Columbia, South Carolina (moving related)

youknowyouknow

Looks like I'll be moving to Columbia, SC come Winter. Any thoughts on the city? Good records? Food? Nice people who don't wish the Confederates won the Civil War?

pabloscooter

I really like Columbia. I live about an hour away in GA but have found lots of cool like minded folks in that town. It has a little more to offer culturally then a lot of other college towns. Papa Jazz is a great record store and there is a annual record fair at the art museum that is a lot of fun. I DJ at the Whig twice a month with a bunch of other weirdos and really enjoy the bar atmosphere of that place as well as a few other local watering holes. The food scene there is pretty good but it depends on what you are used to. It is Southern as hell- but not like THE most Southern place- I take it from your confederate comment you have never really lived in the South right? 'Cause like you imagined there is always gonna be some of that mentality- but it just depends on what/where/and who you do with your time- hard to avoid it all together but it's not everywhere all the time- especially not in a college town.

youknowyouknow

Hey, thanks for the reply. It's great to hear someone say positive things about an unfamiliar area. I'm moving there because a job opened up. I visited some years ago, didn't really explore too much, but I remember it being pretty, lush with trees, hills and all that. I've spent some time in Ashville and I really like that town. I imagine Columbia is fairly close. Another plus is Atlanta doesn't appear to be too far away...never been there. I'm moving from Texas but grew up almost all my life in Southern California so South Carolina appears to my distorted liberal vision as a town hell bent on Church and Wal-Mart - I'm sure it's not true.

I'd love to hear some music when I visit. If possible, let me know the best places.

Thanks again.

coffinjoe

i love columbia !!

perfect combo of state capitol & university town,
papa jazz, 5 points & the vista,
it has been my second "home" since the 60's ,
great people, food, records, music scene
close to the ocean, charleston, charlotte, atlanta, asheville, etc

ditto all that pablo was saying, love the whig, columbia record fair, boiled peanuts

see ya in the bins sometime !

james

youknowyouknow said:

I've spent some time in Ashville and I really like that town. I imagine Columbia is fairly close. Another plus is Atlanta doesn't appear to be too far away...never been there.

I don't mean this pejoratively, and I know this isn't exactly what you mean, but it's worth pointing out that Asheville and Atlanta are without a doubt two of the most un-Southern Southern cities out there, and shouldn't really be used as any kind of yardstick. Columbia's status as state capital and college town notwithstanding, it is--compared to those two--Southern As Fuck. It's a nice town, and a whole lot less stars-and-bars than it could be, but Asheville it ain't.

I lived a couple hours away in the upstate, but I had a number of friends in Columbia, and my younger brother went to school there, so I got there pretty often and it always seemed to be an all right place. I used to think Papa Jazz was dumb expensive, but I might feel differently today.

Columbia is the only place I've ever been that had a tribute-band tribute band. I can't remember the name, but they were a tribute to the then-recently-defunct Strutter, who were themselves a Kiss tribute band. Shit was next level.

Hey, does anyone know if that hair spot, Cut-Ups, is still around down there? That place had some of the illest signage I've ever seen in my life. Fish In A Basket was bugged, too.

Rockadelic

james said:

I lived a couple hours away in the upstate

Found this yesterday.....



Good luck with your move D....I'm sure you'll love it and won't miss 100F very much.

james

Rockadelic said:

james said:

I lived a couple hours away in the upstate

Found this yesterday.....

Oh shit--WANS.

I have no real rock background, so back in my earlier days it was not unusual for me to unwittingly clown myself by calling down to WANS and asking breathlessly, "Oh man, what was that last thing you played? The trippy thing? With the chunky drums? And the guitar?" only to be told, invariably, that it was, like, "Down By The River" or some Traffic jernt or some Freedom Rock 101 shit known to everybody and their dog.

I also remember them for "An Hour From Atlanta To Charlotte," a late-Sunday-night showcase for "edgy" regional shit. I used to fall asleep to it religiously.

"Memm-weeze..."

james

james said:

Hey, does anyone know if that hair spot, Cut-Ups, is still around down there? That place had some of the illest signage I've ever seen in my life.

To wit (with apologies in advance to the ladies of soulstrut): What it was was this massive painted sign covering about half the side of the building their business occupied. The background was darkish blue, and the letters spelling out the name were white and all right-angled, with Mondrian-style blocks of primary color placed at (ostensibly) random intervals within the letters' outlines, like so:



Below this, in plain script, was their motto (wait for it): "Best Trim In Town."

My man Pruitt and I were at the time enjoying some midday cocktails on the upper deck of a neighboring parking garage, and when he pointed it out to me, I almost spit out my drink.

coffinjoe

columbia is nothing like asheville or atlanta,
hell,
it's not even charlotte or richmond

think more along the lines of raleigh or durham or greensboro nc
but way more south carolina

and

it is closer to charleston and savannah than all of those other cities !!

smokeahoma

maurice's bbq .... and good ole fashion hate....fly that confederate flag and vote tea party....they are waitin for you

Rockadelic

smokeahoma said:

. and good ole fashion hate....fly that confederate flag and vote tea party....they are waitin for you

If there's one thing that Soul Strut has taught me it's that some stereotypes are acceptable and some are taboo.

james

smokeahoma said:

good ole fashion hate

I remember reading something from Martin Luther King where he said that in all of his time and all of his activism in the deep, deep South, he never saw anything like the outpouring of hatred he encountered in Cicero, Illinois.

I lived in semi-rural South Carolina for about sixteen years, and I've lived in Chicago for about thirteen, and you know what? I believe him.

