NATIVE | ISSUE 76 | NASHVILLE, TN

ISSUE 76 FALL FASHION

ISSUE 76 FALL FASHION

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Model: @jzmnfyl Photo: @nolanfeldpausch Black cat: @derekhoke

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CONTENTS ISSUE 76

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THE GOODS 15 Beer from Here 19 Cocktail of the Month 22 Master Platers 69 You Oughta Know 73 It’s Only Natural 78 Shooting the Shit

FEATURES 28 The Catio 38 2018 Fall Fashion

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48 Performance Studios 60 Artist Spotlight: Kit Reuther

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BEHIND THE COVER: 2018 FALL FASHION

We hate to be doomsayers, but as we write this, an all-toofamiliar feeling is creeping into the collective consciousness of our staff. While it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what this feeling is, we’ll do our best to describe it, as you may be encountering it too. Simply put, it’s an acute sense of existential dread about the future—a future that starts to look more insane and surreal by the hour. We often worry that reality is on the brink of cancellation and there’s nothing we can do to stop the impending doom.

We don’t know how to make that feeling go away (sorry), but we have found something that makes it a little more manageable: getting involved. We argue that getting together with a group of like-minded individuals and working together toward a common goal—whether that goal is political, social, or creative—helps stuff seem less weird. It gives us a sense that somebody feels the way we do, plus, it’s pretty rewarding (not to mention fun) to make or do something with your friends.

So, with that in mind, we encourage to do the thing today— not tomorrow. Go march for a cause you’re passionate about; assemble a band and make that album you’ve been wanting to hear; start a poetry workshop; gather up some friends and go vote (please, please do that last one). It just might make you feel better.

We hope this idea underscores our 2018 Fall Fashion editorial, which appears on our cover this month. For the shoot, stylist-photographer superstar duo Balee Greer and Dylan Reyes (who brought you past NATIVE hits like last month’s Rayland Baxter cover and our March 2017 feature on Ron Gallo) assembled a bunch of their creative friends in the name of highlighting some wonderful local designers. You can see the whole thing starting on page 38. Will fashion save the world?

Probably not. But our hope is that getting together with your friends and making something you’re proud of will make things a little better. We can dream, right?

PRESIDENT, FOUNDER: PUBLISHER, FOUNDER: OPERATIONS MANAGER:

ANGELIQUE PITTMAN JON PITTMAN JOE CLEMONS

EDITOR IN CHIEF: COPY EDITOR:

CHARLIE HICKERSON DARCIE CLEMEN

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: ART DIRECTOR:

ERIN OQUINDO

MARKETING AND DESIGN INTERN:

NINA KOWALKE

PHOTOGRAPHY INTERNS:

HANNAH LOVELL COURTNEY SPENCER

SENIOR ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE:

KELSEY FERGUSON

ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVES:

SHELBY GRAHAM ANDRÉS BUSTAMANTE

EVENTS AND ACTIVATIONS HUNTER CLAIRE ROGERS COORDINATOR: ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE/ ADMINISTRATIVE PAIGE PENNINGTON COORDINATOR: PRODUCTION MANAGER:

EDITORIAL INTERN:

HANNAH DEITZ CHANCE JARVIS

WRITERS:

KYLE COOKE CHARLIE HICKERSON COOPER BREEDEN

PHOTOGRAPHERS:

NICK BUMGARDNER DANIELLE ATKINS EMILY DORIO DYLAN REYES DANIEL CHANEY ZACHARY GRAY

FOUNDING TEAM:

MACKENZIE MOORE JOSHUA SIRCHIO TAYLOR RABOIN

FOUNDER, BRAND DIRECTOR:

DAVE PITTMAN

FOUNDER:

CAYLA MACKEY

FOR ALL INQUIRIES:

HELLO@NATIVE.IS

GUSTI ESCALANTE

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FLY INTO FALL 706-398-3541 - HANGLIDE.COM

3431 Murphy Rd - dosenashville.com

@DOSENASHVILLE NATIVE NASHVILLE

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WITH PAIGE PENNINGTON Account Representative and Administrative Coordinator at NATIVE Beer Name: Chocolatl Brewery: New Heights Style: Aztec Chocolate Porter ABV: 5.5% Food Pairing: Beef Stew Appearance: Opaque brown with a tan head Aroma: Cinnamon spice, chocolate Where to Find It: New Heights Brewing Company Overall Takeaways: Lately I wake up every morning hoping it’ll finally be cold enough to put on a light jacket, roll down the windows in my truck, and put on some Miles Davis.

Fall is nearly here, and I think we’re all ready for those evenings when time slows down a bit.

New Heights’ Chocolatl gives me a taste of just that. Brewed with over forty pounds of chocolate, this Aztec Chocolate Porter immediately gives you a smooth, sweet taste in the front. But the real reason I chose this beer is because of its finish: the Saigon cinnamon and chilis impart a light spice that makes me want to wrap up in a blanket on a rainy fall night—Chocolatl in hand, of course.

This beer made me immediately start craving my momma’s venison stew (can you tell I grew up in the South yet?). The savoriness of the meat pairs perfectly with the sweetness of the porter, but as much as I’d love everyone to try my mother’s cooking, I understand that’s not really practical. So here’s my advice: throw some kind of stew on the stove, get a fire going, and enjoy this perfectly crafted beer.

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The official

@hifibooth

photobooth.

hifibooth.com NATIVE NASHVILLE

THE GREEN HOUR

BY JEREMIAH BLAKE BEVERAGE DIRECTOR, THE GREEN HOUR

PHOTO BY NICK BUMGARDNER

THE GOODS 1 oz absinthe 1 oz organic heavy cream 1/2 oz green creme de menthe 1/2 oz light creme de cacao 1/4 oz orgeat 1 egg white

DIRECTIONS Add all the ingredients to a shaker with ice. Shake, strain, and serve up. Garnish with star anise and freshly grated nutmeg.

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HALLOWEEN COSTUME MAKING PARTY 100 TAYLOR ST. SUITE C3 L I LY G U I L D E R D E S I G N . C O M

Photo: Jennifer Stalvey

w w w. s w i t t e r s c o f f e e . c o m

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MASTER PL ATERS

BY CHEF ADAM GRUSIN OF MILE END DELI

PHOTOS BY DANIELLE ATKINS

LEEK, POTATO, AND NOODLE KUGEL

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THE GOODS

DIRECTIONS

1/2 cup butter 1/2 tsp olive oil 4 oz leek, diced and rinsed of any grit 4 oz yellow onion, diced 1/2 tsp kosher salt 1/2 tsp black pepper 1 1/2 lbs peeled and grated Idaho potatoes 2 oz fine egg noodles, cooked in lightly salted water and drained 2 fresh farm eggs 1 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup ricotta

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a casserole dish.

In a sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter and olive oil. Add the leeks, onions, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until the leeks and onions are tender and translucent. Transfer the leeks and onions to a large mixing bowl.

Add the potato, cooked egg noodles, eggs, cream, and ricotta and mix to combine.

Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if desired. Pour the mixture into the casserole dish.

Bake for 25–30 minutes until the kugel is set and the top is light golden-brown.

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THE DEAD SOUTH w/ WHISKEY SHIVERS, DEL SUELO - CANNERY BALLROOM NATALIE PRASS w/ STELLA DONNELLY - MERCY LOUNGE SURE SURE & WILDERADO - THE HIGH WATT LASSO SPELLS ALBUM RELEASE w/ TENNESSEE MUSCLE CANDY & MORE - THE HIGH WATT G L O R I E T TA ( M AT T H E W L O G A N VA S Q U E Z , N OA H G U N D E R S O N , DAV I D R A M I R E Z & M O R E ) - M E R C Y L O U N G E

THE WIND AND THE WAVE w/ SHAWN JAMES, SWELLS - MERCY LOUNGE THUNDERPUSSY w/ THELMA AND THE SLEAZE - THE HIGH WATT LOUIS COLE w/ JAKE SHERMAN - MERCY LOUNGE AMY RAY (OF INDIGO GIRLS) w/ HC MCENTIRE - MERCY LOUNGE MY SO-CALLED BAND - CANNERY BALLROOM GUILTY PLEASURES - MERCY LOUNGE RUBBLEBUCKET - MERCY LOUNGE GHOSTLAND OBSERVATORY - CANNERY BALLROOM PORCHES & GIRLPOOL w/ PALBERTA - MERCY LOUNGE PALE WAVES w/ MIYA FOLICK, THE CANDESCENTS - MERCY LOUNGE MARCUS KING BAND w/ IDA MAE - CANNERY BALLROOM IRON CHIC w/ TIMESHARES, BENCHMARKS - THE HIGH WATT DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS w/ LILLY HIATT - CANNERY BALLROOM

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by KYLE COOKE

PAWS FOR THE CAUSE

photos EMILY DORIO

Feline-friendly bakery The Catio is offering plants, pets, and pastries on the East side NATIVE NASHVILLE

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FELINE-FRIENDLY FELINE-FRIENDLY FELINE-FRIENDLY FELINE-FRIENDLY FELINE-FRIENDLY FELINE-FRIENDLY FELINE-FRIENDLY FELINE-FRIENDLY FELINE-FRIENDLY FELINE-FRIENDLY FELINE-FRIENDLY

NOT A WHOLE LOT IS GOING ON AT THE

corner of Riverside Drive and Porter Road in East Nashville, unless you count construction. In that case, there’s plenty going on. A Korean barbecue joint is opening there soon, another entry into the already robust collection of international food in Nashville. But on a dreary Monday morning in late September, I’m meeting Beca Lewis Skeels and Anna Talaga next door at Nashville’s soon-to-be newest cat cafe, adoption center, pastry shop, and pet-friendly plant shop. They’ve decided to abbreviate that to something far catchier: The Catio.

Brown postal paper temporarily lines the windows at The Catio, but a black logo and the words “Coming Soon” are already painted on the outside. Skeels and Talaga greet me as soon as I walk into the vacant storefront, and I’m promptly introduced to their friend Melissa, who I’m sure has many responsibilities but today is acting as chief cat wrangler, which is no easy task.

The cats, of which there are about five when we meet, are prone to surreptitiously exploring their future home. For now that home is empty, save for the blue painter’s tape lining the floor, which designates areas for the counter, seating, and separate cat lounge area.

Talaga leads me on a tour of the space as though all the furniture is there, and it’s obvious the duo has a calculated vision of what their space will look like. It’s not difficult to envision the final product.

