SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Boomtown's a kitchen now, but it used to be a made-for-Gahan fest.

After a few years away, the word "boomtown" has returned to local usage owing to the impending establishment of the Boomtown Kitchen, to be located where Cox's Hot Chicken briefly was, and before that Big Four Burgers, and a very long time ago the South Side Inn.

As usual, Kevin Gibson at Insider Louisville goes deeper than the News and Tribune.

Boomtown Kitchen set to open mid-June in downtown New Albany

... (Boomtown Kitchen owner Andrew) Collins says going to South Side for family meals remains a fond memory for him, adding, “I’m honored to carry that on.”

As for the menu, he says while he appreciates the modern cuisine in downtown New Albany, Boomtown Kitchen will be different; he says while many modern restaurants offer their spins on classic dishes, at Boomtown, “We want to bring you that classic dish.”

The word "Boomtown" is widely understood, dating to the period 1895-1900.

boomtown
boom·town (bo͞om′toun′)
n. A town experiencing an economic or a population boom.

New Albany has not experienced a noteworthy increase in population (#GahanFail), but appearances seem to suggest a mild economic uptick, traceable to entrepreneurs like Collins.

Team Gahan enjoys taking credit for successes (whether deserved or not), but avoids responsibility for instances of belly-up, as with the ill-fated Boomtown Ball. It ran in New Albany for three years (2014 - 2016); DNA's artlessly purloined Taco Walk now occupies this May slot on the mayor's personal campaign finance enhancement calendar.

Boomtown Ball's expiration occurred in 2017.

City Hall is as silent as a Bud Light & Clamato Chelada, but we're inferring that Boomtown Ball will NOT be held in 2017.

If you're still wondering why the city of New Albany is engaged in the business of concert promotion, chalk it up to a bad case of Disney Envy.

Or maybe it isn't Disney Envy at all. Gahan and the governing clique might have been ingesting a few too many mushrooms when having a Ball with Boomtown.

Boomtown

The state of consciousness experienced while inebriated by hallucinogenic mushrooms: "You have an ounce of mushrooms? Let's eat these and go to Boomtown!"

The question is obvious, Jeffrey: Can hallucinogenic mushrooms be baked into Rice Krispies Treats?

A 2015 flashback to the former Boomtown, when the mayor's money machine went big-time.

According to the data miners at Facebook, this photograph was taken three years ago today, featuring my campaign's top volunteer.

Little did we know at the time, when Mayor Jeff Gahan swiped the term "Boomtown" from Houndouth (or was it Mike Moore?) for its inaugural 2014 event -- since ingloriously discontinued -- that it would become synonymous with Exalted Leader's campaign finance treasure chest.

Verily, New Albany as "Boomtown" has been a Boon-town for the mayor, his family and closest sycophants. Surely their combined salaries, in addition to benefits and donations to the ruling clique, have topped a cool million since 2012, or more likely since the moment this photo was committed to posterity in 2015.

Gahan's personality cult works quite well for Gahan, his kinfolk and their bootlickers. It's how our local DemoDisneyDixiecrats always gamed the small pond local patronage system, and it's what they'll be clinging to with kamikaze-like fury in the coming months.

If not, it's back to the private sector, and actual work.

For the rest of us, there's #FireGahan2019.

Just a reminder: There'll be no Boomtown this weekend because Dear Leader gave up on it.

But elsewhere, the boom goes on.

City Hall is as silent as a Bud Light & Clamato Chelada, but we're inferring that Boomtown Ball will NOT be held in 2017.

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As an addendum, NAC has been unable to confirm whether New Albany Mayor Jeff M. Gahan or anyone working in the city's administration is under federal investigation or indictment for corruption, bribery or racketeering. It is standard policy of the U.S. Justice Department to refuse to confirm or deny the existence or non-existence of investigations or subjects of investigations. A similar policy exists at the F.B.I.

City Hall is as silent as a Bud Light & Clamato Chelada, but we're inferring that Boomtown Ball will NOT be held in 2017.

At this time last year, momentum was building toward the third edition of the Boomtown Ball & Festival in downtown New Albany. See below for links explaining the history of the event.

Team Gahan released its first Bicentennial Park Summer Concert Series tout yesterday, and it made no mention whatever of Boomtown.

However, there was this:

We start a week early this year on May 26th with local blue’s favorites Kentuckiana Blues Road Show. The Road Show line-up features New Albany native Jimmy G & The Sidewinders, Laurie Jane & The 45’s and Jason Lockwood & The Stella Vees.

Each of the first three Boomtowns was held on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, followed by the concert series kickoff on the first Friday in June. We're inferring that since May 26 is the Friday before Boomtown's traditional slot, it's a backhanded way of saying "no Boomtown for you."

In addition, a friend asked DNA:

"I messaged Develop New Albany. They got back with me that Boomtown was not on the calendar for May. So the lady was assuming no."

Also, there is no mention of Boomtown on any of Production Simple's propaganda arms, suggesting that in 2017, the Louisville company's annexation of downtown New Albany will be limited to concert series Fridays.

Naturally, all of this makes sense given that in 2017, Abbey Road on the River moves to downtown Jeffersonville. The festival lasts five days over Memorial Day weekend, May 25 - 29.

Mike Moore 1, Jeff Gahan nil. 

If you're still wondering why the city of New Albany is engaged in the business of concert promotion, chalk it up to a bad case of Disney Envy.

