Entertainment

Chinese buffet in Surfside Beach just OK

The name is simple enough - China Buffet.

The eatery, as its moniker clearly indicates, is a Chinese buffet.

This one is in Surfside Beach, and it's been around for a while.

Best bets for Myrtle Beach area

TODAY & SATURDAY | 09.03 & 09.04

Beach, Boogie & BBQ

As summer winds down, The Myrtle Beach Beach, Boogie & BBQ Festival will heat things up at Myrtle Beach's Grand Park today and Saturday with live music, games, vendors, crafts, barbecue competitions and more The festival runs from 6 to 9 p.m. today and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday. See Pages 10-11 for more details and a schedule of events.

Festival promotes community, culture

Bethel AME Church in Georgetown invites area residents to participate in the African American Family Reunion Rice Festival on Saturday in hopes of nourishing the spirit of community.

The free event will be held from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Georgetown High School, 2500 Anthuan Maybank Drive.

Cultural exhibits, food, fun, fellowship, a talent show, a gospel showcase, a high school drum competition and basketball tournament are among the varied events taking place in the historic city.

Coastal culture | Students, faculty, guests slated for fall performances and exhibitions

As the college football season kicks off this weekend, officials at Coastal Carolina University continue to step up a playbook of cultural arts, with a calendar for 2010-11 full of exhibits, concerts, lectures and theater.

The Faculty Biennial art exhibit opens Thursday in the Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery, showcasing painting, sculpture, photography and printmaking by professors in CCU's visual arts department.

"It's good for the students to see what their teachers are up to," said Cynthia Farnell, gallery director, "to see where they're coming from, and for the community to see there's an active arts scene on campus."

Puzzle answers

New this week in theaters

The American | Jack, an assassin, is constantly on the move and always alone. After a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected, Jack retreats to the Italian countryside where he meets Clara. A romance evolves, but he could be tempting fate by stepping out of the shadows. Starring: George Clooney. R.

Going the Distance | When Erin moves to San Francisco to finish her degree and Garrett stays in New York to work in the music industry, they keep their romance alive with webcams and frequent-flier miles. They both score big breaks that could break them up for good. Starring: Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, and Christina Applegate. R.

Machete | After being nearly killed during a violent fight with a drug lord, Machete roams Texas streets as a vigilante and day-laborer. Machete is double-crossed and forced to go on the run. Starring: Danny Trejo, Robert DeNiro and Jessica Alba. R.

Brass band rehearsals

ALABAMA THEATRE, 4750 U.S. 17, Myrtle Beach, presents "One the Show" six nights a week. Call for dates and show times. The theater also has guest concerts such as Ray Stevens, Sept. 11; Patty Loveless, Sept. 18; and the Kingston Trio, Sept. 25. 272-1111 or www.alabama-theatre.com.

APPLEWOOD PANCAKE HOUSE, 14361 Ocean Highway, Litchfield Beach. Seacoast Artist Guild Gallery open 6 a.m.-2 p.m. daily with work by area artists. All art for sale. 357-2626 or www .seacoastartistguild.com .

JEFF BRADLEY, a comedian who has performed on all seven continents, presents "Comedy +" at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays with standup, stunts and illusion, at 2001Entertainment Complex Starlight Room, 920 Lake Arrowhead Road, just north of Myrtle Beach. $18 adults, $8 children, $45 family package. 234-2229 or www.jeffbradley.org.

The american

An exercise in style and withheld sentiment, "The American" is a bleak and atmospheric art-house thriller that's more of an aesthetic experience than an emotional one.

If Robert Bresson, the austere French minimalist, had directed a James Bond film, it might have turned out like this.

Though Bresson favored nonprofessional actors, director Anton Corbijn secured George Clooney to play the title role of a top-of-the-line professional assassin.

Music keeps reaching out

C oastal South Carolina is calling Curt Smith again.

"My very first visit to America," he said, "was to Charleston, S.C., and we went up to Myrtle Beach."

He was 18 at the time, just a couple of years before he and Roland Orzabal formed the British pop-synth duo Tears for Fears in 1981.

Distant relatives play well together

On his latest album, veteran artist Nas proclaims that "we're all distant relatives." By that claim, the Distant Relatives Tour stop in Myrtle Beach on Friday night was one giant family reunion.

Packed into the House of Blues with hundreds of many-times-removed cousins, fans jammed the night away as Nas and current collaborator Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley filled the hall with a seamless combination of rap and reggae tunes.

The set started as Nas's DJ and well-known mixtape king DJ Green Lantern took the stage alone and whipped the crowd into a frenzy with a string of hip-hop tracks mixed into 30-second segments. After about 10 minutes of classics from Notorious B.I.G., Tupac and other rap mainstays, Marley's band bombarded the stage - rolling in eight or nine deep.

