World’s largest Monopoly board to get a much-needed makeover

Monopoly in the Park, the world’s largest Monopoly board, will get spruced up Saturday as part of a huge volunteer cleanup effort at the Guadalupe River Park’s Discovery Meadow in downtown San Jose. And it could definitely use the TLC.

The 930 square-foot granite game board officially opened to much fanfare in July 2002 after several years of planning. Back then, a nonprofit called Friends of San Jose maintained the board and rented it out to groups that wanted to play the game, complete with giant dice and game tokens. That group seems to have faded away in the past decade. Meanwhile, the board’s paint has dulled and been scuffed up as thousands of people have walked across it.

The Monopoly board is just part of Saturday’s cleanup effort, organized by the office of Mr. Cleanup himself, Mayor Matt Mahan, along with Beautify SJ, the Trash Punx and the city’s parks department. Volunteers will be painting, spreading mulch, beautifying the park’s tributes to San Jose’s sister cities and working on two community art projects.

In a way, this big cleanup is like washing your car before a big road trip. Next month, there’s a big concert taking place at Discovery Meadow, so let’s hope that a lot of this good work doesn’t get undone.

All the work is scheduled to take place from 9 to 11:30 a.m., and you can sign up to volunteer at tinyurl.com/8-2-discovery-meadow.

THE SHOW WILL GO-GO ON: Illness among its cast members has forced City Lights Theater Company to cancel three more performances of “Head Over Heels” — its summer musical featuring the music of 1980s band the Go-Go’s. The show opened July 17 but had to cancel performances the following weekend. That has extended to shows scheduled for Thursday and Friday nights and the Saturday matinee.

“Our artists are total troupers and are working to support each other, but it’s tough with a large-cast musical full of moving parts,” City Lights Marketing Director Rebecca Wallace said. “We’re grateful for the audience support as we endeavor to help our artists be healthy.”

While it’s been a real bummer for ticketholders, City Lights is planning on getting the show back on stage for Saturday night’s 8 p.m. performance. It runs through Aug. 24 so there should still be plenty of chances to see it. Go to www.cltc.org for updated showtimes and tickets.

ART AND ABOUT: After taking July off, the South First Fridays art walk is back in full force in downtown San Jose this week. As always, galleries in the South First Area (SoFA) — roughly from San Carlos street south to Reed — will be open late. Others opening late downtown include Chopsticks Alley and Works/San Jose at 38 S. Second St., Art Ark at 1035 S. Sixth St., Fuse Presents and Machu Picchu Gallery of the Americas, both at 199 Martha St.

There’s a lot to choose from this month, too: The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles is featuring more than 40 delicate pieces by Bay Area artist Kay Sekimachi from the collection of Berkeley’s Forrest L. Merrill; MACLA has “El Arbolito,” a showcase of the work of Bay Area artist Jet Martinez; and the ICA is hosting a tour of “Blood Be Water,” led by artist Esteban Raheem Abdul Raheem Samayoa and ICA curator Zoë Latzer.

This week’s South First Fridays will also have an art-driven street market in the SoFA District. It all gets going at 5 p.m., and the full lineup, as well as a walking map, is available at www.southfirstfridays.com.

DANCE MILESTONE: San Jose-based Abhinaya Dance Company is celebrating its 45th anniversary with a special performance Aug. 3 at Cañada College in Redwood City. The 3 p.m. show, “Natya Dhara (The Unceasing Flow of Dance),” traces the evolution of the South Indian dance style Bharatanatyam — with the company’s current dancers and alumni performing pieces and a panel discussion on the dance form and its impact. More details and tickets are available at abhinaya.org.