Issue 1.3 Fluid

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SAN JOSE L I F E & S T YL E

W H AT ’ S I N S I D E M AT T E R S

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ISSUE 1.3

FLUID things that flow

San Jose & Water

Interview with Council Member Oliverio

The Noiseman Hustle & Flow Hip-Hop Web Radio

Battlefest 360 Live

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Water Musical Flow Water Song Consumption: What’s Your Function?

Flow Fog Hustle & Flow Body Fluid

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Golden Hills Naked Veins Stream of Conscious Beer Big Bowl of Comfort Contributors Cultivator’s Notes Photo Collage

Photo: Wes Thomson

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Article byAlex Woodrow // Layout by Brian Jensen // Photography by Daniel Garcia

Water. We cannot survive without its unique and life giving properties. Everyday people die without it and throughout history nations have fought for the control of water sources.

Whether we take it for granted or pray to the gods for it, we rely upon water to live. We are dependent on water. We are addicted to water. Our bodies are composed of 58% to 78% water. Without it we would not be able to maintain our cardiovascular or urinary systems. Nor would we be able to dissolve and transport nutrients and wastes throughout our bodies. Without water we would shrivel up and die.

Have you ever seen other liquids besides water? I am sure many are probably thinking, “Yeah, I have! Juice, soda, milk...” but with the exception of alcohol, everything we know to be fluid consists mainly of water. For one thing, and quite fortunately so, the element we require most next to air, exists in a stable state everywhere on earth. Around 72% of earth’s surface is covered with it. On other planets water is rare if it even exists. Be grateful that we water addicts have an amazingly large quantity of this life-giving liquid available to us.

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Basics Many people know the three phases (gas, liquid and solid) and the boiling (100˚C/212˚F) and freezing (32˚F/0˚C) points of water. Past those basics little else is commonly known of its complexity. Water is mainly found in liquid form throughout the earth, but it also exists in gaseous form in clouds and also in solid form as ice. As a relatively stable molecule we don’t have to worry about it spontaneously evaporating or freezing so we can use it to boil or cool food and drinks. Anywhere between the freezing and boiling points water can be found in liquid form and ingested or used recreationally.

Compositions A water molecule is often depicted as a Mickey Mouse head, consisting of two elements: one oxygen atom (depicted as an “O”) and two hydrogen atoms (depicted as an “H”). The oxygen is covalently bonded to the two hydrogens, meaning that each of the atoms shares electrons with the surrounding atoms to complete their outer electron shells.

Interactions In the Mickey Mouse configuration, the chin (oxygen) has a slightly negative charge and the ears (hydrogen) have a slightly positive charge. As a result water is a polar molecule with an electrical dipole moment. A dipole moment is when the molecule exhibit both charges on opposites sides of the molecule allowing for ionic interactions to occur between other ionic molecules. Loose Hydrogen bonds then form between hydrogens and oxygens of surrounding molecules, creating a giant network of joined water molecules. This creates surface tension in large groups of water molecules. This allows for us to float boats on water, water to travel upwards through a straw and blood to flow through our veins.

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MUSICAL FLOW

Words: Amber Engle Photography: Daniel Garcia Layout: Brian Jensen

Driven. Intelligent. Fighter.

These were the words that flitted through my thoughts while sitting down with Mashood Danmole’, known as Noiseman, of Big Noise Radio. I was first introduced to him in the Big Noise Radio studio and was immediately impressed by the amount of music paraphernalia crowding the tight rooms. Yet, each item, be it a bookcase of vinyl records or a stack of venue cards, had been meticulously placed. It was a serious set-up orchestrated by a serious man.

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“in everything I get into, if I like it, I take it to the highest level I can take it.”

I learned as we talked that Noiseman’s environment during his upbringing was a tough one. He spent his youth in Stockton amidst communal hardships but was fortunate to have the guidance of his artistic mother and intellectual father. In the 80’s Danmole’ migrated to the San Jose area where he “saw someone blend these two records and I had never seen that before.

As soon as I saw that I was amazed… ‘Wow, you can do that?’”

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It was during these early days that the name Noiseman caught on. Noiseman became absorbed with blending beats with music and over time discovered the rush he got from“feeling the crowd”through competitive DJing.

In the 90’s some of Noiseman’s experimental tapes

made it into the hands of Derrick Rahming, the leader of the hip-hop group Afro-Rican (best known for their hits Give it All You Got [doggy style] and All of Puerto Rico). He went to Florida to record material in 2 Live Crew’s studio and it was there that he “cut his teeth” learning production.

Uniquely, while Noiseman was building his music craft into a production career, he was also rising in the ranks of Silicon Valley. Responsible for the release of twenty-five products, Noiseman had become a Senior Engineering Consultant for Network Appliance by 2005. He also did business for other companies such as Sun & 3Com Palm. He explains, “in everything I get into, if I like it, I take it to the high-

est level I can take it.” Much like the union of his mother the artisan and his father the pedagogue, Noiseman melded together his passion for Hip-Hop and his knack for business into what is now Big Noise Radio (BNR).

BNR is an online radio station chock full of independent hip-hop and rap artists. It is far beyond mainstream radio because the listener is in control of the play similar to a MP3 player. Podcasting is not something one would find on this hybrid site. In comparison to other online sites, Noiseman asserts that BNR has a “strong criteria for quality. We also have a criteria that has to do with timeless and respectable music, as opposed to a lot of trendy music that is happening in the commercial scenes.” He also noted that this trendy music “will pop up and it will be popular for a year or two and then you may never hear from these artists again. That seems to be a reoccurring trend with commercial music. So we’ve reached out and found timeless music. Some of the music that’s on [BNR] is as old as the early 90’s and it meshes perfectly with music that’s been released this year.”

