Cover Story
Deans of the Louisville art scene, the giants in our midst
What have you done for Louisville lately? Many artists have worked decades contributing to our local culture. While largely unknown outside of their circle of influence, they have become the deans of our arts scene. A year ago, we published our first Winter A&E issue. At that time, we wrote about five emerging visual and…
Forecastle releases daily lineups
The Forecastle Festival, which runs from July 13-15 this year, has announced its daily schedule, placing Modest Mouse as the Friday headliner, Chris Stapleton on Saturday night and Arcade Fire as the closer on Sunday. Here’s where a few other notables landed: Father John Misty, Vance Joy, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Lucero and Teddy…
Photos from the Kentucky Pirate Festival
The annual Kentucky Pirate Festival washed ashore at Tim Faulkner Gallery on Saturday. The gallery was transformed into a Neverland-like experience, featuring live performances by Drunk & Sailor and Tom Mason, but the attendees were much more of a spectacle. There was even pirate speed-dating. Pirate of the Year was awarded to a man called…
10 things to do under $5 this week in Louisville (2/5)
MONDAY Free Introduction to Meditation Workshop Passionist Earth and Spirit Center Free | 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Learn how to untangle your chaotic mind at this 60-minute workshop focusing on the theory and practice of mindful meditation. As the Center said, it’s a healthy habit that can provide physical, psychological and spiritual benefits. Super…
Use Your Illusion: A Q&A with Brett Schneider, the magician/actor in ‘The Magic Play’
Currently playing at Actors Theatre, ‘The Magic Play’ is a meta exploration of magic and interpersonal drama. It starts out as an impressive, but straightforward magic show, until the magician’s emotions and personal life begin to interrupt. Actor and magician Brett Schneider, who plays the central character, spoke with LEO about how he learned magic,…
PhoTastic Voyage: Where to find the best pho in Louisville (Part 2)
Hi! This is part two of the PhoTastic Voyage from Welp, LEO Weekly’s food feature gone gonzo. Part one has a really cool and neat introduction with robust discussion on Vietnamese cuisine and some neat links you should check out. I’m not writing another introduction, and besides, you don’t wanna miss the great analysis and…
5 things to do this weekend in Louisville (2/2)
FRIDAY First Annual Sweet Fair The Cure Lounge $5; $7 under 18 | 8 p.m.; Music 9 p.m. This sweetie pie Valentine’s Day art and music fair focuses on adorable and cute art, kawaii (Japanese cuteness) culture and sticky tunes. The delicious artists and vendors include Mandi Meadows (Baux Peep), Sink or Swim, Joshua Beechman,…
The GOP is demonizing the dreamers
When you read this, President Trump will have given his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress. I can say without fear of contradiction that the speech, to paraphrase the Gettysburg Address, will be little noted nor long remembered. I would bet you’ve already forgotten it. But I will remember the…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best and Most Absurd
Thorn | You have been praying to the wrong god After a high school student kills two people and wounds others in Marshall County, all that politicians can think to say is: Pray… What about showing leadership and proposing a solution? Like… ummm… better gun control laws? Prayer obviously isn’t helping, unless you have been…
A look at all four projects Dr. Dundiff is releasing this year
Roman Aprile, otherwise known as Dr. Dundiff, spent 2017 quietly building a catalogue of beats, planning the four new albums he’s set to drop in 2018 — two instrumental works and two new joint albums with collaborators Touch AC and Otis Junior. His studio, a small office space just off the master bedroom in his…
A Deer A Horse talks about their dark record, ‘Backswimmer’
Rebecca Satellite, singer-guitarist of the doom-metal/post-punk trio A Deer A Horse, wrote one song on the band’s new EP, Backswimmer, about the Neflix documentary “Making A Murderer,” and another about Kurt Vonnegut’s book, “The Sirens of Titan.” Although one’s devastating true-crime, and the other’s a zany, satirical novel about existentialism, there’s a sharp parallel between…
