Retro 6.4

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CONTENT Issue 6.4 Retro

Display until Decemeber 15th

GRID JUNKY Creme Knitted Scarf

by The Grid Junky Worn by Leeonna Colter

featuring:

content magazine, san jose

RETRO 6.4 $9.95

Santa Clara Valley Brewing Vintage Electric Bikes Kooltura Marketing Cannery Gallery Roy’s Station

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CONTENT Issue 6.4 “Retro” Oct/Nov 2014 The Makers: Cultivator Daniel Garcia Marketeer Sarah Garcia Managing Editor Flora Moreno de Thompson Writers/Editors Leah Ammon, Nathan Zanon, Gillian Claus, Odile Sullivan-Tarazi Managing Photo Editor Gregory Cortez Production/Social Media Victoria Felicity Kristen Pfund

Writers Anna Bagirov, Isara Krieger, Chad Hall Michelle Runde Designers Brian Gomez, Daniel Millan Sean Lopez Photographers Scott MacDonald, Gregory Cortez Stanley Olszewski, Isara Krieger Interns Sarah Baylis, Jonathan Keshishoglou Circulation Leo Bevilacqua

Even as our lives are changed by the continual development of devices and technology, I believe that there exist certain core elements that will always remain dear to us as humans. On the one hand, we seek the latest app or device to help “simplify” our daily routine; on the other, we continue to desire community, face-to-face contact, and to touch, taste, smell, hear, see. We crave physical experiences. This is evident when, in the midst of some of the greatest technological advances, we see the rise of the “hipster movement,” which rallies a call back to vinyl records and mason jars. This trend indicates, both consciously and subconsciously, a groping for the profoundly essential physical needs we hold as beings. In this issue, Retro, we take a look at a few timeless experiences: knitting, origami, coffee, beer. The sound of the blues, the deep tones of a cello, the feeling of riding a bike. These things are more than products: they are expressions of our physicality, a resounding call that reminds us that we are human, that we have a very real, very physical existence. We hope you sit down, unplug, and return to read in print about our neighbors. Return. Remember. Retro.

Enjoy.

Daniel Garcia The Cultivator

IN THIS ISSUE Cannery Gallery / Roy’s Station / The Grid Junky / Kooltura / Poet Laureate

To participate in Content Magazine: editor@content-magazine.com Subscription & Advertising information available by contacting sarahg@content-magazine.com

Downtown Ice

November 14 - January 11 sjdowntown.com/downtownice

Content Retro 6.4

Oct/Nov 2014 San Jose, California

Sister city 8

Dublin, Ireland

History

12 Original Joe’s

Profiles 14

16 20

24

28

32

36 40 46 52

Underground Collector, John Anthony Hernandez Wow Cool Comics, Marc Arsenault Kooltura Marketing, Omar Rodriguez Cannery Gallery, John Barrick & Abel Gonzales Vintage Electric Bikes, Andrew Davidge Santa Clara Valley Brewing, Tom Clark & Steve Donohue Roy’s Station, The Rast Family The Poet Laureate, David Perez The Grid Junky, Jerome Sevilla Origami, Lacey Bryant

Vintage Electric Bikes, pg. 26

Music

56 Blues, Maxx Cabello Jr. 58 Cellist, Freya Seeburger 62 Content Contributor Picks,

Daniel Garcia 64 Contributors Poet Laureate, David Perez, pg. 38

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

To participate in the production or distribution, contact: editor@content-magazine.com

Origami, Lacey Bryant, pg. 40

Cellist, Freya Seeburger, pg. 56

October-November 2014 Oct. 1

Thievery Corporation

Oct. 5

Wakin Chau

Oct. 12

Maldita Vecindad

Oct. 14

Susan Boyle

Nov. 4

Tedeschi Trucks Band

Oct. 16

Jerry Seinfeld

Nov. 15

DanceSport Championships

Nov. 14

Russell Peters

Nov. 16

Judas Priest

Nov. 15

Omid

Nov. 21

Yo Gabba Gabba!

Nov. 25-30 Cirque Dream Holidaze

Nov. 22

Battle of the Bay IV

Oct. 10-11

The Great Divorce

Oct. 12

Oct. 4-12

Utopia, Limited

Oct. 18

Come Together

Ballet Philippines’ MasterPieces

Oct. 19

Sex, Swagger & Swing

Oct. 17-18

SJDanceCo

Nov. 1

House of Floyd

Oct. 19

Tomislav Bralic & Klapa Intrade

Nov. 14

The Sound of Music

Oct. 25-26 Beethoven & Brahms Oct. 29

Changing Boundaries: The History of San Jose

Nov. 15-30 The Italian Girl in Algiers Nov. 17

John Cleese

For ticketing and venue rental information, visit: www.SanJoseTheaters.org

sister cIties President Dwight Eisenhower established the sister city program in 1956 to foster global awareness and peaceful relations. For the next six issues, a design team from one of our city’s sisters will present their view of their home town.

Dublin, Ireland Written by Revert Boutique

There are the usual guides of the city and “hop-on, hop-off” bus tours, but if you want a real insight into how Dublin functions, we would highly recommend the Le Cool Dublin Experience. Le Cool, an online weekly magazine, also created the “Le Cool Dublin Walking Tour” to help Dubliners as well as foreigners discover new emerging artists, chefs, and designers.

The tours incorporate modern elements of Dublin life, such as pop-ups, collectives, and street-art exhibitions, as well as quirky points of interest such as The Waldorf on Westmoreland Street, Dublin’s oldest barber shop.

Dublin is the birthplace of James Joyce and Nobel Literature Prize winners William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and Samuel Beckett. One tour that pays homage to Dublin’s literary tradition is the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl. An engaging walking tour led by a team of professional actors, it follows the footsteps of literary greats such as James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, and Brendan Behan. A wonderful evening filled with prose, drama, and song.

A visit to the Natural History Museum is also a must, or as Dubliners call it “The Dead Zoo”—for obvious reasons. It features a comprehensive display of Irish wildlife, from the skeleton of the extinct giant Irish deer to the rabbits introduced by the Normans. Other floors are devoted to international fauna. You will see elephants,

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a rare Tasmanian Tiger, and a polar bear shot by Irish explorer Leopold McClintock.

Now called a “museum of a museum,” the display is a fascinating glimpse of Victorian ways to preserve and display wildlife.

The Irish Museum of Modern Art is worth visiting. A whole day could be spent here with the museum housed in the magnificent 17th-century Royal Hospital building, whose grounds include a formal garden, meadow, and medieval burial grounds.

IMMA is Ireland’s leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art.

Eating A great place to eat during the day is The Fumbally cafe in Dublin 8. Situated just beyond St. Patrick’s Cathedral, an unpromising modern building here gives way to a surprisingly welcoming space— with sheer concrete walls and an exposed industrial interior softened by wooden tables and chairs, tasselled lamps, and bright bowls of fruit and vegetables. The Fumbally’s colorful home cooking makes liberal use of Irish produce, “Mediterranean simplicity,” and Moroccan spices.

Brother Hubbard is another excellent eatery just across the River Liffey on Capel Street.

As with The Fumbally, the food steps up to the plate. The popularity of its pulled pork special, with mustardy celeriac remoulade

Revert Boutique Revert Boutique is a boutique branding agency whose clients include companies from various industries around Dublin and further afield. We enjoy collaboration and long-term relationships with our clients, creating everything from logotypes to identities to websites as well as interior design and signage, paying close attention to the small details along the way.

The end result is a young, well-crafted brand agency. revertdesign.net

on sourdough, has seen it become a daily everything from rock to hip hop, reggae to inclusion. It’s wicked in the way only dubstep, and disco. mollycoddled pork can be.

Markets & Shopping Although they are famed for breakfast treats that range from granolas to hangover-hitters There are several markets in Dublin, from like the warm bacon and cheese sambo, fruit and food markets in Smithfield and Brother Hubbard offers an intriguing Temple Bar to the Cow’s Lane Fashion and Middle Eastern plate. They also do some Design Market held every Saturday from tasty juices and fruit iced teas, no surprise 10am until 5pm, featuring stalls from rising considering the Smithfield Fruit Market is Irish and international designers. less than a hundred yards away.

The most popular market is the now infamous Dublin Flea Market held on the Drinking last Sunday of every month in The Co-op on

At the top of anyone’s Dublin bucket list is Newmarket Square, Dublin 8. With over 80 to have a few pints of Guinness. There are stalls each month, you can find everything two places that always come to mind when you would expect to find at a flea market. looking for the perfect pint. The first is the Along with the buying and selling, there well-known Grogans Pub, with its outdoor are DJs, live bands, or whatever they throw seating spilling over into most of Castle together to keep the folks entertained.

Market on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Customers soak up the atmosphere, drink a coffee, and fill their bellies with homemade evenings. falafel, cakes, pizza, and Greek dishes. The

Another great place for a quiet pint is J. Co-op’s organic food store is also open O’Connell in Portebello. This is a gem on market days with the best selection of of a pub: it’s not loud, no neon lights. organic and fair-trade goods in Dublin.

