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Issue
3.21 | Monday, Jan. 17, 2011 | Please help
Queensland flood victims |
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TODAY'S FOCUS :: Celebrate Restaurant Week CURRENTS :: Help flood victims in our sister state THE
LIST GOOD
NEWS FEEDBACK ALSO INSIDE ___::
CALENDAR: This week ... and next |
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JAN. 17, 2011 - I love to eat out and perhaps that is why I love my job so much! But sometimes, I find myself going to the same places and ordering the same items every time I go out to eat. Do you?
If so … enter Restaurant Week. From now until Jan. 22, diners may enjoy $20 and $30 three-course menus at more than 80 participating Charleston area restaurants. This is being organized by the Charleston Restaurant Association. Restaurants in both casual and fine dining categories are trying to attract new clientele using the prix fixe menu promotion. Diners get a huge chance to try new spots! It is a win-win. This event is being held in conjunction with the South Carolina Hospitality Association's marketing of a statewide campaign promoting Greenville, Myrtle Beach and Columbia restaurant weeks. Each area is promoting their local restaurants online. More.
From the sophisticated seared diver scallop, porcini mushroom risotto at The Dining Room at Woodlands Inn to the savory seafood platter at the family-owned Starfish Grille, participating restaurants range from elegant dining rooms to more casual establishments. Tickets are not required; however, reservations are strongly advised. Offerings vary at each restaurant. For more information and a list of participating restaurants, visit our Web site. (www.charlestonrestaurantweek.com) To continue whetting appetites, the Greater Charleston Restaurant Association's annual Oyster Festival is slated for 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 30, a wonderful epilogue for Restaurant Week. For more information on tickets go online. Mark your calendar … the next installment of Charleston Restaurant Week will occur in September 2011. I know you will see me at several places … Mangia Mangia!
JAN. 17, 2011 – Half a world away, hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders are battling the effects of raging floodwaters that have inundated an area that is the size of France and Germany combined.
Queensland is South Carolina’s sister state. What’s happening there is the equivalent to a Hurricane Hugo hitting South Carolina. Images viewed online resemble the struggle and sadness seen after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Queensland officials say it will take months for Brisbane, the capital city, to recover. It will be much the same in other flooded cities up and down the huge Australian state. “The devastating personal losses and destruction of infrastructure, both public and private, from the worst flooding for more than half a century will run into billions of dollars,” said Beattie, a guest lecturer this year at Clemson University. “Houses, towns, public infrastructure, railway lines, bridges have to be rebuilt.” Just about every year, Queensland suffers from floods, particularly in the northern tropical part of the state. This year, however, has been particularly bad. After years of drought, Queensland had its wettest spring ever from September to November (remember, seasons are flipped in Queensland because it’s in the Southern hemisphere). Then in December, the rains fell. And fell. And fell. On Christmas, Tropical Cyclone Tasha made landfall near Cairns, some 1,000 miles north of Brisbane.
By this week, some 16 people across the state had lost their lives in the flooding. More are missing. This week, brown murky water surrounded urban apartment towers and filled 2,000 streets in Brisbane, the capital city of more than 1 million. Floodwaters seeped throughout property of 20,000 homes. People in low areas were told to find friends or family in higher, hillier areas with whom to stay. Mark Nolan, a longtime friend who lives in Brisbane, wrote how he spent a lot of time this week helping friends to secure their property and get to higher areas. “I was in close to the city centre around lunchtime today and witnessed first-hand the power and unrelenting nature of the Brisbane River,” Nolan said Wednesday. “I saw a ferry terminal torn from its mooring and washed down the river. This was a large and heavy piece of infrastructure that the river simply picked up and carried away.”
A police sergeant we know in Brisbane observed, “Many damaged homes and businesses and the flooded areas are left with terrible sludge and mud to clean up.” Nolan said the best thing people in South Carolina can do if they want to help is to donate to flood relief. If you want to give, the Rotary Club of Charleston will match up to $2,500 in donations and send them to its sister club in Brisbane to distribute where money can help the most. In conjunction with the Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina, the club has set up a way to allow you to give easily online.
