Cover Story
Enslaved in the shadows
You are a 10-year-old girl. At an age when many children are learning algebra, playing soccer or taking piano lessons, you’ve been working odd jobs around the house for your parents and for neighbors for as long as you can remember: preparing dinners, washing dishes, cleaning, doing chores and running errands — anything and…
Helpful hints for modern living
For a perfect cup of coffee, carefully measure 6 ounces of filtered water per 2 tablespoons of coffee from a country that doesn’t practice genocide or slavery. To disguise a hickey, wear a turtleneck or use Photoshop’s Cloning Stamp and set opacity to 50. To prevent your coastal cities from sinking underwater, try turning off…
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Don’t spend the night with ‘The Book of Eli’
The Book of Eli Starring Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson and Jennifer Beals. Directed by Albert & Allen Hughes. Rated R; 1:58. LEO Report Card: B. As evidenced by “From Hell,” the Hughes Brothers’ fourth feature film, leaving audiences cold doesn’t necessarily indicate a killer movie. The directing tandem fell…
Mug Shots: Beers and cigars: I say puff away
When it comes to the merits of beer, my credentials are impeccable. Beer is a vocation and a hobby. Beer is the impetus for travel, study and a lazy evening watching a ballgame on television. Beer can quench my thirst, pair with my dinner, and prepare me to endure New Albany City Council meetings. (Haven’t…
Soul Boost
Critical darlings of the ’90s from High View might’ve wound up a novelty act were they not so incredibly good — and schooled — at what they did: mining rock’s origins in boogie-woogie and blues and finding their own way with them. This five-song, mostly instrumental EP piles on enough strut to make Bo Diddley…
Knock Alley West
It isn’t always easy to know from which angle Yardsale is coming. One moment, this Louisville combo grits its teeth and charges at you with a riff-based rocker (“Until I Can’t Remember”), the next it tugs at your heart with sublime pop (“Reflection”). Throw in happy hooks like the ones in “The Bullet That You…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: MICHAEL JACKSON: THIS IS IT 2009; $16.95$-23.95, PG Not so much a movie as a compilation of interviews and rehearsals by Jackson, but the effect — a look at the hard work behind his seemingly effortless genius — is a wonder to behold. No longer the airborn sprite of his childhood,…
Too tough to die
The last time I saw my friend Francene Cucinello was on Wednesday, Dec. 9. We had drinks at the Outlook Inn, a favorite of hers. She’d been on me for days to head out for a drink in honor of my impending departure to Nashville. She’d been sipping on a Diet Coke at the bar…
The Calcination of Scout Niblett
Scout Niblett distinguishes herself by often buttressing her spare, haunting songs with distorted electric guitar instead of acoustic. It’s a delicate balance to strike — the songs could easily sink into Bush “Glycerine” territory if she wasn’t careful — but thanks in part to producer Steve Albini, Calcination is menacing as often as it is…
Plugged In
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. Jan. 20 BBC 4th…
Gay guide for straight people
Do you consider yourself heterosexual? Would you like to increase your harmony with an ever-growing gay community? If so, read on, for I am here to help. Below I have compiled a list of helpful hints, tips and trivial information that might make it easier to bridge the gap between the perceived gay and straight…
Let’s break our fast at Zapata’s Corner
“Tell me what you eat,” the 19th century French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin famously said, and “I will tell you what you are.” Here’s a twist: Tell me how you breakfast, and I’ll tell you how you feel about getting up in the morning. We English speakers “break our fast,” using punchy old Anglo-Saxon monosyllables…
The Negro Problem: A Love Story
Recent weeks have been nothing short of mind numbing. It all began with pre-release publicity for the new book “Game Change” by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. Even though there were other points that I found more interesting (such as multiple exchanges between Bill Clinton and Edward Kennedy as Clinton was attempting to secure Kennedy’s…
B-Sides: Music & Other Ephemera
Dawn Landes had a mentor on her mind when she wrote Sweet Heart of The Rodeo: her grandmother, Vera, who’s in her 80s and immortalized in the album’s title track. A Louisvillian, Landes collaborated with percussionist Ray Rizzo at Landes’ Saltlands, the Brooklyn, N.Y. studio where she is partner, engineer and producer. She wrote most…
