When Harvest Homecoming rolled around in 2015, I was:
- Running for mayor as an independent, and learning all about the credits and debits of challenging local government orthodoxies.
- On hiatus from active involvement with NABC for the duration of the campaign, and as yet unsure is the separation might become permanent.
- Seeking to convince New Albany’s food and drink operators that an independent restaurant and bar association was a better idea than relying on the city-dominated Develop New Albany (now Main Street New Albany) to act in our best interests.
- Trying to jump-start Biers on Parade, an indie pop-up event on Harvest Homecoming’s parade day.
- Wondering yet again why the drunken stork mistook the Ohio for the Danube and dropped me into the Open Air Museum of Ignorance, Superstition and Backwardness (sponsored by Mayor Jeff Gahan).
As it turned out:
- I lost the election, but wasn’t at all disappointed.
- In 2016, the NABC separation became a permanent divorce, with the settlement coming in 2018.
- NARBA never took off, in part because City Hall’s strident opposition to such an idea virtually guaranteed it would be futile.
- Biers on Parade returned in 2016, but never went any further.
- The open air museum surely is better looking than it used to be, although New Albany’s collective mode of thinking has changed very little. Verily, it must be in the water.
The post-NABC era for me began in 2016. By 2018, Pints&union was in business, and at Food & Dining Magazine, the late John Carlos White began nudging me toward expanded writing and editing duties. My tenure at P&u ended in late 2023, and F&D has ceased in 2026 owing to John’s death.
Obviously the post-post-NABC era has commenced, and 66 feels far different than 55. Like a blacksmith by the interstate, my skill set is profoundly under-valued at present, but we’ll see. My work ethic survives. Whether there’ll be a new anti-post-post-NABC era has yet to be determined.
The following column was published at NA Confidential on October 8, 2015.
—
