Menu & Hours Gets Big-Time National Attention

The question is... can I sit still long enough to write this post?

I am so dang happy that I am squirming and chair-dancing-- in public! Sorry patrons of Vint on Frankfort.

There's nothing better than when good things happen to good people.

The lovely and talented Michelle Jones of Consuming Louisville, who gives so much so unselfishly to the Louisville community, launched her Menu & Hours app just a wee bit ago and this app is BLOWING UP.

Fast Company, which is quickly becoming my second-favorite magazine after Garden & Gun, just released an article called: "This (Perfect?) App Offers Just the Menu and the Hours."

Mark Wilson writes:

Menu and Hours may be the smartest restaurant app ever created. It’s a directory of over 100 restaurants across Louisville, Kentucky (sorry, nowhere else yet). And rather than giving you tales about slow waiters during bachelorette parties, it offers the two things that matter most about any restaurant: Its menu, and its hours.

Not only are we so wicked happy for Michelle on a personal level but we're also tickled pink and purple that this app makes our foodie city look so damned good! And you know what's awesome? I know for certain that if Michelle suddenly goes all Zuckerberg, she'll still be the nicest woman in town.

Thanks, Michelle!  And good on ya!

Louisville, Not Kentucky-- We have a Podcast, People!

For better part of a year, Linda Golden of LJ Golden-- Just Exploring blog fame-- has been chatting me up about starting a podcast. And for the better part of a year, I've been enthusiastically "HELL YES"-ing her to death.

I love this woman to pieces (and if you keep track of my personal life, I love her so much that, last March, I married her to Awesome Louisvillager, WFPL's Gabe Bullard). And Linda is responsible for some of the best conversations and adventures I have, on a regular basis.

So Linda and I are super happy to announce our new podcast, "Louisville, Not Kentucky"-- episode 1 is now online and is 25 minutes of silliness, cheap booze, Louisville culture, and upcoming events.

In this episode, we discuss: LaBoy LeFemme drag show at The Connection, swimming at Lakeside Pool (courtesy of Awesome Louisvillager Brigid Kaelin), sweet tea lemonade booze, Costumes & Cocktails at Actors Theatre, our first viewing of BIG BROTHER season 14 featuring Louisville's own Wil Heuser, the fact that Linda has never seen ROMANCING THE STONE (WHAT??) and much much more.

The learning curve with this whole podcasting thing has been a little steep, and last Friday we spent SIX hours whittling down 35 minutes of tape to the lean, mean 25 minutes we have now. Next time hopefully it will go faster, but whoa, did we have a lot of fun. I honestly think a (highly-edited) documentary of the two of us cackling like crazy ladies would be even more entertaining than the podcast itself (I say highly-edited because those moments of cackling were interspersed with looooong moments of us staring slack-jawed at Audacity wondering what to do next).

We couldn't have done this without a little help from our friends. Thanks to Gabe Bullard for the crash course in recording and editing. Loads of love to Kyle Ware-- aka The Guy-- for creating our adorable logo. And sending mad love to Ms. Hazel Miller who, in 1982, recorded the song "Look What We Can Do," which we used as our intro music. No joke, when Linda and I realized that the last 8 seconds of this song was the PERFECT theme music, I thought I was going to explode from pure joy. I challenge you to listen to the whole two-minute song, and NOT want to clap/dance/jiggle/your-expression-of-glee-of-choice.  I, personally, think that Linda and I need to take a bio picture for the podcast of the two of us jumping in the air and pumping our fists, inspired by the last 8 seconds of that song.

Right now the plan is to have a new episode every two weeks. Once we get better/faster at editing, it may be more often.

Spread the word, people. This is basically MY LOUEYVILLE in a podcast. Do you have ideas about events and institutions we should cover? Want to provide us with a beverage for our "What are we drinking?" segment?  Want to be our sugar daddy/mama? Tweet us at @LouNotKY or email me at lou [at] loueyville.com.

So proud. Go listen, kids. Link to the podcast here: http://louisvillenotky.tumblr.com/

Paper Party at the Nach Bar

I am so proud of the work I have done with The Louisville Paper, the monthly indie newspaper that sprang up last summer, in part, to fill the void created in arts and neighborhood reporting when our local daily gave a slew of reporters the boot. Matt Dobson & Stephanie Brothers have worked tirelessly to create a stylish, well-written, and increasingly indispensable addition to the Louisville media landscape. This August, the Paper turns one, and that calls for a party! (And apparently a really awesome .gif!!)


