Cover Story
Burned Bridge
On the occasion of its 50th anniversary celebration Sept. 12, River Fields, one of the oldest, largest, most admired and celebrated river conservancies in the United States, was fast becoming the most reviled entity in Kentuckiana. It was fighting two bridges projects, and incurring ample wrath. River Road business owners and many commuters already were…
Shout-outs
Hello. (Ahem.) My name is Pam Swisher. (“Hi, Pa-aaam.”) And I am … a gay-friendly-aholic. When Louisville creates an environment friendly toward us LGBT folks, it not only improves the quality of our community as a whole, but it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside that leaves me wanting more, not unlike those…
Trash heap
Love, adoration, obsession. Those themes infect Midnight Soul Serenade, the latest by Heavy Trash, aka Matt Verta-Ray and Jon Spencer. Verta-Ray engineered this blues explosion at his NY HED studios. Heavy Trash and recent Departure Records signees The Ladybirds play The Vernon Club (1575 Story Ave., 584-8460) on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets…
Bridging the gaps
Toki Wright lives a life closely linked to hip-hop. Given a mic and a beat, he’s a fierce, enthusiastic showman comfortable with offering a gloomy take on social strata (“State of Emergency”), expounding on community (“Kyendi Kyendi”) and boasting about his own abilities (“Next Big Thing”). Away from the stage, he’s a diplomat of hip-hop,…
Author of children’s classic headlines Spalding’s Fall Festival
Again this year, most sessions of Spalding’s Festival of Contemporary Writing will feature combinations of diverse forms of the written word. For example, Luke Wallin — whose many books include “Conservation Writing,” and who has taught fiction, creative nonfiction and writing for children and young adults at Spalding — will be reading his short story…
Theater: Louisville Repertory Co. soars with ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’
(Louisville Repertory Company presents “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Directed by Mike Brooks. Continues through Nov. 15 at the Kentucky Center’s MeX Theater. For tickets or more info, call 584-7777 or visit www.lourep.org.) One might assume a play with a large cast and set in a mental institution would be at best chaotic. How…
Jerry’s kids
It’s been a rough couple of months for mayoral candidate and Metro Councilman Jim King, D-10. A number of high-profile controversies seem to have knocked the guy off his stride. The trouble began in September, when the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance ruled King and his daughter, Jefferson County District Judge Katie King, were both…
Sainthood
I was out for a Sunday drive when I first slid Sainthood into my player. Autumn’s colorful foliage and crisp, cool air put a relaxed smile on my face. But suddenly, as the first 10 seconds of “Arrow” played, my hands gripped the wheel tightly. My heart pounded. My smile turned to panic. I felt…
Bleach
Oh my. It’s been 20 years since Nirvana’s sloppy, dirty, grunge debut album, Bleach, caught the attention of enough people to set the band up to change everything with the album everyone knows, Nevermind. This deluxe reissue by Sup Pop doesn’t exactly unearth a hidden gem, but it does recall the weird energy and proto-grunge…
Inbox — Nov.11, 2009
Violence Roles As the president of the board of directors of MensWork Inc.: Eliminating Violence Against Women, I would like to thank LEO Weekly and Sarah Kelley for their insightful article (Oct. 28 issue) regarding domestic violence and Amanda Ross’s murder. The article identified the struggles victims of domestic violence face in protecting themselves. The…
Mug Shots: Beer for breakfast
You don’t need to climb to the top of the nearest mountain for a consultation with the resident guru to know that you can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning. I’m not referring to hair of the dog (lowercase), although Hair of the Dog (uppercase) remains a respected small-batch, high-gravity Oregon…
The metrosexual meter
So, I’ve been working on my personal style. For most of my 20s and 30s, my signature look consisted of a ponytail, ripped jeans and flannel shirts. When I felt like dressing up, I wore my “work” tennis shoes instead of my “play” tennis shoes. But as I began that long, inexorable march toward understanding…
Silas the good
