Cover Stories
A dying breed?
Just after Eight Belles crossed the finish line as runner-up in last year’s Kentucky Derby, the sleek, dark gray filly slowed to a strained gallop, and within seconds her front legs buckled, bringing her to the dirt. Track workers rushed to the field, erecting a curtain around the disabled horse. Meanwhile, spectators watched in horror…
Horse Haven
Ellin Ortwein’s childhood was hectic. Before she turned 16, the Boone County native lost her older brother and sister to homicide, was selling prescription pills and had parents addicted to crack cocaine. “For 16 years I had nobody telling me what to do and ran wild. I didn’t have any rules. I sold drugs and…
Horse play
You say it’s a handicapper’s nightmare? Maybe. Col. Matt J. Winn, who saw the very first Kentucky Derby in 1875 standing on the seat of his father’s delivery wagon in the Churchill Downs infield and grew up to build the Derby into the world’s greatest horse race, would no doubt be pleased that the likely…
Art: Brooke Herbert: interior exhibitionist
Art shows should have more cookouts. I’d like to say that I am always lured to art galleries for loftier purposes, but it was the free burgers that got me in the door of the Hite Art Institute last Thursday. Forget boxed wine and cheese cubes — hot dogs and sheet cake are without a…
Camp nowhere
Before living in a $20 tent, Joe Kortz was a successful entrepreneur who owned a vinyl siding company and a commercial shrimp boat in Louisiana, earning nearly $100,000 a year. “But bad luck, a worse choice of women and living a crazy life — now I’m with nothing to show for it,” says the 48-year-old…
The needle and the damage done
My name is Paul, and I am an addict. I first recognized my “problem” about 25 years ago when, during a training session at my newly acquired summer job (Burger King, Shelbyville Road), a man of regional authority advised my group of recent hires that our shared enterprise depended upon getting our customers to come…
Review: Omar Fast Food offers ketchup, globalization and Pakistani fare
The smiling gentleman forked a sizzling dish of bhaji in my direction. It sizzled gently, wafting wonderful aromas noseward: sweet, caramelized onion and an elusive mix of spices. This is ethnic-foodie heaven: Omar Fast Food Restaurant, a new eatery featuring the fare of Pakistan, a South Asian nation that most of us have heretofore been…
Art: Art + Derbytime = horses, hooch ’n’ hats
’Tis the season. No, not that season — the other time of reverence in Kentucky, the Derby. Artists are bursting with depictions of horses, hooch and hats. It’s not Derby if Jaime Corum is not showing her horse paintings somewhere in town. The Gallery at the Brown (335 W. Broadway, 583-1234) is featuring “Romancing the…
Art News
The Louisville Visual Art Association is hosting workshops on art marketing led by artist and marketing consultant Paula Cundiff. $10 for LVAA members, $15 for non-members. To register, call 896-2146 x100. The Kentucky Foundation for Women is seeking feminist social change artists for their 2009 Hopscotch House Summer Residency Program. There are 1-2 week residencies…
Supporting Caste
Supporting Caste is no slouch: Witness the outspoken quartet make veiled death threats toward fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz and rail against pro-war announcers of “Hockey Night in Canada.” Every skittering missive is delivered with such intellectual finesse that it’s tough not to feel both educated and entertained by their curmudgeonly contrarianism, even if you disagree.…
A face-off with my past
Stephanie Gorski wants to be my Facebook friend. Thing is, last time I talked to Stephanie Gorski I was 10 years old. Now suddenly she’s back in my life, or trying to be anyway. It’s mean to admit, but I didn’t much like Stephanie Gorski when we were in the fourth grade. Why on earth…
A circus of sinners, and Saint
Saint Fest II looks more like a punk rock circus of sins rather than the birthday bash for a 23-year-old. With a bill that serves no purpose beyond his own amusement, Jason Saint is ready for the second year of his festival to unhook. “I tried to make this year’s lineup something for everyone,” he…
Blue Lights on the Runway
