News Xtra: HILLARY HITS THE METRO/ OBAMA KENTUCKY OFFICE UNVEILED
Hillary Clinton took the stage Hillary Clinton took the stage at duPont Manual High School Saturday afternoon and, instead of hitting on the same old same old, proceeded to offer a detailed and informed preview of the night’s U of L-UNC match-up in the East Regional final. “Obviously, the Cards have to keep the Heels…
News Xtra: Can candidates help voters get smart?
It is such a simple question — “Are you willing to tell citizens your stance on issues you will likely face if elected?” — but in the blood sport of elective politics, where expediency trumps principle, what seems simple is often viewed as suicidal. Why be candid when the current system — including a huge…
Summary of My Discontent: OCD is the new green
For most of my life I’ve tried not to be a dick to our planet earth, which many scientists believe we’ll need if we want a place to stand in the future. Thanks to a lifetime of watching TV spirit-guides like Iron Eyes Cody, Captain Planet, Woodsy Owl and Albert Gore, I’m convinced we can…
¡ ASK A MEXICAN !
Dear Readers: Belated April Fools, amigos! So many of you fell for my hoax of a farewell column last week (don’t any of you know that the feast day of St. Melito falls on April 1?) that I’m compelled to actually call it quits just to bask in your love and hate anew. But I…
An untenable situation: Local and state efforts target genocide in Darfur
At nearly the same moment the United States declared war on Iraq, a rebellion in the Darfur region of Sudan sparked a war that has become a massive humanitarian crisis, seemingly without end. The war’s causes are multifaceted, ranging from environmental to political to religious issues, but the results — a death toll estimated as…
Is Doug Hawkins afraid of Mexicans? The councilman”s crusade against illegal immigration quietly continues
I could sense it coming the way a dog understands doom slightly sooner than its owner. We’d just finished an 11-minute video called “Immigration by the Numbers,” a pedantic piece by a man named Roy Beck, who uses gumballs to represent population projections from the U.S. Census Bureau. It’s his way of illustrating the overwhelming…
Gannett Watch for 4-2-08
Ain’t it a shame, folks: In its most recent proxy report to shareholders, released last month, Gannett announced it would no longer be paying country club membership fees for its top executives. As if that doesn’t sting enough, it’s also pulling its scratch out of home security systems for everyone but CEO Craig Dubow, who…
What a Week: The City’s Weekly Zeitgeist Radar
-8Q: Why is the Kentucky General Assembly like playing mumblety peg with Helen Keller? A: Because it feels so good when it stops. The current session ends this week, with lawmakers taking a break until mid-April, when they return for the ceremonial toe-stabbing of the governor. With the current session winding down, the havoc-wreaking reached…
The love song of Kamaal “Flute Man†Ibn-Duriyah Tilford
A reason to stop and listen to a homeless-looking flute-playing black man some breezy afternoon The diesel-powered No. 19 bus pulls from the curb and rattles past the corner of West Muhammad Ali Boulevard and Fourth Street, followed by a beeline of harried westward drivers. The crosswalk signals switch; tourists and workers walk back from…
Erosia (Letters to the Editor) for 4-2-08
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. Honest…
On Media: A race — to the tube
If there’s one thing local TV executives like more than an imminent snowstorm, it’s the approach of well-financed political campaigns in a contested election. The bigger, the better. And there’s nothing bigger than the U.S. presidency. The campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have put Kentucky and Indiana in play, making appearances and placing…
Splatters: ART NEWS BITS
The Fourth Annual Sale by Louisville Clay (www.louisvilleclay.org) artists will be held at Glassworks during the April 4 First Friday Gallery Trolley Hop from 5-9 p.m. and Saturday, April 5, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.Mixed media artist Caroline Waite is the speaker at the Louisville Visual Art Association’s “Food For Thought” on April 8. Call 896-2146…
Art 812: THE SOUTHERN INDIANA SCENE
Hidden Hill Well, spring has finally sprung. It stopped snowing and the drizzle is gone (at least as I write this). It’s time to wake up from hibernation and head to the great outdoors. With the advent of spring, art thrives in nature throughout Southern Indiana. For a whimsy afternoon that tickles the inner child,…
Looks can be deceiving: New KMAC show might make you look twice
Tom Pfannerstill’s “Chinese Take Out” If you weren’t sufficiently tricked on April 1, go see the exhibition “Made to Deceive: The Art of Trompe l’Oeil” at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. Deluded, spoofed, punked — no matter how you say it, you will be fooled. Trompe l’oeil is the devil’s own art technique.…
Bugs Bunny on Broadway. Er, make that Fourth Street, Doc
Next? George Daugherty was a young guy on his way up the conducting ladder — when Bugs Bunny bit him. And while Daugherty continues a career as a classical conductor (he was Music Director of the Louisville Ballet from 1985-90), he is most associated with his hit show “Bugs Bunny on Broadway,” which plays Saturday…
