Texarkana Entertainment Blog

The reign appears over for Purple Rain. That’s the way it looks with what started out as an upscale, downtown Texarkana dance club and live music venue now closed for remodeling. The club’s MySpace page indicates a place called Doc’s Midnight Saloon is on its way to replace Purple Rain in a few weeks. Otherwise, no word yet on what’s afoot. The East Broad Street spot in the old Belk-Jones Department Store building was certainly something different for Texarkana with its purple-themed interiors, cavernous dance floor area, and upstairs VIP lounge. It opened in June but never seemed to catch on in the way the owners must have hoped. Just at first glance, it looks like the new club will be more in tune with what’s typically popular in Texarkana. Stay tuned for more.

- Aaron Brand

Popularity: 100% [?]

Just got word the Harlem Globetrotters will dribble on in to Texarkana to display their hoops wizardry on Jan. 30 at the Four States Fairgrounds. The Harlem Globetrotters have a storied history with such basketball legends as Curly Neal, Meadowlark Lemon, and Wilt Chamberlain having shot hoops and wowed crowds in the past. The famed basketball exhibition team has been around more than 80 years. More info on them: www.harlemglobetrotters.com.

- Aaron Brand

Popularity: 50% [?]

Well, here’s sweet news for you. Jason Boland and the Stragglers will hit the road at the end of the month, beginning with a Thanksgiving concert in Oklahoma City. Sidelined by a vocal cord injury for a couple months, Boland is back plugging his band’s new album, “Comal County Blue.” Jason’s no stranger to these parts but so far no tour stops are announced for the Texarkana area. You can check out tour dates at www.thestragglers.com.

- Aaron Brand

Popularity: unranked [?]

Hello, readers—just a quick welcome to the Texarkana Gazette’s new entertainment blog. We’ll be getting this blog up and running in the next few weeks to offer another venue for entertainment news. Like any new adventure, it will have some tweaks and changes as we get this rolling. You can expect this blog will be a fairly free-form exercise in discussing entertainment, a way to present arts and entertainment news in a different, more immediate way. So that said you can expect a variety here—anything from some local arts/entertainment tidbits to musings on issues beyond the Texarkana area. We’ll talk about anything from TRAHC to Tupac.

On that note, let’s have fun with this blog.

- Aaron Brand

Popularity: unranked [?]