Upload
metro-publishing
View
213
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
t t h h e MA M Je Je e ff Ro R His is La L H Sa Sa a a h ar r r a r r iv iv v ia a a T T T r T Wit it t h W Pe e gr gra a m m : N w w e e N r r a P c c ia ia a l R ve e la la a t t io io o n n v v e e R r a a m m p p os a a n n d o C C AC A A a a id id R S C A a a r r r r y L L Fin in n a a n n c F X v v v ie ie e r a a X t t h h e A A M OSTTICKET n n s pp8 n n is is s t Ch h a a r r le le e s B C Bu Bu u r r n n s de de e f f in n e e s s a a n e e t t h h ic ic HARD OON BUS CCKAASVV 22P T
Citation preview
OC
TOB
ER 2
0-2
6,
2010
|
VO
L. 2
6,
NO
. 32
|
SIL
ICO
N V
ALL
EY,
CA
|
FR
EE
WIN TICKETS TO THE BRIDGE SCHOOL BENEFIT METROGIVEAWAYS.COM
EDGE XWith savage precision, cartoonist Charles Burns defines an ethic BY RICHARD VON BUSACK P20
Larry Pegram: New Financial Revelations p8
Xavier Campos and the MACSA Raid p10
Jeff Rosen Rests His Last Case p12
Sarah Palin Trivializes Tillman p16
Char
les
Burn
s
T BRTHEOS TTICKET
RIDGE SCHOOL BENEF
OMCS.YAWOGIVEAMETRFIT
aarrrry LLFininnaanncF
X vvvieieeraaXtthhe AAM
Peegrgraamm: N ww eeNrraPcciaiaal R veelalaattioioonnvveeR
r aammppos aanndoCCAC AA aaididRSCA 110
nns pp8
tthhe MAM
JeJeeff RoRHisis LaLH
SaSa aaharrrarrivivviaaaTTTrT
CCSA RaaiidRSCAA pp1010
oseen eesststsRRsoaasst CaasesC pp1212
h aallininPPPaPallizizeesz
FRE
E|
CA,
ALL
EY
VO
NIC
TrrivivviiaaTTrTiilllmlmmaT
alliizeesz
aan pp1616
SIL
| 3
2 .
ON
26,
.LO
V|
10 E
DGE
E X
201
26,
20
-R
EB
OTC
O
EWititthW
YY RICHBB
DGEs vvaagege p ececciprrvsaa
HARD OON BUS CCKAASVV 22P
E Xisissioioon,n, aar oooonrttcc2020
nnisisst Chhaarrlelees BC
BuBuurrnns dedeeffinnees
s aan eetthhicic
ME
TRO
AC
TIV
E.C
OM
| S
AN
JOSE
.CO
M |
OC
TOB
ER 2
0-2
6,
2010
| M
ETR
O S
ILIC
ON
VA
LLE
Y
2
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BER
20-26
, 2010
| SAN
JOSE
.COM
| ME
TRO
AC
TIVE
.COM
3
METRO SILICON VALLEYA locally owned company.
550 S First St, San Jose, CA 95113
408.298.8000
Editorial Fax: 408.298.0602Advertising Fax: 408.298.6992
EXECUTIVE EDITOR & CEO DAN PULCRANO
EDITORIALManaging/Arts Editor: Michael S. Gant
News Editor: Eric JohnsonFood Editor: Stett HolbrookMusic Editor: Steve Palopoli
Contributing Writers: Jessica Fromm, Gary Singh, Richard von Busack,
Tori EakesPhotographer: Felipe Buitrago
ART/PRODUCTIONDesign Director: Kara Brown
Production Director: Harry AllisonGraphic Designer: Tabi Dolan
Editorial Production: Sean George Advertising Graphic Artists:
Jimmy Donald, Dave RobisonTrafficking Coordinator: Mercy Perez
DISPLAY SALESAdvertising Director: John Haugh
Marketing Manager: Jennifer AndersonSenior Account Executives: Bill Stubbee
Promotions Coordinator: Sharona OshanaAccount Executives: Gordon Carbone,
Billy Garcia, Michael Hagaman, Jonny Manak, Tammy Patterson
Account Manager: Mercy PerezMovie Promotions/Sales: Jim Carrico
CLASSIFIED SALES Senior Account Executive: Michael R. Hill
Classified Sales: Dave Miller
ACCOUNTING/OPERATIONS/ADMINISTRATION
Chief Financial Officer: Robert HeinenAccounting Manager: Tisha Rae G. Muoz
Accounts Receivable: Vickie MonroeCirculation Manager: Gary Sunbury
Information Systems: Chris GiancaterinoOffice Manager: Dave Miller
DISTRIBUTION Metro is available free of charge, limited to
one copy per reader. Additional copies of the current issue may be purchased for $1
each, payable at the Metro office in advance. Metro may be distributed only by Metros
authorized distributors. No one may, without permission of Metro, take more than one copy of each issue. Subscriptions: $50/six months,
$95/one year.
FINE PRINTDeclared a legal newspaper of general
circulation by the Superior Court of Santa Clara County Decree No. 651274, April 7, 1988. ISSN
0882-4290. Entire contents 2010 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in any form prohibited without publishers written permission. Unsolicited material should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope; however, Metro is not responsible for
the return of such submissions.
4M
ETR
OA
CTI
VE
.CO
M |
SA
NJO
SE.C
OM
| O
CTO
BE
R 2
0-2
6,
2010
| M
ETR
O S
ILIC
ON
VA
LLE
Y
M
EYLLAVVANOCILISROTEM.ynapmocdenwoyllacolA
,tStsriFS05531159AC,esoJnaS0008.892.804
2060.892.804:xaFlairotidE2 996.892.804:xaFgnisitrevdA
EOC&RTOIDEEVITUECXECRANOPULAND
LAIRTOIDE:rotidEstrA/gniganaM tnaG.SleahciM
:rotidEsweN nosnhoJcirE:rotidEdooF koorbloHttetS:rotidEcisuM ilopolaPevetS
:sretirWgnitubirtnoC ,mmorFacisseJ,kcasuBnovdrahciR,hgniSyraG
sekaEiroTTo:rehpargotohP ogartiuBepileF
moc.swenortem@radnelaC
P
NOITCUDROP/TRRTA:rotceriDngiseD nworBaraK
:rotceriDnoitcudorP nosillAyrraH:rengiseDcihparG naloDibaTTa
:noitcudorPlairotidE egroeGnaeS:stsitrAcihparGgnisitrevdA
nosiboRevaD,dlanoDymmiJ:rotanidrooCgnikcfifarT zerePycreM
ESLASYAAYLPSID:rotceriDgnisitrevdA hguaHnhoJ
:reganaMgnitekraM nosrednArefinneJ:sevitucexEtnuoccAroineS eebbutSlliB
:rotanidrooCsnoitomorP anahsOanorahS
A
:sevitucexEtnuoccA ,enobraCnodroG,namagaHleahciM,aicraGylliB
nosrettaPymmaTTa,kanaMynnoJ:reganaMtnuoccA zerePycreM
:selaS/snoitomorPeivoM ocirraCmiJ
ESLASDEIFIASSLC:evitucexEtnuoccAroineS lliH.RleahciM
:selaSdefiissalC relliMevaD
/SNOITAATREPO/GNITNUOCCANOITAATRTSINIMDA
:recfifOlaicnaniFfeihC nenieHtreboR:reganaMgnitnuoccA zouM.GeaRahsiT
ae
uarepefo
:elbavieceRstnuoccA eornoMeikciV:reganaMnoitalucriC yrubnuSyraG
:smetsySnoitamrofnI oniretacnaiGsirhC:reganaMecfifO relliMevaD
N OITUBIRTSIDotdetimil,egrahcfoeerfelbaliavasiorteMfoseipoclanoitiddA.redaerrepypoceno1$rofdesahcrupebyameussitnerruceht.ecnavdaniecfifoorteMehttaelbayap,hcas orteMybylnodetubirtsidebyamorteMt uohtiw,yy,amenooN.srotubirtsiddezirohtuy pocenonahteromekat,orteMfonoissim,shtnomxis/05$:snoitpircsbuS.eussihcae.rr.aeyeno/59$
TNIRPENIF
cric
buP
irwebvne
TNIRPENIFl arenegforepapswenlageladeralceD
aralCatnaSfotruoCroirepuSehtybnoitalucNSSI.8891,77,lirpA,472156.oNeerceDytnuoCorteM0102stnetnoceritnE.0924-2880n oitcudorpeR.devresersthgirllA.cnI,gnihsilbs rehsilbuptuohtiwdetibihorpmrofynanid luohslairetamdeticilosnU.noissimrepnettdesserdda-fles,depmatsaybdeinapmoccaerofelbisnopsertonsiorteM,rr,evewoh;epolev.snoissimbushcusfonrutereht
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BER
20-26
, 2010
| SAN
JOSE
.COM
| ME
TRO
AC
TIVE
.COM
5
Est-imateIn his book review of Lynn Rogers (Localized Lit, Silicon Alleys, Oct. 13), Gary Singh made some unfortunate reference to the self-transformational slop of Werner Erhards Est Training. It is quite apparent from this reference
Metro welcomes letters. Like any great work of art, they should be originalsnot copies of material sent elsewhere. Please include your name, city of residence and daytime telephone number. (Phone number will not be published.) Letters may be edited for length and clarity or to correct factual inaccuracies known to us.
= SanJoseInside = via email
awesome Gary Singh is. Please, Gary, just write about your subject matter. And stop being so possessive of 01.
MAGGIE ZAPADI | SAN JOSE
Last week, the Dalai Lama gave a teaching on The Eight Verses for Training the Mind. The fifth verse says: When others, out of jealousy, treat me wrongly with abuse, slander and scorn, may I take upon myself the defeat, and offer to others the victory. Gary Singh
Party NumbersWhen Sarah Palin says California is a case study in failed liberal policies, do you think shes aware that for 23 of the past 27 years, weve been governed by Republicans?
PETER KUCHENBROD | SAN JOSE
COMMENTS
TOM TOMOROWTHIS MODERN WORLDM
ETR
OA
CTI
VE
.CO
M |
SA
NJO
SE.C
OM
| O
CTO
BE
R 2
0-2
6,
2010
| M
ETR
O S
ILIC
ON
VA
LLE
Y6
to a program that transformed the lives of over half a million people worldwide that Mr. Singh has never taken the training and knows nothing about it or of Werner Erhard, the man who made it possible for thousands upon thousands of people to live a happier and more fulfilled life.
HOWARD SCHUMANN | VANCOUVER, B.C.
Piling OnAnyone else notice that the main point of Gary Singhs articles is to portray Mr. Singh as a tortured intellectual and an outsider ahead of his time? His writing is littered with personal anecdotes and declarations about himself that are at best peripherally related to the articles topic. In a piece on the Dalai Lama (Silicon Alleys, Oct. 6), he throws in
an account of his own Buddha-like meditations on the loss of Frontier Village, and lists unrelated topics that he yakked about over coffee, just, one suspects, to demonstrate what interesting conversations he has. In an article about the 01 festival, he tells us what he was doing in his 20s and 30s.
Mr. Singh, hanging out with artists and intellectuals doesnt make you one. Having the luxury to avoid conventional employment in early adulthood doesnt make you a rebel, and jumping from one obscure pursuit to another doesnt make you a renaissance man. Growing up in a boring suburb and suffering the loss of Frontier Village doesnt constitute a traumatic childhood. I would love to read about local arts, culture and quirky historical landmarks without being forced to read about how
I SAW YOU
Rail Rescue
Send us your anonymous rants and raves about your co-workers or any badly behaving citizenor about citizens you admire. I SAW YOU, Metro, 550 S. First St., San Jose, 95113, or via email.
MSIHT
DLROWNREDOM
WOROMOTMOTD
WOROMOTMOT
tem@sretteL
mocswenrot
otvil
w
ehtdemroffosnaanrttt aath tmaamrggrorpaaoelpoepnoillimaa fflaal hrr evveoff osevve
eve nsashhh gni S.rMtaathtediwwddwlrow
re
Bnwoowsihhifooftnntuoccaacnaanssolehtnosnoittiaatttaiddemtaatlernustsstilldnaan,eggeaaglliVVi
aetirwtsujbpotsdnA
ekkeilli-aa-hhadduBreittinntorroFfo
taathtscippotdet
.rettttaatmtcejbbjusruoyyotuutobaab.10foevveissessoposgnieb
ygy
tem@sretteL
welcomesoMetrshoutheyart,of sentmaterial of cityname,your
numbtelephone publishedbe not
candlengthorfknoaciesinaccur
SanJose=
moc.swenrot
workeatgrany Likeletters.scopiesoriginalsnotbe uld
includePleasee.elsewherdaytime andesidencerof
will number(Phone.bereditedbemay Lettersd.)actualfectrcortoorlarity
us.toown
Inside emailvia=
atba
wpuah
PA
ghtonswoownkdd naanggniniaair teh tnn ekkeakmeht,,drarhrErenreWWeff orr ottittuob
dnaansuohtroffoelbisso pttiedadmoohw aevveillotelpoe pff osdnaansuohtnnop
.effeilldellfillfiuffueromdn anreippap
NNAMSCHUARDWWAHO OUVERANCV|
iliP nOngopniaaimehhettaathtecittiootnesleenoyyonnyA
g nihnaanm
sa
.CB.R,
tnntiooi
grevveoovtuutobaabdekkekkkaakyyaehhesnomedot,stcctepsuseno
noittaatsrevvennvocgnittiseretnntiittiseffe10ehhettuutobaabelcittraar
hhinigniodsaaswwaehtaathwwhognigginaanhha,hgniS.rMnnseodslaalutcelletnntidnan
yruxuuxlehtgnivviaavH.enomyymooylpmelaalnoitnntevnnvockaakmtnseoddoohtlltudadenomorffrgnipmujdnan
p
EGGIMA
t,kk,eewtsaLognngihcaettea
htthgnnginiinarTTrrehtonehWWhiwyllygglnngorrow
ekattaIyaaymehtoottoreffffeooff
tP
p,tsuj,eeffffeocco
t aathwwhetaatrtsnaannI.saashehhesnsuslleteh,laalvvai.s03dnaans02sis tsittiraarhtiwwtuo
uoyyoekkeaakmtd ioovvoaavoty
y llyraarenitnem,leberauoyyoekke
e rucsbo
pg
ADIZAPE ESJOANS|
evaggaamaLialaDehtthr offosesrrseVVethgghiigEehTThno
:syaaysesrrsevhftfthfififtehTTh.dniMeemtaetrre,yy,ssyuolaejff jooftuo,ss,rrs
,nn,rocsdnarednals,ee,subahtthidna,tt,aeffeeefdehtthflfesymmynpouuphgghnngiSyrryaG.yrryottocivehtsrrse
N b
Est-imaerkkoobsihhnIiLdezilaalcoL(
mhhgniSyyraGhtotecnereffeer
nreWWeffopolspp apetiuui qsitI
eatsrego RRonnnyynLLyffowweivvie
,)3 1.tc O,, syeeyllAnocilliS,te taatnutroffon uemosedaadmlaalnoitaatmroffosnaanrt-ff-leseh.gniniaairTtsEsdraarhr Ereecnereffee rsihh tmorffrtneraarp
foiSuo
siedebot
(S
yaayrtropotsiselcittiraarshhgghniSyraarGfadnaanlaalutcelletnntiderutrotasaashgghnngiittirrwwrsiH?emittisihhifodaadehheaahredistuutnaansetootdcenaanlaalnnaosrephtiwwiderettttilaeraartaathhatfllfesmihhituutobaabsnoittiaatraarlcelcittiraarehhetotdetaatleryllylaalrehpireptse
a maamLiaailaalDehtnoecceeippanI.cipponiswwsoowrhteh,)66.tcctO,syyseeyllAnocilliS
.rr.Mnaang nidntaatsel
seodrehtonaanottiuusruporG.naanmecnaanssiaaineraffusdnanbrubusgnirobseodegaaglliVVireittnntorFfo.doohdlihhiccittaatmuaaurtastrarlaalcoltuutobaabdaaderot
mdnanllalcirrotsihhiykkyriuqgnieb babdaderotdecroffo
artyParaSnehWydutsesascihhtuoyodpehtfo32bdenrevog
RETEP
u oyyoekkeakmtnnsa nipugniwwios solehtgnireffffeetuuttitsnoctnse vveoovldluowId nanerutluc,st uutohtiwwiskraarm
w ohtuutob
sNumbery a siainroffoilalCsyaaysnilaPha
,seiciloplarebildeliaaiffaniyroffotathterawaawsehsknneebevew,sraey72tsasp
?snancilbupeRReyb
ODBRENUCHK ESOJAN S|
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BER
20-26
, 2010
| SAN
JOSE
.COM
| ME
TRO
AC
TIVE
.COM
7
SVNEWS
Pegrams Paradox
bankruptcy, during which he either purposely or inadvertently fi led under the name Lawrence Pellman, appears to be just one chapter in a checkered career.
Three years before fi ling for bankruptcy, Pegram created a partnership with a name incorporating his initials, LRP Realty. Using contacts with the San Jose Rotary Club, he stitched together a group of associates to buy two apartment complexes in Concord, according to Dan McDonald, a retired insurance man and longtime Rotarian.
The idea was to clean them up, fi x them up, get the rents up and then resell them, McDonald recalls.
Within 18 months, both apartments faced foreclosure.
Larry ran the properties into the ground, McDonald says. It was really mismanaged. And there was a lot of money unaccounted for.
McDonald, who has invested in local
businesses, including Metro, says he had to take over one of the apartments in order to rescue the deal. He says he provided funds to Pegram, mistakenly believing that the other partners, many of whom were longtime friends, would recover some of their investment out of the transaction.
I paid off the loans, and subsequently gave Larry a check for something like $25,000, McDonald recalls. He was supposed to take that money and distribute it to the partners. And he never did that.
Pegram confi rms most of McDonalds account, pointing out that the deal happened almost 20 years ago and he therefore does not recall the details.
If he gave me a check, he didnt give it to me personally, Pegram says, explaining that while he handled the transaction, the check was made out to the partners and not to me.
The money would have been used to satisfy the obligations of the partnership.
He says he lost at least $25,000 on the deal himself, though he took some management fees.
McDonald says none of the partners ever took legal action against Pegram because the amounts werent big enough to justify litigation expenses, and they knew he was broke.
I guess we all fi gured, why beat up on the guy?
McDonald, a notoriously pleasant and soft -spoken man who by all accounts never has a bad word to say about anyone, is blunt in his assessment of Pegram.
I think hes an incompetent shyster, McDonald says. Larry Pegram has the unique ability to look you in the eye and lie.
In response, Pegram says he considers McDonald a friend: I know of no instance when I was untruthful with Mr. McDonald.
Following LRP, Pegram became a fi nancial planner for World Financial Group, a multi-level marketing company which, during the time Pegram worked there, was repeatedly charged with fraud and misrepresentation, and was the subject of several class action lawsuits and disciplinary action from the National Association Of Securities Dealers. (The company has since been sold to a new owner and reportedly cleaned up its act.)
ERIC JOHNSON
E
But Pegrams own fi nancial history does not demonstrate the kind of business record that inspires trust in managing the peoples money.
His recently-publicized 1996
8M
ETR
OA
CTI
VE
.CO
M |
SA
NJO
SE.C
OM
| O
CTO
BE
R 2
0-2
6,
2010
| M
ETR
O S
ILIC
ON
VA
LLE
YMoving TargetPegram, 65, has hop-scotched though various careers in the 46 years he has been in San Jose. Throughout that time, he has found himself in various forms of trouble, and not just because of his radical political views.
Aft er serving for seven years on the San Jose police force, Pegram was elected to the City Council in 1974. There, he became known as one of the Fearsome Foursome along with David Runyon, Joe Colla and Al Garza. This developer-friendly voting bloc forced a controlled-growth city manager from offi ce before being brought up on bribery charges.
Pegram was never charged with any wrongdoing, but Garza was indicted and convicted of charges that involved an envelope of cash. Runyon was arrested and forced to quit the council for drunken indiscretions. Colla and Pegram faded from public view.
Ex-mayor Tom McEnery, a member of the planning commission who had clashed with the Fearsome Foursome over its sprawl-friendly agenda, was appointed to take over Runyons seat. McEnery says Pegram and his cohorts had a kind of pay-to-play mentality with regards to developers.
They wanted San Jose to have very relaxed development policies, and that was exactly the wrong direction the city needed to go in, McEnery says. They werent concerned with building San Joses tax base. They were more concerned with accommodating developers and sprawl.
When asked for his opinion about why the Fearsome Four were so chummy with development interests, McEnery invokes the old adage: Follow the money, he says.
McEnery, who famously reversed the citys economic development policies during his two terms as mayor, says he understands why his friend, Mayor Chuck Reed, endorsed Pegram despite his controversial history. Reed sees himself as locked in a battle with public employee unions, and Pegram has been their harshest criticalthough his opponent, Donald Rocha, has recently demonstrated an independent streak, breaking with labor to endorse union-opposed Measures V and W.
I think Chuck looks at Pegram the way FDR and Churchill looked at Stalin, McEnery says, quoting Roosevelt: He may be a son of a bitch, but hes our son of a bitch.
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BER
20-26
, 2010
| SAN
JOSE
.COM
| ME
TRO
AC
TIVE
.COM
9
SVNEWS
Campos Clams Up
through intermediaries that theres no reason for him to address the issue.
The raid was part of an ongoing probe into $400,000 of missing employee pension funds at a charter school operated by MACSA.
With less than two weeks left until the election, Campos will address the issue only through an aide to his sister, Nora Campos, the current District 5 councilmember.
Rolando Bonilla, Nora Campos media director, says that Xavier Campos has no responsibility to speak to the subject. Bonilla says the whole scandal is being drummed up by political hacks at the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.
[Xavier] is in a place where he has time and time again answered questions, [but] never to the satisfaction of those asking, Bonilla says. He doesnt refuseits just that
no one wants to accept his answer. Our enemies for sure want somehow that we partake in their concoction. Thats just not going to happen.
Campos, who has declined to be interviewed by Metro three times in the past two weeks, has not in fact answered any questions time and time again. Metro could only find a handful of published statements on the topic from the candidate.
On May 16, Campos told the Mercury News that he wasnt involved in delaying payment to the retirement accounts, and insisted that his role as COO was limited to implementing after-school and anti-gang programs. On May 11, the Merc wrote that Campos says he was aware of MACSA s cash-flow problems but not the diversion of funds.
On Sept. 15, a nine-page audit of Campos time at MACSA was released. Compiled by independent investigators Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team and commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce, the study contained evidence that Campos had fiduciary responsibilities at MACSA. It concluded that investigatory documents . . . raise significant questions as to the truthfulness of his
12
JESSICA FROMM
D
10M
ETR
OA
CTI
VE
.CO
M |
SA
NJO
SE.C
OM
| O
CTO
BE
R 2
0-2
6,
2010
| M
ETR
O S
ILIC
ON
VA
LLE
Y
Felipe Buitrago
BFelipe
agouitr
B
jThpawethat
imeneruOawone no
hiction.ooncctheirineaktar
w ohemostnawwaerusroffosei.weranshis ept cactonts
D
DOMMFRACSISJE
nuffunoisnepeeyooylpmeo000,004$otnieborp
oftparaswraid The atohimorffoeasonrnoeiraridemretnihguorht
nidevlovnnviNeycurryMeryaayMnOfrtopic the foluffudnah
againtimeaderewsna
wttwpastthe wevieinter
sopmaCjust sThat
retrahcataatsdng nissimfo
ongoinganf .issuethe essddr
serehttaathtse
e htottnemyaaypgniyyiaayledntnsaswehtaathtws Nee htdlotsopmamC,61y
.andidatecthe omfrnostnemetaattsdehsilbupfa dnfiylnodluoco rroMetn.
dnaemitsnoitseuqynnyafactinnothas,weekswo
nisemiteerhto rroMety bed e botdenilcedsahohw,s
en.happtogoing not
D
D
B.tcejbbusehtotkakepsonesprnohas osampChtsyaays,rotceridaidemoNBonilla,olandoRRo
ouncilmemc5District oampCora N,sisterhis
oughthronly issue thewosampCelection,thewowtnahtsselhtiWWi
MAy bbyeratedopolschonuffunoisnepeeyooylpme
sisirriClaalccasiFbdelipmoC
timosampC.tpeSnO
divthenot ASCAMfo
thatote wrgroprgang
implemenolrhisthattnemeriter
e htsyaaysallinotoy nsibilitreivvaavXtaat
osampCora .ermb
entcurrthe ,ostoaideanh essaddrwill
litnuftelskeewA.CSA
retrahcataatsdn
e cnaantsissAAstnntemeggeaagnaanM&ssrotaatggaittisevvennvitnntednepedniybby
eleased.ras wwaACSSAMAACat mefotidduaaueggeaagp-eninnia,51
.fundsof ersionvtubsmelborpwofl-hsacsA
earwaawaswwahe ys saayos ampCtcrrceMMethe 11,y MaayOn .rams
anti-andolscho-afterting tolimited as wO OCasled etsisnidnan,stnuoccat
esuffuertnseodeH.syaayssasesohtfonoitcaffasitats
er vne[but],questionsagaitimeand time has
calpanisi]reivaavX[eChamby alleVVaonSilictathacksaloliticpy b
gniebsiladnacselohw
asnoittseuqstnntemucod
oncludecItery fiduciaredeniaaitnntocorebmaamhCcdnaanmaameTTe
taathttsujstiiea llinoB,gnik
theto edweransineherehwe
.ecommerCof er oseJSan the
pudemmurdg
sihhifoofssenluffuhhftuutrtehhetotsaastnntaancfiinniggnisesiaair...syestigatorvveinnvthat ed
A.CSSAMAat onsibilities espd aadhsopmaamCtaathtecnedivvieev
yddyutsehhet,ecremmoCfoehhetybbydenoissimmimocco
12
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BER
20-26
, 2010
| SAN
JOSE
.COM
| ME
TRO
AC
TIVE
.COM
11
Three-course dinners, Three great prices
www.siliconvalleyrestaurantweek.com
Affinity
Tapestry
and more!
Rosens Last StandIn a small courtroom on the fifth floor of the Hall of Justice, Jeff Rosen made the final arguments of his last trial as a hands-on prosecutor on Tuesday. With thin fingers, he karate-chopped the air like a symphony conductor cueing the string, brass and percussion sections, except the players here were three accused murderers. The buyer, the
middleman, the hit man, he called them.Rosen wont engage in retail justice anymore when he
takes wholesale control of the District Attorneys office in January. Its uncommon to witness an elected DA in a jurisdiction as big as Santa Clara County, the nations 17th biggest, actually practicing his craft. And its probably just as rare for a government attorney to plead his case to the jury box, then pack his briefcase and head directly to the corner office. His opponent Dolores Carr derisively characterized Rosen as four levels below me, just before he unseated her.
Relaxed and precise, Rosen introduced his thesis: Obsession. Control. Anger. Murder. Rosen remained disciplined as he dissected the conspiracy, the evidence and points of law for the jury. He made spare use of theatrical flourishes or vocal acrobatics as he calmly moved through a Powerpoint presentation. The brutality of the crime spoke for itself when he showed pictures of former Los Gatos restaurateur and bar owner Mark Achillis blood-soaked body on the asphalt, then followed with autopsy shots of gunshot wounds in Achillis head, chest, arm and leg. Achillis widow began to cry. She dropped her face into her hands, sobbed some more and left the courtroom.
Accused mastermind Paul Garcia looked like an
attorney in wire frame glasses, a crisp white collar rising above his tailored black suit. Garcia continuously scribbled on a lined yellow pad. Behind him, in the audience, his mother sat. From time to time she took notes with a purple eraser capped pencil and stared down spectators with her large brown eyes.
If the jury accepts Rosens pitch of a love triangle that led to a murder for hire and the evidence is convincing, hell secure his last conviction. His memories of poring through exhibits and making arguments will still be fresh when he transfers to the high-backed chair, without having dulled his combat skills in a judges robe or a middle management desk job, as is customary.
His meteoric rise and command of detail betray his intellect, but he communicates with disarming normalcy in street language to make points. Rosen quotes witness Ali Aminihohars recollection of Garcia saying Achilli doesnt know who hes fucking with and mentions a late night booty call, a pissed off girlfriend and an object of his affections who blows him off.
He projects images of Garcias lovelorn text messages to the girlfriend he shared with Achilli. Come over and stay w/me. call me --answer your phone.
Shes playing you, Rosen advises the text messager. Move on!
The March 9 and 10, 2008 messages were followed by cash withdrawals, wired money the shooting of Achilli on March 14. Left behind was a trail of evidence that included DNA in a black LA Dodgers baseball cap, a bullet clip, printed directions from Burbank to the victims Los Gatos townhome and a torn page with Achillis photo from a Metro story on the web.
Rosen thanked the jury and rested his case. Mark Achillis ashes will soon find a resting place on the beach near the 17th hole at Pebble Beach, a friend of the late businessman said.
Dan Pulcrano
statements to the San Jose Mercury News.
Following the Oct. 14 raid, Campos told the Merc that he felt vindicated by the fact that he has not been named a suspect. Santa Clara County District Attorneys spokeswoman Amy Cornell confirms that Campos is not currently a suspect, but emphasizes that the case is ongoing, and that investigators are still entrenched in exploring the seized evidence.
Since it is a pending investigation, we are not able to discuss specifically what we are looking for, Cornell says. What happens in any investigation is that we will gather the information
that is needed to review and make an appropriate filing decision, whether to file charges or not file charges. Thats what will happen here as well.
Campos City Council opponent, Magdalena Carrasco, has demanded that he remove himself from the race and directly address the issue at a public forum.
Unsurprisingly, Campos has not responded.
Carrasco says she believes indictments are imminent in this case, based on the feedback she says shes gotten from former MACSA employees in recent weeks.
My response is that [Campos] feeling of vindication is short sighted, Carrasco says. Its an investigation in progress.
SVNEWS 1012M
ETR
OA
CTI
VE
.CO
M |
SA
NJO
SE.C
OM
| O
CTO
BE
R 2
0-2
6,
2010
| M
ETR
O S
ILIC
ON
VA
LLE
Y
Bonilla says that Campos is being treated unfairly by the media, who have widely endorsed Carrasco in the race.
Let me ask you this, where is the full page expose on the fact that Magdalena didnt pay her taxes for several years? Bonilla asks. Or the fact that she didnt pay her garbage, or the fact that she didnt pay her library fees. Wheres that story?
Carrasco filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy five years ago, and did not file income tax returns for several years during which she was caring for her elderly parents. When she did file, she did not owe any back taxes. She has been open in discussing her past money problems.
MARK ACHILLI MURDER TRIAL
10
sicedgnilfietaatirporppawvieertoneededisthat
otrehtehw,noisane makandw
fnnfudetaatertsBonilla
e vveaavhohhow,aiddemehtybbyyllyriaaiffaeingbisosampCthat ys saay
sia oc
Aa
ybto
Nast
rasrotaatgitsevnnvitaathtdnangnioggonocthethat emphasizesbutect,suspnerructonsispomaCtaathtsmrfinoroCymAnaanmowsekkepossyenrottttAAtrtsiDyttynuoCaralCatnntaS.tcpesusmannebetonsahehtaathttcaffaehty
atevindicelt ffehethatcMerrcthe oldpmaC,diaair41.tcOehtgniwolloF
.wsNeey rryucrrceMMeesoJJonaSSatheto atements
10
nimmierastnemtcidniebehssyaaysocsasrraC
onded.esprmamC,yy,lgnisirprusnU
orum.ffopublic thess addrectly dirand
himselevemorhethath,oarrascCMagdalena
ouncCy CitosampCeherenhappwill whatcelfitonrosegrahcelfi
gppp
erasec
y ltnllenr
tcirdem
edspo
sihtnitnens eveil
tonsahsopm
aatissue heeracthe omfrlf
demandedhasonent,oppcil
well.ase s taathT.segrarhc
,
ctpurknabcosarraCthseWhertdidnshe agrehyayptOr.askssor ffoaxes t
Magdthatpafull the
emteLendwidely
dnaogasraeyevfiyc31retpahCroffodelfio
y?storhat .eesffey librarhery payt
tahttcaffaehtro,egabratdidnshe that factthe
Bonillaears?yeral vseherypaytdidndalenafacttheon osexpeage
s ierehw,sihtuoyksae.eracthein o arrascCdorsed
,yy
siW
ww
vetssi
taatmroffoniehtrehtaatglliwwewtaathtoitatgitsevnnviynnyanisneppahtaathWsornell C,orffooking loe arwe whatacfiicepsssucsidotelbabtoneraew
estigativinnvending pa isit eSinc.evidenc
iesehtgnirolpxenidehcnertnellirasrotaatgitsevnnvitaathtdnan,gnioggono
egroprin estigationvinyssaayoarrascCsighted,
iation vindicof eeling ffethaisonse esprMy
went ecrineesyyeemplomroffomorffrnettttogsehs
eedffethe onbased ,asecnimmierastnemtcidni
n oitn o
.yssaayy llal
on,
d ezie r
.essansIt.tshoris
os] amp[Cat.eeks
ASCAMremyssaayshe back
s ihtnitnen
.oblemsprdiinenopbnyaewoehsnehW
aringcaswlarevesroffolfitondidctpurknab
ymonepast her iscussingneebsahehSs.exatkcab
tondidehse,lfidide.entsparelderlyher or ffoge hshcihwgnirudsraeyl
s nruterxatemconied nao,gasraeyevfiyc
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BER
20-26
, 2010
| SAN
JOSE
.COM
| ME
TRO
AC
TIVE
.COM
13
Fear and Loathing At the WSJAHHHHHHhhhahhhaha! All anyone was talking about Monday was the series of articles that the Wall Street Journal has written about a Privacy Breach at Facebook, front page above the fold stuff, all the fruit of a Wall Street Journal investigation.
Well put aside the fact that no mention was made of the Wall Street Journals sister company and Facebook competitor MySpace.
Most people in tech, let alone the general population, have no idea what the article is even about. But even the top paragraph summary, when read carefully, is a snoozer:
Many of the most popular applications, or apps, on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying informationin effect, providing access to peoples names and, in some cases, their friends namesto dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
Yes, thats what this is all about. Sometimes identifying information about youyour name and maybe your friends namesis theoretically being passed on from Facebook to apps and then to advertising networks. Along the way its being stored by various companies that are in the business of gathering data about people to resell to others, chiefl y Rapleaf.
The way this is being done is via referrer URLs (99 percent of the general population just got lost on what those are),
which can contain profi le IDs. Which can then be used to look up users. And whatever information that user has in his or her public profi le can then be scraped and added to a database.
And then . . . well, nothing. Its in a database. And theoretically can be used to target ads to you.
Is this a real problem? No. Are lots of people freaking out because they have no idea what referrer IDs are but trust the WSJ to tell them when they need to be concerned? Yes.
Will a bunch of attorneys general with aspirations for the Senate launch an investigation on this? Probably.
Is it a webwide problem, not just a Facebook problem? Yes.
Would we mock one of our own writers on Yammer if they said they wanted to write this story? A lot.
If you do stuff online, people are tracking it and putting it into a database and trying to sell you stuff based on that. Theres not much you can do about it except not be online. And its not all that bad, really, to get ads for diapers when youre having a baby, or ads for cars when you are looking to buy a car. MICHAEL ARRINGTON, TECHCRUNCH.COM
MG Siegler Thats it. Im quitting Facebook. For at least a week. Until I decide to join again. But for now Im totally quitting. This is the last fi nal last straw!!!!
Samir My favorite thing is that people continue to complain about Facebook making money off of them. Facebook spends millions of dollars to offer you people a free service to post their pics and brag about their social lives and people have the nerve to complain that Facebook is trying to use their info.
JKT Sorry, but yes this is a big deal. If someone says your data is private and then that data gets out, a wrong has been done. You apparently have no sense of privacy but some of us do.
nick I have to wonder if its a coincidence that the WSJ, with its direct subscription monetization model, is stirring up fear against the processes and players of the ad-supported web model.
Greg M Actually, if you look at the entire series of articles the WSJ has been running about What they know online its a very impressive bit of journalism that is bringing accountability to the online world.
idontknowhowtousetheinternet You mean what I do online isnt private? . . . Is someone reading this comment right now?!
marybaum I can be on the Microcenter site, or iFixit, looking at hardware parts. And there come my ads for j. jill and Talbots Woman! Like, no matter how geeky I get those referrers are always going to know Im a plus-sized, middle-aged woman, and follow me around with my fat jeans and sensible sweaters.
anon Is talking like this one of the lamest rhetorical devices ever? Yes. Does it sound stupid every time someone does it? Yes. Will that ever stop people from doing it? No.
billy bob Whats facebook?
How to Stop Facebook From Sharing Your InformationAccording to a new report in the Wall Street Journal, nearly all of the most popular apps on Facebookincluding Farmville, Causes and Quiz Planethave been sharing users information with advertising and tracking companies. Heres how to stop them.
The problem, reports the Journals Emily Steele, is that the Facebook apps werepossibly inadvertentlyrevealing the
sv411.com14M
ETR
OA
CTI
VE
.CO
M |
SA
NJO
SE.C
OM
| O
CTO
BE
R 2
0-2
6,
2010
| M
ETR
O S
ILIC
ON
VA
LLE
Y
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BE
R 20
-26, 20
10 | SA
NJO
SE.CO
M | M
ETR
OA
CTIV
E.CO
M15
addresses of users Facebook pages, which contain the users unique Facebook IDs, and in some cases, their names.
The information being transmitted is one of Facebooks basic building blocks: the unique Facebook ID number assigned to every user on the site. Since a Facebook user ID is a public part of any Facebook profi le, anyone can use an ID number to look up a persons name, using a standard web browser, even if that person has set all of his or her Facebook information to be private.
Theres only one way to ensure protection against apps sharing your information: Turn them off entirely. Think about it: What apps do you use? How frequently do you use them? Do you really need them? Farmville? Seriously? Most Facebook apps are a waste of your time and dont enhance your use of the site at all. So turn them off.
suffersfoolsgladly When I fi rst became suspicious of this, I would put strange things in my personal info, to see if a search engine would pick it up, stuff like saying I really liked water. Sure enough, bottled water ads would appear in a day or so when I opened my page.
Konjibhu Its just a stupid simple thing that lets friends keep in touch! Its not some binary cultural marker (unless you make it one).
gcomt Facebook could suddenly decide that all accounts are open to everyone, and theres nothing anyone could do about it. Once you create an account or post anything, the horse is out of the barnforever.
Sharp Shiny Claws Also, defriend everyone you know who plays Farmville, because you know youve already hidden them from your home page, and seriously? Who are these people and why do you really care about them?
johnnyichiban Amazing. Every picture of Zuckerberg looks like he just walked into or is walking out of the wrong room. I guess he just has a face that says, Oops.
the best of the local web
Bridge To Nowhere
SVNEWS
She even managed to take a cheap shot at Michelle Obama and to insult the memory of San Joses Pat Tillman, the local football hero and NFL star who was killed by friendly fi re in Afghanistan six years ago.
Perhaps most ironic of all, the woman who many consider the most electrifying force in the Republican Party and who is now the betting favorite in Vegas to win the partys 2012 presidential nomination, didnt mention a single GOP candidate in a rambling 40-minute speech before an adoring, albeit less-than-capacity audience at the San Jose Center for Performing Arts.
This was one of Palins fi rst forays into traditionally blue territory in Californiaher previous appearances in California have taken place in red pockets of conservativism throughout the Central Valley and Southern
GEOFFREY DUNN
S
16M
ETR
OA
CTI
VE
.CO
M |
SA
NJO
SE.C
OM
| O
CTO
BE
R 2
0-2
6,
2010
| M
ETR
O S
ILIC
ON
VA
LLE
YCaliforniaand as I pulled up to the center, I was expecting to see some sort of counterprotest outside. There was none. The last time I attended a Palin event (in Redding this past February), there was a substantial protest and very long lines, as everyone was given a good frisking for concealed weapons and recording devices before being allowed inside.
Let me acknowledge from the get-go that the crowd was much more diverse (in respect to both age and ethnicity) and much mellower than I anticipated. These were not country club Republicans by any meansmore like the dispirited petite bourgeoisiemany of them small business owners sick of a government bureaucracy they perceive to be taxing and regulating them at every turn. Nor was it intensely angry, right-wing America, blistering hatred with each breath. They were polite and reserved and waiting to worship the canned utterances of the Queen of the Tea Party, whom they clearly adored.
My seat was situated between a very nice woman from Redwood City who owned a fl oral shop (and was the mother of grown children) and a retired mechanic from Fremont in his late 60s, clearly concerned that the Social Security system was on the verge of bankruptcy. (I didnt have the heart to tell him that Palins candidate for the U.S. Senate in Alaska, Joe Miller, views Social Security as unconstitutional). She found Palin pretty, bright and quick on her feet, while he viewed her as
tough and fearless. Both admitted to watching a lot of Fox News. She was a fan of Beck; he of Hannity. And they both thoroughly detested Obama.
Aft er watching a great deal of footage of Palin these past two years while working on a critical biography of her, one never knows which Sarah Palin will show-upthe angry, vicious Palin (who delivered a demagogic speech just last week in San Diego); the giddy, nearly vacuous Palin (who recently appeared in an interview on Newsmax); the stunned, cross-eyed Palin (of Katie Couric fame); or Americas sweetheart, as the Washington Posts Chris Cillizza generously dubbed her (following her speech at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis). She came with the A-game version of the
When the going gets weird, the
weird turn pro.Hunter S.
Thompson
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BE
R 20
-26, 20
10 | SA
NJO
SE.CO
M | M
ETR
OA
CTIV
E.CO
M17
last Sarah Palin in San Jose, and the audience lapped it up.
Palinclad in high-heeled sandals, a snug black skirt and a purple suit jacket with the requisite American fl ag pin on her lapelmade sure to garner headlines with remarks about Pelosi, Brown and Boxer, saying that they act like theyre permanent residents of some unicorn ranch in Fantasy Land. She also joked about there being a Mama Grizzly on the state fl ag and made several references to the San Francisco Giants and their National League West title (and if that jinxes them in the playoff s, Im seriously going to hold that against her).
Palin paid due homage to the patron saint of the modern-day conservative movement, Ronald Reagan, the Republican president (and former governor of California), whose administration expanded government spending and increased the national defi cit by 300 percent. Such details have never mattered to Sister Sarah and her minions.
But perhaps the most galling remarks Palin made were about the late Pat Tillman, the Leland High football star who gave up the glories of the gridiron to serve in the Army Rangers in the Middle East, and whose tragic death in Afghanistan was shamefully covered up by American military offi cials and the Bush administration. Aft er several tours of duty he had become critical
of the Bush administration and opposed the war in Iraq, where he also served.
Palin used Tillman as a billboard for American militarism, and in so doing, not only shamed his legacy but insulted those members of his family who have honored his feelings about the war in the aft ermath of his death. She knows no shame.
Palin then executed an insensitive segue by mocking remarks made by Michelle Obama during the 2008 campaign: You know, when I hear people say, or had said during the campaign, that theyve never been proud of America, Palin said with a self-satisfi ed grin spreading across her face, havent they met anybody in uniform yet? I get tears in my eyes when I see that young man, that young woman, walking through the airport in uniform . . . you, too . . . so proud to be American.
The crowd roared its approval, because Palin showed her willingness to stick the stiletto not only into the president but into the First Lady as well. That is part of Palins appealher willingness to go for the jugular. Shes a fi gure straight out of professional wrestling, and she loves playing the part of the villain. The nice lady and gentleman on both sides of me cheered her on.
As Bill Clinton recently noted, we are apparently entering into a fact-free period in American politics,
where the experience in government is a negative. Palins only commodity is her celebritynothing more, and certainly nothing less. She has parlayed it into an international brand that is lasting well beyond the 15 minutes most of us imagined her to possess. If her performance in San Jose is any indication, shes getting her shtick down and has tapped into a troubling American zeitgeist. As a wise man once said, buyer beware. Sarah Palin is still peddling a bridge to nowhere.
SILICON ALLEYS18
ME
TRO
AC
TIV
E.C
OM
| S
AN
JOSE
.CO
M |
OC
TOB
ER
20
-26
, 20
10 |
ME
TRO
SIL
ICO
N V
ALL
EY
GARY SINGH
TThe author recently visited the
Old Strathcona neighborhood of Edmonton, Alberta, where he witnessed how that city implemented a plan to do something with all the hideous utility boxes on the sidewalk.
Most cities have these boxes, usually part of the traffic or telecommunications systems, and
conclusion that nothing remotely as cool would ever happen in San Jose.
Well, he was wrong. But before the author knew he was wrong, he spewed an impulsive, infantile tirade on his Facebook page to voice his frustration. It went a little something like this: The city of SJ wouldnt even UNDERSTAND anything this interesting or culturally advanced. Theyd probably make you pay $40,000 in permits. Youd have to get a paintbrush permit, a trash can permit, a sponge permit, a masking tape permit, plus permission to wear overalls in a public place and probably a hundred other things. And then the Roscoe P. Coltranes over at the police dept. would require at least 10 overtime cops to be present all day long to make sure no one is sneaking a can of beer in his paint supply box. And then the Fire Marshall would demand a walk-thru with the Downtown Association to make sure everything is proper. But before all that, the RDA would insist that the artwork poses a threat to the five people whove moved into the
400 new condos, and the city would spend probably 18 months dividing the entire conversation up into 12 different committees to decide which shade of blue is the adequate color.
Only a day later did the author realize the city is much hipper than he gave it credit for. Turns out, San Jose was already in the process of spearheading just such a project. The RDA, who actually initiated the endeavor, experimented by wrapping printed murals around two specific utility boxes, but one was easily torn off by a vandal.
Eric Hon of the San Jose Downtown Association said that the Downtown Property Business Improvement District (PBID) is creating a scope for the project, which includes 152 boxes within the district.
[PBID] is now is in the process of identifying the high visibility areas that would be addressed first, he said. We are also evaluating the type of application to be used. The wraps are one option but there are some concerns about their durability over time. Painting the utility boxes is another viable option. I am having conversations with other cities who have similar projects to see whats the best approach.
Several entities own the boxes, including PG&E, Comcast and AT&T. The boys at AT&T have run into serious resistance in cities across the country, including St. Louis and San Francisco, where residents have rallied against the mass installation of these hideous boxes. They are indeed considered an eyesore by many folks.
Well, with San Jose currently hyping itself as the world center of innovation, longing to be the capital of solar technology, green initiatives and such, one can dream that someday we wont even need these unsightly utility boxes. But San Jose is most likely stuck with AT&T forever, at least in some sense or another. In that regard, the author just hopes he is wrong again.
Mural Mattersresidents often complain about the unsightliness of a monolithic gray box protruding from the sidewalk. Theyre just plain ugly. Well, as many cities have done, Edmonton hired artists to paint 40 of them with highly creative murals.
The Strathcona neighborhood itself is a community of historical buildings with a smattering of local independent retailers and one that already encourages local artists of any sort. The main drag is Whyte Avenue, a mile-long boulevard of colorful shops, restaurants, pubs, theaters and shopping. It is Edmontons urban corridor for the idiosyncratic, its antiRodeo Drive.
As the author skulked his way about, he investigated the vivid murals on the utility boxes. Instead of seeing the positive, he became tarnished with a natural feeling of dissatisfaction and came to the
SILICON ALLEYS
cwen004
orpdneps
d luowyticehtdna,sodnoc
gnidivvidshtnom81ylbabb
orpdnepseritneehtctnereffffeidbfoedahsdaylnOehtezilaertievaavgeh
lasawwaesoJdadehraeps,ADRRDehT,rovaavedne
mdetnirp
g nidivvidshtnom81ylbabb
21otnipunoitaatsrevnnvochcihwedicedotseettimmoc
.rolocetaatuqedaehtsieulbr ohtuaehtdidretaatlyaayd
nahtreppihhcumsiyticenaS,tuosnruT.roffotiderc
fossecorpehtniydaerl.tcejoojrpahcustsujgnid
ehtdetaatitiniyllalutcaohwg nipparwybdetnemirepxe
cfiicepsowttwdnuoraslarum
mdetnirpxobyttyilituavaybffooHcirEwotnwoDnwoDehtmevorpmIagnitaaterc51sedulcni]DIBP[gnifyyiitnedidluowtaatht
c fiicepsowttwdnuoraslarumnrotylisaesawwaenotub,sex
.laldnane soJnanSehtfon
taathtdiaaisnoitaaticossAnwssenisuByttyreporPnwotn
si)DIBP(tcirtsiDtnemhcihw,tcejoojrpehtroffoepocs.tcirtsidehtnihtiwsexob25
f ossecorpehtnisiwonsi]saeraytilibisivvhgihehtg
diaaisehtsrfidesserddaebd
dluowtaathtlaleraeWWenoitatcilppappoenoerarasnrecnocniaaiP.emitivvirehtonanitaatsrevnnvoclimisevaavhorppaptseblareveSgnidulcni
.diaaiseh,tsrfidesserddaebdfoepyttyehtgnitaatulalveosl
sparwehT.desuebotnemoserarerehttubnoitp
revoovyttyilibabrudriehttuobas isexobyttyilituehtgnitn
g nivaavhmamI.noitpoelbaio hwseiticrehtohtiwwsno
e htstaathweesotstcejoojrprarl.hcao
,sexobehtnwoseititnednatsacmoCE&GP
SYRAG
T
HGNISer
ubTic
httuobaniaailpmocneftostnediseyaayrgcihtilonomafossenilthgisnuklawwaedisehtmorffrgnidurtorpxo
msas,lleWWe.yy.lguniaailptsujeryehTderihhnotnomdE,enodevaavhseiti
nihtontaathtnoisulcnoceppahrevedluowlooc
gnorwsasweh,lleWWewehwenkrohtuaueht,evislupminadewepsegapkoobecaFsihnolatnewtI.noitaatrtsurffrSfoyticehT:sihtekil
DNATTASRRSEDNUnevelalrutlucrognitseretni
klbbdhT
e hy
.ky nnya
d
sasyletomergn.esoJnaSnine
eroffoebtuB.geh,gnorwsawwa
e daritelitnaffanis iheciovot
g nihtemoselttiltndluowJSSJ
sihtgnihtyytnnya.decnanvdayll
gnidulcniehT.TT.&TAATuoiresotnirtnuoceht
cnarFnanSagadeillaredihesehtderedisnociww,lleWWeestignipyhhynoitaatvonnicetralosfo
d natsacmoC,E&GPnurevaavhT&&TTAATtaatsyobe
ssorcaseiticniecnantsisersud nasiuoL.tSgnidulcni,yy,re vaavhstnedisererehw,ocsi
fonoitaatllatsnissamehttsniaaid eednierayehT.sexobsuoe.skloffoynanmyberoseyenand
y ltnerrucesoJnaShtif oretnecdlrowehtsasfle
laltipacehtebotgnigginol,nsevveitaatitinineergyoglonhc
TrohtuauehT
ehtdetisivviyltnecerr
rarh
tibnilalos
ahshs
h tiwwmehtfo04tniaaipotstsitr.slarumevitaatercylhgihh
d oohrobhgienanochtaatrtSehTlalcirotsihfoytinummocasiflestcolfognirettttatmsahtiwwsgnidliuahtenodnasreliaitertnednepednfostsitralacolsegagruocneydaerlevAAvetyythhyWsigardniaaimehT.troluffurolocfodraveluobgnol-elimasretaateht,sbup,stnanruautser,spoh
nanbrusnotnomdEsitI.gnippoh
ekamylbaborpdyehTY.stimrepni000,04$mrephsurbtniaaipategmrepegnopsa,timrepmrepsulp,timrepepatbupanisllalrevoraewoderdnuhaylbaborpPeocsoRRoehtnehtdnAtpedecilopehttatrevoocemitrevo01tsaseltaatotgnolyaaydllatneserp
l actaat
ynnyaf,eun
d na
y aaypuoyyoeotevaavhduoYYo
nanchsarta,timg niksasma,tim
o tnoissimd naecalpcilb.sgnihtrehtsenartloCPP.
eriuqerdluow.te botspo
o nerusekamo
cetralosfo,hcusdnanwyaaydemos
ylthgisnuylekiltsom
nitsaeltaatdragertaatht
agnorwsi
sevveitaatitinineerg,yy,oglonhctaathtmaerdnanceno
e sehtdeennevetnowewsiesoJnanStuB.sexobyttyilitu
,reveroffoT&TAAThtiwwkcutsynI.rehtonaroesnesemos
e hsepohtsujrohtuaueht,d.niaaiga
nochtatrtSdlOnotnomdEfoohdessentiwsodotnalpatilitusuoedihseitictsoMotrarpyllalusuinummocelet
d oohrobhgienane herehw,atreblA,n
d etnemelpmiytictaathtwehtllahtiwgnihtemos
.klawedisehtnosexobytty,sexobesehtevaavh
rocffiaffirtehtfod na,smetsyssnoitaatci
ocnan
babmoat
o
sti,citaatrcnysoidiehtrofforodirro.evirDoedoRRoitn
y aaywsihdekluksrohtuaehtsAdivvivviehtdetaatgitsevnieh,tuob
aetsnI.sexobyttyilituehtnoslalrumemacebeh,evitisopehtgnieesf
g nileeffelarutaatnahtiwdehsinrare htotemacdnanoitcacffasitaatssidf
onacagnikkaenssienodnA.xobylppustniaipameddluowllalhsraMAnwotnwoDehthtiw
gnihtyytreveerusekakmDRRDeht,taathtllaleroffoebesopkrowtraehttaathtomevohwelpoepevfi
da
s ihnireebfoeriFehtnehtdu rht-kk-lalwadnan
o tnoitaaticossAtuB.reporpsitsisnidluowADe htottaaterhtas
e htotnidevo
SanJoseInside.comAn inside look at San Jose politics
Open Letter to the Board Of Education
OWhat follows are opening remarks
I gave in public session on Oct. 13 prior to the vote on whether to undo the censure vote of Aug. 25 against board member Craig Mann and then revote.
Two years ago on Nov. 4, 2008, I celebrated with friends and family my election to this board. I felt that as a educator I had the knowledge and skills to help move a progressive agenda forward. Tonight I sit here confused, sad and angry. The boards lack of diplomacy and resolve to do better is appalling. The publics disgust is hurtful to me. Here is what the SJI bloggers say about us in recent weekly posts:
Blogger Teachable Moment writes, Ladies and Gentlemen, in the midst of a 12 percent unemployment, a crumbling economy and a 20 billion dollar defi cit, we are paying for this pointless and silly sideshow.
Poster Al Schlarmann writes, Get rid of or drastically change the role of school boards. Too many school board members know almost nothing about education. School boards are used as a stepping stone to higher political offi ce, and as such, many of the boards decisions are political, not aimed toward what is best for schools.
Blogger Reader says, This month there were no eff orts to censure fellow trustees, no race-bating memos from board members and no call on the superintendent to defend his job, so I guess that counts as a pretty good month for the SCC Board of Education.
We are here in this special session tonight to undo something we did several meetings ago and then perhaps redo the sanction vote against member Mann. Now we have new sanctions being requested for Oct. 20 by member Grace Mah about campaign
contributions not disclosed to this board by Mann and president Anna Song from 2008s council and Assembly races, respectively. When does it end? When do we give voice to these issues? Instead of tonights meeting we should:
(1) Determine how the SCCOE can support the goal of recruiting quality credentialed math teachers to SCC.
(2) Meet with the Committee on School District Organization on the Civil Grand Jurys Report on School District Consolidation.
(3) Convene a special meeting with year one results on our SJ2020 goal of eliminating the achievement gap. The project was inaugurated one year agothe gap is still as wide as ever.
(4) Convene a special meeting on the pay-for-performance models used in other states and in charter schools in California and Silicon Valley, and then distribute that information to our districts superintendents, school boards and teacher union leaders.
(5) Meet to discuss the results of our Charter School Summit and Proposition 39 Roundtable.
(6) Meet to discuss the work Gates Foundation is doing on alternative structures to existing tenure laws.
There are many things we could be doing as a governing body instead of the money and staff time we are using up tonightfor what, I ask? I know the problems with our public education system are enormous, but they remain solvable. Elected school boards can lead in concert with a superintendent who will take risks for the betterment of the whole. Can we please get back to the most important business, the children and teachers of Santa Clara County and the Offi ce of Education? Please? Joseph DiSalvo
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BE
R 20
-26, 20
10 | SA
NJO
SE.CO
M | M
ETR
OA
CTIV
E.CO
M19
20M
ETR
OA
CTI
VE
.CO
M |
SA
NJO
SE.C
OM
| O
CTO
BE
R 2
0-2
6,
2010
| M
ETR
O S
ILIC
ON
VA
LLE
Y
WHEN
21
N WORLDS COLLIDE
RICHARD VON BUSACK
H
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BE
R 20
-26, 20
10 | SA
NJO
SE.CO
M | M
ETR
OA
CTIV
E.CO
M
22
CHARLES BURNS 21
Xed Out constitutes a new triumph for the cartoonist best known for his series Black Hole, which is awaiting adaptation into a fi lm. Burns, calling from his Philadelphia home, says of the project, I think the last I heard is that things are still moving forward, and as far as I know theres a script and David Fincher is still attached as a producertheyre still looking for directors.
Xed Out takes place in two dimensions with a shaky barrier between them. In a basement, Nitnit, a shock-haired fi gure, wakes up on his folding couch bed. Inky, a long-lost cat (God, I . . . I thought
you were dead) leads Nitnit through an aperture in a brick wall into a parallel world in ruins: there are collapsed tombs and green swamps where piggish humanoids fl oat. The wanderer passes an incubation room full of enormous eggs with scarlet blotches, tended by furious man-sized salamanders.
The trek continues into a threatening foreign setting, where diseased merchants sell repulsive, living food. Nitnit is aided by a sinister, swollen half-pint in a dhoti. Unbidden come visions of an ailing, depressed father, who is giving up his
22
25
ME
TRO
AC
TIV
E.C
OM
| S
AN
JOSE
.CO
M |
OC
TOB
ER
20
-26
, 20
10 |
ME
TRO
SIL
ICO
N V
ALL
EY
TF
WE
408-733 1878408-992 0448
Programs Offered:
595 Lawrence Expwy, Sunnyvale, CA 94085
SPRING 2011 NOW
Accepting Applications!
Consultation & Treatment from Chinese Medicine Specialists
Our clinic opens 7 days a week
TF
WE408-992 0448
408-733 1878o@uinffo
.uwww
nnuS,ywpxEecnerwaL595
wm.eduuewm.eduue
AC,elavyn
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BE
R 20
-26, 20
10 | SA
NJO
SE.CO
M | M
ETR
OA
CTIV
E.CO
M23
ME
TRO
AC
TIV
E.C
OM
| S
AN
JOSE
.CO
M |
OC
TOB
ER
20
-26
, 20
10 |
ME
TRO
SIL
ICO
N V
ALL
EY
24
*With purchase of complete pair (frames & lenses). Flat top 28 plastic lenses or progressive no line lenses included.See store for details. Offer expires 12/31/10. **Offer valid on the purchase of frames and lenses. Free second pair of
prescription eyeglasses can be chosen from our large special frame selection with single-vision clear lenses. See storefor details. Offer expires 12/31/10. ***After manufacturers instant rebate. Offer includes 8-boxes for a one-year supplyof EasyWear 55 contact lenses. Current prescription and contact lens fitting may be required. Offer expires 12/31/10.
$99Contact Lenses (8 Boxes)
One-Year Supply***
$100 OFFA Complete Pair of EyeglassesAND A FREE 2ND PAIR**
$99Lined Bifocals or
Progressive No Line Lenses*
First Time Offer!
25
26
life to booze, TV and cigarettes, his skin jaundiced to a pale urine color.
Perhaps this is all the dream of Doug, a lay-about of the late 1970s, very ill himself. Dougs half-shaven head is bandaged, and he depends on a dwindling supply of some increasingly ineff ective medicine.
Dougs fevered mind fl ashes back to a time when he had his health, when he was an aspiring performance artist wearing a Nitnit mask, reading from his dream journal at an underground galley. There, Doug meets Sarah, a girl who poses for troubling photos. She herself is stalked by a raging ex-boyfriend who has already started destroying her possessions.
Those familiar with Burns can guess how smooth-looking such a jagged-sounding trip is. The book is laid out in primarily nine-panel pages. The foreground characters are drawn in that so-called ligne claire style popular in Low Country cartoonists, particularly the best known of them all, Herg, creator of Tintin.
The rest of the art is unmistakably
Burns: fl at panels of color or pulsating squares that look like dark-fi eld microscopy. Placid skin gives up jagged wounds; the eye is assaulted by suppurating masses of fl esh and oozing meat or blasted rocks and swamps and fl otsam. Throughout Xed Out runs that most elemental discontent: an atmosphere of being in the center of a crowd of people who want to do you harm.
Funk FiguresBurns grew up in various places across the country. A childhood touchstone, oft en referred to in interviews, is his fascination with The Outer Limits, a popular 1960s TV sci-fi anthology show with regular parables of strange invaders. Its adventures forecast the stories of Burns odd child character Big Baby. David Lynchs name gets dropped by critics who read Black Hole, which was serially published between 1995 and 2005, and then collected in book form. As one of those critics, I described Black Holes setting as a Cobainian northwestern landscape, circa 1975.
An unnamable plague strikes the young on the fringes of a Seattle suburb, the result of a degenerative disease carried by sex and shared saliva. A circle of seemingly harmless freaksas vegetating drug-takers of the time proudly called themselvesare genuine mutants. But the worst creature lurking about is only glimpsed, not fully seen. Black Hole displays Burns usual blend of fantastic monstrosity with almost photorealistic high-contrast black-and-white fi gures and faces.
The originality of the tale is rooted in the unbearably sharp feelings of adolescence. Seascape raptures are ruined by turds, bones, litter and broken glass. Vertiginous circles and jagged rents tear open the fabric of the ordinary world. But maybe the worst damage is caused by the adolescent delusion that a lover is actually a messiah.
Black Hole alludes to the shame of adolescencea chemical change that turns an unwitting child into a stranger to himself. This is also
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BE
R 20
-26, 20
10 | SA
NJO
SE.CO
M | M
ETR
OA
CTIV
E.CO
MCHARLES BURNS 22
26
29
Lynchs theme in Blue Velvet and the real story of the demon-haunted Washington woods in Twin Peaks. Both artists came from the Pacifi c Northwest; Lynch from Idaho, Burns from Washington state (as well as Washington, D.C.).
I moved around a lot but Seattle was my home base, thats where I spent the most important part of my childhood, Burns says.
Lynch and Burns also both lived in Philadelphia. Lynch is on record saying hed never live in Philadelphia again, Burns replies. But I like big decaying cities.
The use of dreamlike narratives seems to link the two artists. I asked if Burns had much of a dream life: As much as anyone else. Unlike my characters, I dont fi nd my way into other peoples heads. I pay attention to my subconscious as a source for the storytelling. The comics are a method to investigate dreams Ive had.
Ultimately, however, Lynchs and Burns sensibilities diff er. Burns, for example, uses a form of out-and-out humor that isnt found in Lynch. Where Lynch is the kind of artist who could turn up for years at the same coff ee shop, Burns is more of a wanderer. Burns schooling was varied, and it included a stint in art school at UC-Davis during the peak of the funk-art years.
Funk art was a 70s post-Pop movement based on salvaged or untraditional materials, on deep veins of humor and political content: its ecstasies countered the austere minimalism then popular in New York. Nearby in Winters, Calif., Robert Crumb was doing the best work of his career. Among many activities in the 1970s, Crumb drew for and edited Weirdo magazine, a conduit between the smartest of the hippie cartoonists and the most astute of the punks.
Later, Crumbs praises appear on the back cover of Xed Out: Its almost as if the artist . . . as if he werent human!
Burns would come to worldwide attention at a magazine that was diametrically opposite of Weirdo: Art Spiegelmans New Yorkbased Raw was an attempt to create the kind of high-art presentation the comic
book was getting in Western Europe. Designing the cover for Raw and appearing in several issues, Burns became one of its most noteworthy artists.
All this came later. At Davis, Burns was one of the fi rst Anglos to admire lucha libre culture, whence he sourced his character the masked-wrestling detective El Borbah. Theres a lot of little towns around Davis that would have Mexican magazines with wrestlers on the cover, Burns recalls. I found myself interested in that look and these almost ridiculously fun costumes. I was especially struck by one who would dress in a black suit and tie and carry a brief casea wrestler who is an executive, who comes off like a lawyer!
At UC-Davis, Burns studied a series of diff erent disciplines: I was learning photography and drawing and painting and sculpture. But a lot of my drawing had this narrative feel. I wasnt really doing a lot of comics per seright during the end of my time there, I started doing a photo comic based on the fotonovelas in Mexican magazines Id seen.
It got me into thinking about wanting to do comics, to tell a narrative for mass circulation. I thought, you could put two weeks on a drawing and sell it and never see it again. Or you could work for publication. If fi ve people wanted to read it, thatd be great. If 50,000 people wanted to read it, thatd be even better.
Burns also attended Evergreen State in Washington for a time, where notable alternative cartoonists Matt Groening and Lynda Barry were students. Matt was editing the Cooper Point Journal, the school paper; I worked there for a year, laying out adds, doing paste-up and writing comics.
That 70s ShowBurns has never been an artist who fancied direct autobiography, but the passages of Xed Out regarding punk rock in the late 1970s are as evocative as the stories of teen rejects in the woods in Black Hole.
ME
TRO
AC
TIV
E.C
OM
| S
AN
JOSE
.CO
M |
OC
TOB
ER
20
-26
, 20
10 |
ME
TRO
SIL
ICO
N V
ALL
EY
CHARLES BURNS 25
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BE
R 20
-26, 20
10 | SA
NJO
SE.CO
M | M
ETR
OA
CTIV
E.CO
M27
Single in the bay area?
AC U P U N C T U R E HERB S EN E R G E T I C S D I E T MAS S AG E
Invest in yourfuture.Find out more about ourMasters Degree program atthe Five Branches UniversityOpen House.
Five BraNchesuniversity
Graduate School ofTraditional Chinese Medicine200 7th Avenue, Santa Cruz(831) 476-94243031 Tisch Way, San Jose(408) 260-0208
www.fivebranches.edu
OPEN HOUSESanta Cruz CampusThursday October 21,6:008:00pm Nationally accredited and
recognized as one of the nationstop programs
Federal financial aid available fortuition and living expenses
Flexible course schedules offeredin English, Chinese, and Korean
Elective certificate programs and clinical externship opportunitiesabroad
ME
TRO
AC
TIV
E.C
OM
| S
AN
JOSE
.CO
M |
OC
TOB
ER
20
-26
, 20
10 |
ME
TRO
SIL
ICO
N V
ALL
EY
28
29
Even the title of the book itself has that tell-tale X. Its a tremendously symbolic letter for punks, the letter of secrets, of the unknown. It is the letter of negation: a double pen slash through the glossy face of a poster or a billboard. There was, of course, Geza X, Billy Idols Generation X and that certain husband-and-wife band from L.A. If punk was a movement that chose exile, it also made a home for exiles.
It was liberating, that period, Burns says. I lived through it, and a portion of it has stuck with me. What I liked is the idea of taking responsibility for your own work. If tomorrow comes, and my books dont sell, Ill still do comics, even if theyre
Xeroxed photocopies. At this point in my career, I have control. No one at Pantheon explained to me what kind of project I should be doing or how I could make it a corporate project. I fi nished my book and showed it to them, and all that got changed was some spelling and punctuation. Its even the case that Ive learned the skills of how to scan the work to computer and do the colors digitally . . . with some help from friends to make sure its done properly.
Burns graphic punch derives from his evocative use of black and white. I have a fair sense of color, he says, and I wanted to make sure
31
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BE
R 20
-26, 20
10 | SA
NJO
SE.CO
M | M
ETR
OA
CTIV
E.CO
MCHARLES BURNS 26
ME
TRO
AC
TIV
E.C
OM
| S
AN
JOSE
.CO
M |
OC
TOB
ER
20
-26
, 20
10 |
ME
TRO
SIL
ICO
N V
ALL
EY
30
METROGIVEAWAYS.COM
FreeStuffEnter to win
LeonardCohenTickets
CHECK OUT MORE GREAT PRIZES:
attorneys
The Law Offices of
Ronald Z. Berki
Over 26 Years Defense Experience Free Consultation Felony, Misdemeanor & Juvinile Law DUI, Narcotics & Domestic Violence DMV Hearings/Suspended LicenseExperience Can Make the Difference
www.sanjosegetlegalhelp.com
408.463.6927
CRIMINAL DEFENSE
& legal services to advertise call 408.200.1308
The Law Office of
Guy J. Caputo
Bankruptcy - Chapter 7 and 13 Tenant Rights Free Initial consultation with attorney Free Debt and Bankruptcy Analysis Stop Harrassment/Repos/Levies/
Lawsuits/Judgements/Foreclosure Save Your Assets - Get control NOW!
"Call today - get relief now"
www.advantagebk7.com
408.603.7688
BANKRUPTCY LAW
Spanishtranslator
available
31
I was avoiding coming up with a colorized version of black and white. Obviously, part of what I wanted to do was a book in the style and that format of the French/Belgian comic-book album, a style commonplace over there, if not here.
Xed Outs cover is a tribute to Hergs 1942 Tintin adventure LEtoile Mystrieuse, called in English The Shooting Star, depicting our journalist hero fl abbergasted by a 15-foot-tall
mushroom. And of course, the shock-haired dream fi gure Nitnit is about as cleverly disguised as aCount Alucard ever was in a horror movie. That goes double for Nitnits pet Inky the Cat, standing in for Snowy the Dog.
But the nightmare landscape is almost like Tintins Naked Lunch; as if Burns had sent the Belgian boy reporter to William S. Burroughs The Zone just as modern artists send characters to Alices Wonderland or Dorothys Oz.
Certainly, Burns comments, that infl uence comes from that period in which the core of the story takes place, the 1970s. Burroughs fi t into that world, that dispossessed youth culture, fed up with post-hippie fake idealism. In Burroughs, there always
was this polarity of disgust and fascination. His dark vision of the world was something I related to.
The passage where Doug, wearing a Nitnit mask, performs a staged reading of cut-ups of the Burroughs/Brion Gyson school was indeed something Burns did when he was a student in the 1970s. Theres no documentation, thank God, Burns says. Theres some half-inch reel-to-reel videotape of the performance, but it hasnt seen the light of day. I wasnt like the character Doug in every way, just in some ways. He refl ects what I was doing at school.
Ultimately, even punk proved to be a temporary way station for Burns, and Xed Out may well be his elegy for it. The story is told elsewhere in memoirs of those on the scene, but as the artist says, I was just talking to Gary Panter [a fellow artist at Raw] who was the fi rst person who Id ever had a sense of being a punk cartoonist because he worked at Slash magazine. He was saying that the early days of punk were mostly girls and very wimpy art students. They were the kids who got their asses kicked at school . . . but then before long, the surf punks descended into the mosh pit. When the bruisers crashed the dance fl oor, punk was all ready for commodifi cation.
Xed Out immerses us in a nightmare vision, but theres a kind of paradise that complements its inferno. And thats what draws me in: the moments of youthful happiness. Burns is trying to reclaim the earlier sense of possibilities of punk: the goofy art student feel. Culture wasnt defi ned yet at this stage; maybe some people had seen some English magazines, theyre wearing something theyve seen the Sex Pistols wear, and they still dont know you dont have to draw swastikas on your arms. Maybe theyve still got long hair to go with the skinny tie.
Once in the fall of 1977, this girl on the street passed me; she was wearing a crooked pair of plastic sunglasses and she stopped to ask me, Do I look punk? Theres a certain sadness to that kind of behaviorI may put it in the next comic.
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BE
R 20
-26, 20
10 | SA
NJO
SE.CO
M | M
ETR
OA
CTIV
E.CO
MCHARLES BURNS 29
STETT HOLBROOK
RFish and chips was always a kind of
a guilty pleasure for me, greasy, not too healthy, but good doused with some malt vinegar and smeared with ketchup and tartar sauce. Good with beer, too. But I moved on.
Yet after a few meals at Cooks
judiciously. The thin, crunchy crust doesnt overwhelm the fish within, and the cornmeal-based batter seems to ward off the oil. Three, Cooks offers a wide variety of fried fish. Theres cod, a fish and chips classic, but you can also choose from wild Alaskan salmon, sand dabs, local and Alaskan halibut, tuna, scallops, oysters, sole, catfish, calamari and Oregon shrimp. Thats an impressive list.
The restaurant itself is a pretty straightforward deal. Open since 1928, the owners figured things out long ago. Keep it simple and keep it fresh. Order at the counter, get a number and take a seat in the clean, well-lighted dining room. There are maritime and commercial fishing images on the wall to get you in the spirit of things.
Local halibut is not only a delicious, mild-tasting meaty fish, its caught by hook and line, an ocean-friendly method that avoids by-catch.
Battered and fried, its a clean and light-tasting meal. At five pieces for $9.95, its good deal.
Sand dabs are a favorite of mine, lightly dusted in flour and sauted in butter and finished with a squeeze of lemon and maybe a few capers. I have never had them fried before, but I like them. The little fillets ($7.99) are crispy and still moist and sweet inside. The tartar sauce is good, but I still prefer the simplicity of a good squirt of lemon juice. A word about the chips, a.k.a. french fries. Theyre good, long wedges with the skin left on, crispy outside and fluffy inside, the way a fry should be.
Fish and chips is the star of the show, but there are other items worth seeking out. If fried fish isnt your thing, how about grilled fish? You can choose from grilled wild salmon and halibut fillet (both $8.99) served between slices of toasted multigrain bread.
I tried the halibut, which is good but needs a few more condiments, i.e., red onion, caper aioli or arugula. Im all for simplicity but the sandwich was too bare bones, and the toasted sandwich bread isnt doing it any favors. How about French bread or a Francese roll? Better are the burgers: breaded slabs of salmon or halibut served on old-fashioned, squishy hamburger buns.
The soups are good, too. The clam chowder ($3.29$12.99) is sweet and briny with a not-too-thick cream base. The cioppino ($5.29$20.99) is a winner. The tomatoey broth is light and aromatic and loaded with shellfish and fresh fish. The cole slaw ($1.29$6.99) gets points for being a creamy, vinegar-spiked salad that marries well with the fish.
The restaurant attracts a cross-section of suits, Stanford students and blue-collar workers who know a good thing and a good deal when they see it. And Cooks is a good thing.
Cooks Specials
SVDINING
Daniel Kouba
32M
ETR
OA
CTI
VE
.CO
M |
SA
NJO
SE.C
OM
| O
CTO
BE
R 2
0-2
6,
2010
| M
ETR
O S
ILIC
ON
VA
LLE
Y
Seafood in Menlo Park, I realized that I have been missing out. When prepared well, as it is here, fish and chips is worth rediscovering. If youve never stopped eating it, consider Cooks an upgrade.
There are several things that set the restaurant apart. One, theres a fish market connected to Cooks that boasts an impressive selection of fresh fish. The market happens to be the seafood source for one of Silicon Valleys best-known tech moguls, which means that the fish that goes into the deep fryer comes straight from the boatand that makes a difference. Fresh fish is better-tasting fish.
Two, the batter is applied
nadreettaBnitstat-hgil
Daniel
dnanaelcasti,deirffrdnr foseceipvefitA.laemg
aggsti,59.9$baddnaStsudylthgil
dnarettubnanomelfo
veenveaavhIhtekilItub
rea)99.7$(disniteewspllitsItubtriuqsdoog
oubaK
oecepeaeg.laeddoo
,enimfoetirvoaavffaareasbnidetuasdnaruoflnidet
e zeeuqsahtiwdehsinfi.srepacwfeaebyaaymdn
,refoebdeirffrmehtdahres tellfielttilehT.meh
d natsiomllitsdnaypsirc,doogsiecuasrtartaehT.e
a foyticilpmisehtrfereprdowA.eciujnomelfot
triuqsdoogcehttuobaoogreyehT
noftelniksweht,edisni
dnahsFittub,wohskeeshtrow,gnihtruyo
hcnacuoYYodnanomlas
vres)998$
rdowA.eciujnomelfot.seirffrhcnreffr.a.k.a,spihcehthtiwsegdewgnol,doy ffffyufldnaedistuoypsirc,n
.ebdluohsyrffrayaaywehtfortasehtsispihc
s metirehtoreareehttnsihsfideirffrfI.tuognik?hsfidellirgtuobawoh,
d liwdellirgmroffresoohtob(tellfitubilahdfosecilsneetwebde
vres)99.8$umdetsaothtdeirtIasdeentubinodre,.e.imI.aluguraiwdnasehtaotehtdna
gniodtnsirebhcnreF
trearetteBonomlasfo
f osecilsneetwebde.darebniargitlu
d oogsihcihw,tubilaheh,stnemidnocreomwfea
roiloiarepac,noitubyticilpmisrfollam,senobreabootsawhc
darebhciwdnasdetsat uobawoH.srvoaavffaynati
?llroesecnarFarodas balsdedareb:sregrubeht
-dlonodverestubilahro
eS
dezilareIkraPolneMnidofoafe
c,nihtehT.yy.lsuoicidujhtmlehwrveotnseodesab-laemnrocehtdna
hT.lioehtffordawotoyteiravediwasrffeodnahsfia,docsreehToohcoslanacuyotubdnasnomlasnkasalAd
t surcyhcnurc,nihtiwhsfie
smeesrettabdeskooC,ere.hsfideirffrf
,cissalcspihcd liwmroffres
lacolsbad
onomlasfos,denoihsaffa
puosehT$(redwohc
htiwynirbicehT.esab
renniwasiradnathgil
nahsfillehs9.6$92.1$(v,yy,marecaewseirram
-dlonodverestubilahro.snubregrubmahyhsiuqs
malcehT.oot,doogreaspd nateewssi)99.21$92.3$
mareckciht-oott-ona) 99.02$92.5$(onippoisihtrobyeotaatmotehT.h tiwdedaoldnacitatmrowaawlselocehT.hsfihsreffrdn
g niebrfostniopsteg)99tahtdalasdekipsr-ageniv
hsfiehthtiwll
TTETS
R
KOORBLOHTeShtrpnafIoc
htsfiob
rffrh
dezilareI,kraPolneMnidofoafehW.tuognissimneebveaavhItaath
hsfi,reehsitisa,llewdreapre.gnirveocsidrehtrowsispihcdn,tignitaedeppotsrveenveuyof
.edargpunaskooCredisnoestahtsgnihtlarveesreareehTsreeht,enO.trapatnarutasreeh
skooCotdetcennoctekramhsfonoitcelesveissrepminastsaootsneppahtekramehT.hsfihsre
lffdfh
dnas,nomlasnkasalAt,tubilahnkasalAdnaac,hsfitac,elos,sretsyostaathT.pmirhsnogreO
.tsilflestitnarutasreehTO.laedrdawrfothgiartsrugfisrenwoeht,8291pmistipeeK.ogagnolcehttarerdO.hsreffrtiaesaektadnarebmun
iiddhilll
dneh
.,
tea s
taathtf
ebo
lacol,sbad,spollacs,anut
dnairamalave issrepminas
y ttrepasifecnisnepO
tuosgnihtdrep eekdnaelp
a teg,retnuo,naelcehtnitat
hT
ewseirramtasreehTsfonoitcesoc-eulbdnanihtdooga.tieesyeht
.gniht
.hsfiehthtiwll-ssrocastcarttattnaruas tnedutsrdfontaS,stiusw onkohwsrekrowrallon ehwlaeddoogadnagn
d oogasiskooCdnA
tt
s hcdnahsFiFl saelpytliuuggaae b,yy,htlaehoooottm ivtlameemmoou
sdnapuhhe ctekk
t tuB.oot,b reebt areftaateeYYe
f odnikasyaywlasawspiht on,yy,sareg,emrforeus
htiwdesuoddoogtubhtiwdreaemsdnaragenihtiwdooG.ecuasrtarta
.nodveomIts kooCtaslaemwfe
htVwnirffridsfi
iliSfoenorfoercuosdofoafesehslugomhcetnwonkt-sebsyellaVVagtahthsfiehttathtsnaemhcihwhgiairtssemocryerffrpeedehtotnasekamtathtdnataobehtmrostar-ettebsihsfihsreF.ecnreffei
.hsd eilppasirettabeht,owTTw
orogniniddethgil-llewremmocdnaemitiram
otllawehtnosegami.sgnihtfotirips
tonsitubilahlacLognitsta-dlim,suoicilednildnakoohybthguacatathtdohtemyldneirffr
noci,
s eot h
a g nits
re areehT.mog nihsfilairc
e htniuyoteg
a ylnosti,hsfiytatem
-naecona,en.hctac-yy-bsdivoaav
ME
TRO
SILICON
VALLE
Y | O
CTO
BER
20-26
, 2010
| SAN
JOSE
.COM
| ME
TRO
AC
TIVE
.COM
33
Palo Altobook online at paloalto.net
BELLA LUNA RISTORANTE ITALIANO Italian. $$$. Sunny Tuscan hues saturate the interior, and the dishes of this downtown Palo Alto restaurant create a delicious illusion of dining in Italy on food prepared by Italian chefs. Beer and wine served. 11am-3pm, 5-10pm Mon-Sun, 5-11pm Fri-Sat. 233 University Ave. 650.322.1846.
BISTRO ELAN California French. $$$. The only problem with the menu is that its all tempting. Using seasonal produce, the chef allows flavors to speak for themselves. Wine, beer. 11:30am-1:30pm Tue-Fri. 5:30-9:30 Tue-Sat. 448 California Ave. 650.327.0284.
BISTRO MAXINE Cafe. $$. Bistro Maxine is a bright, friendly little spot, a coffee shop and creperie rolled into one. If youre lucky, youll snag one of the five indoor or two outdoor tables while perusing the long but straightforward menu. 8am-2pm 6-10pm Tue-Fri, 9am-4pm Sun. 548 Ramona St. 650.323.1815.
CAFE BRIOCHE Southern French. $$. Mediterranean magic: exceptional cuisine on oversize plates is whisked to tables as soon as its created. Breakfast 9-11pm, Lunch 11am-3pm, Dinner 5:30-9:30 Mon-Fri, Brunch 9am-3pm Dinner 5:30-10pm Sat-Sun. 445 California Ave. 650.326.8640.
CAFE RIACE Trattoria. $$. An absolute joy. Every dish is made with honest expertiseno tricky trendiness here. The homey offerings are based on wholesome Italian staples. Beer, wine. 11:30am-2:30pm Mon-Fri, 5-10pm
Mon-Sun. 200 Sheridan Ave. 650.328.0407.
CALAFIA CAFE AND MARKET A GO-GO Eclectic. $$. Calafia Cafe and Market A Go-Go combines elements of the fast-food world and the labor-intensive slow cooking of more-high-end restaurants. Chef and owner Charlie Ayers (who was Googles first chef) calls his concept slow food fastgood-to-eat and good-for-you food that he hopes will appeal to Silicon Valleys frenetic, too-busy-to-eat pace of life. Look for good burgers, pizza, salads, and fresh fish. 11am-9pm weekdays; 9am-9pm Sat-Sun. 858 El Camino Real. 650.322.9200.
COUPA CAFE Venezuelan. $$. Venezuela is best known for its oil production and resilient populist president; Coupa shines attention on the countrys premium coffee and chocolate. The beautiful storefront also serves excellent arepas, white corn griddle cakes stuffed with various fillings. 7am-11pm daily. 538 Ramona St. 650.322.6872.
EMPIRE GRILL & TAP ROOM California grill. $$. Waiters with charm to spare, an energetic clientele and a menu packed with grilled, roasted and smoked intensity make Empire Grill much more than simply a smart place to sip a cosmopolitan. Full bar. Tue-Sun 11:30am-10pm. 651 Emerson St. 650.321.3030.
EVVIA Contemporary Aegean. $$$. Forward flavors and plenty of laughterthats Dionysian dining. Evvia feels like a little taverna on Paros, only with an unmistakable Bay Area sophistication. Full bar. 420 Emerson St. 650.326.0983.
FUKI SUSHI Japanese. $$$. For over two decades this
superb Japanese restaurant