Night life calendar for Myrtle Beach area

Friday

2001 Entertainment Complex

920 Lake Arrowhead Road, Myrtle Beach, No Limit in Next Level and DJ E-Flow in Club Touch and a special Labor Day Weekend Show for The Tweens with Girl Power in Club Touch. Jeff Bradley Comedy in the Starlight Room. 8 p.m. $10 cover for the club, Ladies free until 9:30 p.m., card holders free. 449-9434.

On dvd

This week's DVD releases include a family friendly movie and a long list of TV shows.

"MARMADUKE," Grade B: The comic strip dog must deal with a move to California.

"FLASHFORWARD: THE COMPLETE SERIES," Grade A-minus: It didn't take several years - like other TV series - to reveal the big secret of this show. That's good since it lasted just one season. The series, about an incident that causes everyone on the planet to black out for 137 seconds and awake with a glimpse of their future, is compelling, smart and well acted.

Southernness defines latest anthology

Twenty-five years ago Algonquin Press editor Shannon Ravenel began the publication of a yearly anthology that has since become a fixture in the firmament of contemporary Southern literature.

"New Stories from the South" features stories that have been published during the previous year in more than 100 of the finest general interest and literary magazines in the country. Some of the writers are familiar names (Dorothy Allison, Wendell Berry, George Singleton, Elizabeth Spencer and Brad Watson, among others); others are up-and-coming, but the unifying idea is that the stories chosen have some quality of "Southernness."

Definitions of what "Southern" means abound. We all know that Southernness has something to do with where you're from and how you talk, and your beliefs about everything from God to race relations to sex, food, alcohol, sports and cars. Nature is in there too, and violence, and a host of other things.

The thrill of the hunt | Geocachers marry technology with the great outdoors

They play a high-tech, hide-and-seek game, in which participants go by nicknames reminiscent of citizens band handles such as digndirt, EZtrack, preacherspal and Marvin J & Zephyr. These folks, though, might go way off road with GPS devices in search of and to place hidden treasures across the Grand Strand and around the world. The activity is called geocaching, and the number of folks who enjoy it is growing.

One of the area's leading geocachers, Sean Torrens (aka Cache And Dash SC), has immersed himself in this treasure-hunting hobby that combines elements of sport, recreation and environmental appreciation. He has met many area residents and tourists who like to search for strategically placed geocaches outdoors and log reactions about each find.

"As a hider, you get to read what somebody felt, what they experienced when they found it," Torrens said.

Women raking in cash competing in Myrtle Beach area model search

Jennifer Nesbitt's got a day job.

She bartends on the side, too.

But on Thursday, one of her passions could come to fruition. Nesbitt is one of 13 women who will compete in the 2010 Tropic Beauty Model Search regional finals at Club Boca.

North Myrtle Beach frontman has 2 bands, 1 goal

It's no secret that North Myrtle Beach musician Jeremy Anderson is leading a bit of a double life.

The amicable singer-songwriter is not only the frontman of hardworking cover act Jeremy Anderson & Friends, but he's also a fledgling artist trying to carve out an identity for his original music as part of the band Treehouse.

At 23, the business-minded young man is carefully walking the tightrope that is the Myrtle Beach music scene, balancing a steady diet of paying cover gigs with a strong desire to play the music he loves - a laid back mix of acoustic rock, reggae and ska.

Weekend nightlife calendar for Myrtle Beach area

Friday

2001 Entertainment Complex

920 Lake Arrowhead Road, Myrtle Beach, "No Limit" tonight in Next Level, DJ E-Flow in Club Touch, 7 p.m. $10 cover, ladies free until 9:30 p.m., card holders free. 449-9434.

Best bets for Myrtle Beach area

THROUGH SUNDAY | 08.27-08.29

Pride time in MB

Myrtle Beach Pride continues its weeklong celebration of gay pride with the four-day Myrtle Beach Pride 2010 festival, which began Thursday. Some of the schedule events include:

Star-led band lands in North Myrtle Beach

It's 30 Seconds to Mars, and it's six days until the rock band hits the House of Blues stage.

But while local fans are counting down to the show, the band has been counting up the accolades. Since the release of its 2009 album, "This Is War," 30 Seconds to Mars has produced two No. 1 songs on the Billboard Alternative Songs charts, been nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards and crossed four continents on an epic tour.

The band, which consists of famous frontman Jared Leto, his brother Shannon and guitarist Tomo Milicevic, is in the middle of the 13 month-long Into The Wild Tour that kicked off a new North American leg in Mexico City last night.