Connect 7.2

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CONTENT Issue 7.2

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display until august 15, 2015

Featuring:

Hackers/founders | Southern Lumber| Blaise Rosenthal | Hill Man | Nomikai | SETI

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Danny Harris Knight Foundation Program Director / San Jose

2 N . M A R K E T S T R E E T, S U I T E 1 0 0 , S A N J O S E , C A 9 5 1 1 3 / P : 4 0 8 . 2 9 3 . 4 2 4 2 / U M B R E L L A S A L O N . C O M

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CONTENT Issue 7.2 “Connect” June / July 2015

The Makers: Cultivator Daniel Garcia Managing Editor Flora Moreno de Thompson Managing Photo Editor Gregory Cortez Designers Daniel Millan, Omar Rodriguez Gustaf Fjelstrom, Kevin Zittle Brian Gomez Circulation/Distribution Alex Ontiveros Publisher Silicon Valley Creates

Marketeer Sarah Garcia Senior Editor Odile Sullivan-Tarazi Production Kristen Pfund Photographers Scott MacDonald, Gregory Cortez Stan Olszewski, Shane Hagerty Writers Mark Haney, Brandon Roos Nathan Zanon, Anna Bagirov Chad Hall, Kate Evans Michelle Runde, Isara Krieger Tawnya Lancaster, Antoinette Siu María Gabriela Huertas Díaz

“Every single human on this earth wants one thing: a connection...” This idea, echoed by Bryan Kramer during our interview, resonated with me. When we walk down the street, or look at photos in an album, we always look to the eyes, that portal to the other person’s soul. We need a connection, even when we think we don’t. “No man is an island,” right?

Although we are living in the greatest technological and inventive time in all of history, it can isolate us. There are actually great opportunities to connect with our community: finding common musical interests, good tastes, or shared resources.

Our mission with Content is to facilitate those connections, to provide a way for our community to know our neighbors and develop stronger empathetic relationships and experiences. With that in mind, we invite you to slow down and read about the lives of these great people featured in this issue. Then, move past the consumption to find ways to connect.

Enjoy.

Daniel Garcia The Cultivator

IN THIS ISSUE SETI / Jonathan Nelson / Danny Harris / Visual SJ Photo Contest / Nomikai To participate in Content Magazine: daniel@content-magazine.com Subscription & Advertising information available by contacting editor@content-magazine.com

Content Magazine is a bimonthly publication about the innovative and creative culture of Silicon Valley, published by Silicon Valley Creates.

Content Connect 7.2 June/July 2015 San Jose, California

Sister city 8

Ekaterinburg, Russia

CULTURE

10 Wayfinding

ART & Design

12 Artist, Blaise Rosenthal

16 Visual SJ Photo Contest Winners 22 Bay Area Glass Institute

24 ArtKick, Nancy & Sheldon Laube

Profiles 28 32 36 38

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44 46 48 52

56 60

Actor, Jeffrey Brian Adams CatapultWorks, Tom Beck Shareology, Bryan Kramer Clever Girls Collective, Cat Lincoln, Stefania Pomponi & Kristy Sammis H & H Lighting, Beth & Tim Haniger, Veronica & Nathan Haniger Wearhaus, Richie Zeng & Nelson Zhang Bellabeat, Urška Sršen Hacker/Founders, Jonathan Nelson SETI, Drs. Jill Tarter, Nathalie Cabrol & Lori Fenton Southern Lumber, Jeff Pohle Knight Foundation, Danny Harris

Jonathan Nelson, pg. 48

Style

66 Produce, Daniel Garcia

Food & Drink

70 Savory Kitchen, Colleen Janke 74 Nomikai, Kathy and Tone Tran

Nomikai, pg. 74

Music 76

78 79 80

San Jose Jazz, Brendan Rawson & Bruce Labadie Xiomyr, Billy Barnes & Koosha Araghi Hill Man Album Picks, Tommy Aguilar

Writings

82 Author, Mike McGee 84 In the Bag 85 Contributors All materials in Content Magazine are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published, broadcast or modified in any way without the prior written consent of Silicon Valley Creates, or in the case of third party materials, the owner of that content. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of this content. For further information, or to participate in the production or distribution, please contact us at editor@content-magazine.com.

Bellabeat, pg. 46

Hill Man, pg. 79

Spectrum

Reticello Skull by Scott Darlington

presents

A group exhibition of contemporary glass artists exploring the never ending possibilities of an amazing material.

Curated by Jonathan Yao and Valerie Pohorsky

Opening reception: Friday, May 1st 7–11pm Exhibition dates: May 1–June 13, 2015 Participating Artists: Rik Allen Victoria Ahmadizadeh Rebecca Arday Jeff Ballard Jason Blandford Lydia Boss Courtney Branam Brandyn Callahan Morgan Chivers Jennifer Crescuillo Abram Deslauriers Scott Darlington Matthew Eaton Roberta Eichenberg Jason Elliot

William Rudolph Faulkner Jean M. Fernandes Shaun Griffiths Dorie Guthrie Kristoff Kamrath David King James Labold Kier Lugo Patrick Martin Maggie McCain Mark Mitsuda Anna Mlasowsky Andrew Najarian Kelly O'Dell Jon Paden

Amanda Patenaude Morgan Peterson Valerie Pohorsky Lynn Everett Read Kait Rhoads Ryan Rodamer Zach Rudolph Amy Rueffert Esteban Salazar Biagio Scarpello Johnathon Schmuck Rick Schneider David Schnuckel Ben Sharp Kim Sharp

Tim Siemon Rich Small Megan Stelljes Austin Stern C. Matthew Szosz Hiromi Takizawa Zak Timan Gregory B. Tomb Janie Trainor Mary Bayard White Benjamin Wright Jonathan Yao

Anno Domini //the second coming of Art & Design 366 South First Street, San Jose, CA 95113 www.galleryAD.com 408.271.5155 Gallery hours: Tuesday - Friday Noon–7pm, Saturday Noon–5pm & First Fridays 7pm–11pm

sister cIties President Dwight Eisenhower established the sister city program in 1956 to foster global awareness and peaceful relations. For each issue in this series, we asked a design team from one of our city’s sisters to present their view of their home town.

Ekaterinburg, Russia Written by Lena Shubentseva

San JOse’s Sister Cities

San José, Costa Rica Okayama, Japan Veracruz, Mexico Tainan, Taiwan Dublin, Ireland Pune, India Guadalajara, Mexico Ekaterinburg, Russia

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ne of the largest cities in Russia, Ekaterinburg is located in the middle of the Ural Mountain Range, on the border between Europe and Asia.

(Vojvodina str. 5). Also on display are furniture and jewelry, including many items inlaid with gemstones from Ural. Be sure not to miss the Kasli iron sculptures, sculpted for the Exposition Universelle of At the beginning of the twentieth century, 1900, held in Paris.

Ekaterinburg was characterized by a unique style of architecture. Typical hallmarks of Ekaterinburg is known also for its theaters this style are smooth walls, geometrical and theater companies. If plays are your shapes, and ribbon windows. A good thing, consider taking in the unique example of this architectural style can be Kolyada Theater (Lenina str. 97). The plays found in the semicircular façade of the Iset are performed in Russian, but you can Hotel (Lenina str. 69); and this coming see such classics as Shakespeare’s Hamlet autumn, the hotel will house the Third presented in a bold and modern way.

Annual Ural Industrial Biennial of Modern Art. Many such exhibitions are held at For visitors to the city who prefer a guided factories no longer in use, giving these tour, there’s the “Red Line,” a pedestrian factories a second life as showrooms for the route through the city marked directly industrial history of Ural. on the ground with a bright red line. The entire route takes about three hours, and it If you happen to visit the Iset, be sure also to takes you past several important sites. If you check out the first floor of the hotel, where walk the route, pay attention to the eclectic the restaurants are. For a good dinner, you Savostianov’s House (now Putin’s residence) might try Fabrika Kukhnya, where they and the old historic quarter on Proletarskya serve pelmeni, a famous Ural dish featuring Street. Don’t be afraid to wander off different kinds of meat. the route. You will be sure to find lots of interesting things to see and do, both on It’s not only industrial exhibits you’ll find and off it. in Ekaterinburg. There are many museums too, over thirty. For classic paintings and The city is famous too for its street art artwork, visit the Museum of Fine Arts projects. Some of them, you will find out

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on the streets themselves. Others, you will find at the “Sweater” Street Art Gallery (Pushkina str. 12). And nearly every year, Ekaterinburg is home to the graffiti festival “Stenograffia.”

Street art naturally inclines one toward shopping. If you’re looking to pick up souvenirs of your trip, you might think of the Ural Clothing Company, a popular brand with the locals and one that pays tribute to the city’s geographical location.

Visit the Garlem Shop (Radishcheva 10) to find this brand of street clothing, and take home something unique. Young residents of Ekaterinburg also like T-shirts and hoodies by Hello Pepe, a brand known for its illustrative prints by artist Natalya Pastuhova. You can find this brand at the “Sweater” Street Art Gallery.

For more traditional souvenirs, visit the large market located just outside the Geologicheskaya subway gate. It’s not just popular among visitors. Here, you’ll find souvenirs and different kinds of Ural goods for tourists and citizens alike.

If you’ve spent the afternoon shopping, you’ll likely want to take a break for some refreshment. Not far from the “Sweater” gallery you can grab a cup of coffee at Delu Vremya (Pushkina str. 4), a simple, small cozy coffee shop. This coffee to go always makes for a good day.

If you’re looking to unwind, perhaps go for a drink, you might try Dom Pechati (Lenina str. 49). This is a bar with a European vibe.

On the weekends, you can come here to listen to great DJ sets of local and European musicians. The bar has a loft-style industrial interior. The building itself used to house a typography workshop.

Finally, after exploring the city, you may want to visit the Kharitonov-Rastorguev Park (Karla Libknehta 44). In it, you’ll find a complex of classical architectural buildings of the 18th century. Many years ago, this palace was the main residence of the last royal Romanov family. Today, it is a school for children.

1. Iset Hotel and Ural Biennale

6. Garlem Shop

2. Fabrika Kukhnya

7. Delu Vremya Coffee Shop

3. Museum of Fine Arts

8. Dom Pechati

Lenina street 69 +7 (343) 380-3696 uralncca@gmail.com

Radishcheva 10 Open: daily, noon to 9pm +7 (912) 616-1088

Lenina street 69/1 Open: Sat, Sun noon to 12am +7 (343) 271-1301

Pushkina street 4 Open: noon to 10pm +7 (922) 619-0014

Vojvodina street 5 Open: W–Th, 11am to 8pm F–Sn, 11am to 7pm +7 (343) 371-0626

Lenina street 49 Open: Th, 6pm to 12am F–Sa, 6pm to 6am +7 (343) 382-5224

4. Kolyada Theater Lenina street 97 +7 (343) 359-8022

5. “Sweater” Street Art Gallery Pushkina street 12 Open: M–Su, noon to 10pm +7 (912) 630-3732

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Lena Shubentseva is an artist from Ekaterinburg. She uses many means of expression in her art: video art, installations, or street art.

She prefers to make street art, which she believes should always be site specific. Lena’s most recent art project, “City on the Pond,” consisted of a fictional city on a frozen pond. behance.net/lenashu instagram: l_shu *All images provided by Lena Shubentseva

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Wayfinding: Connecting the Isolated Nodes of Vibrancy Written by Mark Haney Photography by Daniel Garcia

Wayfinding is the idea that through information systems, people can be guided through a physical environment (like downtown) in a way that enhances their understanding of the space, creating relationships between points of interest or hubs of activity.

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owntown San Jose is a circuit. More specifically, it is an integrated circuit. Downtown is the heart and brains of San Jose. It is a place with many isolated and uniquely different nodes of vibrant activity. Yet it is a place that hasn’t solved how to use all these active spaces to form a singular, functional urban environment. How do these gaps between nodes become better integrated and connected? How can the downtown circuit be a place where SoFA and SJSU are true neighbors? Where San Pedro Square and St. James Park are allies in the momentum of revitalization?

The building and street design of San Jose’s downtown is not on par with the design of other cities of equivalent size. Unfortunately, downtown can be confusing to those not well versed in its intricacies. For those coming out onto the street from places like the Fairmont Hotel, there are no obvious paths by which to reach San Pedro Square Market or SoFA, even though both are mere blocks away. If the streets connecting these nodes of vibrancy don’t give clues, don’t open spaces and create curiosity, then the chance of pedestrians wandering and exploring those streets is low. It is this sense of exploration that is missing in downtown: the ability to step out onto the street, with or without a destination in mind, and find something new and exciting.

One tool being used to create a solution for this confusing disconnection is wayfinding. Wayfinding is the idea that through information systems, people can be guided through a physical environment (like downtown) in a way that

enhances their understanding of the space, creating relationships between points of interest or hubs of activity. Wayfinding can be as simple as welldesigned signage, and as complex as using building and streetscape design to subtlety direct foot traffic.

As of April, Walk [Your City] posted 47 signs throughout downtown pointing out points of interest, nodes of activity, places people might want to be, and the walking time to each. This is just the beginning of integrating downtown’s important places: the longer-term goal would be to have developers and city planners striving to build well-connected areas throughout downtown, using well-designed buildings and streets both to add to the character of place and to clarify, rather than confuse, the journey.

Using simple signage is the easiest, most logical first step. In a very real sense, wayfinding comes down to context. Context between here and wherever there will be, and the route that connects the two. Take a potential hub of activity like St. James Park. In the greater context of downtown, St. James Park should have great connections to San Pedro Square Market, to City Hall, even to Cesar Chavez Park. But the park is disconnected and isolated within its surroundings.

Take a hub of activity like Diridon Station, through which thousands of commuters pass every day. Currently, there are few pedestrian-friendly connections with downtown. With the appropriate signage added, people coming into San Jose would know that City Hall is one mile east and the Guadalupe River Trail is a tenth of a mile east, The Alameda is 1000 feet west, and so on.

Without proper connections, downtown will continue to be fragmented into isolated areas of vibrancy. Each of these places—The Tech Museum, San Pedro Square Market, SAP Center, SJSU, St. James Park, the SoFA District, Diridon Station—is essential for downtown’s success. By creating relationships between the spaces and thus valuable connections within downtown, we can ensure that the different components work together to form a single functional landscape, an integrated circuit. Only by strengthening the threads that connect them will the individual pieces themselves be strengthened.

It is this sense of exploration that is missing in downtown: the ability to step out onto the street, with or without a destination in mind, and find something new and exciting.

