It’s not uncommon to feel like you’re stepping back in time at San Jose’s History Park. But it is interesting for an exhibit to bring back some memories of a time that might be a bit, well, hazy for people who lived through it.
But that’s part of the fun of “South Bay Flashback: Riffs, Rhythms and Revolution,” a yearlong exhibition that opened Saturday and takes a long, strange trip into the music scene in and around San Jose in the 1960s and ’70s. Nearly 300 items are on display from the extensive collection of Bill Guardino, a San Jose native who has been collecting posters, handbills, records, underground newspapers and other artifacts of the time for more than five decades.
Fortunately, there’s a lot of time to check it all out, as the exhibition will be open through Dec. 21, 2026. History San Jose CEO Bill Schroh says he expects several events to be held at the venue, including some next month related to the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s first concert in San Jose.
The exhibit — housed in the Leonard and David McKay Gallery at the Pasetta House — is divided up into themed rooms. There’s a room about KLIV, the San Jose AM station that played all the hits in the ’60s, with handbills for station-sponsored shows at the Civic Auditorium and framed 45s including “Little Girl” from Syndicate of Sound and “Psychotic Reaction” from the Count V. Another room has underground newspapers like the San Jose Maverick and the Berkeley Barb (along with issue 22 of Rolling Stone with John Lennon on the front page).
There are walls and walls devoted to hand-drawn posters for rock shows featuring the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Chocolate Watchband, Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna and Sha-Na-Na at long-gone venues like The Continental in Santa Clara, the Bold Knight in Sunnyvale, Losers South (which had been Hawaiian Gardens) in San Jose, the San Jose Civic and the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
And then you pass through beaded curtains to enter another room — the world of headshops like Paramount Imports — filled with psychedelic posters illuminated in black light. The only thing missing from that scene is a certain aroma, making one wonder if there’s a Scentsy candle that can mimic marijuana.
Guardino curated the show with Brian Conroy, a longtime San Jose teacher and author of “Shooting Stars and Blazing Guitars” and “I’m Just Saying.” The two also collaborated on a “South Bay Flashback” book that is a perfect companion to the exhibition.
They spent months working with History San Jose Collections Curators Katrina Anderson and Ken Middleton to sift through Guardino’s vast collection, which took about three weeks to put up. “It’s one of the most challenging installations we’ve ever had,” Anderson said.
It was definitely worth the effort. “South Bay Flashbacks” managed to take me back to those days, and I wasn’t even there to begin with.
CARING COMMUNITY: Since their real estate nightmare in Japantown became public in August, Jordan and Rina Trigg have been the recipients of many supportive gestures, but it had to be really special for them to see the crowd that packed into Jack’s Bar in Japantown for a fundraiser hosted by San Jose City Councilmember Anthony Tordillos and Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong.
The Triggs have a long road ahead of them and are still trying to hold onto their two remaining businesses in the city’s historic Japantown district — Jack’s Bar and legendary karaoke lounge 7 Bamboo — and their family home. A GoFundMe campaign, set up by longtime friend and former San Jose City Councilmember Raul Peralez, should go a long way toward helping them with back payroll and other expenses, and as of Friday afternoon, it was 91% of the way to a $110,000 goal.
“I see you supporting us, and it really means a lot, especially in these hard times,” Rina Trigg said. “I know everyone’s going through some kind of difficulty in their life, and people come up to us and say, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry what you’re going through.’ And, honestly, everyone’s going through something.”
TAMALE TIME: Nobody should need a reason to eat tamales during the holiday season, but Darlene Tenes has come up with a good one. The Tamales for Good campaign is a fundraiser for Farmworkers Caravan, the effort she started to support valley farmworkers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Just think of it this way: Every bite is doing a good deed for someone in need.
“We’ve got all of the standards and a couple special flavors, including baby back rib meat and pumpkin spice tamales,” Tenes says.
You can order packages of six pre-cooked tamales for $28 or get a party pack of 60 for $240. Orders need to be in by Dec. 1, and they can be picked up at the San Jose Woman’s Club on Dec. 3 or at the St. John Vianney Christmas Boutique on Dec. 5-7. You can get more information or place an order at TamalesforGood.eventbrite.com.
STAGE PRESENCE: When San Jose resident and veteran actor Karen DeHart takes the stage this weekend for the premiere of “Over the River and Through the Woods” for City Lights Theater Company, it’ll mark her 100th show — and she’s hitting that milestone during her 50th year in the business.
DeHart is a familiar face to Bay Area theatergoers, but she’s been a frequent collaborator at City Lights in San Jose, where she’s served on the board while managing a wide variety of roles. She’s been the Narrator in “Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show” last year, a spunky librarian fighting book bans in “Alabama Story” in 2018 and the mother in the World War I holiday story, “Truce” in both 2014 and 2024.
“Over the River and Through the Woods” runs through Dec. 21, and you can get more details and tickets at www.cltc.org.
COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS: It was a little early to call it a “holiday party,” but Heritage Bank of Commerce put out a nice spread of appetizers and wine at the Hotel De Anza on Tuesday evening to show its gratitude for its bevy of nonprofit partners.
Heritage works with a lot of organizations doing good things around the valley — including the Valley Health Foundation, Child Advocates of Silicon Valley, Hunger at Home and MACLA — and they were the presenting sponsor of this year’s San Jose Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony at SAP Center. And in this case, it was a nice treat for the attendees as the Hotel De Anza will be closing its famed Hedley Club lounge and outdoor terrace in early December for a renovation.