Art: ‘Unearthing the Divine’ one painting at a time
The inspiration for Gibbs Rounsavall’s “Unearth the Divine” exhibit at the Green Building Gallery lies 600 feet underground and thousands of miles away from the two buildings in downtown Louisville where his work, inspired by the Large Hadron Collider on the Franco-Swiss border, is displayed. The exhibit is set up like the Julia Child kitchen…
Theater: Life is a daring ‘Cabaret’ for CenterStage
Cabaret Presented by Jewish Community Center’s CenterStage. Directed by John R. Leffert. Continues through Jan. 31 at JCC, 3600 Dutchmans Lane. For tickets and more info, call 238-2739 or visit www.jccoflouisville.org. Ten years ago, the Jewish Community Center’s CenterStage theater company hired John Leffert as the artistic director of a three-show season. As the years…
Nail biter
This year’s Halfway to Forecastle event, the rare rave inside city limits, focuses on acts who want to cultivate that scene here. Kid Sister exploded in 2007 with her debut single “Pro Nails” featuring Kanye West, and suddenly she became the new savior of female emcees. The rapper, born Melisa Young, set the Internet afire…
Jerry’s kids
Given the number of endorsements from elected officials, a multitude of financial contributors and the impressive amount of money raised thus far ($467,000), Democratic mayoral candidate Greg Fischer is arguably the frontrunner in the race to succeed Mayor Jerry Abramson. The candidate has kept up a steady pace of public appearances lately in an effort…
Art: Behold the mega church
Louisville has its fair share of nicknames — River City, Falls City, Derby City, Aliville … the list goes on. But there’s one nickname that you might not be aware of: Due to the numerous and varied houses of worship within the city limits, Louisville was once known as the “City of Beautiful Churches” —…
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Paula Poundstone — the luckiest person in the world
Paula Poundstone is now a figurehead of stand-up comedy, who has pushed envelopes, and broken new ground in her over three decades behind the microphone. She will be bringing her quirky observations the Bomhard Theater this weekend. I spoke to her over the telephone from her Santa Monica home. LEO: Who are your comic influences?…
Return To Form
In the hands of mere mortals, three guitars devolve into meaningless self-flagellation. Picture dude-brah’s admiring each other’s licks and wails between high-fives, Mich Ultra and surface discussions of hammer-on wankery. Wayne Rogers (of Crystallized Movements), Kate “Village” Biggar (Magic Hour) and Tom Leonard (Luxurious Bags), the triple threat of Massachusetts’ Major Stars have been around…
Radio Free Francene
On a seemingly normal day in 2003, Louisville Clear Channel Radio General Manager Bill Gentry was in his office looking at paint swatches, trying to pick out a new color for the walls. The station had just fired John Ziegler and was urgently trying to find a replacement for the morning drive-time slot on WHAS…
Comedy: Tom Green is in the house
On the phone, Tom Green is even-keeled and careful with his words — polar opposite to the persona he’s honed on MTV’s “The Tom Green Show” and in films like “Road Trip” and “Freddy Got Fingered.” Lately, Green has been the host of an Internet talk show titled “Tom Green’s House Tonight.” On Wednesday, he…
10 Questions
It’s easy to draw parallels between singer-songwriters Brandi Carlile and Katie Herzig — they both effortlessly tap into the ups and downs of the human experience and produce heartfelt songs that resonate. While Herzig’s voice lends itself to a more poppy kind of low, Carlile’s raw, gritty croon can bring you to your knees. Both…
Inbox — Jan. 20, 2010
Corrections Last week, LEO Weekly provided incorrect answers to two Not Good for Nothing Quiz questions: Farrah Fawcett is in fact dead, meaning the answer to No. 17 is A, and Cincinnati Bengal Chad Johnson’s jersey reads Ochocinco, meaning the answer to No. 59 is C. Because all three previously named quiz winners answered both…
Through the mess, darkly: Or, how living with a compulsive hoarder destroyed my family
by jane doe By Gina Moeller This is the story of my life with a compulsive hoarder. I know what you’re thinking. My crazy uncle is a packrat, too. Lots of us save string and ribbons and gift bags and stuff we don’t need, for longer than we need it. True. We are packrats,…