On the Radio
We lived with the radio on. Some of my earliest memories are the music coming through the speakers. It was the early-to-mid ‘80s, and the sounds of Prince and Cyndi Lauper poured through the trailer we lived in. I sat on the floor eating a bowl of cereal in front of the speakers. I don’t…
‘The Magic Play,’ a unique piece of theater …and don’t miss: ‘Guiando a Molly’ and ‘Eurydice’
The Magician, the character at the center of “The Magic Play,” which opened last weekend at Actors Theatre of Louisville, is a master of sleight in all its forms. He has the hands, the patter, the steel-trap focus — and the ability to appear utterly without guile or cunning — that distinguish an elite, magical…
Orchestra classics concert, a radical format
The Louisville Orchestra and Teddy Abrams, its music director, this weekend will upend one of the most tradition-bound institutions in all of western culture: the orchestra concert. For well over a century, you could walk into an orchestra concert anywhere in the world in the near certainty that you’d be served a three course menu:…
Mike Faverman, ‘If you’re unlikable, and you go dirty, you’re going to bomb’
Comedian Mike Faverman has been winning audiences with his cynical, confrontational and obscene sense of humor. “Once you’ve won the crowd over,” Faverman said, “you can get as dirty and crude as you want.” You may have seen him on television performing on AXS TV’s “Live at Gotham,” Showtime’s “Live Nude Comedy” or Playboy TV’s…
Comic Book Reviews: ‘Vinegar Teeth’ and ‘Sex Criminals’
‘Sex Criminals’ No. 21 Writer: Matt Fraction; Artist: Chip Zdarsky Review: Kyle Thompson, The Great Escape Louisville Imagine your stereotypical female superhero. Not how most women look, right? Comics have a tendency to stay away from sexual matters, even when they’re written for adult audiences, yet they have no problem sexualizing their characters. The humor…
Allergies vs. ‘Allergies’
At the suggestion of a chef friend, I recently began viewing the Netflix, six-episode docuseries “Rotten.” It’s a very well-executed look at the food supply chain and the crime and corruption that lie within. Episode Two is titled “The Peanut Problem.” It examines the recent sharp rise of peanut allergies in the last decade or…
Going local in Thailand
If you’ve stumbled upon my column a time or two, or perhaps used its remnants for packing materials while stowing away that box of valuables in your basement, you know I’m keen on a holiday every few months — be it Nashville or Nicaragua. I was bitten by the wanderlust bug many years ago —…
What the ‘El’ is going on here?
I have written about the preponderance of Mexican restaurants that have curiously similar menus, many of them going by the name “El” something or other (El Nopal, El Tarasco, etc.) I dubbed those restaurants collectively as “El Whatever,” and included pretty much any in which you can order a Speedy Gonzalez combo for lunch. There…
Savage Love: Lesborama
Q: I am a 38-year-old lesbian, very femme, very out. I have a coworker I can’t figure out. We’ve worked together for a year and gotten very close. I never want to put out the wrong signals to coworkers, and I err on the side of keeping a safe but friendly distance. This is different.…
We have work to do
There’s a slogan in Alcoholics Anonymous that recovering alcoholics use to remind themselves and each other: “If nothing changes, nothing changes.” And so it goes with alcoholism and activism — to not change is to stagnate and die. I went to the Women’s Rally in Louisville Sunday, Jan. 21 to register my general disappointment in…
When protesting becomes dangerous
Indiana tattoo artist Amber Bananafish went to the Louisville Women’s March, held on the anniversary weekend of Donald Trump’s inauguration. As Bananafish and her friends Jem and Alysia Elwood were entering the crowd, a middle-aged, white man greeted her with a question. “He said something like: How about your feminist agenda?” Bananafish recalled. “I just…
Prayer is not enough
As with every issue, “The West Wing” has the perfect answer. After the Marshall County school shooting, politicians of both parties extended their “thoughts” and “prayers.” Two children were killed and 18 wounded, and our leaders respond with typical, political clichés. For politicians offering their prayers: save them. Even if your prayers are answered, you’re…
