Episode 4: Louisville, Not Kentucky

Good mamas don't play favorites. But I am not a good mama. This episode of LOUISVILLE, NOT KENTUCKY is my favorite, thus far.

Linda and I talked about the Jug Band Jubilee, one of my favorite events in the city. We talked about the Tyler Park Jazz Festival. And Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble was gracious enough to let us give away two tickets to their new show: TIME FLIES  (You need to follow us @LouNotKY on Twitter and then tweet us to win-- enter by 9/10! We hope you'll "like" us on Facebook too!). We also jibber-jabbered about Louisvillagers on Reality TV-- go #TeamGunnar!

But the highlight of Episode 4 was our guest podcaster, Scott Kirkpatrick (aka Bro. Stephen) a local musician and a bartender at Rye.  Scott was such a great interview that our podcast ran 20 MINUTES over its usual run-time. We talked about his life and what brought him to Louisville and about narcolepsy (which he suffers from) and his guilty-pleasure music.

If you can't listen to the whole podcast, you need to listen starting at 40:00, where Scott plays a beautiful new song based on LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA, one of my favorite books.  "Contagion" is lovely and will give you chills.

Scott brought two drinks for us to try during the "What are we drinking?" segment-- a drink that's on the menu at Rye called the Schnitzelberg and another off-menu drink called the "Alma Lesch" named after a folk artist featured prominently in the KY Museum of Arts & Crafts, downtown.

Scott was the best first guest we could have hoped for-- chatty and sweet and already a LOUISVILLE, NOT KENTUCKY listener.

Hope you enjoy this supersized episode of LOUISVILLE, NOT KENTUCKY.

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/

Guest Post: BIG BROTHER Keeps Louisville Weird

Wil Heuser NOT Alex Porter...
though they both have good hair

Every once in a while I stumble across some Louisville news that I want to share but know that I can't do justice to. This time it was the inclusion of a Louisville comedian on this season of BIG BROTHER. 


The good news is this time I knew exactly who to ask for help. My friend, Alex Porter, is a BIG BROTHER junkie! Enjoy Alex's guest post and tune in to BIG BROTHER's premiere on Thursday!! 

We are in the thick of the Summer television season, when the broadcast networks replace their quality programming with the cheaply produced guilty pleasures of shows such as Hell’s Kitchen, The Bachelorette, and Wipeout!

Since 2000, one of the biggest Summer hits has been the trashtastic BIG BROTHER on CBS. Each season a group of “HouseGuests” are chosen to live together in a camera filled house and avoid “eviction” to be the last guest standing to win $500,000 dollars. We the viewers get to indulge in our voyeuristic side and watch all of the crazy action and competition each week.

I make no excuses, I love this show. It is my guilty pleasure and I’m not the only one. Last season, it was one of the top five most watched TV shows in Louisville during August.

I respect the CBS executives for having no shame in producing the trashiest reality show on TV, but this year we have an additional reason to tune in.

The latest season premieres on Thursday, July 12th at 9 p.m. This past week CBS gave us details on the house guests (Which you can see here) and one of them is a Louisville resident who happens to be quite the character.

Wil Heuser is a marketing consultant from Louisville but more importantly, he has appeared briefly on American Idol and has released several music videos including one where he dresses up in catholic school girl clothing similar to classic Britney Spears. See here. 

He has also produced several skit comedy videos on YouTube that are extremely over the top, brash and ridiculous.

So being the BIG BROTHER fan that I am, I watched a couple of Wil’s videos and as expected, they are pretty far out and crazy. My first reaction was “Oh my God, this guy is crazy. Why does he have to be from Louisville?”

But after thinking about it for a while, that is a pathetic reaction.

I think it’s awesome that he is from Louisville!

Here is somebody who is out there doing exactly what he wants to do and doesn’t give a crap about what anybody else thinks. We should all support that kind of attitude, even if we don’t necessarily care for the performance or product.

One one Louisville’s slogans that has really gained traction is “Keep Louisville Weird” and that’s something we should be proud of. I think Wil helps us stay weird. Even if it is somewhat of a back handed compliment.

Of course once BIG BROTHER gets underway Wil could end up being one of the biggest jerks to ever be on the show, but I doubt that happens.

So when this season gets started, I urge everybody to put their reservations aside, join me and watch BIG BROTHER in all its trashy glory to follow Wil’s progress.

I’ll be watching.

Side Note: This season also includes Joe Arvin, a chef from Lexington KY. So maybe we can make this a good natured Louisville versus Lexington competition?


Alex Porter is a Media Research Analyst in the Louisville area. A pop culture junkie, he is always keeping up with the latest trends in TV and media. He also enjoys spending time with his wife Kayla, their shih tzu Kyle, and endless cups of coffee. You can follow Alex on Twitter at @alexporter82 and read his blog at alexinlouisville.wordpress.com.