Summer Fun Guide: Theater camp  planting seeds to grow future audiences, artists and civic participation
When I was a schoolgirl at Mt. Tabor Elementary in New Albany back in the 1960s, I looked forward every Christmas to a visit from a local teenage theater group. I can almost hear them singing now as they paraded into the auditorium in medieval costumes, “Christmas is coming. The goose is getting fat. Please…
Summer Music: Belle of Louisville becomes party central
She’s a hulk of a thing, The Belle of Louisville.Built in 1914, the oldest operating steam-driven paddlewheeler of her kind in the country adds a historical charm to the city’s waterfront, much more so than, say, that hot pink abomination of a club called Splash that once graced the shore. The Belle will celebrate her…
Summer Fun Guide Listings
Summer Fun Guide Listings LEO’s got more than 100 opportunities here for you to get out and about this summer. No excuses — “American Idol” is over. But Sanjaya is forever. Get fresh Farmers’ markets For more info on area farmers’ markets, go to www.kyagr.com (Kentucky Department of Agriculture) or www.localharvest.org. LOUISVILLE Bardstown…
Summer Fun Guide: Miles to go before we eat Food miles, that is
How many miles did your dinner travel from the field to your plate? This seemingly innocuous query may seem like a silly question. But the idea of “food miles” has become a hot topic — and a serious one — among the growing cadre of environmentally sensitive food lovers who spend time thinking about where…
Summer Fun Guide: Happy Camping – Rediscovering our inner and outer selves in the outdoors
Did you have a summer camp experience when you were a young ’un? Did you come away with social skills? Physical fitness? A religious or spiritual awakening? Or perhaps just mosquito bites and melancholy? Can you hum any part of “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah,” Allan Sherman’s famous letter-to-home novelty hit from, uh, 1963? If so,…
Summer Fun Guide: Fans’ best friend – Jake the Diamond Dog is a longtime Slugger Field favorite
From cow-milking contests to cap days, baseball fans have always gotten more at the ballpark than just the game. And nowhere are game-day promotions a bigger part of the baseball experience than at Louisville Slugger Field, where the Louisville Bats have enjoyed unbridled success as one of the top-drawing clubs in all of minor league…
Summer Fun Guide: Destinations
Dinosaur World 711 Mammoth Cave Road, Cave City, Ky., (270) 773-4345 This attraction consists of a large wooded area in which someone has placed dinosaur statues of various sizes. And that’s it. They don’t talk. They don’t move. They don’t light up or explode. Lasers don’t project futuristic light shows on their abdomens. And…
Let it be … summer
LEO’s 2007 Summer Fun Guide is about combining bold exploration and play — be it camping outdoors, letting loose on a theater stage, kicking back at Slugger Field for the trimmings, rolling on the river or taking side trips off Kentucky’s byways. But to gain the freedom to truly explore and play, one must first…
Rumor & Innuendo
The Reggie Report. The name of preternaturally lovely — and talented — Reggie Theus keeps bobbing up in discussions about the next coach for Cisco Garcia’s Sacramento Kings. He’s a legacy, having starred for the franchise when it was still located in the heartland. My source says the Maloofs will pull the rug from underneath…
City Strobe
Arena alarm bells getting louderThe proposed new arena’s security alarm system has been set off. Can’t you hear it? It’s driving me crazy. I sure hope our Mayor for Life or the Metro Council turns it off so we can all sit back and quietly take stock of where we are and what we have…
The Rapper goes to Iraq?
Below find a letter to Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense Dear Secretary Gates:At threshold, let me make it perfectly clear: I oppose the Iraq war. But I continue to support the troops. My college deferment and high draft number kept me out of the service. As a scientist of politics, I read the Constitution as…
So we’re degrading the environment. Now what?
I’ve had a slight green tint for some time, and I’m not talking about the aftermath of bad tacos or being partly Irish. Like many, I’ve recycled papers and cans, refrained from littering and generally sided with political positions that are Earth-friendly. It’s been effortless and sensible to be greenish. But in the last several…
REPRESENTIN’: A COLUMN ABOUT THE METRO COUNCIL BY STEPHEN GEORGE
Changing of the lightsThere is no hum of advanced computer gear in the small, cooled office that houses — in an armoire no bigger than what you might find in your grandparents’ living room — the racks of equipment responsible for the timing, operation and remote maintenance of every traffic light in the urban services…
Form follows function: We can create a Metro Ethics Commission with teeth. Here’s how
An army of clipboard-wielding signature-gatherers deployed last week to pull support for a clever new financing scheme to fund the expansion and renovation of the Louisville Free Public Library system: three new regional libraries, two new smaller ones, and 13 branches to be renovated or expanded. The current LFPL budget, provided by Metro government, won’t…
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. …
Bluegrass Beacon: Endorse liberty, Cast a vote
My libertarian buddy surprised me by blurting out that the whole “you-need-to-vote” mantra reminds him of sociology class in college in which “the Marxist professor” bragged about how everybody turned out to vote in countries that ordered it while complaining about how few go to the polls in America. “I think it’s great that we…
‘The Fantasticks’ deserves to run and run
“The Fantasticks” is the most-seen play of the 20th century. It remains the longest running off-Broadway production of all time, with an uninterrupted run of 17,162 performances from 1960 to 2002. So, is there any reason on Earth to resurrect this time-worn musical icon yet again? The answer: yes. The As Yet Unnamed Theatre Company…
Staffpicks
May 24-27 Beach Volleyball Tour Men’s and women’s professional beach volleyball teams battle it out this week in Louisville, the sixth stop of the Association of Volleyball Professionals tour. Competing stars include Kerri Walsh, Stein Metzger, Misty May-Treanor and Karch Kiraly. This is Kiraly’s last tour; the three-time Olympic gold medalist retires at the…
Here is now, new Spark, Piece of mind, Sinners like him
Noah Hewett-Ball admits his tendency to give two answers for every question, but as singer, guitarist, keyboardist and principal songwriter of Cabin, his plate’s full, so some ambivalence and freneticism are to be expected. In four years, Cabin has released an elaborate full-length, 2005’s Govern the Good Life, lost three original members, found three new…
CD Reviews!!!