Deceptively small from the outside, the In the same location is The Brocante Market, bar’s interior is typically Irish. held every third Sunday of the month, which

Just a few doors down from O’Connell’s is hosts oodles of antiques, stylish furniture, a more trendy bar called The Bernard Shaw, and quirky collectibles. Originally a hidden or “The Shaw.” A proper 113-year-old Irish gem on the alternative scene, it has become boozer, The Bernard Shaw was taken over in mainstream. Packed full of bizarre and 2006 by Dublin-based club promoters and beautiful curiosities, it appeals to amateur label owners Bodytonic, who are known to and expert collectors alike. throw the best parties in Dublin. It’s become a superb local. DJs appear nightly, covering

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San JOse’s Sister Cities

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

Dublin, Ireland 1

1. Le Cool Experience Book by email here: tours.dublin@lecool.com 2. Dublin Literary Pub Crawl 9 Duke St, Dublin (01) 670 5602 3. The Little Museum of Dublin 15 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin (01) 661 1000

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4. The Fumbally Fumbally Ln, Dublin 8 (01) 529 8732 thefumbally.ie 5. St. Patrick’s Cathedral St Patrick’s Close, Dublin 8 (01) 453 9472 stpatrickscathedral.ie 6. Dublin Flea Market The CO-OP 12 Newmarket, Dublin 8 dublinflea.ie 7. The Waldorf 13 Westmoreland St, Dublin (01) 677 8608 waldorfbarbers.com 8. Hatch & Sons 15 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2 (01) 661 0075 hatchandsons.co

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9. Brother Hubbard 153 Capel St, Dublin 1 (01) 441 1112 brotherhubbard.ie 10. Grogans Pub 15 S William St, Dublin 2 (01) 677 9320 groganspub.ie 11. j. O’Connell Richmond St, Dublin 2

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12. The Bernard Shaw 11-12 Richmond St, Dublin 2 thebernardshaw.com 13. Natural History Museum Merrion St Upper, Dublin 2 (01) 677 7444 museum.ie

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14. Irish Museum of Modern Art Military Rd, Dublin 8 353 1 612 9900 imma.ie 15. Kellys Hotel Dublin 35-37 South Great Georges St Dublin 2 kellysdublin.com 16. Cow’s Lane Temple Bar, Dublin 8 templebar.ie

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All images provided by Revert Design

17. Smithfield fruit market 32-37 Smithfield, Dublin 7

Original Joe’s Where Time Stands Still Written by Michelle Runde

Stepping through the doors on the corner of San Carlos and First Street brings diners back to the 1940s at this Italian-American fine dining legacy.

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rying to decide where to go out for dinner in San Jose has never been more overwhelming. Yet if there is any establishment that has stood the test of time against foodie trends, it would be Original Joe’s. Stepping through the doors on the corner of San Carlos and First Street brings diners back to the 1940s at this Italian-American fine dining legacy. No matter the time or day, it is always full to bursting with cheery patrons, many of whom have been dining here since it first opened in 1956.

Despite the name, there really was no real “original Joe.” “Joe’s” was a generic name that had become stagnated from overuse. In the 1920s, the restaurant New Joe’s opened on Broadway Street in San Francisco, the title chosen by the owners in an attempt to revive the once well-known name.

New Joe’s became the first restaurant in San Francisco to do exhibition cooking, where food was prepared in full view of the customers, making it a popular destination. Ultimately, after a disagreement among the founders, one of the original owners joined up with Louis J. Rocca and Ante Rodin to start their own restaurant elsewhere in San Francisco. The owner declared that he was the true “original Joe,” and thus Original Joe’s was born and gained popularity throughout the city.

The success in San Francisco was driven by the four owners: Louis J. Rocca, his son Louis J. Rocca, Jr. (Babe), Arthur Tortore (Otto), and Anthony Caramagno (Nino). They knew the South Bay was lacking the traditional Italian-American cuisine they took pride in. On May 24, 1956, the foursome opened the doors of Original Joe’s in San Jose.

In 2007, there was a resurgence of business in downtown San Jose. Owners and brothers Matt and Brad Rocca decided that it was time for a renovation. That summer, they shut down for three months to replace outdated appliances. They updated the bathrooms, tables, booths, and décor, including the modern addition of three 47-inch flat-panel HDTVs upstairs in the Hideout.

Today, diners can still experience the same atmosphere and quintessential food as diners once did in 1956. Entering Original Joe’s feels like stepping back into an era when going out for dinner was a semi-formal occasion. The waiters are dressed impeccably in suits, complete with bow ties, polished shoes, and exemplary service. Don’t bother trying to make a reservation: it’s first come, first served. This might seem strange for such a popular destination, but management stands by this policy firmly, so that anyone can eat here any

evening they want. Diners can head towards the back of the restaurant to the bar to sip classic cocktails (their Manhattan is particularly well known). Upstairs, there is a waiting room fittingly dubbed “The Hideout,” where patrons can relax until they’re called.

The open kitchen tradition that was made famous in San Francisco’s New Joe’s restaurant is still found in Original Joe’s. Diners can sit at the counter with a full view of the chefs running back and forth between an enormous flat top grill and blazing hot ovens, where mammoth slabs of beef are roasted to perfection. It’s a traditional culinary show not to be missed. The chefs are masters of their craft, wielding knives and tongs like conductors of an orchestra. It’s clear they’ve made these same dishes a thousand times before, each time with the same precision and care.

If there were anyone who could speak with authority about this downtown destination, it would be Jay. He has been a waiter at OJ’s since 1997, making him the longest working staff member there. He says there isn’t only one thing that has kept him there, it’s a combination of things: the amazing food, his fellow waiters, the owners, and most of all the customers.

On any given day, sixty to seventy percent of customers are regulars, coming three, four, and even five times a week. “It’s good because I can build a relationship with them, and I don’t know anywhere else I could do that,” says Jay. Almost everything is made in-house, although the rustic sourdough bread served is baked locally at Roma Bakery. Of course, the star of the show is always the meat. “I’ll never forget what [Lou Rocca Jr.] told me when I first came here, ‘Never let your customer kill our meat, it’s already dead.’ He knew that it should always be served rare, and medium at most. I ask guests ‘Would you like that medium-rare?’ to encourage them to enjoy it as it was meant to be served.” Although he is proud of the entire menu, Jay’s top entree recommendations are the Veal Cutlet Milanese and the Veal Scallopini. “The wines are great too, I can’t pick a favorite.” Looking around the bustling dining room and his tables filling, he laughs.

“Honestly, right now I could use a gin and tonic.”

Eating at Original Joe’s feels like being welcomed into a private club for an evening out. Sliding into a booth, surrounded by the sounds of laughter, the smells of freshly grilled steak, and the warm smiles of the staff, this is the quintessential retro dining establishment.

originaljoes.com 301 S. First Street San Jose, CA 95113 facebook: OriginalJoesSJ

UNDERGROUND COLLECTOR John Anthony Hernandez is a purveyor of fine mid-century modern furniture, hand-picked from his cache of secret sources and sold via social media and word of mouth.

Written by flora moreno de thompson Photography by daniel Garcia

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ne visit to the Underground Collector’s Instagram page and you know exactly what kind of business John Anthony Hernandez runs. With reasonably priced pieces in excellent condition, it’s no wonder they sell quickly. Hernandez looks to open a retail shop in the near future, but for now, you can find him online.

How did you get started collecting and selling furniture?

I have always had a keen eye for modern design, quality, and unique objects. In all actuality my inspiration came from my experience living abroad. In 2012 my girlfriend and I moved to Barcelona, Spain. Not a stranger to thrift shops and secondhand stores, I was thrilled to find so many in Barcelona. Everything was imported from the US and definitely overpriced. So we began our search, looking for anything and everything reasonable to furnish our new flat.

I have always been a true believer in cradle to cradle.

To my amazement, on one breezy Tuesday evening as we were walking the streets in the L’Eixample neighborhood of Barcelona, we saw streets full of furniture! I quickly became aware that every Tuesday night after 9pm it was customary to bring out any old or used items from your home and place on the sidewalk for anyone to reuse. From that day on, every Tuesday I walked the neighborhoods and collected anything that caught my eye.

What has been your biggest find? What is your favorite piece in your collection?

My biggest find was a Heywood Wakefield dresser set from an estate sale in San Francisco. My favorite piece in my collection is a vintage Remington Rand library card catalog bureau that I’m currently converting into a wine cabinet.

Do you ever regret letting go of a piece of furniture?

No time for regrets!

What made you choose Instagram to sell vintage goods?

I am a visual person and the majority of us are. I used to be a salesperson and was constantly taking pictures of our new inventory and sending it to my customers: they loved it. When Instagram hit, I took full advantage, it was a great tool to keep people in the loop. I collect oneof-a-kind pieces so it really is first come, first served.

How do people find out about you?

Social media is a great platform to stay connected. I have a website undergroundcollector.com that links to my Instagram account. A lot of people find out by good ol’ word of mouth.

Do you mostly sell your furniture in the Bay Area? Where is the farthest a piece has been delivered?

As of now, yes, but I plan to expand in the future. The farthest place that I have delivered to would have to be Napa. Not a bad way to spend my day, right?

What attracts you to this style of furniture?

Mid-century modern is not only classic and sophisticated; the pieces I collect are timeless and mostly heirloom Do you have any advice for furniture collectors looking pieces. This style of furniture is beautiful, functional, for MCM furniture? and definitely constructed to last decades.

Sure. I would say research, know what you are collecting.

I put a lot of thought into what I collect; the pieces I Where do you source your collection? find are really pieces I would want in my own home.

I have many sources for collecting, and a great collector never reveals his sources. But you can find me floating around the entire Bay Area.

“MID-CENTURY MODERN IS NOT ONLY CLASSIC AND SOPHISTICATED; THE PIECES I COLLECT ARE TIMELESS AND MOSTLY HEIRLOOM PIECES.”

undergroundcollector.com instagram: @undergroundcollector

Wow Cool Comics Written by sarah Baylis Photography by Sarah Baylis & Gregory Cortez

Marc Arsenault’s life has taken him from art school to zines to comics to advertising—what a long, wild ride it’s been.

