You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2010.
The ninth Forecastle Festival and the first HullabaLOU festival will be held two weeks apart this year. Forecastle is July 9th-11th and HullabaLOU is July 23-25th.
Just looking at the websites and the promotional materials, it’s clear that the two aren’t fighting for the same audience. It’s unlikely that any music fans will stress over whether to spend their concert dollars seeing the Flaming Lips or Bon Jovi. (If you are a crossover Lips/Jovi fan, what else is in your collection?)
There are a few HullabaLOU acts that likely appeal to the Forecastle crowd, but Forecastle founder J.K. McKnight told WFPL today that competition between the two festivals will be minimal.
“I think it’s a different audience. We knew about the lineup about two months or so beforehand,” he says. “When I heard Bon Jovi was on I just kind of shrugged and went back to work. But you know it’s hopefully good for the economy here and puts Louisville on the map in a way it never has been before.”
So if there are two festivals with two different audiences in the same month…what will that mean for Louisville? McKnight wants Forecastle to be a regional highlight of summer festivals, and this year’s lineup is a step in that direction. The crowd will likely be younger than the HullabaLOU audience, and it will be interesting to see who draws attendees from the farthest away.
It will also be interesting to watch these two festivals grow. McKnight says he wants Forecastle to stay at Waterfront Park, and he has ambitious plans for using all of the facilities he can on the riverfront. As Forecastle grows, so will its reputation, and McKnight could achieve his goal of making Forecastle another major summer event, in line with new and growing festivals like Pitchfork and Sasquatch or established kings like Bonnaroo and Coachella.
But how will HullabaLOU grow? Could it become the Bonnaroo for older people? (That’s not a bad thing). Could it be an alternative to the New Orleans Jazzfest?
All of the other festivals I mentioned have a definite feel to them. It’s built by their reputation (Pitchfork=ultra hip, Bonnaroo=kind of hippie, but less so now) or their geography (Sasquatch=northwest). Forecastle’s “music, art, activism” reputation has developed over the last few years, but what specific characteristics might Forecastle and HullabaLOU take on? What reputation will they get from Louisville?
We can all sleep easy now that the missing bust of Colonel Sanders from Berea has been found.
A $1,200 bronze bust of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland Sanders is back, more than two months after it was reported stolen from the KFC in Berea, Ky.
Berea police Capt. Ken Clark says the bust was apparently taken as a prank. Police in Independence, about 115 miles away, found it at an address given by a tipster.
Jean Anderson, who owns the Berea KFC building with her husband, Les, says she is thrilled to have the bust back and isn’t interested in pressing charges.
For now, the bust has not been placed back display at the store.
KFC had offered $500 worth of grilled chicken for the statue’s return, but Clark says the tipster isn’t interested in a reward.
Is it an insult to KFC that the tipster doesn’t want free chicken?
Republican Senate candidates Trey Grayson and Rand Paul are trading barbs on everything, including views on 9/11. The latest video from Grayson compares Paul’s views to his father Ron Paul‘s views, and then compares both the Pauls’ views to Reverend Jeremiah Wright‘s views. (Am I missing anyone’s views?)
And speaking of 9/11, Grayson is asking Paul to pull his ads that use images of 9/11.
“Rand Paul should immediately take down this ad,” Grayson said.
Paul’s campaign manager, David Adams, responded by calling Grayson’s request to pull the 9/11 ad “nonsense.”
In his TV ad, which includes somber video of smoke billowing from the World Trade Center, Paul expressed his outrage at the 9/11 attacks and criticized Grayson for questioning Paul’s patriotism in a TV ad that Grayson launched last week.
The Grayson ad says Paul “even wonders whether 9/11 was our fault.” It shows Paul at a Blue Grass Policy Institute Forum in 2009, where he said “maybe some of the bad things that happen are a reaction to our presence in some of these countries.”
Paul was paraphrasing a quote his father, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, said in a 2007 presidential debate. The elder Paul said U.S. foreign policy fueled anger among radicals.
The squabble between Paul and Grayson is not the first time the use of 9/11 images has been an issue. During President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, Bush was criticized by relatives of the terrorist strikes, who contended Bush was exploiting photos of the tragedy for political gain.
What are your thoughts on this debate? Is the Rev. Wright video still relevant?
Stephanie Crosby reported on WFPL today that Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller is joining 13 other states in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health care overhaul law. His office has received thousands of comments from Hoosiers either supporting or opposing the decision.
The story also mentioned that Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway thinks the lawsuit is a stunt and he sent this letter (PDF) to State Senate President David Williams and Rep. Jeff Hoover about it.
Local blogger Michelle Jones, who held a book drive last summer for the Louisville Free Public Library and who organized a bake sale for the Louisville Free Public Library after the August 4th flood is considering organizing another book drive:
New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery “asked her readers to nominate their favorite library to win a free copy of one of her books. A fan of Mallery’s Facebook page nominated the Louisville Free Public Library and told Mallery about the flood damage the library had suffered on August 4 of last year.” That information inspired Mallery to donate books and cash as well as encouraging all of her fans to donate books to the library as well.
“As soon as I heard that the library had lost 50,000 books to the flood, I felt compelled to help,” Mallery says. “When I was a child, librarians fostered a love of reading in me and guided me to books that surprised me, educated me, enthralled me and, book by book, expanded my concept of the world. Because of libraries, I am a writer.”
So this begs the question: is it time for us to step up with another book drive to support the Louisville Free Public Library?
I asked Jones if another drive was on and she said, “I’ll make my decision in a day or two after I see what people say or don’t say about the idea of another book drive.”
So head over to Consuming Louisville to share your thoughts on whether it’s time for another book drive.
Here are some WFPL stories from the last few hours:
