<COMEDY>

Oct. 15-19

Comedian Josh Sneed 

Josh Sneed, featured on Sirius and XM comedy channels, has won top awards at festivals throughout the United States and the prestigious Montreal Comedy Festival. A hard-working road comic who travels 250 days a year, he admits, “The lifestyle has its ups and downs … seeing the country, playing a little golf and making funny T-shirts (he owns lookatmetshirts.com) never gets old.” 

While at the Caravan, his solo special airs on Comedy Central (tracks available on iTunes). Having opened for Dave Chappelle and Lewis Black, among many others, Sneed headlines at clubs and colleges across the nation. “All the comedians you like started at clubs like the Comedy Caravan. I would offer a money-back guarantee, but that might be taking it a bit too far, so instead, just take my word for it.” —Jason Sitzes

Comedy Caravan

1250 Bardstown Road

459-0022 

 HYPERLINK “http://www.comedycaravan.com” www.comedycaravan.com

$8-$12; various times

<FILM>

Thursday, Oct. 16

‘Young Black Voter’

Very few urban documentaries that come out of Louisville are worth watching. Most are low-budget exercises of the hip-hop formula with rappers boasting about their skills, promoting their CD and relaxing in barbershops. “Young Black Voter: From Hitting Licks to Casting Ballots … One Man’s Story” by U of L student Lavel White promises to deliver much more. Produced with the KET/Making Connections Youth Video Project, the film focuses on White’s life growing up in Louisville and how he went from an angry inner-city kid who wanted to break windows after former LMPD officer McKenzie Mattingly was acquitted for shooting Michael Newby, to a productive citizen bursting with political activity. 

It ought to be a hot item for local voyeurs who can’t satisfy their urban jungle fix. The fact that White can read, write and talk in complete sentences makes him a marvel to some. Still, it’s more than your average rags-to-riches has to offer. Told in the first person, White’s eager, hungry eye ought to give the narrative of black youth in Louisville a new voice worth listening to — at least this once. —Phillip M. Bailey

Meyzeek Middle School

828 S. Jackson St.

Free; 6 p.m.

<EXERCISE>

Saturday, Oct. 18

Take a hike, Jerry

With a title like “Mayor For Life,” it’s damn near ridiculous — or really enticing — to tell Jerry Abramson to take a hike. But on Saturday, you can lace up your Reeboks and join Mayor Jer as he tools around Jefferson Memorial Forest’s 6,191 acres for his annual Healthy Hometown Fall Hike, all in the name of better nutrition and physical activity. Metro Parks Public Info Officer Jason Cissell says it’s also a good time to get acquainted with the nation’s largest municipal urban forest. “The guided hikes will show people how well-marked and well-maintained the trails are, which we hope makes them comfortable coming back on their own to explore.”

The first 500 people get T-shirts, and there’ll be face painting, hayrides and more for the kiddies. Eat less. Move more. Vote. And remember to wash behind your ears. —Sara Havens

Jefferson Memorial Forest 

www.memorialforest.com

Free; 10 a.m.

<BOOK>

SUNDAY, OCT. 19

‘The Life of Pete Townshend’

Even Eddie Vedder learned a thing or two about his longtime idol, legendary guitarist Pete Townshend, from Mark Wilkerson. Wilkerson, whose favorite album from the British bombasts is Quadrophenia, has a paperback version of his Townshend bio — “Who Are You: The Life of Pete Townshend” (Omnibus) — and it’s thick with quotes and interview-based research from the man himself. Townshend doesn’t always flatter The Who’s members or material, but his links to them are unbreakable. 

Gathering the right source material for this book wasn’t as difficult as its 642 pages might have you believe. “Pete’s pretty much narrated his own life, for better or worse,” says Wilkerson, a flight maintenance supervisor at United Parcel Service. “He’s not only spoken about his artistic work and the positives, he’s also spoken about the dark periods, the things that he’s not proud of. Who better to get the information from without the distorted lens of retrospect at play?” —Mat Herron

Barnes & Noble

801 S. Hurstbourne Pkwy.

426-0255

Free; noon

<PIPES>

Sunday, Oct. 19

Organ Spectacular

Probably, you thought, you would never have the opportunity to be a part of the world’s largest organ recital. But you thought wrong! Saturday’s worldwide “Organ Spectacular” will be staged at more than 200 sites around the planet — and one of those sites is right here in River City. The Louisville pipe-off begins at 3 p.m. at Broadway Baptist Church. Several duets are slated, including organists Phil Hines and Jerry Amend (trumpet), Esther Kim and Matt Lane (violin), and Will Simpson with soprano Erin Simpson. Also programmed is a hymn sing and the performance of a commissioned piece by Bernard Wayne Sanders. The Organ Spectacular is a fully sanctioned event conducted under the rules and regulations of the American Guild of Organists, Louisville Chapter. —Bill Doolittle

Broadway Baptist Church

4000 Brownsboro Road

895-2459

Free; 3 p.m.

