Month: May 2016

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Music Music Features

Record Reviews

Jimbo Mathus — Band of Storms EP (Big Legal Mess)

Jimbo Mathus calls his latest EP a collection of cave paintings that turned into folk songs. The Oxford, Mississippi, guitarist is comfortable churning many different genres through his folk/boogie-rock filter, making for a relaxed yet confident batch of songs created in Bruce Watson’s Dial Back Sound studio.

Released just in time for summer, Band of Storms is definitely a party record, made for those who find joy in shot-gunning a beer or holding court while cooking in the backyard with a half dozen like-minded derelicts. There’s nothing serious on Band of Storms, and even the sadness on the song “Slow Down Sun” doesn’t take away from the party that Mathus has created with his laid-back approach to songwriting. While Band of Storms won’t be competing for record of the year in any major music poll, the EP is a testament to the Southern rock-and-roll being celebrated by Fat Possum/Big Legal Mess and a glimpse into what happens when an artist is perfectly comfortable with recording whatever they want, whenever they want. — CS

Favorite Track: “Slow Down Sun”

Ryan Azada — Weird, But Cool (Self Release)

Ryan Azada long stood behind the curtain. He booked bands at DIY spaces all over Memphis, pulling 70 to 80 hours a week at Crosstown Arts, and often hopped onto shows last minute with an acoustic guitar and songs that seemed like they would never get the studio treatment. A proper release was overdue, but it‘s a solid introduction.

Azada‘s debut EP Weird, But Cool spans three tracks and barely hits the 10-minute mark, but he aptly uses his time to scratch the surface of deep-seated cynicism wrapped in oddball hope. Each song on Weird, But Cool is unique, which is a feat for any musician who relies on an acoustic guitar as their backbone.

The OAM Network’s Gil Worth engineered two tracks on Weird, But Cool, “Madison & Cleveland“ and “What I Want to Say,” live at the Pezz practice space. EP-opener “Return to Nothing” features guitarist Scott Scharinger of DADs, who Azada played bass for until they broke up. Azada‘s band combines a cast of musicians woven into his life from previous endeavors. Julien Baker and Matt Gilliam of Forrister lend guitars and drums. Rebecca Flax, another musician from the Smith7 inner circle, plays bass.

Weird, But Cool captures well the humble and distant warmth that embodies Azada‘s live sets, and I hope a full length is forthcoming. — JC

Favorite Track: “Madison & Cleveland”

Evil Dead — Death by Electric Shock EP (Evil Dead Records)

Long before Evil Army became the biggest name in the local metal scene, there was a group called Evil Dead. Inspired by bands like the Misfits and the Reatards, Rob Wilkerson (Aka Rob Evil) picked up his guitar and cranked out five tracks of primitive metal for an EP he would later dub Death by Electric Shock. Sure, these songs are over a decade old at this point, but they serve as the blueprint for what was to come for one of the best guitarists in the history of Memphis metal.

The EP starts with the song “The Underworld,” and while that track is certainly worth the opening slot, the second and third songs — “Death by Electric Shock” and “Destroy the Enemy” — are the real winners here. Both songs showcase Wilkerson’s love of both garage rock and numbskull punk, and the riff on “Death by Electric Shock” is one of the most genre-bending songs any Memphis band from that era has created. This CD is only available at Evil Army shows, but well worth the money. — CS

Favorite Track: “Destroy the Enemy”

Those Pretty Wrongs — Self-titled (Ardent Music)

It‘s inferred in the name Those Pretty Wrongs that an overarching positivity can be born out of loss and missed opportunities. The same unabashed optimism carries the band’s self-titled debut LP, a collaborative project between Big Star alum Jody Stephens and Luther Russell. Stephens and Russell‘s 10-track album rests in the simplicity of earned perspective.

Maybe there‘s no one more apt to speak on the topic than Stephens, the last living original member and drummer of a pioneer power-pop band (Big Star) that never scratched Billboard‘s Top 200 Albums list but wrote the textbook for wave after wave of rising bands.

