5 things to read this morning
April 8, 2014
1. Sleeper Agent returns with ‘About Last Night’
Tony Smith had dreams of Nashville. Growing up in the Bowling Green music scene, he cut his teeth playing rock ‘n’ roll in basements and small venues in his hometown. But he waited for the day when he could grace the stage of a venue in Music City. That’d be the day he knew he had arrived.
The breakthrough for Smith came in fall 2011 as the frontman for Sleeper Agent. They burst onto the scene with their raucous debut “Celebrasion,” a collection of fuzzy, fast-paced teenage rock anthems. The buzz generated by the band’s first album led to tours with Weezer, Fun., Grouplove, Ben Kweller and other respected acts, as well as an appearance at the 2012 Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival.
The band kicked off its first headlining tour on Saturday with a hometown show at the Warehouse at Mt. Victor, supporting its sophomore album “About Last Night,” which dropped March 25.
Smith was excited for the chance to play an all-ages hometown show but said playing to a Bowling Green crowd is often stress-inducing.
“It’s not my favorite thing to do,” Smith said. “Mainly because I look out, I see kids I grew up with and parents, lots of parents. Maybe there’s a girl I treated poorly on a date one time. It’s a little more of a stress run. The reward is bigger too. If we can do well in our hometown it will be talked about for months.”
2. Roundabout to be constructed at intersection of University Blvd. and Nashville Road
A new type of roadway will replace a notable intersection in Bowling Green.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is moving forward with its project to create a two-lane roundabout at the intersection of University Boulevard and Nashville Road.
Joe Plunk, transportation engineering branch manager for project development for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 3, said the current intersection has high traffic with a high speed limit. These factors have contributed to more than 200 accidents between January 2001 and August 2011, according to documents provided by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 3.
3. Student fights against cancer, helps raise money for St. Baldrick’s
When Lauren Osbourne was 6 months old, she was diagnosed with liver cancer. Although she was too young to even remember her treatment, she went through six months of chemotherapy.
“It was hard on my parents,” Osbourne, a Bardstown sophomore, said. “They didn’t know if I was going to make it at first.”
What her family didn’t find out until later was that her cancer was the result of a gene she has that comes from her mother’s side of her family. When she was 17 years old, she was diagnosed with another type of cancer in early 2012 that was also connected to the gene, but this time it was colon cancer.
“It definitely was an eye-opener the second time,” Osbourne said. “I didn’t really remember going through it when I was younger. I was always really curious of what I did go through the first time.”
4. Geography department receives software grant
The Department of Geography and Geology recently received $3.7 million from United Kingdom-based Midland Valley Exploration Ltd. to go towards the MOVE software grant.
“This is academic initiative software to support future generations of geoscientists,” geology professor Nahid Gani said.
5. Spring Sing gallery
