Cover Stories
The kids on the bus
“In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” —George Wallace, after he was sworn in as governor of Alabama in 1963 “Everything is funny as…
Easy as A-B-C
Dressed casually with a beautiful red hijab wrapped tightly over her head, Shaminah Paghmani, 21, says she remembers vividly why her 12-member family left Afghanistan, although she recalls little about the country itself. “We wanted a better life. Over there we couldn’t go to school,” she says. “Because of the war and the Taliban we…
Provincial downpour
Standing in the heart of The Province — the University of Louisville’s largest, latest mega dormitory — the illusion is complete. Once a barren tract of industrial wasteland bounded by Seventh Street to the west and the CSX train tracks to the east, there is now the gentle sound of cascading water: A giant fountain…
Plugged In
Readers are strongly encouraged to call ahead to verify these listings. To get your club, comedian, musical act or karaoke listed, please send an e-mail to mherron@leoweekly.com with PLUGGED IN in the subject line. The deadline is NOON THURSDAY the week before publication. We do not accept listings via social networking sites. WED AUG 19…
Inbox — Aug. 19, 2009
The Breeders Kate Welsh calls heterosexuals “breeders” and then wonders why “team wonderdyke” garners stares in Alabama (LEO Weekly, Aug. 5). Maybe Kate gets back what she puts out there. Maybe she sees what she wants to see where she wants to see it. Are there any positive gay/lesbian writers out there who could contribute…
Bicycling safety and the law
Recent cyclist deaths and the newly launched “Street Sense” campaign — a city-backed program promoting road awareness — demand an alternative perspective. Cyclists are threatened, injured and killed because: 1) Drivers drink; 2) car brakes fail; 3) roads are not always dry; 4) passengers, food, phones and on-board electronics distract drivers; 5) drivers are blinded…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: SCREWBALLS 1983; $19.95, R Whereas “Spring Break” (which we covered in last week’s sermon) is oft remembered as The Original Teen Tittie Movie, “Screwballs,” released the same year, kept the bikinis and nudity, but ratcheted up the raunch to levels even Vaudeville never dreamed of. The genius behind it all was…
Film: Bruce Parsons doc keeps it in the family
Something that will strike you about Pikeville, Ky., native Bruce Parsons’s short documentary, “I Know You,” is that it doesn’t seem like a documentary. It seems like a mystery. It’s about a universal, almost prosaic subject — his rekindled relationships with his father and grandfather — but it’s given to the viewer in a purposely…
Comedy: If Butchertown can be hip, why not Irish Hill?
This was Chris Anger’s basic philosophy when his Louisville Improvisors put together the first Irish Hill Improv Festival last year: It seemed a grave injustice for one of Louisville’s oldest neighborhoods not to get more love. Just to give you a taste: Irish Hill still sports some of the city’s oldest and most distinguished architecture,…
Home(less) schooling
For Monica Robinson, the past six months have been a juggling act. Earlier this year she lost her job and was kicked out of her boyfriend’s apartment. Before long she was spending her nights at the Salvation Army. Currently living at Wayside Christian Mission’s downtown family shelter with her two daughters, Bridgette, 15, and Alyssa,…
Mug Shots: Revisiting the BBQ + craft beer equation
Earlier this summer, a chance backyard encounter with barbecued ribs and a tub of bottled microbrews left me pondering the pairing possibilities of BBQ and craft beer. Thanks to the Louisville Restaurants Forum (www.wineloverspage.com/forum/hotbytes) and the patient scheduling aptitude of resident forumite Paul Mick, a meet ’n’ greet took place last Friday at the Kentucky…
The ‘Book of Faces’ and me
My sister visited me last year and had a new hobby — playing on Facebook. Are you kidding me? She was raised better than that! She was addicted. She sat at my desktop for hours and then carried my laptop to bed with her. “What the hell is it with you and this ‘Book of…
Film: Don’t waste the present on ‘Time Traveler’s Wife’
(Starring Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Ron Livingston, Jane McLean and Arliss Howard. Directed by Robert Schwentke. Rated PG-13; 1:48. LEO Report Card: D) I heard Rachel McAdams. Gasp! Then romantic drama. Yum! Then time travel. Wait, what? “OK, so ‘The Notebook’ involved a little time travel,” I rationalized. “You know, flashbacks, flash forwards ……
EP
Music writers are certainly the least unbiased of us. When I first picked up this EP and saw the goofy artwork, I got real worried that my mellow would be quickly harshed. I’m happy to report I was wrong — Louisville’s Foor, the new project of scene elder statesman Brian Foor, is strange and funky.…
Brunch at Rivue
If you haven’t been up to the revolving top of the Galt House for a while, you may be surprised to see how much things have changed. Gone is the faux sailing ship look, with its blocks and tackles and green, purple and gold running lights. Exit the elevators on the hotel’s 23rd floor now,…
B-Sides: Music & Other Ephemera
It’s wall-to-wall metal beginning at 3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20, at the 2009 Trash and Burn Tour. On the slate are: Devildriver, Emmure, Despised Icon, My Children My Bride, Veil Of Maya, For The Fallen Dreams, Oceano, Periphery and more. The trek stops at Headliners Music Hall (1386 Lexington Road, 584-8088). Tickets are $20 in…
Femme fatale?
