LEO Weekly, May 9, 2025

SUMMER THE

PREVIEW

M AY 9 - 2 2 , 202 5 | VO L 3 4 , I SS U E 2 1 | F R E E

2 | LEO WEEKLY MAY 9-22, 2025

MAY 9-22, 2025 LEO WEEKLY | 3

ON THE COVER:

MANAGING EDITOR

Rob Csaszar, Unsplash

Caleb Stultz

VIEWS

4

FEATURE

6

STAFF PICKS

11

CREATIVE SERVICES Creative Director - Haimanti Germain Graphic Designer - Aspen Smit DIRECTOR OF SALES

MUSIC

14

Marsha Blacker

ARTS & CULTURE

17

CONTRIBUTORS

ETC

19

MARC MURPHY

Aria Baci, Charles Brubaker, Joe DeSensi, Marc Murphy, Jeff Polk

Chief Executive Officer Chris Keating Digital Operations Coordinator Elizabeth Knapp Chief Financial Officer Guillermo Rodriguez

LEO Weekly is published by LEO Weekly LLC. Copyright LEO Weekly LLC. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed herein are exclusively those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Publisher. LEO Weekly is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the express permission of LEO Weekly LLC. LEO Weekly may be distributed only by authorized independent contractors or authorized distributors.

Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO) is a trademark of LEO Weekly LLC.

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6 | LEO WEEKLY MAY 9-22, 2025

NEWS

THOUSANDS COULD LOSE INTERNET ACCESS AS KENTUCKY ENDS CONTRACT WITH FIBER OPTIC NETWORK MANAGER A disagreement over Kentucky’s state-owned fiber optic network could leave thousands without internet connectivity starting this May

BY CALEB STULTZ Designed to provide high-speed internet wherever throughout the Commonwealth, especially in underprivileged rural communities, KentuckyWired was meant to be Often referred to as the “middle mile,” the 3,200-mile fiber optic network links major buildings like government offices, colleges, and universities to the worldwide internet. Then, Internet service providers (ISPs) link to KentuckyWired to provide homes and businesses the “last mile” of service.

Now, though, the future of that system is under doubt.

The state body running the network, Kentucky Communications Network Authority (KCNA), just declared it is ending its contract with Accelecom, the private business hired to run KentuckyWired.

KCNA claims Accelecom broke terms of their contract. In response, Accelecom sent letters to consumers warning that their internet service could be disconnected before the end of the month.

With many local governments, colleges, and businesses caught in the middle, the impact from the contract conflict might be felt statewide.

“If you go in and touch the fiber, you are touching a state-owned asset,” John Gill, an internet provider who relies on KentuckyWired, told WDRB. “We are a last-mile provider,” Gill told WDRB. “You enjoy the internet on the last foot—whether that’s through a wireless router or plugging in your laptop or TV.” Courthouses, governmental offices, and schools are among the institutions that depend on the KentuckyWired backbone. Gill noted that while the state and Accelecom are pointing fingers, it’s regular Kentuckians who could lose crucial access.

“You can’t do this—it’s written into law,” Gill told WDRB. “We’re sorry you had problems with Accelecom, but to us, they’re just a salesman. Salesmen come and go. Get us another one and we’ll be happy to work with them.”

Kentucky Wired originated in 2013 when state agencies and the SOAR (Shaping Our Appalachian Region) project realized better internet was needed to

promote education and economic growth.

Kentucky at the time rated 47th overall in broadband speeds and access, which disadvantages rural communities.

To solve that, Kentucky launched KCNA in 2015 and entered a 30-year public-private partnership with a consortium led

by Macquarie Capital. The deal tasked the consortium with designing, developing, funding, running, and maintaining the network in exchange for availability fees funded by current internet service budgets. The arrangement includes longterm maintenance, equipment updates in years 11 and 21, and revenue sharing from leasing access to the network.

Construction of the network, projected at $324.4 million with an additional $88 million added for pole access and other

delays, had considerable hurdles from the start. Issues with getting pole attachment agreements and easements to place cables on private land delayed the project by more than two years. As of early 2018, KCNA had obtained agreements for around 90% of essential pole access, including roughly 70 utility firms across the state.

Despite these early challenges, KentuckyWired was positioned as a generational investment aimed to expand connectivity, improve cell phone coverage, and generate revenue by wholesaling access to ISPs and telecom corporations.

On Thursday, May 1, Accelecom reached out to LEO Weekly via email to provide a statement regarding our story: “We intend to prove that KCNA has repeatedly breached its contract with

Accelecom, culminating in its unilateral decision to terminate the parties’ agreement and disconnect the customers it was created to serve,” said Accelecom CEO Brad Kilbey. “Those customers include more than 240 healthcare clinics and hospitals, 634,000 K-12 students, 44 internet service providers that serve tens of thousands of residents—many in rural areas—and hundreds of businesses. Any suggestion that the court has resolved the parties’ disputes in KCNA’s favor—or that KCNA has conducted its relationship with Accelecom in good faith—is categorically false.”

Shutterstock

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Summer Festivals, Fairs, and Fun LEO Weekly Staff

SUMMER IN THE 'VILLE WAKES THE adventurous spirit in every one of us. Here is a list of some of the fascinating activities Louisville and the neighboring areas have scheduled this season. From music events and cuisine feasts to sunny day activities and traditional county fairs, there is no shortage of ways to enjoy Kentucky — and even our surrounding states — all summer long!

10-11 & 17-18 | Strawberry Festival Versailles, Ky. | Held over two weekends in May, Eckert’s Strawberry Festival features classic family fun on the farm. Guests can enjoy tractor rides to the strawberry fields, festival-style food, a petting zoo, push pedal carts, a wagon train, a children’s playground, and more, eckerts.com/event/ strawberry-festival-2/2025-05-10

MAY

16-October 11 | Log Still ‘The Amp’ Music Weekends Gethsemane, Ky. | Nearly every weekend in the summer, enjoy a new kind of sound for Kentucky’s Bourbon Country. Enjoy a night out and good music, logstilldistillery.com/ theamp

10 | 4th Annual International Food Truck Festival The Big Four Bridge | Food trucks representing food from all around the world, craft vendors, bars, and cultural performances, facebook.com/events/2075374249557695 10 | Kentucky Humane Society LouAdopts Kentucky Fair & Expo Center | A mega adoption event aiming to find loving homes for nearly 200 adoptable local dogs and puppies, kyhumane.org/louadopts

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17 | Old Louisville Springfest Toonerville Trolley Park | With visitors from all over the city, vendors of exclusively handmade goods, Louisville's best food trucks, live music all day, and KidZone, a neighborhood brimming with excitement, ttnalouisville.org

22-26 | Abbey Road on the River Big Four Station Park in Jeffersonville, Ind. | Art, music and food festival honors and celebrates The Fab Four by attracting more than 60 bands, on seven stages, from 12 countries and over 25,000 attendees. AROTR.com 24-25 | Uncle Boojie’s Roots Revue Christie’s Garden, Paristown | Two day bluegrass, roots, and folk music festival, great food & cocktails, rootsrevue.com 24-26 | Eckert’s Memorial Weekend Festival Versailles, Ky. | The weekend-long celebration includes live entertainment, wagon rides, a petting zoo, outdoor food vendors, and access to playgrounds, eckerts.com/event/ memorial-weekend-festival-2/2025-05-24 28-September 17 | Waterfront Wednesday’s Big Four Lawn in Louisville’s Waterfront Park | Located next to the Big Four Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge, The last Wednesday of the month

(except for September) offers free concerts.

The lawn opens at 5 p.m., with music beginning promptly at 6 p.m., ourwaterfront.org/ annual-events/wfpk-waterfront-wednesdays-2 28–August 10 | Kentucky Shakespeare Festival Central Park | Features free, live performances of “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Hamlet,” “Cymbeline,” “Twelfth Night” performed by local students, and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in collaboration with the Louisville Ballet, kyshakespeare.com/season/sicp 29-31 | Great American Brass Band Festival Danville, Ky. | Centre College, Ffeaturing world– renowned brass bands, parade, balloon race, picnic, food and more, gabbf.org 29-June 1 | Forest Fairy Festival: A Celebration of Nature, Eroticism, and Connection Stanton, Ky. | This spring, the first-ever Forest Fairy Festival will debut in the heart of the

Red River Gorge, offering approximately 50 attendees a rare opportunity to explore intimacy, nature, and play in a deeply immersive setting, SarahBelzile.com/forest-fairy-festival 31-July 20 | Highland Renaissance Festival Eminence, Ky. | Themed weekends featuring jousting, mud show, jugglers, musicians, crafts, period food and more, kyrenfaire.com 31-June 1 | Railbird Festival Lexington, Ky. | When the music’s this good, it’s hard not to get swept up in the crowd with over 30 musical performances on 3 stages over 2 days, food and drink vendors including vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options, bars, concessions, official band merch, festival merch and free water stations, railbirdfest.com

JUNE 1 | Ali Fest Carnival The Muhammad Ali Center | Enjoy free admission to the Muhammad Ali Center in addition to food, games, music, face painting and more! The Ali Fest Carnival is part of this year’s Ali Fest celebration, gathering the community together to highlight Muhammad Ali’s impact and celebrate the city he called home, alicenter.org/events/ community-free-day-ali-fest-carnival-2025 1 | Kentucky Humane Society Waggin’ Tail on the Waterfront Waterfront Park | Families enjoy face painting and puppy cuddling; adults savor craft brews and food trucks; and four-legged attendees indulge in canine tattoos and dog portraits, kyhumane.org/waggintail

5-7 | 70th Annual Poke Sallet Festival Harlan, Ky. | Festival showcasing local, regional and national talent with music, crafts, food and more, pokesalletfestival.com 5-8 | 400 Mile Sale From Paducah to Maysville, Ky. | Follow U.S. Hwy. 68 for four days of antiques, collectibles; 400mile.com.

7-8 | Bluegrass PugFest Kentucky Expo Center | PugFest is an all-volunteer non-profit and the funds raised support the participating Pug Rescue Organizations, bring your family, friends and your furbabies, bluegrasspugfest.org

6-7 | Seedtime on the Cumberland Whitesburg, Ky. | Appalshop Center, featuring screenings of Appalshop films, traditional mountain arts and crafts, food and more, with music by Grace Rogers, Sarah Kate Morgan, The Letcher & Knott Co Pick & Bow Stringbands and more, facebook.com/events/550333878054107 6-7 | Louisville GreekFest Assumption Greek Orthodox Church, 930 Ormsby Lane | Celebrates Greek culture with music, arts and crafts, food and more, louisvillegreekfest. com.

6-7 | Germantown Schnitzelburg Blues Festival Germantown | Free festival with both indoor and outdoor stages will have four acts on Friday, June 6 and seven acts on Saturday, June 7, facebook. com/events/1359677518357195 7-8 | Butchertown Art Fair 800 and 900 blocks of E. Washington St.| Showcasing diverse, high-quality artists from throughout the region and beyond, the Butchertown Art Fair is a juried art show that features handcrafted artwork from more than 70 artists. Complementing the art is live music, local food trucks, beer, wine, and cocktail selections, butchertownlou.org/#artfair 8 | Buy Local Fair Lynn Family Stadium, Audubon Mill Park | Local performances, sip libations, cooking competitions, kid-friendly, keeplouisvilleweird.com/ buylocalfair

live music, camping, and more, billmonroemusicpark.com.

