Empire Seven Studios Announces New Mural on 8th and Empire Streets

Japantown has received yet another cool mural! Bay Area artists Poesia & Sam Rodriguez have partnered with Empire Seven Studios to paint a mural on 8th and Empire Streets. The mural took a week from conception to completion and shows human figures in motion within a complex intersection of geometric shapes and bold colors. Both artists are known for their work as graffiti artists and various methods of layering and manipulating textures. The goal of this mural is to beautify the neighborhood and to build a connection through public art to bring communities together.

Source: Empire Seven Studios

San Jose Greek Festival this Weekend!

One of the largest ethnic festivals in the South Bay is going down this weekend, and we have a free pass for you! The San Jose Greek Festival is a celebration of Greek food, music, and culture and takes place outside St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at 1260 Davis Street. The event actually runs three whole days starting this Friday.

There are a couple of new food items this year, including a vegetarian gyro. Greek is not always the most vegetarian-friendly cuisine around, but rest assured you will have some great options this year if you don't eat meat. For those that do, you can never go wrong with the lamb! Another new item this year is an olive medley that will be served at the Greek wine and cheese booth.

To get in for free, either print out the blue flier below or load it up on your phone at the festival entrance. To learn more about the festival, just click one of the links below:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SJGREEKFESTIVAL 
Instagram: http://instagram.com/sjgreekfestival
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sjgreekfestival

Hampton Inn Facelifts Planned Downtown San Jose Hotel

When Hampton Inn revealed the initial design for their new 162-room Downtown San Jose hotel at Santa Clara Street and Highway 87, you could hear the groans a mile away. It looked completely generic and more appropriate for a strip mall in Anywhere, USA. Personally, I think this original design looks like a convalescent home.

The good news is the second draft looks better, I'll let you be the judge of how much. I like the the improved use of glass in the corners, that is my favorite part of the new design. The textured brown walls are also a step up from the white and gray of the original. I still can't help but to think that they could have Silicon Valleyed this up much more and went with radical colors that would stand out and Aloft-style LED lighting. For something that can easily be seen from Highway 87, people walking from the HP Pavilion, and the San Pedro area... they could still do a lot more.

What do you guys think?

Source: San Jose Development Forum

Before

After

Game Seven - It's Go Time!

 

(Hat tip to Sharks Sports and Entertainment's social sites for the image.)

Sunday night, we did it - the Sharks beat the Kings to force a Game Seven in Los Angeles.

As noted in an earlier post, Sharks fans should really care about this one.  If the Sharks manage to down the Kings in tonight's game, this will be the best shot at the Stanley Cup the team has ever had.  Other than the Sharks, there are no teams in the playoffs right now with as much defense, coupled with equally impressive offense, as the Kings.  The Boston Bruins is about as tough as an Eastern Conference team can get, and the two Western Conference teams remaining, the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks, are tough, but may not be able to weather the storm either the Sharks or the Kings may put out this post-season.

During the post-season, both Sharks coach Todd McLellan and Kings coach Darryl Sutter have heavily modified their lines for the greatest output, whether it is properly matching up against opposing players or putting together unbelievable special teams to take advantage of any power play they can get.  While some fans beg to differ, from an objective standpoint (by simply counting penalties from past game scoresheets), the referees have been pretty consistent in penalizing both sides.  In Game Six, for example, after giving the Sharks a couple power plays, the referees made some questionable calls against the Sharks, although I seemed to be okay with their decisions to give both teams chances to score on power play advantages.

Tonight's game, statistically, will be a bit of an uphill battle for the Sharks.  The most obvious conclusion is the home ice advantage for both teams (i.e. all wins have taken place on home ice).  While it is arguable the Kings outplayed the Sharks so far this series in Game Five only (based on my interpretation of puck control and scoring opportunities), the Sharks have made far more devastating errors during the Series to provide the Kings with the edge.  Many may remember Brad Stuart's giveaway in Game One or the game changing 5 on 3 penalty kill in the closing minutes of Game Two.

Predicting a Kings victory tonight would only be predicated on the obvious: the Sharks have yet to win in Los Angeles this post season.  Many seem to forget the dominating performance during Game Two due to the devastating outcome in the final two minutes.  The Sharks really need to focus on playing their game with raw, positive emotion, and allowing the team's defense to stand strong and keep the puck in the Kings' zone.  Kings' goaltender Jonathan Quick needs to be heavily screened, and the Sharks need to pepper him with shots.  (Quick is very human - remember T.J. Galiardi's snipe in Game Six?)

We've seen this before.  Beating the Kings at home is a very possible situation.  (Remember when the Sharks closed out the Kings in Round One of the 2011 Playoffs?)  Look at the overall statistics and not simply the home versus away games.

Both teams are going to play tonight like it is Game Seven of the Finals, because in a way, it very might well be.

The NHL's two toughest teams are going to battle tonight.  Let us hope we emerge victorious, and turn this "homer series" into a "homer and away series."  Go Sharks!

