Comments from “the U of L”
• When Donald Swain became president of the University of Louisville in 1981, one of the first people he met was Bob Schulman. The Swains — Donald and Lavinia — remained friends with the Schulmans — Bob and Louise — to the end. Bob and Donald even took harmonica lessons together recently.“Bob was better at…
Lean on me
by Dug Begley It’s amazing I don’t have a seizure every time I see a red pen because of Bob Schulman. The man wielded one like Zeus tossed thunderbolts. His approval came down from on high like manna, and the red ink was good. Scorn came in the same blood-red color. Every week a tattered,…
Damn you, Bob
Inside Bob’s office at “the U of L,” as he called it, hung a framed copy of an ee cummings poem. I remember thinking about the connection between poetry and journalism. It was years later that I studied the words and realized why he had the poem in his office. cummings wrote:Damn everything but the…
Have no fear: The short man will see you now
The scene for me then was much like it is today: an editor at a small, perpetually struggling weekly newspaper whose “independence” always trumped the late hours, erratic schedules and perpetual fear that I would miss something and damage the newspaper’s rather unpredictable credibility. I was news editor at The Louisville Cardinal, the weekly indie…
Hail, and farewell: One man”s opinion is that there will never be another Bob Schulman
You really should’ve known Bob Schulman, because there will never be another one like him. Some of that has to do with how the world has changed. The man started his professional journalism career in 1937. He finally hung it up just a few years ago, so to speak — if you call finishing a…
“What the hell were you thinking?”
Somewhere among my file of yellowing newspaper clippings is a Louisville Times column from the late-1970s. It is a column written by Bob Schulman about the then-very young Louisville Today magazine (1976-82) that I was publishing. Bob was the media critic for the community’s afternoon newspaper — a role that is on the endangered species…
Quiz winners and answers
The ballots are in and we have winners in LEO’s Fourth Annual Not-Good-For-Nothing Quiz. John Guthrie (50 correct) wins a $50 gift certificate to Amerigo restaurant, two Louisville Orchestra tix, four Wild & Woolly rentals, $20 gift certificate to Road to Morocco and $10 to Highland Coffee. Sharon Lee Weiss (49) wins a $25 gift…
Erosia
LEO welcomes letters that are brief (250 words max) and thoughtful. Ad hominem attacks will be ignored, and we need your name and a daytime phone number. Send snail mail to EROSIA, 640 S. Fourth St., Louisville, Ky. 40202. Fax to 895-9779 or e-mail to leo@leoweekly.com. We may edit for length, grammar and clarity. CorrectionLast…
General Sense of Outrage: LEO”s new news blog
Blogs are totally in right now, our web specialist has finally informed us, and so we’ve decided to launch one. Hey, the close watchers might say, LEO used to have a news blog. It was called “The Lip.” It was pretty good, but wasn’t updated enough and, finally, given the kibosh by staff, too lazy…
WHAT A WEEK: THE CITY”S WEEKLY ZEITGEIST RADAR
-18Thanks to years of Republican economic fuckedupedness on both the state and federal levels, the Commonwealth’s budget is $434 million outta whack. Gamely avoiding the word “gaming,” Gov. Beshear announced sweeping budget cuts and hiring freezes in education, environmental protection, healthcare, transportation and economic development. Through a spokesman, Mississippi said, “Boo-yah!” 0What do you do…
Let”s talk Paulitics: The Ron Paul Revolution is alive and well in Kentucky
Talk to any supporter of Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate, and in the first three minutes you’re likely to hear that he is A) principled, an attractive trait in current presidential politics; B) pro-Constitution; or C) the victim of a crass brand of corporate censorship brought to you by mainstream American media, which collectively…
Welp”s Louisville: Smoking ban reversal: Now it”s personal
When I was but a wee lad, my father smoked cigars. In the car. On family trips. With the windows rolled up. Mom smoked cigarettes, and even though our Impala was large enough for dramatic backseat reenactments of “Brady Bunch” episodes and frenzied claw fights with my sisters, the smoke made the air quality roughly…
Ballz: SPORTS COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS BY MAT HERRON
You say that about all the players …A slow, bloody execution of the English language is going on every day in the wide world of sports. The culprit? Sports clichés. You’ve heard them before — they wouldn’t be called clichés if you didn’t — from commentators, coaches, players and fans. But like the Pavlovian mutts…
¡ ASK A MEXICAN ! A Mexi-Mormon conquest?
