Did you follow Battle of the Bands this year? Did you vote for your favorite bands?

All the bands had an additional chance at winning a prize this year:

our teensReach members voted for the best videos and here are the winners:

First place:

Second place:

Third place:

Honorable Mention:

Let us know what you think of the videos in the comments!

The causes of Whitney Houston’s death were announced last week – and cocaine abuse appeared to be a major contributing factor.  Something else that happened last week while I was working at the Tully Community Library was that a representative of the nonprofit Asian American Recovery Services came into the branch bringing a stack of newsletters with Houston’s tragic death as one of its front page stories.  It was filled with articles on all the ways that someone can come under the power of addiction:  alcohol, prescription and illegal drugs, emotional abuse, smoking – but the one I knew the least about was problem gambling – which apparently can be a real problem for people and their families.   

Our neighbors come into the library for a lot of reasons, of course, but one is that it is a clearinghouse for free and useful information for the entire community.  Some of this helpful information can be found in the “Community Bulletin Board / Free for All” area in every library branch.  For example, there are the services that Asian American Recovery Services offers, such as support, counseling, resources and education are either free, based on a sliding-scale or Medi-Cal paid.  Their mission is to decrease the incidence of substance abuse and other addiction in the Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the Bay Area.  You can reach them at (408) 271-3900.  

   Attention art lovers, lovers of beautiful scenery  and  lovers  of national parks—we have a program for you!  Local artist Allen Figone will be at Santa Teresa Library on Saturday March 16 at 1:00 pm displaying his art and speaking about his experiences in various national parks.  Take this opportunity to meet the artist and hear him speak about his creative efforts representing some of America’s most famous national parks.

A San Jose native, Mr. Figone received his training at San Jose City College and San Jose State University.  He has won awards in local shows throughout the Bay Area and his paintings have been  featured in galleries from Oregon to New Jersey.

From his website:  “Most recently Allen has achieved National level recognition as a finalist in “ The Art of Seeing Nature” Oakland Museum of Art,  “Arts for the Parks 2005 and 2006”(triple finalist), Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and “Oil Painters of America Western Regional Juried Exhibition 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.  He also was a finalist in the 2008 and 2009 Oil Painters of America National Juried Exhibitions.  The Grand Canyon Association purchased Allen’s painting “Drama Along Bright Angel Trail” which was one of two paintings that were finalists in the 2008 Paint the Parks National Exhibition Top 100.   In 2009 Paint the Parks he was again a multiple finalist with paintings in the Top 100 and Mini 50 as well.  Allen was also one of 66 contemporary artists selected internationally to represent Zion National Park in “A Century of Sanctuary” The Art of Zion National Park, National Exhibition (in commemoration of its 100 year Anniversary), held at the St. George Museum, St. George, Utah.  Allen’s painting “Afternoon Shadows” has now been added to the permanent collection of the St. George Museum. 

As an artist Allen has taken the skills he learned doing technical Illustration and combined that with what he has learned from studying the Early California Impressionists, which he has admired and studied for years, to create a unique style of painting to shape his aesthetic vision. 

‘My painting philosophy is simple: to capture nature as I see her and to depict the colors and values I see as exactingly as possible. Art is about seeing, interpreting and painting the performance.’

A Cloak in Time - By altering the speed of light beams, scientists from Cornell University created a hidden pocket in time that maybe used in computer espionage. They took a stream of light and shifted it through a lens, causing some beams to travel faster and other slower. It created so called temporal void and slower light passes trough the second lens undetected.

Space Tourism - Outer space travel becomes a reality! You can sign up on the web site of Virgin Galactics or go to travel a agent. It costs "only" $200,000 a seat. The ride to space will take three days that include training at Spaceport America in La Cruces, N.M. The flight will not orbit the Earth, but will take you up and down as on a giant roller coaster. A carrier airplane with the SpaceShipTwo rocket ship slung underneath will take off the runaway and fly to 50,000 feet, where the rocket ship will be launched.

Race to Moon - Moon Express is among 26 teams who compete to win $30 million Google Lunar X Prize and to land a private robotic spacecraft on the moon. "The company is building a railway system out to the moon", said Richards, the CEO of Moon Express. Moon Express CSB Lander is getting built in a hanger at NASA's Ames Research Center and will carry the first privately financed telescope.