Next SJ Dishcrawl!

This month's Downtown San Jose discrawl featured culinary delights from Fahrenheit (which has an impressive new slow foods menu), Loft Bar & Bistro, Oaxacan Kitchen, Whipps, and there was even a wine/dessert tasting at The 88. This month's event sold out quickly with 150 registrants, so if you want to attend the next one it might be a good idea to reserve now. The registration link is already up for June 28th!

Retail Briefs: New H&M and Right Aid Stores Come to San Jose

The second H&M in San Jose is slated to open on May 5th at Oakridge (the 1st location is at Santana Row). They specialize in inexpensive designer clothing.

In addition, a brand new "customer world" format Rite Aid is opening on April 28th at 3111 McLaughlin Avenue. The spin on the new format seems to be a focus on health and wellness products.

Lastly, the Yard House is now open at Santana Row. Expect an astronomical selection of beers on tap and a very long wait to get a table or bar seat.

For more information click here.

Baseball San Jose: Impact of Professional Sports for a Local Business

CALL FOR YOUR ART!

Phantom Galleries is looking for some new art to fill up the various installations they have throughout downtown. If you know an artist that may be interested, please pass on the info below. Thanks!

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

In these trying times, it is the creativity and relentlessness of the artists that keep the pulse of a city fervent. Challenges fast become opportunities. We hope you'll join us in filling downtown San Jose with the art of those that thrive here - it is the only way to keep arts and culture alive and kicking....otherwise it's "out of sight, out of mind."
Current Phantom Galleries exhibition venues:
Caffe Trieste
Pho69 Noodle Restaurant
Good Karma Vegan Cafe
Camera 12 Cinemas (2 exhibition areas)
386 South First Street (2 doors down from Anno Domini Gallery)
66 South First St. (next door to Bella Mia Restaurant)
95 South Market St (across from St. Joseph's Cathedral)

We are looking for 2-D, 3-D, digital and site specific installation works. In addition to conventional sized work, we also have spaces that can accommodate large works (up to 8' or 12' tall)
- All venues have high visibility and foot traffic.
- Exhibition duration varies but is usually 2-3 months.
- Exhibits will be promoted through the Phantom Galleries blog as well as the South FIRST FRIDAYS marketing channels.
- Art work may be for sale - a 20% commission is requested on sold items (so work that into your pricing.)
- All work must be "appropriate for public domain"
- Although we do not have a problem with theft, vandalism or loss, this is "exhibit at your own risk"
- There is no fee nor cost to the artists to exhibit their work (white walls provided.)
- Some venues are suitable to host First Friday Artist's Receptions and will be included in the Art Walk.
This is a great time to get your work out there, contribute to your community in a meaningful way and have your work viewed by hundreds if not thousands.

Please SUBMIT the following to info@PhantomGalleries.com :
- 5-7 JPG images - 720 pixels on its longest side at 72dpi and/or your website URL
- a brief bio and synopsis about your work
- indicate if the typical size of your works
- an estimated time as to when you'd like to exhibit (immediately or 3 mos, or 6 mos down the line, etc)

Thank you, we look forward to hearing from you and working with you!
peace,
Cherri & Brian
Phantom Galleries
KALEID Gallery

Two Fish Design
366 South First Street
San Jose, CA 95113
T: 408.271.5151 F: 408-271-5152
studio@twofishdesign.com
Tweet me: @Astrogirl

SJ Eats 2.0 - May 7th

Downtown San Jose's 2nd mass-food truck experience is coming on May 7th! Ryan describes some of the improvements below, but basically there are going to be even more food trucks to help keep the lines short, the lines will be managed much better, the area will be 3 times larger than before, and there is even going to be some music this time around. Every day they are announcing more trucks at their facebook page right over here. My recommendation would be to come early so you can sample as many trucks as possible! The lineup already looks pretty amazing.

Photograph by Andre Rubang

A Note from SJ Eats

Monday, April 4, 2011: Thank you for making SJ Eats the largest grassroots event ever held in Downtown SJ. Almost 10K people attempted to attend on Sat, April 2nd. We were set up to handle maybe half that. Many passed by only to leave in frustration due to extremely long wait times & chaotic lines. I want to sincerely apologize for the substandard experiences many of you endured. We have learned from Saturday and plan to implement several changes.

