Art[squared] Spotlight: Douglas Miller

To celebrate the 5th anniversary of LVA’s “Art [squared]” event to benefit Children’s Fine Art Classes, we will feature five local artists who are contributing 24” x 24” paintings to be sold at the event through a Silent Auction. Today we highlight Douglas Miller:

Douglas Miller’s approach to art entered the Louisville consciousness subtly, evolving from handcrafted ear X-tacy signage to the mostly-dimensional animals familiar today to visitors of Cellar Door Chocolates, Copper & Kings American Brandy and Edenside Gallery, as well as gallerists from Asheville to Quebec.


His current project finds him at U of L’s Cressman Center downtown achieving success by examining failure with a new exhibition he’s calling Title. Miller says these drawings explore themes of “indeterminacy, failed projects, and the complications of representation. This series is informed by preliminary drawings, marginalia, and written notations that are inherent in the formulation processes of both visual and literary compositions.”

Miller was inspired by Russian author Nikolai Gogol’s unfinished 1842 novel Dead Souls “to conflate literary theories with visual representation” with his drawings. Compelled by process as a topic, Miller continues, “The Title series presents fragmentary images, texts, and digressive narratives that demonstrate intermediaries between propositional states and reconciled concepts … ultimately finding interchanges between the methods of representation and what is represented, this series underscores the ruptures in the production of meaning.”


This literary digression is a turn down a fresh alley for Miller. He says, “Modeling this series of drawings on methodologies typically constrained to literary texts, I intend to identify parallels between generating drawings and the formations of literary texts. Central to this thesis and the series of drawings is an emphasis on the disruptions of meaning and the digressive characteristics that adversely occur in the development of projects and how these function to create a more diverse, complicated, and ultimately uncertain interpretation.”

“In this way, the Title series demonstrates a fictive series of narratives that are preparatory and indeterminate in anticipation of a larger conclusive work that is never reconciled.”

Miller’s MFA exhibition Title is on view April 27 through August 4, 2018 at the University of Louisville's Cressman Center, with an opening reception April 27 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. He will also have work on exhibit at Lenihan Sotheby's International Realty in May of this year.

c. 2018 Louisville Visual Art

Preservation Hall Jazz Band takes over Belle of Louisville to share New Orleans and Cuban music

Preservation Hall Jazz Band | Photo by Danny Clinch

“It really started many years ago,” says Ben Jaffe, leader of New Orleans’ legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

He could be speaking about the band created by his parents in 1963 to shine a light on New Orleans’ finest traditional jazz musicians. At the moment, though, he’s speaking about how he and his local heroes-turned-global-ambassadors found themselves in Cuba in 2015.

“For any musician, there are certain places you’re drawn to, a mecca. For us, Cuba is one of those places,” says Jaffe, who plays upright bass, tuba and percussion and serves as creative director of both the band and the Preservation Hall club in New Orleans’ French Quarter. “There’s no other place that mirrors the history and culture of New Orleans as Cuba. For political reasons, it’s been off-limits to us. We never had the right opportunity until the (2015) Havana Jazz Fest, and then we started putting pieces together.”

Those pieces were both musical and personal. Jaffe stresses the value of community in his band’s music, itself an outgrowth of New Orleans’ famously unique social life.

In Cuba, he tells Insider, “we focused on personal connections, because that’s what life is — exploring where our lives overlap. All of our experiences are universal. That’s one of those secrets that holds back progress.”

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band also has made friends in Louisville, where they return Saturday for an encore performance on the Belle of Louisville for a Forecastle Festival late-night show.

They first played on the Belle with friends My Morning Jacket during 2012’s Forecastle. The next year, for their 50th anniversary, Jaffe and Jacket leader Jim James produced the band’s first album of original songs, That’s It!


Ben Jaffe | Courtesy of Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Approximately 50 people have been members of the ever-evolving band in 50-plus years, and they’ve collaborated with rock bands often — from the Grateful Dead in the 1960s to Arcade Fire recently. It’s part of the Jaffe family’s mission to honor the traditions of their music without limiting it to a novelty act, forever recreating the sounds of yesteryear.

It’s led them to test the limits of many types of folk music, sharing microphones with Tom Waits, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Foo Fighters and many more.

So it’s not surprising Jaffe led them to Cuba as soon as it became viable.

“New Orleans and Cuba have had a very long history. Until the embargo in the ’50s, they were trade partners,” he says. “There was a constant flow of people and culture and information. Cuban music influenced New Orleans music going back to in the mid-1800s.”

The history in Cuba is heavy, continues Jaffe. “There’s spirits and ghosts there. I scratch my head that the trade in humans from Africa — that out of that brutal act can come this beautiful expression: jazz, Cuban music. The trip changed the way we approach our music.”

Cuban musicians and fans showed their openness to the outsiders and received them warmly. Jaffe says it encouraged the band “to keep going, to push harder, go bigger. It’s real clear, especially in these political times — ‘What are you doing? You have a platform — what are you doing with it?’”

The New Orleanians, no strangers to struggle, were humbled by what they saw.


Courtesy of Preservation Hall Jazz Band

“You’re talking about a country that has suffered in ways that we don’t even know,” Jaffe says. “To go there and see they’re still suffering, simple needs aren’t being met — it eats at your soul. This thing we know in New Orleans, no matter what you’re given in life — Katrina, embargo — there’s something embedded in our DNA, a survival code. Part of that it is to turn to music and art and faith.”