---

Boomtown Ball accounts from previous years:

2016
Roger answers all your questions on the eve of Boomtown, 2016.
Boomtown Ball & Festival returns.

2015
The PC: Who'll put the beer in Boomtown?

2014
The PC: Post-Boomtown reflections.

ON THE AVENUES: The Green Mouse tells all.

ON THE AVENUES: The Green Mouse tells all.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Do you remember the Asteroids video game from days of yore?

Asteroids is an arcade space shooter released in November 1979 by Atari … the player controls a spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers. The object of the game is to shoot and destroy asteroids and saucers while not colliding with either or being hit by the saucers' counter-fire. The game becomes harder as the number of asteroids increases.

These days I’m having daily flashbacks to Asteroids. I awake each morning to all sorts of unreported New Albany news, fresh rumors and passionate testimonials from the Resistance. It’s like having 20 assistant coaches simultaneously hitting ground balls to me with their fungo bats, and I can’t come close to fielding them all.

Just imagine if we had a newspaper in New Albany.

Until we do, here’s an admittedly scattershot potpourri of comments on recent hot topics. It’s all pro bono, folks, and so ongoing and profuse thanks to those of you who regularly communicate with the Green Mouse. I couldn't do it without him.

Overheard on the avenues.

“I’ll try to hold onto my seat as long as I can, just so Gahan can’t appoint one of his relatives to fill it.”

“Are you kidding? None of these people make enough money to be found on one of those Panamian offshore banking lists. No, wait. I’m wrong. The city attorney, what’s his name – Gibson. Maybe him.”

"Looks like the boat club's back for good and there is a possibility that the Main Street Association is going to get its park where Metal Dynamics is currently located."

Media equality.

During Thursday’s Southern Indiana Equality quarterly meeting, SIE’s president Brad Bell glanced around the room, visibly disappointed.

“We hoped local media would be here,” he said. “They were all invited.” This provoked the week’s best aside.

“Maybe Business First will cover it.”

Although if Bill “Eastside” Hanson had his way, it’d be Bon Appetit.

Trans-politically speaking …

Election Day is Dan Coffey’s big moment.

We’ll never know why he suddenly outed himself in January and left the Democratic ranks, although as in all things pertaining to Adam Dickey’s local political monetization machine, it is recommended to follow the money.

Not unlike Donald Trump, if Coffey pulls a Republican ballot next Tuesday, there’s nothing to stop the Copperhead from self-identifying with the GOP. But will he?

Given that among Coffey’s latest Fb postings are attacks on Hillary Clinton, the ACLU and gay pride, and paeans to the Bible and the Confederate flag, it’s a moot point. During his 416 years on the council, he’s never missed an opportunity to vote for himself, and that’s unlikely to change.

Public housing turf war.

During last year’s campaign, Jeff Gahan consistently avoided the topic of public housing -- and affordable housing, homelessness and income inequality. In fact, he avoided most topics, not just these. Then last week, the mayor abruptly produced a press release about public housing.

The Green Mouse was told that the mayor has refused to cooperate with past efforts on the part of the housing authority to get tax credits for improvements, presumably (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) because he seeks total control over the process.

As such, Gahan’s recent press release may be signaling an attempted end-around. The NAHA has its consultants, and now Gahan does, too; it’s an Indianapolis beak-wetting firm previously forcibly removed from the redevelopment commission’s revenue stream owing to an obvious conflict of interest. Gahan seems intent on cutting public housing director Bob Lane out of the loop.

At various times in the past, Gahan apparently has remarked openly that his preferred option to reform public housing in New Albany would be to shift all of it outside the city limits to (paraphrasing) “somewhere out in the county.”

Well, if county government can sell the hospital, what’s to stop Gahan from ripping the Valley View golf covenant to shreds and reinventing public housing anew, right there on the front nine in sunny Floyds Knobs?

The county might gain revenge by devoting a portion of its hospital sale proceeds to constructing a wall around Jeff Gahan Presents Po View Valley Folks Estates, and afterward, converting Sam Peden Community Park into a regional toxic waste dump. Finally, all the big white male fish might be happy in their tiny Kool-Aid ponds.

Seriously: While all of these phobias play nicely with Donald Trump's voting bloc, it remains that most public housing policy emanates from the federal government, lying just beyond the conceptually bankrupt reach of Gahan’s grubby paws.

It’s anyone’s guess as to where the mayor’s sudden interest in public housing will lead (just don’t forget to follow the money), but where it assuredly will not lead is in the direction of substantive community-wide discussion of public housing, affordable housing, income inequality … you know the down-low drill by now.

Boomtown Ballers.

Speaking of behind the scenes, Houndmouth’s signature festival returns to downtown New Albany on Sunday, May 29, and the question the Green Mouse is hearing more often than any other is whether the band itself will be involved.

The city’s press release makes no mention of Houndmouth. The band performs on the West Coast on May 27, then shifts to the East Coast beginning June 2, so an appearance is theoretically possible.

Want more details?

The Green Mouse suggests going straight to the top and asking the power brokers in charge of Boomtown -- not the city of New Albany, silly reader, but Production Simple and the Flea Off Market, both Louisville entities, who are the prime beneficiaries of a festival intended to attract youthful Louisvillians to a New Albany street grid designed to resemble Louisville as much as possible, because not once in five years has Team Gahan trusted New Albanians to be “cool” enough for school.