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Right around the time Arsenault finished school, xeroxed zines exploded onto the market. These small, selfpublished (often stapled) magazines were the inspiration for the foundation of Wow Cool as a zine and comic book mail order distributor in 1988. In those days, Arsenault says, the gateway to success was Sassy Magazine. Each issue featured a cute band alert—and a focus on up and coming zines. If your zine was featured in Sassy, you might find close to a thousand teenage girls scrambling the next day to read it. “Sassy completely changed my world,” Arsenault says.

he shop walls of Wow Cool | Alternative Comics are lined with colorful comics of all shapes and sizes and an eclectic assortment of art, like the neon Barney poster with Japanese characters scrawled across it in electric pink. As I sat down to talk to General Manager Marc Arsenault, John Peel’s DJ set from the BBC was on and a mix of old-fashioned jazz, disco, and Rasta rap played in the background. I asked Arsenault what originally got him into the comics industry, and he said, “It’s almost too weird a story to tell.”

Diagnosed at the age of nine with a heart murmur, Arsenault was forced to stay inside and so he read and reread comics such as Pogo and Adventure Comics (#360 was a particular favorite) until their bindings barely held the pages together. Instead of participating in the local little league, he spent his days in the adventures and misadventures of his favorite comic book characters. He was, however, allowed to bowl. “And so I became a really good bowler,” Arsenault says, laughing. The heart murmur was later discovered to have been a misdiagnosis, but the foundation for a future in comics had been firmly set.

A short time later, he began working at Tundra Publishing with Mark Martin, the artistic director for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman. While at Tundra, Arsenault was nominated for the Eisner Award for his work on the Michael Kaluta Sketchbook. The Eisner is “the Emmy of the publishing world,” Arsenault says. It was not to be his last nomination. Others followed, and so did the wins.

Leaving Tundra in 1993, Arsenault returned to California, to work full-time at Wow Cool. But a few years of eating Top Ramen convinced him to shift his sights again, and this time he headed northward to Seattle and Fantagraphics, publisher of The Complete Peanuts, the entire five-decade run of the black and white strip, and Peanuts Every Sunday, a complete collection of the Sunday strip. During his time at Fantagraphics, Arsenault frequently ate at the Chinese restaurant just down the street, graduating from Top Ramen to sizzling rice soup.

Meanwhile, a friend of his kept Wow Cool going.

Deciding to pursue illustration, Arsenault looked to the School of Visual Arts in New York, founded in 1947 by Burne Hogarth, the artist on the Sunday Tarzan newspaper strip. It’s one of the oldest comic illustration schools, and once was nearly one of a kind. Now, says Arsenault about the art school, “there are millions.” He took a cartooning class from Harvey Kurtzman, the creator and editor of Mad Magazine, and its main writer for the first 28 issues.

Studying at SVA introduced him to the industry and many of its leaders.

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Marc Arsenault

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Eventually, the restless spirit led him to advertising, where Arsenault says he learned the ins and outs of marketing and publishing from the perspective of professional print production. After advertising, he says, “I floundered around for a while and didn’t really know what to do. I thought I could make it with music—but I also knew all these artists.”

He did some freelancing and started selling rare books online, and then people started asking him to put their books out too. This was the tipping point, and Arsenault started to do what he thought he’d never do again. Coming full circle, Arsenault asked Jeff Mason, publisher of Alternative Comics, if he could be General Manager. And that was the move that led him to where he is today.

When I asked him what Wow Cool aims to be, Arsenault said he’d like it to be “a small community bookstore.” He provides comics not normally represented, no superhero stuff. Arsenault is proud that Wow Cool is one of the few places where esoteric and cutting-edge works are found on the shelves. The mission of both Wow Cool and Alternative Comics is to keep such work available, he says, so that artists can continue to produce and so that their work can find an audience.

The mission of both Wow Cool and Alternative Comics is to keep such work available, he says, so that artists can continue to produce and so that their work can find an audience.

It’s been a long journey and a wild ride. “It’s almost as insane as it sounds,” Arsenault says, reflecting back on his life. “Weird, right?” wowcool.com 21607B Stevens Creek Blvd.

Cupertino, CA 95014 408.924.5164

Ready for the Next Kick Kooltura Marketing Written by Anna Bagirov Photography by daniel garcia

When facing new challenges, business owner Omar Rodriguez applies the agile and powerful principles of soccer.

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hen you first meet Omar Rodriguez, you would never take him for a business owner, father of two, husband, mentor, and a supporter of the arts.

He looks young, far younger than his 34 years. There’s no hardness in his eyes, not one line on his face, that would hint at sleepless nights, financial struggles, or the recession-caused soul bruising that so many of us thirtysomethings have been dealt (and have kvetched about) over the last seven years. He smiles warmly and often. He is humble and remarkably positive. He speaks so lightheartedly and matter-of-factly about his life’s dramatic knocks and triumphs, that you can’t help but ask yourself, “What’s this guy’s secret?”

Perhaps it is that Rodriguez has stuck to a set of selftruths and a vision of how his life would be. “I always knew I wanted to own a business.” He emigrated with his family from Mexico in 1991 and grew up in San Jose’s Eastside, with school and soccer as his main focus. “I never saw it as a struggle, being Latino or being part of an underserved community. It wasn’t a bad neighborhood.

But many kids, it seems, almost get pushed into gangs or jail. Soccer was my outlet. I was self-driven. I wanted to thrive. For me, it was simply, “What do I need to do to be successful?”

Rodriguez was doing marketing for a real estate company but was let go when the economy collapsed. He was a father now and he took a job in retail to make ends meet.

He does not sigh, look embarrassed, or show any hint of a bruised ego when he says this. He simply says, in the shoulder-shrugging way of someone much older and wiser, that he did what he had to do and that he made some difficult choices along the way to continue pushing towards his goal. There is never any sign of discouragement or selfpity. “It was always the possibility, the possibility of being in business for myself, while doing something that fulfilled me, that kept me going. I made sacrifices and I always kept an eye out for opportunities.”

He launched two businesses around his other passions: a website of local soccer leagues and a Mexican pop culture T-shirt company. Neither took off. However, he never hints at any feelings of failure or disappointment. He met Tamara Alvarado, the Executive Director of San Jose’s School of Arts and Culture, in whom he saw a leader, and subsequently became heavily involved with the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, where he became a member of the host committee. “I feel like I didn’t know San Jose and never felt part of any community, other than soccer, before I became a part of the arts and cultural community.” In 2009, he started a creative studio. Kooltura His passion for graphic design began at Lincoln High Marketing was born.

School. He majored in graphic design at West Valley, but by the time he transferred to SJSU had decided firmly At first, Kooltura took any work that came its way. As that he lacked the artistic chops to continue on with it Rodriguez networked with local artists and nonprofits as his main area of study. “I am not a graphic designer,” who were doing meaningful work in the Bay Area, and he stresses. “You will never hear me calling myself that. was attending the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute I love design, but my specialization is marketing.” He program, the mission of Kooltura began to crystallize. This graduated with a marketing degree in 2005, a track he close network of creative, artistic, determined beings, all felt would be a seamless meld of his love of design, while helped one another. Some would become clients. helping him achieve his lifelong goal to work for himself.

“Have an open mind to collaboration,” Rodriguez stresses. “A lot of people are afraid of that. Often a next step is not possible without it.” His niche was becoming more and more clear. The identity of Kooltura, something he wrestles to define to this day, was beginning to emerge. He was beginning to understand the particular need for multicultural marketing in San Jose. It was coming together, and it was making sense. “It is so diverse in San Jose. Some Hispanic people, for example, are not embedded in the online community; they still need something in print. I do a lot of print,” he says.

“The marketing has to speak to the people. We feel we are within the community, so we understand it. You cannot say this for a big firm based in New York or San Francisco. We had to take a stand on who we are.”

smiling. “And we are part of that.” Kooltura also provides services to local artists, a client type with the most limited resources. Rodriguez provides the entrepreneurial guidance they need, but sometimes neglect to invest time in because they are busy concentrating on their craft. “We feel we have carved out a niche. We work on a very hands-on level. It’s not for everybody.”

Today Kooltura marketing is made up of six people: himself, his wife Maria, and four independent contractors.

Running the studio is hard work and financial stability is still a day-to-day concern. A business owner’s life is not a worry-free one and there are no guarantees, but Rodriguez maintains a predisposition of cheerful zen and calm acceptance to whatever may be a part of his journey.

Kooltura works through the paradigm of multicultural marketing, a form of marketing that bases its strategy and methods on the people, culture, language, and history of the community it hopes to target. Kooltura has targeted San Jose’s Mayfair community and downtown San Jose. Kooltura’s marketing is not tailored to the masses. The services are tailored to a small radius, whether it be a neighborhood, a community, or even a section of the city. The studio often works with organizations or individuals with limited budgets.

He is even more inspirational for his outlook than for his remarkable achievements. He looks upon the risk-taking and the unexpected ups and downs as simply part of the journey that led him to where he is today. Every business he started, he points out, never felt like work, because it was something he loved. As in soccer, where goals are rare and far between, he continues straight on, readjusting his footwork, always believing in, always ready for, the next kick, wholeheartedly trusting that this time the ball will crush the net, no matter who or what tries to block it. “If you have a passion, stick with it,” he says. “Find a way to Today, Kooltura is a full-service marketing and design make a living out of it.” studio. It provides branding, website management, social media, and graphic design for local artists, compa- Rodriguez points to another key ingredient in his success nies, and nonprofits such as GIANT Creative Services, alongside the talented people that make up Kooltura: the Blackbird Tavern, The School of Arts and Culture at the city of San Jose. “San Jose has so much to offer. There’s so The Mexican Heritage Plaza (where Kooltura is located), much opportunity for anyone with the willingness and and recently Silicon Valley Beer Week’s KraftBrew Fest. passion to make things happen.” He adds, “If I went to San Francisco or to Oakland, I would have to become part of what is already happening. In San Jose, I am part of the creation of it. Here you build it. You make it possible. Here you create it.” And, unquestionably, Omar Rodriguez has. The goalie never really had a chance.