Thinkbiggersanjose.com Walkyourcity.org

BLAISE ROSENTHAL CREATING MOMENTS ON CANVAS Interview and Photography by Daniel Garcia

IT’S TEMPTING TO SAY THAT BLAISE ROSENTHAL HAS MOVED FROM HIS PROFESSIONAL SNOWBOARDING CAREER TO BEING AN ARTIST, BUT IT IS MORE ACCURATE TO SAY THAT BLAISE, WHO HAS BEEN DRAWING SINCE CHILDHOOD, IS MERELY NOW DEVOTING HIS CREATIVE ENERGIES TO HIS PAINTINGS.

How would you describe your work?

I would say it’s more environmental. My experiences of a certain place during a certain period, and the physicality of that place, it’s very archetypal for me. It’s like, “This is water. This is earth. This is heat. This is foliage.”

It’s very much like it’s like my own personal Garden of Eden, except not necessarily so serene. It has more adversity than obviously a paradise would have, but it still is my own kind of primal experience, and so in that way, I relate back to that. Then the physicality, all of my work has a certain physicality to it.

and I go, “Ooh, that works. Why does it work?” And then I reverse-engineer it. “Why does the geometry work for me? Why does the repetition work for me?” and so it’s like that.

Your earlier work was very colorful. What was the transition to the current work?

I was making the underpainting for one of the paintings I was working on. I had just finished a show, and I was starting to work again. I made this piece, and I had all of the underpainting done, and made an outline for what I wanted to do, and when I finished doing that, I saw it, and I was like, “What am I doing? This is what I want to make.”

I had been creating these underpaintings, and then looking at it and going, “That’s really beautiful, but it doesn’t fit the idea I have.” I would complete an idea in a painting to express some concept that I didn’t even necessarily believe in five minutes later. I was trying to have all this conceptual importance in the work, or have some theoretical underpinning to the paintings. But then, I gave in to beauty, and I was like, “Why am I going to cover something that I like up?”

Yori and Danna Seeger, husband and wife, new parents, artists, educators, and revolutionaries.

There’s a real earthy or elemental aspect to your work.

Right. Charcoal is a totally natural material. It’s also one of the first mark-making media that humanity ever probably used—probably charcoal from the fire, boom— on the ground, or on the wall, or on a rock, or whatever.

Is that something that you intentionally did, or is that just a byproduct?

I use the charcoal because it was something I was doing a long time ago, and I realized there was another way I was using it. A lot of what I do is that I do something,

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Is that because you want the viewer to bring in more of their own emotion or a feeling, and their thoughts to it, than a “story” you are trying to tell?

I would like it to be holistically experiential in the sense that when you see my art, people want to touch it. With my larger pieces, people really respond to the texture of them. To touch them on that sensory level: I want it to stimulate your mind. I just don’t necessarily want to dictate to you what to think, because I think people’s life experiences are so subjective, and the potential is then infinite.

What I try to do is to create a moment of sincerity in regards to my painting, where this painting comes as close to a hundred percent being from a place that I feel is true, and that I have a license to speak from, as far as my experience growing up, my influences in art making.

Then I put it there, and people bring whatever they have to the table, and they look at it and whatever it does for them, I don’t know.

As much as I’m trying to maybe downplay the whole idea of dictating, I at least do think there are universal themes or potentials for human experience. And if I can touch on those, then I’m doing really well. There’s a final

Do you think with that earlier work, then, you were trying to almost prove yourself in a way?

I wanted an excuse for the paintings. I wanted to be like, “OK, I’m making the paintings because I need to investigate the meaning of life or whatever.” I kept trying to think about it, and it was a very weak topic. There was nothing else. I see people make paintings about all kinds of things. It seems like a really inefficient medium for that purpose, whereas a documentary or podcast, whatever, you can get a point across.

With painting, I think it’s touching on something that isn’t necessarily explainable. To have a concept before you even start to make the painting, and then adhere to that concept, then it’s the painting to potentiate that concept.

Fortunately, I stopped working and paid attention. That has been foundation of everything I’ve made since.

You’ve said you want your paintings to be about nothing, or something like that?

I don’t want them to be about nothing at all. I actually want them to be everything all at once, but I just don’t want them to be too specifically something, because that limits their potential to be everything else.

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“WHAT I TRY TO DO IS TO CREATE A MOMENT OF SINCERITY.” 14

kind of singular moment at which the whole becomes that I made that were definitely calculations not based on athleticism, but based on expressiveness or identity. greater than the sum of its parts.

In that way, snowboarding and painting are related, Not to focus on your snowboarding life, but are there any because they’re both places where I can be the person that similarities in the sense of having a career in snowboarding, I am. I just seem to be the type of person that has this and then having a career in painting? What would you say is need to do this thing and share it with other people. the connection, what’s the commonality?

Snowboarding was something that worked for me It’s not a song if it was never sung, right?

Right. I’m not just entertaining myself. I am, but because it was an extension of skateboarding, and skateboarding was something that worked for me because I’m entertaining myself with a deep-seated hope that it was physical, and yet it also had the potential for someone else is going to be affected by what I’m doing, too, and I’d be lying if I said otherwise, so I love the idea expression.

It was performance art, in a way, and it was also that I am autonomous sometimes, and my work could be satisfying in so many ways. Skateboarding is a pretty autonomously beautiful, but it still needs to be seen. highly refined—almost to a fault at some times—but a highly refined subculture, where the possibility for meaning through artistic expression is totally inherent in the act.

What color shoelaces you have can be a way of expressing an aspect of personal identity, and I would say that snowboarding is an extension in the same way.

The way in which you would do something, the way in which you wouldn’t do something, there were decisions blaiserosenthal.com

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2015 Visual San Jose The Preservation Action Council of San Jose (PACSJ) was pleased to partner with the San Jose Historic Landmarks Commission and Content magazine in hosting Visual San Jose, a Historic Photo Contest for 2015. The finalists’ photographs were on exhibit at Southern Lumber Company, 1402 Monterey Road, from June 3 until June 16. On the last day, the winners were announced at a festive awards reception. The photo contest winners received prizes with a total value of over $5,000, thanks to all our sponsors: Southern Lumber, Whole Foods, Garden City Construction, Bay Photo Lab, Rocky Nook, San Jose Water Company, The Schoennauer Company, SanDisk, Keeble & Shuchat Photography, Richard Dischler Photo Workshops, Leah Toeniskoetter, and Big Dog Vineyards.

We were pleased to have received the largest number of submissions of San Jose historic photos this year. With so many excellent photos, the decision to choose finalists and winners was difficult for the knowledgeable judges, Josh Anon, Franklin Maggi, Pierre-Francois Galpin, and Keay Edwards. Thanks to everyone who participated, Visual San Jose’s goal to bring awareness of San Jose history to our residents through the artistic viewpoint of photographers was a success.

We are proud to present the winners of the Visual San Jose Historic Photo Contest: Best in Show, Fade to Gray by Christina Warren Professional 1st – Yellow House, Little Italy by Agnieszka Jakubowicz 2nd – Willow Glen Trestle (1921-22) by James Watkins 3rd – Bridge Over Red Withered Chair by Kymberli Weed Brady Non-Professional 1st – Casa Grande/New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum by Ron Horii 2nd – Historic Willow Glen Trestle by Lee Viray Cahili 3rd – Sunset Vista Renaissance Revival by Dennis Mellican Student 1st – My City, My World by Cynthia Voly 2nd – Henry’s Hi-Life by Sydney Martin 3rd – Century Theater by Samantha Ledbetter

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BEST IN SHOW

Fade to Gray by Christina Warren

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PROFESSIONAL FIRST PLACE

Yellow House, Little Italy by Agnieszka Jakubowicz

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NON-PROFESSIONAL FIRST PLACE

Casa Grande/New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum by Ron Horii

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STUDENT FIRST PLACE

My City, My World by Cynthia Voly

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OTHER WINNERS

SECOND AND THIRD PLACE Honorable mentions were also awarded to Basim Jaber, Emily Funkouser, Tabatha Simpson, Alayne Yellum, Tay Othman, Edgar Ramirez, Edward Arroyo, Katherine McGowan, and Alyssa Miller.

The Visual San Jose mission is to promote historic preservation by raising awareness of San Jose’s historic resources, to celebrate the efforts to preserve our city’s history, and to recognize the irreplaceable historic resources that are threatened. By photographing our favorite historic structure, site, or artifact, we demonstrate community support for our historic resources and honor our past.

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PACSJ thanks Jeff Pohle for the use of Southern Lumber for the photo exhibit and reception, Whole Foods for the reception refreshments, all of our sponsors, and the Visual San Jose Committee: May Yam, Charles DiLisio, Gayle Frank, Brian Grayson, Sharon McCauley, Sylvia Carroll, Josh Marcotte, and Greg Annable.

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6 non-Professional

Professional

Student

1. Historic Willow Glen Trestle

3. Willow Glen Trestle

5. Henry’s Hi-Life

by Lee Viray Cahili 2. Sunset Vista Renaissance Revival

by Dennis Mellican

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by James Watkins 4. Bridge Over Red Withered Chair

by Kymberli Weed Brady

by Sydney Martin 6. Century Theater

by Samantha Ledbetter

PLAYING WITH FIRE Written by Michelle Runde Photography by Shane Hagerty

BAY AREA GLASS INSTITUTE

GLASS STUDIOS ARE A FAR RARER SIGHT THAN STUDIOS FEATURING PAINT OR CLAY, AND EVEN MORE RARE IS THE GLASS STUDIO OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

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here is something at once magical and intimidating about creating glass: the molten liquid, the burning ovens, the intense concentration of the artists as they work. At the Bay Area Glass Institute (BAGI) in San Jose, this ancient craft is practiced everyday. Located inside an old Del Monte cannery, BAGI is one of the most unusual art studios in the South Bay. Whether it’s a school field trip to watch a vase blown into existence, a fun date night, corporate team building, or one of their many classes in working with and sculpting glass, BAGI strives to offer something for everyone.

Executive Director Damon Gustafson is proud of the community outreach undertaken by the institute, the only public access glassworking facility in all of Santa Clara County. “Anybody can make glass here: young, old…and little kids love it! I want people to know, glass is for everyone,” says Gustafson. The school field trips BAGI hosts are popular with students of all ages. “We keep the joy of the glass, take away any fear of the ‘pain’ of the heat.”

BAGI also has relationships with artists throughout the South Bay and beyond. They host workshops, exhibits, special events, demos. “Glass is addictive,” Gustafson laughs.

Glass studios are a far rarer sight than studios featuring paint or clay, and even more rare is the glass studio open to the public. The equipment in use at a glass studio is expensive and requires nearly constant tending. One of the most arresting features of the studio is the crucible pot, which runs at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit twenty-four hours a day, day in and day out—every day of the year. If the temperature drops lower than the required threshold, the molten glass will begin to cool and the crucible pot to crack, ruining it for further use. It is sensitive equipment like this that makes running a glass studio a 24/7 proposition.

The old cannery warehouse that houses the institute is home as well to many artists, who over the years have formed an unofficial art community. Come next January,

however, the historic building will be demolished to make way for a new apartment complex. After fifteen years in this location, BAGI will have to move. “Not just us, it will disperse a huge art community from this historic area of Japantown,” adds Gustafson. In response, BAGI will soon rev up a community engagement campaign to raise the funds needed to relocate to a new studio. Gustafson takes a positive approach, “The hope is that if we are able to gather the funds to move, we can go to a bigger location that will allow us to take on bigger projects, more classes.” Currently, BAGI is loosely divided into three sections: the hot shop (for larger glass pieces), a fusing studio (for laying glass together for tiles and the like), and the flame studio (for miniature glass work such as beads and figurines). The hope is to find a location to accommodate these studios-within-the-studio and to perhaps allow for expansion as well.

But until the move, it will be business as usual. This fall is the 20th anniversary of the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch festival, held in conjunction with the Palo Alto Art Center and its foundation. Each year, thirty West Coast artists are invited to participate. On the weekend of the event, crowds of over five thousand will browse the more than ten thousand glass pumpkins dotting the lawn of the Art Center. “The proceeds from the sale of pumpkins are split between the sponsoring organizations and the artists,” says Gustafson. “Last year, the event grossed over $300,000, so it is an important revenue generator for BAGI and the artists.”

Long before pumpkins comes the summer, of course, and June will see the Glass Art Society’s 44th Annual Conference, to be held this year for the first time in San Jose. The theme? Interface: Glass, Art, and Technology, a perfect fit for Silicon Valley. The event puts BAGI in the spotlight, and Gustafson is busy preparing. “We’re the only public glass studio in San Jose, so we are going to be very involved—hosting visiting artists, exhibits, and demonstrations. It’s a lot of work, but we’re excited.” bagi.org facebook: bagi.org twitter: bayareaglassin

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WITH THE ARTKICK APP, ANYONE CAN BECOME AN ART CURATOR.

Artkick: Written by Tawnya Lancaster Photography by daniel garcia

Bringing Art to the People

“WHATEVER YOU CALL ‘ART’ AND PUT ON YOUR WALLS, THOUGH, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO ENJOY AND CHANGE IT AS EASILY AS YOU CHANGE YOUR MUSIC.”

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tepping into the many-windowed home of Nancy and Sheldon Laube is like stepping into a gallery. A rich assembly of paintings and photographs, pottery and sculptures, and quirky art pieces from far-off places meets the eye. It’s a narrative that speaks of lives fully lived, of journeys undertaken, together and individually—told entirely in visuals. It’s this passion that inspired Sheldon, a serial entrepreneur and former tech executive and CIO at PricewaterhouseCoopers, to launch his latest project, a startup called Artkick that endeavors to bring our visually connected worlds to life.

The potential for Artkick came to him a couple of years ago when the couple attended a panel discussion at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. A psychologist and professional photographer whose work has gained popularity through local art shows, Nancy was looking for ideas on what regional artists could do to get into galleries and get more exposure. What the panel shared was, depressingly, “not much.”

“A light bulb went off for me,” explains Sheldon. “It was such an old, elitist model. I realized that we needed to change what it means to enjoy and share art. We needed to bring art to the people, versus bringing people to the art. Not everyone can go to a gallery or museum, and not everyone wants to. And art is subjective. For some, it’s a 100-year-old masterpiece; for others, it’s a picture of their dog. Whatever you call ‘art’ and put on your walls, though, you should be able to enjoy and change it as easily as you change your music.”

Within six months, Sheldon and his team had created a free mobile app that made it easy to stream millions of fine art and photographic images to an internet-connected TV. Artkick won media praise and awards, including the “best social/lifestyle mobile app” by the Best Mobile App Awards. But that was only the beginning.

With more than 1.8 billion photos being shared on the internet each day, it didn’t take long for Sheldon to realize that Artkick had to be about more than fine art and photography. It had to be about a person’s entire visual world—the pictures they discover, collect, and share across Facebook and other popular photo and image sharing sites like Instagram, Pinterest, and Flickr.

