Tag: cool

Free live glassblowing event in Escondido!

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 19, 2025, a free, live glassblowing extravaganza continues at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido! The special event is being held outdoors in the Cal Club Courtyard between noon and 6 pm. Look for the signs! You can check out the event webpage by clicking here.

The two day event began today. I swung by as everything got underway. In addition to a very cool glassblowing demonstration, various San Diego County glass artists have tables with some of their fantastic creations for sale.

The artists have also created a bunch of beautiful glasses (see my final photograph) which are for sale for $25 each. Funds raised through the sale of these stunning glasses (and the sale of beer, too) benefit the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

I sat and watched as expert glassblower James Stone created an elegant wine glass. He has years and years of practice, and you can see the excellence of his work. He’s a friendly guy who likes to explain what he’s doing.

James Stone demonstrates glassblowing work in progress. The glass changes color when it is heated.
An amazing iridescent bowl created by James Stone.
These extraordinary glass cubes were created by Tom Marosz.
These fantastic glass sea shells were created by Mariah Armstrong Conner.

Amazing blacksmithing work was displayed as well! A representative from Vista Forge showed me some cool creations.

Blacksmithing and Glass Art classes can be found here. They’re held on the grounds of the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum in Vista.

Purchase one of these colorful glasses, blown by a local artist, and you benefit the California Center for the Arts, Escondido!

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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.

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New murals at SA Recycling in San Diego!

The huge mural you see in my first five photographs is relatively new, I believe. Today was the first time I saw it, while riding the Orange Line of the San Diego Trolley.

The cool artwork has been spray painted on the corner of SA Recycling, at the corner of Commercial Street and 30th Street. It includes images of masked lucha libre wrestlers.

I’ve tried to find out more about the mural, but no success yet, apart from seeing graffiti artist signatures @killadoom422 and @misterhir.

If you know more, please leave a comment!

UPDATE!

I later learned, during an event at the Comic-Con Museum, that the large lucha libre mural depicts Rey Mysterio, his uncle Rey Misterio, son Dominik, and wrestlers Psicosis and Konnan. It was painted by artist Dentlok!

Awesome stuff!

Another mural is being painted on the side of the same building, but facing Commercial Street. No artist was there when I happened by.

Outlined are musicians and more wrestlers.

If I see this cool art completed in the future, I’ll post photos in an update!

Speaking of SA Recycling, the long fence around the opposite (east) end of their facility features lots of superhero spray paint art. I took photographs back in late 2018 when that art was being created. Check it out here!

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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.

Feel free to share!

Two-inch railroad cars to travel in San Diego!

What is the smallest operating railroad car you’ve ever seen? Have you ever seen a moving train so small that bits of dust on the track can stop it?

Incredibly diminutive trains are coming to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park! Each car is about two inches long–the size of your finger!

A new Z scale permanent exhibit is being built in the museum and should be completed later his year. As a sign in the museum explains, this cool project is being supported by a grant from The Norris Foundation.

Z scale model trains are so tiny a complete oval layout can fit inside a briefcase. They have a scale ratio of 1:220. They’re even smaller than the N scale trains one can see in the museum’s incredible Pacific Desert Lines layout, which is operated by the San Diego Society of N Scale.

A sample Z scale layout is already on display (above photo). Plans for the not-yet-built layout can also be viewed…

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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.

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OB LOVE at the closed Ocean Beach Pier.

It’s sad that the Ocean Beach Pier has become so storm damaged that it is now permanently closed and must be rebuilt. If there’s a tiny silver lining to this very dark cloud, it’s that the locked gate at the pier’s foot has become the home of OB LOVE.

Ladies at the Ocean Beach Main Street Association informed me this mosaic art was created by members of the OB community a year ago. A San Diego lifeguard who was watching the pier agreed that it’s really cool!

Each small tile in the mosaic contains a photograph of Ocean Beach. I had to take a closer look…

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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.

Feel free to share!

Street art at Vision Culture Foundation in National City!

This cool street art painted on a long wall is visible from Highland Avenue at the Vision Culture Foundation in National City. When I recently walked by they appeared to be closed. I paused to take these photographs from the sidewalk just outside their gate entrance.

Here’s the Vision Culture Foundation website. The organization focuses on creative arts, and their center strives to empower and uplift youth and the community. They are a safe space that nurtures goals and dreams.

Check it out!

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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.

Feel free to share!

Cool lowriders at the East Village Block Party!

Very cool lowriders are a big attraction at today’s East Village Block Party in downtown San Diego. As I walked along J Street between Sixth and Tenth Avenues, a few minutes before the event officially began, I took these photos. I was surprised at the number of cars participating this year. Check them out!

The 2025 East Village Block Party is being held one block north of Petco Park and celebrates the opening of the new baseball season. (The San Diego Padres are 2-0 and looking good so far!) The event is today, March 29, 2025, from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm.

When I walked through the outdoor party, several late arriving vendors were still setting up tables and the entertainment hadn’t begun. I’ve thrown in a few miscellaneous photos, as well, so you get the general vibe!

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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.

Feel free to share!

World-record speed Turbinator in San Diego!

The absolutely fantastic 2001 Team Vesco “Turbinator” is now on display at the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park!

This amazing 30-foot-long streamliner set the wheel-driven land speed record of 458.440 miles per hour at the Bonneville Salt Flats on October 18, 2001.

Anyone interested in cars, racing, engineering or technology would love to look at this one-of-a-kind speedster. It has a unique four-wheel drive system powered by a 3,750 horsepower engine from a helicopter! Can you imagine sitting in this slender vehicle flying in a blur across the salt flats? It seems a driver would need nerves of steel!

Check out the exhibit at the San Diego Automotive Museum and you can also see owner/driver Don Vesco’s NHRA Lifetime Achievement Award (presented in 2002) and a great video showing his incredible Turbinator in action!

Visit the Team Vesco Racing website by clicking here!

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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.

Feel free to share this!

Exhibit explores La Jolla surf culture, art and history.

A super cool exhibition recently opened in the La Jolla Historical Society‘s free Wisteria Cottage museum. The exhibition is titled La Jolla Surf: Culture, Art, Craft. As the name suggests, surf culture is explored in La Jolla and nearby communities, from the earliest days right up to the present.

There are all sorts of different surfboards on display. Each is cleverly designed and artistically unique. Local designers, shapers and surfers used these boards to conquer the world-famous surf found off La Jolla and other nearby Southern California beaches.

Subjects explored include the iconic Windansea Shack, which dates back to 1947 and has been featured in dozens of movies. Legendary surfboard makers and surfers, like Bob Simmons, are also celebrated. One of the notable board shapers honored is Rusty Preisendorfer, who, at the age of 16, began a factory in a garage a short distance from La Jolla Shores.

I was surprised to learn pop art icon Andy Warhol filmed the movie ‘San Diego Surf’ in 1968 in La Jolla.

As you might expect, the exhibit includes dozens of excellent surfing photographs, and examples of cool artwork, too.

I really enjoyed viewing a short film. It featured a variety of important personalities. Their words about surfing were often poetic or philosophical.

One interviewee called surfing spiritual. Another called it a beautiful dance. Another explained that surfing brings you to close to yourself. It’s peaceful and calming, said another. The experience is deep and powerful, another voice affirmed. Skip Frye, world-famous surfer, surfboard designer, shaper and environmental advocate, likened surfing to being in close touch with God’s creation.

La Jolla Surf: Culture, Art, Craft will be open to the public through May 25, 2025. Learn more about it here!

A small taste of this awesome exhibit…

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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.

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Mysterious eye stares from San Diego rooftop!

Colorful murals have been painted on a rooftop structure above Pinch Pottery Studio in San Diego’s downtown East Village.

Stylized hummingbird and hearts artwork can be seen from E Street, if you raise your eyes to look for it. I love how a strange, mysterious eye seems to be staring back at you from what appears to be a barred window!

Another mural depicting a pink Volkswagen Beetle on the east side of the rooftop structure can be seen from Tenth Avenue, if you look above Pokez Mexican Restaurant.

This artwork’s style appears familiar, but I’m not certain who created these faded murals. If you know, leave a comment!

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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.

Feel free to share this!

Cool boardsports murals in North County!

Check out these two cool boardsports murals in San Diego’s North County!

(What are boardsports? Outdoor activities–such as surfing and skateboarding–that use a board as the primary equipment.)

My first few photos show the large mural painted on the front of Status Skateshop in Carlsbad. The artwork was created by Nicholas Danger (@nicholasdanger) in 2022. Yes, skateboarding culture can be a bit wild and crazy!

If you’d like to see a little more of Nicholas Danger, you might enjoy this blog post from almost five years ago.

Next, in Oceanside there’s a collage-like mural that includes both surfing and skateboarding imagery. View it on the side of a building at South Coast Highway and Washington Avenue.

Businesses that make this building home include The James Brand and Insight Tattoo.

I don’t know who created this very colorful mural. If you have any info, please leave a comment…

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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.

Feel free to share this!