Waiting in line outside the convention center before the sun came up.

It all began with waking up at 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning. I was in San Diego for Comic Con with my friend James and we were set on seeing a number of movie panels that day, including “The Hobbit.” We crawled our way out of bed and walked our daily mile to the convention center. After rolling under a (parked) train and sleeping on the sidewalk (next to real people with nowhere to sleep) we made it into the famous Hall H, nearly five hours after the start of our long journey.

After sitting through the panels to what will surely be next summer’s biggest films, we got to see the man-hobbit himself, Peter Jackson, along with the actual hobbit, Martin Freeman; the past hobbit, Elijah Wood; the grey wizard, Ian McKellen; the dwarf king, Richard Armitage; and last but certainly not least, his precious himself, Andy Serkis. The Q&A filled panel lasted an hour and even included 12 minutes of never-before-seen footage that we, the select few willing to wait in line for it, got to see.

So – needless to say after all of that, but I will anyway – I was excited to see “The Hobbit.” I was even more excited when I got free passes to see the film two days early through Gofobo.com, a free site that gives you movie screening passes.

This is probably the point when I should declare that I have never ready any of Tolkien’s epics, but I loved the “Lord Of The Ring” film trilogy and have waited for the prequel since the last scene of “Return Of The King.” Now, back to the review.

Martin Freeman’s Bilbo Baggins is much like his Arthur Dent from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Universe.” He lives a boring life, is a bit clumsy and is brought along on a great unexpected adventure by a friend, during which he learns that there’s much more to life then spending your nights at home, alone. That being said, Freeman was born for this role and does it justice. Go watch him in “Sherlock” if you haven’t yet – he plays a brilliant John Watson.

There’s not much to say about the Dwarves. There are a lot of them, led by their king, Thorin, played by Richard Armitage. Armitage is your standard stubborn hero, standing up for his men and putting his life on the line for his family’s legacy. And he does a good job at it.

But the real scene stealer of this film is Andy Serkis, with his brilliant portrayal as Gollum, who loses his precious golden ring that we’ve all come to know so well from the LOTR trilogy. There’s a long scene with a great payoff that involves Bilbo and Gollum playing a game a riddles. If Bilbo wins, he gets a way out of the caves that he fell into during a Goblin fight; if Gollum wins, he gets to eat Bilbo. Seems fair enough.

While each of Tolkien’s previous stories have been told through a single movie, Director Peter Jackson has decided to drag this one out into three, and it’s very apparent. While the first act to “Fellowship” felt long, the first act to “The Hobbit” feels painfully long. It’s so long that there isn’t much of a distinguishable second act. It sort of goes from a strange tale of the start of the journey into a twisted tale of other characters that don’t matter nearly as much, back to the gang of Dwarves, then to side adventures that don’t make as much sense, and then finally the third act begins. And it’s a brilliant one.

The downside to the film picking up pace and becoming great is that it only lasts for about 1/3 of the film and then it’s over, leaving us waiting until 2013 for the second installment “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.”

Coming in at 169 minutes, “The Hobbit” is a long one with a lot more talking than is necessary, but it’s a good start to a journey through Middle Earth that will last for the next two years – assuming the world doesn’t end on December 21st.

Here are a few reasons while yesterday’s news made me excited:

• Disney knows what they’re doing. They’ve been doing it for a while. Not to mention they have an unlimited cash flow behind them.
• Just because they purchased Lucasfilms doesn’t mean Star Wars is going to change. Look at Pixar, look at Marvel, they purchased these titans and left the creative people behind them alone to do what they do best.
• New Star Wars movies. Like I said yesterday on Facebook, “with the disappointing Episodes I & II I’m excited to see Star Wars live on. Sagas such as this deserve to keep thriving. Star Wars isn’t LoTR, it shouldn’t end after 3.” New stories are happening in the Star Wars Universe every month in comics, books and video games. They have lots to
• Disney plans to make a new Star Wars movie every few years. Even if a few do suck, how do you know the best isn’t yet to come? Take a look at the James Bond series; Daniel Craig’s Bond is the best Bond to date. (I know many who agree, Connery be damned.)

