An eye for directing
February 2, 2010
Local filmmaker looks to ride low-budget horror movie trend to success with ‘Eyes in the Dark’
Reading the script and discussing a scene for ‘Eyes in the Dark’ are (from left) actress Melinda Ausserer, assistant director Robyn Scaringi, actor Jason Robison, director Bjorn Anderson, actor Wayne Bastrup and actor John Symonds. Contributed
On his 26th birthday, Issaquah resident Bjorn Anderson walked into work at the Home Depot and gave his two weeks’ notice. He wanted to pursue his dream of making movies. He started his first script the same day.
“I figured I was young enough that if I was ever going to do it, it would have to be now,” Anderson said.
He never had any formalized film training, but said he watched movies with a critical eye for years.
“I could pay money for film school or pay money for actual film and learn as I go,” Anderson said.
He chose the latter. Read more
Dig into the duck and dumplings at Macky’s Dim Sum
February 2, 2010
Put down the chopsticks, or maybe a fork, and ignore the stares from other diners, because the menu at Macky’s Dim Sum presents a hand-eye coordination challenge. Order the roasted duck — lacquered skin and moist meat presented in oh-so-neat rows — and utensils will be rendered useless. Read more
Dan Connolly to perform regularly at Zeeks Pizza
January 26, 2010
Dan Connolly performs a set at Zeeks Pizza in the Issaquah Highlands. By Kathleen R. Merrill
Issaquah residents have another place to hear live music in the city, and they’ll get an excellent performance from local musician Dan Connolly.
The talented guitarist is playing from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Tuesdays at Zeeks Pizza, 2525 N.E. Park Drive.
Not only will those in attendance get to hear soulful renditions of Connolly’s tunes from his album “Running Under Water,” they’ll also get hand-clapping, foot-stomping fun in the form of Irish drinking songs.
Many people at Zeeks last week had heard Connolly’s album and were calling out requests for songs from it. Read more
Lose yourself in ‘Yonkers’ fine performances
January 26, 2010
Jennifer Lee Taylor (center) and Suzy Hunt enact the climactic confrontation between Aunt Bella and Grandma Kurnitz, as (from left) Mike Dooley, Nick Robinson, Collin Morris and Karen Skrinde, as Uncle Louie, Arty, Jay and Gert, look on in a scene from ‘Lost in Yonkers.’ By Jay Koh/Village Theatre
Silently, Arty and Jay Kurnitz wait in their grandmother’s living room. They question why they’ve come so far to see a woman they barely know and they plot their escape.
But leaving isn’t on the agenda.
What unfolds onstage in the next two and a half hours is nothing short of dramatic perfection and well-timed comedic relief, provided by a talented cast who embrace the irony of one of Neil Simon’s best-known plays — “Lost in Yonkers.”
Typically, reviewers find time to take light notes in the margins of their program during a play, but “Lost in Yonkers” proved so captivating that it didn’t happen this time.
Comfortable suspense — if there is such a thing — kept everyone in the audience waiting for the next character to unravel.
As the son’s broken father, Eddie, played by Bradford Farwell, tries to heal himself and the family bank account after his wife’s death, the boys are faced with the realities of adulthood.
The touching coming-of-age story is marked by realism, not simplicity or comfort. Rather, the two boys — Jay, played by Collin Morris, and Arty, played by Nick Robinson — learn no matter how simple they may seem, familial relationships are messy, complex and laden with history. Read more
‘Lost in Yonkers’ readying for Village Theatre debut
January 19, 2010
Collin Morris, Nick Robinson and Jennifer Lee Taylor (from left) appear as Jay, Arty and Bella in the Village Theatre production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Neil Simon play ‘Lost in Yonkers.’By Jay Koh /Village Theatre
The skeletons hidden in the closet rattle loose in “Lost in Yonkers,” as the Neil Simon dramedy plumbs deep into the emotional trauma buried by the Kurnitz clan, a family led by a ruthless grandmother.
Enter Jay and Arty, teenage boys, the youngest family members and the latest to be thrust into the emotional maelstrom at Grandma Kurnitz’s apartment. “Lost in Yonkers” unfolds above a candy store where the stern grandmother is the proprietor, but the setting is saccharine only in the literal sense.
