Pizarro: Honoring Father’s Life Through Music
By Sal Pizarro, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.
Mar. 29–Scott Kusayanagi’s attempt to make something good out of his father’s tragic death has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
In the 1970s, Gordon Kusayanagi was a guitarist in Savannah, one of those West Coast rock bands that almost made it. When it didn’t work out, he settled down to raise his family, owning the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Monterey and working for both IBM and Hitachi.
Gordon had been out of the music scene for about 20 years and living in Hollister when he and Scott formed a cover band, 10 til 2, playing gigs at bars in San Jose and around the South County area.
“I think it was only once I started playing with him in the band the last six years that I really started to get to know him,” said Scott, 30.
In September, Gordon was one of three people killed when a motorist drove into a crowd of pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip. To honor his father’s two loves — helping kids and playing music — Scott, his mother and sister decided to create a music scholarship fund at Gordon’s alma mater, Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill.
The idea was popular in the South County community that knew Gordon, and before long, a foundation needed to be created. With backing that now includes corporate sponsors, Scott hopes they’ll be able to hand out more than just a few scholarships.
But the foundation isn’t losing sight of Gordon’s roots, so its first event will be the inaugural “Gordon Rocks” benefit concert featuring 10 til 2 and members of Savannah. The concert is at 6 p.m. today at the Claddagh in Gilroy, a popular Irish pub where Scott and Gordon first played together.
Get more information on the concert and the foundation at www.gordonrocks.org.
SWEET SOUNDS: The sub-par sound at the Center for the Performing Arts is finally a thing of the past. The building just had a new sound system installed, thanks to a connection between high-end sound company Harmon Cardon International and Bob Nazarenus, a Silicon Valley financial manager who joined American Musical Theatre of San Jose as chief financial officer in 2003.
The old system was so out of date that it hadn’t been used since the 1980s, meaning companies had to bring in their own systems, which were never properly suited for the CPA. Appropriately, the first beneficiary of the upgrade is AMTSJ, which opened the musical “Gypsy” at the CPA on Tuesday night.
OUT WITH THE OLD: It’s been illegal to dump e-waste in California since February, but you can still get rid of that obsolete computer or DVD player and help a good cause. The old stuff will be taken by ASL, a company that receives state funding for recycling e-waste. It will then pass some of that money to HOPE Services, which assists people with developmental disabilities in Northern California.
You can donate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at HOPE’s headquarters at 3100 Alfred St. in Santa Clara or at ClickAway, a computer retail and service store, 4916 El Camino Real in Los Altos. Call (866) 636-6283 for more details.
RUNNING FOR OFFICE: A group of about five women were cheering on mayoral candidate David Pandori at the Mercury News spring run on Sunday, shouting “You’re the man, Dave!” and “Way to go, Pandori!” right around the three-mile marker of the 10K race. But maybe they were mostly concerned with Pandori’s political race, since their sign read “Dave Pandori for mayor.”
Sal Pizarro writes about Silicon Valley on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. Contact him at spizarro@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5473 and read him online (www.mercextra.com/aei/spizarro).
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Copyright (c) 2006, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.
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