Long Wait Times — The massive attendance at SJ Eats is proof that San Jose has an incredible pent up demand for quality street food. The only way to meet this demand is to increase supply. For this reason, SJ Eats is immediately entering talks with City staff to start a weekly street food meet up in Downtown.

Line Management — We are investing in line management hardware to bring order to the chaotic system displayed at the lunch session.

These changes along with the addition of live music will help push SJ Eats to meet its true potential as a social connector for San Jose. If you have any suggestions, please comment HERE. We hope to see you in May at the next SJ Eats!

Ryan Sebastian, Organizer

Happy Easter San Jose!

If you're looking for a good egg hunt for the kids, the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy is having hosting one from 10am to 3:30pm today. Some highlights from the event:

• 40 vendors selling rare plants, garden art, and other items
• Tours of the Heritage Rose Garden, which has the largest variety of roses in any public garden in the Western hemisphere
• "Green" presentations on clean energy

There is also a 5k run before the event at 9am. Everything starts at 438 Coleman. For more info, click here.

SUPPORTING OUR LOCAL CITY ANIMAL SHELTER: SAN JOSE ANIMAL CARE CENTER

Guest Post by: Melissa Lisbon

We live in the great city of San Jose, full of great sites, entertainment, culture and animal lovers! Did you know that San Jose hosts one of the largest dog festivals in the US? Bark in the Park, held in Naglee Park in September has been the host of dog events and festivities for over 15 years. Ironically, we also live in a city where many residents don't know where their local animal shelter is.  

As residents of San Jose, our local city shelter is the San Jose Animal Care Center. If you have been to this large shelter located on Monterrey Road, you will be able to attest to the fact that it is a very pleasant place to visit.  Natural light shines through this modern structure which was built in 2001. There is a reading room, classrooms, and places to lounge. For San Jose residents, this is our municipal shelter, the place that takes in stray animals and provides our city with numerous animal control services.  

What people might not realize is that the San Jose Animal Care Center has many wonderful animals up for adoption. They have dogs, cats and bunnies all in search of their forever home. These dogs, cats and bunnies range in ages and many are purebred and wonderful mixed breed animals. As you can imagine, given how large the city of San Jose is, no matter how large the shelter is, there is a limit to how many animals they can help. This is the primary reason why you should start your pet search at the San Jose Animal Care Center. You will not only be saving the life of the animal you adopt, but you will be opening up space for another animal to have a chance at adoption. Did you know that you can even register your breed interest on the shelter website and be notified by email when a dog/cat fitting the criteria stipulated comes to the shelter? To sign up for this service for dogs, click here; for cats click here. 

Not in the market for a new pet but are an animal lover? Consider volunteering some time at the San Jose Animal Care Center. You will be making a big difference in the lives of shelter pets.  

So check it out - the animals are waiting for you down at the San Jose Animal Care Center! Tell your neighbors, friends and family about this great resource in San Jose. The animals will thank you!

The Usuals One-Year Anniversary!

Illuskrate at The Usuals
New works by dNA

Friday, April 22nd
7:00p – 10:00p
On view thru May 23rd

We’ve made it through our first year here on The Alameda! Help us celebrate this milestone.

This time last year, dNA graced our walls with his pieces. dNA is back with new works in our year anniversary installation of Illuskrate.

In the back room, introduce yourself to a new collection from Closet Invaders. Closet Invaders has teamed-up with us to introduce a series of pieces for our ALLMIXEDUP projects. Make sure to check these out.

TREATBOT will be here! Bring your singing voice and an appetite for ice cream!

Music from our resident DJs…
Squareweezy and Cutso from The Bangerz
Beats to tantalize your earholes…
David Ma of nerdtorious.com
Hells Bells!!

Health & Fitness perks? YES!
The good folks at GO TEAM MO are raffling-off one free two-week voucher toward the upcoming bootcamps starting this May! [Offer applies to the first 2 weeks of the May 2011 season only. A $150 value.]

Food? Yes, of course! Grab a silog plate from The WOW Truck!!

Ice Cream?? Yes! As a matter of fact, it’s Ice Cream AND Karaoke…TREATBOT will be here.

Tea Sampling? Of course. Thanks to Tori and Staff at the Satori Tea Company for keeping the tea flowing!

Don’t miss the continued raffle frenzy…dNA is raffling-off two of his famed caricatures at opening night! Check them out here: illuskrate.blogspot.com.

It will be great to see all of you here!

Here’s a sneak peak: