North Hollywood It’s not Hollywood and Vine, Sunset Strip or Wilshire Boulevard, but the team working on a large art installation at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards in NoHo is hoping to make the intersection just as notable. The artwork, part of a citywide requirement that large developments include public art, is an electronic showcase measuring 240 feet in length and six feet in height, that will project memorable movie quotes along with abstract light patterns. The light patterns will be triggered by the movement of traffic as cars pass by the installation. “Our desire was to make a kind of landmark so it becomes a place of significance and not just another corner in the Valley,” said Cameron McNall, an architect and artist, who created and constructed the piece with partner Damon Seeley. The piece, which is yet to be named, is part of the NoHo Commons development, a mixed-use project developed by J.H. Snyder Co. that includes loft residences along with some combination living/working loft spaces, restaurants and stores. The team, whose company is Electroland, decided to feature movie quotes because of the area’s association with Hollywood. Some of the quotes currently slated to appear on the piece are “Go ahead, make my day,” from “Dirty Harry;” “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” from “Midnight Cowboy;” “I’ll be back,” from “The Terminator,” and “Open the pod bay doors, Hal,” from “2001: A Space Odyssey.” “After many different investigations, we decided that featuring famous lines from movies might be most appropriate given the association with Hollywood,” McNall said. McNall, who holds a masters in architecture degree from Havard University’s graduate school of design and is an adjunct associate professor at UCLA’s department of design and media arts, and Seeley, whose design and artwork focuses on the intersection of technology and culture, work exclusively with electronic creations. Among their completed projects is an interactive entryway to the Met Lofts residential complex in downtown L.A., where footsteps trigger lights on a grid of LED panels on the exterior of the building. Their NoHo project, which is still being refined, will ultimately include hundreds, if not thousands of sayings controlled remotely by computer with light patterns that will change and fluctuate as the traffic patterns change. But the artists say that they expect the placement of the sayings, suspended off the ground, to alter their meaning as well. “Repeating a word 10 times makes it seem stranger and stranger when you repeat it. We’re taking these different phrases, many of which are iconic, but re-contextualizing them in this situation,” McNall said. SAN FERNANDO VALLEY Burbank Television: AT & T; debuted in May its new U-verse Internet-protocol television service for the Southern California region. U-Verse TV boasts more than 25 high-def channels, the ability to record up to four programs at once using a DVR receiver, a growing Video-On-Demand library, and a web and mobile remote access to the DVR. The service is available in parts of Burbank, Glendale and Santa Clarita. AT & T; will increase availability throughout the area on an ongoing basis. Encino Scholarships: The Encino-Tarzana Hospital Charitable Foundation distributed scholarships to 59 nursing students at a special luncheon late last month. The students attend California State University, Northridge; Pierce College; Valley College; and other local institutions. Each of the honorees was given a scholarship for $1,200. The scholarships were accompanied by resolution commendations from Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine and 41st District Assemblywoman Julia Brownley. In addition to the nurses, nine Regional Occupational Program students and teen hospital volunteers from North Hollywood and Taft high schools received $1,200 scholarships to help them reach their goals of becoming health care professionals. This year, to help reduce the community’s nursing shortage, the Encino-Tarzana Hospital Charitable Foundation raised the most money for scholarships in its 16-year history, enabling it to award 68 scholarships. Northridge Nursing: The California Board of Registered Nursing has given initial approval for California State University, Northridge’s College of Health and Human Development to begin offering an accelerated bachelor’s degree in nursing this month. The program, which compresses 56 semester units of classes and clinical work into a 15-month program, targets people who already have a bachelor’s degree in a non-nursing field and want to pursue a nursing career. Every summer and fall, 18 students will be admitted to the four-semester program for classroom work and clinical rotations. The first group will start the program in June. Starting in 2008, two groups of 18 students will be admitted each year. At the end of the 15-month period, students will be eligible to receive a Bachelor of Science Degree in nursing and to take the registered nurse licensing exam and apply for a Public Health Nurse Certificate. Pacoima Schools: Jas S. Dhillon, the owner of