Professional teachers and improvisers Jennifer Flack and Eric Price will be running the teams of students as they work their way through “Whose Line is it Anyway” -style unrehearsed comedy.

“The kids are really strong, and I think the audience will be very excited to see them having a great time,” Flack said.

Each show will be unique and promises to be full of fun, laughter, and family-friendly entertainment.

Comedy Improv! will be performing shows at noon, 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, February 4 and at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m. on Sunday, February 5. Shows will be held at Willows Community School Theatre, 8520 Warner Drive in Culver City.

Tickets will be available for purchase at the door, but to guarantee seats, be sure to reserve online. Tickets are $5 for one show, $7 for a day pass that provides admission to three shows on either Saturday or Sunday, and $10 for a weekend pass that provides admission to all six shows.

To purchase tickets on-line or for more information, please visit www.ccmsmusicaltheatre.com.

With more than 53 cast members, the CCMS Comedy Improv! troupe will be performing a second series of shows in May as well.

The purpose of the training was to create “a grant-writing army” for CCUSD schools. Writing grants gives parent volunteers new sources of funding for the programs they want to bring to our schools, and to continue programs that are already in place.

Presenter Jane Steinberg demystified the grant writing process by explaining that most grants follow a basic structure (overview, objectives, outcomes, budget, timeline). She also noted the benefits of grant writing teams whose members have complementary skills, (i.e., one person is a fine writer while another is good at developing timelines and budgets).

Participants were taught how to find available grants, and how to work with principals, teachers and parent groups at their school sites to implement each grant.

“The parents who attended were amazing,” said presenter Nancy Chand. “When they split into groups by school, they were really engaged. It was so heartening to see so many parents working on a Saturday for their children’s school. There were a lot of ideas exchanged and shared about how a particular parent group gets things done.”

“I found it very informative,” said El Marino and Culver City High School parent Maren Neufeld. “Learning about the PTA grants that are available and so easy to get made me feel like we could actually get some much needed money for our schools. I hope another workshop is scheduled. I know there were a lot of parents who would have liked to be there.”

Parent Brenna Guthrie, who will be President of the CCMS PTSA next year, gathered the 10 parents from Culver City Middle School and created an email group to coordinate their work- identifying needs, finding grants and writing grant applications.

Presenter Heather Moses offered to write a field trip grant for every fifth-grade in the district! A Yahoo group is also being created to share grant information, proposals and ideas, as well as to report successes. Anyone interested in joining this Yahoo group should contact Heather Moses at hemoses@msn.com.

The workshop was the brainchild of CCCPTA Executive Vice President, CCUSD School Board Member and parent, Laura Chardiet. School Board Vice President and parent Kathy Paspalis was also in attendance and very supportive.

Puppet creator Dan Hurlin with "Cyndy" and cast member Darius Mannino

What might sound like an invitation to dinner is a unique theater piece asking us to consider hunger. What makes it great theater are the blue green waves,  the shadow puppets, and the astonishing Delft china of a downwardly mobile life-shift. Not only are the stories being told compelling; they are presented in an provoking and imaginative fashion. Hunger is not something that just happens to famine victims in Africa. Hunger is stalking people that you see every day.

When I went to Highways performance space in Santa Monica to see “Who’s Hungry ?”  I had heard about this show from a number of different sources; a press release, a food bank, a church and a homeless shelter. I had to go.

The phrase “food insecure” is the current jargon used to describe those who suffer hunger.  Having to choose between food and rent, or food and medicine, there are millions in the Los Angeles area who struggle daily to eat. Is this entertainment? The best kind, the kind that makes you think and feel and maybe even change things.

Produced and written by Dan Froot (who originated “Who’s Hungry” in West Hollywood five years ago) the piece was created by interviewing five Santa Monica residents with food security issues, and then transcribed into oral histories. Froot, along with Puppeteer Dan Hurlin and composer Amy Denio then adapted selections for presentation.