From the invite:
Join Creative Director Matt Dobson and Editor Stephanie Brothers, along with The Paper contributors and supporters, on Saturday, August 4 at Nachbar (969 Charles St. 40204) for The Paper's First Birthday Party! The party kicks off at 5 p.m., and is FREE and open to the public.

• Grind, Louisville's premier gourmet burger food truck, will be on site during the event.
• Desserts will be provided by Jamie's 14k Cupcakes.
• Local bands Tropical Trash and Discount Guns will provide the evening's musical entertainment.
• Guests will walk away with grab bags as well as have the chance to win one of several prizes from our wonderful sponsors. Prizes from: Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Root Cellar, City Scoot, Derby City Chop Shop, Foxhollow Farm, The Grind Truck, and Heine Bros. Coffee!

Seriously, how many birthday parties are this awesome? You get the gifts and don't even have to send a thank-you card to Aunt Linda for that ugly sweater.

I love these people and this publication. Good people doing good work. And I'm honored to be frequently featured alongside some of Louisville's best writers. (And sure, it doesn't hurt that I met The Guy on my first assignment from the Paper.) You can check out almost all of my Paper articles here.

Hope you can join us!

THIS... is Louisville: 1st Issue Release Party

Lately I've been cheerleading for the local Kickstarter project Menu and Hours, but Louisville has a pretty solid history backing worthy projects on Kickstarter, including Morels Food Truck and the soon-to-be-released THIS... is Louisville magazine, both of which received funds that surpassed their Kickstarter goals.

From the THIS... is Louisville facebook page:

We believe everyone has a story to tell. THIS...is Louisville is a photo documentary based magazine telling the stories of real people in Louisville. 

Almost all the crew for this magazine went to WKU, we all have (or are working towards) degrees in photojournalism, so shooting documentary style is our "thing." We love it, it's our passion. The idea is to try to cover Louisville as vastly as possible.

Stories that we have started working on include refugees, people facing the job crisis, the LGBT community, people challenging the role of gender, candid street fashion, an older lady that has somehow found the fountain of youth, and these are just a few.

We are going to try to tell their stories as honestly as possible. There are so many important people that are just "everyday people" living in our community and their stories NEED to be told.

The inaugural issue of THIS... is Louisville has just hit the hands of the creators, and I have it on good authority via Twitter (@THISisLouville) that it is gorgeous. I've also heard from Maggie Huber that the magazine has been funded at least through issue two.

Watch their truly beautiful Kickstarter video and then stop by to pick up a copy and congratulate them on December 29 from 730p-? at Seidenfaden's. There, you'll be able to pick up the magazine for FREE, buy signed prints, and otherwise support this really exciting new publication. The Magnolia Photo Booth folks will also be there.

Between The Paper and THIS... is Louisville, exciting things have happened in print media in this city in 2011. Wishing both publications continued success in 2012.

facebook: www.facebook.com/thisislouisville

"Guys, I think I just ate some plate"

This week's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me's" Sandwich Monday Blog features Kentucky's own Hot Brown. Because it is so amusing, we'll forgive them that they enjoyed the Hot Brown's at Lexington's Ramsey's restaurant, and not here at the Brown Hotel like they should have.

Highlights of the review include:

Robert: On the old pirate maps the bacon "X" meant "Here be diabetes."
Mike: Exactly. Dig here for a heart attack.
Ian: The crucifix of bacon is the least Jewish thing I have ever seen.

The final verdict that was the sandwich-- if you can call it that-- didn't live up to its visual promise, tastewise. Hope they don't write it off and instead try another Hot Brown in its native city, Louisville. A well-done Hot Brown is a party in your mouth: a sluggish, deadening, nap-inducing party that takes you two days to recover from.

Salon 2011 Gift Guide by Erin Keane

I don't know what I love about Salon's Holiday Gift Guide 2011 most.

Is it that the guide is based on "the year's most memorable fictional characters"?

Is it that one of those characters is the protagonist of Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot, the book club book that I just finished slogging through?

Is it that the gifts are so compelling and well-sourced (seriously, I'll take anything on the Madeline Hanna page... especially this satchel. And yes, I'd like to think of myself as "The Ivy-League Graduate that Everybody Loves.")

Or is it that the Gift Guide was compiled by your favorite theater critic and mine, the fantastic Erin Keane?

This gift guide would have caught my eye regardless, but yes, I think that it was compiled by a favorite person is what I love best about this guide.

Louisville International Film Festival this weekend

This past week, I was lucky enough to be able to sponsor not one but two ticket giveaways to events here in Louisville. And I was so happy that both winners-- congrats Paula and Ruth!-- were tickled pink to have won. Ruth won a four-pack of tickets to Max and Ruby Live! at the Palace Theatre, and Paula won two weekend passes to the Louisville International Film Festival.