Q Dear Mexican: I feel that the more Mexicans who come to this country, the better. I am a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In our Book of Mormon, on page 54, it says on the left side of the page in verse six, “There shall none come…
Divided we fall
This week, as state legislators returned to Frankfort to convene the Kentucky General Assembly’s 60-day session, they did so amid a climate of fiscal dread and political fear. Speaking last month as the reality of the crisis began to reveal itself, state budget director Mary Lassiter said, “This is the toughest budget challenge I’ve ever…
No More False Dichotomies: Don”t piecemeal me, bro
It’s too bad we can’t elect a president by pastiche. There are various bits to like about various candidates, but no single one seems worth swooning over. John McCain wouldn’t wet himself if things got hairy, and he’d eat Osama bin Laden’s liver with some fava beans. Then again, McCain may be just that crazy,…
On Media: Kentucky Post dies, only to live on in a new frontier
When The Kentucky Post printed its last newspaper on New Year’s Eve, much was made of its demise by those in the journalism business. Woe is the industry, some said, when one of America’s last two-newspaper towns loses its afternoon paper. The Post is owned by the E.W. Scripps Co., which also operates a local…
CD Reviews 1-09-08
Angels of Destruction!Marah(YEP ROC) Album titles with exclamation points are usually a clear warning sign. But the fearless Philly/Brooklyn boys (now with one girl) are sounding ever more like a steroid-charged update of The Band. That’s partly due to the expansion of Marah to six musicians, including two keyboardists. Many individual tracks here are not…
The legendary Groundlings make rare road appearance at Improvapalooza 8
The thought of Pee-Wee Herman’s conception could cause even Wes Craven to suffer nightmares. Fortunately for evolution, Pee Wee wasn’t the offspring of a manic female circus performer/part-time serial killer who caught Mr. Rogers wearing beer goggles. Pee Wee was born of several minds, all assembled together on stage in Los Angeles, within an improvisational…
Mug Shots: A manifesto for 2008
When it comes to beer, you can’t know what you’re missing if you haven’t been exposed to it, and even then, familiar habits and conveniences persist. It requires determination to escape the subtle noose of conformity demanded by American consumer culture. You must be willing to question allegedly sacrosanct beliefs. You must eschew ephemerals…
Flat wallet, round tummy? Try these cheap eats
OK, we’re into 2008 now. The holidays are over. Your wallet is flat but your tummy is not. Fine dining and wretched excess are not in the picture, but we’re not really ready for a diet of raw carrots and soda water, either. Let’s scout out some great cheap eats, the kind of fare that…
The Back Lot – FILM NEWS & RUMINATIONS: “The Wire” for beginners
What will likely prove to be the best movie of 2008 was released last week. It lasted only an hour, and technically it’s not even a movie, but luckily there are 12 more installments yet to be seen. It is HBO’s dazzlingly complex and subtle “The Wire,” in its fifth and final season. Often…
Video Tapeworm: Releases through Tuesday, Jan. 15
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS:EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS1956; DVD $24.95, PG-13Now available in a pristine b&w release (along with an unfortunate colorized abomination), the greatest sci-fi movie ever made! Heroic scientist Hugh Marlowe defends the Earth and racks up millions in property damage in this ’50s fave, resplendent with Ray Harryhausen’s nifty animated FX, plus…
B-Sides: MUSIC AND OTHER EPHEMERA
The full MontyJamaican-born pianist Monty Alexander revisits the Jazz Factory (815 W. Market St, 992-3242) on Jan. 16 for a double shot of his joyful, irie-laced material. Alexander is famous for, among other things, backing Frank Sinatra in a handful of performances as a wet-behind-the-ears 19-year-old thrust into New York’s vivacious jazz club scene during…
This “Tempest” lacks turbulence
(Starring Eric Bondoc, Virginia Kull, Jeffery V. Thompson, and Henry Woronicz. Directed by Marc Masterson. An Actors Theatre of Louisville production. Continues through Feb. 2. For tickets, call 584-1205 or visit www.actorstheare.org.)“The Tempest,” currently running at Actors Theatre, is a gorgeous show, replete with good-to-outstanding performances, but it would be remiss to overlook the fact…
“My Kid Could Paint That” lacks imagination
(Starring Anthony Brunelli, Marla Olmstead, Stuart Simpson and Michael Kimmelman. Directed by Amir Bar-Lev. Rated PG-13; 1:22. LEO Report Card: C+)The documentary “My Kid Could Paint That,” which premiered at the Village 8 on Friday, is long on ideas and short on execution. The film’s subject suffers from the exact opposite problem: 4-year-old modernist painter…
10 years old, still splitting eardrums
In 1990, Brandon Skipworth and Nathan Smallwood fell in love with local music so much they set about how to give bands a medium on which to commit their aural wizardry (or madness, take your pick).“We’ve been hooked ever since,” says Skipworth, now a special education teacher, father and co-founder of Noise Pollution Records. “It’s…
Li”l Abner, and singers who you can believe in
Thursday, Jan. 10It’s easy to get lost in the hyperactive swell of Indianapolis’ Abner Trio. The tempos shift, the guitars play anything but a melody, and the bass barely holds it all together while vocals are shouted atop the musical cacophony. To the uninitiated, Abner seems uncalculated, cold and unlistenable. To the band, it’s merely…
Staffpicks
Jan. 12-Feb. 16Details, Details, Details: Photography by David Harpe David Harpe’s photo byline has shown up in area newspapers, including LEO, over the past few years, but those photos barely hint at his artistic side. A new KMAC show— Harpe’s first solo exhibition — highlights his large-format art photography, divided into three bodies. The first,…
