A pair of "American Idol" finalists from Northern California will entertain shoppers this month at Santana Row. Thia Megia, who was winning singing contests in San Jose before she was a teenager, will help ring in the holidays Tuesday at "Light Up the Row," the shopping center's 10th annual tree lighting. Santa Cruz's James Durbin will show up at the Row for Black Friday, Nov. 25, to sign copies of his new album at 10 a.m. before thrilling fans with an acoustic set at noon.
Both performances are taking place at the Row's 40-foot-tall holiday tree, which is being set up this year near the giant chessboard in Santana Row Park instead of at Park Valencia in front of Maggiano's Little Italy.
By closing the street, a bigger crowd should be able to attend Tuesday's festivities, which begin at 3 p.m. and include carolers, live music and Santa Claus making a one-night-only appearance in a 15-foot snow globe. The tree lighting -- and Megia's performance -- starts at 7 p.m.
HERE'S TO YOUR HEALTH: Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren didn't have to travel far Wednesday to receive a Community Health Advocate award from the National Association of Community Health Centers. The ceremony, hosted by the Community Health Partnership and Gardner Family Health Network, was held at the old San Jose Medical Plaza site, just a few blocks from her Naglee Park home.
The site is being transformed into a 60,000-square-foot clinic, where Gardner expects to begin providing services next year. RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME: Palo Alto epidemiologist Jack Colford made quite a save Oct. 29 at Anything Goes, TheatreWorks' annual fundraising gala. At the start of the evening, he was standing next to another guest who was recovering from recent heart surgery and felt faint. Fortunately, Dr. Colford caught him before he fell and stuck around until paramedics got there and made sure the man was OK.
The party, held at the company's Menlo Park scene shop, is always populated with imaginative costumes, many pulled right from TheatreWorks' costume department. But heads really turned when Palo Alto commercial developer John Tarleton and his wife, Jenny Dearborn, arrived dressed as Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and a centerfold. He wore pajamas and a smoking jacket, while she showed up in a nude-colored leotard with black strips that read "censored," keeping her costume PG-13.