Q&A: Brett Ralph, leader of the Kentucky Chrome Revue
LEO: Tell me a little bit about your formative years…your first exposure to music…what led you to create your own … Brett Ralph: Most of the records around the house when I was growing up were my mom’s: Barbra Streisand, Perry Como, Englebert Humperdinck, that kind of stuff. My dad had a few Buck Owens…
No More False Dichotomies: Did she jump or was she pushed?
Tip O’Neill famously said (or so the story goes) all politics is local. To which I would add that most people — those who are nominally observant, at least — typically know and understand what is happening around them long before the politicians and pundits. By the time an issue hits Congress and the news…
Message to the People: Vote 2008: the consequences of political weakness
Adapted from “What’s Wrong with Obamamania?” (due June 2008 from SUNY Press) On Jan. 3, practice ends and the real game begins. As Americans vote in obviously historic primaries, questions are begged. “What do we want and why?” The candidacy of Barack Obama, the first serious black presidential contender, certainly prompts these and other queries.…
Plain Brown Rapper: What”s in a name?
KHARTOUM, Sudan (Associated Press): “Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied … in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a Teddy Bear ‘Muhammad.’” (Incidentally, did you know one of the students was named “Muhammad”? No one made…
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. Tongue-In-CheekAttn:…
LEO”s Fourth Annual Not Good for Nothing Quiz*
2007: An Adderall-addled year of fat-gram-countin’, Nicorette-chompin’ and troop-supportin’ * Only a good-for-nothing is not interested in his past. —Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis World, you’ve done it again! Despite all odds, you’ve put together another banner year that critics are hailing as “hilarious,” “carcinogenic” and “a comic-tragic masterpiece of side-splitting horror.” As far…
Ballz: Sports Commentary by c d Kaplan
Can we get a medic? Where’s the M*A*S*H unit when we really need it? The homies are wounded, hardly walking for heaven’s sake, let alone ballin’ like they should. Oh, that’s right, Hawkeye and Trapper John are off playing golf, those scoundrels. Well, here’s hoping they get back quick. They’d better. Hot Lips needs help.…
Imaginary Conversations With …Gubner Beshear and Jesus
Scene: The new Kentucky governor is dutifully offering his Christmas prayers — thankful, among other things, for his ballot success last month — when Jesus suddenly responds. Jesus: I think you’ve got me confused with the other famous imaginary white guy. Steve Beshear: Huh? Jesus? J: It’s me. Hi. SB: Wow. I always thought you…
Pushing energy policy: Can this new session help free Kentucky from coal?
The New Year will bring opportunities for Kentucky to mold an energy policy influenced more heavily by the future than the past. Calls for a change in energy supply and use have seemed thus far doomed, but a study under way by the state Public Service Commission is intended to help the agency, and ultimately…
When God”s got no answer: An upstart Internet broadcast from Union, Ky., tries to bring atheism to the masses
BY KATHLEEN ADAMS Many of the houses in the Northern Kentucky subdivision where Edwin Kagin lives are illuminated by brightly lit reindeer, icicles and other symbols of the Christmas season. But not the two-story home Kagin shares with his wife Helen. That’s because Kagin isn’t a believer. He is an atheist who professes no belief…
Ask a Mexican: Special year-end edición
Dear Readers: Gracias, thank you, gracias for another successful year. The Mexican now appears in 32 newspapers across the country, with a weekly circulation of just over 2 million! As more readers join the Reconquista, many ask the same preguntas about the column’s methodology, philosophy and generous use of the term pinche puto pendejo baboso.…
Welp”s Louisville: Primary envy
Now that we’ve celebrated our Savior’s birth by buying each other petroleum-based tchotckes, stuffing our gullets with saturated fats and getting into explosive arguments with that obnoxious uncle who won’t shut up about immigration and/or homosexuality, it’s time to turn our attention to other important matters of salvation, such as the Cards’ bowl chances ……
What A Week
+4Congress approved and President Bush signed into law a new fuel-economy requirement for auto manufacturers, giving hope to a future world with less fossil fuel dependence and fewer Hummer-driving assholes. The bill requires Big Auto to produce vehicles that average 35 mpg by 2020, an increase in renewable fuels, and more efficient lighting, appliances and…
Art Splatters
Splatters The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft is sponsoring a marketing and development workshop for mid-career artists on Saturday, Jan. 12. It’s $75 for non-members, $50 for members. Speakers: Arturo Sandoval, Lloyd Kelly, Rand Heazlitt and Craig Kaviar. Call 589-0102. Bernheim’s Visitor Center has been awarded a Leadership in Energy and Environmental…
Rocks in his head: Louisville sculptor Forest Boone commissioned to build a massive mold in Hawaii
Forest Boone is a sculptor. He makes rocks. I know what you’re thinking — “Don’t we have enough of those already?” — but these are custom-made fake rocks. Mother Nature would make them if she had the time — and the necessary specs. Boone, 42, owns Museumrock Products (6330 Strawberry Lane, 376-ROCK, www.museumrock.com). The self-labeled…
Aftertastes
FLABBY’S SCHNITZELBURG, 1101 Lydia St., 637-9136. This cozy Germantown spot has excellent lunch specials and traditional German dinners, which have been featured ever since the late Jim “Flabby” Devine opened it in 1952. Some consider Flabby’s fried chicken the best in town. (Reviewed 11/7; Rating: N/A) GERMANTOWN CAFÉ, 1053 Goss Ave., 637-9412. The small yet…
Mug Shots: The Year in Beer
During my most recent Year in Beer, there were things I didn’t do. I forgot to try Miller Chill, neglected to spend money at any plasticized “chain” pub, eschewed watching the mountains turn blue on a Coors Light can and did not set foot inside Wal-Mart. Idiocy avoided and purity intact, I had a…
Rising trend for “07: fine dining comes to suburbia
Here’s a vignette that captures the year 2007 on the local dining scene for me: I’m enjoying lunch in the new Seviche — A Latin Bistro on Goose Creek Road. The room is packed, but I’m the only male in sight, and I’m the youngest person in the place except for the servers. I’m…
Film — Best-Ofs: LEO critics tout their Top 5
Alan Abbott 1) Into Great Silence — A largely wordless documentary about one of the most ascetic Catholic monasteries in Europe. Although I’ve long since fallen by the wayside, there’s something to be said about the ancient, still rhythms of their deeply contemplative life. 2) The Unforeseen — Director Laura Dunn was inspired by…
The Video Tapeworm: Releases on Tuesday, Jan. 1
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS:SEPTEMBER DAWN(2007; DVD $26.95, R). There’s little doubt that the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, in which more than 120 men, women and children were hacked to pieces just for traveling across Utah, was a product of the Mormon Church. There’s even less doubt that the present-day Latter Day Saints aren’t too…
Music — Best-Ofs: LEO critics tout their Top 5
Mark Bacon 1) Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock & Jack DeJohnette: My Foolish Heart — The ultimate jazz trio releases their finest recording to date. My Foolish Heart finds the group going deeper into the American songbook with three novelties from the Swing era, played idiomatically without a hint of mockery, as reinforced in Jarrett’s liner…
Staffpicks
Thursday, Dec. 2726th Annual Kwanzaa Celebration Christmas and Hanukkah might be over, but that doesn’t mean the holiday season is. The Archdiocese of Louisville’s Office of Multicultural Ministry is hosting its community-wide Kwanzaa celebration Thursday. In addition to poetry, gospel music, dance and African drumming by the River City Drum Corps, the event will also…
