Cover Story
Against all odds
Ken Pyle sits on the front porch of his two-story home in downtown New Albany, sipping fizzy yellow beer from a milk glass and sporting a black T-shirt that reads, “Be Joyful and Peaceful.” A question has just been asked of Ken and his wife Sheila: “How has The Rudyard Kipling survived for 25 years?”…
Chris Thieneman: The full interview
If the term maverick hadn’t been run into the dirt, it would certainly be a useful moniker for mayoral candidate Chris Thieneman. The Louisville developer has a reputation for speaking out against public officials, as well as an independent streak that any GOP candidate will need to have even a remote chance at victory in…
Shine Your Light On Me
While these local country bluesmen might have the swagger of a confident bar band, on record any kind of substance might still be far away. Wearing their influences on their sleeves with song titles like “Down to the River” (almost Neil Young) and “Shine Your Light on Me” (almost Stones), these guys pound out dirty…
Goodnight Unknown
Lou Barlow has grown older with a grace few ’90s stalwarts have, and on Goodnight Unknown, he shows his knack for songwriting. “One Note Tone,” with its stunning lyrics, is a fascinating song about the inherent disconnect between what we do and how we’ll be remembered for doing it. Barlow reiterates why he’s an indie-rock statesman…
Sea farers
You don’t live that far away. Really, you don’t. Far away is St. John’s, a city of 250,000 people in Newfoundland, Canada, an island sectioned off from North America both geographically and, in a sense, culturally. If you grow up there, as Great Big Sea lead singer Alan Doyle did, you learn fishing, seafaring and…
Book: A conversation with Jane Smiley
I read the novella “The Age of Grief” more than 10 years ago, before it became the movie “The Secret Lives of Dentists.” I’ve owned six copies since then; none of the people to whom I’ve lent a copy has returned it. Jane Smiley won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for her novel “A Thousand…
The art of peddling
For the past 10 years, Greg Handy has leased a commercial property his family owns in Old Louisville to local artists who either don’t make the cut for the St. James Court Art Show, or are unwilling to pay the exorbitant cost to rent a booth. The property — a former gas station — includes…
There’s no tomorrow
In the great film “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character, a robot, suggests that humanity’s chances of survival aren’t very good. Specifically, he says, “It is in your nature to destroy yourselves.” That’s right, kids, it’s time to consider one of my favorite topics of party conversation: self-destruction. Leaping past the merely unhealthy, let’s…
Art: Negotiating grass
The first thing you notice about “Nineveh,” Ezra Kellerman’s site-specific installation at the Cressman Center, is the way it transforms the gallery. Upon opening the doors, a bright gust of delicious grass-infused air greets you. Beyond the doors, a sea of floating grass-covered islands invites you to explore. A child could run clear beneath them;…
Jerry’s kids
If the term maverick hadn’t been run into the dirt, it would certainly be a useful moniker for mayoral candidate Chris Thieneman. The Louisville developer has a reputation for speaking out against public officials, as well as an independent streak that any GOP candidate will need to have even a remote chance at victory in…
From prison to the voting booth
It’s a cool, overcast afternoon in the Smoketown neighborhood, and in the parking lot of the Presbyterian Community Center a crowd is gathering; about 30 volunteers, many of them young and clad in their respective organizations’ T-shirts, are setting up tables, chairs, informational brochures and paper plates. Hip-hop music blasts from a set of twin…
Comedy: Dave Attell — On the wagon yet still on the edge
Dave Attell is hard to like but easy enjoy. His brash, lecherous sense of humor has made him one of the most respected comedians of his generation. He came to fame as host of the Comedy Central cult-classic “Insomniac” — a show where, each week, he would shine a light on the seedy underworld of…
Video TapeWorm
THIS WEEK’S TWIN PEEKS: ALLY MCBEAL: THE COMPLETE SERIES 1997; $199.95, UR Has it really been over a decade since skinny, mini-skirted Calista Flockhart redefined the term “legal briefs”? (And if you back the calendar up another decade from there, you’ll find Calista fresh out of college and doing Louisville regional theater for $50 a…
Inbox — Sept. 30, 2009
Category Corral Thanks for the fun Readers’ Choice issue (LEO Weekly, Sept. 23) — always interesting what names will surface to the top (and, yeah, some of those that did are head-scratching … as if Golden Corral could be the best of anything). Loved the people comments, too. Found myself reading those as much as…
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 30 Expo…
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. (859) 309-2901 Angel’s Rock Bar ?4328 S. Fourth St. 540-1461 Babolooz ?7302 Grade Lane 361-3301 Backstage Café? 109 N. Mulberry St. Elizabethtown?(270) 234-1686…
Locavore Lore: Sweet potatoes can kindle your courage
Quieting crickets, shorter days, red-tailed hawks swooping through the skies — the clear, startling beauty of autumn is in the air. As if rainbow-colored trees, cooling temperatures and blossoming apples weren’t enough, it’s also time for one of the best holidays of the year: Michaelmas, the harbinger of the fall season. Honoring the Archangel Michael,…
For the sake of argument
Recently, in one of my writing classes, I was discussing the concepts of pathos, logos and ethos — the scaffolding of a persuasive argument. We were talking about the art of persuasion, and specifically how to turn a polite discussion into a heated debate … and win. We were also talking about the concept of…
Fool’s Gold
A typical Fool’s Gold song establishes a melodic figure and then tortures it for up to five minutes, creating a sound as dense and enormous as the 12-piece ensemble itself. Sometimes this works splendidly. “Night Dancing” builds to an almost unbearable frenzy that’s seemingly all climax; elsewhere, the effect is numbing. The weaker melodies of…
Theater: Pandora opens season with cult hit Rocky Horror
(Pandora Productions presents “The Rocky Horror Show,” directed by Michael J. Drury. Continues through Oct. 4 at the Bunbury Theatre in the Henry Clay Building, 604 S. Third St. For tickets and more info, call 216-5502 or visit www.PandoraProds.org.) Pandora Productions kicks off its fifth season with “The Rocky Horror Show,” a musical that…
Live long and prosper
Attention people of Earth. This is Capt. James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. Many of you are undoubtedly familiar with my work exploring strange new worlds, yadda yadda. To be clear, this is neither William Shatner the actor nor any of the later roles he played: not T.J. Hooker, not Denny Crane, not the…
Mug Shots: If you tap it, they will drink
In the spring of 2006, my pal Graham and I embarked on an old-fashioned Great American Road Trip. In addition to a few changes of clothes, the trunk of his late-model Crown Vic was packed with barter ballast: two pony kegs of NABC beer, a 5-pound CO2 tank and tap, and two cases of empty…
Let’s Go to Baba’s
Let’s Go to Baba’s is the soaring second album from Chicago (by way of Louisville) collective Mittens on Strings. And this might be one of the most original records to come down the pipeline this year. Production is lavish, arrangements layered, with angelic, tight harmonies. There’s an alluring recklessness here — not so much machismo…
Art: Young gallery struggles to save dying art
During the golden age of mix tapes in the ’80s, when they freely roamed the Earth uncontested, it was hard to imagine a time when they wouldn’t exist in plentitude. Yet, somehow, despite the fact that they once existed in abundance, in the last decade they’ve practically gone the way of the dodo. But thanks…
