San Diego Book Project promotes literacy both locally and worldwide. They were present at TwainFest in Old Town.
The San Diego Book Project promotes literacy both locally and worldwide. It’s an effort I strongly support. So when I happened to see these folks with a table full of books at TwainFest this weekend, I instantly decided to provide a hand with my blog.
The San Diego Book Project has given away nearly a million donated books! They’re sent to teachers, schools, classrooms and students who might not have the resources to buy their own material. Beyond San Diego’s more disadvantaged neighborhoods, schools in South Africa, India, Peru and the Philippines have also received free books. Life-changing books are also sent to hospitals and prisons, and any not-for-profit organization that actively encourages literacy.
Do you need some free books? Would you like to donate or volunteer? Check out their website.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a work of classic literature sure to interest new readers.Good books open minds, promote education. An exciting journey with the written word makes life richer and more meaningful.
Mark Twain uses cane to point out his classic novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Many 19th century authors and fictional characters were seen walking around during TwainFest.
TwainFest last summer was awesome. So today I had to go again!
A uniquely wonderful cultural event, TwainFest celebrates Mark Twain and other famous 19th century authors. Held every year in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, the event includes games and activities for the entire family, including Costume and Liar’s contests (the latter as a tribute to Twain’s tall tales), vintage dancing, and all sorts of historical performances and reenactments. TwainFest is presented by Fiesta de Reyes and created by the literature-loving folks at Write Out Loud.
I walked about randomly for about an hour just aiming my camera at familiar old classics that I love come to life. I saw lots of San Diegans in period costume, many portraying well known characters from literature.
I hope you enjoy these photos…
A random writer helps to pen one of three endless stories at the family friendly event. …And, lo, from out of the mist stepped a phantom: it was the ghost of Mark Twain!Mr. Samuel Clemens, American author of many timeless books and stories, relaxes under a tree in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park during 2015 TwainFest.Mark Twain’s beloved character Aunt Polly is looking around for Tom Sawyer and Huck, who are probably running about engaged in mischief once again.Some lively Irish music dating from the Old West is played during TwainFest on the Fiesta de Reyes stage. Laughter. Levity. Literature.A storyteller making the rounds at TwainFest challenges the audience between musical performances to solve humorous riddles.This elegantly-dressed gentleman informed me he would be reading classic fiction to the crowd later today.Not to miss this history and literature-inspired event, a couple of fun-loving pirates come shuffling along through Old Town’s central plaza.Oh, goodness! It’s one of the most famous fictional, rascally pirates of all! Long John Silver! What’s that in the bottle?Al Sorkin, aka Captain Swordfish, represents the Maritime Museum of San Diego. That’s a really big harpoon! Perhaps it was once used to hunt Moby Dick.Two friendly people in period costume were greeting visitors at the entrance to the Casa de Estudillo.This funny guy said he was a sort-of Mad Hatter with a Bowie knife! He looked more like a 19th century Willy Wonka to me!Uh oh. While no one was looking Henry David Thoreau got out of his jail cell! That was awfully disobedient!These two snake oil salespeople were selling Ether of Muse. One whiff of the potent elixir and writing literature is a snap.This mild, ordinary lady in a bonnet demonstrated what happens when one sniffs essence of Emily Dickinson. She recited breathless poetry for minutes on end.Girl greets large puppet Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson at 2015 TwainFest in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park!
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Visitor to eighth floor of San Diego’s downtown public library checks out photographs in the Sullivan Family Baseball Research Center.
Many San Diegans don’t realize that our city–our amazing new Central Library, to be exact–contains a unique and important repository of American history. The Sullivan Family Baseball Research Center, located on the eighth floor of the downtown library, is home to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Collection. It constitutes the largest baseball library west of Cooperstown! Shelves of books, magazines, journals, scrapbooks and other historical documents, and many photographs, have recorded in detail the fascinating history of American baseball. And it’s all open to the public!
The research center is directly adjacent to the spacious, high-domed reading room. In the center of the collection is a shiny sculpture of a player swinging a bat, titled Male baseball #1, created in 2009 by artist Yoram Wolberger. On one wall among many old photos, a video screen shows scenes from baseball history. This is one super cool section of the library!
