The world’s most Louahvul newsletter goes out every Friday. Subscribe at louisville.com/newsletter.
9.18.2020, No. 22
“As significant as today is, it’s only the beginning of getting full justice for Breonna.” — Breonna Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, at a press conference announcing the city’s $12-million settlement with Taylor’s family
FIVE.
1. Louisville Magazine managing editor Mary Chellis Nelson forwarded me this video, part of which was included in the recent New York Times documentary The Killing of Breonna Taylor. During an afternoon press conference on March 13, the day LMPD officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor in her apartment while executing a (since-banned) no-knock warrant, Steve Conrad, LMPD’s chief at the time, said, “Early this morning, we had a critical incident involving one of our officers, who was shot, and another person at the scene was killed.
“As police officers, we hope we never have to fire our weapons. But when we’re forced to do so, we understand and we accept the high level of public scrutiny that results from that. We owe that to our officers, to the suspects, to the suspects’ families and to the entire community as we do our best to investigate this incident.”
“The suspect” became a rallying cry two months later.
Over the summer, I was talking to the writer and poet Hannah Drake, who said something I think about often: “Breonna Taylor was so close to being erased from history.”
2. “Police offered little in the way of retrospection or regrets, and at times contradicted previous statements made by city officials.” That’s from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting’s Jacob Ryan, who had a story this week about Metro Council members who “peppered…top police brass with questions about the department’s response to the protests.” Ryan, in collaboration with WDRB’s Travis Ragsdale, also had a piece titled “Which Louisville Judge Let Police Search Your House? Most Signatures Are Unreadable,” with a mesmerizing embedded video of one illegible signature after another. Slow clap this week goes to Ryan.
👏…👏 …👏👏…👏👏👏…👏 👏👏👏👏👏👏
3. I was up late last night reading the first digital issue of Minda Honey’s new alt-weekly, Taunt, about refusing “to accept a Louisville that accepts the status quo.” So much has stuck with me, including:
“It puzzles me to think that people are going to school for grant writing. This in itself should be a sign that the grant-funding process has become too complicated.” — from Lance Newman II’s essay.
“So (my mother) and I had the conversation, and we came to an agreement that I wouldn’t go back out to the protests until I had this (bulletproof) vest, and I would wear the vest at every protest.” — from Allie Fireel’s piece about the contents of protesters’ bags.
“If you remember Brat, maybe you stood shoulder to shoulder with Brat staff members during a sweaty By the Grace of God show at Sparks, or maybe a teacher confiscated a copy that you were reading on the sly.” — from Liz Palmer’s reminiscence of the zine she founded in the mid-’90s.
4. Miles, my three-year-old, asked, “Does the virus mean Halloween is canceled?”
5. A couple months ago, I read a LEO story about Planet of the Tapes, a Barret Avenue comedy club that rents out DVDs for two bucks a night (tagline: “No buffering”). I asked the Planet of the Tapes staff this question: If 2020 were a movie, what would it be?
“Aliens. We keep ignoring the smartest person on the ship, corporations don’t have our best interest at heart and there are eggs everywhere.” — Chris Vititoe, co-owner
“Beetlejuice. We are all trying to escape our houses, and we feel like ghosts. Lydia is Andy Beshear, trying to help us. And Harry Belafonte is always stuck in my head.” — Gracie Taylor, bartender
“Saw. This year has been a series of excruciating and brutal challenges. And if we somehow manage to survive it, we’ll come out the other side changed and maybe even better.” — Greg Welsh, talent booker and host
“Dragonball Evolution. Absolute gutter trash that happened even though we all want to pretend it didn’t. Largely a failure because the people in charge completely disregarded the source material laid down by the founding fathers of Dragonball. It was a movie no one asked for, confidently helmed by the ignorant.” — Katie Gibbs, bartender and tech
And two made-up movies:
“Apocalypse Now 2. I love the smell of Butchertown in the morning.” — Erica Whitley, head bartender
“Paul Blart: Mall Cop 7. Because nobody will ever want to talk about it again.” — Jim Bob Brown, co-owner
Support for Louisville Magazine comes from the Kentucky Restaurant Association, whose fundraising Hunger Action Day, sponsored by Gordon Food Service, will be next Wednesday, Sept. 23. To address food insecurity, participating member restaurants will donate a portion of the day’s proceeds to Dare to Care. I’ll be checking next Wednesday morning so I know where to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
OH!
A little something from the LouMag archive.
The autumnal palette of the September 1972 cover always gets me in the mood for crisp hoodie weather. (I know! This week I use “autumnal palette” and last week I made a pirate joke. I’ll try to do better.)
The cover, by artist Bill Flaherty, depicts Howard Stevens, the 5-foot-5-inch, 150-pound U of L running back who, Bill Doolittle wrote, claimed to have “learned his shuffles and sidesteps, his jittering and skittering, by playing in traffic when he was a kid in Virginia. The sight of bewildered behemoth defenders clutching handfuls of air and crashing into each other makes the U of L fans howl with delight. Everybody has tried to hang a nickname on Stevens: the gnat, the flea, rabbit in a wheatfield, the waterbug. Stevens said, ‘It’s easy enough to be called Howard Stevens.’” His 1,429 rushing yards in ’71 remain the U of L single-season record.
Tomorrow night, in primetime, the Cards host Miami. Doolittle, who wrote that Stevens profile 48 years ago and still contributes to Louisville Magazine, has this prediction about Saturday: “Louisville is restocking, with a lot of young players of varying talent. May be outsized by Miami, but Louisville will have a homefield advantage that, despite the mostly empty stadium, may be far more important than people think.”
TOO…
Last week in this section, I mentioned how I’ve worn shorts or sweatpants every day but one since Louisville went into lockdown March 13. Yes, I did the math: That’s 99.5 percent of days. I asked if anybody out there was at 100 percent, and reader Heather Dotson wrote: “Your question about wearing pants” — this newsletter at its best! — “reminded me that early in the quarantine, in April, I was walking Turkey Run in the Parklands when I passed a little girl and her dad. I complimented her pajamas. Dad laughed and said that she planned to wear only pajamas ‘until this is over.’ I sometimes wonder if that little girl has worn real clothes yet. Makes me cry/laugh.”
Josh Moss
editor, Louisville Magazine
jmoss@loumag.com
Read past newsletters here.