Cover Stories
Bourbon tales debunked: The truth behind seven bourbon myths
New bourbon distilleries seem to be opening almost every week. Bourbon lists are expanding exponentially in bars and restaurants. And some 6.5 million barrels of bourbon are aging in warehouses across the Commonwealth, which adds up to about a barrel and a half per Kentuckian. In short, we are in the midst of a bourbon…
Kentucky’s Civil War, civil rights streets
The deadly, white nationalist clash in Charlottesville reignited a national conversation about confederate monuments and who and what gets memorialized, a particularly thorny subject in the South. But beyond statues and monuments, what about the tributes to historical figures we interact with everyday — in parks we play in, schools we attend, streets we drive…
10 things to do under $5 this week in Louisville (9/11)
MONDAY Political Prisoner Letter Writing Night McQuixote Books & Coffee Free | 6-9 p.m. Louisville Books to Prisoners, a group that provides resources to the incarcerated while raising consciousness about the prison industrial complex, is hosting a letter-writing party. Attendees will write birthday letters to prisoners. LBP hopes these letters will show “love and acknowledgement…
Read residents’ comments on controversial public art
Reacting to violence in Charlottesville over a statue there, the city of Louisville is reviewing its public art to determine which can be interpreted as “honoring bigotry, racism and/or slavery.” As part of that review, the city has been collecting comments from residents.The city is also holding a series of public forums, the first of which was Wednesday.…
5 Things To Do This Weekend in Louisville (9/8)
FRIDAY Coat Check Pool Party Season Finale Turners Club Pool $12 | 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Coat Check Pool Party is throwing the finale to its third season of strange pool parties where you can “wear a tie, wear a coat, wear a wetsuit, wear whatever the hell you want.” Live music will be provided by…
LEO Podcast #53: Big Four Bridge Arts Festival
LEO’s contributing arts editor Jo Anne Triplett talks with Jael Harrington and Sean Harrington about the inaugural Big Four Bridge Arts Festival in Waterfront Park on Sept. 9-10. Listen below, and to receive every future LEO Podcast, subscribe through iTunes.
Slavery in American whiskey
How important were slaves to American whiskey? Last year, Louisville-based Brown-Forman told the New York Times that slave Nearis Green actually taught the Jack Daniel how to distill. I was quoted in this story and would like to elaborate about the enslaved people’s contributions to American whiskey. At slave auctions, sales representatives would notate distiller-trained…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best & Most Absurd
Weaponizing your tax dollar | Thorn “This has caused heartburn for Bevin.” That is just one email released in a lawsuit over whether Gov. Matt “Oblivious” Bevin’s administration is unlawfully closing abortion clinics. Planned Parenthood says Bevin threatened to block millions of dollars from UofL Hospital if it signed a transfer agreement with the abortion…
Sheer Mag’s blistering rock ‘n’ roll deserves the hype
The music industry has changed. Bands lean heavier on the road as a source of income as streaming has complicated sales. Music journalism has changed. National publications don’t have the resources or desire to cover scenes like they used to, banking mostly on vapid news and quick-hit MP3 regurgitations in the age of instant information…
Jon Wurster talks about The Mountain Goats’ new record, ‘Goths’
The Mountain Goats, a diverse, poignant indie band, have been a prolific force since the mid-‘90s. Before the band’s show at Headliners, we spoke with drummer Jon Wurster — also known for his time in Superchunk, and as a comedian, most notably on the radio show Scharpling & Wurster. LEO: You’ve been playing with the…
Sonic Breakdown: Quiet Hollers — “Medicine”
[Editor’s Note: Sonic Breakdown is LEO’s new music column that deconstructs a single song from a Louisville band.] “Medicine,” is a smooth, mid-tempo track with the sort of haunting groove that will stick with you long after the song fades out. Written by frontman Shadwick Wilde, the song is about how depression and anxiety have…
‘Angels in America,’ ‘Hir’ — Pulitzer-level drama
In 1996, when Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Angels In America” premiered in Louisville in a PNC Bank Broadway Series touring production at what was then the Macauley Theatre (now the Brown), the advance press focused more on the play’s “controversial,” “frank and graphic” content than on the virtues of the play itself. Alas, what…
Comic Book Reviews: ‘Calexit’ and ‘Crown of Atlantis’
‘Calexit’ No. 1 (Black Mask Studios) Writer Matteo Pizzolo | Artist Amancay Nahuelpan Reviewed by Kyle Thompson, The Great Escape I had thought about reviewing “Calexit” No. 1 since it came out about a month and a half ago. The book has stayed in the back of my mind. Then, the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia,…
Comedian Alex Stypula: ‘Less bestiality material’
When Alex Stypula performs, no topic seems off limits. His sense of humor is often as dark as it is absurd, tackling taboo topics that include bestiality, suicide, furries and bird vomit. Stypula won the Gilda’s Club of Pittsburgh’s Great Comic Contest, makes regular appearances on the “Drinking Buddies” podcast and cohosts his own true-crime…
Take part in ‘synapse,’ a brainwave experiment
Artist Annie Mitchell of the Oh Wow collective says that all of her art throughout her life has tried to instill some sense of peace, of calmness. When she started, she didn’t know that a lot of her work was similar to what science — brainwave science — would eventually teach us about purposefully putting…
Indian at Himalayan, tacos at Luchador make us happy
I can’t think of a better way to get my attention than to tell me about a new eatery that serves world cuisine. Clue me in, and I’ll be there before you can drop a Salvadorian pupusa. Heck, even another Thai, Korean, Indian or Mexican joint will get my motor running. So when I learned…
Bourbon best bets
It’s the LEO’s Bourbon Issue, when my keyboard-punching brethren and I work to outline and detail all things that pertain to Kentucky’s amber elixir, from history to current happenings to where the delicious deals may be. Since I consider myself a bit of a pro when it comes to traipsing around town and sampling our…
Farewell, Louisville Brewfest… hello, Craft Beer Week
I heard rumors earlier this year that the Louisville Independent Business Alliance might discontinue its long-running Louisville Brewfest, but I chose to wait until I heard something official before I began to mourn. Last week, I heard official word that, indeed, one of the city’s oldest beer festivals is no more. When the festival began…
Savage Love: Stranger Things
Q: I’m a lady considering taking on a foot fetishist as a slave. He would do chores around my house, including cleaning and laundry, and give foot rubs and pedicures in exchange for getting to worship and jack off to my model-perfect feet when I’ve decided he’s earned it. Am I morally obligated to tell…
Compassionate City? Tell the city police that
On a warm Sunday near the end of August, members of Black Lives Matter Louisville and supporters gathered around long tables in a church meeting room. On the agenda: the #Lville2Cville rally and march Aug. 13 — and the actions of Louisville Metro Police. Specifically, they were upset that officers brandished long, wooden batons and…
Still not equal
Women’s Equality Day came and went last week without much fanfare as the nation reels from Charlottesville and Hurricane Harvey. Ivanka Trump had time to share that she supports a rollback of an Obama initiative designed to close the gender pay gap, though, because misogyny and insulation from reality don’t fall far from the tree.…
GOP hates edumacation
As Gov. Matt Bevin and the state legislature get closer to a special session to fix Kentucky’s pension problems, he has been ramping up the political rhetoric to sell what will inevitably be a controversial plan. Bevin’s mean-spirited words should come as no surprise. They are from the Republican playbook, reinforcing contempt that the GOP…
