Loueyvillager Powers Activate: Outdoor Hockey In Louisville?

Everything about this picture makes me happy. It's hockey. It's the Bruins. It's Boston. It's FRAKING FENWAY....

Oh Lordy, you gotta love that. Well, okay, you don't. But I do. I'm originally from just outside of Boston. I was raised by a family that lists "Red Sox" as their religion on their Census forms. The best thing that happened to me when I had cancer was that I survived. The second best thing was that my favorite uncle took me to a Sox game at Fenway as a get well gift.

Tonight Fenway is hosting their second hockey game of the season. The first was the Bruins (who won) in the Winter Classic. Tonight is a BC-BU game. At least two of my cousins are going. I am seething with jealousy. You know how much Mama hates the cold, but if I lived in the Boston area, I'd be there looking like Randy from "A Christmas Story." The pain would be more than worth it. Fenway + hockey = harmonic convergence of awesomeness.

All this prompted me to start looking into local hockey. I started this morning on Twitter and found out that U of L does, indeed, have a hockey team. I had always assumed that Louisville had no hockey to speak of because if the city did have hockey, we'd all be talking about it. Right? We're a sports-lovin' city, and hockey is pretty much the best sport imaginable. Right?

Turns out the U of L hockey team has a very limited schedule-- only 8 local games listed on the schedule. They play at Alpine Arena. And they play HALF their local games at MIDNIGHT. I don't know what to make of that. Half of me thinks it's fabulous-- like Rocky Horror for sports fans. Half of me is totally bummed out. Where's our next gen of hockey players going to come from when we can't take our little dudes to hockey games? (And by "dudes" I mean that gender-free. Some of the coolest hockey players I've met have been women.)

My solution?

Dear Slugger Field,

Please take a gander at what Fenway is doing this winter. I know they're still not sold on making hockey a permanent part of their schedule, but everyone I know in the Boston area is madly in love with hockey at Fenway. And you, Slugger Field, are gorgeous and perfectly suited for outdoor hockey. And seriously, what else do you have going on during the winter? We need to generate some support for hockey in Louisville. And Louisville sports fans could really use something new to get excited about. It's a marriage made in sports heaven. (Usually) our winters are more mild than Boston's. Sure the wind whips off the river, but if Fenway fans can hack it, then we certainly can. Hell, we've got kids out sledding today, and it's negative eleventy-billion degrees out.

Slugger Field, Louisville Bats, Mayor Uncle Jerry, etc... what can I do to help you make this happen? Mayoral candidates-- what's your platform on outdoor hockey? I'm on a mission from God here. Or from Bobby Orr.

The next U of L hockey game is midnight on 1/22. Let's meet there to discuss how we can bring this kind of awesomeness to the winter of 2010-11.

Yours in the goal for the city,
Lou

Tuesday Afternoon Randomness

I'm having yet again another "I'm feeling jazzed about Louisville" day. There's just so much good stuff going on these days, it's hard not to feel the jazz. Even when it's totally yucko outside like it is today.

• First up: tomorrow is the last Waterfront Wednesday of the year. Sniffles. I am not familiar with any of the artists, Bell X1, the Workers, or Company of Thieves. But it's Waterfront Wednesday, so I will be there. I'll be there hoping that the Company of Thieves guy wears the hippo on his head again.
  
• This is the final week to see Rocky Horror live. It's practically sold out, you know. And I've been hearing super good things about it. This Louisvillager is going to lose her Rocky virginity on Thursday night. There are still tickets left for Thursday night, so you could watch!
• Thanks to Broken Sidewalk for bringing us information about the adorable art installation on East Market Street. I actually startled someone on a bicycle while walking toward Nulu Fest. I saw the crazy white doggie prancing around the window of the old Wayside building and exclaimed, "Holy crap!" (Yes I said "crap" not the other word.) Sorry, bike dude. If you haven't seen "Sniff" yet, go, go, go! He'll (she'll?) only be around til Oct 30. (I think there's a missed Halloween opportunity there. Couldn't they make the puppy go all Cujo on Halloween and scare the bejeezus out of people? Good times.)
• This weekend is the Louisville International Film Festival. This is a very exciting event, chock full of new films you won't see anywhere else. (But not Adventures in Power) And like with the Labryinth seminar, if I didn't have a Meatspace job, I would TOTALLY shell out the $60 for the all day Friday and Saturday pass. It's a steal.

Brrr... do I really need to turn on the heat in September? Disappointing. Otherwise, Louisville, you're my hero.

Happy One Year Ikeversary!

One year and a few hours ago, this is what happened to Casa Lou:

Out Of Office (ps don't believe what you're hearing about Kaelin's)

Hi, thanks for calling. You've reached Lou. But I'm out of the office until March 6 or 7 or so, depending on how the chaos shakes out. I'm super glad you called, and I promise I'll get back to you just as soon as humanly possible. Have a lovely, lovely day.

