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"The Butterfly Room" is one of those movies that is really coming in under the radar. It just debuted at the Laemmle NoHo 7 without much in the way of publicity, and that's a shame because this thriller directed by Jonathan Zarantonello proves to be a real treat for horror fans as it features several actors we all remember from various horror and cult classics. Among them are Barbara Steele who is best known for her work in a number of Italian gothic horror films like "Black Sunday," Ray Wise who left an indelible impression on us with his performances in "Robocop" and "Twin Peaks," Erica Leerhsen who survived a few ill-fated horror movies like "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2" and the remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Camille Keaton who suffered such unforgivable brutality in "I Spit on Your Grave," Adrienne King who memorably decapitated Jason Voorhees' mother in "Friday the 13th," and P.J. Soles who showed us things we really did like in John Carpenter's "Halloween." Looking at this cast, you'd think that this was another version of "The Expendables" but with horror icons.

Another big horror favorite in "The Butterfly Room" is Heather Langenkamp who is still best remembered for her role as Nancy Thompson in "A Nightmare on Elm Street." Here she plays Dorothy, a single mother who has her own reasons for keeping her son away from butterfly collector Ann (Barbara Steele). As the movie goes on, you find out exactly why Dorothy has such a bone to pick with Ann, and it is not worth spoiling here.

Langenkamp dropped by the Laemmle NoHo 7 for "The Butterfly Room's" opening night, and she did a Q&A with the movie's second assistant director Brian McQuery. When asked how she became involved with this production, Langenkamp explained that it started with a journalist friend of Zarantonello's who introduced the director to her while at a horror convention she was attending.

"This journalist friend was my introduction, and I noticed that Jonathan was lurking in the background (laughs) for several hours," Langenkamp said. "Finally we struck up a conversation and he gave me the script later. I have to say that when I read it, I felt that the part of Dorothy was one of the better parts that I've read in many, many years. I think, from what you see on the screen, she's a very strong woman and she's a very fierce mother and I really enjoyed playing such a part. I remember we got together at this restaurant in Santa Monica, and I think I shocked Jonathan a great deal by telling them how much I liked it and how I really loved this idea that this horror movie focuses on an elderly woman which is something that is really rare."

In addition to all the horror icons, there are also several child actors in the cast who play kids that become way too friendly with Ann. Now there's a saying that the things to avoid while making a movie are working with animals and children, but Langenkamp found working with child actors like Ellery Sprayberry and Julia Putnam very informative and fascinating.

"It's kind of a lesson every day in how to be so natural and so in the moment, and I always get a lot of inspiration from children like Miko Hughes (who appeared opposite Langenkamp in "Wes Craven's New Nightmare") who was like that for me," Langenkamp said about working with child actors. "You just zone in with them as they really experience the movie in a different way I think, and it is really refreshing. Ellery was really fun to work with, and I remember this one day when she had to go too long hair to short hair too long hair and everybody was panicked. But Ellery was just smiling and taking it all in stride, and we had a lot of fun on the set as I remember."

Ever since her days battling Freddy Krueger, we haven't seen as much of Langenkamp as we would like. For her acting has become a part time job, and she spends most of her days running AFX Studio, a Special F/X Make-Up Studio in Los Angeles, with her husband David LeRoy Anderson. One of her more recent acting roles was as a character named Moto in "Star Trek Into Darkness," but her role as Dorothy in "The Butterfly Room" is the biggest one she has had in some time. This led one audience member to ask her if coming back to acting was like getting back on a bicycle where everything comes back to you.

"I would have to say not at all like riding a bike," Langenkamp said. "I think that you're much more self-conscious about how you're doing as you get older especially if you've taken time off. I was really worried a lot of the time about whether I was going to be able to get my chops back up to speed, and I'm happy with the way the movie looks on the screen. I'm much happier than I actually thought I was at about 6:45 tonight (the movie started at 7:40 pm) because I get a lot more critical of myself too as I get older. Both of those things combine actually, making for a very uncomfortable day today, but now I can relax. I don't think it's like riding a bike. I wish it was more like that."

But even after being away from acting for a long time, Langenkamp still has a great love for it. She explained why that is the case and also talked about what it was like working with Steele who is probably the biggest horror icon in the cast of "The Butterfly Room."

