Mowing The Bluegrass

Central Kentucky Culture

The Following Message

Aug 7

Posted by Greg in Contributors, Greg, Local Color, Opinions | No Comments

A few weeks ago I started a Twitter account/feed/whatever I’m supposed to call it. Those who know me best will tell you that technology and I aren’t friends. I tend to break it. However, I thought it might be a fun way to stay in touch with friends and encourage more people to come to our impromptu gatherings at my apartment or in various spots downtown. I had no idea what I was about to get myself into.

Since jumping into the Twitterverse, I’ve become something that I didn’t quite expect…involved.

I won’t claim to be as involved as many of the great people in Lexington. However, I have now set foot inside the Government Center for the first time. I’ve tuned into GTV and found it perfectly captivating. I’ve had some Twitter dialogue with my councilperson and I’ve had the chance to meet some of Lexington’s most fascinating and motivated people. And if you’re reading this, you can see the technophobe has even started blogging.

Part of the admittedly self absorbed point of all of this is to say that I’ve found an outlet (or maybe an inlet) to actually get involved in the goings-on of a city that I’m more than a little passionate about. I’m no longer griping over a cup of coffee or shouting at the newspaper on Sunday morning. Instead, I’m actually chatting with and meeting up with people who also care about this city and are using what time we have to devote to making it better.

The other point of this is to say that if just starting a Twitter account has managed to get me more aware and informed about Lexington than I’ve ever been, imagine how many others there are out there! How many other people in Lexington have great ideas but have no idea how to act on them or get them out into the public discourse? How many more people get bogged down in their full time jobs and life in general and feel like they just don’t have time to keep up with what’s going on?

I can easily see how people could get turned off or feel overwhelmed. Lexington has always felt like it has a sort of elite that seems impenetrable. The quantity of information to take in can frequently feel overwhelming and the rancor that accompanies some of the debates is almost enough to make me quit paying attention. However, I’m keeping it up and hoping that anyone else who happens to read this and is passionate about Lex Vegas will also find their outlet/inlet and jump into the discourse, even if it’s limited to 140 characters.

P.S.

I feel like I should do a few quick thanks to those that have helped me get aware/involved: @aceweekly for always getting TONS of information out but never more than I can process.

@dvs, @robmorris2, @bluebelleinbg, @ricetopher, @ trickydoc, @craigcammack, @dianelawless, @profkakie, @neth

And lastly my co-blogger @verticalq for being the guy that gets these posts up on the site. Seriously, I have no clue.

Oh and for those that only know me as @jupiter2012….I’m Greg. Hi!!! Ask me sometime and I’ll explain why my name isn’t on the Twitter page.

Review: DeVassa

Jul 26

Posted by Greg in Contributors, Food, Greg, Reviews | No Comments

My first visit to DeVassa began with an uncomfortable conversation with my mom. I had told her we were going to a tapas bar for dinner. She heard “topless bar” and some awkward silence over the phone ensued. This is apparently a common misunderstanding when telling people you are going to Victorian Square for a tasty and unique to Lexington meal.

DeVassa features Brazilian inspired tapas that go from one bite morsels up to near entrée sized plates. The food is designed to be had with a group of friends so you can select several and try a little bit of everything. Even better if you can snag a table out on the sidewalk and take in the scenery of Downtown. DeVassa also hosts some live music events, but in full disclosure, we’ve only had the food. Check out their site for a listing of events.

Having been to DeVassa on a few occasions, we haven’t ever had anything we disliked. Maybe a few things we wouldn’t order again, but nothing that was just terrible. The Batana Gratinada (lacking flavor) wasn’t a favorite nor was the Alcaxofra y Camarao (way too much artichoke and every other flavor got smothered).However, we have loved the Empadinhas in every form that we’ve had them. They are just a little different each time, with a different meat or different spice, but always great. We’ve also enjoyed each of the mini Panini we’ve tried. A particular favorite was the Pork Panini with apple butter which has mysteriously disappeared from the menu. We are assuming/hoping that it’s just seasonal. It has gone down in MTBG’s lore as a hallmark of deliciousness.

