Sal Pizarro

San Jose

Around Town columnist @mercnews, curating the cool bits of #SanJose, #SiliconValley. @UCSB alum. #cocktails, #JamesBond and #comics.

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Articles

New San Jose hotel expands what it means to be downtown

1 week ago | mercurynews.com | Sal Pizarro

There were cheers from many corners Monday at the ribbon cutting for the Townplace Suites by Marriott, a 176-room extended stay hotel that’s definitely a standout building on West San Carlos Street. With the recent construction slowdown, you can bet Urban Catalyst CEO Erik Hayden — whose career has involved a lot of buildings in the West San Carlos corridor — was happy to see the completion of the second of eight projects the company has in the pipeline.
Cirque du Soleil lands back in San Jose with 'Echo'

1 week ago | mercurynews.com | Sal Pizarro

The blue-and-white tents of Cirque du Soleil have returned to San Jose, bringing the new touring show, “Echo,” to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds for the next month. It’s a very Silicon Valley-coded show, with a message about how people interact with nature, layered with a sheen of technology — a 23-foot cube covered in dazzling projection-mapped images acts as a third lead of the show — and punctuated with the jaw-dropping aerial work, acrobatic stunts and humor that are Cirque’s trademarks.
San Jose Giants promise renovation won't destroy ballpark's charm

2 weeks ago | mercurynews.com | Sal Pizarro

When I heard about the San Jose Giants’ plan to invest $20 million in improvements in Excite Ballpark, I silently prayed the resulting operation on the 83-year-old stadium wouldn’t turn out to be a “charmectomy.”That’s a term I learned from a real estate buddy, David Lindsay, to describe a homeowners misguided attempt to improve and modernize an older home — usually to sell it — that winds up removing all the quirky details and imperfections that made it charming to begin with.
San Jose Giants promise renovation won't destroy ballpark's charm

2 weeks ago | dailydemocrat.com | Sal Pizarro

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Viva Calle San Jose marks 10 years of open streets this weekend

2 weeks ago | mercurynews.com | Sal Pizarro

Viva Calle is San Jose’s open streets program, which actually means about six miles of roadway are closed to motor vehicles but “open” to everyone else. From the start, the program’s goals have been to get more people out and exercising by encouraging more human-powered transport while also doing some community building.
Let's hear it for Kevin Hauge's 30-year run at CMT San Jose

2 weeks ago | mercurynews.com | Sal Pizarro

When Children’s Musical Theater San Jose opens “Waitress” on April 11, it will be a momentous occasion, the start of the finish for Kevin Hauge, who is retiring this summer after 30 years as the youth theater company’s artistic director. “For a lot of people, CMT and Kevin Hauge are synonymous,” said CMT San Jose Managing Director Dana Zell.
San Jose couple's secret to 75 years of marriage: 'Tenacity'

3 weeks ago | mercurynews.com | Sal Pizarro

It takes a lot of things going right for a couple to reach 75 years of marriage. But for Nancy and Jerry Kettmann, who celebrated the rare milestone March 24, it was more than luck. “I think our secret was when we got married we had goals, and we have always looked to the future,” Nancy Kettmann said. “But you have to have tenacity. We were always there for each other, but we had some rocky times, too. “You learn to see the best in the other person.
Artists innovate ways to tell stories of Santa Clara County women

3 weeks ago | mercurynews.com | Sal Pizarro

When the Womanhood Project launched its first effort in 2022, it created a model for creatively honoring and sharing the stories of women in Santa Clara County. The newest part of that effort, “A Journey Through Womanhood,” features 20 augmented reality artworks created by women that honor other women. The work will be featured on markers that eventually will be rolled out at locations around Santa Clara County, with the augmented reality elements viewable through a smartphone-based app.
San Jose's Notre Dame High School sets the table for notable women

4 weeks ago | mercurynews.com | Sal Pizarro

For the past 30 years, every ninth-grader at Notre Dame High School in San Jose has gone through the same rite of passage: Creating a table place-setting to honor a notable woman from the past or present. The Woman’s Place Project was inspired by Judy Chicago’s famous 1979 art installation, “The Dinner Party,” a triangular table with place-settings representing 39 real and mythical or symbolic women from history.
ICA San Jose celebrates new solo exhibition, 'Blood Be Water'

1 month ago | mercurynews.com | Sal Pizarro

There’s a maelstrom of cultural influences in the work of Oakland-based artist Esteban Raheem Abdul Raheem Samayoa — from his Mexican-Guatemalan heritage and the disconnection he feels with some family members to his recent conversion to Islam and his “found family” in the Bay Area’s creative community.