sjDance: Tango Fatal Today

Tango Fatal - October 18+19, 2013

Tango Fatal has a scenario by Lorenz Russo, Choreography by sjDANCEco Artistic Director Maria Basile in collaboration with Opera/Theatre Director Daniel Helfgot, and San Jose Chamber Orchestra Director Barbara Day Turner. Four additional World Premieres by Company Choreographers Heather Cooper and Hsiang-Hsiu Lin and guest choreographers Kara Davis and Margaret Wingrove. Pre-performance discussion with Artistic Director Gary Masters at 7:00pm before each performance.

STAR WARS Exhibit Opens This Saturday at The Tech!

This week, The Tech Museum of Innovation held a press conference for the upcoming exhibit, STAR WARS: Where Science Meets Imagination. If you've walked or driven past the Tech Museum lately, then you've seen the giant billboard with Yoda and Darth Vader wrapped around the corner of the building.

Well it's finally time to see what they've been hyping the last few months. Starting this Saturday, October 19th and running through February 23, 2014, fanboys and girls from all ages will have the opportunity to learn the science of Star Wars, and check out some pretty awesome movie props at the same time.

Throughout the 10,000-square-foot exhibition will be props, costumes, and models from all six Star Wars films. (Similar to the previous Mythbusters exhibit, if you attended it.)

"Visitors will be exposed to immersive, hands-on experiences and to topics ranging from space travel, mechanical prosthetics, robotics, and levitation technology."

There were many of these hands-on exhibits -- build a robot, ride what looks like a lawnmower that hovers a bit off the ground, and others.

One of the hyped features of this exhibit is the Millennium Falcon™ experience. It is a full-size replica of the cockpit. Which means it's fairly small since it only has four seats. If you or your kids are a big fans of Star Wars, try to sit in the front two seats to get the full experience. Inside this replica you get to learn about "real-world space exploration" narrated by Anthony Daniels (aka, C-3PO.) I glanced at my watch before checking this out and as it turns out it's about five minutes long. Because it's five minutes and only four people can experience it at a time, there might be a long wait to get in depending when you go.

Which is why there are separate tickets if you choose to check it out. At first, I thought it was merely a ticket that simply secured your spot in line at any point in the day. Let me clarify, I thought the ticket was free.

The difference between the two ticket packages, "Jedi Package" and "Star Wars" - tis that "Jedi" guarantees your voyage on The Millennium Falcon Experience while "Star Wars" does not. The price difference? Adult price for "Jedi Package" is $27, "Star Wars" is $22. If $5 is not much to you, buy the ticket and watch the 5 minute educational video on space. Or look at it as spending $5 to possibly sit in the front two seats and push fake buttons and watch the screen go all hyper-spacey in front of you.

I'm not a die-hard Star Wars fan (my husband is, therefore all my exposure to the movies is through his brainwashing influence) -- so personally, knowing what the "experience" is, I would not pay $5 for it. 

However, if you do decide, what the heck, and pay the $5 to sit in the cockpit (it does provide some fun photo opportunities and kids will enjoy it) -- then once you get into the exhibit, walk through the whole thing first, so you can check out the line at the The Millennium Falcon Experience (it's at the end, just before the merchandise area.) There were signs that will give you an idea of how long of a wait you will have - 30 minutes, 90 minutes etc. Check out the current wait, determine when you need to stand in line.

Overall it's a fun exhibit with plenty of things to entertain and educate everyone!

If you'd like to see a few more photos I took, follow this link to my Flickr set.

Where: The Tech Museum of Innovation
When: Oct 19 - Feb 23
Tickets: Various packages/prices

Jim Stump Expands The Table Restaurant and launches Stumpy's

After being open for only a year, Jim Stump--proprietor of AP Stumps and Los Gatos Brewing Co.--is already expanding The Table in Willow Glen. The restaurant has been booming lately and they are taking over 900 SQFT currently occupied by a neighboring dry-cleaner, where they will move their bar to. This also creates the opportunity for a massive outdoor patio (drawing below). Construction is slated for early 2014 with a 4-5 month build-out, just in time for summer.

Jim is also doubling down on Willow Glen with a second eatery called Stumpy's in the Garden Theater building. They will serve modern hamburgers and hot dogs in a small 700 SQFT space, but they are planning to convert two parking spots into an outdoor curb-cafe to make more available dining space.

Source: SVBJ

Sam Liccardo's Newsletter: Traffic Relief is on Its Way

In Sam Liccardo's latest newsletter, he talks about the plans for addressing increased congestion going forward. What do you guys think?

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Traffic Relief on Its Way

                If you’ve noticed that the traffic along your commute has become much worse, you’re not alone: in April 2013, INRIX announced that San José area congestion increased 25% over the prior year alone.   While a sign of the “good times” to be sure –a typical bellwether of our Valley’s rebounding economy—the impact of traffic on our quality of life cannot be ignored: more stress, less productivity, and fewer hours for family or recreation. 

         Doing the same things the same ways---i.e., expanding freeways and “hoping for the best”-- doesn’t amount to a winning strategy, for several reasons.  First, it costs between $3 million and $15 million to add a single mile of a single additional lane to a congested freeway,  and few discretionary dollars remain at any level—federal, state, or regional—to pay for more freeway expansion.  Second, SB375 and other legislation appropriately place the burden on regions like the Bay Area to reduce our per-resident greenhouse gas-emissions, and encouraging more people to find commuting alternatives to the automobile improves our environment and relieves traffic.  Finally, San José will see more population growth–about 400,000 additional people over the next quarter century—than the next three largest Bay Area cities (San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont) combined.   Job and population will outstrip any expansion of freeway capacity by a factor of three over that time.  So, if you think it’s bad now, just wait: it will be worse.

        Fortunately, we’re not doing the same things the same way.  As a Board Member of both the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), I’ve worked to push San José and the region toward innovative approaches that offer important alternatives: 

• BART is under construction!   Moving ahead of schedule and $105 millionunder budget (yes, you read that right), BART will open service in San José’s Berryessa station in 2017.   In 2000 and 2008,  I spent thousands of hours advocating for BART in the media, raising money to support those ballot measures, and speaking at community meetings, so BART’s arrival is happily anticipated by me, and by thousands of commuters stuck in rush hour traffic along 680 and 880.
• Last month, I was proud to join People Acting in Community Together (PACT) and the VTA in announcing a long-sought pilot project to expand the mobility of our working low-income neighbors, by reducing monthly transit passes fares by over 60%.   Residents making less than 200% of the Federal poverty level ( e.g., $47,000 for a family of four) can obtain the $25 monthly pass bycontacting one of the non-profits administering the program.
• In the last 30 months, we’ve introduced “express lanes” on southbound 237 and 680, using congestion pricing to provide commuters with travel time savings up to 15 minutes along those routes, and generating revenues for transportation improvements.   Look for Express Lane implementation to relieve long-suffering commuters on 101 and 85 in 2014-15.
• In the last year, we’ve seen the launch of both car-sharing (i.e., Zip Car) andbike-sharing services, providing our fast-growing Downtown with an antidote for the increased congestion and parking demand from the addition of roughly 2,000 housing units likely to be under construction by this time next year.  Now that my efforts to initiate these innovations over the last half-decade have borne fruit, we’ll continue to push to make these services available outside the Downtown.
• Within weeks, we’ll begin construction on a “Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, linking Downtown and East San Jose with dedicated bus-only lanes, and high-frequency, high-amenity service along Santa Clara, Alum Rock, and Capitol.
• As commuting trips along our trails system surges, we’re seeking continued investment in expanding our trails infrastructure.   Last year, I worked with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group to obtain state grants for two trail segments in North San Jose.  Last month, we successfully obtained $1,200,000 in funding from MTC for the expansion of Los Gatos Creek Trail in West San Jose.
• On the MTC Board, I’ve also recently voted to allocate regional grants to improve bike and pedestrian safety near San José elementary schools through our Walk N’Roll program, to retrofit streetscapes for better pedestrian and bike access along key corridors like The Alameda and San Carlos, and to boost our street repaving budget by $8 million.
• We’ve recently obtained regional grants for implementation of “smart intersections” technology, and have begun construction on a sophisticated transportation management center on 5th Street.  Exciting innovations abound.  For example, working with our Transportation Department staff, BMW is testing ways that “smart cars” and “smart intersections” will communicate to dramatically reduce red-light running, auto emissions, and congestion at key intersections.  

