PARK(ing) Day this Friday @ 38 W Santa Clara Street

Friday, September 21, 2012, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

First celebrated in San Francisco in 2005, PARK(ing) Day has since become a global phenomenon. The annual event celebrates public space and street life by temporarily transforming metered parking spots into public spaces. This year, SPUR San Jose and TransForm are partnering up in front of the SPUR office on Santa Clara Street to share its take on temporary parklets.

SPUR San Jose 38 W Santa Clara Street San Jose, CA 95113 map >>

Free to public

Wednesday Wishlist: San Joseans to Stop Referring to SF as "The City"

This really drives me nuts.  When San Franciscans do it, it sounds arrogant and self-indulgent.  However, it's even worse when San Joseans refer to our smaller neighbor up north as "the city." Every time we do this we are continuing to perpetuate a nickname that is degrading to San Jose, and many other Bay Area cities like Oakland.

Leigh Weimers is a former columnist from the San Jose Mercury News that has recently passed away (his memorial service is Monday, 3:30 at St. Joseph's Basilica). One of his few regrets was: "I'm sorry I haven't gotten more San Joseans to stop calling San Francisco "the city." It's "a city" -- so is San Jose -- but not "the city." That's so last century. (Source)

I'm hoping that Sal Pizarro, who has taken over Leigh's position, will take the baton and continue to fight to get that reference out of San Josean's vocabulary. I think the way things are going in San Jose, we can do it, but like anything it will take some time and conscious effort.

Downtown "Staycation"

I had a little Downtown "Staycation" over the weekend and thought it might be neat to share.

Friday

The Zero1 Street Festival started at 6pm and as always it featured all sorts of off the wall exhibits throughout SoFA like a silent rave and an interactive pipe-music-thingy. My wife and I were pretty impressed with the LED webbing they hung past William Street and I hope they keep it up year-round. The Zero1 Garage was definitely a highlight and will be open all the way up until December. Great addition to SoFA and worth checking out.

We had a snack at one of the food trucks, enjoyed some beers at the Gordon Biersch Beer Garden, then hit up Tanq with friends for dinner and drinks.

Then we did a second round at the festival and made it to the new Parque de los Pobladores, which turned out really well! It seems much, much larger and even hosted one of the music stages and a bright pink carpeted iLounge.

Some requests for the next biennial: participation from more galleries (Anno Domini, Higher Fire, SLG, etc.) and more food trucks.

After midnight, we all headed to Singlebarrel for some cocktails and stayed there until closing. After that we said goodbye to our friends and leisurely walked to the Four Points for the night, no need to deal with a car when you're staycationing Downtown.

Saturday

Woke up late, grabbed lunch at Mosaic which has reinvented itself as an Asian Fusion restaurant. The menu is definitely better than what it was before, still could use a little work. We then went for a really long walk Downtown.

Swung by the San Jose Museum of Art, check out all of the new exhibits including one specifically for Zero1. Then we went to Ross for a bit to look for some clothes (you can buy clothes Downtown!).

I was hoping to go to Original Gravity Public House since they were having their belated Grand Opening party, but there were so many people there we didn't end up getting anything.

We then walked down Paseo de San Antonio to find that San Jose's newest wine bar--"Wyne"--is coming along and looks like it is just a month or so away from opening. At this point it is Saturday mid afternoon and La Lune Sucre and Philz are both completely packed. This is turning into a pretty active district.

Next stop is Cafe Bonne Terre, which used to be Whipps. They have all the same menu items with the addition of crepes, both savory and sweet. My wife and I shared some gelato and a nutella/banana crepe.

Then we took another long walk. There are plenty of people on the streets including a surprising amount of families. Two or three years ago, you wouldn't really see this Downtown. I think the new high rise condos/apartments are really helping to change the dynamic.