Village Theatre alumnus Brian Yorkey will direct the ensemble cast when the theater revives the period piece Jan. 20. The tale recounts the tense times after serious Jay and wisecracking Arty move in with Grandma Kurnitz. The boys arrive at the apartment after their mother dies and their father takes work out of town to pay back a bad debt.
Jay and Arty also share the apartment with dim-witted Aunt Bella. The scarred Kurnitz brood also includes Uncle Louie, a small-time thug.
“Lost in Yonkers” shares DNA with “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound” — other semi-autobiographical works in the Simon canon.
“He really, I think, dug deep for this one,” Yorkey said. “It’s one of his best, and the chance to work with a cast of some of Seattle’s best actors on a play this meaty, you can’t pass that up.” Read more
Musician presents ‘anti-radio’ CD ‘Rum of Faith’
January 19, 2010
Jeremy Owen strips down to just his voice and his guitar in his new CD, ‘Rum of Faith.’ Julianne Masters
Jeremy Owen has worked hard to train his voice to be his best instrument. If, instead, he’d allowed his career track to be influenced by his failures, he might not be releasing his fourth CD, let alone his first.
“I have been humiliated off more stages on open mic nights than I can count,” said the Issaquah resident. “And each time, I said I’d never do that again. Then, one day, no one was complaining.”
Having performed for just about every type of audience, Owen said his latest CD, “Rum of Faith,” marks a return to the music best enjoyed by a smaller, more intimate audience. That’s why he chose to debut it at Vino Bella, with its intimate café setting.
While “Rum of Faith” is a return to an all-acoustic set, Owen described his music that can be tweaked to be enjoyed by any crowd, from heavy metal to country. Read more
Come to ‘Twilight’ convention with The Issaquah Press this weekend
January 12, 2010
Join us — and fellow Twihards — when the ‘Twilight’ convention comes to Seattle. Read more
Come waltz the night away in Vienna
January 12, 2010
Doug Longman, director of the Evergreen Philharmonic Orchestra, leads the Issaquah, Liberty and Skyline high schools' advanced-level orchestra in 2007 during their annual Swinging in Vienna public dance social at the Issaquah Community Center. Photo By Greg Farrar
It takes quite the social event in Issaquah to attract outsiders from as far away as Gig Harbor.
Jerry and Ruthie Cravens said in a 2007 interview that they love to don their finest formal wear — a flowing ballroom gown for her and a full tuxedo with tails and white gloves for him — to perform their favorite Viennese waltzes at the annual Swinging in Vienna dance.
“It’s not very often you get to dance to a live orchestra or band,” Jerry said.
Swinging in Vienna transforms the interior of the community center into a décor reminiscent of a starry night in Vienna and features the Evergreen Philharmonic Orchestra performing classic waltzes and the Issaquah High School Jazz Band jumping in for a mood change to swing tunes from yesteryear. What started as a way for local music programs to raise money evolved into one of THE social programs of the year in Issaquah. Read more
High schools go toe to toe in first Stinky Sneaker Tournament
January 12, 2010
Break out the gold, or green, and get to Bellevue College for the inaugural Stinky Sneaker Tournament. Read more
Thai Ginger does justice to top-billed ingredient
January 12, 2010
When a restaurant includes a signature ingredient in the name above the door, the act amounts to a challenge to diners, almost as if the owners laid down a gauntlet. Try the namesake dish, the menu demands. We dare you.
Thai Ginger, where the potent root receives top billing, deploys the main ingredient in the Thai Ginger House Special — assorted vegetables and protein studded with matchsticks of the spicy-sweet tuber. Consider the dish a litmus test. Include too much ginger, and the flavor bludgeons other players into submission. Skimp on ginger, and fail to do justice to the title dish.
Thai Ginger delivers. The house special includes enough ginger to keep colds at bay all winter long without muscling the other components from the plate. Not too much, not too little. Just right, Goldilocks.
Other dishes deploy traditional Thai ingredients for tasty effect: basil in phad bai kaplau — onions, peppers and meat or seafood in a garlic sauce — and numerous other dishes, peanuts in many more and fiery chilies where necessary. Read more
