Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/696273
62 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 7.16 O Critic's Choice O BEST The ribbon is cut. The doors open. Eyes widen at the new, expansive home of the Speed Art Museum. For 30 hours guests celebrate with performances by steel-drum bands, folk artists, pianists. Tibetan Buddhist monks create a world peace mandala. Shakespeare is performed in a wood-paneled English Renaissance room. Children play music on curious vegetable-shaped synthesizers. Art from every corner of the globe and spanning 6,000 years overwhelms and baits visitors into returning. The opening party this past spring for the renovated Speed was free. And thanks to a $1-million donation from Brown- Forman, anyone can visit the Speed for free on Sundays through March 2021. Named in honor of the late Owsley Brown II, the so-called Owsley Sundays give Louisvillians a chance to engage in the majestic, elegant and surreal. — AM SPEED MUSEUM OWSLEY SUNDAYS GIFT TO THE CITY O People's Choice O TOM OWEN BEST M E T RO C O U N C I L M E M B E R "All of these years of ser- vice, I've had a full-time day job (as an archivist at U of L) with some fexibility. But believe me, the taxpayers of the commonwealth of Kentucky want 40 hours of fesh out of me, and I gotta give it. I get up 5:10 a.m., and I go to bed at 11 o'clock, and that's fve days a week." "I don't want to dis- courage Brandon, but 60 percent of the business is saying no, and learning how to say it. I mean, we haven't had money to do much. So that's why you have to spend so much time saying, 'Maybe. Get in line. Line's long.' But I love your enthu- siasm. I love the optimism. I love the hope. I'm sure that over the decades I've become jaundiced and a little cynical." "Early on, as I visited other cities, I was shocked and naïve to think that there were certain ways that most or all cities did things. Well, that ain't true, McGee!" "I always wanted to see a time when urban growth would start moving toward the center, rather than away from the center. Has that happened in the last 25 years? For some young peo- ple it has. Is it refected in the growth in Schnitzelburg A few minutes before our 3 p.m. meeting at Tom Owen's Highlands house, Brandon Coan (a Democrat who won a highly contested primary for Owen's District 8 seat and is running unopposed in November) looks almost presidential in his blue-striped shirt, khakis, loafers with no socks. Owen rolls up on his bike, spry for a man in his mid-70s, a mirror winking from his helmet, bright refec- tive vest faming down the street of ivy, brick pathways, White House knockoffs. Owen dismounts, his tie neat, his slacks immaculate. Once inside, the two settle on armchairs near a grand piano. For this issue, we wanted Coan to sit down with Owen to ask about the retiring councilman's nearly three de- cades of public service. Here's some of Owen's wisdom. — DJ