Cover Story
BRAIN DAMAGE
You don’t have to be a NFL running back or a combat veteran to suffer a life-altering brain injury. And according to recent reports, most aren’t. Anessa Arehart sustained her brain injury as a result of two car accidents. The injury has had a profound impact on all aspects of her life, including her painting,…
LEO Playlist 3/10/15
Well, what started out as one surprise Prince show turned into four performances (Saturday and Sunday, 8 and 11pm both days) at the Louisville Palace this weekend due to demand, so, naturally, we’ll start with him on this week’s playlist. Here are two songs — one ‘80s classic and another from his new album with…
The story behind the Louisville Arcade Expo
Video games are such an intrinsic part of modern culture that they have become all-pervasive, an integral part of the social zeitgeist. There are films, from documentaries to fiction, based on video games like the Wizard, Scott Pilgrim or Wreck-It-Ralph. There is an entire genre of music — chip tunes — dedicated to reproducing that…
A Q&A with comedian Seaton Smith
Seaton Smith is a rising star. He has a high-energy, observational brand of humor that somehow feels like it comes full circle to tell his own personal narrative. It’s a very engaging quality that Smith, a Washington, D.C. native, has when he’s onstage. Now living in New York, Smith has garnered attention from some of…
LEON: McConnell’s five day forecast
Wednesday Day — Still raining from yesterday, possibly turning to snow in the afternoon. Some sleet may mix in, because why not? High 36F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation absolutely 100%. Snow accumulating 3 to 5 inches. Night — Snow. Of course snow. Low 16F. Winds N at 10 to…
LEON: Netanyahu, a life of inviting one’s self
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu delivered a controversial address to the United States Congress this week on behalf of the world’s approximately 14 million Jews. State officials now indicate that the US should have seen Netanyahu’s self-extended invitation coming. Newly released documents from the State Department reveal that Netanyahu has been a habitual self-inviter…
Staffpicks
MARCH 4 & 6 Botanica, ?the Waterfront Botanical Gardens Zephyr Gallery 610 E. Market St., 812-786-0026 ideaslouisville.com Botanica, the Waterfront Botanical Gardens, is a few years away from opening (it’s scheduled for 2019), but it has all the makings of a great addition to our city. The people behind the scenes, in association with IDEAS…
Gaslight Anthem warms up for Forecastle
So much more than Jersey Shore punk — but that’s often been the starting place for people trying to pass the word along about The Gaslight Anthem. The quartet’s membership hasn’t changed in nearly a decade together — and because of that closeness, says drummer Benny Horowitz, “especially live, you get in sync. One of…
b-sides: Jessica Hernandez
Punchy horn work. Some Latin beats. Guitars that can scratch lightly or pierce deeply. And frontwoman attitude in songs like “Sorry I Stole Your Man” and “Neck Tattoo.” But also the ability soften things with songs like the mature and wistful “Lovers First.” Keeping that blend both cohesive and powerful is what Detroit native Jessica…
33 1/3
In my last article, I wrote about how much music a radio director can receive in a week. Unlike when I first started in 2000, it doesn’t all come in CDs anymore. There are still plenty of discs that do arrive via mail, but just as much is culled from the web as well as digital…
2014
TinyForest (self-released) The end of the year is a time for reflection, which is usually made manifest in the various superlative lists that litter the social media landscape. For TinyForest, the New Year is a time to ruminate on the past as evidenced by “2014,” which serves as a celebration of having survived the previous…
Sacred Sphinx
Tender Mercy Dunkenstein Mark Kramer, the man behind the curtains in Tender Mercy, never fails to capture a level of intimacy in his music that would feel intimidating to a less secure musician. His newest, “Sacred Sphinx,” feels somehow even more naked than before, the ghostly guitar serving as the sole accompaniment again, but even…
on remembering
Jonathan Glen Wood (self-released) That rare balance between quality and quantity is a tough one to maintain, but with the release of “on remembering,” his third in four months, Jonathan Glen Wood proves that he can deliver. Here, Wood offers two tracks (one clocking in at 31:20, the other at 28:39), both haunting ambient meditations,…
Creature Island
Creature Island (self-released) Creature Island quietly came and went, due to cross-country moves and adult responsibilities. Helmed by former Follow the Train/Blue Goat War singer and guitarist Dennis Sheridan, Creature Island is a continuation of his previous efforts, tonally speaking, which explore melancholic and often-fragile pop tropes. There is an earnestness to Sheridan’s voice that…
