Cover Story
Cock-a-toodle-doo
Last Wednesday, the morning after a slew of Tea Party candidates were stomped by their establishment-backed Republican primary opponents, conservative radio host and conspiracy huckster Glenn Beck asked Matt Bevin to assure him the same thing wouldn’t happen to him in two weeks, when Kentucky Republicans will finally choose between Bevin and their 30-year incumbent,…
State of the U.N.I.O.N.
Having released a series of guerilla/mixtape-style albums in recent years, Truth B. Told (along with Paris Toon and Mothers Favorite Child) drops his first disc with all-original and sample-free live backing. State shows a more aggressive Truth in its brief playing time, with the back-to-back come-on of “Discovery” and the defense of a significant other’s…
Staffpicks
May 14-18 Festival of Faiths Actors Theatre of Louisville 316 W. Main St. festivaloffaiths.org $15-$20 ($150 week pass); various times Every year, the Center for Interfaith Relations brings together different faiths for a unified conversation about the role of faith in society through common action. For this 19th year, the weeklong festival includes daily guided…
Why I don’t celebrate Mother’s Day
When my son was born, I felt strange — not in love, not overjoyed. I was tired, doped up and empty where he once was growing. I waited to be overwhelmed with maternal feelings that were Disney magic, but that never happened. I’m still waiting. That doesn’t mean I don’t love him or that I…
Comedy: That metal guy — Jim Florentine
Jim Florentine and Brad Thacker are comedy BFFs, the kind of friends who sit on the same side of the booth at Waffle House, feeding food into each other’s mouths. “It’s a romantic setting,” says Florentine, while on the line with Thacker and LEO. “If we were in an Applebee’s, we’d sit across from each…
The Primary Pursuit
Metro Council District 1 Democrat Attica Scott vs. Jessica Green When the late Councilwoman Judy Green was kicked out of office by her fellow Council members in 2011, Attica Scott was appointed to her seat and won the election the following year. Now Scott faces the daughter of the woman she replaced, Jessica Green. During…
Take Me To Your Leader
The battle between Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes to show voters whose unconditional love for the coal industry is the strongest is getting more and more ridiculous by the minute. Two weeks ago, the Kentucky Coal Association warned that any U.S. Senate candidate who accepts a contribution from Tom Steyer or his NextGen Climate…
Inbox — May 14, 2014
Saluting Segrest I’ve read a few stories recently about the death of Louisville preservationist Jim Segrest, but nothing about his life as well written as the article by your columnist Steve Shaw (LEO Weekly, May 7). Louisville only has a few true, real characters left, and Jim was one of them. I met him first…
BBoP
Black Birds of Paradise arrive fully formed on their debut, merging elements of jazz fusion, surf rock and pastoral folk under the banner of prog-leaning psych rock. This must be the work of music school geeks gone rogue — you won’t hear such expert chord changes out of any local peers, and they set themselves…
The VA needs an enema
When VA Secretary Eric Shinseki testifies tomorrow amid a congressional probe to determine whether an allegedly concealed backlog contributed to the deaths of as many as 40 U.S. military veterans, patients awaiting health care in Phoenix, Louisvillians will be watching. The embattled four-star general faces another scandal here amid a separate investigation of a costly,…
Advice: Savage Love
Q: I’m a 21-year-old straight male, and I’m mildly autistic. This means I have difficulty picking up on social cues. I’ve learned to manage my disability in most areas of my life, but I’ve recently become concerned about how it pertains to hooking up. My approach to hooking up is how I imagine most other…
Art: Patrick Smith’s wild life
“Too Wild for Mass Consumption” — that’s what Lexington artist Patrick Smith posted on his Tumblr last December as he worked on the series of paintings opening this week at Swanson Contemporary. Smith’s subject matter is mainly his peers, a sometimes-troubled gang of bohemian Southerners who celebrate what he calls “a really eccentric sex life…
The Tina Bunch
When longtime 9th District Councilwoman Tina Ward-Pugh announced she was not running for re-election this year, she said she wanted to step aside for new faces and new voices to rise up and be heard. That call has been answered … and then some. A total of 13 Democrats are running to take over the…