The proof of the musical excellence can be seen in the high demand around the world (especially in Europe) for the artists on BNR. On the opening page of BNR there is a small stat button on the right hand side. This takes the user to statcounter.com. A little further down the rabbit trail and there is a link on the left that shows a “Recent visitor map.”

Interestingly, one finds a strong European fan base: a count almost higher than the red dots covering the US. Noiseman attributes this phenomenon to a deeper respect for the craftsmanship of BNR: “Just like back in the days of Jazz and R&B, in the sixties and seventies, even before that, Europe has always appreciated the greater art forms and it remains the same today.”

pills, shoot somebody, pimp some hoes… everything you wouldn’t want your community or your kids to gravitate towards.

It seems like that’s got a corporate rubber stamp from the corporate distribution channels that are out today.”

“Don’t expect to go to BNR and find “positive rap” made for people with frail sensitivities.

The music at BNR is mult-faceted. Much as we as a race have different ideas, so do the artists on BNR. Click on Muneshine’s single Globe Trotters and you will find lyrics that depict unity through the various nations.

Juxtaposed to this, Planet Asia’s The Medicine is raw with discord from the streets.

Black Milk’s Home of the Greats points out the inconsistencies between two ways of life. What all of these artists have in common is a multi-layered, high-production value sound. We primarily seek out independent artists because of the quality in their music and for the consciousness in their content. It’s community respectable music that comes from the vein of storytelling and I think that’s where rap began. We are looking for people that are talking about the human struggle. It’s rap and it’s hip-hop and it comes from the streets.”

Beyond maintaining the superior quality of music, Noiseman has a vision for BNR that he formulated from his own experiences with marketing groups. “Some of the representation that we’ve seen, especially in commercial circles, has been very one-sided. It’s not been very balanced. There’s a lot of presentation of the gangster lifestyle and a lot of presentation of guns and drugs.”

“Every time you turn on the radio there’s some catchy tune that has almost like a nursery school type of melody to it and the lyrics are something like: drink alcohol, pop

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WATER SONG INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL ZAZUETA

BY CAITLIN ROBINET T PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIEL GARCIA

“You don’t really know where you’re from until you leave.”

While he spoke, Daniel’s eyes were closed and his face was pointed up towards the ceiling. His long legs dangled over the edge of his leather loveseat, bunching his pants up to reveal ankles that are thinner than expected.

Using the opposite armrest to prop up his head, he would occasionally blink his eyes open, search the ceiling for words that were escaping him, and then close his eyes again. I was lying on the adjacent couch, facing away from him. I got the sense that he didn’t notice when I would glance back. I got the sense he couldn’t hear the sound of my pen scribbling. In fact, other than a few brief asides, I got the sense that he started to forget I was even there at all.

Daniel Zazueta grew up in the Rose Garden district of San Jose. The result of an ancestry that includes Mexican farm-workers on his father’s side and on his father’s side and Norwegian refinement akin to a British Finishing School on his mother’s, he treads through his picturesque memories almost mechanically. He described riding his bike down streets lined with big leafy trees, with his sleeping bag in tow, in preparation for a tree-fort sleepover.

He played video games at the corner store and knew it was a great place to grow up. He recognized the importance of growing up in a place where he was around kids from different races and ethnic backgrounds. He spoke highly of his Jesuit education at Bellarmine College Preparatory High School, crediting that school for the introduction to his first love: music. He spoke fondly about his childhood, his home, but with a discernable absence of passion in his voice. It sounded to me like he was just going through the motions.

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It wasn’t until Daniel began to speak about his experience studying abroad in Argentina that I began to sense warmth in his voice. His junior year in college at Berkeley, he had the opportunity to go to Argentina for a semester.

Once there, he found himself connecting to the Latin culture and music but also began to develop a new passion.

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”The air quality was so awful, it blew me away,” he said. “I did a research project on air pollution in Buenos Aires, and because of it, when I came back to Berkeley, I studied Latin American relations, focusing on the environment.”

Being a lover of the environment changed Daniel’s outlook. “It’s a way of thinking, a way of life, rather than a theory or philosophy. You begin to think about how you can lessen your impact. We consume and consume, but the slower we consume…”

After graduation, Daniel spent the next 8 years occasionally teaching and leading tours. He traveled as much as possible in order to “discover music” and to learn how to express everything he had experienced and learned.

But after traveling to Argentina, France, Africa, Turkey, Greece, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Cambodia, Daniel began to see how water could be an obstacle. Whether it was issues of erosion, contamination, pollution, or just how to keep from getting sick, it put San Jose into perspective.

“I felt so privileged to be young and from the Bay Area. If you can’t satisfy the basic necessities of life for your family, the environment is your last priority. But we have the privilege to be able to worry about the environment.

The Silicon Valley and its new technology--it feels like the frontier, manifest destiny, the end of the line.”

It came time to put down roots, so Daniel enrolled at Santa Clara University School of Law. He saw the doors that would be open to him if he became a lawyer. Daniel went to a Water Law Symposium at Hastings Law School.

He discovered that something as basic as water is extremely complicated to manage. Daniel began to focus on the intersection between water and issues of climate change.

As I felt my own eyes grow heavy, Daniel began to speak faster and faster.

He gave me facts and statistics related to the Delta. 75% of the water going south of the Delta is created north of it. 20% of California’s energy is spent on water-related energy use: transporting, heating, and treating that water.

30% of our natural gas and 80 million gallons of fossil fuel are used for the same purpose, every year. Daniel hopes that one day we will use alternative energy for the capture, storage, and treatment of water.

