A gigantic videoboard, installed in Gaslamp Square, has been activated! Two huge LED walls are mounted high in the air, attracting the attention of people near the San Diego Convention Center, Petco Park and the Gaslamp Quarter!
When I walked past the videoboard this morning, at least one worker was still up a ladder finishing the installation.
Bright videos that were running included promos for the Padres, MTS, and our beautiful City of San Diego. Mixed in were several advertisements, including one for a popular baseball video game.
Gaslamp Square, located directly next to the Gaslamp trolley station, has become a hub for many downtown activities such as Comic-Con. Now this outdoor space will be even more lively!
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Pirates must be more conscientious than we think, because the Voodoo Ranger pirate ship is being carefully painted the day before it sails for Comic-Con!
This morning I noticed a volunteer at the Maritime Museum of San Diego touching up the beautiful tall ship. It isn’t really a pirate ship. It’s far more amazing. San Salvador is a working replica of a Spanish galleon built and operated by the folks at the Maritime Museum.
The Voodoo Ranger sails are already up, ready to unfurl for all of San Diego and Comic-Con goers to see. Early tomorrow morning the make-believe pirate ship will head down San Diego Bay to its place behind the San Diego Convention Center.
Landlubbers beware! Even not-so-despicable pirates might engage in a little mischief!
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
Everywhere one turns in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter there’s an explosion of color. Building wraps and banners are now rapidly appearing for Comic-Con 2023!
This is some of what I saw late Thursday afternoon, with less than a week to go before the start of Comic-Con.
And there will almost certainly be much more to come!
After the big Esri User Conference concludes today at the San Diego Convention Center, huge building wraps will likely appear on the sides of Petco Park, and on the Hilton San Diego Bayfront and the Marriott Marquis hotels!
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I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!
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!
Inside the Queen Eileen’s Gift Baskets shop in Encinitas, one wall features a fantastic bit of history: a Coca-Cola mural likely dating from the 1940’s! The vintage artwork depicts Coke’s sparkly old advertising character Sprite Boy!
The owner of Queen Eileen’s discovered the mural during a remodel a few months ago. In the 1940’s the building served as a hardware store. The brightly smiling Sprite Boy appeared when slats covering the old wall were removed!
If you want to learn more about Sprite Boy, who often accompanied Santa Claus, and who originated decades before Coca-Cola’s lemon-lime soda that shares the same name, here’s a great web page to visit!
I saw this cool mural late this morning during an Encinitas Historical Society walking tour of Encinitas, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Stand by for several more blogs and many more photographs from this epic walking tour!
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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!
A large face greets those heading east on Turquoise Street in Pacific Beach.
Turquoise Street in Pacific Beach, from Mission Boulevard to Cass Street, is the home of a lot of fun street art.
Check out some photos!
Mural on parking lot wall by Treelogy Cafe Restaurant.
These colorful flowers are at the center of the mural.
Old-fashioned advertising artwork on wall of Cafe Bar Europa.
The happy wood shack of Blossoms Design Florist.
Mural in a narrow alley celebrates 90 years of Crystal Pier.
Bottom of the alley mural, with an octopus tentacle wearing a beach sandal. #octopier by @artanystef
Mural on the side of P.B. Yoga and Healing Arts.
Enjoying a hot beverage with a dog. Mural by artist Gloria Muriel on the side of The French Gourmet.
A fun blue character painted on another nearby wall by Gloria Muriel.
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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’m sure most people know the truth. Comic-Con is mostly about marketing. Movies, television shows, video games, toys, collectibles, even lunch–all swirl before the eyes of excited fans.
And yet–it’s all so much fun!
How does one draw the line between the calculated marketing and the unabashed fun?
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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!
A trolley wrap for 2018 Comic-Con promotes ABC’s upcoming show Whiskey Cavalier. Lauren Cohan costars with Scott Foley. She’s a CIA operative; he’s with the FBI.
I was completely wrong! In a recent Comic-Con trolley post, I surmised that ABC wouldn’t have a trolley wrap this year. Look what I spied this morning! Whiskey Cavalier, a show that’s coming to the ABC television network, is being promoted in San Diego.