Plugged In (Mar 4 – Mar 10)
WED March 4th Brasserie Provence: Brian Curella Duo with Joey Thieman; 5 p.m. Diamond Pub (St. Matthews): PMA; 10 p.m. Gerstle’s Place: Kimmet & Doug; 9 p.m. Headliners: Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin with the Guilty Ones, Jonah Tolchin & The Lonesome Angels; 8 p.m.; $25 Jack Fry’s: Ray Johnson, Dave Wilson, Jenna Mattingly; 7…
ART: From clay to dough: Sarah Owen’s new medium
Sarah Owens is a former Louisvillian (as well as a future one) who is giving a talk on Wednesday, March 4 as part of IDEAS’ “Who’s Louisville?” project at Zephyr Gallery. Once a visual artist, she’s now specializing in baking, having lost none of her creative passion in the transition. LEO: I remember you as…
BOOK: Ishiguro’s Arthurian legend of loss
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf; 336 pgs., $26.95) Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel “The Buried Giant” is set in the rolling hills and moors of ancient England. He reveals early that there are dragons and ogres here. Magical creatures are as a part of the land as the hills and the rivers — typically…
THEATER: Looking for Lilith’s ‘As It Is In Heaven’
Arlene Hutton’s 2002 play, “As It Is In Heaven,” is set in 1837 in the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky – and that alone is enough to make it intrinsically fascinating for Louisville theater-goers and students of Kentucky history. The Shaker religious order – its celebratory utopianism, its emphasis on gender equality, its well-known…
ORCHESTRA: Orchestra showcases four soloists for ‘Four Seasons’
Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” is one of the earliest, and best loved, show-off pieces for violin virtuosos. But soloist Luosha Fang doesn’t mind sharing the spotlight with three other young virtuosos — each performing one season of the “Four Seasons” in concerts Friday and Saturday with the Louisville Orchestra. And she’s especially pleased she’ll be playing…
Video Tapeworm
This Week’s Twin Peeks FIREBALL XL5: THE COMPLETE SERIES 1962; $19.98-29.98; UR Bill here; Dave went completely meshuga when we received this ’60s Gerry Anderson SuperMarionation chestnut, and I haven’t been able to get him to calm down and write a damned thing since. He’s now convinced that he IS Col. Steve Zodiac, marionette commander…
Dundee done be a gastropub now
What’s a gastropub, anyway? This culinary neologism has been floating around since the middle of the last decade, and some say it cries out for mockery. “Gastropub”? It sounds, a bit unnervingly, like some kind of medical condition afflicting the digestive system. What’s more, plenty of the more pompous food scribes decry the term. I…
Discovering the BBC $5 lunch
Seems like it wasn’t that long ago that a $5 lunch was an easy thing to find. And I’m not talking about a McCombo meal, either — I mean something that actually resembles edible lunch at a place that makes food that didn’t come straight off an assembly line. Something that comes on an actual…
Legislating priorities: like where people pee
This year marks my seventh in the Kentucky General Assembly as the Fairness Campaign’s director, and through all the good and bad I’ve seen, I never thought we’d be busy debating where people pee, but that’s the Kentucky Senate for you. Freshman Senator C.B. Embry, a Morgantown Republican, has sought to make a name for…
Feminismo
Ah! The joys of modern feminism — so different from its beginnings and yet so much the same. When the Oscars aired, women got an injection of activist fire from Patricia Arquette’s speech about pay equality — initially, that is — before what she actually said was dismantled and before she added more. The statement…
Frankfort fame and follies
The first day of the session fell on my birthday. I was feeling my age, eager to feel the energy of the new senators and recall some unforgettable highlights of David Williams’ presidency. When he wickedly mimicked then-House Speaker Jody Richards, a great swell of laughter filled the chamber and the mighty Tom Jensen spilled…
Netanyahu, the self-anointed Jewish Pope
Seldom does a week go by in which a politician does not do something offensive. The most common offensive act is usually of the racial or sexist variety, although some venture into the socioeconomic territory. In the 2006 Virginia Senate race, incumbent George Allen lost his election as a result of what has been dubbed…
Inbox – March 4, 2015
LEO Weekly welcomes letters that are brief (350 words max) and thoughtful. ?Ad hominem attacks will be ignored, and we need your name and a daytime phone number. Send snail mail to Inbox, 607 W. Main St., Suite 001, Louisville, Ky. 40202. Fax to 895-9779 or email to leo@leoweekly.com. We may edit for length, grammar…
