Cover Story
Stimulus package
“Would you like to dance?” Johnny Castle asked as he extended his hand in my direction. His eyebrows arched, his pearly whites gleamed inside his smile. I lunged for my reporter’s notebook, wielding it as my shield. Why is he asking me? Can’t he see I’m working? Where was he in junior high, when I…
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Less to complain about
According to the Office of the Attorney General, the number of consumer complaints related to the ice storm of a couple weeks ago is significantly lower than those related to last fall’s windstorm. “This is actually a relatively low number,” Allison Martin, spokeswoman for AG Jack Conway, said. “After we had Ike come through, the…
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Flick Central
Times are for Feb. 13-19. Baxter Avenue Theatres 459-2288 Amelie (R): 11:55p (Sat. only) Coraline 3D (PG): 12:55, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45, 10 Doubt (PG-13): 1, 5:35, 7:55 Gran Torino (R): 1, 4, 7, 9:30 He’s Just Not That Into You (PG-13): 1:25, 4:25, 7:25, 10:15 I’ve Loved You So Long (PG-13): 1:10, 4:10, 7:10,…
Diogenes shrugged
I might just stop paying my taxes. Yeah, yeah, as a citizen it’s what I am bound to do. But really, why should I? Other people don’t. As we’ve just witnessed, something as trivial as tax delinquency doesn’t even cut into a person’s chances to be a presidential pick for a cabinet post. It might…
WEB EXCLUSIVE: HB 70, Chaco-wearing Lobbyists, & You
FRANKFORT, KY — At first glance, Greg Capillo appears to be anything but a “lobbyist” — that dreaded, loathsome word whose connotations with corruption, waste, and criminal activity have been cemented in our national consciousness by Jack Abramoff, a perpetually spited Congress, and (more recently) the memes of a righteous presidential campaign pledging to end…
Use protection
Sometimes once isn’t enough. Dr. Sex had so much to say about sex, love and human relationships, we couldn’t fit it all in. So here, liberated from their original context, are further snippets from the man himself — some things he said during our date, others he e-mailed me the morning (or a few) after. …
Foul play at the park
The early autumn sun had not yet risen when a teenager encountered a gruesome scene at Fern Creek Park on Oct. 12, 2005. Cutting through the park on his way to school, the boy stumbled upon a body in the remote parking lot. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw the charred remains…
The Curiously Self-Aware Dude’s Guide to Healing a Broken Heart
It was the storybook summer romance: The sun shone, the birds sang — we were instant soulmates. We went to movies, held hands and drank wine under the stars. Lots and lots of wine. And then one day, without warning, she ended it. “I love you, but I’m not in love with you,” she said.…
Five important questions: Space Wails
Space Wails is Brent Hambleton, Brett Holsclaw and Chris Bald. Holsclaw performs with The Glasspack, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year, and Bald is a veteran of the D.C. punk bands Faith, Ignition and Embrace.Space Wails join The Toasters, The Kodiaks and The Andalusians Monday, Feb. 16, at Skull Alley (1017 E. Broadway).…
The Video Tapeworm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: QUARANTINE 2008; $24.95-$39.95, R This thing scared the holy crap out of us! Jennifer Carpenter plays a young TV reporter doing a puff-piece on an L.A. firehouse. Riding with them to a 911 at an apartment building, they find cops, blood and hideous shrieks — and an outbreak of rabid zombie-ism!…
Cheap Vodka Rain
Willie Breeding, whose recordings tip a cap to Hank and Willie, brings that old-timey, soaring white-boy country and blues back to the people. Breeding’s new LP, Cheap Vodka Rain, never hits the alcoholic low that the title suggests, opting instead for soaring tunes about lost love, heartache and what happens when relationships run out of…
Staffpicks
Feb. 11-14 Louisville Is For Lovers There’s more love in the air than ever before, or at least more Louisville Is for Lovers. This year’s release of new love songs is celebrated with four events: Wednesday at 8 p.m. is an acoustic showcase at The Lounge (947 E. Madison, 889-5889). On Friday, two institutions make…
To Be Still
It’s not that it sounds bad; Alela Diane has that Bon-Iver-only-a-girl/Joanna-Newsom-if-she-could-really-sing quality that is certainly appealing. It’s not that it’s poorly produced; London’s Rough Trade Records, which gave us The Raincoats, Pulp, Belle & Sebastian and James Blood Ulmer, doesn’t mess around. It isn’t even that it’s boring — To Be Still has the requisite…
Campaigning for fairness
For Diane Moten, it all began when a co-worker noticed she didn’t have a boyfriend. A line of personal questions followed at the day care center where she worked. That line ended at her termination. “I remember she said, ‘I’m picking up on the fact that you don’t really date guys, you date women.’ Two…
The Boss and The Man
An open letter. Dear Mr. Springsteen, I don’t have to tell you that you made a real mess of it, friendo. I’ve made my fair share of them, too. The occasional gigantic screw-up is just one of the myriad things you and I have in common. (I’ve always maintained that the two of us could…
Aftertastes
