By Danny Mayer
I was reminded on two separate occasions last week that public perception might be that I’m anti-Cats.
The first occurred online, at Barefoot and Progressive, where after I stated “I hate it when Wildcat basketball gets confused with politics and leadership,” I was called (among other things) “the most humorless person on the face of the earth,” “the Rodrick Rhodes of Lexington media,” and (the crusher) a piss-poor pothead role model. Continue reading »
Misadventures in the city
By Beth Connors-Manke
Indianapolis, the 1980s: When I was younger, sometimes my dad would say, “Your mother made another friend today.” I have a big family, and few of us have the social skills necessary for intentionally making friends. We’re equal measures congenial, feisty, and reserved.
So, when my dad tells me that my mom “made a friend,” it means that some stranger in line at Kroger or between bolts at Jo-Ann Fabrics just started talking to my mom and wouldn’t stop. Being congenial yet reserved (she’s the least feisty of the bunch), my mom listens and sometimes adds a few comments. Continue reading »
Thursday, March 31
Idiot Glee with the Butchers
Al’s Bar; 601 N. Limestone. 9 P.M.
Those of us actually old enough to remember when cassettes were the primary portable music medium do not look back on that time with fondness. For your ten bucks in the record shop you got crap sound and the promise that one day—maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and when you least expect it—you’d be fishing miles of magnetic tape out of some tiny crevice between your deck’s play head and eject mechanism, praying to the music gods the tape wouldn’t snap, and then snapping it yourself because you got so fed up with the damned thing. Continue reading »
City infrastructure on North Broadway and Limestone
By Dave Cooper
After much community discussion and debate, construction will commence this summer on the construction of 1.6 miles of sidewalks on both sides of Tates Creek Road, from the Lansdowne Center to an expensive-sounding housing development called “The Enclave.” The project is supposed to be completed by Fall 2011, at a cost of just over $1 million dollars. There was initially some controversy about the project, even though the need for sidewalks was clear from the well-worn dirt path along the side of the busy road.
I’m happy for the pedestrians in the Tates Creek Road area, and I’m happy that the Enclavians can now easily walk to the Embry’s in Lansdowne in order to purchase coats made from the carcasses of small, tortured dead animals. But I feel discouraged that it has taken almost four years from the time that the need for the sidewalks was first identified (via a public survey in 2007) until the time the concrete will be poured. Continue reading »
UK Cultural Diversity Festival Presents Hokkabaz
The film portion of the University of Kentucky’s Cultural Diversity Festival will conclude on Wednesday, March 30 with a screening of Hokkabaz (translation: The Magician). The 2006 film tells the story of Iskender, a failed magician who decides to take his act on the road in a last ditch effort to save his career. But, like any good road movie, things don’t go exactly as planned. The screening is sponsored by the Turkish Student Association, is free, and starts at 7 P.M. in the auditorium of the William T. Young Library. Continue reading »
Building a basil economy
By Danny Mayer
Beans from PeaceMeal gardens could be on sale at a public park market.
This is the fifth in a series calling on city council to actively facilitate the establishment of five public city farmer’s markets on public park land.
It’s too bad that, when given the chance in last November’s elections, Lexingtonians chose not to elect a grocer to represent them as one of three (3) at large city council members. Perhaps a former grocery store owner like Don Pratt might have responded with a bit more interest, experience and knowledge to a series of recent articles I’ve written on our local government’s need to actively promote better access to public farmer’s markets. Continue reading »
Shootin’ n snaggin’ with the Frugal Fisherman
Have you ever been walking to your mailbox and seen your neighbor making a beeline out their front door and straight towards what appears to be you? Probably not. And if you have you probably wouldn’t think twice about a passing conversation with someone of such close proximity. I mean they’re your neighbor, right?
I wish my neighborly relationships were as solid as most. But alas I’m the evil stepchild of the southwest end of Monticello. El Diablo himself. The dude who plays his music too loud, walks around in cut off jean shorts with no shirt and a High Life can in his hand and appears to be in a constant state of inebriation. And in all truthfulness that’s me to a T. Continue reading »
DVD suggestions for those who can’t bring themselves to spend $8.25 on Sucker Punch
By Lucy Jones
For most people (ie: the normal and functioning among us) Spring is a time to rejoice. The weather turns warm, the flowers are in bloom, folks can finally return to the great outdoors. But, for those of us who would rather sit in a dark, climate controlled room and watch light flicker on a screen (ie: me), the outlook isn’t quite as rosy. As any movie lover knows, Spring is a traditionally slow time at the box office. The limited release Oscar contenders from winter have all rolled out, and the giant blockbusters of summer are still a season away. Continue reading »
American sex and sexuality
By Michael Dean Benton
It is a common truism that reality can’t be copyrighted, but it can be manufactured, packaged, and marketed. Increasingly in our interconnected and digital world we are confronted by a plethora of images designed to influence us to buy certain realities. No images are more prevalent or artificial than the images of sex as products that circulate throughout American culture. From marketing pitches, to romance novels, to feature films, to internet peep shows: we are a prudish society that feeds on illusions of sex. Continue reading »
By Beth Connors-Manke
On Thursday, March 17, foregoing their St. Patrick’s Day festivities, a group of 81 citizens attended the Urban County Council Meeting. These 81 citizens, members of BUILD, were there to support the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF).
On the docket that night was a presentation about the AHTF by Commonwealth Economics, a firm hired by the Council to study the fiscal, economic, and social impact of an AHTF in Lexington. Continue reading »
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