The list goes on but I don’t want to scare too many of you away with my fanboy rants. So instead I’ll leave you with a quote from the big man himself on the sale.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next, It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products.” – George Lucas

The first time I met Beau Kaelin I was dressed as a pirate. The second time I had a fake chainsaw duct-taped to my arm. Both of these encounters were for costume contests at midnight showings that Beau was hosting at Baxter Avenue Theaters. I ended up winning both the contests and in the next few weeks after a string of e-mails regarding my prizes, we became what some might consider acquaintances. I didn’t know much about him but each time I would see him at Baxter after that, I would wave or say hi.

Over the course of the next couple years we eventually became the friends we are now, mostly due to our shared love of movies. While I enjoy them for their entertainment value, Beau appreciates the process of filmmaking, from concept to creation. Along with being a movie theater manager and teaching high school Biology, he’s also a local filmmaker.

While Beau doesn’t like the title of “local filmmaker,” he’s written, directed and acted in a new feature-length film every year for the past four years, each time outdoing the last.

Though not his first feature-length film, the first one I saw was “Callus’ Birthday Party” which was best described as a “fever dream” by the filmmaker. After sitting through the 2-hour, scriptless film I was a bit confused about what I had just seen. Luckily I wasn’t the only one since Beau considers this movie to be the “special child of the bunch.”

His second film, “Dick For Hire,” was much more cohesive. Kaelin describes it as “sort of an homage to film noir films. It’s about a detective who’s essentially taking on the Chicago syndicate and trying to figure out not only how to defeat them but he realizes there’s something more going on…”

Beau’s third movie, “Balloons Own The Police,” was a bit different for me since I had a small role in the film; two lines and speaking in Russian at that. “Balloons” is about “a trio of stoners who get some really potent weed that shortly thereafter, they start hearing alien conversations about taking over the world. After that it’s sort of a guessing game as to whether all of this really is happening or whether it’s all in their heads.”

His newest film, showing Oct. 13 at the Village 8 Theatres, is titled “Symbiosis.”

“I always wanted to do a serious horror film but that’s such a cliche to do for your first movie, or such a cliche in general for people who are doing low-budget local movies to do” Kaelin explained. “I’ve been watching horror movies since I was six and I love them to death. It’s my favorite genre, and that’s what’s sort of funny, I waited five movies to make something that’s my favorite type of film … I wanted to make something I feel like nobody’s seen before. And so I came up with this idea that’s an homage to the old 1960s ‘Outer Limits’ episodes, but the storytelling format is something more akin to what you’ve seen in the modern trend of things like ‘Magnolia’ or ‘Crash,’ where you have multiple stories that are converging on a single point … the idea of showing the exact same supernatural event from five completely different points of view in such a way where it feels like five completely different short films. I felt like (it) hadn’t been done before and that’s what I wanted to do with this.”

Beau Kaelin’s interest in cinema began at a young age, when he would spend his Saturday mornings watching old horror films. “I actually got into watching movies when I was six. There was a local horror host show called ‘Memories of Monsters,’ it was just a local guy who would go on and host the old Universal classics, like ‘Creature (from) the Black Lagoon’ and things like that. The next morning on TBS, at 10 a.m., Grandpa Munster from ‘The Munsters’ would host ‘Super Scary Saturday,’ so my mom would set the VCR to record (on Friday) and the next morning I would wake up and while all the other kids were watching cartoons … I would wake up and watch two monster movies in a row. And something about that just got me into movies,” Beau shared.

With his new appreciation for movies, Beau also became interested in the special effects that make up those movies. “It was just a hobby that I just sort of picked up. I’m a huge ‘Dick Tracy’ fan, so when I was in elementary school and saw the film and fell in love with it, I started reading books on make-up and by the time I graduated high school I just started playing around with it.

“With each one of my movies, not only is it an opportunity for me to test my limits on both storytelling as well as filmmaking, but also for special effects too. So this (Symbiosis) has the most special effects of any of mine, just because I had to design and create two actual monsters for it, which I’ve never done for anything else … I know where my limit is at so I try to shoot for just a little above it, just so I can see what I can push.” Beau continued, “when it comes to a horror film, I don’t think genuine horror is a lot of gore, I don’t think it’s a lot of jump-out-to-spook-you stuff, I’m not a huge fan of either of those. I think they can be employed but I think when they’re employed to excess you lose a whole lot. I think the best horror films are where they create an atmosphere of dread, that just sort of lingers long after the film is over and you can’t shake it. So that’s what I actually shoot for in this.”

