I’m still a long, long way from having the endurance to bike all the way downtown for this month’s Car-Free Happy Hour (or to feel comfortable biking in all the traffic that a ride to downtown would include) but I’m working on it. Maybe next month the Car-Free Happy Hour will be someplace in the Highlands and I’ll bike or walk to it.

In addition to delicious Mexican food and fabulous conversation, we will enjoy presentations by a plumbing business that uses bikes, and SoupBycycle, a new bike-based soup delivery business in the Highlands.

Tuesday March 16
5:30 pm-8:00 pm
Sol Aztecas
520 South Fourth Street (next to the Seelbach)

Though I’m not making it to this Car-Free Happy Hour I tell you that I’m living a much less car dependent life since the move to the new house and loving it. Walking to Douglass Loop, biking about the Highlands, walking to the post office, the drug store, restaurants, etc. B is buying me my very own grocery cart since we live quite close to Kroger! That means I’ll be the crazy lady you see walking to and from the grocery store with her own cart. I might look crazy but I won’t have to drive to grocery store anymore and that’s a very good thing.

Hey that gives me an idea, what do you all think about a group outing? Kind of a Consuming Louisville meetup at The Comfy Cow for dessert? A bunch of cool people could hang out, eat really good ice cream and do a little good for Hope for Haiti all at the same time? What say you?

WHEN: Thursday, March 18, 2010, from 6 to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Westport Village, located off Westport Road, between Herr and Lyndon Lanes
WHY: To raise funds to address poverty and other needs in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

A fund-raiser sponsored by Westport Village to support the efforts of a local committee working to help the poor and needy in Haiti will be held on Thursday, March 18, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Westport Village, an outdoor shopping mall.

During the evening, patrons can help the needy in Haiti by purchasing items from Westport Village businesses or eating at the restaurants there. A portion of sales that evening, up to 15 percent, will go to help those in Haiti.

Also, The Trail Store in Westport Village will be collecting new and used tents on March 18, and it will arrange for them to be shipped to Haiti.

So, yeah, Kosher Gospel, I’m totally not making this up.

Anyway, he’s playing in town this Sunday night as part of the Adath Jeshurun Music Festival. If you dig music in general and specifically gospel I’d think this would be of interest to you. In addition to Mr. Nelson the West End Boys & Girls Choir will be performing as well as the Cantors from two local synagogues, Cantor Lipp from Adath Jeshurun and Cantor Hordes from Knesset Israel (both are excellent singers by the way).

When Joshua Nelson sings his Kosher Gospel music, he commands attention. It’s not just because of his fire-and-brimstone voice, the comparisons with the late Mahalia Jackson or even his discovery by Oprah Winfrey who called him “The Next Big Thing” in music, and whom he also counts as a friend. It’s the places he performs, mostly synagogues, JCC’s, concert halls, outdoor festivals, and national television. Joshua, who is black and Jewish, has combined the sounds of soul with Jewish liturgical music and first appeared on the Jewish music circuit a decade ago with the release of the national PBS special about his life, “Keep on Walking,” which has been a big hit at Jewish Film Festivals around the globe. Joshua’s appearance on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” catapulted his career nationally and internationally. He and his Singers have performed with such notables as Aretha Franklin, Jamie Fox, Maya Angelou, Ashford & Simpson, Cicely Tyson, Harry Belafonte, Billy Preston, Wynton Marsalis, Stephanie Mills, Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick, Melba Moore, The Klezmatics, Former President Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, European Royalty and at the funeral of jazz legend Sarah Vaughan.

Advanced tickets are $12.50, order online
Tickets at the door are $15.00

Adath Jeshurun Music Festival
Sunday March 14, 2010
7PM

Congregation Adath Jeshurun
2401 Woodbourne Avenue
Louisville, KY 40205

Mom Against Stupid Steroids

Fairdale Bigfoot sure loves jokes, and it seems like this letter was written in jest. If that isn’t the case and this is a real request for help, please consult your son’s coach and approach your son about performance-enhancing substances. This could be a serious problem.

Now to make light of it…

Dear MASS,

So your offspring had a dream of being a bodybuilder? How proud you must be! Think about the cycle of events: amateur bodybuilding competitions, magazine shoots, professional bodybuilding competitions, sporting events that will be rerun on ESPN 2 on Sunday afternoons, cameos in movies, starring rolls in movies, starring rolls in really bad movies, cameos in sitcoms, political office! Good luck finding shirts that fit.

With your son, Fairdale Bigfoot is reminded of the man who thought he was a chicken. This man clucked around the yard all day making a horrible racket. When they neighbors asked the man’s family why they didn’t take him to a doctor, his father replied, “Well we would, but we need the eggs.”

So your son may see some benefits to shooting up. These performance-enhancing substances are probably making Junior’s little league games more exciting, and his rippling biceps may help you open a stuck jar or two. This may make him feel good, but he could be ignoring the side effects. He will get taller. His voice will turn into a deep growl. He will sprout hair all over his body and his hands and feet will grow to inhuman proportions. He may take to spending more time outside, perhaps in the woods, and he may become overly-sensitive. Perhaps he will be sensitive enough to help other people with their problems, but remain blind to his own. He will become unstable. So unstable that if people keep hunting for him in the woods his mind will go and he’ll start to think that if one more camper leaves a Bud Light Lime bottle in Jefferson Memorial Forest he’ll just FLIP OUT AND TOTALLY LOSE IT ALL OVER EVERYBODY!

