tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70841329895685373142024-02-20T22:19:02.944-05:00Ace WeeklyLexington's Weekly Newspaper. Lexington Kentucky Advertising. Your place and portal for all things Lexington, Kentucky. Arts. News. Entertainment. Guest Essays, MovieClock, Go/See/Do and more. You can also visit www.aceweekly.com.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger514125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-13967873748779393432011-10-29T19:29:00.004-04:002011-10-29T19:34:13.915-04:00Weekend Movies: The Rum Diary<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeJINU4ubWiZXnGc9tOqPN9Fo3jIspfHVKcBytVX5j5T3evcWVD_oI4h3GPDAXrWz4BRm9FBPnF74mF24nAt6MHbKhnah4zJx35ZLJ1-mfDekZjoIqQ7awxikPX2i0nq7xwfTkmwpGxA2L/s1600/rumdiary.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeJINU4ubWiZXnGc9tOqPN9Fo3jIspfHVKcBytVX5j5T3evcWVD_oI4h3GPDAXrWz4BRm9FBPnF74mF24nAt6MHbKhnah4zJx35ZLJ1-mfDekZjoIqQ7awxikPX2i0nq7xwfTkmwpGxA2L/s320/rumdiary.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669060764925770162" border="0" /></a>by Raj Ranade<br /><br />The best works of writer Hunter S. Thompson adhere to a simple three-step pattern. Step 1: Thompson is assigned by an editor to report on some regional oddity (an election primary, a motorcycle race, <a href="http://www.ralphsteadman.com/KYDerby.asp">the Kentucky Derby</a>). Step 2: Thompson soaks his psyche in booze and pills until the topic he was meant to cover is a hazy blur backgrounding a detailed account of his own debauchery. Step 3: Said booze and pills continue twisting the lens of the coverage until it's back on the original topic itself, which provides a funhouse mirror view of it that generates a strikingly unique set of insights.<br /><br />Steps 1 and 2 are relatively easy - it's that third step that made Thompson a journalistic legend, and it's that step which is unfortunately lacking in Bruce Robinson's adaptation of Thompson's The Rum Diary. In fairness, that book was an embryonic version of Thompson's style, a debut novel which went unpublished until 1998. But Robinson and producer/star Johnny Depp have made their a movie version a sort of tribute to the idea of Thompson himself, which makes it all the more strange that this booze-soaked story seems oddly sober on screen.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />Thompson's loosely autobiographical novel follows a young reporter (Depp) newly arrived in Puerto Rico who runs up against apathetic editors (Richard Jenkins), drunken colleagues (Michael Rispoli, Giovanni Ribisi), and land developers (Aaron Eckhart) exploiting the locals. A number of big ideas are floating around the story - the ravages of economic imperialism, the birth of a reporter's moral consciousness, the unique clash of "American-ness" and native identity in Puerto Rico - but they're mostly just hinted at in the loose plot here, with the focus instead on its characters shambling through gags like experimentation with homebrewed "470 proof" alcohol and slapstick car chases.<br /><br />This isn't an awful thing, since Depp and company are the kind of actors that are consistently watchable even with a lackadaisical plot and a somewhat low joke hit/miss ratio, and also because the movie is ham-fisted when it comes to anything more substantial. This is, after all, the kind of movie that abstractly deplores insults to the dignity of the native population and then proceeds to only feature Puerto Rican characters as cockfighting enthusiasts and witch doctors - and the sloppy non-ending here is painfully pat and weirdly out of touch with where Thompson's work would eventually go.<br /><br />It's pretty clear that the only reason this movie really exists is Depp, who was a close friend of Thompson's and has spent much of his career paying homage to the man, whether by playing Thompson himself (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), narrating a documentary about him (Gonzo), or paying for his funeral service (a fireworks display where his ashes were fired out of a cannon). But if Depp isn't exactly bad in the film, his performance seems somewhat half-hearted. His understated facial expressions and deadpan vocal delivery work for the part, but they lack the kind of inventiveness and eccentricity that made Depp's name in the past. It's clear that the actor means well, but it seems like he ought to have tried harder, which happens to be a pretty apt description of the entire film around him.Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07491295912826652611noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-70359647644522045172011-10-28T18:45:00.003-04:002011-10-28T19:05:43.907-04:00Webbs Squander Goodwill (and the only hole they're digging...)BY DAVID M. F. SCHANKULA<br />
<br />
Over the past few months, the Webbs have tried to get real friendly. They tried to invest in good will. They tried to change their tune. They tried to do good, be open. They tried to listen. They tried to learn.<br />
<br />
And it seems they've given up instead of continuing to pursue good.<br />
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<br />
A shame. There was so much promise. That was our only hope.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.kentucky.com/2011/10/27/1937419/architect-jeanne-gang-no-longer.html">The Webbs dismissed Jeanne Gang</a>, the architect who breathed the first sign of life into the Webbs' dead block. Brought on at the suggestion of Mayor Gray, Gang revolutionized the Webbs' worldview -- or seemed to -- opening up their process and their thinking, holding public meetings and welcoming in local architects, local thinking, local suggestions, local needs.<br />
<br />
All that is over, and we're back to a cement block with no way to fund it.<br />
<br />
Let's pick apart what we know now from Beverly Fortune's Herald-Leader report:<br />
<blockquote>"She completed her work. She sent her final invoice, and it has been paid," [Dudley] said. <b>Webb could not recall the exact date but said that occurred several weeks ago</b>.</blockquote><i>Could not recall the exact date</i>, huh? That's funny. He never could recall the exact date. Every time his imaginary funding fell through either, his memory failed. When did the dead guy die? Not sure! When did the other mystery investors back out? Not sure! How long have you known about your lack of architectural talent? Not exactly sure.<br />
<blockquote>Reached by phone Thursday night, Gang said, "I'm very disappointed. Dudley wanted to proceed without our involvement."</blockquote>Who's the genius now? The woman who's been named one (MacArthur Foundation) or the developer who'd rather have a cement mixer design his building?<br />
<blockquote>"Jeanne Gang's inspiration resurrected the project in the hearts and minds of Lexington's citizens, changing fear to hope," [Mayor] Gray said in a statement.<br />
<br />
<b>"The city should ensure what's done is consistent with her vision. This is the center of our city. The center of our economic future. It must not be compromised."</b></blockquote>What a difference a mayor makes! While the news from Dudley is, indeed, disappointing, the only way any of this could have happened is due to the work of Mayor Jim Gray. He opened up the dialogue, he got the Webbs to wake up -- if only for a few months -- and he guided them to an architect with vision.<br />
<br />
The very notion that the city should "ensure" <i>anything</i> -- quality, vision, transparency, etc. -- was unimaginable under the old Mayor, and the old Mayor lost because of it.<br />
<br />
So... in the coming weeks and months as the Webbs suggest more-of-their-same concrete blocks, it will be interesting to see how the city responds and what the Webbs will be allowed to pretend to get away with. Because for the past three years, all the Webbs have done is play pretend and it's unclear if they can remember the way out of their own imagination (which must be torture -- a drab, gray place with cement walls towering around them and no people anywhere).<br />
<blockquote>Webb said he and Gang both talked with the owners of 21C Museum Hotel in Louisville, trying to recruit them to open a hotel in Lexington.<br />
<br />
"When that didn't work, ... <b>we went back to our original design for a convention hotel, which is much larger</b>," he said. Webb said the hotel would be a J.W. Marriott. "The design with the bundles wouldn't work."</blockquote>So Dudley asked <i>one</i> hotel group if they'd be interested in a boutique hotel and then he threw his hands up?<br />
<br />
There were no other boutiques to ask? No way to make that work?<br />
<br />
No, not according to Dudley Webb. [More on this later.]<br />
<blockquote>Asked whether Gang was given an opportunity to design a larger hotel, Webb said that Marriott "only deals with architects who have done convention hotels in the past, <b>so consequently, we were at a dead end on that one</b>."</blockquote><br />
For now, let's accept that <i>is</i> true [and more on that too, later]. Doesn't that call into question the judgment (and, already, the ultimately proposed product) of an international chain -- that it wouldn't leap at the chance to put a mark on the industry by partnering with one of the brightest young stars of architecture?<br />
<br />
And further... it just returns us to the ridiculous economics of the Webbs original proposal, a massive luxury hotel in a town that doesn't need one, with nightly rates twice that of its nearby competitors and with occupancy rates twice that of the competition, too. If the Hyatt and Radisson are at 50-60%, is the obvious conclusion that there are more people who want to stay in hotels in Lexington but they don't because the rooms don't cost enough?<br />
<br />
Or is the actual economic situation of the country, and the actual geographic reality of Lexington, such that this project has no place, has no need. If the Webbs build it, will all that change? Will ghosts emerge from the Bluegrass, rollerbags in hand and wads of cash bursting from their pockets?<br />
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Is that a fantasy? No way, not for Dudley! It's a yet-to-be-based-on-a-true-story true story. People will come, Gray. People will come. For its money they have and peace they like.<br />
<br />
Like that fallen mayor, Dudley Webb has vision.<br />
<blockquote>The hotel design will have to change, [EOP Architect's] Ekhoff said. "Tubes worked well for a boutique hotel, but because of the needs of a J.W. Marriott, tubes didn't work well," he said. "We have to comply with J.W.'s very strict requirements in terms of use needs."<br />
<br />
Rooms will have to be larger, and there will be a 10,000-square-foot ballroom, he said.<br />
<br />
<b>Webb said Marriott architects "are going to come in and bless the room size, the lobby, the ballroom, the interior space of the hotel."</b></blockquote>Yeah, and they blessed the previous three monstrosities, too. So that's heartening.<br />
<blockquote>Webb has been trying to arrange financing since then. He said Thursday that two banks have expressed interest in financing the project once the design is complete.<br />
<br />
"<b>They are still standing by</b>," he said.</blockquote>You know what? This one's actually worth believing.<br />
<br />
On its surface, its just yet another in a long line of misrepresentations by Dudley. There's money, he always tells us and, always, it's from some murky unnamed source. The dead guy was first and then there was his family and then there were these other investors and then there were a whole slew of them, an A plan and a B plan and a C plan and on and on. If you believe Dudley Webb, he's always had the money.<br />
<br />
But it never ever comes through. And then he says it's because of the financial environment.<br />
<br />
Which is true. The economy is not well. Which is why Gang's smaller scale project made more sense (or, that was <i>one</i> reason). But the economy's no better and the scale of this project will be just as daunting as the three numbskull plans that preceded it.<br />
<br />
But... all Dudley is saying is that there are two banks that have expressed interest in financing the project once the design is complete.<br />
<br />
That's what banks do. In fact, that's just the friendly way of <i>anyone</i> in business.<br />
<br />
When one guy in a suit goes and talks to another guy in a suit and says, "I've got this great project that's going to make you a lot of money," then the other suit isn't going to say, "Oh, I don't want to make a lot of money. I'm not interested."<br />
<br />
<i>Of course</i> Dudley can find two banks that might express interest in a fictional project. They have nothing to lose in <i>expressing</i> interest. If they actually believed in it, they'd tell Dudley to come right out and name them. The head of the bank would lend vocal support. And even then, even still, that would mean absolutely nothing. There would still be no financial obligation on the part of the bank. Ultimately, any investor will entertain most any idea until they actually see its details and run the math only to find it's a money loser.<br />
<br />
So, sure, Dudley. Maybe a couple of anonymous banks have expressed interest. Maybe. Shouldn't we give you the benefit of the doubt?<br />
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There's much more on all this, and we'll dig into that in the coming days. For now one thing is crystal clear. Whatever ill will the Webbs had amassed during the past three years, it will be back tenfold.<br />
<br />
Whatever mistrust and disbelief they had wrapped themselves in is now magnified. They were right to invite the public into the project, to open the process up and present a truly great vision. But now they've yanked that away and they aren't just back to the sad place they started at the beginning of this year... they've actually managed to dig themselves deeper into a hole.<br />
<br />
It's a shame that that's the only ground they're likely to be breaking any time soon.<br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2009/04/dead-financier-intended-to-reassure.html">Dead Financier Intended to Reassure CentrePointe skeptics?</a><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2009/04/substitute-financier-for-parrot.html">Substitute Financier for Parrot. 4.9.2009</a>David M. F. Schankulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06600654903199251422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-68722825982289373192011-10-23T22:36:00.001-04:002011-10-24T10:29:16.159-04:00Movie Briefs: Paranormal Activity 3Horror movies tend to arrive in waves and phases according to what feeds the audience appetite for fear at the time -- exorcism, vampires, torture porn, zombies, Japanese surreal, ghost stories, haunted houses, serial killers et al. <i>The Blair Witch Project</i> helped usher in the is-it-real/found-footage genre in 1999. A decade later, along came the far superior <i>Paranormal Activity</i>. As box office legend now has it, Oren Peli shot the entire project in a week, in his house, for $11,000 or $15,000 dollars (depending on the account). Possibly $28 bucks. Then it was "discovered" by Spielberg, and the rest is history. Last year's prequel was even more successful, and this weekend's <i>Paranormal 3</i> is poised to set more records.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The newest installment (directed by <i>Catfish</i>'s Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman with Tod Williams) feels like <i>Paranormal Activity 3S</i>. The first movie introduced Katie's paranormal problems after she moved in with boyfriend Micah (who sets up his video camera in the bedroom to figure out the source of their home's mysterious night time noises). Arriving with no expectations (beyond those Paramount cooked up online in getting fans to "demand" release on their hometown screens), it was cleverly terrifying. (We might not all routinely be beset by werewolves and chainsaws, but who<i> hasn't</i> heard an unexplained noise in the kitchen?)<br />
<br />
The second movie tells the story via security cameras over at Katie's sister, Kristi's house, in the days just before and after that, adding an imperiled dog and baby to the cast. The third movie "uncovers" VHS tapes from their childhood and the suburban 80s split-level where it all began.<br />
<br />
The device this time out is that their Mom has a live-in boyfriend who's a wedding videographer determined to investigate the odd noises and activity that accompany the girls' not-so-imaginary friend Toby. There's a (de rigueur) babysitter, a sidekick coworker for the de facto dad, and assorted relatives. It opens the narrative up a bit (like moving a play from stage to screen). There's a nod to <i>Poltergeist</i> in a white-noise moment that lets the grown-ups sleep unaware; the little girls seem ably poised to fill the void left by Abigail Breslin's inevitable aging into adolescence; and a camera mounted DIY on an oscillating fan delivers a few suspenseful pans before growing a little tired. <br />
<br />
While many movies give away their best material in the trailer, the opposite is true here -- the previews seem assembled from the cutting room floor of a film that never got made. Katie's 3-time "bloody mary" chant in the bathroom mirror resolves itself differently in the movie than the trailer. An expert who explains their supernatural problem (and gets banged onto the dining room table <i>Exorcist</i>-style for his trouble) in the trailer, never shows up in the movie. It's a problem, because viewers who are mentally ticking off plot points they're legitimately anticipating will find that the show's over before it's begun.<br />
<br />
The first movie never bothered to explain any of the architecture behind the shenanigans -- it could've been aliens for all we knew -- and it was better for it. The second went down the demonic track, and the third suggests witches out of left field. <i>Paranormal 4.0</i> will surely pick up where the first movie left off and we'll finally find out what becomes of Katie. <br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/10/weekend-movies-never-let-me-go-catfish.html">Catfish review, by Raj Ranade </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-62025425333398453752011-10-19T19:11:00.002-04:002011-10-24T10:27:58.000-04:00On Alan Stein's Retirement<small>On October 5, 2011, Alan Stein, president and CEO of the Lexington Legends announced his retirement. </small><br />
<br />
BY BRIAN GARDNER<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgT_i3CFA0llLJrj_DgG_g0fj8sc9Bh9Y9eP052KX89enHg_jYk7er-QjuGPOw26OVyJYdCBM7MZeFeR-LOR0D3HnSBGij8LYyBTo9HTjImh5AIu-FfgYb82LQ7Z_UdUHtLsod9o9oEsM/s1600/legendsfield2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgT_i3CFA0llLJrj_DgG_g0fj8sc9Bh9Y9eP052KX89enHg_jYk7er-QjuGPOw26OVyJYdCBM7MZeFeR-LOR0D3HnSBGij8LYyBTo9HTjImh5AIu-FfgYb82LQ7Z_UdUHtLsod9o9oEsM/s320/legendsfield2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i>“I’m 36 years old. I love my family. I love baseball and I’m about to become a farmer. But until I heard the voice, I’d never done a crazy thing in my whole life.” </i> Thus begins the story of Ray Kinsella and the construction of his baseball shrine in an Iowa corn field as detailed in the movie FIELD OF DEAMS. ‘The voice’ tells him, “if you build it, He will come.” Kinsella’s story is one of hope, love, obsession and baseball. <br />
<br />
Alan Stein might have channeled Ray Kinsella as he endeavored to bring professional baseball to Lexington. Though his odyssey did not involve plowing up a corn field or talking to ghosts, it did involve some big dreams and long odds. To appreciate the audacity of the undertaking we have to look back at the 1990s. At the time, Lexington, for whatever reason, was the largest city in America without professional baseball of any level. Many efforts had been made by loyal Lexingtonians to lure the national pastime to the Bluegrass. But these efforts and their backers were shut out. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbN74OR-TzvrqoaZrfrVammhc0dUOwSWIt3xVQtoMISVTXdInlx6s6yb6OHCMnQCE_6QcEDxW3wUoxEXA-JKnT-67KOHj8-sQ11zCaiQRWfXg6Ce1WK-gRBJZYVQEQQndtcd60loc9Uno/s1600/steinsbyForrestPayneForAce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbN74OR-TzvrqoaZrfrVammhc0dUOwSWIt3xVQtoMISVTXdInlx6s6yb6OHCMnQCE_6QcEDxW3wUoxEXA-JKnT-67KOHj8-sQ11zCaiQRWfXg6Ce1WK-gRBJZYVQEQQndtcd60loc9Uno/s320/steinsbyForrestPayneForAce.jpg" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alan Stein with wife Kathy, by Forrest Payne (archives 2002)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Unfortunately, public financing for a stadium was not to be found. The governmental well for such projects had run dry. Stein and his team would have to find private funding in order to build a stadium. It should be noted that there are about as many privately funded sports stadiums in this country as there are orange jerseys at Big Blue Madness. So….. with a decades long history of no professional baseball in Lexington and no public financing of a stadium, Stein must have thought it would be easier to lure ghosts to roam the fields of Lexington than a minor league baseball team. <br />
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While Ray Kinsella had to raze his cash crop to build his dream, Stein had to raise cash to construct his.<br />