As with the Bicentennial Park concert series and other Gahan for Whatever Office extravaganzas, Production Simple imports the temporary equipment and the musical entertainment, and takes the money back to Kentucky. Wouldn’t you love to know how much cash these instances of self-aggrandizement have cost the city since 2012?

The Green Mouse would, too, and needs to get to work on that, right after vacation.

The Summit Springs sell-out.

That nasty denuded drainage-defeating hillside facing State Street is only the most recent obnoxious chess move in a property development game extending back more than a decade.

Previously I’ve mentioned last October’s resolution of a lawsuit undertaken by the property owners against the city, and I’m still hoping there’ll be a chance to view the decision. Until then, this much is clear.

Years ago, the property owners’ Planned Unit Development (PUDD) proposal made its way through New Albany’s planning and zoning arms as well as city council, but in spite of what may or may not have happened since then in terms of missed deadlines, rejections, approvals and legal fees to Krafty John, Summit Springs cannot possibly come to fruition without a road to access it.

And: A city once willing to contest these issues in court now proposes to construct just such a half-mile, $3 million (or more) road via the TIF mechanism. The Summit Springs proposal, once tenuous, has become magically important to the city’s future, and of course Gahan seeks to claim it as his own, in spite of the myriad problems still remaining to be resolved.

One needn’t be a grand master to fathom that for the property owners, a $3 million (or more) access road would obliterate any need for the city to pay damages from a lost lawsuit, which in effect appears to leverage another dose of crony capitalism. You can expect to see the architect’s renderings on a Gahan for State Senate sign, circa 2018.

The cost?

More “boilerplate” TIF expenditures, an impossibly congested State Street corridor, but more importantly, a city blithely tossing its own planning and zoning codes under the bus, along with any remaining threadbare commitment to the rule of law.

The poor ol' Tree Board.

The mayor appoints the members of the Board of Works.

The mayor appoints the members of the Tree Board.

Whatever work the Tree Board does with respect to cutting, planting and maintaining trees on publicly owned lands and right-of-way is at the behest of the Board of Works, which is given marching orders by the mayor. Shocking, isn't it?

The Tree Board is lamentably understaffed and mostly non-funded. Currently it is short a board member, and to hurriedly arrive at a conclusion for this extremely depressing digression, it comes down to Oz's Whim.

In short, Team Gahan decides whether a tree stays or goes, irrespective of whether the tree is healthy or dying, and quite apart from extraneous considerations of aesthetics, storm water abatement or Urban Heat Islands.

I’ve no reason to believe the Tree Board isn’t well-meaning, or doesn’t try its best. I'm satisfied it does what it can -- and what it can do is highly circumscribed.

Or, like almost everything else in New Gahania, if the big kahuna can't monetize it, you might as well forget it. Get your checkbooks ready, loyal readers. 2018 will be here sooner than you think.

---

April 14: Forever NA, the wrong way ... from 2012, through 2014, to 2016 and beyond, forever more.

April 7: ON THE AVENUES: The Six Session Beers of Session Beer Day.

March 31: ON THE AVENUES: Abortion? Wichita, or maybe Targu Mures.

March 24: ON THE AVENUES: Introducing New Albany Craft Beer Week, May 27 – June 4, 2016.

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Simply extortionate, production-wise.

Welcome to another installment of SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS, a regular Wednesday feature at NA Confidential.

But why all these new words? Why not the old, familiar, comforting words?

It's because a healthy vocabulary isn't about changing city seals by the random spin of the economic dishevelment director's rickety wheel.

To the contrary: It's about selecting the right word and using it correctly, whatever one's pay grade or station in life.

Even municipal corporate attorneys whose astronomical take from the public teat never make the newspaper's spotty record are eligible for this enlightening expansion of personal horizons, and really, for those of us who want nothing more than to understand why we must pay legions of Louisvillians to do what locals can do on their own, all we have is time -- and the opportunity to learn something.

Today's word is extortionate. It's an adjective, but let's begin with the noun.

extortion

[ik-stawr-shuh n]

noun

1. an act or instance of extorting.
2. Law. the crime of obtaining money or some other thing of value by the abuse of one's office or authority.
3. oppressive or illegal exaction, as of excessive price or interest: the extortions of usurers.
4. anything extorted.

Consequently ...

extortionate

[ik-stawr-shuh-nit]

adjective

1. grossly excessive; exorbitant: extortionate prices.
2. characterized by extortion, as persons: extortionate moneylenders.

Oppressive, excessive and exorbitant -- and what's more, when we use "extortion" and "extortionate," an absence of choice is implied. After all, an extortionate money lender's target market is populated by those lacking other options, perhaps folks with bad credit ratings who cannot borrow funds conventionally.

Another example of extortionate business practices is familiar to anyone who attends sporting events. A company like Centerplate directly pays the resident team for an exclusive, closed monopoly on food and drink in a stadium usually constructed at taxpayer expense, and voila: $10 Bud Lights. It should suffice to say that local indies rarely are able to compete on such a tilted playing field.

This week's sentence:

When I was told what the out-of-town production company expected local beer vendors to pay to play in terms of gross percentage, it struck me as extortionate, and I couldn't understand how the city organizing the event could allow it in good conscience.

Conscience ... there's another word for another time, although I believe it is expressly prohibited by ordinance in the city of New Albany.

By the way, in an entirely unrelated note, the city of New Albany has announced a resumption of Boomtown, to take place on May 29.

Who put the corporate in Boomtown?