The cast, Sheetal Gandhi, Rachel Lincoln, Daruis Mannino And Zachariah Tolchinsky did a tremendous job of bringing these small slices of stories into full realization.

Telling the truths about how people find themselves unexpectedly or unavoidably homeless and/or hungry requires a warm creativity to get us past the bias. As one narrative told of a woman who shifted from driving a Range Rover to sleeping in a box, there was no obvious villain of addiction or irresponsibility. The long dining table that serves as the set was decorated and then cleared of all the accessories of her life sculpted in a Blue Delft china pattern. Her ventures in insurance and software all sounded like plausible business. Her divorce sounded like anyone’s heartbreak. To follow her into destitution invited the audience to realize that anyone is a candidate for poverty and hunger.

While each tale had a unique presentation, the tall puppet (pictured above) that narrated the story of a grandmother with a heroin habit on her way to the bus for rehab was a remarkable moment. Not one puppeteer, but the whole cast was involved in supporting her, creating her speech, helping her walk – an ideal metaphor of the support it takes to get help.

While this is the last weekend the show will be at Highways, Froot spoke at a Q & A after the performance about doing the work in West Hollywood and Santa Monica, and said that he is hoping to bring the next phase of the project to Culver City.

There’s never a bad time to get involved, to get creative and to be the change you want to see in the world.

The Culver City Green Space Plan, in partnership with Ballona Creek Renaissance and Culver City Unified School District, aims to provide passive recreational open space within walking distance of all the Culver City neighborhoods. In the past, active recreation facilities such as sport fields and play courts were given the primary focus when the city’s parks were designed, with little attention paid to passive spaces. Those passive or unprogrammed spaces present an excellent opportunity to increase the value of the parks to the broader community, enriching the park experience without reducing access to active sports fields and play courts.

This planning project will re-imagine these spaces and make the City’s parks and other open spaces more appealing to a broader segment of the local community through passive recreation. Accessibility to seniors, people with disabilities, individuals without children and children not participating in organized sports will increase the value of Culver City Parks to its residents.

Goals & Objectives

To increase the value of Culver City Parks to a broader segment of the local community through passive recreation while creating an urban environment that enhances personal and environmental health.
Make the city parks and open space more appealing and accessible to seniors, people with disabilities, individuals without children and children not participating in organized sports. Provide passive recreational open space within walking (biking, wheelchair, stroller) distance of all city neighborhoods.
Increase social engagement and join the communities that use the parks and open space through these passive recreation sites.

Plan for ecologically functional, water-wise, low maintenance spaces and monitor their success, while educating the public about environmental issues (such as water pollution, green house gasses and energy and water conservation) and promoting environmental stewardship through site-specific uses.
Use community outreach to ensure that the general public has the opportunity to be engaged in the planning process and get the community’s perspective for their specific needs and wants.

Proposed Program Schedule

Winter 2012: Community Input Phase I

North East Trees (NET) will work with high school students to gather community input at local stores, schools, and activity centers via a questionnaire designed to learn more about each specific park’s current and potential users’ passive recreation wants and needs.

Spring 2012: Community Input Phase II

After we synthesize the data gathered during Community Input Phase I, NET will hold Community Meeting One: Introduction to the Project, Community Needs for Passive Recreation, Asset Analysis of Neighborhoods. This meeting will introduce the Culver City Green Space Planning project and its goals and objectives to the community. The participants will hear about currently exists int he Culver City Parks, what the demographic make-up of the areas are nearest the parks, site analyses, and the outcome of neighborhood surveys from these areas. Initial passive recreation concepts will be presented for each neighborhood grouping.

Summer 2012: Analysis and Concept Development Phase

NET will analyze all of the data gathered via the months of community outreach and develop five design concepts that can be used in various parks throughout Culver City.