“It’s infectious,” he tells me matter-of-factly. “Once you’re exposed to something, and it excites you, you see it everywhere.”

I started thinking about how Daniel left to discover music as a form of expression, but his biggest impact will be right here. He not only gained an appreciation of where he comes from, but now has the power to make it a better place.

Daniel’s song is about water. Much like our favorite songs, the details of creation are better left to the composer, but we all find something we can relate to in the melody and the lyrics. Whatever he chooses to do with it, San Jose will be proud, we all will be better off by his impact, and I will be moved by the form of expression he discovers.

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CONSUMPTION. WHAT’S YOUR FUNCTION? Article by Jon Havens Layout by Brian Jensen

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GLOBAL WARMING IS MAINSTREAM

We see it everywhere: movies, music, politics, and in our conversations. What was once an often overlooked factor in our society, save a few dedicated spirits, has now become a rallying cry for an entire generation. And it does not take a movie or a politician to understand the severity of the situation. One merely has to go outside.

This is especially true for us Californians. We are currently in a drought for our third consecutive year. It is no secret that this is related to the ever-changing climate due to global warming.

The last drought lasted from 1987-1992, and the current drought is on track to do the same.

This decade has been one of the hottest California has ever experienced. In 2008, California experienced its driest September on record with 0.01 inches of rain. This is 0.45 inches below the nation’s average for the entire 20th Century. In that same month, Connecticut, Maine, Louisiana and several other states experienced their wettest September on record. California was the driest state in the entire country with many of the western states below average for rainfall.

Massive wildfires have spread across our state and this will continue if we do not experience abundant amounts of rainfall. 70-80% of our water goes to agricultural use and without this water, California (agriculture is a significant part of California’s economy) will be in serious trouble.

The effects go farther as much of our produce is shipped around the country.

On average, a person living in the U.S. uses 20-30 liters of water everyday for their basic needs (drinking, cooking, washing). Many people are looking for ways to conserve. Here are a few ways that you can begin to savor the water that you have.

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Water your lawn every 3-5 days during the summer and every 10-14 days in the winter.

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Water your lawn in the early morning or in the late evening.

Run your dishwasher and/or clothes washer when you have a full load.

Avoid defrosting frozen food under running water.

If you have a pool, use a cover to cut evaporation by 90%.

Repair leaks: Leaky faucets can waste up to 2,000 gallons of water a year.

Plant your garden in the spring or fall when the need for water is lower.

Collect rain in a barrel and use it to water your garden.

Keep your lawn around 2-3 inches high to protect the roots from heat stress and to prevent water evaporation.

Water conservation tips provided by www.drinktap.org www.save20gallons.org

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FLOW Story by Caitlin E. Robinett Layout by Jessy Dewi

THE EARTH IS A COMPLICATED SYSTEM OF EBBS AND FLOWS, TIDES AND CURRENTS. It breathes and pulsates, sustaining delicate organisms and life. There is heat at its core, and movement on its surface.

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Likewise, our bodies are complicated systems. Each part depends on another to provide food and oxygen, heat and energy.

But at the simplest level, it’s water that gives us life. On our planet, and in our beings, water is the source of our culture, society, and very existence.

San Jose City Council Member Pierluigi Oliverio wants San Jose to be aware of the issues surrounding our most precious resource every time we turn on the tap. On Monday, September 21, 2009, he teamed with the San Jose Water District and the Sierra Club to host a screening of a documentary about water called Flow: For Love of Water.

Over 150 people showed up for what turned out to be an informative and inspiring evening, learning about what experts call “the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st century--the world water crisis.”

The film takes the viewer on a journey around the world, investigating water issues in Bolivia, South Africa, India, and here in the United States.

“I stopped drinking bottled water after seeing it.”

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According to the film, in Bolivia, 1 out of every 10 children will die before the age of 5, most from water-related deaths. The World Bank, who threatened to cut the country off from much needed loans for water development, forced the privatization of water upon Bolivia. Everyone, rich and poor, are forced to pay for clean water, and the cost is too much for the community to handle. The story is similar in South Africa. Water is treated like a commodity to be bought and sold, making record profits for outside companies.

In India, a UV (ultra violet) filtration system has been developed that provides self-sustaining purification. About 300,000 people have been positively impacted by the system that costs an individual about $2 per year for 10 liters of clean water a day. The system is run and maintained by an individual in the community, whose salary is also sustained by the system. But many more people need to be reached.

We don’t need to look as far as India or Africa to find the reality of the water crisis. In California, experts estimate that we have 20 years worth of water remaining. Climate change is significantly impacting our water shortage, and private corporate interests are selling water to those who can afford it, not to those who need it.

According to the FDA, there is less than 1 person regulating bottled water in our country. That means that the individual regulating bottled water also has other job duties. Bottled water often contains bacteria, chemicals, and even arsenic. The U.N. estimates it would cost an additional $30 billion to provide clean drinking water to the whole planet, but we spend three times that on bottled water alone worldwide. Much of that water is being bottled by companies like Nestle, Coca Cola, and Pepsi without them paying for any of it, while streams and wells are running dry.

“I have been the type of person who is not afraid to mention the elephant in the room.”

These issues beg the question: is water a human right? The filmmakers think so, and they’d like all of us to join them in their quest to get the United Nations to recognize it as such in the “Declaration of Human Rights.”

Councilmen Oliverio’s goal is a much simpler one. He’d like each of us to think about where our water comes from when we turn on the tap, and begin thinking of water as a finite resource.

“After all,” he points out, “it can’t last forever, can it?”