<MUSIC>

Sunday, Oct. 19

Gentleman Auction House

A multi-gender squadron of young indies comes swooping in … is it some Newer Pornographers? Some Broken Social Scenesters? Nah — and that’s just fine, thanks. Started in St. Louis a couple years back, Gentleman Auction House quickly established their own sound, with some slightly funky glam elements and a united sense of how to roll their songs in — like with percussion or horn embellishments, and twinned (and tripled) lead vocals. It’s hard not to be swept by how the ensemble stands together (but never drifts into redundancy) in the arrangements. 

But then they also regularly bring out hooks like in “ABCDEF Graveyard” or (an Arcade Fire-ish) “We Used to Dream About Bridges,” and you’d have to be an absolute shit not to breathe in and share the DIY pop joy of this septet — especially since they’re playing this gig with no cover. —T.E. Lyons

The Pink Door

2222 Dundee Road

413-5204

Free; 10 p.m.

<HEADS>

Tuesday, Oct. 21

David Byrne

David Byrne is now as multifaceted as ever. Can you turn around in Manhattan without hitting one of his artistic installations? I got to “play the building” when he wired the metal and glass fixtures of a ferry terminal to an organ keyboard — it made for a cool change of pace during a hot summer. Byrne’s also got more than one musical venture going on now — and the revitalization of his partnership with Brian Eno has become so successful that Mr. Chief T. Head is using it as the impetus for a big new tour, coming to the Palace Theater. Eno has squiggled back to wherever to cavort with his muses, but we get Byrne and a solid band plus chorus and dancers. They’ll be performing songs from the new Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, and they’ve promised to revisit earlier Byrne/Eno collaborations (which included some of the best of Talking Heads). —T.E. Lyons

Louisville Palace

625 S. Fourth St.

583-4555

$42.50; 8 p.m.

<MUSIC>

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 22

Magnolia Electric Co.

I’ll be honest with you: There are few bands out there like Magnolia Electric Co., and you’d be insane to miss this show. Formed around Lorain, Ohio’s own Jason Molina, Magnolia Electric Co. create blisteringly raw songs with haunting instrumentation underneath Molina’s sonorous baritone. It’s somewhat rootsy, but to pass this band off as another alt-country act would be to miss the point. Magnolia Electric Co.’s music creeps out of the corners of your cellar replete with human failings and darkened melodies. As Molina sings on “Just Be Simple”: And everything you hated me for/Honey, there was so much more/I just didn’t get busted. The original name of the band, Songs: Ohia, was done away with in 2003 in favor of Magnolia Electric Co., while Molina retained the same cast of musicians. Songs: Ohia was hypnotic and spare while Magnolia Electric Co. uses a robust soundscape to draw out the emotions. It’s bound to be a gritty night of darkness, turmoil and more than a little rock ’n’ roll. —Hank Willenbrink

Headliners Music Hall

1386 Lexington Road

584-8088

www.headlinerslouisville.com

$10; 9 p.m.

<ART>

Through Nov. 17

‘Debbie Shannon: Marbled Paper’

Don’t underestimate the beauty of marbled paper. If all you’ve seen is the endpaper in fancy old books housed in the library, then Debbie Shannon’s art will surprise you. They float within their frames, leaving you wondering if you are looking at a photograph or folded paper.  

“Marbling is a magical art form,” Shannon says. “Colors float on water and can be picked up by a single piece of paper. There’s experimenting with the paper and the pigments and a whole range of variables. But when it comes right down to it, it’s magic. I can do the same thing over and over, and only one sheet will elicit a smile or a gasp of delight. It’s always a surprise when the print is lifted off the water. So much of marbling is chance.”

All of the framed marbled pieces in this exhibit have not been shown before. The show also features a few of her handmade books. —Jo Anne Triplett 

Patio Gallery 

Jewish Community Center

3600 Dutchmans Lane

459-0660

www.jccoflouisville.org 

<ART>

Through Nov. 28

‘Four for Peace’

Artists react to situations by being creative. In a show at U of L organized by alumnus Gordon Baer, four Cincinnati artists present their responses to war and violence. Baer’s photomontage is of soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gershon Gurin-Podlish’s focus is also on Iraq, with a sculpture representing soldiers’ arms and legs that were blown off in battle.

Saad Ghosn, a physician who treats veterans, is showing his print series “Scream.” Another printmaker, Joan Tallan, features a history lesson of war, from World War II to today. The results are cathartic.   

The artists’ reception, co-sponsored by U of L and Interfaith Paths to Peace, is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 2, from 4-6 p.m. at the Chao Auditorium in the Ekstrom Library. —Jo Anne Triplett 

Ekstrom Library

University of Louisville

852-6762

www.louisville.edu