Cover Story
Buy local
HSBC, one of the biggest banks on the planet, has taken to calling itself “the world’s local bank.” Winn-Dixie, a 500-outlet supermarket chain, recently launched a new ad campaign under the tagline, “Local flavor since 1956.” The International Council of Shopping Centers, a global consortium of mall owners and developers, is pouring millions of dollars…
Default mechanism
In the boneyard that is contemporary print journalism, Gannett Co., which owns The Courier-Journal, has so far avoided the deathwatch list. Seven newspaper companies are currently in bankruptcy, and many observers believe another, the McClatchy Co., is headed there. But Gannett, despite lagging ad sales, has held its own by making several tough business adjustments.…
Electroclash
The first time I saw The Pass, they opened their set with a Pink Floyd cover at Wick’s on Baxter. That choice might not lend itself to any sort of progression — how many times have you heard a Pink Floyd cover in a bar? — but what happened next would be nothing short of…
B-Sides: Music & Other Ephemera
Contemporary rock reigns supreme for the remainder of Fourth Street Live’s Summer Concert Series. To wit: Friday, July 31: Tonic Thursday, Aug. 20: Blue October & Switchfoot Friday, Aug. 28: Sister Hazel U of L Red Barn Series The U of L concert series at the Red Barn continues next month. The lineups are: Friday,…
Overdose
This country needs an enema. As the “debate” over how to reform the morally and fiscally bankrupt health care system continues, people seem to be falling further away from understanding and ever-faster toward the tar pit of ideology. And predictably, mainstream media isn’t doing much to close the gap. The Courier-Journal published 18 stories about…
Book: Carmichael’s touts ‘local author month’
Staring at a mountain of local authors’ requests for reading events this past May, Carmichael’s Bookstore owner Carol Besse had a eureka! moment: 10 events, all featuring Kentucky talent, in one summer month. Before long, Besse and her events team (both members) were off and running. “The marketing aspect of releasing a book is really…
Locavore Lore: Harnessing the power of parsley
Thinking about going solar? Or maybe lunar? Go herbal and have it all. If that didn’t make any sense, no worries — we’re in the midst of a rare lunar and solar eclipse cycle that is affecting us on planetary, communal and personal levels, so it’s a perfect opportunity to give the rational mind a…
Préliminaires
Feel free to argue over who invented punk rock. Iggy Pop certainly was the first major figure to live and breathe the punk lifestyle. So why should we want to hear him singing an Edith Piaf signature tune and other oddities? First, he’s Iggy. After all he’s given to music and all he’s survived, he…
Gayle force
Be careful who you’re friends with — they might make crazy suggestions, like asking you to move to San Francisco on a lark. That’s what happened to Gayle Lynn. You won’t find an ounce of regret in this folk-country songstress. Her day-job focuses on a children’s bluegrass band and traveling around the city to middle…
How do I hate thee?
Jordan Gruver was waiting in line to buy a soda at the Meade County fair on a hot July afternoon in 2006 when a trio of Klansmen approached. Calling the 16-year-old of Panamanian dissent a “spic,” one of the men proceeded to spit on Gruver, throw whiskey in his face and punch him in the…
Late Night
As far as careerist schemes go, naming your band Nothing People and titling your first album Anonymous has to be pretty high up on the list of bad ideas. Yet California’s Nothing People’s lack of such ambitions is refreshing in an age where seemingly every band has a marketing plan. Thankfully their music is unique…
Art: Blonde ambition
The pulsing vein of Shannon Kempf’s body of work is the small, golden-framed cross-stitch of two My Little Ponies — humping. What first appears to be a thrift-store find, perhaps a practice subject for someone’s grandma, is actually a carefully crafted representation of the moment of bliss for the adolescent Ponies, one piled atop the…
Bar Belle: The welcome wagon
It takes a lot to pry me from my routine. I’m a creature of habit(s). I like to know the bartender when I walk into a place. I like to saddle up with the other regulars who have saved me a seat. I like my drink sitting at the bar as I approach it. Some…
Inbox — July 29, 2009
Corrections Regarding last week’s preview on The Wailers: Time magazine voted Exodus Album of the Century in 1998, and Exodus is the fifth album credited to Bob Marley and the Wailers. Also, regarding the July 15 preview of the Jane Austen Fest, Bonny Wise was the creator of the event, not speaker Margaret Sullivan. LEO…
The Video Tapeworm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: OBSESSED 2009; $28.95-$39.95, PG-13 A good old-fashioned suburban adult melodrama with lots of (implied) sex and seriously beautiful people acting provocatively. Idris Elba and wife Beyonce Knowles move to the ’burbs of L.A. — happy, loving and full of life. But when the unhinged blonde (or is that redundant?) co-worker, Ali…
Book: New guide captures beauty of Kentucky’s parks
The Complete Guide to Kentucky State Parks By Susan Reigler, photography by Pam Spaulding. University Press of Kentucky; 255 pages, $24.95. The usual thing with travel books is: A publisher hires a writer to cover all the hot spots, then illustrates the book by purchasing stock photos and perhaps commissioning a few new pictures…
Film: ‘Hurt Locker’ explodes into a new era of war cinema
(Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce and Evangeline Lilly. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Rated R; 2:11. LEO Report Card: A) It’s been more than 20 years since Stanley Kubrick canned “Full Metal Jacket,” and nothing truly monumental has come out about contemporary warfare since. Even the great Sam Mendes couldn’t extricate…
Keep it Weird
The Louisville Independent Business Alliance is just one of many organizations across the nation that bands together local, independent businesses. But the group’s motto — “Keep Louisville Weird” — is as telling as it is distinctive. While other independent business associations often urge consumers to buy local in order to stimulate the local economy, LIBA…
The World Is Shaking: Cubanismo From The Congo, 1954-55
Like the end of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” EMI’s Hayes Archive is a massive structure housing untold thousands of hours of recordings, some dating to the 19th century. The good people at Honest Jon’s have been granted access to this collection and now spent five volumes cherry-picking the nearly unending selection of 78 rpm…
Jerry’s kids
The Metro Council is stuffing its usual protestations in order to get out of the way of the $4.1 billion Ohio River Bridges Project. It’s the only explanation of why council members who regularly complain about transparency, rushed votes and bullying hurried a resolution that gives the mayor and governor the power to appoint members…
Livin’ large
Screw it. It’s doubtful anybody’s going to call for my resignation. It’s a long shot someone will even investigate me. I’m going to become an association executive. After all, unless I run for office or haul my cookies to Wall Street, where else can I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money? Sure,…
Gone to market
During a busy weekday lunch hour, clusters of people pour into the street to buy groceries for dinner and catch up with co-workers and neighbors. But here there are no blue light specials or doubling coupons. Unlike the grocer down the block, the vendor can tell you everything about how the vegetables matured — because…
Rose City
Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. For superb, no frills rock ’n’ roll records, husband and wife duo Kevin and Anita Robinson, aka Viva Voce (Latin for “by live voice”), have always been a go-to. Rose City marks the group’s third album, and it really doesn’t matter that there’s no discernible difference between…
2007 Readers’ Choice Awards
readers choice 2007 ARTS, MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT ANNUAL FESTIVAL 1) Kentucky Derby Festival (www.kdf.org) 2) St. James Art Fair (www.stjamescourtartshow.com) 3) Forecastle (www.forecastlefest.com) CHARITABLE EVENT 1) Crusade for Children (www.whascrusade.org) 2) Brew at the Zoo (www.louisvillezoo.org) 3) Pride Festival (www.kentuckianapridefestival.com) FILM FESTIVAL 1) Last Call Film Festival (www.lastcallmovies.com) 2) Hitchcock Series at the…
