Jumping in headfirst. That’s how Haley Cardamon would describe her explosive entry into the magazine industry. Born and raised in East San Jose, Cardamon harbors a deep love for not only the city of San Jose as a whole, but more specifically, the creativity and diversity she sees all around her—creativity that she believes is often overshadowed by San Jose’s notoriety in the tech industry.
Car…
Every comedian experiences an off night when they just can’t orchestrate a positive response to any story, punch line, or antic. But if bombing kept every amateur comic from returning to the stage, there wouldn’t be any to create a comedy scene that begins to knit itself when fellow comedians find one another at open mics.
All four show producers—Ryan, Grayson, Tyler, and Austin—met at Caffé…
As much as we think we’re different from one another, we’re all really just after the same things to be seen, heard, and loved for who we really are.
If you’ve been attending screenings at the Cinequest film festival this March, you may have been passed a pair of plastic vampire fangs and informed about a memorable movie among the festival’s offerings this year. Such encounters are director…
San Jose Spotlight As the 10th-largest city in the United States, San Jose’s local news offerings are startlingly sparse. The Mercury News has reduced its staff reporters in recent years, even while buying out many of the surrounding community newspapers. 1,035 more words
A Director, Drag Racer
In car racing, who you are, what you are, where you come from, your physical make-up, nothing matters. All that matters is who is the quickest.
Founder and Executive Producer of Roan Films, Nick Martinez, understands the ins and the outs of the drag race scene. Ignited by his father’s thrilling stories of the sport, he chose to get behind the wheel himself during his…
Deliberately pushing leaders into deep dialogues gave them the opportunity to think outside of the box and collaborate on solutions to some of San Jose’s most complex problems.
“We’re at a critical juncture in our evolution, and the startup buzz of possibilities is palpable. I experienced it when I came here in 2008 to build CreaTV San Jose,” recalls Suzanne St. John-Crane, former CEO of…
Nandita Das did not come to cinematography the conventional way. Raised by a painter father and a writer mother (both infrequent film-watchers), Nandita’s childhood was mostly movie-less. “While I grew up with a lot of art and artists, books and writers, films were not a part of my world,” she admits. It took college friends to expose her to India’s indie movies and world cinema.
And…
Plot is what happens from A to B. But why? And how do the characters react?
Some storytellers steadfastly hold that plot should sweep a narrative’s characters along on a journey. Others adamantly advocate that characters’ reactions to their surroundings and circumstances should drive the plot. It’s a heated debate among fiction aficionados. Sean McCarthy, founder of video production company…
Behind every film is an entire clan of creative minds. You need only sit through the credits of your favorite flick, watch the scrolling columns of names responsible for the producing and directing, the casting and acting, the makeup styling and costume designing, the set dressing, soundtrack composing, special effects generating, camera operating, scene sequence editing, and a countless number…
The SJZ Collective returns to Winter Fest to perform their twist on notable works by Charles Mingus. This ever-evolving group of master players has performed internationally during a 2018 tour of Taiwan and all over the country–including SJZ’s Summer and Winter Fests–in addition to being the core instructors at our Summer Jazz Camp in June. The brainchild of drummer Wally Schnalle, the ensemble…
I believe that building bridges is the work that I’ve been called to do.
I believe that building bridges is the work that I’ve been called to do.
Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana(MACLA) looks like a large renovated warehouse on the corner of First Street and William. Decorated with a bright bichromatic mural, the space also functions in many ways as a bridge. At the heart of the…
You’ve told everyone that you’re ‘this’ but really you’re ‘that.’ Eventually they’ll find out, and then you’re done.
Brands are designed with us in mind, whether we know it or not. In reality, it is us that are the primary focus of brand builders. As members of a brand’s target market, it is our perception of a brand’s identity that chiefly impacts the brand. To reach and influence us, brand…
The Shrunkenheadman club immediately stands out from the others at San Jose State University (SJSU): spend any amount of time walking around downtown and you’re bound to spot their eye-catching logo—a warped human skull—on T-shirts, backpacks, and the bottom of skate decks. At nearly 500 members, Shrunkenheadman is the largest student-run club on campus. The most remarkable thing about the club…
Artist Sean Boyles would never admit it, but he’s an instrumental force in the San Jose art scene. Born in San Jose and raised and schooled in Oakland, Boyles has been an art fanatic since elementary school—he can remember always carrying and filling sketchbooks with early ideas. When it came time for high school, Boyles attended an art magnet school, which allowed him to take two or three art…
If a cocktail at a bar isn’t beautifully preseneted, that tell me all I nned to kow about the pace.
To sit down and talk with Kyle Stewart-Franz is to spend some time skimming the surface of his broad range of interests. As a self-trained coder, he currently works as a security developer for a well-known Silicon Valley brand. At home, he dives deeply into experimental DIY projects. Last year…
“I’m tasting prominent oaky notes. I’m also picking up on dark fruit and molasses.” Some might assume this reaction could only be uttered over a wine glass. But it can also be spoken while sampling bean-to-bar chocolate. Like wine grapes, cacao beans vary widely based on origin, landscape, and soil; and like wineries, bean-to-bar businesses occasionally fall into a highfalutin attitude if they’re…
For most companies, it’s absolutely vital to show up towards the top of Google’s search results. Being on the first page can send millions of people to a company’s website and propel meteoric growth, while showing up on the second page is almost equivalent to not being listed at all. Millions of dollars each year are spent on search engine optimization (SEO) in an effort to make websites more…
