South First Fridays Art Walk Tonight!

It's that time again! Today, not only can you enjoy art and music from 8pm-late in SoFA, but you can also walk over an check out Christmas in the Park which should be in full swing today. If you want to see downtown San Jose full of life, today is the day to go! It should be a perfect example of what downtown San Jose could be like everyday at some point in the future. As you walk around, also keep in mind that something like Halloween in the Park could extend the excitement by at least another month. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy the Art Walk tonight, it should be a good one!

Excellent Ad Campaign For Downtown San Jose

I stumbled upon this phenomenal ad campaign promoting downtown living at the SJDA site. I was so impressed that I had to share. Click the images to enlarge and read the text.

New SJC Terminal

Several weeks ago I took a Southwest flight down to the LA area and was lucky to get one of the 6 new gates in Terminal B! I think the terminal is already looking fantastic and should be a substantial improvement over terminals A and C when fully opened in mid 2010.

I was going to eat at all of the restaurants (I love food almost as much as San Jose... almost), but due to time constraints I opted to do Shark's Cage--one of the few places that was not available outside of the airport. The food was typical pub fare, but I was impressed by how they made the bar look like it was made out of ice and of course they went all out with Sharks paraphernalia. After walking into the Brit, I was also surprised to find out that a huge chunk of the new airport facing 87 is actually transparent! While it looks like a solid facade from the freeway, the metal is perforated to allow patrons to look out while still blocking most of the sun. Slick design move.

Below are a few snapshots:

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

New Blog Links

Just a quick update to let you know that I have updated the links on the right hand side. Again, if you know of any other San Jose blogs I should post to, just let me know in the comments. Thanks!

San Pedro Square Version 2.0

I was looking at the JRDV Architects website today and am still impressed at how awesome the San Pedro Square Urban Market renders look. When this gets executed, I really think it's going to dramatically reinvigorate the area and help draw people from around Silicon Valley to downtown San Jose. Take a look with me below:

Two Buck Tuesdays ($2 Art!)

Tomorrow you have a rare opportunity to purchase art for a steal at KALEID art gallery on 88 South Fourth Street Downtown. Small, original works of art are available for $2 and as an added bonus you get to mingle with up-and-coming local artists. The even takes place from 5-10pm and you can see a full list of talent at the Phantom Galleries website.

Halloween in the Park, Part II

A couple of weeks ago I posted a suggestion to have a Downtown San Jose event similar to Christmas in the Park... except themed for Halloween. Everyone seems to think that this is a really good idea and Dan Vado (sponsor for Zombie-O-Rama) volunteered to take point.

Here is a revised list of ideas to reflect what was previously posted in comments.

• Animated Halloween Displays
• assembled by talented local artists
• analogous to the Christmas displays that attract many families during Christmas in the Park (almost half a million visitors)
• family friendly so that everyone can enjoy it (PG/PG13, perhaps around the same level as Great America Halloween Haunt)
• Halloween Lighting
• orange, purple, and green LED lighting on trees
• may be possible to use new controllable lighting that can go from Halloween colors to Christmas colors with the push of a button... that way the lights could stay up for Christmas in the Park as well and would only have to be put up and taken down once
• Retail Booths selling Halloween items, for example:
• home decor like candles
• artwork (paintings, glass pumpkins, etc.)
• costumes
• light-up hats/necklaces/bracelets
• zombie/Halloween make-up station 
• Food booths with candied apples, chocolates, candy, etc.
• Halloween-themed carnival games
• Instead of the sponsored Christmas trees in Christmas in the Park, how about decorated Pumpkins (can even be Styrofoam so there is no mess/decay)?
• Pumpkin carving station for families. Perhaps a pumpkin carving contest.
• Costumed entertainers 
• walking around the area, not necessarily scaring people but adding to the ambiance and providing photo opportunities for families
• Haunts
• Would be ideal if these were nearby, perhaps in vacant retails spaces, surface parking lots, the convention center, or at SJSU.
• Potential Events
• Zombie-O-Rama can be used to kick off Halloween in the Park (late Sep. / early Oct. timeframe)
• Dia De Los Muertes Bike Party
• Weekly horror movie screening (perhaps in the Circle of Palms area?)

As before, please post your suggestions below!