by Ann Wlazelek Now brewing in Allentown is a honey of a new business called The Colony Meadery. Mead, for the uninitiated, is an ancient alcoholic drink similar to wine but made from fermented honey instead of grapes. A meadery is where mead is made. The Colony Meadery opened in January 2014 at the Bridgeworks Enterprise Center, 905 Harrison Street, where Mack Trucks used... »
by Ann Wlazelek Contrary to American economist Milton Friedman’s warning, there is a free lunch: It happens every Thursday at St. Luke’s Hospice in Lower Saucon Township. There, about 30 family members and staffers gather round a table for pizza, homemade soup or even a gourmet meal from some of the Lehigh Valley’s finest restaurants, including the Apollo Grill and Emeril’... »
By Ann Wlazelek ARTWORK By Carmen Porfido and Claudia McGill Allentown’s Mayfair Festival of the Arts continues to undergo a renaissance in this, its 28th year, with a new contest, greener grounds and an admission price expected to bring more art and music lovers to the city fairgrounds May 23-26. New to this year’s activities are a juried show, attracting artists from acr... »
By Ann Wlazelek While still in college, jewelry-maker Laura Beth Love hit upon the idea of creating something new and pretty from something old and broken. Some customers immediately recognized the colorful flowers, birds and wallpaper-like borders at the heart of Love’s necklaces. Others gasped when they realized why the patterns seemed familiar: they came from pieces of ... »
SOTA’s Bethlehem Show House Benefits Allentown Art Museum By Ann Wlazelek Whether you are a fan of the hit British TV series “Downton Abbey” or not, there is plenty of history, intrigue and style to beckon you inside the Society of the Arts (SOTA) Show House in Bethlehem when it opens to the public during a fund-raising event this month. The house – a large, white 1870s fe... »
By Ann Wlazelek The pieces of Nathan Breininger’s career as a mosaic tile artist fell into place in a basement in Catasauqua. That’s where the then 19-year-old was laid up with a herniated disk from the back-breaking, knee-crunching labor of laying conventional tile in people’s bathrooms. “I had been saving all this beautiful glass from other jobs, laying on my side in the... »
By Ann Wlazelek Stephen Vassallo considers himself lucky: He has never had a weight problem; he has always been active and eaten right; and he’s living his dream job, owning and operating a private fitness center. The 42-year-old married father of four realizes, however, that not everyone is so fortunate or knowledgeable about keeping fit. He is astounded by the high rates... »
By Ann Wlazelek Amanda Danziger was on a mission in Rwanda when her future as a filmmaker came into focus. A student at Drexel University at the time, the Allentown native decided she’d rather work at an orphanage in the East African country than do an internship in digital media. She bought a $300 video camera to chronicle the experience for the people who financed her tr... »
By Ann Wlazelek The quality of the custom-designed gold, silver, platinum, pearl and gem stone jewelry you find at Feldman Design Fine Jewelry is like that you would find at high-end malls and big cities. Yet, Feldman’s is located in a strip mall in the East Penn Plaza in Emmaus. “It’s where I started and where we’ve stayed,” Karen Feldman said of the family business that ... »
By Ann Wlazelek As an expert at card magic, Joseph Keppel hates to ask people to “pick a card.” So many magicians do that, he reasons, that the audience believes they know what is going to happen next. Instead, Keppel opens a new deck of cards, takes out four aces and turns them into kings in front of people’s noses. The trick might take a lot longer to learn, he said, but... »
