By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in The Denton Record-Chronicle on July 22, 2014

Kierstin Eaddy met everything with passion. She had a passion for track and field, Girl Scouts, horses and helping others.

The Flower Mound teenager also had a passion for racing go-karts and was thrilled to participate in a timed race sponsored by the Sports Car Club of America at Texas Motor Speedway this past weekend.

Eaddy, 14, died Sunday when her go-kart crashed on a course set up in a parking lot at Texas Motor Speedway. She was taken by air ambulance to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth, where she was pronounced dead.

Fort Worth police are investigating the cause of the crash.

The remaining races at the event were canceled after the accident.

“All of us at the SCCA are shocked and saddened to hear about Sunday’s tragic accident involving Kierstin Eaddy,” Lisa Noble, president and CEO of SCCA, wrote in a press release. “We are a Club of families, and are shaken by the loss of this young competitor. Personally, and on behalf of the SCCA, my heartfelt condolences go out to Kierstin’s family, friends and the participants at Sunday’s event.”

Kierstin, a member of North Texas Karting and the Dallas Karting Complex, had raced since age 7. She was a two-time regional champion and was wearing her helmet, neck brace, gloves and racing suit at the time of the accident, said her father, Todd Eaddy.

Kierstin had dyslexia and attended the June Shelton School in Dallas, where she was an honors student and participated in track and field. According to its website, Shelton is a private school founded for the treatment or accommodation of learning-different children.

She represented Shelton at the Junior Olympics recently in San Marcos and broke many school records this past year.

Kierstin, who owned the pre-assembled go-kart, wanted to become an engineer and design her own kart.

“Racing is fun, and something like track and field you have a passion to be a competitor, and she was a competitor in everything she did,” Todd Eaddy said of his daughter, adding that she was also a gifted painter.

Classmate and friend Brennen Bliss, who has created a memorial page on Facebook, said Kierstin received the Spirit of Shelton award this past year, which is the highest award a Shelton student can receive.

“She was the most amazing person. The impact she has made on all of our lives is something we’ll never forget,” Bliss said.

Todd Eaddy said the school had a major impact on his daughter’s life.

“I don’t know how to tell people about dyslexia and the difficulties that come with it and the children that go through what they do with being dyslexic,” he said. “Shelton is a school that wraps their arms around that.”

Counselors were made available to students and parents on Monday at the school, according to Shelton’s executive director, Suzanne Stell.

“We will be continuing that with grief counselors as we move forward,” said Stell, adding that the school is waiting to hear from Kierstin’s parents before having a memorial at the school.

Kierstin was a member of the Girls Scouts and a volunteer with the SpiritHorse Therapeutic Riding Center in Corinth. The center provides free therapeutic horseback riding services to children and adults from 10 counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Her father said she chose the organization because of her love for horses and children and helping others.

She would volunteer every weekend and build PowerPoint presentations for teachers, students and corporations to help the organization, Todd Eaddy said.

Funeral arrangements have not been made public, but they will be published later at this link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/In-Loving-Memory-Kierstin-Eaddy/276174705902234?sk=timeline

ADAM SCHRADER can be reached at 940-566-6882 and via Twitter at @Schrader_Adam.

By ADAM SCHRADER
Originally published in The Denton Record-Chronicle on Oct. 27, 2014

DATCU, a full-service credit union, held a ceremony this month to celebrate the groundbreaking of its new location at the corner of Briarhill Boulevard and FM407.

By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in The Denton Record-Chronicle on Aug. 10, 2014

This fall, whether it’s after a late night of studying or a night on the town, University of North Texas students and Fry Street loyalists will have some new places to grab a bite and a pack of cigarettes.

Chai Tamprateep, owner of Mr. Chopsticks, is behind a small retail strip at the corner of Hickory and Welch streets featuring restaurants and a convenience store. Sushi Cafe, relocating from Oak Street, will fill Suite 100. Seoul Wings and Beer will fill Suite 101 and Viet Bites will open a second location in Suite 102.

