Charlie Romans

About Charlie Romans

Local Kentucky Journalist and Author, Charlie Romans, invites listeners to join him on his journey through his home town to discover the stories behind the best places to live, work, and play.

Publisher

Charlie Romans

Category

arts · society & culture · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

7 Mar 2022

Latest episode

17 Aug 2023

Latest episodes

8 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Aug 2023

   Foundry Theater and Appalachian Film Festival

   Rachael Allinder, the Founder and CEO of Foundry Theater shares a little about the Foundry’s history and how it serves local creators. The nonprofit is located on the top floor of the city building in Huntington, WV, and the weekend of Aug 19 will host the Appalachian Film Festival. Patrons can view the Independent film King Coal and meet creators behind that film. Patrons will also be able to connect with screenwriter and n Ironton, Ohio native Mickey Fisher. Do yourself a favor and check out all the Foundry has to offer! (https://www.foundrytheater.org/?fbclid=IwAR1_R-BnAlagYXTCS50ujTD6qKw03oPwb9PBJiV4ckgq-DA63ZxasSrbhqE) Tickets and schedules for the Appalachian Film Festival can be found here. (https://www.foundrytheater.org/appalachian-film-fest)

2. 

   4 May 2022

   Jewel Art Gallery

   There weren’t many (read any) art galleries where I grew up. The irony to that fact was that I grew up painting, not pastoral scenes or portraits, but automobiles. And though there is a good amount of skill required in rebuilding wrecked cars and trucks and returning them to a “new” condition, I never considered it to be artwork as such. Airbrushing is a different thing entirely, and can be considered art, but that talent was never one that I possessed. Still, art fascinates me because it begins with a blank canvas, a field of pristine whiteness, and somehow the artists breathe passion and soul onto it until it becomes a living thing. I had of course seen pictures of art represented in textbooks or on television, but though often beautiful, I always felt there was something missing. I always wondered about this as I looked at the amazing book covers painted by my old masters Boris Vallejo, Frank Frazetta, and John Jusko to name a few (yes, I was and still am a huge fantasy nerd) and tried to discern what was missing. After quite some time I figured it out, and the solution was frustrating. The problem was that I couldn’t see the brushstrokes, and how they “built” their art. And I had to realize that I probably never would, unfortunately. That’s one of the reasons why it was so wonderful meeting my friends at Jewel Art Gallery in Ashland, Ky. Bri and Elias Reynolds are the owners of the gallery that showcases local artists and are the manager and head artist respectively. I recently was fortunate enough to sit down and speak with Bri Reynolds about everything from art appreciation to different art mediums such as painting and sculpture. She is a wonderful young woman who appreciates art on so many levels and is always ready to answer questions. She let me see the brush strokes, the building blocks of art, from the inside out. Some days you also get really lucky and can talk to the local artists who made those bright swaths of color in person. The walls of the gallery are lined with so many different interpretations and themes. I saw a classic western painting of a cowboy with his horse and dog just feet from an amazing interpretation of African cultural history. “That’s one of the things we wanted to do,” Bri said as I looked around the gallery. “I tried to keep it very diverse so that somebody could come in and be a fan of that specific artist. So, we are creating collectors of people’s works,” she told me. “So, when they come in, they could ask if Gail has any new pieces this week. Or does Jerry have any new pieces,” she said. “For example, we have one artist that only paints endangered wildlife. She used to be a biologist until she got Lyme Disease.” Now the scientist turned artist serves her passion by painting it, which is a story unto itself. Honestly, that’s one I’d love to write. “We have all these different people who create different things,” she said. “And we wanted them to be identifiable for what they are best at, and that way they can create a following within our art gallery.” Different things . . . brushstrokes, sculptures, and wood carvings from dozens of different artists doing all the things that have fascinated me for decades. I don’t know why you might go to an art gallery (honestly, any reason is a good reason), but the opportunity to learn the how and why from people who do things I can’t do seems amazing to me. Am I jealous? No – well, maybe just a little – but I can and do appreciate things I personally don’t do. And at Jewel Art Gallery I can appreciate those things up close and personal, and personally ask the artist not only about the brush strokes, but why they decided to pick up a brush in the first place. That possibility is nothing short of wonderful.

