Activities, events, people and thoughts about our Culver City Community

Families of Upward Bound House, a community based, non-profit organization providing transitional housing and programs for homeless children and their families, gathered at Family Shelter for a back-to-school celebration. CBS arrived with two truck loads of donated back packs filled with supplies for the upcoming school year. “The supplies in the backpack will last us [...]

Looking for the Coolest Forms of Life on Earth – Two UK scientists are traveling to one of the coldest places on Earth to help them understand how life could exist on other planets in our Solar System. Professor Liane Benning (University of Leeds) and Dr. Dominique Tobler (University of Glasgow) are traveling to Ny-Alesund [...]

Do you want to turn Culver City into a place where bikes are more common than cars? Roll your wheels over to the Helms Bakery Building at 8760 Venice Blvd. on Saturday Sept. 11 at 11 a.m.,  and join the Culver City Bicycle Coalition and the Sierra Club – West Los Angeles Group for a [...]

Kentwood Players announces auditions for the musical “Annie” based on the popular comic strip “Little Orphan Annie” with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and book by Thomas Meehan. Saturday, September 11 will be auditions from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for children and 2 to 4 p.m. for adults.  Sunday, September 12 [...]

The Culver City School Board held a special meeting on August 31 with the Cosca Group, a superintendent search firm, to begin the process of selecting a new superintendent of schools. Board President Steve Gourley characterized the meeting as “amicable” and expressed his enthusiasm for both the performance of the interim superintendent, Patti Jaffe,  and [...]

Made in Culver City, a free film program presented by the Culver City Redevelopment Agency, will feature Rebecca, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, on September 4 at 7:30pm in Culver City’s City Hall Courtyard. Culver City City Hall is located at 9770 Culver Boulevard and parking and dining are available in Downtown Culver City. No reservations [...]

Senate Bill 957, legislation authored by Senator Curren D. Price Jr. (D-Los Angeles) passed out of the Legislature and now goes to the Governor for his signature. The bill gives priority in granting Cal Grant C awards to students pursuing occupations or technical training in high growth, high wage or high demand job sectors. Current [...]

Westfield Culver City held their “Back to School Bash” Saturday August 21 with an array of fun activities for students, including a Back to Cool Fashion Show. There were Disney movies and  crafts, including creating tiaras, crowns and lunch boxes. The Bash was also the kick-off for a two-month $2500 fundraising effort with Millions of [...]

“When I see public art in Culver City, I feel good about being part of a city that values art and thinks it should be available to everyone,” says Corinne Lightweaver, local artist and member of the Culver City Art Group. The chance to get involved and help raise funds for the Rivers of the [...]

The start of every school year is marked with back-to-school sales and dentist and doctor appointments, but what is often overlooked is not what takes place during school, but when the bell rings at the end of the day: the number of children and teens left alone after school. According to the Afterschool Alliance, 15.1 [...]

It’s all too common; a favorite shirt, pair of jeans or jacket has one flaw, and it goes off to the trash. Imagine being ale to save those clothes, not just from the landfill, but for future use.  Join the Transition crowd on Sunday, Sept. 26 from 2 to 5 p.m  for this popular event. [...]

Cosmic Lens Used for the First Time to Study “Dark Energy” Astronomers have devised a new method for measuring what is perhaps the greatest puzzle of our universe—“dark energy.” This mysterious force, discovered in 1998, is pushing our universe apart at ever-increasing speeds. Now for the first time, in a study reported in the Aug. [...]

THE TEMPTATION OF QUANTIFICATION Last week the L.A. Times rated Los Angeles school teachers by their pupils’ scores on two standardized tests. On Friday, the NY Times discussed the abysmal track record of Wall Street’s quantitative analysts, known as “quants.” What do the two stories have in common? Our compulsion to measure the unmeasurable. The [...]

In an era of steadily declining funds for public schools, the good news about math education in Culver City Unified is multiplying. In particular, Linwood E. Howe Elementary, host of the only Math Olympiads Tournament for elementary and middle schools in Los Angeles county, now can count 11 Olympiads medalists among its student body. Dr. [...]

Eclipsing Pulsar Promises Clues to Crushed Matter A city-sized sphere rotating 518 times a second… Astronomers using an X-ray telescope in space have found the first fast X-ray pulsar to be eclipsed by its companion star. Further studies of this unique double-star system will shed light on some of the most compressed matter in the [...]

