Culver City Times

The City of Culver City received notification from Metro last week that the city has been awarded a $453,600 grant to host Culver City CicLAvia in July 2015. 

During these CicLAvia events, whole streets are shut down to car traffic, encouraging bicyclists and pedestrians to explore the city and participate in a space that is normally dominated by automobiles. Since it began in 2010, CicLAvia has quickly become Los Angeles County’s most popular public event, consistently attracting more than 100,000 participants. CicLAvia is free of charge and open to everyone. In 2013, Culver City’s Parcel B and Main Street served as a hub for CicLavia -- to wonderful effect. 

So…

On April 22, 2014, the Culver City Cultural Affairs Commission considered an agenda item pertaining to the nomination of the Culver City Ice Arena for designation as a 'Culver City Cultural Resource.' After reviewing the material of record (which included a historic resource evaluation) and hearing public comment on the item, the commission passed a motion recommending to the City Council that the Culver City Ice Arena be designated a Cultural Resource at the “Significant” level.

The Culver City Council is scheduled to consider this item on Monday, July 28, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.

If you have an interest in saving this arena -- and I know many of you do -- this is your chance to be heard. City Council meetings are held in the Mike Balkman Council Chambers on the ground…

Periodically, I post a picture of something in Culver City that is 'hiding in plain sight.' Last week ago I asked: Do you know where in Culver City this colorful wall is?

Out of three entrants, two Culver City Times members correctly identified this as being a new (and quite welcome!) addition to the corner of Washington and Higuera (8970 Washington Blvd.)

First-time player Jill S. Thompson was actually the first to name it. Congratulations Jill! She also shares her enthusiasm for the…

The Culver City Public Works Environmental Programs and Operations Division is offering a Beginning Home Composting Workshop this Saturday, July 26, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial Complex, Garden Room.

The workshop will provide hands on instruction in composting, worm composting, grass cycling, water-wise gardening, and fire-wise gardening. Demonstrations of various composting techniques will be performed using compost bins. No reservations are necessary for this workshop.

For more information go…

The Summer Music Series in Marina del Rey's Burton W. Chace Park continues this Thursday, July 24, with a "symphonic celebration" featuring the Marina del Rey Summer Symphony playing "Violin Concerto" by Tchaikovsky, "Romeo and Juliet" by Prokofiev, and "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky. All concerts begin at 7 p.m., generally lasting two hours, and are free to the public.

Arrive early and bring low beach chairs and blankets for first-come, first-served seating. A limited number of chairs are available for on-site rental.

The next concert in the series will be on Thursday, August 7, and will feature movie music, including themes from Star Wars, Titanic, and The Wizard of Oz. Also: Gerwhin's "Rhapsody in Blue," and Richard Addinsell's "The Warsaw…

Mayor Eric Garcetti, in partnership with Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy, JPMorgan Chase & Co., The California Endowment, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, have launched of the Los Angeles Summer of Learning program, a citywide initiative to keep youth engaged in learning this summer. 



Los Angeles youth age 3 - 24 can access 100 valuable learning opportunities online and in person at City parks and libraries, LAUSD schools, and with museums and cultural institutions like the Getty Center and Aquarium of the Pacific.  The curriculum will offer robust options in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (S.T.E.A.M.), as well as a work-readiness pathway geared towards the skills needed to succeed in the modern economy.

“LA Summer of Learning will transform Los Angeles into a 500-square-mile campus and provide learning opportunities for our youth when school is not in session,” said Mayor Garcetti. “By…

A new show by Hikari Shimoda, "Fantastic Planet, Goodbye Man," will open this Saturday, July 19, at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City. The opening reception will run from 7 pm to 10 pm and -- as always -- is free and open to the public. 

Says the gallery about Shimoda's work:

"The bright, usually cheery, pastel color palette Hikari employs in her portraits tell the opposite story of the anxious, starry-eyed spirits she portrays. The paintings, embellished by sparkly stickers and Manga stylings, depict pale, horned children – demonic muses called upon to remind us of our mortality and the longevity of harm caused to humanity and our ecosystem."

The show will run until August 23. 

Corey…

Periodically, I post a picture of something in Culver City that is 'hiding in plain sight.' -- asking Culver City Times members if they know where it is. 

Today the question is: Do you know where in Culver City this colorful wall is? If you know, enter your response in the comments box of this post.

If your answer fails to appear in the comments section immediately, fear not! So more people can play, I'll hold all the responses until the following Thursday, when I'll reveal them.

Picture submissions for future games of "Where Am I" are welcome. Email them to: culvercitytimes@gmail.com

French chanteuse Jessica Fichot will perform at the the Culver City Boulevard Music Summer Festival this Thursday, July 17, at 7:00 pm. It's the second of six free concerts presented in the Culver City Hall Courtyard this summer. 

Here's a soupçon of Fichot's French flavor:

Also on the bill: Buenos Aires' own Los Pinguos, performing a mixture of Latin rhythms, salsa, flamenco, reggae, rumba, Argentine rock, and sambas -- with Spanish guitars, a Cuban Tres, Peruvian cajon (box-drum) and harmonizing vocals.

Here's what Los Pinguos sound like:…

Each Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 from this Saturday July 12 to August 17, the Culver City Public Theater will perform Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The play, one of Shakespeare's most effervescent comedies, centers on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck and each end up in the court of Countess Olivia. Olivia falls in love with Viola (who is disguised as a boy), and Sebastian falls in love with Olivia. Hilarity ensues.

Each 2:00 performance is preceded at 12:00 by a performance of the Children's Popcorn Theatre's original play, The Quibbling Siblings, written and directed by Blake Anthony Edwards. It's a family-friendly adaptation of a Grimm's fairy tale that tells the story of four brothers and sisters…