You’ve got to hand it to Bell X1 — most groups would have broken up after being dumped by Damien Rice. But Bell X1 has soldiered on, releasing four albums and getting their fair share of praise from native Ireland. Blue Lights on the Runway features the band’s second lineup since Rice’s departure. It’s pretty…
Book: Susan Wittig Albert serves up cozy herbal mysteries
A fictional Shaker village and its modern re-creation have some uncomfortable commonalities in a new mystery by Susan Wittig Albert. “Wormwood” is Albert’s 17th entry in a series of “cozy” (i.e., gentle and character-driven) mysteries that center around China Bayles, a lady running an herb shop in Texas. That’s a lot of mystery books, and…
The Bar Belle
When I first sat down to watch Showtime’s newest series “United States of Tara,” I was expecting a bizarre, realistic, humorous take on someone living with multiple personality disorder. Starring Toni Collette (“Muriel’s Wedding”) and created by Diablo Cody (“Juno”), I knew it would be a great show. I just didn’t realize I would find…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: MAID IN SWEDEN 1971; $24.95, R If women are the only works of art, then Christina Lindberg is the Louvre. Simply the most beautiful woman ever born, she began her career in Swedish high school as a swimsuit and nude model, posing for Playboy and Penthouse while still in her teens.…
Planet Passion
If the members of the United Nations formed a world-fusion band, it might look and sound a little something like Ancient Future’s re-issue of their seventh recording. Featuring instrumentation from Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East, Planet Passion is a mythical story of love, flirtation, seduction, courtship, marriage and longing. Manose Singh’s bansuri…
B-Sides: Music & Other Ephemera
Birmingham, Ala., native Anthony Crawford has a rarified perspective on his current travels. You would too if you were Neil Young’s guitar player. Crawford hooked up with Young and his band The Shocking Pinks in 1983 after one of Young’s producers, Elliott Mazer, heard Crawford’s backup vocal on a Tanya Tucker song. He’s backed up…
Crime scene
It’s a scene that’s played out thousands, maybe millions of times in Louisville during Derbytime, the vaunted two-week prelude to the race that attracts as many people as do the horses at Churchill Downs: Hit a bar with friends, order a cocktail or two, commence celebratory shots honoring the “regality” of the Kentucky Derby or…
‘Fight’ Club
Who says hardcore died in 1986? Not Brian Peterson. The Chicago schoolteacher has spent the last six years corralling anecdotes, data, lineups and vintage photographs for “Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution In Ethics, Politics, Spirit And Sound” (Revelation Records Publishing; 503 pages). With a specific focus on hardcore bands of the late ’80s and…
Kingdom of Rust
Considering that Doves are masters of moody, mid-tempo Brit-rock, it’s hard to believe they were once an acid house band trafficking under the moniker Sub Sub. But traces of their former lives are sprinkled throughout their catalog, including this one. “Jetstream” pulses along on a tik-tik-tik rhythm that adds driving urgency to the tune, while…
No rules
Eric “Rico” Rakutt wants the South By South End (SXSE) Festival to grow without the hindrance (or benefit) of rules. Wherever the artists, musicians and sponsors want to take it, it’s their forum. Rakutt is an artist and promoter, and he’s one of the organizers for this second stab at a booth-and-stage show to celebrate…
Q&A: Duncan Barlow
Conducted via e-mail. LEO: A few housekeeping questions: What do you do now (re: job)? Duncan Barlow: I am a professor of English at a small private college in Florida right now. I have also just started a small literary press called Astrophil Press; our first two releases are currently available. LEO: What is the…
Inbox — April 22, 2009
Correction Last week’s feature story incorrectly stated that Molly Bingham produced the film “A Powerful Noise.” It was produced by CARE, a nonprofit organization that helps fight global poverty. Bingham will be part of a panel discussion that follows the film at the opening of “The 10 Most Inspirational Women” exhibit on Thursday at the…