Flow: For Love of Water has been widely released and is available by most major rental companies. For more information please visit http://www.flowthefilm.com/ Check out Councilmember Oliverio’s blog at: http://www.sanjoseinside.com/sji/blog/pierluigioliverio

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Fog

AS ANY LONG-TIME SAN JOSE RESIDENT KNOWS, NOTHING EVOKES IMAGERY OF THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COAST LIKE FOG. CONSIDER CARL SANDBURG’S APT POEM ABOUT FOG:

The fog comes on little cat feet.

It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.

Near the Pacific, fog can creep in on even the warmest summer day. From Santa Clara Valley, looking toward the coastal ranges, we can often see fog gathering, sometimes swelling in rolling cascades that blanket neighborhoods and radio towers. The same weather pattern is responsible for overcast mornings, when the clammy, chill air forces us to dress in layers. The banked, cascading fog is like nothing else in the United States, according to Orman Granger, a meteorologist at the University of California at Berkeley, who says Bay Area conditions are duplicated only on the is22 land of Labrador, on the coasts of Santiago, Chile and Cape Town, South Africa, and on the Canary Islands.

Article by Amaya Becvar Weddle Layout by Brian Jensen

In late springtime, a high-pressure system builds off the Pacific coast. As summer temperatures heat up the central valley, the warm air rises, creating a low-pressure zone. Cool, moist drafts, carried on the westerly winds, are sucked through the gate formed between the South Bay Peninsula and the Marin Headlands. As temperatures in the valley cool off, the fog withdraws and the cycle begins again.

What is fog?

In a nutshell, fog is a cloud that hangs very low to the ground. When a body of cold air collides with a body of warm air, millions of tiny droplets of water are formed, so light they literally hang in the air. As light tries to pass through air containing the tiny droplets of water, it is scattered, giving fog its characteristic ‘cloaking’ ability.

Most all air in the breathable atmosphere contains water vapor, which is responsible for humidity. As warm air cools, water vapor (a colorless gas) can condense to form liquid water particles. This is the same process that happens when a cold soda can “sweats.” The water on the can doesn’t leach out from the soda inside, but instead comes from water that was once in gas form in the air but got cold and condensed into liquid. With fog, instead of condensing on a cold soda can, the liquid water forms in a cold region of the air. Fog is suspended liquid water particles.

What is the difference between fog and a cloud? Not much - fog is a cloud bank that is in contact with the ground.

Two kinds of fog There are two kinds of fog: advection fog and radiation fog. Advection fog is what we see in summer creeping in from the Pacific.

Warm, moist air over the ocean is blown inward. When that air moves over colder coastal waters, it cools quickly and fog forms. The fog is moved inland by the same westerly winds.

Advection fog plays an important role in the life of California Redwood trees . Redwood trees have very shallow roots, and depend on water from sources other than deep underground. What the trees do not get from rain, they get from fog. Advection fog deposits moisture on the pine needles which drips to the ground and is absorbed by the roots. Amazingly, almost one third of the moisture coming into the Coastal Redwood forests over the course of the year is coming from fog that has condensed on the trees.

Other coastal plants have unique fog-catching abilities – many have leaves that are covered by tiny hairs that help them catch droplets of fog and retain much-needed moisture.

The other kind of fog is radiation, or ground fog. This fog is much more common and forms when there is high relative humidity (typically after a heavy rain), calm winds, and rapid cooling near the ground. Radiation fog forms most often on cool, clear nights with a very slight breeze. It starts first in low valleys and spreads outward so long as conditions remain the same. The Tule fog that forms in the San Joaquin Valley and Sacramento Valley areas of California’s Great Central Valley is a kind of radiation fogii. Tule fog forms during the late fall and winter (California’s rainy season) after the first significant rainfall.

Physical scientists would characterize fog as a fluid. A fluid is anything that would spill or float away if it weren’t in a container. If you can stir it up with a spoon or blow it through a straw, it’s a fluid. By definition, we say that a fluid is any substance that continually deforms (flows) under an applied stress. Fluids take on the shape of their container .

Make your own fog You can make your own fog in a bottle using rubbing alcohol.

To make fog, you have to get some cold air and some warm air together. One way to do that is to fill a bottle 1/3 full of very hot water.

Add a few drops of rubbing alcohol. Put a piece of ice over the top of the bottle and watch as fog develops in the bottle beneath .

HUSTLE & FLOW Story by Amber Engle Photos by Krystal Avedisian Layout by Jessy Dewi

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STORM, THE REPORTED SAVIOR OF BREAK DANCING IN EUROPE, ONCE SAID, “When I started dancing it didn’t really come to me that it was Hip Hop dancing…when I started it was just dance. To me this is my life and if it’s a Hip Hop life then it’s a Hip Hop life.” The things he’s done and the movement he affected became far larger than he could have imagined.

I sat down with Battlefest 360 Live co-founder Angelo Sioson and Supreme Soul dancer Raul Navalton. Battlefest is one of the largest Urban Dance competitions in the country. For Sioson his start on the San Jose dance scene started early, in the 7th grade. His older cousin, who danced in the group Dangerous Image, brought him recognition with classmates so he decided he needed to see what all the hype was about at an upcoming show called World War Three. “I went to one of his shows later on that school year and I was the youngest kid by far. My Mom dropped me off in front of the venue and I got out and walked to the line. You can imagine the embarrassment. It’s like your Mom bringing you to the mall. I went alone… to a place far from [home]… but the thing is I didn’t think twice about it. For me it was, ‘Man I have got to see this- I have got to be a part of this.’” Sioson’s drive wasn’t necessarily to dance in the show but he had an early desire to have a hand in making it happen. Much like Sioson, Supreme Soul Dancer Raul Navalton had early dreams. For him it was to follow in his families footsteps. With his Mom being a nurse and his Grandfather a neuro-surgeon, Navalton felt that it was in his family’s blood to work in the medical field and consequently he modeled his work ethic after them. “I compared myself to them. What would they do in my situation? And usually it’s work.” But he also explained how dance took him away from school many times over. After graduating with his AA in Liberal Arts from a local community college, Navalton decided to take his life in a new direction. “I was cutting myself off [from school] to devote myself to dance.

