Up a tree: World’s most recognized tree-sitter is coming down to Louisville
When she answers the cell phone, Julia Butterfly Hill is high in a walnut tree in South Central Los Angeles. The tree is part of a 14-acre urban farm, the largest in the country, set smack in the heart of a warehouse district. Birds chirp audibly in the background, conjuring an admittedly weird vision of…
What a Week
Elephants gone wildMore chunks from the Skylab that is the Fletcher administration fell off during re-entry, including a large one with a funny-shaped head: Lt. Gov. Steve Pence. Citing a desperate need to no longer hear his name mentioned after Fletcher’s, Pence — who has played an important role as stand-in governor during Fletcher’s many…
Conyers’ health bill gets a ‘hearing’
Gregg Wagner’s health insurance sets him back $450 a month. The 43-year-old Louisville Realtor is a single, independent businessman, pretty much the worst model for affordable healthcare in America. And while myriad mitigating factors cause insurance premiums to fluctuate vastly, Wagner’s bill is more than twice the national average for a single person not covered…
Haire apparent: Darrell Haire helped the Jockeys’ Guild avert disaster. Now he’d like the job full time
BY RICK REDDING Darrell Haire didn’t know what hit him. Last Nov. 15, he and a group of jockeys were inside the Jockeys’ Guild office in Monrovia, Calif. They had just taken control of the organization, voting to fire the administration of one Dr. Wayne Gertmenian, aka Dr. Evil in the eyes of the racing…
Erosia: Letters to the Editor
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. CorrectionA…
The Tear Sheet: For hizzoner, an invitation to right an old wrong
There is so much progress under way in Louisville right now that it is hard to imagine having much to complain about as we head toward the mayoral election. Let’s face it: The riverfront is a continuing marvel, downtown condos are popping up like dandelions and the new parks initiative shows a kind of big-thinking…
Your Weekly Reeder: Ky. pols should spend more time on the golf course
I probably should wait until Fancy Farm to do this, but I’ve decided to go ahead and announce my plan for cleaning up the messes in Frankfort and Washington. It’s a strategery that every right-thinking (or left-thinking, for that matter) citizen can get behind. I’m going to crusade for a constitutional amendment to make our…
Culture Maven: Tied to youth’s whipping post
We were young. We were immortal. Sooner or later both were lies. It was inevitable. We didn’t know it then. The moments we discovered were so sublime we wouldn’t have cared anyway. This is about the umbrellas we choose, wittingly or by chance. For me, music has carried me through. Music, which has provided succor…
Bluegrass Report: Lil’ Orphan Ernie
It’s hard to believe things keep getting worse for Gov. Ernie Fletcher. Not so much that the Fletcher administration continues to make the wrong political decisions (we’ve grown accustomed to that), but you’d simply think the law of averages, if nothing else, would eventually provide the governor a win or two. Not so much. Last…
It’s Chuck’s world – Palahniuk invades Louisville
Chuck Palahniuk is a very nice man living in a very strange world. If you are a reader or fan of his, you know exactly what I mean. If not, the following description may help. He begins his new novel, “Haunted,” with a story he swears is true. He says he heard it from a…
After Tastes
Quality of Meal: 3 = Good; 4 = Very good; 5 = Extraordinary. Price Range: $ = $10 or less; $$ = $20 or less; $$$ = $30 or less; $$$$ = more than $30. (Per person for a meal without tip or tax.) HA = Wheelchair accessible. Descriptions are summaries of previously published dining…
LEO’s Eat ’n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes: Proof does lunch, and itâ€&ac
I’ve been just as impressed as everyone else by Proof on Main since this upscale eatery with its strong New York City connections opened at the beginning of March. As I wrote on LouisvilleHotBytes.com after early dinners there, “I can’t rate it head and shoulders above Louisville’s top restaurants, but it’s certainly nudging its way…
The Terri Blair Story – SLOWLY BUT SURELY, THE KENTUCKY FIGHTER HAS FOLLOWED A DREAM. NOW SHE’S A WORLD CHAMP