a 7-Eleven store in Pacoima, has been elected the 2007-2008 board chair of Discovery Charter Preparatory School. The school is the only public high school within a five-mile radius, and its contract is due to be renewed by the Los Angeles Unified School District on June 12. Grant: Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarc & #243;n, former State Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez and a representative of the Barona Band of Mission Indians presented a $5,000 check to Sara Coughlin Elementary School at a student assembly late last month. The check was donated by the Barona Band of Mission Indians for the school to purchase a software program designed to help students who are transitioning from English-As-A-Second-Language classes to mainstream English classes. The Barona Band of Mission Indians chose one school in each Assembly District to receive the Barona Education Grants. Montanez helped Sara Coughlin Elementary acquire the grant. Panorama City Award: The Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley honored Kaiser Permanente with a Business Education Partnership Award late last month. The recognition was given in honor of Kaiser’s efforts to encourage youth to pursue medical careers, especially through its High School Summer Youth Employment Program. The program gives underserved high school students exposure to medical careers through paid summer work experience, educational workshops, presentations and mentoring. CONEJO VALLEY Finalists: Loi Nguyen, founder and vice president of technology for Inphi Corp., an electronic components manufacturer, was among the finalists for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Also named as a finalist is Philip Asherian, CEO of ESI Enterprises in Woodland Hills, a firm providing consulting, information technology outsourcing and network design, installation and support. The finalists were chosen from over 100 nominations received by an independent judging panel composed of area business, academic and civic leaders. The winners will be announced June 26. SANTA CLARITA VALLEY Santa Clarita Biking: Dozens of workers in Santa Clarita biked to work on May 17 during the city’s 4th Annual Bike to Work Day Challenge. The event coincided with a weeklong state awareness campaign calling for residents to cut down on pollution by biking to work. Santa Clarita businesses vie to get the most number of employees to bike to work during the competition. Small, medium and large businesses who won in their respective categories received free frozen yogurt from Golden Spoon-Valencia. The city teamed up with Metro, L.A. County Bicycle Coalition and Newhall Bicycle to host public pit stops for cyclists to catch their breath during their commutes. “By riding your bike to work, residents are helping to reduce traffic and pollution, improving your health by increasing cardiovascular activity and saving money on gas,” said Santa Clarita Mayor Marsha McLean. Tour: Santa Clarita Mayor Marsha McLean will be hosting a free 20th anniversary bus tour of Santa Clarita for residents and guests from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on June 19 and from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on June 20. The tour will include a visit to the Transit Maintenance Facility, the 20-acre Santa Clarita Sports Complex and many of the city’s parks. For more information or to reserve a seat, call (661) 255-4939. VIA: The Valencia Industrial Association has nominated nine Santa Clarita businesses for its annual VIA awards, which will be presented at 6:30 p.m. on June 22 at Mann Biomedical Park, 25129 Rye Canyon Loop, in Valencia. The awards are given in three categories: Rising Star, VIA Volunteer of the Year and VIA Business of the Year. The nominees in the Rising Star category are Newleaf Training & Development, the Santa Clarita Valley Jaycees and The Loose Goose. Nominees in the Volunteer of the Year category are Bob Comer of Bob Comer Print Sales, Randy Moberg of LBW Insurance & Financial Services and Peter Goossens of The Loose Goose. The nominees in the Business of the Year category are Auton Motorized Systems, College of the Canyons and LBW Insurance & Financial Services. Proceeds from the event will support the organization’s advocacy efforts on behalf of its members, particularly in the areas of education, transportation and legislation. The theme for the bash is “Shaken Not Stirred” and will feature dinner, dancing, live entertainment and a silent auction. ANTELOPE VALLEY Lancaster Information: The City of Lancaster won two top honors for public information from the California Association of Public Information Officials. Lancaster Communications Manager Anne Aldrich was presented with the honors to the city for its monthly newsletter and for its new website, cityoflancaster.org. The Outlook, published quarterly and distributed to all Lancaster residents, keeps the public informed about city news. In 2007, the publication was expanded with a smaller Outlook Lite newsletter sent to residents in the months the Outlook is not published. The new city website was launched in October.