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But using his powers of persuasion, diligence and hard work, Stein overcame the long odds and privately financed the construction of a stadium. The next step was to lure the Houston Astros Single A level affiliate to town and join the Minor Leagues. The Lexington Legends became a member of the historic South Atlantic League and it was soon time to “play ball”!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he Sally League, as it is affectionately known, is the home to some of the oldest and most storied franchises in all of professional baseball. The Savannah entry has been playing on the same field for over 100 years at a stadium originally constructed to hold football fans. Asheville’s McCormick Field has undergone several renovations through the years but untouched are the towering evergreens that form the outfield perimeter. These trees form beautiful setting and a natural green backdrop for a batter to study a spinning white baseball as it approaches the plate. It’s said that Shoeless Joe Jackson sought secret refuge in the League after he was banned from the Major Leagues following the Black Sox scandal in 1919. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZxIUCUuh4LwPReZbyQUT1Se5SOPaXYiW0yB1HcuDlXtEqNYm6nkBKTKLJLpTN5gDZ_Xie5Qu-mr5JF5_vnrpqwo0XyKqZQGiIB-cyCcv2LY4sH34P9q5OlP555EMSfBGzbT5qYlC5n9U/s1600/LegendsField.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZxIUCUuh4LwPReZbyQUT1Se5SOPaXYiW0yB1HcuDlXtEqNYm6nkBKTKLJLpTN5gDZ_Xie5Qu-mr5JF5_vnrpqwo0XyKqZQGiIB-cyCcv2LY4sH34P9q5OlP555EMSfBGzbT5qYlC5n9U/s320/LegendsField.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>When it came to fitting into the Sally League, the Legends were a natural. Winning the League title in their first year of existence, Lexington was a perfect match for the charm, history and tradition of the historic League. With the finest facility in the Sally League and one of the best in all of Minor League Baseball, the Legends hosted the League's ALL Star Game in 2003. Ultimately, Stein was elected to the League’s Board of Directors and held Leadership positions in Minor League Baseball through his tenure. Not only had Stein and the Legends arrived….they belonged!<br />
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On the field, fans have witnessed some great moments in the 11-year history of the team. Roger Clemens made his much ballyhooed return to baseball with the Legends after his short lived retirement. Kentucky’s own Josh Anderson stole five bases in one game and kept on running to the Major Leagues. Bryce Harper hit his first professional homer over the Legends' left field wall (if you don’t yet know who he is- you will!). Every Opening Day has been packed with patrons full of promise and optimism. Each year Alan Stein would guarantee a Legends opening day victory lest he have to dress in silly clothing or shave his signature mustache. This helped fuel the kind of optimism that only baseball can provide with its springtime renewal. As sure as spring returns each year to melt winter's snow and drive away the cold, baseball continually renews us, restores us and wakes us from our hibernation. <br />
<br />
But perhaps Stein’s greatest contribution to Lexington’s landscape wasn’t on the field of play but in the surrounding stands. Think of all the families able to enjoy a great summer evening of bonding time at the ball park without spending a week’s wages. Imagine all the wonderful memories of kids running on the field while watching their heroes. The friends re-connecting while discussing the strategies of the game and arguing over who’s the greatest player of all time. Young dating couples learning the rules of the game while learning --- the rules of the game. Stein's greatest gifts are the untold number of stories that begin with “remember that time at the Legends game….” Stories that will bind families together for generations and bridge gaps of time, age and distance. Long after the stadium's lights have dimmed, the created memories will burn bright. <br />
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As Ray Kinsella contemplates whether or not to keep his fantasy field, he is told this: “people will come, Ray. They’ll come for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll arrive as innocent as children, longing for the past. It’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The one constant through the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, erased and built again. But baseball has marked the time. This game, this field, it reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again. People will most definitely come.” <br />
<br />
Because of the vision, courage and dedication of Alan Stein, we all have had a chance to dip in ‘magic waters’ and regain the innocence of children. <br />
<br />
He built it ….and we came.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/weekend-movies-moneyball.html">Moneyball review, by Raj Ranade </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-77798010069701030672011-10-19T18:23:00.000-04:002011-10-19T18:23:57.776-04:00The Rupp Area Public Meeting -- an overview of current thinkingBY DAVID SCHANKULA <br />
<br />
Early on at Buster's last night, Stan Harvey put up a slide of an old Adolph Rupp quote about opportunity and told the crowd it was like ol' Adolph was speaking to us from beyond the grave.<br />
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If that's the case, perhaps it was also Adolph Rupp who poured down thunder and lightning in a deafening hard rain, at times nearly drowning out the speakers during the 90 minutes first public meeting of the Rupp Area task force.<br />
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Maybe Rupp's message about opportunity isn't about spending hundreds of millions of dollars to fluff Mitch Barnhart and certain others at the University of Kentucky. Maybe it's about the opportunity to leave Rupp essentially as is, and build a great city around it.<br />
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Just as they did a month ago, each speaker made clear this Task Force isn't about building a new arena.<br />
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"This is <i>not</i> about making a decision on anything," Chairman Brent Rice told the assembled. It's an <i>investigation</i>, he said.<br />
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And talking to those assembled, the folks who took the time to come down and give it a listen, another thing became clear -- many people, on both the for and the against, are mistakenly debating one issue: the Arena.<br />
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Mitch Barnhart and some loud-speaking Wildcat homers are obsessed with Louisville's YUM! Center and are posturing like nothing less is acceptable. Others are pointing out the sheer insanity of that position -- and it is astonishingly short-sighted.<br />
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But there's much more under consideration and if you talk to the folks running this show, it quickly becomes apparent that the folks in charge understand -- and <i>want</i> -- an arts and entertainment district. And you may also get the distinct impression they <i>don't want</i> a new arena.<br />
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Speaker after speaker talked not of luxury boxes but of creating a walkable downtown. They spoke of an 800 seat performing arts venue, a public space with amphitheater, on and on.<br />
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But there was arena talk, too, so let's get to it all. What did Gary Bates -- head of Space Group, master planner for the Arts & Entertainment District -- have to say? The below is an overview. There is much more to say and to discuss, but let's first lay out essentially what was discussed.<br />
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First and foremost, the master planner said our job and his is to turn the critiques -- and there are plenty -- into a positive message. Then he said he'd share with us a few dreams.<br />
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--Big Blue Madness is an amazing event. 25,000 people screaming their heads off. But afterwards... everyone disappears. How do we create a downtown that people think of as a destination? Currently, they come down, go to the event, then immediately get back in their cars and drive away. <b>How can we retain that energy -- and by retaining it, can we acclimate people to the <i>idea</i> of a downtown such that they come down at other times, too, not just for basketball, a circus or a concert. </b><br />
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--<b>Rupp is remarkable as it is</b> because we are fitting twice as many people into the same cubic space as some new, state of the art arenas (Florida's, YUM!, etc).<br />
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--Rupp is remarkable as it is because it sits right at the <i>center</i> of Lexington. <b>It should remain there, with an iconic sense of belonging. </b><br />
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--Bates took us on a tour through Lexington history, with diagrams and photographs his point simply that he and his team <i>are looking at the whole city</i>. <b>They are looking back across the past changes, how they affected the city and what we can learn. </b>The Rose and Elm expansion, the Transit Center, and so forth. How they separate the city, how they could change in the future. This is not necessarily work Bates is contracted to do, but it would good of us to listen.<br />
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--There were maps showing how close the residential neighborhoods come to the core, and how small businesses are weaved throughout downtown (<b>largely, Bates noted, north of Main</b>).<br />
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--<b>Peoples' perception of distance is greater than the actual distance.</b> Bates compared Fayette Mall to downtown, the distance is roughly the same, the walk from Rupp to Library is the same as Macy's to Dillards. But people are only willing to do one by the thousands.<br />
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--<b>It's a 12 minute walk to campus, but it feels much longer.</b> How can the flow of students and the foot traffic become an event, one that invites and encourages foot traffic in general, and reduces the parking and traffic burden on event's day.<br />
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--<b>The Transpheria</b>. Perhaps the biggest dream, a train station, a transit hub, running trains to the airport, Louisville and beyond. Look at Ann Arbor, Bates said, "it can be done." The location: the Corman land, at the end of the Cox Street parking lot, right where the old trains station used to be. Whether or not there's a Transpheria, all roads <i>already </i>lead to the Arts and Entertainment District.<br />
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--<b>The Mirror</b>. Currently, the downtown core stretches from Rupp to Midland. Taking the same size and reflecting it down Broadway and out Manchester Street, a mirror image creates an extended core which, incidentally, exactly matches the existing Distillery TIF district. The core of this mirror is easily divided up into five minute diameters: five from the Distillery District to Rupp, five from Rupp to the GrasseyFielde and so on, with equal fives stretching up to the restaurant row north of Main and south toward the campus.<br />
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--<b>Two Way Streets</b>. Bates was clear. The key to creating a downtown is two way streets. Vine is a freeway. Main is inhospitable. And as became evident later, the possible Rupp Area scenarios all seem to want to disrupt that backward street flow. The speed on Vine in particular is too high, hurting the city and the concrete walls are inhospitable. (This was met by loud applause.)<br />
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--<b>Town Branch</b>. It deserves better. Bates talked often throughout the evening, and included several illustrations, of uncovering the creek currently hidden under the city and bringing it to the foreground as the positive attribute it could be.<br />
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--<b>The Cox Street Parking Lot</b>. People see it as a drainage ditch. It doesn't need to be. And it's not that unusable. The Jefferson Street bridge is unneccessary. What if we removed the bridge, put the street on the ground, and turned what is now a parking lot into... the new convention center, a public space, an amphitheatre, etc. The hill the bridge connects to is not <i>that </i>daunting an incline. But it is daunting enough for kids in winter with sleds.<br />
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--<b>"Skybridges."</b> That's what Bates calls them, and whether you call them that or "pedways," the answer's the same: they are barriers. We should get rid of them and we certainly don't need any more. (The Webbs' visionary eye for urban design sheds a tear.)<br />
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--<b>Arts Venue</b>. They're talking to local arts groups, the university's arts departments and the public schools about a venue. Finding one to fit all is difficult, but creating a multi-use arts venue (or multiple locations throughout the district) is a key to bringing downtown to life.<br />
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--The Lexington Center. This is space is "difficult." An enormous lobby, nothing about it particularly inspiring. The shops are empty. At lunch on an average day, there are about seven people eating at the Arby's. That's it. Bates and his team are <b>"questioning that space."</b><br />
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--Taking a wider view of the Rupp/Convention block as it is now, Bates wonders how to give the city the visual connections great cities offer, ways to see through the city demonstrating accessibility between parts (for instance, the distance between UK and Rupp seems grand in part because there's no clear path to it, though there are acres of surface parking, if that's your thang.) In one view, <b>this meant knocking down everything around the Arena itself and creating an avenue between the refashioned arena and the hotel</b>. In another, High Street curled smoothly into the Distillery District with the Jefferson Bridge sunk to the ground and the parking lot as green space.<br />
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--"<b>If Rupp needs to expand, and it does.</b>" There was a quote for the night. There are powerful forces calling for a new arena and those voices could basically care less about the rest of these ideas unless they are in service to the cause of a new arena. That view must be stopped. But there's a fair question about what <i>really </i>needs to happen to Rupp Arena. The options being set out are and A v. B., but there's a C. and it's disservice to the city to overlook that, regardless of the University of Kentucky's self-serving interest. That's a longer discussion and should happen, but for now, I'll leave it at that.<br />
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--<b>Building a new Rupp and a new convention center is "very difficult."</b> Bates made clear the obvious financial predicament that everyone but that UK-homer crew seems to realize. This is promising. It's a further strength of the 47-member committee. The more decision makers who are forced to confront this reality, the better. Fantasyland is a fun place to put your mind, but it's not a place to make good decisions.<br />
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--<b>The High-to-Maxwell parking ocean</b>. Could we put residential housing here that flows naturally and meshes well with the surrounding area? Could we put a new arena there, or the convention center? Could we build the convention center underground here with open space above for convention goers and public space, a garden and/or an amphitheater, above?<br />
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--<b>Rupp Arena has "Great Bones."</b> This is important. The structure itself is solid. The building is built to last. Tearing that down isn't just a loss but a waste. This ties into the larger, <i>actual</i>, conversation about rebuilding, renovating or just <i>re-using</i>.<br />
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--In one idea for a new arena, Bates showed a slide of a sports park, letting people recreate "in the proximity of greatness." Surrounding the new arena with soccer fields, tennis and basketball courts. An urban playland. This is a very cool idea, and he showed an image of a project they are working on India, Sports City, that has a similar plan. But again, taking Bates' overall apparent preference for <i>not</i> building a new arena, <b>this one seems more like a false choice for deluded dreamers to entertain but lose</b>.<br />
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<a href="http://spacegroup.no/projects/india_sports_city"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7329" height="157" src="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Cam-2-final_1500x787_0_0_1200-300x157.jpg" title="Cam 2 final_1500x787_0_0_1200" width="300" /></a><br />
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--#FreeRupp. <b>In tone and intent, this may well be Bates' actual plan</b>. Considering the arena as it is now, it is a gem of a space surrounded by an empty, soulless facade. Ripping away that nonsense and leaving the arena standing alone at its center, space is opened up around it, creating that iconic centerpiece. The level at which Bates may be taking this seriously was reinforced by the model city on display after the presentation, the downtown area in question, with Rupp sitting free and alone in a transparent cube:<br />
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<a href="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_0966.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7330" height="225" src="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_0966-300x225.jpg" title="IMG_0966" width="300" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_0974.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7331" height="225" src="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_0974-300x225.jpg" title="IMG_0974" width="300" /></a><br />
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The explicit point of this transparent view was almost certainly to isolate our visions on the space available surrounding the object in question. <b>But the implicit point couldn't be clearer.</b><br />
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--To further impress this, Bates went on to talk about an open modeled arena. In which you can see what is inside and into which the outside surroundings flow. His example, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allianz_Arena#Construction">the Allianz soccer stadium in Munich</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allianz_Arena#Construction"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7332" height="314" src="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/250px-Allianzarenacombo.jpg" title="250px-Allianzarenacombo" width="250" /></a><br />
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--With the arena now stripped down to a stand-alone structure, Bates headed into his closing by surrounding the newfound emptiness around the transparent box with the possibilities of an expanded Triangle Park, an new set of buildings along Main, each slide successfully shutting the Vine Street connector that currently starts the race track and turns Triangle Park into an aggrandized traffic island.<br />
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Here, Bates came to a close. Rather than a laborious Q&A, he invited everyone to mingle and discuss, to approach him with questions and ideas of their own. People did, and Bates gamely listened... not dutifully, not as a show, but really seeming to listen, huddling with people beside a wall-sized map of downtown and illustrating their ideas onto the map as they spoke. And around the map, people post-it noted additional ideas.<br />
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<a href="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_0968.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7333" height="225" src="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_0968-300x225.jpg" title="IMG_0968" width="300" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_0969.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7335" height="225" src="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_0969-300x225.jpg" title="IMG_0969" width="300" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_0969.jpg"></a><a href="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_0973.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7334" height="225" src="http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_0973-300x225.jpg" title="IMG_0973" width="300" /></a>There's much, much more to be said about all of this, but for now, this seems enough. If you couldn't be there, this at least offers a basic overview of the thinking and the dreaming. The discussion must continue, but it is clear that for whatever criticisms some might lob in their direction, this task force, and Mayor Gray and Gary Bates in particular, are working on something grand.<br />
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Whether Rupp's thunderstorm was a warning or his quote about opportunity an encouragement is, at best, debatable. What is clear is Lexington could be reshaped in an image less like the concrete tombs of the past fifty years and more like a localized and local-driven city. There is something here and it's foolish to write it off. What's worse, though, is pretending a new arena is the solution, let alone a truly viable option.David M. F. Schankulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06600654903199251422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-62313712300477009082011-10-12T18:56:00.003-04:002011-10-17T22:18:05.082-04:00Kentucky poet Nikky Finney Finalist for National Book Award, Poetry<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=acew-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0810152169&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">U</span>niversity of Kentucky student multimedia site <a href="http://bluecoastlive.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/uk-prof-nikky-finney-named-finalist-for-national-book-award-poetry/">Bluecoast Live </a>reports that Affrilachian poet Nikky Finney is a finalist for the National Book Award for poetry.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGTdOuI_YSUudouMV6llDyljJbn3pNP_sppM718p10vkICpOmSTvdnzqWEblQ-FYsD5my_jf3taJu2BqpWNSBwvh2wZ5j73BGvK87MRkP-BCnddq-DTLNIho8Cu39eRsMlkzg1z14cpqo/s1600/AceNikkyFinneyMarch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGTdOuI_YSUudouMV6llDyljJbn3pNP_sppM718p10vkICpOmSTvdnzqWEblQ-FYsD5my_jf3taJu2BqpWNSBwvh2wZ5j73BGvK87MRkP-BCnddq-DTLNIho8Cu39eRsMlkzg1z14cpqo/s400/AceNikkyFinneyMarch.jpg" width="365" /></a>A professor at UK, Finney was featured on the March 17 cover of Ace, in a <a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/03/books-in-this-weeks-ace-nikky-finney.html">coverstory by Bianca Spriggs,</a> when her new book, <i>Head Off and Split,</i> was released. <br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/12/kickstarter-guy-mendes-4040-project.html">The Guy Mendes 40/40 Project </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-83402207433106843092011-10-11T18:10:00.005-04:002011-10-17T22:14:18.232-04:00Ed McClanahan Reader hits shelves<small>This article appears on page 6 of the October 13 print edition of Ace. It is the author's narrative behind-the-scenes of his new book.</small> <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji1nrC6UvDkcWKBckcS50EFdHIficyuTLDx-kikQfvMCByjTFCCrgqiSCMH3jPr12U1AXifh6YMSNqKWV2G6xcdEYZTQeVKRTTW4xKti87K7xvjDwbmt2B2w2-4uMqNv9qA9hGVTH0b2k/s1600/MCCLANAHAN+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji1nrC6UvDkcWKBckcS50EFdHIficyuTLDx-kikQfvMCByjTFCCrgqiSCMH3jPr12U1AXifh6YMSNqKWV2G6xcdEYZTQeVKRTTW4xKti87K7xvjDwbmt2B2w2-4uMqNv9qA9hGVTH0b2k/s320/MCCLANAHAN+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo by Ace: the Author at his Lexington home</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Eschew Higgledy-Piggledy<br />
