ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries painter Vincent van Gogh was renowned for translating his sublime and unruly passions into colors and shapes on canvas. It was a demanding task. He careened between torment and ecstasy. “I put my heart and soul into my work,” he said, “and I have lost my mind in the process.” […]

Conversations prior to the Dec. 5 San Jose City Council meeting—rather than the five hours of public comments—appear to have swung the outcome of an historic decision to fill two vacant council seats by appointment, rather than by a popular vote. Despite passionate pleas from a City Hall audience, the Dec. 5 council action wasn’t […]

The noir atmospherics of Willow and Mastic at nighttime recently conjured the ghosts of Joe DiMaggio and Mercury-News reporter Harry Farrell. La Mejor Taqueria at 102 Willow is a brightly colored place. With fresh coats of green, yellow and red, it stands out in the neighborhood. Just before closing time, though, I am the only […]

Andrew Espino was playing D1 football on a full ride scholarship at Saint Mary’s College of California when an ACL injury cut his scholarship short. The next summer, he was working part time at a real estate office sorting through paperwork when, one day, his boss decided to give him an opportunity and teach him […]

With the holiday season upon us, who could forget that classic Frank Capra film where a downtrodden American everyman contemplates jumping to his death on Christmas Eve, but finds redemption in the people who care about him the most? I’m not talking about It’s a Wonderful Life! I’m talking about the other film Capra made […]

When it first premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, over 100 years ago, the two-act Nutcracker ballet fell flat for Russian attendees. Famously scored by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nutcracker was adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1816 short story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” The whimsical story has been interpreted and performed countless […]

Sponsored content by The Brit Sports Pub & Patio If you’re a local at The Brit Sports Pub & Patio, there’s a chance you may have hoisted a pint or two with the new owners, Mandeep and Jasbir Singh, without even knowing it. Tech engineers, they were regulars who followed their passion and bought the English-themed […]

With the holiday season upon us, who could forget that classic Frank Capra film where a downtrodden American everyman, overwhelmed by the injustices of the world, contemplates jumping to his death on Christmas Eve, but ultimately finds redemption thanks to the intervention of the people who care about him the most? What? No, I’m not […]

Introduction | The Short List | Food & Drink | Arts & Culture | Cannabis | Beauty, Health and Wellness | Family| Recreation | Romance | Everyday|  Editor’s Picks Like many immigrants to Silicon Valley, I’ve long yearned for the authentic food of my motherland, which in my case happens to be what’s euphemistically known on its license plates as The Garden State. Having grown up several blocks from a bagel shop […]

Earlier this year, Stephanie Foo wrote the best San Jose book of 2022, What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma. Born in Malaysia, Foo grew up in East San Jose before landing an ideal journalism career as an NPR producer in New York. Yet even with a successful life in the […]

City Council meetings in San Jose are characteristically mundane, but this week’s special meeting was livelier than usual, pitting lame-duck council members against the current mayor and the mayor-elect, with the council’s political makeup hanging in the balance. At the meeting, the San Jose City Council voted 7-4 to appoint two new members to two-year […]

Introduction | Food & Drink | Arts & Culture | Cannabis | Beauty, Health and Wellness | Family | Recreation | Romance | Everyday|  Editor’s Picks ARTS & CULTURE Best Venue Glow-Up Playback Studios 1813 S 10th St, Unit A, San Jose | 408.766.4604 Though San Jose has long had many options for jazz, international and adult contemporary musicians, its DIY and underground scenes have often had to fend for themselves. […]

Introduction | The Short List | Food & Drink | Arts & Culture | Cannabis | Beauty, Health and Wellness | Family| Recreation | Romance | Everyday|  Editor’s Picks This week San Jose decided not to have an election, as seven members of the city council decided democracy was too slow and expensive. Why not just pick the winners ourselves and be done with it? Metro, which pioneered the original Best of […]

