| Ed Blum interview
With an all-star cast that includes the likes of Jewish actress Sophie Okonedo, Ewan McGregor and Catherine Tate, Scenes Of A Sexual Nature is the first full-length feature film from Jewish director Ed Blum.
The low-budget comedy drama follows a string of straight and gay characters as their stories unfold on Hampstead Heath, with love, romance, divorce and reunions all playing a part. As the film is released on DVD, SJ's Caroline Westbrook talks to Blum about the film, his past career and his future plans. How did you get such a prestigious cast together for Scenes Of A Sexual Nature? Well, I think there were several reasons really one is that the film was always written with the view that we were going to do several short stories, so I felt we had more chance of getting talent.
Gravedancers - After Dark Horror Fest
One of the 'Eight Films To Die For' (essentially a mini-horror movie festival put on by Lion's Gate and After Dark), The Gravedancers marks the very welcome return of director Mike Mendez who made a bit of a splash with his nasty nun movie The Convent a few years ago. Blending together elements of films like Poltergeist, The Evil Dead and The Haunting Mendez has made a completely enjoyable haunted house-crazy ghost movie that, despite a few flaws and a wacky ending, actually delivers. When the movie begins, Harris (Dominic Purcell of Prison Break) and his wife Allison (Clare Kramer of Buffy The Vampire Slayer) are attending the funeral of one of Harris' old college friends. After the funeral, they go to a wake where Kira (Josie Maran), Harris' ex-girlfriend, and Sid (Marcus Thomas) are waiting.
MAKING IT LIVABLE: Some home-decor basics that work
To make it personal, start with something you love: a painting, a photograph, a rug, a shell, a pillow, a glass jar, a quilt, anything. I was talking to a friend the other day who was despairing that she couldn't decorate her apartment. I asked her what she had that she really loved. It turns out there was a sofa her husband had refinished himself, a hutch they had found in an antiques store, a beautiful green marble tabletop in the attic at her mother's and lots of family pictures. Within minutes we had sketched out a way to rearrange her whole apartment to feature these cherished things and build around them. I'm a big believer in high-low. Expensive and cheap. It is worth spending some money on one nice piece that you can showcase and really cherish. Then you can augment that with flea market used furniture, and it looks as though you have eclectic taste.
It's Rocket Science
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to find work in Loudoun County, but it doesn't hurt to be one either. Thanks to an aerospace cluster that developed here starting in the 1990s, there are plenty of Loudouners with such a vocation.The county is home to at least eight aerospace companies. The diverse cluster includes companies that manufacture custom-built aircraft simulators, such as Rockwell Collins in Sterling, as well as companies such as AeroAstro in Ashburn that build satellites about the size of two-drawer filing cabinets. Among the pioneers to locate here was Orbital Sciences Corp., which moved into a building in the Rt. 28 corridor in 1993.Cheap rental rates and room to expand was the attraction for the then Fair Oaks-based government contractor, Orbital spokesman Barry Beneski said.Founded in 1982 by Harvard Business School classmates who wanted to start a commercial company to do things in space, Orbital will mark its 25th anniversary next month, Beneski said.
Thugs ruined my life
An Iranian asylum seeker beaten to a pulp by a gang who acted like a "pack of hounds" has spoken for the first time about his terror. Yasin Ahmedi was ambushed by a group of six teenage thugs as he cycled through Walker Park in April last year. The 47-year-old had every bone in his face broken by the mob, who kicked, punched and stamped on him, fracturing his skull and breaking his ribs. Mr Ahmedi was in hospital for four weeks as his whole face needed to be reconstructed. Surgeons had to remove all of his teeth to rewire his jaw. .
Family Affair / The Grumans
* Additional tenants: Tishtash, a mixed dachshund with a sweater, and five cats - Haley ("the queen"), her daughter Dazon, her granddaughter Banana, and Kafika and Michele ("the new ones").
* The home: Two stories with five different levels inside, detached, on a damp lot (from the March rains), 160 square meters, red-tiled roof (with an attic), a Jerusalem stone wall and a painting of a harp on the mezuzah on the front door.
* Entering: The lower level contains a living room / dining area / kitchen with a piano (French), sofas (green velvet) and vegetarian lasagna in the oven. Half a floor above is the master bedroom, which contains a library laden with CDs, tapes and books (selected items: the "Star Wars" trilogy, the latest Meir Shalev novel and Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth").
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