This afternoon, residents of San Diego and tourists from places around the world came together to sing joyfully.
Rising from the audience, perfect strangers gathered on the stage of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion and sang Christmas carols.
Their voices touched the hearts of many who listened.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
I walked through Linda Vista yesterday, up Linda Vista Road from Comstock Street to Genesee Avenue. I discovered great examples of street art and some fascinating local history!
Linda Vista is an old San Diego neighborhood whose origin is tied to World War II. According to Wikipedia: “Many of the homes in Linda Vista were built in 1940-41 as part of a government project to house aircraft workers for the war effort. A construction project that was assisted by Reuben H. Fleet beginning in October 1941 resulted in 3,001 houses built within 200 days.”
One of the first shopping malls ever built in the United States was built in this community. As I walked up Linda Vista Road past the Sieu Thi Thuan Phat Supermarket, I came upon a bronze plaque that describes that history.
Today, as you can see from my photographs, many who live in Linda Vista have an Asian heritage.
The plaque reads:
THIS SITE WAS THE LOCATION OF ONE OF
THE FIRST PLANNED SHOPPING CENTERS
IN THE UNITED STATES
The Linda Vista area was developed as a government
housing project for aircraft and shipyard defense
workers during World War II. The original shopping
center was built to serve the residents and was
dedicated in 1942 by Eleanor Roosevelt. Demolition of
the original shopping center occurred in 1972.
LINDA VISTA COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, 2009
Above is the photo of a beautiful mural by local artist Gloria Muriel, spray painted on the wall of Hot Wash Coin Laundry. Love and Respect.
There’s a tragic phenomenon in the large cities of California that I rarely photograph. In Linda Vista, as in most of San Diego, drugs and homelessness are now encountered everywhere one walks.
A heartbreaking photo.
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A mural painted on a building wall next to the Linda Vista Branch of the San Diego Public Library promotes children’s reading. Books take wing and fly!
Small scenes from fairy tales and fables appear in a colorful landscape surrounding a castle. The mural is home to The Tortoise and the Hare, Humpty Dumpty, Puss in Boots, the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, Mother Goose, the Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and other classic storybook characters.
Murals fade, but worlds painted by human imagination do not.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
I also write fiction. Like fairy tales, my short stories concern life. You can read them at my website Short Stories by Richard.
There’s a very cool mural painted on the side of Lhooq Books & The Exrealism Nonprofit Project in Carlsbad, which occupies a small barn that was built in 1941. I happened to notice the artwork as I was walking down Carlsbad Village Drive. The artist, I learned, is professional skateboarder Kris Markovich.
Lhooq Books & The Exrealism Nonprofit Project, according to their website, is a vintage bookstore, espresso bar and underground venue, as well as the headquarters & a compound for “The Exrealism Project.”
Many phrases are written inside the mural’s abstract human faces. The words–which together read like a two dimensional poem or stream of consciousness–are raw and very real.
The words are disturbing and inspiring. They are disjointed and profound. They are expressions of doubt, and frustration, and confusion, and revelation.
The words tumble directly from a personal experience of life.
It is a mural painted with life.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
I was heading along the Greatest Generation Walk this morning when my eyes were surprised by bright color at the Battle of Leyte Gulf Memorial.
I discovered that four wreaths of remembrance had been recently placed on either side of the bust of Vice Admiral Clifton Sprague. Two were traditional holiday wreaths. It’s now less than two weeks before Christmas.
The image was so striking, and so thought-provoking, I thought I’d share a few photos.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was a desperate naval battle in the Pacific Ocean theater during World War II. Few who fought there are still living.
Two of the wreaths say We Remember.
The other two offer hope.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Yes, winter does come to San Diego. It begins in about one week. Winters in coastal Southern California are generally mild, due to our arid climate, and the moderating influence of the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Winter storms tend to be short-lived, gray and drizzly. In San Diego, if you want to see occasional snow, you need to head to the mountains of East County, and even then the returning sun and dry desert winds melt it in a day or two. Temperatures at the lower elevations almost never reach freezing.
However, winter storms in San Diego have been known to provide drama!
There have been unusually violent windstorms, huge surf and flooding. A few of those memories have been preserved in photographs on this blog. And so have examples of winter’s unique beauty!
To see photos from past winters, click the following links:
Snow and winter beauty at Cuyamaca.
Boats destroyed by El Niño winds in San Diego.
Photos of San Diego River, after three storms.
Glimpses of nature’s beauty after a storm.
Photos of winter along San Diego River.
A winter’s day full of magical light.
Storm brings huge surf to Ocean Beach Pier.
Amazing vistas atop Mount Soledad.
Signs of the coming big winter storm.
Los Peñasquitos Lagoon between winter storms.
Winter beauty at the Japanese Friendship Garden.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Walking through a city is like navigating through a sea of geometric patterns!
On all sides: circles, lines, triangles, squares, rectangles!
Look up, look down. See the grates, ironwork, bricks, manhole covers. See the windows and reflections. You’ll find yourself surrounded by architecture designed mathematically.
Some of the patterns are simple. Others are complex.
When you walk through a city, what shapes and patterns do you see?
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Check out this fun mural that was painted on the side of Vespa Motorsport on Pacific Highway this year!
The creator is Nicholas McPherson, a local artist who signs his work Nicholas Danger. His cool, often whimsical street art can be found all around San Diego!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Do you love art?
Would you like to help people who find themselves homeless?
Every work of art you see was made by a unique someone who is homeless in San Diego. They are all hopeful people who’ve been provided a creative outlet and opportunity to make a little bit of income by the nonprofit organization HEAL. Right now many of their canvases are on display at the San Diego Central Library. That’s where I took these few photographs.
What you see is just some of the original artwork that you can buy. With their painted canvases, homeless artists earn money. All of these pieces tell a story from the perspective of a unique human being. See all of the artwork that is for sale by those who want a brighter future by clicking here.
According to the HEAL website:
HEAL-SD (Homeless Empowerment through Art and Leadership) is a nonprofit that provides opportunities for creative self-expression and personal growth for individuals experiencing homelessness in San Diego…
Art sales give the artists the ability to earn an income through their hard work, as well as helping to confirm their talent, self-worth, and ability to contribute to their community in a meaningful way.
To view the many works of art that are for sale, click here. Then please make sure to share that page so many others will see it.
Should you purchase a piece, your life will be enriched, too.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
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