Introduction | The Short List | Food & Drink | Arts & Culture | Cannabis | Beauty, Health and Wellness | Family| Recreation | Romance | Everyday|  Editor’s Picks Best Bagel Shop House of Bagels 505 E San Carlos St, San Jose 408.294.6615 Runner-up Posh Bagel Multiple locations | theposhbagel.com Best Bartender Amanda Cunningham Woodhams Sports Lounge Runner-up Jewels Avila O’Flaherty’s Irish Pub Best BBQ Smoking Pig BBQ 1144 N 4th St, […]

Sponsored content by Airfield Supply Co. Airfield Supply Co. has always prioritized both the best products and the best customer service. Ever since its founding in 2010 as San Jose-based medical marijuana dispensary South Bay Healing Center, “we have always been a community-driven business,” said Marc Matulich, chief executive officer. As the business evolved along […]

Introduction | The Short List | Food & Drink | Arts & Culture | Cannabis | Beauty, Health and Wellness | Family| Recreation | Romance | Everyday|  Editor’s Picks Best Art Gallery San Jose Museum of Art
110 S Market St, San Jose 408.271.6840​ | sjmusart.org Runner-up Triton Museum of Art1505 Warburton Ave, Santa Clara 408.247.2438 | tritonmuseum.org Best Ballet Company San Jose Ballet School
157 N 4th St, San Jose 408.295.5394 | sjballet.com […]

Alyssarhaye Graciano had many expectations for her first curated exhibit at MACLA, but the preview walkthrough still managed to catch her by surprise.  “I didn’t expect to cry,” she says.  Featuring six Latinx artists, Pertenecer: To Belong, opened at MACLA (Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana) last week. The exhibition boasts large textile art, […]

Introduction | The Short List | Food & Drink | Arts & Culture | Cannabis | Beauty, Health and Wellness | Family| Recreation | Romance | Everyday|  Editor’s Picks Best Bike Route/Trail Almaden Quicksilver County Park 21785 Almaden Rd, San Jose 408.535.4070 | parks.sccgov.org Runner-up Coyote Creek Trail Coyote Creek Golf Dr, Morgan Hill sanjose.org/listings/coyote-creek-trail Best Gym FNS Training Center
 2342 Walsh Ave, Santa Clara 408.235.7624 | fns360.com Runner-up South Valley Family […]

Win tickets to Champions Of Magic at the San Jose Civic showing on December 27-29. Drawing December 19, 2022.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Journalist Hadley Freeman interviewed Aries actor William Shatner when he was 90. She was surprised to find that the man who played Star Trek’s Captain Kirk looked 30 years younger than his actual age. “How do you account for your robustness?” she asked him. “I ride a lot of horses, and […]

Set to welcome back patrons on December 2, downtown San Jose’s The Loft Bar and Bistro is apprehensively excited to open its doors once more. After facing a harrowing closure due to city mandates and an unprecedented pandemic, the American bistro says it’s confident now is an opportune time to reopen, yet like many of […]

Across the street from a swanky new West San Carlos Street apartment complex sits an old brick building bedecked with the “Sam’s DOWNTOWN FEED & PET SUPPLY” sign in a vintage western font. The vestige of the valley’s agricultural legacy, shrouded by a shrinking business district that includes a dry cleaner, taquerias, secondhand clothing stores, […]

A suburban wasteland symphony of commerce, Campbell Plaza offers a poetic experience for all. I begin with a masterpiece: Luigi’s Pizza & Pasta. We’re talking old school, 37 years running, and some of the customers look like they’ve been here for all 37. No one is dressed up. And rightly so. “Cash is cheaper,” the […]

Kristin Hersh has some simple advice for aspiring musicians in the 2020s.  “Don’t suck.” Echoed in the title of her 2015 memoir, Don’t Suck, Don’t Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt, the forthright command reflects Hersh’s fierce independence. Her advice is what it is, she explains, “because this industry discourages music itself, while encouraging narcissism, exhibitionism […]

