LEX to SDF

Directly south of Cincinnati is Covington Kentucky, though if you take 471 South you wont' even notice it for the deep hills and valleys that peak above the clouds and dip far below the pavement. On the other hand, the whole town is only 5 blocks long so you might miss it anyway, but the billboard for the BrASS is hard to ignore. Classy neighborhood.

South of that I started to get WMKY the infamous Morehead State Public Radio. Americana Crossroads was on. Bob Dylan sang "sad Eyed Lady" then a little Johnny Cash, then something by the Old 97s followed bunch of other cuts I didn't' recognize at all. It was a nice varied play list like it should be. I recognized some, and was surprised by all.

I heard a little WRFL while in Lexington proper. Their signal covers the city and really nothing more. That was enough for me to hear DJ Sally Evans rock a little Bauhaus and Nick Cave. It turns out WRFL has actually gotten the nod from the FCC to crank up the juice from their current 250 watts to 7,900. It seems like a small deal, but really the conversion could cost a quarter million dollars so why not donate to the cause? More here.

I hustled right out of Lexington to Louisville where I listened to a little WFPK. An old AAA stand by that's not faltered in their purpose. They were ironically playing the Philly-based World Cafe program but I'll let them slide on credibility. I left Louisville for Peoria, but in the boonies in between I heard very little, and in fact it's a fund-raising week for NPR so much of what I did hear was continually uninterrupted by pleas for your dollars. This is in stark contrast to the religious stations that alternately grovel, and threaten 365 days a year. so yeah, I can put up with 14 days of this a year in order to get real news: actually fair, actually balanced like the word "NEWS" itself intimates.

I eventually fell back on the handful of CDs I brought making a nice afterdark rotation of NIN's With Teeth, Paw's Dragline, We Ragazzi's Wolves with Pretty Lips. By the time I landed deep in Illinois I'd played them out and would need to stop to restock.

I also discovered the local beverage Ale-8-1. it's made in Kentucky, and available nowhere else as far as I know, and tastes wonderful. Its smooth like a ginger ale but much heavier on the ginger without burning your throat. It's nice. I think I drank 4 of them. They've been keeping it from the Yanks since 1922. More here.