Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Early tickets available for cinemas' Jan. 12 grand opening - Barrow Journal
Early tickets available for cinemas' Jan. 12 grand opening - Barrow Journal
Bethlehem is home to local celeb/stagehand Scott Walsh and his website www.AtlantaFilmCrew.Com ~ madstudios30620@gmail.com
Movie fans who want to make sure they get a seat at the Jan. 12 grand opening of the new Gateway Cinema 12 entertainment complex in Barrow County can buy tickets early all day Thursday.
Wayne Bartlett, one of the developers of the commercial area where the new complex has been built, said the box office would be open throughout the day Jan. 12 for early ticket sales. Carmike Cinema's newest theaters are on Exchange Boulevard near the intersection of highways 81 and 316 south of Winder.
Wayne Bartlett, one of the developers of the commercial area where the new complex has been built, said the box office would be open throughout the day Jan. 12 for early ticket sales. Carmike Cinema's newest theaters are on Exchange Boulevard near the intersection of highways 81 and 316 south of Winder.
The 12 theaters have enough seating to accommodate 2,300 moviegoers and feature wall-to-wall screens, digital projection, digital sound, and high-backed, theater-style seats with retractable arm rests.
But anyone lucky enough to wind up in the complex’s lone “BigD” theater – the first clue will be the leather seats – can expect to experience something akin to “HD on steroids,” promises the company’s marketing director, Terrell Mayton.
Only one of 13 BigD theaters in the United States, the newest has a screen that is 62 feet wide and nearly three stories high. Its state-of-the-art digitized video format displays 1,000 colors and 1 million shades of color, all at 30,000 lumens, which is the brightest light output in the theater industry, Mayton said.
The picture seems to just “pop off” the screen, he said.
“It’s indescribable. Words do not paint the picture for BigD. You have to go in and see it and feel it.”
Admission on the Jan. 12 opening night is only $1, which matches what guests also will pay for small popcorns and small drinks. The night’s proceeds will be donated to The Tree House Inc. in Winder.
“All the movies will be recent releases, so there will be a wide variety of choices,” Mayton said. “We are finalizing the schedule with the movie houses this week.
“It will be a great opportunity for folks from Barrow, Jackson and surrounding counties to see the BigD auditorium and all the auditoriums we have there.”
Gateway Cinema 12 is located in The Gateway at University Parkway near the intersection of Highways 316 and 81. The theater is east of both the Chick-fil-A restaurant and Athens Regional First Care facility.
But anyone lucky enough to wind up in the complex’s lone “BigD” theater – the first clue will be the leather seats – can expect to experience something akin to “HD on steroids,” promises the company’s marketing director, Terrell Mayton.
Only one of 13 BigD theaters in the United States, the newest has a screen that is 62 feet wide and nearly three stories high. Its state-of-the-art digitized video format displays 1,000 colors and 1 million shades of color, all at 30,000 lumens, which is the brightest light output in the theater industry, Mayton said.
The picture seems to just “pop off” the screen, he said.
“It’s indescribable. Words do not paint the picture for BigD. You have to go in and see it and feel it.”
Admission on the Jan. 12 opening night is only $1, which matches what guests also will pay for small popcorns and small drinks. The night’s proceeds will be donated to The Tree House Inc. in Winder.
“All the movies will be recent releases, so there will be a wide variety of choices,” Mayton said. “We are finalizing the schedule with the movie houses this week.
“It will be a great opportunity for folks from Barrow, Jackson and surrounding counties to see the BigD auditorium and all the auditoriums we have there.”
Gateway Cinema 12 is located in The Gateway at University Parkway near the intersection of Highways 316 and 81. The theater is east of both the Chick-fil-A restaurant and Athens Regional First Care facility.
Bethlehem is home to local celeb/stagehand Scott Walsh and his website www.AtlantaFilmCrew.Com ~ madstudios30620@gmail.com
Winder goes to the movies | AccessNorthGa
Winder goes to the movies | AccessNorthGa
WINDER - Winder business leaders and community members are excited about a local option for big screen movies starting this week. Carmike Cinemas is opening a new theater.
Barrow County Chamber of Commerce President Tommy Jennings said it's a good economic indicator for the area.
"A movie theater is a bullseye for any number of retailers and restaurants looking to locate within an activity center."
The 12-screen multiplex on Highway 316 near Highway 81 is at the Gateways of Barrow, according to Jennings.
"Our partners in the development business have been in communication with several restaurants, chain restaurants that we think would be a good addition to the Gateways and to that area of Barrow County."
Jennings said the theater was holding a soft opening Wednesday night, with a benefit Thursday night and an official grand opening and ribbon cutting Friday afternoon.
The opening marks the first time Winder residents don't have to leave town for a theater experience since the last one closed in the 1980's.
