KY Day 3 - International Food, Iconoclastic Art, and Incredible Animals- A Day in Louisville
I started the day by driving to Louisville. One of my college roommates and best friends grew up there, so she and her mom loaded me up with suggestions for things to do and places to eat. I ambitiously and perhaps foolishly tried to do everything in one day because I wasn't sure if I'd get a chance to go back. The first thing I did was wake myself up with some coffee from Safai Coffee Shot. I got one of their specialties called a Rocket which was cold brew with a shot of espresso in it. I don't know how it was blended, because it didn't sound like their were any flavoring or syrups in it but it was honestly one of the best tasting coffees I have ever had. Plus they had this super cute art on the outside:
With my newfound energy I decided to just take a walk up and down Bardstown Road and look at all the cute and quirky shops and restaurants. I ended up getting my brunch from a place called Ramsi's Cafe On the World. Their thing is having a large international menu ranging from Thai to Middle Eastern to Mexican and more. It made it sort of hard to pick just one item from them, but I ultimately went with a House-Made Seitan Parmesan. I'd never really had seitan outside of cafeterias, so I had no idea what good seitan would taste like. It was kinda crispy and kinda rubbery, like a mix between tofu and eggplant, but anything tastes good if you slather it with mozzarella and marinara so I enjoyed it. The roasted potatoes on the side certainly didn't hurt.
After lunch I went to the Speed Art Museum, which was named after a family not the velocity of the paintings. The first exhibit I saw was called the Kentucky Gallery, featuring works from local local artists, craftsmen, and even prison inmates. The gallery was a great display of not only art, but also the history and various cultural changes throughout the regions over time. Of course despite all this genuine merit, my favorite thing was far away a flask shaped like a pig, with the phrase "If you want some, suck my" trailing toward the cork placed in the pig's ass. People like to say about the past that it was a more innocent time, but people have apparently been cracking dirty jokes about pigs, assholes, and pig's assholes since the dawn of time.
The next gallery I saw was of items from the Speed family's personal collection. It was a lot of jewelry and items they thought might have belonged to Abraham Lincoln, but the things I liked most were a series of photographs of models trying to capture Shakespearean characters and a seashell with the Last Supper carved into it, because apparently there was a popular art craze of people wanting shells with biblical carvings on them. Who knew?
After gallery of the Speed family collection, I walked through the main exhibit of works ranging from antiquity to post-impressionism. My favorite works were an early sketch by Matisse, a work about a incident from mythology where these nymphs drugged and robbed a bunch of cherubs but if you just look at it without knowing that it just seems like a beautiful painting of women stealing fro sleeping babies, and an impressionist painting by a Dutch artist named Olaf Rude (incredible name) called Interior with Woman in Red Dress that I found oddly haunting. I realize that when I sum up my museum visits, I kind of gloss over antiquities so I apologize if that's any readers' favorite parts of museums, but for whatever reason that era of art just totally blends together for me from museum to museum.
There was one exhibit that was really cute where elementary school kids made little collages of what they wanted to be when they grew up. This one kid's collage absolutely cracked me up though, because I guess some people just dream bigger than others.
There was one immersive exhibit that I thought was really cool that combined a full recreation of a Victorian Living room with a contemporary video art installation that would play sort of ethereally over the fireplace and windows.
After that I went up to the second floor where all the modern and contemporary art was. The main exhibit was on a guy Bruce Conner, who was very innovative in the early days of video art and collage and also through his work in abstract lithographs. The lithographs I thought were interesting, but didn't strike me on a super emotional level, but his one work simply entitled A Movie absolutely blew me away. It was made entirely of found footage clips from older movies spliced together in a very loose abstract narrative with a dark and foreboding score of "Pines from Rome" that put gave silly pratfalls and stripteases the same thematic weight as executions and nuclear bombs. It was a weird ride of a movie, funny and moving in equal measure. It was described as very influential, and I can certainly see it in more arthouse directors like David Lynch or Terrence Malick.
Of the contemporary art, that wasn't part of this special exhibiton the thing that probably struck me the most was that this painting was simply called Christ Watching Over Dudes. I love that.
I also don't know if I just captured this sculpture at the perfect moment as the light was hitting it or if it really is just that naturally stunning. Because I do not have much faith in my own photography, I'm gonna choose to give the credit to the sculpture.
After the art museum, I went to the Kentucky Derby museum, which I was told was the best museum in Louisville. I really didn't know anything about the Derby or horse racing more generally before my visit to the Derby museum so everything was really interesting for me. Easily the thing I loved most in the museum collection was all the Derby hats. I had heard the phrase "Derby hat" before but never put two and two together, and I had no idea how delightfully outlandish the outfits can get.
The museum had lots of other less flamboyant memorabilia from Derbies past, as well as interactive games and displays to give you a feel for the betting experience and what jockeys actually do while they're riding. I never knew jockeys competed in multiple races a day with multiple horses, I just sort of assumed it was a wand/wizard kind of connection but I guess that wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. There was also an a cool 18 minute long video in a special 360 degree theater that was meant to look like a race track, and give you an idea of everything that goes into the big race day.
