Santa Clara County Art, Culture & Media Digest

Food critics reward ambiance in their reviews, and these Silicon Valley restaurants do their best to get attention with huge murals and creative decor.

Another local tradition is returning after a break due to COVID-19. Santa Clara residents will welcome back the popular Parade of Champions.

Michelin’s newest roster of Bib Gourmand honorees include 18 Bay Area restaurants noted for excellent food and reasonable prices. The list includes restaurants in Los Gatos and Palo Alto.

Having seen a resurgence in the early days of the pandemic, roller skating continues to grow in popularity. Some South Bay Area residents are working to preserve its future.

The Taiwan Center for Mandarin Learning, located at Lynbrook High School in west San Jose, offers programs to teach adults Mandarin as a gateway to understanding Chinese and Taiwanese culture.

Lowe’s employees volunteered at Gilroy Center for the Arts on Sept. 14 to help transform the space inside and out. The center was one of 100 recipients of Lowe’s 100 Hometowns grant.

After an arduous quarantine, a locally written play finally makes its triumphant debut. “Coded,” about a female VR game designer, is the inaugural production for City Lights Theatre’s 2021-22 season.

Slow Food South Bay members celebrate food, books, and community with their monthly events.

The Morgan Hill Historical Society is celebrating some history of its own as it reaches 50 years of operation. The nonprofit’s accomplishments includes preservation of historic landmarks and archives as well as multicultural education and enrichment programs.

Due to new COVID restrictions and a small performance space, the Santa Clara Players have postponed their season opener until at least February 2022.

Anouk Yeh is a 17-year-old horseback rider, volleyball player and empath. She's also the county's first youth poet laureate.

A drive to Los Altos Hills or Palo Alto used to be required to attend Jewish religious services before Chabad Portola Valley & Woodside, a new Jewish community center, opened this spring.

After a year and a half of a darkened stage, live theater returns to downtown Los Altos at Bus Barn Theater.

Opening Oct. 1, Immersive Los Gatos hopes to make its mark as a premier entertainment venue in the Bay Area, providing shows, dinner theater, and more.

Shortly after South Valley Civic Theatre assumed management of the Limelight theater in 2020, the pandemic shut down its debut production. On Sept. 10, the company returns with “Ripcord,” running through Oct. 2.

Kenny Wardell Sr., the longtime managing director of BAM magazine, announced that both the venerable music magazine and the rest of the BAM Media’s assets are for sale.

The federal dollars will fund a new history museum, expanded mental health resources and more.

Closed for a year because of the epidemic, the Gilroy Center for the Arts is back with art classes, outdoor movies, and an open call for performers. And on Aug. 18, popular local Elvis impersonator Donald “Elvis” Prieto will be honored at a screening of “Viva Las Vegas.”

In another casualty attributable to the pandemic, the twin CineArts theaters at the Palo Alto Square office complex at Page Mill Road and El Camino Real in Palo Alto will close permanently.

Dive Bar, a longtime fixture in downtown San Jose nightlife, is the latest victim of the pandemic. But Cache Bouren, owner of the Haberdasher craft-cocktail lounge, will step up to open a honky-tonk bar in the same location.

The Los Altos Educational Foundation has struggled to raise money during the pandemic. To help, Loyola School second-grader Finley Snedigar is selling hand-drawn notecards locally.

San Jose’s five-member Public Art Committee voted Tuesday to remove the statue, as recommended by Mayor Sam Liccardo and a council committee last year.

Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco staffers have begun a new review of ten artworks, which span the 15th to 19th centuries, to gather more information about their ownership.

The Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts will host its first international film festival April 24-25, with the theme of “Race, Equity and Inclusion.”

Monterey artist Warren Chang captures everything from homelessness to Black Lives Matter protests in his paintings. And next month his works will be featured at the newly reopened Triton Museum in Santa Clara.

The new store on Monterey Street serves collectors who seek the latest comics, sports cards, action figures, Funko Pops and more.

Richmond Appleton tells his life story in his recently published autobiography, “Finding Peace: A Refugee’s Story From Peril to Protection.”

Santa Cruz resident Jami Cassady—daughter of former San Jose resident Neal Cassady, the man who inspired Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road”—is carrying her dad’s legacy into the 21st century with a new book, “The Joan Anderson Letter.”

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame last year, the Doobie Brothers now may be honored by a historic landmark in their home town: the house where the band wrote some of their biggest hits.