Creativity

Courtney Collins dreamed of planting a garden. Not in her yard, or even at her house, but in a store. Here, she wouldn't grow flowers or vegetables; she would cultivate creativity. Enter Little Junebugs, Pasadena's newest crafting space and gift store for children and adults. Collins, a former art teacher and nanny, created the recently opened shop with co-owners Brian Flanagan and Andrea Jensen Wader. Little Junebugs, (named for the June birthdays shared by Collins and Jensen Wader)

A few weeks ago, I spotted something I had never seen before in Glendale: public street art. A neat, black, spray-painted phrase stared back at me from the cement, encompassed in two delicate motifs that surrounded it: “Keep Your Head Up.” I couldn't look away, engulfed in the unfounded fear that the ground would have surely absorbed this rare creative expression if I did. So I quickly took a photo and shared it with the world, uploading it...

On the night of March 18, over 200 entries completed by students of every grade level were on display as part of Dunsmore Elementary’s Project Fair. Families walked around the school’s auditorium, viewing projects such as artwork, creative writing samples, science experiments and even a video presentation. A popular study among students was the experiment of Coke and Pepsi. Volunteers downed a small cup of either drink, and then were asked to guess which one they had consumed.

Joyce Rudolph What if your kids could spend two hours each morning participating in theater workshops and using their imagination to create their own shows? They can, if they join in the Kids On Stage experience coordinated by Rob Bowers. This year, the Burbank resident is integrating the theme of "What if ..." into the two-week program for youngsters 4 to 12, which begins Tuesday at the Starlight Bowl. "What if" are the two most important words in creativity, Bowers said.

Judy Seckler GLENDALE -- International House of Pancakes Corp. wants to tap into the creativity of children. With its "2002 Dream Up Our Float" contest, children are invited to submit ideas for float designs for the company's 2002 Rose Parade float. Children, 6-12, can receive entry forms at their local IHOP restaurant. Twelve finalists will be selected on the basis of originality and creativity. The grand prize winner will be announced in September.

    Lecture: Tuesday, Jan. 24, 7:30 p.m. "Hot Air Balloons, Frisbee Golf, Gossamer Flights, Robots on Mars: Inventors from Our Own Backyard Who Took Ideas and Made Them Fly." Dan Lewis, curator of the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library, will give an illustrated talk covering the stories of fascinating individuals who created innovations and inventions, found fame and fortune, and called Pasadena home. Tickets- $10 members, $15 general. Call 626-577-1660, ext. 10 for reservations.

Threatened species comes to zoo LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Zoo is the new home to three species of foxes. Red, bat-eared and Channel Island foxes will live adjacent to each other on zoo grounds. Their exhibits range from 435 to 685 square feet. Channel Island foxes are a threatened species found only on some of the Channel Islands off the state's coast. Bat-eared foxes have not been in the zoo's collection for about five years. The zoo is at 5333 Zoo Drive.

Middle school students at Rosemont received awards for their artistic creations entered in this year?s PTA Reflections contest. All entrants were recognized for their efforts and winners were announced at the school at an assembly on Wednesday, Nov. 14. Each artist?s submission was an interpretation of this year?s theme ?I Can Make A Difference.? Lisa Dupuy who coordinated entries and judges for each category chaired the contest. ?Any program that encourages creativity is important because creativity teaches problem solving and make kids well rounded,?

Early Monday morning several creative engineers made their way out to their test field. Anticipation could be felt in the air — this was the moment these engineers had been waiting for, the moment of truth. Would their newly engineered rockets reach their ultimate altitude and, more importantly, their fragile cargo land safely? No these were not employees from NASA or JPL but students from Rosemont Middle School. They were members of the "Bottle Rockets, Gravity Dragsters, Hand Gliders and More" class, a Glendale Community College, fee-based summer school program.

Gary Moskowitz Craig Kupka and his music students will tell you that competition judges don't always appreciate them, but their unique approach to music just earned them nine awards at this year's Downbeat Student Music Awards. Three of Kupka's Hoover High School music groups -- the Jazz Orchestra, the Downbeat Combo and the LA Free Jazz Society -- submitted 23 recordings to the 26th annual competition hosted by Downbeat magazine. Twenty-five schools out of 450 won awards, and just four of those schools earned two awards.

