Sync 8.2 Digital

CONTENT S i l i c o n Va l l e y ’ s I n n o v a t i v e a n d C r e a t i v e C u l t u r e

HIllstack | Symphony Silicon Valley | The New Ballet School | Abhinaya Dance Co. | Vyne Bistro

Issue 8.2

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

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CONTENT Issue 8.2 “Sync” July / Aug 2016

The Makers: Cultivator Daniel Garcia Managing Editor Flora Moreno de Thompson Editors Odile Sullivan-Tarazi Julianne Jigour, Johanna Hickle Vila Schwindt, John McCluggage Circulation/Distribution Elle Mitchell

Designers Elle Mitchell, Garrett Hernandez Photographers Stan Olszewski, Arabela Espinoza Scott MacDonald, Dan Fenstermacher Jessica Perez, Christina Olivas Writers Kate Evans, Jessica Owen, Michelle Runde, Nathan Zanon Kevin Biggers, David Perez Derek Haugen, Nicole Tindall

Brand Director Julia Canavese

Sponsorships Alyssa Byrkit

Production Kristen Pfund

Publisher Silicon Valley Creates

I often think about work/life balance, more than I am able to apply such a concept. But I ask myself if our region has more—or less—balance than other areas. Is technology moving us to a simpler and better-balanced lifestyle, or not? In the end, I generally conclude that, here in Silicon Valley, the majority of us are not finding balance and that technology is not providing the utopia we were hoping it would. Nor can it. However, I naively hold on to the view that we have more opportunities to blend our lives, our work, our families, and our leisure rather than silo them into separate compartments— and that the reason these aspects of our lives are so blurred now is we are doing more and more of what we'd like to do. The lines are fuzzy because we have combined them all into one package of our existence.

For this issue, we looked to people in our community who are synchronizing their work with their lives, from coffee roasters to artists, from musicians to restauranteurs. People who are daily honing in on a synchronized life. In addition, because the Content mission is not only to provide a platform for creatives to display their projects but also to be a part of training and launching emerging artists, we have synced up with the talented students of the Media and Mass Communication department at San Jose State. We thank them and their instructor, Tom Ulrich, for being a part of this issue.

Enjoy.

Daniel Garcia The Cultivator

IN THIS ISSUE Symphony Silicon Valley / Emo Gonzales / Vyne Bistro / Jorge Sanchez / Barry Katz To participate in Content Magazine: daniel@content-magazine.com Subscription & advertising information available by contacting elle@content-magazine.com

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

.

Content sync 8.2 July/August 2016 San Jose, California

Day Trip

8 Santa Cruz, Ca

CULTURE

10 Illuminating Change

Art and Design

12 Artist, Emo Gonzales 18 HillStack Studio, Ron Hemphill

22 24 26 28

& Tricia Stackle SJSU Industrial Design Students Prospect Silicon Valley App Review: Delivery Event Designer, Drew Clark 32 Design Professor, Barry Katz

Emonic Art, pg. 12

Music and Dance

36 38 44 46

Rapper/Athlete, Gary Williams Symphony Silicon Valley Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose The New Ballet School

Food and Drink

62 Tico Coffee Roasters, Mariana Faerron

& Thomas Goepel 64 Vyne Bistro, Olga Venzke & Cyril Obiora 68 Chachos and Deluxe, Jorge Sanchez

Writing

72 Writer/Poet, Donnelle McGee

Style

76 Hydro, Daniel Garcia

Tico Coffee Roasters, pg. 62

86 Content LAB 88 Content Calendar 90 SJSU School of Journalism and

Mass Communications

92 Content Contributors 93 Content Partners

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

Hydro, pg. 76

Drew Clark, pg. 28

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Need an escape? Don’t have a lot of time? Living in Silicon Valley provides you with all kinds of options for a short getaway. From the beach to the mountains, wineries to windsurfing, the South Bay is one of the best hubs for launching into world-class scenery and activities. So why not take a day trip?

Day trip

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Santa Cruz, Ca. Written by Brian and Kristin Jensen Photography by Jared William Dyck You can’t overstate the undeniable draw of a place like Santa Cruz. Where else can you hike amidst the towering redwoods and then hop in your car and within 15 minutes catch a wave at any number of iconic surf spots? As if its natural beauty weren’t enough, this dreamy beach town offers an incredible selection of food and drink and an independent spirit that creates its own unique culture.

When you visit Santa Cruz, start your day off at The Abbey, a coffee, art, and music lounge. This cozy spot just off the highway brews delicious artisanal Chromatic Coffee (San Jose shout out!), serves homemade pastries, and offers an inviting ambiance.

Consider this your pre-breakfast caffeination destination, because before it gets too late, you need to get down the street to Cafe Brasil, a tiny, bustling breakfast hotspot. Their acai bowls are a must, and everything on the menu is hearty, healthy, and so, so tasty.

Next up, a couple of gorgeous ways to enjoy the coast. Keep heading up Mission Street and you’ll hit the breathtaking open road of Highway 1, where you’ll instantly feel as if you’re miles from any big city as you take in the stunning ocean views to your left and rolling hills and farms on your right. About three miles out, you’ll hit Wilder Ranch State Park, where you can you hop on a flat coastal trail— either by foot or on bike—to take a closer look at the untouched beaches and wildlife and the endless miles of ocean horizon.

If you want to stay closer to town, you can

take a walk/bike/stroll along West Cliff, where you’ll enjoy a view of the Wharf, surfers just off Lighthouse Field, and maybe even a few of the thousands of dolphins and whales who come to feed in the bay. At the end of West Cliff, you can relax on the warm sands of Natural Bridges State Beach—and if it’s the right time of year, you can also enjoy the monarch butterfly sanctuary located there!

All that activity will work up your appetite and have you ready to visit The Picnic Basket, just one of the four brilliant establishments dreamed up by the team at The Glass Jar. Enjoy their selection of healthful and delicious sandwiches and salads (we recommend The Beet sandwich and Daily Grains salad), locally roasted Verve coffee, and one-of-a-kind ice cream flavors provided by The Penny Ice Creamery (another Glass Jar creation).

From here, you have plenty of options. Of course Santa Cruz’s iconic Beach Boardwalk is right across the street—but there’s so much more to discover as well!

Downtown Santa Cruz offers a taste of our town’s eclectic style, with lots of independent retailers to explore. Buying a book off of Amazon just doesn’t compare to the experience of shopping for one at Bookshop Santa Cruz, a local institution where you can seriously get lost for hours checking out current and classic reads. Give yourself time to wander around, and don’t miss Stripe and Stripe Men, two of the best lifestyle, gift, and accessory spots in town.

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You can also head up to Mount Hermon Adventures for an exhilarating aerial Adventure Tour of the majestic redwood forest. This is an unforgettable way for a group of friends or family to experience the redwoods—book ahead to ensure your spot!

Recent years have seen Santa Cruz become a hotspot for independent breweries and tap rooms. Of the many to choose from, Sante Adairius Rustic Ales should probably be at the top of your list, having won international acclaim for its barrel-aged beers. You could also invest a few hours in a Brew Cruz, where a stylized bus will drive you around to a number of local breweries to tour their facilities, learn their history, and enjoy a pint at each spot along the way.

To finish up your day, there’s a ton of great restaurant options, including Malabar, which features a vegetarian Asian fusion / Sri Lankan menu, a calming atmosphere, and way too many amazing dishes for just one visit. Try the Mango Almond Curry, Mee Goreng, or really anything on the menu!

Want to catch some live music, a festival, an art show, or a movie screening? Santa Cruz always has an event to check out: visit santacruz.com/events for all the different goings-on you can enjoy during your visit.

The inviting charm of this little beach town with a big personality has made it a popular tourist destination for decades. Lucky for our neighbors in Silicon Valley, the trip over here is short—one you’ll want to make often!

The Abbey

350 Mission St Santa Cruz, CA 95060 abbeylounge.org

Cafe Brasil

1410 Mission St Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831.429.1855 cafebrasil.us

Wilder Ranch State Park

1401 Coast Rd Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831.423.9703

West Cliff Drive

701 W Cliff Dr Santa Cruz, CA 95060

West Cliff Drive

The Picnic Basket

125 Beach St Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831.427.9946 thepicnicbasketsc.com

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

400 Beach St Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831.423.5590 beachboardwalk.com

Bookshop Santa Cruz

Bookshop Santa Cruz

1520 Pacific Ave Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831.423.0900 bookshopsantacruz.com

Stripe & Stripe Men The Pinic Basket

107 & 117 Walnut Ave Santa Cruz, CA 831.421.9252 stripedesigngroup.com

Stripe

Welcome to Santa Cruz, CA

Mount Hermon Adventures

Population 62,864

17 Conference Dr Felton, CA 95018 831.430.4357 mounthermonadventures.com

Sometimes called the “Surf City,�

Santa Cruz is known for its temperate climate and the natural beauty of its coastline and redwood forests, making it a perfect place to enjoy the outdoors through surfing, hiking, biking, and more. A hippie haven in the 1970s, Santa Cruz still maintains its eclectic small-town vibe, while offering a burgeoning tech scene, a world-class University of California campus, and a thriving artistic community.

Sante Adairius Rustic Ales

103 Kennedy Dr Capitola, CA 95010 831.462.1227 rusticales.com

Brew Cruz

scbrewcruz.com

Malabar

Sante Adairius Rustic Ales

514 Front St Santa Cruz, CA 95060

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Illuminating Recently implemented artwork in downtown San Jose is illuminating the community in unique and interactive ways.

Change U

nder the cover of darkness, recent art installments in downtown San Jose have transformed and illuminated neglected spaces. As part of an initiative launched by the Office of Cultural Affairs, Illuminating Downtown San Jose is implementing interactive lighting projects to reflect the rise of the thriving arts community.

Located on underpasses of Highway 87, the artwork installments— Sensing Water on San Fernando Street, Sensing You on Santa Clara Street—have become gateways of light connecting downtown with local neighborhoods.

The artist, Dan Corson, was commissioned by the City of San Jose to enhance the pedestrian experience in a unique and exciting way. A native of Washington, Corson has been installing large, interactive artworks in public areas since 1992. Nature has always inspired Corson’s art, and San Jose’s Guadalupe River became the driving force behind creating art pieces representative of water in the Bay Area.

“San Jose was once known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight. It was a very productive agricultural area, supported by rich soil and abundant access to water,” says Corson. “Now the only source of water is the Guadalupe River / Los Gatos Creek, a mostly dry, culvertized ditch that runs through the city adjacent to these artworks.”

Article and Photography by Jennifer Gonzalez

“We are all both a part of nature and apart from nature, and I walk that knife edge.” _Dan Corson Sensing Water was constructed to highlight the current water crisis in California, working from Corson’s signature blend of the natural and technological worlds. “I am moved to use or draw from nature in creating aspects of my art,” Corson explains. “This nature aspect is usually contrasted with technology in some fashion, providing sometimes a synthesis and sometimes a dynamic dissonance. We are all both a part of nature and apart from nature, and I walk that knife edge.”

Corson made use of the sloped surface underneath the highway to paint flowing water. After sunset, the LED light fixtures illuminate the work, creating the illusion of water flowing underneath the highway. The color and movement of the light sensors react to changes in the weather as well, thanks to the artist’s partnership with Google Accuweather.

The companion installation, Sensing You, comes into view as you exit the highway, right before reaching the SAP Center. With over a thousand painted circles and 81 illuminated “auras,” the piece was inspired by the ripples raindrops make on the surface of standing water.

Whenever bicyclists or pedestrians pass underneath Sensing You, they trigger light sensors that highlight that specific area with color. “I was interested in making visible the idea that action can affect change,” Corson explained. “I especially enjoy when people make the connection that their movement causes the environment to change.” In fact, anyone with a smartphone can control the lighting sequences of Sensing Water and Sensing You by simply playing Ingress, an augmented reality game.

And there’s more interactive art to come, says Kerry Adams Hapner, director of cultural affairs and deputy director of economic development for the City of San Jose. Later this year, the series will feature artist Jim Conti’s Show Your Stripes, which will be installed at the 88 building, at the intersection of Second and San Fernando. Conti’s piece will allow anyone in the community to make a quick phone call and change the LED light patterns to any color sequences they would like.

With such intriguing exhibits of color and light, the experience of walking the streets of San Jose has indeed been enhanced.

.Dan Corson. .corsonart.com. .Office of Cultural Affairs. .sanjoseculture.org.

