Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Carnegie Museum construction

A lot is going on inside the old Carnegie building as we convert it into the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County -- but you can't see the progress from the street! You can see, however, the work progressing on the adjacent lot (where the "addition" to the Carnegie once stood) as it is being prepared for a parking area.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Libraries Mean Business!

Don't forget about Libraries Mean Business! this Thursday (May 18). Libraries aren't just for students and leisure time! Brought to you by the Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority (INCOLSA), Libraries Mean Business is a series of three public programs for the business and professional community, demonstrating resources at the local library and on Indiana's online "virtual library," www.inspire.net, that can make you and your staff more productive in the workplace! Learn about thousands of e-books, magazines, and other research tools for finding market research, financial information, prospect research, and career/workforce development resources from guest speaker Hal C. Kirkwood, Jr., of Purdue's Krannert Graduate School of Management. You do not need a reservation to attend one of the three sessions!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Preview Shelf -- Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

The Journal Review archives at the Crawfordsville District Public Library need help. In order to produce valid microfilm for the years 1998 through September 2001, certain issues of the paper are needed. Any and all 1998 papers except in the months of March, May, June, and October will be very much appreciated. From 1999, those needed appeared in January, February, September, and papers from September 2000 and March 2001 are also being sought. If you happen to have any copies, please call 362-2242, extension 4 or 5. Dian Moore and Judy Spencer are hard at work to complete this collection of sections A, B, and C of those daily papers.

New library books offer us profitable and pleasurable hours. Graphic art in Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper from 1898-1911 is collected in Nicholson Baker and Margaret Brentano's The World on Sunday. America's Art comes from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, gathering 225 of its best works, culled from the collection of 40,000 objects. A Century of African American Art is the Paul R. Jones collection (edited by Amalia Amaki) combining colorful plates and essays about its development. Historic Arts & Crafts Homes of Great Britain by Brian Coleman is a look at ten of the best-loved places that continue to attract admirers today. One People, Many Journeys published by Lonely Planet captures the common human experience of birth, special moments, endurance, and resilience across our diverse world. Those who enjoy the Monk series on TV might like Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse by Lee Goldberg., which exploits the main character's traits resulting in this critical remark (Lee Child), "Can books be better than television?" You bet they can--when Lee Goldberg's writing them. Elizabeth Ironside's Death in the Garden begins at an English beauty's 30th birthday in 1925 when her husband is poisoned with photographic chemicals from her studio. The thriller Lost by Michael Robotham finds a homicide detective being fished out of the Thames with a bullet in his leg and no memory of how it got there. The Princess of Burundi is a detective novel in Sweden's Uppsala where a jogger in the snow finds the body of an expert on tropical fish. Memory in Death by Nora Roberts (writing as Robb) is her newest story of the year 2059 New York about a tough lady cop's twisted foster mother reappearing in her life and immediately becoming a victim herself. Amy Tan's Saving Fish from Drowning exposes contemporary themes and mystery as tourists on a world art expedition disappear on the Burma Road. Divine is Karen Kingsbury's latest life-changing fiction in which a child of horrors is set free by divine power to bring hope to battered women in D.C. The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean brings to life 1941 when the German army approaches, and a Hermitage Museum tour guide memorizes the art taken from its walls for protection. We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg features three women who struggle against overwhelming odds in Tupelo, Mississippi during civil-rights demonstrations. Adverbs by Daniel Handler is a novel about love -- a bunch of different people, in and out of different kinds of love. Articles of War by Nick Arvin shows the enlistment terrors of an 18-year-old Iowa farm boy who is sent to Normandy shortly after D-Day. The Great Inland Sea by David Francis introduces a boy who escapes the scorched landscape of his youth and as an adult returns to discover secrets buried there. Orbit by John Nance takes us to 2009 when a passenger on a U.S. space adventure flight must navigate the ship home alone.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Preview Shelf -- More About The Library's Art Collection

The Crawfordsville District Public Library's permanent art brightens walls up and down the stairs. Paul Mielke's photograph of Sky Valley Ranch in Hillsboro, Rob O'Dell's watercolor Barn with a Snow Fence, and Jerry Smith's watercolor Sugar Creek Shadows enhance upper walls, along with Peg Shearer's oil called Landscape With Weeds. It's a pleasant refresher to walk along, viewing these solid and splendid works of art.