With the lightning speed made possible by the use of social media, Ascencia, the city's winter homeless shelter, became the apparent beneficiary of a $2,000 gift from British magnate Sir Richard Branson. It was an extraordinarily simple effort that started with just one tweet from an Aliso Viejo woman's Twitter account. Before Christmas, Shannon Smith tweeted that she wanted to spend a day in Branson's shoes. The London-based founder and chairman of the Virgin Group responded by sending Smith a pair of his sneakers.

Dear Hollywood, As a lifelong admirer, consumer of your work and member of your workforce, now that the summer movie season is over, I feel it is my responsibility to make the following request: Please stop making Spider-Man movies! Seriously. Use your spidey-sense to think of something else to do with $200 million. In 2002 you brought us “Spider-Man.” Fine. In 2004 its sequel, “Spider-Man 2.” Expected. And since all successful franchises and celebrity deaths come in threes, in 2007 you gave us “Spider-Man 3.” You had to do it. We understand.

A few weeks ago, I spotted something I had never seen before in Glendale: public street art. A neat, black, spray-painted phrase stared back at me from the cement, encompassed in two delicate motifs that surrounded it: “Keep Your Head Up.” I couldn't look away, engulfed in the unfounded fear that the ground would have surely absorbed this rare creative expression if I did. So I quickly took a photo and shared it with the world, uploading it...

Robert Downey Jr. stared at me all through my lunch. I was eating at Studio Café Magazzino, a tiny, home-spun café across from the massive Warner Bros. complex, enjoying the homemade soup and sandwiches, when I noticed that Sherlock Holmes himself was looking right through the window, his gigantic eyes boring out from a poster covering a beige stucco building corner. The view inside the café was less distracting. A distressed, white picket fence covers part of the counter and potted ivy spills over an old metal icebox and sink in one corner.

As real estate fraud cases increase throughout region, Glendale police say thieves are becoming more sophisticated in their approach to defrauding the real estate owners. From falsifying documents to paying off people to use their credit to buy a home, detectives say criminals will do just about anything during the recession to make money - even if it means selling a sibling's home without their knowledge. Gregor Tevan was sentenced on Aug. 9 to two years in prison for doing just that to his brother, according to police.

Courtney Collins dreamed of planting a garden. Not in her yard, or even at her house, but in a store. Here, she wouldn't grow flowers or vegetables; she would cultivate creativity. Enter Little Junebugs, Pasadena's newest crafting space and gift store for children and adults. Collins, a former art teacher and nanny, created the recently opened shop with co-owners Brian Flanagan and Andrea Jensen Wader. Little Junebugs, (named for the June birthdays shared by Collins and Jensen Wader)

The Creative Arts Center, located at 1100 West Clark Avenue, currently has a show helping to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the city of Burbank.  Exhibitors include: The Cartoon Network, The Walt Disney Company, Falcon Theater, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Nickelodeon and Warner Bros. Studios.  The Creative Arts Center Gallery is located at 1100 West Clark Avenue, Burbank, California. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m., Friday 9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. and Saturday 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Please contact the Gallery at 818.238.5397  for additional information.

Bob Rusch was searching for a permanent home for his SkyPilot Theatre Company, and Aramazd Stepanian, owner and artistic director of the Luna Playhouse, was looking for a company to share his space. The Internet brought them together. "I put a note on Big Cheap Theater, a Yahoo group for theater people, and I announced I was looking for a partner for the Luna Playhouse, and he was looking for a theater," Stepanian said. That was in June, and now SkyPilot, which formerly produced shows in Burbank, is a resident company of the Glendale playhouse.

LA CRESCENTA — Ten-year-old Alexia Ouzounian was applying the finishing touches to her homemade scarf Thursday, the last day of art camp. In between scrunching its corners and applying purple spray paint, the Fremont Elementary School student said her summer at the Summer Art Camp for Tweens and Teens was full of new techniques and projects she doesn't see during the rest of the year. "There's been a lot more this summer," she said. "All of [the projects] are fun, but I like the ones where you have to work with your hands."

DOWNTOWN — Faced with multimillion-dollar budget deficits brought on by spiraling revenues and escalating employee costs, Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena are considering consolidating a wide range of services and programs to save money. Early discussions focus on the viability of joint police dispatch, consolidated technology services and achieving economies of scale by buying everything from paper clips to brake pads. Long-term ideas include a bus service linking the three cities.