“I’ve gained the majority of my knowledge from reading about techniques and talking to other artists.” _Emo Gonzales

INK& PAPER Interview by Michelle Runde Photography by Arabela Espinoza

T

he simple act of putting pen to paper can lead to beautiful work. Emo Gonzales, known by his professional name Emonic, is an artist of many talents. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Gonzales has been creating art since he was a child. From graphic design to inking, painting, pencil sketching, and more, there is hardly a medium on paper that Gonzales has not dabbled in.

comics could be. Later I found Violent Cases by artist Dave McKean and writer Neil Gaiman and Havok and Wolverine by artists Jon J. Muth and Kent Williams.

These books became my grail books, books I would go to (and still do) for inspiration.

Who would you say were some of your first mentors? I took standard art classes in high school under Mrs. Gross, a teacher who saw a bit of potential in me. I was one of the first juniors in high school to be in an AP art program in California. Mr. Frankie, a photography teacher, taught me about comic books and how they were made; he was a mentor to me. He changed my world by taking me to San Diego Comic Con in 1991, my first convention. It was there I met Gary Montalbano, a comic artist who showed me that drawing comics was a real job. It wasn’t easy and took work. Since then, he’s been a mentor to me, giving me hours of advice on being an artist and techniques he used.

What got you started as an artist? I always [drew] as a kid. My mother encouraged me when I was young to draw on pads of paper with crayons. I went to see Star Wars: A New Hope in the theater when I was young, and that made a big impression on me. In grade school, I would trace characters from comics and draw graffiti characters. In third grade, my father gave me a stack of comics that he got from a friend at work. It was the complete run of Frank Miller’s Ronin series. Everything about this book is for mature readers, and it made a big impression on me and how I started to see comics from a young age.

From there, how did you come to be a working artist?

When I was 18, I took one art class at San Jose City After Ronin, what comics influenced your development as College, but I left school before one semester was over. an artist? In high school, I collected comics. I bought a I’m primarily a self-taught artist. I’ve gained the majority graphic novel that changed how I saw comics and the of my knowledge from reading about techniques and art I wanted to do. It was Batman: Arkham Asylum by talking to other artists. In 1996, I received an AS in artist Dave McKean and writer Grant Morrison. That desktop publishing from a trade school. In 2004, I book was a big eye opener on art and design and what started freelancing as a graphic designer for Bay Area

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music talent as well as doing web design. In 2007, I started doing shows, and in 2008, I did my first live art event with artists Jim Mahfood, Dave Crosland, and Alex Chiu, and graffiti art legend Mark Bode. At Burning Man 2009, I was a live art artist with Alex Chiu. [Beginning in] 2009, I was featured at the Kaleid Gallery for three and a half years before I stepped away.

I still participate at group shows and functions when available.

all been big influences. Anything can inspire me, but especially music, like NIN, Tool, Deftones, Radiohead, and Aphex Twin.

How do you make your living as an artist? I sell my work at conventions and shows along with commissions, freelancing, and selling my work online.

What shows do you have coming up? I’m doing some art for a group show at Kaleid Gallery in May. I will also be showing at San Diego Comic Con in July.

What are you working on now? Two graphic novels with writers Chris Williamson and Chris Wisnia, as well as a personal project called Tendril. It’s a book of short stories in different styles of my work. It hearkens back to old heavy metal magazine art I liked.

What mediums do you use? Pen, ink, acrylics, watercolors, and gouache. But my go-to choice is a simple BIC pen.

Who would you like to thank? My girl, Nicole Wilburn, and my brother, Chemix, along with Gary Montalbano, Ryan Graff, Allen Spiegel, Gary Buechler, Chris Who are some of your influences, and what inspires you? Williamson, Cody Vrosh, Anthony Leano, Al Pruett, Jim Henson, Dave McKean, Kent Williams, H.R. Giger, Cherri Lakey, Steve Wyatt, Glynnes Pruett, and Tamiko Peter Chung, Ralph McQuarrie, and Moebius have and Miles Rast.

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emonic.net instagram: emonic

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Ron Hemphill and Tricia Stackle

HILLSTACK THE ART OF COLLABORATION Written by Johanna Hickle Photography by Daniel Garcia

The challenge of collaborative artwork is in melding the independent visions of two artists into an organic whole without one voice overpowering the other. Ron Hemphill and Tricia Stackle have tackled this undertaking together as HillStack. Their first joint creation as husband and wife is called Funny Bunnies. Each bunny is made entirely from high-quality wool with colors thoughtfully selected for its eyes, clothes, and body.

Each is cut, sewn, and stuffed with care. Each is bequeathed a fitting name—Cookie Fudgemittens, Randy Snowinkle, Lyla Redslippers...and Adam.

“That’s not going to work. This core is going to be too tight.” So we would loosen it up. We made a bunny or two and when our friends would come, they would say, “Oh my god. I need one of those bunnies. I’ve gotta have one.”

Tricia, you experiment more with different mediums and forms, while Ron, seems you work more with mixed media. How would you say you two differ? Tricia: Digitally he does a lot more because I’m not digital. Ron: I have a lot of digital posters, animated loops, and projection pieces. There are a lot of digital and computer projects that I’ve been doing.

What makes Funny Bunnies so appealing? T: Lots of people make stuffed sculptural objects. It’s not like it’s never been seen before.

How have you two learned to collaborate? T: We both have But there’s something really great about the design we came up different practices that we have been working on years before we with that catches most everybody in a fun way. With all my met. That’s the beauty of our collaboration—we have to find where drawings and other projects, some people will take the time to look the middle is and where both our visions are being honored. I have at it and understand it. Some people will be like, meh. But there’s a very clean aesthetic, precise. He likes things to be weirder and a something universal about the Funny Bunnies. There’s always some little bit edgier. So it’s finding that middle ground that’s hard. R: In type of stuffy tactile object you had as a kid. It pulls [that memory] some ways, HillStack is clearer. Because in my work and her work out of the adult or the kid. separately, we’re exploring and doing different things. Whereas when we come together, we have to discuss and agree upon and They have that sock monkey feel. R: There is that initial draw towards the fresh and childlike, but we’re hoping that the material work it out and market. sophistication can bring our collectors with us on this material What was the impetus for starting HillStack together? R: When we journey of using wool only. They’re even stuffed with wool! T: The met [in art school], we started talking about what we wanted our reason for that is I hate petroleum products. We give our kids artistic life to look like. Immediately it came out that we both liked petroleum—“Here, love this,” and they do. They chew on it and the intersection of art and design... Funny Bunnies got started love it. They’re missing out on something more natural. R: It’s a lot when Tricia went on a residency in Washington and sent a little more expensive that way and the wool is hidden inside, but we’re bunny as a love note. I was going to respond with another iteration not going to put polyfill in there. We’d rather bring our collectors of it. I can’t sew, but I made this elaborate pattern, I did all these and our audience with us up-market. Our new Funny Bunnies are drawings, and I tried to sew it. It was a disaster. T: I was trying to made from handmade felt with Angora and Merino wool. We want teach him over the phone! R: We had so much fun developing my an initial “Wow, that’s a cute object,” then “Wow, what beautiful response to hers. There was momentum. We made one and then materials and awesome craftsmanship.” And they’re as solid as a I did a bunch of drawings of this shape. And then she would say, nail! You can’t break them.

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ronhemphill.com instagram:crumpy66

match... [trails off] But when we figure out how to compromise and get to the other side, we end up with something bigger than what we could have done alone. That’s what keeps us going. It’s that passion for the details. R: We do great a lot of the time. We have a very similar aesthetic even though our previous work is very different and our methods and techniques are different. We both like similar things. We have similar artists we look up to. But when it comes to the specifics—a technique, or a priority—we often conflict about what we should do next or how something should look, what combination is better than the other. It’s always the subjective things. We both are visionaries. It’s a power struggle in many ways. But I think our relationship is stronger for actually confronting it. We do not shy away from it. We argue. We both have trouble being clear about what it is we have to say. When we get to the heart of what it is we mean, we usually agree more than Lastly, do you ever experience tension when working on we thought we did. It’s the language. Tricia has taught me language collaborations? T: [laughs] There’s definitely tension. It’s what to be able to talk about material and 3D art. And I’ve taught her makes us great though. It’s terrible to work through when it’s language to talk about 2D art. In order for us to communicate, we happening. We have very strong, clear ideas of what we want had to use this lexicon of words to talk to each other. That’s a big things to be like and we’re attentive to details, so if those don’t thing that’s helped us grow individually and together.

So what’s next? R: We eventually want to turn it into a subscription service where a patron can subscribe yearly. Then quarterly we’ll give them the product of the collaboration. We wouldn’t have to make extra if they’re preordered. T: Funny Bunnies will keep going.

We like the idea of having one limited edition come out every year around November, but we’re going to expand throughout the year and have some smaller ones. We’re playing with how to either streamline that a little more or find a way to make them a little more efficiently... We are also trying to expand to offer some workshops where you can come and build your own bunny. We want to meet people. We want to build a community around what we’re up to. [Another collaboration we want to try is] stitched photography where I respond to some of his photographic images with linear, geometric designs with thread.

triciastackle.com

instagram: triciastackle

hillstack.com HillStack Studio | 1068 The Alameda | San Jose, CA 95126

A DELICATE BALANCE:

AESTHETICS AND FUNCTION IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Written by Rain Stites Photography by Stan Olszewski

I

t’s the middle of a hot summer day and your car has been baking in the sun for hours.

With a few easy clicks and twists of the buttons and knobs on your vehicle’s climate control system, your car transforms from an Easy Bake Oven on wheels to the perfectly tempered oasis you so desperately sought.

“What architects do for buildings, industrial designers do for products,” says Joshua Nelson, assistant industrial design professor at San Jose State University. “This includes a wide variety of ‘products’—from toothbrushes to furniture, to cars, to Bluetooth speakers, to digital applications.”

The Industrial Designers Society of America defines the field of industrial design as “the professional service of creating products and systems that optimize the function, value, and appearance” of a product. The goal, according to IDSA, is to create mutual benefit and, as a consequence, a better experience for both user and manufacturer.

Every day, people use products to assist them in every aspect of their lives. Seemingly mundane objects, objects most of us take for granted, have been carefully crafted by an industrial designer to help people interact with the world with ease. “Industrial designers are primarily concerned with forms and how people experience those forms,” Nelson explains. In the hands of designers, various raw materials—metal, wood, plastics—are transformed into products as wide ranging as the humble clip on a laptop bag or the controls

in the air conditioning system of a car.

The industrial design department at San Jose State University is flooded with ideas, from the wackiest to the most innovative, all stemming from the imagination of the industrial design students who occupy its classrooms. “There’s no bad idea because ideas are cheap, right? You can just keep turning ideas, you can keep throwing stuff around,” says Steffany Tran, an industrial design junior.

Nelson commends the diverse interests of the students of the program. A balance exists, he says, between those who want to learn how to improve the aesthetics of products and those whose focus is improving functionality. “This reflects one of the great current attributes of the design profession,” he says, “in that design is best done by interdisciplinary teams that bring a variety of people together, with a variety of interests, skills, and expertise.”

But the designer is only one-half of the equation. Product design is driven by the user.

Understanding the user, Tran says, is necessary for creating a meaningful product. There are two ways, she explains, that this information can be sought out: user research and market research.

In user research, it’s important for a designer to learn the age, occupation, income, and personal interest of the target audience for a product. And that’s just for starters. These details, and more, factor into the design.

“Every minute detail that you wouldn’t think matters, matters,” she says. Understanding

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the person for whom the product is meant is crucial. “That’s who they are and that’s kind of what shapes them.” And that, in turn, shapes how they’ll use the product.

In market research, the designer investigates the products already out there and the opportunity that might exist for this new product to fill a need. It’s important to start talking to experts or people more “well versed,” as Tran describes them, before becoming too involved in the design process. This marketplace feedback is crucial for creating a better overall product.

“Industrial design is actually really interesting because you’re expected to know a little bit of everything,” Tran says. “You’re worrying about how people will interact with the product, how people will think about the product, how it can make their life easier…

There’s so much that goes into the product that it’s kind of overwhelming.”

Synchronicity between designer and user can help designers develop designs well matched to that population. Tran points out that designing for someone who is blind requires a completely different approach than designing for a sighted person, just as designing for the very young or the elderly differs from designing for mid-range adults, and designing should take into account culture as well.

“To me,” says Nelson, describing this field, “it is all about creatively solving problems and trying to make everyday things be better for the people who use them.”