Here's a reminder: On Saturday beginning at 9 the monthly Friends of the Library book sale offers (probably) thousands of choices for good reading. The library is receiving lots of new Young Adult fiction. Tithe by Holly Black is a modern faerie tale involving a present-day 16-year-old in an ancient power struggle. Midnight Predator by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes takes a girl hunter into a fabled Vampire realm as a human slave. In Across the Wall Garth Nix continues to explore the magical world of The Abhorsen Trilogy. Her new title Demon in My View comes from the end of Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Alone," while her Shattered Mirror refers to W. B. Yeats' "The Two Trees." A boarding school student walks into a mythology textbook about Mount Olympus in Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief. The Lake of Souls is Darren Shan's 10th book in his Cirque Du Freak horror series. There is also fantasy in Annette Klause's Freaks Alive, on the Inside! about an 1899 sideshow. Nightmares plague an 18-year-old who turns to folk magic in Laurie Stolarz' Red is for Remembrance. Only in Your Dreams by Cecily von Ziegesar is a Gossip Girl novel. South Beach by Aimee Friedman is about spring break. Do you love a mystery? M. C. Beaton's Death of a Dreamer is her 21st Hamnish Macbeth story in which the northern Scotland constable is distracted by old flames while evils close in on him following a supposed suicide he knows is murder. On to St. Louis, where Shirley Kennett's P. J. Gray novel Time of Death is concerned with baffling murders by the Metro Mangler. In San Francisco The Hunt Club by John Lescroart concerns the murder of a federal judge. Steeplechase is one of Jane Langton's old fashioned Homer Kelly stories pursuing a mysterious lost church in a plot intertwined with famous poems, nonsense rhymes of Mother Goose, and New England lore. Jayne Krentz' All Night Long takes us to northern California years after a high school student finds her parents' bodies, ruled murder-suicide; her reporter's instinct summons her back to sort out the truth. The 5th Horseman by James Patterson is the latest in his series of crises the Women's Murder Club must solve, this time merciless killings by someone on a hospital's medical staff. Are you seeking a new novel? Jackie Collins offers Lovers & Players with two murders in one reckless New York week in high-powered settings from Park Avenue to Brooklyn. The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne is a debut romantic comedy about a Mary Poppins of love who likes men, makeovers, and multitasking in London. Halfway House by Katharine Noel shows reactive changes in family members when a crisis hits their New Hampshire home life. The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry concerns a legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge that could rock the civilized world, a cache thought lost when the order was exterminated in the 14th century. Lalique Glass by Nicholas Dawes includes 250 illustrations of the work of Rene Lalique (1860-1945). Antiques 101 is a crash course in everything old by Frank Loomis IV. Quilting Among Friends is a manual with lots of ideas and 55 friendship blocks. Two new memoirs are Ellen Hiltebrand's When I Was Elena about her sojourn in the guerrilla-infested mountains of Guatemala and Gail Caldwell's A Strong West Wind describing her coming of age in the wilds of the Texas Panhandle.

Monday, May 01, 2006

One Stop - Double Joy - Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery

If you slowly saunter into the Public Library from spring's flowery profusion outside, you will discover a creative profusion inside the Mary Bishop Art Gallery you won't want to miss. From May first until May thirty-first, Out My Back Door Photography of Tom Campanelli, and the Joyful Japanese Quilts of Toshi Kazahaya & Friends, await your viewing pleasure.

Since 2002 Crawfordsville resident and active Sugar Creek Quilt Guild member, Toshi Kazahaya, has taught quilt classes at Trinity Lutheran Church in Indianapolis for nine Japanese ladies who share their Christianity through quilting.

Toshie, born in 1964 in Hyogo Prefecture near Kobe, Japan, studied editing and sewing in college for two years. After graduation she worked at a major craft and interior magazine company in Tokyo as an editor of Watashino Heye (meaning My Room). While working there she met many famous Japanese quilters and saw their highly artistic, intricate quilts, too beautiful for everyday use. After seeing these quilts, Toshie thought making quilts would be too difficult for her.