Silas House, a man born and raised in the hills of Eastern Kentucky, is the author of three novels, including the much-ballyhooed “Clay’s Quilt.” He has written a play, “The Hurting Part,” and is debuting another this year. His work in nonfiction has centered on eradicating the savage, crippling practice of mountaintop removal mining, which…
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 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 Nov 11 Chick…
B-Sides: Music & Other Ephemera
A last-minute treat this weekend: Dead Oceans/Secretly Canadian artists Evangelicals from Norman, Okla., and Holiday Shores descend on Glassworks (815 W. Market St., www.louisvilleglassworks.com) Friday. Showtime is 8 p.m., cover is $7. Trackage at www.myspace.com/evangelicals. Elvis enters the building Elvis Perkins is no psycho, but his father, Anthony, played one in a movie. His group,…
Trailer Tapes II
Trailer Tapes II is the latest offering from Slaughter, Ky., native Chris Knight. His beautifully dark lyrics seem to hail from the ether between honky-tonks and coffeeshops at 4 in the morning. These songs feel painfully personal from the outset, but maybe that’s what happens with an album that contains little more than guitar and…
Use your delusion
I was listening to “Francene” on WHAS Radio Monday morning, the first business day since the House of Representatives passed a comprehensive bill that, if allowed to remain relatively intact until it reaches President Obama’s desk, will remake American health care for the better. A local woman called in to share her story. She’d phoned…
Theater: Mayhem remains the same in ‘A Christmas Story’
(Actors Theatre of Louisville presents “A Christmas Story” through Nov. 28. Directed by Sean Daniels. For tickets or more info, call 584-1205 or go to actorstheatre.org.) Attempting a production of a film or story that everyone is familiar with must be a daunting task. Do it wrong or slightly revise the storyline, and you might…
Shelter from the storm
A crowd of employees and volunteers slowly filed inside the yellow trailer at Louisville Metro Animal Services’ Manslick Road compound early on Monday afternoon. I took a seat among them, amused at a small dog scurrying underneath the metal chairs, until I was ferreted out as a member of the media — notepads and digital…
Theater: Ensemble cast shines in Pandora’s ‘Kathy & Mo’
(Pandora Productions presents “Parallel Lives: The Kathy & Mo Show.” Directed by Michael J. Drury. Continues through Nov. 15 in the Bunbury Theatre at the Henry Clay. For tickets or more info, call 216-5502 or visit www.pandoraprods.org.) Michael Drury, artistic director of Pandora Productions, could have taken a conventional path by casting two women to…
Scanners
Apparently I’m not the only person out there who considers 2000’s Deltron 3030 to be one of the premier hip-hop records of the decade. Its balance of weird and street, mixed with otherworldly production and clever samples, was the epitome, and for me the peak, of “Indie Hip-Hop” (future argument to be made: After Deltron,…
Alabama Slammer
The Dexateens may not be a household name, but this band from Tuscaloosa, Ala., has been kicking around for more than a decade. They formed when Elliot McPherson and John Smith were students at the University of Alabama; the duo acted as the creative center of the burgeoning band. “John was a big part of…
One gyros, two gyros, many gyros
Let’s get one thing clear: The Greek word “gyros” is a singular noun. Like other similar Greek words that occasionally appear in English — kudos, logos, ethos — you don’t delete the final “s” if you’re having only one. A “gyro” is a kind of helicopter. The menu at a new Greek-style eatery in Southern…
Classical Music: Eighth Blackbird strut outside the box
There’s a snippet of video out there somewhere of Eighth Blackbird rehearsing a piece. A violin, cello and piano player are working away at their notes, and here comes a clarinet player just walking right through the bunch of them, tooting along as he goes. A pretty relaxed atmosphere, you’d have to say, at the…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: FARSCAPE: THE COMPLETE SERIES MEGASET 1999; $149.95, UR This SciFi Channel/Henson Creatures co-production was something of a guilty pleasure of ours for a time. Interesting characters, out-of-this-world adventure and great special effects (including those puppets!) made for a nice escape each week. But SciFi had other destinies in mind for the…