For the Louisville International Film Fest (#LIFF) contest, I asked readers to tweet about the movies that they're most worried the current generation might never see. Check out the blog post for all of the entries.  Lots of great films there. I still stand by my assertion that Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure belongs in the canon. But who can argue with entries like Blade Runner, Spinal Tap, and Rain Man??-- two of those three are in my top ten films of all time... I'll leave you to speculate on which ones.

The Louisville International Film Festival kicks off this week.  According to their press release:


The 
third
 annual 
Louisville 
International 
Film
 Festival 
(LIFF)
 will 
be
 held 
October
 5
– 9 
throughout

downtown 
Louisville. 
Films 
will
 be 
screened 
at 
four
 locations,
 including 
the 
Galt 
House
 and 
Louisville

Slugger
 Museum.
 
The 
Louisville 
International
 Film 
Festival 
is 
committed 
to 
screening 
artistic 
films 
not

usually
 presented
 through
 commercial 
venues,
 giving
 independent 
filmmakers 
a 
place
 to
 showcase 
their

work. 
This
 year, 
107 
films 
have
 been
 chosen 
for
 screening.


The keynote event features one of my heroes, Lily Tomlin:


An 
Evening
 of 
Classic
 Lily 
Tomlin” 
will 
be 
held 
at 
7:30
p.m., 
October
 5,
 at 
the 
Brown
 Theatre .
Her 
90‐minute
 show takes 
the 
audience
 on 
a 
“wise 
and
 howlingly
 funny” 
trip 
with 
more 
than

a 
dozen 
of
 her 
timeless 
characters
–
 from
 Ernestine 
to 
Edith 
Ann. 


Other highlights of the event include a showing of Hollywood & Wine starring Chris Kattan, Horatio Sanz, and Leslie Easterbrook-- all of whom will be in attendance-- on Friday at 8pm.  And a presentation by voice-over actor Bob Bergen, who will discuss the ins and outs of the profession on Saturday at 10am.

The LIFF website is fantastic and will provide you with all the information you need. I have a busy work weekend ahead of me, but I will definitely carve out some time to attend the festival.  Hope you can too!

IdeaFestival 2011: It's a Wrap

It may very well take me a week to finish my recap of this year's IdeaFestival. I told myself I'd just write a couple of words about each presenter, but a half hour into the post, I've only touched on two.

So in the meantime, I'll leave you with this, my highlight of the weekend. The folks at the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau hosted a dinner at the Brown Hotel's English Grille Chef's Table for out-of-town media. Five courses prepared by Chef Laurent Geroli, bourbon, wine, great conversation. Picture includes: Michelle Jones of Consuming Louisville, Baratunde Thurston of The Onion et al, Max Linsky of Longform.org, Ellen McGirt of Fast Company Magazine, Chef Laurent, CC Chapman, author & entrepreneur.

The evening ended with me leading the group mentioned above (minus Michelle) down to the Seelbach Hotel (where we passed DJ Pauly D on the way in). There, they generously treated me to Pappy Van Winkle 23 while we poked around the Rathskeller.

Thank you so much to the LVCB and Chef Laurent for being such great ambassadors for the city. (And thanks too for the personalized "Official Bourbon Taster" chef's jacket!) I spent a lot of time with out-of-towners this weekend, and to a person they absolutely LOVED Louisville. Good job, city!

PS. I had no idea that the Chef's Table existed, but it does! And you can have dinner there too. Check out the link above for the English Grille. Chef Laurent is a charming host.

Wednesday Morning Randomness: Bats, Beer, Music, etc.

I have had such a wonderful summer. I'm so sorry to have it wind down. Mama needs to win the lottery or sell her novel for a bazillion dollars. I'm damned good at the "lady of leisure" thing. Anytime I see someone Tweet or Facebook about "being bored" I want to shout: BORED? Bored? In a world with the internet and ten zillion tv stations and movie theaters and this great city we live in, and let's not forget BOOKS! Books! I don't think I've been bored since the mid-90's. And until I am too old to move or grow blind (it could happen-- my eyesight has gotten worse just about every year since age three), I don't ever anticipate being bored again.  Modernity rocks.

But, despite the fact that I had a marvelous time at Nerd Camp, I am so super happy to be home. And I'm trying to cram in as much "summer fun" into the next week as possible.  Despite the fact that I don't always see all of my friends on a monthly basis, being away from them for a month was kinda hard. And Twitter, of course, makes it possible to see all of the fun they were having without me.  Even though I expressly told them not to have any fun without me.  Damned friends.

