The GGA Project -- Day #174 "Now THAT's What I'm Talkin' About!"

Ahh.  Where to begin talking about


Today's New Activity: Attending the 4th SubZERO Festival


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A while back I got wind of the SubZERO festival (which I somehow missed during both years when I was living--quite literally--around the corner from where it happened.  I don't know how the funky good vibe alone didn't have me wandering out my front door to find its source), and I've been looking forward to it for weeks.  How thankful I am to report that it didn't go the way of so many of San Jose's outdoor festivals and leave a little to be desired.  How could it with all this action?!

I couldn't get enough of watching this very talented foursome of belly dancers.  I generally love watching belly dancing, and tonight was no exception.  I managed to make it over their way during 4 separate mini-sets.  The drums they danced to were a calling I couldn't refuse.

Next I wandered over to one of the stages, where, for most definitely the first time in my life, I got to hear what happens when hip hop meets the trombone.  This band was just formed last week some time (there was also a female vocalist who isn't pictured here) but you wouldn't have known it with how good they sounded together.

Next, a visit to a traveling curios museum, a mini-version of which was housed in one of the many tents set up on South 1st street, which was blocked off for the festival:

Also among those tents:

a giant cardboard dollhouse with real scenes visible through every window!,

a station where stoppers-by could sit and draw models who switched out in what seemed like five-minute intervals, though some could have been longer (peek and you can see my friend Laura in the second row, doin' her art thang!...she's so cool...).

One stage featured an interpretive dance troupe that was covered in artful, very detailed body paint, and the body paint artist demoed her work live during one band's performance later in the night.  It's too bad all the details can't be made out from the pictures, but this is something of a before and after:

There were food trucks galore.  And though I longed to try the raved-about munchies from Gomo, they (and two other food trucks) were out of their only vegetarian options.  I found my friends Alejandra and Kliff during the food hunt portion of the night, and they both made off with yummy treats.  Hey guys!  It was great to do some catching up with them.  And congrats to Alex on her recent graduation!!

I SO meant to stop by the t-shirt tent of the guys who made Kliff's "Hella" t-shirt so I could finally count myself a bona fida Nor*Cal girl, but I forgot :(  I'll find 'em online.


Music and art were the main focuses of this event, and though I didn't photograph any art for fear the artists would say, "Hey punk, if you like it so much, why don't you BUY it?" (not that they ever would, and not that I'd be opposed to it were it in my budget, but it seemed rude to just go around taking pictures), there was a whole lot of beautiful work to take in.


Around 10pm my best gals Nicole and Kelsi made it, to my shock and glee.  It's SO great to be out with those Mamas, especially in the streets of downtown San Jose, and especially at night.  It reminded me of our earliest adventures in this town, before Mamahood got its wonderful, forever grips on us.  We stopped for coffee and then meandered a bit, seeing:

Bam!  Roller derby demo!  And

Bam!  A yarn bombing!


This is just a very small sampling of all there was to enjoy.  There were art cars and taiko drums, another super fun and energy-filled drum circle, a bicycle joust (!), spoken word, and I even found the tent of one of my bank's customers, who turns out to be quite a talented painter.  And there was so much more.


In the end, Kelsi and I danced to the spinning of a local radio station dj, whose name eludes me right now.  The music was so incredibly happy it was impossible to resist.  I read an article in Details a few months ago about how so much of today's new bands are super happy and bubble gum.  The author was practically lamenting the absence of the angst of rock music past (though not the extreme Emo of more recent past).  I could see the truth in that, if the music this dj played was to serve as any kind of example.  But you know what.  It's freakin' FUN to be happy!!!


Some years ago I was dancing by myself at the salsa stage at San Jose's Jazz Festival.  A Mercury News photographer happened to take a crowd shot that I was visible in, looking as free and happy as a young woman who'd just graduated from college should look.  The picture appeared in the paper twice in articles about the festival.  Dancing tonight I felt the same kind of joy that I see in my face and body language whenever I come across that picture (which is actually only when I visit my brother, who has it pinned to his bulletin board...sweet bro).  My life is not without cares or problems.  And in the past year it is certainly not free from conflict, confusion, or the agonizing act of trying to decipher which is right, of the multiple directions from which to choose.  But in certain moments, and more and more frequently, I am full of that same sense of joy and wonder and absolute knowledge that my life--in the present--is the best possible life I could be living.


Thank you to all the wonderful, talented artists of San Jose and the friends I shared the evening with for bringing me into that place tonight.

The GGA Project -- Day #81 "Old Haunts Made New"

This year, though I've moved 40 minutes away from downtown San Jose, I was more excited than probably ever for the annual Cinequest film festival to begin.  It would be a great reason to revisit the city that welcomed me to Northern California more than 10 years ago now!  While I've lived in the surrounding areas of Sunnyvale and Santa Clara for periods of time, downtown San Jose has been my home almost exclusively, and any excuse I have to get back there makes me happy.


I put a mention on Facebook in the afternoon that I was heading down to SJ in case anybody wanted to join the fun.  My friend Sowmya wanted to make it but was buried in a grad school thesis, so I went this one alone.  And I have to say: one really nice thing about going to the movies alone is that you are totally free to pick exactly what you want to see, at the time you want to see it, and sit exactly where you like.  I am not exaggerating when I say that during the time I was together with my soon-to-be-ex-husband, I did not chose a single movie that we saw together.  I could have gone to movies alone back then, but that's a whole other story entirely, for another day.


But this alone = absolute say in everything is not unique to movie-going of course.  Since separating I have enjoyed every moment to myself to spend my free time, well, freely.  Of course having a toddler means that the majority of all my decisions will factor in his needs first, and heavily, but when he's with his father (like tonight), or otherwise engaged (zzzzzzzzzzz), it's great to revisit my days of autonomy, of independence, and of simply enjoying my own company.  After graduating from college I took a whole backtracking trip to Europe alone, mostly because I knew I'd relax in ways I wouldn't if I were always halfway-bound to anyone else's itinerary ideas (especially since I'm anti-itinerary...which makes me think it would be great to find a traveling buddy who's also anti-itinerary...I think Nicole definitely qualifies...we gotta get that roadtrip underway!).


ANYway, tonight I chose to see a film from Iceland called "Mamma Gogo," about an elderly woman's fall into Alzheimer's disease and her relationship with her grown children, namely her failed filmmaker son.  It was charming and sad and juuussst emotionally compelling enough without being sentimental.  A couple of scenes, like one in which the mother's nursing home caretakers discover her in the bathroom trying to flush herself down the toilet, were incredibly moving.


***Sidenote having nothing to do with this*** When the movie opened and I first heard the language, I was reminded of my favorite Youtube video of all time, though it turns out this language is Flemish, not Icelandic.

So back to tonight...there were two movies I was trying to decide between, and the choice was ultimately made by the fact that one of them was being screened at a theater I've been longing to see the inside of for some time now.  


Today's New Activity: A Visit to The California Theater


The California Theater, on South 1st street, was apparently an old vaudeville house built in the late 1920's.  It was closed for a long time and fell victim to downtown San Jose's darker days of shuttered storefronts and pee-anywhere-you-like freewheelin'.  That's pretty much what downtown San Jose was like when I first moved there, and I think the memory of those days keeps a lot of people from even going there.  But I've watched as slowly--sometimes painfully so--the city has transformed into a respectable place to bring your friends, even your foreign friends from much more well-known places.  Every time I'm in the area I see a newly restored building or a new, bustling restaurant.  This one was restored and reopened in 2004.


And I'm sad to say that I lived, literally, around the corner from The California Theater for 2 1/2 years and I never caught a single one of the operas or symphony concerts that are the main reasons for its existence.  First time for everything, though, right?  Look at this beautiful building!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the bathroom here as well.  I don't know that I've been in a prettier or more sparkling one

After the movie finished, I took some time to walk around the streets of the first city I've ever really called home.  I'd spent hours and hours walking for transportation up and down the streets of this city, or waiting for buses, or talking to transient people.  I'd smoked countless cloves, drank countless cups of coffee, completed countless homework assignments in or around its establishments.  I'd found and lost love and friendship among the people I met here.  All in all, the night ended up being a wonderful date-with-self outing of the kind I used to experience often and have always appreciated.


Best way to finish it?  A visit to Psycho Donuts, where a girl in a nurse's uniform serves up these hunks of insanity:

That bottom one is called the Cereal Killer.  Cute.  I'd never been to a Psycho Donuts before, but I'd been curious about checking it out after learning that my friend Laura's art was on display at their other location in Campbell.  I chose a donut called the Kooky Monster, which was a ridiculously yummy and surprisingly not-too-sweet treat.  It was a really nice finish to an all the way around pleasant evening...