Michael and I went to the beautiful Lake Barkley Lodge last night for the Lake Barkley State Resort Park Presents Comedy Dinner Theater featuring Marty Pollio. The food was delicious and the laughs were constant.
Marty Pollio is a tremendously talented Louisville comedian. You can read more about him in my previous post and learn even more by visiting his website. In fact, I insist that you visit Marty Pollio’s website. Not only is he a total riot – he apparently shares one of my own great passions: cooking! He has tons of delicious-sounding recipes on his website. I’ve actually been saving a lot of them this morning to print out and try. Italian food… come on, it doesn’t get any better.
I am so grateful to the Lake Barkley State Resort Park for putting together this Dinner and a Show evening. What a brainstorm! I’d love to see more of Kentucky’s wonderful state parks doing the same. And if they bring in Marty Pollio, I’ll want a ticket to each and every show.
As you know, I’m a huge fan of the Variety! Music, Memories, and More shows in Grand Rivers, Kentucky. On the way home last night, I thought how amazing it would be if they’d bring Marty to the Badgett Playhouse. I nearly laughed out loud at the thought of him interacting with Bill Minihan and Steve Sherling. I’d give up 6 months of Starbucks to see the three of them on stage together. If you know me, you know that’s as good as offering up your first born.
Marty Pollio has “it” – that certain something that a comedian either has or doesn’t have…. they own it or fake it. He’s like a cleaner, Italian, juggling Dane Cook. Let’s see Mr. Cook juggle 4 balls at once!
As luck would have it, my husband was one of the faces in the crowd that Marty interacted with. My husband, who is as big a ham and character as anyone, played along beautifully. As a mother who loves her daughters more than her next breath, I do have to clear something up. When he asked Michael how many children he had and if he was proud of the way they turned out- he shook his head NO! For anyone there, know that he was (of course) playing around.
He also said he wasn’t there for their births – he was there (and green) for all three. Liar.
Anyway, aside from getting my husband into all kinds of trouble, Marty was just spectacular. He had everyone laughing hysterically and his juggling and miming were simply unreal. How does anyone juggle like that? I’d struggle with 1 ball, let alone 4.
If you are reading this article and are looking for a hilarious clean comedian for an event or show – here’s your guy. Just promise me one thing: Let me know when he’ll be there because I’ll be headed that way. I might even let “you know who” come along. And sit in the back.
A few links you’ll love:
How to Juggle and Other Cheap Tricks (Marty’s How To)
Marty Pollio’s Italian Recipes
A few of my favorite actors are Johnny Depp and George Clooney – they would be EVEN if they weren’t born in Kentucky, but I do love that little fact. I got an e-mail a few days ago from a woman who currently lives in Manhattan but was born in Clay County (Manchester) and raised in Butler, Kentucky. Her name is Lisa Ashe and she’s apparently a George Clooney fan as well.
She passed along this video she’d like to share with the readers of Genuine Kentucky and I’m SO glad she did – it’s a lot of fun! I love the bluegrass sound of her voice and music – they’re a great fit. The UK grad has a degree in theatre and wrote the song she sings in the video below. You can learn more about Lisa by visiting her website, http://www.LisaAsher.com.
Thanks Lisa!
Check out the cool old pic of George Clooney I found. My oldest daughter said he looked like Velma on Scooby Doo… and, sadly I must agree. But a very cute Velma, right… right?… Am I right?
Few things are as relaxing and enjoyable as sitting down with a cup of hot coffee and watching Kentucky Life on KET. Below are some of the upcoming programs. Since I currently live in Owensboro, Kentucky and once called Louisville, Kentucky home – the November 21/22 dates totally jumped off the page for me.
All of the programs sound like Must-See TV, though. Be sure you don’t miss a single one!
Oct. 17/18: The Evergreen Hills Maze in Flemingsburg, an “Our Town” visit to Adairville, and Cricket Press of Lexington. Also, “Dave Does It” features Dave working at Dahl & Groezinger Scrap Iron and Metal.
Oct. 24/25: Buffalo Soldiers camp, Magee’s Bakery in Maysville, an “Our Town” visit to Midway, and the Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort.