When asked why he does what he does, Beau explained, “I try to encourage everyone to come to my movies just because I feel like we’re doing stuff for fun – I’m not making movies to make a profit, I’m not making movies to win awards or even to gain fame. I just like making movies as a hobby. For me, there’s no way to describe how cool it is to basically finish a film and realize, I’m watching my imagination. I came up with these characters in my head, I developed the way they look and basically I’m conveying that imagination to an audience of 100 or so people. That’s just a very, very cool thing to do. …If anything, what I like to get out of premieres is not all the recognition and I don’t want to get money or anything, even though I’m charging it’s just to balance out the cost of having to rent the theater. For me the only thing I like out of showing people my movies is when they watch it they say, ‘that looks like fun, would you be down if I played a role in a future one?’ That to me is the thing I care about – people watch them and more people wanting to be involved. For me it’s a community thing. When I do my movies the premieres are less of a premiere and more of a family reunion. I’ll see people that I haven’t seen in months – I’ve got a friend flying back from LA to see this, I’ve got several friends who are going to road trip up from Nashville, and several others from Cincinnati that I haven’t seen for a while … so it very much is a family reunion.”

When Beau isn’t at Baxter or filming his next project, he uses his bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Education from UofL to teach biology, AP biology and some chemistry and physics at a high school outside Louisville. “My interest in science began with terror, actually. Growing up, my family lived in a fairly modest home in Fairdale that was infested with brown recluses. It was very much like a 1970s animal attack film – the venomous spiders would often pop up between sheets, in toy bins, in kitchen drawers…you name it. We eventually had to flee the place for greener pastures, but that sparked a fascination in science, particularly biology, with me. I wanted to know more about the reason behind why my family fled in fear, and the more I learned about biology, the spookier the world around me became. Deep sea fishes, flesh-eating bacteria, venomous animals – the world around you is a spooky place if you get right down to it, and for a kid who was interested in horror flicks growing up, a passion for the subject was a no-brainer. One could then argue that a lot of my life has been culminating up to this film, because I try to take the natural world that most of us go day-to-day taking for granted and turn it on its head to show how it can often be a very frightening realm.”

‘Symbiosis’ is playing at Village 8 Theatres, 4014 Dutchman’s Lane, at 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 13. Admission is $3 and includes a collectible button.

Photos by CHRIS HUMPHREYS | The Voice-Tribune

In the seven years I’ve known Walter James “Jimmy” Humphrey, this was the longest conversation we’ve had. Not because we don’t like each other or have anything to talk about; Jimmy just doesn’t talk much.

Let’s pause right here. Jimmy and I are not brothers. He’s a Humphrey. I’m a Humphreys. But if you don’t pay attention to the letter “s” and are gullible enough, we will lead you to believe that we’re siblings for as long as we can keep the joke running. So far in our fake-brother tenure we’ve established that dad liked me better, mainly because he disapproved of Jimmy’s slick, long, black hair – which Jimmy will tell you isn’t that far from the truth.

Back to the story. I met Jimmy when I was 17 and working at Suncoast in Jefferson Mall, and he was 24 and working at the Hot Topic. We had a few friends in common and I used to see him out but never really spoke to him, mainly because when you put two quiet people together, all you get is silence. I knew that he had something called “I Eat Poop” (we’ll get to that shortly) and was a fan of puppets and Star Wars. Besides those few things, my non-brother was a complete mystery to me. As the years went by we became slightly closer, ending up in the tightly knit group of friends we share now.

Over the last three years, Humphrey has been working on something called “Billy Inaction,” an action-comedy that stars Louisville native Billy Duckett, whom Humphrey has known since he was in fifth grade and Duckett was in third. “Every day, my friend’s brother would beat him up, and he took it so well. It seemed like he enjoyed it and from that time on I always liked Billy,” Humphrey recalled. “I always found something interesting about him. We started doing the public access show and I would always include Billy. I just felt there was something funny about Billy and I hoped that more people would agree … they may not get him at first, (but) they usually do after a few minutes, and enjoy his look at life and his candor and how sort of uncensored and real he is.”