Maybe next year the tail won't wag the dog, and shift will happen -- back to what's proper.

NARBA was excluded from Boomtown, so I'll be there selling good books.

On Sunday, the second Boomtown Ball takes place in downtown New Albany. Last year for the inaugural, and at the city's behest, a small group of local food and drink purveyors put together the vending plan for alcoholic beverages. The intent was to devote a portion of the take to setting up the New Albany Restaurant & Bar Association ... and we've followed through with it.

Our Mission Statement
The New Albany Restaurant & Bar Association (NARBA) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit trade organization serving the independent restaurant, bar and on-premise food and drink industry in New Albany, Indiana. NARBA serves as the unified voice of its members on government and public relations issues. It also provides programs that offer educational and operational benefits for members. NARBA represents New Albany’s best known and most vibrant local independent business segment, and is dedicated to the advancement and preservation of New Albany as an urban community.

Charitable Initiatives
NARBA organizes and hosts annual fundraising events in order to give back to the community that has so generously supported its members.

NARBA is on Facebook, and still working through various legal details. If all goes as planned, there may be an event coming later in the year. It's fiendishly difficult getting insanely busy food and drink peeps together, but gradually, we're making progress.

Unfortunately, for reasons that never have been clearly explained to NARBA, the libations segment of this year's Boomtown was chartered without the association's participation. Either the city or Production Simple giveth, and also taketh away.

"Fundamentally" local?

Not Boomtown, which is Fundamentally Louisville, but what can a poor boy do, 'cept sing in a rock 'n' roll band ... and toss the occasional Molotov cocktail during intermission?

So, I've turned instead to Plan B. On Sunday, I've reserved space amid the Flea Off scrum, and will be selling books. That's right. Books. Here's what I'll be selling.

Come and see me.

Transparency Part Two: Boomtown is coming, and so City Hall skips today's merchant mixer meeting.

"Democracy must be built through open societies that share information. When there is information, there is enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions. When there is no sharing of power, no rule of law, no accountability, there is abuse, corruption, subjugation and indignation."
-- Atifete Jahjaga

There are times when all you can do is shrug.

"Meet Houndmouth, the Best Little Indy Rock Band in Americana."

Me and the ale.

But seriously -- did this guy really use the word "Indianans"? It's "Hoosier," national journalist. H-O-O-S-I-E-R.

Apart from this one small hair-puller, Matt Myers is interviewed, and the Houndmouth foursome get some ink.

By the way, the renewal of the Boomtown Ball is this coming Sunday. Houndmouth won't be closing with a show in 2015, but it should be a fun day nonetheless.

Meet Houndmouth, the Best Little Indy Rock Band in Americana, by Michael Bialas (Huffington Post)

When Houndmouth was ready to start its sophomore album, the fearless foursome went for broke and reached out to Dave Cobb to see if the Nashville producer would take on the project.

Cobb, right now one of the hottest names in the roots hierarchy, already has pushed artists such as Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson toward the next level and is on the verge of propelling promising acts such as honeyhoney and Anderson East into the Americana stratosphere with their 2015 records.

Cobb had other ideas for Houndmouth after he was approached by Matt Myers, the Indiana group's unassuming frontman and guitarist who shares vocal and songwriting duties with his three former high school acquaintances.

Hangout 2015 text"We called him and said, 'Do you want to do our next record?" Myers related over the phone last week as Houndmouth was heading to its next tour stop -- the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina. "He said, 'Yeah, but I don't want to make another fucking Americana record.' "

City belatedly gets around to releasing concrete information on Boomtown, summer concert series, etc.

Boomtown Ball.
Bicentennial Park Concert Series.
July 3 Fireworks at the Amphitheater.

You should know that for several weeks, questions about these city-sponsored events have been asked of the city by previous local vendors, and answered vaguely or incompletely, if answered at all.

Why is it so frustrating for these businesses not to get timely information? It's because food and drink businesses like those involved in the past with these specially staged events must budget, make schedules, staff and plan ahead. They always have done so -- and they have always come through and delivered for event attendees.

Only this week on Tuesday morning, as City Hall's persistently poor communications skills started being discussed yet again, loudly and publicly on social media following the downtown merchant meeting, did the ice finally begin to thaw.

This morning I reported what (was) known about Boomtown amid the fog, and then later in the afternoon, through a miraculous and surely coincidental communications breakthrough, this press release (below) suddenly appeared.

In it, we learn the "preferred" and "professional" caterer's name that David Duggins forgot to remember on Tuesday: It's Festival Cuisine & Spirits, with a primary office in Louisville and a storage warehouse on Pearl Street in New Albany (note that this year, it's beer and wine only at Boomtown).

All we've been told by the city in way of explanation is that the city placed alcoholic beverage catering in the hands of Louisville-based Production Simple, and Production Simple hired Festival Cuisine & Spirits.

Also, it is revealed for the first time publicly that while Boomtown's primary components are Louisville based, localism will be observed during the Bicentennial Park Concert Series and July 3 Fireworks show, via something called the Downtown Bar and Restaurant Association.

Perhaps City Hall means the New Albany Restaurant & Bar Association, unless NARBA already has a rival non-profit. In this city, anything is possible.

And, as revealed previously, local bricks and mortar retailers will have their booth fees waived by the Louisville-based Flea Off Market, and that's good news for retailers.

Why has Team Gahan sought so assiduously to make Boomtown such a Louisville-centric event, when local building blocks might be used -- when the band curating the event, Houndmouth, hails from New Albany and environs?

