TheState.com: Life and Style

Music: Atkins doesn’t peg future on awards

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:50 EDT

Rodney Atkins isn’t a country music newcomer, and he has the hits to prove it.

But that hasn’t stopped the country elite — we’re talking the Country Music Association — from nominating him for the new artist of the year award.

Twice.

“It’s pretty crazy to understand how that stuff works out,” said Atkins, who released his first album in 2003 and hit it big with 2006’s “If You’re Going Through Hell.”

But Atkins isn’t the only one up for the trophy, previously known as the Horizon Award, for the second consecutive year. He joins Kellie Pickler and Jason Aldean.

On the Scene: Variety is the spice of Columbia

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:31 EDT

A OK:Ben Boatwright, the Art Bar bartender who goes by BJ, had a seizure at the bar during Saturday’s Free Times Music Crawl.

Andy Rodgers, a co-owner and bartender, told us Boatwright, who had a heart attack in April while working, is OK.

“He should be back to 100 percent this weekend,” Rodgers said.

ELECTION NOTES:Murs, an L.A. indie rapper, is on the campaign trail. His latest album, “Murs For President,” was released Sept. 30, and he’ll play New Brookland Tavern on Nov. 6, two days after the presidential election. Kidz in the Hall will open.

Murs attended the Democratic National Convention and performed at a concert there. How fiery will this show be if Obama loses?

Get Out: As fall colors peek out, plan now for the peak

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:24 EDT

The dominant hue on the State Park Service’s fall color Web cam is still green, but it’s not too early to plan a leaf-peeping trip.

Here are some suggestions:

• The peak weekends in South Carolina’s mountains usually are at the end of October and the first of November, but some leaves will begin changing this week. Remember, all trees and all areas don’t change simultaneously. If you plan to stick closer to the Midlands, the peak here often isn’t until mid-November.

• If you want to hike, consider state parks. With rare exceptions, hunting isn’t allowed in the parks. If you hike in state or national forest lands, wear some bright orange clothing so you’re obvious to deer and bear hunters. Mountain forests are especially busy during the two-week bear hunting season (Oct. 20-25 and Oct. 27-Nov. 1). Sundays are the days to hike during those weeks.

• If you prefer to do most of your leaf-peeping from inside a vehicle, drive S.C. 11 from I-26 north of Spartanburg to I-85 near the Georgia line. It’s worth the twisty drive up U.S. 276 to the Caesars Head overlook.

Eaton Wright: At Brixx, pizza you want to share

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:56 EDT

Brixx Wood Fired Pizza opened in June at the Village at Sandhill, just in time for occupants of the new condominiums right above the eatery to breathe in the smells of fresh pizza wafting up to their balcony. And just in time to for the residents to walk downstairs to sit on Brixx’s outdoor patio and sip a beer. It’s almost like New York, without the honking taxis.

Brixx, which was started in Charlotte in 1998, is an updated version of the dark, cavelike pizza palace of my youth. Checkered tablecloths and duct-taped banquettes have been replaced with bright track lighting, spacious booths and beer served in pint glasses rather than heavy, frosted mugs.

The place is conducive to groups — high-schoolers after a game, families going out together, co-workers celebrating a birthday — who want to chat and share food and not be rushed out the door.

Just don’t expect to order a large, greasy pepperoni pizza — think small and gourmet. The 10-inch pizzas ($7.95 to $10.95) are made with fresh mozzarella (or vegan!) cheese and baked in a brick oven, which keeps the thin crust chewy on the inside and crisp along the edges.

Topping combinations include sliced pears, gorgonzola, caramelized onions and toasted walnuts; roasted chicken with barbecue sauce, smoked gouda cheese, red onion and fresh cilantro; or roasted shitake, portobello and button mushrooms, fresh arugula and shaved Parmesan. Intrigued?

