Ghost bikes appear
The Clark Memorial Bridge — Second Street Bridge to Louisvillians — is also a thoroughfare for many cyclists in the area who bike to work and ride for exercise. But one white bicycle on the bridge remains unmanned and immobile. This “ghost bike” is a memorial for George “Chips” Cronen, who was killed last summer…
What a Week: The City’s Weekly Zeitgeist Radar
-2 Hillary Clinton’s huge Kentucky win set off a healthy discussion about race in the commonwealth. Twenty-one percent of voters polled said race was an important factor in their vote, and 80 percent of them voted for Clinton. While journalists danced cautiously around the issue of race, Eastern Kentucky voters came right out and said…
Summary of My Discontent: Turn off, tune out
I recently spent 12 spectacular days off the tele-info-tainment-torial grid. My time away included a festive prohibition on TV, radio, newspapers, the web, e-mail, blogs, politics, deodorant, conditioner and sarcasm. It was like dying and going to heaven — with bonus weekend-excursion packages to hell — and I highly recommend it to you. In fact,…
¡Ask a Mexican! Stand proud, not ashamed
Q Dear Mexican: I’m a Mexican-American, but I always lie and tell people my ancestors were from Spain and immigrated to the United States in the 1920s. My whole family says this. We feel embarrassed if we tell people that our heritage is Mexican, because Mexicans in the USA are so dirty, mostly gang bangers,…
Race and the presidential race: Did 20 percent of Kentucky really just say it hates black people?
Results from the Democratic Presidential Primary last week offered little surprise: Sen. Barack Obama won Oregon and Sen. Hillary Clinton won Kentucky. But the national press coverage trumpeted an exit poll that showed 21 percent of Kentucky voters admitted race was an important factor in their decision, leaving behind a lingering, brutal question: What’s the…
Tearin” down the house
It is decidedly awkward to argue against an organization like Wayside Christian Mission. The nonprofit agency tasked with helping the homeless and impecunious does objective good for Louisville, offering as many as 650 men, women and children a warm reprieve every night. Its facilities need an update: Wayside’s three main buildings are mostly sound but…
Gannett Watch
Journalists at The York Press and The Gazette and Herald — both British newspapers that are part of Newsquest, a division of Gannett that includes 17 daily papers and some 8,000 employees — began a five-day walkout last week over decreasing working conditions and pay raises that failed to keep pace with inflation. According to…
The Force of New Green: How cities are turning on to the green-collar economy, and where Louisville sits on the continuum
PHOTOS BY MARTYPEARL.COM Over in Prospect, on Upper River Road where the modest homes still sit on generous plots of land, a Louisville Water Company pumping station is mostly quiet. Stillness reigns out front, and in the back, serenaded by a few birds and the low hum of pumping machinery, two young men and their…
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. Turning…
From the News Desk: “A low trade and a habit worse than heroin”
Just emerging from college and caked in the stupidly resilient optimism of extreme youth, I fully expected five years ago that any of my numerous queries to magazines and alternative newspapers would yield a job offer. I had been an editor at a college newspaper, which I had turned into an antiwar machine during the…
Guest Commentary: King, Obama and Kentucky: It”s all about image
BY RICKY L. JONES ATLANTA, Ga. — Last week, a few important things happened. One, Martin Luther King Jr. was back in the news because of a recent Washington, D.C., statue controversy. Two, Barack Obama moved another step closer to securing the Democratic nomination. Finally, one in five Kentuckians admitted in exit polls that race…
Cable Boxing: “Real World XX” can”t be cured
The Real World XX: The cast of Bunbury’s “Rabbit Hole” includes Neil Brewer, Laura Stuart Obenauf, Carol Tyree Williams, Raquel Robbins Cecil and Ted Lesley. Hollywood Episode 6: “Greg vs. The House” MTV; Wednesdays at 10 p.m., aired May 21. Synopsis: After hearing his roommates do a confessional about him, Greg realizes that he doesn’t like most…
Theater Reviews
Bunbury’s ‘Rabbit Hole’ re-imagines grief and coping (Bunbury Theatre presents David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Rabbit Hole,” directed by Matt Orme. Continues through June 1. Call 585-5306 or visit www.bunburytheatre.org.) Rabbit Hole: The cast of Bunbury’s “Rabbit Hole” includes Neil Brewer, Laura Stuart Obenauf, Carol Tyree Williams, Raquel Robbins Cecil and Ted Lesley. Why is it when people…