That's anyone's guess. Maybe it's Greg Fischer's idea. So, read the tea leaves, break out that dusty Ouija Board and spin a bottle ... or flip a coin. Mayor Jeff Gahan's administration is the single most furtive, secretive and non-transparent administrative entity in living memory, as well as the one most willing to award credit to itself. In fact, the most surprising development this year came on April 9, when Gahan chose not to celebrate his victory over General Lee at Appomattox Court House.

Verily, we all have become dentists, merrily pulling teeth. Novocaine, anyone?

What is known about Boomtown, amid the fog.

I'm going to tell you some things I know about the Boomtown festival, coming downtown on Sunday, May 24. If the following reports appear scant and contradictory, it's because I'm restricting sources to those that are open and public (yesterday's merchant meeting) or ones disclosed directly to me (the Flea Off e-mail). 

---

We learned yesterday that the city of New Albany has ceded event planning sovereignty to the Louisville's musical promotions firm Production Simple as it pertains to control of alcoholic beverage vending at this year's second Boomtown show, slated for Sunday, May 24.

David Duggins told yesterday's Merchant Meeting attendees that last year's consortium of local businesses operating under the aegis of an NABC catering permit for the occasion, a group now formally chartered as the New Albany Restaurant & Bar Association, would not be repeated this year. No reason was offered for this.

Rather, in 2015 Production Simple will utilize its "preferred" and "professional" beverage caterer from Louisville, the name of which Duggins conceded he could not remember, although he repeated the word "professional" several times, and explained the caterer is "local" by virtue of having a warehouse located in New Albany.

In addition, the Louisville street bazaar known as Flea Off returns to Boomtown in 2015. Yesterday Duggins told the merchants that while local alcoholic alcoholic beverage vendors would be excluded from participation, local restaurants could contact Flea Off and register to serve food, even though a representative of Flea Off recently declaimed responsibility for both food and drink in an e-mail to the author.

Duggins also noted that while Flea Off vendors typically pay for their space, the city of New Albany has negotiated a special deal, and local retail stores and other entities will be allowed free booth space for Boomtown. Finally, the band Houndmouth will not be performing this year, as it did in 2014 at the conclusion of Boomtown, although the Houndmouth "brand" still fully backs Boomtown.

Now, many of you have asked me about beer for Boomtown and other summer events (Bicentennial Park concert series, July 3 fireworks, et al). Remembering that I'm on leave of absence from NABC in order to campaign for mayor, and have referred communications to others within the company, all I can say is that little is known to me or them. In short, the situation is almost completely opaque.

Unofficially, I am told that NABC beer will be sold by the "professional" caterer at Boomtown, but because no one knows who it is, and the level of craft beer commitment it possesses, there is simply no way for me to predict its offerings or how much it cares about craft. This, too, is opaque.

As to what happens when the concert series begins on Friday, June 5, it's also anyone's guess about vendors and beverage choices. As of this writing, no information has been forthcoming for public attribution, and there is no way of knowing whether local vendors will be involved, or Production Simple's "professional" caterer, or an entity yet to be revealed.

Frustrated by the persistent fog?

Trust me. I know how it feels. That's why I'm running for mayor in the first place.

ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: Complexities and simplicities in Boomtown.

ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: Complexities and simplicities in Boomtown.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Yesterday we learned there will be a sophomore edition of the Boomtown Ball & Festival, to be held on Sunday, May 24. As reported by the News and Tribune, City Hall's press release leaves a few details unreported, but the broad overview is complete.

BAND BUZZ: Houndmouth to present encore Boomtown Ball & Festival in New Albany

NEW ALBANY — A band with New Albany roots making waves on the national music scene is presenting the second annual Boomtown Ball & Festival, and is curating the event’s music lineup.

Houndmouth, along with New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan and WFPK, are staging the Sunday, May 24 event, which serves as the kickoff for New Albany’s Bicentennial Park Summer Concert Series, according to a news release from Production Simple.

The release does not state whether Houndmouth will perform at the event.

As for the band, Houndmouth's tour schedule shows the group with the weekend off, and it is as yet unclear whether the newspaper's reporter Daniel Suddeath will await their arrival with subpoena in hand.

As for NABC's beer of the same name, of which somewhere between 15 and 20 kegs were vended to eager fest goers in 2014, readers from Timbuktu know exactly as much as I do. Really.

The same consideration applies to speculation about the fest's difficult and intricate layout, which (I'm guessing) will change owing to construction under way at the farmers market. Without a trace of irony, permit me to wish the best to whomever works out the "drinks enclosure" details this year.

It won't be me. After all, I'm on leave of absence. Following is last year's Boomtown preview.

---

Complexities and simplicities in Boomtown.

(original 2014 text)

Friday is a very important day. That’s because I’m getting a haircut. Personally, it is slated to be a timely and symbolic act, considering that my year to date has constituted a journey from complexity to simplicity – and for me, taking care of foot-long hair has become far too complicated.

This hirsute situation, which has taken several years to create, will be rectified in short order with the generous assistance of Strandz & Threadz, which will be staging its annual Cuts for a Cure. My original aim was to solicit donors for the occasion, but unfortunately the daily grind has been a bit too … well, complicated, so instead, I’ll make a donation on behalf of those friends who would have been subjected to the hard sell. It’s simpler that way.