“ If I went to San Francisco or to Oakland, I would have to become part of what is already happening. In San Jose, I am part of the creation of it. Here you build it. You make it possible. Here you create it.”

“Kooltura is not for everybody. It’s for small organizations, communities, and initiatives. We look for the people who make San Jose. An event such as KraftBrew Fest feels like it’s the beginning of something bigger, “ he says

koolturamarketing.com 1700 Alum Rock Ave. San Jose, CA 95116 408.596.4026 facebook: KoolturaMarketing twitter: @koolturadotcom

Article and Photography by Isara Krieger

John Barrick

Abel Gonzales

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“THE HARDER THE WORK YOU PUT IN, THE BETTER RESULTS YOU’RE GOING TO GET.” John Barrick and Abel Gonzales bought gallery space in the Cannery Warehouses on Taylor Street two years ago. They’ve successfully built lives for themselves that they now can’t imagine any differently.

How did they get here? By doing what they love—art.

I

sit with John Barrick in the parking lot outside Cannery Gallery in the back of a teal blue Chevrolet pickup truck so we can better hear each other. Inside the gallery, people are gathering to view the latest installment of artwork

by Abel Gonzales. The voices and energy of the guests have taken over the small interior.

The gallery is an intimate space kept somewhat dark except for lights illuminating the wooden sculptures on the wall. A bright, colorfullydecorated workplace can be found behind a door in the back. Entitled Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get, Gonzales’s show is his first foray into the medium of wooden sculpture.

He meanders among the crowd of friends and supporters that have already arrived. “I’m so hyped,” he offers. “I’m so excited, I’m like a little kid, I’m nervous. Words are hard to put together right now.”

“Five years ago, I went out on my own,” Barrick tells me. “It’s been the hardest and most rewarding five years of my life.” He has kind, brown eyes that look right at you as if they’re doing the talking. Our conversation is interrupted intermittently by handshakes and high fives from friends arriving.

In addition to the gallery, the two partners do freelance signage and murals—and love every minute of it. “My favorite parts are waking up and looking forward to coming to my shop every single day. That’s the best. And the second best is that I get to hold a brush every day,” Barrick swings his legs back and forth under the truck. “I knew that I wanted to do this for a long time, I was just scared, I guess, timid. It’s hard to make that decision to leap out and do [what you want] and have faith.

But now I don’t think I could go back.”

piece you see as you enter the gallery is a skull-like face emerging from the wall. “Some people look at it and see death, some people see laughter,” he explains.

Sculpture is new for Gonzales. “I was always inspired by graffiti. Looking at the overpasses and walls, it amazed me how they would paint on these ledges or along the freeway. I saw it as more than vandalism. Then in high school I took a lot of art classes– drafting, animation, painting. But my parents didn’t want me to be an artist. My dad would always steal my paint, just throw it away or put Born and raised in San Jose, Barrick it aside and hide it, the spray paint explains that everything he’s been mostly.” interested in, “skateboarding, BMX, lowriders, cars, cartoons, the people “My dad had an air conditioning surrounding me, working class business,” he continues. “I would people,” has influenced his work. “I always see [him] come home, burnt try to incorporate all that into my out. I would see other people who personal artwork. Everything from loved what they’re doing and I would my past, everything I’ve learned to look at my dad and I pictured myself do here in San Jose—colors that are 20 years down the road...I didn’t here, you know, California sunsets, want to feel like that. This [lifestyle] the ocean. The Bay Area is a beautiful is a huge sacrifice and you have no place to live.” security. But that’s the risk you take to get a bigger reward.”

As twilight falls, people have trickled outside the gallery to hang around Barrick agrees: “In the perfect world and greet the waves of new arrivals I would paint what I want to paint with handshakes, high fives, and and sell my paintings for millions of hugs. It’s a collection of other local dollars. But I’m happy. The advice I artists and creators dressed in flat would give to people is find out what brimmed hats, patterned tanks, you love and do it. The harder the and T-shirts branded with local work you put in, the better results companies’ names. “Most of them are you’re going to get.” friends, some of them are involved in the arts scene, some aren’t,” Barrick “What else do you do for fun?” I ask. says of the crowd. He points out a few people, describing them as “Uh, I’m going to sound lame,” “a rapper...a graphic designer...an Barrick smirks, “but this is all I do.” artist...a barber.”

“I started a T-shirt company,” he continues, “But it didn’t work out so well, so I transitioned to the next best thing I know how to do— paint letters. It’s been fun, it’s been challenging. It’s a lot of hours. The artist life isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, but I’d rather do nothing else than art for a living. I went to college with Abel’s brother and we painted a lot, and that transitioned to me Gonzales emerges from the gallery painting with Abel. When this spot and joins us. I ask him about some came up, we decided to take it.” of the works in the show. The first

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thecannerygallery.com contact@thecannerygallery.com instagram: @thecannery

The Sleekly Historic Designs of

This one-of-a-kind bike shop builds bikes with the look of the past, and the feel of the future

Brian Hamilton

Nash Livingston

Andrew Davidge

Written by Jonathan Keshishoglou Photography by SCott MacDonald

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At first glance, you might mistake a Vintage Electric bicycle for an antique, until you spot the sleek electric engine nestled inside the seemingly historic frame. This fusion of classic and modern is the vision of Andrew Davidge, the Los Gatos native who started Vintage Electric Bikes to market his unique brand.

Legally, a Vintage Electric is a bicycle, and it can be ridden in “street legal” mode, which caps at 22 mph.

Aesthetically, it resembles a bicycle. Inspired by early twentieth century Harley and Indian board track racing bikes, the original Vintage Electric E-Tracker picked up the windswept aerodynamic feel of the originals, but gave the design a slender frame and standard bike pedals. Yes, it’s a bicycle, with all the standard features of a bicycle, but riding it feels more like being on a motorcycle. After a moment of pedaling, you simply press the black button by the right handlebar to fire up the motor. Off-road, you can kick it up to 40 mph.

not just someone who can stamp out a whole bunch of parts.” Vintage Electric’s approach deliberately bucks the “planned obsolescence” trend of many products on the market today, products that tend to last only as long as the company’s product-to-market cycle.

“If [the bike] falls off the back of your truck, it doesn’t break into a million pieces and turn into a piece of junk,” Davidge explains. “We want people to be able to find it in their grandparents’ barn a hundred years from now, throw a new battery in, and have it still work.”

Their sales have shown an increasingly widening market.

Initially, the bikes went to buyers who simply wanted to own an electric bike for novelty’s sake, but since then, many have gone to Silicon Valley employees who use it to commute to work, and over half have been shipped overseas to Europe, where such method of transportation is more common. The team credits their features in the BBC and Wired for their surprisingly immediate Davidge can trace the beginnings of Vintage Electric international presence. As newer models come out, back to his high school days in Los Gatos, when he and Vintage Electric hopes to offer different types of bikes for a neighbor friend challenged each other to a race using different types of riders. gas-powered motorcycles they had put together. He soon found, however, that using a gas motor was too In particular, Davidge sees electric bikes as a viable inefficient. They experimented with electric motors, and alternative to owning a car. The bikes are not cheap, with after Davidge put one together for himself, word spread the E-Tracker starting at $4500, but Davidge defends and he found that other friends began to want one of the price as, ultimately, still a better investment than a their own. Business soon exploded. “I wanted to sell ten car. “Forty-five hundred sounds like a lot, but when you the first year, and now it hasn’t even been the first year don’t have to pay for registration or insurance or fuel, it and we’ve sold over a hundred,” Davidge says. starts to make a lot more sense,” he explains. And, of course, the bikes are built to last. As far as customization The team itself is still small, comprising mostly Los Gatos goes, there are five base color schemes to choose from, High School graduates who met back up with Davidge although the team can match any color, citing “Ferraris after finishing college. Davidge himself handles much and lady’s handbags” as previous colors they’ve been of the design, while the engineering work and know- asked to match. how comes from co-worker Shea Nyquist. Each bike is assembled by hand in the Vintage Electric garage, with And Vintage Electric has just recently completed their the construction lasting around five weeks from the time second official model, the E-Cruise. In contrast to their of order to delivery: This way, they can focus on each original 1910s–1920s inspired model, the new model is individual bike. Part of the time goes into finding quality a throwback to more recent beach cruiser bikes, with a parts to use in the bikes, many of which are bought 1950s art-deco aesthetic style. The E-Cruise moves the locally, at places such as Kearney Pattern Works & design forward a few decades, but the “classic meets Foundry in San Jose. The goal is to find “true craftsmen, modern” approach continues. As does the quality design.

www.vintageelectric.bike facebook: vintageelectricbikes instagram: vintageelectric twitter: @VEBikes

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“VINTAGE ELECTRIC’S APPROACH DELIBERATELY BUCKS THE ‘PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE’ TREND OF MANY PRODUCTS ON THE MARKET TODAY, PRODUCTS THAT TEND TO LAST ONLY AS LONG AS THE COMPANY’S PRODUCTTO-MARKET CYCLE.”

Tom Clark

Tom Clark Steve Donohue

Santa Clara

Valley Brewing A Story of Two Men and a Dream Written by Anna Bagirov Photography by daniel Garcia

T

wo and a half years ago, Tom Clark—a San Jose history buff, craft beer fanatic, and occasional home brewer—and Steve Donohue, a well-known Bay Area brewmaster with six medals to his name, met for the first time. Both family men with established careers, they shared a goal: to make quality, locally brewed beers that would celebrate and bring attention to the unique history of the Santa Clara Valley. “It occurred to me that no one ever said, ‘Hey, when you’re in San Jose, try this beer,’” Tom Clark says. “We are the tenth biggest city in the US. I saw this as a problem.”

