Spottiswoode & His Enemies celebrate 10 years with east coast tour, Louisville stop
Spottiswoode & His EnemiesSpouseD.W. Box & One Long Song——————————Tuesday, Dec. 11Pour Haus1481 S. Shelby St.9 p.m.myspace.com/pourhaus Jonathan Spottiswoode has issues. Not drugs or drink, caffeine addiction or gambling.“I can’t listen to very much music,” the British turned New Yorker says by phone. “If I listen to something that I like, I’m gonna write another 12…
Peter, Bjorn & John at Headliners Music Hall 11.30.07
Peter, Bjorn & Johnw/ The Besnard LakesHeadliners Music HallLouisville, Ky.11.30.07 A year ago, the most pretentious boy I’ve ever known showed me an animated music video that included whistling and bongos. “This song is so now,” he said. The song played on repeat for days. Then we were done.If my old friends knew that I…
Bluegrass Beacon: Board”s pillow talk punishes parents and students
Some school-board members exhibit more passion for what happens in a teacher’s bedroom than in the teacher’s classroom. If they focused more on improving Kentucky schools, parents would sleep a lot better.An example: The Jefferson County Board of Education voted 4-3 on Nov. 26 to add special protection for gay and lesbian employees to its…
Guest Commentary OPINION BY SAM DALEY-HARRIS
Microcredit is best tool to fight poverty Why is 31 years of positive global experience insufficient for the World Bank to grasp the importance of using microcredit to reach and empower the very poor? In 1976, a young economics professor named Muhammad Yunus lent less than $1 each to 42 craftspeople laboring near starvation, freeing…
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.Christmas PastsAttn:…
On Media: Anatomy of a rumor
Imagine a legitimacy tree that all rumors must climb, with the peak being the lead story on a local TV newscast. The roots are whispers among friends about something that sounds like it could possibly happen if certain things occur in a certain way, and well, wouldn’t it be cool if it were true. Climbing…
Love Thy Neighbor: Meet Luther Brown
Please allow me to introduce Mr. Luther Brown. Luther lives in the Strothers Apartments, at 18th and Wilson streets in Louisville’s West End. The 48-year-old father of three is an impassioned community leader who believes in spreading love, light and goodness in dying communities. I asked Luther how he became involved in community work. What…
You”re getting warmer: The Kyoto Accord began the race to halt global warming.
On its 10th anniversary, why are we barely past the starting gate? BY BILL MCKIBBEN I remember so well the final morning hours of the Kyoto conference. The negotiations had gone on long past their scheduled evening close, and the convention-center management was frantic — a trade show for children’s clothing was about to begin,…
The view from Kyoto BY ED SMELOFF
Without U.S. participation, the first-ever global-warming treaty was doomed to only partial success. Will Bali be better? Ten years. In geological time, 10 years is hardly noticed — a speck of dust. But for sentient beings, much happens in 10 years. Children grow up, parents and friends pass away, wars start and end, presidents are…
Kentucky still lags behind, but the Bluegrass could change yet
Tom Fitzgerald is the director of the Kentucky Resources Council and an attorney with more than three decades of experience in environmental and regulatory law. He sat down with LEO last week for a wide-ranging interview about Kyoto, Kentucky, carbon, optimism in a time of crisis, and how we might extract ourselves from the mess…
Small steps forward, small steps back: Louisville inches along on climate protection
When it became clear that Presidents Clinton and then Bush would not sway with the winds of change that had governments worldwide promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at Kyoto, Japan, city mayors decided to act. Our own Mayor Jerry Abramson was an early signatory among the 740 who have signed the Mayors Climate Protection…
¡Ask a Mexican! What kind of abomination is Tex-Mex?
