Winchester Mystery House Fright Nights

Last year the Winchester Mystery House produced the highest quality and longest Halloween maze in the Bay Area. It was befitting that a place with so much occult history finally get a proper "scare" attraction. This year they are stepping it up to a new level with two attractions, one of which will likely be the longest haunted maze in the United States. A lot was also invested into further improving the props, actors, storytelling, and variety of scares in the flagship maze. To top it off, the second attraction is a self-guided flashlight tour of the mansion itself with a surprise or two along the way.

The October calendar for this event is below and you can use the discount code "THIRTEEN" to get $5 off per ticket. For more info, check out the Fright Nights website right over here.

There are going to be a lot of great Halloween events in the Bay Area this year, but if you can only choose one to try out... this is it.

PARK(ing) Day this Friday @ 38 W Santa Clara Street

Friday, September 21, 2012, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

First celebrated in San Francisco in 2005, PARK(ing) Day has since become a global phenomenon. The annual event celebrates public space and street life by temporarily transforming metered parking spots into public spaces. This year, SPUR San Jose and TransForm are partnering up in front of the SPUR office on Santa Clara Street to share its take on temporary parklets.

SPUR San Jose 38 W Santa Clara Street San Jose, CA 95113 map >>

Free to public

Wednesday Wishlist: San Joseans to Stop Referring to SF as "The City"

This really drives me nuts.  When San Franciscans do it, it sounds arrogant and self-indulgent.  However, it's even worse when San Joseans refer to our smaller neighbor up north as "the city." Every time we do this we are continuing to perpetuate a nickname that is degrading to San Jose, and many other Bay Area cities like Oakland.

Leigh Weimers is a former columnist from the San Jose Mercury News that has recently passed away (his memorial service is Monday, 3:30 at St. Joseph's Basilica). One of his few regrets was: "I'm sorry I haven't gotten more San Joseans to stop calling San Francisco "the city." It's "a city" -- so is San Jose -- but not "the city." That's so last century. (Source)

I'm hoping that Sal Pizarro, who has taken over Leigh's position, will take the baton and continue to fight to get that reference out of San Josean's vocabulary. I think the way things are going in San Jose, we can do it, but like anything it will take some time and conscious effort.

Downtown "Staycation"

I had a little Downtown "Staycation" over the weekend and thought it might be neat to share.

Friday

The Zero1 Street Festival started at 6pm and as always it featured all sorts of off the wall exhibits throughout SoFA like a silent rave and an interactive pipe-music-thingy. My wife and I were pretty impressed with the LED webbing they hung past William Street and I hope they keep it up year-round. The Zero1 Garage was definitely a highlight and will be open all the way up until December. Great addition to SoFA and worth checking out.

We had a snack at one of the food trucks, enjoyed some beers at the Gordon Biersch Beer Garden, then hit up Tanq with friends for dinner and drinks.

Then we did a second round at the festival and made it to the new Parque de los Pobladores, which turned out really well! It seems much, much larger and even hosted one of the music stages and a bright pink carpeted iLounge.

Some requests for the next biennial: participation from more galleries (Anno Domini, Higher Fire, SLG, etc.) and more food trucks.

After midnight, we all headed to Singlebarrel for some cocktails and stayed there until closing. After that we said goodbye to our friends and leisurely walked to the Four Points for the night, no need to deal with a car when you're staycationing Downtown.

Saturday

Woke up late, grabbed lunch at Mosaic which has reinvented itself as an Asian Fusion restaurant. The menu is definitely better than what it was before, still could use a little work. We then went for a really long walk Downtown.

Swung by the San Jose Museum of Art, check out all of the new exhibits including one specifically for Zero1. Then we went to Ross for a bit to look for some clothes (you can buy clothes Downtown!).

I was hoping to go to Original Gravity Public House since they were having their belated Grand Opening party, but there were so many people there we didn't end up getting anything.

We then walked down Paseo de San Antonio to find that San Jose's newest wine bar--"Wyne"--is coming along and looks like it is just a month or so away from opening. At this point it is Saturday mid afternoon and La Lune Sucre and Philz are both completely packed. This is turning into a pretty active district.

Next stop is Cafe Bonne Terre, which used to be Whipps. They have all the same menu items with the addition of crepes, both savory and sweet. My wife and I shared some gelato and a nutella/banana crepe.