Skeels and Talaga feel lucky that they found this spot in particular.

“The name came first,” Skeels says. “A week later, we got our LLC and started looking for spaces. I was driving on Riverside and I stopped and took a picture of this space. I texted it to [Talaga], and she texted back and said, ‘I’m looking at that listing right now.’ I got chills.”

Talaga says after that exchange, they stopped looking for other locations. This one felt too perfect to pass up.

“Our concept is to make this a home,” Skeels says. “I want people to walk in and feel like they’re walking into somebody’s living room. It’s going to be really comfortable. You can bring your laptop in and do an hour of checking your emails with a cat on your lap.”

The space also has something that is invaluable to Skeels and Talaga: a separate entrance. In fact, that element is mandatory for any feline-friendly establishment. The cat lounge, although under the same roof, will have a side entrance and will be separated from the cafe and (obviously) the kitchen. It even has a separate HVAC system. That way, The Catio will be as safe as possible for anyone with allergies. But those prone to itchy eyes and sneezing need not worry, they’ll still be able to see the cats. The partition will have windows.

Another big draw for customers will be Skeels’ vegan pastries. The Catio’s Instagram (formerly under Skeels’ name and dedicated to pastry pics) has over seventeen thousand followers, and it’s easy to see why. Her pastries are stunning, colorful, and simultaneously encourage you to maintain their perfect form and devour them whole. And they’re delicious.

A few days after our interview, Skeels gifts me a cinnamon sugar pumpkin empanada.

She says that most people probably wouldn’t be able to tell her pastries were vegan unless she told them, and I totally believe her. Even while eating the empanada in front of her, I had my doubts.

That’s exactly what Skeels wants me to think.

“I don’t want to be the world’s best vegan pastry chef,” she says. “I want to be a really great pastry chef and then after the fact be like, ‘Oh, that’s vegan.’”

If vegans really are, as Anthony Bourdain famously said, the “Hezbollahlike splinter faction” of the vegetarian community, then Skeels doesn’t fit the bill.

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you—to go vegan. She also wants to squash the notion that just because something is vegan, that doesn’t mean it’s gluten-free or even remotely good for you. As Talaga points out, these are indulgences.

“My stuff has the highest gluten level you can possibly get. Like, there’s no higher,” Skeels says, laughing. “But I want to remove that stigma. I want people to realize that they’re making a small decision in their day. I’m not asking everybody to go vegan—that’s not what I’m trying to do. But instead of going to another bakery where they’re using animal products, come here and enjoy what you’re eating and know that it’s not made out of dirt and carob chips.”

Skeels has been a pastry chef for eleven years. Before that, she went to film school with hopes of becoming a children’s filmmaker and even earned a BFA in film production. After graduating and working on the set of a feature film as a second second AD (“the dumbest title ever,” she says), Skeels noticed she was spending a lot of time at craft services. “That’s where I saw people were most happy,” she recounts.

“Immediately, I finished that project and went and got a job at the lowest level you could possibly get at a bakery, which was essentially making scones and muffins at four o’clock in the morning every day.”

Skeels says she had no prior experience working in a kitchen or bakery. She built her brand from the ground up. Her breakthrough baking gig was catering a baby shower for lifestyle blogger Elsie Larson. After that, the orders started pouring in. Now you can find her pastries stocked in cafes all across Nashville, like Falcon in Wedgewood-Houston or Nectar Urban Cantina in Donelson. Soon, they’ll be at The Catio.

This November will mark two years that Skeels has been in the Nashville area.

Talaga has been here off and on since 2005.

She attended Vanderbilt as an undergrad before heading to Baltimore for six years of grad school (oh yeah, she has a PhD in neuroscience, by the way).

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Skeels and Talaga met because of Thor, a cat from the Cayce Homes community with severe disabilities. Talaga shows me a picture she has saved on her phone.

Thor is missing one of his eyes and both of his ears. Talaga hypothesizes that the infection that caused him to scratch away his ears spread, thus the missing eye. He is apparently—though not surprisingly—an unfriendly animal. Nevertheless, Thor became a project for Skeels, who works closely with disabled cats. Talaga was fostering him before Skeels, and they became instant friends at Thor’s handoff.

“We became a resource for each other,” Skeels says. Now, the duo is working to become a resource for the community— that is, they’re looking for any way possible to get cats adopted. And a big part of that is simply getting the animals out of cages and into places like The Catio.

“If you have a cat that’s in a cage at PetSmart hunkered down, it’s not going to get adopted,” Talaga says. “So we can still take the cats from [Nashville Cat Rescue] that don’t show well in a cage.”

Although easily dismissed as white millennial ephemera, Talaga and Skeels have seen firsthand how much of a force cat cafes can be in the adoption world.

Talaga is friends with the founder of Catsbury Park, a cat cafe in—wait for it—Asbury Park, New Jersey. Those folks are responsible for over two hundred adoptions a year. Skeels tells me that Java Cats Cafe in Atlanta doubled the adoption rate for the local shelters. The Catio has similar goals for Nashville.

Before I even have a chance to ask the question myself, Skeels mentions that many people have asked about other cat cafes in the area—namely Mewsic Kitty Cafe on Nolensville Pike—and whether or not The Catio considers them competition.