“The very nature of what it means to take a picture today has changed,” he says. “It’s no longer about creating and preserving some static piece of art. It’s about connecting dynamically with your community and sharing your visual experience, which is really our narrative of who we are.”

He says companies like Pinterest and Instagram have paved the way for visual discovery on the web, but that, so far, this discovery has been limited to our devices. “Our stories are trapped in these tiny phones because there is no way to easily bring them into our living rooms and our lives,” he says.

Last fall, realizing that new lifestyle habits of doing without TV kept many from embracing the television as a framework for art, Sheldon and team started thinking about how to make it even easier for people to bring their visual world into the home. What they came up with is

LOOK™, a framed, streaming HD picture player that can be displayed on wall or table, through which users can show all their favorite images: black-capped chickadees from a Pinterest board perhaps, van Gogh’s Starry Night, a chiseled Hong Kong cityscape, a stunning Maui sunset, oh and that awesome selfie taken at a Mountain Winery summer concert. The HD display live-streams from several social media and personal picture sites, and provides access to fine art and photography from Getty Images and over 4,000 museums. Users can even pull their pictures into personal viewlists, which can then be shared in real time in the homes of friends and family.

Sheldon says there’s potential for LOOK to be used in schools for educational purposes, in commercial and public spaces for visual installations, and more. “We’re at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to visual innovation and how it’s going to change our world,” he says.

Artists, for example, can use LOOK as a tool for reaching out to customers and sharing their work with the community, bypassing the traditional, closed-door gallery model that keeps so many on the fringes. “This is

“WE’RE AT THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG WHEN IT COMES TO VISUAL INNOVATION AND HOW IT’S GOING TO CHANGE OUR WORLD.” powerful,” says Nancy, “because now artists like me have a better way to share their work—not just on a computer screen, but on the walls of a home.” Though they have not fully developed a selling channel for local artists, Sheldon says the app has the capability and it is something they intend to roll out in the future.

The company is also in discussions with museums across the country, including the San Jose Museum of Art, over how LOOK and the Artkick app can help them better engage with members. LOOK, for example, could help drive interest in new exhibitions or showcase pieces currently in storage. Doing, in other words, just what Sheldon had originally envisioned: bringing art to the people.

“Life is not static,” says Sheldon. “We are all constantly evolving. So why shouldn’t the art on our walls reflect that?

Our digital images we collect have become the story of who we are. Let’s bring that story to life, in our places of living where they can be fully experienced and shared.” artkick.com social media: artkicktv pinterest: artkick

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Jeffrey Brian Adams

The Bellarmine High and Santa Clara grad returns home from New York to star on The Stage.

Interview and Photography by daniel Garcia

The acting profession is a rewarding and trying one. The joy of being an integral part of the storytelling process is peppered with the continual fear of having to audition for your next job. And how many of us feel the need to list Burp on Command, Double-Jointed Shoulder Blades, or Possessing a Driver’s License as skills on our LinkedIn profile? For actor Jeffrey Adams, such is the life. Adams recently returned home to the Bay Area from The New School for Drama in New York to appear in the productions of Death of a Salesman and The Addams Family at The Stage.

How did you get into acting and performing?

It started out when I was eight years old, doing children’s theater at this summer camp, at Milpitas Rainbow Theater. My brother and I both sang. Growing up, we were in choirs and stuff like that. It was something we enjoyed doing. We thought, “All right. We’ll sign up for this.”

The first play we did was Music Man. It was something to do during the summer and to make friends. But it was really fun and it developed into a passion. I kept going back every summer.

As I got older, I started to appreciate the technique of taking on different characters and the academic side of it as well. And once I got into high school, really studying plays and digging deeper into what it means...from there, it just took off.

You chose to pursue this path pretty early on.

I did. Definitely in high school, I really, really fell in love with it. Obviously, you’re in an academic setting where you’re constantly reading different plays and literature. That was a big focus for me in high school. My senior year, I was taking four English electives. My passion was there.

Was there somewhat of a defining moment where you said, “Yeah, I’m going to pursue this along the way.”

There was, actually. I was a sophomore in high school in 2003. I was fifteen years old. I had the opportunity, at the Milpitas Rainbow Theater, to play Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha.

Which is really [a role] for a man of 50 to 60 years old, but being a children’s theater, I was able to portray this guy. I think that was really it for me. I was able to not only transform into a 50-, 60-year-old man, but also [the character’s] story is one that is incredible.

Being able to transform into another person and take on these characteristics and be a man who’s full of hope

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and tragedy and sorrow, and has this whole mantra of dreaming the impossible dream, it was a metaphor for acting as well.

It was the first time I got lost in a character. Jeffrey was gone. I was able to fuse everything I knew as an actor into just totally being this other person, which for me was fascinating and really wonderful. To be able to share that with an audience is always just incredible. I think that was probably the moment.

So, when I applied to different colleges, I absolutely looked at the theater programs, that was important. I knew that was the path I was going to take. It’s a whole different process. You have to go on college auditions, as well as the application process and all that.

What is it you like about acting?

Two of my passions are acting and teaching. I taught for a year after Santa Clara. I think both of those professions are admirable and very important. I think that acting, at its finest, is also teaching. I think that’s part of why I enjoy it so much. I think there are so many important stories, about just the human experience, that are out there.

Being able to share that in a creative, artistic way is something I love. I think if it’s done well, audiences and people who see your performance will learn something from it, want to talk about it. It will either make them feel in some way, or bring awareness to something that is important on a larger level. I really love that.

What have you learned from some of those characters you portrayed that has affected your personal life?

I think that’s also one of the reasons I love acting. I get to learn more about myself through the characters I play.

Aldous Huxley has this great quotation that I use all the time. It’s “The more you know, the more you see.” The more I know about these characters, the more I see in myself and the world around me.

In order to play somebody else, you have to ask yourself, “What would you do in this situation?” or “If you were to be this person, how would you go through what they’re going through?”

Those are questions that not everybody gets to ask themselves a lot in their profession. I get to do that every day, which is great. I’m constantly searching myself and finding out who I am and what I would do in certain situations.

I think acting, at its finest, is self-discovery. It’s finding out who you are by being these other people. Every character does that on some level. You could be playing a clown, or you could be playing a murderer. I’m not going to be a clown. I’m not going to kill anybody. But you have to ask some pretty human questions, in terms of finding out how you would play those people.

It must be difficult, too, because in some ways, you can’t help being yourself. You need to bring that in order to inform the character, but at the same time, you’re not playing yourself. You never really can not bring yourself in some way.

I think that’s the beauty of it too. I think that’s why people respond to certain actors. It’s because there always has to be a little bit of yourself. That’s what makes you unique. Stella Adler, this wonderful acting teacher, always said, “Your talent is in your choices.”

Any actor can take on a role, but what makes it unique is what you, yourself, the actor, bring to the table. That’s important.

You’re going to see tons of Happys if you watch Death of a Salesman over the course of however many years.

Every Happy is going to be different, which is also exciting too.

I think the perfect fusion is a little bit of you, a little bit of the character, and always the story overriding all of that.

Long-term for you, what’s the vision? What’s the goal?

What’s the North Star?

The political answer to that is working regularly. Buy a house, have a family, things like that.

In terms of my career, I would love to get involved in film and TV more, absolutely. I’m looking at, potentially, a move down to LA at some point and just pursuing that and auditioning for things out there.

If I got a regular TV show, it’d be great. That is probably the closest thing, on camera, to the theater experience, as opposed to film, because there is an audience component. It’s a play that’s being filmed.

You get to work on a character for an extended period of time. That would be a dream come true. It is more regular work for an industry that doesn’t really thrive on job stability. I would love to pursue that.

You never know. The more you do it, obviously, the more it becomes part of the job.

I tell people all the time. It’s like I’m an actor, but I’m really a professional auditioner. You’re constantly lining up the next gig. You have to get over yourself and sweep your pride under the rug and just do your work. You have to go in and say, “Today, this is about this goal. I’m going to go in and accomplish that.”

You have to be going in for you and your work. You can’t be going in to get the job, if that makes sense. You can’t be going in for the people on the other side of the table. You have to be going in for you and say, “You know what? Regardless of the choice they make, I’m doing this today. I’m going to do my work, and then I’m going to leave the room.”

What you’re doing is, you’re bringing your professionalism, in that, whatever it is that you’re doing, even if it’s for the audition, you’re going to do it to the best of your ability, rather than “What can I do to make them want to hire me.”

Right, I think if you go in the room with that mentality of “I want to please you,” number one, they’re not going to see the best version of yourself. You’re probably not going to be doing the work you should be doing. Your intention should be the task at hand and not necessarily getting the job. Nine times out of ten, you’re not going to. [laughs] Not good odds...

It’s not based on talent a lot of the times. A lot of the times, it’s just based on, you’re not tall enough or we want somebody blonde because we have… Or it’s already been cast and you’re just filling some space in the room.

If you were not to pursue acting, what do you think you would be doing?

I think I would be teaching, for sure. From elementary school to the collegiate level or beyond, I would absolutely love to go back to that at some point. There’s no question. At some point, I will go back to that.

Both my parents have been teachers. My dad actually taught at Santa Clara University. My mom taught me and my brother at St. John Vianney in San Jose as our music teacher and coach for years.

There’s a lot of history...

Lot of education in my family.

What subject, do you think? Would it probably be literature or acting?

Yeah, it would probably be. If it wasn’t in the acting world, it would probably be in the English or literature side of things. I would love to do that.

I talked about being a doctor for a long time because I enjoyed that or thought I was going to go down that path.

What’s it like then to go on a casting call, sit there with 50 Pediatrician. I enjoyed working with kids and stuff like other people who resemble you in many ways? that. The math and science that it involves is just not...

It’s miserable. It’s terrible. You sometimes drive for an it’s not me. hour, two hours to be seen for a two-minute period of time. You never know. You can go in and feel like you Rather than be a real one, it’s better to just play one on TV. nailed the audition and never hear back. You can go in There you go. Exactly. and feel like you did a terrible job and you get the part.

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“I tell people all the time.

It’s like I’m an actor, but I’m really a professional auditioner.”

jeffreybrianadams.com Appearing in The Addams Family thestage.org June 3 - July 19, 2015 490 S First Street San Jose, CA 95113

Tom Beck

CatapultWorks Marketing in Silicon Valley Interview and Photography by daniel Garcia

T

he branding and marketing industry is fickle and often stressful. Clients move their business to a competing agency, talent jumps ship, and the economic downturns can make funds needed to drive campaigns and marketing projects disappear. For Tom Beck to have weathered the Silicon Valley marketing landscape for the last twenty years is quite an accomplishment.

Beck launched CatapultWorks, a full-service marketing agency, in 2005 with his illustrator, Darrell Brown. Over the years, the agency has grown and morphed with the changing marketing landscape, adding data management and creative campaigns to their list of services.

Tucked behind the Water Tower Plaza in downtown Campbell, in a former plum-packing warehouse built around 1863, Tom and his team are poised for the next phase of marketing. Recently acquired by R2integrated Digital Solutions, Beck sees this as a great way to “scale the business.” The merger is described by both parties as “marketing technologists meet storytellers.”

How has your business grown and changed over the last twenty years?

We started this as direct marketing company. Then we really expanded that into a campaigns company, so not only were we doing direct marketing or below the line marketing, we started to do some brand and awareness marketing as well. Then around 2001, you might remember, the bubble burst and the market collapsed.

But because we were involved in direct marketing, really sales-driving activities, we were able to weather that storm pretty well.

In 2005, we then bought a data cleansing and data management firm. We melded that into the company, so we started a whole data services model to help drive better target lists, better targeted telemarketing phone calls.

Then over the course of the next four or five years, we started to expand into brand and broadcast and just bigger, interactive and digital, which became a big part of our mix in the mid-2000s.

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“IF YOU NEED THAT SECURITY BLANKET OF BEST PRACTICE… YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO BE AS INNOVATIVE.” So what have you seen changed in the industry with technology and big data?

There are huge changes over the last dozen years just around the control and the onus that marketers feel now to drive pipeline in really controllable measurable demand for sales.

People aren’t looking at the ideas so much anymore as being the key drivers. They’re looking at the metrics on behalf of strategies and tactics. Then they’re kind of saying, “OK, we’re going to give oxygen to this one, and we’re going to kill this one off,” based on performance versus big personality.

You’ve got these customer experience and marketing cloud companies, like Adobe or Oracle or Salesforce.

These guys are automating a lot of the process. You can go and automate your lead flow, bring your inbound leads in, qualify score, and then throw them into a funnel.

Everybody is using the same technology, driving the same clicks. How do we get outside of that? With people getting good at that, not great but good, because they’re still learning this technology, people are looking for that idea to connect it all again.

Do you feel like it’s a more demanding industry now?

I do. It’s a lot different than it was fifteen or twenty years ago, because you can take some really smart people that had maybe really a great business sense and a sense of how to translate business thinking and ideas into creative go-to-market concepts. We had some great thinkers and some great ideation people.

Now, I think the demand of marketers is just the ante.

That’s just some table stakes. Not only do you have to do that, you’ve got to be able to operationalize it.

From your point of view, what do you have to deliver because of the speed of technology?

You’ve got to be able to execute campaigns on every channel. You’ve got to be measuring those campaigns.

You’ve got to run it in your marketing automation software. You’ve got to basically populate global CMS systems with the content.

You can’t just get away with being the smart, creative guy anymore. You need to be able to run all this stuff globally and efficiently to be able to compete. I think it’s a lot harder today for people to come out, trying to just get into quote-unquote “marketing, advertising,” whatever we want to call it these days.

What advice would you give yourself, knowing what you know now?

I think what I would have said to a younger Tom is, “Follow the early technology seeds more closely.”

Follow...not necessarily just the Google pay-per-click phenomenon and the whole search phenomenon, but just some of the basic automation, and content management systems, and just getting in earlier on that side. Then, we

could have raised that more in parallel to the other services that we develop.

The reason I’m saying that is because we just did a really exciting merger/acquisition. R2integrated, a Baltimorebased agency that has offices in New York and Seattle, came in and said, “Hey, listen, we love what you’re doing in all these areas. We love the client roster, all the skill sets.

You guys are doing things that we’re not doing.”

It’s a tremendous union, and we’ve been doing this now for three months, but seeing great benefits from it and great new customer wins because of it. I think that if I was going to talk to myself earlier on, I would have balanced that side of the brain with this other side of the brain.

How was it for you, then, emotionally? You started this company. You founded it. This other company comes to you.

You jumped on it, saw the opportunity. Were you a little reluctant, concerned?

It’s all of the above, but we started thinking about this a couple of years ago when we saw this technology landscape and said, “Wow, if we don’t get ahead of some of that, we might become a little less relevant in some of the key areas that marketing leaders need.”