Anyway, I have lots of catching up to do, so here's a randomness post for you.  Sorry for some of the "old news" in here. It's all new to me!

• Finally, the old Potstickers location across from Papalino's is getting a new tenant.  It's going to be a cupcake bakery.  Wish I liked sweets, but good on you, cupcakers. You know what I do like? Red velvet cake. If they have a red velvet cupcake, I'm all over that.
  
• The Holy Grale is now open 7 days a week. That instantly improves my quality of life.
  
• As does the re-opening of the Barret Bar under new management.  Roommate and I went there a couple of times before I left for Nerd Camp. The food is great-- worlds better than the old "frozen chicken patty" days.  Roommate had a bbq slider that was delish. Beers are a bit pricey, but pool is still cheap.  And they still have that lovely patio.
  
• Speaking of Holy Grale, I went there yesterday for their first Monday opening ever with the lovely and talented Erin Keane and her lovely and talented mister.  Ms. Erin, one of our city's finest writers, is now writing for Salon.com (among other places). Her article on Roseanne Barr's potential White House bid not only got at Twitter mention from Roseanne herself, but is probably my favorite article she's ever written.
  
• And speaking of my awesome friends (now I feel like I'm name-dropping), I went to Clifton's Pizza tonight to see the always fantastic Alex Wright play with Danny Flannigan, who is also wonderful.  When I found myself singing along to some of Alex's tunes, I realized that I have officially become a "groupie." He said it was okay if I declared myself the president of his fan club, so there you have it.  Alex's CD comes out soon, and he's playing next Thursday with Dewey Kincaid at Zazzo's.  Also, I'm told his CD cover was designed by the marvelous John Wurth who also designed my little acorn logo.
  
• In case you missed it via Twitter, while I was in Connecticut visiting Mama Lou, I hijacked her car for the evening and drove an hour to see our Louisville Bats play the Pawtucket Red Sox, by myself.  It was a gorgeous, glorious evening and a stellar game of baseball that turned into an ugly, ugly, uglyuglyugly loss for our Bats.  Here's the thing, I am clearly one of the Bats' biggest fans, so why is it that every request I've made to them to cover them for this blog has been totally ignored?  Even the person who tweets for the Bats ignores me.  Last year I even asked to interview the person who maintains the field at Slugger Field, and they ignored my request.  It's starting to sting a little, I'll be honest.
  
• And yeah, I know people get all kinds of snarky about people and businesses asking that you vote for them in the LEO Readers' Poll.  I get it.  But I'm going to ask anyway.  I know I'm not the "best blog" in Louisville.  Hands down that honor belongs to Consuming Louisville.  But some day, I would like to be a runner-up.  So, yes, I'm asking for you to vote for me.  Michelle will be fine. ;)
  
• Finally, one thing I've missed this summer is the James Stewart Marathon at the Palace Theater.  This weekend is my favorite Jimmy Stewart movie, "Rear Window."  I used to be a huge Audrey Hepburn fan-- still am, really-- but that was back when I was thin as a rail and totally fey and aspired to be just like her.  Nowadays when I think of classic beauty, I think of Grace Kelley.  Just so ineffably perfect.  

That's the randomness for today.  So happy to be home!  Louisville, I've missed you something awful.

Not Always Good News Lou

Admittedly, I've had my panties in a bunch all day.  I overslept this morning (not for anything in particular, but it set my day wrong from the start).  Then I woke up and saw that someone was bitching about my grammar on last night's blog post and then excusing her bitching by saying that she "had to comment" because she was a teacher (Yes, folks, I'm a teacher. An English teacher, to boot. The grammar issue was that I had used "that" instead of "who" when referring to a group of people**.). And then Roommate was still so sick, and I felt bad because I basically made him come out to the Waterfront show on the 4th when he really should have stayed home in bed.  (It was really fun, and he had lots of fun, but still... bad best friend).  And then, and then...

But even so, I'm not always the Good News Blogger.  (That's here-- and by the way, she won 3rd place for Best Louisville Website from Louisville Magazine this month... and while I'm gearing up to bitch: THIRD place? Really? We can do better folks.)  So there's this:

I can't believe more people aren't talking about the fact that we had THREE murders in Louisville on July 5. Them's New Orleans numbers, folks. There was a murder-suicide at LG&E this afternoon, and two young men were shot in the middle of the night at Sheppard Square in Smoketown. Totally tragic. Three murders on the same day means that yesterday represented 10% of the murders for the whole year so far for Louisville.

And barely a peep.  Heck, you know that I love WFPL with a burning NPR-geek love, but the Sheppard Square homicides didn't even warrant a mention on their news blog.  (If the Courier-Journal is in a downward spiral-- which it is-- we need to look to someone to pick up the slack, and I'm hoping it will be WFPL.)