Our hearts go out to people across Queensland as they deal with crippling devastation wrought by Mother Nature. We encourage you to help people in our sister state any way you can.
Fewer than 50 tickets remain for the 7th Annual Hot Stove Banquet that features recently retired Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox.
The event, which will begin at 6 p.m. Jan. 28 at The Citadel's McAlister Field House, is being sponsored for the fourth consecutive year by Tom McQueeney State Farm Insurance. The dinner starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $65 per person and include dinner and beverages. Tables with preferred seating for eight individuals are available for $500. Cox, the fourth-winningest manager in baseball history, has been named Manager of the Year four times (1985, 1991, 2004 and 2005) and is one of only four managers to have won the award in both the American and National League. He is also the only person to have won the award in consecutive years. Cox has also been named Manager of the Year by The Sporting News eight times (1985, 1991, 1993, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005). The Hot Stove Banquet is an annual collaboration between the Charleston RiverDogs and The Citadel to whet the appetite of Charleston area baseball fans. Proceeds benefit The Citadel Baseball program and MUSC's Storm Eye Institute, the RiverDogs' primary charity. For individual tickets and additional information, please contact the RiverDogs at (843) 577-DOGS (3647). Tickets also can be purchased online at www.riverdogs.com. Charleston
Loves Mountains: Appalachian Voices and Restoring Eden will host the first "Charleston Loves Mountains" concert at 8 p.m. Jan 27 at Eye Level Art, 103 Spring St. The concert will feature hometown favorite Wylie, along with touring acts Dewi Sant and Older Brother.
Tons of
explosives are detonated in the Appalachian Mountains to mine coal via
mountaintop removal, a practice in which coal companies blow the tops
off mountains and dump them into nearby valleys and streams, sometimes
exposing toxic heavy metals and burying headwater streams. As a result,
communities near these sites suffer from devastated watersheds, poisoned
drinking water, flooding, damaged buildings from While this mining does not occur in South Carolina, Charleston has a very direct connection to the practice: South Carolina Electric & Gas is burning mountaintop removal coal from Kentucky and West Virginia to produce electricity, the groups said. "Mountaintop removal is poisoning communities and destroying one of the most diverse ecosystems on this planet," said Anna Jane Joyner, campaign coordinator for Restoring Eden. "People from Charleston should not be forced to hurt others and destroy mountains and streams just to turn on the lights." "There
is much that residents of South Carolina can do join the fight to protect
the mountains and headwater streams of the oldest mountains on the continent.
We are encouraging citizens to contact
Senator (Lindsey) Graham, asking him to do the right thing by co-sponsoring
the Appalachia For more information on the concert and to order tickets, go online. Artists may compete in Civil War poster contest Artists are invited to participate in a poster competition as part of the official Lowcountry observance of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. According to the poster competition guidelines, "The years 2010 to 2015 mark the Sesquicentennial of a historic series of events in our nation's history, which altogether encompasses what we know as The Civil War. There is no joy to be found in a war that caused the deaths of over 620,000 American soldiers, sailors and marines from the North and the South - who lived, fought and died for that which they believed. However, there is much we can learn from them and from that extraordinary conflict, as the lessons of history are meant to be examined, understood, and applied. It is important to know that the Sesquicentennial is not a celebration but an observance." All artists born in South Carolina or currently residing in the state are invited to submit artwork for consideration as the poster image for the Official Lowcountry Commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Entry rules and an entry form can be obtained online. A panel of arts professionals and historians will choose the official poster image, which will be reproduced on the cover of the Sesquicentennial commemorative program, souvenir posters and merchandise such as T-shirts. The winning artist receives 100 posters, 10 commemorative programs and an award of $1,000. Artwork
should be dropped off between 11 a.m. and noon on Feb. 18 at the For more information, call the Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs at 843-724-7305 or go online. NASA Chief Charles Bolden to speak at MLK Breakfast Retired Marine Gen. Charles Bolden Jr., the chief administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, will be the keynote speaker at Tuesday's 11th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Business and Professional Breakfast.