STEVE MONTALVO Designing for the masses

Steffany Tran Designing a positive impact

n industrial design senior at SJSU, Montalvo worked as an intern for Disney in Florida, where he designed products for the company’s theme parks. He attributes his year-long experience at Disney to his love of designing products for manufacturing.

“I always knew that I liked art, or liked creating things, but there was never really a business aspect to it,” Montalvo explains.

But it’s about more than just making money, he continues. “That’s why industrial design is great—because you can take your desire to create things and turn it into something that can be commercialized.”

And commercialization is how you reach the marketplace.

In the process of going commercial, designers must adhere to the qualifications supplied by a company’s research team. But even when working under these circumstances, Montalvo holds that the process of product design offers designers plenty of room for creativity. “That’s where a disconnect comes with a lot of people,” he says. “They don’t understand that you can still express yourself even if you’re working under constraints.” And there’s satisfaction, he says, in bringing an idea from vision to reality.

“It’s really all a matter of what you enjoy,” he reflects. “I enjoy sitting at my computer and making three-dimensional models that are gonna be mass-produced as something that I can hold.”

here’s power in design, says industrial design junior Steffany Tran. And opportunity. Tran began her studies in architecture. “That was my first step into design,” she says. While architecture focuses on how people interact with space, industrial design looks at the psychology of products and how people interact with them. “I fell in love with that more so than anything,” she says.

Tran uses the knowledge she gleans from interviews to capture what will benefit users most in a product’s design. As a product designer, she describes herself as organic, emotional, and sensible. Through her work, Tran hopes to design products that last.

“I’m really big on our planet,” she says, “and industrial design is probably one of the biggest contributors to pollution and garbage.” The process of developing products can be detrimental to the environment, from the countless factories to the transportation it takes to move products around. “All those things that we do to make things has really impacted our Earth.”

The products of generations past, she explains, used to be made to last. Products today have a shorter lifespan so that the latest, newest version can be introduced to the market at a quicker rate. “I think the culture has changed in a way that none of us noticed until recently,” she says. “A passion of mine is to change the system.”

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Allie Sieban Designing for meaning

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llie Sieben’s eyes widen with joy as she describes an artistic twist to a rather mundane object. “It’s like a generic product trying to appeal to everybody, but then it really doesn’t appeal to anyone, right?

You know, it doesn’t have to be that way.” It is possible, industrial design junior Allie Sieben explains, to heighten the aesthetic appeal of even a toothbrush.

At about the age of six, Sieben became deeply interested in sketching. She describes her constant need to draw. “I was doodling on my papers and homework more than I was doing the actual work.”

Now she’s turning her drawings into reality.

Her craft as a designer goes beyond mere functionality of the product. Her approach to design is unique in that she focuses on how products can add meaning to everyday life.

“How can we make things that transcend basic functionality and get them to be really meaningful experiences when people use them? Things that they remember and hold on to.”

Sieben explains the approach she follows when brainstorming new product ideas. For her, the focus is on the quality of the product.

“If you use certain materials, you can change the quality of something and the quality of the interaction with it,” she explains. “I’m a consumer myself, and I appreciate things made with care and attention.”

“It’s really fulfilling to see “All those things that we do “I was doodling on my papers someone enjoy something to make things has really and homework more than I that you’ve created.” impacted our Earth.” was doing the actual work.” twitter: sjsuid

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PROSPECT SILICON VALLEY Written by Francisco Alvarado Photography by Jessica Perez

An urban tech innovation hub and its champion for clean energy

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ucked away amidst industrial buildings, apartments, and 101 is the home of Prospect Silicon Valley and the Bay Area Climate Collaborative, nonprofits focused on innovation in clean tech.

Clean tech is ConnectMyEV’s conductive charging for electric vehicles. It’s Continental Automotive’s Intelligent Transit Systems, a project to reduce traffic congestion at intersections. An innovation in city traffic infrastructures, Intelligent Transit Systems would allow traffic intersection hardware to communicate with vehicles to facilitate the flow of traffic. Think of that light near your house that never changes despite the fact you’ve been waiting for five minutes.

With intelligent transit, intersections like this might be a thing of the past.

Prospect SV is an urban tech innovation hub. Startups and established companies go to Prospect for resources, space, and its vast network of government, private, and nonprofit contacts. One person making these connections happen is Rafael Reyes, deputy director of Prospect SV and executive director of the Bay Area Climate Collaborative, a

member organization of Prospect SV. “A lot of my work is connecting people and organizations and making exciting things happen,” says Reyes.

To make these “exciting things” happen, Reyes connects startups, government agencies, nonprofits, and established businesses with each other. Reyes, for example, brought together the Integral Group, which specializes in the design of eco-friendly, cost-effective buildings, and the National Renewable Energy Lab to make “net zero” homes for a lowincome housing development. A net zero building is one that produces as much energy as it uses. “We are the focal point for making connections,” says Reyes.

When startups approach Prospect with a great idea and a working model of this idea—a requirement in order to work with Prospect—they often lack relationships with local governments or investors or require business advice.

That’s when Reyes gets to work. “I spend a lot of time on the phone,” he says, smiling.

Much of the work Prospect and Reyes are involved in has to do with the Internet of Energy. “Right now our energy

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The goal is to create an on-demand energy distribution system that will eliminate energy loss, increase energy renewal, and cut costs related to energy. system is quite primitive,” says Reyes. Most energy systems throughout the world operate on the “traditional” style in which power is generated at a central location and then pushed out through a power grid to whomever needs it.

“We are moving into a time when energy systems are much more dynamic,” Reyes says, “and there’s no coherent way to manage it all—right now.”

A Prospect SV project tackling this issue is the College of San Mateo Internet of Energy project. The project uses advanced systems to generate, store, and distribute energy to CSM’s energy grid, beginning sometime later this year. The goal is to create an on-demand energy distribution system that will eliminate energy loss, increase energy renewal, and cut costs related to energy.

“We need to have certain kinds of energy resources. We should be able to easily call on the best one to serve that energy need and be able to manage that in a smart way,” Reyes says. “We should take the concepts of the internet and how that’s managed and bring that to energy.”

Reyes, who earned a master’s degree in cultural

anthropology from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from UC Santa Cruz, is the living embodiment of Prospect SV: high tech for the betterment of society. “My interest in doing social good, if you will, has now come back into contact with my technology side, because so much that’s happening in energy and transportation connects to my technology background,” Reyes says. “High tech is at the center of so many of those solutions.”

Automobile giants and tech companies alike are realizing that investing in the Internet of Energy and clean technology is not only good for society and the Earth, but good for business as well. Now the major players in the auto industry have research and development facilities in Silicon Valley. “This is the space where a lot of the solutions are not just better from a climate standpoint—they’re better for the economy, better for health,” says Reyes.

The Internet of Energy is the next big thing, and innovation hubs such as Prospect SV are where these innovations are nurtured.

Prospectsv.org instagram: prospectsiliconvalley

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APP REVIEW

DELIVERY

In this age of immediacy and convenience, smartphones and their apps have become a pivotal part of our everyday lives. They have changed the way people communicate with each other, changed the way they interact with the world. By synchronizing your life and phone, smartphone apps promise to make your daily life just a little easier. Featured here are three apps that bring the convenience, and sometimes the inconvenience, of the digital age to your fingertips with the tap of a screen.

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aviar managed to disappoint, infuriate, surprise, and eventually exceed expectations over the course of a single delivery of Southern-style barbeque.

Caviar is a food delivery service that uses GPS technology to allow customers to order meals for delivery from local restaurants. Caviar’s customers place their orders through the Caviar mobile app or web app. The mobile app has a clean layout and features professional, mouth-watering images of dishes from the restaurants listed with the service. The app would be great if it also worked.

No matter the address, no matter the region, for all of San Jose the app returned an error message, effectively stopping any order before it’d begun. After the mobile app’s failure, next up was the web app. The web app worked like a charm. An order was placed from the exact location the mobile app had first failed.

First in the delivery process is an order confirmation from Caviar, displayed on the web app and sent as a text to your phone. The next step is preparation. Caviar informs you that kitchens usually take 10 to 20 minutes to prepare the order. Once ready, the food is headed your way through a Caviar courier. This was the most pleasing and praiseworthy part of the process. The food was delivered in 17 minutes. Caviar’s courier was friendly, communicative, willing to ask for help with directions when lost. The whole process took only 32 minutes.

Although the mobile app disappointed, Caviar’s web app made up for that disappointment in a big way, delivering a hungry man great barbeque in a relatively short space of time. If Caviar can fix the bugs in the mobile app, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be your go-to food delivery service.

Written by Lilibeth Torres and Francisco Alvarado Graphics by Garret Hernandez

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The Curbside app gets its name from the fact that you never have to leave your car.

Curbside is a preorder service that eliminates the hassle of shopping by doing it for you.

When orders are ready, users can pick them up at their convenience.

Curbside offers a wide range of stores to shop from, including Target, Best Buy, CVS, and entire shopping malls like Oakridge and Valley Fair. Users can shop by price or category, making it easy for go-to items, basic household necessities, and restock purchases. The order process takes less than five minutes, and an alert is sent when items are ready for pickup.

Using Curbside eliminates the hassle of parking, dodging people, and standing in those seemingly never-ending lines. This new way of shopping makes errands quick and easy, especially during holiday season. There is no additional fee for the service, no markup from the store price. However, once the order is in, it can be an hour or more before the items are ready for pickup. On the plus side, you can spend that time doing something other than shopping.

If Curbside eliminates much of the hassle of shopping by creating a drive-thru experience from phone to pickup, other apps like DoorDash take convenience a step further by bringing your order straight to your door.

Your food order, that is. Redefining the meaning of “takeout,” DoorDash is a mobile app that allows users in the South Bay to order lunch or dinner without lifting more than a finger.

The app is easy to use, allowing users to search by restaurant, food item, preference, popularity, or delivery time. However, some drawbacks make this app a little less convenient. First of all, there is a fee for the service. The luxury of not leaving the house is going to cost you an additional $6.99, not including driver tip. Many users won’t mind paying a little extra: the right-to-your-door delivery is enticing enough to compensate for the up-charge.

Once the order is confirmed, the driver gives an estimated time of delivery, usually forty-five minutes to an hour. Users are able to track their order every step of the way. But once the food arrives, now’s when you may experience the second drawback: the potential chill factor. Delivered-to-the-door meals sometimes arrive lukewarm. When this happens, many of us may calculate the time spent waiting, as well as the additional cost, and figure we may as well have donned our shoes and gone to fetch the food ourselves.

trycaviar.com social media: trycaviar

shopcurbside.com instagram: shopcurbside twitter: curbside

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doordash.com social media: doordash

AFTER DREW CLARK DARK MAYOR OF THE NIGHT

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f you’ve ever been strolling around downtown San Jose and you’ve stumbled upon an event that makes you feel like you’ve just stepped into the lavish world of the Belle Epoque, a gypsy caravan–inspired Studio 54, or a modern Moulin Rouge, chances are you’ve just walked into Drew Clark’s expertly curated world.

Written by Nicole Tindall | Photography by Daniel GArcia

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“We need to believe in our artists, build up our community, and invest in our party scene.�

Drew Clark

Quynh-Mai Nguyen and Alice Chen

FOR DREW, IT REALLY IS ABOUT CREATING SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL AND GIVING ARTISTS A CHANCE TO GET PAID FOR THE BEAUTY THEY CREATE. Mu Industries: Transforming Your World Since 2016 Earlier this year, Drew Clark and business partner Christopher Morrish started Mu Industries LLC, a creative agency that focuses on event design and immersive experiences. Through their work producing events, Mu Industries is engaging people by taking them down the rabbit hole and allowing them to get lost in a whole new world, if only just for one night. Mu brings together a network of designers, lighting professionals, stage hands, and all-around creatives to host salon-style parties and events. As event producer, Drew reaches out to meet new people, recognize talent, focus the creative energy, and get people to work together to create awesome experiences.

San Jose has its own vibe, opportunities, and challenges.

One thing Drew finds appealing about the arts and culture scene here is the room for emerging artists to grow and create an impact, to be the proverbial big fish in a small pond. That said, there is an economic challenge facing San Jose artists— it’s hard to stay here, as there’s a scarcity of good-paying, nontechnical jobs that are conducive to the artist’s lifestyle.

That’s where Mu Industries comes in—by paying people to practice their art while putting on great events.

