A strangely a-peeling face in Little Italy!

Yes, a play on words!

This mural in Little Italy, whose paint is gradually peeling away, is strangely appealing to my eye. The beautifully conceived face has obtained more texture–and beneath the blue and violet painted color there’s a layer that appears in hue like natural skin.

The mural was painted by Kelcey Fisher (@kfishla) about a year and a half ago. You can see it on a parking lot wall at LUCE on Kettner, just south of the now closed Little Italy’s Loading Dock bar and event venue.

As paint continues to flake away, the remaining beauty will sadly vanish.

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A maypole and Swedish fun in Balboa Park!

The House of Sweden celebrated their nation’s culture today during a lawn program at Balboa Park’s International Cottages. The fun event included Swedish folk costumes, traditional dancing, pop music, and a wild summer dance around a maypole!

The event began with a festive procession, and a demonstration of the colorful folk costumes worn by House of Sweden members. I learned many of the handmade costumes represent different provinces in Sweden.

Then the Balboa Park Dancers entertained the crowd with various Swedish folk dances. Many of the old dances involve courtship. A couple of the dances stimulated laughter with their good-natured, bawdy humor.

Between folk dance performances, the Happy Strummers–a collection of mostly ukulele playing musicians–rocked the crowd with three ABBA hits: Waterloo, Dancing Queen and Mama Mia. The audience provided several dancing queens!

Then the grand finale! Nearly everyone watching the lawn program joined hands around the flower-bedecked maypole and began the crazy Små Grodorna frog dance!

It was a perfect summer’s day!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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Murals at Lemon Grove Academy Middle School.

Several awesome murals can be viewed at the Lemon Grove Academy Middle School, also known as the Lemon Grove Academy for the Sciences and Humanities. They’re located just around the corner from the Lemon Grove Library, whose new mural I blogged about yesterday.

The school’s mascot is the Wolf, and their core values are: Persistent, Authentic, Courageous and Kind. Get it? Wolf Pack.

I was told by the librarian about these school murals so I had to walk over to check them out. She indicated they are also by ArtReach–the folks responsible for the new library mural.

I really love that blue howling wolf!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

You can help restore beautiful HMS Surprise!

Weather and the elements are damaging to any ship. That’s especially true when the ship is made of wood.

If you’ve been by the Maritime Museum of San Diego lately, you’ve probably seen how one side of their tall ship HMS Surprise is being repaired. The starboard side, which for many years faced south toward the harsh sun, had seriously deteriorated.

Fortunately, the world-famous Maritime Museum of San Diego has the expertise required to undertake complicated projects such as this, as shown by the beautiful deck restoration of HMS Surprise. But funds are also required, which can be a challenge for any nonprofit organization.

Would you like to help?

Perhaps you love the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which starred Russell Crowe and beautiful HMS Surprise. As I did a little research this morning, I noticed that author Michael Eging, who also loves the critically acclaimed movie and the Patrick O’Brian novels it’s based on, has created a GoFundMe fundraiser for the restoration of HMS Surprise. A fair amount of money has already been raised, but there’s more to go.

To learn about this effort, and perhaps make a contribution, click here!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Beautiful new mural at Lemon Grove Library!

This very beautiful new mural was painted in April near the main entrance to the Lemon Grove Library. It’s titled Today for Tomorrow.

Positive messages conveyed by the mural include a love for family, the natural environment and reading. The extraordinary mural is the product of a partnership between the ArtReach Mural Program and the Lemon Grove Public Library. The lead mural artist was Mexican-American artist and designer Josué Baltézar.

A handout available inside the library explains: The ArtReach Mural Program Team led over 50 community members in design ideation and painting through out design-input workshops and Community Paint Day…This piece highlights the library as an uplifting and beautiful community space, welcoming and accepting of all people. Books are featured predominantly to mark the importance of learning, reading, curiosity, and imagination. The focal point of the lemon tree represents the community of Lemon Grove while also signifying growth and new beginnings. The figures placed in the books show that we all have our own stories to tell and create while also touching on family resilience, hope, kindness, caregiving and neighborhood unity…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Lemon Grove Art and Photo Contest!

Do you live in Lemon Grove? Do you love to create original art or take photographs? The Lemon Grove Art & Photo Contest is now accepting entries at the Lemon Grove Library!

I learned today that the free contest has just opened. So you’re hearing about it early. The public is invited to submit entries to the library by mid-August. The theme of the contest is What does Lemon Grove mean to you?

Entered works of art and photographs will be displayed inside San Diego County’s Lemon Grove Branch Library through August 31, 2024, and winners will receive a valuable gift card! I was told there will likely be multiple winners!

