Sports / Entertainment

Consumer Stories

Winding down the life of the James Brown Arena

Members of the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum are taking steps to close the James Brown Arena and prepare for demolition. Members held what is expected to be their second to last monthly meeting at the arena just before the ribbon cutting to re-open the renovated and expanded Bell Auditorium. Ed Enoch, the authority’s legal counsel, updated members on the hiring of a construction manager for the $250 million project that includes a concourse to connect the new JBA to the Bell. “I got to fill out an RFP (Request For Proposal)

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Consumer Stories

A Gracious Goodbye to Augusta Business Daily

This week will mark my last as an entertainment writer for Augusta Business Daily, and it is a bittersweet feeling. When I started last September, I was fresh out of the Savannah College of Art & Design with a degree in Dramatic Writing and, seemingly, nothing to do with it. The movie industry was frozen: paralyzed for a moment with pangs of greed, anger, demonstrations, and perseverance by the folks who make the biz operate daily. Yet, my passion for movies – a love story dating back to being a

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Consumer Stories

First step complete for new Augusta entertainment complex

The public got its first look inside the newly renovated and expanded Bell Auditorium during a Tuesday ribbon-cutting ceremony. The facility closed about a year ago for the more than $17 million project, designed to enhance the current venue as the first phase of a three-phase development. “For more than 80 years, this venue here has hosted a lot of fun events,” Mayor Garnett Johnson told the crowd. “Here we are, bigger and better, to host more events for generations to come.” The Bell is more than 80 years old.

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Consumer Stories

Beyond Casual’s Upcoming Thriller Is Creative Collaboration

At the foot of the Thurmond Dam last week, movie magic was once again being made in Augusta. The film is called The Observance, a psychological thriller brought to you by Beyond Casual Media, a local media company that has produced several films over the past half-decade. Their presence is a jolt of life into Georgia’s recovering filmmaking scene following the creative industry strikes of 2023. The Observance is the fourth in a string of indie features made by collaborators, Robert Hollocks and Amy Rhinehart Bailey, preceded by Encounter (2021),

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Consumer Stories

Air show returns to Augusta airport this weekend

The skies over Augusta will soon be filled with military teams and civilian aviators demonstrating their abilities. The second Annual Augusta Air Show will be held at Augusta Regional Airport on May 25 and 26. “It’s great that we’re coming back for a second year. We look forward to putting on another great show for the Augusta area folk,” Chris Dirato, Director of Public Relations for Augusta Air Show told ABD. “We’ll have a combination of military, as well as civilian performers. So, as I like to say, we have

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Consumer Stories

In Wildcat, Flannery O’Connor’s life and words intertwine

The movie biopic has become something of a dreaded, exhausted genre; often an exploitative, surface-level travesty of a familiar personality played with predictable beats and cosmetic transformation of a leading actor hungry for an Oscar nomination (remember Mr. Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein?). Most of these films either try to capture an entire life in two hours, or laser-focus on one specific, usually climactic, period of a subject’s life with little to offer in terms of context. With the new film Wildcat, one may fear that legendary Georgia-born writer, Flannery O’Connor would

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Consumer Stories

Big donation from Columbia County merchants supports children in need

The most vulnerable infants at the Children’s Hospital of Georgia (CHOG) in Augusta are benefitting from the 4th Annual Spring Fair in Columbia County, thanks to the fair’s sponsors. The Merchants Association of Columbia County (MACC), a non-profit organization made up of active and retired business owners, presented the hospital with a check for $180,000. “We just want the community to recognize there are needs in our community, and there are associations in the community that want to help. Especially children in need,” said Carol Garner, MACC Charity Committee Chairperson

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Consumer Stories

When a biz break calls for family fun

Fort Eisenhower MWR Phone:  706-791-6779 Website: MWR Website Summer is right around the corner, and you may be thinking about options to explore with your kids that will not cost you an arm and a leg. From one local to another, I never really thought that a civilian could have such an easy time getting on post, but there are great programs in place just waiting for you to take advantage of all the fun that happens on Fort Eisenhower. There are options for civilian day passes and an Automatic

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Consumer Stories

In Challengers, tennis is a relationship

The spring’s hottest new release is the sports drama Challengers, directed by Luca Guadanino and starring Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist, and Zendaya in a role that defines the current trajectory of her career. It is a film that drips with sweat, tears, and angst, and finds the poetry in the sport of tennis. The story whips back and forth between 2006 and 2019. At the beginning of this 13-year span of time, junior tournament players, Art Donaldson (Faist) and Patrick Zweig (O’Connor) are spirited pals with shared eyes for Tashi

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Consumer Stories

Horsin’ around in the CSRA on Derby weekend is big business

It’s a big week for horses in Kentucky and Aiken, SC. Not unusual for either location. There is a connection between the two. Thoroughbreds helped build Aiken into a destination for horse lovers and visitors from the north who fell in love with the city and moved here. The breed is also for racing in the bluegrass state of Kentucky and for steeplechase and other horse shows in Aiken. Yesterday was the beginning of two weeks of events for the Aiken Charity Horse Show at Bruce’s Field. When Bruce Duchossois

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