Night Market: Giving People a Reason to Linger Imagine a warm summer evening strolling through a free and open downtown space that’s filled with local vendors, fortune tellers, carnival barkers, and performers of all varieties. Thanks to this vision from San Jose local Justin Triano and a grant from the Knight Foundation, Mu Industries is transforming downtown’s Post Street to become exactly this: the Night Market, a place you’ll want to linger in. San Jose has its usual hangouts, and this event hopes to grow the connective tissue that other large cities have—the pull of bringing people more to do than hop from bar to bar.

The Commons: Modernized Classical Arts for the People It all started with Summer in St. James Park, when Drew

Clark won a competition to activate the notoriously defunct park in the center of downtown San Jose. He brought together a group of friends, artists, and volunteers to put on an event that recontextualizes and modernizes classical arts, bringing it to the people for a very good price: free.

With this successful event as a proof of concept, the Knight Foundation awarded a grant for Drew to continue putting on a series of Commons events through 2015 with the goal of revitalizing the classical arts and creating more vibrant events downtown. One example was the Viking- and blackmetal-themed “Black Friday” Commons event last year, which transformed the cavernous Sperry Station into a spectacular performance space featuring handmade sets, chandeliers, and performances of ballet, opera, and local indie bands. For Drew, it really is about creating something beautiful and giving artists a chance to get paid for the beauty they create. This beauty is what drives Drew to keep creating. He fundamentally believes that beauty is a transformative force—and by putting beautiful things in a place, that place will be transformed and so will the people who experience it.

The Night Mayor’s Platform: Unifying the Party Scene Drew’s first order of business is to unify the party scene and open up party experiences to everyone. Every great era and every great city is idealized for its parties, and Drew thinks there’s no reason San Jose can’t be one of those cities. At parties, you get people from all different walks of life coming together in a completely organic and nonstructured way— add some art, food, drinks, and music, and you have a recipe for facilitating interactions between people and breaking down barriers. People want to have awesome experiences, and we need to make San Jose a better place to mix, mingle, and create. San Jose has all the elements needed to be a cradle of creativity: people, money, great ideas, and sunshine. We need to believe in our artists, build up our community, and invest in our party scene.

drew.c.clark@gmail.com instagram: drewdrawswhat facebook: drewdraw twitter: drawdrew

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“IF YOU WANT TO BE A DESIGNER, YOU WILL BE A DESIGNER 24 HOURS A DAY: YOU WILL BE A DESIGNER WHEN YOU’RE ASLEEP, BECAUSE YOU ARE ALWAYS SURVEYING THE WORLD, YOUR ENVIRONMENT, AND LOOKING FOR OPPORTUNITIES”

BARRY M KATZ Written by Miranda Squires Photography by daniel garcia

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s an undergrad, Barry Katz never gave design a second thought. He was situated squarely in the humanities, studying history and philosophy, politics and economics, wrapping the whole of it up at the end with an interdisciplinary humanities PhD. He landed neatly at Stanford, teaching history of technology courses to engineering students.

But over time, his focus shifted from the history of the objects themselves to the way that people and objects interact. And that was design.

When this was pointed out to him, he can be forgiven for being a bit taken aback. “Design” seemed a rather thin concept to encompass his wide-ranging background and interests. It took some research into the professional discipline of design—so much richer and more complex than the typical understanding of the term—to recognize that, much to his surprise, he had become a designer. Or more precisely, a design thinker. A design historian.

“I’m actually somewhat agnostic in terms of design. My ultimate professional interest is in design and I don’t really care what flavor it is,” says Katz, whose work explores origins and effects—“how people design, build, use, and interact with their human-created environments”—rather than the end products themselves.

And so he was welcomed into the Design Group, one of five major research groups in Stanford’s department of mechanical engineering, settling after 10 years into one home department, instead of floating, as he had been, between several. Perhaps being affiliated with only one department felt a little too limiting, but within the next few years Katz had joined the teaching staff of California College of the Arts as well, as a professor of what is now known as industrial and interaction design.

“If you want to be a designer,” Katz tells his students, “you will be a designer 24 hours a day. You will be a designer when you’re asleep, because you are always surveying the world, your environment, and looking for opportunities.”

For the next several years, he comfortably balanced the two academic positions before being invited by founder David Kelley to join IDEO, a global design and innovation consultancy, as the consultancy’s first ever fellow. Though neither Katz nor Kelley were certain at the time what the position would entail, Katz accepted. Over the years, Katz’s role has evolved from offering support to providing insight essential to the process of designing products, beginning with the research (“phase zero”) stage. Working from a historical perspective, with his deep understanding also of the principles of user interaction, Katz develops what he calls

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“narrative prototypes” to get at the likely user experience of the product, to steer the design of the product, in fact, toward that user experience. In this capacity, he refers to himself as a “rhetorical engineer.”

“My association with IDEO…has given me the extraordinary opportunity to observe the design process up close and in real time, whereas most academics only get to read about it and the public only gets to see finished products,” says Katz.

At IDEO, there is a strong culture of prototyping, and Katz’s narrative prototypes have helped to shape that culture, bringing it out of the realm of the physical prototype alone. “Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought,” said Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, a Hungarian American physiologist, paraphrasing Arthur Schopenhauer before him. This is essentially Katz’s role at IDEO. To begin his research, Katz doesn’t simply look back to last year’s model. He doesn’t look back 5 or even 50 years. He looks much further back—500 years, 5,000 years—to uncover sweeping arcs of human behavior and the ways in which the effects of that behavior have altered human culture, which gives him deeper penetration into the range of possibilities for the modern uses of a particular product.

“I have this conviction that there is no project so advanced, or conjectural, or high tech or out there,” he says, “that you can’t learn a lot not by looking forward and imagining but by looking backward and reconstructing where it came from.”

Fascinated by what he calls “the expanding perimeter around what we call design,” Katz notes the way in which companies have gone from creating physical products to designing experiences, brands, strategies. Katz himself looks not simply at objects, but at the spaces around and between them. At the possibilities they offer us, in our use of them, for changing the moments of our lives. It’s an exploration, a creating and re-creating of reality.

Katz’s wife, Deborah Trilling, is a painter who, one might argue, does something similar in her art. Her paintings—strewn about their simple California bungalow, leaning against the walls and sitting atop the mantel above the fireplace—are also about creating an experience.

The difference between art and design? The distinction, Katz says, is not in the outcome, but in the question posed at the start, when the creator asks, “What is this all about?”

The artist calls up resources from within, bringing into concrete existence something of internal life, sharing that experience with others. The artist may want to teach, may want only to explore. The designer too shapes an experience, but this is experience as a means to a very specific end: a product to solve a problem. Above all, the designer is a problem solver.

When Katz is away from the office, away from the classroom, he enjoys long-distance running, where he can shift focus from abstract thought to the purely physical. “Most of my best ideas come when I’m miles from civilization,” he says, “just breathing very clean air up in the foothills and oxygenating my brain and not focusing on anything.”

Design is a creative process, and taking a step back from creating is a part of that process as well. But don’t call design thinking a “process.” That would package it up too neatly, making it a cog in yet a larger process. From Katz’s perspective, design thinking is a philosophy. A way of viewing the world and exploring it. A way of shaping and reshaping it. A way of more deeply understanding our part in the ceaseless cycle of interaction, how the objects that we shape help in turn to reshape us.

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Barry: the Author As well as researching, teaching, and consulting, Barry Katz has authored and coauthored several books in which he brings a historical perspective to bear on a particular area of inquiry. His latest solo effort is Make It New: The History of Silicon Valley Design, published last year by MIT press.

Today, Silicon Valley is a hotbed of designers, one of the epicenters of design. But it was not always so. Katz has traced the history of the area back through the decades to August 1, 1951, to the Valley’s first designer, someone he’s dubbed “Designer 1.0.” Then he brings us forward from that time, showing how it all happened, how technology slowly, inexorably converged with design to create the Silicon Valley culture we know today. And in tracing the sinuous history of design in this one industry, Katz engages in one of his favorite pursuits, the mystery of how the design field “arrived, matured, evolved, and transformed.” It’s a journey worth taking.

ideo.com/people/barry-katz linkedin: barry-katz-58b183

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“WHEN YOU THINK OF FOREIGN, YOU THINK DIFFERENT...

I ALWAYS THOUGHT I WAS DIFFERENT FROM EVERYBODY ELSE, THAT’S WHY I NAMED IT FOREIGN FAMILY.”

Gary Williams, aka Foreign Glizzy

FOREIGN

GLIZZY SUPERSTAR ON AND OFF THE COURT Written by Courtney BenneTT Photography by Dan Fenstermacher

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ver since childhood, Gary Williams, aka Foreign Glizzy, has been passionate about two things: basketball and rapping. When playing away games with the team, he would spend many hours on the bus. He began to freestyle rap as a way to pass the time. His teammates enjoyed listening, giving Williams the confidence to take his freestyling to the next level as Foreign Glizzy. “I’ve been doing music for a long time. I’ve been rapping, but I didn’t start taking it serious until recently.”

What started out as fun with friends has now given Gary Williams a new way to express himself and an opportunity to influence others. Williams makes music with his brother, Chris, known as Foreign Coz. Together, they are the rap group Foreign Family. “When you think of foreign, you think different…I always thought I was different from everybody else, that’s why I named it Foreign Family.”

Their goal is to make music that reaches a wide audience.

“We try to find something that other people can relate to,” Foreign Glizzy explains. With over 50,000 views on his music videos, the fans are eager for more. “It’s like every time I drop something, they’re waiting for me to drop something else.”

“We just wanted to do something different…I don’t cuss in my music. People talkin’ about guns, drugs, and sex and stuff like that, but we’re on a whole different subject.”

Through social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube,

and SoundCloud, Foreign Family’s goal is to make music that fans can listen to whenever or wherever they want. “You know when you’re in the car with your mom and there’s a little kid with you? And you have to turn off certain songs?

The music I’m trying to make is music that anyone can listen to it.”

Foreign Family composes music that urges us to be better people than we were yesterday. Gospel rapper Lecrae inspired Foreign Glizzy to write songs about God. In his songs, he thanks God for blessing his life with so many wonderful opportunities. Of Lecrae, he says: “He’s one of my influences. He was the first person to make gospel rappin’ cool and he really changed the game. I feel like we could do the same thing with what we’re doing.”

In terms of his other passion, from the start of his first season at San Jose State University, Williams has proven that he’s talented both on and off the court—always on top of his game, always making smart decisions that translate into points scored. The team’s top free thrower also makes time for his studies as a communications major with a journalism minor.

Overall, Foreign Glizzy does not want to, as he says, “put all of [his] eggs in one basket.” He balances being a full-time student athlete with a budding career as a rapper. That’s the kind of thinking that could take a person far. instagram: glizzy_williams youtube: foreign family music soundcloud: foreign-family-music

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SILICON VALLEY SYMPHONY Written by Andrew Bales, General Director Photography by Daniel Garcia

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ymphony Silicon Valley will open its 15th season this fall. After the closing of the former San Jose Symphony, SSV rose phoenix-like with the objective of keeping talented musicians available to the greater South Bay by giving them an anchor employer in their chosen field.

Challenged by one of the founding trustees to “be everywhere,” Symphony Silicon Valley strives to fulfill that mission.

General director and founder Andrew Bales and the hard-working trustees designed an operating model unlike that of most other symphonies. Whereas musical guidance is typically placed in the hands of a single resident conductor, SSV relies on the collective talents of the orchestra musicians, and invites guests to lead from its podium. This model offers an expanded range of musical choices to audiences for each concert. If listeners want contemporary, then the conductor can be a specialist. If Mozart or Beethoven or Brahms is the choice, then other conductors are selected to take the podium. For a program showcasing the tango, why not bring in the best from Buenos Aires? For every concert, the best to be had can be invited to shape the sound. This model is serving San Jose audiences well.

Beyond performing SSV’s core classic series in the beautifully restored California Theatre, these musicians are part of the fabric of the community. Over 900,000 people have heard them perform live in its brief history. From its popular free summer pops series on the campus of San Jose State University, to opening an outdoor hockey game at Levi’s Stadium, to a record-setting run of Lord of the Rings at the Center for the Performing Arts, the Symphony is always performing somewhere.

SSV was also the leader in forming ArtSPARK, a program designed to bring the county’s elementary school students to the theater for music, plays, and dance. To date, well over 100,000 students have attended these performances, which are all provided completely free, including busing.

When Symphony Silicon Valley musicians are not on stage together, they are individually contributing to the region by teaching a new generation of players—or performing at your daughter’s wedding or mounting chamber music recitals or making The Nutcracker magical for new audiences.

