Cover Story
Parking wars
Just past a floodwall on the edge of Clifton, Frankfort Avenue dead-ends at an abyss of automotive misery. Rows of cars, trucks and mopeds sit parked behind a chain-link fence. Many of the offending vehicles were dragged here after they were cuffed with an immobilizing round yellow boot. As of last Thursday, 1,038 automobiles sat…
Un-free parking
For years the city’s enforcement of on-street parking rules was lax, as were efforts to collect overdue fines. In the words of a spokesman for Mayor Jerry Abramson — it was a joke. In addition, parking enforcement was quite convoluted, with the police department overseeing meter maids, Public Works running the meters and the city…
Inbox — Dec. 9, 2009
Made in Louisville A comment or correction on Bill Doolittle’s piece on the Ballet’s “Nutcracker” (LEO Weekly, Dec. 2). He writes, “Peter Cazalet designed the new costumes and sets, which were fabricated in South Africa.” In actuality, the 30 or so soft goods (scenic backdrops) were painted in South Africa, and the rest of the…
Work in Progress
While the seeds for Glen Phillips’s new music enterprise might have been sown at Largo — Los Angeles’s spiritual home of music — the genesis of Works Progress Administration actually took place upon the stage of Santa Barbara’s The Lobero Theatre. Phillips had just returned from a sojourn through Europe, and his welcome home came…
Comedy: Black with a vengeance
Lewis Black might be one of the most recognizable faces in comedy these days, whether for roles in movies like “Accepted” or “Man of the Year,” or his recurring appearances on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” or even Black’s own Comedy Central series “The Root of all Evil.” Regardless, with several albums and DVDs…
King of the rail
Last week, in the lobby of TARC’s downtown Union Station headquarters — where less than a century ago the blowing of train whistles and the clacking of wheels on rail were commonplace — Lt. Gov. and Democratic Senate candidate Daniel Mongiardo unveiled the boldest vision for public transportation that Louisville and the commonwealth-at-large have seen…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS 2009; $16.95-$21.95, R Quentin Tarantino’s violent, goofy remake of 1978’s “Quel Maledetto Treno Blindato,” itself a ripoff of “The Dirty Dozen.” Brad Pitt hams it up royally, leading Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger and a gaggle of others through a torture-as-slapstick burlesque as the…
War is crack
Patience isn’t usually my thing. I’ve tried to be patient with President Obama, waiting all year for signs of that change I voted for. I held my tongue while meaningful health care reform turned into 2,000 pages of oatmeal. I kept quiet while bankers walked off with all that bailout money, trusting that the alternative…
Family ties
How do you know if animals in the ocean are boys or girls? What is a mind? Why is the top of your hair dark when the rest of it is blond? These are just a few of the billions of questions my nieces ask in a typical day. At 4 and 5 years old,…
Nothing is over, not yet
My 9-year-old son Oden came home from school the other day talking about a puzzle involving dots and lines. It sounded like that classic “thinking outside the box” puzzle, where you have to connect the nine dots, arranged in a square formation, with four straight lines, without lifting your pencil. Who hasn’t seen that one?…
B-Sides: Bell weather
School of Seven Bells is an institution for pickpockets, and it’s also the team of Ben Curtis and identical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza. Alpinisms, their debut, is part dream sequence, part inspirational sex techno. Curtis formed the group after leaving The Secret Machines, and SVIIB’s sound has been tagged as an offshoot…
Death becomes us
Doug Burnett’s twin daughters graduated from Christian Academy of Louisville on May 29, 2009. Co-valedictorian Ashley and her sister Brittany walked the aisle, collected diplomas and celebrated with their friends. But something was missing from the family ’s spring festivities: Mom. Mary Burnett died of cancer less than a year earlier, on July 9, 2008.…
Comfort with Cajun accent at Coach Lamp
The sturdy brown-painted brick building near the top of the hill where Vine Street rises from Broadway toward Breckenridge Street has been an east-of-downtown landmark since 1872. It has served as a saloon, a general store and then a saloon again. Since around the time of Louisville’s 1937 flood, it has been a neighborly eatery…
Mug Shots: Year of the good beer
Another jar is almost empty, and my final columns of 2009 will be devoted to the nearly concluded year in beer in metropolitan Louisville. But before commencing, kindly permit this disclaimer: Hear ye, hear ye. I have tried mightily to chart the local implications of the craft beer revolution during the past year, but…
Plugged In: Dec. 9-15
Readers are strongly encouraged to call ahead to verify these listings. To get your club, comedian, musical act or karaoke listed, please send e-mail to mherron@leoweekly.com with PLUGGED IN in the subject line. The deadline is NOON THURSDAY the week before publication. We do not accept listings via social networking sites. •Wed Dec 9…
Film: Louisville snags a role in ‘Me and Orson Welles’
(Directed by Richard Linklater. Starring Zac Efron, Christian McKay, Ben Chaplin, Claire Danes and Kelly Reilly. Rated PG-13; 1:49. Starts Friday at Baxter Avenue Theatres. LEO Report Card: A-) “How the hell do I top this?” wonders an elated Orson Welles. It’s opening night at The Mercury, his new theater company. Welles has just…
