IMAX Coming to Upstate to Offer Second Screen in SC.

Expanding the joint venture between Regal Cinemas and IMAX, Greenville’s Hollywood 20 will convert one of its theaters to IMAX.

IMAX, which combines enhanced sound and theater technology with an alternative screen geometry, is designed to make moviegoers feel like they are a part of the movie by displaying higher resolution images and larger sizes.

The new screen in Greenville is expected to showcase films digitally re-mastered for IMAX use.

The closest IMAX screens to Greenville are in Charlotte at Discovery Place and the Atlanta suburb of Buford at the Mall of Georgia.

South Carolina’s only other IMAX screen is at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, and it projects documentary films instead of Hollywood releases. The IMAX theater in Charleston is closed.

While there are few other details available, indications are that the conversion will be complete this fall in time for the premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

– Alan Wofford

Brooke Hogan. Voice of a Generation.

On her VH1 “reality” show, Hulk Hogan’s daughter Brooke recently answered a question from a potential roommate about her choice for president.

“You know what? I am actually not that much into voting. I think it’s kinda crazy that a woman is running, because I think that women deal with a lot of emotions and menopause and PMS and stuff. Like, I’m so moody all the time, I know I couldn’t be able to run a country, ’cause I’d be crying one day and yelling at people the next day, ya know?”

In the words of Ms. Whitney Houston, “I believe that children are the future. Teach them well, and let them lead the way.”

Lead on, Brooke Hogan. Lead on.

– Wilson Charles

Today is the Greatest Day.

According to Men’s Health magazine, which I obviously don’t pay attention to usually, pork rinds are good for you.

You know what I’m talking about. I mean those varying sized slices of deep-fried pig skin that are packaged in vacuum-sealed bags for sale at the local convenience store.

Mmmmm. Deep-fried pig skin.

According to the article:

Why you think they’re bad: These puffy snacks are literally cut from pigskin. Then they’re deep-fried.

Why they’re not: A 1-ounce serving contains zero carbohydrates, 17 grams (g) of protein, and 9 g fat. That’s nine times the protein and less fat than you’ll find in a serving of carb-packed potato chips. Even better, 43 percent of a pork rind’s fat is unsaturated, and most of that is oleic acid — the same healthy fat found in olive oil. Another 13 percent of its fat content is stearic acid, a type of saturated fat that’s considered harmless, because it doesn’t raise cholesterol levels.

In equally exciting news, the same article also endorses alcohol consumption citing a Harvard study of 18,000 men which indicated that those who had a couple of drinks a day had the lowest risk of heart attack while another study showed that men drinking the same amount also had lower ratios of abdominal fat.

Oh, happy Friday.

– Bo Burdette

Super Size SC.

In 2004, documentarian Morgan Spurlock showed America what happens when we survive on 30 days and 30 nights of nothing but McDonald’s fast food in his film Super Size Me.

It’s a caloric binge that sounds great in the beginning, but after a while, after the gorging and adding the extra weight, we say to ourselves, “This isn’t healthy.”

Spurlock’s Super Size Me can also be viewed as an unintended metaphor for South Carolina’s government spending problem. The state’s politicians may have thought that binging on taxpayer dollars was a good idea, but as we watch state government grow faster than we can pay for it, we now say to ourselves, “This isn’t healthy.”

If you don’t know about the movie, you can watch it HERE (completely legally) for your infotainment.

It’s time for South Carolina can go on a fiscal diet.

– Mary Claire Forrester

Just a Little Gassy.

According to a report released Tuesday (July 22) by the Natural Resources Defense Council, drivers in the South face the highest vulnerabilities resulting from increasing gas prices (based on 2007 transportation fuel sales).

• 5) Kentucky — $2080.49 per average driver — driver income on gas 6.69 %
• 4) Louisiana — $2374.37 per average driver — driver income on gas 6.83 %
  
• 3) Georgia — $2369.23 per average driver — driver income on gas 7.08 %
  
• 2) South Carolina — $2235.57 per average driver — driver income on gas 7.21 %
  
• 1) Mississippi — $2268.82 per average driver — driver income on gas 7.87 %
  

Once again, on behalf of my fellow South Carolinians, all thanks go to Mississippi.

While I’m relatively confident that I probably don’t attend the same political party precinct meetings as the NRDC base, the report remains telling.

First, we’re paying a lot for gas, and we can’t make it any cheaper because we aren’t allowed to drill off shore, and alternative fuels aren’t financially viable enough for us to realistically reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Second, South Carolina’s economy is a joke. Sure we may pay less per gallon than drivers in other states, but the percentage of our incomes going to the gas pump is the second highest in the nation. That means that whatever economic development we’re seeing in South Carolina is being eclipsed by the fact that the jobs aren’t well-paying in comparison to the rest of the nation.

Stay classy, South Carolina. At this rate, it won’t be much longer until Mississippi is thanking us.

– Wilson Charles

Johnny’s (ALLEGEDLY) Been a Bad Boy.

The National Enquirer may not publish plagiarism like the New York Times, but it’s never been considered the bastion of reliable journalism, either.

Nevertheless, according to the Enquirer, this past Monday night (July 21) former Senator John Edwards allegedly went to the Beverly Hilton to meet with his alleged mistress and alleged love child following an alleged press event with the alleged mayor of Los Angeles about addressing the alleged homeless problem…allegedly.

It’s a good thing nothing like that would EVER happen to a South Carolina politician. Man, that would be embarrassing, huh?