At the same time, Jaffe emphasizes how much joy comes with that music, and art and faith.

“We want people to dance, have a good time,” he says, “but we want people to dance like in church — a religious experience.”

The band came home from the trip inspired and fired up. To ensure they captured the vitality of their new music, Jaffe hired another producer from the rock world to keep them focused on staying modern. TV on the Radio co-founder David Sitek helped shape So It Is, the new album, perhaps a necessary decision considering that Jaffe wrote much of the music with saxophonist and clarinetist Charlie Gabriel, who is 84 years old.

The current cross-generational lineup of seven includes three members who only joined within the past two years.

“New Orleans is this very rare place where those types of opportunities actually exist,” says Jaffe, who first performed live with this band when he was 3 years old, “where music is something that’s introduced in the womb. At a very young age, you’re exposed to this incredible community.”

Jaffe says their Cuban adventure brought a new level of seriousness to what they do. “It’s always been fun, but it has a purpose,” he was reminded. “It’s why we play music at funerals — it’s the ultimate honor.”

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band plays on the Belle of Louisville on Saturday, July 15, at 11 p.m. Admission is $25 and is for those 18 and older.

c. 2017 Insider Louisville

They have the meats: Les & Mark bring back their Jewish deli for one overstuffed meal

“Save the Deli” is not just the name of David Sax’s 2009 book. It’s a call-to-arms for anyone wishing they could walk down the street and get a pastrami on rye, made like they used to make them, as easily as you can get a Big Mac.

Louisville had a traditional Jewish deli, Les & Mark’s Deli, in Hikes Point in the latter half of the 1970s. Owners Mark Suna and Les Naiman, from New York and New Jersey respectively, missed the food of their youth and opened it after putting $500 down. Their deli also was a place to socialize, and not just for Louisville’s Jewish population. Mitch McConnell was a customer who posted flyers on their walls advertising his first run at elected office.

Naiman and Suna split after a few years, unable to balance what Suna calls their “Odd Couple” qualities. Mutual friends kept them in each other’s orbits through the years as Naiman continued in the food business, running his own Nosh Box deli and catering. Suna went into commercial real estate. The men eventually made peace and renewed their friendship.

This Sunday, Jan. 10, they will also renew their recipes for corned beef, coleslaw and more, all made in accordance with kosher rules, for a lunch service open to the public, benefitting the synagogue Keneseth Israel. Meat by the pound also will be for sale. All proceeds benefit the synagogue’s community outreach efforts. Adding to the festivities, writer Ted Merwin will be on hand to discuss his new book, Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli.

Another reason to do this now, says Suna, is that a lot of their old customers are just that — old. It’s not just the customers who are becoming scarce; where there were once 2,000 delis in New York, today there are five. Louisvillians looking for the real thing have to drive to Cincinnati or Indianapolis, though as Keneseth Israel executive director Yonatan Yussman points out, Shapiro’s in Indianapolis “isn’t even Kosher.”

The reasons for the decline are both social and financial. While those old delis were started by immigrants who couldn’t find their favorite old country food in their new cities, the great-grandchildren of those originators have long since assimilated into the American melting pot of Domino’s, Taco Bell and, well, the Melting Pot.

Additionally, quality meats are expensive, and kosher meats are more expensive than regular meats. The 2014 documentary Deli Man points out that of those five delis left in New York, four own their buildings. But it only takes one person passionate, crazy or well-funded enough to do it again in Louisville.

Suna mentions that Republic Bank CEO Steve Trager once worked as a Nosh Box server. Today, his nephew Michael Trager-Kusman keeps the family in the food business as a co-founder of NuLu restaurant Rye, which has flown in bread from New York’s Katz’s Deli, one of those final five.

As for Les & Mark, they’re getting back in business for a meal to have fun and to enjoy their friendship and community. Suna says now, “I don’t want to do it where it’s a job. I want to do it where I’m affecting change and helping others.”

“Kosher Deli Day” will be held at Keneseth Israel, 2531 Taylorsville Road, on Sunday, Jan. 10, from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

C. 2016 Insider Louisville

Angela Fitzpatrick: Pianist

The music is always around you, even in the bathroom.

Von Maur at Oxmoor Center employs four pianists, who perform in three-hour shifts on a Yamaha standing on a large rug near the front escalators. Ninety-year-old Angela Fitzpatrick was the first the store hired 13 years ago, and she still works five days a week. On this November afternoon, the 4-foot-11-inch Fitzpatrick (“More like four-six these days,” she says, laughing) wears a black jacket over a red sweater and a plaid skirt that spills over the piano bench. The dress code: Women wear dresses or blouses and skirts (no pantsuits or slacks); men wear ties. No hats. No singing. No accepting tips. Fitzpatrick is a subtle rainbow, her eyes somewhere between blue and green, her long hair a blondish color. She always cleans the piano before sitting. “I insist on it,” she says. "It’s not because of the associates that I play with, it’s the people that play when we’re not here!”

The Connecticut native has been playing piano for 85 years. “My mother was a very fine pianist,” she says. “She would have been a classical pianist if she hadn’t married my father.” Fitzpatrick graduated from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, in the 1940s and became a wife, mother and music educator. Beginning in 1976, she spent 15 years as a classical-radio DJ and station manager in upstate New York. Upon moving to Louisville to be close to her son, she landed a job at classical WUOL, where she stayed for a decade.

The pianists choose what to perform, a freedom that has kept Fitzpatrick, Ruth Gilbert (12 years) and Marla Kay Kosnik (10 years) around. Speakers throughout the store play their various styles: Fitzpatrick is fond of lush movie music from Henry Mancini and Michel Legrand. Gilbert likes show tunes. Kosnik prefers baby-boomer pop. Chuck Mink — the lone man — is jazzier and doesn’t like sheet music. Fitzpatrick also plays themes, such as a 40-minute set of weather-related songs that she calls “The Weather Report,” from Gershwin’s “A Foggy Day” to Harold Arlen’s “Come Rain or Come Shine.” “What I enjoy most about this job,” Fitzpatrick says, “is being able to bring music to more people.”

c. 2015 Louisville Magazine.

Funny ways to cheat on your partners: Louisville Improvisors and friends team up for one-person shows

Louisville Improvisors Alec Volz, Brian Hinds and Chris Anger

Stand-up comedians are solitary animals because their parents didn’t show them enough love, say those who have studied funny people in their element, while sketch and improv performers come from happy families where their parents were maybe a little too supportive.

In improv, the comedy family that plays together stays together. So it’s surprising to hear that the latest production by the long-running Louisville Improvisors group is “Single Shots,” a two-evening festival of solo theater. The shows take place Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20-21, at The Bard’s Town, a home away from home for the troupe. Why solo, Improvisors?

“Actually, this is a total group effort,” clarifies Chris Anger, the artistic director and a co-founder of LI and the star of one of this weekend’s shows, the hour-long “Animal Farm.” This vehicle is the finale of his trilogy of autobiographical shows.

“Animal Farm” is directed by Alec Volz, another LI member and co-founder. Volz, who directed Anger’s earlier solo shows, will direct two other shows during this festival. Third member Brian Hinds stars in the 20-minute-long “Karen.” Even when they go solo, the LI can’t get away from each other.

“We’re very much about staying busy and creative,” Anger tells Insider. “We don’t ever want to get locked in or boxed into just doing one thing. One of the best ways to avoid that is to generate your own work, which is what we are all about.”

From this festival to other ventures, he says, including their podcast “What Happens Next” or live fake radio show “The Buddy Gilm Show” or “Late Night Shakes,” their improvised Shakespeare show, when they’re inspired, they apply improv’s golden rule of agreeing with what’s been presented and continuing down that path: “Once we find an idea we like, we ‘Yes, and’ the hell out of it,” says Anger.

“Chris, Alec and I have improvised hundreds of scenes together over the past four years,” says Hinds. “In that time, we have developed a hell of a trust and chemistry, which ideally comes out of longtime collaboration. These solo pieces are a great way to expand and enhance that collaboration. We won’t be on stage together, but Alec is directing us both, and Chris and I have sat in on the other’s rehearsals and offered feedback.”

Volz adds, “We’re still team players. It’s just that our roles have changed. We’re still all in the same rehearsal room … each of us has a lot of input into each piece.”

For the trio, one exciting aspect of this event involves bringing other partners into their intimate relationship. Comedian Raanan Hershberg revives his show “Crying Behind 3-D Glasses,” which explores his love of pop culture as an adult, while “Karen” is an original commission by playwright Tad Chitwood (directed by Volz) about a man reacting to a break-up. And just when you thought it was all about men, there’s “Agatha,” written and performed by Melinda Beck (and also directed by Volz).

“I love the chance to work on new scripts and to work with playwrights,” Volz adds. “Chris and Tad have both written amazing pieces for this festival. With Chris, it’s been the chance to see the culmination of what I’ve been calling ‘The Green Chimneys Plays.’ He is an extremely insightful writer and has a great eye for detail. And our wives think we’re really married to each other.”

“From working together for the last 16-plus years, Alec knows me really well,” says Anger. “He knows my voice and how I write, so he can tell me if I’m heading in the right direction. If I tried to bring someone else in, we certainly wouldn’t have the history and trust that Alec and I have built up over the years.”

When the trio devised their festival, they wanted to do different things without asking an audience to stick around for too many hours, so they’ve divided the mostly short shows up, with two performances at 8 and 10 p.m. each night. The Bard’s Town’s Doug Schutte liked their idea immediately and signed on as a co-presenter.

It’s clear that while our world may be filled with strife in many ways, there are a few folks in Louisville who have found a happy home together.

“It’s a great little intimate theater where everybody can tell their stories intimately,” says Volz. “It’s about as close as you can get to having Raanan, Chris, Melinda or Brian sitting in a booth with you telling you such an interesting, involving story that you forget to pick up the dog from daycare.”

“Single Shots” runs at 8 and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20-21, at The Bard’s Town, 1801 Bardstown Road. Tickets are $15 for each time slot, or $25 for both. Click here to see a schedule and/or buy tickets.

c. 2015 Insider Louisville

Yum! Grasping the Grales

Gralehaus opened in the Highlands over one year ago, joining sibling the Holy Grale in a morning-to-night celebration of great food and drinks. We caught up with Lori Rae Beck, co-owner with Tyler Trotter of both businesses and the Louisville Beer Store, to discuss upcoming events, the planned B&B aspect of Gralehaus and more.

Q: How was Gralehaus’ first year? What important lessons were learned?
A: I couldn’t be more proud of our first year! Our crew is solid right now and our management team, Andy Myers and Leslee Macpherson, are total rock stars! Everything Andy does in the kitchen is done right, no corners cut, and everything he makes is delicious. Leslee’s ability to concoct beverages is unparalleled; whether it be coffee, tea, soda or beer, she always surprises you with her creativity and whimsy. As far as lessons go, I’ve learned so much about coffee, especially from the folks in Chicago at Intelligentsia. Oh, and I also painfully learned what it means to gut a three-story house down to the studs and remodel the whole thing for a hybrid business (laughs).

