Do you recognize some of these faces? They belong to authors who’ve participated in events hosted by La Jolla’s legendary Warwick’s bookstore. Some of the authors are very famous!
During my latest La Jolla walk, I noticed this collection of many faces printed on canvas in the alley directly behind Warwick’s. Upon doing some Googling, I noticed there was an article in 2021 concerning the mural. The twenty author illustrations were created by local artist Lori Mitchell.
A very cool family-friendly event is coming to San Diego this weekend!
TwainFest is returning to Heritage County Park on Saturday, August 19th. The fun, educational event will take place between 11:00 am to 5:00 pm among beautifully restored Victorian houses at the edge of Old Town. Learn more about TwainFest and register for the free event by clicking here!
I’ve blogged about past TwainFests many times. There’s so much to enjoy! You’ll watch actors portraying 19th century authors and the classic characters they created.
You’ll likely meet Tom Sawyer, characters from Alice in Wonderland, Captain Hook and Peter Pan, Don Quixote and others playing their roles in beloved books. If past events are any indication, you’ll see big Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson puppets, listen to readings, play literary games, contribute your own words to an infinite story, and get a free book, too!
Anyone out there with kids or a personal love of books should consider enjoying this awesome event! Learn more here!
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Shelter Island is one of the most beautiful spots in sunny San Diego.
Today, as I walked along Shelter Island’s linear Shoreline Park, I noticed two volunteers working around colorful blooms in a flower bed. They were making the bayside park even more beautiful!
Theresa and Steve are both members of the Point Loma Association’s volunteer Mean Green Team. When they saw me taking photographs of the flowers, they immediately greeted me with big smiles.
I learned that they and other Mean Green Team members maintain about ten garden spaces along Shelter Island. They not only work to make this part of Point Loma more beautiful, but they brighten the world that we all live in.
I learned Theresa was born in China, grew up in Taiwan, and is very grateful to live in the United States. She’s an author! One of her books, titled Americans the Beautiful, provides portraits of many wonderful friends. In her book’s Acknowledgments, she writes: Thank you for showing and sharing how you applied yourself to achieve wonderful dreams for humanity, creativity, entrepreneurship, independence and inspiration.
A brilliant exhibition can now be enjoyed in the 9th Floor Art Gallery at San Diego’s Central Library. The exhibition is called Lost in Translation: A Game of Telephone!
You know the game called Telephone? It’s that verbal game where somebody conveys a message to a second person, who then the conveys the message to a third person, and so forth, on and on, until the message becomes so changed that it bears little resemblance to the original.
Well, imagine Telephone being played with written words and visual art!
The several “messages” in this unusual art exhibition morph strangely and unexpectedly.
Sequential threads can be viewed on the gallery walls. Each thread begins with a poetic passage written by a local writer. Those words are then interpreted by a local artist, whose resultant creation is then interpreted by another writer, whose words are then interpreted by another artist . . .
Cool idea, right?
I found it interesting that some of the threads maintained a certain amount of cohesion when it came to the conveyed message. But other threads mutated wildly, with subjects and themes lurching in completely different directions!
This is one very unique exhibition that you really have to see for yourself!
Check it out before April 15, 2023.
The following is part of one thread…
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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 Twitter!
One of the display cases features books that were published in San Diego a century ago–in the 1920s and 1930s.
When I think of publishing in San Diego, the name Harcourt Brace Jovanovich immediately comes to mind. One of the world’s most important publishers made downtown San Diego their home for many years.
But have you heard of Torrey Pines Press, Hillcrest Publishing Company and the San Diego Printing Company? They and others were producing books in our city a century ago. Even Arrowhead Spring Water Distributors was part of the action!
The San Diego Library maintains a collection of books published or printed in San Diego. It’s called the Wilmer B. Shields Collection. It’s located inside the Marilyn and Gene Marx Special Collections Center on the Central Library’s 9th floor.
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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 Twitter!
A positively amazing mural was painted a year ago in North Park on the side of Verbatim Books. You have to see it to believe it!
The subject matter of this huge mural is books, of course. And famous authors, and classic characters, and timeless stories! (Not to mention dinosaurs, Balboa Park, and the North Park water tower!)