Casual One South Market Groundbreaking Party for The San Jose Blog Readers!

I promised that when the next Downtown High-Rise broke ground, I would have a little celebration for our readers and buy a round of beers. That is exactly what is happening this Saturday, June 1st at the Market Beer Co. (in the San Pedro Square Market) at 3 PM. 

Originally, I was going to get a keg, but I think I have a much better idea... craft beer tasting! I'm going to buy at least 10 bomber bottles of a wide variety of phenomenal craft beers (IPAs, Porters, Lambics, etc). All you need to do is grab a glass and sample as many as you'd like. Just look for the bench or table covered in bottles. Hope to see you guys there!

Tokyo Flight Is Back On!

ANA is resuming direct flights from SJC to Japan starting on June 1st on shiny new (and hopefully battery-problem free) Boeing 787 aircraft. They have also upped the ante with five weekly round trips as opposed to four. Sometime in September the service will expand again to daily flights (seven each week).

Hopefully they will have some good promotions to welcome the route back to San Jose! Any guesses as to which international route SJC will land next?

Source: SVBJ, What a Trip

A Must Win Situation

The NHL playoff series many have dubbed "The Homer Series," due to all wins occurring on home ice, is back in San Jose, and with the series on the line this afternoon, the Sharks must win to force a Game Seven in Los Angeles.

Despite the Kings being ahead in the series 3-2, their Game Five victory was quite possibly the first time one could suggest they outplayed the Sharks.  The Sharks need to eliminate their bad mistakes (e.g. some terrible giveaways that lead to goals) and figure out Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick (the reason the Kings have made it this far) so they can win the next two games.  The path to victory is not unattainable.  If there is one team that can beat the Kings, it is the Sharks.

Here is why the fans should care this year, more than any time in the past.  The winner of this series will be a favorite to win the Stanley Cup.  I do not state this simply because the Los Angeles Kings won last year.  The reason is both the Sharks and the Kings have strong defensive strategies, coupled with dangerous special team outputs (i.e. are particularly successful on both power plays and penalty kills).

It it interesting to watch, year after year, how much attention is given to the Eastern Conference, in particular the bold predictions how a team out of the East will be the most successful in the playoffs.  Currently, there are two teams left in the East: the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team with flashy young players, and the Boston Bruins, a rugged team with plenty of talent who won the Stanley Cup only two years ago.

The problem with the East is the focus on offense.  Undoubtedly, the goal output from that conference is high, and it is common for players to score multiple points per game.  It is easy to see why some would pick an Eastern team to win.  They can score.

Now, try to match up an Eastern Conference team with a Western Conference team and see how well they play.  For example, on one of the more rare occurrences during the regular season when the Sharks match up against a team from the East, the Sharks normally win.  The problem the East has is their inability to score against a team with an actual defense.  This is where teams like the Penguins and the Bruins will fall short.

(I have to say, though, it is nice seeing ex-Shark Douglas Murray playing so well.)

With all this attention brought to the Eastern Conference, what about the Western Conference?  Two additional dynamite teams, the Presidents' Trophy winning Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings are still fighting to win as well.

Despite being an unstoppable force for the past two decades, winning four Stanley Cups, the Red Wings are now considered to be making a Cinderella run so far this post-season, knocking out the second seeded Anaheim Ducks, and are currently at an advantage over the first seeded Blackhawks, putting them on the brink of elimination. 

If the Sharks can manage to beat the Kings, they're up against one of two teams in the Western Conference Finals: a beatable Red Wings team (just look up the Sharks's recent history against the Red Wings), or an under-performing Blackhawks team that has yet to face the revamped Sharks team.

The Sharks team has said it themselves by stating the reason their "at home success" is so high is because of the fans.  Let us all get behind our team today, tomorrow, and for as long as you can!  We must win!

We need to get in that advantageous third round position.  GO SHARKS!

Communications Hill Project is Moving Forward

If you live in South San Jose, you may want to attend a June 10th community meeting for a huge Communications Hill project. The plan involves 4,000 densely-packed homes, 60,000 SQFT of retail, a 50-acre industrial zone, and open space/trails (more steps perhaps). The meeting is taking place at 2933 St. Florian Way (Fire Station 33) at 6:30pm.

Thanks to Rob Sidhu for the tip!

TO: Residents of Chianti at Tuscany Hills Homeowners Associations.

We were just made aware of a meeting to provide an overview of the development project planned on Communications Hill will be held on:

Monday,

June 10, 2013

at 6:30pm

at 2933 St. Florian Way

San Jose (Fire Station 33)

Officials from the City of San Jose and KB Homes will be at the meeting to present the plan and answer questions. The complete plan for Communications Hill includes 4,000 residential units, 60,000 sq ft of retail, a 50 acres industrial park and areas of open space and trails. The overall vision is a dense neighborhood that is very walk able.

We do not have any further details about the development or meeting, but we wanted to make you aware of this upcoming meeting.