Cellista's "Finding San Jose"

San Jose cellist and artistic director, Cellista, is leveraging her full-length album entitled "Finding San Jose" to direct a multidisciplinary theater performance featuring the Ransom Dance Company and Haus Serpens Cabaret. Typically I wouldn't promote an event that takes place in SF, but this is a special exception. The album pays homage to Cellista's time in San Jose and tells a story of San Jose's importance in the history of the Bay Area.

The event takes place at Little Boxes Theater in San Francisco on October 29th at 7:30pm. Tickets are $10-15 and you can listen to the album at cellista.bandcamp.com for a preview. Have a look at the press release below for more details.

Cellista to Present: Finding San José  | Theatrical Album Release

A small immersive theater event incorporating Cellista’s debut album as the soundtrack for a multimedia event choreographed by Lilith Ransom and Mojo Deville.

San Francisco, CA: Cellista extends San José’s branches into San Francisco. This October, San Jose cellist, artistic director and performer Cellista (Freya Seeburger) presents Finding San José, a one-of-a-kind multimedia performance that incorporates original choreography created and performed by Lilith Ransom (Ransom Dance) and Mojo Deville (Haus Serpens Cabaret). The presentation interweaves film by Brian Favorite (Heklina), Jennifer Gigantino, Arash Maleki, and Cellista into a small immersive setting for a presentation of dance, theater, and poetry.

Composed in narrative format, Finding San José was engineered and mixed by Maryam Qudus (Doe Eye) and Cellista. The album is reminiscent of the French avant garde, functioning as a stepping stone for many of her collaborators (Rykarda Parasol, Emcee Infinite, rapper Demone Carter, and members of the Juxtapositions Chamber Ensemble) into new disciplines.

The album is a pastiche of genres including classical, hip hop, spoken word and field recordings, showcasing Cellista’s strength as a curator and artistic director. It serves as a soundtrack for film and commercial use, functioning as Cellista’s crossover into production.

Finding San José parallels the diversity of the Bay Area at large and reinforces Cellista’s dedication to creating and producing art that reflects the community she is based in.

This presentation at Little Boxes Theater (1661 Tennessee Street, San Francisco) builds on Cellista’s work in storytelling and interweaves San Jose’s narrative into a piece, showing the immediacy of San Jose’s narrative as important to the Bay Area’s story of growth, gentrification, and more.

Finding San Jose Theatrical album release debuts on Saturday, October 29th, 2016 at 7:30PM at Little Boxes Theater in San Francisco.

Tickets $10-15 Available at the door or online via Cellista.net
21+
 
Little Boxes Theater
1661 Tennessee St
San Francisco California 94107

Listen to the album: cellista.bandcamp.com
Find out more about Cellista Cellista.net

“Freya (Cellista) is a classically trained, punk rock spirited girl with the charm and elegance to defy the stereotype that classical music isn’t cool.”
— Belle Foundation

SJSU Engineering program gets high honors

The U.S. New & World Report's 2017 college rankings listed SJSU's engineering program as the third-best public school program in the country. If you factor in all schools, SJSU's engineering program ties for 23rd place. After factoring in the tuition compared to private schools, the ROI is tough to beat. It seems like SJSU continues to build more and more prestige over time.

Last school year over 2,000 students graduated from SJSU's College of Engineering, which is 29% higher than the previous year.

Source: SVBJ

October 2016 Downtown Dimension Highlights

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

• SJdowntown.com has been relaunched with a more personal touch [Josh: the new site looks great!]
• For the first time, food traffic can reliably be counted along Downtown's eight busiest walking corridors. San Pedro Street, Santa Clara west of First, and First between Santa Clara and San Fernando have the highest consistent pedestrian volumes Downtown while SoFA has the lowest of the corridors monitored.
• SJDA Recommendations on local measures:
• Measure A ($950M affordable housing bonds) - YES
• Measure B - street repair and transit improvements - YES
• Measure E - small businesses must offer extra hours to part time workers - NO
• Measure F - pension modification for public employees - YES
• Measure G - business tax modernization - YES
• The public is invited to the 30th SJDA annual meeting on Oct 14th at First United Methodist Church (24 N. Fifth) from 8am-9:30am.
• Google purchased Apigee for $625 million.
• NextSpace expands to a 7,000 SQFT pace 97 S. Second St.
• Coast Poke Counter is now open at the San Pedro Square Public Market.
• Five Points is a new craft cocktail bar at 169 W.Santa Clara Street with drinks inspired by the saloons that graced the Five Points neighborhood in New York City.
• WESTCA, a boutique gym, is moving into the Sperry Station building at 30 N. Third St.
• Steve Borkenhagan will be the first recipient of the Business Support for the Arts Award issued by the San Jose Arts Commission.

