Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The original home of the Miyo's empire, Miyo's On Main (in the old Dr. Feelgood's building) closed this month. The closing sign cites ongoing plumbing problems, but you have to think that was probably just the final straw.

I don't know that it is a direct replacement for this location, but Miyo's is building a new restaurant at the old Stean 'n Shake spot on Columbiana Drive. (Though as of yet they don't seem to have broken ground for that).

Office supply store Staples has moved their Harbison branch from 281 Park Terrace Drive to 320 Harbison Boulevard.

And none too soon!

(Hat tips to commenters Andrew & William)

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Well, as we've discussed recently, Blockbuster, at least as a physical store, is on the way out. The parent company, Dish Network is shuttering the chain, basically, due to the rise of Internet video. The last Blockbuster movie rental, 'This Is The End', was on Saturday in Hawaii.

I'm not sure how long the clearance at the remaining stores will go on. It's possible this Irmo store is already closed, as these pictures were taken a week ago now, and I haven't been back by. This location joins a long list of Columbia area Blockbusters which have featured here. And Rosewood will be up as soon as I get the chance to get some pictures there.

UPDATE 26 January 2014 -- Well, that's it, as seen in this pix from 12 Jan:

UPDATE 12 February 2016 - As mentioned in the comments, this whole store has now been subdivided and re-purposed:

UPDATE 5 October 2020: Change name in post title from "Blockbuster" to "Blockbuster Video". Update tags, add map icon. Changing closing date from "Real Soon Now" to December 2013.

I think I last saw The Swimming Pool Qs on this stage about 1989. I guess they were touring in support of World War Two Point Five, the club was Rockafellas' and Ann Richmond Boston was on temporary hiatus.

Of course, by that time I had seen them several times, first, I think, at a Fourth of July concert at Bell Camp. Over the years they have always put on a great show, and Jake's was no exception. The mix could have been a bit better at times, but the performance was topnotch. I was a bit tentative about going into Five Points on a weekend night given all the recent events, but if anything was going on down the hill, it didn't make it up to Jake's and the crowd was, as you might expect, a bit older than the club norm.

I think this was the first time I've been to a show in Columbia proper since the smoking ban was passed, and while the libertarian in me chafes at it, it was great not to have to shed all my clothes into the washer and jump into the shower the moment I got home. (And great to be able to actually breathe the next day..).

Given that I don't think the Qs are the band's "day job" anymore, it's not too surprising that it takes a long time to get new music out, but I spoke a little with Jeff Calder and he said work is ongoing on the next album (after 2003's Royal Academy of Reality and that in fact a new EP will be out sometime this month. You should check Qs' web site for "The System Of Love".

In the meantime, you should definitely have the (long awaited) re-issue of their two A&M albums:

And the evening's most surprising event? I got a wet sloppy kiss from a drunk girl who was apparently under the impression I was a Q. I still can't figure that one out.

"Captain! The main lobsters are down!"

"Then deploy the.. impulse lobsters!

Commenter Michael asks if the Roll Call Deli on Main across from the Capitol in the old Fever location is closed.

The answer seems to be "yes for now", or at least that was the case as of last weekend.

The sign did not photograph well, but says Closed for maintenance, so hopefully they will be back soon.

UPDATE 17 January 2014 -- As commenter Bob notes, it is now obvious that this is a permanent closing, and I have taken the "temporary tag off the post title:

UPDATE 31 March 2014 -- For sale:

(Hat tip to commenter Michael)

Having a bar called The Library is an old tradition in college towns. Whether it actually happens, or just the notion is enough to hang a name on, the idea is that the hard partying student will truthfully tell his parents he's spending a lot of time at the library.

Recently, in Columbia, that tradition is reported to have taken a nasty turn. Five Points has been having a terrible year as far as crime goes, and according to The State, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lot called out The Library by name:

Lott says he sent both uniformed and undercover officers to Columbia's Five Points on Oct. 26. He says the officers found a number of gang members hanging out at a bar called The Library and other people hanging out looking for fights or to rob people.

