Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

For a long time I was very uninterested in this song, and possibly never even heard it before this morning.  As someone raised in Northern California, I have a hard time figuring out what the city of San Jose offers that even warrants the attention of Burt Bacharach, let alone a legendary song.  It turns out the song is not even about the world's largest suburb, but about the false allure of the California dream, particularly in Los Angeles.

San Jose is where one can go to escape being washed up, clinging with false hope that one is bound or Hollywood.  In Los Angeles, you can become a star within weeks.  However, the weeks turn into months, and then to years, "and all the stars that never were are parking cars and pumping gas," sings Dionne Warwick.  While San Jose is not a very exciting city, the song reminds us that it provides us with what is really important: piece of mind.  It is a place with little distractions, which is what Hollywood is only for those whose dreams are not yet turned to dust.  

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