Movie tells tale of a young Billy Graham

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:07 EDT

Robby Benson knows how it sounds. But his reason for making a movie about the life of a young Billy Graham, the director says, is simple: "I wanted to make a movie about goodness."

"Billy: The Early Years" focuses on Graham's life as a teenager growing up on a dairy farm in Charlotte through his years as a young man, when he became a super-evangelist, drawing hundreds of thousands of people to his preaching tour "crusades."

The film premieres in theaters Friday in more than a dozen Southern states.

"It's just a love story to Billy," said Benson, who despite a long career as a television and film director is still best known for his days as teen heartthrob in movies such as "Ode to Billy Joe" and "Ice Castles."

"And it's also a love story to trying to do the right thing, just trying your best to be decent and not hurt others and add to the planet."

Pitt's first `Make It Right' homes complete in La.

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:06 EDT

The first homes in Brad Pitt's Make It Right rebuilding project are complete, and some three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, 68-year-old grandmother Gloria Guy was on hand to give the actor a big hug.

Pitt, his partner Angelina Jolie and their family of six children privately toured the hard-hit Lower 9th Ward district earlier this week. The celebrity couple bought a home in New Orleans about a year after Katrina struck and became involved in launching the project to help rebuild the city's hardest-hit neighborhood.

"I thank God for Brad Pitt," Guy said Thursday when reporters viewed the first six homes Pitt and family visited Monday and Tuesday. "I told him how much I appreciate all that he's done for me and my family."

Guy is moving into one of the first of some 150 Make It Right homes planned for a district where levees crumbled after Katrina, unleashing floodwaters that knocked previous homes off their foundations. Her new home sits atop eight-foot concrete pilings amid empty, grassy lots where some steps lead into thin air - where houses once stood.

The replacement homes cost an average $150,000 each and are for residents who still own their property and can pay insurance and taxes. Their monthly house payments will be based on applicants' income and subsidized by funds raised by Pitt's foundation.

Daddy Yankee takes on new role as debate moderator

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:11 EDT

Tom Brokaw, Jim Lehrer, Gwen Ifill - and Daddy Yankee? The 31-year-old reggaeton star is taking a turn as moderator of a debate Thursday among candidates for governor of Puerto Rico in an effort to lure young voters to the polls on Nov. 4.

The artist, whose real name is Ramon Ayala, will be one of three moderators at the debate under the slogan "Vota o quedate calla'o" - "Vote or keep your mouth shut." A local journalist and a television personality will join him

Best known for his song "Gasolina," Daddy Yankee has already made a plunge into national politics by endorsing Sen. John McCain for president "a fighter for the Hispanic community."

But he has said he is not biased toward any of the four island candidates.

"I am going to be an instrument to deliver the people's questions," he told the newspaper Primera Hora.

Even Britney Spears wonders what she was thinking

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:46 EDT

If you're wondering what was going through Britney Spears' head during her erratic era, you are not alone - so does she.

"I sit there and I look back and I'm like, 'I'm a smart person. What the hell was I thinking?'" Spears said in an interview to air on MTV on Nov. 30, two days before the release of her new album. "I've been through a lot in the past two or three years, and there's a lot that people don't know."

The 90-minute special, "Britney: For The Record," was executive-produced by Spears' manager Larry Rudolph. It features behind-the-scenes footage of the singer and her talking about her life over the past two years.

She's got a lot to talk about: In that time span, she has gotten divorced, been through a custody battle, gone to rehab, had very public meltdowns and had one memorably bad performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Now on the comeback trail, Spears is releasing her sixth album, "Circus," on Dec. 2, her 27th birthday.

Movies: DiCaprio, Crowe give weight to ‘Lies’

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:31 EDT

REVIEW

“Body of Lies”

2 ½ stars

RATED: R for violence, including torture, and for language

RUNNING TIME: 2:08

Movies: ‘Appaloosa’ gets gunslingers right, romance wrong

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:32 EDT

REVIEW

“Appaloosa”

2 ½ stars

RATED: R for some violence and language

RUNNING TIME: 1:54

Hunting gators, S.C. style

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:08 EDT

With a “fwump” followed immediately by a “thunk,” a crisp, clear night of low-key cruising on the Upper Santee River turns into hours of heart-stopping and, at times, lung-searing intensity.