Q: When will Gralehaus’ upstairs B&B be open to the public?
A: We are so close, so very soon … we just did a test run and have a few more things to address … we just want to do it right! They are beautiful, and we can’t wait to share them with our guests.

Q: Tell us about the ongoing “Hot Sünner Nights” series.
A: Tyler and I love drinking Kölsch in Cologne, Germany. I mean, who doesn’t want to drink little slender glasses of the freshest ale in the world, one after another, while your köbe harasses you to drink more and marks your coaster for every beer drank? This is the third season of us doing our best to “imitate” the authentic Kölsch service in Cologne right here in Louisville. We offer it on Wednesday and Thursday evenings in the Gralegarten starting at 6 p.m., and sometimes, to accompany all that Kölsch drinking, “Doghaus” pops-up to serve up house-ground sausages.

Q: Tell us about the upcoming dinner with Moody Tongue on August 14, and your relationship with them.
A: Moody Tongue beers lend themselves so well to culinary application and are designed to do so, with ales like “Caramelized Chocolate Churro Porter” and Lemon Steeped Saison.” Chef Andy and brewer Jared Rouben have collaboratively decided to do a “breakfast for dinner”-style beer dinner, where they will be recontextualizing some of our classic breakfast plates and presenting them alongside Moody Tongue in a wholly new form.

Q: What are some of the best pairing events you’ve done?
A: I’d have to say the famous music, beer, and food pairing event with musician Will Oldham, Sam Calagione – owner of Dogfish Head – and Holy Grale chef Josh Lehman, “Holy Trinity,” at Holy Grale. You would have had to be there to believe me, but I and others were actually moved to tears. Somehow, the convergence of sound and the taste and aroma of food and beer, mixed in with the joy of all those around you, resulted in an unforgettable emotional and enlightening experience.

Q: You and Tyler are going to Europe soon. What do you hope to accomplish on that trip for your business?
A: The first part of our trip, we will be zipping through Northwest Italy visiting some of our favorite Italian breweries. For the second part, we are being hosted by one of our favorite importers, Artisanal, on a trip to Belgium visiting several breweries that we have never been to before. Things to accomplish? Have fun, drink great beer, learn more and make new friends along the way!

Q: I hear everyone in NuLu and the Highlands will be moving to Portland very soon. When will you open your first Portland location?
A: Not planning on opening anything new anytime soon. I think it is important to do the best with what you already have. Right now, we are just trying to button up everything to the best of our ability and get all three of our operations running tightly, remaining profitable and being good to our staff and customers along the way. But who knows! When opportunity knocks, it is hard to not open the door.

c. 2015 The Voice-Tribune

The Re-evolution Has Begun

Skyscraper Stereo, one of the most popular hip-hop acts in Louisville music history, returns with their latest full-length, Scrape or Die!, this week with a release show on Friday at the New Vintage. The Voice-Tribune connected with crew member Daniel Guess, a.k.a. Goodbar, to learn what’s up.

Q: How was your Forecastle?
A: Forecastle was perfect. I didn’t know that the city of Louisville was ready to receive a collective of homegrown hip-hop artists in that capacity. I underestimated what we could accomplish as a unit. That was a milestone for Louisville hip-hop as a whole, not just for the acts chosen to perform that particular set. Dr. Dundiff’s selfless act created a movement. The majority of us have collaborated and supported one another on some level or another, but on that stage we became a family.

Q: Which year has been better for you so far, 1995 or 2015?
A: I feel like 1995 was an amazing year altogether for the entertainment industry and those who wanted to be entertained. It just so happens that we have a song on Scrape or Die! entitled “Party Like ’95” where we each confess our obsession for pop culture, music, clothing and the like from ’95. The hook may or may not reference the O.J. Simpson trial … and, yes … he was innocent.

All jokes aside, with our fourth LP on the stove, that epic Forecastle experience a few weeks ago and the thriving Louisville hip-hop scene as a whole, this year has been very prosperous so far as well.

Q: How did each group member contribute to make this record what it is? What’s everyone best at?
A: Chuck MF Deuce (CMFD) is the quarterback when it comes to Skyscraper Stereo … Dat Boi Dunn (DBD) and I typically go into Skyscraper recording sessions with eager ears, open minds and lots of blind faith. It’s not uncommon for the two of us to hear something Chuck is working on and think, “Where is he going with this?” or “How am I supposed to rap to this?” The irony is that most of the tracks we’re apprehensive about end up being our favorites when we hear the finished product … Chuck is constantly looking to improve as a musician. For this album, he decided to stray away from sampling. Legally, that’s a great idea, but it will also help him to develop a signature sound. He also told us that he wants every song on this album to be a single. Maybe I’m a little biased, but he may have actually pulled that off!

CMFD provided the backdrop and his stories about high school crushes and sucka emcees. DBD and myself polished up our metaphors about sex, drugs and Nike SBs. And the product was Scrape or Die! DBD is the personality of the group. Whether it’s his stage presence or catchy hooks - which he can come up with in his sleep - he’s just an undeniably lovable guy. Don’t confuse that for lack of lyrical prowess, though. Ya boy gets right … His progression is evident on this new album. As far as I’m concerned, I’m the lyricist. I’m very humble, but a few people have told me I’m pretty decent at what I do. Who am I to argue? Nothing out of the ordinary from me on this album, as far as what I offer. Just the usual under-your-ground, over-your-head raw.