We started to look and say, “Hey, do we go out and find capital and invest in that ourselves and build that ourselves, or do we look for a partner who can join with us to do that, or do we find someone who’s looking to basically roll up and build a bigger agency entity that already has it?”

We started just reaching out and having conversations.

It wasn’t anything we had to do, but it was really serendipitous that we met with R2i in Baltimore, because I couldn’t have drawn it up on paper any better in terms of being able to add all of the things that we needed without having the fear of them coming in and just taking and laying waste to people, and the processes, and the agency DNA that we had. The idea is still valued.

What is your least favorite thing in this particular time?

I see lots of great ideas and differentiated thinking edited and cut out on the editing room floor because the metrics or the “key performance indicators” don’t tell us to do that or don’t tell us to think that way.

I really feel like now, dashboards can certainly drive some of our decision making and the data can tell us what to do to some degree, but if we ever get so scared... or maybe not scared is the right word, but maybe just so concerned about taking chances we’re never going to see breakthrough stuff.

That’s my concern, that everybody does the same thing in this giant big data world. We’re all seeing the same numbers. We’re all doing these best practices things. In best practices it’s hard to say that this new idea is the best practice.

If you need that security blanket of best practice...you’re never going to be as innovative. catapultworks.com social media: catapultworks

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“THE DEFINITION OF SHARING SHOULDN’T BE DEFINED BY WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA DOES. IT SHOULD BE DEFINED BY AN INTERACTION BETWEEN TWO OR MORE PEOPLE. ”

BRYAN KRAMER AND THE HUMAN CONNECTION Interview and Photography by daniel garcia

B

ryan Kramer’s first book, Human to Human, taught readers how to humanize their ideas. With his latest book, Shareology, he’s showing people the importance of sharing them.

have to work at it. I can feel a lot of what’s going on. The hard part is knowing when to embrace which one. What side are you going to be? It’s much easier to do all three as a personal brand than a [corporate] brand.

Your first book, Human to Human, changed your life and the trajectory of what you were doing. How did that transpire?

I was in the right place, at the right time. I was giving a keynote in San Francisco and the presentation was about how to make things go viral...part of that is to how to humanize them so that people can identify with them.

I had that on a slide. Then I went on to the next screen.

The person running [the presentation] said “Hey, go back.” I had spent a year building up my personal brand, I had a significant number of followers, and I had a lot of social influencers in this particular room. The combination went viral. Within the next 48 hours, I got 80 million impressions. I took advantage of the real-time aspect of what was going on. Human to Human doesn’t have to do with just tech or just marketing, it’s something that everyday people can identify with.

You’ve got a new book now, Shareology. What is the distinction between this book and Human to Human?

The subtitle is “how sharing powers the human economy”. Now I wanted to figure out how you’re human with other people. What does that connection look like?

A connection has to be shared and vice versa—to share you only have one thing that you want out of that to connection. Every single human on this earth wants one thing: a connection with something, whether a person or a thing. That’s where Shareology was born.

With your new book, there’s a platform and community. Tell me about that.

When you buy a prerelease of the book now through July 13, you get access to the Shareology Platform. I’m helping a lot of people that have different emotions over sharing curb those emotions so they can feel more comfortable sharing. We’re also giving them great content you’re not going to typically receive anywhere else.

Twelve brands have sponsored and partnered with me to support the community platform. It’s built on points, and you earn points as you share things. It’s all about sharing.

Everything’s tied into how we can connect.

What does it mean to “speak human”?

Speaking human is all about speaking without the jargon, the acronyms, the big words that we use, the stuff we use that complicates the process instead of saying something simply. On the front of the book it says simplicity, empathy, and imperfection is what puts a humanized brand or person together. That’s how people identify with people or brands. Speaking human is part of the simplicity side of it. A lot of companies or people will make it sound more complicated than it needs to be.

How do we make something the most human possible?

The best thing to do is apply all three of these.

What is an example of good sharing, either by an individual or corporation?

You’re going to have to read the book. There’s a sharing quotient in there that all of my research comes down to. It boils down to one thing, and that’s a formula on how, when, where, and why to share. That’s the whole point of everything that I tried to figure out. How do I teach people to share in a very simple way? There’s other things in there that are variables, like emotions. If it’s not authentic, people probably won’t respond in that way.

When people don’t get a lot of likes or comments, it’s because they’re not being authentic.

How do you personally embody those three things?

The imperfect part’s the easy part. We’re all imperfect.

The simplicity part is something I just strive for. I try to make everything I do easy to understand so people know what it is that I’m doing. I also think within simplicity there are different sides to simplicity. I wear a black shirt and jeans everyday. I’m empathetic in nature, not sure I

bryankramer.com twitter: bryankramer

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CLEVER GIRLS BUSINESS IS PERSONAL Written by Anna Bagirov Photography by Stan Olszewski

THE THREE COFOUNDERS OF THIS SOCIAL MEDIA–CHARGED COLLECTIVE ARE DOING THINGS A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY.

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t’s a particularly busy Monday night as Silicon Valley businessmen sip their orange-infused bourbon cocktails and talk business, a picture-postcard view of the Bay Bridge just outside. The Clever Girls Collective CEO/ founders are there too, and they’re not afraid to stand out, to redefine “professional.” Cat Lincoln in stylish horn-rimmed glasses, wearing a cheetah print coat from Forever 21. Stefania Pomponi, who’d just instagrammed the outfit and new flats she wore for the occasion. Kristy Sammis, whose hot pink hair is well-documented in her TEDx speeches on YouTube. Instead of business cards, they hand out brightly colored nail polish with “Clever Girls” monogrammed on the bottles.

Best friends Stefania Pomponi and Cat Lincoln started Clever Girls Collective, inviting Kristy Sammis a few months later to join as third cofounder. It was 2009, the height of the recession. Cat and Stefania had just turned 40. All three had come from corporate environments and knew they wanted to sculpt something different. They decided not to go for venture capital, so that they could build the business and its culture on their own terms.

“Smashing preconceived notions is my life mantra,” Stefania says.

Internal business processes would be developed not reflexively, but thoughtfully. “Some say women are too emotional. To us, it just means we are connected to our work,” Cat tosses in. They decided not to go for an office either: employees work virtually. “We have a system where our cross-functional team are in constant contact,” Kristy explains. Was it difficult going into business with a best friend? Cat shakes her head. “At this stage of your life is when you think, why would I want to work with someone who isn’t my best friend?” she says.

That attitude comes across in the culture they’ve built at the collective, where mentoring is encouraged, where members support, advise, and teach one another. “PTO, performance reviews—when we realized we did not have to do these things traditionally, we decided to formalize our informalities,” says Kristy.

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And so they unapologetically rewrote many of the rules of business. Cat leans in, saying with emphasis, “Look, there are few things in life you can’t change. You can’t change gravity, you can’t change sea level. Everything else is an idea. It’s something everyone else has agreed to. You can change anything you want—if you agree you want to change it.” How did they deal with the challenges of being women starting a business in a predominately male Silicon Valley? Stefania is matter-of-fact, “We just barreled ahead, we didn’t really care. We knew what kind of company we wanted to build.”Indeed they did.

The Clever Girls Collective connects brands with influential bloggers and social media users, mostly women. The roster boasts some male bloggers as well, but campaigns are still female-centered. The idea is to support the professional and personal goals of women online by having a solid system in place for brands to effectively connect with these influencers.

In the early years of social media, bloggers would be angered, even offended, by the approach PR and marketing agencies took when reaching out to them.

Brands did not understand how deeply personal the relationships between bloggers and their followers were.

“We could be both matchmaker and broker, we would connect the two in a much more efficient way,” says Stefania with a smile. The power of bloggers to optimize SEO, to impact sales growth, and to increase brand awareness was now to be recognized. Stefania’s, Cat’s, and Kristy’s corporate experience gave them the ability to speak the language of both the blogger and the business.

One of the first agencies to insist that bloggers be paid, to recognize the value of content as a business model, the collective now boasts more than 7,000 independent contractors. Bloggers are vetted and screened, their demographic information recorded, and then they’re matched to brands based on background, expertise, and passion. If a company wants bloggers with children five to eight years old who are also attending summer camp,

“YOUR 40S ARE THE PERFECT TIME TO GO BIG AND BE BOLD.”

_Stefania Pomponi

Kristy Sammis

Cat Lincoln

Clever Girls knows who to contact. The appropriate channels are determined—Twitter campaign, Pinterest board, perhaps a plan of content seeded across multiple media. Companies could rely on content that was brandsafe. And genuine. No scripts. Clever Girls also developed an in-house platform to manage and automate content and results. Businesses like numbers, and the women of Clever Girls found a way to hand over those numbers.

It was the Make-A-Wish Batkid project that first put Clever Girls in the media spotlight. Late one night, Stefania was browsing Reddit, where she read about the foundation’s plan to bring the dream of five-year-old cancer survivor Miles Scott—to be a real superhero—to life by partnering with city officials to turn San Francisco into Gotham City for a day. And they were looking for an agency to get the word out. Enter Clever Girls. With less than two weeks to the event, the Clever Girls Collective orchestrated the media frenzy we all experienced. Over 16,000 people pledged to be there, in person. Early in the morning of the event, #SFBatkid was trending #1 in the world. By 11:10 am, the president had joined the party. “This said something about the online sharer who spread the word,” says Kristy, about the breadth and speed of that sharing. In the end, the campaign reached more than 117 countries and garnered almost 2 billion impressions across social channels, a tweet from outer space, and a tweeted video from President Obama. Clever Girls walked away with a number of awards, including an unprecedented three Shorty awards in one evening.

Miles’s story was a story with heart at its core, but Clever

Stefania Pomponi

Girls ran with it, building the campaign that took the world by storm.

After six years spent building the right team, six years getting through the tough times to a more social media– friendly world, these Clever Girls are riding the wave.

And lately, they’ve been strengthening their verticals.

They recently launched an influencer network connecting brands with the best of the best of those professional and Olympic athletes not committed to multimillion-dollar deals, athletes who make a strong showing in their game, who create and share their own content, and who have strong, loyal fan bases. As with all Clever Girl–brokered relationships, this one emphasizes the personal touch.

The connection benefits brands by giving them access to a broader and more authentic fan base; and it benefits the athletes by enabling them to monetize their influence, which in turn helps them achieve personal goals. As the Clever Girls network expands, millennials and Latinas are also on the radar.

Many of us, perhaps especially women, feel that after a certain age, it’s too late to take risks, too late to start again. “Your 40s are the perfect time to go big and be bold,” Stefani reflects. “You are not afraid to fail, because you’ve done it before. You know you can get through it.”

If the Clever Girls Collective can teach us anything, it’s that when you see an opportunity, go for it. If there are obstacles in the way, power through them. Or better yet, redefine. Create the world you want to inhabit. That’s not only clever, it’s good business. clevergirlscollective.com facebook: CleverGirlsCollective socialmedia: CleverGirlsColl

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Beth Haniger

Tim Haniger

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Veronica Haniger

Nathan Haniger

Lighting Up Our Lives Interview by Isara Krieger Photography by Scott MacDonald

Most important to this small family-owned business is making connections with its community while being a dependable vendor—and lighting up a good party, of course.

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iving in the Santa Cruz mountains in a couple of cabins, sharing a “bunch of stuff,” the mountain, and a garden, two brothers and their wives decided to start a company together. All four hold other jobs, so for the moment H&H is something they do in their spare time. Marketing Associate Veronica Penate explains the genesis of H&H Lighting.

Wedding planning is extremely stressful, and one of the things we really wanted to be was one of those dependable vendors that people trust. We wanted to reduce the stress.

Another goal of ours was to remain within people’s budgets and I think that’s why we got so much business.

Whenever the word “wedding” is involved, prices seem to double because vendors know that people will pay for a wedding. We wanted to remain sensitive to the customer.

It’s crazy getting to know people and testing our boundaries and making friends with people— we have new friends we never would’ve had—and lighting is awesome, you know? It creates the ambiance and the way everything feels.

How did you decide to create your own business?

It’s funny how it started. We founded H&H Lighting in January of 2012. The company consists of my husband Nathan and I, his brother Timothy and his wife Bethany.

Beth’s father has a lighting company that does shopping mall décor for the holiday season. Beth grew up learning the logistics and how it all worked, involved in hands-on labor since she was fifteen.

Nathan and Timothy each had the idea to start their own company after learning skills from Beth’s father about how to build something from the ground up.

One day we all sat in the living room together and both brothers told the group this was something they were each thinking about, and the idea was born. At the time I was looking for wedding designers in the San Jose area, so I was familiar with the industry.

We kind of just started it. It was all through word of mouth at the beginning. We would exchange free jobs for logo designs, we did friends’ weddings and, you know, we bartered.

The core of what we do is wedding setup and lighting.

We make custom chandeliers and lighting designs for weddings and events. Last year we had about thirty jobs.

It looks like we’ll increase our business by 120 jobs this year. People continue to share our information. It’s great because we’re all pretty young, we’re all under thirty, and we’re forming relationships with venues and people.

What’s the story behind the “crazy way” you got married?

My husband is one of seven and I’m Colombian, and basically everyone who’s a friend of your family in Colombia is family. Together, we had over 350 people we wanted to invite to our wedding. Nathan’s mom’s friend Carla offered her property that her father had purchased— forty acres down in Gilroy.

There are tons of amazing oak trees on this property and there was this part where they kind of circle each around other and we were like, “that’s where we want our reception to be.” Nathan and I were only engaged for six months and we spent it fixing up this property to use for our wedding. It was crazy. We cut leaves, we built the dance floor, we built stairs, we were able to play around a lot. We didn’t have a lot of planning time, so the vendors we worked with were really cooperative. I didn’t have to diet or anything because we were out working on the property every day. But it was so beautiful. We got married out in the middle of the field and everyone we actually wanted there was able to go.

Carla’s father had hoped when he bought the property that one of his daughters would get married on it, but for one reason or another it didn’t happen. He was old and sick when we finally made it happen, but, you know, it was his dying wish that someone would get married on his property and we made it come true.

Why is lighting so important, what’s rewarding about it?

As far as rewarding goes, I wouldn’t say actual lighting design is something I ever saw myself doing. It’s all about the relationships we make.

Nathan and I got married in a really crazy way, and something that stood out for us was that some of the vendors were really amazing to work with and we knew we wouldn’t have to worry about whatever they were in charge of.

“It’s great because we’re all pretty young, we’re all under thirty, and we’re forming relationships with venues and people.”

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hheventlighting.com 408.892.0122 hheventlighting@gmail.com facebook: HH-Event-Lighting instagram: hheventlighting

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Richie Zeng Wearhaus Cofounder

“Everytime I try it out, it just reinforces the fact that this is something a lot of people would enjoy.�

Wearhaus

The Wearhaus Arc will turn listening to music on headphones into a social experience.

