Berryessa BART Station

After many years of effort, BART trains are finally flowing in and out of San Jose! Gillynova from the San Jose Development Forum has captured some nice drone video shots of the new station. Check out the short video below for a sneak peak of Berryessa Station.

Silicon Valley rush hour in 2020

There is a new drone video floating around showing what rush hour traffic looked like in March. I can only describe it with one word... chilling.

I never thought I'd see the day where I actually miss traffic. It's a very odd time, not at all what I pictured 2020 to be like. Hopefully this will be over soon and we'll have some normalcy again this year.

Source: Gillynova from the San Jose Debelopment Forum

Resident Roundtable: Life and Work in San Jose

A new video has been published by San Jose OED that focuses on three different people working and living in San Jose. It's short, but is an interesting and realistic discussion nonetheless.

Souresseau News: When Artists Flew Like Birds

This week's history video is about historic drawings from bird's eye views. Artists had to get pretty creative before planes and drones were around, and many of these drawings are incredibly detailed. Ironically the newer maps featured in the video had a lot less detail and were not to scale.

To watch the two minute video, click here.

When Artists Flew Like Birds from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

Souresseau News: Horse Power!

This week's history video is about early transportation in San Jose--namely horses. It's difficult to imagine a time when blacksmiths used to be the most important people in town and a limo was a wagon pulled by 6 horses. Kick back and journey 110-120 years back in time with this short documentary.

To watch the two minute video, click here.

Souresseau News: When Letterheads Told a Story

This week's history video is about historic San Jose letterheads. Many of these were printed over a century ago and the quality of the artwork that went into them is quite impressive.

To watch the two minute video, click here.

Souresseau News: Women at Work

This week's history video is about women in the workplace, starting with an 1860's photo of two San Jose female ranchers. While we still have inequalities in the workplace even today, it appears that there were more opportunities for women in San Jose many decades (or even a century) ago that I would have assumed.

To watch the two minute video, click here.

Souresseau News: Gateways and Arches

This week's history video is about San Jose's gateways and arches. Did you know that San Jose once had a welcome gateway for visitors near the Basset St. station on North First Street? Or that after the electric tower fell, the city built a gateway with an electrified San Jose sign?

To watch the two minute video, click here.

Souresseau News: Signs

This week's history video is about San Jose signs. As you'll see in the video, the mid-century trend was neon. It would be amazing to restore the few signs from the video that are still around to their original glory.

To watch the two minute video, click here.

Souresseau News: Waterways and Floods

This week's history video is about waterways and floods. Interestingly enough, in 1915 the Guadalupe River was briefly dammed to great a lake in Downtown San Jose (photo below). Another interesting tidbit is that Alviso has been flooded more often than any other part of San Jose (likely the reason why the region never took off).

To watch the two minute video, click here.

Sourisseau News: New Almaden

This week's history video is about New Almaden, one of San Jose's most hidden neighborhoods. The Quicksilver (mercury) mine in New Almaden produced an incredible amount of wealth, more than any gold mine in the state. If you go to the site of the old mine today, there is actually a neat little museum there.

To watch the two minute video on New Almaden, click here.

Souresseau News: Ethnic Communities

This week's history video is about ethnic communities that moved to San Jose. Even 100 years ago, San Jose was surprisingly diverse with French, German, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, and Filipino immigrants. At one point we even had the largest minority population in California.

To watch the two minute video, click here.

Sourisseau News: Early Banks

This week's history video is about banking. Below is a drawing of the Knocks and Beans bank, San Jose's first bank which opened in 1866 at 1st and Santa Clara. Eventually it was changed to the Bank of San Jose and moved across the street. Some of the most beautiful historic buildings in San Jose were once banks, and all of them are featured in this short 2 minute documentary.

To watch the video, click here.

Sourisseau News: Marching to a Different Beat

Over the next several weeks, I'll link to short San Jose historical videos commissioned by Linda L. Lester and published by WMS Media. The first video is a montage of eccentric San Jose personalities. The person photographed below is A. D. M. Cooper, who had a downtown studio filled with nude drawings, many of which were used as payments for bar tabs. It's only a two minute video with a lot of interesting facts.

To watch the video, click here.

Epic San Jose promo video

OED just unleashed one of the best promotional videos I have ever seen for San Jose. It is well worth a minute of your time. They are also looking for more San Jose companies to highlight in future videos, so if you know one that should be featured, hit the link below.

Source: SJ Economy Blog

SJCA Style & Culture with Nicholas Jimenez

Nicholas Jimenez is and artist that works for MACLA as a Program Assistant for their Digital Media and Culture (DMC) Studio. He's also studying Industrial Design at SJSU. He has a weekly vlog called SJCA Style & Culture that highlights a lot of great things happening in the area.

When asked why he started the show, Nicholas responded with:

"I want to invite people to see a first-hand account of what it's like to experience some of the festivals, meet some of the great people, and see the many styles and cultures in our area.  Also, as you may know, working within the visual and performance art scene we meet a lot of interesting people, organizations, and gain exclusive access to some awesome stuff and I want to share it all! People can expect to see interviews with local artists, designers, entrepreneurs, and fashionistas that are working on interesting projects that affect us all. As well as, local music videos, event highlights of local acts and performers at events near the South Bay, and San Francisco Bay. And also some vlogs about the day to day activities of the team behind it all."

To access the weekly show and learn more, click here!

#SiliconValleyLife

As San Jose's prestige continues to rise, so does the quality of our promotional videos. Visit San Jose has produced what I think is the best promo video of our city to date. Click here for the full resolution version.

Huge thanks to Vianka Villanueva for sending this in!

Sourisseau News: The Lives of Automobiles

Last week we posted a Sourisseau News video about bicycles--this week we have a video about early cars in the San Jose area. The two minute video is embedded below for your enjoyment.

To see an archive of past videos, head over here.

Sourisseau News: The Lives of Automobiles February 2017 from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

San Jose: A City Center Emerges (1988)

Below is a nostalgic look at Downtown San Jose nearly 30 years ago. It took a long time, but I think Downtown is finally living up to the vision that the city leaders describe in the video.

Sourisseau News: The Valley’s Love Affair with the Bicycle

While biking is extremely popular in San Jose today, and we are one of the most bike-friendly cities in the US, our love for bicycles goes all the way back to the 1880's. To learn more, check out the two minute Sourisseau News video below.

To see an archive of past videos, head over here.


Sourisseau News: The Valley's Love Affair With the Bicycle - March 2017 from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.