Musicians are anchor artists who serve the community in countless ways. Created to retain this vital resource for our costly region, Symphony Silicon Valley is privileged to employ an ensemble of outstanding artists, several of whom are showcased on the next few pages.

symphonysiliconvalley.org twitter: symphonysilval

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Christina Mok Associate Concertmaster

Winner of the BBC Young Artists' Forum Audition, Christina had her training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. After spending several years playing in many of the major British orchestras, she moved to California in 2000 and joined the San Jose Symphony as associate concertmaster. Christina has 20 years’ experience in orchestral leadership. She has been the concertmaster of the Stockton Symphony since 2001 and of the Monterey Symphony since 2010. Apart from her orchestral work, she has been active as a chamber musician and a soloist. She has appeared as a soloist with the Russian Federal Symphony Orchestra, the Janacek Philharmonic, and the Seoul Symphony Orchestra, to name a few, and her recitals have been broadcast on the BBC and RTHK. For her solo appearance with Symphony Silicon Valley, The Mercury News declared, “She was a spellbinder as she dug in and let it fly…There was no need to long for Itzhak Perlman or Gil Shaham.” She currently curates and leads a chamber series called the Monterey Symphony Chamber Players.

Christina is passionate about nurturing the next generation’s appreciation of classical music. She is the creator of the musical presentation Christina’s Travel Stories I & II, which she brings to her local elementary schools.

She loves traveling with her husband and her daughter whenever there is an opportunity.

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Janet Sims Assistant Principal Viola

Janet has performed with the Symphony in San Jose for 35 years. It is unusual in Silicon Valley to have the same colleagues for one’s entire adult life, but many of the current Symphony musicians have played with Janet and been her dear friends for all of those years. Janet grew up in a farming family that has lived in California’s Central Valley for many generations. She came to the Bay Area to study music as an undergrad at Stanford University and has called the area home ever since.

During her musical career, Janet has worked not only with the Symphony here in San Jose, but with almost every other musical organization in the Bay Area. She has been principal viola and soloist with many music festivals and has performed chamber music throughout the West. She also taught viola at Santa Clara University, at San Jose State, and in her own private studio. As the Symphony transformed in 2001, Janet decided to explore new directions as well and returned to school to train as a psychotherapist. Today, Janet has a private psychotherapy practice in Santa Clara, performs regularly with the Symphony, and is the lecturer for Symphony Silicon Valley’s pre-concert series: Music Notes. Janet’s Music Notes lectures offer the audience an insider’s look at the Symphony’s upcoming performances and gives her a chance to introduce and highlight her musical colleagues. Through these lectures, Janet has the opportunity to share her love of music with the community she calls home.

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James Dooley Principal Trumpet

Originally from Syracuse, New York, Jim arrived in San Jose in 1983, winning the audition for the principal trumpet chair in the San Jose Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, he had been “existing” as a freelance musician in New York City. Jim graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in 1978 with a master’s degree in music performance, a student of William Vacchiano, former principal trumpeter of the New York Philharmonic. However, Jim feels that it was the actual work world after school—and the gift to have studied with Vince Penzarella, the second trumpeter of the New York Philharmonic at the time—that prepared him to audition in San Jose. Then came more learning. George Cleve was the music director of the San Jose Symphony Orchestra, and the depth of his musical knowledge was a graduate degree in itself.

Thirty-three years later, Jim still occupies the first trumpet spot in the orchestra, having survived its troubled bankruptcy and reincarnation as Symphony Silicon Valley thanks in droves to Andrew Bales, founder and executive director, for his tireless dedication to keeping the ship afloat. As well, Jim teaches extensively on a private basis these days, having taught at San Jose State and Santa Clara Universities in the ’80s and ’90s. Outside of symphony work, Jim is an original member of The Bay Brass, a self-run brass chamber group of 10 players, nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for their CD Sound The Bells! At 60 years of age, he practices as much as humanly possible—because he’s still obsessed with improving.

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Mimi Carlson Second Flute / Piccolo

Mimi is a charter member of Symphony Silicon Valley. She was principal flute for Ballet San Jose until it closed in 2016, and she was a member of the San Jose Symphony from 1973 until its final season in 2001. A former member of the Midsummer Mozart Festival Orchestra and founder of the RedWoodWinds Quintet, she has also performed on flute and piccolo with many other Bay Area musical groups, including Opera San Jose, American Musical Theater of San Jose, San Francisco Merola Opera Orchestra, the Monterey Symphony, and the Women’s Philharmonic. She has been a soloist with several orchestras and symphonies: San Jose Symphony, Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra, Monterey Symphony, New Sousa Band, Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra, Ohlone Wind Orchestra, Santa Clara University Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, and the Austin (MN) Symphony. In 2009, she was honored to be included as a charter member of the Austin High School Music Hall of Fame.

During her high school years, Carlson studied flute and piano at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan and with Emil Opava, principal flute of the Minnesota Symphony in Minneapolis. She continued her flute and piano studies at Carleton College in Minnesota, where she earned a BA degree. Carlson has been a flute instructor at Santa Clara University since 1978.

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David Schoenbrun Third Bass

David has played as a regular member of Symphony Silicon Valley (and its predecessor, the San Jose Symphony) bass section for 39 years. He also performs regularly with many other Bay Area musical organizations, including the San Francisco Opera and Ballet orchestras and the Skywalker Symphony, where he has recorded on many film, CD, videogame, and other commercial scores. Over the last 35 years, he has played in pit orchestras for dozens of the touring musical theater productions that have come to San Francisco and San Jose, including the first national tours of Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera—more than 1,600 performances. He continues to regularly perform with TheatreWorks, a regional theater based on the peninsula.

Early in his orchestral career, David became interested in the welfare of his fellow musicians and subsequently became involved in various committees that represent musicians’ interests in the workplace. In 2005, he was elected president of the Musicians Union Local 6, San Francisco, of the American Federation of Musicians, the union which represents professional musicians in a jurisdiction stretching from the Oregon border in the north to Monterey County in the south. He is also a founding member of the Theatre Musicians Association (TMA), a player conference of the AFM, and he serves on the Board of Directors of the California Theatrical Federation.

David is also a licensed psychotherapist, a fallback career that he feels fortunate to have never needed. In his spare time, he plays in a quasi-klezmer group which he cofounded.

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Photo: Mukund Gunti

Written by Allison Yang Photographs courtesy of Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose

ABHINAYA DANCE COMPANY OF SAN JOSE

Photo: Swagato B. Photography

PRESERVING TRADITION: MOVING FROM POLISHED PERFORMANCE TO HEADING A SCHOOL

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he Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose performs Bharata Natyam, a popular South Indian classical dance. The dance originates from the Natya Shastra, a Hindu treatise on the performing arts. From this text a distinctive style of dance was developed during 200 CE in the Tamil Nadu region of India. The style showcases synchronized, expressive movements (abhinaya) by the dancers.

Founder and artistic director Mythili Kumar had always wanted to present professional traditional dance productions to the public. On occasion, her audiences have been able to not only see Bharata Natyam, but also Abhinaya’s collaboration with other cultures, such as with Japanese taiko drummers and a Balinese gamelan ensemble, which bring other Asian traditions into a more modern mix.

On April 3 at the School of Art and Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, Abhinaya performed Remembering MS. This most recent production honors M.S. Subbulakshmi, a Carnatic vocalist and an important contributor to Bharata Natyam and other Asian music. Known in the dance world as M.S., she was the first woman and the first musician to receive the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor.

Mythili graced the stage in India before bringing the art form to the US. Her award-winning choreography has won several awards from the National Endowment for the Arts. A recent

accolade was the 2015 Legacy Laureate Award from SVCreates for her dedication to dance. Mythili decided to open her own school in 1980 when Indian families began pleading with her to teach their daughters how to dance. She has also taught at universities, including San Jose State, Stanford, and UC Santa Cruz.

There’s a saying: the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Rasika Kumar, whose teacher and mother is Mythili, is also a performer and choreographer, and is the current associate artistic director of the company. Her choreography has been seen on several stages, including the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and West Wave Dance Festival. Like her mother, Rasika has garnered several achievements, including the Lakshmi Viswanathan Award from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India) for a solo performance.

Another apple from Mythili’s tree is Malavika Kumar Walia, a senior dancer and choreographer for the company. In addition to teaching dance and developing choreography, she coaches dance students for their arangetram—their debut, onstage, solo performance.

Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose boasts more than 130 graduates. Classes are offered in San Jose and Monte Sereno. The accomplished company has not only performed in the Bay Area, but has also traveled to other US cities, as well as to stages and competitions in India, where Bharata Natyam originated. abhinaya.org twitter: abhinayadanceco

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The New Ballet School

The New Ballet School was founded in March 2016 by local dancer, choreographer, and ballet teacher Dalia Rawson to provide unparalleled training for serious pre-professional ballet students, featuring the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum. Training at the New Ballet School focuses on developmentally appropriate instruction and dancer health for each student. The certified teaching faculty (including Principal Mads Eriksen, Principal Le Mai Linh, Alexsandra Meijer, and Elizabeth Hutter), has many years experience bringing high-quality artistic training to students ranging from 18 months to 22 years old. The majority of the staff are former professional dancers who understand firsthand the elements required for an artist’s development. The Studio Company consists of the area’s most promising young dancers who are ready to transition from student to professional.

These young artists gain experience rehearsing and performing in a full-day program while continuing to train with the New Ballet School’s highest class level. A rigorous schedule includes classes, rehearsals, performances, outreach events, festivals, and workshops. For the 2016–2017 season, the New Ballet School, along with the Studio Company, will perform a new production of The San Jose Nutcracker at the Hammer Theatre, a mixed repertoire program of cutting-edge new works, and a new production of Swan Lake at the California Theatre.

Jc Munoz is an American fashion designer. Growing up in an athletic household, he began his early career playing sports. He received a scholarship to play college baseball in Texas before pursuing a career in design. At age 20, he moved to San Francisco to attend the Academy of Art University. While at the Academy, he was recognized by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) as a top up-and-coming designer and won numerous awards from the Royal Society of Arts in New York. He graduated with a degree in fashion and textile design. In 2015, he showed his first collection, using felt and neoprene fabrics, which caught the attention of Brandon Maxwell and Lady Gaga. His aesthetic is modern and high-sport luxe with bold prints.

Jc Munoz portrait by Pasha Gavrilov

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Naomi Sailors | Katelynn Hospitalier | Isabella Phillips | Ryan Walker | Mesa Burdick | Aine Chatterjee | Brennan Wall

Photographer: Daniel Garcia Photo Assistant: Arabela Espinoza Wardrobe Stylist and Designer: JC Munoz Stylist Assistant: Pilar Posada Makeup Artist: Tanja Lippert Hair Stylist: Sharokina Danipour for LĂ­mon Salon Hair Stylist: Heather Buantello for LĂ­mon Salon Producer: Kristen Pfund Production Assistant: Lenae Stevens Pose Consultant and The New Ballet School Director Dalia Rawson newballetschool.org

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Mesa Burdick 205 Vest, JC Munoz, $600 V-kini Top, Kit and Ace Santana Row, $98 Block Pants, JC Munoz, $450

Mesa began ballet at age nine when her gymnastics instructor recommended she take ballet lessons to improve her posture. Under the misconception that ballet is only about twirling bun heads and pink tutus, Mesa thought this idea was silly. After taking her first class, she realized how technically difficult and extremely physically demanding ballet actually is. Mesa’s interest was sparked. Her passion grew, and she quit gymnastics to pursue ballet. Since then, Mesa has grown up in the theater, dancing alongside professional ballet dancers. Mesa’s experience spans from dancing as a mouse in the Nutcracker at age nine to performing with the corps de ballet in Giselle with the Silicon Valley Ballet at just 16. She has learned firsthand the hard work and dedication necessary for this beautiful art. With the New Ballet School, Mesa dances Monday through Saturday, approximately 35 hours a week. She takes classes in ballet technique, variations, and modern for versatility. After her training, she plans to audition for her first professional position. Mesa’s passion for ballet continues, and she is looking forward to her next season with the New Ballet School’s Studio Company.