That notion, to Skeels, is ridiculous.

“We all have the same goal, which is getting cats adopted. And our concept just happens to be attached to a vegan bakery and a plant shop and a gift store,” she says.

“We’ll always support anyone who’s on

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the mission of getting cats adopted and lowering shelter euthanasia. We’re all on the same team.”

Getting the cats into The Catio is only step one of getting them adopted. Skeels and Talaga have many smaller goals to guarantee that no cat goes unadopted for too long, and social media plays a big role in that. Talaga tells me that black cats’ adoption fees are often slashed because of the superstitious stigma attached to them (The Catio’s logo is going to feature a black cat, for what it’s worth). Skeels also thinks people don’t want black cats because they are hard to photograph. I mean, if you’re not even going to get Instagram likes, what’s the point of adoption, right? Skeels herself has seven black cats, and she wants to host workshops to teach people how to photograph them. I’ll admit, my first thought is, Oh how hard could that be?

But then I look at the pictures I tried to take on my phone of Snowflake, a very photogenic kitten, and see they are blurry messes.

Skeels and Talaga have so many ambitions for their completely selffunded cafe that I begin to wonder if they can pull it off, like the kid running for class president who promises free ice cream and extended recess. But really, there’s no reason to expect they won’t be immensely successful. I’m mildly allergic to cats, and even I had my moments after talking with Skeels and Talaga where I thought, Maybe I could make this work.

Their passion is contagious.

“There are so many ways we can use this space to reach out to our community, not just in the animal rescue world,” Skeels says. “Not just through vegan pastries, but through connecting with other people in this community who are opening businesses—any kind of compassionate field, whether that be working with animal rescue or working with the homeless or working with children in need. We’re all experiencing that compassion fatigue where we need to connect with people, and I think this is going to be an incredible space to do it.

Plus it’s going to be full of plants and cats and cinnamon rolls! You can’t lose.”

1013 Fatherland St. 6592 Highway 100 Suite 1

EAST NASHVILLE BELLE MEADE

Follow @thecationashville for details on The Catio’s grand opening.

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Musicians Corner presents free music events in Centennial Park featuring multi-genre performances, food trucks, craft beer & wine, signature cocktails, local artisans, and more.

VIEW DETAILS AT MUSICIANSCORNERNASHVILLE.COM

on Ellie: THE MAGGIE OVERSIZED PARKA, BLACK BY MARIA SILVER EARBUDDIES AND RESIN RINGS, MARBLES on Elliot:

Well gang, you can finally stop sharing those “can’t wait till it gets colder so I can really start dressing” memes. Or at least we hope you can—we’re just acting like it’ll be cooler by the time this issue comes out. But regardless of temperature, scores of local designers are offering pieces that are perfect for Oktoberfests, those last few outdoor shows, and even trick-or-treating (if someone asks what you are, we recommend saying you’re fresh as hell). Check out the pieces in our spooky-ish shoot, and remember: there’s nothing scarier than someone who doesn’t support the local fashion community.

VINTAGE DENIM, MODEL’S OWN

—NATIVE

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photos DYLAN REYES

FALL FASHION

styling BALEE GREER

models MATTHEW MOSSHART, JESSICA ROBERTSON, MEG POLLARD, REBECCA CULLUM, ALYSSA SPYRIDON, ELLIOT WEAVER, DANIEL CHANEY, ZACHARY GRAY, AND ELLIE CAUDILL

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on Jessica: ROJAS MULE IN NAPA LEOPARD, ABLE BLAZER AND DENIM TOP, 1 OF 1 BY TOURNAMENT GIANT EARBUDDIES, MARBLES

DENIM TOP, 1 OF 1 BY TOURNAMENT THE GIGI DANCE BELT, BLACK BY MARIA SILVER GIANT EARBUDDIES, MARBLES

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on Zachary: SEQUIN JACKET, ANY OLD IRON on Alexis: DAWN CULOTTES IN TOPAZ + FUCHSIA, LAURA CITRON GOLD ACCORDION CAPE, LAURA CITRON THE REYNA TANK, ABLE

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ALL FASHION 2018 FALL FASH ON 2018 FALL FASHION 2018 ALL FASHION 2018 FALL FASH ON 2018 FALL FASHION 2018 ALL FASHION 2018 FALL FASH ON 2018 FALL FASHION FALL ASHION 2018 FALL FASHION 018 FALL FASHION 2018 FALL

ALL FASHION 2018 FALL FASH ON 2018 FALL FASHION 2018

on Meg: FRANCES SUIT, LAURA CITRON DENIM SHOES, NATIVE 1NATIVE OF 1 BY TOURNAMENT NASHVILLE NASHVILLE 43

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on Daniel: COWBOY SHIRT, ANY OLD IRON

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NASHVILLE

DENIM DAYS 2018

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HIGH GARDEN 935 Woodland St East Nashville

IMOGENE + WILLIE 2601 12 Ave South 12 South

URBAN COWBOY 1603 Woodland St East Nashville

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KEEP SHOP 200 4th Ave North Downtown

CHEEKWOOD 1200 Forest Park Dr

DUKES 1000 Main St East Nashville

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DRUG STORE COFFEE 200 4th Ave North Downtown

5 POINTS TACOS Five Points East Nashville

HIGH CLASS HILLBILLY 4604 Gallatin Pk East Nashville

11am – 6pm November 10 – 11 MARATHON MUSIC WORKS denim-days.com Student tickets only $5 at the door with valid student identification card

We love denim, we love Nashville, and we love good advice. That’s why, ahead of our first annual Denim Days Nashville, we asked some notable Nashvillians where they spend their time in the city.