The two formed Santa Clara Valley Brewing, with Clark as the CEO and Donohue the brewmaster, and their dream is coming true faster than they could have ever imagined. “There are new breweries popping up every day, but we have gotten nothing but positive feedback,” head of sales Stephanie Santolo says. “We are even known in Southern California. There are tons of IPAs in San Diego, but ours is very popular.” Today, the construction of Santa Clara Valley Brewing’s brewery is underway, set to start pouring in 2015.

The company carries three flagship bottled brews, all named and labeled around Santa Clara Valley historical icons: the Electric Tower IPA , the Peralta Porter, and the New Almaden Red. Donahue also regularly creates specialty beers. Their most successful is the Electric Tower IPA, which has garnered a solid name for itself in bars and beer festivals—and is changing how many aficionados view San Jose’s craft beer abilities.

“I love it when people at festivals take a sip and then whip their heads around in surprise,” Clark says with a hearty laugh. In a way, it is fitting that the IPA is named after the famous electric tower which made San Jose the first electrified city of the “Wild West” in 1888. Its IPA

namesake, distinctive for its malt backbone and smooth caramel finish, similarly establishes the Santa Clara Valley as the new beer lover’s destination. The future brewery’s taproom will have beers that are unavailable to the general public, and will be run much like the two men’s personalities: collaborative, joyful, creative, and thoroughly unpretentious.

We hope for a brotherhood of breweries. We don’t only care about keeping people at our place; we want to keep people in the area.

Donohue thrives on the freedom to be spontaneous after decades of brewing for others and embraces a flexible approach to the business. “If I want to go crazy and brew twenty barrels of something and it takes off, great,” he says. “It’s great for our customers. Creating new beers never gets old. We like all styles, nothing is off limits.”

Although distributed throughout California, the duo have no desire to expand nationwide. “I want people to have the opportunity to go around the corner and have a fresh beer poured for them from a keg brewed that morning,” Donohue explains.

When the brewery opens, it will be the third within a half mile radius—alongside Hermitage and Strike— which may foretell the fulfillment of yet another dream of Clark and Donohue’s: a San Jose beer district. “We hope for a brotherhood of breweries. We don’t only care about keeping people at our place; we want to keep people in the area,” Clark stresses. “We want it to be a Sunday destination, the place to be before and after a game at the Shark Tank or Levi’s Stadium.” This reflects the business attitude that is vastly different from the intensely secretive and competitive tech industry that the Valley is known for. The beer industry here runs on comradery, openness, and a genuine desire to help one another.

I want people to have the opportunity to go around the corner and have a fresh beer poured for them from a keg brewed that morning

Electric Tower India Pale Ale Named after San Jose’s turn-of-the-century downtown light tower, Electric Tower India Pale Ale reimagines this icon as an intensely West Coast–style IPA. A firm malt base builds support for the abundance of hops, allowing hints of pine, citrus, and tropical fruit to shine through and light up your palate.

Peralta Porter

Donohue and Clark feel they understand local craft beer drinkers: diverse, knowledgeable about beer, and eager to try new things. Their goal is to listen to their customers, absorb ideas, and use those thoughts to create new brews.

“People come with their own expectations of beer and we want to make sure we fit into their understanding of what we are doing. We want people to talk to the brewmaster about what they want and like, right over the counter.”

The two are not just business partners, but are humble, hardworking friends who intensely love what they do. They are passionate about bringing attention to the history of the Santa Clara Valley, and want their community to come along for the hoppy ride. As we sip on SCV Brewing’s tasty offerings, we are not only enjoying a little part of Santa Clara Valley’s local history, but we are collectively drinking to an exciting new future.

Our Peralta Porter displays the same h earty character as this resilient landmark. Pouring earthen brown, this ale is built upon a light caramel foundation which firmly supports its chocolate and coffee flavors, finishing with a soft bitterness and earthy hoppiness we know you’ll enjoy.

New Almaden Red Inspired by our valley’s mercury mines and an Imperial Red Ale, New Almaden Red pours an exquisite cinnabar color. It is brewed with a combination of pale and crystal malts to create a complex malt profile, while copious amounts of hops are added to balance the malt sweetness and create a piney, citrusy aroma and flavor.

Cheers to that.

scvbrewing.com 408.288.5181 facebook: santaclaravalleybrewing twitter: @scvbrewer

Roy’s Station: Family, Community, and Damn Good Coffee Written by Gillian Claus Photography by Stanley Olszewski

h

Carole and Frank Rast have built a home and a business together, fighting city hall twice in the process. h

R

oy’s Station is a living heirloom for Carole Rast and her family of ten. “We don’t have things or family hand-me-downs. We just have this corner,” she says.

Settling into the small house which sat behind a tofu factory, they opened an American-style diner called Tom & Mary’s Snack Shop — now Gombei — serving milkshakes and snowcones along with teriyaki burgers. Their Mobil station serviced Oldsmobiles and Buicks. After the family established themselves, many other families who had known each other in the camps moved into the area. Carole’s father, Roy, married Esther Kurasaki, who had been interned at Heart Mountain in Wyoming.

Carole owns the café, which is housed on the bones of her father’s old filling station in San Jose’s historic Japantown. Most days, it is full of customers who crouch over their laptops with cups of espresso, surrounded by old fuel pumps and a vintage Coke machine. College students straddle tall metal stools alongside a brick wall decorated with a vibrant patchwork of surfboards and Chinese lanterns. One of Carole’s daughters, Jasmine, often works the register, while two other baristas bob and weave behind the small front counter, calling out drink orders and unpacking boxes of fresh pork buns.

Laughter and conversation fill the interior, while the patio bustles with parents deftly wielding strollers, jockeying for a free bench or a table in the sun.

As a young girl, Carole tended her dad’s station after school, washing windows and checking customers’ oil.

Born one of two daughters into a second-generation Japanese-American family, she asserted her independent streak at 19 by marrying Frank Rast, whose family had emigrated from Switzerland in the late 1950s. Without a brother to run the family business, elder daughter Carole had been expected to behave more traditionally. Her parents worried that marrying outside of her ethnicity meant that Carole’s children would lose their culture, or perhaps the family would come apart. On the contrary, after 33 years of marriage, the Rasts have raised eight children: Tamiko, Jasmine, Miles, Shameka, Crystal, Daniel, Heather, and Ben. And the children firmly straddle the two cultures.

But such success hasn’t always been easy for the Rast family. In fact, they spent 35 years fighting the odds before they could bring their dreams for the little café to fruition.

Family is the cornerstone of all the places Carole Rast inhabits. Her father, Roy Murotsune, is the namesake for Roy’s Station. The Murotsunes were a family of sharecroppers who first emigrated from Hawaii to California in 1903, hoping to find work. After Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Japanese-American internment order of 1942, they were sent to the Gila River Relocation Camp in Arizona. Along with thousands of other prisoners, they raised vegetables and tended livestock in the desert.

Back before she ever imagined swapping old fuel pumps for an espresso machine, Carole came close to losing the home she and Frank were making together, a five-bedroom Victorian that they had purchased as newlyweds in 1979. Her attention was caught one day by an article in the newspaper showing the city’s newly planned concert venue and sports arena superimposed upon a street map. The map included her street. In fact, it included her house, which was slated for demolition under eminent domain, a federal law that gives cities the power to appropriate private property for public use. In the ten years since the couple had bought the home, Frank and his father had rewired the house, spent years repairing the foundation, and upgraded the plumbing. Now all of that hard work would be condemned and bulldozed.

When rumor hit camp of a property for sale back in San Jose, Carole’s grandmother Shigeno and her Aunt Mary pooled their family savings and rushed out to see it. After a grueling Greyhound bus ride, they completed the purchase only three hours before another buyer was set to snap up the whole plot. As property owners, they could now bring the family back to San Jose.

39

“This café is one thing I can give my kids, even though my parents never intentionally gave it to me.

I want to figure out how to do it so that it outlasts us.”

Carole began a petition in an attempt to fight city hall, but the city emerged victorious. Worse, Frank’s father, who had poured so much hard work into the house, was suffering from lung cancer. Carole and her husband became more focused: “Psychologically, we became singleminded about not losing the house.”

Carole tried hitting the library stacks to research the family home and secure historic status for the property, but the old house did not meet the guidelines. Forced to sell her land to the city, she immediately bought the house back and planned on moving it to an empty lot less than five miles away.

Just as they were ready to move the house to the new lot, Frank’s father died. When Carole and Frank returned home from the funeral, they discovered that in planning the move, their architect had made a terrible error: He had underestimated the height of the Victorian, which was in fact tall enough to snag power cables during the drive. The first floor had to be removed just before transit. As a result, the window frames popped and the siding was heavily damaged. The house was unsafe and unlivable.

Unable to obtain a leave of absence to deal with the damaged home, Frank quit his job. He made ends meet as an acoustic ceiling sprayer in the morning and then worked on the house each afternoon.

ing in line to use the portable toilet, which was clearly visible from the intersection.

After four long years, the family was finally back inside their safely renovated home. When it was all over, feeling extremely lucky, Carole decided to share her good fortune. “I was watching a segment on the local news and I saw two young sisters without a home.” She immediately began arrangements to take the foster siblings into her family. After that she found a young boy in a high-risk situation. And then his brother—followed by the sister of one of the girls. “We have five bedrooms and plenty of bunk beds. Room to stack children,” says Carole. She finally felt at home and could focus her attention back on the family property in Japantown.

California regulations had mandated that Carole’s father replace his underground gas tanks in 1986. But, in 1989, it was determined that the new lines had a high fail rate. “My dad was supposed to redo the whole process. He couldn’t afford it and needed to retire. There were big holes in the ground and we weren’t allowed to close them up,” she remembers. The place was an eyesore, a fact that caused the family great embarrassment.

