San Jose Jazz Winter Fest

Are you one of the hundred thousand people that love the annual San Jose Fazz Fest? Well, then I have some great news. Starting this year there will be a Winter Jazz Fest in addition to the epic summer event. This is going to happen across the burgeoning San Pedro Square area, including many of my favorite Downtown eateries and the Theater on San Pedro Square. Our friends at Silicon Valley Lofts & Condos did a great job of summarizing the event, so check out their post below for all the details!

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from Downtown San Jose Real Estate by Eric

Looking for a jazz fix and can’t wait for Summer Fest? San Jose Jazz’s Winter Fest is the answer.

Concerts will be held at the intimate Theater on San Pedro Square, and will feature established musicians as well as some up-and-comers. Highlights of the festival include a collaboration between young jazz artists Amrose Akinmusire and Gerald Clayton; vocalist Jamie Davis; saxophone prodigy Grace Kelly; Bay Area favorites The Blues All Stars with J.C. Smith, Chris Cain & Maxx Cabello, Jr.; and global fusion group Rupa & the April Fishes.

Other exciting events include dance parties and a “Club Crawl”. The Blues Dance Party will feature Summer Fest favorite Legally Blue, and the Salsa Dance Party will feature the Latin Salsa Big Band sounds of the Pacific Mambo Orchestra. Both parties will be held at the new local favorite San Pedro Square Market. The Club Crawl will have performances by local jazz groups at favorite downtown San Jose bars and restaurants in San Pedro Square including 71 Saint Peter, La Piñata, The Mmoon, O’Flaherty’s Irish Pub, and the Satori Tea Company. Food and drink specials will be available during the festival.

Single tickets and festival passes are on sale now at sanjosejazz.org.

What: San Jose Jazz Winter Fest
When: Friday, March 9 – Sunday, March 11
Where: Concerts held at the Theater of San Pedro Square
29 N. San Pedro Street

Dance Parties held at the San Pedro Square Market
87 N. San Pedro Street

February 2012 Downtown Dimension Highlights

Here are my notes from the latest edition of Downtown Dimension:

• Groundwerx is looking to improve services in Downtown San Jose when the PBID gets renewed. Specifically they are looking to:
• Improve safety using roving ambassadors, private security, and hiring off duty police officers
• Help retain and grow businesses by improving services to existing and new businesses interested in locating Downtown.
• The San Jose Redevelopment Agency has been dissolved and the city is assuming all assets and responsibilities.
• Dennis Fong has sold the landmark Prussia Building in SoFA at 371 S. First to AEDIS Architecture. The new owners are preparing the ground floor for retail and will use the upper floors for offices.
• The Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services has launched a smartphone app that allows residents to send photos and reports of graffiti, litter, and park conditions (Groundwerx has something similar for Downtown).
• Chacho's Restaruant is back home in Downtown San Jose at 87 E. San Fernando [Josh: try their mole enchiladas, phenomenal]
• The Studio is a new Touchstone rock climbing club at 396 S. First that is just about to open in a heavily modified version of the former Wet nightclub building.

To read the full newsletter, click here!

Pinger Receives Additional $7.5M from VCs

A hot new start-up based in Downtown San Jose has raised $7.5M from Deutsche Telekom. They currently have a mobile app that lets you text for free on Android devices and text or call for free on iOS devices. You can get links to download their app right over here. Their eventual goal is to build an international free global network with the support of carriers. I imagine most of the $7.5M will go towards building the right partnerships.

Source: SJBJ

Saturday Stats: San Jose #2 for Social Media Jobs

Just when I thought I was out of job-related Saturday Stats, I ran into one more. San Jose is being ranked as the second best location in the country for social media jobs. #1 was New York (which actually has slightly lower social media salaries than San Jose) and even with Twitter, San Francisco only managed to nab the bronze medal.

Source: SJBJ

South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk Today!

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

The next South FIRST FRIDAYS Art Walk is March 2nd!
A self-guided evening tour through galleries, museums, and independent creative businesses featuring exhibitions and special performances- all venues are FREE & open to the public 7–11pm.

Lots of new exhibits opening on Friday including:


Ordinary People new works by Daniel Jesse Lewis at Anno Domini.


I Can’t Go On; I’ll Go On a new body of work by Jehoiakim Santos at Good Karma Vegan Cafe presented by Phantom Galleries.


Portraits of the Innerself new work by Valerie Runningwolf at KALEID Gallery


Steam Punk Explorations new work by Dorothy Whitman at KALEID Gallery


The Practice in Ink by Leslie Lambert at Downtown Yoga Shala


Quilt National ’11 at San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles


Cult Films and Midnight Movies group show featuring David Mejia, Nic Ceaser, Des Taylor, Thomas Boatwright, Mike Rosen and Bryan Dobrow


Art and Chrome Culture group show featuring original art and live painting by Alfredo Reyes, Freddy Alfaro, Anthony Trayer, Jesse Villegas, Mike 3.5 & Neto Soza at South First Billiards

plus lots more at MACLA, Metro Photo Exhibit, Art Ark, WORKS San Jose, Pho69, Psycho Donuts, TechShopSJ, San Jose Jazz at Eulipia and opera at Caffe Frascati!

View full line up here at www.SouthFirstFridays.com
Invite your friends along here.

TOTEM Ticket Giveaway: And the winner is....

What a whirlwind contest! We had fun watching the entries come in... but enough of that. You want to know who won don't you?

The winner of Two (2) tickets to see tomorrow night's premiere of Cirque du Soleil's TOTEM is....


RAY C.!!!

Congratulations!

But wait... there's more!

The super generous folks at TOTEM decided, what the heck... here's ANOTHER PAIR OF TICKETS. So, surprise San Jose Blog readers - there's another winner out there!

And that winner is ...


ANNE J.!!!

Congratulations to both winners! We hope you have a fantastic time at the show!

I'll be posting about the show later this weekend so be sure to come back and check that out. Ray and Anne - we look forward to hearing what you thought about the show too!

Santana Row Expansion

Not too long ago Santana Row announced new residential construction behind the building bound by Yankee Pier and Pasta Pomodoro (212 rental homes). Now they are adding two new projects into their immediate expansion plans.

First up is the vacant two-story flagship Borders space. H&M will be taking over that location to become a retail anchor and triple their square footage at the row. This will also free up an 8,000sqft corner location, which I imagine won't be empty for long.

Second is a massive new Class A office building that will be on the corner of Winchester across the street from Eli Thomas and stretch all the way to Thea. We're talking 220,000 square feet--more than double the office space Santana row has now--and they are planning to get rents in the Downtown Mountain View range. They are also looking to lease to a single high-tech tenant, opening another "headquarters" opportunity for San Jose.

The new office building will also have 660 new underground parking spaces, which will be open to everyone on nights, weekends, and holidays.

Source: The Merc, SJBJ

Win 2 Tix to see TOTEM, Friday March 2nd!

Attention The San Jose Blog readers! Between now and NOON TOMORROW, you have the opportunity to win TWO (2) tickets to attend the Premiere of Cirque du Soleil's TOTEM!

TOTEM traces the fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly. The characters evolve on a stage evoking a giant turtle, the symbol of origin for many ancient civilizations.

Inspired by many founding myths, TOTEM illustrates, through a visual and acrobatic language, the evolutionary progress of species.

Somewhere between science and legend TOTEM explores the ties that bind Man to other species, his dreams and his infinite potential.

- TOTEM website

Here's the show details:

When: Friday, March 2, 2012
Where: Taylor Street Bridge, Lot E (You can't miss the big tent!)
Site Opens: 7:00 PM
Showtime: 8:00 PM

Enter to win by filling out the form below-- but first, some contest details:

Contest ends NOON tomorrow, Thursday, March 1st.
Winner will be chosen at random.
Please do not enter the contest if you cannot make the show!
Winners will be notified by email (look for an email from Jennifer Bullock!)

Fill out the form below, and GOOD LUCK!

3/1: 12:00PM (NOON):
*** CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED ***