Cover Story
GonzoFest literary journalism winner: ‘Baby Rescue’
Substitute the name Donald Trump for what Hunter S. Thompson wrote about Richard Nixon for a 1994 obituary that captured the Louisville native’s genre-bending, journalistic clarity. “Some people will say that words like scum and rotten are wrong for Objective Journalism — which is true, but they miss the point. It was the built-in blind…
10 under $5 – What To Do This Week In Louisville (4/16)
MONDAY Mai Tai Monday! and Industry Night The Limbo No cover | 4 p.m. Are you an artist, dancer, singer, busker, performer or food service industry worker? If so, head to The Limbo on Mondays for its Industry Night — half-price Mai Tais, $4 Tiki Punch and $1 off all signature cocktails. DJ Dimestore Dandy…
Bourbon & Beyond announces John Mayer, Sting, Robert Plant, David Byrne
Bourbon & Beyond has announced its lineup for Champions Park festival on Sept. 22-23, which includes John Mayer, Sting, Robert Plant, Lenny Kravitz, David Byrne, Sheryl Crow, Counting Crows, Blackberry Smoke and more classic-rock leaning bands. Last year, Bourbon & Beyond booked Stevie Nicks, Eddie Vedder, Buddy Guy and Joe Bonamassa, and this year it…
Carl Brown, longtime LEO columnist, has died
Carl Brown has passed from the scene, and sadly, for many Louisvillians he never was on the scene. Sad because he was one of the truly unique figures in Louisville’s political, legal and literary history. He was also an important player in LEO’s history. Carl was a lawyer, educated at Vanderbilt University, and once was…
Found In Translation: Great food at places you wouldn’t expect (Part 1)
The unassuming seafood joint, with its ship wheel and decorative fishing nets dangling by the front door, that bakes an amazing chocolate cake. The bright and elegant bakery, Edison bulbs suspended from a ceiling of reclaimed wood, that slow-cooks an amazing chili. The Mexican joint, a cumin-forward fajita smell permeating the air with glowing Corona…
5 Things To Do This Weekend In Louisville (4/13)
FRIDAY Tattoo Convention and Friday the 13th Tattoo Specials Kentucky Exposition Center | Various locations Prices and times vary If you’re into getting inked, you should be at this convention. It’s three days of exhibits with hundreds of the finest tattooers from around the country, tattoo memorabilia and art and even carnival sideshow performers. Tickets…
LEO’s Guide to Doughnut Shops in Louisville
Doughnuts are the kings and queens of breakfast treats and a cruel temptress of anyone on a diet. Sure, you can go to Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts, but why not keep it local? There are locally-owned bakeries, each with their own twist on this storied, doughy delight. Here is our list, but please feel…
Comedian Damon Sumner talks touring China, podcasts and the evil genius of children
Teacher turned stand-up comedian Damon Sumner doesn’t mind tough crowds, whether it’s a club filled with tipsy adults or an elementary school classroom filled with heckling kids. “Adults, they’re going to go home and live their life,” said Sumner. “I’m just a comedian acting a fool for a night. But with students… they play you,…
GonzoFest Literary Contest Second Place: ‘Counting bodies’
The mosque stank of formaldehyde and was bathed in pale fluorescent light. The bodies were jammed two deep along the walls and everywhere between them men and women in drab clothes paced, handkerchiefs thrust to their noses, searching among the white-shrouded forms, the wreckage of the faces, for some cue: a father’s bent nose, a…
GonzoFest 2018: Hunter Thompson’s son, finding his roots
There’s not even a hint of the boozy, wild-man persona of his literary icon father, Hunter S. Thompson, who was run out of his Kentucky home at age 17 and rarely looked back. Instead, the soft-spoken 54-year-old I.T.-guy-turned-writer across the table sipped raspberry tea in a button-down and sweater and said he’s almost never recognized…
GonzoFest 2018: GonzoFest schedule
This year’s GonzoFest Louisville includes expanded panel discussions, spoken word, poetry readings, a PBS documentary screening and an all-local music lineup. All panel discussions and the documentary screening will take place inside the Louisville Free Public Library’s auditorium on the first floor. All music, spoken word, poetry readings and performances will take place on the…
The super-rich now own Kentucky
At the beginning of the 20th century one plutocrat arrogantly declared, “We own America; we got it, God knows how, but we intend to keep it.” In 2018 Kentucky, we might paraphrase a beaming multi-millionaire or billionaire saying, “We own Kentucky; we got it by buying the legislature, and we intend to keep it.” As…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best & Most Absurd
Bevin pisses off GOP again | Rose and Thorn Gov. Matt Bevin gets a rose for vetoing the state budget and tax bills, and a thorn for doing it for all of the wrong reasons. He thinks the budget bill is too generous to all of us peons, and the tax bill is not generous…
The Weather Station creates personal, direct music
The latest The Weather Station record, a self-titled full-length, is airy and gentle, a melancholic exploration. And singer-songwriter Tamara Lindeman believes the band’s fourth record is best received within a very personal space and experienced privately, which you can hear in the nuances that she employs. She is telling you a story, both in narrative…
The 2018 Gonzofest music lineup
While the focal point of GonzoFest is celebrating and discussing the work of Hunter S. Thompson, the festival always does a solid job of putting together a day full of music, as well. Below is the band schedule for the festival, which takes place on Saturday, April 14 at the Louisville Free Public Library. Southern…
