Columbia, South Carolina, has a very diverse and vibrant local music scene. When (and the stress is on “when”) the many venues around the Midlands were open, fans could find just about any music genre imaginable. But all that came to an end in the last couple of weeks in March. “We’re used to playing shows all the time; the […]
How can the show go on in a shutdown?
Artists in Columbia’s music scene try to adapt to the COVID-19 crisis
Saving Sarah’s Seat
Nearly everyone in America has heard of Rosa Parks and her defiant refusal to give up her seat and move to the “black section” at the back of the bus in Mongomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955. But few know the importance of an event that happened in Columbia, S.C., on June 22, 1954. On that day, 66 years ago […]
Camp Cole holds groundbreaking ceremony
Kelsey Sawyer Carter and Margaret Deans Fawcett Grantz are the co-founders of Camp Cole, a fully accessible camp and retreat facility located on 40 acres of land in Eastover. Carter and Grantz have been family friends for many years. Unfortunate circumstances brought them together on a mission to help children and adults with disabilities in a camp-like, retreat setting. Camp […]
From Three Black Men to Two
*Editor’s note: Names changed to protect the identity of the students. 1990. Summer School, a place nobody ever wants to be. One of my first teaching assignments, and nothing from my education classes applied. The students fell into two groups: the poor and the partiers. The poor kids came in exhausted from working two or three jobs or taking care […]
Quirky Crimes from the Capital City
West Columbia Augusta Road: A woman was arrested at 7 p.m. Friday after ignoring a warning from a patrol officer to go home and “sleep it off.” The officer first saw the 37-year-old woman in front of a row of closed businesses as she was peering in the windows and rattling doors. When the officer made contact with her and […]
True mask of wearing masks
Perhaps the entire editorial board of The State newspaper is more interested in control of our population rather than the prevention of disease. I say this due to the strange out-of-control fury in which The State advocates for the government of South Carolina to begin “telling South Carolinians what’s expected of them” as to requiring the wearing of masks in […]
Nuf Sed
Photographers Phillip Jones and Snapshot deliver the Columbia Star to John Lucas on his 60th birthday.
Pandemic fatigue is settling in, but need for caution grows
ASK US AT THE STARAs the pandemic continues, how do we encourage compliance with safeguards? Cases of COVID-19 in South Carolina have continued to climb in record numbers this month. Despite the recommendations to wear masks and practice social distancing, many are not complying. Some may be showing some pandemic fatigue, although health experts say people need to be as vigilant as ever as […]
Modern Problems
It’s not a criticism; It’s an observationI was holding an extension ladder, and my tongue, as my life partner stood about halfway up said ladder, surveyed the Crepe Myrtle, and tried to maneuver around the multi- stemmed monstrosity while determining the best place to cut and also which way the offending limb would fall. She asked about my willingness to replace her and make the cutting […]
Quit bugging me!
I’m just saying...“Get outta here! GET OUT!!! GET OUT OR DIE!!!!” As I was screaming this at a fly the other day, my husband, Marty, was just coming inside. He stopped on the back deck and tried to peer into the kitchen window. From his point of view, I must have looked pretty bizarre as I was trying to reason with or […]