MySpace or yours? Social networking sites can give a false sense of security
As his boyfriend Zac Dreyer wrote in a blog on his Myspace.com page, April 6 wasn’t a typical Thursday for Jason Johnson, for several reasons. Dreyer was in town — Williamsburg, Ky., at the University of Cumberlands — visiting. The 18-year-old Eastern Kentucky University student and his 20-year-old boyfriend had come from EKU earlier in…
Does Ernie Fletcher hate gay people?
Last week the governor issued an executive order removing gays from the state’s anti-discrimination policy. Smells like bigotry to us. On the cover of the Nov. 18, 1998 issue of LEO, there’s a photograph of Alicia Pedreira and her then-partner. Pedreira’s white A-shirt shows the outline of an island with the words “Isle of Lesbos.”…
Pick a faith and be good at it
by T.N. McGill It must have been 1961 or 1962. I was rather innocent when I went on a great adventure: I attended a church youth convention in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. We heard Mahalia Jackson sing. Dr. Hans Lilje spoke to us. I’ll always remember Mahalia’s voice and her song, “I know that prayer changes things.”…
Plain Brown Rapper: Freedom is everything we have to lose
Alan Westin, in his seminal book on the subject, “Privacy and Freedom,” defined the key word as “the right to control information about ourselves.” In the 30 years that have passed since publication of this definitive work, we have seen steady erosion of this fundamental right. Americans have enjoyed a special liberty, envied by the…
What a Week
Diversity celebratedProving he can be just as ironic (notice the similarity to the word “moronic”) as the next guy, Gov. Ernie Fletcher celebrated Diversity Day by cutting anti-discrimination protection for gay state workers. The move was largely seen as a suck-up to the Republican base, which likes to spend its waking hours desperately trying not…
Short News: In the shadow of the shoes
Of every regular session of the Kentucky General Assembly I’ve covered since 1996, the 2006 session — which adjourned last Wednesday — was among the better ones. Kentucky Resources Council Director Tom FitzGerald, by contrast, called it “a half-shoe session.” This comes from an environmentalist, lawyer and lobbyist who’s known for his distressed shoes. In…
Bluegrass Report: All the wisdom money can buy
If you want a dramatic lesson about money and political campaigns, check out the federal campaign finance reports just filed by Kentucky’s 12 congressional candidates (six incumbents and six challengers). The reports disclose how much money each candidate raised and spent during the first quarter of 2006, and one interesting angle is to look at…
Your Weekly Reeder: What’s lost when leadership plays to the Base
Many times during my excellent adventure in Frankfort, I heard Republicans refer to “The Base.” As in, “That won’t play with The Base,” or, “The Base wouldn’t like that.” I thought I knew what The Base was, but, to be sure, I asked one of Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s top aides to define it for me.…
Erosia: Letters to the Editor
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. More…
Prescience is as prescience does: Kevin Phillips has been right for a long time now
In 1969, Kevin Phillips, then a political analyst working for President Richard Nixon, wrote “The Emerging Republican Majority,” a book predicting that the political and racial strife of the 1960s would culminate in a national political reversal that would transform the American political landscape, lead to an upsurge of Southern power, and result in Republican…
Video to go is here to stay. What are your preferences?