Written by Flora Moreno de Thompson Photography by DANIEL GARCIA

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magine this: you’re sitting in a coffee shop, when you decide you want to listen to some music on your headphones. Several other folks there are also wearing headphones—using an app on your phone, you can see their music playlists. You see someone’s listening to your favorite song and sync your headphones with theirs so you can hear it, too.

Thanks to Richie Zeng and Nelson Zhang, the duo behind Wearhaus, Inc., this futuristic scenario isn’t too far off from actually happening. They’ve come up with the Wearhaus Arc, a set of headphones that allow the user to broadcast their music to other headphones nearby, turning a solitary music-listening experience into a social one.

Richie and Nelson first met at UC Berkeley, where they were majoring in electrical engineering and computer science. The two were members and officers of a club on campus called Hackers at Berkeley. “We always knew pretty early on that we wanted to work on something, maybe a startup, together eventually,” says Richie.

The idea behind the Wearhaus Arc happened after many late nights of group study sessions with friends on campus. While studying, they often listened to music.

“We’d always be wondering, ‘Hey, what are you listening to?’” Richie says. “Eventually it got to the point where we did that so often we thought we should just be able to tune into someone else’s headphones and hear what they’re listening to.

It’d be so much easier that way.”

In the summer of 2013, the two put their engineering knowledge to use and began tinkering around with it. Over a weekend, Nelson put together the first headphone prototype. They tested it out on friends and co-workers to see if their idea—music-sharing headphones—had legs. “A lot of people really liked that experience,” says Richie. “That was a big piece of early validation for us.”

Even more validation was having their company accepted into a hardware startup incubator based in San Francisco called Highway1. “It was a big step,” Richie says. “They helped us with the product development and gave us the tools we needed like 3D printers and stuff like

that.” Through the incubator, they were connected to a group of advisers to provide them with help in areas they didn’t have experience with. The two made the decision to drop out of UC Berkeley and work full-time on their product.

The headphones use Bluetooth technology and the Wearhaus app to allow users to see the playlists of other users nearby. The app also has a chat feature, in case you want to talk to the person whose playlist you’re listening to. The Arc has touch controls on the right ear, letting the user swipe to control playlists, sharing functionality, and the color of LEDs over each ear. These lights change colors as you join another person’s playlist. “As people start tuning into you, the lights will sync up and become the same color,” Richie says. “You can actually see which people around you are listening with you, and you feel like there’s this interesting personal connection with them that’s beyond...music.”

“Every time I try it out, it just reinforces the fact that this is something a lot of people would enjoy,” says Richie. Part of the positive response Richie and Nelson have received comes from people who see different uses for the Wearhaus Arc headphones. Videographers can use it to review footage with others while syncing audio.

Others have suggested using the headphones in museums for self-guided tours. “It’s really awesome just talking to people about it and seeing what they could come up with,” Richie says.

Along with support from an incubator, Wearhaus has received funding from a successful Kickstarter campaign, as well as from venture capitalists and family. After a few delays, they expect to begin shipping the Wearhaus Arc to customers this summer.

Richie and Nelson want people to use the Wearhaus Arc as a tool to connect people. Striking up a conversation with someone at a coffee shop, after realizing you both share the same musical interests, is just one of many examples. “The ultimate vision is that we want to connect people through music.”

“THE ULTIMATE VISION IS THAT WE WANT TO CONNECT PEOPLE THROUGH MUSIC.”

wearhaus.com social media: wearhausinc

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“CREATING A DEVICE THAT RESPONDED TO WOMEN’S DESIRE TO BE HEALTHY AND CONCEIVE WOULD INSPIRE THEM TO TRACK THEIR HEALTH FROM EARLIER ON.”

Urška Sršen, CCO and Founder of Bellabeat

The Bellabeat Story: Building a successful company is not about building a company, but embracing the artistic process.

Written by María Gabriela Huertas Díaz Photography by daniel garcia

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hen asked whether she is more connected to the tech or design worlds, Urška Sršen, CCO and Founder of Bellabeat, redefines the territory.

“That’s an interesting question because I think they are very intertwined… There is a connection between tech and art because tech is, at least in the consumer space, useless without design. Tech is a very creative process.” For her team, being artists and developing new technology are one and the same. Both disciplines are about developing something from scratch, and fighting for the creator’s own ideas, values, and creations.

Nothing evokes Bellabeat’s modus operandi better than its newest gadget, Leaf.

Leaf is a smart piece of jewelry that helps women track their activity, sleep, stress levels, and menstrual cycle. It looks like a pendant you can wear as a bracelet, a necklace, or simply pin onto your shirt. Other than being specifically designed for gals, Leaf stands out from other quantified-self devices in that it integrates the health information that other apps track individually into one easy-to-use interface. The device provides the most comprehensive picture a woman can get of her well-being from wearable tech.

Bellabeat’s goal for Leaf was to create a device women would be able to wear all day, every day, to provide the most accurate data possible. Their objective made the gadget’s design a practicality issue, and just as important as getting the software portion right. The team eliminated all interface from Leaf, designing it instead to transfer data to the user’s smartphone. To make it comfortable, Bellabeat used only natural materials gentle to the skin.

Urška recognizes that “it is very important to break the cold and clunky surface of tech and give it a warm appeal to make the device easier to accept in your body proximity.”

With so much thought put into this tiny device, it only makes sense to ask where the initial idea came from.

The truth is, Bellabeat’s story is not about one person with a brilliant idea and great investors. Bellabeat is about a family identifying a need and following up with a solution. Their story is the epitome of entrepreneurism.

Urška’s mother, an OB/GYN in their native Slovenia, struggled with the lack of prenatal care technology available to her patients. With an engineering friend,

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Urška created the company’s first device, Bellabeat, which tracked the kicks and heartbeat of babies still in the womb.

The team understood, however, that prenatal care was equally as much about taking care of the mother. Women are particularly mindful of their health when trying to conceive, are pregnant, or just gave birth, but many issues that affect these processes develop long before a woman starts thinking about becoming a mother. Bellabeat was born in response to a woman’s desire to track her health from early on.

Bellabeat’s devices tackle a billion-dollar market, and yet Urška believes that her company’s success is the result of sudden coincidences. “When we started, we weren’t building a company. We didn’t know we were a startup.” This point seemed irrelevant to the judges of the prestigious Pioneers Startup Challenge, who crowned them their 2013 champion in Vienna, Austria.

At Pioneers, they caught the attention of Michael Seibel, partner at Y Combinator, who encouraged them to apply to the well-known program. Bellabeat is now part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2014 batch, and they have offices in Mountain View, Croatia, and China. The first Leaf edition sold over 40,000 units.

These “coincidences” Urška talks about are more likely a result of hard work and the constant pursuit of excellence. For her team, inspiration is the constant hunger for learning. As Urška says, “being an artist requires being a bit of a nerd, because if not you do not survive your art.” Bellabeat wanted to create customizable products that would shape women’s lives. They managed to achieve their goal, exceed everyone’s expectations, and remain a family business.

bellabeat.com facebook: Bellabeat twitter: GetBellaBeat instagram: bellabeat pinterest: Bellabeat youtube: bellabeatTV medium: Bellabeat

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The Startup Shepherd of Silicon Valley Interview by Antoinette Siu Photography by daniel garcia

From Honduras to the Midwest, the man behind Hackers/Founders crash-landed in Silicon Valley several years ago with a nursing degree, two startup ideas, and the quest to fix things. Now he spends his time running one of the largest incubators, helping new companies turn their visions into sustainable businesses.

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efore Jonathan Nelson stumbled into the startup scene, he preached, nursed, animated, and sculpted.

Back then he was preaching to investors to fund a financial news search engine he built, knowing little about what it takes to make it in the fierce startup environment.

He had spent 20 years working as an ER nurse, and if you asked him then how to build a company, he would have responded, “I save lives. I wipe ass.”

But today he sits at the center of it all: getting startup founders in front of investors, helping overseas companies make the transition to Silicon Valley, subletting space to groups needing a place to work, and, some days, simply ordering food for everyone in the office. Now one of Silicon Valley’s largest incubators for entrepreneurs, Hackers/Founders grew from a five-person Meetup Nelson

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organized in 2008 to an expansive network of 200,000 members in 95 cities and 40 countries.

Nelson describes having a weird childhood, growing up the “only white kid at the end of six hours of dirt road in rural Honduras.” His parents worked for an NGO building Christian ministries in Central America, and he moved to the US at the age of fourteen. From there, he found himself in bible school in Chicago, nursing school in Minnesota, visual effects arts in Los Angeles, and eventually made his way to software engineering in the Silicon Valley. Nelson’s hunger for fixing problems and knack for connecting the right people at the right time, Hackers/Founders gives startups the support that didn’t exist seven years ago.

“If one out of every ten startups succeeds, then, screw it, I’m going to build ten companies.”

How did you go from nursing to the startup business?

I obsessed about keeping people alive for 20 years as an ER trauma nurse. Let me obsess about what keeps companies alive, what makes companies thrive. Well, if one out of every ten startups succeeds, then, screw it, I’m going to build ten companies. I started with my journey to build ten companies, and I’d work three nights at the hospital. I’d program four nights a week, and, you know, startup, startup, startup.

How has Hackers/Founders been growing since the first Meetup in 2008?

First one was five dudes and me hanging out in a bar.

Next month, it was eight or ten. Next month, it was thirteen. Next month, sixteen. We’ve been doubling in size every eight months for the last eight years. We now have 200,000 people around the globe who have attended Hackers/Founders events. We have event organizers in 90 cities and 40 countries.

What about your own startup ideas?

My first startup was a reddit clone for cat pictures.

So far ahead of the cute cat curve. The world does not understand my genius. Then I built a reddit clone for financial news, because I’m kind of an econ nerd. I think I’m the only nurse I met who read The Economist on a regular basis. That’s tough when you grow up in

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a currency crisis. It’s interesting. So I was building a search engine for financial news and data coming out of emerging markets. It’s going to be Bloomberg for emerging markets. It started to actually work. I actually saw some people from Goldman Sachs use my website for basic research.

What worked for Hackers/Founders in the beginning?

I ran out and started taking meetings with any investors who would give me the time of day. By the end of three months, two of the companies had died, and the remaining six all had raised at least one seed check.

A year later, two of those companies got acquired, and it’s been three and a half years, almost four, since then.

We did weird things, like have a demo day like other incubators, and [my wife] Laura, was like, “Hell, no. It’s boring. No, we’re going to do this the right way. We’re going to produce videos of each of them so we can have their best foot forward. Then the investors can see the videos, and if they want to talk with them later on they can take that and run with it.” So Microsoft BizSpark sponsored the event, and they bought $2,000 worth of really nice scotch. We had a taste master. How many VCs actually come to your event when you have three bottles of 28-year-old single malt scotch? And there were only 110 of these bottles ever produced.

Has your understanding of a startup incubator changed?

At the time, 500 Startups had just started. Y Combinator had been around for a couple of years, and Techstars had just started. They were all run by people who had been in tech for years, and I thought it meant “rich person giving wisdom extracted from their years of wealth.” Whereas I literally got in front of our companies, and we just had dinner once a week. I said, “Look, I have no idea how to help you guys build better companies… but let’s go around the table and talk about what hurts and what sucks. And I might be able to help you with what hurts, and worse-case scenario, we’ve had a beer and dinner. And we’ve talked about it, and we feel better.” I actually use my nursing and have a much more developed kind of philosophy of helping startups. So now I talk to the founders of these companies, and I say, “What hurts?”

And we can kind of start to diagnose companies a little bit.

How do you guys differ from other incubators?

Where we’ve really done well is with companies relocating here from overseas, companies who have revenue, companies who are building a Silicon Valley office. That’s kind of our sweet spot. As compared to the other incubators, I think at Y Combinator you might get 20 hours of staff time, if you’re lucky. 500 Startups

works with 25 companies at a time. We work with 16 companies. We have 10 people. Whatever they need, whatever in your life cycle, let’s get you through this.

Things that I track are mortality rates and survival rates.

Our companies, on average, their two-year survival rate is over 80 percent. Three years is actually over 65 percent.

What makes you good at what you do, connecting people and helping startups?

Really what I have is my network and my reputation.

Part of it is I’m just insanely curious. I get bored easily. I probably spend two hours a night reading, and I read a bunch of weird stuff. Go out and have coffee with two people a day. Be as helpful as you can to as many people as you can. Be helpful and add value wherever you can.

If you build up enough social karma, people will be more than happy to help you when you need it. I actively think of it as a role-playing game, like World of Warcraft. When you start off, you’re killing diseased rats. You get a little better knife, and you keep on killing little evil demons.

The more you kill, the more you level up. Eventually you become kind of the demigod in this universe. So you have to start small. The other thing is you have to learn how to sell something, and you have to learn to make something that other people would be interested in buying. bit.ly/hfinfo twitter: hackersfounders twitter: iamelgringo

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Dr. Jill Tarter Photographed in front of James W. Cadle’s design of the “Flag of Earth”

The New

Magellans: Drs. Jill Tarter, Nathalie Cabrol, and Lori Fenton are out of this world.

Written by Tawyna Lancaster Photography by Daniel Garcia

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n an unassuming office building in Mountain View, a band of astronomers, astrobiologists, and planetary scientists—the new Magellans—are exploring the universe and trying to understand the origin and nature of life in it. Three of these explorers—Drs. Jill Tarter, Nathalie Cabrol, and Lori Fenton—have pushed through the barriers of this generally male-dominated science to become among the most respected in their fields.

The Pioneer and Leader Astronomer Jill Tarter grew up a tomboy—hunting, fishing, and building things with her father. When she was eight years old, he pulled her aside for a talk, suggesting that perhaps she was of an age to start spending more time doing “girl” things. She responded with an angry, “Why can’t I do both?” and then told him she was going to be an engineer.

“I don’t think I really knew what engineers were,” she says, “but I knew that men were engineers, and so that was my thing.” A few years later, Tarter’s father died, leaving her with a stubborn drive to fulfill her promise.

She has done that and so much more.

Tarter is one of the pioneers in the science of SETI,

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short for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. She was the lead for Project Phoenix, a decade-long SETI scrutiny of 750 nearby star systems, using telescopes in Australia, West Virginia, and Puerto Rico. It was the most comprehensive targeted search for artificially generated cosmic signals ever undertaken.

As evidence of her iconic status, the walls of her office are covered with a lifetime of awards, including the TED Prize awarded to her in 2009. It honors someone with a vision for how to change the world. She was also the inspiration for the lead character Ellie Arroway, a radio astronomer, played by Jodie Foster in the 1997 movie Contact.

