Thursday, Nov. 8
Author Con Lehane
Brilliant gimmick for a book-signing. Now that it’s getting so cold that you need a little incentive to go out in the evening, Carmichael’s is celebrating a series of mystery novels with a bartender-hero by serving Irish coffee! Con Lehane will be reading from “Death at the Old Hotel,” which is his third novel about Irish-American bartender Brian McNulty, whose professional station and personal style both serve to put him among unsavory elements of society. But when he turns amateur sleuth, McNulty maneuvers through the danger and conflicts by sticking to his own code of behavior. The mystery hero as tarnished knight — that’s a lineage that goes back to the immortal Philip Marlowe. Sláinte! —T.E. Lyons
Carmichael’s Bookstore
2720 Frankfort Ave.
896-6950
Free; 7 p.m.
Nov. 8-10, 16-17
‘Bye Bye Birdie’
The Ursuline School has cornered the market on wholesome, Tony award-winning musicals this fall. Their next offering, co-produced with Sacred Heart Academy, is the bouncy “Bye Bye Birdie.” Conrad Birdie, the current obsession/heartthrob of teen girls everywhere, is drafted into the army. Albert, Birdie’s manager, is distressed, but his fiancé Rosie devises a stunt to give Birdie one more hit and Albert one more chance to get out of the debt he’s incurred promoting Birdie. Birdie will sing a new song, “One Last Kiss,” on the “Ed Sullivan Show” and give one lucky girl from his fan club a kiss before he heads off for duty. Kim MacAfee is that girl, and Birdie and entourage descend on the small town of Sweet Apple, Ohio. Naturally, comedy, singing and lots of dancing ensue. It’s an upbeat, entertaining musical, and the movie version is credited with making Ann-Margret a star. —Rebecca Haithcoat
Ursuline Campus
3105 Lexington Road
897-1816
$5-$10; 9:30 a.m. (Nov. 9), 7:30 p.m. (Nov. 8-10, 16-17)
Yaya Diallo
Friday, Nov. 9
Percussionist Yaya Diallo, a prolific international teacher, composer and performer from Mali, West Africa, has always been in high demand, but that picked up after he was featured in Mickey Hart’s musicology project Planet Drum. His parents were healers, he tells LEO, and beyond roots and herbs, they used music to effect change. He’s made it his life’s work to share those healing rhythms, invoking African tribal customs, mentoring musicians and dancers, and accumulating a respectable discography of world music, most of which is available on iTunes. He’s also an insightful writer — Diallo’s second book, “The Healing Drum: African Healing & Teaching,” inadvertently led him to Louisville. He met his future wife at a book signing in the region and he now lives here. He makes a rare appearance Friday with a full ensemble and several guest artists (including Djembe Kala) during an exotic evening of traditional Malian music and song. —Staff
St. Francis of Assisi Parish Hall
1960 Bardstown Road
456-9462
$10, $5 (students and children); 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 10
Mad Camp Cabaret 33
I was going to write about the New Albany Public Library’s seventh annual Book Auction (Nov. 10, 6 p.m.) in this space, but then I stumbled across this event, and it just sounded like something LEO ought to dig into. The dozen or so folks at the Mad Camp Cabaret are putting on their 33rd variety/drag/benefit show Saturday night at the Connection Complex, and all proceeds go directly to the House of Ruth, which helps families and individuals affected by HIV/AIDS. Definitely for the 21-and-over crowd, expect raunchiness, satire, Broadway numbers and … Pat Benatar? One of the skits planned incorporates a character dressed as peanut butter and one as jelly, bumping and smearing to Benatar’s “We Belong.”
You always complain of being stuck in your stale routine. Here’s your chance to break free and support a good cause. See you there. —Sara Havens
Connections
130 S. Floyd St.
409-4804
$5; 7 p.m.
SUNDAY, NOV. 11
26th Annual MERF Benefit
The Musician’s Emergency Relief Fund has been a resource for local musicians for years, and this weekend, it’s holding concerts at three nightclubs to show just how warm and fuzzy it can be.
The bashes goes down at Headliners, Jim Porter’s Good Time Emporium and Stevie Ray’s Blues Bar, and there are at least 25 reasons to go: Headlining the events are A-list mandolinist Sam Bush and John Cowan, both of whom helped kickstart the Newgrass Revival. Greg Martin of the Kentucky Headhunters, Your Black Star, Greg Foresman, Tim Krekel, Teneia Sanders Band, The Joy Unfolding with Jamie Barnes, da Mudcats, River City Blues Band, Tyrone Cotton Band, Hambone and more join in.