Mama's on the move in more ways than one.

Here's the skinny, Loueyvillagers:

• In her "Other Life," Lou may or may not be some sort of education-related professional who may or may not be taking a group of earnest teens down to an area effected by a natural disaster that was not Hurricane Ike so that they can help that area recover by helping to build houses and spending loads of money on beignets and shit from Urban Outfitters. So Lou will be out of town this week.
• Speaking of natural disasters, Lou's Ike-destroyed humble abode is now done except for the fancy touches. Good news: When Lou gets home from her trip, she will be HOME. Bad news: Roommate is saddled with the move-back-in. Coming soon, "Things I will miss and won't miss about living in a hotel."

So to tide you over til Lou returns, here are some thoughts for the coming week:

• Rick Pitino should always wear a white suit. Always. Even to practice. And he should carry a cane.
• Ramsi's Sunday Brunch? SUB-LIME. Seriously, I wish I was a chipmunk so I could have shoved some of that goodness in my cheeks to snack on later. I used to have a love affair with lox, then we broke up. We're back together now. (and that's about as exciting as my love life has been in years... sigh) And $3 mimosas? Yes. Please.
• Young Survivors Fundraiser? No word yet on how much was raised, but I dropped close to $200 on stuff I didn't really need but really wanted anyway. And happily did so.
• It's March. Let the madness ensue.
• It's March. Can we please have spring now, please?
• UPDATE: Forgot to tell y'all that Kaelin's-- home of the original cheeseburger (and my favorite local fried chicken)-- is closed for renovations! We went last night-- on their last night-- and were surprised to find that they're going to be shut down for a few months. They'll be back in the spring, said the waitress and the host. Local blogs are posting that they're closed forever-- that would be news to their employees (and to the signs posted all over the restaurant that say they're closing for renovations... sheesh, interwebs, calm down.)

Take care, all y'all. Likely next time I blog it will be from the rebuilt Chez Lou. Home sweet home.

Shock Waves

There have been, at this point, seven aftershocks from this morning's earthquake-- the largest, a 4.2, at 11:14am. I didn't feel that one, but I swear I felt one around 8:30am. Thank goodness there has been no major damage and no injuries because, after the fact, I'm still not able to shake (punny!) the whole "that's so cool" attitude.

It's the Wabash's Fault

I probably shouldn't be giggly about this, but all "firsts" have a whiff of thrill. First day of school, first kiss, first warm day of spring... first earthquake.

At 5:26am, Lou was awakened from a bad dream (good timing!) by a feeling that can be best described as the optimal motion for Jiffy-Pop popping: a firm but smooth sliding back and forth with a tremble up and down. My bedroom sits atop my cellar, and therefore my hot water heater and my furnace. My first thoughts were:

Oh my God, something down there is getting ready to blow! In a few seconds, I will be propelled by a geyser of boiling water through the roof, atop my bed, like something out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!

The most surprising thing to me was how long the earthquake lasted. Later it dawned on me that if that had been a BIG earthquake, that's a long damned time to feel terrified. News articles don't say how long the tremor lasted, but it lasted long enough for me to wake up, sit up, have the aforementioned thought, have a subsequent thought that I might be imagining the whole thing because it was so quiet, break the silence by calling out plaintively to my roommate: "Roommate??", listen to his response: "Yeah, I don't know what it is either...." and then some.

That's a long damned time, folks.

Anyway, today's earthquake was the strongest in 40 years and the second strongest on record for the region. Damage sustained by the 5.2 earthquake was relatively minimal, although a downtown Louisville building lost bricks, as you can see above. The Wabash Valley Fault, the fault allegedly responsible for the quake, is an offshoot of the New Madrid Fault; the epicenter of the quake was in S. Illinois, but tremors from this quake were felt as far south as Florida. I know... it doesn't make a lick of sense to me either... geology is weird. But here's an explanation from CNN.com:

"Pretty typically for these eastern-central U.S. earthquakes, they're felt over a very broad area," said Dave Applegate, USGS senior science adviser, adding that quakes in California tend to be more localized. "The Earth's crust is older and less fractured in the Midwest than in California, and the region's deep sediment "shakes a lot," Applegate said. "Older crust, when you have an earthquake, it rings like a bell."

My favorite part of the CNN.com article is that they interviewed George Noory in St. Louis, the host of the radio show Coast-to-Coast, who said: "Everything shook...I thought the building was going to collapse." And I thought, Oh come on, George, that was probably the LAST thing you were thinking about during the quake... c'mon, you know you were wondering if it was the Mothership was finally here to take you home.

Because, honestly, I had some loopy thoughts like that meself. When Roommate appeared in my doorway after the shaking stopped, we started bandying around possible causes. When we both acknowledged the rarity of earthquakes in the Midwest, I knew there could only be one answer: monsters. Giant tectonic plate moving monsters underground.

I love me those X-Files re-runs on Sci Fi Channel.