Cover Story
LEO Weekly’s 5th Annual Not-Good-For-Nothing Quiz
Someday we may look back on 2008 and decide never to look back on years again. True, there were many promising developments. We elected a unique candidate in American politics (and by that I mean the first man to ever quit smoking during a stressful presidential campaign). There were other positive trends. Religious zealotry was…
The Bar Belle
A study came out this week that found teens who take virginity pledges are just as likely to have sex as teens who don’t. Shocker. It got me thinking: New Year’s resolutions are like virginity pledges. Lots of people make them, but so few follow through. Lots of people attach their chastity belts to treadmills…
High Fives
Jason Noble, Shipping NewsThe New YearS/TWritten over a four-year period, this record is incredibly beautiful without being saccharine in any way. Features the always-amazing Chris Brokaw. The first track (“Folios”) is totally inspiring. MeshuggahObzenWords fail to describe this band. The most mutant, lyrical, punishing, sci-fi heavy metal in the world. Think James Earl Jones as…
High Fives
Jason Noble, Shipping NewsThe New YearS/TWritten over a four-year period, this record is incredibly beautiful without being saccharine in any way. Features the always-amazing Chris Brokaw. The first track (“Folios”) is totally inspiring. MeshuggahObzenWords fail to describe this band. The most mutant, lyrical, punishing, sci-fi heavy metal in the world. Think James Earl Jones as…
High Fives
Jason Noble, Shipping NewsThe New YearS/TWritten over a four-year period, this record is incredibly beautiful without being saccharine in any way. Features the always-amazing Chris Brokaw. The first track (“Folios”) is totally inspiring. MeshuggahObzenWords fail to describe this band. The most mutant, lyrical, punishing, sci-fi heavy metal in the world. Think James Earl Jones as…
Fired up
Dozens of Old Louisville residents listened as Louisville Fire Chief Greg Frederick matter-of-factly explained why closing the fire station near Sixth and York streets is no cause for concern. Not surprisingly, the crowd strongly disagreed, and within an hour the relatively tame discourse spiraled into a heated exchange inside a cramped meeting room at the…
Reforming the state House
FRANKFORT — The Kentucky House of Representatives, to the casual visitor, seems like an arcane, dysfunctional system. At times, this may not be far from the truth. Since legislative power was wrestled from the governor in the 1970s, the Kentucky House and Senate have consolidated decision-making in the leadership of each chamber. Decisions typically are…
Staffpicks
Wednesday, Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve For as much as I like to go out and have a good time, you’d think this would be one of my favorite holidays. Wrong. I hate New Year’s Eve. I hate tall cover charges and free champagne. I hate unfulfilled expectations. I hate not kissing someone at midnight…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: MEL BAY: GUITAR QUICK LICKS: ANGUS YOUNG STYLE 2008; $19.95, UR Oh, wow! TapeWorm co-writer “Wild” Bill Raker learned to play guitar back in the ’60s using Mel Bat primers, with most of the ’70s spent as a professional musician/grocery-bagger. And here we are in the 21st century and old Mel…
Trashing yourself never sounded so good
As one half of the duo Trash Yourself, John Bourke is making a name for himself as producer and innovator, and he’s doing it all from Oklahoma City, Okla. As Bourke explains, the dance music scene is as vibrant and unpredictable as it has ever been. LEO: How did you get into dance music?John Bourke:…
Aftertastes
De la Torre’s, 1606 Bardstown Rd., 456-4955, www.delatorres.com. Recently the restaurant responded to customer demand (with one eye on the sinking economy) and shifted the menu over to an all-tapas list. The new menu offers more than three dozen small plates to choose from. (Reviewed 10/22/08; Rating: 94) Sage Indian Restaurant & Bar, 4123…
Internal audit
I’ve been fretting lately. More accurately stated: I’m fretting still. I’m a worrier, I’m told. It’s easy to do this time of year, and, frankly, given the current climate, it would be hard for anyone not to at least dabble. We’re beset on all sides by the existential pitfalls of Western life, the planet is…
Bridge to somewhere
The new bridge sparkled in the way only concrete does, a flat kind of matte-bright that stripped the finish off the sun, giving the hulking concrete span a clear coat appropriate for the moment. Pulled tightly across the entrance ramp was a banner made as if striped in gold, inscribed poetically with the words, “Why…
We’re still in Kansas, Toto!
I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I’m asking readers to make one for 2009. Stay engaged! That’s it. It might be harder than you think. Let’s talk about what staying “engaged” means. By staying engaged, you must remain consistently committed to understanding political shifts and decisions beyond shallow bandwagons. This is especially important…
Bleeding red and blue
More eloquently than I, sportswriting doyen Charles P. Pierce has riffed on the difference between the Big Game and an important game. The important game is of note because of an extraneous circumstance, say, a made-for-TV matchup, or perhaps because the winner advances toward some legit championship. The Big Game is much more, laden with…
Locavore Lore
As evidenced by the myriad winter solstice celebrations around town, winter has officially arrived. On the off chance that any of us warm-weather lovers were still clinging to fantasies of fall, temperatures plunging into the single digits brought an undeniable wake-up call. Perhaps one of the reasons I’ve been reluctant to embrace winter in the…
High Fives
Jason Noble, Shipping NewsThe New YearS/TWritten over a four-year period, this record is incredibly beautiful without being saccharine in any way. Features the always-amazing Chris Brokaw. The first track (“Folios”) is totally inspiring. MeshuggahObzenWords fail to describe this band. The most mutant, lyrical, punishing, sci-fi heavy metal in the world. Think James Earl Jones as…
Inbox — Dec. 31, 2008
Case by Case I found your “Loserville Awards” (LEO Weekly, Dec. 17) on target for the most part, but you erred in including the “Group of 18 dismissed teachers.” First, you are guilty of using “guilt by association.” Each case is different and entitled to be considered differently. The issue is due process and adhering…
B-Sides
Live at The 930Drake Hatfield, the live-sound engineer at the 930 Listening Room, has posted a number of shows recorded at the venue between January 2007 and now. The shows are encoded as MP3 zip files at Hatfield’s site, drakeaudio.com. Sets by Ben Sollee, Jamie Barnes, Luke Asher and a number of others are available…
High Fives
Jason Noble, Shipping NewsThe New YearS/TWritten over a four-year period, this record is incredibly beautiful without being saccharine in any way. Features the always-amazing Chris Brokaw. The first track (“Folios”) is totally inspiring. MeshuggahObzenWords fail to describe this band. The most mutant, lyrical, punishing, sci-fi heavy metal in the world. Think James Earl Jones as…
Mount the curb!
•Alan Abbott Standard Operating Procedure — Errol Morris’ artful and engrossing investigation into the 2004 Abu Ghraib torture scandal is not a simple or heavy-handed movie. In fact, it’s mostly about how little we can trust photos to give the entire story, and how even such seemingly straightforward images as a man being tortured can…
Good riddance
This was the year that I finally gave up on pop culture. No, that’s not exactly right. I kept hoping that I’d hear, see or read something worthwhile, and I kept looking, but my disappointment was very nearly universal. There were a couple surprises that kept me from giving up completely. While “The Dark Knight”…