We’ll keep pushing to reduce the traffic burdens you encounter every morning.   Let me know how we can better do so by sending me your thoughts atsam.liccardo@sanjoseca.gov.

Sincerely,

Sam Liccardo

Wednesday Wishlist: Halloween in the Park! (Part VI)

Why not build on the momentum that Christmas in the Park brings to San Jose each year and extend the event all the way into October with Halloween in the Park! A lot of the infrastructure such as wiring, lighting, and booths could even be shared. This would also make Downtown San Jose the epicenter of October Halloween experiences.

Below you will find four years of brainstorming on this concept, so please have a look and provide your feedback and suggestions in the comments. Thanks!

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The largest draw to downtown San Jose for many years now has been Christmas in the Park. It has continued to grow year after year and brings in visitors from all over the Bay. It's economic impact is substantial and helps keep many downtown businesses afloat.

What would you think about a similar event for Halloween? Picture downtown lit up in orange and purple with elaborate Halloween displays assembled by local artists. Perhaps infrastructure could even be shared with Christmas in the Park (e.g. retail booths). A strong event in October would help maintain traffic between the summer months and Christmas in the Park. Here are the ideas we have so far:

• Animated Halloween Displays
• Created by local artists
• Analogous to the Christmas displays that attract many families during Christmas in the Park (almost half a million visitors)
• Family friendly so that everyone can enjoy it (PG/PG13, perhaps around the same level as Great America Halloween Haunt)
• Halloween Lighting
• Orange, purple, and green LED lighting on trees
• May be possible to use new controllable lighting that can go from Halloween colors to Christmas colors with the push of a button, allowing the lights to stay up for Christmas in the Park as well and reducing setup/take-down effort.
• Halloween Food
• Booths with candied apples, chocolates, candy, pumpkin seeds, etc.
• Food trucks
• Trick-or-treating station - a free piece of candy to anyone wearing a costume any day in October (could also be used to hand out promotional flyers for Downtown events/businesses/resources)
• Retail Booths selling Halloween items, for example:
• Artwork (paintings, glass pumpkins, etc.)
• Home decor/crafts like candles
• Light-up hats/necklaces/bracelets
• Costumes
• Zombie/Halloween make-up station 
• Halloween-themed Carnival Games
• Pirates of Emerson and Candlelighters (Fremont) do a good job of providing family-friendly games themed around Halloween
• A handful of children's rides could also be added to the Paseo and reused for Christmas in the Park
• Interactive Art
• ZERO1-style, but with a Halloween spin.
• Pumpkins
• Instead of the sponsored Christmas trees in Christmas in the Park, how about decorated Pumpkins (can even be Styrofoam so there is no mess/decay)?
• Pumpkin carving station for families. 
• Pumpkin carving contest.
• Costumed Entertainers
• Walking around the area, not necessarily scaring people but adding to the ambiance and providing photo opportunities for families
• Haunts
• Would be ideal if these were nearby, perhaps in vacant retails spaces, surface parking lots, the convention center, or at SJSU.
• Could partners with one of the established San Jose haunt providers such as Deadtime Dreams or The World's Largest Haunted House.
• Potential Events
• Zombie-O-Rama can be used to kick off Halloween in the Park (late Sep. / early Oct. time-frame)
• Zombie Crawl
• Dia De Los Muertes Bike Party
• Horror Movie Trivia Contest
• Weekly horror movie screening (perhaps in the Circle of Palms area?)

As in previous years, please post your suggestions below and I'll merge them in!

