Cover Stories
Beyond the arc
They don’t give you much time, or room, for the three-point shot in college basketball these days. Everybody knows how fast a team can string together a few threes and change the game. Today, scouting reports are so detailed and accurate that opponents know not only who can shoot the three-point shot, but when, where,…
Fool’s gold for the Cards?
Am I hallucinating? Did I watch the U of L hoopsters piss away a 7-point lead with 50 seconds to go, then beat UK on a trey right before the buzzer? From 25 feet? From Edgar Sosa? Is the kid on top of the press table screaming? Are the fans who days ago were blaspheming…
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Life before ‘Wicked,’ a review
I admit, I was skeptical of “Wicked.” The hype was more than I could handle, and I wasn’t familiar with the story of the popular Broadway musical, which was based on Gregory Maguire’s book “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.” But after attending Thursday night’s show, I’m a “Wicked”…
Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records
Perhaps the most venerated of jazz labels, Blue Note celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2009, and this CD is part of the festivities. An all-star aggregation of pianist Bill Charlap, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, alto saxophonist Steve Wilson, guitarist Peter Bernstein, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash offers fresh adaptations of…
Capital projections
Since the Downtown Development Corp. was formed in 1990, $620 million has been invested in the heart of the city. Now, more than half a billion dollars of new construction is in process, with another $1.9 billion announced and awaiting construction. Alan DeLisle, assistant city manager for economic and workforce development in Durham, N.C., begins…
Mug Shots
Contrary to what you may have heard, drinkability is in the palate of the beer holder, and looking at it from the perspective of someone who drinks beer professionally — and has the elevated liver count to prove it — metropolitan Louisville is a good space to be occupying. No, we’re not Portland, Boulder or…
Could be Grammy for Louisvillian
History clotheslines you when you least expect it. Ken Flaherty Jr.’s moment came at Nauck’s Records, a vintage vinyl oasis outside Houston some years back. Owner Kurt Nauck, who maintains Nauck’s virtual auction house, sold older-than-old school records and vinyl’s predecessor, cylinders. Nauck had several of these cylinders notched with recordings by a white Confederate…
Rag Traveler
My adventure around the world has several purposes. One is to photograph what I experience with an emphasis on people and their cultures. Another is for fun. And to be sure, every time I travel it is a personal search for discovery, understanding and meaning. One question I frequently ask those I encounter is this:…
You Cant Do That on Television
I love the freedom of independent hip-hop. The days of sample-laden albums like De La’s 3 Feet High & Rising are long gone thanks to the so-called “sample police” — law firms that specialize in the worst case of dry-snitching this side of the sandbox (except Girl Talk, who must have sold his soul to…
Monkey butt
As I navigated my son’s stroller through the press of holiday shoppers a few weeks ago, I could hear the high-pitched shrieks of a small boy in the midst of one very loud tantrum. “You better shut it,” the kid’s father said from somewhere behind me, “or yer gonna become a statistic!” I turned to…
Miller’s Crossing
“I not only commend him to your intelligent notice but personally endorse him.” —Mark Twain At the risk of seeming aggressively anachronistic, or even atavistic, I’d like to suggest that you briefly call off your slobbering dogs of insatiable aesthetic appetite and spend several moments relishing the music of Polk Miller and his Old South…
Can’t hardly wait
State lawmakers are back in Frankfort this week to kick off the 2009 legislative session and already they are faced with an array of bills, from complex legislation dealing with taxes, education and the environment, to more trivial matters, like declaring burgoo the state dish. In light of the state’s projected $456 million budget shortfall,…
Homegrown’s all right with me
Now that your New Year’s resolution to give up butter, tobacco and/or interstate truck-stop pornography is but a wistful pipedream, perhaps it’s time to strive for something attainable, such as giving up your addiction to crap. Like many Americans, my holiday was an obscene orgy of gift giving that left me deeply ashamed and eager…
Doctors of Dunk Vol. 2
It’s difficult to put one overarching comment on Dunkenstein Records’ comp Doctors of Dunk Vol. 2. To say the disc is schizophrenic doesn’t do the wildly varied offerings justice. There’s Minnow’s track “Irony,” which sounds like Guy Picciotto of Fugazi wandered into a cowboy bar with a copy of Being and Nothingness. Three tracks later,…
Puff piece
Watching David Williams maneuver as the Republican leader in Frankfort is like seeing Goliath battle a hundred little Davids. He is a man tall in stature and conviction whose prowess as a legislator is matched only by his righteous lust for morality. The senator from Burkesville wields a kind of power that can convince allegories…