An Owner's Manual to the Ed McClanahan Reader </b></span><br />
<b>by Ed McClanahan </b> <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>’ve long entertained the fancy that someday I would see all my favorite stories artfully assembled—by me, of course—in a single volume, but that pipe-dream took on new urgency when I realized that my book <i>A Congress of Wonders</i>—comprised of three novella-length stories including “Finch’s Song,” the story I want to be represented by when I stand before that Great Literary Panel in the Sky—had gone completely and permanently out of print. Eek! <br />
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That’s when Counterpoint Press—in the person of Jack Shoemaker—leaped into the breach with the opportunity to put together this collection, allowing me not only to salvage the Congress stories but also to showcase them in company with my other personal-best choices.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcFciVnyFv66KRvUUkLrHRC8Yix6qReKUXe5HzP2ywyRn8g0dQVndmc_dfsPw5E9Cp1O2ttJf-RZbStkViCjjUf8IlsVpmZyv0rLovavtCuCz6E7aP71hYIG7II0rm0plLeff_Czp2krQ/s1600/MCCLANAHAN+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcFciVnyFv66KRvUUkLrHRC8Yix6qReKUXe5HzP2ywyRn8g0dQVndmc_dfsPw5E9Cp1O2ttJf-RZbStkViCjjUf8IlsVpmZyv0rLovavtCuCz6E7aP71hYIG7II0rm0plLeff_Czp2krQ/s200/MCCLANAHAN+002.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">artist's rendering of the author</td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9NWrteLWEDriOZ9Bl0ACfWJT3NCW4AeZNUqPuDH09aWu-NUwh1nVayUPwVVU43ZOgAZjY7sDbzOA3ihvvtJ5NDzQBwMw-4TzNdxmsBATK0f96R0TYYOPzo9d1jB5VJJWs_QNy48rhll4/s1600/edbookcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9NWrteLWEDriOZ9Bl0ACfWJT3NCW4AeZNUqPuDH09aWu-NUwh1nVayUPwVVU43ZOgAZjY7sDbzOA3ihvvtJ5NDzQBwMw-4TzNdxmsBATK0f96R0TYYOPzo9d1jB5VJJWs_QNy48rhll4/s1600/edbookcover.jpg" /></a><i>I Just Hitched In from the Coast: The Ed McClanahan Reader</i> is a gathering of fourteen previously published stories, an admixture of fiction and non-fiction, memoir and imagination. The three Congress of Wonders stories—which are inter-connected, especially by the presence in all three of my favorite character, Rev./Prof./Dr. Philander Cosmo Rexroat—provide a sort of narrative backbone for this assemblage of otherwise pretty disparate pieces, written as they were over a span of more than forty years.<br />
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But in fact there’s an intricate web of connective tissue betwixt and amongst the other stories, too: There’s a coming-of-age subtext, a Sixties subtext, a rock-n-roll subtext, a country & western subtext, an academia subtext, and other subtexts too numerous to mention, subtexts I probably haven’t even thought of yet myself.<br />
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William Maxwell (in the epigraph to the book) says, "I would be content to stick to the facts, if there were any." If I were granted my fondest wish for this collection, it would be that my readers (if there are any) would read the book straight through, cover to cover, almost as though it were an autobiographical novel, which is by definition an indissoluble admixture of fact and fiction.<br />
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Even for me, I confess, it's often pretty hard to tell which is which. My writing more or less lives in the interface between experience and imagination; I like to say that my fiction is largely a re-imagined version of things that really happened in my life, whereas my non-fiction is to a considerable extent a pack of lies—because sometimes, as my friend Chuck Kinder says, "you just have to go where the story takes you." <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaU7K8vppvNn8PaU0r7ybsfCCKmyy7khznNi4OIQGoBZ84eEOxysUMnAj8AsYyUFX49aicxiafzt2FcoJ9nXvTO9tAw9MbkvegQoeO7XOr-zbVcxDgCuMh3oqMkmHHe3ij95XQYXjqsNI/s1600/p1coverOct13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaU7K8vppvNn8PaU0r7ybsfCCKmyy7khznNi4OIQGoBZ84eEOxysUMnAj8AsYyUFX49aicxiafzt2FcoJ9nXvTO9tAw9MbkvegQoeO7XOr-zbVcxDgCuMh3oqMkmHHe3ij95XQYXjqsNI/s320/p1coverOct13.jpg" width="292" /></a></div>While Tom Marksbury and I were deciding which pieces to include in the collection, we were also giving a great deal of thought to the order in which we wanted to present them. Tom and I have a good deal of experience in this line of work; we’ve already officially collaborated on two collections—one a gathering of my own work titled <i>My Vita, If You Will</i> (Counterpoint, 1998), the other a tribute issue of the late Ken Kesey’s self-published magazine, <i>Spit in the Ocean #7: All About Kesey</i> (Penguin, 2003)—and Tom also plays the ineffable Bodiless Head in The Congress of Wonders film, so we like to think we’ve learned a thing or three about how collaboration’s done.<br />
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Life may well be lahk a box of chawklits, but a <i>book</i> has to have its own raison d’être, or (better yet) several raisons. I realize that readers tend to cherry-pick their way through anthologies and collections like this one, but listen, folks, the reason a book has a front cover and a back cover is just so you’ll know where to start and when it’s over. Hey, it's a story, not a grab-bag of miscellaneous loose ends. And because it’s a story—and a long one at that—, it has, again by definition, a narrative arc, within which are many lesser narrative arcs, stories within stories within stories, leitmotifs and through-lines and back-stories crisscrossing each other like the fiery trails of far-away roman candles in the evening sky.<br />
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Moreover, although the stories aren’t presented in anything remotely resembling chronological order, chronology was nonetheless a major consideration in the selection and sequencing of the contents—because, for instance, sometimes a story or a portion of a story will turn up again as a sort of footnote (an afterthought, perhaps, or a parenthetical, or a lingering memory, or an echo) in a different story altogether. And of course one doesn’t want to let the footnote get ahead of the horse, thereby treading all over one’s own best lines. So that was another thing we had to bear in mind.<br />
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Then too, there are all those emotional peaks and valleys (some of which are of a precipitous description) in these fourteen stories, all those tonal crescendos and diminuendos, all those disparate, dissonant, sometimes discordant voices and extraneous noises to be orchestrated into a single coherent, purposeful composition, in the hope that, subliminally, those distant fireworks will be accompanied by a tiny celestial symphony.<br />
<br />
Yes, you can go all higgledy-piggledy on us and read these stories piecemeal, in no particular order at all, and I’d like to think you’ll still find them rewarding. They’re pretty goddamn good stories, if I do say so myself (and I do, I do!), and of course I fervently hope you think so too. But the real rewards—if there are any—are in reading the book straight through, because if you listen very carefully as you read, you’ll hear the entire libretto of that aforementioned autobiographical novel, operatically rendered by a teensy-weensy Mormon Tabernacle Choir (I sing soprano and Tom is a basso profundo) backed by an itty-bitty New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Distant fireworks an extra added attraction.<br />
<br />
<i>Ed McClanahan will read October 12, 2011 at 7 pm at the Morris Book Shop at their new 882 East High Street location. He will read at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lexington Green at 7 pm, Tuesday, October 18, 2011.</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE</b></span><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/10/lexingtons-david-king-author-of-death.html">Lexington's David King: Author of Death in the City of Light </a><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/12/kickstarter-guy-mendes-4040-project.html">The Guy Mendes 40/40 Project </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-80371557859244803592011-10-11T14:04:00.003-04:002011-10-12T09:58:06.314-04:00Big Blue All-Stars vs. the Villains: The Ultimate Do-Over<div style="text-align: justify;"><small>This article appears on page 14 of the October 13 print edition of Ace.</small> <br />
<br />
<b>by Heather C. Watson </b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>f we could turn back the clock, most of us have one thing that we’d do differently. We’d jump in the TARDIS or the DeLorean, we’d travel back in time, and we’d rectify our one big regret. We’d go to a better school, date a different person, or avoid bangs altogether. We’d take that flight to Vegas or pop for the good tickets. We’d go for it. Now, this kind of thinking is the stuff of cheesy advertisements, bad science fiction and even worse Cher songs, but it also touches a nerve with so many of us because, deep-down, we all wish we had one do-over. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Most University of Kentucky fans, if given the opportunity for a basketball do-over, would choose the same moment: the 1992 East Regional Final.<br />
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That infamous UK-Duke game in which Blue Devil Christian Laettner stomped Wildcat Aminu Timberlake’s chest and was, astonishingly, not ejected from the game. The same game in which Laettner went on to sink a 17 foot buzzer-beater for the 104-103 Duke win. We’ve relived it a thousand times in the nineteen years since it occurred. We’ve second-guessed the officials, the coaches and the players. We’ve tried hard to forget it, but those efforts haven’t been helped by the fact that that CBS rolls out the footage of that horrible shot every season for their March Madness montage. Nearly twenty years later, we still just can’t get away from that damned shot. Next Monday night, however, Kentucky fans will get a do-over of sorts as Laettner, perhaps the most reviled man in the history of UK basketball rivalries, will walk into Rupp Arena. One can almost hear the movie-trailer announcer’s tagline: “This time, it’s personal.”<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">These days, Christian Laettner is middle-aged and long-retired from basketball. He’s 42 and balding, and not quite up to an on-court beatdown. Fittingly enough, the ultimate villain in UK basketball lore will be coaching a team known as The Villans in an exhibition game that’s being marketed as a modern-day epic of good versus evil. <a href="http://www.rupparena.com/events/2011/20111024_bbasTheVillains.php">The Villains will take on the Big BlueAll-Stars</a>, perhaps the greatest Fantasy Basketball team of all time, comprised of an elite group of recent Kentucky basketball alumni turned NBA players. Kentucky’s Golden Boy, the beloved Rex Chapman, will coach the All-Stars, playing the Skywalker to Laettner’s Vader.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiehDz0gce9eoA0ylksKaF5-1ZOGR2outwvvozLsDvnqrQiiEwkb5w_pH5av5CnWYHSNbdvCeG4xdREST_yRG2c7e67gHZnrWPiRLtu2XsD1gGr9-vodYtVoWLA3ppbxO9MUXBOYqa9UjbE/s1600/DSC00794.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiehDz0gce9eoA0ylksKaF5-1ZOGR2outwvvozLsDvnqrQiiEwkb5w_pH5av5CnWYHSNbdvCeG4xdREST_yRG2c7e67gHZnrWPiRLtu2XsD1gGr9-vodYtVoWLA3ppbxO9MUXBOYqa9UjbE/s320/DSC00794.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rajon Rondo. Not a Villain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>While the Big Blue All-Stars tour has many corporate sponsors, including State Farm Insurance and Wildcat alum Jeff Sheppard’s 15inc, this unique showcase has been made possible by the NBA lockout. As former Wildcats have faced an uncertain season in professional basketball, frustratingly shut out from playing the game that they love, they’ve returned to Lexington for conditioning and training. They’ve availed themselves of Coach Cal’s hospitality and the University’s first-rate facilities. And, they’ve had more than a little free time on their hands. The All-Star tour has made constructive use of that time, taking fan favorites like DeMarcus Cousins, Rajon Rondo, and Chuck Hayes on the road to small Kentucky towns such as Hazard and Maysville to compete in exhibition matches against local college teams. The All-Stars have criss-crossed the Commonwealth, dunking on unwitting Junior College players, kissing babies, and signing countless t-shirts. They’ve raised funds for the V Foundation, the cancer research organization established in memory of legendary North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano. And, they’ve allowed Wildcat fans to engage in the ultimate game of armchair coach: Over the years, every Wildcat fan has played the “what if” game, spinning scenarios as far-fetched as “Rondo at the point, setting up Brandon Knight” or “Cousins playing guard.” For a few brief hours, in tiny high school gyms across the state, we’ve watched in delight as these wild fantasies came true. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Now, as our collective nostalgia for seasons past has reached a fever pitch, the All-Stars will enter Rupp to take on the Villains. Led by the loathsome Laettner, the Villans offer up such hated players as former Tar Heel Tyler Hansbrough. Also among the Villans’ ranks are a few guys we sure wish we’d seen in Wildcat Blue, like Butler alum (and Lexington native) Shelvin Mack and former Morehead State powerhouse Kenneth Faried. Monday’s game promises the return of such Wildcat legends as John Wall, Tayshaun Prince and Nazr Mohammed. It promises to kick off the upcoming basketball season with an incredible reminder of the team’s legacy.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">But, most of all, the All-Star game promises the hope that, every once in a while, we do get a do-over.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/16004743DC77721A">Click here to purchase tickets to the Oct 24 Big Blue All Stars vs. The Villains </a>game.<br />
<br />
</div>Heather C. Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04824085296193130477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-69219949297237789402011-10-11T11:50:00.003-04:002011-10-17T22:21:53.311-04:00Table 310 Desserts in Food and Wine Magazine<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIaaOL0l9G7I2TJJWIi7YZT_rInszy14VzkmbsQBtksAtvSyvR8ADcGPZvHEnF1uVLcf4yZEu_lKV79jcfIeetZJH49gjMQZNfrAUD_JElAVXblM-YVYkFbPav8xPWt5wA1QoIsTL0YDk/s1600/bravetart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIaaOL0l9G7I2TJJWIi7YZT_rInszy14VzkmbsQBtksAtvSyvR8ADcGPZvHEnF1uVLcf4yZEu_lKV79jcfIeetZJH49gjMQZNfrAUD_JElAVXblM-YVYkFbPav8xPWt5wA1QoIsTL0YDk/s320/bravetart.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parks' Pic of F&W page, featuring her pot de creme, by Sideshow Photo</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">P</span>ick up the November edition of <i>Food and Wine Magazine</i> for a glimpse of Table 310's desserts by Stella Parks -- <a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/best-of-lexington-2011.html">voted Best Decadent Desserts</a> in the Ace Best of Lexington 2011 Readers' Poll. <br />
<br />
Regular patrons at Lexington's Table 310 will give you important advice: Save room for dessert. Pastry girl Parks graduated from the CIA and lived in Japan before settling in Lexington, where her worldly confections are on the menu at both Table 310 on Short Street, and the Wine + Market at the corner of Second and Jefferson.<br />
<br />
<br />
You can sample her red velvet cake recipe over at <a href="http://www.gilttaste.com/stories/2292-the-original-red-wine-velvet-cake-recipe">Gilt Taste</a>. You can read her response to this year's Best of Lexington win <a href="http://bravetart.com/blog/IFeelGrand?commented=1#c002080">here. </a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVuh9X73pxc8-YYmqlNXYvdB0HIP-Y06gsQicUz2I9QJQQzOvdy5gRGqDCNWWBkYnaOl5a_cFCVE5VXr7HAAFf_8BeASvuesrALFGBUkx14Jj9bkU1Pd_LPcRowDR2cCFiCFbbIOElvOY/s1600/AceHolidayAd2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVuh9X73pxc8-YYmqlNXYvdB0HIP-Y06gsQicUz2I9QJQQzOvdy5gRGqDCNWWBkYnaOl5a_cFCVE5VXr7HAAFf_8BeASvuesrALFGBUkx14Jj9bkU1Pd_LPcRowDR2cCFiCFbbIOElvOY/s320/AceHolidayAd2011.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE </span><br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/louisvilles-chef-edward-lee-takes-on.html">Louisville's Chef Edward Lee takes on Top Chef Texas </a><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/best-of-lexington-2011.html">Ace Best of Lexington 2011</a><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/06/cupcake-wars-lexingtons-browns-bakery.html">Cupcake Wars: Lexington's Brown's Bakery a Contender </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-66219504512194847652011-10-09T11:14:00.001-04:002011-10-09T11:15:51.902-04:00Lexington's David King: Author of Death in the City of Light<small>This article appears on page 7 of the October 13 print edition of Ace.</small> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcG-mAj4_Ab2J4FcXDku-sYYEYph_GNIUoKsczBH3PkHmNEcjnGDSE9lVzrFw2yLCCWcrtTtE4KvV28m77JmL-4nNRdmLnOQg21WRc_xyqSHi4zwsY1XLcVrAjebRT5eB7W1DUitxwi1Y/s1600/p7PhotoDavidKingsBook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcG-mAj4_Ab2J4FcXDku-sYYEYph_GNIUoKsczBH3PkHmNEcjnGDSE9lVzrFw2yLCCWcrtTtE4KvV28m77JmL-4nNRdmLnOQg21WRc_xyqSHi4zwsY1XLcVrAjebRT5eB7W1DUitxwi1Y/s320/p7PhotoDavidKingsBook.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Serial Killer </span><br />
Lexington author's new book takes on true crime and history in Nazi-occupied France <br />
<br />
By Kakie Urch<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">D</span>avid King was perusing a spy memoir from World War II that he had picked up -- as part of his antiquarian book habit -- at the Friends of the Lexington Public Library store. <br />
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That’s where the Lexingtonian, a European history specialist and author, first saw mention of Dr. Marcel Petiot, serial killer. <br />
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Dr. Petiot, whose home at 21 rue La Sueur in Nazi-occupied Paris spewed a foul smoke that turned out to be the stench of burning human corpses chopped up and stuffed in a stove. Dr. Petiot, whose premises also contained a 10-foot pit filled with quicklime and as many as 46 decomposed bodies. <br />
<br />
Dr. Petiot, who claimed he was working for the French Resistance as he told persecuted Jews to pack all their valuables into suitcases and report to 21 rue La Sueur for safe passage to South America. Dr. Petiot who eluded Paris police for seven months, spending time impersonating an Army officer investigating himself. <br />
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Dr. Petiot, who at the carnivalesque trial, surrounded by the evidentiary suitcases of the dead, displayed a brilliance and a madness that confounded the justice process and who, in a quintessentially French moment, screamed at the bailiff, “I forbid you to use ‘tu’ with me!” <br />
<br />
Dr. Petiot, the former provincial mayor and respected doctor, who, though no one could ever prove exactly how he killed his victims, was convicted of 26 murders and sent to the guillotine. <br />
<br />
King’s new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Death-City-Light-Serial-Nazi-Occupied/dp/0307452891">Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris</a>, is a thrilling masterwork of archival research, popular history and true crime. It was reviewed by the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/books/review/death-in-the-city-of-light-by-david-king-book-review.html?_r=1">New York Times Book Review today</a>, and TheDailyBeast.com selected it as a “must read.” It is not difficult to imagine a film version with the lead role played by Kentuckian and part-time Frenchman Johnny Depp confounding, delighting and terrifying movie audiences with a subtle, layered, wild-eyed and intense Dr. Petiot. Over the shoulder, one can see Helena Bonham-Carter playing the French author Colette, who covers the circus-like trial for French newspapers. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">K</span>ing got access to a classified police archive of investigation interviews, evidence reports and forensics that had been sealed for six decades. Working in Paris and with materials written solely in French and German, he approached what he describes as “seven giant cartons” of classified records, after working through the unclassified archive of the intense newspaper coverage. It was perhaps his diligence in the early work that helped persuade a top French archivist to grant him access to the classified materials.<br />
<br />
“I would have to go to the bathroom at some point, but I literally would not leave my seat. I couldn’t photograph anything. I type very fast. I went through lots of pens -- they would run out. I created notebooks of the entire file, handcopied,” King said, in a recent Lexington interview.<br />