In 1993, Carole heard that Japantown was to become a new redevelopment zone. She knew this meant she’d be up for another long battle. She anonymously called the city and learned that her filling station was considered a Mounting costs forced the family of five to move into candidate for demolition. the hastily refurbished garage. For three and a half After their ordeal with the Redevelopment Agency over years, they had just one portable toilet and a trailer to their Victorian, the Rasts weren’t looking for another cook in, with no hot water. Showers had to be taken on fight, but they spoke up anyway, first at city council rotation at her mother-in-law’s house. During the sum- meetings and then in the newspaper. Comparing their mer months, they used a plastic trough out back. The three-and-a-half-year ordeal to her family’s experience children all remember the humiliation of publicly wait- of internment, Carole pled for an exemption from emi-

nent domain. The family eventually managed to get permission to convert the station, but they had to post a $5 million insurance bond, substantially more than the usual $1 million.

the café is clean and well-lit. If Carole cooks up a big pot of chili verde for her family of ten, she makes a second pot for her employees at the café as well. The café has been home to bone-marrow drives and to bake sales that Because an ex-gas station is considered a toxic site, even raised money for the victims of the 2011 earthquake in after cleanup, no bank was willing to lend her the mon- Japan. ey. Bank managers warned her that even if she built it Determined to stay green and local, Carole buys croisout, she would never be able to sell it. So the funding sants from a baker who passes through each morning on for the bond and the renovation came directly from the his way to buy fresh soy milk at the tofu factory. Solar family home and their equity line. Although she had at panels provide a quarter of the café’s power. first planned to split the costs with her only sibling, that A coffee house is not quite like a bar, although Carole didn’t work out, so Carole ended up taking it on alone. does experience life through the eyes of her regulars.

Her husband, Frank, and their daughter Jasmine did all New babies and parking tickets, gains and losses, it’s all of the refurbishing together. They passed every inspec- chalked up on the brick walls of Roy’s Station. Looktion with flying colors. ing out into the courtyard past a sunny bathtub planted “This café is one thing I can give my kids, even though my parents never intentionally gave it to me,” Carole says. “I want to figure out how to do it so that it outlasts us.”

with flowers, Carole sees families laughing over coffee where the pumps once stood. Silicon Valley tech deals are made in the same spot where she once checked Mr. Nayama’s oil.

Even today, she continues working to keep everyone to- So the heirloom lives on. Her grandparents can rest gether. Part of the family still lives above Gombei. Jas- easy, the corner is in safe hands. The Rast family isn’t mine and her husband, Max, live nearby with their new going anywhere, and neither is Roy’s Station. daughter, Nahlani. Tamiko, a local artist, has opened a tattoo shop in one of the family buildings on 5th Street, and Miles designs T-shirts for Roy’s via his web design business, Rasteroids. All of the kids wash dishes, water the plants, and keep the place clean.

But Roy’s Station isn’t just about passing something on to her kids: For Carole, it’s ultimately about building a community from the ground up. Frank gets up and sweeps the whole neighborhood clean at 6am. Not just their property, but the two surrounding blocks. They want the whole area to thrive. Everything surrounding

roysstation.com 197 Jackson St. San Jose, CA 95112 408.286.2236 twitter: @roys_station

David Perez on Technology, Poetry, and

the Power of “No” Written by Chad Hall

Photography by Daniel Garcia

His advice? Explore online for your niche, open up to audiences, and turn away from the banquet when you’re full.

I

recently took time to catch up with an old friend, David Perez. David has managed the sort of things that few do, including earning the title of Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. His words blend playfulness and insight, both in poetry and interview.

How have you used technology to promote yourself?

Paying Facebook to promote my posts works, sadly, quite well. Actually engaging with others through social media can also work. What doesn’t work is using social media as a dump for your event info. If all people ever see of you is what time your show starts, they’ll just ignore it. They need to connect with you first. It’s just like any other social interaction. You need to be present with it. You need to really talk to people and participate in the forum. Then people might be interested in what you’re doing outside of it. I’ve found it’s also nice to have content available specifically for an online audience.

For me, this is pretty simple: sample poems and videos, that sort of thing. The downside of all this is that in the outside world you’re constantly tapping a little black box while people are trying to talk to you. So they start tapping their black boxes. Before you know it, it looks like we are all engaged in this cultish kind of walking prayer.

What role do you see technology playing in the lives of writers?

One effect of technology is that it has allowed for greater pluralism in terms of who gets to put their work out there. The common beef with this pluralism is that it creates a lot of junk to sift through, but it seems to me that the Internet has gotten really good at allowing us to sift and to find the things we’re looking for. Before I get too optimistic about it, I will also say that certain companies in control of how we find our information, literature, and art have a way of compelling us to like certain things and of favoring content that is in their interest for us to favor. But at the end of the day, this is a tension I have chosen to live with, albeit cautiously. I think it’s great that writers can self-publish and market What about poetry appeals to you more than other themselves to their niche audience. mediums?

Nothing. I adore fiction and drama. When you read In the era of TV, memes, GIFs, and like buttons, do a good novel you leave your body and live in someone you see a way of selling literature to the masses? else’s. Poetry does this for you too, but a novel does it for I think that “selling literature” is becoming more and a looooong time. So long that you forget who you are. more a matter of finding one’s specific readership. This is And, well, I love to forget myself. I do it as frequently as something the Internet encourages in general. It rewards possible. As for drama, I have a crush on every stage actor you for being very specific in your tastes, for taking I’ve ever seen perform. I am beguiled by the unfolding tangents and running with them, because it allows you of live narrative. While I haven’t written novels or plays, to find whole communities that appreciate whatever I have written short stories and screenplays. But I mostly sub- sub- sub-genre you’re working with. I think the write poems. Why? Ask the leprechaun that whispers in take-home is that writers should feel free to experiment my ear at night. and to challenge themselves. They should take very seriously the economic viability of total surrender to What’s your writing ritual? their idiosyncrasies. Of course, it takes some work after I find a way to create a full day with no obligations. the fact to find the right audience, but they’re out there. I politely suggest to my partner that she have a night No matter how strange an animal you create, someone out. I put on music without lyrics. Then I procrastinate out there is into it. for four hours and become involved with something

on the Internet. I decide that the problem is the music, What book would you give someone to inspire so I turn it off, then continue to procrastinate on the greatness?

Internet. Then I get really sad. I start wondering if I’m White Noise by Don DeLillo. not such a good writer after all. Then I start writing, dejected, guilt-ridden, and skeptical. None of it works.

It’s all a mess. I delete it. But because I have a full day with no obligations, I still have about eight hours left.

Those are the money hours.

What turns you on creatively?

Stepping off the tracks and quietly watching the rat race like I might watch an episode of Ninja Warrior, without investment or the sense that I’m in the thing as a contestant.

In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield explains resistance as anything that blocks you from creating.

What are some forms of resistance you’ve met, and how do you deal with them?

The constant stream of unresolved logistical challenges that daily adult life demands. That is my most clear-cut resistance. I deal with it by choosing my battles carefully. I take on only the work I need in order to survive or work that truly excites me creatively. When my plate is full, I leave the buffet and eat. And when I’m finished, I don’t fill it up right away. I look at the empty plate with love and I let it be empty for as long as possible. This means I let opportunities go by. People ask me to do things, and I often say no. I love the word “no.”

Sometimes I sit alone and say it softly to myself…no.

What role, if any, does pain play in the creative process?

Pain is the reason poetry is necessary. Pain has us all walking around broken. We don’t know we’re broken because we’re not allowed to show it, so we get too good at acting. When you make art, you take off a mask. The point is not to find some according-to-Hoyle genuine essence. The point is to try to stop pretending like you know what’s going on, and with a modicum of style and grace, report what you see. Not the names for what you see, what you actually see.

How has your writing changed with age?

HA! Yes…yes. Now I write about Ensure and Matlock.

In all seriousness, as I get older I find myself looking less towards big showstopping events and more towards the everyday. I feel so confined by the day-to-day. When I first started writing, I escaped from it. Now, I look closer at it in the hope that I’ll find out that what’s happening actually isn’t as mundane as it seems. I wonder if life only seems repetitive because I’m not paying enough attention.

Is there a creative place that you are trying to get to?

I want to make a movie. There, I said it. I have always gravitated to poetry. But in school, I studied and developed a deep appreciation for film. Once life gets less busy and more…um…funded, I’m looking to do some shooting.

Who are your biggest influences?

Emily Dickinson deserves every bit of her popularity.

Also on the list: Charles Simic, Jeffrey McDaniel…

Kubrick. I know everyone says it, but Kubrick.

“I TAKE ON ONLY THE WORK I NEED IN ORDER TO SURVIVE OR WORK THAT TRULY EXCITES ME CREATIVELY. WHEN MY PLATE IS FULL, I LEAVE THE BUFFET AND EAT. AND WHEN I’M FINISHED, I DON’T FILL IT UP RIGHT AWAY.”

JFK said, “When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.” What role do you think that poetry plays in society?

Progress, as we think of it, is forward motion.

Developing more products, better services, increased efficiency, higher yields, greater market value… Poetry reminds us why we should care about the business of staying alive. It is sideways progress. The more sideways progress you make, the more you’re able to enjoy, evaluate, understand, criticize, and reimagine forward progress. If we are not able to do these things, we stand to back ourselves into a corner, acting and thinking robotically, without knowing why we are doing anything. Productivity will exist for its own sake. It won’t be there to benefit the lives of the people making it happen. It’ll be something that uses them up in order to perpetuate itself, something they are powerless to control. If it sounds like I’m describing the way things are already…well…sideways progress becomes pretty urgent, I think.

