Here comes Bake’s Place

In case all you crazy cats and hip chicks haven’t noticed, that jazz music hotspot in Issaquah, Bake’s Place, is moving to our neck of the woods in a few months. Which neck you may ask? The Columbia West building downtown. A new executive chef, Christopher Peterson, formerly of Café Campagne, will help make the new place swing, as well as an expanded music repertoire and seating capacity.

More information is available at 425-391-3335 or www.bakesplace.org/.

KIDSTAGE is big time

I find the name “KIDSTAGE” to be misleading. Ever see a production by these young adults? You’d know they’re simply a little more vertically challenged, a little more fresh-faced than Village Theatre Mainstage casts. The stars of tomorrow are on stage Saturday through Jan. 22, and this time, they’re presenting “GODSPELL,” a modern adaptation of the Gospel of Matthew.

First Stage Theatre is located at 120 Front Street South, Issaquah. More information is available at 425-392-2202, or www.villagetheatre.org/.

My (Japantown) people on display

Before it was Seattle’s Chinatown International District, it was Nihonmachi – Japantown. The latter is what you will see in these pre-Internment portraits by Henry Miyake at the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle. His photographs, “Vintage Japantown: Through the Lens of the Takano Studio,” show the neighborhood’s families, weddings, seasonal celebrations, and even baseball teams. (Go, Lotus Trojans!). As critic Brian Miller put it, Miyake doesn’t show us what went on in their households, as much as what “good,” assimilated Americans they aspired to be.

The Wing Luke Museum is at 719 S. King St. The price is $8.95-$12.95. More information is available at 206-623-5124 or www.wingluke.org/.

WHERE ABOUT TOWN I’VE BEEN:

– The Holly Zhang Pearl Gallery at the Bravern

This shop, which only opened a couple months ago, is a gem (pardon the pun). They offer strands from Japan, Australia and Tahiti, and boast an owner/designer who is, dare I say, even more lovely than her luminescent creations.

I was relived to see that her stuff is reasonable (and pretty much dirt cheap for The Bravern) with the average piece costing about $80. Not bad for fine jewelry.

The store is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-6 p.m., Sunday. More information is available at 425-449-8332 or www.thebravern.com/.

– Netflixing Season One of the show “Glee” in my pajamas, at home

I know what you’re thinking. The fact that I, a female under 25, am just now hopping on the “Glee” train is surprising. But it’s really shocking when you consider how much I love musicals, having been moved to tears by “The Circle of Life” when a certain national Broadway tour came to Seattle.

“Glee,” a show where high-schoolers spontaneously burst into song, is highly entertaining, socially relevant – and I’m not the only one who’s hooked. My boyfriend grumbled quite audibly when he realized that even his dad puts the game on hold every once and a while to catch the chick-flick entertainment. Haha. www.fox.com/glee/

Gabrielle Nomura can be reached at 425-453-4602.