The public access show that Duckett appeared in is the aforementioned “I Eat Poop,” which Humphrey began in 1998. It was a reality show of sorts that starred Humphrey’s band of misfits. “I remember someone said to me, ‘I’ve seen your show, I don’t care for it. If I want to see a group of friends hang out I can just watch my own friends. There’s nothing special about you all.’ And that was the whole point. Anyone can do this, everyone does this, everyone hangs out with their friends – it’s just that we filmed it.”

The show still airs every Saturday morning at 12:30 a.m. While there hasn’t been a new episode since “Billy Inaction” started filming in 2009, the “I Eat Poop” legacy continues –  Humphrey now uses the same name for his production company, under which he’s released skits, shorts and his first feature length film, “Gunther Toody’s Happy Time Fun Show,” an adult-humor puppet comedy.

His next film, which will be screened in a private premier on September 30th and in public showings this fall, is loosely based on Duckett’s life. “We took the sort of legends, the stories, that some are half truths, some have been told third party and get back to us, and we ask Billy and the endings are totally different. So there are a lot of truths … but then we kind of take off on that and his life, which is, I wouldn’t say mundane, but he lives with his parents, he doesn’t have a job, he likes to play World of Warcraft – so we sort of extrapolate on the most inaction of characters … and we sort of push him into the hero role.”

Humphrey said that Duckett’s character is based on characters you would find in ’70s sitcoms. Think Archie Bunker and Fred Sandord; characters who are outspoken and might not say what you expect the lead character to say. “I like the idea of introducing a character (that), two minutes into the movie, Billy does things and says things that you don’t have your hero say two minutes into the movie. …It’s sort of a test on the audience. Are you going to follow this guy for an hour and forty minutes?”

If you’ve seen any marketing for the film, you’ve probably seen the line “you will see his (let’s keep this P.C. and say ‘privates’).” When asked about Billy’s bits, Humphrey explained, “you really will. You really will see his (privates). I want you to know what you’re going to get. I want to say right on the poster, (in) the trailer, ‘in case you’re wondering, this is that kind of movie.’ ”

But it’s not just his parts you’ll see in ‘Billy Inaction.’ “It is a day in the life of this guy. We get to know him. We get to know what ambitions he doesn’t have,” explained Humphrey. “He’s not an action hero character. He’s like a character from a different movie that has to live in this realm … You have action cliches and action characters, you have silly explosions and you have this guy who’s completely bemused by it. All he wants is a video game and to sit in his basement and smoke. But we’re forcing him to take part in a movie.

“He can make a difference. You have to make the character who is inactive become proactive, and put things in front of him and see how his life really is. And we have that in the movie, with his relationship with his mother and how she is not exactly proud of him, and he wants his mother’s pride, and how he gets that. And he meets a woman who he falls in love with in this day. And we see how these women in his life kind of change him, which I guess if you want to extrapolate the movie to my real life, that’s probably how that works. How women, certain women, have changed my life. Women will change his life throughout the movie,” said the 33-year-old Louisvillian.

When asked about the filmmaking process, Humphrey explained that “you start with a script and it has a big story and you have big ideas, then you realize you don’t really have any of this. You can’t pull any of this off. So you scale it down. And you scale it down again. And again and again. And now it’s this smaller thing. Something that I can actually pull off.”  Along with pulling the film off, Humphrey also learned some things along the way. “…It took three years to make, so I have to have things in it that interest me and I have to kind of become Billy in order to keep interested in it,” he went on. “So you put things in there that are really interesting to you, that you want to see and you want to deal with. And there are things about yourself that come out in these things. That’s just part of it.To keep myself interested, since I’m obviously not the greatest communicator, communicating on film is just a better way for me to show these things.

“I think from the future projects on, I think I’ll have much more dependency … I think I’ve learned with ‘Billy Inaction’ that I’m not God and I can’t do everything. I need people. There are people who are good at things … who can do these things and will help out because they’re in my life and they’re wonderful for that. …And I think that’s the big stepping stone for ‘Billy Inaction,’ ” Humphrey shared. “I think I’m a better communicator. I feel like I can rely on people a little better than I did in the past. And that had nothing to do with people, that had to do with me and what I’ve learned making movies.”