Fall 2012: Final Community Input Phase & Presentation

During Community Meeting Two: Design Refinement, NET will present the design templates for passive recreation. The team will discuss what elements were incorporated from the previous meeting, both in addressing issues and community uses of the sites. Additional comments and suggestions will be discussed, recorded and addressed. NET will incorporate this feedback into the final recommendations for passive recreation types throughout the Culver City Park system.
What is passive recreation?

Passive recreation activities (or wellness activities) are not based around sports fields and organized team sports, and they have a minimum amount of impact on a site’s environment. Other names you may have heard for Passive Recreation include Quiet Recreation, Wellness Activities, Low Impact Recreation, and Natural Recreation.

For more info, contact CCUSD or BCR, or North East Trees – www.northeasttrees.org/

Editor’s Note – I suggest some yoga.

Residents have an opportunity to receive up to two FREE high-efficiency toilets by participating in a one-day event in Culver City on Saturday, February 4. This water conservation program is sponsored by Culver City Public Works, Golden State Water Company, and West Basin Municipal Water District.

Residents qualify by:

having an older toilet(s) that was installed prior to January 1, 1992 and
it uses 3.5 or more gallons per flush and
live in a single-family home, condo, townhome, duplex, triplex, apartment or mobile home.

To participate in this high-efficiency toilet giveaway, customers must be pre-qualified for the event by calling 866-861-0784 or by filling out an application form online at www.waterprograms.com/westbasin/

A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity—not changes in solar activity—are the primary force driving global warming.

The study offers an updated calculation of the Earth’s energy imbalance, the difference between the amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth’s surface and the amount returned to space as heat. The researchers’ calculations show that, despite unusually low solar activity between 2005 and 2010, the planet continued to absorb more energy than it returned to space.

James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, led the research. The journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics published the study in December 2011.

Total solar irradiance—the amount of energy produced by the Sun that reaches the top of each square meter of the Earth’s atmosphere—typically declines by about a tenth of a percent during cyclical lulls in solar activity caused by shifts in the Sun’s magnetic field. Usually solar minimums occur about every eleven years and last a year or so, but the most recent minimum persisted more than two years longer than normal, making it the longest minimum recorded during the satellite era.

Pinpointing the magnitude of Earth’s energy imbalance is fundamental to climate science because it offers a direct measure of the state of the climate. Energy imbalance calculations also serve as the foundation for projections of future climate change. If the imbalance is positive and more energy enters the system than exits, Earth grows warmer. If the imbalance is negative, the planet grows cooler.

Hansen’s team concluded that Earth has absorbed more than half a watt more solar energy per square meter than it let off throughout the six-year study period. The calculated value of the imbalance (0.58 watt of excess energy per square meter) is more than twice as much as the reduction in the amount of solar energy supplied to the planet between maximum and minimum solar activity (0.25 watt per square meter).

“The fact that we still see a positive imbalance despite the prolonged solar minimum isn’t a surprise, given what we’ve learned about the climate system, but it’s worth noting because this provides unequivocal evidence that the Sun is not the dominant driver of global warming,” Hansen said.

According to calculations conducted by Hansen and his colleagues, the 0.58 watt per square meter imbalance implies that carbon dioxide levels need to be reduced to about 350 parts per million to restore the energy budget to equilibrium. The most recent measurements show that carbon dioxide levels are currently 392 parts per million and scientists expect that concentration to continue to rise in the future.

Climate scientists have been refining calculations of the Earth’s energy imbalance for many years, but this newest estimate is an improvement over previous attempts because the scientists had access to better measurements of ocean temperature than researchers have had in the past.

The improved measurements came from free-floating instruments that directly monitor the temperature, pressure and salinity of the upper ocean to a depth of 6,500 feet. The network of instruments, known collectively as Argo, has grown dramatically in recent years since researchers first began deploying the floats a decade ago. Today, more than 3,400 Argo floats actively take measurements and provide data to the public.

CROSS-QUARTER DAY — On the astronomical calendar, February 2 is the date when planet Earth’s orbit takes it to the midpoint between the December Solstice and the March Equinox—here in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re exactly halfway through winter.

