Jefferson Memorial Forest

Herewith a sighting of a cricket frog, Acris crepitans, along the Slitstone Trail at the Jefferson Memorial Forest.

Jefferson Memorial Forest, all 6,191 acres of it, lies entirely within the city limits of Louisville. It is 15 minutes from downtown. A quick sprint along any of the Forest's hiking trails will convince you that this is some of the best urban recreation in the country.

Mellwood Artists At Library

Artists from the Mellwood Arts & Entertainment Center will have work on display from December 18 to February 8 in the Louisville Free Public Library's main branch. The works on display are varied and beautiful, ranging from ceramics, to print, to wood, to fiber. (OK. This is a bit of self-promotion, I have a fiber piece there.)

If you are downtown, stop by the library's Bernheim Gallery to see what some of your fellow Louisvillians are doing.

Penny Sisto Exhibit at Uzoma

Fiber artist Penny Sisto's exhibit "Rude, Crude and Lewd" will be on display at uzoMa gallery from December 5 through January 23, 2009. The opening reception is Friday, December 5, from 6-8 pm, and she will hold an artist workshop January 11, from 2-4 pm.

For more information, contact Angela Ramsey Robinson at explore.uzoma@gmail.com.

Sisto's work is passionate, intricate and beautiful. I am certain this exhibit will be no exception. The image I have included here is from her Immigrant Series. (Click on image to go to her gallery page.)

(cross-posted on B's Dreams)

Visiting Harland

Harland Sanders is buried at Cave Hill Cemetery. One can follow a yellow line from the main entrance to the colonel's grave. It's really worth the visit. Cave Hill is beautiful, filled with wonderful flowers, trees, and monuments. The Sanders memorial is a delightful walk and a bit of Kentucky history. As the trees turn, before it gets too cold, take a moment to visit the colonel.

A Journey to Ithaca: anchor at the island when you are old.

A Journey to Ithaca #12

A Journey to Ithaca: Let your thoughts remain lofty.

A Journey to Ithaca # 6 Let your thoughts remain lofty.

Note: in this image, the face of Justice Brandeis will be clearly visible. Look at 9 o'clock then into the image about one fifth of the distance of the width.

A Journey to Ithaca: do not fear.

A Journey to Ithaca #4
When you set out on your journey to Ithaca....do not fear.

Journey to Ithaca

Journey to Ithaca #2
Always keep Ithaca in your mind.

A Classroom Picture Gallery #3

#3

United States Court House and Custom House at Louisville

In the foregound of the picture is the historic United States Court House and Custom House at Louisville (blue-green roof). Also visible is the nineteenth century Jefferson County Courthouse, built with aspirations of Louisville becoming the capitol of Kentucky. The Kentucky General Assembly did in fact meet there once when Confederate troops were expected to raid Frankfort.

August's Sting

It has been dry in Louisville this August. All the insects are hiding or lethargic during the day.

But this fellow visited me at my window yesterday. We shared a little of the morning together. I enjoyed his company, and love his face. I hope you do as well.

Cave Hill Cemetery

Cave Hill Cemetery is a beautiful place to walk, to reflect, to honor. There are many monuments of note there. Some monuments honor well-known members of the Louisville community. Some monuments are testament to the love and pain felt by those left behind.

If you are living in Louisville (or visiting), I can assure you, Cave Hill is worth a visit.

Above are a couple photos of the Tingley Fountain. You can see other photos from Cave Hill on my Flickr site.

Louisville from the Air (July 18, 2008)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86764746@N00/sets/72157606345711678/ (Picture gallery of Louisville from the air taken July 18, 2008)

The Dinka Mona Lisa

Louisville is home to a growing Sudanese Dinka community. Here a Dinka woman arrives early for a church service in south Louisville.

An Afternoon at the Louisville Zoo

Afternoon in late July may not be the best time to see animals at their most active, but it is a good, lazy way to spend the day. As I've mentioned before, the zoo is a lovely place to take children, but it's also a great place to animal watch, people watch, and take a look at what nature has to offer. The Louisville Zoo offers great walking, beautiful habitats, and a few opportunities for food and drink.

Gorilla Forest provides information about gorilla habitat and information about the issues surrounding poaching, shrinking habitat, and conservation efforts.

Scotty is the name of our baby elephant. Now a year old, Scotty is enjoying new foods, playing in the water and basically acting like any excited, happy child.

The Zoo has a refurbished carousel that is both beautiful to see and (based on enthusiastic laughter of children) a joy to ride.

For more photos from the Louisville Zoo, please feel free to visit my Flickr site.

Craft Conference in Louisville

“Craft Conference ‘08: Unbridled Craft” will be held August 15 & 16 in Louisville, Kentucky, at the The Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft.

The conference will include workshops on felting, beading, woodturning, precious metals clay, metalsmithing, ceramics, bookmaking, printmaking, mosaics, puppetry, shibori, and leatherworking. Descriptions of the workshops (and registration) are available online.

Louisville: This is our chance!

Vanguard Cinema hopes to open a space at the Mellwood Arts Center. This venue will be set up to screen everything from David Lynch, to animé, to Evil Dead! Add to that, they plan to have food, a full bar, and, well, EVIL DEAD!!!! (I don't know what else to say to get you there.)

They are planning "walk-in movies" night on August 15, which will include food from Christopher Seckman (North End Cafe), brews from New Albanian Brewing Company, and the Derby City Roller Girls.

If this isn't a party, I don't know what is.

I want to encourage you guys to visit the Louisville Vanguard Cinema site. With the current economic vibe, they aren't sure if this venture can fly. Visit the site and let them know how often you might visit. Better yet, become a member. $50 gets you 10 tickets, a bumper sticker, a Tuesday admission ticket, and a discount on merchandise. (Plus, if the venture doesn't materialize, they'll give you your money back.)

Louisville deserves a great theater for art films, nontraditional films (and — did I mention Evil Dead?) I miss the Vogue Theater. We need to replace her. Vanguard Theater could do that.

Great things to do with children in Louisville

Ah, summer. Lazy days. Children with no homework. No classes. Nothing to do? If you and your children are searching for something fun and/or educational to do this summer, Louisville has a myriad of wonderful kid (and adult) friendly places to visit.


J.B. Speed Museum
The Speed Museum has a wonderful permanent collection that will wow adults and teens. However, if you have children (or can borrow one), visit the museum's Art Sparks Interactive Gallery. Art Sparks has hands-on activities and exhibits to interest children and the adults who visit with them. The gallery has a section devoted to activities appropriate to children under the age of five. There are Saturday workshops, and a room filled with art supplies to allow a child's imagination run wild. Art Sparks really does ignite a child's imagination and offers an air-conditioned escape from the heat of July. Admission is $5 per person (free to museum members).

Louisville Science Center
The Louisville Science Center is a wonderful place for the whole family to learn more about everything from dinosaurs to battling bacteria. For children under the age of seven, the museum has an interactive exhibit called Kidzone.

The Louisville Zoo
Our zoo is beautiful (and I'm not biased). It has some great exhibits, including Lorikeet Landing, which allows visitors to sit in the habitat and feed the birds. These amazing birds will land on the people who enter their space (note to parents: great photo-opportunity!). The zoo also has Glacier Run Splash Park, a cool place to play in the water while seeing polar bear, seal and sea lion exhibits.

Enjoy Louisville. Enjoy the summer.

We hate Duke

»  Cross-posted at The Cardinal Lawyer  «

In Danzig U.S.A. and elsewhere in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, we take college sports very seriously. Partisans of the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky spare nothing in passionately supporting their teams — and in vigorously opposing their teams' rivals. If there is one opponent that unites the Cardinal Nation with Wildcat Country, it is Duke University's Blue Devils.

True to the traditional athletic preferences of Kentucky and North Carolina — two states where the cultivation of tobacco surely gives rise to their unusual predilection, unknown elsewhere in the South, for basketball over football — Louisville and UK partisans have historically trained their hatred at Duke's basketball program. But a recent decision by Judge Phillip J. Shepherd of the Franklin County (Ky.) Circuit Court gives people across the Bluegrass State reason to despise Duke football as well:

Maybe you can win for losing

A Franklin [County], Ky., Circuit Court judge sided with a devilishly clever argument and ruled in favor of Duke University yesterday in a breach of contract lawsuit brought forth by the University of Louisville.

Judge Phillip J. Shepherd agreed with Duke’s lawyers — the football team is so bad that any replacement would do.

U of L sued Duke for $450,000 — or a series with another Atlantic Coast Conference opponent — after the Blue Devils backed out of a four-game football contract with three dates remaining.

The contract called for a penalty of $150,000 per game if a date with a “team of similar stature” could not be arranged.

Duke’s lawyers argued the Blue Devils, which have a record of 6-45 over the past five seasons, were so bad that any team would be a suitable replacement.

Judge Shepherd agreed in his summary:

“At oral argument, Duke (with a candor perhaps more attributable to good legal strategy than to institutional modesty) persuasively asserted that this is a threshold that could not be any lower. Duke’s argument on this point cannot be reasonably disputed by Louisville.”

Kentucky courts interpret contract terms “according to their plain and ordinary meaning” barring any ambiguity. According to Shepherd, finding a suitable replacement literally meant any NCAA Division I team would suffice – including those in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-AA.)

After the teams played their initial game in 2002, a 40-3 U of L victory in Durham, N.C., Duke opted out of the remaining games in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Thanks in part to Duke’s cancellation, the Cards scrambled to find a 12th game for the upcoming season before signing an agreement with Memphis in February. U of L will play at Memphis on Oct. 10 and the Tigers are scheduled to play at U of L in 2010.

“We’re disappointed with the ruling,” said U of L spokesman Kenny Klein. “We will take our time to review the decision and explore our future options.”

[Other sources: (1) An earlier article in the Louisville Courier-Journal, (2) ESPN.com, and (3) Red Lion Reports.]

Strictly as a football fan, albeit one who is a Louisville Cardinals partisan, I respectfully disagree with Judge Shepherd. There is no adequate substitute for Duke football, a patsy nonpareil in college football. There simply is no other (1) Division I-A team (2) that plays such appallingly bad football (3) so consistently and persistently (4) all while maintaining its membership in a Bowl Championship Series conference.

As pleased as I am to witness a revival of the Louisville-Memphis rivalry, an old Metro Conference basketball grudge match moved to the gridiron, what I really want is a series of virtually guaranteed wins against the worst major college football team. And that team, despite its university's immense wealth and its city's sports tradition (think of the Bull Durham and the 1942 Rose Bowl), is the Duke Blue Devils.

Butchertown Neighborhood Worth a Visit

Louisville's Butchertown Neighborhood is filled with great architecture and good neighbors. Much like Clifton, Butchertown's residents are mixed lot. It's a great socio-economic group. I had a chance to walk around the neighborhood in early June, and I thought I would share some photos.

St. Angela Merici

St. Angela Merici on the campus of Bellarmine University in Louisville. Photograph by Daniel Light, March 7, 2007.