Jimmy Humphrey is quiet about many things, but filmmaking isn’t one of them. He’s not one of those people who think they’re going to make it big just because they made a couple of low-budget, independent films. He is humble about this being a hobby for now. When I brought up making movies as a profession, he explained, “That’s something that, (in) the next few months, I’m going to look into and see how can I take this thing that seemed like, it never seemed like it could possibly be that, but could it be? Could we push it in that direction? I don’t know. If not, this is sort of what I do and I’ve accepted that. That no matter what I’m doing in life there will always be this elephant in the room, this thing that my mind is always on something that I’m working on, so regardless, if that doesn’t happen, I will always continue to do this. It is my gift, it is my curse, it is my dark passenger, I will always make movies, even if I don’t want to.  …I like the pressure, I like the juggling, I like the ripping your hair out, it’s a puzzle that I have to solve. It would make a great Chris Nolan movie.”

As the night grew old, Jimmy closed by saying, “Some people make movies and projects with …I think, the goal to constantly impress and show how good they are as far as technicalities and things like that. I have really have no interest in those things  – I just like being clever. I like people to get a little chuckle out of what I do. So again, enjoy these things for what they are, don’t take them too seriously. I’m also saying that to myself, not to take them too seriously because they’re just cheeky fun. And you will see his (privates).”

Photos also by CHRIS HUMPHREYS | The Voice-Tribune 

Hipsters are a subculture of men and women typically in their 20′s and 30′s that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter.

- Urban Dictionary

Saving the world might be taking it one step too far, but what about saving cities?

On a recent episode of Travel Channel’s “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations,” Author/Foodie Anthony Bourdain visited Tijuana, Mexico and discovered that the once popular spot for drunk frat boys in the ’90s which dried up after September 11th is once again cool; Mostly because of Hipsters. The flannel wearing 20-somethings have transformed the dangerous Mexican town into an artisan hotspot with live music, overflowing tequila bars and upscale dining. Seeing this made me turn to my T.V. compadre, Noah, and ask, “are hipsters saving that place?” Saying it out loud made me realize that the same thing has happened right here in Louisville, in NuLu.

The East Market Street District once occupied by bourbon stockyards, meat purveyors, and eventually the Wayside Mission is in a cultural renovation that is constantly updating itself with new eateries and shops that’s bringing life back to the once falling apart area. It seems like every time I take a stroll through NuLu I notice that a new spot has opened. My newest favorite being La Coop, a french bistro that has fantastic lunches for under $10.

“Why do Hipsters hate rivers? They’re too mainstream.”

By definition, Hipsters like going to places that not everyone knows about yet. It’s cool to be the only one out of your friend group that knows about the new place to go.

“You mean you haven’t even heard of Please and Thank You? It’s the only place I’ll buy my vinyl.”

While this is an annoying trait when trying to hold a conversation with one, it’s a great trait when supporting a community. They buy local, eat local, drink local and support local artists.

Now, Hipsters aren’t responsible for renovating NuLu, but some of them are responsible for keeping it alive. So the next time that guy with a handlebar mustache riding his fixed gear bicycle passes you on Market, try thanking him instead of yelling at him to stay in the bike lane (but really, stay in the damn bike lane).

Chris Humphreys can be found drinking at Hipster bars wearing plaid western shirts but will deny it if you accuse him of being a Hipster.

Yelling While Passing

I wouldn’t consider myself a runner, but I do enjoy putting on my short shorts and running the loop in Cherokee Park a couple times a week. The other day I was running my way up to Dog Hill with my headphones on, listening to one of my favorite podcasts when I had an obnoxious biker scream in my ear that they were passing me on my left as they were passing me on the left. After jumping like a fish out of water and bringing my heart rate down to an already out of shape rate, I thought, doesn’t the yelling at me that you’re passing while you’re passing really do more harm than good?

Let’s consider what could happen if you don’t yell at me:

• You pass me.

Let’s consider what could happen if you do yell at me:

• You could startle me, causing me to jump into your line, resulting in a catastrophic crash that leaves us both paralyzed.
• You could bust me ear drum, resulting in me falling to the ground in pain as you run over my agonizing body.
• You could pass by me, scaring the crap out of me and raising my heart rate to an unacceptable level, resulting in heart failure.

So this begs me to ask, are you really such a bad rider that you can’t navigate around a skinny guy running in an open lane? If you are then get off your bike, throw it off a cliff and please for gods sake do not get behind the wheel of a car. And don’t give me that “it’s just safer to make sure you know your surroundings” stuff. I know my surroundings. I won’t run into you and you don’t ride your bike into me. It’s that easy people.