"It's probably my favorite thing to do," Langenkamp said of acting. "I think one the most creative things that a person can do is bring a script to life and think of the character and think of how you're going to interact with someone like Claudia. Those scenes were a lot of fun and especially all the scenes with Barbara Steele. She is one of my personal heroes and someone that I greatly admire, so I often watched her. She's a very elegant woman and she's very powerful, so sometimes I would just watch her and try to learn from her in the thing she did to be kind of a majestic creature in the film. I learn a lot from the people that I work with and I always and see what their techniques are and how they get prepared, and I take whatever I can from people like that."

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Heather Langenkamp Talks About 'The Butterfly Room'

When Harald Huth bought the former Wertheim department store site in central Berlin, he planned to build a mall with 200 shops for about 400 million euros ($550 million). Three years and almost 1 billion euros later, hes set to open Germanys biggest shopping center, with 270 stores.

The developers growing ambitions reflect Berlins emergence as a shopping destination faster than new stores can be built. Retail rents in the capital climbed the most among Germanys big cities last year, driven by a surge in tourism and a growing population.

In the past 10 years, Berlin has developed excellently, Huth, 45, said in a telephone interview. The tenant demand we received gave me confidence that the project could be bigger.

Germanys biggest metropolis has been something of an emerging market in the decades of rebuilding that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Though Berliners incomes are still lower than the national average, the city is beginning to attract brands like Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Forever 21, which opened their first stores there last year.

Frankfurt and Munich and Hamburg are wealthier, but Berlin is on the ascendancy, said John Bason, chief financial officer at Associated British Foods Plc (ABF), the London-based company thats preparing to open its second Primark discount clothing store in Berlin. There are many, many consumers within the catchment area of Berlin, by far enough to give us crowded stores.

Berlin retail sales adjusted for inflation climbed 5.8 percent last year, according to the citys statistics office, compared with a rise of just 0.1 percent in Germany as a whole.

Retailers are drawn by the citys growth and emergence as one of Europes most visited cities, said Ruediger Thraene, head of Berlin at broker Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (JLL)

Its been a lot more noticeable in the past two or three years that international labels want to open shops in Berlin, Thraene said. Berlin was a fashion hotspot in the 1920s and 1930s, but since the fall of the Wall a lot has had to happen for it to be in that position again.

Berlins reputation as a fashion destination has been burnished by the semi-annual Berlin Fashion Week trade show, which the government began organizing in 2007.

Berlins population has climbed 3 percent since 2005 to 3.4 million, about double that of second-placed Hamburg, and the government expects another 7 percent rise by 2030. The city had 11.3 million visitors last year, 50 percent more than in 2007, according to the Berlin Trade Federation. Visitors accounted for about a quarter of all retail spending, the Federation said.

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The new eating scene coming to Brookfield Place, the reconfigured retail and restaurant portion of what used to be called the World Financial Center, is almost too much to swallow.

Its scale is hard to grasp even after a stroll through the construction site. Brookfield Properties $250 million reinvention of the office complexs public spaces doesnt simply replace the stores and restaurants that previously occupied the corridors and courtyards adjoining the Winter Garden.

In fact, the new layout including two vast floors of eating options and alfresco dining terraces facing the North Cove yacht marina will be largely unrecognizable to anyone who remembers the awkward former setup.

HPH restaurant group partners Peter Poulakakos and Paul Lamas will soon launch Le District, a French-themed marketplace and eating zone adjoining the Winter Gardens south side at the foot of 225 Liberty St. (the previous 2 WFC), with a mind-boggling 1,000 seats indoors and outdoors. Comprising more than 37,000 square feet, its been called a French Eataly by some.

And the ground floor of Le District sits directly beneath a second mammoth venue, Hudson Eats a 35,000- square-foot noshing zone that landlord Brookfield is racing to complete. Its 14 high-end fast-casual counters of such foodie faves as Blue Ribbon Sushi and Dos Toros Taqueria will serve 600 diners.

In addition, there will be five freestanding restaurants along Brookfield Places northern Vesey Street boundary.

So many choices promise a culinary sea change for FiDi and Battery Park City, whose combined population has doubled to 60,000 in 15 years. The World Trade Center will welcome Cond Nast and other tenants next year. The new food complex is so ambitiously conceived that its likely to draw customers from farther afield as well.

Brookfield national retail leasing director Ed Hogan said, We conservatively project all the food operations, including nearly 2,000 seats, will generate over $120 million in sales in the first year but more likely in the $160 million range. The higher figure would be more than four times what the old Tavern on the Greens 800 seats grossed in its best years.

