Name that arena
There are incestuous connections and a weird history between the Arena Authority and its newly-minted naming-rights partner, Team Services If you were already of the belief that our elected officials haven’t leveled with us about the real costs of the coming Louisville Arena and whether it will really pay for itself over the long haul,…
City Strobe
Temperance on MarketWith everybody else complaining about too much dry, Metro Councilwoman Cheri Bryant Hamilton is worried about too much wet. Specifically, she’s concerned about the recent proliferation of liquor stores in her precincts in Shawnee and Portland. Citing a link between hooch and crime, a group headed by the councilwoman lined up the necessary…
REPRESENTIN” : A COLUMN ABOUT THE METRO COUNCIL
Politics fit for an ashtray Monday is a big day for smokers in Louisville. It is an even bigger day for bar and restaurant owners. Monday is not, however, the day the much praised, maligned and ambivalently accepted smoking ban goes into effect — that is next Sunday, July 1. Rather, Monday is the day…
Rumor & Innuendo
That darned Cardinal Nine.Once in Little League my team was tied when a game was suspended due to darkness. When it came time to complete it, I was to be the first hitter. For two weeks, I fantasized hitting a game-winning homer, sure it would happen. When the time came, I struck out on three…
Activism school: The Kentucky Alliance puts a different spin on summer camp
Arts and Activism: Photo Courtesy of the Kentucky Alliance Kids get a different kind of summer camp at The Kentucky Alliance’s Arts and Activism Summer Youth Camp, geared toward teaching youngsters how to meld art and activism in constructive ways. Just two days before legendary Louisville civil rights activist Anne Braden died in 2005, she…
Bluegrass Beacon: Not all fiddling requires a Stradivarius
The tale of emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned seems like a historical stretch. The fiddle wasn’t invented until the 16th century. But not all fiddling requires a Stradivarius, and good ideas can go up in flames when state legislators assume the role of emperor. For example, take the fiddling done by Kentucky’s political leadership…
Connected Diss: Rethinking patriotism
Several months ago, I wrote a column questioning the appropriateness of military air shows as a form of community-sponsored family entertainment. I received a number of responses. The gist of most of the letters was that the military defends our freedom, and without it, I could not write these words. Indeed, I was told that…
A cluster of Rapper opinions
Due to the insidious nature of our television culture, the typical American likes bite-sized chunks of opinion — a product of our 30-minute-max mentality (the length of a typical sitcom). This was driven home by the “stranger-on-the-street” (“Hey, you’re The Plain Brown Bag”) comments. So, here’s what you asked for, Rappites and haters alike.Loyalty to…
Erosia
LEO welcomes letters that are brief (250 words max) and thoughtful. Ad hominem attacks will be ignored, and we need your name and a daytime phone number. Send snail mail to EROSIA, 640 S. Fourth St., Louisville, Ky. 40202. Fax to 895-9779 or e-mail to leo@leoweekly.com. We may edit for length, grammar and clarity. ClarificationLast…
Getting the picture
With the Eastman collection at the Speed, a national convention and the Photo Biennial, Louisville is all about photography MIGRANT MOTHER: Photo by Dorothea Lange (American, 1895-1965) MIGRANT MOTHER, NIPOMO, CALIFORNIA, 1933. Gelatin silver print. Credit: Courtesy George Eastman House. This iconic image of a starving mother and three of her seven children is the…
Barry”s moment; Hallelujah; Howe cool; rock for Hed
Saturday, June 23 Tim Barry Tim Barry should call Louisville a second home. In the mid-’90s, he and the rest of Richmond, Va.’s most celebrated export, “hickoid punk” masters Avail, developed a loyal following here through repeated touring, and that following is still here today. The other side of Barry is his solo work. He…
Two for the road: The Wreckers walk a tightrope between pop stardom and country traditions
The Wreckers The WreckersWednesday, June 27Coyote’s133 W. Liberty St.589-FUNN$23-$25; 6 p.m. Popular music is full of them: duos with one member more popular than the other. Any music snob worth his mettle can tell at least one Art Garfunkel joke, or allude to Daryl Hall’s boyish good looks and soulful voice, all the while sneering…
The Bar Belle: Lick-slam-suck days may be numbered
It pains me to report that a shortage of tequila is imminent. And, apparently, environmentally concerned Americans are to blame for this. Over-consumption — perhaps due to the popularity of Patron in rap songs or the myth that the Mexican liquor makes your clothes fall off — is not the culprit. Nor is under-consumption —…
Big and bigger steaks at Frank”s
Frank’s: Photo by Nicole Pullen The interior of Frank’s Steakhouse — dark, heavy wood beams and roughly quarried blocks of limestone — create an old-house atmosphere that seems just right for a steakhouse environment. There’s something about a good, old-fashioned steakhouse that builds enduring popularity. The old reliable Pat’s in Louisville (formerly Min’s), for example,…
Aftertastes