What a way to go!”

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College is also where Sioson finally made the leap into the San Jose dance scene. “I was going into my last semester saying ,‘what am I going to do on the side that can give me some stimulation other than crunching numbers?’“ He and his friend Mark Emialanta ended up branching out into the San Jose Hip Hop scene with the idea of starting a dance competition for breakers. “But nobody came,” he said. “There were maybe 200 people that showed up and they were probably all personal friends. It was a ghost town inside that hall.”

With such big dreams and a disappointment to match them, many people would have given up, but Sioson was determined to try it once more. “Even though I had finals in my last semester of college, I did not sleep. I went to every single party that I could find, sometimes two or three a night, handing out flyers. I was the only one doing it at the time because I didn’t want to put that burden on anyone else.” His perseverance paid off when a wave of people walked through the doors. Soon after this second show club promoters started booking groups that were in the show and Sioson saw dancers moving into an even larger arena.

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Navalton was one of these dancers. After many years of dancing and having performed in Battlefest’s Survival of the Illest. The group was eventually picked up by MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew. Navalton described his experience on the show as a dream come

true. “Every day we would wake up and all we would have to worry about was dance.”

After the show Supreme Soul gained a ton of popularity and Navalton was able to travel with the group and perform for crowds where kids treated them like celebrities.

Sioson remembers the thrill of watching Navalton on the show and having people stop him in the street to say, “Hey man, those guys from Battlefest are on America’s Best Dance Crew.” But Sioson explained that Supreme Soul had stayed grounded and he was even more excited when the group agreed to come back to perform at Battlefest. “What more can you ask for as the promoter of a show, seeing people in your show, on that TV show and then coming back to perform at your show--knowing that even though there is that MTV show and it is nationwide the dancers on that TV show still respect performing at Battlefest and other dance competitions.”

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BODY FLUIDS AND FACTS Layout by Jessy Dewi

Total body water: (adult male)

(adult female)

60%

55%

Intracellular fluid:

Extracellular fluid:

40%

20%

of body weight

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of body weight

of body weight

of body weight

Tears Cerumen/Earwax

Mucus

Saliva Sebum/Skin Oil

Pleural fluid

Sweat Blood and blood plasma

Gastric juice

Urine

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Golden Hills photography by krystal avedisian modeling by lexie corfiatis styling by adrea cabrera

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black racer back tunic dress - H&M - $36 Vintage brown boots - Savers

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vintage blue and white jumpsuit - savers

salmon criss cross back dress - american apparel - $38 Vintage brown oxford slip-ons - savers annie hall brown glasses - black and brown - $16

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As summer dies down, San Jose’s hills and skies glow with a palate of amazing colors, from rich golds to deep blues and ember burning pinks. These elements inspired this month’s style section.

We bring a touch of nostalgic 70’s silhouettes with some modern accessories to flow into fall: Highlighting the color palate of the south San Jose hills, translating it to inspire fall creativity with an array of fabric swatches, and forecasting trends for the months to come. Enjoy and let the change of seasons set the tone for your own originality.

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Article by Morgan Kalakosky // Photography by Daniel Garcia // Layout by Brian Jensen

Beer My girlfriend brews her own beer. I can’t tell you how great this is. Imagine you’re Ferris Bueller. Imagine Sloan, the absurdly cool and sexy love of your life, hands you a frosty beer. You take in the the tawny amber golden hue, hoppy apricot aroma and, once tasted, no other beer can compare. “Darling,” you say with a Hughesian (R.I.P.) vocal inflection, “where did you find this Zeus of a beverage?” She looks at you over the tops of her RayBan™ glasses, wiggles the fringe of her leather jacket ever-so-slightly and states simply “I made it, I’m calling it Gérard Deparbrew.” And the universe becomes a slightly more awesome place. So yeah, having a girlfriend home brewer? It’s kinda like that. Thirsty yet? Consider this your crash course on the how’s and why’s of one of the best ways you could ever spend your free time.

Depending on who you ask, making beer is like any of the following: brewing tea, making barbeque, baking bread, boiling water, making soup, having kids, writing a song, writing a poem or (my personal favorite) heating up a “5 gallon Petri dish in which you hope the only thing growing is beer yeast.”

The magic of home brewing is four fold: It’s legal. Every home brewer should raise their glass now and then to America’s peanut farmer-in-chief, Jimmy Carter. He did us all a solid with the passage of the 21st Amendment allowing for the legalization of beer brewing for recreational purposes. Previous to that, a few scofflaws were brewing covertly in garages and backroom bars. Ken Grossman, who eventually went on to start Sierra Nevada, was one of the earliest home brewers whose recipes emphasized hops and malt, flavors that big beer companies continue to water-down and disguise (a.k.a. piss water). His yeast strain, Wyeast 1056 American (a.k.a. Chico Ale yeast).

It’s local. A great thing about brewing beer as compared to winemaking is that the raw ingredients needed are easily transported around the county. Specialty malts, hops and brewer’s yeast are readily available at home brew stores around the Bay Area. My favorite shop is Fermentable Solutions on Winchester Blvd in Campbell. Like any good home brew shop they carry all the equipment and ingredients to get you up and running.

You might also find some spare equipment listed on Craigslist but be sure to sanitize everything thoroughly (gross).