The beauty of Skyscraper, in my personal opinion, is we have polar-opposite musical influences, but somehow we mesh. Everyone contributed their all to this project. I can’t forget about AK, our DJ. He has a cameo on the album and we’re thankful that he’s behind us, literally and figuratively.

Q: The production on Scrape or Die! sounds more pop to me than previous albums. Are you guys trying to expand your audience this way, or is it a more natural progression (a re-evolution)?
A: I think it’s more of CMFD broadening his horizons as a producer. Rap music has never even really been his first choice of genre. He plays a mean guitar (check the solo on “Ya Boy Gets Right”). We welcome a wider demographic, but at the same time, we don’t want to lose loyal fans by changing our formula. After all, that’s the definition of selling out. It’s safe to call it a re-evolution.

c. 2015 The Voice-Tribune

Fisherman’s Friends

White Reaper, one of the most famous rock bands to ever emerge from the humble backwater of Louisville, is doing it again with this week’s release of their official debut album, White Reaper Does It Again. Issued on vinyl, CD, cassette and digitally by Polyvinyl Records in the U.S. and Royal Mountain Records in Canada, its birth is being celebrated by the youthful quartet with shows at Headliners Music Hall on Saturday and the Forecastle Festival on Sunday.

In this exclusive interview, guitarist/vocalist Tony Esposito gave us an update on some of the all-male band’s recent adventures, their philosophies and the album about which NPR said, “You’ll be combing it out of your hair for weeks.”

Q: Are you taking your recent success for granted?
TE: Obviously.

Q: How much fun do you have on a Tuesday night?
TE: Is it Tuesday?

Q: Did you enjoy meeting Spongebob?
TE: You know how sometimes when you meet your idols they turn out to be pretty rude? Not the case here. You see, Sponge was a real class act, as well as his buddy Patrick. They were very nice, very down to earth, and they didn’t act like we were wasting their time. Great group of guys.

Q: You’ve spent a lot of the past couple of years on the road. What are some lessons learned from other bands? What have you learned from regular people?
TE: Greg from Deerhoof told us that when you check into a hotel, you should ask for a “late checkout.” Typically, these places want you gone by 11 a.m. or something like that, which doesn’t seem early, but we usually don’t get to check in until about 2 a.m. But if you ask for a late checkout, you can sleep in a little longer.

Q: Do you enjoy playing in small-to-midsized cities in places like Utah and Iowa?
TE: It really depends. A lot of small cities are college towns, and when you play there over the summer, no one is there because they all left school and went home. But if you play these places in the spring or fall, they can be really great. Small cities are nice, though, because parking is a piece of cake.

Q: Has Royal Mountain Records been good to you?
TE: Royal Mountain Records have been incredible so far. They came to our show the last time we played Brooklyn in May, and that’s when we met them. One of the heads of the label – his name is Menno – he gave me what’s called a “Fisherman’s Friend,” which is a Canadian throat lozenge (available for sale on Amazon.com). We gave them some beers, they gave us some beers, we hit it off instantly. We’re super excited to be working with those guys.

Q: How much immense, overwhelming pressure does the band feel about playing record release shows in their hometown that have to be THE GREATEST EVER?
TE: Crippling – no, DEVASTATING pressure. Just pulling your leg, man. We actually look forward to playing shows in Louisville more than we look forward to playing shows anywhere else because people have known us for so long that the shows are just so much fun no matter what. We actually didn’t really get to play a release show last year because we were out west when the record came out, so we’re really excited about these shows.

Q: You’ve been written about by a few “music writers” who seem dismissive of Louisville and of Kentucky, and who want to keep labeling you as representing certain genres you never defined for yourself. Is that frustrating? Is it worth it?
TE: It’s a little frustrating, I guess, but there’s just really nothing we can do about it. They can overlook Louisville if they want to, but they’re obviously wrong, and they’re not going to change our opinion. There’s a ton of great bands in town, like Jaye Jayle, Tropical Trash, Vaderbomb … and on top of that, everybody is friends with each other. If you sat down and worried about what a bunch of other people thought or what other people said, you’d probably lose a lot of sleep.

Photo by Michael Powell

c. 2015 The Voice-Tribune

We Love Mom: Gloria's brisket

Photograph by Eugene Ahn

I grew up in Tampa, Florida, the armpit of the “Armpit State.” Also known as the home of Magic Mike, the strip club-loving city is also known for its shocking lack of quality restaurants. The eatery closest to the house that my parents have lived in since 1986 is an Applebee’s.

Thankfully, at home I was fed better than what the city could otherwise offer. My mother, Gloria, retired last year after a long and distinguished career as an educator — a reading specialist. I credit her good genes with fueling my love for reading, writing, and trying to avoid arithmetic. She was raised in Manhattan, on the Lower East Side — something that made me very jealous as a child, and still does now. The fact that she and my father, Herb, chose to move to a suburb of Tampa instead of living a New York City life will always mystify me, especially since that suburb has 20,000 residents and only one good restaurant. Still, they seem happy there.