The breakfast,
an annual event sponsored by The YWCA of Greater Charleston, and the city
of Charleston, will begin at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 18 in the Exhibition Hall
of the Gaillard Auditorium. Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed
by the U.S. Senate, Bolden began his duties as the twelfth Administrator
for NASA on July 17, 2009. Former
World No. 1 and three-time Grand Slam Champion Maria Sharapova has entered
the 2011 Family Circle
Cup. Sharapova is currently ranked No. 16. She joins World No. 6 and
defending champion Samantha Stosur, as well as 19-year-old American standout
Melanie Oudin in entering the Daniel Island tournament, which will celebrate
its 39th consecutive year from April 2-10.
"Maria
Sharapova is one of the most exciting and talented players on the WTA
Tour, and this high profile addition is sure to excite our fans,"
said Eleanor Adams, Family Circle Cup tournament manager. "We're
thrilled that she will begin her clay court season at the Family Circle
Cup in preparation for her pursuit of the career Grand Slam at Roland
Garros."
Samuel Augustus Maverick, a lawyer and land speculator, was born in Pendleton District (now Oconee County) on July 23, 1803, the son of the Charleston businessman Samuel Maverick and Elizabeth Anderson. After graduating from Yale University in 1825, Maverick studied law with the Virginia jurist Henry St. George Tucker and opened a law office in Pendleton. He moved to Georgia in 1833 and then to Alabama, overseeing family lands.
Bored with plantation life and unsuited to overseeing slaves, Maverick moved to Texas in pursuit of cheap land, inspired both by his grandfather's success as a land speculator and by his father's entrepreneurial ethic. Arriving in 1835 at the height of the Texas revolution, Maverick joined the Texan forces, but he quickly returned on family business to Alabama, where he married Mary Ann Adams on August 4, 1836. The next year the couple took their firstborn, Samuel Maverick, Jr., and several slaves to Texas, settling in San Antonio. Maverick took a law license and began purchasing land in western Texas, relocating several times but returning to San Antonio for good in 1847.
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Five to help you with the sesquicentennial The nation is observing the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, so we thought it was time to overcome our lousy, grade school history habit of memorize-it-then-forget-it.
We asked Douglas W. Bostick, a noted historian, author and editor who lives on James Island, for a list of the five books that best tell the story of South Carolina during the Civil War. Bostick, who taught at the universities of South Carolina and Maryland, says these five books cover the entire war, start to finish. The first is one of the 15 books Bostick has written.
"You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it."
Energy Retrofit Introduction: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Jan. 18, 75 Calhoun St., 3rd floor conference room. The city of Charleston and The Sustainability Institute are launching a project to help residents reduce their energy costs. This project will offer free energy assessments to 200 Charleston households and will fund the retrofit of 50 of those homes in order to verify the best and most cost effective measures to increase energy efficiency. For more information on this program and to learn how to get involved, attend one of these public forums. (NEW)
Out of the Box Art Course: Course begins 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.,
Jan. 19. Creating an abstract painting with house paint. Using
newspaper cut outs for composition, working with three-toned value study,
and developing color schemes from primary and secondary colors are lessons
that will be explored each week. Supplies required: a large canvas (30
x 40 inches, for example), plastic spoons to stir paint, house paint (a
bright quart), drinking cups to mix paint in, newspaper, sponge brushes,
a few paint brushes, sketch book or notebook. Contact Carol
