Saturday Stats: San Jose Ranks Among the 15 Happiest Cities

A team of mathematicians at the University of Vermont collect over 10 million tweets from 373 different urban areas across the US and scored both "happy" and "sad" words. Sad words included things like "hate" or "wrong" while happy words included "lol" and "funny." After aggregating all of the data they came up with the list of happiest and and saddest cities in the US based on tweets. The results are below (hat tip to Barclay).


The 15 Happiest Cities in the United States:

Napa, Calif.
Longmont, Colo.
San Clemente, Calif.
Santa Fe, N.M.
Santa Cruz, Calif.
Green Bay, Wis.
Santa Rosa, Calif.
Simi Valley, Calif.
Lafayette, Colo.
Asheville, N.C.
Spokane, Wash.
Boulder, Colo.
Fort Collins, Colo.
Santa Barbara, Calif.
San Jose, Calif.

The 15 Saddest Cities in the United States:

Beaumont, Texas
Albany, Ga.
Texas City, Texas
Shreveport, La.
Monroe, La.
Memphis, Tenn.
Battle Creek, Mich.
Flint, Mich.
Lima, Ohio
Houma, La.
Waterbury, Conn.
Alexandria, La.
Port Arthur, Texas
Montgomery, Ala.
Dothan, Ala.

Source: Live Science

South First Friday Tonight!

Busy Day Downtown Tomorrow

If you happen to be Downtown tomorrow, brace yourself for tons of activity. Rick Jensen posted the following list of events on the Downtowner Online (subscribe by emailing Rick):

• Cinequest Film Festival 23 at the California Theatre, San Jose Rep and Camera Cinemas.  Park at Second-San Carlos Garage.
• Sharks vs. Predators at the HP Pavilion.  Game starts at 7:30 pm.  Estimated attendance 16,200. Park at Market-San Pedro Garage, or at the arena.
• La Cumbre Public Dance at the Convention Center.  Event starts at 7pm.  Estimated attendance 18,000.  Park in SoFA-I-280 lot, Convention Center and lots on Almaden Boulevard and across from Children's Discovery Museum.
• Nederlander presents Aaron Lewis at the Civic Auditorium.  Event starts at 7:30 pm. Capacity 3,000. AndChildren's Musical Theatre's performance of “Godspell” next door at the Montgomery Theatre.  Three performances with the last scheduled to start at 8pm.  Civic /Montgomery attendees may want to park at the city's Third (and St. John) and Fourth Street (and San Fernando) garages and stroll downtown.
• "Red" at San Jose Stage, 8pm Park at Second and San Carlos or Under I-280 at South First.
• Carlos Mencia at The Improv at 7pm and 9 pm – best parking bet would be Fourth Street Garage or Third Street Garage.
•  Plus Live&Local music venues and Cinequest Afterparties

February 2013 Downtown Dimension Highlights

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

• The San Jose/Evergreen Community College District bought and will populate the seven story, 41,500 sqft former American Bank and Trust building at 40 S. Market.
• A new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system is going to run down Santa Clara Street and will ultimately connect to Eastridge Mall, Palo Alto, and DeAnza College. They will provide a similar level of service to light rail and have better seating, stations, and travel times than normal buses.
• Umpqua Bank has started building out its ground-floor space at 225 W Santa Clara (next to Amici's), which will include a computer cafe and free WiFi.
• Vyne Bistro is now open and has specials like mushroom risotto and caviar. Visit the new wine bar and restaurant at 110 Paseo De San Antonio.
• Hibiscus Stodio is open where City Salon & Spa used to be at 136 E. Santa Clara.
• Curb cafes are coming to five locations in San Jose this year, including Chacho's.
• A 10ft-tall working model replica of "Organograph" is available for viewing at the City Hall lobby. Eventually this will be a 75ft-tall interactive work of art near Diridon.
• Zipcar is now available Downtown and in Midtown. 17 public spaces have been re-purposed for Zipcar.

To read the full newsletter, click here!

DOSE OF REALITY Premiering at Cinequest

Cinequest is well underway in San Jose with an insane array of movies to chose from. I tend to prioritize the premieres since you get the very rare opportunity of watching a film before anyone else. DOSE OF REALITY is one the films kicking off their world premiere at Cinequest, and the very first showing is tomorrow. More info below!

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Can you solve the mystery at  CINEQUEST film festival?

Get your tickets for DOSE OF REALITY the movie and give it a shot.

We're proud to World Premiere at Cinequest.

DOSE OF REALITY movie

Intriguing keeps you guessing mystery thriller with dramatic performances at:

CINEQUEST Film Festival

San Jose, CA

Camera 12  theaters
201 S 2nd St, San Jose, CA 95113

2-28-13 at 7:00 p.m
3-2-13 at 9:30 p.m.

3-5-13 at 4:00 p.m.

Read more about it

When the bar doors closed one evening, the night was far from over. After Matt, a handsome, young bartender, discovers an attractive, bloodied woman passed out on the bathroom floor, the descent into utter chaos begins. He and his arrogant manager, Tony, frantically argue about what to do when she wakes up and hysterically accuses them of attacking her. Taking matters into her own hands with irresistible charm and manipulative mind games, she discovers their deepest, innermost weaknesses. What started out as a quest to uncover the identity of her attacker quickly evolves into a scheme to reveal the secrets of everyone involved. But some secrets will remain hidden, others will identify a new victim, but one will turn everything you thought you knew upside down – Sharon Gonzales  - CINEQUEST

Film stars: Fairuza Balk award winning actress (Gas Food and lodging and The Craft), Rick Ravanello (The Cave), Ryan Merriman (Final Destination and soon to be released "42" starring Harrison Ford).

Order Tickets here:

http://payments.cinequest.org/WebSales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=6913~78899376-35a9-4153-8303-e1557be2dc32&epguid=70d8e056-fa45-4221-9cc7-b6dc88f62c98&

Girl Shaped Drug - US Premiere @ Cinequest

Today the floodgates are opening for hundreds of world-class screenings of independent and foreign movies in San Jose! Girl Shaped Love Drug is not only a film featured in Cinequest, it's having its US premiere right here. If you haven't been to a premiere screening yet, you definitely have to check it out. Immediately following the movie, you can participate in Q&A with the writer/director and several of the actors. Where else do you get an opportunity like that?

The trailer is below and for more information, just head on over here.

Cinequest Starts Today!

Get all of your Cinequest info and tickets right over here!

Japantown "Corp Yard" Project Moves Forward!

An epic $180 million project is moving forward in Japantown. The quick details: 600 residential apartments in six-story buildings with underground parking, ground floor retail and live/work units, a park with cherry orchards, a public stage/pavilion, and a creative center for the arts. You can check out the design for the creative center in the very last image... I hope that becomes the final design because it looks incredible! That building will house San Jose Taiko, CreaTV, Arts Council of Silicon Valley, and other San Jose nonprofits. I'm not sure what more you could possibly ask for in a Japantown project.

You have to click the images below to really see the detail from the scans. The architecture is "modern Japan" with elegant simplicity, wood elements, shifted forms, and framed views. Needless to say, this will be one of the most unique and visually striking developments in the Bay Area. I really hope this comes to fruition and encourages even more projects of this caliber in San Jose.

Sources: Jonathan Bush (thanks for the scans!), SVBJ