After the video, I went on a tour of historic Churchill Downs. They had the names of every Derby winner along the stadium as you walked to the race track. My favorite name of a winner was Count Turf because I love the image of a horse reaching the status of count. The two fun facts I really liked most was that the first female horse to win a derby was named Regret, and that the record set by Secretariat in the 70s still hasn't been beaten. At the end of the tour, we got to watch an actual horse race which was pretty exhilarating. It wasn't as grand as the derby, but it was amazing to see. I had a favorite to win, but I couldn't tell if it was the one that actually won because I can't tell horses apart. Between the race, museum, and little movie, it certainly felt like the full museum experience was worth the price of admission.
For dinner, I went to an Ethiopian restaurant called Queen of Sheba.I got the meat and vegetable combination plate, which came with traditional Ethiopian versions of spicy chicken, a beef and potato stew, collard greens, a lentil stew, and a sliced cabbage, onion, and carrot dish. It was served on Injera, a flat bread made out of wheat flower and Teff, which is an Ethiopian cereal grain. The closest thing I've had to it was crepe, and the meal was eaten by ripping off pieces of the Injera and using it to scoop up whatever dish you felt like eating. I think the lentil and beef stews were my personal favorites, but everything was delicious and packed with flavor. To wash it all down, I got the house honey wine which was one of the best tasting drinks I've ever had alcoholic or otherwise.
After dinner, I had a little coffee and did a little writing in Quills coffee. It didn't taste quite as great as the coffee from Safai, but the atmosphere and the service were exceptional. Outside of the coffee shop, a homeless person grabbed me by the arm, and said "What's up, Big Sexy? Have you been working out?". I would have been flattered, but the Big in Big Sexy and my general lack of muscle definition makes me suspectt he was being sarcastic.
Properly caffeinated, I had a lingering desire after having been to the derby museum to find a place to get a mint julep. My intention was to go to the Jim Beam Urban Still House, because I might be able to tour their distillery too, but they were closed early for a private function so I just went to the nearest bar to the still house instead. Perhaps because it wasn't the bar specialty or anything, I wasn't super impressed by the mint julep as a cocktail. The mint adds something, but it's mainly just watered down bourbon, and personally I'd rather just have the bourbon. I did watch a bored waitress play iPhone games with one of the only other customers there though and that was pretty endearing.
After that, I went to Homemade Ice Cream and Pies for, shockingly, ice cream and pie. I got a chocolate chip coconut ice cream and a peanut butter cup pie, but decided, because I wanted to live to Thanksgiving, that I would just eat one and save the other for later. Because the pie was more likely to keep, I just ate the ice cream and I was in heaven. The chocolate was rich and dark, the ice cream just melted in your mouth instantly, and the coconut was pleasant but not overwhelming. It took a lot of willpower not to eat the pie too.
The last thing I did in Louisville was called Lights Under Louisville, which is a big Christmas tradition. There's a giant cave under parts of the city called Mega Cavern that is big enough and has been cleared out enough for cars to drive through it. Each year the cavern is decorated for the holidays with elaborate Christmas light displays. Candy canes, ornaments, snowmen, and other Christmas staples are covered, but there were also characters from Despicable Me, the Avengers, Frozen, and other Disney movies, My personal favorite was Santa jumping off the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and I was also happy that at least one small corner was explicitly dedicated to Hanukkah as opposed to the whole thing being just Christmas. The cavern honestly would have been pretty amazing on its own but the lights really put the whole experience over the top. I didn't quite make everything on my friend and her mom's list, but I still really felt like I made the most of my day in Louisville.
Favorite Random Sightings: Glenn's Freedom; Jingle Bell Lane; Hubcap Annie's; Sleepyhead Mattress; General Eccentric; The Comfy Cow; Heart and Soy
Regional Observation: I love that the major highway between Lexington and Louisville is called the Bluegrass Parkway
Albums Listened To: The Jungle Book Soundtrack by Various artists; Just One More by Mad Caddies; Katy Lied by Steely Dan; The KCRW Session by Jimmy Cliff (just Jimmy Cliff live with an acoustic guitar, even in his 70s his voice hasn't lost anything); Keasby Nights by Catch 22 (one of my sister's all time favorites); Keep It Going by Mad Caddies (Just Don't Go); Keep it Like a Secret by Built to Spill; Keep it Together by Bumpin Uglies (just Stop the Fall)
People's Favorite Jokes:
The classic cheesy pick up line: Are you from Tennessee? because you're the only ten I see
Why do girls like Jesus? Because he was hung like this *outstretch arms* (the english language is weird)
Songs of the Day: I'm gonna go overboard because I really liked all the albums I got today but they're all pretty different at least
so much 90s aesthetic plus baby Conan