BY CHAD THOMAS Portable music players are so passé. These days, devices that merely play music represent the low end of the digital media market. Most portable music players have expanded into the world of video, and here’s a look at three different devices that each tackle the concept of mobile video in their own…
Arts & Entertainment Listings
Special Events ••Spina Bifida Association — sailors from the USS Kentucky join WQMF personalities Dave & Simon for annual fundraiser, April 20, 5pm-midnite, $5, Molly Malone’s, 933 Baxter Ave., 637-7363.Downtown Louisville Ghost Walk — tour haunted and historic places such as the Brown and Seelbach hotels, Palace Theatre, more, 90-minute walking tours, April 21 &…
Community Listings
Special Events WKU Greater Louisville Chapter — “A Toast to the Centennial,” April 19, 6-9pm, $15, 1800 Mellwood Ave., 719-1705.••Hope for Pets — open house, April 20, 6:30pm-9pm, Shepherdsville City Hall, 170 E. Simon Ave, 955-3586. Belle of Cincinnati — docked at New Albany Riverfront, special cruises including Thunder Cruise, April 21 & 22, 1-800-261-8586.…
Karaoke Korral
Karaoke Korral lists the bars and clubs that have karaoke by day of week. WED APRIL 19 Akiko’sBrewskees Brickyard Sports Bar Creeker’s Bar & GrillGaslite Tavern Good Times Pub Jim Porter’sJoker’sJT’s Variety Club Mac’s HideawayMain MenuMonon Station New ViewPhoenix HillR Place Pub Reflections Lounge Ro-Joe’s Karaoke BarSeidenfaden Cafe Shooters Sid’s Pub SkivviesSmyrna Inn St. Andrew’s…
Club Directory
19th Green 1740 Williamsburg Dr., Jeffersonville (812) 284-908819th Hole Pub 5603 Greenwood Rd. 933-4858717 Studios 717 Market St. 609-93171135 S. 7th St. 1135 S. 7th St. 589-4978A Little Peace Café 1860 Mellwood Ave. 895-3650Air Devil’s Inn 2802 Taylorsville Rd. 454-4443Akiko’s 1123 Bardstown Rd. 459-8020The Alternative 1032 Story Ave. 561-7613Angelo’s 627 N. 34th St. 776-9127Artemisia 620…
Five Important Questions With The Vibrolas
It was just a couple weeks ago that I was listening to a compilation of late 1980s and early ’90s grunge music over and over again, trying to find something original to say about the movement that came and went about as quickly as Napster. After going through the thing about three times and staring…
Not so far from home: Joel Henderson takes root in Louisville
When Joel Henderson says he’s new to the Louisville music scene, he doesn’t mean he just moved here, or that he just started playing music. “I’ve actually been here a couple of years. But when I moved down here initially, I sort of put the music stuff on hold. So musically speaking, I am new…
Cocked and loaded: Shooter Jennings ain’t the only hell his Daddy ever raised
BY KEVIN M. WILSON Once you’re dead, you’re beloved. Y’know, the “late, great,” and “what he did for our music.” But until then, it’s always, “trouble-makin’ son of a bitch.” —Waylon Jennings Shooter Jennings, the offspring of country music superstar Jessi Colter and outlaw legend Waylon Jennings, allegedly got his nickname because his daddy was…
Aftertastes
Quality of Meal: 3 = Good; 4 = Very good; 5 = Extraordinary. Price Range: $ = $10 or less; $$ = $20 or less; $$$ = $30 or less; $$$$ = more than $30. (Per person for a meal without tip or tax.) HA = Wheelchair accessible. Descriptions are summaries of previously published dining…
LEO’s Eat ’n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes
Food, wine star on Avalon’s understated stage Writer STEVE COOMES takes a turn in LEO’s pulpit today, choosing the chapter of Avalon from the book of Good Eats. This popular Bardstown Road bistro, he says, offers one of the most approachable dining rooms on the strip, an understated venue that lays back so the bill…
The ghouls of downtown: Mr. Ghost Walker introduces spectators to specters at his weekly storytelling walks
by Jonathan Frank Four years ago, when Robert Parker began leading his walking ghost tours of downtown Louisville as “Mr. Ghost Walker,” the experience took on an eerie ambiance not only because of his creepy stories and useful hand gestures, but also because Fourth Street — the corridor where the walk begins and ends —…
Staff Picks
April 20-21Environmental Film Fest Once again the Floyd Theater at U of L is the site this week of a well-programmed and unique film event. The first Green Hope Environmental Film Festival, scheduled to loosely coincide with Earth Day, brings to town a number of rarely shown gems, most of them recent, many of local origin.…
The Power and the Patton: Comedians of Comedy terrorize Louisville
Patton Oswalt. Is. A man. Who. Does comedy. But. He is not. Your average comedian. You might know him as Spence, the lovable supporting character on the runaway smash hit CBS sitcom “The King of Queens,” but Oswalt doesn’t consider himself a TV actor who dabbles in stand-up comedy — he’s a stand-up comedian who…