Aftertastes for 4-2-08
SALA THAI CITY WOK, 526 W. Main St., 583-7238. Sala Thai in Jeffersontown may be one of the three best Thai restaurants in Louisville, but the new Sala Thai’s City Wok downtown is lackluster at best. The buffets offer a fair selection of Thai dishes, but it’s either chicken for the meat eaters and tofu…
Mug Shots: Pabst tense (ask for the original)
“Young consumers … are bellying up to the bar for the beers Grandpa drank … they’re sometimes called ‘retro beers,’ brands that might bring to mind old men in ribbed undershirts but are finding new life with the young. It worked for Pabst Blue Ribbon, and now others are trying.” —USA Today story from 2005…
LEO Eats : Simple comfort at Ann”s and the Grape Leaf (WITH GUEST COLUMNIST KEVIN GIBSON)
Winter is dragging its feet as it slouches on into springtime, and the closing years of the Bush economy are scaring us all as they slouch toward the dustbin of history. We’ve seen some sad restaurant closings (worst case: The lamentable loss of The Jazz Factory), and we fear that other Louisville Originals and Louisville…
Film: Shorties (recently reviewed in LEO) for 4-2-08
FUNNY GAMES (Starring Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Brady Corbet, Devon Gearhart and Michael Pitt. Directed by Michael Haneke.) Writer and director Michael Haneke’s remake of his own 1998 film stretches the patience and tolerance of anyone without a dark sense of humor. The violence is both plentiful and stylized, face-front yet often, paradoxically, occurring off…
Film Reviews for 4-2-08 (4 Months, Stop-Loss)
‘4 Months’ offers honest portrayal of abortion (Starring Anamaria Marinca, Vlad Ivanov, Laura Vasiliu and Luminita Gheorghiu. Directed by Cristian Mungiu. UR; 1:53. Starts Friday, April 4 at Baxter Avenue Theatres. LEO Report Card: A)It was nearly a hundred years ago that public health advocate Margaret Sanger provoked widespread condemnation by advocating for birth control…
Video Tapeworm: Releases through Tuesday, April 8
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS:THERE WILL BE BLOOD2008; DVD $29.95, RBig budgets, big stars and big egos collide in this powerful, if flawed, outing aimed at snagging Oscars. Daniel Day-Lewis wins for Best Actor as the slimy oilman (or is that redundant) who takes control of an infant California, squeezing it for all he can get.…
CD Reviews for 4-2
AccelerateR.E.M. (WARNER BROS.)R.E.M.’s new album is my first candidate for album of the year. It offers a breath of fresh air rising from the stagnant water of pseudo-electronica the band had been drowning in for the past 10 years. Accelerate rings with an energy and vigor that has eluded the band since the 1988 opus…
B-Sides (Music & Other Ephemera): Spanish speaking
Johnny Spanish “If I don’t hear from you,” the note read, “I’ll assume you think it’s garbage …”It came from Johnny Gross, a 20-year-old East End MC who’s pushing his new mixtape, About Time.Three listens in, the rhymes are far from junk. About Time, a 16-song collection Gross has put out under his alias Johnny…
From sideman to frontman, Figueroa”s transition complete
What do Miles Davis, Mariah Carey, Sonny Rollins, the Brecker Brothers and David Bowie have in common? The percussion stylings of Sammy Figueroa. A conga player and sideman since the early 1960s, Figueroa has been leading his band, the Latin Jazz Explosion, for almost a decade, earning two Grammy nominations for best Latin jazz album…
This Wolf runs from the pack
“A lot of making this record was me accepting myself as an outsider to some degree,” Shooter Jennings says of his latest album, The Wolf. An outsider, he is. The son of original outlaw country rabblerouser Waylon Jennings, Shooter has yet to be fully embraced by an industry where his family is so revered. “They…
A Bare-bones conversation
Wednesday, April 2From potatoes to pints to penance at area Catholic churches, Louisville’s Irish heritage is rich and visible. Now, the musical traditions of the Emerald Isle have also been exported to the Palace Theatre courtesy of Celtic Woman. The group’s artful (and humongous) song and dance production closes tonight at the Palace Theatre (625…
Staffpicks for 4-2-08
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2Justin timeTwo hardscrabble acts are returning for a second dose of Louisville tonight, and we’re better for having this reprise. One of them is Justin Townes Earle, whose vitality and creative output should be a cause celebré. The 25-year-old son of former hell-raiser Steve Earle is a recovering addict who, had he not…
Theater Review: The girls in the sand
Pandora Productions present Jane Chambers’ “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove” through April 13 at the Bunbury Theatre, 604 S. Third St. Directed by Michael Drury. Call 216-5502 or visit www.PandoraProds.org.)Sometimes a play doesn’t have to beat you over the head with an overt message to be topical. It can simply be a snapshot of how…
Cable Boxing: ‘The Hills” have cries, too
The HillsSeason 3, Episodes 20 & 21: “Back To L.A.” & “An Unlikely Friend”MTV; Mondays at 10 p.m., aired March 31. Starring Lauren Conrad, Audrina Partridge, Whitney Port, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt.Synopsis: Lauren and Whitney’s time in Paris has come to an end, and now everything is different. Whitney leaves Teen Vogue. Lauren is…