Today, Tarter serves in a leadership role at the SETI Institute, helping to secure private funding to continue the exploratory science. Our search, she says, has only just begun.

To put it in perspective, Tarter explains, “If I were to take the total nine-dimensional volume where a signal could be existing, and I set that volume equal to the volume of the Earth’s oceans, how much have we searched? Roughly over the past 50 years, we’ve searched about one eight-ounce glass.”

She says now, more than ever, the work of the Institute has global importance. “Thinking about the questions of life beyond Earth—how big the cosmos is, how old it is, how intimately connected we are to the cosmos (we are made from stardust)—has the effect of holding up a mirror to whole planet and saying, ‘from this perspective, we’re all the same.’ This cosmic point of view trivializes our differences. If we can get a global population working on this hopeful experiment called SETI, it will help us to figure out how to collaborate and work together on the other global challenges we face.”

Mars. I have discovered new species in the Andes. I was in mission control at JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] in the middle of the night when the data was coming down [from Mars], and I could see a landscape for the very first time. Out of seven billion human beings, I was the first one to see that landscape.”

But much of a scientist’s discovery, says Cabrol, is done in the mind through creative thinking and envisioning.

“You think about how you would explore another planet. What are the science questions? How are you going to address them? What tools do you need to build?

What problems do you need to solve? I always like to joke The Visionary that life didn’t grant me great sight, but at least I have Nathalie Cabrol has never done what people expected. great vision. This is how you create your own future. You A straight “A” student in everything except math, she was project your mind and spend some time wondering about discouraged from going into science. all the aspects of the exploration that don’t exist, and then “I had to go around all these hurdles of what people you come back and try to make it a reality.” thought I should be good at, but I was always watching the sky,” she says, “because I knew there was a connection. The Challenger For me, that was life, and I knew it was my direction.”

Lori Fenton is not afraid to challenge what we think Her career path may not have been straight, but Cabrol we know in order to see something new. According to her, says the twists and turns were what led her to where she is it’s the best thing about her job as a planetary research today—leading projects focused on planetary science and scientist at the Institute, where she was awarded NASA’s astrobiology with a focus on extreme environments. She Fellowship for Early Career Researchers in 2006. designs robotic field experiments and develops science Fenton investigates aeolian geomorphology (how exploration strategies for Mars and beyond. wind shapes planetary surfaces), recent and ongoing Cabrol’s work takes her to the highest volcanoes in climate changes, and the mobility of wind-blown sand the Andes (20,000 feet), where she dives high-altitude and dust—with a particular focus on Mars and what it lakes, and to the world’s most arid deserts, because the can tell us about our own planet. environmental conditions in these places are analogous to “We don’t understand a lot about climate change on early Mars. Among her many accomplishments, Cabrol Earth because it’s a very complex system and the models has been a member of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) don’t fully capture all the nuances,” she explains. “One science team since 2002. She was also invited to give a way to figure that out is to go beyond what’s familiar, to TED talk in 2015 on the search for microbes on Mars see if Mars will break the models.” and how it can help us understand why some microbial In her research, she uses fieldwork on Earth, visual and pathways evolve to civilization and others do not. thermal imagery from spacecraft, and wind predictions “There is the physical side to exploration,” she explains, from atmospheric models such as the NASA AMES Mars “when you go to places that have never been seen by other Global Climate Model. people. I have been privileged to do this on Earth and on Her focus may be cosmic, but Fenton definitely does

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Dr. Lori Fenton

Dr. Jill Tarter

not fit the stereotypical profile of a cosmic scientist.

She can often be found analyzing data from Mars at a local Starbucks, after having just dropped her child off at preschool. And aside from constantly looking for funding, she says her biggest challenge is very similar to what most of us face: trying to make it all work.

“It’s never ending,” she says. “Life gets complicated and things get in the way. Somehow, you have to push aside time and space to clear your head—to think new thoughts, come up with new ideas. Scientists, we like to make assertions about how things are, and then we send a new mission to Mars that has a new camera and instruments. We measure things and realize: that’s not how things are at all. All of a sudden, nothing makes sense anymore, but you can’t get upset. Instead of being frustrated because you thought you understood it, you have to say, ‘awesome, there’s more work to do.’”

Dr. Nathalie Cabrol

never ponder—that we can make contact with intelligent extraterrestrials or that humans will indeed, one day, live on Mars.

It’s not science fiction. NASA is currently working toward landing a human on the red planet by the mid2030s. This means a young girl of ten today could be among the first explorers to actually stand on Mars.

“If we are doing our job right,” says Cabrol, “this young woman might someday be working in a lab, looking out the window and seeing the beautiful landscape of Mars.

She will be out there, starting to spread humankind in the solar system. She might not be of the generation that will have babies on Mars, but she’ll be part of the generation that will put all the structure in place to do that.”

If so, the Institute’s explorers are much closer than we think in their search for alien civilizations in the universe—because the aliens will be us.

Charting New Territories Tarter and Fenton were looking to the sky by the age of eight; Cabrol when she was five. Even as young girls, these women understood there was something in the universe bigger than humans still to be discovered.

Just what that something is has driven all three to chart new territories and imagine possibilities that most would

seti.org social media: SETIInstitute

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“MY DAD WOULD SAY THINGS LIKE, ‘OUR FAMILY HAS SAWDUST IN ITS VEINS.’”

Wood Stock

Southern Lumber keeps it in the family Written by Nathan Zanon Photography by Gregory Cortez

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ew businesses in the South Bay can claim a 111-year history like Southern Lumber.

The hardware store and wood supplier on Monterey Road has held the same location for almost its entire existence, even rebuilding on the same lot after a fire burned the previous shop to the ground in 1972. Inside, historical photos adorn the walls, and each June for the past few years, the San Jose Historic Landmarks Commission has showcased its Historic Photo Contest in the lobby.

It might seem like an odd place for a history lesson, but Southern Lumber is no ordinary hardwood store. Upstairs, a small museum of old woodworking artifacts is on display: it’s the legacy of Ed Pohle, who purchased the business in 1936 and who helped rescue it from bankruptcy after the Great Depression by transforming what was a lumber supply and construction company into a woodworking center with a focus on quality woods and craftsmanship. The business has been family-owned for 80 years.

Today, Pohle’s grandson Jeff Pohle is President and CEO. “I have a passion for wood; I grew up in this business,” Pohle explains. “It’s part of my soul, part of my blood. My dad would say things like, ‘Our family has sawdust in its veins.’”

Southern Lumber isn’t what’s known as a “ground-up” construction company; instead, they supply wood for what Pohle calls “the nice, fun stuff,” like doors, molding, and cabinetry. Their selection of high-quality, specialty woods attracts tradesmen and artisans alike, because the variety of woods available is unmatched in the area. “We have

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“THERE’S A LOT OF SOUTHERN LUMBER STASHED IN EVERY CORNER OF THIS VALLEY.” guitar makers who come in here looking for certain types of wood,” Pohle says. “You’ll see them doing knock tests, listening to the harmonic transfer to see if it’s a good piece of wood to make a guitar body with.”

Pohle says it’s the specialty products that set his shop apart from big box stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s. “People know they can go into a big box and have a reasonable expectation they’ll find X, Y, and Z. But if they’re looking for something in between X and Y and Z...that’s where we excel.” Plus, his company’s longstanding relationships with suppliers make it simpler to place special orders.

By supplying wood to the area for more than a century, Southern Lumber has literally helped build Silicon Valley—a fact that isn’t lost on Pohle, who says he sees his store’s woodwork in doors and decks everywhere. “There’s a lot of Southern Lumber stashed in every corner of this valley.”

But the recent recession, followed by the rise in internet commerce, present new challenges. “We figured out that the new constant is change,” Pohle says. “We’re in the middle of a retail revolution with online sales...it’s really shaking up the brick-andmortar business.” For years, it was his shop’s expertise and quality of service that kept people coming back, but despite the history and a loyal following, the store announced recently that it will be closing this summer.

Pohle is ready to retire, and nobody in the fourth generation of his family (two sons and a daughter) is looking to pick up the torch and push ahead into the new era—even if they do have sawdust in their veins. “When I came through here, I was kind of unique.

I loved this place, I loved working it,” Pohle recalls. “I was very passionate about it, but none of my kids are. They’ve got their own paths.”

He seems perfectly OK with that. His family—and Southern Lumber—have already made their mark, and their contributions will live on in people’s homes and patios, in local shops, and even in musicians’ guitars long past the store’s final farewell.

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southernlumber.com 1402 Monterey Hwy San Jose, CA 95110 408.297.9663 facebook: SouthernLumber

“WE SAY, ‘RESPECT THE COCKTAIL,’ AND THAT’S REALLY WHAT IT’S ABOUT: NOT USING ANYTHING PREPRODUCED, BUT HAVING THE DISCIPLINE TO CREATE THE DRINK FROM SCRATCH.” — Holy Stanley

DANNY

HARRIS

Connecting with Community Interview and Photography by Daniel Garcia

By taking time to listen to his neighbors, Danny Harris finds himself in San Jose with the Knight Foundation to help us build great neighborhoods.

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eing new in town is not a new experience for Danny Harris. The child of a refugee mother, grandchild of four refugee grandparents, he moved five times before he was twelve. As an adult, he took those personal and familial experiences of displacement and reshaped them into careers: first working to rebuild communities for refugees in post-war environments, later working with the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes to help safeguard communities from financial abuse by tracing where and how the money flows.

One afternoon, in the midst of all this, Danny Harris had an epiphany. Surrounded by people very much like himself, he felt disconnected from them all.

He, like everyone else, was spending much of his day in “conversation deserts”—bus stops, subway and train stations, elevators, the produce section of the grocery store—places incorporated into our daily and weekly routines, places in which we may see the same faces over time, and yet places in which we tend to keep to ourselves.

We keep too much to ourselves, Harris realized. We are often absentee citizens in our own communities.

Conversant in issues impacting the world, we may be ignorant of the issues, indeed even the people, of our

own neighborhoods. He decided to reconnect with his city and his neighborhood. And so every day for the next three and a half years, Harris set out to meet and interview a stranger. To tell their stories, one person at a time. He became, in the words of the Washington Post, a “modern-day Studs Terkel.” And thus was born the first of several storytelling projects, the blog People’s District.

That experience, that one afternoon, set Harris on a path to create more connected communities. A talent he is bringing now to San Jose, as program director with the Knight Foundation.

For you personally—not as a Knight guy or anything like that—what, for you, is success?

When I got here, a few people told me, there’s maybe 400 movers and shakers in San Jose. Let’s say it’s 400. If we assume that we’re the capital of Silicon Valley, and we’re this place where all this innovation happens in the neighborhoods, and in the companies, my metric of success is how do we expand that number from 400, to 4,000, to 40,000—to whatever number is realistic. So that we’re actually working to grow, not a set of ideas, but a set of people. This tribe of people who, whether they are intimately connected or not, are working to build and

grow something that’s their own and that speaks for the city.

In a few years, the metric that I’ll look at is how many more people are submitting proposals, how many more people are coming to our events, how many more people are being empowered to go off and do things, how many more people are stepping into leadership positions.

My hope is that a year from now, the people who are coming to me with ideas, or the people that we are supporting, are people we’ve never heard of, so that we’re creating a culture of “yes.” And that for me is the biggest thing. How can I upgrade the culture of yes, where people feel that there are avenues for them into the arts, into creative place making, into being an urbanist, into doing more work in and around the city, into the world of civic engagement.

What was the draw for you to come to San Jose?

I’ve always been driven to be in places where you could go in and really get to know a community and start to make an impact. But where also you could find people who are like you, who could say, “I want to go

build a better X”—and could actually do it.

I think that is part of the difference I see in San Jose versus DC, which are both similar industry towns and both really smart places that have thriving diversity.

Somebody told me recently when I asked them about San Jose that this is a place where you can still be a little bit like a cowboy—a cowboy with expensive real estate, so I don’t necessarily know if I would use the same analogy—but the notion that you can come and there’s a bit of a frontier here, and you can still help to develop the reality of what you want to see.

And so looking around downtown, I’m an eternal realistic optimist. I see nothing but incredible opportunities here of how this place will grow, and it’ll figure out how to best be itself, and at a time where we have tremendous growth in the region.

You spent a lot of time with the People’s District project.

What would you say are some of the key elements of hearing and collecting stories? What’s the secret sauce?

For me, the secret sauce is how you create more intentional collisions in a place. What we do as a funder is we listen, we convene, and we fund. I was

amazed at how many people would come to me and say, “Look, we want to connect with other people who are like us,” or, “Hey, we want to bring together a bunch of artists or urbanists, and we are looking for more ways to do it.”

In terms of listening, that first piece was to understand that one of the ways we could be most helpful was to say, how do we create more intentional ways and spaces for people to come together and share a set of ideas? Or work together, build something together, or disagree with each other in a way that would potentially lead to something else?

I think my secret sauce has always been, how do you create those moments?, those intentional moments when people come together. And then whether you stay a part of it, or something else comes from it, the most important piece is that moment you are bringing people together.

You listened to all kinds of stories and met hundreds of people. What changed within you because of that interaction?

It takes me a lot longer to get everywhere in life... My wife lovingly tolerates it, but we’ll be walking down the street and she’ll look back, and I’m there talking to the homeless guy or the guy who’s running the street cart.

When I walk every morning from my house to my office through St. James Park, there’s this period of pausing and stopping and taking it in, or chatting, or seeing the same characters and realizing that wherever you live, it’s a small town.

Your routine: your coffee guy, the homeless guy, the busker. I like to think of them as the supporting cast of your life. When you start to realize they’re a part of your life, you actually make small investments in getting to know them, asking a set of questions that go beyond just, “How’s the weather?” “Oh, it’s sunny again.” “Great.”

My life was and remains so enriched from that process of simply devoting a small part of my day to going and meeting somebody I don’t know, and learning from and with them. For me, it’s about that connection with people and figuring out how to make it part of my every day.

Now that you have been here since October, how would you describe the archetypal character of San Jose?

The people I see are diverse... Whether you go from Mayfair to Downtown to North San Jose, what you have are people from different communities who are fiercely proud of being where they’re from.

Part of the pride is pride in San Jose, and part of it is pride in not being from San Francisco, not being from elsewhere: you have this sense that we’re distinctly from San Jose and we’re building something for ourselves. A lot of it is people with their heads down who will do stuff with or without support: it’s this DIY “I want to build something better for my community.”

That archetype of the fiercely proud “I’ll get it done with or without support or permission,” from the family that sells snacks out of their minivan outside of an elementary school in Mayfair to the tech company downtown, to the artist who’s putting up street art, to everything that you guys are trying to celebrate in Content.