It’s social. Once again, the Bay Area shines with a flourishing home brew community. Clubs such as the Silicon Valley based SUDZERS emphasize the social aspect of brewing with frequent group events that let novices rub elbows with veterans who have decades of experience.

Regular home brew competitions are held around the Bay Area. One September event is the Northern California Homebrewers Festival (www.nchfinfo.org) where 30 or so home brew clubs will compete in a taste off with their best beers for the annual brewers cup.

It’s endless. Home brewers can do what no commercial brewer can: they can brew a beer for taste and taste alone. Following your tongue rather than market research gives you the freedom to experiment with recipes that emphasize exotic ingredients or at least the ones that fit your recipe for the perfect beer. A master beer tasting course lists over 120 different styles of beer.

If you can dream it, you can brew it.

I’m sitting in the patio of Sonoma Chicken Coop in Campbell with Matthew Shoup and Scott Haen, the president and vice-president of the Silicon Valley based Sudzers Home Brew Club. Between them Matt and Scott share a total of 18 years of brewing experience. They have coanchored Sudzers together for going on 3 years, which means they bicker like an old couple when it comes to things like attenuation and “taking the plunge to go all grain,” which we’re animatedly debating at the moment.

In order to meet the strict word count guidelines imposed by the powers that be I’ll overgeneralize these guys in the following way: Matthew is the chemist, Scott is the artist.

Matthew’s way of describing the brew process has an exactness to it like a classically trained French chef. Matthew started brewing in 1996 before there were Internet forums to run to when your India pale ale started to smell. Lately he’s experimenting with brewing beer with fruit, “any kind I kind I can get my hands on,” and in single champagne bottles “to keep batch size down.”

Scott, on the other hand, takes pleasure in bending those rules into more general guidelines. He’s “very happy keeping his brew day to 3 and half hours,” meaning he uses malt extract, a syrupy distillation of the barley grains. Kind of like making a pie a with store bought crust, extract brewing allows you to jump right into boiling the wort, a tea-like liquid that combines water with the malt and bittering hops.

The results of these differing approaches are, of course, what matters. Without exactness of recipes and clean equipment you’re letting the forces and bacteria of nature run wild in your home brew (gross). Without artistry you’re simply tracing patterns laid out in a rather dry-sounding beer recipe. Guys like Vinnie Cilurzo , Sam Calagoine and Steve Dresler also embody the balance of art and science in beer making. They started out as home brewers and became giants of the craft brew industry.

With some practice, clean equipment and plenty of advice from the Sudzers guys, who knows, you might join that list.

Written by Dan Moore, Owner & Chef, One Moore Bite, Custom Catering Contributing Food Editor Layout by Amy Iniguez

I

t comes out of nowhere, really. After weeks of blistering days and muggy nights, you get dressed in your traditional summer attire, just as you have all season, and head out for a nice evening with friends. You’re suddenly met with a chill that sends shivers up your spine. Summer has snapped and Fall is just around the corner. No other season makes its presence felt with more stealth-like agility.

Before you know it, you’re searching through your closet for sweaters and scarves that went into hibernation a few months ago. Our palates also go through a metamorphosis. Salads disappear as a main course and thoughts of “comfort food” creep into our minds. For me, the food that finds its way into my mind most effortlessly is soup. The mere mention of the word transports people to another moment in time. For some, it’s a childhood memory of chicken noodle soup while home sick from school. For others, it’s a roaring fire and a rainy night with a significant other and a soothing bowl of French Onion soup, crusty bread and a glass of Bordeaux. Soup, chowder, or stew, this classic feel-good dish not only nourishes the soul but is incredibly affordable and simple to make.

As the seasonal shift begins, two soups come to mind for me. These have been a go-to favorite when I found myself needing to make a fast but satisfying dinner.

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CORN CHOWDER: The first is a classic Corn Chowder turned up a notch. Using the inspiration of Mexican street corn, the last harvest from the summer’s corn is utilized to create a wonderfully rich and satisfying farewell song to summer. Beautiful and delicate, the milky sweetness from summer white corn plays off magically with hearty roasted red peppers and paprika. Served alongside toast points with a Parmesan and goat cheese spread, you’ll be hard pressed to shed a tear as you see summer ride off into the distance.

ROASTED WILD MUSHROOM SOUP: Another soup I love is an homage to two of my favorite ingredients: Bacon and mushrooms. Wild mushrooms to be exact. While the classic white button mushroom seen in supermarkets everywhere for decades are cheap and readily available, they lack the flavor and complexity of wild mushrooms. Several varieties that I found work particularly well for this soup are Crimini (Baby Portabella), Chanterelle, and Shitake Mushrooms. These are, of course, slightly more expensive, but the flavor and depth it brings your dish will be well worth it. Also, with the excellent dried varietals now readily available in most supermarkets (which are considerably less expensive), you can afford to experiment with your favorite combination. This rich soup is balanced by the smoky crunch of crisp homemade bacon bits made from thick smoked Applewood bacon and accented by rosemary infused crème fraiche (simplify by substituting a rich sour cream).

No other food goes as well with the welcoming cool rainy nights and the snap of the fireplace the way a soup does. Find your favorite combination and toast the welcoming of Fall with a big bowl of comfort.

