The Children\u2019s Discovery Museum\u2019s new rooftop mascot needs a new name, and the public is being invited to help with the decision.<\/p>\n
You may recall that the original Discovery Duck, which had sat upon the Purple Museum\u2019s roof since 2005, was replaced this year after she moved to live pondside near her grandchildren in Colorado (a retirement plan that suspiciously mirrored that of longtime executive director Marilee Jennings).<\/p>\n
Submissions for a name were collected via an online survey earlier this year, and five finalists flapped their way to the top: Roofus, Disco, DeeDee, Bubbles and Violet.<\/p>\n
Community members can vote on their favorite through April 20, and the winner will be announced at a party that will conclude Children\u2019s Discovery Museum\u2019s yearlong 35th anniversary celebrations on May 2. You can find out more about the Birthday Bash and get a link to vote for a name at www.cdm.org\/event\/museum-birthday-party<\/a>.<\/p>\n GETTING \u2018DEAR EVAN HANSEN\u2019 RIGHT: CMT San Jose has a reputation for challenging its young artists \u2014 and its audiences \u2014 with mature material that has included \u201cRent,\u201d \u201cAmerican Idiot,\u201d and \u201cThe Who\u2019s Tommy.\u201d This weekend it opens \u201cDear Evan Hansen,\u201d the award-winning Broadway hit that delves into a number of issues including suicide and social anxiety.<\/p>\n Director and choreographer Joey Dippel said the show is an exploration into what it means to be and feel seen \u2014 and whether that\u2019s ultimately what we need to survive as people. \u201cTo tackle these heavy, and sometimes dark, themes that happen in \u2018Dear Evan Hansen,\u2019 we really wanted to make sure we did our due diligence to make sure that our actors in the rehearsal process \u2014 as well as our community seeing the show \u2014 really feel equipped to interact with this production,\u201d Dippel said in a YouTube video about the show.<\/p>\n CMT brought in Los Gatos resident Chris Miller, an educator who has been involved with developing suicide prevention programs in Santa Clara County, as a mental health coordinator. He\u2019s no stranger to CMT. He volunteered there on the stage crew for 67 productions over the past 19 years.<\/p>\n Miller described his role as providing support and mental health education and literacy to the cast, production staff and the broader community. Since this is one of CMT\u2019s Marquee Productions, the cast includes CMT alums and working actors in addition to the younger performers.<\/p>\n \u201cEver since I saw \u2018Dear Evan Hansen\u2019 in January 2019 in New York City, the show has had a profound impact on my life, and actually led to some legislative advocacy on mental health instruction in schools,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n CMT San Jose is one of the first non-professional theaters in the country to produce \u201cDear Evan Hansen,\u201d which will have seven shows at the Montgomery Theatre in downtown San Jose from April 10-18. Find out more at www.cmtsj.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n SPRING MAKEOVER: I stopped into Willow Street Pizza in Los Gatos recently to catch up with Executive Chef Hisham Abdelfattah and see the recent refreshes that the eatery\u2019s decor and menu have undergone. The interior decor is a little more relaxed \u2014 though Los Gatos has a pretty relaxed vibe as its baseline \u2014 with the addition of a delightful willow tree mural by the Chalk Chica in the waiting area.<\/p>\n The color palette leans toward a willowy green, and green seems to be the color of choice for some of Abdelfattah\u2019s new menu items, too, including a wood-fired pesto cauliflower and a truffle, mushroom and potato pizza. But the chef\u2019s proudest creation might be his \u201cThe Italian Hero\u201d sandwich, a spring special which includes a pesto aioli to keep with the green theme, along with pepperoni, salami, prosciutto and housemade mozzarella.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t worry, those are all available at the Willow Glen location, too.<\/p>\n GET YOUR OWN DRAIN: The weather\u2019s calling for rain Saturday, but there could be no better weather for an Earth Month event at Penitencia Creek Park<\/a> to push San Jose\u2019s Adopt-A-Storm Drain program<\/a>. Who knew the little metal cuties were even up for adoption?<\/p>\n The city\u2019s Environmental Services Department actually started the program as a pilot in 2024 in Councilmember Rosemary Kamei\u2019s district. Since then it has gone citywide with nearly 200 storm drains adopted by residents, schools and community groups that have helped keep them clear of leaves and trash to prevent street flooding. The best part is that you get to name the drain you adopt, and some of the names are pretty clever like Drainmond Green, Derby the Drain, Sir Drains-a-lot and Drain-o-saurus Rex.<\/p>\n At the event, which runs from 10 a.m. to noon, there will be sign-ups to adopt a drain, storm drain cleanup demonstrations and family-friendly watershed education activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Children\u2019s Discovery Museum\u2019s new rooftop mascot needs a new name, and the public is being invited to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[417,184,20705,7,59700,4978,181,23,190,419,88,90,89,198,200,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-260116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-around-town","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-berryessa","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-childrens-discovery-museum","13":"tag-downtown-san-jose","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-local-news","16":"tag-los-gatos","17":"tag-news-columnists","18":"tag-san-jose","19":"tag-san-jose-headlines","20":"tag-san-jose-news","21":"tag-santa-clara-county","22":"tag-south-bay","23":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}