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The reports were typed, double-sided on the thin carbon-paper of the era. And, as he progressed through the original police and courtroom documents, he says, “As I understood it from newspapers…a lot of things were wrong.” And so, armed with the coverage, facts, confusions, contradictions, inventories and interrogations classified for decades, King revised his already nearly complete manuscript. <br />
<br />
This is where his dual skills as a historian and a storyteller come in. Although using the archival materials and providing clear end notes for each source, King tells the story of Petiot clearly and progressively, while showing the reader how truly conflicted the case and its evidence process were. <br />
<br />
Police had to sort through the jumbled, quicklime-decayed remains of as many as 47 people, and could put together, from matching belongings in the suitcases to missing persons accounts, a possible victim list of only 27 people. Witnesses disagreed about Dr. Petiot’s character – was he kindly or demonic? <br />
<br />
A small triangular room constructed in the center of the house with hooks on the walls, a viewing eyepiece and a false door painted gold seemed to be the kill site. But the bodies did not yield any cause of death. Many thought the chamber was used to administer a lethal injection. <br />
<br />
“Part of it is the historian in me. I really want to get the details right…as correct as I possibly can. It’s so over the top, I want to make sure that people know I am not making this up. This is not fiction. I also want to tell it in a way of someone who’s writing a good story. If you’re writing a scholarly book, that’s easy: here are five things I want to prove…1.2.3.4.5. But in popular history, you need to save the arguments…that would slow it down in some ways.” <br />
<br />
King said, when asked about styles he admires, that some of his favorite historians are David Fromkin, Erik Larson and Nathaniel Philbrick. <br />
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When you have the archive, you have the details, but not often the narrative. King’s skill is in providing both, and in doing so from a record that already, through the fear, mistrust, secrecy and uncertainty of the German Occupation in Paris, is self-contradictory. Even Petiot’s madness is uncertain. He is discharged from World War I service with a 100 percent madness disability, but that is later reduced to 50 percent. <br />
<br />
And in true crime, authors are often gifted with a straightforward evil for a main character. It is sometimes simpler to progress through a tale of killer who is a one-dimensional monster, and easier too, when forensic evidence is more clearcut. I<i>n Death in the City of Light,</i> King rises to a more complex challenge. <br />
<br />
“I was trying to understand him. I really hesitated to use the word 'the killer' is there any way that this guy could possibly be innocent? What about the suitcases? If he really helped people get to South America, why wasn’t at least one person able to come out and say so. If I were the jury that would be a very difficult case,” King said. <br />
<br />
King also, in the book, provides key glimpses into the cultural history of the Parisian gangster underworld and the wartime dynamic that played into Dr. Petiot’s scheme. In providing a cultural view of the time, he lets us know what is going on across the Seine as Pablo Picasso, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone DeBeauvoir and Albert Camus engage in their intellectual revolution under Occupation. <br />
<br />
“I didn’t want to write just somebody going around and killing people. I like the sense of place when I am writing. This was in Paris, if it had been in Berlin, or Lexington or Chicago, it would have been a different story. It was refreshing to for a moment to step away from the killings. I wanted to try to put the context in,” King said. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">K</span>ing lives in suburban Lexington with his wife, Sara King and their daughter, 7, and son, 4. A graduate of Woodford County High School, he did his undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky in the Honors Program and did a master’s at Cambridge University. He did a Fulbright in Sweden, researching what would become his first book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Atlantis-Genius-Madness-Extraordinary/dp/1400047528">Finding Atlantis </a> He later taught large introductory European history lectures and Honors Program seminars at the University of Kentucky. <br />
<br />
A Random House editor who had found the likes of Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side in slush files and signed them, was the person who took the first interest in King’s work in popular history, he said. He’s been a full-time author since the publication of <i>Finding Atlantis</i>, a book born of archival study in Old Swedish of the records of a Scandinavian academic who ruined his career by insisting that Atlantis must exist and trying to prove it. His second book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vienna-1814-Conquerors-Napoleon-Congress/dp/0307337162">Vienna 1814</a>, uses the archive to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the international conference held that year in Vienna. <br />
<br />
But King is in no way a stuffy academic. As a student at University of Kentucky, he was one of the founders of the student radio station, WRFL-FM and an original WRFL DJ, doing a Britpop show on the station. When he went to Cambridge, he took his Woodford County Babe Ruth baseball skills and his WRFL ballcap onto the cricket pitch. <br />
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“I just asked them where to aim,” he said of his first time as bowler, when he said, by sheer beginner’s luck, he scored the elusive “wicket maiden,” the equivalent of a strikeout of the whole team. <br />
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Also at Cambridge, he played on the baseball team, which he characterized as the “Bad News Bears,” never winning a single game, despite talent that included former players for Baylor University, the College of Charleston, the captain of the Czech national team, and a professional cricket player. “We almost beat Oxford once….,” he said, trailing off. <br />
<br />
King said that he has revised and focused his painstaking archival research process since his student days because he loves to spend time with his children. European history archives tend to be in Europe. “I don’t want to be away for a couple years. I want to be a little more focused,” he said, noting that he has travelled to Europe four times since January and is right now enjoying being home in Lexington, while mulling over ideas for his next project. <br />
<br />
The first international edition of *Death in the City of Light* book is scheduled to come out in Britain in January and an Italian version is also planned. So far, however, King said, there are no firm plans to translate the work into French for publication in Dr. Petiot’s home country. However, King said, he has been hearing from the French police, who have just received their English language copies. <br />
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“The police loved it. I have gotten some emails from them – they played such a huge role in helping me,” King said.<br />
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And in his epilogue to the book, King, again using archival documents and antiquarian publication research, may have helped the police: to determine a shocking twist on just how Dr. Petiot killed his victims. <br />
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He used technology unavailable to Massui, the 1940s Paris detective (and prototype for George Simenon’s famous Detective Maigret) who investigated the Petiot case: a Google alert and E-Bay. <br />
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It seems possible that the evidence that King has unearthed might warrant a re-opening of the case. <br />
<br />
King had searched library databases covering 10,000 libraries internationally, he said, for Albert Massui’s “Le cas du Dr Petiot.” No one held the rare antiquarian memoir. Then one day, a Google Alert came in: It was up for sale on Belgian E-Bay. <br />
<br />
Massui’s memoir included an account from a potential victim, who in in 1942, had made it all the way through Dr. Petiot’s “escape process” from Occupied France but had escaped alive from the triangular room, the room specially built for killing. <br />
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Putting this survivor’s account of what happened to him in the locked room that slowly “filled with gas” together with the records of the specifications given to the builders of this “radiation chamber” by the doctor, the history of the development of execution methods, and accounts in “The French Gestapo,” King finds that it is probable that Dr. Petiot was operating his own gas chamber. <br />
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Worse yet, this man who was offering escape passage to Jews was using, King postulates, with strong evidence, hydrogen cyanide gas – the generic form of the Zyklon B that was so tragically used at Auschwitz-Birkenau. <br />
<br />
David King brings the terrible story of murder in the City of Light to light completely through his careful, dedicated work in the archive and through his storytelling. <br />
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Unfortunately, it is all true. <br />
<br />
<i>Author David King will be at the Kentucky Book Fair at the Frankfort Convention Center on Saturday, Nov.12. He will also lead a discussion on his book on Monday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Jessamine County Library. </i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-m5tXrhufB_m0rpllEYGLG7JcOra92qvKBPmeKu6aE6rEh9dg5AvQpXHZI964CZ8BjsXRgAP4aRQ5hw3JHENAtfQgKl9-taRMx01QqivJ_0a_dyXe4rIpv19mRCKk7ER59z6wWo29pR0/s1600/acehorseyhousead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-m5tXrhufB_m0rpllEYGLG7JcOra92qvKBPmeKu6aE6rEh9dg5AvQpXHZI964CZ8BjsXRgAP4aRQ5hw3JHENAtfQgKl9-taRMx01QqivJ_0a_dyXe4rIpv19mRCKk7ER59z6wWo29pR0/s400/acehorseyhousead.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-73212284115081518212011-10-09T10:43:00.002-04:002011-10-12T11:18:49.237-04:00Tech Talks in Lexington<small>This story appears on page 4 of the October 13 print edition of Ace. </small> <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Tech Talks in Lex, October 2011 </span><br />
By Kakie Urch<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ofTDoQEdD_NAEwc47sIAKZK1_tmhMPGRgi-kyPZ6X0BZQOUsbm1aRsT1eKAsjoQgYOhtiCo1PKd9hVANTRGYVvwYKGeRZE03ylY-Z7PoWrb84HXmP1ItfvHsFMOO9NyybAGbS0GYsuY/s1600/p4PhotoTedx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ofTDoQEdD_NAEwc47sIAKZK1_tmhMPGRgi-kyPZ6X0BZQOUsbm1aRsT1eKAsjoQgYOhtiCo1PKd9hVANTRGYVvwYKGeRZE03ylY-Z7PoWrb84HXmP1ItfvHsFMOO9NyybAGbS0GYsuY/s1600/p4PhotoTedx.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>echnology, innovation, learning and play take the stage in Lexington in October in two events: TEDxLex at the Kentucky Theatre, and Tech Week at the University of Kentucky.<br />
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TEDxLex, a locally planned and franchised day of speakers based on the international TED talks that bring together technologists, philosophers, musicians, artists and engineers, is Friday, Oct. 21 at the Kentucky Theatre. (Famous TED talk alums include the late Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, James Cameron, Bill Clinton, and Richard Dawkins, who spoke last week at EKU.)<br />
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According to organizer Kent Lewis, the TEDx event provides a platform for local creative minds to learn from extraordinary speakers, and spread their ideas on how new media and technology are shaping the future of Lexington as well as the world.<br />
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“We’ve got a lot of dynamic speakers. We’ve got a couple of gamers. One reason for that is that Lexington is No. 2 in the country for cities per capita with one or more game systems in their house. That’s about 35 percent of the population,” Lewis said. <br />
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Lewis, who works at Hewlett Packard as product manager of enterprise software, said this second annual TEDxLex has the theme of “Playful Innovation, which is the discovery that not all ideas have to change the world but they can be fun, creative and challenging to just those around us.”<br />
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“Basically the reason behind it is that I don’t believe that you have to develop the next DNA strand that’s going to solve a world problem or that you need to develop the next technology device that’s going to change the world. At first, the iPod was just a playful device. You can do a lot of neat things that are playful….it doesn’t have to be technology. It can be playful art form, a playful entertainment,” he said, in an interview last week.<br />
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The day will include 15 live talks from leaders in a variety of fields and two recorded TED talks from the international grouping. www.tedxlex.com/speakers<br />
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Speakers include: <br />
Bianca Spriggs, Affrilachian Poet; Ash Donaldson, Aussie Behavior Geek; Alicia L. Bertone, DVM, Ph.D., Diplomate ACVS; Joe Castillo, Sand Artist; Billy Valentine, Sonic Cartographer; David J. Feola, Pharm.D.,Ph.D.; Charlotte Fixler, Think Fun; Pheeva (John Meister, Lamar Wilson and Lafe Taylor); Warren P. Rogers, W Rogers Co.; Eric Thomas, Owner of Automatic Rain; John K. Bates, Blue Suited Ambassador of the Virtual World; Michelle Hollis & the Moves Crew; Jaysyn Wyche aka JK47, Turntable and Fly Deejay; Michael Hartman, owner of Frogdice; Dorothy Edwards, Ph.D., livethegreendot.com. <br />
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Lewis’ recommendation for people who are attending TEDxLex? Bring an open mind and sense of wonder. <br />
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“Just because you are in the graphic arts field, doesn’t mean that you can’t learn from someone who is studying animals. If you are coming, come with an open mind, prepare to stay the day, network with other people, ask speakers questions when they get off the podium.” <br />
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Mayor Jim Gray donated two days of use of the Kentucky Theatre to the event to keep it downtown, Lewis said. <br />
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Lewis is a Lexington native, who attended Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, UK, and Morehead State University. After attending the first TEDx planning meetup at TED, he became the local licensee and curator of TEDxLex, and Lexington became one of the first cities to host a TEDx. <br />
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The event is also making inroads with area youth. A group of about 24 elementary students in the gifted program in from Versailles will be attending with their teacher Brad Clark, Lewis said.<br />
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Info at TedXLex dot com. The cost is $55, which includes breakfast, lunch and giveaways. Students with a valid ID can attend for $25. <br />
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<b>UK Tech Week: Oct. 19</b><br />
Tech Week is in its second year, sponsored by the University of Kentucky’s College of Communications and Information Studies, Keeneland, and the Information Communication Technology Collaborative at UK. <br />
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This year’s public event is organized around the topic of “Academic Web Presence” and many of the sessions will feature local technologists who work with the open source Web platform Drupal. http://cis.uky.edu/forum<br />
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On Wednesday, Oct. 19, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., local and national speakers will participate in the Academic Web Presence forum. <br />
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Attendees to the free public event at the Niles Gallery in the Lucille Little Fine Arts Library on the UK campus will hear from people who plan, develop and populate Drupal-based websites for the academic, business, media and organizations. <br />
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One session will address the development of University of Kentucky’s dynamic multimedia “UKNow” information hub Web site, run on Drupal by University of Kentucky Public Relations. <br />
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Other speakers will discuss the evolution of UK’s award-winning main website and the newly redesigned College of Arts and Sciences website. <br />
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Keynote speaker Jean V. Chick, Partner-in-Charge of Real Estate Services with Deloitte LLP, will discuss parallels between technology and learning at UK and at the new $300 million Deloitte University site that the Big Four accounting firm has built on 30 acres it purchased from Ross Perot outside Dallas. Chick, an accounting graduate of the UK College of Business and Economics, coordinated bringing Deloitte University online. Its 800-room campus will be the main international training site for Deloitte, which posted operating revenue of $28.2 billion in it most recent report. The technology at Deloitte University emphasizes technology-assisted, collaborative and simulation-based learning. <br />
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Dr. Konstantin Tovstiadi, the College of CIS IT Director and the coordinator of a lively Drupal support and training community on the UK campus, is one of the main organizers. <br />
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“I think that it grew out of wanting to do something around the topic of consulting and consulting in the sense of experts helping someone else within the academy and outside of the academy,” said Tovstiadi, who has planned, developed, and built two large-scale Drupal-based sites for the college. <br />
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Tovstiadi talked about Drupal as a platform that is growing in popularity, especially for educational and governmental Web sites. <br />
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“It starts to shine at the college or university level or enterprise level. It is very easy to customize and is modular. If you look locally, Lexington Public Library has recently launched a site, Keeneland is considering it, and UKNow is operated on Drupal,” he said. <br />
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“Our ‘friends,’ at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville have used it for years and years very successfully,” he joked. <br />
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Additionally, sites such as the White House, the Department of Energy, and the site for The Economist are on Drupal, Tovstiadi said. <br />
