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Dan Mitchell on July 14, 2021
When California cannabis companies prepare to go to market with a new product, they often run their label designs past a lawyer. And if they don’t, they should.
The laws and regulations governing product labels in the state are so numerous and so byzantine that Griffen Thorne, an attorney with the cannabis law firm Harris Bricken, says he’s never seen one that passed muster on the first try.
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Mike Huguenor on July 14, 2021
For the lovesick, forlorn, heartbroken and unrequited, there is no music more powerful than mariachi. And in the Bay, there are few mariachi groups as renowned as the intergenerational Mariachi Nueva Generacion. At Frost Theatre, the local ensemble backs up two incredible vocalists in Graciela Beltran and Lupita Infante. A quickly rising star in ranchera and mariachi, Infante has twice been nominated for Grammys since her debut in 2019. Beltran, meanwhile, needs no introduction, her enormous, sweeping ballads of love and betrayal speaking for themselves—along with her 1995 split album Las Reinas del Pueblo with none other than Selena. Continue reading »
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Mike Huguenor on July 14, 2021
Long a favorite of Bay Area blues fans, the mighty Tia Carroll comes to Poor House Bistro after releasing an album considered to be her proper American debut: You Gotta Have It! Consisting of both originals and original takes on classics, like the Staples Sisters’ “Why Am I Treated So Bad?” You Gotta Have It! finally captures the energy and spirit Carroll has been bringing to her live shows for the last three decades here in the Bay. With her is fellow Little Village artist Sonny Green, an immense soul voice with wry hits like “Cupid Must Be Stupid.”
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Jay Edgar on July 14, 2021
As a prelude to the return of South First Fridays, SoFA art museums the Institute of Contemporary Art, Movimento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, and the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles are throwing a block party to celebrate their reopening with food, musical performances and plenty of art to experience. The museums are also celebrating a new neighbor, as community gardeners Veggielution set up shop on South First, giving the whole event a garden theme. Those looking to get their hands in mother earth or their eyes on some of the community’s visual marvels, shouldn’t miss it. Continue reading »
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Jay Edgar on July 14, 2021
Been itching for some old school Bay Area thrash metal? 40ish years in, the scene pioneered by acts like Exodus, Testament, and yes, Metallica, lives on in bands like Phantom Witch. Razor-sharp riffs layer on top of drummer/bandleader Q Minor’s pounding double-kick bass drums and crashing cymbals, providing the perfect stage for vocalist Zach Fox’s menacing growl. The band manages to keep thrash’s anti-establishment edge in songs like last year’s single “Guillotine.” In keeping with the spirit of 1986, Phantom Witch brings the riffs, speed and brings the danger to the X-Bar. Continue reading »
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Mike Huguenor on July 14, 2021
Don’t call it the fourth wave. Though it truly never went away, in 2021 ska music is back thanks to a long-awaited critical reappraisal and a generation of new artists and listeners. Here in San Jose, Monkey are an absolute legacy of skankable rhythms and melodies, the Asian Man Records alum having spent the better part of three decades melding all of ska’s various waves into a peppy, danceable groove—and harmonizing all the while. At the ever-lovely Caravan, they’re joined by punk cumbia group El Maldito Crudo, and the triumphant cracking of PBR tall boys all night. Continue reading »
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Grace Stetson on July 14, 2021
“Legends never die” rings true for many things in San Jose—In ‘n’ Out animal fries, a Saturday at the Flea Market or a ride on the Grizzly. Yet, the phrase rings most true of all for 1993 cult classic “The Sandlot.” Set in 1962, the rough-around-the-edges family comedy depicts a group of young baseball players on summer break and all that comes with it: from the dugout, to the pool, to encounters with the Beast. Hosted by the Santa Clara P&R Department, it’s a great event for a ragtag crew and sure to be a home run of an evening out. Continue reading »
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Mike Huguenor on July 14, 2021
As an author, Italo Calvino favored what he called ‘thoughtful lightness,’ his writing playing out like the waft of a particularly poetic breeze. Late Wedding, by San Francisco playwright Christopher Chen, takes Calvino as inspiration to tell a mind-bending tale of love, longing and marriage through a variety of “interconnected fables” spanning genres and styles. There’s spies, space operatics, marital anthropologists and more. Oh yeah, and it’s all told in second person. A unique thrill, the first show in the Pear Theatre’s return ends this weekend, with options for indoor, outdoor and online showings. Continue reading »
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Mike Huguenor on July 14, 2021
Held online this year, the 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival presents five bold new voices in stage writing. While this week’s arts feature focuses on Tiger Beat (see page 15 for more), the festivals other entries are just as interesting, like Human Museum by Bay Area stage/game writer Miyoko Conley, in which the robots running a museum of human artifacts get a surprising new take on human life one hundred years after we go extinct, or Sam Hamashima’s Supposed Home, which uses anime as a lens to explore Japanese internment in WWII. Both premiere this week and run again the following. Continue reading »
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Grace Stetson on July 14, 2021
Disgruntled fast food workers unite—“Bon Qui Qui” is back to share her unfiltered thoughts. That’s right, San Jose native and character comedian Anjelah Johnson returns to her hometown for four nights of jam-packed comedy shows where it all began. Though early video “Nail Salon” has not exactly aged well in the changing comedic sensibilities of the last decade-plus, Johnson has been outpacing that work with hit stand-up specials on Netflix and Amazon (including one recorded at the Improv), and major film and TV parts like a stint on NBC’s “Superstore” and featured role in the 2020 film “The Opening Act.” Continue reading »
