Breaking News: The Bellagio is Coming to San Jose!

MGM Resorts International have announced plans to build a Bellagio-like card room in the vacant space between Bay 101 (red area below) and the brand new M8trix Casino (blue area). If approved, the $350-400M project will include a 35-floor hotel tower with over 500 rooms, several new restaurants, and a theater for entertainment acts. Could this be the start of a mini-Vegas in San Jose?

Source: Press Release

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the Most Active City (Based on Foursquare Check-ins)

Okay, so this isn't exactly a scientific survey but it's pretty cool nonetheless. According to Shape magazine, San Jose ranked as the #1 most active city in the US and the #3 city for healthy eating. This data is coming from the 15 million foursquare users in the country. For the full article, click here.

Hat tip to Cassie for sending this in.

Kori Thompson at Ohana Board Shop

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

Basic Space, all new paintings by Kori Thompson.
Music by RS2
Live skate demos on Ohana's new ramp
All ages welcome.

Saturday, March 31, 6-8:30pm

Ohana Board Shop
3575 Stevens Creek Blvd.
San Jose

New Year-Round Saturday Farmer's Market is Launching Downtown!

The post below is from the San Pedro Square Market blog. This is excellent news for Downtown. In addition to our seasonal Friday Farmer's Market in the summer, we'll have a brand new peak-time Saturday market open all year round. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this develops in conjunction with the San Pedro Square Market. Also, a hat tip to Arlene for sending this news in.

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Okay, so we know that we keep advertising for our Farmers' Market and how Spring is around the corner. Well folks, it is finally here! Saturday April 7^th , is the opening day of the year-round, rain-or-shine Saturday Farmers' Market. Here is what you need to know:

It will be open 10am-2pm. 

Located on W. St. John between N. Almaden and N. San Pedro, directly in front of SPSM.

Around 40-50 vendors, mostly farmers, prepared food, and flowers. 

The timing of it is perfect for all you that work during the week! Get your grocery shopping done at the farmers market, then come enjoy the rest of your Saturday at the Market! Enjoy some lunch, drinks and entertainment here at SPSM since there is always something here to entertain you. We’ve even got some special surprises lined up for you during and after the Farmers' Market. We’ve got author signings, live music and so much more to make sure you have the best enjoyable weekend here at San Pedro Square Market.

Please note that this is a separate event from the Downtown Farmers Market that occurs seasonally on Fridays on San Pedro St. 

Shannon Amidon, Andre Hart Solo Exhibitions at KALEID April 6th

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

Selcouth new work by Shannon Amidon
I’m a collector of the odd and beautiful, the repulsive, rare and mysterious; objects that occupy the space between familiar and bizarre. Inspired by the seventeenth century age of exploration and cabinets of curiosity, this series comes from place of discovery and wonder where insects, specimens and other objects come together and tell a story.

By interlacing art, science, and culture I explore the connection between man-made and natural objects; evoking a strong sense of nostalgia for the classic age of exploration and discovery.




Of War and Peace, The Truth Just Twists, It's Curfew Gull Just Glides a collection of paintings by André Hart
In the middle of lies and truth, the work embodies a painful awareness of maybe a social and personal outlook. The paintings–or more of a collection of stories–people know or should know around a plain and sometimes encrypted picture of the state of the world. Though I couldn't totally say what these stories are fully about in a more specific term, I like to keep things general but still obvious. I cannot self analyze my work to the fullest degree, but I could give some insight to it. In all, as an artist I could never single myself to one form of work or commit to a label, but I can assure the work is always with the intentions to bring much thought and insight.

Artists' Reception: Friday, April 6th, 7–11pm



featuring ambient and down tempo music provided by Mark Camp
(part of the South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk)

Exhibition Dates: April 6–27, 2012


88 South Fourth Street (@ San Fernando)
San Jose, CA
info@KALEIDGallery.com
408-947-1785
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, noon -7pm, free admission

San Jose Stage Company presents the World Premiere Buffalo’ed, the untold story of Buffalo Soldiers in the Philippines

San Jose, CA --- March 20, 2012 --- San Jose Stage Company will present the World Premiere of Jeannie Barroga’s Buffalo'ed, in collaboration with Choreographer Alleuia Panis, which retells the story of the Buffalo Soldiers, descendants of American slaves who were stationed in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th Century during both the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. The military presence of the U.S. Army's Buffalo Soldiers during the Philippine occupation is a little-known thread in the fabric of American history. The World Premiere performance of Buffalo’ed, opens April 7 at  San Jose Stage Company.

