New DVDs for June 2008

New DVDs!
Originally uploaded by carmichaellibrary

Here are just a few of the titles that will be available for checkout tomorrow at your campus library. New feature films, documentaries, and more are here, just in time for the weekend!

The new titles include:

Dreamgirls - Three young women Deena Jones, Effie White, and Lorrell Robinson desire to become pop stars. They get their wish when they are picked to be backup singers for the legendary James "Thunder" Early. When they are set free for leads, Curtis Taylor and Effie's brother C.C. decide that Deena should be the lead singer, which upsets Effie. The girls discover exactly what it takes to be in the music business and what they must give up to realize their dream.

7 Secrets of Savvy Students: Study Smarter, not Harder - The Cracking College DVD teaches proven suuess tactics that show students how to attack college efficiently and effectively from the very first day.

Aida - In this opera by Giuseppi Verdi, Aida, an Ethiopian princess, is captured and brought into slavery in Egypt. A military commander, Radames, struggles to choose between his love for her and his loyalty to the Pharaoh. To complicate the story further, Radames is loved by the Pharaoh's daughter Amneris, although he does not return the feeling. This San Francisco Opera edition features Luciano Pavarotti and Margaret Price.

The House of Sand - A woman and her mother are sent to an island and spend almost 60 years trying to leave it. Follow three generations of the woman's family as they all try and find happiness on a lagoon surrounded by shifting dunes.

La Vie en Rose - Raised in a brothel, then wrested from the only life she knew by her father, so they could join the circus, Edith Piaf spent her teen years on the streets. She is finally "rescued" by a crime figure who gives her career a start and, ultimately, by her international success and final illness. Always frail, sickly, malnourished, and wildly temperamental, she was often on drugs or alcohol and was always in search of true love. Middleweight boxer, Marcel Cerdan, captures her heart and gives her something to live for, besides her music--at least for a while.

Mississippi State University Library 2.0 Summit

Rosemary Arneson, Jason Cooper, and I are attending the MSU Library 2.0 Summit. For some time, we've been using "2.0" technologies to reach out to students and faculty through different online resources.

At this very moment, I'm sitting in a session on Facebook (if you haven't before, check out our Facebook page).

(Must. Type. Quietly.)

Later on, Rosemary will lead a session on work she's done with our wikispace account for her Honors 308 class (you can see the wikipage here).

Here's a shoutout to everybody at Carmichael Library. Happy Friday!

Harbert Writing Center Summer I Term Hours

Looking for help with your papers? The Harbert Writing Center is open Monday-Friday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

HWC offers one-on-one assistance to writers at all stages of the writing process. The Center also offers computers for composing and revising papers, as well as grammar handbooks and MLA, APA and Chicago style books.

The Center is located in Room 311, Comer Hall

For more information visit HWC online: www.montevallo.edu/hwc/

Memorial Day at the Anagama Kiln

I wanted to share a couple of thoughts from my trip to UM's anagama kiln today. I was there for over an hour in the mid-afternoon and had a chance to chat with Scott Meyer, a couple of our student artists, and some visiting artists from the faculty at UAB.

This weekend's action is the twelfth firing of the anagama kiln since its maiden blast back in the spring of 2002. Once again, I was impressed with the mammoth effort that it takes to keep Fat Bastard up and running. While I was there, I caught the four o'clock temperature reading, which registered just above 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit in two rear locations and 2,375 degrees in the front fire pit. No more than five or ten minutes passed between stoking and feeding the flame.

The artists participating in this May 2008 firing have started a photo pool, which you can check out here. There's not too much there at this point, as most of the people involved in the project have likely been too busy to post their shots, but we'll be adding the library's photos there. As always, you can view all of the pics we've taken on our Flickr.

Photos: Anagama Fire!

Anagama fire!
Originally uploaded by carmichaellibrary

This is the view from campus today as UM Professor of Art Scott Meyer, along with dozens of volunteers and area artists, celebrate the latest firing of Montevallo's own anagama kiln, also known as Fat Bastard.

The firing will continue through the holiday weekend and the unloading will take place on the 3rd of June. Visitors are welcome!

Check out a few more shots of today's events at our Flickr.