On Thursday, August 19, at 7 p.m. The Culver City Symphony Orchestra will again change locale from Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium, Culver City, to Burton Chace Park, Marina del Rey, and become the Marina del Rey Summer Symphony. For both orchestras the conductor remains Frank Fetta, and the orchestra roster is comprised of many of the [...]

The Culver City Friends of the Library in association with the Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education presents a charming 25-minute, multimedia program designed to entertain, educate and inspire students to follow their own dreams as they learn about Mary Pickford, the silent film actress, who rose from poverty to become “America’s Sweetheart”. An interactive [...]

Join Kentwood Players as they delve into the famously haunting story “Dracula” as dramatized by Hamilton Deane and John L. Baldeston, based on the novel by Bram Stoker, from September 10 to October 16 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., at the Westchester Playhouse located at 8301 Hindry Avenue [...]

Fiesta La Ballona Announces “Senior Citizen’s Early Bird Special” The Fiesta La Ballona is having a “Senior Citizen’s Early Bird Special” Friday night, August 27, from 4:30 until 6 p.m. Fiesta Food Vendors will have discounts for seniors 60 and up. Entertainment on the Main Stage from 4:30 to 5:30 will feature Danny Bergen and [...]

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for two people to dissolve the legal and social bonds which have connected them with one another, it’s called divorce. This is a declaration of independence. Not only does the opening of the Declaration of Independence use very similar language, these words also grace the [...]

Spacecraft Camera Yields Most Accurate Mars Map Ever; Perseid Meteors Return August 12 A camera aboard NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has helped develop the most accurate global Martian map ever. Researchers and the public can access the map via several websites and explore and survey the entire surface of the Red Planet. The map was [...]

Catch the final performance of “The Rhine’s Gold,” We Tell Stories’ family-friendly adaptation of of Wagner’s opera “Das Rheingold.” Meet gods, dwarves, giants, and Rhine maidens in this 40-minute romp that includes orchestral selections from the opera. Wednesday, August 11th from 2 to 3 p.m. The performance is free! “The Rhine’s Gold” concludes our summer [...]

The Literary Uprising is one way that Antioch celebrates and shares the art of creative writers within the AULA community. Each quarter, a BA student, an MFA student and a faculty member are invited to share original work at a free reading that is open to the public. The event, co-sponsored by the BA program [...]

Culver City’s Mamie A. Clayton Museum and Library (MCLM) has won a grant that will allow it seek a permanent director, and allow the institution to expand it’s world-class status.  MCLM is the largest independently-held collection of objects, documents and memorabilia on African American history and culture.   The museum has been under Acting Director [...]

The Leading Edge, a young professionals group, will be hosting their next “Connection” on Wednesday, August 11 at The Culver Hotel. The evening mixer starts on the mezzanine with appetizers, drinks and connections followed by an evening of hot jazz in the lobby of The Culver Hotel. Young professionals and all Culver Chamber members are [...]

The Fiesta La Ballona organizing committee is thrilled to announce that Radio Disney AM 1110 will be the opening 2-hour act on the Main Stage on Saturday, August 28. The fun starts at noon as the Radio Disney Road Crew will be rocking out the stage with tons of music, fun, and games that everyone [...]

Renowned violinist Andres Cardenes will appear in an all-Beethoven concert at the Broad Stage, Sunday, August 22, 4 p.m. in a special presentation by the Culver City Orchestra. Recognized worldwide as a musical phenomenon, Grammy-nominated Andres Cardenes parlays his myriad talents into one of classical music’s most versatile careers. A ferocious, passionate, and personally charismatic [...]

New Signaling Concept Could Refocus Search for Signs of Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life For 50 years, humans have scanned the skies with radio telescopes for distant electronic signals indicating the existence of intelligent alien life. The search—centered at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.—has tapped into our collective fascination with the concept that we may [...]

Being “New Media” often means learning a new medium every week. The amount of technology I use on a daily basis impresses me, often while I’m using it. That “eureka!” moment when I understand how to download the photos or where to cut the music in gives me absolute delight. The tools of the trade- [...]

RED-LIGHT CAMERAS — A MODEST PROPOSAL (with apologies to the master, Jonathan Swift) We read with interest that a local political group has joined forces with the zany wing of the Libertarian Party to oppose red-light cameras. The language of the joint resolution is interesting, so we reproduce it here. We follow with a few [...]