But you know why we didn't hear torrents of dismay on the Twitterbox and in the mainstream media in general?  Because everyone and their sweet little Auntie Mae were frothing at the mouth about the Casey Anthony verdict. This generation's OJ Simpson (who wasn't even a sexy former-NFL-player/actor before the crime-- oh come on now, he was sexy) hogged the airwaves and threatened to crash the interwebs.

Remember what I said about media not existing in a vacuum?  That every newspaper (like the C-J) is moving closer to being the mutant offspring of Sports Illustrated and People Magazine?  The media is giving the People what they want.  The Nancy Graces of the world exist because people WANT THEM TO.

According to Twitter (and I have no evidence that this is spot-on truth, but the number seems reasonable), in 2008-- the year that Caylee Anthony was murdered (or died in a pool, or whatever)-- 569 children under the age of 4 were murdered.  Heinous, tragic, awful.  As someone who is not necessarily childless by choice, I always have a steaming, irrationally extreme hatred for anyone who mistreats a child.  A child is a gift and a blessing and a miracle.  If you're lucky enough to have one (or two or nineteen), be the best parent you can possibly be. It's the most important job you'll ever have.

We did this, folks.  We created Casey Anthony, "Media Superstar."  And not only did she overshadow all national news today (oil spill in Montana, anyone?), she overshadowed the important news that 10% of the murders for 2011 in Louisville were committed today.  And that made this already-too-cynical blogger more cynical than ever.  We need to be better than this.

*gets off soapbox, kicks it over, and exits stage right*

** Yes, the grammar was wrong.  No, I'm not going to fix it.

A Great City Deserves a Great Publication

Unless you, like Fairdale Bigfoot, live under a rock, you heard the news that Gannett absolutely gutted the Courier-Journal yesterday, laying off 50 employees, 24 of them editorial staff. Goodbye Velocity, goodbye a lot of the Neighborhood coverage.  Arts and uber-local reporting... gutted.

As Roommate tweeted today: "From out here in the docks, it looks like the @courierjournal has become 'Sports Unillustrated.'"

And apologies to the terrific sports staff at the C-J, especially those I am "twitter friends" with, but yes... Roommate is right.  I don't know if any of the sports staff got the sack, but it has long irked me that when you pull up the C-J website, the very first section is sports.  Before local news. Shows you where the editorial priorities are.  And I love sports, I do. But that's embarrassing.

I'm not fool enough to believe that the C-J made that layout choice in a vacuum. I know I live in a sports-obsessed town, and most of the time I'm pleased as punch that I do. But it is a decision, and it's a terrible one in my opinion. If newspapers were all about catering to the masses, every paper would be People Magazine, or at best USA Today-- all Kardashians and Fantasy Football.

Anyway, based on the unscientific evidence of my Twitter feed, lots of Louisvillagers were just heartbroken about this decision. And I was surprised how very hard I took it myself.  I only know one of the laid-off editorial staffers (I think) personally. So this wasn't about just hurting very badly for a friend (although, I was).  And honestly, I haven't subscribed to the paper for years (before you say I'm part of the problem: [a] we all know subscription money doesn't keep papers in business and [b] I read it regularly online). I've always been disappointed with the C-J, especially coming here from New Orleans when the Times-Picayune was cranking out its post-Katrina consistent brilliance.

But I felt sad for personal reasons too. My first job out of college was as the Assistant to the Editor of this newspaper. (I'd never been to the website before. I briefly got insanely excited when I saw the archive section... but the archives start 10 years after I worked there, give or take.) In addition to running around doing crazy errands for the Diva Editor, I also worked as an entertainment reporter.  My "beat"?  Foxwoods Casino.  Highlights of my job: interviewing Tom Jones and Ted Neeley ("Jesus" from Jesus Christ Superstar), writing my only front-page piece about the music scene in Mystic, CT, and covering the Mashantucket Pequot tribe's cultural news.  I hated every part of my job except the arts reporting. I loved the arts reporting. And occasionally when I get antsy about my chosen field (as I am right now), I kick myself for not pursuing that as my career (hence, this blog).

And Gannett mauled its arts reporting today.

A great city deserves a great publication. And we just don't have one.

Normally I would say: "I may be biased because I know this person personally and can't distance myself from her work." But no. I won't add that disclaimer. One of the laid-off editorial staff was Erin Keane, and I can empirically say that she was one of the best, if not the best, writers at the C-J. Her arts reporting was grown-up, sophisticated writing for readers who were invested in the fabulous Louisville arts scene. Her articles were beautifully-conceived, well-researched, and often challenging.  I will fess up to having to employ Dictionary.com a couple of times when her diction eluded me. When I finally met her after reading her reporting for a while, I was honestly a little fan-girly.  Hell, how many times over the years have I written a theater review and linked to her review and said, "I can't say it better than Erin Keane already did"??