L&N WINE BAR AND BISTRO, 1765 Mellwood Ave., 897-0070, www.LandNWineBar.com. With its majestic wall of wine, a 54-bottle Cruvinet wine-storage facility and dispenser that’s the largest made, L&N boasts a wine program that’s second to none. New chef Mark Purzycki sticks to the old favorites on the menu but puts his own stamp on the…
Book Listings
June 20, 10 a.m.: Book Discussion — “Holes” by Louis Sachar, Louisville Free Public Library, Jeffersontown, 10635 Watterson Trl., 267-5713. • June 21, 7 p.m.: Brian Leung — The U of L creative writing teacher reads from his first novel, “Lost Men,” Carmichael’s Bookstore, 2720 Frankfort Ave., 896-6950. • June 21, 11 a.m.: Book Discussion —…
You”re looking swell, “Dolly”
Hello, Dolly: Photo by Kathy Reynolds Horace Vandergelder (Dan Bullington) and Dolly Levi (Sharon Murray Harrah) discuss marriage prospects in MTL’s production of “Hello, Dolly!” ‘Hello, Dolly!’ Starring Sharon Murray Harrah, Dan Bullington, Ryan Metzger, Tyler Bliss, Colette Barney, Claire Longest and Mary Elizabeth Buckner. Directed by Mark Martino. Orchestra conducted by Craig Swatt. Presented…
Pitching social issues “Out” of the closet
Take Me Out: Pandora Productions tackles baseball and social issues in “Take Me Out.” ‘Take Me Out’Starring Apollo Bacala, Brent Blood, Heyward Boyce, Hernando Castro, Oliver Coates, Brent Gettelfinger, Joseph Ian Hatfield, J. Daniel Herring, Aurion Johnson, Tim Kitchen and Nathaniel Niemeyer. Directed by Michael J. Drury. Written by Richard Greenberg. Performed by Pandora Productions.…
Great Scott, let her eat cake; come to their Senses
Friday, June 22Scott Miller and the Commonwealth play Phoenix Hill Friday night. If you want a preview of this fine, heartland bar band, pick up their new disc Reconstruction. It’s a live set, recorded in an appropriately non-chi-chi location (Johnson City, Tenn.). Miller’s tunes of struggling through the everyday grit of life and love in…
Book Smart – Book Nerds
What we’re reading (or at least what’s laying around on our coffee tables …) Valerie Sullivan Fuchs (Louisville video/technology artist) — “The Life of the Mind” by Hannah Arendt; “Visual Culture: The Reader” edited by Jessica Evans and Stuart Hall. Claire McDonald (Highland Coffee barista) — “Summer of Night” by Dan Simmons.Lizzie Peacock (Highland Coffee…
Book Smart – Poetry
ProminencesBy John Swain Sun singe, glimmer, then purge,we taste the burnt groundwhere riding people threw coins. Yet you speak perfect wordsnot caring for the meadowlarkin your throat like earth’s old voice. I will pour clean waterfor your thirst when all birds lightfrom where we lay twisting shovels. Despite the chars of our coupling,you open my…
Book Reports
The Jane Austen Book Club The Jane Austen Book Club: By Karen Joy Fowler. First Plume Printing; 288 pgs., . By Karen Joy Fowler. First Plume Printing; 288 pgs., $14.What is excruciatingly black and white in Jane Austen’s six novels is that her heroines’ stories never delve past the “right of passage” of marriage. Where…
Film Review – Fantastic Four 3
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer 2 starsStarring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis and Julian McMahon. Directed by Tim Story. Released by 20th Century Fox. Rated PG; 1:35. Films based on comic books — especially old, fondly remembered comic books, as opposed to “graphic novels” — present myriad problems for…
Film Review – Paris, Je T”aime
Paris, Je T’aime 2 starsStarring Ben Gazzara, Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Emily Mortimer and Fanny Ardant. Directed by Frederic Auburtin, Emmanuel Benbihy, Alfonso Cuarón, etc. Released by First Look Pictures. Rated R; 2:00. Looking at the advertising for “Paris, Je T’aime,” I expected a movie version of a Parisian vacation guide; the trailer has…
Video TapeWorm: Releases through Tuesday, June 26
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS:BLACK SNAKE MOAN2007; DVD $29.95-39.95, RWe hereby proclaim this THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE! Samuel L. Jackson stars as a tired soul, a former blues musician who has lost his way until he encounters nasty nympho Christina Ricci, whose wantonness is leading her to eventual misery and despair. So he chains her…
CD Reviews (6-20-07)
Memory Almost FullPaul McCartney(STARBUCKS/HEAR MUSIC) Forty years ago this year, Paul McCartney asked us the musical question, Will you still need me when I’m 64? Judging by his latest CD, the answer is … not really. As the title indicates, the album finds Paul McCartney in a reflective mood. Unfortunately, this is Paul McCartney doing…
Staff Picks
Thursday, June 217th annual Lester Grinspoon Appreciation Day Dr. Lester Grinspoon’s name is not a household word, but perhaps it should be. The Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Harvard and former chairman of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has been absolutely tireless in his efforts to recast cannabis as a…
A year of local eating
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: By Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver. HarperCollins; 370 pgs., .95. “As much as possible of the food that is consumed locally ought to be locally produced on small farms, and then processed in small, non-polluting plants that are locally owned. We must do everything possible to provide to…
