San Jose Inside

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:

Food for Thought

Lately, I have been researching great presidents, including Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR and JFK, for a commercial educational writing project. Reading through the collected speeches and writings of each of these men, all of whom led during crucial historic times, it struck me that through their superior communication skills, they were all able to articulate a vision of a better future in such a way that the average American was inspired to act in accordance with that vision for the common good. In the classical sense, isn’t that what great leadership is all about?

It wasn’t your average Election Day in Santa Clara County. For starters, voters elected a San Jose City Council member who wasn’t a candidate.

Usually after elections, there must be the counting (and sometimes recounting), and the obligatory, if not always enlightening, analysis.  With the end of last week’s battles, there are two salient facts beyond debate. First, the fight over “Little Saigon” was traumatic for the city and more so for the hopes of Vietnamese-American candidates.  And second, the attempts of the Democratic establishment to boost and support candidates that would be solidly in their camp failed miserably with the crushing of Craig Mann in the Evergreen district.

On June 3, the San Jose City Council passed the controversial promoter ordinance that will regulate downtown nightlife by imposing fees and mandatory permits on event promoters and organizers. I don’t want to put too much on it, but the day after the ordinance passed, it was like someone had shot live entertainment in the head.

Oy vay. I have had it. Maybe they caught me on the wrong day, and maybe it’s always this way, but my last dealing with a city employee makes me realize why people curse them.

City to Spend $2.2 Million on Golf Nets!

Let’s get this straight: The City of San Jose is spending $2.2 million to install posts and netting at the city owned Los Lagos Golf Course to prevent errant golf balls from damaging people and property.  According to press reports, the city has paid $22,300 in claims over the past six years. 

Did you know the city has a central warehouse that costs over $850,000 a year to operate?  (Yes, we do. We really shouldn’t be surprised; this is the same city that spends over $30 million on three public golf courses.) Back to the warehouse: It stocks items like toilet paper, batteries, landscaping materials and cleaning products. The $850,000 is the annual cost of the seven employees and running the warehouse, and does not include the cost of the actual inventory.

Here is this week’s opportunity for our bloggers to discuss whatever they like in an open forum.

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.

Management Company Tries to Stop Errant Losers From Entering

Following the City of San Jose’s example of protecting the public from rogue golf balls, Santana Row has decided to protect their “people” by installing security nets around their village in the hopes of keeping out any errant losers that happen to wander upon their property.

RECENTLY, I joined local video engineer Mark Hager on the first trial run of a literary tour through a slice of Silicon Valley underbelly that no one talks about. We’ll call them the Ancient and Mystical Brotherhood of Union Stagehands (AMBUS) who toil away behind the scenes at all your favorite arena rock shows and grand-scale conventions and industrial events. Yes, the same crew of riggers, ironworkers, A/V techs, lighting designers and their ilk who bump into each other backstage at Shoreline Amphitheatre at least partly overlap with the folks running cable and troubleshooting satellite feeds behind the scenes at conventions and high-tech product launches. Hager, a Bellarmine graduate, is possibly the first one to ever write a book about the lifestyle. Boom! Backstage Pass is now complete and available at http://www.boombackstagepass.com. Aside from juicy gossip about high-tech celebs and rock stars, the book is filled with flashes of what life was like at the beginning of the dotcom bubble:

Remember Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies?  Remember how he was in space so long he didn’t know the value of money?  He threatened to blow up the world unless he was paid the astounding sum (to him) of one million dollars!  In the next Austin Powers movie, Mayor Chuck Reed could play Dr. Evil. 

THE 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge—or 01SJ for short—is not one of those harebrained schemes to “put San Jose on the map,” or yet another attempt to alleviate San Jose’s inferiority complex. The festival isn’t taking place in San Jose just because Vancouver, Venice and São Paulo all have world-renowned cultural biennials and we don’t. The festival is happening here because, plain and simple, it must happen here.