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<i>Kakie Urch is an Asst. Professor, Multimedia at the University of Kentucky's School of Journalism and Telecommunications College of Communications and Information Studies. </i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvdfROTwR5EL3DbtmCoAOUL4DinyXHIIgBWIWf-mXaYxaIFxxT2eISHZn0zdudYzdXbkUfwtuNpuBFWTHBTCHeHoc-aJHJw3WA7Q0N6PINWNotivt_qvLlB7hSUMEz1KE86WT5wcVD6Wk/s1600/acehorseyhousead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvdfROTwR5EL3DbtmCoAOUL4DinyXHIIgBWIWf-mXaYxaIFxxT2eISHZn0zdudYzdXbkUfwtuNpuBFWTHBTCHeHoc-aJHJw3WA7Q0N6PINWNotivt_qvLlB7hSUMEz1KE86WT5wcVD6Wk/s320/acehorseyhousead.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/04/color-turns-s-limestone-into-big-blue.html">Color turns S. Limestone into Big Blue Tech Lab </a><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/09/now-reading-drew-curtis-are-startups.html">Drew Curtis: are StartUps outside tech cities Fark'd </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-65108930414259600242011-10-01T16:54:00.003-04:002011-10-01T17:03:06.697-04:00Quick Takes: Senna<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwBWO6fhpLg6VKb_LmS1vSxnc3e2PlI3ECc7SSY_c2uB7hL1pm3iQ9D6wxum3_U6j7gPLznYPLFkYgMrOuF9Mub-ouIYbHsI1VGOVluicrBPt4eHXw-UzA16m7-Q7Z8jGpvszo-Si2EokM/s1600/senna.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 216px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwBWO6fhpLg6VKb_LmS1vSxnc3e2PlI3ECc7SSY_c2uB7hL1pm3iQ9D6wxum3_U6j7gPLznYPLFkYgMrOuF9Mub-ouIYbHsI1VGOVluicrBPt4eHXw-UzA16m7-Q7Z8jGpvszo-Si2EokM/s320/senna.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5658632149038083234" border="0" /></a>by Raj Ranade<br /><br />A documentary about a race driver who most Americans know nothing about is a tough enough sell for a critic - selling a documentary about a race driver who even most American auto racing fans know nothing about is damn near impossible. But even if NASCAR fans couldn't care less about the European-dominated sport of Formula 1 racing, anyone watching <span style="font-style: italic;">Senna</span> (playing at the Kentucky Theatre) will find it hard not to for at least 106 minutes.<br /><br />That's because director Asif Kapadia a fascinating subject in the spectacular rise and tragic demise of Ayrton Senna, a Brazilian driver who ascended to all-time-great status in F1 racing thanks to a recklessness that would make Ricky Bobby blanch. Largely due to his ultra-devout faith, Senna had a fearlessness that took him to multiple world championships even in cars that were mechanically inferior to the competition - his most famous victory came when he refused to stop racing after a mechanical failure left his car stuck in its highest gear. He also managed to rise above a sport riddled with political machinations - the F1 Chairman who made multiple outrageous referee calls against him happened to be a good friend of his long-time nemesis Alain Prost - but his own inability to ever slow down would catch up with him.<br /><br />Kapadia avoids the endless-talking-head syndrome of most documentaries by creating a film consisting entirely of archival footage and stitched together with audio recordings of Senna and those who knew him. The footage speaks more eloquently than any narrator could: point-of-view race footage conveys the terror of Senna's risk-taking, while interview footage reveals a confidence that allowed him to turn a reporter into a soon-to-be-girlfriend on-air. But the film's greatest moment comes after that race trapped in top gear. Senna could barely move his arms - the effort of keeping the car on the track sent them into muscle spasms - but he forced himself to strain and lift his trophy above his head anyway. A screenwriter might scoff at the tidiness of that all-encapsulating moment, but it's improbably and gloriously true.Rajhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07491295912826652611noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-74910570268515405242011-09-28T13:02:00.001-04:002011-09-28T16:04:01.393-04:00Louisville's Chef Edward Lee takes on Top Chef Texas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqs4rsJS0tzRFvmhQ6Y33gmqiBxVkY2poJyen7c5hIGLZopSA8yxxLh8YNJcA5uO0nednCC_evbC9pYIi9UU33eCEzBt22MTTN8iSgKpY6Qs_yfdbeYT9hv1tsRNl67P20qLGz0BXEqeU/s1600/topchef.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqs4rsJS0tzRFvmhQ6Y33gmqiBxVkY2poJyen7c5hIGLZopSA8yxxLh8YNJcA5uO0nednCC_evbC9pYIi9UU33eCEzBt22MTTN8iSgKpY6Qs_yfdbeYT9hv1tsRNl67P20qLGz0BXEqeU/s200/topchef.jpg" width="100" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtrjXbc0yx8hmBcc7Bp5HWX8-m73gmfar5QCYbqiyOfCVrjS4t7nBtTSNv-tv7EVGST8R70-RdcPvcDcf7NtDNaSDGbBBL8GEtvHQseb0WZbjwEI9KW1IMkK3CuC5iqiKee-RptbFhS4/s1600/ChefLeeCourtesyBravo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtrjXbc0yx8hmBcc7Bp5HWX8-m73gmfar5QCYbqiyOfCVrjS4t7nBtTSNv-tv7EVGST8R70-RdcPvcDcf7NtDNaSDGbBBL8GEtvHQseb0WZbjwEI9KW1IMkK3CuC5iqiKee-RptbFhS4/s200/ChefLeeCourtesyBravo.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>op Chef Season 9, Top Chef Texas, will include Louisville's Chef Edward Lee as a chef-testant when the Bravo series premieres on November 2, 2011. He will compete in the show's largest field so far, 29 aspiring top chefs (16 will advance to compete in Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio.) <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTktbjAx8MLIszvOLE65606I3Lqjdlh5yXmhzGcJn_8PDX-fiUP5bN3C-LpEgTPww2gkoU8v75zhq8Ub2gkpACDBn2xf28FwwyxUXxqVMs9twX5FJQfRUOAJ3jkpdYXXPDJZ-_BRghgec/s1600/p1Nov11ChefLeeCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTktbjAx8MLIszvOLE65606I3Lqjdlh5yXmhzGcJn_8PDX-fiUP5bN3C-LpEgTPww2gkoU8v75zhq8Ub2gkpACDBn2xf28FwwyxUXxqVMs9twX5FJQfRUOAJ3jkpdYXXPDJZ-_BRghgec/s200/p1Nov11ChefLeeCover.jpg" width="182" /></a>Chef Lee, of Louisville's 610 Magnolia, triumphed against Iron Chef Jose Garces in the November 7, 2010 episode of the Food Network's Iron Chef. (<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/11/louisvilles-chef-edward-lee-reigns.html">Click here for cover story.</a> ) It was an "offal" challenge: Battle Tongue and Cheek. He represented Kentucky cuisine beautifully: incorporating sorghum, grits, and bourbon (which he served in an iced tea). He even took fresh corn from home into the battle, and his secret weapon: his mother-in-law's handmade sauerkraut (which turned up in a soup, and on a tongue Reuben).<br />
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Chef Lee also concluded the <a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/08/james-beard-celebrity-chef-menus-at.html">James Beard Celebrity Chef Series </a>at the World Equestrian Games this time last year, and characterized the series as a "once in a lifetime opportunity to put the spotlight on Kentucky. How many chances does a city get for something like that... maybe the Olympics?" <br />
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<a href="http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-9/videos/casting-videos?id=99284#selected">Click here to see Chef Lee's casting/audition video at the Bravo site.</a><br />
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(<i>Top Chef</i>'s Voltaggio Brothers will also be at the Incredible Food Show at Rupp Arena, October 8. <a href="http://www.ticketmaster.com/Incredible-Food-Show-featuring-Michael-Bryan-Voltaggio-tickets/artist/1606909">Click here for tickets.</a>)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkfGnLZdmEbjh950VNWfeFcm5Gmc73iwOfhGkTrYqOwZEXHdj10-U5VI_0rleaGUHFb9v_M7mbowYf_va2v7ez4bZ1yAeWgngiPeNCgYJ-g_9OaQyYcd1f9HaNK8yUjxohKjgJZXPvPjs/s1600/acehorseyhousead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkfGnLZdmEbjh950VNWfeFcm5Gmc73iwOfhGkTrYqOwZEXHdj10-U5VI_0rleaGUHFb9v_M7mbowYf_va2v7ez4bZ1yAeWgngiPeNCgYJ-g_9OaQyYcd1f9HaNK8yUjxohKjgJZXPvPjs/s320/acehorseyhousead.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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Click here for <a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/p/advertise-in-ace.html">Ace Advertising Info. </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-29443051371584080822011-09-24T18:08:00.009-04:002011-09-25T13:54:54.317-04:00Weekend Movies: Moneyball<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilD34JrvT5ywTGzbPc1WO87qTAnfq26J1XvFEPHbi3UNuyoomKhK6lq7PdoZGVhoCyprZt24GUo0uxVCTFHCKR01aalQjn3-R8IGilt8NSj5T8-K0JjaBHHixXn-Zzot1iCqxdum4h147l/s1600/brad-pitt-moneyball_320.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656064602464227138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilD34JrvT5ywTGzbPc1WO87qTAnfq26J1XvFEPHbi3UNuyoomKhK6lq7PdoZGVhoCyprZt24GUo0uxVCTFHCKR01aalQjn3-R8IGilt8NSj5T8-K0JjaBHHixXn-Zzot1iCqxdum4h147l/s320/brad-pitt-moneyball_320.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 240px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 320px;" /></a>by Raj Ranade<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Moneyball</span> has languished in movie development limbo for years and focuses on a story that's a decade old, but it's hard to imagine a movie that could be more tailor-made to the current cultural moment. This story of a baseball team trying to do a lot more with a lot less money is catnip for anyone whom the recession has pushed into coupon-clipping or budget-slashing - it's a <span style="font-style: italic;">Rocky</span> for Ramen eaters.<br />
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The film focuses on Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), a general manager trying to keep his Oakland A's competitive with a payroll that's a third of a team like the Yankees or the Red Sox. Embarrassed by the creaky management wisdom of his aging scout team (judging a pitching prospect: "He's got an ugly girlfriend. An ugly girlfriend means no confidence"), Beane turns to a Yale whiz kid (Jonah Hill) with a radical-for-the-time idea: using computerized analysis of player statistics to determine each player's real worth. The film that follows is the rare sports movie with minimal interest in depicting the actual playing of sports, hewing instead to the template established by co-writer Aaron Sorkin (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Social Network</span>) in his past work, where smart people talk animatedly about smart things in back offices.<br />
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Director Bennett Miller (<span style="font-style: italic;">Capote</span>) keeps things at a sober calm instead of <span style="font-style: italic;">Social Network</span>'s caffeine high, but that's a wise move for this particular story. Instead of going for the easy melodrama of your average rah-rah sports picture, this film keeps a cool, journalistic emphasis on day-to-day process - deal-making, contract negotiating, player trading - that allows it to become richer than your traditional underdogs-make-good narrative. It becomes another movie about the shift to the information age, where a foresighted leader recognizes the overflow of data all around him (Miller plants radio commentary or TV footage in nearly every background here) and harnesses it to revolutionize an industry.<br />
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If there's a problem here, though, it's that the movie is awfully coy about how that harnessing actually took place. Anyone who isn't terrified by the prospect of math is going to be frustrated with the movie's hand-waving explanations of how this revolutionary team was built (I half-suspect that the vagueness is a clever advertisement for the Michael Lewis book the movie was adapted from).<br />
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But if the movie is a bit too afraid of the intellectual, the simpler human pleasures are immense. Pitt and Hill are both arguably as good here as they've ever been. Pitt has a relatively easy part to play here - the professional movie star is asked to play gruffly charming - but he nails it, capturing a leader with the warmth and charisma to effect massive institutional change, but who also carries an undercurrent of scary, single-minded zeal. It's Hill who seems transformed, the typecast vulgar loudmouth here playing an outwardly meek man whose fiercely held convictions have a way of bubbling up to the surface at unexpected moments.<br />
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As mentioned before, it's hard not to compare <span style="font-style: italic;">Moneyball</span> to <span style="font-style: italic;">The Social Network</span> given their stylistic similarities (although the quality of the latter is in a different, uh, ballpark). The interesting difference between the movies is that they seem to be ideological inverses of each other. In showing Facebook's birth, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Social Network</span> focused on the human costs of capitalism as well as the birth of a revolutionary enterprise, detailing the betrayals and ruthlessness unavoidable in the creation of such a company.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Moneyball</span>, on the other hand, is pretty unambiguous in its hailing of what is basically a corporate triumph. It's easy to envision a movie where Billy Beane is seen as a cynical, brooding leader who sacked experienced associates and long-time friends in order to adopt the latest, greatest corporate efficiency framework, and couldn't even be bothered to actually attend the games (scenes where Hill is forced to lay off players actually are played for laughs here). But the movie bends over backwards to make Beane sympathetic, mostly through scenes where he eats ice cream with his tween daughter. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, mind you - a lack of ambiguity is a traditional characteristic of straightforward Hollywood pleasure - and I'm not saying the film is any kind of political tract, but I wouldn't be surprised if this story of business victory, where a lean, efficient team stays competitive with spendthrift "Big Government"-esque behemoths, gets picked up as a Tea Party talking point.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">350.org: Moving Planet, Moving Kentucky</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlIC5lyTBzbh4oVEAqthyphenhyphenEGeoCRbA8-LG-36fUExyULgLs8nlw5f7v2teU4PmDj0PxqhYZpfUnlwKWcbKzEwk2NlxgXyo4sCshjoi8wK_-vM8sBtUcl2vKgTVy_faDR0_Xo97UbYUStrM/s1600/350tshirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlIC5lyTBzbh4oVEAqthyphenhyphenEGeoCRbA8-LG-36fUExyULgLs8nlw5f7v2teU4PmDj0PxqhYZpfUnlwKWcbKzEwk2NlxgXyo4sCshjoi8wK_-vM8sBtUcl2vKgTVy_faDR0_Xo97UbYUStrM/s1600/350tshirt.jpg" /></a></div>A Day to Move Kentucky Beyond Fossil Fuels<br />
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<b>by Brooke Smith</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">D</span>uring the second annual Now What? Lexington event, hosted by ProgressLex and The Carnegie Center, a group of Lexingtonians concerned about the environmental health of our city came together and decided to make a move. Inspired by the 350.org’s global movement to make impact in local communities, the concerned citizens gathered to initiate the event MOVING KY: A Day to Move Beyond Fossil Fuels. MOVING KY is Lexington’s contribution to a worldwide rally on September 24th, 2011 called Moving Planet. This rally, initiated by 350.org will shine a light on solutions to the climate crisis, direct those who desire further education to the 350.org website, and offer our concerned community an opportunity to gather. It will be a single day to move away from fossil fuels and bring our collective attention to the challenge.<br />
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“This event is the first of what we hope will be an on-going presence for 350.org in Lexington,” said Clive Pohl, Moving KY Event Coordinator and Principal Architect at Pohl Rosa Pohl. “It is not offered as a provocation but as a gesture to remind our community of the many viable alternatives to fossil fuel powered transportation.”<br />
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Those concerned with the climate crisis and learning more about Lexington’s carbon footprint and what we can do to shrink it are invited to join the festivities on September 24 from noon to 6 pm in downtown Lexington. <br />
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“This year is going to be about movement in every sense of the word,” said Bill McKibben, Founder of 350.org. “Not just the big shoulder-to-shoulder campaign we’ve built together across the world these last two years, but also actual, powerful, fun dramatic movement in the streets putting into action our demand for a future free from fossil fuels and dangerous climate change.”<br />
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<b>Itinerary: </b><br />
<b>"Alley Cat" bike ride (noon to 2pm):</b><br />
Part scavenger hunt, part tour and part rally it will include stops at sites that exemplify the best and worst of Lexington’s carbon heritage. Kiosks will offer information about these climate "hotspots" and suggest ways to effect positive change. Participants will evaluate Lexington's ride-ability and offer suggestions for improving it.<br />
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<b>Pedestrian Walk (2 to 3pm):</b><br />
Alley Cat riders will join with walkers (target number: 100) to march from the intersection of Avenue of Champions and South Limestone to Phoenix Park in downtown Lexington holding 350.org banners and placards.<br />
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<b>The “Human 3-5-0” photo shoot (3 to 4pm):</b><br />
After arriving at Phoenix Park all participants (wearing green t-shirts that can be ordered from this site) will form a “Human 3-5-0” and a photo will be taken from the top floor of the Main Library parking structure. After the event we will submit the photo to the 350.org site for inclusion in their online collection of images from around the world. The aim is to decrease Lexington’s reliance on fossil fuels, to bring attention to the informative 350.org site, and to provide a kick start for future actions of the 350.org Lexington Chapter.<br />
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<b>A screening of the movie “Carbon Nation” (4 to 5pm):</b><br />
Directed by Louisville native Peter Byck this film will be shown immediately after the photo shoot. The location is yet to be finalized but it will be indoors and within comfortable walking distance from Phoenix Park.<br />
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350.org is a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis through online campaigns, grassroots organizing and mass public actions led from the bottom up by thousands of volunteer organizers in more than 188 countries. The movement takes its name from the parts per million of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth’s atmosphere considered to safe. Currently our atmospheric level of CO2 is 392 parts per million, and that number needs to drop at or below 350 parts per million. 350 is more than a number—it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.<br />
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Info, http://movingky.eventbrite.com or contact Clive Pohl at 859-268-1720. To learn more about climate change and similar events across the globe visit www.350.org.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwBM6_kos_1PyvSsFyu4Ym3DGOtlDs4OYx7R7I_h8k_GZ4Njbsnkb5tFOrbqbC73bb5Kaof1sFwX23tBUS0qG0sjW3HTrYwzshKLVCxzBzVj0Xn1a6NlEEkU44PrDXg129naz6bJnU4g/s1600/acehorseyhousead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwBM6_kos_1PyvSsFyu4Ym3DGOtlDs4OYx7R7I_h8k_GZ4Njbsnkb5tFOrbqbC73bb5Kaof1sFwX23tBUS0qG0sjW3HTrYwzshKLVCxzBzVj0Xn1a6NlEEkU44PrDXg129naz6bJnU4g/s320/acehorseyhousead.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/ruppdate.html">The Ruppdate</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-31225694294400077142011-09-16T21:06:00.004-04:002011-09-25T13:58:46.727-04:00Movies: Straw Dogs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDPXmwjZlfSiezQv6kbjp0hauSehz_vu8LZkq1_IuGozXc3AjxOw7RmNqkWXzQFZrahbk-tlwi_bKVT3rmc8Rxdfgr3r4eD1Pdr6x4plPHBQ7g-7juQOhlwMMM5KReZ6L73xHp2BfIN7Q/s1600/movieposterStrawDogs2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDPXmwjZlfSiezQv6kbjp0hauSehz_vu8LZkq1_IuGozXc3AjxOw7RmNqkWXzQFZrahbk-tlwi_bKVT3rmc8Rxdfgr3r4eD1Pdr6x4plPHBQ7g-7juQOhlwMMM5KReZ6L73xHp2BfIN7Q/s320/movieposterStrawDogs2011.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">I</span>n updating Sam Peckinpah's 1971 <i>Straw Dogs,</i> Rod Lurie tries to use a scalpel where his predecessor always went for the axe (to spectacular effect). Dustin Hoffman's nebbishy mathematician David in Peckinpah's original has been replaced by James Marsden's thinky Ivy League screenwriter David, hard at work on a script about the battle of Stalingrad. Kate Bosworth plays Amy, a crime series actress; the gulf coast subs in for the English countryside. The two roll onto the Delta landscape of her childhood in a restored Jag (with superfluous hood ornament). They are the Sumners -- the very picture of hipster Hollywood doofuses who kind of are Just Asking For It (a recurring theme in both versions of the movie).<br />
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They're home to restore and flip her late father's "farmhouse" (a stone cottage...in Mississippi?). Over the course of a fried-pickle dinner at the local watering hole, they encounter Amy's ex-football-sweetheart, Alexander Skarsgard as Charlie, and his construction crew, along with a hysterically over-the-top ex-coach James Woods who really wants to be overserved, and who quickly plays out some daddy-daughter issues with Dominic Purcell in the updated role of Jeremy (the updated role that was known as The Village Idiot in the original, a character that's a variation on everyone from Lenny in <i>Of Mice and Men</i> to Billy in <i>The Last Picture Show</i>). Marsden tries to fit in at the bar (Bud <i>Lite</i>?) while Skarsgard close-sits with "Amycakes" on her side of the booth and makes a neighborly bid to affordably re-roof their post-Katrina barn in a timely manner. <br />
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It doesn't go well, and not in that usual Contractor-takes-off-early, falsifying receipts way. The crew has problems with boundaries. They help themselves to the fridge. They blast their music and drown out David's enjoyment of the Classics (it's an update: wouldn't he have an iPod, with earbuds, even if his smartphone got no signal?) They ogle Amy, who opts to go running without athletically appropriate foundation undergarments. He suggests she wear a bra. He references reaping and sowing arguments. She heads upstairs and angrily flashes the roofers from the window. They all attend church for the big pre-Game sermon, and David wanders out, bored, explaining that he's not much one for Jesus (funny for a guy who had so many biblical things to say about a bra). Charlie doesn't care for the big-city condescension. Later, home from church, the Sumners discover their cat has... met with foul play.<br />
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It's been suggested that Peckinpah didn't like women (and not in the usual Dane Cook kind of way). Lurie's resume is unabashedly feminist (<i>The Contender)</i>, but Amy's character is off-the-reservation in both movies. <br />
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The one sensible thing she does is blame the roofers for the cat, and in response, David ...agrees to go on a hunting excursion with them, where he presumably hopes to find both his manhood and good sense ("Shotguns? With rednecks who don't like me? Don't mind if I do!" Duck season. Rabbit season! Duck Season!!) This leaves her unattended and defenseless in the farmhouse, where Charlie shows up and semi-forces his way in. (It's not Skarsgard's fault that no one will be able to watch this scene without expecting him to explain he has to be <i>invited</i> in, as he does on <i>True Blood</i>.) <br />
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Sam Peckinpah's axe was a bloody beautiful precision instrument, whereas Lurie's approach is more clumsy -- entertaining, but hamfisted. The Battle of Stalingrad. <i>Really?</i> Marsden's character might as well work for NPR or PBS. Does the local high school football team really need to break the huddle with "Not One Step Back!" (Stalin's famous order 227) for Lurie to be sure viewers get the symbolism? Did the town have to be named Blackwater? Does the movie have to open with long shots of CGI deer juxtaposed against a deer rack mounted on a pickup grill? Do the redneck yokels have to listen to Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet to hammer home their drunken Southern roughneck capacity for violence (when, in the contemporary smalltown South, they'd more likely be listening to a Toby Keith, or perhaps rap).<br />
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The "townfolk" love football and God, but that isn't necessarily the shorthand for ignorant and savage that Lurie seems to think it is. Although he's clearly seen <i>A History of Violence</i> and <i>The Strangers</i> (along with <i>Friday Night Lights</i> and certainly <i>The Last Picture Show</i>), the line between movies <i>about </i>the pornography of violence, and actual torture porn, is blurry here.<br />