---

By all rights, Tuesday should have been a day for New Albanians to triumphantly remind the world that while Jeffersonville’s connecting ramp to the Big Four Bridge finally was open, those many months of barred, inaccessible ineptitude could not possibly be forgotten – and, by comparison, New Albany still had its act together as the Brooklyn/Hoboken/Boomtown/Not Jeffersonville of the Falls Cities.

In fact, one can conceive of only a handful of ways for us to flush such a commanding lead in the waning seconds, among them photos of a Democratic grandee in bed with a sheep, a Padgett truck wedged into two Spring Street buildings while trying to make a turn, or 387 Little Leaguers forming a human chain across the Plan Commission.

But where there’s a will, there’s a way, and somewhere in the world an elderly Franco Harris donned a Red Devils uniform, grinning broadly in approval as we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, yielding the usual media spin:

Reporting from Jeffersonville: Look at these delighted folks crowding the Big Four in their spandex with Bibles, ice cream cones and homespun drooling.

Reporting from New Albany: POLICE SCANDAL! NEWS AT 11!

Two days later, it has gotten even more Byzantine. Sifting through the usual stenography from the same Jimmy Olsens:

First, a police officer registered a complaint over alleged incidents some years back, and threatened a lawsuit.

Next, the chief of police suddenly quit for “family” reasons, followed by her second in command, albeit of a different family.

Then, a grand jury made a report on a recent alleged episode involving a police officer, but declined to issue an indictment.

An agoraphobic City Hall seemingly shaken to its core by the grudging necessity of appearing in public to address any issue other than “quality of life” in EDIT-funded parks gradually rushed forward to reassure the citizenry that each of these policing occurrences took place in a hermetically sealed vacuum similar to that surrounding municipal parks construction decision-making.

Now our choices are to ignore these protests of non-linkage and retreat to our favorite watering holes to formulate conspiracy theories, a habit sometimes referred to by cultural anthropologists as the “old lady Internet troll with dangling cigarette” theorem, or to go even deeper by pondering which is worse, multiple acts of weirdness taken together or separately?

As far as I’m concerned, it’s Rosenbarger’s fault, and nothing a few bump-outs wouldn’t cure.

But seriously: At this precise moment, the only thing crystal clear about any of it is that we’ll have a new police chief. Beyond that, it’s all innuendo and murk. I’m not jumping to conclusions.

When we’re finished gossiping, might someone – City Hall, police department, Democratic central committee, Kim Jung-un – take an interest in the escalating speeds on our almost entirely unenforced one-way arterial streets?

---

This brings me to Sunday, when there’ll be a new event downtown called the Boomtown Ball and Festival. Boomtown is the brainchild of Houndmouth, a Southern Indiana musical group with strong ties to New Albany. The city has played a leading role in this celebration, as with the Bicentennial Park Concert Series, which begins on Friday, May 30.

On Sunday evening, the band will play a sold-out indoor show at The Grand. During the afternoon preceding Houndmouth’s performance, other bands will play on an outdoor stage at Market and Third, as selected and booked by Houndmouth and Production Simple, while in the farmers market space and on Bank Street, there will be vendors of all varieties as organized and arranged in the loose aggregation known as the Flea Off Market. It’s an all-ages, all-interests event.

A consortium of downtown food and drink businesses will operate the Boomtown Tavern, located within the confines of the farmers market pavilion. Owing to Indiana state law, the entire Boomtown festival will be located within a fence and enclosures, but of course, the full range of downtown’s independent businesses are a short walk away. Many of them will observe special Sunday opening hours for the occasion.

In a conceptual sense, if the Boomtown festival were to declare its relationship status, the likely choice would be “It’s Complicated.” Nothing about it has been simple, and yet the day slowly is coming together. By Sunday, we’ll be ready to muddle through it, and I’m sure everything will work out acceptably.

It’s worth remembering that when it comes to serving the cause of simplicity, communication goes a very long way toward reducing complexity to manageable levels, if not eliminating it outright. During the course of my involvement with Boomtown, I’ve tried to make decisions and urge solutions on the basis of more communication, not less, and in the simple recognition that downtown stakeholders already have issues with unanswered questions pertaining to pre-existing impositions (read: Harvest Homecoming) without needing any more of them.

I’m hoping that in spite of the many rough spots experienced while planning and executing this complicated first-time event, all those working so hard to make it happen will learn from the input offered by those doing business downtown, every day of the year. I can’t speak for everyone, but it has been revealing for me.

Downtown has changed, and we just can’t persist in top-down planning without seeking some measure of consensus first, from those who stand to be affected by the actions being considered.

Granted, the Boomtown Ball will bring commerce downtown on a Sunday, and of course, that’s a good thing, but it must be grasped by those in positions of authority that starting the Ball rolling by emphasizing the importance of a Louisville-based flea market – a fine and reputable institution in its own right – sent an immediate and frankly insulting signal to local merchants, which sounded like this: “We’re not good enough here, so we’ll bring in someone else’s panache.”

No, this was not the city’s intent. However, it was ill-considered just the same, and it has complicated every step of the process since.

Simplicity? Please, and here’s an example.

“Do you mind if we use your space?”

Your Bicentennial Park Concert Series and Boomtown Ball dollars at work.

Big thanks to the City of New Albany for making this possible. We encourage all NABC fans and blog readers to consider a donation to one or both of these key organizations. They do fine work for folks who need the boost.