12-14 | Spirit in the Bluegrass Music Fest Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington | Features America's best bluegrass talent from bands with ties to the region to new acts ready to take bluegrass by storm, the Spirit in the Bluegrass Music Fest has something for everyone, spiritinthebluegrass.com 12-15 | Newport Italianfest Newport, Ky. | Riverfront, celebrates Italian heritage with food, art, games and music, italianfestnewport.com 12-15 | Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival Manchester, Tn. | Four unforgettable nights with bonus fun starting Wednesday in the campgrounds, spanning multiple main stage performances, late nights will also be lit up by this year’s debut of “The Infinity Stage,” a brandnew, one-of-a-kind venue boasting spatial sound, synchronized lights, and an unprecedented three-dome, open-air design to create the world’s largest, most immersive, 360° spatial audio experience, bonnaroo.com 13-14 | Lyndon Summer Festival Robsion Park (behind the Lyndon Post Office) | Features free live music, family friendly rides, fireworks, arts and crafts, model train display, live music and more, cityoflyndon.org

11-14 | W.C. Handy Blues & Barbecue Festival Henderson, Ky. | Audubon Mill Park, Festival honors father of blues, W.C. Handy, with music, food, arts and more, handyblues.org

14 | Sky Soul Festival Tuff Mutt Great Lawn at Waterfront Park | Magical, musical experience as the Sky Soul Festival descends upon Louisville, courtesy of the Sky Foundation Org. This highly anticipated event promises a celebration of live performances, culture, and community, skysoulfestival.com

11-14 | Bill Monroe’s Memorial Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival Bean Blossom, Ind. | Bill Monroe Memorial Park, featuring performances by Ralph Stanley II & The Clinch Mountain Boys and the Lonesome River Band, the festival will offer four days of

14-15 | Arts on the Green Fine Arts and Crafts Festival Courthouse Square, LaGrange | 120+ juried artists, Americana music, kids art center, food court, wine and craft beer, Colonial Trade Faire, free parking, no pets, aaooc.org

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16-21 | Bullitt County Fair Shepherdsville, Ky. | Bullitt County Fairgrounds, exit 112 at Shepherdsville, with rides, fair food and more, thebullittcountyfair.com 18 | Sonic Solstice Holsopple Brewing, 8023 Catherine Lane, #105 | Featuring beer garden with Captain Midnight Band, Emily’s Garden, Bibelhauser Brothers, Blind Feline, The Low Glow, AJ Celments & Mike Nix, Stone & Flow, and Nick Stanley, 18+ eventbrite.com/e/ sonic-solstice-tickets-1274812030099 19 | MELANnaire Marketplace 4th Street Live | An unforgettable evening filled with shopping with BOBs, dazzling entertainment, inspiring speakers, captivating art exhibits, powerful drumline performances, and so much more, melannaire.com 21 | Louisville Juneteenth Festival Location TBD | The Juneteenth holiday commemorates the triumphs of freedom, unity, and progress, honoring the remarkable achievements, sacrifices, and contributions made by Black Americans to this great nation, louisvillejuneteenthfest.com 21 | Jammin’ at Jeptha Shelbyville, Ky. | Doors open at 4:30 p.m. for this summer concert series at Jeptha Creed Distillery. Friday’s during the summer offer great live music, food, and craft cocktails at the bar, jepthacreed.com 21 | Kentuckiana Pride Parade & Festival Big Four Lawn at Waterfront Park | Features a parade, artisan vendor marketplace, food trucks, craft beer garden, live music and more, kypride.com

21-22 | Dayton Air Show Dayton, Ohio, Dayton International Airport | Featuring live air shows, parade, daytonairshow.com 21 | Summer Family Fun Fest and Kid-Owned Business Expo CityPlace Expo Center, LaGrange | Featuring activities for kids like carnival games, a petting zoo, balloon animals, inflatables, face painting and more! + vendor booths set up by local businesses and kid entrepreneurs, touroldham.com 21-22 | Old Louisville Garden Tour 1402 St. James Court | Welcomes garden lovers into the private green spaces of the nation’s largest Victorian residential neighborhood.

Our gardeners share their personal retreats, tucked behind stately Victorian mansions and protected by vine-covered walls and privacy fences, oldlouisvillegardentour.org 22 | Heritage Fire Louisville Waterfront Park. | Live-fire cooking, family farms, local chefs, all-inclusive walk-around feast and vote for your favorite, heritagefiretour.com/tour-dates/louisville-ky 24-28 | Henry County Fair Eminence, Ky. | County fair with locally grown foods, hayrides, crafts, music and more, facebook.com/HCFairandPageants 28 | Kentucky Craft Bash Brown-Forman Lawn at Waterfront Park | The Kentucky Guild of Brewers hosts over 40 local breweries and serves more than 100 different varieties of beer, KYCraftBash.com 25-28 | ROMP Bluegrass Festival Owensboro, Ky. | Yellow Creek Park, Live music

by Wyonna Judd, Del McCoury Band, Sam Bush, The Dillards and 25+ more, rompfest. com

29 | A Taste For Life Germantown Ballfields behind St. X on Poplar Level | Featuring 50+ tasting samples from amazing local chefs and new this year tastings from 20+ distilleries, breweries and wineries, namilouisville.org/a-taste-for-life

JULY 3-5 | Bluegrass & Booms Kentucky Kingdom | Live music, nightly fireworks, unique food, Bluegrass bands, and riding rides in the newly renovated park, kentuckykingdom.com/ e x p l o r e - t h e - p a r k / fe s t i v a l s - e v e n t s / kentucky-kingdoms-bluegrass-booms 4 | Crescent Hill Fourth of July Festival Peterson–Dumesnil House, 301 S. Peterson Ave. | Pet show, silent auction, antique car parade down Frankfort Avenue, fireworks and more, crescenthill.us 4-5 | Roostertail Music Festival Madison, Ind. | Great rock, reggae, and country artists. Enjoy food trucks, breweries, fireworks, racing, and the best music acts you will see all SUMMER! Kid-friendly, madisonregatta.com 4-6 | 4th Fest & Praise In The Park Madisonville, Ky. | Features world-class concerts, food trucks, various vendors, a beer garden (Friday & Saturday only), and fun for the entire family. This year's fireworks show will be on Friday, July 4th, after the concert, madisonvilleliving.com 10-20 | Summer Celebration Indianapolis, Ind. | Convention Center, heritage festival with national and regional performers, juried art competitions, minority health fair and more, summercelebration.net 11-13 | Berea Craft Festival Berea, Ky. | Indian Fort Theater, with arts and crafts, demonstrations and more, bereacraftfestival.com 11-12 | Master Musicians Festival Somerset, Ky. | The Festival endeavors each year to bring a wide variety of multi-cultural, multi-generational and multi-racial music to our eclectic stage – from the blues to bluegrass, from celtic to Haitian roots, from rock ‘n’ roll to jazz to progressive newgrass to country to Americana and everything in between, mastermusiciansfestival.org

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18-20 | Inkcarceration Mansfield, Oh. | Ohio State Reformatory, An unforgettable weekend of killer music, epic tattoos and non-stop memories, inkcarceration.com 19 | Oldham County Day La Grange, Ky. | Downtown, with 5K run/walk, parade, arts/crafts, games and more, oldhamcountyday.org 22-28 | Harrison County Fair Corydon, Ind. | Harrison County Fairgrounds, Indiana’s oldest continuous running fair, harrisoncountyfair.com 23-August 3 | Ohio State Fair Columbus, Ohio Expo Center | Featuring midway, live music, games, food, demonstrations and more, ohiostatefair.com 24-27 & 31-August 3 | Goettafest Newport's Festival Park at the Levee | A weekend stuffed from top to bottom with live entertainment, family-focused goetta games, and super inventive food, goetta.com/goettafest 25-26 | The Big Stomp Brown-Forman Amphitheater, Waterfront Park | Multi-day festival at Waterfront Park featuring music and food trucks to raise awareness and reduce stigma around mental health, thebigstomp.com 25-26 | Crusin’ The Heartland Elizabethtown, Ky. | Rev your engines for vintage cars, live tunes, and mouth-watering eats, elizabethtownky.org/cruisin-the-heartland 25-28 | Dainty Fest & The World Championship of Dainty Germantown Neighborhood | German street fame, bologna sandwiches, ragtime music, disco bands, drink specials, raffles and games, schnitzelburg. org/dainty 26 | Frazier Summer Beer Fest Frazier History Museum | With over 200 specialty beers, food, live music, and Kentucky pride spilling over with each tasting, fraziermuseum.org/ beer-fest 31-August 3 | Street Rod Nationals Kentucky Expo Center | Between 10,000 and 11,000 street rods, customs, muscle cars, and special interest vehicles. In addition to the street rods, there will be vehicles from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, nsra-usa.com/events

12 | JTown Craft Beer Fest Pavilion, behind 3rd Turn Brewing Company | and along Neal Drive, Featuring local and national craft breweries, the "BEYOND BEER BAR" Seltzer Bar, wine from Oliver Winery, food trucks and local food vendor, plus live music. 21+. jtownbeerfest.com

31-August 3 | Jasper Strassenfest Jasper, Ind. | German heritage fest with food, music, carnival rides, arts and crafts, fireworks and more, jasperstrassenfest.org

15-19 | Oldham County Fair LaGrange, Ky. | County fair with locally grown foods, hayrides, crafts, music and more,. oldhamcountyfairgrounds.com

1-17 | Indiana State Fair Indianapolis, Ind., Indiana State Fairgrounds | Agricultural and commercial displays, livestock exhibits, performances and more, in.gov/statefair

AUGUST

2 | Taste of Bloomington Bloomington, Ind. | Local restaurants, food trucks, breweries, wineries, and distilleries, music headliners Clayton Anderson & Dizgo, facebook.com/events/2533547466976666 2-3 | Shaker Village Craft Fair Harrodsburg, Ky. | Shaker Village, Juried arts and crafts and demonstrations, shakervillageky.org/events/craft-fair-2025 8-9 | Bluegrass in the Park Folklife Festival Henderson, Ky. | Vibrant weekend brimming with exceptional live bluegrass music, engaging children's activities, delectable food offerings, and enriching folklife exhibits, facebook. com/bluegrassinthepark 8-9 | Maysville Oktoberfest Maysville, Ky. | Celebrates German heritage with live traditional music, traditional German Folk dancing, German biers, German wines and schnapps, authentic German cuisine, and wiener dogs races, maysvilleoktoberfest.org 8-9 | St. Joseph’s 170th Annual Picnic for the Kids St. Joseph’s Children Home, 2823 Frankfort Ave. | More than 60 booths with games, food, raffles and more, sjkids.org/picnic 14-24 | Kentucky State Fair Kentucky Expo Center | Featuring exhibits, concerts, agricultural and commercial displays and more, kystatefair.org 15-16 | Ribberfest BBQ & Blues Madison, Ind. | Bicentennial Park | National, Regional, and Local Blues music, BBQ competitions, family-friendly, ‘Good to the Bone’ Rib Eating Contest, and more, madisonribberfest. com 16 | Corn Island Storytelling Festiva Crestwood, Ky. | 3rd Turn Oldham Gardens, Come celebrate humanity’s oldest shared tradition: storytelling! This historic festival features a great line-up of local tellers and tales, touroldham.com/event/ corn-island-storytelling-festival-3 16 | Kentucky Reggae Union At The Park Louisville Water Tower Park | Featuring live reggae, a Caribbean Market and Caribbeaninspired food, KentuckyReggaeFestival.com 16-17 | Woodland Arts Fair Lexington, Ky. | Woodland Park, Food and drink, musical performances throughout the weekend, and nearly 200 of the nation's finest artists, woodlandartfair.org

food, sports, fashion, children’s activities, cultural demonstrations, and resources for a healthy living, culturelearningcenter.org/ african-heritage-festival 28-30 | Manchester Music Fest Manchester, Ky. | Streets filled with great music, delicious food, cold beer, and good friends, manchestermusicfest.com 29-September 1 | WorldFest The Belvedere at Fifth and Main Streets | Celebrates and showcases the international cultures and communities that make up the city of Louisville and neighboring areas, featuring entertainment stages, Parade of Cultures, Global Village, and more, louisvilleky.gov/ government/city-events/worldfest 30-31 | Fourth Street Festival of Arts and Crafts Bloomington, Ind. | Organized by local artists and hosts 120 artisans from across the country who offer their work to the public. In addition to excellent artwork there are music stages, Spoken Word stages, kids booth by Lotus and community booths for visitors to enjoy, 4thstreet.org

SEPTEMBER 4-7 | Kentucky Bourbon Festival Bardstown, Ky. | With samples from distilleries, the ability to purchase bottles directly from distillery booths as well as access to KBF exclusive single barrel selections, along with chances to meet Master Distillers, attend workshops, panel discussions, expanded food offerings and dozens of vendors in the Bourbon Marketplace, kybourbonfestival. com 4-14 | Jeffersontown Gaslight Festival Gaslight Square, Taylorsville Road/Watterson Trail | With arts and crafts, parade, balloon glow (dusk Friday), music and more, jtowngaslight.com 5 | Old Lou Brew Craft Beer Festival Central Park, 1240 S. Fourth St. | Featuring craft beer from local breweries, food trucks and live music, oldlouisville.org/ old-lou-brew-craft-beer-fest 5-7 | Festival of the Horses | Best of the Bluegrass Georgetown, Ky. | 3 days family fun, LIVE music, craft vendors, food, beer and a celebration of Bluegrass heritage, festivalofthehorse.org

with entertainment, delicious food and drinks, celebrating the LGBT community, wellness & family fun, LouisvillePride.com 6-7 | Big Four Arts Festival Big Four Bridge at Waterfront Park | Featuring over 150 juried Fine Artists, craftsmen, jewelers, artisans and demonstration artists, live music,hands-on art activities, food trucks, beer, wine, cocktails and mocktails, bigfourbridgeartsfestival.com 6-7 | Monarch Festival at Art on the Parish Green 1015 E. Main St. New Albany, Indiana | Featuring the region’s most talented artists, an immersive butterfly experience, mouth-watering food trucks, beer & wine garden, children’s activities and bouncy houses, and music, artontheparishgreen.org.

8 | Flutter Fest Louisville Zoo | Commemorate the autumn migration of the monarch butterfly as they journey to their overwintering destination in the forested mountains of Mexico, louisvillezoo.org/event/ flutter-fest-2025/2025-09-08 11-14 | Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Festival Beaver Dam | Experience live bluegrass music under the trees at Bill Monroe's Homeplace on the stage atop the actual Jerusalem Ridge!

