Classical Concert at Central

The last of this season of Classical Concerts at the Central Library takes place at 2 p.m. 13 May (Sunday).

This chamber ensemble performance featuring members of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will be in Clowes Auditorium of the central branch of the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library, 40 East St. Clair Street, Indianapolis.

It's free and families are welcome (what better treat for Mom on Mother's Day!).

The End is Near?

Lugar loses.

Snippet: "The Tea Party tossed another veteran Republican overboard Tuesday night, voting six-term Republican Sen. Dick Lugar from office in a heated Indiana primary."

More of the national reaction here: The loss of Dick Lugar will hurt most on foreign policy, where he was willing to buck Republican orthodoxy".

Snippet: "In practical terms, Lugar’s loss means that U.S. foreign policy will be less civilized, less responsible and less effective."

Can you hear the four horsemen of the apocalypse?

"Outside Agitators"

Slate.com explains how outsiders began conspiring a year ago to defeat Sen. Richard G. Lugar in today's Republican primary.

Snippets:

"[If Lugar loses], we’ll know that purification of the GOP is coming right along."

"[Jim] Bopp, like the other Mourdockians, hopes that a Lugar loss will put the fear of Tea back into Republicans."

This Indianapolis Observer remains appalled at the current state of political discourse in the United States.

UPDATE
Re the Indiana showdown between Lugar and Mourdock: "A multitude of super PACs and social-welfare nonprofits inundated the state, spending $3.6 million on television advertising, direct mail, phone calls and even a Tea Party Express bus stop. Most of that money came from groups opposed to Lugar. They outlaid $2.3 million compared with the $1.2 million spent by pro-Lugar groups."

There's more here.

Yes, folks: IPS' inability to control bullying has made the international press. Here's the report in the Daily Mail, a newspaper in the United Kingdom.

More on Mourdock vs. Lugar

According to the Huffington Post: "A retired Indiana state trooper has asked the Securities Exchange Commission to investigate whether state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, a candidate for Senate, broke pay-to-play rules in offering a contract to manage police pension money while he was raising campaign cash from Wall Street."

More on "Pay-To-Play Probe" online.

Mid-Century Modern

The fifth annual "Back to the Future: A Mid-Century Modern Home Tour" on 2 June will feature five homes on Indianapolis’ north side.

Owners of the mid-century homes opening from 1 to 6 p.m. are:

*Ken Turchi’s 1954 home at 221 East 70th Street (pictured)
*Gene and Nancy McPherson’s 1960 house by O. C. Winters at 171 East 71st Street
*Jim and Pat LaCrosse’s Williams Creek home at 7915 Morningside Drive, designed in 1958 by Edward Pierre
*Lyle and Jane Messenger’s 1959 house at 7037 Washington Boulevard
*Steve and Rhonda Cohen’s 1957 home at 6461 Sunset Lane.

In ’50s and ’60s America, when the homes featured on this tour were being built, many people considered Victorian architecture dated and ugly. As a result, countless architectural gems were lost to the wrecking ball.

Indiana Landmarks and its Indiana Modern committee are working to protect Modernist buildings from a similar fate and foster appreciation for the style. Proceeds from the "Back to the Future" tour support the organization’s efforts to preserve and promote fine examples of Mid-Century Modern architecture throughout the state.

Ticket holders can take the tour in any order, picking up a program at any house or stopping first at Second Presbyterian Church to catch a shuttle that will circulate among tour homes. Second Presbyterian, designed by McGuire, Shook, Compton, Richey & Associates in 1958, shares the mid-century vintage if not the appearance of the tour homes.

Tickets are $15 per person on the day of the tour at Second Presbyterian Church.

On 31 May, the Indiana Modern committee joins with the Design Arts Society of the Indianapolis Museum of Art to present a free lecture, "Modernism is for Everyone", by California architect, critic and preservationist Alan Hess. Hess led the effort to save the nation's first McDonald's in Downey, California. His books include The Ranch House and Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture. The lecture takes place at 6 p.m. in The Toby at the IMA, 4000 Michigan Road, Indianapolis.

For more information on either event, go online.

Taggart Memorial Falling Apart

The Taggart Memorial in Riverside Park is the only Indy structure on the "10 Most Endangered" list of Indiana Landmarks for 2012.

Taggart was Indianapolis mayor from 1895 to 1901.