Here’s what they told us.

High Garden Tea on Woodland Street is like a magical portal to serenity in the middle of the bustling boomtown. Whenever all the hustle and traffic of Nashville gets on my nerves, I can tuck into one of their cozy nooks with a pot of tea or a concoction from their root cellar and come out refreshed.

-Hazel Jones, Performer We’re so much more than boots and hats!

If you’re looking for quintessential Nashville style, you should check out Keep Shop at The Noelle Nashville hotel. And grab an iced latte from Drug Store Coffee while you are there!

-Van Tucker, CEO, Nashville Fashion Alliance Nashville Hot Denim—check out Imogene+Willie to spice up your jeans collection.

-Robert Antoshak, Managing Director, Olah inc Cheekwood is hands down my favorite place.

The Jaume Plensa exhibit won me over, and I’ve been hooked ever since! Second favorite is Duke's! It's my second home filled with vagabond family members.

-Poni Silver, Designer, Black by Maria Silver

I always recommend hanging out at Urban Cowboy Public House. The food, the people, and the space always make it a good time.

A nice patio with a fire pit doesn’t hurt either.

-Jake Howell, Chef, Peninsula The little taco stand in the parking lot of the gas station at Five Points has the best street-style $2 tacos I’ve had since I left LA and the street carts in Boyle Heights.

-David Perry, Owner, the DSP Group I am such a huge fan of Nikki Lane’s vintage collection at High Class Hillbilly. Shopping the ’50s-era Western wear, bias cut dresses from the ’20s, and high-waisted denim from the ’70s that hangs on the racks of her super-hip boutique, located off the beaten path in far-east East Nashville, feels like going through the closet of the coolest girl in town—which, in a way, is exactly what HCH is.

-Libby Callaway, Principal, The Callaway

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THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK

by CHARLIE HICKERSON

photos DANIEL CHANEY

NATIVE sits down with Performance Studios’ Gary Broadrick, the man who’s helped fill Nashville with fright for more than two decades NATIVE NASHVILLE

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IF YOU GREW UP IN THE MIDDLE TENNESSEE

area in the late ’90s or early aughts, a menagerie of deliciously cheesy local commercials more than likely occupied the white noise of your life. As you fought with your sibling for control of the Playstation, Bart Durham’s ghoulish presence probably resided in the background, asking if you or a loved one had been injured on the job.

Or maybe while you did your homework, you heard the faint sound of Carnival Kia’s Chris Bostick exclaiming, yet again, “Don’t you leave till you see me!”

While most of these commercials fell somewhere between surreal and sad, one of them always warmed my adolescent heart. It featured a buck-toothed, somewhat androgynous butler named Spike, who was just the right amount of unsettling—kind of like Marty Feldman’s Igor or Riff Raff from Rocky Horror. Unlike Durham or Bostick, Spike seemed to be in on the kitschiness of the whole premise.

There was a bit of self-awareness that said: “Hey, before the six o’clock news bums you out, check out this butler dressed as Austin Powers.”

No matter what kind of hijinks Spike was up to, these commercials always reminded young me that Halloween was around the corner. And that meant that for one night, you were allowed to be whatever you wanted to be: a witch, a pirate, Captain Picard, a cat (if you’re lazy), whatever. For one night you were allowed to be weird, and that’s a comforting thought—even if you’re too old to trick-or-treat.

For the uninitiated: the commercials I’m referring to are for Performance Studios, Nashville’s go-to costume, cosmetics, and wig warehouse. Since 1989, Performance has helped Nashvillians temporarily transform into other people, and they’ve also, of course, been a fixture of local cable via Spike, their mascot.

But even if you’ve seen the commercials or bought a Beetlejuice costume from

Performance, you probably don’t know Gary Broadrick. Along with co-owner Glenn Alexander (Broadrick is on the left in our photos), Broadrick has built Performance from a small showroom on Church Street to the 30,000-square-foot Thompson Lane behemoth it is today.

Because Spike gets all the attention—and because I found it fitting to unmask a man that sells masks for a living—I wanted to let Nashville’s Spooky Santa tell his story in his own words. So, in front of a rack of bustiers and clown shoes, Broadrick talked about growing a business in a growing city, the escapist joy of Halloween, and the true identity of Spike (hint, it’s not him). Here are excerpts from our conversation.

---------------ON FOUNDING PERFORMANCE STUDIOS:

We began in 1989 on a four-by-eight-foot table in the showroom of a lighting store located on Church Street across from Nashville Electric Service, which is where the store ended up being. It was decided that there was a need for professional makeup to be brought into the city of Nashville because music videos were really starting to get popular, and a lot of them were shot in the Music City area. Makeup artists were aplenty in Nashville—they were moving here like crazy from New York, L.A., Atlanta, everywhere. But they had to order product from out of town and have it shipped in. We started bringing product in so makeup artists could buy makeup.

