History Must Go!

Posted by Gary Singh on Thursday, July 03, 2008

LAST YEAR, when my alter ego, the urban blight exploration junkie, decided to prowl around the industrial wastelands of Stockton Avenue in San Jose, fans of San Jose underbelly came roaring out of the woodwork to laud the elegant monstrosity of urban decay sitting at the corner of Julian and Stockton—that decrepit falling-to-pieces old Westinghouse warehouse. The building is famous, and several folks who appreciate the artistic value of urban blight photography have shot the place for their collections. Metro photographer Felipe Buitrago brilliantly captured it in the July 25, 2007, issue of Metro. 

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Racking My Brain

Posted by Gary Singh on Thursday, June 26, 2008

SO MUCH for urgency ordinances. Last week, the San Jose Redevelopment Agency recommended deferring until August a specific urgency ordinance originally slated to be railroaded through Council on June 17. The ordinance was to place a “moratorium on the installation and relocation of freestanding news racks within the downtown core and the Civic Plaza Redevelopment project area; and to establish a consolidated pedestal mounted news rack zone pilot program within those same project areas.”

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Et Tu, Brutalism?

Posted by Gary Singh on Thursday, June 19, 2008

Silicon Alleys

IT SEEMS like the San Jose McEnery Convention Center just can’t get enough attention these days, and the brutal paradoxes keep on coming.

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Keep 01SJ Real

Posted by Gary Singh on Thursday, June 12, 2008

LAST WEEKEND, the 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge took place in downtown San Jose and it was a mammoth cultural achievement, both for the city and SJSU, as well as the public and private sectors—true collaboration as only Silicon Valley can achieve. Some random notes:

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01SJ Opens with Luis Valdez Defending Quetzy

Posted by Gary Singh on Friday, June 06, 2008

01SJ Diary

DURING THE opening ceremonies for the 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge, Luis Valdez made an appearance and wowed the crowd with a Mayan performance justifying Robert Graham’s Quetzalcoatl statue in Plaza de Cesar Chavez as “art & technology.” Metro didn’t take notes, but it had something to do with how the Mayans, not the Hindus, invented the zero and that the coil of the statue referenced a spiral dance of some sort.

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