3. 

   22 Apr 2022

   CRe05: Sky37 Bistro

   If you are in downtown Ashland Kentucky at the SkyTower business complex, you can find Jason Crum and his wife Carma at Sky37 Bistro brewing an amazing cup of coffee. “It’s been a long way to get here,” Jason said. “We worked a lot through the pandemic, and since it was difficult to find people to work we did most of this ourselves. But it was kind of a labor of love, and we are glad we’re open. And the reception in Ashland has just been great.” There has been, as in many things, and evolution of ideas, he said. “We started down one path,” Jason said of the initial idea. “At first, we were just going to sell coffee, some pastries, and the normal café type of stuff.” That changed, he said, when everyone got wind that his wide’s cooking was “pretty good”. “So the next thing I knew, we had a menu,” he added to customer smiles from behind him as we talked just before lunch. “And we’ve not had a bad meal go out of here,” he added, again to smiles and nods of his patrons. Crum said that his intent was to have a place where people could slow down and come in for a while, which is why he chose the pour over method of coffee brewing, and they also make the pour over kits for customers to use at home. “The standard pour over kit is sort of the camper’s way of making coffee,” he explained. “If you have access to hot water, all you need is some coffee grounds and a cone filter and you pour the water through it. Ultimately that creates a couple of cups at a time.” “It brings out the flavor, and ours is unique because there are channels in the holder that holds the filter better and extracts flavor from the coffee better,” he said. The coffee itself is also specialty coffee that Crum purchases directly from the farm, and then it is roasted at their facility in Lloyd, Kentucky. “So everything is local and we have very fresh coffee all the time.” Crum said that he has introduced Bourbon coffee, and will also be introducing Cachaca Coffee, or Brazilian Rum flavored. “Anything distilled in Brazil has to be called Cachaca, because they aren’t allowed to call it rum,” he said. “We cast the cones in the kit out of a food grade resin.” Jason said of his choice of coffee “brewer”. “That way if they are knocked off the counter they will just bounce or roll across the floor. They’re very robust, and they will last well,” he said. The wire framework stand that holds the cone in place for brewing is of a heavy hand shaped copper wire. The entire kit, he said, from top to bottom is hand crafted and extra durable. “If you break one of these, you really had to work at it,” he added with a laugh. Crum said that there has been a good response to his method and the kits, with quite a few customers purchasing them for home use. “That’s another reason I chose this method, because people can do this at home. It’s not like if I had bought a 30-thousand-dollar expresso machine that people could have it at home. This way you can take our coffee – or anyone’s coffee – and have it in your home and get the same results that we do here. But it forces the coffee to be better coffee, and really gets the flavor out of it. Here I play with the grind a little bit, because I have some customers who want a stronger cup of coffee and some who want a weaker cup of coffee,” he said. The dining room of Sky37 has a big screen television over a fireplace, and what Crum describes as a rustic theme. Clocks and bourbon barrels, as well as handcrafted tables all sit beneath lighting fixtures and Edison bulbs, most of which were crafted by Crum himself, evoke an industrial modern feel. “Lighting and furniture was actually how we got started,” he said. “We started JC Mercantile in Lloyd and carried Brazilian made furniture,

4. 

   15 Apr 2022

   CRe04: Geek Inc. Jarrod Greer

   My friend Jarrod Greer describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur,” and I have to admit that the title fits. Jarrod will trade on almost anything, and he regularly travels both locally and states away looking for people selling collections or even unique individual items that he can either resell or simply because it strikes his fancy. While we were recording the podcast, I was sitting directly across from one of his more recent acquisitions, a stuffed badger (Whom he promptly named Leonard) he had brought back from his latest buying trip. “I told them I hoped we could make some deals,” Jarrod laughed. “But regardless, that was going home with me.” Jarrod’s journey started a long time ago, he says, when his parents would drive him to reptile shows so he could buy assorted reptiles and then sell them to buy more. “I never met a hobby that I didn’t try to turn into a business,” he said. “I always thought that if I could make money off what I enjoyed, then it would subsidize doing more of it. If someone would introduce me to remote control car racing today, I’d have a remote-control car business within six months,” he laughed. And given his track record, I’m sure it would be profitable. Speaking of that track record, Jarrod and his wife Jaime own the popular Inner Geek stores in Ashland, Kentucky, and Huntington, West Virginia. They also own a sports card store called Pack Busters located not a block from the Inner Geek in Huntington. The Ashland store focuses on comics, and the Huntington store has a heavy focus on books, but both are available at both locations. And they both carry the collectibles that were part of Jarrod’s childhood - and everyone else’s because he likes anything cool and collectible. “With comic books especially, having the stores has allowed me to see massive amounts of cool comic books I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to own in my life if I wasn’t in the business,” he said. But surprisingly, although he is passionate about collecting, he is less passionate about keeping those collectibles. “I don’t have to keep it,” he said with the thrill of the hunt creeping into his voice. “I just want to find it. With comic books specifically, I want to find this amazing issue of Spiderman that is really hard to come by; but once I have it in my hand, I have climbed that mountain. I’ve made that conquest, so now I can sell it and go on with my life.” “It’s the challenge of finding cool stuff; that’s the comic book store for me.” And the thrill he gets is fueled by stocking the shelves of those stores. “I love crawling through people’s attics with a flashlight, and as you pan the light across the room, you catch on some boxes and go, “Oh my God, that’s the thing I’ve been looking for six years.” It’s a treasure hunt,” he said. “But once I have it in the van on the way home, it’s different. I guess I’m not a hoarder,” he laughed. “I just really like finding things.” The roots of Jarrod Greer’s insanely popular comic and toy conventions in Lexington and Huntington can be traced back to his interest in reptiles – and not simply the fact that he once traded some snakes for a comic collection. “We were promoting reptile conventions across the state,” he said. “We wanted to do one in Lexington, and I reached out to the Lexington Convention Center. But for various reasons, they really didn’t want me to do a reptile show in the building at that time. And I told them that we should get to know each other and asked what kind of shows we could do there.” The response he got was a question about what sort of things he was interested in. Greer said he replied that he liked comics and toys, and that was the beginning.

5. 

   8 Apr 2022

   CRe03: Imel’s Greenhouse

   I have been listening to people brag about Imel’s Greenhouse on Route 1 in Greenup, Kentucky almost as long as I’ve known the owner Kenny Imel and his family. And that is quite some time, because I have known Kenny for over 25 years. He and his brother started the Greenhouse a long time ago, and his brother moved on to other things, but Kenny kept growing and sharing everything with the people of Greenup and pretty much everywhere else. But don’t take my word for it; we’ll let him help tell his own story about where he started and where he is right now. We got together most recently on a cold morning that lent itself more to hot chocolate than hot peppers, but Kenny is experienced enough to know that Mother Nature has her own schedule, and wayward temperatures don’t set her back much. “It doesn’t feel like it, but Spring is here,” he said. That’s the way it is, it’s up and down.” “In the beginning, my oldest brother and I were partners for about a year,” he said. “He went on to do another job, and I continued to do the greenhouse business.” The whole idea, he said, began as an FFA project to keep activities on the farm. The plan was to keep records of everything to show how everything progressed for that project, but it carried on beyond that. Forty-four years later Kenny Imel is still going strong, plowing through the rough spots, and planning for bigger and better things during his successes. “I’ll be sixty this year, so it’s been a long time. But it’s been a good ride too.” Kenny told me his hope was that he has done some good in the community, and in other areas as well. But at this point, I honestly don’t think my friend truly knows what he has accomplished – mainly because he isn’t a fan of blowing his own horn so to speak. But there are generations of students whose knowledge of agriculture, of the farms that built the area, would be quite a bit less if it weren’t for him and his family. Kenny is an agricultural champion whether he wants to own up to it or not, and he is always a willing set of hands when anyone needs help. Proof of that is his involvement with the Farm to Table Event. Imel’s partners with Farm Bureau, the Farm to Table Committee, and FFA each year to put on an event that showcases the necessity of farm communities in Kentucky and what they have to offer. The event serves as a fundraiser, with money equally shared with the FFA, the Historic McConnell House in Wurtland, and the 4H. The dinner is held in Imel’s two huge covered greenhouses, and Imel himself is dedicated to making the event as successful as possible because of his commitment to agriculture and the good it does in the community. “What they do is take that money and use it for youth projects,” he said. “And it gives some kids that maybe wouldn’t have the opportunity because they couldn’t afford it to do those things. It’s a win-win situation for everybody,” he said of Farm to table. “We have a good evening out and a lot to do. There’s food and fireworks, and the AG Commissioner usually speaks and there are other good speakers. There will also be some vendors this year from Farmer’s Markets, and we have a group of wood carvers coming in.” “What we are striving to do, number one, is build awareness about agriculture,” Imel said. “Number two is to let the kids get involved so that they will know and take pride in the things they can do in this community. And as a group, we have to build our communities from the inside out. If you do that with local folks, then people are going to stay here. If we do some of these projects ourselves, then it works out better.” Doing different things and bringing those things home is something Kenny Imel has...

