Instant and Eternal (Sun with passing aircraft), by photographer Zhang Yanguang. Huli District, Xiamen, Fujian, China, 4 January 2025.
In the basement of the Fleet Science Center, a place few visitors go, there’s an incredible exhibition of astrophotography titled ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year.
Astronomy Photographer of the Year is a global competition that, in 2025, received almost 6000 entries from 68 countries. The Fleet’s exhibition includes all of the prizewinning photographs. There are photos of starry skies over Earthly landscapes and photos of celestial objects very distant from our tiny planet.
I’ve always loved astronomy and cosmology. Looking up at the night sky gives one a feeling of overwhelming wonder. The beauty, the complexity, the sheer enormity of this universe can hardly be grasped with our very limited eyes.
These photos convey that same wonder. A few examples…
Veil of Stars (NGC 6960 Veil Nebula), by photographer Zixiong Jin. Marathon Sky Park, Brewster County, Texas, USA, 28 November 2024.The Moon With Saturn, by photographer Shamiqh Gajdhar, aged 13. Jeddah, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia, 14 October 2024.Electric Threads of the Lightning Spaghetti Nebula, by photographer Shaoyu Zhang. Deep Sky Chile Observatory, Camino del Observatorio, Rio Hurtado, Chile and Xiangcheng, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, China 21, 24-25 December 2024, 3-5, 15-15, 19-31 January, 1-6 and 10-19 February 2025.The Ridge, by photographer Tom Rae. Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, Mackenzie District, New Zealand, 8 April 2024.
…
To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
I hadn’t walked this way through Sherman Heights in a long while. Look what I found!
Another cool San Diego Padres mural painted on the side of Universal Radiator at 20th Street and Imperial Avenue!
This one features images of Padres legends Goose Gossage, Dave Winfield, Benito Santiago and Tony Gwynn.
I saw an older, equally cool mural years ago on the same wall. View those photos here. That artwork was painted by DYSE ONE AND HASLR. The one I spied today was created by the same artists, plus SHARK.
As I walked by, DYSE himself came out of the building. He informed me he’d be painting a new mural on this wall very soon!
…
To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
So far I can find nothing about this mysterious, corroded plaque marking an old bike lane in Del Mar.
The marker is easy to miss. I happened to see it earlier this summer while walking from the Solana Beach train station to the San Diego County Fair. The almost half-century-old plaque, mounted on a boulder, stands in some shrubbery near the intersection of Via de la Valle and Camino del Mar, north of the Brigantine restaurant parking lot. Considering its position, my impression is the bike lane in question ran east down Via de la Valle.
The plaque reads:
THE RITA DAVÉ MEMORIAL BIKE LANE
MAY 6, 1955 – MAY 9, 1979
Who was Rita Davé?
The plaque was placed here well before the advent of the internet and isn’t readily observed. I can’t find anything about it.
Does anyone out there know the history of The Rita Davé Memorial Bike Lane?
If you do, please leave a comment!
In the next photo, I’m beginning east down the Via de la Valle sidewalk. The marked bike lane on the street is clearly more recent.
…
To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
I saw this today and thought you might enjoy it, too!
Healthcare workers as superheroes has been painted on an electrical box in San Diego’s Grantville neighborhood. You can find the fun street art at an intersection near Kaiser Zion Medical Center.
Spider-Man is swinging along holding Boba Fett, apparently taking him to the hospital emergency room!
Did the web-slinging Marvel superhero rescue Boba Fett from the sarlacc? Does that explain the Star Wars bounty hunter’s survival?
We rise by helping others…
Thank you healthcare workers!
…
To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
At the front desk of the Timken Museum of Art, I learned some visitors really love the museum’s current exhibition Drift, while others hate it. I’m not entirely sure what my own reaction is.
Drift was created by the Timken’s summer artist in residence Margaret Noble. As the exhibition webpage explains: Drift brings together sculpture, sound, and moving images to explore the ways in which space and perception are experienced. Drawing inspiration from François Boucher’s Lovers in a Park (1758), Noble reinterprets Rococo ideals by introducing motion and layered context through reverse glass animation, revealing and disrupting the painting’s serene, ornamental narrative.
During the unsettling video, thick black paint creeps into the frame of Lovers in a Park in unexpected ways. Black birds (crows?) fly through the Rococo painting, as does a drone. A robot, a sinister masked face, ants and a rat appear. Tiny human figures tumble into consuming blackness. The intruding images tend not to be pleasant. The video feels subversive, juvenile, but not entirely so. To me, the effect is mostly experimental and weird.
Does the artist mean to say contemporary thinking is dark and cynical, and opposed to the Rococo ideals of pure beauty and love? Contemporary art often seems that way.
Perhaps the creepiest part of the video was when the two lovers became slowly covered by a big black blob. From it a claw-like hand emerged, reaching toward the passing peasant girl. (Reminding me of the black symbiote in Spider-Man!)
In the Timken Museum’s atrium, people can use black cut-out shapes to create their own altered Lovers in a Park. The figures visitors are provided with are less creepy and include butterflies, dragonflies and dogs.