Then, the little space next door in the same building closed. [The owner] had a costume store, had been around forever, and we moved into her space so that we could carry more makeup products from other professional companies. Then we created a line of cosmetics called Performance Cosmetics that we could sell to makeup artists. We added a few

wigs, and one day out of the blue—we’d been there three or four years—Tennessee Repertory Theatre called us and said, “We have some costumes on some racks downstairs at TPAC. They are going to the trash. If you want them, come get them.

Maybe you can rent them out or resell them or something—they just need to go away.” We went down and picked them up, so we had three racks, probably about twenty-five feet of costume rentals . . .

We just kept pushing the walls out at 1205 Church Street and accumulating the rental department.

ON GETTING INTO COSTUMING:

I did some college as a theatre major, and it didn’t take me long to realize that it’s either cattle call and be hungry, or teach.

Neither of which I was willing to do, so I started dancing, and I did a lot of dance and choreography work around town. I traveled some doing some choreography work and did that for twelve, fifteen years.

As the old knees started going out and I realized that was soon to be gone, I started working as a makeup artist here in Nashville. I was doing music videos, documentary work, pretty much whatever I could, and I started working at the makeup counter there on Church Street. I slowly stopped working freelance and started doing just the makeup work and the wigs, novelties, accessories, and costume rentals . . . I see wardrobe people come in here now that have been coming to me asking for stuff for thirty years— which kind of blows me away because I’ve watched them grow old and I’ve never aged a day, of course.

ON WHETHER OR NOT HE MISSES DANCE AND CHOREOGRAPHY:

No, not at all, because it kind of phased from one thing into another. I’m very fortunate and very blessed. I’ve never had a job I didn’t like, and I’ve always been NATIVE NASHVILLE

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happy doing what I’m doing. The last eight years in this building doing this has been really good. It’s very satisfying. It’s nice when people say, “Your store’s great, this is amazing, I love it.” Any compliment that they give you, you feel like you did something right. Even if it ends tomorrow, I’m still very satisfied with what we were able to accomplish as a group. It’s certainly not just me—there are fifteen employees here, and most of those employees have been with us for multiple years. At one time we had three generations of a family working here at the same time: grandmother, mother, and daughter. It kind of says something for the love of the business that the employees have stuck around like that. It’s a unit, it works as a unit . . . I feel like I’ve lived three lifetimes.

My school, my dancing, and then the career in this business. It’s just been good.

ON THE GENESIS OF SPIKE:

Spike is actually an employee here—it’s the lady [Anita Martin] that works at the front counter. There was a prop that one of the vendors made in the late ’90s, and it’s a butler with a humped back, and he carries a tray. He looks very much like Spike in the face, and he’s life-size, made out of styrofoam. You would buy him and put him in your house on Halloween time and you’d put candy or dishes or whatever on it. It was just sort of a novelty item. One day going into the Halloween

season, [Martin] dressed up as the Butler, that was her character. Then we started calling her Spike that day just because we needed a name for her . . . We really felt like we needed a face for the store and a mascot, as it were, so we asked Spike to do that very first commercial. Spike dressed as an Austin Powers–looking character.

ON HALLOWEEN:

I can’t enjoy Halloween because I’m just working so much. I haven’t answered the door for trick-or-treaters in twenty-five years . . . I’m here making sure everyone else is able to answer the door for trickor-treaters, and in a costume they like, or whatever the idea happens to be. But that’s okay. That’s what I do, that’s what I signed up for. The goal is to reach out to people during the Halloween season and educate them to the fact that this is who we are, this is what we do. When you graduate from high school and you start going to Watkins and you’re shooting your first film, this is the place you call. We want to get the words costuming, makeup, wigs, beards, accessories, all of that, synonymous with the name Performance Studios.

ON THE ESCAPISM OF HALLOWEEN:

I absolutely believe it’s escapism. When you put on a costume, you become anybody you want to be, especially if you’re wearing some kind of a mask. For some reason— even if it’s just some really small eye mask

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and that’s the only thing that you have on—you become somebody else. You’re going to do things that you would never do in public if it was just you.

That goes into just wearing a costume too. If you’re fully dressed as somebody else, you’re going to do things you would never do on your own. You’re more apt to walk up to people you don’t know and have a conversation. Your social skills improve tremendously because you are now somebody else and you can do things and say things and be more outgoing than you could as your own person. You’re not Joe that works as an assistant manager at Kroger, you’re now a Johnny Depp lookalike and you can swoon any lady that you walk up to. That’s the way people see it when they get in a costume. I think it gives them a chance to be somebody else just for a few minutes and forget that the electric bill’s due—or past due, as the case may be. Because now you’re Guinevere, you don’t have electric bills!

ON CREATING MEMORIES FOR YOUNG NASHVILLIANS:

I do believe that even though [kids today] are growing up fast and moving fast, and they’ve got the information highway at their fingertips, we still have people that come in who love to put on costumes.

Granted, unlike years ago when you put your costume on, now you take a picture of yourself. You get a selfie when you put a wig on, so it’s a little different idea.

But it still helps them create a memory.

They remember, as a child, going to the costume store with their parents or their grandparents and picking out that costume, or buying that makeup for that zombie look that they’re trying to achieve . . . I don’t remember going to Kmart and buying school clothes, but coming into a situation like this where everything in the store is larger than life? They’re going to remember doing that with somebody.