What’s so great about my mom’s cooking is that when she cooks for me and my dad, she gives it her all. She puts love in it, which is expensive at Publix these days — it’s the exclusive domain of moms, dads, and other loved ones who are doing their best so you don’t yell at them. Her brisket whisks me back to a simpler time, when the world was still new and we all shared a love for Bill Cosby. It’s also so good: there’s beer in there. Also barbecue sauce. Even healthy junk, like carrots.

Our people eat, and most of my favorite childhood food memories are holiday-based. Now that I’m living in Louisville, Kentucky, it’s harder for me to get good hamantaschen, latkes, or matzo brei. My parents are at their most authentically Jewish when it’s time to prepare food for the holidays, by which I mean we eat even better (“more” means “better,” right?) than ever. And because I live away from their home, it also means extra packages delivered to me.

INGREDIENTS
+ vegetable oil
4–5 lbs first-cut beef brisket
1 clove garlic, crushed
+ salt and pepper to taste (about 2 t salt per pound of meat)
1 C barbecue sauce (or enough to cover the meat)
1 can beer (any cheap brand will be fine)
1 package dry onion soup (Lipton's, of course)
1 1/2 C carrot slices (not too thin)
1 1/2 C potato slices (not too thin)
Makes 6 to 10 servings

1) Heat the oven to 300°F. Heat the vegetable oil in a pan over medium-high heat until it starts to shimmer, and sear the meat on all sides until dark brown. Put the meat in 9 x 13-inch roasting pan.

2) In a large bowl, mix the garlic, salt, pepper, and the barbecue sauce. Add the beer, stir, and pour the mixture over the meat. Tuck the carrot and potato slices around the meat and pour the Lipton’s over everything.

3) Cover with foil and cook in the oven for about 3 hours, or until tender. Cool the brisket and then refrigerate after slicing the meat. Cook the brisket at least one day before you intend to serve it; two or three days is even better. Uncover the meat at least once to skim off all the surface fat. Make sure the meat is covered with liquid (more beer and/or barbecue sauce thinned with water can be used) and reheat in a microwave or in a slow oven before serving. Serve the liquid separately as a sauce.



Peter: When and where were you born? Where did you grow up?

Gloria: I was born in New York, and spent my first year in my grandparents’ apartment in the Bronx (the section later immortalized in Fort Apache, The Bronx), and then moved to 20th Street and First Avenue, in Manhattan. I was born in 1947 — one of the boomers born after my father returned from World War II. I lived there until I graduated from college.

Peter: What was your favorite food growing up?

Gloria: Anything Chinese. We often ate in restaurants in Chinatown where the menu was written in Chinese characters on the mirrors that lined the walls.

Peter: What’s your earliest childhood memory involving food?

Gloria: My earliest memories about food center on the fact that my mother was not a good cook and she disliked cooking. We ate in restaurants far more often than did most families in those years. I felt guilty rejoicing in the fact that my mother was an awful cook.

Peter: What’s the story behind this dish?

Gloria: Brisket is a staple of Jewish cuisine. Unfortunately, it can often be dry and rather flavorless. I found a version of this recipe in a cookbook published by a preschool as a fundraiser, and played with it until I was happy with the results. Everyone loves this version of brisket. I always make it for Passover and our friends even request it for Thanksgiving (yes, we have turkey, too). Brisket is a traditional dish, but this never would have been served for an Orthodox Passover seder. Beer is not kosher for Passover because it’s made from a grain.

Peter: Can you describe a typical family meal when you were growing up?

Gloria: A typical meal when I was growing up would have started with a fruit cup or grapefruit slices, very overcooked meat (my dad wouldn’t eat anything that was the slightest bit pink or bloody), canned vegetables (yuck!), and a starch. Dessert was usually Jell-O. My mother kept a kosher home so she had to follow the rules of kashrut.

Peter: What was your favorite thing that was cooked in your house?

Gloria: My favorite dish at home was matzo brei (literally: fried matzo). Sheets of matzo are soaked in water until soft, mixed with beaten raw eggs, and fried in butter. This dish is a traditional treat for Passover, but we ate it year-round. It was one of my mom’s only successes!

Peter: Who did the cooking?

Gloria: I do all the cooking. My husband is excellent at using the microwave, but he doesn’t cook from scratch unless I’m not able to cook. He kept us well fed after I had surgery, but he was happy to give it up once I recovered.

Peter: How did you learn to cook or bake?

Gloria: I learned to cook by reading cookbooks. I shared an apartment with a roommate in graduate school, and our deal was that she would clean if I cooked. My mom never taught me to cook (thank goodness!). She never liked cooking and she told me that I’d have to do it when I grew up so she wouldn’t make me do it before then.

Peter: Do you like cooking? What do you like about it?

Gloria: I do, given enough time. Now that I am newly retired, I’ve gone back to trying out new recipes and revisiting old favorites. I love to go grocery shopping (everyone should have Publix near their house), and I get great ideas from seeing new products and coming up with ways to use the foods that are on sale that week.

Peter: What do you have in common with your mom?

Gloria: My mom and I share a love of eating out! I love to try new restaurants and unusual items. I love living in Tampa, but we are not strong on good, independent restaurants. We do have every chain that has ever been invented and sometimes a burger at Ruby Tuesday is just fine.

Peter: What do we have in common?

Gloria: You and I share a love of good restaurants; you’re a more adventurous eater. Spicy is my least favorite word on a menu. We love to visit you and your wife, Robin, for many reasons, but the list of good restaurants in Louisville is high on our list.