 

Directed by Anthony J. Haney, Buffalo’ed is an American story told through three points of view (the Insurrectionists, the Buffalo Soldiers and the U.S. Army), Buffalo’ed expands on the Buffalo Soldiers' history with the 1898 U.S.-acquired Philippines. Within a six-month period, Filipino rebels and a select number of African-American soldiers engaged first as allies against Spain, and then, as in similar foreign occupations, against each other. This play highlights their mutual fates.

 

Buffalo’ed is told through dialogue, projected images and movement, specifically escrima movements, which were celebrated in social settings, without violating the “no assembly” law. During the the changeover from Spanish to U.S. occupation in the Philippines, public gatherings were banned. Social dances were allowed and used by rebels to practice self-defense moves. These activities, shown theatrically, how native rebels inventively responded to martial law, in a manner that was approved and accepted, but ultimately, was revolutionary.

 

The collaborators’ (Barroga/Playwright) and (Panis/Choreographer) vision for the new work was to investigate and explore this pivotal moment in history and create a compelling work that evokes conversation.

 

The commissioning and production of this World Premiere is made possible by The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Playwright Collaboration 2009 Initiative. Additional funding was provided by Applied Materials Foundation.

 

San Jose Stage Company, the Bay Area’s award-winning off-Broadway theatre, holds the opening Gala on Saturday, April 7 at 8 PM with previews beginning Wednesday and Thursday, April 4 and 5 at 7:30 PM and Friday, April 6 at 8 PM. Buffalo’ed runs through April 29, 2012.

 

The cast includes Amielynn Abellera, David Arrow*, Carmichael ‘CJ’ Blankenship*, Elizabeth Carter*, Clarissa Chun, Clinton Derricks-Carroll*, Alexandria Diaz de Fato, Tim Hart, Nila Le, Gregory Manalo, Jed Parsario, Daniel Redmond, Adrian Roberts* and Rajiv Shah*.

 

The Stage is located at 490 South First Street at William Street in downtown San Jose’s South First (SoFA) area. Tickets are available through the Box Office by calling 408.283.7142 or online atwww.thestage.org between $20 and $45. Visa and MasterCard are accepted, and discounts are available for groups, students and seniors. The theatre is handicapped accessible.

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*Member of Actors’ Equity Association

 

Playwright Jeannie Barroga is a member of Dramatists Guild and a nationally-produced playwright, teacher, director and video producer. She has written sixty-two plays, and her work has been published, anthologized and produced nationally and internationally. Today, Barroga plays an active role in many theater groups in Northern California and across the nation.

 

Alleluia Panis collaborated with Barroga and is a nationally reknowned choreographer who is at home in both Filipino tribal/traditional arts, such as escrima, and American contemporary forms. She has received awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council and Creative Work Fund. She has created fifteen full-length dance theater works since 1985, which have been performed on main stages in the United States, Europe and Asia.

 

Director Anthony J. Haney is a multiple award-winning actor and director. He directed Intimate Apparel and Crowns for TheatreWorks, as well as a commercial revival of Crowns at San Francisco’s Marines Memorial Theatre. He also directed musical tributes to Ben Vereen, Della Reese and Ruby Dee at The Nate Holden Theater in Los Angeles. He has numerous credits with TheatreWorks as well as a seven-year stint as the company’s Associate Artistic Director. He has also appeared at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Magic Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre and the Edinburgh Festival, as well as with the San Francisco Mime Troupe (National Tour). He has also appeared in episodic television, films and dozens of national commercials.

 

Assistant Director/Dramaturg Norman Gee returns to The Stage, where he was last seen onstage in MacBeth. He is the Artistic Director of Oakland Public Theater. He began development work with the Bay Area Playwrights Foundation, and has worked on new plays with companies including Word for Word and Thick Description. Gee has collaborated on various solo pieces with the AfroSolo Arts Festival and currently develops historical projects with the Hillside Club in Berkeley.

                                                                                                  

Production Stage Manager Jaimie L. Johnson* serves as San Jose Stage Company Production Stage Manager. Her stage management credits for The Stage include Buried Child, Cabaret andAvenue Q. Prior to her work for The Stage, she served a Resident Stage Manager for TheatreWorks. She has a Bachelor of Arts from St. Cloud State University and been a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association for over 10 years.