For the C-J to lay off its most literate and literary writer?-- it's an insult to the readership.

My heart broke for her, personally.  But my heart breaks for this city.

I'll say it again. A great city deserves a great publication. And we just don't have one.

The LEO is... fine.  I admit, I read it rarely.  I don't know what the general public sentiment is, but my gut says that it went a bit south post-Stephen George and when it went glossy (and when it lost Phillip M. Bailey to WFPL).  Louisville Magazine has a stable of solid writers but only features a handful of good articles each month.  I don't think anyone would argue with me if I said that the magazine was 85% advertising of some kind. There's some quality reporting being done on some of the local blogs, but no one in their right mind would call it quality writing.

It was a sad day for Louisville.  And a disconcerting day for me.  I never in a blue moon thought that I would remake myself as an arts reporter this late in my life, but to discover that the newspaper in my city had such a low regard for arts and local reporting... terrible.

Trailer for ANOTHER EARTH: Mapother Stars

Holy cow!  Well, y'all know I have a little celebrity crush on local actor William Mapother (Ethan from LOST, yeah yeah sure... but he's been grand in everything I've seen him in. Including GLEN GARRY GLENROSS at Actors.

Well, the official trailer for his award winning Sundance 2010 film, ANOTHER EARTH is out.  Back when I first mentioned this film, I said, "A Louisvillager AND sci fi?  Love!"

I had no idea.  This looks astonishing.  Wow.  Beautiful.  Now I really can't wait.

Speaking of Mapother.... And kids, if you follow me on Twitter (@loueyville), you already know this story... I totally let you folks down.  When Roommate and I saw BOB at Actors Theater, I sat RIGHT IN FRONT of the lovely Mr. Mapother.  And you know what I said to him?  Nothing.  I said nothing.  Have had a crush on the man for years, and I said nothing.  Because that's how I roll.  (See: the first paragraph of this post)

Beam & Dafoe: Two Classic Gentlemen

Have you seen this really beautiful Willem Dafoe Jim Beam ad?  Dafoe once said, "One of the pleasures of being an actor is quite simply taking a walk in someone else's shoes. And when I look at the roles that I've played, I'm kind of amazed at all the wonderful adventures I've had, and all of the different things I've learned."

Back when I lived in the East Village of NYC, I used to see Dafoe almost every day on my walk to the West Village to work (I imagine he was heading to work to, at the Wooster Group).  I never stopped him and played fangirl, but he (maybe because he) was always so damned pleasant.  A smile, a nod, a comment on the weather, a definite acknowledgement that we passed each other at the same time in the same place nearly every day.  I'm actually kind of impressed I didn't geek out over him at the time; I've always had a big crush.  I mean seriously, he was sexy Jesus.  And he's still pretty gosh darned sexy.

Jim Beam and Willem Dafoe?  I approve.

My Big Fat Geek Louisville Idea

I know I've been awfully quiet lately.  But the past couple of weeks' bronchitis became this weekend's pneumonia.  So I have been crashed out for a couple of days.  When I was diagnosed, my first thought was, "Huh, I thought pneumonia would be so much worse!"  And around a half hour later, back at Casa Lou, I put my butt in our recliner (which is named "Fat Grandmaw"-- yes, I name everything), and I basically stayed here (yes, here, I'm cuddled on Fat Grandmaw as I type) for two and a half days.  Today I went to the Meatspace Workplace, and then came straight home to Fat Grandmaw.

But Louisville slows down for no one's pneumonia.  And here's something great that's going on.  Because I'm still blechy, and a wee bit blotto on painkillers, I'm gonna be a bit loose and liberal with the rundown.

The "Create Louisville: Your Big Idea" project was launched last month to collect Big Ideas for moving the city forward.  The Ideas were collected on a website, a joint effort of the Greater Louisville Project, the 2009 Bingham Fellows--DRIVE initiative, and WFPL 89.3.  The author of the Big Idea that wins the most votes will get the chance to pitch the idea to the next Louisville mayor.

To see the ideas and vote, go to www.MyBigVote.org.

From the press release: 

People throughout the region have been submitting nominations since Oct. 6, focusing on the three key areas The Greater Louisville Project has identified as crucial for Louisville’s success:  improving education attainment, growing 21st Century jobs, and enhancing Quality of Place. 