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Naomi Sailors Strap Vest, JC Munoz, $1,800 Wraparound Bikini Top, Kit and Ace Santana Row, $108 Felt Skirt, JC Munoz, $395

Naomi, a native of Fremont, California, began her training at the age of seven at Rachel’s Ballet, where she studied the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus for five years and completed numerous exams with distinction. She also trained for two years at Ballet Petit in Hayward, where she appeared in the Nutcracker, Cinderella, Giselle, and Paquita. In 2012, Naomi began her studies at the New Ballet School (formerly Silicon Valley Ballet School) and has since danced in many school and company productions. Naomi especially enjoyed performing company roles with Silicon Valley Ballet, most notably in 2015 as a Snowflake and Mouse in Karen Gabay’s Nutcracker and as a Wili in the US premiere of Alicia Alonso’s Giselle. Naomi has attended summer intensives at the Teen Dance Company (now Conservatory for Contemporary Dance Arts) and has been on scholarship at both Silicon Valley Ballet and the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre. In addition, she has taught piano since 2011, having studied extensively herself for more than 10 years, achieving many exam honors. Naomi joined the New Ballet School Studio Company in its inaugural season and is excited to be returning for a second year.

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Aine Chatterjee 55 Jacket, JC Munoz, $1,200 Wraparound Bikini Top, Kit & Ace Santana Row, $108 Digital Pants, JC Munoz, $500

Aine joined the New Ballet School (then known as Silicon Valley Ballet School) in the fall of 2015 as a Level 6 student. In December, she performed in Karen Gabay’s Nutcracker, and in March 2016, she passed the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum Level 6 Exam. Since beginning ballet at the Santa Clara Community Recreation Center at age five, she has received training at Pacific Ballet Academy, where she performed in the school’s Nutcracker, Les Sylphides, Swan Lake, La Bayadere, and other contemporary pieces.

Aine was also a member of Pacific Ballet Academy’s Studio Company, and as a Studio Company member, she performed in several collaborations with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. She has also trained at the San Francisco Ballet School under Patrick Armand, where she performed in Helgi Tomasson’s Nutcracker and in the San Francisco Ballet School’s Spring Showcase. Aine has attended summer programs at American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet School, and the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre, where she worked with the company’s artistic director Kevin Irving and with choreographer Africa Guzman. Aine became a member of the New Ballet School’s Studio Company when it opened in March of 2016..

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Katelynn Hospitalier Photographer: Markas Plato | Photo Assistant: Brooklynn Plato | Model: Vanessa Wilkinson (left) of Stars Model Management | Model: LaNisa BuenaVista (right) of Look Model Agency 44 Jacket, JC Munoz, $670 Make-Up: Lukas Plato | Hair Stylist: Anna Draganova, Debbie Duran, and Aubrey Brillo of Umbrella Salon | Stylist: Danielle Tavia

Katelynn grew up in San Lorenzo, California. She began her training at the Conservatory of Classical Ballet under the direction of Ann Fisher. Katelynn moved to New York City to continue her training at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy. She has attended summer programs at the San Francisco Ballet School, Houston Ballet School, American Ballet Theatre, and Silicon Valley Ballet School. She joined the Silicon Valley Ballet Trainee Program in 2014. As a trainee, Katelynn has danced in company productions of Karen Gabay’s Nutcracker and in Alicia Alonso’s Giselle. She has also performed various roles in Silicon Valley Ballet School productions, including Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Pas de Trois in La Bayadere, and Swanhilda in Coppelia. In 2015, she was awarded the Erma Weil Scholarship. This spring Katelynn joined the New Ballet School Studio Company.

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Brennan Wall Dress, JC Munoz, $750

Born in Brentwood, Tennessee, Brennan began dancing at the age of seven under the training of Joan Golden.

After studying for four years with Andrea Paris-Gutierrez, Artistic Director of Los Angeles Ballet Academy, Brennan became a trainee at Silicon Valley Ballet (formerly Silicon Valley Ballet School) for their 2015–2016 season, where she danced in Alicia Alonso’s Giselle and Karen Gabay’s Nutcracker. She is currently a dancer with the New Ballet School under director Dalia Rawson. She has been awarded merit scholarships to attend the summer programs of Joffrey Academy, Los Angeles Ballet Academy, and Ballet San Jose, and has also received extensive training from teachers Alexei Kremnev and Philip Pegler.

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Isabella Phillips Dress, JC Munoz, $700 Vest, JC Munoz, $2,700

Born in Fremont, California, 16-year-old Isabella Phillips is the youngest (and only daughter) of four children.

She began her dance training at age eight at Coastal Dance in Pismo Beach and continued at San Francisco Ballet School, where she performed in Helgi Tomasson’s Nutcracker from 2009 to 2014, Coppelia in 2011, and Don Quixote in 2012. In 2014, she joined the New Ballet School (then known as Silicon Valley Ballet School).

There, she danced with the Silicon Valley Ballet company as a Snowflake in Karen Gabay’s Nutcracker in 2015 and as a Wili in the US premier of Alicia Alonso’s Giselle in 2016. Isabella’s summer training includes programs at Joffrey Ballet Chicago in 2009; Panama in 2009 and 2010, studying with Ms. Yoira Esquivel Brito and Madame Amparo Brito from National Ballet of Cuba; and Ellison Ballet, New York City, in 2013 on full scholarship. In June 2014, she was also offered a full scholarship at the Ballet Philippines. Apart from dance, Isabella is a self-taught pianist and has learned guitar from her dad. Academically, she’s at the top of her class in New Haven Unified School District Independent Study in Union City, California.

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Ryan Walker 71 Jacket, JC Munoz, $2,500

Ryan is from Carson City, Nevada. At the age of 11, after seeing a performance of the American Ballet Theater’s Second Company, ABT II, he made the decision to become a professional ballet dancer. His parents agreed that he could move out on his own to pursue his ballet career after he graduated from high school, earned his Boy Scout Eagle Scout rank, and earned his Citation Award for the AWANA religious program. He accomplished these goals when he was 14. It was decided that he delay another year while he finished his associate of science degree at Western Nevada College and completed his apprenticeship at Sierra Nevada Ballet under the mentorship of Rosine Bena. A month before he turned 16, he left his family in Nevada and moved to San Jose, where he had been awarded the Carreùo Male Dancer Training Initiative Scholarship. He has trained in San Jose for the last two years and recently represented the New Ballet School in the finals for the Youth American Grand Prix competition.

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Thomas Goepel

Mariana Faerron

"WE WORK DIRECTLY WITH THE FARMERS AND SUPPORT THEM

BY PAYING DOUBLE WHAT FAIR TRADE PRICES ARE FOR THEIR HARVEST. IN THIS WAY THEY ARE REWARDED FOR THEIR HARD WORK AND WE GET THE QUALITY OF COFFEES WE ARE LOOKING FOR.” _Mariana Faerron

TICO

COFFEE

ROASTERS Written by Kevin Biggers Photography by daniel garcia

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e’re in that peak coffee moment right now where everyone vaguely understands why “good coffee” is better than “bad coffee” and everyone vaguely understands the key words and concepts that determine coffee quality. This, more or less, can be considered progress.

However, as high-quality artisan coffee completes its ascension into the mainstream consumer economy to become, simply, “coffee,” it will become ever important for the voices and ideas of the roasters, makers, and people behind good coffee’s ascension to remain loud and visible, and to uphold the values of all that makes “good coffee” great.

Therefore, the ability to gain a first-hand understanding of a coffee’s quality and to tell a coffee’s story is why having Campbell-based Tico Coffee Roasters at our SJMADE events is so important. By approaching Mariana Faerron and Thomas Goepel, the married couple behind Tico Coffee Roasters, anyone has the opportunity to learn: not just about the high-level handcrafted roasted quality of Tico’s coffee but also to learn—really, meaningfully learn—about the concepts that go into how one determines the quality of coffee. Tico feels they must start with a deep-level engagement and understanding of a coffee’s total life cycle.

“I love nature and always wanted to follow a career that allows me to be in contact and working with nature, and at the same time make a contribution to sustainability,” said CEO and co-founder Mariana Faerron, when asked about Tico’s origin. “I studied Agricultural Economics at the University of Costa Rica. There I worked with coffee farmers who taught me a lot, and I also learned to respect and admire the dedication they put into growing their crops.”

When asked what the essence of Tico Coffee Roasters is— that special quality you get when you buy Tico coffee, which

also means you support their ideas and mission—Faerron explained, “Our essence is that we work directly with the farmers and support them by paying double what Fair Trade prices are for their harvest. In this way they are rewarded for their hard work and we get the quality of coffees we are looking for.”

Sustainability is a key concept for Tico when it comes to determining high-quality coffee. According to their website, Tico Coffee Roasters has maintained a commitment to sustainability, and as a result, over 75 percent of their coffees and teas are Certified Organic, Direct Trade, Rainforest Alliance Certified, or some combination of all three. For Tico, this isn’t merely marketing strategy. For cofounders Faerron and Goepel, Tico’s CEO and master roaster, as well as a cupping judge at the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, “each type of certification has value and is a testament to the improved conditions in which a certified coffee is produced, thus increasing the chances of a quality yield.”

Tico displayed their latest prized coffee, Colombia la Esmeralda, this past spring at the SJMADE Maker Residency at Whole Foods Market in Silicon Valley, where it won the 2015 Cup of Excellence award. It’s very telling of Tico’s values that they put the farm, Finca la Esmeralda, and its owner and producer, Luis Hernando Morales, up front and center. They show due respect and celebrate the person and the practices that undergird the very beginning of their process.

The Colombia la Esmeralda coffee itself has a brilliant chocolate complexity to its body, with sparks of tropical fruits in the finish. A delicious and interesting coffee-drinking experience is like great art; it needs no explanation—and yet it’s all the better with the story Tico shares.

Content Magazine Maker Series is curated by sjmade SJMADE Makers Market at Whole Foods, 777 The Alameda instagram: sjmade

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ticoroasters.com instagram: ticoroasters

Olga Venzke and Cyril Obiora

VYNE BISTRO Written by Nathan Zanon Photography by Christina Olivas

Building Community Through Winee

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ince opening in 2012, Vyne Bistro has been a steady anchor on the strip of Paseo de San Antonio between Second and Third Streets in downtown San Jose. With a modern, upscale decor, owners Olga Venzke and Cyril Obiora have created a space that is ideal for a low-key get-together with friends, a thoughtful conversation with whoever’s at the bar, or a classy first date.

As small business owners, Venzke and Obiora place a strong emphasis on community. They describe regulars as part of the “Vyne family”: if you stop in, Venzke might pour you a glass of something that's off-menu, because she knows your favorite wines. If you just happen to be walking by, Obiora will wave hello from inside. It's that kind of place.

“The best part is that we get to meet great people,” Venzke says. “You connect with people, you create your own community.”

Originally from Nigeria, Obiora first came to the South Bay to attend San Jose State University. Venzke also followed her California dreams, transferring to SJSU from schools in Ukraine, where she grew up. The two met in the psychology program and became close, eventually deciding that starting a business together was a way they could build a future in their new hometown.

If psychology seems like an odd path to owning a wine bar, consider this: it's the social aspects of wine—learning about people through connection and conversation—that are the driving factors in their approach to the restaurant.

“Since we were creating our own business, we were thinking of what would be fun,” Venzke explains. Her passion for wine is evident. She loves to sample new varieties and has an innate ability to connect customers with a wine they'll love. “Wine is something that captures me,” she says. “The climate and the countries, it just has this richness. The wine [menu] is always evolving, and we bring in different tastes from around the world. We make the customers taste something different and

get them to talk about it. That’s always been fun.”

“Wine makes you talk to people,” Obiora adds. “Every different glass is a moment.” In starting up Vyne, he brought his past business experience to the table, along with a strong work ethic and a knack for talking to strangers. He has also honed his cooking skills, and after cycling through several hired chefs, is now running the kitchen himself. Dishes include seafood, lamb, and Suya Beef—influences from African cuisine—as well as conventional wine bar fare like cheese plates and salads.

It hasn’t all been easy: the pair work six days a week and rarely take time off. And the closing of the former San Jose Rep in 2014 hit them hard: the theatre is right across the street, and ticket holders would often stop in at Vyne before or after a show. They’ve weathered that storm, and with the new Hammer Theatre opening in the Rep’s space, the pair are hopeful for a resurgence. But they’d also like to see more activity along the Paseo.

“There’s South First, which is good, there’s San Pedro— there should be more than just those two spots. Sunday music, arts, the farmers’ market, hopefully someday there will be more,” Obiora says. “It’s moving, but it’s slow.”

To supplement everyday business, Vyne also hosts paint nights, has live music performances, and showcases work from local artists as part of the South First Fridays art walk.

Companies like Meetup and Match have also zeroed in on the space as perfect for social events.