 

Composer Richard Marriott has written five productions for choreographer Della Davidson, collaborated with Yoshiko Chuma in A Page Out of Order and scored Momenta String Quartet’sCity of Paper for choreographer Yin Mei. His operas include Divide Light, Lan Ling and Godmachine. He has also written two operas for Overtone Industries in Los Angeles. He is currently composing The Passion of Miriam with Iranian director Mohammad Ghaffari and librettist Ruth Margraff, which will premiere September 2013.

 

Set Designer Michael Palumbo designed the sets for San Jose Stage Company’s Cabaret, The Seafarer, and The Turn of the Screw as well as the lighting for Buried Child, On the Waterfront, The Pillowman, and more. He has also designed lighting and scenery for Marin Theatre Company, TheatreWorks, Opera San Jose, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Sacramento Opera, Aurora Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, Diablo Theatre Company, Shotgun Players, Pacific Repertory Theatre, TheatreFirst, Inferno Theatre, Teatro Visión, Palo Alto Players, Solano College Theatre/Harbor Theatre, City Lights Theater Company of San Jose and Bus Barn Stage Company.

 

Sound Designer Steve Schoenbeck designed the sound for San Jose Stage Company’s Rock N’ Roll. He has designed sound for San Jose Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks, American Conservatory Theater, SF Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Culture Clash and Edinburgh’s Assembly Theatre, among others. He has also designed sound for short films and animation, and mixed numerous musicals. He is currently the Resident Sound Supervisor at the San Jose Rep.

 

Light Designer Maurice Vercoutere designed the lights for the World Premieres of Lolita Roadtrip and Tenders in the Fog at San Jose Stage Company, for which he received the Dean Goodman Award for Lighting. He was a Resident Lighting Designer at Sacramento Theatre Company and The Western Stage. He has designed for many theatres throughout the Bay Area including TheatreWorks, Marin Theatre Company, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Civic Arts Repertory Company, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa Repertory Theatre, Theatre on the Square and Magic Theatre.

 

Costume Designer Michele Wynne designed the costumes for San Jose Stage Company’s Buried Child,  Cabaret, Lolita Roadtrip, Rock ‘N’ Roll, The Turn of the Screw, The Diary of Anne Frank and more.  Her other local designs include performances for The Marin Theatre Company, for The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and the Lamplighters Music Theatre.  She served as the associate costume designer on the original Broadway production of Urinetown, The Musical, the national tour of Disney’s Aida and six seasons on Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. Wynne taught costume design at New York University’s Program in Educational Theatre.

 

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About San Jose Stage Company:

Founded in 1983, San Jose Stage Company is recognized as The Bay Area's Premiere Off-Broadway Theatre, and known for its devotion to new and cutting-edge work and for its commitment to showcasing high-quality local talent. In 1986, San Jose Stage Company set precedence as the first arts organization to negotiate and receive support from the Redevelopment Agency and the City of San Jose when over $500,000 was appropriated in support of the development of a new 200-seat theatre featuring a 3/4-thrust stage, which opened in 1990. Now in its 29th Season, SJSC continues to center its operations in this facility and has successfully produced over 138 productions and premiered 44 new works, including 11 world premieres and is acclaimed for maintaining high artistic standards, investing in local talent and supporting the region’s community of working artists while taking artistic risks. In addition to its core programming, San Jose Stage Company offers five core education and outreach programs and has housed over 200 independent performance groups. San Jose Stage Company is a vital force in the community and has earned a reputation for artistic excellence by providing high-quality, edgy theatrical experiences that engage, educate and provoke audiences. San Jose Stage Company serves an audience base of 30,000 and is recognized as a leader in the arts for a theatre of its size. For more information www.thestage.org  

SPUR is Coming to San Jose!

Very interesting read below. This organization looks like it can add tremendous value to San Jose.  After reading the article below, if you would like to get involved, just click this link.

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Announcing the Launch of SPUR San Jose

An inside view of the opportunities for change that led SPUR to open an office in Northern California’s largest city, San Jose.