McGill. (NEW) Puzzle Palooza: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Jan. 20, Hutchinson Square in Summerville. Summerville DREAM and downtown merchants are holding their first 2011 Third Thursday event with a Puzzle Palooza offering a grand prize of $1,000 in gift certificates. The event also will feature store sales and horse and carriage rides. Players can pick up a game board and puzzle pieces at any participating downtown merchant starting at 10 a.m., and must go to participating businesses to pick up more puzzle pieces. After putting the pieces in the correct order, players must turn the puzzle in at the lobby of First Citizens Bank, 218 S. Main St., by 5 p.m. Jan. 24. All correct entries will be put into a drawing for the prize. For more information, call 843-821-7260. Legislative Reception: 6 to 8 p.m., Jan. 20, at the South Carolina Aquarium. The Charleston Metro Chamber's Legislative Reception offers the opportunity for informal networking with your town council, mayor, state legislators and federal legislators. Cost: $65 non-member, $45, Chamber member. Register. (NEW) Auditions for Summer Residency: 1 to 3 p.m., Jan. 22, 1080 East Montague Ave., North Charleston. New York City film, television and Off-Broadway actor Neal Lerner will attend the "Summer In The City" auditions for music, theater and dance students ages 14-19 at the South of Broadway Theatre Company. Lerner and South of Broadway director Mary Gould will view each student's five-minute audition performance and select participants for the company's month-long artistic residency in New York City set for June 5 -July 2. Students should call SOBTC at 843-814-4451 in advance to arrange an audition. More. (NEW)
Community Shred Event: 10 a.m. to noon, Jan. 22, at the
Habitat For Humanity ReStore, 469 Long Point Road, Mount Pleasant. The
Charleston Chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers
celebrates GO Month (Get Organized) this January by partnering with Shred-It
and Habitat for Humanity ReStore to sponsor a local community shred event.
Clear out your clutter and donate your unwanted items to Habitat for Humanity,
and shred those sensitive documents you need to dispose of. There will
be a maximum of 5 boxes or bags per person. Local NAPO professional organizers
will be on site. For more information on donation pick-ups, call 843-849-8002.
CALENDAR: ONGOING AND SOON Azalea Society: 6:30 p.m., Jan. 24, Carriage House at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. The Rev. John Drayton Chapter of the Azalea Society of America will focus on hybrid azaleas at this month's meeting. The society meets the fourth Monday of each month. For more information call 571-1266. Women and Power: 6 to 8 p.m., Jan. 25. Why don't more women embrace power? Women traditionally have had a conflicted relationship with power. Learn how to define power as a personal value and how to use it to serve your community, influence decisions and accomplish much more personally and professionally. Jennet Robinson Alterman, executive director, Center for Women. Registration required: $25 C4W Members/$35 Non Members. Light supper by Dish & Design is included in the fee. Happy
Hour: 5 p.m., Jan. 27, at Oak Steakhouse. Lowcountry Local
First celebrates Happy Hour. Business After Hours: 5:30 to 7 p.m., Jan. 27, at Crowne Plaza Hotel, 4831 Tanger Outlet Blvd. Hosted by the Charleston Metro Chamber. Cost: $40 non-member, $20 Chamber member. Register. Silence, Creativity with Anne LeClaire: 6:30 p.m., Jan. 28, 297 East Bay St. Theologians, poets, artists, writers and philosophers have long known that in order to create anything, including a deeply fulfilling life, the first requirement is that we become quiet. It is in this space of stillness that truths surface, understandings expand, and we discover in the silence of our hearts answers to living authentically. Begin the new year by joining Anne in exploring the possibilities of silence and its connection to creativity and to living not just to survive but to thrive. Tuition: Evening lecture only, $25 in advance and $35 at the door. Weekend workshop (includes lecture): $195 by January 5, $250 after. Register online.