There is rough camping at the festival with golf cart courtesy rides from your site, or the car parking lot, to the stage area. jerusalemridgefestival.com 11-14 | Bourbon & Beyond Ky Expo Ctr. | Bourbon, food from local restaurants and chefs, live music and more, bourbonandbeyond.com 11-14 | Lanesville Heritage Festival Lanesville, Ind. | Featuring tractor pulls and displays, food, entertainment and more, lanesvilleheritageweekend.org 13-20 | Banana Festival Fulton, Ky. | Known as "The Banana Capital of the World”, 2025 theme is Boot Scootin' Bananas!!! Be sure to dust off your boots and join us for a knee slappin good time, www. visitfultonky.com/banana-festival-history 18-21 | Louder Than Life Ky Expo Ctr. | Whiskey, food and rock & roll experience, 4 days and 160+ bands, LouderThanLifeFestival.com

21-23 | Sellersburg Celebrates Sellersburg, Ind. | Silver Creek Township Park, Food and specialty booths, balloon glow, car show and more, sellersburgcelebrates.org

5-14 | Gaslight Festival Week Gaslight Square | 8 day extravaganza including a car show, golf scramble, 5K run, parade, balloon glow, motorcycle rally, live entertainment, and arts and crafts booths, jtowngaslight.com

20-21 | Central Kentucky Celtic Festival & Highland Games Live music, vendors, NASGA Heavy Athletics Competition, traditional archery tournament, children’s Highland games, food, drink & more, kyrenfaire.com/about-3

22-23 | African Heritage Festival Ben Washer Park | Celebrates African, AfricanAmerican, and Caribbean cultures with music,

6 | Louisville Pride Festival Bardstown Road in the Highlands neighborhood | 100+ vendors to explore, two stages packed

25-28 | World Chicken Fest London, Ky. | Home to the World’s Largest Stainless Steel Skillet with over 3 decades

of family fun including crazy contests, free music entertainment, vendors from across the country, carnival rides, and delicious food from non-profit organizations. The festival benefits over 50+ local nonprofits, chickenfestival.com 27 | NuLu Fest 600 | 900 blocks of East Market St. | Live music, regional micro-brewed beers, and numerous food and retail booths by local vendors, activities for all ages, nulu.wildapricot.org/ Nulu-Fest Ribberfest Ribberfest Facebook World Fest Courtesy photo Sonic Solstace Holsopple Brewing Instagram Lanesville Heritage Weekend lanesvilleheritageweekend.com Banana Festival Courtesy photo

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12 | LEO WEEKLY MAY 9-22, 2025

Farmer’s Markets LEO Weekly Staff Riverside Farmers Market

7410 Moorman Road Sundays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

June 1 - September 28 Shively Farmers & Artisans Market

2627 Crums Lane Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

June 7 - October 25 (every other Saturday)

ST. MATTHEWS Rainbow Blossom Farmers Market

3738 Lexington Road Sundays, Noon–4 p.m.

May 11 - November 23

St. Matthews Farmers Market Beargrass Christian Church

4100 Shelbyville Road Saturdays, 8 a.m.–Noon May 10 - September 27

CRESCENT HILL Crescent Hill Farmers Market

201 S. Peterson Ave., United Methodist parking lot Thursday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (May 15-Oct 30)

BUTCHERTOWN / NULU Gray Street Farmers Market

400 E. Gray St. Thursdays, 10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

June 5 - September 25 Phoenix Hill NuLu Farmers Market

1007 E. Jefferson St. Tuesdays, 3–6 p.m.

May 20 - October 28

EAST END Jeffersontown Farmers Market

10434 Watterson Trail Saturdays, 8 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

April 26 - October 25 East End Farmers Market

13060 Factory Lane Saturdays, 8 a.m.–1 p.m.

Tuesday Market (every week) 3 p.m.-7 p.m.

April 5 - November 1

Westport Road Baptist Church Farmers Market

Beulah Church Farmers Market

9705 Westport Road Saturdays, 9 a.m.–1 p.m.

April 26 - October 25

Beulah Presbyterian Church 6704 Bardstown Road Saturdays, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

Year Round

Eastwood Village Farmers Market

Douglass Loop Farmers Market

1141 Beckley Creek Pkwy.

Saturday, 8 a.m.–12 p.m.

May 10 - September 27

Douglass Blvd. Christian Church 2005 Douglass Blvd.

Saturdays, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

April 12 - December 20

OLD LOUISVILLE Old Louisville Farmers Market

Norton Commons Farmers Market

6301 Moonseed Street Sundays, 12 p.m.-3 p.m.

Starting April 27

HIGHLANDS Bardstown Road Farmers Market

Bardstown Road Presbyterian Church parking lot 1722 Bardstown Road Saturdays, 9 a.m.–Noon April - November

SOUTH LOUISVILLE Beechmont Open Air Farmers Market

4734 S. 3rd St. Saturdays, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

June - September

251 W. Ormsby Avenue Saturday, 8:30am - 12:30pm May 10th & 24th, Jun 7th & 21st, Jul 5th & 19th, Aug 2nd, 16th & 30th, Sep 13th & 27th, Oct 11th & 25th, Nov 8th

WEST END West End Farmers Market

California Park Every other Sunday, 3 p.m.-7 p.m.

May 4 - October 5

South End Community Market

2120 Rundill Rd. Saturdays, 8 a.m.-Noon May 24 - October 25 Courtesy photo

MAY 9-22, 2025 LEO WEEKLY | 13

EAT, DRINK AND SEE IN THIS WEEK’S STAFF PICKS

EVERY WEEKEND IN MAY

Spring Into Science

Kentucky Science Center | 727 W Main Street | INCLUDED with admission | kysciencecenter.org/ spring-into-science | 11 a.m.

Explore animal-inspired STEAM fun with hands-on activities the whole family will enjoy. May 10–11: Animal Prosthetics | May 16–17: Paws & Pals Days | May 18: Camouflage Challenges | May 24–26: Biomimicry & Engineering. Each weekend offers new adventures: wing experiments, scavenger hunts, animal encounters, and more! Come explore the wild side of science!

—LEO Weekly Staff

FRIDAY, MAY 9

SATURDAY MAY 10th & SATURDAY MAY 17th

What The Lou | 1101 Goss Avenue | instagram. com/whatthelou | $10 | 7:00 p.m. | All Ages

Louisville Grows Healthy House | 1641 Portland Avenue | FREE | louisvillegrows.org | 9 a.m.

Rush Slocum, The Char, and My Clown Shoes at What The Lou

Seeds & Starts

Alternative, pop, sung rap artist Rush Slocum (Evansville, IN) has a rather interesting story. He quit his job and, along with his drummer Matt, spent most of December 2024 converting a 2013 Chevy Express 3500 van into a living space, (which actually looks really cool). And as of New Year’s Day, they are now living out of that van full time, documenting it on YouTube, and playing anywhere in America they can on their Daydream Adventure tour. They stop by Louisville on May 9th with locals The Char (indie/punk rockers for which this show serves as a vinyl release party), and My Clown Shoes (indie rock).

Has this gorgeous weather made you dream of fresh tomatoes, fragrant herbs, and vibrant blooms outside your door?

Whether you envision a balcony bursting with color or a backyard transformed into a green oasis, Louisville Grows is here to help your garden dreams blossom! Not only will plants be for sale in our greenhouse, but we have several partners tabling at the event, along with a few other surprises throughout the days.

—Jeff Polk

— LEO Weekly Staff

SUNDAY, MAY 11

THURSDAY, MAY 15

SATURDAY, MAY 17

Bourbon Hall | 116 W. Jefferson St. | bourbonhall.live| $18 | 7:00 p.m. | All ages

21c Museum Hotel | 700 W Main Street | FREE | 21cmuseumhotels.com/louisville/whats-on/voicevision | 6 p.m.

Toonerville Trolley Park | Corner of Brook & Oak Street | FREE | ttnalouisville.org/ springfest | 10 a.m.

Fans of Clutch, The Sword, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains take note: From the shadowed valleys of Pennsylvania, where the echoes of coal and the spirit of rebellion converge, Crobot emerges once more to unleash their sonic tempest upon the world. This isn’t just another show; it’s a high-speed chase through the wastelands of rock ‘n’ roll, a revivalist’s sermon delivered with electrifying fervor, and Crobot invites you to partake in a ritual of raw power and unbridled energy. Along for the ride are Chokesetter (South Bend, IN), HANNAN, Inimical Drive (St. Louis), and Southbound Beretta. Lineups don’t get much more stacked than this!

Voice & Vision: Presented by Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing, The Louisville Review & 21c Museum Hotel will feature five exciting writers for the season launch of the popular annual summer reading series. The May program features writers Tracy Clayton, Sally Evans, Allie Fireel, Shannon Stocker, and Shona Tucker. Hosted

by Katy Yocom. The evening begins with an art talk from 21c’s Assistant Curator Katie Wilson on the museum’s current exhibition The SuperNatural 2.0, exploring the transformation from the post-industrial world into the bytes and pixels of the digital age.

With visitors from all over the city, vendors of exclusively handmade goods, Louisville’s best food trucks, live music all day, and KidZone, our neighborhood is brimming with excitement! Springfest is Old Louisville’s biggest springtime festival and neighborhood market, and is always FREE and open to the general public. Handmade artists, vendors, and non-profits will be selling their unique local art, upcycled goods, jewelry, pottery, clothing, handmade soaps, wood crafts, and artisanal food.

—Jeff Polk

—LEO Weekly Staff

— LEO Weekly Staff

Crobot, Chokesetter, HANNAN, Inimical Drive, and Southbound Beretta

14 | LEO WEEKLY MAY 9-22, 2025

Voice & Vision

Old Louisville Springfest

STAFF PICKS

SATURDAY, MAY 17

SUNDAY, MAY 18

THURSDAY MAY 22 through MONDAY MAY 26

BloomFest

Louisville Winds Concert

Bernheim Forest | 2075 Clermont Road | FREE | bernheim.org/event/bloomfest | 11 a.m.

Iroquois Amphitheater | 1080 Amphitheater Road | FREE | iroquoisamphitheater.com/louisville-winds | 3 p.m.

This free event includes whimsy & nature activities for children of all ages, including arts and crafts, garden faerie house construction, naturalist-led discovery stations, and musical entertainment. Get outside and enjoy the atmosphere and ambiance of Bernheim Forest, including the Forest Giants, Issac’s Cafe, the Canopy Tree Walk and the new wild and adventurous play in nature that ignites children’s imaginations at Bernheim’s Playcosystem, a new 17-acre natural playground.

Playcosystem is designed in harmony with nature to provide children with open-ended, physically challenging, and unstructured play opportunities that support healthy development.

Louisville Winds is excited about returning to Iroquois Amphitheater for our annual family friendly Pops in the Park Concert. The 60 piece concert band will perform a wide variety of selections ranging from movies and musicals, favorites from pop and rock, and marches that are sure to delight the audience. The Louisville Winds was founded in 2011 by Nan Moore to create an opportunity for adults who love band music to continue playing their instrument in a concert setting. Members of this true community band represent a variety of vocations including; current and retired music educators, attorneys, bankers, and business executives. In its reasonably short history, this approximately 60- member volunteer ensemble has worked with numerous guest soloists, guest conductors, guest clinicians, and composers.

Attendees from all 50 states and around the world come together to celebrate timeless music, with many calling it the weekend they mark their year by.

Spanning four generations, festivalgoers of all ages gather to enjoy the music of The Beatles and other classic rock legends in a family-friendly atmosphere filled with fabulous fans and memorable moments.

Headliners for 2025 include Pete Best, JukeBox Beatles, The Weeklings, and Clasicstone. Free admission for guests age 20 and under when accompanied by a matching adult ticket.

—LEO Weekly Staff

—LEO Weekly Staff

—LEO Weekly Staff

FRIDAY MAY 23 through MONDAY MAY 26 Kentucky Flea Market

Kentucky Expo Center | 937 Phillips Lane | FREE | facebook.com/events/936266902047179 | Hours Vary The largest & finest flea market in the region and VOTED TOP 10 FLEA MARKET IN USA!! Shop 1000’s of bargains and incredible deals on antiques, collectibles, electronics, clothing & accessories, namebrand fragrances, arts & crafts, as seen on TV, and MUCH MORE.... A Louisville tradition for over 50 years! Also be sure to visit the $5 & Under Overstock Sale, located within the KY Flea Market Memorial Day Spectacular! 1000’s of mostly new-in-box items all just $5 (or less!)...save up to 95% or more! Electronics, appliances, jewelry, toys, hardware, and more! Incredible deals with REGULAR RESTOCKING to keep the new merchandise coming!

—LEO Weekly Staff

SATURDAY, MAY 24

Abbey Road On The River

Big Four Station Park | Jeffersonville, IN | $50+ | arotr.com | Hours Vary

FRIDAY MAY 23 & SATURDAY MAY 24

Sweet Tea & BBQ Fest

13060 Factory Lane | FREE | facebook.com/ events/175252832865567 | 8 a.m.

Local Foods, Artisan Crafts, BBQ, Teas, Live Music, Kids Activities & More! Gather your friends and family and come out to the Sweet Tea & BBQ Fest! Celebrate the cherished traditions of the South with succulent barbecue, refreshing sweet tea, and an array of fun activities for all ages. Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity to indulge in the flavors and fellowship.

—LEO Weekly Staff

What the What 2

What the Lou | 1101 Goss Ave. | instagram.com/ whatthelou | $15 per day | 6:00 p.m. | All ages The Louisville music scene has literally never been better than it is right now! You want proof?

