Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The House of Blues at (The bankrupt) Barefoot Landing in Myrtle Beach seems to make a policy of booking major "legacy" acts into its rather intimate space. In the past, I've seen Boz Scaggs, Cyndi Lauper, The Beach Boys (Carl Wilson was visibly failing), and Blondie there.

The only problem I have with the place is that while they have a reserved seating area, the tickets don't seem to be available on the standard web site, and standing up for two hours gets old pretty quick for me nowdays.

Steve Miller has, of course, been around forever, but scored his greatest success in the mid 70s with the "Fly Like an Eagle" and "Book of Dreams" albums. Supposedly he has never allowed a recognizable picture of himself on an album cover, and at the peak of his fame, could ride his bike around venue parking lots without being recognized. He has never had what you could call a "great" voice -- it's a very servicable reedy tenor, and the fact that it's never been perfect means that it hasn't dropped off much either: he was in good vocal form for Saturday's show. The Steve Miller Band is now apparently a six-man outfit. Two guitars, a bass, drums, keyboards and a (very flamboyant) second vocalist.

As you'll recall, when I saw The Doobie Brothers in North Charleston, and Al Stewart in Newberry, I was surprised at how lax the venues were about cameras. In the past it almost seemed like places would break your kneecaps before letting you in with a camera, but apprently, as in school, the Battle of the Cell Phone has been lost, and other cameras reap the benefit. Since I regretted not taking the closing-cam to those shows, I checked on the HOB ticketing site, and non-removable-lens cameras are allowed, so in it came.

The curtain opening number was "Jet Airliner" (with the synth prologue [mostly missed here] playing before the curtain dropped), and Miller went on to play pretty much all of his hits and well known songs: "Jet Airliner", "Abracadabera", "Wild Mountain Honey", "Serenade To The Stars", "Swingtown", "Dance Dance Dance", "Take The Money & Run", "Jungle Love", "Space Cowboy" (dedicated to William Shatner), "Livin' In The USA", "The Stake", "The Joker" (acoustic), and "Rockin' Me". He also played a few blues numbers (it was originally "The Steve Miller Blues Band") that really let the second vocalist shine.

In short, it was an excellent show, and if you get the opportunity to catch him, do.

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This building on Garners Ferry next to Day's Inn and just down from Fantasy Lingerie and Maurice's Gourmet Barbecue has been vacant for a while as even the driveway is getting a bit cracked and overgrown. The last occupant was General Sales, Inc. who have since moved to Huger Street. I'm guessing they weren't the first tenants though, or at least I don't see why a food service company would have underground tanks as seems to be the case from the DHEC notice.

This porn emporium on Broad River Road next to the old Data Resources site and across the street from Ole Town Antiques recently gave up the ghost and is already boarded up. I like the odd fact that the advertising silhouettes are about as tame as anything involving a man and a woman together can be. There are racier beer billboards. Of course maybe that did them in!

More likely are two other factors. First, they were just down the street from This is It! at 2831 Broad River Road, and that seems to be a chain of sorts. And second, I heard somewhere that Al Gore invented something that lets you see people in their birthday suits for free...

(Hat tip to a commenter I can not locate now..)

UPDATE 8 October 2011: Added "TJ's" to the post title after finding it in google. It was a strip club.

UPDATE 11 November 2011: Added "The Ballistic Center to the post title. It was a shooting range. I've got a nice ad to scan in at some point.

UPDATE 23 November 2011 -- Here's the ad I mentiond above:

The Ballistic Center first listed in the January 1984 phonebook at "1022 Columbia College Drive". I forgot to make a note of when they first listed at this address, but the last listing was in the February 1991 phonebook.

UPDATE 17 April 2019 -- Now Michael's Cafe & Bistro:

There's an old joke that goes back as far, probably as the invention of the telephone, and it goes something like this:

1: "Hello, Burkett, Burkett & Burkett"
2: "Yes, I'd like to speak to Mr. Burkett."
1: "Sorry, he's out to lunch right now."
2: "Well, then, I'd like to speak to Mr. Burkett."
1: "I'm afraid he's in a meeting right now."
2: "Ok. Then please let me speak with Mr. Burkett."
1: "Speaking!"

And I'm sure all of the Burketts have heard that one many times by now..

All that aside, the firm has recently relocated from this building on the East side of Sunset Boulevard next to the gas station and Auto Spa. The LoopNet listing says it was built in 1980, and I can believe that. I'm not quite sure when the move was, though I posit 2010 as a guess, but it's been long enough for the shrubbery to grow a bit, and a few limbs to fall in the parking lot.

I was rather surprised when I drove back in there to find that there is no cut-through to Fairlane Drive and the stoplight there, which would make southbound access easier. Google maps suggests there is a stream paralleling Fairlane which separates this lot from that street. I'm guessing it would be behind the storage shed.

Burkett, Burkett & Burkett have moved to an impressive new building just a bit North and on the other side of the street at 3101 Sunset Boulevard:

I don't know what this little building on Knox Abbott just below Silver City was originally, but with that open front and closed back, it looks a bit like a dry-cleaner to me. (Though I don't see a drive-through).

The Secretary Of State's office says that from 1997 to 2004, it was Cayce Outdoor Power Equipment. I believe it was Signs 2 Go from then until now.

(Hat tip to commenter tonkatoy)

UPDATE 6 October 2011: Commenter Jonathan says Signs 2 Go have moved to Meeting Street, so I have updated the post title with "(moved)".

UPDATE 26 April 2014 -- It's now Wristwatch Doc:

The weekend of September 17 2011, all of Columbia's Wachovia locations unveiled their new Wells Fargo signs and the transition which had been forgone since the 2008 merger/rescue was complete.

In reading the Wikipedia entry for Wachovia, I learned a number of things including the fact that "Wachovia" is an old German/Moravian term for the area of North Carolina including Winston-Salem and that Wachovia, like many banks, has a complicated history.

The short version is that the entity that became known as Wachovia started in the Winston-Salem area, eventually bought First Atlanta and became a regional power with headquaters in both Atlanta and Winston-Salem.

In 2001 Wachovia merged with First Union, a bank with its own complicated history. Although technically First Union was the entity which survived, the new company took the Wachovia name and went on an acquisitions spree.

One of these acquisitions was the mortgage firm Golden West which proved to be a poison pill, cratering within Wachovia as the housing bubble burst. This put Wachovia in the position of needing more cash just exactly at the time Washington Mutual failed and dried up all investment cash for banks. I'm not entirely sure I understand what happened next, but the government intervened and tied Wachovia up with Citigroup, a pairing that somehow unravelled when Wells Fargo entered the picture and acquired Wachovia instead.

Or in the end, it could simply be that Wachovia had the bad fortune never to be written into a beloved Broadway show...

This AAA Car Care Center was at the Village At Sandhill on the Bi-Lo side of the stores. I notice that they say they are moving to 4526 Forest Drive, but I think it would be more accurate to say "consolidating", since as far as I know, this place was open along with Forest Drive, until Forest Drive burned down so the end result when Forest Drive re-opens will still be one location where there were originally two. (The sign from the daytime set of pix is more clear).