Pacific redwoods stretch through a dense gray fog seemingly without end. Seascapes form from waves of gray. Mournful tones sound as words appear over the crushing sea: “Get them out.” In this disconsolate meditation on incarceration, it seems the land and sea themselves cry out against confinement. Multimedia and film artist Sky Hopinka’s visually striking […]

When inspiration struck, Rick Stanton was driving the backstreets of South San Jose counting every piece of graffiti he could find. “It was just weird,” he says. “I literally pulled the car over, turned off the engine, got out a piece of paper and pencil and started writing. I wrote the whole thing in like […]

In Northern California’s most populous county, shopping experiences abound. The entire spectrum of the retail experience can be found here. In addition to Northern California’s larger indoor shopping emporium—the Great Mall in Milpitas—other monuments to consumerism blanket the county: outdoor shopping experiences like Santana Row, and quaint shops in downtown Campbell, Los Gatos and Sunnyvale, […]

Buried deep in the southern tip of Mississippi lies the city of Hattiesburg. With a current population of around 50,000, it’s a city often overlooked by the rest of America. MSPAINT wouldn’t have it any other way. “Trends in music don’t really reach us the same way they do in other places with bigger bands […]

As historian Jacques Barzun once wrote, “Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.” The underpaid and overworked paraeducators in Santa Clara County might concur. These members of the SEIU 521 union filed an OSHA complaint against the Santa Clara County Office of Education alleging chronic understaffing. And […]

The ghost of late restaurant critic Joe Izzo walked me from House of Pizza to Sam’s Log Cabin, making Almaden Road a much better place. The history of House of Pizza should be required reading for every politician in this whole town, now and forever. The story should be issued to every City Hall employee, […]

Silicon Valley is home to Y Combinator, the world’s first startup accelerator, and many of its success stories—DoorDash, Dropbox, Quora—are based in the Bay Area. But the soul of Santa Clara County’s entrepreneurial spirit is far from the high-tech world. It’s in flea markets, street fairs and micro-festivals—a local community of makers and shakers. With […]

Win tickets to The Original San Jose Nutcracker at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Drawing December 5, 2022.

After spending time with family on Thanksgiving and shopping for Black Friday deals, R&B fans can catch singer Adrian Marcel kick off the weekend at the Liquid Lounge. The Oakland-based R&B star put out his debut mixtape 7 Days of Weak back in 2013. Produced by Raphael Saadiq, the 15-song project made a name for […]

EDM returns to the San Jose Civic with all the lasers, bass and dancing. Gareth Emery, a British EDM artist who’s performed in front of millions across the world, is traversing across North America on his LSR/CITY 2.0 electric excursion. This follows his last run of shows, LSR/CITY, which brought bright bursts of light beams, […]

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Virginia Woolf wrote a passage that I suspect will apply to you in the coming weeks. Woolf said, “There is no denying the wild horse in us. To gallop intemperately; fall on the sand tired out; to feel the earth spin; to have—positively—a rush of friendship for stones and grasses—there is […]

Demone Carter looks into his laptop’s built-in webcam as the conference call begins. It’s difficult to tell where his white shirt ends as it blends into the wall behind him. The feed of David Ma, Carter’s co-host, causes the contrast of his black and gray tattoos against his light skin to appear starker than in […]

A recent political mailer by the California Association of Realtors supporting Matt Mahan quoted a 2013 San Jose Inside article in which Cindy Chavez “was called before the grand jury three times and answered ‘I don’t know,’ ‘I don’t recall’ or ‘I don’t remember’ more than 75 times in response to questions about what she […]

The post Did Cindy Chavez Tell a Grand Jury She Doesn’t Know 75 Times? appeared first on Metro Silicon Valley | Silicon Valley’s Leading Weekly.