That Rick Pitino made a very bad decision is indisputable. The married man admits he had sex with a relative stranger on a leather booth inside the dining room of a popular Italian restaurant after closing time. Making matters worse is the fact that after learning this other woman was pregnant (her self-declared nickname is…
Readers respond: music for Laura
Two columns ago, I asked readers to suggest albums that I could give to my daughter Laura, who is going off to college this week. I asked for titles that were recorded before she was born in 1990, and I asked readers to exclude Beatles albums (because, as an American, she had them all…
Liminal
Tool’s latest album, Liminal, is certainly the type of thick, melodically heavy body of work fans come to expect with each release. Unfortunately, it lacks the dynamics and mysticism that made long players like Aenima intriguing. Gone are the twisting, multi-movement dedications to sacred geometry, Aleister Crowley and Bill Hicks, replaced by a newfound sense…
Just Came Around
There are plenty of good-natured country vibes on Lynn’s latest, but the songstress is at her best when tackling darker issues. Alcohol is a recurring character on the record, not the happy-hour type but the type that gives you the blues at 4 a.m., and the rest of your life thereafter. Lynn’s lyrics are observant,…
Nancy Wilson steals watermelon
Nobody puts Nancy Wilson in a corner. But at the “Elizabethtown” premiere after-party at the Brown Theatre a few years ago, there she was, back against the wall, while the Kentucky bluebloods clamored after her husband, director Cameron Crowe. I marched over there, extended my clammy, shaky hand and uttered something along the lines of,…
Through the looking-glass
Robert Strickland’s wife was in distress. Her appendix burst and she needed emergency surgery. But Strickland had just lost his job, and because his health insurance was employer-based, he and his family were bereft when the catastrophe came. In the end, he said, the Stricklands would’ve faced about $65,000 in medical bills, were it not…
Headless horsemen
We should now be comfortable taking as fact the notion that public accountability in the city’s dealings with The Cordish Cos. is a giant cosmic joke. Metro Council President David Tandy, D-4, traveled to the company’s Baltimore headquarters with a posse of city bureaucrats Aug. 7 so that the developer of Fourth Street Live and…
Club List
19th Green ?1740 Williamsburg Drive Jeffersonville (812) 284-9088 60 West? 3939 Shelbyville Road?719-9717 930 Listening Room 930 Mary St. 635-2554 Air Devil’s Inn? 2802 Taylorsville Road?454-4092 Angel’s Rock Bar ?4328 S. Fourth St. 540-1461 Backstage Café? 109 N. Mulberry St. Elizabethtown?(270) 234-1686 Bearno’s by the Bridge ?131 W. Main St. 584-7437 Bearno’s Highlands? 1318 Bardstown…
S/T
Country rockers Dallas Alice proclaim they are guys who will “steal your girl, spill your drink, beat you at pool, and you’ll still wind up buying them a beer.” They give themselves too much credit with that last part. If you buy them a beer, it’s probably because your standards are low, which these guys…