Later that day, a few friends from SF were in town. I decided to gamble and take them to a restaurant I haven't been to yet, but was on my high-priority to check out list: Back A Yard. Wow, just wow. The food blew us away. The Jamaican jerk combo had some of the most flavorful chicken I've ever had, the beans/rice were amazing, the plantains were delicious, and the corn festival which is some sort of corn fritter thing was completely addicting. The 4.5 Yelp rating is definitely justified on this one.

After that we headed over to the San Pedro Square Market, and I gave them a thorough tour. Last time I took them here only Vino Vino and Pizza Boca Luppo were open. What a difference a year makes. Lots of people, live music in 3 different areas, tons of great food (which we could smell but were too stuffed to try)... it showed really well and they were impressed. "San Jose has come a long way" and "I may come here more often now" were some of their comments. We hung out for a while and then ended with some Treatbot. That's pretty much a wrap for the night.

Conclusion

When people ask "what's there to do Downtown?" the answer is a whole lot. Even just walking around on a sunny day and going to a bunch of random places was good times. I hope in the future more people that don't live Downtown will be willing to think of it as a destination and make a day (or two) out of going there.

TWO BUCK Tuesday Today

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

Join us at KALEID Gallery for this upcoming TWO BUCK Tuesday, September 18th, 7pm-10pm!
Come enjoy an inspired evening of performances, live painting, $2 art & quirky people get together!
Lots of live painters and live music happening this month:


Al Preciado


Jim Fonseca


Leeonista


Lydia Rae Black


Steve Borelli


Steven Suiter


Nic Ceasar


John Hageman


Live entertainment by G Willikers solo set

Photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151070768041045.436348.8894506044&type=3

And you can check out our featured exhibition SJ Creatives One Year Anniversary Show!

Tuesday, September 18th, 7-10pm It’s free and open to all ages!


88 South Fourth Street (@ San Fernando)
San Jose, CA 95112
info@KALEIDGallery.com
408-947-1785
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, noon -7pm, free admission

n1: North First Campus

This is easily the most impressive office project that is underway right now in Silicon Valley. n1 consists of 1.8 million square feet of office space, tons of outdoor spaces, new cafes, and impressive athletic facilities (check out those rooftop tennis courts in the second to last photo). The entire development is off of North 1st with Component Drive bisecting the project and providing access to parking. There will be a new street called campus way that looks almost like a little downtown street and connects all of the main entrances to each buildings and hopefully some retail. You can see this in the fifth photo. Everything is within a 10min walk to lightrail, providing easy access to Downtown and other companies on First St., Tasman, etc.

For a campus-style project, this is exceptional design and I can't wait to see who the tenants are going to be.

zero1 2012

An art & technology fusion isn’t complete without a giant luchador head.  It was pretty awesome seeing it while we went to get fried chicken & beer.

There’s dancing in the streets.  Without music.  Well, music we can’t hear as they wore headphones.

There are some cool robotic installations on the street from plotting earthquakes (not the crazy kind that want to wipe out humanity, Bazinga!) to these little guys on the street that were rocking themselves.

 
A tiny fun house like maze, made out of reflective space fabric, minus the killer klowns from space .

Some of the coolest stuff was in the zero1 garage where we saw a stupendously mesmerizing piece where the motors vibrated strings with loops that bounced back & forth.  The loops moved in such a manner that it seemed to pass through each other.

Finally, we hung out at the last stage listening to electronica music & where they had a giant pink gym like cushiony thingy for people to sit on or to lie down on, as the shag carpeting was quite nice.

Anyways, exhibits will continue to run for a while so drop by their site & check out the schedule.  Maybe we'll see you there.

ArtBox SJ

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

Kori Thompson


Micah Bariteau

The ArtBox Project has completed 30 utility boxes painted with original works of art by local artists in neighborhoods all over San Jose with more locations in the works. If you'd like to help us beautify neighborhoods with your personal talents, please email us at info[at]PhantomGalleries[dot]com and we'll get you submission info.

More photos of completed boxes here.