There’s a sense of pride, innovation, and competency that’s rooted in diversity, in where people are from, and in this notion that we’ll just get it done.

knightfoundation.org twitter: dyuliharris

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All produce provided by: Whole Foods Market San Jose, on the Alameda 777 The Alameda | San Jose | 408.207.1126 wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/sanjose #WFMsanjose Photographer: Daniel Garcia Hair Stylist: Nathan Nguyen for Umbrella Salon Hair Styling Assistant: Vanessa Ramos for Umbrella Salon Make-Up: Brie Virta for Umbrella Salon Model: Miranda for JE Models Style & Production Assistant: Elle Mitchell Videographer: John Stalker for Creative Bay Media Producer: Kristen Pfund Location: Studio FCC, studiofcc.com

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Photographer: Daniel Garcia Hair Stylist: Nathan Nguyen for Umbrella Salon Hair Styling Assistant: Vanessa Ramos for Umbrella Salon Make-Up: Brie Virta for Umbrella Salon Model: Miranda for JE Models Style & Production Assistant: Elle Mitchell Videographer: John Stalker for Creative Bay Media Producer: Kristen Pfund Location: Studio FCC www.studiofcc.com

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SAVORY KITCHEN

Colleen Janke’s Kitchen: Sweet and Savory Written by Kate Evans Photography by DANIEL GARCIA

Colleen Janke is a successful entrepreneur in a valley full of startups, one who offers San Jose a chance to cut loose, enjoy some excellent food, and learn from some of the best chefs in the Bay Area.

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avory Kitchen, a dining venue/culinary school hybrid, burst onto the San Jose scene in 2012, quickly becoming a favorite among locals and those looking for unique events or team-building opportunities.

Offering cooking classes, wine pairing meals, and a chance to practice knife skills or the perfect way to sear a scallop, Savory Kitchen is a San Jose treasure that provides a unique and unforgettable epicurean experience.

Colleen Janke is the woman behind Savory Kitchen and recipes like grilled peach and pepper salsa over spicerubbed flank steak. A trained chef and sommelier, her love and passion for food and wine traces back to a collegiate sojourn in Italy. It was there, among the bountiful tables of Tuscany, that she learned a new way of thinking about how food can transform everyday life. Wandering the al fresco markets overflowing with fresh ingredients, Janke felt more at home than in the cold supermarkets in her native Boston. In addition to discovering a passion for cooking, she fell in love with how sharing meals was part of the daily Italian celebration of life.

Following the wine trail from Italy to California,

Janke starting working at the Bay Area’s Clos LaChance.

The story of Savory Kitchen, however, doesn’t begin in the golden rows of vines at a local winery, but at a bachelorette party where Colleen met a woman with a small culinary business. While hearing more about the company, Colleen’s mind began turning, thinking “I could do that.” And perhaps more importantly, “I could do that better.”

The idea took root—a high-end restaurant reimagined, a place where people could come together to learn cooking skills, meet future friends, and even build community.

After getting encouragement from her husband, Colleen spent a year strategizing, writing business plans, and scouting the perfect location. She finally found a promising space on the storied Alameda, across from the trendy new Whole Foods and walking distance to the SAP Center. Six months of construction, and the former sandwich shop was transformed into a gourmet chef’s kitchen and elegant dining space.

Today, Savory Kitchen has grown to a staff of 13, but Janke is still the beating heart of the kitchen. She and

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three professional chefs create seasonal menus, and Janke is often perfecting recipes on the weekends, treating her children, husband, and friends to innovative takes on classic Italian and Californian fare. Her family is both a source of inspiration and an integral part of Savory Kitchen: her nine-week-old regularly naps next to the stainless-steel prep table while his mother is working, planning, and maybe whipping up mixed summer berry meringues or ricotta crostini with orange zest.

For patrons, Savory Kitchen is a breath of fresh air. Local regular Lizabeth Yee explains what makes this place so special: “It’s a reflection of the quality of life available in our community—that making tasty food at home is doable, healthy, and fun, that cooking and then eating a shared meal encourages in-person conversations. It’s a chance to renew connections with family, old friends, and potential new friends. We’re fortunate to have Savory Kitchen and Colleen Janke in our community.” When asked why she and her husband, Scott, keep coming back, Yee responds that it’s Colleen. “Her welcoming smile, infectious enthusiasm, and hands-on encouragement always set the evening’s tone,” she says, “And what’s not to love about a place where, on occasion, dad Rob and baby Teddy [Colleen’s older son] join us during the cooking hour to look on while happy mom works with happy people?”

Janke seems surprised by her success, but is proud of all that she has accomplished. She loves that when taking a class or attending an event, there are no white starched aprons with fancy logos. Instead, patrons choose from the forty or so prominently displayed aprons as full of personality as Colleen Janke herself. Whether a frilly floral pattern that screams 1950s housewife or the naked form of Michelangelo’s David, these personable aprons definitely set the tone. This is a place of good food, fine wine, family, community, and perhaps most importantly, a place that Janke has created by staying true to what she loves.

savory-kitchen.com 754 The Alameda San Jose, CA 95126 408.295.1800 facebook: SavoryKitchenSJ instagram: savorykitchen twitter: SavoryKitchenSJ info@savory-kitchen.com

MORE THAN GOOD FOOD AND DRINK Interview by Isara Krieger Photography by Gregory Cortez

In the restaurant business, success is born from something even

simpler than good food and drink: people’s propensity to connect with one another. Kathy and Tone Tran know a bit about this social connection, and it’s allowed them to remain successfully in this business for the last ten years.

“You can be anyone: you can be a college kid and come in and have a few beers, you can be a sophisticated businessman coming in for some whiskey. That’s what we wanted.”

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hat began as Koji Sake Lounge is now one-year-old Nomikai, a “social food and drinkery” (after the Japanese for “drinking party”) that specializes in premium sake and Japanese whiskey. Its owners, Kathy and Tone, are married high school sweethearts (talk about connected) who emphasize the fact that their establishment exists beyond the purpose of providing food and drink for patrons: through it, they aim to provide a place for all members of the community to feel welcome, to gather, and to flourish.

Did you grow up being interested in restaurants or cooking?

Tone: Not really, we both had corporate jobs before this. We were interested in having a place where people can come and hang out. For us, we wanted a place where we could go out and feel comfortable at the same time, and have people come together. [At Nomikai], you can be anyone: you can be a college kid and come in and have a few beers, you can be a sophisticated businessman coming in for some whiskey. That’s what we wanted.

Kathy: We don’t really have culinary backgrounds, this was more about filling a void. I mean there wasn’t even a place where we could really go. It was always just a dive bar or a club or a sit-down restaurant. We were like, “How come there’s nothing in between?” We figured there were people out there who don’t fit into certain “scenes.” So when we had the idea for our place, we were like, “Okay, this has a nice casual atmosphere where anyone can come and feel welcome.”

but after time people would come in and say “Can I have the Namazake?” They’d order by the Japanese names. We serve tasting flights [where people can become familiar with a variety of different kinds.] We also do occasional tastings where the vendors come by and they’ll bring their line, they’ll let you taste some and they’ll educate you. People have expanded their knowledge of sake and we’re pretty proud of that.

How have you made a place for yourself in this city?

Kathy: We’ve spent most of our lives here, so we do have a love for the city. When we opened, there were two other businesses on this street. Now ever since, it’s been growing and we’re really excited to be a part of that.

Tone: We know this is a small mom-and-pop business, but we operate it as professionally as we can. We hold staff and service to the highest standards. We’re very connected with the local community, also.

Kathy: Yeah, staying connected with the community is definitely something we’re on top of. We hold community mixers, fundraisers, and things like that. We try to give back as much as we can. This past Thanksgiving and Christmas we did fundraisers for Give Thanks, Give Back, so for every pizza sold we donated another to Second Harvest. And we did a toy drive for Christmas.

Nonprofits will come in and do little mixers and we try to help them out as much as we can. So, yeah, it’s all about community. We can’t exist without each other.

What other factors have made your establishment successful?

Kathy: We have a good family, a good team. That’s one thing that separates us from other places in the area: our service is really personable. People will recognize you by your name when you come in. It’s not just about creating a drink and being like, you know, “Here you go,” and then setting off to the next customer. Everyone here is really open and friendly and will greet you with a warm Any advice for restaurant entrepreneurs? smile. It’s the team that makes this place what it is.

Kathy: It’s been the most rewarding thing to start Tone: Yeah, a bar is just a bar, a restaurant is just a restaurant, but service is what keeps people coming back. something with an entrepreneurial spirit so young. It’s different with this generation, from a business standpoint.

You have to think out of the box, you can’t just open your Why sake?

Kathy: Well, when I had my first encounter with sake doors and expect to be successful. You have to adapt and I knew it was something really, really unique. I always be really creative. You need to have passion and drive, I said to Tony, you know, “This stuff is really good and mean, that’s something you can’t learn in the corporate there’s not really a place we can go to access it around world. That’s something that comes from within. If you have passion, great, we need more of that in this world. here.” That’s when we decided to open our own place.

Tone: Not a lot of people knew what sake was at first,

nomikaisj.com 48 S First St San Jose, CA 95113 408.287.7199 social media: nomikaisj

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Brendan Rawson

sjz

Bruce Labadie

LONG LIVE THE JAZZ Written by brandon roos Photography by DANIEL GARCIA

THROUGH DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES AND A SHARED MISSION, BRENDAN RAWSON AND BRUCE LABADIE ARE EXPANDING SAN JOSE JAZZ’S VISIBILITY FROM FESTIVAL ORGANIZER TO COMMUNITY ARTS LEADER.

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“WHEN YOU GET INTO THE MACHINERY, THERE’S A REAL RESPECT THAT YOU GAIN FROM SEEING THE HARD WORK THAT PEOPLE PUT INTO THIS. YOU SEE THAT IT TAKES A REAL MIX OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF PEOPLE WHO SHARE THE SAME DESIRE AND APPRECIATION FOR WHAT SUMMER FEST IS.” Brendan Rawson, Executive Director, San Jose Jazz

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hey may not always see eye to eye, but Bruce Labadie and Brendan Rawson recognize that’s how things are meant to be.

One can count himself among the founders who helped christen the organization the “San Jose Jazz Society” back in 1986. The other is an arts veteran entering his fourth festival at the helm. Through their collective efforts, the two have forged a creative partnership that’s helping San Jose Jazz gain exposure not just for its signature Summer Fest, which over its 25-year tenure has grown into a San Jose staple, but for its increasingly ambitious and successful educational and programming efforts as well.

“Whenever you’re in a position like I am, you need to keep it fresh,” explains Labadie. “It’s good to have fresh ideas. I don’t agree with everything [Brendan says], but that’s fine. That’s the creative process.”

It’s a process Labadie is well acquainted with. He’s been Artistic and Festival Director of Summer Fest since its inaugural year in 1990 and boasts a previous programming tenure at both the Mountain Winery (18 years) and Villa Montalvo (12 years).

Summer Fest remains the project he’s most intimately involved with. He admits he still has a hand “in all logistics,” which encompasses dealing with vendors, merch, and food and drink, in addition to booking acts.

If there’s one person who knows Summer Fest, it’s him.

That knowledge came in handy for Rawson when he first came in as Executive Director in 2012. Largely stepping aside to let the festival’s many moving pieces do their thing, he reveled in his anonymity, taking time that weekend to witness as many parts of the fest puzzle as possible. The experience had a profound impact on how he viewed not only the festival, but his new organization and its mission.

“It was a very humanizing experience,” he recalls.

“When you get into the machinery, there’s a real respect that you gain from seeing the hard work people put in to it. You see that it takes a real mix of different kinds of people who share the same desire and appreciation for what Summer Fest is.”

In the years since, their rapport has been built upon a mutual respect that allows them to see when a calculated

risk is worth taking and when it may be best to wait another year. They struck gold in 2013 at Winter Fest, the organization’s winter concert series presenting emerging and innovative artists in the jazz idiom, when they booked Robert Glasper right before he won a Grammy Award and MacArthur Genius Vijay Iyer during the season he swept every major category in leading jazz publication DownBeat’s annual critics’ poll.

Yet delivering such lineups consistently, when hoping to maintain affordability for patrons, can prove incredibly tough. Summer Fest’s massive breadth and scale of programming is no help, nor are local competitors like Outside Lands and the Monterey Jazz Festival, which boast more headliners—and, in turn, carry much heftier ticket prices. Summer Fest books around a dozen different stages annually, offering chances for patrons to hear straight-ahead jazz alongside salsa, big band, New Orleans, and blues music, all for around 25 dollars a day. Through its efforts to maintain an affordable yet rewarding experience, Summer Fest has emerged as a celebration, and reflection, of San Jose’s eclectic cultural fingerprint.

While much of the organization’s efforts revolve around preparing for Summer Fest, which from Bruce’s perspective as Artistic and Festival Director is truly a year-long process, the two stress that in recent years, the organization has really pushed to serve its community purpose year-round. Bruce mentions the organization’s weekly programming efforts at San Pedro Square Market as part of their ongoing Music at the Market series. Rawson points to San Jose Jazz’s multifaceted, yet often overlooked, education efforts, which include the High School All Stars, an audition-based big band that provides advanced music students a chance to learn alongside other standout performers, and elementary school initiative Progressions, which utilizes music as a social tool to inspire at-risk students in East San Jose.

“Working with young kids, seeing them come to our camps, seeing them audition for the High School All Star band and performing at the festival, it gives you a strong sense of why something like this is so important in the big picture of a vibrant arts scene,” says Rawson.

“PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD COME TO IT. IT’S REALLY JUST A FEW PEOPLE WORKING FOR MOST OF THE YEAR, THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN IT’S THIS BIG COMMUNITY ACTIVITY. SAN JOSE JAZZ SUMMER FEST HAS A REMARKABLE REPUTATION AROUND THE WORLD, ESPECIALLY WITH MUSICIANS. IT’S BEEN A FUN PROCESS OVER A PERIOD OF YEARS TO GET sanjosejazz.org THERE.” Bruce Labadie, Festival and Artistic Director, San Jose Jazz

38 W Santa Clara St San Jose, CA 95113 408.288.7557 social media: sanjosejazz

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Billy Barnes & Koosha xiomyr Araghi Billy Barnes & Koosha Araghi

Billy Barnes & Koosha Araghi Written by Anna Bagirov Photography by daniel garcia

SAN JOSE’S MAESTRO SHAMANS

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illy Barnes and Koosha Araghi are maestro shamans.

They are not musicians, DJs, graphic designers, film directors, producers, or even visual artists: no, they are all of these at once. Sit back for an immersive auditory-visual experience. “This has never been done on a two-man scale before,” Koosha points out.