“In the big city, you rush always,” Venzke says. “But here, you find comfort. It’s building a community together, drinking wine, and relaxing. We’ve built so many connections. We’re so blessed to have our own Vyne family.”

The tagline for Vyne Bistro is “Good Wine, Good Food, Good Friends.” Anyone who finds themselves in the Vyne family is sure to get a taste of all three.

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“Wine makes you talk to people.

Every different glass is a moment.�

_Olga Venzke

vynebistrosj.com instagram: vynebistrosj

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EL JEFE:

JORGE SANCHEZ

Written by Derek Haugen Photography by Daniel Garcia

RESTAURANT OWNER JORGE SANCHEZ CONTINUES TO CARRY HIS FAMILY'S LEGACY FORWARD ON SAN FERNANDO STREET.

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olor and vitality spark each component of Chacho’s— the decor, the menu, the customers. The walls pop grapefruit pink and merge American and Mexican imagery through art, like Francisco Franco’s painting Marilyn Muerta. Franco’s lucha libre mural represents a diverse set of cultural icons, including Cesar Chavez, Speedy Gonzales, E.T., and Cheech and Chong. Album art featuring Chicano musicians and original posters from El Teatro Campesino productions line the walls of the back room.

Jorge Sanchez was born in Gilroy in 1966, grew up in East San Jose, and studied fashion design at Evergreen College before taking over the family restaurant he built with his mother and father. His passion for art and the influence of the Chicano Movement infuse the total atmosphere at Chacho’s.

“I have a bunch of friends who are artists...who say ‘Jorge, you’re an artist. You design the restaurant, you have your own style of art.’ It’s kind of funny,” Sanchez says, “I guess some of the stuff I learned in design helped me out.”

The restaurant has evolved. The original Chacho’s was located at Almaden and Santa Clara, where the zoot suit mural and restaurant name can still be seen today. Sanchez explains, “[We] started out as a white napkins and tablecloth, fine-dining place, and we're obviously not that anymore. Now we're more like this 'never-ending weekend,’ a ‘forever Cinco de Mayo.’ We go through a lot of food and a lot of cocktails.”

The food, too, has changed since Chacho’s first opened.

Jorge has grown his mother’s traditional menu into new dishes, like the Micharon Shrimp and Chacho’s Famous Fajitas. “The recipes are based on my mom’s cooking, but we tweak it out. The person who actually puts everything together is me, and I get together with Ines [Ovando, the head cook]. Our Enchiladas de Mole are awesome. I get the mole in Mexico, so I'm in Mexxico four times a year, picking up spices.”

“When I go there, I pick up ideas, so I always call it R&D. Some people understand, some people don’t. You have to go out and see what’s going on in the market, in different cultures, in different cities, in different communities. Is there something you can come back with that will start a trend?”

Curiosity and courage have served Sanchez well in developing recognizable and popular cocktails. “[Chacho’s] started the 50-milliliter concept which is the little bottles upside down [in a 22-ounce schooner],” Sanchez says. “We started the upside-down beer back in 1998. We’ve come up with a bunch of cool stuff that has expanded to other restaurant chains and groups.”

“Chacho’s long-term success [comes from] being original, keeping the originality active. Not keeping the experience bland,” Sanchez says. “Reinvent yourself all the time, question yourself all the time.”

Despite Chacho’s success, Sanchez notes, “it’s not all about making money, it’s about giving back.” The restaurant supports local community fundraising, and is an official sponsor for both San Jose State University and the San Jose Giants. Chacho’s also extends discounts for nonprofit organizations.

Even as Chacho’s keeps him busy, Sanchez continues to brainstorm new projects. He opened Deluxe next door to Chacho’s in late 2015. It’s a new take on the classic American diner with its own charm—and bar. In July 2016, next door to Deluxe, Sanchez will open his third San Fernando spot, San Patricio’s, and bring the flavors of Mexico to a traditional Irish pub.

“San Jose is in a good spot right now,” Sanchez says. “For me, San Fernando is the main street for downtown San Jose.

[It] has all the banks, the museum, the cathedral, the library, city hall, San Jose State. Being on San Fernando has been an awesome blessing.”

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chachosrestaurant.com facebook: ChachosRestaurant 87 East San Fernando San Jose, CA 95113 408.293.4321 facebook: deluxerestaurantsj 71 East San Fernando San Jose, CA 95113 408.271.7777

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Donnelle McGee Exit Strategy A LOCAL NOVELIST ON THE FINER POINTS OF COMPLETE DISAPPEARANCE Interview by david Perez Photography by Daniel Garcia

A good story is like an addiction. It separates you from yourself, steeps you in a world different from the one buoyed by your immediate surroundings. But, according to McGee, only one brings you back whole.

Your work does more than experiment with form. It is in conversation with real issues in the real world.

Is there something external to the writing that you're working toward? A change you would like to help realize? Addiction runs amuck in my books. I’ve spent many years in rooms with women and men telling and hearing stories about addiction. Stories of how addiction will erode the self, break the family and can kill you. When I left those rooms I knew there were books in me to be written and shared. Addiction, in whatever form, and when it threatens to erase you, brings you to face the self. So writing Ghost Man, Shine, and Naked (memoir in verse) was brewing in me for years, and their narratives remind me of the stark realities of being out of control and not confronting your demons. I hope my work continues to open up the discussion about family and personal addictions that are often only spoken about in secret.

A good novel can make you feel like you are temporarily living another person's life. Why do you think this is such a compelling experience? We are all looking for an escape. The chance to leave our bodies temporarily is exhilarating. Once the novel is done, we return to ourselves more whole if the novel is worthy. Readers want this experience, and as writers, it is important to write narratives that move people.

I want to write with an urgency and with a beat that is authentic and lets the reader engage with the characters. I want to share narratives that move people because we all want to spend some time in another realm. And we all want glimpses into what we do not know. A good novel can do this and more.

Ursula K. LeGuin said, "The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words." I know this is a curveball, but does this make sense to you? What are your thoughts? Beautiful words and question.

The novelist gives voice to what many of us are afraid to utter. The novelist saves us and moves forward boldly to put on the page our deepest fears and ambitions. And in the end, the writing keeps us alive and moving onward.

Why is reading new fiction important? Fiction guides what it means to be human. Stories are created every moment and new fiction takes these narratives and shapes them for us to experience. And in doing so, we live on and continue to figure out what it means to be alive.

What is the best book you have ever read?

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

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Ghost Man Now alone in the house she and Julius purchased together, their first home, Grace experienced the realness of her situation. She stepped into the office. She loved this room the most. Book after book lined the mahogany bookshelves. On the floor, not yet put on the shelves, were the newest books just bought last week when Joey, Julius, and she spent an afternoon at Journey Bookstore.

One of the books caught her eye. It sat on top of the stack, which meant that the book would be the next on Grace’s reading list. Grace picked up the book. The book’s cover struck her. The deep redness of it. The title running vertically on the front of the book read Ordinary Words. The author’s name, Ruth Stone, ran horizontally across the cover breaking into the space between Ordinary and Words. What fascinated Grace most about the cover was the shadowy, almost smoky, image of a face, if it was a face. She wasn’t sure. With the book still in her hand, Grace sat down on the soft Berber carpet. She studied the book’s cover trying to make out the image coming out of the redness.

After getting up to get a stack of note cards and a pen from the desk, she returned to the floor. With the book in front of her, she lay on her belly and began to write: ghost man here ghost man come gone ghost man me Ghost Man come and gone

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Excerpt provided by Donnelle McGee

donnellemcgee.com twitter: dmcgeewriter goodreads: Donnelle_McGee Donnelle's books are available at: bit.ly/GHOSTMAN

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HYDRO

HYDRO

All Swimwear: L*Space, Palapa Lounge Beachwear Los Gatos Location: One South Market Apartments, 1 South Market St, San Jose, CA 95113 liveonesouthmarket.com Photographer/Art Director: Daniel Garcia Photo Assistant and Videographer: Arabela Espinoza Photo Assistant: Luisa Morco Model: Kayla Totten Stylist: Elle Mitchell Hair and Makeup: Steely Nash Producer: Kristen Pfund

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LAB

gatherings for culture creatives

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or the latest installment of the Content LAB series, “Flower & Garden,” guests gathered on a sunny Saturday in the East San Jose community farm space Veggielution.

An enticing plant-based menu was provided by Organicopia, featuring a fruit and cheese platter, vegetable crudités with a dip trio, a refreshing gazpacho, and a salad of sweet pea, spinach, feta, and arugula with a citrus vinaigrette and French goat feta. There was no shortage of sweets with the addition of a creamy white corn custard with basil vinaigrette and sunflower sprouts, a peach and lavender soup garnished with creme fraiche and toasted almonds, chocolate pots de creme, and an assortment of madeleines. The meal was complemented by local wine, handcrafted beer, and sparkling beverages.

As guests clad in shorts and sunhats convened under the pavilion, DJ duo Wooshay of TradeKraft Collective spun dancey electronic beats, and a palpable sense of springtime rejuvenation filled the air.

Mika Shibuya of Veggielution introduced the space and the farm’s many contributions to the community in its effort to engage a diverse group of people in sustainable food practices.

Guests were introduced to the importance of native plants and pollinators for promoting biodiversity, and then proceeded to get their hands dirty with a plant propagation tutorial, the result of which was their very own sage plant. Tours were also given of the surrounding gardens, farm stand, outdoor kitchen, and fields.

Jeeryn Dang and Karen Burling of Petite Petal guided guests in creating designer floral arrangements with vibrant ranunculus blooms, providing maintenance tips and insider tricks like color blocking. After getting creative, guests documented their arrangements on Instagram in hopes of winning a custom arrangement provided by Petite Petal.

After the main attractions, guests slowly filtered out into the surrounding farm area, armed with an enviable floral arrangement, a sustainable food conscience, and ample inspiration for sprucing up their home gardens this spring.

Special thanks to our event partners: Veggielution, Organicopia, Petite Petal, Knight Foundation, Gordon Biersch, J. Lohr, Santa Clara Valley Wines, and TradeKraft Collective.

Stay tuned for more information on the next Content LAB: COLOR July 2016

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Written by Jessica Owens Photography by Stan Olszewski

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SU M T W Talking Art

17 This month’s Talking Art event will be an artist panel discussion around NextNewPaper, part of the ICA’s series of exhibitions dedicated to exploring emerging artists and art practices.

The Rotary Fireworks

4 The Rotary Club of San Jose and Symphony Silicon Valley celebrate Independence Day with free Symphony Summer Pops music followed by a fireworks display.

Indigo Girls

Jazz on the Plazz

SJ Institute of Contemporary Art sjica.org

Discovery Meadow rotaryfireworks.org

The Mountain Winery mountainwinery.com

Los Gatos Town Plaza Weekly jazzontheplazz.com

Wekfest

24 Avid car enthusiasts, as well as those new to the scene, gather to commune and share their common interests, with a focus on leading brands and individuals both within the car community and various sub-cultures.

LiveSV Workshop

Well-RED

9 Presented by Poetry Center San José, this poetry reading series features different poets every month and is followed by an open mic.

Confederates

San Jose Convention Center wekfest-usa.com

SJ Sobrato Center for Nonprofits svcreates.org

Works/San Jose Every 2nd Tues poetrycentersanjose.org

Lucie Stern Theatre July 13–Aug 7 theatreworks.org

25 Promoting arts, culture, and creative events can be tricky with limited time and budget. This workshop provides tools for creating compelling online calendar lisitings.

9 This musical duo became overnight folk icons after the release of their first album. Since then, they’ve released 15 more albums and received six Grammy nominations with one win.

6 This year’s outdoor concert series will feature an eclectic array of some of the world’s finest jazz artists providing their take on The Ellington Songbook.

13 The provocative hit of TheatreWorks’ 2015 New Works Festival, this headline-hot political drama is a fresh, fascinating look at today’s muckraking media and the world it relentlessly pursues.

Arte nella Piazza

21 Bay Area artists will offer pieces for sale in a beautiful outdoor piazza setting, joined by local musicians and other live entertainment.

Trevor Hall

Bel Bacio Cafe facebook.com/Arte.nella.Piazza

The RITz theritzsanjose.com

27 An eclectic mix of acoustic rock, reggae, and Sanskrit chanting, Trevor Hall’s music echoes with the names and teachings of divinities while maintaining a refreshingly universal message..

Facilities Assessment for 10 Arts Nonprofits

This workshop series is designed for nonprofit organizations that are thinking about rent increases, lease expirations, or getting new office or program space..

Location TBD svcreates.org

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COntent Calendar

July/AUG

TH F S Music in the Park

14 At the second concert in this popular outdoor music series, AC/DShe and The Killer Queens take fans on a tour of the music of AC/DC and Queen. School of Rock’s house band, The Drought, open the show.

Gone With the Wind

1 Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland grew up in Saratoga before moving to Hollywood in the 1930s. The Stanford Theatre will be celebrating her 100th birthday with screenings of one of her most well-known films.

Obon Festival

Plaza de Cesar Chavez sjdowntown.com

Stanford Theatre July 1–3 stanfordtheatre.org

Japantown San Jose July 9–10 sjbetsuin.com

5 Hour Sculpture

22 Celebrate the installation of brand new additions to Montalvo's Art on the Grounds program with art-making activities, tours, live music, and gourmet food trucks, in addition to pop-up “sculptures” by artists across all disciplines.

Shiny Side Up Bicycle Show

Montalvo Arts Center montalvoarts.org

History Park July 23–24 shinysideupbikeshow.com

The Three Musketeers

FAME + Style Wars

Sanborn County Park Aug 5–Sept 4 svshakespeare.org

School of Arts & Culture at MHP famepresents.com

SJ Jazz Summer Fest

12 A summer destination for music lovers, concert-goers, and families alike, the festival features 120+ performances on 12 stages, showcasing jazz, blues, funk, R&B, salsa, and related genres.

Tamale Festival

Downtown San Jose Aug 12–14 summerfest.sanjosejazz.org

Emma Prusch Farm Park Aug 6–7 sjtamalefest.com

Green Day's American Idiot

14

This Tony Award–winning rock extravaganza tells the story of three lifelong friends forced to choose between their unbridled dreams and the safety of suburbia.

City Lights Theater July 14–Aug 21 cltc.org

5 Adventure, treachery, romance, and swords dominate this hilarious new adaptation, based on Alexandre Dumas’ timeless swashbuckler and presented in an outdoor setting.

#ContentPick

9 The San Jose Obon Festival is a time when generations come together to enjoy a rich cultural experience in one of the three remaining Japantowns in the United States with games, food, music, and over 1,200 dancers.

23

Shiny Side Up features all types of bikes, from fully custombuilt bikes to original rusted Schwinns, as well as bicyclerelated vendors, food trucks, stunt shows, and live DJ music.

30 Connecting the fashion, art, and music counterculture communities under one roof, this event features a fashion show, exhibitors, live music, food, dance performances, and a dash of the unexpected.

6 While sampling delicious tamale recipes, festival attendees will be treated to outstanding music and multicultural performances.

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To have your event considered for listing, submit event to LiveSV.com

Community Supported Journalism Written by Tom Ulrich

I

n May 2008, two San Jose State University business professors, a journalism professor, and two Silicon Valley business leaders conceived of a regional magazine to inspire community leaders to solve neighborhood problems in imaginative ways.

A talented group of students from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications brought SHiFT magazine to life during the winter of 2008.

Their mission: challenge readers to contribute time, energy, and resources to overcome the social problems that our community faces.

For nearly a decade, the staff has tackled neighborhood issues with a particular interest in how the community is meeting local needs in ways that set an example for the region and the nation. Students have delivered stories about child poverty, homelessness, obesity, teen suicide, and the mental health of veterans returning from the war in Afghanistan.

SHiFT is a solutions magazine. It’s not enough for writers to report a problem— they want to embolden readers as well. Even though the staff covers some of our most unsavory circumstances, they give readers reason to hope, and to act.

True to San Jose State University’s mission to teach students how to navigate the 21st-century economy, staff members from SHiFT and its sister publication, South Bay Pulse, are pushing the limits of digital technology. As with so many successful Silicon Valley startups, seed money came from experienced players and visionaries. Early contributors to the program included SJSU’s Lucas College of Business and HP Labs.

Last summer, Adobe Systems chose SHiFT staff members over students from other Bay Area universities to join seasoned programmers to help develop the next generation of digital publishing software. This May, the Western Publishing Association, a trade organization representing magazine publishers and printers from 24 western states, awarded the staff of SHiFT the best student print publication of the year.

In the spirit of community that defines both SHiFT and Content, 10 SHiFT staff members have contributed to this jointly produced issue.

School of Journalism and Mass Communications jmc.sjsu.edu

South Bay Pulse sobaypulse.com

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SanJ0se state Contributors Photography by JENNIFER GONZALEZ

ALISON YANG Allison is a dog mommy and recent journalism graduate. In her free time she likes to bingewatch TV shows and challenge herself to see how quickly she can finish a series.

LILIBETH TORRES A current student at San Jose State, Lili is studying graphic design and marketing.

During her free time, she enjoys going to music festivals and discovering new places.

FRANCISCO ALVARADO I'm a listener. All the best storytellers are. twitter: nicaensj

JENNIFER GONZALEZ Jennifer is a fourth-year undergrad pursuing a passion in storytelling by majoring in journalism and English at SJSU. When she isn’t reporting, she’s a tech geek and concert enthusiast. instagram: MissJennGonzalez

MIRANDA SQUIRES With her bachelor's degree in interactive media and technology, Miranda is a compassionate writer pursuing her master's in journalism at SJSU. She is an animal lover, a self-motivator, and a book worm.

LUISA MORCO Luisa is an aspiring designer, photographer, and writer always looking for ways to grow and challenge herself. She is applying her studies toward the BFA program in graphic design at SJSU.

RAIN STITES Rain is a recent graduate of SJSU with a degree in journalism and sociology. The San Jose native hopes to take her passion for writing and photography around the world to document people and animals.

ANDREW CYPERT Andrew is a writer who finds art in everything he sees. With his enthusiastic and upbeat personality, he pushes himself into every situation without boundaries. Pick up Andrew's way of life today!

GARRET HERNANDEZ Garret is a multimedia specialist, future creative director, and cofounder of Not Any Design Collective. From Brentwood, California, a small town in the outer reaches of the East Bay, Garret has been building his professional network here in Silicon Valley.

He graduates this spring from SJSU with a degree in design studies.

COURTNEY BENNETT Born and raised in Sacramento, Courtney is a San Jose–based freelance writer and a student at SJSU studying public relations. She is a Sudoku and concert enthusiast.

instagram: courtkneebennett

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.

JESSICA OWENS Jessica is a writer, an art enthusiast, and a student based in Santa Cruz. She spends her time photographing the suburban landscapes of the Bay Area and interning at art galleries.

JARED WILLIAM DYCK Jared is a portrait, lifestyle, and wedding photographer who resides in Santa Cruz. He and his wife love drinking good coffee—when they aren't making it themselves.

Jessicaowensart.com

instagram: jaredwilliamd

DAN FENSTERMACHER Dan has exhibited both nationally and internationally. His work, which focuses on merging activism with fine art portraiture, has been featured in The Huffington Post, Pro Arts Gallery, and SOMArts. Dan recently graduated with an MFA in photography from San Jose State University. instagram: danfenstermacher

JOHANNA HICKLE Johanna is a freelance editor and writer. She is an idealist constantly on the hunt for silver linings. Her blog, Jumping Off The Page, is dedicated to discussing fictional characters.

JOHN MCCLUGGAGE John is a professional theater director whose work has been seen around the country (Cleveland Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), as well as in the Bay Area (SJ Rep, Center Rep, Children’s Musical Theatre).

KRISTIN & BRIAN JENSEN Kristin serves on staff with Vintage Faith Church, and Brian is a graphic designer at Design by Cosmic. They share a love of traveling, foodie food, gardening, Santa Cruz, good friends, and their son, Jacob.

CHRISTINA OLIVAS Christina is the web designer for San Jose State University, where she crafts compelling and effective user experiences online. A New Mexico native, Christina attributes her design and photography success to her exceptional mentors. twitter: fontburger

Want to be a part of the Content community?

Contact us at: Editor@content-magazine.com

twitter: JohannaHickle

92

JULIANNE JIGOUR A San Jose native, Julianne has edited a variety of publications, including the Santa Clara Review and Outdoor USA Magazine. She was a founding member of the San Jose–based Cardboard Box Theatre Project, and she holds an MFA in dramatic writing from Carnegie Mellon University.

Thank You

This issue is made possible with the support of our partners—companies and organizations who share our desire to support and develop the creative community of the South Bay. We are grateful for their contribution and support and for actively taking part in the betterment of our region.

For more information on becoming a mission partner, contact daniel@content-magazine.com

Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged.

Knight is working to support the urbanization of a traditionally sprawling city with a specific focus on Central San Jose. Our investments tap into the region’s creative energy and disruptive history to accelerate the city’s significance as a well-connected, transport-accessible hub for culture and innovation in the South Bay. Working with partners in the public and private sectors, we support a range of projects from prototypes and pop-ups to in-depth research and sustained organizational support.

knightfoundation.org

THAnK YOU

Filco Events has been working on festivals, fundraisers, and events in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1988.

Each event is individually tailored to the special needs and goals of the organization. While fundraising is always a significant part of festivals, other priorities include media attention, corporate support, and volunteer building, as well as the opportunity to showcase specific programs and services to the community.

In all cases, advancing long-term goals while still raising significant revenue gives each event purpose and recognition for many years into the future.

From logistics to concessions to volunteer coordination, we can contract key elements of large festivals, provide consultation, or actually direct the entire production.

We are also available for national and multi-city events.

filco.com

Proud Sponsor of Content Magazine Pick-Up Parties for 2016

THAnK YOU

As a boutique-style catering company, Organicopia is best known for multi-course food and wine pairings with complete customization of menus. Starting as an in-home private chef, founder Molly Bravo cooked for busy families who had no time to shop or prepare nutritious meals for dinner. Over time, she became known for her warm hospitality and her genuine love of the craft. In 2015, Bravo was approached by FoodyTV to host a cooking and lifestyle show. The first season recently wrapped up production in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The second season is slated to begin filming in early October 2016.

myorganicopia.com

instagram: organicopia

THAnK YOU

Veggielution connects people from diverse backgrounds through food and farming to create a more sustainable food system in San Jose. Their goal is to engage residents throughout Silicon Valley, with a special emphasis on fostering community engagement in the low-income, working immigrant community of East San Jose. Through shared conversations and experiences, healthy food, and outdoor learning, Veggielution helps to build social capital in East San Jose, changing attitudes and policies toward lowincome residents by strengthening diverse and multicultural social networks.

veggielution.orG

647 S King Rd San Jose, CA 95116 instagram: veggielution

THAnK YOU

P E T I T E P E TA L floral + home

The Wineries of Santa Clara Valley is a nonprofit corporation made up of member wineries who grow and produce wines in the Santa Clara Valley. Long a vibrant growing region for premium wine grapes, the Valley is now home to over two dozen wineries of every size and shape, from longestablished family operations to relatively small newcomers.

At Petite Petal, they understand that flowers speak what words cannot say. Every flower, every vase, every token on offer has been hand-selected. Each item has meaning—whether it’s to share joy and excitement, to express sorrow, or to offer encouragement. The professionals at Petite Petal excel at helping others discover how to express themselves in the language of flowers, and to share those thoughts, feelings, and sentiments with loved ones.

Petite Petal offers fresh daily flowers, botanicals and gifts, weddings, corporate and private events, workshops, and classes.

Now taking custom orders for events and weddings as well.

Wineries: Aver Family Vineyards, Blended, A Winemaker's Studio, Casa de Fruta Winery, Castillo's, Hillside Shire Winery, Clos LaChance Winery, Cooper-Garrod Estate Vineyards, Creekview Vineyards, Fortino Winery, Guglielmo Winery, Hecker Pass Winery, J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, JasonStephens Winery, Kirigin Cellars, La Vie Dansante Wines, Lion Ranch Vineyards and Winery, Martin Ranch Winery, Medeiros Family Wines, Miramar Vineyards, Morgan Hill Cellars, Rapazzini Winery, Ross Vineyards and Winery, Sarah's Vineyard, Satori Cellars, Seeker Vineyard, Solis Winery, Stefania Wine, Sunlit Oaks Winery, Sycamore Creek Vineyards & Wine, TASS Vineyards

santaclarawines.com instagram: santaclarawines

Petitepetalco.com 381 E Campbell Ave Campbell, CA 95008 408.540.429 instagram: petitepetalco

THAnK YOU

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THIS IS SAN JOSE Capturing the uniqueness and diversity of San Jose through your photos!

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