One of my favorite Dylan lyrics is, “And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot/Fighting in the captain’s tower/While calypso singers laugh at them” from Desolation Row. Who would win that fight?

Eliot, because I would be his tag team partner. I would hit Pound with a chair when the ref wasn’t looking.

poetlaureateblog.org thedavidperez.com facebook: thedavidperez twitter: poetlaureateSCC

Live Flesh by David Perez

LIVE FLESH There is a crack in the toilet seat from when I slammed it closed.

The things I own are in piles. Each in some ingenious way makes it impossible to clean up the others.

At what point did the fingers running through my hair ball into a fist tight enough to shape a diamond?

We are late to dinner and the reason is obvious.

I talk like a Muppet and she imagines an opera singer hits the note that shatters everyone’s glass mid sip.

Her dress is wrinkled, and my smile belongs on a bloody cutting board.

Today, it took me twice the necessary time to put on my shoes because I put them on then almost put my socks on over them.

At what point did all empty space evaporate?

And was it an accident, or did someone deliberately incinerate it the whole time jiggling with delight?

I want to tie someone smug and powerful to a post and shoot them through the heart with a poison tipped plea for mercy.

I want answers, and I want them before the questions are translated.

Everything is alive, messy and wriggling free from its tailored handcuffs.

Her hair is uncombed.

Strands of it radiate from her head, which is now bowed over a Caesar salad.

I want to photograph her hair; it’s the perfect texture.

It seems like a flat surface but really, it’s rugged, rugged terrain.

Printed Courtesy of Author

© David Perez, 2014

the grid junky

From Graphic Design to knitting

Jerome

Sevilla Written by Daniel Garcia Product & Portrait Photography by Jerome Sevilla Modeling by Leeonna Colter

I

was introduced to the Grid Junky (a.k.a. Jerome Sevilla) one evening several years ago, when I was searching the Internet to find people in the South Bay that appreciate the grid system (a layout structure popularized by Swiss Designer Josef Müller-Brockmann in the ’60s). I was intrigued when I came across a mysterious knitter’s website, entitled “Grid Junky.” Thinking that the name meant that they were “addicted” to the grid, I sent a tweet and introduced myself. A kindred spirit was found.

Sevilla has a love and talent for graphic design, as well as a degree from Brooks College. He has worked doing everything from laying out club postcards to medical instruments brochures, ultimately transferring his expression of graphics and design to an unlikely medium: knitting.

The idea behind Grid Junky came to him in design school. Sevilla points out that junky means “trashy.” While in school, he noticed much of his work and that of other students was not very sophisticated. When he saw an unrefined layout, he thought to himself, “that grid is junky” (too filled with stuff)—and it stuck. On the other hand, a “junkie” is someone that is addicted to something.

Either way, the title Grid Junky works well to describe Sevilla’s obsession with clean, modern lines and angularity in his design.

Sevilla’s road from design to knitting was somewhat of an accident, but his appreciation for design started at an early age. He remembers watching the show Thirtysomethings because the main characters ran an advertising agency. “It was so fascinating to me because they made those old-school art boards, the cutting and pasting, and all of that. Putting it together totally old-school. It heavily relied on your ability to draw,” Sevilla says. After he found himself burned out by retail and vowed never to return to it, he decided to enroll in design school.

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“It’s about design.

It’s always been about design.”

After several years of designing night club postcards and doing layouts for a few corporate clients, in 2010, Sevilla realized he was feeling a little tired of the freelance design world. “The initial situation of me becoming a knitter was me being bored. That’s the honest truth. No plan or anything.” Sevilla found some knitting needles and yarn in his mother’s things. And was hooked.

You just picked it up and started to knit?

Yes, I just began to do it. You have to teach yourself the skill and keep doing it until it clicks in your head, where this thing happens between your hands and your brain and the muscle movement. I don’t think anybody who doesn’t know how to knit can pick up the needles and do it properly, instantly. You just have to do it. Because in order to knit something properly you need to have the proper tension, and it’s different for everybody. It’s based on your biology, the shape of your hands and how tight you grip is and things like that. You give three people the same yarn and needles and they’ll get different gauge because everybody’s different.

I’ve always looked at the technique to be the number one thing. You have to learn the technique. You have to learn Bezier curves, in Adobe Illustrator to use the pen tool. You have to know the technique in order to make something out of nothing.

You don’t follow patterns. Are you creating your own designs?

Yeah, exactly. That’s how I approached my work, because it’s not about knitting.

It’s about design. It’s always been about design.

How does your design awareness play out in your knitting?

It’s a grid. Knitting is a grid of stitches, and grids are the basis of design. But all it is, is math. It’s just math. There’s a set number of stitches that are the correct amount of stitches.

It’s not like art where you could do whatever the heck you want and it’ll be right.

It’s just like design. There’s a right way to do it. Either it’s organized or it’s not.

If you use too many stitches, it’s way too big. If you use too few, it’s too small.

What my notes end up being isn’t necessarily a knitting pattern. It’s guidelines in which I have to create a cross, or a parallelogram.

What’s your process of developing a design?

When I’m trying to figure out what to do, I do a lot of drawing. That’s just the way that I was taught. As a graphic designer they teach you to draw because they want to bring your ideas to life and get them out of your head, so that you can look at them objectively.

Everything always starts with a drawing. Then from the drawing phase I start to look at what the practical, the math, is going to be to define the garment. In terms of the hats, really it hasn’t been much of a process other than defining the math, the physical parameters of the design and the shapes that I want to be demonstrated by the stitches.

Your designs are from discarded and thrifted garments...

I threw away all of the store-bought yarn that I had before and now everything comes from sweaters, from the Goodwill, that I unraveled. That has been a major part of the work.

Now I’m doing a lot of sewing, all the fabric that I’m using is from old pairs of linen pants I had from high school in the ’80s. That is linen, so it lasts forever.

“It’s not like art where you could do whatever the heck you want and it’ll be right.”

The thread is from a 100 percent silk Banana Republic sweater that I unraveled.

Everything about the work is recycled. I guess that’s the only thing that ties everything together so far, is this recycled element.

What are you looking to do or you desire to do next? What’s the challenge for you?

I’m looking at doing different things. I started sewing, for example, and sort of like embroidery, Japanese embroidery called sashiko.

But that’s starting to get really angular too, of course. I’ve been transitioning into it, but still in the fiber world, and still very much recycled. Because all of my work is made from recycled yarns, everything.

I don’t know. I really don’t know what I want or what the future of this is going to be. But I do know that knitting is a secondary thing. Because like I said, it’s all about design.

gridJunky.blogspot.com etsy & social media: gridjunky

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Origami

the flying pig Origami design (and hands): Lacey Bryant

Local Artist Lacey Bryant demostrates the pattern she developed for a “Flying Pig.�

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For further instructions: laceybryant.com

57

Maxx Cabello, Jr. Written by Jonathan Keshishoglou Photography by Stanley Olszewski

Latest album, Love and War, combines rock and roll and soul—among other things.

I

n the world of blues music and beyond, someone to be on the lookout for is Maxx Cabello Jr., a local musician who switches seamlessly between soulfully playing his guitar and rocking out on it. Currently traveling and playing shows with the likes of Earth, Wind, and Fire, Cabello remains true to his Bay Area roots as well, and attendees of the San Jose Jazz Festival may find him onstage.

It’s called Love and War, and it was originally longer.

Thirty-five songs is a lot of music to release at once. So to get some people to listen to it first, instead of blowing my whole wad at once, and not doing the other songs justice, I decided to cut it down to between 12 and 15.

What genre will it be? Will it be mostly blues as well?

It’s not gonna be blues at all. You can hear traces of my style, but this is completely different. I don’t know, it has When did you start playing music? a lot of Spanish [influence]—it’s like rock and roll and Music’s been in my family since I was born, everybody in soul. It’s a mixture, a little taste of everything. That’s how my family told me to do it. So I’ll always have that, my I see it. It’s a little different…more defined as well. early childhood was always surrounded by music. When I was growing up, I listened to a lot of Spanish music, Do you often play with the same musicians, whether in but I was always exposed to rock and roll and things like shows or in the studio? that. My neighbor actually was a big blues guitar player, I’ve always gone by my own name, just because bands he lived right next door to me. Excellent guy, he kind always break up. You’ve got two kinds of musicians. of mentored me, growing up, in the guitar. But I didn’t There are the ones who love the work, but don’t have really play guitar until I was, like, 15 years old. My first the experience. Then you have the type that are amazing instrument was clarinet…and singing, but never guitar. musicians, they’re always working but that’s what they My dad brought one home one day, and then one day I do, that’s all they do. They’re hired guns. With this just fell in love with it. album, I’ve used a lot a great musicians, but when it comes time for a show, it’s probably gonna be a really What are you currently working on? solid core of musicians just backing me.

I’m traveling quite a bit, but right now my main focus is really trying to finish up my album and get my Could you tell me some more about the production? production together for this show I wanna put together. With the new album coming out, we’re working on this production of Love and War, which is a show, I mean a Is this your first album? full-on show, with two 45-minute sets. One with “Love,” I would say my first real, real, done-right album, because which is really soulful and R&B-ish. And the “War” part albums before were always rushed and always short, with is pretty much straight-up rock and roll. We have some a small little budget...whatever I could work with. But other styles too, but I’d rather let the listeners put a label now it’s like all the years of trying to do something, you on it than label it myself. know, woodshedding and all that, it kinda makes sense now because this album just has a level, a whole other I love the blues. I grew up with the blues and that’s never level. I’ve been writing stuff for more than seven years, going to change. But my new style of music is more of but it just hasn’t made sense until recently. And the way a maturing after all these years of being exposed to so the recordings have been coming out is amazing. many different styles of music. All the musicians that I’ve come across have…well, they mold you.

