Cover Story
I reserve the right to be angry
Here’s the thing. I just spent my 49th birthday at a town hall meeting on health care. I say that for no particular reason; it’s not like I deserve any special credit for it, and it’s a pleasant enough way to mark the occasion, if you can stomach a room full of people who, given…
Ideafest 2009: Will Allen
A Google images search for “farmer” yields pictures of white guys in vast fields, or leaning on tractors. To Will Allen, the future of farming looks nothing like that. The founder and chief executive officer of the Wisconsin-based nonprofit Growing Power envisions millions of acres of vacant city lots, yards, parking lots and more, converted…
Ideafest 2009: A.J. Jacobs
If you’re still practicing the ancient custom of reading books with some regularity, then A.J. Jacobs might come across your table. The editor-at-large at Esquire magazine could best be described as a literary stuntman known for committing to an activity for a full year and writing a book, often filled with self-ridicule, about the experience.…
Ideafest 2009: Anthony Bourdain
Upon scoring an interview with Anthony Bourdain in advance of his upcoming trip to Louisville, my mind raced with thoughts of how it would unfold: I’d impress him with knowledge of his work in a well-informed, non-stalker kind of way. Charmed and flattered, he would invite me to show him our best restaurants and watering…
Tonight on CBS: rich man eats bug
Now that Prius is the new Hummer and Qdoba is the new Vincenzo’s and going for a walk is the new seaside vacation, it’s nice to know the economy is stabilizing. According to the White House, the economic stim-pack has saved or created a million jobs and averted a depression, which is sort of like…
Mug Shots: Man behind the Bastard
“Fizzy yellow beer and some of the cheesier contract brews need ad campaigns; the Arrogant Bastard does not.” If you’re a fan of Arrogant Bastard and the many other uncompromising craft beers emanating from Stone Brewing Company, then you’ll want to reserve time Saturday afternoon (Sept. 19) to sample Stone’s locally oriented promotional savvy.…
Film: Asian Film Fest closes with two views of childhood
Two starkly different movies about children are closing out this year’s Asian Film Festival. Korean-American director So Yong Kim’s “Treeless Mountain” is a dark, symbolic film that follows two young girls, 6-year-old Jin and her 4-year-old sister Bin. The movie opens in bustling Seoul, where their troubled mother struggles to keep the family together. It’s…
Shades of service
Morris Bangura fled his home in Sierra Leone when rebel forces ambushed his farming village and killed his parents in 1994. After spending years in a refugee camp, Bangura immigrated to the United States earlier this year, ending up in Louisville with the help of Catholic Charities. Sitting outside a Starbucks, he tells of the…
Inbox — Sept. 16, 2009
To Clarify In the Sept. 9 column Jerry’s Kids, we reported that Metro government spent a total of $32,862.17 on booze. That expenditure reflected the amount the city reimbursed businesses that had overpaid for alcoholic beverage licenses, not an indulgence in the finer flavors of life. Importance of Art In response to the review of…
You know my name (look up the number)
I’d like to open with a joke. You may have heard it before, but like “The Aristocrats,” the humor is all in the telling, and the timing seems right, so bear with me. I don’t know when I heard this joke for the first time, but the most vivid telling I can recall was presented…
Herding the Sheppard
Living in public housing wasn’t something Keishanna Hughes planned, but with four small children and skyrocketing rent there was little choice. She was placed in the city’s largest housing project, Beecher Terrace, a 760-unit complex near downtown. Not long after moving in, however, she was pleading with her landlord to let her break the lease.…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: CARNIVAL OF SOULS 1962; $9.95, UR How does one explain this film? It is badly written, poorly acted, has no blood, violence or special effects to speak of — it doesn’t even have a villain! — yet it may be the most perfect indie horror movie ever made. An amateurish Twilight-Zone-by-high-schoolers…
Ideafest 2009: Leslie Lyons
It is a billboard, a 30-second radio spot, that banner perched atop the home page of a website you hit every morning. It is the iced Starbucks drink that Nancy Botwin’s hand seems to have grown into on “Weeds.” Whatever, advertising is among the most constant — save nourishment — of things all Americans share.…