On Those Pretty Wrongs, Stephens sings the majority of vocals for the first time in his storied career. The album blends soft, folk austerity with electric arrangements and clear melodies that characterized Big Star‘s sound. Stephens’ and Russell‘s harmonies are indistinguishable from those found on #1 Record.

The album was engineered by Mike Wilson at Ardent Studios and mixed by Russell and Jason Hiller at Electrosound in Los Angeles, California. Each song is warm and open — not too polished, not overly produced, and raw as they should be.

Record highlights: “Mystery Trip,” which pays homage to Big Star‘s “In the Street,“ “The Cube,” a track about the lives of traveling circus performers, and the acoustic “Lucky Guy,” where Stephens sings, “You see it half empty, I see it half full, life can be a game of push and pull.” He would know.

Some musicians distance themselves from the efforts of their early career. On Those Pretty Wrongs, however, Russell and Stephens meet at a crossroads, utilizing their strengths to bridge the past and present and create endearing, meditative pop songs. — JC

Favorite Track: “Mystery Trip”

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We Recommend We Recommend

David Leonard signs Tender is the Light.

At 16, David Julian Leonard appeared in The Final Chapter: Walking Tall, a feature film about Buford Pusser, the West Tennessee sheriff famous for driving the State Line Mob out of McNairy County. Leonard played a reckless teen who boosts a car and, with the help of his two best friends, leads the neighboring county’s sheriff on a high-speed chase “through the weeds, through the woods, and through the ditches.” It might not have been the most auspicious way to launch a film career, but it was a start. Leonard would go on to work as a grip and lighting technician for notable directors like Milos Forman and Francis Ford Coppola. He directed the documentary film Why Elvis?, co-directed Big Star Live in Memphis, and served as cinematographer on several projects with Memphis writer and filmmaker Robert Gordon. But for all of the skills Leonard has developed over a lifetime working in the movies, he does his best work with a still camera.

On Friday, May 27th, Leonard is hosting a signing of his aptly named new book Tender Is the Light, a collection of 66 visually arresting photographs.

Leonard’s Light

As a friend and sometimes protege of renowned photographer William Eggleston, Leonard’s developed an eye for extraordinary color and the ability to find exotic beauty in the most mundane locations. His reds are red as revenge; his yellows pop off the page. Leonard takes viewers behind church pulpits and into foggy neighborhoods. His camera turns baby dresses into clouds and introduces viewers to circus performers and children doing the things they do best.

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. Tender Is the Light is a handsome collection produced and distributed by German publisher Kehrer Verlag. It’s bound in drab linen that changes color like a sharkskin suit. A picture of three little girls at a pink princess party may not be the most arresting image in the collection, but it prepares viewers for the artist’s playful mix of irony and drama. What lies within might easily be described as a slow-speed joyride all around the world.

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Editorial Opinion

Silver Lining

Ordinarily, we don’t address the same subject in this space for two weeks running, but there are exceptions, once in a while. Last week, you may recall, we wrote about the Memphis Zoo board’s economic impact study, vis-a-vis Greensward parking at Overton Park. We dealt briefly (and by no means definitively) with both the study and the reaction of critics who distrusted its conclusions that Greensward parking was not necessarily a bad thing.

The subject (which shows no signs of going away, in any case) reared itself again this week in remarks to a Rotary Club of Memphis luncheon at the University Club by former city councilman Shea Flinn, now senior vice president of the Greater Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce and, as described by chamber chair Carolyn Hardy, the man who “moves the needle” on economic opportunity incentives pushed by the chamber.

Flinn oversees the Chairman’s Circle, a public outreach group operated by the chamber, as well as a series of innovative projects he refers to as “moon missions.”

His approach to the Greensward question was somewhat inadvertent and came his way during the post-address question-and-answer period, via an audience query regarding one of the aforesaid moon missions, this one designated as “Advancing Green Space.” Flinn was asked to comment on that mission in light of the current Greensward controversy.

