Sex (education) and the city
Kentucky sticks with abstinence-only education despite a teen birth rate that far exceeds the national average A handful of local health departments across Kentucky share the following grim words of caution with teenagers: “WARNING! Going on this ride could change your life forever; result in poverty, heartache, disease, and even DEATH.” The foreboding message —…
Now, a word from our sponsors
Crunching numbers for this year’s Democratic and Republican national conventions In 1992, the Democratic and Republican national convention committees took in a whopping $8 million, combined, in private money. You’d think that would buy all the hooch, hors d’oeuvres and balloons you could possibly want to throw a really bitchin’ political party. But this year,…
Slap on the wrist?
A woman is free after helping her fugitive boyfriend escape to Mexico — instead of donating a kidney to his son Lea Ann Howard picked up her boyfriend on the morning of Jan. 24, 2006, supposedly headed to the hospital. Byron Perkins had 24 hours to be tested as a potential kidney donor for his…
Essay – Dreams of Obama – Transformational president or another disappointment? That”s up to us
Barack Obama, it is true, is a transformational leader. But he needs a transformational movement to become a transformational president. Essay:: There is the improbable hope that the movement set ablaze by the Obama campaign will be enough to elect Obama and a more progressive Congress in November, creating an explosion of rising expectations…
Eyesore
This vacant building at 150 W. Main St. sits in a row of dilapidated structures slated for redevelopment as retail shops, residences and offices. Last spring, Cobalt Ventures LLC bought the block of historic buildings — known as Whiskey Row for more than a century — yet no progress has been made on the project,…
What a Week
-4 The good news: Kentucky offers state health insurance for low-income children of working parents. The bad news: Tens of thousands of eligible kids aren’t enrolled in the program. Kentucky Voices for Health — a coalition of advocacy groups — estimates more than 60,000 children who should receive coverage are going without due to a…
‘If it ain’t country’ …
Before the concert last Friday at Expo Five, a buddy and I sat down at the Old Taylor Bar in Shively. As we sang along with a few David Allan Coe hits from the juke and watched Team USA dismantle the competition in women’s gymnastic floor exercises, I continued to wonder why country music matters…
“Vicky Cristina Barcelona” excels in effortless interaction
(Starring Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Patricia Clarkson and Penelope Cruz. Directed by Woody Allen. Rated PG-13; 1:36. LEO Report Card: A-) Even with the stunning shots of the quaint streets of Barcelona, even with the seductive Spanish guitar filling the background, the most beautiful aspects of this Woody Allen film are the seamless…
Sight Unsound
Thursday-Friday, Aug. 21-22 Say what you will about the acts that play regularly at the State Fair. For years, the blues bands invited to the fair have been top-notch. Coming back for the fifth time is Lamont Gillispie & 100 Proof, a quintet that’ll be at the Budweiser True Music Entertainment Tent (West Lawn) Thursday…
B-Sides – MUSIC & OTHER EPHEMERA – Like, listen thieves
My X-ray vision’s a bit sketchy, but I think there’s a new circle of hell being built for the idiot(s) who broke into The Rudyard Kipling last week. Sometime between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday evening, said idiots cut off the alarm and stole a 28-channel Yamaha soundboard that the club bought last year following a…
Video TapeWorm
Releases through Tuesday, Aug. 26 THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS NUDE FOR SATAN 1974; $19.95, UR To all those who wrote in after our breathless announcement of the lost Italian nudie classic “The Beast in Space” several weeks ago: Thanks! We appreciate the abuse. To further strain our relationship, we would like to announce the resurrection…
Inbox — Aug. 20, 2008
WELP DONE I have no idea who Jim Welp is, and in the many years of your paper’s existence I have never had occasion to write in for any reason (indeed, I read it only sporadically since Dave Barry and John Yarmuth departed), but Jim Welp’s “Falls Fountain flashback” (LEO Weekly, Aug. 13) compels me…
Mug Shots
BIG on brewing unity Wikipedia informs us that guilds originally were “small-business associations” composed of “self-employed skilled craftsmen with ownership and control over the materials and tools they needed to produce their goods.” Accordingly, my company is a member of the Brewers of Indiana Guild (BIG). Here’s the mission statement: The Brewers of Indiana Guild…
Haunted House? Clancy lowers the boom