The strip will also include a 3,000-square-foot convenience store, which Tamprateep said will be called C-101, and there is one more storefront available for lease.

The spaces for the restaurants are 75 percent complete inside, and he hopes they’ll be completed soon so the restaurants can start moving in and prepare to open later this year.

When Tamprateep started the project, he approached several businesses. He didn’t initially intend for all three restaurants to be Asian cuisine, he said.

“I approached them and that’s how it works. And actually the convenience store owner is Asian, it’s funny,” Tamprateep said.

Even though the theme of the tenants is similar to his own restaurant on Scripture Street, he’s not interested in moving because business owners shouldn’t have to compete with their landlord, he said.

Viet Bites is setting its grand-opening date for the first day of school, Aug. 25, but was planning a soft opening sometime this week. Co-owner James Trinh said he hopes everything will be in by next weekend.

Since the shopping center is right by UNT and nearby Fry Street bars, it will give Viet Bites a new market to tap. The original Viet Bites on South Elm Street opened in 2013.

“Everyone wants to be by Fry Street because that’s the top real estate location for restaurants in Denton where it’s not so hectic like [Loop] 288,” Trinh said. “Even people who work in the bars around there know us and love us and said it would be great to have us there.”

Trinh said Tamprateep worked with them along the way and he felt comfortable with him as a landlord.

Viet Bites’ Hickory Street location will offer a new concept, so diners can get different experiences at the two locations. It will be a fast-casual atmosphere, with less variety, so busy students can get in and out the door quickly.

“Right now we have a lot of space limitations, so sourcing it out to the new location, we can be more creative at the old location,” Trinh said. “I think people will even want to visit the old location more, so I’m not afraid.”

As far as competition goes, Sushi Cafe already has its own clientele, since the business is relocating from a nearby spot on Oak Street. Sushi Cafe’s owner is also opening Seoul Wings, whose menu, Trinh said, will be different and exciting.

“We’re not scared of competition but think it will make us strive to be better,” Trinh said. “It will get us to be innovative at times to keep up.”

ADAM SCHRADER can be reached at 940-566-6882 and via Twitter at @Schrader_Adam.

By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in The Lewisville Texan Journal on Jun 17, 2016

A band of friends has been filmmaking for more than 15 years. For the first time, one film, “Hello Gangster,” was screened at a movie theater and distributed for sale. The 82-minute dark comedy was completed with five people and less than $1,500.

The story follows Simon Cardoza, 30, a defeated working man. Matt Barron, 32, plays an aspiring musician who cuts a bad deal with a loan shark. The nefarious fellow takes Cardoza’s dog as collateral, thinking it’s Barron’s. Cardoza ventures to raise the money before the dog, and his friend, get executed. A kidnapping ensues before the “losers with no promise” hitch a plot to rob restaurants for the cash.

Cardoza said his mission was to show the power of independent film.

“Technology has revolutionized filmmaking to where people can shoot Sundance level films on an iPhone, like “Tangerine,’” he said. “This film will make people realize that you don’t need all the glamour and glitz; you just need the gumption and know-how to get it done.”

Cardoza said that’s where the director and producer, Richard Krause, shines. Krause has worked in commercial film since the age of 19 when he started full time in the Dallas Cowboy’s media department.

“He took the reins of writing the script. He set up the lighting, did the cameras and was a essentially a one-man production company,” Cardoza said.

Krause and Cardoza both graduated from Lewisville High School in 2003 before briefly studying in the Radio-Television-Video-Film program at the University of North Texas. They each credit their abilities to media technology courses at Dale Jackson Career Center.

“Dale Jackson gave us the opportunity to start making films and we really haven’t stopped,” Cardoza said. “It’s so awesome LISD supports vocational studies instead of pouring all its money into a $50 million football stadium.”

Krause said he sat next to Cardoza at Dale Jackson and they often worked on projects together.

“We did a bunch of action stuff starting out because that’s the first thing you want to do when you pick up a camera if you’re a guy like us,” he said. The most memorable was a trailer for a fake action movie ripping off Snatch and Reservoir Dogs — for which they won a state award. Richard later helped produce the Sundance-nominated short “Dig.” Cardoza assisted on set.