6. 

   7 Mar 2022

   CRe02: Corduroy Brown

   Alan Brown - Corduroy Brown Take just a second to imagine that one of your closest friends was a talented musician, and not just talented but so good that he made everything look easy. Imagine that when he picks up a guitar, he kind of melds with it, and the sound that vibrates from the strings catch you on the most basic level and pulls you through into the story. The man becomes his music, and that music wraps around you until everything else falls away. Joy and sadness are immediate and intimate, the way good music and good friends always are. But you don’t have to imagine it at all. All you need to do is listen to the genuine passion of Corduroy Brown. Corduroy Brown is a pop-rock band out of Huntington, West Virginia, and lead singer Alan Brown grew up in Chesapeake, Ohio. “I grew up right here, and I’ve lived here all my life,” Brown said. “I live in Huntington now, but I grew up right down the road. I consider the whole area my home now.” Brown’s path to the music he plays was neither straight nor easy. “No one in my family is musical at all,” he confessed. “I think I have an uncle who plays the saxophone - kinda. But in 2008, when all my friends were bringing guitars to high school, I was like, “I want to do that!” So my mom got me my first guitar for Christmas, and it was a Fender CD 60 model from Mac N Dave’s, and she paid way too much money for it.” But proof that her investment paid off in his music, and Brown is quick to acknowledge the impact it has had on his life. (https://linktr.ee/corduroybrownwv) “It has been such a blessing,” he said. “Music is something that has just and is still changing my life every day.” The timelessness of music also appeals to him, and Brown said that he loves seeing videos of musicians who are playing well into their eighties and beyond. “And music is something that uses both sides of you brain so it is so powerful, and I feel lucky to get to do this every single day.” Brown said he began learning guitar while he was listening to heavy metal and death metal, or, as he said, “anything with screaming and big heavy, chunky guitars.” “That eventually dissolved down a little,” he said with a laugh. “But don’t get me wrong, I still listen to it on road trips. So if I feel a little sleepy, we’re going to be listening to some heavy stuff,” he said appreciatively. “But some of my more formative stuff, when I really started learning to play were from groups like Flyleaf, from back in 2004.” That group had a female lead, he said and is still one of his favorite bands of the day. Other favorites included Dave Matthews and Howlmouth, but he said he grew up listening to tapes of Michael Jackson. The voice, that intangible quality that makes a musician’s music uniquely his own, is something Brown said was an evolution. And the current album, including the single “Who I am for Now,” began to gel when Corduroy Brown became a band. “The song and the whole album is basically me calling myself out for the things I didn’t like about myself,” he said. “It’s about how I grew from situations. The music takes a long time for me to write because I want to make sure that I really mean what I’m saying. I don’t want to fill in a verse with “Oh, that rhymes, so it works.” It might put me at a disadvantage, but I want to mean that.” “I think between getting mental health figured out, and just life in general, a lot of these songs are just my life encompassed in a three-and-a-half-minute package,” Brown said. And the mental health aspect became vital to him in 2017 when he began taking mental health seriously. Brown said that he thinks even in high school, he had started self-harm, which manifested itself in cutting himself.

7. 

