In this week’s LEO, I wrote a news piece about the Mint Jubilee, the Derby Eve party. Originally, I had intended to write simply about the fact that University of Louisville organizers had chosen to exclude from the financial beneficiaries of the event the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, and that as a result, only […]

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We’re Next: Last night’s Presidential Primary results in North Carolina and Indiana didn’t settle anything, so Kentucky gets a turn as a battleground state in the national race. Clinton’s margin in Indiana was razor-thin, while Obama blew her away in North Carolina. And despite the recent endorsement of Ben Chandler and enthusiastic crowds at office […]

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I chose to sit out most of the Derby festivities this year, but here are a few thoughts going through my mind Saturday afternoon, watching the race from the Iroquois Golf Course clubhouse.

Next year, we’ll get credentials, and we’ll be there for much of the action. It’s one thing to make a decision to try […]

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The popular pick among media members to win the Derby is Colonel John — so why wouldn’t we pick the Colonel here at the ‘Ville Voice. It ought to be popular with the public as well, given the popularity of the name “John” and the miliartistic edge offered by the “Colonel.” It’s just about Noon, […]

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From about Wednesday on, the only question worth asking among friends in Louisville is this one: What are you doing for Derby?
I thought it would be an interesting query for our local officials, so I did a little survey, asking members of the Metro Council which party they’re going to Friday night and how they’re […]

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The race issue is becoming a part of the Derby tradition.
Oh, sure, we’ve become accustomed to the full-on media blanket on West Broadway and the topic of cruising. But with all the out-of-town guests and national attention on the city, it seems to have become a lightning rod for racially-charged journalism.
Exhibit A being yesterday’s announcement […]

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The whole town’s on happy pills. The weather’s finally cooperating, the news is dominated by stuff about horses and parties and everybody involved in advertising in any way will be at the track today for the Advertising Federation’s Day at the Downs.
(Thanks to our friends at the CW, so will The ‘Ville Voice!)

Even Steve Beshear […]

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Run, John, Run: I watched a few minutes of the Mini-Marathon coverage on local stations Saturday morning, and the clear leader on that score was WLKY-TV. It was the only one with a reporter actually running in the race. We’ve written here that John Boel is the hardest-working anchor in the city. That claim might […]

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This week Rick went outside for our regular appearance on the CW’s Louisville Live.
Take a peek:
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I’m tempted to give the good folks at Velocity some grief for blatantly ripping off an idea from Esquire magazine in this week’s issue, but the 15 “How It Feels” pieces make for a great feature.
From a police officer, to a Churchill Downs neighbor, to a winning jockey, the series of pieces is an un-original […]

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Attention: Possibility City campaign managers. Billy Reed has come up with a new color scheme for Louisville, and it’s nothing close to all those fancy yellows and greens. It’s all about Brown, and with Big Brown coming to the Derby, he’s pulled out all the brown references in the book, except for maybe Browning Nagle. […]

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So let’s see how many local TV stations and newspapers fall for this Churchill Downs gimmick — some dude named Stymie is the track’s Chief Party Officer, based on his 15 years of Infield partying experience and the ability to piece together a video and drunken photos of himself. Don’t forget now, Stymie is […]

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I’ve already gotten three “special” Derby issues of local magazines, and there’s sure to be more. There is, no doubt, some economic advantage to producing a special Derby issue, as advertisers do seem to love the idea of a print ad splashed in a legitimate publication devoted to the big event.

But as for the editorial […]

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Rolling Thunder Truck: Even as I write this, a production truck used in last night’s NCAA Championship game broadcast is somewhere between San Antonio and Louisville, where it will serve as broadcast central for Fox41’s local broadcast of Thunder activities on Saturday. The folks at the station says it’s a pretty big deal — the […]

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Shrinkage: I usually read everything in LEO online, so I didn’t realize until I went out to dinner last night that there was something remarkably different about the alt-weekly. Then I read Cary Stemle’s explanation (OK, I had Jeanine read it to me) that economics dictated that the newspaper now looks more like a nice […]

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The artist is Rick Garcia of Santa Fe, N.M.

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This morning at the Kentucky Derby Festival’s Third Street offices, WDRB-TV G.M. Bill Lamb got first choice in the “pill-pull” to determine which station gets first crack at being the official broadcaster of Thunder over Louisville. WDRB-TV will air this year’s event on April 12.
WHAS-TV got the rights for 2009, with WAVE-TV getting 2010 and […]

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On Friday, the GM’s from the four primary local TV stations will announce “some exciting news” concerning the 2008 Thunder over Louisville.
In 2005, the stations avoided a fight over broadcast rights to the event by agreeing to a rotation of the broadcast. WAVE-TV had the show in 2005, WLKY-TV in 2006 and WDRB-TV in 2007, […]

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According to the Blood-Horse, this logo is the result of feedback from focus groups and customers. You’re going to see it on everything from t-shirts to Derby glasses between now and May 3. It’s nothing special, but then how many different designs can there be featuring a horse and the twin spires?

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