Fluid layers of interlocking images and light are projected onto cubic screens, while Billy’s voice intermingles with recorded compositions. Listening, watching, you are enveloped in light and sound. The effect is mesmerizing. The storyline centers on Xiomyr, a celestial being floating through time and space, bent on wooing his beloved Ambrosia (immortality) before a terrible force destroys their universe. The story picks up with the imminent arrival of the power that will threaten their reality.

Sketching out ideas, they are two mad scientists. Billy excitable, an electric ball of good-natured hyperactive

energy. Koosha, with a wise calmness, nodding and smiling at his partner’s ideas. They are huge fans of Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey 2001, fitting considering their art’s hypnotic effect. (Kubrick, in fact, had originally termed the famous monolith “the cube.”)

“We are giving you a digital play,” Billy explains. “It’s not electronic music set to visuals with singing. This is meant to be an immersive experience. We want you to feel as if you are floating through space, through a nebula of sacred geometry.”

Layer upon layer of sensory data and stimuli wash over you: you seem to float through a tunnel of space into the cubes. Interlocking shapes and designs transfix, moving in sync with the beat, insistent and driving. Billy’s voice is a Buddhist chant expanding and relaxing. “I want people engulfed by visuals and their own dancing. I want you and your friends to lose yourselves,” Billy says. It would be our pleasure. xiomyr.com xiomyrlive.tumblr.com soundcloud.com/xiomyr

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hill man Written by Michelle Runde Photography by gregory cortez

INDIE AND FOLK MUSIC

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ead vocalist and HILL MAN creator Dewey Rogge has been involved with music his whole life. His father was a producer and gave Rogge his first guitar when he was fifteen. While Rogge always played as a hobby, until recently he never considered taking things further. In 2012, however, he began to write an EP under the name HILL MAN, a name inspired by his great-grandfather, Hillman Irving Johnson. Rogge collaborated with various artists to record the first album Build a House, but delayed releasing it. “My childhood home burned down, my mom passed, and I didn’t want to let it go,” said Rogge. “But then I realized that these songs helped me get through it all, and that other people should be able to hear these songs to help them too.”

After the album’s release, Rogge began working on another. But it soon became clear that he needed more stability than artists invited to play intermittently. And so HILL MAN became an official band with four full-time

members. As the group began to work together on their next project, they found themselves with new and unexpected ideas—too many ideas—for what to record.

Rogge approached the situation from a business point of view. He did not want to have to call a halt to the work, nor did he want to sacrifice material by cutting music out.

Thus, HILL MAN will split into two groups: Rogge and his longtime girlfriend will take over HILL MAN for indie and acoustic work, while the new group Landmarks will take on experimental music with Rogge and band.

HILL MAN has now teamed up with clothing line Treeline Outdoors, and both HILL MAN and Landmarks are working to launch side-by-side albums in late 2015. They are carving out their own niche in the South Bay, and the future is open to possibility.

hillmanmusic.wordpress.com noisetrade.com/hillman social media: hillmanmusic

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ALBUM PICKS

Curated by Tommy Aguilar @ungrammar

1. Jordan Rakei: Groove Curse EP The Groove Curse EP by Australia-based Jordan Rakei was a late August 2014 release. All songs are produced, recorded, arranged, and mixed by Jordan Rakei. Doing due diligence to the Universal Grammar sound, this EP as well as other works of Mr. Rakei have held a spot in my rotation. This is quintessential, timeless listening for the modern era head-nodder who prefers the vocal stylings of Marvin and D’Angelo over that solid Dilla-esque swing.

The music is raw, vocal-driven, groove.

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Groove Curse features many collaborating artists, highlighted by guest vocalist Gwen Bunn on the record’s first track “Street Light,” a neo-soul ballad depicting a scene when you’re feeling that special moment of enjoyment with a significant other and you are both feeling it—“She was food for the soul.”

Along with laying down the vocals and vocal arrangements, Jordan Rakei displays his artistic versatility and musicianship, playing synth bass, electric guitar, and grand piano throughout the five-song EP. soulhasnotempo.bandcamp.com 2. Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly LP Look, I’m sure you have heard of the artist Kendrick Lamar and/or his latest album. For my personal responsibility to these album picks, if I look back on 2015 to find this was not one of the selections, I don’t think I could forgive myself. Having no expectations on the release of Kendrick’s sophomore LP release, To Pimp a Butterfly, I was thrilled for what was brought to my listening pleasure. This album is electric, musically, with its message of cultural commentary throughout. And the blending and fusing of jazz, funk, soul, and poetry into the hip-hop spectrum was done beautifully.

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After taking the time to study the liner notes to align my initial assumptions for what musician or vocalist or producer was used on what track, I found a veritable feast. From Grammy winners Robert Glasper, Lalah Hathaway, and Pharrell to left-field musicians like Thundercat and Terrace Martin influencing the game from another spectrum, and vocalists like Anna Wise of Sonnymoon and Bilal doing the same. Legends Ronald Isley and George Clinton even guest-spot on this record, and last but not least, contributions from Flying Lotus and Snoop Dogg to name a few. Whew! Artistically, this is a record wellcurated with a modern understanding of who is really making good music.

Whether this record is a masterpiece, only time will tell. At least Kendrick threw out conventional wisdom to take a chance that I, for my part, can be thankful for. Take his journey on To Pimp a Butterfly, and if anything, come away with knowledge of the voices of influencers in this current generation of music. kendricklamar.com

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3. PARTYNEXTDOOR: PARTYNEXTDOOR TWO 4. Drake: If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late 5. Majid Jordan: A Place Like This EP I’d like to first highlight the label on which these artists and albums reside, Canadian-based record label OVO Sound. OVO stands for “October’s Very Own,” founded by rapper Drake and producer Noah “40” Shebib in a joint venture with Warner Bros. The label features a stable of producers, overseers, and artists. Favorites not mentioned in this write-up include ILoveMakonnen and Big Boi. The label currently is responsible for three records in UG’s rotation.

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The first project, PARTYNEXTDOOR’s PARTYNEXTDOOR TWO, was a sleeper in 2014. The second, Drake’s recent “mixtape” If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, is a project that needs to be taken a little more seriously. Due to contractual issues with Reading released on iTunes, it’s considered his fourth studio album for Cash Money Records. However, for all intents and for the purposes of this post, it’s a project that has come out of this OVO era of music making. The third is Majid Jordan’s A Place Like This EP. Of these three projects, we are most excited about Majid Jordan, a Canadian duo consisting of Majid Al Maskati and Jordan Ullman. Late in 2014, the duo released the five-song EP A Place Like This on the OVO imprint. This EP exemplifies why I am so excited about the future of this label’s sound. The duo was featured on, and co-produced, the 2013 hit “Hold On, We’re Going Home” off Drake’s Nothing Was The Same, and they seem to have influenced the overall sound of the track. Like that track, A Place Like This reveals a mix of downtempo contemporary bassy grooves with elements of deep house and nu disco. On top, the duo laid creamy R&B-flavored vocals. Try this five-song EP on for size first, and I also encourage the exploration of the catalog of current OVO projects as a whole. It will reveal something that has me excited about the future of this label, and the contributions Majid Jordan will bring to it in 2015. Props to Drake and his patna 40 for a well-curated stable of artists, “far from over.”

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majidjordan.com octobersveryown.com

6. Hiatus Kaiyote: Choose Your Weapon LP Yes, we did cover this group in the last issue with regards to their EP, By Fire. Since that time, their new LP dropped. When a new project matches its own hype and anticipation with a blow ’em out the water effort, well, you get covered in back-to-back issues, ’nuff said. With an effortless display of funk, soul, jazz, and electronic elements, this record is thick with sonic depth. Hiatus Kaiyote is another jewel of the Australian continent. Some very beautiful music is being produced in that region of the world, and it is on full display on Hiatus Kaiyote’s newly released LP, Choose Your Weapon. The obvious influence of American music has been dutifully shown its proper respect. Nai Palm is a gifted vocalist, and with this record has reached new heights in her vocal prowess. As well as growth and maturity from the band, this is exactly what I like to see in artists from one record to the next. No disappointment here, and as for featuring them in back-to-back issues—I have no reservations. I have received no payment from the HK marketing team and/or management. Go cop this, and see them live.

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THE “MIGHTY” MIKE M C GEE AMBIVERT Interview by Chad Hall Photography by Gregory Cortez

It kills me that loneliness and boredom often are not motivating enough to generate more art.

How would you describe yourself?

Professionally, I am a stand-up poet—a poet with a healthy dash of humor added for flavor. I am a lateblooming vagabond. A hobo-humorist. A get-paid-to-talk and say-things-my-way. Personally, I love making people laugh and cry in close proximity. I’m an ambivert—half extroverted, half introverted. As much as I love being the center of attention, I also eagerly desire solitude. One state helps me create; the other helps me promote. I love people and creatures very much. I am very honored to be alive in this now.

motivating enough to generate more art. Three quarters of the time, I end up turning to my addiction: mindlessly surfing the internet until I fall asleep. The rest of the time I will go for a walk or ride my bike. If I am uninspired to write about life, it probably means I need to go live more of it. Whatever happens, I am always sure to never beat myself up for not being creative that day. It does nothing for future me. I am always productive—whether it is a product I can sell or merely a new thing I know, it’s still beneficial to me, especially future me.

Dream dinner party: You, Andy Warhol, and...?

Tough call. On a whim—Frida Kahlo, Nina Simone, In his book, The War of Art, Steven Pressfield explains “resistance” as anything that blocks you from creating. Mark Twain, and James Baldwin.

What are some forms of resistance for you, and how do you What’s the best creative advice you’ve ever received? deal with them?

Be patient and keep editing until it makes sense to all I am often blocked by my lack of focus and motivation to write, due in large part to loneliness and boredom. of your senses.

It kills me that loneliness and boredom often are not

Content Magazine Literary Series is curated by Santa Clara County Poet Laureate David Perez

EVERY DAY Everyday I rewrite her name across my chest so that those who wish to break my heart will know who to answer to later She has no idea that I’ve taught my tongue to make pennies, and every time our mouths are to meet I will slip coins to the back of her throat and make wishes I wish that someday my head on her belly might be like home like doubt to doubt resuscitation because time is supposed to mean more than skin She doesn’t know that I have taught my arms to close around her clocks so they can withstand the fallout from her Autumn She is so explosive, volcanoes watch her and learn terrorists want to strap her to their chests because she is a cause worth dying for Maybe someday time will teach me to pick up her pieces put her back together and remind her to click her heels but she doesn’t need a wizard to tell her that I was here all along Lady let us catch the next tornado home let us plant cantaloupe trees in our backyard then one day I will remind you that I don’t like cantaloupe and they don’t grow on trees we can laugh about it then we can plant things we’ve never heard of because I’ve never heard of a woman who can make flawed look so beautiful the way you do and the word smitten is to how I feel about you what a kiss is to romance so maybe my lips to yours could be the penance to this confession because I am the only one preaching your defunct religion sitting alone at your altar, praising you out of faith I cannot do this hard-knock life alone You are all the softness a rock dreams of being the mistakes the rain makes at picnics when Mother Nature bears witness in much better places So yes I will gladly take on your ocean just to swim beneath you so I can kiss the bends of your knees in appreciation for the work they do keeping your head above water

Poem provided by Mike McGee

mikemcgee.net facebook: Mik3McG33 twitter: mikemcgee instagram: mightymikemcgeek

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IN THE BAG BÜRG & ECH was founded by Marisol Adriana Burgueno and Anna Echegaray while they were design students in Barcelona. Their partnership was founded on the belief that all products should be made with quality, necessity, and most of all, spontaneity. Despite the distance—Burgueno lives in the Bay Area, Echegaray in Spain—the duo work together via Skype to design products that could make their lives both easier and fun.

They came up with the Butterfly Tote, a bag designed to easily collapse for storage, with compartments for a laptop and cell phone. burgandech.com social media: burgandech

• The Wearhaus Arc offers Bluetooth headphones that let you wirelessly sync up music with multiple people around you.

• Fashionable wearable tech by Bellabeat.

Beautiful health-tracking jewelry designed for the needs of women.

• The Apple Watch, Apple’s latest gadget forescasting the future of small multitasking devices and phones.

Contributors The production of Content Magazine would not be possible without the talented writers, editors, graphic artists, and photographers who contribute to each issue. We thank you and are proud to provide a publication to display your work. We are also thankful for the sponsors and readers who have supported this magazine through advertisements and subscriptions.

MARÍA GABRIELA HUERTAS DIAZ María is an urban planner, social entrepreneur, writer, polyglot, and idea translator. Her work explores structures, human relationships, and the interactions between people and the built environment. She believes stories are the basis of the common conscience and paramount to inspiring everyone and anyone to create positive, meaningful change.

ANTOINETTE SIU Antoinette is an award-winning journalist who finds inspiration in telling underreported stories. She is a Bay Area native, a UC Berkeley and Newhouse School alum, and always chasing magnificent views. twitter: antoinettesiu

SHANE HAGERTY Shane is a graphic designer and film photographer living in San Jose. He loves skateboarding, snowboarding, vinyl records, and living in California, a place that inspires him everyday. instagram: Sk8r408 shanehagerty.com

ODILE SULLIVAN-TARAZI Odile has worked the last 25 years as an editor and a writer in Silicon Valley’s high-tech industry. In coming to Content Magazine, she returns to her roots in the arts and humanities.

And to designing reader experiences that, as well as being informative, are rich, full, and pleasurable.

TOMMY AGUILAR Tommy has been presenting and promoting artists, DJs, and musicians from all over the globe in his hometown and other parts of the Bay for 15 plus years under the moniker Universal Grammar. Under the nom de plume Chatos1013, he shares his mix of global groove, soul, R&B, jazz, electronic, hip hop, funk, house, and Latin to his hometown audience, San Jose. twitter: ungrammar

DANIEL MILLAN A native of the San Joaquin Valley, Daniel moved to San Jose in order to pursue a degree in design studies. As an aspiring designer, he is experienced with web design, digital illustration, and photography. Whether scavenging for goodies in the Ashbury flea market, enjoying the food of Mission Street, or cycling a late-night bike party in San Jose, Daniel is enjoying the infinite possibilities of the Bay.

NATHAN ZANON Nathan is a social media geek, a frequent doodler, and a pretty good juggler. He has called San Jose home for more than a decade, and has ingrained himself in the arts and cultural scene through his work with the Montalvo Arts Center, the Camera Cinemas, Cinequest, and the San Jose Downtown Association.

KATE EVANS Kate is a freelance writer and North Carolina native. A recent San Jose transplant, she enjoys learning about the city’s history and rich heritage, exploring farmers markets, finding the best wine tasting spots, and making San Jose home after living abroad in Europe and Africa.

Want to be a part of the Content community?

Contact us at: Editor@content-magazine.com

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