What does it say about the artist’s intentions and broader human nature–that the video is very different from what museum visitors can happily assemble?
…
To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
Musicians were entertaining visitors to the House of the Philippines cottage in Balboa Park today. Many of those walking through the International Cottages paused to listen.
I learned the beautiful string music was being created by members of CTFLC Rondalla, a local group organized in 2021 by the CTFLC (Council for Teaching Filipino Language and Culture).
According to a flyer that I was handed, the Rondolla is the Philippines’ original ensemble. It is composed of stringed instruments played with a plectrum (pick)…of Hispanic origin since the early Filipinos who made their first instruments patterned these after the guitars which the Spaniards brought with them to the Philippines…
The folk music being played, I was told, was a waltz. It was very soothing and very beautiful!
…
To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
This might be the most fun interactive art exhibition you’ll experience all year! It’s showing for one more week at the Oceanside Museum of Art, and it’s titled Aaron Kramer: Sense of Wonder.
Do you love crazy, clever, fun-loving inventions? Upstairs at the museum you’ll find loads of them! Playful artist Aaron Kramer likes to tinker and make mechanical wonders using found objects.
Visitors to the Oceanside Museum of Art can turn cranks and press buttons that activate wacky kinetic creations. Wires, old springs, bottles and tin cans, cardboard, odd pieces of wood, broken things–magically become spinning whirligigs, dipping hummingbirds, dancing figures . . . even contraptions that trace images on paper!
I’ve always loved these sort of whimsical creations. Remember that scene near the beginning of the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang–that crazy, elaborate Rube Goldberg-style contraption that automatically made breakfast? These small works of art are just as fun!
If you’re young at heart, you’ll be pressing every button and turning every crank! Through August 23, 2026, that is, when this super cool exhibition wraps up.
…
To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
A series of special concerts is coming up in downtown San Diego. Music lovers need to take notice!
Intersections: Soundscapes of Identity and Connection will offer audiences unique and memorable experiences. Concerts feature Daneen Wilburn, one of San Diego’s most compelling vocalists; Allan Phillips, an Emmy Award-winning composer, producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist; and Peter Sprague, an acclaimed guitarist and composer. The concerts will be enjoyed in the state-of-the-art Guggenheim Theatre at UC San Diego Park & Market.
Andrew Waltz, Director of Arts Management at UC San Diego Park & Market, has provided the following:
I’m really excited to share the 2026 season of Intersections: Soundscapes of Identity and Connection at UC San Diego Park & Market.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about putting this season together is seeing a kind of arc emerge across the three performances: expression, exchange, and transformation.
We start with Daneen Whitley Wilburn, whose incredible voice and storytelling are deeply rooted in gospel, soul, jazz, and her own lived experience. There’s something powerful about music that starts from such a personal place and then connects with an entire room.
Then Allan Phillips takes us much further afield, bringing together Afro-Indigenous traditions, African and Latin influences, Brazilian rhythms, jazz, reggae, funk, and more. His work is a great example of how music travels, crosses borders, and grows through cultural exchange.
And we close with Peter Sprague & Friends, taking on the music of Paul Simon and hearing those familiar songs in a completely different way. I love ending the season there—reminding us that music we think we know can still surprise us when a great artist brings a new perspective to it.
I’ve also really appreciated building this season with Daneen, Allan, Peter, Kamau Kenyatta, and Yale Strom. There’s a real alignment among this group—not just creatively, but in the way they approach collaboration. Everyone has brought ideas, curiosity, generosity, and genuine excitement about what the series could become. That energy has made shaping these three very different concerts a lot of fun.
For me, that’s one of the best parts of this work: collaborating with people who are exceptionally good at what they do, but who are also open, engaged, and willing to build something together.
Three performances. Three very different musical journeys. From expression, to exchange, to transformation.
I can’t wait to share it with an audience.
You can learn more and purchase tickets by clicking the following links:
You can become a real life superhero! Join other superheroes fighting hunger by educating kids with a fun comic book!
I saw the Hunger Action Heroes Unite comic book today on sale in the gift shop of the Comic-Con Museum. The comic book was created by Feeding San Diego to educate young readers about the impacts of hunger and food waste…and to inspire them to be part of the solution!
By purchasing just one comic book (at the museum gift shop or online), you can help provide 14 nutritious meals to people facing hunger. You can also download teacher and parent resources by visiting this website.
People who love the Comic-Con Museum might remember the origin of these Hunger Action Hero characters: Hunger Halter and Demeter were created by students through the Hunger Action Heroes Art Contest. The contest, hosted by Feeding San Diego in collaboration with the Comic-Con Museum, invited students from across San Diego in kindergarten through 12th grade, to submit their vision of a hunger action hero, who helps to end hunger through food rescue. Nearly 300 students submitted their vision of a Hunger Action Hero.
How awesome that a cool idea and contest has grown to become something that truly assists those in need!
As the hunger heroes say, The World Needs You!
…
To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
