Cherry-pit spitters let it fly in San Jose
Amid the tech company headquarters and high-rise apartments, it’s refreshing to see San Jose slow down now and then embrace its inner farm town. And there was no better place to do that than the cherrypit spitting contest at the San Pedro Square farmers market.
The San Jose Downtown Association brought the event back after letting it lay fallow for a couple of years, and people of all ages paused for a spell on Friday to see how far they could expectorate a pit. After a parade of ptoos, the answer turned out to be “pretty far.”
Chico State student Jordan Callender thought he had it wrapped up when he launched one 34 feet, far beyond any of the previous competitors. But then Jonathan Fishpaw stepped up to the chalk starting line. Fishpaw, a Sunnyvale resident and investment manager at Republic Family of Companies, hocked a pit 37 feet on his practice spit. Then, like a marskman, he shot another. It landed nearly parallel to his first.
The crowd — with maybe the exception of Callender — went wild. Fishpaw, 32, credited his victory to a strong stance more than anything else. Callender didn’t feel too bad, as he’s an intern this summer with the same company.
“If I was going to lose to anyone, I’m glad it was him,” the gracious runner-up said.
The women’s division was taken by Natalie Cline, who spit a pit 28 feet, and the kids’ winner was Bella Hannah, whose 20-foot spit was better than anyone in her
family, including her dad and brother.
The winners took home a bag of cherries and $5 in farmers market credit. Everybody else walked away having at least expelled a little stress from the busy week, along with a cherry pit or two.
BEST TIME TO GET THE BLUES >> Love Seat Sessions, the Silicon Valley Blues Society and the Fountain Blues Festival, have teamed up to kick off Blues Week in San Jose today at Forager Tasting Room & Eatery. The music-filled party starts at 4 p.m. with the Bob Gonzalez Band, Casey Wickstrom and others. Of course, that’s just the appetizer for the June 23 Fountain Blues Festival, a daylong musical celebration that features the Fabulous Thunderbirds as the headliner.
Tickets and the lineup, which includes Sons of the Soul Revivers and Roy Rogers & The Delta Rhythm Kings, are available at fountainblues.com.
ALL THE PARK’S A STAGE >> Silicon Valley Shakespeare is celebrating its 20th season with performances in South Bay parks this summer. The company is in the middle of a three weekend run of “As You Like It” at Willow Street Park in San Jose, which plays at 7 p.m. Thursday through Sunday
until June 24. In July, the stage moves to Sanborn Park in Saratoga, with Executive Director Doug Brook’s original production, “The Hood of Sherwood,” and a 1920s twist on Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Get more information at svshakespeare.org. MAKE YOUR OWN KIND OF MUSIC >> Palo Alto World Music Day will take place for the 10th year today, featuring about 50 professional and amateur musical groups performing a variety of genres. The sounds will radiate up and down the street corners and plazas of University Avenue, which will be closed to traffic for the festival, which runs from 3 to 7:30 p.m. Get more information at pamusicday.org.
And if you’d like to make music as well as listen, San Jose has you covered with its second annual Make Music San Jose extravaganza on Thursday. More than four dozen artists are signed up to participate, including a 6 p.m. free concert at Plaza de Cesar Chavez by the Awesome Orchestra, with David Möschler conducting.
There also will be free harmonica lessons from the Fountain Blues Festival folks for the first 40 people who show up at the San Pedro Square Market at noon, and you can tickle the ivories at pianos that will be set up at Almaden Lake Park and Vista Park in the Santa Teresa neighborhood. There are other opportunities to listen or play throughout the day. Find your favorite at makemusicday.org/sanjose or just follow your ears. KEITH MOON SHINES IN SAN JOSE >> Fans of The Who know that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the death of drummer Keith Moon, one of rock’s original “bad boys.” And you can get a real insight into him at Mick Berry’s show, “Keith Moon: The Real Me,” which opened a six-show run at 3Below Theaters in downtown San Jose on Friday.
For fans who might have reached a stage in life when they don’t tolerate loud music like they used to, Berry said the show shouldn’t be a problem.
“We are in a big enough theater that we are using acoustic drums,” he said. “The advantage is to this is that the audience sits far enough away that the sound doesn’t overpower them, but they will also feel the physical impact of live drumming. The recordings that I play along to are easily controlled so that the volume is more than comfortable.”
Get tickets at 3belowtheaters.com. RADIO DAYS >> What happens when regular, hightech communications fail in Santa Clara County? That’s when a group of volunteers known as San Jose RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service) kicks in. To keep their skills tuned in, they take part every year in a national field day exercise that is a combination of an emergency drill and a contest. Along with thousands of other amateur radio operators across the country, the San Jose members will practice their emergency communication skills for 24 hours — starting at 11 a.m. June 23 — at Hogue Park in San Jose. Come by to check it out or tune in to their website at sjraces.org.