“MY DAD BROUGHT ONE HOME ONE DAY, AND THEN ONE DAY I JUST FELL IN LOVE WITH IT.”

maxxcabellojr.com

Cellista

Freya Seeburger is more than just a cellist.

Written by Nathan Zanon Photography by Gregory Cortez

Freya Seeburger was not expecting to love California.

“California for me was this place where you do healthy things and everybody is optimistic and happy,” she recalls, mocking this supposed culture of idealism.

“I’d always make fun of California. But then when I moved here, it’s like my whole world opened up.”

Seeburger is a cellist with classical training and modern musical influences spanning from hip-hop to metal. Since moving to San Jose in 2010, she has established her presence in the local arts scene, played in shows throughout the Bay Area, and toured with the likes of Doe Eye and Tanya Donnelly. In addition to regular First Friday solo performances at Art Ark and other galleries, she plays with the classical ensemble Trio Ménage and as part of the duo Jœy Ramōne with guitarist Josh Icban. In person, she’s funny and charming, with an unmissable head of curly blonde hair and large, hazel eyes that light up as much when discussing a piece by Brahms as when weighing in on the charms of Snoop Dogg.

A native of Longmont, Colorado, Seeburger began playing cello in 6th grade.

After high school, she attended Metro State College of Denver and worked on a double major in political science and cello performance, but, “I dropped out after my junior recital,” she says.

Instead, she moved to France with her now-husband Nicolas Hadacek, whom she met while he was working on his post-doc in the US. “I didn’t want to be without him,” she explains. But she was also burned out on cello, and after the move, she set her instrument aside. “It mainly was a decorative object in my apartment for five years.”

In France, however, she became restless and homesick. The company where Hadacek landed a job is headquartered in San Jose, so he transferred to the California office and the couple moved to an apartment downtown.

Soon after, Seeburger says, “I started looking at my cello again. It was giving me eyes—that look, like, ‘you’ve been ignoring me for too long...’ So I did the only thing I knew to get back into music, which was to join a community orchestra.” She joined Mission College Orchestra and experienced a renewed love for playing. “I decided to see how far I could take it.”

She enrolled in the master’s program at SF State and dove back into cello performance. But it wasn’t easy returning after such a long break. “It’s really hard to start over, you know? It would almost be easier to start fresh. You’re not supposed to take any time off from music. It was really hard.”

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Fellow San Jose cellist Natasha Littlewood helped by connecting her with some bands to play in. “I used to say I’d never play in bands, ever—just classical. It was a whole new world, but I loved it. Playing in rock bands has taught me how to just show up and perform. It’s okay to say, ‘I had a good time playing,’ and leave it at that, not dissect every moment of what you did wrong. In classical, there’s no way I can just do that.”

"Playing in rock bands has taught me how to just show up and perform."

Seeburger’s first local gallery performance was at Kaleid, and she got it by simply contacting them and asking to play. “Half of the gigs I get, I get because I asked.

You have to just go, be bold, tell them that you want to play and that you think you might have something to offer.”

She also began busking outside of Anno Domini, where one night she was noticed by artist Tulio Flores—who immediately knew he wanted to collaborate with her. He brought her on board for a Day of the Dead performance piece last year, and the two put together one of the standout installations at this summer’s SubZero festival: wearing a stylized outfit, hair, and makeup, while seated inside an oversized red birdcage, Seeburger invited visitors to write a few thoughts on

tags and attach them to the cage. She then read the messages into a looping station and improvised with her cello, creating a soundtrack to the words.

“It was amazing,” she says. “I felt really connected. You always have those moments when you’re a musician, like, ‘Why do I play music? What am I doing?’

And then there was that [SubZero], and it felt really good. I really wanted it to be influenced by people who walked by, because art is transformative and music is transformative. It’s the San Jose spirit, right? Two different mediums coming together to create this whole community thing.”

It is in that same spirit she teamed up in September with local event producer Drew Clark to create a free music festival at St. James Park called The Commons, in which the Awesöme Orchestra Collective, Dirty Cello, and others performed in a circular space with no stage—breaking down walls to make the musicians and music more accessible to the crowd. The event was so well received that the city has already asked them to bring it back in the coming months.

The success and energy of these events are continuing to inspire more ideas. “It’s all simmering,” she says, eyes lighting up brighter than ever. “This place is so magical, I love it! Everything happens if you work hard. I love the arts scene; it’s my community. Everything’s really collaborative and nurturing.”

Turns out California has exactly the type of creative spirit she was looking for.

cellista.net instagram & twitter: xcellistax facebook: cellista.music

Picks by Local Mohammad Gorjestani

by Local Mohammad Gorjestani COntentPicks Contributor Picks

Retro Content Magazine’s Cultivator, Daniel Garcia, looks at a few items that capture the best of the past and still hold value today: the Polaroid camera, the pencil, and a notepad.

A. Polaroid 195

A

You may have heard of older Polaroid cameras being called "Polaroid Land Cameras.” This refers to the inventor and founder of the Polaroid Corporation, Edwin Land. Polaroid was founded by Land in 1937 with the invention of the first instant camera.

The company continued to invent and release various instant film products and technologies until they hit hard times when digital images filled the need for immediate satiation. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and eventually ceased all film production in 2008, finally bringing the 78-yearold company to an end.

The black and white film—type 55 for 4x5, or type 554, medium format—was one of my favorite Polaroid products, since it had a negative that could be preserved in Fixer and used just like a standard film BW negative for archival use and to print from.

Most people are familiar with the sx-70 "One Step," even though the image quality wasn't great, but the creamy texture made all of our image seem like paintings. But, by far, the best "Land Camera" was the 195. If you are looking to do serious Polaroid photography, the 195 (and very similar 180) is the camera to hunt down.

These collapsible, bellows, rangefinder cameras have what most of the other standard models of Land cameras don’t—manual shutter speed adjustment and an aperture ring! This gives you the complete creative and technological control you will need if you are going to create images, rather than simply take pics.

If you are looking to explore the world of instant image making, this is a great camera to have.

They are still available, ranging from $200-$700, depending on condition. Mine, though, has seen a lot of action and has the battle scars to prove it: it is something I will never part with.

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Picks by daniel garcia

With a city as big as San Jose, even the most savvy insiders need a local’s advice every now and then.

Picks by daniel garcia

The perfect pairing b. Pencil I am a pencil guy. Probably because I am the king of mistakes, and when writing, pens will not do it for me. I need an eraser. But also because I doodle in every meeting: it helps me focus, and the feel, sound, and even the crunch of the wood in my teeth are all best experienced with a pencil. Add to the situation that I generally am carrying camera equipment, a computer, USB and external drives in my bag—the last thing I want is a busted pen dripping ink into my Macbook Pro and Nikon arsenal. Though I love the idea of a mechanical pencil, they always fail: pumping the eraser to get the lead to advance, just to have it jam. It’s frustrating and counterproductive.

So the best writing implement for me is the oldfashioned lead pencil. Yes, the tip breaks, but I always carry a few, and a small sharpener. And they have to be black. Yellow just gives me bad memories of Scantron tests. Other colors, patterns, and textures are for kids. Black. Simple. Classic. Elegant.

B

c. Note pad I love pretty much everything and anything that Scott Belsky, his team, and the Behance Network has done and is doing. Their mission of helping creatives get things done and create has been helpful in my own ADD struggles, allowing me to focus so that all the great ideas I have come to reality.

And my favorite Behance product, besides Belsky’s books of course, is the little 3.5.x5.5 pocket “Action Cahier” notepad. Small enough to keep in my back pocket, it can hold business cards in the back flap.

The perforated pages mean I can remove past clutter, or even loan a sheet to a friend in need.

I have to confess that I am organizationally challenged. And this little booklet, intended to be a part of the Behance/99U productivity tool kit and “Action Method,” cannot be responsible for forgotten ideas, lost appointments, or projects yet to be started because I do not follow Behance’s directions exactly. However, having a dedicated pad for notes, a place to doodle, and a spot for reviews, helps me have less of my great ideas slip through the cracks of my attention span.

I prefer the natural cover, so we can put the Content logo on them. I give this notebook to Content’s main contributors as a thank-you gift, and so they can keep track of the projects we are working on. bit.ly/actionpad-CM Behance.net

C

twitter & instagram: TheCultivator

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.

ISARA KRIEGER Isara is a freelance writer and photographer.

Her passion for people, culture, and city life fuels her work. Her restaurant blog, alonewithacupcake.com, covers San Francisco, Boston, and other cities that find themselves in her path.

MICHELLE RUNDE Michelle moved to San Jose recently from Washington State. She gradated from Gonzaga University with two BAs: Political Science and History. With so much to do and see in the Bay Area, she spends her time strolling street festivals, seeing plays and musicals, and exploring San Francisco.

SARAH BAYLIS Sarah was born and raised in the Bay Area.

She is going into her final year at Dickinson College and will be graduating next Spring with a BA in English. She contributes to an alternative magazine at her school and studied abroad in Istanbul last Fall. Sarah hopes to continue her path in Japan next year teaching English.

ODILE SULLIZAN-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.

BRIAN GOMEZ Brian Gomez is a San Jose native. He graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design. He enjoys playing music and a good bike party.

He worked as a producer at WebEnertia and is now a production designer at Oracle’s Brand and Creative department.

DANIEL MILLAN A native to 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 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.

ANNA BAGIROV Anna is a Bay Area social media and marketing professional by day. At heart she is writer, storyteller, and comic. Her passions are the written word, music, and the beach. In her spare time she watches documentaries, drives Highway 1, and searches local farmer’s markets for that perfect heirloom tomato.

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Dulce Pinzón, Bernabe Mendez as Spiderman (2005-2010), C-print on Sintra

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