Whether you’re young or old, why not go for it? You can learn more and get your entry forms at the library’s front desk, where friendly staff members will be glad to help you. Do you know families that lives in Lemon Grove? Pass the word!

(By the way, the beautiful graphic on the above flyer is from a mural that was painted recently by the library’s entrance. I’ll be posting photos of this colorful new mural next!)

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

12 Short Stories inspired by Balboa Park.

Gigantic bubbles form like magic in the Plaza de Balboa.

A pleasant day in Balboa Park, sitting, walking, daydreaming. Sudden inspiration.

That’s how certain stories were born in my mind before taking life on paper.

As a writer of short fiction, I occasionally share some of these stories. If you’re a reader, you might enjoy clicking the following links:

The Highest Seat was inspired by my friend Mitchell who plays didgeridoo in Balboa Park. He once worked in the planetarium at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.

A Heart That Would Not End is a short story also inspired by Mitchell and his didgeridoo.

A Song for Old Warriors came directly from a Memorial Day ceremony that I observed outside The Veterans Museum at Balboa Park.

A Wise Man was inspired while attending a December Nights concert at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.

Here We Go is based in part on families riding the Balboa Park Miniature Railroad.

A Crown Above All came to me as I sat on a bench watching people near the Bea Evenson Fountain.

A Dog’s Tail also came to me as I sat on a bench in the park.

A Short Bloom flowered in my mind during a Cherry Blossom Festival at the Japanese Friendship Garden.

The Child and the Koi came to me while peering into the Japanese Friendship Garden’s koi pond.

Waterfall Tears is a third short story whose setting was inspired by the beautiful Japanese Friendship Garden.

A Small Fountain in Green Park is loosely based on Balboa Park and other similar places I’ve known.

One Magic Bubble rose in my mind on a breezy day in Balboa Park as I watched a street performer with his looping string and bucket of soapy water.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

A fun Abbott Elementary trolley for Comic-Con!

The third trolley wrap to appear in San Diego for Comic-Con 2024 promotes the ABC television series Abbott Elementary. And you can’t possibly miss it!

The fun circus graphics refer to the Abbott Elementary A.V.A. Fest (or A Very Abbott Festival), which originated in a classic episode in the show’s second season.

Critically acclaimed through its first three seasons, Abbott Elementary has been renewed for a fourth season. The humorous interactions of its well-rounded characters has kept the good-natured sitcom fresh and enjoyable!

Check out these photos taken today, about a month before the start of San Diego Comic-Con.

Excited yet?

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Three more fun murals in Encinitas!

Enjoy photographs of three fun murals I discovered last weekend while walking in Encinitas. I was winding my way from Coast Highway 101 to the parking lot above Moonlight Beach and back.

Yes, our Southern California surf culture is alive and well in coastal Encinitas!

I hadn’t seen this street art during previous walks, so my camera got busy!

Surfer on side of building at 2nd Street and C Street in Encinitas.

Surfing Madonna and dolphins appear outside Moonlight Beach Apartments.

A fun mural on the side of Raul’s Shack in Encinitas.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Ghirardelli’s marquee and Gaslamp history.

Have you ever wondered why the Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter has an old-fashioned theater marquee? That’s because the building, erected in 1912, was originally a movie theater!

The Casino Theatre at 643 Fifth Avenue opened in 1913 and was one of several movie theaters in the Gaslamp that provided entertainment for ever-changing audiences over the decades. In the 1930s it was remodeled into the Art Deco style. Here’s an image from the 40s, with the Casino Café “Lunch” restaurant located next door, offering breakfast, waffles and steaks.

In the 1950s and 60s, The Casino and its movie theater neighbors at Fifth and G Street–The Aztec and The Savoy–would be open all night and show 3 big features, according to a comment here. Slowly these old theaters would fall as television’s popularity rose.

In the 1970s, while the Gaslamp neighborhood experienced urban decay, The Casino Theatre began to show X-rated movies, along with the other nearby theaters. I’ve been told sailors made up much of the clientele.

Here’s a gallery of photos of the The Casino Theatre over many years. Some of the titles you’ll read in the marquee are a bit salacious!

I hadn’t realized the marquee was seen in Marty Feldman’s 1980 movie In God We Tru$t. That image can be viewed here.

Today you’ll find a plaque near the historic building’s front entrance:

The Casino Theatre, 1912

The first theatre to be built with the new building ordinance for fire safety. It had two doors near the stage for fire escape and a five-foot-wide exterior passage on both sides and the rear for the protection of other buildings in case of fire. However, two years after construction, the northern passage was occupied by a food stand, and the southern passage contained a shoe shining establishment.

Temptation of a different sort! In a historic Gaslamp Quarter that now attracts loads of tourists, the colorfully lit old marquee teases you with ice cream, chocolate and hot fudge sundaes!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.