Peter Berkowitz is a writer and editor who lives in Louisville, KY. Gloria Berkowitz is a retired reading specialist who lives in Tampa, Florida.

c. 2015 Lucky Peach

Diners, Words and No Guy Fieri

Maybe you haven’t eaten at the Twig & Leaf recently, but Ashlee Clark Thompson has. Her blog, Ashlee Eats (summarized by its motto, “Filet mignon appetite. Dollar menu budget.”) led to her first book, Louisville Diners. The book records her travels across the city to explore the fading art of affordable diners.

Thompson will sign copies at Crescent Hill’s Carmichael’s Bookstore on May 14, at 7 p.m.

Q: You write often about finding cheap eats. Is cheap better? Or is it more a reflection of the reality that most people don’t have any money, and you’re helping them find something good?

ACT: Cheap isn’t always better, but expensive isn’t always better, either. I began writing about inexpensive dining when I didn’t have a lot of disposable income. … But as the blog grew, I realized that most people aren’t only looking for lower-cost meals, but (also) good value for their money. Sure, you can get fast food for less than $10, but what if you want to support local business, or just eat food that’s a little bit healthier for you? The majority of us live under financial constraints. We can’t eat at white-tablecloth restaurants every day. But access to good food should not be a privilege.

Q: When newer places make simple staples (tacos, barbecue, etc.) by hand and with better ingredients, some people complain about the increased cost to consumers. Where do topics like expense or health – most diners being less than healthy – enter this discussion?

ACT: It’s hard to eat a healthy meal at a diner, especially when you see plates of biscuits and gravy and chili cheese fries pass you by. But it’s not impossible. You just have to be strategic – maybe choosing an egg white omelet loaded with vegetables instead of a regular omelet loaded with ham and cheese, for example. Eating healthfully while on a budget, both in restaurants and at home, is challenging and takes a lot of planning.

Q: Louisville is becoming known for its new, progressive restaurants. Is this book a work of preservation of a dying culture, or a reminder of a vital scene that is often taken for granted?

ACT: The book is definitely a reminder of a vital scene often taken for granted. There are plenty of places in the city that keep churning out good food at good prices. It’s just that they don’t get as much attention as the newer, trendier restaurants in Louisville. Diners will always have an important part in the city’s dining culture, because these businesses provide food made for everyday life. You don’t have to get dressed up or pretend to know how to pronounce tough words on a menu. You can go in, get familiar, home-cooked food and leave happy.

Q: Do you anticipate that this book will mostly reach a local audience, or is there a world of diner lovers across the US who will also find it?

ACT: So far, the book has seemed to reach a local audience. I think readers are discovering great places in their own city that they didn’t even know existed. I hope that the book will gain some attention among diner enthusiasts nationwide and give tourists in Louisville a chance to discover something new.

Q: Diners rarely make Top 10 lists or win awards. Is it possible to compare diners and “fancier” restaurants without also having to think about race or class issues?

ACT: Often, the folks who put together these top 10 lists or hand out awards are looking for the next big thing in culinary innovation. These lists profile new and notable restaurants with big-name chefs at the helm. However, I have as much respect for a line cook at the Frontier Diner, who can keep all his orders straight, as I do for Chef Edward Lee. Diners and “fancier” restaurants are indeed apples and oranges, but you can’t dismiss either of them in terms of their importance to the diner scene. Sure, they’re very different than one another, but to go with the apples/oranges comparison, they’re both still fruits. And sometimes, you might want an orange instead of an apple, or the apples out of season. We have to look at all of these restaurants to tell the full story of restaurant dining in Louisville.

Photo by Jessica Ebelhar.

c. 2015 The Voice-Tribune

‘Yes, I Am Fired Up’

Coliseum released their fifth full-length album, Anxiety’s Kiss, this week on vinyl, CD and cassette. The ever-evolving band has added more industrial and dark wave tones to their steady diet of hardcore and post-punk. The album finds them collaborating again with producer/engineer J. Robbins, an early inspiration to the band from his days playing in the bands Jawbox and Burning Airlines. Coliseum founder, guitarist and vocalist Ryan Patterson says Robbins “feels like our George Martin,” and the reference to the Beatles and their later, more experimental studio recordings reveals Patterson’s restless need to consistently try new ideas and a refusal to be boxed in by others’ perceptions.

He told The Voice-Tribune more about how Coliseum’s new album came together. “Our influences are wide-ranging, individually and as a band, but there’s always a general connection revolving around British post-punk and American post-hardcore of the Dischord and Touch and Go variety,” Patterson says. “Personally, I’ve been greatly inspired over the past four to five years by Rowland S. Howard and his music, both solo and with Crime and the City Solution and Lydia Lunch. His influence as a guitarist weighed heavy on me during the Anxiety’s Kiss sessions.”

The album is their first to be distributed by Deathwish Inc. Patterson has had close ties to the label since before Coliseum started in 2003. “They are all part of our extended community through music, and we feel so incredibly fortunate that we have such wonderful people that are willing to release our music.”

Q: Do you agree that songwriters, in any genre, aren’t using topics like police brutality and other social ills like they did 20 years or 50 years ago? How have you stayed on course when others have fallen off?

Ryan Patterson: I don’t necessarily agree with that. I think it’s being pushed away from mainstream music and art. There’s very little outlet in that world for a dissenting voice, because there’s very little money in it. But it’s there, whether it’s from Run the Jewels or Coliseum. There are artists addressing these things, especially in the underground, where it is always being tackled. It’s actually harder for me not to sing about social issues. It’s more of a challenge to write about other topics, because the injustice of oppression is never-ending and always fodder for songs.

