Ballz: SPORTS COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS BY C D KAPLAN
Robert, we’ve been sitting here 20 minutes. Besides mumbling about “crossing patterns,” all you’ve done is doodle on a pad and write down names. Would you like to share?It’s Bobby, not Robert. Nobody calls me Robert. Nobody has ever called me Robert. Understand?Sorry Bobby. Talk to me. What are you feeling? I haven’t the slightest…
Ball Droppings: Dozens of ways to Spice up your New Year”s Eve
It’s that Scary time of year again, Baby, when you get your hopes up, your Sporty plans squared away and your anticipation in full throttle … only to be Gingerly let down year after year. Seriously. When’s the last time you truly had fun on NYE? Between finding taxis, shepherding your friends and pinning down…
Imaginary Conversations: With Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao
Scene: A Saturday morning in late December, the first such morning that Kentucky’s busy power pair have spent together in some time — and likely one of the last, as Mitch prepares to fire up his re-election campaign in earnest. They have just awoken to the sound of breaking glass. McConnell: Elaine! Wake up! Did…
What do gangs and hip-hop have in common? Council members ask an expert how to keep hip-hop youth away from violence and crime
One of hip-hop’s early classics was “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, that latter better known today as international movie star Will Smith. We may forget that Smith’s career began in hip-hop, as a scrawny Philadelphia rapper who mulled over the suffocating effect of being misunderstood as a young…
Viva la difference
A year ago, the dangerous dog ordinance smelled like something a responsible pet owner would put in a poopy bag. Now, maybe, not so much Come with us now to Metro Council chambers, a year ago exactly, a crowded room bustling with energy of various hues, most of them dark. Confusion, expedience and partisan stubbornness…
Ask a Mexican: Tres questions edition
Q Dear Mexican: USA citizens are sick and tired that for more than 40 years, Latin American elites have lived like monarchs because they pimp their poor to American businesses for cheap labor that American taxpayers have been forced to subsidize with healthcare, food, housing, education and so forth, costing taxpayers trillions of dollars annually. Meanwhile,…
Erosia
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.Lighten Up…
Why do we have to run this ad?
The Metro Human Relations Commission comes down on this newspaper for a questionable ad. In an age where everyone’s offended, how polite do we have to be? In case you don’t recall, the cover of the May 2 issue of LEO featured an irrationally exuberant, slightly tubby young man with his pants down. His boxers…
Connected Diss: Some assembly required
I hate “The Holidays.” It all dates back to my childhood when my father objected to the Christmas pageant at my grade school and, in the spirit of ecumenical correctness, I was promptly cast as the visiting dreidel. It’s not that I mind Christmas, although the immaculate conception thing is the best argument I know…
Culture Maven: Shoot first, reflect later
For a moment, let’s simply suppose we’ve never seen the photo before. For this exercise’s sake, let’s forget what we’ve read about Robbie Hawkins. Erase from memory how he walked into an Omaha mall the week before last. How he took the escalator to the third floor of the tony Von Maur department store filled…
WHAT A WEEK: THE CITY”S WEEKLY ZEITGEIST RADAR
+7With a fireplace crackling in the background, retired Marine Lt. Col. Andrew Horne YouTubed his candidacy to unseat U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whom many consider unbeatable despite having done everything wrong ever. Describing his candidacy, Horne said, “Iraq Iraq Katrina Bush Iraq Bush war war war.” Others rumored to be angling to unseat McConnell…
Comedy Preview: Louisville comics living the dream
BY J.S. SITZES Comedians Mike Armstrong & Keith McGillComedy Caravan Dec. 19-231250 Bardstown Road459-0022www.comedycaravan.com Comedian Mike Armstrong is an ex-cop who didn’t do policing very well; and comic Keith McGill, according to his politically correct friends, doesn’t do “being black” very well. Armstrong and McGill were part of a class of comedians who began their…
Aftertastes
CHECK’S CAFÉ, 1101 E. Burnett St., 637-9515. This archetypal Germantown tavern excels at the four Bs: brats, burgers, bean soup and beer. A recent renovation has freshened the interior without taking away any of the character. (Reviewed 11/7; Rating: N/A) FLABBY’S SCHNITZELBURG, 1101 Lydia St., 637-9136. This cozy Germantown spot has excellent lunch specials and…