Also not to be missed are DeVassa’s signature drinks, the Caipirinha. They tout it as “a traditional, Brazilian drink” and we’re not going to argue. We can just say that it’s fruity, refreshing, and if you are sitting outside on a warm day at DeVassa, you have to have one. The Farmer’s Market Caipirnha is the consistent favorite among our group with the Batida de Maracuja coming in a close second. The Premium Hurricane was also sweet and delightful. We might also point out that the drinks seem to have an inconsistent mix of alcohol, so you may get a pretty weak one, but your next might more than make up for it.

We should also offer a few quick words from experience: lots of the dishes feature cheese. Pay attention to what dishes you are ordering and don’t overload yourself on it. We are always fans of cheese in just about any form, but we can now say we have foundered on it. It’s no fault of the restaurant, just our inattention in ordering. Also, we have a few multilingual people in our group and we still can’t pronounce most of the things on the menu. So, we’ve resigned ourselves to just ordering by number and the waiters don’t appear to think less of us.

On the whole, DeVassa is a great option for Downtown dining. Its cuisine is certainly unlike anything you’ll find anywhere else in Lexington and it can be had for fairly cheap. A 3 tapas combo can be had for about $20 and it’s a pretty good deal. The individual tapas run from $3.99 up to $9.99. DeVassa also has salads, sandwiches and Panini for reasonable prices. So, get down to DeVassa for tasty tapas, and let your mom think what she will.

Review: The Penguin

Jul 26

Posted by Greg in Contributors, Food, Greg, Reviews | No Comments

“The Penguin” is a dueling piano bar that is located at 517 West Main Street. The basic premise is you request a song by giving one of the piano players a tip with a slip of paper. Whichever piano player is getting the most tip money is the piano player that takes the lead.

It goes without saying that something like “The Penguin” is needed in Downtown Lexington. Granted, it isn’t going to show off local talent or bring some great indie groups into town and it probably won’t do much to actually push the arts scene forward. However, what it will do is provide something new that will likely get some people Downtown.

We’ve given “The Penguin” two chances and what we’ve learned is that it’s mandatory to get there early and get a table. Our first experience was just wandering in around 11pm (there is a $5 cover) and the place was standing room only. We could barely see the stage and it felt like an inferno. In that experience, we surmised the only thing “The Penguin” could be good for was a “see and be seen” kind of place.

We gave “The Penguin” another go a few weeks later and ended up being much happier. We got there around 8pm and got a table near the stage. When you have a table, you have a waitress which can be helpful if you don’t want to slog through the crowd to get to the bar when the place fills up. However, completely by chance, we went upstairs when we first arrived and chatted with the bartender. That ended up being pretty beneficial. She didn’t get as many customers throughout the night and it ended up being worth the trip upstairs to get quick service and a friendly chat.

As far as the actual dueling pianos, you have to give it to the guys, they are really talented. They seem to know just about every song ever written. They do a pretty good job of involving the crowd and keeping people entertained. In all honesty, these guys are working hard. The only criticism that can be made is that their humor skews pretty juvenile. We’ll admit that sounds pretty snotty, but if you can imagine the potty humor and sex jokes of a middle school boys’ locker room, that’s the humor that permeates both times we’ve been. It just felt a little stale and like they were trying a little too hard.

Overall, “The Penguin” can be a fun experience and it’s certainly a good addition of something different to add to Lexington’s nightlife. But, it probably wouldn’t be an every weekend hang out spot and you certainly want to get there early to get a table. Now, if you are looking to get all dressed up and go find someone to swap phone numbers with, “The Penguin” could certainly prove to be a productive night out.

“The Penguin” is bringing something new to the Downtown scene and it is probably going to get some people Downtown that may not go there otherwise. Also, you could certainly spend an entire night out there. However, drinks aren’t as cheap as you can find them other places Downtown and you have to put up with the juvenile humor of the performers that gets old pretty fast.

If You’re Not Outraged, You’re Not Paying Attention

Jul 6

Posted by Greg in Contributors, Greg, Opinions, Politics | No Comments

I should start this by saying that I don’t have any solution to the problem. However, I’m hoping to at least start a conversation among friends (and a broader audience if it happens) about how we go about fixing it.

Part of my 4th of July celebration involved me sitting down and reading the Declaration of Independence. I’m not going to say that reading it was the sole impetus for my line of thinking, but it certainly got me going this direction. The eloquence of Jefferson and knowing the subsequent actions that would form these United States got me thinking: it really seems that we have lost our ability to be actionably outraged.

