Many local residents were shocked this week when they heard a few Columbia County commissioners were apparently upset because they had not been given any free tickets to this weekend’s Merle Haggard show at the Columbia County Exhibition Center. That was bad enough. But when citizens learned commissioners are also considering changing the rental contracts […]
A grocery store is a grocery store, right? Well, not exactly. Take Whole Foods, for instance. Open since last September, the chain prides itself of being “America’s healthiest grocery store.” That, says Marketing Team Leader Melissa Brown, tends to scare some shoppers. “I think a lot of people don’t realize how important it is to […]
According to Wikipedia, a fall guy refers to “a person to whom blame is deliberately and erroneously attributed in order to deflect responsibility or blame from another party.” I have a theory. It is a bit of a conspiracy theory. It is farfetched. It is a little absurd. Still, I think it is worth sharing. […]
If you frequently find yourself completely stressed out while sitting in a long line of traffic on any of the major thoroughfares in Columbia County, new District 1 Commissioner Doug Duncan wants you to know one simple fact: You are not alone. “I often get hacked off and say, ‘What the heck?’” said Duncan, who […]
When Royce Richardson of Triple R Concert Productions decided to bring country music legend Merle Haggard to the Columbia County Exhibition Center this Saturday, Richardson felt it was a win-win situation for Haggard, his fans and Columbia County. With ticket sales extremely strong for the Haggard show, Richardson was considering putting in an offer for […]
So Azziz is excited to get back to academic life? His true calling and passion? When he was interviewed to come to Augusta did he share his true passion then? Funny how things change. Your “deadbeat funkmeister” had his gig cancelled on him last Thursday night. Maybe the bar owners will teach him a lesson […]
To Brandon Brune, artistic director of Les Chatons Noir young actors collective, “Book of Days” by Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson reminds him of another classic play… in an evil doppelganger sort of way. “In a lot of ways it’s similar to the classic ‘Our Town’ in that you have an ensemble cast and they’re […]
Just a few short hours after Georgia Regents University President Ricardo Azziz submitted his letter of resignation to officials with the state’s board of regents last week, he felt a great sense of accomplishment regarding his time in Augusta. But Azziz said he is also ready for the next
We are told — in elementary school science classes, in college philosophy seminars, by “Big Bang Theory” writers just after their mid-morning tweak — that, for every reaction, there is an equal yet opposite reaction. The natural world, at least at the atomic level and above, seems to back this
The only thing worse than critiquing something (a restaurant, a film, a book) with which you are largely unfamiliar is heaping tons of praise on similarly uncharted material. I have not seen “American Sniper” so I cannot and will not recommend that you see it. At least not based on
It’s science fair project season. Ask just about any parent, and they’ll tell you it’s more like torture season. In theory, science fair projects are a good idea. They provide good training for completing a big project, step by step. Students learn about science. They also learn to pick an
Undoubtedly, email has evolved into the most flexible, useful and ubiquitous form of communication. Email is used for everything. Think about it. When you have a tidbit of information that you send out, how do you do it? Email, of course. Before the Internet, a bin on an office desk used to be
It’s hard to evaluate “American Sniper” on its merits alone, without considering its subject, the late Chris Kyle. The sharpshooter killed something like 255 people in Iraq, a stupefying total for a single lifetime, even if you accept only the confirmed number of 160.
So, what were the first words out of Georgia Regents University President Ricardo Azziz’s mouth when a Metro Spirit reporter asked him the reason behind his resignation this week? “This is all good,” Azziz said. “This is all positive.” Spin. Spin. Spin. It was as if the members of Azziz’s
Recently, an acquaintance of mine shared two opinions about Islamist extremism and the Muslim community on Facebook. The first was that the Muslim community should do a better job differentiating themselves from extremists by openly condemning acts of terrorism. The second was that the Muslim
Just a few short hours after Georgia Regents University President Ricardo Azziz submitted his letter of resignation to officials with the state’s board of regents, he felt a great sense of accomplishment regarding his time in Augusta. But Azziz said he is also ready for the next chapter in his
Despite the fact that the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously ruled in November that the practice of tolling sentences by courts and private probation companies in misdemeanor cases is illegal, it appears the issue will again take center stage under Georgia’s gold dome this year. There is a great
All right, so last week when Mayor Pro Tem Grady Smith was appointed to his new position, there was a lot of talk about whether or not he owed Augusta Commissioner Marion Williams an enormous favor. The rumor was that Smith was now willing to support Williams’ crusade to fire General Counsel
A local musician has developed the reputation as the area’s top deadbeat funkmeister (henceforth known as DF); more often than not, sources say, he does not pay unsuspecting musicians what they are owed. In one recent case brought to our attention, DF spent almost half a year exchanging texts
Overall, Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis has received high marks from insiders within the Marble Palace during his first week in office. Whenever you are the new kid on the block, especially when you are in a leadership role, that transition can be more than a little tough. After all, as soon as you
The Downtown Development Authority had grand plans for a state-of the-art parking system along Broad Street with new computerized meters that would be so user friendly that the public would embrace them. That was the dream. The reality, however, was quite different when the city of Augusta held
If you ask North Carolina’s Lauren Faulkenberry how she would describe herself and her work, the owner of Firebrand Press would have a difficult time choosing between author, artist or artisan. “I do feel like I’m kind of a mishmash of a lot of things, but I guess primarily I’d say artist or
Because I’m always watching for people to do crazy things, I was elated about the inside info I got recently. A crazy thing was about to happen. My friends Erin, Gary and I were sitting at the bar at a local restaurant, when the GM (thanks, Darby!) told us the plan. A guy was coming […]
Okay, let’s take care of the priority items first. This past Monday was the college championship football game. I’m sure the game was good, but that’s not what was important. In case you missed it, our hometown supergroup, Lady Antebellum, sung the national anthem. Best national anthem ever.
I don’t talk about politics much anymore, either in this space or in my day to day life. I eschew this for the same reason I don’t drink milk before going for a 12-mile run: it makes me cramped and gassy, and there’s a fairly good chance that white liquid will start spewing from my […]
Early in “Selma,” the story of the 1965 marches from that small Alabama town to Montgomery, we get a disagreeable meeting of two heavyweights. Lyndon Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) welcomes Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo) into the Oval Office to dissuade him, maybe, from the next act of
Overall, Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis has received high marks from insiders within the Marble Palace during his first week in office. Whenever you are the new kid on the block, especially when you are in a leadership role, that transition can be more than a little tough. After all, as soon as you