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Roasted Mexican Street Corn Chowder with Parmesan Goat Cheese and Toast Point Recipe by Dan Moore Photography by Daniel Geis Layout by Amy Iniguez

For Chowder: 8 Ears of Summer White Corn (white corn is best but yellow will do) 1 Small Onion Chopped 1 Red Pepper Chopped 6 Cloves of Garlic Minced 2 cups (1 pint) of Heavy Cream 6 Cups Low Sodium Chicken Stock 1 Tablespoon of Sweet Paprika 1 Teaspoon of Sweet Chili Powder Salt and Pepper 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil 1 Lime (Optional) For Toast Points: 1 Loaf of good Ciabatta or Crusty Italian Bread 6 oz. of Goat Cheese (room temperature) ½ Cup Parmigiano Reggiano Grated 2-4 Tablespoons Heavy Cream 2 Tablespoons Chives 46

Remove the husks and silk from the corn and brush the ears with a little olive oil. On a me-

dium high grill, roast the corn over open flame, turning every few minutes until the corn is golden brown on all sides. Some charred black spots may occur, which is good. It will give the chowder more depth. In a heavy bottomed pan, over medium high heat, melt the butter and sauté the onion, ½ of the red pepper (reserve the rest as garnish), and garlic. Cook until lightly golden (About 7 minutes). While that is cooking, remove the corn from the husk.

Grab the corn by the thicker end and lift it so the smaller end is touching and perpendicular to the cutting board. Take the knife and carefully cut the kernels off the husk by slicing down towards the cutting board using the husk as a guide. Place the kernels in a bowl and discard the husk. Add about ¾ of the corn to the pan with the paprika and chili powder. Cook for a few minutes until well incorporated. Reduce heat to low, add the chicken stock and cream.

Simmer for 20 minutes. Add to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. (Use caution when using a blender with hot liquid: pulse in batches as steam can build pressure).

Using a fine mesh strainer, strain soup into a large bowl. For a more rustic soup, omit straining. Add remaining roasted pepper and corn kernels. Season to desired taste and keep warm till ready to serve.

Meanwhile, slice bread on the bias ½ inch thick and toast till golden. Mix goat cheese, Cheese and enough cream to make spreadable. Add salt, pepper, and chopped chives. Garnish soup with sprinkle of paprika, corn kernels, cheese and toast point. If desired, squeeze a little fresh limejuice on at the last moment.

Roasted Wild Mushroom Soup with Bacon and Rosemary Infused Crème Fraiche

For Soup: Serves 4 ¼ lb. Shitake Mushrooms sliced ¼ lb. Crimini Mushrooms sliced ¼ lb. Portabella Mushrooms sliced ¼ lb. Oyster Mushrooms sliced 1 Medium Onion chopped 2 Stalks of Celery chopped 1 Carrot chopped 2 Garlic Cloves chopped 1 lb of Smoked Applewood Bacon (thick cut) sliced in ¼ inch slices and divided 2 Bay Leaves 3 Sprigs of Fresh Thyme (whole) 4 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary (whole) 3 cups Low Sodium Chicken Stock 1 cup Heavy Cream Salt and Pepper to taste For Rosemary Crème Fraiche: 6 Sprigs of Rosemary: Leaves removed and minced ¼ Cup of Crème Fraiche (substitute with Sour Cream) Room Temperature 3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil 1 Garlic Clove minced Salt and Pepper to taste

In a heavy bottom pan or Dutch Oven, sauté the bacon over medium high heat until bacon is crispy. Remove from pan. Separate half of the bacon for garnish and half for the soup. Remove excess bacon fat, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pan. Sauté the carrots, celery, garlic and onions until translucent. Add the mushrooms, bay leaves, thyme, and rosemary and cook over medium high heat until the mushrooms are well browned, about 15-20 minutes. (Note: This is the most crucial part of the recipe as this is where all of your depth and flavor will come from. Mushrooms are actually about 90% water. The mushrooms will taste “spongy” or watery if they are not cooked long enough. The mushrooms should have a deep brown color and look almost dry). Once mushrooms are well browned, add half of the bacon to the chicken stock and reduce heat to simmer for about 15 minutes. In a food processor or blender, puree the soup, slowly adding cream until it is smooth. Taste the soup and adjust flavor with salt and pepper if needed. Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the soup into a large bowl and then back into a clean pot over low heat to keep warm until ready to serve.

For a more rustic soup, omit the straining and serve as is.

Meanwhile, place the olive oil and minced rosemary leaves in a mortar and pestle and grind until a smooth paste is formed. (Note: A small blender or food processor can be substituted). Add paste to crème fraiche with minced garlic, add salt and pepper, and stir till smooth and creamy. (Adjust to desired consistency by adding more olive oil. It should be the consistency of a loose yogurt. Garnish soup with crème, bacon, and rosemary leaves and serve immediately.

CONTRIBUTORS Brian Jensen

VISUALS

Brian fills his mind with too much music, design, typography, books and dreams of travelling. His work can be found in each issue of Content. A graduate of San Jose State’s Art department, Brian is a living example of the creativity that can be found in our great city. www.madebybrian.com

Jessy Dewi- Design/Layout jessy@content-magazine.com Brian Jensen-Design/Layout brian@content-magazine.com Amy Iniguez-Design/Layout amy@content-magazine.com Chris John-Design/Layout chris@content-magazine.com

Dan Moore

Dan Moore-Food chefmoore@content-magazine.com

FOOD A local boy, Dan Moore lives his life with passion; with a passion for food always being paramount. Dan brings diverse experience to the team: from professional umpire for Minor League Baseball to working in some of the top restaurants in the Bay Area and Las Vegas. He has settled in the captain’s chair as chef/owner of One Moore Bite Custom Catering. Check out Chef Moore’s passion for food on pg. 44-47. www.onemoorebite.com

Morgan Kalakosky A writer and DJ, Morgan has lived in San Jose since 1997, first on the East Side then Willow Glen and most recently in Fruitdale. He can tell you where all the best taquerias and pho noodle houses are. Morgan is the creator of www.cinequesting.org and curates cloudsinthehead.org.