– Bo Burdette

UPDATE 7/25/08 : According to Fox News, the alleged encounter was allegedly corroborated by an alleged hotel guard who allegedly witnessed an alleged enounter with the former Senator and alleged paparazzi.

Shut Up Already.

Get over it.

Senator Kevin Bryant posted a picture knocking the slight spelling differences between “Osama” and “Obama.”

As the kids say, “BFD.”

In what must have been the slowest news week ever, the national media actually picked that up as a story and let it go for three days.

See examples HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE of media outlets with no sense of parody or who didn’t have enough advertisers to fill column inches.

With all of the fuss, you’d think Senator Bryant wrote that Senator Obama was a terrorist plotting to crash planes in to skyscrapers or that he’s sold this campaign button at the Texas GOP Convention.

THAT would have been cause for debate.

Instead, the Democrats took this opportunity to create a story where there wasn’t one. They worked to frame a picture forwarded in an e-mail that everybody had already seen to the issue du jour of a national election.

The press took the bait and ran with it.

It’s a parody picture that no one with a functional mental capacity could take as literal.

Get over yourselves and shut up already. We have real issues to address.

– Bo Burdette

UPDATE: As we usually expect from Senator Bryant, he holds his own as he tells opponents “I refuse to cower to the cultural police who evermore seek to censor our political discussion.” To take a quote from Coming to America, “That boy’s good.”

It’s Too Little, Too Late in HD 38.

BREAKING NEWS — 3:42 p. m.: After what some bloggers and MSM reporters considered a foregone conclusion (see here and here and here), former Landrum mayor Doug Brannon will not appear on the November ballot to face Republican Joey Millwood and Democrat Mark Chambers in the SC House District 38 race.

Brannon submitted 983 signatures yesterday 10 minutes before the filing deadline, but the Spartanburg County Voter Registration Board disqualified more than 90 out of the first 500 signatures reviewed today.

With 915 signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot, the disqualified signatures put Brannon well below the threshold to appear as a petition candidate.

Brannon indicated to the Herald-Journal’s Jason Spencer earlier in the week that if disqualified he would weigh “the options it would leave him — including running as a write-in candidate.”

The winner of the November contest will replace outgoing Representative Bob Walker, the 15 year incumbent defeated by Millwood in the June 10 primary.

– Wilson Charles

When the Smoke Cleared, What did we Learn?

The primary is over. The runoffs ran off. The smoke cleared.

Why am I still bothered, though?

I have no problem with all of the boys chest puffing about wins and losses. There was talk of “cupcake” candidates, political novices, and long shots who won.

In the process, The Shot closed its doors.

NOTE: None of us here wanted to see The Shot go. I hated that Tim left South Carolina but was happy that he moved to bigger and better things. It’s just a shame that First Tuesday/Under the Power Lines doesn’t have someone to fill his shoes and that The Shot became a casualty. Even when skewed toward a client, The Shot was at the least entertaining and at the most informative. It gave us here an opportunity to see how everyone else plays off of each other. That’s a gap that won’t be easily filled.

There’s been a lot of recent talk (whether it’s honest or disingenuous, I’m not sure) about third-party and grassroots groups being involved in the primaries. While I usually like what Earl Capps writes (Bo agrees with him more about music), I have a problem with some of his recent posts. He (and others) made a lot of accusations during the primary, said after the primary everyone should come together, and now continue slapping back at the Republicans’ more conservative side in contradiction of what they said needed to be done.

On June 11, Earl drafted a post titled “Time for a Cease Fire?”

He wrote:

“Tonight, we’ve heard from those on both sides who swear they’re not going to quit, not going to budge, and have every reason to believe the fighting will continue. But after what we’ve seen the last few months, we can’t help but believe there has to be a better way.

“We hope we’re not the only ones who feel that way.”

The problem comes with what he wrote in his “Month in Review” where he wrote:

“Millions of dollars later, the SCRG and their backers still came up short. Voters tossed out a rare number of incumbents, but they mostly tended to be of the knuckle-dragging type who didn’t know when to keep their mouths shut or act like civil, law-abiding human beings.”

Maybe it’s just me, but accusations (true or not) and insults don’t seem to resonate as a way to win friends and influence people.

When will the time come to talk about what’s right for South Carolina?

– Mary Claire Forrester

Hmmm. I’m Sure This Means Something.

OK, I’m not quite sure what Representative Jeff Duncan (R-Laurens) is measuring in this picture while he was talking to Representative Dan Cooper (R-Piedmont), but it’s a funny visual.

Anyway, Dan Hoover from The Greenville News wrote another piece about the Upstate’s diminishing political influence.

NOTE: I’m really getting tired of reporters/columnists/pundits using the Upstate’s lower rate of elected officials in committee and legislative leadership positions. Folks, shouldn’t the ultimate goal be to elect the best candidates we can? Why should incumbent legislators be sacred cows that shouldn’t be challenged?

I just can’t believe that nobody picked up on one of the comments in Hoover’s piece. I’m sure this means something.

“Thank goodness for Dan Cooper; if not for him the Upstate would have very little clout right now,” says Kevin Mertens, the Greenville County Democratic chairman.”

– Bo Burdette

UPDATE: It seems I’m not the only one fired up by this attitude. One of the House’s resident rockstars agrees. Representative Nathan Ballentine (who believes a little differently than a bunch of other incumbents) wrote that power by a long-time officeholder isn’t the answer for moving “our state forward.” That’s right.