Shortly thereafter, The State reported:

The owner of a Columbia nightclub that the sheriff says is a hangout for gang members says he could be forced to close.

Justin Kershner of The Library nightclub says he was told by the state revenue department that he must pay $18,000 in back taxes by 2 p.m. Friday or give up his permits to sell beer, wine and liquor.

Finally, The State Reports:

The Library nightclub is closed indefinitely

.....

The decision to close came a day after he said paid his back taxes and was trying to figure out how to get back into the good graces of local law enforcement.

Because of trees, it is difficult to get a good picture of The Library building from across Harden, and even on the right side of the road, the view is still a bit obstructed. When I took the first set of pictures, the signs for The Library were still up, if not easily visible. When I took the night pictures, the signage had already come down, and there was a crew inside that looked to be cleaning the place out.

UPDATE 7 December 2013: Added Don's Marching & Music Society to the post title, and check the comments for a not from the original "Don"!

I'd heard the radio ads for the Carolina Renaissance Festival for years, but somehow never got around to going until the start of November. For one thing, I wasn't quite sure where Huntersville was (answer: just north of Charlotte), for another I didn't know if there would be enough there to be worth a weekend.

In the event, I was quite pleasantly surprised. The place is a couple of miles east of I-77 and has an interesting air of semi-permanence about it. The parking lot is obviously a pasture or some such non-graded space, and the buildings are all open to the air with porta-johns providing the facilities, but yet they are permanent structures, and the festival is now in its 20th year.

The crowd is an interesting mix. There are the standard parents-with-kids families out for a day of face painting and low-tech carnival rides, then there are the Society For Creative Anachronism types, the "healing crystals" and New Age crowd and the Celts and fairies crowd. One comic storyteller commented that there was a lot of crossover with engineering and science-fiction fandom types (and indeed SCA is strongly correlated with SF fandom..) such that he could tell Rene Descartes jokes ("Rene Descartes walks into a bar. The bartender asks him if he wants a beer. 'I think not', says Descartes and vanishes..")

The show people were great. Everyone had a line of patter to draw in a crowd (the fire eater: "I'm not that good. Come watch me, I might hurt myself!"), and kept up rapid fire comedy bits while swallowing swords ("You can only swallow a sharp sword once!"), walking the tightrope, abusing the peasants or juggling.

It was also a "something for all ages" event. As I mentioned there were plenty of kid friendly activities, but there was also a bit of a bawdy side for the grownups at events labeled LC ("loose cannon").

Here's a few videos.

From the sublime:

To the freaky:

To the dangerous:

To the NSFW:

And the even less SFW:

The Fair runs weekends through the rest of November.

Lots more after the jump.

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Well, we've pre-discussed this closing here, but the actual event finally took place on Saturday 9 November 2013 when this store closed as a Pig at 3PM.

As it happened, I was there a bit after 2PM, and found the store surprisingly well stocked. The entire right quadrant of the store, with produce, the bakery, the cafe and Dream Diners was empty, but the non-perishable isles were still pretty well stocked. I suppose the idea is that it probably cost the Pig less, or perhaps even made a little money, to transfer then to Bi-Lo rather than go through a drawn out sale, or trying to get them back to the warehouse.

As commenter Matt mentions, the store brand stuff did go on sale at deep discounts, because, well, Bi-Lo can always sell Dixie Crystals, but can hardly carry Pig Swig or other Pig branded items.

The store is to reopen next Friday, 15 November 2013 as Bi-Lo.

With this closure, the Garners Ferry closing and the Litchfield Beach closing, all the "nice" Pigs that I have personal experience with are gone. The one on Devine appears to be one of the older, smaller layouts, and is a bit of a drive anyhow.

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Beltline Auto Brokers certainly wasn't the first operation in this sort of sprawling building on Beltline just past the old Kim's Beauty, but it is the most recent.

Interestingly, I am not able to locate a listing in the phonebooks I have at home to say when it closed. Also interestingly, surprisingly few businesses have "Beltline" in their name.