Goodbye
How does one finish a thought? Surely, these past five years have been one long thought, searching through arguments with myself about how music makes me feel and how I feel about music. Rarely would I come to a conclusion, never a definitive answer. More of a string of thoughts with the readers of LEO…
Record Review: Ron Whitehead & The Storm Generation — ‘Dragons’
Existential anxiety is filtered through a sense of optimism on Dragons, the latest from poet Ron Whitehead and his band, The Storm Generation. On the record’s first song, “Poets and Artists,” Whitehead suggests creative types need to help pull the world away from looming darkness. On “Closing Time: This Poem is for Nobody,” he dives…
Record Review: Rachel Grimes — ‘The Doctor from India’
There is such an affecting tenderness to Rachel Grimes’ soundtrack for “The Doctor from India,” a documentary about Dr. Vasant Lad, who introduced the ancient healthcare system Ayurveda to the West in the ‘70s. The soundtrack has an undeniable serenity, elevated by the orchestration choices — piano, violin, saxophone and flute, and underscored by Grimes’…
Record Review: Tender Mercy — ‘Leave Little Room’
Tender Mercy, the solo project of singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Kramer, walks a tightrope between not quite enough and Goldilocks Zone perfection. There is a quiet seething to his music that recalls Low or Talk Talk, a coiled tension that’s buried in the melancholia. More straightforward than the last Tender Mercy record, 2016’s experimental It…
Record Review: Belushi Speed Ball — ‘Part 2?: ?The Frank Castle Picnic’
The most-ridiculous thrash, metal band in town takes the colorful insanity of comic books and filters it through their mutated weirdness. On Belushi Speed Ball ‘Part 2: The Frank Castle Picnic,’ the lyrics are as absurd as the music is riff heavy — metal-leaning anthems that never take themselves too seriously. The band built their…
‘The Seven Last Words of Christ,’ solemn, sweeping grandeur
Midway through the live concert recording of Richard Burchard’s choral work, “The Seven Last Words of Christ,” there’s a striking passage when the sopranos enter on a shimmering high note in crystal clear unison. Then the voices slip sideways into a dissonant interval that sets up a haunting, ululating wail. “The Seven Last Words of…
Celebrity Chef’s Book Explores American Mixing Bowl
Chef Edward Lee has been in Louisville for a decade and a half. Over that time, he’s founded, owned, and/or directed multiple restaurants in town, as well as in his other place of regular residence, Washington, D.C. But there’s also merit in saying that Lee belongs everywhere, as he’s quite the celebrant of America as…
Festival of Faiths, ‘It was talking about things I cared about’
Don’t let the name fool you. Louisville’s Festival of Faiths encompasses more than just religion. Returning for its 23rd cycle, the five-day event consists of sessions ranging from spiritual introspection to social inequality. Activists, academics and faith leaders from around the world will converge April 24-28 to examine this year’s theme of the Sacred Feminine.…
Even on a quiet night, Marketplace rocks
We had such a good time checking out Main Street last week that we decided to hit the other end of downtown for dinner at Marketplace. Hmm. This block is different. Walk down Fourth Street toward Broadway on a quiet evening when there’s nothing playing at the Louisville Palace, Mercury Ballroom or The Brown Theatre,…
When in Owensboro, eat the mutton
I never really stopped to think what mutton is, truth be told. The only thing I ever really understood about mutton was that Jerry Seinfeld’s character didn’t like it, despite his semi-memorable quote, “Salad’s got nuttin’ on this mutton.” But when I found myself headed to Owensboro for an afternoon, well, I figured while in…
Bartenders are Superheroes
It’s 2018, and we’re living in the era of the Side Hustle. Millions of Americans are pursuing creative dreams alongside full-time jobs, or careers, that may or may not be fulfilling but are integral for funding day-to-day life. My friend, Jess, frequently talks about her favorite “Ted Talk” from a couple of years back by…
Savage Love: Call for Submissions
Q: I’m a 36-year-old straight woman. I was sexually and physically abused as a kid, and raped in my early 20s. I have been seeing a great therapist for the last five years, and I am processing things and feeling better than I ever have. I was in a long-term relationship that ended about two…
New ‘Roseanne,’ old issues
Sometimes, you can’t go home again. Retreads, do-overs and remakes, for all their nostalgia, are risky investments at best, particularly when the initial entity was exactly on time — the perfect vehicle to capture the zeitgeist. Why screw up a good thing? Or in the case of the new “Roseanne” show, why resurrect a character…
Back from opioids
On the same day, but an hour apart, I bumped into two friends of mine quite randomly. Two friends who could not be more different, but who had both disappeared into the same shadow world of opioid addiction and who were both now clean, sober and back from the void, having successfully slain that particular…
Dear President Bendapudi…
Congratulations on your appointment to become the next president of UofL. Your position and leadership come at a crucial time for the university. While you bring years of experience and perspective to the office, there are unique undercurrents that you should be aware of as you wade into this community. Quite frankly, it would be…