Jerry’s kids
The last time we interviewed Metro Councilman Jim King, D-10, he was vying for a second term as council president, which would have made him the first council member to serve consecutive terms in the leadership role. Back then he argued it was a “CEO position,” and that he was the best man for the…
Lemonade stand
I’m learning how to make lemonade. Again. A significant amount of lemons have recently fallen into my lap, and I want to find the best way to appreciate their sour before they mold. Growing up, my friend Rachel and I occasionally tried our hand at the lemonade business, but we weren’t very successful. This wasn’t…
IdeaFest 2009: Schedule
Sept. 23-26 www.ideafestival.com Highlights: WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 23 •Festival of the Written Word 9 a.m.-7 p.m. @ Spalding University, Actors Theatre and KMAC Features morning workshops followed by author readings, luncheon and a reception where authors will mingle and do book signings. •IF 2.0 10 a.m.-noon (Sept. 24-26 7:45-8:30 a.m.) @ Kentucky Center Features Nat…
Jim King: The full interview
Metro Councilman Jim King recently sat down with LEO Weekly to discuss his candidacy for mayor. The former council president and CEO of King Southern Bank talked about downtown development, budget shortfalls and the upcoming primary. A portion of that conversation ran in this week’s “Jerry’s kids;” here’s the full interview: LEO: In regards to…
The Windsor is slick, and so are its napkins
“Five-second rule! Five-second rule!” It didn’t matter whether I was decked out in fancy all-weather wool slacks on a Thursday evening or well-worn jeans for a Tuesday lunch: No matter the fabric, no matter how I folded and knotted the thing, the slick, slippery burgundy polyester napkin would not stay on my lap. I must…
Club List
19th Green ?1740 Williamsburg Drive Jeffersonville (812) 284-9088 60 West? 3939 Shelbyville Road?719-9717 930 Listening Room 930 Mary St., 635-2554 Air Devil’s Inn? 2802 Taylorsville Road?454-4092 Al’s Bar ?601 N. Limestone St., Lexington (859) 309-2901 Angel’s Rock Bar ?4328 S. Fourth St. 540-1461 Backstage Café? 109 N. Mulberry St. Elizabethtown?(270) 234-1686 Bearno’s by the Bridge…
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 publication. We do not accept listings via social networking sites. WED Sept 16 Al’s Bar:…
B-Sides: Music & Other Ephemera
Old punkers never die, they just change lineups: Black Flag guitarist and SST Records founder Greg Ginn has a new band, The Texas Corrugators, who are out on the road now. They join Vamp, Jambang and Clark Smithy at Derby City Espresso (331 E. Market St.) Thursday, Sept. 17. You can’t say you’re into punk…
Bats, Family, Monkeys
On the website MimandHoney.com, Fruit Bats singer and Shins guitarist Eric Johnson details an oddly pleasant dream he had full of the kind of surreal journey you might find in Jack Kerouac’s novel “Book of Dreams.” Johnson talks baseball, Seattle and BBC narrator David Attenborough. LEO: What does “in charge” mean in a band versus,…
Singles
If Nick Cave, Rage Against the Machine, Marvin Gaye and Bradley Nowell mixed their genes in a laboratory, Tokyo Sex Destruction might emerge. The nine songs on Singles continue the Destruction’s long-time collaboration with Santi Garcia and include the tour-de-force protest charges, “All people get ready!,” “Revolution” and “Power to the People.” Tunes like the…
Split EP
This muscle relaxer positions two rootsy ensembles together for what appears to be a seamless pairing. Collaborative records are always in danger of sounding lopsided, and it’s apparent here that the best songwriting falls on the side of The Parade Schedule, whose compositions are more focused and developed. “Old Skin” floats over a Simon &…
Gotta Get It EP
A brief EP, an equally brief review: YAWN. Louisville hip-hop proves, again, that it can be as dull and banal as anything else on the radio. Production values are seemingly high, both emcees are agile and ride the beats with skill, but there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done a million times before. Wake me…
Wholeness of the Soul
Scrappy, funky, punky Evergreen find their earliest material redone with bonus live tracks on this compendium. The first half features singles from the long out-of-print Go Cart Ride cassette issued on Self Destruct, and as you can imagine, memories of Cinderblock’s (the band’s first moniker) wild, shameless and dastardly moves come running to the fore…
