Thursday, May 1
ESPN’s Kenny Mayne
Would an ordinary booksigning be appropriate for Derby Week? Of course not. Carmichael’s is hosting ESPN horse-racing commentator and sarcastic wit Kenny Mayne, who’s in town because covering Derby and promoting his new hardcover “An Incomplete and Inaccurate History of Sport” kills two birds with one stone. Come to think of it, the book does have a section on rock-throwing, so maybe those birds should really watch out. The book is encyclopedic in name only — football and horse racing latch onto Mayne’s peculiar mind so often that those two sports crowd out a lot of possible topics — just the sort of snub that sports fans like to argue over. This “History” is leavened with illustrations that Mayne completed by recruiting his daughters for some dubious re-enactments. Perhaps the most interesting content on the pages is when Mayne takes himself on with out-of-nowhere reflective moments that help make this book a singular experience. But his live presentation might just outshine what he produces at the keyboard. This event is free, but it does require a ticket — go in advance to a Carmichael’s to make sure you can get in. —T.E. Lyons
Carmichael’s
2720 Frankfort Ave.
896-6950
Free; 7 p.m.
May 1-4
Camelcade of Comedy
Derby brings thousands of visitors from around the world to our humble little town, and the talent pool of not only horses but of people is outstanding. The Comedy Caravan taps into the comedy talent by bringing them all to the club Thursday through Sunday night. If you’ve hung out in a comedy club in New York, you know how this works. The club opens, and you don’t know who will be on stage what night, time or in what order. Comics who have appeared on “The Tonight Show,” HBO, Def Jam, Late Night, Comedy Central ... word count limit stops the list here. Any night at any time is a different show — a guaranteed win. (Start the week as Caravan hosts an “Artists for Obama” fundraiser April 30.) —Jason Sitzes
Comedy Caravan
1250 Bardstown Road
459-0022
www.comedycaravan.com
$8-$12; various times
Saturday, May 3
Derby? What Derby?
Apparently, not everything revolves around horse-watching this week. We found Saturday’s In-Shape Walk at the Falls of the Ohio worthy of our attention because: A) This being THE weekend of excess in Louisville, it’s great to see an organization so concerned with our health; and B) We appreciate folks who go balls-out and dare to plan an event on Derby Day. For those who actually get some sleep Oaks night, the In-Shape Walk takes you on a three-mile journey around the George Rogers Clark Homesite and beyond. And you get a free T-shirt. —Sara Havens
Falls of the Ohio State Park
201 W. Riverside Drive, Clarksville
(812) 280-8689
Free; 10 a.m.
May 3-10
Free Comic Book Week
If your coworkers think you’re a freak because you’re 38 and still insist on spending your entire lunch break debating which comic books are worth more, then it’s safe to assume that the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby won’t be your top priority Saturday. Instead of anticipating the greatest two minutes in sports, you’ll be shuffling through some of the 2 million free comic books being offered worldwide on Free Comic Book Day. What makes the deal so much sweeter is the fact that Louisville’s own The Great Escape is making the event seven times longer in celebration of the event’s seventh year. Let the browsing begin. —Maurice Williams
The Great Escape
2433 Bardstown Road
456-2216
www.freecomicbookday.com
Tuesday, May 6
Coyote’s sees Red
If newer hard rock is your thing, Red, a signee to Epic Records’ boutique label Essential, might be up your alley. They open for Seether and Flyleaf at Coyote’s at City Block Tuesday night.
Touring is always a blast for Red, guitarist and engineer Jasen Rauch says, but one particular jaunt had the group’s drummer looking for a change of clothes. During a two-day drive out to Salt Lake City, two holes formed in the exhaust line of the group’s tour bus, causing soot and ash to seep into the cabin where they were sleeping.
“We stopped at a truck stop — there was a little mechanic shop there. We go inside, and Hayden, who’s been with us for two hours, faints and knocks over all this stuff. That’s something we’ll never let him live down.”
Red’s album, End of Silence, was nominated for a Grammy and, with a deluxe edition release now out, will no doubt be on sale at this concert. —Mat Herron
Coyote’s @ City Block
133 W. Liberty St.
589-FUNN
www.cityblocklouisville.com
$30-$33; 7 p.m.
Wednesday, May 7
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello, bless his still-a-skinny-punk-at-heart soul, was threatening to keep his new album Momofuku off CDs, but recently relented. If your old turntable wasn’t relegated to the attic or a neighboring landfill, you could’ve had the new tracks one week earlier than the rest of us — but by the time he hits stage at The Palace, the media mainstream can join us all in trying to figure out the latest from music’s best modern combination chameleon-curmudgeon. He’s still recording for Lost Highway, so his primary projects continue to have a touch of alt-country, and that’ll probably be the main direction of his set with band The Imposters. —T.E. Lyons
Louisville Palace
625 S. Fourth St.
583-4555
$44.50; 8 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7
Scream Club
If the legends are true, you ain’t never heard nothing like Scream Club. Hailing from Olympia, Wash., Cindy Wonderful and Sarah Adorable are two Caucasian rapper chicks who combine a neo-1980s punk/new wave aesthetic with hip hop and pop to create a sound and a show that some say is incomparable. (One music writer listed potential influences that included the Beastie Boys and Yoko Ono.) The self-proclaimed gaysymmetrical superduo’s songs are about topics as diverse as heartbreak, frustration, love, politics, drunk-dialing and girl gangs, and they’ve performed all over the world, from Amsterdam to Austin. Their first album was titled Don’t Bite Your Sister. Seriously. And now they’re coming to Derby City Espresso. Get there early, and fasten your seatbelt. —Kevin Gibson
Derby City Espresso
331 E. Market St.
442-0523
$5; 8 p.m.
Wednesday, May 7
Art Business Mentor — The Radio Show
Imagine an art-school chick hooking up with a business-school nerd, and you get the inspiration behind the ideas of artist/educator Gary Crook. He decided a while back that just learning how to paint or sculpt wasn’t enough. Artists need to know how to manage the business end of art, something most people learn by trial and error. So the Art Business Mentor program was born.
After its birth, it soon cloned itself into a website, book and now a radio show. Crook is producing, directing and hosting the local weekly show on Wednesday nights, with the first broadcast airing on May 7.
“The primary purpose of ‘Art Business Mentor — The Radio Show’ is to help other artists help themselves in their individual arts practices,” Crook says. “Also, our secondary goal is to highlight the use of creative business strategies designed to help artists through the rough spots.” Topics range from taxes, using the Internet to promote the visual arts and investing. If you miss the air date, check out the website for pre-recorded episodes. —Jo Anne Triplett
1080-AM WKJK
479-2222
www.artbusinessmentor.com
Wednesdays, 7-7:30 p.m.
Through May 10
‘RE:ACTION’
Husband and wife Aron Conaway and Hallie Jones have been collaborators for many years, especially on the continued existence of the LAVA House artist colony. Yet “RE:ACTION, a post-medial art exhibition” is their first two-person exhibit. It couldn’t have come at a better time, as the show became a form of art therapy for them.
The loss of the LAVA House to fire on Jan. 26 left a big empty hole in their lives. Of the 19 pieces in the show, 16 were created after the fire. “We had the show scheduled before the fire happened,” Jones explains, “and thought about canceling it because all our works in progress and finished works burnt up. Then, we made the decision to create new work to help us sort of work through the LAVA House tragedy and all the loss we have experienced.”
The show will be on view during the May 2 First Friday Gallery Trolley Hop. —Jo Anne Triplett
Swanson Reed Contemporary
638 E. Market St.
589-5466