But this date is better known, in North America at least, as Groundhog Day.  In American folklore, a small, marmot-like animal called a groundhog is supposed to come out of its hole on February 2 and observe the weather.  If there is sunshine and it sees its shadow, there will be 6 more weeks of winter weather.  The news media likes to do light-hearted features about this, and they usually focus on a particular groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.  This year, they say that this creature (known as “Punxutawney Phil”) did see his shadow, so we evidently have 6 more weeks of winter to look forward to.  (By an odd coincidence, there are exactly 6 weeks until the March Equinox, the first day of spring!)

Halfway through winter…

The groundhog and I seeing

A chilly shadow.

You can contact Bob Eklund at beklund@sprynet.com, or visit his website at www.bobeklund.com.

Editor’s Note- Feb. 2 is also known as Brigit or Imbolc, and is an ancient holiday celebrating the return of the light.

“Meghan’s strong commitment to Culver City residents and balanced approach to leadership are why I am so proud to endorse her in the 2012 election, said Holly Mitchell, who serves California’s 47th Assembly District. “Her experience in grassroots organizing is just what Culver City Council needs.”

“I know I can count on Meghan to reflect the concerns of Culver City residents on important issues facing us on the local level,” continued Mitchell. “Meghan has a track record of working with others to find solutions to problems.”

City Council member Christopher Armenta said, “In the years she has spoken before the Council, Meghan has shown herself to be a strong, consistent, advocate for Culver City residents. Her participation on several City committees has been extremely valuable, as has her leadership in local organizations and Culver City schools.”

“From development to environment to education to transportation, she has the knowledge and experience to lead our city toward a healthy future,” concluded Armenta. “It is a great pleasure for me to endorse her for City Council.”

Numerous other officials, representatives and community leaders have endorsed Meghan’s campaign, including Civil Service Commissioner Dan Gallagher, Cultural Affairs Commissioner Ronnie Jayne, Advisory Committee on Redevelopment members Vernon Taylor, Jr. and David Voncannon, Former Culver City Mayor Dr. James Boulgarides, Former Culver City Mayor Gary Silbiger, Downtown Neighborhood Association founder Judy Miller, and former School Board Members Dr. Wanda Boulgarides, Stew Bubar, and Barbara Honig.

“I cannot imagine a better advocate for Culver City residents,” remarked School Board Member Nancy Goldberg.

Sahli-Wells has an extensive record of experience in public service through her years of serving on Culver City committees and neighborhood groups, including the City’s Advisory Committee on Redevelopment (ACOR), its Bicycle and Pedestrian Initiative Advisory Committee, the Culver City Downtown Neighborhood Association, Culver City Bicycle Coalition, Green Space Advisory Committee, Transition Culver City, Fiesta La Ballona Committee, and Linwood E. Howe School Site Council, Safe Routes To School Committee, PTA, Booster Club and Green Team.

“My platform is based on three main issues: fiscal responsibility, smart development and sustainability,” Meghan stated. “We’ve spent the last few years tightening the budget, and we don’t want to lose the services that have made Culver City such a great place to live. So what we have to do is maximize the resources that we do have.”

Meghan’s first campaign fundraiser will be held at Culver City’s La Dijonaise restaurant on Wednesday, February 1 at 7 PM. The event is $50 per person and includes a three-course meal with a dessert, beverage and glass of wine. La Dijonaise is located at 8703 Washington Blvd. Please RSVP by emailing contact@vote4meghan.com.

Sahli-Wells was awarded “Democrat of the Year” in 2010 by the L.A. County Democratic Party, and was recognized by the National Women’s Political Caucus (L.A. Westside chapter) in 2011 as one of twelve “Remarkable Women” alongside Attorney General Kamala Harris and Assembly members Holly Mitchell and Betsy Butler. Meghan was also recently elected to serve as First Vice President of the Culver City Democratic Club.