STORY BY CHARLES L. WESTMORELANDPHOTOS BY ANGELA SHOEMAKER It seems like a story tailor-made for the big screen. Small-town girl chases a dream for eight years. She wants to be a professional boxer. Her parents shake their heads and worry about her wasting a hard-earned biology degree. Co-workers quizzically observe her bruises and black eyes…
Video TapeWorm: Releases through Tuesday, June 13
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS:DHARMA & GREG: SEASON 11997; DVD $39.95, URPossibly the best-cast sitcom ever put on the tube. Thomas Gibson, who has since shown up on SciFi Channel stinkers, was perfect as the rich, confused lawyer who falls helplessly in love with leggy force-of-nature Jenna Elfman (still one of the sexiest women alive). But…
Arts & Entertainment Listings
Special Events Male Style Show — all-male fashion show, benefits youth programs of Archdiocese of Louisville’s Office of Multicultural Ministry’s Catholic Enrichment Center, June 9, 7pm, Thea Bowman Hall, 3146 W. Broadway, $15, 636-0296.21C Museum Hotel Grand Opening — June 9, 584-7777 or 292-6095.••Songwriting Workshop — songwriter/Louisville native Alan Rhody conducts, June 10, 10am-3pm, Creative…
Community Listings
Special Events IU Southeast Observatory — public viewing of night sky, June 7, 9-10pm, free, 812-941-2414.••La Grange Farmers Market — wide-range of home-processed produce, materials, plants and artwork, June 10-Sept. 30, 8am-noon, Oldham Co. Courthouse, 100 W. Main St., 269-0126.Boys’ Haven Corn Toss Tournament — June 10, 1-4pm, $100 for two-person team corporate division, 5-9pm,…
Five Important Questions With Litany’s Last Call
There’s something royal about Litany’s Last Call, a brand new Louisville band that includes a couple prominent visual artists and professionally trained musicians. Maybe that’s why I think of kings and queens, because these people are deeply talented and original by nature. Maybe not; I’m not sure. There’s not much material to judge by yet,…
Club Directory
19th Green 1740 Williamsburg Dr., Jeffersonville (812) 284-908819th Hole Pub 5603 Greenwood Rd. 933-4858717 Studios 717 Market St. 609-93171135 S. 7th St. 1135 S. 7th St. 589-4978A Little Peace Café 1860 Mellwood Ave. 895-3650Air Devil’s Inn 2802 Taylorsville Rd. 454-4443Akiko’s 1123 Bardstown Rd. 459-8020The Alternative 1032 Story Ave. 561-7613Angelo’s 627 N. 34th St. 776-9127Artemisia 620…
Karaoke Korral
WED JUNE 7 Akiko’s Brewskees Brickyard Sports Bar Creeker’s Bar & Grill Gaslite Tavern Good Times Pub Jim Porter’s Joker’s JT’s Variety Club Mac’s Hideaway Main Menu Monon Station New View Phoenix Hill R Place Pub Reflections Lounge Ro-Joe’s Karaoke Bar Seidenfaden Cafe Shooters Sid’s Pub Skivvies Smyrna Inn St. Andrew’s Pub Steinert’s T.K.’s Pub…
Excavation time – The Big Diggity find their groove
Just about any way you slice it, a band’s second album tends to be better than its first. A follow-up is bound to be tighter, more coherent and focused, if for no other reason than the simple fact that the band members have spent more time playing together. With its second full-length album, Louisville’s The…
Pelican brief – Band swoops up metal-influenced instrumentals
When discovering the band Pelican, I didn’t immediately make the connection between their unique brand of trudging, metal-influenced instrumental numbers and the sea-faring, pouch-beaked bird from which the band takes its name. But after talking to guitarist Laurent Lebec, I suddenly couldn’t even remember what I was having trouble understanding. I told him it seemed…
No tricks: Shenanigans vs. More Shenanigans (Two local bars separated at birth?)
Studies have shown that when twins are separated at birth, placed in different environments, they remarkably still display similar characteristics and traits as they move separately through life. That’s exactly the case of our two similar-named bars — Shenanigans and More Shenanigans. Their differences are like night and day — one sits on a sleepy…
Staff Picks
June 7-9‘Today’s Challenges — Tomorrow’s Opportunities’ Did you know the majority of museum visitors are from the Millennial Generation, born between 1979-2000? Dr. Brenden Martin has conducted research on how each generation values history and art, and will present his findings as the Kentucky Association of Museums/Kentucky Historical Society Conference’s keynote speaker. The meeting’s theme is…
