Our busy take-out lifestyle has helped childhood obesity become epidemic, and I was shocked to hear the recent American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that cholesterol-fighting drugs be given to some young children. Luckily, DooF (food spelled backwards) the new PBS program that is all about helping kids to make healthier food choices will begin airing in 2009.

DooF-a-Palooza 2008:
Help raise funds for DooF while having family fun - A DooF-a-Palooza admission ticket includes hands-on activities, games, food, music, free stuff, and a silent auction for the adults.

The place to be with the kids this Saturday: Purchase Tickets and Information

Google Headquarters
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View
Saturday, July 12, 2008
11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

America’s birthday, time to celebrate with parades, barbecues, picnics, festivals, and fireworks!

Here are some places to view fireworks and enjoy a day of celebrations:

San Jose

San Jose America Festival at Guadalupe River Park’s Discovery Meadow.

Enjoy international music, multicultural crafts and a variety of ethnic and festival foods. Activities for children are in Kidland.

Performances all day Friday at the Main Stage and the Blues Stage. There are also concerts Saturday and Sunday that include Night Ranger, Starship, Amanda Miguel and Diego Verdaguer.

July 4 - San Jose America Festival and Fireworks Show; Free

Gates open 12:00 pm; fireworks 9:30 pm

July 5 - Dia de la Familia Preciosa; $10

Gates open 3:00 pm

July 6 - Kinhcert on the Green: $15

Gates open 1:00 pm

Directions, Public Transportation, Parking, Bicycles

Event Map

FAQs (everything you need to know)

Santa Clara

Picnic and Fireworks Extravaganza. Central Park, 909 Kiely Boulevard; Free

Pancake Breakfast at 8 am, followed by games and entertainment throughout the day including a carnival area, petting zoo, face painting, and swimming at the International Swim Center. Bring a picnic lunch or purchase foods at the event.

Fireworks at 9:30 pm

Schedule & food prices (PDF)

Milpitas

Independence Day Festivities. Milpitas Sports Center, 1325 E. Calaveras Boulevard; Free

Water activities at Milpitas Sports Center Pools during the day; pool party 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

Barbecue, at the pool party 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm; nominal fee.

Concert & Fireworks at Milpitas Sports Center Football Field; 8:00 pm (gates open at 7:30 pm); bring a picnic dinner.

Morgan Hill

Pancake Breakfast, 5-K Run & 1 Mile Walk, Historic 4th of July Parade, Downtown Family Festival, Live Entertainment & Car Show. Beginning 7:00 am.

Fireworks about 9:30 pm.

Annual Street Dance & Live Concert - Thursday, July 3rd; Downtown Morgan Hill - 7:00 pm

Event information

Berkeley

Berkeley Marina; Free

Activities will include entertainers, arts & crafts, free sailboat rides, free dragon boat rides, a giant slide, art projects, face painting and massages; beginning 12:00 pm at the Berkeley Marina.

Fireworks, end of the Berkeley Pier at 9:30 pm.

There is valet bicycle parking free of charge near Adventure Playground!

Event schedule

Redwood City

Activities will include arts & crafts, food, kids area, parade, and yes, fireworks.

Festival - 9:00 am

Fireworks, Port of Redwood City - 9:30 pm

Remembering Frontier Village has gathered at its old site, now Edenvale Park, to reminisce about the amusement park with a summer picnic the past seven years. This year’s picnic is this Saturday, June 28 beginning at 11:00 am.

There will be booths set up with various memorabilia, past employees will be on hand to reminisce, the Frontier Village gun fighters re-enact their old gun fighting show, a guided tour of the park pointing out where all the old attractions once stood, along with other activities.

Scheduled for this year’s picnic are four of the original Antique Autos; one of them will be available for free rides.

There are plenty of tables, chairs, and barbeque grills.

Remembering Frontier Village Picnic
Edenvale Park
200 Edenvale Avenue, San Jose

Saturday, June 28
Beginning 11:00 am

Admission: Free
Parking: Free

For more information check here.

This weekend is the 11th Annual Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend in Menlo Park.

This event includes cooking demonstrations, gardening exhibits and demonstrations, hands-on activities, continuous music, food, along with over 100 vendors and exhibitors.

Cooking demonstrations on Saturday will include Ted Allen (”Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and “Top Chef”) preparing dishes with Robert Mondavi wine at 12:30 pm; Joseph Keller (Bistro Zinc) preparing fresh tomato soup with crab guacamole at 3:30 pm; and Bev Gannon (Hawaiian Airlines) preparing macadamia nut-crusted mahi mahi at 4:30 pm.

Then on Sunday, cooking demonstrations will include Joey Altman (KRON’s “Without Reservations”) preparing a panini of brie, figs, prosciutto and arugula at 2:30 pm; and Amy Machnak (Sunset magazine) will prepare fast-and-fresh, 30-minute recipes at 4:30 pm.

The Eco-Lounge will highlight Sunset’s eco-friendly outdoor furnishings and green products and there will even by an eco-fashion show. There will also be eco-friendly presentations.

Hands-on activities include stringing an orchid lei, painting a terracotta garden pot, creating edible art at the cupcake station, making chocolate chip cookies, and hands-on Weber grilling.

The Sunset garden staff will give gardening tips and answer questions about raising tomatoes and orchids.

There will be wine seminars, including Robert Mondavi wine seminars. (Taste tickets for $3 each are required in the beer and wine garden.)

Check the Presentation Schedule for stage locations and times.

For directions, maps, parking, free shuttles, discounts, box office hours, and more, check here.

Sunset Magazine
80 Willow Road, Menlo Park
800-786-7375

Saturday and Sunday, June 7 & 8
10:00 am - 5:00 pm

General admission: $12.00
Seniors (60+): $10.00
Children (12 & under): Free

$1.00 discount if you park at Sun Microsystems and take the shuttle over or if you bike to the event.
There is also a free shuttle from the Menlo Park Caltrain Station.

If you’re wandering about downtown and happen to come across a giant box pumping various music from orange cones… or maybe you look up to catch a video projected on a wall of planes flying, don’t feel confused. It’s art! Tech-infused art is taking over downtown.

01SJ - by Zero1 is “a global festival of art on the edge” and runs from today, June 4th through the 8th.
[ www.01SJ.org ]

After fighting the odd organization of the 01SJ website, I managed to figure out what exhibits/performances I want to see this week and went geeky and highlighted the map they provide.

First on my list was Incursion. As described on the 01SJ site: “2-channel video projection Commissioned by ZERO1 Sponsored by Applied Materials and the City of San Jose with the support of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts”

What is projected?

It’s amazing and it runs dusk to dawn everyday of the festival.

This weekend is the 13th Special Olympics Northern California Summer Games on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.

Athletes from throughout Northern California will compete in aquatics, track & field, bocce, tennis and volleyball. Athletes trained for 6-8 weeks and then participated in a regional competition to qualify for the Summer Games.

A short list of events includes Aquatics: assisted swim, flotation race, individual medley, and relays; Track & Field: running & walking events, high jump, running long jump, standing long jump, softball throw, tennis ball throw; and wheel chair events.

Bocce is played with one small ball and eight larger balls, four for each team. The small ball is thrown first becoming the target. Then each larger ball is thrown with the goal of placing it as close to the small ball as possible. The 4-person team competition for bocce will take place at Martinez Waterfront Park.

On Friday evening, there will be an Opening Ceremonies that will include the traditional parade of athletes and the lighting of the Special Olympics Caldron.

Volunteers are a very important part of Special Olympics throughout the year. During the Summer Games, there will be more than 300 coaches accompanying the athletes and another 1,300 individuals will help at one of the five venues hosting a competition.

Schedule, maps and parking here.

Special Olympics Northern California Summer Games
University of California, Berkeley and Martinez Waterfront Park

Friday, June 6 - 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm - Opening Ceremonies
Saturday, June 7 - 9:00 am to 4:00 pm - Competition - event times
Sunday, June 8 - 8:00 am to 2:00 pm - Competition - event times

Admission: Free to all events

For information about Special Olympics Silicon Valley, including upcoming events in the South Bay, check here.

Cyclists from all over will be convening on the Cow Palace in San Francisco for the start of AIDS/Lifecycle 7. This ride will take cyclists 545-miles between San Francisco and Los Angeles in 7 days to raise money benefiting the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles.

The first leg of the ride will take cyclists to Santa Cruz, then to King City, Paso Robles, Santa Maria, Lompoc, Ventura and then Los Angeles for the closing ceremony.

Wondering why this is in San Jose Metblogs? It’s simple! I’m one of the 2500 cyclists who have raised a minimum of $2500 to raise over $11 million dollars for such an incredible cause.

Thanks to all who have contributed and supported me on this incredible journey. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Anybody else make it out to Fanime 2008 at the San Jose Convention Center? If you drove through downtown San Jose last weekend, you might have noticed something a little different. Cosplayers and Anime fans swarmed the convention center and rocked throughout the entire weekend.

Several highlights this weekend:

1) A small incident involving several Christians who decided to picket the convention much to the attendees’ amusement.
2) Jesus, himself, made an appearance at the midnight showing of hentai holding a sign asking for “confessions”
3) Several fangirls couldn’t get enough of AnCafe (the music fest feature performance on Sunday night), and ended up stalking them back to their hotel room.
4) $30 for a Bowser plushie
5) Spending $100 in the Artist Alley before even walking into the Dealer’s Room.
6) Peter Griffin Vs. Chicken
7) Random choreographed dancing

Did I forget anything?

It optimistically will be cooler this weekend. If it still isn’t cool enough then head on over to Santa Cruz, where it will be a bit cooler than here. The weather forecasters have San Jose in the upper 80’s and Santa Cruz in the low 80’s this weekend.

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk will be having its 101st Season Kick Off this weekend. Saturday and Sunday from noon there will be champion high divers descending from an 80-foot tower and performances by the Amazing Chinese Acrobats, shows alternate every hour.

In addition, this weekend is the River Arts Festival presented by the Santa Cruz Education Foundation. The River Arts Festival is a fundraiser to celebrate and support art in the area’s local public schools. Schools and environmental groups are represented at information booths.

Artists will give insight into various artistic processes including Glass Blowing, Metal Working, Painting, Ceramics and more.

The Festival will feature Sand Painting, Sun Prints, and more for children and adults, lead by professional artists; musical performances; strolling troubadours; food court.

On Sunday 11:00 am the Festival will include the first Santa Cruz Kinetic Sculpture Race. Artists build sculptures on wheels to be raced that are pushed, pulled or pedaled by the artist.

River Arts Festival
San Lorenzo Park, Santa Cruz

Saturday and Sunday, May 17 - 18
11:00 am - 5:00 pm

As the world becomes a small place, we get exposed to different cultures. But unfortunately, that also leads to clashes. The need of the hour is to resolve our differences and get together as one world. One effort in this direction is Pangea Day, which puts films to use. [Pangea, if you didn’t know, is the single piece of land mass that existed before the continents were formed.]

24 short films will be screened over 4 hours across the world simultaneously. There will be live music and some speakers too.

For our area, the date and time are May 10, 11 a.m. In addition to 6 live venues, Internet and television, we can also watch it locally. Here are some locations, one of which might be close to you.

San Jose: JJ’s Blues
Stanford: Stanford University Memorial Auditorium
Berkeley: Wheeler, 2600 Ridge Rd.
Santa Cruz: McHenry Library
Monterey: MPC / Punky Lil Kid Independent Film Festival

You can browse for more venues or even search using a map. There are some “private events” too; but I’m not sure whether we can go there.

In addition to the noble cause and watching movies, I am looking forward to a unique worldwide event. How about you?