Like most filmmakers in their early years, all their ideas dawned from imitation and replication.

“We’d see a movie we liked, rip off major elements and make it our own,” he said. “They all turned out into really stupid comedies.”

The team started filming “Hello Gangster” more than two years ago. Barron, discouraged with his music career, called Krause looking for a new project. Krause had been trying to make the film with people he knew in the industry but development kept falling through.

So he asked the crew if they wanted to make a fun movie with guerrilla methods like they did in high school. Filming took about five months because it was completed outside of their day jobs.

Cardoza and Krause said that many of the film’s scenes were based on personal experiences, like a memorable scene involving the board game Risk.

“We played Risk quite a bit when we were younger and had crazy backstabbing alliances,” Cardoza said. In one instance, he almost had a physical fight with Matt at his parents’ house before the neighbors called the police.

It wasn’t their first run-in with the police and Cardoza fears it won’t be their last, he said.

All of the film was shot in the Dallas area, mostly at Krause’s Dallas apartment or in Lewisville with creative filmmaking. Cardoza said that the team skirted required permits by filming at the most opportune moments.

“We waited for Halloween night. We decided to put on our masks, fill bags with candy and gave candy to the teenagers working and just asked them if we could film,” he said. “They didn’t care because they’re teenagers working on Halloween and we just gave them candy.”

Krause would wear a yellow Pokémon suit so nobody would think it was a real robbery, Cardoza said.

“You don’t need to wait around; you can make films anywhere any time any place. F— the rules, just do it,” he said.

The team recently held a private screening at the Angelika and released the on-demand film on Vimeo and Amazon.

“If nothing else happens with the film, I’m still extremely proud of the film because I knew what it took to make it,” Cardoza said.

Krause said he’s lucky that he “grew up at the right time.” Working in commercial film at a young age coached him on how to work with the film’s small budget and new technologies.

“Commercial film is constantly working with smaller and smaller budgets,” he said. “When you get a commercial nowadays, the budget is so small you cut corners on the quality or you find ways to be creative.”

The only times the DIY film team felt resentful of their approach was when personal and professional disputes crossed paths, Krause said.

“We all knew each other too well at times,” he said. “It can be hard to balance that relationship.”

But in the end, Krause couldn’t have consummated the subtext of dialogue without them, he said. Their brotherhood and experiences helped tell a deeper, nuanced story.

Krause said the team can’t really put any more money into promoting the film than it took to produce. They hope awareness of it spreads through grassroots means and they can raise some money for future projects, “to make them a little bigger and better.”

“It’s like a mixtape you drop on the street and hope someone picks up, puts in their car and listens to,” he said. “It’s just something I worked on in my little second bedroom on my laptop.”

For more information, visit www.hellogangsterfilm.com.

By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in The Denton Record-Chronicle on June 4, 2014

CROSS ROADS — It’s easy to miss the asphalt driveway to the Luthier Shop. The beautiful two-story converted barn is neatly tucked behind a white picket fence in this small community a few miles south of Aubrey.

Though there is a sign branded into the fence with the shop’s name and hours, usually the easiest way to spot the violin store in a residential area off Mosely Lane is to look for the bees.

Steve Cundall, now in his early 50s, is a luthier — a maker of stringed musical instruments. He has raised bees since he was a child and uses “bee glue” in his varnish. Since his mother’s death, he has given the bees a rest so he can have more time to care for his father.

It is only 10 a.m. and the Cundalls aren’t expecting customers yet. Guests walk in and a chime calls Cynthia Cundall, Steve’s wife, down from the workshop. Cynthia steps down the creaky wooden stairs to greet her guests. As she helps them, Steve works in his lair, painting and varnishing wood for a violin restoration.

Three workbenches face the windows, and Steve works on the far right station.

To his left, a King James Bible on his workbench and Bible quotes taped to the window inspire him while he works. Instant coffee, Perrier and empty bottles of raspberry sweet tea decorate the desk.