Oct. 31/Nov. 1: An alien abduction legend from Kelly, Ky., an “Our Town” visit to Hell for Certain, ghost hunter Patti Starr, and the reintroduction of the Bourbon Red Turkey, once America’s most popular turkey.
Nov. 14/Nov. 15: Dog Scout Troop 107, a tasty recipe using locally grown produce, and the Flaget High School Alumni Association.
Nov. 21/Nov. 22: An “Our Town” visit to Greenup, Diana Earle and the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, and Henrietta and Jeff Scott’s Highland Raku Studio. Also, “Dave Does It” features Dave working at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.
A Few Did You Knows About Kentucky Life:
- Dave Shuffett is from Greensburg and graduated from Murray State University in 1982.
- The first five seasons of Kentucky Life were hosted by Byron Crawford. Byron’s grew up in Lincoln County.
- Kentucky Life’s episodes are story driven and profile the lives of Kentuckians from each of our distinct regions.
- Kentucky Life debuted in 1995. By 1996, it had become KET’s most watched local production.
- If you love animals like I do (okay, I admit it, I’m obsessed!), you’ll love Paw Pals – a photo album on KET’s website where you can enjoy the pictures of Kentucky pets and even upload your own. Click HERE to see some of the most beautiful faces you’ll ever see.
Visit Kentucky Life for more information and perhaps to even challenge Dave Shuffett to do your job!
Great food and Bluegrass music? Come on, does it get any better?!
Kings Highway and Men of the Week will be performing in Owensboro on October 24th. Each of these bands is currently playing at the Jerusalem Bluegrass Celebration in Rosine.
Kings highway (pictured above) is a band from Henderson Ky, Men of the week (pictured below) hails from the home of the next World Series champions (from my lips to God’s ears, hopefully!) St. Louis Cardinals, St Louis Missouri. (www.myspace.com/menoftheweek)
Both bands are closely followed in the Kentuckiana area, playing festivals in Evansville, Henderson, Owensboro, Louisville as well as performances in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri , Ky, Georgia ,Florida and Tennessee. Men of the week are currently performing at IBMA music showcase in Nashville, Tennessee.
These bands will start performing at 5pm Saturday Oct 24th outdoors at Reds Fish House in Owensboro, Kentucky.
From an e-mail sent to me by Reds Fish House: This is the second performance Kings Highway has done at Reds Fish House, By request from all our friends that enjoyed the first performance Reds Fish House will have this as an annual event for the Owensboro community
Reds will be serving dinner, our own fried fish meals as well as a louisiann crawfish boil ,during the performances, making this a fun night of entertainment and dinner for the Owensboro community. Admittance for both shows and dinner will be $25.00
This event will be an outdoor event seating is not available so attendees will want to bring their lawn chairs. Space is limited reservations are highly suggested in advance, Reservations can be made thru our comment page on Reds fish house web page, www.redsfishhouse.com
Reds Fish House is located at 7056 Highway 56. For directions, see the website.
My artistic abilities are limited to stick people and even they aren’t what you could call brilliant (Is it a dumbell…no, no, it’s a tree, right?… the state of Rhode Island?..). I guess that’s why I’m completely blown away by illustrators, cartoonists, and artists of all strokes of life.
One of our own, Kentucky native Britt Spencer is featured heavily in the September/October issue of the wonderful magazine The Saturday Evening Post. Britt has the cover as well as a number of remarkable illustrations inside the magazine. I’m a total history buff, so I would love to get my hands on these illustrations and frame them – they’re truly amazing. Click HERE to see Britt Spencer’s work in this issue.
Britt Spencer was born and raised in the foothills of Eastern Kentucky’s Appalachian mountains. When he saw his first drawing, he knew he’d seen his future: “It was as if my reality as I knew it had imploded and I was left with the daunting responsibility to rebuild.” And so he did.
To learn more about this wonderfully talented artist and see more of his work, visit his web site, Britt Spencer.com.
Be sure to grab a couple of copies of this issue – you know the rules: Always support the home team!
Music Born in Kentucky is Center Stage this Fall
There’s a profusion of bluegrass music festivals throughout the state of Kentucky this autumn. Seems appropriate, since this is its birthplace, after all. Make it a point to get out and enjoy the music we should all be proud of. Choose from the events highlighted below, courtesy of http://www.kytourism.com/
The sixth annual Franklin Music Festival will be held the following weekend near I-65 close to the Tennessee border. Set for Sept. 11-12, the Franklin fest will feature the Lonesome River Band, Rhonda Vincent & the Rage and many more outstanding performers. For info, check www.franklinkymusicfestival.com.
Bluegrass faithful will be making an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem Ridge at Rosine, Ky. near Owensboro the first weekend in October. From Oct. 1-4, the home place of the “Father of Bluegrass,” Bill Monroe, will resound with music by some of the genre’s leading artists. Visitors can tour the Monroe family’s carefully restored 1918 home filled with mementoes from Monroe’s illustrious 70-year music career. More information about campgrounds and other accommodations nearby can be found at www.jerusalemridgefestival.org.
Combine attendance at Jerusalem Ridge with a visit to the nearby International Bluegrass Music Museum (www.bluegrass-museum.org), a fascinating institution in Owensboro devoted to preserving all things bluegrass. The IBMM is also home to the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Fame, recognizing noteworthy individuals for outstanding contributions to bluegrass music. New members are inducted each year.
The IBMM hosts its own annual mega-festival, the River of Music Party (ROMP), each June in Owensboro. This festival includes stellar bands from North America, Europe and the Far East, the Bluegrass Masters Film Festival, instrument workshops, juried arts and crafts, clogging and camping. For more info, visit www.www.bluegrass-museum.org/riverofmusic.
Many other smaller festivals provide opportunities to experience bluegrass music outdoors while enjoying Kentucky’s beautiful scenery. For more info, consult the Kentucky Department of Travel’s web site, www.kytourism.com, and click on “Festivals and Events.”
Be sure to check out Owensboro’s Bluegrass Musuem’s Web Site. Lots of fun!
White Hall State Historic Site, in Richmond, Kentucky, will be unveiling a new exhibit that highlights Abraham Lincoln memorabilia as well as the important role that enslaved African Americans played at the historic home.
White Hall served as the home of Cassius Marcellus Clay, an emancipationist who was a friend of Abraham Lincoln’s and served as his ambassador to Russia.
The home near Richmond was built in 1798-99 and was renovated in the mid-1860s.
The new exhibit is funded from a grant from the Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. A ceremony opening the exhibit will be Aug. 20 at 10 a.m. at the site’s welcome center.
Among the items featured will be the document Abraham Lincoln signed appointing Clay ambassador, a page from Harpers Weekly about Lincoln as a candidate for president and a dress worn by Clay’s wife, Mary Jane Clay, which she wore when she was presented to the Czar of Russia. These items will be featured at the welcome center and the mansion.
The portion of the exhibit on the slaves, called “…Lest you forget my name,” will include excerpts from Clay’s father, Green Clay, on what was to be done with 105 slaves.
The exhibit features a tree with an outline of Africa at the base. Hanging from the tree’s branches are torn pieces of paper with the Green Clay slaves listed on them–symbolizing the fact that these people were torn from their families.
The exhibit will also provide details of the life of one slave named Mary who lived at the estate and reportedly worked with Cassius Clay in the garden. The discovery of the foundation of a two-room outbuilding in 2006 spurred interest in the life of slaves at the home.
White Hall is located in Richmond, off I-75 at exit 95. For more information about this site and other Kentucky State Parks, visit www.parks.ky.gov
A poet and photographer from Maine has reached Kentucky on a 65-day pilgrimage to record the grave sites of over 90 American poets.
Walter Skold, who founded the Dead Poets Society of America, has filmed 8 State Poet Laureates and numerous other poets reading the poems of deceased poets which relate to death, cemeteries, or elegies.
At each grave – and he has visited 77 in the last 48 days – he also takes interpretive pictures of collages assembled at the tombstone, something he calls Tombstone Art.
He has already visited the graves of four famous Kentucky poets, Madison Cawein,Father Louis Merton, Allen Tate, and Theodore O’Hara, and he plans to visit the graves of Hollis Summers, Jr., James Baker Hall, Jesse Hilton Stuart and Robert Penn Warren before the historical journey is finished on August 16th.
“In my incredible experiences meeting poetry lovers while driving through 23 States I have discovered two main things about the our dead poets,” said Skold, who has degrees in history, journalism, and library science.
“For those poets who are remembered by those who love their work, they have a kind-of second afterlife,” he says. “There are descendants or fellow poets who work to keep alive the legacy of their lives and of their poetry.”
This is especially true on a local or regional level, he finds, where poets who may not be known among East Coast intellectuals are cherished by the communities they lived and worked in.
“Other dead poets are doubly dead,” said Skold. “Even if their work was widely loved in life, it has now disappeared from anthologies, textbooks, and most-sadly, the hearts of people.”
In the first case Skold is discovering that our dead poets are indeed national treasures, but in too many cases, he feels, a part of our cultural body has died and been buried as well, just like the forgotten poets.
In Kentucky, Skold has placed Madison Cawein, a poet who used to be called the “Keats of Kentucky” in the second category.
“I tell people I am digging up dead poets one grave at a time,” explains Skold, who plans on making a documentary film of his journey.
“I visited the poetry experts at the Library of Congress and they told me that nothing like this has been done in American literary history,” said Skold.
“The more I travel and meet people who love the poetry and legacy of our dead poets, the more excited I get about this project,” he says. “The project has taken on a personal importance for me, as a poet, as people are so thrilled that
someone is taking interest in the poets they love.”
At the end of his tour in two weeks he will visit the grave of the famous Kentucky poet, Robert Penn Warren, who is buried in Vermont, not far from Robert Frost.
Click HERE for more information about this fascinating journey.
For more information about Jesse Stuart, as well as the opportunity to buy his books, visit the Jesse Stuart Foundation.
In the last post I gave you the Twitter IDs (or usernames) to use to follow those of us here at Genuine Kentucky as well as Coach John Calipari (UKCoachCalipari).
Below are other Kentucky-related tweeters that I know you’ll find interesting.
When we follow one of “our own,” we get to stay on top of the information that really hits home – literally. It’s also a perfect way to throw your support to the home team, and that’s always a very, very cool thing to do.
Kentucky’s All A- Twitter:
Rich Brooks (UK football coach) UKCoachBrooks
Joker Phillips (UK football offensive head coach) JokerPhillips
Matthew Mitchell (UK women’s basketball coach) UKCoachMitchell
Brett Dawson (Louisville Courier Journal Sports writer – he covers UK) wildcats
C.L. Brown (Louisville Courier Journal Sports writer – he covers U of L) uofl
Eric Crawford (Louisville Courier Journal columnist) ericcrawford
Rick Bozich ( Louisville Courier Journal columnist) rickbozich
Remember, once you have a twitter account of your own - and you’re logged in, simply type in http://twitter.com/and the username of the person you want to follow. To follow Rich Brooks, you’d type in http://twitter.com/UKCoachBrooks.
I’ve been searching other Kentucky websites and blogs – looking for other twitter IDs, but it would appear that a lot of you haven’t gotten on board yet. Shake a leg! It’s free, it’s crazy fun, and it’s ridiculously easy. Besides, if you have any questions, you can drop me a line and ask them.
Also, let me know if you know of any I’ve missed. Leave them in the comments!
Kentucky’s own Kenny Perry recently told USA Today that the outpouring of support he’s getting (after losing The Masters) has touched him deeply. Today’s paper quotes the popular golfer as saying, “I’ve received hundreds of cards and letters from people who genuinely care about me. They all started out, ‘I’ve never written a letter like this, but I felt compelled to write to you.”
Kenny spent last week at home in Franklin, Kentucky and conducted the interview with USA Today Tuesday in a conference call.
Kenny held a two-shot lead in The Masters with two holes to play. He ended up in a three-way play-off that was won by Angel Cabrera.
“The outpouring of love and support from everybody was more emotional for me than anything.”
Kenny has received calls from Greg Norman and Scott Hoch, who have been in similar golf shoes, so to speak. He even got a letter from George W. Bush!
Perry, 48, has never won a major before…. yet. It’s just a matter of time.
Click HERE to learn more about Kenny Perry’s golf course in Franklin, Kentucky or call (270) 586-9373 for information.
