Moore, The Great Escape Louisville

IT ALL STARTS on a school field trip to a TV newsroom when the Joker picks Alexis Kaye from the group of high schoolers to read his message to Gotham City on air, after he’d killed the professional newscasters in front of them.

“Punchline Special” No. 1 carries on the origin story of DC’s new character who made her debut in the Joker War storyline.

She’s been caught, and the evidence of her guilt seems overwhelming. The questions, though, are whether or not she’s insane, and whether the Joker forced her or brainwashed her into doing the things she did.

But as one boy goes back through her podcast episodes, we see that even prior to her experience at the TV station, she was enamored and maybe even radicalized by the Joker’s message. Was it really just a chance meeting between Punchline and the Joker? And is all this just a part of the plan?

Punchline may be way more into the Joker’s message than he is. This was a great read, that hopefully will keep getting even more interesting in the future with this very motivated character. •

Resident Alien No. 1 Vol. 6: ‘Your Ride’s Here’ Writer Peter Hogan and artist Steve Parkhouse Review by David Williams, The Great Escape Louisville

HOGAN AND PARKHOUSE’S quirky, fish-out-of-water mystery series “Resident Alien” returns with its sixth volume to date, ominously titled “Your Ride’s Here.”

Issue No. 1 opens with a literal bang before diving headfirst back into the signature character-driven storytelling we have come to expect from the series. New developments include people getting married, people having babies, and people reconciling their workplace crush on a stranded space alien detective. The classic art style and concise storyboarding of “Resident Alien” will have even a first time reader curious to follow its twisted path and relate to its wide and complex cast. Resident Alien is a worthwhile slow burn of a series, so check out the previous volumes or even the new SyFy (bring back the old spelling!) series to catch yourself up. •

LEOWEEKLY.COM // NOVEMBER 18, 2020

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37 41

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53 57

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99 Vivacious quality 100 What a meta clue might do to itself 103 Chicago mayor Lightfoot 104 Brick made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene 105 New ____ 106 Showy basket 107 Lifesavers, for short 108 Piece of equipment for gold medalist Lindsey Vonn 110 Marauder of old 111 Lifelong bud, slangily 112 Partner of hem

E M T S S A S S E L M S O W E

Lived in a blue state?

One might be hard to sit for Pipes at some bars Brings out Downfall in many an Agatha Christie novel Buzzed hairstyle Stops harping on something Like a sparsely attended party See 66-Down With 65-Down, ‘‘Ditto’’ Pelvic exercises Give attitude Instruction for a course?

Earnings Drew back ‘‘Sorry to intrude …’’

Certain monkey … or monk ‘‘Jackpot!’’

One needing new, unburned pants?

De-lights?

Oil-rich state, for short Appliance with apps Yearns (for) Fashionable pair Cover for ‘‘little piggies’’ ‘‘Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk’’ is the last short story he wrote 97 ‘‘Take that!’’

98 Kind of chemical bond in salts

72 79

84

92

95

67 71

83 87

62

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A L T O S

82

91

61

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86

60

65 69

73 81

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64 68

50

P E S O S

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Q: min rec to fi tion be is c of s ac the wa ap shi Bum and sat me loo kin fee par can can and

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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 21 23 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 40 41 42 43 44 46 47

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B O O T E E

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____ Rudolph, portrayer of Kamala Harris on ‘‘S.N.L.’’ Role model Amigo Rules’ partner, for short El Dorado treasure Like apple seeds, if eaten in huge quantities Fresh from a keg Sore Org. that sponsored the design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial MXN, on a currency chart Adele and Cher, e.g. ____ and Caicos Part of a dean’s address ‘‘I’d rather pass’’ Shooting sport All together now Farm-to-table consumer Word that sounds like its first letter Elba who played Macavity in 2019’s ‘‘Cats’’ One end of the PolitiFact meter Willing subject ‘‘Don’t be rude . . . greet our guests!’’

Loonie or toonie Some are named for kings and queens Stately street liners Coat from a goat High point of Greek civilization?

Emeritus: Abbr. ‘‘It’s me . . . duh!’’ ‘‘Just sayin’,’’ in shorthand Needless to say Mississippi ____ pie Released Thingamabob Brink World No. 1 tennis player between Navratilova and Seles

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Aid for a small business Dev of ‘‘Slumdog Millionaire’’ Part of a prairie skyline Strict commitment Sidestep ‘‘Way ahead of you’’ Compliment to a runway model?

Low card in Texas hold’em Some donations Stable supply Starting piece on a1 or h8, say ____ Slam (tennis feat) Drain Easily offended by foul language?

Kind of high ground Trial Breaks down Spanish ‘‘sun’’ Axel ____, protagonist of ‘‘Beverly Hills Cop’’ X Japanese roadster since 1989 Residence that might be named for a donor Question to a tantrum thrower?

Costly cuts First two words of ‘‘Green Eggs and Ham’’ ____ fixe Malbec and syrah, e.g.

Role model Wet-Nap, for one Friend with a rhyming description Sighting aptly found in ‘‘Are you for real?’’ ‘‘Anything you’d like to ____?’’

Relics proving how Noah steered his boat?

Something to do for recovery?

Pacific island ring Neil with the hit ‘‘Breaking Up Is Hard to Do’’ Carries out Actor Elwes of ‘‘The Princess Bride’’ Trade blows Mild Driver’s org., no matter how you slice it?

Relent Prepared for a field trip?

Interjections akin to ‘‘Yeah, su-u-ure!’’

Bygone forensic spinoff Android alternative Quits at the last minute Org. that awards the Safer Choice label World capital established in 1535 Jackanapes

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No. 1115

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T H E R E

BY EVAN KALISH AND CAITLIN REID / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ

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O L O A R E N C O T T H H A Y S A P A L W Y C H H E L O I D E E G A L D E R S E L E A R Y D E L C S I L I M A U P A R S E R T T H S T U V N

WAIT, WHAT?

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M O R F O L E W H Y T I A M W I P E R U D S U C A C C E H A H S E P A M U C K C H A S H I F K I N K I N G A

The New York Times Magazine Crossword

ET 94 Rap producers’ favorite vegetables?

95 Masters of slapstick?

100 Retinal receptor 101 Drink after drink?

102 ‘‘To live without ____ is to cease to live’’: Dostoyevsky 103 Sign of summer 104 Stow cargo 108 Get into gear 109 Title for an oral surgeon’s handbook?

113 Certain sexual preferences 114 Italian automotive hub 115 Subject of many an off-season rumor 116 ‘‘Young Frankenstein’’ character played by Teri Garr 117 Tee type 118 4th order?

P.S cas ma ma em con ma

A: ma gon wh (or are app on I kn diti dat in k dat any ap onl par An som the app inte tion we

PHOTO BY RACHEL ROBINSON

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SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage | mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage

ADD IT UP

Q: I’ve always been excited by BDSM but I’ve only minimally explored this side of myself until very recently. I’m a straight woman and it was difficult to find men who wanted more monogamish relationships on the traditional apps and a challenge to be honest about what I am looking for where kink is concerned. I’d often get through a month or so of seeing someone before finding out they wanted a completely monogamous relationship and that they were very vanilla in the bedroom to boot. I was tired of wasting my time and needed to find a partner who wanted to enjoy a kinky relationship so I moved from traditional dating apps like Bumble and Hinge and to apps like #Open, Fetlife, and KinkD. While I’ve had a few amazing conversations and meet ups, they’ve primarily been with men in open relationships, couples, or guys only looking to hookup. And it seems most people on kinky apps want to only talk about sex. While I do feel drawn to this lifestyle, I am also looking for a partner. I want someone to spend my life with who can also enjoy the kink community with me. How can I find a guy that wants a life partner and a fun and kinky sex life?

Seeks Partner And Needs Kink P.S. One more question: I’m currently enjoying casual sex with a male partner who only buys magnum-size condoms but who does not need magnum-size condoms. It’s like fucking a halfempty grocery store bag. How do I tell him regular condoms would be soooooo much better without making him feel bad?

A: Whether you’re on kinky dating apps or mainstream dating apps or both, SPANK, you’re gonna have a lot of interactions with a lot of guys who aren’t right for you before you find the guy (or guys) who are right for you. And since there are plenty of kinky people on mainstream dating apps—you were one of them—you should be on both. Of the happily partnered kinky people I know, SPANK, half met their partners in “traditional” spaces (bars, workplaces, mainstream dating apps) while the other half met their partners in kinky spaces (munches, fetish parties, kinky dating apps). And while no one should be meeting anyone in a bar or at parties right now—there’s a pandemic on—the more places you advertise online, the likelier you are to line up a compatible partner for when this is all over.

And you shouldn’t be surprised—or put off—when someone you meet on KinkD wants to talk about their kinks. When you meet someone via a dating app that brings people together around a shared interest, it’s only natural that your initial conversations revolve around that shared interest. If you were posting ads on Farmers Only or Christian

Cafe, your first chats would very likely revolve around, I don’t know, the price of corn or the exact moment you sold your soul to Donald Trump.

Whichever kind of app you meet a guy on, you’re going to have to do the same two things—the same work, the same vetting, the same screw diligence— just in a different order. When you meet a guy on Bumble, SPANK, you establish baseline emotional compatibility first and then eventually you have a conversation about sex. With guys you meet on KinkD, you establish baseline sexual compatibility first—by talking about your mutual sexual interests—and eventually get around to determining whether you’re emotionally compatible.

And, again, since you could meet someone with whom you are emotionally and sexually compatible on either kind of dating site—mainstream or kinky—you should keep your ads up on both.

P.S. Loose condoms come off and loose condoms leak, SPANK, so a guy who uses XXL condoms on a medium dick puts you at greater risk of contracting an STI or having an unplanned pregnancy. And for what? To impress the checkout clerk at CVS? Don’t worry about making him feel bad. Tell him he gets condoms that fit or he finds someone else to fuck.

Q: I’ve lived with my girlfriend for over a year now till about a month ago when she moved to the East Coast so now we’re in a long-distance relationship.

I supported her move because she’s following her dream career and we decided to stay together since communication nowadays is pretty easy. But every time I try to text or call she responds that she’s too busy or exhausted. I could understand if this was once in a while but it’s literally all the time. This has put a strain on our communication. I became irrational with these red flags and I looked up her address and a guy’s name popped up including his phone number. Then I did perhaps the most irrational thing ever and looked up our phone bill and his number is everywhere on her section of the bill. I asked her who this dude is and she states he’s her landlord and employer. That’s not a red flag, but him calling at 1 AM when I was working nightshifts before she moved is. I confronted her and she became defensive and turned everything back on me. She called me crazy and hurled more than one “fuck you” at me and threatened to call the cops on me. I’ve admitted to my wrongdoing in violating her privacy and I’ve repeatedly asked her to talk about it but it always turns into a fight.

We’ve been together two years and I’ve never met any of her friends or her 20-year-old son. What do you think?

I’m Getting Nothing Outta Relationship Except Drama

A: I think there’s only so much time you should waste on a person who doesn’t have time for you— to say nothing of a person who isn’t particularly kind to you and, after two years, hasn’t integrated you into her life in a meaningful way. I also think you need to ask yourself what’s more likely, IGNORED: your girlfriend—who can’t take your calls now but could take that guy’s in the middle of the night when you two were living together—is living with and working with a guy she knew before moving away or that your girlfriend is living with and working with and fucking with a guy she moved across the country to be with? I think the latter is far more likely. But even if she’s not fucking him—even if she isn’t holding on to you as a backup or doesn’t want to end things because you pay her phone bill—she doesn’t make time for you and it doesn’t sound like she’s particularly kind to when she can spare you a moment. I don’t know why she hasn’t done the right thing and ended it, IGNORED, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do the right thing for yourself and end it.

Q: I expect many of your astute readers will have written to you about this, but here goes anyway: You described the wannafuckmath when arranging a foursome as far more complicated than the wannafuckmath when arranging a threesome. But the wannafuckmath isn’t actually very complicated.

For any n-some, the Wannafuck number = n • (n-1). So for the humble twosome, it’s 2 • 1. Two! Just what you’d expect. For a threesome, it’s 6.

For a foursome, it’s 12. So a foursome is wannafuckmathematically six times more complicated than a twosome but only twice as complicated as a threesome. Even the rarely seen hundredsome only has a wannafuck number of 9900: large, perhaps unachievable, but not infinite.

Math Is Sexy Today and Yesterday A: I was once in a room where at least a hundred people were having sex—in Berlin, naturally—so I have seen the elusive hundredsome with my own eyes. Or the hundred-and-then-some, I should say.

(And to be clear: I was a witness, not a participant.) But unlike a threesome or a foursome, a hundredsome isn’t an arranged-in-advance/byinvitation-only affair. It’s more of a book-a-largeenough-space-and-advertise-it-extensively-andthey-will-come affair. So paradoxically, hosting a by-invitation-only threesome or foursome—or even a by-invitation-only tensome—where you establish in advance that everyone is attracted to each other may be more difficult to pull off than hosting a Berlin hundredsome. mail@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

On this week’s Lovecast, Ask a Sub’s Lina Dune, and the anxious return of “Dr. Bummer.” www.savagelovecast.com

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MULTIPLE FACILITIES – MULTIPLE UNITS Extra Space Storage will hold a public auction at the location indicated: Facility 1: 5807 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY 40291: November 25, 2020 – 1PM Units: G023, H050 Facility 2: 7900 Dixie Highway, Louisville, KY 40258: November 25, 2020 – 1PM Units: 924, 651, 926, 915, 334, 811, 730, 947 Facility 3: 6708 Preston Highway, Louisville, KY 40219: November 25, 2020 – 1PM Units: 439, 331, 400, 611, 637, 130, 326 Facility 4 (ANNEX): 4010 Oaklawn Drive, Louisville, KY 40219: November 25, 2020 – 1PM Units: 9234, 9190, 9268 Facility 5: 5420 Valley Station Rd, Louisville, KY 40272: November 25, 2020 – 1PM Units: 764 Facility 6: 8002 Warwick Ave, Louisville, KY 40222: November 25, 2020 – 1PM Units: 3289, 1130, 1131, 2078, 631, 2187 Facility 7: 4605 Wattbourne Ln, Louisville KY 40299: November 25, 2020 – 1PM Units: 375, 615 Facility 8: 11440 Blankenbaker Access Dr, Louisville, KY 40299: November 25, 2020 – 1PM Units: Facility 9: 201 E. Market Street, Louisville, KY 40202: November 25, 2020 – 1PM Units: B264, B284 Facility 10: 6456 Outer Loop, Louisville, KY 40228: November 25, 2020 – 1PM Units: 403, 622 The auction will be listed and advertised on www. storagetreasures.com. Purchases must be made with cash only and paid at the above referenced facility in order to complete the transaction. Extra Space Storage may refuse any bid and may rescind any purchase up until the winning bidder takes possession of the personal property.

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