Staffpicks
Jan. 7-Feb. 1 Get ‘Wicked’ with it It’s all I’ve heard about for the last month: Are you going to “Wicked”? Can you get me tickets to “Wicked”? Can you believe “Wicked” is coming to Louisville? You are pretty “Wicked” in bed … have you seen the play? Yes, “Wicked” is here. And if you…
A&E Listings
Special events Mountaintop Removal Open Mic Night — sponsored by Heine Bros. and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, free, 7-9 p.m., Jan. 7, Heine Brothers Coffee, 3060 Bardstown Rd, 396-5457, www.heinebroscoffee.com/. Cabo Wabo Benefit — 16th Annual Coat Party, benefit for Center for Women and Families, includes live music and more, 8 p.m., $10, Jan. 10,…
Inbox — Jan. 7, 2009
Paint it Red I just read William Moore’s letter (“Fag Rag”) in the Dec. 31 LEO Weekly. I found it highly amusing that, in claiming to be “outraged” at the insinuation that he and others like him were “rednecks,” Mr. Moore chose to use phrases like “liberal, socialist douchebag” and “bunch of faggots.” Flagrant insults…
Skirt Kall
I didn’t have very high hopes. Both the name of the group and album are immediate turnoffs. A glance at the back cover doesn’t bode well, either. Guests Petey Pablo and Ying Yang Twins are not exactly selling points for me, though Playa’s Smoke E. Digglera, Geto Boys’s Willie D. and Twista raise a curious…
Industry Standard: Insider info for those who dine out
On my first day of culinary school, the Basic Skills instructor warned that when we worked in restaurants, we would spend our holidays with co-workers, not our families. “Get used to turning to the guy beside you on the hot line at midnight … to say ‘Happy New Year,’” Chef Graham said. “Get used to…
Alanna’s new Boats
Alanna Fugate has just finished her second album in a year, and without further ado, a Live Lunch at 91.9 WFPK-FM Studios is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 9, at noon. As always, seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis, with priority seating for station members. Arrive early. Later that night, she plays a combo…
Midnight Royalty
Nick Dittmeier began his career with A Suburban Blood Drive, a standard-issue emo band that abruptly recast itself as a cartoonish death-metal act once its Saves the Day-influenced pop-punk fell out of fashion. Since Louisville’s indie winds have blown toward alt-country, Dittmeier has accordingly reinvented himself again with the quasi-solo project Slithering Beast. The mythos…
The Bottom Line mixes up gumbo of blues, funk, Cajun
Less than a week into a residency at Bourbon Street Blues & Boogie Bar in Nashville’s Historic Printers Alley, Josh Garrett says he and backing band the Bottom Line are acclimating to a new set of geographical — and professional — surroundings. “We’ve got Louisiana in our blood,” says Garrett, who, like the rest of…
Ready for the chicken feet challenge?
So my wife Mary and I settled right in at Jade Palace on a brisk Sunday afternoon. Our foodie friend Stephen Dennison was to join us, but those speedy dim sum carts wouldn’t wait. Peeking and pointing, we filled our table with the Chinese snacks we like best — har gao and siu mai dumplings;…
A decade of never being ready
An event that succeeds nine years in a row and sells out the Kentucky Center’s MeX Theater is one to take note of, especially when it pulls together the best regional and national comedians and lets them loose on improv. Chris Anger and Alec Volz, familiar names in Louisville’s comedy scene, celebrate their 10th year…
The girls want to be with the girls
(Pandora Productions presents “Pulp,” with book and lyrics by Patricia Kane and music by Andre Pluess and Amy Warren. Directed by Michael J. Drury. Continues through Jan. 18 in the Henry Clay Building. For tickets, call 216-5502 or visit www.pandoraprods.org.) Heat, hormones and whiskey are the active ingredients in Patricia Kane’s “Pulp,” a sexy…
Year of the Queer
You may not be aware of this, but 2009 is the Year of the Queer. If you’ve heard of any other year, prior to 2009, deemed that of the queer, please report it to the authorities immediately. We cannot have two years running around with the same name (especially if it was one that failed…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS OPIE GETS LAID 2005; $19.95, UR A 20-something “Ronnie” Howard from “The Andy Griffith Show” once joked that if his career wasn’t doing well and he found himself down on his luck, he could make a fortune with a porno film. He would call it “Opie Gets Laid.” Andy was not…
Aftertastes
De la Torre’s, 1606 Bardstown Rd., 456-4955, www.delatorres.com. Recently the restaurant responded to customer demand (with one eye on the sinking economy) and shifted the menu over to an all-tapas list. The new menu offers more than three dozen small plates to choose from. (Reviewed 10/22/08; Rating: 94) Sage Indian Restaurant & Bar, 4123 Oechsli…
Ride This!
One doesn’t kick around the local music scene for nearly half a century without achieving the iconic status Wayne Young has. He was born to play the blues, starting with The Carnations in the late ’50s. Next came The Trendells, Cosmo & The Counts and eventually Soul Inc., one of Louisville’s most legendary rock bands…
