No More False Dichotomies: Nothing changes, and everybody hurts
Guns don’t hurt people, people hurt people. It wasn’t that .32 caliber bullet that tore my mother’s kidney to shreds and obliterated her spleen and roiled her stomach and pancreas on that rainy January Saturday night 17 years ago, it was that junkie from the housing project who took the handgun from his girlfriend’s purse…
Guest Commentary: Your soldier”s coming home
by Brian Smith Your soldier is returning home from war. The months of anxiety, sleepless nights, heartache and uncertainty are in the past. You can now leave the house without worrying you’ll miss that one phone call. You will no longer jump at every knock at your door, heart in your throat, expecting to…
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. Stepping…
Have gun, will fire
Last summer, Darren Pickerill’s life changed forever when he was shot in the parking lot of an East End strip mall. Claiming self-defense, the shooter was protected by state law. Both were armed. Is there something wrong with that? There was the fact that it was a Sunday afternoon in June, he’d just finished a…
Ballz: sports commentary for 2-13-08
Get out the heart meds, Cards fans It’s season ticket insurance time for Cardinal fans.The U of L is resurgent. Be wise. Be insured. Pay the premium now.This perhaps confusing concept has been a running stream of consciousness for a cadre of inveterate Cards fans for decades now. It started when the program became a…
No booze for you
The alcohol ban takes effect in West Louisville amid continued protests from storeowners and their lawyers Customers of the F&Y Food Mart at 38th and Market may not notice the new sign at the entrance door. Unlike the colorful cigarette and lottery advertisements, the single bland printer sheet reads: No beer sales allowed. If you…
The danger zone
In Louisville, the fifth-worst American city for asthma, a mother ponders the connection between coal-burning plants and her daughter’s illness BY LESLIE SMITH TOWNSEND Sarah Kate’s hair is damp in the crick of her neck as I tuck her into bed. Golden curls cup her face, and eyes, deep brown as the nutrient-rich earth, gaze…
¡ ASK A MEXICAN ! On turncoats and film affinities
Q Dear Mexican: My parents were Greeks who legally immigrated to the United States in 1920. When it became harder for Greeks to immigrate, they began to jump ship in New York. My father referred to them as “bananas — fresh off the boat,” but it was mostly an affectionate name. The Greek community took care…
What A Week: The City’s Zeitgeist Radar
-3Despite a new AP/Ipsos poll showing that most Americans believe getting out of Iraq would be the best way to stimulate the economy (with 48 percent adding, “Duh!”), the Senate OK’d the $168 billion “Buy-Shit-At-Target” anti-recession plan instead. Meanwhile, our ever-innovative corporate predators began unveiling their plans to keep you coming back to your favorite…
Comedy Preview: Wau Wau Sisters promise to give it “full on”
The Wau Wau Sisters may not be how your grandma remembers vaudeville, but they’re the contemporary touring entertainment act that most nearly invokes the saucy genre popular at the turn of the 20th century. New Yorkers Tanya Gagné and Adrienne Truscott’s show has been described as cabaret meets Cirque du Soleil meets Andrew Dice Clay…
Aftertastes for 2-13-08
TACOS LA ROSITA, 113 Grant Line Plaza, New Albany, (812) 948-7967, www.LaRositaGrill.com. La Rosita owners Israel and Lidia Landin opened this second New Albany location in late 2007. Along with the familiar Mexican fare, the menu is vegetarian-friendly, offering seven interesting meat-free options, including a veggie taco. (Reviewed 1/9/08; Rating: N/A) MERIDIAN CAFÉ, 112 Meridian…
The Bar Belle: Snatch Happens
My purse got swiped Thursday night, sons, and it ain’t no joke. I’ve been through all five stages of grief, and now I’m just pissed. The perps didn’t get much except for my pickle-shaped maraca that I like to pull out on occasion to play along with the band. No cash. No iPod. No sordid…
Treat your sweetie on the cheap: Share!