Shady Lane Café, 4806 Brownsboro Ctr., 893-5118, www.shadylanecafe.com. This friendly East End spot has long been a favorite for breakfast and lunch and stays open for dinner Tuesday through Fridays. Each night offers a different dinner special, which ranges in price from $3.95-$6.95. (Reviewed 11/5/08; Rating: 87) Seviche A Latin Restaurant, 1538 Bardstown Rd., 473-8560,…
The Bar Belle
So I went to church on Sunday. It was a hippie, laid-back kind of church, so don’t think I’m gonna get all preachy on you. I’m pretty sure there’s already a prominent bar stool in hell with my name on it, but I went for my mother, who lives 200 miles away. I was invited…
Comedy: Hal Sparks wrote the book of love
When I surveyed my friends to see if they knew who Hal Sparks was, I got myriad responses, which probably speaks to how busy this guy keeps himself these days: “Oh, that’s Michael Novotny from ‘Queer as Folk.’ Tell him I love him! OMG, ask if he’s single.” “You get to talk to the funny…
Split personality
“A friend of mine says it sounds like Hawkwind meets The Meters,” says bassist Dan Maines, describing Baltimore mindbenders The Bakerton Group. Where Clutch, the band’s other project, swaggers with stoner rock, among other styles, The Bakerton Group derives its strength from jazz, blues and post-rock. Its new album, El Rojo, was produced by J.…
Hawk eyes
Mark Olson has lots of fans, but not a certain Ethiopian soccer team playing a pickup game in Riverside Park in Minneapolis. That’s where — and about whom — Olson wrote “Kick The Wood,” off he and fellow Jayhawk Gary Louris’s latest, Ready For The Flood. “The Ethiopians asked me to move,” Olson laughs, but…
B-Sides
As part of its Discovery Series, the Ogle Center at Indiana University Southeast is presenting Hungarian pianist Erno Feher. Feher, who is pursuing his doctorate at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, has performed in 13 countries, and alongside prestigious symphony orchestras as a soloist. Season tickets are $25 for three shows and $10 each…
The Crying Light
Normally, upon hearing the beautiful, terror-stricken falsetto wails and moans of my favorite bird, the common loon, I revel and meditate. I’ve even been known to lie prostrate in veneration. Antony and the Johnsons’s new album, The Crying Light, is the exception to the rule. I’ve heard Antony Hegarty’s voice described as crystalline and ethereal,…
Film: Tracing and coloring animator Martha Colburn
Animator, muralist and painter Martha Colburn deals in confusion. Delve at all into her public life and you’ll find very little outside of her art. Photos and biographies are rare. Interviews are terse and indistinct. Her influences are kept closely to the vest. In fact, any sort of self-promotion seems to be completely at odds…
Review: A magic carpet ride to Caspian Grill
We’ve talked before about how Louisville’s Iranian-American community started in the 1970s with a crowd of students at the University of Louisville who decided to stay around when the Ayatollah Khomeini led the Iranian revolution and things went sour back home. Iran’s loss has been Louisville’s gain, as a surprising number of these folks went…
Inbox — Feb. 11, 2009
Diverse-erary LEO I have always loved Literary LEO. I love seeing photography and poetry from people around Louisville. I do have a problem with recent Literary LEOs. Although the photography and writings are always wonderful, it seems to me that every year, the diversity gets smaller. In my opinion, a liberal arts publication should be…
Power outrage
The first time the city of Louisville tried to buy the privately owned company that provided its electricity and natural gas, the mayor was Democrat Wilson Wyatt, and it was the early 1940s. Wyatt’s initiative enjoyed healthy support from the Board of Alderman out of the gate. But a sudden bout of conviction sprung on…
The Industry Standard
This week, a member of the LouisvilleHotBytes.com forum reported that she had been dining out alone early in the evening, and she’d been told at the host’s stand that certain tables were reserved, but she might be accommodated at one if she could finish before the reservation party arrived. It appeared that she was offended…
A new kind of Feature
Rejection isn’t an end unto itself. So it goes for Murfreesboro, Tenn., band The Features, who self-released their second album, Some Kind of Salvation, a more sophisticated counterpart to Exhibit A, after lack of label interest. They tracked Salvation with longtime friend Brian Carter and Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, Langhorne Slim). “We…
Astral Weeks Live At The Hollywood Bowl
Among the artists that followed the British Invasion was Van Morrison. “Gloria” became a garage rock classic, but who knew his solo career would still go strong? After 1967’s Blowin’ Your Mind, which has been endlessly repackaged, Morrison stunned the music world with his 1968 masterpiece, Astral Weeks. Full of poetry, jazz, strings and deep…
Death becomes them
Les Claypool doesn’t just invite any old batch of minstrels to take part in his Oddity Faire. Perhaps that’s enough to nudge you toward New York’s O’Death, who stop Thursday to open for The Legendary Shack Shakers. Their name comes from a western North Carolina folk song, but O’Death throws folk in a blender, concocting…
Kiss on my list
Valentine’s Day is the worst holiday ever foisted upon the natural human (except maybe Christmas). The idea that one day or another should be special for one particular reason or another is utterly bizarre, especially when our consumer culture has indelibly etched the need to satisfy our loved ones with useless tokens of affection designed…