In this issue Morgan gives us a glimpse into the world of home brewing, pg. 43.

Caitlin Robinett After studying journalism at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and Seattle University, she returned to her home in the Bay Area to work with non-profit organizations. Caitlin is the Student Bar Association President at Santa Clara University and one year away from her Juris Doctor degree.

She works as a research fellow at the Panetta Institute for Public Policy and volunteers at Downtown College Preparatory High School in San Jose. Caitlin hopes to continue to serve in government and write about her community to make San Jose a better place, pg. 10.

For advertising information please contact: advertising@content-magazine.com Submissions and contributions are welcome. Please read “Submission Details” under the “PARTICIPATE” tab on our website. content magazine is a bi-monthly on-line publication about life and style in San Jose, California. Reproduction, duplication, distribution and remix are encouraged provided you give credit to the material source and artists and allow the same conditions to your contributions.

Find out more about our copyright license at creativecommons.org.

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WORDS Shadd Williams-Chief Editor shadd@content-magazine.com Jon Havens–Writer jon@content-magazine.com Morgan Kalakosky–Writer morgan@content-magazine.com Michelle Nicole Sodergren-Blogger michelle@content-magazine.com Deanna Wallace-Writer deanna@content-magazine.com Caitlin Robinett-Writer caitlin@content-magazine.com Amber Engle-Writer caitlin@content-magazine.com

FASHION Adrea Cabrera-Style adrea@content-magazine.com

PHOTOGRAPHY Daniel Gies www.danielgies.com Krystal Avedisian www.krystalavedisian.com Anthony W. Patane www.aberrantphoto.com

SHAPERS Daniel Garcia-Cultivator daniel@content-magazine.com Sarah Garcia-Marketing sarahg@content-magazine.com Sobrina Tung-Marketing sobrina@content-magazine.com Keith Hendren-Inventor keith@content-magazine.com Nathan Jensen-Adviser nathan@content-magazine.com Sarah Hale-Sustainer sarahh@content-magazine.com

CULTIVATOR’S NOTES

fluid issue 1.3 One of the most beautiful and mysterious aspects of life is that it flows. There are seasons and events that move and change with a fluidity that can either break us or create flexibility. Our lives and personalities have shape but without the ability to gracefully adapt to the flow of life, we become hard. Less human. Maybe that’s why we are made of water. The fluids that run through our body flow as a reminder that life is meant to be elegant and graceful.

Maybe that’s why we are attracted to music, to dance: to creativity, to the things that feel and sound FLUID. And, then there is water: the Blue Gold. Our original idea for this issue was to not spend too much time on water.

Too obvious, we thought. We wanted to approach FLUID from more unique angles. You know…to be clever. But as FLUID began to solidify, it became impossible to ignore the importance of and our dependence on this most precious resource. Our consumption and use of water needs to be addressed in our age and in our city. People all over the world are literally dying because they do not have access to drinkable water and here I am taking a 15 minute shower.

Like water, life is constantly on the move. The seasons are changing. The waves of change can crush and maim or they can be a source of unlimited life energy and power.

Are you ready to flow in elegance and grace?

What’s inside matters.

Daniel Garcia, Cultivator daniel@content-magazine.com Cover Photo: Model & Make-up: Danielle Randleman Photo: Daniel Garcia

Photography by Anthony West Patane I kept the film in my refrigerator for what seemed like the better part of two years and it had slowly degraded in all that time. I kept telling myself that I should use it but never found the project to do so.

This project ended up being the one. And it just so happened that I was given little surprises in the form of blue waves on my exposed Polaroids due to the chemical reactions and peeling away of the film from it’s backing. I think my little nod to the photo gods did the trick. It’s these inconsistencies and imperfections that are really magical. Polaroids always give you something unexpected. They reveal your vision, but create something else as well, something that can’t be reproduced and is truly unique.

My first stop on this photographic journey was Alviso, an interesting place to say the least. When you come down First Street from downtown San Jose, through commercial areas bustling with activity, small residential areas, and then reach what seems to be the end, you have found Alviso. A sleepy little town that’s somewhat like entering a twilight zone the first time you visit actually tends to grow on you the more you see and the more you know its history.

There is definitely a time warp here, as many of the buildings are in a state of decay. There is even a houseboat sitting on dry land!

Despite the decay, there is a certain beauty to the city and adjoining wildlife refuge.

For me, Alviso was a perfect place to shoot images for this issue’s theme. The city, being a once prosperous port town and transportation hub to the city of San Jose, now sits as an almost forgotten

place on the edge of the San Francisco Bay, surrounded by flowing streams, evaporation ponds, and marshlands. It is a town filled with a rich history of boating, business, and, unfortunately, flooding. However, despite the flooding over the years, Alviso has continued to survive and maintain it’s somewhat 19th century appeal.

My next stop and the source for the other two images was Byxbee Park in Palo Alto. Once a landfill, the park is unique due to its design and artwork that is incorporated into the grounds. The park’s land, or should I say garbage, is covered with a one-foot layer of clay and two-foot layer of topsoil. Interestingly enough, what you are essentially walking on are hills of trash, but you would never know the difference. Like Alviso, the park consists of wetlands and saltwater marshes. The sloughs and creeks that run through the area have a beauty all their own. The trails here are more extensive and the entire area seems better kept than Alviso, but Alviso has a certain raw quality that really cannot be compared. Both areas offer great photographic opportunities however, so don’t forget your camera whether it be a Polaroid with expired film or a stateof-the-art digital. I promise, you will not be disappointed.

On a side note, I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoyed making them and will come to find some magic of your own in these places!

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