But Fairdale Bigfoot doesn’t know what that would be like. It sounds like a miserably lonely experience. It’s not worth the intense popularity and oodles of romantic partners your son will attract, then fail to satisfy with his hormonally-maladjusted body.

So try teaming up with your son’s coach, adviser, doctor or gym-spotter for a mini-intervention. Tell them a career in the physical arts is fine, but everyone is going organic these days. There’s no need to risk with drugs what can be attained through effort.

If that fails, Fairdale Bigfoot is available for motivational speaking gigs.

Sincerely,
Fairdale Bigfoot.

Universities play a key role in the promotion and implementation of sustainable practices in our communities. Not only do universities contribute to regional sustainability through fundamental research and an existing knowledge base, but also through education and training, community involvement and outreach, and the institutions’ own development of space, energy policy and environmental programming.

Our guest speakers will be:
Justin Mog serves as the University of Louisville’s assistant to the provost for sustainability initiatives.

Larry Owsley has served as the University of Louisville’s vice president for business affairs since 1983.

Brent Fryrear is the Director of the Partnership for a Green City – a collaboration of Louisville Metro Government, Jefferson County Public Schools and the University of Louisville – working together to address climate change and “green” institutional practices within the organizations themselves as well as working to achieve real results that will have long-term positive impacts on the health, education, and well-being of our citizens. 

Shane Tedder was recently hired by the University of Kentucky to serve as their first Sustainability Coordinator

Tuesday March 16, 2010
6PM
Free but RSVP is required to reserve a seat

Glassworks
815 W. Market Street
Louisville, KY

Eminent photographer Yousuf Karsh made a career photographing the world’s most famous actors, artists, and statesmen. During his career he held 15,312 sittings, produced more than 150,000 negatives including the most famous men and women of the twentieth century. This great portraitist’s work features iconic images of Albert Einstein, Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Mother Teresa, just to name a few.

You get into the exhibit for free if you’re a museum member, otherwise it’s $10. The exhibit runs until June 27, 2010.

Speed Museum
2035 South Third Street
Louisville, KY

This is the Big Sale! More than 15,000 used, antiquarian, and new books in all categories will be offered for sale. Categories include history, biography, mysteries, reference, science fiction, travel, cookbooks, children’s, spirituality, Kentucky, romance, crafts, and much more. Prices begin at .50 for small paperbacks, $1 for trade paperbacks, and $2 for most hardcovers; with a selection of illustrated books, rare books, and sets, priced individually. All books are sorted by category and are in good condition. Because of the volume of donations, books will be added to the display during the sale.

The sale runs Friday March 12 through Sunday March 14 from 10AM-4:30PM each day.

561 Blankenbaker Road
Louisville, KY

Eager almost-famous artists, musicians and authors are displayed as easily trapped victims of con artists who promise big, yet empty, dreams. Alexa Vere de Vere, a flashy fast-talker who convincingly captivates and takes advantage of these victims, has a new target on the horizon: Evan Wyler, an aspiring New York writer. Alexa meets with Evan, asking him if he will write a screenplay based on her glamorous life story which will require him to follow her around and take notes. She promises him fame and fortune in return – the same things she has promised, but never given, to so many others. Evan’s trust soon gives way to suspicion and the tables then begin to turn with sweet revenge.

The show opens Thursday evening, March 11, at 7:30pm. Other performance dates and times:
March 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 at 7:30pm
Saturday March 20 at 2:00pm.

Tickets are $15 in advance or $17 at the door. Buy tickets at www.PandoraProds.org or by calling (502) 216-5502.

“By submitting an entry and entering the contest, you grant Trazzler and Greater Louisville Community Branding Project and its member organizations a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free right to publish and distribute your text and photo entry for their promotional purposes in print and digital materials.”

But maybe you aren’t like me and don’t have any issue with those terms. Maybe the prizes are good enough to make it absolutely worth entering to you. So with that in mind, without passing go, without collecting $200 let me give you the information, straight from the horse’s mouth as they say, on the Trazzler Louisville Writing Contest.

Trazzler.com recently launched the Louisville Writing Contest, a travel writing contest for residents, visitors, and friends of Louisville, Kentucky, to submit short trips (between 65-140 words) about their favorite restaurants, bars, public art, parks, events, festivals, and more in Louisville: http://www.trazzler.com/contests/louisville.

The contest, sponsored by the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau, runs until May 15, 2010. The grand prize, decided by popular vote, is a two-night stay at the 21c Museum Hotel, a $200 gift card to any of the 40+ Louisville Originals Restaurants, and 2 tickets to the Actor’s Theatre. Trazzler will also award a freelance writing contract to contest entrants or Louisville local experts.

They only serve breakfast until 10:30AM then it’s on to lunch goodies. I expect Qdoba to be a hopping lunch spot with lines out the door. That being said Qdoba is ready for the traffic and have laid out the location accordingly so the line will move quickly and not interfere with people already seated and eating.

I asked about delivery to nearby offices. That’s not in their plans right now but they haven’t ruled out the possibility in the future. Remember though that Qdoba offers catering services. So now downtown offices have an excellent alternative for office lunches to the standard chips and sandwiches or weird pasta salads. You know what I’m talking about.

So rejoice burrito loving friend, the downtown burrito desert is no more (oh I know there were Mexican restaurants downtown before but grant me some poetic license here please)!

Downtown Qdoba opens today, March 8 2010. Enjoy!