We had a fun day today! If you purchased a New Albanian Brewing Company beverage at a summer concert at Bicentennial Park, the Boomtown Ball & Festival, or another event this past year in the community, you also supported Rauch, Inc. & Open Door Youth Services. Today both organizations received an amazing cash-stuffed envelope from NABC's special event proceeds. Thank you to everyone at NABC for your long-time love of Rauch and those we serve! #WooHoo #ThankYou — with Leah Pezzarossi, Roger A. Baylor and Bettye Dunham.

(text and photo from Rauch's Fb page)

One way streets bow to the imperative of a Boomtown beer run.

The first time we needed backup kegs at Boomtown, we sent Josh.

The second time, it was a bit more serious -- with David at the wheel.

It was that kind of day.

Boom.

Photo credit: Production Simple

Well, THAT was something, wasn't it? If I heard it once, I heard it one hundred times in varying combinations of words:

"Boomtown was Harvest Homecoming that doesn't suck.

Production Simple's coda late last night pretty much recaps matters on Sunday.

Thank you and goodnight from the historic Grand Theatre in beautiful downtown New Albany, and from the first Boomtown Ball & Festival ever! Special thanks to Houndmouth for not only curating an amazing festival, but also for playing one heck of a show to a capacity crowd in their hometown. Thanks to the City of New Albany, the numerous bands that played throughout the day, our generous sponsors including WFPK, and last but certainly not least, everyone that made it out at any point today -- we sincerely appreciate all of the love and local support...

Boomtown Ball today, Houndmouth tonight ... and Flea Off, bands, beer and things.

Houndmouth says: Come out all day to Boomtown Ball and pick up one of these amazing Madpixel Art and Design prints. Only 200 available."

If you haven't already heard, Houndmouth's evening show at The Grand tonight is sold out. But there will be eight hours of merriment before that, free of cover charge.

Houndmouth curated the musical lineup, and Production Simple did the rest. The Flea Off Market will run inside the enlarged all-ages "beer garden" area, within which there'll be food and ...

The Boomtown Tavern is a cooperative venture between NABC, JR's Pub, Irish Exit, Feast BBQ and 502 Winery, with a percentage of proceeds helping to start our New Albany food and drink non-profit. Outside the fenced-in festival area, many downtown shops and eateries will be open, some of them observing special hours.

At Bank Street Brewhouse, we've scheduled an unveiling.

Houndmouth bombers are the first bottling of what is projected to be regular 22-oz availability for NABC's Session Series (also Beak's Best Bitter, Community Dark and Tafelbier) of low-gravity beers. These will be sold exclusively at our two locations, so look for them later this summer.

Don't forget that in less than a week, on Friday, May 30, this summer's concert series (staged by Production Simple) begins at Bicentennial Park. NABC will be vending at the park, along with River City Winery, Irish Exit and JR's Pub.

Meanwhile, a block away ...

Big Four Burgers joins forces with NABC for Friday evening food at Bank Street Brewhouse

Beginning on Friday, May 30, Big Four Burgers will have its new mobile burger trailer parked outside Bank Street Brewhouse on the very same Fridays as the concert series. Burger hours will be from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., allowing music lovers to have a Big Four burger and NABC progressive pint before or after the musical performances just down the street.

ON THE AVENUES: Complexities and simplicities in Boomtown.

ON THE AVENUES: Complexities and simplicities in Boomtown.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Friday is a very important day. That’s because I’m getting a haircut. Personally, it is slated to be a timely and symbolic act, considering that my year to date has constituted a journey from complexity to simplicity – and for me, taking care of foot-long hair has become far too complicated.

This hirsute situation, which has taken several years to create, will be rectified in short order with the generous assistance of Strandz & Threadz, which will be staging its annual Cuts for a Cure. My original aim was to solicit donors for the occasion, but unfortunately the daily grind has been a bit too … well, complicated, so instead, I’ll make a donation on behalf of those friends who would have been subjected to the hard sell. It’s simpler that way.

---

By all rights, Tuesday should have been a day for New Albanians to triumphantly remind the world that while Jeffersonville’s connecting ramp to the Big Four Bridge finally was open, those many months of barred, inaccessible ineptitude could not possibly be forgotten – and, by comparison, New Albany still had its act together as the Brooklyn/Hoboken/Boomtown/Not Jeffersonville of the Falls Cities.

In fact, one can conceive of only a handful of ways for us to flush such a commanding lead in the waning seconds, among them photos of a Democratic grandee in bed with a sheep, a Padgett truck wedged into two Spring Street buildings while trying to make a turn, or 387 Little Leaguers forming a human chain across the Plan Commission.

But where there’s a will, there’s a way, and somewhere in the world an elderly Franco Harris donned a Red Devils uniform, grinning broadly in approval as we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, yielding the usual media spin:

Reporting from Jeffersonville:
Look at these delighted folks crowding the Big Four in their spandex with Bibles, ice cream cones and homespun drooling.

Reporting from New Albany:
POLICE SCANDAL! NEWS AT 11!

Two days later, it has gotten even more Byzantine. Sifting through the usual stenography from the same Jimmy Olsens:

First, a police officer registered a complaint over alleged incidents some years back, and threatened a lawsuit.

Next, the chief of police suddenly quit for “family” reasons, followed by her second in command, albeit of a different family.

Then, a grand jury made a report on a recent alleged episode involving a police officer, but declined to issue an indictment.

