Mon, March 18, 2024

Sports / Entertainment

Consumer Stories

Oscars Recap: Nuanced Highs and the Big Disappointment

This year’s Oscar ceremony was the shortest in years – a rapid-fire cavalcade that barely had time to breathe. Despite this, it produced some real surprises, good and bad. Oppenheimer, unsurprisingly, won the top awards of the night, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director. The film provided the path for actors, Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey, Jr., as well as director, Christopher Nolan, to finally win their Oscars. It was one of a handful of “finally” moments. Nolan made a particularly inspired speech, emphasizing how

Read More »
Consumer Stories

The Oscar Will Go To…

Editor’s note: Watching movies has been part of our family as much as gathering around the dinner table. By the time our son was in second grade, he was a fan of great motion pictures, including Gone with the Wind, Singing in the Rain, Funny Face, African Queen, and any movie with Hepburn and Tracy. Aren’t we lucky that ABD has Dylan James who also appreciates the classics and keeps us up on future classics including the local movie productions? We hope you entered our Oscar competition for a chance

Read More »
B2B Stories

Big bucks bouncing into the CSRA

More than 500 visitors are expected to generate an economic impact of nearly a quarter of a million dollars for three days of basketball competition that starts today at Riverview Park in North Augusta. Eight high school basketball teams will face off in the Nike EYBL (Elite Youth Basketball League) Scholastic League, created by a partnership with the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference (NIBC). Teams from Canada and across the U.S. including, New York, Arizona, and Kansas will face off beginning tonight at 6:00 pm and continuing through Saturday, March 9.

Read More »
Consumer Stories

JBA construction closer to reality

The intergovernmental agreement between the Augusta Commission and the Augusta-Richmond Coliseum Authority has been signed. Authority Chairman, Cedric Johnson confirmed for ABD he signed the document. It creates the pipeline to receive funds from the half-penny sales tax approved by voters in November 2023. “Approval by the Commission opens the doorway for us to get those funds,” he said. “Without that agreement, any SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) goes straight to the city. So, we do have an agreement on how we would handle the funds.” One of

Read More »
Consumer Stories

Tourism icon to help military folks in the CSRA

An annual event scheduled at Augusta Regional Airport is drawing increased attention to the airport. The third annual “Run the Runway” has been set for March 16. It gives individuals the unique opportunity to run a 5k race on one of the runways at the airport. “The course takes you through Lock and Dam Park and then, it will turn and get you on our property. You’ll run up our runway and down and end on our taxiway,” Lauren Smith, Assistant Director of Marketing & Public Relations at the airport

Read More »
Consumer Stories

Confessions of an Oscar Addict

I have been watching the Academy Awards since I was nine years old – my first memory of the show being Heath Ledger’s family, flown in from Australia, accepting the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight on behalf of the late star. Two years later, at age eleven, The King’s Speech had impressed me enough with its storytelling that I swore on everything, except my own deceased relatives that it would suffice for the big prizes on Oscar night. It turned out that I was correct, and

Read More »
B2B Stories

Another hurdle cleared and one step closer to JBA reality

The second step required to collect funds for the new James Brown Arena construction has been completed. Augusta Commissioners Tuesday unanimously approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Augusta Richmond County Coliseum Authority. The agreement sets in motion the financial process of collecting and dispersing the money from the half-penny Construction Special Project, Local Option Sales Tax (C-SPLOST). It also clears the way to begin collecting money through the $250 million bond issue approved by voters last November. The process began in late January when members of the Authority approved the intergovernmental

Read More »
Consumer Stories

Skies over Augusta will again be filled by an Air Show

The air show at Augusta Regional Airport can now officially be called an annual event. The second annual Air Show Augusta will be held on May 25 and 26, and the first of the performers has been announced. The U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor Demo Team will be the centerpiece for this year’s show. “They’re one of the more, shall we say, loud and boisterous jet demo teams that are out there,” Chris Dirato, Director of Public Relations for the event, told ABD, adding that is the first of many

Read More »
Consumer Stories

Anatomy of a Fall is a meal for audiences

One of the more intricate and exciting films released this year was Justine Triet’s French-English crime drama Anatomy of a Fall, starring Sandra Huller and nominated for five Academy Awards. With a mistrustful protagonist, an anxious setting, and an open ending, fans of murder mysteries, character studies, or psychological dramas will eat this flick up with a side salad. The film centers around the mysterious death of writer, Samuel Maleski, who falls from the second story of his chalet in Grenoble after sabotaging an interview of his wife, author, Sandra

Read More »
Consumer Stories

American Fiction: What’s in a Name?

One of the freshest stories to come from Hollywood last year (that didn’t involve a labor strike) was Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, starring Jeffrey Wright, Sterling K. Brown, Leslie Uggams, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Issa Rae. The film, released in December and nominated for five Oscars, is an old-fashioned intelligent comedy with a mix of social satire, telling of a frustrated writer reckoning with a shifting, ever-trivial industry, and family responsibilities. Wright plays Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, an aging author and college professor in L.A. who can’t sell a new book.

Read More »