Sky Blue SkyWilco(NONESUCH) Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy never really relinquished the role of passionate music fan when he achieved rock-star status himself. Perhaps this explains why his band consistently makes such interesting records that speak to so many people. Their sixth studio set (not counting their acclaimed work with Billy Bragg) is no exception. Having…
!!! likes to dance-dance-dance; Rice takes on the night
Show by show, !!! (pronounced Chk-Chk-Chk or any three consecutive sounds/words) is writing its own version of “Around the World in 80 Days.” Brooklyn’s eight-piece, dance-punk amalgam is in the midst of a world tour that started back in February, with no signs of stopping soon. “Looking back now, it’s been a wild journey,” singer…
Sweet 16: For Reggae Fest, it’s steady as she goes
Reggae Fest is 16 now — old enough to notice the opposite sex, get a driver’s permit, obsess over college applications and slather on the zit cream. But none of that’s gonna happen. This festival is about rocking, and rocking steady. The annual two-day event, presented over Memorial Day weekend by Bisig Impact Group, hasn’t…
Film Review – ‘Improbable Collapse: The Demolition of Our Republic’
New doc unearths ‘truth’ behind 9/11 WTC conspiracies EDITOR’S NOTE: LEO in no way endorses the views expressed herein with regard to 9/11 conspiracies. Much has been written on both sides of this issue; the newspaper believes it is important to present a variety of views. We encourage readers to read extensively on this topic.…
Video Tapeworm: Releases through Tuesday, May 29
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: ONE PUNK UNDER GOD 2007; DVD $26.95, UR If you missed this savage, righteous six-part series on the Sundance Channel, here’s your chance for redemption. It seems that the son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the televangelists/con-artists whose empire collapsed amid sin and corruption, has his own ideas how to…
Film Review – Shrek the Third
“Shrek the Third” covers familiar ground, but with an inventive spirit that helps this second-generation piece of Xerox go down rather easily. Still, the series’ once-fresh premise now reeks of Hollywood-formula mildew. By nature, sequels are risk-averse and tend to hold firm to key elements that created success in the first place. And…
Film Review – Hurricane On The Bayou
This is a lobbed softball compared with Spike Lee’s hard-hitting “When the Levees Broke,” but a worthy film nonetheless, if for no other reason than the fantastic underwater footage. As told through the eyes of Amanda Shaw and Tab Benoit, both established players in NOLA, the story of Katrina’s wrath becomes more personal but never…
Hey mambo, mangia Italiano!
If you’ve been around the Louisville dining scene long enough to remember back when the old landmark Casa Grisanti was still a pizzeria, you know that long before there was trendy “Northern Italian” we had spaghetti with meatballs and plenty of spicy red tomato sauce. Extra credit for red-checked tablecloths, plastic grapevines and wicker-wrapped Chianti…
The Bar Belle: Drinking makes you phat
Diets and drinking do not mix. Let me rephrase this … Slim Fast and gin do not mix. I’ve been able to successfully hide my bulges throughout the winter — tucking them out of view with sweaters, coats and full-body girdles. But as the temperature increases, naturally the amount of clothing you don decreases. It’s…
Aftertastes
Joe’s OK Bayou, 4308 Charlestown Rd., New Albany, Ind., (812) 948-2080, www.joesokbayou.com. This newest location turns a bland shopping-center space into a replica of a Cajun-country saloon. The large menu includes a variety of appetizers (including fried gator tail and fresh flown-in Gulf oysters), salads, sandwiches and a bewildering variety of main dishes. (Reviewed: 2/14;…
New dance works will push Empujón further into public eye
Large red rubber balls — the kind that can produce pain during a feisty game of dodge ball — ricochet sporadically off the walls in a sunlit room upstairs in the Clifton Center. Phrases of Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 in D major (also known as the London Symphony) frequently sound from a boom box on…
CD Review – Kate Voegele
Don’t Look AwayKate Voegele(MYSPACE RECORDS) MySpace, the social networking beast, has become a necessary avenue bands use to market themselves. It’s free. It’s easy, and depending on whom you ask, it’s effective. The company’s record label division, on the other hand, falls down on the job, thanks to Kate Voegele, a 20-year-old student at…