What the Lou more than has you covered with What the What 2 featuring an absolutely stellar lineup. Friday night you get: Pissed On (deathcore), Histrionics (grunge), Deep Above (grunge), Charm School (post-punk), Pleaser (Chicago indie rock), and Shark Sandwich (punk). Saturday you get: The Sharp Stars (metal), Nowhere Fast (post-hardcore), Bury the Coffin (metal), Short Game (post-hardcore), and Jamieee (rap). Thirteen bands total and not a single weak link here!

—Jeff Polk

MAY 9-22, 2025 LEO WEEKLY | 15

MUSIC

LISTEN LOCAL: NEW LOUISVILLE MUSIC YOU NEED TO HEAR New releases by Virgin Birth, Cait Justice, Cadillac Young and more

BY JEFF POLK

FALL/ GVUP

Griffin Fletcher

Cait Justice

Scotchamo

Primal (split) - EP

Forever To Go - album

Angel Teeth - album

Sunny Land - album

One thing about Louisville music these days is that our hardcore scene is unrivaled! Seriously, it’s world-renowned at this point. And here we have a split between two of the best hardcore bands in the area: Louisville’s FALL and Southern Indiana’s GVUP, both of whom contribute two new tracks. I can go ahead and say FALL have all but guaranteed a spot on my 2025 favorites list with the absolutely crushing opening track “Poor Advice”.

Equal parts chaotic and melodic, “Poor Advice” is 100% brutally powerful. This is followed by the slower, melodic, driving crunch of “So Must the Dawn,” which is about as laid back and easy going as a brick to the face. As for their sound, think Sick of it All, Terror, Strife, and Snapcase combined, all at once. True, unrelenting, powerhouse hardcore! GVUP contributes two of their best tracks yet, kicking off with “10/4,” which bleeds directly into their second song “Tongue Ti(r)ed” via guitar feedback. Thrashy, in-your-face hardcore boarding on metalcore; GVUP are masters of brutal, punishing breakdowns. The most unexpected thing about this band are the mid-tempo, groove-oriented bridges with actual sung vocals that they often add into their songs, which creates a kind of calmness in the eye of a storm moments and really sets their songs off. Definitely a Knocked Loose meets Every Time I Die vibe happening.

A great pairing of bands here! I just hope they press this on vinyl, because I need it!

Well, the good news is that Louisville native/ Lexington resident Griffin Fletcher’s debut solo album is finally out as of May 8th. The bad news is his band Young Romantics have now officially split up. But as great as the Young Romantics were, Fletcher’s solo material is a whole new world for the singer/ guitarist/songwriter. While there are some obvious similarities, there are far greater differences; and it’s in these differences that Fletcher really shines. Moving away from the alt-rock stylings of his previous band, (but not away from rock entirely), and into the realms of R&B, folk, smooth jazz, indie rock, adult alternative, and even pop. The music Fletcher creates seems to flow around his vocals like air and water, creating the perfect vessel for his soulful, smooth-as-silk voice. Fletcher’s lyrics - focusing on themes of life, love, loss, fear, and questions of existence - read more like short stories; showcasing honesty, introspection, and vulnerability on a level not previously seen in his work with the Young Romantics.

A cast of several talented South Central Kentucky musicians playing a diverse array of instrumentation serve not only to flesh these songs out, but to push them into the spotlight. With the help of a very rich, warm, inviting production by Fletcher and Max Erskine, and mastering by multiple-Grammy Award-winning engineer Howie Weinberg, (Nirvana, Beastie Boys, U2), Fletcher’s vision and first foray into presenting his solo material is an astounding success! Fans of Jeff Buckley, D’Angelo, and Joni Mitchell take note: Forever To Go is your next obsession!

Appalachia; them hills are alive with the sound of music! Seriously, you can’t pass more than a couple houses without seeing someone out on their porch singing and playing guitar. Appalachia has a story to be told, and it’s told with unflinching honesty through the music of the people who’ve lived it. And one of the brightest Appalachian voices is that of Cait Justice.

Although now a Louisville resident, Cait was born and raised in Pikeville, KY. She learned to sing at church as a child, later taught herself how to play guitar and began honing her craft not long after, culminating in a deal with sonaBlast Records and the release of her debut album Angel Teeth in March. While deeply rooted in the traditional Appalachia music of bluegrass and country, Justice skirts and occasionally flat-out crosses the line into folk and Americana. Her voice: beautiful, sweet, charming, angelic, yet at the same time rich, strong, proud, and even a bit haunting. It’s a voice that needs to be heard and will not be ignored. Justice is also a natural poignant storyteller with her songs of heartache and hardships of growing up in Eastern KY. Comparisons to early Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn are certainly not unfounded. Producer extraordinaire Anne Gauthier at LaLaLand Studios gives Justice’s songs the warmth and depth to sound as if you’re in the room with Cait and the talented musicians she has backing her.

It’s easy to see why sonaBlast was quick to sign her, this is a superstar in the making!

As a multimedia artist, Scott Scarboro has exhibited and even lectured in pretty much every major city in the country.

His sculpture “Upcycle” can currently be viewed at 4th and Broadway as part of the Louisville Downtown District’s Public Art Bike Rack Program. But Scarboro is a musician at heart. In fact, one of the best gigs I’ve ever played was back in the early 2000’s when I was in a band that opened for Scarboro’s junkabilly band Monkey Boy at The Rudyard Kipling, as it was so damn interesting watching Scott play all of his insane homemade instruments and actually making them sound good.

And he’s still at it! Not only does Monkey Boy still exist, he’s also branched out into an experimental audio project that he calls Scotchamo. Sunny Land, one of many albums Scotchamo has available on Bandcamp for free, was recorded live in the studio in one afternoon with no overdubs or multi-tracking and very little editing. Scott plays all the instruments himself, completely improvising while finding inspiration from the items hanging on the walls of his studio. Instruments like his “mutant guitar”, drum pad, vocals, whistling tube, “Uncle Snook’s bugle”, jaw harp, and various hand built effects boxes are used while layering them all with a loop pedal. Mixing lo-fi, improv jazz, alternative, noise rock, and psychedelic, the sound created is quite incomparable and strange, but a fun world to get lost in nonetheless!

fall.bandcamp.com and linktr.ee/gvup

linktr.ee/griffinfletcher

instagram.com/caitjustice

16 | LEO WEEKLY MAY 9-22, 2025

junkabillystudios.bandcamp.com

LEO Weekly has Spotify playlists for each Listen Local column featuring selected tracks from each reviewed release. Search Spotify for LEO Weekly and have a listen!

Want to see your music reviewed in LEO Weekly? Louisville and Southern Indiana-based bands/artists, send a link to your music on the streaming site of your choice along with a band/artist bio, a high-resolution pic of the release’s cover art, and any additional information that may be helpful for the review, (the more, the better), to music@leoweekly.com.

Michael Vettraino

Virgin Birth

“A Lie Not Alive” - single

Total Annihilation - album

Michael Vettraino, the man behind the amazing “Chasing the Sub Lime” music video, (seriously if you haven’t seen it yet, go to his YouTube page and watch it now), is back with the third single off his upcoming EP, to be released later this year. All three singles forming an audio triptych of past, present and future, (“A Lie Not Alive” representing the past). This song delves into deep themes surrounding humanity and societal issues, with Vettraino specifically focusing on humanity in the context of geological timescales, how we align and differ with the rest of the animal kingdom, and the impact of greed on American society, per his press release. On his latest, Vettraino takes a more minimalistic approach, relying on his 70’s/80’s style synth sounds and his rich baritone voice to guide the song while building an incredible, almost hypnotic soundscape the entire time. Processed drums and layered synth are used to drive it all home during the last minute; Vettraino himself handling all instruments and vocals. Orchestral-like swells and choral backing vocals are used to give this track almost an otherworldly, ghostly feel, emphasizing Vettraino’s emotions on the subject matter at hand while simultaneously making the listener feel uncomfortable and uneasy, which is the whole point. Reminiscent in scope of 70’s Pink Floyd, “A Lie Not Alive” is a powerful statement that Vettraino has masterfully delivered.

I’m torn between saying Virgin Birth’s sophomore full-length album Total Annihilation is the missing link between Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine and Broken, KMFDM’s Naïve and Money, Ministry’s Twitch and The Land of Rape and Honey, or Pixel Grip’s Heavy Handed and ARENA. Regardless, this album is about as solid as they come and I cannot stop listening to it! Virgin Birth has pulled off the rare feat of creating an album that would sound at home in any of the past four decades. They manage to combine the throwback beats and synth of the 80’s dark wave sound, the grit, grime, and power of 90’s industrial, the edge and excitement of 2000’s EDM, then give it all a modern sheen. This is world class, genre-defying music that is meticulously thought out and extremely well-crafted.

This is one of the few records that you can put on and regardless of what styles of music you’re into, you’ll find something here that grabs your attention. Then the hooks pull you in and before you know it, you’ve got this record on repeat for days straight, (I speak out of experience). If you’ve heard their 2023 debut album The Forest, expect a deeper, darker, richer sound here. Their songwriting and production skills have grown exponentially, improving on what was already an incredible sound. Total Annihilation is absolutely mandatory listening!

youtube.com/@Michael.Vettraino

nevernervousrecords.com

Cadillac Young

Zelly

Bare My Bones - EP

MISTER - album

Many know Cadillac Young as the guitarist of Shitfire. But with Bare My Bones, his latest solo EP, Young is stepping out on his own. No backing band, just Young all alone with an acoustic guitar, his voice, and his powerful words. I say words because lyrics aren’t the proper way to describe what Young is singing here. Following in the footsteps of greats like Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, Young’s songs are stories put to music. Young proves himself to be quite the storyteller too, taking on tales of lost love and self-worth on tracks “You Deserve Better Than Me” and “Blemished Apprentice”, the cycle of unhealthy relationships in “Shapeshifter”, and the standout track “Enough About Me” in which Young spins the tale of a newly-sober but down-onhis-luck musician reconnecting with old acquaintances. This track hits close to home for Young, who based the story off of his own mother’s struggle with alcoholism. Musically, the four tracks here are more akin to the folk rock stylings of James Taylor and Neil Young, but with the spirit of outlaw country artists like Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson.

Like the EP title, the recording and production here is pretty bare bones with all four songs seemingly recorded live in the studio with no overdubs; giving it a raw, unpolished, airy, yet warm and inviting tone, making you feel as if you’re sitting next to Young at a campfire or on his porch listening to him play.

Bare My Bones is Young at his most vulnerable, and he wouldn’t have it any other way!

One thing I love about doing music reviews is that I never know what I’m going to get.

And with Zelly, what I got was completely and utterly floored! Drop whatever you’re doing, use the link below and go watch his YouTube videos right now. Yes, I’m serious!

As of this writing he has released five music videos from the album MISTER, and each one is an absolutely stunning piece of visual art.

And the music? Literally one of the best hip hop albums ever to come out of this city! And I’m not overhyping that even slightly. Using smooth jazz and R&B samples throughout the duration of the album, Zelly effectively lulls the listener into a sense of calmness and ease, serving as the perfect backdrop for his unique and distinctive flows. His rhymes are deep, extremely personal, occasionally heartbreaking, but always rooted in the reality of his life; the overall message being one of hope and determination. In his own words: “My debut project, MISTER, is a 13-song soundtrack that brings to life the world I’m building in its accompanying comic book trilogy. This project is my most ambitious yet, as I took on multiple creative roles - writing, directing visuals, designing the cover art, and illustrating the comic. While deeply connected to the comic’s narrative, MISTER also stands as my most introspective body of work to date. This project is more than just the music and comic - it’s a reflection of me and my artistic journey.

And I’m excited to introduce this universe to the world.” Simply put, Zelly’s MISTER is lightning in a bottle!

cadillacyoung502.bandcamp.com

linktr.ee/zelllllyyyy

MONTH XX-XX, 2024 LEO WEEKLY | 2 MAY 9-22, 2025 LEO WEEKLY | 17

MUSIC

MY MORNING JACKET RECEIVES ‘HOMETOWN HEROES’ BANNER AHEAD OF LOUISVILLE CONCERT SERIES The Grammy-nominated band was celebrated with a banner dedication at the Kentucky Exposition Center ahead of their five-night “Come Home Again” run at the Louisville Palace.

BY JEFF POLK Three-time Grammy Award-nominated rock

band My Morning Jacket was honored this afternoon by the Greater Louisville Pride Foundation with the unveiling of their own Hometown Heroes banner. The band, which formed in Louisville in 1998 and has gone on to worldwide success, said via an Instagram post prior to the event, “We’re humbled and honored to receive the Hometown Heroes banner in the city where it all began.”

The banner, which reads “My Morning Jacket’s Louisville”, is located on the north-facing wall of the Kentucky Exposition Center’s Armory building at 937 Phillips Lane and can be seen clearly from the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Expressway (I-65).

The dedication was initially put on hold due to an unexpected pop-up rainstorm.

However, the presence of thunder and lightning mixed with an unrelenting downpour forced an impromptu ceremony in the cramped hallway of the Armory building on which the banner hangs.

