The new Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Mountain View is teeming with robots, which makes a lot of sense for a movie theater in the heart of Silicon Valley.

The 10-screen theater at the Village at San Antonio Center is decorated with robot toys, a wall of movie posters featuring robots and even has Dumbots, an upstairs lounge with a name inspired by some of the less-intelligent bots in movie history. It’s got drinks with fun names like Gin & Oil and Rusty Smash, plus 24 beers on tap.

“We understand it’s Silicon Valley, and there are a lot of geeks here, so we’re gonna do ‘Geeks Who Drink,’ ” Alamo Drafthouse Chief Development Officer Chris Drazba said, referring to Alamo’s popular pub quiz event. “This place is going to be for you, whether it’s here in the cinema or upstairs in our bar.”

Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony was followed by a screening of 1977’s “Star Wars” — featuring two of cinema’s most famous droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, who would probably have a tough time with Alamo’s famous “no talking, no texting” policy.

The opening was very special for Mountain View Mayor Ellen Kamei, who helped cut the ribbon with a legion of Mountain View city and chamber of commerce officials. She welcomed all the families there for the opening and while her kids — at ages 1 and 3 — are a little young for movies, she was happy to have her dad with her.

“I grew up watching films with him and went to the Alamo Drafthouse in San Francisco in the Mission because of him,” Kamei said. “So it’s really special to be able to have an Alamo Drafthouse here in Mountain View.”

For the better part of a week, Kamei will have bragging rights for having the largest Alamo Drafthouse in the nation in her city. But that officially changes Monday when Alamo Drafthouse opens a slightly larger multiplex at Westfield Valley Fair, which straddles the Santa Clara and San Jose border.

Coincidentally, the title for biggest Alamo Drafthouse still will “belong” to a Kamei, but it’ll be Ellen Kamei’s mother, San Jose City Councilmember Rosemary Kamei, whose district includes Valley Fair.

By the way, the Alamo Drafthouse Valley Fair will be themed around kaiju, the Japanese movie genre with giant monsters. That theme carries over into the theater’s lounge, Bar Odo, which is named after the fictional island where Godzilla appeared in the 1950s. Instead of robot posters, that theater will pay homage to Rodan, Gamera and a few more obscure cinematic monsters. In addition to first-run blockbusters like “28 Years Later” and “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” the schedule for July 5 includes 1968’s ultimate kaiju mash-up, “Destroy All Monsters.”

You can get showtimes and more information for both Silicon Valley theaters at www.drafthouse.com/sf.

HISTORIC PRIDE: June is the first of San Jose’s two Pride Month celebrations — these days the larger one around here is in August — making it a good time to visit Queer Silicon Valley’s gallery in downtown San Jose, which has a new exhibition, “Pride and Politics: The BAYMEC Story.”

BAYMEC Foundation Executive Director Ken Yeager showed me and San Jose City Councilmember Pam Foley around the exhibit recently, and it’s an eye-opening look back to a time when San Jose’s LGBTQ community had to fight for basic recognition. In 1987, the city issued a proclamation — which is on display — declaring June 20 “Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Day.”  The word “pride” wouldn’t be used until 1994, and that proclamation is displayed as well.

Ken Yeager, executive director of the BAYMEC Community Foundation, talks about the newest exhibition at Queer Silicon Valley’s gallery, “Pride and Politics: The BAYMEC Story,” on Friday, June 13, 2025. It will be on display at the gallery at 240 S. Market St. on weekends through July 2025. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Area News Group) 

“It was a very charged word. Nobody would use the word ‘pride,’ ” Yeager said. “People were just much more hesitant. It isn’t like it is now. People saw it as a more political word.”

There are other artifacts covering Silicon Valley’s gay rights movement — including the original rainbow flag first raised at the old San Jose City Hall in 2001, when Yeager served as the first openly gay member of the city council — as well as material on the 40-year history of BAYMEC, a political advocacy group that’s now an essential endorsement for many elected officials.

The gallery is open weekends through July at 240 S. Market St., and you can get more information at www.queersiliconvalley.org/exhibit.

POLITICS NOT AS USUAL: San Jose Stage is closing its production of the musical “Sweet Charity” on June 29, and the next evening, June 30, it’ll be looking for some donor generosity of a different kind at its 29th annual “Monday Night Live,” political satire fundraiser.

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The audience is in for a treat, too, as this year’s guest host is San Jose City Councilmember Michael Mulcahy, whose musical theater history means he knows his way around a stage (not to mention a song-and-dance number).

Look for a few other political figures to make appearances, including the husband of Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School President Silvia Scandar Mahan. Tickets are going fast, but you can snag one at www.thestage.org.

LOOKING FOR ARTISTS: Applications are open for the 13th annual Leigh Weimers Emerging Artists Awards, a program of the Rotary Club of San Jose that provides unrestricted $5,000 grants to four up-and-coming creatives who make their art here in Santa Clara County.

It’s named, of course, for Leigh Weimers, the longtime Mercury News columnist who championed the arts and the valley’s artists on a daily basis. Leigh passed away in 2012, but no doubt he’d be proud to know his legacy continues in helping artists, with a list of recipients that include musicians Mason Razavi and Bennett Roth-Newell, singers Lauren Halliwell and Jackie Gage, actors Alycia Adame and Tasi Alabastro and visual artists Harumo Sato and Kenneth Tan.

The deadline to apply is June 30, and you can get more information at www.weimersawards.com.