Guy Fieri blew through town last year filming segments with a bunch of restaurants that have been airing this season on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives.
Tonight, the Dixie Supply Bakery & Cafe gets its turn in the spotlight. more…
Guy Fieri blew through town last year filming segments with a bunch of restaurants that have been airing this season on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives.
Tonight, the Dixie Supply Bakery & Cafe gets its turn in the spotlight. more…
I, along with others, worried that Midtown was going to be the "nail in the coffin" for the Eastside. But then the recession hit and froze everything. Today, the development is back. And once again, if its impact isn't mitigated, it will be deadly to the Eastside's culture and heritage.
The week's best freebies: July 31-Aug. 5
Say what you will about Friday night's Olympic opening ceremony — a bizarre and exceedingly ugly bit of buggery orchestrated by Danny Boyle, the acclaimed director of Slumdog Millionaire and 28 Days Later — but if it proved anything, it's that the British Empire is alive and well. And that when it's all said and done, the Limbaughs and the Hannitys and all the other dittoheaded disciples of American exceptionalism are a short-sighted lot, whose entire grasp of history is obstructed by their own oversized guts.
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It's hard to consider Patterson Hood a solo artist. The Athens, Ga.-based songwriter has spent the last 12 years co-fronting the Drive-By Truckers through a roller-coaster of adventures. But he loves to tangle with other musicians on various side projects as well. His forthcoming solo album Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance is due next month via ATO Records.
Charleston police have arrested four people in connection with the June 16 shooting of 17-year-old Marley Lion in a West Ashley parking lot. The arrests came Monday after a six-week investigation that involved surveillance video enhancement from the Secret Service and an undercover gun-buying operation with help from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. more…
The recent brouhaha over President Barack Obama's somewhat clumsy attempt at making a case for the government's role in the success of small business in America and the Romney campaign's unintentionally hilarious response to those comments obscure a much deeper problem with both our national political debate and our shared socio-economic problems. To put it bluntly, the debate over what the president said is little more than a fundraising tool — for both sides. The presence of government involvement, both passive and active, is a necessity in a modern, functional economy. Debating how much or how little help government creates for business is pointless and distracts from a more pressing and real problem.
Somewhere in Colorado, a public official is cursing the name Kristin Iversen. It is impossible to read her Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats without seriously reconsidering any plans to visit or reside in the Centennial State — at the very least, you may want to refrain from eating or drinking anything local.
The last time Porgy and Bess came to the Dock Street Theatre, things didn't go so well. It was the early 1950s, and after weeks of auditions, set construction, and rehearsals with the entirely African-American cast, the production was cancelled because they couldn't figure out how to segregate the theater. More than 60 years later, the Footlight Players are presenting the opera's Dock Street debut under the direction of Henry Clay Middleton.
It starts with a drink. Specifically, a negroni, which ushers in a feeling of cool nostalgia in the way that only a summer cocktail can. A small group has gathered at Heirloom Book Co. for a Provençal picnic amongst their volumes. We're toasting April Bloomfield, the N.Y.C.-based chef who has stopped in Charleston to promote her first book, A Girl and Her Pig. Despite her "I Heart Bacon" T-shirt, there's no pork in sight. "Too obvious," Sean Brock, the Holy City chef who needs no introduction, tells me in a low voice. There is, however, a $600 lamb stretched out in front of him. He and Bloomfield basted it with lemonade ("made with sorghum, not sugar") and roasted it over a spit.
Beautiful Ruins is a riveting book about the connections between strangers, family members, and lovers. Jess Walter's style of writing kept us hooked from the very beginning. He's a bit of a tease, really. He shares just enough about one character to inspire curiosity, comes ridiculously close to revealing something important, and then drags us halfway across the world to introduce someone else. It's impossible to look away.
Fred Jamar is easily one of Charleston's most recognizable artists. His paintings of Charleston cityscapes are brightly colored reflections of the city at its most familiar and most unique, like the steeple of St. Michael's rising over Broad Street, Rainbow Row, or one of the many pink or blue or yellow single houses that are so distinctive to the Holy City.
Last week, local acoustic trio Rustic Remedy performed a set at the Morgan Creek Grill while Becca Finley and her production crew maneuvered around them, filming the band, checking equalizers, and posting up on laptops under a nearby tent. It was all part of an internationally broadcast show called Balcony TV.
BLOTTER O' THE WEEK
While a man was sitting in a restaurant with his lady friend, he watched a stranger walk up and steal the decorative candle from their table. A fight broke out, and the stranger ended up head-butting the man and getting away.
We tapped our favorite local authors to find out what they're reading this summer. From a book about human trafficking to classics like Franny and Zooey, their choices just might surprise you.
Between signing books, Damon Fordham strolled among tables, playing a tune on his harmonica for friends and guests at his book-signing party at Huger's restaurant last week. I've known Fordham for a long time now, but I had no idea he was so versatile.
When a gig popped up at the Pour House a few months ago, local rock band the Dead 27's were left as the headliners with little notice. They jammed on Hendrix all night. Since then, they've come into their own.
In her well researched, carefully crafted book Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury, British music journalist and author Lesley-Ann Jones shines light on some of the more private moments of late rock singer Freddie Mercury's life. Mercury examines all of the love, artistry, and life struggles that led Mercury from his early musical achievements to mega-stardom with Queen to his final years which ended in his 1991 death from AIDS-related complications. Fortunately, there's more to Mercury's story than his wild ride with Queen and his reputation for flamboyance. Mercury also documents the band's full career and the era of glam-rock weirdness, replete with plenty of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. The tone is matter-of-fact rather than sensational.
Eric Liebetrau is the managing editor and nonfiction editor of Kirkus Reviews, which has provided industry professionals and consumers with book reviews since 1933. A Mt. Pleasant resident, Liebetrau's reviews and features have appeared in a variety of national publications, including People, the Boston Globe, and The New Yorker. After sifting through this summer's releases, he selected his favorite fiction and nonfiction offerings.