According to the website of the Society for American Baseball Research: “The Baseball Research Center opened in 2001, with an initial collection of books and microfilm donated by SABR’s Ted Williams Chapter. In the years since, it has grown to more than 3,000 publications, books, and journals, and 300 microfilm reels.”
Today, the collection is housed in museum-like grandeur, and to peruse the many photographs and titles is like taking a wonderful, nostalgic journey back through time. Anyone who is a fan of baseball in San Diego needs to check it out!
Bronze and chrome Yoram Wolberger statue of a baseball player swinging a bat.Many historical photographs can be enjoyed on one wall of the baseball research center.Anyone who is interested in sports, and America’s Pastime in particular, should visit the SABR Collection in San Diego.The collection includes many books, periodicals and artifacts concerning the great sport of baseball.Photo of one display case, which contains a copy of Baseball Magazine, plus various programs and record books.Another display case, with an old newspaper, World Series Records, Sporting News publication, team photograph.Shelves in the library contain hundreds of baseball reference books and registers.One small exhibit focuses on fan photography, called Fantography.Cool photo of the KGB Chicken between two Padrettes. Ted Giannoulas later became known as The Famous San Diego Chicken.Image of San Diego past superstar Dave Winfield in stadium greeting fans.Wonderful photo of San Diego Padres legendary Hall of Fame player Tony Gwynn with his family out on the playing field.
Thoughtful, talented young artists create a graphic novel using imagination and creativity.
I made a very cool discovery!
A local high school had an intriguing exhibit in Balboa Park yesterday during the big Garden Party of the Century event. The CCA Envision Conservatory for the Humanities Hummingbird Project has been launched by Canyon Crest Academy in Carmel Valley. Students are creating a graphic novel!
The four-part graphic novel will tell the story of four separate children who magically transform into a hummingbird and take flight. During each journey, the central character meets other animal friends and explores new places. The exciting stories encourage imagination and help educate the reader about culture, mythology, history and the environment.
What a fantastic, brilliant idea! Students learn, write, create art and become published all at once!
Perhaps other schools might be interested in doing something similar!
The Hummingbird Project includes a four-part graphic novel created by students at Canyon Crest Academy!Inspiring exhibit at Balboa Park’s big Garden Party of the Century event.
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Panda with star on belly is lifted by colorful balloons, and floats away into the blue sky.
No matter how different people might appear, we all live among the same bright stars.
Perhaps that’s a bit of wisdom inferred from a book by one of my favorite authors, Dr. Seuss.
That also seems to be the elevating message of this cool street art in Bankers Hill.
While words and art might eventually fade (as these photos prove), the stars buried within us do not.
These three transformer boxes in Bankers Hill are painted with unbounded imagination.Jazzy guy plays keyboard in a boat that soars above the surf and a star-bellied bird.Flowers in hair, on shoulders. A golden star on a dress joins the sun and sunflower in symbolic street art.Part of slowly fading Dr. Seuss verse: “That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether they had one, or not, upon thars.”Winged angel dog in heaven plays a drum.Happy, unique green alien frolics on red planet.Musician plays his guitar where he stands in the cosmos.A zany peek over Mars, under stars.
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Birds take flight above palm trees in downtown San Diego.
This is my 500th post. I can’t believe it.
When I started writing this blog on a lark about a year and a half ago, it was a puny little creation, and I hadn’t a clue where it would take me. Alas, after many hours pounding away at the old keyboard, I haven’t earned one thin dime. But that’s perfectly fine. The riches I’ve received are immaterial, and far greater.
Writing a blog–one that involves photography in particular–opens your eyes, enhances your appreciation of all that is around you. To chronicle a walk through this world, one must carefully experience each step and turn curious eyes everywhere. One must note light, depth, and the color of things. One must listen to others. If I hadn’t begun to meander about San Diego purposefully, searching for “cool” material, I might never have seen some hidden rainbows. Or a small bit of street art. Or dogs surf.
Writing a blog encourages creativity. It’s casual and conversational. There’s no need to fret too much about editing. Readers are just friends. So you can yap freely and let the mind flow. I’ve always been a fan of science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. His great book Zen in the Art of Writing talks about the power of just letting thoughts flow, uninhibited, like gushing water from a wildly whipping dangerously uncontrolled hose. That water will irrigate one’s life, and the lives of others who are splashed.