Sarah Lowndes’ third shot ever with a crossbow lodges a bolt, or arrow, squarely in the upper back of an alligator halfway submerged near the river’s eastern bank at about 1:15 a.m.

“Great shot,” says Brad Taylor quietly.

After taking his first deep breath in minutes and making sure a line attached to the bolt doesn’t tangle as the gator pulls away, Brad whispers: “That’s a big gator. Now, we’re just going to let him do his thing for a while.”

“A while” ends up being 4½ excruciating, emotional hours as the gator first tried to get away — and almost succeeded — then fought against lines with every muscle in its powerful body. On the other end of those lines, the hunters hung on until hands cramped while simultaneously trying to position snares around the tail and head.

Will local radio's voice be silenced?

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:00 EDT

Local radio is the voice of watermelon queens, high school football games, community politics and commuter traffic updates.

But one day that voice could be silenced.

“Losing Their Voices,” a Southern Lens documentary, will debut at 10 tonight on ETV. Its purpose is as clear as a signal on a windless night: Local radio is a necessity.

“Losing Their Voices” interviews station owners and personalities, getting their perspective on what ails local radio.

Columbia’s Glory Communications, which owns four stations, including popular gospel station WFMV-FM 95.3, is one of those featured.

Things to do: Blues, cue and pipe music

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:23 EDT

Today: Five After Five

No need to hurry — just make sure to be at the Five After Five concert on time to hear the tunes of Joal Rush and opener Soul Mites.

WHEN: 6:30-10 p.m.

WHERE: Fountain in Five Points

COST: Free

DJ AM's friends announce Hollywood benefit concert

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:32 EDT

Friends of DJ AM are throwing a party to welcome the celebrity disc jockey home after he survived a fiery plane crash last month in South Carolina.

Mark Ronson, Cut Chemist, Steve Aoki and other AM pals will perform at the event, which will be held Tuesday night at the Avalon nightclub in Hollywood, Calif.

DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, and former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker suffered severe burns in the Sept. 19 crash at the main airport in Columbia. Two pilots and two other passengers were killed.

Tickets cost $20.

All proceeds will go to memorial funds for the crash victims, organizers said Wednesday.

Designers play it safe as economy sours

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:42 EDT

Paris Fashion Week ended on Sunday, capping a season which saw designers play it safe to coax customers into stores despite the global financial crisis.

"I don't think it's been as exciting as other seasons," Alexandra Shulman, editor-in-chief of British Vogue, told The Associated Press. "On the whole, most of the designers here have kind of stuck to what they know they can do, and not really tried anything that's going to scare the horses."

Major trends included lashings of color and print, sheer fabrics, sequins for day and sky-high hemlines.

"We've seen a lot of very short clothes, which goes against the old idea that when the economy is bad, hemlines go down," Shulman said.

LOUIS VUITTON

Hilton continues online presidential campaign

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:27 EDT

Watch out world: Paris Hilton is continuing her bid for the White House.

The paparazzi darling and reality TV star touted her candidacy in a video on FunnyOrDie.com Wednesday - her second appearance in a political spoof on the site.

"Running for fake president is a little daunting," a heavily made-up Hilton tells Martin Sheen, whom she calls "one of our greatest fake presidents."

"Being a fake president is a lot harder today than it was when I was a fake president," says Sheen, who has often played American presidents, most notably on TV's "The West Wing."

Hilton talks with Sheen about "Fo Po" - "Foreign policy, silly" - and shares what could be her real views on the economy and the war in Iraq.