On the Nov. 8 ballot in neighboring San Benito County is Measure Q. If approved by a majority of voters, it would amend the county’s General Plan to require voter approval every time an agricultural, rangeland or rural property owner wants to rezone their land—for example, for residential, commercial, industrial or landfill designations.  It would […]

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From the moment Charlene Alcanices picked up her first controller, the Bay Area DJ and plant shop owner knew the world of DJing was where she belonged. In November, around this time last year, Alcanices—formally known in the Bay Area club scene as Charl3y Beats—established the Bay Area chapter of the Ladies1st DJ Club. The […]

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If you know which sandal best represents which Bay Area city, where exactly to find eats from the Almaden hills to Berryessa or if a girl is from Evergreen or Saratoga based solely on her lashes, you might be a San José Foo.  Now a local sensation, San José Foos started like a slow burn […]

The post San José Foos Become a Much Needed Voice for San Jose Culture appeared first on Metro Silicon Valley | Silicon Valley’s Leading Weekly.

Sand Hill Kitchen is the restaurant equivalent of Soma, the wonder drug in Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World. The instant you arrive on Sand Hill’s sedate, sequestered campus a peaceful feeling encircles your body and soul.  Stanford University is minutes down the road but all the hustle and bustle doesn’t intrude upon “The Sand […]

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Two perfect Halloween parties over the weekend demonstrated the ancient alchemist maxim, “As above, so below.” Local Color hosted its third annual 31 Skulls silent auction, transforming its basement offices into a goth dungeon underneath the Valley Title building at First and San Carlos, while the heroes at Mexican Heritage Plaza filled their entire property […]

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Of all the rich philanthropists in the world, Aries author MacKenzie Scott is the most generous. During a recent 12-month period, she gave away $8.5 billion. Her focus is on crucial issues: racial equality, LGBTQ+ rights, pandemic relief, upholding and promoting democracy, and addressing the climate emergency. She disburses her donations […]

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There’s something spooky afoot this Halloween season, drawing from a haunting story now over 50 years ago. Beginning last Friday, San Jose’s Tabard Theatre Company launched its 2022-23 season with a fall production of Wait Until Dark, based on the 1966 play penned by Frederick Knott. The story—adapted into a popular 1967 film starring Audrey […]

The post Tabard Theatre Company Puts on Thriller ‘Wait Until Dark’ appeared first on Metro Silicon Valley | Silicon Valley’s Leading Weekly.

The outcome of the current San Jose City Council races will have a lasting impact on three of the most populous districts in the city. Residents in Districts 3, 5, and 7 will elect new representatives on Nov. 8. District 3 encompasses the downtown San Jose area. San Jose City Councilmember Raul Peralez is terming […]

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“I feel like lately every concert is very emotional… como a flor de piel,” says Venezuelan songstress Nella Rojas.  Revered for her harmonic voice, heartfelt lyrics and inimitable stage presence, the Andalusian-influenced singer is currently touring the US following the release of her critically acclaimed LP, Doce Margaritas. In recent years, the powerhouse singer-songwriter has […]

The post Latin Grammy Winner Nella Comes to Montalvo Arts Center appeared first on Metro Silicon Valley | Silicon Valley’s Leading Weekly.

On a crisp and unusually quiet Saturday morning, I arrive at the Martin Luther King Jr. Branch of the San Jose Public Library. I’m there to meet Elena E. Robles, dance anthropologist and expert on Día de los Muertos with over 50 years of investigatory experience.  Robles, a vivid and learned storyteller, has offered to […]

The post San Jose Multicultural Artists Guild Celebrates 25th Dia de Los Muertos appeared first on Metro Silicon Valley | Silicon Valley’s Leading Weekly.

Any real urban place needs a public garden where poets can eat pizza and drink lemongrass-flavored water. The quarter-acre splotch of land at 372 E. San Salvador, between Eighth and Ninth streets, is just such a place. The SJSU Campus Community Garden is a quintessential hidden microcosm crammed between old buildings in a blasé section […]

The post San Jose Poets Unite for Outdoor Literary Event at SJSU Garden appeared first on Metro Silicon Valley | Silicon Valley’s Leading Weekly.

Win a $50 gift card to Henry's World Famous Hi-Life in San Jose. Drawing November 30, 2022.

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Win a $50 gift card to The Farmers Union in downtown San Jose. Drawing December 14, 2022.

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