Taping Your Broken Light

Your brake light is busted. Maybe you got into a wreck. Maybe you backed into a school child. Maybe a member of the Mafia took a bat to it. Whatever happened, you have to replace it or put tape over it so the bright bulb doesn’t blind me while driving. It’s the law. Usually people will cover the red shattered plastic with red duct tape, matching the cover and still letting the light illuminate the back of the tape.

While driving yesterday I noticed a truck with brown packing tape covering the entire red portion of their tail light. It was so dark and layered on that even though covering my line of sight to the bare bulb, it was still doing more harm than good. Is me looking at no more than a Christmas light really going to obstruct my view so bad that I veer off the road? I would argue that not being able to see your brake light come on at all is actually doing more harm than good.

Laser Pointers

This one goes back a few weeks to Thunder Over Louisville. While watching the American flag fly by, hoisted over the hundreds of thousands of people and listening to my favorite part of Thunder, Old Glory, I couldn’t help but be taken out of the moment by the American-hating pinko commie that was pointing his cat toy at the Red, White and Blue.

When I was a kid in the ’90s, laser pointers were at their peak. Every kid had one. The cool kids had the ones that had the detachable tips that would create shapes with your obnoxious red light. I did not. I did however have enough of them pointed in my eyes that I still see red blurs from time to time.

Sure you can drive your cats crazy with them or point at a map from across the room, but the damage done by these things far outweighs the good. When was the last time you were giving a presentation or out at dinner and thought to yourself “I really wish I had a laser pointer with me right now?” Instead these pen size death rays are used by the dumbed down part of our civilization to ruin concerts and firework displays for us.

What do you think does more harm than good?

This may be sacrilegious to some UofL fans but I don’t really give a damn. I like seeing my state win. Whether it be college football or basketball, Top Chef or even The Amazing Race, I enjoy seeing people from my state do good. So just like most other people in The Commonwealth, I was thrilled when both UofL and UK made it to the 2012 Final Four.

Photo: Christian Randolph/AP

I didn’t expect the Cards to win because let’s face it, Kentucky had the better team this year. So it was no surprise to me when UK came through on Saturday night and beat UofL by 8 points. What did surprise me was that UK students and fans in Lexington decided to celebrate their team’s WIN by catching things on fire and throwing beer bottles at police officers.

This whole tournament I’ve been going back and forth with UofL fans about why I should or shouldn’t cheer on the Cats and the bad rep. their fans get for being so obnoxious. I personally had never experienced this until now. The only Big Blue fan that I’m truly close to is my step-father, Andy. He knows the game, cheers for the Cards when he can and has always been respectful of others when it’s game-time.

Now I’m not saying I now think that all UK fans are obnoxious drunken arsonists, but the ones in Lexington this weekend sure didn’t help their case any.

Chris Humphreys.

Editor’s Note: This column originally appeared online at www.voice-tribune.com.

I used to hate this city.

Before you start questioning my motives and yelling for me to “geeeeeeeeeet out!” let me plead my case.

For the first 18 years of my life I grew up in a lovely home in Okolona, where my parents still reside. I had a good childhood and home-life, but growing up in the South End of Louisville did nothing to help me like Louisville any.

At 16, I starting working at the Jefferson Mall, where I worked at four different stores in three years, all the while witnessing theft and fights what seemed like once a week.

Around the same time, I discovered the magical part of town where kids can go to loiter and annoy paying patrons at different establishments all the while still being “cool” for doing so. I discovered the Highlands.

This was a big step for me. You mean there’s more to Louisville than the Super Wal-Mart on Preston and strip malls on Outer Loop?

Skip to age 18, I started school at JCC (which immediately changed its name to JCTC upon my arrival) and finally got a taste of the downtown life, which was nice, but Second and Broadway still wasn’t the ambassador to Louisville that I needed.

Jump to the end of that year, before turning 19, when I moved in with my first serious girlfriend – in Buechel. The part of Bardstown Road that’s literally and metaphorically on the other side of the train tracks. The complex was so bad that Papa John’s wouldn’t even make deliveries to it. Luckily for us, her lease ran out a couple months later.