An agoraphobic City Hall seemingly shaken to its core by the grudging necessity of appearing in public to address any issue other than “quality of life” in EDIT-funded parks gradually rushed forward to reassure the citizenry that each of these policing occurrences took place in a hermetically sealed vacuum similar to that surrounding municipal parks construction decision-making.

Now our choices are to ignore these protests of non-linkage and retreat to our favorite watering holes to formulate conspiracy theories, a habit sometimes referred to by cultural anthropologists as the “old lady Internet troll with dangling cigarette” theorem, or to go even deeper by pondering which is worse, multiple acts of weirdness taken together or separately?

As far as I’m concerned, it’s Rosenbarger’s fault, and nothing a few bump-outs wouldn’t cure.

But seriously: At this precise moment, the only thing crystal clear about any of it is that we’ll have a new police chief. Beyond that, it’s all innuendo and murk. I’m not jumping to conclusions.

When we’re finished gossiping, might someone – City Hall, police department, Democratic central committee, Kim Jung-un – take an interest in the escalating speeds on our almost entirely unenforced one-way arterial streets?

---

This brings me to Sunday, when there’ll be a new event downtown called the Boomtown Ball and Festival. Boomtown is the brainchild of Houndmouth, a Southern Indiana musical group with strong ties to New Albany. The city has played a leading role in this celebration, as with the Bicentennial Park Concert Series, which begins on Friday, May 30.

On Sunday evening, the band will play a sold-out indoor show at The Grand. During the afternoon preceding Houndmouth’s performance, other bands will play on an outdoor stage at Market and Third, as selected and booked by Houndmouth and Production Simple, while in the farmers market space and on Bank Street, there will be vendors of all varieties as organized and arranged in the loose aggregation known as the Flea Off Market. It’s an all-ages, all-interests event.

A consortium of downtown food and drink businesses will operate the Boomtown Tavern, located within the confines of the farmers market pavilion. Owing to Indiana state law, the entire Boomtown festival will be located within a fence and enclosures, but of course, the full range of downtown’s independent businesses are a short walk away. Many of them will observe special Sunday opening hours for the occasion.

In a conceptual sense, if the Boomtown festival were to declare its relationship status, the likely choice would be “It’s Complicated.” Nothing about it has been simple, and yet the day slowly is coming together. By Sunday, we’ll be ready to muddle through it, and I’m sure everything will work out acceptably.

It’s worth remembering that when it comes to serving the cause of simplicity, communication goes a very long way toward reducing complexity to manageable levels, if not eliminating it outright. During the course of my involvement with Boomtown, I’ve tried to make decisions and urge solutions on the basis of more communication, not less, and in the simple recognition that downtown stakeholders already have issues with unanswered questions pertaining to pre-existing impositions (read: Harvest Homecoming) without needing any more of them.

I’m hoping that in spite of the many rough spots experienced while planning and executing this complicated first-time event, all those working so hard to make it happen will learn from the input offered by those doing business downtown, every day of the year. I can’t speak for everyone, but it has been revealing for me.

Downtown has changed, and we just can’t persist in top-down planning without seeking some measure of consensus first, from those who stand to be affected by the actions being considered. Granted, the Boomtown Ball will bring commerce downtown on a Sunday, and of course, that’s a good thing, but it must be grasped by those in positions of authority that starting the Ball rolling by emphasizing the importance of a Louisville-based flea market – a fine and reputable institution in its own right – sent an immediate and frankly insulting signal to local merchants, which sounded like this: “We’re not good enough here, so we’ll bring in someone else’s panache.”

No, this was not the city’s intent. However, it was ill-considered just the same, and it has complicated every step of the process since.

Simplicity? Please, and here’s an example.

“Do you mind if we use your space?”

SoIn previews the Boomtown Ball.

A consortium of downtown restaurant and bar operators have spent quite a lot of time preparing for next Sunday's Boomtown show, both by seeking to make the event equitable for all downtown businesses, and moreover, by accepting the responsibility for the alcoholic beverage vending at the event. It would be nice if we were to be mentioned somewhere along the way; if not in a single one of the city's press releases, than perhaps in this otherwise excellent newspaper preview. Alas, in New Albany, we're all here because we're not all there.

Kudos, then, to Production Simple for getting it right in last week's Fb blast. We appreciate it, guys.

News and Tribune blasts Boomtown, Houndmouth for non-localism as Bill Hanson cowers during phone call to 'Bama HQ for further instructions.

There are times when the phrase "penal servitude" takes on a whole new coloring. Was the whole thing just a dream?

I ran into one of NABC's twenty-something customers while out for my walk, proving that today's youth can be up early on the morning after Derby, just like the old man.

The conversation turned to the forthcoming Boomtown Ball and Houndmouth show. He was excited, and since we've chatted in the past about like topics, I broadened the scope and reminded him that not everyone feels the same way.

He appeared puzzled, so I elaborated.

You see, there's this fellow at the News and Tribune, and he was tweeting last night about how the Boomtown event wasn't local enough, and as a localism advocate, I was being a hypocrite by participating, and NABC was just in it for the money, and that Houndmouth itself is populated by "some dudes who ripped off a Dylan backup band." We got into this big Twitter dust-up, and I concluded by suggesting  -- nay, pleading -- that if he felt so strongly about it, maybe he should be a man, lead the crusade, and publish an editorial or some such -- you know, take the whole thing public and let the people decide, which is fine by me, because I'm serene about it.

My twenty-something customer looked at me with a very strange, solemn expression.

"What's the News and Tribune?"