Swinging with the Charleston Jazz Orchestra

Dubbed “The House of Swing” for the night, Charleston Music Hall converted into a happenin’ jazz club that rivaled any from the popular big band era.  Saturday night was the popular Swing! Swing! Swing! performance from The Charleston Jazz Orchestra.   The sold out performance was full of energy as artistic director & conductor Charlton Singleton advised for the audience to fasten their seat beats as the first song starts off fast.   The evening delivered with energetic numbers that highlighted many of the greats from the big band era, such as selections from Duke Ellington and popular favorites like “Fever” and Henry Mancini’s “Moon River.”

words: Matt Mill

Visit www.thejac.org for more information and tickets

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Charleston Fashion Week 2011: Day 2

Here are some clips of the runway shows from House of Sage, Emerging Designers Stephanie Mejia, Mary Labberton, Anjelika Krishna, Cody Sai Adler-McCallister and Featured Designer Troubadour.  More to come very soon!!

See you under the tents!

Charleston Fashion Week, Day 1

Check out our coverage of the Charleston’s hottest featured and emerging designers!

An Evening with The Russian National Ballet Theatre

Romeo & Juliet by Russian National Ballet Theatre

Last night’s performance of Romeo and Juliet by the Russian National Ballet Theatre at Charleston’s Gaillard Auditorium was not only entertaining, but surpassed all expectations. Their presentation of Marius Petipa’s Chopiniana and Romeo & Juliet was flawlessly executed in a captivating array of colors, perfected technique, and an overall awe-inspiring ambiance. With over fifty dancers of various and cultivated experience in their troupe, the National Russian Ballet left none to be desired.

by Jessica Dennis, Art Mag Intern

Charleston Wine + Food Festival: The Goodness Should Never End

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Culinary Village & Grand Tasting Tents: a cluster of goodness & goodies

My Faves:

Williamette Valley‘s Estate Pinot Noir

Banfi‘s Rosa Regale, a sweet, sparkling Rose.

Fat and Juicy Bloody Mary Mix

Library at Vendue Inn‘s pate

Rodney Strong‘s Estate Vineyards Russian River Valley Pinot Noir

Lowcountry Local First‘s Local Tent–particularly Bertolini’s gnocchi and Sidi Limehouse’s produce.  INCREDIBLE.

Sonoma-Cutrer‘s Pinot Noir–another Russian River Valley wine

Thornhill Farm‘s organic carrot soup

Spanish Vine‘s Albarino, a clean, delicious white

In short, this is a foodie’s weekend in heaven.  I love this weekend more than most in Charleston, and that says a lot since I truly love Charleston.  There is no lack of interesting events to attend, food to sample, causes to learn about, and wines to taste.  Plan a trip to Charleston especially for this weekend and fast the week before.  Stay downtown and plan to walk or take a pedicab.  Enjoy yourself immensely, you have no excuse not to.

www.charlestonwineandfood.com

Charleston Wine + Food Festival: Why can’t this be every weekend?!

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Yesterday morning began my favorite way: breakfast at High Cotton, mimosas, local & celebrity chefs…it doesn’t get much better.

Browsing through the Culinary Village & Grand Tasting Tents, we sampled incredible cakes, olive oil, wine & chocolate from local darling Sweeteeth.  Basico Wine‘s Spanish Rojo & Blanco were super enjoyable & easy.  And they are right here in North Charleston!  Daisy Cakes had the best carrot cake I’ve ever sampled, and she ships!  We tasted some incredible olive oil from West Coast Products, that is cold pressed and incredibly smooth.

On the King Street Sip + Stroll, we had a blast bouncing from shop to shop to taste wine and enjoy food from Jim N’ Nicks BBQ.  Most of the winemakers were very friendly and welcomed questions.  The Childress Vineyards and the Chilean winemaker Ken Wright Cellars Malbec particularly stick out in my memory.  Childress Vineyards wine has a meritage, a blend of five grapes, that I loved, and the Solena Pinot Noir Grande Cuvee was superior.

Okay, enough of this.  We are heading back to Marion Square in a few minutes.  We’ll see you there!