'Twilight,' 'Pushing Daisies': Hollywood's new undead

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:00 EDT

The dead used to be a world away, far beyond the realm of mortal existence. If they walked the Earth at all, they inhabited the night.

But the coffins and long black capes are gone. The destructive haunting is over. And forget about menacing the living — these days, the dead are just like us.

Hollywood’s dead, circa 2008, wear jeans, type obsessively on their BlackBerries and fret over relationship woes. They solve crimes; they give advice. Edward, the Volvo-driving vampire at the heart of the best-selling novel and soon-to-be-released film “Twilight,” even slogs through the tedium of high school biology class.

That’s something Anne Rice’s regal, imperious Vampire Lestat wouldn’t be caught, well, dead doing.

Dead-but-still-talking characters are all over popular culture these days. From TV shows like “True Blood,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Desperate Housewives,” “The Ghost Whisperer” and “Reaper” to movies like “Twilight,” “Ghost Town,” “Over Her Dead Body” and the film version of the novel “The Lovely Bones” (due out next year), the dead are getting a stunning amount of face time.

TV: 'Eleventh Hour' new experiment for Rufus Sewell

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:00 EDT

There’s a lot of concern about science running amok this year. Fox has “Fringe.” CBS has “Eleventh Hour.”

British actor Rufus Sewell plays Dr. Jacob Hood, a special science adviser to the FBI. He works under the mandate to investigate crimes and crises of a scientific or technological nature. Imagine a cloning experiment goes bad. Who are you going to call? Dr. Hood.

Executive producer Ethan Reiff promises this show will be more science fact than science fiction.

“The show is filled with science. But it’s science that surrounds us every day of our lives already,” Reiff says during an interview at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. “Our lives have been directly touched in one form or another over the last decade by these endless cutting-edge breakthroughs in genetics, in biochemistry, and miniaturization and nanotechnology.”

That was the approach used in the British miniseries starring Patrick Stewart that served as the jumping off point for this new American network series. And just like the British version, Dr. Hood will not be alone in his work. He will share duties with Marley Shelton (Rachel Young).

At the S.C. State Fair: If you fry it, they will buy it

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:08 EDT

Giant turkey legs, fried dough, cotton candy and polish sausage will play heavily on the minds and tongues of visitors to the South Carolina State Fair.

It’s an event that has long ignited the taste buds of fair patrons, and as the 139th annual fair opens today in Columbia, a special exhibit will pay tribute to the foods Americans eat and what those foods say about them.

“Key Ingredients: America by Food,” explores how the foods people eat connect them to their communities, heritage and national culture. The traveling Smithsonian exhibit is on display in the Moore Building throughout the fair, which continues through Oct. 19.

“It’s such a universal topic,” said T. J. Wallace of the Humanities Council South Carolina, which is sponsoring the exhibit. “Everybody enjoys food.”

Wallace said the presentation highlights various American food traditions and explores such issues as home cooking, festivals and feasts and holiday traditions.

Take a bite out fall

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:13 EDT

TRAVELERS REST — As the calendar page turns to October, people around the Midlands head northward. To see the leaves change. To revel in the cooler temperatures. To light the first fire of the season.

And to bite into mountain apples.

It’s one of those much-anticipated rites of autumn: Pulling off the side of a well-traveled road and perusing the baskets of Fuji or Granny Smith or Goldrush.

They may not have the shiny finish and perfect look of a supermarket apple, but that’s not what shoppers at these stands are looking for. These folks want the crunch of a fresh mountain apple to enjoy on the car ride to or from their country hike, or to carry home and bake into pies or stir into sauce. They want cider made on the premises and apple butter to slather on a biscuit the next morning.

Dick Perdue estimates about 30 percent to 40 percent of the customers at his hillside fruit farm in northern Greenville County are tourists. At his location on S.C. 11 — the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway — he grows 19 types and more than 100 varieties of fruit, from raspberries to pears, figs to plums.