Sure, you will see TV pundits honing their acting chops with something that looks like outrage, shouting at the cameras and staging these ridiculous tea parties. However, their spew does nothing more than fatten their wallets and maybe sell a few more of whatever products that advertise during their shows. But, I’m talking about real, honest to God, take to the streets, “we’re mad as hell, and we’re not gonna take it anymore” outrage. The kind you might have just seen in Iran or the kind the French seem to muster up over just about anything.

I’m sure that there are those that would tell me that I’m living in the past, but the last administration gave us any number of reasons to be outraged, but most people I know did nothing more than gripe over drinks or slap a bumper sticker on our car. However, our conversations were filled with actual anger over what was happening to our country. What happened? Why was our anger confined to 15 minutes and a cup of coffee?

I look through Sunday’s Herald-Leader and see the mess at KACo, the scandal at the airport, one politician or leader after another involved in marriage infidelity at best and corruption and bald faced lying at worst. We’ve somehow come to accept this as the norm and just “the way things are.” However, I, for one am tired of “it” being that way.

Is it just that our lives with ever demanding jobs, BlackBerrys that beep and Facebook pages that require updating take up too much of our time? Do we exhaust ourselves doing what “must be done” to the point that we don’t have time to be actionably outraged? Has the corporate machine ground us down to a population that is too exhausted to take action? Are we just apathetic? Maybe worst of all, do we feel like we can’t do anything about it?

Like I said, I don’t think i have the answer. However, I’d love to get some ideas, because I’m mad as hell and I’m not sure what to do about it.

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One Long Staircase Just Going Up, and One Even Longer Coming Down

Jun 28

Posted by Daniel in Contributors, Daniel, Local Color, Opinions | No Comments

For as long as I can remember, I have gone on the annual Home Builders’ Association of Lexington’s Grand Tour of Homes.  It really is one of the highlights of my year.  I love wondering through houses that I could never in my wildest dreams afford and complaining about how the people that own them decorate like a Kirkland’s threw up all over the interior.  Which brings me to my point: Lexington needs to step it up in the architecture department.

It’s no secret that the CentrePointe project has become one of the most controversial subjects in Lexington.  Let’s leave the “will this thing ever even be built” aside for this post and concentrate on the larger issue: the proposed building is hideous.  It’s like a 1998 SimCity casino.

For some reason, the architecture of Lexington has been stuck in some bizarre, boring time warp.  Yes, I realize that we are not Los Angeles, London, or Hong Kong, but we owe it to our citizens to build modern, aesthetically pleasing buildings.  What we build today will endure, hopefully, for several hundred years; let’s make it a reflection of our city’s future, not its past.

One year ago, several universities (UK, Southern Illinois, and a few others) held a design competition to develop alternatives to the proposed building.  While some of these went too modern to fit into our current skyline, it really highlighted the fact that we could support a more modern design. (Note: I tried to find a link to photos of these alternative designs, but couldn’t locate one.  If anyone has a copy of these or knows where I could find them, please let me know.)

Setting CentrePointe aside for the time being, we also need more modern and affordable housing.  This was one of the things that struck me most about the HBAL Grand Tour of Homes: none of the houses brought anything new to the table. There was very little in any of these houses that couldn’t have been done fifty or sixty years ago. Yes, they may have no-slam kitchen drawers, granite counters, and flat panel TVs, but they are essentially 1950s suburban architecture.  With so much of modern architecture and construction concentrating on sustainable, environmentally neutral, and functional design, why are we not incorporating these principles into the way we live in everyday life?  One reason… price.

The two most obvious examples of sustainable home design in Lexington are the Resonance House on Old Georgetown Street, and the Newpast townhouses on West Main Street.  Both of these projects used modern, sustainable design to create gorgeous houses that could be the norm in Lexington.  However, with a price tag at over $200,000 for an entry price, it’s not hard to see why there aren’t more of these houses popping up around the Bluegrass.

So, what can we do to fix this?

In 2008, the Sundance Channel premiered a six-part documentary series called Architecture School.  It focused on the Tulane University School of Architecture and their URBANbuild initiative.  URBANbuild focused on rebuilding the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina using modern, environmentally friendly, and affordable housing.  The goal was to give architecture students experience in design and construction, and provide low-income families with affordable housing.  Students were challenged to design a 1,200 square foot home with three bedrooms that could be purchased by a family earning less than $50,000 per year.  So far, the program has built four houses and is currently planning two more.  Lexington also happens to have a university with a strong architecture program, there is no reason the school, local architecture firms, and local builders couldn’t partner for a similar program.

Lexington is a great city that has done a wonderful job of preserving its past and is starting to drag itself into the twenty-first century.  Since I moved here nine years ago, I have seen many changes to our landscape.  Some of these changes have been much needed improvements and some have caused me to rant so much my friends became afraid of me.  I have great hope that the people of Lexington are starting to rise up and demand better lives by trying to create better jobs, better government, and better homes.  We want to be a world class city.  Let’s literally build a world class city.

A Request for Young Lexington

Jun 21

Posted by Greg in Contributors, Featured, Greg, Local Color, Opinions | No Comments

I should start by saying that I agree with the premise of Mary Beth Sekela’s article in the op-ed section of Sunday’s Herald-Leader about the need to attract young people to Lexington and the paradigm shift that must occur to make that happen. (Thanks to Jim Gray for the tweet that brought the article to my attention). A young and vibrant community of creative people and thinkers could propel Lexington towards the “world-class city” status that it hopes to become.

However, I think the question that begs asking is “Why aren’t we engaging the young people we already have to help take Lexington forward?” As I wondered through Friday night’s Gallery Hop, with no less than 7 friends (all young professionals, I might add), I couldn’t help but wonder where all these people were every other night of the year. The Downtown Arts Center was packed shoulder to shoulder with mostly 20somethings… lines formed to get up Gallerie Soleil’s narrow stairway, and my group discovered the beauty of Christ Church Cathedral. Downtown Lexington’s sidewalks were booming with young, artistically-minded people spending their Friday night not just visiting art galleries, but maybe more importantly in Downtown.

I’m sure most them also stayed Downtown to have dinner (Atomic Café was our pick) and maybe even stuck around after that for a drink or dancing (a table on the sidewalk at Mia’s is prime real estate for people watching and the music that flows from inside has even spurred me to attempt salsa dancing at the corner of Short and Limestone). But why isn’t the city engaging them/us when it comes to generating ideas and trying to develop our Downtown? We’re already here and we have disposable income! We just might not have enough cash to afford a condo Downtown, but more on that in a minute.

With UK, Transy, Georgetown, EKU and Centre all at Lexington’s doorstep, we already have young people. Lots of them. And most of us would love to see the potential of Downtown actualized. Our voices are just rarely heard when decisions are made on what path our city and our Downtown should take. And yes, it is certainly hard to scream over the UK basketball fans and to outspend the “horse money” that is in Lexington, but we’re here and we want the vibrant, diverse, and artistic Lexington that Sekala writes about.

I also agree with her that we need more investing in the arts and creating this “creative class” would be spectacular. However, we also have to keep in mind that “creative class” reaches across all kinds of economic classes. So far, a good chunk of the development of Downtown has priced our city’s young professionals out of the market. Wikipedia says that the average income of a household in Lexington is around $40,000/year and the median income for a family is just over $53,000. How would someone making that kind of money afford a condo in Downtown that can range from $200,000 up to well over half a million? Instead, we are left renting or buying well outside of Downtown, which keeps us out of the Downtown that the city wants to lure us towards.

On a recent trip to Philadelphia, I was delighted by a local chain of restaurants that specialized in really great food with an obvious slant to young people with a modern décor. It was priced no differently than an Applebee’s: Marathon Grill. Their restaurants were placed strategically throughout the city in the young “artsy” areas of town and appeared to be frequented by that crowd. When I look at Lexington’s downtown eateries, there are plenty of places I like. However, they are mostly “special occasion only” establishments that are hard to leave without dropping at least $100. I would venture to guess that something local but more affordable could, certainly, draw more people into spending their entire evenings and weekends Downtown… instead of a couple hours on a Saturday night or a few bucks for a drink in a bar.

Lexington certainly does need to change the way it thinks and do more things to lure young people into the city. However, we also shouldn’t overlook the people that we already have right here that are already making Lexington their hometown. And while most of us may not be looking to leave, we’d love to have a reason to stay.

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