Flinn made it clear that a) he was not advancing an official chamber position; and b) he was not bursting at the seams with an urge to speak on the matter as a private citizen. In keeping with that caution, Flinn’s first response was to express optimism that, as a result of ongoing mediation efforts initiated by Mayor Jim Strickland, there would soon be found “an adequate solution” to the controversy. He then went further, suggesting that there was an obvious silver lining to the whole wrangle, “if we could step back from the passion and Facebook of it all.”

Flinn reminded his audience that, “20 years ago we actually celebrated the fact of zoo parking.” It was because, he added, at that time the Memphis Zoo and Overton Park had each lost much of their luster and were not attracting nearly as many local citizens and tourists.

What he was saying, in effect, was that there is a problem today only because both the zoo and the park have been upgraded to the point that there is green space worth fighting over.

Well, that’s one way to look at it.

We were struck by several of Flinn’s observations, including his warning that “the best intentions” do not necessarily lead to “the best process.” In any case, said Flinn, it would be “a mistake to see ‘green space’ as meaning only Overton Park.”

Regrettably, however, that is the one green space that most clearly needs to be protected, however the process unfolds.

Categories
News The Fly-By

New Website Shares Local Women’s Abortion Stories

Rachel Ankney lives in Memphis now, but she was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Pittsburgh when she had her abortion. She is white and her boyfriend at the time was black, and as the couple made their way inside the clinic, protesters on the sidewalk hurled racial slurs at her boyfriend.

“I hate to be flippant about it, but my thoughts have always been, ‘Did you really think that strategy was going to work?’ It just shows me, adding to the reason I want to tell my story, [that] the people who are against us are not reasonable, they’re not rational, they’re not trying to help people. The reason that they are winning sometimes is because of our silence.”

Those words are from Ankney’s blog post on the new Tennessee Stories Project website, a joint project of Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region (PPGMR) and Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee, as well as other community partners. The site, which officially launched this week, offers women across the state the chance to share their abortion stories in an effort to reduce the stigma around the procedure.

“One in three women will have an abortion in their lifetimes. That’s a lot of people, but not a lot of people are willing to share because of the stigma,” said Leah Ford, community engagement and advocacy coordinator with PPGMR. “We’re collecting stories and putting them onto the website just to say, ‘Here are people who have had abortions, and they’ve have a range of experiences, a range of feelings, and all of that is completely normal.'”

The stories are organized according to the Grand Divisions of Tennessee — West, Middle, and East — and each includes the storyteller’s first name and a photo (or photo illustration for those who prefer more anonymity). The storyteller has to either live in Tennessee now or have had an abortion in the state. Those, like Ankney, who live here but had abortions in other states are fine, too. As of press time, there were only four West Tennessee stories (including Rachel’s) out of 26 stories on the site, but Ford says they’ve got more in the pipeline.

“We have 10 to 15 more people who we’re in the process of interviewing now. Some contacted us after seeing the website,” Ford said.

Once a person shares a story, the Memphis Planned Parenthood office stays in contact “to make sure our storytellers are really engaged through the process and empowered,” Ford said.

“We have opportunities to stay involved after [sharing a story], like hosting a book club to talk about reproductive stigma or workshops on sharing your story more publicly if you’re willing to do that,” Ford said.

Although the main objective of the Tennessee Stories Project is to change the stigma around abortion, Ankney sees another benefit. When she was first considering an abortion, she couldn’t find any resources online to give her an idea of how she may feel after the procedure.

“I found Planned Parenthood’s website, no problem, but I couldn’t go online and find out if I’d be okay or what happens if my mom finds out two weeks before or if women of faith would think I was going to hell,” Ankney said. “Until it’s safe to talk about it, you can go [to the website] and read about other people’s experiences. Nobody’s story is the same, but everybody is okay. The thing about the stigma is that it pushes the idea that people aren’t okay [after an abortion], and our silence perpetuates that.”