Please visit Meghan’s campaign website at www.vote4meghan.com.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Gehry’s involvement became public Monday when the Culver City City Council authorized the city manager’s office to execute a “commitment letter” transferring a narrow slice of city-owned land next to the Kirk Douglas Theatre –- just one-seventh of an acre -– to the nonprofit Jazz Bakery for a new home.

The council had to move quickly. The fear was that if the transaction was not completed by the end of the day Tuesday the long-brewing plan to give the Jazz Bakery the land would be sunk by the state government’s decision to eliminate redevelopment agencies statewide starting Wednesday. That will include the Culver City Redevelopment Agency, which administered the property at 9814 Washington Blvd. that’s being transferred.

Richard Posell, a Jazz Bakery board member and attorney, said there’s widespread confusion over just what the new ground rules for using former redevelopment agency land might be if the transfer agreement weren’t signed by the deadline. Final details were still being negotiated late Tuesday afternoon.

“I think it’s going to get signed,” Posell said. If not, he quipped, “I hope Jerry Brown likes jazz.”

The Jazz Bakery aims to raise an estimated $10.2 million to build its new home, with a $2-million grant from the Annenberg Foundation as the campaign’s cornerstone. Plans call for a two-story building, with the main, 250-seat concert room upstairs and a small black box theater on the ground floor. The Jazz Bakery has been seeking a permanent home since 2009, when it lost its lease at the Helms Bakery complex, a mile northeast of the new location. Since then, it has produced concerts in various places.

Ruth Price, president and artistic director of the Jazz Bakery since it debuted in 1992, said Tuesday that she didn’t know Gehry, or even ask for his help, before he called about six months ago to volunteer his services.

“He said, ‘I’m doing this for two people: Sydney Pollack, and my wife, Berta.’ ” Film director Pollack, a close friend of the architect (and director of the 2006 documentary “Sketches of Frank Gehry”), died in 2008; Price said she learned that pianist Herbie Hancock had taken Gehry to shows at the Jazz Bakery, and that Gehry’s wife also enjoyed going to Jazz Bakery concerts.

Further complicating the new venue’s birth: The Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre needs part of the Jazz Bakery site to remain vacant, because there’s no other place for trucks to deliver equipment and material for stage sets. The Douglas, a converted Art Deco movie theater, has no backstage work area, and CTG’s lease guarantees access to its loading door from the neighboring parcel.

“It’s critical to us,” said Edward Rada, CTG managing director. “They get that completely, and they fully intend to accommodate our needs out there and incorporate it into their plans.”

If that’s satisfied -– and the Jazz Bakery’s stages are soundproofed to keep concert volume inside -– “they would be a great neighbor,” Rada said.

“We want this to be successful,” he said, because the Jazz Bakery would add to the luster and overall drawing power of Culver City’s downtown arts scene, which also includes art galleries and the Actors’ Gang theater.

Gehry Partners didn’t respond to a request for comment Tuesday, which happened to be the opening day for the Pershing Square Signature Center, the new, three-stage complex Gehry designed for Manhattan’s Signature Theatre on 42nd Street.

In 2007, the Pasadena Playhouse announced that Gehry had donated his services for a redesign of its campus, including a new 300- to 400-seat second stage, but the plan had to be abandoned because of the economic downturn.

A business plan that’s part of a draft of the proposed land transfer agreement calls for 250 shows per year at the Jazz Bakery, with an average ticket price of $35. The organization estimates it would need to raise about $250,000 a year in donations to balance a projected annual operating budget of about $1.65 million.

“The four endorsed candidates showed the best understanding of the city’s financial situation and the very real issues we are facing as well as speaking knowledgeably of the future of Culver City post the closure of the redevelopment agency”, stated Goran Eriksson – Chair of the Board of the Culver City Chamber, local businessman and resident. Eriksson further stated, “This is not the time to learn on the job.”

