Cover Story
Raising the bar
When I lived in New York, I got used to the idea of doing many things alone. Movies alone, museums alone, shopping without a second opinion — but dining alone was by far my favorite experience. There’s something overly satisfying about sitting down to steak frites with a glass of wine and no one to…
Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted
Honest Jon’s compilation of 1920s Iraqi recordings, Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted, is truly a gem, but it’s not for everyone. It certainly isn’t the type of “world music” employed for NPR bumper music or in the living rooms of people who like to feel “cultured.” Pulled from EMI’s oldest archives, Give Me…
Film: “The Soloist” a meditation on madness and music
(Starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx. Directed by Joe Wright. Rated PG-13; 1:49. LEO Report Card: B) This film’s trailer made it look like one of the many Hallmark-esque, life-affirming pieces of mediocrity that causes me to appreciate Sam Peckinpah exponentially. However, “The Soloist” is anything but. It is a story of mental illness,…
Menagerie
Serge Gainsbourg is the new black. Or so it seems on Nous Non Plus’s album Menagerie. Nous Non Plus (which translates as “Us No More”) is a New York-based group of francophone RISD grads who channel Gainsbourg into a 21st century context. Heavy on the Moogs, strings and indie cred, Nous Non Plus’s sound is…
Halo Inside (Come La Luna)
Louisville native Honeychild Coleman has been an enigma since she made her move to NYC, confounding critics who tried to place her music into the neat little boxes we so desire. On this long-awaited full-length (after a decade of EPs and guest-appearances), Coleman is still not making it easy for us. Ranging from middle-of-the-road alternative…
OK, let’s party!
To The Locals: This is our year to re-embrace the Derby. You may think you’ve been there, done that — you’ve seen everything under the sun. You’ve thrown up in the Infield. Hooked up behind a dumpster. Woken up with licked-on tattoos. Stayed up for 48 hours and cracked a beer at the crack of…
Art: News Bits
Louisville is still in the running for the American Craft Council relocation, according to Carmen Hickerson, VP of communications and public affairs at Greater Louisville Inc. artwithoutwalls (www.artww.org) is the new organization from Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown. It will work with artists to create installations and programs in a range of media and…
Willie and the Wheel
Nelson and “modern swing kings” Asleep at the Wheel have joined forces for Willie and the Wheel. The project dreamed up by the late and legendary producer Jerry Wexler at least 30 years ago is only now coming to fruition. As always, Nelson reminds us that his unremarkable voice somehow melds itself effortlessly with any…
Art: Art share
I was recently introduced to the game of “what five pieces of art would you want,” a variation of the “stranded on a desert island” question. I was stumped. That’s a lot of art history, and I’m still thinking about it (I’ve got it narrowed down to about 20). So imagine if you were Dorothy…
My decadent and deprived Kentucky Derby — wear a hat for me
I am coming to the realization that my shirt might not be as bourbon stained as yours this Saturday. It seems I signed up for a graduate school program in Boston and forgot to read the fine print. I have finals the week after Derby. So I’m sitting here, hundreds of miles away from you,…
New bridges: No laughing matter
The massive $4 billion Ohio River Bridges Project continues its tortoise-like pace with delays, setbacks and longer-than-expected implementation. This week it was revealed that historic building assessments are taking years to complete instead of the original projection of several months. This is the latest in a broad history of flubs for the project. On April…
Winding Highways
In the tradition of such independent troubadours as Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and John Prine (who makes an appearance on the album), Winding Highways is a collection of classic Americana. These are songs with little ornamentation that utilize high-lonesome singing and clever, wistful lyricism. “Bound to Lovin’ You” is classic revival honky tonk. Clark…
The war on stupid
Here’s a bit of shockingly good-ish news: Despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, we are getting smarter. According to a book called “Intelligence and How to Get It,” by University of Michigan psychology professor Richard E. Nisbett, the average I.Q. in 1917 would equate to only 73 on today’s I.Q. test. Half of…
Take on the fakes
An English girl’s take on an English Pub If home is where the heart is, to an English person, the pub is where the soul lives. From the age of 14 — the legal age when it’s safe to enter — pubs form a part of your psyche and happiness like no other place. Hearts are…
Mug Shots
In 1991, Coors belatedly added Indiana to the list of states where the Colorado brewer legally distributed, paving the way for Hoosiers to be just as exposed to Coors “Silver Bullet” Light advertising as the rest of the nation. Almost two decades later, the fermented wares of another Rocky Mountain brewing company have arrived in…
If I have to tell you there’s music this week
•WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29 Girls, Guns and Glory w/ Crystal Thomas Gerstle’s 3801 Frankfort Ave. 742-8616 www.gerstles.com 9 p.m. Bostonian roots rockers Girls Guns & Glory haven’t ventured much outside New England, but still, their résumé is worth mentioning: opening slots for Silversun Pickups, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bloc Party and Snowden, among others. Their…
B-Sides
This Wednesday is Spring Music Recital at the Kentucky School for the Blind (1867 Frankfort Ave.). More than 20 students will participate in this year’s recital, which begins at 6:30 p.m. Longtime jazz musico Bobby Falk has a half-dozen students participating, and the school’s percussion ensemble also makes an appearance. For further information, visit www.ksb.k12.ky.us.…
Inbox — April 29, 2009
Douchey Judgments Daniel F. McHugh furthers the proof of his being a douchebag (LEO Weekly, April 1) — he has the balls, albeit tiny ones, to continue the maddening thought that he should be allowed to push his freedom of choice onto everyone else. My morals aren’t skewed, and having an abortion doesn’t make me…
Nile and a quarter won’t be too long for the Pioneer
Don’t fool around with the other horses. Find out the number for Pioneerof the Nile and go bet. There’s no such thing as a sure thing, of course — and especially not in the Kentucky Derby. But don’t tell Pioneerof the Nile. The horse thinks he’s going to win the 135th Run for the Roses.…
The Video Tapeworm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA 2008; $27.95, PG-13 Our favorite bad movie of 2009! (So far.) A crazy mishmash of Bollywood and Kung Fu is served up when a simple Indian cook is declared the reincarnation of a legendary Chinese warrior — and heads off to save a village he has never…
Locavore Lore: Louisville loves lawns
You know how despite all of our seeking, everything we need is actually right in front of us? Although a deep truth resonates somewhere in that understanding, the human side of me continues to forget it all, and the longings of my heart lead my parsifilian wanderings from one season to the next. Thank god…
Catnip Dynamite
Roger Joseph Manning Jr. has earned accolades for his work with Beck, the Moog Cookbook and others, but to many listeners, he’ll always be best known as one of the two masterminds behind Jellyfish, the late, lamented aggregate many saw as power-pop’s great white hope in the early ’90s. Since Jellyfish’s breakup, Manning has kept…
Cruise control
An enormous white tent covers the parking lot at St. Augustine Catholic Church on West Broadway, where in just a few hours, a crowd of more than 1,500 guests are expected to gather. Dubbed “Slice of Louisville,” this casual yet extravagant party is held every year on the Saturday before Derby, and it’s the only…
LEO Weekly’s Super Happy Fun Time Derby Pharmacopoeia!!!!
For all of its accompanying fanfare, regality and backslapping good intentions, the Kentucky Derby is largely an exercise in the extremities of human debauchery — which can be fun, provided you have the right drugs. Let’s be clear first: While there’s plenty of noble sportsmanship and legitimate excitement to go around, few events of this…