Staff Picks for 5-28
Thursday, May 29 Author Dan Mathews Vocal animal activist Dan Mathews makes a stop in Louisville Thursday on his Midwest tour to promote his book “Committed.” Working with PETA since its inception in 1980, Mathews has been an animal rights activist for nearly 30 years and was behind the iconic “I’d Rather Go Naked Than…
After a 9-month hiatus, Bodeco returns
Ricky Feather is discovering the joys and stresses of college late in life, but if he devotes half the energy to the books as he does in Bodeco, he should pass with proverbial flying colors. “I was going to the library a lot about five years ago,” says Feather, who’s now majoring in graphic design.…
Still sweet and dirty, Mudhoney resurfaces
Sweet as honey, dirty as mud. The name just epitomizes grunge, the Seattle sound that captivated the world’s attention in the early ‘90s with its voluminous angst, layers of distortion, mounds of aggression and a good deal of volume… followed by a quiet part, and then yes, more volume. Oh, and flannel. It was the…
B-Sides (Music & Other Ephemera)
4SL goes country The 2008 Miller Lite Hot Country Nights series at Fourth Street Live! runs June 4-Aug. 6. All concerts are free and begin at 7:30 p.m. The lineup includes: Tracy Lawrence Tracy Lawrence keeps his family and friends close. For his single, “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” Lawrence found himself in good…
Music Reviews for 5-28
Lay It Down Al Green (BLUE NOTE) Smooth as molasses, it doesn’t get more charming than the Rev. Al Green. Lay It Down, the latest release from the 62-year-old soul legend, features guest vocals from Anthony Hamilton, Corinne Bailey Rae and John Legend, horns by The Dap-Kings, and strings lushly and wonderfully orchestrated by Larry…
Video Tapeworm: Releases Through June 3
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS DIRTY HARRY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR’S EDITION 1971; $74.95-$129.95, R Do ya feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? Well, you would if you owned one of these terrific boxed sets containing all five Clint Eastwood “Dirty Harry” Callahan films — “Dirty Harry,” “Magnum Force,” “Sudden Impact,” “The Dead Pool” and “The Enforcer” —…
Film Preview: Award-winning doc on same-sex couples has local ties
Eugene Wentworth (left) and Eric Marcoux (right): Wentworth and Marcoux recently posed with the Rev. Michael Mernagh, pastor of Anamchara Catholic Community. To kick off Pride Month this weekend, Anamchara Catholic Community and the Fairness Campaign have joined forces to present a screening of “The Man You Had in Mind,” a documentary about five gay…
LEO Eats: That”s not a gordita. This is a gordita
Las Gorditas: Las Gorditas’ fresh fare includes two tacos, carnitas and lengua, and a gordita. Photo by Robin Garr In Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis of 20 million souls, you’ll find a taco stand on just about every corner. In Louisville, not so much. But the good news, as Louisville’s small but thriving Latino community…
Mug Shots
Catch the buzz Microbrewing means exactly that. It’s about brewing at a smaller scale, and doing so with a sense of eccentric individuality and joyful abandon. Think of it as brewing with a human face. But there’s more than one brew in life, and for me, coffee’s as vital as beer. What’s more, the two…
After Tastes
Taco Bueno, 2909 Highway 62, Jeffersonville, Ind., (812) 284-4073. Buzz has been generating around this new taco stand in Jeffersonville. In a considerable improvement over Taco Bell’s industrial-made salsas in plastic packets, Taco Bueno’s condiments bar offers freshly made salsas, pico de gallo, chopped onions, sliced jalapeños from the jar and fresh lemon wedges. (Reviewed…
Splatters
Creative Diversity Art Center for people with disabilities at 982 Barret Ave. must relocate no later than the end of June. They have been offered another location just down the street. The center’s budget falls short of the necessary income, so it’s holding a campaign to raise money. Visit www.creativediversity.org for more info. The Kentucky…
Into the light
Photograph by Thomas Merton: Photograph by Thomas Merton. Used with permission of the Merton Legacy Trust and the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University “Rocks and Root” by Thomas Merton is part of the “A Hidden Wholeness” exhibit at the Ali Center. He’s not a bad photographer for a monk. Actually, Thomas Merton is a…