Micheal (Mehaul) O’Leary currently serving as Mayor of Culver City has shown his leadership in assisting neighborhoods and small businesses in working out issues instead of leading them drag on for months. One of O’Leary’s great assets that he brings to the city council is his knowledge of the hospitality business, which is one of the largest revenue areas in the city’s budget. We know that tourism will be one of the leading business segments that will lead the nation and our city out of this long lasting downturn.

Andy Weissman was endorsed because of his complete knowledge of the Culver City community, his demonstrated leadership in the past four years as a councilmember and community member being involved in the Culver-Palms Y and the Culver City Rotary Club. He was the leader on the council in working on the Baldwin Hills oil drilling issues along with his straightforward approach to municipal issues.

Jim B. Clarke, a long time resident of Culver City, with a vast experience in the legislative process by currently serving Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa on federal matters and previously serving as former Congress member Diane Watson as Chief of Staff brings these unique qualities at a time of great financial challenges for the city.

Scott Malsin, a former member of the Culver City Council brings his knowledge of the city budget and finance to the table as well as his specific understanding of the issues of small business and local residential issues. During his time on the city council he worked with fellow council members on the success of Westfield Culver City and bringing this spring the EXPO Light rail to our city.

The interviews will be placed on the chamber’s website www.culvercitychamber.com on Feb 6, 2012 for everyone to view.

The Culver City Chamber the only city-wide endorsing organization that interviews ALL council candidates has endorsed over the last seven city council elections as well as being the only city-wide organization that supported the last number of school funding elections, because as Harry Culver, founder of our city said, “ that Culver City needs to have a balance between residences and business to have a viable community.”

Recently we found a dog on our back doorstep early one morning. We don’t know how he got there but when he arrived he was very frightened and cold (it was 38 degrees outside and he is a small indoor dog). Fortunately the dog is also very friendly and sociable. We gave him some food, water and affection and started on our journey of trying to find his owner. Part of that journey was meeting the Culver City Animal Control Officer, Corolla Fleeger.

From the beginning this encounter was one of the most pleasant experiences of our journey. We contacted Ms. Fleeger by phone. Her voice mail message was clear, concise, and informative. Via this message she let us know what she was up against being the only Animal Control officer in Culver City; 35 – 55 calls a day! We were prepared to wait a while to meet with her. We were pleasantly surprised when she showed up at our doorstep within the hour.

Ms. Fleeger was highly professional and was generally concerned about the dog’s welfare. She came well prepared with a microchip scanner and a camera. Unfortunately there was no chip, but she took a photo to post with the shelter to help find the owner. She was very friendly to the dog and our family. She patiently explained our many options. She could take the dog off our hands immediately, or that we had the option of keeping it during the seven-day waiting period the owners had to report the dog missing. She said that if someone contacted us regarding the dog that she would mediate the transfer for us. She also answered our many questions about what to do with the dog and how to take care of it. All the while she was asking us questions about our household, very subtlety determining if our house was suitable for this lost animal. We passed the test because she left without the dog.

Later on in the evening I accidentally called her back but did not leave a message. She returned my call within a few minutes to make sure there was nothing that I needed. She reiterated her offer to come and take the dog at any time if it became too much of a burden for us.

After a week of walking the neighborhood, putting up flyers, going to pet stores and groomers, and searching the Internet we still had not found the owner. We called Ms, Fleeger and once again she was very professional and friendly. She remembered that we had two cats asked after their welfare as well as the dog’s. Once again, she was checking to see that everyone in our household was doing well, not just the dog. She let us know that we could now take ownership of the dog and what that entailed. Once again she answered my many questions and then sent us an e-mail with the website to register the dog and Culver City rules and regulations for dogs.

After this experience I think Culver City is extremely lucky to have an officer like Ms. Fleeger. Without her we would have had to take the animal to the shelter, where it would most likely have been euthanized since no owner came forward. Thanks to her help and guidance, instead the dog has found a home. The many lost animals in Culver City are especially lucky to have Ms. Fleeger looking after their welfare.

Jean Stout