It’s hard to believe it was only a few months ago when Adam Savage was announced as the new creative director of Silicon Valley Comic Con and that the pop culture fest had a new name, SiliCon with Adam Savage. It was set to relaunch this October at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.
But Monday, Savage made the disappointing — though hardly surprising — announcement that the convention won’t be taking place as planned.
“We desperately wanted to have a physical event this year, but we also wanted to do that in a way that was the safest possible event for everyone involved and ultimately that ended up meaning a physical event just doesn’t look feasible this year,” Savage said in a YouTube announcement posted on the convention’s website, www.siliconsj.com.
Fans who already bought tickets would be contacted soon about getting a refund or rolling their ticket over for the 2021 event. In the meantime, Savage said, there would be a series of virtual SiliCon events, including panel discussions, one-on-one celebrity interviews and maker workshops (with the first one hosted by Savage). The plan is to get those up and running by the end of September, but, as we’ve all learned, plans have had a nasty way of not working out lately.
Clearly, the cancellation of SiliCon’s physical event is a sign that our calendars for autumn may soon start looking as empty as those for spring and summer.
VIRTUAL VISION FOR LEGO FANS: The coronavirus pandemic has pushed Bricks by the Bay, another popular South Bay summer event, to the virtual world. The convention for LEGO fans, with the theme “Vision 2020,” will take place Friday and Saturday. Activities will include tours of the astounding creations built by the Bricks by the Bay regulars, as well as panel discussions, workshops, games and even appearances by some participants of the “LEGO Masters” show.
Sounds like it’ll have everything except the experience of diving into a pile of plastic LEGO bricks. You’ll have to provide those on your own.
The opening ceremony will take place at 7 p.m. Friday, with events continuing online all day Saturday. Registration at www.bricksbythebay.com is $5 per connection and is limited to 1,000 “attendees.”
ANNIVERSARY PARADE: It certainly wasn’t quite the same as in years past, but Poor House Bistro owner still managed to lead a New Orleans-style second-line parade to celebrate the San Jose restaurant’s 15th anniversary on Saturday.
The roughly two dozen participants wore masks and generally kept their distance while dancing, waving handkerchiefs, banging drumsticks and twirling purple-gold-and-green umbrellas on the short trek from Diridon Station to the front gates of the Autumn Avenue eatery. (Extra space was given to the saxophone players, who had to unmask to play, of course).
Meduri said Poor House Bistro has been challenged like every other restaurant and small business during the COVID-19 pandemic but had adjusted things a bit, offering not only its regular Cajun food menu but daily family-meal specials featuring enchiladas, chicken piccata, barbecued ribs and bacon cheeseburgers. “We’re not just a New Orleans restaurant right now, we’re an everything restaurant,” Meduri said.