Cover Story
Write on
There’s no doubt Louisville embraces the arts: vibrant local music scene, a ballet that boasts a yearly audience of 100,000, a theater company that claims twice that many patrons, as well as a visual arts district blooming at the edge of downtown. This city is overflowing with culture — both on stage and in galleries.…
Plugged In
Readers are strongly encouraged to call ahead to verify these listings. To get your club, comedian, musical act or karaoke listed, please send e-mail to mherron@leoweekly.com with PLUGGED IN in the subject line. The deadline is NOON THURSDAY the week before the show happens. We do not accept listings via social networking sites. Wed. March…
Staffpicks
Wednesday, March 23 Grasmere Writers The Bard’s Town 1801 Bardstown Road • 749-5275 Free; 7 p.m. It’s a storytime hour for adults — and it’s one where you’re allowed to eat and drink while listening, and your feet and butt won’t fall asleep from sitting on the floor. Isn’t it fun to hear a story…
Something in the air
Less than a week after the Environmental Protection Agency issued new national mercury and toxic air regulations for power plants, roughly 30 residents of southwest Jefferson County — home to LG&E’s Cane Run Road coal-fired power plant and EPA-designated “high-hazard” coal ash pond — gathered to rally for cleaner air and protest the utility’s ongoing…
Canal knowledge
During a meet-and-greet before last year’s Louisville mayoral primaries, I asked a Democratic hopeful if he’d heard about the proposed canal in Jeffersonville. He had not. The point is not to make light of said candidate (who ended up not winning) as much as to say, this regionalism thing still has a long way to…
Queen of Rockabilly reclaims her throne
Why is this lady in her 70s being treated like royalty as she prepares to appear at Headliners? Wanda Jackson started singing professionally as an Oklahoma teen in the mid-1950s. She became a hard-working rockabilly artist who attracted the professional — and for a time, personal — interest of Elvis Presley. Her songs like “Fujiyama…
Theater: A relationship play, onstage and off
Before continuing to Broadway and winning the 1981 Pulitzer Prize, playwright Beth Henley’s first work, “Crimes of the Heart,” premiered in Louisville, at the 1979 Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre. Thirty-two years later, the work has come full circle and is returning to a Louisville stage, in a production directed and…
Inbox — March 23, 2011
LEO Jinx I’ve heard of the Sports Illustrated cover jinx, but now I guess we have a LEO cover jinx given the Cards quick exit from the NCAA tourney. J. Ashley, Middletown Lien Back Jonathan Meador’s March 2 article, “Lien on me,” begins to illustrate the harm being done to families by Kentucky’s law allowing…
Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody
Imagine a continuously evolving film score shifting through French, Latin and American themes. The expertly performed Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody is more than 70 minutes of entirely instrumental compositions that constantly flirt with progressive-fusion indulgence but never descend into full-on jam-band territory. It recalls like the masterful proficiency of Rodrigo y Gabriela, backed by bad-ass…
Angles
Sometimes an “experimental” album’s gestalt can be stronger than the sum of its parts (see: Radiohead’s Kid A); sometimes individual songs can unify an uneven set and be iconic (see: R.E.M.’s Out of Time). In an effort to reinvent themselves, The Strokes created an album lacking both. Opener “Machu Picchu” interestingly sets a Duran Duran…
Citizens Untied
I’ve got some bumper stickers on my truck I think are pretty cool, but in all likelihood, they are just as stupid and meaningless as yours. Intended as tiny alerts to other drivers of your cultural, political, spiritual, musical or corporate allegiances, your bumper stickers generally succeed only in making you appear to be a…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: HAPPINESS IS A WARM BLANKET, CHARLIE BROWN 2011; $19.95, UR In this all-new Peanuts special, Linus goes berserk, butchers Lucy and buries her body beneath Snoopy’s doghouse when his evil grandma decides to take his precious blanket away. Since the death of Charles Schulz, the producers have taken liberties, finding new…
You Are the Beat
You’re unlikely to read a single review of this Brooklyn trio’s debut that doesn’t feature the word “jangly.” It’s the operative word, no two ways about it. You Are the Beat boasts sublimely supple guitars, ringing open chords and sighing melodies that recall the best of ’80s UK indie. With early press playing up the…
‘Brick & Mortar & Love’
AUSTIN — Scott Shuffitt is partially responsible for ushering in a new fan base for the slacker hero film “The Big Lebowski.” But what drew the Lebowski Fest co-founder to Austin this past weekend was a passion project that has little to do with White Russians and bowling etiquette. To date, Shuffitt has shot between…
Theater: Not all doom and gloom in ‘The End’
The End A production by Actors Theatre, part of the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Directed by Amy Attaway and Michael Legg. Continues through April 3 at 316 W. Main St. For tickets or more info, call 584-1205 or visit www.actorstheatre.org. With 2012 on the horizon, it just might be the end of the world as…
Bar Belle: Basketball diarrhea
I have a theory as to why the Cards gave your bracket and city pride a rim job last week — and it has to do with you, Metro residents. You see, like the team, you were unfocused and easily distracted, in addition to being intoxicated. You let a pop star and a holiday divert…
Comedy: Dave Koechner — From improv to The Improv
While Dave Koechner may not be a household name, he’s easily one of the most recognizable faces in comedy. The Missouri native studied at Chicago’s Second City Theater, was a cast member on “Saturday Night Live,” has played memorable characters in classic comedies like “Anchorman” and “Thank You for Smoking,” and has a recurring role…
Compromising health
As the Kentucky General Assembly scrambles through the special session in an effort to avoid looming cuts to Medicaid reimbursement rates, Annette Baylon fears the effects those cuts would bring. The mother of an 18-year-old who is mentally retarded, autistic and bipolar, Baylon relies on Medicaid for her son’s health care, which includes extensive therapy…
SXKY
AUSTIN, Texas — Who said punk is dead? Nobody after The Endtables broke their 30-year silence a little after 11 p.m. last Friday at Barbarella, one of 200 venues hosting showcases at the 25th Annual South By Southwest Music, Film and Interactive Festival. Wearing a jumpsuit and a black-and-blonde-streaked wig, singer Steve “Chili” Rigot towered…
Little Me Will Start a Storm
I looked up Loch Lomond’s MySpace page before I’d heard a note. The Portland location and experimental/folk/pop tag had me suffering from visions of sub-Decembrists horrors, but a few minutes of opener “Little Blue Fences” assuaged those fears. Bright, minimalist acoustic musical elements piled on top of male-female harmonies and melodies, and by the end…
Small plates add up to big meal at Mojito
Mary’s dish towered on her plate, an architectural construction of mashed potatoes, beef tenderloin, Cabrales blue cheese and a nest of sweet potato curls, piled high and reaching for the sky. My entrée lay flat enough to slide under the door, a long, oval flatbread topped with shredded duck, goat cheese and green herbs. “Hey!”…