Conscious Evolution: 6:30 p.m., Feb. 4. What does conscious evolution mean? How can we live it in our relationships and spiritual unfolding, and use it to discover our vocations of destiny? How do we follow the compass of joy: the Law of Attraction to What We Want to Give? Futurist and evolutionary pioneer Barbara Marx Hubbard tells her powerful personal journey of transformation, emphasizing the discovery of life purpose, the evolution of motherhood, a vision of our future, the importance of Evolutionary Spirituality, and the discovery of Regenopause in post-menopausal women. Tuition: evening lecture only, $25 in advance and $35 at the door; weekend workshop (includes lecture): $250 by January 4, $295 after. Register online. Cuban Exhibit: Feb. 4-March 28, City Gallery at Waterfront Park. An opening reception for Polaridad Complementaria: Recent Works from Cuba, an exhibition that introduces North America to the new generation of influential artists from Cuba, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 4. The exhibit offers more than 40 works of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video and installation art to provide a sense of the serious aesthetic and conceptual concerns that characterizes Cuban art today. The City Gallery, at 34 Prioleau St., is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Window Exhibit: Through Feb 28, 2011, The Meeting Place, 1077 East Montague Ave. North Charleston. In his exhibit, "Sea and Shore," local artist David Springer will present metal sculpture depictions of Lowcountry birds, plants, and wildlife. Window viewing, free parking. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
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to get out of house |
Charleston
is one of the nation's hottest culinary destinations so we are focusing
on the locals wanting to experiment with places they have overlooked.
Options span the local culinary scene, which includes sustainable seafood,
heirloom recipes and more. The Charleston area is the only place outside
of New York City to produce three consecutive James Beard Foundation award-winning
chefs, and Travelocity named it one of the world's 10 Best Delicious Destinations
for Foodies. 
By
the first week of January, the immense amount of water dumped throughout
the state sought a way out. The crisis reached about 20 towns by the first
day of the new year. Two days later, Rockhampton, a town of 75,000 people,
was virtually cut off by rising floodwaters. Then people in more towns
felt the impact.
“Sadly,
this will no doubt bring even further destruction and associated suffering
for many families. The human tragedy continues to unfold with some 60
people still missing and fears that authorities will be finding bodies
in homes and cars that were washed along flooded creeks and waterways
over that past few days.”
Andy
Brack is publisher of Charleston Currents and Statehouse Report, where
this column first appeared. He can be reached at: 
The
public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Charleston
Currents to you at no cost. In this issue, we shine the spotlight on a
featured nonprofit partner, the Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy. The
organization provides pastoral care and counseling for employees and families
of law enforcement, emergency service agencies and the general public.
The Judeo-Christian organization also helps law enforcement and emergency
officials in notifications about unexpected deaths, hostage negotiations
and other emergency situations. It provides follow-up visitations in the
home or hospital for crime victims and their families. The Coastal Crisis
Chaplaincy: Providing pastoral care and counseling throughout the Charleston
area 24 hours a day. More: 
Maverick's
most lasting legacy is the application of his name as a term for unbranded
cattle, which was inspired by his unbranded herd on Matagorda Peninsula.
Legend has it that he refused to brand his calves because he thought that
allowed him to claim all unbranded calves on the range. In reality Maverick
was an indifferent cattleman who simply did not bother to brand his small
herd and was out of the cattle business entirely by the mid-1850s. He
also lent his name to Maverick County in western Texas, where he held
more than 300,000 acres at his death. Maverick died on Sept. 2, 1870,
and was buried in San Antonio's City Cemetery Number One.
South
Carolina Premiere of "Blue": 7:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday
matinee, Jan. 21-30, at the Historic Dock Street Theatre. Charles
Randolph-Wright's acclaimed play "Blue" chronicles the life
of an affluent and prominent African-American family that runs a funeral
home in a rural South Carolina town. The story centers around a relentlessly
driven and highly stylish woman, Peggy, who is mesmerized by the music
of the great jazz singer Blue Williams. Tickets, $22 to $48, may be 
(NEW)
Children's Ballet Series: 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Jan. 29, and
3 p.m., Jan. 30, at The CBT Black Box Theatre, 477 King St. Charleston
Ballet Theatre's popular Children's Series of family-friendly ballets
returns with its second show of the season, "Angelina Ballerina Goes
to the Circus." Everyone's favorite ballerina mouse pirouettes onto
the stage with a brand new dance adventure that takes her into the colorful
world of circus animals and sideshow oddities. Tickets: Adults: $22 Child:
$12. Box Office: 477 King Street M-F 10am - 4pm 723.7334 or