Q: How do you approach writing about love and lust?

RP: I write about those subjects from direct personal perspectives and from more abstract dramatic narratives. I find the different perspectives to be inspiring and interesting, enabling me to explore ideas in ways that don’t always directly involve my personal experiences but are shaped by my perspective and imagination. I find the songs of love important to write, because love is such a powerful thing – something that we are very lucky if we have it in our lives – yet so many songs about love are trite and hollow. On the darker side, songs like the two centerpieces of Anxiety’s Kiss, “Dark Light Of Seduction” and “Sharp Fang, Pale Flesh,” each deal with forms of obsession through two different narratives. Ideas of shadows, submission and possession.

Q: This collection includes some of your most melodic material so far. Do you feel that you are mellowing with age at all? Or are you more fired up than ever, and just showing it in different ways?

RP: While we are generally operating in the realm of guitar-based music and have always stuck by our roots as a punk band, we have never felt that we needed to hold ourselves to any rules of genre, or specific trappings set by expectations or our own previous material. We try our best to not repeat ourselves. We also learn as we go along – we learn new ways to use our instruments and our voices. Melody is not inherently mellow or boring; I find that to be a silly concept. The music we are making now is more dynamic and interesting to me than the music we made a decade ago, with more nuance and more depth. To answer the question, yes, I am fired up. I feel that with Anxiety’s Kiss, and Sister Faith before it, Coliseum is on fire and we are making the best music we have ever made.

Coliseum plays at the New Vintage on Friday, June 5. For more information, visit www.coliseumsoundsystem.com.

Photo by Nick Thieneman

c. 2015 The Voice-Tribune

Houndmouth: A local band’s crazy week of both great and terrible adventures

Photo by Julia Rickles.

This week began badly for Houndmouth. The Louisville quartet woke up after a gig in Springfield, Mo., where they had opened for the Drive-By Truckers. A thief had smashed into their van and stole its GPS, an iPad, a Blu-ray player and personal items, including clothing.

“They took my favorite yoga pants!” keyboardist/vocalist Katie Toupin laughs with a true yogi’s lightness. For a touring band, such thefts are terrible and extremely inconvenient, she notes. It’s happened to several of their friends’ bands. “Not to point fingers, but it seems like every single one has been in Missouri,” she notes. While the band’s gear survived, presumably too heavy to take, the thief went through dirty clothes and selected favorites, leaving some behind.


Katie Toupin checks out the damage.

At least the thief had good taste in clothes. Toupin and business partner Addie Mills are behind a new store, Bermuda Highway, which will open at 811 E. Market St. on Nov. 8, coinciding with the annual NuLu Holiday Open House shopping event. Their music-themed shop will focus mostly on men and women’s clothing, new and vintage.

“I don’t like stores where you have to go in and look through 8,000 vintage things to buy one thing that’s cool. So the vintage is just unique pieces that are all cool,” Toupin explains.

Vintage band T-shirts will be a specialty of Bermuda Highway, which took its name from an early My Morning Jacket song. “It’s my favorite My Morning Jacket song. It’s obviously a tribute to my friend Jim James,” says Toupin. “He’s been a big brother to our band from the very beginning. So I really loved the whole idea of it … And the line in that song, Don’t let your silly dreams / Fall in between the crack of the bed and the wall, is incredibly fitting for doing something kind of risky,” she laughs.

So she wasn’t inspired by the previous line, Your ass, it draws me in like a Bermuda highway?

“Your ass — yeah, it’s a clothing store, so it works either way!”


Bermuda Highway takes its name from an MMJ song.

James wasn’t the only two-decade music veteran who helped inspire them. Houndmouth met Jack White and his Third Man Records crew in July at the Newport Folk Festival. “I fell in love with them as people,” Toupin says, “and I really loved the idea of just carrying their products, mainly. Also, not to compete with other local record stores. I’m doing a niche sort of thing, so everybody’s winning here.”

While the Nashville-based Third Man’s roving record truck has popped up in front of NuLu neighbor Please & Thank You, what the two shops do will be very different, as Bermuda Highway will only carry all of Third Man’s records, as well as their offbeat knickknacks.

Keeping with White’s penchant for surprises and his celebration of objects, the owners will present an artist-curated section in the store. In December, Dr. Dog guitarist/vocalist Scott McMicken is “actually making these special records, and hand-making clothing and all kinds of things, art, for his section,” says Toupin.

But each month will be something different. “It’s this open format for them to have a presence — a direct, exclusive relationship with the fans out of the store.” Some bands will also play in-store sets.

Houndmouth’s week went on to include a day spent doing tasks like fixing their van’s windows, followed by their debut at Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium — “a huge thrill,” says Toupin. On Halloween, they joined the Drive-By Truckers for a show in that band’s hometown, Athens, Ga. After tonight’s Charlotte performance, they’re done for 2014.

Bermuda Highway began taking shape this summer after Toupin decided to stay in Louisville instead of moving to Nashville. It seemed like a way for her to give back to the community that has given her so much, she says.

Toupin and Mills met at General Eccentric, where Mills worked with Toupin to pick out clothes for Houndmouth tours. While Mills will run Bermuda Highway during Toupin’s tour time, Houndmouth’s three-month break means fans should be able to see plenty of the musician at the store for now. And possibly her bandmates.

“The boys in the band just talk about how they want to steal clothes from me!”

C. 2014 Insider Louisville