Asked whether Hogans estimate sounded right, Poulakakos laughed and said, Wow! I havent been to those meetings. I hope theyre correct. But a lot of people need to eat down here.

HPH is spending north of $15 million on Le Districts buildout, Poulakakos said. Neither he nor Hogan would discuss terms of HPHs 20-year triple-net lease except to say that it was a combination of base rent and a percentage over break-even.

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Brookfields $250M development rocks downtown

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -

A Liberty Street convenience store will be remodeled into a combination restaurant and storage facility after garnering the blessing of the Allentown Zoning Hearing Board Monday night.

Zoners, who heard arguments concerning The Campus Shop at 2301-2303 Liberty Street last month,grantedaspecial use applicationfiled by theOSBATT Development, LLC by a 2-1 margin.

Chairman Daniel McCarthy and Juan Camacho voted in favor of the application with Michael Engle casting a dissenting vote.

Zoning Hearing Board member R. Scott Unger did not vote.

McCarthy said the proposed 1,695 square foot restaurant is a very low intensity use, would generate significant walk-in trafficand not adversely affect the neighborhood.

Conditions for proposed restaurant include that it will not serve liquor, will close by 10 p.m., have a maximum load of 30 patrons, and would not utilize the roof. Deliveries leaving the restaurant by car are also not allowed under the conditions.

Jason Lund, of OSBATT Development, said he has talked to five potential food service operators, but does not have a restaurant tenant for the building, located across from Muhlenberg College.

Lund said the walk-in storage business in the building's basement will hold high school-sized lockers as a convenience pay service for college students.

The top floor will sport a remodeled four-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment, said Lund, who is in the process of purchasing the building from its current owners.

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Allentown zoners OK plan for Liberty Street convenience store

Remodel Master Suite - Design Build
Proposed Master Suite Remodel Walkthrough.

By: Robert D Youngs Remodeling Contractor

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Remodel Master Suite - Design Build - Video

DES PLAINES, IL -- The National Association of the Remodeling Industry's (NARI) first-quarter 2014 Remodeling Business Pulse (RBP) data of current and future remodeling business conditions show current condition ratings fell significantly in March.

Business conditions during the first three months of 2014 dropped to 6.07, down from 6.41 in December. There was a decline in all but one of the sub-components that drive the overall current rating. Conversion of bids and sales value of jobs had the largest dip.

However, strength of sales in this three month period increased to 6.51, from the 6.41 reported during the fourth quarter of 2013.

"The harsh winter seemed to have played a role in the decline of our numbers this quarter," says Tom O'Grady, CR, CKBR, chairman of NARI's Strategic Planning Committee.

However, despite the low ratings for current business conditions, remodelers are more optimistic about the future, heading into their busy season. The outlook for business three months out reached a new all-time high of 6.51, from 6.41 in December 2013.

Growth indicators in the first quarter of 2014 are as follows (rating is from 1 to 9, where 1 is much worse than a year ago and 9 is much better; 5 is about the same as last year):

--Current business conditions fell to 6.07 (from 6.51 last quarter) --Number of inquiries remained flat at 6.24. --Requests for bids had a slight drop to 6.16 (down from 6.22 last quarter) --Conversion of bids fell significantly from 6.03 to 5.71. --Sales value of jobs sold declined to 5.84 (down from 6.27 from last quarter).

"Postponed home maintenance issues continue to be a large driver for projects," O'Grady says. "However, homeowners remain slow to make the decision to move ahead with higher-priced projects, which is still the biggest barrier to growth."

When asked about what is driving growth, remodelers had responses similar to those seen in the last few quarters. Activity is being driven by several factors:

Postponed projects continue to be the No. 1 factor in remodeling business growth, at 81 percent, up from 75 percent in December.

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Current Remodeling Conditions Survey Sees Pullback in March, According to NARI

Leak Detection Friendswood Texas 713-766-3833
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24 Hour Emergency Plumbing Deer Park 713-766-3833
24 Hour Emergency Plumbing Deer Park 713-766-3833 Abacus Plumbing is a leading provider of plumbing and HVAC services in Houston. Established in 2003, the co...

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The Dylan Farnum Look - "Zeke The Plumber"
A pre-production demo of our song "Zeke The Plumber" from the upcoming rock opera "Burgerface vs. Count Blackula in 4D!" http://www.thedylanfarnumlook.com/ h...

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The Dylan Farnum Look - "Zeke The Plumber" - Video