Writing a blog leads the author to be more honest. More understanding. More compassionate. More vulnerable. Writing a blog, giving birth to a few silly words, expands the soul.
Thanks for coming along on my walks!
Where will I go today? I have a bit of an idea, but I’m not certain. Time propels us forward into the unknown. If you’d like, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr!
How The Grinch Stole Christmas banner on the Old Globe Theatre.
I saw on television that the Dr. Seuss Christmas tree in Balboa Park’s theatre complex was officially lighted a few days ago. I missed the event! Darn it! It looked like a whole lot of fun!
During my walk this morning, I decided to swing past San Diego’s famous Old Globe Theatre and check things out. It looks like all the colorful holiday decorations are up, and everything’s ready for the big Balboa Park December Nights festival in a couple weeks.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas has played at the Globe for seventeen consecutive seasons. Theodor Geisel, better known as much-beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss, lived in nearby La Jolla, a beautiful neighborhood just north of downtown San Diego.
Dr. Seuss Christmas tree at the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.The fun Christmas tree is up again in Theodor Seuss Geisel’s home city!Kids love the whimsical Dr. Seuss displays all around the Old Globe plaza area.Another Who from Whoville hanging out near a bench in the Craig Noel Garden.Fun Grinch shirts for sale at the very cool Old Globe gift shop.Family gets a festive holiday photograph by the Seuss tree in San Diego’s Balboa Park.The grouchy old green Grinch is peering over the gift shop’s roof!How the Grinch Stole Christmas is playing at the Old Globe for its 17th season!
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Bronze sculpture of Mark Twain sitting on a bench at Fenton Marketplace in Mission Valley.
A very famous author is known to hang out in San Diego. He’s usually seen just off Friars Road in Mission Valley. He likes to sit on a bench at Fenton Marketplace in front of the International House of Pancakes!
Who is this celebrated writer of American literature? That prolific master of humor and satire, Mark Twain!
According to my research on the internet, Mr. Samuel Clemens seems to get around. He’s been seen in the same pose in numerous cities. That’s because the bronze sculpture, by artist Gary Lee Price, is practically mass-produced!
Samuel Clemens gazes up dreamily from his book.Mark Twain is reading his own classic American novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.Famous author with biting wit sits on bench by fountain in front of IHOP.
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Replica of Richard Henry Dana’s brig Pilgrim at the 2014 Festival of Sail!
One of the world’s most famous sailing ships has returned to San Diego after 180 years!
Well–ahem–actually, a replica of the Pilgrim, the ship that became immortal in Richard Henry Dana Jr.’s classic book Two Years Before the Mast, sailed into San Diego Bay a few days ago. It’s one of many beautiful tall ships participating in this Labor Day weekend’s 2014 Festival of Sail.
This morning I got a bunch of pics of the festival and all the amazing ships along the Embarcadero. But I decided to start off by writing a blog post about the Pilgrim, which has a warm spot in my heart.
Every so often I reread Two Years Before the Mast, when I get a hankering to revisit the true, very interesting and adventurous tale written by Dana about his difficult voyage around Cape Horn and along the mostly uninhabited California coast as a common sailor. For some reason I feel a strange kinship with the author. Whenever I enjoy the book, I always try to envision what his hardy cattle hide trading ship looked like.
Today’s replica of the brig Pilgrim began as a three-masted schooner built in 1945 in Denmark; it was then converted to a brig in 1975 in Portugal. Now it’s a floating classroom with the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, California. The ship was used in Amistad, a movie directed by Steven Spielberg. While no one knows precisely how the original Pilgrim appeared, it quite likely resembled the ship I visited this morning.
The Pilgrim became immortalized in the classic book Two Years Before the Mast.Walking down to the Pilgrim, docked among many cool sailing ships.Wooden figurehead of the Pilgrim is a representation of Richard Henry Dana Jr.
I assume the figurehead of Dana holds a scroll because he went on to become a Harvard-educated lawyer. He advocated for groundbreaking laws which protected the common sailor and made life at sea for many a bit less dangerous and unfair.
