It’s hard to blame Rory Koff for feeling a little boastful. What musician wouldn’t brim with pride upon receiving a platinum record? “I gotta brag a little,” he texts me, not long after we finish speaking on the phone. “Look what I just got.”

Attached to the message is a photo. In it, Koff stands in his living room holding his framed metallic disc. In the bottom left of the frame is another photograph: one of Koff from 20 years earlier along with his band, No Use For a Name. As of 2017, No Use For a Name has sold more than a million records—an incredible threshold for any artist, let alone a band from San Jose.

The scrappy group started in San Jose in 1988, when Koff was just a sophomore in high school. It didn’t take long for the four-piece to hit upon a then-novel sound—mixing classic rock and ’60s AM radio melodies with punchy, precise metal riffs, and refracting it all through the prism of punk. In just a few years they were signed to San Francisco label Fat Wreck Chords. Soon after that, they were known worldwide.

Palo Alto’s all-female band The Donnas began when its members were in high school in the ’90s. They went on to land a contract with Atlantic and move to Southern California. Even as music distribution has moved to Silicon Valley with the advent of iTunes, Pandora and Google Play, the lack of a feeder system and support infrastructure often mandates a trip down Interstate 5 to make it on to the Bay Area’s digital music streaming servers.

While a number of South Bay-spawned acts—like Antwon and Giraffage—have relocated to Los Angeles in recent years, with the aim of building a following and making vital industry connections, Koff credits the start of his band’s career to a show at San Jose’s now-defunct all-ages venue the Cactus Club.

“We were so excited,” he says, recalling the anticipation preceding the show. That night he and his bandmates were opening for Southern California punk group Agent Orange. At the time, Agent Orange were both influential and squarely in their prime. Knowing that this was their shot at making inroads with an active and relevant band of their genre, Koff had a bit of the pre-show jitters. Fortunately for him and the band, they made an impression:

“In just a year, or a year and a half, we recorded a demo and put out an album. Then [Agent Orange] invited us on tour. It steamrolled pretty quickly from there.”

It was that one show at the Cactus, a 16-and-up club that occupied the space now filled by Club Miami in San Jose’s SoFA District, that kick-started No Use For a Name’s platinum-selling career.

Opened in 1988, the Cactus Club was San Jose’s connection to the national music scene. Nirvana played there (check out the bootleg). Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Weezer and No Doubt all rocked the midsize venue when they were still up-and-comers.

In recent years, any number of San Jose bands could have been the next No Use For a Name, were it not for one thing: the Cactus Club shut down in 2002. And in the 15 years since, San Jose, the self-styled “Capital of Silicon Valley,” hasn’t had a single consistent venue available to its young musicians. That’s a problem for everyone.

The absence of an all ages rock, pop and hip-hop venue—like the former Cactus Club—hurts Silicon Valley’s music scene. Photo by Greg Ramar

SHOTS & LADDERS
The Ritz—San Jose’s premier full-time club venue for national rock, pop and hip-hop acts—sits just across the street from where the Cactus used to be. While the establishment has found success bringing exciting and relevant live acts to San Jose in recent years, there’s a catch. Unlike the former Cactus Club, The Ritz allows only patrons 21 years of age or older. The same goes for BackBar SoFa, which occupies the space directly behind the former Cactus.

The fact of the matter is that for venues, the money is in alcohol sales. The dependency has become more acute as the live music industry competes with new forms of digital entertainment and bands must rely on performance revenues rather than the sale of recorded media. For operators, it’s not even about making a killing at the bar: alcohol sales are often the only thing keeping the lights on. That means that any venue owner with an eye on his or her bottom line needs to sell booze. As a result, shows with cheap tickets catering to an underage crowd are rarely a good idea from a business perspective—something Dan Vado learned the hard way.

“When kids were coming to see their friends play, they weren’t buying comics,” says Vado, owner of SLG Art Boutiki—a comic book shop, cafe and live music venue located on Race Street. For the past three years, Art Boutiki has been hosting shows and events in its 150-capacity room.

When a live music establishment sells alcohol—especially spirits—it makes it significantly harder for that business to allow minors through the doors. Vado has beer and wine at Art Boutiki, but crucially he also sells pizza, snacks and comics. By offering food along with lower-ABV drinks, Vado can allow younger patrons in while giving adults a place where they can enjoy a few grown-up beverages. From a business perspective, though, he’s decided to largely steer clear of shows for the underage crowd.

“A dollar for a bottle of water was even too much for some of these people to pay,” Vado says referring to teens. “It was very difficult to justify using the time.”

The Cactus Club’s demise can be attributed in part to its failure to sell enough pizza. It was licensed to open as a pizza restaurant and its failure to comply with use permit technicalities proved a convenient way to force it out of business amidst the city’s police crackdown on clubs and the SoFA District’s gentrification.

For its entire 14-year existence, the Cactus Club had operated under a Type 47 liquor license—essentially a full-service restaurant license. This meant that the club could sell alcohol (including spirits) even with minors in the building, provided that a majority of its sales came from food. When the hammer fell on the club, food sales dipping below the 51 percent threshold were one of the nails in its coffin.

Cafe Stritch has a full bar, but it also has a full kitchen. That means it can allow anyone inside, so long as servers are diligent about carding. But Stritch focuses almost exclusively on jazz. Every once in a blue moon the venue will host a rock or hip-hop show, but even calling those rare is an overstatement.

For his part, owner Corey O’Brien doesn’t want to serve food at The Ritz, and therefore won’t be going all ages. That’s never been his thing, neither here, nor at his previous venue, the Blank Club (now LVL 44 on South Almaden near the former Greyhound station), which served up punk rock, cheap beer, stiff drinks and little else.

“We have a 48 license, so it’s 21-and-over all the time. There’s no way around it,” O’Brien says. A Type 48 license (“on sale general public premises”) is a bar license and specifically designates the club as 21 and over. There are no exceptions.

Even though he isn’t able to offer up his club for the cause, O’Brien still cares about the city’s dearth of spaces for young musicians and their fans. “We need all-ages venues here,” he says. “It’s part of the whole ladder system.”

What O’Brien calls the “ladder system” is the heart of the issue. All-ages spaces don’t just help specific musicians like Koff and No Use For a Name. They establish a network between venues, musicians and residents, putting them all on the same ladder. Dedicated musicians and their fans are a lot like smokers: most start young.

With a functioning ladder system, budding musicians can start out playing smaller rooms—all-ages spaces that tend to be easier to book than a big club. Underage fans can attend and an underage band can stay and schmooze instead of having to leave immediately after their performance, as they would in an 21-plus venue. From there they climb the ladder, with the goal of one day reaching one of the higher rungs. There they can connect with national touring acts, which in turn can connect them to the world stage.

This system isn’t just about the musicians and the fans. It’s also about training an entire generation to appreciate live music, which keeps clubs in business and gives bands a reason to make a city with a strong scene a destination on tour.

This is the system in place in just about every major city around the world. But in San Jose, it’s been cut out at the root.

Dan Vado states the problem clearly:

“It always felt like younger people weren’t going to shows because for the most part they can’t.” Simply put, there’s nowhere for them to go.

Even though Art Boutiki holds occasional shows for local bands, the venue only hosts around 10 concerts each month. It also has no connections to national booking agencies, which means that local shows are always just that: local. Besides, most shows are booked with the 30-and-over set in mind. Art Boutiki neither is, nor wants to be, the kind of place that the area’s youth need.

And though things have been going well for The Ritz, O’Brien knows its continued existence hinges on people in the South Bay both seeing and playing live music. Alcohol sales may pay the bills, but if there’s no permanent culture of live music there will be no one to buy that alcohol at clubs like The Ritz down the road.

“We need different size clubs,” says O’Brien. “We need all-ages clubs, we need 21-and-over, and we just don’t have it all here. That’s why the scene lacks here.”

NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND
Of course, just because there are no dedicated, above-the-board venues for young local bands doesn’t mean young local bands aren’t playing shows. They’re just being held in the types of places minors have always congregated—basements, practice spaces and (in one case) the back of a porn shop.

“Most of the shows I would go to when I was younger were at peoples’ houses,” remembers Erfan Moradi.

Moradi heads local cassette tape label Fourth Row Records, and first attended a show in San Jose at the age of 14. With nowhere else to book, the show was held at a friend’s grandmother’s house.

“There’s no formal all-ages spaces that I can think of,” Moradi says of San Jose. “We just completely lack spaces where we can put on shows safely without the worry of them getting shut down.”

Now 20 and attending UC Berkeley, Moradi says local shows aren’t just about seeing bands—they’re about community, and acceptance, and are critical for personal development.

“Having DIY spaces was really formative for me,” Moradi says. “It allowed me to find folks that were like-minded and eager to build a space that was accessible, comfortable, inclusive, accepting. All stuff that a 14-, 16-year-old who is having a hard time needs.”

“That statement is very accurate,” says Matthew Martinez.

Matthew is 17 and plays in Sunday Drive, an exciting and talented young group from San Jose. He and his bandmates are part of a generation that has never had an accessible place to play in their city, or the greater South Bay. But that hasn’t stopped them from playing anyway.

“To me, live performances are everything,” Martinez writes in an email. “Finding places to host shows can be very difficult, but as a band we’ve always had the DIY mindset. If there aren’t venues available, make one.”

For 15 years now, this is exactly what San Jose’s youth have been doing: making their own venues out of houses, DIY spots and warehouse space. Places like Trash House, House of the Dead Rat, Kitty Castle, Casa Chikimalas, Texas Toast House, Gingerbread House, Playback Studios, The Dojo, The Cuddle Space, and Arrows to Eden—the back-of-a-porn-shop venue mentioned above.

In lieu of real venues, places like these have often become the only option available for musicians in the area. But houses and DIY spots are like a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. None of these makeshift venues can openly advertise their shows or their locations. This makes them all but inaccessible to anyone not already in the know, cutting off potential fans before they even have a chance.

Spots like these are also, by necessity, transitory. People move, get priced out, and, increasingly after last year’s Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, get shut down by the police. In fact, as of the time of writing, seven of the 10 DIY venues listed with this story no longer exist. At the outset of 2018, the pool of spaces available for young musicians in San Jose is smaller than ever.

All ages shows live on in the South Bay, they’ve just been pushed underground—sometimes literally, as was the case with basement concerts at The House of the Dead Rat. Photo by Murray Bowles

PUNK GOES PUBLIC
Halfway through its second decade without a real all-ages venue, the city and surrounding region has lost a lot of momentum and will need to play catch-up if it ever hopes to build a truly self-sustaining music scene, according to Tommy Aguilar.

“We’re losing generations,” says Aguilar, a cultural producer and artist in San Jose. “How do you foster a very deep, culturally vibrant city? You gotta get the young.”

For almost a decade Aguilar worked at MACLA—Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana—a Latino-oriented arts nonprofit headquartered in the SoFA District. While there, he booked all-ages shows featuring young punk, metal and hip-hop groups.

“I never really turned anyone away,” he says, emphasizing the important role all-ages venues play for both young artists and their fans. Playing on a real stage with a real sound system in a dedicated venue gives budding musicians a chance to learn the ropes while showing their following the value of live performance. “I’m all for the romantic idea of the garage party, the house party. But you need to be on a stage, plugged in with a sound engineer. You need to learn the ways.”

These days Aguilar works solidly in the 21-and-over space with DJ collective Sonido Clash and event promoter Universal Grammar. Still, he believes something needs to be done to foster an all-ages scene—and he says nonprofits, like MACLA, will have to play a role.

A little over a decade ago, local record label owner and musician Mike Park went the nonprofit route. In fact, he went 1,200 miles down that route.

During the summer of 2005, the Asian Man Records founder and a number of musicians (including current Blink-182 guitarist Matt Skiba), bicycled the entire West Coast—from Seattle to San Diego—all to raise money for a nonprofit all-ages space in San Jose. It took a full month for the musicians to travel the distance. By the end, they had raised $80,000. Notably, none of the major tech companies in the area donated to the cause.

After completing the ride, Park and his nonprofit began looking at what they could do in San Jose with the money.

“There wasn’t much,” he says. “Even if we got a space, after paying deposits, insurance, getting the zoning, we would’ve lasted three months and all that would have been gone.”

In order to make that $80,000 work for the area’s youth, Park’s dream venue needed city involvement, which was sorely lacking, he says. Park describes his experience dealing with San Jose officials as “a lot of unanswered emails and a lot of apathy.”

Unfortunately, that apathy still seems to be the norm. When reached for comment on the historic lack of these spaces, the city’s cultural affairs director, Kerry Adams-Hapner, declined to speak on the issue, sidestepping it entirely by bluntly stating that it was not in the “purview of the office” of cultural affairs.

For his part, Aguilar would also like to see more action from City Hall. “The city has to step up,” he says. “We don’t have anybody championing music on that city level.”

That may be changing, however. Silicon Valley Creates has proposed a Japantown space for artists, a “model for supporting arts and creativity in the 21st century.” Crucially, though, current plans do not include any kind of venue space. Instead, the plan seems to double down on the city’s ill-considered decision to view artists of all stripes as “creative entrepreneurs,” rather than address the specific needs of the city’s young musicians (in this case, a place to play).

Despite the cultural affairs department’s boilerplate non-answer on the subject of all-ages spaces, San Jose clearly has a related problem on its hands: blight. In November, the City Council voted to create a pilot program to address the issue of the countless blighted buildings downtown. The program creates a registry of empty storefronts and levies fines against property owners who let them sit unnecessarily empty, in the hopes that it will push them to start renting.

While ostensibly unrelated to the city’s lack of all-ages venues, this initiative might just create some meaningful action. If this program leads to the creation of even one semi-permanent all-ages venue downtown, it could finally break the curse that has held the city for the last 15 years.

In the meantime, see you at the house show. DM a punk for the address.    

Halloween is the holiday when we become obsessed with the things that scare us. We watch more scary movies. We purchase scary costumes. We visit haunted houses. We put Donald Trump on the national ticket. Basically, we buy all the way in. But what truly frightens us isn’t a foul-mouthed Leprechaun, an anemic girl with a grudge or yet another Mike Myers movie—although a new Austin Powers or Shrek would be terrifying! It’s the mysterious places that never go out of season. Old hotels, shady restaurants and even a few hiking trails top the list of South Bay’s most notorious haunts. We tracked down the stories behind the region’s biggest urban legends. Most of these spots are open to the public, but enter at your own risk.

Agnews
Santa Clara
The Great Earthquake of 1906, and the ensuing fires, decimated San Francisco. But the temblor also rocked the South Bay. The old Agnews State Hospital—originally knowns as “The Great Asylum for the Insane”—collapsed in the quake and more than 100 patients died in the catastrophe. Today, the rebuilt treatment building sits at the center of the historic Sun Microsystems-Agnews complex in Santa Clara. It is recognized by the National Park Service for its architecture and history of pioneering modern mental health practices. Others recognize it as a hotbed for paranormal activity. Also, Green Day recorded their “Basket Case” video here.

China Hole
Morgan Hill
One of the better and more demanding hiking trails in the South Bay, China Hole is a beautiful trail with a dark past. Many of its hikers try and stay as far away as possible from the creek. The story goes that a woman’s ex-lover drowned her here in the 1800s. Her angry spirit reportedly still haunts the creek, taking cheating men who visit the creek along with her.

Claudia’s Garden at Gilroy Gardens
Gilroy
Gilroy Gardens is a fun spot for families, with its beautiful gardens, Ferris wheel and restaurants that sell the town’s eponymous garlic fries. (Take a hike, McDonald’s.) But late at night, the amusement park can be scarier than one might think. Late-night crews have reported seeing the small carousel in Claudia’s Garden turn on and off by itself, and in a more recent report loud drumming was heard coming from one of the stages after the park was closed.

Coyote Creek Trail
Morgan Hill
Coyote Creek is a widely known hiking trail. It’s beautiful but deadly. In 1909, a woman and her child fell victim to what many believed was a mountain lion. Years later, hikers of the trail have felt an uncomfortable presence, almost as if the ghosts of the deceased were trying to tell them something.

Del Mar High School
San Jose
Before the school opened, a boy was reportedly murdered by his best friend on the grounds where the athletics field stands today. Legend has it that every night at 3:15am, screams can be heard coming from the field and sometimes a figure can be seen running up and down the bleachers.

Drawbridge
Fremont
While many South Bay suburbs can feel desolate after dark, there is only one true ghost town in the region. Founded in 1876 as an outpost along the South Pacific Coast Railroad, the town’s original inhabitants manned the two drawbridges at either end of Station Island. Over the ensuing century the railway stop—located between Alviso and Fremont—drew many settlers, but the soggy marshland underneath the once-bustling town has swallowed up the 90 buildings that once stood there. Visitors are not allowed to see Drawbridge these days, though adventure seekers often trespass. The best way to get a legal view is from the Altamont Commuter Express, the Capitol Corridor and the Coast Starlight trains that pass nearby.

Grandview Restaurant
San Jose
Overlooking the South Bay, high up in the foothills along Mt. Hamilton Road, the Grandview Restaurant treats patrons to good food, tasty libations, live music and an epic vista of Silicon Valley. It’s also rumored that one guest returns more frequently than any other—the ghost of a young girl, gazing out at the hazy yellow glow of San Jose. People have tried to approach her in the past, but she vanishes before they can get close enough to grab her. Also, lights have been known to flicker erratically and turn on all by themselves.

Great America
Santa Clara
No, we’re not talking about the amusement park’s annual Halloween Haunt, in which costumed staffers chase and ambush paid visitors. The ghosts who haunt Great America in Santa Clara trace back to the tragic deaths of people killed on the rides and the man who froze to death in the Roast Beef Shop’s walk-in freezer. A man’s ghost has reportedly flickered into view on security cameras by the Big Arcade and Drop Zone. Throughout the park, visitors have also reported inexplicable cold spots, taps on the shoulder and whispers of disembodied voices.

Hicks Road
San Jose
This dark myth is a golden oldie. The eerie Hicks Road in San Jose passes through a wild area of the county, thus making it a prime backdrop for a pervasive urban legend. It is said that albinos, or sometimes witches or recluses, angrily chase trespassers who wander (or deliberately joyride) through their territory.

Joaquin Murrieta
Fremont
Depending on your point of view, Joaquin Murrieta was either a heroic Robin Hood-like figure or a ruthless bandit. Though facts are hard to come by, Murietta was a Mexican national drawn to Northern California during the Gold Rush. Legend has it that he was driven from his lucrative claim by white men who raped his wife. After that, he became an outlaw, specializing in doling out vigilante justice. The Legend of Zorro may have been influenced by the tales surrounding Murrieta’s life and maybe—just maybe—his cabeza remains buried in a glass jar somewhere in the foothills between San Jose and Fremont. Happy head-hunting!

Lexington and Alma
Los Gatos
Once important rail stops for loggers in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the towns of Lexington and Alma boasted stage stops, saloons, hotels and general stores. The remains of the once-bustling way station have long since been submerged beneath a murky reservoir. The underwater ghost towns just off of Highway 17 by Los Gatos were largely abandoned and demolished to make way for the James J. Lenihan dam built in 1950. When the water level falls low enough, remnants can be seen of roads and occasionally the specters of long-dead denizens.

Marsh Road
San Jose
It’s become almost a rite of passage for Milpitas high school kids to seek out the ghost of murder victim Marcy Conrad, who was killed by her boyfriend on Marsh Road. Unlike the back stories of most urban legends, this murder was real and well-documented. The area of Marsh Road where the ghost is said to roam has long been closed off by law enforcement, so leave the Mystery Machine at home.

Mystery Spot
Santa Cruz
Folks from all over the country are familiar with this quirky tourist trap in the Santa Cruz Mountains, thanks to its iconic bumper stickers. Tour guides are happy to explain how gravitational and magnetic anomalies are at play. While inside the the wonky cabin—which is tilted at a severe angle at the top of a steep hill—balls appear to roll uphill. Standing outside the structure, people seem to grow and shrink before your very eyes. Scientists at Berkeley have explained these phenomena away as optical illusions, but people remain convinced that something supernatural is afoot among the towering redwoods. Yeah, believe what you want.

Old Gilroy Hotel
Gilroy
Back before it was used as a city building, the Gilroy Hotel was a safe haven for travelers going back and forth to the Bay Area. It housed families and lonesome strangers, some more sinister than others. According to a report, two ghosts, a little girl and an older woman haunt the building. One night a man came in and killed them during their stay, leaving their souls trapped in the old hotel forever. Some say that they have seen the little girl looking out the window, while another patron reportedly had his neck touched by a passing spirit.

Peninsula School
Menlo park
Before it became an elite private academy, Menlo Park’s Peninsula School housed happy newlyweds James and Carmelita Coleman. The much-older Mr. Coleman built the gleaming white mansion in 1880 as a gift for his new bride. But their honeymoon bliss was cut short by a stray bullet that fatally struck the newly minted Mrs. Coleman on a trip to San Francisco. Her bereaved husband sold the mansion and never returned. But his young bride’s spirit stayed in the house he made for her.

Quimby Road Jogger
San Jose
Never drive along Quimby Road at midnight. Why, you ask? You may just run into one of San Jose’s most notorious ghost figures, the Quimby Road Jogger. Some have driven to Quimby Road just so they could get a good look at the ghost-runner. Don’t try and run alongside him though—he’s known to disappear into the hills once spotted.

Rengstorff House
Mountain View
German immigrant Henry Rengstorff, an early settler of what would later become the town of Mountain View, built the “R House” in 1867. The 16-room mansion, with its elaborate furnishings and widow’s walk garden, remained in the family until 1959. But subsequent occupants never settled for long, claiming to be chased away by the supernatural presence of a mournful young woman. When the house later fell into disrepair, her lonely apparition scared away squatters. Since the Rengstorff House became a museum, its resident spirit has grown more tolerant of visitors. Guests say they sometimes hear her weep or see her colorless face peer from the window of an upstairs bedroom.

Santa Clara University Mansion
Santa Clara
The Santa Clara, SCU’s student paper, has confirmed that the university sits on the site of several Native American burial grounds. However, that still doesn’t explain the ghosts of Jesuit monks that are rumored to wander near the bell tower of the mission after dark.

Santa Teresa County Park
San Jose
There are several versions of the campfire story that involves the small pond in Santa Teresa Springs, but they all end the same way—a girl named Dottie is pulled under the water by a giant hand. Sometimes there is a sub-plot involving Dottie being angry at her parents and somehow mustering up the physical strength to hang them from the rafters in the nearby barn.

Sprig Trail
Gilroy
Now a popular hiking destination, Mount Madonna’s Sprig Trail is also popular with undead spirits. Henry Miller, one of the most prosperous cattle farmers of the Gold Rush era, had a summer home at Mount Madonna County Park that he shared with his daughter, Sarah. At age 8, Sarah Miller tragically died in a horseriding accident. To this day, hikers and campers have seen the little girl roaming around the ruins of her father’s mansion, as well as outside along the trail. She is identified by either the frilly white dress she wears, or is seen with the horse that ultimately killed her. Some campers have awoken in the morning to find small foot and hoof prints around their tent. People leaving the park have also reported seeing Sarah trying to hitch a ride on the side of the road or even sitting in the backseat of their cars.

Toys “R” Us
Sunnyvale
The spirit that haunts Sunnyvale’s Toys “R” Us lost his leg and his life nearly a century before the store broke ground along East El Camino Real in the 1970s. In one telling, a poor minister named Johnny Johnson was chopping wood while agonizing over unrequited love. The woman he secretly adored had married a wealthy lawyer far above Johnny’s station. In the throes of heartbreak, he swung the axe right onto his leg and slowly died in a puddle of blood and tears. Since Toys “R” Us erected its big-box shop over the scene of poor Johnny’s tragic demise, he’s said to stalk the aisles, flinging merchandise off the shelves and turning faucets on and off.

White Witch
Fremont
In the Niles Canyon foothills, a winding two-lane road that connects Fremont to Livermore and Pleasanton is said to be home to the White Witch. Many say she is the ghost of a teen who was killed in a car accident on the way to prom. Most tellings follow the archetypal “vanishing hitchhiker” urban legend. A young girl, dressed in all white, will ask solitary drivers for a ride to San Francisco but vanish while being transported across the bay. Others claim to have seen this spectre while walking along the railroad tracks cutting through the canyon.

Winchester Mystery House
San Jose
When gun magnate William Winchester died in 1881, he left his widow $20 million and the curse of being haunted by the ghosts of all the people killed by his eponymous line of rifles. Sarah Winchester tried to outrun them at a psychic’s behest, moving from New Haven, Conn., to San Jose, where she bought an old farmhouse and turned it into a rambling mansion. The Victorian-style home has 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 47 fireplaces, 40 staircases, 13 bathrooms and nine kitchens—built, it is said, in an effort to protect its owner from the gun-slain spirits. Preservationists recently discovered yet another room, which Sarah sealed after the 1906 earthquake, to trap the ghosts she thought caused the quake. Since her death in 1922, it’s said that Sarah’s ghost haunts the labyrinth house of mystery.

Yoshihiro Uchida Hall
San Jose
It’s well-known that San Jose State University (SJSU) was used as a processing site for Japanese internees during WWII. Students and staff have long claimed to hear faint human crying and voices coming from this building, named after SJSU alum and judo coach whose parents and siblings were registered in the building before being sent to camps in the Imperial Valley.

Hosted by Anne Sconberg and Mark Henderson—creators of Anne & Mark’s Art Party—“Pivot: The Art of Fashion” was a celebration of creativity in Silicon Valley. One part fashion show, one part pop-up art gallery, Saturday night’s event was a pre-party for Anne & Mark’s Art Party 2016, scheduled to be held Sep. 24-Oct. 1 at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.

By 7 pm, The Armory was packed with guests. A violinist played while guests lined up at the long wooden bar to imbibe Hermitage and Camino beers as well as wines. On the other side of the room, Tony Caters kept up a steady flow of tasty hors d’oeuvres. Metro photographer, Jessica Perez, was on hand, snapping pictures.