Vocalist/guitarist and band founder Jim James, flanked by bandmates Patrick Hallahan, Tom Blankenship, and Carl Broemel (keyboardist Bo Koster did not appear to be in attendance), said to the crowd, “We all know you don’t get to choose where you come into this world, and of all the places we’ve traveled and all the things we’ve seen, I just can’t tell you how grateful I am that, for whatever reason, the universe brought me out here (to) Louisville and that I’ve been fortunate enough to meet these wonderful souls that we’ve shared this journey together. It’s just been such an incredible, magical, thrilling ride, and we’re so grateful to all of you and so grateful for all the support,” before concluding his short speech with “It’s hard to find words for it. We’re just so very moved and so very grateful. Thank you so much.

MMJ becomes the latest in a short line of Louisville music legends to receive the honor, which has previously included Jack Harlow, Lionel Hampton, Helen Humes, Bryson Tiller, Static Major (Stephen Ellis Garrett Jr.), and Nicole Scherzinger, among others.

They also join the longer list of notable Louisvillians who have received Hometown Heroes banners, which includes Muhammad Ali, Diane Sawyer, Jennifer Lawrence, Paul Hornung, Pee Wee Reese, Judge Louis Brandeis, and Denny Crum.

18 | LEO WEEKLY MAY 9-22, 2025

Per the Greater Louisville Pride Foundation, MMJ was selected to receive a Hometown Heroes banner as part of the original program before it was temporarily suspended in 2017. “We are thrilled to officially recognize this great Louisville band with this long overdue honor,” said Mike Sheehy, President and founding member of the Greater Louisville Pride Foundation. “My Morning Jacket has carried Louisville’s name to stages around the world, and now their Hometown Heroes banner proudly greets millions of guests at the Kentucky Exposition Center. It’s a fitting tribute to local talent and a reminder that Kentucky is home to worldclass artistry,” said David S. Beck, President &

CEO of Kentucky Venues. “Recognized with the Governor’s Award in 2014, the band is known around the globe and have remained steadfast ambassadors for Louisville and the state of Kentucky,” Sheehy added.

This is not the first hometown honor to be bestowed upon MMJ this year, as Mayor Craig Greenberg presented the band with the keys to the city at Louisville City FC’s opening game on March 22nd.

MMJ begins their Come Home Again celebration of Louisville tomorrow night with five shows over six nights at the Louisville Palace. In a bold move by the band, each show will feature a completely unique setlist exclusive to that night, with no repeat songs being

played on any of the five nights.

In a recent Instagram post, the band said, “When we realized we had never done a five-night run before in our hometown, we decided that it would be great to make it one big celebration of Louisville, KY - the hometown of our hearts, without which there would be no My Morning Jacket.”

In the post, the band went on to say, “Along with all of the wonderful Louisville musicians playing the shows, we will also be highlighting some of our favorite local art, nonprofits, food and beverage joints, as well as some of our favorite unique places and nature spots around town.”

Events for MMJ’s Come Home Again

celebration are as follows: • Friday, April 25 - My Morning Jacket with special guest Lacey Guthrie at the Louisville Palace, 7:30 PM • Friday, April 25 - Late Night Dance Party with TRILLHARMONICS: United We Dance (featuring DJs Kym Williams and DJ Always) at The Whirling Tiger, 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM - Free admission • Saturday, April 26 - My Morning Jacket merch pop-up store at The Whirling Tiger, 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM - Free admission • Saturday, April 26 - My Morning Jacket with special guest Future Killer at the Louisville Palace, 7:30 PM • Sunday, April 27 - My Morning Jacket with special guest The Jesse Lees at the Louisville Palace, 7:30 PM • Tuesday, April 29 - My Morning Jacket with special guests 10th Street Dre

and Maggie Halfman at the Louisville Palace, 7:30 PM • Wednesday, April 30 - My Morning Jacket with special guest Bendigo Fletcher at the Louisville Palace, 7:30 PM My Morning Jacket is currently on tour for their 10th studio album, Is, which was produced by three-time Grammy Award winner Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam) and released on March 21st of this year.

Tickets and additional information can be found on My Morning Jacket’s website: mymorningjacket.com

MMJ Hometown Heroes banner dedication Jeff Polk Coming Home Again album cover My Morning Jacket

MAY 9-22, 2025 LEO WEEKLY | 19

INTERVIEW

Q&A: CADILLAC YOUNG BARES HIS BONES ON NEW SOLO EP, THE ORIGINS OF SHITFIRE, AND THE MOST IMPORTANT SONG HE’S EVER WRITTEN. “Between my wild redneck family and the friends I keep, there is no shortage of tall tales, erratic emotions, and hard-learned life lessons to pull from and write about.”

BY JEFF POLK Cadillac Young is a multifaceted musician. No doubt you’re well aware of Shitfire, the thrashy punk rock band in which Young plays guitar and is a contributing songwriter. They have certainly cemented their legacy in Louisville music’s history with their high energy live shows and ever-evolving sound that suggests their best material is still yet to come. It’s definitely not a stretch to say people will still be talking about Shitfire decades from now. But few are aware of his background in country music, myself included up until last December when Young asked me to review a two-track country EP he’d just released with The Shively Shitfires called Jug Band Christmas. I was convinced they’d recorded a couple joke songs right up until the moment I started listening to it. It only took a moment to realize that not only was this serious, it was also really good and extremely talented! As it turns out, this isn’t new ground for Young at all, but we’ll let him tell that story.

On the heels of the release of his new country-tinged folk rock solo EP, Bare My Bones, LEO cornered Young in a small, dark room and forced him to tell his life story at knife point, (we actually just emailed him questions). Here’s the confession we got outta him!

LEO: In a nutshell, tell us about your life.

Cadillac Young: I was born and raised on Dixie

Highway. Got my first guitar, (bass guitar technically), in the 6th or 7th grade and started playing shows when I was 12. I’ve played in a ton of bands throughout the years and continue to today. I run a recording studio behind my house and when I’m not strumming a guitar, I’m swinging a hammer.

I have a fabrication and renovation company with two of my friends. It’s called Hammerhead. We build custom furniture and other cool home finishings.

My partner Dave focuses on metal working and I have a wood shop attached to the studio.

I have a strong passion for learning and doing as much as I can. The DIY ethos was first introduced to me by my granddad. He grew up dirt poor and for necessity’s sake, learned how to fix/build just about anything. So when I was old enough to start exploring music genres, punk stood out to me because it is often influenced by DIY as well.

Punk rock is accessible because it’s more about creating safe and welcoming spaces for folks that otherwise might not feel that way in their day-today lives; to create and participate in a shared beneficial experience and everything from putting on shows in basements to screen printing shirts and

20 | LEO WEEKLY MAY 9-22, 2025

Regarding the song “Enough About Me”, you’d mentioned in a Facebook post that “It was easy to write but it’s hard to sing,” and that it “might be one of the most important songs (to me) that I’ve ever written.” What can you tell us about that song?

making art is done by the community instead of relying on corporations.

How did you come about the name Cadillac Young?

A good friend of mine once told me that his father wanted to name him Cadillac but his mama vetoed it. So I told him that if I ever started a country project, I’d call myself Cadillac. A half-decade later or so, I called him up and let him know I was finally ready to slide on boots and explore my roots. And then “Young” is a nod to my favorite songwriter ever, Neil Young.

I thought the new solo EP and the recent Shively Shitfires singles were your first foray into country music, but a quick Bandcamp search revealed a single from 2018 and an EP going all the way back to 2012. What got you into writing country songs, and how far back does it go?

Well, I grew up listening to nothing but country.

That’s all my grandad listened to and I was always by his side. It wasn’t until 5th or 6th grade when I discovered punk and alternative and started framing my own tastes. Then I overcorrected and swore off country for most of my teenage years. The culture surrounding then-current country music

was cringey and I was too busy playing loud and sloppy.

Then I got into Johnny Cash and outlaw country and it had all the aspects of punk, just in a different presentation. Soon after, I discovered Neil Young and he played loud and heavy one moment and soft and sparse the next. So I went out and bought an acoustic guitar and decided to start writing my own folk and country songs. It was eye-opening because I had never written songs completely independently before. Like, songs that maybe wouldn’t have any other accompaniment. That was a game changer.

So I began writing country songs and playing them around bonfires or opening for my friend’s punk rock bands.

Unfortunately, I shelved trying to push the project because I got busy with touring bands and other musical endeavors. I never stopped writing these songs though and when we started Shitfire back in 2021, the members of that band pushed me to put focus back on this project and they started playing as my backing band! But they’re so much more than that. They help bring the songs to a whole new level; adding backing vocals and lead melodies and such.

So I’m kinda glad I’m only now, for real pushing it because it’s finally sounding like how I always envisioned when I was younger.

My mama struggled with severe depression and substance abuse my whole life. She loved me, no doubt about that, but I don’t think she ever truly loved herself and her addiction lead to a slow deterioration in her quality of life and her ability to maintain relationships.

I feel like as a child, I naively trusted her promises to get clean and it was hard to understand why she would say one thing and then not stick to it. With each fall off the wagon and each promise broken, our foundation of trust was compromised. But I never gave up hope that maybe this attempt would be THE one.

I watched her wrestle with her steady physical and mental decline. Her ability to keep a job got harder, but she always seemed to hold onto the idea that THIS time sobriety was gonna stick. So I wanted to capture that withering notion of hope in this song. The degradation of conviction. It was heartbreaking to watch, and for years I held a lot of animosity towards her - and I didn’t like that about myself.

I have been dedicated to sobriety my whole life so I really can’t know the inner turmoil she faced mentally or physiologically; but I know how it affected me and wanted to channel that shared, albeit vastly different, pain into this song.

Until her dying days she never stopped trying to get better, even if it always escaped her grasp. So this was me aiming to find empathy for her and shed the misplaced resentment.

The other three songs on the new EP, what were the inspirations behind those?

All three of those share a similar theme; a feeling I’ve contended with most of my life. The only difference is at what point in my life I wrote them, so my self-worth and accountability evolved as I matured.

“You Deserve Better”, the most light-hearted of the three, was written in my 20s after I had ended multiple relationships with wonderful people because I felt like I was “less than” them. I’m just a simple Dixie Highway’n and I felt like I didn’t have the money or aspirations that would make me a fitting partner.

“Blemished Apprentice” grew from the same sentiment, but I wrote it at a time when the pressure to conform and settle down was more pressing, and I really felt like a failure for being in my 30s and

still not being able to sustain a healthy relationship.

“Shapeshifter” hit the hardest for me. I was going through a rough time, in an unhealthy relationship, and I was thumbing through old lyrics and half-finished songs and came upon the first verse and chorus for this one. I had written it a year or two earlier and when I found it I felt like I was in the exact same situation, just with a new person. It was overwhelming to feel like it was a never-ending cycle.

Many of your solo songs tend to have themes of self-sabotage and, for lack of a better term, you beating yourself up over decisions you’ve made in the past. Yet they also seem to be experiences you’ve learned a great deal and grown from. Is it fair to say you’re a much different person now than the version of you that you sing about?

I’m breaking kayfabe here but a lot of my songs prior to this EP are sensationalized romanticizations of people in my life’s experiences. Between my wild redneck family and the friends I keep, there is no shortage of tall tales, erratic emotions, and hardlearned life lessons to pull from and write about.

If it’s about a broken heart or the rare love song, it’s probably straight from my true perspective, but most of the ones where I’m talking about drug-fueled benders and being an absolute menace to society are pulled from tales handed down from my kin.

I’m no angel, but I was always just a book-loving nerd. I think steering clear of drugs and alcohol helped keep my nose fairly clean. My love of professional wrestling and action figures didn’t hurt either.

Each of your solo songs, including the ones you did years ago, are deep and introspective. Do you ever worry that maybe you’ve put too much of yourself out there?

Nope! I love vulnerability! I love sharing my emotions with people and making unguarded connections. I’m not ashamed to cry like a baby. That’s what drew me to and keeps me invested in art and the local music scene. Feeling a deeper connection through sharing art, as the performer or audience, is very valuable to me.

As far as your songwriting, the difference between your other bands and your solo material is almost night and day. You’d never know it was the same person. Is there a different process you go through for writing songs for each of your bands and solo material?

In my younger years I was obsessed with separating the voices/characters for each project I wrote for. I‘ve created three different 90s-style alternative projects (Bug Muff, Cynical Saint, and Divine Lovers) and I try to use a different vocal styling for each. When I write lyrics for them I’d try to have a different narrative perspective as well.

The same was always true for Cadillac Young, too.

As I’ve gotten older, for my main projects, I’ve mostly let them all meld together. Not necessarily stylistically, just letting them be the most authentically me. I’ve even started writing certain songs that I can play either soft and folky or turn around and play in a post-punk way and it still “make sense” to me.

Besides Shitfire, tell us about the other bands you’re in and what we can expect from them coming up.

Pleasures of the Flesh is a band that I also play guitar in. I tend to write more lead lines for Pleasures; whereas in Shitfire, I’m almost exclusively rhythm guitar. I share vocal and lyric writing duties with the bass player and my great friend Kyle. This is the band that I first realized my musical personalities were coalescing. We’re currently working on a full length and will begin recording as soon as my new studio is built.

I play drums in Loam. We just finished tracking our first full length album. That project was started by my friends Devin and Dan, and I pretty much begged them to let me and our other friend Dean join. This will be the first ever official release where I’ll be on drums!