San Diego Festival of Sail includes this historic, very interesting tall ship.
Sadly, the gentleman welcoming visitors on board (not the guy pictured) apparently had never read Two Years Before the Mast. He didn’t seem to know anything about Dana’s stay in San Diego, cleaning and curing cattle hides just inside the bay at Point Loma, riding with his friend inland to the old Mission, and having memorable good times in Old Town when San Diego was in its infancy.
In the shade of a canvas sail, people from the Ocean Institute and visitors chat.Sign stresses the critical importance of correct line handling.Gazing toward the bow past ship’s bell and American flag.The Pilgrim needed a crew of twelve to fourteen seamen to man her.I was one of the first aboard, before the big Labor Day weekend crowd arrived!That fuzzy stuff is called baggywrinkle!Beyond the ship’s wheel, several tall ships are docked at the San Diego Maritime Museum.Advice from the cook–eat good hearty salt beef!
I like the passages in Two Years Before the Mast where Dana describes his difficult adjustment to the seafaring life.
The above sign includes his reaction after following the cook’s advice: “I got a huge piece of strong, cold salt beef from the cook and kept gnawing upon it until twelve o’clock. When we went on deck, I felt somewhat like a man, and could begin to learn my sea duty with considerable spirit.”
Pilgrim crew member works at a knot during San Diego’s tall ship festival.
The West Coast was a mostly desolate, seldom-visited frontier in those days long ago. It was a place of danger, difficult undertakings and true discovery. Sometimes during my easy walks around and about San Diego, I try to imagine the glorious horizons and raw natural beauty unaltered by modern development. It’s a place in time that now exists only in memory. And in great books.
Stern of the brig Pilgrim at the 2014 Festival of Sail.
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Here comes Mark Twain during Old Town San Diego’s literary TwainFest!
One of my favorite San Diego events of all time took place today in historic Old Town!
TwainFest is an amazing annual festival celebrating Mark Twain and other famous authors from the 19th century. While there seems to be an emphasis on American and English novelists, I saw homages to writers, poets and storytellers from around the world. Scenes from American and California history also appear in several of the exhibits. Which makes sense, because Old Town is a history-filled park recreating the earliest days of San Diego!
To get an idea of what TwainFest is about, enjoy a quick look at these fun pics! And be sure to attend next year, if you can!
Event is part of Stagecoach Days at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.And here comes a towering puppet of American author Edgar Allan Poe!Lots of entertainment included a stage with music and various contests.Music included those familiar old folk songs that had everyone clapping.Costumed participants roaming about the central plaza of historic Old Town.Families enjoyed many activities including games.Excited kids blast off across the grass in an old-fashioned sack race!Kids of all ages enjoyed many unique literature-themed games and activities.The TwainFest Wheel of Fiction featured many famous writers.Booth inspired by Lewis Carroll had me making up a silly word!Never-ending stories had visitors adding their imaginative sentences.The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County ready to soar from catapult!I wonder if Mark Twain imagined kids would replicate his famous short story!Children really enjoyed this cool guy’s amazing flea circus!A flea performer mounts the trapeze before the incredulous audience.Girl uses magnifying lenses to watch a flea take a swan dive from high platform.The Quotation Machine rumbled before producing a quote.Here come some horses around the Old Town San Diego square!The Marshall informed me that all was well.Small audience in one shady corner enjoyed music and stories.The big Liar’s Contest featured lots of tall tales and jaw-dropping whoppers.This slick salesman is demonstrating the eloquent effects of literary potions.Bottled Verne, Dickinson, Whitman, Bronte, Byron and more!Voters in presidential election of 1872 must pass a literacy test!Of course, TwainFest had a bookstore with many classics of literature!People could trade places with Henry David Thoreau.The obviously guilty author of civil disobedience!Thoreau locks himself in with a brave visitor.It’s the Daniel Webster Frog Toss!Carroll’s Red Queen challenges all comers to flamingo croquet!Old Town event included the historic Mason Street School.Actors read poetry from Alice in Wonderland in one room schoolhouse.Here come participants in the fancy literary costume contest!The spirit of Twain lives at this very wonderful annual festival.
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Cool San Diego Sights! 