WINDER - Winder business leaders and community members are excited about a local option for big screen movies starting this week. Carmike Cinemas is opening a new theater.
Barrow County Chamber of Commerce President Tommy Jennings said it's a good economic indicator for the area.
"A movie theater is a bullseye for any number of retailers and restaurants looking to locate within an activity center."
The 12-screen multiplex on Highway 316 near Highway 81 is at the Gateways of Barrow, according to Jennings.
"Our partners in the development business have been in communication with several restaurants, chain restaurants that we think would be a good addition to the Gateways and to that area of Barrow County."
Jennings said the theater was holding a soft opening Wednesday night, with a benefit Thursday night and an official grand opening and ribbon cutting Friday afternoon.
The opening marks the first time Winder residents don't have to leave town for a theater experience since the last one closed in the 1980's.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Hollywood Arson Fires Continue | Radar Online
Hollywood Arson Fires Continue | Radar Online
2 0
Posted on Dec 31, 2011 @ 07:58AM
Hollywood Arson Fires Continue
2 0 Posted on Dec 31, 2011 @ 07:58AM
AP Photo
Another 10 arson fires were set in Los Angeles Saturday morning, bringing to 32 the number of blazes now under investigation by fire officials. The latest group were all in North Hollywood.
Friday night, there was one more fire set in West Hollywood, in the same area where the first batch of 21 went up Thursday night and Friday morning.
Most of the infernos started with cars being set afire. They quickly spread to nearby houses and apartment buildings.
One man has been arrested, although he's not yet been charged. "It's too early to say whether we have a copycat," Captain Jaime Moore, of the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
PHOTOS: Madonna Badger's Home is Demolished
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, the house where legendary rocker Jim Morrison once lived is among those destroyed. It's believed to have inspired his song, Love Street.
"We believe it's a good possibility that the individual responsible for the fires this morning is responsible for the fire that occurred tonight," Moore said Friday night.
PHOTOS: Celebrities Who Died In Bizarre Circumstances
Fire officials are now on full alert, fearing the arson fires may continue on New Year's Eve.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Winder residents have memories of the 'Granite' | AccessNorthGa
Winder residents have memories of the 'Granite' | AccessNorthGa
WINDER - The final sunset, the final twilight, is approaching for an icon in downtown Winder. With demolition scheduled early next year for the Granite Hotel, there are memories of how the old building, now lifeless, was once full of warmth and life and shaped the lives of people who stayed there.
"It was a beautiful place," recalled Martha Blalock, at the Barrow County Historical Society, housed in the old county jail, down the street and within view of the hotel's granite walls at the corner of Broad and Athens Streets.
Winder's city council voted on December 6 to approve a $178,000 demolition bid on the two-story building. Council members said there was no way to justify not tearing it down because of the cost of restoring it, and in the current recession, the lack of development funding available for the task.
The job of bringing the Granite down is liable to be ticklish; extra care is needed to avoid damaging other buildings and city streets before the site can become a "pocket park," part of Winder's streetscape project plan.
The demolition cost is just the latest entry in the city's ledger of Granite Hotel expenses. The Winder Downtown Development Authority (DDA) purchased the hotel in December 2004 with $200,000 provided by the city. City officials spent at least $230,000 to stabilize the building, but time and the elements continued to wear the Granite down.
Developers have not helped. Bids to buy the Granite from the DDA hit financial snags and those snags meant no real renovation efforts. The old hotel is in such poor shape city officials cannot see investing any more money in preservation.
The Granite is not only in the center of Winder, it is in the center of the town's history. The Granite was built in 1899 on the site of the original "Jug Tavern," a double log cabin where travelers were served corn whiskey in brown fired jugs, hence the town's original name, "Jug Tavern." The Granite, with its estimated 28,000 square feet, remains the largest locally quarried granite building in the state. Its granite blocks came from a quarry south of town owned by Winder founder Wiley Bush, whose son-in-law C.M. Ferguson was a granite mason and is credited with building the hotel.
"We're very upset because it's part of history and our ancestors, we just hate to see it torn down," Martha Blalock said. Since the Granite is soon to disappear, she said she plans to create an information pamphlet about it so people will remember it. It will be available at the museum.
"It will have pictures of what the hotel looked like when it was first built and then, sad to say, the way it looks now," she said. "It had a restaurant, the rooms were nice and it was a good place to live. It was a good place to be when you came to visit friends in Winder or to do business in Winder."
That's the way 92-year-old Virginia "Ginny" Barron remembers the Granite. Following her service as an Army nurse in Burma during World War ll, she and her husband Bill stayed at the Granite for six months until they could move into an apartment during the housing shortage days in Winder following the war in 1945.
In those days, the Granite's owner, a Mrs. Couch, served home- cooked meals in the hotel dining room on the first floor three times a day and downtown business people would stop in for lunch. A number of senior residents boarded at the hotel as well as the overnight guests. The second-story rooms were not elaborate, but they were comfortable.