"We wanted to stimulate fresh thinking and broader citizen engagement, and we’ve gotten both” said Carolyn Gatz, director of The Greater Louisville Project.  “Now, voting for the best Big Idea is an opportunity for more people to add their voices and to let the new Mayor know what’s most important to them.”

The opportunity to vote will remain open at www.MyBigVote.org through November

Crummy Day in Louisville

Today Louisville lost an advocate and cheerleader, way, way, way before her time. Francene Cucinello died today at age 43 of a heart attack complicated by an aneurysm.

I'm posting this without (much) commentary because I was not, by any means, a regular listener of Francene's program. Nor do I know a whole lot about her. She aired weekdays at 9am, which is normally when I am at work.

That being said, last year (well, late 2008), when I was on a leave-of-absence from my meatspace job to finish up my cancer treatments, I had gawdawful insomnia. Late at night, the only thing that could keep my brain from spinning out of control and into scary places was listening to COAST TO COAST with George Noory. (If I haven't made it clear before, let me make it clear now: Mama is a total conspiracy theorist and a huge believer in all things cryptozoological. In fact, Mama is waiting for the Mothership as we speak. And how else could you explain her fascination with @Fairdalebigfoot?)

And George Noory was on the same radio station that Francene was on in the morning. So when my alarm went off-- and I continued to set my alarm, even though I had nowhere to go-- I would wake to Francene.

Methinks she was more conservative than I am (but she couldn't have been THAT conservative, as she was a dear friend of Jake at the Ville Voice and for whom I feel tremendous sympathy). But I liked her. Quite a bit.

And of course, anyone who dies at age 43 of such shocking causes makes someone my age (still in my 30's) consider our mortality. And the general worth of our lives. And if there is any consolation in this-- and there really isn't-- it's that Francene died beloved by so many. She is being remembered for the impact she made on this city. For her faithful listeners and fans, her worth is unquestionable and the impact that she had on their lives and our city is indelible.

So despite the fact that I was not one of her listeners (although I did read her columns in the LEO), I'm still roiled by her death. And I am so so sorry for her friends, family, and fans. And I'm sorry for this city. We've lost a great one. It's hard to get your head around, especially in a week when all of the news has been hard to get your head around.

Ugh. This world, this life, is so hard sometimes.

Louisvillagers on the Red Carpet!

Yeah, yeah, I love House too, but look who's standing right behind Cuddy at the Emmys! It's one of our favorite Kentucky Colonels, Kynt from the Amazing Race! And that mass of pink fluff behind him belongs to the other half of the "dating Goths," Vyxsin!

How the heck are you guys?

I have to admit, K & V dropped off my radar when they left Possibility City for Hollywood, but it's nice to see their star is still shining bright enough to light up this year's red carpet.

Good on you, kids! Look at him smile. He's clearly a Huddy supporter.

Ok, I'm really showing my pop culture knickers now.

Picture from www.ew.com

The Upside of Kayne's Assishness...

... it will be a long time before anyone forgets Taylor Swift's win.

... Taylor Swift's acceptance speech is quoted verbatim ALL OVER the internet (and no one else's is).

And both of those facts are excellent news for Mr. Roman White, my dear friend who also happened to direct Taylor Swift's video.

Here, let me add that acceptance speech to my own little corner of the interwebs:

I would really like to thank Roman White, who directed the video, and Lucas Till for being in it... I would like to thank all the fans on Twitter and MySpace and everyone that came out to my shows this summer. And I would like to thank my little brother's high school for letting us shoot there.

Here's a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AHzIq_n-DQ

(No, this has nothing to do with Louisville.)

Southern Belles: Louisville, premiere. Our Fair City!

A blue million years ago, a friend and I road-tripped cross-country from NYC to Phoenix. While we were in Phoenix, we went to this crazy faux-diner chain restaurant called Ed Debevic's (little did we know that there was one in NYC at the time). It was one of those places where the wait staff is purposely rude to you and the line chefs hop up on the counter and danced to "YMCA" whenever the juke box played it. At Ed Debevic's (there are still two in Illinois), I purchased a bumper sticker that said, "Who Hired All These Crazy People?"

Then a couple years later, I hung it up in my office because it was suddenly funny. "Who Hired All These Crazy People?" Because I hired all those crazy people. Get it?

Right.

So I'm thinking that the producer of "Southern Belles: Louisville" has that bumper sticker hanging in his/her office. Heck, I'm thinking every reality show producer needs that bumper sticker. "Southern Belles" doesn't stray from the formula.

"Southern Belles: Louisville" premiered on SoapNet on Thu, May 21. It follows Emily, Hadley, Julie, Kellie, and Shea-- five friends from Louisville. The tagline is: "Southern tradition meets modern ambition."