The Back Lot: Film news and ruminations
Four to Forget: The Worst of ’07 Good movies are sometimes hidden. Bad movies, you can see coming a mile away: Like brightly colored poison frogs, they are nice enough to advertise their noxiousness. Still, masochism and misfortune conspired to make me watch the following, all of which are easily among the worst of ’07: …
The Bar Belle: My Christmas list
Much like my resilient liver, my letters to Santa keep bouncing back. So I’m just going to publish it here and hope he reads LEO, at least every other week that is. Roger Baylor can fend for himself — may he get a lump of hops in his stocking (that’s a good thing, right?).…
Video TapeWorm: Releases through Tuesday, Dec. 25
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKSEASTERN PROMISES2007; DVD $29.95, RThis intense epic from director David Cronenberg is one staggering powerhouse of a film. It is centered on Viggo Mortensen, a mysterious and utterly ruthless agent of a Russian crime family in London, whose carefully metered world falls apart when he meets midwife Naomi Watts, collateral damage from…
Staffpicks
Thursday, Dec. 20‘The Weather Underground’ The excellent documentary “The Weather Underground” retains its potency and relevance some five years after its release. The story of the angry spin-off of the Students for a Democratic Society resounds today in an age said to be dominated by a “War on Terror.” Among other things, the film shows…
B-Sides: MUSIC & OTHER EPHEMERA
I’m thinking about inviting some major league baseball players over for New Year’s Eve. I hear they’re handy with needles.Sigh. At least shuffleboard’s not corrupt. Next yearA brief list of ’08 albums that willprobably be leaked or downloaded illegally: AC/DC: Strap It On(Elektra, January 2008)AFI (Interscope, 2008)Authority Zero (Zero Crew)David Banner: Greatest Story Ever Told…
Let”s just say The Shondes embrace the unusual
Friday, Dec. 21Krazy Fest has a spawn, and the parents are the community that signs on to louisvillehardcore.com. They named this new, noisy tyke with a parody of the late, great indie festival. The setting for Crazy Feast might be a bit of surprise: Gattiland, so this Friday night extravaganza might be the truest incarnation…
Booksmart – Reviews
Roll the Wheel: The Abundant Life and Wisdom of Mae PhillipsBy Phyllis M. EagleTree, ForSight Books; 136 pgs., $24.95.Phyllis EagleTree has no problem offering an ironclad guarantee with her new book “Roll the Wheel.” “If you read this book,” promises EagleTree, “you’ll have a better life. It’s a fact.” And that might well be, since…
Booksmart – Poem
Woman, Custer, Kentucky, 1999By Robert L. Penick She tosses her hair behind her,then offers her face to the sun’s imprint.Leans back against the trunk of arusted-red Chevrolet.Perhaps sunlight will preserveboth metal and bone.Parking lot of afranchise gas station.Fuel and cigarettes, donuts, coffee.Perhaps air for the tires.Out back, among weeds and cans,the sign on the compressor…
Booksmart – This “House” is finally built — in 3-D
A tale from ancient history, compiled from the writings of a Greek poet and her friend. But in “The House of the Muses,” you’ll read it through the modern media we know as the Graphic Novel. And the poet is Sappho, so it’s no surprise that passion is as omnipresent as the power politics of…
Film Reviews for 12-19-2007
‘Juno’ no ‘Sunshine’Starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. Directed by Jason Reitman. Rated PG-13; 1:31. LEO Report Card: B+) I hate advertising. The marketing for “Juno,” a film about a 16-year-old girl and her decision to give her child to an adoptive family, is trying really hard to paint…
Take that short drive to Stratto”s
If you’ve been meaning to check out some Southern Indiana dining spots but worried that it’s a little too far, consider this: It took me just 11 minutes to drive from my house in Crescent Hill to Stratto’s in Clarksville on a rainy Saturday night. OK, maybe I couldn’t have made it that fast during…
CD Reviews for 12-19-07
Melodies For Uncertain RobotsParadigm(SELF-RELEASED)An extraterrestrial theme is laid as Paradigm opens their debut collection with sounds reminiscent of the ancient dial-up modem over a soft piano riff on the short “Scanning.” Myron Koch brings things back down to earth as his saxophone rendition on the proceeding “Firefly” instructs the listener to breathe easy on any…