Plugged In
Readers are strongly encouraged to call ahead to verify these listings. To get your musical act listed, send email to pberkowitz@leoweekly.com with PLUGGED IN in the subject line. The deadline is FRIDAY at NOON the week before the show happens. We do not accept listings via social networking sites. Wed MAY 14 Baxter’s 942:…
The other Senate candidate
Quite a few Democrats in Kentucky have expressed frustration that their presumed nominee for U.S. Senate, Alison Lundergan Grimes, has been reluctant to give details on many of her policy positions. Greg Leichty, a communications professor at U of L for the last 23 years, wants their vote. Leichty, running for Senate on a sub-shoestring…
Art: Death is not the end
When his two ex-lovers died of AIDS within two months of each other more than two decades ago, Dudley Saunders had a strange realization: Nobody who remembered them together was still alive. The memory of their time together now existed only in his mind — and in the objects they left behind. From then on,…
Taste Bud: The happiest of hours
Usually the term “happy hour” refers to a time of day when drinks are cheaper. Sometimes that means cheap pitchers of beer or nicely priced well drinks. Atypical Man Barbecue’s happy hour has your $2 domestic bottles and $2.50 craft bottles, but this St. Matthews (119 St. Matthews Ave., atypicalbbq.com) barbecue joint makes it all…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: POMPEII 2014; $19.98-$30.98; PG-13 There’s an old adage in Hollywood about the career-ending curse of working “with animals or kids,” to which some have added, “or in sword and sandals.” Kit Harrington from “Game of Thrones” challenges that belief and drags Emily Browning — who has made some out-there career choices…
Theater: Hot body snatchers
‘Devil Boys From Beyond’ A Pandora Productions play. Written by Buddy Thomas and Kenneth Elliot. Directed by Lucas Adams. Continues through May 18 at the Henry Clay Theatre, 604 S. Third St. For tickets and info, go to pandoraprods.org. The swamp town of Lizard Lick, Fla., is sweaty, old and ugly, and so are the…
School’s out for Spanish Gold
Some music was just meant for the summer, and Spanish Gold’s first album, South of Nowhere, is being released on May 27 precisely because it sounds like summer. The following night will find the band (whose drummer is from Louisville, though his two bandmates are both Texans) headlining WFPK’s Waterfront Wednesday concert series, spinning ’70s…
Their Shawnee, their stories
I live in a neighborhood where it’s normal to have cracks in the sidewalk, on the side of your house, in the windshield of your car — cracks that show something has been through hell, but they are seen as warrior scars and not a disgrace. These are the words of a voice we don’t…
The Waves
Most of the problems with The Waves’ debut record emanate from one source: the faux-Brit affectation. Sure, it’s easy enough to look past —especially when the band locks into a tight groove, as on the garage-rock stomper “Can’t Help Myself” — but what it implies is more troublesome. This is perfectly competent, psych-tinged pop/rock, but…
B-sides
Beauty and the beast Harlan native Chervon Koeune, who performs as vocalist and sound stylist Cher Von, has had a busy 2014 — playing and organizing shows, and releasing a new EP, Klik. Klak. Why so busy? “Making up for lost time!” she says. “I felt so creatively stagnant for years, and now there is…
Gonzo
Dare I call this toned-down Foxy? Impossible. The Cincinnati band is back to DIY life, albeit with Steve Albini behind the boards, and while the glam-rock shine is a bit more muted this time, all the bombast of previous records is still accounted for. Recording together live in the same room adds a texture that…
The ’ritas are the wildest thing at Wild Rita’s
So, just how wild are the ’ritas at Wild Rita’s? Well, this new spot just east of downtown, within the noise penumbra and particulates shadow of the Great Bridge Boondoggle, offers 10, count ’em 10, variations on the margarita, not to mention tequila cocktails, tequila tastings and nearly 100 fine tequilas by the bottle or…
Guest Commentary
The first time I heard about Louisville and Kentucky happened when I was reading “The Kentucky Derby is Depraved and Decadent” by the creator of Gonzo journalism, Hunter S. Thompson. I was finishing a master’s degree in social communication in Brazil, where I’m from, and was reading “The Great Shark Hunt.” Thompson changed my conception…