Pegs litter a table between various sanders, carpenter’s pencils and paintbrushes, and clear bottles holding a variety of colored liquids, like an unlabeled amber substance in a Gerber baby food container dating from the mid-’90s.

Steve’s legs cross to secure the butt of the violin in his lap. His left palm rests against the neck as his fingers grip the ebony fingerboard.

He dips a fine-tip paintbrush into the rainbow of “dry color” in front of him.

His steel-gray apron protects his blue jeans and shirt from the paints and varnish.

Steve was born into an artistic family from Englewood, N.J. He started playing violin in fifth grade in Denton using his grandfather’s instrument.

That family heirloom, in the process of being re-varnished, hangs on a rack by the stairs.

When he was 6, Steve wanted to be a paleontologist, and made dinosaurs, “teeth and everything,” with modeling clay. Now, a T. Rex-capped spray bottle on his desk reminds him how far he’s come.

Until he was 15, Steve made little boxes, jewelry and flying model airplanes. Then he discovered his real talents and passion.

It started when Aaron, his brother, asked Steve to fix their grandfather’s damaged miniature violin. He made sides for it and rebuilt it. His first original miniature, a cello made of basswood, came from a drawing in a book. He still has it.

“The proportions are not really violin proportions, so I put an endpin in it and it looks like a little cello,” he said.

Steve sold subsequent miniatures for $50 each and used the money to fill up his pickup, but “that was in 1974-75, so gas was 35 to 40 cents a gallon.”

While his new instruments carry hefty price tags, his restorations run at an affordable level.

The Luthier Shop specializes in the smaller half- to three-quarter-size instruments for students with small hands; and the shop offers a rent-to-own program perfect for growing children and their parents.

The biggest industry change Steve has seen is instrument resales on the Internet and market saturation of Chinese-made instruments, such as a cello that could be Chinese but is probably Sri Lankan.

Often, buyers are disappointed by poor quality and sound. A lot of Steve’s business comes from these disappointed customers, he said.

In 1973, he and his father started the shop, repairing and renting string instruments. He taught his father how to repair and make them while making miniature violins and repairing horsehair bows in his bedroom workshop.

He graduated from Denton High School in 1977.

The summer after he graduated, Steve visited a man in New Jersey near where his family once lived who recommended that he ask Bein & Fushi, a Chicago firm that deals in, makes and restores violins, whether they would hire him.

From 1977 to 1978, Steve attended what was then North Texas State University, studying violin performance and playing in the university’s orchestra and chamber orchestra.

The orchestra went to Chicago to perform at a conference, and he packed some miniatures to show Bein & Fushi.

The firm liked his work and hired him.

The memory makes Steve laugh, since he’d never attended violin-making school, but the miniatures he made prepared him for Bein & Fushi.

He worked at Bein & Fushi as a restorer from May 1978 to June 1979, including work on priceless violins from famous historical luthiers such as Stradivari.

Steve did well at Bein & Fushi. Until he worked there, no one had taught him the proper methods for his craft and what a finished product should look like.

“They taught me how to sharpen and make my own tools, which I had already done to some extent,” Steve said.

Steve says the problem with Bein & Fushi, and many places, is their attitude: “This is the way we do it and we do it the best.”

Since Steve is partially self-taught and professionally trained, he’s unsure if the way he does things is industry standard. With help from the Internet and conferences, he finds that other respected luthiers use techniques similar to his self-taught methods.

“It’s nice to have some reinforcement from someone else who makes very fine instruments and you’re doing the exact same thing,” he said.

By ADAM SCHRADER, LAURA DIMON and JOHN ANNESE
Published in the New York Daily News on Apr. 30, 2018

A man and woman were found dead inside a Brooklyn apartment Sunday, and police are trying to determine if they were victims of foul play.

Cops found the 28-year-old man and 24-year-old woman about 1:20 p.m., in a building on N. Eighth St. at Wythe Ave. in Williamsburg.

Cops found no signs of forced entry or trauma, and no weapons or blood, sources said. They also found pot paraphernalia.

Neighbors said the two had moved into the building a few weeks ago.