"People there were friendly," Mrs. Barron remembered. "It was just like family in a hometown, hospitable hotel."
After the 1940s, the Granite began the journey to the broken, boarded-up place it is now, falling into gradual disrepair until the final visitor lodged there in 1972 and the second floor was closed, according to Helen Person, Chairwoman of the Barrow Preservation Society.
"It was a beautiful place," recalled Martha Blalock, at the Barrow County Historical Society, housed in the old county jail, down the street and within view of the hotel's granite walls at the corner of Broad and Athens Streets.
Winder's city council voted on December 6 to approve a $178,000 demolition bid on the two-story building. Council members said there was no way to justify not tearing it down because of the cost of restoring it, and in the current recession, the lack of development funding available for the task.
The job of bringing the Granite down is liable to be ticklish; extra care is needed to avoid damaging other buildings and city streets before the site can become a "pocket park," part of Winder's streetscape project plan.
The demolition cost is just the latest entry in the city's ledger of Granite Hotel expenses. The Winder Downtown Development Authority (DDA) purchased the hotel in December 2004 with $200,000 provided by the city. City officials spent at least $230,000 to stabilize the building, but time and the elements continued to wear the Granite down.
Developers have not helped. Bids to buy the Granite from the DDA hit financial snags and those snags meant no real renovation efforts. The old hotel is in such poor shape city officials cannot see investing any more money in preservation.
The Granite is not only in the center of Winder, it is in the center of the town's history. The Granite was built in 1899 on the site of the original "Jug Tavern," a double log cabin where travelers were served corn whiskey in brown fired jugs, hence the town's original name, "Jug Tavern." The Granite, with its estimated 28,000 square feet, remains the largest locally quarried granite building in the state. Its granite blocks came from a quarry south of town owned by Winder founder Wiley Bush, whose son-in-law C.M. Ferguson was a granite mason and is credited with building the hotel.
"We're very upset because it's part of history and our ancestors, we just hate to see it torn down," Martha Blalock said. Since the Granite is soon to disappear, she said she plans to create an information pamphlet about it so people will remember it. It will be available at the museum.
"It will have pictures of what the hotel looked like when it was first built and then, sad to say, the way it looks now," she said. "It had a restaurant, the rooms were nice and it was a good place to live. It was a good place to be when you came to visit friends in Winder or to do business in Winder."
That's the way 92-year-old Virginia "Ginny" Barron remembers the Granite. Following her service as an Army nurse in Burma during World War ll, she and her husband Bill stayed at the Granite for six months until they could move into an apartment during the housing shortage days in Winder following the war in 1945.
In those days, the Granite's owner, a Mrs. Couch, served home- cooked meals in the hotel dining room on the first floor three times a day and downtown business people would stop in for lunch. A number of senior residents boarded at the hotel as well as the overnight guests. The second-story rooms were not elaborate, but they were comfortable.
"People there were friendly," Mrs. Barron remembered. "It was just like family in a hometown, hospitable hotel."
After the 1940s, the Granite began the journey to the broken, boarded-up place it is now, falling into gradual disrepair until the final visitor lodged there in 1972 and the second floor was closed, according to Helen Person, Chairwoman of the Barrow Preservation Society.
"We continued to have ground floor retail until 2006," Person said. "The city bought the building in 2005 and they believed the ground floor was not safe anymore so they moved the businesses out of there."
Person is one of the preservation advocates who have opposed the hotel's demolition.
The Society formed last year to oppose the demolition and to look for renovation grants.
"The Fox Theatre (in Atlanta) was saved with six minutes left and the wrecking ball was standing across the street," she recalled. " We still hold out hope that someone could come forward and say 'yes, we'd love to work with your group.'"
Person said it would take a consortium of people with public and private money to put together a package to save the building and rehabilitate it as a hotel with ground floor retail shops.
Person believes the Granite could find a new life as Winder's front door, attracting visitors and local folks back to downtown. If not, "it's going to leave a huge hole," a huge hole where once there was a beautiful place, remembered as a "good place to be."
Person is one of the preservation advocates who have opposed the hotel's demolition.
The Society formed last year to oppose the demolition and to look for renovation grants.
"The Fox Theatre (in Atlanta) was saved with six minutes left and the wrecking ball was standing across the street," she recalled. " We still hold out hope that someone could come forward and say 'yes, we'd love to work with your group.'"
Person said it would take a consortium of people with public and private money to put together a package to save the building and rehabilitate it as a hotel with ground floor retail shops.
Person believes the Granite could find a new life as Winder's front door, attracting visitors and local folks back to downtown. If not, "it's going to leave a huge hole," a huge hole where once there was a beautiful place, remembered as a "good place to be."
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