In 1992, Toshie, her husband Ryohei, an accounting manager at Heritage Product, Inc, and their two children, were transferred from Okayama, Japan to Crawfordsville, Indiana. When she arrived, she spoke no English, but was eager to learn the language and all about American culture. While walking downtown one day, looking for something to do, her eyes flashed to a quilt that displayed in a former fabric shop. The quilt was very beautiful and more practical than the quilts she had seen in Japan. She was fascinated and signed up for classes with Anita Hardwick, who taught her to make beautiful quilts with so much patience for her non-English speaking student. After working hard, Toshie joined the local Sugar Creek Quilt Guild.

One incident in 1996 brought Toshie closer to quilting. When her youngest son suffered a life-threatening illness, she received a hand-made baby quilt from her quilt guild friends. That quilt gave her the comfort, courage, hope and cheer to get through that very difficult time. It was then she realized that quilts could show love, as in the following bible verse: "And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:14.

After her son recovered and turned six years old, Toshie was ready to share her wonderful quilt experience. She started teaching quilt-making techniques to the nine Japanese ladies at Trinity Lutheran Church in Indianapolis where she shares in a Japanese worship service monthly.

Currently, a mother of three children and wife of a well-known Boston Marathon qualified Crawfordsville runner, Toshie is a dedicated Christian and member of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Crawfordsville and the Japanese Worship Service at Trinity Lutheran Church, Indianapolis.

Born last century in Hartford, Connecticut, Tom Campanelli's early childhood was spent in Wethersfield, CT, where he made his first stab at photography while still in grade school on a class trip to the Connecticut State House in Hartford. He used an old Ansco Shur Shot box camera, without a flash, which he still has. Later the family used S&H green stamps to upgrade to a camera with a flash that took color pictures, which Tom still has as well.

In 1959, Tom's father was transferred to Springfield, Missouri with Royal Typewriters. All Tom remembers about the trip west was all the snow encountered along the way. Coming to a small town of 85,000, where there were large spaces between towns, few TV stations and lots of country music, was a major culture shock for the whole family who were used to living in a major metropolitan area. Tom's interest in photography waned while in Missouri.

Before Tom's last year in college, he worked part-time for the Argonaut Division of General Motors in Detroit and purchased an inexpensive Polaroid camera. After college, he married Margo and moved to Detroit to work full time for General Motors. Shortly thereafter, a small glitch came into play when he was invited to participate in the draft or join the Air Force. Tom joined the Air Force and while on TDY in Taiwan, he purchased his first quality camera, a used Yashica Mat 124 twin lens reflex camera, which takes excellent pictures, but is awkward to use. Later in Thailand he purchased a Minolta SRT 101 SLR and used the base photo hobby shop dark room to develop and print his black and white pictures.

In 1979, Tom and his family moved to Crawfordsville to accept a position at R. R. Donnelley. His photography waned until 2000 when he purchased his first digital camera, a Canon Powershot G1. With 3.3 megapixels, it was the top of the line at the time. Later he added a 420EX external strobe, which eliminated redeye problems. In 2004 Tom purchased his 6.1 megapixel Canon Digital Rebel SLR.

Tom's artistic photography began in Margo's butterfly garden. Margo would plant things and then forget where she planted them, making spring a not-so-welcome surprise. When she asked Tom to take pictures of the flowers and foliage together so that she could identify the plants in future springs. As the butterfly began fulfilling its intended purpose, attracting butterflies, Tom was hooked and began to enjoy watching for and photographing tiger swallowtails, black swallowtails, painted ladies, meadow fritillaries, commas, monarchs, and silver spotted skippers. In addition ruby throated hummingbirds and hummingbird moths were attracted to the garden. We can only imagine the photo opportunities. We're so happy Tom could not resist the urge to enjoy, preserve and share the wealth of his photographic delights with the community for the first time!

Don't miss the opportunity to see these joyfully creative musings on Tom's back yard butterfly garden etc. and the interpretation nature's world by joyful Japanese Quilters. -- Diane Hammill