The artist who painted this fantastic 90-foot mural is Armando Hernandez (@elizarraras_art). I met him very briefly last year at the North Park Book Fair. I posted a photo of his Edgar Allan Poe with The Tell-Tale Heart here!
The mural at Verbatim Books is so brilliant and surprising and so alive with colorful detail, it’s like a colossal outdoor bookshelf demanding to be explored!
After filling your eyes, you’ll yearn to enter the secondhand and antiquarian bookstore!
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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!
Famous author Mark Twain and several literary friends visited San Diego today. They arrived at Heritage County Park for a very special event.
TwainFest 2022 welcomed some of the world’s most celebrated writers, delighting everyone who attended the outdoor festival. The free, family-friendly event is put on every year by Write Out Loud.
Mark Twain himself greeted visitors who wandered about…
When I asked him, Mark Twain wouldn’t clearly acknowledge that he was inspired by Squibob. Historians say he probably was.
But we can all agree Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic of American Literature. The esteemed author must’ve been pleased when TwainFest visitors cheerfully whitewashed a fence, much to the consternation of Aunt Polly.
Soon Twain was joined by three other notable writers. Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Emily Dickinson.
Yes, a fine summer day filled with imagination–another chapter in our own never-ending stories…
Out of the blue, a friendly Charles Dickens came strolling along through Heritage Park. The author confessed that one of his favorite works was A Christmas Carol.
In another area of the park, the Red Queen of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was playing croquet. I didn’t see Lewis Carroll, but he must’ve been nearby.
In the sunny Author’s Salon, Edgar Allan Poe was talking about his life–what he remembered of it.
Then Poe began his emotional recital of The Raven.
A few steps away, what were these smiling TwainFest visitors observing?
Tinker Bell and Peter Pan!
And that scoundrel, Captain Hook!
And what was going on over here?
Alice, the White Rabbit, the (Mad) Hatter and smiling guests had assembled for a quite unique tea party!
The Dormouse made a surprise appearance at the Mad Tea-Party as well!
And who is this fine fellow over here reading a story about gallant knights and noble acts of chivalry?
Don Quixote! (And his squire Sancho Panza.)
For his first big adventure, Don Quixote encountered a terrifying number of large fearsome giants who looked strangely like windmills…
Thank you, Mr. Twain, for the twinkle in your eye and your timeless humor.
And for bringing so many literary friends to 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!
There’s a modest exhibit at the Comic-Con Museum that previews a much larger exhibition that is coming later this year. Those visiting the museum to see Spider-Man during Comic-Con should head down to the lower level and check out Hemingway in Comics!
I love reading literature, and Hemingway is one of my favorite authors, so I was pleasantly surprised when my curious eyes spied this comic art today.
The styles that are represented are quite varied, and the fictional stories involving the celebrated American author can seem fantastic and implausible, but that is art! And it’s all very cool!
I really look forward to seeing the full exhibition when it opens at the Comic-Con Museum this coming September.
Read the sign below to learn more….
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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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!
The Comic-Con crowds typically gather within a few blocks of the San Diego Convention Center. As you head north up Fifth Avenue you see fewer and fewer attendees–mostly those walking to and from downtown hotels.
But there are a couple of cool shops on Fifth Avenue on the block just south of Broadway that you might want to check out!
You might remember BAIT hosted a special Gundam event a few years ago. Well, they’re still there, and the store has plenty of pop culture merch, including some super sized collectible figures…
And check out a brand new shop located just a few doors up from BAIT.
Bard & Cards is a game store, with a big selection of board games, miniature games and RPGs…
I noticed as I walked by their window this afternoon they’ll be hosting several Comic-Con events, too. Check it out!
On Thursday, July 21 at 7 pm there will be a Kraken Dice Ultra-Chonky D20 Launch Event.On Friday, July 22 at 2 pm there will be a New Game Launch. Card game Trickdraw.On Saturday, July 23 at 1 pm there will be a signing and meet and greet with B. Dave Walters, the author of Dungeons & Dragons: A Darkened Wish.
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 