We then traveled up Bardstown Road a few miles and landed in a 4-unit, 100+-year-old home near Cherokee Park.

After months of loud noises coming from our drug dealing neighbor upstairs and threats from the drunk witch in the unit next to us, we finally convinced our Stalinesque landlord to let us out of the lease early in order to find a place to live that didn’t make us fear walking upstairs.

Luckily for us, my mother’s friend was trying to sell her shotgun home in Germantown and after a little convincing, agreed to let us rent it from her. At this point I was 20 and still in college, out of the mall and designing at a sign shop in the Highlands. This was a turning point. I got to travel between downtown, the Highlands and Germantown and only had to go south on 65 to visit my parents and favorite comic shop.

GQ recently named Louisville as its "Manliest City in America."

By 21, my relationship fell apart, I was living alone, still in school and was working at another sign shop that took me back to Buechel five days a week. Not what I really wanted out of a city that I was slowly learning had a lot to offer.

Cue age 22. I graduated after four years at a community college that was only supposed to take me two (I took the extra time to get another degree and a fancy web-design certificate). I was still stuck in Buechel making nowhere near enough money for the work I was doing and desperately wanted out of this city and into a real city that actually wanted a photographer/designer that loves food more than oxygen.

Three months before turning 23, I stopped looking at the Missed Encounters section of Craigslist and clicked on the Jobs link instead. A month later I was the new designer/photographer at The Voice-Tribune. If moving to Germantown was a turning point, then starting my new St. Matthews gig was some real parting of the Red Sea type stuff.

I quickly learned that Louisville was so much more than the mixture of redneck ghetto trash that I put up with in Jefferson Mall and strange hippie-hipsters in the Highlands that made you feel more like you were turning the corner of Haight-Ashbury than Bardstown-Eastern Parkway.

I learned that East-Enders aren’t all stuck up rich people with more money than God. They were, in fact, nicer and more kind to me than anyone from the South End ever was. I found out that on any given night there’s at least one event going on somewhere in this city that’s worth attending. And most importantly I discovered our restaurant scene that I would put up in a “Top Chef” style challenge against any bigger city I’ve ever traveled to.

This year The Voice-Tribune moved to Butchertown in NuLu, and I’ve fallen in love with Louisville all over again.

It put us within walking distance or a short TARC ride of some of the best places to eat in town, blocks away from the ever-expanding Gallery District that seems to have a new store or shop popping up every few weeks and is only a hop skip and a jump away from The YUM! Center and one of my favorite summer venues, Louisville Slugger Field.

Louisville has much to offer to everyone. Unfortunately, like my younger self, not everyone knows that. But, to my surprise, GQ magazine does.

While flipping through the March issue of the men’s mag, I saw some familiar locations and a headline that reads “The Manliest Town in America” featured prominently on page 100.

The one-page travel column is where writer Brendan Vaughan recounts his recent trip to The Possibility City and mentions some of my personal favorite places in town, 21c Museum Hotel, Proof on Main, Please & Thank You, The Blind Pig, and, of course, Churchill Downs. And he makes a damn good argument for his case. (Pick it up on newsstands now if you want to read the full thing.)

Well that’s it. That’s my journey through Metro-Louisville over the last 24 years. I’m still in the Germantown shotgun house, living with a roommate I keep in my attic (kidding, mostly) and two cats that have free reign, enjoying our delicious food and entertaining nightlife and working to keep you folks entertained with The Voice-Tribune five days a week – and I love it.

Contact photographer/designer – and, now, writer – Chris Humphreys at chumphreys@voice-tribune.com or call 502.897.8903.

Before you start questioning my motives and yelling for me to “geeeeeeeeeet out!”, let me plead my case.

For the first 18 years of my life I grew up in a lovely home in Okolona, where my parents still reside. I had a good childhood and home-life, but growing up in the South End of Louisville did nothing to help me like Louisville any.

Where souls go to die.

At age 16 I starting working at the Jefferson Mall, where I worked at 4 different stores in 3 years, all the while witnessing theft and fights what seemed like once a week.

Around the same time I discovered the magical part of town where kids can go to loiter and annoy paying patrons at different establishments all the while still being “cool” for doing so. I discovered the Highlands. This was a big step for me. You mean there’s more to Louisville than the Super Wal-Mart on Preston and strip malls on Outer Loop?