When a civic group with more than a century of experience working in San Francisco expands to a new city, it's a very big deal. What led SPUR to open an office in San Jose? Since our founding as the San Francisco Housing Association in 1910, we have worked on regional issues. The organization’s first campaign was the passage of the California Tenement Housing Act, which was actually a change to state law, motivated by the need to improve housing conditions following the 1906 earthquake. SPUR assisted in the planning of BART and helped form the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC). We were instrumental in establishing the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. We have been involved with the major decisions faced by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) over the years. Throughout our more recent history, SPUR has promoted compact growth patterns and transit-oriented investments at the regional level. Our work on sea level rise, water supply and food systems is fully regional. And our thinking about the Northern California megaregion expanded the boundaries of our work even further.[1]

 

Through all of this work, we have remained a San Francisco–based organization. We have resisted calls to get involved in local planning issues in other cities, feeling that we lacked the deep knowledge of local context that is necessary to make informed recommendations. But we often wondered if the day would come when we could develop a way to work in other cities throughout the Bay Area that would support SPUR’s urbanist agenda.

 

Over the past few years, the SPUR board and staff have been involved in strategic-planning efforts to think through what our role in the region might be.  Now, we have come to a major decision — to open a SPUR office in San Jose with the hope of also doing so in Oakland in the future. This decision reflects our perspective about how our century-old organization can become even more effective in the next 100 years.

 

Our thinking behind this major step is as follows:

 

1. San Francisco contains a declining share of the region’s population.

San Francisco represents just 11 percent of the Bay Area population, a gradual decline over recent decades. The same story holds true for jobs. Most of the growth in the Bay Area is happening in other parts of the region. Many of the big opportunities to promote the planning values SPUR cares about the most will take place elsewhere in the region.

 

2. Most regional decisions are actually made by local governments.

Regional agencies (ABAG, MTC, BCDC, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District) have very limited purview and almost no authority regarding land use. The big region-shaping decisions — in particular the decisions about where and how to grow — are made by local governments.  In order to influence the evolving shape of the region, what we need is the capacity to impact the decisions of cities.

 

3. SPUR’s core competency lies in urban policy. We know how to work at the city level.

For decades, SPUR has been an organization rooted in San Francisco. We understand the complexities of neighborhood planning, political coalitions, public agency structure and varied policy issues from budgeting to transit planning. But we always think about the regional context for every local decision. For example, the way high-speed rail trains make their way through neighborhoods in San Jose and San Francisco is both a local issue and a statewide one and we approach it as such. Our niche is urban policy with a regional perspective.

 

4. The most important locations for forward-thinking urban policy are the region’s three largest cities — San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.

San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland represent 30 percent of the region’s current population and 34 percent of its current jobs. With the right investments, they could represent a growing share of the region’s population and jobs by 2040. As is clear from the charts on the following pages, these three cities are much larger than all the other cities in the Bay Area. They have well-developed infrastructure and the greatest capacity to accept growth. They have nuanced and involved local political and policy cultures. They have enough variety and scale for policy experimentation and enough similarities for important sharing among them.

 

Based on these observations, we conclude that SPUR would be most effective by remaining an urban civic group but also expanding our focus to work with San Jose and Oakland. In short, we are arguing for a central city approach to regionalism. Getting these three cities to speak together with a strong voice will strengthen regionalism in the Bay Area as well as reinforce a Bay Area that is urban, dense, walkable, transit-connected and more economically competitive.

 

Beginning in San Jose

We believe both Oakland and San Jose would benefit from an urban civic organization like SPUR, but because of a unique set of circumstances and opportunities, we are starting first in San Jose.

 

In 2010, SPUR took its annual city trip to San Jose, where we were graciously hosted by the City of San Jose and the nonprofit 1stACT Silicon Valley, a San Jose–focused civic organization with widespread local partnerships. This was our first inside look into this city of 1 million people. Based on our experiences,we published a series of articles in the August 2010 Urbanist about San Jose, its challenges and its potential to play a leading role in promoting smart growth.[2]

Current and Projected Population Growth

Contrasted against a dozen of the ninecounty Bay Area’s most populous — and most employing — municipalities, the charts above and below illustrate the significance of San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland as both the leading population centers and the cardinal employment hubs of the region. The three cities currently employ more than 34 percent of the region’s total workforce and are expected to accommodate the addition of 2 million new residents by 2040.

Source: Association of Bay Area Governments Projections are based on ABAG’s “Focused Growth” scenario.