Performance Studios is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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photos ZACHARY GRAY

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: KIT REUTHER

Kit Reuther is a local painter and sculptor whose latest exhibit, Unruly, employs utilitarian materials like packing pillows, spray paint, and styrofoam to create a body of work that is at once minimal and arresting. In contrast to the muted still lifes of her early career, Unruly sees Reuther creating bold—and often unsettling—found object pieces that speak to life in 2018.

“I tend to relate my work to audible sound when I am painting, and there is no denying this series has turned up the volume and commands a louder presence than previously ‘quieter’ work,” the artist explains.

“Restlessness was de rigueur, and even the more minimal works have an unapologetic, dogged presence. Nothing is simple and quiet in 2018.”

Born and raised in Nashville, Reuther is a graduate of O’More College of Design and has received artist fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She’s participated in residencies from Germany to Massachusetts, and her work is currently in the Tennessee State Museum, The AT&T Building, the Dirksen Senate Office Building in D.C., and countless other galleries, retail spaces, and businesses throughout the United States.

Unruly is running now through October 27 at David Lusk Gallery.

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YOU OUGHTA KNOW:

SAANEAH

by NATIVE STAFF

Listen, we’ve got nothing against the reliable classics. Some stuff—The Wire, Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich, Prince’s discography pre-1990—is just objectively good. But after you’ve watched The Sopranos for the fifth time and you’ve shamefully made your way through every one of Arnold’s daily specials, you start to crave something different. Something familiar, but with a bit of a twist, like trying out your Waffle House hashbrowns “capped.”

That’s how we view local R&B singer Saaneah’s music. Sure, While You Wait, the North Nashville native’s debut EP, has a little D’Angelo here, a little Badu there, but there’s something fresh about the project. Maybe that’s because Saaneah has spent years honing in on an original sound and style—she was on American Idol in 2008 and modeled for American Eagle earlier this year—or maybe, like us with our hashbrowns, she just got tired of the same old thing. Whatever the case, through Bey-esque inflections and

production that is equal parts Marcus Miller and Metro Boomin’, Saaneah manages to recall ’90s neo-soul without being defined by it.

It’s fitting, then, that the singer chose The Southern V, a vegan spot that reimagines classic soul food, as her favorite local restaurant. “Supporting black businesses is very important to me—I want to bring awareness to all black businesses in Music City and beyond so that they can thrive,” Saaneah says. “Plus, I was raised vegan so it really caught my attention. The flavor of the hot chicken warms my soul. Who doesn’t want food that warms your soul?”

If you want some music that warms your soul, we suggest checking out Saaneah.

photo EMILY DORIO

An expanded edition of Saaneah’s debut EP titled While You Wait Reloaded will be available November 15.

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John Scott Haldane was a physiologist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who had a fascination with the nature of gases.

He has a number of accomplishments to his name, but perhaps what he is most colloquially famous for is his experimentation with small animals, most notably canaries, to detect dangerous gases. Canaries have fast metabolisms, so they are affected by dangerous gases (such as carbon monoxide in coal mines) before humans. Since Haldane used canaries in coal mines, the practice of using organisms, or groups of organisms, to detect an environmental change has become much more prevalent. Or said another way: the presence or composition of different organisms indicate certain env i ron ment a l cond it ion s — t hese organisms are bioindicators . There are a number of other monikers for these organisms—ecological indicator, indicator species, biomonitors—and while the definitions of these terms vary, they are often used interchangeably.

Bioindicators like fish, algae, and macroinvertebrates are used in aquatic environments to detect levels of pollution.

However, macroinvertebrates—small animals without backbones that are visible to the naked eye—are more commonly used. These include insects (both in their larval and adult stages), mollusks (clams, mussels), worms, crustaceans, and crayfish. Because these animals have varying sensitivities to pollution, they make great bioindicators. When scientists collect an assemblage of these different macroinver tebrates using specif ic

protocols, they can plug their data into an algorithm that is used to assess the water quality of the area under question. Similar procedures are used for fish and algae.

Out of the water, bioindicators are used to test for air pollution. Lichens (composite organisms made of an algae or cyanobacteria in a symbiotic relationship with a fungus) get their nutrients directly from the atmosphere—making them perfect air bioindicators. Lichens have three main forms: crustose (crustforming), foliose (leaf-like), and fruticose (shrub-like). Like macroinvertebrates, different kinds of lichens have different sensitivities to pollution. In general, the crustose lichens are the most tolerant to air pollution, which is the reason you may still see them commonly in urban areas. Side note: the Smoky Mountains are a hotspot for biodiversity for many types of organisms, and the same is true of lichens—more species have been seen there than in any other national park.

In addition to gauging pollution, bioindicators can also track the impact hu m a n s h ave on env i ron ment s .

Scientists use a test called the floristic quality assessment to monitor plant communities. The idea is that each plant has a certain affinity to natural, undegraded areas. Plants that score high are, in general, found in pristine habitats, whereas low-scoring plants may be found in the cracks of a sidewalk or on the side of a road. Like the macroinvertebrates, a whole community of plants is taken into consideration before plugging the data into the equation. The result is a rating

that shows how much a given site has been affected by humans.