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Is this remake entertaining? Yes. It does its job of being relatively thrilling. Skarsgard is excellent in his first Viggo Mortensen-style role outside of <i>True Blood</i>. Marsden and Bosworth give uninteresting and one-dimensional performances -- but their characters aren't meant to be likable or empathetic, so it doesn't unduly bog down the movie. (She is far worse than he is, and should watch Naomi Watts in <i>Funny Games</i> or Reese Witherspoon in <i>Fear</i> to see how this territory can be done right.) James Woods thinks he's in a different movie than this one. It's a shame to see <i>Justified'</i>s Walton Goggins' wasted in a minor role, because he steals the few scenes he's in. As for the cat? Well, that cat had it coming.<br />
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Whereas Peckinpah's body count and blood served Peckinpah's vision, Lurie's vision just isn't as searing or precise, and his execution doesn't live up to the complex meditation on violence, classism, Red State vs. Blue State, and gender roles that he seems to think he's making. One of the roofers jokingly asks David early on if he's worked on anything like <i>Saw,</i> and the implication seems to be that this is better than that -- that they occupy a different cinematic bloodlust universe. But they don't. The criminals in <i>The Strangers</i> provide a classic summary near the end of that movie when the sweet young wedding guest couple asks them <i>why</i> they were singled out to be terrorized and tortured. The answer is: "because you were home." Sometimes it is that simple, and Lurie overthinks that in a way that Peckinpah never would have.<br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/search/label/Movies">Ace Movie Reviews</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-42690711393283569712011-09-16T19:59:00.002-04:002011-09-21T11:32:37.597-04:00Movie Briefs: I Don't Know How She Does ItMovie Briefs: I Don't Know How She Does It <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg09-OXMZcyCvDZCy4DMhZoSagZs8yR3ZHRYlyP-gWgYRbss6Mp7C8bqrNx4-8h-NTl81doJgVCgV3rUVMuvqNneBCwlV24qgB2vxJNz0eAI35SIx3AO10a3aW_vSvYh-SXZJNzmgVZ92Q/s1600/sjpposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg09-OXMZcyCvDZCy4DMhZoSagZs8yR3ZHRYlyP-gWgYRbss6Mp7C8bqrNx4-8h-NTl81doJgVCgV3rUVMuvqNneBCwlV24qgB2vxJNz0eAI35SIx3AO10a3aW_vSvYh-SXZJNzmgVZ92Q/s200/sjpposter.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he takeaway from the latest Sarah Jessica Parker movie, <i>I Don't Know How She Does It</i>, will inevitably be this: there are <i>Salons </i>that will <i>de-louse</i> you and your children? Holy cow. Is that really true? Is it possible that a city big enough to have lice salons would also have 24-hour bakeries that would provide homeade-ish looking cookies and pies for the kids' school bake sale? Apparently not. The lack of said artisanal desserts kicks the movie off with what feels like a contrived mommy-panic.<br />
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This movie will likely quickly fade among the rest of the mommy war opuses it feels like (<i>Nanny Diaries</i> et al). A charitable word for it would be "timeless" (this battle seems to have been raging for quite some time, pitting the Stay at Homes vs the Work Outside the Home), but a more accurate word would be "Eighties." Nothing about it feels fresh. <i>Banking?</i> They might as well work in a <i>newsroom </i>it feels so anachronistic. The Manhattan and Boston workscapes seem right out of <i>Working Girl </i>and <i>Baby Boom </i>(which were great movies, partly for their willingness to place themselves squarely in their time, Bridge and Tunnel Hair and all).<br />
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SJP's Kate is still trotting out "mammogram" as the excuse she gives the boss (Kelsey Grammer) when he comments on her office tardiness. Really? (Bosses actually comment on the tardiness of hedge fund execs, male or female?) The mean stay-at-home mommies ("momsters") bake <i>and</i> work out obsessively. Her two kids are adorable moppets, but the one playing kindergarten and circle time is going to need botox if she plans to work that demo (that girl is <i>nine</i> if she's a day). <br />
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There are dust-ups along the way. The kids come down with the aforementioned lice. SJP scratches her way through a corporate pitch meeting like Lucille Ball at her "zaniest." She has to abandon Thanksgiving weekend for work. (Sorry, spoiler.) Pay attention when she tells the husband (Greg Kinnear) to get bids on replacing the stair rug. You'll congratulate yourself for a Chekhov's Carpet moment later. Her project partner Pierce Brosnan can't help falling for her adorable girlish charm, but she still loves her husband. <br />
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Eventually, Kate learns she can have it all: good husband with a job; good job; and two happily well-adjusted children. It's a Sarah Jessica Parker movie for heaven's sake. What did you think Chekhov was gonna do with that carpet? <br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/search/label/Movies">Ace Movie Reviews </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-29847300778643559992011-09-15T17:23:00.000-04:002011-09-15T17:23:36.283-04:00The RuppDate<small>You can read David Schankula's Rupp Arena Task Force Meeting Update (or NUBS) on page 18 of the current Ace. </small><br />
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Today, the mayor's office announced the launch of <a href="http://www.ruppdistrict.com/">RuppDistrict.com</a>, along with <a href="http://www.twitter.com/RuppDistrict">twitter, </a>and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/RuppDistrict">facebook</a> pages. <br />
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Last week's meeting stressed transparency and input, and Mayor Gray said today, "“We want people to see what’s going on," adding, "and we want to hear from them. The website now gives us this opportunity and it’s an integral part of this process.”<br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/best-of-lexington-2011.html">Ace Best of Lexington 2011</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/ace-favorite-things-best-of-lexington.html">Ace Favorite Things 2011 </a><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/09/welcome-to-ace-best-of-lexington.html">Ace Best of Lexington 2010 </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-44485754974277444882011-09-14T18:35:00.006-04:002011-10-17T22:16:43.955-04:00Best of Lexington 2011<small>This article appears on page 8 of the September 15 Ace print edition. </small><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdsJfvd-1NFGXr7yhygXG5Oop74l_j6eM1y9-DXkexb-Ti540uVnB97qRRp2K66pWP2wByPioGHHEmmtvACZT5aVV08RecfAu2Aeh2JcnpWO8s3lFCHRqcerIPwSKYnltUd8ZT92r-R9Q/s1600/p1BestofLexCoverJohnLackey_online.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdsJfvd-1NFGXr7yhygXG5Oop74l_j6eM1y9-DXkexb-Ti540uVnB97qRRp2K66pWP2wByPioGHHEmmtvACZT5aVV08RecfAu2Aeh2JcnpWO8s3lFCHRqcerIPwSKYnltUd8ZT92r-R9Q/s320/p1BestofLexCoverJohnLackey_online.jpg" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">cover by John Lackey (voted best artist 2010, 2011)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">The BEST OF LEXINGTON </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Ace Readers' Poll 2011</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>elcome to the 2011 Ace Best of Lexington <b>Readers' Poll</b>. Every year, themes emerge in the voting and the handwritten comments. One year, the rallying cry was "bring back the Wrocklage." (That theme continued for at least a decade, and still hasn't fully subsided.) Every year, since 1989, there has been a constant clamor for a downtown grocery store, so it isn't surprising that Shorty's registered in multiple categories this year (not quite as resoundingly as the year multiple readers wrote Coach Cal into every single category, including "Best Taqueria.")<br />
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As always, there are conflicting sentiments among the readers, sometimes even within the same ballot. New sidewalks are the "best thing to happen to downtown" according to some readers, but they are also the "best example of taxpayer wasted dollars," in the opinion of others. "Free Enes" was both the Best UK Story of the year, and it was also the Best Example of Media Overkill. Depends on who you ask. <br />
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There are new categories this year, while old ones retire or sit out. The "Best Use for Lexington Mall" category finally disappeared this year now that the space has been allocated. The perennial winners had always been Farmers' Market or grocery, and often, Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's was a chronic contender in the "best store you wish Lexington had" category, which is sitting out this year -- but apparently someone was listening, as one is planned for Nicholasville Road. <br />
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Our favorite answer of the year is bumper-sticker ready, in response to the new entry Best Hipster Crossing: "Loudon is the new Jefferson." <br />
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<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">ARTS and ENTERTAINMENT </span><br />
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<b>Best arts group </b><br />
1. LEXINGTON ART LEAGUE <br />
2. Living Arts and Science Center<br />
3. Balagula Theatre<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMyHX-o8hw5gI3Fdosgkt4DaHUVEyLsylbqZb5f7VmwHB6prQWAJ_iQeGwMPtq9e0jxtZQxpZhUzXVetinsXMCCnygU8Ef4pP4EYq0OYl2v3u-a99NwITFbJR6cmHMjtZ8-_ig_-Bzfdg/s1600/BESTArtistJohnLackeyYear2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMyHX-o8hw5gI3Fdosgkt4DaHUVEyLsylbqZb5f7VmwHB6prQWAJ_iQeGwMPtq9e0jxtZQxpZhUzXVetinsXMCCnygU8Ef4pP4EYq0OYl2v3u-a99NwITFbJR6cmHMjtZ8-_ig_-Bzfdg/s320/BESTArtistJohnLackeyYear2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Returning Champion: voted Best Artist 2010, 2011 </td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>Best local visual artist </b><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">1. JOHN LACKEY</span><br />
2. Blake Snyder Eames <br />
3. Kurt Gohde <br />
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<b>Best Kentucky author </b><br />
1. SILAS HOUSE<br />
2. Ashley Judd<br />
<small>(Both Silas House and Ashley Judd have graced the covers of Ace.) </small><br />
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<b>Best local theater production </b><br />
1. ROCKY HORROR<br />
2. Three Viewings<br />
3. Belle Brezing <br />
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<b>Best live music venue</b><br />
1. COSMIC CHARLIE'S<br />
2. Buster's<br />
3. Green Lantern <br />
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<b>Best local band</b> <br />
1. IDIOT GLEE <br />
2. Ben Sollee<br />
3. Coralee and the Townies<br />
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<b>Best bar to watch a UK game </b><br />
1. PAZZO'S <br />
2. Two Keys <br />
3. Harry's <br />
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<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">EAT and DRINK (non-chain)</span><br />
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<b>Best NEW restaurant </b>(opened in last year)<br />
1. NICK RYAN'S SALOON<br />
2. Table 310 <br />
3. Windy Corner<br />
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<b>Best VETERAN local restaurant </b>(decade or older)<br />
1. DUDLEY'S <br />
2. a la lucie<br />
3. Columbia's<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC4odqg66tEgUCYkmuoTjhn0dwbr-au6AAmI6KzR6CvaqUxyixl3YrMDtHpIBpUWmv6dHRkfDMBvoPsBxo91etG1M1VFfZuZbMtVDECEaA0UFve9cEtesBrvzG-jJ_yYd0VUACHdXVizQ/s1600/chefjeremy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC4odqg66tEgUCYkmuoTjhn0dwbr-au6AAmI6KzR6CvaqUxyixl3YrMDtHpIBpUWmv6dHRkfDMBvoPsBxo91etG1M1VFfZuZbMtVDECEaA0UFve9cEtesBrvzG-jJ_yYd0VUACHdXVizQ/s200/chefjeremy.jpg" width="135" /></a></div><b>Best Chef </b><br />
1. JEREMY ASHBY<br />
2. Jonathan Lundy<br />
3. Johnny Shipley<br />
<br />
<b>Best restaurant for Eating Locally</b><br />
1. WINDY CORNER<br />
2. Good Foods<br />
3. Stella's <br />
<br />
<b>Best $10 buck lunch </b><br />
1. HANNA'S ON LIME <br />
2. Stanley J's (now closed) <br />
3. Sidebar <br />
<br />
<b>Best dinner $100 bucks+ </b><br />
1. AZUR <br />
2. Jonathan's<br />
3. Holly Hill Inn <br />
<br />
<b>Best breakfast</b><br />
1. DOODLE'S<br />
2. Josie's <br />
3. Joseph Beth <br />
<br />
<b>Best hot brown in town </b><br />
1. WINCHELL'S <br />
2. Ramsey's <br />
3. Dudley's<br />
<br />
<b>Best place for cocktails and people watching</b><br />
1. BIGG BLUE MARTINI <br />
2. Cheapside <br />
3. Drake's <br />
<br />
<b>Best decadent desserts</b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd-Odk3pHqFN7G-RBojMV7VCmQI45EP37-JEL3ErlEapD4FDKnOgsSJA2AtvEVjntNGbeyiK8MXyx-GT4L4U6lDQ_Ve5ej7oYTgHGOtEcUJ1xsL8iXnS15ToDzBpfSgJHAzpYcy-g6ZMQ/s1600/Table310DessertbySideshowPhoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd-Odk3pHqFN7G-RBojMV7VCmQI45EP37-JEL3ErlEapD4FDKnOgsSJA2AtvEVjntNGbeyiK8MXyx-GT4L4U6lDQ_Ve5ej7oYTgHGOtEcUJ1xsL8iXnS15ToDzBpfSgJHAzpYcy-g6ZMQ/s640/Table310DessertbySideshowPhoto.jpg" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BraveTart's Orange Creamsicle Float for Table 310. Photo by Sideshow Photo.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>1. TABLE 310 <br />
2. Ramsey's <br />
<br />
<b>Best vineyard/winery</b><br />
1. TALON<br />
2. Equus Run<br />
3. Lovers Leap <br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">SHOPPING AND SERVICES </span><br />
<br />
<b>Best new store</b><br />
1. SHORTY'S MARKET <br />
2. Crushed Violet<br />
<br />
<b>Best $10 buck gifts</b><br />
1. TWO CHICKS <br />
2. Third Street Stuff<br />
3. Joseph-Beth Booksellers<br />
<br />
<b>Best fear-free dentist</b><br />
1. DR. FRED SCHROEDER <br />
2. Dr. Billy Forbess <br />
<br />
<b>Best fear-free mechanic </b><br />
1. LOWELL'S <br />
2. Charlie's<br />
<br />
<b>Best salon</b><br />
1. PRIVE<br />
2. Voce<br />
3. Color Bar <br />
<br />
<b>Best dog groomer</b><br />
1. CF ELEGANCE<br />
2. PetSmart<br />
<br />
<b>Best local movers</b><br />
1. SWEAT BROTHERS<br />
2. Two Men and a Truck <br />
<br />
<b>Best realtor</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXBfvv2G_AJ6Q4GpszXSaTZ51QS1vjlCYRSt0wnG6x5UjK0PwCgoBwp6cbLI0PgK9mqQPEzGyjKD94NmDBkPfqhUNKmvv1f4OqsZA_hinJR2JjKLd7AiP8HOiGJFGhDjL4Y0fmAWDXqlI/s1600/BestPhotoWhitneyRealtor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXBfvv2G_AJ6Q4GpszXSaTZ51QS1vjlCYRSt0wnG6x5UjK0PwCgoBwp6cbLI0PgK9mqQPEzGyjKD94NmDBkPfqhUNKmvv1f4OqsZA_hinJR2JjKLd7AiP8HOiGJFGhDjL4Y0fmAWDXqlI/s200/BestPhotoWhitneyRealtor.jpg" width="162" /></a></div>1. WHITNEY PANNELL<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"></span><br />
2. Karen Deprey <br />
3. Rick Queen <br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">LOCAL COLOR: PEOPLE and PLACES </span><br />
<br />
<b>Best hipster crossing </b><br />
1. MELLOW MUSHROOM<br />
2. Al's Bar/Sidecar<br />
<div style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Best Answer: "Loudon is the New Jefferson." </i></span></div><br />
<b>Best Lexington Landmark</b><br />
1. KEENELAND <br />
2. Lexington Cemetery<br />
<br />
<b>Best UK personality</b><br />
1. COACH CAL <br />
<br />
<b>Best grassroots organization</b><br />
1. PROGRESSLEX<br />
2. Moveable Feast<br />
3. Bluegrass Pride<br />
<br />
<b>Best old building rehab this year</b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr-6lSpmJWrlxf9IogJUegP4wwKRQKZxhWkUId7T-VqyKLJoLsHzchRhZfzffFpIp48lmuShXeOMc4-N9tr_gZhnCeshxPqtCY8SuqNa_ceKI3oMeHrRYxd1Nlym3rehc97Ot6QyW017M/s1600/BESTPhotoDudleyROOFTOP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr-6lSpmJWrlxf9IogJUegP4wwKRQKZxhWkUId7T-VqyKLJoLsHzchRhZfzffFpIp48lmuShXeOMc4-N9tr_gZhnCeshxPqtCY8SuqNa_ceKI3oMeHrRYxd1Nlym3rehc97Ot6QyW017M/s320/BESTPhotoDudleyROOFTOP.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dudley's Rooftop Reno</td></tr>
</tbody></table>1. DUDLEY'S ROOF<br />
2. Shorty's Market<br />
3. the old Spalding's <br />
<br />
<b>Best thing to happen to downtown this year </b><br />
1. NEW SIDEWALKS<br />
2. A grocery <br />
<br />
<b>Best Lex politician you'd like to have lunch with </b><br />
1. MAYOR GRAY<br />
2. Kelly Flood<br />
3. Kathy Stein <br />
<br />
<b>Best local example of taxpayer-wasted dollars</b><br />
1. NEW PARKING SYSTEM<br />
2. Double Diamond Interchange <br />
3. Streetscapes/Sidewalks<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-size: large;"> MEDIA/SOCIAL MEDIA/NEW MEDIA</span></div><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlegXSsIs9BuXr0_dh-hpab3aM5DqW0JakhkWoTr5CTc7UsOvbJUjwuDCJZR3ugiYsh_yQiVHuvJwXIZMkzc8S-jxjkmmNbMneKyocZg7Bpl8fZyZg9S1JMBhthagvk1aoZEgt6iXKClw/s1600/Enes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlegXSsIs9BuXr0_dh-hpab3aM5DqW0JakhkWoTr5CTc7UsOvbJUjwuDCJZR3ugiYsh_yQiVHuvJwXIZMkzc8S-jxjkmmNbMneKyocZg7Bpl8fZyZg9S1JMBhthagvk1aoZEgt6iXKClw/s200/Enes.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Enes in Repose" at Tolly Ho (photo by Jessica Newman)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>Best example of local media overkill </b><br />
1. "FREE ENES" <br />
2. Snow <br />
<br />
<b>Best UK story of 2010</b><br />
1. "FREE ENES" <br />
2. "Jorts"<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwVETQQN3OhvcasKU0zhL15WI5h1DMCzFXvLuPlginMrjS9GtyFZhtcMhyphenhyphenv7GSMdx3BdHz1ZJWS_dnaVbyqiuIqrYurrYANinef8lRjxWzPGFBeRTC8Ia3xYIEUeVn18fbgw7OnMk2eg4/s1600/kentuckysportsradio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwVETQQN3OhvcasKU0zhL15WI5h1DMCzFXvLuPlginMrjS9GtyFZhtcMhyphenhyphenv7GSMdx3BdHz1ZJWS_dnaVbyqiuIqrYurrYANinef8lRjxWzPGFBeRTC8Ia3xYIEUeVn18fbgw7OnMk2eg4/s200/kentuckysportsradio.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>Best Lex Twitter</b><br />
1. @kysportsradio<br />
2. @ukcoachcalipari<br />
3. @rexchapman <br />
<br />
<b>Best local blog (non corporate)</b><br />
1. Kentucky Sports Radio <br />
2. Barefoot and Progressive <br />
3. Recovering Pol <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Best local TV news personality</b><br />
1. KRISTEN PFLUM <br />
2. Nikki Burdine <br />
<br />
<b>Best DJ</b><br />
1. TWITCH<br />
2. Mick Jeffries <br />
<br />
<b>Best local radio show</b> <br />
1. WOODSONGS OLD TIME RADIO HOUR<br />
2. Trivial Thursdays<br />
3. Jack Pattie <br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">ESSAY QUESTIONS </span><br />
<br />
<b>What Lexington needs....(a sampling)</b><br />
"Fix the bike lanes." <br />
"More direct flights"<br />
"Two Way Streets" <br />
"more Limestone block parties"<br />
"more affordable concerts" <br />
"another WEG"<br />
<br />
<b>Best Reason to Love Lexington.....(a sampling)</b><br />
<br />
"If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Allergy-wise." <br />
<br />
Keeneland; The Kentucky Theatre; Bourbon; Gallery Hop; Thursday Night Live; horses; bluegrass; the Arboretum; basketball<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE</span><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/2011-best-of-lexington-celebration.html">2011 Best of Lexington Celebration</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjItY3Ot6hfSxdVbIDqhyphenhyphen_adqWXFE21MUn84F8xgZQxm5nVdWgublrurojUdUscSzOcvUAyjg8b9hJgzbGwLQK98tL-GlXIGnTd5cVKobo-UA9K0O85kmCGa8jpSxFUsK1vUFyNhodhIKo/s1600/acehorseyhousead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjItY3Ot6hfSxdVbIDqhyphenhyphen_adqWXFE21MUn84F8xgZQxm5nVdWgublrurojUdUscSzOcvUAyjg8b9hJgzbGwLQK98tL-GlXIGnTd5cVKobo-UA9K0O85kmCGa8jpSxFUsK1vUFyNhodhIKo/s400/acehorseyhousead.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/ace-favorite-things-best-of-lexington.html">Ace Favorite Things 2011 </a><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/12/ace-weekly-dec-23-issue-this-years.html">This Year's Models 2010: Randall Cobb, Matt Jones, Shane Tedder, Joe Sonka, John Lackey</a><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/09/welcome-to-ace-best-of-lexington.html">Ace Best of Lexington 2010 </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-59603083180390125462011-09-14T16:41:00.005-04:002011-09-14T19:08:29.586-04:00The 2011 Best of Lexington Celebration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU89wXsHBABhf28eM2iQixJNBM7vavKjlyq87d_zETG_e8l5VccjtBCOfT1IQDf9NGJBWKaFN618nbrzIHECtvOeonybuuc8sfZtrxdePISGw38bKloNXVOrgHPvfwYWYgm9BR5BSpvzk/s1600/bestoflexparty2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU89wXsHBABhf28eM2iQixJNBM7vavKjlyq87d_zETG_e8l5VccjtBCOfT1IQDf9NGJBWKaFN618nbrzIHECtvOeonybuuc8sfZtrxdePISGw38bKloNXVOrgHPvfwYWYgm9BR5BSpvzk/s320/bestoflexparty2011.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Ace </span>and <a href="http://www.jditgroup.com/">JDI Technology Group </a>invite you to the Ace Best of Lex Celebration, Friday, September 16, 5 pm to 7 pm, during Gallery Hop at John Lackey's Homegrown Press Studio + Gallery (corner of 6th and Limestone, the former Spalding's Donut Building).<br />
<br />
ON EXHIBIT: Negative Impressions, New Blocks and Monoprints by John Lackey (voted Best Artist in the 2010, 2011 Best of Lex Readers' Poll)<br />
<br />
For those who completed and mailed your Best of Lex Ballot, your Ballot enters you in the iPad 2 drawing courtesy of JDI Technology Group, and a drawing for two passes to this year's ideaFestival (in Louisville). <br />
<br />
Must be Present to win -- and to enjoy some frosty cold Ale8s -- so don't be fashionably late. <br />
<br />