I have an orchestral band called The Wax Intellectual and we usually get together every 6 or so years to write a 40 minute piece of music, play it live three or so times and then fall back into the shadows. There have been rumblings of pulling that project back off the shelf.

Lastly I created this new band Bug Muff almost exclusively to write 90s-inspired love songs for my partner, Shannon.

I do have quite a few other bands/side projects that aren’t broken up, I just don’t have the time to explore them right now.

At this point, Shitfire is already legendary in the Louisville music scene. What is your history with that band and how did you all come to be?

Thank you! I appreciate your kind words and I sure hope to continue elevating the Louisville music scene and being elevated by it!

Around 2019/2020, all the projects I was a part of were taking themselves seriously; practicing often and taking weeks if not months to write a song. That’s dope but I needed an outlet where I showed a drummer a riff or two, we played through it twice and then we recorded it and that first take was the final product. I wasn’t concerned with this being a project anyone heard, I just wanted to make fun, easy music. That’s where Luke came in.

We recorded the bones of Fuck To This [Shitfire’s debut EP] with no direction or plans for its future.

Luke suggested his friend Cliff throw guitar leads on top of the songs and I said, “Sure! Why not?” Then, our friend Hannah was hanging out during all of this and Luke suggested she put words over the songs.

Again, I said, “What the heck? Let’s hear it!” And that was how the first EP was written.

We showed a few folks and were quickly asked to play an art show and a couple other fun gigs like a Wombo show at Z-Bar! Just like that, it became a real band.

I know Shitfire has a huge gig coming up late May at Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas. How did you all get on that bill?

Two years ago, we received an email from someone booking a fest out in San Francisco (It’s a legit fest but I won’t name any names because my band doesn’t appreciate my pettiness.).

Anyways, we agreed to play 2024’s lineup and made plans to fly out to California and booked a tour up the coast to this festival. A week before we flew out there, the festival dropped us because we booked a show two days before the fest too close

in proximity to SF; even though we never signed a radius clause and we were nobodies on that side of the country.

We scrambled to find a replacement show and ended up landing an amazing gig with Frankie & The Witch Fingers. Someone at the show who had booked Punk Rock Bowling in the past said, “Y’all are on people’s radar.” I had no clue what that meant but thought it was really cool to hear and then the next day we got an email from the current booker of PRB and they asked us if we wanted to play it in 2025!

They’ve since asked us to play a hotel roof pool party during the fest as well! So that’s pretty rad.

Are there any other big plans in the works for Shitfire that you can talk about?

I’m currently constructing a new building behind my house; half of it will be my new woodshop and the other half will be my new studio!

So for the first time since my early 20s, we’re set up in the basement of my house right now writing a full length and I think we’ll be done writing it around the same time the studio is finished, so then we’ll get in there and get started tracking!

Otherwise, we just wanna play as many shows with all of our friends as we can and hopefully open up for some killer bands coming through town on tour!

What future plans do you have for your solo material, as well as the Shively Shitfires?

I have a back catalogue of hundreds of tunes just waiting to be brought out while still writing new ones often. So I’m going to tour on this EP regionally for a couple months and then get started recording a full length! Plus, I have some more songs that I’d like to release for the winter holidays like I did last year!

First, my focus will be on this EP release show May 15th at Cave Valley Kava (I’m playing the record solo and then playing a set with The Shively Shitfires behind me). Townsel Turner and Sam Woodring are joining me for the party!

This will kick off a four day regional tour playing in Huntington, WV, Berea and Lexington, KY! I love being on the road, so whether it’s solo or with a band, my goal is to be gone more than I’m home.

‘Bare My Bones’ will be available on all streaming platforms and on CD beginning May 15th. The EP release show takes place that night at Cave Valley Kava, 2115 Crums Lane. All ages, music at 8:30 pm, $10.

For more info on Cadillac Young, visit instagram.com/caddyyoung502

CLASSIFIEDS ALL VEHICLES WILL BE SOLD AT 2402 RALPH AVE, LOUISVILLE, KY 40216 ON OR AFTER MAY 2, 2025 • 2000 Buick Century with VIN 2G4WS52J1Y1280272 owned by Charles Bradley • 2009 Saturn Outlook with VIN 5GZER13D39J131381 owned by Taily Delgado Cecilio • 2008 GMC Acadia with VIN 1GKER23728J210769 owned by Abad I. Rosas Manzano • 2018 Hyundai Tucson with VIN KM8J3CA29JU804994 owned by Moye R. Starks and Bridgecrest Acceptance • 2000 Honda Civic with VIN 1HGEJ8247YL00652 and KY plate 181NTV, owned by Reyes Mota • 2013 Dodge Charger with VIN 2C3CDXBG4DH656129 owned by DJS Auto Sales • 2014 Chevrolet Malibu with VIN 1G11C5SL8EF259249 and KY plate BZM043, owned by Dona Ngoyi Nshimba • 2005 Honda Odyssey with VIN 5FNRL388X5B095105 owned by Senzoga Gwangano • 2004 Honda Odyssey with VIN 5FNRL18094B049844 and KY plate K6B411, owned by Innocent Safari • 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 with VIN 1D7HU18NX5S280377 owned by Marvin L. Williams and Royal Motor Sales • 2018 Honda Civic with VIN 2HGFC2F51JH571074 and KY plate 7023JP, owned by Kayla Rose Covin • 2013 Ford Edge with VIN 2FMDK3J99DBB31048 owned by You Drive Auto • 2013 Ford Focus with VIN 1FADP3F29DL288666 and KY plate K8L193, owned by Dacoyia Beatrice Owens and Southside Auto Sales II • 1986 Lincoln Town Car with VIN 1LNBP96F8GY752802 owned by Kendall Anderson • 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid with VIN JTNBB46K073042918 and KY plate G8X606, owned by Jose M. Cajchum • 2008 Dodge Caliber with VIN 1B3HB28B28D774092 and MO plate CU9Z4V, owned by Jannifer E. Williams and Superb Auto Finance • 2011 GMC Terrain with VIN 2CTALMEC6B6321948 owned by State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company • 2003 Honda Accord with VIN 1HGCM56673A103183 and KY plate AHJ250, owned by Denna M. Williams • 2007 Ford Econoline E-150 with VIN 1FTNE14W47DA81812 owned by Christopher B. Vaughn • 2010 Chevrolet Equinox with VIN 2CNALDEW0A6385502 and KY plate 519VRF, owned by Jessica R. Yarbrough • 2002 Ford Escape with VIN 1FMYU041X2KB12821 and KY plate 144NMT, owned by Samuel A. Matz • 2013 Chevrolet Captiva Sport with VIN 3GNAL3EK1DS579982 and KY plate 643XSK, owned by Joaqin Escobedo Santos and ON Time Finance LLC • 2009 Dodge Caliber with VIN 1B3HB48A89D169045 and KY plate AFZ504, owned by William Mccathern • 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan with VIN 2D8HN54129R572485 owned by Stimar Transportation and Cruz Care Transportation LLC • 1999 Lincoln Town Car with VIN 1LNFM82W5XY605153 and KY plate 472EFD, owned by Arthur Louis Koenig • 2010 Lincoln MKS with VIN 1LNHL9FT4AG604106 owned by Auburndale Motor Sports • 1991 Cadillac Brougham with VIN 1G6DW54EXMR726620 owned by Ronald Young Jr. • 2012 Ford Focus with VIN 1FAHP3H28CL192069 owned by Luis Perez Rodriguez • 2002 Ford F-150 with VIN 1FTRX17202NA57434 and IN plate CHL812, owned by Alvin Sawyer Jr. • 2011 Ford Escape with VIN 1FMCU0C72BKB35977 owned by Martha S. Reyes and Self Help FCU • 2015 Chevrolet Traverse with VIN 1GNKRGKD9FJ361213 owned by Mary R. Gasper Felix and Jacintos Auto Sales LLC • 2014 Chevrolet Malibu with VIN 1G11H5SLXEF160854 and KY plate E8J328, owned by Greg D. Booker • 2008 Mercedes-Benz C300 with VIN WDDGF54X48R037048 and IL plate EQ86098, owned by Nathaniel Asante • 2014 Buick Regal with VIN 2G4GN5EX2E9273341 owned by Dina Credit Auto Sales LLC • 2009 Mazda 6 with VIN 1YVHP81A395M20009 and KY plate BRB241, owned by Jaida Knuckles • 2016 Hyundai Sonata with VIN 5NPE24AF1GH399847 owned by Yuradis Tamayo Rodriguez • 2011 Ford Fiesta with VIN 3FADP4CJXBM108625 and IN plate CEN138, owned by Junior Yarkpawolo Mulbah • 2004 Cadillac DeVille with VIN 1G6KF579X4U183806 owned by Budget Car Sales and Rentals • 2012 Ram 3500 with VIN 3C63DRNL3CG246699 owned by Ryan Oliphant and Texas Partners FCU • 2011 Nissan Altima with VIN 1N4AL2AP0BC179960 owned by Progressive • 2016 Chevrolet Trax with VIN KL7CJKSB7GB545578 and KY plate AFY632, owned by Abdul Rahamani Baba • 2010 Honda Civic with VIN 2HGFA1F56AH317814 owned by Derek Blanchard, Sarah J. Reeves, and OneMain Financial GR

MAY 9-22, 2025 LEO WEEKLY | 21

VEG OUT

LA SUERTE LOUISVILLE: WHERE BRUNCH, TACOS & SUSHI COLLIDE (IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE) Mexican, Southwest, Tapas—with a dash of “wait, is that a sushi taco?”

BY JOE DESENSI

Brunch was calling my wife Hope, niece Hazel and me like a conch shell signaling an end-of-episode vote on Survivor. We rolled in for brunch, three stomachs strong and ready to explore La Suerte’s new menu. We were feeling lucky (Suerta literally translates to “luck”) and began to explore the brand new offerings as well as some fan favorites that we have loved for years. Quick note. . . there is a LOT for gluten free veggies, so buckle up.

La Suerte Louisville is what happens when your favorite Mexican spot decides to take a big swing crossing dietary boundaries by adding some Japanese flair to their traditional selections with sushi tacos. (Because why not? The Ville deserves a little culinary chaos now and then.)

Potatoes, Entrees, & Portion Control (Spoiler: There Isn’t Any)

The portions are generous, and the value is

22 | LEO WEEKLY MAY 9-22, 2025

definitely worth the price of admission.

This is not one of those “artfully arranged micro-greens and starvation” establishments. Think big plates, full bellies, and maybe leftovers for a forthcoming lunch (or more likely a midnight snack).

I’m a forever fan of their huevos rancheros with my eggs over easy so the yolks become a sauce for the rest of the southwestern flavors, but this time, curiosity (and my love for a good veggie omelet) won out. You know a brunch place is legit when their omelets stack up against the city’s best. Gluten free toast is usually my jam for “sopping” purposes, but with no GF loaves in sight, La Suerte offers a foil-wrapped stack of steamed corn tortillas which translates to using anything on the table to build your own breakfast tacos.

Hazel (the self-declared “biscuit whisperer”) begged us not to judge her as she devoured her order of biscuits and chorizo gravy with the gravitas of a food critic and the speed of someone who’s afraid their food will be stolen in a prison mess hall. Hope, ever on brand, ordered her shrimp taco “usual,” as well as a guacamole appetizer for the table, and gave the “two fingers” for jumbo mimosas noting that she wanted just enough orange juice to where she could still read the newspaper through the glass.

I took a scientific approach to the sauces, blending the red, the green, and hot sauces

into a zesty Frankenstein experiment that honestly deserves its own spot on the menu.

Tip for future brunch gastronomical scientists: Mix-and-match everything. . . sides, sauces, entrees, appetizers. . . your own little ingredient flavor profile Rumspringa.

“Did You Just Say Sushi Taco?”

Yes, and they’re the new kid on the menu block. Crispy seaweed “taco shells” cuddling rice and a free-for-all of fillings—from spicy tuna to sweet potato. If Japan and Mexico got together for a wild night out and decided to surprise us all, this would be the deliciously confusing child. We snagged a couple for the table and realized we should have tripled the order. For the Veggies out there, you will want to order the El Vegetal. If you order the veggie tacos, you will get a different but equally flavorful classic taco style on fresh, corn tortillas.

Drinks & Desserts (AKA “Cheers to the libations and gluten free confections”)

La Suerte’s brunch mimosa game is on point, but their deals on weekdays are even better (here’s looking at you, $5 margaritas and mojitos). Of course, we broke our cardinal

La Suerte

2116 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY 40205 getting-ready-for-midriff-season brunch rule and ordered dessert. The flourless GF chocolate torte kept calling us siren-like, and I regularly use Hazel as my excuse to indulge in a little after-dinner sweet treat. The torte met my dainty lack-of-gluten requirements while satisfying Hazel’s chocoholic tendencies. GFers can also partake in the flan with no digestive payback later in the day.

The Brass Tax

La Suerte nails the rare hat trick of fast, friendly service, bold flavors, and a menu that actually lives up to its hype. You can brunch until you burst, grab a sandwich and fries (truffle, garlic, or curry, if you please), go tapas-crazy, or go on a sushi taco bender.

Patio seating, strong drinks, and actual parking mean it’s a real unicorn for the middle Highlands.

