The LO's Dancing with the Stars

I was fortunate enough to sit in on a few rehearsals for The Louisville Orchestra's Dancing With The Stars event which is coming up this Friday.

The Stars this year are having so much fun, I had to share some footage of the rehearsals.

Remember these are just rehearsals. The stars are a retired pro basketball player, a realtor, and a lawyer. While they are paired with pros, they have only been dancing for a short time.

I am by no means a professional videographer with equally unprofessional equipment. I edited on Microsoft Movie Maker, again, not the most sophisticated technology. With that in mind, check out my latest film.



If you want to have FUN, FUN FUN and have a few Laughs, laughs laughs...
I think there are a few seats still available. Check out the webpage FMI.
http://www.louisvilleorchestra.org/?page_id=1855

Jack Griffin on WUOL

Photo by O'Neil Arnold

Jack Griffin, principal viola for the Louisville Orchestra, chats with Dan Gilliam on WUOL. Jack tells the story of his beginnings with music and how he got his first violin. Listen to the interview HERE.

Jack's disarming demeanor really shines through in this interview. He says "I'm the luckiest person on the world to be able to wake up everyday and play music."

That kind of passion shows, and you will see it when he performs "Herold in Italy" with the Louisville Orchestra on Thursday, March 25 at the Treyton Oak Towers Coffee Concert at 10:30am and Friday, March 26 for the Hilliard Lyons Classics concert at 8pm at Kentucky Center. Click here for tickets or call 502.584.7777.

He has a bit of a surprise for the audience, but you won't hear it if you don't come!

LEO photography issue

Yesterday, Friday, March 26, I had the pleasure of attending a gathering at the Lime Tree Gallery on Frankfort Avene. The party was a celebration of LEO Weekly's latest issue featuring local photographers shooting our fair city. Participants in the photo issue include David Harpe, Frankie Steele, John King, Leslie Lyons, Marty Pearl and Mary Yates. See all the photos here.

Unfortunately I got to the event a little early and didn't get to see all of the photographers, but I did see Frankie, who does a lot of work for Kentucky Opera and the Louisville Orchestra, and David Hawp, who I met when he won the signature artist for Kentucky Opera's Viva il Vino event.

David's photos (the attached Louisville skyline is one if David's pieces) have always been impressive to me. His work looks so very photoshopped, but infact, they are not. That is what makes them impressive. That he is able to create such uniqe imagry that has not been manipulated by computers... Wow.

LEO's creative director, Brittany Baker hung the show very well. It was clean and easily navigated. Too bad the show was only up for one night, but you can still pick up the issue and see the work in their new glossy magazine format.

A great Saturday

I had a wonderful day with my friend TTT. After K's folks went home, I met TTT at the condo and we took her step-fathers borrowed mustang convertable to the Smoketown USA chili cookoff. I had been past this place many times, and wondered what it was about, and now I know. Good people and down home cooking. We wanted to make the most with the top down so we drove down River Rd. via downtown. We stopped at the Captians Quarters regalla, and there was an "art show" going on. really it was a bunch of beaded jewelry and a couple of mediocre painters. There were a couple of women who had a huge booth with beautiful alpaca wool sweaters, but $150 was out of my range.

There was a festival downtown that we hit on the way back and that was fun. Got a Christmas present for Mom that I think she will love. Since we were in the neighborhood, we wanted to stop by the NuLu gallery grand opening. We found first the Green gallery which is the brain child of Bill Green with the art of Five O Two party - nine months with nine artists with one love. The space was inspired. workable sized rooms with indoor and outdoor options and easy parking.

TTT and I agreed it would be a great location for the VIVA VOCE at some point.

We did manage to find the NuLu gallery. It was fun, but we were late and they were closing up to go to the FiveOTwo party. Its worth a second look.

On our way back to the car, we walked by Chuck Swanson's gallery and shockingly saw the owners own work in the windows. Its about time! We ran into Chuck who said that he had a last minute cancellation, and this was the first time his work hung in his own gallery. Amazing. He was on his way to the LVAA art auction. Sorry I missed it, but I am spread too thin right now to have volunteered for my dear friends at the water tower. Maybe next year.

I met up with K and we went to his friend's house to sample the band who left their equiptment in the basement from the party last weekend. It was a great little set of figuring out songs, and trying to remember words and revisiting pieces they hadn't done in a long time. The lead singer, Tracy is a school teacher with an amazing voice, a little Janice Joplin with a bit of Jewel as well. She has an impressive range and great expression.

All in all it was a great day! The opera last night went well enough, and though I wished I could have gone to my cousins wedding in North Carolina, I think I really needed a day of new experiences and thats what I got.

Basquiat at KMAC

KMAC (Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft) will be showing the film Basquiat on Tuesday, September 8 at 8pm. Tickets are only $5 and free for museum members.

I saw this film perhaps a decade ago, and it still resonates with me. It's about a young artist who gains the attention on Andy Warhol during his "factory"days.

Jean-Michel Basquiat struggled as an artist, attempting to sell his small postcard sized pieces on the streets of New York with little success. His encounter with Warhol changed every thing. Not only did Andy purchase every postcard the young artist had with him that day, he also brought the seemingly flea bitten cur into his fold where Jean-Michel found acceptance, adoration and fame. These elements were a bit too much for him and led to his destruction, but his work lives on. Sotheby's says the current auction record for a Basquiat work stands at $14.6m.

If you haven't, see this film!

National Tequila Day

Today is National Tequila Day.
–87% of Americans agree that tequila is not just for margaritas anymore, indicating that top-shelf tequila can be easily mixed into a large variety of refreshing cocktails. K is a fan of Patron, a high end liquor which should be sipped like a brandy not slammed after licking salt off body parts.
Personally not a big fan of Tequila at all, so tonight I will drink wine in a shot glass and say aribba while doing so.

One of my favorite bloggers, Jason Falls, has done a nice video blog for Food Rants about 5 things to keep in mind before you celebrate. Its hilarious!

Tonight TTT and I will go to the Forecastle Festival preview party on the roof of the Glassworks building. Should be a good time.

An evening with Juile and Bob

As promised, here are some pictures from the evening with Julie Andrews and Bob Edwards, Thursday, July 10. All photos are by Stephen Driver of Stephen Photography.


Brad Broecker, Bob Edwards and Brad Sidio wait for Julie Andrews to arrive


Members of the Louisville Orchestra entertained guests.


Music Director, Jorge Mester greeted Ms. Andrews and her manager, Stephen Sauer while Brad Broecker introduces them.


Julie meets her interviewer, Bob Edwards while her hosts, Owsley & Christy Brown look on.

Mrs. Brown shows Ms. Andrews the grand view.

Mr. Edwards has Julie on the hot seat.

She had to borrow Bob's glasses to read the passage from her autobiography, "Home".



This is Julie with the Louisville Orchestra staff after Friday's performance at the Meet & Greet.