If a scientist is interested in knowing the degree of a specific environmental impact, why not measure the impact directly, pollutant or otherwise, instead of spending the time counting and identifying groups of plants or animals as a proxy measure? For one, it can be more costly. Measuring the levels of a pollutant can require specialized technologies that have a prohibitive cost and require a very specific skill set. Second, bioindicators allow for a more complete picture of the impact in question. While measuring the levels of a pollutant at one time may give you precise information of that moment, an analysis of the bioindicators gives a picture of the cumulative impact—past, present, and future—since a scientist will be looking at bioindicators at many different stages in their life cycles.

The use of bioindicators extends beyond these examples. In some cases, bioindicators assess the effectiveness of a restoration project. In others, they are a helpful decision-making tool in prioritizing land acquisition for a park, natural area, or other public development.

Their practicality is so widely recognized that bioindicators have even wiggled and rooted their way into our legal system.

For instance, all states have protocols for macroinvertebrate monitoring as a way of assessing the health of our water bodies.

However they are used, the organisms around us allow us to better understand our impact on the world and hopefully play a part in reducing that impact.

*ABOUT THE AUTHOR Cooper Breeden is the conservation coordinator for the Tennessee Plant Conservation Alliance and is finishing up his graduate degree at Austin Peay, focusing on botany and ecology. In the past, he worked in watershed and wetland restoration, environmental education, fisheries management, and philanthropy.

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SHOOTING THE SHIT WITH NEW HAT PROJECTS

by NATIVE STAFF

photos ANDREA BEHRENDS

In Shooting the Shit, NATIVE talks to Nashvillians who are doing things a little differently—think of it as grabbing a quick cup of coffee with that screenprinter or tattoo artist you keep seeing on your Explore Page. This month, we chatted with Kelly Diehl and Elizabeth Williams, the founders of New Hat Projects. Since 2016, Diehl and Williams have given a slew of Nashville businesses and events (8th & Roast, Lemon Laine, and Dozen Bakery, to name a few) aesthetic facelifts that feel timeless yet innovative.

When you walk into a space designed by New Hat, you somehow feel transported to some exotic locale and at home—and you’ll probably feel the urge to snap a quick selfie in front of one of their wallpaper prints.

Keep reading to check out our conversation with Diehl and Williams, and be on the lookout for more New Hat spaces around town. Believe us, you’ll know them when you see them.

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Tell us how you two met and how the idea for New Hat came about.

We met through a mutual friend and clicked in many ways. We always talked about doing a project together, so a few years later when Claire Meneely asked Elizabeth to make wallpaper for Dozen Bakery’s restrooms, we decided to make it a collaboration.

We worked together well and people really responded to the art.

A year later we were still thinking about it and feeling restless.

We thought about collaborating on another project, but the conversation turned into How can we make collaborating our job?

So we decided to start a business instead, New Hat. Collection One is New Hat’s first foray into product design. What made you all decide to add products to the installation work you were already doing? Did the transition come with any unexpected challenges?

Our business needed to grow beyond custom installations to become more sustainable. We also had people contacting us about products they could buy from us that weren’t custom, so long story short, we hired a business manager to help us launch a collection of ready-made wallpapers. The biggest challenge we had was outsourcing some of our printing to a company in Chicago. Long-distance relationships are . . . difficult.

You’ve mentioned that your work is influenced by everything from “pre-colonial Peru to 1950s Japan to visions of human futures in distant solar systems.” Was there a prevailing influence behind Collection One?

Since it was our first collection, it felt important to speak to the span of cultures and time periods that influence us and to speak to our artistic range. Each pattern is its own strange hybrid. “Plinth” = Japanese design + Brutalism + Edward Hopper, while “Minerva” = Medieval armor + Vienna coffee house + 1970s groove. The quality that does unite them all is a strong, specific color palette—and the fact that they came from our weirdo brain meld.

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One of the things we admire most about your work is how you can make every part of a space or event feel cohesive. At the NFA Honors Awards, for instance, the invites, stage design, and even photo booth came together to create this awesomely consistent world. How do you meld such disparate elements to make something that still feels unified?

With large spaces or events sometimes less is more. For NFA Honors we created a simple graphic vocabulary that lent itself to many forms. Your brain can easily recognize the elements as part of the group, no matter what scale, formation, or material they’re in. Plus, color and pattern are human connectors. Event design can be too serious for its own good.

Because your art often exists in public spaces like local restaurants or shops, do you think the average passerby overlooks it as “art”?

Does that distinction matter to you at all?

The distinction only matters as an invitation to redefine what one generally thinks is “art.” Instagram has made people more aware of designed environments—the more distinctive the better.

Unfortunately, that can be a slippery slope toward desperate, bad design. We mainly hope our artwork enhances someone’s experience of architecture and inspires them to keep looking up.

Do you think wallpaper in general is experiencing a revival right now? And if so, where does New Hat fit into that revival?

Wallpaper is definitely experiencing a revival. It’s in Target.

Wallpaper carries with it feelings of nostalgia and immersive comfort. Color and pattern are energetic and joyful. It makes sense that people would welcome all of these qualities into their homes during an era of social upheaval and disconnectedness— are we taking this too far? New Hat acknowledges the revival and hopefully adds a bold and informed voice to the party.

To see more of New Hat Project’s work, visit newhatprojects.com.

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