To read the stories or share a personal story, go to http://tnstories.org. Other partners in this project include CHOICES: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, Healthy and Free Tennessee, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, National Council of Jewish Women-TN, the Sea Change Program, and SisterReach.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1422

Unbe-WEAVE-Able

You know what is UnbeWEAVEable? Spell check, that’s what. This unfortunate promotional image teased the latest in a never-ending series of WMC reports about weaves, weave-related crime, and weaves that might be possessed by demon ghosts from foreign countries where people aren’t Christian. Sadly, we’re not making any of this up. This time, WMC’s senior weave correspondent Felicia Bolton used science — or a microscope anyway — to get to “the root” of the problem and determine whether or not products claiming to be made of 100 percent human hair are made from 100 percent human hair. The very serious two-part series was ultimately inconclusive.

Game of Fail

It’s that special time of year when The Commercial Appeal asks Mid-Southerners to vote in their Memphis Most poll, a reader survey created to celebrate regional favorites and sell some ads. You know, like the Flyer‘s “Best of” issue, only awkward. And speaking of awkward, what image could be more quintessentially Memphis than a white hand knuckle-clutching a flaming scepter and/or cattle brand? Check the apocalyptic cityscape in this image — just the kind of place everybody wants to live in and open a business. And this King — is it Elvis? Lawler? The Scorpion King?

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We Recommend We Recommend

901Fest this Saturday

On Saturday, it’s the debut of the 901Fest, which replaces the Sunset Symphony as Memphis in May’s season capper.

Susan Elliott, Memphis in May’s director of programming, says that after weeks of celebrating the honored country, the festival will bring the focus back on Memphis.

“We want to bring the world to Memphis, and Memphis to the world,” she says. As such, the festival will be all Memphis, from food to music to vendors.

Another goal was to get millennials involved, so they partnered with Choose901 in an open vote for bands they thought should perform at the festival. Many of those bands can be seen on the FanBank stage, one of four stages at the festival.

Among those set to perform are Zigadoo Moneyclips, the North Mississippi Allstars, Al Kapone, Opera Memphis, School of Rock, Frayser Boy, the Iris Orchestra, New Ballet Ensemble, and more.

Muddy’s, Wiseacre, El Mero, Reverb, Delta Blues Winery, Central BBQ, and many others will be serving up food.

The event will be preceded by the Great American River Run, which has attracted 2,000 runners from 33 states and three countries. Olympic bobsledder Sable Otey will lead the run stretching, there will be entertainment along the course and yoga for non-runners, and there may be an Elvis sighting or two.

The day will close in the best way possible: a Memphis-themed fireworks show.

“We’re excited,” Elliott says. “This is what the city said they want.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Man Up: Memphis Roller Derby Starts Recruiting Men

The traditionally all-female Memphis Roller Derby will now accept men into their growing grassroots league. While they won’t compete in public bouts, guys will skate at open league practices and scrimmage weekly with league members.

The roller derby is looking to grow its membership and compete for national attention after a recent year-long restructuring period.

The Flyer spoke with Naudia Vanelli (who becomes Vanelli Ice when she straps on her skates) about the new male rec league and how the men’s team could eventually take on a competitive life of its own. Vanelli joined Memphis Roller Derby in 2014 after refereeing for a team in South Bend, Indiana. — Joshua Cannon

Naudia Vanelli

Flyer: For those who don’t know (I’m raising my hand), how is roller derby played?

Naudia Vanelli: Roller derby is played by two teams who field up to five players at a time. The game is broken up into two-minute “jams” of play. Each team has a scoring player, the jammer, and four blockers. It’s the blocker’s job to get their jammer through the pack and stop the opposing jammer from getting through. For each opposing blocker a jammer passes, he or she scores a point. It’s a unique game in that players are playing both offense and defense at the same time.

Why did the league decide to include men?