Here’s a cheeky way to treat your sweetie to a Valentine’s Day dinner (or other romantic occasion) at a fancy restaurant, enjoying an expansive meal while keeping the price under control: Share dinner. I’m talking serious sharing here, the kind you would only want to undertake in the company of someone close enough that you…
The Back Lot: FILM NEWS & RUMINATIONS for 2-13-08
10th Jewish Film Fest This year the Louisville Jewish Film Festival celebrates its diamond anniversary. Congratulations, because maintaining a film fest for 10 years is no mean feat. You need sponsors, continued interest, good films and a suitable venue. As movie theaters dry up or turn into megaplexes, finding suitable venues is getting more difficult.…
Film Reviews for 2-13-08
‘Youth Without Youth’ a Coppola original (Starring Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz and Zoltan Butuc. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Rated R; 2:04. LEO Report Card: B-)Amid all the critical verbiage generated (mostly in the 1970s) by Francis Ford Coppola’s meteoric rise in the film industry, there is one charge that has never…
Video tapeworm: Releases through Tuesday, Feb. 19
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS:MICHAEL CLAYTON2007; DVD $28.95-$35.95, RGeorge Clooney stops winking at the camera and proves what kind of actor he can be in this powerful, gripping, heart-stopper of a … legal drama? Yep, it’s that good. He plays a “fixer”: the guy his law firm calls when it all goes to hell. Not necessarily…
CD Reviews for 2-13-08
Opus MixtumAntietam(CARROT TOP)One way for an indie band to cement cult status is with a release comprising most everything they’ve recorded lately. Listeners feel a deeper kinship to the musicians who’ll share false starts, slight melodic interludes and multiple stabs at an audience-lassoing signature track (what used to be called “a single”).The Louisville/New York trio…
B-Sides: MUSIC & OTHER EPHEMERA for 2-13-08
E-town shutoutIf you’re a hip-hop head living in Elizabethtown, and think finding a show that fits your taste is near impossible, you’d be right — and wrong. You’d be right, says Jeff Borders, the hype man for Hardin County’s hip-hop group Bread Boy Beats that has had zero luck landing a gig in E-town. “No,”…
Finn-ishing touches, Communal metal, Bela Chick
Saturday, Feb. 16From his beginnings with Split Enz through work with Crowded House and a solo career, Tim Finn has always done just enough to squeak by. Releasing critically acclaimed album after critically acclaimed album, the artist somehow avoided the machinations of the record industry long enough to remain true to himself. “If you look…
A sharp shooter returns
Serendipity manifests in funny ways. Photojournalist Leslie Lyons experienced it recently in the form of a Maker’s Mark billboard she spotted while walking in Manhattan in November.“Born in Kentucky, raised in New York,” it read. Those New Yorkers knew what time it was, and so did Lyons. By December, she had a house on Longest…
Theatre Reviews: Let”s talk about “Thom Pain.” OK, I”ll begin
(Directed by Mike Brooks. Starring Gil D. Reyes. A Necessary Theatre production. Runs through Feb. 23. Call 636-1311 or visit www.thenecessarytheatre.org for more info.) Shortly into his discourse, Thom Pain says, “If I were you, I’d be sick of this already … or I’d feel sorry. For me.” He’s right on both counts. And that’s…
Cable Boxing: “Lipstick Jungle” rests its laurels on a stale formula
Lipstick Jungle Episode: 101 “Pilot”NBC, Thursdays, 10 p.m., aired Feb. 7. Starring Brooke Shields, Kim Raver, Lindsay Price, Andrew McCarthy and Julian Sands. Synopsis: New York Fashion Week is in full swing. Victory Ford is ready to reclaim her title as the “It” designer. Her best friends, Wendy Healy and Nico Rielly, are front and…
Staffpicks for 2-13-08
Feb. 13-17Comedian J. Scott Homan Comedian J. Scott Homan, born in Muscle Shoals, Ala., is touted as “Andy Griffith with Internet access.” That’s assuming Griffith would make a compelling and hilarious argument for late-term abortion (“Sorry, little Billy, it didn’t work out. You need to go see the doctor.”). He’s joined by Dawna Kinne, a…