To read the newsletter, click here!

Content Pick-Up Party tomorrow (Issue 8.4 - Profiles)

Content subscribers can enjoy an evening of art, music, food and drinks in the Citadel Art Studios Gallery to celebrate the release of Issue 8.4. This issue highlights 45 leaders in art, fashion, design, and music who are key to changing and growing the culture of the South Bay.

Snack on appetizers, sip refreshing beverages, and experience creations by some of the artists featured in 8.4 including Max DeHart, Tyson Johnston, Agency Furniture, David James Keaton, and more. There will also be a musical performance by the sibling duo Bird and Willow. Subscribers to Content Magazine will receive a complimentary beverage when picking up their issue.

The Citadel is the largest artist community in the South Bay with over 70 studios, fostering both established and emerging artists. Originally a cannery, the industrial feel of the building gives artists the freedom to express their creative side.

The event goes down tomorrow (Oct 19th) from 7pm to 9:30pm at 199 Martha St. in San Jose.

If you are not already a subscriber, you can find out more information over here.

San Jose Metro led the nation in economic growth for 2015!

Out of the 382 metros tracked by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, only 292 saw their economies grow in 2015. Of the 20 largest metros, guess which had the most growth.

The San Jose Metro grew its economy by an incredible 8.9% last year. This is miles away from the next city which is Houston at 4.6%. For all the buzz San Francisco got, they grew their economy by 4.1% last year, less than half of San Jose and putting them fifth on the list. New York barely made a dent at 1.7%.

What is even more impressive is that if you look at ALL 382 metros, including the smaller ones where it is easier to have big economic swings, San Jose still had the 2nd fastest growing economy in the US. Only Midland, TX with a population of 140k had a faster rate of growth.

The bubble chart below the grid shows economic performance versus the size of the metro (larger bubble = more population). San Jose is still performing like a fast-growing startup (hot small city) despite the fact the metro has 2 million people.

To paraphrase a Twain quote: the reports of Silicon Valley's death are greatly exaggerated. Every economy in the US would love to be where San Jose is today.

Source: CNBC, Hillrise from the San Jose Development Forum

Saturday Stats: San Jose has the highest density of computer and math-related jobs

The fact that San Jose is #1 in this stat should not surprise anyone. However, the gap between San Jose and any other city in the US when it comes to computer and math occupations is quite amazing. For every 1,000 jobs in San Jose, 124.9 of them are related to computers or math. This compares to just 78.9 in San Francisco, 76.6 in Seattle, 32.8 in New York, and 64.5 in Austin.

The chart below compares each city to the national average. A rating of 4.3 means San Jose has 4.3 times the national average of computer and math jobs. For stats on other types of jobs, hit the source link below.

Source: Abodo, Hillrise from the San Jose Development Forum

New "Visit San Jose" video

Team San Jose did an exceptional job of producing their latest promotional video for San Jose. The 1:37 long video highlights San Jose's diversity and culture and is one of the best promo videos I have seen yet for San Jose. Check it out below.

You can follow the "Visit San Jose" Facebook Page over here.

Aesop opens first Silicon Valley location at Santana Row

Aesop is a high-end retailer with skin, hair, and body "formulations." They have just opened a signature store at Santana Row, which is the first and only Silicon Valley location. They have four stores in San Francisco and hundreds all over the world.

The store is open now and is located between Gucci and Tesla. Hours are Monday-Saturday from 10am-9pm and Sunday from 11am-6pm.