Skip to age 18, I started school at JCC (which immediately changed its name to JCTC upon my arrival) and finally got a taste of the downtown life. Which was nice, but 2nd and Broadway still wasn’t the ambassador to Louisville that I needed.

Jump to the end of that year, before turning 19, when I moved in with my first serious girlfriend, in Buechel. The part of Bardstown Road that’s literally and metaphorically on the other side of the train tracks. The complex was so bad that Papa Johns wouldn’t even make deliveries to it. Luckily for us her lease ran out a couple months later.

We then traveled up Bardstown Road a few miles and landed in a 4 unit 100+ year old home near Cherokee Park. After months of loud noises coming from our drug dealing neighbor upstairs and threats from the drunk bitch in the unit next to us (that we even got arrested late one night [still proud of that one]) we finally convinced our Stalinesque landlord to let us out early in order to find a place to live that didn’t make us fear walking upstairs.

It took me a little while to discover the bar scene in Germantown, my favorite being Nach Bar.

Luckily for us a friend of my mothers was trying to sell her shotgun home in Germantown and after a little convincing, agreed to let us rent it from her. At this point I was 20 and still in college, out of the mall and designing at a sign shop in the Highlands. This was a turning point. I got to travel between downtown, the Highlands and Germantown and only had to go south on 65 to visit my parents and favorite comic shop.

By 21 my relationship fell apart, I was living alone, still in school and was working at another sign shop that took me back to Buechel five days a week. Not what I really wanted out of a city that I was slowly learning had a lot to offer.

Cue age 22. I graduated after 4 years at a community college that was only supposed to take me two (I took the extra time to get another degree and a fancy web-design certificate), I was still stuck in Buechel making nowhere near enough money for the work I was doing and desperately wanted out of this city and into a real city that actually wanted a photographer/designer that loves food more than oxygen.

Three months before turning 23 I stopped looking at the Missed Encounters section of Craigslist and clicked on the Jobs link instead. A month went by and they finally got back to me, resulting in a designer/photographer position at The Voice-Tribune. If moving to Germantown was a turning point, then starting my new St. Matthews gig was some real parting of the Red Sea type sh*t.

It's not the size that matters, right?

I quickly learned that Louisville was so much more than a mixture of redneck ghetto trash that I put up with in Jefferson Mall and strange hippie-hipsters in the Highlands that made you feel more like you were turning the corner of Haight-Ashbury than Bardstown-Eastern Parkway. I learned that East-Enders aren’t all stuck up rich people with more money than god. That they were in fact nicer and more kind to me than anyone from the South End ever was. I found out that on any given night there’s at least one event going on somewhere in this city that’s worth attending. And most importantly I discovered our restaurant scene that I would put up in a Top Chef style challenge against any bigger city I’ve ever traveled to.

This year The Voice-Tribune moved to NuLu and I’ve fallen in love Louisville all over again. It put us within walking distance or a short TARC ride of some of the best places to eat in town, blocks away from the ever expanding Gallery District that seems to have a new store or shop popping up every few weeks and only a hop skip and a jump away from The YUM! Center and one of my favorite summer venues, Louisville Slugger Field.

Louisville has much to offer to everyone. Unfortunately like my younger self, not everyone knows that. So to my surprise this morning when I turned to page 100 of the March 2012 issue of GQ, I saw some familiar locations and a headline that reads “The Manliest Town in America.”

Louisville: GQ's "Manliest Town in America."

The one page travel column is where writer Brendan Vaughan recounts his recent trip to The Possibility City and mentions some of my personal favorite places in town, 21c Museum Hotel, Proof on Main, Please & Thank You, The Blind Pig, and of course Churchill Downs. And he makes a damn good argument for his case. Pick it up on newsstands now if you want to read the full thing.

Well that’s it. That’s my journey through Metro-Louisville over the last 24 years. I’m still in the Germantown shotgun house, living with a roommate I keep in my attic and two cats that have free reign, enjoying our delicious food and entertaining nightlife and working to keep you folks entertained with The Voice-Tribune 5 days a week. And I love it.

Courtesy Photos

There’s something surreal about listening to people discuss food while making pancakes on a beautiful Sunday morning.

What can I say? I’m a simple man that enjoys fluffy pancakes and listening to people discuss the origins of Sriracha Hot Sauce.