I don't know where to begin except to thank the producers of the show for making our fair city look super good. Seriously. And not only does Louisville look good, it's the Louisville I know, for the most part. (Okay, all the high society stuff, not so much). Good job, location scouts! Good job. (One day last fall, Roommate & I were at Jenicca's-- sniff, still miss that place-- as they were getting ready to shoot there.)

The five friends... they probably shouldn't be thanking the producers. I'll just leave it at that.

Of course I'm going to keep watching it. Though I'm not a fan (quite the opposite) of reality TV, I can't not watch. But rather than comment on the plot, I'll stick to the city. Next week, I'll make notes on Louisville locales featured in the show. I didn't think to do it with the premier. Off the top of my head, familiar sites included:

• O'Shea's (where they held the premiere party last Thursday)
• Heine Brothers (I think the Eastern Parkway/Bardstown one)
  
• Kentucky Derby Museum (where they held a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen fund and raised a paltry $3K)
• Clodhoppers
• Audubon Country Club
  
• A skating rink-- I think it's Alpine on Gardiner Lane
• The pawn shop across from the now-defunct Karma Cafe (exterior only)
  

DEWEY, the New York Times Bestseller by Louisvillager Brett Witter

Cross-posted from Lou Reads, my book review site.

I have an awesome idea for an animal book. It's very vague; I'm still looking for inspiration. But the general gist of it would be this: the book would be about an animal like a giant tortoise or a parrot, a tortoise or a parrot that is inspiring and brave and gentle and kind... AND LIVES FOR-FRICKING-EVER. Seriously, either of those animals are bound to outlive their owners. And most importantly, those animals are bound to live all the way THROUGH the end of their memoirs. The book could end: "And as I finish this book, I look out the window at Timmy the Life-Saving Tortoise, watching him carefully masticating a big bunch of kale, and I know that he has many, many years of good living ahead."

I'm just saying... I'd read it.

In a recent blog post I said that the fact that I was reading and enjoying DEWEY: THE SMALL-TOWN LIBRARY CAT WHO TOUCHED THE WORLD by Vicky Myron and Louisvillager Brett Witter was evidence that I am not as jaded and cynical as I maybe thought I was. And the fact that I enjoyed it all the way through confirmed that.

I didn't pick up the book because I am a pet lover. I have no pets of my own-- my lifestyle isn't condusive to pet mothering. But early readers of Loueyville may remember that the blog was named after a neighborhood stray cat, Louey, who hung out on my porch. After disappearing several times for months at a time, he got sick and had to be put down, and I was devastated. Now a neighbor's cat has claimed me as his part-time mother, and he comes and goes as he pleases. But that doesn't make me a cat person. (Methinks the lady dost protest too much... )

I picked up the book because shortly after we moved to Louisville, Roomie and I met Brett Witter and his family and some of their friends, and despite the fact that we all hit it off, we didn't really keep in touch. And then, two plus years later, DEWEY happened. And this really nice guy we had a really nice dinner with suddenly became a HUGE publishing success. So I had to get my hands on this book.

I admit, I was skeptical when I bought it. Just because something is a New York Times Bestseller doesn't mean it's any good (TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, anyone?). But within a page, I was assured that this was no soft-read, fluff, glorified Hallmark card. The introduction of the book, called "Welcome to Iowa," is such a magnificently rendered description of a very foreign-seeming place that if I were still teaching a writing class, I would give it to my students as a gorgeous example of "setting." I didn't hesistate to plow forth.

Around thirty pages into the book, after Dewey the library cat shows up on the scene as an abandoned, nearly dying, frozen kitten and is nursed back to health by Vicky and the other librarians, I started to worry. How the heck are the authors going to get 240+ more pages of cat life out of this story? Cat makes friends. Cat has adversaries. Cat has quirks. Is there really more than 240 pages worth of that stuff to tell?

No. There's not. But that's not what this book ends up being about. Cat friends, adversaries, and quirks are entertwined with Vicky's family's story and with the story of the small, suffering town of Spencer, Iowa. And those stories are just microcosms for the struggles of the farm belt and small manufacturing towns everywhere. Whether it's Wal-Mart showing up in town or the card catalogue being replaced by computers, change sometimes steamrolls over the town and sometimes pushes the town forward. But Dewey is the constant.

DEWEY is a lovely book. It is a soft-read, but it's not fluff. It's exceptionally well-written. If you love books or love the rural Midwest or love cats, the book has something for you.

You Gotta Love Calvin

The CJ is the first to feature the SI cover with Calvin Borel and Mine That Bird.