Cover Story
Madman with a pigeon loft
It’s a chilly February night, and the man in the suit is waiting. He paces his office, wearing ellipses in the plush carpet. Finally, he gets a call: The shipment has come through. The next day — 1,200 H. Upmann cigars safely squired away in his white house — President John F. Kennedy issues a…
Art: Heart of glass
Chris Chappell is an artist whose new exhibition, “Glassics,” marries his glassmaking day job with the skateboarding culture in which he grew up. You may already know Chappell’s work around town, including the mural on the side of Dragon King’s Daughter in the Highlands. If not, his new exhibition at Revelry Gallery is the perfect…
Invisible Hour
Joe Henry’s latest is both an extension of recurring themes and a return from whence he came. His marketing materials refer to the album as a treatise on marriage, but a parallel can be made to divorcing from the industry as it is and a wistful remembrance of the business of art that once was.…
Inbox — July 2, 2014
LEO’s a Drag As a gay man and an avid reader of your publication, I was unexpectedly disappointed in the June 18 LEO Weekly. It’s Gay Pride Week, and of all the thought-provoking issues, topics and discussions that could be had, someone writes about drag … again. Drag is an art form to be admired,…
Fetal Lobby is their Hobby
The National Right to Life Commission (NRLC) held their national convention in Louisville this weekend at the Galt House, rallying supporters to their cause of ending legal abortion in America. Their featured speaker Saturday morning, Sen. Mitch McConnell, told a slightly more than half-full conference room that “the tide is turning” on the issue, and…
Bar Belle: The legends of Lakeside
After 15 years in Louisville, I think I can finally call myself a resident. It’s not my encyclopedic knowledge of bourbon, horse racing and Ohio Valley allergens. It’s not because I can drink till 4 a.m. and still be at work by 9. It’s not because I’ve mastered the confused Kentucky drawl that borrows from…
Staffpicks
Wednesday, July 2 Deltron 3030 Mercury Ballroom 611 S. Fourth St. mercuryballroom.com $19.50; 8 p.m. They came back. They were always coming back. Deltron 3030, the original 2000 concept collaboration by rapper Del the Funky Homosapien (aka Osiris, aka Deltron Zero), turntablist Kid Koala and producer Dan the Automator was an event, a breakthrough in…
Advice: Savage Love
Q: Straight couples looking for a bi female third — someone both partners can share and enjoy — call that person a “unicorn,” a mythical beast, because bi females open to playing with straight/bi couples are so damn rare. What do gay couples looking for a third call the beasts they seek? Frustrated Longtime Unicorn…
The mayor’s minimum
While attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Dallas, Mayor Greg Fischer recently told an NPR reporter that raising the minimum wage in Louisville “has not been a big topic of conversation in our city.” To make such a statement is an absolute insult to community organizers, organizations and citizen activists who have pushed this…
Creative catalysts
Not surprisingly, everyone is drawn to the booze first. Set up at a table in the back of the Central Park information center in Old Louisville are unlabeled mason jars filled with liquids of assorted colors — one of them might be mistaken for Mountain Dew, at least until that unmistakable smell overwhelms you. This…
Comedy: Rob O’Reilly, sadly content
Rob O’Reilly is wicked funny. The Cleveland native works hard as a touring comic with an impressive and continually growing resume. He’s appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Last Comic Standing” and “America’s Got Talent.” He also worked as a correspondent on MTV’s “Total Request Live” and currently works as a writer/producer on…
2
New Mother Nature make music that hits all the right beats for an indie band, especially one based in our fair city. The quartet has the chunky riffage of Shipping News but the songwriting acumen of Will Oldham — the music sounds a little loose in that kind of calculated way. The one sticking point…
Greatest Hits, Vol. 3&4
It’s pretty ostentatious to name what, to my knowledge, is your debut album Greatest Hits Vol. 3&4. Not only is there a certain amount of hubris in trying to fabricate a mythology, but you put a lot of stock in the music being, in fact, the greatest of your hits. I can’t really attest to…
Toy Tiger
In their eponymous first album, Toy Tiger bring a relentlessly delightful set of guitar-pop tunes perfect for car rides in the summer. From the bouncy opener, “Strangest Dream,” through the throwback rock ’n’ roll of yesteryear that pervades much of the record, this disc is sure to find a home in your car’s CD player.…
Film: Jerry Bruckheimer blows up Kentucky
People have been confused as to why in the unholy heck legendary movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer is coming to an antiques store in the middle of Kentucky. He had a similar type of reaction when his wife, writer and Louisville native Linda Bruckheimer, first told him she wanted to buy an additional house in her…
B-sides
Andrew aka Andrew Andrew Sellers is a man of many names. His current nom de song is Andrew Rinehart, though that is certain to change with his ever-metamorphosing musical style. After starting his music career in a hardcore band, the Louisville native has made a 180-degree turn to playing folk music. His current project, Everything,…
Light, darkness and Swans
I was more than a little intimidated by Michael Gira. Noted for his work with Swans and Angels of Light, Gira has been making critically acclaimed music, music I love, for longer than I’ve been alive. It wasn’t just the anxiety of a misplaced or poorly researched question that filled me with dread, but rather…
We study Reinheitsgebot and good eats at The Brewery
I like to think I’m a bit of a beer geek, but our friend Don puts me in the shade when it comes to knowledge of things malty and hoppy. I’ll bet he could recite the rules of the ancient Reinheitsgebot beer laws forwards and backwards, and our multilingual pal Anne could help us do…
Plugged In
Readers are strongly encouraged to call ahead to verify these listings. To get your musical act listed, send email to pberkowitz@leoweekly.com with PLUGGED IN in the subject line. The deadline is FRIDAY at NOON the week before the show happens. We do not accept listings via social networking sites. Wed jul 2 Baxter’s 942:…
Clean energy high fives
A couple of weeks ago, when I read yet another story about the decline of coal, I found myself pumping my fist in the air. And then I pretended to be reading about a sporting contest, just in case any mental-health professionals were nearby. This particular story appeared in Time, but it’s a years-long trend…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: NYMPHOMANIAC VOL. 1&2 2014; $31.98-$34.98; UR The complete two-part conclusion to Lars von Trier’s “depression trilogy,” following “Antichrist” and “Melancholia.” Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Joe, a nymphomaniac found beaten and unconscious by Stellan Skarsgård. She regales him with lurid tales of her misspent youth, having dangerous and varied sex with anyone and…
The mayor’s minimum
While attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Dallas, Mayor Greg Fischer recently told an NPR reporter that raising the minimum wage in Louisville “has not been a big topic of conversation in our city.” To make such a statement is an absolute insult to community organizers, organizations and citizen activists who have pushed this…