   7 Mar 2022

   CRe01: Eridanus Brewery and Tea House

   Inside Eridanus Brewery and Tea House with a flight sampler of Eridanus Craft Beers Eridanus Brewery in downtown Russell Kentucky is the realization of the dream of Justin and Kristen Matthews, who blend their excitement into every batch of specialty beer and fine teas. “I’ve been brewing at home for about twelve years now, and Kristen has been brewing her teas for about 8 years now,” Justin Matthews said. “This idea has been years in the making, but we finally decided to take the plunge and start a brewery and tea house.” “We went back and forth looking at a lot of locations before we ended up in the City of Russell at the old train depot,” he said. Matthews said the road to where the pair ended was something of a saga, with a yearlong process of things such as getting approval from the state transportation cabinet (since the trains still run the tracks near the location), the Kentucky Heritage Association (since the building is historical), and of course the City of Russell itself. “When you are dealing with a historical building, it’s a process,” he said. “But everyone was all in and very supportive, but the levels you have to go through to turn a train depot into a brewery and tea house was a little more than we anticipated.” “All in all, it’s went well, but we did have some fun with plumbing,” he added with a laugh. “When we did the Grand Opening, one of the City Council members said something to the effect that it was admirable that we didn’t stop when we hit some of these roadblocks. It was definitely a saga getting there.” But before the pair were on the road to, and eventually, overcoming those roadblocks, a series of circumstances led to the final push to take the plunge. “A lot of people ask about what made us take the plunge,” Kristen Matthews said. “They say well, you had a dream, but what actually made you go for it?” she said. “We always preface this by saying that it might not be for everyone when we tell the story,” Justin said. “But it is a very cool story, and the payoff is worth it.” “It’s always been my dream to start a brewery and it’s always been Kristen’s dream to start a tea house,” he said. “She had made a business plan when she was in college for a books store and tea house and coffee house, so our dreams kind of blended together.” And what gelled the combined plans was a seemingly unrelated dream of Justin’s to see the Los Angeles Dodgers spring training. “It was on my bucket list, and for my 40th birthday (right before COVID hit), Kristen planned a trip for us to go to Arizona. We were going to the spring training and hit some breweries,” he said. “Because that is a must when we go on vacation. And one of the things she wanted to do was go to Sedona.” Kristen Matthews is also a practicing yoga teacher (yoga is also offered at Eridanus) and wanted to see the energy vortexes and explore the aura of Sedona. “So on a day there wasn’t training, we drove to the Grand Canyon and spent a few hours there then drove to Sedona and had lunch.” The pair walked around, he said, and visited what he described as a crystal store. “Justin calls it a “woo woo” store,” Kristen laughed. “I used to call it that,” he corrected her. The reason for his change of heart, he said, was part of the story. Justin said that the shop owner was very nice and told her they were from Kentucky. But as he looked around, she came up to him and said that she needed to talk to him although she didn’t want to startle him. “I don’t want to scare you, but I need to tell you something,” she said. “You are in the process of planning something, and it’s going to be huge, and it’s going to change your life,” she continued. “But what you need to do is don’t let anyone talk you out of it. But more importantly,

8. 

   7 Mar 2022

   CRe00: Who in the world is Charlie Romans?

   Hi, I’m Charlie Romans and welcome to the show. My life is probably a lot like yours. I grew up around here, I traveled a bit, and then I came home. Why? Because it’s home; and like the little girl from Kansas said, there’s no place like it. Home is where the family is and where our friends are – and those two things alone make home the most wonderful place you’ll ever be. Sure, it’s nice to visit other places and do different things, and I did that a lot when I was younger. But you know, there are a lot of cool things to see and do right out our back door. And more things pop up all of the time. That’s what this show is all about. It’s about the things that our families and friends are doing that are more interesting than we might think. It’s about the entertainment happening just down the road and the talented people we might be passing on the street every day without even knowing it. Who has the best food, the best deals, and the really cool stuff we might want to try at least once in a while. And of course, where do we find all of those people and things? The answers might surprise you. Long before I became a reporter and a columnist, I enjoyed talking to people. Doing that all these years has taught me that we really don’t realize how interesting or talented we are, and what our area has to offer. People tell me all of the time that they “aren’t that interesting” and that no one wants to “hear about them”. Honestly though, the exact opposite is true. And to prove just that, let me introduce you to some of the friends I have made along the way. You might know them already, but we’ll see “what they’re up to” anyway. . .

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