Don't be simple.

DJ_Enki

coffinjoe said:

think more along the lines of raleigh or durham or greensboro nc
but way more south carolina

I went to college in Greensboro, and during that time, I went with my homie to visit his sister in Columbia, and Columbia seemed like a whole different world. Way more stereotypically southern, if you take my meaning (not judging, just saying).

b/w

Does SC still have that weird-ass law that says even bars have to serve you hard alcohol out of the little airplane bottles?

LaserWolf

I went to youtube to find the powerful footage of Martin Luther King facing rock throwing mobs in Marquette Park in Chicago.
Then I remembered our history had been copyrighted and youtube is not allowed to show historical footage of Martin Luther King.

This got through.

james

DJ_Enki said:

Does SC still have that weird-ass law that says even bars have to serve you hard alcohol out of the little airplane bottles?

Hey, don't knock it: little bottles that are required by law to be used in their entirety = some of the stiffest drinks anywhere. Look for late-teen james getting slizzard at the Red Lobster on Clemson Boulevard, chatting with my man's girl over some garlic-cheese biscuits and an old-fashioned that could peel paint.

When I lived there, I was always far more aggravated by the law that booze and mixers cannot be sold in the same store, rendering a simple gin and tonic a two-stop minimum. Not fresh.

DJ_Enki

james said:

DJ_Enki said:

Does SC still have that weird-ass law that says even bars have to serve you hard alcohol out of the little airplane bottles?

Hey, don't knock it: little bottles that are required by law to be used in their entirety = some of the stiffest drinks anywhere. Look for late-teen james getting slizzard at the Red Lobster on Clemson Boulevard, chatting with my man's girl over some garlic-cheese biscuits and an old-fashioned that could peel paint.

When I lived there, I was always far more aggravated by the law that booze and mixers cannot be sold in the same store, rendering a simple gin and tonic a two-stop minimum. Not fresh.

I don't remember the booze/mixers law. I just remember being mystified by the airplane bottles law. Like, what was that supposed to prevent? What exactly did the proponents of that law think they were accomplishing?

Oh, one other thing I remember about Columbia: I went there after Hootie and the Blowfish had blown up and the backlash was really starting to take hold. "Hootie" (Darius Rucker) lived down the street from my homie's sister. "His house gets vandalized a lot," she said.

james

DJ_Enki said:

I just remember being mystified by the airplane bottles law. Like, what was that supposed to prevent? What exactly did the proponents of that law think they were accomplishing?

Well, it's tighter regulation. Instead of servers or whoever just being accountable to the State Commission for every full-size bottle on which they break the tax tape, they're accountable for every shot on which they break the tax tape.

Oh, one other thing I remember about Columbia: I went there after Hootie and the Blowfish had blown up and the backlash was really starting to take hold. "Hootie" (Darius Rucker) lived down the street from my homie's sister. "His house gets vandalized a lot," she said.

I can't speak on Hootie, but I've heard from multiple unrelated sources that the rhythm section dudes used to pretty routinely play the sidelines of USC soccer games, patrolling for jailbait on some "So...you know who we are, right?"

DocMcCoy

james said:

smokeahoma said:

good ole fashion hate

I remember reading something from Martin Luther King where he said that in all of his time and all of his activism in the deep, deep South, he never saw anything like the outpouring of hatred he encountered in Cicero, Illinois.

I lived in semi-rural South Carolina for about sixteen years, and I've lived in Chicago for about thirteen, and you know what? I believe him.

Don't be simple.

Around 1979/1980, there was a trend in Liverpool (at least amongst my circle of friends) for rocking a hybrid post-punk-meets-American-Graffiti kind of style, with vintage varsity jackets being a key element. One of my boys used to rock a pretty cool dark green number w/contrasting off-white leather sleeves and the legend "Cicero Gymnasts" emblazoned on the back. We were so taken by this that, after a night on the sauce, we even formed a band of that name (which featured the former drummer from the legendary Deaf School, the late Tim Whittaker). It ended up being one of those two-rehearsals-one-gig-and-split-up deals, and the concept (such as it was) was early Subway Sect meets early TG; not that this has any bearing on the point of my story, which I'm finally getting to. It wasn't until after we'd decided not to continue any further with the band that a friend who worked in a vintage clothing store schooled us, somewhat fortuitously, on the history of the institution from where the jacket originated; namely that it was one of several schools in Cicero that were defiantly and unrepentantly racist.

youknowyouknow

Rockadelic said:

james said:

I lived a couple hours away in the upstate

Found this yesterday.....



Good luck with your move D....I'm sure you'll love it and won't miss 100F very much.

Thanks man! It's not a done deal yet, still need to decide if it's the right thing. Agree'd: 105 degree days in mid-September has me driving down Gaston in my non-a/c'd car swallowing ice cubes whole.

youknowyouknow

DJ_Enki said:

coffinjoe said:

think more along the lines of raleigh or durham or greensboro nc
but way more south carolina

I went to college in Greensboro, and during that time, I went with my homie to visit his sister in Columbia, and Columbia seemed like a whole different world. Way more stereotypically southern, if you take my meaning (not judging, just saying).

b/w

Does SC still have that weird-ass law that says even bars have to serve you hard alcohol out of the little airplane bottles?

Not really. By stereotypically southern you mean preppy white dudes walking streets in pin stripped yellow dockers b/w i'll beat up your black friend if he crosses the line?

pabloscooter

Only ever see regular free flowing liquor in Columbia (no small bottles).

You can't smoke in bars.