 

From the strength of the relationships forged on that city trip, 1stACT Silicon Valley and SPUR began discussing the possibility of SPUR working in the South Bay. Through hundreds of interviews and conversations with leaders in the community, we learned a great deal about the issues and opportunities there, and we were extremely gratified by the positive reception to the idea of SPUR working in San Jose.

 

San Jose is a forward-looking city that is un-afraid of change. The civic leaders we spoke with are excited about SPUR’s expertise in place-making, its knowledge of best practices in planning from other cities and its evidence-based approach to urban policy.

 

There are of course many civic organizations in the South Bay that have their own viewpoints, core competencies and vision to encourage positive change in the city and region. They bring an amazing energy and knowledge and are the civic leaders of one of the most important centers of economic innovation on the planet. We hope to play a supporting role with these allies where they are already actively engaged in great work by contributing our own expertise in urban policy in a way that brings something new to the table.

Current and Projected Job Growth

 

Opening an office outside of San Francisco is a big change for SPUR, and with change there is always risk. Ultimately, we decided that the best way to move forward with these ideas was to launch a three-year pilot project with 1stACT as our lead partner. After many discussions between the boards of 1stACT and SPUR, we committed to a strategic partnership with a memorandum of understanding, based on our organizations’ shared beliefs in:

> the importance of good urban planning, design and place-making to sustain a high quality of life;

> the need to invest in the public realm, including parks, transit, streets and public buildings and facilities;

> the significance of environmentally sustainable, compact, pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods;

> the value of collaboration across the region’s central cities to foster the Bay Area’s success; and

> the benefits of nurturing an active, well-informed citizenry.

 

The initial funders of SPUR’s regional program have been the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and the Clarence E. Heller Foundation. Their multi-year grant laid the foundation for this effort.

 

Our first strategic partner for the San Jose project is 1stAct Silicon Valley. Connie Martinez, 1st Act’s executive director, along with the 1stAct board, helped up strategize and are making a significant investment of their own to bring SPUR to San Jose.

 

The lead funders in this effort are the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and Jim and Becky Morgan. In addition, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation provided a strategic planning grant to help us think through our communications and public engagement strategy. It is because of these strategic partnerships that we are able to start this initiative in San Jose.  We will be looking for similar relationships in order to move forward in Oakland.

 

In the coming months, we will continue our outreach into the San Jose community and will be bringing our efforts into focus. The director of SPUR San Jose, Leah Toeniskoetter, will be closely integrated into the SPUR staff so that we can operate as a single organization. We will form a San Jose advisory board with key local leaders and members from the SPUR board. We will work in the South Bay to raise the remaining funds needed for this three-year pilot project and hopefully beyond.

 

Our goal is to effect positive change in a way that is guided and embraced by San Jose’s unique culture and outlook. As we enter into this expansion, we know we have a lot to learn about San Jose and a lot to learn about ourselves as our organization grows and changes. We look forward to engaging current and new SPUR members, citizens and stakeholders throughout the Bay Area to help shape the growth of our cities and our region.

 

Please join us in this exciting new chapter for SPUR. To stay informed of the progress in the SPUR SanJose office, visit www.spursanjose.org.

 

 

Buy! Sell! Trade! ART SUPPLY SWAP MEET!

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

Who: Everyone is invited to sell, shop or barterWhat: paint, paper, studio furniture, frames, tools, fabric, craft supplies, equipment, building materials, film, if an artist can use it then it's fair game.

Why: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Where: KALEID Gallery at 88 South 4th Street, San Jose,

When: Saturday March 31st 1:00pm-6:00pm

Open to the public admission free

It’s time for some Spring cleaning. Clean out your studio and head over to KALEID Gallery for a good old fashioned Art Supply Swap Meet!

Just $10 a space for anyone wishing to sell, and we accept donations of art supplies if you can't make it.

Info for participants:

Space is limited, sign up by March 28th to participate.

You must provide your own table

You are responsible for all sales

Set up is from 12:00-1:00pm

Break Down 6:00-7:00pm

For more information or to participate contact Shannon Amidon at shannon@shannonamidon.com

Payment can be made before the event at KALEID Gallery by stopping in the gallery or calling (408) 947-1785with your credit card. All fees must be paid by March 30th.

88 South Fourth Street (@ San Fernando)

San Jose, CA

info@KALEIDGallery.com

408-947-1785

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, noon -7pm, free admission