The decision to include men was two-fold: We’re working on growing our member base as a league after a year of restructuring, and we really want to provide a space where both women and men in the Mid-South can learn how to play roller derby in a safe, inclusive environment. This was something that the league as a whole voted on.

How many men is the Derby looking for?

As many as we can get. We’re hoping that eventually we can start a men’s league that will branch off from — but work closely with — Memphis Roller Derby.

Men will play as rec league skaters but not in public bouts. What does the rec league encompass?

Rec league could be classified as “derby lite.” Players in our rec league can skate at all practices that are not closed to specific teams, and they can scrimmage weekly with the league. Active, team-placed players have to make minimum skate and service hours each month to be eligible to bout, but that’s not something rec league skaters have to worry about. Not only is rec league for men, it’s for women who want to learn how to play roller derby but can’t make the time commitment that being an active skater requires.

What steps would it take to form a competitive men’s team?

Memphis Roller Derby has traditionally been a women’s league, and we’re currently in our 10th season. There have been attempts made in the past to form a men’s team in Memphis, but due to numbers, it never took off. Once we get enough men in our rec league and they get ready to compete, they can start scheduling bouts with other co-ed or men’s teams.

Are there any pros and cons of forming a co-ed team or having men and women play together?

We had a co-ed mashup earlier this season with a team from Clarksville [the Red River Sirens], and the majority of our skaters had previously skated with men before we voted to allow men to join the league as rec skaters. The physicality of play between men and women is a little different, but the more different players we go up against, the more tools we have in our skater toolkits.

Categories
News The Fly-By

City Opens Up Mid-South Coliseum for Review

CREDIT: Brandon Dill

The Mid-South Coliseum’s structural challenges are “solvable and certainly not insurmountable,” according to some who have toured the shuttered facility last week. City officials will open the building up to preservationist groups next week.

The Coliseum has been in “full shut-down” since about 2006, meaning limited utilities and no heating or cooling. The building was targeted for demolition last year in an overall plan that would have transformed the Mid-South Fairgrounds into a youth sports destination. 

It seems that plan has been at least temporarily shelved as its main booster — former Housing and Community Development director Robert Lipscomb — was fired last year in the wake of a rape scandal. 

But before that, two grassroots groups — the Coliseum Coalition and Save the Mid-South Coliseum — were fighting to save the building from the wrecking ball. They organized community members and hosted special events around the building to show its potential.      

Brandon Dill

A look inside the Mid-South Coliseum

On Friday, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced he will allow citizen groups access to the Coliseum to evaluate the building’s potential for renovation. Those groups must bring with them qualified inspection experts like architects, engineers, or consultants specializing in sports and entertainment facilities, historic preservation, or those versed in the American with Disabilities Act (ADA).

All of them must sign a waiver, releasing the city of all liability from any harm caused due to potential hazardous materials or conditions in and around the building. Those tours are offered for the five days between June 6th and 10th in four-hour blocks. Groups can do up to two tours per day.

One group has already toured the Coliseum. Last week, architect Charles “Chooch” Pickard led a team from brg3s architects, SSR Engineering, Code Solutions Group, the Memphis Center for Independent Living, and Restoration Clean to examine the building. Experts tested everything from the building’s plumbing system to its mold and air quality. The team was assembled by the Coliseum Coalition and Save the Mid-South Coliseum.   

“I’m delighted that after spending three hours looking at all of the challenges, our team’s preliminary opinion was that the issues were solvable and certainly not insurmountable,” Pickard said. “When creative minds come together to create solutions to the challenges in old buildings, it often leads to a change in perception about the feasibility of renovating a historic structure.”

Still, city officials have not yet made a firm commitment to saving the building. However, the tours show they are willing to at least explore the idea. 

The Coliseum was closed in 2006 after losing more than $1 million in the last four years of its active life. Fixing the building, too, carried a big price tag. 

Bringing it to ADA compliance alone would cost $8.6 million, according to a 2009 study from OT Marshall Architects. After fixing the roof, flooring, kitchens, sprinklers, drywall, and everything else, the total cost to bring the building back to life was $32.8 million, according to the study. 

The Urban Land Institue recommended the Coliseum be saved or “at least part of the structure or its shell [be saved] for reuse as an indoor facility with a larger outdoor stage,” the group said in a November study of the building and the Fairgrounds.

Plans for the Coliseum and the Fairgrounds remain in flux as a new mayor and nearly new Memphis City Council begin to put their stamps on city issues. Also, a new grassroots organization — Friends of the Fairgrounds — are organizing efforts for civic input around the future of that massive space.

Doug McGowen, the city’s chief operating officer, said the Strickland administration have not yet committed to any plan for the Fairgrounds. 

“We are reviewing the previous [Lipscomb] plan along with the [Urban Land Institue] recommendations before advancing any plan,” read a statement from Strickland’s office.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

The morel is the story.

CREDIT: Olexa | Dreamstime.com

Morel mushrooms are the stuff of legend and fantasy. Scattered upon the ground, they look like a little tribe of forest gnomes with magical powers, like beings from a game of Dungeons and Dragons. They taste like an earthy distillation of fungal flavors and aroma, and command respect from cooks and eaters alike, who speak of them with reverence. For pickers who hear the call, they are a beckon to adventure and profit.

This year’s flush of so-called “natural” morel mushrooms has begun to wane across North America. Naturals come up year after year in the same spots, zealously guarded by those who know them (unless they are in Michigan, the government of which publishes online maps so locals can go find them). But the majority of gathered morels, including virtually all of the ones available for purchase, were harvested in the fire-scarred mountains of the West. While a handful of naturals would be considered a decent harvest for a day’s foray, the fire-following varieties can be astoundingly prolific in spots that were burned the previous summer. Sometimes they grow in such density that it takes effort not to step on them. With buyers paying as much as $20 a pound (they can retail for more than $50/lb), good pickers can easily earn more than a thousand bucks a day for their efforts.

Wait, did I say “easily?” Scratch that.

Even if you live in the mountains, you’ll probably have to drive a few hours and bump along dusty dirt roads to a spot that may or may not have had morels, and may or may not have already been picked. Simply arriving at a burned forest is a good first step, but hardly a guarantee of success. Within burns, mushrooms are finicky as to where they will pop up. They prefer burnt fir stands to pine, but not too burnt — some blazes are so hot they sterilize the soil to the point where nothing will grow. To find these fleeting fungi with regularity requires thinking like a morel. They only appear where there is the correct balance of soil humidity and temperature, which means south-facing slopes will “pop” first, north-facing slopes last.

Getting reliable information is tricky in morel country, and those you ask would sooner lend you their ATM cards and tell you their PINs than steer you in the right direction. Thus the expression: “Anyone foolish enough to ask a picker where he found his will be foolish enough to believe the answer.”

But all the pain, frustration and expense of getting to the goods will quickly evaporate at the sight of a little fun-guy poking through the black duff. You quickly scan the area for others, pull out your knife, drop to your knees, and start picking. The endorphins and adrenaline surge with the primal thrill of the hunt as you fill your bucket, and every time you eat them you relive this feeling and the sublime connection to the landscape that it embodies. If you dry them for later use, the feelings and flavors can be accessed whenever you rehydrate a few.

So if you have to pay more than you wish at the market for them, think about the work, risk, gas, and other expenses that the harvester went through. Prices are always high at the start of the season, and will start to ease as the season wears on. So frugal morel purchasers might want to sit tight. Another way to get more fungal mouthfuls for your dollar is to combine morels with your standard button mushrooms. The flavor of the wild ones is so strong that it will augment the relatively mild flavor of the buttons.

Morels should be cooked; eaten raw they can cause gastrointestinal distress. They respond well to being combined with butter and cream, as in the following recipe that is as good as it gets.

Ingredients

1 cup morels, either whole or sliced

¼ cup heavy cream

1 T butter

Zest and juice of one quarter lime

½ medium yellow onion, minced

Pinch Nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

Button mushrooms if you’re cheap

¼ cup dry sherry

Melt the butter in a heavy bottom pan. Add onion and morels (and buttons if using). Cook together until onions are translucent and the morels give up their moisture — about 10 minutes. Add sherry, and let it cook off. Add nutmeg, lime zest, and juice. Cook a moment and add the cream. Cook five more minutes, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Categories
Book Features Books

Returning to the scene: Richard Russo’s Everybody’s Fool

For me in my early 20s, there was no better place to be than on a bar stool next to one of Richard Russo’s characters. Or in a diner swilling thick, black coffee while looking over the daily racing form. Of course, that bar stool and booth are purely metaphorical, but I spent so much time reading Russo’s prose at that age that I feel as though I know his characters — Wild Bill, Harry Saunders, Sam Hall, Sully, Rub —intimately.

It’s why I got so excited when I learned that there would be a sequel to his 1993 novel Nobody’s Fool (Random House). Many may know the story from the film adaptation starring Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, and Philip Seymour Hoffman (you can see here why a sequel will be impossible to pull off).

With the bulk of the story taking place over 48 hours, and with a healthy dose of digression and flashback, Everybody’s Fool (Knopf) picks up years after the action in Nobody’s Fool. Russo is a master at creating a sense of place and sets his saga again in the familiar North Bath of upstate New York — his Yoknapatawpha County, his Winesburg, Ohio. The lovable and unlucky Sully has had a change in fortune, his finances having risen with the tide, while his friendly adversary Carl Roebuck’s luck is on the skids. A character late in the book seems to speak for these two, and all the snakebit citizens of Bath: “You ever wonder how come some people have all the luck?” Her partner thinks to himself, ” … that was like wondering why the sky was blue. It just was.”

A side character in Nobody’s Fool, police officer Douglas Raymer, takes a turn at leading man and antihero in Everybody’s Fool. Last seen being dressed down by his superiors for discharging his service revolver on a residential street (at Sully, no less), he is now chief of police for Bath. It’s his plight as much as any of the other characters’ that mirrors that of the town (the natural springs have dried up, and it’s losing face to neighboring, tony Schuyler Springs). He’s at the apex of his career, elected to an office of respect, yet is consumed with whom his late wife was sleeping with, whether or not Officer Charice Bond is as in love with him as he is with her, and whether or not he should resign from his position.

Twenty years on from when I first began reading Russo, a lot of water has gone under the bridge. The world has become increasingly smaller and the tragedies of it more readily accessible, so that a storyteller today might feel the need to emphasize the violence and ugliness of their fictional world to hold a reader’s attention. The water in Bath has run cold. While it’s cozy, if not cursed, a darkness has fallen on the streets and seeps into Russo’s story in a way that wasn’t there in 1993. The Rust-Belt town was never a Disneyland by any means, but the stain of violence was simply touched upon, what happened behind closed doors an underlying motive for the psyche of the characters. Today, that stain is unwashable and the violence in-your-face. It can be difficult to read, but read we do because Russo also knows justice and how to deliver it.

For some of us, the characters in a book don’t go away once we’ve finished reading. It’s that extra thump of the heart you get when Kurt Vonnegut’s Eliot Rosewater makes cameo appearances in Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, and Hocus Pocus, in addition to his own eponymous novel. By the conclusion of a novel, we’ve spent hours in a fictional world that continues on even after THE END, and its people — Pip, Holden, Scout, Almásy — swirl all around us.

It’s why we like sequels. Closure isn’t necessarily what we crave from a story, but continuance. And so it is with Russo and his Sully, Douglas Raymer, Carl Roebuck, and Rub Squeers. Where have they been all this time? What have they been up to? Why, they’ve been right here all along, acting like fools.