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BGN interviews filmmaker Amy Redford about her latest feature What Comes Around.

A young love affair becomes a menacing game of cat and mouse where nothing is what it seems in this immersive thriller.

Interviewer: Jamie Broadnax

Video Editor: Jamie Broadnax

What Comes Around arrives in theaters this Friday August 4th.

A television network competition offer was needed to help revitalize an entrepreneur’s fledging business.

According to Scripps News, AJ Sankofa, a New Jersey chef, was notified via his Instagram account about The Great Food Truck Race competition. The Food Network asked him if he and his company ESO Artisanal Pasta would like to audition for a spot on the show. The rest, as they say, is history.

That opportunity helped the business in a way that can only be measured by including Sankofa and his company in the competition. He and his wife, Kristin Gambarian, appeared on the 15th season of the show in 2022, and it was the spark they needed to stay on level ground.

After being invited to audition and surviving through several rounds, their team, which included their friend Matt McFadden, was accepted into the competition. The trio was given their own food truck to go up against other teams of chefs in the competition. None of them had experienced working within the confines of a food truck, so they learned as they went about the competition. Until then, they didn’t realize that it isn’t as easy to fix artisanal pasta in a tight space. ESO was the first team to serve pasta on The Great Food Truck Race.

After being flown to California and competing between February 2022 and April 2022, the team came in third place in the competition, and from there, business took off!

ESO Artisanal Pasta can be found on a side street in Morristown, New Jersey. The shop is only open two days a week, on Fridays and Saturdays. This is due to the couple cooking and hosting parties throughout the week. They rent out a commercial kitchen at a restaurant 45 minutes away to make their products. They also make their money doing private parties as well.

Appearing on The Great Food Truck Race has helped their online business. Their customers and fans of the show can order home kit pasta that sells in the $150 range so they can serve an artisanal meal at home.

Now that business has picked up, and they are doing well, Sankofa and Gambarian plan to save to buy a home and open their own restaurant business.

On the heels of Barbie and the impending Mattel Cinematic Universe, another major company is getting into the entertainment business. Crayola, known for producing top-tier art and school supplies, is launching Crayola Studios to make content for kids and families. Once again, this is news that wasn’t on our BINGO card. As Deadline reports, Crayola is teaming with MIMO Studios to develop its first project, The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian.

The series will be based on a Gen-Z Media podcast by Jonathan Messinger about an 8-year-old boy on a space station. He goes with his friends to explore new planets and help aliens. So, unlike Barbie, Crayola Studios content will actually be for kids of all ages. But, as we all know, a lot of kid content usually has some nuggets thrown in there for adults. Crayola Studios will partner with IP owners, animation studios, and other production companies for future offerings. 

“Crayola is synonymous with kids and color and we are so excited to collaborate with them to bring these beloved journeys to life through world-class animation and artistry” said Zarghami, MIMO Studios leader and former Nickelodeon chief. “We have been cultivating The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian since we first identified it and immediately saw the great potential and opportunity to tell rich stories in video the way Gen-Z Media did in the podcast. The combination of great characters, creativity, adventure, and information is something we can’t wait to bring to audiences worldwide.”

So there you have it. There will be a Mattel Cinematic Universe and maybe a Crayola TV series and film empire too. The crayon makers may not have Wishbone and other cool icons, but maybe we can get a box of crayons on an adventure. I’d watch it. The 2020s continues to be a wild decade.

The post Crayola Is Making TV Shows and Films appeared first on Nerdist.

A Black woman inherited a family business back in the 1960s. If not advised by her father, the business may not have lasted long enough to become one of the oldest Black-owned businesses in the community.

According to NJ.com, Eddie’s Barbershop owner Valerie Roberts was handed the family business and felt that the neighborhood of Asbury Park would need more time to be ready for a woman barber who can cut just as well as the men. She didn’t want to go through the difficulties that people in the city may not be prepared to see a lady barber in the neighborhood. But, due to some advice from her father, she stayed.

“I told my father I was going back to New York because this city isn’t ready for a lady barber,” said the 80-year-old Roberts. “He told me if you run from difficult situations, I’d never make it in life.”

That and her resilience have kept her in the neighborhood where the business still operates today.

Roberts’ father, Edward Hilton, opened the barbershop on Springwood Avenue near Dewitt in 1940. After running the business for over 20 years, his health started to fail, so she took over Eddie’s Barbershop.

As with any business, Roberts had to survive during rough times. She said the business was almost lost due to race riots in the 1970s.

“That Fourth of July was one of the scariest days I can remember,” she recalled. “Cops stood on the track with rifles ready to shoot anyone trying to cross over into the nicer part of Asbury.

“A friend of mine helped me remove everything in the shop during the looting and hide it in his grocery store,” Roberts said. “It wasn’t easy, but we survived.”

Eugene Berry has been getting his haircut at Eddie’s Barbershop for over 20 years and plans to continue that tradition.

“Val is an example of what Asbury Park should be,” said Berry. “She’s a living example of perseverance and the only one I’d let touch these curls.”

Now, Roberts wants to continue the legacy and hand the business down to her grandson.