MUSIC BY: Warren Byrom, Chris Sullivan, and Rachel Yannarella. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE </span><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/best-of-lexington-2011.html">Best of Lexington 2011</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjItY3Ot6hfSxdVbIDqhyphenhyphen_adqWXFE21MUn84F8xgZQxm5nVdWgublrurojUdUscSzOcvUAyjg8b9hJgzbGwLQK98tL-GlXIGnTd5cVKobo-UA9K0O85kmCGa8jpSxFUsK1vUFyNhodhIKo/s1600/acehorseyhousead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjItY3Ot6hfSxdVbIDqhyphenhyphen_adqWXFE21MUn84F8xgZQxm5nVdWgublrurojUdUscSzOcvUAyjg8b9hJgzbGwLQK98tL-GlXIGnTd5cVKobo-UA9K0O85kmCGa8jpSxFUsK1vUFyNhodhIKo/s400/acehorseyhousead.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/ace-favorite-things-best-of-lexington.html">Ace Favorite Things 2011 </a><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/09/welcome-to-ace-best-of-lexington.html">Ace Best of Lexington 2010 </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-14997280435051724112011-09-13T16:30:00.004-04:002011-09-21T17:21:26.371-04:00Ace Favorite Things: the Best of Lexington Preview<small>This article appears on page 6 of this week's September 16 annual Best of Lexington issue.</small> <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ACE FAVORITE THINGS</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he Ace Readers have their say in this week's Ace Best of Lexington readers' poll, but the Ace Writers always celebrate a few Ace Favorite Things in this annual issue too -- things that are part of what we think makes Lexington special. There may not be voting categories for best tearoom or public transit or ...beef jerky, so we like to take this opportunity to share a few of these favorites with the Ace readers.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<b>Favorite Snack</b><br />
BY TOM YATES <br />
<br />
Michael and I can't go anywhere without being hypnotized by the aroma of the yellow Bluegrass Kettle Korn stand. It's a fixture at every event, festival, football game, or street fair. The steaming sweet smell of Kettle Korn wafts through the air, cuts through crowds, and always draws us in. With its salty sweet taste and irresistible crunch, Kettle Korn is ridiculously addictive. What's our favorite thing about Kettle Korn? If you only want a snack, bite, or taste of it, simply hold out your hand and they'll fill it up with a fabulous sample, freshly popped.<br />
<br />
<b>And Another Favorite Snack</b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRNvWsrMBWk8cmd06B0J-5QBH5u7bEKv85mp85scdNWVkvzWrU_kN3Qh1fvMnV5So5kMfA4AGKAUyupVsoCU6vyIKDbp1WVnghkNPF9PywWRXRxapam4qR7kC0HJyQMdwdpfr75xjfyW0/s1600/mingua.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRNvWsrMBWk8cmd06B0J-5QBH5u7bEKv85mp85scdNWVkvzWrU_kN3Qh1fvMnV5So5kMfA4AGKAUyupVsoCU6vyIKDbp1WVnghkNPF9PywWRXRxapam4qR7kC0HJyQMdwdpfr75xjfyW0/s200/mingua.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We eat it in VOLUME at Front Porch Fridays.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>There's no category for "Best Beef Jerky" but if there were, surely Mingua would win it (pronounce it like this: Bring-y the Ming-y; then do it). A Paris, Kentucky tradition since 1994, if you've ever won a Best of Lex category, you know the REAL prize was finding this treat in your swag bag. The Ace writers savor this local treasure frequently on the Front Porch of Freedom at Front Porch Fridays. <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Favorite Ladies Who Lunch </b><br />
by Heather C. Watson<br />
<br />
I first visited Greentree Tearoom in the early 2000s. As a twenty-something single gal, I was easily the youngest person at my work luncheon by a decade, and I felt like a little girl playing dress-up in her mama’s clothing. <i>This place is lovely, I thought, but Carrie Bradshaw doesn’t do cucumber sandwiches and neither do I. </i> I didn’t give high tea another thought until this summer, when I was invited to attend a baby shower at Greentree; ironically enough, we were fêting one of my old “Happy Hour at Cheapside” buddies. As I entered the Tearoom, I found myself really noticing the subtle beauty of the antiques displays. I was now an experienced enough cook to appreciate the delicate finger foods, and I quietly analyzed the wonderful pimiento cheese, comparing it to my own recipe. I took my cold soup and tea with neither irony nor an outdated pop culture reference. Maybe I hadn’t quite become a Lady Who Lunches, but I found myself fitting in. That’s the beautiful thing about living in a town like Lexington – the kind of place that reveres its history while maintaining a modern sensibility: Sometimes you find Lexington evolving to fit your tastes and whims. And sometimes, if you’re quite lucky, you find yourself evolving because of the local places and things that you love.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Bmx5Z8sHb0jbH-nC37B1b6-_sAlhK0iwJX-8coeeLjkKeV-YOGjF3tIFFNZ1kPuv9LbDHrW74JLOdDYp2JxBtbOy9SQF6Ri7Zflpaxksie6qdt6XshMjHAmC3bWoOBYslWHRNP5qc9Y/s1600/FavoriteThingsPhotoTheAceDrink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Bmx5Z8sHb0jbH-nC37B1b6-_sAlhK0iwJX-8coeeLjkKeV-YOGjF3tIFFNZ1kPuv9LbDHrW74JLOdDYp2JxBtbOy9SQF6Ri7Zflpaxksie6qdt6XshMjHAmC3bWoOBYslWHRNP5qc9Y/s320/FavoriteThingsPhotoTheAceDrink.jpg" width="236" /></a></div><b>Favorite Ace</b><br />
Ace events are famous for incurring positively biblical weather patterns in the bluegrass, from the very first Bluegrass Bachelor Auction in the 90s, which pelted the Loudon House with a mix of freezing rain, ice, sleet, and snow (along with a just-over capacity crowd, if you listen to the fire marshall) to our very first inland hurricane at a Front Porch Friday a few summers back, we really do seem to bring out the worst in Mother Nature. <br />
When the Readers voted Columbia's downtown Lexington's best veteran restaurant in the 2010 poll, we began to drop by regularly for the famed Nighthawk Special. And when manager Flo Cowley posted this photo requesting naming input for this cocktail (formerly known as the Daily Double), "the Ace" was born. It tastes a bit like an old-fashioned New Orleans Hurricane...but inland. Chase it with another Ace Favorite Thing: Flo's homemade pies (we recommend the key lime and The Arthur.)<br />
Also, we had nothing to do with the recent rained-in roof at the downtown location! (We were busy moving our office to our new, nearby Constitution Street home at Shelby Cottage.... though that might have been enough to stir up a smallish hurricane.) <b>[Editor's Update: The roof is all fixed up; they were only closed for a couple days.]</b><br />
<br />
<b>Favorite Public Transit: the Farmers' Market Trolley</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuYPveeZ6IJpHfsEaxdtx3YzrSiRetjd1UmtDZ9SomCRSgR5pnLyE3bqKSGnPH73i5XTVJLw0UPgXziZFwM6nl5oCckbrj-A8WLqqobZQQ886WT-3rmaI53fnfRrSpF-BtX1YEIinO_eI/s1600/favoritethingPhotoTROLLEY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuYPveeZ6IJpHfsEaxdtx3YzrSiRetjd1UmtDZ9SomCRSgR5pnLyE3bqKSGnPH73i5XTVJLw0UPgXziZFwM6nl5oCckbrj-A8WLqqobZQQ886WT-3rmaI53fnfRrSpF-BtX1YEIinO_eI/s320/favoritethingPhotoTROLLEY.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This past summer, LexTran's Colt Trolley began running an occasional Saturday extender into Chevy Chase, where riders could hop on anywhere in the Starbucks on Ashland block and ride the trolley to and from Farmers' Market downtown, for FREE. This fantastic idea deserves a regular Saturday route, every Saturday, so shoppers can work this into the habit of their weekly routines. It doesn't even have to be free (though that's a nice touch). Because even though walking to Farmers' Market from east or west downtown is a lovely stroll, the walk home hauling a week's worth of groceries isn't nearly as appealing. We'll try the Keeneland trolleys in October. (Maybe they'll be an Ace favorite thing next year.) <br />
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<b>Favorite Student-Run Radio Station </b><br />
by Kakie Urch<br />
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I love WRFL-FM best when I am driving through Central Kentucky – whether of an early weekend morning to Bluegrass or Americana or of a sweltering, steamy summer night to handpicked post-punk, hip hop or Indian music. When all that electrical eclecticism comes tumbling out, curated live by a person in our community, a Christmas morning full of surprise with each half-hour of programming. What I love about this student-run, alternative radio station that’s been on-air 24-7-365 since 1988 with volunteer air talent is the way it evolves, brings the best to the fore from genres that are still being created. And then connects that to what has come before. Catty-corner. I love it almost as much when I get to, every other Friday night from 6-8 p.m., be part of that electricity, doing a show from the Lexington studio that reaches now Stamping Ground, Waddy-Peytona and Bald Knob. My favorite caller: “What IS this?” (any age, any gender, any geography) – the same moment I still have when I myself am on the listening end. With the transmitter upgrade to 7900 watts, I can drive farther under the influence of Christmas morning musical surprise. And so can you. <br />
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<b>Favorite Nature </b><br />
by David Schankula<br />
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Outside Kentucky, I always try to convince people the grass really is blue here -- "That's why it's called the Bluegrass State!" I tell them like they're idiots, "It's the damnedest thing." And sure, the grass isn't blue, but one of the Best parts of Lexington is this land surrounding us. Whether it's Woodland Park or the underutilized hillocks of the Arboreteum (Seriously folks... great place to walk, but you could also lie out and get sun, throw a frisbee, play croquet, have a picnic... it's huge! Bigger cities around the country would kill for that type of space.). Our urban fabric -- which has far, far too many parking lots -- is punctuated by a series of wonderful green oases. And then there's the land beyond the suburbs, where the horse country rolls down to the river, between streams and cricks.Lexington's the best and its Bluegrass may be its best part. <br />
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<b>Favorite Metaphor in the Middle of Town </b><br />
by <a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/search/label/Movies">Raj Ranade</a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFutxyp7wPlCp0DYPksW9vW1in6BwPamjTBWfa5zA8h8hU85K6cHByounNE_dsA-icpi8Ypmu7wPIrmnWBHypevHfqlyMhHo1x7ulJ6HIfbfuhOWwEKTeqLdWUaN5QJMMmMdRekKas02E/s1600/FavoriteThingphotoMETAPHORpasture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFutxyp7wPlCp0DYPksW9vW1in6BwPamjTBWfa5zA8h8hU85K6cHByounNE_dsA-icpi8Ypmu7wPIrmnWBHypevHfqlyMhHo1x7ulJ6HIfbfuhOWwEKTeqLdWUaN5QJMMmMdRekKas02E/s320/FavoriteThingphotoMETAPHORpasture.jpg" width="320" /></a>I moved to Lexington about a year ago, and I remember being mesmerized by the empty patch of nothing sitting squarely in the middle of an otherwise lively downtown. I would come to learn, of course, that most people justifiably viewed this void as a monument to tone-deaf urban developers and bureaucratic incompetence, but if you're willing to look on the bright side, there's at least a nice metaphor to be had. Lexington has always maintained a unique balance between the urban and the pastoral (thanks to the urban growth boundary), and that grassy nothingness almost feels like nature asserting its own central role in affairs alongside other Lexington landmarks. And there's a kind of soothing Zen feel to that placid green blankness (which pairs nicely with the overstimulation of the downtown bar scene). I realize that this will not convince anybody using to having, you know, things there, but you have to admit that as far as vacant lots go, this is one of the more memorable types.<br />
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<b>Favorite Sport (after basketball)</b><br />
by Tread <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">B</span>est thing about Lexington: Youth Soccer. If you are a fan of the beautiful game there is no shortage of action on the pitch, Fall or Spring. There’s a wealth of opportunity for kids to learn the intricacies but there’s also plenty opportunity to feed your jones for just taking a gander of the game. You don’t have to be a parent, there are games almost every weekend at either of Lexington’s two premier clubs; Commonwealth Soccer Club or Lexington Football Club, just head over to LCA on Reynolds Road or out to Masterson and have a look around. You will no doubt find real fans nestled between the juice box and orange slices who occasionally share a beer or three over real matches on the tube at Pazzo’s or Mellow Mushroom. Take it from a guy who has been nearly thrown off of some of the best pitches in the Bluegrass, under the veneer of everything basketball there lies a subculture just waiting to be cultivated. Play on.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCeTB4Ez5_6NCwRRGwssD5tJiB4AZcDFvvhg3ya7gfr9TsbFZr4rfmPmdwkcEz2hMQjNVvniA6qmEfBdDz_Vim8zfEWUFZq8ew78ixrySw_f3Y7UOBXy8JLOyjpSL-PLV_R8AcGngoWj4/s1600/acehouseadOctober.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCeTB4Ez5_6NCwRRGwssD5tJiB4AZcDFvvhg3ya7gfr9TsbFZr4rfmPmdwkcEz2hMQjNVvniA6qmEfBdDz_Vim8zfEWUFZq8ew78ixrySw_f3Y7UOBXy8JLOyjpSL-PLV_R8AcGngoWj4/s320/acehouseadOctober.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/best-of-lexington-2011.html">2011 Ace Best of Lexington </a><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/09/2011-best-of-lexington-celebration.html">2011 Best of Lex Celebration</a><br />
<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/09/welcome-to-ace-best-of-lexington.html">2010 Ace Best of Lexington</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-50996507197350425522011-09-01T11:35:00.001-04:002011-09-03T11:11:43.130-04:00Cheers to Vintage Kentucky, Wine Festival at Henry Clay Estate, the Sequel<i><small>This article appears on page 5 of the Aug 25 edition of Ace. </small></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Cheers to Labor Day Weekend in Lex</span>:<br />
Vintage Kentucky, the Second Year<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">L</span>abor Day is a big weekend for alcohol festivities in the Bluegrass. Lexington Fest-of-Ales is September 2 in Cheapside Park, followed by the second annual Vintage Kentucky wine fest at Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate, on Sunday September 4. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMdEKroDCjPPv9-aDFfZAeOAyNIctV-Uim0Tb-lNDm7gX-a5rDkoe7xpsr9tGCZUp1SI_cj3Pijx33xixX-d2JXIAfNDs-byaktgLq4LPyOqlTq44jtzUvfkjWgB-RJ6hZQH4ssnodX4/s1600/vintagekentucky+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMdEKroDCjPPv9-aDFfZAeOAyNIctV-Uim0Tb-lNDm7gX-a5rDkoe7xpsr9tGCZUp1SI_cj3Pijx33xixX-d2JXIAfNDs-byaktgLq4LPyOqlTq44jtzUvfkjWgB-RJ6hZQH4ssnodX4/s400/vintagekentucky+004.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first annual Vintage Kentucky. Photo Tom Yates.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>We attended Vintage Kentucky last year, and it was a terrific concept, with room for tweaking and fine tuning, as is true of any inaugural event. <br />
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Ideally, this would become a signature event for Lexington, like the one it's modeled after in Grapevine, Texas, and it's good to see it returning for a second year.<br />
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After attending last year's fest, we posted these suggestions on the Ace blog:<br />
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* Offer an option of 4 or 5 samples for $10 or $15. The 10 tickets for $20 was reasonable, but that's a lot of wine. Additionally, a lower price point would open the event up to a younger, wine-loving demographic (while by no means creating a frat-friendly atmosphere). $50 bucks-plus-parking is a pricey date for an average 20 to 30-something couple that doesn't include a meal.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhakOat7t1EFdhNxWTkGB75TouyTjYDLhz41JmUYEiv5BsqH5HfrZcIGnii4lUZ_4PnXLJjuatAZ86kYKOh2mj8y1iM8oA8u9hmnSLQQ11z0Yn89NWvMoKAxZj576IaLNUrNqXYcju826o/s1600/vintagekentucky+012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhakOat7t1EFdhNxWTkGB75TouyTjYDLhz41JmUYEiv5BsqH5HfrZcIGnii4lUZ_4PnXLJjuatAZ86kYKOh2mj8y1iM8oA8u9hmnSLQQ11z0Yn89NWvMoKAxZj576IaLNUrNqXYcju826o/s320/vintagekentucky+012.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jonathan Lundy's cheese plate. (Photo Tom Yates)</td></tr>
</tbody></table> * Open up the ticket exchange to food samples as well, and add a few more food options appropriate to the wine pairings. Jonathan, Wines on Vine, and Chrisman Mill had lovely offerings (for a separate price, not included with the wine tickets). Jonathan's local cheese and fruit plates were extraordinary.<br />
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* Add a marketing plan, including facebook and twitter. It would be an opportunity to introduce more of Lexington to the Henry Clay Estate.<br />
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And finally:<br />
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* schedule around UK football games. It may not seem like the same demographic, but there is no demographic that is immune to UK sports.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">O</span>ne reader recommended the tastings at Market Wines at Findlay Market in Cinci as a model. A modest $5 to $10 will typically feature four wines, along with some light food from neighborhood chefs. There's usually music, and the crowds range from 20 and 30-something singles to Moms with their Maclarens. Their facebook page actually includes an album, "Babies of Market Wine." They also mix in beer tastings, and pair those with appropriate food like barbecue. The crowds are diverse and energetic. The modest tasting fee also leaves shoppers with plenty of discretionary leftover cash to purchase the wines and introduce them to new fans later at home. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/pages/Market-Wines-at-Findlay-Market/72710679864">Here's the facebook page for Market Wines at Findlay Market.</a><br />
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While nobody took any of our suggestions (sigh)-- except for adding a Facebook Page and averting a UK football conflict -- they <b><i>did</i></b> use Chef Tom's beautiful photos from last year in all of the marketing and promotional materials for this year's event, and they're so pretty we're repeating them again.<br />
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Here is a sampling of Chef Tom's notes and photos reviewing last year's Vintage Kentucky:<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The First Vintage Kentucky<br />
BY TOM YATES</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he first annual Vintage Kentucky Festival offered wine samplings from various local wineries and vineyards on the grounds of Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate on Saturday. On a late summer afternoon under the canopy of Ash trees, Kentucky's wineries offered up their best in a tented tasting room.<br />
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Situated just outside the tasting tent were similar smaller food tents offering nibbles and snacks to pair with wine.<br />
Cheeses, fruits, finger sandwiches, and pastas took center stage. Chrisman Mill Vineyard had a fresh grape and goat cheese sampler along with a build-your-own pasta station.<br />
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A few steps down the shaded mulched pathway, Jonathan Lundy of Jonathan at Gratz Park plated fresh Capriole goat cheese samplings with assorted crackers and huge plump fresh Kentucky proud blackberries, Sophia, a pillowy white mild cheese streaked with ash veining, was tangy and nutty. Tomme de Chevre, a semi soft white cheese, had a salty tang. St. Francis, with its reddish washed rind was the standout. Not for the faint of heart with its wonderful pungent deep stinky flavor, it was the cheese that lingered in memory and taste. They all paired beautifully with the wines.<br />
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Equus Run served their official WEG offerings -- a Blanc de Blanc and a Merlot. They describe the Blanc de Blanc as "a white table wine with hints of citrus on the nose. Stainless steel fermented with a Sauvignon Blanc finish." As for the merlot, "the nose has light chocolate aroma with a tease of ripe purple plum. Medium mid-palate fruit with toasted almond nutty finish."<br />
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Lovers Leap sampled their award winning selections, including the peach bellini that won the People's Choice Award at the 2010 Taste of the Bluegrass. And Louisville's River Bend winery served both a Bourbon Barrel Red, and a rhubarb white (vinted from rhubarb, not grapes).<br />
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The event was lovely. Crowds lounged in chairs or at picnic tables enjoying the welcome break from the summer's heat and listening to the music from the DiMartino Osland Jazz Orchestra, as part of the annual Evening at Ashland celebration.<br />
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Sips of wine. Nips of cheese. A great way to while away the last summer afternoon on Labor Day weekend.<br />
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<i>This year's Vintage Kentucky actually raised the price to $25 (still ten wine taste tickets). Featured wineries are: Chrisman Mill Vineyards, Elk Creek Vineyards, Generation Hill Winery, Horseshoe Bend Vineyards, Prodigy Vineyards and Winery, and Purple Toad Winery. Parking on the grounds of the Henry Clay Estate is an additional $5. The Fest-of-Ales at Cheapside Park on Sep 2 is also $25. Neither event will be competing with UK football. </i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Vn00FAClElucdqpSlRmq7nxismNEZQBELI9PsPiAeUu3mJck3MJZ-YgFexL8AOdZBwTg0WcC4foAt8N_57pA0yht8V9x9MRAY3YlP_CJ2SAQBZac5Y_2DGI7rys_bCqACtTTsNWIQbU/s1600/BestofLex2011ad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Vn00FAClElucdqpSlRmq7nxismNEZQBELI9PsPiAeUu3mJck3MJZ-YgFexL8AOdZBwTg0WcC4foAt8N_57pA0yht8V9x9MRAY3YlP_CJ2SAQBZac5Y_2DGI7rys_bCqACtTTsNWIQbU/s400/BestofLex2011ad.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Best of Lexington on stands September 15. </td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE </span><br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/08/august-25-ace-on-stands-now-vote-in.html">August 25 Ace on stands Now </a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-81239191977828908312011-08-25T11:10:00.003-04:002011-09-01T11:02:36.008-04:00August 25 Ace on stands now. VOTE in the Best of Lexington Ballot!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPhCphFUpM_VL3CBRyn1Hus4dkLaFvSSSVVAvpCzE63qK3ixxdxj18rLoKU_H2PkcL62Dr1qPUYfSdqyANYz-_9_B6usPSfiflqV066Vxc8O3iT6JqXJ59oZxQ9KBNcaJvNaviwMvxvBg/s1600/CoverAug25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPhCphFUpM_VL3CBRyn1Hus4dkLaFvSSSVVAvpCzE63qK3ixxdxj18rLoKU_H2PkcL62Dr1qPUYfSdqyANYz-_9_B6usPSfiflqV066Vxc8O3iT6JqXJ59oZxQ9KBNcaJvNaviwMvxvBg/s320/CoverAug25.jpg" width="292" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he August 25 issue of Ace is on stands now. In this issue, you'll find UK Law Professor Melynda Price's <a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/08/trouble-with-help-by-melynda-price.html">essay on The Help. </a><br />