Sharks Stay Perfect, Karma and Emotion Prevail

Karma is a you-know-what, eh St. Louis Blues?

In other words, your team is responsible for intentionally taking out Dan Boyle with a targeted hit, so we will embarrass you on the scoreboard.

The Sharks smoked you, and it was not even close.  Sure, the Sharks let up a little bit halfway through the third period, but the game was all Sharks.  Puck possession, shot count, goals, and pretty much any positive statistic that can be attributed was completely in the Sharks’ favor.

What made the Sharks’ 6-2 win especially positive for Sharks fans was the response and emotion poured in to the game by the team (such as the first two quick goals), especially after a cowardly act by a disgusting player on a dirty team that put the Sharks’ top defenseman, Dan Boyle, out of the game on a stretcher.  Boyle was reported to be in really bad shape as he was on the ice.

Just to put into perspective (give my word choice), an NHL team known as being “dirty” is classified as such for either of the following two reasons:
a) any team that employs a number of weasels (often, the word ‘agitator’ is used as a euphemism) with the sole intent of causing harm to opposing teams, or
b) any team that employs Maxim Lapierre (or Matt Cooke – honorable mention).

Maxim Lapierre’s hit from behind on Dan Boyle was both classless and dangerous.  As seen from this link, Boyle’s numbers (meaning, the numbers on the back of his jersey) were targeted.  As reported from Joe Pavelski, Lapierre started mouthing off to the Sharks bench before his intentional hit to injure.  (To get an idea of the kind of player he is, even his own fans hate him.)

This is not Lapierre’s first classless act against the Sharks.  For instance, here is a real beauty he laid on Scott Nichol at the Tank back in 2010.

Given what happened, some brought into question Brent Burns’ hit on Brenden Morrow, which I agree was not exactly clean, but not an intentional intent to injure.

With the major concern and dirty play overshadowing the first part of the game, the second period initiated a cleaner contest, with the Sharks taking control of the pace.

Concerning the injury inflicted upon Boyle, the Sharks’ response was fantastic, scoring two power play goals in quick succession to move into the lead.  While their power play was not exactly stellar for the first five games (with most goals coming at even strength), tonight it really shone against the Blues, with three of the Sharks’ six tallies coming on the power play advantage.  It really has shown significant improvement from seasons past.

Joe Thornton led the team with four points on the night (one goal – surprise! – and three assists), followed by Patrick Marleau with three points (a goal and two assists), then Logan Couture in consistent form with two points (one goal, one assist).  Thornton’s tally was his first of the year, as was Scott Hannan’s blast.  Tommy Wingels’ goal was a demonstration of true grit and determination by finishing his drive to the net.  Tomas Hertl added to his point streak with an assist on Joe Thornton’s goal.

What a team.

Soon, the Sharks will be getting back Martin Havlat, and after that, Raffi Torres – two players notably missing from the lineup.  Dan Boyle is reported to be doing okay, although prognosis concerning his injury is unknown.

With the Sharks staying unbeaten, they will next venture to Dallas to face the Dallas Stars Thursday evening to try for number seven.

Tonight's Important Contest (and More!)

The battle of the current NHL elites starts tonight.

At 5:00pm PST, the puck drops in St. Louis, as our San Jose Sharks face the St. Louis Blues at the Scottrade Center.  So far this season, both teams carry unblemished records: the Sharks with five wins, and the Blues with four wins – all of these wins occurring in regulation, with no games going to overtime.

This much is guaranteed: one of these teams will finish with a less-than-perfect record.  Therefore, this makes tonight’s game that much more of a “cannot miss” opportunity.

The Sharks started last season (2012-2013 NHL season) with seven straight wins, and subsequently dropped the next seven games, in what seemed a very unusual turn of events (although most chalked it up to the over-confidence the dominant first half of the season provided to the team).  Unlike last season, however, the team looks much better, with more visible talent and hunger to win.  Much has to do with the chemistry provided by the lines setup, in addition to fresh talent that may have taken some fans by surprise (i.e. Tomas Hertl). 