Joe DeSensi

MAY 9-22, 2025 LEO WEEKLY | 23

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

MEET THE ARTIST BEHIND LOUISVILLE’S MOST MIND-BLOWING PROJECTION ART

If you have seen the 3D animated backdrops for the ACT Louisville performance of “The Wizard of Oz” at the Iroquois Amphitheater, or The Womb of Creation installation in the exhibition “The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall” at the Frazier History Museum, or light shows during After Hours at the Speed Art Museum, you have seen the work of Mimic Visuals. Founded by David Jester, Mimic Visuals uses projection mapping to project digital images and animations — not only onto screens on stages across Louisville but also onto surfaces like buildings and bridges.

While still a student in the music technology program at Bellarmine University, Jester started making electronic dance music for raves. He soon became interested in video projection and other visual features of the rave experience.

“I’ve always liked that aspect of raves, and I got into it,” Jester said in an exclusive interview with LEO. “That was around 2012, and I did that on and off exclusively at dance events until about five years ago, when I started getting into the festival circuit.”

Mimic Visuals has since created visuals for festivals including the Big Stomp and Bourbon and Beyond in Louisville, as well as for performances at Ultra Miami.

Jester uses a combination of Unreal Engine, a 3D computer graphics game engine; TouchDesigner, a node-based visual programming language for interactive multimedia content; and Resolume Arena software for live video mixing and projection mapping. “Some of my pieces are interactive, and some are data-driven,” he said.

His curated suite of software allows him to design a kaleidoscopic array of visuals. At the Iroquois Amphitheater, Jester created scenery for “The Wizard of Oz” from scratch.

At the Frazier History Museum, Jester programmed interactive water ripples and projection mapped them on the floor and around the central tree, functioning seamlessly with the work of Stivan Widick of dreaMachine transmissions, who created marine animal animations and reactivity with assistance from Chris Fischer of Think Brothers.

For the house music DJ Whistleface, Mimic Visuals created a sound-reactive animation that moves with the beat.

At private parties and in public spaces, Mimic Visuals comes to life with a Panasonic high-lumen projector. Jester uses two lenses, depending on the project: a short-throw

24 | LEO WEEKLY MAY 9-22, 2025

The multimedia artist combines light, motion and music in unexpected ways.

BY ARIA BACI

lens — from which the curve of the lens allows light to be spread quickly to cover a larger image area across a shorter distance — and a long-throw lens for long-distance projections. “It’s not a consumer projector,” Jester said. “It’s professional grade, what they would call a large venue projector or a festival projector.”

Mimic Visuals has been commissioned by and collaborated with a broad spectrum of arts organizations, entertainment platforms, and independent creators. During the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Mimic Visuals (with friends proJECT Truth) projected messages of solidarity all over Louisville .

Later that year, Mimic Visuals contributed to the production of “A Change Is Gonna Come” with vocalist Chase Dean, instrumentalist Ben Sollee, and former City Councillor Jecorey Arthur, among others. The performance was recorded and mixed at La La Land

for Kentucky Performing Arts. The video was filmed by Stivan Widick of Reference Frame and edited by Widick and Mimic Visuals and ultimately broadcast at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 2023, Mimic Visuals developed the interactive art installation “Love Is A Current,” commissioned by the interfaith event The Festival of Faiths. In 2025, the outdoor SPARK sculpture, commissioned by Louisville Visual Art and created by Seattlebased artists Haddad | Drugan, was illuminated by Mimic Visuals. And most recently, a guerrilla marketing campaign for ÅNGEL 004 projected images of the musical artist onto walls around the city.

Jester’s inspirations are as varied as his disciplines. “One of my inspirations for the protest projection is The Illuminator,” he said. The Illuminator is a New York-based art-activist collective that stages projection

interventions in public spaces that transform urban environments into sites of engagement and dialogue.

One of Jester’s digital art inspirations is Refik Anadol. A pioneer in the aesthetics of data and machine intelligence, Anadol creates large-scale sculptures that use data to drive the parameters of video projections.

“So if there’s a bunch of people in the space and it’s reading the people, it takes the value higher,” Jester said. “So maybe it makes it more chaotic or less chaotic.”

Jester also finds inspiration in the work of the motion design and film production studio IMMANENT, a multidisciplinary team that creates onstage visuals for touring artists, as well as in the psychedelic colors and textures of Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Jen Stark.

Jester’s future plans for Mimic Visuals content are to feature varied themes in a

unified visual style. “The reason that you haven’t seen more of my stuff around town is because there’s no gallery that has digital capabilities,” Jester said. In the past, for Mimic Visuals to install a projection, Jester would have to leave his equipment and tools in the space, limiting the work he could create elsewhere for the duration of the exhibit. MaybeItsFate (1425 Story Ave.), a gallery in Butchertown founded by Rebecca Norton and Charley Miller, is about to change that. “Rebecca has been the one to step up and really ask me what I needed and then make it happen. So I feel very grateful to her.”

Mimic Visuals will contribute to the opening reception of “Black Swan Unfolding, Hollow Pressure” and “Absurd Entanglements” at MaybeItsFate on Thursday, May 1. The title of the piece is “False Spring,” for which Jester has created a

surreal 3D animation of flowers. “We have had a lot of false spring here in Louisville, and we’ve had a false spring in society. I feel like we had this chance to reset after COVID and do the right thing, and … it’s like we’re moving in the right direction — just kidding!

We’re getting fucked.”

Jester will begin on a screen inside the gallery and then projection map the exterior of the building, beginning at sunset. “I’m just going to do a lot of flowers since it’s spring and just keep it really pretty and lighthearted.

I just want it to be pretty. It doesn’t need to be anything serious,” he said. “I’m just trying to be weird as fuck.”

David Jester Mimic Visuals; Black Lives Matter Mimic Visuals; Glitch

JERRY

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LEGEND MACHO

Courtesy photos

MONTH XX-XX, 2024 LEO WEEKLY | 2 MAY 9-22, 2025 LEO WEEKLY | 25

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ETC.

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY Week of May 9 ROB BREZSNY ARIES (March 21-April 19): Just for now, you

might benefit from moderating your intensity.

I am pleased to see how much good stuff you have generated lately, but it may be time to scale back a bit. At least consider the possibility of pursuing modest, sustainable production rather than daring to indulge in spectacular bursts of energy. In conclusion, dear Aries, the coming days will be a favorable time for finding the sweet spot between driving ambition and practical self-care. Your natural radiance won’t have to burn at maximum brightness to be effective.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Classical ballet dancers often seek to convey the illusion of weightlessness through highly stylized movements. Innovative Taurus choreographer Martha Graham had a different aim, emphasizing groundedness. Emotional depth and rooted physicality were crucial to her art of movement. “The body never lies” is a motto attributed to her, along with “Don’t be nice, be real.” I recommend you make those themes your guides for now, Taurus. Ask your body to reveal truths unavailable to your rational mind. Value raw honesty and unembellished authenticity over mere decorum.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini photog-

rapher Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971) was a trailblazer. She was the first American woman war photojournalist, the first professional photographer permitted into the Soviet Union, and among the first to photograph a Nazi concentration camp. She was consistently at the right place at the right time to record key historical moments. She’s your role model in the coming months. You, too, will have a knack for being in the right place and time to experience weighty turning points. Be vigilant for such opportunities. Be alert and ready to gracefully pounce.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Each nega-

Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com freewillastrology@freewillastrology.com BrezsnyAstrology@gmail.com

tive word in a news headline increases clickthrough rates,” writes Joan Westenberg.

“Negative political posts on social media get twice the engagement. The system rewards pessimism.” She wants to be clear: “Doomsayers aren’t necessarily wrong. Many concerns are valid. But they’ve built an attention economy that profits from perpetual panic. It’s a challenge to distinguish between actionable information and algorithmic amplification, genuine concern and manufactured outrage.” Westenberg’s excellent points are true for all of us. But it’s especially important that you Cancerians take measures to protect yourself now. For the sake of your mental and physical health, you need extra high doses of

optimism, hope, and compassion. Seek out tales of triumph, liberation, pleasure, and ingenuity far more than tales of affliction, mayhem, and corruption.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Bees are smart. The robust and lightweight honeycombs they create for their homes are designed with high efficiency, maximizing storage space while using the least amount of resources. Let’s make the bees’ genius your inspirational role model for the coming weeks, Leo. It will be a favorable time to optimize your own routines and systems. Where can you reduce unnecessary effort and create more efficiency? Whether it’s refining your schedule, streamlining a project, or organizing your workspace, small adjustments will yield pleasing rewards.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 1971, Virgo poet Kay Ryan began teaching English at a small community college. Though she wrote steadily, working hard to improve her craft and publish books, she never promoted herself. For years, she was virtually unknown. Finally, in 2008, she flamed into prominence. In quick succession, she served as the US Poet Laureate, won a Pulitzer Prize, and received a $500,000 “genius grant” as a MacArthur Fellow. Why am I telling you about her long toil before getting her rightful honors? Because I believe that if you are ever going to receive the acclaim, recognition, appreciation, and full respect you deserve, it will happen in the coming months.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author Diane

Ackerman combines an elegant poetic sensibility and a deft skill at scientific observation. She is lyrical and precise, imaginative and logical, inventive and factual. I would love for you to be inspired by her example in the coming weeks.

Your greatest success and pleasure will arise as you blend creativity with pragmatism. You will make good decisions as you focus on both the big picture and the intimate details. PS: If you immerse yourself in the natural world and seek out sensory-rich experiences, I bet you will inspire a smart solution to an achy dilemma.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio-born Sabina Spielrein (1885–1942) was one of the earliest woman psychoanalysts. In the 21st century, she is increasingly recognized as a great thinker who got marginalized because of her feminist approach to psychology. Several of her big contributions were Scorpionic to the core: She observed how breakdown can lead to breakthrough, how most transformations require the death of an old form, and how dissolution often serves creation. These will be useful themes for you to ruminate about

in the coming weeks. For best results, be your deep, true, Scorpio self.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In the

middle of his art career, Sagittarian painter Paul Klee (1879–1940) was drafted into the German army as a soldier in World War I. Rather than fighting on the front lines, he managed to get a job painting camouflage on military airplanes. This enabled him to conduct artistic explorations and experiments. The metal hulls became his canvases.

I am predicting a comparable opportunity disguised as an obstacle for you, Sagittarius.

Just as the apparent constraint on Klee actually advanced his artistic development, you will discover luck in unexpected places.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “To live is

so startling it leaves little time for anything else,” wrote poet Emily Dickinson. I often feel that truth. As much as I would love to devote 70+ hours a week to creative writing and making music, I am continually diverted by the endless surprises of the daily rhythm. One of these weeks, maybe I’ll be brave enough to simply give myself unconditionally to ordinary life’s startling flow and forget about trying to accomplish anything great. If you have ever felt a similar pull, Capricorn, the coming days will be prime time to indulge. There will be no karmic cost incurred.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): David

Bowie was a brilliant musical composer and performer. His artistry extended to how he crafted his persona. He was constantly revising and reshaping his identity, his appearance, and his style. The Ziggy Stardust character he portrayed on stage, for example, had little in common with his later phase as the Thin White Duke. “I’ve always collected personalities,” he quipped. If you have ever felt an inclination to experiment with your image and identity, Aquarius, the coming weeks will be an excellent time. Shape-shifting could be fun and productive. Transforming your outer style may generate interesting inner growth. What would be interesting ways to play with your self-expression?

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The Voynich manuscript is a famous text written in an unfamiliar script filled with bizarre illustrations. Carbon-dated to the early 15th century, it has resisted all attempts at deciphering its content. Even Artificial Intelligence has not penetrated its meaning. I propose we make this enigmatic document an iconic metaphor for your life in the coming weeks. It will symbolize the power you can generate by celebrating and honoring mystery. It will affirm the fact that you don’t necessarily require logical explanations, but can instead appreciate the beauty of the unknown. Your natural comfort with ambiguity will be a potent asset, enabling you to work effectively with situations others find too uncertain.

Homework: What’s your worst excuse for not being completely devoted to your dreams?

MAY 9-22, 2025 LEO WEEKLY | 27

28 | LEO WEEKLY MAY 9-22, 2025

SAVAGE LOVE

QUICKIES

BY DAN SAVAGE Hey Dan:I’m a heterosexual woman married to a heterosexual man, and we’ve been together fourteen years. We have two kids. We met in our late 20s, we’re now in our early 40s, and needless to say we are WILDLY different people — from who we used to be, and from each other, frankly. After having two kids, I only just got my libido back at the age of 41. But my husband and I have also been going through marriage therapy and working on a number of issues. My point is, I really want to open a discussion with him about being non-monogamous but I’m terrified and nervous about how to bring this up with him. I need some help!

Just say it — but say it in the presence of (and with the assistance of) a sex-positive couples’ counselor. Figuring out how to tell you’re ready start fucking again… just not him or not just him (which he’s likely to hear as “just not you”)… is going to be tricky and you’re gonna need a professional assist.

Hey Dan: My partner and I were traveling in Thailand. She got a vaginal discharge and asked me if I had slept with anyone else since I last saw her. I lied out of fear she would break up with me and said, “No.” I’ve now lost her. I apologized, sent flowers, and offered to go to counseling with her and she is giving me the silent treatment. Is there anything I can do to retrieve the relationship?