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On page 4, meet author Crystal Wilkinson and her new bookstore, The Wild Fig. Why would anyone open a bookstore in this economy? She has <a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-we-bought-bookstore-by-crystal.html">some answers. </a><br />
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Page 5 is a preview of the second annual Vintage Kentucky festival at the Henry Clay estate (and a recap of <a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/09/notes-from-first-vintage-kentucky-at.html">Chef Tom's review from last year's inaugural event.)</a><br />
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In the back of the book, you'll find Raj Ranade's preview of the fall <a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/08/fall-music-highlights-run-up-to.html">fall concert lineup</a> for the next few weeks; Chef Tom's discovery of local grapes at the Lexington Farmers' Market; and Heather C. Watson's harrowing 48 hours without her iPhone in a small eastern Kentucky town. (Along with Picks, Gigs, Astro, Classifieds, and more.) <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>And, the Ace Best of Lexington Ballot is on page 8. </b>Vote! </span>Pick it up; fill it out; and mail it in. Who has the Best Lexington twitter? What is the best example of Lexington's taxpayer-wasted dollars? Who's the best politician you'd like to have lunch with? Where can you get the best breakfast in Lexington? Answer these and many more.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5rpXr26ORUrPC924CKzrWalLPLYyHSkTb5Hv7vdHFsGDzFsY6Ce7trUUF_iiPcWWSdj95-D7aJYP5GPkb_9fSi7QHWky-CPTLvHb-jYbs4CIq2UbmjeMXT0hh1xxJhNeUScIf6mA1XDw/s1600/ipad2photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5rpXr26ORUrPC924CKzrWalLPLYyHSkTb5Hv7vdHFsGDzFsY6Ce7trUUF_iiPcWWSdj95-D7aJYP5GPkb_9fSi7QHWky-CPTLvHb-jYbs4CIq2UbmjeMXT0hh1xxJhNeUScIf6mA1XDw/s200/ipad2photo.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wanna win an iPad2? Ya gotta VOTE!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Your completed ballot enters you in a drawing for an iPad2 (courtesy <a href="http://twitter.com/jditech">JDI Technology Group</a>) at this year's Best of Lexington celebration on September 16 during Gallery Hop, at John Lackey's Homegrown Press Studio + Gallery, in the old Spalding's Bakery building at the corner of N. Limestone and 6th Street. (One mailed ballot per reader. Must be present to win.) Writing your favorite band's name in every category will not qualify as a "completed ballot."<br />
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Because everyone remembers the year Coach Cal got the most votes for "best taqueria." <br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/p/advertise-in-ace.html">Call today to schedule your Ace Advertising Plan. </a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6vqadeF5hzZYiZkh-WjX0MVwGI8ogQ9zSGIIg3B3z6280qmsOkXvXWibF1H4_VTWvT3Vm47RBEKhRXnREyApaDFAWpWH4HAJ7SEamLneVNhbKTBUSGsGQIXm6fXNo-gauWUSEtge49Y/s1600/BestofLex2011ad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6vqadeF5hzZYiZkh-WjX0MVwGI8ogQ9zSGIIg3B3z6280qmsOkXvXWibF1H4_VTWvT3Vm47RBEKhRXnREyApaDFAWpWH4HAJ7SEamLneVNhbKTBUSGsGQIXm6fXNo-gauWUSEtge49Y/s400/BestofLex2011ad.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE </span><br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2010/09/welcome-to-ace-best-of-lexington.html">Ace Best of Lexington 2010</a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-71075191340717284392011-08-24T11:54:00.003-04:002011-10-17T22:15:00.908-04:00The Trouble With The Help: by Melynda Price<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwn9RY_y1mMNIM7hpF5ft-P8YQQq3fijhtVH44xpqibYELJE7aY7j8iMPbzOQSmYL5onxDmnirDxPJ0yp52I5EHk7FPJoGiT9kT0tQe5AeKgPS_V3SuLoALzWbDDJq_rIbmabz9oOj7SI/s1600/p6PhotoProfessorPrice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwn9RY_y1mMNIM7hpF5ft-P8YQQq3fijhtVH44xpqibYELJE7aY7j8iMPbzOQSmYL5onxDmnirDxPJ0yp52I5EHk7FPJoGiT9kT0tQe5AeKgPS_V3SuLoALzWbDDJq_rIbmabz9oOj7SI/s200/p6PhotoProfessorPrice.jpg" width="173" /></a></div><small> This feature appears on page 6 and 7 of the August 25 print edition of Ace </small><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"No Sass"</span><br />
A UK Law professor's notes on 'The Help' <br />
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by Melynda J. Price <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I </span>went to see <i>The Help </i>and wept through most of the movie. I was overcome with tears. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL39WRrucQKWmlOLZ11zIKXtQGlfQr972Vj_rxnyk292Tjg8-8K4Zhctui25dfkWUe7OoMKJzxx0XR177mVkxuHb2p6orIpEq5nNSngRrvYqfTBO5qNrXEn48T3bzSO-H_-HijOUAJkek/s1600/CoverAug25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL39WRrucQKWmlOLZ11zIKXtQGlfQr972Vj_rxnyk292Tjg8-8K4Zhctui25dfkWUe7OoMKJzxx0XR177mVkxuHb2p6orIpEq5nNSngRrvYqfTBO5qNrXEn48T3bzSO-H_-HijOUAJkek/s200/CoverAug25.jpg" width="182" /></a></div>I have seen this movie before -- <i>The Long Walk Home, Gone With the Wind, To Kill A Mockingbird, Corrina, Corrina</i> -- and others I can't remember. The lovable black maid is a common theme in Southern period movies (films that romanticize the difficulties of black women in the deep south who worked in the homes of white families), but this was different. <br />
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Most of the movie was your typical <i>Sisterhood of the Traveling Ya-Ya's</i>, but Viola Davis. VIOLA DAVIS! The film is worth watching just to see the beauty and gravitas she brings to what is really a pretty hackneyed story line with a little social conscience thrown in to make it more modern. The look in Viola Davis's eyes in the first scene of the film when this wide-eyed young white woman asked her what it was like to leave your child and go off and take care of someone else's brought the first rush of tears. <br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=acew-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0425245136&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Davis, as the central figure of the film, Aibileen, opens her mouth to speak, and then gazes out the window. This is something I do more each day as I grow older and am asked to explain things that seem to be on the skin of my life. A diversionary habit to stop, think, or move on. As I watched the film, I thought about the softness and tenderness shown to children who would in successive generations grow up and put their adult foot in the neck of women who nestled them at their breast. <br />
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In the parts of the movie that may have seemed casual to other viewers, I covered my mouth to stop the tears from becoming audible, like the sight of black people being thrown off a city bus in the aftermath of the assassination of Medgar Evers and seeing men, women, children scurrying to their homes for fear of further racial violence. Watching grown women have to hold their urine or pee in sheds, and then be asked to care for the children. Thinking about what it means to go through life and not have anyone ask you who YOU are and what your dreams are that may not be visible in your daily life. The thoughts, the scene....it all made my chest hurt.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I </span>sat in a theater of mostly older white women. Many appeared to be middle class. I wondered how many were watching this, longing for Aunt Sara or Mamie who stroked their hair when they were young and fed them meals. I looked at the younger women and wondered how many of them wanted to relish in a romanticized version of underpaid household help because they too leave their children in the care of women, more likely immigrant than black American, and do not wish to believe they are part of the oppressive forces that make these women's labor so readily available.<br />
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But, I too am implicated. I went to see this film after having my house clean that afternoon by a woman I pay well above minimum wage and treat with respect, but still I know these attempts to compensate do not upend the privilege and power of our relationship. She, an immigrant from Guatemala, has cleaned for me since I was five months pregnant and alone and overcome with fatigue and concern for how I would care for myself and a child in the months and years to come. More than two years later, I do not forget that when she began she was pregnant with a child that she lost around the time my son was born. Sometimes I can hear the sadness, but also the genuine affinity and concern when she, and only she, pronounces my child's middle name with the Spanish lilt I hear in my mind when I say it in silent prayer. Ef-ra-in.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I </span>wept. I wept in a movie whose collective production did not warrant it. I wept because I am still coming to understand the vulnerability of black women in the Jim Crow South as I mature and learn my own vulnerabilities. As a mother, as a person with goals which I am still pursuing, as a black woman, as a human being. I wept thinking about the way the collective beauty of black community sometimes obscures the individual harms that are done to black women. How many of these women hummed hymns or sang in hallelujah choruses on Sunday to try and fortify themselves for the days and week ahead. I told Satan, get thee behind, Victory is mine today. <br />
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In this film, the black women are victorious in getting their story out, but still vulnerable to the whims of whiteness and economic marginality. When Minnie is asked to sit at the welcome table by a man from whom she and his wife conspired to keep her employment secret for fear of violent reaction, I cringed, but I also cried. I cried because within in the severe restraints of her life, Minnie drew her line in the sand and refused to retreat even with knowledge of the possibility of the most severe retribution. I cried when the church celebrated Aibileen, whose willingness to stand when those around her could not, did not stop her from pulling Minnie in for some of the praise. I have watched black women, like my mother, moan and weep in church all my life and wondered why. Everyone knowing it was more than the holy spirit; it was also the unholy forces of racism, sexism and economic limitations.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I </span>was significantly impacted by this film and these black women. I can't tell you to see it outside of the wonder that is Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, who plays Minnie. My experience may have been idiosyncratic. It could be that I am exhausted from a week of caring for my 19-month-old son -- alone for days and hours on end while his school takes a two week break -- that makes me wonder how these women saved some of their sweetness for their own children at the end of the day. How did they do it, when I, a privileged black woman, often am concerned that I have not saved enough for mine? I have witnessed the lasting impact of the hard lessons black mothers have had to teach their children too early. As Minnie stroked the cheek of adolescent daughter, Sugar, whose father made her quit school to go work in a white woman's kitchen, she tells her several times, "No sass." <br />
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Only now as I write does it stand in stark contrast to the mantra Aibileen gives her toddling white charge, Mae Mobley. "You is smart, You is kind, You is important," she says to the cherubic daughter of her white employer. I am sure that Minnie said similar things to her children. One of the best scenes is the sweetness and protectiveness Minnie shows her children by asking them to go to bed rather than hear her express her fears to Aibileen."No sass!" says Minnie to Sugar. The repercussions for Sugar were severe in Mississippi at that time and Minnie's parting words were necessarily one's of caution. <br />
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In real life, I also wonder if Minnie gave Sugar strategies to avoid the sexual advances of the men in whose homes she worked. Did she tell her how to shield herself from the micro-assaults she would face in this move from child to working woman? I know the mantras of caution and care because I am a black girl who learned too early how to self-protect in a hostile world. This film does not show you who was Sugar's Aibileen when her black girl world was tough or she hurt, or her mother was the source of that hurt. This is the complication of poor women and the emotional work of child care.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>s a single parent, there is a legion of women, paid and unpaid and mostly white, who help me care for my child. Others have commented on the historical irony of a black woman bringing in white help (I had a cleaning lady who was white once), but I don't really get caught up in contemporary perversions of history. I also have to recognize that I live in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains with its historical blend of whiteness and economic and political marginality. The historical specificity of my current location does not change the fact that the majority of women who engage in the hidden work of home are poorly paid and often subject to arbitrary and unfair treatment by their better situated employees. *The Help* is a labor story as well as a race story.<br />
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There was a point in the film where I wished I had someone like Aibileen who came into my home in the morning, when I am running around like a headless chicken, to get me off on my day and have a hot meal waiting for me in my clean house when I returned. Someone to remind my child that he is special and beautiful and to pass on all the beauty that comes with being raised at the knee of her generation of black women when they are loving and kind. But in the same thought, I recognized the cost to women like Aibileen. I judged Hilly Holbrook (the white antagonist, played by Bryce Dallas Howard) and her crowd because they were indulging in the leisurely activities of bridge and charity auctions, but the women who take care of my child also help me go out into the world to do what I want. I am a successful professional. Truthfully, I was able to see that movie because a young white woman was home with my child.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I </span>don't know if you should see this film. I just know that it affected me. I think it will be with me for a while. The resurgence of narratives of the experience of black women during Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement has so many of these questions already on my mind and how they relate to my own contemporary experience.<br />
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As soon as the credits began to roll. I did something I do not do. I got up. I did not wait for lights or the polite passing of glances between me and the other audience members, largely white, because I was in a sphere of blackness and cellular memory that I did not want broken.<br />
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<i>Melynda J. Price is the Roberta E. Harding Jr. Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Her blog post about The Help was excerpted in a Washington Post piece on the movie.</i><br />
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<a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/08/august-25-ace-on-stands-now-vote-in.html">August 25 Ace on stands now </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7084132989568537314.post-1999599927918736572011-08-24T10:38:00.003-04:002011-09-04T12:22:34.458-04:00Why We Bought a Bookstore, by Crystal Wilkinson<small> This guest essay by author Crystal Wilkinson appears on page 4 of the Aug 25 print edition of Ace. Photo by Kakie Urch.</small><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpA603RMZKn1jb4_3z23rAmour5UtFGT7_VfvXztAUTd_QoijyR6XwHIegZK96yjS_SaaJjjQYSSZ3dX2_jdLcfGi_K_sA1tZEOIwAzHQ89NNDa16OnhQygIU6vPuxHHyDa2t18GnIFIg/s1600/p4PHOTOWildFigAug25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpA603RMZKn1jb4_3z23rAmour5UtFGT7_VfvXztAUTd_QoijyR6XwHIegZK96yjS_SaaJjjQYSSZ3dX2_jdLcfGi_K_sA1tZEOIwAzHQ89NNDa16OnhQygIU6vPuxHHyDa2t18GnIFIg/s320/p4PHOTOWildFigAug25.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Brick. Mortar. Ink. Paper: <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Why We Bought a Book Store</span><br />
by Crystal Wilkinson <br />
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<i>Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. </i><br />
~Harper Lee<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I </span>have owned a house in the Meadowthorpe Neighborhood in Lexington for more than 17 years. My son turned 13 when we moved into our house. The twins were five. One of the mainstays of the neighborhood was Morgan Adams Books, an eclectic used bookstore less than five minutes from my house. I bought books there for my children, for myself. I thought I had died and gone to heaven to trade a pile of books in for another pile. I was a single parent and sold books there when bills were tight. When I was writing my early books, I went to the bookstore to find inspiration, often leaving a pot on the stove or the kids playing in the yard, since it was right around the corner, to rush down for that book that would lead me to gently into the next phase of writing my own.<br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=acew-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1902881346&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Years later, when Ron and I became a couple, he decided to work part time at Morgan Adams so that he could supplement his artist's income. How perfect! It was right in the neighborhood. Truth be told, we bought more books than his salary provided over two years and he knew the perfect way to charm me more (if that is possible; he's a very charming man) was to bring me a book he knew I'd adore.<br />
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So when he came home and said, "Well I won't have a job at the end of the month," we began to at first play with the idea, and then to be more serious about it until we simply bit the bullet, bought the inventory and got the ball rolling.<br />
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Since we opened The Wild Fig Books on June 20, so many people have thanked us for opening, for keeping a bookstore at this location. "You're so brave to open...in this day and time, " they say.<br />
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Of course we've all heard to the stories about the large book chains closing and I have mourned the closing of every single independent across the country, many of which I visited last time I was on a book tour. But brave? I've never thought of myself in those exact terms. Unrestrained, maybe? Careless? No. Mostly it's simply that I don't believe the hype. A day and a time when ink and paper books don't exist. Pshaw!<br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=acew-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1592640559&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>We thought it would work because: <br />
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1) The previous owners (Mary Morgan and David Adams) spent more than 20 years building the foundation of a bookstore at this location, so obviously it had worked on some level. This neighborhood needs a bookstore. Lexington needs a quality bookstore on this side of town.<br />
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2) We have great business neighbors in Goodwill, Steepleton's, Pop's Resale, The Dollar Store and The Meadowthorpe Cafe.<br />
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3) We thought we could make it affordable. Of course this part is a little scary but in addition to gushing over the books, we are trying to be business savvy. But frankly we probably gush more (Especially me).<br />
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4) Most importantly, everyone I know, whether they have a Kindle or not, still buys ink and paper books. Ron and I still buy ink and paper books. I still write ink and paper books. Ron was recently commissioned to design a real ink and paper book cover for a poet-friend. We want our children and grandchildren to continue to read ink and paper books. As book lovers and writers and being an artistic couple, of course we jumped at the chance to be brick and mortar bookstore owners.<br />
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We hope that you will pass the word along to those you know. We plan on a variety of readings and musical guests in the future and have an art performance/installment in the works.<br />
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<i>The Wild Fig is currently open and located in the Meadowthorpe Shopping Center between Goodwill and Steepleton's near Pops Resale. The Grand Opening is Sunday, September 18. </i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2HFmWvvpc80T8JQ4siRNA3q48UXHmTwbt14UbmTd4J37RAymBUYWOqRSGXA7yQb-HGNXvklBX8iKVyS_ZIUgwYrQcOVVpGpUmP6RYillDwAiX2fZokn84P6O2Qo8r86eeCMlUBiTH7A/s1600/BestofLex2011ad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2HFmWvvpc80T8JQ4siRNA3q48UXHmTwbt14UbmTd4J37RAymBUYWOqRSGXA7yQb-HGNXvklBX8iKVyS_ZIUgwYrQcOVVpGpUmP6RYillDwAiX2fZokn84P6O2Qo8r86eeCMlUBiTH7A/s400/BestofLex2011ad.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><a href="http://aceweekly.blogspot.com/2011/08/august-25-ace-on-stands-now-vote-in.html">August 25 Ace on stands now </a><br />
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</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4