Q Dear Mexican: I was born in beautiful El Paso, and my parents are from Juaritos. I always wondered why Mexican restaurants en los Estados Unidos use queso Amarillo — which I associate with los Estados Unidos — on their food instead of queso Asadero or queso Oaxaca, which taste so much better. And who…
City Strobe
Pride goeth before produceRemember those “Kentucky Proud” ads featuring the comical acting stylings of Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith alongside some Kentucky produce? Remember how those ads were entertaining because the two men had about as much in common with family farming as Pop Tarts and Lunchables? And remember how the ads weren’t a gross…
Rumor & Innuendo
BCMess. It doesn’t matter which two teams meet for the Fake National College Football “Championship” in the Sugar Bowl. It’ll be the wrong two teams. Finally, we have a year so full of twists and turns that it is impossible for the powers-that-be to spin that this is a legitimate system. They know we need…
Splatters: ART NEWS BITS
Americans for the Arts is asking all individual artists and arts organizations to get their own free Dun & Bradstreet number. Since 2004, Americans for the Arts has produced the “Creative Industries: Business & Employment in the Arts” report. Research uses Dun & Bradstreet data to document the number (for example, the January 2006 survey…
Familiar becomes new in Martin Rollins” drawings
Ah … I have been transported by Martin Rollins’ large drawings to … where, exactly? I think that’s Baxter Avenue, and there’s Cherokee Park, but where are the people? The life? Quiet stillness is a trademark of Rollins. No matter if it’s one of his famous local cityscapes or a pastoral scene, the view is…
“One Man Star Wars Trilogy” channels the force at Kentucky Center
On Friday, Charles Ross will single-handedly save the galaxy from the grip of the evil empire. Then again, he also is the evil empire. Ross, a Canadian actor, brings his “One Man Star Wars Trilogy” to the Kentucky Center as part of the LEO Presents A Little Off Center series, and will act out the…
The Bar Belle: Wet yourself
Do you know what today is? Oh, it’s your mom’s birthday … well, besides that? It’s the 74th anniversary of the day Prohibition was repealed! Yep, on Dec. 5, 1933, the sexy 21st Amendment went into effect, making it legal again to drink yourself silly and hook up with strangers. Can you believe our…
Aftertastes
CHEZ SENEBA, 4218 Bishop Ln., 968-8659. Louisville reportedly has a community of more than 500 Senegalese immigrants, who seem to form the core clientele for Chez Seneba; but everyone is warmly welcome, as long as they bring to the table an interest in experiencing West African cuisine in its spicy, aromatic and often rather unfamiliar…
Staffpicks
Thursday, Dec. 6Irish Christmas The Irish certainly aren’t shy from celebrations — and green goes well with red this time of year. Hence the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Molly Malone’s second annual Irish Christmas party. And to stave off any guilt from going out on a weeknight, a percentage of the profits Thursday go…
LEO”S EATS WITH LOUISVILLEHOTBYTES.COM: Eat the veggies first at Club Grotto
Eat your vegetables! This exhortation, so often directed at children, for many of us leaves lingering psychic echoes that ring down the years into adulthood. Veggies? Who needs them? Real men eat meat and potatoes … don’t they? I count myself among the willing but vaguely reluctant vegetable eaters: I’ll force down a…
Film Review: Before the Devil Knows You”re Dead
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead 2 starsStarring Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Aleksa Palladino. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Released by ThinkFilm. Rated R; 2:03. “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” has been acclaimed by critics — critics who apparently saw a different movie than I did. Many insist…
The Video Tapeworm: Releases on Tuesday, Dec. 11
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKSHARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX2007; DVD $28.95-$35.95, PG-13When we read the book, we thought, “Man, this thing is unfilmable!” Then we heard that TV vet David Yates was to direct, and we said, “Ugh, bad move!” Well, we can’t say we love this episode, which is more “inspired by…
CD Reviews 12-05-07
Dirt FarmerLevon Helm(VANGUARD)Sick of the praise lavished on this? Then stop reading now. Helm’s return is a testament to human will. The fact that he’s even singing again is astonishing, because throat cancer almost silenced him forever. Those dire straits are the stuff of prologue now, and while Dirt Farmer is littered with references to…
B-Sides: MUSIC & OTHER EPHEMERA
Been out of commission for a bit. Last week, LEO teleported the staff to Halloween. We’ve since fixed our time machine, removed our face paint, and everyone is back in December safe and sound. Straight back from Slaughterhouse 5. This Saturday at Headliners, Villebillies play their first hometown show since they were dropped from Universal/Motown.…
Forever nomadic, Michael Hurley dives into the Swamp
It is hard to imagine a more American musician. For more than 40 years, Michael Hurley’s distillation of the blues, country, folk, bluegrass, jazz and rock ’n’ roll has created a songwriting legacy few living artists can match. Though far from a household name, Hurley’s presence looms large. His Have Moicy album collaboration, alongside the…
Forever nomadic, Michael Hurley dives into the Swamp
It is hard to imagine a more American musician. For more than 40 years, Michael Hurley’s distillation of the blues, country, folk, bluegrass, jazz and rock ’n’ roll has created a songwriting legacy few living artists can match. Though far from a household name, Hurley’s presence looms large. His Have Moicy album collaboration, alongside the…
With humor, Loudon Wainwright III goes it alone
Fourth Street Live is wrapping up its weekly Homegrown Music Series, which put more than a dozen original Louisville acts onstage over the past month and half. This Friday there’s a party at Angel’s Rockbar featuring Wax Fang and How I Became the Bomb (8 p.m., $5). As for other concerts, here are a few…
Props: THEATER NEWS AND BANTER
Harump-pa-pa-rumWe’re knee-deep in the holiday season, kiddies. Are your heart-cockles warmed yet? Is this just the best yuletide ever? Or has all that eggnog gone to the Queen of Humbug’s noggin? Speaking of humbug, I’m curious about the Filson Historical Society’s presentation of Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” on Monday (noon, 635-5083). William McNulty, currently…
Le Petomane offers bold adventures in surrealism
The thinking person’s favorite performers, Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble, raise the bar yet again in their current offering. If you see only one holiday play this year, this is the one that can’t be skipped. So skip-doodle-doo to The Rud to catch their latest joint creation. “Gladys … of Adventure” was the purported winner of…