Just about all local foodies can tell you about Louisville’s allegedly haunted or cursed restaurant venues, the unlucky spots that can’t hold a successful restaurant, housing one failed effort after another. In at least one notorious situation, the old Parisian Pantry at Bardstown Road and Bonnycastle Avenue was widely believed to be cursed by an…
Quarterback U – How U of L came to be a football powerhouse, collapsed for a moment and will return in triumph (maybe)
Former University of Louisville football coach Howard Schnellenberger vividly recalls the day his Cardinals were up against it in Morgantown, W. Va. It was 1990, and dreams of a landmark U of L season were fading that afternoon. The Cards could do absolutely nothing against the West Virginia defense, and trailed at halftime 7-3 —…
Awaiting Kragthorpe 2.0
The media was out in full force the day Steve Kragthorpe was introduced as U of L’s new football coach. Half a hundred strong, they were encamped at Press Level of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. Cameras whirred and microphones clicked on as the elevator doors opened and the new mentor emerged with an entourage led…
Aftertastes
QUEEN OF SHEBA, 2804 Taylorsville Rd., 459-6301. Ethiopian restaurant Queen of Sheba offers an airy and bright atmosphere in its new home across from Bowman Field. The reasonably priced meals are served with an Ethiopian flatbread, so don’t be shy about eating with your hands. (Reviewed 6/25/08; Rating: 84) BLUE NILE ETHIOPIAN RESTAURANT, 558 S.…
Pro-O: High-stakes offense has long been the Cards” game
Career Passing Leaders PLAYER COMPLETIONS YEARS 1. Chris Redman 12,541 1996-99 2. Brian Brohm 10,775 2004-07 3. Dave Ragone 8,596 1999-02 4. Jay Gruden 7,024 1985-88 5. Stefan LeFors 5,853 2001-04 6. Ed Rubbert 5,496 1983-86 7. Jeff Brohm 5,451 1989-93 8. Marty Lowe 4,861 1991-95 9. Browning Nagle 4,653…
The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
(By Michael Meyer. Walker and Company; 368 pp., $25.99.) Michael Meyer’s lamentation, “The Last Days of Old Beijing,” is by turns vexing and haunting, but ultimately deeply satisfying. A teacher and travel writer, Meyer chronicles his experience living as the sole westerner in a Beijing hutong, one of the rapidly disappearing traditional lanes of linked…
Booksmart – Reports
Louisville 2035 By Steve Wiser. Wisteria Publications; 120 pp., $10. You might have imagined how you will look in 25 years, but you may not have thought about how Louisville will change during that time. Architect Steve Wiser has, and he’s become a futurist in the process. Demographic shifts happen every 20-25 years, and Louisville…
Carmichael’s Top 5 staffpicks
1) The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex (YA fiction) — A funny and surprisingly insightful novel. For any fan of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams or Jasper Fforde. Or for those of you who will grow up to be fans of theirs, too. —Emma Aprile 2) Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis…
Summary of My Discontent – Sticker shock
When Barack Obama is elected president in a few months, it will be a historic occasion, and not just because he will be only our ninth president known to have had sex with a black woman. It will also be historic because Obama is both “pro-hope” and “pro-change,” unlike his opponent John McCain, who is…
Forgotten Fiction – CLASSICS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
We Think the World of You (By J.R. Ackerley. First published in 1960.) Born in Victorian England, J.R. Ackerley was both a successful writer and openly gay. Known primarily as a memoirist, he is famous for his opening to “My Father and Myself”: “I was born in 1896 and my parents were married in 1919.”…
EDITOR’S NOTE: High roller
I was rolling coins the other day. It’s tough to admit, but I was short on money, so I rooted through the junk drawer, from which emerged the rolls, flattened with their greens and oranges and blues studding all the brown-bag brown wrapped in rubber bands. I sat cross-legged on the hardwood floor of my…
Suburban Turmoil – Texting, texting, 1-2-3
Just when you think you’ve got the parenting thing all figured out, your kids stop making sense. “Dude, what’s crackalackin? I’m hella spent,” your 14-year-old will say, collapsing on the sofa as she picks bits of Sugar Daddy out of her braces. “If I don’t, like, marinate, the brodads are gonna think Imma grimey.” “Uh…
Chairman Wao – A LOUISVILLIAN INVADES CHINA
My love-hate relationship with the Olympics While I’m sure all of you are six blisters into “Olympic Fever,” I must admit that I can’t wait for the games to end. I’m not a hater. I love sport. I can get passionate about a tiddlywinks competition, but remember, I’m a concert promoter and, because of the…
