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Jay Edgar on September 15, 2021
By marrying a variety of Latin American rhythms—including Mexican and Colombian cumbia, bossa nova, bolero and tango—with rock, soul and R&B, La Santa Cecilia have created a sound that’s truly pan-American. The LA-based sextet initially reached a larger audience in 2013 with their anti-migra protest hit “Ice el Hielo.” Then, in 2017, they won the Grammy for best Latin Rock Album the same year they appeared on the soundtrack for the Pixar movie Coco. Highlight performers are the fast-picking guitarist Gloria Estrada and immensely talented lead singer Marisol “El Marisoul” Hernandez. Continue reading »
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Grace Stetson on September 15, 2021
From bread baking to gardening, all kinds of skills were perfected over the pandemic. Award-winning pianist Clarie Huangci, however, has been honing her craft since she was just nine years old. The youngest participant to ever receive Second Prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Huangci has won first prizes for her performances all around the globe. After years of performance with international orchestras in Europe, Asia and North America, she hosts an intimate and virtual showcase of Bach, Beethoven and Schubert over four evenings, in partnership with the Bay Area’s Steinway Society. Continue reading »
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Grace Stetson on September 15, 2021
There’s no better way to kick off the weekend than with a hearty laugh, and at the 45th annual SF Stand-Up Comedy Competition Semi-Finals this Thursday there will be plenty of opportunity to chortle, guffaw and chuckle. The event features five of the top performers from the group of comedians competing this year, each performing 8-12 minute sets and aiming for a shot at the grand prize. Previous competitors have included Dana Carvey, Robin Williams and Patton Oswalt—who’s to say who the Bay’s newest break-out comedian could be? Continue reading »
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Mike Huguenor on September 15, 2021
When the pandemic hit, the Bay Area’s KO Comedy responded swiftly by launching a kinetic and fun weekly show over Zoom. There, over the last year and a half, countless comedians from the Bay and beyond have dropped full sets from their own homes. Now able to take the show on stage again, KO brings four hilarious acts to the Improv in Kabir Singh, Marcella Arguello, Rene Vaca, and KO founder Sammy Obeid. “I’m Sammy, I’m a mix,” the Lebanese-American Obeid says in his appearance on Conan. “Yeah, my dad is a man, and my mom is a woman, so I’m half-man, half-woman.” Continue reading »
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Grace Stetson on September 8, 2021
It’s hard to find humor in the sadness of the past year. Yet, for at least one long-revered comedian, an entire career has led to greater understanding and hope for what the future of funny holds. Continue reading »
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Mike Huguenor on September 8, 2021
When the house lights went down on San Jose’s Center for the Performing Arts on May 17, 1984, showgoers experienced “a tempestuous noise.” Thunder clapped. Lightning struck. And out on a raging sea, a lone ship made its way out towards a magical island. Continue reading »
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Mighty Mike McGee on September 8, 2021
The best spoken word poet in the South Bay just started her senior year of high school.
Anouk Yeh is a 17-year-old horseback rider, volleyball player and empath. This year, she became the first ever Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate, a new program developed and organized by Janice Lobo Sapigao, our sixth and current adult Poet Laureate. Continue reading »
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Katie Lauer on September 8, 2021
In between sweeping scenes above the rooftops of Jerusalem—beyond the golden Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall’s limestone ashlars—cameras capture images of men, women and children living amongst barbed wire, assault weapons, protest signs and megaphones, documenting Palestinians and Israelis’ struggle to call the land home. Continue reading »
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Kyle Martin on September 8, 2021
San Jose legends Suenatron headline this year’s Chile, Mole, Pozole festival at the Mexican Heritage Plaza on the East Side. The band’s brothers, Mexia and Giovanni Hernández, have both inherited talent and musical influence from their father, the famous Hernán Hernández of Los Tigres del Norte. In Suenatron, they take hints of Santana, the East Bay’s mighty Tower of Power, War and more, and mix them all in a distinctly San Josean cumbia stew. SJ natives Matt Gonzales and Eduardo Montelongo keep the party going with cumbia, norteño, rap and more. Continue reading »
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Grace Stetson on September 8, 2021
San Francisco-based comedian Scott Capurro may be best known for his role in the Robin Williams’ classic “Mrs. Doubtfire,” but there’s so much more this provocative comedian has accomplished in the last 28 years. Capurro is bringing his queer comedic charms and shocks to a pseudo-new hour at Redwood City’s Freewheel Brewing this Saturday, with takes on everything from COVID-19 to life across the Atlantic in Edinburgh to being gay in 2021. As he told The Evening Standard back in 2000, his comedy isn’t for the light of heart—“My work is for a discerning audience who don’t have knee-jerk responses.” Continue reading »