Blockbuster partnership: Cinequest to produce inspiring films for The Tech Museum’s international awards program The Tech Awards

SAN JOSE, CA – A dozen top-flight international filmmakers today were dispatched to capture stories of the people who use technology to benefit humanity around the world, marking a new partnership between The Tech Awards and international film powerhouse Cinequest.

The 90-second films will be shown as part of Silicon Valley’s foremost technology awards program, The Tech Awards, presented by Applied Materials, in association with the Center for Science, Technology, and Society. A signature program of The Tech Museum, The Tech Awards recognizes 12 brilliant innovators who are changing the world with their technologies to eliminate hunger, do away with disease and combat illiteracy, among other global challenges.

The Cinequest partnership is neatly aligned with the goals of The Tech Awards, which seeks to raise awareness about the life-changing work that affects people from Uganda to Uruguay. Over the years, the 257 laureates of The Tech Awards have worked hard to erase stubborn global problems. Thanks to the international reach of Cinequest, these gripping stories will be relayed around the world.

“As we explored different ways to introduce The Tech Awards laureates this year, Cinequest's Film Festival and its Picture the Possibilities project caught our attention—and a new idea emerged,” David Whitman, vice president The Tech Awards.  “Why not convey the compelling stories of the laureates this year through the lenses of 12 diverse, imaginative, and daring filmmakers associated with Cinequest? We pictured the possibilities. And now we're making them into a reality.”

Cinequest has paired a filmmaker with each of the 12 laureates to feature the laureates’ fieldwork and illustrate how their innovations help people most in need. The films will serve as a creative introduction for the nearly 1,500 attendees at the annual The Tech Awards gala November 15 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. After the gala, the films will be available for the laureates to share with media, potential partners and donors or those simply interested in learning more about their work. The films will also be posted on the museum’s website, along with those of past laureates. The top three will be screened during the Cinequest Film Festival, February 26 – March 10, 2013.

“Cinequest and The Tech Museum share a commitment to integrating creativity and innovation. It’s a pleasure to engage Cinequest filmmakers to honor the innovation and powerful work of this year’s laureates,” Halfdan Hussey, director and co-founder on Cinequest, said.

The inspiring work of the laureates has included designing earthquake-resistant construction technology to creating a heat-sensitive label for vaccine vials to make sure children receive potent immunizations to building a simple, low-cost, mobile phone-based device that allows remote monitoring and operation of irrigation pumps.

This year, the laureates will be honored in six categories: Intel Environment Award; Microsoft Education Award; The Swanson Foundation Young Innovator Award; Nokia Health Award; Flextronics Economic Development Award, and The Sustainable Energy Award. The James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award will be presented to Indian philanthropist N.R. Narayana Murthy, who founded tech services giant Infosys along with six colleagues and went on to become one of India’s most influential advocates for health care and rural development.
 
The following lists the filmmakers’ names and short biographies:

* Abbey Luck, Awesome + Modest
Abbey is a director and animator whose work has been featured at the Slamdance and Cinequest film festivals and in the feature film, Waiting for Superman. She produced music videos and commercials for General Electric, Gerber, Scion, Nokia, and AOL

*Lee Lanier, BeezleBug Bit
Lee is a leading animator and visual effects designer who has served as a senior animator at PDI/Dreamworks, taught at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood, authored six high-end animation and visual effects books, was featured at 200+ venues worldwide, and is the executive director of the Dam Short Film Festival

*Landon Zakheim, filmmaker
Landon is a short-film programmer for the Sundance Film Festival and a filmmaker whose short films, Delmer Builds A Machine and Another Bullet Dodged, have been featured at over 60 international film festivals around the world

*Mike Blum, Pipsquek Films & Blumayan Films
Mike is an Emmy-nominated and award-wining director, writer, and producer who owns and operates the Pipsquek Films animation studio and Blumayan Films. Mike’s projects include the Emmy-nominated series, The Adventures of Baxter & McGuire (Comedy Central); live-action feature, The Playback Singer; and recent series, Samurai! Daycare (SMOSH/Alloy Digital)

