The Front Blog

Happy Memorial Day.

KY~ Horses were running wild yesterday on I-24. JPEC blames equipment for power outage @ Kentucky Oaks Mall. A McCracken County judge impels the state’s crime lab backlog. A barge hit the US-68 bridge over Lake Barkley. Cadiz expects to benefit from alcohol taxes.  3% natural gas price hikes are coming. Rand’s comments push senators to adopt a new discrimination resolution and WE HAVE A BUDGET!!!

SPORTS~ MSU finishes 3rd in the OVC tourney.

Look Mom! I can dress myself!

KY~ Today’s the last day to buy a Murray city sticker on the low and the city council passed a first reading of its budget. A freak storm yesterday takes out a marina on Kentucky Lake. Fish all you want (license or not) June 5-6. Lawmakers could slap the rest of the budget together today.

TN~ Clarksville is close to a deal on its old hospital site. Senate proposal targets jailed illegal immigrants. You can get yer guns and go drinkin’. US Senators vote today on Tennessee flood aid amount$.

SPORTS~ MSU loses OVC baseball tourney opener to EKU, but hangs in there by beating SEMO (yesterday); and will again face EKU (today).

A good band on NPR.ORG @ 11am.

KY~ Paducah clears all liens on its Executive Inn and avoids a lawsuit. Paducah High developers get a bargain. Hopkinsville’s 911 will be doing some deficit spending. OMG!!! A state budget might break through. Rand gets help from daddy’s former aid. Republican Bill Johnson eyes Beshear’s job.

TN~ Reserve your 2012 job @ Hemlock Semiconductor now. FEMA approves disaster fund$ for Henry County. Bredesen vetoes guns in bars bill but expects an override. Just when you thought it slowed to a stop, the Super Speeder Bill revs foward (again).

SPORTS~ MSU @ the 2010 OVC baseball tourney today.

Death toll accelerates to 89.

KY~ A man drowned in a boating accident beneath Barkley Dam. An Indiana couple is indicted in the drunken drowning death of their underage niece.  Paducah is applying for a bunch of public safety grants and is looking for a new mobile bathroom-maker. Chances look grim for a new Paducah Middle School in the next budget. Livingston County bridge work is nearing completion. Coffee vs. Tea (parties) coming to Louisville. Lexington’s World Equestrian Games are now just 4 months away.

TN~ Montgomery County’s proposed budget offers the same ‘ole. No super tickets for super speeding coming this super legislative session. The next budget may draw another big chunk from the state reserves.

IL~ House votes to borrow billion$ to cover pensions.

The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger

Buy this book on Amazon.
(Your purchase supports WKMS!)

Product Description:
Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with “cynical adolescent.” Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he’s been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. Ever since it was first published in 1951, this novel has been the coming-of-age story against which all others are judged. Read and cherished by generations, the story of Holden Caulfield is truly one of America’s literary treasures.

Chris Taylor says:
“J.D. Salinger’s 1951 novel is a quick read and an unforgettable classic. The young protagonist’s mile-a-minute account writhes with confusion, angst and budding sexuality in a way that just makes for real swell prose! If you missed this classic, you ought to pick it up.”

Check out our Good Reads page for more recommended books.

The Glitch Mob’s new album “Drink the Sea” was officially released today (on iTunes, etc.) though they put the whole thing on their web site to listen to beforehand. It’s a two-sided experience, “Drink the Sea.” Depending on your outlook, this album will either drain your soul like a ruthless vampire and then toss you out into a desert wasteland to burn in the sun, or it will make you feel like you are on the winning end of an epic space battle full of laser beams, explosions and of course giant robots.

“Drink the Sea” is in short: brooding, calculating, experimental electronica. It’s one of those albums that needs to be listened to in its entirety to fully appreciate its scope. It’s about as far away from the Top 40 as you can imagine – so if that’s what you’re into go get the new Justin Bieber CD and you’ll do alright.

Click below to read my breakdown of the songs and album highlights.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rush ‘Army of One‘ Limbaugh.

KY~ Some guy robbed a Paducah payday loan shop. Picky board members have delayed renovating Paducah Tilghman High for two months. Hopkins County’s budget may be getting a bump from grant$. Beshear warns about ‘radical’ Rand. Beshear/Stumbo doubt there’s time to look @ charter schools. U of L researchers OK immunizations for < 1-year-olds. Ag-head Farmer: affected should apply for flood relief.

TN~ Someone vandalized a soldier statue in Martin (again). Lawmakers want to pat Arizona on the back.

I had the chance to catch up with Nathan Lynn  yesterday at his show at The Breakers on Kentucky Lake. Nathan told me he was headed to Nashville this week to begin recording his third album which hopefully will be ready by years end or soon thereafter. It was a great show with Kentucky Lake as the backdrop in this great venue for music. The lineup included Nathan on guitar and fronting the show, Cody Campbell on bass, Casey Campbell on banjo, Clayton Campbell on fiddle and Josh Coffey on mandolin.

Also was able to sit and speak with Josh Coffey of Bawn in the Mash for a few minutes. He shared that the new “Mash” album may be a bit more “rootsy” than Confluence was. This will be the fourth album for Bawn in the Mash.

Look for more information on both of these local acts in the coming months. You can catch both playing this weekend at the LBL Picking Party and the 1890′s Homeplace in Land Between the Lakes. Music starts at 10:00 AM Saturday and 11:00 AM Sunday. Bring your lawn chairs AND your bug spray. You can find more information on the Picking Party at LBL.org.

After the Picking Party both acts have shows Saturday night May 29th in western Kentucky. Nathan Blake Lynn will be playing at Doe’s Eat Place at 8:00 PM. Bawn in the Mash will play at The Big Apple Cafe at 9:00 PM in Murray, KY.

~ John McMillen

Yes, I know, I’m a Shakespeare professor, so shouldn’t I only use my blog to sing the praises of Hamlet or Henry V in perfectly structured iambic pentameter?

Soon, perhaps, but not today.

Besides studying the works of the Bard of Avon (and yes, Virginia, for you Shakespeare doubters, there WAS a Shakespeare and he did write the plays and poems we have today…more on that in another blog), I’ve spent much of my academic career thinking and writing about satire. Specifically, I’m interested in how social forces interact with forms of social criticism. And although I’ve explored this interaction in the Roman and Elizabethan eras, lately, I’ve been fascinated with the current battles over depictions of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad.

(Read more after the jump)
Read the rest of this entry »

Over the hill and still truckin’!

KY~ A shooting in Hopkinsville over the weekend claims 1 woman; injures 2. Calloway County swipes Livingston Schools’ superintendent; so they plan to shop for a new one. McCracken County’s proposed budget includes employee raises. Livingston County’s $4mil super public office building breaks ground. Republicans UNITE! The ($64k-a-day) special session begins.

TN~ Lawmakers hope to scrape a budget together this week.

OVC BASEBALL~ MSU < TTU, APSU > UTM.