Nope.

Hey Dan: I’m a queer woman in her senior year of college, who’s still a virgin. On one hand, I know people are ready for sex at different times, and I didn’t come out of the closet until college, so I feel like I should be more patient with myself. On the other hand, I want to get it over with. But I don’t even know how to go about hooking up with someone.

I have a hard time talking to people. I’m insecure about my body, I worry I’ll say or do something stupid, and I worry I’ll fuck up any relationship I enter. What do I do?

Everyone is insecure about something related to their bodies, everyone worries about saying or doing something stupid, and everyone worries that they’re going to fuck up their relationship.

The only thing that separates you from people who aren’t still virgins is a willingness to take “yes” for an answer when people find you attractive. Also helpful: accept that you’re going to do and/or say something stupid — more than once.

In most cases, the person you’re seeing will laugh it off the stupid things you say and do, just as you’ll laugh it off when the person you’re seeing says or does something stupid. Now, saying or doing something seriously stupid will definitely fuck up your relationship, of course, but not all fuck ups are fatal. Get on the apps (breaking

the ice over DM is easier than face-to-face), be honest about your inexperience, and don’t settle for someone who isn’t giving off generous, patient, and kind vibes.

Hey Dan:. I love having my tits groped but how do I communicate this to guys I hook up with in a way that is sexy? I feel so much shame around communicating my inner slutty desires.

If you can’t bring yourself to use your words — if you can’t bring yourself to ask for what you want — take the hands of the guy you’re hooking up with and place them on your breasts. Put your own hands over his hands and show him exactly how you how much pressure you enjoy — show him how you like to be groped — by applying that same pressure to your breasts using his hands.

Hey Dan: Is there a way to tell a partner what you want in the moment while keeping it sexy?

If it’s something that’s easily incorporated into the action — you want your partner to call you something specific or you your partner to hold you down or spit in your mouth — confidentially asking your partner to do that thing is sexy. (“Spit in my mouth, please.”) If it’s something that can’t easily be incorporated into the action — you want your partner to tie you up in an elaborate way or fuck you in front of a room full of strangers or experiment with fisting you — initiate a little dirty talk with your partner about this hot-but-complicated thing you wanna do with them at some point down the road.

Hey Dan: Middle aged trans woman from Denmark here. So, when will you be talking about the show Dying for Sex? I have been ugly crying my way through all eight episodes and it’s still working its way around my subconscious. It’s a show about reclaiming sexuality, working through sexual trauma, sexual incompatibility (and compatibility), how to talk about boundaries and desires, D/s dynamics and, well, facing death. I cannot recommend this show highly enough, and I have been looking forward to hearing you talk about it since it came out.

There’s nothing stopping you, a cis woman, from having a dick whenever you want one. And the existence of so many trans men (who are men) who love their pussies indicates that transition, for many trans men, wasn’t motivated solely by fantasies about having male genitalia. And while trans men are relatively rare, cis women who fantasize about having a dick — cis women who are curious about what it feels like to have one (which you can, again, whenever you want) — are fairly common. So, unless there are other things about being a man feels right in a way that encompasses and transcends dick at the same time, odds are good you’re experiencing something that affirms your cisness, not something that points to transness.

Hey Dan: Which is worse: bad sex with someone you love, or great sex with someone you can’t stand?

Bad sex with someone you love is worse… because if you love someone and the sex is bad that either means the relationship isn’t going anywhere (because you’re not gonna settle for bad sex) or it means you’re gonna be having bad sex for the rest of your life (because you already settled for bad sex). If you had great sex with someone you can’t stand, on the other hand, you can walk away without feeling regret… and circle back whenever you’re feeling weak.

Hey Dan: How long do you wait at the end of a BJ before removing the D from your mouth?

If you’re giving a BJ, you’re free to remove the D from your mouth whenever you’re done — and you may finish before he does. But if someone is fucking your face — with your enthusiastic consent — then guy who’s fucking your face removes the D when he’s done with your face/ throat and not a moment before… unless something goes wrong and/or you’re not feeling it anymore and you withdraw your consent, the D should be immediately removed.

Hey Dan: Should bathroom hookups become normalized outside of bar/club settings?

Be the greener pasture.

P.S. You’re allowed to say, “leave,” of course, and that may the message he needs to hear — but you may not be the best messenger. Also, have you seen your partner’s wife treat him like shit with your own eyes or do you only have his word to go on?

Part of the thrill of hooking up someplace you’re not supposed to — like a toilet at a bar or a club (no one is taking baths at bars and clubs) — is that you’re not supposed to be hooking up there.

And while normalizing toilet hook ups bars and clubs and airports and locker rooms and hotel lobbies and university libraries might lead to a spike in people hooking up in the toilets of bars and clubs and airports, etc., normalizing toilet hook ups would effectively eliminate a big part of what makes those hook ups a thrill in the first place, and people would quickly tire of them.

So, if you wanna keep toilet hook ups hot, you should fight against their normalization, not for their normalization — tell your friends people who hook up toilets are disgusting, complain to the bartender about people hooking up the toilet right after you’re finished hooking up in the toilet, etc.

Hey Dan: I’m a cis woman in her forties who fantasies about having a dick. Does that mean I’m trans?

Hey Dan: Is there a term that encompasses all the types of non-monogamy in the same way “queer” encompass everything that’s not straight?

Love this show — Jenny Slate or Michelle Williams are both brilliant. Four stars.

Hey Dan: So, Kanye West and his cousin — thoughts?

Hate this show.

Hey Dan: My partner’s wife treats him like shit.

How can I support him without just saying “leave”?

“Non-monogamy” is kind of unsatisfying, both because it sounds negative and is only defining what it is not. You’re good with terms. Got one for me?

I like “multiamory,” which isn’t a term I coined.

Credit goes to Emily Matlack, Dedeker Winston, and Jase Lindgren, the hosts of the Multiamory podcast.

Hey Dan:. Should you tell your partner if their dirty talk is actively turning you off?

You could attempt to steer the dirty talk in a direction that works for you — to spare your partner’s feelings, reward their efforts, and satisfy their desire for some sort of dirty talk — but if they don’t take the hint, tell them whatever they’re saying isn’t working before your go soft or dry up.

Hey Dan:. Can someone discover a cuck kink from being cheated on or was that there already?

Once the anger subsides — once the betrayal has been processed — cheating could reveal a kink that was already lurking in the erotic subconscious of the person who was cheated on. But while, “I was cheated on and then realized I was a cuck,” is a popular cuck origin story in porn, it’s pretty rare in real life. Most cucks have to beg their partners to cheat on them.

Hey Dan: If a guy says he’s into bondage and owns a ton of bondage gear and you show up at his place and he says that he prefers vanilla the first time and if the vanilla is good, he’ll get his bondage gear out next time… he doesn’t really own any bondage gear, does he?

He does not.

Hey Dan: I heard about cuckolding (probably on your show) in high school and the second I got to college I started reaching out to couples who were looking for Bulls and I loved it maybe a little too much. I’ve only had one “real” girlfriend my age in the last six years. The rest of my sexual experiences have been with married women, most of whom (but not all) have been older. I now have three married women I see and service regularly, women I actually really like. (I even enjoy their husbands’ company.)

I don’t want to give this up. Have I ruined myself for real relationships?

No, you’ve perfected yourself for an open-fromthe-start relationship with a woman — perhaps a cuckquean — who wants you to have adventures of her own while you enjoy yours. And those married women you see and service regularly?

Those women you like? And their husbands?

Those are real relationships — they’re not primary relationships, they’re not nesting relationships, but they’re very real.

Read the full column at LeoWeekly.com Got problems? Yes, you do! Email your question for the column to mailbox@savage.love!

Or record your question for the Savage Lovecast at savage.love/askdan! Podcasts, columns, and more at Savage.Love.

MAY 9-22, 2025 LEO WEEKLY | 29

30 | LEO WEEKLY MAY 9-22, 2025

NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE CROSSWORD PUZZLE

NUMBERS GAME

23 Sheep’s peep

BY JACOB REED

31 Jazz singer Carmen

Jacob Reed is a director, writer and visual artist in Pasadena, Calif. He has directed numerous videos for ‘‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!,’’ Funny or Die and BuzzFeed. His thoughtprovoking short documentary, ‘‘Full Picture,’’ appeared in more than a dozen film festivals around the country. This is his first Sunday crossword for The Times.

— W.S. 1

‘‘Don’t mention it’’

9

Like a lover’s lips, perhaps

17 Sudden dose of reality, in slang 19 Emphatic words of denial 20 22

24 How detectives might act 26 Ones providing help around the House

27 Poli ____ 30 Attack, as a castle 33 Food-centric broadcasts originating in South Korea

38 Computing company whose logo has remained largely the same since it was introduced by Paul Rand in 1962

39 Advance 40 Tough spot for a teen?

43

55 Renaissance locale of the early 20th

91 Like the weather around a

57

93 Baseball features

60 Longtime Japanese camera brand

95 ‘‘By the way . . . ’’

61 Either of the two statues in front of

96 ____ Moriarty, novelist who

62 Root word?

98 Tolkien character who dies as

century

the New York Public Library

56 Naysayer 58 Film excerpt 59 Bumpy jumpers 60 City where tourists take photos pretend63 Name shouted in ‘‘A Streetcar Named

108 Device used to read the eight

64 Boiling

73 Sleazeball 74 Shipshape 75 They’re rising over time 76 Humorist Bombeck

on this puzzle’s 108-Across

visual clues in this puzzle

111 Some large structures for pet owners

77 When tripled, ‘‘You know what I’m

112 Head honcho

78 ____ Tour (record-breaking music

114 Goes to the mat?

sayin’ . . . ’’

80 Shepherd’s staff 81

54 Style of writing?

55 Word with Kitchen or Angels

105 How to read the ‘‘words’’ written

48 Holder of valuable contributions,

52 Rapper Kid ____

54 Lunacy

67

47 Broke bread

51 One of Chekhov’s ‘‘Three Sisters’’

53 ‘‘Yikes!’’

100 Some opinion pieces

79 Suffix with proverb

50 Alan of ‘‘Marriage Story’’

‘‘the Grey’’ and returns as ‘‘the White’’

52 One of the Marx Brothers

64 Lucky lottery winner’s cry

44

49 One of three on the Mayflower

wrote ‘‘Big Little Lies’’

63 Riverbank material

event of 2023-24)

in brief

lighthouse, maybe

113 Gave a thumbs up

Down

ing to hold up its famous landmark Desire’’

65 Periods of abstinence from TV, news, social platforms, etc.

66 Honest-to-goodness 67 Possible polling problem 68 Morales on the screen 69 Evita in ‘‘Evita’’ 70 Pitchfork feature 71 Chew the scenery

1

Government org. that investigates accidents

84

2

Spoken

73 Anatomical sac

87 It’s in the bag!

3

What a whistler whistles

74 Gait faster than a walk

88 Heart

4

‘‘____ girl!’’

78 Website with a ‘‘Personalized and Cus-

5

‘‘Nevertheless . . . ’’

6

Jimmy Kimmel’s network

7

[2 funny!]

8

[way 2 funny!!!!]

9

Down for the count, in brief

89 ____ Tour (annual sporting series) 90 Like some marriages, seating and musical compositions

10 Italian diminutive suffix

72 Tended to a Zen garden, in a way

tom Jewelry’’ page

79 Line in old Apple ads 80 Some kindergarten art supplies 82 Goaded 83 Comedian Notaro 84 ‘‘Yikes!’’

11 Word whose letters are aptly

85 Junior and senior: Abbr.

12 Bear’s counterpart on Wall

89 Half of a noted magic duo

found from left to right in ‘‘scion’’

Street, once

13 Courtyards 14 Tough customer for a wedding planner

86 Garment for one who’s wearing a wire?

92 In reserve for now 93 Old sayings 94 Adirondack chair part

15 Debussy’s ‘‘Clair de ____’’

96 Coming-of-age Pixar film of 2021

16 Brain tests, for short

97 Beers that might punnily have ‘‘hop’’ in

18 Rolls 19 Bogus 21 Cannabis variety contrasted with indica

22 Bush Senior and Carter each had one

25 Headquarter?

28 ‘‘The Source’’ channel 29 Swiatek of women’s tennis 31 ____ point 32 Six-pack component 33 PC platform of the 1980s 34 Of service

their names, for short

98 ‘‘Splendid!’’

99 Steady stream 101 What a hot dog might do 102 List-ending abbr.

103 Cry after putting one’s pencil down 104 Married mujeres: Abbr.

106 Sinus specialist, for short 107 POTUS 34 109 Subj. of a class with dummies in it 110 Purple yam in Philippine cuisine

Answers

35 Hundred Acre Wood resident 36 One way to ‘‘play it’’ 37 Reached a base horizontally 39 Show that, uh, didn’t win 43 of its 54 Emmy nominations

41 Page that points to other pages 42 Crew 44 Floral subject for van Gogh, Monet or O’Keeffe

45 Oodles of 46 Adult male deer 49 Gourmet mushroom type

MAY 9-22, 2025 LEO WEEKLY | 31