*Evan Mather, filmmaker
Evan is an independent filmmaker and landscape architect based in Los Angeles. His 2007 film,So What?, received the 2008 Communications Award of Honor from the American Society of Landscape Architects and he is a Graham Foundation recipient for his 2009 documentary, A Necessary Ruin

*Mary Skinner, 2B Productions
Mary directs and produces documentary films and corporate media. Her most recent project Irena Sendler: In the Name of Their Mothers, an official selection at this year’s UN Film Festival, was broadcast nationally on PBS and won the 2012 Gracie Award for outstanding documentary for, by, and about women

*Oliver Cukor, Sleeveless Productions, Inc
Oliver has combined his passions for film, music and new technologies to create stunningly visual and immersive experiences. He has produced, edited, and directed several award-winning films, two of which, Sleeveless Heart and Blue Road, have been shown at the Cinequest Film Festival

*Kavi Raz, K.R. Films Hollywood
Kavi is an award-winning actor, writer, producer, and director as well as the founder of his production company. His directorial debut film The Gold Bracelet has been screened at many prestigious film festivals and has garnered several awards

*Vijay Vanniarajan, Siren Song Creations
Vijay is a co-owner of Siren Song Creations, whose work has been featured on national television, Oprah.com, Deepak Chopra’s website, several film festivals, and has produced for companies such as Adobe, ESPN, NBC, Sentilla, Cinequest and Plug and Play. Paramount Pictures also distributed his documentary.

*Sean McCarthy, Guerilla Wanderers Films
Sean McCarthy is the founder and director of Guerilla Wanderers Films, an award-winning, full-service production company that specializes in film, commercials, corporate videos, and music videos. His short films, Superhero, Boxed Up and Raging Cyclist have received high recognition and awards at various film festivals throughout the United States

*Sidney Sherman with Cliff Schmidt
Sidney is the founder and CEO of Rosa Entertainment, an independent film/television production and management company. Sherman produced the IFC Films released Go Tigers!, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and was an Academy Award Finalist and Independent Spirit Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature

*Thomas Mignone, filmmaker
Thomas is a leading filmmaker and music video director who has directed over 150 award-winning music videos for top industry artists and feature film, On the Doll, Thomas utilizes his electrical engineering background to fuse digital audio and video systems and technologies in his filmmaking

For learn more about The Tech Awards, click: http://thetechawards.thetech.org/

For more information about Cinequest, click: http://www.cinequest.org/indexCQ.php

About The Tech Museum
The Tech Museum is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds. The museum—located in the Capital of Silicon Valley —is a non-profit learning resource established to engage people in exploring and experiencing technologies affecting their lives. Through programs such as The Tech Challenge presented by Cisco, our annual team-design competition for youth, and internationally renowned programs such as The Tech Awards presented by Applied Materials, The Tech Museum endeavors to inspire the innovator in everyone.

About Cinequest
CINEQUEST is a leading organization that fuses creativity with technological
innovation to empower, improve, and transform the lives of people and communities,
through Cinequest Picture the Possibilities (PTP), Cinequest Film Festival and Cinequest Mavericks Studio.
• CINEQUEST Film Festival (CQFF): showcases premier films, renowned
and emerging artists, and breakthrough technology—empowering global
connectivity between creators and innovators.
• CINEQUEST Picture The Possibilities (PTP): a transformative leadership
movement, where empowered youth create films expressing visions of a better
tomorrow that inspire global leaders to ignite change.
• PTP World Premiere Event during CQFF: multiple, simultaneous, worldwide
connections between media, business, entertainment, and political leaders where
interaction with PTP films and each other jump-start the ultimate realization of
these youthful visions for a better tomorrow.
Cinequest’s sister company, Cinequest Mavericks Studio LLC, produces, distributes
and markets innovative and transformative motion pictures.