Pow! Wow! festival celebrates murals and music
Pow! Wow! San Jose will be bringing public art, nightlife and music to the forefront this week, and it’s one festival that could have a lasting impact on the city.
“What’s unusual about this festival is that the art — the murals painted simultaneously by local and global artists around the city during the week of the festival — will be displayed long after the festival is over, for as long as the buildings they are painted on are standing,” said Juan Carlos
Araujo of Empire 7 Studios, which is sponsoring the festival with music production company Universal Grammar and others.
Ben Henderson, Lacey Bryant, Adele Renault, Sean Boyles and Roan Victor are among the South Bay artists who will be creating murals for the festival, which kicks off Monday with an opening ceremony at 5 p.m. at San Jose City Hall.
The week will include artists talks and music gatherings, as well as a discussion with Jasper Wong, who founded Pow! Wow! in Hawaii in 2011, on Oct. 27 at Empire Seven Studios. On Oct. 29, the festival will close with a bike ride through the streets and neighborhoods of San Jose to view the murals created throughout the week. (The ride is free, but capacity is limited, so register at bit.ly/powwowride.
You can get more details on festival events at www.powwowsanjose.com.
GOOGLE MAKES SANTA’S NICE LIST >>
It may be years before Google brings thousands of workers to downtown San Jose, but the Mountain View tech giant is already making a good impression by taking over as title sponsor of the Santa Run Silicon Valley. The Dec. 17 5K race, which supports the Downtown Ice skating rink and Christmas in the Park, is as much fun to watch as it is to run. Many participants in costume as Santa, elves, reindeer and more — and Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone leads the pack in a pace car dressed as the Grinch.
“While the Grinch is notoriously known for stealing Christmas, Google has stepped forward to help us support Christmas in the Park and our Santa Run Silicon Valley,” said Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino, who is also the run’s founder and race director.
Google’s no stranger to downtown races, as it’s already a sponsor of the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot (which is coming up Nov. 23).
HALLOWEEN CONVENTION CALLED OFF >>
One of the strangest results of the Wine Country fires is that the Famous Monsters Halloween Convention that was supposed to happen at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center next weekend had to be called off. That’s because the Famous Monsters offices in Sonoma had to be closed, and half the organization’s staff were under evacuation orders from their homes.
Famous Monsters Senior Manager Philip Kim said the cancellation was one of the hardest decisions he’s had to make. “I made great efforts to see if we could turn the show into a fundraiser, but there were a few key obstacles that would not allow us to achieve this,” he said in a letter to supporters.
The cancellation includes two performances of Richard O’Brien’s “Rocky Horror Show” that were to take place at the convention center Oct. 27 and 28, which have been moved to San Jose Stage, where the live show was already performing the rest of its Oct. 26-Nov. 4 run. A benefit show has been added at 11:30 p.m. Oct. 28 to help the community foundation for Napa and Sonoma. Admission to that show is free with a donation. Get more information at www.rockyhorrortickets.com.
FLIGHTS ARRIVING IN LOS GATOS >>
Will the Flights concept — three varieties of each dish and drink — fly in Los Gatos? Sarah and Alex
Hult are eager to find out. The owners of Hult’s restaurant in Los Gatos has decided to re-brand the restaurant to match the Campbell eatery that they opened earlier this year. Hult’s, which celebrates its fourth anniversary Oct. 26, will go out with a celebratory New Year’s Eve dinner and return in 2018 as Flights Los Gatos.
Hult’s has been a popular spot for Swedish cuisine, especially with its annual “Julbord” dinner each December. No word if the holiday tradition will continue at Flights, but you can reserve a spot for the Christmas smorgasbord on Dec. 3, 10 or 17 by calling 408354-3434.
On Tuesday, the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County will host a forum examining judicial impartiality and independence, a topic that has gained a lot of notice in the Bay Area because of the campaign to recall Judge Aaron Persky.
Panelists include California Supreme Court Associate
JUDGING JUDGES >>
Justice Carol A. Corrigan; U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman; Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Rise J. Pichon; and attorney John Steele, an expert on the canons of judicial conduct. The forum will be held in the Cupertino Room of the Quinlan Community Center, opening with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by the discussion at 7. It’s free to attend, but you can RSVP at bit. ly/ImpartialJudiciary.
LAST SPLASH AT GREAT AMERICA >>
There was a predictably huge outpouring of shock and sadness on California’s Great America’s Facebook page after the Santa Clara theme park announced that the popular Loggers Run ride would be going away. The flume ride, one of the originals from the park’s opening in 1976, includes a double drop down plunge that’s pretty guaranteed to leave everyone on the ride wet.
Loggers Run is being removed after Oct. 29 to make room for the ambiguous “exciting new features,” and many comments on social media called foul on the park for giving only a couple of weeks notice that it was going away. But hardcore fans still have a few days to take a last ride — assuming they can handle getting drenched in fall weather.
Contact Sal Pizarro at spizarro@ bayareanewsgroup.com.