To support the former, the pairing of Joe Thornton with Brent Burns has done wonders for his productivity, turning Thornton from a finesse only player into one that has both finesse and a high work ethic.  Thornton has always been one of the League’s top centers, however his dominance has always been represented by his natural ability to pass the puck and set up plays, to a certain extent “without even trying,” because of how good he is.  Now, with Burns, a player who boasts one of the highest work ethics in the League, Thornton is now shooting the puck more, forechecking much harder, and contributing tremendously to  the Sharks’ current success.

It is also amazing to see some players with moderate success in prior seasons stepping up and adding to the score sheet.  Fans have to love Patrick Marleau coming back with a very strong showing, in addition to Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who (as a defenseman) has already put up five points within the first five games.

In case some of you are superstitious and would rather not read an opinion on who is more likely to win tonight’s game, I will not provide it here.  I have watched both teams play this season (most of the Blues’ games and all of the Sharks’ games), and what I see are two incredibly well-balanced teams (i.e. both offensively and defensively capable), with the deciding factor coming to, “Who wants to win more?”

In case some of you are particularly interested in the “head to head” statistics, refer to the bottom of this blog post.


(Now, to update on some specific areas!)

Tomas Hertl’s Performance
Before the regular season started, few Sharks fans had no idea who #48 was, and even fewer before the pre-season (as his scoring touch definitely was felt there as well).  Now, the whole league knows who he is, winning the NHL's "First Star of the Week" for last week.  Already five games into the regular season, rookie Tomas Hertl is leading the league in goals (with seven) and second in points (behind only Sasha Ovechkin).  In quite amazing fashion, the young rookie scored four goals against the New York Rangers, finishing with this between the legs beauty, which already has been proposed as a potential “goal of the year.”  Hertl’s success is no fluke, either.  Every game he has played so far this season, his visible ability to score is quite incredible.  Within these five games, two of them were multi-goal games for Hertl, goals earned by his ability to find the open net and to get the puck there with his awesome stickhandling skills.  As long as he is well protected by his teammates, which he should be (as he has already been targeted with head hits by Alex Edler of the Canucks and Clarke MacArthur of the Senators), and is paired with Thornton and Burns, who can provide fantastic setup and passing.

As some of you may know, Hertl’s highlight-reel goal attracted some “controversy,” sinc e it was overly flashy, notably attracting the ire of current Washington Capitals coach and Hall of Famer Adam Oates, who called it “disrespectful.”  Perhaps Oates and those who think the way he does need to keep those comments to themselves, because they sound foolish.  (So, are we supposed to believe that ‘showboating’ is when a player does something nice that the fans like to watch?)

Joe Thornton’s Defense of Tomas Hertl
As the Sharks have consistently been the bane of the Vancouver Canucks’ fortune, winning the last eleven contests the two teams have faced off, it is no surprise the weasel media up in Vancouver would make any attempt possible to make the Sharks look bad.  Following up on comments made about Hertl’s flashy goal, Thornton engaged in typical “locker room talk” – any hockey player can tell you what this is – where he commented that not only does the media have no place to comment on Hertl’s flashiness (as they have never played serious hockey before), but had he scored the four goals, he would “whip it out.”  Granted, he was not being serious, and should have been kept to the confines of the team locker room, a reporter allegedly heard him say this and immediately reported to the Vancouver media.

The Sharks Look Like A Cup Winning Team!
Certainly, when the Sharks are hungry, they do, however it is far too common for comments to be made way too early in the season (such as Hertl being a Calder Trophy – for Rookie of the Year – favorite).  As the season progresses, given the Sharks play a steady stream of teams, that concept of course will be re-evaluated.

Silicon Valley Restaurant Week! October 16-23

Silicon Valley Restaurant Week is back and includes around 50 participating locations! Each restaurant will offer a fixed-price 3-course menu with several options. Cafe Stritch even has a 3-course $15 menu that looks really good.

There are 14 restaurants participating from Downtown San Jose and 12 restaurants from other parts of San Jose. The event runs until October 23rd and you can find a full list of restaurants over here.