A quick check of the San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog shows there are two additional Bob’s Burgers wraps debuting, as well. There are so many trolley wraps now I can hardly keep track of them!
Now I have to keep my eyes peeled for those new Bob’s Burgers trolleys! And who knows what else?
What fun!
Another cool trolley wrap for 2018 San Diego Comic-Con spotted at the Fifth Avenue station downtown.
Whiskey Cavalier is coming soon to ABC television. An FBI and a CIA agent deal with relationships and office politics while occasionally saving the world.
The face of FBI agent Will Chase played by Scott Foley. Opposite him, Lauren Cohan plays CIA operative Francesca “Frankie” Trowbridge.
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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!
Marge Simpson has found herself in a sugary mess on a San Diego Trolley wrap that promotes The Simpsons during 2018 Comic-Con!
I can’t believe how quickly trolley wraps are popping up for 2018 San Diego Comic-Con. The past few days I keep seeing new ones! And Comic-Con is still over a month away!
You might have already seen the three Syfy trolley wraps I’ve photographed, promoting six of their shows with fan art. If not, you can see them here.
Today I spotted a humorous wrap that promotes one of the most popular television shows of all time: The Simpsons! FOX seems to have pretty entertaining trolley wraps every year.
Meanwhile, I’ll keep on looking for more new Comic-Con stuff!
The Simpsons, Sundays on FOX. The lovable animated family has been making television audiences laugh for almost 30 years!
Homer Simpson is in sticky doughnut heaven! A colorful FOX trolley wrap for 2018 San Diego Comic-Con!
UPDATE!
I spotted another Comic-Con trolley wrap featuring Bart and Lisa!
Bart Simpson floats on donuts!
Lisa Simpson swims in sweetness.
UPDATE!
I’ve found a third Simpsons wraps!
Santa’s Little Helper helps Snowball II cough up not a hairball, but a whole donut!
Maggie’s pacifier is stacked high with doughnuts.
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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!
Old tin shop sign still visible on the historic 1882 Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. A remnant of a past era.
While walking around downtown San Diego, I’m always pleased to make unexpected discoveries. Once in a while I’ll spot faded signs and advertisements that were painted years ago on historic old buildings. Unfortunately, many of those old signs are vanishing and will eventually be lost to time. Some of those walls will be painted, or new buildings will sprout up . . . That’s progress, I suppose.
I did some searching on the internet looking for information about the more mysterious signs, but with very little success. I increased the contrast of many photos to try to make out the faded words. If you know anything, leave a comment!
Most of these photos were taken in the morning, the last three or four days…
A faded sign is painted high on the 1888 Nesmith-Greely Building on Fifth Avenue. It is just visible from the street.
One can barely make out the words HOTEL . . . ROOMS 50c to $1.00
Old brick building at Seventh Avenue and G Street has words so obliterated I can’t decipher anything.
The William Penn Hotel building at Fourth Avenue and F Street opened in 1913 as the elegant Oxford Hotel.
Painted words from San Diego’s past. The Windsor Hotel on Fourth Avenue was built in 1887. The first floor was once a pool hall; in the 1960s it contained cardrooms and nightclubs with go-go dancers.
The 1910 Western Metal Supply Company Building is now an iconic part of Petco Park in San Diego, home of the baseball Padres.
The faded word LYON on a building at the corner of K Street and Fourth Avenue.
From a distance, a square space on the side of the Simmons Hotel on Sixth Avenue appears to be blank reddish bricks.
But a closer look reveals old words from many years ago. Perhaps you can figure out what they say.
Faded words can also be spotted high on the Plaza Hotel building on Fourth Avenue.
I can barely discern a few letters.
The building on the right is The McGurck Block, built in 1887. A drug store was located in it from 1903 to 1984. Actor Gregory Peck’s father worked there as the night druggist.
High up, painted on the old brick building’s side is a fading advertisement. A glimpse of San Diego’s past.
Here’s another pic I snapped on Fifth Avenue just south of Broadway:
Faded sign on side of a building on the 900 block of Fifth Avenue.
I’ve blogged in the past about a variety of cool old painted signs and images in downtown San Diego. Here they are:
Here’s a pic I took several years later, as I sat waiting for a bus at the City College trolley station, looking west…
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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 fun photos for you to enjoy!
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