Then we took another long walk. There are plenty of people on the streets including a surprising amount of families. Two or three years ago, you wouldn't really see this Downtown. I think the new high rise condos/apartments are really helping to change the dynamic.

Later that day, a few friends from SF were in town. I decided to gamble and take them to a restaurant I haven't been to yet, but was on my high-priority to check out list: Back A Yard. Wow, just wow. The food blew us away. The Jamaican jerk combo had some of the most flavorful chicken I've ever had, the beans/rice were amazing, the plantains were delicious, and the corn festival which is some sort of corn fritter thing was completely addicting. The 4.5 Yelp rating is definitely justified on this one.

After that we headed over to the San Pedro Square Market, and I gave them a thorough tour. Last time I took them here only Vino Vino and Pizza Boca Luppo were open. What a difference a year makes. Lots of people, live music in 3 different areas, tons of great food (which we could smell but were too stuffed to try)... it showed really well and they were impressed. "San Jose has come a long way" and "I may come here more often now" were some of their comments. We hung out for a while and then ended with some Treatbot. That's pretty much a wrap for the night.

Conclusion

When people ask "what's there to do Downtown?" the answer is a whole lot. Even just walking around on a sunny day and going to a bunch of random places was good times. I hope in the future more people that don't live Downtown will be willing to think of it as a destination and make a day (or two) out of going there.

TWO BUCK Tuesday Today

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

Join us at KALEID Gallery for this upcoming TWO BUCK Tuesday, September 18th, 7pm-10pm!
Come enjoy an inspired evening of performances, live painting, $2 art & quirky people get together!
Lots of live painters and live music happening this month:


Al Preciado


Jim Fonseca


Leeonista


Lydia Rae Black


Steve Borelli


Steven Suiter


Nic Ceasar


John Hageman


Live entertainment by G Willikers solo set

Photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151070768041045.436348.8894506044&type=3

And you can check out our featured exhibition SJ Creatives One Year Anniversary Show!

Tuesday, September 18th, 7-10pm It’s free and open to all ages!


88 South Fourth Street (@ San Fernando)
San Jose, CA 95112
info@KALEIDGallery.com
408-947-1785
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, noon -7pm, free admission

n1: North First Campus

This is easily the most impressive office project that is underway right now in Silicon Valley. n1 consists of 1.8 million square feet of office space, tons of outdoor spaces, new cafes, and impressive athletic facilities (check out those rooftop tennis courts in the second to last photo). The entire development is off of North 1st with Component Drive bisecting the project and providing access to parking. There will be a new street called campus way that looks almost like a little downtown street and connects all of the main entrances to each buildings and hopefully some retail. You can see this in the fifth photo. Everything is within a 10min walk to lightrail, providing easy access to Downtown and other companies on First St., Tasman, etc.

For a campus-style project, this is exceptional design and I can't wait to see who the tenants are going to be.

zero1 2012

An art & technology fusion isn’t complete without a giant luchador head.  It was pretty awesome seeing it while we went to get fried chicken & beer.

There’s dancing in the streets.  Without music.  Well, music we can’t hear as they wore headphones.

There are some cool robotic installations on the street from plotting earthquakes (not the crazy kind that want to wipe out humanity, Bazinga!) to these little guys on the street that were rocking themselves.

 
A tiny fun house like maze, made out of reflective space fabric, minus the killer klowns from space .

Some of the coolest stuff was in the zero1 garage where we saw a stupendously mesmerizing piece where the motors vibrated strings with loops that bounced back & forth.  The loops moved in such a manner that it seemed to pass through each other.

Finally, we hung out at the last stage listening to electronica music & where they had a giant pink gym like cushiony thingy for people to sit on or to lie down on, as the shag carpeting was quite nice.

Anyways, exhibits will continue to run for a while so drop by their site & check out the schedule.  Maybe we'll see you there.

ArtBox SJ

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

Kori Thompson


Micah Bariteau

The ArtBox Project has completed 30 utility boxes painted with original works of art by local artists in neighborhoods all over San Jose with more locations in the works. If you'd like to help us beautify neighborhoods with your personal talents, please email us at info[at]PhantomGalleries[dot]com and we'll get you submission info.

More photos of completed boxes here.