The surrounding walls held many works of art: cute cloth Funny Bunnies; Sieglinde Van Damme’s paired eyes, embodying “the social management of identity”; Tobin Lynne Keller’s diorama-like scene whose background décor featured a design of realistic human hearts echoed in the long gown worn by a mannequin; and many others.

Most guests dressed casually, but a number took to heart (and head and heel) the suggestion to wear art themselves. One woman’s leather hat, intricately lit with red lights, boasted goggles, feathers, and a bustle (it matched her dress).

Artist Rose Sellery (whose amazing shoe-art/foot torture wowed Art Party attendees in the past) deserves kudos for curating this event.

One might be forgiven for considering fashion perhaps the most superficial of the arts, but one moment of the night particularly undermined that assumption: when Anne Sconberg thanked the guests and creators and reminded us that art serves a transcendent function. Following that statement, a beautiful a cappella rendering of “Amazing Grace” rang out. It was not cloying, nor ironic. It was moving, a signal that in San Jose, we don’t just look at art; we make art, we do art, we honor art.

Before the runway show, a trio of ballerinas from the New Ballet School performed with impressive professionalism.

The fashion event featured a host of artists, designers, photographers, hair stylists, and professional models presenting wearable wonders, first among them translucent white dresses shot through with white lights. Some items required more guts to wear than others. An amazing “space suit” with transparent helmet and cell-phone belt was one such. A man’s suit in vibrant tropical colors, however, could be worn to a party. Was that mini-dress really made out of Jiff peanut butter wrappers? Yes, it was. But the costumes weren’t arbitrarily weird the way found art can sometimes be. On the whole, they were spectacularly gorgeous (also sometimes amusingly or amazingly weird).

In all, sixteen artists/couturists participated (All guests received a list with each house of fashion and its website as well as sponsors)

San Jose’s glossy Content magazine co-hosted the event, fitting for a high-end publication. And production company Mu Industries made an auspicious debut.

For more photos from the event, click here. All photos by Jessica Perez.

Tickets are on sale today for the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil, who make their return to Silicon Valley in February 2017. Known for their high-flying, elaborate performances and decidedly modern aesthetic, the Canadian troupe of gymnasts, mimes and dancers are bringing their latest touring production, LUZIA, to San Jose.

Featuring simulated rainstorms onstage, LUZIA promises to be a wet and wild adventure, which pays homage to the colorful culture and landscapes of Mexico. Previous big top productions have centered on other themes—from the natural world to Michael Jackson. Expect, as always, that Cirque du Soleil will pull out all the stops for LUZIA with the best performers, costumes, music and props.

The exact location of LUZIA in San Jose has yet to be announced. Read the press release below this video preview of the show:

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SAN FRANCISCO (June 3, 2016) – Cirque du Soleil is pleased to announce its return to the San Francisco Bay Area this fall for the U.S. premiere of its new soul-touching production, LUZIA.  The show will be performed under a redesigned white & gold Big Top at AT&T Park in San Francisco beginning Thursday, November 17, 2016 and continues throughSunday, January 8, 2017. It will open in San Jose on Thursday, February 9 and continues through Friday, March 3, 2017 (exact location to be announced shortly).  As of today, tickets are available online exclusively to Cirque Club members. Cirque Club membership is free and benefits include access to advance tickets, special offers and exclusive behind the scenes information. To join, visit www.cirqueclub.com. Tickets for San Francisco and San Jose performances of LUZIA will be available to the general public as of Friday, June 17 atwww.cirquedusoleil.com/luzia. Tickets range in price from $49 – $185.

LUZIA – A waking dream of Mexico

LUZIA takes you to an imaginary Mexico, like in a waking dream, where light (“luz” in Spanish) quenches the spirit and rain (“lluvia”) soothes the soul.

Freely inspired by Mexico, LUZIA is a poetic and acrobatic ode to the rich, vibrant culture of a country whose wealth stems from an extraordinary mix of influences and creative collisions – a land that inspires awe with its breathtaking landscapes and architectural wonders, buoyed by the indomitable spirit of its people.

The tableaux of LUZIA weave an intricate, contemporary mosaic that awakens your senses and transports you to a place suspended between dreams and reality. Featuring a cast of 44 performers from diverse artistic backgrounds, LUZIA surprises with acrobatic performances breaking down the barriers, such as integrating rain and water into contemporary circus disciplines.

Saturday night’s Super Bowl 50 parties throughout the Bay Area featured an eclectic mix of celebrities and musicians—Lil’ Wayne appeared at Maxim’s bash at Treasure Island; Cuba Gooding Jr., lead actor in the new television miniseries, The People v. O.J. Simpson,  showed up at Playboy’s party in San Francisco on Friday. But one of the most exclusive of this year’s Big Game soirees was held at the Silicon Valley estate of venture capitalist Jillian Manus, and it was the only place you could receive a smooch from two live seals swimming in her front yard as you made your way in.

About 700 people, who sprung between $3,000 and $18,000 per ticket to attend the “Big Game Big Give” benefit, flooded Manus’ 18,000-square-foot home in Atherton, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Joe Montana, DeMarco Murray and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. The event, hosted by former San Francisco Giants slugger Matt Williams and the aforementioned Manus, was MC’d by Jay Leno, who auctioned items, such as the privilege to travel with the 49ers for a road trip on the team charter. For $41,500, you had the opportunity to snag the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix Ultimate VIP Package, and for $86,500, you had the chance to bid on a week-long stay for 10 at Sir Richard Branson’s private island.

For a mere $50,000, guests were presented with the opportunity to catch a pass from Montana, and participate in a private film session, re-living his football glory days with the San Francisco 49ers. The package also included a signed football, and a VIP experience for Super Bowl 50.

Other celebrities who were scheduled to attend the event included Jim and Sarah Harbaugh, David Beckham, Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi and Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, just to name a few.

The goal was to raise one million dollars for charities such as the Stanford Cancer Institute, the Four Rings Montana Family Foundation, and the Giving Back Fund.

Known for going all-out on her bashes (once placing and elephant at the door to greet guests at a previous party), Manus was clad in a glamorous, white, floor-length gown, complete with 20-karat yellow diamond earrings and a 50-karat yellow diamond ring on her finger. The jewelry was loaned to Manus from jeweler-to-the-stars Martin Katz, who was also a sponsor of the event.

Manus cleared out the ground level of her home, and pitched a tent in the backyard, which housed a giant scale-replica of the Golden Gate Bridge—the party was California themed. Underneath the bridge were 10 mixologists serving drinks; her kitchen was transformed into the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, complete with a Beach Boys cover band, and a Fisherman’s Wharf out back. The Rodeo Drive room was draped in white curtains, boasting jewelry cases featuring Katz’ creations for sale. One diamond necklace for sale carried a $200,000 price tag.

Guests dined on braised short rib dumplings and horseradish sauce, lamb burger sliders, tuna tartar and a variety of exotic dessert selections, including delicious rose-infused French macarons.

The Super Bowl is here—here being, you know, the South Bay—‘a.k.a. Silicon Valley, the global hub of technological innovation, and home to Apple, Google, Facebook, the social media and mobile revolution.

But if you were to ask the NFL exactly where the Broncos and Panthers are set to face off, they’d just assume have you believe that the gridiron is in San Francisco, a little more than 40 miles away from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

SF is home to the official “Super Bowl City,” after all.

And yet, even as football fans across the nation take in footage of steamy clam chowder at Fisherman’s Warf; observe the beautiful, decaying relic that is Alcatraz; gawk at Coit Tower standing sentinel over the city; or marvel at that most iconic symbol of San Francisco: the Golden Gate Bridge—even while all that is happening, there will be plenty more going on in San Jose and its neighboring cities.

Pure Lounge in Sunnyvale has a week packed with celebrity appearances, beginning with electro house duo W&W on Wednesday and trance producer Andrew Rayel on Thursday, followed by a string of prominent emcees: Fabolous on Friday, T.I. on Saturday, and the G-Unit’s commanding officer, 50 Cent, on Sunday.

The downtown San Jose nightclub, Studio 8, is also getting in on the action. Travis Scott brings the “Antidote” on Thursday; the producer, singer and Trinidad James collaborator August Alsina keeps things live on Friday; and cosmic sex icon Miguel is in charge of making sure everyone feels the love on Saturday.

If you’re looking for a laugh, you may want to head to StubHub or Craigslist to try to nab tickets for one of Norm Macdonald’s sold-out sets at the San Jose Improv on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Mario Lopez of Extra TV and ’90s hit sitcom Saved By The Bell is hosting a party at Taste Restaurant and Nightclub on Friday.

While BackBar SoFa will keep things on the cutting edge with underground hip-hop performers, including Homeboy Sandman on Wednesday, Trizz & Chuuwee on Thursday and HBK Skipper, J. Stalin and Young Chop on Friday.

There is a whole lot more going on. For the entire rundown click here.