The day before, Your Black Star and Hambone perform live on WFPK’s Live Lunch program, from noon to 1 p.m. As always, that event is free, first come and first seated. —Mat Herron
Headliners Music Hall
1386 Lexington Road
584-8088
Jim Porter’s Goodtime Emporium
2345 Lexington Road
452-9531
Stevie Ray’s Blues Bar
230 E. Main St.
582-9945
$7 (adv.), $10 (door); 6 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 11
Author, subject of ‘Moving Mountains’
Penny Loeb is an investigative reporter who took an interest in Big Coal, and Trish Bragg is a coal-country housewife who took an interest in keeping her community safe from it. Put them together and you have “Moving Mountains,” the deeply reported and affecting tale of the momentous effort Bragg and her neighbors mounted to keep potable water in their tiny West Virginia community. The pair — here on the initiative of the Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth — will be joined by Kate Larken, Jason Howard, Silas House and George Ella Lyon, members of the Americana band Public Outcry. Do not miss. —Stephen George
Portland Museum
2308 Portland Ave.
776-7678
$5-$50 suggested donation; 2-4 p.m.
Nov. 13-18
‘The Wedding Singer’
If you loved the Adam Sandler 1998 movie “The Wedding Singer,” you shouldn’t miss PNC Bank Broadway Across America’s “The Wedding Singer.” This musical comedy was adapted with the help of the original screenwriter, Tim Herlihy, from the film version. Herlihy has also written screenplays for other Sandler films such as “Billy Madison” and “Happy Gilmore.”
This show, which was nominated in 2006 for a Best Musical Tony Award, will also feature “fake” appearances by Mr. T, Billy Idol and Tina Turner. Set in the year 1985, wedding singer Robbie Hart (Merritt David Janes) gets left at the altar by his high-school sweetheart Linda (Andrea Andert). Julia Sullivan (Erin Elizabeth Coors), a waitress with the catering company that partners with Hart’s band, helps him get out of depression by having him help her with her own wedding with yuppie fiancée Glen Guglia (Mark Raumaker). More music, dancing and an alternate setting at the end is the difference from film to stage, but you should really come out to relive the era of big hair and bright fashion. —Claudia Olea
Kentucky Center, Whitney Hall
501 W. Main St.
584-7777
$22.25-$58.25
Through Nov. 15
‘Memento Mori’
“Memento Mori — remember that you are mortal.” With those words ringing in her head, Objects of Desire Gallery owner Julia Comer set out to organize an exhibition featuring contemporary mourning jewelry and objects selected from a roster of international metalsmiths. Comer’s goal was to find art that “reference(s) the transitory nature of life and its condition as a complex and layered repository of memories, past and present … Narrative works, wearable or non-wearable, that deal with themes of remembrance, death, rebirth, life, transformation, loss, hope, renewal.” She found all of this and more in the one-of-a-kind works by Julia de Ville, Lydia Gerbig Fast, Ann Hartley, Kelly McCallum, Sharon Portelance and Eric Silva. The resulting show commemorates the deceased; all it needs is for viewers to connect and make the art personal.
The Victorians of the 19th century perfected the art of mourning. Comer wisely included some of their jewelry featuring earlier visual interpretations of memories and death. —Jo Anne Triplett
Objects of Desire Gallery
1503 Bardstown Road
458-4164
www.objectsofdesiregallery.com
Through Dec. 8
‘Ray Kleinhelter: Still Lifes, Landscapes and Portraits’
galerie hertz is opening its fall season (now that autumn weather is finally here) with local favorite Ray Kleinhelter and his 2007 body of work. This group had him moving indoors to produce a number of oil on panel still-lifes, landscapes and portraits in his trademark rich, strong color. His portraits, reminiscent of the blocky shapes of WPA/Art Deco portraits, particularly intrigue me. They seem built with the same sharp angles and forms that shaped his buildings in his past series.
When you’re at the gallery viewing Kleinhelter’s paintings, sign up for galerie hertz’s e-mail newsletter full of info on current and upcoming exhibitions. —Jo Anne Triplett
galerie hertz
711 S. Third St.
584-3547
www.galleryhertz.com
