| Groups salvage portions of antique Wausau home
Efforts are under way to salvage portions of a century-old home on the 600 block of Franklin Street prior to its demolition. The home at 625 Franklin St. was built in the late 19th century by the late lumber baron John C. Smith, said Markus Szillat, a recent owner of the home. The three-story, Queen Anne-style home was converted to apartments decades ago, but valuable architectural elements remain. Habitat for Humanity of Wausau has joined forces with Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Appleton to harvest materials from the home, including an antique wooden staircase, French doors, leaded windows and cast-iron radiators. The items will be put up for sale in Wausau before being transported to Appleton, where they again will be offered for sale. It's part of a growing effort to salvage building materials, said Craig Fink, operations manager for the ReStore in Appleton.
Bethlehem's Deliberative Session Works Through Warrant
BETHLEHEM NEW HAMPSHIRE
It took nearly two hours for two warrant articles to be discussed thoroughly and agreed to Monday. One of them was the proposed town spending plan for 2007, and the other a request for an additional $99,000 for the more than $800,000 restoration of the historic town building and library. One issue important to many voters at the deliberative session of the annual town meeting at Bethlehem Elementary School was having the town's lot lines mapped out by the GIS mapping program. This was an item the town's assessing office has requested for several years. The town already is tied into the system, for which the state has gathered information for emergency services. However, individual lots are not mapped out, and some residents said the town has missed taxing certain properties, for several years in some cases, as a result.
Christabel and the Jons are retro cool
Christabel and the Jons sit in the dim lights of the Bistro on Gay Street. With Christa DeCicco dressed in a vintage dress and "the Jons" (Jon Whitlock, Seth Hopper and Mischa Goldman), dressed in pin-striped suits, the four seem at home around the dark wood and antique fixtures. The band performs vintage songs and acoustic swing (which was popular in the late 1930s and 1940s) but incorporates modern originals, and it has certainly caught on. Check out the group's Web site (www.christabelmusic.com) or MySpace page (www.myspace.com/christabelmusic) and you will see Christabel and the Jons are slated for at least three shows per week in an ever-expanding radius. The group's debut album, "Love & Circumstances," sounds like a band with the enthusiasm representative of its young age, but with a connection between members that many bands take years to achieve.
Musical genius
One summer day in 1980, a little boy played basketball alone on a court in Arad. When the ball fell out of his hands and rolled off, he ran after it and found it in the hands of an older man, who smiled at him. "I'm a clarinet teacher at the conservatory," the man said, "and I'll give you the ball back if you come and hear one of my lessons." The boy, Chen Halevi, came to listen and was captivated by the magic of the instrument and the teacher. "I had a lesson every day," he says, "and the teacher, Yitzhak Kazap, who has taught generations of students in Israel, taught me everything there is to know about the instrument."
Today, less than three decades later, Halevi is a world renowned clarinetist: an international virtuoso soloist who plays at major festivals on five continents, an innovator who plays works written especially for him, a senior professor of the clarinet at a university in Germany and a chamber musician who works with leading ensembles and musicians.
Man Confesses To Brazen San Francisco Art Heist
SAN FRANCISCO -- A 42-year-old man has confessed to masterminding the holiday heist of millions of dollars of artwork and antiques from a Presidio Heights home, San Francisco police announced Monday. Burglary Inspector Denise Fabbri said that James Reem, a San Francisco man, confessed last week to gathering a group of thieves who were able to steal several valuable antiques, including a book of etchings, coins, furniture and a John Singer Sargent portrait of a gray-haired woman valued at over $1 million. The painting, along with a smaller portrait and two antique chairs are now being stored safely in the Hall of Justice where burglary detectives continue their investigation. According to Fabbri, a scheme to burglarize the Jackson Street home of Robert Kendrick began in September when Reem snuck into the mansion and stole jewels and other small items.
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