Cirque Du Soleil’s ‘Amaluna’: A masterpiece to be experienced
“Amaluna” moves our planet to another universe and scans the surface of William Shakespeare's “The Tempest.” It moves its artists on a fanciful, unforgettable journey that - at times - takes the breath away. Esteemed award-winning Broadway director Diane Paulus has been given the reins to create this glorious work of art. (Paulus also directed the brilliant “Porgy and Bess” production now playing in San Francisco and the Tony winning revival of “Pippin”.)
Navaroli competition winners
The Al Navaroli Young Musicians Competition came about after the passing of Gilroy resident, music lover and avid supporter of the South Valley Symphony the contest was named for. It was created to showcase the young musicians and teachers in our area. Now in its eighth year, the winners performed solos with the South Valley Symphony orchestra in their spring concert March 5 at Gavilan College.
Farm Bureau announces scholarship winners
The Santa Clara County Farm Bureau awarded college scholarships to local high school graduates seeking to major in agriculture.
Morgan Hill’s Haley Bonfante and Jenna Fields, along with Gilroy’s Julianna Figone and Wyatt Wolfe, were among the recipients honored at the July 18 Summer BBQ...
At last, a rivalry game well worth developing a Sunday game plan for
Sunday Night Lights. That’s what we’re talking about. It will be under typically dour-gray skies when the San Francisco 49ers travel north to clash with their new rivals, the Seattle Seahawks. The lights will come on for the National Football Conference championship. It’s a late afternoon game – 3:30 west coast start – built for prime time TV around the country and it has EPIC written all over it. As a longtime 49ers fan, you have to love it. There’s nothing better to stoke the fan fires than a bitter rivalry, and this new Hatfield-and-McCoys-worthy feud harkens back to the old days when the Los Angeles Rams were all things rotten. This blossoming match-up might even be better since the trash-yakking Seahawks are coached by “Pretty Boy” Pete Carroll who left USC just in time to duck under the trail of rules violations and NCAA sanctions. Former Stanford and now 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh doesn’t like Pete one bit, and that’s the thing he’ll have to overcome to win Sunday. Jim would like nothing better than to run it down Pete’s team’s throat – especially in the Red Zone. But he has to be smarter than that, he has to be creative offensively when it counts, he has to balance smash-mouth football with Bill Walsh genius and he has to pretend that squeaky Pete on the opposite sideline is just a lousy rendition of a Disney character.
Champs in wrestling and life; still lingering questions
Let’s start with a couple of Super Positives … First, the Gilroy High wrestling machine. We ought to have a Decade of Dominance banner downtown noting the 10 straight Central Coast Section Division team championships – and get the team a spot on a flatbed for the upcoming Memorial Day Parade. Think about what an absolutely awesome accomplishment that is. Imagine 10 football or 10 basketball or 10 CCS soccer or field hockey titles in a row. Even though the competition has become fiercer, Gilroy High has remained steadfast at the top, this despite every team gunning to take them down (pun intended). Loved reading Sports Editor Josh Weaver’s stories about the state championships online over the weekend as the drama unfolded in Bakersfield. Two GHS state champions emerged, Willie Fox and Nikko Villareal. Both are great stories – Nikko in his last-chance match beating a “shoe-in” favorite, three-time state champion Alex Cisneros from Selma, in the waning seconds of the final period and Willie, frustrated for two years at the CCS and state levels, erasing both demons and dashing off with the state title in dominating fashion. More important than the winning is the spirit Coach Greg Varela and the supporters of GHS wrestling have developed in the young men. They displayed that collective graciousness and class at a recent school board meeting when they showed up to rally around the cause of creating a respectable wrestling practice facility at GHS. They were focused, yet humble and so appreciative. They deservedly won the hearts and minds of the trustees, performing in life as they do on the mat. At the state meet, GHS Principal Marco Sanchez, a former Olympic wrestler, was overcome with emotion. He knows what it takes – the practice time, the pain, the mental toughness to be one-on-one under the spotlight, the discipline to get it done. From the Gilroy Hawks to the state title, it just continues to be a story of triumph about a program that is the stuff of legends. Now there’s a screenplay idea ...
Local church changes denominations
The Morgan Hill Presbyterian Church has been an important part of the community for more than a century. Founded in 1897, the congregation has worshiped in a series of buildings until settling at its current campus at 16970 De Witt Ave. in 1968.
Red Phone: Much-loved local chef is back in the kitchen at Elks Lodge
I went to a funeral reception at the Gilroy Elks Lodge and Dave Bozzo is reinstated as the chef. Everything was delicious: the meat, the pasta, the chicken. Just wanted to tell everybody that Dave Bozzo has come back to serve the public at the Gilroy Elks Lodge. It was a delicious luncheon.
















